Riyad Nadwi – 16. Imam Ghazali on Ikhlas
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AI: Transcript ©
K.
Can you hear me clearly?
I have are we all set up in
the classroom?
Yes. I can hear you.
Yeah. And you're ready to start?
Yep. We can sign.
Okay.
Say, O Muhammad
if your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your
wives, your relatives,
and the wealth which you obtained and the
commerce wherein you fear the decline and the
dwellings in which you have you and the
dwellings with which you are pleased are more
beloved to you than Allah and his messenger
and striving in his path, then wait until
Allah executes his command.
And Allah does not guide the defiantly
disobedient people.
Brothers and sisters,
Welcome to our 16th session,
which is the last session of this term.
In this
series that
in which we are studying Imam Ghazali's teachings
on sincerity, intentions,
and verbal habits.
Now in our last session,
we talked about the need for
our hope to be
a
our hope for reward
to be rooted to be rooted, of course,
in the love of Allah or discussion
in this in this section,
revolves
around the the 5 questions that we've been
pondering.
And in attempt to
answer these questions, we discussed
8 points
and which I'm gonna summarize for you today.
The first was
that anyone who loves their own existence should
be, by necessity, love Allah
because their existence is entirely
dependent on Allah.
He brought us out of
nonexistence into existence
without any request or effort from our own
selves as he reminds us in the Quran.
And he says,
Has there not been over man a long
period of time
when he was nothing, not even mentioned?
So that's the first point. The second point
was that the continuation
and the completion of our existence are also
entirely
dependent on Allah.
He provided us the necessary means for both
the completion and the continuation of our existence
following our birth.
And were this not to be the case,
then we would have perished as soon as
we were born. As babies,
he provided the air we needed to breathe.
He provided the sustenance we needed for growth.
And most importantly, he provided the parental love
we needed to ensure our survival
whenever,
when we were completely incapable of caring for
ourselves.
Number 3 was that
beauty and elegance
are not only restricted to the outer form,
not only
shapes
and colors,
given the
as we are,
in the society we live in today, it's,
it's a high image culture.
Image we we have an image centered society,
but
there is beauty to be apprehended in the
inner form. And that is not readily apprehended
by the 5 senses,
but by a 6th sense,
which is found in the heart.
In that 6th sense,
the the
this is the the sense that causes people
to love prophets,
to love the Sahaba,
to love scholars, to love just rulers, to
just to love kind people and so on.
So even though we have never seen seen
them, we've never laid eyes upon them,
knowing,
about their knowledge, their praiseworthy conduct, and their
kindness is sufficient.
The the reason for loving.
Number 4 was
that love
is a
the the, the the the the 4th reason
for love
was that there is a subtle connection between
souls,
like birds of a feather that flock together.
The the the the souls were also marshaled,
before we came to Earth.
We were marshaled.
Our souls were marshaled like soul. Like, there
were like soldiers are are marshaled.
And those souls developed affinity to one another.
And, as we are told in hadith,
that these souls are marshaled. They're they're like
marshaled soldiers.
And if
tell us that those who recognize each other
and are close to each other, then there
there's a
subtle connection that develops.
Then
the 5th point was that
in all five reasons for love,
love,
of self preservation,
love of those who are kind to us,
love of those who are
kind in general,
love of beautiful things, and the love of
those with whom we have an affinity, that
subtle connection,
are all reasons to love Allah
and to consider
the example of a person who has all
of these reasons for love
in them,
one person, and and he gave the example
of a of someone who has a a
good, a a a beautiful son who is
knowledgeable, organized, kind, loving to his parents, then
he will be loved be beloved to anyone
who hears and meets that person because of
these are all the reasons for love.
Number 6 was that
the way we use language
affects how we perceive things in the world.
And we ponder the example of colors in
in some communities, in some language communities.
They can perceive more colors than others because
of their language. Simply, this this comes down
to language and that having the facility to
translate from one language to another
does not necessarily
solve the problem
of not being able to see it. And
as we saw with the example in the
Polish
example with,
in,
which translates into English as dark light blue,
which does not make sense to us.
Number 7 was that the terms we use
for English,
for for love. Sorry. The terms we use
for love in English
are continuously being
narrowed
over time in a process of linguistic drift.
And as a consequence, our ability to recognize
and relate
to concepts of love in the Islamic sense
can be hampered. It can be restricted. So
I suggested that we adopt
Arabic terms in our day to day parlance
and the way we we we should adopt
Islamic terms and the and that this was
not any strange idea. This suggestion was not
a strange suggestion because, there are over a
1000 Arabic
loan words in English dictionaries and many in
the hard sciences. And I give you the
example of, algebra comes from algebra.
And then number 8 was the, the the
definition
that was given, the definition of love to
ponder was the one that was formulated by
the great,
8th 9th century,
scholar of from Baghdad,
who was one of the people whose works
influenced Imam Lazali.
And he defined love as
that love is to incline to a thing
with your whole being. America.
And then to prefer it over your own
soul, your own self, your own property,
and then
And then to be in a harmonious accord
with it inwardly and outwardly over everything it
asks of you.
And then
And and then after all of this, then
to know that after all of this, you
are still deficient in your love.
Now
the
easiest place to observe
this kind of love in today's world,
is the love of parents for their children.
Once a child is born, the parents
value for their own life becomes secondary.
It's secondary to the life of the child.
And for anyone who doesn't understand this,
I ask you to,
do take the lifeboat challenge, which which is
what I like to call the lifeboat challenge,
which is a thought experiment.
If imagine that if there is only one
seat on a lifeboat and the and the
ship is sinking,
and there's a child and there's a parent,
who do you think will get the seat?
Of course, the child. The parent will always
say, save my child.
And they will not take the seat on
the lifeboat and leave their child, on a
sinking ship, and that is because of something
extraordinary that happens in their heart at the
point of birth. When when we see your
child,
this there's an extraordinary love
from Allah that Allah places in the heart
of the parent.
It is the kind of love that turns
the fierce wild beast into a compassionate and
caring being.
This is such a powerful phenomenon. The social
scientists
who study this,
when they looked at when they look at
this phenomena, they often conclude that the parental
instinct is one of the most powerful
forces in nature.
Because this is something we
that force that they talk about, we recognize
in Islam as
the love of Allah finding expression in the
hearts of parents.
As we are informed in Hadith where Rasulullah
that imagine that Allah has Allah's mercy
is limitless, but for purposes
of understanding, he's
given us one. He's he's he sent he
said that if you had imagine I've sent
imagine I'm my my had a a 100
mercies, and he sent one down to the
world, one into this world by
and that is shared among the jinn, the
human beings,
the animals, and the insects.
And he said that
with that one mercy that is shared, that
is something we share with other living beings.
He's saying that that mercy, that is the
thing that causes people to show compassion and
love to one another. The show mercy and
show kindness to one another, it is from
that. It is from Allah's mercy.
And in in
and and he's he keeps. So
with that, the the creation
show mercy and compassion to one another.
Now for young people like yourselves, this is
something that you
will not fully appreciate at the moment,
or or be able to comprehend. But
after the arrival of your own children, when
you're when you're when your children come along,
you and you first lay eyes onto your
child,
you will feel the power of that love
that the the the tugging your heartstrings like
boats of lightning.
And only then will you fully appreciate what
an extraordinary
form of love it is. And it is
is something that will
transform not only your life, but your priorities
of life, your priorities for the rest of
the life. You will be you will be
conscious of your child even when you're asleep.
And that's why children, parents don't roll over
and crush their children in bed.
The the babies,
the only time this happens, the sociologists have
found those that when when parents are under
the influence of alcohol.
But if you're sleeping with the baby, you
don't roll over and crush them because you're
conscious of my child. Your child is there.
If a baby cries, a person jumps at
the the father or the mother will jump
up as if as if they are they
weren't asleep.
And the most amazing thing about this love
is that in reality,
it is Allah's love for your child that
is finding expression in your own heart.
It this is a gift from Allah.
It is not yours alone. Yes. The love
you feel as a parent
is, of course, genuine love, but you didn't
create it. It is a gift
to you from Allah.
Now
bearing this in mind and all that we
have said so far in our discussion
about love,
how do we
foster this love and increase it in our
mind?
And and that we do that through a
form of.
And here, I'm in in the sense of
the way we think about
love, the way we think about
the bounties that we receive.
All the love and compassion we see in
the world, every gesture of love, every act
of compassion
stems from the same source from Allah. So
it is about connecting to that. That one
love of Allah is shared by all recognizing
it as the key is of, key importance
in our journey towards loving Allah and towards
developing our connection with Allah.
To develop love for Allah, we need to
connect 2 words in our mind.
We need to develop a habit of connecting
these 2 at every opportunity we find, and
two words
are
and. And, well,
the now learn these words.
Is
what we receive from Allah, the favors, the
bounties, the major gifts, the subtles, kindness,
the major
blessings we receive, anything good we receive in
in in the world, that is.
And the other word is,
which is the provider of these gifts, the
giver.
And they are in the meaning of and,
kindness
and the one who gives kindness.
And as as we have learned in in
that
is beloved,
are these are instinctive reasons for love.
Now it is to remember and recognize when
we receive any favor,
any comfort, anything good in this world that
it is ultimately from Allah and regardless of
who delivers it to us.
The the delivery from the the one the
who delivers the to you
is is the is the the one the
the bestow, the giver. The kind one is
Allah ultimately.
Because when we receive a gift
in the post
from our beloved, imagine that you've received the
gift from your beloved in the post. We
do not limit our attention to the postman
and, who delivered it and then forget the
one who sent the present, the one who
wrapped the present, the one who posted the
present, the one who thought of us.
That
is to to remember that, to remember, kindness
and favor
are a strong and instinctive reason for love.
And it's this is to whenever you feel
that love for your beloved,
whenever you enjoy something in this world, then
connect it.
Think about that. And that is the zikr,
the remembering of that always that look, this
is this is Allah. This is Allah who
has given me. Ultimately, it is from Allah.
The prophet
made the dua as we read earlier, then
not to receive favors from wicked from a
wicked person,
because that would cause his heart to love
that person. He didn't want that. And, of
course, there are two reasons for this dua.
Well, the the first is that, yeah, the
instinctive love that will come, and then the
other is that, you shouldn't take favors from
wicked people.
Now we all know what happens when people
help us with strings attached,
and that's one of the problems we face
today,
in in the way we interpret, learn, and
interpret, but we'll come back to that later
on.
So it is better
to do without something than to keep,
than to take help from someone who who
will cause you to indulge in something inappropriate
or something damaging to your dean and iman.
Like, someone says, you know, I, I I
I came, I accepted your invitation. I came
to your dinner. Now it's time for you
to come to my
graduation in the party in the pub.
We have to have the confidence and fortitude
indeed to say no. Sorry. I cannot go
to the pub. It's not allowed for me
to go there.
Now
the other reason for love
that we talked about was beauty beauty,
in addition, that beauty is, of course, in
the eye of the beholder.
The one who created the eye, the one
who created
the cones in the eye, the nerve in
the brain, and the ability to see it
knows what we will find beautiful and what
we will find abhorrent and disgusting.
Now despite the technological advancement of our age,
the most beautiful things in the world are
still
these things that, are things that Allah has
created.
The beautiful
rose, the symmetrical
flowers,
the blue
sky, the tranquil lakes, the majestic mountains, the
gorgeous valleys,
the handsome living beings,
beautiful people.
This this will remain always at the top
of the list of beautiful things in the
world. When you see these things, you have
to con connect them to Allah.
Allah is beautiful, and he loves beauty as
we are told in hadith. So we cannot
we we cannot see or imagine Allah, of
course, but by pondering his wondrous and beautiful
creation,
we can be sure in our hearts that
the one who is responsible
for creating such beauty
must be beautiful and beyond all beauty. And
that is the indication
in this
in the hadith where
so Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us
about,
people on the day of judgment. You know,
when a person goes into Jannah, he will
forget all his troubles. There's a there's a
hadith about the man who will be dipped
into Jannah just for one moment.
But the the person who suffered the most
in this world will be dipped into Jannah
for just one moment, and he will forget
all the pleasures he has he has enjoyed
in this world.
Because the pleasures of Jannah, the the bounty,
the beauty of what he will see will
make him forget. He will say,
I didn't suffer anything.
He will forget it all.
And when people are in jannah, when you
have when we have got when they've gotten
everything, then announcement will be made that I
have something more for you, and they will
wonder what it is. Well well, what is
it? What is it that Allah can give
us? There's nothing that we can imagine that
we we haven't got. But when they and
then the veils will be lifted, then we
will look upon our Lord.
The hadith
swear. He said he said that that that
I that I swear that there'll be nothing
more pleasurable
than that in Jannah looking upon Allah. So
the beauty
is that that we will forget all the
pleasures of paradise.
But here in this world, there is also
beauty
beyond what the eye can perceive, the beauty
that is captured by the heart. And there
are
3 specific characteristics that are key, and this
is what we'll read about today.
So we're talking now about the the beauty
that is
not
the
of image, but something beyond that. He said,
That when you love someone like the the
the the the the truthful people like Saydna,
Saydna
Abu Bakr Sadiq
when you love him,
you love him for
certain reasons. You love him for certain qualities
he possess.
And those those qualities can be grouped. It
can can fall on the 3 of,
on the 3
categories.
That it's that their knowledge their knowledge of
Allah, their knowledge of the prophets, the knowledge
of the books, knowledge of his pro of,
of his guidance,
and the knowledge of
the guidance of sent the prophets. So that's
the first, knowledge.
The second, he said,
He said, we love the
people people who've done good. He said, we
that their their ability
their ability
to rectify themselves and also to guide people
towards rectification. So we love them because of
that as well. And the third reason,
He said, and their purity, the purity of
their souls, their their clean souls, their clean
slates, their their clean
from all
shortcomings and defects, and their ability to keep
their their ability to,
purity from all the lower
characteristics that that causes
a person to do to act and be,
in and be in, and be wrong and
and be and be in the bad categories.
So these are the 3. The first is
elim. The second is elim, which is knowledge,
ability,
and purity.
And then he goes back. He says,
He said, for these reasons, we love the
the prophets, the ulema, the ulema,
and
just kings.
And for so so then he's saying,
Now
think about these three things
knowledge,
ability, and purity
he's saying think about it in relation to
Allah
As for knowledge,
Think about
the comparison between the knowledge of Allah
and the knowledge of of human beings. In
one hadith we're told
that the superiority
of the speech of Allah
is similar to the superiority of Allah above
his creation.
So Allah
knowledge extends above
all. Not even not even an atom's weight
of knowledge
is hidden from him. He knows everything.
So
and he has
addressed the entire creation by saying
that you are not given knowledge except
except
a
little.
He's saying that if the entire creation,
of the the
those that are on earth and those that
are in heaven, if they were to come
together and try
to
encompass, to grasp fully
his knowledge and his wisdom
in detail
over the about the creation that he has
about the creation
of in an ant
or a fly or a mosquito
they will not be able to do even
a
a 10% of it. They wouldn't be able
to understand it.
And,
that that the whatever he people learn is
whatever people know of the of the knowledge,
it is what he has taught us.
He created the human being and he's he's
taught him the
the clarity. He's taught him language. He's taught
him to speak.
And so if the beauty of knowledge
is something that is beloved,
so if it is in itself a a
a a a reason for it it's a
reason for,
for adornment and and for perfection
for the one who possesses it.
That in reality, it is Allah who deserves
to be loved for this reason, for the
reason of knowledge.
And then it continues. It goes on again
about
and
and
ability ability is also,
if attributed to Allah, it is
a perfection.
That every brilliance
and every magnificence
and glory and grandeur
is beloved.
And the percept perceiving of it is is
enjoyable.
He's saying that when we hear about the
exploit, the the courage, the great courage
of people like Ali
and the peep and people like,
and others,
of this of this category, of this type
of brave people,
and and and and and and the way
they carry themselves among their among their their
contemporaries
that we find something. We find a
a
it says something
shakes into your heart, something that shakes you
with with joy in the heart.
And it this comes by necessity.
It is, and it produces a love, a
a love of hearing it,
a love to listen to it,
and even if you did not see it.
So
that is also a reason for love, and
he's saying that then
measure then then compare
the ability
of
the entire creation on one hand and the
and the and the ability of
Allah. That they take the the greatest of
people and, and the wealthiest of people and
the strongest of people
and,
is enough. And the ones who who have,
overpowered their lower selves.
And the one who is able to control
himself and who is able to carry himself
the best way.
He's saying that well, none of this if
compared to compared to what compared to Allah,
it's nothing. It's nothing. That if you're talking
about you're
talking about ability, then know that Allah
ability
stands over and above all. And he goes
into great detail about this.
Insha'Allah, I will I'm looking at the time
because today I have some other things to
talk about as well. Is
as for purity, as as for,
as for being pure from any,
deficiency,
and,
and any any any
shortage, any any any in in capacity.
He said what
the
to have complete,
distance from all
deficiencies
and and defects
if something is completely perfect
and pure and and has no defects,
then that is the reason for love. So
if you were to compare
the
everyone that you can find, you will find
nooks in it. You will find defects
except Allah. Allah is the perfect one.
Okay.
Okay. So that much I will come I
will come back to
the
the okay.
Now in the beginning of this,
section on love, the first verse we cited
was in support,
it's it's support of the need for love
in relation to Allah subhanahu. Love in relation
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was the verse
in where
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, yeah.
Just quoted one part of it by reading
the whole verse now. He said, yeah.
Now the part that pertains to us is
the first part he said oh you believe
whoever of you apostates
from his religion if you enter if you
become a if you left Islam
then then know that presently Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will immediately will re he will replace
you. He will bring people who and then
he describe what kind of people what kind
of relationship
he will have with them. He says that
he shall
that he will love them and they will
love him.
Now note here that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is warning the believers about those who leave
Islam, the Mu'tad Din, the apostates.
And as we mentioned about, in the when
we spoke about in this session, we when
we spoke about reformation,
that there's a prophecy that warns the of
the fact that the time will come when
people will go to bed at night as
Muslims and wake up in the morning as
unbelievers. And the reverse is also that you
will go in the morning, you will be
believers. And by evening, you would have lost
your faith. May Allah protect us all.
Now when you read stories of,
which are called ex Muslims nowadays,
when you read their life stories,
about why they left Islam,
they usually posit intellectual reasons. They say things
like, oh, it doesn't make logical sense to
me or I, you know, believe only in
evolution
or I have some new philosophy of life,
etcetera, etcetera.
But when you take a closer look at
their life story,
and you look deeper, what you find is
that the real problem they have is with
something
that
begins in the heart. There's a heart problem,
not in really an intellectual problem.
The intellectual
justification usually
comes is something that comes afterwards following an
emotional problem either with the parents or a
problem with family or something. There's there's a
there's an emotional problem. There's a problem of
the heart.
And in this verse, Allah is is addressing
this matter precisely in those terms. He did
not say that I will replace you with
people who will have intellectual and the acumen,
the the mind and acumen
to be convinced about Islam,
the that Islam is the true religion. But
instead, what is he saying? He's focusing on
heart, on love.
And, of course, that's not to say that
there is no role for the intellect, but
our intellect tends to follow our heart.
People act and follow what is in their
heart. And this is why despite the fact
that we've that you you can read a
warning about a cigarette
packet that did will on the on the
packet that this,
the cigarette will kill you, will give you
cancer, etcetera. But people continue to smoke because
there's a connection in the heart that's developed.
Now if the heart is populated with the
right content,
then everything including the intellect will follow in
the right direction. And the most
worthy content for the heart
is the love of Allah. So connecting yourself
to the love of Allah
by recognizing by by by by repeated
connection, by by making repeated by in your
mind to connect
to these two words.
Everything around us, we have to be careful
about how we engage
with what we engage. And so if
we train ourselves
to engage the mind and the heart
with
that Allah is the one who did this,
that this that when we look up at
this tree and the tree, you see branches
all over, and each branch is delivering fruits
from all different directions, but they're all connected
to one trunk. They're all connected to one
trunk, and this is where it's coming from.
Everything is coming from Allah. All the good
that we receive is coming from Allah. So
that repeated connection,
Allah sends seasons to train us in those
things.
The the the the the repeated reminder to
it. And this is what
is behind the reasoning
of fasting, and we are now on the
verge of the month of Ramadan. And then
and for this, Ramadan Ramadan is a ray
is a very good opportunity for developing this
this connection, this repeated
remembering,
remitted connection, remitted or or repeated
linking, this linking because,
when you first you said,
It was written written on you. It was
written prescribed for you as it was prescribed
for those before you so that you
may learn. And is god consciousness. It's it's
to be conscious of Allah. It's for the
it's to build that consciousness of of it.
And how do you how does that happen?
That happens that whenever
the,
throughout the day, you want to drink, every
time your hand goes towards the glass of
water, you remember that, yes, I can do
this. You know, I'm in the bathroom. I
can drink water. No one is seeing me,
but my Allah is seeing me. So the
remembering of Allah, thinking of Allah, thinking about
the bounty that Allah is saying that, look,
if you leave, you do this.
If you do this, then
I will
I will repay. All the other ones, all
the,
Allah is saying to the angels that
look my servant, my slave here is leaving
his food and his drink for me, I
will repay. And that this is something this
is special. I will give him a special
gift for it. So the to keep that,
use Ramadan
to build that connection of bringing the heart
over and over and over to to it.
Because it will
it will help you,
to
to develop
that
linking
just like the person who as I said,
volume of expo volume of time
plays a great role, and now you have
this time in Ramadan to to develop those
connections. So monitor
the perchings and the flights of your mind.
How does it work?
When I when when you suddenly feel that,
oh, well, I I need to I I
need to meet my beloved. And and and
for parents of of those who are of
you who are parents here who are listening,
those if you see yourself if you find
yourself wanting to help your child, wanting to
do something good for your child, and you've
and and you see yourself,
giving your your your your children food before
yourself even though you are hungry, you should
say,
Allah, subhanallah,
what what a beautiful
gift you give me that I am caring
for my child and it's your love. It's
that that I am forgetting myself to see
it to help my child that this is
a gift from Allah and to recognize it
as such, not to see it as something
that is purely yours and you are doing
it, but it is a gift from Allah.
That is good.
Now there are in a okay. In relation
to Ramadan, yes, I I have a,
series of lectures that is embedded in the
salah,
playlist,
I think from
number 16 to 22 to 21. Please try
to listen to those over Ramadan. It it
inshallah will be beneficial.
In fact, if you can listen to the
whole series,
because it's a series of about improving your
salah. But if you can't, then listen from
16 to 21 inshallah. This is about Ramadan.
It it's embedded in the in the salah
series. So please follow that,
during the month of Ramadan.
Now the next thing I want to talk
to you about is that, and this is,
in relation to a,
a talk,
that was,
an event that took place here in Oxford,
early in the week, I think, on Monday
night. And apparently, many Muslims attended the lecture.
It's a lecture on free will and predestination.
And
it was also it also included a monologue
of criticism of Imam Ghazali
and calling people towards
towards the school
of thought. And so for the benefit of
those of you who attended and are somewhat
confused,
I I I would like to
deal with both of these, and I want
to give you, 2 short pieces of advice.
On the first one, on the on the
predestination
on on the
or the predestination,
point,
I want you to keep in mind
4 points.
The first is that to believe in Qatar
is an essential part of your iman.
In one report, it is listed in the
in the iman section of the Hadith of
Jibril, the one that I read last,
Hadith Jibril when
was asked, what is iman? He said, and
took
me to believe in Allah, his prophets, his
books, to believe in Allah, his his angels,
his prophets, his books on the on the
last day and
predestination.
The good and the bad of it.
Now to believe in it
is it is part of your iman that
you have to accept.
The second thing to be to bear in
mind is that to discuss and debate details
of Al Qadr
is prohibited for the layperson.
I'm gonna repeat this. To to discuss and
to debate the details of Al Qadr
is prohibited.
And who is prohibiting it? Especially for the
layperson, it's prohibited.
And who who is prohibiting it?
Rasulullah
the prophet himself.
And he did so when he found the
Sahaba. The Sahaba also
fell into this, and they they discussed it.
And I'm going to read you the hadith,
the sound hadith in Ibn Majah. It says
that an an and
and Abi here and.
No.
That he came out and found his
his his
the Sahaba. He founded the companions.
And they are and they were arguing about
Qadr. They were discussing it and and debating
it.
It was
and was always pleasant, lovely.
When he speaks, he smiles. He had a
he had a smiling face all the time.
But on this particular occasion,
the anger
became so intense
that it was as if and they're describing
it. They say,
He said it was like the his face
became like the like if a be
bits of,
pomegranate
juice was sprinkled on him. That if it
that that if there were pomegranate juice on
his face, like, as if the as it
as if it was a seed of a
of a pomegranate, so red,
from anger.
And then he said
to
them, he said,
is this is this what you were commanded
to?
Or was it was was it this that
you were you you were created for it?
That you are putting parts parts of the
Quran against each other, parts and parts against
it. You're throwing throwing parts of the Quran
and all on on each
other. It is with this that the previous
peoples
were destroyed.
So
he
made a clear
mem first of all, his his, expression, his
his his anger, the state of his anger,
and then he tell he told them the
reason why. That look, the previous generations, peep
previous peoples, people who who had received revelation,
they were destroyed because of this. Now some
scholars say that if you have the
requisite,
training and knowledge, then you may discuss
some aspects of it.
However, if your knowledge of the subject is
such that you're not aware of the presence
of a hadith like this, then certainly you're
not qualified to speak on the subject. And
if you don't know that the Sahaba were
caught speaking about it and were and and
were told not to do so and as
it seems to be in this case, then
lecturing on is not something that you are
listening to it and taking part of it.
It's something that should be avoided. Now the
third point to recognize is to remember is
why is it prohibited?
Why?
It is prohibited because
it falls
it falls
beyond the limits of human intellect.
Yes. I'm gonna repeat that. It falls beyond
the limits of human intellect. Now this might
not be appreciated by some people, you know,
especially
the fact that human intellect is limited, our
intellect our intellect is limited, especially when it
comes to
phenomena that extends
outside
of the bubble of sequential time.
I'm gonna repeat that. It
it it is limited
particularly
to phenomena that extends outside the bubble of
sequential time.
The time in which we exist as opposed
to compound time. Come Allah
is not trapped in this past, present, future,
bind of sequential time in which we are.
Now here, you may find that some of
the chattering classes, you know, we have in
Islam, we have chattering classes also. They're known
as the
you know, the
the university educated
Sahib, you know, the,
and who would like to spend a lot
of their spare time criticizing,
you know, that the this
and that and say, here we go again.
The are shutting down debate. Now now if
you have a problem with this now
and and you think that human beings are
not limited in their intellect, now let me
give you one example,
a simple example, but it's a very powerful
example from cognitive science,
and and and this example is actually directly
related to this matter. It is actually known
as the hard problem of neuroscience.
Yes. It's the hard problem. There is such
a thing as the hard problem.
And
the the example is is as as that
is is, in the 19 eighties, there was
a researcher. He's,
he was the son of a Ukrainian,
migrant to America.
His name was, Benjamin Libet,
l I b e t.
And he was a, a neurophysiologist,
and he stuck some electrodes on people's scalps,
give them tasks to do, and run series
of tests. And what he found was that
people's brains were being activated to do things,
the same things that they were supposed to
do, but before they
became conscious of their own decisions.
Now
and
there were it was happening, and then he
he he did it over and over and
over and came up with a number. He
said it was 500 milliseconds.
Around 500 milliseconds before you actually make a
decision about doing something, your brain starts to
work 500 milliseconds before you milliseconds before you
do. Now some people have tried to dismiss
this experiment,
these experiments generally because
it's it's very unsettling.
It has
serious
unsettling ramifications.
But rest assured, the experiment has been repeated
several times with more and more advanced equipment
like fMRI scanners and, and the results.
Whenever
the more you you they
they worked on it is the more the
results became more stark.
They found that the brain is making decisions,
on which hand to use, whether left or
right, sometimes
7 to 10 seconds before the person actually
decides which one they will use. And
without even know before they even knowing which
hand they will use, this happens. Now now
if you Google this, you will find,
a post modelist article,
that tries to, you know, undermine
purely speculative deconstruction in it, trying to undermine
it. But if you speak to people who
know about this and who who have looked
at these, these experiments, you will find that
it is it is solid. It is a
solid piece of research that has been repeated
in many different settings in the by the
Max Planck Institute in Germany and here in
London as well at the UCL, and various
other places. People have done this experiment.
Now
this
the results of this has major implications for
our understanding of what is and what is
not free will.
And there is no satisfactory
scientific answer to this problem, and that's why
it's known as the hard problem.
The attitude of scientists generally is, are 2.
Well, either to say trying to find, you
know, to say, oh, but this list of
research, don't don't don't think about this, that
may maybe the it's flawed, but, and those
are the people that the postpartumist you'll find
talk about this, but, because it has implications
for free will. And the other is that
you'll find people just stepping around it. You
know? Just ignore it. Don't mention it. Don't
say anything about it. You know? It's similar
to what, Churchill once said. He said that,
you know, was
someone may stumble on the truth
and get up, pick themselves up, brush brush
themselves off, and walk off as if nothing
has happened.
I think that he was speaking about Islam,
but that's another story.
The point here is that
scientists have no satisfactory answer for this problem.
Now the what you have to remember that
in spite of stripping, the scientists don't believe
in the soul. They don't believe in any
spiritual aspects of the human being.
And despite that and given all the ardent
strides in scientific methodology
and the use of advanced technology,
we are still unable
to understand and fully grasp this matter of
free will in the consciousness in our consciousness.
How on earth can we expect to grasp
the full understanding of it when it is
combined
with the belief in the presence of the
soul? The same soul of which Allah
is warning us in the Quran. He's saying,
and they ask you, oh, Muhammad, about the
soul.
Say that the soul is the affair of
my lord. The fear of my lord. The
soul is the affair of my lord.
And you are not given knowledge except a
tiny little, tiny, a tiny amount. So we
are reminded there on this point
at this point that if you're going to
go, if you're going to dabble in this
sort of thing, then it will be beyond.
So in other words, human beings, however much
you think you may have developed intellectually, your
knowledge will remain limited and trapped
in the blind spots of sequential time.
We have blind spots
about the past, and about the future and
even about the presence. You know? Our concept
of time is limited,
and the minute we step off, we step
off the common sense area of understanding, then
it it starts to get fuzzy. You know?
They give you another example. If I ask
you to if if you ask you to
imagine that someone
is on a star that is that's a
100 light years away from here. So it
takes a 100 light years for the light
from our from us to reach them, and
then they are looking back at us, and
it takes a 100 light years for their
light to reach us. And we are both
looking at each other. Which of those is
now?
It becomes fuzzy. We cannot understand that. So
the 4th point to bear in mind is
that Allah
has no blind spots,
nor is he trapped in this sequential time
that we are in. For he this is
something he created for us.
He created this all, so it's a blessing
to stop everything by happening all at once,
but it's a blessing for us, and it
has blind spots. For him, the future is
just as clear as the past, and his
power is over all things.
He is never unjust.
So when we
when he takes you to task for your
intention,
then that is fully justified. You know, if
someone
shows up in in court to hear on
earth and says to the judge, you know,
your honor, I would like the case of
stealing against me to be thrown out
on grounds that my brain made the decision
to steal before I I knew about it.
This will not be acceptable, then it might
be told, look, well, but my brain has
made the decision to throw you in jail
before I knew about it as well. So
so in summary,
to believe in Qatar is compulsory
and to recognize
odds, to recognize
incapacity,
to recognize
limitation
in our understanding is an oblique
is obligatory
in this matter.
And no one can fully understand it,
not even the neuroscientists
with the best tools available to them with
after stripping the human being of his soul,
stripping him of everything else, yet it is
it is difficult to understand. This is this
is a hard problem.
So we should not shy away. This you
don't need to be to shy away from
from this and say, well well, we need
to we will be able to understand.
Made it absolutely clear. Don't.
That with this this this sort of thing
has caused problems for
the previous
nations.
So it caused destruction for them. So
there is no need to shy away or
to indulge in intellectual gymnastics or mental contortions
over it. That's the first thing.
In regard to the second matter, which is,
why did Imam Ghazali criticize the philosophers like
Ibni Sina and Farabi?
There is, of course, an abundance of very
good reason why he did it. And I'm
gonna give you one example. Let's take one
example.
People at the time, because because they they
they became interlocutors
with a lot of Christian,
they were involved with that they got. In
they became interlocutors with a lot of,
philosophers,
non Muslim philosophers, Christian philosophers, Farabi spent a
lot of his time in with with with
with debating and
discussing theology with
Christian theologians in the in Baghdad.
And now what happens is that they they
they
they began to miss,
misinterpret
things because they were trapped in
in in in systems of in systems of
rational and systems of thought that were outside
of that of Islam.
And on the basis of their philosophical arguments,
they began to mislead people into believing that
the universe was eternal. This is one of
the problems in in Imam Ghazali's,
Tahafood. This is one of the things that
he said that takes you out of Islam.
If you believe this, that the that the
universe is eternal,
which is something that not only Aristotle and
the ancient,
Greek,
philosophers believed, but most of the scientists well
into the 20th century. The science modern scientists
thinking that they believe that the universe was
was,
eternal, that this this was a closed system,
that you nothing came in, nothing go went
out, but there was it was exactly as
it is and forever.
And
it was only,
until the 19 sixties. I'm talking about 20th
century. It was only in the in the
19 sixties when they discovered redshift
and
realized that the universe was actually expanding
similar to what the Quran was saying where
where Allah says in Surat Al Dariyat,
that the heavens we have created with might
and it is us who are
expanding it. Allah is using the word expanding
for the universe. Said we
we are expanding it. This is exactly what
Allah says in the Quran. Now when they
realized that it was expanding,
then
you had to do the math. You could
work backwards now. And when you work backwards,
if something is expanding, then you work backwards,
you reach to a crunch point where it
all came into existence.
So then the idea of coming into coming
into being was ex began to be accepted.
It it they they accepted that, which is
oh, again, here here also exactly as the
Quran said.
That have have those who disbelieve not considered
that the heavens and the earth were joined
in an entity with one point.
And and
and we made them we made them separate,
burst out. Right?
And we caused them to split apart.
And and they said,
and we have created all living things from
water.
We have from from water, we made every
living thing. And then a question at the
end,
Then will they not believe? So
Imam Ghazali's
challenge to the
to these philosophical conclusions
because they were clearly in contradiction with the
Quran
by give and
because these people had given primacy to
which is primacy of of intellect over revelation,
they made monstrous mistakes in their conclusions.
You know, the words of Sayyidina Ali is
pertinent here because it's it's it's profound in
this matter. He said he he he said
that
if Dean if Dean was
by
mental, calculations only, but only only by only
by opinion,
then wiping the leather socks, you know, when
you have when you wear a leather socks,
where do you do? Where do you do
the wiping? You do it on top. So
he's saying that if it if deen was
only,
with
mind, then we would be wiping underneath instead
of on top. But
not
they receive the wisdom says that this is
what
taught us. This is the guidance that you
wipe on top. The intellect has a role,
of course, but whenever there's a clash between
Aqal and Naqal,
Naqal takes precedence. The received wisdom has to
supersede the Raqal, has to supersede it. Now
to put this all simply is that
all of these people, the old,
the Neo,
the and
the and the philosophers,
all of them, they all fell into
the usual traps.
The trap that we spoke about in in
when we spoke about, postmodernism,
which was the trap of Ifrat and Tafrit
in language,
as in moving away from common sense language
and getting into extreme interpretation, and then you
fall, you fall, you fall off the cliff.
And the second one is the trap of
failure
to accept limitation in human intellect,
such as blind spots of the sequential time
in which we exist.
So may Allah
protect us all from falling into these traps
and make his love
flourish in our hearts so that we meet
him on the day of judgment
where when he is pleased with us,
when we would be among those who he
described
in the Quran as
he loves them, and they love him. Now
let us pray.
And the love of those who love
you.
And grant us the
the deeds that will take us to your
love
Allah.
Something about for those who
did not yes. For those
yeah. This is this is for people who
became confused. Obviously, I'm I'm clarifying
based on the questions I received,
but it is important that we don't fall
into finger pointing.
What's important here is that we have to
take care of our own heart and make
sure that we that that we're careful about
what we are saying, careful careful of of
what we're engaging with, and know that,
there is
that that we we we cannot sit. If
we put if we place ourselves in difficult
situation, then it the effects will it will
affect us, but we cannot sit in the
in the,
in the freezer with the intention of remaining
warm.
It will it will affect us. Like, Rasool
Allah sallam is asking to be protected,
to be not to have not not to
receive favors from wicked people because his heart
will love them. That that shows that, you
know, you're not in control of it, so
you have to be careful.
Okay.
Yeah. I think that's,
that's it for today. Inshallah, we will,
continue next term. If Allah keeps us alive,
please remember to keep me in your dua
and
to make,
an effort
to follow the,
the in
a
on on the website,
the YouTube website with,
and salah, the the salah ones. And as
I said, from number 16 to 21, it's,
will be useful,
for Ramadan in particular.