Can Islam Still Work In Today’s World? Find out!!
Yusuf Estes – Can Islam Still Work In Today’s World
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Hi, I'm Lila Bill alameen, who allowed the gentleman muslimeen wa salatu salam ala rasulillah three more and he was a big Marina Chateau de la la la haut electric a la vie shadow Mohammed bin Abdullah. So Salaam Alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
My name is Yousef, can you say yourself?
You know, my wife still says useless.
Okay, you didn't laugh very hard. It means you heard the joke yesterday. That's okay, martial law. And hamdulillah the subject, listen to the subject.
Can Islam
work? In today's world? Can Islam work in today's world?
Now I ask somebody a question earlier.
That made sense to me, but it didn't make sense to him. My right. Yeah, he's sitting right there.
His name is Chris. So I'm gonna see if I can explain it to Chris and see it for the rest of us can get the message. Cool. All right.
So my question, if you ask me, can Islam work? In today's world? I'll ask you a question. If somebody is the tailor, he makes clothes.
When he designs the clothes, when he makes the garment?
Will he make the size and the shape to fit the body?
Or will he make it and then try to make the body fit the clothes?
Which
you know, and I know he's going to make it. So the garment will fit the body?
Have you said for instance, oh, look,
it's too long was the problem.
We would cut it like that would make it fair. But what if it's too long?
Would we cut the arm and then move it back like this? No.
And in the same way, we have to understand that Islam is the subject.
It doesn't change. The thing that doesn't change is what everything else adjust to.
Islam is always, always was,
is and will be.
So it's not about Can I adjust this lamp to me today, or wherever I'm at? I need to know how to adjust me to fit Islam.
Now, that's it. So the answer is yes.
You want some explanation? Okay. What is the question? And I'll give you the answer.
But now the understanding.
We look to the etymology
of the word Islam.
And then it becomes clear, many of the answers really depend on having an understanding of the question. In fact, the more you understand about the question being asked,
the more obvious is the answer.
What is Islam?
Islam is from a verb, Islam.
It's an action is something you do.
And it describes the position of two entities or more one of a master, the other of a slave, one in authority, and the other one subjugated to that authority. Watch.
Before I tell you this, I need to mention something. The word Islam is the only word in the Quran
that you can not find a way to translate it with a single word.
All the other words, even the word Deen Dean, they will say it means religion.
But it's so much more the word God
they use this the equal Allah.
The word Isla in Arabic is God in English. So what is the law?
So you're using the same word to mean two things.
But in Islam,
we know there's no way to really translate
Like this the English, not the word Islam itself. Why?
Because it needs to have five or more things present at the same time or it doesn't exist, not the way we understand.
Because the former religion I had was all about love, love. God is love. Religion is Love is love.
But it really leaves a lot of questions when Islam, let's look at this word from seeing this route.
And when it comes to us, Lama, you have these five words, first surrender. Now we Muslims, by the way, we're getting really good at surrendering, you know, Afghanistan, Iraq like that. But then, the second word is
sorry,
the second word is submission.
The third word is obey.
And all of these are describing a position of one under the other. One is in authority. And the other one is accepting that surrender, submission.
Obey.
Hmm, fourth word, sincere.
Now, the understanding this word explains a lot
that you know him and have to talk about once you understand is sincere? Is there such a thing? Here's a question. Is there such a thing as spread Islam by the sword?
How
can you force people to be a Muslim? How
it says in the word
sincere.
So go back and ask can I force somebody to be sincere?
Can you
you can't.
They can say anything, you know, put a sword or a gun at somebody's neck. Oh, so what do you want to hear? But it's not going to be sincere because sincerity comes from the heart.
A simple investigation into the Koran and the teaching of Mohammed cellulitis on them, you will find again and again, the reference to the heart, to the heart, to the heart to the heart. Because it's all related to this. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him taught us that there is a morsel of flesh inside the human body, that if it's good, the whole of the matter is good. But if it's bad, then the whole of the matter is rotten.
And that morsel of flesh is the heart.
And the hearts of humans communicate to each other. You know that? I know that.
I don't care. What about your religious background, your intellectual stimuluses? The things that you spent your whole life around? Doesn't matter, you still know. And I know that hearts talk to each other.
If you see somebody, he has a problem, your heart goes out to them. That's the expression we have. What do you mean by that?
If I tell you somebody has hardened their heart, you know, I'm not talking about having hardening of the arteries.
You know, exactly. It means he's not listening. He's being stubborn.
So we find from this fourth word, that sincerity is very much related to the heart.
The fifth word, is the most misunderstood
of the whole formula.
The fifth word is Salam in Hebrew, Shalom, English times, peace.
Everybody talks about peace.
But does Islam mean peace? No. That doesn't mean that.
If Islam means peace, then I gave you the wrong greeting. When I came out, I should have said, Islam I like whom?
You say that's dumb. That's right, because Islam doesn't mean
it has the lamb in it as an ingredient. But the other four words have to be there. For you to understand it. Chris, listen up.
Surrender.
submission,
obey,
sincere
and then be in peace with whatever he gives you after that.
If you like it,
you're thankful. But if you don't like it, you are still realizing it came from him and you're going to be patient with it.
Someone came to me today and asked me to pray for their sister.
Their sister was born
with only one arm, the right one.
All of us we take for granted, we take it for granted
to have two hands.
Hmm.
What if you only have one?
pretty hard to carry stuff in it.
And we as Muslims know about using the right hand for the good things, and this hand for the dirty things where you don't put your hand in your mouth and something bad on it. Makes sense. But what do you do if you only got one hand?
We take for granted every day, all the things that he gave us.
So much so that if we have even one little small problem, a small, tiny thing, we complain,
make a big deal out of it. But I remember what my mother used to say
about the man who complained, because he had no shoes
until he met a man who had no feet.
So how are you right now, with your Lord?
If you know there's a God
and you want to have the right relationship? Do you make up the relationship? In fact, do you make up the god some people make up their own God?
They worship money, position power women, or men, they worship something in the universe that they see true or false.
And if you're worshiping something that's in the universe, I promise you, it is not big enough.
Because there's something always bigger.
It's not until you realize Allahu Akbar, that you understand the true message of Islam. Allah is bigger than anything you can imagine. Greater than anything you can imagine. Better than anything you'll ever imagine. Allows beyond if you can imagine it. If you can see it, if you can hear it, if you can touch it. If you can smell it, if you can taste it.
It ain't God.
Nope.
So that's a concept that we have. We don't make up a law. He tells us who he is. Second of all, we don't make up our relationship with him. He tells us what it should be. The problem that people have is they made up their God and they made up their religion. And that's why they constantly have to go back and change it.
One time when I was coming out of a prison
in Texas,
and by the way, I worked as a prison chaplain. So I was going in and out every day, okay. When
what I'm saying no. When I was coming out of the prison, there was a Catholic priest walking right beside me.
And as we came out the doors, he said, I love my religion.
Well of mine, too, but I didn't say anything. I said, Okay. He said, You know, I love my religion. I said, I know you're gonna tell me.
He said, I love my religion, because we're always ready to change.
For whatever's happening in the world.
I said what? He said, we're always ready to change our religion, to fit whatever we find in the world. That's what makes it great
for you,
what I like about his lamb is that is not made up by people.
Because if it's made up by people,
then I'm worshiping something people made up in the way they made it up. I want to worship the real Lord of the universe.
And I want to worship him the way he wants me to worship Him. alone.
That's what I want.
And for every one of us is the same thing.
This is why when we look to the Koran, only see this bad translation of the word religion we get confused.
The word is Dean. The Dean word
means a way of life.
And how it does is understood best is when you see what Allah said,
in Edina, in the law in Islam,
for sure, the only way
that Allah is going to be happy with it's going to accept the only way with a law is surrender and submission to him in peace.
Of course sincerity.
And then a few verses later, he says what Mamiya Peggy viral Islam Medina to allow you
fill out 30 mental passerine that whoever wants a dean a way of life other than the one that law prescribes, he is not going to accept it.
And those people are going to be losers in the next life.
So Allah exists, and it gives you a way to come to him a religion, a way of life, and you want to make up something else. No wonder, no, it makes sense then.
It doesn't say the only religion Allah is going to take his Islam that came 1400 years ago. It says the only way of life he's going to accept is the one he prescribed for you in the first place. And then check this out chapter five, verse three of the Quran and all Maya, when Allah says, I will yo Mo, Mo to lecom Dino como akman to Allah a commitment D we're ready to local Mr. Medina, on this day has a law he's saying to you, perfected for you.
Your way of life.
And it's the favor from him. It's his biggest favor for you. And he has chosen for you to submit to Him. surrender to Him,
obey Him
insincerity,
and be at peace with whatever you find.
Hello, everybody.
So does Islam work in today's world?
The problem is, what we've done to our society, what we've done to our civilization, what we've done to each other, what we've come to expect, the moralities that we've promoted and made excuses for that's really problem and Islam teaches us that after your belief in the law,
your submission to his Dean his way. What's the very most important thing after that is how you treat the people.
Is that true or false? Your behavior, the o'clock? If it's not there? Where's the Islam?
So have we really thought about what Islam is teaching? Before we ask that question?
Many people are not prepared to give up their way, in favor of his way.
So they will try to make excuses. They will try to make up problems to cover up their own faults. Who is the first one to argue about cutting off the hand of a thief? Who is the first one that would be in favor of letting the thief go?
Another thief?
Who's the first one to talk about the punishment for an adulterer? Why do you punish them? Why would you whip somebody because they just went out? And
I guess it would be because you do that, wouldn't it?
And who's the first one that will say, Oh, yeah, why would you even say anything about homosexuality? Why, why?
Who was the first one indeed.
And today right now I challenge you to turn on your television set, challenge you to look and see what the big topic is today, right now in Ireland.
related to religion,
and related to what morality some people have done to little children. Islam doesn't tolerate injustice.
It doesn't tolerate people being oppressed
and abused. Islam stands up for the rights of every single human being.
Not the right to go out and hurt somebody. But the right to enjoy what Allah gives you. But then expresses the clear limits that go along with every one of those rights. Islam is always in a balance. Our Prophet peace and blessing be upon him. He taught us that we are the nation of balance.
Metin, Washington. If we can't be balanced, our we are Muslim.
Again, we have those who are apologists and orientalist who want to come up with ideas, new ways to look at old things.
Real Wise Guys, they'll use examples that are so base, so crude,
and so illogical,
at the same time, pretending to stand behind their PhDs standing behind their
big
plaques hanging on the wall,
telling us how you know that
those people they rode on camels and donkeys, and today we're modern.
But Islam is not the one that told us ride camels and donkeys.
That was the available transportation. And that's what they used as an annuity Islam
does it.
We have microwave ovens slammed into you, you can't use a microwave oven. I wouldn't be able to reheat by coffee. Without that.
We You and I have a responsibility to know what our religion really is about.
And share that with people. Because when they know better, they'll do better.
And the first and foremost is to know what is Islam, then you'll be able to understand the answer is
when you ask the question, can you slam work in today's world, I'm asking you if the world that you made up today really works with what God wants you to do.
That's why the question should have been
offered in the first place.
So that's it. Not much of a speech? The answer is yes, it works. Fine. People don't. But Islam is always there for you. Anytime you want to turn your heart over to your Lord and say I want to do what you want me to do. It's not my work.
Chris.
Makes sense. Now.
What do you think?
Yeah. For you.
You believe in God?
Any doubts?
No.
You want to do what he wants you to do?
on his terms?
You sure
that's between you and him anyway.
I had a chance to talk to a lady on the phone today in Florida. It was the middle of the night for her. But she called because she knew we were having a program here. And she wanted to ask a question. And I told her the same thing I just told you guys, really? It boils down to this. Do you believe in God? She said yes.
Do you want to do what he wants you to do?
She said, that's the real question, isn't it? I said, that's the real question. She said, I thought I could answer it real easy, but it's not that easy. I said, I know.
19 years ago, I went through the same thing Exactly. When you really understand the question. That's the problem for you in it. Do you really want to do what he wants you to do?
Because if you do,
it's time to say, I swear. There's none to worship, except that one God on his terms his way. And I swear that Muhammad is His Messenger.
Don't get excited. That's not an earthquake, that's a plane flying over.
Kind of scary wouldn't
harm the law. So I think we're going to do some question and answer we had Moosa was out here.
mosa
we'll bring him out so we can do the question answers.
Because I want to really try to keep this on schedule. But we do have some very important talks coming up. I don't want you to miss a thing from them. But we need to get keep this one going here.
So I'm sure some of you have questions that they have a where's the mic setup? back over here. There it is. Yeah, there's one over here. I think we have one back over here. Okay. And one for the sisters or two for the sisters. The one for the sisters is back over here. I'm not supposed to do this. He is but
I could run over there and asked you know, and then run back over here. What do you think?
Well, oh,
Okay, that was really a great speech. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. It was really great to be here with all of you.
Hello, hater festers. Let me catch my breath. I already did that part. Go ahead.
Insha Allah will now have time for the question and answer session. I'm really out of breath. Yeah.
We'll start with the question from the front mic for the brothers.
My name is Khalid, say,
from Pakistan, I'm the IT manager of Pakistan say hey, yes, I G. It may takes extensive who are
meeting you?
I have a question that
I'm not going to, against anyone's personal feelings. But I have a question that whenever I thought of spreading Islam, should we start? Of course, we have to start with ourselves, then our family, then what my question is, in a bigger perspective, that either Should we start from the non Muslims, or from the Muslims, because when I look into my own city, in my own country, and over here and other places, also,
I found that although most of the Muslims are not following Islam, especially the the first pillar of Islam, which is saying, La ilaha illAllah, that there is no God, except Allah to be worshipped. But we see that in all parts of Pakistan, India and all other places, there are people to be peoples are worshiped, and so on and so forth. I believe ocean is clear. So, from there, should we start, should we start from the Muslims? Or should we start from the non Muslims? Because if we call Muslims to the Islam then
does not like her. Khalid? Thank you very much. It's a good question. Actually, this question is a very common question comes up a lot, so much so that the scholars have prepared answers for us. I recall when I was visiting Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur some years ago, that Hussein you who was with us in our program, I don't know if he's in his in the building today. But he made a presentation about that. And then I heard Dr. Bill Phillips present the same thing saying the same words almost. And that is that when we give Dawa
to someone it's to a non Muslim. dour is for non Muslims, because they said that we're is the call to Islam, but someone who already has some of the trappings of Islam, they already are, you know, basically in a Muslim environment, then what we're coaxing them to do to was, so what we're coaxing them in to do is called Islam.
So there's it's just a matter of the words really, for what you and I are thinking about. But just so you know, dour, this is for somebody who's not a Muslim, and Islam. This is for the one who is a Muslim, and we should do both. We should do both. Because I need to remind myself, my mom, my dad, my relatives, as much as I can, in a good way, though, a very good way. I have to give them the biggest respect. Likewise, when I call somebody to Islam, the word dour means to call, so I'm calling them to it, I also have to give them big respect and dignity. So the answer is we have to do both. And we have to do it in a very good way. And you also gave the answer to another part of it.
You said we start with ourselves. I really like that. Thank you, Carly. And by the way, that gives us another point that I made earlier, that if you really understand the question, you begin to understand the answer.
Thanks. The next question from the sisters, my
sisters.
When it comes to law, my name is Toby
And my question is that the world than the olden times right now is more corrupt than Why did Allah subhanho wa Taala? Choose the Prophet moments to guide? The people in the olden times, then now?
Very good question
from understand what you're saying, You're saying those were olden times?
From what we learned from scientists, they tell us that actually the earth has been here for many, many, many millenniums, many billions. So I don't really know how far back is the time when you suddenly say this is the olden times, I happen to be only 66 years old. And that doesn't compare to the billions of years that people are talking about. In fact, I'm from the olden times, I lived before there was television.
Yes.
Stop and think about it.
You know, what about the people that live before there was electricity.
That would be olden times.
But what doesn't change Sr.
Is the hearts. The heart of a person today has the same cares and concerns that a person born 10,000 years ago had
our psychiatrists and psychologists tell us today, something that's very basic, very easy to understand. And something that Islam taught us 1400 years ago.
Basically, a human being does what they do.
Any human being, does, what they do, from one side or the other, either a hope of a gain, or a fear of a loss. And this is the only reason people do what they do. They're trying to get something or protect something. Other than that, we don't move. If you understand that it's the same today, as it was last week, last year, last millennium, from the very beginning with Adam.
If you're concerned about what you think to be modern today, I want to share with you how unmodern we really are not. And how in the West especially we go through cycles of suddenly discovering Paul, an amazing thing. Only a few months later to come out with a PhD paper to disprove it entirely. When I attended primary school, in the 1940s
they told us that a be a bumblebee, you know a bumblebee.
According to the dynamics, the aerodynamics they had about airplanes in those days, they said according to what we know, today, a bumblebee cannot fly.
I was a little kid. When I heard that the first thing came in my mind, it's a good thing they also can't read. Because they read this and believed it, then they'd have to walk to all of the flowers.
Another thing that people used to take for granted was that we all came from Adam, even the Pharaonic teachings Pharaoh, you know, Pharaoh, we were just up there in Aswan. And we learned something amazing that some of the names that they have for their Pharaoh gods were actually taken from names of some of the prophets that we know like Idris.
Those people believed in a God in their so called ancient times.
In fact, most likely their prophets. were telling them the same thing that all the prophets said, Why don't you just worship god alone without the partners, and then after they leave, people start changing it to catch up with the modern times. And I think you get the point behind that
shortfalls.
So when we talk about modern times versus old times,
they just discovered
a few years ago.
An amazing discovery. And they put it on the radio. I was driving home from an event in Virginia. I was falling asleep at the wheel.
And I came to a stoplight I put my head on steering wheel my little daughter she was saying daddy wake up daddy wake up. I'm like What? I said I can't I'm gonna have to pull them and stop. I'm too tired. I can't get back home. So she turned the radio on all the way up real loud. And the voice on the radio says never stand up when you eat or drink on.
Then he said always sit down.
down when you eat or drink
sound like tomato Bleek is in town What is that?
And then he began to explain the damage that's caused to the throat, the esophagus, hiatal hernias, damage to the stomach, the liver, spleen, a broken down the next 30 minutes I was running home like oh my god.
But by the way, the prophet Mohammed Salah line that was stolen, told us about this 1400 years ago.
So now if you do it,
are you doing it because of your health and what you heard from the doctor? Or are you doing it because what you heard from your Lord, via Hamad Sala Laila was some
good question. The next question from the brothers back on the left. Yes, brother, go ahead.
Let's just say
brothers, oh, hey, you are somebody I'm Ruby from India, Kerala working as a driver here in Dubai. Mashallah. I like to ask you that.
Somebody told me all the prophets, specially mentioned in the Quran, those names are from Arab countries.
Is there any priority for the Arab language in the name of I mean, in the eyes of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And I like to know, what is the logic behind this? Actually, you asked me a very good question. And somebody just just told me when I was in Egypt, I was in Cairo. And there was a brother there telling us how he felt so good. When he came back from Pakistan. He said, I didn't know how special I was, till I went to Pakistan. And I said, Really? He said, Yeah, when I went over there, they told me, I was Arab. I'm the best of the best, because I'm an Arab. So really? He said, Yeah, and anybody who's an Arab Muslims have to love them said Really? said yes. And the language of
gender is Arabic. I said, Really?
I said, Who told you this old group of guys going around preaching? Okay.
But I'm gonna ask you a question.
Do you remember who who is the first prophet remind me, helped me? First prophet is?
Brother, the name of the first prophet?
Adam? Yes, Adam, of course. Adam. So Adam was Arab?
I don't
know. Okay, hold on. So if Adam is a prophet, and he's not an Arab, they went to story.
Now the question
is the Quran really from Allah? answers? Yes. I'll help you with that one.
Yes. And is there any words in the Quran that are not Arabic?
answers? Yes. Yes, yes. So there went the second one.
As far as having the love the Arabs, there happened to be some Arabs that are not Muslims. Would we have to love them to?
Back there are some Arabs that hate Islam don't have to love them.
Third one. And finally, I haven't been the agenda yet. And I hope I get to go, I hope we all go I mean,
but the so called fabricated her D. fabricated, that tells us about the language in general is only Arabic. And you have to love the Arabs in La La, la, la, la, la la.
Well, you already know I said, it's fabricated. Therefore, we'll leave it up to a law.
We leave it to a law. But for sure, we do love all the Muslims. Without doubt, I don't care where they're from, because we all came from one man Adam. And here's what Allah said about that. In the Quran Chapter 49. of hotpot. Allah said he created all of you from one single one, Adam, and from him his mate. You can even say oh, I'm more like Eve than I am Adam know from his mate. And from these two, he brought out all the tribes and nations and he made us different. So we recognize each other. You give me a good question. Hope we had a good answer. Is that for luck here.
We'll have the next question from the mic on the right with the brother. My name is Ahmed Nisha. I have
A friend in California called brilliant Chandler. And our friendship starts in the last one year. And I invited him to Islam. And he had invited me to Christianity. And we had many discussions and which nice, which reached nowhere. And last last week I had, I wanted to invite him to this conference. And this is what he has to say, hold on, he didn't come No, no, he didn't come, but he has this. He has replied me with this, man. Okay, let's do this. We have real people here in front of us. There's real people here in front of us. And he's willing to write something, let him send it to me in an email. Let me answer him directly. Can we do that? Okay, if you have a question, you ask
your question. No, I The question is, what should I reply to him? Send me an email. I will do that. Because it's not fair. Really. Because if the guy who doesn't even want to take the time to come, actually, I wanted to show you show him the videos, too. I want to send him the videos what you're applying. Yeah, here's what I'm gonna tell you what to do. Send me an email, it uses YUSU F, at share islam.com sH ar e is le M. And by the way, don't let anybody else here. I just want
to we have another question. Here, brother. By the way, if you do want to send the email there, of course, that's the one use if at Charice lamb.com. And while I'm doing some commercials for that, I want to mention chat islam.com. If you have any questions at all on chat, islam.com Be sure you wait until Salim Omri comes online. And he answers all the questions. We give him all the hard stuff. Go ahead, brother. Salaam Alaikum. Brother, yes, this Yes, it's nice to It's nice to see you in Santa Monica. My name is Sharon. I'm an architect from Malaysia.
My question is that, during these days, we're seeing a lot of the prophecies of our dear prophet come true.
And to the best of our abilities, the way I understand it, is we should either try to slow it down, or even stop it. But I know we can't stop it.
One thing that I have a problem with is the prophecy of increased knowledge in building tall buildings. And there are days where I really struggle with this fact. Because I myself have become pretty good at doing tall buildings.
Should I stop?
Or should I just continue? And just try to be the best? Excellent question. And what a better place to ask that question.
The tallest building in the world? I don't have to go any further than that. Do we already know?
I have a website called Islam newsroom. Is lm ne Ws r m.com. By the way, you'd like to stick my commercials right in there. I get away with that. Islam News rom.com. on there, you're going to find the story of that building. And how we related that to the prophecy of Mohammed soul alignment with someone. However, I think if you read it carefully, there is no mention of film or knowledge associated with Am I right about that? Check. It's not actually in the Hadith is it just says there will be competing? Doesn't necessarily say they're going to have more knowledge on how to do it? I don't think so. But check with check with our real scholars on that. And you'll find I think a
better way to look at
the prophet SAW Islam told us
that one of the greatest signs of the last day because he mentioned it to jabril a Salaam they were to one when the slave give birth to the master. And when the better one, these are the poor Arabs of the desert, are suddenly competing with each other to build the tallest building. That's a done deal. It's there. It's happened. You can't even argue the point. Somebody could say though, well, that's the only reason they're doing that is because they want to prove the prophecy.
I would have to really I'm sorry, that's, that's stretching it but okay. Even then, should you or should you not continue? I'm going to tell you it doesn't really matter whether you do or not because he didn't say that it was a sin to do it. He didn't say that there was anything wrong with it. He just said that's a sign of the last day. And if you think you can slow it down, you can't. So don't worry about it. Do what you do, do well boy just do what you do do well. Now, there is a Hadith of the associate Salaam that said even if you knew the last day was tomorrow, and you were going to plant a tree, you're going to
mandatory but you know, you found out Tomorrow's the last day of the universe. Still go ahead and plant the tree. So keep up the good work. It's fun to take pictures of him.
The next question from the brothers Mike on the left.
Salam Alaikum. My name is no man. The question is, in today's world, some atheistic thinking is that all you need to do all you need to be is a good person. So therefore there is no need for religion. How do you please address this in today's today's world, keeping in mind all the turmoil, all the suffering and all the in justices that are going around? Thank you, brother.
No, man, that was an excellent question. And it's a question we get a lot, especially from people who don't want to obey. So they make this up? Well, I'm a good person.
You're a good person and what? How do you define good?
you're defining What's good, aren't you? If you say, I'm a good person, by what standard? Are you? Good? Good, what?
Just good.
According to who?
Throughout history, we see societies that come and go, civilizations come and go. And all of them define good in a different way. They also divine bad in a different way.
But the only real good is what Allah said is good because it's his universe. And the only real bad is what he said is bad. For the same reason. So when somebody comes up to you, and like assisters, he said, Well, I'm a good person.
I'm a good person. Why do I have to wear hijab?
And you say, What do you believe? Maybe they believe they say, Yeah, I believe in Allah. But I got my hijab in my heart. Well, I'm gonna say, let's do open heart surgery and get it out there quick.
As a problem. And when somebody comes to you, well, I love God. But
why should I pray?
It's not a matter of what you are talking about your so called Love, and your so called good. You're defining these words to suit yourself, so that you can make up your own God thing that you worship and your own way to worship in your own Deen. So for sure, it's important for us as Muslims, to know the definition behind this. And when somebody said, Well, I'm just a good person, why do I need to believe anything? Well, the fact is, you don't have to. That's one of the teachings in Islam. Nobody has to believe anything.
But if you want to believe something that's true, then you have to use testable evidence to find out what is true. And as soon as you start doing that, you're going to keep running into Islam again, and again. And again. Because Islam is based only on truth, it is a hawk. There isn't anything more true than Islam itself. And if anybody wants truth, that's all they gotta do.
As far as somebody saying they're good. And that's enough. This is what they're making up.
If you break it, you don't have to watch it later.
Anyhow.
So
I'll give you another example on that. One is when some brothers are telling me you know,
I'm a Muslim. But have you heard that one? I'm a Muslim boy.
So somebody comes to one of these conferences like this, they get all supercharged you know, and they go back to work the next day they got some pamphlets in their pockets and little booklets. I'm all excited I'm a Muslim I'm really charged up you know, I saw Hussein you talking over there and I saw a shake Salim Allah Omri. And he said so and so us investors said this, okay. You're all excited when?
He goes to work.
And Bill, what's wrong with you today?
We read this. Oh, god, what is it?
Is lamb What do you know about his lamb?
You're a Muslim. No way. 15 years on the job. You're a Muslim. Now you're not a Muslim. You really are.
Says here Muslims do salad
or Salah whatever.
Five times a day. We never saw you do that.
You do that? Well, I'm a Muslim, but
I don't do Salah. Whoa.
What's Zakat? Zika Okay. Do you do that? Well, it's hard to compute it. You know, it's, it's like some percentage of I don't know. I don't do that. I'm a Muslim, but I don't I don't. Okay.
Says here, you guys have something called Ramada.
Oh, Ramadan. Okay, and you're supposed to be fasting in the month I just heard on TV This is the third day of Ramadan isn't it? Yeah, so why are you holding that Coca Cola in your hand? All Muslim boy
don't fast. Oh, and what about this hedge?
Oh Ha Ha okay. Says here you guys are supposed to make a trip to Mecca once in your life. When you have the money to do it says it rather.
Did you do it? Well, no. What you took off last year and spent a whole month you went over to Florida to Epcot Center what was you doing? Wonderland and all that tawaf around Mickey Mouse or something.
You do that? Well, I'm a Muslim, but I don't do Hodge says here you're supposed to let your beard grow. You're not supposed to be shaving it cutting it or touching it except over your lip.
Well, my wife she liked me to be smooth bass. So you don't grow your beard all Muslim but
it said here that the women are supposed to be covered up with like a veil over their head or something like that. When your wife came to Christmas party.
She wasn't wearing nothing like that.
Well, we're most of them. But
we got it. You're a Muslim, but
all you need is the head is find some arms, legs, put it all together and be a whole Muslim.