Bilal Philips – Why God Created Man Part 1
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of the question of why God created man and how it is manifested in his creation. They emphasize the significance of finding God in one's life and finding him sincerely. The speakers also stress the importance of belief in Islam and its teachings in shaping one's life. The speakers stress the need for people to trust and love God in order to achieve their own goals and fulfill their needs.
AI: Summary ©
If you were not familiar with him, he is a very dear brother to us. And it's been very active in the field of delivering lectures and Islam, internationally.
He from Canada, born and raised, born and raised in Canada, and accepted Islam back in 1972.
So that required by
the university is
when I get a master's degree from the University of
New York,
we are required to have
the question, why that is something that
is a very important question. And for those folks who have never begun,
we
have
a formula
for
that,
and then we'll open it up for questions. Those of you who laugh over questions,
there are people who might not want to do so.
So, without any further ado, I'd like to turn it over to
alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah, Karim
Allah alihi wa sahbihi Omen, Eastern medicine at
all phrases used to allow me a lot of Peace and blessings, the last prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day.
The topic of this evening's lecture
why God created men
is one
which has
certain aspects which cannot be answered
and other aspects
which can be answered.
What I will attempt to do
is to present to you
the Islamic view
how Islam answers this question.
And I hope
that
your take what I'm saying,
not in any argumentative light,
or seeking to
put down anybody else's views, but merely to present
the Islamic view as clearly as possible. In the period following the lecture,
you will have ample opportunity to give your comments and to raise any questions that you would like for further clarification.
Now, as I said, the question why God created man?
It could be understood as
what what caused God to create man
or for what purpose was man created?
Now,
from the point what caused God to create men?
This is the point where
we say there is in fact, no answer
that we can give
God was not called to create, man,
because
God has no need
for which he created man.
When somebody is called to do something, they're doing something or they need some, something that needs to be fulfilled.
For their cause to do this, or the cost to do that, whereas in the case of God's garden with
subsistence,
who has no need for creation,
we cannot say that he was caused to create men for any particular reason.
So, we say, in fact, nothing cause God to create men.
However,
what we do understand
the fact that God has described himself as being the Creator,
that the creation of men, is, in fact, a manifestation of his attributes of being the Creator.
It is a fulfillment, in the sense that
perfection,
of the quality of creator is in creation.
Just as if we were to look at it on a human level, if somebody were to tell you that they were that they were an artist,
and you ask them, Well, can I see some of your works of art?
And they said to you, well, I don't have any works of art,
then you would question What kind of artist
he would not be considered a great artist, if he had not proved or produced anything, which would confirm his greatness.
Of course, with regard to God and putting this in human terms, in goes far beyond.
The point is that God being the Creator, creates, that is his attribute, he has described himself as a creator, and that attribute is manifested in his creation,
relative to men,
for what purpose was man created?
This
could be looked at,
relative to God, what purpose with regards to God was man created.
For what purpose
with regard to the rest of mankind was man created.
And why was man created on earth
with regards to the rest of the creation,
with regard to other human beings,
in particular,
women, because, when we speak of men, mankind has to pass male and female,
God godsake very clearly in the Quran, that he created men and women from a single soul, and that women and men were created to find tranquility and sermons in Arabic is second, you know, that they would find tranquility in each other.
So, with regards to females, and males,
their purpose is one of attaining certain tranquility in this life,
with regard to other nails and other females,
man is created in order to obtain his needs from other men
and to fulfill the need for other men. That is, God has created man, as a social being, he cannot exist by himself, he has needs which cannot be fulfilled by himself, he need other human beings and other human beings need him. So,
he was created in this particular circumstance amongst other human beings to fulfill the needs that he could not fulfill by himself and to fulfill for others, similar needs.
But he was created in this circumstance, to live with other human beings, harmoniously.
This is why you find that all of the systems, which man
has invented
are all of the religions, which man
back to God, all of them, call them to live harmoniously. They call them to do good to each other, to live
in a way, which is just
a way, which encourages others, to righteousness, to witness,
sharing, etc, all of the well known valid values of brotherhood, you know, fraternity, equality and all these
values which we all hold dear, and which are enshrined in the various constitutions of the various countries, and also, which are found in all of the various religions.
With regard to the creation itself,
God created man
for paradise, though he is on Earth,
he was created
to be in paradise. However, his life on this earth
is one in which he would
be tried and tested
in order that he would grow spiritually, to deserve that she was created for paradise.
And all of the things of this world were created format, stated very clearly, in the Quran. He created everything in this world for men. And, as a matter of fact, any of you who have traveled in airplanes, here in the kingdom, or any of the Saudi Air flights outside of the kingdom, you will know that in the beginning, there is a prayer that is made in Arabic, on some occasions is translated.
Most of the times I've heard it This has only been in Arabic.
But that particular prayer involves certain verses from the Koran,
which will begin by allotting some Harlan, the the Sahara,
or my room mirkarimi.
He, also the one who has submitted for
this vehicle,
whatever it is that we're traveling on,
because we would not have been able to cause it to submit by ourselves.
So this prayer that we make, is one in which we glorify God, for having submitted certain aspects of his creation, in such a way that we were able to use it for travel for travel purposes.
At the same time, we are no,
we're allowed to benefit from all of this information. We're not allowed to abuse the things of this creation.
It is prohibited as the Prophet Muhammad May Allah peace and blessings be upon him. As stated, it is prohibited for us to make animals our target, that is Swan, for kicks for fun,
you know, the popular
practice in some parts of the world, when people will hunt for sport purposes, not because they need to recently, but because they want to bring back a trophy. No, they'll cut off the head of the animals picket on the wall, I'll make photographs of themselves, standing on the animal or whatever. But they're taking, they're killing the animal for fun. This is credited in
to take the life of an animal, they've only permitted, if it is done so for the purpose of food,
clothing, to protect oneself from the harm that that animal may cause to humans.
With regard to that,
man was created to worship.
As I stated very clearly in the Quran, from Allah
that Allah states that he did not create
the jinn
who belong to the spirit world, pile of ours, who have a choice and ability to choose between good and evil as human beings
and mankind
There are only created for the worship of God.
Now, as I stated in the beginning, God has no need.
So when we say, when God says that He created man, for his worship, he did not create men.
Because we need men to worship.
He created men
to worship Him,
because man, that worship
just as men need
food,
to live
a material life and to grow.
Similarly, you need spiritual food
by which we live,
spiritually and to grow
spiritually.
This is why you will oftentimes find in the Quran, God speaking of those
who do not worship Him, has been dead,
spiritually dead.
And he speaks of those
who come to that worship, coming to life.
And, by way of Revelation, it has been made clear to us
that faith and righteousness are the keys by which men may enter Paradise.
However,
when we say that faith and righteousness are the basis,
the product
of worship,
we say, in fact,
is that righteousness fundamentally depends upon God consciousness.
If a person is conscious of God,
aware
that he has been created by God, and He has a duty to God, to obey his commandments, the commandments is all Coleman's various acts of righteousness, of living in harmony with people
living in marital situations, which are tranquil, which will bring certain spiritual and mental, physical phases in this life, living a life that you could call contentment,
this consciousness,
which is the key for all that is developed fundamentally by worship.
And this is why you find that Islam has been prescribed to me five times, daily worship, that is, that a person's day is divided into five periods.
And
these periods all represents natural divisions of time, in his life, in daily life.
And the goal here is to begin each period with a, an app, which would bring him back to the remembrance of God, so that between the period he would be more conscious of God, and thereby lead a more righteous life.
So he gets up in the morning, that early morning prayer 334 o'clock.
Not to fulfill primarily physical needs, but to fulfill his spiritual wake up in the early morning to remember that, then he goes to his physical knees, he washes himself etc, and he goes to work. He waits for the midday nap, again to put more food into a system, that engine working so that he can earn more material and improve the quality of his material life. But he breaks primarily at midday to again, remember God,
since that's the purpose of his creation, then it should be reflected in his daily life. Similarly in the afternoon, with the setting of the silence, and in the late night before going off to sleep,
for invaded, organized around the world
And of course, it doesn't mean that a Muslim only works by hand today, of course, one may worship as much as one, but the minimum
is the minimum provided for men worship by the messenger of mankind.
Now, the worship of God,
the purpose of man's creation,
depends
on knowing who God is.
Because if one does not know who God is,
then he is likely to be worshipping other Vanguard, while thinking that he is, in fact, worshiping God.
And this is the reality that we find
when we look around the world, and the various institutions and systems of religions, etc. What we found in them, when you go to the essence, is that men worship the creation,
while believing that he is in fact, worshipping God,
whether you worship an idol, and he faces this either as a focal point for the worship of God, or you worship a man.
And he says that this man was God incarnate
nature.
And the fourth was a sovereign nation.
All of these various acts
involve
the worship of the creation of God, and not worship of God.
We know God, primarily through revelation.
This is why God sent prophets,
to mankind, to inform them, of who God is,
in order to clarify or make that distinction between the creation of God and the Creator.
As God said, in
Rasulullah,
we have sent every nation
a messenger,
telling the people, to worship god alone, and to avoid the worship of false gods.
The gods of man's creation
is a fundamental message,
to identify who God is, to worship Him.
And to clarify, that the gods of creation should not be worshipped, because they cannot do anything for me.
Unfortunately, when we look in the various books of Revelation,
that are held by various systems around the world,
the picture of God has been distorted.
In
some way, you may still find some
of the correct descriptions of God you will find hits along with many descriptions, which made God like man even less than
actually, it is in
the final book of revelation of God's men, that we find a very clear picture of who God is.
And how to manage relationship to God be very clear, no ambiguity, no one's here. And if we reflect
on the creator of this universe, who has created it with all the complexity,
we will understand that
the religion was chosen for men.
The communication is made with men who practice
was one
containing clarity.
God is not to confuse mankind.
He did not send a message which could be understood in so many different ways that people ended up worshipping his creation instead of worshipping Him. Whatever message he sent a man
it was in very clear terms.
God has also given mankind an intellect and ability to reason
In order to distinguish between right and wrong,
because, as I said, there are many different systems,
each system claiming that their system is in fact, the one system.
And if we do not use our intellect and our reason, then
it will appear very confusing to
all of these systems claiming to be correct. How can one know which in fact is correct?
One may know, by using one, intellect and reason,
look into the various systems look to see what it is, they're calling with regards to God in terms of righteousness and actions of hierarchy, kindness, goodness, brotherly love, all of these things, these are relevant assistance is in the system is where God is united,
even communist system etc. People are calling each other
gently, kindly, etc. Though the communist system, when it was implemented may not have access very kindly to people. But in theory, it has to kindness, brotherhood, etc, fraternity, equality, justice, justice, all of the various other religions.
So, you should not look from this point of view, because this is common to all the religions, what we need to do to us is select our reason is to look at the essence
of who is God
is the God of the system
looks like the people who brought the system or the system.
You know, in the case of Buddhism, if you go to
the Buddha,
if you go to India and Buddha, in India, you go to China,
Japan and Japanese and Korean Korean.
So, God
takes the form of the people who are
making these are the signs
to elevate an individual, to the level of creator
against God.
The creation is not the Creator.
God has given us that consciousness, that intellect,
that reason, sense of reason.
To look at the various systems that are out there, and to look at, according to what appears to be
that intellect called
to put aside our emotions,
our feelings,
our time,
some people will say,
I could never give up the belief of my parents, my family, my people, my nation.
This is emotion,
cloud, the intellect and the reason.
And which leads people to worshipping other gods, we have to put that aside.
Because if we believe
that
those who worship the God that we worship, are going to paradise,
and those who
are going to help,
then if we think about why it is that we are worshipping the God that we worship.
And we realize that this was not a choice on our part, we did not choose to be born in a particular family, to a particular set of parents in a particular area, where this form of worship was taking place, that are
the destiny of
the person who was born in another area worshipping another guy.
born there out of his own soul.
So if we do, that God is going to put you in
because you were born into a family with worship a particular God and put somebody else in heaven because they worship another guy, based on the practices of their family. Then
enjoy
Lessons for you, that you'll be born
amongst those who worship idols, or three, or whatever, and then he puts you in *, because you worship
injustice.
No,
God has given us an intellect, and reason to reflect,
are available throughout our life. Whatever it is that we're worshiping, it is not God. There have been science shown to us
that
it is only for us to follow what we know to be correct. And we will be on the path to God,
because one who seeks the path of God,
so that he may worship Him. Such a person will find that
this is the promise of God's
promise which is brought by the prophets of old,
all the way to the last prophet.
However, God
did not only give us this intellectual disability to reason, he also gave us a natural tendency to worship.
As I stated in the plan, when God created Adam, he took from Adam, all of his descendants, and he made them bear witness, that he was their Lord. And they all wore witness.
And God was on to say that
such individuals would not be able to stand before him on the day of governance. And I view that they didn't know about, they were not aware about God, or that it was the fault of their parents. They're the ones who should be blamed, and
there would be no excuse. No one could stand before God with any excuse.
He created men with a natural consciousness of God.
He gave him an intellect,
a sense of reason to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. He said,
to clarify for him, who is God with, and how to worship God.
And his promise in the water paradise for those who truly worship.
And due to their worship, they were driven, to do righteous needs, to live a life of righteousness,
as the fulfillment or manifestation of their consciousness of God, of their worship of God.
On the other hand,
as I stated in
the final book of Revelation, according to the belief of Muslims,
because
the fundamental purpose of man's creation,
the source of God,
then the greatest
and the only unforgivable sin
is worship other than God
is to worship others, along with God
is the greatest sin that men can commit.
And because of that, one who dies.
Because a person does so at one stage in his life, worshipping other than God or God, God along with God, but then
searching, defining who the true God is, that worship, God will accept his choice on the correct path. God will forgive him for what went before.
However, one who died in the state of worshipping other than God,
such a person will be doomed to *.
This is the ultimate destruction. It is the ultimate failure.
When a person in this life
that's not
the purpose of his existence.
He goes through life, on a material plane.
Living only by animal instincts, food, clothing, shelter,
etc. This is all a driver.
This is what he lives for.
As destroyed his life
For whom worship has been only a separate ritual
done by my people, my family structure
has also destroyed life.
Because ritual worship, which is not based on understanding of God,
sincere worship of God, that which will worship will not carry one to paradise either will not be one success. And
so, within the context of Islamic teachings,
because one considers oneself to be a Muslim,
this is no guarantee that one is going to
call oneself a Muslim, going through certain rituals. This is not, in and of itself, a guarantee of paradise.
Paradise is only for those who sincerely worship God.
So, whether one is within the fold of Islam,
or one is outside of the fold of Islam,
their guidance, their success in this life depends on finding God
and worshiping Him sincerely, and acting in accordance with that worship.
The purpose of man's creation
is to worship God.
God created man,
he brought him into existence from nothing.
And blessing
favored him with many individual favorites,
as well as he submitted for him the creation around
five minutes.
However,
the benefits of this life
is not the ultimate benefit.
The benefit of the next slide, which is the everlasting life,
this is the one that we must seek most strenuously most vigorously.
And this involves our spiritual growth,
spiritual growth, which is based in the worship of God.
And that was called the patient
to bear in the trials and tribulations that we find in our day to day life,
of treating others well,
justly,
not taking the rights of others,
or doing any forms of injustice.
Such a life
is the fulfillment of the purpose of man's creation.
And as such, Goddess
promises paradise from which he was originally created.
I was taught at this point
because the goal of this lecture
was really just to give you some food for thought,
to express to you something on the planet view with relationship to the creation of man, man's purpose in life, in order that it would stimulate amongst you some discussion,
that you may find out some more about what Islam is.
It is the destiny of God that you are here.
You made your plans to come here
for material gain.
The vast majority of you who are here, you came here for material gain, gain something out of this
period of time that you spend here. However, there is something else here for you.
Something which you should reflect on
and that is the way of life
that
is the foundation of this nation.
That way of life which is shared by
And people around the world
which has a book of Revelation, which is available, if you'd like to read it.
And it has a set of teachings, which govern all aspects of human life.
So
it being the destiny of God that you are here,
we would hope that you would take whatever opportunities are made available to you to investigate, to find out what
Islam teaches, what is the essence? What are practices, what do they mean?
In order that you may have an understanding,
and be able to make a reasoned judgment with regards to Islam.
So,
I will now turn over the
floor to the wall.
And those of you that have questions which are written,
you would not prefer to stand up and expressing yourself
some people standing, you may just raise your hand and indicate to them to collect questions from you. Otherwise,
those of you who have questions you'd like to express, you may come to the mic, and express them. And I would like to say
that in this gathering,
because the primary purpose was to convey something of the message of Islam, to our non Muslim guests,
I would like to give the first opportunity to them to express your comments or to share some ideas or to ask some questions. So I would like to ask Muslim brothers who are here to refrain.
I know anyway, enthusiasts
often times tend to monopolize the question and answer periods of lectures. So I'm asking you to just refrain yourself and allow some guests to
get a chance to ask whatever they would like.
Thank you.
And
we hope that everyone
will learn.
As
mentioned, as we learn,
we will.
You know, I know sometimes many of you are shy to ask certain questions.
We will respect any question which is,
I don't feel that we might take offense. You know, if you have some questions which are bothering you,
this is for you. So please take the opportunity
to benefit from it.
Before we get there's a question that something that you might need to
elaborate on. And that is a concept of what we're going to
be speaking here.
much wider than just
Well, I did clarify that.
It is not the ritual in and of itself,
but the sincere belief
and sincere commitment to God, which constitutes the essence of worship, and that that sincere belief and commitment be manifest in righteous action.
Where we look at the system of Islam, we call the Pillars of Islam, whether it be prayer,
daily prayer, or the fasting in the month of Ramadan, or the giving of charity or the Hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca. We see in all of these various acts,
a call to righteous
all of these
when done according
To the spirits of the Act, they
help us to be more righteous individuals.
And this is why I would say that it is not just a question of ritual, because in Islam there is ritual. However, the spirit of the various rituals have been clearly explained by the Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him,
in order that these rituals not become
meaningless,
physical acts which are devoid of sincere and true worship.
Follow question,
what is your idea from a Christian point of view, that God was created in the image,
man was created in the
image and likeness of God.
This statement,
which is found in Genesis
has led
much of
Christendom
to
portray God, in the likeness of men.
And it has also
opened the door
for the idea of accepting that some men or a man may actually be God.
The Islamic view
is that
man
was created with some of the attributes of God
on a finite level, nothing that perfection.
God loves his infinite man is created also with the attributes or the capacity for love.
So, there is a lightness here, however, that lightness is only in the concept of love, in a general sense, but when it comes to the actual attribute of love, which is possessed by God, men cannot possess that actually,
and so on to all of the various attributes of God, that there is managed in a likeness. There is something similar in the sense that he shared attributes, which are also held by God, but they are on a limited scale. And this is why God states very clearly in the crime, may 2 miss the shape, there is nothing like
one
and none is similar to him.
So, this is denying
that men could get anywhere at any time have the attributes of God, or that God have any of the attributes of men.
So, the correct view
which
was maintained within the teachings, of the prophets, of old, Moses, etc,
wherein, man was prohibited from taking any life, giving any likeness to God, this view is maintained very firmly,
rather than conceived in the mind,
because whatever we perceive, is from what we are perceived,
and God beyond our perception,
and whatever we perceive is from the things which are created, and God is not from the creation is the creator. So, the
view of the plan is that God
did not create man
likeness in the sense that God looked like a man
but that, God created in men
attributes
which had a limited similarity to the attributes of
before we
If anyone wants to get a receipt if anyone has a question that you'd like to ask recipes, don't be shy.
That way.
It's not a question from the floor.
At any time,
you know, before we take a question,
we said that we have our non Muslim got quite a few here.
This is your opportunity, please, you have a question coming up some
something was wrong, come on down, Sir, come on down.
God, love,
we love other human beings and we love God
Sure,
have some
mean
taking an animal
which lives
freely
in the wild
and forcing it into a circumstance
you know, which is like putting it in a prison.
No, such an act would not be likely.
You know, the idea of taking a bird which flies freely,
and changing it to a stick or putting it in a cage, that is not something which is preferred by
birds live freely in the wild.
And it should be allowed to live natural and normal life,
of course, is not prohibited unless you're actually
causing physical harm to the birds, you know,
where you may be putting its wings or things like this, you know, people do different things to animals, to keep them domesticated or keep them under control.
It's not prohibited in that sense, but it will be disliked. Now, there are some animals
which have been particularly prohibited for us to keep
the animal in specifically is the dog.
And I think probably this is what you're referring to
the dog which in Western society or other societies is looked at as a misprint
in Islam is
not
recommended to be kept as a pet.
In fact,
it is considered harmful to yourself
from a religious point of view, to keep a dog
However, if the dog is checked for particular purposes, because, again, Islam recognizes the need for dogs in some circumstances, a dog which is a watchdog
Dogs which is a sheep, dog, dog whistle herd capilla, whenever a hunting dog, you go hunting, catch the animal that you shoot or whatever and bring it back. Keep in touch animal training, this is permitted, but taking the dog into your home, like you would your child sleeping with the dog and you know,
maybe the people want to exchange with the dog to see pictures of people kissing the dog, people making clothes for dogs, you know, you'll have people who are dying leave on their will to the dog, you know, they'll cut off the families and so and leave everything to the dog.
You know, executive love,
where people will allow other people to starve in the society to live
a dog's life
and yet elevate the dog, you know, to that status of a human being where he's given you know, the best of food etc, etc. Sort of like a slap in the face of humanity.
You'll find societies you know, for the protection of dogs or animals
where people will, you know, go to great lengths
for the protection of the dogs,
but the lives of human beings, which are being destroyed in various parts of the world. So, mean that must be the dog becomes even more important than humans.
So,
Islam recognizes the keeping of a dog
for a particular need
material,
but it prohibits the killing of a dog
not just because of the tendency of men to go overboard in his love the dog,
but also because there is some harm in that dog itself.
Because we have been instructed in Islam that if a dog lips or drapes from a doctor which you are eating from,
that is less level, the content should be pulled out given to the dog to finish eating and that should be clean.
One of those times, clean verbs should be used this particular instructions which are given by the processes,
which indicate to us that there is some harm in the saliva or products which are produced by the
metadata, which will come out in the saliva.
And in order to protect men from that, this instruction has been given
in the form of for example, horses, which you know, which are domesticated animals anyway, they've been domesticated, using them for riding purposes, etc. I mean, Islam doesn't hold any
prohibition or dislike for the keeping of such animals, especially because of the fact that they have in developing good physical qualities and human beings arriving.
Good for health wise.
clarify the point.