Hatem al-Haj – Epistemic Soundness – Annur Annual Conference 2020
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AI: Transcript ©
Beloved check, the esteemed scholar and jurist, Dr. Hatton with hij. I hope you can hear me so I can
give Alex O'Connor.
Hatton was our beloved, beloved scholar and teacher, and he's always there for us. And whenever we have any, any questions, any thing we need
to get answered, we go to our Sheriff and he's always available and, and ready at any time to help us so May Allah subhanaw taala bless him and should Hatton's from those who allows katanas bust their time shikamaru I'm hearing myself on the headphone, I can't hear the ship I'm hearing myself.
So I'm just gonna take this off if that's okay.
Because I'm hearing myself I can't hear the ship. Okay, so as I was saying, she actually had them as from those whom Allah subhanaw taala has blessed the blessing in their time Mashallah shift happens basically everywhere, anything you see, that's academic anything that is of high level of knowledge and quality in the West when it relates to Islamic sciences, particularly filk and Islamic law, but also in theology and philosophy and logic. You find shit happens fingerprints on a Mashallah and she had them as I said, He's is one of the you know, the he's, he's no need for any introduction. And he everyone Mashallah has benefited from him. But unless in case you've been living, maybe on another
in another country, or something, or I don't know, somewhere where they don't get internet access, just something for a shift about Chicago and Chicago, Tim has received his degrees in both secular sciences and in Islamic sciences. So he has his PhD in comparative filk from Elgin and university, but he's also an MD, he's a pediatrician, he also works as a doctor as well. And so we benefit greatly from him, especially in Amgen, when it comes to Noah's
legal issues related to science and medicine was a great asset to have chahat. And Derek be able to explain these things for us to be able to give us the correct the salt would give us the correct conceptualization of the issue, so we can give the Islamic ruling for it. And the shape is also the Dean of the College of Islamic Studies at Michigan University. And so he also has been developing and I've been working with the sheikh have been blessed to work with the shift there. And he's been developing a great curriculum to produce new students of knowledge, students of knowledge, a new generation of seeds of knowledge here in the West, who are well grounded in the Islamic sciences,
but also with relevant secular studies, whether it's in philosophy and logic, and the like to be able to deal with the challenges Muslims are facing here in the West. And as I mentioned, he is of course, a member of the permanent federal committee for Amazon. And the chicken shala has chosen a topic that only chef had to come talk about. It's a hot topic, and it's a epistemic soundness, you know. So Pamela, we're hearing a lot about, you know, conspiracy theories. People are quoting facts all the time regarding COVID and the pandemic. So where do we get our knowledge from? And how do we know what is sound and what is not sound? inshallah chef Hatton will enlighten us on this topic. And
also just for our viewers, a parallel panel with Chef innovate also for the youth on towhee. So the youth we asked them to try to please go to room to
worship innovate, who was in the main session, his wonderful talk on mental health, and he's now doing a talk led to hate, and it's a manifestation
of two simultaneous panels going on. So please pick from whatever you want. And if you have two screens at home, maybe play them both, and handle the fate of Allah subhanaw taala as his best habit. So without further ado,
I'm sorry
for the kind introduction that they don't deserve
about to proceed.
So today, we'll talk about epistemic soundness, and I don't know how often I figured out that I would want to touch on,
you know, conspiracy theories and things of that nature. I didn't tell him, but I will actually touch a little upon conspiracy theories conspiracism particularly not conspiracy theory.
You know, because the word itself conspiracy theory or conspiracy, no one is denying that there were conspiracies no one is denying that conspiracy has been a an integral, integral part of human history and there were many of them. But there is a difference between believing in the existence of conspiracies, and conspiracism where you basically interpret all the phenomena around you
on the basis of conspiracy
regardless of how manifest the
Causes
of these phenomena are and straightforward and sufficient, you have like a, even if you have sufficient causes, some people still like to interpret everything as basically
a conspiracy or a product of conspiracy. But I, you know, I will not talk about just about this and, you know, I wanted to talk about epistemic soundness in general, like
the epistemological theory in Islam, because this is extremely important, you know, knowledge, how do you acquire knowledge, and I will not have time to talk about what item or knowledge, per se is, she actually
wrote extensively on this. And after that I don't, and
I, you know, if someone wanted to review this, they can go back to it, but, but I wanted to talk about the source sources of knowledge, sources of knowledge, and how do we verify that these are valid sources? Because that is extremely important. Before we learn, we have to learn what are the suitable sources for different types of knowledge? Because there is knowledge of the scene and knowledge of the unseen.
And not everything can be answered by science, science can answer certain questions.
And so some people think that science has a monopoly on truth, it is, you know, I hope that most people
recognize how false that is, because of science has a monopoly on truth, it is unable to tell us the answer the most important questions that people you know, and the most crucial questions.
For people, where did we come from?
Are we, you know,
Messiah or mohai? Or do we have choice? Or we are, we don't have choice, basically, the determinist versus the non deterministic theories of human action,
or for free choice theory,
questions about ethics? And what kinds what is ethical and what's not ethical? And how do you figure that out? You can't take a question like this to the lab, to figure it out. It certainly will not be, you know, no matter how much you value science, you should understand that it is limited with respect to these questions. So science does not have a monopoly on truth. It doesn't even have a monopoly on facts, which some people like to think
it can answer certain questions, and the scientific method is the right method.
And sort of the right
methodology,
when it comes to acquiring knowledge about the universe, universal laws of matter, physics, chemistry, biology, and things of that nature.
But certainly, there are many questions that knowledge cannot answer,
that I'm sorry many questions that science cannot answer, as though we have science. And then we have
faith and then when we have philosophy, these the same basically compete for giving you the right answers to different things
around you.
So some people think that,
you know, whatever science can answer Well, you know, the sort of empirical sciences, we leave this to science, and then the questions that science cannot answer.
Should these questions be answered by philosophy or faith or both?
And how do we basically approach you know, these answers to those questions? Allah subhanaw taala answered enough, tells us in two verses, gives us in two verses the epistemological theory of Islam and you probably may be
You know, thinking of these two verses, but la was an article out from I'm gonna say it like anime
club in a lotta coalition party or la
atonium article that I want to say I was somehow absorbed on either la lakum Touch guru. So these two verses 77 and 78, I think and sort of enough, Lewis was sort of number 16. If you want to go back to it, they tell us about, you know, the epistemological theory in Islam. The first verse would allow your Bible seminar to allow them to a law belongs the unseen
or the knowledge of the unseen of the heavens and the earth.
In the heavens and the earth that I was somehow the unseen in the heavens and the earth.
What form I'm going to sell to you like anime bizarre and the command of the hour is not accepted like a glance of an eye
and allow liquidation for the reporting the error in allow liquidation for the era law is over all things competent or capable.
And then the next verse it says, Well lo of Roger Corman bitonio. Hace con la talamona se la how they extracted you had brought you out from the wombs of your mother's lateral and when I say knowing nothing, or Jada Lachlan, as some I will have Asara one of either. So now and nothing and he made for you data like I made for you a summer hearing, what Apsara site and well Aveda intellect, Lala calm taskclone that
perhaps you you will be grateful.
So that you may be grateful.
So now, Allah subhanaw taala told us that there is knowledge that is basically beyond your reach, except if I disclose it to you.
That is right. So now what what are the labels some article or Omarosa like
to Allah belongs the right but the unseen and the heavens and the earth.
This is knowledge that we have no access to, with our intellects or our empirical findings
or sense empirical senses, because if it is viable, if it is unseen, it is beyond our empirical senses, because it is right.
It is not part of the world of Shahad, the scene, the known the experienced world that we live in, therefore, it is completely beyond us. That is why,
you know, since the time of Plato, people have been debating over different theories series, metaphysics on metaphysics, they speculated about metaphysics, that is that which is beyond matter, that which is beyond the universe, the material of the universe that we live in.
And then, you know, Kant, who is arguably one of the most important philosophers in the race, in recent times, asked, you know, he summoned all the metaphysics, metaphysics, physicists,
and ask them
an important question, is that even rational? You know, is rational theology even rational?
Because what are the what are the capacities of the intellect to examine the unseen? And how can the intellect examine the unseen? How can the intellect examine the unseen without any sort of data from the empirical senses, you know,
this has to do to some extent with Khan's position on the debate between rationalists you know, people who believe that the in a priori knowledge and empiricist people who believe that the intellect is a blank slate, and then you fill it with empirical data, and you process the empirical data and how that is how you develop knowledge. So between the rationalist mainly in the continent in Europe,
continental Europe and the between and the embarrasses mainly in you know, British embarrassed the British empiricists on the island.
They have been debating over this issue for centuries and then come to you know gaming said that the something very close to what at the moment Tamia Rahim Allah
Cocozza from piracy Maha Sebby and in my mouth mouth that the mind is a very easy instinct or co word potency, the mind does read either instinct or power potency, it is it doesn't come prepackaged with knowledge, but it is an instinct instinct or potency. Does it have any a priori knowledge, you can say that this is knowledge in the sense of information, but the law of non contradiction for instance, we all reserve
we all understand that this we concur, we agree on the law of non contradiction, like one thing he cannot be moving and still
at the same time in the same respect, you know, so, the mouse, it cannot be moving as them at the same time in the same respect, we all agree on this, or hopefully we do.
And that is, you know, that is basically the mold that is not information per se, but that's the mold, that's the potency that's the instinct.
So, if that is my if that is the mind and then the mind collects data from the our experience here in this universe and then with that potency uses this data to do what to generalize from particulars, like when you see like human beings like every human being you see
like has you know, two eyes or speaks or something like this and you generalize and then you apply this to all human beings, for instance, that's generalization, the mind does that you infer from one thing to another you may be asked to infer
and
also you apply predicative statements. So this house is old. That's a predictive statement, the you know, the predicate here is the house is the is old, and it is brick predicated of the house. So these are the functions of the mind. Now, when it comes to the unseen particularly, because basic chemistry say nothing is like,
then what is the mind capable of?
Okay, well,
so we have, do we have any empirical data?
Now, we don't have any empirical data, but keep in mind that the Muslim scholars did not limit has to and hustle via air,
which is basically senses to the external senses. The Muslim scholars also said that there is an Hessel Barton, which is the internal sense, don't you
feel fear, sadness, hunger, anger, all of these, are these extant feelings? Do they have a reality? They do? Do you smell them? taste them? You know, how do you like you can see them, hear them, smell them, taste them, or touch them? But they exist? Yes, they do. And you also feel the presence of your soul?
Do you smell it? You know, can you smell it? touch it, you know, etc, etc? No. And the Muslim scholars say that
we can also feel God, we can also recognize God through a hustle bottom. Okay, so you don't have empirical data, but you have this internal sense inside you that can recognize God but what can it recognize about God? existence and perfection? That's it. Hustle, Barton? What does the intellect can help you in what what? How can the intellect to help you in this regard about God, you know,
Like, okay, generalization No, because LASIK eye mysteries right and it'd be expected to the Creator is unlike the creation
okay. So you can generalize infer inferring from the world of the scene about the unseen or from the creation about the creator No, should not work this way. Because you can infer, you know, because gneissic is an ej is not like anything else. So you can infer
there is one type of sort of inference that, you know, you could apply solo limited but the mountaineer him Allah said, A for sure I analogy like every perfection that is devoid of imperfection that you ascribe to the creation, you can you what
a for sure I ascribe to the creator because he's more deserving of every perfection
that he had given to his creation, because, you know, if he had given it to them, then he possesses it. And certainly in a way that is not like the creation whatsoever, because again, laser chemistry, which I think is like,
but aside from this in the intellect, again, to help you with much the intellect, they can help you recognize the existence also like hustle button, and the perfection of God. And, you know, it can ascribe certain perfections that are completely devoid of any flaws that you will find in his universe, because you could say, you look at this majesty, look at this beauty. So, you know, he's possessor of, you know, incomparable income, probably greater beauty, because he created all that beauty and created all the majesty and magnificence and, you know, precision etc. So, then, we're left with what here
we are left with what you know, we said, we have the sensors and we said that has laughead external sensors will not help us at all we have the eternal sense would lead us to believe in the existence and perfection of God, but not more, we have the intellect and it will lead us to the belief in the existence and perfection of God but not more. And then we have the truthful reports.
Faith
we have truth truthful reports, or faith, and that these are the three things that you'll find in sort of naphthalene that verse will look for other common bitonio magical molag strategies you from the wounds of your mother's knowing nothing, and he made for you some hearing.
Loss our eyesight was either intellect.
So hearing would be what truthful reports high sight would be what empirical sensors have either intellects would be what reason, those are the three that we have, that we would rely on, to learn about different things. truthful reports, we said most of the valuable belongs to Allah. So our window into the vibe is what not being productive senses, not the intellect. Although, like I said, the internal sense can lead you to the existence and perfection of God. The intellect can lead you to the existence and perfection of God, but not beyond this cannot tell you more about God and His qualities and his names and his attributes and his actions and what he likes and what he dislikes,
and so on and so forth. Therefore, we're left with truth for reports. You know, truthful reports should not be doubted as a source of knowledge. And that's the difference between the believers and the non believers. Truth reports if I tell you and while many people would frown at this, but truthful reports, what do you mean by truthful reports, but if I tell you that human beings have forever believed in the existence of China without ever seen China, touching, spelling, etc, and before the internet and before everything, but human beings, you know, in Europe, in Africa, in all places, they knew China exists.
How did they come to know that China exists without ever visiting China without ever seeing, touching, hearing smelling? tasting China?
truthful reports. Okay. But how do you believe those truth reports? How could they induce knowledge or l?
Well, concurrence in the case of China concurrence in the case of China.
Too many people agreed on the presence of China. And the third collusion is impossible collusion between all those people who came and said, There is such a country that is far out in the east, and it's called China and, you know, people have these habits and etc. so on. That's concurrence. Okay. Now, is that the only way that you can verify the truthfulness of report? No, it's it should not be, you know, this concurrence, you know, is a means of verification, certainly of the truthfulness of the report. But is there another way? Yes, it's called miracles. So that, you know, if you were with Moses, Allah, he said, when he split the Red Sea, and you saw him split the Red Sea, should you not
believe in what he tells you about God?
I think just but even more than you believe your own eyes.
If you were with Jesus behind a seller, and you saw him heal the leper, and you know, bring eyesight back to the blind, you know, even bring the dead back to life and so on. Would you believe what he tells you about God? Yes. And if you were with Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, and you saw a whole army drink from his hands, the water gushing out between his from the, you know, between his fingers, finger waves here, so would you believe?
Would you believe him when he tells you about the Lord of the heavens and the earth, you should you know, so, then transfer reports can be we can verify the truthfulness of the report, either by miracles that will prove to us that the person is actually truthful, or concurrence of many people without possibility of collusion.
Okay, so that is, you know, in a nutshell, how the access that we have to the world of the unseen but what about the world of the scene, you know, the sad the highlight is sad, that we are in how do we acquire knowledge about items?
Okay, how much should we rely on truthful reports that revelation the scriptures? Well, certainly whatever Keep in mind, I want to tell you one thing, that it is important for us to understand the difference between the Catholic and the funny because that is a concept that is completely important so that we don't conflate the two, but it is definitive in its transmission and in its implication, definitive, you could have totally, you know, in one sense and funny in one sense, but it means the relative. So once if something is definitive, and its transmission definitive, and its implication, then that is certain, and that is where you should have certainty, if it is definitive, and its
transmission definitive in its implication, if it is not definitively speculative, in either one, then it is not definitive.
So when it comes to Iran's Shahada, the Scripture is that the revelations tell us much about you know, chemistry, biology, physics,
things of that nature. No, honestly not. The Prophet sallallahu Sallam himself said in a hadith that is reported by several Sahaba Rafa and Isaiah, Hannah's and maybe others, those are the ones that I remember now
that our movie Moreton yakko, you know more about the affairs of your dunya.
So, this means what? Go research, investigate this cover,
study, figuring out this is an
encouragement for, you know,
discovery for research and so on.
And he said in the last month alone, that he learns,
Allah never brought down a disease except that he brought down the cure for it.
Whoever knows it knows it and whoever doesn't doesn't, which means go figure it out, go find out,
which is something that we have not, you know, been doing for a few centuries and then dependent on others to do for us, which is
really handy fettering of the
Mohamed Salah ariosa.
But, but in general, when it comes to,
when it comes into the world of the scene, and sciences, and so on the scientific method is the right method to discover the world of the Shahada, you know, to learn about physics and chemistry, and the scientific method. Keep in mind, Francis Bacon.
You know, and Roger bacon and others, they have taken the scientific method from Muslim scholars, we don't have to be particularly like,
we don't we don't need to be arrogant about you know, it is a sort of a,
we are hovering in the chain. We benefited from China and India, we benefited from Greece, you know, Western civilization benefited from previous civilizations, but we're not merely transmitters, we contributed a great deal to the cause of science and the cause of
knowledge.
So we were good transmitters, that's a good thing. Also, because we as a rank in the chain, you do want to be a good transmitter. But we were not simply or merely our only transmitters. We were also great contributors. And we could talk about this, you know, for a couple of days, I actually would recommend for you to buy.
Buy this book for your kids, I guess. It's like, if if you haven't read it, it's a nice book to read. It's called Lost history, by National Geographic. Ah, so it's a good book to read.
But there are many others like the or certainly many others.
So when it comes to the world of, you know, the scientific method is is is is important.
How much do we rely on the intellect, we certainly rely on the intellect a lot.
We rely on rational arguments, demonstrative proofs, photopic, bouhanni
calls it, we rely on it a lot. We rely on it
when we attempted to understand the revelation, because, you know, our hermeneutical system is very dependent on contextuality and intertextuality. So you can't really understand the revelation without your intellect. So a hermeneutical system that is so dependent on, you know, context and intertextuality, and so on, would not ever want you to turn it off.
But when it comes to a the intellect as an independent source of metaphysical knowledge, or the knowledge of the unseen, so has a very limited role.
So we don't count on it that much. And we don't allow it basically to challenge the truth for reports that we get in the revelation, because it doesn't have that power. It doesn't have that authority
to challenge you know, the truth reports that we get and the revelation about the unseen.
But at the same time, our understanding of these reports should be humble understanding of them. Humble understanding, we have to understand that the language that the the revelation used to point out things that are completely beyond the human
apprehension is the same language that was developed by developed by human beings to denote things within their empirical experience. So, why is that because how if the if humanity is the audience, then the language should be anthropocentric meaning it should cater to hear human beings it should respect to their categories of understanding, it should, you know be a language that they can relate to, they can understand, but since this language is being used to describe things that are completely beyond the human apprehension, then we have this sort of so called a modal affirmation
of, you know, the things that are beyond our apprehension, we affirm them without basically seeking to discover their ultimate ontological reality, to harness their modality, etc.
So, you know, we have to figure out the scope, first the sphere, the realm, where we want to say, you know,
identify the proper way of acquiring knowledge, if it is about the unseen,
then we all rely, we will want our intellect all the time to help us it's a potency, it's an instinct, you want it with you, you don't want not want to turn it off. But when it comes to the world, the world of the unseen, you will rely heavily on truthful reports, Revelation scriptures, you know, the revelation that you have come to verify, come to recognize,
recognize it as divine,
coming from God, without being corrupted or manipulated by human beings. And when it comes to the world around us, we rely on the
from the start here, okay.
All right.
So, I said that I'll talk a little bit about conspiracism.
conspiracism. Basically, the problem with conspiracism
is that, you know, it is almost magical thinking.
You don't need to prove anything, because these are things that are done secretively privately. And then you develop these associations between cause and effect, then, you know, you train yourself to have a very loose sense of causation. Because you show yourself
insufficient causes to be efficient,
or NFA. You know, sort of like the things that you have a baby that you're speculating about to be the cause the origin of this phenomenon or that phenomenon.
And you will continue will continue to convince yourself of conspiracy Africans variously after conspiracy antennae are very notion or you know, conception of causation becomes very corrupted.
And it you know, causation here will not need any scientific proof.
Either or certainly not relying on truthful reports, because, truthfully, how do you verify it, report is, in fact, truthful? concurrence or American? You don't have a lot of people around you show Americans anymore. And concurrence is a different story, if you have concurrence, but concurrency, you have to make sure that this is that they are transmitting something that is empirical, not not telling you about their thoughts, because many people can have misguided thoughts and they can concur on misguided thoughts or or Shobha, or something of that nature. So
protect yourself protect your intimate from being
corrupted, and try to polish your fitrah rehabilitate your fitrah so often, you know when the prophet SAW when Sophia had been out of the last set of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, but if it is like a covenant
Tell me something about Islam or in a nutshell, summarize Islam for me.
Tell me something about Islam about which I will not ask anyone other than you. And the prophet SAW Selim said to him, but I'm going to be laser mistaken. Say I believe in Allah and then the upright. That's it, because it's not.
But in order for you to make use of this advice of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam which is sufficient, your February has to be sound. So rehabilitating gear federa
is by protecting the gates.
And now you know, absorbing, you know, information or knowledge that is not 3d verifiable, and that is not true. And so to protect your intellect and to protect the data, that you will process without intellect, and to protect your heart by pure spiritual labor, because of the fact that I can be corrupted by seven different things you have
when you have ulterior motives and passion or bias or both biases about what you're passionate,
you have ship houses done, you have misgivings and conjecture.
You have a Lada with tech lead when my rules you have habit, you have blind following any you have inherited convictions, these attack your heart and your intellect. And when they attacked your heart and your intellect can corrupt your cetera and then
you know, you will not be able
to have that
sound
to the vise
to learn to discover the truth and act on it because the fitrah is not only limited to that part, you know, coaches which has the discovery and learning and knowing but it is also it has also to do with acting upon
the knowledge that you have
acquired. So, in order for you to fend off those seven flaws, you need to protect the gates, you need to protect your heart. You need to protect your intellect. Two things you need to do.
Learn the right things
you know, so that you don't corrupt your intellect and spiritual labor so that you could revive your heart strengthen your heart so that it becomes
Caliban adhirata Fie Sarah join us on global carbon Azur auto fees Rajan user,
Roger, Goofy, you know. So it becomes a lot harder that is transparent, like a shining Lamb
has a shining lamp inside.
That's the heart of the believer. And the light inside that is the is the face of the believer. So anyway, it is our responsibility that we protect the you know, that we stand guard,
by the posts, and protect our hearts and intellects and verify the information that we gather and not consume everything indiscriminately, and be very critical about what we consume. And understand, you know, you know, where we you know, where to go for information about the unseen, and about the Ottoman Shahada because each realm or paradigm
there is, there are sources that we should seek for each one of them. And like I said, it's the revelation mainly for the word of the unseen and it is scientific methods for the world of Shahad and they will never
conflict and when they conflict
There is a there has to be a problem we have to go back and figure out where the problem is and our understanding of either one of them, but that would take like a lecture by itself. So I think I stopped here go to probably have a separate video that comes from lanced, I forgot to
water coffee. Thank you so much very lightning handler. Again, this is a topic I mentioned only a topic that should have them can can do martial law. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to give us the ability to speak on these topics and, and benefit people on these subjects as well. We hope we can you know, study what should happen these these topics in the future inshallah, so, we can also benefit others with the same information inshallah,
as we had mentioned, we, this is our last lecture, but we have a panel coming up, inshallah, at 915. And we feel a reminder for everyone, feel free to go online and enter the chat session. So you can ask your questions, is a very important topic, very new, hot button issue, as Paula, even from the Muslim community, people, you know, calling, pandemic pandemic, people, you know, not wearing masks, not taking the means. And they have a kind of idea, I've even seen posts by students of knowledge on on social media, that are telling us that this guy wearing masks and taking the vaccine, it's a form of reminders and they have their own kind of idea of other so while the questions are coming in
chicken, if you don't mind, if I if I can ask you, is this a foreign minor chick? And does this go against the issue of Muslim belief of color? And? And if so, why do people why are people confused on this issue? Why do they think this is a form of shade? gore goes against Islamic creed to wear masks and social engagement, social distancing?
So why would they be sharing? The prophet SAW Selim say the Tao Allah seek medicine Oh servants of Allah did enter the prophets of Salaam saying in a very from Roger let me several suffer what I
never eat in the morning for breakfast, like seven afterward they eat
no witchcraft or like, certain of other
environments will will hurt him. So, you know
there is there is and the prophets have taught us about safety so much about safety.
Like our cars
our cars
look identical.
All of these like Advil Siraj, turn on or turn off the land before I go to sleep because the mouse can basically flip the lamp and cause fire
Sikka, like tie the water skin
so that you these are all different sort of safety precautions.
So what is wrong with, you know, taking precautions and making provisions that into the practices and don't we, you know, learn from the hatred of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that we should plan well, and take precautions just like other people take precautions.
And it is not about you know, Muslim or not Muslim. So, I have the right pet he was not a Muslim, the guy who, you know, basically helped the Prophet sallahu wa salam and go back to our
escape from Christ during the hedra was him Islam. No, he was not Muslim, but he was an expert in knowing the roads and the backroads that could be taken so that they could sort of evade
those the price.
All of this is is what you know, taking precautions making provisions
dealing with the universe.
You know, the the consistent,
universal laws, we do understand that consistent universal laws are controlled by a law
Created By Allah, every moment they are being created by Allah and controlled by Allah, but at the same time, he made them consistent so that we can figure them out. But after a quarter of your body ailments, or at least at last what Allah said about the earth, that he put a, you know, provisions into it in four days, so and we say elite, equally accessible for the seekers. So, meaning that if you sow barley, you don't harvest wheat, you harvest barley, whether you're Muslim or not Muslim, there are universal laws that are there the treat everybody equally, if you discover those universal laws, and you know how to deal with them, that you procured the benefits of
Mr. Ratan our benefit offer from our agency on earth that Allah subhanaw taala had entrusted his servants with. So I don't understand why would something like this be a form of static now, if you want to say that
certain people will have, you know, dynamic tawakkol and they will not
basically,
sequence medicine, we will not force them to seek medicine, but the, you know, certainly some of the Sahaba did not seek medicine, however, the scholars also talk about these, you know, instances and talk about, you know, Sahaba, like Abu Bakr, and so on. And my mama also has a statement about this,
about the debt, to equity and so on.
So, the scholars, you know, he posited here that there should be a difference between medicine during the time of the Sahaba, which was based mainly on conjecture, and medicine and our times, like, if you say, to someone, for instance, if you say to like a worker with a lower animal, you know, this insulin
is, is a safe and effective treatment of diabetes. If you don't take it, you can beat diabetes can kill you
can make you blind, and can make you have kidney failure in this many months or, and can eventually get you people who have type one diabetes, they can be killed by their diabetes in a few weeks. If they don't take insulin, would it then be expected of the dean that's, you know, that teaches us not at all, whether there are as the profits or loss of themselves, no harm or reciprocation of harm, to say that it is optional to take insulin, or you know, and you can just decide to die
or not take insulin, or you could decide to lose your limbs or to have multiple organ failure, and to be incapable of fasting, for instance, of making had, for instance, because if you are bedridden, you probably can make and cannot make hubs. If you are a diabetic and you're not taking insulin, you will probably not be able to fast. So would it be expected that
that the Sahaba are going to lay out a had they had medicines like this safe medication safe and effective medications for you know, harmful diseases that they would have avoided them?
I don't think so. This is the Dean of law. And it is the dean after though.
I can't hear.
Can you hear me now? Yeah. Okay, exactly. And then just as a remark to everyone, I have five screens. I'm managing the questions over here, the camera over here, the speaker over here and the audio over here. So if I'm looking down or up, some people are asking me why am I looking down? It's because I'm managing the different technologies around me. And forgive me, I'm not a professional moderator or anchor man or anything like that. It's my first time so forgive me sick for learning on the fly with you with your lecture.
Thinking that we have a question over here from Almighty, she says somebody can just go ahead for the lecture. I have a question on sharing messages on any social media without proof
I see lots of Muslim sharing information without validity, would it not count as sinning? Also, would it not count that supporting conspiracy theorists?
Well, you know
Kefauver Marie is Milan you have disability my summer, it is enough
sin or falsehood for a person to relate everything up here.
So, you are responsible, here are the Confessor coming up and further by no single comment.
But this I believe, what a facet comes comes to you with news verify them.
Okay, let us say that they they are not facet.
But it is still
enough falsehood or sin for a person to relate everything the year because these things can have an impact on people and can misguide people and can cause harm to people.
So, if you're really, you know, information, for instance, about, you know, the harms of vaccines, you know, how
polio for instance,
many of us many of my generation, we have relatives, who have polio as children, and they were limping for the rest of their life, severe limb for the rest of their life. Do you guys remember this? people of my generation? Do you remember some of your family members having polio, suffering from polio as children pudding has been eradicated?
Where is for you? Do you guys remember smallpox? I got members of my family who have, you know,
sort of many deformities.
Because of small smallpox.
Do you remember where smallpox anyway, so these are diseases that have been eradicated? And don't tell me there's just hygiene. Because these things don't go away with it. The
only hygiene is not making a you know, the other ones that go away. You know, there are tons of diseases around us that are more expected to go away by improvement of hygiene than polio and smallpox, and they're still here.
So when you share information about things of that nature, and someone decides not to vaccinate their kids, and their kids and contracts the disease and suffers great harm from this are used, to some extent responsible? Yes, because he did not verify the information. And at the end of the day, how do you figure this out? Like if you're not a an expert? How do you figure this out? You, you could say that the sort of the prudent way of figuring this out is to see where the majority of the experts are. And if you have 98 99% of the experts pointing to one direction, and you decide to listen to the 1%
Well, I guess it's your fault.
And sometimes the 1% are not even
experts, but let us say they are experts. There's not a 1% Why are you following the 1% if you don't have the capacity, and that is where we go back to the idea that not everyone is Motorhead, in every field of knowledge or every science, just like in SETI or not everyone is munstead also in medicine and engineering. Not everyone is one step ahead. Try to build a like a skyscraper and see what happens
if you you know if you don't have the expertise or the skills
so it can happen money yes man and you have this typically masana before you click Share, just remember this hobbies it is not it isn't enough falsehood or sin for a person to relate everything they hear. The Prophet is putting a responsibility on you here to verify before you relay
does look like a shifter. And yes, there are people who actually in the in the chat box mentioned that they do know people who had you know polio, friends or their fathers
And so on
checking out some people may cite for example that there the process that I mentioned that you know diseases cannot be contagious and some may even say that well there even seems to be conflicting reports from the profits I'll send them in this regard are the reports in this regard conflicting and how can we you know, interpret them in the correct way?
Okay, so that is why you need yeah in that is why we needed the much the headin to tell us that there is no conflict when the prophet SAW Selim, say Allah dua,
or sounds loud. Well,
there is no contagiousness, and no bad omens or bird omens. What is he saying here?
Isn't he the one who first established the quarantine? Why is he talking about quarantine? Is that it when when plague befalls a certain land, don't go into it on door and don't come out? That is basically the quarantine that we are applying today. In our times, that is exactly the same quarantine, same idea. Not not anything different. Why did the Prophet sallallahu Sallam saying Don't
run away from the Liberty like you run away from a lion? Why did the prophet SAW some of them say they ran the marathon Alamosa? You know, like a shepherd with a herd of sick camels should not take them near the herd of healthy camels. Why is this?
All of this. And he also said that
you have to reconcile. You can't just say that there is a conflict, because the prophets are somewhat not conflict with himself. You know, if you're unable to reconcile, then and we should certainly look for the scholars to reconcile for us. But you know, if you don't, if you have not heard of a good reconciliation, you have not researched enough. And the scholars say that the prophet SAW someone wanted to say that contagiousness does not act by itself, it is not a final cause, although it is an efficient cause, but it is not the fairest or the final cause. Because the first cause is God, the final cause is gone. And when you have an inefficient kind of material cause
so if I not
like this,
what is the material cause the word itself, if I knock on
fabric, it will not create that sound. My knocking is the efficient cause the word is the material cause, but the first cause is God and the final causes God first, the final causes basically whatever everything is working towards the final end tell us
and the first cause is the one who created all of this, and the one who created my very action felt about the creation of the very actions, my very action was created by God. Therefore, therefore, can we can we deny my very action? Now we can deny my reaction, but who created it is God. So it's the fact that he is the first cause does not mean that my knocking on the word cause. The same applies here, the microbes, the germs, are powerless without, you know, without God, because it is God's will, that causes you to be affected by those microbes or germs.
But they, they still exist and they still cause disease cause an efficient cause
that is created and controlled by God. That's the you know, that's the belief of our listener. We believe that causes exist, but we believe that they are that they don't have inherent power, independent of God. It is, you know, God's continuous creation that is happening in the universe and continuous control of the universe.
Does that.
Forgive me for going a little over with the questions but Dan, it's a special opportunity to have you here. So I want to make sure we can capitalize on Angela Shekinah Paula, I
Actually, we had an NGO that gave the fatwa about social distancing in prayers in the rows, and having gaps in the rows. And once that photo came out, some people on social media were actually taking pictures and their measurements of how they implemented that. And they posted it. And people saw that. And some, even chicks from around the world saw that, and students of knowledge, and they said this was very blameworthy. And they said, this was imitation of other religions. And they posted pictures about how other religions think in Buddhism and so on. They prayed in the gaps in their rows. And they said, there's no evidence for this. And and so from a fifth perspective, I know
we were a lot in Quito, just right now, but moving from a fifth perspective, is there anything wrong with having gaps in the roles especially during a pandemic?
Well, certainly people have to understand that there is a difference of between Holland, Toronto, Holland, FTR, because, you know,
times where we have choices and times we were compelled or not compelled in the sense of the Rudra suraiya per se, but when there is a need, first of all, like
the gap between the rows
who would be the most strict and
for those who don't know, as a PhD, in fact,
he has
the hanbali teacher at Muscat.
Certainly I refer to him sometimes for questions about the Hanbury method.
So you know that the hemani method is the strictest in this regard because we're the only people who say that you know, nonfat fell for soft for salado, patella, or the person who prays behind the rose Salah is invalid, the three other mazahub don't invalid, invalidated and even in the humble, he must have the gaps that will cause a problem are you know, if they people are praying left to the Imam, and then there is a gap of more that fits more than three people.
And they happen to be praying next to him on his left side, then that would invalidate their prayer. But if they are behind, then it doesn't. So if the strictest Muslim, when it comes to filling in filling the gaps is has these concessions. And
then
that I don't know where people are coming up with these, like, you know, I understand that that certainly in in
the car, in normal circumstances in normal times, not so wonderful for not obeying Apollo become, you know, you you will you either align your lines or allow him separate your hearts. And we understand that it is important that we, you know, align our lines and line up and stand next to each other and foot, the foot and soldier, shoulder, to shoulder and all of that stuff. But these are not obligatory, let alone would invalidate the prayer of the people. These are certain us that we should respect and we should honor because they are certain.
But when there is, you know, a need for social distancing and for separation because we have a disease that is airborne, that is transmitted through small droplets. So it is airborne, and it spreads around you like for like six feet around you? Why do we have to make our mosaddek centers of transmission
hotspots of transmission is that what we want to do to our massage?
Does that glow fish and I want to call people in Sharla we have our final session in three minutes at 915 pacific time. And so I will just give him a few minutes for a break. He's been speaking Mashallah nonstop for about an hour and 15 minutes now. So we'll just take a short break for a few minutes. allow our other speakers to join the panel shaken up, feel free to keep the camera on for the next few minutes to make it easier instead of having to sign back in. It's up to you of course. And we'll just give a few minutes for our Messiah to sign on. Now we'll have our final panel, speaking about how to keep our airmen high in every circumstance, especially these difficult times.
Please stay with us and we'll be back soon.