Bilal Philips – The Oneness of God #01
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the history of the belief in God, which is not something isolated but rather present in human society. There is a general belief that God is the bridge to the next level of spiritual development, and some people claim it is the death of God. The segment also touches on various arguments for the existence of God, including those of the church, the Bible, and the world. The segment also discusses the concept of material creation and the importance of belief in God as a universal belief.
AI: Summary ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah.
All praise is due to Allah and millas Peace and blessings, we on the last messenger of Allah.
This evening's presentation is the first of two lectures on the oneness of God.
And in this section of the lecture,
I will discuss the belief in God. Because naturally, before we can look at issues of God's oneness,
we would need to have concluded that there is a God.
First and foremost,
we should know that
the belief in God is not something isolated, it is something which is quite ancient, the anthropologists who have studied, human societies all over the world,
have all come to the conclusion that
these societies
have a belief in God, with very few exceptions. So, from human efforts in terms of looking at the history of the belief in God, it is as ancient as men, of course, from an Islamic perspective,
it is even more specific, in the sense that with the creation of God, and the first man, Adam, with the creation, that God made of the first man, Adam,
the belief in God was given to that first creation. But
from a practical point of view, from the point of view of human research, we can say that, there is, from the efforts of scientists, a general conclusion that the belief in God is found throughout the earth. So much so, that some scholars debated as to whether this is something intrinsic in human beings being inborn, that human beings are born with this natural belief in God, or whether it is something which is acquired the issue of, they say, they refer to it as nature versus nurture.
of the exceptions, we can mention.
Buddhist Buddhism, in its ancient form known as the Hinayana form of Buddhism,
and Jainism. These are ancient systems, which were supposed to have evolved or developed around the sixth century, before the time of Christ.
But even in these systems, though, they don't speak about the existence of God, they do have a belief that the souls which reach attain a certain height of spiritual development, where they become liberated from the body, that these souls take on qualities of immortality and omniscience, and become objects of veneration and worship. So, though they may deny the existence of God, per se,
they have
given the attributes of God to some aspects of the creation, some of the creative beings.
And when we look at the philosophers of the past ancient philosophers, we find both Plato and Aristotle amongst famous Greek philosophers who argued logically for the existence of God.
And it really wasn't until the 19th and 20th centuries after the French Renaissance, that you find a body of philosophers
proposing atheist ideas, ideas, that God in fact, did not exist. And among them, just to mention a few, we had Philip mainlander, who is a German philosopher who died around 1876 and his principal writing the philosophy of redemption. He stated that the world begins with the death of God, actually, he was the first to address the issue in this way, and all who supported his ideas became known as the death of God philosophers, and this philosophy being the philosophy of the death of God. And he goes he states that the world begins with
With the death of God, since God is a principle of unity shattered in the plurality of the world, and a principle of joy denied in the law of suffering, which dominates the world.
We also find Nitze, a Prussian philosopher died about 1900. He supported this idea, proposing that God was nothing more than a projection of man's uneasy conscience. And that man was the bridge to the Superman, he had this idea of a
human being who became beyond the normal human human being, as we know him, attaining for himself ultimately, some of the attributes that we normally attribute to God. John Paul Sartre, French philosophy of the 20th century, also claimed that God didn't exist, because according to him, God is a contradiction in terms. The idea of God according to him is a projection which a man must make, being what he is.
From these beginnings,
coupled with Darwinian teachings,
we find atheism or the idea that there is no God spreading on a scale much greater than it had ever been known in history. In fact,
out of this, we found Russia and China, along with Albania, tagging, tagging on holding as their state religion, atheism.
But, though this is taught, and was taught, as the main foundation of education with regards to man, his existence, and the universe,
most people who went through the system
memorized what they were told from the statements of marks, angles, etc, repeated these for examinations, but within themselves themselves themselves, they did not deny God's existence because it went against their very nature. And as such, with the crumbling of Russia, the Russian state and Albania, and China to a certain degree, you find a huge rise in religious fervor amongst the people. Once again.
With regards to the Quran,
and atheism, what we find is that there are very few verses in the Quran which deal with
this belief in God
because of the fact that there were very few who held this position.
In one particular chapter of the Quran known as a tour,
which is a 52nd chapter, we find
the basic presentation
or the logic present logical presentation of why the disbelief in God is illogical.
Wherein God says, I'm honeycombing lady Shay in Amman, callicoon. See the 35th verse where they created from or by nothing, or did they create themselves? And in the 36 verse, um, hello, was somewhat on Audible Bell ly up noon, or did they create the heavens and earth? Indeed, they are uncertain.
These two verses summarize the basic three arguments for the existence of things without resorting to God. The first states
that
the creation came into being from nothing, or by nothing itself spontaneously.
And this approach violates basic reason. If somebody were to say
that
on some occasion while they were walking in the park, looking at the ducks in the pond, they just saw a duck appear on the water out of nowhere, not flying in landing or having been submerged and came out for just appearing there on the surface of the water. No one would attempt this.
Why? Because
it is illogical that this duck would appear from nothingness. All of our human experience indicates that their causes their reasons
Things come from other things, they don't just come out of nothing.
However,
this line of argument, as obviously illogical and ridiculous, as it is, when put in simplistic terms
is a lion which is being used by modern scientists if the atheists among them, we have for example, Fred Hoyle, who advocated what was known as the steady state theory, which for some time was a rival to the Big Bang Theory. In it,
in his theory,
he argued that matter was constantly coming into being
and he said, This is a quote from his writings. The most obvious question to ask about continuous creation is this, where does the creative material come from?
It does not come from anywhere.
This is this answer, material simply appears, it is created at one time the various atoms composed composing the material do not exist and are late and end at a later time they do. This may seem a very strange idea, I agree that it is, but in science, it does not matter how strange an idea may seem, So, long as it works.
That is to say, since the idea can be expressed in a precise form, and So, long as its consequences are in agreement with observation,
it is acceptable,
it was
Boyle's argument.
Of course, when he brought out this,
this theory, and his explanation for
this existence, a number of known atheists are amongst the scholars also rejected this idea, because, as they put it, this was opening the floodgates for religion,
because it was violating the main principle of science, namely, that nothing comes out of nothing.
Now,
we this idea, however, in spite of the fact that it was rejected, in the case of Fred Hoyle, those who argue the Big Bang Theory
most say that, the Big Bang began from a concentrated
point of matter matter was in a very concentrated form, then, this initial explosion took place where it started to expand, you know, throughout the universe. Most scientists When asked where did this original concentrated portion of matter come from? They will say, that is not a question of science, believe it right. Others among them the affirm atheist will say, it came from nothing like oil, it just came into being.
And, as we said, when we look at
the existence, or when you look at the arguments for this, these ways of coming into existence on a simplistic level, the human intellect rejects it. So, no matter how much scientific jargon may be placed around it, it doesn't change the fundamental ridiculousness of this type of argument.
The second basic argument
is that
human beings are creation created itself.
This is even more ridiculous,
because,
to create something,
that being or that thing, which is creating must already exist.
Right, if there was world created itself, it means the world had to already exist, before it created.
And for this world to be created,
it had to not exist.
So, you end up with a, an argument which is self contradictory.
So, the idea of creating oneself or the world creating itself is one which has to be canceled from the
body of arguments as being totally illogical.
The last argument
that
the world was created
from or by something which was already created
is the line of argument,
which states that matter really was eternal. It had no beginning. Because if we say
that this creation, we call it
C for creation c one,
that it was caused or created by another creation, which we call C two.
And that C two was created by another creation, which was C three,
and we go on
infinitely.
Right, this is the argument that there was no, it is from an infinity,
we cannot, we're not going to identify a starting point.
Because something which is created, will need something else to create it. So, if everything goes back eternally, this line of creators goes back into eternity, then what in fact, we're saying is that nothing should exist.
Because, if creation, number one
cannot exist, unless creation, number two exists,
and creation, number two cannot exist unless number three exists, and then so on. Then it means if we go back and we cannot find a starting point, then it means that there is no
cause for our existence. Now, it means nothing should exist. But the reality is that things exist.
existence itself is proof of the falsehood of this line of argument.
It is an ancient argument you had amongst Greek philosophers, those who argued also that the earth was eternal.
Matter is eternal, the Earth is eternal, it's just another expression of the same concept.
But this is the most popular belief today, that it was matter this, which is always which was eternal, which, by accidental,
bouncing into each other, the early atoms or neutrons or whatever, bouncing into each other started, you know, the process of life going.
And even if we accept
that matter was eternal, and we think of the accidental argument, for things to come into being, which then lets us accept that molecules bouncing around eventually formed, you know, bigger molecules, and these bigger molecules ended up forming the precursors of life, you know, DNA, RNA, etc, etc, eventually forming the first cell and the first cell, you know, eventually developing cell walls and crawling up on the land. And you know, this whole scenario which they have of how life came about.
It is it is something which is
more fantastic,
and more mystical, than anything found in the religious books, explaining how human beings and how the world got here.
It is, in fact,
another religion,
which has its own explanation of human beings, this world that we live in, why we're what we're here for, we're not here for any real purpose. This is just the evolutionary principle, you know, evolving things for the better.
Without any direction, yet having direction.
And
what we can say ends up being the god for those who reject God is the God of chance.
The God of chance, because when we ask these people who don't believe in God, we ask them, you know,
why it is that you have a good life, and other people have a bad life? You've got a good job, so and so has a bad job. They will say it was my good luck.
Why did he have a bad job because his bad luck.
And if you look through his whole day, from the time he or she wakes up in the morning, to the time they go to bed at night, you will see everything happening throughout their lives as being a result
Have good luck and bad luck.
So, ultimately, there God is the God of chance,
good luck or bad luck.
And in modern times,
especially in the, from the 50s onwards,
we have, we had another phenomenon developing amongst people
who rejected the concept of God, but try to find another way to explain the way things are and to give meaning to life here. And that was the
belief in the flying saucers, the UFOs
as one couple of University Professors Benson sailor and Charles Ziegler, Professor of Anthropology, they published a book called The Roswell myth,
which is, Roswell is the
this town in New Mexico, where a flying saucer was supposed to have crashed nearby in 1947. And supposedly the American military covered it up and there were some little aliens and you know, from this, the myth about flying saucers developed on a large scale and you will find till today, this year, last year, a number of movies, books and things being put out about Roswell.
So they said,
at the core of the Roswell myth
is a secular way
to give the universe meaning. This myth becomes a secular way to give the universe meaning and humanity a renewed place at the head of the table. Not only are the skies populated with superhuman beings, but their visits are evidence that we are interesting.
Sailor said that the Razzle myth is an effort to put enchantment back into nature. After human beings had
removed God from creation,
nature just became blind forces
in a desire to give it meaning again, this belief in the
UFOs took off. And it became so much of a religion that we know last year, some 50 Odd members of one of the UFO cults committed suicide so that they could spiritually rejoin or join up with the spacecraft that was hiding behind the comet, which was passing through our our solar system at the time.
The fact of the matter, having looked at these various arguments
is that
the belief in God is the logical belief. And it is the disbelief in God which is illogical. Now, with the atheists thrust in the 20th century,
belief in God became classified as irrational. This was an irrational belief,
going against reason.
And it is reason according to them, which dictates that God doesn't exist.
However,
if one looks at their arguments, one can only conclude that it is logical to believe in God, and in fact, illogical to disbelief and it is on those who disbelieve to prove not on us who believe to prove that God exists, it is on them that is believers to prove that God does not exist because it is their arguments which are in fact, illogical. Logic tells us
that where we see design, there is a designer. And this is the most common argument presented in the Quran where Allah invites
the creation to look at the camels, at the the mountains, how they're set up, how they're organized, etc. To reflect that there has to be an organizer behind this is not going to be there and with this type of structure, etc. Without
there having been an organizer that it would happen by chance by accident.
When a person walks on a beach and they see a footprint in the sand. The first thought which comes to them is not that the the waves of the sea have come up onto the sand and
sunken into the sand.
creating the impression of a footprint how amazing that is.
This is not the first thought that comes to a person's mind. The first thought is that somebody walked here.
The ancient Arabs used to say that camel dung indicates the camel. Meaning that when you're walking out on the desert, and you come across a piece of Camel dung, you don't start reflecting how this camel dung appeared here. Did it come out of the sand somehow, some things in the sand created it and no fusee camel down, you assume a camel walk by. This is logic. This is reason.
And if we can do that with camel dung, and a footprint in the sand, the human being who is far more complex, far more intricate to assume that he came into being
that this world came into being by accident, is as foolish as that person standing on the desert, wondering where this camel dung came from?
So
the questions that
does God exist? Or does God not exist? This question
is really one raised by those who deny their very nature, deny logic, deny reason.
Everything around them points to the existence of a creator. For them, not to accept it is a deliberate denial of
that knowledge which is within each and every human being.
The reason which God has given them, they have become irrational.
This is why the real question
for us, or for human beings is not so much. Is there a God? Or isn't there a God? But who is God?
This is the big question. This is the question that has puzzled human beings over the ages, because we said the vast majority of human beings believe there is a God. But the question is, who is that God?
And we find in the various societies, various communities, tribes, nations, etc, a variety of answers as to who is God.
Now the essential difference between
all of these answers presented by the various religions and systems.
And
the answer given by Islam
is expressed. In
another question,
Did God become man?
Did God become His creation? Because when we look at the arguments of all of the various systems that believe in God, but have different answers as to who is God, we find that the vast majority of them all believe that God, at some point in time became his creation?
Either he became a man, or he became an animal, or it became some aspect of His creation, the sun, the moon, whatever.
And it is really only in Islam that we find the answer is, no.
God did not become His creation.
God is the Creator.
And everything besides him, is his creation.
He is not his creation, noise is creation, Him.
Those who argue that God became a man, that God became his creation, usually argue from the point that God is able to do all things because when we talk about God, we talk about certain attributes which we give to God, that God is eternal, is without beginning without end, He is all knowing, all powerful, etc. and He is Able to do all things and this is a part of Islamic belief. It's repeated throughout the Quran and so many places in Allah, Allah coalition, but there, Allah is Able to do all things. So those who argue that God became men
Once we say that God became a man,
we would argue that, why do you want to stop there
and became a man when I'd say became many men,
or became animals, etc, was once you open the door that God became a man, this has opened the door for God to become his creation. In whatever form, people choose to perceive Him.
They argue that God is able to do all things. So why couldn't he become a man?
Now,
for those who take this question, superficially, they would find that
they were forced to accept this argument, yes, if God is able to do all things, then why couldn't he become a man.
But the fact is that when we say that God is able to do all things, we're not talking about things which make God less than God, make God no longer God.
We're talking about when we talk about God, he's able to do all things from the Islamic perspective. It means all things that are in keeping with his attributes of being God.
All things which we fit him as God.
And excluded from this are what are called the absurdities, all of the things which would make God less than God.
For example, if we say that God is without beginning, to then ask, can God be born is an absurdity? Because we already said that God is without beginning so to ask, can God be born contradicts the basic belief that one has about God?
But according to the argument that God is able to do all things, one would have to say, yes,
he's able to do all things, though he is,
without beginning, he can be born. But this is ridiculous.
Similarly, we know that God, one of the attributes of God is that he's eternal without end.
And again, to us, can God die? It's a ridiculous question. But those who want to include everything in God, being able to do all things, would have to accept the fact that yes, God could die.
Though inside themselves, it is illogical, that goes against reason.
Similarly, to say that God became a man, that God became his creation is absurd, because God is the Creator.
God is the Creator. For him to become his creation. Creation is in need of a creator. So it means that God would become his, if God became his creation, He would then be in need of a creator,
he could no longer be the creator, and whoever created him, that's who God is not him.
So we see that the argument that
God became a man is an illogical argument. It goes against reason.
It goes against revelation.
true revelation confirms that God is the Creator, and he is not his creation, He does not become His creation, He did not become His creation, and he never will become His creation.
So in summing up the
presentation this evening,
which addresses the oneness of God.
The belief in God, we said, is logical.
And it is in fact, illogical not to believe in God.
The existence of the belief in God in the vast majority of tribes around this world, no matter how primitive, so called primitive, they may be
confirmed confirms that it is something essential to human beings. It is a part of their creative nature to realize and to understand this,
to know that God exists.
And Greek philosophers of the past argued from pure logic that God exists. The arguments that God doesn't exist
are not only ridiculous,
they also
represent a small element
of individuals who reject reason, and have sought to propagate the idea that there is no God to
perpetuate or to develop a system. This was the atheist systems known as communism
and
systems of the like.
This was a part of their own arguments for explaining a future, which they proposed a mythological future where a new human being would arise out of this communist system, who would be angelic.
This new human being would only take from the fruit of the labor of human beings, what they needed, and they would work according to their ability. This was the communist man, the ideal, the dream that they had. And it was a myth. It never came into being and the communist systems have fallen apart.
And religion in these areas have reasserted themselves.
Belief in God
is logical.
It is affirmed by everything we see around us, human experience confirms that wherever there is something, having a design, there was behind them, or behind that thing, a designer?
The question, as I mentioned, is not so much as is there a God? But who is God?
Was God His creation?
Did God become His creation?
Will his creation become God?
These are the questions that Islam answers with a emphatic no.
The Creator God
is not his creation, everything that exists, is by his will.
It was created
out of nothing, not by nothing, but out of nothing, God, by His Command created things from nothing.
And it is an inability on the part of some human beings to fathom this act of creation, which led them to believe that this world is an extension of God.
When they looked at human beings, and they saw human beings creating from things which already existed, and they said, Well, okay, in the beginning was God and then God created, then he must have created things from himself. So you have the Hindu belief that people are in different castes.
The top caste Brahmin caste was created from Godhead, the bottom caste, the sutras were created from God's feet, and other castes were created from different parts of his body. You know, this is their concept.
But the fact is, that the creation of God when God creates
is unique and different from human creation.
We create by way of manipulation, we manipulate what is already there. This table was created from wood, which was from a tree, which we didn't create. The tree was already there, we have manipulated it, and made a tree from it, a table from it. This is how we create but God
being unique in his characteristics, as he's unique in the sense that he has no beginning and all of his creation has a beginning. He has no end and all of his creation comes to an end.
He is unique in His creation.
He created things from nothing.
So this basically summarizes the initial presentation concerning the oneness of God. In the next segment, we will look in more detail as to the concept of God in Islam, God in His Oneness, known as Tauheed
And we'll pause here to give you all an opportunity to raise any questions you'd like to raise. And the papers I think are available to you last time we
extended the talk a bit longer, and you had a much more limited time to ask questions. So hopefully this time, you'll have a better opportunity. So now we're off to Iraq.
hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah.
All praise is due to Allah and may Allah peace and blessings be on the last messenger of Allah.
Question, if God created us and the heavens and the earth,
then who created God?
This is a common question asked by non believers.
This relates
back to the concept of
creation.
Having its cause in creation,
that if we accept logically, that there had to be a being
that started the process going,
that being
cannot be a part of the process itself.
If the process of creation,
things created from other things, is traced back to a starting point?
This the one who started it
could not himself be
a part of that process, meaning that he was also a creative being otherwise, you are then going to look at one before who created him.
And you say, okay, he started it. But he is a part of it, then who created him. So you're caught back into that cycle of going back eternally, to an original cause. So for everything to make sense, for us to exist here.
There had to be a beginning point, a beginner and that beginner could not be
a part of the process of creation himself, he could not be a creative being.
And this is why we say who created God is an illogical question. Because, God,
for him, to be the one to start the whole process going had to be uncreated.
Once you die on Judgement Day,
do you get to see God?
It is believed, according to the teachings of Islam, that those who enter Paradise will see God.
Those who are judged evil, and will be punished in * will not see God
couldn't be your fault be proof of God's existence.
God states that everyone both on earth and in the sky prays to him.
Well,
the point is that
existence has been explained to us,
the beings of existence the world has been explained to us.
There is another world parallel to ours known as the world of the jinn.
About which the Quran speaks about whom Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him, gave us details
if from the evidence of the UFO sightings, etc.
There are in fact, incidences, which are not explained away and the vast majority of what has been cited as UFO sightings etc, have been shown by scientists etc to be false. Either mistaken sightings of weather balloons and you know, inversions, ball lightning a variety of natural phenomena create some
Have these sightings so called sightings?
But if in fact, there is an element among them which has some reality to it, then the world of the jinn is an easy enough explanation. We don't have to go to other beings beyond those that have already been identified in the Quran and the Sunnah.
Why do you refer
to God as he,
when he can't be his creation? This is a common question
asked about
why God is referred to in the Quran, in the Bible, Jewish Scriptures as key in the male form. And the reality is that in the Semitic languages,
everything is either male or female.
It may be male and female, literally.
Or it is male and female by convention.
According to Arabic,
the sun is female, the moon is male, the table pauwela is female, the chair corsi is male. So in Arabic terminology, as well as in Hebrew, you would refer to the table as she and the charity.
But you don't mean literally that it is a male and a female here, this is just by convention.
And that being the language meaning that there is no it, there is no term neutral term for things that are neither he nor she.
When God revealed
Himself through scripture, in Hebrew, and Arabic,
and in previous scriptures, we can speak specifically about the Hebrew and Arabic scriptures. When he revealed himself in the scriptures, he revealed himself using the pronoun he,
as opposed to the pronoun she because he would use either he or she and since
the order in which he had created things was such that the male would be dominant, the male would head the family would head societies etc. As a general rule,
I mean, of course, there are exceptions. But as a general rule, males dominate the head societies they had families. So he chose the
pronoun which indicated the the person or the personality of greater dominance.
We do not in Islam conceive of God, as being a male.
People are like sheep, just because our predecessors so called believed in a god convinced me with hard evidence, or what hard evidence is there to prove to me that there is a God? Well, this is a
type of individual about whom we spoke.
Who
I would ask instead, to prove that there isn't a god.
Common Sense, logic reason points to God's existence.
It is not for me to prove to you that there is a God, it is for you, to deny what is obvious around you to argue that there isn't a god.
How do we explain the inequities
and sufferings in this world? This is part of the expression of those who denied God's existence that since God is good, then why should there be suffering in the world?
Why there should there be evil?
Again,
this comes back to
what we perceive as being evil.
Whether
that perception is correct, or whether it isn't. Our perception is limited.
Based on our limited knowledge,
we may perceive something to be evil,
when in fact, it is good.
Evil which takes takes place in this world,
which could be classified as pure evil, not relative evil
occurs only from the beings that have free will from human beings, where a person intends to do evil
and they commit the act of evil.
Otherwise,
the things around us where we see natural calamities, no accidents,
misfortunes taking place, these things we may perceive as evil, but after some time, we may find in them good.
At any rate,
even the evil
which is which is perpetrated by those who choose to do evil, having been given the freewill by God,
even for that evil to take place, it is by the permission of God.
If God is not a part of His creation, does this mean that God is a spirit?
From the Islamic perspective, we do not hold that God is a spirit in that the spirit is itself created.
God is not a part of His creation.
He is not
composed of the elements of His creation, He is unique in and of himself.
Is Jesus highly regarded in Islam?
Yes, Jesus is regarded
as a prophet of God
who was born of a virgin,
and who performed many miracles
and who
was not crucified
or resurrected.
But who was raised up by God.
And who would return in this world is a part of the science of the last hour of the last
times of this world.
And he would reaffirm the teachings which he brought, which were Islam submission to one God.
And he would defeat
the Antichrist,
and those who invited
God's creation to the worship
of the Creation instead of the worship of God.
Is it possible at the Big Bang Theory, something coming from nothing can correspond with the last statement couldn't fire Kuhn, that is B.
And it is.
And this is the beginning of all things.
Well, as I said,
The Big Bang theory
starts with matter.
It doesn't start with the creation of matter.
So it's not really related to God's command to be
for matter to come into being Yes, this is in accordance with God's command to be big bang theory really explains the existence of
of matter in motion as it is now supposed to explain it. You know, as the particles of matter expand to the universe, why stars are moving in certain directions and these type of things. This is what it tries to explain.
But it doesn't really explain, you know, as the majority of scientists will
attest, it doesn't explain where that matter which was compressed in the first place came from
As a question sort of
in another direction altogether, what is the importance of the cap you're wearing on your head? This is a.
This is just because I said the last time we had some questions which are out there, and we didn't get a chance to answer them, we'll try to put in everything this evening.
Is it so now meaning is it from the way of the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, opinion seems to be divided.
Well,
it has no special significance in Islam, meaning that the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, was not known to wear a cap
by itself, nor did he instruct his followers to wear a cap by itself. What we do know is that it was the common practice in Arabia,
to wear a turban on their heads. And he instructed
his followers to wear a cap under their turbans to distinguish themselves from the pagans.
So the wearing of a cap
is not in and of itself,
a religious act.
In that, we have what may be called a prayer cap, like the yarmulke of the Jews, where they have a cap that they wear for prayer. And unfortunately, we do find some Muslims taking this cap. In that same way, you know, especially places like India and Pakistan, at the door of the door of the mosque, when you first come in, there'll be a pile of caps there and people put them on as they go into pray, take it off as they leave. So it has become it has taken on this kind of significance to them. But in fact, this is not correct. We have no prayer crack cap in Islam. However, if a person wears it
as a means of distinguishing himself, you know, it's a part of, of Muslim culture to wear particular types of caps. And we do so to distinguish ourselves to be known as Muslims, then it is, in keeping with the Islamic principle, we're in the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, invited us or encouraged us to distinguish ourselves from the non Muslims in the society in which we find ourselves
How do you explained the
homology and DNA between the different species and the similarity of anatomy
for example, between humans and apes, okay. So, the person who
seems to have accepted the
Darwinian argument that
you know, similar structures indicate some kind of biological relationship.
However,
there is a beetle
known as the rhinoceros beetle.
It's a bug,
a black bug, and it has on the front part, you know, the head
horns which looks something like a rhinoceros, they call it the rhinoceros beetle.
No one in his right mind,
among scientists, biologists would say that there is a relationship between this rhinoceros beetle and a rhinoceros,
though there is a similarity in the shape.
So,
the fact that God has created all of the living beings with
a common
DNA structure with variations from it,
in no way indicates that one evolved from the other that is that that is a that is a theory. That is a way of explaining this similarity, which isn't
necessarily the only way of explaining it.
One could say,
for those who don't accept God that it is by chance.
You want to go by chance, okay, it's by chance that we have a similar structure, as in DNA.
As,
as certain other living beings, and that, by chance, we have hands with five fingers and monkeys of hands with five fingers
by chance if you want. I mean, of course, we would say that God has created the monkeys with hands that have some similarities to ours. But the fact that they were created with this similarity does not in any way indicate that we evolved from them.
Just as our rhinoceros beetle didn't evolve from the rhinoceros.
When we say that God created man from clay,
do we mean clay in the sense of what we find on Earth?
There are authentic narrations were in
the Prophet Muhammad, Hassan, I'm related that
man was created from different portions of clay from different parts of the earth.
And when we look in clay, we know that clay is made up of elements.
The elements which make it up clay, and it's described as moist clay, that means clay with liquid
water in it, and the elements of water that are involved in it, etc, we can say that man is made up of these elements, it doesn't mean that we are balls of clay walking around today, if you pour water on us, you know, we'll dissolve No, I mean, no, we originated from these elements, in the sense that our initial creation was from it. Now we have taken on our own form, and scientists will tell you, if you take the human being and you boil him down, you know, grind up his bones and everything and separate the LT you can put him into a number of different test tubes, you know, so much of calcium, so much of carbon, so much of hydrogen soil, and you can list it all together. These are the
elements, of course, the factor of the spirit, this is something else. But physically speaking, the human body can be broken down into elements. And these elements fundamentally may be found in the earth.
If we can see that the concept of one God is a logical necessity. Doesn't God ever feel lonely?
Is that why we were created?
Well, this is not one of the explanations that was given
by revelation. I mean, human beings have come up with such explanations. And no, there is a forged false tradition, which describes God as being a hidden treasure. And he desired to be discovered. He was lonely. So he created human beings to discover him. This is nonsense. This is not a issue of loneliness. This is a human characteristic. As God has told us, laser chemistry, he shade, there is nothing like him. He doesn't suffer from the negative characteristics which we have loneliness is not considered to be a positive characteristic. It's a negative, it represents a weakness. Because when we don't have people around us, when we're used to having people around us, we feel a loss we
feel at a loss. So we have a need and a desire to have
people around us that is a weakness. God doesn't have any weaknesses.
And this is why the argument that some Christians use to explain why God became a man
that he wanted to know
how humans felt.
You know?
So he became a man and then suffered as they suffered not to make this ultimate sacrifice. I mean, he talks about this, God in this way where God is no. So you have to become a man to find out what it was like to be a man. Well, we don't accept these kinds of explanations because we believe God, to know all things. Nothing is hidden from him. He doesn't have to become a man to know what it is like to be a man
What do you have to say about people who believe in God, but are uncertain about religion, who do not think it is necessary to pick a religion?
Well, such people
are fortunate in that they do have the belief in God, but that belief is incomplete.
It is incomplete.
Because it implies that
God created this world, and did not communicate to his creatures,
that he just created the world and let it carry on by itself.
What is the importance of belief in God?
If it is, if it is not going to affect our lives, it's not going to, to be a part of a way of life. It was just an idea. Like the ancient Greek philosophers argued, yes, there is a God. But beyond accepting that there is a God.
This had nothing to do with the rest of their lives. It is just a logical argument. Such a belief, as I said, is deficient.
Because if God, if there is a God,
and God created us,
then we have to believe that there is a purpose behind our creation.
If we, on our lowly level, do things with a purpose,
and we consider those who do things without a purpose, as being insane,
we have them treated, then, to consider God as having created this world without a purpose is ludicrous.
And if there is a purpose,
for God, to have created us for our purpose, and not reveal that purpose to us, again, would be inconceivable would be pointless? What is the point in there being a purpose and creating us without knowing what that purpose is?
If we send the child to school,
and we don't tell the child what they're supposed to do at school,
are they going to do what they're supposed to do at school? No, they'll go and play.
They will enjoy themselves. If there is no purpose defined for them, then they will be lost.
And God,
who would believe is all wise, all just, all knowing, all merciful, all kind,
created us
for a purpose. And he revealed that purpose, through the prophets, whom He sent to mankind down to the ages.
And their message is one message that of worshipping God alone, and not worshiping is creation.
In your opinion, why do human beings deny the existence of God?
They deny the existence of God.
Because they don't want to deal with the responsibility.
If God created us, and He created us for a purpose,
then it means that there are some obligations, here are some things we need to do. This is why it's easier to think of God as being chance, good luck and bad luck, because you don't have any obligation to chance.
Whereas once you think of
us being a creation of God, that there is a purpose etc, that it means that there are some things that God wants from us some things that we will have to do. Whereas a person who does want to have to deal with that whole
issue, chooses then to deny God's existence. That is the ultimate step. Or the second step is to say, Okay, I believe there's a God but
he didn't tell us what he wants from us.
If God is fair, why do bad things happen to good people? It's the same
idea that we discussed earlier.
Which is related to the issue of relative good and relative evil. In fact,
Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him
had informed his companions that those who suffered the most who had the most calamities in this life were the prophets then those most like them
that when God sees strength in a person's faith, he tests him more
to build that faith when he sees a person's faith weaker than the tests are less
the T sign is coming again
let me see if we can if any of these are quite short
is the will of God different to the will of men? Yes.
Well, the rest of the questions are pretty long, so I guess we'll have to save them
for our next session
Subhanak Allahu humbucker and shadow ley line and the star Fuka want to break