Shadee Elmasry – Faith & Reason Very Brief Summary

Okay, the next question is really good. Is Islam logical or

rational? Okay. And this is a very good question a person might ask

is Islam What is the reason rat rationality behind being a Muslim?

And the answer is as follows. That

is of the of the three religions that exist. Islam approaches the

religion well Muslims are told, right and it approaches the

religions

Deen itself in requiring of us to have certain analytical, okay?

Perspectives, an analytical takes on all matters. Okay. And from

this the Quran when it's when it asks us. All right, if you hear a

claim that Jack confessor from B, B never in front of a, you know,

in surah Taha gerat, Allah says, if someone brings you news, make

sure it's correct, right. So the first thing that we are taught as

Muslims, the first rational principle is the concept and idea

of objective proofs and evidences, right, objective proofs and

evidences. And Emanuel has that he writes a book on the three

religions. And he says, Well, what and then he begins with the

question of why should a Muslim choose Islam over Judaism or

Christianity? And his answer is, quite simply that if we are only

to accept, we are going to believe in a religion, we first have to

believe that that religion actually existed, that that book

actually existed, that that Prophet actually existed, and that

that book that we have in front of us is as the Prophet said, it was

good.

He says that this requires some chain of transmission, and that

chain of transmission does not exist for Judaism or Christianity.

Right? You cannot be certain. Right? There is absolutely no

worldly evidence of the existence of those books. So you're

following myths? You're following speculations? Alright, how so?

Step number one is that to confirm and we do affirm, and this is

going to be related to another question about Hadith, that,

historically speaking, there is plenty of evidence that someone

named Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam existed, and that the

Quran, okay, existed and has transmitted to us after all these

centuries, right, with a degree of soundness that would eliminate

doubt. Okay, upon the book that's between this. So the rule number

one, the first

point of rationality and Islam is are we certain that it existed and

therefore, when you take this approach,

you immediately eliminate anything that is really more of a

mythology, right? Where you have no actual proof that such a such a

person claimed prophecy, and then gave us this instructions on how

to live. Okay, so that's rule number one. Or principle number

one, rational principle number one is the

objective and rational requirement of proof of existence. And we

prove that number one, there was a person named Muhammad Sallallahu

Sallam number two, the Quran that we have in front of us was the

book that he

received and taught to his companions afterwards. Okay. So

that's, that's the first thing. Now the second approach to

rationality, or the rationality of Islam,

is by cornering certain situations into three possible or to two

possible choices, either an absurdity, or the truthfulness of

the Prophet salallahu idea was, okay. So let's just take for

example, the Creator. How did the universe come into existence? And

we say this many times, but people have to know it right. The first

question is, how did the universe come into existence? Why should I

believe that?

Why should I believe that? All right, we got this guy here. Let's

just get this guy out here real quick.

All right.

All right.

Alright, the first, the first question is, sorry about that. We

had some trolls we got some trolls these days. I don't know why. But

we get some trolls. The question of how did the universe come into

existence, there's only three possibilities. Two of them are

rationally impossible.

And one of them is rationally required. So the two that

irrationally impossible is that it's always existed. The universe

has always existed. It's eternal. Which basically means that

your mother brought you into the world. Her mother brought her into

the world. Her mother brought her into the world all the way into

infinite number of mothers, right? There's no end to the moms Okay,

in the world. Just

As an example, right?

The Infinity of anything in a cause and effect system, which is

this universe is an absurdity, the pre existence that is never had a

beginning is an absurdity. Okay, so it's rationally rejected is

almost like saying a domino, you hit the first domino, and then the

dominoes keeps going back for infinity. Without beginning, it's

rationally impossible and unacceptable and what they call

philosophically absurd. Number two is that the world created itself

the universe created itself. For anything to create itself, it must

take an action in order to take an action it must exist. So when

someone asked the question, could the universe have created itself,

we say to them, at a certain moment in time, that universe must

have existed and not existed at the same time. And that's an

impossibility a thing cannot exist and not exist simultaneously.

Okay, so that's the first that's the first thing. So that's number

two. Number three, is the requirement of a knowledgeable and

powerful and capable and existent maker outside of the realm of

cause effect and time and space. Okay, we don't just by thinking

about it, we won't know the makers name, we won't know His will what

he wants from us, we won't know about our own selves soul, we

won't know that there's an afterlife, just Rationally

speaking, but we will know that there is a maker that he must

exist outside of time space, cause and effect and that he is capable,

knowledgeable sees and hears, okay, so we must know that, that

at least we know, that's the maker. Now let's go to the Prophet

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam because to prove everything else

is required. It's required for us to us to prove the province lies

and because everything else about Allah subhanaw taala is known only

from Revelation. Only these attributes, very few attributes

about the maker can be known by the intellect by aka and there are

only seven and

it was Imam Razi expanded that to 13 or 14 but they're all branches

of the seven in any event, now we go to the next question is what

about the Prophet peace be upon him? So again, how what is our

approach, our approach is to corner all the possibilities right

surrounding the province, I sell them and see how was this possible

for him to bring us this book? Right? And to do what he did?

Okay, was he a poet? Did it was in the Quran is was he a poet? Was he

insane? Was he contacting jinn? Did he authored the book from

himself? Okay, etc. And then you slowly eliminate these one at a

time leaving the fact that no he actually was a prophet, and

made prophecies that came true. So the prophecies when we see that

the prophecies of the prophets I send them come true. Then we have

to ask was he guessing did he have gin? Okay, did he was he just did

you copy them from somewhere and you slowly eliminate until you

come to one there's only one option left, which is that he was

actually was a prophet and received this news directly from

Allah subhanaw taala. And once the prophets of Allah Azza wa sallam

is established, okay, his truthfulness is established, then

the rest of the Sharia is established. Okay, the rest of the

show. So, let me just summarize this question of is Islam logical

and rational? The first principle, the first principle is the

requirement that Allah expects from us that Muslims expect from

us okay, or that Muslims are expected to observe and commanded

to observe and that any rational being would observe regardless,

right, is that in order to accept something we first must know and

be certain that it existed. And Islam is the only religion on the

earth, of the major religions that has any ability to prove its

historicity, the fact that it did exist, okay with certainty that

prophet the book, right, even the Companions, there is no doubt.

Whereas if you go to Biblical Studies, if you go to Taoism, if

you go into Shintoism, all the confusions all these things, the

level is the level of myth. Historically speaking, there is no

evidence and therefore why should you base your life on something

that you don't even know really existed? Okay, so that's one

thing. So That's principle number one. Principle number two, is that

the rationality regarding the unseen matters okay, is by asking

for explanations, how do you explain this phenomenon and

therefore, eliminate you will come to eliminate one after the other

after the other until you have one left that is only possible and

therefore it becomes required. Okay. And I gave the example A

About the Creator. And I gave the example very briefly very, very

briefly about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam number

one, the book. And number two, His prophecies. Right? Why does the

Prophet make prophecies to prove that he's a prophet? Right? So he

proves his prophecy by he proves his prophecy by

us look at these prophecies then you ask? Well, there are like

1020 3040 prophecies that are they're documented in the books

printed

and then they manifest in front of all of us. Okay, after they've

been documented by scribes, by scholars. Okay. So what are you

going to say? Are you going to say that the scribes made them up?

Nope. Right? We have manuscripts they didn't make them up after the

fact this describe the manuscripts are there. Did all these the

scholars that hadith scholars make up these prophecies? It would be

really risky to make up a prophecy about your prophet. Right?

Right. Because if it fails, your whole religion is undermined. So

they didn't make them up. Well Did the Prophet just guess and he was

right 20 and 30 times right. So what is the you eliminate all

these possibilities? And then you come to the possibility the only

rational explanation left was is that yeah, there is prophecy

prophecy exists. Okay. So that is a simple answer. Let's see what

some of the people had set to say about this.

Fall hernia Oh

be