Jeffrey Lang – Muhammad PBUH The Seal of the Prophets Why Pt 01
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AI: Transcript ©
Jeffrey Lang with us again this morning.
The title of this session, inshallah, will be
prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
the last of or the seed of the
prophets.
Why?
And I'm not sure whether you know this
or not.
The title of the convention of Maya is.
And we have not sent you, oh, Muhammad,
except as a mercy
to all mankind.
So inshallah,
brother
Hamid Al Ghazali, Sheikh Hamid Al Ghazali will
be the moderator for this session. I'd like
to ask both moderator and speaker to come
to the podium, please.
Dear brothers and sisters, Insha Allah, we'll continue
with our program.
And if you,
may have noticed,
may be you read the titles before you
come to the convention,
and you get a feeling. But when you
sit
and
listen to what we have to offer, you
get a different feeling.
And that's the job of C triple I,
as a consultant.
We know what,
inshallah, would be beneficial
to most of us.
We have gone through experiences
of trial and error,
and we have seen
where we can succeed
and where we did not do good,
we try to improve.
And this is the essence of this convention.
Doctor. Jeffrey Lang is with us,
and he rarely
makes a public
presentation,
maybe once or twice a year.
So, if you're planning to ask for presentations,
Insha'Allah it will work
hopefully 1 or 2 times for next year.
His expertise
is in math,
and he wants to stress that.
He's a mathematician,
walks in everybody knows
him
there,
walking
in the He walks in loraz, everybody knows
him there, walking in the streets,
holding his books in his hands,
walking for miles
every day. Alhamdulillah.
He
working on
projects
that will be effective for us as Muslims,
which is
presenting to us
some written material on Islam
that would suit the American mentality,
that is directed to the non Muslim audience.
And that's why,
as somebody who went through a lot of
experience with working with non Muslims,
I see his book,
the first one,
Struggling to Surrender,
as book number 1 that should be
in the hands of everyone
who is working in the field of Dawah.
If you wanna give a present
to your
neighbors or
to somebody you like,
or even to your colleagues,
this is the book you should give them.
You read it, you will find out why.
And the second book which he is working
on right now, even the angels passed,
deals
with
maybe it's taken
from
the verse in Surat Al Baqarah,
where the angels were asking,
Allah, why did you create
a human being who's going to
spread
corruption
and shed the blood on earth?
So it's dealing with the purpose of life
and the basic issues.
And again, inshallah, it will be an excellent
presentation and excellent book.
Today's topic,
I find doctor Jeffrey's
material, we always discuss it.
We live in the same town.
Almost we meet
on a almost daily basis.
We discuss many of the issues
that he has to present,
and I know it's going to be good,
And I know most of what he writes
is original.
The ideas
are coming really
brand new ideas.
And they reflect
his views.
But at the same time,
they are coming out of the background that
he made in these
comprehensive readings
and research that he does.
Today's title,
Muhammad,
the seal
the seal of the prophets.
Why? It has been in our minds.
We frequently present the non Muslim audience
with this fact,
and we find little to say about it,
or to prove it, or to at least
explain it in a
convincing way.
His presentation
is to answer this question
that we have in mind, inshallah.
Doctor Jeffrey
is married,
and he has 3 kids,
3 beautiful girls.
He always talks about them in his presentation,
so hopefully, I will leave that to him.
And Insha'Allah,
we will be talking for about 45 minutes
to 1 hour, and then we'll have about
half an hour for the question and answer
or for your comments InshaAllah.
Would you please go ahead? Thank
you.
Peace be upon you.
I have to think about what I'm gonna
say. I always get up here, and my
mind just goes blank.
Really, this lecture is
just some rather
simplistic
reflections of mine on the shahada,
on the Muslim testimony of faith.
And,
just some ideas that came to me one
night
when I was
considering Islam,
considering the choice to become a Muslim.
And it has to do with the finality
of the of prophecy, of prophethood with Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon.
Many times I
am asked
that conferences or better yet at lectures I
have given at universities
by Americans sitting in the audience,
Why
a last prophet?
Why a last
messenger of God?
And the reason why they ask these questions,
and they'll often tell you, is that other
religions allow for
messengers of God,
of divine revelation,
to be communicated to mankind,
continuously.
The door is always open.
In Christianity, you'll see many people feel that
they are
receiving divine revelation for their communities, for mankind.
Judaism, still
many Jews still anticipate a prophet to come.
And in the Hindu religion, in the Buddhist
religion, there are people that feel that they
are particularly chosen by God to deliver
a divine message to mankind, a scripture, a
revelation.
But Islam of all the world religions shuts
the door on that with the with the
mission of prophet Mohammed. So many
non Muslims ask, especially those of a Christian
background,
does that make sense?
I mean,
are you telling me, one fellow asked me
at,
the place where brother Hamid is now going
to school,
pursuing a PhD
at the, Manhattan, Kansas at the universe Kansas
State University.
A student asked me there, do you mean
to tell me that in the last 1400
years, we couldn't have benefited from having another
prophet?
Why a last prophet? Why would God direct
mankind so directly and personally through all those
centuries and then suddenly shut the door on
revelation?
Look at the possible reason.
I present this lecture just as more of
an example than anything else of the type
of questions that we're often asked to face
nowadays. Many of these questions simply didn't arise
in the 2nd or 3rd century after the
Hijra.
But they do arise now, or they arrived
in a different context, and it was of
a different formulation then.
But they do arise now, and people are
asking them, and we have to start
making the intellectual effort
to understand these questions, these type of questions,
and
to provide
rational
rational answers. Not exclusively rational answers, but they
should certainly be of a rational nature as
well.
I want to stress before I start
that, and I do this
in,
consideration
of the fact that not all of us
are from exactly the same perspective, I want
to stress before the I start, and I
think this is important, author
writer, speaker, author should always mention his background,
what his influences are.
The the answers that I'm about to and
these are just personal, and I don't claim
they have any real authority. But the answers
I'm a bit about to talk about are
definitely
biased by the fact that I am a
Sunni Muslim.
I've been, that that is my influence. That
is my background.
And I and through my study of Islam,
I found other perspectives within our community
on this issue.
In particular,
the,
Shia scholars
have have their own
answers to this question, and their own perspective.
So out of,
respect for that perspective, and also, I don't
wanna absolutize my opinion or claim that it
is, you know, the only perspective within our
community. I should just mention,
out of fairness to everyone that this is
definitely a a Sunni
approach,
a Sunni point of view,
just so happens to be. I don't say
that with any sense of competition or,
arrogance. I hope hopefully not.
So let me begin with a famous moment
in history that I think you all know
and remember well.
Picture this moment.
Pretend you're back some 1400
years.
You're standing in the courtyard of Medina.
You look around you, courtyard of the Masjid
of and Medina, faces are strained, people are
nervous, there's rumbling in the crowd, there's sighs
of despair.
Faces look like there's a tremendous
burden and weight on those around you. Crowd
is extremely nervous.
People are starting to argue with each other.
Shout at each other.
As a matter of fact, it looks like
the crowd is to about to erupt in
chaos.
They're definitely
nervous and on the edge of panic.
Just then,
from the apartments,
adjacent to the courtyard,
Omar emerges
and he shouts to the crowd, they lie.
And he swears that with his own sword,
he's gonna cut down the evil fabricators of
this lie.
He towers above this audience, and he looks
more fierce than ever. And his enraged eyes
guarantee his threat.
At first, the people in the crowd and
those around you, they look
sort of relieved.
After all, Umrah has just emerged
from his quarters from the quarters
of the of whom they're concerned about, the
men whom they're concerned about just seconds ago.
You had just seen it.
So they're starting to feel relieved and a
little bit at ease.
But yet, there's something strange happening here because
they could still hear the cries
of his wives
in their apartments.
There's something sort of unreal and eerie about
Omar's protest. Almost like a young boy who's
hysterical,
who can't can't face some fat.
It's just then that this panic once again
starts to seize the crowd because they start
to realize that,
oh my god, it might be true.
Oh my god, it most probably is true.
The prophet
the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is
gone.
Just then as Omar continues his tirade,
Abu Bakr arrives on his horse. His horse
is panting and breathing hard and sweating.
Abu Bakr doesn't even stop to listen to
Omar's screams. He goes right around the crowd,
this huge mass of people congregating in the
courtyard, and heads directly for his daughter's apartment.
He comes up to her apartment,
parts the curtain with his left hand, and
asks leave to
enter. No need to ask for permission today,
is the sullen reply.
Abu Bakr walks over to where his son-in-law
lies,
and he thinks how their friendship went back
so many years. Long
before
Mohammed, peace be upon him, was a prophet.
Long before his mission began.
Long before even his marriage to Khadija,
back to when they were both bright young
prospects
in Meccan society.
He walks over to him. He bends down
next to him. He sees
his lifeless body lying on a straw mat.
Abu Bakr leans over and bends down and
kisses the face of his beloved.
And he says,
sweet you are in life
and sweet you are in death.
He gently lifts
the head
of his dear friend between his hands
while his tears drip under the prophet's face.
Oh, my friend, he says,
my chosen one,
dearer to me than my father or mother,
The good death that god has written for
you is you have finally tasted.
Hereafter, no death shall ever befall you
again. After that, he softly lowers his head
to the pillow,
bends again to kiss the prophet's face,
draws the cover over him,
and he leaves the tiny, dimly lit room.
Abu Bakr didn't have the look of a
leader.
Most leaders we think of as people tall,
big stature, broad shoulders,
stern look.
But Abu Bakr was short and slight of
frame,
and he didn't appear to be a natural
leader.
Abu Bakr was best known
of all things for a soft heart and
clemency. We normally think of our leaders as
stern and decisive individuals.
His own daughter,
Ayasha, disqualified him from leading the prayer
on a famous occasion because of Abu Bakr's
emotionality,
because she said he weeped and he cried
when he read the Quran. He was too
much to emotion.
But in that same occasion though, the prophet
saw deeper into
Abu Bakr reentered the courtyard and made his
way to the front of the crowd.
Omar was still there screaming at them, yelling
at them, threatening them.
Abu Bakr called for their attention, but Omar
just completely ignored him and continued on with
this
violent tiring.
Abu Bakr had to raise his voice high
so he could be
heard. And he called out loudly, for those
who have worshiped Mohammed
and the entire crowd just fell into stunned
shock. Even Omar, all eyes were now turned
to Abu Bakr just in bed shock,
wondering what he was about to say.
For those who have worshiped Mohammed, he said,
Mohammed
is dead.
But for those who have worshiped Allah,
Allah lives
and never dies.
And then his voice rose in strength as
he recited and he gained confidence with every
word, the famous verse,
Mohammed is but a prophet before whom many
prophets have come and gone. And should he
die or be killed, will you turn your
back on your heels?
Know that whoever turns his back on his
heels will cause no harm to Allah.
Allah will surely reward those who are grateful
to him.
That moment,
the entire mood of the crowd changed.
Omar even collapsed to his knees under the
weight of what he had just heard, releasing
the pain and bereavement and the sadness that
up until then he couldn't face.
In later days, Omar would recount, that moment,
that verse took a new meaning to them.
So that it was as if they had
heard it from the first time.
And at that moment, in the minds of
many, the choice for the political successor of
Mohammed was etched in the hearts of so
many people in that crowd.
Because Abu Bakr came out there when they're
on the edge of panic,
when they were falling apart,
when they're about to just break off into
disintegration
and pulled them back together
with those most historic words
reciting that most powerful verse.
And then the question did arise arise thereafter.
Not only who would succeed
prophet Muhammad politically, but the question arose after
that. Why would
God abandon
or not abandon, but leave the Muslim community
without another
messenger, divinely chosen messenger of God thereafter.
And the question still haunts us for many
people today when they consider Islam. And I
know it bothered me when I
first studied Islam.
Let me recall for you 2 verses.
By the way, when I see the looks
on so many faces after I recall that
story, it reminds me of something a German
orientalist once said about Muslims and their
love of prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
So I look at the faces and the
emotions on so many of them. He's he
said this.
He said that when you hear the Muslims
speak of Muhammad,
peace be upon him,
you would think that he had died and
then he hesitated
and said yesterday.
The 2 verses I'm thinking about in the
Quran are the following.
This day I have perfected for you your
religion and completed my favor unto you and
chosen for you Islam as a religion.
And the other verse in the 33rd Surah,
Mohammed
is not the father of any of your
men, but he is the messenger of Allah
and the seal of the prophets. And Allah
is ever knower of all things.
Now this second verse, the one I just
mentioned about prophet Mohammed being the seal of
the promise of prophets
also combines that with the fact that he
is not the father of any
men. Not that he never had a male
heir
or child.
It's an interesting combination. I remember when I
was first studying Islam, how I kept on
thinking about that verse again and again and
again. What could be a possible connection between
the fact that prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
him, is the seal of the prophets
and that the fact that he has no
male
children. And then it came to me that
perhaps the second verse revealed in the 4th
year
after Mohammed immigrated to Medina,
turned out to contain a prophecy as well
as a statement of current fact. That was
definitely
true. Mohammed would leave no male heirs,
and thus no natural candidate
that the community might look to as inheritor
of the prophetic mantle.
If you think about it, whenever a great
figure, a great man in history dies, people
naturally start to look to his heirs and
relatives to take over where he left off.
Remember when John f Kennedy died?
People immediately started thinking that, oh, we got
to block another Kennedy
so he could continue on with it as
if he inherits
Kennedy's same qualities and abilities and powers.
Ted Kennedy, for all we know, might be
completely different character.
But this is a natural tendency on the
part of people. The deep emotional and psychological
need for another divinely guided person, another person
who could guide the community under a divine
mandate was deeply felt by the early Muslims.
As we just saw, Omar and many others
with him refused to accept the fact that
the prophet could possibly die.
And that there would no longer be under
that prophetic authority.
And it's of course, it took Abu Bakr
to straighten him out.
If prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, left
a male heir.
Although, some I'm sure many Muslims, many of
the hardcore of Muhammad's
followers, peace be upon him, would still know
that prophet Muhammad was the last of the
prophets and the only prophet for mankind from
that point on.
I think the temptation for so many Muslims
to elect
one of his male children as another prophet
or to give him a divine authority or
to assume he had one. Maybe even in
later generations that that
myth would grow.
I think that temptation would have definitely been
extremely strong.
But as it is,
prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, left no
male children.
And so no natural candidate that the community
might invest
with that authority. And it's strong. There was
a strong inclination there.
There were many in the community who looked
to his male his
nearest relatives for somebody who would inherit, if
not
revelation,
at least
a divine mandate.
As we know,
the Arabs were used to having female
queens,
warrior queens, and leaders.
Maybe if one of his daughters lived long
enough or took on a political role, took
on political leadership,
that tendency might even existed there. But as
it was, prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
outlived 3 of his daughters,
and his 4th one died shortly after he
did.
Perhaps they if it's one of his grandchildren,
assumed political role
shortly after he died.
Again, the the temptation would have definitely been
there. There would have been a strong inclination
to raise them in the community's eyes to
a divinely guided status. But as it was,
his 2 children both died without ever having
grandchildren without ever having attained political leadership.
And the second one, of course, died tragically
opposing
the 6th
leader after the prophet Mohammed's death, peace be
upon him.
But in any case, this might just be
speculation on my part.
But as it turns out, the prophet Mohammed's,
peace be upon him, decision not to appoint
a political successor after he died.
The verses in the Quran
and
history as it unfolded in the 30 years
after his death did seem to me to
guarantee
that the majority of Muslims would understand
the expression, the seal of the prophet, the
khatam of the prophet,
the last in a series.
The word literally means of the prophet in
the most conservative and literal sense.
And so the question still remains,
why a lost prophet?
The ground states that from every people,
God chose at least one prophet at some
time in their
history. And it contains examples,
numerous examples,
of nations that were sent prophets repeatedly.
Repeatedly. Because the divine message they contain
conveyed would inevitably be distorted or forgotten.
God would have to continually send another prophet,
then another, then another. Why? They would take
the revelation, stick to it for a while,
go astray, or distorted or contaminated or move
away from the teachings or distort the teachings.
So you would have to send another and
another and another.
People would would con continuously
perverting and distorting the message of the prophet,
straying from the teachings,
Allah would have send another.
The prophet, peace be upon him, and some
reports said that God sent as many as
a 100000
prophets to mankind.
We are told that prophet Mohammed's mission too
was restorative
and corrected.
The revelation he commune communicated
confirms
essential truths contained in other sacred books,
especially the Jewish and Christian scriptures,
but it also corrects many key errors
in those scriptures.
But then when you think about it,
this is a rather pessimistic
view
about mankind's
spiritual and moral resolve.
Since its very beginnings, the human race has
been consistently guilty of perverting and distorting
God's revelations.
Mankind has shown a terrible inability to preserve
and adhere
to God's revelations.
So that even if the Quran as Muslim
state is the same
original revelation
received and communicated by prophet Muhammad peace be
upon
him. Even if the Quran never never received
later editing and revision
like other religion scriptures.
Are we not, like most of humanity, still
in need of another prophet with our proven
propensity as people for distortion and going astray
from the message?
In other words, does it make sense that
god would suddenly guide mankind so intimately, so
closely throughout all of history as the student
at k state said. And then suddenly just
abandon us and leave us
to our own interpretation
and guesswork over 14 not guesswork, but it's
jihad over 1400
years. You see, the early Muslim scholars, they
didn't really face this issue because they assumed
that the day of judgment was just around
the
corner. This was the last revelation the day
of judgment is gonna be right here.
But, no, it's been 1400 years.
Now the Muslim might counter that the Quran
is distinguished from all other sacred religions by
its purity. Sacred scriptures by its purity.
Others may contain contain some clay statements close
to,
verbatim accounts of what the prophets preached,
but those are so thoroughly mixed with folklore,
poetry, and termitate interpretation, and commentary.
Those scriptures are so filled with errors in
translation,
copying, editing, and transmission, and with other sorts
of additions. That's sifting out the revelation.
What the prophet actually preached from what other
humans just added and sifted in there and
put in there and mixed in there is
nearly impossible.
And followers of other religions will tell you
that. Scholars of them would.
The Muslim insist that the Quran on the
other hand contains nothing but the words proclaimed
by God almighty
to prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Under
what prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was
certain was divine revelation.
And many western scholars will come close to
agreeing with that nowadays. They'll tell you that
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was entirely
sincere in his conviction that those verses were
from God, and that the Quran contains nothing
but those verses. They may not agree that
it's divine revelation, but they'll at least admit
that it contains nothing but the verses that
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, proclaimed under
what he knew, he knew at least, was
divine revelation.
For example, Montgomery y and h a r
Gibbs say that in their books.
So the argument goes, we now possess the
unadulterated
word of God to guide us, making unnecessary
another revelation
or prop.
Other religions
have different viewpoints about the means and purpose
of revelation. I don't mean to discuss them
now. I don't want to contrast them or
compare them. Only presenting a popular argument for
the finality of prophet Mohammed's mission.
But does this explanation fully answer the above
question?
What about the need to interpret and apply
the revelation in an ever changing world? I
mean, the circumstances are vastly different now than
what they were 1400 years ago or even
a 1000 years ago.
Of course, the Muslim rule
there are so many situations today that didn't
even the revelation didn't even, you know, cover
the things that happened we face now, problems
we face now, that the revelation didn't strictly
address.
Well, the Muslim will reply, well, we have
the sunnah.
Prophet
Muhammad's life example
to answer so many of those questions that
come up that the Quran did not explicitly
address that need a further explanation.
But still,
the modern non Muslim will say, yes. But
okay. But there's certainly many, many situations that
came up in these 1400 years that were
not covered directly and explicitly by the sun.
The Muslim will say, well, we have the
Sharia
because the Islamic law
that was developed over many centuries
by Islamic scholars of old,
and they tried to develop
a comprehensive
system of guidance
that covered every possible situation that may arise.
But now,
so many over a 1000 years later,
many non Muslims or skeptics would say, yes.
But certainly, they couldn't have anticipated
every situation
that comes up today.
So many problems come up today that they
just didn't anticipate. And we, in these
conferences, debate about and discuss and agonize.
So what about these?
They certainly can have addressed all of these.
The Muslims, the class will naturally say, yes.
But we can repeat that scholarly effort. We
could study what they've studied what they've done,
learn their methodology,
and find Islamic solutions here in the 20th
century, almost the 21st century. But the
problem
the problem is is that with each step,
we move farther and farther from the original
source of revelation.
And the farther we move from that original
source of revelation, the more we bring in
human choice, human decision, human decision,
human interpretation,
the more the human personality is involved. You
and I.
And that is certainly going to involve errors,
certainly gonna involve conflicts, it's certainly gonna involve
disputes.
So that today, we see Muslims arguing about
a 1000 issues.
Getting red in the face and frustrated and
angry. What's the role of women in the
community? I don't know. Should women drive? Yes.
No. And I can't I can't decide. What
do they say they should? They say they
don't.
What? Should we get involved in banking practices
in the United States of America? Are we
allowed to get a home loan? I don't
know. Well, what should we do? And nobody
knows what to do.
We're arguing over a 100 things. What? You
got a credit card? Yeah. I can't rent
a car without a credit card. Oh, you're
a disbeliever. No. I'm not. I and on
and on. You know?
Some of them are funny, but some of
them are really very sensitive and people get
hurt and angry,
almost on a brink of division.
Disintegration.
As one Muslim student attending the University of
Kansas once told me, if only the prophet,
peace be upon him, was here to settle
these thousands of issues for us today.
From his perspective and from this perspective,
the question begs,
do we not can we not use another
prophet?
Now any answer we attempt is purely speculative
because the Quran doesn't really explicitly
ask that question.
There very well be many many reasons
rather than a single rationale. There may be
many things that are completely just outside of
our imagination and comprehension. God and his infinite
wisdom
knows many things that we do not know.
As the Quran says when it mentions the
prophet Mohammed is the seal of the prophet
and God is knower of all things.
It is possible, for example, that the collective
attempt to work out a program of living
guided by the Quran and Prophet Mohammed, peace
be upon him, and his life example is
in itself a valuable social, intellectual, and moral,
and spiritual exercise.
It would certainly require cooperation, tolerance, humility, sincerity.
The possibilities for growth for all of us
in such an endeavor
may outweigh the
potential difficulties of our benefits of having a
profit to decide every small point of difference.
I mean, it
could be something that simple.
Another factor might be that the current environment
is incapable
of producing an individual,
of the integrity, the level of purity, the
level of simplicity, the spiritual receptivity
of a prophet.
Maybe the times have just become too corrupt,
and they did very quickly after prophet Mohammed's
time, peace be upon
him. Perhaps life has become so complicated and
corrupting
that no one of us is capable of
attaining the spiritual level necessary
of a Moses,
Jesus, or Mohammed, peace be upon him.
I'm reminded of when prophet Mohammed said,
peace be upon him, the best of my
community is my generation.
They're after those who follow them and they're
after those who follow them. And then will
come a such a people that one's testimony
will outrun his oath, and his oath will
outrun his testimony.
And Sahih Abu Khare in that collection that
hadith appears.
But it seems to indicate that the times
will become more corrupt.
And it'll be very difficult for people not
to be at least partially touched by that
corruption.
Recall also the statement in the Quran that
asserts that the best generation of believers is
in Mohammed's era.
Those who excel in faith are many in
his era. And then there will be fewer
and fewer in later times. There will still
be very good people,
but the most excellent will be in abundance
in prophet Mohammed's time, peace be upon him,
and less and less thereafter.
Also, even remember that the Quran itself said
there'll come a time when even the Muslims
will shun the Quran.
When they will neglect the Quran.
So it does indicate
a slow but surely corruption of society.
And so perhaps none of us are untainted
by that corruption. At least to the point
where we could become a prophet.
But I don't think that these two
explanations would really convince anyone. I'm just offering
them their possibilities.
I think though when Muslims face a question
like this, we have to begin sort of
methodically and rational.
And the best place to begin, if we
just use our
reason and God gave us a reason to
use, we should probably begin
at the very source of revelation, the Quran.
And what would be the natural place to
begin? Just think about it. Like teaching a
math course here. What would be the natural
question begin? Well,
what necessitated
prophet Mohammed's mission?
Certainly, the Quran addresses that issue.
So let's look to the Quran and find
out what necessitated prophet Mohammed's coming, peace be
upon him. Then we'll study the Quran and
see what role did he fulfill, what void
did he fill.
And 3rd, we'll think of we'll ask ourselves
the question, once we've answered those 2 questions,
does the ceiling of prophecy with him, is
it in harmony with that objective that he
fulfilled?
That is coming fulfilled. This would be the
natural way to begin and I think you'll
agree with me.
Now, if we turn to the Quran,
it's quite simple, really. That's why I say
these are very, just simplistic reflections.
We can't miss the fact that the single
most important fact
governing all creation
and preached by all of God's messengers
is what?
It's very simple.
The terse formula statement,
there is no God but God.
All of God's messengers,
if you go through the Quran,
insisted on at least this much.
And as many implications as the Quran tells
us,
it implies
that many different objects of worship men choose,
the many different objects of veneration and worship
we choose, have no real authority or power.
And that the divisions and hatreds, that the
misdirected venerations of these various objects of worship
that we construct,
The mist the hatred that these leads to
are totally unnecessary
and a result of nothing more than evil
self destructive man made delusions.
It means that there is but one spiritual
and moral standard
governing humanity
and one measure of a person's worth.
In pre Islamic Arabia,
a person people each had their own god.
Everybody had their own deity.
And they didn't construct these people, and this
is a sickness in the human soul.
They didn't construct these objects of worship so
that they could serve them. They constructed them
essentially so that the gods could serve them.
You'll all recall the famous account of how
one guy, a one a pre Islamic Islamic
Arab, was considering bearing his child alive.
And so he quickly went over to his
idol and try and with his arrows, tried
to get a sign that it was far
right to kill his child.
And the arrows didn't come out the way
he wanted it.
So he tried it again, and the arrows
didn't
out the way he wanted me. He tried
a 3rd time, the arrows didn't fall the
way he wished. So he kicked the idol
over, built a new idol, threw the arrows
again. Yes. They were. Great. He killed his
child.
It's grim reality, you know. But very often
people use gods to serve them rather than
the other way around.
And so that each person would try to
find special favor with his own personal deity.
His own personal
God.
And so that this woman would treat this
man
terribly while he would shoot treat her friends
and those in her clique
with great respect, mercy, and admiration, and justice.
This man would be very merciful and kind
for this man. Well, if this person was
outside of his clan, or his tribe, or
his family, he would treat him like dirt
even though he was starving in the dust.
This person could be very just within his
tribe, and he could be totally unjust to
those without
it. This person could be very fair, and
kind, and wonderful to people within his religion.
But with outside his own peculiar
little click of religion and cult, he could
be the most brutal and unfair and unrighteous
person.
But the Quran and all the prophets came,
and prophet Mohammed came to say no to
that.
There's but one single authority to which we
must all submit. One single,
absolute, all powerful
God, eternal, absolute,
all powerful to which we must all answer.
There's one single measure of any human beings
worth and it is your piety.
As the verse says in the Quran, and
you're surrendered to that God. Oh, mankind.
Low, we have created you male and female.
And if we made you different nations and
tribes,
why? Why did we make you different? Why
did we create all these differences? Why did
God do that? That you may know one
another.
That you may encounter one another. That you
may know one another. That you would face
one another. And you will be judged how
you interact with one another. How not only
you deal with those friends and those close
to you, but you deal with those people
from afar. Not only how you treat members
of your own *, but people of the
other *. Not only how you favor your
family, but are you
just to those beyond that family.
And then it says, the noblest among you
in the sight of God is what? Is
it the one from this tribe? Is it
from this family? Oh, yes. That's a great
family. No. That family
they're funny. No. It says no. No. The
noblest among you in the sight of God
is who?
The one who is the most pious, the
best in conduct.
Most important of all, la
There is no God. But the one God
implies that the barriers we set up between
ourselves and others
are fallacies.
Because we all must answer to the same
supreme authority, Allah Almighty.
In 7th century Arabia, each tribe had its
own deity from which it sought protection and
favoritism,
to which it appealed in the self perpetuating
inter tribal strife.
And it was chaos, and it was dangerous.
It took Islam's monotheism
to unite the warring factions, and it did
so in record time
in amazing short fashion. As the Quran, so
poignantly reminded the Muslims.
It said, oh, and hold fast all of
you together to the rope of Allah
and do not separate.
And remember Allah's favor unto you. How you
were enemies
and he made friendship between your hearts so
that you became his brothers by his mercy.
And how you were on the brink of
an abyss of fire and he did save
you
you from it. And that verse
still is valid for us today. You know,
when I was a teenager growing up in
Bridgeport, Connecticut,
my gang or group
was essentially
white, mostly Italian Americans, although I'm German.
But we used to fight the black gangs,
and we used to fight the Puerto Rican
gangs, and we used to fight the Portuguese
gangs and Hispanic gangs. And sometimes we would
join with Hispanics and fight the blacks, and
somewhat the blacks, and fight the Puerto Ricans,
and some
it was a mess. And we were all
enemies of each other.
And when I was a kid, we believed
the Arabs were these people in the sand
over there, and these, you know, terrible people,
and, vicious people. And we believed the Far
Easterners were all sneaky and deceitful and etcetera.
And but look at us today. Look at
the audience sitting here today.
Blacks and whites,
Hispanics,
Americans of all shapes, colors, and sizes,
men and women, people from the Far East,
people from the Middle East, people from the
West, all of us here today together
as brothers and sisters in Islam. And as
the Quran tells us, we are today
holding fast to the rope of Allah.
And
I'm not saying we don't we don't revert
to prejudices sometimes. Sometimes we do.
Sometimes our old prejudices,
our old nationalism,
our old patriotism, our old whatever inclinations, evil
inclinations we have, sometimes they reassert themselves.
I remember once when I first became a
Muslim, I was in the masjid at the
University of San Francisco.
I don't know what happened that night, but
all * broke out in the message. We
got off into an argument. I can't remember
what it was about, but it became furious.
We were shouting at each other, screaming at
each other.
Some guy got up and go back to
Saudi Arabia, you know, go back to the
sand. And then he said, well, what do
you know you Amriki? You know, you just
became a Muslim, you know. Another
another guy said something and said, what do
you know? You're a black American. What do
you know? You're a white American. You just
became a Muslim a couple months ago. And
it was going on and on and on.
My people came to Islam first. Big deal.
You know,
People got so angry at each other. I
would swear that we all knew that blows
were about to be thrown. It was people
red in the face. They were ready to
punch each other out. We thought we we
knew we were gonna have a riot on
our hands. Just then,
a brother stands up, the quietest guy in
the masjid, hardly ever says anything. Not even
from one of the major Muslim countries.
I don't even think he spoke Arabic.
But he stood up
and he said, brothers,
Everybody
stops and looks at him. What?
He said,
Mohammad and Rasool Allah.
Everybody said, yeah.
He said, say it.
Everybody sort of starts mumbling it out. Again.
With feeling, everybody goes,
Muhammadan Rasoolullah.
He goes again,
Muhammadan Rasoolullah. This time we're shouting,
He said, brothers don't forget, that's what we
are about, and that's what binds us together.
Just look at us.
Everybody froze.
And after that,
brothers were shaking hands, and hugging, and apologizing
to each other.
He he he would hit the nail right
on the head.
Therefore,
Islamic monotheism
not only demands that we accept that there
is only one God,
but it has two implications.
Demands that we accept its natural corollary that
all men and women are in fact equal
under God's authority.
These two demands,
the oneness of God and the essential equality
and unity of all mankind
have throughout history been very difficult to preserve
in any religious tradition.
If you think about it, look at Judaism.
Look at Christianity.
Look at Hinduism. Look at Buddhuid Buddhism. I'm
not here to put the religions down. I
just wanna mention that when I studied them,
and I studied them before I ever studied
Islam, I found that either monotheism
or universalism
were neglected.
One religion might be very strictly monotheistic,
but be soft on universalism.
Be a rather exclusive religion.
One might be very universalistic,
but it seems to allow for lots of
deities and pagan beliefs and soft on monotheism.
Some seem like brilliant, beautiful
systems of morality and ethics, like Taoism and
Confucianism.
But the idea that God is hardly ever
mentioned that doesn't seem to be play a
central role in the religion.
But only one religion.
And the first to really do it and
do it successfully in the history of mankind
to combine and preserve
both of these implications of monotheism,
of
was Islam.
It was the only religion to successfully preserve
both these implications. The oneness of God
and his authority over all mankind
and the equality and unity of mankind under
that god. And the Quran uses two beautiful
examples to illustrate the point.
Are you following me up to here?
One, of course,
famous example, you all know what I'm talking
about, is the story of the children of
Israel.
Consider their story in the Quran.
The children of Israel
exist in a predominantly pagan
milieu, pagan environment.
And these outside pagan influences are always infiltrating
their religion, and they have to constantly have
another messenger come to repurify their belief. And
then, more
some foreigners come into their religion, etcetera, and
bring their strange customs and ideas. And again,
the monotheism gets to be contaminated. And another
messenger has to come and bring them back
in line with the straight path,
with the strict monotheism.
This explains why the Jewish people felt it
necessary to
shun other people from entering the religion, to
keep their racial and cultural purity, not to
let so many foreigners into their religion.
To make it almost an exclusive religion.
Don't make it easy for people to enter.
Why? Because when people enter, the religion becomes
corrupt.
But through the years and somehow, at least
from the standpoint of the Quran,
the Jews came to see each other
as an as truly an exclusive religion. They
came to see each other as some sort
of superior people, a chosen people by God,
above all the rest of humanity.
Of God in the old testament sense. A
superior type of human being.
And so Judaism,
while effectively finally preserving the belief in the
oneness of God,
compromised the universality of of religion, of all
mankind
under God.
The equality
and and essential equality of all mankind under
God. So it was able to preserve the
monotheism,
but not universalism.
Turn to Christianity in the Koran. It's a
much more universal religion. It readily embraces all
mankind.
It gets its power. It gets its unity.
It gets its community. From what? An intense
yearning to know and be loved by God.
And so you find the Christians in the
Koran, they're very sensitive
to the preaching of the Koran. Their eyes
fill with tears. They're deeply moved by many
of the verses.
They do have this strong
spiritual yearning.
And as they let more and more people
into their religion,
and as they readily embrace all mankind from
the standpoint of the Quran, they compromise
standpoint of Islam, they compromise monotheism.
And then in many foreign and strange ideas
to where it's easy for Christian within the
Christian ranks to find those that, at least
from a Muslim perspective,
associate others with God.
For example, the Muslims find that praying to
Mary
as the mother of God, hail Mary, mother
of God, etcetera. It's extremely offensive to Muslims.
That's worshiping Mary.
Now, or praying to various saints. That's worshiping
saints.
So the long and the short of it
is, while Christianity readily embraced all mankind,
it compromised
monotheism
and can and confuses
on that score.
Now Islam struggles,
it struggled in the past and still struggles
with these great internal tensions.
This tension to bring people into the community,
but preserve its purity of belief.
And extreme measures would be taken by Muslim
scholars throughout the centuries to preserve the integrity
of this religion.
Philosophical and mystical speculation
were discouraged
in the past.
All of life was systemized
systematized
into a religious law.
The practice of to clean
full and unquestioning upset,
acceptance of past scholarly opinion was adopted.
The so called doors of each jihad were
at one time closed.
Pressures were to continue to arise, but Islamic
mainstream was able to succeed in placing all
of the major sources of Islam in ice
on a in a kind of suspended animation.
So that today,
we still have those sources,
not just the Quran,
but all the original Islamic sources still preserved
for us today and to hand on to
future generations.
And most importantly,
Islam has been able to preserve the 2
essential implications of monotheism,
the oneness of God and the oneness of
man,
and to pass it on to future generations
for all time.
And for Muslims, this is just one example
how God,
through Islam,
perfected his favor unto mankind.
It was the first religion that was really
able to establish and to maintain and to
insist on both aspects of monotheism
and to preserve them for all future generations.
So when push comes to shove, when Muslims
get angry at each other, when they're pushed
to the limit, when it finally comes down
to it, every Muslim knows
that
there's only one God
and that we're all equal in god's sight.
At least,
essentially.
Of course, it depends on our piety and
our sincerity and our service of him, but
we all know that that's the way it
is.
But, of course,
now we must ask ourselves the
the inevitable question.
Okay.
Maybe this explains why prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, was needed.
This explains in part
part of the purpose of his mission.
This certainly
gives us one reason for his coming,
but why not another messenger after him?
Okay.
We've established the oneness of God, the oneness
of man under God, the equality, both essential
aspects of mafiaism.
But why not another messenger now?
To solve our differences and to solve our
disputes,
our legal legal arguments.
Well, I'm sure you've all thought of it
just now while you're you're sitting there.
It's just the other side of the same
coin.
Just imagine the opposite.
Imagine that prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
died and the door to prophecy was left
open.
But we didn't know whether another messenger of
God was to come after prophet Mohammed, peace
be upon him or not.
Imagine what would happen.
Person would arise here,
maybe a liar, maybe a self deluded individual,
would arise here and claim he was a
prophet.
We'd have to consider it.
If the door to the the next prophet
coming wasn't closed, and somebody claimed to be
a prophet, we'd have to at least consider
it.
And then what would happen?
This group would go off and follow this
individual and think they are being divinely guided.
This group would go off and follow this
individual and they think they would be divinely
guided. We break up into this sect and
that sect and this sect and that sect,
all claiming that they were the divinely, rightly
guided people.
And what would happen to our community?
We'd disintegrate.
If you look at Christianity today,
these guys are following Quraysh. These guys are
following Jim Jones. These guys are following this
one. This church, that church, this church, they're
all breaking up into a 1,000 different segments,
and new churches are being born every day.
Everyone
feels that they are being rightly guided to
the right religion by the rightly divinely chosen
messenger.
But Islam shut the door on that type
of thing.
By shutting the door
with pro with prophet Muhammad's career to to,
revelation,
we all know that prophet Muhammad, peace be
upon him, is the last prophet and that
is the last authority.
His example
and his lifestyle in the Quran, which he
preached, is the last authority to which we
must submit.
And so it helps to preserve the unity
of our community.
Look at what happened when prophet Mohammed died,
be upon him. What happened in the fringes
of the Arabian Peninsula?
False prophets arose.
Yes. Yes. Unlike,
Mohammed,
arose here. Everybody thought that they went profit
crazy.
But Abu Bakr and Omar and the and,
Ali and those companions that were molded,
Their personalities were molded by Mohammed, peace be
upon him, over his career.
Who's who structured their personalities.
Who they lived Islam, not just learned it.
They knew immediately when these false prophets arose,
they didn't know what they
these guys are false. That's against our religion.
That's completely against the pale of Islam. Go
get them and take them out.
And they put their movements down.
An Arabian Peninsula was again
reunited, and it didn't disintegrate.
And Islam spread throughout the world
with that powerful unity as its motivating and
driving force.
Look at what happens today.
A Muslim leader may get the devotion, the
admiration,
the love
of his community. But he'll never get of
his followers, but he will never get that,
that total
complete
devotion
and
and followership
that he would get as if you could
claim he was divinely
guided. As if he was a prophet.
Anytime a Muslim leader starts to make such
a claim, what happens to him?
This movement gets the Muslims the vast majority
of Muslims
say this guy's nuts.
And his and his movement becomes a tiny
little insignificant cult
and disappears,
or moves beyond Islam.
Take for instance for instance, Rashad Khalifa that
came up in Tucson, Arizona.
People were originally very curious about all these
movements. I mean, about all these statements.
Oh, boy. All this Quran stuff sounds pretty
interesting. You know? The number 19 and all
that. And then they started to think, well,
you know, I mean, he has some radical
ideas, but what else does he have to
say? People were initially very curious, if nothing
else the Muslims were. Then what did he
do? He sent out a nothing else, the
Muslims were.
Then what did he do? Sent out a
newsletter telling everybody he was the messenger of
God.
People just tore up the newsletter, forgot about
it, blah, blah, he went by the berserk.
He's crazy. And the Muslim sisters forgot about
him, and he died with only a handful
of followers.
Western scholars call the,
for example, the extreme followers of Ahmad of
Karian. The ones that claim he's the messenger
of God.
And the Baha'is, they call them Islamic sects.
But no Muslim will call them an Islamic
sect.
We don't consider them an alternative or even
a heretical perspective in Islam. We consider them
completely outside the pale of the religion.
Any Muslim in the street knows,
from the scholar
in his library to the Muslim common guy
in the street digging ditches. He knows
that
there's only one God, and then prophet Mohammed,
peace be upon him, is his last messenger.
And there will be none after him.
I'll end this by just saying that, like
I said, this began with some reflections one
night on the shahada.
And the shahada is the nearest thing to
a statement of belief in Islam, what in
West they call a creed.
It is recited at least 17 times a
day by observant Muslims
in their prayers.
In the first half of the shahada, we
all testify that there is no God but
God. La ilaha illallah.
In the second half of the shahada, I
know you all know, but I'll say it
just in case this is taped and Westerners
hear it, non Muslims hear it. In the
second half of the shahada, we testify that
Muhammadan Rasoolallah, that prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
him, is the messenger of God.
But to Muslims, they realize that they are
testifying to much more than that.
When they say that Muhammad and
Muhammad is the messenger of God, they're testifying
not only to the fact that he is
the messenger of God, but they are also
implicitly acknowledging in that, and you could ask
anyone, they'll admit this, that he is the
last of the messengers of God.
That he is the final messenger of God,
and thus, the last messenger of God and
the only one whom we should follow at
this stage.
So here too, the shahada connects
the oneness of God with the finality of
Muhammad's mission.
From the viewpoint of Muslims,
prophet Mohammed's prophetic vocation
was necessitated
by a need
for continual witness on earth. The both implications
of monotheism,
the oneness of God
and the central unity of all man under
God.
And the ceiling of prophethood with Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, was necessary
in order to preserve and safeguard that witness
for all time, for all future generations,
and to present that, and to prevent that
witness from becoming fragmented and disintegrated.
And that's
quite simply my
some simple reflections.
It's nothing very deep or profound. And may
the peace and mercy of God be upon
you. Assalamu Alaikum.
Fear. Fear.
Okay.
Well, thank you, doctor Gidman.
We will entertain
as much questions as we can.
Let me, tell you a story,
which is a real story
that took place in, one of the prisms.
1 of the,
Muslim chaplain,
was talking about it at,
ISNA Convention.
Was talking about a problem of an inmate
who,
they called him and they said, we have
an inmate who has a problem.
He's claiming to be a prophet.
So he went to see
this inmate
and he went there and he said to
him, are you a messenger of God? He
said, Yeah, I'm a messenger of God.
He said, And I'm God too.
So he said, You are God too? He
said, Yeah, I'm God too.
He he told him,
how come you, you are God and you
are in in in jail and you can't
get yourself out? He said, oh, man. You
got me. You got
me. So you would find a lot of
people who are making such claims, and every
now and then, you will hear them.
We would like to
start
the questions or the comments from you.
If you have comments, please go ahead.
Like, most of the time,
people judge other people, you know, other I
mean, Muslims judge
the other Muslims.
Yeah.
Sisters. And I think if we have this
kind of mentality, we need the help of
our brothers and sisters. And I think if
we have this kind of mentality, we need
the help of our brothers and sisters, and
I think if we have this kind of
mentality, we need the help
of our brothers and sisters.
And I think if we have this kind
of mentality, we should just change it because
if we get enough,
you know, disabled looks
for Americans or for non Muslims, then we
need to unite within ourselves to be to
become the Muslims that this country needs and
the world needs. And, inshallah, I just want
to remind myself and my brothers and sisters.
Thank you.
Okay. That was a comment. Thank you.
Go ahead, please. Important comment. I was just
gonna address the, the issue that she brought
up and, it's it's
Arabic and learn Arab and it would speak
to me so I can feel it in
a whole lot.
But
with with the with that time frame, learning
Arabic doesn't necessarily mean that. I'm not sure
to the
a good point.
Well,
go ahead, sir.
Okay. Yes, Krishna. I wanted to know how
to deal with people who when you tell
them about the
say that?
Say that again. I just wanna
You tell people about the prophet's character
and who's generous, who's kind, who's shy. Yes.
Yes.
I'm not the prophet.
Yes. You can't be like that.
How do you deal with people like that?
So they they they take it as an
excuse
As an excuse. They
have shortcomings. So don't expect us to be
like the prophet or like the companions of
the prophet.
Yes. Well, I I I just I don't
know.
I just tell them that I don't have
to accept your behavior.
You know, it's like,
when you get into an argument with certain
brothers and sisters and they say,
Yeah, I know but are we like the
companions of the prophet, peace be upon him?
Are we like the prophet? Look at our
times now, they're so different. Are we like
them? You know, for example I remember
got into an argument
with a brother about secluding women. Hate to
bring up the women's issue again, but the
seclusion of women.
And I mentioned to him that in Imam
Malik, in his Moawata, he mentions that
as far as men and women eating together
in the same room,
He doesn't see any problem as long as
the women are accompanied by male relatives.
And he said that, men and women eating
together is
the people do it in Medina. And this
is our sunnah.
This is the long established practice of Medina.
That men and women could eat together as
long as the women are accompanied by male
relatives. And he gave an example of an
uncle and etcetera.
And then I mentioned to him several hadith
which show men and women in the same
room together. Sometimes talking, sometimes doing things,
under modest circumstances, of course.
And he said, yes. But I mean, are
we like
the Muslims of that day?
And I find those arguments very frustrating because,
when people want to promote something on their
agenda,
then they insist that we have to be
like the people of
their that day.
And when you when they are find themselves
in weeks pointing an argument or losing an
argument, then they just drop their hands and
say, yes. But are we like the people
of that time?
You can't have it both ways. You have
to try to be consistent in your thinking,
I think. And I find that, you know,
I agree with
the people that brought up this point that,
there's a lot of contradictions, inconsistency in the
way we handle the prophet and the revelation.
And I guess,
the verse it says, all those who obey
Allah and his messenger will be with the
prophet. So it's it's answering the same
Obedience of prophet Muhammad will do the job.
So,
we wanna take a question here.
Oh, I let me think about it a
little longer while they're going.
The question is let me just read the
question.
If God is capable of everything,
why doesn't he turn all people to Islam
or or put them on the right track?
This is a question often asked by non
Muslims. How do you find an answer for
this and how do you suggest it be
answered?
God can do anything.
Or let me put it this way.
God
could do anything he chooses.
The first thing
is is that, God does not intend for
us just to
acknowledge the truth
or know the truth. He wants us to
do more than just know the truth. He
wants us to choose to surrender to it.
He wants us to become Muslims, those who
voluntarily
surrender
themselves. From the Muslim perspective, our purpose in
life is just not to know reality, but
to work to discover that reality and surrender
to it.
Part of our purpose in life I
understand. And I this is not a I'm
not gonna give a comprehensive talk on this
right now. It's too big a subject.
But part of our purpose in life is
to grow and to learn.
We come into this life with God having
breathed something of his spirit into us,
something of the potential of knowledge, mercy, compassion,
justice, etcetera.