Bilal Philips – The Oneness of God #02
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of finding one's own success and removing negative emotions in order to increase chances of success. They touch on the negative perception of the 13th floor in buildings and the loss of life, as well as the use of amulets and shrocking nature of the universe. They emphasize the importance of avoiding these kinds of things and avoiding sin in order to achieve success in life. They also stress the need for intentions to avoid sin and rebuilding relationships.
AI: Summary ©
hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah.
All praise due to Allah and Allah peace and blessings beyond the last messenger of Allah.
This evening's presentation, the continuation of the oneness of God
will be looking at who is that God, that we confirmed in the previous lecture
as being
real as being
logical for us to believe in
that God
as described
in the teachings of Islam,
teachings,
which are not unique to the final form of Islam, which came with Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him. But teachings,
which began with the first human being and the first prophet, Adam, may God's peace and blessings beyond him also teachings which are renewed, revived by the subsequent prophets, over the generations who are sent
to all of the nations on the earth.
throughout that period from the time of Adam, until the last prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him,
understanding that God in Islamic terminology is expressed by the term Tao heat,
which means
the unique oneness of God,
which is affirmed and maintained
in all of human relationships with that God.
This concept addresses
first and foremost, the fact that
all of creation
belongs to God
and that nothing takes place in the creation without his permission.
He is the creator and sustainer
maintainer of this universe of creation.
And this is expressed in the Quran and the number of verses
among them in Surah Azhar verse 62,
Allah wahala, along with Harlequin, mache, wahoo Allah conditioning Joaquin,
Allah created all things and He is the agent on which all things depend.
While love will holla cocoon while my time alone in Surah, saw a fat Verse 96 And the law created you and all that you do.
And also in Surah Harbin verse 11, my afford me mercy button ELAB is Nilla and no calamity strikes except by Allah's permission.
Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him, often used to exclaim La hawla wala Quwata illa biLlah there is no power of movement except by Allah's permission.
And on one occasion, he was quoted in a hadith, authentic hadith found in Timothy,
that, if all of mankind gathered together, in order to help us with anything,
they would not be able to help us, except by something which had already been written for us. And likewise, if all of mankind gathered together to harm us, they would not be able to harm us, except by something which was already written, to take place.
Meaning, that all that we may perceive as good fortune or bad fortune in this life
is really only events which Allah has already predestined as a part of the tests of this life.
The things which we may consider to be good fortune and to be successful, represent success.
Allah warns us about for example,
In the case
of wives and children, about home people feel very proud or feel very happy. Allah tells us in the Quran Yeah, you already know Amanu
in them and as logical while logical, I do well lakum father room, or believers, Surely there is in your wives and children and enemy for you. So beware of them.
Is it something which we normally consider to be good fortune, to have good wives and children, however, even in this, that we could consider good fortune, Allah warns us that there is a test in it,
that these wives and children whom we may love, so much, may lead us due to our excessive love of them into disobedience of God, in which case, they became a source of harm to us.
Similarly, Allah tells us
and so on Baqarah will convey mental health he will do he will not say minimum while he will amphis.
Surely we will test you with fear, hunger, loss of wealth and life and the fruits of your work well by Sheree Savarin. So, give glad tidings to those who are patient.
These are the tests of his life
as part and parcel of each and every human beings life experience, geared to developing that individual, Allah has put us through certain tests, not to find out what he did know, not to find out whether we are believers or not.
Allah has already knew that before he even created us. These tests are there to bring out in us the higher qualities
which Allah has created in us, for them to develop, they develop in the course of the tests of this life.
So, what we perceive to be evil may in fact, be good for us. And what we may perceive to be good may in fact, be evil relative to us.
Because of that, Allah stressed that in Surah, Al Baqarah, the second chapter, verse 216, wiser and Takahashi on Oahu, hi ru lakum wasa and to hip boo Shea and worship Allah, Allah we are number one to Latina moon, perhaps you may dislike something which is really good for you, or you may like something bad for you. But Allah knows what is best for you, and you do not.
This stress is to us. The fact that what we experience in life, ultimately, good fortune, or bad fortune, is ultimately from Allah, the good and the evil.
This is why the six pillar of faith in the Islamic system of belief is belief in the Destiny, the good of it, and the evil of it.
We don't have a problem in dealing with evil in the world, where it came from, etc. We know it is by the permission of God. We are taught to seek refuge in the chapter one of the last two chapters of the Quran known as and follow up, pull out there have been falak Ming Shan Rima, Allah
say, I seek refuge in The Lord of the Dawn from the evil
of what was created,
what he created
evil that may come from Allah's creation, we seek refuge in Allah from it. And this is an essential part of the belief
system with regards to God.
Which requires that we reject on the other hand, all forms of dependence dependencies on the
pieces and particles of this creation, which people commonly associate as being sources of good luck, or people avoid considering them to the sources of bad luck.
In all societies, people have charms. I mean, it's there are numbers
There are events, which they associate to be signs of good luck.
For one's belief
to be pure. With regards to God from the Islamic perspective, these feelings have to be removed from one's heart.
There is a tendency amongst people,
especially amongst the non believers, but it even creeps over into the hearts of the believers, that if a person
goes out looking for a job,
and doesn't find a job, they continue to search, they're not successful in finding any job.
Then one day, they go out and they find the job they were looking for.
There's a tendency on their part to want to associate something to that finding of the job on that particular day.
So either that day of the month, or that month of the year becomes a good luck month for them.
Or the clothing that they were wearing.
The pants, the tie, the belt, the shirts, become good luck, pants, good luck, tie, belt shirt, whatever, you know, or good luck dress or coat or whatever. So that anytime they're going out, they will put it in the cupboard. They keep it in a special place, anytime they're going out and they need, you know, some extra sources of help there, then they take out their good luck shirt or tie, fancy dress, whatever they put it on when they're going out.
This may be done clearly and openly, you'll have people openly tell you this is my good luck belt.
But other people, they may not be saying that but in their heart there is something there's some attachment there and this has to be removed from the heart.
One has to be clear in this regard, that nothing takes place, except by the permission of Allah.
Society which has rejected God
10s As we spoke about before, to make in the place of God, the God of good luck.
And as such, they have many rituals, Western society, Western technological society, which is supposed to be you know, so much fixated in, in scientific and scientific approach, you will find the peoples of the West deeply involved in these kinds of superstitions and Oh men taking etc.
I know for example, this presently, in America, the latest fad is Feng Shui. Those of you who don't know what it is, I'll tell you it is called geo geomancy. Don't know what geomancy is. Okay. I'll also tell you geomancy means that
if I'm going to give this lecture
if it was a fundraising lecture, for example, and I want to ensure that I get the maximum out of you, all the fancy experts will come and tell me Listen, you better put this glass of water here and the other glass here at this angle. And you need to change your tables direction slightly to the left and your chair slightly this way. And this change in the geographical arrangement of the objects on your table, your chair, etc. will bring about good luck for you.
The Chinese are the experts. That's why it's called feng shui. They are the experts. And people like Donald Trump, for example, you know, big time, you know, real estate
tycoon. Anytime he's building a new, you know, skyscraper, he brings in essentially top feng shui expert from Hong Kong or Mainland China. And they give him give his architects the details as to where to set up the windows and you know, furniture etc.
It's very popular.
And this is an expression of the same desire, a common expression found also in America, in England, Europe is the in the negative senses the number 13 We know in America, you cannot find a 13th floor in any building.
The elevator will every time tell you 1112 1415 1613 floor has disappeared.
Now, some people really believe this is a bad luck
floor.
As such, they would never rent on that floor.
Perhaps the owners of these
hotels or apartments etc. They may not themselves believe in it, but they know that if they have a 13th floor nobody's gonna rent on it. So no point is we'll change it to 14 they'll rent
And this is deeply embedded in the society.
So much so that there is one particular case which, you know, always,
never ceases to amaze me every time I think about this, it was the case about the Apollo moon shot,
which they bought, they made a movie about it just three years back,
the Apollo, where they sent off this
spacecraft, with the intention of landing on the Moon was part of the moon landing series.
And unfortunately, something went wrong with booster rockets, and this, that and the other, and the spaceship was heading off into space.
Now, if this had been Russia,
no big deal. You know, Americans had picked up on their radio telescopes, many time, messages from Russia and spaceships as they head off into the sun and head off into outer space Help Help help them. In Russia, people are this you know, dispensable, disposable. So they can try many, many attempts. And it doesn't matter if you lose a few lives on the way. But in America, one life, the loss of one life is you know, such a big thing, that it was a major tragedy for the whole society. You know, everybody was glued to the television wondering what's going to happen to this Apollo mission. Eventually, they were able to use the booster rockets of the lunar lander that they had
with them. And they managed to catch the gravitational pull of the moon and swing back down, fall in the Atlantic Ocean, they picked them up, brought them to Cape Canaveral, when they came off the helicopter came walking down the tarmac, all the reports is rushing up to them. You know, everybody is cheering, clapping happy. You know, when the reporters to asking the main commander of the flight asked him, How do you feel?
To just, you know, how do you feel about this situation that you just came through? You know,
he said, I should have known this was gonna happen.
They said what what do you mean, before you took off there was they told you there was some problems with the with the rockets, you know, the the the fueling, you know, because sometimes before the flight, they have to change this and change that in the last minute details. And when did they tell me said no, no, none of that. So then how? He said, This is Apollo 13.
Now, this man is a PhD in biochemistry and nuclear physics. And you know, he's saying it is Apollo 13.
It took off at 1300 hours, one o'clock, one o'clock is $1,300.
On Friday, the 13th.
You know, what else could you expect? You have that many Thirteen's coming together, you know, to expect to get through this without a problem, let's just, but this is the this is how deeply embedded it is, in the society. So, for one face to be acceptable, in this regard, these kinds of feelings, these kinds of beliefs have to be rooted out. And one has to put one's trust back in God again, in the full sense that whatever it takes place, is by the will of God.
Secondly, with regards to God,
and human beings themselves,
how do we
conceive of God, our perception of God has to be in accordance with how God has been revealed to us in Revelation, we cannot use our minds to imagine God to put together some image or concept of God, because
we being finite beings, cannot grasp the infinite,
except to the degree that God has chosen to reveal something of himself to us.
So,
for one's belief, with regards to God,
to be correct, to understand who is God,
one must limit oneself to the understanding which is presented to us through scripture, through divine revelation. And of course, when we're looking at Revelation today, what we're talking about is the Quran. Because the Bible, Old Testament, New Testaments have been so
distorted and changed over the centuries, that they no longer
become reliable sources for the description of God.
There is a formula that we have to follow in understanding God, even in the descriptions that he gives us because of the fact that the descriptions are in our languages
in human language, these descriptions
of the infinite
in our finite languages are naturally going to have in them some areas of possible misunderstanding
some areas of obscurity.
So, in order to ensure that we don't fall into the misunderstandings and misinterpretations, there is a basic verse from the Quran, which we use as the guiding line for understanding the attributes of God as He has described himself.
That is in Surah, Surah, verse 11, wherein God says, May 2, Misty he shade what was Semyon Basia there is nothing like him.
And he is the hearer and seer of all.
He confirms that nothing in his creation
is similar to him.
At the same time, he affirms that he sees and hears all things.
Seeing
in our
languages, implies eyes,
retina,
and optic nerve, the brain to interpret these signals which come through it, the whole eye apparatus This is seeing involve this.
But when we consider when we speak of God as seeing,
we don't attribute that to God.
Similarly, hearing, when we think of hearing, we think again of the air apparatus, the cochlea, etc, etc, and the brain to interpret it.
But when we speak in terms of God, we do not think this should not come to our minds.
He sees not in the way that we see
nothing hinders his site, our site is limited finite, we can't see what's outside of this hall.
God sees without hindrance, our hearing is finite, we cannot hear what is going on. In other parts of the world, in our homes right now. God hears all.
And this is how we perceive him. And this is important because oftentimes people who have grown up in a tradition of visualizing God,
as is common in Christian tradition, where in most of the sects of Christianity, images of God are, are used, paintings, drawings, carvings, etc.
Oftentimes, they will ask,
well, if you don't have an image of God in your mind, then you know, what do you have there? I mean, they feel that it to worship you must have an image your mind has to create an image in it, that you are relating to in the course of your worship.
Whereas from the Islamic perspective, no, for you to create an image
in your mind, you have now
depicted God in a way that he is. Because any image that we can create in our mind is a result of what we have seen, what our eyes have perceived.
It may not be in the same form, whether we mix it up, we think, Okay, God, the Spirit is a spirit that is, what is the spirit? It's a smoky like thing, isn't it? Spirits are smoky. So in your mind, you think of a smoky hazy thing, you know, once you do that, then you're thinking of smoke and haze, not thinking of God anymore.
So,
the correct way of understanding God perceiving God in terms of his attributes, is not to give him any of the human attributes to to restrict ourselves to the descriptions that he has given of himself, and not to perceive them in terms of human attributes.
Consequently,
as an example of what happens in the Bible, where
God is described in the Old Testament, you know, as having created the world
In six days, right? And it says in Genesis two, verse two, and on the seventh day God finished his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. So this is a attributing to God tiredness, you know, after you work for six days, you get tired, you take a rest on the seventh.
This is why we were saying that we can't use the Bible as a source of
understanding God in terms of its attributes. The Quran instead in this same context says,
no tiredness overcomes him nor sleep
with rods, God this is in the second chapter also, verse 255, to Corsi, Allah says they're not only doesn't he sleep, doesn't, it doesn't take a rest, he doesn't get tired, don't even attribute to Him tiredness, this is weakness.
So, the concept of God being unique in His attributes is essential.
Whatever he has described himself, as these attributes, attributes are unique to himself.
Meaning that we cannot give also the creation, the attributes which belong to Allah to God.
Not only is it not acceptable for us to give him our attributes,
but it's not acceptable to give his attributes to ourselves or to the creation.
This act involves what is known as shirk.
This is the destruction of the foundations of the faith. Again, when we look in the Old Testament, we can find, you know, many statements attributing to the creation attributes of Allah. For example, in Hebrews seven, verses one to three, we find this Melchisedec, who is described the king of Salem, as being without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever,
having no beginning of days, or end of life, no beginning no end, this is God. This is not a human being.
And it is on the basis of this principle, that
most
* have what are known as the Shiites
are considered outside of the realm of Islam, though they're commonly referred to as Shiite Muslims, etc.
And as individuals, they may have as an individual they may have
acceptable beliefs, but as a movement
as a group.
They represent, in fact, another religion because they have another conception of God, and men.
For them with this is with the exception of one group among them known as ze dites.
found mainly in Yemen. They don't share these kinds of beliefs, the Imams, they speak of the Imams, the 12 Imams, that
is belief in them is a part of faith, meaning one who does not believe in them, their faith is incomplete.
Their faith is incomplete, meaning they will not attain paradise. Their faith is false
belief in the amounts Now one may say okay, the Imams who are the Ali, Hassan Hussain, etc. We believe in these people.
Ali was the fourth caliph,
as in saying whether
it was his sons, our son was considered by a number of scholars to be the fifth Caliph
of the righteous callous
but they're saying no, no, this is not what they're
not talking about just believing these personalities, that we believe that they existed as human beings etc.
And about the 12th there is question of his existence.
They're saying, one, that these Imams these human beings, were absolutely infallible.
Absolutely infallible, not like the pope, the pope for Catholics. When he becomes a pope, he becomes infallible in his religious rulings is infallible prior to being a puppy was fallible. He could make mistakes, but once he became a pope, God's representative on earth, according to them, now he is
infallible in his rulings, religious rulings
for the main group of Shiites
the Imams were infallible, absolutely
absolutely they state this is found in a book called
phase of Shia Islam within by Mohammed Rida Al Mustafa
printed in in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It's also found in another book called Islam printed by a group of Muslim brothers in Tehran
and offered by Sade, Sade, aka Rizvi.
And Imam must be infallible, that is to say incapable of making errors or doing wrong either inwardly or outwardly, from his birth to his death, either intentionally or unintentionally.
This is absolute infallibility.
This is Allah.
This is Allah absolutely infallible.
Every human being according to Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. Who said Cooley Benny, Adam Hatha, every descendant of Adam makes mistakes.
This is in total opposition to this concept.
Furthermore,
Al Mustafa goes on to say
the Imam is able to understand information about anything,
anywhere and at any time.
Anything anywhere and at any time.
In other books, it says, the past, the present and the future, that's it anything anywhere anytime,
that his omniscience
this characteristic belongs to God alone.
Only Allah knows anything anywhere, anytime.
And it doesn't stop here.
In Alpha Kumal Islamia.
Khomeini
expressed another aspect of this belief, saying
certainly the Imam has a dignified station,
a lofty rank, a creational, caliphate, and serenity and mastery over all atoms of creation.
Control over the atoms of creation.
This, as I said, is what takes the Shiite body who have this type of belief, this is represented this this is represented by the if now Sharia, the twelvers, the main group, it takes them out of mainstream Islam.
Because
when a human being attributes to human beings, the attributes of God, then the god they're worshipping is no longer the God which was who was worshipped by Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam and the prophets of God. They're worshipping another God. One who has attributes are shared by human beings.
So
the second aspect
of our belief with regards to God and His attributes, is that God's attributes are unique. We are restricted to understanding them
by what has come to us in Revelation, either in the Quran itself, or expressed in the authentic traditions of the Sunnah. These are the two sources of authentic revelation
that the descriptions given should be understood in the light that Allah is not similar to his creation.
And also, that the attributes which belong to Allah cannot be given to His creation.
This is the conception of God in terms of who he is
his relationship to us,
but in terms of our relationship to him, this is defined
In terms of worship,
that our worship of Him should be pure
that we don't worship anyone along with him.
And this is key,
as this was the essence of the message of the prophets
about whom we will discuss in future segments.
Allah says well apart bafna equally Amata lasuna ano Abdullah which Sanibel toggled. We have sent to every nation,
a messenger, inviting the people to worship Allah and to avoid the worship of false gods of God's creation. That's the essence of the message.
There they didn't come to tell people that Allah exists. No, it was to worship Allah because most people as we spoke of in the early session, already accept the existence of God.
And this is showing for example, in the Quran, where Allah states that if you asked the disbelievers
in terms of who created the heavens on Earth, etc, that their response would be Allah. Allah inside the home, my nuzzel Amina salah, Ema on fashion for the hill,
embody motiva lair Hunan Allah.
If you ask them who brings down water from the sky, and with it brings the earth to life after its death, they will most certainly say Allah.
They recognize the existence of Allah, but they gave a number of Allah's attributes to his creation, there are intermediaries between themselves and Allah.
So the basic Islamic position with regards to knowing God in terms of worship, is that worship belongs to him alone, worship should not be directed through any intermediary to any other source. And this is very important, because people will come and say,
you know, you as a human being,
are committing sins all the time.
So you are filthy and dirty with sin?
How can you possibly
approach that directly? This argument is used by a number of Christians who have spoken to why there needed to be Jesus, some intermediary between man and God, because human beings because of their sin, etc, etc, they cannot approach that directly.
And you'll find some people, quote unquote, Muslims, who will say the same thing. You can't approach the eyes, you're covered in sin.
Therefore, you need to go through somebody or somebody who's pure, clean, like the prophets or the saints or whatever, you need to go through them to Allah. And they will say, Look,
if you want to get something done in this country,
can you go directly to the Prime Minister? The top man in the country is called the Prime Minister, is he? Or is he the present? Prime Minister? Okay. Can you go directly to the Prime Minister, you go to his residence house was knock on his door and say, Listen, Mr. Prime Minister, I have a problem. Can you help me with it? No. It's just not gonna work, you're not going to get there. You need to go through, you know, your local member of parliament or representative, you know, when he talks with the other members to the Speaker of the House, and they whatever, you know, you have a whole chain of command that you have to work your way through. And your idea gets taken eventually to the prime
minister, and it will be dealt with.
Same thing.
If you want to get to Allah, you just can't go direct. You have to go through these pure souls.
What we say to them, listen,
then you have made Allah like the Prime Minister.
He's not unique anymore. He's not unique in His attributes anymore. He's like your Prime Minister. No, this is not the law.
Allah doesn't require any intermediaries between
ourself and him.
He has told us in no uncertain terms that he hears whatever
whatever we call it, whenever we call on him. He is there
hearing
our prayers.
Furthermore,
in terms of our worship of God,
it is essential
that,
that worship encompass
all of our emotional states.
Because
our emotional states
can be or can turn into acts of worship.
If we do direct them in their completeness to other than Allah, for example, love, we spoke about the love of our children, our wives, that if we love them more than we love Allah,
then we now
can disobey God and our worship becomes destroyed, because that love now becomes an aspect of worship. Allah says in the Quran
in surah, Baqarah
Amina Nancy, Maya, Taka Domine, Dooney Lai and dad and you have buena homecraft villa.
Well, Adina Amanu assured the Hogben Lilla. There are those among men who take for worship others besides Allah,
they take them as equals to him they love them, as they should only love Allah. But those who believe have a much greater love of Allah.
Also,
it may come in in terms of fear,
that fear
of human beings of the creation can become so great that it destroys our worship.
Where that fear leads us to disobedience to God because of course, there's a certain amount of fear which is not true.
Elian escapes from the zoo and comes running down the street and you see him. You know, nobody's saying that you have to stand there, you know, and be strong. You know, you don't have to fear this lion. Because if you fear Allah, you shouldn't have to fear the night. No, no, no, it's fear of the lion is natural. You turn and you run
thrice as you can, you know, this is natural, this is acceptable. But what are we talking about is fear. Where, for example, one fears the authorities,
the authorities are instructing us to do evil.
All we fear the displeasure of our friends, is form of fear, it's an aspect of love, you know, leads us to disobedience of God or fear of loss, loss of wealth, you know, people fear for example.
They prefer to buy a house
on riba
on interest, take a mortgage. Why? Because if they're renting a place, they will be losing.
They will be losing out. There's a loss of welfare. They see year after year, you rent a place at the end of the year, what do you have nothing to scuffs, they'll have another year to rent. You don't have to you've not gained anything out of it. Whereas if you put the same money that you're paying in rent, you put it in a mortgage,
you take out a loan from the bank,
then at the end of the year, you've got your half part ownership of this building, you have something to show for it.
So that fear of coming out year after year with nothing and dying with nothing
leads us now to take a loan from the bank, etc.
That fear is an act which destroys our ship.
Because one,
we should fear Allah's displeasure more than we fear that loss.
And if we understood the teachings of Islam properly, we would understand that there is no loss here.
There is no loss involved here.
Why is compulsory charities Zakka called Zakka Zakka, which means growth.
When you're giving out of your wealth, this should not be growth this should be
diminishing,
but it's called growth. Why? Because when you give from your your wealth, that money which you have
Given increases in value. And the money which you have remained is blessed by God and it increases in value.
On the Day of Judgment, that growth will mean something to you. I say this life, Allah blesses what you have done, and gives you success in one way or another.
So, it is that belief that when you spend so many dollars in rent,
though it seems to be a loss, the reality is that it is blessed, the, the 1000s of dollars that you spend in rent is blessed. And the 1000 that you spend in interest is cursed. This is this is how you look at it.
So, you realize that it is better for you to give, that what you are giving here is not a decrease, but an increase.
You don't have fear, that fear of loss of wealth,
because you know that what you have given, is preserved by God, and will be an increase for you on the Day of Judgment.
So,
our worship
of God has to be pure,
it has to be directed to God alone,
with no intermediaries between ourselves and God.
And it has to be done in the way which has been prescribed by the prophets of God that is not just left up to us to invent different forms of worship, what we think is good, we worship God this way or that way. And some people say, Well, you know,
I talk to God all the time. It's not the Christians have told me this.
When I'm at home, when I'm at my job, whatever we have in conversations, me and God all the time, I don't need to go and worship five times a day. God is with me all the time.
Well,
I would hate to tell them, that it's not God that they're talking to
somebody else.
It's not God.
When God communicates with creatures, he communicates through revelation,
that's why Prophets were sent. They received direct communication from God, and they conveyed to us God's instructions,
worried that God was to have private conversations with each and every one of us, there was no need for prophets, no need for books of Revelation.
This is a delusion.
Some people
may say that, you know, this prayer, form of prayer, etc. This is for those people who are not that close to God, they haven't reached certain spiritual heights, you have people who have explanations about different heights of spirit that you can attain. So they say that you know this daily prayer five times a day, this is for people who are in the beginning stages for the children
whose faith is childlike. But for those whose faith is mature and reached its peak, then they will say, the very breath that we take is worship
our hearts when it beats it, saying Allah, Allah, Allah. We don't need to go through this motions.
Again, we have to say, Well, were you on a higher station than Rasul Allah, so Allah when
you reach the level, which is even higher than the prophets of God, who worshiped all the way to their death? No, this was not their way. It was not the way of the prophets. This was not the way of the followers the disciples companions of the prophets.
The prophets worshipped throughout their lives, and their companions worshiped. And the Prophet prescribed worship for us, saying, son, Luke, Mr. hight Munoz, pray, as you saw me pray,
this is the way to worship God.
So,
who is God?
God
is one God.
One God in the unique sets, not one god meaning.
Here is one glass,
which you may have a glass
you know, everybody may have a glass, but this is still one glass. No. When we speak of Allah's oneness,
we speak of a unique oneness
He is unique in His Oneness.
Meaning that we cannot divide God into parts like you know, some Christians in order to explain how God can be three in one at the same time. They have what is known as the egg theory.
They say God is like an egg.
See the egg, it has a shell.
It has the white, it has the yolk all together, it's one egg.
The egg theory, he said, No, no, this is an egg you're talking about. This isn't God. This is an egg.
To say God is like an egg is making God like his creations not unique anymore.
God is indivisible.
Or they will tell you
the tree theory,
the tree, it has roots in the ground. It has branches, and it has a trunk altogether. It's a tree. Say, this is a tree, not God.
People have three gods, but for us God is God
is not perceived as a tree or an egg or anything. Then they'll end up theories, they have this they have the water steam ice theory, you know, you know water is steam. Sometimes it's ice. Sometimes it's liquid.
This is what to steam an ice is not God.
God is God, indivisible. A unit a unique unity.
What we see in creation is that everything which is one is divisible. The smallest particle that we have found, is divisible into further particles, we thought that one time the atom was it, that was it. And they found the atom is made up of protons and neutrons and electrons. Oh, that's it. Now, electron smart, no actions are broken up into quarks and whatever. And after that anti matter, every deeper they look more parts. This is nature. It is made up of parts. This is God is unique, indivisible, is unique in that he alone owns this whole universe, whatever is in it, nothing takes place in this universe except by His permission.
He is unique, unique in the sense that his attributes are not shared by His creation, nor does he shared the attributes of His creation, and is unique in the sense that he alone deserves our worship,
which is the logical conclusion. If nothing takes place, except by His permission, then who else to call on? Why call on anybody else, because no one else can do anything for us. But God
that summarizes
the basic concept of God from the Islamic perspective.
And I hope in sha Allah in your questions, if there are other aspects concerning God in Islam that you would like to raise, you would for them in your questions, as this topic is actually a topic of many lectures
150 minute presentation cannot really do this whole topic justice. I only tried to touch on some of the main issues with regards to the oneness, uniqueness of God somebody Curatola over
there brother below how far is the theory of stones affecting you true like many people wearing red stones or blue stones thinking that they could affect them? Well, you know, this is
this is a part of the
the modern trend you know towards
depending on amulets, but giving it different names or different forms. You also had one time in America, you had the pyramids, you know, people would get the pyramid shapes and they would wear these and then you had crystals, you know, and then people buy these crystals and believing that the crystals gonna focus on kind of positive energy on you and, and every every, every five or so, years or three or five years, you know, somebody comes up with something else you know, which is going to bring good fortune, but this belief in stones is the same. This is all considered to be aspects of shirk, or attributing to God's creation, the ability to bring good for us or to protect us from
evil. And this practice is something which is not acceptable, even if it involves aspects of the Quran is because the wearing of amulets Of course, there are a number of
Have narrations from problems asylum in which he forbade the use of amulets. On one occasion authentically reported in Muslim document that a group would come to problems and sell them to give their to him 10 people, he took the bait out from nine of them, they as the Oath of Allegiance accepting Islam submission to Him, following Him that is, and he refused to take the oath of allegiance from one of them. And when they asked why they said because he was wearing a, an amulet on his arm, so he was he removed it, and then the profit makers peace and blessings be upon him, no took the oath of allegiance from him. And he said that whoever wears an amulet will depend on it.
And that wearing an amulet is also shirk, it's an aspect of shark now
where one uses the Quran, some people will say, Well, this is an exception, this is the word of God. You know, if we use the Quran, as an amulet, this should be acceptable. Well, we don't have any example from Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him of doing this, nor of his companions of doing this, there was some difference of opinion amongst the next generation with known as Tabby around those who were under the Companions as to whether one may wear a Quranic verse, you know, are not the majority held that this was not acceptable, but in any case, what is around today that people refer to as amulets, Islamic amulets, you know, when you open these things
up and you look and see what is in them, you will find for the most part, that it involves
unintelligible letters and squares and lines and they call it knocks the wood and you know, all kinds of, of mystical magical formulas, the names of the gins and, and all these kinds of things that have been called on you know, like this a popular one in the Arabic world known as the National Holocene. You know, where, in the beginning of it you know, on the first page, you'll find the names of a for you know, devils, you know, who are called upon as a means of helping to protect you or whatever. And, you know, these kinds of amulets are without a doubt, forms of shirk.
There without a doubt sponsorship, even depending on numbers, it's commonly in the Muslim world today, you know, you will find people using numbers represent the Quran because in when you open up these amulets, you may not even see any text of the Quran at all. You will see numbers 786 and other numbers, and these numbers are supposed to represent certain verses from the Quran or whatever. But the fact is that Islam does not recognize Numerology. It does not recognize it numerology is a false devilish science, it is a science of evil.
And to say that 786 represents
Bismillah R Rahman Rahim, this is false, because the system on which it's built, that Elif, is equivalent to one bar is equivalent to two g m is equal to three and so on. So it's also the letters of the alphabet are given numerical values, this same same 786 You can use it to create a sentence which says, There is no God, Muhammad is not a prophet of God, you can make up a sentence using that same having the same value of 786. So, this unacceptable use of these numbers as you know in this amulet style, or even using it, you know to represent people writing letters, sometimes people write me from different parts of the world they write the letter instead of writing Bismillah on top of
the letter, in the name of Allah, they will write 786 This is not acceptable.
One question
What is the proof from the Quran and Sunnah that we can call directly on Allah.
We have the verse for either sir Anika, a by the attorney for India or a boon Huji Buddha with a die either Danny, if you call on me, of My servants asked for me. Tell them I'm close. I answered the prayer of whoever calls on me. And also Allah says in the Quran IACA Nabu we can assign you alone. Do we worship on a new alone? Do we
depend
the the issue of worship being only for Allah, this is throughout the crime. This is
expressed in so many different ways, by Prophet Muhammad SAW Allah.
So many times he had told on his told his companions, that they shouldn't
depend on him.
There was nothing that he can do for them
that only Allah can help them. And even in dua, some people say, well,
when I'm making dua, you know, to a saint or to the prophet or whatever this is not worshiping Him, from once I sell them said at dua, when a bada authentically recorded in Abu Dhabi. So now
that I do our calling in worship, supplication is worship.
Once you make that dua, somebody is in a time of difficulty, and they call out the Abdulkadir listening common phrase, which is said, you know, oh, Abdul Qadir helped me save me, this is shirt is an expression of shirt because no one can save us. Except Allah. I mean, this is talking about somebody, for example, who has died, I mean, of course, you know, you may be falling down and your car is falling in the river or you've fallen down and you reach out to a neighbor and say, Help me, this is different. This is somebody here who can put their hand out and help you. Of course, in your mind, ultimately, you should have the belief that if it is not Allah as well, they are not going to
be able to help you it is Xu, Allah's permission that they will be able to help you. But in regards to those who are dead and gone, performance, Arsalan said, when a person dies, their deeds are cut off. And this world is not nothing they can do for anybody in this world any longer, they can still benefit from the things of this world in three cases, in the case of sadaqa jariya, for the witch or the discharge charity, which they have given, which is of continual benefit, as long as people continue to benefit from it, reward will be added to their scale of good deeds, also, l money into fabby knowledge, which people benefit from that is that the person, male or female is left behind
some knowledge, which people continue to benefit whether it's writing a book, or it is a tape, or whatever knowledge that they just inform somebody and that person continues to pass it on. And it's beneficial, then they continue to get reward for it. And the third category is a child, a child of theirs, who prays for them, because the child is a product of their deeds.
How is it that Allah punishes or rewards us yet he has not only written our deeds,
but created them Is this justice?
Well,
when it is said that Allah creates us and what we do,
it doesn't mean that
our will, has been denied that we have no will of our own.
When a person chooses to do something,
this choice, this this is the ability which God has given them choose it the ability to choose the freewill. Now, when they try to apply that action, that action is according to whether Allah allows them to fulfill that action or not.
And Allah rewards them and punishes them, ultimately, based on their intentions.
The deed is just additional, but ultimately it is in accordance to intentions why? Because a person may have a good intention. And the deed may appear to people to be that to be false.
This is conceivable. For example, a person may be walking down the street and they see a an old lady walking across the street, and they reach out to pull her back to the sidewalk because there's a truck coming. They see this truck down the road coming at a terrific speed. It looks like this old lady is not going to make it across the road. However, when they step out to reach the old lady and bring her back.
They didn't notice somebody had walked by before eating a banana and dropped the skin on the ground. So when they stepped out, they stepped on the banana and they slipped and when a person slips normally you put your hands out to break your fall. So when they were reaching for it to grab the old lady slipping on the banana skin instead their hands shoot out, they push the old lady ahead the car hits her she dies. Now, people who are walking down the street they didn't notice this banana peel. They just saw this person come running out. Push the old lady in front of the car and the old lady
He was killed.
So now they report to the police, you know, this person is premeditated murder and you know, and that person is tried and executed.
In the sight of society, that person committed an evil deed, but in the sight of God, that person is rewarded for their intention.
That is conceivable.
So ultimately, it is according to our intention. This is why Prophet Muhammad Hassan said, if a person intends good,
and they don't do it,
Allah still gives them one reward.
If they intend good and do it, then their reward is tenfold.
If they intend evil, and they don't do it, they get another reward.
And if they do it, there is only one sin counted against them.
This is the mercy of God. This is the grace of God that He multiplies our good deeds tenfold and only holds us to account for one evil deed. But what is it referring to here when you intend good, when you intend good, and you didn't have the opportunity to do it, not when you intend good and then you change that intention to evil. Either you go and do evil instead, that you get a good reward No, nor when you intended evil, but you didn't get a chance to do the evil, Allah is going to reward you know,
you leave your home with a plan to rob the local grocery store, and on your way out to trip on the stairs and break your leg, they have to rush you to the hospital. So you didn't rob the store, Allah is gonna reward you for not robbing the store No.
So it's referring to the individual who had an evil intention, but then they stopped himself or herself
and chose not to, they're rewarded for that act of stopping themselves from evil. So ultimately, it is according we are rewarded ultimately, really according to intention, we have the free will to choose good or evil. Allah gave us that ability. And he rewarded to reward us ultimately according to the choices that we made.
Can I say that I speak to God by reading the Quran?
No, not really.
You know, when you read the Quran, you're reading the Word of God.
What to say you're speaking to God, no. I mean, if you call on God, in prayer, using the verses from the Quran, there are a number of different prayers supplications that are in the Quran that you use them to supplicate to God, as you can say that you are communicating with God in that sense.
This is acceptable. The idea which I expressed was not that we cannot talk to God, but the idea of, you know, God whispering back in our ears, okay. You can do it, whatever. This is the idea that you know that, that kind of thing. But us talking to God turning to God and repentance, asking us forgiveness, etc, etc. This is of course, very legitimate.
Talking about moons
are to your knowledge, did Neil Armstrong become a Muslim?
And anyone else with a world known personality? Well, you know, this is a story, Neil Armstrong that, you know, when he went on the moon, some people say he saw the split in the moon, right? We know, one of the miracles of the Prophet was that he demonstrated to the Quraysh, the moon splitting.
Before this was a miracle. So some people said, well, you know, when he went to the moon, Neil Armstrong saw the split in the moon.
And others say, well, he heard the band while he was on the moon. He didn't know what it was. But when he came to Egypt, he was visiting Egypt, that he heard the damn again he realized, oh, that's what he heard on the moon. So he became a Muslim. But these are all fables, you know, stories.
Neil Armstrong is a
representative as state representative in you knighted states. He's a non Muslim, and he never became a Muslim.
And actually, this issue of world personalities becoming Muslims, you know, while back to it was Michael Jackson, right?
It turned out that his his brother, Jermaine Jackson did actually accept Islam, but it wasn't Michael Jackson. Now, you know, Muslims in times of weakness, you know, like they say the dying man clutches for straw. The drowning man is drowning in the water. It sees a strike which is out I mean, though, it's mine, tell them Australia's not gonna
You know, keep you above the water, you still reach out and try to grab it right? Muslims today in because of the state of Muslims around the world today, they tend to reach out for any little
thing like this, you know. And so you'll find every year some something's coming up I remember there was a picture which was circulated at one time I still come across it in Muslims Islamic centers, it was supposed to be a picture of a forest in Germany, where the trees are
trunks twisted in the shape of Lila Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah, you know, I found this all over the place that people were talking about this phenomenon. This came out in the newspaper, this man, Egyptian painter, he had painted this and his painting was stolen, and it ended up, you know, being circulated around. This is not, it's not real, you know, again, you find people in England a little while back, somebody opened up an aubergine, you know,
this, they call it, eggplant, they cut it in half and found what looks like Muhammad Rasul Allah, you know, the seeds seem to form Muhammad Rasul Allah, and this becomes a place of pilgrimage, you know, for Muslims coming to see this aubergine, this is nonsense. We cannot believe in these kind of things and rely on these kinds of things. Because, you know, if this is the sign that that Islam is true, then what are you going to do, when a Christian opens up an aubergine and finds across?
You know, I'm sure I'm sure there are people around the world opening up and finding these things, you know, a fish and the, the design on the scales, you know, you know, is a picture of a cross, hey, we cannot depend on these things.
We should be very wary of these kinds of things. There was another image I remember seeing coming out of Turkey, it was a supposedly a photograph of the lung, the trackier
A tubes that are leading out to the lung and supposedly, on the inside of these tubes is written the cells there, you know, take the form, Laila of Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah, in everybody.
You know, it's just, I mean, of course, when you look at the picture, really, you know, you can see it's a grainy picture, and black and white, and somebody has taken white out and, you know, dotted up the cells till they ended up looking like
this really childish. I mean, it's very unfortunate that we get caught up in these kind of things, you know, Islam, the way of life known as Islam, is the true way of life, because of what it contains. It has nothing to do with Muslims practice, because Muslims have, unfortunately, today, left that way of life behind and are submerged in their own nationalistic cultures, you know, and so, so much so that the non Muslims and Muslims who are concerned cannot distinguish between what is Islam and what is our culture. This is the problem today. The problem is cleaning up our cultures and getting back to proper Islam. Whatever our culture is not in opposition to Islam, fine, we can
keep it. But what is in opposition to Islam, we have to remove it.
Did the law only speak directly to Moses?
Through the angel and through the angel to the remainder of the prophets? No, this is not the case. We know that. In the Mirage, when Prop bombs or Salem was taken out of this world and into the heavens, that Allah did speak to him directly there too. And
the fact that Allah doesn't speak in terms of revelation in terms of the previous prophets or Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam did not mention Allah speaking to previous prophets. It doesn't mean we cannot say that Allah did not speak to any previous prophets, that He only spoke to Musa because he specifically mentioned in the Quran, and He only spoke to Mohammed, Salah salah, because it is mentioned in the Sunnah. And beyond that we say he didn't speak to anybody else. No, we cannot say that of the many, many, many prophets that were sent to all the nations and tribes of the earth. We cannot say that Allah did not speak directly to any other Prophet. Allah has spoken with regards to
Prophet Musa and the Prophet Muhammad Allah because these are the two who are nearest to us. So having spoken to them, it has specific significance to us, but to prophets of the past etc. You know, it is not mentioned but Father is not mentioned doesn't mean it did not exist
if God loves His creation, then why is he going to roast them in the hellfire?
You know, if I were to add to that the same
No
one may raise a chicken and love it right? But when it's time to eat, you roast it and eat it, you know, we have we have any problem with that
but uh, anyway,
let us say that
the love of God
is manifest in the fact that even those who reject Him, who disbelieve in Him, who deny him in this world, are still
receiving his blessings. He does not destroy them,
in spite of their intransigence, in spite of their rejection of him, this is the love this is the mercy that is there. The fact that a human being as long as he's living signs are shown to him or her throughout their lives,
giving them an opportunity to come back to the path, the correct path and to worship God as He should be worshipped. This is the mercy of God. But the love of God is not divorced from his justice.
As he, why do we want to speak of the love? And then we leave aside the justice? Because if it is, that those people who ultimately reject His guidance in this life, and commit and live evil lives throughout their lives, if they're going to get the same reward, as those people who obeyed His commandments, live righteous lives, etc, etc, they're going to get the same reward.
What is the justice here? Where is the justice? So we should not speak of God's love? And say, well, he's going to Rose people in hellfire. So how could he possibly love them, you know, and ignore the issue of justice. Because God is complete in all of his attributes, we don't take one attribute and deny the other. So the love and the Justice has to be looked at together, the love is there, and the justice is there.
Some questions,
the power of belief, if one believes in a charm, is God give it ability
to give good luck, in order to deviate one more
than they already.
If a person believes in a charm,
and they appear to have good luck with it.
We cannot say that this is Allah deviating them.
This is a part of the tests that
an individual in terms of choosing whether to believe in God and trusting in Him, or whether to believe in charms and trusting in them, this test would not be there. If charms never worked, just like worship, for example. People hold up their hands, to trees, to stones, to idols to human beings and to God, all of the people who will have their hands, some of their prayers are answered, believe that
the those who are worshipping idols, if
every time they held up their hands, no, none of their prayers were answered. Do you think that they would not? They would continue to worship these idols? No, if it were known in the world, that the only way that prayers were answered is if you pray to God, you know, it's with the Muslims. You know, whenever a Muslim important pretend he asked for something, you know, he gets it on a Cadillac, Rolls Royce, you put up your hand, you get it Muslim, do you think there would remain a non Muslim on the face of the earth? Of course not. This is a test the test is that everybody puts their hands up. And some of their prayers are answered. This is this is just like
some Christians in discussing with them, you know about worshiping God and you know, worshipping Jesus, etc. They will say, Listen, you know, I know that Jesus is God. Why? Because when I called on him, my prayers were answered.
You know, this is a common response. This is my personal experience is he you haven't had that personal experience with Jesus. That's why you don't believe but the point is, I said to my Listen, what about the Hindu who calls on Shiva? You know, who worships Shiva?
his or her prayers are answered. What do you got to say about them? Oh no, that wasn't Shiva, that was God answering those prayers. I say, Well, that's the same thing. When you call them Jesus, it wasn't Jesus answering the prayers, He was God answering the prayers,
but to the to the individual person, you know, it all appears to be the same. Everybody puts their hands up, some of their prayers are answered, some are not. Prophet Muhammad, Allah me informed us that the true believer, all of the prayers are answered, I mean, except those prayers, that one may
call on to for harm to other people, these are not answered, but where one of breaking ties, family ties, things like this. But we're one calls on Allah in a an acceptable way, that the prayers are answered, either by the answer coming directly to us in this life, or by Allah, preventing an equivalent amount of harm from reaching us or in other narrations that on the Day of Judgment is saved as reward for us on the Day of Judgment. So the prayers are answered, one just has to have that faith,
as explained, or based on the explanation given to us by the Prophet sallallahu sallam.
I would like to know
how I could be forgiven for all my sins. Well, if you're a non Muslim,
become a Muslim.
Because Prophet Muhammad mega business, fundamental said and Islam Yeah, Juma Kabbalah, that Islam accepting Islam erases the sins which came before all of it. So a person accepting Islam becoming a muslim, is absolved of all previous sin. Of course, this absolution is temporary in the sense that if a person after becoming a muslim, deviates and goes in an evil path and continues to do evil, then those sins will come back to them. But if they take a good path, then of course, those sins are canceled, all together. And it also means that if the sin involved other people's property, for example, you stole something from somebody.
Now you accept Islam, but you still have this thing. Are you not forgiving, you can just carry on with this thing. No. If you know who it belongs to is you have to return it. So where it involves other people's property, one has to return it otherwise,
for seeking forgiveness of sin. We know
that when one turns in repentance to God, one can be forgiven.
Problems are seldom had said, attack a woman and then be command let them burner. One who turns in repentance to God is like one without sin. That's that Act of, of repentance
can absolve one of sin, if it is sincere, of course, mean, there are conditions. And that's a whole, you know, it's a big subject in and of itself. But we can say that briefly, that one should feel remorse, if one is going to turn to God and repentance, one should feel bad about what one has done about the past. Because if one still feels good, one still secretly inside oneself, one still enjoys the memories of these things which were done, which we know are sinful and evil. And then you turn into guided repentance, is repentance is not acceptable. Because you don't really have remorse you don't really feel sad about it means you're going to do it again.
Similarly, if one is in the act, doing these things,
you know, whilst committing the sin to turn to God and repentance, but you're still doing it, then of course, this is not acceptable, one has to stop doing this particular sin
and then turn to God and repentance. And also one has to have the intention not to do it in the future. This should be a part of one's intention doesn't mean that if one turns to God and repentance, that one will never ever do this again. Of course, they may
may happen time of weakness a person may fall back into the sin again, but it will not be like the first time
and if they turn to God and repentance again, and they fall back into it again, it will be lesser. So it will be a gradual diminishing, it won't be an increase, that if one is in sin, turns to God and repentance and then falls into bigger sin of the same time then this is clear evidence that repentance that was made was not acceptable.
And there are a number of other acts of worship, which performs our solemn said would purify the individual. You know, prayers, daily prayers, fasting from Ramadan, Ramadan, from Hajj, to Hajj, Umrah to Umrah all of these platforms are solemn
describe as purifying and removing sin.
But again,
the condition is that they are done sincerely for the sake of Allah. And not
with the intention of ritualistic
seeking of repentance, where it's just an automatic, you know, sometimes I come across, you know, some people
remember one of the countries that had visited in the Middle East, and a person, taxi drivers, you know, were ripping people off, you know, as they were offering these high absorbent prices, ripping people off, they were saying a stock for carrying on, you know, I seek forgiveness from Allah, in one breath, they would tell you a price, you know, and they would say, in the second breath, under the breath and stuff, you know, covering themselves, you know, as
this type of approach is not acceptable to God, you know, or like, some people I've met, you know, in, in, in America, when I was in America, Canada,
some, you know, individuals who came from the Muslim world, you know, and
especially, particularly from the Gulf countries, who are involved in some corruption, you know, going to nightclubs and that we sit with them, try to advise them, Listen, you know, brother, you know, you're a Muslim, you know, you shouldn't do these type of things. You know, they will say to me, why don't you a non Muslim one time? Say yes, yes. Then you go to parties, and you go to clubs, and I see Yeah, but that was a non Muslim. Is it? Give me a chance now, you know?
No, say well, you know, in any case, when I go home,
I always stop off in Mecca for obrah. See, and then I go make my Oman, this purifies me.
This is the, in other words, they're doing this Omura believing that this ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca will purify them of sins that they're deliberately doing. Or people will tell you, you know,
he wanted me make hedge now, right? They tell you no atomic hedge now, you're still young.
Lots of sins you doing you know, you wait until you know you've got one foot in the grave, you know, you've run out of steam, you can't do any more said, this is a time to go and make pilgrimage.
So I can really purify you. So you'll find people deliberately doing this since and deliberately delaying their Hajj thinking in their mind, the back of their minds, you know, later on, I'll go and do this act of worship, and it's going to purify me, then this type of approach, no doubt,
has no value. It will not purify one, in fact, it will only increase one in sin.
I'm not a Muslim, why should I believe Allah is the true God.
And Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Sallam is his messenger.
Well,
if one believes in God,
then one has to look at
the various
religions or systems that claim
to have the revelation of God to mankind.
And
the person behind that system, the messenger or the prophets, or whatever one needs to look at that system, analyze, what are the evidences, and having looked at them, then draw the conclusion for themselves? I mean for me to say, I will convince you that Allah is the true God and not any other god. Well, it's for you to look, if you want to know
is Allah the true God, and of course, Allah is Arabic term. I mean, whether you use the term God, or in whatever other language DRS or whatever other language of use, and you're talking about
one God, the Creator Sustainer of the universe,
who knows all sees all controls all etc, etc, etc. The attributes, it doesn't matter about the name. It's the concept.
In Islam, that concept of God is pure.
One looks at the concept in the other systems, you'll find that in one way or another, it is mixed in with God's creation.
God's attributes are either personified, as in the case of the Hindus they have the three the trinity of, of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, where God's creative powers his preservative powers, his destructive powers are personified as
different gods and worship,
or,
you know, other systems where, you know, God is, is expressed as in two parts, the god of good and the God of evil as in the case of the Zoroastrians, or whatever, in all of these other systems, even in Judaism, which in terms of, of concept of God is the closest, because of the fact that the message that they have with regards to God has been the least distorted.
Still, there is many, there are many, many references in the Old Testament, which have God, repenting, feeling sorry for things that he did in a variety of things which are just not applicable to God, you know. So you will find really only in the Islamic teachings, the pure concept of God and in terms of the messenger, the messenger,
Muhammad, may God's peace be upon him.
The evidence that he was a messenger is the system of Islam which he brought the final revelation as well as the Quran. One may not be convinced, by hearing about him because that's just something you're going to believe on faith but reading the Quran, that final revelation,
seeing the system of Islam, if this appears to be something from God, the revelation appears to be revelation from God, then this is the evidence why you should accept Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him as being the last messenger of God.
Zakouma head Subhan Allah Subhana Allah homo, I'm going to show you a layer in and stuff through Luca to bhulekh