After Life: Bliss or Torment?
Date:
Channel: Zaid Shakir
File Size: 20.45MB
Episode Notes
Seeing that you were dead and He gave you life. Then He will give you death, then again will bring you to life on the Day of Resurrection and then unto Him you will return. Surah Baqarah 2: 28
What happens to us when we die? What is the soul? Where are heaven and hell? Is there a reckoning with the creator? Questions such as these about death and dying have frightened and fascinated humanity since the beginning of time. This session explores these existential questions by providing an overview of answers from the sacred scriptures. It examines the viability of reincarnation, the sensual imagery of Paradise, as well as what to make of near-death experiences. Theological scholarship combined with insight and sensitivity make this session thoroughly translatable, a simple introduction to profound and complicated subjects.
AI Generated Transcript ©
He was
mean was so that was cinema let's say you didn't we're sending CD you know Mohammed. While early he was talking to me he was sent him to Simic theorize Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi, wa barakaatuh
and hamdulillah
I just want to bear witness to what Dr. Xena mentioned, just now that
once you There is a saying first, once you get a taste of sweet potato pie, you'll never want pumpkin again.
And seriously once you experience the sweetness of course and nothing else satisfies you, I can bear witness when I was a student, as a young man here in Washington DC recently converted to Islam.
I started reading the Quran just in English, I didn't know Arabic. At the time that I converted even my first few Ramadan's and the use of the translation, they have the just in English marked off one 30th to 30th. And so we read myself and my wife and English, the exact the sections of the Quran every day, the translation in Ramadan. And then I learned to recite it in Arabic, I had a Quran from Turkey, because I converted Well, before I went to, to Turkey, I converted but there I begin to learn. And I have an old core en and I will read it and read it and literally the covers fell off of it from just handling so much and it was made from the old dry paper with the yellow pages. But then
when I came back to the States, and I came here to Washington, DC to
American University, but I live near Howard University, near the corner of Third
Street and Rhode Island Avenue. There used to be a supermarket there on a corner I lived right in back in the supermarket. In any case,
I had all of these jazz albums and cassettes. We had cassettes back then. From just my prior life. I used to love listening to jazz I would stay up all night just listening to jazz, music, all sorts of jazz and
just the core n listening to the Qur'an and then I got Abdul Basit tapes and hercegovina tapes and men shall we tapes and
I boxed up all of my jazz collection and I took it to this vendor at Howard University we used to sell music and I just gave it to him and I didn't even ask for any money I just gave it away because I had no need for it I had the car and now suddenly need the jazz anymore and no one ever told me music is haram no we live some of you heard preacher ma moss in the harem police on your feature must do the harem
come to Hiram police law.
Law No one told me musics haram no one beat me down threaten my life Brenda Lynch me or burn me on a pile of musical cassettes and
melting black LPs we had the LPS tar and feather me with melted LPs and then throw me in the Potomac River. Just they introduced me to the core and the message of the Quran and the sweetness of the Quran. And then I just voluntarily gave up the music because it couldn't compete. Because the Quran was too sweet.
And to emphasize that message, I don't have to repeat.
Because right from the start and into your heart.
I used to be wild and I knew how to freestyle.
But then I learned you don't have to compete and beguile just opened the door and of course n will bring them more than you
could ever bring with words. So that's the message that needs to be heard. Moving right along.
Moving right along so the verse in question that was given it was recited by the fine young man who introduced the session and he says a lot tired of reminders k for tech for on a big level quantum and Where'd that come from? You me to come from? You come from LA heat origin. How could you ever reject belief and all our K for tech for on a biller? Well, quantum whacker, and you're dead.
And then he brought you to life flew me to come, then he will cause you to die. He come, then he will restore you to life from LA he told me Joan, and then unto him, you will be returned Subhana Allah,
we who can who can give us life form with
this reflect
on the many ways we were dead, and in each and every single realm on the aloka give us life.
So we were dead in the realm of non existence. So the reason that they say come to fi Phil Adam.
We're in the realm of nothingness. And a lot Tyler brought us into the realm of will Jude Allah tala brought us into the realm of existence.
So when when your atheist friends come to you and start making their their empty and vacuous and putrid arguments
as them Can you bring the dead to life? Can you bring something out of nothing?
A lot, Tyler brought us from something into nothing.
As was the case the text tech firm owner belay will come to man wetter.
We were dead existing in the realm of physicality, in this realm,
physical stuff.
And a lot brought us to life by giving us consciousness
by giving us consciousness, this has no consciousness.
Who can give this consciousness we were in this realm. This was us.
And the law breathed breathed into us the rule
the animating spirit
and be clipped onto us consciousness and brought us to life and gave us the capacity to yearn for him and to know him.
As if they are best mentions or in the Massoud. When a lot Allah mentions one mouth holla to Jean was insanely Abu. I've only created the jinn and humans to worship me. That requires consciousness of Allah, how can we worship? How can we reverence How can we elevate How can we exalt How can we love that which we are unaware of?
And in the Massoud mentioned lelli, it funi in order that you know me, again, how can we know someone or something that we have no consciousness of no conscious awareness of
this is what we were given.
Who can do that.
We can do it if you can do it, give consciousness to this podium, give consciousness to this microphone.
We can do it no matter how hard we try.
But a lot of time it gave us consciousness in a unique way, no other creature possesses.
No other creature possesses. We were dead consisting of unformed earth to rob and the law Tyler fashion does then shaped us and Allah tala made us upright. He dignified us while Khurana Benny Adam. We've been noble the human being No, the animal is upright,
permanently. who stands like this? No other animal No, not the apes. Sometimes they can get up but they have to go back down.
And they add an angle
uses a very long
forearms and short legs. We'll call it loss proportion does
Do you know the golden mean were proportioned according to the golden mean?
Just as the cob is proportion on the earth from north to south, and from east to west, the direct proportions of the golden mean
because a lot of tile has made this earth for us. And he's made the Kaaba for us. And he's made mecca for us, as the center of our spiritual universe. As the Virgin.
We're dead existing with no knowledge. That's a form of death.
And some of you read the paper.
Well, I flew from Charlotte, North Carolina this morning. After my session yesterday, I went there for a fundraising dinner some people were having. And I flew back this morning in the airport, I picked up the new york times in the New York Times, there was an article that's extremely relevant to what we're talking about here, written by a prisoner in Attica prison in upstate New York,
mentioning how he's blessed to be one of the fortunate 1%.
In Attica prison,
there are 2300 2300 inmates 23 are in higher educational programs, because money for those programs were cut.
They were cut, when the philosophy of prison became not to rehabilitate prisons.
So in 1980, there were 350 college programs. In the prisons in this country.
Most of them were publicly funded.
Now, there are a handful, most of them are privately funded.
So prisoners and the prisoners say are intellectually dead, and they come back into society intellectually dead.
And they're expected to get on with their lives. They're expected not to get on a cycle that will lead them back.
We know that the exorbitant recidivism rates, those who are in college programs in prisons is mentioned in the article.
recidivism rate is 2%.
Two out of every 100
the recidivism rate in general what is it some people familiar with prisons? Hmm.
Anyone?
between 40 and 50%, almost half of every prisoner released will go back
because they were mentally dead going in
and they're mentally dead coming out. We were mentally dead and a lot kind of brought us to life of knowledge
and taught us the purpose of this life
a person who who doesn't know the purpose is dead
so that's a form of death one of the airports mentioned Lisa men manifesta had been made in the men made to make a U turn
in the men made to mania issue can even cast if and bad who kalila Raja, the dead or not those who physically expire and come to a re arrest.
Rather the dead are those who are mentally dead
rather than dead or those who live with with no hope with their their hope shattered in a state of depression, entertaining little hope.
So we were brought to life of knowledge.
Only a lot. You can do that.
We have programs
are they working?
are they teaching people the purpose of life?
They want to know and searching there was an another article in today's New York Times, Sunday Times about how one little village in Norway had so many of the young people
going to
fight in Syria
and most
got killed because there, if you want to analyze what's happening in Iraq or Syria, what's happening are young people getting sucked up.
Maybe some of you are here from the State Department or
some other branch of government taking note.
I mean, recall too close to Washington for that not to be the case. If you want to understand the causes of radicalism,
then go go read the lyrics of Bob Dylan songs, only upon their game.
And just when you're thinking of some racist, who are manipulating poor white folks, to become the henchmen for the Ku Klux Klan or something, then the people calling the shots on these groups are manipulating young people
to go and die for nothing to go and murder innocent people murder other Muslims.
One of these poor people, poor young people from this village. He goes, he gets killed, he marries a girl from Russia, who goes there to be a jihadi wife. And this Myskina goes to Istanbul and blows herself up and kills a Turkish policeman. You know, that's really advancing some great interest. But the bottom line,
these kids have empty lives.
They have empty lives. And that's not an Islamic problem.
That's a problem brought about by modernity. People in the pre modern world, they knew what they were therefore it might have been simple. It might have been just, I'm a village farmer. They knew and they accepted that they were proud of it. They tried to raise the best crops, the girls knew I'm going to go up and I'm going to be a farmer's wife.
And they were they were comfortable with that. Now kids grow up, they don't know what they are, who they are, where they're going. They're empty.
They're empty. And so they find try to find meaning. In these appeals, these manipulative, manipulative appeals on the internet. Oh, you have meaning? You're going to be a Shahid. You're going to be a martyr, you're going to be a Mujahid?
No, Allah tells us we were going to be someone who truly worships Allah.
We're going to be someone who, through refining our souls, will know Allah. And if we know Allah, we understand we might be in a situation that calls for us to stand up to defend the faith, but we won't, we won't be doing it because we're alienated. This is the common denominator. Most of these kids were misfits and losers. Looking for purpose and meaning.
We won't do it seeking because we're alienated we won't do it because we're not in with the in crowd. We'll do it because our spiritual maturation leads us to understand
that there's a threat to our civilization, civilizing mission, as Dr. Xena mentioned, I'm Ron,
and that we have to defend that through not running away from the emptiness of what modernity or post modernity have made us. We're running towards the defense of civilization, and to build civilization, and to defend the the civilizing and humanizing gains that we've made collectively, as a human species. That's what jihad is.
And if we die, we won't die in empty death as a pawn in someone's geostrategic game.
We'll die a lie, a death of meaning and purpose.
That will give life and not cause death.
Somebody he come, and then he gives you life.
And we will give life because we've been given life and we will not bring meaningless death because we are the victims of a meaningless life.
So we were dead. And he taught us our purpose. And he guided us and he tells us Yeah, he bet
All my servers Yeah, he Daddy, KU con darlin, lemon had a to festa, adunni and D comb, all my servers all of you are straight except the ones I have guided, seek guidance from me, I will guide you.
First day adunni deikun seek guidance from me, I will guide you.
This is this is what we should be after.
This is what we should be after
seeking guidance from Allah subhanho wa Taala. So we will no longer be lost.
And we will no longer fail to understand the purpose of our existence. We were dead, following our passionate lust. So a person who just pursues their lust is dead.
And this is what the atheist, they're trying to kill us, the materialists. They're trying to kill us.
They just want us to follow our lust.
They want us to surrender to our desires.
Again, we touched on this the other day because when we follow our lust and surrender to our desires, someone makes money. Because you're not just following our lust. We're following their lust.
If it was just our lust, we would never pass a billboard that said
Aren't you hungry for Burger King now?
We just be hungry for whatever we could get our hands on. No, they want us to be hungry for Burger King. Now. We will never pass a billboard the golden arches. I'm loving it.
Some miskeen I'm hating it.
never gave it up in 1994
and then I was down to the french fries. Then I found out there was beef tallow and the French fries when a Hindu guy sued McDonald's. It's no wonder they were so tasty.
When they got cold and stuck together
and we we pray it was just beef tallow
and not lard.
Now I'm not loving it. Some miskeen send me a thing with the Golden Arches a Muslim I'm loving it.
So I wrote them. I said why would you denigrate our religion by associating it with one of the symbols in citadels of capitalism?
And consumerism?
I'm not loving it.
We should be loving Allah subhanho wa Taala
we should be loving Allah subhanho wa Taala are these empty?
messages, marketing slogans, one liners.
You can tweak the core
because the core and wants you to think deeply you can think deeply and something that's packaged in 164 characters
or whatever Twitter confines you to.
We have to reflect. We have to we have to go deep.
Look Korean wants us to be deep people and not to be shallow people.
Not to just live on the surface, a superficial existence and a superficial world following superficial slogans. They'll want to reduce us the superficial people.
We want to be the Quran. Allah subhanho wa Taala wants us to be deep people
wants us to be able to fly a teta bonal core Do they not reflect on the core n?
Do they not reflect on the core end? And Dr. Xena Masha Allah Allah preserve her and bless them bless her family or noble family.
Sarah starts with the heart FLL Brunello Quran, Allah, Lubin Oxford who
do they not reflect on the court and are their hearts sealed up? The the materialism, the consumerism, the superficial reality wants to lock up our hearts. So we don't have the ability to reflect on the core end so that we don't have the ability to plunge into the depths of the Qur'an.
But we have to unleash we have to break those chains and break those shackles and unleash
The potential of our hearts because that's what humanizes us. That is the source of our humanity. That is the source of understanding the Quran. The Quran came to the heart of our messenger all men can do when the gibreel affair and no hoonah Zelo Allah Allah cabbie is Neela Masada Lima, Dania de bajo de la bushrod and meaning, who's an enemy on tour onto jabril, for he brings the revelation down to your heart. And then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he passed it to the hearts of the companions, and they pass it down to us, through our hearts, through our hearts, brothers and sisters,
free our heart by breaking the shackles of materialism, and consumerism,
and all of the other isms and schisms that seek to to limit our human potential. We were the dead elements
of the of the earth. And Alok brought us to light in the loins of our father, Adam, reflect on that.
Reflect on we are a physical manifestation of physical the chromosomes, the DNA that's been handed out right genetic markers, that we can trace our ancestry all the way back to Adam, and his salon.
And we were dead.
couldn't come min Adam, where Adam and Rob, all of you are from Adam and Adam is from the earth. And from that Earth, Allah brought us to life.
And we came down and down and down from our father, Adam.
And we're one united humanity. Brothers and sisters in humanity, we're all related at the end of the day.
We're all related. And we should never forget that because when we understand we are one vast human family with one common parentage at the end of the day.
Adam alayhis salam, where Adam and Eve
then it becomes more difficult for people to set us against each other.
Just as it will be difficult to set us against our immediate brothers or our immediate sisters.
When we are conscious and aware of the fact that ultimately we are all brothers and sisters, it becomes difficult for someone to manipulate us into fighting and destroying and demeaning and defaming each other but there are people who have a different view of humanity and they want to exploit the differences that a lot Tyler placed amongst us so we can recognize his creative power and creative genius.
Which I know kung fu then we'll have a lady Tara foo. And they say well, Jana udon was a bad lead the Takata
that's what they say. No, we say what the Quran says that we know one another.
Not that we do teach each other what we see happening in these various places.
The evil schemes
of the Alia of shaytaan, the troops of Satan. Satan wants us to differ. So what does the law say? We said,
Yeah, in the coming decades. We've made you from a single set of parents with john Nash, kung fu Ruben Raka. Back in early to our food, and we made you into nations and tribes that you know one another, for there's a lot of time to say. Women a Yeti and minneriya T and Haleakala COMM And Fujifilm as well as the test qu la wa Jalla beno como word that hawara in the fee that he can get in the
room, he's made you from a single pair he's made from the the human alien Haleakala he's made from you, your spouse, to live together with them, and peace and tranquility. And he's made between you love and mercy surely in this science for people who reflect that's what a lot of time and all those who follow the messengers of Allah, desire for humanity, the man and woman as the foundation of human society to come together in love and mercy, what the shaytaan one
failure
lamona min homenaje euforia una de Bella and mark it was oj he wants to split up with hatred
where you are in the medad como se upon
the Satan
What is he do Will you hire you okay oh Ben Kuma Adele with a World Bank dare he places hatred and enmity between you that's a time
that's a lot.
Which camp are we in?
Who do we follow?
Cooley Latham called the hemiola boom say a law Cooley.
Cooley left. Some of
y'all abandoned them, leave them in there empty
distractions. I really playing. They're playing games with humanity. They're playing games with us.
This is the Quranic message and look at the people claiming Islam murdering each other,
calling each other to murder each other.
denigrating each other dismissing each other's the power of law and the law. This law says those are Muslims just murder them those say those are Muslim, just murder them but they all go to Hajj
they all face the same Qibla
they chose with the Bihar isn't that the definition of the Muslim whoever faces our killer and these are the Bihar and makes our hearts and fast the same Ramadan there is no Sunni Ramadan and she Ramadan.
There is no Ramadan and sheffey Ramadan and Yemen there's no Xavi Ramadan and the chef is Sunni Ramadan. Ramadan, there is no Sunni and the Shia Hajj, there's Hajj.
There's no Sunni La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah. And as she left him alone, Mohammed Rasulullah
Mohammed Rasulullah and our Prophet said the power of the men, Allah La ilaha illAllah Helen Jana, whoever says Well, hello will go to heaven. No, we want to consign them to hell.
and limit the mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala. If there were Olympic Games for stupidity, there be a lot of Muslim gold medalist.
No brothers and sisters, follow the code and
follow the Quran. Never forget the fact. So mainly he told john Time is up the end of the verse from a la hitori. JOHN, then unto him, you're all returned. Never forget that. This world isn't the end of our fair.
We talked about injustice. If the world was the end of our fair we could we could talk about injustice. Why were people killed by the tsunami?
Why are those people being killed in Iraq or Syria to Crete?
Why was ISIS slaughtering people and now why the Shia militia slaughtering people?
It's not right. Those babies deserve to live. Those mothers deserve to live. Why people manipulating this kid this later Rama beautiful name.
Ramazan Nova, from from Dagestan to blow herself up in Istanbul.
Why? Why did someone manipulate her into thinking she's going to advance the glorious cause of jihad by killing a Turkish policeman and this bamboo who's a Muslim She doesn't even know and murdering herself and her fetus in her pregnant belly. It's not right. It's so prestigious wrong.
Well, if this were the end of it, we can have those debates. But it's not the end. Because the one who's killed on just the is a modern that have eternal life and gender. And when you look at the 20 years that had in this world, or 30, or 40, or 50, or 60, or 70 or 80 or 90 for some are 100. There was a lady she was 100 live to be 104 years old. And they asked her What's the best thing about being 104 years old? You know what she said? There's no peer pressure.
You can explain that to the person sitting next to you.
But what what is 100 years in this dunya compared to eternity,
you couldn't even measure it from the beginning of time.
from Adam from the creation of the earth, until eternity, Holly Deena fee habitat
fee and I
was sad to idea, eternal bliss, for 100 years look like on that continuum.
You wouldn't even be there's no no measure to even detect it.
So a little suffering in this world, what does it mean compared to eternal bliss?
That's the justice of a lot Tyler. And for those oppressors, and those tyrants and those usurpers and exploiters, and murderers. What is the little power they got in this world that they enjoyed?
before maybe they are taken out by a bomb or a drone or their own body guard
compared to eternity, suffering and tormented in hell?
That's the justice of Allah subhana wa Tada. Former la hitori john. So we have to prepare for the return to Allah subhanho wa Taala.
By being aware that indeed we will be returned, do you think we're not this for no reason? Do you think we're not like the monkeys? Some of you think you're like the monkeys.
The singing group monkeys.
I love you. Yeah, those monkeys, some of you think you like
monkeys.
But the monkeys can make an iPad, the monkeys can make a device that can send an invisible signal. Like some of your filming right now.
As soon as everything's over, you're gonna upload it to YouTube.
With an invisible signal bouncing off a satellite in geocentric Earth orbit, being received by a receiver, processing it, and then
putting it on millions of screens all over the world, and monkeys are still trying to figure out how to get meat out of a nut with sticks. Well, I have Corona Danny Adam, Allah is in novoed us with his intellect for purpose. He's given us the spiritual, deep ability to know Him for purpose. And part of that purpose is to understand we're going to return to Him so May he lay he through May Elena towards your own, and then on to ask you what all return and how do we prepare for that? By having a healthy fear of the time we will return and stand before our Lord? Because if we have a healthy fear of that reality, it affects how we live in this world. Where mm and hoffa mahkamah Robbie, he won a
national hardware fair in Elgin netta. He'll NetWare for one who fears what amendment hoffa Nakamura be fears the time they will stand before their Lord for melena to determine when they have enough sand and where and denies their soul the things it longs for. So shaytaan wants to split up and divide shed Tom wants to create warring factions, and shaitan also wants us to surrender to our desires.
Surrender to your desires. Don't forget about standing before law, forget about accountability before law. Forget about the meeting with your Lord. Just seek to assuage your carnal appetites here and now and forget about tomorrow. That's what shaytan wants. If it feels good, do it. Surrender to your desires is your thing. Do what you want to do. I can't tell you who the socket to
this is your thing.
Muslim, they don't want you to have fun.
Right now. Well,
since I took Shahada, I had so much fun.
People think I'm trippin half the time.
I didn't inhale
before I was Muslim
At least Obama's honest right I unhealed
I in hell forget Bill Clinton. He's lying
home hell
I don't know about Hillary I don't want to mess her prospects up. I'm not even gonna ask her Hillary Did you inhale?
Obama was honest. He got elected. Come on hillary tell us
I inhaled but I wasn't Muslim.
I was pre Shahada inhalation
ha tongue Just do your thing now at doing your signal movement with agenda told Kathy
and we mentioned the other day when you're in prison, you don't do your thing. You do the wardens thing. This is a laws world. He's the warden. He tells us what to do, when to do it, how to do it. And he says, if we're a good prisoner, we will get out. And we'll never come back. ever good prisoner will never be thrown into the hole.
But in the world we're talking about the whole is hot.
And attico or singsing San Quentin Folsom
Auburn. arroway or Lauren. We're in Virginia after
the hole is used the cold. There's no heat down there. You're in segregation, solitary confinement.
In the hole, a lot of Tyler throws people into his hot
and you have a lot of company.
And despite all of that company, Hell is greedy and ask a lot Tyler Hellman moseyed.
Last Helen terlet are you filled up? insatiable appetite?
Helman moseyed. Are there any more brothers and sisters save yourself? Turn to the end. Remember your Lord, think of the time you will die. This world wants us to forget our death.
Now a lot of Tyler wants us to remember through melena total jerilyn kulu neffs in the equitable note, coolness in that equitable note, the inescapable inevitable reality and prepare for that, prepare for that by living the dignified life of a believer.
Prepare for that by giving yourself to a loss of Hannah wattana prepare for that by being an obedient servant of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And you will have bliss in this world because and we'll stop here on 15 minutes over the time.
And Dr. Xena was before me so I can ask her to yield time. And I don't know speaking next so I can ask them to your time.
But brothers and sisters, prepare for your death. Remember, the time will be dead. Remember the time we will go into the grave? reflect on the time the dirt will be thrown on us the next time you go to a funeral. Imagine yourself in that coffin. Imagine the dirt being thrown on you. Imagine the people walking away from your grave site. Imagine the angels questioning you imagining one day which hand is the record of your deeds of our deeds will fly into. Will it be in the right will it be in the left?
Imagine even more hospital with him. He wrote a book imagine think about reflect on the reality of death and reflect on the fact the fact the reality that we will be returned to our Lord Thelma Elena torrejon Mela Bless you. Solomonic