Islam From Scratch #10

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Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Sharafuddin was sitting Satan and Mohammed not only he also VH Marina Salam aleikum to all of you. And welcome back after a couple of weeks of,

of taking a break was obviously the month of Ramadan, and I make dua that Allah Subhana Allah except for myself fasting and our acts of worship, and that we proceed from Ramadan, between people. And Allah grant us to continue in the good efforts that we have done during the month of Ramadan and maintain it after Ramadan.

I thank you, again, for a very well received series hamdulillah start from scratch.

You know, a lot of us a lot of positive responses. And in that we felt that we need to continue doing it. And there's a lot more for us to discuss. And so this is I think, lecture number 10. And a bit of a recap lecture. So bringing it up this evening, we're just going to look at what it is that we've discussed over the last nine lectures, it's nine weeks. And then I also want to take a moment just to do to give us a chance to do some q&a. Some questions have come through the the WhatsApp line and email. So I've got some questions downloaded into my slides. But I always like to give preference to those of you who do make the time to attend the zoom session with a team session, and

to ask those questions. So

if you as always, if you have any questions that you have, just feel free to to raise them. So quickly, very quickly. This is lecture number 10. Lesson number 13. And we just do a quick recap, what did we discuss in the last nine lectures? And what is this? What is the purpose of this entire series? The series, the series is really to ask why. Many times when someone wants to learn Islam, it's all about how to make Salah how to perform Hajj. And we never take that moment to say why why am I why do I do the rituals that Islam requires me to do? Many times Islam is just a list of do's and don'ts and consequences if you you know, fail to follow the shopping list of requirements. But

before that there needs to be a conversation around. What does it mean to be a Muslim? Why am I a Muslim? Why do I choose this religion? And why? Why is it truthful? Why can I put my trust in it? And that is sort of those big questions that sometimes don't get answered. And so this, this series is really for the Muslim who wants to ask that question. And also, it's a wonderful, you know, first step for anyone who wants to learn more about Islam, those who are outside of the faith, and are having a lot we had some really good interaction with our friends and neighbors who were not of the Islamic religion, make dua control Allah guides them to Islam. So our lecture one was to ask what is

the word the term Islam mean? And we said Islam means to submit it means the setting, they've opened the dictionary, Islam means to surrender. And a Muslim is the one who surrendered. The one who has given up resisting is not fighting anymore. And we see what the natural consequence of Islam what comes after surrendering, is peace, you would find peace. And so one might ask, Well, who is surrendering to whom, and it is the person, the human being inside you and me surrendering to our Creator surrendering to a higher power, the one who made us whatever name you want to give him. If you want to call him God, you will call him Allah, when according to the creator, the person, the

being that has made everything we can control of everything, is to surrender yourself to Him, and to really live a life in which you're in submission to Him. And so that is the first lesson that we did Islam means to surrender. We then took a bit of a detour from there, we said, well, who says that he is a Creator, who says that we were placed here, who says that there is even a higher power? Why should I surrender to something that might not even exist? And so then we did a bit of discussion, lecture number two and lecture number three, around atheism is the higher power we gave the evidences for the Creator. And we said one of the most powerful evidences actually came in the last

century with the with the, with the scientific proof scientifically we know that the universe was caused the universe happened. There was a beginning. It wasn't eternal, that there was a time when the Universe

didn't exist. And all of a sudden, externally, it sort of something caused it to happen, the Big Bang. And so this is one of those powerful evidences that it was caused, who caused it? Why was it caused, it also follows naturally, then, if there is a Creator, there should be a purpose to life, you know, if we were created with design, if someone designed as made us, built us, then there's a reason why he did it, they must be there's intelligence behind it. And which means that there's a purpose to your life, that you can live a life that is meaningless, ultimately, at the end of the day, or you can live a life that has meaning. We then also following on this discussion in lecture

number three, and we invite you to if you if you've missed any of his lectures, of course, you can go to to the neuronal YouTube page, YouTube channel, and you'll find our lectures there, and the slides there as well. We then looked at in lecture number three, some arguments and atheism is one of his perhaps the fastest growing religion on earth. And it makes some, it's never in the history of mankind, do we have such a strong movement of atheism and secularism? And so we need to listen to these debates in discussions because it is something which if you are not being confronted with surely your kids, my kids are being confronted questions about the nature of Allah? And Does he

exist is the Creator. And so we had to respond to some of those those questions and caught out in the debates. Okay. And we discussed some of that, we then moved on to saying, Okay, fine, we have we are not atheists, we believe that there is a Creator, we believe that we were made, we believe that there is someone who created the universe who creates all of us who is involved.

But what do we know about him? You know, what do we know about this creator? Who is he who is the Creator, who is Allah, and so from an Islamic perspective,

we gave a lecture around who Allah subhanaw taala is, and I think anyone who

wants to work on the relationship with Allah, and ultimately, that is why we are sitting here, you know, we are sitting here, in Islamic Studies class, any ritual that you do, whether you make Salah whether you're fasting, whether you give charity, it is to enhance your relationship with Allah. And the first, the first step in developing your relationship with Allah is to get to know who is to get to know as much information about Allah as possible, what are his names? What are these attributes? What are the qualities that you have, and many times we were brought up with a very,

you know, the very incorrect

impression of Allah that Allah is going to punish you is going to burn you, Allah is out there to watch you and to do to catch you, if you make a mistake, he's going to look for every reason to coerce you into Janam he's rules are they to make your life difficult. And it's difficult to have a relationship, when when when when the object of your, of your love is supposed to be understood to be in such difficult, you know, very oppressive kind of terms. And we put that one Simon said, Well, what does Allah say about himself, you open the Quran, and he said, the first thing I want you to know about me in Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim that the most important quality that I want you to know

is that I'm a load of mercy, a load of love, a load of forgiveness, or a load of kg of concern. Everything that he does, is that he does with love and with, with, with, with, with the, with mercy in mind, he protects His creation, he looks after his creation. And so we went through all of that, and then our relationship to Allah subhanaw taala, that everything in the universe, you know, everything in the universe aspires to be close to it to Allah, the greatest goal or success in our existence, is to have proximity to Him, those who are closest to him, are the ones who are successful. That is the objective. I mean, you can't transcend anything, you know, you transcend

your limitations as a creation by being close to the Creator. And so life is all about journeying towards him in this world, so that you can be with him in the life after and that is really what Islam boils down to. So we spoke about Allah subhanaw taala, who Allah is and I mean, we can attach my favorite lecture of the entire series is lecture number four. We then said, okay, so affirming that there is a Creator and that he is a Merciful Creator. We say, well, that's not new. That's what the Christians say. That's what the Jews say. That's what every theist says. So how is Islam different to any one of these other religions on this, if you were to choose a religion, and you

sort of had a decision tree, you said, Fine, I sort of agree that there is a Creator, I'm not an atheist. Now I want to have a relationship with him. What religion is out there that tells me who this creator is and how to live my life in His service? Well, we see Islam we don't talk about the other religions talk about Islam first Islams mission with slums theme, its slogan is The Kalama La ilaha illAllah. That there is no ILA except Allah. What makes Islam different to Christianity, different to Judaism different to Hinduism, is that we say that there is one Creator, which we acknowledged and that he alone should be worshipped that he is the only object of worship

He's the only one deserving of my servitude, I'm only going to enslave myself to him and him alone, not to any other creature, everything else is created besides Him. And so it's meaningless. The creation has no power to benefit me or harm me. He's the only one that can benefit me or harm me. And we said, this is the crux of Islam. We call it the heat in Islam. It is the Oneness of Allah subhanaw taala. It's very poorly translated as monotheism in English. But we would say that the definition of monotheism does not really, it doesn't approximate the hate, because per our understanding of the hate of the Oneness of Allah, that he is one in his creation in His Lordship,

and he's won in his worship, he can only be worshipped. And therefore by that definition, we would say Christianity is not monotheistic, because they worship the Christian Christian friends and neighbors. They worship Jesus, who isn't Allah subhanaw taala, our Hindu friends and neighbors who have believed in one Creator, but they worship a pantheon, they worship many, many different deities, whereas Islam says you should only worship your Creator. And in that, in that message, besides the rule of worshiping Allah alone, there is also something

there's also something beautiful in that you that you have a one on one relationship with Allah subhanaw taala, you have a one on one relationship with your Creator, Allah subhanaw taala allows you to invoke him directly, that you don't have to go via an intermediary via a saint via a grey via an ancestor, you and your Lord, have a personal personal relationship. And that is what Allah is, that is what Islam is giving that you and Allah subhanaw taala, or on a very personal relationship. And so we also spoke about when Islam is the oldest we, from an Islamic perspective, we believe Islam is the oldest religion of not the Earth, but of the universe, that the angels, the sun, the

moon, the stars, all things in creation, worship, its creator of everything in creation follows the commandment of its Creator exists in a manner which it was programmed to do by Allah subhanaw taala. And so Islam predates all other religions. Islam even predates humanity, the religion of the universe is Islam. And so it is also the message that we believe the message of all the prophets, the message of the beasts of Jesus, the message of Moses, the message of Abraham. And in fact, even if you look now at the Bible, and the Torah, which has changed and been altered from its original manuscript, original scripture, it still has, as the overall theme of the hate the first commandment

in the Bible you'd find when they ask Jesus Christ, what is the first commandment? And he said, Oh, is it I'll be me, the most important commandment, the most sacred of all commandments, is basically law in the law, that you worship, you load one load alone, but you don't have any partners with Allah subhanaw taala. And so this is the message of all the prophets and of all the, the message of all the religions, scriptures that Allah soprano revealed. We then spoke about

the conference or the the equation, Islam is humanity, surrendering to its creator, we spoke about the Creator, we spoke about setting getting being Islam. So the other side of the coin is humanity, mankind what what makes us so special, who, you know, how do we exist in relationship to the rest of creation? Because we part of it of a universe? And where do we fit in within the universe. And so we spoke about the story. The first story of the Quran is the story of our father and the item how Allah had created us from clay. And he had given us a very honorable position amongst the creation of Allah subhana wa Tada had favored us with, with ability, that no creature none of the creation of

the creator was able to match and what is that it's not that we are the biggest or the or the fastest. It's not that we're the most beautiful and we actually made from mud. So we have a very ignoble, very humble beginning, beginning you know, that we are made from mud. But what we are able to do is we are able to perceive Allah, we are able to have a consciousness of our Creator, like none of the other creations the angels cannot understand Allah the way we can. The angels cannot love Allah the way we can. The angels cannot fear Allah the way we can. The angels cannot repent to Allah like we can. And so because of that, our our, our interaction with Allah, our worship of Allah

is far deeper, it's far more meaningful. It is, it is it is something which brings us a close a closest proximity to Allah subhanaw taala and so we spoke about Islam and maybe Adam we then spoke a bit more about the the the other creatures within the universe the angels were made of light, they almost they without any free world so they do not have free will we have freewill. And so a lot of the questions that usually come up is around freewill. So clearly freewill is something and destiny freewill and destiny go hand in hand. We need to spend a lot of time to

Key about that, but some of the creatures in the universe, they obey by compulsion, they have no choice. Whereas we have been given a choice. We also spoke about another interesting race of creatures called the gem. And they do have free will, they have the ability to disobey Allah, or they have the ability to obey Allah. And in that there is a tension between the Djinn and, and humanity, and those amongst the genie beliefs being one of them, who we call a satan.

But you see that occasion they were there before us. And there was this tension between us and and Iblees, or Adam, for Adam, anybody's who eventually caused our father or mother item and how to commit the first sin. And through that we will seem to the earth. And we then spoke about the difference between in lesson number eight, we spent a lot of time talking about the difference between Islam and Christianity in the concept of original sin. And we said Christianity takes this issue of original sin as a major. In fact, it is the most important theological point of Christianity, Christianity is based on the story of original sin, that every one of us are condemned

to hellfire. And doesn't matter how much repentance you do, you're not going to be forgiven. The only way to be saved from from going to hell is that someone needs to pay the price, someone needs to be sacrificed, and that sacrifices Jesus, we disagree with that narrative, we say, what the story what the purpose of the story of Adam and Eve is that people are human meaning they are fluid, that we have the ability to be above the angels, just a few moments before that the angels are bowing Gibreel Gabriel is bowing before Adam and Eve. And just a few moments after that, they commit a sin, which pushes them away from Allah subhanaw taala, but then they come back in repentance, then they

are able to repent, and Allah Subhana Allah forgives them. And so really, this is life. This is what it means to be a human. Today, you are the best of of people, you are charitable, you're kind you are loving, and then you make a mistake, and you fall, and you are, you base yourself, but then you can come back through repentance and come back to Allah. And that is what life really is all about. That is what Islam is about what being a human on Earth is all about. And so, our father and mother Adam and Eve are seem to the earth. And they are now in the examination of what this world is all about. And Allah subhana wa Dalaman informs him that this is why you were created, you were created,

Adam and Eve and your progeny, to live on the earth, to spend a number of a set number of years on this earth.

Following my guidance, following my instructions, going through the challenges of life, you know, sustaining yourself and your family, but always having a relationship with me doing the things that I command you to do staying away from things that I forbid you to do journeying towards me, and ultimately your return will be to me and I'm going to judge your deeds your life will be presented before Allah subhanaw taala each and every one of us but Allah protect us. We the our life is going to be reduced to a book, we're going to be given a book. And in there is everything that we've done. Every moment that we spend every breath that we've taken, every Rand that we spent, everything we

looked at every thought that we had will be

transcribed in this book.

Just lost intimacy for a second and we still we're still holding

the moment we're still online.

Yeah, we did lose a few seconds, I think back on. So at the end of the day, when you die when I die, our deeds on that FTM our deeds will be presented to Allah subhanaw taala it will be weighed, we will be judged. And there is a destination either you pass the test of life, and there's either eternal enjoyment in Jannah. Or if you fail, there's another place called Jan Nam and we'll talk about Jana and Jana. You know, in our discussion, I think the last the last lecture was what I call the divine point system. So if you are in a exam, it's always good to know how you're going to be graded. And when you look at the way Allah subhanaw taala has,

has set this exam it's rigged. It's not fake. It's an unfair exam, unfair in our favor, Allah subhanaw taala any words, any good deed, if it's done sincerely can actually make you pass this exam. You can do some D that is so beautiful, that Allah forgives all your sins and interview to Janna. Each Allah is looking for you know, Allah is looking for a reason to intercept agenda. He's not looking for a reason to intercede agenda and that's the one of the misconceptions I want us to fix that Allah subhanaw taala wants us to live our life to the best of our ability. And if we do so then he is guaranteed Jana and if we made a mistake, repent then he will forgive you an intense

agenda. And if you die with a with deficiencies in your deeds, and still you come to an Kiama there is still a chance that we hope for His mercy and then he will enter your agenda or if he's punished

And then he has to, he will also do our justice to those who deserve to be punished. And hopefully after that, there will be forgiveness and into us, Indiana. So that is really what the purpose of life is. And that is where we ended off. And I think, from what follows after that, what follows after that is so when we discuss this very theological, philosophical in the air, we are going to get down in our next part of the series. Okay, what do I need to do? You've told me what Islam is, you've sort of sold the product, I want to be a Muslim. So how do I be a Muslim? What? Give me a list of do's and don'ts. And remember, we started off by saying, Islam is always the do's and don'ts

that we want. Now give me that list. What must I do? Let me focus on those things. And if I do this when I go to jannah inshallah, that's sort of our focus in the next couple of couple of weeks. But before we get to that,

are there any questions that we want to start off with?

Before I go to the online questions? Are there any questions for the we've got 10 people in the room?

I don't want to pick on people. I see if I go through the list. We've got Stasha got I think since the Amal, we've got autumn.

Believe that should be a sister, half sauce Surah shafiqul. Sister Surya.

Only sisters, no, no, only put in my iMedia the

thorn amongst the roses. Is there any anyone who has a question for us?

Okay, so let's go through the questions that have been given online. And let's talk through them. So the question that comes up quite often is the question of predestination predestination, meaning, decree or destiny, what we cover in Islam in Arabic, it's called cobalt and color. Allah subhanaw taala predefining, Allah predetermining things that are going to happen Allah sets out almost scripts the future. And so one might even feel or what's the purpose to life if, if I, if Allah didn't know that Allah already decided, what I'm going to do? How much I'm going to earn? If I'm going to take a left turn or a right turn, everything has been determined, then what's the point in

life? I mean, my my entire life has already been pre pre predicted pre caused. And so I'm just sort of on a conveyor belt, going to my in destination. And so this comes up very often. And there's a long answer the short answer, I think, for the long run, so we're going to spend at least two three weeks just on predestination, because it is one of the pillars of Islam. So one of the one of the things as a Muslim you have to be to be able to be a Muslim, you need to believe certain things. It's called the pillars of of faith, the articles of faith that can have Eman, the pillars of faith, and one of them that in fact, the last one is to believe that yes, indeed, Allah subhanaw taala has

predetermined everything, but at the same time, he has given us fuel. Now these things seems to be impossible, they seem to be mutually exclusive. You can't have free will, and destiny. It's one or the other. And in fact, the easier way, and this is where the complicated answer is, how do I have free will? And Allah controls everything? How does Allah choose every step and every breath that I'm going to take, but at the same time, I have choice? How is it possible? There's a whole list of you know, this is theology, a list of philosophies or understandings or evidences that will that can you can find a middle ground between predestination and free will? But that's the long answer and we

will we will get the Inshallah, the short answer is, you have free will, you do choose, you will be judged based on your decisions, there is consequences. There is a difference between us and the angels. So we definitely have free will. But nothing happens without Allah subhanaw taala has decreed Allah subhanaw taala controls the universe. And so we believe both those things, and sometimes you don't have to fully understand how the mechanics behind it, you, you just need to know how to live with it. You don't need to know how your cell phone works, how do I dial a number? And my friend in China? You know, I'm able to speak to him, I don't know the science behind it, but it

works. And so similarly, there is an answer, and if we will, we will get there to study the answer. But for now, the way you and I need to live our life is that Allah has given you choice, and the choices you make will have consequences for us and you wouldn't punishment in every choice that you make, but at the same time, nothing happens without the permission of Allah subhanaw taala and that's how you you live your life and, and really, maybe by way of analogy or an example will give you some comfort. So before the event before something is known, you live your life as if though it is in your hands before the diagnosis is made before the exam is the result of the exam before the

soccer match ends. You play your hardest you push your hardest you do everything after the event after the diagnosis is given after the results are given.

After your salary, you know, at the end of the day you count that money, you then defer the judgment to Allah you then give Allah subhanaw taala. He is the one that caused you to do a POC, that Allah is the one that caused the results. So before the

let's give ischemia, let's give a practical example. A person is sick. A person has been diagnosed while a particular cancer, okay? So now you you go through the treatment, and you have that in your mind that no matter how that if I take the right medication, and I do what is right, I'm going to be cured. I live my life as if though, whether I'm going to survive, or I'm going to not going to survive hangs in the balance. It's up to Allah. I mean, it's still undetermined. My destiny has not yet been written for me, you will live your life like that. So you get the best treatment, you go to the best doctors, you do everything you put all your effort in it. If at the end, you are cured. You

think Allah you decreed for me there'll be cured, it was your decree, not my actions. And if you are not cured, you say Alhamdulillah Allah, you have determined that I should not be cured, that the medication isn't going to work and for a reason and our wisdom, which I trust in you, that your knowledge and your wisdom and your mercy is encompasses all things. And if this is your decree, I submit your decree similarly with risk with with with your sustenance, you work hard, you go and search for all the millions and billions that you want. As if though your decree has your sustenance has not been sent out, you live your life like that working hard striving, but at the end of the

day, once you get the paycheck, and hamdulillah Allah has written this for me, Allah has decreed not one read more, not one read less I was gonna get this was the amount Allah had determined for me. And that's how we live our life. How do we put these things together? As I said, we will discuss that inshallah. Definitely, it is on our agenda. It is something which we're going to talk about, you know, maybe in a month, or twos time, but if we're going to spend a whole series and if you say you really can't wait, it's

plaguing your mind. My lectures on freewill and destiny is on Muslim Central, you can gladly check it out there. But that's going to be entirely separate section.

Really, I think sometimes, just on this point, you know, the belief

if you ask, why do we believe in it to you know, what is the why does Allah I mean, there's a question that's going to come up, why should we believe in angels? What is the benefit in believing in angels? So, if we look at the six pillars of human, Allah wants you to believe that these in Allah, your life is more meaningful and there is goodness in it when you believe you have a creator. It gives you purpose, believe in the prophets and the books of Allah gives you guidance, it tells you how to live your life, believe in the last day informs you that your life has consequences that at the end of the day, everything you do has implications your life is not meaningless. Believing

the angels will talk about because there's a supernatural world out there. There's a soul there's more to you than just the physical tangible. There's more to you than the rands in the bank. And there's, there's a much bigger universe out there. But if we were to ask what is the wisdom or the benefit in believing in, in Destiny, lots of benefits, one of it is Allah, as Allah says, In the Quran, that you do not become too attached to the happenings in your life, if you are on the road. And and this is the analogy, you know, if you are on the road, and you you drive, you know, the road takes spins and turns, you can't control the road, you can only control yourself. And so whatever

Allah puts in front of you is as a test as a means of testing you. So do not become overly angry, do not become overly sad about the things that you didn't reach the job you didn't get the person you want to marry, that, you know, didn't accept your proposal, the sickness that you got, don't become too sad, because it wasn't you don't take it personally. It is Allah putting that in your way as a test so that you can get closer to him. Everything he does, is for you to get to that purpose of life, which is to get closer to him. And also Alesis li kala for who you don't become too happy at the successes in your life. Don't feel that today, you know, I you know, I you know, I'm I've gotten

a million Rand or, you know, I'm the most successful, powerful person in the world. That was not you. That was ALLAH vindicated. And so in this way, you constantly live within that framework of everything is for Allah, everything is determined by Allah, everything is in the hands of Allah, you also then never lose hope, that when science and the doctors and everyone give up hope, and they say, look, there is no cure. You say, Well, my case is not yet done. Allah will decide whether I'm going to survive or not. And then I have my dua, then I turned to him, and he is ultimately the one who will determine whether I live or die or whatever. And so, when you lose a loved one, when you go

through calamity, it is that belief in the other of Allah that brings you through it. When things are good in your life. It is that belief that everything comes from Allah that keeps you grounded and humble, and that is the that is the reason why we believe in destiny. These people then use Destiny incorrectly and they use it as a means not to

strive in their life to say, well, I don't have to work out well, I almost laziness. That's the incorrect understanding of the free will and destiny, but inshallah we'll talk more about that.

Hello I just sort of touched the surface is anyone that wants to add you know to the discussion or add a comment or would like to say something about this question before we move on

this is today

this is awkward silence Okay. So we will talk about freewill and destiny Inshallah, in the weeks to come.

The next question was, and this is the question I mentioned, someone else what is the wisdom in believing in angels? Why is Allah made it mean the second pillar of Eman in in in our articles of human man to be law, we believe that there is an Allah that He exists. And we believe that he has angels, why angels? Why is Allah put that as the second pillar?

You know, I can, as I said, we can understand why you should believe in the prophets and the books because you need to live a certain lifestyle, that they have judgment, you need to believe that your life is going to be judged. I spoke about freewill and destiny. Well, part of what there's a lot of wisdoms behind it, because we interact with him all the time without you know, you knowing, but constantly The angels are around us there are angels that make dua for us that protect us through the permission of Allah, obviously, everything through Allah's permission, they record our deeds, not that our needs them to record the deeds, but they are recording our deeds, and as an honor to

them as well, Allah subhanaw taala wants us to be live a life in which we know that they are angels, and also angels when we ever whenever we talk about the the belief in the angels, we also talk about the belief in the jinn. And we talk about the belief in the soul, why what is the angels or the jinn. And so it's all the things that you intangible things, that, as I said, it's to believe that there is a bigger universe out there, then what you can see under a microscope, or through a telescope, that they are things out there that is bigger than the material. And that is what Allah wants you to understand that there is there are creatures that are beings that there is a whole

university system that goes beyond just just the corporeal, and you know, something, just a side note on that, you will always not find a culture in the world besides for the, the modern secular world, or the atheistic world that doesn't believe in the existence of angels and demons, you know, you'd find in every culture, whether it is in the tribes of the of the Amazon jungle, or the aborigines of South Australia, they have a concept of angelic beings, beings that are good, that are obedient to the Creator, and beings that are evil.

These, you know, the angels and the jinn. They are not, you know, they can influence us, yes, but I don't want to take the discussion that they determine what we do everything we as we said, we have a much higher

creation, we have a much higher status with Allah subhanaw taala, than even the angels on the gem when we when we obey Him. And as Allah says in the Quran, that the angels, of course, obey Him, the jinn can't harm you, and they can't impact you or affect us, except if we ourselves deviate. And so it's not to delve too much about the angels in the gym, but to just know that they are they and to believe in them. And another, perhaps we should dedicate a special lecture around who are the angels, specifically their spirit, some of them we know the names, we know the functions, we know what they look like, from the Quran, and the Sunnah. And so it's good to understand who the angels

are. But for our purposes, it is just enough to know that there is a race of creatures called melodica. Angels, they're made of light, they are sinless, and they are completely obedient to Allah and they have no free will. And then of course, we've got the jinn who made a fire, they have free will. And based on the nature of the being,

they are quick to become angry, they are very emotional, they are very,

they have abilities that we don't have, they can fly, they can move through things. And there are things that we can do that they cannot do, they can see us and we can't see them. But there is definitely a major that Allah has given in sun over them. And so we don't worry too much about the gene. Once we talk about the gene that's going to be another long session about our interaction with the gene and the world of the gene. Things like position things like you know, sicknesses, spiritual sicknesses, all of that is in one sort of area. So we'll move on. Is there anyone that has a question on the belief in angels and Jim?

Right, the next question was around Iman versus Yaqeen. Yaqeen is the name of my son. I don't have a daughter called Iman. But I have a son who yakking so what is the difference between Eman and Yaqeen? Well, Mr. And Mrs.

Bring these these these terms down Eman is belief it is faith it is that which is in the heart It is that which you subscribe to as a believer Yaqeen is certainty. So in the Quran, Allah spondylosis worship Allah hackday aterial in worship Allah until you get to Yaqeen until you get to a certain certain meaning your death the only thing which certainly is death, so you're keen sometimes

The first two days, but it also means the highest level of Eman is the level of yakking. Now, if you look at the word, your Eman, when we talk even in English when we say you must have faith, faith implies there is an element of unknown. There is an element of the unseen if you look at the pillars of Eman to believe in Allah you can't see Allah to believe in the angels. You can't see the angels to believe that the books the Quran was sent down by Allah. You don't you weren't there when it was revealed to believe in the prophets of Allah. We wouldn't we didn't meet any of them. Pamela, we made none of them to believe in the last day, you don't know it's going to no one came back from the

dead to tell us you guys, it's still all of it is true. To believe in free will and destiny that everything has been decreed. All these things are abstract, these are things that we cannot see. So with faith comes an element of the unknown. The unseen Yaqeen is where you not only have faith, you actually are so certain in it that even though I haven't seen it, it's as if though I've seen it. And that is the highest level of Eman, we call it the axon. We call that level of Yaquina axon where you live your life as if though you can see Allah you can see the angels, you can see heaven and hell you do things because you know if I do this, it brings me closer to Jana. That is that is

yucky. And I think maybe

if I look at the question, is there a difference between Iman and Yaqeen? As we said, we can call the Akina level of iman. So Eman has levels in mind stages belief as levels, and everyone is on your journey. Every one of us is on a journey to be a better believer to be a more devout and more faithful

movement believer and so Yaqeen is that station that is where you have absolute certainty. And the person says My understanding is that Eman is something that we are born with innately no we wouldn't necessarily say that you're not born a believer you were born on the fitrah. The fitrah is a natural inclination you inclined to Allah subhanaw taala also born sinless. Another another thing is a child who dies before their McAuliffe even if they you know, worship others besides Allah, they will go to gender. So you're not born we would say with iman, you're born with the fitrah, which is your default in outside your factory settings. Your factory settings are pre programmed, and Allah

subhanaw taala puts all of us like that. And it's program to be in tune with Allah subhanaw taala. But as we get more, you know, as our minds develop, we develop a deeper relationship with Allah and that is called Eman and our iman increases with obedience. And it diminishes with disobedience. In the month of Ramadan, we all experienced it. In the month of Ramadan, we had a greater sense of iman. And then as we've come out of Ramadan, we feel that level has dipped. But we still believe us we still have Eman but not to the same degree from Allah grant us to continuously be in a state of increasing human

sin that Okay, so this is more of the next question. The next question is around the prophets of Psalms heart being purified. So for those of you who are unaware, in the month of Ramadan, we did a series so after um, after thoroughly, we did a a series on the life of the visa, the biography of going to be someone from birth to death. And for those of us who are not familiar with an IV Salam

I think it's a good lecture series to listen to, especially if you're an animal still interested in Islam, so many of our non Muslim friends you know, when they when they come to talk about Islam, they said, Well, everything you're telling me I'm comfortable with, I believe there's one Creator, it makes sense that I should worship Him and not anyone else besides him. I believe in the prophets that came before Moses and Jesus and Abraham I believe in them. But Muhammad peace be upon him. I don't know. I don't know him. I don't have any relationship with Him. In fact, what I do know of him is what I've heard of him is negative, you know, had so many wives and he's was uh, you know, he

come with a, you know, whoa, and all of these things. So it's part of being a Muslim, is that you have to have, you need to believe that this man Muhammad peace be upon him is your model guide, he is your leader, showing you the way to Allah subhanaw taala you cannot be a Muslim, except if you are a following him not worshiping Of course we've not worshipping him besides Allah, even the Prophet peace be upon him, even though he's of the highest of all people. He's still a slave, a servant of Allah subhanho wa taala. But to get to know the Prophet, peace be upon him, is very important. And you can't be a true follower of the Prophet without knowing him and that without

loving Him, and so, I encourage everyone to go through our CDs that we did mercy to the world's to get to know what the Prophet SAW is now in the series in the life of the NABI Salam, there was a moment when he was about three, four years old. And you know, the story has been preserved by many eyewitnesses way as a young boy, that he was taken by a strange man comes to him while he's playing. He's a small boy, a strange man comes to him and puts him down on the ground and slices open his chest and he moves something black from his art remove something from his heart and washes in you know, places water or zamzam in his art. And the man says this black stain is the hole that shaitan

has

is upon you. It is that link between you and shaytaan I've taken it away. And you know, his chest was then sort of healed. And what's amazing is throughout his life, he had the scar, this the Companions could see the scar on his chest. So the lady or the sister asks

the fact that the Prophet peace upon him was born with a sort of link or this stain, is that not similar to what the Christians say about being born into sin? And that how does it change him? So

what is understood here is as and I think in lecture number eight, we spoke about the nature of people, the way Allah made us is that we have the capacity for Good and Evil, you know, in our knifes in our we have within us the ability to follow the way of the angels and we have the ability to follow the way everybody's we have within us this duality, this constant battle between our better side and our least not so good side right so there's inside of us, there is this tension and our free will will decide which way we go do we make do we? Do we do we steal do not steal? Do we? Are we honest? Are we this honest, that choice everyone needs to make and everyone is fighting that

battle continuously. We also have a link with evil evil, he says has what we call a Karine accordion is a personal devil, a personal gem that attaches itself to every person and constantly encourages us to do evil. Right. So we have even one of us has a screen. And so the Prophet being human, he also has this tension, he also has this codeine. And so, one of this, the purpose of his heart being purified, Allah subhanaw taala, remove that link between him and the codeine and also removed from him himself. Some of the baser human emotions or the baser human vulnerabilities he still had was a human being, in the sense, he still felt hungry, he still became angry, he still had sadness, he

still loved things that were beautiful, he still wanted that desires and hopes. But the more basic side of of, of what it means to be a human was slightly taken away and purified to prepare him for prophethood. So then when he became a so even as a child, before he became a nanny, before Allah spoke to him, he didn't drink wine. He didn't, you know, fornicate. He didn't, you know, walk around naked. So those he naturally had a dislike for things that were found that were bad. And he naturally inclined to think through good as a teenager, he signed up for you as the youngest, amongst a group of people who came together to defend the weak and the poor and the oppressed,

right? So in a society, a bunch of very good people came together and said, We're going to form a council that's going to look after the oppressed, and he joined that council. And so his heart was always inclined to that which is good, even before he received a revelation. And so that was part of his purification process. So the prophets, we believe as Muslims, the prophets are human. They are we don't worship them. We follow them, and we follow the example. But they are what we call, assume they are

almost completely sinless. They do not commit sin. They can make mistakes. I mean, there's a difference between sin and a mistake. If someone misleads you, someone, you forget something other than the Prophets, peace be upon him, peace be upon them, they do not come with open sin, but they can be deceived, like maybe Adam was deceived, you know, he made a mistake. But he was deceived in that. So the prophets peace be upon him, a piece upon them, they have what we call Esma, this, this, this, this protection around them. And so Allah, he moved away from them, that extra level of humanity, so that you know, so they are humans, but they are very special kind of people. And this

is not just when the resources our Prophet Muhammad is for all the prophets, you know, Abraham and all of them, they have this level of smell. But as we're being born into sin, one must very much understand the difference. The Christians is not really born into sin, being born condemned. What Christianity preaches, is that everyone is born in hell. Basically, you are amongst those who are going to hell. Before you commit sin, even Islam says that you're human, you're going to inclined to sin, you're going to love committing certain actions, you're going to like it. That desire is the use Allah put that desire in all of us. It's called our chakra. I would love that today. But you're

not condemned, you still have the opportunity to overcome that West Christianity says, No, you're going to hell. That is a very different discussion. That is to complete different things out there make sense? The difference between original sin and being born into sin and being born with the the desire to commit good or bad, that's a very different thing. Does that make sense? I mean, for those online, do you understand that concept?

Stacia, I'm gonna ask you.

Does that make sense to you?

gestation equals

yes. Shetty definitely makes sense to me, me also being a revert, so, and being brought up,

that we are born in sin and through the crucifixion of Christ and that we are forgiven of our sins. So, but in Islam, it makes more sense to me

that the appeal and that Allah has created you to

to be good, and that you had the choice, like you said to either be, do decide to do good or to do bad if you want. No, I'm glad

Aisha would have understood that any anyone who's and I think as Muslims, you know, I was speaking to a post Christian and, you know, son is a much bigger question. In Christianity, you know, you always speak to Christianity as being very Lovey Dovey, and you know, it's easy, Jesus loves you. And maybe that's what the messaging but, you know, maybe before modern times, Christianity was a lot about guilt. So a lot about you know, how bad we are, we're born deficient. And you know, and with that guilt, you you, you're almost desperate for a way out and Jesus is your cure, you're almost like you are dying, you are on your deathbed, and Jesus is your vaccine. Islam, you know, you know,

Islam sometimes is portrayed as as very harsh religion, but it's actually the other way around. Islam says, look, it's up to you, you can you can really achieve the highest level of gender, you can be in the company of Allah subhanaw taala, you have the ability to become the closest and the most beloved of all Allah's creation. And you have everyone has that it doesn't matter how smart you are, how wealthy you are, whether you are a Molana chef, whether you you know, you live in Makkah, you don't live in Mecca, every single person can become very, very close to Allah subhanaw taala in your own life, Allah has given us that ability. And so that is what it means when we say you're born

on the on the Phaedra and with the ability to commit good and bad okay, so that is I answered that question. I think there was a number of questions around Christianity. So someone asked

the teachings of Jesus. And like in Islam, we're not allowed to eat pork. We're not allowed to drink wine. We're not allowed to fornicate, commit Zina? Is this unique to our nation or our own no prophet Muhammad or the the previous prophets also preached this? And we mentioned that the religion of every prophet is Islam. Every prophet called himself a Muslim. And the Quran says that Ibrahim says Abraham says, I'm you know, Allah says Abraham is not a Jew or Christian. What is he? He says, I'm a Muslim. I am someone who submits to Allah Nabi Musa, Moses says, I am a Muslim. Yes, he is funny. So it's a really meaning he's from the tribe. He's He's ancestries. Culture is, is the

children of Jacob. I'm from the tribe, but I am a Muslim in my religion. So the fundament, that the religion of all the prophets is one of the is none worthy of worship Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, this is a common that the religion is the same as for the day to day rules and the rituals that has changed or that is adapted from one prophet to the other Allah subhanaw taala. For example, he would not command the Muslims. Now also, sidenote, Allah says in the Quran, every single nation that received the Prophet, so the Aborigines in South America, I mean, South America, in Australia, they received the Prophet, the people in the Amazon jungle, they received the prophet the

people living the Inuits in Alaska, they received the Prophet, every single tribe received a prophet. And that's why you find the cultures around the world they are they never interacted with one another. But there is some kind of commonality, some things that seem to be common across all cultures, we believe this is Allah teaching every every nation. So Allah would not command the people of Alaska to go to Makkah to make Hajj. So this obviously isn't going to be fair on them. And so every nation has specific rituals, specific rules that are applicable to them. But the higher level things, the belief in one God, they believe in angels, they believe in the Day of Judgment,

that is the same, and also the higher level of morality. You don't have to be a Muslim to know that murder is wrong. You don't have to be a Muslim to know that stealing and lying is wrong. So these are common across all faiths. And that's why all faiths sort of agree on this, you won't find a single religion on earth that promotes dishonesty, for example, promotes murder, as for the dietary commandments, that is different so

it means you will find a very close link between Judaism and Islam. They don't eat pork we don't eat pork. So the the laws of Moses is very similar to the Sharia obviously, they are almost a carbon copy of one another, committing Zina for example. fornicating was illegal for them and it's illegal for us.

The alcohol for example, is something which was permissible to certain nations, but our Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He was offered. Do you want to make it legal or not?

And he said, No, I want to make I don't want my people to drink alcohol. And so from that point on, it became illegal for our for our nation. So the prophets have a very big role to play in legislation as well. And that's why we follow them because they make rulings Allah gives them the discretion you you decide what you want to do for your people.

As food, it's very interesting. And this is something for Christians to understand

the Jesus that you worship, if you look at his life, he resembles the Muslims. He was circumcised, He didn't eat pork, he prayed by falling on his face. Look at the Bible. I'm not I'm not saying this. Look at the Bible. He prayed my bowing down and making sujood he, of course, didn't commit Zina, he, you know, didn't eat swine, he didn't, you know, so all these things that the Muslims, you know, you you say that you love Jesus, but there's nothing in your life that replicates him. The people that most look like Jesus, acts like Jesus, are the Muslims. And in also G because Jesus follow the teachings of Moses, he followed the kosher laws of, of the, of the Jews, because he was a

Jewish person. And so it's a something for us to, to think about. And of course, as we said, the prophets are, as the Prophet himself says that they are brothers, all the prophets are brothers, and that they share a common message to the people, all of them, and all of them have the same job, the job of every prophet, is to bring people to Jannah. That's what they want to do on the Day of Judgment. Every prophet will stand before Allah, and he will have to account for his time with his people, some prophets will come with a huge nation, a lot of people will come alone, not a single person, follow them, and Allah is going to judge them, how do you preach my message, and each one

will give an account and the people will give an account against the profit that we will give testimony, the Mohammed do his job, did he give the message and we will have to respond and of course, Alhamdulillah he has, of course, given the message faithfully, 1400 years later, we still have the Quran intact, we still have the Sunnah. He is lifestyle preserved, and we can follow him as a carbon copy as a way to gender. The next question was, I think similar to Christianity, Christianity was Christian. I think Christianity was Judaism. Someone said, so the question was,

if Judaism predates Christianity, and, of course, the Jewish faith is older, the Christian faith, and why is it that the majority of the world or the biggest religion on the earth is Christianity?

Well, one big reason is that Christianity, proselytize, Christianity, converts people, it goes out, it has missionaries, it tries to bring people to the faith with Judaism is a closed religion. Judaism is a

if no, if no religion, it is only for a specific people, a tribe, only people who have a certain you know, DNA or certain cultural background can't be a Jew, you can't become a Jew, you weren't born one. So you either born a Jew or you're not born, a Jew was Christianity and Islam, we propagate, we want people to join our faith. That's why Christianity is, in terms of numbers, still, perhaps the biggest religion on earth. Although, if you look at

observance, how much how many Christians really know, their faith practice? They might, they might tick a box, I'm a Christian, but how many of them have done anything that says the Christian? How many of you even pray, how many of them even, you know, even the Jesus? How many of them do that? And so it's a very, very big, big question as to which religion is the biggest religion on earth. undoubtably, and I say this, you know, quite proudly, if you look at Ramadan, for example, the religion, which has the most observant adherence is Islam, people, the vast majority of its of the Muslims will identify as a foster mother Ramadan, they will fast, you know, you'd find it you'd be,

you'd struggle to find a Muslim, that really doesn't force without any reason, possibly sick or whatever. They've got an excuse. But, you know, so Islam? And, um, that wasn't the question. But if you look at we don't look at numbers, either. It's not about a numbers game, that they were many times when, you know, the Muslims will say, like Abraham, he was the only person in the whole world that believed in monotheism, yet to preach monotheism to his people. And so it's not about numbers. And at the end of the day, it's about individuals, it's about one, you know, it's about quality alerts, and look at the quantity of believers, he looks at the quality of the media, how sincere how

devout. And so, in the time that we live in, also, one needs to remember history, that there was a time when, when, you know, you know, the the Western world, which was Christian went on a colonial path, they conquered the whole world, and what that they brought their religion, they brought Christianity with them. And so a place like Africa, the place like South America, South America is extremely Catholic, very, very strong, Catholic. This is a new phenomenon. I mean, relatively new, but 300 400 years, it hasn't been something from the beginning of time. So Christianity was exported very recently to the rest of the world. And that's one of the reasons why it has such a large, large

following.

So I hope that that answers the question

And there's a very specific question. This is now very different to the feel of the of what we're talking about. So a hartham hartham is to recite the Quran from the beginning to end, it's called the heart a completion of the Quran. And the brother asks.

So usually what happens is, you know, to recite the Quran,

it takes a bit of time, and so maybe five 610 20 people in the family will get together and say we'll divide the Quran up into sections, and each one will recite the portion and together as a family, we will have recited a heart, you know. Now what if one of us can recite it in Arabic, we want to recite in English, that we still get the rewards of a hard time. Now, I must first start off by saying there is no narration, there is no Hadith that says, if you're the one who recites the whole Quran, he gets so many rewards, no, rather what Islam what the Prophet says, Whatever He cites a letter of the Quran, one liter gets at least 10 rewards. So it's not about the whole Quran being

recited, it's each and every letter. But if we talk about the reward of recitation, you know, if you recite the words in Arabic, even if you don't understand it, these are the word in that that same reward does not extend to reciting in English, you get rewarded for reading English, for understanding the Quran, for memorizing it or comprehending it, there is a different reward, but the reward of recitation reciting it, it can only be done in Arabic, because the Quran says it cannot be translated faithfully. It's only you know, the translation is sort of a imperfect reflection of the Arabic and so the true recital of the Quran must be done in Arabic and that's why when you make

Salah you can only make Salah in Arabic, you can only recite it in Arabic miscibility award in reading the English, memorize studying the Quran, that's the reward, but you won't get the reward of reciting when you read the English. That's a very specific inequation. Also, as I said, there is no specific reward to reciting the Quran cover to cover rather the more time you spend with the Quran within English and Arabic listening to the Quran, listening to a lecture about the Quran, you will be rewarded for your time and your effort Allah subhanaw taala rewards Listen, see, it doesn't, it doesn't reward. You know, it's not about quantity. It's about the quality that you know a person who

and and that's a beautiful a person who will can't read Arabic, but they struggle with the letters, they get more reward than the person who can read the Quran cover to cover in a few hours, you know, the person who decides only a few chapters, but with effort and without sacrifice, that person of course, has put in a lot more sincerity in it. And Allah rewards the sincerity of the heart rather than the the outcome of the of the Lambs.

Our time unfortunately is up it is an Abishai another opportunity. I don't know if anyone's going to

indulge me um, but it's anyone who has a question.

Any questions?

There are certain questions that came through that I didn't have a chance to respond to. So I might respond next week. But next we're going to talk about what we call the Hadith of the video as the most perhaps the most important narration about what it means to be a Muslim. It really summarizes the entire Islam in a very, very concise set of rules. And if you follow that one if you were to follow one Hadith that's the most important Hadith we'll talk about a hadith really means and that is perhaps the bedrock of this religion is this narration and that's our topic for next week inshallah. last opportunity. Any any questions?

System all

their son Hafsa Sasara. Any questions

it's very, it's very noisy, but my kids passing it on. It's I didn't want to unmute earlier.

Sorry, it's very quiet actually. No, we can

I've got a question. Most of wondering something about a friend or even a friend whose mother is very elderly. She's only got one brother. That's the only family

for her The saddest thing is

not being able to make to offer them you know, after they've passed away.

I don't even really know what to say to her when we have those really deep conversations in terms of some kind of comfort for you know, because my mother is an extremely devout Christian

she's a Christian then you know, a lot of the Muslims are might even know it, she's really elderly. She's like 93 and 31%. So you're saying she feels bad she can't make dua for them.

He or she could actually kind of learn that you can't make to ask for a non Muslim often it was the wage. Okay, so Okay.

So, so,

so, so hamdullah her mother's still alive, I gather that she should make a lot of dua for mother. So you definitely make dua for for non Muslims that are live and make dua for all of them, that May Allah bring all of our non missing things and neighbors

to Islam Allah give them hedaya. But yes, Allah says in the Quran to the Prophet peace and and the Prophet peace upon him as we know he suffered, he struggled with the same thing. His uncle who raised him, who loved him, who actually believed in him, you know, his uncle believer, he's a prophet, but he never expressed Islam, he never became a Muslim. I mean, his uncle even said to him, I know what you're saying is true. I know that you were a prophet, I believe in everything you say, but I don't want to be a Muslim. And so when he died of authority, the Prophet said, I'm going to continue making dua for you, I'm going to still even though I know you rejected, and that's when

Allah said to the Prophet peace be upon him in Nicoletta demon, Muhammad, you don't give guidance to whom you want, it is not for you to decide who becomes a Muslim or not. And it's not right for you to make dua for that one. So that's the rule. It's very difficult to do. And the fact that the and something to think about you the fact that the Prophet peace be upon him,

you know, not disobeyed. But he even broke that rule by praying to Allah to forgive his uncle. Now Abraham has a similar kind of thing he makes to offer his father even though he, you know, his father was of the worst people. It's, it's a sign of, you know, love, compassion, it's a sign of humanity, it's a sign of, of the way of the prophets, we make dua for them. And even though, you know, we still hope you all even though I know, they failed the exam, but you'll I still hope in your mercy, that unfortunately, we know as Muslims, we're not allowed to do, you know, it's not something that we are allowed to do. And I think,

I think while a mother is still alive, we need to do as much as we can in terms of do iron, and try and we make dua inshallah we also, you know, maybe some some, maybe it's naive thinking or at that person's last moment, you don't know what happens to them in that last moment. So we can only judge the outside if someone passed away as a, as an unbeliever, I'm on externally, the data is a Christian, the data is you, we can't make dua for them, we can't. But in our hearts, I guess they said hope, nothing wrong to hope that in their last moments, Allah gave them some kind of taste or some kind of a question. And they passed and they died as is a Muslim, we hope for that. I mean,

there's nothing wrong to hope in those kinds of things. But we judge on the external look, we know from a hadith the opposite is true that when a person loved as a Muslim, and in the last moments, something could have happened, that they they went the other way, you know, so it's so we also hope for the good that in your last moments, if you genuinely were a good person, and you lived your life in a good way.

We open Allah's mercy that Allah will will grant them that he died right at the end. All we can do is make dua it's in the hands of Allah and it's for that person to choose.

Okay, shukran Felicia, I think she does take comfort in the beta and she always says appearance. They were so a practice that they paved the way for her to becoming a muslim, because they just have such good models and ethics. So she says she's helpful that her mother even though she may not take shahada that she did enough good, you know, to be promoted into China. That's kind of like where she's coming from.

Taking comfort from so we definitely know the Islamic theology and I think we're going to talk about this thing. This thing is called salving exclusivity that the only way to salvation is through one way. And as Muslims we firmly believe that no matter how good you are as a person, if you are not a Muslim, if you don't say the Kadima if you don't acknowledge that you don't acknowledge Allah subhanaw taala then there is no way to intake the Jannah right so that's what we believe. It's a difficult pill to swallow. I mean, we we want to add, admit everyone to Jana, but Allah determines the rules. So

to that sister, rather, her face should be a hug should be Allah will guide it to Islam, that Allah will guide it to Islam. That's what we we believe in sha Allah, Allah will guide to Islam. If if you know if Allah so will inshallah I think our time is now up. I thank you so much for those who interacted and I hope that we will see you Inshallah, next week the lecture will be on YouTube and then we'll continue next week with the last few questions with no answer. And of course, our hadith of videos. All the best you and your family is gonna bless us all. I mean, was Allah saying that Muhammad wa salam Has anyone heard of datamine said I want to live in a ghetto