Mohammad Elshinawy – Islam’s Abrahamic Narrative on Love, Grace, Sacrifice, and Salvation
AI: Summary ©
The history and meaning behind the title "Art of God" in Islam is discussed, with a focus on the holy Bible and its significance for fulfilling God's will. The importance of love and devotion in achieving spiritual health and peace is emphasized, along with the importance of showing faith in achieving love for God and staying hopeful. The church's promise to protect against false assumptions is also emphasized, and the holy bus is discussed as a means to achieve a spiritual connection to God.
AI: Summary ©
Okay, tonight we're happy to have a different person here. Sheikh Mohammed ocean Avi.
She is a dedicated student of knowledge who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She mama had taught the studies of Quran, Hadith, and aqeedah at an early age and study in Medina University for a short period. Che Muhammad is a research fellow at the yaqeen Institute for Islamic Islamic research, and the religious director at IE CPA in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Further, he has translated major works for the Indonesian Islamic public publishing house, the assembly of Muslim jurists and Mischka University. Thanks so much for being here tonight. And it's your turn now.
My phone is off. It's just a timer
even though I am a millennial, by the way, I just made the cut but I'm not that kind of millennial.
So it is now 724. Let me give you guys a discount 45 minutes I'll keep them to 36 minutes, I'll give myself a hard cut off at eight o'clock, God willing. So if there's any questions,
we can have a maybe a less formal conversation.
So first I begin as is
recommended for us as Muslims by praising God, the one true God, Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, all praise and glory belongs to him. Certainly, Our Lord is deserving of the best things and the most beautiful phrases those that we say and far above and beyond anything we can ever say about him. And maze, find his peace and blessings be upon His prophets and his messengers when we send
as guides to humanity
and allow us lives upon their path and allow us to conclude our lives.
In their example, having actualized a bit of what they've actualized human excellence alone.
So I was contacted a few weeks back by by Walter White here is not feeling well and I pray he'll he can recover and return to full strength and full health soon. And he asked me to share
the Islamic perspective or some reflections from the Islamic perspective on the great patriarch, the the prophet of God, Abraham, peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Abraham.
He felt like that was a good angle to tie in with much of what would be discussed on your Wednesday nights that I'm less informed about the new guys. So I hope it's somewhat related. I hope there's a connection. And there's some sort of benefit in it at the end.
And so before I and I will not give you the the chronological entire story of Abraham peace be upon him, there's a great deal of overlap between all of the
Judeo Christian and Islamic traditions, there's lots of overlap there. But more about how and why the style with which God speaks. We believe the Quran is the final Testament, the Word of God, the final revelation sent to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him 1400 years ago, how he speaks about Abraham, and how that ties into the bigger picture, the bigger picture of Islam, the Islamic proposition, if you will, on life, the existential question like the question of our existence and what it really means and what we're supposed to make out of it and all these things.
And maybe it's a good place to start there. So the four and leaves it
in no unclear terms what the purpose of the human beings life is. So for instance,
God the Most High says in the Quran, wonderful after general insight early afternoon, I did not create the humans and the jinn and other creation like the human beings. I did not create the humans or the jinn except to devote their lives to me alone, except to devote their lives to me alone. married woman who Madrid's Korean woman, what do you do on your own? I do not need of them any provisions. I don't need that from human beings to provide for me, it's not why I'm asking for devotion. It's not for a need that I have meaning it's a need that they have. I'll continue the translation just so I don't get ahead of myself. I do not need of them to provide for me nor do I
need from them to feed me in Allahu Allah zappitell Overton Mateen rather, it is God who is the provider, the bearer of great strength, the Almighty. In other words, I created the human beings and their most inherent need
is there a need to devote their lives to me to recognize me to be hold me to live in all of me and in commitment of me. Other places in the poor and
a lot of the Most High he says,
Allah is the Name of God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Christians that are Arab use the word God on the first page of the Bible in Arabic it says Allah 1617 times right because Allah is the proper name of God's kingdom.
He just got with the big G, if you will. And so he says,
I love the victory letter for inner loop. Certainly no doubt it is only in the remembrance of God and living a life that is mindful of God.
Do the hearts find reassurance?
Meaning the hearts do not find reassurance, inner peace, tranquility, fulfillment in anything like they do, that can stand in the place of living a life that is mindful of God.
So we believe that we were created to devote our lives to Him in loving, willing committed, dedicated surrender to Him.
And that is the meaning of Islam. By the way, Islam means surrender, willing, loving, peaceful surrender, meaning to God to the will of God.
Interestingly, I know one
former priest from from from Texas,
who says that one of the reasons why he found himself inclined to Islam at some point in his life, he said, because the Lord's Prayer used to mean very much to me, it was ingrained in my psyche was ingrained in my personality from childhood. And we would say in the Lord's Prayer, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done right here on earth as it is in heaven. He says, Then, when I discovered Islam, I felt that Islam was the roadmap on how to actually live up to this. This was his perspective, he's saying that we believe that God's will is always done in heaven, right? Nothing in the universe in God's universal order can object, everything runs
in such beautiful orbit, such beautiful, synchronized, impeccable design. And then the only thing left is us here on earth, where God gave us a degree of freewill a degree of and it's our job now to align ourselves with his will, meaning the will that he taught to us His pleasure, what he legislated for us. And he found that Islam is just that Islam, by definition, surrender to the will of God. That's why you're here. That's what gives you fulfillment. That's what makes your life meaningful. Anything else
would not offer that in that same way in that same level.
It is very important to mention also, or not, I guess, underplay that the word worshiping God because many times if you're reading the Quran, I did not create the humans except to worship me. The word a bad day in Arabic,
does not mean worship in the same sense that first comes to mind with the English connotation of the word worship, right.
So there are 60 words for love in the Arabic language as a linguist who will explain 60 degrees of love, right, there's like, you know, like fondness, captivation, the will, the highest, the very highest of the forms of love in Arabic is called a bad, right to be enthralled in the love of God, to feel powerless to God, just in almost in voluntarily surrendering to God, out of love for him, out of love for him.
Very bad, very bad.
And so it's loosely translated as worship, but it's not meant in the technical ritual mechanical worship that usually comes to mind. It's a much deeper meaning than that. So all of our rituals are actually in reality expressions of our love for God. Right. And our captivation and our, our,
and our adoration of him, that's what that's what you will create it for to live your life adoring God that manifests in devoting to him ritually, spiritually, absolutely. And also manifests in serving humanity and loving for them what you would love for yourself, and being more merciful and compassionate with them than you would be with your own self. Because God is more compassionate with us. And if we love God, then we're going to love what he loves, right?
And so here's the hard part.
Or not the hard part, but sometimes it gets a little bit contentious. And if the words that I choose are misplaced, please forgive me and give me the benefit of the doubt and shout me down once the lecture is over. Okay, okay, good.
I'm trying to be as selective as possible just to be also particular to people's cultural sensitivities and religious sensitivities. We believe in Islam, that we are taught in Islam through the Quran, that loving God, loving God. Number one can never be devoid of actions. Right? I do understand some people's theology, asserts that salvation is ascertained by the grace of God not by actions. That's why I'm trying not to seem too offensive here. Please don't be offended. And you can say what you want. You won't defend me I promise.
But we do believe by the way that a person will never be
without God's grace, it requires God's grace Above all, that he opened the door for you, right to grant you eligibility to invite you in. But what does it mean to be invited in? It means to be invited to live in devotion to act devotion to God to act devoutly to God. Because that is the truest marker of love. the truest marker of love is sacrifice. When you love your child, and they're sick, it's not a burden on you to leave the house at 3am to get them some fever reducer, right? Love lightens burdens in the beginning of marriage in the honeymoon phase when the love is at its highest and the passions are flaring. You give up your wants for the wants of your likes, your pleasures for
the pleasures of the one that you love. Right. Okay. So that's the picture the purpose of life in Islam, devote our lives to God lovingly, and that's going to automatically if it's genuine translate into sacrifice and to the story of Abraham now
that took
nine minutes Okay, so the majority is gonna be the story of Abraham, I did mess up.
You will not find in the Quran, which we believe is the final word of God, you will not find the Quran, any example, sent or like presented for humanity, that is as celebrated after the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him like the Prophet Abraham.
Peace and blessings be upon him.
And that is why the scholars of Islam there's a small
discussion among the scholars of Islam, regarding Who is the most celebrated prophet
in the timeline of prophets, after the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him?
Was it Moses? Or was it Abraham?
And so those who say, Moses, they'll say, because Moses was mentioned in the Quran by name more than any other prophet over 130 times, and those that will say, Abraham, they'll say, but that's a quantitative count, okay? But qualitative leap, nobody was as celebrated as Abraham peace be upon him. So I want to share a bit of that how it ties into the story of what it means to be guided to your purpose in life, being of God live in devotion to him.
God, for example, says about Abraham peace be upon him. Well, even tele Ibrahim or abou we can imagine Fatima hoonah Allah in Ninja locali nursey mama and mentioned to them meaning Oh, Mohammed was reciting the Quran and mentioned to them mention to the world
about Abraham, whom God tested, whom God tested with so many commands, Fatima Hoon, and he passed them all flying colors, he fulfilled them all without exception. So God said to him, I am making you a an Imam, a leader, a leading example for all of humanity.
So every time God requested of Abraham to sacrifice Abraham was there ready to sacrifice? Right? That's why another such a powerful first note and a lot of the Most High says,
Weibo Rahim Allah, I'll spare you the details of the context of that other verse, but in it, he'll say, and Abraham who fulfill but then the, the nuance here is what it's an open ended sentence. It doesn't say what he fulfilled. Because he fulfilled everything. He fulfilled the purpose of life. And if the purpose of life is to love God with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your we believe that in Islam as well, yes, and all your soul and all your strength, he did that above every above everyone else? And how do we know he did that above everyone else? Because all the sacrifices he was demanded to make he made them.
And so a few examples, the example of the slaughter of his son, irrespective of the discrepancy between faith traditions, was it was it Ishmael? Or was it Isaac, putting that aside?
We are told many instances in the hole and that Abraham peace be upon him,
asks God for a son for decades on end. And God tests him with patience, right? He tested him by not giving him and then when he when he reaches old age, some chronicler say that this is not an our text, but there's nothing to deny either. He's reaching 80 years of age, just when you think you're it's not destined for you to have a child. And that's when it becomes even clearer to you than ever. You receive a child he receives his son, which we believe was Ishmael.
Other faith traditions believe it was Isaac.
And so he has this child and then as soon as he has this child, God tells him go leave this child and his mother in the wilderness and walk away right like that.
Only thing more difficult than yearning for a child for that long is losing the child after you actually get them. After you've tasted fatherhood that child at an age when you don't expect you'll have another one anymore, because you didn't think you would have this one either. And so it is illustrated for us this portrait of how he went. And he placed the child in the desert and walked away, gave them some rations of food and walked away.
So his wife would call out and Hagar call out to them and say, oh, Abraham, who are you leaving us? Like it's not for misbehavior, this is not normal behavior. This is the helpless men.
Who are you leaving a student who could not respond to her?
Perhaps he was not allowed to respond. Allah knows best. But he did not respond to her until in the end, she said that God commanded you to do this.
He turned around, he said, Yes. And so she said to him, and then he will not ruin us. God will not ruin us. And she pays as you know, in the story, or you may know from the story she paced back and forth and the Russians are now looking for any way to stop her child, prevent her child from dying of starvation, or or of thirst. And ultimately, God sends the Archangel Gabriel peace and blessings be upon him to strike with his heel beneath their feet, and cause for the blessing well of Zamzam, the well of Zamzam to erupt, the well of Zamzam that exists until today exists until today in the city of Mecca.
And so this was a profoundly difficult test, right. And the only way someone can pass a test of that nature,
something that rigorous. The love of your child, is that your love for God was greater than your love for your child. Right.
And then, Ishmael peace and blessings be upon him grows, and Abraham returns to live with them ultimately returned to visit them ultimately. And then he turns to his son one day when his son is just old enough to walk with Him. The verse says lm Bella who sadly when his son reaches a point where he can start walking with Him, He says to his son, oh, my son, I see in my dreams, that I'm slaughtering you.
And he's trying to understand his profit as his father must have taught him that the dreams of the prophets are not like our dreams, the dreams of the Prophet, the revelation.
And so he says to him, oh, my father, do as you are commanded, do as you are commanded, of course, he was not consulting his son. We don't believe that he was consulting his son, what should I do?
He was ensuring that his son was surrendering to God's Will the same way the father was so that his son is not objecting to God if you will uphold that God for this and so he said, Do as you're commanded My Father, God willing, God willing, you will find me of the patient. That is only inshallah I'm gonna solve it in. The verses continued to save Malema Islam. So on both of them surrender, they pass the test. What's Allah Holy God and he laid him down.
We call out to Him, oh, Abraham, you have fulfilled the command. Because the command here was what the test was the love of God greater or was the love of your son greater? Right, that was the benefit of the test. And once the point was proven, once the test was passed, there's no wisdom there in your slaughtering your son. Right. And so that was abrogated that rule was removed.
And then of the the most beautiful words of virtue of praise you find for Abraham in the Quran, citing a fourth bet a third passage now, God the Most High
says whatever the law who Ibrahima Padilla and God Allah has chosen to take Abraham as a family as as his close friend.
Meaning God loved Abraham.
And Abraham has an intimate friend.
The scholars of Islam they are reading this cumulatively with other verses from the Quran and statements of our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. They call our attention something very important.
They say that
what is more important that you love God or that God loves you?
They say that God the God that loves you.
That's what's most important.
Because you loving that many for many reasons. One of them is that you loving someone or something, could be for your own good or makes you it's a blessing to be able to love and be loved. Right? to love someone to love something that serves you. It's a pleasant feeling. Right? But when you you're serving God, and God loves you, this is the most selfless act, right? That means you are serving God more than you're serving yourself. There's no share for yourself in here. There's
Share for the ego in this. It's not self serving whatsoever.
And so when a person sacrifices themselves, if you will, their ego, to serve God, they earn the love of God. And when they earned the love of God, which is most important, then they are it's a beautiful cycle. It's a virtuous cycle. And then God guides you to love them further. And so it becomes easier and easier to devote your lives to Him. And you continue to get closer and closer and closer and closer to God
until we will never reach the station of Abraham. But until you climb to those beautiful heights of being one with God.
And God even says about Ibrahim alayhis salam
that he was such
a paramount example of what it meant to live for God. He said in a Brahim acana oma is the fourth passage in the Quran. Abraham was a nation all by himself.
God strengthened him to the point his convictions ascended his spiritual his relationship with God ascended to the point where when the entire world rejected him and the entire world
fought him combated him.
He accepted being the only believer on the face of the earth, He was the nation of believers on his own at one point in time, all by himself, where does the person find that determination? Where does the person find that strength? Where does the person find that resoluteness? You see, God being with someone we believe, is not necessarily something that is measured on the outside. Right? Like,
people think that good things happen to good people and like bad things happen to bad people. And that concept could get you very upset of God, by the way, in our times. That's not how the world functions. Right? And that's an existential issue. It's the way you you understand our existence. No, we believe this whole life was a test with your ability to have
the moral fortitude, the psychological resilience to get through the tests. That's only possible for people that are supplied, reinforced, invigorated by God.
And so
someone loses their money, and their whole life is over. Right? Just they're, they're ready to pull the plug. Because they lost their life savings. Other people lose absolutely everything, they lose their family, and their wealth, and their reputation, everything. And somehow, they're just so at peace with themselves. They're so contained. They're so collected, they have their tranquility, it's it cannot be compromised. It's like a prick of a thorn to them. What's the difference? This is a state of the art, right? Or else? How do you explain slam teachers, forgive me from speaking in?
What may come off as a little bit of dogmatic terms, is how do you explain that prophets and messengers were killed? If God was with them, how did they get killed? Right? The fact that they were able to make a sacrifice like that without wavering in their conviction of God without feeling betrayed by God, this is a gift from God. This is this is a sign that God loved them. Right. And so Abraham was a nation on his own,
whom God loved dearly. And so this is how he was able to love God so much. How do you get to the point? How do you get to the point? As we said, it's of this virtuous cycle? How do you get to the point where God loves you because God does love everyone, enough to invite them. But then you have to respond to the invitation, right? To earn the love. That's special kind of love, that lasting love that guaranteed love. How do you get to that point, as we said, you have to sacrifice right?
It's not something cheap that you can just buy without a price. It's not something you're just going to get as a freebie.
As if, like, you know,
you know, you want to get cars out of the lodges taken out and pay me over five years. But what is the brand new car there's like, there's no 0% on that one, right? This is something priceless, something very valuable. And so the Prophet Mohammed for example, peace be upon him just concurring the meanings here, how they all converge in our in our tradition. He said to us, that God has said, that
whomever opposes those close to me, my dearest friends, my most cherished servants, I have declared war on those people mean they are bound to meet, you know, my vengeance. He then he explained how people become gods closes servants he goes, and so God says, Whoever combat shows hostility, enmity to my quote, my cherished servants, I have waged war on them.
Then God says, and my servants do not come close to me with anything dearer to me than what I've made obligatory on them. Right, fulfilling the obligations, fulfilling your duties, sacrificing, putting in the work to earn the love of God.
And so another example of this another example of this, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him said about Abraham unauthentic tradition of antiquity.
He said, Abraham peace be upon him. After he became 80 years old, he circumcised himself with the blade of an axe, right?
No, there your head shouldn't go for like swinging an axe with meaning all he could find was the blade of an axe and he used that blade to circumcise himself over 80 years old. What's the message here? That, like, I was putting eggs, right? I was thrown into a bonfire. I left my son and my family in a desert. No, he didn't list these things, because he knew that no matter what he gave, and no matter what he faced,
God will not just be just to me, God will be gracious to me. And in fact, I don't deserve anything. Right. I am indebted to be called his servants, I am indebted to live in his service. So he was not selective in his surrender, selective in his fulfillment of God's obligations, even at 80 years old, and God tells him, this will be the hallmark of the people that carry your lineage or carrier tradition or carrier guidance, the people of purity whatever way you want to interpret those verses in the Bible and in the Koran, but he wanted Abraham to be circumcised even that t he heard he listened and he'll be right like a true lover.
And then we move on because I only have like 10 minutes left. I'll share with you perhaps one one more thing regarding the story of,
of Abraham peace be upon him.
We believe that Abraham peace be upon him
is the one that erected the GABA. The Kava is the sacred house in Mecca. We Muslims believe this is the first house of worship built for God on earth. One of the five pillars of Islam is what pilgrimage to the sacred house. This is the house that is in Mecca, present day Saudi Arabia. I hate to say that because of all the politics happening today, right? But in Mecca, this house is built where God wants all the believers we don't worship idols we don't worship, right. That's the whole story of Abraham, the one that the part that I skipped that you all know, right, he was cast out for rejecting paganism rejecting idolatry, worshipping do unto God who, who remains unseen, so long as
we're in this life. And the greatest joy of the next life is getting to see God and seeing his face and living eternally with him in Paris in palaces that never perish. That's our true life, the life of the hereafter.
But he built this cabin, right? He built this cabin, he built this this house of worship. And nobody tells us before and tells us with your father Abraham will our terminal Beatty. Where is Mary Lou or Bernard Koppelman in Atlanta semi rollin and mentioned to them or Mohammed when Abraham was erecting the pillars the columns of this house, putting it together?
him and his son Ishmael definitely grew up with older now.
Rob Bennett's a cub Bellman and they were saying as they were acting it Oh our Lord except this meaning this this meek effort, this humble effort, this imperfect effort, this human effort from us, right?
Except this from us, in a Qantas seminar, alim. Certainly you are the one who hears all you hear our prayers, you are an alien, you know, but you know, this is the best we have, and that we cannot offer anything better.
One of the early earliest scholars of Islam, his name was willhave, middle of whenever he used to recite this verse, he would weep. And he would say, this is the friend of God, building the greatest House of God
via command from God, like it's not even like you're guessing it will displease God or not, you're not taking a shot in the dark here. God told you to do it. Like you know that this pleases him. So he said, this is the friend of God building the house of God by a command from God. And he's concerned that it will not be accepted of him. He's afraid he's doing it with pride with doing it with can see doing it like someone else got a favor. And none of us do. We cannot repay God for His favors. So how can we ever earn reward? It's all by His grace at the end, that he invites us in that He rewards us beyond what we deserve. That's what we mean. That's the concept of grace as we
understand it as Muslims. And so he remained concerned he remained afraid. And being hopeful of God, we believe in Islam. This will be my last point, being hopeful of God, by definition, must involve the fear of God.
Because you're not certain, you're hopeful, right? You're not certain. You're not certain that
you're not full of yourself because what was the problem of the devil? What was the problem with the police? In all the faith traditions he became arrogant right? So he ascended so high, with
He fell again. So we have no guarantee that we will not fall.
So our purpose in life is not an event. It's a process, it's ending on the right foot, doesn't matter what happens along the way, what matters is finishing right. And so you must remain hopeful, never lose hope in God, with you should never have this false sense of security where you're certain God has to treat me, Well, God, no, God is not going to equate between Jesus peace be upon him. And the people that tried to kill him, perhaps you know, those that didn't repent, he's not going to equate between Moses peace be upon him. And
Hitler, or something right. At the end of the day, God's mercy is unlimited. But he's not limited by His mercy. His mercy hasn't stopped him from being just in the Islamic narrative. He has to be just at the end of the day, if I if even as human beings in perfect human beings, if we
treated like the golden citizen, like the vigilante, we would just be so reprehensible for this right? We would condemn evil behavior, this unjust, unfair, foolish everything. So that expectation of God,
we are told statically is
inappropriate, is very problematic. So just bringing it back full circle, Abraham was so hopeful of God, right, and so grateful to have a relationship with God, but hopefulness did not equal false sense of security. There's always fear, because that's the definition of hope. Hope means i'm not sure i hope, right. And so the fear of God was always there as well, that he does not own his own guidance, and he does not guarantee his own guidance. And he cannot guarantee that he will always remain at that station of being the friend of God, he has to continue being eligible for it. Right, you can never take it for granted. And so of the most beautiful prayers of Abraham, that God
immortalized in the Quran is that he used to say, it was, you know, Benny, Benny and nabooda la snam. Oh, my Lord, protect me and my progeny from worshipping the items like this is a person who fought his life against the idols for his life against the false gods was outcast by his father and exiled by his people and because of his rejection of the idols, but he's saying, that's not from me, that's you guiding me. And if you pull your guidance from me, if you turn the lights off on my heart, I can do this.
I'm lost without you. And so Ibrahima to me one of the early Muslims as well. He used to also he would weep when he would hear this verse, protect me and my children from worshipping the idols. And he would say, Well, many men would Bella about Abraham, and who of us could ever feel secure after Abraham was concerned.
And that's why we as Muslims, every single time when we pray,
we constantly are taught we that we must repeat
the opening chapter in the Quran, Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, the Most Merciful, the most compassionate Owner of the Day of Judgment guy. You only do worship and only with you to seek strength is the part of reference I'm asking for
guidance and straight back
guide as the straight path.
Because we needed every moment, and we needed renewed and extended reading extension on it until we meet him.
I hope I wasn't too jumpy with all the different scenes I was trying to collect for you as much then weave it all together. In the end.
Anything I said was correct or benefits from God and God alone, anything wrong or confusing, isolated, it's all my fault. And I apologize for that.
She before we give it a short break, could you please in the beginning you mentioned that
Quran explains the whole purpose of life form for a human. Could you please explain what does Quran mean for a Muslim? And like, what's it how it was revealed? Short liquid? Yes, I kind of, I guess assume that was mentioned in earlier classes. wrong assumption. So the four n the Quran we believe is the literal Word of God.
Sometimes I just rush and say the final testament, but kind of as we believe that God did reveal testaments to the previous prophets scriptures. We do believe God sent a Moses the Torah. We do believe God sent to Jesus the evangel we do believe that God revealed to David the Psalms. We do believe that Abraham received some scripture
received a scripture.
We believe that the final prophet Muhammad peace be upon him received the final word of God, the Quran. The Quran is the recital. And there's so much to be said about the Quran. But the Quran was revealed in the context of the prophets life that it will be better
Understood. So it was revealed over the course of 23 years. And
it was revealed, because
and I hope you'll forgive my frankness and appreciate my honesty. We we believe in Islam, that God time and time again revealed scriptures to nations, and entrusted them with protecting safeguarding those scriptures, and living up to them. And so time and time again, that trust for one reason or another, someone wanted to be king or someone wanted that that trust was that covenant was broken. And the books were compromised, the books were altered, they were adulterated. And so God being the most merciful would not leave people
in limbo like this until he continued to send another book after another book after another book to humanity with the Prophet. That's the story of Scripture. Except that the Quran, it was
determined by God that this would be the final scripture. And so we're not saying that Muslims did any better of a job.
We're saying that God said that we are no longer entrusting you with protecting it, per se.
We promise to protect this book and it will never be lost your obligation now we seem to consider it sacred.
And live up to make it your your, your testament, your life manual.
And so that's why the Quran exists until today. God's promises never broken. It's not that God couldn't protect the previous scriptures. We don't believe that God can't.
That sentence would always be wrong, right? We do believe that God chose not to he chose to test people with protecting it. As for this last one, God said, I am assuming the protection of this book. And that's why the Quran only exists.
In one version in the original language, the book remains intact. There are no variations. There's no discrepancy. Even if you were to take every last copy of the full entity and shred it and burn it and throw the ashes in the oceans. There are 10s of millions of people from China little five year old kids in China and Brazil and Germany and America and Mexico and everywhere else and memorize the Fortran letter for letter by heart, all 114 chapters 6200 plus vs vocalign remains intact in its original language without any sort of discrepancy in that.
That's basically what we believe about the Quran.
Thank you very much. Let's give a short break and there are some refreshments and after that, let's make again