Forever on Trial – Islam and the Charge of Violence

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa sallam robotica in the Vienna Mohammed in Wanda and he was a big man. Oh my God, my dear brothers and sisters as salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

when I moved here in 2012 my perception of Calgary was amazing city, nice people. Everything's like hunky dory. And it was just great. And by 2013, that perception slowly started to change. And what had happened by that time was that there was a group of young men at the eighth and eighth masala as I'm aware, as I'm pretty sure all of you know the story by now, that pretty much left and ended up joining extremist groups in the Middle East. And from that time on what happens to the Calvary community what happened to the eighth and eighth masala, what happened to the ISC? You know, it was a series of tragic and unfortunate events that happened one after another. But what often gets

forgotten is what happens to the religion of Islam as a whole. And when people hear that something happens at a mosque or something happens by a Muslim community member, all of a sudden Islam as a religion gets blamed as a whole. And from that time, you know, Islam in Calgary has been pretty much on the defensive. We've been trying to say that no, we're good contributing citizens were peaceful people, Islam is a religion of peace. But in terms of making a formal statement in terms of having like, a public awareness campaign, that wasn't something that was really done, it was just done in small pockets. So over time, you know, I thought there has to be a comprehensive approach to this

issue, not just you know, both based upon Calgary, but for the online General, that if you look at Fox News, if you look at any other major right wing, you know, media outlet, they constantly bombard this narrative, that Islam as a religion is a very intolerant barbaric, and you know, just chaotic religion. So how do Muslims respond to these allegations of violence in particular, inshallah tonight, this is what we will be discussing. So the breakdown is going to be Dr. Nasir and I are going to be going back and forth, talking about various issues. And we'll be tackling some of the main concepts behind what islamophobes and extremist groups use and justifying their costs. And at

the end, as usual, we will be having q&a so you guys can save your questions till the end. And there is no question that is taboo, or will be censored. So by all means, feel free to ask whatever is on your mind. So Dr. Nasir will be beginning right now by talking about violence and religion, and why does religion always get blamed for violence?

That was

he was actually he will know, whether alum Marian or my friend who was in.

So to talk about her shooting event for introducing this important topic. Can everyone hear me at the back? Everyone can hear me? Well? Okay.

So, when we talk about this issue of violence, I want to take us back to the very original question. Why do some human beings choose to engage in violence? Where does this this concept of violence come from? Why are there some people who resort to such a thing, like killing what has to happen before a human being goes to that point, to think that it is acceptable to take another person's life? So Paula, if you look at the Koran, the very first story in the Koran is the story about the creation of Adam I sent out and the very first thing that's mentioned in that story is a question that the angels put to Allah subhana wa Tada. Right, they went to less power data says in the giant and fill

out the halifa What do the angels say? Call to attack geography? How many years many up? See the fee? Ha YSP? Could deema right? Are you going to place on this earth one that is going to spread corruption and cause the spilling of blood? The very first thing that the angels ask about is, isn't humanity a creature that is going to cause bloodshed? This is their objection. Why should we have human beings human beings always have this tendency to create violence? So from this first story, we see that the tendency for violence is a tendency that has existed throughout human history amongst every single group. And this is something that almost

informs the angels that yes, this is the destructive capacity of the human being this is how the human being can go to the bad to the bedside. But the human being also has a capacity to do good. And how does a less pantalla show the angels that while Adam and a smile Cola, Alice panda shows the angels that advise them has the ability to use knowledge, the ability to learn, to use the intellect, the aka. And when the human being gains knowledge and understanding and engages the human reasoning, then the human being doesn't resort to such kind of things.

Physical conflict. So the very first story in the crime shows us the problem of violence, the problem of violence and that the problem of violence is something that human being synced to, if they don't use their intellect, if they don't try to come closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now the very first crime that was committed amongst human beings was what crying

the two brothers, the two brothers that the story of the two sons of atomized them what you are, they have never been a Adam a bellhop or Allah Subhana Allah says in Surah certain either right, the fifth chapter and upon recite to them the story of the the two sons of atomized Salaam In truth, what was the story we know all we all know the story about how one brother was jealous of the other that his sacrifice was accepted. And so he said call Allah tala neck, I'm going to kill you this jealousy drove him this hatred drove him to accuse the other one to threaten the other one, I'm going to kill you call the inimitable aluminum atropine. Alone, and the other one responded alone

except from those who have Taqwa who strive to come closer to him. And then he said a statement, which is the the clear ruling in Islam about violence, a statement that it forms the basis of our morality of our value system. He said, Let in basalt de la Caleta de la Ana del sitio de la chiriaco. truck, if you reach out your hand to strike me and harm me and kill me, I won't strike out reach out my hand to harm you in niehoff alojado. But I mean, I fear Allah, Lord of the universe. So we see in the first story in the Koran, that the the taqwa of a person truly being connected to a less pantalla should keep a person away from violence, it should make a person not want to reach out

their hand to harm another human being, because they have COF they have fear of Allah subhanaw taala in me a half a lot of that. I mean, I fear Allah, Lord of the universe. So where does this question of violence come from? Today, we live in an age of more people questioning religion. Many people have called it the age of atheism, where people are saying religion is a cause of violence. And this this claim, why do they say religion as a cause of violence? They say if you look at violence in the world, most of the time, the violent groups are acting on the basis of religion, or they're doing their violence in the name of religion. Now, is this actually true when we examine history? If you

examine history, you can very quickly see how this claim is not true at all. The 20th century, the previous century was the most bloody century in human history.

And in the century, we had the largest conflicts World War One and World War Two. World War One how many people died?

Millions 15 million people died in World War One. Was World War One about religion? No, it was about nationalism. World War Two, how many people died 60 to 80 million people in World War Two. World War Two, what was it about fascism? It was about people were forcing their ideas on others, which have been the most brutal governments in human history. And somehow this shows you this idea that religion causes violence, it doesn't make any sense. The most brutal governments that have killed the most number of their citizens. If you look at the Soviet regimes, the Soviet governments look at the history of Stalin, Stalin, who was the ruler of Soviet Russia, how many people died. During his

time under under his command, 62 million people were killed. Now, there's an interesting book, it's actually called the age of atheism. And it's by a historian who himself is atheist, Peter Watson, but he's, he's honest, when it comes to presenting the history. And so when he has a chapter in that book, about the communist movement, about the Soviets about the Bolsheviks, and he calls it the Bolshevik Crusade for atheism. And in this chapter, he talks about how these people were so hardcore atheists that they wanted to destroy religion, and that led them to violence, because the founder of communist ideology is who, who is the main thinker behind communism. Karl Marx, right? What did Karl

Marx say about religion?

Religion is the opium of the people. Okay, so Marx said this, then Lenin, he took it further, he said, he said, religion is the worst thing. It's something he called it unutterable vileness, meaning it's something so bad. You shouldn't even mention it. Okay, look how the rhetoric is getting more and more extreme. What was the next step? In Soviet Russia? What happened was they started

crusade against religion. So churches, mosques, Islamic schools were destroyed. And they replaced them with museums for scientific atheism. And they had a organization called the League of militant atheists, the League of militant atheists started as a propaganda group that will try to tell people that religion is evil, we need to destroy it. It starts with harsh rhetoric, and then it goes into violence. So by the time Stalin came after Lenin, he started to institute campaigns of killing. So if you look at the book by Peter Watson, he mentions even examples of some of the killing. He says, this big, what happened was a massive and ultimately brutal attempt to destroy all traditional

religious institutions, churches, monasteries, Sharia courts, religious schools. And in 1922, one of the patriarchs in Russia, he wrote a letter to Lenin complaining that 1000s of clergy were being killed, and more than 100,000 believers had been shot. But his protest was ignored, and he was also killed. Then he mentions many of the people who are killed religious figures, they were killed this huge anti religious persecution, what was the cause of this anti religious violence is atheism. It was their atheism, their idea that religion is the most evil thing, and we need to eliminate religion, it was militant atheism. So if somebody comes and claims that religion is the cause of

violence, actually even hatred of religion as a cause of violence, the fact of the matter is anything can become a cause of violence. It doesn't depend on the idea depends on the people, right? Anyone can make something into causal violence, I can give you a very simple example. Suppose somebody says, I like chocolate. Okay? It's a very simple sentence, right? Now, what if somebody takes this to an extreme, they can say, I like chocolate because chocolate is the best. Not the people who don't like chocolate are evil, evil people should be killed. Right? This is a chocolate extremist. Right? They're taking a simple thing. And they're turning it into extremism. So will you

blame the chocolate? Or will you blame the person who is extreme, you've been blamed the person who is extreme. So when people do religious extremism, when they take religion and they go to an extreme and and use it to teach hatred, or violence, the fault is in those people. It's not in the religion, and our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, he reminded us of the danger of going to extremes, the profitsystem told us about extremes. 1400 years ago, he said he aka one Hulu faded. He said I warn you about extremism in religion, because that is what destroyed the people before you. Okay, so when you look at what causes violent movements, you throw out the idea that it's caught, that is caused

by religion, because there have been many atheist violent movements, then what is it that really causes violent movements? There's really two things that that cause violent movements, if you really analyze history. The first is when people increase their hatred towards another group. Okay? So they start to describe people outside their community as completely evil. They dehumanize them dehumanize them means they don't even regard them as human beings anymore. So the more they increase their hatred for people outside their community, the more likely it is that somebody may commit an act of violence against those people. Right. So the first one is hatred. The second one is intolerance,

their idea that everybody should agree with me?

This idea everyone has to agree with me and my way is the right way. Suppose Allah Allah subhanaw taala tells us in the Quran, that differences amongst human beings will always exist. In surah Yunus, Allah Subhana, Allah says, Well, shall I Rob Booker, let me minimum fill LD could no home gym er, to 300 million. If your Lord willed, He could have made every single person on this earth a believer, are you going to try to force people until they become believers? You can't do that. Right? So differences will always exist. People will have their own beliefs, their own values, their own ideas, with doesn't mean that we try to force them to follow what we want that is a cause of

violence. So to summarize, this idea that religion is the cause of violence, it doesn't make sense, because there's been so many groups that do violence, in the name of many different causes. And just to give a few other examples, you know, any ism can be a cause of violence. For example, racism, right? Look at the room.

wanton genocide, right? You had two groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis, which were ethnically, culturally very similar, but because of slight differences, they created hatred, and they committed violence and they did violence in the name of racism. Right? So racism, nationalism, fascism, atheism, anything can become a cause of violence, right? It's, it's not the religion. If a religion is used for violence, it's not the problem in the religion. It's the problem people who take that and make it into a cause of violence. And our religion has very clear principles that teach us about staying away from violence and inshallah to Allah Chavez is going to go into some more detail

discussing those, I will begin my portion by asking, what do you guys understand from the word Sharia? When someone a non Muslim comes up to you and says, Is it true that you guys believe in Sharia law? What do you guys see that? What do you understand from Sharia?

law is the law of Allah.

We believe in it. Okay, excellent. So let me simplify my question. What does she actually mean? Right? When someone says, Do you believe in Sharia your natural reaction should be what do you mean by Sharia? Because everyone's understanding of Sharia is going to be completely different. Fox News comes through and says, people, even Sharia law, all of a sudden, they're thinking, do you believe in chopping off heads? Do you believe in killing people? That's what they're talking about? So the first question you would ask is, what do you mean by it? But from a Muslims perspective, when we talk about Sharia law, what is actually being implied from a linguistic perspective, the letters

Shin Allah and the talk about a pathway, and Sharia is a pathway that leads to an A place of water. So back in the day, when they were looking for a pathway that led to water, this is what the city actually came from. And water is a source of life. Water is a source of rejuvenation. Water is a source of success. So when we talk about shediac, tying it into its linguistic perspective, Cydia is a holistic way of life. A lot of people presume that Sharia just means Islam's penal code, or capital punishment, or things like that. But rather, it is a holistic way of life that encompasses theology, it encompasses jurisprudence, it encompasses spirituality, and also encompasses the Penal

Code of Islam, all of those things are included within of itself. So it's very important that we're familiar with the vernacular that's used in this day and age. So when someone asks you, do you believe in Sharia law, don't presume the best of that individual? Always ask them first? What do you mean, buy it, get them to explain it, then based upon their explanation, answer that question. Now, with that being said, this should be your law that Muslims believe in? What is the true understanding of it? Well, the true understanding of it always goes back to what are the objectives behind it, meaning when Allah subhanho wa Taala, sent down the Koran sent down the center and sent

down this holistic way of life? What are the objectives that are meant to be obtained through this way of life? And the scholars have discussed five necessities that are meant to be protected by the Sharia itself. And this is what we call nakasu, the Sharia? So one of the ways you tell is this, something within the framework of Islam is going back to does it fulfill the objectives of Islamic law. So we will be discussing that right now. The first thing the Sharia came to protect is human life. That is the first thing by necessity by default. Number two is religion. Number three is the intellect. Number four is wealth. And number five, is a continuation of life, meaning the progeny

and continuation of life from one generation to the next. These are the five things that *tier came to protect. Now, let's break these down detail logically, and textually. Logically, why is human life at the top of this list? Well, human life is the essence of it all. Well, you may be thinking, but isn't religion meant to come before human life? Well, from a logical perspective, can religion actually exist? If no human life exists? And the answer is no, had Allah subhanho wa Taala not created mankind, then there wouldn't have been revelation to send it down to mankind, and therefore there wouldn't have been religion. And that is why humankind comes first. Now textually

How do we get to this textually you look inside. So tell Merida. And this is a very important verse to understand, especially when having these discussions, that whoever saves one life, it's as if he saved all of mankind. And whoever kills one person unjustly, it is as if he has killed all of mankind. So that is a sanctity of human life. But also look at it from the perspective of the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. What

I'm not new. Yes, he comes to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he says all messenger of Allah, I fallen into hypocrisy, and he asked him, What do you mean by that? And he said that the courage threatened me with my life, meaning that if I did not curse you, they would have killed me on messenger of Allah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked him at that time, what was the state of your heart? He said, it was filled with a man, meaning I never disbelieved. And the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told him that if they come back and threaten you, then do the same thing again, if they threaten you again, then do the same thing again, showing the

sanctity of human life. Number two, the preservation of religion. When we talk about religion over here, it's referring to Islam specifically, and not just this sense of religion, that most western people think about. Where you know, you pay charity, you pray sometimes, and that's what religion is. No, again, we're talking about holistic living. We're talking about meeting spiritual needs, psychological needs, physical needs, all of those things come under our faith. So when we talk about the preservation of this way of life, it's not just for success in this life, but its success in the hereafter. And this is why Allah subhanho wa Taala he tells us in the Quran, woman, yup, Islam,

Medina, and finally, jacoba Minho, that whoever seeks a religion seeks a way of life, other than this holistic way of life, known as Islam submission to Allah subhanho wa Taala, then it will not be accepted, it will not be accepted, because there is no other holistic way of life other than Islam. Number three, the intellect This one is pretty simple. In order for something to continue, there has to be a logical process behind it. Our logical process stems from our intellect. So if you decapitate our intellect and minim, mitigate its use and take it away, that process ceases to exist. And that is why Allah subhanho wa Taala made impermissible things like alcohol, and other

intoxicants and drugs, and anything else that will affect the intellect. Which brings us to number four, the preservation of wealth, that is the fourth necessity that the shediac came to protect. And that is at any given society will need something to exchange something to trade something to grow and prosper and build an economy upon. And that is why things like stealing are Haram, that is part of the preservation of wealth, things like Riba or haram interest is wrong, because in interest, you're taking advantage of someone that is in need, and you're abusing your power over them. And then number five, is the continuation of human life from one generation to the next. And this is an

important principle, particularly if you remember back when we were talking about our discussion on homosexuality and Islam, we talked about this issue in quite a bit of detail that one of the objectives of Islamic law is not for all of us just to survive, but it's for human mankind from one generation to the next to continue to survive. And that is why things like killing, again, are hard on things like permanent contraception for everyone to implement what we had on things like that would not be permissible, and not just for the sake of making sure that life continues. So those are the objectives of the law. Now, these major objectives also have minor sub objectives behind them.

So when we talk about to religion, one of the minor sub objectives behind it is and you have bubbeleh, who elefante finicky that Allah subhanho wa Taala should be made, beloved to his creation, that when people think of Allah subhanho wa Taala, they shouldn't have evil thoughts of Allah, but rather they should be having the best of thoughts of Allah and the best assumptions of Allah subhana wa Tada. And one should only have positive affiliations with thinking about Allah subhanho wa Taala. And this ties into our very subject now is that as Muslims, particularly living in the West, we have such a huge burden and responsibility on our shoulders mean that there hasn't been a time in history

where Muslims have been under such scrutiny in terms of the way they act. Yes, it is unfair, that when one Muslim does something, the whole religion gets blamed for it. And if a Muslim does something good, his religion isn't mentioned at all. These are the unfair times that we live in. But these are the circumstances that we are in and that we need to accept and make the most of. So you have to understand, you are representing Allah subhanho wa Taala right now, that is a scary thought. Your actions with the greater community represent the deen of Islam represent Allah subhana wa tada represent the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It is scary, but we remember that Allah

subhanho wa Taala doesn't burden the soul more than it can bear. It's okay to make mistakes. Apologize. Move on.

And understand that, but there is an extra burden that didn't exist on previous nations. So now this brings us into the discussion that the Koran wouldn't have itself is a book of violence islamophobes in particular, and extremist groups, they will tell you, you read the Koran, and you will find in it violence, it is filled with violence, kill them, wherever you find them. That is what the verse says, Are you going to deny it? You can't it's in the Quran. So now how do we answer those questions? Well, the first thing we need to do is develop a proper methodology. And this methodology begins with making sure that we have a complete picture. So when you're talking about a verse in the

Quran, always say, Are you quoting the verse completely. And then if you're quoting the verse completely, let us look at what it says before it, take two or three verses before it. And let us look at what it says two or three verses after it. And you'll find that the Koran is coherent in that sense that you will get a complete picture of what that verse is referring to, if he will just go a little bit behind, or a little bit ahead of it. So we look at example of surah number two, verse 191, kill them wherever you find them. And they will say that this verse talks about the dramatic kill all of the disbelievers. But hold on a second, is that really what this verse is

talking about? If you go back just one verse into verse number 190, fight in the cause of Allah, against those who fight, you mean that this verse is talking about those people that are fighting the Muslims, then you go three verses ahead of it in verse 193, where if they stop fighting you, then you should not show any hostility, except for those that are being oppressive, except for those that are being oppressive mean that they continued this fighting and the suppression against the Muslims. So that's your simple answer over there. So now, before I continue on the other verses I want to talk about I want to develop another framework. And that is how do we understand the topic

of jihad in Islam? Such a, you know, taboo word to use? were like, even the four or five years ago, anyone talks about it, all of a sudden is like, everyone's looking around, okay, who is this thesis agent in the masjid? You know, they planted me and that's why he's talking about it. But the reality is, one of the mistakes that we are learning from is that when those people that have knowledge, do not address every aspect of the religion, people will go to other places to get incorrect understandings. And that's what's happened over time. People have heard about the jihad, it's in the Koran, but no one wants to talk about it. You want to learn about it, you have to go watch YouTube

videos, you have to go onto Twitter and other obscure sources that are not really meant to be avenues of learning your faith. So where does Jihad come from? Well, the very first verse that talks about jihad in the Koran is in chapter number 25. Well, listen, I know what it says about Java hit home big hadn't kaviraj that with the Koran, go and perform a great jihad. And this is a very early revelation that comes in the time of Mecca. What's important to understand is that in the time of Mecca, Allah subhanho wa Taala did not allow the Muslims to even retaliate, meaning that they're being killed, they're being persecuted. They weren't even allowed to respond to that, let alone

initiate anything. So in this verse was revealed, it was revealed in a completely different context. It was revealed in the context of Revelation, Allah has given you this great gift of knowledge, this great caught on go and spread it going eradicate ignorance going eradicate misinformation. That was the very, very first verse that was revealed about jihad in the Koran. And then you find in the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam where he is asked what is the highest level of jihad? What did he prophesied? Send them respond who remembers

what is the highest level of jihad?

The sword the knifes the soul, not the soul exactly what I heard the sword. I apologize for that. So not enough Know what?

Nope.

Accent Accent I will accept that. The highest level of jihad according to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is to speak a truthful word in the face of a tyrannical ruler. These are the exact words of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Why is that the highest level of jihad and what does this help us understand? This is the highest level of jihad, because when you have every single reason possible to lie, and it could be justified at that time, yet you find it in yourself to be brave and courageous. This is the highest level of jihad, you're standing up against your soul. You're standing up against every form

of oppression, physical as well, to make sure you're standing up for a principle and value known as the truth. That is the highest level of jihad. A young man comes to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he says all messenger of Allah, I would like to come out on an expedition with you. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asks him, Are your parents alive? And this young man he says, Yes, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, For fee Hema for Jade that go and perform your jihad, by serving your parents mean that this young man was not allowed to go down and expedition because he had a responsibility and duty to serve his parents. And always talk about this

in my own personal relationship with my parents. Me moving to Calgary was one of the most difficult decisions that I ever made in my life, because I knew that I would be far away from them in old age. But my parents were extremely supportive. And they said you have to go so out of obedience to them and having placed a system around them that could take care of them. I felt comfortable going. But little did I know, there is another form of caretaking that I would have to perform. And that is even today. I remember as they called my mother after Juma. She's like you don't answer my emails. You don't answer my WhatsApp messages. And I'm like, Mom, if you send me something useful, I swear I

would respond. But usually mostly recalls are like okay, I have a blue screen. What do I do on my iPad froze? What do I do, and to just be patient with someone that wasn't raised in an age of technology, and to teach them how to use the latest technology, I bring it back to this idea that my personal jack right now is just making sure I don't see any form of displeasure, any form of being in content, because I know sometime in the future when it comes and they're turned to pass away, magenta passed away, I would have missed this opportunity to serve them and be kind to them. So that is my jihad in serving them. So these are some of the usages of the Quran and the Sunnah in talking

about jihad. Now, why do I mention this, because clearly Jihad wouldn't have itself does not have a connotation of violence within of itself. But when he's contextualized, when you're being attacked, or when you're being exiled from your homes, then in those situations, it may develop or usually will develop in the Quran, a physical manifestation, meaning rather than being something spiritual, and now becomes into something physical when those two conditions are met, that you're being fought for your religion, or you'll be exiled from your homes, basically, in self defense, that is when it will take a physical manifestation. Now, there are other verses that I want to go through. But I

believe that once we've developed this framework, you'll get a better understanding. What I want to leave you with is this beautiful diagram over here. And this beautiful diagram talks about the five top five misquoted verses of the Quran. This is something that was put together by Dr. Oz and is available on his website, spiritual perception.com. So if you go to the.org, biology's spiritual perception.org. If you go to the article section, on the top left, you'll have the top five Miss quotations of the Quran. And it talks about all the verses that will be used by extremist anti islamophobes, to attack Islam and say that Islam is a very violent religion. So for example, they

will say slay the pagans, wherever you find them, then this is referring to those that broke the broke the peace agreement with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when they probably sell a lot while you sell them, is told that fight them until they pay jizya and are subdued and belittled in front of you. And this is when the Byzantines had killed the messenger of the Prophet sallallahu. And he was selling them and they had attacked first. So there's a context behind all of these verses, and the Muslims would never initiate this at all, they would never initiate this at all. So with that being said, I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Nasir now, who is going to be talking a

little bit about extremism. And then I will take over after that by talking about water and bottle, how do we understand our relationships with non Muslims? And then we will go on to our conclusion.

So does our co authorship numbered for outlining these common misconceptions that people use of the Koran where they try to take cut and paste small little pieces to try to say the plan is preaching violence? And just to comment further on that point, before we go into the other topics, you know, the some of the scholars of Tafseer they have a joke about this, they say if you're going to cut and paste small sentences from the client, you can even make the client say that prayer is bad. Right? You can even make the client say that Salah is bad. Why? Because the crisis per wait a little more sun lien

Whoa, to those who pray. If you don't look at the whole sentence, here, it looks like it's saying that prayer is bad. But then you read the rest of the sentence and levena who mine saw that you said who, right? Those people who are negligent in their prayers. So in the same way, all of these verses that they talked about, I don't want to do home haven to mom, the verse before potty Luisa de la Hilah. Deena, your party, Laura, come fight only those who fight against you, right. So when you look at the contest, it makes a clear shift and a bit explained. Now, the next question we come to Okay, if Islam is very clear about violence, Islam has very clear teachings. You know,

the, the Prophet Muhammad SAW us and told us that the first crime somebody will be accountable for on the Day of Judgment is the crime of murder. The Quran says that the person who kills one person, it's as if he's killed all humanity. Okay, I accept Islam is very clear that why are these Muslims doing this? Right? Many people asked this question. If your religion is so clear, then why are these Muslims doing it? And we have to explain this. Otherwise, people say that they don't understand why is it seems that we have Muslim saying that Islam is peace. But then we have this other small group of people doing crimes in the name of Islam. So in order to understand why these movements come

about, we have to look at the situation, we have to look at the history, we have to look at the context, we have to look at the politics behind these different movements. And in studying all these different movements, I found that there's always three factors. And I looked at many experts who have done research on this topic, from a psychology perspective, from anthropology, perspective, political science perspective. And from all of this, I came to this conclusion that there's three factors that always are present, when violent movements come about. And these three factors, you can understand it as similar to the three factors that are needed for a fire to be lit. Do you guys know

what I'm talking about? If there's a flame, the engineers will know about this, right? The called the combustion triangle, right? If there's a flame, what are the three things that are necessary in order to have a fire? What are those three things? fuel, okay. Oxygen or air? Yeah. And heat? Exactly. See, this is such an easy question for the engineers. Mashallah.

So, just like you need fuel, you need air, and you need heat. And the same way for extremism via for extremist violence. There are three factors, what is the the fuel, the fuel for extremist violence, that that causes these these conflicts to happen? The fuel is that there are people who are suffering, right, how these violent movements cannot arise in a place where everybody is living happily. Right? Have they come to a place where people are living happily and they fail? Come join us join our team, we're going to go do some violent things. Nobody will join them. But they go to those people who have been suffering, right? They go to places where there has been war for many

years. And there's a psychologist who wrote about this by the name of Ian Robertson. And he said that if you look at history, it's always places of where were massacres have happened, where so much death and destruction has happened for years and years. That's where these movements emerge. And so historians talk about what happened in Iraq. Right. You know, the situation in Iraq didn't just happen overnight. Right? They talk about the 2003 war in Iraq. And you know, the some of the statistics about this war, the the number of people that were killed, the number of adoptees that were killed some of the statistics say, as high as 700,000 people, and the radiation from the

weapons that were used, caused so many birth defects. You know, babies were being born with deformities, that doctors didn't even have terminology how to describe this deformity. They said that the radiation was so severe that it was there were 14 times as many rate birth problems, then in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that's where the atomic bombs were dropped. So they come to it happens in a situation where there's so much suffering, so much violence, right? In this type of situation. That's number one, the fuel number two is the air that causes the fire, right? You have fuel, then you have air, what was what is the air the air is the

political situation, okay? When there's a stable political government, violent movements don't arise, but when there is political turmoil, different movements, competing

against one another, different, different criminal organizations trying to come to power, then this is where violent movements come about. When there is a situation of political chaos. One person at work once asked me, so what do you say about this group this ISIS darish? You know, what do you what do you say about them? I asked, Do you know that in 2014, The New York Times reported that most of the generals that are leading this group darish, most of them were former generals under Saddam Hussein. They were previously people who were from the Baptist regime. And this Baathist regime was actually secular, was actually against.

It was opposed to religiosity and society. So I asked them, What do you think is more likely? Do you think these people who are hardcore secularists, overnight they had a religious awakening? Or do you think it's more likely that these were power hungry, military people who wanted to get back into power, and were willing to use whatever means necessary, even if it means joining up with this religious group, so called religious group? And the person Oh, I see what you mean. So they're just using religion? I said, exactly.

Right. Anytime there is a political conflict, people will use whatever banner they can to try to draw people to their cause. So if that conflict happens in a place where people have strong cultural identities, they will call people with the banner of culture. If the conflict happens in a place where people care a lot about their ethnic identity, they'll call people with the banner of racism, oh, we are this race, they are that race. If it happens in a place where people are practicing their religion, they'll try to use religion to bring people to their cause. They're just using the religion. But these people they did not have their they're not religious people meant there was a

article that talked about how many of the people who went to join this group, the last purchase that they had on Amazon was Do you know what it was, it was on for dummies,

plan for dummies Islam for dummies, meaning that they had never read anything about Islam. And the first thing they wanted was, okay, give me the most basic book, I don't know anything about religion. And he's going to join this group. In fact, this phenomenon is so well known that there is actually a study by MIT intelligence agency in Britain. And they said that, and it was published in The Guardian a couple of years ago. And they concluded that the evidence shows that people who join these extremist groups are not usually people who have strong ties with their community. They're not the people who are attending the public halaqaat. They're not the people who are, who go and ask the

mom questions. They're not the people who have a strong sense of religious identity. In fact, they're often people who are novices in their religion, meaning they don't know very much about religion, they're going through a spiritual crisis, they're going through identity crisis, they're looking for redemption. They're like, Oh, I need to do something with my life. Some of these people may even have thoughts of suicide, they may have some type of psychological problems. And so what do they do they join this type of movement, to give them some sense of purpose. Right? So there's a psychological factor as well, behind this radicalization and extremism. So you have the the fuel,

which we said is suffering, the people say the the suffering of people, you have the air, which is the political problems, and the political oppression and and subjugation and think about the the region where violent movements happen, and look at the governments that have been there. These are the most oppressive governments that have ever existed, right? And we know this, right? These governments have been oppressing people from practicing their religion for for decades and decades. So many of these people every day, as they say every action creates an opposite reaction. So they go to the opposite, and they join these extremist groups. The third factor is the heat. And the heat is

the type of extremist rhetoric, okay, the heat is a fanatical ideology, meaning it is somebody taking some ideas and terms from religion, they take the word jihad, they take the word when I will borrow, they take the word khilafah. They take all the the word Sharia, and they put these words together, and they say, look, we are the true representatives of religion, and they're using the same words that we use, but they're giving them a totally different meaning. Right. So Sharia, as Sharon COVID was talking about, you have to clarify what are you talking about when you say use the word shediac? Because what we understand from Sharia is as a member of fame, Rahim Allah describes a

way of mercy, justice, wisdom, what you're describing is something that is the opposite is cruelty, injustice, violence. This is not

The Sharia that we're talking about another colleague at work he once asked me he said, Well, what do you say about Sharia law? I said the Sharia law that I believe in is not the one that you see on Fox News. I believe in a Shetty that you're not a that you're ignorant of. And he said, Oh, interesting.

So that people just don't know about what these words actually mean. The first time they're hearing them is with this wrong connotation. And shifting a bit is going to inshallah, explain one of these terms that's misused a lot, which is the term Well, I will borrow, how are we supposed to actually relate to the community around us, inshallah Tada. So I just want to complete the code that Dr. Nazir was talking about, I have no claim. I'm not claiming I'm ally, says the Sharia is entirely justice, compassion, wisdom and prosperity. Therefore, any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with cruelty, prosperity, with harm, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does

not belong to the Sharia, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretations, this goes back to the fact that we were talking about objectives of Islamic law, understand what God means. So if you see injustice, if you see cruelty, if you see harm, if you see nonsense, then know that these are things that are not from the Sharia, which now leads us into I want to contextualize what Dr. Nasir was talking about, and speak about these things in the Canadian context. And what that looks like is Muslims first came to Canada in the 1870s. These are the first documented Muslims that came to Alberta with of itself. The very first mosque was built in Edmonton 1938 murshid

Rashid, we jump forward a little bit now to 2006. And that is when the first terrorism charges against a Muslim has been laid in the Toronto 18 cases. Now, with that being said, we want to understand what happened from 1870 all the way till 2006. The Muslims have been here for such a long time. Yet, for the first time in 2006. This is now becoming a common thing that Muslims are being accused of acts of terrorism. Well, as Dr. Nasir pointed out, there is a circumstance in a global phenomena that needs to be understood. And the case study of Iraq is actually a very phenomenal case study for many perspectives. Number one, is that when we talk about the criminal justice system in

Canada, you kill one person, and you're looking at a life sentence, right? You're taking to court, you're convicted, you're looking at a life sentence. If you look at what happened in Iraq, they went into Iraq under the guise of weapons of mass destruction, which is reality. Now, even Tony Blair confirmed that that was never the plan. Anyways, we knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, it was more about getting oil and destabilizing the region. So now they go in conservative numbers, say 200,000 are killed. liberal numbers say that more upwards of a million are killed. And no one talks about, again, the radiation poisoning and the depleted uranium that was used to attack these

people. So babies are being born deformed, I want you to imagine that the pain and suffering that people go through. So this is a climate that's being created. And then when they come out empty handed with no weapons of mass destruction, you get a buffoon on TV with George W. Bush, Jr, saying, sorry, we did not find weapons of mass destruction, not even apology for all the murders and killing sorry that we didn't find the weapons of mass destruction. That is what the people of Iraq got in return. Now the whole region gets destabilized the name of bringing democracy to Iraq. But did they really bring democracy, they replaced it with another militant Shia regime. That's what ended up

happening. So the Sunni population gets persecuted even more. Now, the neighboring country in Syria is going through a similar crisis, you have an other regime, that is again, abusing its population, ticking its resources, and not allowing the freedom of the practice of religion. You create this sort of environment where people are upset and frustrated that their countries are being plummeted and being robbed of their resources. People are being killed in the millions, children are being born deformed. People are sick, they have no access to water, all these circumstances are being created. Now, when you give them an option that join us, we can change your situation, regardless of

how fanatical these people look like and and seem like they would be willing to join. So the people of Iraq for the most part, I believe, didn't join because of a fanatical ideology. They ended up joining because of desperation. Now who's accountable for that level of desperation that it reached? I believe the world is responsible for that, that when we turn blind eyes to political turmoil and the oppression and justice that takes place in the world, we create an environment that is conducive to fanatical rhetoric and extremist ideology. And that's what ended up happening. And that is when you know this whole content

of radicalization in the West change as well, that the oma is suffering, we need to do something about it, because clearly our governments and our people aren't doing anything about it. So the political system has been worked for us, let us turn towards violence. And this is the rhetoric that was being used. But clearly, history has also shown us that the uptake of arms isn't the best solution always. And in fact, most of the times isn't the best solution. Again, this is a very sensitive topic, but you think about the Arab Spring, and the number of people that have been killed, and you know, the, the number of regimes that have just been reinforced in their oppression,

not things haven't changed, for the better. So there has to be a long term greater strategy. And for Muslims in particular, the practicing of their faith and religious commitment cannot be separated from their long term strategy, they go hand in hand, because we believe that the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala will not come until Muslims are returned back to their faith. This is what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us. So now that brings us into my actual topic of discussion, that one of these vehicles that extremist ideologies use is the authorization of others. Meaning that before you can harm someone, you have to view them as someone that is not from you,

that you have no ties with them. In fact, someone that you hate someone that you despise someone that you demonize, right, that's what ends up happening. Now, one of the concepts that is used and abused is this concept of water and borrow, which is a part of our faith, but like I said, is completely abused. So how do we understand what what Bora means? We're not in translation is allegiance and what this is referring to allegiance to Allah, His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to the faith of Islam. Bara is disavowal to be the exact opposite of loyal, right. So these are people that you're free from. So you see this in the story of Ibrahim, and he said that towards

his father and the people that were coming and making these idols, Ibrahim Ali Salaam was buddy, he was free from them. This is what Bara is referring to. But what is the true understanding of Islam pertaining to this issue? And how do we understand our relationship with non Muslims? The first thing you need to understand is very simple, that Islam as a religion is known as Dino Rama, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as a prophet was known as nibio, Rama and this mercy encompasses everyone and everything Muslim or non Muslim. This is what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us. Now with that being said, if you look inside shortall meyda Allah subhanho wa Taala

specifically talks about that Allah subhanho wa Taala has allowed you to eat the meat of the People of the Book, and has allowed you to marry from the womenfolk. I want you to understand, if you're coming from this construed ideology of, Hey, we have to hate all of the Cofer, how are you meant to be married to someone yet hate them at the same time? How is that relationship going to work? It doesn't, because clearly, they're not presenting a true picture of what Islam requires of us. So how do we understand this concept of law? This concept of birth or disavow is towards everything evil, it is a moral and ethical code, that in the presence of evil, you're meant to reject it. And this

evil will exist within Muslims and it exists within non Muslims. So our Bara or disavow is towards evil and not towards particular individuals. Why is that the case? Because you can never know for sure what is going to happen with a particular individual. A person can be Muslim, die as a non Muslim, a person can be non Muslim and die upon Islam. Things can change very, very quickly, very, very drastically. So this allegiance is towards good and our disavow is towards everything that is bad and wrong. Now, how do we understand this in the context of the Quran, and the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Well before prophet the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam took

part in healthful food, which was a very ethical treaty that took place between these people to stand up for a moral code of conduct. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he comes to Medina, he finds Christians and Jews there, and is a pluralistic society where people are living in peace and living in harmony, and there's no discord until what happens. One of the fractions proves to be treacherous, and then they are the ones that are exiled. But prior to that treachery, everyone was living in peace. And this is what Islam is meant to look like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he even praises his uncle Abu toilette, who was a disbeliever, who is not from the people of

the book, you but he praises the likes of Mater magnet ad who defended the Muslims. So clearly our relationship with non Muslims is not one of hatred, but rather is one of neutrality. Meaning that those that are

Good amongst them, we embrace them. And we appreciate the goodness that is that is in them. And those that have bad traits and characteristics, we treat them just like the bad characteristics that Muslims have, meaning that we advise them, we pray for their betterment. We tried to, you know, guide them and lead them through example. But in terms of completely creating this dichotomy of you have to hate all disbelievers. This was never the case, this was never the case at all. So I hope that leads to some clarity on understanding this matter. And we're now going to lead into our conclusion, which will be for about five to 10 minutes, and then we'll open up the floor for

question answers and children. Just so you know, this has been shifting away covered covered things very comprehensively. There's not much else to add. I think going forward. Now, what can we say? It's important for us as Muslims to have a proper understanding of our Deen. So we are able to represent his teachings if we look at all the confusion that's happening in our times, a lot of it is because we are not able to explain our Deen properly to others, right? When people say oh, Islam is a religion of violence and this and that, we have to ask ourselves, do I have the ability to tell them? No, that's not true. And this is why do I have the ability to quote an example from the crime?

You know, the pawn says fight only those who fight you? Do I have the ability to tell them the Koran says whoever kills somebody, it's as if they've killed all of humanity. Do I have these this ability to quote from the example of the Prophet Mohammed Salah Salim and give them a proof? If if we if I don't, it means that I need to increase my own knowledge. And I think that's a very important take home message that each and every one of us should be ambassadors of Islam. We should be ambassadors of the message and show people how Islam is a beautiful message that is mercy for everyone. You know, the Prophet Muhammad says M is described in the Punnett circle MBA with a mouse and neck Illa

Rahmatullah mean, we have nothing to Mohammed says, and except as a mercy for what just for Muslims know for all creation, you must have been God in a poverty, Rahim Allah, the famous scholar of Tafseer. He says about this, this includes Muslims and disbelievers Muslims and non Muslims, people of all backgrounds. If we look at the example of the Prophet Muhammad says, and we see so many examples of how we should always have the best conduct towards everyone, regardless of who they are. The Prophet Muhammad SAW Some said, in a hadith narrative and the Muslim Devi management laborer who lived too happy but then he man had died, your happiness may have been enough to him in Ohio, that a

person does not reach the true reality of a man until they love for all humanity, the same good that they would love for themselves. The Prophet Muhammad says and taught his followers to be generous with everyone when we know in the in the pond, when Alice Crenshaw talks about the categories of sadhaka, right the categories of the cat where Alice panda uses the word set up, but when one of the categories is, what am I left at? home? Right, those people we want to show them the beauty of Asana, we want to bring their hearts closer to our community and show them the reality of of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad says I'm also said in a hadith narrated Ibn Abi shaybah That said, the poor

either directly donate and charity to people of all faiths to people of all ways of life. The prophets are some did not teach Muslims to only be good to other Muslims. And this is a mistake that has crept into our community that we have this idea that being Muslim means you only are good with other Muslims. It's the exact opposite Islam wants us to show our goodness to all humanity. Right. The contest has come to light on matino collegian. liveness you should be the best nation brought forth for mankind. Why that wouldn't have been my roof was on hold on in Cotabato. Because you always enjoin good with everyone and you always protect everyone from evil. And you have Eman And

Allah subhanho wa Taala. So Islam gives us the highest moral code Islam gives us the highest moral virtues, it's we who have been deficient in following the those virtues so inshallah Tada. This is an important reminder for us to revive our knowledge, learn about examples in the profits or some life Like for example, the healthful food does anyone remember what is the healthful food?

content doing a little bit of testing zero knowledge here? Anyone remember what is headful fool?

Yeah, so there was an agreement. This actually happened before Islam. Okay, so it wasn't the gym or synonymous. It was before Islam. There was an agreement that if anyone was was, was wronged in Makkah, that that that these people who took this agreement

They would all gather together to protect that person because at that time people only protected whoever was in their tribe. So then they made this agreement, that no matter who is wronged, we will help that person. The Prophet Muhammad says and later on said after he had become a prophet, and after the religion of Islam, he said it today, I was called for it to honor healthful, full dual, which is a treaty with an agreement with non Muslims to protect anyone, regardless of their background, even if they're non Muslims to whatever he said, If I were called to uphold that agreement, I would answer it today. Right even after the Prophet Muhammad sesam preach the message

of Islam he didn't say now that Islam has come okay. That's it only helped Muslims. No, he said we would still uphold that agreement. Look at the Treaty of heart Abia, right, look at all of these examples from this era of the Prophet Muhammad says, So May Allah Subhana enable us to follow the true message of the Prophet Muhammad says them and to revive our understanding of the deen and to be true ambassadors of the beautiful message of Islam, for others to show everyone that Islam is about compassion towards all of humanity, how there was a lower center of robotic identity and whether it was Sophia Jane, shallow, we'll take questions from the audience.

Yes.

Excellent.

Very good, to just repeating so and so the brother made a very good point. Another example is in the pond and certain clusters Allah says in Nicoletta demon, but alas, Panda says to the profitsystem, you cannot guide the one whom you love. Who is it referring to a robotic? Who is not Muslim. So Allah saying you cannot guide the one whom you love proving that the Prophet system had love for him. So how can anyone say it is wrong to have love for somebody? Who is a disbeliever? Right, unless quanta proved it in the Quran? Right. So this is a natural love a this is this is something that the pond makes very clear. So does that clarify? Excellent point?

Yes.

Equally? Okay, good question. So the first question is, do we have to love believers and non believers equally? And the answer to this comes down to that there's different types of love. So there is a love which is natural, when someone shows you kindness, you will start to develop love for them. And this is where some of that is for Muslims, and for non Muslims. But then there is a love which is a fundamental component of our faith, which is loving the people of a man, which is loving the people of the heat. And this is something that is exclusive towards Muslims. So what exactly does this look like? You probably sell a lot by the Senate, he tells us how can Muslim

Muslim said that because there's some chances that the right of a Muslim apart another Muslim are six. So you have to go out of your way to fulfill these rights for a Muslim, this is part of his rights upon you. Whereas if you do this for a non Muslim, it is something that is good, but it's not something that is you know, mandatory. So there's two types of law that which is natural, that encompasses everyone, and then there's a religious type of love, which is exclusive to the believers. And just to add to what Sharon COVID mentioned, also when we look at the divine attributes of Allah subhana wa tada we see a lot of Allah has the attribute of Rama of mercy right.

Now let's hunt as mercy has two levels, right? On one hand, Alice pronto says water Mati, what's the Aquila Shea, that my mercy encompasses everything right? And then on the other hand, a list also says, What can be the meaning of a Hema, right that allows crime that is intensely merciful with those who have a man in him. So there are different levels and there are different types of love and compassion I should have mentioned. So another example the profitsystem said it Hammond fit out there hamaca Memphis I'ma show mercy to everyone on this earth. The brothers ism didn't say it Hamad Al Muslim on Muslim mean, he didn't say make it specific to the Muslims. He said, everyone on this

earth and Allah will have mercy on you. So our compassion, our good conduct, our our natural love is for everyone. Right? And then on in addition to that, there is also a connection that believers share with one another through there to hate of Allah subhanho wa Taala as chef never had mentioned.

Excellent. That was your right so this is a common statement that's that's mentioned that Islam spread by the sword. Right? What do they mean by this when they say to a spread by the sword, they mean that it was through violence that people ended up becoming Muslim. And this is a really a ridiculous idea that has no history.

A basis to it. Any reliable historian will look at this and say, it doesn't make any sense why? If you look at the the history of Islam in the life of the Prophet Muhammad says, right?

During the early years in Medina, right, the the Muslims were a small community, when the battles were taking place, nobody was was forced except to some through battles. And if you look at the the, the

before the Treaty of herdade, via the number of Muslims with the Prophet Muhammad sessom, on that camera was 1000, less than 1000. Now, after the Treaty of Hodeidah, when the two years later, when the Prophet Muhammad Hassan, entered into Makkah, the number of Muslims entering into Makkah was 10,000. This was in the eighth year of his era. So in six years, there is a very small amount of growth in the time when there was conflict with perish, but when there was peace, that's when Islam spread, and 10,000 people ended up accepting Islam. So email me but she had, bizarrely one of the earliest scars of Islam, he died 124 hedgy. He said, this shows that Islam spreads best in times of

peace, not in times of conflict. Furthermore, when we look at how did Islam spread, after the life of the Prophet Mohammed tourism, when you look at the collapse of Abu Bakar De La Hoya and Omar Abdullah Han, Did, did Muslim start the fighting with the Persians and, and and the Byzantine Empire. Rather, these were empires that started the conflict with Muslims, right when the Prophet Muhammad SAW some send letters to them, the the Persian Empire, Emperor kiswa, it caused rose he tore up the letter and he sent somebody to go try to arrest the Prophet Muhammad Sursum. And when the Prophet system sent a letter to the concern, it's we're under the Byzantine Empire, they tied up

to the person the profits are some sent and how they've been or metal as the and they beheaded him, even though it was against any international rule to behead the person who is a messenger, right? As they say, don't shoot the messenger, right? The person delivering the messenger, you're supposed to at least have the basic decency that you don't harm that person. So these empires, they initiated the conflict with the Muslims. Now when it some spread, and Muslims fought against these different empires and Islam spread in these lands, for the first 400 years that Muslims were living in these lands, they were a minority. Did you know that historians have shown for the first 400 years in all

these lands that Muslims conquered, they were a minority, meaning they did not force the masses to accept Islam, they did not go around with the sword and say, we accept Islam or die. This did not happen. They remained a minority in these places. Furthermore, if you look at which is the Muslim country today with the largest population,

Indonesia, can anyone tell me which Muslim army went to Indonesia?

There was never a Muslim army that went to Indonesia. We know the story of how Islam spread to Indonesia, when merchants went there and started to do trade. And they asked, people ask about Islam. And they taught it taught them about the religion and that's how the religions spread. Finally, the most important point coming back to the client itself, the Quran proves that a person who accepts Islam by force, that type of acceptance is not even valid. Right? The font says insert the Baccarat verse 256, let a crow have a deed, right. There's no compulsion in religion. So it's not even allowed to, to curse. I want to force someone, let alone threaten somebody to become a

Muslim. So when you look at all of these points together, it becomes very clear that historically It doesn't make sense to say Islam spread by the sword Islam spread during times of peace. theologically, it doesn't make sense.

Eman is only valid when a person accepts it from their own choice. All of these things together, it shows you that the claim that Islam was spread by the sword really doesn't it shows a serious amount of ignorance is that

one of the things that I would just add on to that, is that even looking at psychological factors, how do human beings respond to fear? When it comes to fear, you can make temporary change what you can't make long term change, right? That long term change has to come from a place of love has to come from a place of happiness. So people were compelled to enter into Islam. Let's just submit their argument for argument's sake, what caused them to stay in Islam thereafter, right? That's something that needs to be asked. Obviously, it was their love their commitment and dedication to the truth that caused them to stay. So even that argument that they were forced to accept Islam

makes no sense whatsoever. Any other questions? Good. Yeah. Um, one more believer asked about Sharia. Most of the time we will mention that we know not only that, but they will mention like hockey cutting hand or spawning village a woman because most of the time

we still have to answer to that and say it is a part of

So how can we?

Excellent. So yeah, so the question was about, basically about the Hadoop punishments, right? So people may have misconception about the *tier. Because the only thing that people talk about in the media about shediac is cutting the hand of a thief, or punishment for adultery or Xena for fornication. And so this is the image that they have. And the first thing I always tell people is I correct that image. And I say, this is a distortion of what the Islamic law actually is. Because when you look in the books, you find that, for example, the punishment of the thief, the scholars of infoq, they mentioned over 60 conditions for this punishment to be applied. In other words, this is

really something that is meant to just deter people, psychologically, it's meant to make them afraid of doing that crime, because before the modern age, they they didn't have police forces everywhere, right? So the only way to prevent people from committing a crime is to make people really afraid that something something bad is going to happen right. So this is why it's so important they call it a psychological determined. So this is so the the the the problem of homelessness, I'm actually advise people try to find an excuse for the person who does a sin or does a crime, the profitsystem said it roll her dude Bishop who had right try to repel the huddled punishments with doubts giving

excuse benefit of the doubt to the person so that you can find a way out for that person. So most of the time when they do their talks about in media, it's a misrepresentation of what Islamic law actually says. And the problem is people are not going to go to the books, they're not going to open up the books of fiction, go to volume eight, and have a look at and look at what are actually the conditions and what is being discussed. And so they just rely on this kind of caricature or misrepresentation and distortion of what the Hadoop actually are. Excellent. I would briefly add to that as well. That is go back to the objectives of Islamic law, the Islamic law came to protect

these five things that we spoke about. And then if you guys remember when we did the previous session on when is it lead when were these punishments legislated? So obviously, we talked about how they have very strict conditions that need to be upheld. But we also talked about that there's only four occasions that by consensus exists. And those four conditions, in particular, all go back to the objectives of Islamic law, there's only one the objectives of Islamic law are threatened, and the case has been verified, and all the conditions have been met. And then it will be implemented in a court of law in an Islamic State. Which brings us to the point that I want to get to, is that it

is a point that is motoric. Now that why are we discussing something that isn't implemented, because when we don't have the implementation of this Islamic law, nor do we have the Islamic State, and a lot of the times there is implementation in this day and age is more just political power, it's more of abuse of a system where steering classes are treated differently in society, and that is why it is implemented. Now we have a question number here that says, When faced by an islamophobe individual, what is a proper response? What is a proper response? Well, I would always say that look, always assess the situation first, before we think of response, because not every allegation

deserves a response. There are some people that are just absolutely vile, they just want to spew hatred, they want to create conflict, we want to bring out the worst in you. These people are not worth responding to. However, you have other people that are genuine people that actually do want to learn do want to know they are sincere, and they're willing to hear what you have to say, these people you want to spend time with. You want to make sure that you will respond logically and a knowledge based answer and that your actions speak louder than your words. And that is what the response should be. And always if there your your life is in imminent danger, someone's trying to

attack you. Don't try to stop them. Let me teach you about this love, run away call the police do something at that time. Not every situation requires a response.

We'll take one last question. If there's anything then I have two things that I want to address that are separate to this. I just wanted to add that

the the paper that we're going through and discussing if somebody wants to read more information, it's a paper on European institute that that I wrote on, it's called forever on trial, Islam and the charge of violence. So basically, this we most of these points, you'll find more detail and information. If you go on European institute.org and you look at that paper in sha Allah, and that's a good resource. If you're being asked questions by an Islamophobic individual and you want to give them a resource. If they're open minded, then they can read this inshallah. So we have a question here from the sisters and it's something I want to address publicly. It's

As some of our Muslim sisters are not coming because of the open quality, could you please tell us why it is open, we feel uncomfortable. And this is a struggle we've had over the past couple of weeks that we have started opening up the curtain for the Holocaust. And this is something that should have been done a long time ago. I want to explain why that number one is that we don't have proper projection to the back. So the vision, the will is it always clear number two, our sound will cut off from time to time, those are just the issues that pertain to this day and age. But if you go back to the time of the prophets of Allah, during the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa

sallam, there was no actual physical barrier between the men and the woman. This is something that took place after or much later on in society. But what was kept in mind was that people had the fear of Allah subhanaw taala, they had the consciousness of Allah subhanaw taala in the way they interact with the opposite gender. So in this day and age, even according to Isla de la Mancha, very late and very soon after, he definitely wasn't set up. She said that if the prophet SAW, I sort of knew what the women were up to in this time, he would have prevented them from coming to the to the masjid. So now we want to find that fine line between how do we make the massage of the houses of a lot, not

the houses of any particular gender of any particular people, the house of Allah, open, and public spaces to all people, that they feel welcome. And they feel included. And we felt that it was a good compromise, to keep part of it open for those that would like open interaction within the parameters and framework of the Sharia. And those that would like to be more secluded behind the court didn't have access to do that as well. But to impose any one opinion over the other, then this is something that is not Islamic, we learned today that there is a component in our religion. So those sisters that feel comfortable, by all means this is the house of Allah subhanaw taala. And this is their

space as well. And they're welcome to sit in the open space. And those sisters that want more seclusion, then there is an area behind the curtain. And this is not something that should cause division amongst people. But rather, this is something that should be cut, make brothers and sisters closer together for the sake of almost a panel without understanding our faith as a faith of tolerance and one of unity of the hearts that needs to be kept in mind. So those sisters that have stopped coming, I would say that inshallah they should come back to the houses of Allah, we shouldn't flee from the house of Allah just because of the difference of opinion being implemented.

If they feel more comfortable behind the curtain, then they're welcome to stay there and no one can force them to do otherwise.

The second question is about silica, silica. And that, you know, a question that was posed is wrong not to have answered? I'll just answer it very quickly. It says, After doing a staccato for many days, if someone does not find any clear answer in his or her dream, what should one do? And the answer to this is that it's because it has nothing to do with your dreams. The prophets of Allah taught us to make his cover after we have made a decision. So the process some teachers have to say that if this action is good for me, then make it easy for me. And if this action is not good for me, then take it away from me. So you've already made the decision. And the answer to your istikhara is

how easy or difficult things become. If things are easy for you, then this is a man this is a means that you should continue to pursue if things become extremely difficult, then this is something that you should abandon, and rarely at seldom do you actually get a response in the dream or love what's on the other discipline. Welcome to all of you for attending. Anything that we have said is correct is from Allah subhana wa tada and again, it was incorrect was from ourselves from Chicago and we seek a lesson give this and yours for that. A lot more behind the shadows that are so critical to a lake