Mohammad Elshinawy – Open House at the Jesus Son of Mary Mosque

			So each of our Scripture by myself, but before those two, we actually have our brother James,
where's James Delgado at James said, I want to become James. So James has been a new member in our
community, when attending the prayers and very passionate about learning Islam and studying it and
committing to, to its guidance. And we were overjoyed to hear that this afternoon his wife wanted to
also become Muslim, and embrace the faith and take the shahada testimony of faith which is basically
the gateway of Islam. You enter Islam simply by stating that there is no God worthy of our worship
but the one true God the Creator of the heavens and the earth Allah and that Muhammad peace and
		

			blessings be upon him was his final prophet and messenger and of course the one who committed us to
believing in all of the prophets and messengers before him. So is
		

			Jay James is the sister here in the prayer hall?
		

			So can I
		

			huh
		

			okay, Sister today Oh, my bed. Can you help our sister grab? I hope this is long enough. should be
long enough. The other one is long enough. Can you switch out for me?
		

			I want to get her a mic
		

			a little bit
		

			yeah.
		

			I'll use Jeff's mic
		

			to James walk you through this already? James walk you through this already?
		

			Okay, awesome. So, Mike.
		

			Okay, cool. I don't need a mic. I'll be with her here I guess. So you're just going to say I bear
witness there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah will
say it in English so you know what you're saying? And then we can also repeat it in Arabic the way
the Prophet Muhammad said it so that you just get the blessings of saying it the way he did? All
right, okay. Okay. So this Mala, say I bear witness, I bear witness that there is no one that there
is no one worthy of worship, worthy of worship, except Allah except Allah, one true God, the One
True God alone without any partners, alone without any partners, I bear witness and I bear witness
		

			that Mohammed was the Servant and Messenger was His servant and Messenger Hush, I do a shadow.
		

			Allah
		

			ilaha illa Illa Allah, Allah wa wa, I shadow a shadow and Mohammed imagine Muhammadan doable, but do
wha wha wha sudo su gratulations
		

			Congratulations Congratulations May Allah bless our sister your name one more time. Howdy, howdy.
Like the car Audi got it?
		

			Mashallah, congratulations sister Audi May Allah bless her and raise her ranks in this world and the
next May Allah increase you and guidance upon your guidance and and your family as well. May Allah
fill your heart with peace and fill your days with joy and light Allahumma Amin Ibrahim has
certificates as well Oh Masha Allah we can have the certificates after she has. Okay, so I'll sign
that for them. But Ibrahim prepared for you guys in my certificates Masha Allah to remember this
memorable day may Allah accept from you
		

			hamdulillah hamdulillah keep us in your prayers sister Audi, because the Prophet Muhammad peace and
blessings be upon him told us that when a person becomes Muslim, they get to keep all of their good
deeds before Islam and all of their bad deeds get turned into good deeds as well. So you have all
those good deeds and no bad deeds whereas all of us have good deeds and bad deeds. So you need to
pray for us now. And may Allah give you pure and keep you strong said I want Aiko?
		

			Hello mechanic
		

			so in sha Allah we will
		

			resumed now with the the scheduled programming beginning with a beautiful recitation from the Quran.
In the original language we Muslims of course believe that the Quran is the literal word of God as
God spoke it to the Archangel Gabriel, peace and blessings be upon him and relate there to the
Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him. And then as it was relayed to us today without a
letter changed without a vowel loss and so we are going to recite some from the Quran you can allow
yourself to absorb it and I will translate and reflect on a bit of the meanings once the shift in
sha Allah has recited for us for the
		

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			May Allah reward the chef for the beautiful recitation we begin the name of Allah All Praise and
Glory be to Allah Almighty God, while fully recognizing we cannot praise him in the amount and to
the extent that he deserves, and may his finest peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad
and his family and his companions and all of the prophets and messengers that he taught us about.
		

			And required of us to believe in as part of our belief in the Almighty God who sent them, I will
translate these passages. This is the 59th chapter of the Quran.
		

			And there are three major themes in this final page of that 59th Chapter. The first of them is for
each person to be introspective to be thoughtful about the purpose of life and these profound
questions and the fact that life cannot be a destination list journey. And so God begins in these
verses by saying, Oh believers, oh, you have believed, be mindful of God, and let every soul look
meaning consider what it has set forth for tomorrow, meaning for the final day, the day of judgment,
the final hour, the day of reckoning, the day of accountability, the day when all debts will be
paid, and all pretending will stop and every person will face their deeds, the good of them and the
		

			evil.
		

			He says in fear God.
		

			For Allah, God is fully aware of all that you do, meaning you should get acquainted with yourself
and be honest with yourself and introspective with yourself and become acquainted with what you are
doing because he is certainly aware of all that we are doing. He said and do not be like those, the
many countless examples all throughout human history, who kept dismissing the questions of purpose,
right, he said, And do not be like those who forgot about God.
		

			God sends them many reminders and many Wake Up Calls and many opportunities to guidance, but they
insist to rebel against those reminders and turn a blind eye to them. He said do not be like those
who insisted on forgetting about God. So he caused them the verses to forget about themselves, their
own best interests, their own well being in this world, the immediate life and in the life to come
the eventual and that is why the third verse you heard, it says, layer stairway they can never
equate they can't even be compared with each other. The residents of paradise. That's one of the two
destinations after this journey, and the residents of the Hellfire. The residents of the Hellfire
		

			are those who are truly rebellious. Those who received God's message and recognize that this was
God's invitation, and that this was not wishful thinking or blind faith or dogma, unsubstantiated
claims this was from God, and they truly rebelled, the distance between them who are doomed and
those in paradise who are successful after this journey can never be compared. He's saying, you
know, this is almost like tapping into the the human tendency for social comparison. We're always
comparing ourselves with people. God is telling you when this journey is over, you will realize that
nothing really matters about what class you rode in the airplane, first class or business class,
		

			though it doesn't matter how you compare with those with you in flight. What matters is where you go
after you get off what truly matters, the huge disparity is between those that will be prosperous
forever. And those may god forbid, who will insist on disqualifying themselves from the mercy of the
Most Merciful and be doomed forever. Then the next section, in this passage was speaking about the
greatness of the Quran and its impact. The verse says, had we sent this Quran down upon a mountain,
you would have found it humbled and brought to rubble, it would have disintegrated out of the awe of
God. The speaker of this Hold on, he says, What's Ill kill unfed and these are the similar tools
		

			that parables we strike so people may realize people may realize how hard a heart must be when it
refuses to be humbled by something that can humble mountains. And if I may take a step back for a
second and speak about the power of the Quran, like trends historically. This is the book that
changed the course of human history. This is the book that changed the world.
		

			El Sheikh Ibrahim, I heard him multiple times bringing
		

			you know our attention to the fact that the Quran is just different. The Quran now for 1400 years
has not been changed. This Quran is memorized by heart whereas the translation is what we have to
read from the book. Right? It's a you think it would be the opposite right? He was not he was
reciting from heart. You know, I read once I'm sorry, slight tangent. What a beautiful one about the
power of the Quran. What's really special about the Quran?
		

			What do you think are the most sold books in the English language?
		

			Don't shy away say it. What's number one?
		

			It's the Bible, the English translation of the Bible. What's number two?
		

			Harry Potter is number three, actually, what's number two.
		

			It's actually a translation of the wisdoms of mouths a tongue, the famous Chinese thinker, right?
Ancient Chinese thinker.
		

			And so I want to contrast for you something here. Hopefully it will help us all appreciate what is
so special about this Quran. Not to be compared with anything else the power of this book.
		

			If you take the 300,000 copies 300 million, I'm sorry copies of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series
that have been sold. And you add to it the 400 million copies of the wisdoms of mouths a tongue that
were sold, that 700 million copies sold. That does not amount to a quarter 1/4 25% of the amount of
copies of the Bible that are sold in the English language. So there's no comparison between first
place and the second and third. Now, why am I saying all this?
		

			Who has ever encountered someone that memorizes the Bible word for word, cover to cover?
		

			mean either. And I would claim that we would really struggle to find five people 10 people on the
planet who would memorize the Bible cover to cover, right?
		

			Do we have 10 people on the planet to memorize the Quran cover to cover?
		

			We have 10 people in Allentown.
		

			Right, we have more than 10 people in Atlanta, right.
		

			So this book is memorized by 10s of millions of people across the globe just in our time. And then
you have 1.5 billion or 1.8. Now billion Muslims who all memorize something of the Quran, a section
of the Quran, it's a lots of times a considerable one, an entire section, entire 30 chapters, 40
chapters, 50 chapters of the 114 everywhere you turn, in Arabic, whether they're in Brazil, or
they're in Germany, or they're in China, or they're in Egypt, or they're in wherever you may look,
		

			this is of the power of this glorious book that Allah speaks about that deserves our attention.
		

			The Quran is approximately 600 pages, that's another important maybe facet to help you appreciate
the length of this book, 114 chapters about 600 pages about 6200 Plus verses memorize,
		

			you know, the Pew Research Center, this is my final point that will make above the Quran. And close
out the verses on this very point it is connected. They lots of times they speak about Islam being
the fastest growing religion in the world, and in the in the Western world, in particular, in the
United States, Canada, Europe. And they, year after year, they speak about how like Islam has like
this remarkable rate at which it rises in populations by conversion and other reasons. But usually
by conversion, they try to probe what is it that causes so many people to become Muslim so fast? It
is hardly, you know, explainable at face value. You think of all the bad press Islam gets like how's
		

			this even happening here of all places. And so when they probed
		

			they found the number one and the number two reasons why Islam rises so fast wherever it goes. When
they surveyed these people, number one was its beliefs just make sense.
		

			And number two, I read the texts myself, even in translation where I even thought about memorization
anymore, even the texts themselves. The Quran of the greatest benefits and most marvelous aspects of
the Quran is that it restored for the world. Why did Allah send the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad,
it restored for their world, their long lost sanctuary, which is direct, unbridled, uncompromised
access
		

			to their Creator, their maker, the one true God. Islam is an extremely personal, extremely intimate
religion. Not to say that it is subjective of the blessings of Islam is that it gives you a
definitive guidance, but it is you and the fluidity, the strength, the vigor in your personal
relationship with God that drives you there.
		

			The impeccable clarity it gives on the nature of God, the identity of God. And it strikes such a
deep chord these people say, with number one human rationale, it just makes sense. It's hard for me
to accept something with my brain, which God gave me which doesn't add up in my brain, right? Like
these other competing theology, sometimes it makes perfect sense. And the other one is so intuitive
like this is what I've always believed about God deep down inside. And that is actually the final
passage in these verses that I will read to you now. It is the greatest theme of the Quran. After
Allah says, if this Quran were sent down a mountain, it would have humbled it from the altar of God,
		

			the greatest thing you will take out of the Quran is a different, unique, pure, pure understanding
about God. As you know, the French historian Alfonso de Lamartine. He says that the Quran was the
only book in human history, able to restore God returned God to men and men to God, like the correct
conceptualization of God was given back to man through the Quran, and restored man to God meaning it
removed all the intermediaries removed all of the middlemen removed all of you know the the
intercessors you have your direct relationship with this God. And so the The chapter ends by saying
after the Quran would have humbled mountains, and so make sure you give it a chance, give your heart
		

			to it. He says he is God who sent the support on Allah, none is worthy of worship except him. He is
the knower of all things seen and unseen. He is the Most Compassionate, the most merciful, more
merciful with us and even our mothers are with us. He is the one that made our mothers that way. The
next verse, He is Allah Almighty God, there is no god except Him. The ultimate King, the most holy,
the oil perfect. The source of serenity, the watcher of all the Almighty, the supreme in might. The
majestic, Glorified is God far above all what they associate with Him in worship.
		

			He is God, Allah, the Creator, the inventor, the shaper, the fashioner, of all of our qualities, the
shaper He alone has the most beautiful names, and whatever is in the heavens, and the earth
constantly glorifies Him. And He is the Almighty, He is the all wise. And so Islam is an invitation
to enlist in what the universe is already doing glorifying this one true God, not just in praise,
not just in statements, but to live a life that reflects that I see him as the most great, the most
deserving of my reverence, the most deserving of My Love, the most diverse deserving of my sincere
devotion. That is what Islam means submission in love and devotion to the one true God. May Allah
		

			guide us and you and we extend again, our appreciation to all of you for coming through and giving
us a chance to share our beliefs with you and our lunch with you. And if there are any questions at
all, at your comfort, you can ask them here and now maybe others have the same question. And you're
the brave one that wishes to express it or you could come to me or any of the volunteers personally,
and you will have our undivided attention in sha Allah. Thank you once again. And as we say as
Muslims as salam, Wa Alaikum Peace be with you