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Vision Of Islam CD7 #03
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Channel: Hamza Yusuf
Series: Hamza Yusuf – Vision Of Islam
Episode Notes
Episode Transcript
© No part of this transcript may be copied or referenced or transmitted in any way whatsoever. Transcripts are auto-generated and thus will be be inaccurate. We are working on a system to allow volunteers to edit transcripts in a controlled system.
And so that's the general sense that everybody is Abdullah. Now there are conscious servants. And there are unconscious servants, there are servants that are aware of their obedia. And there are servants that are not aware of that this servanthood to Allah subhana wa Tada. And this is the difference. So the servant in its narrow sense is someone who consciously serves God by following a profit, and in a still narrow sense of serve as a human being who serves God perfectly with full awareness and total freedom of choice. So this is the idea of the servant, in its most narrow sense is that the apt, in fact, is somebody who freely gives up his state to his Lord. And this is the
gift that Muslims believe that God gave his creation, because in the Quran in Toba, the verses in the lush thirimanne, and we need them for someone to be under the home agenda that God has purchased from the believers, their wealth and their lives, and against that purchase is paradise. If God owns you in the first place, then how did you engage yourself in a transaction? How do you sell what is not yours, this is the gift. This is the gift, it's it's the gift of somebody who if you come into a shop, and he gives you something and then buys it back from you, because he knows you're in need, so it's the idea of the Father, it's a bounty from Allah subhana wa tada that he on the one hand,
already possesses you, but on the other hand, has engaged you in a commercial transaction in which you become a partner. In other words, you become a free agent. And this is what the idea of to cream of the human beings have been honored in that way, because everything else in creation can only be what it is, every if you look out at creation, there is nothing that can be other than what it is. And this is something very interesting, a tree can only be a tree, it cannot be anything else. The dog can only be a dog, the pig, the horse, the donkey, everything is determined in its attributes and its qualities, except the human being, the human being can actually take on qualities that are
strange to its nature, and you have mad people that will actually bark like dogs, you have people that behave like animals are worse than animals. And the Koran indicates that they're actually worse than animals, but home all done to subida because animals do not do things that harm them. With knowledge, an animal would never purposely harm itself. It will only do what it thinks is beneficial for itself. So if an animal sees fire, it flees from fire. Whereas a human being will actually do things knowingly, that harm itself. And this is where the rational soul is overwhelmed by the irascible or the concupiscence soul those lower energies in the cell. So one of the things that this
idea in the Koran is that God measures out carefully what he gives to his creatures. And part of the reason for that is if a law did not do that, they would overstep greatly they would transgress. Now, you can already see that there is transgression out there. But if everybody got what they wanted, then what would it be like? In other words, the fact that not everybody gets what they want, there are only certain people out there that have enough power to so corruption. But if everybody had that power, then what type of a world would it be? And so the point there is this. There's a balance of power. And this is the idea in the Quran that Allah says Lola, Allah He naza Baba, whom Baba had not
gotten used some people to constrain other people, the facilitator of the entire world would be filled with corruption. And so there is a balance of power in the world. There's not one dictator that can simply do whatever he wants, because if one emerges here, somebody else emerges over here to counterbalance them. And one of the major problems that have emerged in our own lifetimes is the fact that America does not have any counter balance that for most of our lifetimes, and certainly for the older people in here during the 50s 60s, and 70s, and even the 80s, the Russians acted as a counterbalance to the Americans. So the Americans could not do everything that they wanted, because
they always had to take into consideration what's going to be the reaction of Russia.
And vice versa. Whereas now that's been removed so that there becomes this vacuum. And this is a very unusual scenario. It's not a historical precedent. I mean, the Romans at one time were probably similar in a large portion of the world. But the Romans did not control Africa, or at least not most of it. They control North Africa, they certainly didn't control Asia, nor did they control India, when Alexander the Great who was Macedonian but when he went to India, he wanted to conquer India, he got sick, all his troops got sick, and he had to leave. And that's another thing. Harada has mentioned that nobody has ever moved towards the Arabian Peninsula, except they were stopped. So
there have been people and in fact, Alexander the Great died of a fever in Egypt, he was on his way he wanted to invade Arabia. Arabia was never invaded in the ancient period that armies were always stopped from invading. And we know appa ha, which was the Ethiopian, who lived in Yemen, when he set his sights on Mecca, his army was destroyed. So there's always been these constraints in the world. And the thing about it is many of them you're not even aware of there are times when a country wants to do something. And then something really tragic happens that prevents them from doing it because they become preoccupied. Their economy collapses, or they have major natural disasters, they have
this or they have that. So there are things in the world that you're not even aware of that you can't comprehend, because we as human beings, we're limited in our perspectives. And when we look at the world, what has to be understood is that there is actually a balance in the world that is not always discernible, not that it's not there, but because of short sightedness. And one of the things that Kimo Morales says is that all things are motor, salya hair, moto salita man hydrodynamics, Nora Hickman, everything is equal. And they are not different in that everything was created with a wisdom. So at the essence of everything, the rock is equal to the human in that the rock was created
for a purpose just as the human was created for a purpose. So at that level, when you look at the world, everything that is in the world is in the world for a reason. And this is what he means when Allah says what matter if you have any mentor forward, you will not see disparity in the creation of the Merciful. In other words, if you look out at the creation, you won't see this tooth out. One thing is different from another. And then Allah says as your advisor, keep looking, if you think there is keep looking, and you're I will come back to you exhausted and fatigued and trying to find something that has no purpose in creation. Everything has purpose, the least Adam has purpose. Now,
then it says that humans, they are multifilament, Hazel and Nakula nor any of us will be fat either. But they're different in that every thing that is existent is specific to a benefit. And when to refer for mom and Shay in extra 11 men and Nast come up quite a lot with data. And if you look then nothing has more difference in all of this then human beings. And Allah says what hot up a home up water, they were created in stages, well how to add a water fan about the home talk about that a shot, we raise some humans over others. In other words, that this is according to the Quran is from God, that there is these differences in the creation, under cave have done about the home at about,
look how we have preferred some over others in the world. This is actually you're told in the Quran to look at the world and see how some have been preferred over others in the world. And then what immediate after that we'll have autodata shots, and in the next world are even greater differences
of data and more preference. So don't become diluted by these things. In other words, these are finite, limited. A person might have wealth, have fame, have beauty, have lineage have all these things for 50 6070 years, and then it's over. But the next world is infinite. And therefore you can't compare the two in that way. But POTUS of Hannah, what else a larger outcome Amata wahida what I can do to accompany my attack on had got one and he would have made you one oma one people all the same, but he desired to try you in what he has given you. In other words in the differences what OSHA autoboca grns or mattawan had God wanted. Your Lord wanted, he would have made it
Have you won people, or how to turn only the data that you've had or whatever about to confirm about the project. And he is the one who made you replace others in the earth just as we're here. Now, there were people here before us. There were people in Hayward. And those people mostly were Hispanic people that worked in the fields here. It before them, there were Indians here, there were native Californians, the alone is and what the Spanish called the Costa leoneans. I mean, they were here, living here, had a whole cosmology. They had religious festivals on Mount Diablo, and they're gone, and now we're here replacing them. And then it says that we raise some of you over others, Leo
blucon in order to test you or try you in what he's given you. And then also what else shout out bukata Giada nessa omata weida What is I don't have therapy had God wanted he would have made you all one people. And look, you continue to be different multifeed which means you're different, but also you differ Illa marinara buka except those who specific mercy has been given them and then after that says what he that it could have become a woody that it got harder for him that for that reason, he created them, in other words, to defer and to be shown mercy. So that is part of the intention of the creation will fit out of the pedometer, gelato gentlemen, and Evan was that in the
earth, you see all of these different different types of Earth out there that are different, Earth is different soil is different. There's rich soil, there's poor soil, there's soil, if you plant nothing grows there, salt marshes, nothing will grow there are only certain specific vegetations. There's areas where fruit trees flourish, there's other areas where they can't grow. Because of air. If you watch mount what Bodie seen in board, one of the meanings of Thor is a mountain the trees grow on because there are mountains that no trees grow on, it gets too high, and it can't sustain vegetable life. So even in creation, there's all this diversity. And that's going to have an effect
on the people living there. And then he says in Nevada, I think there are many of these are signs and we go back to the idea a few weeks ago, we've talking about signs that human beings are here to perceive signs, these are Signs for people who have intellect, that can actually reflect, they can actually think so then he says, wisdom necessitates all of this, because the human being cannot sustain himself alone, and therefore had a human being been forced to sustain everything that he needed alone. Most human beings would not survive for very long. And so because human beings need other human beings, there needs to be this tough out, had everybody been given wealth, then how
would some people serve other people? If all of us had equal Well, how would some people serve other people? And there's another important point here, which is had God not created with freewill, these human beings to feel impoverished? Then who would need God?
If everybody felt independent, they would feel no need and this is what the Quran says in the in Santa Clara para sadhana, human beings become aggressive, and oppressive, and they transgress when they deem themselves independent of God. And so the state of impoverishment, which the human being whether he's wealthy, materially or impoverished material is the same. Every human being is in reality impoverished before God is in need of God for that sustenance. And this is why animals have been subjugated to human beings, they're subordinated human beings benefit from animal we eat, we have leather products, we have all these things. I mean, everything. If you look around here, a lot
of this stuff is coming from animals, you don't even think about it. You know, all these carpets that you're on? Is there any wool carpets, they're coming from, from animals, we benefited from those animals, if there was a human being, they're not going to let you shave their hair so that you can make a carpet with it or something like that. But the what can the animal do? Its subjugated to you. Now, the same is true for most people. You can't ask your next year to take out your garbage for you. Right, really, you can't do that. So who's going to take the garbage because that's somebody has to do that that is a function because human beings create garbage and it would be very
difficult for people to have to get rid of their own garbage.