Muhammad (PBUH) The Seal of the Prophets. Why? (274)

forced me to lead the prayer matter so I'd like to ask for the hammer to present try to adjust the volume a little bit al hamdulillah also see us anymore our soothing that Michelle was you know my foolish Erica shadow and no up the water soon dear brothers and sisters as allah told us definitely there is an example for you and the Prophet peace be upon him and insha'Allah tonight's lecture will be Muhammad the seal of peace be upon him the seal of the prophets why dr. Jeffrey lying is going to address this topic and he asked me not to introduce him and I told him I'm gonna just call you mr. speaker so I call upon mr. speaker to come and give a speech since he doesn't like any introductions dr. Jeffrey bank comes from the University of Kansas and Lawrence Kansas and his book struggling to surrender will be here insha'Allah you can have a look at it so I would request dr. Liang to come and make his presentation Sharma normally makes his presentation in about one hour and then we'll have about half an hour for the question and also in China do you like it it's so dark in here can't see anyone talking to a huge lightbulb yeah it's so intimidating you know I feel like I'm standing in a lineup miss Molloy Manny already the name of God the merciful the compassionate oh that's much better um I just I just arrived from Lawrence about five minutes ago well how about 15 minutes ago by car so I seem a little bit frazzled I am uh these are just some personal reflections of mine on the that I had when I was thinking about the Shahada several years ago the testimony of faith that all of us make many many times in our lives and so I thought I would just share them with you you know the issue of you know in what why is their last prophet why to his Prophet Mohammed the last prophet why are there no prophets after him these are questions that I frequently get from non-muslims when I lecture at universities in America the non-muslims are very curious about this fact why would God suddenly leave Muslims for the next fourteen hundred years without a prophet if as you Muslims claim he guided mankind so directly and personally and almost continuously throughout history I mean why would he suddenly abandon man or at least exclude man from his prophetic from his guidance through Prophet messengers and so this is a question we often have to deal with I'm not I'm not trying to contradict any of the arguments that are usually given by Muslims these are just happen to be a couple of insights that I had that I think compliment the ones that you often read in books by you know scholars like Mao Duty from Pakistan or Sayed Qatar from Egypt or Muhammad kotoba even more ancient scholars like tabary and ebony and etc I don't mean to contradict what they say only to add some things I didn't see to any of them say so let me take you back to a critical moment in Islamic history critical moment in our community one of the most critical moments ever really and it was in the courtyard of medina and there was a rumor spreading rapidly through the crowd and the crowd was in shock and on the edge of panic and even though there had been plenty of science in the last several days even last couple of weeks the crowd was now almost ready to just disintegrate right there and erupt in this direction in that direction people were tense and nervous and strained maybe this would be their greatest trial after all maybe this trial would be greater than the suffering that they faced before the two immigrations maybe this would be tougher than the fighting that they faced even the dying for he had always been there with his sure and steady leadership is tremendous spirituality and compassion his reassuring smile and his kindly sense of humor how could they forget the time when he said to his startled cousin as he brushed him off awake Oh father of the dust and out of the deepest humility and respect he took his own mantle and may it and laid it down on the ground and made a place for a poor old woman to sit and how could they ever forget that rugged determined gate of his as if he was striding uphill or how could they forget his granddaughter riding him on his shoulders well he led them in the prayer and God was always with it in the cave with his companion on the field of a hood he seemed to be left and he had to face an army almost single-handedly for a moment and on the pulpit it can't be true they thought what are we going to do now Omar bolted from his quarters into the courtyard there lying he commanded the crowd and he promised to cut down with his own sword the pernicious fabricators of this rumour Omar towered over over his audience and today he looked more fierce than ever he used to joke that at the sight of all my even Satan used to turn and flee at first they were relieved for Armour had just saw him seconds ago but on the other hand that could still hear the crying of his wives inside their apartments and there was something eerie and unreal in almost protest like a young boy who can't accept some fact oh god it is true they realized our Lord help us Muhammad is gone Abubakar his horse was sweating and panting hard as he guided it up to the courtyard he dismounted it hastily hastily he made his way immediately for his daughter's apartment he didn't stop to listen to see what was going on in the crowd he parted the door the curtain of the apartment with his left hand kept his eyes lowered and a sleeve to enter no need to ask today was the sad reply he walked over to the mat where his son-in-law lay his face was covered with a cloak and he thought how their friendship went back so many years too long before he was a prophet or people knew him as such even before his marriage to Khadija back to when they were both good friends and bright young prospects in Mecca and society young men who were obviously on their way up that had bright futures ahead of them he bent down and fit and kissed the face of his beloved sweet you are you were in life he said and sweet you are in death he lifted his faith his head gently between his hands while his tears fell on to the prophets face o my friend my chosen one dared me to my mother and my father the death that God has written for you you have finally tasted after this no death shall ever come to you again those were his last words to his dear departed friend and with great care care he lowered the prophet's head back onto the pillow bent again to kiss his face drew the cover over him for the last time and left the tiny dimly lit room Abu Bakr was not what you would say would be the typical candidate for leadership he was short he was slight of frame and actually he was best known not for his sturdiness in severity but for his tender heart and clemency he didn't appear to be a natural leader even his own daughter once disqualified him from leading the prayer because of his excessive what she felt was his excessive emotionality he used to weep when he read various verses from the Quran however the prophet saw deeper into it we entering the courtyard Abu Bakr went to the front of the crowd he asked for their attention but Omar who was still hanging and screaming at them refused to be interrupted Abu Bakkar had to raise his voice high above Omar's shouts to be heard but the rest of the crowd all their eyes were fixed on Abu Bakkar because they want him to now wanted to know what he had to say so he had to begin loudly for those who worship Muhammad the crowd just fell in stunned silence even armored along with the rest of the crowd was now staring at Abu Bakr almost terrified waiting to see what he had to say know that Muhammad is dead but for those of you who worship Allah know that Allah lives and never dies and as he continued on his voice rose and intensity Muhammad peace be upon him is but a messenger and messengers passed away before him if he dies or is killed will you turn your back on your heels and whoever turns his back on his heels will do no harm to Allah but Allah will reward those who are grateful Omer who was stunned by the realization that the Prophet was really dead fell to his knees under the weight of what he just heard the truth that he just heard releasing the pain and the bereavement and the suffering that he refused to accept up until then in the future amar would recount and when Abu Bakr recited those divine words that had a new and original meaning for them it was as if they had heard them for the very first time and although it would not become official to the next day the question of who would succeed Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him politically because no one could succeed him as a prophet of course was answered at that very moment in the hearts of so many it was a critical moment in the history of Muslims it was a time when that community could disintegrated and broken apart right then and there but Abu Bakr may Allah be pleased with him held that community together and through the next two years and those two years would bring him to the end of his life that was his primary mission to keep that community bound together unified and that's what I want to discuss today I want to discuss the finality of Prophet Muhammad's mission and how it relates to the Shahada this all group started I told you when I was thinking about the Shahada I was also reading a verse in the Quran that night - as a matter of fact the first one reads this day I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favour unto you and chosen for you is lamb submission as a religion and the other verse and this one I was thinking about coming awake for hours Muhammad is not the father of any of your men Muhammad is not the father of any of your men but he is the Messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets and Allah is ever know of all things that verse just had me tossing and turning all night because what's the connection Muhammad peace be upon him is not the father of any of your men it's fine no he is the Messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets what's the connection I thought between prophecy being sealed with Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and Muhammad not being having any sons and what in God's infinite knowledge as he says what is the connection for God is the knower of all things he knows how we work he knows how he think he knows humanity what is the connection well the second verse that I just mentioned was revealed in the fourth year after him Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him emigrated to Medina with his companions so you would live six more years but not only was it a statement of current fact but that was true at that time but it was a prophecy as well because when prophet muhammad peace be upon him died he left no male heirs now the deep emotional and psychological need for such a person who is deeply felt why the first inclination I got of this was when I was reading through sahih bukhari once I was going through it and a couple of companions made the following cut a comment it wasn't based on anything the Prophet said peace be upon him it was just their personal opinion Lisa was presented that such they said if prophet muhammad peace be upon him had a son or if abraham had lived succeeded him he definitely would have been a prophet in their mind they felt that if prophet muhammad peace be upon him had a son at least these two companions he definitely would have been a problem because the Arabs had always felt that virtue personal qualities truthfulness honesty goodness compassion caring spiritual qualities we're not something that one just learned and picked up from the environment but much more than we do today they believe that these are things that people inherit it even to this day the Arabs have a much stronger sense of goodness almost being something into people's blood that's a good family that's a good family you know when they ask you about you know when you go for a job application oh who is your father oh yeah I seen your grandfather well he was a good man hire this guy this grandfather was a very good man yeah almost as if you inherit these qualities in America when I go and apply for a job nobody says to me who is your father and your grandfather you know and even if I told them they wouldn't care it just doesn't make any sense to them but when I went visited the Middle East I found out that family background means a lot people once they know your family background they know you and even more so than that day in the seventh century they felt that these were inherited qualities you know and so the natural inclination would have been that if prophet muhammad peace be upon him had a son he would definitely inherit in some sense at least some of that divine inspiration some of that prophetic Manton and so you could see the relationship between the sealing of the prophecy prophethood with Muhammad and Allah explaining that and making the connection with the fact that he has no sons I believe and this is just my personal opinion that if prophet muhammad had a son even though the quran declared that he was the last of the prophets it would have been extremely difficult for so many members of the community not to bend that just the little not to assume that his sons the descendants had some special prophetic charisma the emotional need was there the emotional inclination was there are one of his closest companions whose personality was molded by the prophet peace be upon him through so many years couldn't tolerate the fact that he was dead and I'm a backer had to bring them to his senses as we know many many of the early Muslims sought from Muhammad's family a divinely guided leader one who through kinship would be would be endowed with a charismatic a divine authority yet the Quran history and the prophets decisions in the last days may God's peace be upon him made such a selection impossible or difficult first of all as we said he left no sons second mouth Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him outlived all of his daughters but his youngest fatima who died very shortly after he did and remember the arabs used to you know have queens in in pre-islamic history and so they would have mattered they might have been even inclined to see in her sort of sending the semi prophetic leadership or charisma let's say the lease but unfortunately but as it was she died very soon after he did ali Fatima's husband and the prophet's nephew would have been a very good likely candidate in the mind of many for that divinely inspired leadership that charisma but if if prophet muhammad peace be upon him chosen to succeed it but as it was at least the sunni muslims believe and i don't mean to make this an argument or anything it's just I'm not sending less than I'm presenting us in the point of view with without any feeling of competition with any other point of view this is just presenting my own personal feelings but as we feel as we believe he pointed no successor and it would be first Abu Bakr then oh my then it was man and then finally Ali and by that time the idea of the leadership of the Muslim community being a community selection was now a firmly established concept in the minds of most Muslims assigning the same the prophet's grandsons if they had attained the political leadership leadership I think it would have been very difficult for many of the Muslims not to see and then a very special sort of prophetic status almost I mean even to this day you see even in the West this type of human need in response remember Kennedy John F Kennedy was so loved that when he died people thought that Bobby Kennedy or Ted Kennedy this day would come to office they would just sort of take over where he left off good to be as if John Kennedy were back in office again they used to say yes let's have Camelot again there's no need to think that Bobby Kennedy would have been anything like John Kennedy or Ted Kennedy well now nobody thinks Ted Kennedy would have been like John Kennedy but for years people thought that well maybe inherited some of that John Kennedy ition is this it was a family trait but as it was both Hassanein say the prophets dear grandsons when we love so much never obtained political office and of course Hussein died tragically in Karbala without ever having achieved any political rule nonetheless various lines of descent from Ali came to be viewed by a significant Muslim minority as inheriting a prophetic charisma but most Muslims viewed the leadership of the community as simply a political appointment with certain religious responsibilities and significance that no divine mandate the majority of Muslims came to understand the designation the seal of the Prophet the catam of the Prophet which literally means the last in a series of four the last in a sequence of in the most obvious and conservative sense [Applause] now the Koran tells us I hope I'm not boring you after death I sigh just lay in bed at night thinking about things like this and then I get up the next day and type them in mine you know Macintosh I think no one would ever even care about this but you know it's just a random thoughts of a sort of a monkish character without no no let me take that back but any case the crown informs us that every nation has been sent a divinely guided messenger at some point in their history and maybe many messengers the prophet peace be upon him is reported to have said that at least 100,000 prophets have been said to mankind throughout its history and the one hand that sounds very great but on the other hand when you think about it at least when I think about it that's a rather pessimistic appraisal of mankind's moral and spiritual resolve because it would seem if so many prophets had to be sent and had to follow the previous prophets and then more had to come after that and another and another and another seems to say that mankind is quite poor in preserving and adhering to God's revealed Word so does it make sense then if man has this inclination to swerve from the teachings of the Prophet to distort what they are taught to not correctly follow what they've been given by God in Revelation does it make sense then then God would suddenly and abruptly leave humankind with its proven tendency for deviation from revelation does it make sense that God would leave mankind to itself until the end of creation after guiding him so directly up to and including the time of Prophet Muhammad that's exactly how one student at Kansas State University put the question to me as well very close now first of all the Muslim will usually counter and correctly that the Quran is distinguished from all other sacred scriptures by its purity and since these other scriptures are in some sense contaminated and the Quran is not this is one way that the Quran sort of completes it finalizes the process of Revelation others may contain statements other scriptures may contain statements close to what earlier prophets preached maybe even some verbatim accounts but these are so thoroughly mixed with folklore poetry interpretation personal commentary so thoroughly mixed with errors and translation copying copying editing errors and transmission errors so thoroughly mixed with other accretions cultural influences that the sifting out of actual revelation and these other scriptures becomes nearly impossible and um these are not my words these are in time and time again the scholars of those other religions with those scriptures modern scholars the Muslim insists on the other hand that the Quran contains nothing but the words proclaimed by Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him under what he was certain under what he was certain was miraculous revelation and most modern Western scholars of Islam are willing to admit that much har gibb said that the Quran he could be for all practical purposes sure that the Quran represents nothing more than what Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him preached was revelation from God what he felt and was sure in his own mind utterly sincere in his own mind that that was revelation from God and that was what the Quran represents the revelation he received from God to communicate to mankind now har given was not a Muslim so he maybe wasn't convinced of that that was true but he was convinced that the Quran represents what Muhammad felt and was certain was revelation from God and nothing but and many other scholars are we're willing to say to say and their numbers are legion Carlisle was one of the first and Montgomery watt will say the same today and I mean well I think he's still alive and Kenneth Craig you know you could just go on and on they all pretty much repeat that claim so the argument ghosts we Muslims now have the pure Word of God at least were certain of it at least we feel confident totally and completely confident of that and so there's no need for any future revelation but now the non-muslim will say yes okay I'm Willie hypothetically I'll accept that but what about the need to interpret and apply that revelation in an ever-changing world what about the many difficulties the many questions that are bound to arise that were not brought up in that revelation it's at least explicitly what about this I mean wouldn't it be helpful wouldn't it almost be necessary to have a prophet a divinely inspired messenger to help you through those difficulties to get the right interpretation because certainly Muslim interpretations of the Quran they vary widely who has the correct one the Muslim accounter yes we have the sinner the multitudinous recollections of Prophet Muhammad's sayings and doings peace be upon collected collated and subjected to a meticulous scientific historical criticism during the first three centuries of his life and these Anacin covers many many things it teaches us how to deal with many many situations and elaborates on the Quran and so we are fully prepared to meet the future head-on and this is sort of the classical argument the modern skeptic the students at k-state actually ever two of them I've seen many others around the country will say yes but let's be honest I mean certainly we'll encounter situations not dealt with in Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him his lifetime after all my Muslim friends your friendly skeptic will say it has been 1,400 years since his dim demise 14 centuries how do we correctly respond to situations that the Sun that never even dealt with and we do come up with situations that the cinah never dealt explicitly anyway explicitly the Muslim says we have the Sharia based on the Quran and the prophets under a complete code of living developed over several centuries by hundreds thousands of jurists to meet every possible foreseeable contingency yet is it any longer though to argue that point of view that the ancient jurors foresaw every single possible problem that would arise I mean there's all sorts of problems that arise we know as Muslims living in the States that there are many situations that if we turn to the ancient law manuals weren't just not going to find cover how do we respond to those aha the Muslim says we can study our scholars methodologies and repeat their effort and derive Islamic rules and regulations to address our current situation and we can and that's the obvious response but now the non-muslim says yes my Muslim friend but the farther we move away from the Quran the farther we move from the divinely revealed word the more humaneness we bring into this process the greater our dependence on human choices human judgments human effort which it seems is bound to differ between humans this one's going to disagree with that one this one's gonna argue with this one this one's gonna take this one this one's gonna reject that one they're gonna bounce the scholars what are going to be bound to different and argue we're gonna accept some things they're gonna throw out others they're gonna make decisions and in the process it seems since that's a human effort it's bound to involve errors at some point or other in other words the farther we move away from the original source of Revelation the more human activity we bring into that interpretive process the more we're bound to make mistakes we can't all be right hundreds of issues are being argued about by Muslims today as daya strive to adapt to modern living admittedly these arguments are not over concept central and essential to Islam at least from the standpoint of like al-qaeda beliefs and things like that there are what non-muslims would regard as mundane issues like men's and women's roles in the community banking and investment practices relations with non-muslims especially for those of us living in the West how do Muslims live as a minority in a Western non-muslim and the government Muslim involvement involvement in Western political systems or non Muslim political systems and similar concerns Muslims are arguing about these left and right heated arguments angry arguments passionate argument and even though they are not arguments over things central to Islamic belief they are extremely important to the community and such controversies do create a great deal of dissension and hurt and pain and strain and stress and so on as one Muslim student said to me during the Gulf conflict and only the Prophet peace be upon him after passionate argument in the mosque we're here today to settle these issues for us from this perspective that do we not need another prophet does it makes sense that Allah would abandon us for 1400 years and leave it to our own intellectual effort to solve our problems I mean why the non-muslim student said to me you could they could send another messenger to solve our problems and then another and another and another why suddenly no message how many answer we would you like me to go on are you tiger I think you look very tired either that or you look very nervous I don't know either that or you just but why is it this guy just sit down excuse me I'm a little tired it's a five and a half hour drive now in the answer we attempt is purely speculative speculative because the Quran does not explicitly respond to this issue at least explicitly first of all they're very wealthy and there probably are many many reasons in God's infinite wisdom why he entered ended and sealed prophecy with Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him we could and our own limited human capacity tried to venture a few for one thing perhaps the collective attempt to work out a program of living guided by the Quran and Muhammad's life example peace be upon him is in itself a very valuable social intellectual and spiritual exercise requiring cooperation tolerance humility and sincerity the possibilities for growth that such an endeavor whole may outweigh the benefits of having a prophet to decide every my no legal difference of opinion and many Muslim scholars in the past felt this way some of the ancient scholars said that God had nurtured humanity through sort of like a baby and then a child staged in a young adult stage and the humanity finally reached the stage when it was ready to receive and protect the perfect revelation and walk as adults in the world like a father parents do with children man had reached a stage where it was now time for him to take what he had learned and apply it and learn from it and that's certainly a legitimate response another factor might be that the current environment and I thought about this many times is incapable of producing an individual possessing the level of purity and simplicity needed to be a prophet life is much more corrupt than it was fourteen hundred years ago and soon after the time of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him life did become extremely corrupt even for the Muslims wealth poured into their community political chaos erupted there was all sorts of problems that infected the community and they needless to say the Byzantium in Rome and in Persian in the Indian and Chinese civilizations were already on their way down maybe life just became too corrupting and that none of us really are untouched by this corrupting influence of life there's even support for that point of view in the Quran for example and the end in the hadith there's a famous saying of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him which goes the best generation is my generation and then the next and then the next and then there will come a time when a person's oath will outstrip his witness and his witness will outstrip as oh those people becomes in general so corrupt and life so corrupting there's a verse in the Quran that tells us that the people that are foremost in faith are many in the generation of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him but lesser and less as time goes by there's even another verse in the Quran that says that even the Muslims some day will shut in the grass or many Muslims not all Muslims been many Muslims so maybe the times have just become so corrupting that none of us can reach the spiritual capabilities enlightenment receptivity of a Muhammad and Moses or Jesus peace be upon maybe life has just become too corrupt that's a possibility as well and I think we could venture many other possible explanations and these that I've all mentioned so far have been mentioned by many others in the past the next but let me try some to shared with you some just some very personal feelings on this and I'm almost done because you're probably very tired listening to speeches all day and it's getting late at night my poor students they had to listen to one of my lectures today about mathematics they're exhausted you sort of had that glazed exhausted look on your faces I think we could also get additional information on the subject vital information from the Quran you know ancient scholars and modern scholars many of the myths at the following that the best interpreter of the Quran is the Quran if you want to understand a certain verse from the Quran look again at the Quran and then again and then again and compare verses that deal with the issue and compare them and contrast them and maybe you'll learn something in them so what would be the best way analytically speaking to approach this question of the finality of Prophet Muhammad's mission peace be upon the natural thing I think at least this is what popped in my head the natural thing I think is to do is first let's see what necessitated his mission what does the Quran tells us what does the clan tell us about the food about this mission why was it necessary that he be charged with such a mission perhaps if we study that and that's a simpler will that's easy enough to do I think then we'll see and then we try to think about the finality of his mission maybe well and compare the tools get the some significant answers to this question at least that'll satisfy our skeptic from Kansas State University for example and he was a very nice man by the way well first of all the Quran tells us that Muhammad's Apostleship peace be upon him is the culmination and completion of God's direct communication to mankind through divinely inspired person so we think fine all right then what does a crime tell us about those divinely inspired messengers that preceded him well it tells us that their message was invariably corrupted so what was that message the single most important fact if you take the intersection of all everything that they were saying the single most important factor in all creation preached by all of God's messengers is very simple and anyone who reads the Quran knows the one thing that they all preached in common and none of us could deny is that they all preached that terse formula lat heed aha a la la there is no god but God there's none to be worshipped but God my daughter Sarah the other day my little daughter she's seven and she is a cutie pie as God wills of course uh she asked me daddy what it's worship me she said I went to Quran class all summer long last and they told me I shouldn't worship this I shouldn't worship faddish and only worship God nobody told me what worship me I thought the worship Sarah is when you make something the most important thing in your life so if it's another man you worship that man if that's the most important thing in your existence you send your life on that that's the object of worship if it's money she said money you could worship money I said yes because you make it the most important thing of your life you'll do anything to get it step on people cheap people hurt people you don't care how much damage you do you want to get that money you're worshiping money that's the center of your life Ron tells us that there is none and nothing to be worshipped but Allah that terse formula la ilaha ill allah there is no none to be worshipped there is no worship except the worship due to Allah it implies that the many different objects of worship that we as mankind choose it implies that the various objects of worship that we choose besides God Almighty have no real authority or power and that the divisions and hatreds that their misdirected venerations lead to are totally unnecessary and a result of nothing more than evil self-destructive man-made illusions so that when an example I showed my daughter the man who pursues wealth above all else his entire focus in life is getting that money and he's hurts others to do it stomps on others to do it cheats this one robs this one he's living an illusion because that'll never bring him happiness it'll never bring a miners' peace that will make them slaves a slave to every dollar scared to death to lose it and worst of all when he goes on to the next life when the only thing he'll bring with him that has any worth at all are his spiritual moral and ethical achievements the goodness that he grew in when he's bankrupt in that and his pockets on earth were filled with money he ful see the terrible terrible loss of that illusion that he lived and that's one of the messages of the Quran that there is none to be worshipped but Allah and when we worship any others we destroy ourselves we destroy others we separate ourselves from others with our object of worship becomes something we cling to and we keep others away from us we separate ourselves into different groups we hurt people that don't agree with our object worship what we feel in the way of our object of worship becomes a disintegrating demoralizing harmful factor in the human race but then but the phrase la ilaha ilallah of course means that there is but one spiritual and moral standard governing humanity and one measure of a person's worth as the Quran so pointedly says Oh mankind lo we have created you male and female and may have made you nations and tribes why so that you may come to know one another so that you may come to know one another lo the noblest among you in the sight of Allah is the one who is far most and foremost in goodness a single moral standard applying to all humanity and that we relate the Brian tells us God made us male and female and nations and tribes why so we could come to know each other and interact with each other and what type of interaction makes us the foremost the best in the sight of God and the and how to achieve the most peace and serenity in this life and the greatest reward and thereafter our level of goodness and our relationships with others and our commitment to our worship of god almighty most important of all la ilaha illaallah implies that the barriers we set up between ourselves and others are nothing more than fallacies because we all must answer to the supreme supreme almighty authority got all night in seventh century Arabia each tribe as you all know had its own deity from which it sought protection favoritism permission solicitation in the perpetual int'l enter tribal strife every tribe felt self justified right this tribe said appeal to its deity give me let me do this let me crush these people over here let me steal from this tribe over there go and pray to it this one went to his deity and this and they were using their gods and their objects of worship to support this perpetual intertribal strife that was tearing the Arabian Peninsula apart that it kept it completely disintegrated but it took Islam's monotheism to unite the warring factions as the Quran so poignantly points up it said and hold fast all of you together to the rope of Allah and do not separate and remember Allah's favour unto you how you were enemies and he made friendship between your hearts so that you became as brother's by His grace and how you on the brink of an abyss of fire and he did save you from it you know when Malcolm X made the pilgrimage he was really at that time his life even he'll tell you it was the first time he really understood his life and he made the Shahada all over again and committed himself anew to the religion that he felt he had never really understood up until that moment and when he speaks about tawheed and the phrase let you know hey la la he says that he came to realize that that implies two things the oneness of God and the unity and equality of all mankind and that's just what we're talking about right now la ilaha illaallah has two components first and foremost there is only one God and from that if natural corollary that we are all in essence equal in humanity we just because we're Muslims you have no right to take advantage of non-muslims just because we are Muslims and we feel around the right path that gives us no right to cheat others our fellow human beings tomorrow could submit themselves to God and be much better than we are we have no right to wish them ill unless they attack us we have no right to cheat them we have no right to be fouled to them we have no right the Prophet peace be upon him said to even use foul language to them because we are all sons of Adam we're all children of Adam and we are all essentially equal potentially spiritually equal in Allah sight and the sight of God I had to well and every Muslim every convert learns this with any converts around here every convert learns this very quickly and I got two dramatic lessons of this very early on and I've had many many lessons since but I remembered my first I was sitting in a message in San Francisco I've had been a Muslim for about three weeks since a black American brother some african-american brothers came over from Oakland and one of the brothers the amount of the messages there he gave a speech and after the speech he finished his speech it was the question and answer period and I was sitting there with my white American friend grant and Abdel Halim that's lecturer was sitting there with four brothers from Oakland Africa and American brothers and then one of the student Muslim students raised his hand who was from overseas and he asked him and Abdullah Lima been a Muslim now for about ten years he asked him brother I've got a lien do you feel that Islam has affected your life and I've done leaned Ashoka's head he just shook his head like when I have to answer a math question ten times in a row you know when somebody just keeps asking it again and again and again and then he looked at us across the room grant and I and he pointed to us he said you know no one is going bananas on no one understands he said should I get away that's a loud microphone for such a small audience we could turn it off you could still hear me really said okay I won't go so close I'm Darlene he looked at grant right that grandma granted me and he said no one understands no one could possibly understand how much how much ah well this is sometimes happens the audit end we turn the marks often they still [Music] he said maybe I can move [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for Black Panthers but I was a member of a white gang and we used to fight I never fought him personally but I used to fight the black men and our young black men and they used to fight us and that those fights used to get very violent and out of control and then when I was listening to his speech I was remembering all that and now I was sitting with this young this young man and he's sitting with me as brothers and we met and we embraced after that lecture and we've been very good friends ever since and it just shows you Islam's great unifying capacity another interesting instance of this since that one got erased from the tape let me present this one cuz Hamid likes to get sound bites uh but this one affected me very deeply again I had been a Muslim for now going on about six weeks seven weeks and I don't know what happened but one night we had a lecture in the messages and some african-american brothers were there I was there grant was there another white American brother there were brothers from Saudi Arabia Kuwait Palestine Egypt Sri Lanka Pakistan it was crowded there was some difference of opinion I can't remember what it was I know it was political it was some political issue and then everything just erupted the Saudi brothers started yelling at the Palestinian brothers the Palestinians started yelling back at the Saudi brothers the Americans started taking sides the blacks were against the whites the Sri Lankan brothers were siding with the Pakistani brothers with the Saudi brothers against the Palestinians and the Americans people really starting to get angry I remember some of the things that were being said oh you Saudis wanted to go back to the sand from where you came and the Saudi said what do you know um Riki's you just became Muslim just the other day and the white brother said to the black brothers yeah but you know you began with Elijah Muhammad and all that sort of stuff what do you know you've been a Muslim for two weeks and it was just going bananas people were shouting at each other it was getting angry and you know Americans when they get angry they like to throw punches and I swear punches were about to get thrown any second I mean faces were red veins are popping out I saw the Fisk grants Vince was back like this couple of black America brothers they were ready or if we were ready to go back to the 60s again and have a street battle right there in the messages and drag those rest of those Middle Eastern brothers in with us and we have gotten to such a rage and such a point attention and then all of a sudden this little guy Muhammad I think his name was and he was from Palestine he never says anything he's the most quiet guy in a mosque I don't even think any of us realized he was there he stood up we're all standing up on each other looked at each other okay again we shouted it lay down the line Muhammadan Rasul Allah he said brothers that's what we're about and that's what binds us just look at us we all looked at each other and now all of a sudden people were hugging and asking for forgiveness and everything like that but he sees the point that my Allah muhammadun Rasulullah doesn't mean you just worship God but then we are brothers in equals in that worship of God and sisters as well brothers and sisters here it goes is going again seems that whenever I get emotional that's what happens these are two demands the oneness of God and the oneness of men and unity a man under God have throughout history been very difficult to keep together in any religious tradition say that again jack throughout history these two demands of monotheism the worship of one God and the unity of all mankind under God have been very difficult to preserve both these implications of monotheism in any religious tradition and the Quran gives us two very powerful and dramatic illustrations what two communities am I talking about community of the Jewish faith Judaism and Christianity these are the two ultimate examples that the Quran provides as you all know the children of Israel is a people in the crisis of presented in Quran who throughout most of their history much of their history are uniquely receptive to monetise to the worship of one guy and yet they live in a predominantly pagan environment outside influences frequently penetrate their community we see it again and again in the Quran causing them to waver from the teachings of their prophets in the Quran they peer as a nation and a constant struggle between worship of one God and hidden pressures and this in part explains their need the children of Israel's needs to insulate themselves and isolate themselves from the social surroundings and it explains their attempt to preserve and protect the racial and cultural purity imagine itself is not bad but as the qur'an presents him the children of israel came to see themselves as god's chosen people not just in the sense that he favored them with many prophets but in the sense that they were somehow better than the rest of humanity that god made something like a superhuman race a race that is above and beyond the other races a race created for the benefit of all the other races a superior race and they saw themselves as god's chosen people to the exclusion of all others and as sons of god in the old testament sense those especially loved by god well all else are just there because of this they could never the garage says except Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him as the final Messenger of God because of his non-jewish origins even though he confirmed the essential message in their possession the Quran continuously blames the children of Israel for their few refusal in this regard and for their arrogance and for their exclusiveness in short as the Quran presents Judaism its problem with Judaism is although it was successful in preserving belief in one God it failed and was unable to accept the oneness of all mankind under God Christianity in the quran situation is almost completely the opposite the reverse christianity goes back to the same biblical roots it's such a brilliant example of course it is I mean this revelation but much more than Judaism Christianity is a universal religion it readily embraces all mankind some time in the history of Christianity sometimes it went too far in that I became violent and its attempt to get every everyone within its fault Christianity gets its solidity its coherence from an intense spiritual yearning to be know and loved by God so while the Jews and the pagans of the Arabian Peninsula were stubbornly closed to the any message that departed from their tradition we see the Quran chose to Christians be more easily affected by the spiritual force of the Quran until you see tears streaming down their eyes when certain verses are recited etc but the difficulty that such Universal faced as Christianity have the difficulty they encounter is what is the great diversity of people they bring in now why is that a problem because when you bring in all these people you just don't bring their bodies you bring their language you bring their ideas you bring their backgrounds you bring their symbols you bring their cultural practices all these things could potentially pervert the religion all their former religious ideas all their cultural background everything they're gonna seem interpret things through that experience and so that's always a potential danger to corrupt the purity of the teachings of the religion from the Muslim view such was the case with Christianity and from the caranas point of view - although it eagerly embraces all mankind it compromises in its tenets pure mana these and leads to easily - associating others with God its language which was inherited from the Hellenic culture from which it sprang use language that's very symbolic very high in the sky but it's very easy to the symbolic language for people to allow strange interpretations into the faith at least that's we must have seen words like son of God Trinity etc three hypostases you know all these things are coming from the surrounding culture ideas that come from the mystery cults ideas that seem to be it shares with Mithraism and some of the other religions in the region as christianity embraced all these peoples and invited them into the religion those ideas did these from the most important view affect and distort the teachings of the Prophet so here we see two different sides of the coin one community successfully preserving faith in one God belief in one God but incapable of accepting a oneness of man under God the other religion community faithfully embracing all mankind for the most part but corrupting at least from the Muslim point of view and the Grands point of view allowing corruption to seep in into the idea of one God in this way the Jewish Christian experience exemplifies the dilemma faced by all of the great world religions monotheism or universalism where one of the other was compromised in time to preserve one or the other are you following me so far Islam struggled and still struggles with these internal tensions and in the past extreme measures were to be taken by Muslim scholars to protect protect both implications of monotheism philosophical and mystical speculation were discouraged all aspects of life were organized and put into Islamic law and systematized all innovative thought forbidden through the adoption of buckly blind acceptance of early scholarly opinion and pressures would continue to rise throughout the ages but it's dim Islamic mainstream for the most part succeeded in placing the major sources and ideas of mainstream Islam on ice and preserved them in a type of suspended animation which eventually be just transformed to modern man to us today intact now whatever the cost of muslim civilization of the severe steps taken by muslim scholars of the past and people like to argue about that the two major features of Islamic monotheism of tawheed the oneness of God and the oneness of man under God was successfully United in Islam and passed on to future generations and to my knowledge I've studied just about every major world religion at least from my point of view when I studied the many world religions Islam is the only one I ever saw that successfully combined both implications of monotheism the oneness of God and the oneness of man the two essential implications of that and for Muslims this is one of the ways one of the ways how God through his mom completed his favour unto mankind okay this only takes five minutes our critic says not so fast okay other religions have corrupted monotheism either one implication or the other I'm willing to accept that Islam faithfully preserved both essential implications of monotheism with the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon and through future generations thereafter I'm willing to accept that but why no future profit I mean you explain to me what Islam accomplished but the mission of Prophet Muhammad accomplished but I still don't see why no future prophet how does that relate to this are you following me but this only takes a minute right you've probably already figured out the answer just consider the reverse consider the opposite let's say prophethood wasn't sealed with Prophet Muhammad peace be upon let us say that the door to prophethood was left open that when prophet muhammad peace be upon him died the Muslims felt that other possible prophets could come after Prophet Muhammad peace be upon what would been what it would have been the result well every other religion has known it deluded individuals self-deluded individuals sometimes self-interested individuals would arise to claim they were prophets every religion you have the people that do this right there rise from the community and say I am a prophet David Koresh Jim Jones the Maharishi etc they all rise up and say I am a prophet and as Muslims if the door to profited was left open when Prophet Muhammad died peace be upon him we've have to consider it if you got up tomorrow and said I'm a prophet I've received revelation from God I would have to at least hear what you hear you out okay then you tell me what your Proclamation and then I have to consider it away and I might become one of your followers and then you might arise and say but I am a prophet I have received revelation from God Jimmy Swaggart did I have receive revelation from God tonight after I saw your claims I would have to consider your point of view and then some of us would go already you and someone would go over here and some of us would go over here and some of us would go over here why because the door that we are anticipating a coming profit so any person who makes that claim he's bound to draw followers and we could see the religion fragmenting followers of this guy who claimed he was a prophet followers of this guy who claimed it was a prophet every religion has known it and every religion has had to deal with it and every religion has been fragmented and disintegrated by him but Islam with the sealing of prophethood with Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him tremendously restrained that tendency any Muslim leader today he could gain the devotion of his followers he could gain the supreme respect of his followers they might be willing to die for him to protect they might love him tremendously but he would never get that unn that complete and total submission that complete and total confidence that divine messenger demands the minute a Muslim scholar or a Muslim leader says I am a prophet I've received revelation from God I have a new scripture I have a new revelation every Muslim knows that he is gone he is outside of this religion from the scholar in his Citadel - this the Muslim on the street the minute he hear somebody say I'm a prophet of God I'm the Messenger of God stay away from that guy all right remember Rashad Khalifa people are curious about it what he was saying he's doing all this strange stuff with the computer actually I looked at a stuff I wasn't impressed at all but in any case he was doing all this stuff with the computer people are naturally curious he was making bold and radical claims people wanted to know what he had to say even yeah even I I thought he was a crackpot but I still wanted to know what he had to say but the minute he sent out that bulletin saying I am The Messenger of God everybody said this guy's nuts and a few years later he dad died with only a handful of followers because every Muslim knows once he made that claim he's crazy and he's not gonna bring many followers with it not Muslim scholars called the Qadiani the Baha'i the Druze they call them Islamic sects Muslims don't call them Islamic sects we don't consider them alternative perspectives in Islam we don't even consider them heretical perspectives in Islam Muslims considered them completely outside of Islam and these movements had one very few converts from the Muslim community by and large they've got new converts from the Zoroastrian community the Christian community various other communities but they've one very very few from the Muslim community especially when you think there's a billion Muslims out there they've went virtually none why because all these groups claim a prophet after prophet muhammad peace be upon so when Allah sealed prophethood with Prophet Muhammad peace be upon us it was a key moment in history because with the mission of Prophet Muhammad he brought both implications of monotheism to mankind and guaranteed their preservation the oneness of God the worship of only one God and the unity of all mankind under God there would be a continual witness of that on earth and the only community that I think with these witnesses that pure unadulterated form on earth that's our chart that's our duty as Muslims to be continual witness to both those implications and with the sealing of prophethood with Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him allah guaranteed that that community would stay together through thick and thin at least we should remain unified and by sealing the prophet hood with Prophet Muhammad Allah guaranteed in this infinite wisdom and knowledge as he says in the Quran Allah is all-knowing when he talks about the sealing of prophethood with Prophet Muhammad because he knows what we're like by sealing it with Prophet Muhammad he protected us from the fragmentation the disintegration that would naturally set in if he didn't seal prophethood with Prophet Muhammed so this was powerful way that Allah brought both implications of monotheism to mankind for his own benefit and guaranteed its preservation when we Muslims make the Shahada and we do as a matter of fact we state my de laval hamadan with solola 17 times a day in our daily prayers we all know that when we say that and we say ii at that statement muhammad died and rasul allah mohamet is the prophet of allah we all say and we all knowledge when we say that implicitly that prophet muhammad peace be upon him is the lat not only the prophet but the last prophet and the one that all that we the only one that we should follow at this point in the revelation of the Quran can I give you one last example of and then I'll let you go to sleep see you guys nearly look tired but this example touched me very deeply takes him about three minutes to describe it's so easy for us to this day in our to acknowledge and preserve one implication of tawheed and neglect its corollary the oneness of man under God I see a time and time again in our Muslim community and I've even seen it with myself on many occasions here's my own personal example how easy it is sometimes in our zeal to hold on to one to contaminate the other I was on a pilgrimage a few years ago and I went to Saudi Arabia worked in a university there for a year I don't like to travel I don't like desert heat I just I'm the type of person likes to stay home but I went there because I thought at the very least I'll get to go to the pilgrimage it was a miserable year for me it was just terrible and after I made the pilgrimage in July a couple weeks later at the getting on a plane and going back to the United States but I was so emotionally and psychologically exhausted I don't know how many battles I thought there Saamy Arabia when I was there the people are wonderful people by the way but you know cultural differences and things like that but in any case in any case I got to that pilgrimage I was weary exhausted frustrated exasperated but I thought if anything good is gonna come out of this it's gonna be the pilgrimage and I'm gonna do it right and I studied for months before I got there memorized everything I knew exactly what to do I got to that building Wow it was started out beautiful brothers and sisters from all over the world everywhere I went you are you an American yes I'm an American uh could you tell me how you became a Muslim I would stand there and start telling people in the week a big crowd or huh maybe feel sort of special I didn't know it see another guy with blond hair blue eyes like me dramatic looking the whole time I was there until the very end I saw one guy he surpassed me looked at me but but in any case I can see why I felt like a novelty almost you know but unfortunately I got the famous pilgrimage flew about 12 hours into the pilgrimage and by the second day I had it big time I had a temperature of a hundred and five the heat was getting up to 120 something you know if you're in minima or Mecca there's these huge cliffs on the side and you know you're in like this tiny little Valley like a pot almost and when that Heath comes down it's a hundred and twenty-five outside it's like a hundred and fifty ground level all right maybe I'm exaggerating but it just that he just just crisis from the ground his car now it's part of the soil so it's just baek's there and that heat rises up and a hundred five fever I was getting sicker and sicker it started explaining to people how I became a Muslim I didn't want to talk to anybody anymore I was sort of hiding my face hoping nobody would see me you know the days went by we got to the fourth day the fifth day I just used to hide try to get out of the heat the temperature was getting worse we sat in those refrigerated buses I felt like was I'm in my freezer I felt like I was sitting on ice cubes I'm shivering so much I go outside to walk and I'm sweating like crazy but getting sicker and sicker day by day got to the you know through the stones got all that done just got it over with got hit in the head I was just I was just so beaten up I tell you you know I thought the fasting was hard praying five times a day i I love but you know that's a challenge but the pilgrimage I tell you you know it may be easier to get there now than it ever was before but it's harder to perform all the rituals than it ever was before I mean I got into that message it after I went back to the Moscow at Six Day and you know the last time I'm gonna visit the monster I'm gonna pack up leave and go back to Jeddah and from there to the United States I got to that loss and it was more crowded than ever I mean it seems like all two-and-a-half million pilgrims were in there and they said it was the hottest day of the pilgrimage and I was going around and making the rounds around the Kaaba and you know the crowd was so huge you just you can't you don't even bother walking just let them just sort of drag you along you know I did it says the suppress of humanity just moves you along and Here I am sick you know can i least and they're just being moved back you know going arad same thing when i make the you know sorry between safa and marwah seven times took me i've done it before you know just unruhe and have done the whole thing in 45 minutes this day it took me two and a half hours you know I just had to wait for the mass of humanity to get through okay so I finally make it there I'm dripping I'm not not the type of guy who sweats I was dripping hurt too tall I mean I was just covered in water I mean everything my uh my clothes were all wet I just got out of there and you know I wanted to get a deep breath cool breath of fresh air that heat just blasts at you like a huge gigantic hair blower you know it just hits you in the face I saw on their condition bus come down you know from minna got in the bus I thought that would take me back to where my own bus was I'd get off and finally leave well I got in the bus and I didn't want to talk to anybody I purposely picked a seat in the back of the bus where no one would bug me I just figured I'll just go back here I'll close my eyes let pretend I'm sleeping nobody will bother me I'll just you know get off and get out sure enough I get in the bus I sit down I lied they're key people and I slightly open seeing if anybody is looking at me my face turns around from the front of the bus he's looking back at me I think oh no please don't come this way look again yes he's walking he's walking down the aisle please don't sit next to me please don't sit know his head boom I feel the body sitting next to him maybe he just didn't like the front of the bus I was thinking to hoping you know maybe he just won't bug me maybe you'll think I'm sleeping close both eyes tight please I don't want to hear those words and then sure enough are you an American just pretend I didn't hear him I'll close my eyes a little tighter excuse me are you an American I open what I just slightly yes yes I am maybe that'll be enough I'm hoping he said so would you mind telling me how you became a Muslim the man's name his name is Ahmed he was from Bangladesh I thought help Ella have reduced it down for like a 15 second explanation by now I used to tell him I have 10 minutes the first day now it was a 30-second spot make a little sound by told him well I was an atheist there's several objections about religion I read the Quran I found those objections I resolved them I found much more in the Quran actually once those barriers were broken down I was moved deeply and I went to the message and became a Muslim I thought well maybe that'll kill it that'll just about do it I look up at my friend and I just looked through the my eyelashes at the guy sure enough tears are flowing down his cheeks and I looked at him and I felt so guilty because I always hoped that God would give me that spiritual quality that something that small could move me so deeply as this moved on I mean here I'd butchered the explanation reduced it to 20 seconds said it arrogantly and exasperatedly and still he was that moved and then Ahmed looked at me and he said you know Prophet Ibrahim was much different than you and I he had such a sincerity such faithfulness to Allah and when all I told him to do something he is personally so molded by Allah that he would just do it without question knowing that there was a wisdom and a genius and a knowledge behind him he said you know when Allah told property for him to go out and make the call for the pilgrimage there was no one else there may be a few sheep herders a couple members of his family he's told to go out and call for the pilgrimage it was you or I said we wouldn't we'd say what there's nobody here we'd have second thoughts but Prophet Ibrahim had such sincerity such trust that he knew that there was a wisdom behind it and he just walked out to the center of this hot valley and he called the Adhan and called called for the building and he said and if only prophet ibrahim could see today people from all over the world two and a half million thronging to this place responding to that call he said and who and if he can only see two brothers one from the United States of America and the other one from Bangladesh sitting as brothers and a bus back to minna how that would touch his heart then I looked at aphid and now I was talking back to feelings Americans don't like to cry so I was really were this I was working you know you know trying to just hold it in you know not let him show any feelings for not and I and I was successful but I tell you the truth that when he said that I felt like I had to just repeat the entire pilgrimage again because you know throughout that pilgrimage I had done every ritual formally right I had rehearsed him for months I got myself all worked up about it I was gonna make sure that I was gonna worship Allah perfectly that pilgrimage but by that last day in Mecca that last day I had forgotten somehow through it all the second most important implication of the worship of one guy that we are all brothers and sisters as Muslims and as in humanity under God's Authority and under God's love and it took Ackman on that last day to remind me of that and I say a lot for sending I only wish Allah knows best I guess that's the way he wanted to teach but for my own sake if I would have had it otherwise maybe I would have had him come earlier and tell me but maybe that's the time I needed it most and may the peace and mercy of Allah be upon you all so now more they come along with Allah thank you can you load the sound a little bit on on that one yeah thank you dr. Jeffery may Allah bless you for your trip I guess his experience in Hajj is an experience of an American making Hajj which makes a big difference than people who were raised in the desert and people who are used to the heat of the desert and inshallah next time you won't have the same difficulties hopefully insha'Allah we gonna have some time for the questions so please if you have you can write your question bring it to me if you don't want to speak speak out or you can come to the mic and please make your question can can you help us turn the lights on the lawsuit anymore well it's better you come and speak from them I can't Oh yeah please any questions please yes hello hello there is there is no mic working in the hole unfortunately the now exists in here could be people out there that some problems and we try to figure out world as people people on the speakers are so there is no mics that are broken so you can speak for you sitting [Applause] and always was even intuitive interruption one [Applause] we have that from my English which comes first I did yeah if you explain a bit warm is that a spoiler also no no it's just from my first of all i i i just i just read the quran you know if you look at the history of the children of israel that's presented in the quran you're right they are wavering you know between adherence to the idea of the oneness of God and then they corruption sets in another prophet comes brings them back corruption comes back corruption comes back this is their history you can see it as a community constantly battling with this tension you know between belief and one God and the pagan influences around them but from what I know of Judaism they were finally successful in preserving and guarding that idea the oneness of God this much Judaism I think any even Muslim scholar who knows Judaism it's not a crowd up here any Muslim scholar who knows Judaism any scholar of Judaism anybody who knows Judaism well know that they were finally successful in preserving belief in the oneness of God but as Jews will also tell you that they are not they don't easily and readily embrace others into the religion to this day and I've had I've had a good friend that once tried to be enter the Jewish religion and they told him that he would not be really totally fully accepted as a Jew but in a few generations his children might a few generations down the line so the point of it is though as the Koran presents the Jews and as we know about the Jews they were successful in preserving the oneness of God this belief but they failed in accepting the oneness and spiritual spiritual and essential equality of all mankind this was the reason why they couldn't accept Prophet Muhammad peace be upon so Quran says that this confirmed the message confirmed modes of what was in their possession but they couldn't accept them because why it's non Jewish origin you see what I mean so what I was saying was the Jewish religion was capable of preserving one fundamental implication of monotheism but they failed in the other the Christians on the other hand are a very universal religion they readily seek new Christians and conference and they always have and they have always been a very spiritual image and you see them very moved easy easily spiritually in the Quran the Quran itself admits even says as opposed to the Jews for example it says the Christians are humble they're humble and the tears flow from their eyes when they hear the truth of what's being recited before them so they are very much as a community they've been much more willing to embrace mankind and they've always been a universal religion but as I accepted more and more outside influences into the community it obviously became corrupted this is a well-established fact and the Quran criticizes many of these corrupt beliefs that the Quran says our corrupted beliefs that came into the religion corrupted terminology Trinity son of God etc etc etc so the point is is that Christianity was able to embrace all mankind but it was unable to preserve in its pure form belief in the oneness of God it's too easily corrupted it leads people to easily into false ideas about God the terminology of Christianity it's very clear that this is true you know there's many Christians today if you walk up to an average Christian on the street you may walk up to a Christian scholar and he could say no there's only one God and we pray to God through Jesus in Jesus name you know and you're trying to think well I mean is he or is he I mean what does this but for the average guy in the street this is very confusing and you can walk up to the common Christian and it all he does is hear the phrase three persons in one God then here's the phrase he's taught son of God he's taught God incarnate either hurt learns his terminology and many a Christian if you approach him I would say the majority of common Christians if you asked him does Christianity believe that Jesus is divine does it believe that Jesus is God's Son does it believe that Jesus should be worshiped does it believe that Jesus is God many Christians will say yes and they admit that they pray to Him and of course for Muslim this is worship of a man so the point of it is is Christianity may have embraced all mankind but it corrupted or it's too easily corruptible when it comes to the belief in one God are you following me the only rate you can look at the rest of the world religions I did and I don't mean to criticize them I'm just making a case or a Muslim perspective I'm not here to put down other people's beliefs but when I studied Hinduism for example I found the Hindu Hinduism allows for the belief in many deities and many gods it doesn't insist on it there even some Hindus that hermanas theists some are Monas and some are pagans but Christmas Hinduism allows for all that so to me there's another sign of a type of corruption there not only that it has a caste or as throughout much of its history had a caste system which violates the oneness and unity and spiritual quality of all mankind under God when I turned to Buddhism Buddhism doesn't the the main issue in Buddhism is how to get past the suffering that this life has how to get out of the cycle of suffering it brings God into the picture hardly at all you could actually never even discuss God and just follow the program so Buddhism sort of got the problem I've always had with Buddhism is it sort of ignores God certainly is not the type of monotheism that the Quran says that we should believe in Taoism Confucius to the other major world religions to me they seem more like philosophies than religion God hardly ever arrived on the scene let's talk about the balance in nature the balance in creation the yin begin in the egg everything this has a balance the causality in nature etcetera etcetera that's all very nice is a beautiful philosophy it's probably a lot of truth in it but where is God so my point is is that the only religion that insists on both asked both implications of tallied and as preserved both the implications and has been a witness to both implications ever since it first received them it's the Muslim community and this is part of their mission on earth I hope that answers your question in part thank you here is a question from the sisters here Oh what what's your best advice as far as an American Muslim as an American Muslim for us who was who were born and raised in Islam Muslim cultures what's your best advice for us who want to make Dawa for American people who want to share their point of view with American people the religious point of view perspective with American people that's a very hard question I would say maybe the example of the job that you gave me pull yeah one example I always tell people really I really deep in my heart I believe the best thing you could do is number one the first thing not to do first thing you should try to avoid don't answer a question if you're not sure about the answer Muslims are notorious for doing that giving answers with great authority when they really are not quite certain about what they're saying maybe it's something your grandmother told them maybe it's something they heard somebody can make it a Friday prayer Muslim somehow feel that when you ask them a question they have to have an answer and so they rush out and blurt out something they feel that sometimes they have any answer is better to have no answer when in fact to admit you have no answer is usually better than give a wrong answer that's one thing to avoid second thing try not to mix and if you're unsure just leave the matter alone try not to mix sort of cultural adaptations to the religion with the essentials of the religion you know what I mean all of us all of our culture's adapted well most of us are children of converts all of us are children of converts to Islam most of us are children of converts to Islam and those converts I mean descendants of converts and those original Muslims that we trace our lineage back came from vastly different cultures each of those cultures edited adapted to the religion made that adaptation that interpretation through the eyes of that culture that doesn't mean that how this follows culture adapted to the this precept of the religion was wrong but that doesn't mean this other cultural adaptation here was wrong either doesn't mean that his adaptation was an interpretation is irreligious but it doesn't mean his is here religious either they are seeing it from very different points of view and circumstances but what we have a tendency to do with Muslims is insist that our point of view our particular cultural perspective on a certain religious question is the only one and we insist on and we dogma ties it and we present that to an American non Muslim as a fact as an essential and very often we're doing tremendous damage because it doesn't allow for any hymn for any of room to see or relate to that part of the religion you shut the door he's cannot possibly relate to it because he can't become the enter that cultural perspective that's the second thing third thing try to stress the essentials of the religion and that of course you have to we have to study and learn the essential precepts of our religion try to stress those most important I would suggest that you should do what somebody did with me once and and somebody when you're dealing with somebody who's sincerely and really intently interested in Islam knowing what Islam represents I would really boldly put forth this set you one time I'll just add in a short story one time I and I'll mention this tomorrow one time I got very frustrated I was discussing something with Muslims and I they weren't making sense and I kept cornering them and trapping them and they were getting very frustrated and they'd say you know well God did this and this and I'd say yeah but if you did that that doesn't make sense because this contradicts that and then it's oh yeah but there they were getting run into circles and they were really starting to sound kind of crazy and foolish finally the smartest one among said to me look doctor we don't really know the questions are asking her beyond anything we have ever considered if you really want to know the answer why don't you just read the Quran because you know we're human beings we're trying to explain it to you but we believe that the Quran is God's revealed word to all mankind you're getting our meager understanding that Quran and we're trying to answer your question filtered through it go to the source and I did and I became a Muslim so the point of it is is is that if you're in doubt back away and obtain more knowledge or send a person to somebody you have feel have a greater knowledge on that issue and second don't be discouraged from telling the person to get and you could find them in any US library to go get a translation of the Quran with commentary and interpretation of the Quran with commentary and you could suggest and that's very important know some very good ones ones that people have converted to Islam thought were very good find out from them what worked for them and I would try to send people in that direction really I would send them I usually tell people myself I have a list of books in mind that I think are very good I have some interpretations of the Quran that I think are very good and I usually tell Americans I usually begin by answering their questions very whatever they have very shortly and then I tell them you know this book this book this book is probably quite good and this interpretation of the Quran by so-and-so I enjoyed very much and then they could go ahead and if they're interested in truly interested they could look at those and without any coercion or pressure consider them and I think that's a very good way to go about it okay any more questions yes well sir Nonnie my profit [Applause] [Applause] right [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] yeah well no actually I did mention that I mentioned that as one of the classical arguments but I said that still many non-muslims that I've talked to and I've told them this I mean I've presented that in front of audiences exactly what you're talking and I did mention it along the way maybe it just missed it or maybe the language I was using was Muslims will say that this was the on a date unadulterated Word of God perfect revelation there's no need for a revelation after this because now this is the final perfect form of Revelation preserved in its original language it's not a corrupted text in any case I was trying to make that point but I was saying that still a non-muslim alasc yes okay but what about interpreting that message you know and then the Muslim will say that well the son that we have the Sunnah yeah but the sudden that didn't cover everything the non-muslim will say no no not humanism but the more okay so then we go from the Quran then we go to the Sunnah then we go to the Sharia that malla Sharia didn't cover everything that comes up in modern time so we have to revive that Sharia and we have to repeat the effort made by ancient scholars but in that process human decisions are being made human interpretations are being made I'm just presenting the non Muslim argument and the non-muslim will say what if you make mistakes in that wouldn't it be beneficial if you had a divinely guided messenger to put you on the right track every time are you following me but still you have to interpret that source you know Muslims are fighting and arguing about a hundred thousand issues I mean I'm not I'm not arguing that we need another messenger I'm just saying that I can understand the non-muslims argument wouldn't it be great if we had a continuous permanent messenger always with us him and then the next and then the next always resolved every little legal issue we have well I mean wouldn't it be nice and if God is all merciful why doesn't he give us that benefit this is their typical argument I'd like to thank you all for your patience and your participation and hopefully insha'Allah tomorrow morning we'll solve the sound problems that we have over here thank you very much and we'll see you inshallah in the morning some planet Elohim or the indignation or later England the stuff you know karana to bode well here Hamad this is the last time I'll keep it locked

Channel: Speakers On Islam

Views: 102,269

Rating: 4.9137931 out of 5

Keywords: Islam, Jeffrey Lang, Jeff Lang

Id: x9Wyz9qWt_w

Length: 106min 48sec (6408 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 07 2018