Struggling With Faith By Mohammed Faqih
Friday Family Night program at IIOC on Dec. 16, 2016.
Mohammed Faqih – Struggling With Faith
AI: Summary ©
The importance of faith and avoiding obligations is emphasized, along with the need for pure logic and avoiding confusion and misunderstandings. The potential impact of the pandemic on the US economy is discussed, with one speaker noting the potential for the virus to have implications for the economy in the future. The speakers also touch on the potential impact on the US economy and the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
AI: Summary ©
While he was alive,
today I wanted to address a topic and inshallah this may be, may be part one, we may have to have part two and three, maybe part two or Part Three might be more of a panel discussion, inshallah engage, or bring in more people to discuss this very important topic that has to do with the most important element in the life of, in my opinion in the life of any human being. But, of course, obviously in the life of a believer, and that has to do with faith itself, struggling with
faith, and now struggling the title that I chose struggling with faith. And, you know, basically could, you know, may mean one of two things. One is to struggle through your faith, like with your faith, you basically struggle with your faith, you struggle in life. And this life is of course, obviously, but a struggle, and the other more
the other meaning that many people, especially nowadays, can relate to, is to struggle with faith itself. People are struggling with with faith itself. We intentionally turn it off we're about to play a video show.
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So, so I wanted to share this video with you. This is
just a short portion of a longer it's actually a book that was authored by this scientist. He's an Egyptian scientist, Dr. Mustafa Muhammad.
Rahim Allah may Allah have mercy on him, I had a
very quick chance to meet up or see him in person and talk to him or say Salaam just saw him. We did not engage at the age of 13. In the 80s, late 80s, back in Egypt.
May Allah have mercy on him, he used to be an atheist.
is is is he's a scientist. He and then in this particular book, he talks about his journey from atheism into a man and belief but this is a very short portion that mentions that talks about this is not his story from the beginning, but this is a turning point in his life. There is an English subtitle so shall if we can turn off the light I will let you shower just reflect and try to follow
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Okay. This is just Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. This is just an example of how
people, this is just an example of how people may turn to, to faith. Right people will start
in the doubt zone and then come to certainty
zone right now,
it is my belief. Allah subhanaw taala says sunnery him if enough will ever
be forcing him to be alone.
And
I will be a lot bigger and who Allah.
Allah subhanaw taala at the end of Surah facilite verse 53
surah This is Surah number 41. For those who want the reference to 41 verse 53, Allah says sudo Rahim is 11 effa some people translated the meaning as that Allah Subhana Allah basically is telling us that we show we meaning here a lot, this is the oil we write, because of the significance of this act.
And because it takes mighty power,
right, Allah subhanaw taala when speaking about these kind of events or actions or revelation, anything of great significance that only allows able to do refers to himself in using the Royal we with a capital W. Right. So Allah says, We shall show them our signs in every region of Earth. of this, we will show them everywhere science, our science will be unfussy him, as well as within themselves in their own lives, in their own experience, life experiences in their own creation in their own bodies. Whatever experience they go through, we will show them our science had diabetes, and no one have it until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth.
Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses everything, you know, so, so a lot is saying that we will show them everyone. So it is my belief that a loss of Hannah Montana will give each and every one of us
what and has already too many given each and every single one, the tools that they need to arrive
to the truth.
Right. If anyone is deprived from it, then they are not they're excused. Right? So what is this? Let's break this real quick define this subject matter that we're discussing faith, right?
Faith itself. I mean, the word
in Arabic that we translate into faith is email.
And by the way, email was not commonly used before the revelation of the Quran.
In the, at least in the Arabic in the culture of the Arabs. They did not use that. The word Deen religion, on the other hand was used was very common. They used to say, Oh, this is de la Urbina. This is the religion of our forefathers. This is the the the practice or the way of life about all but the word Eman itself it came after the revelation of the Quran.
Right It wasn't introduced. So what does he man? What is it defined as linguistically? The scholars define the word Eman as just the and does this means to believe it, but it also means to confirm or affirm.
This is a very interesting distinction to be made. Because what is it that you confirm or affirm?
What?
Oh, no, I'm saying Generally, if I say if I come to you, and I say I want you to confirm something for me, what am I asking you to confirm?
Right fact, write something that is factual, something that is real, something that is true truth, right, something also something that you can
somehow conclude with great level of certainty, right? Without any reasonable doubt, without any doubt something that you're you're you're confirming your comfort, you're saying this is true,
right, there is no room for this is not feeling feelings are not tangible feelings are not something, you know, this, we're talking about truth conviction, right. So,
now, the technical definition of a man is that which is confirmed or affirmed or you know, a conviction in the heart or in the mind, right.
A statement
that is confirmed by a verbal statement and backed up by actual actions through our faculties and body parts. Right. So, that's the scholars of Islam, there are some scholars will actually go further and they say, it is something that increases through acts of obedience decreases
through because of sins, right. So, it fluctuates, so that they recognize that a man is something that fluctuates, something that that responds to different stimulus, and that can actually, you know, your level of conviction can increase or decrease the presence of it or your connection with it can can be very strong or it can be very weak, okay.
Now, why am I saying this, because this is very key when we tackle the issue of doubts, struggling with with the faith itself, and having problems, it is,
of the teachings of, of, of
our scholars, you know, particularly some of my professors, and there was one in particular that was very passionate about this, that that we do not have, and again, some, some may not agree with me on this point, but which is fine, but that we do not have, at least in Islam, right, blind faith.
Faith is not blind faith has to be a result of conviction, a conviction that comes with knowing knowledge.
And part of the evidence that they use is that Allah has or just says, He does not say feel, or just accept or embrace that there is no god worthy to be worship except Allah know, Allah subhanaw. taala says, fathom, no,
you must come to this conclusion. It has to be a conviction, sir, with certainty, know that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah.
And thus, you find
you find that those who take I don't want to call it take it for granted but those who inherited the faith or those who basically accepted it, or or those who connected with it emotionally, but did not go through the struggle.
And in searching for the faith itself and coming upon it in saying, This is the truth, nothing beyond it is the truth. Right? You find them more susceptible to doubts than those who came to arrive to
This conclusion through personal struggle and investigation, and and and, and, and, and the study, right? Those those who study Now that doesn't mean that the scholars don't get no actually there's plenty of examples of people who studied or who were scholarly and had doubts.
Right, but generally speaking, right, those who come to who arrived to the conclusion that this is the truth of Islam, the existence of a law as the agenda, everything that is tied to faith, those who come to that conclusion, based on studying and then they continue their study and there's and get investigate and continue to, to get answers. Right, seem to be doing much better and seem to be stronger in their, in their faith, and they're less susceptible to doubts, because they continuously respond to this now
could
believers have
doubts and, and the struggle with faith? Consider this narration collected by a Muslim Rahim Allah, he said,
Yeah, and so may not have been the beast on the line is some of the companions of the Prophet came to him.
They asked him this question, this is what I love about just that, that environment and the culture, you know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam where people just were comfortable. I mean, they brought up these subjects, and they came in, they discuss it in the process, and have made them comfortable, and they were, and they were, the profit was very accommodating. And they themselves took this matter seriously. But they were still yet you know, like humble enough, you know, serious enough that they came and discuss these things are brought up to the promised Iceland's attention and dealt with it. It was not something I mean, unlike those of us who feel, I don't know, I mean, I
guess it's, it's, it's a model for like, faith is a personal thing is between you, you're not supposed to discuss it with anyone. And you basically you're supposed to struggle with your thoughts and ideas and misconceptions and doubts, and, you know, internal, like struggle and all of that all to yourself, and you're not supposed to engage anyone who said that.
Who said that it is, it is personal, and it's a taboo, you're not supposed to bring it up or discuss it.
You know, your faith is part of your moral values.
And your moral values are reflections of you know, that they are reflection of your faith. So they came to the prophet and they said to him,
in the energy to him, fusina, Marietta, Alamo, Dona aduna, he can never be.
They said, we get these doubts or these ideas
that we are too afraid, or we're so scared, or we will not dare to speak about.
It, it's so offensive and so
on, you know.
So the Prophet says, Allah workato, just to move
it and you truly found that you're truly struggling with it. And you're This is real.
You have reached that level.
You have attained that as if it's a level aluna? They said yes, indeed, we have attained that we have got to that point. The Prophet said that Sorry, man.
That is pure faith.
That's faith.
Mm hmm. No, we
comments on this. He says, He said the fact that you
realized that these doubts or these issues are serious, that you will not dare to, like ask or talk about
is
a sign of faith.
In other words, you have reached a level of faith. Right? And understanding and remember what I said faith is not feelings. I mean, it produces feelings in it, it does, you know, affect your feelings. Faith is what?
Knowing convictions based on convinced based on
but when you have these doubts and stuff like that, you realize that
that these doubts are not founded or they're like offensive or they're, they're ridiculous, or they're senseless. That means you have reached a level of conviction that makes you
resist that. You understand what I'm trying to say?
And the fact that we're having these doubts, or these passing thoughts, in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's also an indication that you're actually thinking you're processing that you're using your reasoning, which is how you are
To,
to that conclusion to begin with that that is the truth. Am I making any sense? Am I making sense? Do you realize what America is saying here? Right? So
So for instance, when someone, I'll give you an example.
Do we all know, give me a fact that we all agree upon, like a logical fact. Or it could be mathematical or scientific fact that it's so well known? Everybody knows it believes in it without any doubt.
Yeah.
Masha Lally.
That's a bit complicated. But give me another one. That is much more obvious, like elementary level.
Okay, the sun rises from the one, I was thinking of one plus one.
One plus one equals
two. Anyone has doubt about this.
Okay, what if someone says no, I can prove to you that one plus one is not two.
By the way i can i can show you that one plus one is not always two.
Right?
And let's say somebody wants to get philosophical wants to get a little tricky. They take a drop of water, right? They put a drop, they're like, how many drops? One drop? Okay, here's a second drop, they put the second drop. What happens? How many drops we have now?
just have one big drop. Right? There. Like, there you go. One plus one is not always that is with this cast some shadow of a doubt in your mind? Because you like, oh, maybe he's right. It was for a second, right?
No, yes. Anyone?
It would it or would it not?
It would, right? You're like, Oh, he's got a point. But then, then what what happens? Your conviction kicks in and says, This is ridiculous. This guy is just, you know, playing semantics he he's playing right? You're gonna realize how ridiculous that claim is. Right?
Because, though you have one big drop, but it's still
the result of two drops? Because you saw the process, right? You're gonna say, Oh, this is ridiculous.
This is ridiculous. Just like if someone was to tell me that, you know, you have water. And then when it freezes is ice. And then if it evaporates, then it's what?
It's, what are they called? It's it's vapor or, you know, right? So but it's all the same thing. And they try to explain serenity in that sense.
And for a second, it makes you go like, ah, and then you realize that when you really analyze it, that is ridiculous.
Right? This is ridiculous. Again, you're just you're you're playing, you know, right. So that's what happens when you have conviction, your conviction, your faith,
challenges the challenge.
Right? The sad part is that most people, especially, you know, don't have they're not at that, even like, I don't want to say basic level, but that necessary level of understanding faith in a man they have not come to, you know, they have not attained faith or a man at that level. So what do we do when we have this? Here are some steps and practical steps that are
that I suggest and we can of course, discuss this further. And Charlotte, all right. And by the way, let me just quickly make a distinction. There's, there's a difference between check, and what's what's, uh, what's what's his, you know, how some people obsess about something? Like, they're thinking, Oh, what if this is right? What, okay, these kind of passing thoughts. They're not.
They're not doubts.
So you don't, don't Don't panic.
Right?
Like, if you let's say, something happens, you're like, Why? Why? Why would God allow this to happen? Like that thought hit you. And you're like, you know, and then you basically think about it, you process it, you answer it to yourself, and then you move on. That is not doubt.
There are elements that the difference between what's what's or like these passing thoughts, and these, you know, and doubt is that these passing thoughts are not persistent. They don't persist. They just come and they're, you know, they're and they're normally from shaytaan, from our weaknesses from you know, you know, and, and simply, if you say, Oh, the last thought if you remember last time you seek refuge in a law,
or if you say are meant to be law, he also they that's another recommendation the Prophet gave to say, I believe in Allah and His Prophet. It will go away.
It will not last.
But doubts,
the ones that are persistent, where you're having an internal conflict, something is not,
you know, you're not at peace and in the same subject or the same topic or the same point, keeps coming back again and again and again and again, and you can't move past it, that is what you should be really concerned about, and we should be addressing, and they shall, as I said, they shall if we do Part Two or something, I intend inshallah, to Allah to address some of these, of course, your feel more comfortable, no fear in a comfortable to speak about them. But here are some steps that were recommended in dealing with that, number one,
if you have any of these doubts, and your your is causing you to struggle with with your faith, or make your question,
the existence of Allah, or make you question the validity of the Quran, or the truthfulness of the Prophet salallahu, alayhi wasallam, or the legitimacy of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam or anything else? Any of the main pillars of Eman, right?
or any of the main pillars of email, then the first thing that you must do is
search for the roots of your doubts. What is and you have to be honest with yourself, by the way, none of this is going to work if the person is not humble, honest, and dedicated. Because we're talking about your faith here, we're talking about the most valuable thing that you've got, as a human being, right? I mean, if somebody comes to you and says, By the way, you're not,
you know, this.
Let's say somebody casts a doubt about about, you know, your paternity or maternity or like, this is not your real child.
And then you start like, obsessing about it, are you going to say,
yeah, you know, I'm not sure I cannot be certain.
And then just walk out, walk away, what are you going to investigate? You're going to do your due diligence. And some people might go as far as if, if the doubt persists, they might go as far as you know, doing or taking a DNA test. And, you know, you're not just simply going through act upon the doubt.
Right.
So,
so when the doubt comes, you need to be dedicated. And you need to be honest with yourself in search, or dig deep into the roots of the doubt. Where is it coming from? what is causing it?
Right? Whether it's an internal factor or an external factor, right? Is it simply because
being Muslim or practicing Islam doesn't look good? Doesn't fit? It's embarrassing you? Right? It's politically not correct. You can no longer defend it, you're embarrassed by someone else's actions?
Isn't it? You know, inconvenient. Just sometimes when people just inconvenient.
You know, there are many truths, and many facts that are not convenient.
Right? Yet, just because it's inconvenient, we don't dismiss it or reject it.
Right, every day, I mean, there are a lot of things that are there are not, you know, so is it convenience?
Is it pure emotionalism
you just, you know, emotionally, you know, is it some, some, some,
you know, so you need to examine the root cause of this, and share most of it, I think, would agree with me, and he may have addressed this in the past. But we find that in many of the cases that we deal with, or we try to, you know, that there is some way there's trauma, for instance, somebody was was was offended by someone and so they take it out on their face or their religion. Like, are you serious? I mean, you're going to abandon your face just because somebody, somebody's offended you some religious guy or traumatized. Now, I'm not, by the way, I'm not minimizing or dismissing the effect of this emotionally. But that should not, you know, shake the foundation. Right, the rational
foundation of your faith because as we said, faith is a rational conclusion.
Number to
examine or look clearly or courageously.
Examine the alternatives. What is your alternative
You know, you know, sometimes, you know, we all get these, these these issues, you know, my response. Step number two is where everything vanishes to me.
I'm like, because I studied, you know, different religions and I studied Islam, I have come and again, you know, I have come to the conclusion that if Islam if the Quran if Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, if this is not the truth, or any of it is not the truth, then there is no truth
doesn't exist.
Nothing makes sense. Nothing else makes sense.
And I'm just being very, you know, someone might say, Wait, how about agnosticism? Or how about atheism.
And by the way, this happens to a lot of people, they get traumatized, or they get hurt, or they they rebel, or they don't like the, you know, particular religion or so what happens to them? The reaction is that, oh, there is no religion.
And then, and then in many of these cases, including, by the way, people who, whose who claim to be atheist, they all end up in any debate or discussion, becoming
agnostics. So because I believe, by the way, the existence of God is so self evident, that there is no way
to disprove it.
By the way, every atheists, even those who say, or prove to me that God exists.
Right now, my short answer to them is proved to me that he doesn't.
They can't,
they can't.
And the other day, somebody asked me last week, I told him, you know, that logical progression or logical proof, or evidence is stronger than scientific, physical
evidence, right.
Right. You know, logic is,
logic is logic. Science is based on what
is, but it's, I mean, it's based on logic, right, based on so logic is a powerful tool. Of course, I mean, we all have must ask ourselves at some point who gave us that power? Why as human beings, the ones who are supposed to believe and not believe and are held accountable, why us out of all the creation, develop this capacity to reason and develop this thing, have this thing called logic?
Right? I'm not talking about personal logic, I'm talking about pure, flawless, perfect logic, our logic as individuals could be tainted or could be impaired, because of our experiences, lack of knowledge, I mean, a lot of things. But generally speaking, pure logic.
And logic is not something that you can touch.
Right? I mean, it's there, we know that it's, it's a power that we have. That is part in my opinion, that's part of the of the, of the tools Allah subhanaw taala gave us to come to the conclusion that He exists. Let me give you
a logical imperative.
causality, right, that every cause,
sorry, every effect must have a cause. This is a logical imperative. I mean, there is no way around it right? Everybody agrees? Right? Every effect must have a cause. So now we have this beautiful, existing material, universe, or Cosmos that we hold sense and see were part of it. Where did it come from?
logically speaking, it cannot have be gotten itself it cannot have made itself
because logically, it must have come into existence in order to bring itself into existence.
Nor do things pop out of nowhere.
Right? Things don't just come and Allah Subhana Allah by the way uses this, this imperative this in the Quran, Allah says am wholly upon me lay the shade I'm on Hollywood, where they created out of nothing, or are they themselves the creators.
This this verse when the Prophet recited it, Jumeirah, Minamata right, said, I was blown away. I felt like my heart was going to burst. It was like he was hit by you know, somebody punched him in the face.
I mean, logically speaking, when, when that hit him, he said, Oh my god, and before that he denied, you know, after birth, and he's like, the logical conclusion is a must have come from, from someone from something you've ever been without.
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And he came to the prophet and he said, I bear witness that there is no god worthy to be worshipped and that you're the Messenger of God, only God can speak like this, it was, and before that he was he was it, this was enough to, to, to, to register to make finally make it, make it, you know, clear to him. So that where all of this originated from the one that produced this is God. So the existence of God cannot be denied. Now, the next step would be people will ask you, why does that God have to be the God of Islam, or Mohammed, the one that Muhammad called to and all that that's another discussion, of course, because there's consistency that you won't find in any, and there is
clarity, there's, it's very clear the concept of God in any other faith that I examined in any other, you know, religion that I examine, is crazy. It has the concept of God, in Iran or Islam, there is nothing that you can say, but it's very consistent, very clear as to who God is. Right? Without getting into the details. So what I'm saying is, consider the alternatives. If God exists, there must be a path leading to him, there must be a purpose
for which he created us, you know, God could have not just I mean, by the way, the cosmos of the creation tells you a lot about the Creator. So he could have not created us and gave us everything that we need to, to live and to sustain ourselves and right, and then neglect or forget about telling us about him, and about who he is, and what he wants from us, and how he wants us to pursue it.
There is no way that he could have you know, imagine if somebody basically starts a family,
right? just for the heck of it, and then just walks away
without taking care of his family or without telling this family what they need it without providing guidance for this family supervision, we will call that person, right? That's a crime, isn't it?
More, it's legal, it's a crime, but it's morally also a crime. Tyler law, there is no way that God could have created all of this, it made it like this sophisticated universe that we're part of, and just left it abandoned it all he created. And he said, you go figure it out, make up your own way, do whatever you want, you know, I have no purpose for you, I have no goal, I have no aim, I have I have nothing for you. There is no point of your existence. And you can do as you wish. And by the way, early on as a as a student, I came to discover this, as I one time sat down and had a very honest discussion with an atheist from East Germany. You know, that
we came from from God doesn't exist, there is no evidence of God existing to the real, the real issue.
After about an hour, an hour and a half of going back and forth, we came to the final conclusion. Listen, I know that God exists, it makes sense. You know, nothing else, you know, but I'm not ready.
But it's too scary for me to think about what he wants from me.
Right? Because I, you know, when we when we came to the conclusion that God exists, okay, I submitted that, don't you think he wants something from you? I know he must want something for me. But I'm not ready.
Right?
I know I belong to this family, and I have obligations towards this family but I'm not ready
to come out of my bubble and to come out of my world and do you know people have this kind of to evade by the way this very interesting the word shark
you know, shark? You know what it's sure sure can English mean.
No, no shark in English Shirky. You know, sh I rk
to avoid something to avoid or neglect your responsibility?
You know, that's what the word shark in English means. Guess what the word shark in Arabic means?
Same thing. It's the same thing. Try to run away from God, you know, basically and avoid your your obligation towards them. That's what so So anyways, so confront the alternatives. What is the alternative? Now, many people by the way, at this point, they need to consider the following their understanding, if someone says, Well, to me, they all look the same. All religions look the same. There is no difference between them. You know, I can just pick any one of them. That means you don't know your religion. That means and you don't know the other religions, I can tell you that.
You don't know your religion. Right? Number three, the third step.
Check into or examine you
Your unmet expectations. Some of us have expectations or not. So all of us have expectations. We expect God to be a certain way we expect faith to be to lead to or get, you know, offer us something we expect them to be, you know, we expect a profit, we expect this to whatever, you know, the area of your doubt, or your struggle might be we have expectations.
Are these expectations real? Are these expectations true? Are these expectations? Were they supposed to even be there? Right, our unmet expectations. And this is, by the way, the number one
problem with most people. Right, I could say with all all of them, that some of their expectations were not met. Were these expectations realistic? Were these expectations. Like for instance, people who expect
that God
God is good, God is merciful. So they have to get everything they want. And life has to go exactly the way they wish. And if anything goes wrong, then they take it out on how could God do this to me, or to my family or to innocent people or
right?
For instance, some people struggle is something. Remember, we're saying a struggle with faith. So some people, they feel like they don't, they're not supposed to struggle in life. Life is supposed to be comfortable. Yet, the Quran says, and God says that this life is not a struggle free, it's not paying three, it's not you're going to be challenging, you're going to have issues, to see whether you're going to endure or not. Right. Number four, examine
or identify your own weakness, bias, or baggage or whatever the issues. Right? Consider that courageously look into your own weakness. I'll tell you, I'll give you an example.
If I come and I say,
you know, Salah doesn't make sense. Just because I am not disciplined. Just because, right? I you know, I just don't want to, to pray. Or it could be anything else. It could be I don't know, it could be a job, it could be anything any any any of the obligations. Now, just because I have issues, I have my own weakness or my own struggle in one of these branches, areas. Does that is that enough to make me doubt. The Foundation, the creed, the belief of self.
Just because I'm having personal Australia, I'm having a weakness. You know, you know, she has, you know, maintaining five times a prayer. So okay. You're telling me you cannot maintain the five daily prayers, you're struggling with it? Therefore, it is the,
you know, logical conclusion, or therefore, Islam is not the real religion, or God or Prophet Muhammad?
Did you get my point? Do you get what I'm trying to say? So you should not make your own identify the weakness. The issue is with me, I'm the one who's struggling. That leads us to the final point, right? Pray,
do not underestimate the power of prayer.
And when I say pray, by the way, including the form of like five daily prayers, they are by design meant to keep us connected to Allah subhanaw taala.
I was told by people, youth, people who deal with youth and, you know, college students, right? I was told that almost in every case that that individual was aware of or tried to help.
Before the final step of people drifting away from the religion or not practicing anymore before taking off their job before, you know, saying, making like strange claims on Facebook or social media before any of this.
There was abandonment of prayer, they stopped praying.
When you stop praying, it's, you know, then shavon will prey on you. You're, you're you're, you're a great target when you stop praying.
Right. I know people who don't practice the religion, or do not practice some of the obvious teachings, or elements of the religion, yet they do not abandon their prayer,
their prayer there, and these people are fierce defenders of Islam.
Joseph over versus today was sharing with me, someone who was upset, right, he was telling me about this sister, you know, as liberal as that a person can get a liberal act.
This doesn't wear hijab, for make I mean, you know, but she was upset at an at, quote unquote Imam or chaplain, who basically was telling Muslim women take off your job nowadays because you know, your job could be a huge challenge. Right? So therefore you should take off your teacher, and she just blasted him.
She said, How could he tell a woman? right not to practice?
What the religion obligates they'll herself doesn't wear hijab, she doesn't want to.
But But he acknowledges, right How could someone, someone they say this, I bet you that person is committed to her Salah.
There are some people who appear to be religious, and they're really very religious in their appearance. But when it comes to someone, they're not serious about solar.
It is I mean, obvious. One of the obvious elements of solar is that we say it, you know, Serato stockings Guide us to the straight path. Imagine you repeating that desperately and genuinely 17 times a day, you think God will let you go straight
up, you begged Allah for guidance 17 times a day, right? In Salah, and you're committed, if God exists, he will not let you go astray. And God exists. So I'm convinced that people who beg God genuinely and sincerely right and are committed, you know, to to to ask them for guidance, they will be guided, and they will stay on the right path. You know, someone asked me a question here, a pastor asked me, Why do you Muslims pray 515 times a day and you beg God for guidance? Aren't you already guided?
And and and it was, it was a it was a Christian
evangelical pastor, they came. So and and there are some Muslim Brothers with me. And they're like, and we were all like, how are we going to respond to this. So I just had to have, but we don't take guidance for granted.
The fact that we ask God for guidance and to keep us upon the upon the path is an indication of being guided the day you stop asking God for guidance,
you're gonna stray, when you turn on your GPS, you want to, once you put your destination and you start the journey, you don't want to disconnect.
If your GPS stops,
if it doesn't connect with the satellite, then what's the point?
So you want to make sure that you stay and you don't stop guidance until you reach your destination.
Right? So so we beg Allah and here is Rasulullah sallallahu sallam, and there are plenty of supplications and dropped by the prophet, asking God to guide him and he's the most guidance Allah had instead of asking God to guide him begging and lots of hugs, for guidance, guidance, thanking Allah for guidance, giving credit to Allah Subhana Allah for guidance, this is all part of
you know, and by the way, and I will conclude with this and I want to open the floor for some any q&a.
And by the way, not taking guidance for granted. And, and this this attitude was that of the companions of the Prophet as well.
You know, as much as hard as you work, at the end of the day guidance and remaining guided and being strong and being firm. Is is a blessing from Allah subhanaw taala. So you have to thank a lot for that. The Companions used to say Well, lucky Lola, anti-matter, Dana or alive, if it wasn't for you, we would have not been guided. There is in my opinion, there's difference between people who pray with that kind of attitude and people who feel they that God owes them something.
Right. People who humbly pray and say God, if it wasn't for your grace, we would have not been guided and always Express and show gratitude to God.
So inshallah they're, you know, they're
let's take questions, comments or suggestions
or if you have any,
any, any particular issue that you think we should discuss from the issues that that we feel, you know, are causing doubt or uncertainty. You can bring it up inshallah. Yes, yes.
This is
like, what
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then it says
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classical
artists.
Okay.
Okay, generally speaking What brother has asked me about has to do with narrations, prophetic narrations that are attributed to the prophets of Allah listen and pay attention to this.
He's saying that they pick on some Hadith. And they say the Hadith says the sun rises from the sun before it rises, it takes the permission of Allah. And then when it sets, it sets under the throne of Allah, you know, so, right. So I'm yet to find anyone showing me any significance right or any subset anything that of substance that goes against the core and core Anissa right. So So, there are some people who say, well, we cannot while we cannot prove that the poor and we cannot disprove or the Quran, you know, we cannot disprove the Quran, we cannot say that it's not a legitimate document or revelation. Right, they have other ways to try to, they made the main attack is on the prophetic
tradition, and the Sunnah, and the statements of a competitor, some of which by the way, may not even be the Prophet statements that are attributed to the Prophet it could be, the meaning may have been delivered. So now, now when it comes to, to, to, to the prophetic tradition, right?
We got to be very careful.
But if you tell me that this hadith cannot have this statement cannot have been set cannot be set by a prophet and legitimate prophet. I'll ask you what about the Quran?
So what about the Quran? Can you can you write where in the Quran does it say? So? So the answer I mean, to that particular question is, there are some, some Hadith that some scholars, you know, even, you know, people like Kevin hunter that had hard time understanding,
they said is authentic. When they applied the criteria of the scholars of Hadith, they said the Hadith is authentic, we can trace it back to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam with a not with 100% certainty, but there is a good chance of the promise of a sunset. So we have to accept it as a legitimate statement by the prophet. But we don't understand it.
Simply
right. The one thing though, that that, you know, we always should focus on take it back to logic. Is there anything wrong logically with what you're saying?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So. So do we understand the meaning or how it happens? No, we don't. I'll take you into Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and his clip, for instance, he mentioned what revelation, one of the things that early Arabs or early people, you know, doubted, or they're like, they said, how could God speak to a human being through an angel? And what are angels? I mean, how could you know the transmission take place so fast?
Right, when the Prophet peace be upon him was was taken from Mecca to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem to heaven, in one night, and he came back the metcons thought that they finally found
a proof to know to discredit him sell a lot is the Meccans went to a worker and a worker was busy doing something, some work, they said them, Listen to what your friend is saying. Is that what he said? He claimed that he ascended to heaven and came back on the same night. And one night, no, no, he went to Jerusalem, which takes a month journey, that and then he ascended to heaven, and then he came back.
They thought abubaker was going to be shaken. You see, Albuquerque was way ahead of his time. Oh, Booker was a true believer he was a logical person, without
without being shaped without any hesitation. What did you say to them? He said,
If he said it, then it's true.
In New soda, coffee every summer,
I already have submitted to believe in something that is even more profound revelation coming to him instantly from heaven, that is even greater. So if you believe that then you have to accept this. Then he goes to the prophet and he said, messenger of God, integration
But he didn't say go to him and say, messenger of God, they said that you said, Is it true to veteran? No, no, he went to him. He said, messenger of God, tell me all about it.
He's already, you know. So what I tell, you know, in one of my classes, what I tell the students is that now we have something called cell phones, where I send you a text message right now, right? MCs, it leaves this room, the text message leaves, this room goes, God knows, goes, God knows where it turns around, it instantly comes to you. As soon as I hit send. Next thing I know is
right, on your end, you received it, it could be a digital image, it could be an image, leaves, this room comes in a fashion that I am not, I don't know, if you know, if I told this to my dad level, or my grandfather, they will say You're lying. This cannot happen.
Right. So if anything our generation more than ever before, should be able to easily, you know, come to terms with this concept of Revelation.
Yet, it was something very strange in the past. So maybe not maybe will possess the tools to understand some of these Hadith or statements that we find problematic that we find a hard time understanding. But none of these statements go against stablished whether it's scientific fact, or in any of the fundamentals of the faith itself.
Yes. So So if that doesn't do it for me, you know, but again, even if somebody comes to me and says, you know, problem, homicide, this I was like, Okay, so what's the alternative? My answer to him is, what's the alternative? For me to believe that Earth is 5000 years old? Give me a break, give me something better. You know, even in the Quran, that argument is used, give me a book that is more guided than this book, that is more consistent that is more accurate than this book, because have been added. I mean, who
Allah said to the Prophet, tell them bring me a document that is better than this. I will follow it.
So
yes.
Miss Abuja
observation what NASA mentioned about Mars two or three years ago,
in one
direction,
getting the opposite way. And they said, well, the sun is rising on Mars.
Reverse.
Physicists, by the way, they say I mean, I asked physicist about this. He said, Yes, possibility. Of course, we don't want to, we don't want that to happen, because it will be costly. Right. And of course, in scientifically speaking, the scientific community says, they don't want that to happen. It's going to be disastrous. But also from a religious point of view. We're told that when that happen, if that happens, then that's, that's, that's the Day of Judgment. Next thing, so it's nothing that we want to be proven.
But what I'm saying that scientifically speaking, but of course, logically, it's possible, scientifically speaking, it is likely to happen.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know. But yeah, but what I'm saying logically, even the years before logically, it's possible. You know, there's difference, but scientifically speaking is most likely it's inevitable.
It's inevitable. It will happen. They know it. Yeah.
It's inevitable.
Yeah, it will happen. It will
make me
sisters any any questions for the sisters? Yes.
University
admission to explore and to investigate and to study.
They never said,
Yeah. But I believe also not only is it a challenge for them, but each and every single one of us remember what Dr. Mustapha Mahmud, for instance, said he had that that experience?
increasing. Amen. Yeah, yeah. But further than that, further than that, one thing is we're going, you know, if you look,
I'm not talking about email increasing, I'm talking about you having evidence, what you need to know that this is the truth, you're going to experience it. Somewhere, you have already experienced it, or you will experience it, you're going to have one or multiple experiences in life that will bring you to this conclusion, what people choose to do is
No, not now, I'm not ready. Or they forget. He could have forgotten about the dream. I'll give you an example.
You know, my wife was telling me how
somebody that she knew, she knew she knew very well, they came to back to the religion and to practice the religion because of a dream
that they had. The dream is just another word, by the way. I mean, you don't have to be a special person to see a dream. I mean, anyone, and a dream that comes through because even Pharaoh were told Pharaoh had a dream. So you don't have to be someone someone very special. But because of the dream, they came back to religion, but what happened?
Right, what happened? They did not maintain. And the effect of the dream after about 10 years faded away. So they went back to their old ways now. And by the way, rarely do people go back to very old ways, what happens actually, they will go back to being even worse, they will do things that they did not do except doing. You know,
we asked Allah subhanaw taala to, to protect us, you know, it's very important that when you see something like this, not to look down upon it, because it could happen to any one of us. It could happen to any one of us his.
Okay, so doubt is a persistent misconception, right? Or uncertainty, right? This belief is to basically fully come out and say, I reject this, or I don't accept it, or I no longer practice, or I no longer adhere to it.
So So this belief is, is a step even further where the person actually makes it declares, or practically, they're like, I don't I don't, I don't believe it or not, they reject, you know, so, you see, doubts phase is as dangerous as it is, the person can still, you know, come back and still, you know, get rid of this stuff. But once they get the come to disbelief in order for it, they have to start the journey again, they have to come back religion, they have to, basically, yeah. So, so but having a doubt is not a sign of disbelief.
But it's a it could be a precursor.
It could be, you know, so So, so that, and, and what I'm saying is that we need to deal with it before hands.
And I know summer is bigger than this, you know, that you know, aqidah belief, understanding the belief in studying it, you know, before we even get to the doubt phase, you know, people who are more immune to,
to, you know, who are more connected or studying, understand, I'm not saying people who are told you have to do this, you're a Muslim, you have to believe in it. We are not talking about that. People who understand who is your Lord Allah? Why 123 How did we come to that conclusion? People who logic basically people who were rationally, you know, taught
to rationalize the existence of God and everything that is connected to it and are taught the basics. And they're, they're taught why, not only what, but they're taught why.
That's it when when the doubt or any incident or experience happens, they're able to, to,
to deal with it to handle it.
Again, there could be
situations where individuals, you know, deal with like deep traumatic, you know, traumatic, emotional, you know, experience or have mental or emotional instability that causes them to, you know, like, where they cannot, you know, get rid of this obsessive like these, these thoughts and stuff like that, that's that's a different a different issue altogether. And there are certain cases where the scholar said the person is beyond being held accountable, if they cannot control these thoughts, and if they and if they are medicated, and the medication is not working, and all that Hello, there. Yeah. May Allah subhanaw taala protect us. Any other any particular topic or subject
or that that you've heard of, that you think we should consider for next time in terms of you know, that people raise concerns about and, and people try to look for, like, rational response to it? Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
By the way, a doctor a man is a great assets. Because, you know, two, three weeks ago there was there were questions about evolution and creationism and all of that. And he actually wrote a book, you know, title alone in it, there is a section in which he
was talking about here, where, you know, and Dr. Ahmed is a scientist, you know, Dr. Matt Baier, where he actually discusses evolution and all the various holes within within the theory of evolution. I mean, by the way, within the scientific, like, honest scientific community, they know the theory of evolution is full of holes. It has so many discrepancies, you know, I'll just share with you one that he told me again, you know, sorry, if I do not remember all the money, but he said, you know, how, like, there there are different stages, you know, before homosapiens, there were like, whatever, Homo erectus, you know, the various What are anyone remember?
The Neanderthals basically, before that, they were like, they were different, there are at least three major stages before homosapiens came into existence like, of evolution. So the idea was that stage one, stage two stage three worlds, apart from each other by millions of years, right. So it took millions of years to go from here to here to here to here.
But then, what happened is, he said, There was a recent discovery, I forgot where Arkansas somewhere in America, where they found, you know, remains archaeologists found remains that belong to, you know, one that belongs to stage one, another one that belongs to stage two, a third one that belongs to stage three.
But when they did carbon dating, they found out that they all of them came,
same time.
This, he said, This shook the scientific community. Because now it it pretty much if this is proven and established, of course, you know, research in documenting this and all that takes sometimes, you know, years or a decade, or if this is, if this established that set, the whole theory that it took was so many millions of years for this to disappear, and then move and become this and then for it to disappear and become this. And then finally, you know, homosapiens human beings came into existence, this whole thing is destroyed. This shows that these three things that they found these three, were three different species that lived at the same time.
But and they have nothing to do with almost sapiens, Homo sapiens are a different species. So yeah.
No,
yeah, that's why it's until this day, it remains to be what theory?
Of course, of course, of course, you know, the scientific community has a vested interest in, in making it establishing it as almost a fact as a scientific one is not. They do, you know, I'll conclude by the way one of these movies that, you know, I don't I don't think you should watch it, but, you know, you know, Dawkins, right.
You know, Dawkins,
I always confuse Hawkins and Dawkins
well, Steve
No, no. Steve Steven Dawkins. So Stephen Hawking, so is Stephen Hawkins right? The guy the Yeah, the
Yes, yes, yes. Stephen Hawkins, I know that his first name is Steven, but I always call him Steven Dawkins. Stephen Hawkins, by the way, there's a movie about his life. And there is a book, of course, I heard that recently, he's not doing very well, right? But you might, you might want to read his book or watch the movie, where he that basically the guy says, God exists.
The guy basically said, what his dream is to go back in time to, as he says, To Allah Quran to say, so he can read God's mind.
For what, when, when people ask them what, to understand the purpose of all of this.
You know, and that's where he leaves it. You know, somehow, his his first wife, who was very supportive of him, and everything was was a Christian that she believed in all that and she always tried to, you know, and she was relieved when he finally told her that God must exist, there's, you know, but it's still he cannot come out to the scientific community and start talking about this or propagating this or otherwise, he's gonna lose his. Yeah, so. So But again, it's something that is documented, you can find it on YouTube, him talking about God, and you know, so, so pretty much the consensus now, even amongst atheist scientists, is that God exists, we cannot we cannot prove that
God doesn't exist.
But they do not have they claim that they do not have
enough or substantial evidence to prove that God exists, that's fine, you don't accept it, that's fine.
We'll often Anam Allah knows best inshallah, if you if you believe that, we should inshallah discuss this any further.
Please let us know what I would like to see is I would like us inshallah, tada next time, to bring our you know, college age students or, or,
you know, children
chautala, because the intention is inshallah to next time, I would like to have two scientists with Sharla here to respond or answer the specifics like, you know, respond to the specific issues that people have. Again, one of the most common problems that many of our youth have, is that they try to judge Islam
based on biblical beliefs.
Like, for instance, one of the youth came to me and he said, I was watching this documentary, this debate between a Christian theologian and
an atheist.
And he said, he just kept destroying all the arguments, the creationist, the creationists that he just kept saying, the Christians, I said, But yes, but that's not fair comparison. Because many of the big major issues that you'll find in a problematic in the Bible from a scientific point of view,
the Quran doesn't, doesn't agree, you know, the Quran doesn't say anything about them or does not even it actually says the opposite. So there is nothing in the Quran that yet until this day, there is nothing in the Quran that goes against a scientific fact as a matter of fact, many, many
scientific you know, facts are actually you might find Quranic verses or revelations that support them. So, Allah Allah knows best inshallah to Allah. We can continue this discussion in the future is Aqua la Hara salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.