Seminar
Hamza Tzortzis – Born To Worship – Explaining how everyone worships and why Allah is worthy of our devotion
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of affirming one's spirituality and avoiding association with reality. They also emphasize the need for self-motivated gratitude and avoiding false accusations. The speakers mention the upcoming book on divine perfection as a way to awaken and become more aware of one's spiritual state.
AI: Summary ©
smilla rahmanir rahim in Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam. ala rasulillah Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh brothers and sisters and friends, and welcome to today's seminar, or tonight seminar depending where you are in the world.
It's called born to worship explaining how everyone worships and why Allah is worthy of our devotion. In other words, why Allah is the only deity worthy of worship. For those who don't know, my name is Hamza, undress, do this. And I'm really looking forward to spending some time with you today to articulate a very powerful approach to sharing Islam intellectually, and academically.
And when we talk about intellectually and academically sharing Islam, it's not only talking about philosophical issues, it's not only talking about abstract deductive arguments, or abstract philosophical arguments, but rather, if you study the Quran, if you study the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala, rather when we study the book of Allah Subhana, WA to Allah, and we study the son of a beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and we studied the way of our spiritual masters, our early scholars, the classical tradition, we will understand that sharing Islam is quite broad, meaning that there are different ways to engage with the human being, there are different means to
unclouded the innate disposition of the human being. I'm gonna explain what that means in a few moments.
Now, what I'm trying to say here is that it's also very important to use spiritual arguments or existential arguments, or an existential approach, or a phenomenological approach, really tapping into people's real world experiences, and getting people to understand their real world experiences, and to engage with them in that way. And it becomes far more powerful.
And hopefully, by the end of today's session, you will understand that this approach that we're going to take today is one of many approaches within the broad spectrum of sharing Islam according to the Quran and the Sunnah, pious predecessors pious spiritual masters if you like, and you're going to find it quite powerful in sha Allah. So what we're going to cover today, the first thing that we're going to cover is spend a few moments on speaking about the kind of metaphysical backdrop In other words, what is the metaphysics in the Islamic tradition concerning the human being? What is the human and this is very significant in the context of any type of Dawa any type of sharing a
song, whether is intellectually or academically otherwise, because we are calling a human being, to the way of Allah meaning, the fact that Allah is worthy of worship, that we must single out and direct all of our internal and external acts of worship to Allah alone, and we must recognize him, we must understand that he is the sole transcendent, unique creator, maintainer, sustainer, of everything that exists, and He is worthy of our utmost gratitude and extensive praise.
So
this is very significant, because when we're sharing a song, and we're speaking to the human being, and we're telling the human being, to follow the way of Allah Subhana, WA, to Allah, as Allah says, In the Quran, called the way of Allah, we need to understand not only who Allah is, as well, which we're going to talk about today, of course, but we have to understand what is the human being. Because if we treat the human being as other than the human being, then we're not really engaging with the human being an effective way. So if we're treating the human being, for example, a some kind of
artificial intelligence machine that would train the human being as an abstract
AI machine, we're treating the human being as a kind of functional model of the mind, because in the philosophy of the mind, functionalism is generally speaking in simplistic terms based on inputs, mental states and outputs as a relation between inputs, mental states and outputs. So are we treating the human being as just a functionalist model of the mind that we just give the human beings some input, and we're going to expect some kind of output, right? We're going to give some kind of dour algorithm and then we're going to expect some positive change, we're going to expect them to basically accept Islam.
This is the wrong approach. And this will be treating the human being other than the human being is
So what's very important when we're talking about sharing Islam intellectually and academically or otherwise, we have to know who the human being is, in order to effectively deal with the human being, in order for us to
share Islam effectively because we have to be sincere to Allah subhanho wa Taala. And we have to be sincere to the human being. Because as you know, and I repeat this a lot in the Islamic tradition, based on various ahaadeeth various prophetic traditions,
and even based on the Quran as well. When Allah says that the Prophet Solomon was sent as a Rama as a mercy to all the worlds to everything, also the prophetic teachings of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he said, as noted by Buhari in three al Kabir and this is a authentic hadith that you must love for humanity, love for Linnaeus, that's the Arabic leanness for the people for humanity, what you love for yourself. And we have the other prophetic tradition, which was collected by the famous scholar and now we in his urbane in his 40, Hadith, 40, Hadith 40 prophetic traditions is the 13th Hadith.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, lay, you know, I had to come Hector, you hit him up early enough. So he you won't truly believe unless you love your brother, we love yourself. And now we he comments on this prophetic tradition. He said, This also means your brother and sister in humanity. And what does it mean to love others we love for ourselves? What does it mean to, to law for humanity, what we love for ourselves, it basically means that we must be committed to the goodness and guidance of our people. And this is exactly what I know, I know what he was saying. And even the Maliki scholar in Tecate, I read, he says something very similar, we must be committed to
the well being to the goodness and guidance of all people. This is the prophetic approach. This is the Islamic approach. So if we're sincere to allow us to say to people, we must be sincere in the commitment to the well being. And if we're sincere in the commitment to their well being, which means goodness and guidance, then when we're talking to them about Islam, we have to do it in the most sincere way. So it means we can't treat them as some kind of function is model of the mind, we can't treat them as some kind of abstract AI machine that we're just going to type in some kind of rational arguments, some kind of algorithm, and we're going to get some type of results. And this is
why it's very important in any context concerning the dialogue concerning sharing Islam, is that we understand who the human being is, because that's missing really, in our dollar discourse that's missing in our discourse today, what is the human being because we in some ways, we presume that the human being is some kind of function is model of the mind some kind of abstract artificial intelligence entity and was going to give them some kind of, you know, robust, philosophical argument expecting results. But that's a very, in hold your respect and intellectually pathetic approach to the human being? Why? Because Allah, who created the human being knows a human being
better than we know the human being. And Allah is telling us that's not the human being.
So obviously, I'm not going to get into like Islamic psychology or Islamic kind of metaphysics concerning what is the human, but the human, as Allah says, In the center talks about various things. And the human is a roar has a soul
has a pile has a heart And remember, the heart does a little bit wavers.
And a function of the heart according to the LMR condition scholars is the Apple is the intellect, right? It's a function of the heart, then we have the knifes the kind of ego, psychological disposition, and we have the fitrah, the kind of normative original state of the human being. And all of these things are in the dynamic interplay.
So we have to appreciate this. And once we appreciate this, then we'll be in a better position to understand like, how do I how do I express that commitment to the goodness and guidance in their context? Meaning, how am I going to convey to them the message of Islam and treat them as they should be treated as a human being, rather than some kind of abstract artificial intelligence machine. And by the way, what we're going to talk about is so enlightened with Western cognitive science anyway, from the perspective of that people think that you know, they're rational, but in reality, you know, the kind of rational or intellectual positions are motivated by non rational
fact, such as ecological and otherwise. Anyway, I don't do that too much. We'll call this
we basically is to know Allah to recognize law to for your life's focus to be centered
To love Allah to obey Him, and to direct all acts of worship, the internal acts of worship and the external action acts,
then we're going to talk about the concept of everyone worships. Because if universalize, the kind of underlying logic of the concept of worship, you're going to really understand that even if someone rejects code, even if someone's an atheist, they actually worship something. And we're going to give an example of extreme nationalism to basically highlight this point. And then we're going to,
once you talk to human beings in this way, and you ask these questions concerning, you know, worship, and you ask the particular, which we're gonna unpack in a few moments, inshallah, concerning this topic, is going to create some kind of spiritual and existential vacuum if you like, because they're gonna be like, Oh, my god, yes, I actually do worship something. And it's going to raise, something's going to raise in their minds, they're going to think well, is that thing that I'm worshiping, actually worthy of worship. And then that's when we introduced the fact that Allah is the only day to worthy of worship. And I'm going to give you seven perspectives, or seven
approaches or seven arguments of why Allah is worthy of worship. And then we're going to do with some objections and going to questions. So hopefully this is clear.
So, awakening the truth within.
There's a few things we need to understand brothers or sisters we already spoke about. At length, it was supposed to be an introduction, but concerning the metaphysics of the human.
When we're getting down, we're sharing some intellectually and academically, we are actually talking to human being, we're inviting the human being to Allah subhanho wa Taala.
So in order to effectively invite the human being to the way of Allah, the fact that He is worthy of worship,
we have to treat the human being and understand the human being as a human being is and not in any other way.
And therefore it should raise the question, well, what is the human being, and that should make us realize that maybe our current understanding is completely wrong. Because a lot of people think the human being is is kind of abstract intellect, right? Which is fundamentally flawed, because the human being is not that Allah subhana wa tada talks about the human being has a role as a pilot, it does talk a little bit wavers, the heart, the spiritual heart, weavers, then we have an upper line intellect, which is not an abstract thing, but rather, is a function of the cold, right? And this is very interesting, because we know even even when someone's super intelligent, and they're great
philosophy for life, and they're really intelligent, they may still not accept Islam. Why? Because the the the outcome, the intellect is a function of the column is a function of the heart. And the heart can be diseased with spiritual diseases such as Kimber, such as arrogance, and arrogance will basically not allow the attacker to function properly within that dynamic, right? It's very, very, very significant, right? So anyway, come back to the point, you have an option, which is the function of the heart, then you have the knifes the ego, the psychological disposition, then you have the fitrah. And all of these, these things are a dynamic interplay. Now, I'm not here to
basically claim I know how that works in totality, no, but it's going to give you some advice in the context of sharing Islam in order for us to be a little bit more elevated in our discourse, and be more effective in our dour and fundamentally being reduced. Things are more pleasing to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Because if we're sincere to Allah with sincere to the human being will committed the goodness and guidance, then basically, we should do things that are in line with what with Allah's guidance, right, irrespective of success, because success comes from Allah subhanho wa Taala. But even in saying that, when you're closer to guidance, you're going to get success, the
true concept of success, not limited numbers in the next two, three months, or even two, three decades, or rather, continuing even after your death. And that's if you're closest to guidance, you're always going to be more successful. So coming back to the point, when we zoom into the fifth row from the context of sharing a some intellection. Academically, there are too many opinions concerning the fifth law. The fitrah is the kind of normative original state is the innate disposition, the normative original innate disposition of the human being. And we know this from the Quran in chapter 30, verse 30, we know this from the Hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wasallam. That's insane Muslim and the authentic hadith, narrated by by Muslim. And the concept of the fifth is very interesting, because in the Islamic intellectual tradition, and by the way, I'm not here to unpack the whole tradition here. We've mentioned this and other seminars and webinars. I'm not going to unpack it too much here, but generally speaking, there are two main opinions concerning the fifth law. Yes, it's the normative original innate disposition. However, there are two main opinions one opinion is that the fitflop has some type of knowledge within it, call it primary knowledge or call it proton knowledge and there is a discussion on what this type of
knowledge is, but the two main elements within the
fitrah that Allah is worthy of extensive praise worthy of worship and he is a reality right? And that's within the fitrah. However, as per the prophetic tradition that is authentic, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam talks about something happening, that the child or the human being actually somehow doesn't acknowledge the truth within them. And as you know, inshallah, we should know, the Hadith of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam basically says, that every child is born in a state of fitrah, by his parents who change him into or make him into a Christian or a Jew, or Megan and so on and so forth. So the amount of scholars discussed that some kind of veiling, or as
we like to call it, a clouding over the fitrah. So there is this proton knowledge, primary knowledge within the fitrah, that Allah is worthy of extensive praise is worthy of worship, and that He exists, he is the reality. But something happens to the fitrah because of socialization, because of evil, maybe Shu heart destructive doubts, maybe because of sins because of transgressions, it could be a range of things, but the point is, something happens. We like to use the kind of metaphor of the clouding of the fitrah. So the fitrah does get clouded. And in the context of this first opinion, when we said there is a form of primary knowledge within the fitrah, the fitrah gets
clouded, and therefore they can't see the truth that's already within them.
So our job as people who would like to share Islam is we need to ask the question, how do we unclouded their fitrah or help unclouded fitrah or facilitate that process in order to awaken the truth within? This is a very important question. And you will realize, if you study the Quran and the Sunnah, and the way of the scholars in our classical tradition, abstract rational arguments are not just doing it. Yes, that may be one of the means to uncover the fitrah. Absolutely. By may not, and will only realize this if we ask the question if we understand the human being as the human being is, and when we and this makes sense of over 1000 years of conversions of people, people
converting to Islam, it makes sense of the Quran, it makes sense of the Sahaba becoming Muslim, it makes sense of Islamic intellectual tradition, Islamic psychology even make sense of Western cognitive psychology. And this is why sometimes when you're in this kind of discussion, rational debate with someone and it's still not working, even though you're intelligent, and the person's intelligent, but something is not happening, that should give you an indication that maybe you're using the wrong means to uncover the fitrah. Maybe they need something else. And that's why if you're looking at this slide, at the moment, you have the fitrah is clouded, and are different means
to unclog the fitrah. Yes, rational arguments can do the job. Revelation, direct revelation can do the job we have experiences, practical real life experiences concerning this. And this could be considering the Quranic beauty, the meaning of the verses, people pondering over the Quran, all of these things can become means to unclouded the fitrah. To awaken the truth within, it could be your character, your good character could be a means to unclog the fitrah. Getting them to critically think and powering people to teach them how to critically think could be a means to unclouded, the fitrah. To awaken the truth within an accept the truth, it could be experiences, getting them to
reflect the natural beauty because natural beauty if you attended one of our seminars previously, you could find on our YouTube channel, she had the same talks about natural beauty, natural beauty increases all and when someone is has all it basically increases cognitive function, and it decreases one's ego. And these things are very important in terms of guidance, because someone has an ego is a buyer to divine guidance. And when someone has heightened cognition, they're more likely to accept the truth is a phenomenal, phenomenal and it's based on research. By the way, it's a phenomenal seminar, please attend it. It's recorded, it's on our YouTube channel.
We could refer to experiences as trauma, even positive experiences or human or negative experiences, human relationships, all of these can be unpacked. And we can teach people to stand in the possibility that the meaning that they're giving these experiences may not be the correct meaning. And the meaning that they should give those experiences is the meaning that alone wants them to give them those experiences. That approach itself could be any song called the fifth row. You don't have to use use all of these in isolation, or they're not exclusive. You could use them in combination. But the point here is, if we don't know what the human being is, and you don't have this approach,
and you don't ask the right questions, then you're going to be using only one means.
Or you're not going to be intellectually and spiritually mature enough to understand when you should shift your approach or combine certain ways to try and try and awaken the truth within try to unclouded the fitrah
To awaken the truth within and this is a summary, we're going to have a in depth session on just this topic as well. But it's very important to highlight even in the beginning of the seminar, because what's important is, the whole seminar is based on one of the approaches to unclog the fitrah, which is spirituality. And this whole issue of a lie is worthy of worship and showing to humanity, our lives worthy of worship. And using that, in the context of today's seminar, that would be an approach to oncloud, the fifth route to awaken the truth within them, we call it the spiritual approach or spirituality. And we're going to obviously unpack it and make you understand what that
really is. But that could be one way to unclog the fifth Ross, we're not saying this is the only way to give dour The only approach, you could use it with a combination of rash with rational arguments, with experiences with revelation, you could use it on its own depending, you know, if you listen with the intent to understand the human being, and you understand their context, because the sooner the prophetic way of engaging with human beings is to individualize them and understand the individual context, you could understand what the best approach is, anyway, notwithstanding, you know, once you've done that, then you may realize this is one of the approaches to use stand alone
or in combination with the other approaches. But obviously, we're just going to give you this particular approach in the context of today's seminar. So that's one opinion of the fitrah. The other opinion of the fitrah is that it has no knowledge. And this is based on the verse in the Quran where Allah subhana wa Taala talks about that the human being when it's born, before it's born, it didn't know anything, it doesn't know anything at all right? So there is no knowledge at all within the fitrah. Okay, that's another opinion. However, it's this opinion, this classical opinions to understand the fifth or to be an original normative in a state or in original normative natural
disposition. And instead of having knowledge, it's more of a kind of, it's like a vehicle, just like in this diagram that directs you towards the truth. If it's not clouded, and all the other variables are in place, then it will direct itself towards the truth. However, if it's clouded, the view called the fitrah, cannot direct itself towards the truth. And similarly to the first opinion, there could be different ways to unclouded the fifth row to allow the fitter to direct itself towards the truth. These include revelation experiences, character, rational arguments, reflection, introspection, and introspection, critical arguments, and of course, spirituality, which we're going
to be using today.
So how do we pull this context, when we put it in context to make you understand that there are different ways, different means to unclouded someone's fitrah to awaken the truth within, and we can't treat the human being as an abstract artificial intelligence machine as some kind of functional understanding of the mind in the philosophy of the mind, they have this understanding of functionalism, which is a particular understanding. And it's about inputs, mental states and outputs. And we just think we're going to give them some kind of input some kind of dollar algorithm and expect certain results. That's not the human being. And that's why a lot of AI dollar is not
very successful. And we're missing the true profound engagement with the human being, because we listen with the intention to understand and we connect with the human human being, or we try to connect with the human being,
as the human being is, as we, as we've just discussed, and we're committed to the well being, which is that we're committed to the goodness and guidance, then we're going to stand in the possibility that my approach that I'm currently using is not effective. And we need to stand in the possibility that there are other ways on clouding the fitrah in isolation or combination to awaken the truth within to uncover the fitrah to awaken the truth within if you follow the opinion, on cloud the filter to allow the filter to direct itself towards the truth. And this is an elevated understanding of the DAO. And when someone adopts this, their psychology changes, their relationships change with
the other human being. They're more committed in a sincere way to the goodness and guidance, they have more effective, dour and is closer to Allah's pleasure, and which is Allah's guidance, right? Close all those guidance default closer to Allah is pleasure, and you'll be far more successful.
And what we mean by success is success as Allah defines it, right? No, kind of, you know, abstract numbers and, you know, I'm going to get this many Shahada is yes, you're going to be successful in that way as well. But true success, which our lives our kind of temporary, finite lives. So yes, okay, let's pull this together now. So, yeah, so hopefully you got the point now. So this seminar is us discussing one way to unclouded the fitrah. to either awaken the truth within or to uncover the fitrah to direct itself towards the truth and that's going to be a key way that Allah teaches us in the Quran or alluded to, and it's the approach of the NBR because the Quranic strategy when it comes
And it's not the only strategy By the way, but a key strategy. And one would argue the central strategy in the Quran is to announce Allah to mankind is to engage with the human being in such a way to get them to realize that Allah is the only day to worthy of worship. And that we must direct and single out all acts of worship to Allah alone the internal acts of worship and the external acts of worship. And Allah says this very clearly in the Quran in chapter 21, verse 25, and we said not before you any messenger, that we revealed to him that there is no date except me, so worship Me, meaning that we must worship Allah subhanho wa Taala, almost directly, internal and external acts of
worship to Allah alone. And that obviously includes that we have to affirm His divine oneness, and and so on and so forth. I'm going to explain that in a few moments. And what's interesting is when you look at the Quran, and you do tambura of the Quran, you you ponder over the Quran, which is very important, by the way, because Allah says in the Quran, do not ponder over the Quran or the locks on the hearts and you can mirror the meaning here. So the more you ponder, the more your heart becomes unlocked, to receive the guidance and mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So when you ponder on the verses, many of these verses that talk about natural phenomena, or point you to look at the
interconnecting principles of nature, you see that they tend to affirm God's creative power. That is the oneness of his creative power, his transcendence, his wisdom, his power, his knowledge, His Majesty, and so on and so forth. And that affirmation is there for you to realize, just by reflecting on the natural phenomenon, in order for you to conclude,
God's divinity, Allah divinity, the fact that he's worthy of worship. So that's the general Quranic strategy. When there's talking about Allah's power, Majesty, the interconnecting principles of nature, the sun, the moon, the orbits, the stars, and so on and so forth. It's there to get you to realize and affirm something that you already know, within your fitrah if you like, if you follow the first opinion, or something that's obviously self evident, which is the kind of existence and power of Allah subhanho wa Taala, for you to affirm this. And that will be used as a kind of anchor, if you like to conclude, and to place yourself intellectually and spiritually and spiritually, in
the understanding that Allah is worthy of worship. So this this general strategy in the Quran concerning natural phenomena, or talking about Allah's majesty, and creative power and transcendence, is that you affirm that and that helps you realize that Allah is worthy of worship. And this is very interesting. This is a key strategy in the Quran. And the Quranic arguments, and the Quranic strategies are the best strategies because they come from Allah subhanho wa Taala. So it's time we use them. But notwithstanding, we've already given you the kind of metaphysical backdrop about the fitrah and the clouding and different ways to unclog the fitrah to either awaken
the truth within or to allow the fitrah to direct itself towards the truth. We already spoken about that. So this is one of multiple ways of uncovering the fifth row or one means amongst other means to unclouded, the fifth row, to awaken the truth within. But to be honest, this is one of my favorite, because it applies to everybody, whether you believe in a lot or no if you you know, if you claim to reject him or not, it applies to everyone it applies to atheists applies to Christian as it applies to non religious people to humanists. And if you do it in the right way, you can have an effective, powerful discussion and really introduced to people, the beauty of Allah subhanho wa
Taala is Beautiful Names and attributes, the fact that is worthy of worship, and it will be placed in a phenomenological context will be placed in this kind of experiential context because it's going to refer to their own existence and life, because you're going to make them realize that they worship something, but they should be worshiping the one that is actually truly worthy of worship. Allah subhanho wa Taala and that's what, that's what we're going to discuss in sha Allah. So, what is worship?
worship brothers and sisters entails the following it is to know Allah subhana wa tada which means to recognize him to have your life's focus on Allah subhanho wa Taala and to make Allah central to your life and to know Allah, in terms of getting to know who he is. So this is what it means to know Allah subhanho wa Taala. So that's an aspect of worship. Also, it's to love Allah.
And
loving Allah is something extremely important, which we're going to unpack when we talk about wildlife is worthy of worship, but loving Allah, sometimes it's not spoken about much, but it should be because this is very central to the Islamic tradition. Because when
We say that Allah is worthy of worship, he actually also means Allah is worthy of adoration is worthy of our love. And we must love Allah more than anything else which is which echoes the prophetic teachings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So worship entails to know Allah, to love Allah and to obey Allah, that what does that include that in that includes to be humbled before Allah subhanho wa Taala, to be humbled before the divine, it also means to have positive fear of Allah subhanho wa Taala obviously, there's a difference between positive and negative fear or have to unpack this too much by negative fears that you're afraid of like a monster. That's not the type
of fear that we have of Allah Subhana water Allah is more of the type of positive fear that we feel losing the connection with Allah, we fear losing his pleasure, we fear the consequences of removing ourselves away from Allah subhanho wa Taala just like a mother in a shopping center with a child and she tells us the child and the child because doesn't want to lose the pleasure of the mother does not lose, lose that connection wants to come closer to the mother actually holds on to the mother says sorry, Mom, please forgive me. It's that type of positive fear. Also obeying God includes submitting to Allah subhanho wa Taala, this kind of peaceful submission to Allah subhana wa Taala.
Another aspect of worship is that we must direct and single out all acts of worship to Allah alone, the internal acts of worship, which are the actions of the heart, because in the Islamic tradition, you have an understanding of the actions of the heart, like to walk like a reliance that you rely on Allah Subhana Allah to Allah. And also you have actions of the limbs that external actions such as da sadaqa, giving charity, prayer, you know, the bowing in the frustration, and so on and so forth. Now, obviously, the external acts of worship also have an internal element because you must have a class which means you're doing it for the sake of Allah, you must be sincere, you must have the
correct intention. But it's, it's useful just to categorize them as internal and external, but they both have a connection from that perspective. So this is summarise what is worship, it is to know Allah to love Allah to obey Allah and that includes being humble before him having positive fear of Allah, submitting to Allah. And also it means to single out and direct internal and external acts of worship to Allah alone. And this is summarized in on key tab, right? What's on key tab, it's, you know, the ohm is the mothers is the mother of the book. And what's interesting, you know, the children revolve around the mother, right? So the ohm, the mother of the book is quite central to
the book and he explains the whole book and oncotype is sort of unfair to her the first chapter of the Quran. And Allah says in the fifth verse, It is You we worship and You we ask for help, obviously, these are the words that we say to Allah subhanho wa Taala, we say this every day in our five daily prayers, we say in every, every unit of prayer, we say, It is You we worship and It is You we ask for help. And this basically, you know, opens the door to massive exegesis volumes and volumes on just what this means. And you know, this means love and reliance and so on and so forth. But as a useful kind of conceptual analysis, if you like worship entails to know Allah to love Allah
to obey Allah, and to direct and single out all acts of worship to Allah Allah. So let's quickly focus on knowing Allah because it's very important to know Allah, which is, you know, a key aspect of worship, but also it's very important because we spoke about the importance of knowing the human being because you're cooling the human being to the way of Allah. And we now need to understand both we need to know who Allah is, in order to invite the human being to Allah. Now obviously, with Allah is the greatest example and I'm not making an analogy you can't make analogies with Allah Subhana water Allah Allah says in the Quran, lays the chemistry he shade, there is nothing like his example
Lisa can miss he as mythical his example shade anything. So there is nothing like any any, there is no example that you can use to compare with the example of Allah subhanho wa Taala, which is very interesting linguistic strategy here because it's not saying there is nothing like Allah. There is nothing like Allah's example, which is more of an emphasis if you'd like that. The total transcendence of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So what I'm saying now is not an analogy, it's more than a fortiori argument, meaning by greater reason. So you know, if I'm a salesperson and I'm selling a car to a human being, not only must I know the human being in terms of what their likes and dislikes
are, you know, a bit of human psychology to be a good salesperson, but in order to make an effective sale, I have to know the call. If I don't know nothing about the car,
I'm not going to sell the cost, if I'm say, selling, trying to sell the person, a Lamborghini, and all I know is about peychauds then with all due respect, I'm not going to sell the Lamborghini effectively, right? So from by greater reason, not only must we understand what the human being is as per the Quran and Sunnah and to really, you know, from an Islamic psychological perspective, address the human being in that way, but we have to know who Allah is as well, which is very important. And this is important because part of an aspect of worship is to know Allah, as Allah says in the Quran in chapter 47, verse 19, so know that there is no data except Allah. So when we
say knowledge here to know Allah subhanho wa Taala, we're really also saying to acknowledge Allah, to be aware of, to recognize and to have certainty in Allah subhana wa to Allah, in the Islamic tradition, Allah in terms of affirming his existence, and the fact that is worthy of worship, this is the most certain thing for us. This is absolute certainty. So this will knowing a lot entails as well. So I'm just going to summarize this by it's important, especially when we talk about wildlife is worthy of worship. But when we talk about knowing Allah, we're really talking about the tell heed of Allah, the oneness of Allah subhana wa Tada. And we could talk about Allah's oneness in the
following way and earlier may have spoken about in other ways, but this isn't a nice way of putting it together. So one way of talking about Allah subhanho wa Taala with regards to his tell heed, firming his oneness is to talk about first and foremost the oneness of his creative power. What does this mean? This means that we have found that Allah is transcendent, he is the unique, only sustainer maintainer. fashional own a master of everything that exists. And this is very important. And if you give these descriptions to other than Allah, then this is what is called as ship, which is Association ism. This is a form of a associationism, or associate associate partners with a law
in the Islamic tradition. This is shidduch and shidduch is the grievous transgression, something that we'll briefly talk about in a few moments. Then we can affirm the oneness of Allah, his names and attributes, that Allah has names and attributes. He says, Allah's names are the most beautiful names, or the Beautiful Names belongs on this panel with Tana. In actual fact, this is something that my dad says which is very interesting. Yeah. And I think I told him was actually the sort of core answers right, but you know, the Beautiful Names belong to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Anyway, so when we affirm the oneness of Allah, his names and attributes, what are we seeing, he was saying
that they are transcendent Lacy committee, he, she, we affirm them. And we also believe in their maximal perfection in the Islamic tradition and all the schools of creed, the main schools of creed, they affirm this that Allah is maximally perfect. What does this mean? Allah's names and attributes are to the highest degree possible. They have no deficiency and no flow. Okay? So take for example, Allah is love. So Allah is Allah wa dude, he is the loving. So Allah says love is to the highest degree possible. It's transcendent. It's the most purest form of love. And it's the highest degree possible without any deficiency and without any flaw, okay. Now
when you now say that Allah's names and attributes are like a human beings, what you've done now is humanisation. Okay, you've humanized Allah's names and attributes, which is schicke, which is a form of associationism. If you do the other way around, if you say this human being, he is like or his attributes are like Allah, like he is loving like Allah, then what you've done is you have defined that human being, which is also should, which is also associationism, or associating partners with Allah subhanho wa Taala, which is the grievous sin, the grievous transgression, and we're going to speak about why that's the case in a few moments.
Then another way of understanding loss oneness is the oneness of his divinity. But does this mean this means that Allah is worthy of our worship is worthy of our unconditional obedience of our utmost love of our prayers or our extensive praise of our ultimate gratitude. He's the only deity worthy of worship, all acts of worship, the internal acts of worship and external acts of worship must be dedicated and directly to him alone. If you take these acts of worship, and You give it to something or someone or some things other than Allah, this is again associationism. This is schicke schoodic. This is associating partners with Allah which is the greatest transgression. So in
summary, to know Allah means to acknowledge the law to affirm his existence, to be aware of him to recognize him to have certainty in him.
And you can really talk about knowledge of Allah from the perspective of how he'd affirming the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala, which can include
If you want to categorize it in this way, the oneness of his creative power, the one of his oneness of his names and attributes and the oneness of his divinity, just to summarize the oneness of his creative powers that is the only unique transcendent, transcendent, soul creative state and maintain a master of everything that exists. If you give these descriptions to other than Allah than this is a form of association ism, which is the grievous transgression the greatest injustice, the greatest injustice, the grace, greatest immorality is the greatest sin. Then, another way of understanding an additional way of understanding Allah's oneness affirming his oneness is affirming His names and
attributes that we affirm them, we affirm the transcendent nature of will also from them the maximal perfection, that they are, they are maximally perfect to the highest degree possible without any deficiency and without any flaw, and to compare Allah, Allah His attributes to human being, and to compare human attributes to Allah both of these cases are a form of association ism, which is a form of schoodic. Also the key understanding of Allah Tao here, the oneness of Allah subhana wa Taala is that is that oneness of his divinity, that Allah is the only day to worthy of worship, utmost gratitude and our our greatest love and our prayers, and our extensive praise, and acts of worship
must be directed to Allah alone. If we don't do that, that's associationism and that is the greatest crime in sin.
So, briefly on associationism, the greatest sin is the greatest transgression. Allah says in the Quran in the 25th chapter verses 68 and 70. Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with him, but he forgives what is less than that for whom He wills and he who associates others with God with Allah has certainly committed tremendous sin. But there is a caveat. Allah does forgive associationism what this verse is talking about is people who die in a state of shock or die, and not doing Toba not repenting from association is not repenting from shidduch, not repenting from associating partners with Allah. But if you do shidduch in your life, and May Allah protect everyone
from this, if you do associate partners with a lot in your life, and you repent to Allah, you find a lot of forgiving and merciful. But if you close the door, to Allah's mercy and guidance, which is always open for every human being, if you've closed the door deliberately, by continuing a life of associate partners, the lodge to the degree, that that is your eternal intention, if you like because Allah says the people have *, you know, if they'll be brought back to Earth, they will do the same thing. So it's like you have your internally or you're perpetually intending, associating partners with Allah and you and you've died in that state, then you've made the decision for
yourself. You've you've pushed away Allah's guidance and mercy. you've pushed it away, and I was going to give you what you want. Yeah, and that's something very important for us to understand. And, you know, Allah doesn't want us to, to associate partners with him. Allah wants people to connect with him, to love him to know him to have a relationship with him. Allah wants this Allah says in the Quran, that he doesn't provide disbelief for his servants. This is the essence of the meaning and the more fostering those who explained the Quran say that Allah want people to go to Paradise. We push people away. We push Allah subhanho wa Taala in terms of his guidance and mercy
away, we push it away. And we commit injustice to ourselves, and we throw ourselves into the punishment.
That's why Allah says don't blame Allah, Allah didn't run them, they run themselves. And this is why the question is not how can a loving Lord send someone to *? That's the wrong question. It's how can you choose * over a loving Lord? How can you do that? Why are you choosing *? Right guidance, a messy and divine perfect love is waiting for you.
Now, you know for that to be forced on you from the perspective that you have no free will anymore, then everything loses meaning anyway, if I put a gun to your head and said, give charity your charity has no meaning. Likewise, in order for these things, to have their profound value and significance, you have to have a choice. So what's going to be your choice? Are you going to choose * over loving Lord? That's a choice that you need to think about carefully. Allah says in the Quran in chapter 23, verses 99 and 100. And those who invoke not any other data along with Allah, except those who repent and believe, and do righteous deeds for those Allah will change the sins
into good deeds, and God is all forgiving, Most Merciful. Not only will ALLAH forgive you, but who will make those evil deeds into good deeds was phenomenal. And this includes schoodic if you repent to Allah, if you turn back to Allah subhanho wa Taala but just to be a little bit more nuanced, and obviously what I have time to add
pack this right here. And that's why I've put it in the notes here. Now, when we talking about associationism, and Allah will not forgive associationism that you're going to be in, you're going to throw yourself into * for eternity. This applies to major forms of associate partners with Allah, there are less than forms that do not lead to disbelief in this context. However, major forms of associate punishable law include, you know, praying to other than Allah, and believing other things are worthy of worship other than Allah and that is all disbelief, which is if you die in that state, then you've thrown yourself into a tunnel *, and obviously, there's nuances here and you
know, there is a discussion amongst the scholarly tradition that even if you do the lesser forms of associating partners with Allah, the lesser forms of sharing such as ostentation, doing a deed for other than good sake, like you know, giving a seminar right is supposed to be dialogue, which is, you know, virtuous in Islam is supposed to be doing for the sake of a life, I'm doing it for my ego for Pray, pray, praise or pleasure. This is ostentation Ria. And this is what you call the lesser form of shirk. But there is a discussion that if there's a continuation of that, then that could end up being a major form of Shrek in some way there are there is that spiritual discussion. The point
I'm trying to say here is that there's more to be said about this matter. There are major forms and lesser forms, major forms, need to disbelieve, lesser forms, don't necessarily do that at all. And I'm not gonna unpack that right here. But the most important part and that's why you need to continue your intellectual spiritual journey. But what's important is to understand that associationism worshipping other than Allah is the grievous sin. And if you don't repent from it, and you die in that state, you die in the state of disbelief, the major form of Shrek, then you've thrown yourself into eternal *, perpetual *. But Allah says, If you repent, and you do good
deeds, Allah will change the evil into good deeds and Allah will forgive you and you will find Allah in the greatest of expectations. So that's why it's very important is to have Hassan have been Billa a good opinion of Allah Subhana water Allah, if you've if you if you believe he's going to forgive you, then he will forgive you. And that belief is not just lip service, but it manifests in your heart on your tongue and how you act. So if you translate that into turning back to Allah, Allah will forgive you. Okay? So because we believe Allah, His love is maximally perfect without any deficiency, and without any flaw, which is totally different from the Christian tradition, by the
way, you know, just as a side note, and I don't want to go too much into this, because with Sapiens Institute ago book coming out on this, that I don't believe that mainstream Christianity has sold the world a lie, that the biblical God is a loving God, with all due respect, how can it be the case, because maximal love perfect love entails perfect forgiveness. But if you start from the beginning of the academic narrative, Adam can't be totally forgiven. In the Christian tradition, there must be a black blood sacrifice, forgiveness of humanity, the so called inherent sin, which we don't believe in, that can only be forgiven, outside of the relationship between the believer and
his creator. It has to be an external sacrifice. And you have to acknowledge that sacrifice at the same time, which now, which is not only a form of injustice, but it's not a form of maximal perfection. But you could if you contrast that to that Quranic narrative, is a manifestation of maximal forgiveness. And a loving Lord is
maximally forgiving. So what's the summary of the story? Adam alayhis, salaam, slips as of fall from grace as the Christian tradition says, it's a slip, Allah describes that as a slip. And then what does Allah say? Then Allah says, and then Allah turned to them, because who moved? Allah didn't move from that perspective. It was the sin the sinner in this case, Adam, marry his son who moved in his wife they moved and Allah turn to them, told them words of forgiveness. And Allah forgive them is based on the relationship
is based on them to sincerely for asking for forgiveness. But what's very interesting, Allah turned to them and taught them how Allah will forgive them for robinair dilemna and fusina lm tuck fildena with our handle an akuna minal kasuri.
Beautiful. So this is maximum forgiveness, because not only is will ALLAH forgive someone who asked for forgiveness, Allah turned to, to us if you like, by extension, because Adam at his time is our father and, and taught him the words of forgiveness. So contrast the two scenarios. The biblical God can't forgive unless there's something outside of the relationship and it's a blood sacrifice, right? Right. It's not based on the relation
cannot forgive because it's too holy, right.
But um,
What's the panel attalla
he's transcendent. Nothing affects him.
He's complete. He's perfect. He's awesome and he is the independent he is a self subsisting
and he is the loving dude he is the forgiving. And
Allah, when a servant transgresses and moves away from Allah, Allah has taught us how to come back, to come closer to him just to have a sincere heart, and to ask for forgiveness, right. So it's based on the relationship. This is maximal forgiveness. Anyway, there's more to unpack. By the way, there's a quick summary, but I wanted to mention this, because it's a big lie. Anyway. So why is associationism the grievous sin I have to give credit here to our beloved brother all stirred up the law? And did you see I know, is something that he wrote very recently. And I don't think he mentioned all of the stuff I've mentioned, but it's complete anyway. And he motivated me to add this
end. And it's motivated me for you to tell you to go to his website, Abdullah
andalusi.com. He's got a piece on why associate panjal ally is the grievous sin. And, you know, he's got a beautiful quote from his piece that says, No ephemeral crime done by one human to another, his consequences temporary and effect is limited can ever match the crime done against the eternal source of all creation of pillows, very beautiful. There's more beautiful statements in his piece concerning that. So please read that. So I'm just going to briefly talk about why association is and why should why associate partners or what is the grievous sin? Well think about this, since we're created by Allah subhanho wa Taala and solely depend on him. Denying and no worshiping Him is a
crime against reality, which is something that Abdullah mentions is the greatest ingratitude is the worst evil and the greatest injustice has explained this. Why is a crime against reality? Because rejecting a law is a Reject rejection of Allah Huck, that's one of his names, the truth itself, and the basis for all reality, everything exists because of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And not extensively praising the one where you have extensive praise is a rejection of reality. So not worshiping alone. Associate partners with Allah associationism is a crime against reality itself, also is the greatest ingratitude. Why? Because no worshipping the one who gives us life. And who is the one that
everything depends upon is the peak of ingratitude. You know, our own very existence is because of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And not being ultimately grateful for this price as grift, which is something we're gonna explain in a few moments, is the greatest in gratitude. You know, we may you know, you could be ungrateful to your parents, I'm grateful to your teachers, I'm grateful to someone who's who's helped you, which is very wrong, by the way. But the greatest form of in gratitude is to be ungrateful to Allah because Allah created them. And all of these things happened as a result of Allah subhana wa tada
is also the worst evil. Why? Because Allah is the foundation of our objective values and morals. Allah is the foundation of the fact that human beings have objective value. Allah is the foundation for our objective morals. Now we are going to unpack that philosophy right here. by rejecting Allah is rejecting the foundation for all values on all morals. Therefore it's the worst immorality to reject Allah, not to worship Allah also is the greatest injustice because worship is Allah is right, not that he needs anything and we're going to talk about that later concerning the objections Allah is free is independent of his self subsisting, but this is worship is Allah is right by virtue of
who he is, and not worshiping Him is the greatest injustice. Because if you think about it, if worship is, Allah is right, and not worshiping Him is is is, is is removing is being unjust to Allah, then being unjust to Allah is actually the greatest injustice. Why? Because Allah is the foundation for all of our rights. Allah gives our rights, value, objectivity, and he is the one who gives our rights because he is the one who created us and he knows us better than we know ourselves. He is the foundation for all of our rights. So not giving Allah's right is tantamount equivalent of not giving anyone anyone's rights and more because remember, Allah is perfect and eternal. So this
is a summary of why should it is the greatest is the greatest sin is the greatest transgression, it's a crime against reality is the greatest and gratitude is the worst evil, and this is the greatest injustice. Please go to Abdullah andalusi.com to read more.
So, I know we've
been going quite long, right? But you know, I'm enjoying this and it's very important. It's not very important topics, brothers and sisters. Okay, so now we're in the crux of the matter. You got the essential
backdrop now let's go into the point what we want to talk about here, let's universalize. Now the understanding of worship that we mentioned, remember, is to know Allah, to love Allah to obey Allah, to, and to direct and single are all acts of worship to Allah alone. So let's universalize this, this understanding of worship. So it's to know something or some things the most, right. And remember, knowledge includes the focus of your life. While you're aware of the most the thing that you're most certain about, from an intellectual and spiritual perspective, the thing that you're most certain about.
Also, we could say, it's the thing that you love the most, you know, the thing that you love, to love something the most, okay? Also, it's to obey or to refer to something or some things the most, any direct acts of devotion to something or some things the most, and that includes ultimate gratitude and extensive phrase. So let me just summarize universalizing, the understanding of worship in the Islamic tradition, it's to know something the most, which includes focusing the thing that you focus in your life the most, the thing that you're aware of the most, the thing that you're most certain about, it's the thing that you love the most, or the things that you love the most, is
the things that you obey or refer to the most. And it's the thing or things that you direct acts of devotion to something the most, such as ultimate gratitude and extensive praise.
And what's interesting is when we have a discussion, obviously, with hikma with wisdom, and with Russia, and with mercy with a fellow human being,
you know, we want to get them to understand that actually worshiping something by virtue of what we've just done concerning universalizing, the concept of worship, right, the thing that you know, the most, the thing that you love the most the thing that you obey the most thing that you direct acts of devotion, towards the most, like, ultimate gratitude and extensive praise. And there are many examples that we can use, obviously, within the specific context of the dialogue, in order to get them to realize that it could be someone's ego, some could be a narcissist, it could be other people, it could be an ideology, like nationalism, it could be materialism, right? So let me give an
example with extreme nationalism, just to make you understand how you could universalize this concept of worship this, this focus on the thing that you know, the most, so for some extreme nationalists,
nationalism, its values, its ideas, his philosophies, and so on and so forth, is the thing that they give most recognition to, is the thing that they give most attention to, and the thing that they focus more, and also, the associated ideas and values that come from nationalism, are their center of attention. Right, yes, you know, say, for example, they may have to study at university, and they may have to study psychology, that may become the center of attention for for a temporary period. But generally speaking, the main focus, recognition, attention, awareness, is
the, the kind of nationalistic ideology.
So, that's what it means when they want to know something the most in the context of nationalism, nationalism becomes the thing that they want to know the most, because it's the thing that they recognize the most, they give the most attention to, they give the most focus to their actions are connected to this ideology the most. And, you know, they give their associate ideas and values more of a focus and attention and also, they have certainty in this ideology. So you know, one of the key things, you know, if they were to write down what the most certain about this would be, you know, extreme nationalist, you know, they will put their extreme nationalism, as you know, the top in the
top list.
So, they want to know, the kind of nationalistic ideology the most about love. Well, the the love of the nation and its history, and the ethnic group the most to the degree that destroys natural relationships and distorts one's moral vision. So they love the kind of extreme ideology, the nationalism, the nation, by the way, there's nothing wrong with you know, loving your country and loving your culture. Obviously, there's a criteria in the Islamic spiritual tradition, as long as it doesn't basically, you know, go above the Islamic values and ethics. But that's not extreme nationalism. Obviously, this that's totally different. That's just, you know, liking your tribe in
nothing wrong with that here, obviously, within the same caveats, which include Islamic ethics and, you know, the understanding of the Quran and the Prophet sallallahu, Alayhi, wasallam and the Sahaba. But let's put that aside for a moment. So, from the point of view of of worshipping, you know, nationalism as an ideology, you know, they love the nation the most is histories and that the ethnic group that belongs to the nation, they love it the most, the degree destroys natural relationships, like you know, you know, fellow human relationships, your neighbor, right, even say, you know, your spouse, right, say for example, you know, you got married
To someone who's not of your ethnic background, and then later on, you start developing this extreme nationalistic ideology. And then you get rid of your wife and kids because they're not pure enough, right? So destroys natural relationships distorts one more moral vision, once more vision, you start judging people by by virtue of the, you know, the allegiance to your nationalistic ideology, and you judge them and you you perceive them through the lenses of their particular ethnic group, not because of the virtue of the God consciousness or the good character, but rather, because of this particular ethnic groups that distorts your moral vision. That's how much you love it right? And you
have people like that.
Also, you have the obedience part. So you obey the dictates of the nationalistic ideology. You did your baits, leaders, you refer to its symbols to its rules and obligations related to nationalism. Right?
Also, you also dark acts of worship to nationalism, how do you do that? How do I how do you direct acts of worship to nationalism is very easy. Remember, extensive praise and ultimate gratitude actually forms of worship, right. And if you extensively praise the nation, its history or the distorted view of the nation's history, you extensively praise its present state of affairs, notwithstanding that no one's perfect, and no nations perfect, you do it to the degree that skews your mind. And you extensively praise it, symbols and leaders more than anything, and you give the ultimate gratitude, you're like, Oh, you know, I wouldn't be me if it wasn't for my nation. You
know, life would be meaningless without this, you know, without my nation and you know, the adherence to this extreme nationalism, and so on and so forth. So this kind of extensive praise, if it's the thing that you praise the most, I think that you direct, your utmost gratitude towards the most well, that's acts of worship. So you can see now that extreme nationalism could be your idol.
You could be an atheist nationalist.
Still your idol by virtue of what we've done with regards to universalizing, the concept of worship, or making it applicable here, because remember, is to know something the most, to love something the most, to obey something the most, and to direct acts of worship towards something the most, and we just discussed that with an example, extreme nationalism. And Allah makes it clear that, you know, association is Association ism, or worshipping something or worshiping something other than a lie. It's not just about you know, worshipping a physical idol. You know, Allah says in the Quran in chapter two, verse 165, and yet among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals to
him, they love them as they should love Allah, but those who believe are stronger in the love of Allah. So again, here, you know if you know they love things other than Allah subhana wa Taala, but Allah should be loved the most. Also, Allah says in the Quran in chapter 45, verse 23, have you ever seen no one who takes his desire as his own mood, he's takes his God as his own desire, right? You know, the narcissistic people in the world, you know, this, like self worship? Well, self worship, that auto deity, you know, self What if self worship, you know, the ego is to the degree where they basically just worship the dictates of the blameworthy desires and the ego centric and egotistical
desires, right, that becomes an object of the worship. Also, Allah says, no crime, chapter nine, verse 31, they have taken their rabbis and monks, as well as the Messiah, son of Mary as loads besides Allah, even though they were commanded to worship none but Allah, there is no deity worthy of worship except Him, glorified, he is he above what they associate with him. Obviously, we're not unpacking these verses any depth, but it's just to give you an indication, it's not just about a physical idol. It's also about another human being. So it's about your own self, your own ego, it also includes things like love, and so on and so forth.
So in the context of our in the concept of sharing a song with people, you could ask certain questions with regards to the topic that we're dealing with today. So you could ask, for example, and say, you know, Was this something that at any moment in your life that you wanted to know the most meaning that your whole life was, was was based about, about recognizing this idea that most of this thing the most, or your whole focus of life was centered around this thing the most? Right? All you more certain about? You know, was there something in any moment in your life that you love the most to the degree where, you know, you love them more than, you know, natural love, like the
mother, the love of your mother, or, or love of your siblings, and so on and so forth? You know, what's the saying that you obeyed or refer to the most it could be not one thing could be many things by the way, you know, the things that we've spoken so far, it could be not just one thing, but many things. You know, maybe obedience is something that you may not recognize, but you know,
Something that you refer to the most it's your frame of reference is your is your basis, it may be your explicit or implicit kind of frame of reference, the thing that you always refer to the most for some, it could be, you know, you know, a celebrity or leader or it could be the dictates of materialism, whatever. And obviously, you don't have to ask these questions in this way, by asking them in this simple way. So it just opens your mind on how you can interact with your fellow human being. And you could raise the question concerning you know,
you, if Have you ever expressed, you know, ultimate gratitude towards something or some things the most appraise some things the most or gave extensive praise to something the most. So when you ask these type of questions or related questions, you get to get you get them to think. And then you see some more from an Islamic spiritual tradition, that thing or those things are actually your objects of worship.
And, and this is very interesting, because it also echoes what the thinker multilink said, he said, a very profound, he said, Man cannot not worship because that's the default position of human beings. Because if there's something that you've loved the most, at one point obeyed the most or wanted to know the most. Or you've you've directed acts of worship, like ultimate gratitude, and have extensive praise towards the most, then that is your object to worship. And human beings always do that, right. And that's why it's very interesting that mining said, Man cannot not worship and he says, a crypt as he is by his very nature for worship, man cannot not worship and if his outlook is
cut from the spiritual plane, he will find a god to worship at some lower level, thus endowing something relative with what belongs only to the absolute, which is very interesting. He makes an interesting point, which is not entirely related, but he says, the desire for freedom is above all the desire for God, absolute freedom being an essential aspect of divinity, which is very interesting. Now, you know, the Euro 2020 just happened overseas 2021 but because of the pandemic, Euro 2020 just finished and he won. I forgot who won. Oh, the Italians won, of course, yeah, I watched the game, I was quite upset that England lost. Anyway, so the Italians won. So if you look
at a lot of football fans, they kind of, you know,
extreme football fans, right? football becomes the idol worship, right? Or the football team is the object of worship.
Because if you think about a lot of these fans is fanatics if you like, that's the main focus of the life. That's the only thing they want to know about the most.
They also love it the most right? There football team could be a means to break relationships with their friends and their family. Also, they would obey the most What does it mean by obedience, meaning if one of the celebrity football players of the team says something like spinach is good for you, as an advert, everyone's gonna stop buying spinach, right? So you have this form of obedience to the dictates of the celebrities, you know, upon your favorite football team. And obviously, this thinking allowed him and I think too much, but you get the point was the other thing, oh, acts of worship, you have football fanatics, who have who, who basically expressed ultimate gratitude and
extensive praise for their football team, or the favorite football players, like life is meaningless without the football team. life is meaningless without the hero football player. And you know, the whole life, even if it's subconscious, explicit or implicit, you know, they, they are so happy that they have a purpose in life, which is literally to worship this team spend loads of money to watch the games, home games, away games. And, you know, there is a kind of analysis if you like that, you know, modern football is like the new religion, if you like, right, getting everyone in the stadium. And, you know, this is like a form of idol worship. But, you know, I haven't analyzed it too much,
but you get the point even when it comes to football. You know, for many people, their football team and favorite football players can be the objects of worship, even from the perspective of what we just discussed in terms of what worship entails.
Now, this is one of my favorite verses in the Quran, because it elucidates and elaborates on this idea that everyone is in a state of worship. Allah says in chapter 39, verse 29, Allah puts forward this illustration, kind of man who has several partners for his masters are which are odds with each other be considered equal to a man devoted only to one master, All praise belongs to Allah, though most of them do not know. Think about this amazing, amazing analogy Allah is giving you this illustration Allah is giving. He's basically saying to us from a timber pondering point of view, he's telling us that there are two states of the human being, either you're worshiping something
other than Allah or some things other than Allah, and they don't know what's really best for you and they don't love you and have mercy for you and have a
For you, like Allah does because the person who said that Allah has more affection for his seventh and a mother as the young ones, right? And Allah knows you because He created you these things that you worship Don't you know, don't know you and they don't want best for you. Right? And they will currently. So that's one state, the other state is that you actually connected to and worshiping the one that is worthy of worship. And isn't this this describe life, if you're not connected to and be as being a service to and worshiping Allah, you're going to be worshiping something else, your football team, your ideology, your nafs, your ego, your Chihuahua to blame when he desires? I don't
know. It's so many things that you could that replace Allah subhanho wa Taala. If you're not knowing Allah, loving Allah being Allah, and darkening acts of worship Allah alone, you're going to be knowing something else, loving something else, obeying something else and directing acts of worship to something else. So what situation would you rather be the person who is enslaved to all of these masters than the old quarrelling? Or the one who is a slave to one master whose conditions best and this will give you true freedom and that's why you know, I want you to quote the seminar, the free slave, because what's interesting when you enslave yourself to Allah subhanho wa Taala, you are
truly liberated. You free yourself from the shackles of the enslavement to yourself, and to other people, or to other things.
And this freedom is amazing, because you know, the word for sold in Arabic is roar, and it shares the same root as the word the raw, which means ease and liberty. Right in Turkish. They have the word rot, I believe, which is, you know, from the Arabic it's like ease and liberty. And what's interesting is that the soul can only achieve this ease and liberty and serenity. Is that service Thomas Pannell Watson and connects to Allah. If it doesn't worship Allah, then you won't have raha, you won't have that spiritual liberation. So if you truly want to be liberated, then don't worship. The one the things that are not worthy of worship, worship Allah subhanho wa Taala.
So in your discussion with your fellow human being, and you raise these questions, you get them to understand that okay, if this is true, that I'm worshiping something, and you get them to realize that the thing that they're worshiping is not actually worthy of worship, and that will create an existential spiritual vacuum for you now to talk about, but let me introduce to you why Allah is worthy of worship. So let's do this give you seven reasons why Allah where they worship the sisters, reasonable one.
Allah is worthy of worship, by virtue of who he is. Allah says in the Quran in chapter 20, verse 14, indeed, I am God, I am a lot there is no date except me. So worship Me and establish pray for my remembrance. Okay. So Allah subhanho wa Taala is saying that there is no data where they worship except Allah is worthy of worship by virtue of who he is. Now, let me give you an example to understand this.
We praise things all the time by virtue of the attributes. So for example, you know, if you like mixed martial arts, if you watched some of the fights of Habib, you basically praising him by virtue of his martial arts ability of his athletic attributes, of his fighting attributes of his strength, and so on and so forth. You gave him praise by virtue of because of his particular attributes, even though he's not perfect. And even though his attributes are not to the highest degree possible, he's a contingent, unlimited human being. Also, forget martial arts, there's talk about poetry, you might love poetry, you might like the point of the East cabal, when he said, this frustration that you
find so difficult frees you from 1000 frustrations, or you could talk about rooming right? You might like Rumi, and you know, he came up with some amazing lines, phenomenal lines, actually, in many of his lines quite deep. You know, when he says things like, the cure to pain is in the pain itself. All right. Also, when he says and I'm paraphrasing, you know, true lovers don't really fall in love. They are they were already in love before they met. Right, which is another beautiful thing. And so on a soulful so you might love his poetic attributes. So you praise Him by virtue of his eloquence or his his project attributes and linguistic attributes, right? Even though he's not perfect, he's
deficient and flawed is a human being is contingent, but you still give Him praise by virtue of his attributes.
Likewise, if you're not interested in poetry, maybe like football, as we say, in the UK, or soccer, as you say, in North America, in America, you might like soccer, you know, you're a further euro 2020 has happened. And you may work you may have been, you know, extremely impressed by I don't know, one of the Italian players. And you know, you praised him. You gave him a round of applause. You stood up, you're like, wow, brilliant, right and Bravo wherever they say in Italy. And so you praised him by virtue of his because of his football attributes.
His soccer attributes, his athletic attributes, and so on and so forth. But he's not perfect. He's a human being, he's probably rated eight out of 10. He's not 10 out of 10. And even if he's 10, out of 10, it's within the human context is contingent and limit for and flawed in some way. So these examples I'm giving us to get you to understand that we naturally give praise to things by virtue of the attributes, even though the attributes don't directly benefit anyway, they don't sustain us or you know, keep us alive. And even though the attributes are not perfect, they have some deficiency and flaw. So if it's true that we can praise things that don't directly benefit us in any way, and
praise them by virtue of the limited and food attributes, then what is it mean about praising Allah subhana wa to Allah, whose names and attributes are to the highest degree possible without any deficiency and without any flow?
What does it mean? It means a lot is worthy of extensive praise. And extensive praise is a form of worship we already mentioned on keytab surah, Al Fatiha the summary of the whole of the Quran, the first chapter of the Quran, what does Allah say in the first line, Al hamdu, lillahi Rabbil aalameen. All perfect Praise and Gratitude belong to the Lord of everything that exists. Praise and Gratitude are keys to worship by forms of worship.
So Allah is worthy of worship by virtue of who he is, and not necessarily because he's manifested His names and attributes in your life in any positive way.
Don't get me wrong, He is worthy of worship and worthy of praise and gratitude, because what he gives us, some provides us but even if he didn't, Allah is worthy of worship, by virtue of who he is. Even if there was nothing to worship Him, Allah is still worthy of worship, and allies so majestic, and his attributes are so perfect, that if the whole world were to worship him, he wouldn't increase in His Majesty.
And if the whole world were to know worship him, he wouldn't decrease in His Majesty. So the first point Allah is worthy of worship by virtue of who he is, it's essentially this is unless right to worship is a necessary fact of his existence because of who he is just like what we just discussed. Second point.
The second reason why Allah is worthy of worship Allah created and sustains everything. Allah says in the Quran in chapter 35, verse three, all mankind remember the fame of Allah upon you? Is there any other creator other than Allah, who provides from for you from the heavens of the earth? There is no deity except Him. So how are you dude? Again, think about this, Allah is Allah Harlock. He is the Creator. He's on the HELOC. He's the perpetually creating, and a lot of panelists.
He basically created us in our lives. And I mean to think about this thought experiment, there is something in our life that has been given to us freely that is priceless, that we don't earn or deserve.
And if it's true, there is something in our lives that is given to us freely at every moment of our existence that we don't earn on or deserve. And it's priceless, then how should we feel we should be grateful? What is the thing is every moment conscious moment of our existence, these conscious moments come from Allah, we don't earn or deserve them. We can't even create a fly, we can't create life. And we know it's a priceless gift. Because if I told you how 10 minutes of conscious moments left, in order to have another 10 days, you have to give me all of your wealth, you give me all of your wealth, such as the priceless gift of these conscious moments, and their prices. And they're
given to us for free and we don't earn or deserve them. How should it make us feel grateful but grateful to whom? grateful to the one who gave me these conscious moments, Allah subhana wa Tada. And gratitude, as we explained, is a key and a form of worship.
The third point, Allah provides us with a numeral innumerable favors. Allah says in the Quran in chapter 14, verse 34.
And if you should try to count to enumerate the fevers of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is generally most unjust and ungrateful. I wanted to find a thought experiment or an example to show that we could find one blessing and that we couldn't come that blessing.
And, and I wanted to apply it to someone who suffers or someone who has a great life. Right? I didn't, I didn't want it to just just to be applied to someone who has a great life, but someone who has a life that may not be full of well being. And there is a good example. And by the way, this example has come from also our early pious scholars, and it's the heartbeat. Think about the heartbeat as a blessing brothers and sisters. The heartbeat is the physical suburb physical cores that allow users to keep us alive and we already spoke about the priceless gift of life of every conscious moment. The heartbeat if we had 10 heartbeats left
If I said to you to get another 10,000 heartbeats, you have to give me all of your wealth, you will give me all of your wealth, such as the priceless reality of every heartbeat.
And we don't remember what we said previously, we don't earn these conscious moments so on them or deserve them, and it's given to us freely in these conscious moments as a result of a hobby.
So, here's the question, I want you to individually count all the hobbies you had and a lifetime. I want you to individually count all the heartbeats you've had in our lifetime, it's impossible. For the first two, three years, you can't even count.
When you're sleeping, you can't count you have a huge black backlog, it's practically logically impossible to count, enumerate individual heartbeat in a lifetime. Now, let's shift this with regards to gratitude. I want you to think Alhamdulillah of every single hobby you had in a lifetime. It's impossible. You got such a backlog. Even if you started from the day that you don't have to count and how to speak you couldn't do it because you when you sleep, you can't do it. So isn't it true, that we can't enumerate individually each of our heartbeats and even be thankful for each one of our heartbeats?
One blessing.
If we have this correct perspective, we understand that anything above a heartbeat is a bonus. In actual fact, even if you had the ability to be grateful for every single heartbeat you've had individually, you would have to be grateful for the ability to be grateful. There'll be an infinite regress of gratitude. The point here is we can never truly be thankful and count the favors of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And interestingly, in this verse, I think Allah doesn't use the favor in terms of blessing in terms of the plural is in the singular, as a linguistic ploy to show forget all the blessings, one blessing, you cannot count, not even the heartbeat.
So if we can't even truly be grateful for a heartbeat imagine what type of gratitude we must have for everything else, brothers and sisters.
And all of those things that as a result of a loss of
utmost gratitude is due to Allah subhanaw taala.
The fourth point where Allah is worthy of worship is concerning self love. Now, self love leads to the love of Allah. Now, what do I mean by self love? Don't accuse me of promoting narcissism here. We're not talking about narcissistic traits, covert narcissism, you know, you know, the, the, the normal narcissist, none of this narcissism, I'm not talking about this. I'm talking about a mature self love. It's the kind of self love that the Eric from the psychologist, he writes, in his book, The Art of loving, it's like wanting good for yourself, say some mature his intellectual type of self love. And also, you know, if you think about it, there's nothing closer to you than you. If you
don't love yourself, how can you not love anyone else? Right? And you know, if you want to be loving and to be is to be related, if you can't relate to yourself in a loving way, then how are you going to love anyone else, and not say a lot of these people who really hate we're not nice people. They don't really want good for themselves, they don't really love themselves. And this echoes what the polymath, the proof of Islam, Al ghazali, the 11th century theologian, my life mentioned him, he talks about this in his here in his revival to the root of the village of sciences, I think it's in the face volume, he talks about love, he talks about this type of love, this self love that you want
good for yourself, you don't want bad for yourself. And Allah ghazali is saying, If you truly love yourself, from the perspective that you want good for yourself, you have to love Allah and why? Because you created, who created the ispad the physical causes that you can use to actually
come towards good to get pleasure to run away from pain, right to achieve your goals, who is the source of love? So all of these are kind of basic concepts that he's trying to allude to. And if you love yourself and you don't love Allah, then you're basically in a state of delusion. And he says, Whoever is so besotted by his flesh, appetites as to lack this love, neglects his Lord and creator, he possesses no authentic knowledge of Him, His gaze is limited to the cravings and to things of sense.
So self love should leave lead to the love of Allah subhanho wa Taala by virtue of asking certain questions, who is the source of love, who created me, who created the physical causes in order for me to use to actually achieve pleasure, achieve goodness for myself, and run away from pain, who actually knows was really good for me, Allah is above is the source of all goodness, and so on and so forth. So if he if you love yourself, and you don't really love Allah subhanho wa Taala, then you don't really you just besotted by your flesh, appetites as Al ghazali says, and you don't have authentic knowledge of Allah. And that's why knowledge and love are very important Islamic
tradition, because in order to love something properly, you have to know it, right? So to know that Allah is a source of love to know that Allah creates
Everything and causes everything to happen. And so on and so forth. These things are very important because once you want good for goodness for yourself and you know Allah, then you're gonna love a lot immediately, because he's the source for all of that goodness.
And remember, loving Allah is a form of worship. The fifth point, Allah is worthy of worship, because he is the most loving. So we're focusing on one of his names here and the fact that he is the loving and will dude. Now, Allah says in the Quran in chapter 85, verse 14 is the Forgiving the loving. Allah says in the Quran in surah baqarah second chapter, verse 165, we already mentioned this, and yet among the people are those who take other than God as equals to him, they love them as they should love Allah, but those who believe strongly in the love of Allah, also the professor Some said, which connects to this in some way, Allah is more affection t seven, and a mother to her
children narrated by widowed now this is very important when we spoke about Allah's names and attributes and that's why we had to mention Allah's names and attributes and knowing when like we said, Allah's names and attributes are perfect without any deficiency and flow and that they are to the highest degree possible. So just by virtue of understanding this in the context of Allah's love, because he says he's a good dude, and understanding who Allah is and having good and having correct knowledge of Him as Allah ghazali says, you're going to be compelled to love Allah, why Allah is and will do it coming from the Arabic word would which means a loving that is giving his love is to the
highest degree possible without any deficiency and without any flow, without any deficiency. And without any flow as long as to the highest degree possible. And it's the most purest form of love. Why because when Allah loves, he doesn't need to love get he loves Allah. It doesn't require completion. He is awesome and he is he is the independent he was the self subsisting, he is la Vinny, he is the free he's the riches, the independent and His love is greater than any love we can imagine even a mother's love because when a mother loves she needs to love it completes her. Allah doesn't require completion yet he loves. Imagine how pure His love is, so allows love is to the
highest degree possible. Love is the most purest form of love. So we must be compelled to love him. Here's a thought experiment. If someone came into your room and I said this person is the most loving person to have ever and will have ever walked on this earth. something's going to happen to you, something's going to happen to you and to be able to understand what that love is, by greater reason and the lies the highest example. If Allah has the most purest form of love, and love is the most maximal perfect love with no deficiency or no flow, then we must be to have a must and Allah tala we must be compelled to love Allah and loving them. Light is a form of worship. The sixth
reason why Allah is worthy of worship, is because we are natural born worship has Allah says that our purpose in life and this is in chapter 51, verse 56, I did not create the spirit world the jinn nor mankind except to worship Me meaning except to worship Allah subhanho wa Taala. We are natural born of that word, worshipers. We already discussed this by universalizing, the concept of the aspects of worship, and we know that we, we have something that we focus on the most, or we want to know the most we have something that we love the most we are saying that we obey the most we have something that we direct our extensive praise and gratitude, ultimate gratitude towards the most
these, it could be one thing or many things. The point is we do do that. So that's our object of worship, when natural born worshipers were the worshiping Allah worshiping something other than Allah. And we already spoke about the fifth round and disposition, that we have this natural tendency to worship and to love something the most, to refer to something the most, and to give extensive praise to something the most it might be your own ego or other people and ideology. But the point is we do that. It seems to be that we have a natural from a fundamental logical perspective, from the perspective of the first person experience that we we, we we worship something
by virtue of what we've discussed concerning the aspects of what the aspects of worship are.
So if we're natural born worshipers,
then we need to realize that we need to worship the one that is actually worthy of worship. And just by merely talking about Allah subhana wa Tada. He is describing Allah as Allah describes himself and as, as the prophets of some describe Allah, for Allah is beauty and he loves beauty. Allah has named the Most Beautiful Names. Allah is the sole creator the sustain he will do he is the loving his own man his intensity merciful his over him, is I'll borrow the source of goodness is Al Hakim he has he's the wise he's Aleem is His alene His dynoing is a Latif he's subtle,
and so on and so forth. When you when you just introduce people to Allah subhanho wa Taala and since there are natural born worshipers, they're going to be compelled to worship Allah subhanho wa Taala and this may not be necessarily a reason why Allah is worthy of worship.
But it gives you the kind of, you know, background to why Allah, you know is worthy of worship or why we should worship Allah or the kind of driving force behind all of this because we're natural born worship as we are born to worship. And some people don't have a line their life they don't know who Allah is, and that's why they worship other than Allah but the minute you introduce who Allah is, his names and attributes, his reality who he is, people going to be compelled if they have, you know, sincerity, they're going to be compelled to worship Allah subhanho wa Taala. Finally, the seventh reason why Allah is worthy of worship is we must obey Allah. Allah is worthy of our
unconditional obedience. Allah says in the Quran in chapter three, verse 132, and obey Allah and the Prophet so they may you so that you may be given mercy. And we know obedience to the person Salaam is as a result of a being of love, because he commands us to do so. So why is it the most rational thing to do to obey Allah? Some people say are you obey God? How primitive and medieval? This is? No, I'm sorry. We need to be proud about this. This the most is the height of rationality is the peak of the intellect, to wish to to obey of law, which is a form of worship, right? Well think about this brothers and sisters, who is Allah, he's al Hakim, Al le, he is the ultimate authority.
He is the knowing he is the wise he has the totality of knowledge and wisdom, Allah has the picture, we just got a pixelated understanding of reality. Allah knows, and we don't realize unbar is the source of all goodness. So we're going to follow His commands, we're going to obey him because he has the highest authority.
And you remember, the door swings both ways. Don't get it to this. Don't people, atheist? Non religious people, obey things all the time? Don't you obey the dictates of your ego and your Shahar watch your blameworthy desires? Don't you obey the dictates of your politicians and the scientists and people of knowledge and doctors? I'm not saying you shouldn't be them in their particular particular fields of expertise? Of course, you should, you should refer to them. But don't you do that anyway? What does that show it shows that you refer to something or base something by virtue of their
expertise when you're in a plane, and you know nothing about turbulence or the science of how a plane flies. And the pilot says, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to be experiencing some turbulence, please sit down, buckle up, or you may harm yourself, you're not going to say, forget this guy. I'm going to start, you know, moonwalking on the island. Of course, you don't do that you sit down, you buckle up, you make dry you supplicate to Allah right?
Because, you know, he has an authority that you don't, and you obey Him or refer to him by virtue of his authority, when we go to a doctor, and we say we have these symptoms, and we don't have any medical expertise. But we know they have the background, medical expertise and the experience and, you know, the curriculum, VT the the history of, of being a good doctor and so on and so forth. You know, the they have the education, we, we listen to them, we say Yes, okay, I have COVID, for example, will have in mela protectors, or you know, I have you know, a certain disease, and they tell you to go to a pharmacy and they prescribe some drugs for you and you take the drugs, you don't
stop now, questioning the chemical compound of the drug or question the expertise of the doctor fine, you may ask for a second opinion. But generally speaking, you don't reject them, you obey them or refer to them by virtue of their particular expertise and authority that they have, even when you go to school. By the way, if you refer to the previous seminar that I did on God's testimony, I spoke a lot about the epistemology of testimony. So I'm just summarizing here. Now, when you look into epistemology of testimony, you understand that we have to refer to the authority of other people, we can't know everything, just like Dr. Elizabeth fricker says that, you know, given that
her limitations are parametric, she can't know everything she has to refer to the authority of others. So if it's true, we have to refer to the authority of others, then by greater reason, how must we refer to the authority of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Since he knows everything, he has the totality of knowledge and wisdom, right? He has the picture, we just got the pixel, there'll be the most rational thing to do to obey Allah, it is irrational to not obey Him. If it's irrational, to reject and disobey and not refer to experts in science or in medicine, then imagine how irrational is to disobey Allah subhanho wa Taala, who created the scientists who created their minds? And he
who is who has the totality of knowledge and wisdom.
So that's, that's what we must obey Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now, by the way, you may argue, a room I said, this was a phenomenological. existential approach. I'm not saying this is a deductive argument. You may think what does this mean? This doesn't assume I exist, doesn't assume that this is what Allah says, doesn't this assume that the Quran is true? Don't worry about that. Because remember, we said about the fitrah. The cloud could be, the cloud could be unclouded by virtue of introducing them to who Allah is and why he's worthy of worship. That's very significant from a phenomenological first person experience perspective.
So to complete the seminar, brothers and sisters, there are two main
objections to this. The first objection is, what does Allah need? Oh worship? Of course, no, we've already affirmed this but just to affirm it again Allah says in the Quran, Allah is free of need the Praiseworthy, he says it's in chapter 22 verse 64. And we know Allah of summit, he is the self subsisting, he is la rainy, he is the free he is the rich, if the whole universe were to worship Him and was within it and won't increase in His Majesty, if the whole universe was within it, we're not to worship Him, it wouldn't decrease in His Majesty, Allah does not need our worship at all. He gains nothing from our worship, and our lack of it takes nothing away from Allah subhanho wa Taala.
We worship Allah because through Allah, his wisdom and mercy, He created us that way. And Allah made worship good and beneficial for us from both a worldly and spiritual perspective.
Now, one would further probe and say, Well, why did he create us for worship? Fine, He created us for worship. But why? There's two main ways of answering this question. The first way is, we don't know. Maybe this refers to the part of God's wisdom that's beyond our limited cognitive abilities. And there's nothing wrong with that, because you can't compare our understanding or our cognitive, you know, faculties with the knowledge and wisdom of Allah subhanho wa Taala is impossible. It's just, you know, if, if, if a baby cannot, you know, understand quantum physics, the quantum physics of a professor of theoretical physics or quantum physics, by greater reason how we are ever going to
even fathom the full of wisdom and knowledge of Allah subhanho wa Taala This is ridiculous, right?
So one way just is a citing the wisdom because not being able to answer this question doesn't undermine the fact that Allah is actually worthy of worship.
But there's another way of looking at as always focusing in on last names and attributes, now Allah is on board, he is the source of Oh goodness, and that means he loves good. And Allah is a maximally good being. So when we say Allah is bar is a source of goodness, we're saying, he's a source of cocoa for goodness from the point of view, that is to the highest degree possible without any deficiency without any flaw. So therefore, Allah's action in terms of creating us are not only good, but the expressions of who he is meaning. He is the source of all goodness. And the fact that he created us as creatures who could freely choose to worship Him and do good, and some even attaining
the virtue of people like profits. And then as a result of doing that being given a ton of life in the Presence of Allah to pass on the intensity of intimate love and companionship is actually the greatest story ever told. And since Allah loves all good, it's clear why he would make the story a reality. Law, this whole thing that's being played out, is an expression of Allah's names and attributes of who he is. In other words, our love being the source of all goodness is one of the greatest stories ever told, Allah loves good things, great things. And this story, playing out in reality is an is an expression of his names and attributes.
Just like a painter, he's gonna eventually paint
Allah subhana wa Taala is a source of goodness. And this good, great story is now being told is an expression of who he is. And interestingly, Allah says in chapter 11, verse 118, if your Lord had pleased, he would have made all people a single community, but they continue to have the differences except those on whom your Lord has mercy for He created them to be this way. He created them to be this way. I'm not going to unpack that for you too much. But hopefully that answers the objections brothers and sisters. So
Alhamdulillah Where are we? We are question times, Question Time rather.
Okay. So how long How are we doing with time? What is the time?
I've lost track of time.
It's not telling me how Oh, we've been going on for nearly one hour 45 minutes upon Allah. Okay. So
brothers sisters, take some questions. Okay.
Okay, there's a question here.
Which is worse, atheism or idol worship more than both the same. So in the Islamic spiritual tradition, atheism, brothers and sisters, is actually a form of Shrek. Why? Because we're all we said about what associationism is. When we spoke about Allah's oneness, the fact that lies worthy of worship. When we spoke about the fact that he is the sole creator maintain a Sustainer of everything that exists rejecting this or giving this is something other than Allah is a form of association ism as a form of idol worship is a form of associating partners with a lot. So atheists what they do they reject that they reject them as a sole creator sustainer most of everything that exists that
At the same time, if they don't any and at the same time, they may implicitly or explicitly give those descriptions to other than Allah, like the universe create itself or whatever the case may be. And even if they don't give it those explicit descriptions to them Allah by virtue of rejecting these descriptions of Allah subhanho wa Taala This is a form of association isn't right. But one would argue that you have to implicitly or even explicitly, you know, give these descriptions to something other than a light if you don't give them to Allah subhana wa Tada. So, atheism is actually a form of shirk. It's, it's, it's associated pointed with a lot.
Okay, so let's take a few more questions.
Second,
bear with me. There's not that many questions, but looks at it.
Scrolling down, just check out some questions. So bear with me.
You guys are having a discussion and debate and debate? So it's very hard to find questions.
Yeah, I don't know why this happens. You guys like have a discussion. You supposed to be this listening and, you know, focus on the topic at hand and ask questions related to what we just discussed. But yet you guys end up having hamdulillah is good, cuz you guys are passionate, which is a good thing. But for future, maybe we should not
have these, you know, side discussion with this, maybe this lesson and then we can interact after?
Okay, it looks like there's not much here apart from you guys discussing.
Alright, then some of the questions are not related to this topic. So I'm going to leave it here. You know, this is awkward here, I really apologize for you know, spending too much time on this topic was one of my favorite topics. And by the way, there's so much more than needs to be said. But as an introduction, you know, the more that needs to be said is going to be in the classroom settings. And that will be in that will be with our learning platform in sha Allah safest Institute, we're filming the the professional recordings of various courses to empower you to focus on our strategy, which is to get you people to intellectually and academically share assignments empower
you to do that. So inshallah that's coming up. We're trying to fulfill all of our kind of goals that we set in Ramadan when we were fundraising, and that, and that included 10, professionally from courses on our learning platform. We also have books coming out with a book on doubt coming up dealing with most of the doubts and the strategies concerning how to deal with doubts. We have a book on divine perfection coming out. We've got so much things that happening, brothers and sisters, and maybe what I'll do is I'm going to basically do a live stream just on where we are so far in with some nice graphics to show you what we've been doing behind the scenes because there's a *
of a lot of work going on. Talk to us, man, the TV is about to publish a book with us on divine perfection, concerning you know, who Allah is and who God isn't from a biblical perspective, because the accusation is that Allah is morally inadequate, and he's not maximally perfect and we're dealing with that objection that hasn't been really dealt with properly for the past two decades or so. So men are blessed every single one of you any mistakes has come from my ego and shame on anything good has come from Allah subhanho wa Taala as salaam YT Kamara how to lie he where to get