Learning How To Do Dawah
Date:
Channel: Hamza Tzortzis
File Size: 44.04MB
Episode Notes
This is an interactive workshop teaching us how to talk to people of other faiths about Islam, and doing it in a structured and persuasive way. Learn how to answer the uncomfortable questions that people might ask. Build your confidence to become a true dawah leader.
AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of being a "slacky person" in achieving Islam's "slacky person" is discussed, including the use of holistic approaches and dec reassessing oneself. The history of slavery and its impact on society is also highlighted. The speakers stress the importance of avoiding gay language use and avoiding misunderstandings, and encourage individuals to practice affirming their beliefs and actions to achieve success. The speakers also emphasize the need for compassionate language use and avoiding confusion and mistakes.AI Generated Transcript ©
smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah to proceed. Brothers and sisters, friends, respected elders, Elena. Everyone else Salaam Wylie. Como Rahmatullahi wa barakato.
Today, good turnout, thank you very much for attending this dour workshop. Okay, let me just be very real with you. This course is usually two days, or 10 hours, we have a few hours, okay, I'm going to make it as interactive as possible in order for you to stay alive and awake. Now,
this course, is not a PR course. It's not a public relations course. It's not a media course. It's a dour course. So let's understand what we mean by dow in order for us to understand what this course is about. The word dow linguistically means to call or to invite many of you deasy's, sometimes you say I'm going to adopt what a dow it means an invitation to have some poor pakora and samosa and bindi gosht, and whatever, right? So the point is, linguistically means to invite does everyone get that point? Good. So that means linguistically, to invite from an Islamic perspective, in means to invite and to cool to the way of Allah subhanho wa Taala, as Allah says, In the Quran, although
Elizabeth Arabic call to the Seville, the way of Allah from from the Islamic perspective, that way is to call to Allah subhana wa to Allah, and to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Make sense? Good.
So, this is our, there are two essential elements to the Tao brothers and sisters, the essential elements are number one, you have to be that which you are calling to, you have to be that which you are calling to, you have to have a state of being that is in line with your tradition. Meaning that you have to at least imbibe within yourself and your personality and your character, a form of the Islamic ocsea a form of the Islamic personality, which means you're going to have a raw compassion, which means you're going to be full bearing, which means you're going to have humility, which means that you won't have arrogance, which means that you are going to be a loving human being that
sincerely was to engage with the widest society for the sake of Allah. And because you care for them. This is a very important point brothers and sisters, you have to see your people as your comb as your people. The minute you disassociate yourself from your own people is the minute you cannot do it anymore. So you the first element is you have to be that which according to and we mentioned some of the characteristics we'll mention much later, some others. The other key component is that you actually make the cool that you link your behaviors, or you have on your tongue, the call itself, which is that you are calling people to the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala. This is
essentially the DAO in a nutshell. Now, Dharma is not a conference on Palestine.
Why is a conference on Palestine? Not our who could answer that question?
There's no right or wrong on so Yes, madam.
There you go, you know, coding to allow you according to some kind of political solution. Okay. How can you make a conference on Palestine the hour?
Yes, ma'am.
Whoa, deep. Do you hear the sister? That's because you're busy thinking about other things? Isn't she said that if you link the whole conference of Palestine to Islam, that Islam has the solution to these problems. And the reason it has a solution to these problems is because Islam is based on why he revolution and we could prove revelation to be true. So there's a direct link now to cooling to the way of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Let me give you another test. So you really understand this definition.
Is that our feeding your neighbor? So trick one.
Okay, who agrees?
Okay, who disagrees?
Okay, why why do you disagree?
That's fine. It's one of the rights but why do you think it's not our Yes, brother?
Okay. Okay. The brother is saying that is no direct dollar because you just feeding him. Okay? Yes, man.
Yeah, see, this is what I want. Basically, in my view in a Western contemporary context, just giving future neighbor is something that I would call
minor dour. It's not holistic, dour, because think about it. Many of us are immigrants, and we come to the United States or the West. And basically, we want to be good people, we really want to care for humanity for the sake of Allah. And we want to show that Muslims are good. And that somehow would translate that Islam is good Islam should be followed. There is a truth in that, but in a Western context is a little bit more difficult. Because they're going to say, Oh, look, look at a DC guy.
We've civilized him. He's come to this country is adopted our Christian values. All you're doing is you're reaffirming what is religiously universal anyway. So as the sister said, and rightly so. It would only be comprehensive dour is the minute you give food to your neighbor. You mentioned why you mentioned the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you mentioned why that you do things like this, or somehow you use that opportunity to make the invitation to the oneness of Allah. Does that make sense? It's very important, because sometimes we think just being good is, you know, that in my view, is a big slap in the face
to many of the Sahaba and the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, because not only were they good, but they made the call as well. So we have to see things in the holistic context. Because if you're just good all the time, you're just gonna be reaffirming Christian values, Judaic values, Buddhist values. Yeah. who disagrees with not feeding people, right? Everyone agrees that you should feed people. So we need to become holistic in our approach that yes, it's extremely important to have that personality. It's extremely important to do the behaviors, but it's also extremely important to make the call
any issues.
Good. Right. So that's the definition of the dour. Now, this course is going to be interactive. Okay. So what I want to do, is anyone have pen and paper?
No, who doesn't have pen and paper? Okay, let's just ignore that, then.
Here's a small phone,
the most of you, okay. Just ignore all of that. You don't need to record anything, right? This what we're gonna do.
Because we have a short time, I'm going to go straight into what I call the deconstruction phase of this course, there's two parts of this course, is that we deconstruct you, and then we reconstruct you, okay? So the way we're going to do this, is I want you first to spend two minutes, thinking in your mind, the uncomfortable questions that you have faced concerning Islam. It could be what you've heard on Fox News, what you see on the internet, what your friends have told you at school, at university, what you read in a book, just write down in your mind or your iPhone, iPad, whatever the case may be, or just a mental note, the top five questions that are uncomfortable concerning Islam
that you need answers to from $1 perspective. Does this make sense? It's just two minutes to think about it. And then we're going to collect some of these questions and we're going to move forward
is similar.
And you could discuss this with your partners.
So five uncomfortable questions.
Okay, brothers and sisters.
Right.
There's your President,
also known as the older version of Will Smith.
Okay, let's see some of you uncomfortable questions. Everyone. Just relax. Right? Hands up. First uncomfortable question. Yes, sister.
She's taking the gloves off already. Boy.
The sister said Why do men get 70 virgins in paradise? Okay.
Okay, relax. Sister. The brother would like to correct you. He says actually.
72
Okay, guys, listen for this to work we need to be caught we need to follow rule number one. Rule number one is if someone's talking no one else is talking okay? Right next question it's like a brother. Yes brother
okay let's keep it simple evolution good so 72 virgins evolution next question sister Yes sister
yourself
women testimony in certain cases like for example when it comes to social contracts right in the Quran Okay good. So
testimony evolution 70 divergence Yes bro
okay in the crop country lists Why are Muslims the most corrupt okay good system for that
okay good this is saying apostasy if you leave Islam what happens? Does you have to leave his head right what happens right What's the story? So apostasy evolution simply to do virgins correct corruption
Yes, uncle.
The uncle is saying why can't men have full wives and women cannot? Because women can't have four wives
and that question is usually from the sisters his brothers shouldn't be complaining right?
Yes
Yes
Yes, yeah, well, you know, tough I'm kidding. Now so like the equality issues the perceived equality issues in Islam man supposed to be the care and maintain of a woman not the dictator. There is a big difference right? Yes, man.
See, say that again?
Okay, like young age marriages okay. Okay, good.
One second.
Brother the back the glosses
how'd you prove a lie exists? Okay, good question. So women gender marriage evolution 72 virgins for wives corruption.
Testimony good. So we're there
wait guys come to the right system in the back with a black
Good question. So
I get it I get it. Islam as a religion of peace. Why in all these world events that there's so much war and destruction in the name of Islam? is Islam as a religion of peace? It's more like a region of pieces like a piece of head and you know
Yes, it's the
Yes.
Good the young age of Iowa or rajala Okay, let's take
young brother in the red
in the red bro in the red in the red.
Yes.
So again,
if Jesus is not the Son of God, may God strike me down right now. Okay, someone said that to you. Okay, excellent. Good. You should give him the number to your psychiatrist.
Okay, sister with the red there
okay, the matter was saying the refers to Jews as monkeys and pigs in the Quran was part of the punishment for the people of the Sabbath. Okay, good. Good question. Lots of stuff. Lots of meaty stuff right. As you said the back with the silver.
said again.
Sharia law is it barbaric? Yeah. Is Sharia law barbaric. Okay.
Well, there's so much to go through. Oh, are you writing this down? He's writing this down. Good. Okay, wait, wait a minute.
I'm
the brother with the
bicep
you bro
the brother with a big bicep
okay gay lesbian transgender LGBT community all of these people okay good excellent
okay relax relax relax Yes brother
Muslim say Mohammed was sent by Allah where's the evidence? Okay good good question
yes sir
He job
why he job good question
yes man
Muslims happy with Osama bin Laden's death
Muslims are happy no one's death. right because you know we're good people.
Man with the water bottle
guy once again guys you read no memory and yeah, we're gonna finish in a bit. We're gonna address these. Yes ma'am.
You can't have non Muslims as friends. Okay, good.
Yes, ma'am. With the pen.
freewill and destiny. Good. Just make them short and quick, right? Yes. For the
CRAN has it been changed?
Yes, ma'am.
Yep.
Kissing Okay, that's it. I'm never heard that before. Why do Muslims curse? Right? Good.
Yes.
By the way, brothers and sisters, I am not going to tolerate any sectarian language. Okay. No names of groups. names of people.
Okay, no tolerance policy right. I know. I know. It's good. But you know, I'm a Muslim neutral. Okay, this is the Dow Of course not a group course. Yeah. When according to anything right. So that question later over coffee or breakfast 630 Hyatt season in the morning, right. Let's take two more system the blue
sorry. Slavery
dating
All right, I get it.
They dating like men female stuff. All right. Okay, cool. If you mean like in Ramadan, we break with dates and stuff.
Yes, brother.
All non Muslims going to hell? Okay, good question. Right, hands down. Okay, listen to this. If we answer all of these questions in a way that addresses the mind and the heart is compassionate, links to Tao heat.
Is that going to be good session? Put your hand up.
Say yes, loudly.
Good, cuz you know what's happening. You're gonna answer the questions.
And this is part of the deconstruction phase. Okay, this is the most important part of the course. And you understand what we're doing here. So I'm going to randomly choose people. I'm going to be the non Muslim. You're going to be the Muslim. Okay.
And it's going to be realistic. Okay.
I need a volunteer. I need a young volunteer under the age of 10
you know, under the age of 10, madam.
How do you
come in?
You know, this mic
with a pink in the glasses. Give it to her. Okay.
Okay, good. This young man. What's your name, bro?
Oh.
So Hamza is gonna be giving the mic to the relevant parties. So give that to my sister. Now the one who's got her chin on her arm.
Hamza Hamza Fatah there?
There you go. The system is like, bluffing. There you go. Okay, good. Right. So what we're gonna do brothers and sisters, let me give you some words of advice. You have to have to focus on the experiment here. Because this is your learning. I'm not going to teach you anything. You know why? Because the beauty of this Deen is that you have everything that it already takes to give Dawa. You didn't even know. This is an empowering moment. After the next couple of hours. You could give down to Obama. Richard Dawkins, your next door neighbor, Pamela Gala. Rahmatullahi La
Bella guide him and, and many others. Okay, so, and this is critical because this is your dollar gym. When I love boxing, right, I've lost weight because of boxing. The most important part of books is not hating the bag, but sparring. How you get your right hand, shoulder roll up a card yet you have to do in practice. So this is your Tao. Jim, what is it your dollar zactly. So this is the exercise, so therefore there's nothing wrong in doing mistakes. Either one no one judging anyone. We have to love each other. I will move me no murottal movement that believes are mirrors of each other. Make sense? Good. Sister, what's your name?
Marian. Mashallah. What do you do? do you study?
your physician? Assistant physician? Good. Excellent. So you you interact with non Muslims, right?
How at lunch? Maybe?
Okay, good. So I want to make it realistic. So it's not too overpowering. So my name is Dr. George. I'm your boss. You've come to my clinic and you're my sister.
And we sit down, and we're having lunch. All right.
Hi, Miriam. How you doing?
How are you? Dr.
Kitty, kitty.
I'm fine. Miriam. I'm fine. You know, you've been here for about a month now. So I wanted to discuss with you this probation period you've been going through and you know you first started without your headscarf on. And after two weeks you started to put it on. I don't have any issue. But this is like off the record. I really want to know why you've started to wear the headscarf. Is everything a gay I mean like do you have hair now? Or like
right listen to the answer. Remember the mic treated like an ice cream? Yeah.
Obviously Don't lick it. But he has to be close. He said he could hear
I wear it now because God told me to. Oh, that's very interesting. It's very interesting. So um, you know, Bush, Bush had a dream and God told him to invade Iraq. Do you think he's Do you think he's justified as well? Because God told him
no, because there's no evidence that God told him that but I have evidence that God told me to wear hijab we have the evidence this dream right.
But isn't like the hijab like a bit oppressive and basically differentiates between men and women? I don't feel that it's oppressive at all. Actually, it's my freedom and freedom of choice to show you what I want to wear and what I don't want to show you. Okay, fair enough. I do appreciate that.
But But what's the what's the what's like the wisdom of the reason behind the headscarf than
you think is your choice and that you want to wear it so what's what's what's the main reason?
Well, there's lots of wisdom behind wearing the hijab, but the main reason is because God told me Yeah, that you said that. You said that. There are reasons I just want to reiterate that doctor.
I like a feisty feisty
good man.
But the other reasons is to protect myself. protect myself from unwanted glares unwanted. looks up and down. So you're saying basically that it's about modesty, right? This is one of the wisdoms so someone's not wearing it. Are you saying she's not modest? Like my wife doesn't wear the headscarf? You see my wife isn't modest. I think your logic doesn't follow
I'm not saying that your wife is not modest. It's because you may be covering your hair but what's with the lipstick?
Says kidding. She's no
she's not realistic.
Okay, still bad. That's very good. Right? Learn what just happened. We're gonna do many of these. Okay, Hamza, get the mic, please. Okay, I want you to get
get the brother who's crossing his arms with the blue shirt.
Yeah,
you stand up right.
estera
Wada Maria. modan, Georgia.
Okay, what was the name, bro? Remember, we have to listen to this. This is the learning, you need to trust the process is a well designed course for 20 years experience. And it's an experiential process. And although you may not be getting lots of em, but the experience itself is changing your neural chemical pathways. Trust me. We've done this to 1000s of people and it's worked. So this does interact the process, you're going to find it fun, you're going to enjoy it, but also absorb it in internalizing. Sharla. Right? What's the name, bro? Sha, Sha, Sha, what do you do? I'm a student, your student in university?
studying law course. Getting finishing my bachelor's then I'm going to graduate school. Okay. bachelor's in political science, political science a. Good. Okay. So
you chat with non Muslims, right? Yes. When and how?
They're usually everywhere. So
it's kind of hard to avoid. So. So we do a coffee shop scenario.
Yeah, political science. You and my group. Okay. My name is Andrew. And we're going to have some coffee, but we're working on a project together about
political Islam. Okay, it's part of your course, bro. Yeah. Right. Hey, Trisha, how are you? Good. Good. How are you ready to work on this project with me? Sure. Excellent. Excellent. You know, but before we start, you know,
we were talking about this last week, because he's included in our course, I want to ask you a question. Because, you know, when we had the political Islam module, was basically talking about Sharia law. And it was, remember, went through the penal codes as part of the political modeling system and criminal codes. And I was reading about and I'm like, wow, this this is like tough stuff, man. It's like you cut the hand of the thief. You stone the adulterer, you lash the adulterer. For a billion is like beheadings. I mean,
I can't reconcile the fact that you have this penal code in the Quran. And yet every chapter starts with in the Name of God, the Merciful, the giver of mercy. Can you explain that to me, bro? Well, I mean, every society has a way to punish people. And it's a relative, what you just did what you might think is unjust. So
for a thief, somebody might receive 20 years for stealing something, but that he might also prefer to not have a hand and be free. So it depends what you might consider, you know, unjust. But the thing with our law, our secular law, our Constitution, is that we give people like a second chance that we forgive, we let them rehabilitate. I don't think someone can rehabilitate their hand back. Right.
Well, we also have forgiveness and in our penal code as well. Yes. After the head is removed before,
obviously before, okay.
Okay, so all you have to say, Well, I mean, I don't think you guys have the western system doesn't have forgiveness. If somebody commits a crime and they're convicted. We have we have rehabilitation in prison.
Oh, that's a debatable since a vast majority of them end up going back in Do they? I would think so. The Case for me?
Well, maybe not you.
All right, thank you. So as we could load up
the system of the glasses and the great hijab, the one who thinks she's gonna do well,
yeah, she's like,
Mashallah.
Good. So, we're gonna do a few more of these and you're gonna understand what's going on here. You enjoying this so far? Good. Any problems? Let me know. Next week.
Okay, sister, what's your name? Deanna? Deanna dira. Deanna? Diana. Oh, good. So Deanna. Okay. So what do you do? Um, I'm a student at UBC. dueting. Psychology. Wow. Best subjects in the world? Yeah. Okay.
So how do you interact with non Muslims?
The way that I'm interacting with you, what's your name? Oh, you starting already? Right.
That's good. Listen, I make the rules. Right.
Okay, good. So, coffee shops, working in school together projects. Okay. When was the last time you had a question about Islam at university? The last time I helped that Adama table. Oh Excellent. So unit out.
table. Excellent. Okay, so what was the question?
I don't remember multiple questions. Okay, so you're the Dallas stole table. I'm coming up to you, right? How's it going, Diana? Good. How are you? Good, good. Thanks for the discussion I had last week when the story was very good. I picked up the copy of the Quran. And it's very fascinating. I've been reading it like you advise me and you said, it's going to open my heart in my mind. But I've been reading some statements in the Quran that says,
what your right hand possesses. And I'm sure it's not your iPhone.
Right? And I think it's to do with slavery. Now, I do appreciate the different concepts of slavery in different religions and traditions. But if this is a timeless, universal creed and code of way of life,
you know, we have what the 13th and 14th amendment abolished slavery, and it's very unconstitutional dispute when you agree. unconstitutional. Can you define what you mean by that? Well, basically we abolish slavery in your book seems to condone slavery. Well, you have to keep in mind that the Koran was sent down 1400 years ago Oh, so it's just for old people it doesn't it doesn't relate for us No, it's a timeless book for everyone. Oh, slavery is doable then? No, but you have to keep in mind that when the when the Quran was sent down, there are a lot of things in a period before and some called jelly up periods. So is a period of ignorance, okay? So there are a lot of traditions there are a
lot of things that were completely wrong that we can agree on is immoral. One of them being slavery, for example, another one for example, being alcohol. If you look at the way that things were banned in Assam, it wasn't a thing of all of a sudden it was banned completely. It was a means of well, slow processes, because you can imagine this man, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, coming out of nowhere, he was an orphan, had no formal education. And all of a sudden, he's abandoning everything, changing the culture around, people are gonna think he's crazy, even more than they already thought he was and they're not gonna listen. Yeah. So Allah subhanaw taala. Our God knew that the way to do
it wasn't slow steps for the people to understand. But is that true? Because the banning of interest was in slow steps? Well, I'm not sure about that I can learn more about nor show about many things. By the sounds of it. Well, I'm not well, yeah, we're not sure. No, no, no.
No, okay. Let me give you a hypothetical scenario. I don't want to be like, you know, I don't attack you here, right. It's your freedom to believe in whatever you want to believe. But the point is, if slavery was alive today, yeah, then the Quran will not ban slavery. But you have to keep okay. It was encouraged to free slaves. Yes, of course, it was completely encouraged us to be slaves. They wanted slaves to be free. There are so many, for example, prayers that you can say that is equivalent of freeing slaves. And it's always recommended that if you have a slave, do your best to free him, do whatever you can to free him. So it's not encouraging slavery, it's actually
discouraging slavery, but they knew that slavery was an evil How is it? How is it discouraged when the Prophet Muhammad upon him the peace
he had two slaves, right, but you also have to keep those slave guns right. Okay. So one of them is called money of your body or other? Yeah, I'm gonna, so I'm going to assume that you have a slavery in mind of what American slavery was during that time. I mean, we've all seen I don't know if you have that 12 years of slave the horrendous things in there. But you also have to keep in mind that slavery during that time, American slavery during that to the African Americans in all of history is one of the worst forms of slavery ever and the ones that we haven't been exposed to. There was actually a sense of humanity in the way I mean, it's they're not a free human being so it's like
humanistic slavery. I guess it's sort of like they're being your SIR it's not as if you whip them and you beat them and everything you're still treating them justly are still treating them in a manner that was fair. Okay, fair enough. I get that I get that Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, let's take one more couple more. Let's take
it let's get this guy this guy.
Stand up, bro. Yeah, stand up. Right It's the last last few more exercises and the game again to understand what's going on here. Sharla right. What's the name bro? Muhammad the brother's name is Mohammed even here that good? The scope? Right? What do you do, bro? I'm studying biology. Mashallah. Biology. So questions you get asked about Islam.
For wives for wives. Okay, should we do that? Good. Shoot. So Mohammed, how are you four wives?
I don't have any four wives.
Okay, good. So Mohammed, remember discussing in class the other day about gender equality and stuff. And for me, I still don't understand how men could have full wives or women can have full husbands does. You know one and full foreign one is not it doesn't. It's unequal. Right. So can you explain that to me, please and I am really open minded and I've
We like your religion and I really like your morals and you're one of the best guys have spoken to. So I don't want you to feel attacked or offended and, and, you know, it took me ages to actually take the courage to ask this question, so please don't feel offended and I'm not offended. Oh, thank you, sir.
Do you have any kids? Yeah, I do. Well, how many kids do you have? Five, five. Okay, nice. Um, see, in Islam, a man is a man has the opportunity to marry four wives. Actually, Islam is the only religion in the world that permits and limits a man to one wife, every other religions entitled to a man's as many as one because they didn't set a set limit. You know, as you can, I see that you're a Christian. You know, in Christianity, the companions of Jesus, whom you guys pray, claimed to be a form of deity. His companions had wives, if you want to take Solomon, Solomon had over 1000 wives. So an example in regards to the four wives Islam regulates it to one. And it's also limited as to a
responsibility more than as to a pleasure. So if you were to take a look at a noble Prophet, whom we take as a leader, he did not marry out of pure desire, whereas he married widows, he married women that were handicapped, he married women that were of slaves of some sort for them to take care of them to cater to them. Now to the example why women can have four wives or four men. I'm going to give you an example. You said you have five kids, right? Yeah. hamdulillah. Okay, so I'm going to give you a glass of milk, a glass of goat milk, a glass of cow milk, a glass of camel milk, and a glass of any sort of, just don't say human, please.
inshallah, so in regards to the milk, you can taste each and every milk, you can differentiate between them. So, yes, if you were to put all of the milk into one cup, would you know which milk it is? No. So how would you know the lineage of your wife in regards to for husbands? How would you know which one is your son, or which one is wrong? Okay, by lineage
is important. In order for a man to have children, for him to have a proper lineage, how the DNA testing broke, okay, another thing let's keep going. No problem. Sharla. In regards to the society in regards to the population and number of the women, there are more women than men in the world. And so let's forget about the case of the lesbians. Okay, exactly. Because what about gays? It lowers it even more. So many women, one of my women, what's wrong with that? You have a problem with that? I do have a you're a bigot. I am not a bigot. No, I am not a bigot. But in regards to that, in regards to even population control, even I'm not proposing to everyone go get married to four wives.
I'm just saying the aspect is, it's a form of responsibility. I believe that modern day propaganda, the media is entitling it into a form of, you know, oppression oppressing the women and parents of four wives. Whether it's a form of Mohammed, Mohammed, that wasn't my question. My question is about equality. Not that it's oppression, I don't find it a problem that people have made four times. That's a problem. I mean, in the West, in our culture, people people have like, illegal relationships, like 70% of marriages, you know, they do naughty things with their pa or boss or the cleaner or whatever. Right. Right. So the point is, my that's not my issue. My issue is about
equality. Well, that's a great question in regards to equality. Islam sets it straight in regards to the rights of the women the right to the man, so that way, a man would never asked to overstep the boundaries of a woman and a woman wouldn't do likewise. So in Islam, if you were to so women get for example, half inheritance, the unmarried, right? Okay, does that mean the unequal and also and also women, when they do get paid their wealth, they can, they can spend their wealth as and by any means they do so. And a man has no control over white, his wife's wealth and what she receives. As you can see, if you were to take one side, I can take the other side, no.
questions regarding equality. So why can we say that when women when will the women get paid with our money? Why can't we ask them to get some of their money, the money is left for them, because it proves that they have their own form of limitations as we to ours, you know, men in regards to the sounds of it, then that Islam is not really a religion of equality. It's just a religion of rules. It's not a religion of rules in regards to equality, there has to be limits and limitations so that we individually overstep your boundaries. You know, you wouldn't have people running over your house and trying to talk to your wife different men coming to the house, am I right? Because why they may
overstep the bounds maybe we have an open relationship relationship you know, but in regards to many This is liberal California at the end of the day
Okay, good. All
right, last one last one and then we're gonna do debrief let's take this sister here who are the sisters are pointing at her for some reason.
Sure.
It's all gonna fall into place.
Okay, this is the last one that we're gonna have a debrief is very important. This this this as much as we can from this one inshallah. Okay, sister, what's your name? raffia. raffia. Good. What do you do?
I'm in high school. Okay. And Muslim High School. No. Okay. So you got some friends? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Any questions?
Yeah. Boy type of questions.
Are you hot? Are you bald underneath? Do you shower with that?
Oh, do you Okay, cool.
Okay, good. So I'm hiding raffia I'm good. How are you? Good, good. My name is Susan.
I'm good. Listen, ask you how you were. Oh, I'm fine. I'm really fine. I'm I feel great. I feel absolutely great. Thank you for asking. raffia you know, I have a question for you. Can I ask you a question? Please? Yeah.
Do you feel what in that?
Because it's really, really hot. And it's like 90 degrees Fahrenheit. And
I just feel hot just just looking at you.
So the question is really? Why on earth do you weather in the summer?
Because you want to write?
Do you think that's a good enough answer because people take drugs would like because I want to,
you know, people mad at people because I wanted to do you give us a good answer? raffia
without whispering to your friends and finding answers.
Should I ask you another question? Yeah. Okay, good.
Okay, what questions should we ask? This is a little bit more easier to
respond to.
Sorry.
I know raffia How come you don't date men? Because all your friends are dating men, but you can't date any guys what's going on?
When my time will come, it'll come.
Okay. Obviously, your parents are in the room. Alhamdulillah.
All right. Good answer. Let's stop it there. Then we're gonna debrief. Okay. Okay, well done. Guys. Well done.
I have some questions for you.
I want you to answer them way to think about these questions. Okay. Number one.
Are you satisfied with your answer?
Just think about in your head. We're going to do with these in a minute. Number two, where are you leading the discussion? Number three. What was the discussion about? Number Four? Did you call to Allah? Remember the context of dour?
What did you achieve? Did you reach your ultimate objective of calling people to Allah? Did we watered down the religion? Did we lie about Allah His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? Or did we fall into useless arguments? Now the reason I'm asking these questions, brothers and sisters, because the majority of you adopted what I would call an incoherent strategy, when you're giving Dawa, we always automatically think that we have to answer all the questions. We have to pretend to be biologists, sociologists, psychologists, physicists, astronomers, all these different fields of thought, and we have to give the answer. We think that we have to rationalize everything about the
deen of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And then we get going to inconsistencies and to methodological flaws. So from this perspective, brothers and sisters, it fails. Number One reason and you need to understand this is the endless cycle of questions. Even if you thought you give the best rational onset, boom, you got him right, mouth open, no response, then there'll be another question. And then another question. And then another question, ad infinitum. I'm telling you, you can write almost a million different types of questions concerning a song, what are you going to do? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna answer every single question?
Are you gonna have the answers to every single question? This is almost impossible. So that's the first point to keep in mind. Number two, even if you think your answer was great, I'm telling you, it doesn't satisfy the question. Ask any revert Muslim. You won't get a rationalization of an answer, or of the camp of Allah, and people become Muslim just because of that. Ultimately, that's never The reason. The answers never satisfy the question, because we come from different worldviews and backgrounds. Why is our answer ultimately correct? And this is the meat of amazing points as the Miriam, she said, because God told me because if God said x
What's the truth value of x is true? So the point is, our foundation is Tao heed, its Allah is the rational foundations of Islam. It's the concept of Islam. When we establish this to be true, this forms our answers. But we're giving people the answer without giving the foundation for the answer. Let me elaborate with an analogy. for Islam as a Muslim, we're wearing a set of glasses. And we have, for example, green colored glasses. And I'm going to be saying to you look at the wall, isn't it nice and green, the non Muslim, he's got a different worldview. his glasses may be pink. So he may say, actually, the wall is pink. And I'm saying though it's not it's green. He's saying it's
pink, green, pink, green, pink, and you end up having door to door argumentation.
And also the approach that you are adopting gives a false idea of Islam. Because the way you were coming across was, you know, Islam. It's rational, purely and that's it, we can rationalize everything. The reason we do we'll do is because we have this invisible dust, and we clean this invisible dust away. Trust me, I've had people say things like this. Or they will say the reason we pray is good for your tricep.
The reason we fought them after Ramadan, because it prevents colon cancer. Oh, is that the reason? The reason we don't eat pig because the dirty animal? Is it actually not that dirty, to be honest, biologically speaking. So we make all these rationalizations and reasons. The reason we're hijab because it's my modesty. Oh, is that right?
The reason I grow a beard because my piety, okay, but even goats have beards.
So the point I'm trying to say is, when you try and rationalize the deen like this all the time, it will be inconsistent. And you give the false idea of Islam. Islam is not I worship my intellect my limited mind. Islam is not I obey my limited perspectives, thoughts and ideas. Islam is I submit peacefully to the widow who,
who
said that again, notice on funny, Allah.
So the point is, brothers and sisters, we submit to the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala, not our wills, our rationalization or our mind. So this is why the method we adopt for the hour, don't get me wrong. For some of us, it works for public relations and media. But this is dour, and that's why I made it in the beginning. I emphasize that in the beginning. This is going to be about calling people to the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So this is why this approach fails. Does this make sense?
Does anyone have any severe disagreements? what I've said so far?
Yes, brother, please.
Good, very good question from the brother. He said. Are you saying that some things that Allah subhanho wa Taala has taught us to do cannot be rationalized? No, of course it can be rationalized. But is the rationalization a way to call them to Allah. That's the point I'm trying to say. And that's actually correct. You can't use the rationalizations just to call people to the oneness, and to the submission of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am.
Excellent. Sister raffia.
Diana, yeah, sister Diana said that. You know what, someone else has a question. Is it why sometimes you take a step back, she has hit the nail on the head. Brothers and sisters, this whole course is based on a prophetic methodology. Yusuf Alayhi Salam
Don't forget Allah said about this chapter in the Quran is for this Aileen is for the people who think about the truth. Allah says is about the chapter in the Quran. When Yusuf Alayhi, Salam was asked the question in the prison, about the dreams, how did he answer? Did he rationalize the dream straight away? What did he do? He talked about
a law. And this is exactly what we're doing. I'm going to introduce to you an approach. And this approach is going to take any question about Islam, no matter how difficult no matter how it's couched, and uttered and expressed, and you will be able to bring people to the oneness of Allah. You're thinking hunters crazy. What kind of amazing claim is that? Trust me, right. Brothers and sisters. Now we're in a position.
We are in a position now to really understand how do we get any question about Islam
And we articulate in a way that we can link it to the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala which is Dharma itself.
Now, what is the gorog methodology? Because well I introduced to you is the goal of methodology which is God's existence repeat after me God's existence, oneness, Revelation and Prophethood. This can be found in the Quran and Sunnah. Okay. So, this is ignore this for a bit. Let's just talk about the benefits. Number one, this approach, one answer to most questions. Number two, it goes to tell heed first establishes a firmer foundation explains the essence and reality of Islam. It's reasoned and logical, avoids difficult issues and cuts potential for arguments.
So I want you to focus now on something called initiation. initiation brothers and sisters is the most important part of the go rap process. Because initiation is the bridge between
is the bridge between your question that you've been asked and tell heed. initiation is the link between any interaction with our brothers and sisters in humanity to the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And let me tell you how to articulate initiation. There's two ways of doing it depending on the scenario. The first scenario is, is that you may get asked the question, so that's passive dour. The second scenario is you ask a question. So you may be handing out a leaflet and talking about a concept of a song.
So let me give you some examples. Say for example, Mohammed comes up to me and asked me a question. And Mohammed says, Hamza, why does your wife cover her hair?
And I would reply in the following way, you know, Mo, that's a very good question. Before I converted to Islam, I had the same type of question. By the way, it's really hot. Do you want some orange juice is free? Sure. Sit down, we take a seat? That's a very good question.
I realized and I want you to realize, in order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of Islam. Do you have some time for me to explain this to you?
That it,
brothers and sisters, you may think
that is not quite magical. But trust me, you apply this to anyone asking you a question. You've got that intention, and you're engaging with them. Let me give another example someone comes up to Hamza on $1 store and says Hamza?
You guys, why are you guys wearing beards? We'll settle down then. Once a very good question. So what's your name? JOHN. JOHN has an amazing name. He sit down have some orange juice.
Well, you know, what's interesting is that in order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of Islam. Do you have some time? Maybe do this again. Let's do more of aggressive one. Hey, Hamza, you, you guys. You guys.
Hey, women, you want to stone women? You want to stone everybody? Like Listen, guy? What's your name? Paul. Listen, Paul, we don't want to stone anybody. Right? You know, in Islam, drugs is forbidden. We don't get stoned.
It's a joke, the joke. So what it says is I say I say, Paul, that's a very good question. It's not the way you see things. But you know what, in order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand that.
I'm telling you, you could use this with anybody and works. But there are only two issues you may face. And I want you to note these down in your mind. Two issues you would face with this approach. Someone may say, I just want a yes or no answer. Do you stone women? Do you stone women? Yes or no? Yes or no. We've had this before the Tao stone with the right wing? Yes or no? His nose right next to my nose? Yes. Oh, no. Yes. Oh, no. The way respond is to get that personality to break them down and make sure that they find the humanity and this is how we respond. Listen, Paul, I understand where you're coming from.
I don't blame you for what you're doing. But let me tell you something. Yes or no doesn't represent me. Yes or no doesn't represent my tradition. If I asked you, what's your name? Yes or no? Is that the right answer? If I asked you, do you believe in a What are your views on abortion? Yes or no? Does that represent your views? It doesn't mean it does it? And I know you came here to connect with me. So yes, it was not an answer.
The answer is the concept. Do you have some time for me?
I'm telling you it works. That's the first problem. The second problem you'll encounter is when people would come up with very ridiculous questions. They'll be like, hands up. Do you guys want to drink baby's blood?
And I'm like, you're not gonna say, well, in order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of Islam.
Yeah. Why are you drinking your rhiwbina? No, you don't do that. Because you assume that, you know, there's some truth behind what he's saying. If it's such a shocking question, this is what we do.
Of course, we don't drink baby's blood. But you know what, in order to understand anything about Islam, you have to understand it.
I'm telling you, it's such an empowering, empowering methodology. You just link people to tau heat all the time. And we've had 1000s of Shahada is in Britain. And the Shahada is a good shot is because they've understood the worldview properly. Because whatever comes from Huck is, whatever comes from truth is, so the concept of isavi given that truth than they know, and that in the end, usually they don't even need an answer. Because they understand now My mind is limited. Allah has unlimited knowledge. He knows me better than I know myself. So who cares if a qualified answer by hijab, I want to be like Ibrahim Ali, he said, um, when Allah told him to slaughter his son, he
didn't look at the command. He looked at the commander. He didn't look at the ruling, he looked at the one who legislated the rule, because he knew his reality as a slave, and allows reality as his master. And that's why we should all be Ibraheem alehissalaam. And the cool thing is, once you obey Allah, Allah that makes it easy, replaces his son and gives him a lamb. Do you see my point? This is Islam. This is Islam. It's not this pseudo intellectual gymnastics, that you say, Oh, you know, there's a context history city maqasid, Sharia x, y, and Zed, we think we're going to lecture on fuzzy and everything. But that's as Buck was, when they see Islam is very simple and pure, obey
Allah, He knows you the better than you know yourself. Allah loves you.
Allah has the totality of wisdom, he has the picture, we have the pixel. So this is the approach. Let me just repeat the approach to again, someone gives you a question, why did you wear hijab? That's a very good question. And you know, in order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of excellent. Now the other type of initiation is when you're active, so you may want to give a leaflet on street dow, for example. And today's for example, July the fifth everyone get involved, why Islam stole where the T shirts, once you go campaign, Brazil 2014 soccer get involved. Okay? So you may be holding the watch, you go flyers, and this what I would do, you go
and just hold the fly nicely. Don't be too close to that don't have to like almost, you know, hug you to get the flyer, right. Be very inviting, not assertive, as if you just about to hug them. Right? And you say, Excuse me, ma'am. Excuse me. So today we're talking about what's your goal in life? Do you have a few minutes for us to discuss this? Yeah, sure. Of course. Well, in order to understand what your goal in life is, you have to understand the concept of Islam. Boom. It works for passive and active, dour. And trust me it works in the next half an hour when we go through the entire process. You see. So Panama, any question, any question, even if I don't know the answer to
it, I could link it to Tao. He didn't explain that this is true, or Islam is true, based upon the question itself. So why don't you guys to do is partner up and practices for five minutes. And these are the instructions.
You're both going to get a chance to be a Muslim and a non Muslim. So two and a half minutes each person, don't go into everything, just basically get the concept of Islam. So someone asked you a question, why do you wear hijab? That's a very good question. In order for you to understand the answer. You have to understand the concept of Islam. Do you have some time? Any questions before we move on?
Yes, brother.
Does it have to be orange juice? Could it be lemonade?
Okay, yes, sir.
Okay, let's say that question for one moment. Okay. shala. Right. Five minutes. I want to hear lots of noise be very interactive, then I'm going to pick some of you guys to see how you went on. Then we'll move forward.
How did that go?
Good. Acts. Okay, good. Right. Okay. Brothers and sisters, the brother raised a very important question. He said before we go into initiation, which is linking any
Question to Islam to tell heed, then can I give him a really quick, short answer, then go into the process initiation? Yes and no. This was slightly more experienced though. Because once you start giving me an answer very quickly, you've already jumped into his paradigm that you're going to be rationalizing things for you to switch into initiation will be problematic. It takes a little bit of a fine skill, lots of practice. My humble advice would be, don't answer the question directly answer by saying the answer is the concept. Because if you answer is a little bit in the beginning, then given the concept that could be a confusion,
but this is what I do. And I only do this because it's based on experience nothing else. A Christian lady came up to me once and she said, Look, you guys, stone women, you stone adulterous. Let me just tell you something really quickly. It's a very good question. I don't blame you have this question. But we don't do that. It's not just stony. Do you know we have so many different conditions, due process court of law? But you know what, that's irrelevant, because the question is, who draws the line? And where in order for you to understand who draws the line and where you have to understand the concept of Do you see what I've done? I think the answer but that takes a skill, bro. And that
takes us practice. So yes or no to the answer, inshallah. Yes, ma'am.
Okay, good. sister gave a great question. She's saying when you go through the whole process initiation and you go for God's existence, oneness, Revelation Prophethood, they may expect an answer. It depends how you've done it. If you go agreement at every stage, they won't need an answer, because the answer would be ash head to La ilaha illAllah, which had to end the Mohammedan Docomo solo, that will be the answer, the answer would be that they agree the concept now it's true. If the story an answer, then I would say what system money I'm said. God told me, and I've just proven to you God exists. And he's true. And he revelations true. Take out of God know me. Honestly,
because, frankly, sister, that is the answer. You know, sometimes we feel a bit shy to say that. And that's because we probably haven't understood our Deen properly. It is the submission to Allah. Who is Allah? Hakeem. He's a law. Man. He was the perfect the holy, the Wise. So what he says is gonna be true. If you can't fathom it or appreciate it. That's, that's irrelevant. The point is, is he the one who knows things better than you do? It's like my seven year old or six year old speaking to a mathematics professor and saying to him, you stupid professor, I could do calculus better than you can. I'll give my son a nice hug and say you shouldn't be like that, right? I'd be like you can't
you see who's gonna believe the seven year old or the professor? It's about authority. Allah is our authority. So from that perspective, I would say because God told me, if I have an answer as well, I would mix it with the answer. And God told me, but remember something sister, our job is not to rationalize Our job is to bring them to Tao heat. This is not a public relations course or a media course. Okay, this is I'm $1 carrier. I'm calling people to the oneness of Allah. That's the type of course it is. So what I will do after the whole process, inshallah they've accepted Islam, if not, give him a quick answer that you think sounds nice, but also couple it with, because God told me and
God knows you, but then you know yourself.
Yes, man.
Excellent sister saying how long, by the way, this process can take five minutes, five seconds, five years, five days, five months, five decades. There's one brother he received down when he was 23. And he converted at the age of 83.
That's 60 years. So you could take a long time. And remember, it's a tool set. This is not the only way to give down by the way. We don't have this kind of keba there's so many ways in the Quran. But we think this is the best way humbly for a rational Western audience. Okay.
So that's initiation. Any other questions concerning initiation? Yes, brother.
Good, the brother saying Isn't this a diversion tactic? It depends how you do Pro. Because at the end of the day, if you truly believe that the answer is how heat is the concept of Islam, the way you come across won't sound like a diversion. And they will understand that the reason I'm talking about the concept of Islam is because if the concept is true, whatever comes from truth is
whatever it comes from truth is that said man, it is something simple, so
We complicate it, we complicate it. And even me coming from a Western background Greek parents
pseudo intellectual type of family. I was like, you know, always wanting an answer and even when I became Muslim, I had so many issues in my kind of Muslim life. And the minute I realized at the end of the day, Allah is greater than me. Allah knows me better than I know myself allies that Hakeem, Allah is the wise allies. Oh, man, kudos, the perfect the knowing that all aware Who am I, if I can understand the nuances of some parts of the outcome of the Sharia? Who cares? Who is me? And that's why many of our problems is because of an intellectual arrogance. Don't fall for the trap of shaytaan say Tom was the first rationalist. He was the first pseudo intellectual. He said, Hey, one
minute and made a fire. This guy's made a claim of bowing down to him. He was the first rationalist, fake rationalist
Don't fall for that kind of satanic strategy. Because if he was really didn't have kebab, and he really understood Allah, then he will know if Allah told me unless al Hakim, Allah knows me better than I know myself. Allies all wise, all knowing all aware. Do you see the point here, brothers and sisters? hamdulillah.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, good sisters asking about what about Muslims who are a bit secular in the disposition? What if they ask you questions, same process, trust me, one of the major reasons someone's a secular Muslim while called a modernist Muslim, rejecting Sharia decontextualized in Sharia rejecting Hadees No, four in the classical tradition, using pseudo intellectual language thinking that they're all fine and dandy, moving away from the mainstream orthodox Islam. All of that, essentially is because they have an issue. It's an intellectual issue. They think that, you know, they deserve to understand the laws, wisdom.
That's it. And what you need to show them is, well, you never know all of Allah's wisdom because he is a law. If you want to know all of his wisdom, then he wouldn't be alive anymore. Right? So the point is, just go to the process, my beloved octi my Buddha he do you know, the reason we do this is because of the concept of Islam. Do you want to remind you what that is? Allah is one he's this this is reality. They say you get close to him. That's how you understand him. This is the Quran is what the Quran is from Allah. So if this is true, brother, isn't it whatever comes from Truth Truth? Yeah, of course. plant the seeds. By the way, our job is to plant the seeds not to guide that's our
last job. Any other questions on this process alone? Because we need to move on? Yes, ma'am.
Okay, that's a very good point. This just is saying when we say give the concept of Assam do we mean basis are the five pillars we don't mean the five pillars yet, but five pillars come into it. What we mean by basic concept foundations use any language you want is basically the old suit of the dean meaning the foundations of the religion, that allies Aha, he's a reality. Allah is one who Allahu Ahad Allah deserves to be worshipped. alesund down the Quran. The Quran is a miracle. The Prophet is the final prophet. We established this. Once that happens, whatever they say is true, because it came from truth. That's what we mean by concept and foundation.
Any other question? Yes, Mohammed.
Okay, the brothers saying Mohammed saying about if an atheist asked you a question. And then you go into the concept, he doesn't believe in Allah. Well, this is the beauty of this method. He addresses atheist Christians, Buddhists, everybody, because the next part is going to be on God's existence. And then you get agreement. Even if they believe in God, you just summarize some of the signs in the Ayat of Allah subhanho wa Taala, to reaffirm what they already know, if they don't believe in God, then you start talking to them. So this leads nicely to the next point. The next stage is essentially God's existence. Now, unfortunately, this course is a two day course.
And this is what we're doing today is basically a taster
for what's to come because inshallah we want to take this to the states and it will come to the States. Hopefully, it's going to be in the Philadelphia and New Jersey region in August and September.
So and hopefully we're going to take it to California and Washington and other places.
New York. Yeah. And basically,
it's a taster because there's a lot to go through. So what I'm going to do now is basically go through the whole process a little bit quickly, not giving you too much assuming that you know, some of these signs and evidences and use whatever already, you know, because today's is about giving you the skeleton, the framework, not particularly to give you the full URL or knowledge behind these things. Okay. So as long as you have the framework, the skeleton, you could add the muscles, right. Make sense? Okay, good. So once we got to the initiation, then we said we're part of the concept of Islam is to believe in Allah to believe in God. And, you know, we humbly believe that we have some
really good reasons to believe in Allah. Now, this is where you could talk about your own reasons. This one, I usually say, I talk about consciousness, the fact that you have consciousness means as an older way of being, I talked about that you don't even have to prove God's existence. It's a natural belief. The onus of proof is on you. I talk about cosmology if the universe began, it cannot come from nothing. I talk about the design of the universe, I talk about them about morality. If we believe in Objective morals, God had chosen to be a basis for those morals, I took about a whole set of argumentation, I act from the Quran. And this is how I engage with them, depending on their level
of intellect. We don't have time for me to go through everything. So I'm going to rely on your own knowledge of why Allah subhanho wa Taala is the reality. Okay? And when you have the conversations, you're going to add meat to the bones. Okay. So just to show you that you are already empowered that you know the answer in terms of the signs of the Creator. I'm going to ask you some questions. Right, someone give me reasons. One reason each of why they believe a lie is a reality exists.
We had a yes, man.
Good. The sisters saying we're living human beings. Where do we come from we are sight confirm these blessings. Were this function? Something that's functional has something that has produced that function? Excellent. Next, Yes, brother.
Everything that's created, or something that started was brought into being by something this universe was created, must have been created by something more powerful. Excellent. Yeah. Easy. This is you have the answers. dollar power, empowers you. Because some people think I don't know, I don't know. But you do know. You just need a good framework. Right? Next this brother?
Yeah, funnily enough, we have all the resources to survive. Only problem is that we don't distribute it properly. But the funny thing is God tells us to distribute. So yeah, how can we have all the resources is perfectly tuned for our existence, right level of oxygen, right of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, all of these things? Yes, man.
Yeah, who controls the universe? What's the efficient cause? How do these obus come into being? How did the universe emerge from the Big Bang? Who started the Big Bang? You press the button? Who flicked the switch? Right? Yes, man.
The fine tuning of the universe. There are laws in this universe and physical constants, that if they were changed by a hair's breadth, we will never have the universe to allow our own existence. It couldn't be chance because that's ridiculous. Must have been designed.
If it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck. It's a duck. Right? If it looks like design, it came from a designer, right? Yes, sir.
Excellent. He's going straight to Revelation, which is a little bit more tea. We're gonna do that later. Let's do that later. Yes, brother.
Yes, the complexity of the biological foundations. Yes, indeed. I agree. Yes, ma'am.
Again, it relates to design and to the fine tuning of our ecosystem that is finely tuned, in order for us to exist. Who was the fine tuner? If the earth was closer to the sun, we bred out if it was a little bit away from the sun will be cold. It'll be a fridge.
Anything new Yes, brother.
The consciousness argument? Why am I not like this chair this podium. Right. Why am I like this podium? It's just a rearrangement of matter. From a atheistic perspective. What difference is there between this podium and me, it was still made of carbon. I'm just thinking
rearrangement of these molecules, but why am I different? I have a consciousness. Where did I come from? It's not just the brain because I had any subjective experience must have come from someone who's all aware.
And at the end of the day, if we just matter, and it doesn't really matter.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, good, good. Looking at the size of a law, the sky, the sun, the moon, the orbits alternation on night and day. These are signs when people reflect. Yes, brother.
Yeah, yeah, we talked about this earlier this morning. The proof is on them. You shouldn't say Does God Exist? The question should be what reasons Do you have to reject God's existence? It's a natural inclination. Cross Cultural. anthropological reality. Yes, men.
Yeah. They say there's no atheist on a sinking ship.
And that's so true. That is so true. You hear you know, in the planes, like you have like really bad turbulence. atheist professor. He's reading his Richard Dawkins book. I don't believe in God. turbulence. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, is coming on now, man. Good. That was enough. I just want to know that you guys already know is just to show you that you already have the answers. You are empowered already. You just seem to structure. So you give them some reasons to believe and then you get an agreement. He say, Do I have your agreement so far?
And then you go to God's oneness. Once you understand that there's an uncreated creator, or designer for the universe, you basically say that this creator must have certain features, or attributes, because it must be eternal. Because if it's uncreated, it must have always been there must be powerful to create this whole universe. And there are 10 to the power of 80 atoms in the universe. You take one atom and you split it in half, there's a release of an immense amount of energy. Surely this creature is powerful. It must be knowing if I drop this book, why does it fall? Because the law of gravity so law giver implies knowledge must be transcendent. What do we mean by this? It means
different and unique. If I need this podium, do I become the podium? Hello? Do I become the podium if I made the podium? I'm distinct and disjoint from the podium. So like what Allah says Lisa committee, she,
he must have a will and he must be one. So these are the kind of things that we'll talk about, which really is a Tafseer, essentially, of sort of a class called who Allahu Ahad Allah is uniquely one. Allah summit. Let me let me let me go ahead, say God is uniquely one, he's self subsisting, he is eternal, he begets not, nor was he begotten, there is nothing like going to him, and then you get agreement.
After that, brothers and sisters, then we go to Revelation. By the way, we spent two hours on each pot. Yeah, from doing this very fast, because we don't have much time. And I want to give you the skeleton, and I want to give you time to practice this. Okay. So then we go to Revelation. So we say we said, there's an uncreated creator, and we've got agreement. Since that he must be one powerful and unique and different from the universe, then surely, this creator announced himself to mankind, surely, I mean, he can't be an absentee landlord, gave us the keys and run away.
Because even when we make something like an iPhone, in the box is an iPhone manual. And for us to understand the full functionality of the phone, then we have to read the manual, otherwise, we'll be trial and error will be falling into error.
And also, we need revelation for guidance. Now, so many argue that you don't really need revelation, I would say, Fine, maybe you're not convinced that revelation is required. But you know what, we have good reasons for why we believe in Revelation. And there are three criteria you to know these doubt in your head or your smartphone or on your hands or whatever.
The three criteria for a relation as follows. Criteria number one,
that the revelation must express a logical view on God. If a book said to me that God is an elephant with 12, arms, 3000 earrings, 252 million tattoos and is green. I'm not going to read the book. Frankly, I don't have much time. If someone says God is
created thing goes an elephant is part of this universe that goes against the Oneness what we just already rationally discussed. So the concept of God has to be rational. And this is why you could really filter out many of the religions, just by understanding the concept of God. Take, for example, Hinduism, in some traditions, God is everywhere. pantheism, which doesn't make sense, God must transcend the universe be distinct and just joined. Also, in Christianity in biblical Christianity, God has one who sia who sia in Greek means one essence or more osios, the same essence, but three distinct persons.
How does that make sense?
three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Is the father all powerful? Yes. Is your knowing Yes. Is he eternal? Yes. About the son is your knowing. Yes. Is your powerful? Yes. Is he eternal? Yes. Oh, but the Holy Spirit? Is your powerful? Yes. Is your knowing Yes. Is he eternal? Yes. All the same. So you just defining the same thing? Really? Why are you adding three there? Because there's, you're making no difference between them. And if you do make a difference, then you've made three gods, which is a theistic and irrational. So just by understanding the concept of God, you can figure out the religions, that's the first criterion. So what's the first
criterion concept of
who?
Good
second criteria for revelation? It must be internally and externally consistent, internally and externally consistent? What do we mean by turning externally consistent? Well, let's start with the internally. On page number one, if it says God is One, it cannot contradict page number 50. If page number 50 says God is 100, there is an internal inconsistency.
It also must be externally consistent. This doesn't mean to be in line with science, because science changes, it means in line with reality. So if a book says there are no women on planet Earth, then you know, it goes against reality. If the book says there are no things as trees, no such thing as trees, you know, is going against reality. If it's saying to you, there are 50 moons that you should observe every night, but we only have one moon, right? So you know, it goes against established reality. So you must be internally and externally consistent. The final criteria revelation a must have who knows this one?
Who said that?
We had a say
Oh, is that Oh, sorry.
It must have miracles. So give me miracles this test case seven miracles of the Quran. Put your hand up Give me one of the miracles
Yes, ma'am.
Okay, good. The sister said that the recitation of the Qur'an K is supposed to complement illiterate profit. But the Quran has so much information that someone who's illiterate could not have basically expresses entire Quran in 23 years in the way that it was expressed. Excellent. Next miracle. Yes, brother.
Okay, good. There's many I act in the court and I agree with reality. They address a seventh century they address a seventh century mindset and a 21st century mindset. For example, when Allah subhanho wa Taala uses the word for orbits it's swimming, right? Yes, by own right swimming. And that was easily available to the seventh century Arab. Yeah, looks like the swimming. But for the 21st century physician, he knows this can also be in line with celestial mechanics. So the Quranic just has different ages at different times, which makes it very powerful. Excellent. Yes, ma'am.
The development of the embryo Yes, that relates to the brother that he agrees with reality Allah subhana wa tada tsunami noon, verse 14, or 15. Use the word alaka. Now Allah can mean five things in the classical tradition. If you go to Lane's lexicon, or lisara, but many other dictionaries, it could mean number one, a blood clot at something that clings clay that clings to the hand, a leech or a worm or blood in a general sense, this multi layered meaning it could be addressed for a seventh century mindset and a 21st century mindset. Okay.
Other miracles Yes, ma'am.
The splitting of the moon
may be a familiar smooth information because we don't have witnessed the splitting of the moon. Yes, brother.
Yes, the Quran is preserved in what's really interesting about this because people
The Shakespeare's preserved was the big deal. That's true. But there was so much sectarian strife in Islamic history so many people wanting to change the Quran and miraculously it wasn't changed not even one letter that's amazing Yes brother
You know why should
okay that really is to establish realities to different theme Yes ma'am.
information but unseen Okay, sure.
Yeah, they can memorize Allah says that we made this book easy to
Yeah, yes, brother.
You orange.
Yeah, there's some prophecies Give me one prophecy in the Quran.
The fall of the Roman Empire excellent. anymore. No one's mentioned. Our beloved will start pneumonic con What is he specialized on? linguistic miracle of the couple right? This is this is your bread and butter. So the linguistic miracle of the Quran Allah says in the Quran in surah baqarah verse 23. We're in contemporary Beeman manners Anna Anna Adina for to be salty Miss Lee Shahada come into the cane. And if you're in doubt about this book, we have sent down to our servant referring to the Prophet Mohammed Sal, Allahu Allah, he was set up to bring one chapter like it so the linguistic miracle anymore.
Yes, brother.
Sorry.
That's a miracle. But based on information, we haven't seen that happening. Do you see? Yes, brother.
Again, established reality. There's two different themes. Yes, man.
Signs of the Day of Judgment. Yes. Yes. Sort of, if you make it to the Hadeeth and the person has a lot of prophecies, for example, amazing prophecy in Hades Witcher, where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the day will not come to you fight an army. We have faces like shields. They have slanted eyes, flat noses and fairy boots. If that's not the Mongols, then I'm a gorilla. Yeah, that is the Mongols. Right? Good. So you understand there's lots of these special things about the Quran. It's not the job today to go into details about these just to understand that you have this type of information. So when you go to Revelation, then you get agreement. You agree that this
is quite fascinating as a book. But brothers and sisters, this is to this point is very important. At this stage, now you have to start talking about how he talks about master servant slave relationship, that the Quran tells us our purpose in life, what's our purpose in life, to worship Who? worship. Excellent, so you explain this to them. And this is when now you forget the intellectual gymnastics, and you go to the heart, and you really play with the heartstrings and show them Allah loves you. He's a blue dude, he's excessively loving, that he knows you better than you know yourself. He was good for you. Just worship Him, and your life is going to be paradise Sakina
tranquility and contentment in this life and in the Hereafter. Talk about Vica the remembrance of Allah Salah, the beauty of Salah, the beauty of the five pillars, connection with Allah the citation of the Quran, Vicar of God, Dora.
This is the time to really engage in the hearts when once you've established the Quran to be true. So what have we done so far? initiation God's existence one this end.
Good. Why don't you guys to do is practice the whole thing. We've got profit within the Shahada to come next. But I want you to stop for a minute. And just to practice the rest. By the way, does anyone want a break?
Put your hand up if you want a break.
Wow, that's quite impressive. I need some water though.
Barney, please.
Company. Right, good. Let me go through the whole process once with you
as as a practice and then you practice it in your groups. So everybody Listen, no noise, right? Someone comes up to Mr. Hands and says Hamza, why did you do to cover her hair? And I'm like, that's a very good question, sir. What's your name, sir? My name is john. Very nice name. JOHN. Good to see you.
Good to see you. In order for you to understand the answer. JOHN, I really believe you have to understand the concept of Islam. Oh, really? Yeah. Because that is the answer. Okay. Well, the first part of the concept of Islam is that we believe in God. We call him Allah the day T and we have good reasons to believe in God. Do you know what some of these reasons are? Well, I mean, an atheist Tell me Well, one of these reasons are well, you know, this universe began to exist. You know, this fight? Yeah, sure. Well, there are only a few possibilities to explain how it came into existence. You
couldn't come from nothing because from nothing nothing comes. Can it create itself? It couldn't be created by something else created. If that goes on forever, you will never have creation. Say makes sense. It was created by something uncreated. Hmm, that makes sense. But it doesn't mean it's God. I agree. But if we agree that there's an uncreated creator that surely must be eternal because it's uncreated. It was it was always there must be powerful because it created everything in the universe must be knowing because it created the laws of the universe and a law give implies an intelligence must be different from the universe. Because if you write a book you don't become the book do? Of
course not I'm distinct and just joined from the book. Exactly. So this uncreated creator created the universe, his distinct and destroyed from the universe. This is making sense so far. Huh? Interesting. Doesn't this sound like God? Maybe? Oh, falling on from that we believe in Revelation. And the reason we believe in Revelation because all human beings require guidance, take animals, for instance, they have to rely on their instincts and they're guided, if we rely on our instincts were misguided. So that's an indication that we need some form of Revelation. Well, I'm not thoroughly convinced about that one, sir. Well, I agree. But let me just make it easier for you. We believe in
religion because we have proof for revelation. Oh, yes. Well, what's that proof? Surely since ancient fables, well, we believe in the Quran. Have you heard of the Quran before? Yes, well, this is our evidence for the Quran. The Quran is very amazing. It must have come from a being that transcends time and has all knowledge because the words he uses to explain different things addresses every human reality at every age. For example, take the word Allah aka, the word Allah Cummings, five different things. And one of its meanings. And he refers to the human development actually means a blood clot. And the Arabs, they actually understood the embryo to be a blood clot
because the Greeks, the ancient Greeks, like Galen, for example, the second century physician, he described the embryo as sarcoidosis, and Mr. Das, which in Greek means a fleshy, blood filled thing. So it's like a blood clot. So God is addressing them minds and you are a blood clot. And look at you now. God deserves to be worshipped. But if you fast forward to the 15th century, and we discover the microscope, we actually see that you know what, olika looks like a leecher worm. And it does go to D 20. To 25. You see, it looks like a worm or a leech, as Dr. Dale layman said that the embryo looks like a worm.
But even in saying that it might not even have any scientific physical description, it might have a spiritual reality. Maybe God is saying you are like an alica. Taking the meaning of a leech, because that's the other meaning of the word. And a leech is like a parasite. It drains the resources of its host. And that's what we did to our mothers. So God is maybe saying you're a leech, so low the wing of humility for your mother and love her because you drained her resources for nine months. And you know, what's fascinating, Professor, Lord Western, from Imperial University in London, he said, the embryo acts just like a leech and drains the resources of its host.
So isn't that amazing that this book addresses different times and places? You can only address the 21st century men? This book addresses all men at all times. Does this make sense to you so far? Yeah, it's quite convincing, interesting. And therefore if we believe in the Quran, we now know that the answers big questions in life, like what's our purpose? Why am I here? Who am I? Who's am I? For whom am I? Why am I? The current answer these existential questions is critical about man life in the universe. You hate to worship God, not yourself, no society. And you do via prayer praise really special and remembering God. Does this make sense so far? There you go. That's a summary. raise
yourself. Right? You have seven minutes, partner up, go to the whole process.
This is your daughter, Jim Bismillah. Not yet, when I announce it is everyone's going to go to the back and pick up a T shirt. Once you wear your T shirt, you're going to be given some cards or some brochures or leaflets.
You're going to use these as a means to interact with others. For example, let me show how it's done.
So imagine that this is the brochure, the T shirt, or the leaflet. And you will excuse me, ma'am? Today we're discussing. What's your goal? Yeah, it's a new t shirt. And we're part of the outreach program of the Islamic community.
Okay, what's your goal? Well, in order for you to sound what your goal is, we think you know, it'd be good to understand what it sounds about. Do you wanna
spend some few minutes
To understand what it sounds really about, and then its concept is short and they just go through the whole process. Does that make sense?
Simple right. Good.