Wasim Kempson – Alcohol – The Mother of All Evils

			Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
		

			boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yes. So I was saying earlier that I miss my bacon
sandwiches.
		

			And I like my pork scratchings. Although I don't drink beer now, except I'd have non alcoholic beer,
which I don't think so pretty much the same. I don't drink alcohol. Yeah. And that was a big miss
for me, because I used to deal in wine. And I used to have
		

			the best malt whiskey, which I had to sell
		

			when I converted, and
		

			I missed that, because I never used abused it anyway. And I've never really understood why. But as a
Christian, Jesus turned wine, water into wine.
		

			And yet now,
		

			the Muslim faith says, No alcohol at all. That's right. You know, Islam looks.
		

			You know, moreover, that Allah, God wants us to preserve ourselves preserved our bodies to preserve
our minds, make sure that's not corrupted in any way, shape, or form. So, you know, the pork issue
is, you know, by avoiding that, we protect ourselves from any harm that may come in the form of
toxins or poisons and things like that. And also the alcoholic alcohol issue, as well as drugs, that
has an impact on us, in that we lose our minds. You know, when you know, when you lose your mind,
and we see how people behave, it's very important that we have
		

			a good character at all times. So for that reason, alcohol is one of the reasons why alcohol is
prohibited, because it causes us to, you know, to lose our minds and say things and do things which
are not befitting. Well, I've noticed since I've given it up completely, I mean, occasionally I miss
it. But otherwise, I've noticed how people are so dependent on it, you know, they can't have a good
time without alcohol, let's go out and have a drink. And then they snigger the thought of having a
drink and having a good time. And I've never understood the association to the two.
		

			And now I notice people
		

			are almost
		

			need a fix nine out of 10 crimes or wrongs or vices that happen. Alcohol is related to alcohol
related someone's what we call the mother of all evils. Alcohol is the mother of all evils, because
it causes so many harms, not only to the person directly, you know, it causes liver cirrhosis and
causes so many problems to the brain over an extended period of time, even though that the person
makes it well. I don't drink very much. I mean, even you know, latest advice from,
		

			you know, doctors and consultants is that the amount of units that any male should have from one
week has gone from 21. It's gone down to 14. Now, they've cut it down by a third. So they know the
harms of alcohol. They're aware of that. And it's a difficult culture to change within the wines
they used to
		

			sell. Yeah, the alcoholic content was up 11 12%. Now it goes up to 1415. But then they've increased
the alcoholic content. Yeah. Which I don't think he's necessarily it doesn't improve the flavor. It
just makes it more dangerous. That's right. That's right.
		

			But what about
		

			for medicinal purposes? Because you know, when you're cold to have a little whiskey a total whiskey
does warm you? Yeah. Things like that. I mean, if you want to warm yourself, you can have a cup of
tea,
		

			or a cup of coffee, if you want to warm yourself or a cup of cocoa. You don't have to go to that
extent if you're using five people, don't they? Sometimes when they're sort of
		

			suffering, they've had a shock? Yeah. And the little
		

			sip of something.
		

			They also say I'm a cup of tea, I mean,
		

			or something which that they feel as a form of, because alcohol itself, if you drink enough of it,
you'll forget yourself. Oh, and do you forget that problem temporarily. The problem doesn't go away,
maybe that the idea behind that is, is to have the alcohol to try to go on the way to forget the
problem or that you're not feeling that problem. Ultimately, you know, for medicinal purposes, or
even shock purposes, you've gone through a calamity. Turning to that what you know, what God is
prohibited is is something that we wouldn't, you know, you see, I've always didn't change. thought,
Well, I'd say always I've come to believe from various talks I've had with Christian people and
		

			teachers, that God gave us free will.
		

			And if you give us free will, then that's one thing but to take it away again by saying you've got
to do this because I don't trust you to be responsible. Sure.
		

			I find is a contradiction, but that's part of the free will. Because part of the free will is that
you have the choice at all times to do something or to leave it.
		

			So, the fact that that God gives us commandments or prohibitions, and says, This is what, this is
the choice I want you to make. I would like you to make this choice to do this, and abstain from
that, that is involved in your freewill. Now, your freewill is important can we have an
understanding of what we mean by free will, it's not absolute, in the sense that, on the one hand,
that you have complete, complete freewill, I, it's got nothing to do with God. Because we say
whatever you will, is God's will.
		

			And on the other hand, we would say that you don't, you're not forced to do everything that you've
got no choice over anything. So if a person commits a crime and says, Well, you know, this is God's
decree, I didn't have any choice in the matter, we don't accept that.
		

			So there's a middle ground, that you have a free choice, you're given these directions, you're given
this guidance, this is what God wants from you. So I have that free will to make that choice. You
know, when I'm driving a car, I abide by the speed limit. I could go faster if I wish. But these are
the rules that are set to see. So this is the notion was the understanding of having free will.
looks at it that way. Yeah.
		

			See, I
		

			I'm one of those irritating people, that's always sort of been a little reluctant to be told what to
do. Sure. Have this instinct of being? I suppose you call it libertarian? Yeah. And therefore, if
somebody tells you, you must do something, I have to know why. That's fair enough. And Islam?
		

			Because I'm asking, no, no, no, you know, as a Muslim, or as Muslims that will have no problem with
questions. If you know if you know, you know, issues about freewill, or issues about eating habits
or drinking habits, or, you know, the praying habits, why do you do this? Why do you do that? You
know, clothing habits. Why do women wear this? Why do women do that? Why don't we have no problem in
Islam and people asking questions. It's not just blind faith, but just simply do and don't. It's
very important we educate ourselves as to this is why we are Muslims. And this is why the why we do
the things that we do, you know, things about halal, a lot of misconceptions about, you know, just
		

			slaughtering animals, all animals are slaughtered. You know, how dare you slaughter animals in such
a manner? Not knowing that all animals are slaughtered in that it's just the media. And it's the
people who are ill informed or have ill intentions. Yeah, wanting to just divert the attention to
Islam or Muslims to say, You know what, these wrong practices, you know, people suddenly saying,
Well, I'm not gonna eat the burgers from that football stadium. Ever since I've converted, I've
noticed how people immediately put me on a particular category. Yeah.
		

			That's right. You know, they look at me. Yeah. I say, what is it? Because as white?
		

			We're not all we're not all black or brown, you know? Yeah.
		

			So when they say, Well, where are you from? So it was a very, very tiny place called England, yes.
		

			Where they do react.
		

			To them, it's always it's always a learning process.
		

			You're learning and you're, you're benefiting from and,
		

			you know, in terms of knowledge, no two days are the same. You always, you know, learning something
new. Whether this increases your faith and my age, I find that I'm learning more now than I've ever
done. And there's so much more to learn. Sure.
		

			And whatever sacrifices that a person may make, they don't feel as though that they're losing out on
anything, any sacrifice or anything that they you know, they have Stay, stay abstain from or stay
away from, they feel better for it. And they don't feel that there's a loss at any time. Because
there's always a substitute, which is better for you, and that you enjoy more. So, you know, Islam
is not about depriving yourself of anything. But rather Islam is, in one way, liberating yourself,
and letting yourself have or make the right choices, which are good for you, psychologically,
physically, emotionally, on every level. You know, being a Muslim,
		

			enables you to be happy, and all of these, all of these areas. So it's not as many people think that
you're being restricted, and it's just a doer. And don't religion is far more greater than that.
It's not as simplistic as to say that you just can't do this. And you can't do that. If that's what
people have restricted it to, then they haven't understood the true message. Well, I appreciate
that. It's, a lot of people have false assumptions about it. And of course, the press doesn't help
		

			in the way the the talk about it.
		

			But
		

			as I say, I'm learning more and more exactly the logic behind it. You're being very helpful and
explaining that for me. I'm sure that you know, your wife will educate you as you as you go on your
journey. This was about freewill. I've never looked at it the way you've described it before. Sure,
well, I mean, I guess we can relate on some level in that. It's something that we came into. It's
not something we were born into.
		

			So we our, our view of it might be a little bit different.
		

			If a person is born into something, they look at things in a particular way that they never knew
about certain things that it was never something they indulged in at any other time. So our
challenge is to be a little bit different in that Well, I used to do that now why can't I do that?
You see? So it's very important that we have answers for that. Well, I packed up smoking four and a
half years ago, before I even converted. Anyway, so there was one thing I never had to
		

			deal with.
		

			But the alcohol, I immediately stopped and say, with pork and bacon, and so on.
		

			And you'll feel so much better for it. Because you'll have control of all your assets.
		

			Everything that God has given to you, you have control of it. Yes. So there'll be no, there's not
No. Any regrets of the decisions that you're making?
		

			We're just a couple of minutes away now. Oh, well, just you know, before you just jump out, I wanted
to say to you that
		

			it's very important that whenever you have any questions that pop into your mind that you'd go ahead
and ask them. And it's very important also, that you ask the people who have the knowledge of that.
		

			Because sometimes you find people have opinions. And their opinions aren't necessarily based upon
		

			anything which is authentic, just from their own their own kind of notions, which may be incorrect.
So any questions that you have, I'd advise you to go to people have knowledge, who studied them, so
that they can give you the correct answers, so that you can be correctly informed. So if you if you
adhere to that advice, you know, asking the people in Lodge, if you've got any questions, you will
have taken a great step in any remaining steadfast when I found that a lot of brothers are prepared
to help me and explained to me, particularly those related to the mosque, personal dream, I find
that it's very helpful.
		

			And I go to when I'm not working, I try and go to the
		

			discovered Islam. sessions
		

			on a Sunday have been
		

			well, and I live local here so you never know what i might bump into you again.
		

			My name is was seen by the way where it's been very interesting. Thank you.
		

			I'll just drop you over here on the left hand side. All right.
		

			Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump,
		

			bump, bump, bump, bump,
		

			bump, bump, bada boom.