Mohammad Elshinawy – Religion vs. Just be a Good Person

			In Alhamdulillah Allah and staying over here when I still feel when I was a bit later let me show
the unforeseen our car to Marina Marina de la la la la la la la,
		

			la, la, la la la la la la la sharika wash Adana, Mohammed and Aveda who whenever you who are solo
yeah you hola Dena mano de la hapa Ducati while at a moto 911 to Muslim moon yeah yohanna Sutra Pura
vida como la de la pacu mean FC wahida wahala caminhada webasto mean humare Jalan Kathy Romani
		

			whatever la Halevy Tessa Luna V will or ham in Allah Hakan la cumbre Eva? Yeah yo la Vina hamanako
la la pulu polenta de de la cama con, silicon zero become one minute a la hora Sula, hufa defesa
frozen alima all praise and glory belongs to Allah We thank him and we seek His help and his
guidance and his pleasure and his forgiveness. And we seek protection with Allah shelter with Allah,
from the evil whispers within ourselves and from the consequences of our evil deeds. for whomever
Allah azza wa jal guides, none can ever lead them astray, and whomever Allah leaves a strain on can
ever guide them. And we testify that no one is worthy of our worship and our devotion, and our love
		

			and obedience in the absolute sense of those two words but Allah and Allah alone without any
partners, the true supreme King, and if the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam peace and
blessings be upon him, we testify that he was in fact his Prophet and his servant and His Messenger
and the best of his creation, and the seal of His revelation to humanity, and the most beloved of
the slaves of Allah to Allah subhanho wa Taala
		

			Oh, you have committed to faith, Allah says have the temple of Allah exhibited and present in you
always. That condition of being an author of Allah, being cognizant of Allah, being fearful and
dutiful and committed to Allah as best as you can, and do not die. Allah says meaning don't get
caught off guard by death, except in a state of complete and total, willing and loving and
consistent surrender to a law state of Islam.
		

			To begin after Welcome my brothers and sisters to the house of Allah azza wa jal for another
blessing Juma?
		

			A question that echoes around us a lot, so much in our era in our times, is why do we need religion?
		

			What is the point of religion? And why isn't it enough just to be a good person, just be a good
human being be a decent, upright human being, and you don't need a religion.
		

			And there are so many recordings of this, as you know, and so many conversations about religion that
are shut down using this, as you know, what's important is just to be a good human being.
		

			And so I want to engage today in sha Allah, this sentiment that is echoed so widely in our times
engage it head on, since it's such a prevalent line of thinking, for Well, how many ever hold buzz
sermons allows for us to, to have on it? Because where it stems from are many things. But one of the
most difficult parts for people to reconcile is, it is kind of true that there are people that are
not very religious, or people that don't have any religion at all. That seems to be incredibly kind,
incredibly upright human beings. And so how do I make sense of that? How can I come now and say, No,
you need religion to be a good person.
		

			From an Islamic perspective, by the way, this is not a mystery at all, why you can have good people
who aren't religious or who don't subscribe to a religion whatsoever. It's not the riddle because
the Quran tells us very clearly that Allah God created human beings with a nature that is good. We
don't believe that human beings are inherently evil. We believe that human beings are inherently
good. They were disposed created with a pure nature. Allah azza wa jal says, When I've seen one
master Wareham he swears by the soul, the soul of the human being and how he fashioned it for
Alhambra half with judo. Hi, what's Aqua? And he inspired within it? Its wickedness meaning the
		

			definition of wickedness what it would look like, what is wicked what path to take in life is
wicked. What's up wha ha and it's piety. What path is pious and righteous? Allah subhanho wa Taala
said in the Quran, Lakota holopainen in Santa Fe sn is a queen. We have created the human being in
the most upright in the most upright fashion. That uprightness is not just the fact that we stand
straight up which is part of how to honor the human being that our faces are not in the ground
crawling or walking on Earth.
		

			force. It isn't the fact that we can sit upright for sure. But have that upright is Allah created
you originally upright meaning moral creatures, you're morally upright.
		

			That means you know what good is but not just that, that you incline to good as a human being,
meaning you love doing good, and you are satisfied by doing good, meaning it feels good to do good.
And so that's why it's no mystery. That's why you have people there that are seemingly and in some
respects absolutely good people without religion. These are people that have retained their original
fitrah their original purity, or a degree of it.
		

			But of course, that explanation has a problem, or like a challenge. If you're saying that human
beings are naturally pure, that just that's their state, then why bother with religion and I don't
need religion seems extra at this point. If this is already the way I am, I just need to tap into my
inner goodness. Not quite. You see, when Allah subhanho wa Taala said for Alhambra, half or Judah
hahahahaha he inspired the human being with good and evil. He said, The F le hemmens, aka rockethub
M and the sir, there's still work to do. He said, a person prospers once they purify that they
refine, they develop and nurture that spirit of theirs. Yes, it's good. But there's more good that
		

			needs to be learned. And there is more good that needs to be developed. That's why he said he has
prospered The one who purifies their spirit, their soul, and he has failed, he is doomed. The one
who buries it meaning corrupts it. So number one, it is not perfectly complete, it is not well
rounded. That's not what the human being is. There is still so much good that he still needs to
discover, she still needs to discover. They're inclined to good, but it's a general good, a vague
good, and they're inclined to good. But that inclination can also disappear. It could get corrupted.
So yes, you are oriented or disposed on good. But you can also become evil. You're not really here,
		

			you have to protect that. And so those two points perhaps can be too hopeless on their own. That
number one,
		

			you need religion. Why? The right religion actually Islam? Why? Because Islam is from Allah. And
only Allah can help you complete your definition of good identify for you. What actually is good in
the full sense of the word. Because you know, when people try to argue against religion, they say,
it's pretty simple. Just be a good person. Don't murder anybody. Don't * anybody. Don't hurt
anybody. Yeah, sure, that sounds fine at face value, and we agree who needs religion to tell you
that murder is wrong, and * is wrong and hurting people is wrong. But who said that being a good
person is only about staying away from those things? And who said we actually know how to make sure
		

			we don't hurt people?
		

			You see, Allah gave us a fitrah Yes, that natural state, that pure state that you know, you're
interested in good, you want good. But that is a partial, it's a good, pure, but limited ability to
recognize good. Allah then sends His revelation to show you what the full good is, what the perfect
judgment calls are on what is harmful and what is beneficial.
		

			And so once you're certain it's from Allah, then you know that his judgments are perfect, they're
complete, they're not corruptible, whereas mine could be incomplete. I could have blind spots, I
could be corrupted and not realize it by society, all of that. And that's why Allah said woman sn
Amina la hoekman li comin up noon, who is better than Allah and His rules and his judgments for
people that are certain?
		

			We cannot be certain
		

			that this is for sure. Good. And this is for sure evil on our own. How do we know that?
		

			Because human beings have never agreed on what is good and what is evil. You think like some of the
sharpest minds of human history that spoke about morality, goodness, moral philosophers. They're
constantly they've never said okay, we finally agreed. They're constantly debating on how to balance
this goodness with that goodness, to find that sweet spot, that golden middle that equilibrium they
call it
		

			and even human beings Now, those that you debate with how could you support this politician? How
could you not accept this freedom? How could you, you know, promote this lifestyle? Do those people
who you think are wrong clearly wrong? See, I don't care about morality. No
		

			They just believe that being good and moral somewhere else you all agree that we should be moral we
should be good people, and then you disagree on what that looks like.
		

			And so Allah spared us of this by telling us, Paulina Mahara. Mara bl Fela heisha malvar amin helma
Baba say to them, oh Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
		

			My Lord has forbidden a morality in decency, evil, the apparent of it and the hidden
		

			so that Allah is not exercising his power on you, oh, Bella, just for some exercise of power. He's
only commanding you to stay away from things and do other things. Because staying away from these
things is what it means to be good. He says Mao vihara, mean Hama, Bhutan, these evil some of them
are clear. Some of them are not clear.
		

			Right? You can't be certain it's not obvious. But what is obvious is that Allah is the only one who
can ultimately determine
		

			it is clear to Allah that this is good and this is evil. And I want to strike just one example
before I sit down.
		

			A brother came to me a few years ago, and he said to me, why is Riba? Why is interest such a big
deal in Islam?
		

			and rivers huge right river is a very big deal.
		

			It is worse than fornication.
		

			way worse than fornication Islam.
		

			Allah azza wa jal says if you don't stop dealing in interest in Riba, then we'll be happy mean
Allahu wa rasuluh then you are
		

			accepting a declaration of war from Allah and His messenger.
		

			If not best of the Allahu anhu man, some of the early Muslims, they said the person who, shamelessly
just participates in Riba will come on the Day of Judgment, and the angels will bring him a sphere.
And he'll say, what's the sphere for? He says, you have a war coming up? He says war with who? And
it will be said to him at war with Allah.
		

			Allah, may Allah protect us from such a fate. But I understand the sentiment What's so bad about
Reba? I don't get it. It doesn't seem to be that monstrous, such like an abomination.
		

			Well,
		

			you may not to realize that the only reason you don't feel that way is because it's the new normal.
This is not Islamic. Do you realize that in Islam, and in Christianity, and in Judaism, rather, even
Greek philosophers like Aristotle spoke about the humongous danger of debt and lending based on
interest, interest based lending 1000s of years ago, but because society has campaigned to accept
it, or the big players in the world have campaigned to accept it, you automatically assumed it must
be good, because it's normal. And so the human beings flaw of our flaws is that we assume what
everyone else is doing cannot possibly be that bad.
		

			And the completion of that explanation after the rest of holly has our stuff
		

			hamdu lillahi wa salatu salam ala Milena be about that shadow in a la de la sharika shodhana,
Mohammed Abu whenever you are a solo.
		

			So what is so wrong with interest? The many countless generations that have spoken about it have
found very obvious or clear, consistent patterns of destruction that follow Riba that follow
interest usually, for example, a society that allows for the people with money to lend to who
obviously the people that don't have money.
		

			While they will always guarantee that their money comes back to the means what those without money,
the lower classes of society
		

			have to carry all the risk,
		

			which means the rich will always get richer. And some of these people will always fall into the
danger that was risked and they'll continue to get poorer. So society will go like this, the rich
will get richer, the poor will get poorer, and that will cause society to implode. Right? societies
will create hatred and animosity and inequity injustice to happen, not between individual not
between families, but between the whole society at large. It will call it can cause a civilization
to implode. And we saw this, we saw this in 1929, the Great Depression. We saw this in 1987. We saw
this in 2008. There's another one
		

			impending it people are talking economists are speaking about now, then why what's what's the
mystery? The mystery is that we cannot see other than what's in front of us as human beings.
Everybody's doing it. It's the standard system. So it can possibly be that bet. Another huge problem
in society with Riba is that when money is allowed to make money, as Aristotle said, then work,
manufacturing craftsmanship, skill automatically dies down. If I can make money out of money, then I
don't need to produce, invent, construct, build, develop, why, when I could just make money with
money, zero risk involved too. And so it depreciates it lowers the value of craftsmanship and
		

			manufacturing. And society once again becomes disadvantaged, and eventually it cannot wobble
anymore. And it falls apart.
		

			Among many other reasons that we know, through rationalization through reason, and that Allah
ultimately knows.
		

			And perhaps this is why that verse I quoted a few months ago about logic and the deen is so profound
when Allah says they said in MLB or midflorida interest is like sale. Same thing, isn't it? Same
exact thing. I you bought this for 10 sold it for 11 so 10 for 11 versus you lent me 10 I gave you
11 it's still 10 for 11 they're the same thing. Allah said what he didn't explain the difference. He
said Well hello Allah who will be our how Rama Riba? Allah permitted sale and he forbid interest.
That is so wise. The most why subhana wa Tada. It's as if he's telling you I'm not gonna wait till
the rest of you figure out what's wrong with this for me to make sure society is told this is wrong.
		

			And so so many people out there want to be good people intended or not hurting anybody.
		

			But then they develop these lifestyles, they live by these codes that are diseases for the world.
And sometimes like the most dangerous diseases like cancer, man like you're all the sick Muslims
everywhere, like cancer, sometimes the disease continues to spread. And it's danger only appears
because it's hidden, right? hidden dangers only appears when it's beyond repair. And so a lot
protected us by revealing his rules revealing his Islam protected us from our short sightedness as
we spoke about today in the book, and next week, inshallah we will speak a little bit about our
corrupted perceptions, our biases that we don't realize Allahumma Lynam and founder one fan of Mr.
		

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