Miracles of the Quran #4

How's it going? James Monroe Hey man hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa Germain salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. 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 and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen Mashallah La ilaha illa Allah will be witnessed at night as the light of worship besides a Lost Planet, Allah 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 subhanho wa

Taala, the Prophet Muhammad sallahu wa 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 asked 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 from the law and Family Law, we have come to the end of our series, the miracles of the Quran. In the last two, three weeks, we spoke about the Quran, and we looked at it from different 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, 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 it 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 lesson 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

do justice in a in a half an hour clip, as to the entire Quran. You know, just taking one chapter we can spend, we can spend weeks talking about one chapter and the blessings inside of it and the guidance inside of it. So May 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 Quran is amazing, even without knowing it, you can take the Quran 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 that 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 live their life. They were so bad that they live 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. And you know, this is really personified if you really want to understand this. There was a ambassador, one of the disciples of the prominent souls

and one of the early Muslims, he spoke to the king of ever senior, the king have ever seen you 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, it just it's the 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 the community and the weak ones, they joined the message. And of course, the Titans, the pharaohs. They oppress them and abuse them. And so the operation became so much that a group, a group of the believers lift maca, and they came to

settle in Abyssinia, because the king of the senior 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 the way he treated people. And so the king of ember senior called this group of Muslims and said, explain to me why you are here, and why I shouldn't send you back home. 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 ever senior, 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 committed 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 dishonored our guests and the strong basically

All the weekend was how we lived. It was the law of the jungle, there was no government, there was no control, the strong opposition, the weak, 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's trustworthy, trustworthiness. And he's 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 then 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 as 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, Milan, we'll 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 the 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've come to settle here in your land, because you are adjustment equipment, and that is why we are here, and of course, the king of Abyssinia. Then 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 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 meeting 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 embraced Islam, as we believe. And when he died, the prophet and him never met each other because the Prophet never came to ever senior, when the Kenai river senior died, the prophet stood up before we even reach the news. He said, my brothers, my companions, I received, you know, divinely, that the king of every senior has just died. So let us stand up and pray the funeral pay

upon him. This is one of the only times the Prophet actually paid 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 backwards, 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 he would decide Should I kill her? Or should I keep it if I was a real man, I would kill her, I might just kill her, he would be alive in the sand. Now, not even the worst of animals do these kind 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, 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 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 Quran 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, it begins at hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. All 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's 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 these 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 Quranic in one month found this very short chapter, but it encompasses our be our belief in who God is. Allah says, who Allah who had to say he is a law, 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 Allahu Samad. He is the one on which a one 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 what um, you like, he needs to be

gates. He doesn't have children and sons. He doesn't have these things. No, is he got to know was he born he was not born by anyone. He has no beginning. What am Aquila who went ahead and threw him there is no equal and equivalent, this is who he is. Allah subhanho wa Taala also wants to know that I while he suply ye see, for example, another verse, the barrel, Canada, the bat in Morocco, Allah condition Korea, all Blizzard 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 mic on the one side and the power on the one side, he also wants to show the subtleness and the gentleness when he says

netbios and that you barely see to my servants, I say to my servants, so I like a bunny, I need the pieces to the Prophet peace upon him, that if my slaves micronation, my servants asked you about me, servant, he doesn't only mean a Muslim, it means any any creation. If any of my creatures ask you about me, then indeed inequality I am already in, 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 respond to these applications, whenever they call 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 to,

of the Quran. The Quran wants us to know about Allah, and perhaps when so the first the first thing we know about him is he's our Creator. When we look at the universe, what am I doing here, however, I come here, the a few philosophies, the one philosophy is that there is no creator, that we are on this earth as an accident, that 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 choose to believe the other philosophy, and this is the majority of the religions of the

world, there is a creator, and then that he created the world with a purpose. And then they differ, we differ amongst ourselves in the different religions as to the nature of the Creator, and how we should go about becoming closer to him for an Islamic standpoint, we acknowledge that He is the Creator, and we see him in in all of his creation. Is it 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 as 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 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 it compulsory that the violin FC Rama, he has made it compulsory upon himself to be merciful, that who ever have you does an evil deed out of ignorance. And they after he thinks after that, and he acts righteously, then surely God is oft forgiving, ever, ever Merciful, that God has said he has made this a law with himself. He has commanded himself now, God doesn't come need to do anything. But he says, I have 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 evenly and ever present. A lot also says, say to them, that my punishment afflicts some of whom I will, a few of them will be punished, but my mercy encompasses all things. Everything in creation is encompassed by Mercy, you'll find the differences in the Quran, to see who Allah Subhana Allah is, and other verses, not be buddy. He says to the Prophet, peace, say to myself and see to my creatures, that I am, that I am the most forgiving and the Most Merciful, that I will at least 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 verses. God says, 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 and 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 the Righteous One, it goes without saying that he's even more loved by God. So let's 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, that he's loving, that he's all powerful, that he has knowledge about the 99 Names of Allah in the Quran, each one deals with a different attribute of him is arousing, the one who feeds he is Aziza, the Almighty

and powerful Aleem, and Hakeem all knowing the whys. 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 do you want to do to do okay to 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 I 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, Mama, Gina when

he says, I have not created the gene, the gene is 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, make me the Paramount relationship in your life be devoted to me that is why I put you on on the earth. And if we look at the different prophets, so God Almighty has meaning we have as I said, last week, Muhammad SAW some his name only appears four times as panela. 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 will accuse 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 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, who created everything, they would use the word Allah. So it's exactly the same thing. In fact, the word Allah comes from the word, deity. The deity is an object of worship, and the word

Allah, Allah means the one and only the deserving of worship, meaning, the word Allah lit linguistically means the only one deserving of worship. That's what he's what name is 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,

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 established 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, God, God Almighty, spoke to Jesus and says, The you tell people to worship you. And 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 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 he was asked 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, when 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 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 are imagined 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 foster him, you pray to Him, the other part is and spin of your

charity spin of what we are given you in charity charities, for the for the week in Ukraine, 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, 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 man. 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 intrinsic, we 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 man intrinsically good or bad? And what does sin mean? And how does sin 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 gods 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 sits, 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 see, we while we pray and worship you consistently without limit, we are perfect worshipers. 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 he is true. He didn't deny it. He didn't deny to the angels,

what you're saying is wrong. He says yes, inside the nature, the 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 come at the worst of times. 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 fetus is your natural inclination. And so a lot is and adhere to the feature of Allah upon which he has created all people and this fitrah is a pure fitrah God says I placed

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. But if a child dies before they reach the age of puberty, they are on that fitrah, they are on 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 follow says, We're helical in sonova, that we did create men with some degree of weakness, and mankind and we will light and so Allah says, we want to make a light for him will make life easy for you. Because we know we created him

with weakness. So in this, it's a very powerful thing that 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 is no idols who 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 will be accountable for what you did. And that is really the crux of what Islam wants you to do. So the minute 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 should I say to them, say to them, Do not ever feel the spawn Latin, Rahmatullah do not even lose hope in the mercy of God, For verily 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 say that's the one side the other side 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're cheating your customers, you are abusing your wife, you are screaming and shouting, how can you be, you know, worshipping God, when you are a horrible person in the coming into the creation. And so the is a code of ethics is the next part. So the one part is our theology. The next part of the Quran 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 son, we decreed upon the children of Israel, meaning of all, on all of mankind,

that who ever killed a single person,

for a soul or for corruption than in this land, whoever doesn't, whatever kills one person, or he does one evil thing on this land. It is 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 though you have saved all of mankind, we think about doctors, especially now in this disease, our nurses, our doctors, they go out risk the 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, this human dignity as well. So not just only hurting a person of harming him physically, Allah says, Oh, you have believed it, not lit, 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 Do not insult one another and not quote each other by all things of names. And you know, God is even talking about bullying and causing names and and shaming people do not use names, ugly names to call one another. Richard is

the name of this obedience of the faith and whoever does not repent, then it is he who is a wrongdoer. On righteousness, how should I live 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 lift 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 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 see 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 pay, they usually 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 if they are patient they are they are steadfast impatient in hardship and poverty.

And during a struggle, those are the ones who have been true to God, true to the faith, and it is those who are righteous. So this is a beautiful analogy that, you know, people live 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 way of the town. In fact, very people, they were no books, as we said, 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 why people who ponder will 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 whole 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. And 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, believe in me, I exist. The first thing he said was a read in the name who created you read, recite a 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 as any knowledge, Allah says, And Allah, God raises up those who believed he gives men he 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 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, a prophet, the Quran says, And your Lord has decreed he commanded that you worship none but him, and that you teach 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 than you treat your mom and dad, they should be treated first, and was 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. In

that case, God says to them, never say to them even if it's like a word of like, Mom, like a word that disappoints them, don't even say one word of this respect to them. And do not repel them. by speaking to them. Do not say anything harsh to them, 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 help 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, then I will increase you in goodness. But if you deny my blessings, then 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 the 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 says that the example you give one charity, one seed in charity, God gives you back, a plant that has seven stalks and 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.

The love for God to the poor, and the orphan. And the captive captive via 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 left, you get to eat. And they say, mean these people or 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.

Patience, 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 share, the more you give, the more thankful you are to God, because God gave you and there are many we did not get that. So the way you recognize that blessing is by seeing it. But of course, sometimes you're 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 installed in Arabic and in the Semitic languages in Hebrew and Arabic, the Royal we is

used when God speaks in the 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 the 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 struck with fear, we escaped, some they going hungry, some have lost their wealth, some have lost their health, some have lost loved ones. And of course, the most 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 test you

with 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 any law, you are in a module, 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, it belongs to him. And to him, it's the return, I don't know when he's going to recall 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 a

lightweight nylon Jihoon, when God says, those are the ones upon whom they receive the blessings from the Lord, the Lord blesses them and mentions the name. And the lady see His mercy and peace to those who are rightly guided, these people are very power, these people are mighty in the sight of God only when calamity afflicts them, they are patient. And so God says they receive salutations and blessings from God Almighty, about love and marriage. And there's no link and third reason why put marriage off the patient's you know, just the how these 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 that is about love, and they say beautiful things about love. But no one has said a more profound thing about love than God and Allah, because this is what he says. And he says, and 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 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 in the worst of days, even when you are angry with one another, you are still kind 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, you can replace your heart. But if you 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 in and only he takes it away if he chooses another

beautiful way 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, 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 used an example of how a marriage should be what our marriage just be like that. In terms of race and racism panela It took us and it's probably still 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 have a system of racism, the most worse 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 believed 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 day for those people who have knowledge, God isn't elevating the Arabs above the non Arabs, the whites above the blacks or the blacks and 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 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 live, you will language which suburb you come from, you know, your 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 dishonouring women, in spite of law, we can spend weeks in fact, it's a topic that is 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 we she Alyssa, they know, she's different than a man. That's what they knew. She

wasn't like a man. And so she was she an animal, she's 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 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, faiths, 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 is, and the two of them eight, and the two of them sinned, 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 causes where 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. And if, and he doesn't, but he says, of course, that all both of them got spiritually forgiven, there is no taint of synonym, 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 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 were killed, some of them will kill buried alive, his daughters, they could not inherit anything, they could not own property, they could not vote, they had no rights. They couldn't decide what to get married when to divorce. In fact, they were so bad that they were inherited. So what would happen is, if a man died, his brothers as you would take his camels, he would take his gold he would inherit, he would look at all these wives and he would choose this one

I like and she would become his property. This was the norm in the society of the Arabs. The Quran comes down and it says, all you have believed are people of faith. It is not lawful for you to inherit 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 committed equally or immorality and then the lever if she's basically being unfaithful, and live with him in kindness. So this is what the public

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 the squadron 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 the religious are mentioned in the Quran. But this from

the secret of the Prophet, a woman has the right to her sexual scarification 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 20 years ago, in the most advanced European and Western societies. 1400 years ago, women had a 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 such a central part of its origin of its movement forward of all of this,

you know, the Quran, Islamism has accused of being the dominating religion. In fact, I don't think there's a single way to be descriptive, it has the statement that he could not have been that they 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 been 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 has actually 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 he had a government for the first time, he'd 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, that, 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 follow 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. Today, so much of the discoveries is what we benefit, and it's paved the way to modern science, and the relations for the Europeans. And so this is just shows you that this is a book of God, and 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, and 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 miracles, it's the first book that have ever in the Arabic language. It is the best and height of Arabic eloquence, no poet has written in Arabic language, anything equal to it. It has the power that completely transfixed the Arabic language from ever changing, and 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 iron was sent 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 that there's 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, then it is read continuously. And in fact that chapter is called the chapter that the seven off the cited verses every single moment. You know, 1 billion people cite that chapter 17 times a day. Without a doubt it is the most highly cited piece of scripture in the history of mankind, that it is the most believers Quran only has one version, and that is still relevant 1400 years ago, we see that it's impossible for Mohammed to have written this book because he was unlimited. 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 it sits

Something and at times when he goes through difficulty Concord compensation, 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 is up, he asked together all these 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 of 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, who can stop you. And so this is one of the lessons now we asked at the beginning of the challenge was, is this book of medical, can it be replicated is the book like it, we have not found anything like it. And so we have to conclude, and if we are fair and honest with ourselves, that this book undoubtedly goes against any act or event of an actual law, it cannot be explained by natural reasons or scientific rationale. And so this meets the definition of a miracle. You know, one only needs to be fair, and look at these things and try to explain, and if it doesn't, if it if you feel it's not a miracle, then 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 splitting 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. The only way you will see a miracle is if you go and you look around,

you would only have seen Jesus Christ that is selected 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 turned 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 each life after the Thank you so much. If I said anything to offend anyone, please forgive me. It's not even mean to do so it is only meant to share our religion and what this book is about. We are all searching for guidance, and He will guide it 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. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh