Foundations Of Faith

Along with

me,

lagging in the shape of a Gini index, it was

too late you will know how to deal with it. And

if somebody were Sydney, Emily black moon rocks, that's a descendant of Coco Lee and the yellow banana mean, I don't know what you were laughing about before, but I will find out.

And I will give a clip about it

on YouTube, okay.

So I actually only came here because of chocolate.

But allegedly, there was a lecture also. So I'm here when I was asked to speak with you tonight briefly about the fundamentals of faith, the foundations of faith. And I promise you that I will not make this a long lecture I try not to I would, I would rather as I said, in Switzerland, when I was here, my primary motivation is to try to listen to us. So I want to actually make the question answer portion of this longer, and it's not really even about your questions. It's more even about your concerns. And I'm promising you from now, I may not be able to answer all of your questions, but I will certainly document on my lectures and my talks are actually mostly based on what people

asked me. And what concerns Muslim bring Muslims bring to me, a lot of times Muslim study Islam. And of course, when you study Islam, then you are studying everything, you're studying a lot of things. So then how do you prioritize? How do you prioritize what to teach people learning is something else teaching is something else. When it comes to teaching, in my personal view, we should teach what is actually a concern to the Muslims first, what people are actually confused about, first, what they are asking about what they're worried about what they are, what is stressing them out, that should be a priority. Now, I do not know that. If I'm using the mic all the time I have, I can only

understand that if I give you time to ask your concerns and ask your questions. So even if your questions are not related to my topic, it's okay even though I'm not welcoming that. But even if it's outside of the scope, it's okay. Even if I'm not able to answer it, it's okay. At least I know what's what the concerns are. So in the future, you know, attempt I can try to address some of those issues. Now today, I was asked to speak about the foundations of faith. And what I want to share with you first and foremost is my own journey towards faith. And how it's not a it's not unusual, the journey that I have towards Islam or back towards Islam is not unusual. And many people have the

same journey. But unfortunately, when they talk about the faith itself, they use very artificial language. And I don't I'm not interested in artistic. I'm interested in First of all, how can I describe the journey itself, there is actually a description of the journey. There's a description of the journey. And this there is not one journey, there are multiple journeys. Everybody has a different starting point. Even if the destination is the same. If you started somewhere else, your journey is going to be different from the person next to you, you understand. So the journey is important to understand. And then of course, we get to the destination itself. And we understand

some things about the eventual now as I speak to you, you must be hearing some babies going

which is okay. Don't look at them with angry faces. Those mothers had a hard time coming here. They Park very far from here and they walk the longest. And they have a baby with them. And their husband is relaxing on this side.

So let's Okay, maybe make a little bit. Okay, no problem.

Particularly psycho.

Otherwise, it's once in a while live streaming here. And there is no problem is also you know, because I did I have six children, and they need a lot of noise. So I didn't hear anything.

I just thought so.

Now the I began with Actually, this is something many of you have heard many, many, many times. And I want to I want to begin with I like I said my own journey. And when I when I became when I came to the United States. I had my upbringing was mostly in the Muslim world. And I came to the United States when I was about 1415 years of age. And I went into public high schools and I in those two years of high school, I did not have any Muslim friends and you don't get time off to go pray Juma and my father was working in the city anyway, so I couldn't go with anybody else.

Anyway, so I did not pray any prayers for those two years. Maybe once in a while my dad would take me if the school was off, you know, so we would maybe go to the gym or prayer. Now before this I was in an Islamic environment where I was you know, it was all boys school all my teachers were listening. When the teacher walked in, you said salaam aleikum, wa rahmatullah the country you stood up and you said that the teacher responded to you and you sat down, it was a different environment. But when I went to New York, and I went to high school, it was not the same environment was the girls were together? There were there was no new uniform, in some places, there was no clothing.

It was different, you know, and at first, you're shocked, and you're disturbed? How can they be like this stuff.

But you know what, after six months, it's not.

You get used to it, you know, and then you start thinking that maybe the way I used to live was strange. And this is normal. That was strange. And this is normal, because everybody else is one way, and I'm a different way. So I must be the one that's crazy. So you start and human beings have a tendency they want to fit with everyone else. We have a desire not to be different from everyone else, we want to be acceptable to other people, it's a desire that we have, we look for acceptance with our family, we look for acceptance with our friends, even if you don't see it, you feel it. When you feel rejection, it hurts. So you know, people start changing themselves, they talk, the way

they look a little bit, they change the way they talk a little bit, you know, and if all of your friends use filthy language that in order to fit in, and guess what, you start using filthy language, if all of your friends make fun of other people, after a while, it's okay for you to make fun of other people. It just becomes part of who you are. And so that happened to me. And a point came where by the time I was in college, I was around friends who made fun of God, who made fun of religion, who thought religion was a stupid thing. And guess what I used to think the same thing. I thought the same thing. And I just adopted their arguments and what they told me as acceptable to

myself. Now, when you're in that state, if you find me if you were in Baruch College in New York City, in 1998, when I went to college there, and you saw me walking around, you would not think I'm Muslim, you will not think I'm Muslim. And if you saw me talking to a Muslim, you will think that I'm some kind of Islam hater. That's what you would think, if you just got a first impression of me. And I have had all these, you know, philosophical arguments, you know, basically rooted in agnosticism all the way spreading all the way to atheism, and all this stuff, like prepared for myself, if anybody even brought up religion, even Islam.

But you know, you have to be honest with yourself. And I realized that for a long time that I wasn't being honest with myself. And that is something you can hold that conversation with yourself, you can only have, when you are left alone from all the pressures.

When all the pressures are removed, it's just you by yourself, having a conversation with yourself. And I deep down inside, I knew there's something wrong, but I didn't want to accept it. And if you don't want to have a conversation with yourself, what you do is you keep yourself busy around people. And when you're not around people, you turn the TV on, or you watch something online, or you play a video game, so your mind is always busy in something else. It never has time to just stop and think, just reflect, just ponder. I'm not even saying thinking about God. I'm just saying thinking. Today, the world has a crisis because a lot of people, if not the vast majority of people from

childhood are programmed not to think they're programmed not to think on the flight here from the from the United States. When I was flying to London, you know, they have those skymall magazines where they sell new stuff online, on the air, right. So going through it and they see the strangest ad, they have a party chair for kids with an iPad stand.

So if your kid you know, in the middle of his business, he runs away, put an iPod iPad there, and he can keep watching his shows and he could stay there for as long as you would give him to have today and you find and I said to myself so proud of love. We are now at a time where we are programming even young children to become so addicted to screens and to games and to videos into this and that where they're actually not engaging with the real world. I actually literally seen kids that play you know, games in their, on their on their iPads, if they like football and this and that and the ball like this, right? So when they hold a real football, they go like this.

Nothing's happening

but the first foundation of things

is independent thought the first Foundation, the solid Faith is the ability to think clearly. Now this is there is no doubt about it in the skies, and

it will, no doubt about it in the creation of the skies and the earth must be laughing.

And in the in the conflict between the night and the day is night turns into day and day turns into night.

There are miraculous signs, there are clear indications, there are powerful indications for people of sound minds, I'll translate that again at the end, sound, powerful minds, you

know, what I'm saying here is the skies and the earth actually are, according to him, and the night in the day are actually miracles. People say that if I would believe if I saw a miracle,

I'm ready to accept the baby, show me something amazing. Like if you just like, like, get in a tree come out of here, then I will, I'm ready to go. You know, they want to see a miracle. And apply uses the word ayah. Not only for things like the scaffold, turning into a snake. He doesn't just use the word miracle for the shape of a bird. But he saw by Jesus turning into a living bird, he doesn't just use it for that. He uses it for the sky and the earth. And he uses it for the night and the day.

Actually, he's demanding from us to think if you really truly think about it, the sky is pretty incredible. The earth is remarkable. Night is incredible. Day is remarkable. It's something that will make you wonder, but who is going to wonder if their entire night and their entire base spent not thinking and just not thinking has it ever happened to you that you're stuck in traffic, you're probably stuck in traffic. So if you're stuck in traffic, and it's evening time and the sun is setting, and your car hasn't moved for the last 10 minutes, so you actually don't have anything else to do so you just start looking at the orange sky. And for a few seconds. We're just amazed by the

beauty of this painting which is real. You're just losted there's mesmerized by those few moments and little light is talking about now, in the creation of the skies and the earth and the conflict of the night India are powerful signs is not for everyone. For a believer allies Same for a Muslim for not even a Muslim actually is more than Muslims. The Omen Yaki Hoon is more than Muslim anybody who exercises their intellect a lion saying if you were to pay attention to these things, you will be left in wonder. But he doesn't he doesn't open this for everybody he says lead in advance so we have to identify and qualify this term. What does it mean to be people have and I'll give you

without translation the word that people have looked them up if you want to look now

what does this word mean? They see

it

they see that this book is actually a pure mind.

Congresswoman I show what it means a sound mind that is free from vanities. I know that sounds like difficult English so I have to explain this to you and it's easy languages like Canada

we nowadays get bombarded with information yesterday

where we have too much information about too many things. You go and buy yourself some chocolate milk by the way you have heavenly chocolate chocolate milk in this country.

I am I had like higher in mind and I didn't

go to all that

you guys ever heard me all this time?

Wow, he just sat there

no protest no nothing.

Okay, all right, fine. Fine. So I was talking about I was this was a lecture about chocolate milk

so now what I'm saying is we are bombarded with information so I refer to talk about because if you turn to the side of the chocolate milk, what do you get like 45 ingredients? This percent of this this percent of that was a lot of information.

You your your every commercial, every advertisement you need is information. You know, every movie you watch has a lot of information. Actually video games are more and more information now. Especially if you play role playing games. There are so many rules and weapons and sub weapons and upgrades and updates and trophies. There's a lot of information to keep up with. And of course, cheat codes and walkthroughs it's a lot of work. It's like a full semester in college.

serious work. If you ever see kids play a video game like I remember

A lot many years ago, one of my roommates used to play Final Fantasy

games. And I sat down, I watched him play it one time. And he's willing to menu sub menu item sub item weapon, and it's all in Japanese.

Whoa. So I asked him, when do you play this?

Because you're still in the menus for the last half hour.

But that was the game the game is mostly the menus.

So there's a lot of information, then some of you are sports fans, right? Like we are we're big sports fanatics in America except for of course football, you know, football.

But you know, you know, American football basketball over here, probably, you know, football you know, all these teams, you know, the athletes names, you look contracts, you know how much they get paid. You know, it's TMS, corruption charges, you know, all this stuff. You know, all this stuff, there's so much information. Now information according to the Arabic language information that has no benefit, that actually at the end of the day does not make you a better human being. It is only information for the sake of information, it's fluff, it doesn't really amount to anything.

That kind of information is vain, it's useless. And a person of no is actually has a mind that is free from useless information. The more useless information you take in, the less you are capable of processing good information. How does that work? If you eat a lot of bad food,

if you eat a lot of junk food, and then you also eat an apple,

does that undo all the damage?

No. If you want to get healthier, you don't just eat healthy food, what do you have to do?

You can tell you can pull it out, okay, what do you have to do to stop eating

the junk food at the same time eat the healthy food, you have to do two things. If somebody is, you know, diabetes, and they say, Well, I'm eating a lot of other food. Now, I haven't cut down on the sugar, but I also added some carrots to my diet. And I drink a lot more water and it doesn't help you have to cut down on the junk. Now the same way if you're if you and I are going to become people have no people have clear thought

then we have to start detoxing, eliminating the obsession with useless information and has to become less, we may not be able to eliminate it altogether, because we are in the over information age. Right? So you don't may not be able to eliminate it altogether. But you have to try to cut it down as much as you possibly can. Now think about this. What do you what do you put up on WhatsApp? What do you update on Facebook? What do you tweet? The things you send out? Are they mostly useful or useless information? Is it a cat playing with piano?

Is there a guy who got his leg blown off by a shark?

You know?

Isn't that? Isn't that the most popular kind of information? Like if you look at YouTube videos, the most popular videos are the most useless also.

Entertainment, entertaining, but they're also the most useless of the world is migrating towards popularizing the most useless kinds of information. And are there for example, are there educational videos on YouTube?

Sure, you can learn to do a lot of things on YouTube, right? You can learn to paint your house, you can learn to knit a sweater you can learn all kinds of things. How many hits did those things get?

Like compare that to cats paint a piano. There's no competition.

Human beings tend to migrate in mass towards useless information. No one was saying to us, but you are not going to be able to appreciate the sky and the earth as miraculous. Until you become people that can get away from what

useless information then when you receive beneficial information, it will actually impact you. It won't be a lot of junk mixed with some good food and it's still overall it's still junk.

So again, you are some of you here, you listen to Islamic lectures or when you try to read something about Boko Haram. You're trying to learn about your religion, and you're trying to understand more and more but at the same time, we are also obsessed with entertainment. You're also just addicted, you're addicted to this stuff. And so you ask yourself, I listened to all these talks. I listened to all this stuff. How can I do change? How can I become a better person I listened to it but it doesn't impact me. Well, maybe it doesn't impact you because there's still too much junk going in.

You know,

the younger the container only gives out what it contains. If you take in a lot of junk.

But we'll come out of you and your speech and your behavior and your time is going to be useless. If you take into things that what comes out of you is also the things. So the way you spend your time is a manifestation of what you allow yourself to be exposed to more and more and more. That's the wonderful thing about today's times, we have choices. I have the choice to go online and watch something beneficial or watch something harmful. I have that choice. It is not even like 30 4050 years ago, it's not like 100 years ago, where everybody got the same newspaper. It's not like where everybody had to watch the same channels, there was nothing else. Now we have choice. So now he we

are even more personally responsible. We can even join there's nothing good ever on. Well, actually, there's plenty on it's just a matter of accessing it, isn't it? So what has done that for us? Now, that was the first thing I wanted to make? No?

babies.

stairs, seriously, okay?

It happens.

I forget babies all the time.

So anyway, now we know the difficult part.

Some people believe that you will come to Islam, if I give you proof. If I argue and debate with you and prove to you that God exists, then I will prove to you that the Quran is a miracle, then I will prove to you that Mohammed Salah Salah is not alive, etc, etc. And after this debate, you will become a Muslim.

No,

that's not how it works. If you know anything about debates, you know what they are right? They are two people with big egos.

They're two people with big egos. And one is trying to disprove the other one is trying to disprove the other. And when you are in a debate, and if you're losing, when you're losing the debate, do you feel like accepting your opponent's arguments? No, you actually feel more hatred towards your opponent. And so you develop even more aggression towards what they're saying. So even if you lose, you don't say you win, you say I'll be back with you want

to understand. So winning a debate is not dialogue. It's not calling anybody to Islam. Nor is it the way of the prophets on

your Is it the way of actually the Quran is fundamental call is to allow people to think on their own terms independently. But before that even allows them to have mentioned in this is something very powerful. And something that some of you might disagree with. Some people that are maybe their analysis, audience, I'm sure people that don't belong to this faith. I'm sure they're in the audience. And I'm glad that you're here. So I can explain this to all of you.

He says the people of sound thinking,

even if Guru

has helped one, where the heck kabuna he helped us on our team. And all that is part two, there are two parts I love describes the people who have good minds with two parts. Part One, they remember that

they remember God and they mentioned him standing sitting in on their sides. That's part one, I'll test you on this soon. Who was part one, remembering that? They remember God? Number two, they think about the skies in the air.

They think about the skies of it. So we began with the skies.

But then they switched and they said these people remember a lot. Now the thing is, liquid is called liquid in Arabic, remembering the love. Where does that happen? According to the Koran,

hitting 90 of my inner on Hulu, by remembering a lot of hearts become satisfied. Remembering a lot is an exercise of the heart. So in modern language, you can say remembering a lot is a spiritual exercise. Understandable. Remembering a lot is a spiritual exercise. Now, part two, he says they think about the skies and the earth deeply. They think deeply. They ponder, they reflect language.

They develop ideas about the skies of the earth now thinking, pondering, analyzing, is that a spiritual exercise? No. What is that? That's an intellectual exercise, isn't it? So alive is saying that if you are going to be people that Discover the Truth, develop your faith, then you have to have you have to be people that are engaged spiritually and engaged intellectually. There has to be two sides of this, any one side of this and you will not get it. You will not get it. There are religions in the world that say that their faith is spiritual. And if you ask intellectual questions, they say no. When asked this question,

you know, save your heart. Save your soul. Don't ask intellectual questions.

There are other philosophies in the world that are entirely intellectual.

And if you bring up anything about the spiritual dimension of the human being, then they say that doesn't exist. You can't scientifically prove it, there is no spirituality. There's no such thing as you know, you know, you know, love. It's just some neurons firing in our brain. It's not there's no such emotion like love or feeling closeness to God or, you know, he's really who really exists, the spiritual dimension doesn't exist. What I'm saying is people have sound minds recognize that they were given something spiritual inside of them. You don't have to prove it. You don't have to prove the sun is there it's very obvious. There's something inside you is there that is spiritual in

nature is the wolf. Allah gave you something inside you, that gives you the ability to love others. It gives you the ability to to love truth, you like truth and you don't like lies, you'd like justice and you don't like injustice. You appreciate love and respect and courtesy and you don't appreciate disrespecting injustice and harshness. There's something inside us that inclines towards some things. And turns away from some other things. That is something a lot put inside of us. You love beauty and you hate ugliness. You love cleanliness, and you hate dirty things. You're very fine away from them. That is something inside of us. That's a spiritual side of us. Now a lot of saying

you have to be people who can remember a lot in all times if a lot.

Which is the reason I picked this as my basis for the fundamentals of PE. Many of you are university students, show of hands university students. Okay, good. Majority of you are okay. It's hard for hard to be spiritual on campus.

It's very hard, is easy, super easy.

Normally, these one person has an easy the rest of us, including myself have a hard time spirituality on campus.

You know, there's, there's challenges there. You're always busy with work? How are you supposed to make time for Allah?

Actually, the first act of getting closer to a lot is simply remembering.

Simply remembering, remembering him as you're walking from one class to another class, remembering him by for free or having lunch, remembering him, when you look out your window, just remembering it. That's all he's not asking for more, you just say just remember. And when you get a free moment that what do you have to do where to focus on what you want. And they think deeply about the skies and the earth. This is actually one of the great beauties of Islam.

Allah says, in the fact that

he told us that we want to walk on the straight path. Then he mentioned people on one side of the path and the other side of the path, he said they didn't want to be on a him and

body, the two sides to extremes. Now if you notice, the people that came before us, one nation before us emphasize spirituality,

are Christian Brothers and sisters, they emphasize spirituality. And our Jewish brothers and sisters, what do they emphasize? The intellect, Allah describes that they became entirely intellectual and their hearts became hard. That's the criticism Allah makes over them. And the light says, you have to walk the path in the middle. What does that mean? You have to emphasize the spiritual and you have to emphasize intellectual, you have to find a balance between those two things, which is very, very difficult. Some of you want to learn about Islam, and you read a lot of books. You listen to a lot of lectures, which is all academic, its intellectual, and you're not

growing spiritually, and it's not healthy. And some of you say, I just want to spiritual I just want to pray, I just want to be God, I don't want to learn anything. Learning is useless. I just want to pray, pray, pray, that's also unhealthy. You have to learn learning as part of this religion, you have to combine both of those things. You cannot let one overtake the other. It is fluid and learning on the one hand, and is remembering God. On the other hand, those of you that are active in your Muslim Students Association is the activists here. The people that are regular in doing the work and all this other stuff, you are the people that learn more than other people, which means you

should pray more than

you have to balance that equation. You know what if I'm teaching more, I should be turning to a lot more. Because if I don't, I'll become unbalanced. This, this people have loved these are people that are balanced. They're balanced. You know what you find nowadays, you find people that look very religious,

on the outside with their clothing, with their face with their appearance, they look very, very religious, but in their personal lives, they have deep spiritual problems have deep, deep spiritual problems. When they pray, they're not connected to a lot. They just finish and go. They're very quick to tell people they're not with you a little properly. They're very good to speak somebody else's prayer, put your hands over here, don't put them over here. You know, lift your lips, your pants like this. This job along the way very quick to correct people when it comes to themselves. They just

Besides the words that there's no connection to the love, it's been a long time since the quiet one tear for the sake of Allah, that is invalid. That is what emphasize knowledge and you don't emphasize spirituality. And then on the other side, there are people that are so spiritual, that just say, forget the word allegedly remember God, forget when I forget what happens in the world. And that's not a slam either. And what doesn't let us do that either. We have to find a balance between these two things. And when we do is we get amazing people.

When you find a balance between these two things, you got remarkable human beings.

These are the people who can look at life in Santa

Lucia, the next Master, you did not create this without purpose. There's a reason you made this. I see purpose in my own life. Now. You see a mission in your life. I used to be my mission before I found this on my mission used to be when I finish school, I want to get a job, I will make a lot of money don't go party.

That was my mission. I didn't have a mission. beyond that. There are people whose mission in life does not go beyond today. They live their life as goals. This is it. This is what do you want to do? I want to have some fun.

What do you like? Nothing.

Don't stress me out. I don't like to think about that stuff. Just leave me alone. Let me relax. When you find faith, you realize that the entire universe has purpose, which means you have to have purpose to everything about you changes. Why am I studying? What am I studying? How is it going to help me? How is he going to help other people, everything changes everything, you become people with a mission, or a banana

suit. However,

this is a reality.

And that's the last piece I want to share with you before I take your questions. This in my view, in my personal view, I am convinced of this more and more every day, before I was the only text the only document that at the same time is incredibly intellectual.

If you ponder on it, if you study it deeply, it is incredibly intellectual. And at the same time, it is incredibly spiritual.

It combines both of those dimensions at the same time. I'd like to share two IR cases. One I have a lot says

on another iron, he also says

Why don't they think deeply about copper iron? Why don't they think deeply about it? He said this twice. He said this twice. But one time he said,

Kathy,

had it been from someone other than a lot, they would have been a lot of contradiction.

Now I'll say that again? Why don't they reflect? Why don't they think about it? Because if they thought about it, they will realize there are no contradictions? That's one statement. The other statement is

don't do it don't reflect deeply on the crime? Or are their hearts locked up? Or the hearts locked up? I'll repeat those two statements. So everybody's clear about what I'm talking about? Unless says you shouldn't reflect on the time because if you do you will find that there are no What What did I say? There are no contradictions. That's number one. Number two, why don't you reflect? Are your hearts locked up? Now when you find contradictions in something, is that an intellectual exercise or a spiritual exercise? To look for consistency? Or to look for contradiction? Is that like intellectual or spiritual? intellectual? And on the other side, he says, Why don't you reflect on?

Is there something wrong with your heart? When he says there's something wrong with your heart? What's he complaining about? The spiritual? So what are you saying then that reflection on the upon deep thinking about the provider is going to address a spiritual problem, and it will address an intellectual problem. So the world the Muslims need reflection on the Koran,

the Muslims need.

They need to think deeply about what this book is saying. It needs to be a profound like, time spent pondering what are you seeing your life? What are you saying? Those of you that are familiar with my talks, when I give a hook about usually how they like coach when they give a clip. Anybody know?

You know why I do that because I believe that reflection on one is better than holding 2020 versus 20 pieces and you didn't actually reflect on any of them. You put it on quickly.

Let's benefit

you take a little bit, but you look at least stare at a little bit.

You know, I mentioned this in New York when I was there a couple of weeks ago.

When you go to a beautiful ocean,

you just you know, maybe you got a chance to go to California, just gorgeous ocean. And you're standing there looking at these guys and you go

or do you stand there for a little bit and take it in. You see people sit at the beach just watching the waves for an entire game, they don't move. Because it's beautiful. It requires time. You don't say okay, now I gotta go to New York and I gotta see the speed. I'll look at Time Square for a second and then we'll go somewhere else. You don't do that. You don't do that. Oh, that's nice. You move on. If something is beautiful, it captures your attention for a while. The standards. This is what the four iron preserves. Now, because you're university students, I want to share with you what I believe to be inshallah inshallah inshallah, the renaissance of the oma how the Muslims are going

to revive not only themselves, but also to revive the entire world. I personally believe this is my own beliefs, you do not have to agree with them. I personally believe that unrestricted greed, and celebrated Greed has led the world in a very terrible direction. I believe that because of greed, major, major corporations are allowed to wonder we have their way in the world that has created the kind of pollution problems and the kind of environmental disasters, we complain about the environmental disasters, which is just a fruit, the seed of that is greed. Those those companies that are creating destruction all over the world, that are polluting natural waters, that are

destroying the entire farmlands, and cutting down trees, the you know, all of that is actually a result of human greed. And human greed is something that can only be addressed intellectually, spiritually, you can make all the policies in the world, you can have all the climate change, scientists debate the issue all you want. If you don't address and curb, we can never stop breathing, all human beings have it. But until we learn to curb it, and balance it, this problem will only get worse. The world is now facing it standing at a precipice so prevalent, all kinds of crazy things are happening in the world, bees are disappearing.

All kinds of fish are disappearing from the ocean. And people wonder why? And the answers are very clear. To me, the answer is very, very clear.

That's why it's disappeared. There's no reason there's no deeper answer to this. And I personally believe that the response the thing that will move humanity away from unrestricted grief, and it will bring them back to being human again. Being Human Being decent, again, is going to be a Renaissance. Maybe Muslims have an opportunity to bring about a Renaissance and I'll tell you how.

I personally believe some of you How many people here in the engineering field engineering

in the land of cars,

medical field, bio biology feel very good chemistry max. So a lot of you are in the sciences. How about the human side of humanities like political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, perhaps?

How many cycles here?

Very good. Very proud. By the way, if you guys are in the humanities, keep it up. And don't stop. Keep going. Okay. Now,

engineering itself is blind.

Science is blind. You can study science to produce the, you know, a solution for humanity.

You can also study science to produce weapons that will kill humanity.

You can study science, and you can further the cause of a machine of a corporation that runs on V. And you can help them further their agenda. You can do that. You can also study science to help people that are starving or in desperate need or create, create some kind of sustainability in the world. You can do that too. The option is the science itself is blind. It doesn't it doesn't have a conscience. science does not have a conscience. People have a conscience. People have a conscience. I personally believe that Muslims become people that reflect on the Quran. If they can deeply and in a meaningful way reflect on the Quran, then they will have the insights. They will have this you

don't drive to want to take the best of what they learned about this world and use it to make the world a better place alive.

For me, I just felt bad for that one.

So

I want to give you a couple of examples of this. will give you a couple of examples of this. So some Muslims feel like if you study evolution or if you study the origins of life that it will destroy your faith, right? Because if you believe in evolution,

oh my god.

Let's read the Koran on the issue. And I saw you turn this into

Hello?

Didn't they travel around all over the earth? And didn't they take a good look at how creation began?

goddess,

I will not only tell you how creation began, you must go in the earth. And go figure out how creation began. You will not learn how creation began in a book of religion, you will have the earth and dig and excavate and explore and then you will find out how creation began. Can you believe that someone can

go find out what

to study?

We're not into it. Don't study that little mess of uni man

who study origins of life, it'll mess you up unless you go

for it.

I read that and I said, Oh,

you want me to leave the library? You're gonna leave the question. And you want me to go explore the earth and figure out how creation began. So Panama,

and many

different kinds of planets to try to figure out how we can begin because Allah must have given us answers on the earth. We are not afraid to explore the world. Muslims are not supposed to be afraid to explore the world, we're supposed to celebrate the exploration of the world. We're supposed to be a religion that celebrates the marvelous creation of God. We don't see a contradiction between science and religion, we don't see that as you're either you're a person of science or you're a person of faith, we actually believe the more you become a person of science, the more it increases you in your faith. And the more you increase in your faith, the more it wants you to study science.

He took a risk a second time.

And so along those notes, the last piece of this, I said that there are the passages I shared with you. It was about the spiritual It was about the intellectual, wasn't it? There are people that I know I have some of my friends and people ask me, sometimes we listen, we watch your videos, what do you watch? I say Tom and Jerry, but

But actually, my inspirations are a few individuals that I consider mentors. They are terrible public speakers, but they're incredibly smart. And I know him personally, I have a lot of conversations with them. Like, for instance, one of the one of the people that I really look up to a dear friend of mine, and I consider him an older brother. He used to spend equilon with me when I first got interested in chronic studies, but he went a different direction. He went and studied the philosophy of science. And then he studied more chronic studies. Then he did a PhD in Islamic studies out of Yale University, and then he went to Boston and now he's doing a PhD on the term is

crazy. Yeah, these people are deep, is my other friend who's from Duke University in the United States, just finished his thesis on the faith, the belief system, that that the tauheed belief system of Newton, that Newton actually wrote papers, declaring that he was a strong believer in just one God, who could not have a son or who could not be forgotten. And actually, he articulates how Newton in his private library had not only a copy of the Quran, but also commentaries on the Koran, and had had interactions with Muslims. And actually, some of his some of his writings are directly related to social class or a local summit.

Now, this is an important study, and it's actually by Duke University itself. This paper is being considered pioneering a revolutionary, not Muslims aren't saying that he hasn't even published it yet. His University peers are saying this is revolutionary stuff. This is pretty good stuff. Now, I'm sharing this with you for a reason. Because in the modern discourse, it is almost argued that people will become sophisticated in science, it would be stupid for them to believe in God. It will be done for them to have faith. And actually the great pioneers of science across the board in Europe and across the board in America, the original pioneers of science, consistently were very

strong believers in the creator there.

Very strong believers in the garden. There are actually papers written by scientists on the absurdity of atheism. I need to write them needed nine Muslim writers, scientists writing the absurdity of atheism, and no not won multiple papers. We don't know this stuff. What we know is what gets popular on YouTube.

Right? And then we watch one or two of those things that our face starts getting shaken. So as I conclude this, like I said, conclude like four times.

As I conclude this talk, I want to talk to you about the IRA itself. What does the mean and how does it tie to the foundations of our faith? The word is, number one, the eyes obsessed with the term IO. It is absolutely obsessed with the term IO. It uses it virtually everywhere, all the time. So if you walk away from

it will say it's about the IO. Now, unfortunately, the IO gets translated as what verse, it gets translated as verse, But actually, the ayah is something far more. The ayah is the ability to look at something and derive a conclusion. Something that leads you to something else is an ayah. Anything that leads you to something So for instance, if it says exited, or it says restaurant that way, that's not a restaurant. That's just an idea.

If I go that way, what will they find? A restaurant? That's an island, you get it? Now

you know, the tell you a crazy story about an island.

In Seward, suburb sort of service Tourism Authority for there's a story of Solomon. So they've been wanting to set up and the Queen

that he calls the Queen into his castle.

He calls the Queen intense castle, and his castle is pretty cool. It wasn't.

his castle was in the query, except the floor was a period. So it looks like you're about to walk into water. But it's clear glass. So she stepped on it. And she realized that it wasn't water, it was actually glass. And the second she stepped on it. She became a believer.

She stepped down and she said, I believe in God.

When you read that you get confused, feel like

if I stepped on glass, and it wasn't water,

I wouldn't start believing in God.

Why in the world would she step on glass and accept Islam? Accept the creator? Oh, the history you got to know what's going on. He's people believe in the sun.

These people believed in the sun because the sun gave world heat. So the Queen had a theology where she worship the sun. When she saw that she saw that she saw water. This you see the glass?

No, there is something behind this architecture. I think there's something but there's something more to it. immediately she realized I look at the sun but there's something more to it.

And so she said Oh, I get it. There's a cost

to her that glass floor was an iron

skillet was an iron. Now if that's the case, the Koran is full of iron and these are as I tried to tell you, what are the items

that are on say for example, for

you to look at the sky, turn to the eyes, see if you can find a crack. Oh lm yellow Lady for whom Didn't they look at two birds. Right? There's

a peculiar ninja look at the camel. The camel the Quran says here's a religious exercise for you will stare at a candle

and somebody standing there staring at a candle in a zoo. What do you do about that?

you're applying an AI on the plane Why don't you go stare at the camera?

Go climbing Mountain Standard Americans looking at the house which again are just you know appreciating the anathema engaging in abaza.

What do you think Muslim? worship worship is reading out of vocalign.

Equally worship is staring at a verb. Equally worship is staring at the ocean. Equally worship is appreciating the beauty of a cloud. The IOD will force you to see the world around you and find beauty in it.

And when you find beauty in it, it reminds you of what who pushed you to go there. The auto on so you come back to the salon, then they push you out again and you come back again. Then we push you out again and they come back again. And I offer not just about looking at the sky and diverting the tree. The Quran says look at history. The Quran says look inside yourself study psychology. Look at your feelings. The love between a husband and a wife is an if so you should explore it. You know your history you should explore it your fingers

tips you should explore that you should understand physiology. He tells us that

actually all human experiences and if the IMA is a unifying theory of knowledge, the I suggest if we understand the ins in for it, then what we are saying is every human experience can be spiritual in nature.

Every intellectual experience and every spirit, every inquiry of the human being can turn into an iron.

Well, more he can turn into an AI, nothing will not be.

I was driving on the highway one time when I first understood this concept, I said, I have to test this theory. I don't know if everything's gonna be an island. How can everything be? So I was driving I remember in California, and I was being driven by a bunch of college students and you know, we have speed limits.

We actually lose. But this brother was driving like it's the autobahn.

He's a student

of human beings love to rush.

That was an entire PhD thesis, the human urges the human sense of urgency. Is there an urgency to be for your time to come at the post office? Where you're trying to come in the restaurant for the waiter to come and take your order for the light to turn green? For the airplane to start boarding? Is there a sense when are we gonna land? When are we gonna land? When are we gonna land? What is the movie gonna begin? What is this lecture gonna be over?

Love to rush, even the car stealing became an eye out, we passed by a billboard, you know, an American billboard,

billboard of a family there's, you know, mother or father chillin, they're hugging each other, there's a home behind them. And they say, hurt by the American dream.

Nowadays, it's the American nightmare, but still the American dream, you know, they want you to buy a house subprime mortgage and all of that, right. But you know, I look at that, and I say, How can that be an eye let's just a mortgage company selling the house. But then I realize the human wants to have in a house. What do you think about his agenda? What do you get in? What do you get to happen? What does

a house with a swimming pool with a nice garden? The things you want in this world? He's gonna give you a better one on those, don't you? And then we'll say

he was like, he worked for the warm house. So he used to be happy in this life, but not in the next. Even I'm gonna keep an eye on

one of my favorite ions on that trip. I didn't cry out everywhere. But my one of my favorite ions on that trip was me because it's California passed by some cows.

And the cows get really close to the highway.

Which is they're in danger of becoming beef a little too soon.

Other animals, when they are close to danger, what do they do? What does the bird do? flies away. A snake turns around, a squirrel tries to see if he can beat the car.

A deer did not give too much of a grain to a deer. He says let me try to hit it.

But usually at least some reactions. Animals have some kind of reaction. But a cow a cow. If you usually go right out what happens to

the fiber on its skin goes.

And I thought that was an iron. How is that? How not reacting and iron because a lot of describes in the forearm. People that keep their minds numb. People that keep themselves busy with music and movies and video games and drugs and alcohol and unit. One thing after our clubs and parties and they keep themselves busy, they become so numb that they don't realize the world around them unless there's

an army.

They are like cattle didn't even realize the dangers around. They don't even realize what's happening. But they're even more lost. So I look at a cow and I remember what happens to human beings when they're lost.

When they when they numbed out.

All human experience didn't turn into an IRA your mother in law contributed to it is

your husband.

The idea here

is that our faith is rooted in looking at the world in a unified way. Looking for positives

Everywhere, looking for a way to appreciate the good things, because the purpose of an is to be a part of me and part of the is to bring you closer to Allah.

The purpose of that is to give you some more direction so you can get closer to God, closer to your final destination. That's what the purpose is. You know what happened to me when I was in Switzerland, a drunk guy got on the train. When I was in Switzerland, some of you there I told the story, right? And this guy starts speaking, I think it was German, I don't think

they translated for me. I've learned people from when I grew up in Texas.

And he's in Texas. And he said something, something something and everybody started laughing. And

I said, Where's your cowboy hat?

I said, No, I'm so and then he asked me later, he said, Please don't do a terrorist attack in my country.

So he said to me,

and I turned around and said, not all Texans are terrorists.

Once you know why, even that wasn't

even that wasn't a I took a lesson from that, about how just normal people in that society must be given so many negative messages about Muslims, that when they see any person anywhere, they assume the worst of what they have seen must be this person.

Right. And when you're drunk, you don't hold back. And those are usually reserved people, they don't look at you 30. But there is a, but he was from so over time. So he just said it just came out and said, you know, and I appreciate that he said it. Because you know, I don't blame him, and I'm not angry at him. But I do feel that then we have a lot of work to do, because people have created an image of Muslims, that just the average person who doesn't even hate the song, but they're actually afraid of Islam. I feel bad for them that they freakin something so beautiful, and they made it into something so ugly. And the reason they were able to do that successfully, is because Muslims gave

them plenty of reasons to think that way. The Quran is perfect. Our religion is beautiful Muslim behaviour, not so much. We have given them plenty of examples to be afraid of Islam, we have given them plenty of examples to think that we are not civilized. And so when they manipulate that and create fear mongering among them, before we get angry at them, we have to clean up our own house, we have to clean up they will exaggerate, they will never stop exaggerating, that will know the people who hidden subtle, hidden even more, we can change that. And I'm not interested in changing that. What I am interested in changing is us ourselves. We have to show with our actions, that those are

lies not without words, we can issue all the press releases we want until you become a people who take it off and really turn the world around. Nothing changes, nothing at all changes. That is the world that's the world you have to explore. Some of you want to study Islam, I argue, finished your studies, engage your study, study Islam, alongside the sciences, and the fields that you're specialising in, because we need people who can take these sciences, I want political scientists, I want engineers I want you know, researchers in biology and neurology, all these fields, I need the people to be the highest caliber people in the sciences, so that when they reach those sciences,

they can show the world but even all of that are ions. They can show them the world.

But if they don't study this stuff, they won't be able to show the world that these are out. If you're only studying these things, so you can get a job and make some money, then this is tragic. And you took something so great. Now these little lies giving you life teaching you and you didn't show the world what it's actually for. So Pamela, this year, I have two students, one of them has a PhD in geology. His wife has a PhD in neuroscience. And they're both they both memorize the Quran. And they said they studied Arabic and other studying Islamic studies with one of my colleagues.

Day with this video.

They takes different notes from everybody else.

Because they've studied something in silence, that I have no idea but they see things I don't see. They see things I cannot see. I focused myself on trying to explain before it. But as I explained it to you, you will take what I explained and further it's so much more because of the sciences that you're going to excel in. You're going to show that Amazon out there even talking about what you're studying, this will be the renaissance of the solving world. This will be the when the world starts seeing things differently. This will be when rediscovered when the highest intellectuals of the world see things in the light of the beauty of faith. You know

I pray that a lot makes you the generation that really lifts the oma out of the rut that it's in and brings this knowledge this beautiful knowledge to life and really less the eye off of a lush shine so people can again see the world around them as a means of getting closer to their Creator. Thank you so so very much for listening to be careful eat tonight.

A special round of applause for the moms that have been standing to keep their babies calm

to the leaders of the Muslims.