Miracles of the Quran #4 – 22 May 2020

Either rely on sheetala regimes Fernando manga Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen or salat wa salam ala COVID mursaleen satana Mohammed Ali was mine. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu. I greet you all with the Islamic greeting of May the peace, the mercy of the blessings of the Almighty be upon you begin by praising and glorifying and always saying that which pleases God Almighty al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen naturalia ilaha illa Allah will be witnessed that man has the right of worship besides Allah subhanaw taala Almighty, and we thank you for bringing us together once again. We also send our greetings and salutations to all the newbies and the prophets of Allah subhanaw

taala the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam and his pious and pure family, and to his companions, and his disciples and all those who follow the guidance until the end of time, we ask that we upon the guidance of the Almighty in this life, that He guides our way and he blesses us with with guidance and that we are with the prophets of God in Jannah in paradise forever, I mean, when hamdulillah Alhamdulillah we have come to the end of our series, the miracles of the Quran. In the last three weeks, we spoke about the Quran, and we looked at it from from angles and different points of view. And we said that for this book, to be a miracle, and to be one of the signs from God

Almighty, it needs to prove itself to be special. And so we looked at it from the from the linguistic standpoint, how does it compare compared to other books in the Arabic language, we looked at the Quran from its scientific miracles and the prophecies inside it? Last week, we spoke about how it was impossible that this was you know, a book that was authored by Mohammed Salah center for a number of reasons. And we will recap inshallah at the end of this talk, as some of those those key points. And so while we look at the Quran from different angles to show how amazing it is to show how extraordinary it is, how it could not be something that was produced by a man, we haven't

actually looked at what this book says, up until now, we haven't spoken about spoken about its messages, what does it actually want us to do. And so part of what makes it miraculous is that it is a message, a listen, and guidance for all of humanity. It is something that anyone, in any place in the world at any point in your life, whether you are a young child, or you are on your deathbed, whether you're rich, whether you're poor, you can pick up this book and you can find something in it that will benefit you and something that will make you a better person. So let's look at some of the themes, some of the points that the Quran wants to raise. And of course, we can't do justice in a,

you know, half an hour club as to the entire Quran. And we're just taking one chapter we can spend, we can spend weeks talking about one chapter and the blessings inside of igma guidance inside of it. So Allah guide us and assist us before I begin actually getting into some of the the messages of the themes of the Quran. It's very important. It's very, very important to understand to which community and society this book came down. When you understand the context of this revelation, it makes it even more amazing. The chorale is amazing even without knowing it, you can take the Quran and it's and it's the purpose you can take it now in your context in your life, and you will find guidance in

it. But what makes it even more amazing is when you look at the context and it really came down in now the Arabs of Mecca the Arabs of Arabia 1400 years ago, were a people not worth mentioning. They were a people that was worse than animals in the way they lived their life. They were so bad that they lived between two great empires, great nations. But they weren't worth even being conquered. The great empires of the world looked at looked at them and saw them nothing more than savages living in the in the desert. Any of this is really personified. If you really want to understand this. There was a embassador, one of the disciples of the prominent souls on the one of the early

Muslims. He spoke to the king of Abyssinia, the king of Abyssinia ever seen as a country in Africa. Today, we call it Ethiopia. And when the persecution of the Muslims became so severe, it always happens, you know, throughout the Bible throughout the Old Testament, New Testament is just it's though it's the way in the way of mankind. Then when the guidance come and a prophet preaches to his people, then the the good ones in that community and the weak ones, they joined the message. And of course, the tyrants, the pharaohs, they oppress them and abuse them. And so the oppression became so much that a group, a group of the believers left macker. And we came to settle in Abyssinia because

the king of Abyssinia of Ethiopia, he was the Nigerian omegas, as he was called, was a pious, devout Christian men. And he was deeply, deeply religious. And he was just in his in the way he treated people. And so the king of every senior called this group of Muslims and said, explain to me why you are here, and why I shouldn't send you back on why have you come to my country. And so then this speech was prepared. It really shows you what Arabia was like. And so this disciple Jafar, the cousin of the Prophet peace upon him, he gives a speech before the king of Abyssinia and he says, oh, King, we the Arabs, were a people in a state of complete ignorance and immorality. We worship

idols, we ate carrion, we come with all kinds of abomination and shameful deeds. We broke the ties of kinship, meaning between us and families, we have no respect for one another. We this honored our guests and the strong basically

All the week that was how we lived. It was the law of the jungle, there was no government, there was no control the strong operation the week, and we remain in that state for hundreds of years for centuries, until God Almighty sing to us, a prophet, someone from amongst us who we know his lineage. And we knew his truthfulness. And he started with trustworthiness and integrity was well known to us meaning before he became a prophet, everyone knew that he was an upright righteous man in this horrible society. And when he says, This man, when you became a prophet, what do you do, he called us to worship one God alone, and that we should renounce, give up and forsake these stones,

these idols, these sticks that we've been worshipping after our ancestors, and to leave it all, and to worship one God, the Creator almighty. And he also commanded us to always speak the truth, to be honorable in our promises, to be kind to our relatives, to be helpful to our neighbors, to stop all forbidden acts. to abstain from bloodshed, stop killing one another, to avoid obscenities, and immoralities. And to turn away from false witness, not to steal the wealth of the orphan, and not to harm the chaste woman. He ordered us these things to worship one God alone, and it's repeated, because this is the most important thing in Islam, La Ilaha, Illa, Allah and we'll come get to that,

to worship one God alone, and not to associate anything in worship with him to show that he has no partners. And he commanded us to uphold our prayer every day we pray, and to give charity and too fast. And so he continues, he says, okay, we believe in this man. And he brought us to God. And we followed him in what he asked us to do, and we kept away from the things that he forbids us from doing. And because of that, because we have adopted this religion. And we turned away from all these backward, ignorant ways of our people, our people began to attack us, and they began to punish us. And they forced us to come back into the religion and to immorality and worship idols, they want to

force us back to it. And so they oppressed us and made life so intolerable for us, that we found no way to survive in our community. So we live our country and we have come to settle here in your land, because you I adjust man, a good man, and that is why we are here. And of course, the king of Abyssinia than the negus as we said, he was a very beautiful human being, he was a Christian man, who was deeply devout in his in his religion. And of course, you know, he was on the side of justice and righteousness, he allowed them to stay just the complete story, he was asked to any cite some verses of the Quran, and the same Jaffa he recited the chapter we spoke about this chapter devoted

to me completely in the Quran, the chapter meaning chapter meriam, when Jaffa recited this chapter to the king, or at the senior, he began weeping profusely, and he said, this, what you are eating is the same that I have with my Bible, two lights, two beams of lights from the same, the same source, and even embrace Islam, as we believe. And when he died, the prophet and he never met each other because the Prophet never came to Abyssinia. When the chiappa sr, died, the prophet stood up before he even reached the news. He said, my brothers, my companions, I received, you know, divinely, that the king of Abyssinia just died. So let us stand up and pray the funeral pay upon him. This is one

of the only times the Prophet actually prayed the funeral pay on somebody in absentia. So let us move on. So now we understand the context of this book, this man, the Prophet peace upon him lives in a society that is so backward, so immoral. I mean, one thing Jaffa didn't mention the things that the Arabs did, they would kill their own daughters. So if a woman gave birth to a daughter, it was considered hugely disrespectful or hugely shameful. And you will decide Should I kill her? Should I keep her if I was a real man, I would kill her, I might just kill her, he would bury her alive in the sand. Now, not even the worst of animals do these kinds of things. So these people were so

entrenched in Satan, satanic ways of living, that for the light to be brought in here. It was, you know, almost unimaginable. And so now let's see what the Quran came and spoke to these people to do. The first thing you did was of course, as we said, they were worshipping stones and idols and statues and sticks and bones. And you know, what, as one companion said, we were so stupid. We used to make an idol out of baits and pray to it. When we get hungry, we will eat the idol. You know, our God that we worship five minutes ago, we ate him, and this was how backwards we were. So the first thing the Quranic comes, was to establish who is God and who are you? And so Allah subhanho wa Taala

says, If you open the Quran, you know chapter two, a begins al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen or pray, praise and all thanks and all honor is to God to Allah, Lord of all of creation. R Rahman R. Rahim, the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious, He is the Lord of all creation and to the creation. He is infinitely merciful. So Allah introduces himself that I'm the creator, and I'm in control of everything. And I'm also merciful to everything that is my relationship with the creation. He is the Creator is the creation and this is a relationship of mercy and love.

Allah subhanaw taala also in a chapter at the end of the Quran again, one one found us really short chapter but it encompasses our be our belief in who God is. Allah says, who Allah who I had to say He is Allah, the one and only there's only one like invisible partner like him, he does not have any companions. He does not have any equals to him, the one and only Allahu Allahu Allah will summit he is the one on which everyone depends on. He is the eternal refuge, everyone goes to him for support, but he stands independent, and the whole of creation depends on depends on him and needs him to be sustained. But he is completely independent of them. Let me read while I'm you like He neither

begets he does not have children and sons, he doesn't have these things. nor is he gotta know was he born? He was not born by anyone, he has no beginning. What am your queen lavaca went ahead and threw him there is no equal and equivalent. This is we is Allah subhanho wa Taala also wants to know that, while he is superior, why is he for example, another verse, the Bible can already be any in one Kawakami. shankari, all blessing is He who controls the creation in his hand, he grasps all of creation in his hand, and he has power over all things he wants to also so he shows the might on the one side and the power on the one side, he also wants to show the subtleness and the gentleness when

he says, not be anybody say to my servants, say to my servants, either sir, like a Bernie, I need the pieces to the Prophet peace be upon him, that if my slaves my creation, my servants ask you about me. servant, he doesn't only mean a Muslim, it means any indication, if any of my teachers ask you about me, when indeed inequality I am already I'm always near to them, I respond to them, when they invoke me when they raise their hands. And they asked me for something, I responded to these applications, whenever they call on upon me. So let them call out to me and believe in me, so that they may be late right? or once a student wants us to know that each and every one of us have a

personal link and relationship with him, all we need to do is call upon Him, and He will answer and he will respond.

of the Quran. The Quran wants us to know about Allah, and perhaps when So on the first, the first thing we know about him is he is our Creator. When we look at the universe, what am I doing here, however, I come here, with a few philosophies, the one philosophy is that there is no creator, that we are on this earth as a accident, that if we are a freak of nature, that this is just a moment, you will live here for 6070 years, if you're lucky, and you will die. And that's it. And there is no purpose to life, and everything just happened, you know, by chance and coincidence, that is the one philosophy if you so so choose to believe the other philosophy, and this is the majority of the

religions of the world, that there is a creator, and then that he created the world with a purpose. And we may differ, we differ amongst ourselves in the different religions as to the nature of this creator, and how we should go about becoming closer to him from an Islamic standpoint, we acknowledge that he is a creator, and we see him in in all of his creation is enough of an evidence, the fact that the planets and the stars, everything has been designed tells us that B is behind it is intelligence and is a designer. So what do what do we know about this creator? The first thing Allah wants you to know, and that's why we open the Quran right at the beginning of chapter one. The

first attribute, the first quality of him is that of mercy, of love of kindness. That's what he wants you to know. And so, Allah says in many, many verses in the Quran, he says, Your Lord has prescribed for himself, he has made the compulsory ketubah LFC, Rama, he has made it compulsory upon himself to be merciful, that who ever of you does an evil deed out of ignorance, and they after repents after that, and he acts righteously, then surely God is oft forgiving, ever, ever Merciful, that God has said he has made this along with himself. He has commanded himself now, God doesn't come need to do anything. But he says, I forced myself I will always be merciful, that no matter how

big or small Your sins are, if you made a mistake, and you come back to me, then my mercy is every and every placement. Allah also says, say to them, that my punishment, afflicts some of them, I will, a few of them will be punished, but my mercy encompasses all things. Everything in creation is encompassed by mercy. So you'll find the references in the Quran, to see who Allah subhanaw taala is, and other verses, not be a body of he says to the properties or say to myself and see to my creatures, that I am, that I am the most forgiving and the Most Merciful, that I will, there is no one in all of creation that will be kinder to you, more loving to you, more merciful to you, more

merciful than your own mother, more merciful than anyone you can think of. I am the one that loves you the most and I forgive your sins. And you know, some people say, you know, he doesn't mention love In fact, if you go through the Quran is about 20 verse, we got this. I love this one. I love that when love is a very important theme. As to the qualities of God obvious names is Allah Dude, I'm the most loving and Latif the most subtle and gentle in loving, but what is beautiful

These verses are in relation to the sinner. So he says when he says, say I am Forgiving and Merciful, and I'm loving it is to the one who committed sin. So not that I just want it goes without saying that he's even more loved by God. So I always say, no matter how sinful you are, if you want to come back to me, you will find me always mercy, merciful, always ready to accept you unconditionally. So now that we know who the Creator is, and we know that he's kind, but he's loving, that he's all powerful, that he has knowledge we about the 99 Names of Allah in the Quran, each one deals with a different attribute of who he is rasik the one who feeds he is Aziz the all

mighty and powerful, Aleem al Hakim, the all knowing the all wise so all these attributes link up something as to him. Now the question is, what is our purpose? So he's done all these things, and he's built everything and created everything and watches over everything. Why have you put me when you want to do to do okay? What do you want from me, the purpose of life. And that is one of the important things I mean, a religious book, its purpose is not to teach you mathematics and geography and business that goes without saying it is to teach you how to live your life. And the most important thing is, give me a reason, a purpose of why I'm living here. Why am I here? Why have you

put me here. And so the Quran is very, very clear. You don't have to look too deeply from chapter one until the end. The purpose of life is spelled out to you over and over again. The theme of the Quran is very simple. The theme of the Quran is as Allah says, We're Moroccan Jimena will insert allele Abdul, he says, I have not created the gene, the gene are a special type of creation, we can talk about them another day, we have not created the gene kind, or man or humanity or human creation, except that they should worship me alone. That is why you are here you are here are people that you can live your life but your purpose in life is to is to worship means have a connection

with me, and make me the Paramount relationship in your life be devoted to me that is why I've put you on on the earth. And if we look at the different prophets, so a God Almighty has meaning we have as I said last week, Muhammad SAW some his name only appears four times as vanilla. But we have like Moses, his name appears 130 times Abraham almost 70 times you have them speaking to the people. And he wants to show that this is the same theme from day one from Adam, until the end of time, this purpose of life for humanity has always been the, you know, it is impossible, it is impossible for God to have given the first group of people one reason of creation, and then a new reason of

creation for the next group of people. That doesn't make sense it should have been This is why Adam was created. And that is why all of you are created. And so we find a beautiful way Abraham explains of so beautifully what it is we as Muslims believe and what the Quran wants us to believe. So Abraham is people worship everything besides Allah, they worship the stars of the moon, stones, idols and statues. And so he explains to them, these things are not my God, I don't worship any of this stuff. My God, Who is he, he is He Who created me, Abraham says, and he who guides me, and it is he who feeds me and gives me drink. And when I become sick, it is he who kills me, and he will

cause me to die one day, he's gonna cause me to die. And then he will bring me back to life, and who I hope for I hope that he will forgive my sins on the day off of the day of judgment and the Day of Recompense. So this is Abraham explaining. So what do Muslims believe? Who do we worship, we worship the one who created the universe, who feeds us and drink as provided for drink. Whenever we need, we turn to Him, when we die, we will die into his hands and to him is already turned, that is who God is in our religion. And that is who we are, who we worship. You know, sometimes people say, You're Allah and my God is not the same. In fact, the name Allah is the Arabic word for God. So if you open

for example, the Christian Bible, when it speaks about the father, or created everything, they will use the word Allah. So it's exactly the same thing. In fact, the word Allah comes from the word, deity, or deities an object of worship, and the word

Allah Isla, it means the one and only the deserving of worship, meaning the word overlooked linguistically means the only one deserving of worship. That's what he's named, the one who has such the only one who has the qualities of divinity, and therefore he alone has the right to be worshipped with we continue on Moses. So as we also believe that Moses he received his first revelation at the burning wish he was lost in the desert, and he comes upon a fire, and the voice of God has spoken to him. And now God is again doesn't speak in riddles, he makes it very clear why you are here and who I am. And so he says, Oh, my God says to Moses, indeed, I am Allah, I am God

Almighty. There is none word no deity, none worthy of worship except me. Only I should be worshipped. So worship Me alone or Moses, and establish pray for me. And my remembrance. This is why you have been put on earth Moses, why I'm calling you and you must tell your people that they should worship me alone. Jesus Christ.

He says, while God Almighty spoke to Jesus and says the you tell people to worship You, so Jesus will respond. I only said to them except what you commanded me when you instructed me, what did you instruct me? You told me to tell them to worship Allah alone, my Lord, and your Lord, and I was a witness over them as long as I was amongst them, but when you took me away, took me up, you will not want to watch over them. And you know, over all things, witness, you know what they did, I only told them to worship My God and your God, that together, we are slaves of the Almighty. So this is from our perspective as to why Jesus Christ came to teach. And this is the same message from the

beginning until the end. So in summary, the purpose of life from the Quran what it says, it says, And your Lord God is one God, there is no deity none worthy of worship, except Him, the Most Merciful, the most the most gracious, and this is very similar to the 10 commandments. If you look at the very, very first commandment, when it was asked the Jesus Christ or Master, tell us what is the first commandment very, very similar. He said, You should worship the God your God is one God worship Him alone, exactly the same thing, the purpose of life for Moses, the 10 commandments, to Moses, to Jesus to the end of times, is that there is one God and you worship Him alone. And so

the purpose of life also, as we said, you'll find in the Quran almost more than, you know, almost 100 times it says, the believers who believe in God unseen right at the beginning, what the believers, they believe in a God that they cannot see him, but they believe that he's there, and they establish, pray, and they spin out of what We have provided for them. Now worship, some might imagine also, Islam says that you should just go and spend your whole life in the mosque. That is one aspect of worship. And this and this verse makes it clear, the one side is pre pre is your personal ritualistic link with God, you speak to him, you fast for him, you pray to Him, the other

parties and spin of your charity spin of what we are giving you in charity charities, for the for the week, in your opinion in the community, for the poor, the needy, the orphan, and so Islam, the purpose of life is to worship God in one way is to worship Him. ritualistically The other way is to be good to the creation, to look after the poor, to be good to your wife, and your husband, your parents, to be good to your kids to be good to the environment. All of that is part of worship. And so a person loves his life in the mosque outside the mosque, as a worship of God, when he eats his worshiping God, when he sleeps, he's worshipping God, because everything he does, he does it in a

way that pleases God. He does it in a way that is good to others. And this is the one this is why we are here. We are not here to just enjoy life. We are here to serve God in everything we do. And so that is what is the concept and that is what the purpose of Islam is

on the nature of men. So what does Islam say about the nature of man? You know, as Muslims, we take this for granted, we don't go into much detail as to you know, what people are just intrinsically we know what we see that people are good and people are bad, and everyone has the capacity for both. We don't realize that in other religions, a lot of debate and discussion was around. is Matt, intrinsically good or bad? And what does some mean? And how does some get removed? This is a very big deal in other in other religions. For us very simplistically, when we go back to the story of Adam and the angels, and God said to the angels, I shall place on the earth, my representative, I

will put on Earth, a group that will represent me, they will be standing in my state on Earth, I give them the authority on Earth, like it's my authority. And the angel said, some handle, why would you do this? Oh, God Almighty? Why would you do this? They will shed blood and cause mischief, we know that they are, they are inferior to us. And they may say, we while we pray and worship you consistently without limit, we are perfect worship as Why would you create this, this, this, this horrible creation? And God says to them, in the ultimate animal, I know that what you don't know I know something about them that you don't know. Meaning, while this is true, even deny it. He didn't

deny to the angels, what you're saying is wrong. He says yes, inside the nature, there is something that is bad. But inside the nature as well, and this was makes us makes us better than the angels we have within us the capacity of good and evil. In chapter 94. It's a beautiful chapter can go through the entire chapter. But Allah compares two things, he says by the sun and the moon, the night and the day, the heavens and the earth, two opposites. And he says, When I've seen when I saw why, and so similarly, you have these two extremes. In each and every one of you, everyone on the one side, you have the capacity for him to be the most beautiful of people. And on the other side, you have

the capacity to be the most horrible of people. No one is so far away from God that he cannot become the best of people and no one is so righteous, that he cannot commit the worst of crimes. And this is what God is saying inside of each and every one of us, you have the capacity to do both. But he also says that you are born on the fitrah The fitrah is your natural inclination. And so a lot is entered here to the fitrah of Allah upon which he has created all people and this fitrah is a pure fitrah God says I placed

in you, you started off your your software as a default is, is on the on the correct path. And that is why we don't baptize people that if a child dies before they reach the age of puberty, they are on that fitrah they are on the righteousness. Only once you have the you've reached puberty, now you have the right to choose to either follow that natural in your default settings, you know your factory settings, which is good, or you make a divert from it. And the four allowances or holy call in some of our effects that we did create man with some degree of weakness, and mankind and we will light and so Allah says we want to make light for him will make life easy for him, because we know

we created him with weakness. So in this very powerful thing where every person has their own personal relationship with God. And inside of you, you have the capacity to choose or not to choose to follow him or not follow him. You can live a good life or a bad life. It is up to you. And there is no intermediaries between you and God, there's no idols or statues or prophets that you worship, you worship Him alone. And what you do in your life will be judged at the end and you'll be accountable for what you need. And that is really the crux of what Islam wants you to do. So the when it goes further from that what if you make mistakes? Can I come back? 70 years I've been I know

I'm the worst of criminals. I've done so much harm to people. Can I come back? Allah says, Oh prophet of God, say to my slaves who have transgressed against themselves, those who have committed horrible crimes, those who have done the worst of deeds, say to those ones, what what should I say to them, say to them, Do not ever feel the spawn Lackner duck Natoma Rahmatullah, do not even lose hope in the mercy of God, for only God forgives all sins, and he is most merciful, most forgiving, so never ever feel you're too distant from God. God also wants us to live in so that is our relationship with him. We said that's the one side the other side of the Quran wants you to know is

you cannot worship God and be pious towards him. But the minute you're not in pray, you're not in the mosque, you're a horrible person, you are cheating your customers, you are abusing your wife, you are screaming and shouting, how can you be a you know, worshipping God, when you are a horrible person in the community with the creation? And so there is a code of ethics is the next part. So the one part is our theology? The next part of the question is about ethics, how to live your life. And so let's look at some of the rules and regulations about the Quran. So the Quran says, because of what the son of Adam did, because of the one son killing the other side, we decreed upon the

children of Israel, meaning of all meat on all of mankind, that whoever kills a single person,

for his soul, or for corruption done in this land, wherever doesn't, wherever kills one person, or he does one evil thing on this land, if though he has killed all of mankind, I mean, because Adamson killed one from that child, a whole, you know, generation of people would come, so he killed all of them. And so God says, If you kill one person, it's as if though you've murdered all of humanity. And similarly, whoever saves one person, it is as if they'll have CS saved all of mankind. We think of our doctors, especially now in this disease. Our nurses, our doctors, they go out recently lives, every person they save, God says, I give you the reward as if though you have saved all of humanity,

and that is how God honors life. This is how Islam The Rite of life, no one should be harmed beyond life is human dignity as well. So not just only hurting a person of harming him physically, Allah says, Oh, you have believed with non lead not one person, ridicule insult another person, perhaps those people that you insult may be better than them. And do not let one woman ridicule another woman, perhaps that woman may be better than her and not insult one another, and not call each other by offensive names. You know, God is even talking about bullying and causing names and and shaming people do not use names, ugly names, to quote one another. Richard is the name of this obedience of

the faith and whoever does not repent, when it is he who is a wrongdoer. On righteousness, how should I love my life? Oh, God Almighty, what is a good person, the definition of a good person, there are many, many examples of it. But I just took one example. The Quran says righteousness is not that you turn your face towards the east and they leave the West alone, meaning righteousness is not just about praying, but worshiping God, you know, being in pray. But righteousness is to number one, to believe will be the one who believes in God Almighty, and to believe in the life after death, and to believe in the angels of God, and to believe in the books of God and to believe in the

prophets of God. And then to give his wealth, in spite of love for you to share that which you love. Even though you want it, you share it. righteousness, is to share your wealth to your relatives, to the orphans, to the needy, to the person who is a traveler has lost his way to those who asked for your help. To free slaves back in the day they were slaves you should pay to free them. And the one who establishes pray regularly and gives in charity, that they fulfill the promises when they make a promise. And they are patient in times of poverty and hardship they give their patient they are they are steadfast impatiently in hardship and poverty.

And during a struggle, those are the ones who have been through to God through to the faith, and it is those who are righteous. So this is a beautiful analogy that oh, you know, people love by this code, be a believer, worship, pray, give charity be truthful. help one another, be patient in hardship. This is what God wants you to live by,

on the importance of knowledge. Islam came at this time, when ignorance was the the way of the town. In fact, very people. They were no books, as we said, The hardly anyone had the ability to read or write. And without knowledge, ignorance prevails. And when emotions prevails, that's when the worst of times happens. Knowledge brings people out of darkness, and therefore the Quran does not want you to believe blindly, if you go through the chapters of the Quran. Every second third verse will say, this is what people who ponder who think reason, of course, oh god, you put in my brain, you put in me a brain that is the most advanced processor in the all of universe, surely, this book of yours

must agree to what's in my brain. And so God wants you to use that brain. We don't believe in blind following. We want you to reason with the Quran. That is why I did the series, I want you to reason with it. And so the first command God revealed to the Prophet peace upon him was not worship me, pray to me.

You know, believing me I exist, the first thing he said was read in the name who created you read, recite, or prophet of God, and all believers recite, learn, learn, because knowledge is the thing that will bring you closer to God. Another verse, it shows you the importance of knowledge, not just religious knowledge, US me knowledge, Allah says, And Allah, God raises up, those who believed he gives Maggie gives honor and prestige to the believers among you, and those who are given knowledge by many, many degrees and panela. It's amazing that even now today when someone walks in the room, and we know that guy has the PhD, that guy's the professor automatically is on a higher pedestal

than the rest, not superiority. But we know that someone who has been endowed with knowledge, he has a special place in all of you know, in all of society, whether it is worldly knowledge or spiritual knowledge, God is telling you, any person who acquires knowledge, he will be successful in this life and the year after, and knowledge is the key that brings you to God.

How another beautiful example of the ethics of Islam how to treat parents, your father, your mother, the prophet of the Quran says, And your Lord has decreed he commanded that you worship none but him, and that you treat your parents with your son, meaning the best you give your parents the best treatment, not good treatment, there should be no one that you treat better. When you treat your mom and dad, they should be treated first. And will the best treatment, whether one or both of them reach old age, or with you, meaning you get to you get to be with them. It's a great blessing to get your parents in old age. But naturally, when they become older, become cranky, they become

difficult. When in that case, God says never say to them, even an offer is like a word of like, Mom, like have a word that disappoints them. Don't even say one word of disrespect to them. And do not repel them by speaking to them. Do not say anything harsh to him, but speak to them in noble good words, and lower to them the wings of humility, lower to be humble to them, have mercy always be merciful and gentle and kind and submissive to your parents and say pray to God, my lord have mercy upon them. As they had mercy upon me when I was young, the same way they dealt with my stubbornness with my naughtiness, when I was a child, now helped me to be merciful to them as they reach the old

age. This is of the effects of the Quran, gratitude, God says, and remain and remember when your Lord said, if you are grateful to me, I will surely increase you in favor. The more you The more you give thanks, the more you share your blessings with those less fortunate, when I will increase you in goodness. But if you deny my blessings, when indeed the repercussions of that the punishment is severe, you will either lose that blessing or even worse than that, that gratitude will always give you increase.

On charity, there's a beautiful parable, especially now think of people who lost their jobs. May God make it easy for them about cheating. So the Quran says the example of those who spend their wealth in the way of God is like that of a seed like a grain, which grows seven years or seven stalks in each stalk is 100 grains, meaning and God multiplies for him whom He wills and he is all encompassing in knowledge. So God is the example you give one charity, one seed in charity, God gives you back. I think a plant that has seven stalks in each stock is 100 seeds, meaning 700 back, whenever you give one bit of our belief is whenever you give one bit of charity, God will give you

700 times that blessings at least back in return or even more than that. And God when he speaks about the righteous people, he says Who are the good people, he says they are the ones who give food out of love fully for him.

love for God to the poor, and the orphan and the captive, the captive your means a guy who came to fight you, you beat him. Now he's in prison, you feed him and the orphan and the needy person before yourself. So you first make sure they've eaten whatever is live, you get to eat. And they say mean these people will do such good things. They say, we feed you only to please God Almighty. We don't want any thanks. What do you want from you, there's no repayment from you, nor do we even want things from you. All we want to do we only do this for the pleasure of God.

Patients, sometimes things don't go so well. So when things are good, the Quran tells you to share. And that is how you actualize your blessings. The more you shave, the more you give, the more thankful you are to God because God gave you and your meaning we did not get that. So the way you recognize that blessing is by seeing it. But of course, sometimes you are not on the receiving end of a blessing. Maybe a blessing was taken away from you money, health, wealth, even if maybe So how should we? How does the Quran guide us in times of trauma and difficulty. And so God says to us, and we we are means God in the Arabic in the Semitic languages in Hebrew and Arabic, the Royal we is

used when God speaks in his eye in me because it's more befitting for him to say and we in our majesty, and we will surely teach you or people with something of fear, and of hunger, and a loss of wealth, and of the loss of life and offspring. And this is all progressively more difficult. If you look at the COVID-19 Some are just we are some are stuck with fear, we are scared, some v going we are hungry, some have lost their wealth, some have lost the health, some have lost loved ones. And of course there was difficult loved one to lose is that of a child, that is the most difficult loss to experience. Make it easy for all those who are suffering. And so God says, We will surely teach

you these things life will bring these things to you. But give the good news and glad tidings to the person who in spite of his hardship, he is patient he perseveres, who when disaster strikes him, he says in Manila, he were in La raggio. He says, indeed, we belong to Allah and indeed to his return everything I have my money, my health, my my children, they were just a gift on loan from God, it doesn't belong to me belongs to him. And to him, it's the return. I don't know when he's gonna record it. He's brought it back to him, your loved one has gone back to God Almighty. So God says if you're patient, and you can think like that, and you can say, with patients in the library, Malay

Raji, when, when to them, God says, those are the ones upon whom they receive the blessings from the Lord. The Lord blesses them and mentions the name, and he and they receive His mercy. And it is to those who are rightly guided, these people are very powerful, these people are mighty in the sight of God and only when calamity afflicts them the operation. And so God says they receive salutations and blessings from God Almighty, about love and marriage. And there's no link a third reason why put marriage of the patient's you know, just the how the slides appeared on love, in love and marriage, perhaps the most romantic verse and perhaps the most powerful Ode to love poets, most of the time,

they write about love, and they say beautiful things about love. But no one has said a more profound thing about love than God will Allah because this is what he says. And he says, of the signs, meaning of the signs that there is a God of the reasons you know, that there is a God is that he created for you from amongst yourself, mates, spouses, that you may find peace and tranquility in each other, that there is something that when you you can have all the money in the world, you can have all the blessings in the world. But if you don't have it, have someone special to share it with. You won't feel that extra level of tranquility. And he placed between you affection, love and

mercy. Why love and mercy, love for the good days, the things that makes you happy, and mercy for the bad days. And even on the worst of days. Even when you are angry with one another, you are still crying to each other. Indeed, God says this, this is a sign for people who give thought to ponder deeply that feeling that you have if you come to the cardiologist and say I need a heart transplant, he can do it. He can replace your heart. But he will say I have a broken heart. There's nothing you can do about that. God says this feeling that you have between husband and wife is a deep, deep feeling. This is only from God and only he puts it away and only he takes it away if he chooses

another beautiful way of of marriage. The Quran speaks about an analogy. He says your wives they are a garment for you. And you are a garment a piece of clothing for them. What does this mean? When you think of clothing? What does clothing do? It protects your nakedness. It keeps you warm it. It gives you honor and prestige your beautiful. There is nothing between you and your clothes, meaning you and your close. There's nothing between you and your wife. These two are intimate with each other and they are connected all the time. No one in public. You don't you know in when you're going public. You're never without your clothes the same way when you're in public. You're never seen

without your spouse. You two are always together. This is how God gives an example of how a marriage should be what our marriage has been like that in terms of race and racism is panela. It took us and it's finally we sold this world is still very sick with this disease. But it took us up you know, up until very recently for us

As a country to recognize that racism is a horrible thing, we had a system of racism, the most worst, the worst system in the world. Look at what the book of God 1400 years ago, at a time when racism was endemic to every group of people, every group of people on earth, believed that they were the least every group of people, every society and civilization, believe that they were God's special children. Look what the Quran says. And Allah says, and obvious signs of the signs I am the is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and your colors, all these languages and colors. It just shows you that you have a God that creates in different

ways. And indeed, the science for the array for those people who have knowledge, God is not elevating the atoms above the non atoms, the whites above the black, so the Black Sun amongst the Indians, Allah says all of you are part of my way of creating, I love each of you in your own colors and your own languages. In a more profound verse, Allah says, all mankind, I have created you from a single male and a single female, all of you are brothers and sisters, and made you people and tribes and nations, that you may get to know one another. You are different tribes and nations so that you may get to know each other, that you may interact kindly with one another. I think he says, This is

the most This is is such an important thing. Everyone should live by this. He says, indeed, the most honorable of you, the best of you, in the sight of God is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is well acquainted with all of you. Allah says, I don't look at your color. I don't look at where you love your language, which suburb you come from, you know, your race, I look at what's inside. The only thing that counts wait with God is that which is in the heart, the most noble of you, is he the best of you, is the one who is most righteous. You know, this completely obliterates any concept of racism. This is what the Quran says, honoring women, one of the big things that Islam is accused

of is of this honoring women and panela, we can spend weeks in fact, it's a topic very dear to my heart, I wrote a course only about women in Islam. We can spend maybe a week or two just talking about this topic. And so I just selected some points about it. The first thing about women and gender, Islam wants you to know is that women are spiritually equal to men. And this is profound. Maybe in our day and age is not such a big deal. We take it for granted. But there was a time when most of the civilizations in the world were not sure what is a woman you know, she even a human being wishy Alyssa, they know. She's definitely less than a man. That's what they knew. She wasn't

like a man. And so she was she an animal, if you something, what is she? God wants to show that women and men are equal in the sight of God. God says, Whoever does righteousness, whether you are a male or a female, while he is a believer, we will surely cause him and her to live a good life in this world, and it will surely give them the best reward, according to the best of what they used to do in the life after they will get they will get paradise, whether you're male or female, in the sight of God, he doesn't look at your gender. And

especially with regards to the Abrahamic face, faiths, they struggle with the the fall when Adam and Eve ate, many, much of the blame is put an if, and it says in the Scriptures, some scriptures will say that she brought about sin. And she was the one that I'm tempted Adam, in the Quran does not say that. It always when you look at the story of Adam and Eve, it always says, and the two of them eight, and the two of the incident and the two of them are forgiven. In one verse, it actually says, and the two of them, eight of it, and the nakedness became apparent. And they began covering themselves with a leave of belief of paradise. And then God says, well, Adam, and Adam disobeyed his

Lord, and He made a mistake. Right? So this is the only verse in the Quran, which kind of hints that Adam is more to be blamed the Eve. And he does. But he says, of course, that all both of them got spiritually forgiven, there is no thing of sin on them, they were forgiven. And now they were put on the earth to live and to, to worship God. And so women and men are equal children in terms of spiritually in terms of, of God, in terms of

in terms of the the worldly rights of women, there's so many in the Quran. But I just want you to understand, when Islam came, when the Quran came, women were so badly treated, that yes, they were murdered, they will kill some of them will kill buried alive, his daughters, they could not inherit anything, they could not own property, they could not vote that they had no rights, they couldn't decide who to get married, went to divorce. In fact, they were so bad and they were inherited. So what would happen is, if a man died, his brothers as he will take his camels he will take his gold he would inherit, he would look at all these wives and he would choose either one I like and she

will become his property. This was the norm in the society of the of the Arabs. The Quran comes down and it says, Oh, you have believed are people of faith. It is not lawful for you to inhale women against a wall and do not make things difficult for them to not treat them harshly in order to take back part of what you gave them unless they come with a clear in my own morality meaning don't make life unbearable for them while you're married to them unless they come with an equally or immorality, I mean, the lever if she is basically being unfaithful, and live with him in kindness. So this is what the pope

Most of our relationship, the default things will actually be out of love with him in equity and kindness. For if you dislike them on some things, perhaps you dislike a thing, and God has made much good in it. And they are I've listed so many things which Islam came this Quran came to bring at a time when women as we said they were a commodity that was inherited liquid and gave her so many rights. He gave her the right of life, the right to choose her religion, the right to own her own property in her own name, to stand equal to a man in a court to end her marriage to determine on what terms she wants to get married. Even those religions are mentioned in the Quran, but it's from

the sacred of the Prophet, a woman has the right to her sexual gratification, meaning if a husband is a pleaser physically, then she has the right to divorce him on account. She has the right to vote even in verse 60, Chapter 60, verse 12, it says a woman has the right to vote and pledge allegiance to a leader. Voting only became allowed for women like 100 years. And then 20 years ago, in the most advanced European and Western societies. 1400 years ago, women had the right to, to choose and to voice their concerns. And you only need to read the biography of prophet to know that no religion at its beginning had women as such a central part of its origin of its movement forward of all of this,

you know, the Quran, Islam is sometimes accused of being a very domineering religion. In fact, I don't think there's a single religious scripture that has the statement law, it could have been that there shall be no compulsion in religion, no one shall force another person into a religion is a personal choice. You cannot force your kids, you cannot force anyone that everyone must choose their own way. That's why you're here to choose. When God says that I quote has to be made clear from the wrong, I have made clear what is right or wrong, you can choose, and you have the right of religious freedom, and then the impact of this book. So this book, as we said, it came down to such a horrible

society, the book was revealed, within the period of time, as it was revealed, all of Arabia became United for the first time under one authority. For the first time it had a government for the first time it had laws for the first time, people were treated properly. And within 10 years, that same society, which was the most backward of society, it became the dominant force in the world. And it became the leading force of civilization, you know, anyone can have an empire, you know, you just have to win a few battles, but to actually build civilization to bring about knowledge and science and technology, one only needs to read about the golden age of Islamic discovery, when the same

people who are killing their own daughters, once they took this book, and they followed the book, it brought them out of darkness into life to such an extent that they became the most advanced, prosperous, knowledgeable people on the earth on the face of the earth. Till today, so much of the discoveries is what we benefit, and it's paved the way to modern science and their relations for the Europeans. And so this is just shows you that this is a book of God, that when it when it impacts you, when you inculcate in your life, it transforms you completely. And that is exactly what we hope and expect from a book of God, that it is transformative, that it takes you out of darkness into

light, and how many of our problems today, poverty, racism, gender inequality, gender based violence, all of those things are answered in this book. 1400 years later, the answers are in this book. So to conclude, we looked at the Quran from all these different angles. The linguistic medicals, it's the first booklet of ever in the Arabic language, it is the base and height of Arabic eloquence, no poet as written in Arabic language, anything equal to it. It has the power that completely transfixed the Arabic language from ever changing. And it is the most influential book without a doubt in the Arabic language. It had come without any errors, 600 pages, one draft, no

flaws, no mistakes and has not changed even by a letter. It is deep with scientific miracles about the how the universe was created, about the origins of life, the embryology how the mountains keep the earth from shaking, how the sky protects us how it was seen down so many miracles we spoke about. We spoke about the prophecies that came through it made very clear predictions it came through. And we said how observational you don't have to look too deep to know the something special about this book, whether you believe it or not. The fact that millions of people have memorized it in a language they don't understand how is it possible that a person that's six years old, seven

years old, can pick up a book and memorize it cover to cover verbatim that it is read continuously. And in fact, that chapter is called the chapter that the seven off decided versus every single moment, you know, 1 billion people inside that chapter 17 times a day. Without a doubt it is the most respected piece of scripture in the history of mankind, that it has the most believers accordant only has one version, and that it is still irrelevant. 1400 years ago, we see that it's impossible for Mohammed to have written this book because he was unlettered he never ever in his life wrote anything or read anything, that he is not the main character. This is not a book about

him. He is basically a messenger he conveys the message and sees what was put in his mouth and to explain it sometimes even his own human shortcomings. Small things like big things, but they are pointed out in very embarrassing format. God holds into account if you made a mistake or if he said

Something and at times when he goes through difficulty gone, God comforts him and warns him, and he had nothing to gain from it. In fact, when he passed away, and the book now had been completely revealed and was over and he realized my time's up, you asked to gather all his worldly possessions. And all he had was seven coins, seven silver coins. That's all he had. And he felt deeply disappointed in himself. And he said, How do I stand before God with these seven coins, distribute them in charity, it's not befitting for me to die, and I have any property to my name. And so he died with absolutely nothing to his name, even though he was the first man to unite all of the lands

of Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Dubai, Kuwait, all these countries were under his domain, and he died with absolutely nothing, because a prophet does not get any benefit in this earth is his purpose is to teach and preach. And then he goes back to God to get rewarded. And when we said the guidance of this book, it transformed the worst society into the best society, it took people that were in the depths of darkness out of it. And so that is exactly what we expect from a book scripture, one only needs to look at the Arabs, within a span of less than 30 years, they went from being a group of people that were not worth anything to becoming the masters of this world. And when

one is guided by God, then who can stop you. And so this is of the lessons now, we asked at the beginning, the challenge was, is this book of miracle? Can it be replicated? Is there any book like it, we have not found anything like it. And so we have to conclude, if we are fair and honest with ourselves, that this book undoubtedly goes against any act or event of a natural law, it can't be explained by natural reasons or scientific rationale. And so this meets the definition of a miracle. Or, you know, one only needs to be fair, and look at these things and try to explain, and if it doesn't, if you feel it's not a miracle, then you explain and show an example of something equal to

it. Then lastly, not only does the Quran claim to be a miracle, you know, maybe we can say it is a very special book, but it claims to be the miracle of miracles of all the miracles God had seen. He said, this is a greater miracle, meaning this is even greater than Moses speeding the Red Sea. This is even greater than Jesus Christ resurrecting the dead. How can this be, because those miracles were at a certain time and place, and those people who saw it, got to see it, and it was over. And the rest of us only heard about it. But no miracle ever came from God, that every single human being can experience it in his own way. So the only way you will see a miracle is if you go and you look

on, you would only have seen Jesus Christ and you select the date by being there when He resurrected the date. Otherwise, you only hear about it, and you have to think about it. Whereas this miracle, you can actually experience it yourself. And the only way you experience it is you pick the book up, you read it, you analyze it, you study it, you think about it, and you will find in it, the miracles, and therefore it is a personal miracle that God has given every single one of us. And that is what makes it the most special miracle of all, it is a miracle until the end of time. And so I pray to God that He guides all of us that we turn to him that this book was sent We are the audience

It was not sent to the answer to this one or that one, it will seem to you seem to me to be better people so that we can live our life to be closer to God in this world so that we will be with him in the life after I pray that we all reach him in the life of the day. Thank you so much. If I said anything to offend anyone, please forgive me was not even mean to do so it was only meant to share our religion and what this book is about, We are all searching for for guidance, and he will is guided in the daily God has failed in Vivi very well. So may God guide us all and bless us all and protect us all. Thank you so much a cinematic moment Allahu obrigado