Tofael Nuruddin – Liberalism Why Should I Care
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AI: Transcript ©
...that is here for this program, this conference,
and we are grateful to the hosts and
to the guests and to our guests that
came from abroad for giving us this time.
But Alhamdulillah, these programs and these conferences, they're
important because, you know, post-Western Enlightenment there
is a pervading ideology, a pervading way that
people have been looking at the world before
that and how people see the world after
that.
And it's important that we as Muslims understand
the paradigm that has shifted, right, the outlooks,
the worldviews that have changed.
And we need to understand what aligns with
our deen and what contradicts our deen.
Only then will we be able to make
better decisions, you know, we will be able
to go forward according to the wajid that
is given to us when we can understand
that what it is that contradicts what we
have been given by Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and what is in line with it.
Now we'll be diving into liberalism, one of
the pervading worldviews, ideologies, political ideologies really.
It's a political ideology but then it has
repercussions in your culture and looks and how
we view religion, our beliefs.
And then even in the modern world, in
the current times, it has effects also even
in language.
But we'll get into all of that, all
of the detail of what it is, what
we mean.
You know, we've had a lot of questions
coming in that, what do you mean by
the way?
So inshallah, we'll get into what we're actually
talking about.
It's more of a philosophical discussion and we
hope that inshallah it's insightful for everyone that
is here.
Throughout the program inshallah, we want everybody to
take and form, you know, they'll have questions
that come up.
There is a link inshallah that they can
go to and put their questions in and
inshallah their questions will be answered throughout the
program.
The guest we have with us today, the
first talk will be given by our esteemed
guest, Mufti Tufail Nooruddin.
He's an instructor at Baitul Hamid Institute in
New York and he's, he has to mention
that he's Canadian as well.
But he graduated from the esteemed institution of
ilm and knowledge, Darul Azad, from where he
got his Aadhaar degree and he did iftah.
And right now he's pursuing a PhD, or
a master's degree, sorry, in Columbia University.
And inshallah, the other guest that we have,
I'll introduce him now as well, is Maulana
Shatila Rahmaniyah.
He's the Imam of the Islamic Center of
Burlington, Massachusetts.
He got his Aadhaar degree from Darul Qur
'an Muslimah, from the City College of New
York.
So inshallah, they'll be giving the talks and
then there's me as well.
It's kind of odd for me to introduce
myself, but I'll be giving one of the
talks.
Everyone inshallah, to lend an attentive ear and,
you know, listen carefully to what's being said,
what's being taught.
Really, this is a teaching.
And inshallah, you can post your questions to
the link that we'll be providing.
JazakAllah.
Recording in progress.
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
My dear brothers, sisters, youngsters, sisters, and dear...
We'll get straight inshallah to our presentation.
Introduce, basically, what are we talking about?
A lot of people might wonder, when we
talk about liberalism, what are we talking about?
And that's the first thing that I kind
of want...
that when we talk about liberalism, then we're
not talking about, you know, conservative political parties,
you know, Democrats and Republicans.
That's not what we're talking about.
In essence, what we're talking about is philosophical
liberalism.
And inshallah, throughout today, you will learn what
liberalism is, how it affects us, the plight
of Muslims throughout the world, and what's been
happening to us.
You see, because we see a lot of
individual, particular instances of oppression, of, you know,
need, poverty, suffering, we see all of these
as individual instances, but they're all connected, and
we'll see how they're all connected today.
And when we talk about philosophical liberalism, whether
it's Democrat or Republican, they're both subscribed to
this ideology.
So this is also something that we want
to make clear.
Now, you already did get a little bit
of an introduction to what liberalism is if
you read the flyer properly, right?
Maybe most of you didn't.
But if you actually looked into the flyer,
you saw what it said.
It's a man-made religion.
How is it a religion?
Inshallah, we'll also go into that.
So the first section, inshallah, that we'll have
is to define, to begin with, what liberalism
is, right?
And inshallah, you will hear the other speakers
also talk about this.
But the way we define liberalism, and they
define themselves, is the promotion of freedom, equality,
and autonomy of the individual.
So we have individuals.
Everyone has freedom.
Everyone is equal.
And everyone is autonomous.
And when we first hear this, it sounds
like something amazing.
It sounds like, of course, you know, we
are all free.
We want a world in which we are
all free.
We want a world in which we're all
autonomous.
But what we will do is we will
take this nice, you know, banner and we'll
– and can we prove it?
So the short answer to why should we
care, like how it affects us, inshallah, if
we go back to the definition, we see
that it's the promotion of the freedom, equality,
and autonomy of the individual, right?
So in essence, it promotes individualism.
If you look at a lot of, you
know, liberal society, you know, the genesis of
liberalism, it started as an ideology.
But, you know, America is an example of
a liberal society.
Now, you might notice this, that there is
a lot of focus.
If you look at the, you know, Human
Rights Charter and the 30 articles that are
in it, it's about the rights of the
individual.
And similarly also if you look at the
U.S. law, right, some people, especially that
come from more traditional societies, people that come
from back home, or even Muslims in general,
sometimes we might wonder why are we giving
so much priority to what this one person
wants or needs versus what the society actually
needs, right?
And we'll see today that it's not, it
doesn't promote individualism.
What is individualism?
It's the fact that I'm important, my needs
are important, my rights are important, people should,
you know, respect what I need and what
I want.
And we'll see that Islam, on the other
hand, promotes communitarianism.
That my needs will be fulfilled once I
start looking at everyone else's rights.
And think about this.
It's like a magical formula, subhanAllah, that Rasulullah
gave.
I care about you, and you, and you,
and you, and you care about me, and
you care about me.
Rights are fulfilled.
The opposite is that I look for my
rights, my needs.
You should fulfill those needs, right?
And you think that, and you think that,
and everyone thinks that.
But Islam teaches us that let's look at
the other first.
And we'll see many instances where the Sahaba,
may Allah be with them, they care for
others more than themselves.
And there are many instances like this, right?
One very famous incident, you know, one of
the Sahaba, may Allah be with them, one
Sahabi, he had a ghost head.
Very famous incident, right?
He had a ghost head.
And before, you know, cooking it and eating
it, this other
person will eat it for him.
He gives it to him.
And that ghost head goes around seven families
before it comes back to the initial family.
Right?
Like that, we also see, you know, on
the battlefield.
One Sahabi is dying, right?
And what does he do?
He needs water.
His cousin is bringing water for him.
And he needs someone else that's wounded and
he's looking for water.
And that Sahabi runs to this Sahabi that
was wounded.
And he sees someone else that was wounded
and he wants water.
So he says, no, no, no, go to
my brother first.
By the time he reaches the third person,
that third Sahabi dies.
He tries to come back to the second
person.
So we saw that, you know, and Allah
SWT describes the Sahabi like this as well.
That they give, and we see many, many,
many occasions and instances like this amongst the
Sahabi.
This is one of the fundamental changes that
Rasulullah brought to society.
People before them, they always used to want
their rights and their wants and their needs.
And the rich and the powerful, they would
create this unity as well.
So liberalism is the opposite.
Five-year-old child, let's talk about what
rights you have and what your parents owe
you.
And what they can do and cannot do
to you.
If you're a parent, if you're a woman,
let's talk about your rights.
And in Islam, it's the other way around.
We see what we have to do first.
So if we look at communitarianism in Islam,
we'll get a little into financial laws.
Many people are able to take Islamic finance
and financial ethics.
And we'll look at how Islam actually promotes
communitarianism.
So in fith, people that are, you know,
acquainted with fith, they'll know this term.
Which is basically when a person sells.
In a capitalistic ethos, in a liberal society,
and most people know that there are different
types of liberals.
It's what affects us the most.
So in economic liberalism, free market.
And we saw many examples of this, for
example, during COVID.
Selling clothes for crazy prices.
And this kind of profiteering, it's something that,
you know, economic liberals wouldn't sell you.
You're someone who has a good life.
Islam doesn't sell you women and babies.
It's actually haram.
You cannot do excessive profiteering to take advantage
of people.
And there are many other examples of this.
For example, iftikhar.
Iftikhar is also a financial law person.
And he is the sole manufacturer or producer
for a certain type of produce.
And what he does is he hoards it.
So that the market prices go, he can
sell it for a higher price.
So this is iftikhar.
Iftikhar is also haram.
Some people sell it for a higher price.
And there are many, many other ahadith like
that.
Like that, there is also a legal maxim,
a faradayat al-qiyam, that says, Al-wun
bil-wun.
Which means that they should be sharing the
risks.
If they share the risks, then they can
earn the profits.
Otherwise, it becomes haram.
So like this, we see throughout Islamic financial
law.
And, you know, the biggest one is al
-qiyam.
It's haram.
It's so difficult.
Why is it even haram?
And if you look at it philosophically, you
will see why Allah SWT, the deep wisdom
behind why Allah SWT is so, you know,
to the point that it says, if you
are a jury of interest, then declare war
on Allah SWT.
Why is he saying this?
Why is there so much, you know, people
can murder Allah SWT.
You really break it down.
Who borrows?
This is a need, the poor.
And then who lends?
Someone who has excessive money.
So that's the rich.
And when you have interest, it makes sure
that the rich keeps getting more, and the
poor has to get even more.
And it becomes even meaner.
Does that make sense?
So it kind of, you know, separates and
widens this gap between the rich and the
poor.
And this is why it's known as the
type of ulm.
It's a type of ulm.
And in Islamic law, any smallest type of
ulm, this is why it's called ulm, but
there are very, very, very, very harsh haqqa
'i, even though it's worse than doing zina
36 times.
So this is why, because it creates this
kind of ulm in society.
And let's remember that Islam focuses on the
entire community.
We want a healthy society.
We want a healthy, united, you know, community.
I also argue that this is not something
that only Islam has.
If you look at any kind of traditional
society throughout history, throughout mankind, you will see
that the focus was always on not the
individuals, but the community in general.
The tribes, right?
And through the tribe, we see that the
individual also is strengthened.
In English, we have this saying, right, that
it takes an entire history to raise a
child.
So when we understand that we are not
just individuals, rather we are, and we won't
argue this when we talk about the contradictions
of liberalism, but when we realize that we
are not just individuals and we're connected to
others, then we will see that throughout history,
all other societies also thought the same.
So if you look at, you know, communitarianism,
you can just see the state of tribes
that lived here.
And you will see that Simón de Lemoyne,
he was a French missionary.
So he came from there and he wanted
to colonize the local people.
And one thing that surprised him, he said
that there are no hospitals that are built
amongst them because they are either mendicants or
paupers.
Basically, there are no poor people.
As long as there are rich people amongst
them.
So if there is even one rich person,
then that suffices for the entire village, right?
A whole village must be without farming or
any individual to be, you know, obliged to
endure privation.
So we see that if anybody had anything,
that means the entire village has this.
Nobody thought of this like, okay, this is
my wealth.
I'm not lowering it to myself.
Rather, you know, what can I do?
So they didn't need, you know, hospitals.
And they also had this idea of how
you conceptualize wealth.
So the way they understood wealth, that it
was demonstrated by how much leaders gave away
to people, not by how much they worked.
A wealthy person, what are you going to
say?
A lot of savings.
A lot of savings, right?
A high net worth, right?
That's how we consider what this person is.
Which is funny, actually.
If you think about what that actually means,
that means the more a person is not
able to spend, the more they can just
keep and have like a big number.
And it's just there.
It's sitting.
It's not being used.
Then this person is rich.
That's true.
If you think about it, it's really funny
because wealth is not something that is intrinsic.
It doesn't have intrinsic value.
We don't care about wealth or wealth.
We care about wealth because of what it
can get us.
Like money is there as long as you
can get something with it.
If today it was announced that the U
.S. dollar is worth nothing, what do these
papers mean?
It's worth nothing.
There's no point in writing on them.
You can make a nice change on them.
That's all, right?
Wealth or money is only there if you
can buy other things with it and you
can do other things with it.
And this is truly what, you know, it
defines.
We also argue that in Islam, liberalism is
against Islam.
And the reason for this is because when
we define liberalism, we say that me and
you, we are all dependent upon each other.
If you think about it, the way we
know this in Arabic, the word insana.
Does anyone know where insana comes from?
Let's say someone who hasn't studied Arabic.
Did you ever hear it in any speech
or lecture?
No, it's not actually a common fallacy.
A lot of people think it comes from
Nisyan, which is wrong.
They say, okay, insana.
You bother doing insana, insana.
If you look at the roof, that's two
different roof types.
Does anyone know?
It comes from al-uns.
Al-uns means love.
The nature, the inherent nature of human beings,
and in anthropological studies, they've also shown that
we are actually cooperative beings.
And in cognitive studies as well, if anybody
takes any, you know, random course in the
philosophy of cognitive science, you'll see that what
makes human intelligence so unique is our ability
to cooperate.
So we're cooperative beings.
We can communicate.
We can talk to each other.
We can do projects together.
We can build things together.
This is what makes us unique, if you
compare it to dogs and cats.
By essence, by our zikrah, by our nature,
our human nature is against autonomy.
Another truth, if anybody here is Bangladeshi, is
anyone here Bangladeshi?
How do you say, how do you say
human being in Bangla?
Manush, right?
Manush is actually taken from the Arabic word
maqnoos.
And maqnoos, again, is a being that is
loved.
So we see that within our languages, it's
integrated as well.
That we are social beings.
What happens to a person, I mean, maybe
most of you are not, like, you know,
PhDs, very basic question.
Everybody will know the answer to this.
What happens to a person if you leave
them in solitary confinement for like, let them
have their food and water and everything?
What will happen to them?
They'll go and say, why?
Because by nature, this whole idea of autonomy
is false.
It's completely against our default.
Completely.
Along with that, there are also inherent logical
contradictions within the world, right?
The question was, why do we care about
the world?
You'll see why.
Because it's incoherent.
It's unnatural.
It's incoherent in its system, right?
So this whole idea that we are all
equal, are we all?
Everybody, every two individuals that are born are
essentially unequal.
Some people are born into rich families.
Some people are born into poor families.
Americans.
People have certain economic advantages.
People have certain economic disadvantages.
Some people are born stronger, right?
They are normal souls.
They are intelligent.
As they're born, they're just naturally intelligent.
Intelligence is not something we want.
It's not something we work for.
Right?
We're born like that.
So we are inherently and fundamentally we know
that we're not equal.
Little society will have you believe that we're
all equal.
And then what does equality even mean?
Some liberals can say that every
definition that you can bring likewise,
you know, the statement that we're all free.
No.
Because we can pretend like we're all free.
But in essence, you are dependent, and you
are unfree from certain...
If your boss tells you you have to
come in at 8 o'clock, what time
do you have to come in?
8 o'clock?
Right?
Are you free to make an interest?
No, no, no.
You're my boss.
Nice and cute, but today I'm going to
come in 10 o'clock.
Can you tell him that?
But today it sounds like you're not.
Some people can do that.
Maybe they're their own CEO, or they're, you
know...
And this is what everyone tries to achieve,
like financial stability.
But as you try to achieve that, you
will see that you become, you know, more
of the same than actually a person who
is working with a W.
The person
deciding that I don't want to be under
any...
Socialism tells you you can be free.
You have the freedom to choose, and they'll
tell you, okay, you don't like this political
structure over in the country.
But what if somebody has a problem with
all politics?
And they want you to be truly free.
They don't want to work under a false
society.
Can they do that?
Where can you go?
Where can you go?
Is there any parcel of this land that's
not under some kind of political authority?
Where can you go?
You can't go anywhere because there's a nation
-state there, and it has its laws, and
it has a whole system that you have
to follow.
So what are we actually free from?
So we see these inconsistencies and these kinds
of incoherences.
It sounds cute on paper, right?
Like, well, it's free.
We're all autonomous.
We're all free.
And we're all equal, right?
And we talked about this strength
and so on and so forth.
So now, what we want to look at
is what does Islam say about all this,
right?
Islam tells us that it's not only going
to be my freedom, that as long as
you're in this dunya, you're in a prison.
However, if you want to achieve true liberty,
true freedom, then that world is coming for
you, right?
And that's what we have to work for,
right?
In this world, you can't fly.
There's a world that's going to come for
you and you can't fly.
In this world, you know, you can't just
wish for a huge castle and a really
nice raya.
You can't just wish for that.
But there's a world in which you can
have that.
You will have true freedom, true liberty.
So, Islam basically is being realistic with us.
It's telling us that you will achieve
freedom at some point.
Other religions, they limit themselves as to where
they can see.
Right?
Christianity doesn't tell you how to operate as
a political force.
It's not telling you that, you know, be
assertive with your neighbor, be assertive on these
days and this is what you have to
do, this is worship, this is how you
pray to God, you know, and so on
and so forth.
This is how you seek forgiveness.
And it's all nice, right?
But Christianity, what it doesn't tell you, what
are financial loans?
What kind of sales can you actually, you
know, perform?
What kind of loans can you take and
give to people?
As a husband and wife, what rights do
you have upon each other?
There's very basic, basic laws that I mentioned
but when it comes to details, there's nothing.
Now Islam, on the other hand, is an
entire warfare.
It comes, Islam will even tell you what
is an ethical way of going to the
washroom.
SubhanAllah.
If you look at the Hadith in Jannah,
I'm telling you, there's not a lot of
people they love Islam.
There's a group of Jewish people and the
Jewish people, they're trying to teach you how
to go to the toilet, how to relieve
yourself.
They're trying to laugh at you, how to
cry.
He says, that yes, my husband, subhanAllah, he
teaches me hygiene.
So Islam will tell you even how to
eat.
What's an ethical way of eating?
What's an ethical way of, for example, sharing
food with people?
What's an ethical way of cooking?
All of this is subhanAllah.
So it's not a religion, I always say
this, that the word religion is a very
bad word for, it's an entire way of
life.
It doesn't just tell you, you know, what
people on Sunday or on Saturday.
It tells you exactly how to eat throughout
their whole life.
It's a holistic system.
And on the other hand, liberalism is also
like that.
Liberalism also tells you how to live your
life.
Liberalism will not have as many problems, they
have a problem in general with religion, but
they don't have as many problems with Christianity,
Hinduism.
As a matter of fact, the more the
religion is very abstract, the more it's playful.
Like for example, Buddhism, right?
Buddhism really doesn't tell you much about a
whole lot of things.
It tells you, for example, you know, how
to pay, or whatever.
So, because the more abstract it is, the
more, you know, liberalism should license it.
So that's the fundamental problem in this class.
And inshallah, in the session, the final session
in which I'll be speaking, we'll go into
detail.
We'll go into exactly what it's not said
about, for example, a legal system.
What it says about the scientific methodology, right?
Now, this is the biggest reason why we
should care.
That liberalism, in its definition, it tells you
that we're all free to do whatever we
want, except that we cannot subscribe to anything
other than liberalism.
And if you do, then you have no
more rights.
Then we will do whatever it takes.
the founding fathers of liberalism, Hobbes
and John Locke, what they have to say
about people that are not within the biggest
rights.
As a matter of fact, they used, if
you read it, it's extremely racist, but they
used the natives, the indigenous people in America,
as an example.
They're in the state of nature, and they
don't have these rights.
They don't have the right to property, they
don't have the right to safety, and therefore
you can do whatever you want with them.
Because in essence, they're not treated as humans.
Nobody doesn't subscribe to liberalization.
What happens?
There's violence and military means that are taken.
We say that, you know, a woman cannot
cover herself.
This is a liberal way of saying things
that she can wear whatever she wants.
If you don't like this, then we will
come to you.
We will take our entire military and we'll
bully you.
We'll force you until you start believing those
things as well.
And if not, then we'll choke you economically.
We'll stop any kind of aid.
We won't give you any kind of aid.
We won't trade with you to the point
that there's poverty and hunger.
You see people dying from those.
You see that kind of suffering.
As long as you don't subscribe to our
mentality, this is what we'll do to you.
So as much as there's freedom, there's actually
a big lack of freedom.
And then there's social acceptance.
So the nafs, unfortunately, is a certain way
and that's our test that we like to
be free.
The nafs, the way it is in its
essence is that we don't like to submit.
It's hard for the nafs to submit to
anything.
And the entire definition of Islam is to
show submission to Allah SWT and it's His
system.
And we trust Him and we love Him.
Why?
Because He is the programmer.
He is the engineer.
And He has made us.
And He knows how our cognitive system works.
And He knows how we will thrive and
succeed.
He knows what kind of society would be
to make this happen.
Would bring us that kind of success.
So that's basically the essence of Islam.
Similarly, there are educational strategies and this is,
I think, something that needs to be researched
a lot more.
I have a few papers that are written
on this that you will see that if
political and military needs don't work, then Muslim
nations and Muslim countries will be, you know,
their entire education system will be changed.
And this you can actually find in Lord
Kromer.
So I listed him in the presentation.
Lord Kromer is actually a very well-known
British official that was sent to Egypt.
And he had an entire book in which
he actually describes what kind of educational policies
you should take so that the minds of
the people can be changed.
And similarly, in the Indian subcontinent as well,
in the British continent, this happens really throughout
the world, right?
If you know about, you know, in America,
you all know about the boarding schools, right?
But actually it was a bigger thing in
Canada.
So there were many, you know, Americans are
usually, Canadians are supposed to be nicer so
they apologize for everything.
But basically there were residential schools, boarding schools,
in which native children would be taken from
their parents and brought into those boarding schools.
And all of their systems have
risen with this tribe.
Table manners, for example, they weren't allowed to
eat traditional food, to eat in traditional manners,
rather they had to put the 36 utensils
that the British provided them with and so
on and so forth.
So basically the whole point of the education
system was how we can turn them into
us.
And there was actually a US Army who
was known as Richard Kraft and he said
this, he said kill the Indian, save the
man.
Kill the Indian, save the man.
So you have like a very good indigenous
native person out of them.
So this was basically the idea, how can
we erase people's identities, replace it with European
identities and let them know that they are.
So the last form that we see is
mass media.
So through the news, through the films and
so on and so forth, you know, liberal
ideologies are often seen to have a certain
depiction of what Muslim people look like.
You'll have a certain depiction of what African
tribes look like.
You'll have a certain depiction of what South
American tribes look like.
And you will also have a depiction.
So through mass media, a lot of mass
media is not only accessible to people here
but throughout the world.
So you'll find this throughout the world, if
you go, people aspire to be like the
white man.
They want to be fair in their skin
for example.
Fair is always something that's beautiful.
Their aesthetic definitions have been changed as well.
And then their clothes they want to look
like, you know, if they see a person
who speaks fluent Arabic and another person who
speaks fluent English, you'll know who they consider
more African.
So this is basically by the biggest incoherence
and the biggest contradiction that you'll find within
liberalism is that it's not liberal at all.
It's actually very, you know, forced.
It's very, you know, kind of shut down
yourself.
And that's my conclusion for the rest of
the day.
We'll see how liberalism started, we'll see what
its effects are on Muslim society, and where
we can move forward from that.
So first of all, acknowledge what's happening in
Afghanistan.
So the brothers and sisters who have been
at our events before, you know the way
that we take our questions.
So we have a link at starprojectakia.com
and it's a Google form.
You can just submit your question and we'll
alternate between brothers and sisters.
So the brothers can stand up and ask
their questions if they want, or they can
submit their questions anonymously on the form, and
the sisters can also submit and we'll alternate.
So shall we get started with the brothers?
So please give your name and address.
So you mentioned, I mean, I just want
to give the example of the Sahaba.
If the first Sahaba can link a lot,
can we save the life of the second
and the third?
We should not take it out on anybody
ourselves.
Take that out with example, everybody die.
If one can survive, you can save the
second and the third.
The second part about what you said, there
was some kind of...
It's better if you do one question at
a time.
I understand.
There's no problem with your questions, I just
wanted to do one at a time, because
if I take too many it's going to
be hard to...
So, we'll start with the first question, the
incentive of the Sahaba, the three people.
The question was, would it have been better
for the three Sahaba not to sacrifice the
water and give it to the next person,
and maybe the first person would have lived
and could have helped somebody else out.
Just like they say, put the oxygen mask
for yourself first, and then help the person
next to you.
Well, if you look at that, there are
a few ways to look at it.
Number one, the person is still wounded, just
because they drank water doesn't mean that they
can go help someone else.
If your arm is cut off, I think
you
can go has a huge importance, but it's
not the ultimate, because the way we see
death is just a portal to another bigger
life and a different kind of life in
which we have access to more things.
I understand that especially nowadays, we have this
mentality that we don't see a life of
death and everything, we just see it as
a continuation into a different realm.
So for those sahaba, they didn't consider as
important for them that I must live on
rather than mention death.
So there's not an issue with that.
But I think it still goes back to
the first point, which is a practical aspect.
What I would say is that obviously this
is a case-by-case scenario.
Me and you can sit here and we
can hypothesize as much as we want and
theorize what this person has done and so
on and so forth, but at the end
of the day, it's not less considered actually.
These aspects that we mentioning, which one has
the bigger arm.
So we have these legal tools in Islam.
I'll just provide an example.
I think it's a good question, but I
think this is the way we can look
at it.
The second question you have is about, you
know, during COVID, the price that was happening.
But what happened is not exactly what you
mentioned.
It's not that there was a shortage of
supply.
It's a demand that created.
Some people were going to Walmart to buy.
There's a difference between the market changing and
you purposely causing that change in the market
and forcing people to pay more.
Now, you're right, maybe in certain things happened,
but Pakistan is not It's different than America.
It's a capitalistic secular liberal society.
So as much as we want today, what
we aspire to is to look back at
the way of the Sahaba and see how
we
have to follow the sister
side.
Is Islam opposed to modernity?
So, just to preface that, it would be
good for us to keep the questions related
to the topic, but it depends on what
you mean by modernity.
Islam is never absolutely contradictory to any of
these philosophies.
Is Islam completely opposed to capitalism?
No.
It is completely opposed to things that Islam
says that we love.
If we talk about equality and pay, you'll
see a lot of things that we share,
but there's also a lot of fundamental differences.
Just because we find some commonality, it also
means we don't have to reject the system.
So, Islam is dependent on what you mean
by modernity.
In some senses it does oppose it, and
in some senses it doesn't oppose it.
But you have to define it.
Question from the other side.
You have described how liberalism is antithetical to
the Islamic worldview.
Does that mean that Islam is closer to
its philosophical counterpart, socialism slash communism?
So the answer is no.
The point that it's philosophical opposition is not
necessarily communism and socialism because those are economic
senses.
So you can say it's capitalism opposed to
communism or socialism.
But Islam has its own set of ethics,
it has its own political philosophy, it has
its own metaphysics and its ontology, epistemology.
It has its own system.
inshallah in the last talk this is actually
what we're going to discuss.
We're actually going to go through the specifics
of what Islam says about some of these
things and what the liberal or modern world
view says and where the clash comes from.
So the answer is no.
It doesn't mean that it completely aligns itself
with the
of Islam.
So he said that he was not when
he said that this dunya is like every
person here is restricted right.
And a believer he accepts right from the
beginning that a believer has these restrictions.
Whereas, liberalism makes it seem that the person
is free in this world.
So it doesn't mean that, you know, don't
do anything in this world, just accept your
shackles and live like subjugated and then only
aim for the afterlife.
It means in light of the next world,
you know, this world and you have shackles,
but you still try, you can still try
to achieve in this dunya as well, right?
But the real life is the afterlife.
So I have a last question.
What is your thought about those who are
doing 5 or 10 umrah, those who are
doing 1001 umrah and the remaining?
I want to keep the questions focused on
liberalism.
I'm sorry to do this, but I don't
want to have like a continuous, you know,
one sentence.
Let's try to keep our questions clear, precise,
one sentence and focused on the topic and
inshallah then we'll go like that.
So, you mentioned that interest is wrong and
today Islamic bank is doing the same, just
changing the name to profit.
They don't care the loss.
Is that completely Islam?
Is that the same as borrowing cash and
paying?
That's not the second part.
It's not the same.
But in any case, I think with Islamic
banks or Islamic financial schemes, you're kind of
replacing the terms and, you know, calling it
profit.
That's not exactly what happens actually.
It depends on what kind of model you're
following, whether it's a Mubarak-less scheme or
an Islam-less scheme or is it, you
know.
However, I do agree with the overall broader
philosophy, which is the fact that even if
you use these legal systems, these financial tools
that Islam has allowed us to use to
still sell the house or the commodity at
a higher price, then in essence what we're
not doing is going back to the original
system, right?
The original system was like this.
The original system, the price of this house
was $400,000.
Somebody lent you $400,000 and gave you
back $400,000.
And you're right that at the end of
the day you're still.
So ideally it shouldn't be like this.
However, Islamic banks do go through certain struggles.
There is a lot more nuance to this.
If you're interested in knowing more about it.
But I do agree overall that where, you
know, there are models in
South Africa, but
it's only very recently we've been thinking about.
So I think the question is a good
one.