Hamza Tzortzis – Atheism in Pakistan Main Causes and Solutions
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and mandate behind Pakistan's (the fourth time he) mandate, including the La Ilaha, il Allah, suffering, torture, and abuse. They emphasize the importance of rethinking the situation and identifying root causes of problems, realigning communities to ensure spiritual well-being, and empowering individuals to achieve their spiritual goals. They also discuss the importance of moral priorities, the use of "arrogance" in philosophy, and the need for evidence and a focus on the real world. They emphasize the importance of empowering individuals to achieve their vision and redefined strategies to address suffering and evil, and the need for a "monthood" movement and a "monthood" strategy to achieve their vision.
AI: Summary ©
In the Land dilemma Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Alhamdulillah. This is the fourth time I'm here in Pakistan.
And Pakistan has a very interesting mandate. If you look back at its history,
Pakistan's mandate was La Ilaha, il Allah.
And we know the suffering, and the torture, and the abuse, and the murder,
and the bloodshed that our
ancestors had to face.
And when I say our it's mine, too, because Pakistan is not an ethnicity. Cindy is an ethnicity. But lacI is an ethnicity. Kashmiri is an ethnicity.
Pakhtoon is an ethnicity, Pakistan transcends ethnicities. It's an idea. It's a mandate of la ilaha illa Allah, and I said, La ilaha illallah, almost 21 years ago. So this is my country to whether you like it or not.
And I'm happy to be here for the fourth time. I was here just a few months ago in February, delivering a seminar and engaging at the universities. And the reason I'm here is because I was shocked with regards to what I saw.
I saw atheism, liberalism, secularism, LGBTQ plus even more intensified at the university space.
And I felt if we continue to do what we're doing right now, and our ideological enemies continue to do what they're doing right now, what is the trajectory in the next five or 10 years.
And it's not looking good.
There's so much more we need to do. Our enemies are well equipped, they have money
and they have a vision.
But because there is so much amazing potential in Pakistan, I know that we're going to be successful.
I really believe Pakistan and its people have the capacity,
have the energy have the love of Allah and His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
to transcend the issues, to solve the issues, not only locally, but internationally.
I really believe this. That's why I'm here again, to help to support to be a tool at your disposal.
So what I'm going to be talking about is solutions to
problems to certain causes of atheism.
And I have traveled a lot of Pakistan. I've been to push our I've been to Rawalpindi, Islam, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Karachi and this beautiful amazing city called Lahore. As they say, if you haven't to be Lahore, if you haven't been to Lahore, you haven't been born.
Maybe because when you arrived, you want to die.
Well, Wallahi the traffic is unbelievable. I don't know how you guys survive. This is proof of Allah's Mercy kill us because rationally, even yesterday last night when we're coming here, it's like I'm surprised no one's dead.
This is proof of Allah's providential care.
So I will talk about certain problems and solutions. And I'm just going to quickly talk about the problems and causes and causes because I know they've already been discussed. I'm just going to summarize them and provide solutions. But the first thing I want to say is this. I want to reframe your mindset. Sometimes when we talk about the problems of Pakistan, the problems of the Ummah, the ideological problems, the problems of atheism, we like pointing the finger.
It is the ideologues, the secularists, the materialists. It is America, it's the IMF. But remember when you're pointing the finger, three fingers are pointing back. And when you point the finger, what do you do?
do you assume that they have the power to control your destiny, that it's their fault. But we have to remember La hawla wala Quwata illa biLlah there is no true power, apart from the power of Allah subhanho wa Taala everything happens because of his irata and his Goodra. Because his will and power, these things like the IMF, or ideologues, or ideological enemies, or the atheists, or the materialists or the secondaries, they don't have any real power.
And that's why we have to reframe the issue and understand that we have to understand it's all about Allah subhanho wa Taala and reconnect to him. Because what does Allah say very clearly in the Quran, that Allah will not change the situation of a people, unless they change what's within themselves. If you look at the Tafseer of this is, this is not about blaming external entities. Yes, they're part of the problem. But they're not the root cause. Allah has empowered us so much, that this ayah means that Allah will not change your situation from a good state into a bad state unless something changed within you.
And we have more control over ourselves than we have over our enemies.
And people think oh Hamza, your self hating, your self hating you hate against us, the Muslim community, because you're saying is awful. No, I'm empowering you through the Quran. Because this is an empowering, empowering position. This i You should frame reality. If we're facing hardship, ultimately, it's because something changed within us. And Allah is telling you, you can change, you can rectify your situation, if you come back to him, and if you solve some of the internal issues that exists, individually and collectively in our communities, because if you always blame the external world, then that's the most disempowering place to stop. Why? Because you think it's them,
they have the power to control your destiny.
So I want us to focus on some solutions to the causes of atheism. The first problem is what I call social conformity. In social psychology, you have this idea of informational social influence and normative social influence. What does this mean? Informational social influence is that you have a need to feel certain. We need conviction, we need Yaqeen.
And normative social influence is about the need to belong I want to belong.
And this creates the social norm. This creates social influence and conformity. And our enemies know this very well.
And what happens to us or individuals in our community, if they hadn't need to feel certain to have certainty to have you again, and they couldn't find it in the community, the practicing community, they were pushed away, they were told to be silent. They were told just to do Toba, they were told to ignore the problem. The Imam basically said go away, I don't have an answer. If they face this at home as well.
They're going to be driven to the dominant frame, the dominant ideological frame, which you find on social media, and at the university campuses, which is secularism, materialism, liberalism, and atheism.
Likewise, we have a need to belong. And if this young person or child or future intellectual, does not get that belonging from their family, because maybe they're a little bit different. Maybe they're questioning things, maybe they need a different way. With regards to Islam. They need a different approach, but we're not giving it to them because of cultural and so called ethno religious expectations. They're going to leave the group and go to the dominant frame, the atheists, the secularists, the liberals.
So the solution here is that we need to create structures in our communities, and in our masajid and at home, where we ensure they have a sense of belonging, and they ensure they have that sense of certainty.
This means that we have to move away from seeing Islam as an ethno religious marker, an ethno religious identity marker. You're Muslim because you're Pakistani
We have to really build the world view view of Islam in our homes. And it's show we have social structures, mechanisms at every social level, including the masajid, to ensure that these people have a sense of belonging, to ensure that they have a sense of certainty.
This is one of the most important solutions. Because when we go to the masajid, how welcoming generally speaking, are the masajid.
Concerning the youth, how empowered are the Imams to answer theological and intellectual questions from an atheistic perspective?
How equipped are they? And this is why the solution could be that we need to be strategic and start to empower the Imams. Why isn't there a Nash nationwide training of imams are putting on the country? Why isn't there there may be here and there. But as they call unified strategy, why isn't that in place, we need to think very carefully on how to solve problems strategically, not just the short term. And I find this in our Asian subcontinent communities, we love energy and noise, we love it. We have spiritual diabetes, and you just give someone spiritual insulin. And after two days, they need the most spiritual insulin. We rely too much on motivation, not enough on strategy and
discipline, we need a balance between the two.
So we need to create that certainty and that sense of belonging individually in the family in our social structures in our masajid. And we could unpack how to do that during the q&a even further. Second, second cause family issues with regards to not having the correct Islamic social priorities, their Islamic spiritual priorities. And these are big, intellectual priorities. And I alluded to this earlier, I alluded to this earlier, at home, especially amongst the middle classes. We may pray five times a day. But what do children see growing up is the key priority.
Do they see the education good grades, good job is more important than salah, most likely, because if they miss Fudger, they won't get in trouble as much as they fell the exams. And this is amongst practicing communities.
And we think that just because we pray, we may have some Halaqaat at home, it's enough. But children learn through seeing no fruit hearing. If they see that the moral and spiritual intellectual priorities are dunya, academia becoming a doctor gang, a good wife, having a big house, getting good grades, and the energy and the money of the whole family is focused on the secular goals. Then even if they pray five times a day, they're going to see psychologically there's something more important than worshiping ALLAH SubhanA wa tan.
And don't pretend this doesn't exist. I've been to enough family dinners, and enough cities to know that it's a massive problem in in our communities, the moral priorities are misaligned. And this creates misaligned individuals.
We have to realign them at home. The most highest priority is that you're good Muslim and you worship Allah. You're already successful. Everything else is a bonus. Imagine framing your whole family that way.
Imagine?
And how do we teach our children with regards to Islam? Is it like an ethno religious marker? You're Pakistani therefore you're Muslim? Or is Islam a worldview? Is it the lens that they put on their eyes in order to understand themselves in reality?
Or is Islam just the five pillars within a secular liberal environment? Or is Islam a worldview, how they understand the world, how they see the world, how they understand morality? How they understand how they should live, how they understand how they should prioritize their lives?
Does it shape their politics does it shape the understanding of the world? This is how heed knowing Allah's names and attributes? How many of us have taught our children at home? Why Allah is worthy of worship? We focus on the salah on the wudu on the Afghan which is very important, but do we focus on the most important aspect that necess
takes these things. Who is Allah? Why is he worthy of my love? Why is he worthy of my recognition that I recognize him the most? Why is he worthy of my submission? Why is he worthy of my obedience? Why is he worthy of all acts of worship?
Ask your children this question, see if they get an answer. Ask your teenagers these questions if you get a very good answer. But if you ask them about something to do with chemistry, maths, maths, or physics, or English literature, they can write an essay, but they can't write an essay on why Allah is worthy of worship, why Allah is worthy of love and adoration. Why Allah is the supreme being.
And the reason being is because you outsource Islamic learning to the schools or the massage, but it has to be at home, you have to provide that solid framework, that solid foundation, so they see the world in the correct way.
And this will prevent the issues when they're growing up. I've had many cases, for example, United Kingdom, I believe it was unfortunately Pakistani family, doctors, I believe, their son used to pray five times a day, because that's what they do their Muslim, the Pakistani we pray, didn't have a strong foundation, read Quran do not understand the Quran. But so much focus on grades and achievement. So the Troodon identify their self worth, not through Islam, but through the parents preys on the dunya success. So they left he went to a great university, he stayed in a home with atheists or feminists and liberals, he left the dean. And I told them report you. So
I said report you. So this is what you sold. This is what happened? Yes, we're going to try and solve the problem. But don't think this is because of the university only or because of the house that he was living in. It was because what happened 1015 years ago, you gave him the wrong more priorities, the wrong intellectual priorities, and you didn't ground the house Intel heat in the correct way.
I know this is all kind of hard to take. I'm not here to give you what you want. I'm here to give you what you need. All right. And when you do odd these days, we just give people what they want. That's why we're in a mess. So this is very important.
Also, research has shown that when parents are religious, and they want to be religious, but the parents don't always follow the religion when it comes to maybe inheritance. Or when it comes to marmelade social transactions, the children notice this contradiction, and then likely to leave the religion.
We see this for example, amongst sisters, many sisters maybe feel that they have to go to feminism, which is not an excuse, but the driven because basic Islamic principles are not implemented at home. For example, I would guarantee that you know someone in your own family that hasn't given the daughter's inheritance 100% guarantee and those people are not men, the weasels they need to slap the top off. Because they're stealing from the sisters. These are wisdom people I don't care if he has a beard, and he's going to
and Is that making sense Institute the person is a weasel. He has no manhood.
And if you look at the statistics in Pakistan is horrific. Hardly any women get inheritance when Allah has told us that they should?
Yes, it differs based on how close you are to the deceased, and how and your and your and your social and family roles and responsibility. But Allah has given them a share. But we take it and we pray five times a day. And we do Dawa, and we do all of these things. So when they see this lack of consistency, and they can't find the solutions from Islam because we don't show it to them, then they're likely to be pushed away.
So parents have to walk the walk. Third, cause trauma.
We all have trauma, a small t trauma or big T trauma. It could be abuse. It could be
that we had a tyrannical upbringing. It could be that we didn't understand Islam properly, people give us wrong information. It could be a sense of extremism, not from a secular liberal perspective, but within the Islamic framework. It could be any type of trauma brothers and sisters, human beings, we face trauma all the time.
Some of it is self inflicted others it's inflicted by the family or the society or a particular group or subgroup. Now, I'm not here to justify that they have an excuse that oh, look, I'm from traumatized. What I'm trying to show you is that this exists within our community.
we inflict on ourselves some level of trauma, whether it's physical or psychological.
And what we need to try and train people to do is to unpack that trauma and stand in the possibility that the meaning they are giving to the trauma is not the only meaning
to cognitively spiritually reframe the trauma. And what we should say to them is stand in the possibility that the meaning you're giving this trauma is not the correct meaning and the meaning Allah wants you to give and the meaning Rasul allah sallallahu alayhi wa salam wishing to give is the correct meaning.
Even if that trauma has been religiously inspired, if we're able to get them to stand in the possibility that the meaning you're giving this trauma is not the only meaning, then that is the beginning of change. And this is in line with Western cognitive psychology, but we don't need this. This is Quranic This is Quran, how many times how many aids harming your sorrows. The Lola reveals to cognitively spiritually reframe the meaning we're giving this trauma. Take for example, Surah Al CalHFA
Surah Al Caltha was revealed because of the death of the son of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Imagine how much love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had for the onma
more love than we can have imagined the love that he had for his own son. And his son passes away his holding him his hearing his uncle sing apart our avatar, he is cut off he has no lineage. And then Surah Al Kalfa was revealed to me where instead of El CalHFA does Allah subhana wa Taala say, My condolences?
Look how Allah COVID deeply reframes and reshapes the mindset of the prophets, Allah Allahu Allah, he was salam, just the first line itself, full of emphasis, in words, in particle, in structure in meaning.
Verily We, we have given you the abundance and CalHFA of a river in paradise, but it could also mean abundance of anything
CalHFA kuthodaw, coming from the root words for cathedra, a thorough and so on and so forth. And the Wow, in the alfalfa meaning perpetuity, it's a continuing abundance. So it's like when Allah says what a while so Bill Huck, continuing according to the truth, I will tell continuing abundance in an emphatic way.
Then, Allah tells the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam, how to express his gratitude for So Lily, Rebecca one hug, therefore pray to Lord and sacrifice. The point is, we don't have to go into the linguistics in the Tuff shed. But when you study this, this chapter, this surah you see how Allah subhanaw taala cognitively, spiritually reframes the Prophet salallahu idea he was sending. And we see this was many other servants, not just to the process, but also to Musa alayhis. Salam.
Allah gets us to start in the possibility that the meaning we're giving is not the only meaning take Allah's meaning, take the meaning of the messengers of Allah who either he was selling them. And the way to do this in our communities is to number one, empathize with people who have some type of trauma,
whether we agree that it should be trauma or not. It's irrelevant. Let's humanize them, empathize, understand. And once we do that, we get them in a good psychological space, then we get them to realize that the meaning you're giving is maybe not the only meaning.
My dear brothers and sisters, I see this a lot in our mentoring sessions with Shubho hearts.
We see that a lot of the Shubho heart the destructive downs are really as a result of trauma and emotional issues and even Shaohua blameworthy desires. Let me give an example. I had someone come to the office, it was the library actually. And he was working on the algorithm for Facebook and he was an atheist. And we started with consciousness. I was like artificial intelligence can never be fully conscious like a human being. He said it can. He basically argued that
the creator of AI the human being
created the AI an AI can now be fully conscious like it's created the human being, I disagreed with him, I gave him my kind of studies when I studied in my post grad philosophy, philosophy of the mind and
I think I won the argument. But then we moved on. Then I said to him, What's your main problem about Islam? Do you know what he said? He said, Allah has human names and attributes.
That's what he said, I was like, hold on a second, this is basic Arcada lace, the chemistry he che, there is nothing like Allah subhana wa to Allah. Allah has names and attributes to the highest degree possible. They are maximally perfect, they have no deficiency, no flaw, you cannot compare them to human beings. But then I realized something, I realized there was a contradiction. In the beginning, he was okay for the AI machine to have the same attribute as its creator, the human. But when it came to Allah, he had a problem with that.
Obviously, we disagree with that approach. But his logic was the same. But on one hand, he accepted that, on the other hand, he didn't, there was a logical contradiction and Wallahi kafir would always contradict itself. Rejecting truth would always contradict itself. And then I realized this, and obviously I didn't want to challenge him too much by indicated it to him, and he was kind of stuck. And then I realized that something was going on. It was an indication, there was something else I spoke about, my father might kind of perceive trauma, how I solved the solution, how I reconnected with my father. And I suggested maybe that's the case with you. When I said this, the minute I said
this, he got angry, he stood up, it's like I pressed a button, and something just emerged, he was saying, this is emotional abuse. He got all aggressive and emotional, we had to change the subject, we have to calm him down, boy him some food. And so Buddha Ahmed was with me in the in the library at that time, and he spoke to his mother, not support his mother, the brother, the guy's mother. And she said this, my son had problem with father figures growing up.
And then he laid to realize that he said he was going to solve those problems. So in the beginning, it was about consciousness. In the beginning, it was about, you know, Allah's attributes, but fundamentally, it was about what
his issues with father figures. And I'm telling you, in the majority of the cases, we have in our lighthouse mentoring service as part of steepings Institute, where we do a Shabbat on a one to one level, maybe 80 to 90%. Even if they come with an intellectual issue, it's emotive, psychological, and spiritual.
Once a Pakistani quantum physicist come in the UK after one of my university lectures, and he said Hamza, your argument for God's existence doesn't make sense. Because causality does not make sense outside of the universe. Now, maybe I could have argued with him and said, you have an empirical presupposition, you believe because it is derived from experience, but in actual fact, you need causality. In order to understand your experiences, I could have given him a Kantian example. But this is all nonsense, intellectual gymnastics, because I realized there's something else going on. Really, is this justifying to himself This small city argument? Is this going to be enough on the
day of judgment to save him that he was in doubt about causality? No, because we have a fitrah we have an innate normative disposition that we already know, Allah exists, we already have an affinity that is worthy of worship. So I said to him, instead of going to philosophical debate, I said to him, What do you mean by causality? And to cut a long story short, do you know what he said to me?
I don't know.
Because in western metaphysics, there is no Ichiba on the nature of the causal link.
And then I sit in bro Isn't it very interesting that in a sentence you're using to deny Allah the key word of that sentence you don't know its meaning?
So it was nice to him empathic we walked for a bit we sat down do you know what he said to me at the end? He said Hamza look, I was brought up by secular parents. I did not know how to connect with Allah subhanaw taala
I have so many of these stories honestly. It's I'll give you another story cuz I know you like stories. I spent about four I four hours with another ex brother Yeah. You with an arrogant guy. He needed a top bar. Yeah, proper top bar.
And he was full of Buck was back was on stilts back was on Bush Khalifa. It was it was crazy. I gave him everything almost. I squeezed my brain colors. And then I had enough I said, Look, what's your main issue? Why you
rejecting Allah, why are you rejecting Islam? Why are you rejecting the Quran?
I said something like that. And then he said it's because the Quran says the world is flat one,
obviously I don't believe in, you know, we have major scholars like me Tamia, he cites the Salafi, even monada that they believed the world was round. They go to the Quran to even derive this. We have been hasm and so on and so forth. So we don't have a problem.
But I said, I got a bit arrogant actually, and I shouldn't in the dour, you should never get arrogant. Yeah, although the giant, the pre Islamic poet said the way to respond to Jehovah is more Jehovah.
The way to respond to ignorance or arrogance is more arrogance yet. Sometimes it works. You know, if someone is all big thinks he's mighty was on bigger than him smashes him down. It humbles him a few like humility, maybe Allah could reconstruct him. Yeah. Trust me, it's happened to me in the dollar, as well. You know, I faced a lot of issues and concerns and humiliation, it was the best thing that ever happened to me when like,
because it's good for your nerves anyway. So
where was I?
Who's focused? Story? Which one? The guy? Yes. And I said to him, yes, the world is flat. You prove to me the world is round, because he had an empirical approach that learning and knowledge is only what you touch. And Phil said, I want your empirical evidence why the world is round? Show me boy.
And he couldn't even give me an answer. Do you know who's saying, Ah, it's very easy. It's in the science textbooks. So that's not your evidence. That's the picture.
You may we may have many of these pictures. But is that empirical evidence for you? No, you didn't take the picture. You have to believe the testimony of someone who said that is planet Earth. Even a billion people said that it makes no difference. That's fundamentally in epistle homology, the study of knowledge is fundamentally testimonial, not empirical, Yala habibi. I want to know. I want to know where your empirical evidence is. Nice is okay. I think he says something like if you go on the top of the mountain, you can see the curvature of the earth. That's an inference that's an inference is not directly empirical. You don't see it's fully round. It might be a semicircle. He might be a
flower.
I want your direct empirical evidence, bro. Then he says something like if you get a rocket, you put a camera on a rocket, you send it up on us, you're gonna see the roundness of Earth. Maybe have you done it? No, but you believe the Earth is round right now.
Then he says something like you've taken a plane, you're going to straight line you continue, you go back into the same position, which means the Earth is round. Okay, have you done it? No. He was changing colors. I was loving it.
Do you know what he says at the end?
I've got it. I've got it. When you see the shadows changing. I was like Subhan Allah. Indeed, in the alternation of the night and day are signs for people who use the reason Quran I invite you arrogant so and so.
You arrogance so and so.
You pointed the finger at the Quran or the three fingers pointing back and the only rational empirical answer you could get was from the Quran itself.
And then we realized that he actually essentially he was non Muslim. He left Islam because he had a successful gambling business online. Had nothing to do with flat Earth had nothing to do each any of this stuff. It was used just to hide maybe some of his trauma or he shouts
so we have work to do in the community. Fourth point of the other points are very quick. We have intellectual superhard that causes doubts. Superhot means the plural of destructive doubts. And what is the Sherpa is the singular for destructive doubt. And the Sherpa is like to be who it resembles something that is not it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. These intellectual BOD do not have a basis. Atheism is total nonsense, and backless honestly, is nonsense. We've only taken it as seriously because it came from a Gora and we have a god complex. Every came from the guy who is white and he has a white coat. This is complete nonsense, complete utter nonsense. Even in the West, new Atheism
is dying. He's dying.
So he doesn't have any intellectual basis but we have
concerns from thinking individuals such as the problem of evil and suffering. Does science lead to atheism secular morality? Is it based
on maximum happiness for the maximum number of people. And all of these things, we could easily deconstruct from an Islamic paradigm, but we have to be empowered. And one solution is that we have personal and collective duty to empower our families, our schools, our masajid, our universities to be able to answer these questions. We need to write books, articles, podcasts, give lectures, train the trainer, create this collective intellectual environment, because it's easy to answer these questions. So easy. We've been doing this for years, and we're standing on the shoulders of giants, the Earl amount of the past, which is using a language that is modern. But we answered these
questions years ago, was standing on the shoulders,
from the likes of AB Tamia to Allah Ghazali, to Abu Hanifa. To Xiao Wei Allah definitely, we have amazing arguments that proves God's oneness existence deals with the problem of evil, the problem of suffering, talks about the limitations of the scientific method, how it doesn't lead to denying a transcendent creator, and so on and so forth. We have all of these answers, but we have to find them. We have to engage with that with our students of knowledge.
The fifth point is ideological frame
will in we live in a dominant
ideological frame within a dominant ideological frame and this ideological frame, secularism, liberalism, materialism, and liberal feminism.
And these ideological dominant frames actually affect the way we see things. It affects the way we see what is good and bad. It affects the way we understand each other, it affects the way we treat each other. It affects the way we even understand I come. And we have to realize that we have to challenge these ideological frames.
Because these frames are alien to Islam. They're not based on towhees. They're based on false worldviews. And we have to get people to understand that sometimes we're affected by these ideological frames. Let me give an example.
In liberalism, or liberal feminism, sometimes they point the finger at the Sharia. And they say, for example, about women's women's inheritance. They see a woman gets half the inheritance of her brother, this is oppression. This is wrong. This is evil. This means something's wrong with women in the Islamic discourse. This is all backwards. The reason they have that view, is because you have to understand their ideological frame the lenses that they wear to understand reality. They are liberals or liberal feminists, what is the basis of liberal liberal feminism? Liberalism, its basis is individualism. As Professor Charles Taylor says, the priority of the individual as Professor
Moroni and Friedman says that the individual is seen as an abstract entity devoid from social obligations and attachments. So the main essence of liberalism is the knifes is the Shaohua to the individual, as Allah says, Have you know see the one who takes his desires as his own rubber longboard, so they see reality from that perspective. So when these zoom in on just that woman, they say that the priority is on the individual so if she gets half, this is wrong, because they don't see things collectively and holistically. Also feminism, whether you're first wave feminists, second wave, third wave, fourth wave, fifth wave, the basis of feminism is social hierarchies with men at
the top are inherently oppressive and unjust, which is taught to cover to cover absolute cover, cover on stilts covered with bold capitals, underline italic make it red is all go for it is because you're rejecting very basic nisi moral hierarchies that served Islam and humanity. Well, yes, men can be oppressors for sure. But to say that is inherently oppressive, is Cofer.
And we know in chapter four, verse 34, that men have what Kawan they have an authority over women, and now women folk, especially our women, wives must be devoutly obedient. Yes, we have a complementarian system we do surely follow the Sunnah your wives are always going to be happy and intellectually, spiritually, physically fulfilled. That's our duty as men and we need to man up literally.
We need to make sure that our families have well being but the point is, these are the basis
of this accusation. They see it from an individualistic perspective. And from a feminist perspective, that hierarchy is always oppressive if the man is on top, and the source of this law is a man.
So if you understand the Arcada their worldview, you see how to engage with them and you say, Look, this is totally false. In Islamic inheritance is based on two main principles, how close you are to the deceased and your roles of responsibility. We don't see humanity from an individualistic perspective, we see humanity holistically, we have the picture, you just got the pixel because it comes from Allah, Allah is Al Hakim, the wise he's Alene. The knowing Allah has the picture, we just have the pixel.
You have a reductionist, an individualistic understanding of reality, because we know the individual impacts society and society impacts the individual. As we know, in the Hadith, the famous Hadith of the people on the top of the bowl, giving fresh water to the people in the bottom of the bowl, and the people at the top stop giving fresh water the people at the bottom, they make a whole and the whole boat sinks. The whole of society thinks there's a relationship between the collective and the individual, the individual, the collective. And we say to them, yes, in some scenarios when the father passes away, and he has a son and a daughter, the daughter get half of the sun. But this is
not a problem. Because you have to see things from the social model, and the necessary social moral hierarchies of Islam, and the roles and responsibilities. For example, the son who has the money now, he now has the responsibility to take care of his sister food, shelter, clothing, the money that sister gets, she has no obligation to give it to anybody.
Islam was to free and emancipate economically, socially and protect the honor of a woman. So when the boy gets maybe twice as much as the girl, he's actually going to end up with nothing anyway because he has to take care of his woman folk, including his sister. And when you study inheritance in Islamic law, in 16 cases in Islamic law, women get more than men. So it's nothing to do with inherent issue of being a woman, and in four cases, they get about the same. So do you see from an individualistic and false feminist narrative, how it becomes a lens that misunderstands Islam? Is this clear.
This is why it's very important to always study upgrader always study Allah's names and attributes. And that would allow us to understand the dominant freedoms in our societies, liberal feminism, individualism, atheism, materialism, and our job is to challenge them as much as possible from an individual's social, academic and collective perspective. Finally, and I do apologize.
Number six, the academic sphere.
A lot of the discourse now that's happening concerning atheism is in the academic communities. I've been to lungs I've been to refer I've been to Bahria. I've been to iba I've been to many universities across the country. And I've seen a pattern. There is no vision amongst the faculty, staff for Islam, hardly any vision, even those people who love Islam, they are visionless. And I was quite disheartened, I think two days ago, I was at refer, and refer is an Islamic Medical University. And I was like, subhanAllah, they don't have things like the philosophy of science, because when they study Miss medicine and science, they think science goes against Islam goes
against Quran goes against Allah, basically understood the philosophy of science, the azul of science, from an Islamic perspective, perspective, and even western perspective, they would solve that crisis on campus, and I told them, implement it. Now you have the power and the structure and the money. I said, if you don't have the resources, I'll teach it. This is my philosophical academic background. I'll do it for free. Let's do a pilot. I could roll it out for you get empowered, and you rolled out across the country, in academic secular American universities, even if you're studying nursing, you have to study philosophy 101. Even in the American University of Beirut, I
remember there was studying some obscure degree, but they still had to study their cover problem of evil without any answers. Because remember, don't think just because your university is objective now. That's what we think sometimes. Oh, he's a doctor, y'all. He must be rational and objective. Oh, he went to lungs. He must be a superstar. He must be very intelligent and objective and balanced. This is October GWAS. I've been in academia for the past nine or 10 years, maybe eight nine years. I did a postgraduate certificate and philosophy, a master's in philosophy and muscles in research.
In philosophy, and I'm doing my PhD, and I'm not saying this to blow my trumpet because doesn't mean anything. Learning one I have the Quran was more important than all of this stuff, oh, this nine years, my nine years is a waste of time compared to learning one I have the Quran, one Hadith by many missionaries to the I'm in the field, and I'm telling you, the secular academic world, even in this country has its own assumptions, metaphysical and epistemological meaning they have their own Aqeedah assumptions. They have their own ilmi assumptions, the assumptions concerning knowledge, and we have to unpack them. And in the academic space, we need to empower our faculties with a vision
and Allah centric vision, and our camera centric vision. Where do I see Pakistan in 20 years? How I see Pakistan in 20 years in the academic space? Who must we become to achieve the who must the collective become to achieve the university collective? What must we do individually and collective to achieve the vision, if this is not happening, now, we're totally lost. We are totally lost, we need to have an Allah centric aka centric vision, and to develop a strategy that necessarily leads to that vision. But we need empowerment, we have to come together in order for this to be achieved. And that's why these universities take lumps for example, I'm not going to say much about them,
because I don't want to get banned again. Because my band was for about 10 years. So they lifted the band in February Alhamdulillah. So I'm going in a few days, I think with our beloved brother, Muhammad Ali, and inshallah it's going to be an exciting time. So, you know, may Allah bless them.
So, at Lums, one of the students I spoke to, he said, our religious department is actually the atheist department.
That's what he says.
And when they talk religion, and Islam is not true as a dominant worldview is sometimes true. I believe as a subjugated worldview within a secular paradigm, or within the liberal paradigm. Islam has to be taught properly, as a worldview with a rational foundation that is in line with the fitrah, satisfies, satisfies the heart convinces the mind. And that is true, and that we have solutions individually, socially and politically for the whole world and humanity. And were able to solve the so called intellectual issues that exist in academia and in the popular sphere. But in order for that to happen, we have to have the right structures on campus, and touch, motivate and
move the people of power on campus, to install this, and to execute this all across the country. And we have to do it now. Because I'm telling you very clearly, if we keep on doing what we're doing now, and there's a lot of great work happening, and great organizations. But if we continue at this pace with this strategy right now, and they continue what they're doing in the next 10 years, we're gonna have an existential crisis in this country. In actual fact, they already told me it's happening now, but it will get worse. So don't think you know, it's the elephant in the room. It is the elephant in the room. And remember what happens in the media. They give the youth a false
dilemma. When you have an Islamic issue, the media will present a clean shaven articular handsome man.
And on the other side, they'll present someone who's overweight, unkempt, mostly, who has sincerity but he doesn't know how to talk about Islam within this context properly. If I was a US being brought up in Pakistan, and I was middle class, I would not want to be with the Mobley let's be honest. But this is a false dilemma that has been framed. But we have amazing people, youth club, and others who should be given those platforms in mainstream media to show that you can be practicing is that make handsome fit, or ticular and solving intellectual and social problems in a way that's based on the Quran and the Sunnah. But the media has been designed to actually infect our
youth and future leaders with this false dilemma.
That's why we have a lot of work to do.
And we can't just, you know, I have my money. I have my driver. I have my gatekeeper. I have my cook, which is no more amongst Pakistani middle class culture. In Britain, if you have that you're seen as royalty by the way, not even middle class or upper class your royalty. Yeah. So you guys are equivalent in the West to royalty, whether you like it or not, you have these royal lives.
But that's going to come with a great responsibility and duty to Allah subhanaw taala because we don't want to fail Pakistan. Don't see it from the fact of oh, I'm okay. My churner okay, we live in a city
society, the society is going to affect every single one of us, we have to rise and Warren, implement some of these solutions. And really take this seriously, because I am going to repeat this again, if we continue what we're doing right now, and they continue what they're doing right now, backed by money and military and power and social media, the trajectory is there's going to be an existential crisis. And we have to think about changing strategy. Or I'd have had a meeting of a senior organization, the leader, and I said, Look, you need to do a revisioning and re strategy exercise. Because what you're doing at the moment is not enough. You need to train the trainer,
you'd have this vision of imagined having 1000 Dots paid by trained on atheism, trade on these issues, always going around the country, and having a grassroots connection. Because sometimes we focus too much on social media. If you study the algorithm, the algorithm is designed to meet you think you're having a bigger impact than you then you do. Yes, it's important. But that is should never be your main strategy. Never. Because it's designed with a liberal secular bias to keep people in this echo chamber. Yes, some people may walk in and out. You may get some successes. But if you look at it holistically, it's like a rocking chair. You're doing lots of activity, but you're not
going anywhere. We need to revive this hard work of sitting with people over time regularly and empowering them and creating future leaders, not five, not 10, but 1000s. And now's the time you have the intellect you have the capacity, you have everything that it takes. And I've always said this before. I'm telling you with some structural changes, Pakistan is not going to be great, but he could definitely take over the world. And it could take definitely one day take over India Slavonic Rahmatullah Zakharova