Why God Created Man
Date:
Channel: Bilal Philips
File Size: 14.98MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of finding God and worshiping him in order to achieve spiritual growth is discussed, along with the negative implications of hunting dogs and keeping animals as pets. The speakers emphasize the need for faith and decisive behavior in order to achieve spiritual and mental success, and stress the importance of avoiding false gods. The worship of God is a fundamental part of everyone's worship, and the speaker provides examples of media highlighting the worship.AI Generated Transcript ©
out of his own choice.
So if it is that God is going to put you in Paradise,
because you were born into a family with worship the particular God, and put somebody else in, inherit, because they worship another god, based on the practices of their family, then this is injustice.
God destined for you that you'll be born
amongst those who worship idols, or trees, or whatever, and then it puts you in hell, because you worship the items on trees.
This is injustice.
No,
God has given us an intellect, and reason to reflect
his science are available throughout our lives. Whatever it is that we're worshiping, if it's not gone,
there have been science shown to us.
That this is not God's, it is only for us to follow
what we know to be correct, and we will be on the path to God.
Because one seeks the path of God, when one seeks to find God, so that he may worship Him. Such a person will find God.
This is the promise of God's
promise which was brought by the prophets of old,
all the way to the laughter, the prophet.
However, God
did not only give us this intellectual disability to reason, he also gave us a natural tendency to worship God.
That is, 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 goes on to say, so that
such individuals would not be able to stand before him on the Day of Judgment, and argue that they didn't know about this, they were not aware of God, or that it was the fault of their parents, that they're the ones who should be blamed, and
that there would be no excuse. No one would stand before God with Kenny 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 sent prophets to clarify for him, who is God, and who is not, and how to worship God.
And he has promised in the one of paradise for those who truly worship Him,
and knew to their worship, they were driven, to do righteous needs,
to live the life of righteousness
as the fulfillment or manifestation of their consciousness of gods of their worship of God.
On the other hand,
as stated in the Quran,
the final book of Revelation,
according to the belief of Muslims,
because
the fundamental purpose of man's creation
is to worship God,
then the greatest.
And the only unforgivable sin
is to worship other than God
is to worship others along with God, or besides God.
This is the greatest sin that men can commit.
And because of that,
one who dies in that state
because if a person does so at one stage in his life, worshiping other than God or God besides God or along with God,
but then through his searching to find who the true God is and leave that worship, God will accept
his choice of the correct path. God will forgive him for what went before.
However, one who dies in the space of worshipping other than God
such a person
will be doomed to hell.
This is the ultimate destruction. This is the ultimate failure.
When a person in this life
does not find the purpose of his existence,
he goes through life, on a material plane,
driven only by his animal instincts, food, clothing, shelter, sex, etc. This is all drive.
This is what he lives for. Such a person has destroyed his life
and one
for whom worship has been only a set of rituals
done by my people, my family, etc. Such a one has also destroyed his life.
Because ritual worship, which is not based on understanding of God,
sincere worship of God, that ritual worship will not carry one to paradise either will not give one success in this life.
So, within the context of Islamic teachings,
merely because one considers oneself to be a Muslim,
this is no guarantee that one is going to paradise,
calling oneself a Muslim, going through certain rituals. This is not something itself, 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 the fold of Islam,
their guidance, their success in this life depends on finding God
as He is
and worshiping Him sincerely and acting in accordance with that worship.
So in summing up
the purpose of man's creation
is to worship.
God created man
he brought him into existence from nothing.
and bless him,
favorite him with many individual favorites,
as well as
he submitted for him the creation around
14 benefits.
However,
the benefits of this life
is not the ultimate benefit.
The benefits of the next slide, which is the everlasting life,
this is the one that we must seek most strenuous the most vigorously.
And this involves
our spiritual growth,
spiritual growth, which is based in the worship of God.
And that worship called the patience
to burying 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 to them.
Such a life
is the fulfillment of the purpose of man's creation.
And as such, God has
promised him paradise from which he was originally created.
I will stop 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 Islamic view with Vanessa with with relationship
To the creation of man,
a 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, to gain something material 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
over a billion people around the world,
which has a book of Revelation, which is available, if you would 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 its essence? What are its 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. There are some people standing, who 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 their comments or to share some ideas or to ask some questions. So I would like to ask our Muslim Brothers, we're here to reframe.
I know in your enthusiasm,
you oftentimes tend to monopolize the question and answer periods of lectures. So I'm asking you to just reframe yourself and allow our non Muslim guests to
get a chance to ask whatever they would like to
say thank you.
Everyone
will learn better.
We will
get a shot. 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, or
please,
this is for you. So please take the opportunity
to benefit from
a better screen
before we
question,
something that
you elaborate on the concept of worship,
rituals are the concept of worship
something much wider than
other religions.
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.
When we look at the system of Islam, or we call the Pillars of Islam, whether it be prayer,
daily prayer, or it'd be the fasting in the month of Ramadan, for 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 acts
When done, according to the Spirit of the Act, they
help us to be more righteous individuals.
And this is why I would say that
it is not just the question of ritual, because in Islam, there is ritual. However, the spirit of the various rituals have been clearly explained by the prophet
Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
In order that these rituals not become
meaningless,
physical
which is devoid of sincere belief and true worship.
follow up question.
What is your idea from a Christian point of view, that God was created in the image of
man was created in the image and likeness of
man as
this statement,
which is found in Genesis
has led
much of
Christendom
to
portray God, in the likeness of marriage.
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, not in their perfection.
God's love is infinite. Man is created also with the attributes of the capacity to 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, man cannot possess that attribute.
And so on through all of the various attributes of God, that there is managed in a likeness. There is something similar in the sense that he shares attributes which are also held by God but they are on a limited scale. And this is why God states very clearly in the later cometh each ichi There is nothing like on to him
when we open no one
and
None is similar to him.
So, this is denying
that man could that anywhere or at any time have the attributes of God, or that God has any of the attributes of men.
So, the correct view,
which
was maintained within the teachings, of the prophets, of all, Moses, etc.
Wherein man was prohibited from taking any likelihood of giving any likeness to God, this view is maintained very firmly in Islam.
God is not conceived in the mind,
because whatever we conceive is from what we have perceived.
And God is beyond our perception.
And whatever we perceive is from the things which are created, and God is not from the creation, He is the Creator. So, the
view of Islam is that God
did not create men
in his likeness, in the sense that God looks like a man
but that God created in men
attributes
which had a limited similarity to the attributes of the body
before we read it
if anyone wants to get
their questions on the floor
I don't have time to
come over. But you know, before we take a question
we said that we have our non Muslim guests quietly a few here.
This is your opportunity. Please.
You have a question coming up something
something was wrong. Come on down. Come on down.
And
law.
Love,
love.
We
know we love other human beings and we love God.
Sure,
If hovering
means,
taking an animal,
which never
freely
in the wild
and forcing it into a circumstance,
you know, which is like putting it in a prison.
You know, such an act would not be likened to,
you know, the idea of taking a bird which flies freely.
And changing it to a stick or putting it in a cage is not something which is preferred by Islam, that birds live freely in the wild.
And it shouldn't be allowed to live a natural and normal life.
Of course, it's not prohibited, I mean, unless you are actually
causing physical harm to the birds, you know,
where you may be cutting its wings or things like this, you know, people do different things to
to keep them domesticated, or keep them under their control.
This is not prohibited in that sense, but it will be disliked. Now, there are some animals
which have been particularly prohibited for us to keep as pets.
And
the animal in specifically is the dog.
I think Publix is what you're referring to
the dog which in Western society or other societies is looked at as a marriage
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 as a parent.
However, if the dog is kept for particular purposes, because, again, Islam recognizes the need for dogs in some circumstances, a dog which is a watchdog,
a dog which is a
cheap dog, a dog, which will herd capital, whenever
a hunting dog, you go hunting with cats, the animal that you shoot or whatever, and bring it back,
keeping such animals training them etc. This is permitted.
But taking the dog into your home, like you would your child sleeping with the dogs and you know,
making the dog you see where people have gone to extremes with the dog
to see pictures of people kissing the dog, people making clothes for dogs,
you know, you have people who will die and leave on their will to their dog, you know, they'll cut off their families and so on leave everything to their dog. This kind of, 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. The nodes that have the status of a human being where he's given you know, the benefits of food etc etc. This is sort of like a
slap in the face of humanity.
You will find societies you know for the protection of dogs or animals.
Especially
where people will, you know go to great lengths
for the protection of the dog.
But the lives of human beings which are being destroyed in various parts of the world don't mean that much to me, the dog becomes even more important than the human being.
So,
it
recognizes the keeping of the dog
for particular needs
materially
but prohibited the keeping of a dog as nearly as
Not just because of the tendency of Americans who
go overboard in his love of the dog,
but also because there is some harm in that dog.
Because we have been instructed in Islam that if a dog licks or drinks from a vessel, which you are eating,
then this vessel, the contents should be pulled out, given to the dog to finish eating, and that therefore, should be cleaned
seven times one of those times, clean or two meals, this is particular instructions that are given by the prophet,
which indicates to us that there is some harm in the saliva or products which are for use by the
bad adult, which will come out in saliva or whatever, there is some harm there.
And in order to protect him, from that, this instruction has been given
whether
that's in the form of for example, horses, which, which are domesticated animals anyway, they have been domesticated, using them for writing purposes, etc. I mean, flower doesn't hold any
point vision or dislike for the keeping of
animals, especially because
they help in developing good physical qualities in human beings, the writing,
good for health wise.
clarify the point we want
to be with
brother Villa,
for those of you who are not familiar with him, is
a very dear brother. And it's been very active in the field of
delivering lectures, and it's not International.
He's from Canada, born and raised, born and raised in Canada, and accepted Islam back in 1972.
So that's been quite a while.
University,
Islamic University of Medina
went on to get a master's degree from the University
and is currently working on his doctorate
in theology, author of many books at least 15 to 20 times that I can think of. And
we are very fortunate to have here this evening to deliver this lecture. The question was
something that you
think about purpose in life? It's a very important question. And for those of us who have never given
our
enlightenment this evening, and we inshallah won't benefit from what
doesn't one point, consider the under the form of a meeting, I would rather
speak for,
make this presentation for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. And then we'll open up for questions. Those of you who would like to pose a question directly, you can consider myself over here for you to do so.
If
there are people who might not want to do so,
papers,
the paper will be provided for you to write your questions.
So, without any further ado, I'd like to turn the floor over to your brother
alameen wa Salatu was Salam and out Assouline, Kareem
While he was after he, woman is standing next to me, Dean.
All praise is due to a law, and me a lot of Peace and blessings beyond his last prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and 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
served 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
you will 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 men?
It could be understood, as
what, what caused God to create men?
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 out of a need some for something that needs to be fulfilled.
So, they are called to do this, or the cost to do that was in the case of God, God who is
self subsistent,
who has no need for creation,
we cannot say that he was caused to create man for any particular reason.
So we say in fact, nothing cause God to create man.
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 will question What kind of artist is this?
He would not be considered a great artist, if he has not proved have produced anything, which would confirm his greatness.
Of course, and with regard to God, I mean, I'm putting this in human terms. It goes far beyond this.
The point is that God being the creator creates
that
his, his attributes, he has described himself as the 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, for 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
woman, because, when we speak of men, mankind has to pass
male and female,
God states 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, return us an Arabic is second, you know, that they would find tranquility in each other.
So, with regard to female,
and male,
their purpose is one of attaining certain tranquility in this life
with regard to other males and other females,
man is created in order to obtain his needs from other men
and to fulfill the needs 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 needs other human beings, and other human beings need him. So,
he was created in this particular circumstance amongst other human beings to fulfill the need 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.
And this is why you find that all of these systems, which man
has invented
all of the religions, which man attributes
back to God, all of them, call men 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 goodness,
sharing, etc, all of the well known valid values of brotherhood, you know, fraternity, equality and all these
values which we all hold there, 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 men
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 the tried and tested
in order that he would grow spiritually to deserve that which he was created for paradise.
And all of the things of this world
were created format. This is stated very clearly in the course, that he created everything in this world format. And as a matter of fact, any of you who have
traveled in aeroplanes here in the kingdom, or any of the Saudi Air flights outside of the kingdom. You will note that in the beginning, there is a prayer that is made in Arabic. On some occasions, it's translated.
Most of the times I've heard it, this has only been in Arabic.
But that particular prayer involves certain verses from the Quran,
which begin by allotting some time under the Sahara
will make no more put in that if
we all will be to he, or to the one who has submitted for our 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 be ordered by 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.
And the same time we are no,
we're allowed to benefit from all of this creation, we're not allowed to abuse the things of this creation.
It is prohibited as the Prophet Muhammad may allowed peace and blessings be upon him. At stated, it is prohibited for us to make animals our target, that is to hunt for kicks for fun,
you know, the popular
practice in some parts of the world, wherein people will hunt for sport purposes, not because they need to eat the meat. But because they want to bring back a trophy, you know, they'll cut off the head of the animal to get on their wall, I'll make photographs of themselves, you know, standing on the animal or whatever. But they're kicking, they're killing the animals for fun. This is prohibited in this law, to take the life of an animal is only permitted, if it is done so for the purpose of food,
or clothing, or to protect oneself from the harm that that animal may cause to humans.
With regards to God,
man was created to worship God.
As this stated very clearly in the Quran, again, a lot of gender and insert in learn the Buddha's that
a lot of states that he did not create
the gin
will belong to the spirit world, parallel our world will have
a choice
and ability to choose between good and evil as human beings
and mankind.
They were only created for the worship of God.
Now, as I stated in the beginning, God has no need.
So when we say
or when God says that he created men, for his worship,
he did not create men.
Because he needs men's worship.
He created men
to worship Him.
Because man needs that worship.
Just as men need
food,
to live
a material life and to grow.
Similarly, he needs spiritual food.
Worship by which to live
spiritually and to grow
spiritual spiritually.
This is why you will oftentimes find in decline. God's speaking of those
who do not worship Him as being dead.
They are spiritually dead
and he speaks of those who come to that worship as 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're saying, 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, which all call men to various acts of righteousness, of living in harmony with people, of
living in marital situations, which are tranquil, which will bring certain
spiritual and mental and physical pleasures in this life, living a life which we could call of contentment,
this God consciousness,
which is the key for all that is developed fundamentally by worship.
And this is why you find that Islam has been prescribed them five times, daily worship,
that is, that a person's day
is divided into five periods.
And
these periods all represent 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 330, to four o'clock,
not
to fulfill primarily his physical needs, but to fulfill his spiritual needs. He wakes up in the early morning, to remember God, then he goes to his physical needs, he washes himself, etc, and he goes to work, he breaks at the midday
not, again, to put more food into a system merely to keep that engine in a working so that he can earn more material and improve the quality of his material life. But he wakes 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 sun, and in the late night before going off to sleep,
so his day is organized around the worship of God. And of course, this doesn't mean that it was only worship by fans today. Of course, not. One may worship as much as one field, but the minimum, this was the minimum provided for man's worship by the Messenger of God to mankind.
Now, the worship of God,
the purpose of man's creation,
this depends
on knowing who the idea 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 worshipping God
and this is the reality that we find
When we look around the world, and the various institutions and systems, cults and 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, worshiping God,
whether you worship an idol, and he states that this idol is a focal point for the worship of God, or in worship a man.
And he says that this man was God incarnate.
Or you worship nature,
and the forces which are in nature.
All of these various acts
involve
the worship of the creation of God, and not the worship of God.
We know God, primarily through revelation.
This is why God sends profits to men, to mankind, to inform them, of who God is,
in order to clarify for them to make that distinction between the creation of God and the Creator.
As God said in the Quran, Allah Basner equally cometan Rasul Allah, and Yahoo the law which
we have sent to 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.
This is the fundamental message of the Prophet,
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 grossly,
in most cases,
some where you may still find something of the correct descriptions of Gods you will find mixed along with it many descriptions, which make God life man or even less than men.
Actually, it is in
the final book of revelation of God to man, that we find a very clear picture of who God is.
And how should manage relationship to God be very clear, no ambiguity, no obscurities there. And if we reflect
on the creator of the universe, who
has created it with all this complexity,
we will understand
that
the religion which he has chosen for men,
the communication that he made with men through profit
was one
containing clarity.
God did not seek 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 to man,
it was in very clear terms.
God has also given mankind an intellect
and ability to reason
in order that they may 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 food system
and if we do not use our intellect and our reason
then
It will appear very confusing to us.
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 are calling with regards to God in terms of righteousness and actions of piety, kindness, goodness, brotherly love, all of these things, these are available in all systems, even in this system is where God is denied.
Even communist system and etc. People are called to treat each other
gently kindly, etc. Though the communist system, when it was implemented may not have very kindly to people, but in theory, it calls to kind of brotherhood etc, fraternity, equality, justice, justice, all of the various other religions do.
So, we should not look from this point of view because this is common to all religions. What we need to do to use our intellect or reason is to look at the essence
as who is God in that system?
The God of the system
looks like the people who brought the system or teaching the system then you should question right away.
You know, in the case of Buddhism, if you go to serve Lanka, you will see Buddha look like a Syrah, Lankan.
If he goes to India, then who then they look like an Indian, he goes to China Buddha looks better Chinese, Japan looks like a Japanese and Korean psycho Korean.
So, God
takes the form of the people who worship
this is a garbage man making, these are the signs.
You know you are you are not a creator, you are creation, you are created.
to elevate any individual to the level of creator
is to blackfin
is to curse God
is to speak against God.
The creation is not the Creator.
God has given us that consciousness, that intellect,
that reason, sense of reason, to reflect, to look at the various systems that are out there and to make a judgement, according to what
appears to us to be correct.
That intellect calls
to put aside our emotion,
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,
which has clouded the intellect and the reason
and which needs people to worshipping other than God, 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 do not
are going to help.
Then
if we think about why it is that we are worshipping the gods of your 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. This was not our total