[cheerful music] >> This is the outline that we have for the next few days
that I was talking about. So a recap of that and this
is the outline for today. Gonna share with you Islam
through the eyes of Muslims looking at the religion of Islam, the history, the issue
of Hadith, and the law. We're going 'til 10 o'clock, right? >> Yeah.
>> Yes. >> Man: It's goin' fast. >> Whoa, okay. [class laughing] Alright so, here's what we got
and we'll start covering it. Now when we take a look at
Islam and you ask Muslims today what Islam is, especially in the west, they will give you a picture of Islam relative to what you
probably already know. You go to the why Islam website. Now this is a website that is devoted to bringing westerners to Islam. They have ad campaigns
on bus lines, on trains, and what have you all over the nation. Well, in a few cities anyway. They're getting people to look into Islam and they're doin' a good job of it. Here's what they say; Islam is the culmination of
the universal message of God taught by all of his prophets. Muslims believe that a prophet was chosen for every nation at some
point in their history, enjoining them to worship God alone and delivering guidance on how to live peacefully with others. Some of the prophets of God include Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. Peace be upon them all. The prophets all conveyed
the consistent divine message of worshiping one god along
with specific societal laws for each nations circumstances. However, after the prophets
delivered the divine guidance to their people, their message was lost, abandoned or changed over time, with only parts of the
original message intact. God then sent another prophet, Mohammed, to rectify their beliefs. If you understand the
way Muslims see Islam, they say hey, were all
part of the same tradition. We're all part of the same lineage. God has sent prophets to all people over a long, long period of time. Since the inception of people, every person has had
a prophet sent to them in order to guide them to the truth. All prophets taught Islam;
that's what they will say. Clarifying question? Elbow itch?
>> Yeah, elbow itch. >> Okay.
[class chuckling] All prophets taught Islam. Over time they started changing it to look like other things. That's why Judaism doesn't
look like Islam today. That's why Christianity
doesn't look like Islam today. Because people changed it. In addition, the original
religions did not have the comprehensive message. They had portions of the message necessary for those people in those times. That is why the Jews were
taught to fight under Moses. They were taught to fight
because at that time, fighting was necessary. Jesus was told to turn the other cheek because at his time, if
they had fought the Romans, they would have been crushed;
so they did not fight. Mohammed came and he
taught fighting is good in certain circumstances
and not fighting is good in other circumstances. Islam is the culmination
of previous messages and it's what uncorrupts
the previous messages. It fixes it, it confirms what
Allah had originally said. That is the nutshell of
Islam that you will hear from a Muslim if he's gonna
share Islam with you briefly. However we have all kinds of Muslims. We have over three million
Muslims in the United States the number was in 2005. The number now is a bit fluctuating. Depending on where you
look, you'll see numbers as small as three million. You'll see them as large as 12 million depending on who's doing the survey. It's somewhere between there. It's around seven, eight, nine million. Somewhere around there is how many Muslims there are in the United States. But if you look worldwide,
Islam is a huge phenomenon. About a quarter of the
world considers himself or herself to be Muslim;
that's huge, 1/4 people. So even if where you live
in your pocket of the world, you feel like there's
not many Muslims around, it's probably because
you haven't penetrated into the Muslim circles
that are in your area, especially here, I mean especially in... Where are we? I'm kidding. Especially in Southern California. Lots of Muslims in this area. So definitely what we have here, what we're talking about
here can really be used in your daily life even
if you so choose to do. We feel like we're sheltered. We feel like Christianity
is the status quo in the world because 237 million people according to 2005 government statistics, call themselves Christian in this nation. So this is self-identification. That's about 80% of the nation would self-identify as Christian. Compare that to the world. In the world, we have approximately
2.2 billion Christians. That's about 1/3. Again these numbers are from 2005. The numbers constantly
fluctuate and change. I would not be surprised
one bit if by the year 2020, there are more Muslims in
the world than Christians. It is growing fast, mostly
on account of birth rates. Muslims have far less
qualms about having children than most westerners do. My family for example,
my father's one of 10; my mothers one of six and that's normal. My mother's family was
probably a bit smaller than many other families. Lots of people having
kids throughout the world. The birthrates are causing
Islam to grow really fast. We also do have conversions. I don't know where
these numbers were from, but the numbers that I have heard, just take them with a grain of salt. The numbers I've heard,
30,000 people each year in the United States convert to Islam. So that's large. I've also heard the number that 20,000 revert back to whatever. They leave Islam per year,
so you got a net of 10,000 of people in this nation
per year convert to Islam. That's a lot. If you wanna see by the way,
some of those conversions, just go to YouTube,
type in convert to Islam or just accept Islam
and you will see people and they'll be giving their
reasons as to why they left whatever their faith was. Some of them are
self-identifying Christians, some of them were even
trying to evangelize Muslims before they left Christ for Islam. There's actually a friend of mine here from Southern California. She went to Saddleback and she led her whole family to the Lord. Then when she went to
college, she met a Muslim. She is now on the verge
of converting to Islam. So this is real; there are
faces behind these numbers. That's why we're here today,
to talk about these things. You have a campaign of people who are trying to get
people to accept Islam and the Islam that they'll probably accept if they accept Islam in
the west, is Sunni Islam. 80% of Muslims around the
world are Sunni approximately. Approximately 10 to 15% of Muslims around the world are Shia. Those are the two major
denominations of Muslim. When you hear the words Muslim or Islam and it's unqualified, it's probably talking about Sunni Islam. But you have other sects of Islam too. You have orders of Islam. For example Sufis; Sufis are
more of an order than a sect. You can have Sufis that are
Shia, Sunni, or neither. You can have people who are
neither, such as Ahmadis, which is again a sect that I came from. It's not Sunni, it's not Shia,
but it's very close to Sunni. They follow the four Khalifas, the rightly-guided Khalifs. They follow the Hadith that Sunnis follow, so Ahmadis are close there. Then you got people like
the Nation of Islam. You've got a group that
identifies as Muslim, but they're very radically different from traditional Orthodox Islam. So Muslims of all kinds. We gotta keep in mind that
Islam is not monolithic and people who say they are Muslim could believe any of a number of things. Especially when you think about the west because here you've got
Muslims who are growing up only having been ever
exposed to western culture. They're being exposed to critical thought. Their concept of authority
isn't as strong as it is in other places of the world
and they have a different view. My sister sometimes will quote Oprah when she thinks she's quoting the Qur'an. [class laughing] it's just all kind of
mixed in there in her head. She's not stupid; it's
just that western Islam has kind of assimilated
a lot of western culture and western values; we
have to remember that. So the person you're sitting next to might self-identify as
a Muslim and have only a slight tenuous belief
in God's existence. Beyond that, they just
follow things that they think they're supposed to follow. One thing that you will
find characteristic though is that Muslims generally
are strongly adherent to their heritage. They strongly self-identify
as Muslim usually. Again, we'll be speaking
in generalizations here. They might not follow Islam,
they might not practice Islam, but they will defend
Islam if they need to, they'll call themselves Muslim, and they will align themselves
with the Islamic world; which is a very interesting phenomenon. It seeps out into other ways. That is probably why you
don't see as much condemnation of violent Muslims as we'd like to see. Muslims in the west, a
large majority of them are not violent. They just want to live their lives just like a lot of other
people in the west. Just wanna have kids, they
wanna raise their kids, they wanna give 'em good lives, they wanna leave 'em
with a good inheritance. They wanna have contributing
members of society. That's what they want. But you don't see them
condemning other Muslims very often because they
generally align with Islam and to condemn other
Muslims, they feel like they'd be betraying each other. Not all of them. Again, you do have Muslims
that condemn violent Muslims. But a large number of them
have that reticence there because they align themselves with Islam. Those are the basic numbers. Now when you talk to a Muslim about Islam and the practice of Islam, what they're probably
goin' to bring up first are the Five Pillars of Islam. They're gonna turn first to their duties. The reason why is, we'll see tomorrow Islam is based heavily, soteriology is based heavily
on duties and actions. You are supposed to perform for Allah. You're supposed to please him. You're supposed to do things
that will make him happy because that is how you
show you are a good servant. That is how you show you're
a good slave of Allah. The term slave of Allah is
literally translated Abdullah. That's why you have so
many people named Abdullah because it's a good thing
to be a slave of Allah. Not too different from
Duas in the New Testament, but different still in the form of it really is just an obedience out of a desire to please God and not much of a relationship with him. Because that's what they're tryin' to do, they're tryin' to please him, you will find a lot of focus on duties. Now the first Pillar of Islam
is a testimony of faith. It's called a Shahada. The Shahada is the
rallying call of Muslims. This is what Muslims will say to light a fire in other Muslims' hearts. They will say the words: "La Ilaha IllAllah,
Muhammadur Rasulullah." There is no god but Allah and
Muhammad is his messenger. This was, from the
earliest years of Islam, the motto or the maxim that was propagated
throughout the Muslims. You see it everywhere. You see it in calligraphy
and it's beautiful. The calligraphy is beautiful. You'll see it in all
kinds of shapes and forms. You'll see it on the flag
outside the [mumbles], right on top of a sword there. It is sacrosanct, these words. By saying these words, you
become officially a Muslim. All you have to do is say these words. You have to recite them with intention, the intention that you actually believe once you do, you're a Muslim. You cannot be disqualified
from the Islamic faith if you say this. Muhammad says, "Do not say that anyone "who recites these words is not Muslim." He gives a few exceptions. But generally speaking, this is the case. Again, my parents recited
this the moment I was born. They recited it into my
ear the moment I was born. Muslims are expected to
recite this as they die. As they're passing on, they're supposed to be
repeating these words over and over so angels
will usher them into Heaven. Literally then Muslims lives
are encompassed by the Shahada. Throughout their lives they're
repeating this regularly. They're repeating a form
of it during the Salaat. They're repeating it
again as a rallying call. I don't know if you
know or if you remember, but the World Cup 'cause I'm sure all of you watch international soccer. The World Cup back in the '90s, do you remember they had
flags on the soccer ball? They put little flags on there. They put the Saudi Arabian flag on there. Muslims around the world
went into an uproar because they're saying you are making it so we have to kick the Shahada. They quickly changed the soccer balls. They took the Shahada off. But it means a lot to
Muslims; the Shahada. That is the first Pillar of Islam and the most important Pillar of Islam. The next Pillar, and the
next most important Pillar, is the Salaat. The Salaat are the five daily prayers. They're offered five times
a day by devout Muslims. This is kind of the way
Muslims schedule their day. They kind of orchestrate their
entire day around the Salaat. They wake up in the
morning often on account of the call to prayer. If you've gone to the Middle East or to Pakistan or India in Muslim areas, you'll hear the call to prayer. It'll wake you up in the
morning from all the Mosques. In fact, some of the
Mosques vie with one another to say the Adhan first
because it's more of an honor and they'll be waiting
for the sun to rise. I remember my parents had told me, "Nabeel, in order to see "when you can start your morning prayer, "stand outside and hold a white thread. "Once you can distinguish the white thread "through the light of the sun, "then it is time to say
your morning prayer." You had people who would actually be ready to be able to distinguish
just a little bit of sunlight. Oh it's white, I'm gonna say the Adhan. That's how it is in the Islamic world. You'll hear people say it. One person starts sayin',
it's just all over the place. It really is encompassing. It's a powerful moment if
you haven't had that happen. Stand in the middle of a ton
of people calling to prayer. It's somethin' else. Muslims will then take breaks during the day around the Salaat. Often they will go, if they're
close enough, to a Mosque for every prayer fives times a day. They pride themselves on that. They'll say you Christians
go to church once a week, we go to the Mosque five times a day. Who do you think is more clean before God? That's some of the polemics you'll hear if you get engaged in
that kind of conversation. Another thing they'll point out and somethin' that mattered
a lot to Malcolm X, somethin' that mattered to Cat Stevens, is the discipline and the
simplicity of the prayer. You have people of all
kinds, of all colors. This mattered to Malcolm X. All colors and races gathering together and praying side-by-side. Status doesn't matter,
wealth doesn't matter, handicap doesn't matter. You got people of all races,
of all socioeconomic levels standing side-by-side bowing
down to God in discipline. All being led by an Imam. They're doing it in unison. That is something that is
very important to Muslims. The discipline that comes through this. They'll see it as their
means of worshiping God. It's very disciplined and orderly, whereas Christians pray only in church. Which is very not true,
but that's what they say. You do it in a very undisciplined manner whereas we do it side-by-side. Very interesting, very
important for Muslims. A lotta Muslims will carry
their prayer rugs with them. They will pray out in the street. They'll pray... There was a guy who tried to pray in the middle of an airplane
a few years ago now. I don't know if you remember that, but he got up to pray in
the middle of a flight. Put down his prayer rug
and everyone thought he was gonna bomb the plane. [class laughing] Which is funny, I think. I'm sure the TSA didn't like it, but I thought it was hilarious. I don't know if you've been seeing this, but in France last year, the Muslims at a certain
Mosque have grown in numbers, so much so that on Fridays,
they've just blocked off a very important street because
they pour outta the Mosque and they're praying out in the streets. Any time the police tries to stop them, they'll say, "You are persecuting us." The police backs off and says, "Whoa, we're not about persecuting you." They'll just let them do their thing. That's happening in France right now. All I have to say is Salaat is extremely important to Muslims. It's the second Pillar and without it, Muslims feel very, very guilty. When I was a third-year
medical student doing Ob-Gyn, my chief resident at the time
was a Muslim from Africa. I asked him if he was fasting and praying. It was Ramadan when I was
doin' Ob-Gyn and he said, "No, I'm not a good Muslim." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I haven't prayed regularly. "I drink every now and
then when I go to the club, "I would I have to change my life "before I start fasting for Ramadan." It was interesting he should say that. But the first thing he pointed out was that he wasn't praying regularly. It really matters to Muslims, the second Pillar of Islam, Salaat. The third Pillar is zakat. This is a form of tithing. It's not called tithing
'cause it's not 10%. It's 2 1/2%. But it's 2 1/2% of more than what Christians would tithe off of. They actually have a very
well-developed industry on how to calculate how
much zakat you should pay. Places you can go to do
that, help getting it done and ways you can be more
effective and frugal. This, for example, is Zakat
Foundation of America. I pulled this off their website today. You can go there to calculate
how much zakat you owe. You can go there to direct
where your money will go to what kind of ministries,
to what kinds of charities. Zakat, extremely important to Muslims. If you go to the Qur'an,
the Qur'an also says that a zakat can be used
for a variety of reasons, not just for the Islamic Empire. For example, the Qur'an says zakat can go to the traveling wayfarer. Someone's passing through your area, they need support, they
need help on their journey. You can give your zakat to them. Very interesting. You can give your zakat to help the widow, the orphan and the poor. You can give your zakat
to rebuild the Mosque or various issues like that. Zakat can be used for
all kinds of purposes. Now one large purpose of it
during Muhammad's lifetime was to support the Islamic army, to support himself, to support his family. That was a large purpose of zakat as well. We have to remember to think of Islam in its early days as a Muslim state. Now a lot of these things were done out of obedience in order for the state and this one was to support the state. That's the third Pillar of Islam. By the way, a lot of
people give more than that. My parents, my dad gave
10%, my mom gave 33%, which was easy for her to do
'cause she didn't have a job. That's just what people do. The fourth Pillar of
Islam is fasting, Sawm. It's done during the month of Ramadan. Muslims are called to fast
from sunrise to sunset. It's not like a Christian fast insofar as Christians usually
fast for 24 hours or more. Generally speaking Christians
will not give up water. Muslims do give up water. But again, it's just
from sunrise to sunset. Nothing is gonna pass through their lips from sunrise to sunset. If you go to some African
countries, discuss Islam and you watch some African
Muslims during Ramadan, you'll see a lot of them are spitting constantly on the sidewalk. Some of it's a display,
but some of it's truly so they don't accidentally
swallow their spit because that would be breaking their fast. Very, very interesting stuff. But this does more than just that, it also gives Muslims a social outlet. In the morning before fasting, you wake up together, it's still dark. This is before the first prayer. Remember I was saying
distinguishing the white thread? Before that, we pray a prayer
before that as a family. My dad'll wake us up, it'll be
like three o'clock at night. He'd say, "Come on down
for the Maghrib prayer." "I don't wanna." "Okay, come on down." We'd come down for the Maghrib prayer and he would recite... When we didn't wanna
get up, my sister and I, he would recite one verse of the Adhan. The [mumbles] Adhan in the morning says, "Prayer is better than sleep." He would come up to us and say, "Prayer is better than sleep, get up!" [class chuckling] "No, it's three in the morning." We'd go down and we'd
pray the Maghrib prayer. Then in the morning we'd eat
a lot before the fast started. The fast would happen
after a big breakfast. My mom would make sure we had things that would keep us full for the day. We had very heavy foods in the morning. We had yogurts and things
that were very heavy. As the day progressed,
no water was probably the most difficult thing. We didn't feel hungry that much, it was the no water that was difficult. Especially in school
'cause as a Muslim kid in the United States, you're
still goin' to school. You're still answering questions. You're still doin' PE. It's very, very difficult. Some Muslims by the way
in Dearborn, Michigan, they rearranged. They got the city public
schools to rearrange the practice times,
times for PE, et cetera, so they could observe Ramadan. Then at the end after the fast,
people would open the fast. Right before the Maghrib
prayers, you would open the fast. Usually open it with a date
because that's how Muhammad did. He would eat a date. Then you'd go pray your prayers,
then you'd go have a feast. Morning feast and nighttime feast. Not good for diabetics. Not good for most of you, but
that's how they would do it. It would be fun. People from all over the community would gather in the evenings
for these Iftar dinners. We would also invite poor people to come. That way you would feel
like you're serving the community as well. It was a great social outlet. It was a good time. I suggest if you have any Muslim friends or if you're planning on
having any Muslim friends during the month of
Ramadan, it's coming up. Not long, think it's in
July and August this year. Go and talk to them and say I'd like to come to an Iftar
dinner, would you mind? They'll say no, definitely come on out. You get to learn more
about their faith that way. You get to see them and
they get to trust you more. Again, building trust
is extremely important for any kind of relationship especially one where you're
trying to show someone how to live their life before the Lord. Trust's extremely important. I would not hesitate at all
to go to an Iftar dinner. The fifth Pillar of Islam is Hajj. Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca. This was practiced well-before
Muhammad came on the scene. People would make pilgrimages
to Mecca regularly because you see that black
box there in the middle? Well it's not really in the middle, I would say it's kind of
two o'clock, three o'clock. That's called the Ka'bah. That is considered to be the house of God that was built by Abraham. According to Muslims, Abraham built that. Since that time, according to Muslims, people have been traveling to the Ka'bah to worship, to pay homage. Before Muhammad's time though, polytheists would come
and they had set up idols around the Ka'bah. 360, one for every day on their calendar. People from all over
Saudi Arabia would come and they would pay homage to those idols; depending on which idol was theirs. Because of that, Mecca
became a center for trade. Since people were coming from all over, they would meet there and
they would trade there. The Ka'bah, the pilgrimage, very important to the DNA of the city. There are also a lot of Pagan rituals that are associated with the Hajj. A lot of Muslims will agree to that. Most of 'em won't, but it is true. You have a lot of things that happen when you come to the Ka'bah. For example, you circumambulate
around the Ka'bah. They walk in circles. By the way, it's kinda cool to see. Because if you're a Muslim, you've prayed your whole
life towards the Ka'bah. Here in the United States
if it's time to pray, you'd find which direction is East. If you had a compass, you'd pull that out and figure out where the Ka'bah is. You'd pray in that direction. Muslims now have iPhone apps to do that, which I didn't have in my day. We didn't have iPhones in my day. They would figure out where it is. All around the world, people are pointing towards the Ka'bah. When you look at the Ka'bah, they're all looking kind of right there. It's pretty cool to see. It's the only place
where you kinda see that. What Muslims do during the Hajj, they'll circumambulate the Ka'bah. They'll do other rituals. There's a area where they
throw stones at Satan. These are stone pillars and
they'll throw stones at them. They'll run back and forth
between Safa and Marwa. If you look at the end there,
that long hallway type thing, that is goin' between two hills. Safa and Marwa are the name of the hills. Pagans used to run back and
forth between those hills. It's about 1/2 a mile by the way, to give you a little bit of a scale there. We have imported some Pagan
rituals into the Hajj. There's also the kissing
of the Black Stone. For those of you who know, there is a rock on the
corner of the Ka'bah. It's said to have come from the Heavens. They have this in the
corner of the Ka'bah. People would come up to it and they would kiss the
stone for blessings. This happens before
Islam comes on the scene. Honestly, understanding Islamic theology, I have no idea why Muslims still do it. One of the four caliphs,
Umar, said the same thing. He said, "I would not kiss the Black Stone "were it not for the fact
that I saw Muhammad doing it." It doesn't really fit the
theology, but they do do it. It predates back to pre-Islamic days. Here's the Hajj. It is extremely important for Muslims. A lot of Muslims, especially folk Islam. In other words it's not
really phelony theology but people practice this anyway. They will say that going to the Ka'bah will forgive all of your sins. The first time you see the Ka'bah, all your sins will be forgiven. Other people permutate
that if you go on Hajj. Whenever you go in Hajj, your
sins will have been forgiven. A lot of people in the Middle East actually plan to go to the Ka'bah to die 'cause they want their sins to be forgiven right before they die
so they go into Heaven, which is not uncommon. Constantine did a similar thing. He was baptized right before
he died for that reason. What you have here is a little
bit of folk Islam mixed in, but it's extremely important to Muslims. Yeah, I think that's all
I should say about that. Well I guess I could point out this picture was taken during a Hajj. Each dot you see there is a person. You have approximately five
million people in this picture. People come from all over. There are trampling deaths
that happen almost every year. 'Bout 100 or so to 300
people, pretty much, will die to trampling deaths. It's often seen as an honor. That's because during [mumbles] when you're running back and forth, it's not just a straight run. There are moments you
stop, moments where you run and people often get trampled in that. There are some times when there's a field and there's tons and
tons of people in a field during the various steps of the Hajj, during that time there have
been trampling deaths as well. It's very important to Muslims. There's some at risk when they go, but it really really matters to them. It's the fifth Pillar of Islam and it's somethin' a lot
of people inspire to doing during their lifetimes. Both my parents have done the Hajj. They went and spent their whole time praying I would become a Muslim again. It is extremely important. Any questions on the
five Pillars by the way? Yes. [muffled speech] The best answer, I think
the most honest answer is that Muhammad did it. That's about it. I have heard other responses
but they don't seem convincing. I think the people were saying them aren't even convinced by it. For example if some people
say that the method used to honor God, it doesn't matter
if that was a method used to honor multiple gods in the past or the wrong god in the past. I guess that's legitimate thinking. Still the tradition
came out of Pagan roots. It's not connected to Islamic roots. It's murky. But generally speaking and
from the time of Umar himself, the reason why this is done
is because Muhammad did it. Yes. >> Man: Regarding the fasting, as you mentioned that some places honor or give time so they can
research the [mumbles]. How did that work out and what [mumbles] in terms of allowing it to
happen, as they always try to say that they cannot [mumbles]? >> That's a good question. It gets more into the
political side of things. I try to stay away from the
political side of things because once you get in it, you're stuck. But I will say this
'cause I think it's true. When people say you can't impose
your religion upon others, generally they mean you can't impose the prevailing religion upon others or the one that's espoused
by the most people, which translates into Christianity. Take your Christmas trees down. Don't put your cross up there,
take out the 10 Commandments. But if it's Islam, let's
talk about Muhammad in class. Let's teach Muhammad. There's actually a class. Was it here in California? Maybe it was, I'm not sure where. Where the teacher was making
her students recite the Shahada and making them perform the Salaat. Was that California? Crazy Californians. Don't they say California's gonna drift down to the ocean sometime? [class chuckling] >> [mumbles] for a long time.
>> Yeah. Really, that's the way I think it happens. I'm not sure if it's simply
because it's Christianity and this is Satan fighting
against the truth? Could be. Or if it's just because our
society's gotten to this point of political correctness
where whatever's in charge has to be brought down. It could be that, too. I think the two are working
synergistically though. >> Woman: Just a quick
question about tithing. I know in some religions
it's forced upon [mumbles]. [muffled speech] >> Understand for Muslims
duty is extremely important. If they have a duty, they're
gonna try to fulfill it if they're devout. A large majority of them are tryin' to... If they're not truly devout, they're tryin' to keep up appearances so they'll do it anyway. Lemme put it this way: from
what I have seen personally, tithing is more of an
issue with Christians than it is with Muslims. They're more willing to do it. But at the same time, there
are provisions in the Qur'an. If you can't afford it, then you can be on the receiving end. Again, a lot of this money
goes to help the poor. You can be on the receiving end for that. For example, my mother when she wanted to celebrate my sister's wedding, she paid for the wedding
of a poor person [mumbles]. She paid for my sister's wedding and to honor God through that, she paid for the wedding
of poor person [mumbles]. It's to honor God. They really think they're
storing for themselves treasures in Heaven by doin' that. [muffled speech] That's a good question. It depends on how rich you are. Some people have better
accommodations than others. A large number of 'em just
stay out in fields and tents during that portion of the Hajj. Especially the more poor persons. But a lot of what you see
around here are hotels, so a lot of the big buildings
you see here are hotels. They'll stay there as well. It depends on the portion of the Hajj and the wealth of the person. One thing they all do, men
will shave their heads. You'll see all men shavin' their heads and they're wearing two white garments. You'll see a lotta white here, that's because they're all wearing white. They're ritually preparing themselves. You see the shaving of
heads in the Bible, too. Sackcloth and ashes, heads shaven. Somethin' similar to that. Sir. >> Man: Now how do they
generate the Black Stone today? >> It's still the same. >> Man: So you have millions of people that are kissing it one-by-one? [mumbles] go around? >> It can be worse than that. Some people have body parts that aren't functioning properly. They'll try to rub them on there. Some women are barren and
you can infer at will. It's pretty interesting. But people have to push and shove to get up to the Black Stone. It is considered a blessing. My dad said he kissed it. I don't think my mom's kissed it. I think she touched it. They really try hard to do that. >> Man: It is considered a meteorite? I've heard people sayin' [mumbles]. >> Most Muslims will think
it is a celestial rock. It was sent by God for
some reason or another. Muslims who say it's a meteorite, don't feel like that in any
way contradicts anything. My parents always taught
me it was a meteorite. Some Muslims believe it's
a meteorite, some don't. I would say the Muslims I've
interacted with in the west, an overwhelming majority of
them do think it's a meteorite. Sir. >> Man: [mumbles] talk about the aftermath of you [mumbles] faith. [muffled speech] >> Yeah, let's hold that
off for the last day. By the last day, I mean
the last day I'm here. Not... [class laughing] Just to clarify. >> Woman: Are men and women
separated during these times like they are in the Mosque? >> That's a good question. I think they're supposed to be. On one of the levels here, you can see there's multiple levels here. One of the levels here are multiples, but I'm not entirely sure our design for women, but I do know that women go up to the
Blackstone and so do men. I'm not sure what the
rules are for segregation. I haven't really gotten that. Good question though; I'll look into that. Ma'am. >> Woman: Is this an
event that's scheduled once a year?
>> Yeah. So the Hajj happens a
specific number of days after Ramadan ends. I think I said that right. It's once a year, it's for 10 days long and there are very specific events that happen during that time. Now people can do those
things the rest of the year. It's called Umrah, it's not called Hajj. People go for Umrah regularly. It's a lot easier; there's
not as many people there. It's easier to get accommodations. But if you go during that
specific time of the year and do those specific
events with those people, that is called hajj
and that's what Muslims are charged to do at least
once in their lifetimes as the Fifth Pillar. Ma'am, did you have a question? >> Woman: We went to an
interfaith sort of a conference and we did go to the
Mosque here in [mumbles]. We signed in and it just
struck me as really odd. They wanted to know our origin. >> Hmm.
>> Where we were from. You usually sign your name, your address, your email, your telephone
number, but origin. Everybody had to introduce themselves as to their ancestry. >> That is extremely common. We are kind of in a bubble. When you think to the rest of the world in preliterate times,
people were identified based on who they were taught by, where they lived, where they came from. It wasn't until knowledge could travel, it wasn't until people that
weren't tied to knowledge... In other words, in order
for you to learn something before there's writing, you
have to hear somebody say it; so you're automatically
tied to that person. You have this direct lineage
that connects you to your past. Now we can just read things. We can just learn them, move
on, and we can go anywhere. You can accumulate a lot of
knowledge as a young person. That's why we don't respect old people as much as we used to. Things have changed a lot. You've got people that are coming from these preliterate societies. Not to say that no one there
has learned how to read, but the majority of people
function in a preliterate manner. They're connected to their heritage, their past that way. >> Woman: It just struck
us, struck me as odd because then I had to stop and think where our family came from. We're so mixed up. We're all Heinz 57 now. It was like why did
they want to know this? >> Yeah, it used to
identify people a lot more. That's why the genealogies
are not as important to us as they used to be. When we read them, we
should put on the glasses of a preliterate person
reading it and understanding well, that's where they're
getting their identity from. It's a great point to bring up. My mom always taught
me to introduce myself as Nabeel, son of [mumbles]. I was supposed to know my family lineage a certain number of degrees back. In fact, when I would
go to large gatherings with Muslims, they would not ask me first what do you do? Which is what we often ask. Who's your father? Who was his father? Oh I remember him, I
met him blah blah blah. You're his grandson? You're a good boy. They don't know anything about you. [students laughing] You're identified by who you came from. Anything else before we
move past the Five Pillars onto the Six Articles of Faith, yeah? >> Woman: The one box, you
said the name for it is? >> The Ka'aba, K-A;'A-B-A, or K-A'B-A. >> Woman: And it's believed
it was built by Abraham? Do you know the history behind that and how it ended up in
Mecca and where that the story is behind it? >> Good question. So Muslims believe that
Ishmael is their ancestor. When Abraham came and
dropped of Hagar and Ishmael, he did it here. The pathway by the way, that people run back and forth between, they say that is where
Hagar ran back and forth between two hills looking for help. In the meantime,
Ishmael's kicking his feet 'cause he's a little baby. As he kicks his feet, a
well of water springs up. That's where she gets her water from. They call that the Zamzam Well. They still have Zamzam water
that everyone passes around, and it's extremely holy. My dad brought big things of Zamzam water back to the United States. He gave little jars of it
to all of our relatives, they drank it and they thanked him, even though we know it's not the same one. They have a little place here too. You can't see it in this
picture where Abraham's feet are supposedly imprinted in the ground. It's the little chamber of Abraham and you can go see his feet
imprinted in the ground. So lots of ties back to Abraham here. How much of it is accurate? The sheer fact that we don't have records going that far back is problematic. Literature didn't develop in Arabia. The arabic script itself did not develop until the end of the 4th
Century into the 5th Century. There was no literature. Even though the script had developed, there was no literature until the Qur'an. The Qur'an was the first
book of Arabic literature. We don't have records
pre-Islamic except those that have been saved by
Muslims and were written down after the inception of Islam. You can only go so far back. They did have other scripts
that captured Arabic language. But most of those were
inscriptions on tombs and such. They weren't things that
were capturing history or anything like that. Good question. >> Woman: How does that
work with an idea that nobody could have written
something like this if they didn't have anything else written? >> Yeah, let's talk about that tomorrow. We'll talk about that with the Qur'an. Definitely bring that up. Okay, let's move on to
the Six Articles of Faith. What we just talked about
were the Five Pillars. Understand again as far
as Muslims are concerned, normally speaking when you ask a Muslim to tell them about their Islamic life, they'll bring up the Pillars first because to them, the actions matter more relatively speaking, personally speaking. Maybe not if they break it down, but in their lives, they
matter more than their beliefs. But some beliefs are fundamental. For example, the Six Articles of Faith. These are the bases of Islamic theology. They are pretty much
in order of importance. The first one is belief in
Allah, the belief in one god. Now Muslims believe that
their god is the true, the pure monotheistic image of god. That the Jewish God and
especially the Christian God have impurities and the
Christian God has been divided. True pure monotheism according to Muslims is Allah, the one God. The world Allah literately means the one with all qualities. It's very close to how
you could say the God. Just for your benefit,
Allah was the name of gods even before Muslims came on the scene. So there was an Allah
before Muslims were around. There were a ton of gods
before Muslims were around. But Muhammad said no to the rest of them and he said to Allah. Allah was already a chief
god amongst the Pagans. At least that's what they say. Here's a quotation about the
nature of Allah in the Qur'an. Surah 59: Surah basically means chapter. It has a deeper meaning; we'll
talk about that tomorrow. But basically it means chapter. 59 Verses 22 through 24. "God is He then whom there is no other god "who knows all things,
both secret and open. "He most gracious, most merciful. "God is He; then whom
there is no other god. "The Sovereign, the Holy One, "the source of peace and perfection. "The Guardian of Faith,
the Preserver of Safety. "The Exalted in Light, the
Irresistible, the Supreme. "Glory to God. "High is He above the partners
they attribute to Him. "He is God the Creator, the Evolver, "the Bestower of Forms. "To Him belong the most beautiful names. "Whatever is in the
Heaven and on the Earth "doth declare His praises and glory "and He is the Exalted, the
Might in Might, the Wise." This was the Yusef Ali translation. Here we have a lot of
descriptions of Allah. Generally speaking, when you learn about Allah in the
Qur'an, it's in this way. It's through these names
of Allah and you'll see Muslims list out 99 names of Allah or 100 or 98 what have you,
usually around that number. Names of Allah that they
extract from the Qur'an and a few from Hadith
to tell you about God. They do think though
that God is unknowable, that he's transcendent, that
these words are the best approximation that we can have about God. God is so far and so above
everything that we know that you can't really
know what God is like. That is partially derivative from the fact that Muhammad never actually
spoke directly to Allah according to many Muslims. He spoke through the angel Gabriel. Now there are different
types of revelation according to Muslims, called Wahy, and it happened in different
ways if you look at the Hadith. We'll talk about that some tomorrow. But that said, even though he was being inspired by God, he didn't
have this direct communication with him for the most part. Most Muslims don't think so anyway. Allah is that far and
above, beyond everyone else. The idea that God would
come into this world is extremely degrading
according to Muslims. It's humiliating. God is far above anything like that. He's far more majestic. He's worth so much more. They think Christians
are humiliating their God by saying that he became
a man, which is true. That is what God did according
to the Christian faith. It's something that we
should be able to explain. Other than that though, God is not to be known
relationally in Islam. There is a verse in the Qur'an. I didn't bring it here,
I'll bring it tomorrow, where basically it says God has no son. He has no children. So for Muslims in the
west, often they'll say God is our father. That is something that they've
imported from Christianity. It's not at all found in the Qur'an. Quite the opposite; it
says God has no children. One of the chief verses of the Qur'an, one of the chief chapters of the Qur'an is Chapter 112 of the Qur'an, which makes that point abundantly clear. We'll talk about that a
bit more tomorrow as well. So that is Allah in a nutshell. He is the god that Muhammad preached and he preached him
mainly by describing him. Another of the Six Articles of Faith are the angels or the unseen. Muslims believe that you have
to have belief in the unseen. There are things that you don't see that are extremely important;
angels are one of them. Muslims believe that angels
exist on both shoulders; one angel recording all your good deeds, the other angel recording
all your bad deeds. I used to remember hoping as a child that this angel wasn't paying attention. I was hoping this one was
a lot more attendant to me. Angels will usher you into Heaven or Hell. Angels will inform you
as you're in the grave as to whether you'll be
going to Heaven or Hell. Angels have a large part to play. The unseen has a large
part to play in Islam. Jinn are constantly
mentioned in the Qur'an. That's where you get the
English word genie from. It's often translated demons,
but a closer translation will probably be unseen beings. So that's extremely important
for Muslims as well, especially in folk Islam. The unseen is extremely important. The prophets play a pivotal role in Islam. Again we've talked about
how Muslims envision Islam as being the faith that Allah has sent to the world over time and
that people have corrupted it. The one prophet who brought
it all back in was Muhammad. Let's take a look at
Chapter 2:136 of the Qur'an. "Say oh Muslims, we believe in Allah "and that which is revealed unto us "and that which was revealed onto Abraham, "and Ishmael and Issac
and Jacob and the Tribes "and that which Moses and Jesus received "and that which the prophets
received from their Lord. "We make no distinction
between any of them "and unto Him, we have surrendered." Think about this for a second. What they're saying is they
follow all the prophets. You'll hear that in Islamic discussions. We follow all the prophets; why don't you follow our prophet? That's what they'll often say. We respect all the prophets;
why don't you respect Muhammad? They honestly think that
every prophet who has come has taught Islam in some
way, shape, or form. That they were all Muslim
and that all people throughout all time who
followed those prophets were Muslim until those
messages were corrupted. Then they became their own little thing. However, Muhammad takes a special place. Even though we saw on on
2:136 that there's not supposed to be any distinction
between any of them; Muslims are not supposed
to make any distinction between any of the prophets. Still we see in Chapter 33:40: "Muhammad is not the father
of any man among you, "but he is the messenger of Allah "and the seal of the prophets. "And Allah is ever aware of all things." The word seal there is khatam. It's called khatam on the [mumbles]. The idea is often translated the chief, the best, or the ultimate. Muslims treat Muhammad that way. Muhammad himself is called the exemplar in the Qur'an, Chapter 33:21. He is the one that people
are supposed to follow. He's a good exemplar for them. Chapter 68:4 says his
character is tremendous, that it is exalted. Muslims see Muhammad
as highest of prophets, the best, the greatest. You really cannot praise
Muhammad highly enough according to Muslims. Now if you talk to a
Muslim about Muhammad, they will say that Muhammad was the most gentle person who ever
walked the face of the Earth. He would never hurt a thing. He was the most generous person. He gave generously. He had to sleep on the
floor in a straw mat while he gave tremendously to the poor, to the widow, and to the orphan. That Muhammad was the
champion of women's rights, that he instituted the rights for women in an oppressed nation. That he was the one who established worship of the One True
God in a Pagan society, even at the face of persecution and death. That Muhammad was the ultimate statesman, that he was able to establish an empire that existed for well over
1,000 years after he passed. That he was the perfect
general that was able to win many battles and conquer a nation even though he started all by himself. These are the kind of superlatives that Muslims will say about Muhammad. Then they'll turn that
around and they'll say look, we can know how to live our lives because we have an exemplar who showed us how to
do all kinds of things. He lived in all walks of life. He was extremely poor,
he was extremely rich. He was married to one woman;
he was married to many women. He was not influential at all;
he was extremely influential. He walked all walks of life and therefore, we can follow him and we know how we're supposed to live our lives. That is how a Muslim will often provide a picture of Muhammad. You really cannot praise
him highly enough. I'll give you another example. When I was going to
Sunday school as a Muslim, which we had on Saturday but
we still call it Sunday school. [class laughing] We were taught by... My parents have generally taught me a Pakistani/Indian version of Islam. But for this Sunday school I
was being taught by an Egyptian and he had some different stories for me. One story was Muhammad
never could have cried. This was new and I said,
"What are you talking 'bout?" He says, "If Muhammad were to have cried, "the land would've become
infertile," so he never cried. I was like, "Do you really believe that?" Even as a Muslim, I
don't think that's true because Muhammad's sons died. He had two sons that were born and they both died as infants,
extremely young as babies. I can't imagine he
didn't cry at that time. That's what I was thinking. He has compassion. Anyhow you have folk Islamic stories coming from all over, but a lot of them really exalt Muhammad
to the highest level. That is why it's really something
to tread carefully about. When Muslims are talking
to you about Muhammad, unless you have their
total respect and trust, I wouldn't approach that issue. I wouldn't talk about Muhammad right away. That's something to wait on. Because by doing that, you
are tearing down bridges and potentially alienating
them from hearing the gospel. Everything you say to
them can all of a sudden have [mumbles] flavor. Be careful talking about Muhammad. If you have someone who's
more than comfortable talking about and that's
a different story, but just be careful. The next to the Six Articles of Faith are the Holy Scriptures. Muslims believe that God sent to these prophets, some of them anyway, scriptures
which were inspired by God. Muslims often envision the process was similar to the Qur'an. The Qur'an was sent to
Muhammad through dictation. According to Muslims, God
dictated the Qur'an to Gabriel. Gabriel then dictated
the Qur'an to Muhammad. Muhammad heard word-for-word
from God everything. It was inspired. That's the hardest level
of inspiration there is. Christians have lowers
levels of inspiration, either they believe
God spoke through Paul, Luke and John, et cetera;
he spoke through them, or their word, if you have
a lesser view of inspiration or their words are roughly inspired by God as far as they're inspired by message, not word-for-word. No Christian I know of
has a hard dictation image of the inspiration of the scripture. The Muslims often envision
the original New Testament, the original Torah to have been inspired in that way in its dictated manner. When they looked at
the New Testament today many Muslims say, "Wait a minute, "this is the Gospel according to Mark; "the Gospel according to John. "Where's the Gospel given to Jesus?" THey'll say today's Gospel is not the Gospel the Qur'an is talking about. Interesting. You generally have
people saying the books, the Muslims will say the books
were originally inspired. The Torah we have today was inspired. The New Testament we have today, most Muslims would say that
was the inspired word of God, but at some point the message
came and it was corrupted. It's no longer trustworthy. The Qur'an, on the other
hand, is a different story. Yup. >> Man: I was gonna
question for the Qur'an is it has changed or it has not changed? >> We'll be talking about
that a lot tomorrow. Surah 543 tells us,
"How come they unto thee "for judgment when they have the Torah, "wherein Allah hath
delivered judgment for them? "Even after that they turn away, "such folk are not believers." What is it saying? The Jews are asking Muhammad
for judgment for some reason. We don't know what. The response from Allah at that moment is, "Why are they coming to
you to ask for judgment "when they themselves have
guidance sent by me, the Torah?" A similar sentiment is found just three versus later
regarding the Gospel. "And we cause Jesus, son of Mary, "to follow in their footsteps "confirming that which was revealed "before him in the Torah. "We bestowed on him the Gospel, "wherein his guidance and light "confirming that which was
revealed before it in the Torah: "a guidance and an admission
unto those who are not evil." In other words what this is saying here is the Christians have a
book called the Injeel, they are supposed to go to it too. It says it a little bit more clearly over the next few verses. They believe in inspired books, but they believe they have been corrupted. When did that belief come about? A few centuries after Muhammad. Muslims began to take a look at the books and they began to realize, wait a minute, these things are teaching
doctrine very differently from what the Qur'an teaches. They say these must've
been corrupted before that. There is a detectable difference
in what Muslims believed. They believe they were
inspired word of God and God's word could never be corrupted. In fact that seems to be
what the Qur'an teaches. If you take a look at Chapter 5:46-48, this being the first
one the next two verses. You take a look at Chapter 5:66-68, it really seems the Qur'an
teaches that people at that time still had the word of God. It wasn't corrupt and Allah expected Jews and Christians to still use the word, which is what it seems like right here. Chapter 6:115 of the Qur'an says that the word of God can never be changed. It seems to be innovation
in Islamic thoughts that the scriptures were corrupt in innovation that came a few years later. Sir? >> Man: When you speak with Muslims, would they say God
inspired those scriptures and He, for whatever
reason, left them corrupted, why is the Qur'an different? How do you know the Qur'an
didn't get corrupted? God's word inspired
previously been corrupted, how's the Qur'an any different? >> They argue that the Qur'an
has been perfectly preserved from the day it was dictated to Muhammad. To today, nothing has been changed. Not a jot, not a tittle, nothing. It's exactly the way it was
when Muhammad received it. You ask 'em for their evidence and we'll talk about that stuff tomorrow. Sir. >> Man: How long ago was it [mumbles] that they said it was corrupted? I missed it. >> The first thinker I know who says it, doesn't say that until the 9th century. That's 200 years later. There may be ones that said it earlier but I haven't seen any. [mumbles] has brought one to me. >> Man: Then what's his name? >> I can't remember the name right now, I'll bring that to you tomorrow. >> Thank you.
>> You're welcome. Yup. >> Woman: This is Allah speaking, correct? >> Correct.
>> Why is it we instead of I? I've always wondered that 'cause I've seen passages from Qur'an where it's me and not I. But if he's one being, why
is it written this way? >> That's a great question. What an average Muslim will tell you is Allah is speaking in royal we. He's speaking for himself,
for the state, et cetera, so it's kind of the royal we as the Queen of England would use. That's what most Muslims would say. I have the feeling it's that way because in certain passages
of the Old Testament, God spoke in first person plural and Muhammad is tryin'
to emulate some of that. But I can't verify that. There's a degree of uncertainty there, so you should be careful with that. Sir. >> Man: Is there a Muslim belief on how Allah dictated the Torah and the Gospels? Did it have an idea of he
came down to this person or somethin' this angel [mumbles]? >> Yeah, the Qur'an says the Torah and the Injeel were dictated... I'm sorry, the Qur'an
was given to Muhammad as the Torah and the Injeel were. There's no distinction given
in the manner of dictation generally speaking by the Qur'an. Now Muslims today will say
it may have been different, but that's usually a part
of an apologetic argument. It's not something you find. >> Man: 'Cause it seems like
everywhere I'm seein' it it's like Jesus received the Gospel. >> Which is what it says right here. >> Man: Yeah, I don't know
how they substantiate that. There's no evidence. >> I think they see it the same way that Muhammad received
the Qur'an from Gabriel. That's how they're seein' it with Jesus. They don't necessarily go
through and say who did it, when it did happen, what
angel was it, et cetera. You don't see that. Great questions. >> Man: [mumbles] a provision
in there in the Qur'an where stuff that come later
supposed to be takes precedent over stuff that comes earlier? >> Yes and we'll talk about that tomorrow. Okay, one more or two more I guess? >> Man: Sorry. It says, "And we caused Jesus and Mary "to follow in their footsteps." If God's in Heaven and they're on earth, isn't that God's spirit who caused them to walk in those footsteps? >> Sure. I think that's all implied. >> Man: Isn't that like the Holy Spirit? >> The level of precision
in language today, we cannot anachronistically
retroject onto them. We speak far more precisely
than they used to. We write even more precisely. When it says, "We caused Jesus," it could be the spirit, it
could be God sending an angel. It could be one of many. We would only speculate. That said, the spirit of God
shows up a lot in the Qur'an. You'll see the spirit of God doing all kinds of things in the Qur'an. Does that mean the Holy Spirit the way Christians envision it? No, Muhammad envisioned it differently. But you do see the spirit of God. >> Man: It's really the
same question as the first. My question would have
been why would God allow his word to be corrupted, period? It's his word, there's no
difference in the sense that it's inspiration, it's his words. >> Again, the whole issue, the
whole argument of corruption is something that's
brought up in polemics. It's not brought up by the Qur'an itself. They'll offer whatever subjective reason they'll come up with, but it's not substantiated from the text. The texts seem to say very clearly that God will protect his word. I don't think there's any
two ways about Chapter 6:115. There's one verse in the Qur'an which says the Jews had exchanged
their scripture for a lie. Muslims, who are taking
this position in polemics, will say they changed the words around. That's not what it's saying. What it's saying is instead
of following its scripture, they followed a lie. One last question and we'll move on. Saw it in the corner there. >> Man: She brought up
the question about we that's why I'm tryin' to
understand this correctly. This would be the angel
Gabriel stopping by. >> Yes, but he's word-for-word what Allah told him according to Muslims. What Allah told him is found inscribed on an eternal tablet, the lauh e-Mahfuz. Most Muslims believe
the Qur'an is preserved on a tablet in Heaven for all of time. Therefore the Qur'an itself is eternal. It coexists as the eternal word of God. That's what most Muslims
believe about the Qur'an. >> What's it called?
>> Yeah. >> The lauh e-Mahfuz. I think that's Chapter 85. Yeah. Chapter 85:21-22. Interestingly, Jesus has
also called the word of God in the Qur'an [speaks Islamic]
but it's a different idea. The idea there, at least as
explained by Muslims today, is when it comes to Jesus' virgin birth, God simply said, "Kun Fayakun." He said be and it was. Jesus was made by the word of God. Some Muslims will often say
Jesus is the word in that sense. That is modern explanation of
why the Qur'an says it though. It's not something I've
seen in the Qur'an itself. The Qur'an then, as opposed
to the Torah and the Injeel, the Qur'an is the ultimate
guidance for Muslims. This is the one they'll turn to. They won't turn to the Torah, they won't turn to the Injeel ever. They'll go to the Qur'an. Even the Muslims who still believe the Torah and the Injeel
are the word of God, they'll go to the Qur'an. 'Cause why go to those when you
have the ultimate word here? This is the one that was
designed for all people. Muhammad's ministry started in 610. It wasn't public at that time. It didn't go public for
the next three years or so. But in 610 AD, Muhammad
received the first revelation of the Qur'an. Very interesting story. I'll give you the Islamic version now. As far as Islamic, remember right now what we're discussing is the
way modern Muslims see Islam. Later we're gonna take
a more critical look. The way modern Muslims
see the first revelation is Muhammad is fasting
and praying in a cave. This cave is called Ghar
Hira or the Cave of Hira. Muhammad is a monotheist. Even though everyone around him
was a pagan or a polytheist. Muhammad is a monotheist. He goes to this cave, he sits
there and prays for 40 days. In this time an angel comes, Gabriel, and he embraces Muhammad. He says, "Recite." Muhammad being unlearned, unlettered, illiterate has never done this before. He's never had this process
of reciting back to a teacher. He says, "I don't know how to recite." The angel embraces him
again and says, "Recite." Three times the angel embraces
him and says, "Recite." Finally Muhammad says,
"What then shall I recite?" The angel says, "Iqra bismi
rab bikal lazee khalaq." Recite the name of your
Lord who created you. This is the first
revelation of the Qur'an. Muhammad comes outta there. He's afraid, he's frightened. He doesn't know what's going on. It takes him a few
years to finally realize that he is the chosen prophet of Islam. Three years later he
starts his public ministry. The Qur'an started in 610
AD and it goes all the way until his death in 632. The moment he dies, the Qur'an stops. It is a common Muslim
belief that the last verse to be revealed of the Qur'an was, "Today we have completed
for you your religion." Which is a verse found in the
Qur'an, however it's not true. Muslim scholars will say
today that's not true. That wasn't the last verse. The last verse was just
whatever happened to be the last verse before he died. The process was progressive revelation. It wasn't like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, what have you where someone sat down and wrote out the Gospel
at some point or another. You'll have some people who argue that Mark was written through oral means. But apart from that,
it wasn't written down at one point, the Qur'an. It was brought down piecemeal. When Muhammad will be talking to Jews, all of a sudden a revelation would come where he'd say, "This is what Allah says," and he'd recite it to them. That recitation would then
later be used in liturgy and it would be called
Qur'an, a recitation. The word Qur'an itself means the recited. What that might mean, what that
might have implications for, some Muslims say it means
the most recited book. It very well may be the most recited book. When Muslims pray the Salaat, you remember them
prayin' five times a day? Of that they pray multiple rakats or multiple standing and bowing postures. For example, the Fajr of Salaat. There's two fardh rakats
and two sunnah rakats. You have to pray at least two rakats. The zohar prayer, the
next one is at least four. But I was taught to do four fardh, four sunnah and two more
sunnah, so 10 rakats. At the least if you're
praying the way you ought to or the way I prayed the salaat, I was taught to recite portions of the Qur'an over 30 times
a day all from memory. Whole segments of the Qur'an. That's why I had to memorize
so many chapters as a kid was I had to have chapters to recite. At the end of the first and second rakka, you have to often have to
recite sections of the Qur'an. You get to pick, it's your choice. But sections that you like and
I often recited that Surah, Surah 112, because it was a short one. It was easy to remember, it rhymed. I recited that one over
and over and over again. Muslims are reciting the
Qur'an extremely regularly. When Muslims say the word the Qur'an means the often recited,
they have a basis for that. It is probably the most
recited book in the world. Another meaning that it
has is the recitation. You have some scholars who'll
argue that the term was found in Syriac before it was found in Arabic. In fact, the word Qur'an was first used in Arabic in the Qur'an. We don't have any records of
it being used anywhere else. Even oral records of that
word bein' used anywhere else. In Syriac, it was used by Christians to mean liturgy that was read
aloud in church settings. Which is pretty much exactly
what the Qur'an is used for. In Salaat, it's liturgy
that's read aloud in prayer. Doesn't really matter all that much where the word comes
from for our purposes, but extremely interesting
history of the word Qur'an there. Yeah. [muffled speech] The five daily prayers, the Salaat, are all prescribed prayers. Word-for-word, you were saying
what you were taught to say. Standing, bowing, doing
things with your hands the way you were taught. Some Muslims insert extemporaneous
prayers in those prayers. For example my family had
taught me during the sajdah where you've got your head to the ground, you can then ask God
for whatever you want. Most Muslims though would ask God for what they want afterwards. After the Salaat is done,
then they would do dawah. They would lift their hands
up and they would pray [mumbles] at that point. My parents always kind of laughed at that. They said, "When do you
ask someone for something, "while you're in the house or
after you leave the house?" I thought that was very clever. There's a difference
between Salaat and Dawah. A lot of the Dawah is also pre-memorized. My mom had taught me a slew of Dawahs that came from Hadith or
that came from the Qur'an. Before I used to speak, my mom... I used to give speeches as a kid. My mom said, "Recite this prayer." It was the prayer in the Qur'an
that Moses recited to Allah when he would have to
speak to the Pharaoh. She told me to be able to
recite this and I memorized it. I didn't know what it meant. It was in Arabic. I memorized it 'cause my mom told me to. That's how Muslims pray often, even through prescribed prayers. Yup. >> Man: As I reconcile
[mumbles] Allah's transcendence. You can't know him, but you can
pray and ask him for things? It doesn't seem to make sense. >> Yeah, it really doesn't. There's a disconnect there. Most Muslims would respond to that by sayin' that Allah can hear everything. Even though you can't know him, he can know what you're saying. What really is interesting though is if Allah has predetermined everything, which he really has according to Islam. We'll see that shortly. If he's predetermined everything, then what point is there to pray? Mostly, from what I've
seen, praying prayers done by Muslims to please
Allah and to make him happy. At least the Salaat. The Dawah is more of an
expression of one's own heart. But different Muslims have
different answers to that. The issue of predetermination of Allah being able to listen to you
and do things based on you is a very tricky issue in Islam. We'll talk about that in just a moment. You have to understand
the Qur'an came piecemeal at times at certain points. Muhammad would say, according
to Islamic tradition, "This recitation, put this in that Surah. "This recitation here, "put it over here before these verses." What you have then is a book that's being built up over time. Certain portions of the
Qur'an were later removed. Muhammad would say, "You
remember I said this? "Well, that's not the part
of the Qur'an anymore. "Allah has abrogated that now. "This is part of the Qur'an." He replaced it with something else. That's called the Doctrine of Abrogation. It's found in Chapter 2:106 of the Qur'an and Chapter 16:101 of the Qur'an. We'll recap this tomorrow too in case you missed any of these points. At times, Allah would supplement teachings or replace teachings through
this Doctrine of Abrogation. It's called Naskh in Arabic, N-A-S-K-H. All of this was said to be revealed directly by God to the prophet. You know how we can say
John wrote his Gospel, Mark wrote his Gospel? If you were to say
Muhammad wrote the Qur'an, a Muslim would get infuriated because Muhammad didn't write it. It was Allah who wrote it. Muhammad was just a conduit
through which it came. >> Man: Doctrine [mumbles]. >> Doctrine of Abrogation? Abrogation, yup. >> Man: Arabic word before? >> Naskh, N-A-S-K-H. Naskh. It's called [speaks Arabic], that which abrogates and that
which has been abrogated. We'll be talking about that a
lot more in detail tomorrow. Of the Qur'an, modern
Muslims will say this again received from whyislam.org. "The Qur'an's message
is eternal and universal "transcending our differences in race, "color, ethnicity and nationality. "It provides guidance on
every aspect of human life "from economics and epics
of trade to marriage, "divorce, gender, issues,
inheritance and parenting." According to modern Muslims, the scope of the Qur'an is infinite. Really that's what they'll say. The more humankind learns,
understands and grows, the more they'll be able
to get out of the Qur'an. The Qur'an is a deep trove of treasures. On the preservation of the Qur'an, here's what whyislam.org has to say. "The Qur'an is unique because
it is the only revealed book "that exists today in the
precise form in content "in which it was originally revealed. "Furthermore, it was actively recorded "during the time the religion
was being established." They will juxtapose the Qur'an with the Torah and Injeel say, "This one, the Qur'an
is perfectly preserved. "It's the only one. "It's unique in that it exists
today in the precise form "in which it has been revealed." Again we're takin' a look today at how Muslims see their religion. It's very hard for me to
not say something right now, but we'll wait 'til tomorrow. Now as far as the
inspiration of the Qur'an, people give a lot of reasons to defend it. First, the one we've already talked about the Qur'an is [mumbles] in style. You cannot copy it. You cannot write anything like it. You could not produce
something similar to it no matter how hard you try. No matter who helps you. As soon as you try, you will
realize you can't do it. This challenge is issued
five times in the Qur'an. Three of the challenges are up here. I chose these three 'cause
they have different scopes. Sometimes the Qur'an says just
try to write a book like it. Sometimes it says try to
write a chapter like it. Sometimes it says try to
write 10 chapters like it. You will realize you can't. The challenge to debunk the
inspiration of the Qur'an always comes in this
nature from the Qur'an that it is literarily
excellent beyond replication. But people today have all
kinds of reasons they use to defend the inspiration of the Qur'an. Probably one of the
favorites out in the west is the scientific knowledge
that the Qur'an has. They would argue that the
Qur'an has scientific knowledge that transcends what Muhammad
could've possibly known. An example is found in Chapter 78:12-13 where it talks about the moon and the sun. Here the Qur'an is describing that the moon and the sun are sources of light. However, the word light is used for moon and the word lamp is used for the sun. Muslims will say a lamp produces light and the sun produces light, but the moon is just called a
light according to the Qur'an. Which shows us that it's
not the same kind of light, it's a reflection of a real light. People in that time didn't know the moon reflected the light of the sun. This was advanced scientific knowledge, therefore it shows that the
Qur'an is divinely inspired. Please hold your rebuttals. The Qur'an also mentions
the celestial orbits of the sun and the moon,
that they are in orbit. How could Muhammad have known that the sun and the moon are in orbit? That's something we
figured out only recently. That is another argument
that's often provided. These are the astrological
reasons, by the way. Also it is said in Chapter 51:47, the Qur'an can be translated as saying the universe is still expanding. How could they have known about the expansion of the
universe at that time? Clearly advanced scientific
knowledge that comes from God. I had a debate on this issue
by the way back in 2009. You can find that on my website. There are other points
of scientific knowledge besides astrology. Astrology? Astronomy, I'm sayin' it wrong. [chuckles] [class chuckling] Astronomy. There's also geology, oceanography, biology, physiology, embryology. All kinds of things Muslims will point to. This field... You're gonna ask me to spell it and I won't able to if I tried. Of Islamic argumentation
for the Qur'an has a name. It's called Busaiism. It's named after a man
named Dr Martin Busai or Lawrence Busai, something in French. He wrote a book on the Qur'an and science. He argues the Qur'an has this miraculous scientific knowledge. Muslims have taken his book and really popularized
it, especially here. A lot of people will use these arguments to show the Qur'an is divinely inspired. Yup. >> Man: [mumbles] before
is popularized by Lawrence was this even something
being talked about? >> It was being talked about. It has been being talked
about for a while now. Don't know when it started. But what Busai did was he provided a book with a western name on it and credentials. He's a doctor. In doing so, they say even
your scholars will agree that the Qur'an is divinely inspired because of the scientific knowledge in it. >> Man: Busai is not in Google? >> I think he is now. He wasn't originally. I think he is now, if he's still alive. But after the writing of the
book, I think he became Muslim. Correct me if I'm wrong. There are also other scholars who did weigh-in in favor of Islam. There was a lot of
controversy surrounding that. None of them became Muslims. You can look that up online as well. It's very controversial. They'll try to point to some
of those names regularly. If you run across that,
just look it up online. We've talked so far about the Qur'an and the other books in the context of the Six Articles of Faith. Briefly now, there is the Day of Judgment which Muslims believe will happen. Jesus himself will return
from a tower in Damascus is what most of 'em believe. He'll descend and he will
initiate the latter days. He will impose Islam. Don't forget, he taught us Islam. He will import Islam around the world. He will destroy the crosses
and he will kill the swine. People will begin to
fight against non-Muslims. Muslims will begin to
fight against non-Muslims and non-Muslims will be
killed left and right. Rocks will cry out, "There's
a Jew hiding behind me. "Kill him," in those days. Most of this comes from Hadith. It does not come from the Qur'an. Modern Muslims will often
dismiss Hadith regularly if they disagree with
their own brand of Islam. It's hard to pin down Islamic eschatology. For that reason I have not
looked into it that much. If you do wanna look into
modern Islamic eschatology, there's a great scholar by the name of David Cook out of Rice University. He is a well-respected Islam scholar. That's the Day of Judgment. Ultimately all Muslims believe they will be held to
account for their actions. Once their deeds are placed on a scale, if they have done more
good deeds than bad deeds, they will be allowed into Heaven. [mumbles] is deeds based. Many Muslims do have a significant conception of grace, though. But the grace plays into the deeds. For example, Allah can
overlook some of your sins and he can multiply your
good deeds if he so chooses. In doing so, your good deeds
will outweigh your bad deeds. However he kind of does
that as he pleases. There's no telling really
how Allah's going to do this and that leads to the
sixth article of faith, which is a supremacy of God's decree. Allah can write out for you and in fact, has written out for you
before you were born whether you'd go to Heaven or Hell. Exactly how long you'd live, what your fortune and fate in
this life would be, et cetera. Abu Bakr has recorded of having said... Abu Bakr is one of the
four caliphs by the way that Sunnis follow and Shia don't. One of the three of the Shia don't follow. Abu Bakr, the next
successor after Muhammad. Muhammad dies, Abu Bakr takes
over the Islamic Empire. He has been recorded as saying that even if you were to
have one foot in Heaven, he would fear the deception of Allah. In other words, he's worried that God would throw him into Hell even if he already has a foot into Heaven because that's what was written for him. [mumbles] are along those lines where it says that you can
be very close to Heaven and all of a sudden what
Allah has written for you will take place and you
will end up goin' to Hell and vice versa. You can be extremely close to Hell. What Allah has written
for you will come to be and you will go to Heaven. A very very strong view,
almost fatalistic view. Actually is it fatalistic
view amongst most Muslims as far as where you will be
and what God's decree is. Even though there's grace
and even though there is this concept of undue mercy from Allah, ultimately it's the deeds-based faith and Allah can do what he wants. Ma'am. >> Woman: I've heard the
only assurance of salvation in Islam is through
martyrdom; is that true? That's the only way for sure you know you're gonna get into Heaven. >> Depending on who you ask. For the most part, yes. The only way to get to
Heaven is to die in Jihad. Now that's a word I probably
shouldn't have said today. We'll wait 'til Saturday
to talk about it more. But generally speaking, Muslims agree that is the way to assure
entrance into Paradise. There is another way
that folk Islam teaches which is if you die while on hajj, then you can go to Heaven. That's not somethin'
you see in the sources or at least nothing I've seen. A third way is closed to everyone which it took part with
Muhammad in the Battle of Badr. Which is the first major
battle fought by Muslims. All 313 who took part in Badr are supposed to have gone to Heaven. Again, that's not something
all Muslims believe. The universal one in there is pretty much if you die in Jihad. Any other questions? We're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna finish
this out for the night. Jeff. >> Jeff: Does the Qur'an talk about what Paradise is gonna be like at all? >> The Qur'an does talk about Paradise quite a bit. Again, I have not focused
on Islamic eschatology, but some of the things that are said are there will be gardens, rivers and fruits. The rivers will be made of wine. There'll be plenty of honey. You will be given houris which
are often translated virgins. A number is not specified. That's generally the image of
the afterlife in the Qur'an. The Hadith goes far more into detail. Most of the Hadith are very sensual regarding what the
afterlife is gonna be like. Your senses are really going to be tickled in Heaven to say the least. In the afterlife in Hell, similarly you're going to be tortured. It's gonna be very carnal torture. Your skin is gonna be flayed
off you through whipping and then it'll be
recreated to be flayed off again over and over. Women who are seductive and ungrateful will be hung by their breasts from trees. It's a very, very carnal
image of Hell and of Heaven. But I'm no expert on that,
I would read David Cook. [muffled speech] The period of creation. It's interesting you should bring that up. That's one of the few... [mumbles] press play. See, I diffuse things. I tell the TSA I'm diffusing things. [class laughing] The view of creation. Most of the Qur'an says six days. There is one place in the Qur'an where it appears like it's eight days. It doesn't say eight. It says there were three
periods of creation: Two, two and four days. Muslims will often [mumbles] the fact that there is no
contradiction in the Qur'an. This is the primary one
that's used to rebut that, but explicitly stated as six days. The way most Muslims will
respond to that is by saying who's to say there was no overlap between the two, two and four? Anyhow, six days of creation. A lot of what you see in the
Qur'an is found in the Bible in some way, shape or form. You've got the story of Noah. You've got the story of Adam. You've got the story of
Moses, of Job, of Lot. Jesus, of course. There's a lot of parallels there. >> Announcer: Biola University offers a variety of
Biblically-centered degree programs ranging from business to ministry
to the arts and sciences. Visit biola.edu to find out how Biola could make a difference in your life.
