Shadee Elmasry – Pearls in The Deep with Naz Hassan – NBF 378
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We come to you from the studios of
the La Cocina Soup Kitchen and welcome you
to the La Cocina is a beautiful, beautiful
soup kitchen for which we will be streaming
our annual gala that will be with Sister
Nahala Morales, who is our da'ia.
She does the da'wa to the Spanish
population here in Spanish and we'll be having
Tom Fecchini.
Is it Fecchini or Fecchini?
I seem to never be able to get
it right, except that we had a great
weekend, him and I, at Al Maqasid's mawlid
program.
Oh, well, don't have a mawlid program because
the sahaba never did it.
So what should we have then?
Syrup conference?
Did the sahaba do that though?
That's the question.
The asl is wrong.
So the asul of al-tarq, al-tarq
la yu'ddi ila hukmah.
Not doing something is not the basis of
a ruling.
Anyway, that's a whole nother story.
Today, first of all, we are covering a
new announcement or our first book release, if
you could see this, Pearls in the Deep,
beautiful, beautiful book, how the Quran transforms the
problem of evil.
Evil, when you read this book, you will
realize that, I mean, the perspective shifts that
he does here are so powerful and that's
what we're going to be covering today.
This is what we're going to be covering
is, are these perspective shifts on, a lot
of them coming from Saeed Nursi and Naz
is going to be coming on right now.
But Omar, I want you to fire up
that AI company that tried to do a
little underhanded clip, take a clip out and
they try to make people look bad, but
you're dealing with somebody who has a different
psychology of, you know, when someone tries to
make them look bad.
It just, I don't know, it doesn't affect
me, right?
And in fact, I think, all right, we'll
get back, we'll get to you someday.
And today we're going to get to him
and we're going to talk about the, what
the Hanbala have said, what the Malikiya have
said, what the Shafi'iya have said, what
the Ahnaf have said in Al-Fatawa Al
-Hindiya.
So Omar is going to fire that up.
But to give you a summary, this is
an organization that uses artificial intelligence to produce
quotes for you, quotes from books, reliable fiqh
books.
So we'll wait to see how that goes.
In general, I think all the fuqaha like
human, the human interface, I think in everything,
all industries, they may utilize AI in the
same way that they utilize Google when it
first came, any search engine.
But the issue is that don't you need
to have an interface, right?
So a human interface to give you context,
to maybe do what a machine can't do.
But anyway, so we'll see how their project
pans out.
If it's just a matter of providing a
reference, I mean, people Google stuff all the
time.
So what exactly is the difference?
But I don't think they should call it
a fatwa.
They should just call it a reference site.
But anyway, let's take a look at their
attempted mockery here on the issue of putting
flowers.
That's really the issue.
Putting greenery on graves.
That's the issue that is so shocking and
surprising.
So let's see what they said here.
By the way, they got ripped in the
comments.
Oh my gosh, the guy can't handle it.
With this new AI platform, you can select
your school of thought, write your question and
get your answer.
As simple as that, you have your answer
and you save yourself the fear of embarrassing
yourself with the local imam.
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get notified as soon as we draw.
Well, that question is definitely not going to
embarrass you when you ask your local imam
if you could put some flowers on your
mom's grave.
Nor would it shock anyone, whatever anyone says.
But let's actually just get to the matter.
Because you could tell the slant of the
organization based on who they have in their
little Instagram clips.
Myself, Sheikh Asrar and they got some Shiites,
as if he's putting people who he thinks
are innovators in one category.
And then Sheikh Haroon commented to them and
he said, by the way, you're not using
some of the Mu'tamid books the way you're
advertising.
And they asked him, I think they said
something like, who are you?
Can you find that comment?
And I think he mentioned, oh, his bio
said that he's studying at Azhar because that's
what Sheikh Haroon is.
He's completing his degree at Azhar.
So I think they said to him, well,
you're in Azhar, so that's all we need
to know, right?
It's like, what?
First of all, are you going to treat
your potential customers like that?
You're going to treat your potential downloaders like
that and also insult them in front of
everybody?
Hello, where's your brain?
So anyway, let's get to what some ulama
said because there clearly is a khilaf on
the matter.
And the khilaf on the matter is that,
was this something that the Prophet ﷺ intended
for everybody to do?
Or was it something that only he did?
That's the question.
So al-Qurtubi says that when the Prophet
went to the grave of people, he was
informed of receiving a punishment.
And he placed two green stalks on them
and said that he hoped that as long
as they're green, that the punishment would be
lifted from them or would be eased up
on them.
One of them was a backbiter, all the
time backbiting.
The other, he didn't care about tahara.
So that affects your prayer.
If you don't care about putting stamps on
your envelopes, your envelopes don't arrive, right?
Whether or not you had a good intention
or not, Allah has created systems here and
you have to respect the system.
So the system is, you want your prayer
to arrive to the heavens, make wudu properly.
So it wasn't that he accidentally didn't make
tahara, he wasn't caring.
And that's really the issue, the lack of
care.
Just like when a husband and wife have
an issue, it's not the issue, it's just
the lack of consideration.
Like you know that this bothers me, but
you don't care.
In any event, let's begin with al-Qurtubi.
He says that it's a shafa'ah for
them as long as it was green.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says, Mazari says, It
could be that he was given wahi, that
the punishment would be relieved from them for
that period of time.
Well, there's an argument against that, because if
it's wahi, then why would he say, I
hope?
The Prophet ﷺ said, I hope.
If it's wahi, then it's certainty.
Wahi doesn't come with speculation.
Al-Khattabi says, So
Al-Khattabi says that it could be that
he hopes that his dua' for them remains
so long as these stocks are green.
But then we ask the question, and he
says it's not anything to do with the
stocks.
Well, then we ask the question, why wouldn't
the dua' be permanent?
Like why would the dua' have a shelf
life?
When the Prophet prays for rahmah for somebody,
it's not a temporary rahmah that he wants.
Anyway, we're going to read all the opinions,
because a matter of khilaf, we have to
elevate our discourse.
Matters of khilaf, read both sides.
What you believe is a stronger evidence, ahlan
wa sahlan, or if you have a madhhab,
you follow that.
But at the very least, you should not
be doing what this shaykh.ai, it's called,
shaykh.ai. I'm giving you free advertisement, so
you should be happy.
What this organization is doing is trying to
make Shaykh Asrar look bad, trying to make
myself look bad.
Thing is, you're dealing with someone who really
could, I almost enjoy it sometimes.
I'm always ready for a fight.
Although I don't want to fight with another
Muslim.
But if you pick it, and you know
there's always this problem.
Someone hits you, you strike back, and then
they say, don't cause fitnah.
Hold on a second, isn't the fitnah started
by the guy who threw the first punch?
Anyway, so the argument against that is, why
would the dua' for that rahmah be limited
to that shelf life?
Anyway, let's keep going on.
He says that, He says here, that in
this opinion by Khattabi, whether it's fresh or
dry, it doesn't make a difference.
That's an opinion.
It has been said.
The meaning here, As long as these stalks
are green, we know that living things and
plants are making tasbih.
And it's the tasbih that causes that decrease
in punishment.
Because the tasbih of Allah and punishment don't
come together.
And this is what has been used in
many fatawa, in Hanbali books, as well as
we're going to read right now.
That allow for the dua' and recitation at
graves.
Because they're saying here, if the plant, the
plant is a cause for decrease of punishment.
Imagine a human reciting the Quran.
Or any other tasbih.
Okay.
If you take this understanding, then the punishment
goes away, So if that's the way you
understand it, that it's the tasbih of the
plants, of the living plant that causes the
punishment to go away.
Then by extension, any and all plants, as
long as they're alive, will produce that same
effect.
And hence, not only is that a permissibility,
then you're doing someone a favor, a good
deed.
He says, it could be completely unknown to
us.
Yes, for sure, the absolute knowledge is unknown
to us.
And everyone is speculating, and the speculations are
all valid.
And we can see which is most valid,
or most strong.
We can't say most valid, we say strongest
of all speculations.
We know all of the ahjaar, all of
the plants, they make tasbih of Allah.
And the tasbih of Allah repels punishment and
repels bad things.
He says, the whole matter is ghaybi.
The Prophet put them there because of a
matter that's ghaybi.
It's unseen to us.
Meaning the news that they're being punished.
They're being punished.
I say, He said, it's irrelevant
to us.
It's not necessary for us to know what
is a person's state in his grave, for
us to pray for him for mercy.
So therefore, that argument doesn't make a difference.
So if we don't know, if we knew,
then we wouldn't pray for them.
If we knew that they're in paradise, like
a martyr.
If we knew that they were having pleasure
in their grave, we wouldn't pray for them.
No, we still pray for them.
There is nothing in this hadith that shows
that the Prophet himself put them there.
He could have ordered someone to put them
there.
It's possible that the Messenger commanded somebody to
put the plants there.
Right.
There's no tashkeen on it.
And here we have one of the strongest
pieces of evidence.
The Sahabi Buraidah took an example from this.
فَأَوْصَىٰ أَن يُوضَعَ عَلَىٰ قَبْرِهِ جَرِيدَتَانِ Is this
not?
First of all, I think it should be
جريدتان.
There's a طبعي error here in the Arab.
فَأَوْصَىٰ بُرَيْدَ He said, he counseled, When I
die, put on my grave two stalks, just
as you did for the Prophet ﷺ.
كَمَا سَيَأْتِي فِي الْجَنَائِزِ مِنْ هَذَا الْكِتَابِ It's
Qadi Ayyad speaking.
So if a Sahabi did it, that's a
very strong evidence.
وَأَوْصَىٰ بُرَيْدَ الْأَسْلَمِي أَن يُجْعَلْ فِي قَبْرِهِ جَرِيدَتَانِ
And this narration says it was بُرَيْدَ الْأَسْلَمِي
The Sahabi who advised and counseled put two
in my grave.
One narration says on my grave.
عَلَىٰ الْقَبْرِ قَالَ الْبُخَارِ وَأَوْصَىٰ بُرَيْدَ الْأَسْلَمِ يُجْعَلْ
فِي قَبْرِهِ جَرِيدَتَانِ Two stalks, two green stalks
in his grave.
قَالَ ابْنَ حَجَر قَالَ الزَّيْنِ ابْنِ المُنِيرِ وَالَّذِي
يَظْهَرُ مِنْ تَصَرُّفِهِ يَعْنِ الْبُخَارِ تَرَجِيحَ الْوَضَعِ Ibn
Hajar says, it appears from the way he
wrote this that he supports putting green things
on or in the graves.
What about Ibn Hajar al-Haytami al-Shaafi
'i in his Fatawa al-Kubra Shaafi'i
Fatwas اِسْتَنْبَطَ الْعُلَمَاءِ مِنْ غَرْسِ الْجَرِيدَتَيْنِ عَلَى الْقَبْرِ
غَرْسُ الْأَشْجَارِ وَالْرَيَاحِينَ عَلَى الْقَبْرِ He says the
istimbat of the Shaafi'i is to do
it for all.
Meaning permitted and even beneficial for all in
general based on that it's the tasbih that
is the cause that there is no punishment
or that the punishment goes away.
How about let's go to the Ahnaf and
let's travel down to Bilad al-Hind.
قَالَ صَاحِبُ الْفَتَاوَةِ الْهِنْدِيَّ وَضْعُ الْوُرُودِ وَالْرَيَاحِينِ
عَلَى الْقُبُورِ حَسَنٌ إِنْ تَصَدَّقَ بِقِيمَةِ الْوَرْدِ كَانَ
أَحْسَنٌ كَذَا فِي الْغَرَائِبِ and if he gives
charity from the value of those it's even
better so he says it's Hasan so here
we have the Shaafi'i Hasan the Malikiya
Hasan the Shaafi'i Hasan طَيِّب فَلْنَذْهَبْ إِلَى
الْإِمَامِ أَحْمَدْ وَأَصْحَابِ وَسُنَّ لِزَائِرِهِ who is saying
this صاحب مطالب قُلْ إِنَّهَا وَسُنَّ لِزَائِرِهِ فِعْلَ
مَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُ وَلَوْ بِجَعْلِ جَرِيدَ رَطْبَةٍ فِي
الْقَبْرِ لِلْخَبْرِ because of this it is a
Sunnah سُنَّ لِزَائِرِهِ فِعْلَ مَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُ all
things that would decrease punishment is a Sunnah
وَلَوْ بِجَعْلِ جَرِيدَ رَطِبَةٍ فِي الْقَبْرِ even if
that means putting a green stalk on the
grave وَأَوْصَى بِهِ بُرَيْدَ بُرَيْدَ asked for this
to be done to himself وَفِي مَعْنَاهُ غَرْسْ
غَيْرُهَا وَأَنْكَرَ ذَلِكَ جَمَعَةٌ مِّنَ الْعُلَمَةِ we said
here this is an Ikhtilafi matter we're just
going to read everything and you can see
which one is most appealing and I can
tell you which I feel is most strongest
of evidences but as clearly we're saying it's
an Ikhtihadi matter and the fool in knowledge
is the one who takes an Ikhtihadi matter
and elevates it to a Qat'i and
makes these crazy videos like this وَقَالَ فِي
تُحْفَةِ الْمُحْتَاجِ لِلشَّافِعِ يُسَنُّ it is a sunnah
وَضَعْ جَرِيدَ خَضْرَاءْ عَلَى الْقَبْرِ it is a
sunnah to do so to put a green
stalk on the grave وَسَنَدُهُ صَحِيحُ the chain
of this is sahih this hadith is sahih
وَلِيَنَّهُ يُخَفَّفْ عَنْهُ بِبَرَكَةِ تَسْبِيحِهِ the understanding is
the punishment will be decreased because of the
blessing of the tasbih إِذْ هُوَ أَكْمَلُ مِنْ
تَسْبِيحِ الْيَابِسَةِ it is more complete than the
tasbih of something dry لِمَا فِي تِلْكَ مِنْ
نَوْعِ حَيَاتِ because at least the green has
some life in it and life is greater
than death وَقِيْسَ بِهَا مَعْتِيدَ مِنْ طَرْحِ الْرَيْحَانِ
وَنَحْوِهِ now make analogy of putting flowers or
raihan or whatever else greenery that you have
how is that?
how is that?
as an answer let's read another قَالَ إِبْنُ
مُفْلِحَ وَيُسَنُّ مَا يُخَفِّفْ عَنْهُ إِذَا تَأَذَّ بِالْمُنْكَرِ
إِنْ تَفْعَ بِالْخَيْرِ صَرَّحَ بِهِ جَمَعَ وَظَاهِرُهُ وَلَوْ
بِجَعَلِ جَرِيدَهُ even if it's putting a green
stalk so how is this fatwa coming and
just knee jerk reaction with this because it's
something that they haven't seen before فَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرِ
الَّذِي فِيهِ تَسْتَفْتِيَانِ and that is enough of
this subject and we now turn to our
main man the man of the hour meccabooks
.com slash pearls يا عمر put it up
for us on the put it up on
the in the chat and put it on
twitter and put it everywhere because this book
is out naz is here, he's backstage we're
ready to bring him on this is segment
numero dos of our program segment number one
was addressing the AI attempts, so listen AI
you're on your fourth instagram and you just
got dunked on alright, your fourth instagram so
up your game hey I'm not hating on
their thing they want to do something it's
up to them to discuss with the ulema
the way, are you a search engine what
do you mean AI fatwa I don't think
that's the right terminology is it just an
advanced search engine so I'm not totally closing
the door on the concept let the ulema
discuss that but up your game at least
ok because I told you the four madhhabs
right have opinions permitting it and in fact
that seems to be the dominant opinion in
all of them but anyway come at me
again so we can have another session naz
is here bismillahirrahmanirrahim alhamdulillah a new segment we
have now naz hasan has authored this wonderful
book as you see on your screen here,
pearls in the deep how the quran transforms
the problem of evil with a forward from
sheikh asrar rashid himself naz let's get straight
into this, tell us the first give us
the first point that you try to make
in this book bismillah can everybody hear me
ok yes you're good alhamdulillah so
dr shadi all the guys in the room
thank you for having me on I actually
didn't think we'd be actually doing this but
here we are it took a long time
but alhamdulillah we're here and I'm really excited
about it what I have for you guys
today is I've tried to just pick out
couple points from the book that I think
are very important but also leave certain things
I'm not going to talk about them for
the readers to discover on their own inshallah
I tried to summarize you know this is
a lot of material our podcast was what
was it 5 hours or something like that
that was 3 parts right great podcast it
was very long but alhamdulillah I've condensed everything
into as short as I possibly can so
I'll get started inshallah bismillah so the first
thing that I want to start with is
I want to start with 2 stories 2
analogies stories however you want to call them
and I want the reader, the audience myself
to remember these stories and then we'll see
how they fit in so the first story
is that there are 2 people one of
them he was given $50 and so you
know there are 2 people at the same
time and both of them are my friends
I gave one of them $50 and then
I give the other one $10,000 with
a note so and then I didn't tell
the guy what to do the guy I
gave the $10,000 to but then I
told the other guy hey go to the
Apple store get me a Mac charger so
the guy he goes to the Apple store
he buys a Mac charger now the guy
with the $10,000 in his pocket he's
wondering what do I do so he follows
my friend he goes into the Apple store
he sees the guy buy a Mac charger
for $50 he's like oh ok that's what
I'm supposed to do too so he goes
in and he buys $10,000 worth of
Mac chargers right now both of them come
back now would I be mad or happy
with the second guy no the second guy's
thinking is not right it's ridiculous you wasted
$10,000 that I gave you, you didn't
even look at the note yeah, right obviously
this was not for a Mac charger this
was to buy me a car right, oh
he had a note but he didn't look
at it he didn't look at it he's
a fool that's the first story second story
is that you had a very long trip
I don't know I like Japan, you go
to Japan and then you go into the
hotel lobby and this they're saying that this
is the most amazing hotel this is the
most luxurious hotel, they take care of you
really well they put you there in the
lobby for two hours and as the you're
like where's my room he's like just be
patient just be patient we're preparing it just
for you right and then in front of
you what's going on is that the hotel
manager he's making sure that you're entertained that
you're taken care of, he's bringing snacks and
he's displaying artworks in front of you, he's
bringing in samples of like here's the type
of furniture that we have in the hotel,
here's like something specifically designed by this amazing
architect all these things constantly coming in in
front of your eyes and being taken out,
coming in, taken out right, and then sometimes
he tells you to get up, can you
please get up, stand over there, because this
is a large artwork you have to make
room, right this and that and then finally
he takes you to your room and you
enter this amazing room and you're just you're
like okay, that was worth it okay so
these are the two stories that I want
everyone to remember and they give you a
picture and these are analogies that I've adopted
from Sayyiduna Rasulallah Ta'ala and they give
you a picture of the wisdom behind the
purpose of evil right, why evil exists in
the world and so that's, now I'm going
to drill into these stories, right I'm going
to pull the theological points from these stories
for the first story first of all let's
talk about what the problem of evil is,
right the problem of evil happens only for
conscious creatures this is very key and because
when you take, when you build a Lego
piece and you destroy it nobody complains, right
Lego pieces don't cry they don't care, right
they're not conscious beings the only person the
only beings that have an issue with evil
are conscious beings, this is why the angels
asked Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala the question
by the way angels are conscious right, what
are you doing, you're creating another creature with
free will they're going to kill each other
and shed blood and like, is this the
point of existence while we praise you right,
what's the wisdom here, please tell us, right,
this is not a question of, you know,
like challenging Allah but a question of wanting
to understand, so that's the first thing, now
the second thing we have to understand is
evil is fundamentally about us believing that something
is happening against our flourishing something is happening
that goes against my flourishing right, I lost
my house this is bad for me it's
against my flourishing, this is not how I'm
supposed to live, right or the children in
Gaza they're dying, right, the men women, children
in Gaza, they're dying completely and there's complete
injustice this is not how we treat human
beings human beings deserve to be treated with
justice, they deserve to be treated well, right,
it's against their flourishing this is why we
have the issue we don't have an issue
with pain necessarily, this pain by itself is
not evil, right we go through tremendous amounts
of pain for things that we want to
do right, we just had the Olympics, the
Olympics is the proof everyone's celebrating the people,
you know, the guy he's trying to finish
the race he tears his hamstring, he's like
keep going, everyone's celebrating you, right you tore
your hamstring everyone's celebrating you, with the pain
it took to get there in the first
place of all the training exactly, and if
pain itself is evil then no mother would
want to ever have a child again right,
no mother would ever willingly choose to be
pregnant that's tremendous amounts of pain right, so
pain itself is not evil even our wills
being violated by others, this is not also
necessarily evil because, or else every single parent
is an abusive tyrant right, I mean otherwise
criminals would run rampant, they have to experience
pain exactly, but even a more even a
more let's say benign example is that you
do with your children your children want a
million things you don't give them that right,
and exactly, that's exactly what the Marxists argue
that marriage, parenthood all these institutions are tyrannical
right, because our wills are being violated but
nobody would agree with them right, even they
Marxists choose to have families right, so but
the point where evil really comes in is
when we think something is going against our
flourishing so now the question is why are
other conscious creatures why are they doing evil
to us why do they take away the
things that we have why do they hurt
us, why do we hurt them, right why
do we hurt them, because it's not just
them hurting us, why do we hurt them
and the first answer really captured in the
first example is that a lot of the
source of evil, a lot of the source
of pain in the world is from free
will is from our ability to make conscious
choices and choose right question, are you going
to get into the pain that is directly
caused, that seems like what you're talking about,
and pain that seems that it does not
have a direct cause that's the second part
and in the philosophical parlance and I don't
really want to use any of that but
we have natural evils there's nothing natural about
it obviously but it's just evils that don't
relate to conscious creatures, earthquakes you know, we
don't really say that the earth is conscious,
maybe some Sufis would but you know, you
have a random car accident, right so these
are natural evils this is nothing that you
have any control over but then you have
moral evils where moral creatures are committing these
evils and a large share of the things
that we experience in the world is evil
done to us by other people right, it's
evil done to us by other people but
when people often talk about this problem of
evil they just sort of just say, oh
you know, God is not responsible for evil
because there's free will right, or there's wisdom,
and they just stop there that's a very
simple way to get out of a problem
but you're really creating for yourself another problem,
yeah because the problem with evil is not
that God doesn't exist the world could be
awful right, you know all 7 billion people
could be living in utter agony everything could
be burning down, this proves nothing about God
you could have an awful cake, right, let's
say a cake that tastes awful, it doesn't
mean there's no baker someone made the cake
it doesn't mean the baker you don't know
anything about the intent of the baker either
correct, correct, but I'm just pointing out that
just the mere fact of things being awful
doesn't mean anything about the existence of God
this is why the logical problem of evil
fails, but the problem that we have as
believers is trust that's the issue right, the
issue is trust, you can't simply say that
oh you know, God does whatever he wants
there's no guarantee that you'll be rewarded there's
nothing, just you know whatever happens, happens, you'll
have a miserable life, let's still worship him
yeah, wait something doesn't add up here this
is not how Yusuf A.S. talked in
the Quran, right my lord is, he preserves
me, right, and he's alim he knows me,
right or how the prophet A.S. spoke
in his duas to his lord so there's
something missing here, right and when you just
sort of hand wave it away, it's like
saying oh there's a fire, the forest is
burning down why is the forest burning down?
because there's a fire but that doesn't explain
anything, right, that doesn't explain it more explains
the how is it happening, or the immediate
cause, but not the moral motive, exactly so
free will, right the question is a lot
of evils come to us from free will
so, and Allah says this in the Quran
as well in Surah Al-Balad, right we
guided him to the two steep valleys and
the scholars of Tafsir, they say that the
two steep valleys, these are the two steep
valleys of good and evil the decisions, right
because the decisions, some of these decisions even
in our personal lives, we might not be
political figures, right we might not be religious
leaders or whatever it may be, but even
in our daily lives, these decisions are heavy
between right and wrong so and then the
angels ask this question as well, right that
when we said to the angels we're going
to put a khalifa on the earth and
we're going to talk about khalifa in a
little bit and the angels said, aren't they
just going to kill each other again?
aren't they just going to fight?
this happened once, right and then Allah responds,
right actually people think that it's a mystery
people think that Allah's response is a mystery
that we don't know what the wisdom of
this is in that verse, it's completely if
you read two verses later Allah gives you
the answer Allah gives you the answer Allah
taught Adam all the names and then who
are these names?
you know, so many people have different interpretations
of this verse, right and we have a
qaeda in usul at-tafsir that if interpretations
don't conflict and they mutually support each other
khalas, we accept all of them but such
a fascinating interpretation of Sheikh Amin Islahi one
of the great mufassirun of India and his
interpretation is being very literal, right the names
what do names refer to?
people, right people and things so Allah taught
Adam the names, the names of whom?
the names of the great the great prophets,
the great saints that were going to come
whose tafsir is this?
this is Sheikh Amin Islahi and he says,
look, in the context of this verse, this
is the only thing that could possibly be
mentioned, right because this is the wisdom you
see, you want to know why why did
we create human beings with free will?
because there were people conscious creatures who will
willingly become saints they will willingly become these
things willingly choose to worship me and reflect
my attributes and be a khalifa on the
earth, so this is the grand sort of
wisdom behind the creation of free will, because
we have to ask ourselves, was it worth
it creating free creatures?
and sometimes we ask ourselves too like, making
decisions is it's hard, it's not easy sometimes,
you know, if we have a sort of,
if we have a moral conscience, right, we
become tortured, we feel tortured you know, what
is the right thing what is the wrong
thing am I doing the right thing?
and if you don't do the right thing,
you feel guilty, right and if you do
the right thing sometimes, it can lead to
you know, showing off, all these dangers free
will is trouble it is, and that's why
the heavens and the earth refused it exactly,
it's trouble and we have to ask ourselves,
why did you, ya Allah, what is the
wisdom, like what do I get out of
it, right what do I get out of
it and subhanallah what we get out of
it isn't just something abstract, like you know,
these saints existing and so on, right what
we get out of it in fact, it's
the very core of who we are it's
the very core one of the wisdoms right,
the beauties of the creation of free will
is that we have the gift of identity
like I said before, the problem of evil
is not a problem to any other creation
in the heavens and the earth it's only
for human beings and the reason is because
we have a blessing where we have the
luxury to have the problem in the first
place, we have identity identity and identity is
the greatest blessing that you can ever, this
is why existence is a blessing, no matter
how hard your life is, how horrible it
is you have one thing, which is yourself,
your identity, the I-ness the one who
experiences things, the one who experiences pleasures, take
away your I-ness and ask yourself if
you can enjoy anything at all yeah, you
can put any movie you want in front
of you, any drink, whatever pleasure your mind
can conjure none of it matters without your
I-ness, that's the prerequisite to any type
of pleasure anything that you enjoy, anything about
yourself, anything that you value even the prerequisite
to even have this conversation so this is
one of the greatest blessings of free will
and just, we could stop there and say
it's worth it, and Imam Nursi he has
an amazing discussion of I-ness that maybe
we could do another time but in summary
the I-ness that we have it's a
measuring stick it's a non-existent measuring stick
because we don't actually own anything we feel
like we own things, like I have this
pen here I feel like I'm grabbing it
I feel like these are my headphones, I
paid for them this is my computer I
paid for it, I feel like I own
it but this is an illusionary ownership, why?
Because through this ownership through these experiences I
can understand God's attributes this is the point
and only conscious creatures can do this this
is the point of creating conscious creatures to
understand God's attributes, to experience them and to
manifest them in the world and then my
friend Yusuf he said this to me because
I would always oppose bring something up a
stubborn person when I was in college so
he said this to me and he said,
so I frowned at him, he's like this
is the answer to evil and then Yusuf
I didn't say this out loud but he
said I can see that you think that
this is kind of selfish that God is
selfish I can see that you're thinking that
it's all about God really?
What about me?
I can see you're thinking that and he's
like yes, that's exactly what I was thinking
and then he said selfishness arrogance, all these
things these are wrong to you because you
implicitly understand that you don't own anything and
someone else doesn't own anything you know this
so when someone's being arrogant, why are you
being arrogant?
why?
you have no power exactly there are situations
you took advantage of but Allah blessed you
and when someone is being arrogant you immediately
feel deep inside your heart, there's something missing
here, there's something wrong the equation is incomplete
exactly, and he's like you can never say
that about Allah that's why the one who
arrogates himself is one of his attributes because
it's worth it for him he's worthy of
it he owns everything and really it's actually
a blessing that you get to participate and
by the way, I'm not saying Sufi halool
type of thing that's not what I'm saying,
please understand but you get to participate in
this blessing of identity that Allah gave you
and to feel that you own things and
to understand them because this is where all
the pleasure lies anyway and the second thing
is that Allah does not need to create
anything to display his attributes this is the
second thing he doesn't need it so the
fact that he made it is gratuitous when
we say gratuitous you give gratuity in a
restaurant because that's not part of the bill
you don't need to give it it's gratuitous
and this is Rahman Allah does not need
it but he makes it anyway so this
is why many of the scholars they say
that you can't understand the point of evil
in creation if you don't understand the point
of creation if you don't understand the point
of creation, you don't know what evil is
doing, you don't know what difficulties are doing
why do people suffer?
you can't answer it I'd like to ask
you another question is evil even something to
discuss or is it really just pain?
because evil has a lot of baggage to
it there's a moral claim when someone says
evil exactly, so that's what I said that
evil is when we believe that something is
happening against our flourishing this really is what
evil is but this is in your mind,
right?
this is a belief, but then there is
something that is evil which is non-existence
and we'll go into that there's one thing
that is actually evil and if everything good
comes from God the thing that is evil
is the thing that is completely opposite to
God so we'll get into that so yeah,
identity the second benefit of free will is
that because of your consciousness you're able to
learn you're able to learn and you're able
to experience and these things by themselves I
don't think anyone would want to give them
up even people that are not academic the
joy in their life, it comes from learning
it comes from experience even the mechanic, he
gets better at being a mechanic this is
part of learning as human beings, Nursi says
that many animals, they come out of the
womb or they're hatched from an egg and
they're completely ready within 2-3 days, 2
-3 weeks they're completely ready, they're set for
life they have everything that they want except
for the human being the human being, it
takes him the longest out of the entire
animal kingdom to reach adulthood because of that
learning process and because also he's taught by
Allah to seek things as Imam Nursi says,
through the tongue of poverty and supplication through
the tongue of poverty and supplication so when
we actually, and we'll get into this one
of the greatest uses of free will is
Dua this is why the Prophet ﷺ said
Dua is the essence of worship this is
the reason why you were created it sounds
so simple, but actually there's a lot of
depth in it, because in Dua you're affirming
who you really are you're just a contingent
being and you're imploring Allah with the tongue
of poverty and you're supplicating to him so
now the third benefit of free will and
this is really the most amazing one is
love without free will you would not have
love Subhanallah if you say when little girls
play with the dolls and stuff Barbie loves
Ken that's not true, it's just Majaz so
for the people that say Majaz doesn't exist
but Barbie loves Ken, that's not true they're
not conscious creatures love can only happen through
choice and with the possibility of rejection that's
it love can only happen then so if
you give away free will if you say
free will wasn't worth it then give up
your free will and you lose all these
things and nobody would do that and finally
the last thing the greatest blessing of free
will is the potential to be a Khalifa
on the earth and the Khalifa on the
earth he is the Madhar right, Allah is
the Mudhir the one who manifests and the
Khalifa is the Madhar the one who, he
is the locus of manifestation of all of
Allah's names to be the perfect mirror of
Allah's names the willing mirror of Allah's names
to all of creation and this is why
Imam Nursi says that human beings were gifted
with speech for one reason and it is
to declare Allah's perfection and to be the
to be the Imam of the entire universe
because what does the Imam do the Imam
he has a lot of people has concerns,
they talk to him they have a lot
of things and then the Imam vocalizes all
of the things that they want vocalizes their
concerns all of creation they cannot speak they
cannot express the praise to Allah but human
beings can human beings can they can be
the Imam for the entire universe so in
our consciousness is bridged heaven and earth even
though we are such small creatures even though
we are such small creatures so the point
of this is that the purpose of creation
is two things the entire point of creation
is two things Marifatullah, Fubullah that's it and
we know this because Allah tells us in
the Quran and we need revelation to let
us know right, we need the creator of
the universe who is speaking to us in
an indirect way through his creation we need
him to speak to us directly and tell
us what is the point of this, what
is the point of our free will what
is the point of evil, what is the
point of the difficulties that we go through
and he tells us that the entire point
of existence is Marifatullah is understanding him and
worship is understanding him that's what it is
and Fubullah, to love him to completely love
him and in this framework we see what
the wisdom of creating conscious creatures, what that
wisdom is so that's free will section done,
now we go on to your question so
that question, so this was a free will
the question is now harm that comes to
people pain that comes to people outside of
the realm of other conscious beings such as
tornado destroys my house or you get cancer
which you said maybe that's indirect human behavior,
we alter the environment but let's talk about
those things then right oh sorry, I forgot
to mention one last thing about free will
and that is the source of evil, why
do people do bad things, like why the
Quran answers that as well and the answer
to that is Ghafla that's the answer that
when people say or they have an attitude
of I don't care, I'm completely apathetic to
my potential and this is exactly like the
story that I mentioned at the beginning of
my segment here that the guy, he doesn't
care to even open the note and like
see why he was given $10,000, you
were given something even more valuable than $10
,000 you were given free will, you were
given Khilafah, and you don't even bother understanding
why is it that I have this like
what's the right thing to do what's not
the right thing to do, how should I
live my life, how should I not live
my life, I don't care about it, I
don't care now this is the same guy
that goes and buys $10,000 worth of
Mac chargers, that's how foolish he is, and
this is where evil comes from, evil comes
from people that have an attitude of Ghafla,
they don't care about the Akhirah, they don't
care about Allah, they don't care about anything
except for themselves, and this is what Allah
says in the Quran, that they only know
what's in front of them and they don't
care about Allah and the Akhirah, they don't
care right, so and the solution to this,
and we'll finish the free will segment with
this, the solution to this, is Dua as
I said before, that the solution to getting
rid of our Ghafla is Dua to Allah
is asking Allah with a tongue of poverty
that's what it is, and this is why
Imam Nursi said he said that my Tariqah,
it's not very complicated, it has only one
principle, and he said the principle of my
Tariqah is Faqr, that's it, you show poverty
towards Allah, and if you can be sincere
in your poverty towards Allah, then everything else
will follow inshallah, everything else will follow, so
with that, and the free will segment, but
to your question, the question is, even if
I use my free will correctly, right even
if I'm a good person, even if I
pray five times a day, Alhamdulillah I could
be a saint things happen to me that,
like they just seem random you know, my
car could break down your loved ones die,
right you get cancer like you said, awful
things can happen to you, right, awful things
can happen to you, and they happen everywhere
in the world, but we should also not
exaggerate too much, because more good things happen
in the world, than awful things just think
about it, if that wasn't the case, none
of us would be alive, right, none of
us would be alive, so we have to
understand that we have a proclivity to look
at negative things more than positive things, because
obviously we don't want to fall into negative
things, right, but when things are good we're
okay, right, we're okay we can coast, yeah,
so because we want to avoid negative things,
we're more aware of them, we're more aware
of them but, let's look at how we
understand this from the perspective of Islam and
the Quran Allah promises us that in the
world there will be trust and trials and
a part of that is our free will,
as I mentioned a part of that is
other people harming us, and even us harming
ourselves, you know some people, they deal with
a lot of self-hate, a lot of
mental illness and things of this nature that
is a trial, from free will right, but
the second thing is that there are certain
things that happen in creation to us, that
seem evil that are difficulties, struggles, but they
have a wisdom behind them they have a
wisdom behind them and I discuss this in
a lot more detail in the book, but
I just want to keep it short but
one of the wisdoms is that Allah just
like a doctor uses medicine on a sick
patient, he knows the right amount of medicine
to use right, you don't so you can't
say, oh evil is good for you, let
me go break his leg you can't do
that, you're not a doctor right, or you
know I don't know green tea is good
for people, so let me go force someone
else's kid to drink green tea, you can't
do that, you don't have the parental authority
over someone else's kid right, so there's a
straight legal argument, exactly this is just step
one but Allah you can't even compare a
parent with Allah Allah owns you Allah created
you, Allah owns you Allah knows everything about
you and Allah wants good for you, it's
not wajib on Allah, don't get me wrong
it's not wajib on Allah to want good
for you Allah can do whatever He wants
and this is the last chapter of the
book that I'm told, Muin read the book
and Alhamdulillah, there was a 13 year old
kid that actually finished my book he read
it in 3 days and Alhamdulillah, he really
loved the last chapter which I, when I
wrote the last chapter I wasn't even thinking
that people would even like it but he
loved it so Alhamdulillah, his compliments really made
me happy but yes, Allah can do whatever
He wants, but Allah, in the maqam of
a parent, right, as a parent can do
to you what He wishes for your own
good, Allah can do certain things and He
can use suffering, He can use difficulties and
He can even use people instrumentally sometimes, this
is hard really hard pill for people to
swallow really hard pill He can use us
instrumentally to bring about some good, to display
some variation of His attributes, to display some
beauty, right and, but here's the thing though
here's the thing these difficulties that we don't
have any control over they can be used
by Allah to guide you to what is
the greatest thing for you right, what is
the greatest thing for you, now the question
is what's the greatest thing what's the greatest
good this is the question, right and now
what type of thing does it fall under,
is it something like like a Mercedes, is
that the greatest good, or like, you know
or is it a type of like manly
thing, like a relationship ok, now my argument
is that relationships are the greatest types of
goods that you can have this is my
argument relationships are the greatest type of goods
that you can have you know, Saad you
know Saad, right, so he likes to send
me random videos once in a while, so
one time he sent me this video, this
like, single Japanese lady she decorates her house
in the most amazing way you know, you
never see her in the picture right, but
she's like always cooking she's like doing something
like doing chores making meals and everything is
like picture perfect even like the tomatoes are
like picture perfect right, and then you know,
she's having like philosophical subtitles, you know the
benefits of living alone and being alone, and
how she came to peace with being alone
she doesn't need anyone else, and then so
I thought to myself, like if you really
don't need anyone like, why go through all
this effort to show your life, well why
are you posting yeah, exactly you love the
attention I'm not knocking them but what I'm
saying is there's such a deep need within
us for others to understand us, that's a
total disconnect someone to, exactly so even if
we are alone, we want other people to
understand us, to see us, we want that,
every single human being they want, because we
have consciousness we want another consciousness to understand
what we feel Subhanallah, recently Subhanallah, it's amazing,
recently I just saw a celebrity saying, he's
gonna not have kids, because he wants to
live life I said, what do you mean
live life he said, I wanna travel, I
wanna meet people you wanna meet people, how
about having a person, right, exactly it's a
disconnect no matter how hard you try, you
cannot eradicate this need for connection and relationship
that we have as human beings or else
it takes away at the core of who
we are and what we are, right, and
there's a great line from this Catholic intellectual
he said that don't be in solitude but
don't be alone he said, be in solitude
search for solitude, but don't be alone, and
what's the difference here he said, in my
solitude, I have the greats with me, right,
I have the great theologians, I have the
great writers, the great novelists, I am in
the community of the life of the mind
I am with them and I'm discussing with
them, I'm conversing with them, they're there with
me, I'm not alone but I am in
solitude but being alone, you're doing your own
thing even if you're with yeah, we have
in our life as Muslims we have a
constant oscillation back and forth hearts and you
have times where you're going to go you're
going to be alone and that may be
for 10 minutes maybe for 20 minutes but
that's not even alone, you're with your creator,
then you're with the creation, you're literally always
actually literally never alone you're either with your
creator and his angels, or you're with the
creation, the idea of aloneness doesn't even exist
if you believe that the unseen is with
you.
Exactly yeah, and so my argument here is
that the greatest type of relationship that you
can have sorry, the greatest type of thing
that you can have is a relationship, and
the greatest relationship that you can have is
with the creator, the one who gives you
all of the good things in the first
place, all of the good things that you
enjoy.
You know one of the our purposes of
being alone with Allah Ta'ala is only
to improve and perfect our ability to be
with the creation and one of the proofs
of that is that Allah Ta'ala created
Adam and Adam was created as Arif Billah
he did not come to learn about Allah
he was created with a knowledge of Allah,
proof being his saying Bismillah and Alhamdulillah without
anyone teaching him that so he was almost
like the apps that are built onto, the
default apps built onto a piece of technology,
right, so he was built as Arif Billah
yet Allah Ta'ala gave him Hawa Allah
created a relationship in the heavens in which
you would be the closest to Allah possible,
you have, there is no ego there is
no desires that are clouding you, there is
no feeling of distance that you're way down
here in the dunya which is like a
feeling, so yet Allah Ta'ala created for
him Hawa and what did Allah promise people
in paradise it's not the trees and the
homes and the palaces and the castles and
the rivers that has any meaning unless there
is in it spouses and companions and your
friends, right so that's what gives those not
inanimate objects any value so imagine you're in
a paradise by yourself with rivers and trees
you're completely incomplete absolutely and the reason for
this is because as Imam Nursi likes to
explain if you just have the brilliance of
the sun, it blinds you as limited creatures
that we have we need the daqa'iq
al-ni'm we need the subtle mercies we
need that brilliance of the sun we need
it to be filtered through light rays filtered
through the atmosphere filtered through the water and
so forth and then we can really appreciate
the sun when we see the sun light
up the ocean, right and the sun is
reflecting on the ocean we're like wow, look
at this that's an amazing analogy and so
this is really why you don't value the
sun just by looking at it well you
do value it but it's an incomplete value
you truly see the value of the sun
when you see what it's coming on, when
it's sun setting and I was thinking the
other day, subhanallah the amount of fruits the
amount of flavors, just fruits that exist how
many nutrients do humans need ya Allah made
the kiwi this little thing you open it
and there's a little piece of art on
the inside like perfectly distributed black little spots
and then you look at the pomegranate and
you start thinking what is the point, right
clearly Allah is literally entertaining you and this
is the dunya this is not heaven, imagine
then what's in heaven in the dunya you're
literally just being entertained what is the point
of so many spices and if it's just
for nourishment just give us one a pill
that we just have enough of it and
that's it, and then we just get judged
on did we take too much or too
little, did we share but you're literally being
entertained every day when you drive through sunrise,
sunset, you look at the clouds are in
a different shape they could be in the
same shape every day but they're in a
different shape every single day and it's like
a different show that Allah is putting on
for us and you start realizing how generous,
how kareem and exactly, this goes back to
that second story the second story where you're
in the hotel lobby and you're getting frustrated
and then the manager starts displaying all of
these different things, he brings in the furniture
he takes it out, he brings in all
these different types of food and then he
takes it out he's constantly bringing in new
things, right so what you get from this
is that, okay, what does he have planned
for me in my actual suite subhanAllah the
conclusion can't be that, oh this is it
this is it, or the manager tells you
to stand up or take off your coat
or put your shoes away, so he's causing
you some discomfort, right for the purposes of
the thing that's happening, so the conclusion can't
be that, oh this is all there is
no, there's something more and if the manager
is so meticulous to what you need what's
entertaining you what, you know, oh I see
that you're getting a little bored, let's take
a break let's have a cup of tea,
right if he's so attentive to all these
tiny needs that you have what makes you
think that he won't be attentive to the
greatest need that you have purpose, the greatest
need you need to sleep tonight, right subhanAllah,
he's gonna let you sleep subhanAllah, and with
that analogy I think it's so powerful how
all these types of evils, right there are
a lot of wisdoms to these that they
drive us towards this greatest relationship that we
have with God and if we can have
this relationship with God this fulfills one of
our greatest needs that all of us have
which is the desire for eternity we don't
want our pleasures to end, we don't and
the people who say that they do they're
just being cynical with life, right they've experienced
too much, they're just out of it, right,
but we do not want our pleasures to
end let's take another angle in this world
every single good thing seems to be coupled
with a bad thing so if you wanted
to eliminate evil you would have to eliminate
everything good too everything good, yeah in our
culture today what is the greatest, just name
any manifestation of happiness, name one a wedding
a birth, a championship like the happiest you
see a human being in our culture is
at a championship, right the moment he wins
a championship well, what would happen now if
we said you hurt another team by that,
everyone's got to win a championship right, right
it's only valuable because only one team or
only one person can get it but that
necessitates a loser who's literally in the corner
crying, right, right now and we're totally accepting
of that not only that, it's necessary you
cannot possibly have any fun or any real
value of winning if now right after the
game is up so that nobody feels left
out we're going to give the championship trophy
to everybody, every team will get a banner
raised, everyone will go in the hall of
fame, exactly right, imagine that that scenario where
you start realizing in this life there cannot
be any good at all except that it's
coupled with some harm giving birth that's one
of the happiest moments in life that was
painful baby was crying, mom was yelling just
minutes ago a marriage, how about a marriage
you marry the person of your dreams well,
that someone else wanted to marry them and
couldn't, same thing with a championship right so
talk to us about that and it seems
that people who only want good really, and
no pain at all what you're asking for
is paradise that's the realm exactly, and that
realm exists that realm exists people say, why
didn't God create a world where there's no
pain at all where everything's perfect that realm
is existing with us right now it's the
realm of the angels right and for you
to be in that realm you would have
to be an angel but the point of
this realm is for Allah SWT to show
His mercy and to create imperfect creatures who
seek His aid through the tongue of poverty
this is the point of this realm and
that displays a specific configuration a specific manifestation
of all His names and it's only in
the human being that all of His names
can be manifested in that way, this is
why we say Muhammad SAW He's the greatest
mirror that Allah ever created right, and this
is why also why we say it's not
an exaggeration that it was because of the
Prophet SAW that the universe was created right
it sounds weird to us but think about
this, that He is the greatest mirror, the
point of free will is to produce conscious
creatures, the greatest saints who is the greatest
saint?
Prophet SAW but this is also the reason
why Satan exists Shaitaan what you just mentioned
that good cannot exist without evil Shaitaan is
the greatest embodiment I guess greatest is the
wrong word but worst embodiment of evil right,
and it's because he exists that Jibreel A
.S. exists on the other end of the
spectrum it's because Abu Jahl exists at one
end of the spectrum and Firaon at one
end of the spectrum that the Prophet SAW
Musa A.S. that you see this huge
contrast between the paths that you can take
with your free will, Allah SWT does not
want us to be vegetables, He wants us
to be heroes, He wants us to be
people that make decisions and feel them, right,
and these don't have to be like leading
armies becoming generals, no, that's not what I'm
talking about even in your own life they're
difficult decisions and when you go through those
you see the help of Allah with you
and you appreciate your free will so I
want to I want to get back to
this point of that Allah uses evils to
redirect us to have a relationship with Him
and we see this, we see that Allah
says in the Quran that a relationship with
Him is the greatest thing you can have
the famous verse in Surah Aal-e-Imran
should I inform you after Allah says that
all these women and money and piles of
horses all these things are made beautiful for
men should I tell you, Allah says in
the next verse, should I tell you something
even better than this, and the last thing
that Allah mentions in that list is that
Allah is pleased with you Allah is pleased
with you so this relationship is the greatest
thing, the greatest good that we can ever
have, and there's a lot of joy in
it, Nursi says that the person who has
this relationship with Allah, he has he has
such pleasure that he doesn't need anything else,
and Imam Nursi himself, may Allah give us
a tiny experience of that he himself he
lived this, he'd go off into the mountains
when he was in exile he'd go off
into the mountains, climb a tree and he'd
sleep there literally, and we went to see
the tree if you make one right turn,
you fall there's a thousand meter drop and
he's just sitting there chilling observing the night
sky, and he is in absolute pleasure he's
in absolute pleasure and so so let's continue
with this so these difficulties, they give us
the opportunity to have ma'iyyah with God
with ma'iyyah with God, now how does
this like, how does this make sense why
would we need difficulties to have closeness to
God what's the relationship right, the relationship is
that when we have a lot of things
we lose sight of who's actually providing for
us and then when you start taking things
away one by one by one, right like
for example, if I start if I start,
I have tons of clutter on my desk,
right and if I start taking away one
thing at a time and just cleaning the
entire desk and I just leave one notebook
on top of that desk and I'm like,
okay this is what I want right, this
is what I want I'll focus on this
notebook or I'll write or do whatever, now
the notebook comes full into focus it's the
only thing that your attention focuses on, the
same thing how difficulties brings us closer potentially
brings us closer to God because all the
things that we have, Allah's sustaining us anyway
right, now when Allah starts taking one or
two things away the things that you have
still those come into a lot of focus,
right like when you're ill, you can't move
you're just sitting in bed you can feel
that there's power there that's being given to
you, that when you move your arm you're
like, wow, how am I able to do
this like how am I able to breathe,
like you feel when you're drinking something, your
esophagus contracting and you feel like difficulty, because
I had sore throat a couple weeks ago,
right it's like, subhanallah, Allah's the one who's
feeding me all this time he's the one
who's allowing me to move he's the one
who gave me this blessing, he's the one
who I enjoy, let's say somebody that you
love passes away he's the one who lets
you enjoy their company for so long, so
this is how difficulties, they bring us closer
to Allah, because we dial in much more
focus to the things that Allah is doing
for us right now right?
and this is only possible because Allah is
taking away certain things and because of our
ghafla, we were not able to appreciate Allah
when the blessings were there ladies and gentlemen,
if you're on Instagram, hop over so you
can see the full screen, we're debuting today,
just released today, this book Pearls in the
Deep as you see here on the cover
and on the screen it's available at meccabooks
.com slash pearls, again that's mecca books Omar
you can edit that in the pinned thing,
because we got a shortened one, meccabooks.com
slash pearls I want to talk about what
you just mentioned is the fiqh of handling
tribulations if you understand the purpose of hardships
then you handle it, you achieve its goal
a lot faster you bring about the end
of the tribulation that's the truth if Allah
doesn't do anything without a reason so if
tribulations have a purpose and let's say for
example a person is scolding or punishing their
kid you have one kid who is balid
he's not that bright and all he wants
to do is get to the end of
this punishment so he can go have fun
again then you have another kid who all
he wants to do is he's a little
bit brighter he understands the purpose of this
tribulation is I was disrespectful, I need to
learn to have respect then that kid immediately
comes to realize this is about respect this
is not just about me ending this tribulation
because I don't like it so then that
person writes you a letter and says I
understand why I'm being punished, I deserve it
because I did this and that and I
will not from now on have respect you
lift it immediately the purpose has been gone
and anything left of punishment is just maybe
to set a precedent for the other kids
but it's got to be light but this
kid understood the other one, not so bright
he's just waiting for the pain for you
to lift the pain so he can play
again he's not going to learn he's going
to do it again soon so that's the
difference between the two and this is important
to answer because many people they really fear
the Hadith of the Prophet the greatest in
tribulation are the Prophets then those lessen them
and lessen them people get this idea in
their head therefore the closer you get to
Allah the worse your life gets and they
don't understand it's the exact opposite the tribulations
are bigger but your pitchfork is even bigger
the tribulation is bigger but your vehicle can
handle a lot more and on top of
that it's almost like a roof a cap
is different from an umbrella is different from
a tent is different from a building so
with no cap any amount of rain is
going to ruin your hair with a cap
you're going to get wet eventually, you're still
going to get wet it's going to seep
through, with an umbrella you're still going to
get wet, with a tent yeah you can
handle a little bit more rain but you'll
still get wet the Prophets hardly get wet
meaning they hardly truly feel the misery of
the pain that we have it's raining loud
and it's hard but they're inside of a
building blocking all of that because they understand
the purpose they know the reason Allah is
creating this is to make us flee back
to Him, just like you said Said Nursi
fled back so well that he was in
a state of pleasure in his banishment, and
for people who don't know he was banished
by Ataturk, banished him to live all alone
in the woods and so he lived like
that but because he understood that that was
from Allah Ta'ala that there's going to
be good in it and the best way
to look at this is as the Awliya
say and the Habib always teach your best
position is where Allah put you Allah banished
Said Nursi He didn't banish me and you
so we shouldn't go try to live like
that Said Nursi was living like that and
he got the fruits of that because that's
what Allah willed for him so when people
understand how to handle tribulations and what is
actually behind the purpose of the tribulation is
nearness to the Khaliq, nearness to Allah Ta
'ala then you quickly as soon as the
tribulation comes, I know the purpose I know
what to do, boom that's where the Prophet
said وَيَجَعَلُوا الْحَزْنَ إِذَا أَنتَ تَزَعَلْ جَعَلُوا الْحَزْنَ
إِذَا شَئْتَ سَهْرًا سَهْرًا you make the hardship
حزن here is not sadness that's حزن, it's
hardship it sounds the same because it's pretty
similar it's hardship, you make hardship if you
wish easy and very easy on top of
that to the point that you're enjoying it
at a certain point so that's where Prophets
can lift they can forklift so many tribulations
and in fact they're in a state of
happiness, they're not in a state of misery
they're not in a state of misery at
all it is not possible for them to
be in this miserable state yes painful but
as soon as that pain subsides they're in
a state of happiness SubhanAllah and this is
why actually this is where the mercy of
Allah really shows that Allah can use us
instrumentally as I said before, He can do
whatever He pleases but even when that's happening
even when those trials and tribulations are affecting
us He gives us the instruments to have
pleasure even in the midst of the storm
He gives us the instruments to have pleasure
to have relationship with Him to have happiness,
He gives us that He didn't need to
He didn't need to one of my friends
when I went to the nursery retreat he
spoke of this one of his friends had
a kid and she had some birth defect
that causes tremendous amounts of pain and he
brought this up he said I can't imagine
living like that, I can't imagine waking up
every single day this kid crying, having to
take care of them, I can't imagine it
where's the mercy here?
and I discussed this in the book by
the way, I discussed this these very difficult
questions they're all in the book and I
use stories I use Zuko from Avatar I
use Batman, I use a lot of different
things but for the sake of the podcast
I'm not bringing these things up so where's
the mercy there?
and you know we discussed this and the
conclusion that we reached is that even in
the midst of this tremendous trial Allah gives
us the instruments the tools to have this
trial turn into something that we can bear
not just that we can bear but we
can actually have لذة روحانية لذة from, pleasure
from right?
and the last thing I told him is
that look, if someone told you that I
will give you anything that you desire and
you will live forever in 10 minutes I
will give you anything that you want you
can live forever 10 minutes but in these
10 minutes I have to cut your leg
off it'll grow back now who in their
right mind would not take this bargain?
like if you knew let's say you had
yaqeen that this was gonna happen right?
none of us would take this bargain because
we don't know if it's gonna happen we
don't know if it's gonna happen but if
you were certain that this was gonna happen
خلاص and so he's like yeah you're right
if you trust the person exactly if you
trust them and this is where this issue
comes in that Allah takes care of all
of our needs as we are here as
we are now and to expect him to
not take care of the greatest need that
we have for eternal life for justice right?
what's happening in Gaza these evil individuals doing
this type of thing to innocent people where's
the justice?
where's the justice?
and on top of that where's my how
is my eternal desire for eternal life how's
that gonna be fulfilled?
Allah will fulfill it if he fulfills like
you know like the manager he comes in
he sees like you're a bit annoyed okay
let's stop the show let me give you
some tea take a little rest if he
can do that do you think he's gonna
kick you out of his hotel room?
subhanallah yeah it's those little signs that are
showing you that this is a pain you
have to go through which is how Allah
created things but there's gonna be relief afterwards
it's a sign it has to be and
the last thing that I wanna end with
is that to oppose the creation to oppose
Allah is a losing venture to rebel it's
a losing venture because as Imam Nursi says
it's to strike your hand on the anvil
you strike your hand on it you break
your own hand nothing happens to the anvil
so Allah gave you the prescription on how
to navigate evil how to navigate the difficulties
and tests and trials that come into your
life and then if you rebel against that
you say no and you fall into ghaflah
well this is in the same way nothing
happens to Allah nothing happens to his divine
purpose nothing happens to the wisdom and creation
the only one who suffers is you this
is the only one who suffers and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who
made you feel bad about something bad that
happened who gives you your thoughts and feelings
like for example when my friend mentioned this
he's like why do you feel sorry for
the child that's not your child that's not
you why do you feel sorry where did
this mercy come from so do you think
the one who created mercy within you to
feel mercy do you think that creator is
just going to waste this child and this
is completely pointless no this hasha this is
not possible this is not possible and this
is why Imam Nursi he says is part
of his daily dhikr because if Allah suffices
you you understand that there is a bigger
picture in which these evils make sense but
they're also an opportunity for ma'aya with
God let's look at what you mentioned you
just touched on the the practical element of
things you're suffering either way right exactly you're
being angry about it it's not going to
change anything right so pragmatically speaking either way
I'm suffering so I either suffer with anger
and misery and a losing venture and hating
my creator for it which that doesn't make
any sense at all because once you say
the word creator you're basically saying I'm losing
and you're saying he's wise the moment you
say Allah's name those attributes are necessary implications
he's wise he wills good for the people
he accepts repentance you're not defeating him so
for people when they say that I don't
understand what IQ you have you must have
at this point the darkness has overrided your
head and none of this what you're saying
makes any sense because how can you say
I was angry with God I don't understand
how anyone could utter that not out of
a sentimental perspective just logically like logically speaking
the one you uttered the word God you
mean the all-beneficent the wise, the all
-powerful you're not winning this I don't understand
that I understand when people they have a
phase and they go far from the Dean
but to verbalize those words or even have
it in your heart makes no sense so
the pragmatic approach is that I'm suffering either
way when I submit to when I submit
to the reality I decrease my suffering and
submitting to the reality doesn't mean I don't
do anything about it but I accept the
fact that it's here and there's such a
fine line there between accepting the Qada, the
judgment accepting Allah's judgment and doing what I
need to do to get out of it
both have to exist and the sign of
it is the complaint, the nature of the
incessant complaining, the incessant hating on the situation,
that's a sign that I'm like rejecting God's
will here talk to anybody may Allah protect
us all from these calamities, but people who
lose their eyesight, people who lose their ability
to walk, we ask Allah Afi and Salama
from Allah but ask any of them how
they got through it and they're going to
say the moment I accepted it, they're always
going to talk about I was like rejecting
it, then I accepted it, once I accepted
it, then things started to open up so
it's happening either way that point that we
think it's going against our flourishing that's where
that evil comes in but it could be
possible that we don't know we don't know
what our flourishing entails, we don't know that,
it's possible and because of that the sooner
we accept, and I'm not saying this stuff
is easy, it's not it's very difficult, and
in fact all of the wisdom traditions, all
of the religions in the world they came
to answer this issue how do I live
life given that there are things that happen
in the world that go against what I
think is flourishing for me this is the
entire objective repeat that line again that all
the wisdom traditions of the world it came
to address or fix or try to give
a remedy for the problem of evil, that's
it how do I deal with suffering remember
I said identity remember that's one of the
great benefits of free will, the buddhists say
identity is the source of suffering as I
said before, the only conscious creatures have a
problem with evil so the buddhists say look,
the solution is simple get rid of your
identity get rid of it there's no identity
in truth there's no identity it's just you,
you're stuck in this karmic cycle, you created
this false image of identity and you're attached,
this is the cause of suffering we say
no, we say no, identity is a blessing
identity is a blessing and once you accept
where all the source of the good where
all these good things that are coming to
you, once you accept the source then you
see the bigger picture identity is a great
blessing, it's not to be shut out as
the buddhists say the proof of that is
prophets speak as they call it in religious
studies the I and Thou, they speak to
Allah I feel this but if you wish
this Moses says you are with me or
with me is my lord my lord so
the idea of wiping away the ego they're
only half right you wipe away what comes
between you and Allah that element that leads
you to disobey Allah or forget Allah Ta
'ala that's it and Imam Nursi says that
there's a lot of hadith that the world
is cursed and I think someone made a
comment the world is awful this and that,
we shouldn't care about it come on man
okay then then I mean if the world
is cursed then why did you put me
here right?
Imam Nursi he has the response he said
look everything has two ways that you can
look at it it has meaning it's own
meaning as it relates to itself just from
the perspective of itself you don't look at
anything else, you just look at the thing
itself and it has meaning and what is
a meaning the word can only have meaning
when there are two other things or something
else comes with it in the Arabic language
it can only have a relational meaning and
he says that from the perspective of itself
the entire dunya and everything in it is
completely pointless from the perspective of itself just
by itself I mean like what are you
by yourself just atoms in the void there's
nothing there and who even knows if you
exist or not but by the that you
have the relationship between you and your creator
that's where all the meaning is that's where
the is right when you look at the
thing from the perspective of its relationship to
its creator let's talk about the aside from
that being powerful and that's one of the
ways that you react well to tribulations when
I look at let's say today it's Zionists
right when we look at them I view
them yeah you could view them in themselves
but we also should view them as they're
a force that Allah has brought upon this
ummah for a reason and if you go
further from Allah they're your punishment and in
so far as we did in the past
as a collective ummah they're our punishment if
we're just those of us who are bearing
patiently like the mothers and the fathers in
Gaza that's a purification for them those who
are actually increasing in their ibadah and dhikr
and dua they're an elevation of their rank
that's why I believe that the people of
Gaza are likely to be the next leaders
spiritual leaders at the very least because Allah
is purifying them and elevating them in a
way that's not happening to anybody else so
we should see from there be like the
ground zero of a rebirth spiritual rebirth but
I want to shift and just one last
thing is that people when people mention these
types of things we think oh if the
punishment is coming down it should come down
on sinful people why is it coming out
there and I answered this in the book
but I just want to bring it up
that we have to fight evil wherever it
is this is part of the sharia this
is part of what Allah asked us to
do and it's part of us being khilafah
and the second thing is that just because
someone dies as part of some like let's
say an earthquake or bombing it doesn't mean
that they're being punished it's so simple that's
true it doesn't mean that they're being punished
if there's an earthquake in Turkey a lot
of people died it's a tribulation but it
doesn't mean that every single person who died
in that in that tribulation is they died
due to sin or they're being punished because
of this or that no it was their
time to go it's as simple as that
we don't believe that pain equals punishment we
believe that pain may be it's an elevation
of rank that you could not have attained
through deeds so you attain it through patience
and if somebody says well why does God
just cut that out and give us all
paradise right away in that case you're asking
a lot out of why he created the
system the way he did he created things
the way he did there's a wisdom behind
it that you may not understand we can
give you an allegory an allegory to that
is why don't you just give a championship
to everyone who's in the NBA why don't
you just give out NBA contracts without even
trying out for the team just give everyone
multi-million dollar contracts at that point you
don't even accept it in your little world
right now I wanted to say two things
that if you don't view your tyrant your
tormentor as a tool from the creator you
will become that tormentor you will become so
hateful of the tormentor that you actually will
probably become that tormentor 100% you're going
to be so hateful and there's no answer
to why this happened the resentment builds up
so much well when it builds up it's
got to come out you can't keep filling
a balloon with air and nothing happens someday
it's going to burst I think it actually
burst with the Zionists too they didn't react,
not everyone some of them did by the
way some Jews, I listen to their speeches
they say this was a punishment because of
our sins like Hitler came and he did
not punish innocent because we are totally innocent
I'm telling you that from a rabbi Yaron
Ruvin he has that perspective we get punished
when we commit sins by God so he
returns it back to God but many people
didn't and they just harbored so much resentment
because they did not handle this thing properly
and they became worse so that's the first
point the second point I want to make
is that when we return a tribulation even
if it's a tormentor back as an act
of God for a reason then what it
does is it deflates your resentment and when
it deflates your resentment well what do you
do, you think clearly now now I can
think clearly more objectively than when I'm filled
with hate so that's the first thing I
want to shift now to another thing pain
exists eternally in the next life and I
want to talk about I want to talk
about how that actually is a mercy for
some people there is a degree to which
that is a mercy you're going to go
now and say that let's say what the
west understands is the worst evil Hitler leave
aside there are people who killed far more
people than Hitler six million people King Leopold
trounces that Joseph Stalin trounces that Mao Zedong
trounces that Mussolini probably got up there who
Genghis Khan trounces Pol Pot I mean to
be fair he barely makes the what they
call like in in the minions like the
hall of fame of evil people right he
makes it we putting him in right away
but if we actually zoomed out at history
there's a lot of people and regimes that
killed far more people I mean let's go
to the what do the Americans do with
the Native Americans how many multiple presidents allowed
for this to happen complete I mean not
just one little country all continent but anyway
let's use him as the example because he
was evil after all we're not taking that
away but what he did does he not
in what way are you going to measure
his the pain that he caused and he
gets to put a bullet in his head
and that's it allegedly he just put a
bullet in his head and that's it and
the other story is that nobody actually saw
that and he actually went and lived a
nice peaceful life with Eva Braun in South
America he's still alive that's a theory there's
no toe answer that he shot himself by
the way there's no toe answer that he
actually was buried that is the predominant theory
I'm not saying it's not true point being
is that he puts a bullet in his
head and that's it he gets to feel
pain for a millisecond exactly how is that
fair that would if that was the truth
then you can understand why people are going
to go crazy how could you do all
this and then face nothing where is the
fairness here so when we have hellfire that
imagine objectifying all the pain that's in all
these people's hearts and creating a world out
of the pain that would be hellfire you
caused that to so many people and they
lived years with that now imagine a year
in pain feels like an eternity you caused
all that so we're going to create a
world out of that that's * that's what
* is and that pain was passed down
generation after generation that is your crime against
the creation in our world today people only
value humans they don't care at all your
crime against God we care about it but
when you talk to people the only thing
that most people relate to is your crime
against other people what about your crime against
your creator of course you can't cause pain
to your creator but you have aggressed upon
his rights with your disbelief in a way
that is disgusting that deserves that punishment too
but people don't understand that these days because
they don't really value the creator they value
themselves that's the humanistic world that we're living
in so you have to give the analogy
only to the rights of servants of creation
that's what * is so talk to us
a bit about this concept that * for
them is * and for other people is
actually a relief and a mercy and justice
and you know C.S. Lewis has such
a nice line that even in * the
mercy is that the evil doer knows that
what he did is evil and he knows
this for eternity and he understands this for
eternity and he has to live with this
for eternity even this small thing is like
he says it's like putting the last flag
onto the rebel mountain you conquer the rebels
and you put that last flag onto the
mountain they don't want to go down they
go down fighting and you put that last
flag onto the mountain to claim victory that's
what * is that people that do evil
they start to think that this way is
correct this is the truth that what I'm
doing is correct but what * shows you
is that no it's not and you don't
want to be with God okay fine in
the next world there's no murky business there's
no murky business all of creation it's like
a giant mixing pot and they get strained
on the day of judgment you know how
we have tea strainers they get strained whatever
is left they go to * whatever goes
through they go to Jannah and whatever is
still on the strainer they go to *
there's no this murky business so if you
don't want to be with God Allah is
not going to force you to be with
God Allah doesn't if he changes his will
and you go into heaven then that's not
you that's somebody else so you don't want
to be with God then be in the
place where there is no God obviously Allah
created * that's not what I mean but
here experience what it's like to be wrong
and to not have God's mercy experience it
you don't want to be with him then
experience this this is the only real choice
that we have in many ways we don't
even have free will if we really think
about it we only have one choice and
the one choice is either to accept reality
or not and in reality Allah owns everything
so we either accept that or we don't
accept it that Allah doesn't own anything Allah
doesn't own anything and I own everything *
is the place for those people the second
group that refuse to accept reality as it
is it's that simple and when you look
at bad things as an example of what
distance from God's mercy is like then you
realize hold on that's great then every bad
thing happens is a reminder it's a lesson
so that I can avoid it in the
future it's a continual reminder because if no
bad thing ever happens and I always keep
going astray and bad things don't happen to
me then suddenly boom I die and I
go to * hold on a second this
wasn't fair nobody told me anything so bad
things happening are actually mercy they're rails on
the side of the road that you keep
bumping into to tell you you're going off
the road you're going off the road there's
so many different perspectives on pain and evil
that make you realize we should be thankful
for this that's really one of the end
results of your book is that when you
come out of this when a bad thing
happens you should be praying two rakahs and
that's what Hassan al-Basri said when does
a person complete their iman he says when
they become abdan shakura when they become a
thankful servant when your happiness with a bad
thing is equivalent to your happiness with a
good thing and the reason is that the
good thing is a temporary happiness we're naturally
happy about it the bad thing is he
understands how good this is going to make
things that it's reminding me it's showing me
that I'm on the right path that the
fact that if Allah did not send me
this bad thing occurred when I skip my
prayers or I skip my adhkar or I
do bad things and a bad thing didn't
happen I should feel worried I should be
happy that Allah brought this that means Allah
cares for me yeah and the Quran says
it too that in our perspective that good
and good things and bad things are both
trials right that we test them with good
and bad Allah says in the Quran and
Firaun I read this in a commentary I
don't know if this is correct you can
correct me he never got sick in his
entire life Firaun he had miracles Firaun had
miracles I'm saying his horse exactly his horse's
legs would shrink so that he could get
on right so he had all these miracles
because of the arrogance that he had of
thinking that he's God Allah punishes him with
good things Allah punishes him with good things
exactly and so we have to be careful
when we think that the only good thing
that we can ever have is just more
good things no sometimes something difficult something challenging
it comes in your way and depending on
the attitude that we take towards it it
could be the greatest thing that ever happened
to you and blessings too let's say you
get an amazing car I'm not saying don't
get an amazing car amazing house but if
you ascribe these blessings or if we ascribe
these blessings to our creator Allah increases us
more if you are thankful Allah gives you
more the last thing I want to say
about * specifically Imam Nursi has a response
to you know a lot of people asked
him you know why is it that why
is it that believers good people they're always
sometimes in difficulty Allah tests them I'm not
saying you know these people are like fake
good or like they're just outwardly religious genuinely
good people Allah tests them and then evil
people they have blessings and blessings come to
them they gain power they get away with
all the stuff that they did as you
said Hitler he just puts a bullet in
his head he's gone Imam Nursi he has
such an amazing response to this and is
based off of a hadith he says that
look if you commit a small crime right
if you commit a small crime you get
your punishment immediately like a parking ticket right
you parked in the wrong place you get
a slap right or you drop something your
mom slaps you but if you commit a
huge crime then they take a while they
bring you first of all they arrest you
and then they build a case long trial
they build a case they get the entire
country on board it's broadcasted all over the
news you're humiliated before hundreds and thousands of
people and then they sent you off to
the punishment and the punishment is like really
bad and that could take like let's say
a year two years three years right like
a serial killer for example he says the
same thing right the same thing great crimes
are for the divine court these will be
judged in front of the entirety of creation
so that the person who did evil he
knows he knows right and he gets the
maximum sentence possible and this is but then
smaller crimes out of Allah's mercy Allah SWT
expiates those in this world and as the
Prophet SAW said my ummah's punishment is in
this world right that they're cleared away from
their sins that they can meet me at
the haud Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam completely devoid of
sins so you know this is such an
amazing wisdom that Imam Nursi derives from this
hadith it's a great wisdom and it reminded
me of when you did something wrong and
your parents say alright we're going to talk
about this oh that's the worst right now
I got to be in I'm already being
punished just waiting it's time for Q&A
if you have a few minutes and some
people are saying well we're looking at your
phones or in the thing I'm looking at
your guys chats because we have it now
on YouTube and we're on Twitter so I
got to check different devices I'd like to
see what are the chats looking like and
here we have a lot of questions and
somebody's asking a very basic question what was
your ultimate goal when you started writing the
book and I'll add at the beginning what
made you write the book in the first
place why are you interested in the subject
and then what was your goal in writing
the book the goal first of all I'm
not a shia or anything like that I'm
just a regular guy I consider myself a
writer right and writers write for they should
be writing for only one reason only they
have a problem and they want to solve
it they have a burning question they need
to solve it and this is really at
the center of any type of pursuit right
and this specific book it came out of
that because this is a question that I've
always had that I wanted answers to that
I needed to feel that I can trust
Allah and I'm not perfect like I'm not
some Sufi or something and all of these
questions that come up I noticed were a
pattern I used to work with youth a
lot of them had these questions right a
lot of people like I know a guy
that left Islam a youth kid same questions
same type of questions SubhanAllah and you know
I and then I met this brother Yusuf
Dr. Yusuf and he taught us Nursi in
Philadelphia we would sit around and read the
Rasal-e-Nur and I actually encourage everybody
if you have the chance look up the
Rasal-e-Nur and get get the letters
by Imam Nursi the letters so these are
letters that he sent to people and that's
a good place to start because you know
he gives like short answers to common questions
that people have about Imam so you should
read this and you can benefit InshaAllah so
when I encountered Nursi I thought these questions
are you know I should not ask them
these are my own issues and they don't
you know Islam doesn't have the answer to
these things you just believe right you believe
you just go on with life you just
do your prayers and you believe you go
on with them there's nothing else but Nursi
does have the answer right and he makes
me uncomfortable sometimes because he forces you he's
like look you know I still remember sitting
in that halaqa one day and he's saying
oh how beautiful plants are this and that
I'm like what's the point of a plant
that doesn't grow fully like it grows you
know tiny bit and then it dies and
then he's like why do you think it
has no point like why do you like
why did you make that judgment that it
has no point it has no beauty who
are you to say that right so these
types of questions really push me to look
into this issue and I love Islamic theology
because it addresses these things it addresses your
heart it addresses your mind and I wanted
other people to hopefully be interested in it
as well you know when I feel like
I've answered something for myself or I've discovered
something for myself I love sharing it it's
just who I am so and Dr. Shetty
pushed me to write this book so that's
how it came out to be he's been
nagging me like every like couple months he'd
send me a text it's like how's the
book how's the book so and that's a
great way for a writer to think like
what is my problem how did I solve
it and now I want to share it
with the world that's really the a great
way to put it and I want to
tell you something else too is that I
think about snowflakes coming down sometimes and you
know they all come down with their own
shape like every single one is different but
how many how many of them are witnessed
by us and I think to myself it's
a waste such a waste right but it's
a waste if you're self-centered we humans
are not the we may have a lofty
position in the creation if we're being humans
right correctly but we're not the center of
everything and Allah answers this question when he
says it is enough that Allah knows it
it is enough that Allah loves it you
know how many we're discovering creatures now that
there are creatures that are so small that
eat stone right in lava track mountains like
stone the rocks the mountains where lava comes
out of these this creature is so small
but it's so unique in how it's created
it can withstand lava like the same way
that water comes over us lava goes over
this creature or that a fish can exist
or like a amphibian can exist outside of
water and inside of water this thing can
exist in oxygen and in lava and it
eats it eats stone it's so tiny though
yet it's a living creature no one has
known about this for eons probably no humans
probably very few people will ever see it
in their whole life but that is irrelevant
is enough that Allah knows about it right
and that's what that verse means and that's
where you just see like non-stop everything
is unique non-stop there are no detail
left without there being some uniqueness to it
whereas we when we produce something we produce
a pencil it's just like they all look
the same and we do that on purpose
it's like we want uniformity we are almost
like built to be different from the creator
you tell a person I want Bic I
want every pen to be different no way
we don't make any money like this why?
it's too difficult we are literally announcing our
weakness when we go in and we make
things efficient the whole field of technology is
announcing our weakness we need everything to be
efficient why?
because we are weak the manufacturer can't do
it that way the user can't all learn
a different coded iPad in a different way
we can't learn because of our weakness but
Allah has no weakness, no limitation every single
thing can and will be unique unto itself
let's go to the next question let's
see what we have here is this book
available in the UK?
the answer is yes it's not available in
physical stores in the UK you can order
it and it's a $15 shipping fee but
if you buy $100 worth of books the
shipping is free I got that from meccabooks
.com brother
how are you?
from Dallas, Texas talk to us what do
you have to say?
turn his mic on I had a question
yes, here's your question in regards to, I
think you mentioned something earlier and it was
about I think it was about gambling and
it was about a concept that you mentioned
where if you put in a coin at
those main event kind of places and the
hand comes in and it picks something up
and it takes it on what premise?
can you dive a little bit deeper into
that?
so this isn't related to this but we'll
answer the question, no problem you put in
a coin and a crane comes down and
you have to maneuver the crane to try
to get a toy this is because it's
called you do not know what you're getting
out of it you know what you're giving
and to protect the buyers to protect the
consumers in the Sharia you must know what
you're getting out of this you must know
in every transaction what you're getting people are
asking where Naz is from do you want
to disclose that or no?
what do you guys think?
Irish?
Italian?
you mean like originally?
he's from Jersey did you see New Jersey's
latest tweet?
state of New Jersey's official tweet?
you saw that?
someone said I know Virginia is for lovers
cause that's their slogan but we need a
state for haters so New Jersey replied you
called?
oh Murphy tweeted yeah happy Eid Mubarak to
Nabi Modi tweeted that Wal-Mart selling Mowlid
Wal-Mart I'm like you know what I
don't want the profit in Wal-Mart get
it out I don't want the profit in
Wal-Mart it must be in Birmingham or
something it must be the Wal-Mart next
to Gamgol or Sharif or something okay so
these questions here is how does somebody remember
to remember these lessons I think my personal
answer to that is keep reading the book
keep listening to live stream get it so
ingrained in your head there's so many books
I think this to me is the best
treatment of it I said that in my
post today but there's this stream there's another
stream that we did there are a lot
of other people talk about the value of
the pain the more you read these things
the more it becomes ingrained in your head
take notes teach it to people talk to
other people about it I'd say this is
where your daily word comes in yeah right
and read the Quran I don't know why
it has to be this complicated you just
pick up the Quran you read it and
you constantly read the Quran read Surah Yusuf
read Surah Al-Imran, Baqarah read Surah Yaseen
all these Surahs and the constant repetition especially
after you've read a work like Pearls in
the Deep or any other work on the
problem of evil you see those lessons reflected
in the ayat you see those wisdoms reflected
in the ayat and so the more you
repeat they're always with you it's one of
the wisdoms of memorizing the Quran here's a
question Nas this is a very good question
we always say the world points to the
existence of a creator but you're admitting that
there's a lot of imperfection in the world
so does that imply that the creator cannot
create perfectly I will say this yeah yeah
so it does have an answer anything that
God creates it must be imperfect in relation
to Him SubhanAllah that's it, it's not that
complicated the problem is it's perfect in relationship
to you you can't create anything you can't
do anything so where's the scale it's me
for example some famous artist draws a piece
of art and he leaves it outside I
go past I can't even draw a rice
grain I go past and I'm like what
is this what is this he could have
done a better job here SubhanAllah who are
you, you can't draw the artist can't so
yes the world has imperfections by design by
design if you want a perfect world don't
create a world Allah is complete in His
kamal you don't need a world so He
does not gain any perfection by creating worlds
or creating things He doesn't gain imperfection but
anything He creates it has to be other
than Him Al-alam ma siwAllah so anything
He creates it has to be other than
Him by that very definition it cannot be
Him so by that very definition it cannot
be perfect the only perfect ontological reality is
Allah but this perfection is shown to us
in a million different lenses in infinite different
reflections and rays with the creation that's the
purpose of creation no one can understand Allah
fully no one can understand His that but
they can understand Allah a little bit through
His acts so we can understand Allah through
His acts and this is what the point
of creation is human beings if the entirety
of all humanity came together to tame a
gnat we can tame dogs we can tame
a lot of horses if the whole world
cannot come together to tame a gnat or
create a gnat or create what is above
a gnat so that's the futility of putting
yourself up at the level of a creator
to critique His work, that's one thing second
thing, the answer to this, we have to
actually turn to revelation this is one of
the things that is balton to the aql
the intellect can discern certain things but cannot
discern other things eventually you will need revelation
to answer this question and one of the
ways that we can answer it in addition
to how you answered it is that this
is not meant to be heaven this is
a world an admixture of good and bad
in one world so that heaven is valued
later on and paradise is the place for
us that is perfect that's the perfect world
for us perfection and pleasure and worship but
if you want another world that's perfect in
another way it has to have different parameters
so when people say this world is not
perfect this is what Imam Ghazali said this
world is perfect Imam Ghazali said that for
its purpose so the purpose it's serving is
not to maximize hedonistic pleasure not to maximize
these types of things the purpose it's serving
is perfect for that very good we took
you two hours and some and there are
a lot of questions here that aren't related
to the topic so I want to be
able to answer those later but again folks
get yourself your copy at meccabooks.com slash
pearls and I want to thank you very
much Naz number one for the initial stream
which was three parts and then for this
one and then for the book and being
patient with us in publishing the book this
will be a very successful book bi-idhnillah
it's already we have sold a lot just
today from announcing it in the first day
and there will be more to come may
Allah reward you thank you for coming on
and we will close our stream with that
subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdik ashhadu an la ilaha
illa anta nastaqfiru wa natubu ilayk wa al
-asr inna al-insana la fee khusr illa
allatheena amanu wa aminu as-salihat wa tawassu
bil-haq wa tawassu bil-sabr wassalamu alaykum
jazakallah khair