Tackling the Tough Questions

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and welcome back to this voice of Islam show, which is a well we're doing it twice a week actually, both on a Saturday if you're in the UK once at 10am and once 8pm Although we're slightly later than advertised So brothers and sisters, please forgive us for that Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam, ala Sula. We start by praising Allah and bestowing His peace and blessings upon the greatest man Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And today, our topic really is about frequently asked questions about the faith of Islam, about what Muslims believe about what they stand for, you know, and all of the different questions that we've had

thrown at us throughout the years, we need to be answering those in layman's terms, not with lots of Arab isms, and lots of schisms, that lots of simple, logical discussion. And fact, you know, giving as it were. So thank you very much for joining guys. This morning, all of you that joined the discussion about the COVID situation in Lebanon, and today is about the frequently asked question for the purpose of that. We've got her mid Thompson, all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, so I'm only gone. I can start with my car. Tim. Welcome, everyone.

Yes, thank you, Mohammed. Very early in the morning there. What time is it?

720. I am so humbled and it's not too early. Well, we had to start late because he was it was a bit too early for your compatriots and Mr. Philip dos. He doesn't like getting up too early as I remember when I was visiting there, not so long ago in March. And then the second guests we've got is almost like a piece of furniture now on the show is the theme khamsum from the UK. Salaam aleikum, WA reconsider what happened a lot of cattle

from the fields fresh from the farms today. You've been out there chasing sheep and cows, I understand.

Yeah, we done a bit of chasing, although there was only one cow. Right? It was it was quite awkward to get the Capital One cow in the shop. Right? Because

by the end, I think we tied the cow out. And he couldn't run it. It couldn't run anymore. So just sat down and stayed and stayed in the shop. So you got you've got the shops you needed, right? For

sure. We got we got the shop, meaning we got the film completed, we didn't actually share the bell, right, just in case.

Well, we've got a I've always find these Facebook names incredibly difficult. But mais, BB BF buddy, if I won't even try the other two names. That said, I want to prove to you three wonderful brothers. I won't even try those names. They look vaguely turkey, turkey Stanny. Or it could be Russian or something like that. Anyway,

what we're going to be doing topical talk, tackling some difficult questions or not difficult questions and frequently asked questions. Sheikh Wassim. So shall we pick out? Yeah, just at random? Or shall I just go through a list?

I think it's important to whatever questions you do choose. And it's important for everybody to know

what we're going to be doing today, we're doing FAQs, right, like frequently asked questions about Islam. And we want to kind of oversimplified the answers. Because he was because there is a lot of misinformation there, out there about Islam. And there's also a lot of good information about Islam. But it's sometimes quite complicated to understand. So what we're going to try and do is try and keep it as simple as possible. Yeah, and less of the Arabic definitions. Well, Arabic, should I say definitions? Yes. So the first question that I'm going to throw at our, you know, our audience there and throw out you as well. Is the sheikh we're seeing mostly he's going to be new answering mostly.

What's the difference between the word Islam and or Islamic, and Muslim, and Arabic or Arab? So a lot of people refer to the, you know, the Islam Muslims, or just being those Arabs, or, you know, Muslim. So let's define Islam, and Muslims, first of all.

So, Islam

has

a general meaning, and a specific meaning. And I don't want to start getting all technical, but it's good for us to understand because this will answer so many other questions. So Islam

From

a very general perspective, from what we understand is the religion that was given to all of the profits, from the time of Adam peace be upon him all the way to and finality of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. That's Islam and its general term, and that is to command and teach their people, okay the various nations to teach their people to worship and recognize one God, not to associate any partners with him. Okay? This is in general terms, since the same religion, of all the pain of all the Prophets and Messengers.

Now, Islam with a kind of specific meaning, does that differ? No, it doesn't differ. It just means it's the name of the religion that was given to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

So he was giving the revelation of the Quran. So the religion that was given to

the Prophet Muhammad was an Islam. So depending on what context you're talking about,

it has a general meaning and a specific meaning. Okay, so we believe that all prophets and messengers, they will all all follow the religion of Islam, and others to worship one God Almighty, and not to associate any partners with him at all. Some people think that the when they hear the definition, some people refer to it as Islam as to submit, and, you know, you're in the situation of slavery, and they have very negative connotations of that. And they say, oh, no, I'm not a slave. Why should I submit? I don't even submit to my boss at work. I mean, yeah, true. And is that something which is a valid type of? Response?

Yeah. So

you're right, we can add also to the definition and understanding of Islam leads to surrenders to submit, to recognize yourself as a servant and slave to God Almighty to Allah subhanaw taala, the most high. And that means that you, He commands, God commands and you obey those commands. Therefore, in that sense, you're, you're a servant to the One who created you. Now, absolutely, we do not compare

the awful slavery that took place between

some of the Western countries that happened over the centuries have passed, this has no, you know, maybe the same word is used. But the reality is completely two different realities. So we don't compare the two and the person may feel a little bit upset and inhibited to say, you know, I don't want to call myself a servant or a slave, because that reminds me of being lonely. And that reminds me of being a lot having my own choices, or my, which I can accept, I can understand that. But as a Muslim, as one who follows the commandments of God Almighty, and we stay away from the prohibitions. In that essence, there is no greater station, there is no greater standing, than a person being a

servant of God. Because ultimately, every single human being will follow something or somebody. And so therefore, you know, person says, I'm free, I make my own decisions, and you're gonna be influenced by something. So you're following somebody, you're following your way of life, you're, you're submitting to something. So for us as Muslims, we simply submit and surrender to God Almighty. Be interesting, though, wouldn't it? We see him and Mohammed Thompson, I don't know if the laws are different. But in New Zealand,

that if we were all to start driving on the other side of the road that we used to do we drive on the west side of the road, do we drive on left side of the road? Do we? Yeah. Yes. I'm just checking because I spend a lot of time driving, which is the other side. If we're all suddenly drive on the opposite side of the road, we used to, what would the world turn out to be like?

chaos? Chaos, right? Because nobody's gonna have some rules in life, I guess. And that means that we are perpetually in the situation of slavery, in the sense that if we we have to be slaves to the law, we have to be slaves to, you know, a certain amount that of course, the word slavery with a small s. Okay. So, yes, so, but what is the difference between Islamic or Islam? And the I mean, oftentimes people think that Arab and Muslim are go hand in hand, don't they?

You think that all Muslims are Arabs? Yeah. We disagree with that point. Definitely. Probably. Yeah. Three of us. Yeah, we did.

So I mean, the vast majority of Muslims on Earth are not Arab, by the way,

in Islamic history.

So many of the Great's

Allah's nslm are non Arabs.

I mean, the one of the best examples you can give

is the most famous and authentic book of traditions and statements and narrations of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is Imam Al Bukhari, who is obviously from Uzbekistan.

So the reason that the vast majority of the Muslim world is is non Arab, you know, the highest the largest populated Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, which has more than 100 million Muslims,

Pakistan and Bangladesh.

So is it more in Indonesia?

200 million, I think.

Yeah, sorry. So

the Arabs are very much the minority. I think Arabs around 10% Ran 10% of almost Wow, very peace be upon him was an aerobic condition that was tougher says Bokhari was not an Arab. Well done. Yes, absolutely. Other misafir I think we give him one point. If this is competition, he gets a point. I'm black. One point is Well done, Brother.

So Muhammad Thompson, of course, is natively probably a Celts originally, but then he was in of course you Australia. Okay. And then we're seeing khamsum

Definitely very English, I'd say. What do you say? Are you very?

I'm 55%. Irish. Where we are

14 English? Oh, you've done a DNA test. 41% English, Swedish. Oh, that was tough has come back is that Ibn Sina was not an Arab, either. hamdulillah so great names, you know, in terms of science, scholarship, mathematics, science progression, so on and so forth. But not all of them. So, okay, so you say that means that you can be a Muslim? Regardless of where you live and who you are. Am I right? Is that right? 100% 100%. Okay, yeah, that clears that up just in case anybody wants to take shahada with us tonight they're watching will reaffirm their shahada, and they can do that as well. So we'll talk about shahada what it means actually, okay, because a lot of you are getting very

confused, and I just contradicted myself. I said we wouldn't use lots of Arab isms in this program. I do apologize. So what does Islam teach? Let's go into what Islam teaches. Let's ask we're seeing Clemson first and then Muhammad Thompson.

What do you think that overall mean? If you had to explain it, to a layman who had major problems with it's got massive media bias against Islam against Mohamed Salah peace and blessings be upon him? He's really bad things and seem bad things that Muslims have done? Yeah. Would you say to him? Yeah, what I would say I mean, a lot of the misconceptions that most are non Muslims have regarding Islam, when it's hijab, you know, the woman covering and the men and wearing beards and praying five times a day, all of these things are going back to one central issue. And that is why Muslims do that. And Muslims, they do these things, because they are they submit to the commandments and the

will of God Almighty, Allah subhanho wa taala. Okay, no, most Hi. So this is what this is a concept in Islam, which is called the oneness. And the uniqueness of God Almighty itself, eat the Oneness of Allah subhanaw taala, the most. So we recognize him as the one who commands, prohibits guides, helps, protects all of these things. So therefore, the core message in Islam, and this is the message of all the prophets and messengers, by the way, that it was the same message that you find with Jesus, and Moses and Abraham, peace be upon them all. They all commanded their people to go and worship God Almighty. And there was not that we, you know, we want to or have to use

statements from from other religions. But there are many statements in the Bible, for example, for Christians, where

the people would come to Jesus in what they understand, and Jason would tell them, Don't call upon me call upon the Father. And Islam is exactly the same. This is an Islamic teaching, the call upon Allah, God Almighty. He is the one who's going to help you. So this is the core issue. And then from that, of course, stems the other things, the central belief that

which is the oneness of God Almighty. And then we have things that come after that, believe in angels and books, messengers, and so on and so forth. So the core issue is the the pure belief in worshiping God Almighty alone.

Fantastic, thank you very much for that we're seeing that's, I think, cleared that one up. So that isn't that difficult for people to do is it? Most people, I still think in the Western Hemisphere, believe in something. They might be agnostics, not atheists, but agnostics. Meaning they're not really sure about the nature of God,

who God is, but they know that something created the world. So the idea of as long as one is able to pretty much give the convincing arguments that the God indeed exists and created this universe, then the next stage would be to, to accept God and to follow and to worship His commandments, right?

Most definitely. So you after you accept that God Almighty is the one who you recognize as your Lord, your Creator, your Sustainer, your protector, all of this, then in turn, you follow His guidance that he gave to you. The guidance that you came, he sent with the messengers and Islam from this perspective is very logical. So you recognized as a creator, there, you recognized that there was a god. Okay, so then how do we connect? And how do we understand? So he chooses men from Earth, the special people, special individuals, who receive a revelation, who received the word of God, to them convey that to the people, people don't just make their own decisions, and everyone's praying

in different directions. Some people are dancing, some people are sleeping. No, this is what you find in Islam, people pray together, we pray in the same direction. This brings about a unity. And this is one of the unique and beautiful things in Islam is that not only is it just an individual relationship you have with God Almighty, but it brings about social cohesion, and bringing people together because we have, you know, 7 billion of us on earth how do we interact and live with one another. So there are certain things which are in place that help us kind of come together

and the best way so we pray together and we fast together and we make the pilgrimage together and things like

Muhammad just want to add in I just want to add something near with with the current situation where a lot of places went into lockdown for Muslims it didn't affect us or it affect us because we couldn't go the mosque where we'd love to go and pray in a mosque but because we can pray anywhere in a clean place so praying at home during the Ramadan we're doing Ramadan at home and tada we're and things like that. So it's not like some places where the place of worship is a church or something like that. We have the ability where we can pray anywhere even if we're out and about turning around or something like this. You know, we have the you know, as long as we can get the

right direction inshallah we can pray. So, this is where there's a lot of

the things made simple for us, that there's no excuse really to say, oh, we can't pray because there's no, no building in where we are at the moment. We don't need one we could we're outside and it's you know, whether it's clean, we can just pray for inside at home, or, you know, in a hotel or something like this. As we're touring around, we can do that.

Yes, so the very simplistic idea, pray anywhere the whole world is indeed made a place of frustration for us, or a place of remembered someplace that we can remember Almighty God apart from the toilets, of course, we don't go around in toilets and start to worshiping God that wouldn't be very befitting of His Majesty, the creator of all the heavens in the universe. Others Why should a person though a human being, you know, Joe Bloggs John who lives in Liverpool? Why should he become a Muslim? By I mean, what benefits is there for him becoming Muslim? Because you know, you can just he's a good person anyway, John in Liverpool, by all accounts a very good person, loyalty, his

family, good to his neighbors always prompt at work. Why should he become a Muslim? Do you think?

You know,

becoming a muslim

means that from one perspective that you have found purpose in life, yep, you found purpose. Because in Islam, it gives you purpose it gives you direction is given your Allah has given you guidance. So no matter what person you find on Earth, they have fun

Doing something whether they recognize this as a path that they're actually, you know, consciously following or not, nonetheless, they are following something. So as as Muslim, so why should I follow Islam? Islam means and understands that or rather, we understand that Islam is the ultimate understanding of you recognizing the purpose, why you were placed here. And this is something that Allah gives us answers to in the Quran,

you know, that I didn't create mankind, I didn't create anything like the jinn and things like that, except to worship me. So this is why you were created. This is the purpose. And the reason that you are placed on Earth, is to follow the guidance to God Almighty. Now, if I just want to just relate this to something a little earlier, when you start saying to somebody, or you're a slave, you recognize yourself as a slave. And so a person might find that difficult to swallow,

I can understand that. So therefore, in the dialogue that goes between people, if a person wants to refrain from terminology like that, at the beginning, I don't have a problem. A person says, Don't be calling me a slave to nobody. I, you know, I don't want to be a servant of nobody. That's okay at the beginning of the dialogue when a person is searching for something. But ultimately, when you're going through the conversation, and you recognize who your Lord is, then you will recognize your own position naturally. And it won't be something that is difficult to, to swallow as it were. Okay. So why should you accept Islam? Well, it means that you have found you found the ultimate purpose in

life and anything else is a type of a purpose of toolset that will take you away from the original and only goal or only reason that you were created.

Is there a then an indication that all of us have been created with in our DNA? Because he talked about DNA didn't be around 55%? Irish?

I'm definitely a bit French and a bit Irish and probably other maybe, originally. My ancestors were Muslims. We don't know. But of course, they were because Adam, I believe was a Muslim. So we can talk about that later on. But is there something in our DNA which we share, which tells us Islam,

demystify the word Islam to? To submit? Yes, or to give in to the higher power? That tells us that all of us do that. And we need to do that. And are there any indications the guys that you can think of, which definitely sort of

prove that

there's a concept of fitrah in Islam fit for that means an innate natural state, that every human being is created. And as we know, as Muslims, we accept and recognize that God, He created everybody and created everybody in a state that will naturally okay if it is not

tampered with it is not corrupted in other ways of life and whatnot, then a person if they go through, and work and find Islam, and so many people I've come to come across that when they see the teachings of Islam, they find it such a natural way of life. Yeah, because that person's natural, if we call it that the word is fit right in Arabic.

But if you want to, if you like,

put in English, it's like a natural,

the original state that mankind was, was created in and that's to recognize God Almighty, if that's not been corrupted, when a person comes across Islam, they will find it a natural way of life.

And this is what the Prophet peace be upon him told us, but every mole or every newborn child is born in this state, except that his parents will then giving other teachings that will take that person to take another puff, which will tell them to worship the creation or to tell them to be little God Almighty, where Islam if you follow that path is a natural way to recognize your Creator and to worship Him alone. Of course, the discussion is very long, but just to answer quickly, these are some of the main points yeah.

Muhammad Thompson Do you want to add to that?

I was just gonna say yes to the fitrah the natural disposition of were born on but and then it's those who are got something they have some of that still as they're growing up or different various ages, like, reflecting on my time, you saw always wondering, is this something else? So I was brought up as Catholic, but there's some things that would didn't quite sit right with me. So then you

started searching around and then handler,

after looking at various different ways of doing things, or life, or one might call it religion and things like that, you know, found Islam and found that did, like you said, it was a natural way to do this, this is this is what seems to be the best and right way, and then follow up and alone. And I don't mind being a slave to that. I don't like being a, say, a slave to the, you know, the government or things like this, but with, you know, being a slave to the Creator, then I know that, you know, I submit to that sinking low, I don't, I believe I don't have any control, or I don't whatever other wills, that's going to happen. And once you sort of get into that understanding, then

you can live a nice peaceful life.

Okay. Okay. Nice. Nice. Do you want to add something? Again? We'll see.

No, no, that was what I was looking for natural disposition, or collateralization. natural disposition. So so every child, according to this, then the Islamic understanding is that every child is born into a state of natural disposition to knowing why they were born. And they all have a say they have their DNA says, Your natural disposition is to worship the one that created you. Right? So then that means that every child, technically, is he or she in there, then not a Muslim?

No, not necessarily No.

Because to become a Muslim, or to enter into Islam,

then you have to follow the guidance of that.

And while a child while a small baby, that trial is not accountable, and does not fit to make those, those decisions. But the beauty of that, is that while they're in this very kind of early stage in their lives, is that yes, number one, that they're not accountable for their deeds, they don't have any sins.

They don't need to be some, you know, they need to be baptized to remove the sin. No, no, every single human being is born in a state of purity.

And only then later on when they make when they reach, they reach the age of puberty or something like that make it a conscious decision in that continuity, to follow Islam. Because that fitrah, that natural disposition has been preserved, it has been protected, so that when the teachings of Islam gradually kind of given to them by the family members, or whoever's looking after them, it's something that they just continue through. But this doesn't mean obviously, that person made this and what if they are, if they're not Muslim? Do they need to make the testimony of faith at a certain age? Because maybe this is a question that's being asked, no, it's not, your child doesn't

need to,

you know, make a testify, justify their faith to say yes, now I'm a Muslim? No, because it's a continuation of that pure kind of journey that they went through.

So we don't call them in that sense that they are Muslims, but they're in a state of natural disposition, which is a pure state. That's what we can say.

Okay, that's interesting, it's a good way of putting it. So that actually because they're not Council accountable, that actually the the whole issue of accountability starts during puberty or beyond puberty when people can make conscious decisions now. So what age do you think that is? Because I mean, does it not vary quite substantially, depending on which part of the world you're in?

Yeah, I mean, it's not a fixed age,

you do find that

you're reaching the age of puberty or becoming aware, or becoming accountable according to the law, whatever law you're following, does differ around the world and people's, even through errors. You know, I mean,

not that it's necessarily a good thing, but that there are certain children

who are in poor countries, for example.

They're working, and they're looking after, you know, maybe their siblings and looking after other people at the age of eight or nine or 10 years old. We because of, you know, they've been orphaned or something like that living is in desperate situation. But they had gained the ability those skills to to fend for themselves. And in some Western countries, and eight, or nine or 10 people to kind of childhood we completely lost.

So the kind of speed of development will will differ around the world from an Islamic perspective. It's not a fixed age.

It's based upon on the physical

ranges that occur in that person, and as I mentioned will happen at different ages. So very simple one for a for a woman for a female is, is one once her monthly cycle starts. And you know, that could be at the age of 13, it can range of less than a difference, it is a physical kind of change, that will kind of then determine that that person now is

at the age of being taken to account for their own kind of their deeds. So this is how it works in an Islamic perspective.

Okay, good. So the next question is, what are the foundational sources of Islam or of the Islamic faith? The foundational sources so that you know that people should be able to access those who are watching this show? Maybe they want to learn more? What are the foundational sources of good a lot of people are picking Islam out of shake Google is a very famous shake will shake Google.

And he, he seems to know a lot, but he seems to also confuse a lot of people. What are the facilites? Who should we should we take Islam from Google? Or where we should? Where should we take Islam from?

Well, quite simply, in Islam, we have two sources or primary sources of

where we get our revelation from. And that is the the Word of God, the Word of Allah, which is the Quran, which is the preserved Word of God Almighty, which we have with us to this day. And we also have the traditions and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him because we believe also

that the Prophet Muhammad peace be on and was divinely inspired, in, in the things that he spoke about with regards to the religion.

So these are the two primary sources for us in

where we get our guidance from and this, this is something which even some modern day Muslims are confused about. Because they say, in the Quran, what would the piece of advice you're talking about as well? Actually, no, the advice isn't in the Quran isn't in the Quran. But the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him specifically spoke about this issue that well, well, if it's not in the Quran, I'm not sure.

So this is unfortunately, even some confusion with some Muslims with regards to the sources of revelation for us. So it's quite clear for us, and this is something you can go to the Quran, it's not something hidden.

You have to go to special people to find out, you know, where'd you get this information from? It's quite clear for us is the Quran and the narrations and traditions of the Prophet peace be upon him?

Peace and blessings be upon him? Yes. So that's fantastic. So Quran, the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad are the is the answer. And

so so is the next question is, but it's written in Arabic, isn't it? So how would a person access that? And why is it? Why is it been preserved?

In Arabic? I think this is probably a question for a later show, because we need to talk specifically about the Quran.

But so let's move on to another question. Because then that becomes very loaded.

If we don't have the information about what the Quran is and how it was revealed, so, okay, so the next question somebody's asked is, why do some people suffer so much in this life? Especially what appears to be the innocent, as such as children?

This is really a good question which a lot of people actually

state as their claim as to why they do not believe in a creator. Because they say that human beings shouldn't suffer, God should not create suffering, you know, if he, why is this all loving God because of course, the Christians refer to God is all loving, all loving father. You know, this is what we used to say, back in the day. And,

you know, if it's all something's all loving, why would it create suffering? Why would it allow such disparities in wealth and such killing and terrible, you know, things that you see around you. So this this is a question which is, quite quite often asked of me.

And it's a good question. I mean, I

There are times when a person of faith when they when they face a trial.

Part of that test is how strong and how patient you will remain during that trial. Now, certain questions may come to you, why me? I'm a good person. Why did it you know, I work hard. You know, I give charity, I don't harm anybody. I don't feed, steal or cheat. So, so, so why me? Why does and there are many people like this innocent children,

innocent women, innocent men are going around the world, there's earthquakes, there's volcanoes, there's, there's wars?

I think I mean, this

is a good question. And sometimes when the person the questioner has a particular perspective on where they're coming from, and sometimes giving a generic answer, which maybe I'll may give just a generic answer, because how, you know, how deep and how long? Can we speak about these things? Yeah, yeah. But you know, from a Muslim perspective that, you know, in this world, we believe that we will, every single human being will have a time on this earth. And then, because this is just one stage of our existence, as Muslims, this is just one stage of our existence, this isn't, this is an effort, isn't it? This is not the end game for us. We have existence after life. And then that kind

of splits into two if you like, there's the life of a grave. And then when everybody's raised up resurrected, then there's an accounting.

So to have an accounting, to have a judgment, meaning that the certain decisions were made prior to that, that were right or wrong.

Now, who made those decisions? Does God Almighty create us all, and then compel us and force us to do actions? This is kind of kind of sub questions that really need to be answered as well. And if

I have some, some have a free will, I can, you know, I can pick up these headphones. And then he earphones, I can put them down again, I can pick up the glass and I can put it down again. But my worry is, is what is what was what goodwill is the same. Okay, I didn't do something outside of the will of God Almighty. Now, when a person does good, that was their choice to do good. When that person does evil, that was the individuals that persons blamed for the evil.

So do we blame God? For for everything? We don't blame God. For for what happens? Yes. God Almighty, yes, Allah is the One who created everything, nothing occurs and nothing happens on Earth except by His permission. We have to read

some of these

individuals, people with regards to their for the good and the bad that I do, there's a judgment for that. Okay. So this is for there will be bad people.

About you know, an evil person murders another person. Okay. What was the sin of that person who was killed? Well, there may not have been no sitting. I mean, we don't know the background, this is the thing. You when you hear news about an individual is killed, we don't know anything about that person. What happened, you know, there prior to their them coming in the news and whatnot, were they a good person with a bad person, there's so many things to take take into consideration. And, ultimately, it's not for us to judge these situations, things happen. But we are what we ultimately we know that complete and ultimate justice will always occur in the hereafter.

Not nothing happens now. And the person just gets away with it. Everything will have its time.

And this is what says Muslim gives us some form of, you know, understanding and solace and understanding that whatever happens on Earth, whether you like it or not, there are certain things which you may not like, but you may not understand as well.

You understand the reality of how things happen and why things happen. But I know that under their judgement, when there's a reckoning there's a resurrection of God Almighty will give complete justice to absolutely everything and everyone, even to the extent that an example was given around the sheep that are pressed another sheep with his horns and the other one didn't have one. There will be retribution.

And the justice between those two animals to that extent. So this is, you know, the discussion as long I don't want to go too long, because we have many questions, but these are the kinds of things that is one question stimulates another question, which needs another answer. Yeah, but this is the kind of thing and the direction that we go in. Yeah, but this is actually

You know, the these type of topics that come up all the time, and even

born Muslims are now leaving the faith of Islam because they haven't really discussed these things. You know, we have called since originally we started the show talking about reverts, but it's about born Muslims, it's about people who are not yet Muslims, people haven't testified to Islam in have that witnessed. Because many, many of them may believe that Islam is the correct way of life, right. But they simply haven't had these logical,

informative discussions. So that's what these programs designed to do, is to talk about this situation, you know, to talk about Islam from a very rational and

very calm sort of labored, you know, discussion, point by point, so that people can see, does this accord with their life does this accord with what they feel and what they've witnessed around about this, you know, human race on this planet? You know.

So I think one of the points that we should also make, isn't it, Muhammad Thompson probably can reflect on that

is the fact that

if there's going to be if there's, there's, you know, you can't have evil, in sorry, you can't have good without evil, there's got to be good and evil together. It can't just be good, because good would not be good if it wasn't for evil. So it's the law of opposites as well, you know, you can't have a one sided coin, it's got to have two sides, it's got a heads or tail, or one or two, are good and bad. You know. So one should reflect upon that as a logical thing. Number two, I think, is it not the case we're seeing and Sheikh Mohammed, that,

that in this world, very much,

you know, we are judged as good and bad.

You know, I use the good students know, he was a very bad student, he was good at sports. No, he was incredibly bad at sports, you know. So there was always this judgment issue. And there's also punishment for crime,

in our society, with punishment, and there's reward for doing good. So straight away, we can see in our human existence, this this, this is normal, it's expected that there will be good and bad and evil and extremely evil and extreme good, and that they will either punishment or they will be reward. Am I right?

Yes, yes, you are. Right. And, sorry, I saw brother were seen just about to jump in my throat, I just get in for you.

We are because we he said there's always were judged, but generally, a lot of cases, you hear sometimes later on, that the justice is not there. And that's the difference in this world is not true justice, because it's done by human, you know, human intervention and things like that. And, and some part of it could be because of racial issues, some people are mistreated, you know, on that sort of grounds bit more, they don't get fair trials and things like that. So, as Muslims, we believe that the true justice is comes judgment day. So whatever good and bad happens in this world. You know, those you sort of seem may get away with things which are, you know, we seem as atrocities

and things like that, and they don't get through justice, but we believe, and that's what keeps us going that true justice will come in, in the Judgement Day, when we all meet our Creator, and we're accountable, all our deeds will be shown out good and bad. And then we'll see what we're going to get in Sharla. So, on that note,

it's worth addressing that that

I mean, what are the respective rewards and punishments. So for example, you live your life as a believer.

And you follow these two prescribed bodies of work the Quran, and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him,

which according to the teachings with all the other prophets, that were sent to mankind, to remind them, what are the maybe we could discuss what are the respective rewards

and perhaps punishments as well we should discuss for doing that or not doing that as the case may be.

What was the Muslim the ultimate reward we believe in is

Paradise heaven

following that the correct correct way and things like that, but none of that is guaranteed. This is what we believe that if we do things, right, and we believe in God Almighty is the most just, you know, he has 99 names attributable to him. And, you know, a lot of those have to do with the justice and, and how, you know, forgiving and things like that. And we believe that he's going to be forgiving, and all our things, the good things, we do gain a lot more points if we're going to look on point system than the bad things because sometimes the bad things are overcome, and we can easily get a lot of those bad things. What do I do just by going back to God and say, Look, God, You

created me, you know, I'm weak. Please forgive me for my things. So by making, asking forgiveness, then a lot of our, you know, things we've done wrong can be wiped away. But we're always trying to better ourselves and do good. And ultimately, if we fail, then we might end up in the hellfire. You know, so, in Islam, we believe in heaven and hell.

And ultimately, the Muslim believes that if they do the good things follow the correct way, then God willing, they'll attain heaven, which is in its forever

the ultimate place to be because it's just nothing like we understand on this earth.

Okay, thank you, Mohammed Thompson, from New Zealand.

Mohammed, sorry, we'll see.

Do you want to add to that?

Michelle is is pretty much said.

Mashallah, you have pretty much but so, so why would

I mean, if a person

hasn't had that message delivered to them, that Islam is the HAC. The truth, Islam is the truth, that the Quran is the Last Testament to mankind.

That the teachings of this great man, Mohammed ibn Abdullah, the son of Abdullah lived 1400 years ago, was the final teacher sent to mankind, if he hasn't really had that message, and no Muslim. With a waiting gold has actually tried to reach out to them. What what do you think their status is, then?

This is something which a lot of people are asking, you know, yeah. So something we should address.

So, you know, part of our belief and understanding with regards to go to MIT is that there is complete justice and fairness to every single living being, no living being will be treated unfairly, no one will be left at the back of the queue that we don't have any more time, then you're swept off to one place. No, every single person individual creation, everything is giving their absolute fairness and justice. Now, as for those people, and there may be those people, no doubt that the, you know, a kind of a common example is given that those people who lived in the jungle and the middle of nowhere, and that the message of Islam never reached to those people. Okay?

What will happen to them? Because they never followed the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. They never followed the Quran. Because they didn't simply know about it. Are they going to be thrown into hellfire? Well, in the hereafter? Do we believe that the individual or individuals that maybe 1000s often do we believe that they will be treated unfairly by God Almighty? Absolutely not. They will have their own test. They will have their own test. And then if they pass that test, just as we had this test of this life, if they have that test, and they pass that test, there's nothing stopping them from being fooled the people of paradise to go to heaven. Okay. Now, this question now extends

to not those people living in extreme circumstances or extreme scenarios where they're not living in the jungle, right? We're not living in the Amazon forest. What about people who are living in the West? And those people, you know, the message, the true message of Islam has been distorted. Okay.

The vast majority of people really didn't get to hear about Islam. Now.

We don't comment when a person passes away. It's not for us to comment that individual, they're going to hellfire. When I speak like that. Likewise, we don't say that person they're going to paradise. Okay. But what Allah does tell us in the Quran, is that by description, the only the believers, okay, and those who will good and have those beautiful characteristics, they go to the go to the Paradise and the disbelievers those who are the hypocrites, and those who rejected Islam.

They will go to the hellfire. This is what Allah tells us in the Quran and that's categorical. That's clear. Now applying that to individuals, okay? Is it's not for us.

We're not saying that a person who, who goes, who follows other than Islam clearly and dies other than SLM key to their dying moment, okay? And then we say, well, we don't know where they're going. Okay? Well, we can say is that if a person dies in a state of disbelief that Allah tells us, okay, that they go to the hellfire, but we don't mention them by name.

Now, it's impossible almost, for us to pass judgment on all these people around the world, living in Western countries that yeah, the message of Islam has been distorted. And though they all have an excuse, and that they will have their own test,

because upon them, there is the responsibility upon them as well, that they heard about Islam. Did they investigate about the true message of Islam? Or did they just accept what other people said to them? So there was that responsibility on them as well. Okay. The last discussion can become quite complicated. And we don't want to get to a situation where sometimes that then said that we don't, you know, say, basically, nobody's going to hellfire nowadays, because, you know, the message of Islam has been so distorted. It's not fair for us to say that. Well, that's not that's not as an extreme, we don't say things like that, okay. But there may be individuals where, yes, the message

didn't reach them, and there will be tested

in the Hereafter. And they will be treated with, you know, your justice and fairness. Yeah, can I just add something here as well.

We're talking about people in the West and those sort of places. There, there is a big responsibility on us as Muslims, to be the example of Islam in the practice and following and things like that, not to say we're not saying we all have to get up and do speeches and give talks and things like that. It's just in our everyday actions. And if it's, the Muslims aren't following something, and, and then non Muslims see this and say, well, thanks Islam, I don't want to I don't want to borrow that, then. Then the Muslims themselves are going to be held accountable for for that what they're doing,

or not doing. And that's a big responsibility on us like, Muslims, aren't they're not their responsibility is not to convert people or

convince people to become Muslims, our responsibility is like the postman, we deliver a message. And it has to be in the best possible way. That message could be just by our actions, our dealings and things like that, or, you know, we've got work people, colleagues and things like that, we can just talk to him about it, and things like that, and just show him what Islam is. And then it's up to them to accept or not accepted. And also, like, we talked about this time now is spread to all corners, the earth, I believe New Zealand has the most southern mosque in the world now. And, you know, one of the most further is places away from where Islam originally began. So, you know, it's a

proof of Islam zwei, it's spreading around the world. But in that those who are Muslims, I'm talking about New Zealand and everywhere else, we have to be the best examples, we have to be

showing what Islam is, and I believe, humbler, I'm very happy to be live in New Zealand. You know, after some recent events, the Muslims did show, generally that

a very good account of how Muslims act, and how Muslims should act and do things and we pray that we can all become better. But you know,

I think New Zealand is, you know, a lot of Muslims in New Zealand have been doing that in a very good way.

Great, well, that's that's very comprehensive answer for the army. Thompson, thank you very much for that. And of course, there's accountability. But there's also fairness and justice and God will meet every individual according to my answers that I'm receiving hear from we see him and brother Muhammad, and deal with them with added with justice with goodness and with with with fair judgment, not like the judgment that, as you said, Mohammed Thompson that we receive in this world, oftentimes, it's very skewed, or it's not justice at all, it's It's injustice is injustice. SubhanAllah. So, the next sort of

real issue that we you know, we're facing now.

What do Muslims really understand about Satan? Satan, something. I don't know whether you know, when I was growing up as a kid we used to discuss Satan the devil,

or as the Arabs refer to them shape on a lot. What role does

the devil play for Muslims?

But as well was, yeah, yeah. So

in the Quran from the very beginning of creation, when, when Allah created Adam,

and commanded the angels to prostrate

to Adam, there was one of the creation, whose was known as a bliss,

which is the devil, the Satan, and he refused.

And his argument was that he was, he was better,

he was better than Adam, peace be upon him. And they refuse to do that. So, he was cost out of the of the, of the paradise at that time, and then placed on us. And then he would

live a he called upon Allah to allow him respite, and that he wanted to.

And this is of course, the plan of the plan of Allah, that he was going to misguide mankind. So he was given that role, this one particular devil bliss. And then, as we know that there are other creative other creations that live with us on this earth, and they are called jinn. And they were a hidden kind of creation. And those who, who disobey Allah do follows them, the may cause mischief and harm to the believers and other people.

And also we have, as the Prophet peace be upon him told us that every, every one of us has occurred in has a devil with us, that will whisper to us to disobey until you know, in general, be a bad person. So we believe in the existence of Satan.

But to counter that, we have, of course, the Lord of the Worlds God Almighty to call upon and help us and also, that Allah will also send angels to help us.

So this is the general concept.

Okay, good. Can I just add something, something there from my understanding is

a big difference between

Prophet O'Malley Sivan and the Satan is they both did wrong. But the difference was the arrogance of Satan was he couldn't seek forgiveness or ask to be forgiven, were profit out of malice, then he did. He repented for his error of ways. And that's where, you know, because God is so forgiving. He then had forgiven Adam. And then at least, but the Satan was not didn't help because of the arrogance. He just couldn't bring himself to

us that forgiveness. Is that correct? Check with him. Yes, very good. Question.

That's fantastic. So I kind of we reached the, towards the end of the show.

For this section, unless you guys want to say anything else? I think we've answered quite a few questions that about the foundations of Islam, what is what Islam really means, linguistically? How its practiced, what's the reward for Islam? We talked about the devil itself and the role of the devil. And we talked about the foundational sources, the Quran and the Sunnah, or the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed, the last messenger, this investing fear from him and all the prophets. We've talked about the, the idea of, you know, evil, you know, evil, you know, why should God create the opportunity for evil? We've talked about that, and given an answer to that says, We're quite an

interesting show.

So we're going to be doing this every week. Okay, so we're going to be talking about rationally answering frequently asked questions from our friends who are Muslim and not yet Muslim, because a lot of them are asking all over the world. What are the questions? What is Islam? What does it mean? What does it mean to worship and what does it mean to to accept it and to live by it? We've had lots and lots of comments, on Facebook, on YouTube all over the place and a lot of what all of their brothers and sisters we've just seen Salma Abdul Razak is back and she's enjoying the show. She said mashallah brothers, thank you for spreading awareness. We've got lots and lots of other brothers and

sisters. Some of them went off and prayed and then came back. So they were enjoying the show so much, because fun, fundamentally, Islam shaped was seen is a very simple, simple thing. I often thought when I was looking into religion, some nearly 30 nearly

He 2530 28 years ago, before embrace Islam, even before that 30 years ago, and I came across, you know, Buddhism, and I asked the guy, what is the, you know, what is the purpose of life and who was God? And then they said, subhanAllah, they answered.

After thinking for a long time, they answered, to contemplate the supreme nothingness.

So the answer to me then, when I went away and reflected on this, and they gave me a book to read about it, the essential sources, it didn't accord with me at all.

It didn't make sense to me. And it was very complicated to understand. So right away, I knew there was something wrong with it, I left it, but I still sat with the Buddhist and I did Buddhist meditation and so on, so forth. So it has to be has to be a chord has to make sense, has to be logical, has to be quite conclusive, and very simple. SubhanAllah. So brothers and sisters, we've reached the end of the show. On that note, we're going to be joining you guys again with check Waseem, Muhammad Thompson and myself on the voice of Islam platform again, next week at 10. Sorry, 8pm. UK time. That is around 7am. Very unearthly hour in New Zealand's Subhan Allah and brother

Muhammad Thompson. You better get ready for next week right now. Well,

thank you very much for joining us, brothers and sisters. hope that's been useful. Share the video, if you find it useful yourself, share it to your fellow brothers and sisters who are not Muslim, and those who are a bit confused about Islam. And many of us go through difficulties and, you know, you know, we go through moments of doubts, so on and so forth. This type of discussion is useful for them in order that they can understand the pure, simple message of fitrah of Islam and ask Allah subhanaw taala accept all of this righteous work, and to put us on the Serato Mr. Hakim, the straight up until next week and said I'm Ali come rahmatullahi wa barakato.