Aqeedah For New Muslims

barakato May the peace mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you Bismillah R Rahman Rahim In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen all praise and thanks is due to Allah The Lord of all the worlds wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah, Karim, Allah Allah He was a heavy edge Marine, and made his peace and blessings be upon His messenger, Mohammed, his family, his companions, and those that follow His guidance until the day of judgment, and upon all of the messengers of Allah, Abraham, Noah, David, Jesus, Moses, peace be upon them all. And we ask Allah to make us amongst those who follow in their examples. Welcome to the segment, what we're

going to do in Chatelet, in this in the next 30 minutes or so, is we're going to cover the foundations of faith. Now, when we talk about Islam, usually when a person is considering becoming Muslim, they get a little bit scared because they think of Islam as the five pillars of Islam. So they remember the testimony of faith, which is obviously naturally going to lead to the prayer which is going to lead to the fasting, the pilgrimage, there's a cat, the charity, and they think to themselves, well, I'm not ready to do all those things. I'm not ready to commit. But in reality, when you become Muslim, all you're doing is you're testifying that you believe in the foundations of

faith that you profess that this is indeed the truth. And therefore you will strive for perfection, you will aim for perfection, and the struggle, the pursuit of perfection starts off with the five pillars of Islam. But I feel like it's important for us to go back now and to study the foundations of faith very briefly, so that we can understand what it is we are professing to when we become Muslim. So it starts off with the belief in Allah the belief in one God who is omnipotent, who with whom there is no likeness, there is no he has no children, he has no parents. We don't ascribe to him. agender The only reason we say he is because in the Arabic language everything is either

masculine or feminine. So when we say Allah, Who when we say that he when we use the word he, we're not ascribing to God agenda agenda because that would be likening him to to a human being. So this is a God a law that is unlike any of his creation, Jesus peace be upon him. In fact, he used to call upon Allah with the same word Allah with the same with the same name. And Allah means the God. So we find an Aramaic Jesus peace be upon him used to refer to God as Allah, and sometimes as ILA, and sometimes as Eloy, all of this lends itself to the same meaning of Allah, the One God, if you open a Bible today, and you look at john 316, the Arabic john 316, will say Allah, Arab Christians and Jews

call upon him as Allah. And this is what all the prophets brought and all of the messengers brought the belief in this one God, Allah. And in fact, the Arabs also before Islam used to believe in Allah, they used to call upon Allah but they started to have all these idols that they used to invoke Allah through so they, they were interceding, or they were using, you know, this, this idol to intercede to Allah for rain, this idol to intercede to Allah for health, this idol to intercede to Allah for wealth, and that contradicts the Islamic view of monotheism of tau hate, because because in Islam, monotheism is in all forms of worship and all forms of understanding the

attributes of God and all forms of understanding the Lordship of God. So the Arabs never had an idol named Allah, like some people would like to say, they never had an idol named Allah, but they thought that these idols, get them close to Allah. And so the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he brought back this message that all of the prophets that came before him brought, that God has the right the soul right to be worshipped alone with no partners. Also, when we when we think of a lot, many times you think of God and you think of an angry God, you think, and obviously, that's the power of media, you think of a god that's sitting on top of the clouds that's sending down lightning

bolts, that's always upset, that's always angry. In Islam, God gives us His attributes, he gives us his name, so we have an understanding of him, and we call upon him through those names. So monotheism ties itself not only to the understanding of the Creator, but also to the way that the creation should invoke the Creator. So Allah says in the Quran, where Allah has a smart listener for the room will be heard, and to Allah belong the most perfect and beautiful of names, so call him using those names. And the two names that Allah subhanho wa Taala wants us to know Him by more than anything else are out of a human being the most compassionate, the Most Merciful. They're both

derived from the same word which is Latin, which actually means wombly love motherly love because that is the most intense form of love that could be expressed in our understanding as creation. So Allah subhanaw taala used that word, but of course, a lot

loves us even more than our mothers would love us. And we know this from a tradition from the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him that he was once with his companions. And this was after war, a battle and there was a woman that was running between the swords that was running between the companions that was running, you know, in the middle of all of this, this chaos, because she had lost her child. And once she got her child, she picked up her child, and she immediately held him so close and started to suckle him, and the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He used this as an opportunity to teach the companions about who Allah is. And he said, Do you think that that woman

would ever throw her child into a fire? And they said, No, of course not. And he said, Allah is more loving of you than that woman to her child. So Allah wants us to know him that way. And every soldier in the corner and starts off with the words Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful so that we can consistently remind ourselves even when we read in the world and threats or warnings of punishments, we remind ourselves that Allah is most compassionate, Most Merciful that the only ones who would who would fall into that punishment are those that refuse to accept guidance from the most compassionate, the Most Merciful. There's only

one chapter in the Quran that does not start off with bissman laubach nonyl Haman, the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful. And some people think that's because Allah was very angry when that little was revealed even some Muslims have that views with the Toba chapter nine but in fact, it's because the companions viewed that sort of as as directly connected to the suitor that came before which was sort of to unfold the chapter of unfold so it's not that allow was so angry that he didn't want us to call him like Nana Rahim. When we recite it, it's that this was directly connected. So every chapter or ad starts off with in the name of a lot, the most

compassionate, the Most Merciful. Whenever we leave our homes, we remind ourselves in the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful whenever we begin to eat, whenever we start any task, we remind ourselves a lot is most compassionate, Most Merciful. However, Allah subhanaw taala also has balancing names, balancing attributes, to give us this holistic picture of this, this unbelievable creator, this this Merciful Creator, that no creation could ever fathom. So we believe in Allah subhanaw taala as one also in terms of invoking him. In Islam, we invoke Allah subhanho wa Taala as one, we do not invoke Allah through through dead, pious people through saints, we do not

invoke Allah through idols, we don't have a priest class in Islam. So I being an Imam, for example, I might lead people in prayer, but at the same time, I am just as as you know, I am on the same level in terms of guidance in terms of my status before a lot as the person who's praying behind me so we don't believe in trying to repent through a priest or through an Imam or through an idol or through dead pious people or anything of that sort. Rather, Allah wants you to call upon him as one to personalize and customize your relationship with Him. And so Allah subhanho wa Taala, he tells us in the Quran, when, who are accountable in a common habit, and it's a very beautiful verse, he says

that he is closer to you than your jugular vein. Now, does this mean that he's part of you that he's inside of you that physically speaking, he's inside of you and closer to you than your jugular vein? No, but Allah wants you to know, you call upon him. And as soon as you call upon him, Allah Subhana, Allah to Allah is answering you. And Allah is watching you, and Allah is observing you as long as you are observing him. So we are commanded in the corner, and even when it comes to supplication, because to supplicate, or to invoke something besides God is directly placing someone as a partner besides God, whenever you stand before a picture, and you say that I'm invoking God through this

picture, or through this structure, whatever it may be, or through this person, you are directly putting that person in the position of lordship, so a lot even tells us and in a very beautiful verse in the second chapter where either side I care about the omniva and the accordion. If my servant asks about me, and allows addressing the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. If my servant asks about me, I am close to him, I am near to him. Now in all throughout the Quran, Allah will sometimes say that, yes, alone archaea and Kava Kava that they asked you about such and such say, meaning give the answer as such and such but when it comes to invocation and supplication, Allah

says, once they asked you I am near, I'm already near to them. So it's very important for us to personalize and customize this relationship with God, not to ascribe any partners to him, not to ascribe any likeness in terms of creation to him, not to ascribe an image to him. And this is something that has come in previous scriptures also, it's the first of the 10 commandments, but unfortunately, it's not practiced today. So when we believe in God as one, that means we don't believe he has any partners. We don't believe that.

Anything is like him. We don't call upon anything besides Him. And He is far You know, Lisa chemistry he she, that there is nothing like him there's nothing that can be God except for God He is one he's not three, he's not really five, he's not really 300 he's one God. And that is the only message that God has ever sent on the tongue of the prophets that have come, both before the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and through the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him himself. After that, we believe in the angels now the angels in Islam and it's very important because obviously in the Abrahamic tradition, sometimes we might mix up different faiths. And we might take different beliefs

in terms of creed. So I'm clarifying the Islamic view of these things. So when you think of angel, don't think of the angels that you've seen on TV that always wear white dresses and have just two white wings and, and always, you know, have shiny hair for you know, and they look like human beings. Angels are a creation, that have no likeness to human beings, they are massive in size. And at the same time, you know, we have this concept sometimes, you know, that comes through Christianity, the concept of a fallen angel in the in Lucifer or beliefs or the devil shaped bond. In Islam, no angel makes mistakes, no angel can ever fall. And you can see why that would be

problematic because these are the creatures that handle the revelation of God, if they were susceptible to corruption, then what would protect revelation? So in Islam, we believe that the angels have no free will human beings do have free will the angels have no free will, they were created only to worship God they are not need a food or drink. Right? And it's interesting because human beings cannot become angels, but a great scholar of Islam by the name of Ibn taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him. He said that the more that the that the servant of God denies himself, his pleasures of his own desires, and only abides by the commands of Allah, the closer he becomes to

being angelic, although he can never be an angel, and the more he just obeys his lowly desires, and his his pleasures, and everything that he wants, the closer he becomes to becoming an animal. So the angels are creation that have no choice but to worship God, they have no free will. They were created perfect in that sense. So for example, when we talk about the devil, blease, shavon, Satan, Lucifer, whatever you call him, Diablo, whatever you call him, he is completely, you know, free of being an angel. He never was an angel, but rather he belonged to another group of creation called the jinn. And we don't have much time for that. But I'd recommend to you a book, if you want to read

more into that, because we don't have much time which is the world of gins and devils by one of my teachers, Chef Hamada Salima and Ashkelon. May Allah be pleased with him. So he wrote a very, you know, deep and detailed description of the jinn, the creation of the jinn, the belief of the Jim is in Christianity is also in Judaism. But Islam, you know, gives more details about who the jinn are, so at least was a person or was a creation rather that worshipped God much that was in the in the companionship of the angels in in Paradise, but at the same time, he was not considered an angel. We also don't believe in angels that were teaching people evil because they'd rebelled against God. So

the angels are a creation, that carry out the orders of God, their chief is jabril, Gabriel peace be upon him, and jabril was the one who was entrusted with the revelation to each and every single prophet. So he brought down the message to each and every single Prophet, and he was the one who approached the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in the cave, and would, would continue to come to him with revelation throughout his life, peace and blessings be upon him. So Gabriel is the head of them. The angels are not affected by by desires, they cannot be, you know, they cannot be swayed away, because their task is that mighty, so God has made them a perfect creation. And sometimes

people ask, Why didn't God make human beings? You know, that way? Why didn't he just create us all, and program us so that we had to worship Him, we had no choice. That's because that purpose has already been fulfilled in the angels, human beings have another purpose in life, which is to go through that test in that trial, and to try to deny themselves, you know, using their freewill responsibly try to deny themselves of those lowly desires so that they come closer to reaching that level that God has given to the angels, then we believe in the books, we believe in the books. Now, the books because this is sometimes problematic, because someone says, Well, if I believe in the

Bible, and I believe in the Psalms, and I believe in the Old Testament, New Testament, the Gospels and the Old Testament and I believe in the poor add, all of those books contradict each other. The Old Testament contradicts the New Testament, the Gospels contradict one another. That's a fact there are many gospels we only know Matthew Mark.

Luke and john. Today well, those are the ones that are that are mainstream, if you will. And Matthew, Mark, Luke, and john, each and every single one of them lived after Jesus peace be upon them. None. None of them ever met Jesus peace be upon him. In fact, the earliest of them live 30 years after Jesus, and we don't even know their names. And this is true in Christian theology, we don't know who Matthew, Mark, Luke and john were, in fact, some Christian scholars have said, these were just pen names. So we don't even know if they were the real names. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and john obviously authored the Gospels that's different from the Gospels in Islam, what's known as the

in G, which evidence is a great scholar of Islam describes as a supplement that was given to Jesus peace be upon him, to the teladoc, to the laws of Moses, because as we know, as is confirmed in the Bible, that Jesus peace be upon observed Mosaic Law. He observed the law of the Old Testament, he said, I have not come to abrogate I've come to confirm. But as Muslims, we also believe that Jesus peace be upon him came to put back the spirit into the law. So Allah describes him as a mercy to the world just as he describes the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. So he abrogated a few things. But for the most part, he observed the law of Moses peace be upon him. And the Gospels that we know of

the good news, the NGO that was given to him was a revelation that just supplemented the Torah so that Jesus could restore the spirit of the law. And not just the letter of it, because the letter was the only thing that was being abided by. So in Islam, we believe that in order to observe the spirit of the law, you have to observe the letter of the law, but at the same time, understand the letter of the law with the intent of the revelation. So the Gospels that we have today, being Matthew, Mark, Luke, and john, again, they're not authentic, they've undergone many, many changes. They're over 7000 versions of the Bible, of the Gospels. And also we have gospels of people that

have been rejected. We have the Gospel of St. Peter, for example, which although it's undergone changes through translation, and different versions and things of that sort, but Peter, was someone who actually accompany Jesus peace be upon him. So why was his gospel thrown away? Well, because his views and some of the views that are stated in the Gospel of Peter directly contradict the Apostle Paul's view. Apostle Paul came 40 years after Jesus peace be upon him, and he is the founder of modern day Christianity. This is if you go to any world religions class, they'll say, the apostle Paul is the founder of modern day Christianity. And if you read Christian history, you'll see that

him and Peter did not quite get along. So Peters gospel was thrown out the Gospel of Barnabas was, which contains direct references to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in very clear and explicit terms was also thrown out. So as Muslims, what do we believe in? We believe in the original revelation that came to Jesus peace be upon them. We believe in the original revelation that came to Moses, peace be upon them, we believe in that original revelation that came to David peace be upon him, there's a board. We believe that all of these revelations were pure when they came to these prophets and messengers, and then the people changed them over time. And so now we find

contradictions. Now, we find that these books contradict each other. Sometimes they contradict themselves. And so a loss of the perfect revelation of the Quran, and a lot guaranteed that he would protect the revelation of the Quran. So as a believer, as a Muslim, what do I have to believe? I have to believe that yes, God did reveal revelations to these messengers, I have to believe that, and those revelations were indeed true. But at the same time, I need to believe that the only book that I should abide by today is the core ad, is the book of Allah, the one that has been protected that for 1400 years has been unchanged. And it's truly a miracle when you look at the ad. And so how

do we treat the previous revelations, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him told us not to get the woman out to sell the home, which means don't deny them, and don't affirm them when you see something there? Okay, when you see something there. So if there is something that fills in a story that's narrated through the Bible, we don't necessarily say it's untrue. But at the same time, we don't necessarily confirm it, because who knows if that was added over time. Um, it's also important to mention here, by the way, with the history of the Bible, that when we talk about the King James revelation, because this is we're talking about how angels a lot and trusted the revelation through

the angels, the versions that we see today, and we have many versions, we've got the King James Version, we've got the new the international version, we even have the teen version, right? Where it's a little where it's a little bit more simple English. So the revelation certainly has undergone many changes, but almost all of the Bibles if not all of them are coming from the King James translation. And King James himself was a very immoral character. There is no doubt about that. So how could God entrust the revelation to a person like that? And I don't want to go into his history right now. You can just go ask Google. All right. He had some very, very serious blots on his

record. So So again,

We take what's good from it, we don't necessarily confirm it, we benefit from it and we don't necessarily reject it. As far as the Quran is concerned, the quality and the meaning of the word core and is something that is frequently recited. And so that is the greatest miracle of the Quran is that it's called the poor and it's it's frequently recited, there is no book that is more recited around the world than the poor and millions and millions of people. In fact, billions of people recite the quote, add millions, hundreds of millions of people memorize the Quran letter for letter. And a person who memorize the Quran in China will be just like a person who memorize the Quran in

the Polynesian islands. A person who memorized the Quran in Africa will be just like someone who memorizes it here in the United States, if you were to change not just a letter, but in fact, or II sound a vowel, then that person would be able to correct you Although he speaks nothing similar to there's no common language except for the cold out. So it's a true miracle of God. In that it is frequently recited, memorized, it was preserved through oral tradition and also through written tradition over 1400 years. And you know, rivers and seas would change direction and 1400 years old, and has not changed in 1400 years. And in fact, we still have the original copies, which is, we can

find the most half of Earth man, the copy of Earth man, the Companion of the Prophet peace be upon him who gathered who undertook the task to gather the Quran. After abubaker, the Companion of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him the first Caleb, who took brought the Koran together, a man produced more than one copy based on that copy of double Beckett bringing the companions together, because although many of them memorized that they did not want it to get lost through through the next generation, as many other books have been lost and corrupted. So we find that the copy of Earth man is still found today. It's actually still preserved in a museum in Turkey. And in fact, the

blood of Earth man peace be upon may Allah be pleased with him is still on that copy. When when he was killed, his blood spilled on that book, and the stain of that blood is still found on the page of that copy. So multiple copies were produced based upon that original compile ation. So no one could say that the Quran has been changed because people memorized it, people implemented it, people lived it and at the same time, it was being mass produced, it was being written, it was already being translated within 200 300 years and distributed throughout the world. So this is the book of Allah. And what we believe is the Quran is the speech of God, the actual speech of Allah, it is not

a creation, it is not something that Allah said to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him in the form of a book but Allah spoke to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, and Allah Subhana Allah, you know, I keep saying subhanho wa Taala and that means that we declare his perfection We glorify him, he, you know, he basically spoke this revelation through Gabriel, peace be upon him through the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the Prophet used to, even on a very cold date, the prophet peace be upon him used to used to be,

you know, overtaken by this revelation, no matter what time of the day, it was, no matter what the season was, and these magical words, these words of utter poetry, and much more than poetry, meaning, these these deep, devout words would come from his mouth, although he peace be upon him, was an illiterate he was not particularly known for being someone who could who could rhyme or who could speak in poetry, or in prose, but we're looking at the Quran, and the Quran. And you might say to yourself, Well, what if he just gathered this council, and they all came together and you know, they just started to reveal the Quran over 23 years that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him just

started to give them increments, but he already collected before the miracle of the Quran is that it was being revealed over 23 years in accordance with incidents that were happening on the spot, and with the same perfect grammar, the same perfect flow, and not a single mistake has ever been found in the Quran. Not grammatically, not scientifically. In fact, many miracles have come from the poor and in terms of science in terms of embryology. And grammatically speaking, the Arabs were very well known for their poetry, they had no answer to the poor, they tried many times to produce something similar to the Quran, and they failed miserably. at the hands of this man, the Prophet Muhammad

peace be upon him who was illiterate, who was not a poet who was not known to be particularly eloquent. A lot proved through the school and this this great miracle and now there were many miracles that were given to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon them. The Prophet Mohammed also healed the sick. The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him also put his hand on water and the water flowed. When there was no water. There are many miracles that took place but this is the greatest miracle because God always sends the

The greatest miracle, the miracle of that time, basically, to the people. Now, that brings us to the next the next I'll connect this with the next tenant of faith, which is the belief in the messengers. When we talk about the belief in the messengers of God. We believe that God has sent us the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him set in an authentic narration. In the collection of Atma the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said that Allah has sent a total of 124,000 prophets

and 315 messengers, so the messengers, they they bring a new legislation, a new law, the prophets confirm the law that came before its each messenger is sent in the language of his people. Well, not all of a sudden, I'm assuming nws and you call me Allah says in the Quran, we did not send a messenger except in the tongue of his people. And he speaks to the people in a way that they can understand. And Allah gives him a miracle that does away with with with the miracles of their time. So for example, with Jesus peace be upon him, he had the power of healing, he was not the first one to have the power of healing. In fact, in the Bible, Elijah raised 700, from the dead, so he wasn't

the first one to have the power of healing the power of raising people from the dead, so on so forth, but people claimed divinity, the rabbi's of that time were taking advantage of the people on the basis of their so called healing powers. So Allah sent this this child, you know, from the cradle, who could speak and who could heal people, by the will of God by the will of Allah. So a lot base you know, our last panel, tada foiled their claims, also with the people of Moses peace be upon them, we know that they were a people of magic that Pharaoh claimed his superiority through using his magicians to deceive the people. So God and you know, this is a tradition that we all that we we

know whether you're from the Christian background or the Jewish background, that through Moses peace be upon him, God allowed his staff to become a real snake. Whereas the staffs of the magicians were only optical illusions. God allowed Moses to split the seas, okay using using the power. So a lot inspired people in accordance with or Allah inspired the messengers in accordance with what the what the people of those messengers claimed. So for example, we find the prophet who would the, you know, which was the people of God, who claimed superiority, who claimed as this great physical strength and a lot gave hewed the power to not be harmed, no matter how much they hit him, he could not be

harmed. When we look at the Prophet Muhammad, peace be pardoned. We talked about the Koran.

We said he has many miracles, but the Arabs were obsessed with poetry. And so because they were so obsessed with poetry, they used to claim large crowds, because of their ability to speak, their ability to refine their ability, you know, to impress people. And through this illiterate man, Allah subhanaw taala said, this great revelation, it is so poetic in its nature, you know that even as a book, if you pick up any book in the world, the book will change its subject through chapters and paragraphs, a lot doesn't do that it changes through rhyme scheme. So it's such a powerful book, such a miraculous book that has given us so much and it's memorized again by Arabs and non Arabs.

Now you might be thinking, well, that's not fair because we believe as Muslims, that the messenger Muhammad peace be upon him, is the messenger to all of mankind, and that the Quran is the miracle for all of mankind, you might be thinking to yourself, Well, how is that fair? Let me put it to you this way. If I was to say that Jesus peace be upon him raise the dead, and I'm speaking to an atheist. How am I going to prove that, you know, did we have these cameras as we have right now? Do we have these cameras back then? Did we have you know, any news channels back then or media back then that we're taking videos of these miracles, we have no proof whatsoever. In fact, as Muslims,

the only reason we believe in that miracle is because the poor and told us to believe in that miracle, so it's not as glamorous, you know, when we're talking about you know, we don't we don't have live footage or an instant replay of Moses peace be upon him throwing his stick on the ground, but we believe because the Quran tells us to believe so this is a living miracle. And the Quran continues to prove itself to be a miracle. throughout time, every generation discovers a new miracle from the core and, and regeneration benefits from the poor and, and through the poor. And, you know, people can still today have that proof established against them. And Islam as a law, as a law can

adapt to all people and to all time so they're already flecked. There's already flexibility when flexibility is needed. There are principles of jurisprudence, so that the law does not you know, when when you're in America, you don't have to practice the way that you would be practicing in Southeast Asia, there are certain things that that are different, that the law accommodates people in accordance with its principles. So Muhammad peace be upon him is a messenger for all people, and is a miracle for all people. Now, how do we see these prophets and messengers This is extremely important, the way that we see these prophets and messengers

Is as people who were incapable of committing major sins, Major Crimes, major offenses, so it's contrary to what we see today as Muslims when we when we look at the Bible and we see you know the accusations against some of the prophets you know against the Prophet Luke against the lot peace be upon Noah peace be upon him getting drunk. David peace be upon him supposedly sleeping with his with his with his chief's wife, so on so forth, prophets committing adultery, you know, we don't, we don't accept those traditions. We truly don't accept those traditions that that's not to be offensive to Christians or to Jews. That's to say that as Muslims, we view the prophets as

infallible from such things, okay, because how could God entrust the revelation to a person that was that's capable of murder that's capable of adultery that's capable of stealing that's capable of getting drunk so on so forth? How could a lot and trust the revelation to that person he's supposed to teach the other people morality? So if he himself is not living the message, then how can he be a bearer of that message? Okay, so in Islam, we believe in fact, the prophets even before Prophethood, even before receiving revelation, because some of them received it later on in their lives. Some of them were born that way, but some of them received revelation later on in their lives, that God

prevented them from committing major sins, even before they received revelation, because then they'd be subject to corruption and things of that sort and they would not have the moral authority to speak to people. So the prophets and messengers, they make human mistakes, okay, they have forgetfulness, and why do they have forgetfulness to teach us as human beings, what to do when we are forgetful So for example, if the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, never was forgetful in his prayer, and skipped a set of prayer, how would we know what to do as as Muslims, if we skip a set of prayer, we only know that because the Prophet we have an example of precedent in the Prophet

Muhammad peace be upon him. Also, we find that the Prophet sometimes made mistakes and human judgment, okay, so they're infallible in regards to the revelation, but they are human beings. So we find that that Solomon and David peace be upon him that once two women came to David peace be upon him with a child, and both of them were claiming that the child belonged to them. So David, peace be upon him made a judgment and that judgment was was wrong, because then they went to Solomon peace be upon him, the son and Solomon. He said, Well, how about this? How about we saw the child in half, will cut the child in half, and we'll give each person a half a baby, each one of the so called

mothers a half a baby. Then one woman said, No, you know what, it's her son. And Solomon said, that's the mother, the one who said it's her son is the True Mother, because she could not bear to see her child cut in half. So in human judgment, they could you know, they could have differences and things of that sort. But as we got in capacity of Revelation, they never made mistakes. Why didn't the law just send send us angels who could speak to us and things of that sort, as it's called for? And some people said, What is it with this messenger? Yeah, could we actually put a swab to his food and he walks in the marketplaces, he uses the bathroom, so on so forth, what is it with

him, because they are sent to be examples for us, they're sent to be guides, it would defeat the purpose if Allah sent it through an angel and the angel was the one teaching us because the angel is different in its nature than we are as human beings. So we would not be able to properly you know, absorb the revelation, I want to ask, you know, a Christian brother, I said, you know, when you look at the example of Jesus, peace be upon him. When you look at the example of Jesus peace, what is your goal, and he says, to be like him, and I say, That's the point. He's a messenger of God. He's an instrument. So all of the messengers of God that which brings me to the next point in regards to

the messengers, Allah says, Lana Federico, when Adam and Rosalie we make we make no distinction between them. And what he means by that is that in terms of their status as messengers, they are all the same. They are all human beings, who were, who were sent with the revelation to teach people how to apply the revelation to teach people how to live the Word of God, but none of them are sons of God, while others are not something you know, it doesn't work that way. They're all equal in regards to their nature, in regards to divinity, or lack of divinity, right. But as far as virtue, some of the prophets and messengers are above others, so for example, we have in Islam, Allah, Allah as

women or Rasul, as they are known that the greatest of the messengers, and they are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad peace be upon them all. Amongst them. Jesus, peace be upon him, great messenger of God. And by the way, we are the only religion other than Christianity that acknowledges Jesus peace be upon them as righteous in the first place. So we acknowledge them as a messenger of God. We acknowledge him as a prophet of God, we acknowledge him as the Messiah. Now, some might say, well, the Messiah and with a Christian connotation, that means that you're saying you're saying he's the son of God.

Messiah comes from an Arabic word Messiah, which means to white. So he's anointed he was chosen as the Messenger of God. And his creation was just like through Creation of Adam peace be upon him. Allah created Adam with no mother or no father so Allah could certainly create Jesus with no father peace be upon him. And he is the one who Allahu the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and as as referenced in the book and, and sort of the Nisa and the chapter of women and others, he is the one who will be sent back to establish justice on Earth. We don't believe that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is the one who will be sent back to establish justice on Earth. Never. So that

shows you that this religion does not revolve around a messenger or a prophet in the sense that we are not mohammedans Okay, the name of Muhammad peace be upon him, is not you know, we don't worship the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. We don't pray to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we don't prostrate to him. We don't believe that he's a son of God, but rather, he is the greatest of the messengers of God in terms of virtue because he was entrusted with the last and final revelation and he is the greatest character to obey, in the sense of abiding by, by his standards, by living the way he lived, and he also he is the one who God has entrusted with the revelation, this great

revelation of the quarter and, and our his or his wife, may Allah be pleased with her, and may the peace and blessings be upon him of course, she said that he you know, his character was the Quran he was a walking quote. And the beauty of that is that we know every single detail of the life of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him through the the the traditions, which started the compile ation started in the time of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, through Abdullah normative dinar, us who wrote down 1000, close to 1000 traditions with the approval of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him his sayings and collected it in a facade called the truthful compile ation. And then that

was later incorporated into the Muslim the tradition of accurate peace be upon him, may Allah be pleased with him. So the books of Hadith collections, his traditions, his pseudonym, his character, all of this has been immaculately preserved. And there is no you know, book more authentic in the world that has been written by men because that is not the word of men, then so he had Bahati, for example, the collection of Bahati, I mean, the amount of searching that he did to make sure that each and every single tradition from the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, was indeed a tradition from the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon the amount of scrutiny of each and every single narrator is

something that is admired not just by Muslims, but non Muslims who have studied the sciences of Howdy. So we love and adore the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we follow Him, we know his example. And the irony of that is that the the Bible, the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms are not as authentic as the secondary source of guidance in a snap, which is the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, then we come to the belief in the Day of Judgment. And in Islam, when we believe in the aka the Hereafter, we do believe in the Day of Judgment, we do believe in a day that everyone will stand before a lot, and we do believe in

Paradise and hellfire. Now, as far as the standing before a lot is concerned, because this is extremely important. And this is what distinguishes us as Muslims from others. We believe that the standing before Allah is extremely personal, that each and every single creation of God will stand before him and answer to him, that every man will stand before a law and will speak to him with no translator with no interpreter will will will have to answer for their own deeds, and that the judgment of that person is reserved solely to Allah subhanho wa Taala. So as Muslims, I cannot say about an individual, about any individual unless Allah has told us in the Quran, that you will not

be forgiven. I can't say that to any individual. Now we can say that a belief system is contrary to the truth is contrary to guidance, and that this belief system could lead people to Hellfire and to punishment. I could say that about a belief system, but I can't say about about an individual. Why Because Allah will judge each and every single individual alone. You do not know my standing on the Day of Judgment, I don't know you're standing on the Day of Judgment. And that's the beauty of it, because that allows us as Muslims to focus on ourselves. And in fact, in a tradition that's narrated, by Abu hurayrah, the great companion of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. The

Prophet Mohammed he described to us two men, from the children of Israel, Bani Israel, who came before one of them was very righteous, the other one sins frequently, and the one who was very righteous, he told him, God will not forgive you, God will not forgive you. And because of that, when they stood before Allah, Allah forgave the one to whom it was said that God will not

forgive you and Allah punish the one who said that God will not forgive you because that is solely reserved to Allah. So as Muslims, we don't believe in judging individuals, individuals, we work on ourselves. And we believe that Allah will question each and every single person, according to his capacity, according to his sincerity, according to his efforts, and there will be no injustice done that day when someone comes comes and says, Well, what about this person? What about that person? The answer is simple. Allah has promised us in the court and law aluminio, that there is no transgression, no injustice today. So if you think of an individual, you say, well, that person

shouldn't go to hell in those types of things. It's not your business, there is no transgression, no injustice on that day, Allah will be just so for example, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him told us about a child, a person that dies as a child still incapable of grasping the revelation. A person who is mentally incapable, okay, mentally incapable either for retardation or whatever it is mentally incapable of grasping the message that person has forgiven, a person who lived between Jesus and Muhammad peace be upon them, and the message did not reach them. And the scholars say this means anyone whom the message did not reach in its pure form. So they did not hear the truth in its

pure form, they are forgiven, okay, Allah will test them in their own way, a lot will test them in their own way, they will stand before a lot, a lot will test them in their own way. So as Muslims, we don't believe that judgment falls in our hands, but rather, judgment falls to a lot. With that being said, we believe that on the Day of Judgment, you either meet the mercy of God or the justice of God. So God will not be transgressing anyone, even someone that has cursed God, God will not give him except what he has earned. But the believers, God will show mercy towards them. Because at the end of the day, we cannot truly give God what he has given to us. No matter what we do, as acts of

worship, these are tokens of appreciation. And at the same time, you know, we are commanded by God to do so. But at this, but we believe as Muslims, it's not my five prayers that's going to get me into paradise. It's God's showing mercy upon me, and recognizing that I did those five prayers, requesting and begging for his mercy. So someone you know, and so someone might say, well, then what's the difference between that and Christianity? Or what's the difference between that and Judaism? And you'll notice something very interesting here, the Judaic tradition, it says, an eye for an eye, and you know, and and it's complete and absolute justice. The Christian tradition,

modern day Christian tradition, is that God so loved the world that he sent in his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, john 316, that if you believe in Jesus, peace be upon him, you will attain salvation, if you don't believe in Jesus, you won't attain salvation. So that means, from this perspective, justice, no one can truly give to God what he gave to them. So the mercy of God is needed, the mercy of God is needed. But at the same time, we have this other extreme, which is the modern day Christian extreme. That is that God is not merciful enough to forgive us without sending his own son. And having him crucified and punished for three days before

rising again, that God punished him so that he could absolve all of mankind for their sins. And that's also not appropriate. Okay, because a person should make an effort to please God should make an effort to qualify for the mercy of God. It's like a child when they bring their parents home, you know, a cutout heart with construction paper, and it says, I love you and the letters are falling all over the place. The parents don't value the paper because it's because of its quality. They just value it because they recognize the effort. So, you know, how could it be that that God will punish a person who has prayed five times a day invoked him directly fasted for him, you know, lived his

life in accordance with with godly standards, but he will be punished because he didn't worship the Son of God. But at the same time, a person could be a murderer could do all of these things, but because he believes that Jesus is the Son of God, then he will automatically be forgiven because God has already extracted His wrath on him Peace Be a part we don't believe that. So it's in it's in the middle, that we try our best to attain just like that child, when they present that gift to their parents. They want to show their parents how much they love them. And the mercy that comes as a result is what will enter us into paradise God willing. As far as paradise and Hellfire are

concerned. Paradise is a place that is unlike anything in the world. It's the most it's it's more beautiful than beauty can define in worldly terms it has as the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him says, what no eye has seen what no ear has heard, and what no imagination has ever grasped. So when we talk about paradise, we're talking about a perfect place, and Paradise is whatever you want it to be. Okay. And so when we start to try to define paradise,

In terms of worldly terms, right, and we start to look at paradise and we start to say, Well, you know, I want this and I want that and I want this and I want that, or I'm not going to be pleased. And you know, this hadith or this does not sound like what I envisioned to be paradise. You just have to know that God has tailored paradise according to your wants and your desires, and God will make paradise beautiful for you. And you will never be concerned in paradise you will never have anxiety will ever be stressed out. You will never be unsatisfied in paradise. And God wants us to enter Paradise. As far as Hellfire is concerned, a person enters themselves into hellfire. Allah

does not want to throw people into hellfire. But it's from the justice of God, that a person that has committed murder a person that has that has committed corruption on this earth, a person that has avoided the guidance of God would not achieve the same station as one who has worshipped God for his entire life. So we do believe in a Hellfire and we do believe that a person reaches there you'll slow Now Allah says you reach there you arrived there because you act according to the deeds of the people of Hellfire and the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. So could look at other Harun and janitor 11 other everyone enters paradise except for those who refuse. by refusing guidance, you

refuse to enter Paradise because guidance is not that hard. Islam is not that hard. It's very practical. It's easy, it does not pose a hardship to us. It has discipline to it, but at the same time, it's not hard. And we find that the acts of worship and the commands and the prohibitions are for our own good at the same time. So a person who enters Hellfire is one who has refused to enter Paradise, and that is the Islamic view. And we do believe that some people will enter Hellfire and eventually be admitted to paradise because from the mercy of God, anyone who has even an atom's worth, have faith in their hearts of belief in God in their heart will eventually be removed from

Hellfire and entered into paradise. Then we believe, finally, in Alcala, which I'll call the Divine Decree and predestination, that everything that comes from God is good. There is no such thing as absolute evil in Islam, because God knows everything. God is aware of everything. And so we invoke God, we supplicate God. And we understand that at the end of the day, God will, you know, God has our interests, as you know, as the as the heart of decree. So whenever things are decreed whether it's whether it appears to be for us or against us, we accept it. And whenever it's hardship, we are patient with God, whenever it is, good, whatever, it's ease, we are grateful to God. So in Islam, we

don't say, you know, for example, you had the earthquake in Haiti, and you had some people, some preachers who said that that's because they made a deal with the devil 400 years ago. And so you're putting yourself directly that in the role of God that you can say when God is punishing, and when God is purifying, and in reality, the same hardship might come across might come upon people, and to one group of people. It's a means of purification to another group of people. It's a means of punishment. So we don't know why things happen. But we do understand that God is fair. So even though life might not be fair, it might not appear to be fair. We understand God is fair. So when

things happen, we understand they're happening with wisdom, they're happening for a reason. At the same time, we don't absolve ourselves of responsibility. So we do believe in a level of freewill. So yes, God creates but we perform, okay, God has not forced us into any of our deeds. God has not forced the devil to disbelieve. And God has not forced anyone to believe. Every person either seeks guidance or avoids guidance, but God is aware of that God knows his knowledge encompasses not one great scholar any amount of time. May Allah be pleased with him. He said that, to say that God has you know, to blame God for evil, to blame God for evil is like a person committing adultery and

having a child and then saying, I will not feed that child because God created the child. Yes, God created the child, but you took the steps to make that child. So you will be held accountable at the end of the day. So we believe in decree in predestination, God knows who will enter Paradise and who will enter Hellfire, but God has not forced that upon anyone. losses in the hole and for them, as well as Avalon kulula when they turned away a lot turn their hearts away. And compulsion in Islam is a reason for to absolve a person of responsibility. So for example, if you sleep through your prayer, then you're forgiven, if you are unconscious, if you're sick, you don't have to fast right?

So how could we say that all of that would be absolved, but at the same time, God has forced us into the situation anyway. So again, we believe in the planning of God, the Divine Decree of God that everything happens for a reason. And we should always be between the stations of patience and gratitude. And we should understand that at the end of the day, when I meet God on the Day of Judgment, the only book I have

I'm going to see is the book of my deeds. God is not going to show me the book that had my predestination written, God will show me the book of my deeds. And that's what I'll be held accountable for. So I hope that gives you a good explanation, a good foundation of the beliefs in Islam, the autocannon Eman the pillars of faith. With that I conclude and I hope that you I asked a lot to strengthen you in your journey to make you firm on this journey of faith and to make you amongst those who pursue guidance and who are granted guidance and to make all of us amongst those people love amin Allah except does not want to hide on May Allah reward you all was Salam alaykum

warahmatullahi wabarakatuh