The Purpose of Life - Jeffrey Lang

so I'm all taken my come from the University of Kansas we're playing in the Final Four this very instant so I want to let you know that you've asked a lot of me today no I'm just joking all right I want very briefly I just want to talk a little bit about what the quran has to say about the purpose of life I think this is an extremely important subject especially for Muslims living in America because we're sort of a minority and new religion here and many people are interested in what we believe and I think the primary question that people want answered when they first consider another religion is how that religion views its how that religion views the purpose of life the purpose of human of our existence here and so I'm going to begin though talking about the eighth an atheist point of view because I want to talk about what sort of quite answers the Quran might have for an atheist so to begin this I need to talk for about five or ten minutes about you know what made me what i believe contributed to my becoming an atheist because I grew up in a Christian family and then I'll talk for about 45 minutes or so about what I experienced in the Quran and how that sort of changed my perception so it's very simple but my wife always says I should summarize what I'm going to do before I talk cuz it's easy to get lost in my speeches and you know my wife doesn't have a lot of confidence in my speaking ability okay so uh let me start out by mentioning that my mother certainly played no role in my becoming an atheist my mother was a wonderful woman a beautiful lady she had tremendous dignity and class she the neighbors loved her she was a registered nurse and she put in many extra hours at the hospital her she worked in the ward that dealt with dying patients when I would come and pick her up late from work at night all the patients would not all the patients but many of the patients would drag me over and talk to me and tell me what a wonderful woman my mother was when she died her funeral is packed and person after person that came up to me had a story to tell about my mother and her goodness time and time again people described her as Jeff you know your mother is a true Saint she was a deeply religious woman a great mother a great teacher a gentle person she never cursed I never heard a curse you know swarf ever in her whole life never heard of speak to anybody rudely or speak about anyone rudely she was a tremendous example of a truly religious person and she didn't wear it on her sleeve it was just slowly but surely you could see it just in her day to day interactions with people uh my father on the other hand was a difficult man my father for some strange reason had this tremendous rage inside I don't know where he got it he had this terrible violence inside him and every night he would try to quell that violence with hard hard drinking and his drinking though only made him all the more volatile because my father could be laughing and joking one minute and he could fly into an angry rampage the next for some unexpected reason you never know what would trigger it and once he flew into that angry rampage it would take you know he would just go wild in the house the house would be in havoc and he would rage on and on and on and it would take an awful lot of liquor and several hours before he would finally go to sleep and this would happen night after night after night and so my four brothers and I was the fourth in line my four brothers and I lived a frightening and precarious childhood but I have to say the worst of it was watching my father regularly taunt and threatened and abused my mother and it would happen day in day in day in day out night in night out and it was a never never ending nightmare you see it's really not so bad when you're the target of your father's violence you might think it's bad when a child is the target of their father's violence but it's really not all that bad at the moment of attack you're really not thinking about anything except your own survival when he's firing punches at you or kicking you on the ground or chasing through you throughout the house and when he's threatening you I'm going to hurt you bad boy you're not thinking about anything at that moment except escape well all that's going on you're not thinking about the aftermath or consequences the psychological repercussions or anything like that and when it's all over you might even excuse the onslaught because you figure maybe you somehow deserved it if not for what you did this time maybe for something you did in the past you could always put the blame on yourself but a far worse fear is the terror that overcomes you when you watch your father go after your mother because she's the only source of warmth and kindness of love and protection that you know and if he were to take that away from a little boy standpoint the new lost everything but far worse then the fear is the guilt and it comes over you from several directions first of all there's the guilt that comes at you for from upon you from the growing antipathy you have towards your father because we're taught to love and respect our parents and we are born with this natural bonding attachment to them but when you watch something like this happen night after night after night and you've this rage is growing inside you you're being pulled in opposite directions then there's also of course the guilt that comes when you think that you might be the cause of this nice night's violence maybe something you said or did that you didn't even realize triggered it maybe just your father's dislike of you triggered an argument between your mom and him that is now raging on downstairs but the worst guilt of all and it is by far the very worse is knowing that you did nothing to stop your father from hurting your mother because while he raged on against your mother downstairs you hid in your bed and you trembled underneath the covers maybe you whimpered and you cried and you put the pillow on your head and thus you traded personal respect for personal safety and with each such infinite incident you come to realize with ever greater and greater clarity you come to realize your own weakness your own impotence your own incompetence your own worthlessness your own cowardice and the hate grows and Fester's inside you not only for the man that you call father but for yourself as well it is a terrible terrible thing to make a young boy choose between his mother and himself it is extremely unfair I noticed that tomorrow there's going to be a lecture about tomorrow morning a lecture about spousal abuse given by dr. Shaheen Rizwan I hope you all attended I think it's a very important subject when I was little I used to daydream about life without my father I just wanted the violence to go away I wanted not to be afraid anymore I felt like I was trapped in a bad dream and there was no way out and so I prayed to God again and again and again to take to remove my father from our lives but he was always there and very soon I began to wonder if God really was I could not fathom why God would subject my mom to such lifelong punishment could not imagine what great sin she must have committed or that we her children must have committed to deserve my father I didn't have the maturity to sort out such questions but I had enough fear and anger to provoke them I was too young to see the wisdom and allowing my father to I mean my mom to suffer the violence and abuse of my father I was too young to understand why God would let innocent children tremble night after night after night in their beds fearing that they might not see their mother the next morning I was too young to see how the mercy of God could even extend to my father with all his terrible failings all I could see in my world was chaos and violence and fear and so it became easy for me to question the existence of God and I began to do that at a very early age I think I'll even say that the turmoil of the 60s and 70s that's the age when I was a teenager and you know late 60s early 70s only reinforced my skepticism when John and Robert F Kennedy were assassinated or Martin Luther King was gunned down when vice president Agnew was kicked out of office and Richard Nixon soon after him when the race riots erupted in city streets like my and gang fights erupted in our cities many of those which I was involved in when I saw the bizarre and senseless carnage of Vietnam they all confirmed the lesson that was already ingrained in me and my father had taught me so well that the world is dominated by random consuming under criminais ting violence and very soon I began asked why why would God make it that way why wouldn't he just pop us into heaven from the first and spare us all this suffering why does he let little children in Vietnam get napalmed and run down a street naked on fire when they'd done nothing to deserve it and why does he let the race riots go on why does he let the leaders be assassinated why does he just let the violence go on and on and on for people but nothing to do with it it wasn't of their own making why didn't he just make us angels and pop us into heaven if he could make us angels which I was always taught he could why did his make us so susceptible to sin why didn't he make us impervious to it like he made the Angels is this the best world he could create I thought is this the most perfect world he could create for our existence for our beginning I just couldn't figure it and all the explanations are received from priests and doctors and lawyers you know from whoever you know spoke to me or taught me it just didn't make sense to me in any case so I became an atheist when I was 16 even though I was going to Catholic school at the time declared myself an atheist one class it was confrontation between me and a priest we were talking about God and the purpose of life and I expressed my views and he said well then you don't believe in God I said well I guess I don't and then through my junior junior and senior year of high school I got an F in religion even though I continued to do very well in the test in any case when I was 28 to make a long story short some friends of mine gave me a copy of the Quran and one night I was sitting in Diamond Heights my apartment in Diamond Heights in San Francisco I was working that time at the University of San Francisco I was 27 28 at that time I can't remember I ran out of stuff to read and I took this gift that my friends gave me and I began to read it and I came to the first verse well I opened the Quran read the first page within the second and then very quickly in the second surah about 37 verses into the Quran I came upon a story of mankind and I have to admit I read through it very quickly it was about 910 versus long story of the first man and woman and I recognized some of the details it was similar to what I had learned when I was a child but I noticed that there was something wrong was apparent to me that whoever authored this Quran of course I wasn't a Muslim at the time so I didn't have any idea who that was whoever authored this Quran clearly did not understand the real meaning of the story as dad obviously gotten the details confused they even didn't even understand the whole purpose of the story and so I just read through it once and then I read through it again just to try to see what kind of point the author was making and I read through it a third time and a fourth and then I realized this is something strange going on here I'm gonna read this much more carefully I'm going to need to go through this story line by line verse by verse because it's obvious that the author is trying to bring out another point and I wasn't quite sure what it was but definitely he packs a lot of meaning into almost every word and I thought the writer at least seems to have a great measure of brilliance and so I'll try to sort of take you through what my experience was as quickly as I can so I came to the second the 30th verse of the second surah surah al-baqarah and it began like this it said behold your Lord said to the Angels I am going to place a vice trend on earth Arabic word is Khalifa means a representative or an emissary of mine I'm going to place a vice turn on earth and they said the angel said will you place therein one who will spread corruption and shed blood while we celebrate your praises and glorify your holiness and God said he said truly I know what you do not know see that's the verse that hooked me that's the verse that caught my attention that's the one that kept on making me read the story again and again and again because listen to the way it begins behold your Lord said to the Angels I'm going to place a representative mine on earth of I strength of mine and emissary one who acts might be hat thought that's not the way it goes you're not supposed to be placing man on the earth in some positive role some elective office you place man as a unearth as a punishment for a sin clearly I knew the author didn't quite get the point but still it was an amazing line but then I come to the next line and says and the angels say well you play star in one and we'll spread corruption and shed blood while we celebrate your praises and glorify you I looked at it again I couldn't believe the question they said will you play star in one will spread corruption is shed blood while we the Angels celebrate your praises and glorify you I looked at that and I said exactly that would be my question why would you create this being supposedly for some positive role when he's capable of doing tremendous wrongdoing when he could spread corruption and shed much blood why would you create this violent and pernicious creature when you could create angels as the Angels clearly say well we we the Angels celebrate your praises and glorify you they're asking one of the most fundamental questions in the entire history of religion why create you man this utterly fallible creature this creature who could rebel against God will who could do such tremendous wrongdoing who can wreak havoc like no other creature on earth and you can make him angels and look where the question is being asked it's being asked in heaven it's almost like saying look why don't you just make him angels who'd be up here in heaven with us you know I'm just making angels pop him in heaven he's fine why would you put him on earth where he could feel distant from you we can work out is worse criminal tendencies act them out feeling somehow independent and apart from you and free to do whatever he wants when you could just make of angels and put him in a heaven and make them perfectly submissive to your will that that question and said that's my question I'm not I'm what not even a single verse into the story of mankind and there before me I see my question that will question everything that I ever thought everything that I ever experienced everything that I ever knew was in that question was if the author took my life and wanted to pick out exactly the right question to humiliate me to provoke me to anger me why create man this most destructive and violent creature when you can make him angels and then look at the answer and he said God said truly I know what you do not know you know in modern parlance that we would say I know exactly what I'm doing I read that and said what you know what you do not know you know exactly what you're doing well please inform me tell me what you're doing cuz you know I'm 28 years old and I haven't figured out it yet and I have a lot of issues that I'm still dealing with that's connected to this question you can't just get off that easy you know just tell me you know exactly what you're doing not after what I've been through not after you made me this way and then I realized of course I was arguing with a god I didn't even believe in and that would happen several times as I read through the Quran at some times I would just get into such so that's so agitated by what I read I start arguing with this voice that's that's that I'm reading before me that's calling to me so we turned to the next verse it turns out that the Quran just doesn't dismiss the question it starts to answer it a little bit and then the next verse it says and he taught Adam God taught Adam the names of all things and then he placed them before the angels and said tell me their names if you are right so this verse is clearly referring to the previous one but notice what it says now I mean from my own background I remember Adam naming things but it wasn't connected to any answer to any philosophical quest but here notice what it says and he taught Adam the names of all things and I realized already just from the first verse you got to read these verses very carefully because packed with a lot of symbolism and meaning and he taught Adam the names of all things so here we see Adam is not only just the creature who knows how to name things who's acquiring the gift of language but he's also a learning creature God is teaching it now right here right in this verse and I'll come even clearer in the subsequent verses that the very first thing that that the Quran is going to emphasize here is man's intellect he is a learning creature he is taught and what has he taught when is the what is one of the great intellectual gifts he's given in response to the Angels question the gift of language because through language mankind could not only learn but he could learn things not only through his own experience but he could learn things that other people have experienced of times and places that are hundreds thousands of years and miles separated from him and so that all our knowledge becomes cumulative every generation learning from the generation before it I'm learning today from authors I read from other sides in a world that may have existed 2,000 years ago and so we all contribute to our collective learning and knowledge and so well I'll see you later in the Quran when the crown will emphasize this again and again and again like in one verse it says read in the name of your Lord who created created a man out of a tiny creature that planes read it commands the reader for your Lord is more powerful why is he most bountiful what great gift did he give you for a taught man the use of the pen and through it taught him what he otherwise could not know and time and time and time again the Quran will call upon man to use his intellectual faculties and swear by his intellectual faculties and to end to use them correctly as a because because they play a fundamental role in guiding him to truth I never came upon a scripture that puts so much emphasis on the correct use of our intellectual faculties on the harnessing of Reason in helping us attain to faith and he taught Adam the names of all things and then he placed them before the Angels and said tell me their names if you are right okay you have this objection to you have this natural question about this creation of mankind here this mankind is this a human being this human creature is a learning creature it has many intellectual gifts here I'm going to place these things before you tell me their names if you are right about man what did the Angels say and the next verse they say glory to you we have no knowledge except what you have taught us in truth that is you are knowing the wise they say this would be this task this intellectual test that's put before them is beyond their grasp alone is what they emphasize we have no knowledge this would take knowledge this we take an intellect that they don't possess in truth it is you who are knowing the wise you got it it's easy for you you have the knowing the wise you have knowledge you have wisdom but this would take knowledge and wisdom that is beyond us and so in the next verse we read and he said o Adam tell they tell them their names and when he had told them their names notice how it just like it's nothing for him for mankind he has this phenomenal ability and when he had told them their names SIF is just the triviality for man he names them o Adam tell them their names and when he had told them their names God said did I not tell you that I know what is unseen in the heavens in the earth and I know what you reveal and concealed and he's clearly going back to the Angels question yes you have these natural concerns about the creation of mankind yes they could do these evil things but look at this tremendous intellect he has this is something you have overlooked that you haven't considered and that's clearly the point of these verses even though I under didn't quite a you know It was as if I realized that he didn't didn't misunderstand the story he was taking one of the great stories in the history of humankind one of the fundamental greatest stories in the history of mankind and molding it and using it as a vehicle for an entirely original message and God said did I not tell you that I know what is unseen in the heavens in the earth and I know what you reveal and what you conceal in other words didn't I tell you I know exactly what I'm doing and then the next and did I not tell you what I that I know what you reveal and conceal I looked at that what question did there I mean what did they reveal and what did they conceal what did their quick question reveal and conceal I thought about it for a minute oh it's obvious what did your question reveal you just can't go back and look at the question it revealed the sinful and senator sinister propensity zuv man I mean it's obvious right why are you all looking at me like that starting to scary you're all looking very serious am I losing you Wow okay so they revealed the sinister and evil propensities of man but what they could did or question conceal all you have to do is think about it for a minute human beings yes they could do evil yes they can do wrong yes they could create misery but they could also do exactly the opposite they could choose to do evil they could juice to do tremendous good they could choose to do tremendous violence they could choose to show tremendous compassion they could choose to be true you know to live by false said they could choose to live by the the greatest truths they could be terribly ugly they did he terribly beautiful and I up until that point in my life I like the Angels it only saw one half of one side of the coin for the first time when I read that verse believe it or not it was an eye-opener for me I had always been obsessed with the evil potentials of human beings when I read that verse I realized that and I had a great example right in front of me with my own I realized that I had been blinded by only one type of human nature so we go into the next verse and behold we said to the Angels bow down to Adam and they bow down but not so it beliefs it beliefs is like the father of Satan Satan's satanic beings forces creatures existences he refused and was arrogant he was of those who reject faith an interesting statement and behold we said to the Angels bow down to Adam and they bowed down bowing down could symbolize two things falling down could symbolize the superiority of superiority or potential superiority of one being over another and so they bowed down to them bowing down could also mean that they serve that creature in some respect of course the Quran says that all being served God all created being serve God but this verse seems to be indicating an arrest of the Quran will make it clear that these angelic beings these angelic entities will serve the development of mankind will even see later that the satanic beings serve the development of mankind both forces angelic and satanic will serve the development of mankind because one will present man with a choice to do the most altruistic things the other will simultaneously and try to influence man in the opposite direction and so human human beings will be moral creatures and I'll have to make moral decisions that it's in those moral decisions that they will grow spiritually and morally as human beings and they'll take that into the next life and the angelic and satanic forces will be catalyst for those moral choices that they make they will heighten the human beings awareness of the rightfulness and the wrongfulness of the choice he's about to make and the self the soul the Neffs as they say in Arabic will have to make the ultimate choice between good and evil and that choice that test will come again and again and again as human beings either grow or decline and those tests will come again and again and again to try to help him towards the spiritual evolution to bring him back but that choice is ultimately ours but I'm getting ahead of myself and so we said to the Angels bow down to Adam and they bowed that but not solely beliefs beliefs is Satan this rebellious force this evil prompter the one who whispers into a human heart he comes into being and with the introduction of Satan we have the introduction of evil that evil influences on human beings and notice why he beliefs does not bow down he refuses because he was arrogant you know we often hear that what's the root of all evil in the West it's always money greed etc here the Quran says that seems to be saying that the root of all evil is not always material wants it's not always money is not always greed at the heart of evil is arrogance putting yourself above all others of assigning to yourself special priority and neglecting the rights of others of pride and arrogance ending the source of evil he was of those who reject faith I looked at that verse and I said okay I mean I get why you would create angels that sort of influence man in a positive direction but why in this story now are you introducing Satan what sort of role this was Satan play and then of course do you just think about it for a minute and you say yes the story is telling us that on one hand we have these magnanimous urgings come from one direction on the other hand we have these satanic urgings coming from another direction in other words the Quran is telling us that man is not only a learning creature but he's a moral creature he has understanding of right and wrong and God infuses those it allows those influences to come to him man is not only an intelligent being but a moral being and so you know the crown is not all that difficult to understand you just sort of read it I found and you just sort of following your nose through it and see what it's saying I'm sure as most of you in the audience know okay so we see that man is not only a learning creature but he is a moral being as well there's another verse in the Quran it says by the soul and that which whispers into it or which breathes into it it's morality its immorality and it's God consciousness both of these we are under the influence of and God allows us to be under the influences he creates us to be exposed to both influences and then the verse says truly he is successful who causes it to grow causes his soul his self his real self to grow and truly he is lost who stunts it who disallows who destroys his personal growth so mankind is not only an intellectual being but a moral being and we said in the next verse o Adam dwell you and your spouse in the garden and then freely thereof what you wish and eat freely thereof what you wish but come not near this tree for then you will be among the wrongdoers I looked at this first and I was you know starting to wonder if the author was drifting back to the old story again I was confused and we said Oh Adam dwell you and your spouse in a garden and he'd freeze either of what you wish but come not near this tree for you will be among the wrongdoers thought it was drifting back to the old story man sins man's punished for his sins with earthly life maybe the author is drifting he had a good idea now he's drifting back to the sort of traditional story maybe couldn't men make his mind up what story you wanted except for a couple things about this verse and this happened with almost every verses I read through it is that the whole tenor of the passage is sort of not the what you would expect I noticed that the Quran and this story has a tremendous pension for understating things because it says and said dad while you and your spouse in the garden and he's freely there of what you wish to Adam in his spouse but come not near this tree for you will be among the wrongdoers I mean there's no sense of God being threatened by the possibility of man-eating from the tree in this story we don't see the you know in this verse we don't see the God is nervous at the prospect that he's threatened by the prospect that he's anxious about it the tree that he picks picks it seems like he's just picking out any tree nothing special about the tree going on there so this tree for you will be among the wrongdoers Satan will later come to him and tell him it's a tree of eternal life of a kingdom that never decays turns out to be a complete faucet in his part nothing special about the tree just a tree God's not nervous at the prospect at all you know in the tradition that I came from God is threatened by the prospect he has to put a feint with a fiery sward the sword by to protect the tree so that mankind never goes next to it again I'm not putting it down I'm just pointing out the difference of the story they're both beautifully told but they so you know it has to guard the tree why because if they eat from it they'll become gods like us oh this man he's already as a rebellious nature can you imagine if he eats from this tree No okay let him get near that tree but here just you know calmly says you know but if you do you'll be among the wrongdoers God is not worried about itself it's just warning man make it clear that if you do this you've committed a wrongful deed again the whole tenor of the path or all these verses you read through it is God knows exactly what he's doing okay next verse but Satan caused them to slip and expelled them from the state in which they were and we said go you all down some of you being the enemies of others and on earth will be your dwelling place and provision for a time what I said I mean you know I was expecting now the rage to anger the violence the jealousy that's what I was expecting okay they eat from the tree where's the rage the violence I'm gonna punish you now you're gonna sweat on earth I need you to suffer and you're gonna stop your toe and you're gonna work can you get a laborer and you're gonna die there for what could did and where is the woman and one all right she's the one who's gonna suffer the most right she'll have to suffer labor pains and monthly cycles and bleeding and crying out and her children come into the world she'll scream out and worst of all the greatest humiliation the man will rule over her when he's obviously your intellectual inferior because she and the Angels seduce see him she had Satan seduced him he just bumbled along and did committed in a real you know wrong deed well I don't mean to make light of it but the story is obviously different though you know no no threat here as a matter of fact look the way it says Oh Adam dwell you you're near spouse in the garden and need freely thereof what you wish but come madness near this tree for you will be the Hmong wrong to doers then they make the mistake but Satan caused them to slip and expelled them from the state in which they were and we said go all you down some of you being enemies of others will be adversaries of others some of you will be adversaries have each other on earth will be your dwelling place and provision for a time this is not a deity losing it if you look at it I mean on earth will be your dwelling place and provision for our time that's not the words of a God that has got lost you know that is really extremely upset minor thil be your dwelling place and provision for a time when I walked into the hotel today and they said and it's this nice one up here I don't know the name I can't remember the name of it but as a continental breakfast and they said your room will be room 111 and there's confident continental breakfast in the morning I didn't say you know I didn't think they were mad at me and I look as he said you know you're gonna sleep here and this is going to be your provision in the morning oh thank you yeah but notice something else about this first I mean when you read these verses for the first time I don't know maybe I'm nuts and many people think I am but when you read these verses for the first time I mean this is just so much that catches your attention but K Satan cost them to slip I remember I I couldn't get that verse out of that were those words out of my head Satan caused them to slip to slip the greatest sin in the history of the human race and it's called a slip you know in my culture slip means you know you're just momentarily for a fraction of a second you lose your focus it's not a big deal my Uncle Bob used to always say to me Jeff I'm sorry I'm five minutes late I slipped up you know it's the understanding this is no big deal it's just a slip now that's what we say you wouldn't make a minor mistake I slipped up don't worry about it never happened again a slip I said momentary loss of focus the greatest sin in the history of humanity why we're all here why we're all suffering why we experienced death a slip I didn't believe it I went to my arabian friends at that time I didn't know any Arabic that came to this verse we went through it line but fine I said now don't change any words just read them one at a time but Satan made them and I said okay this one this one right here what does it mean tell me what that means they looked at it says slip slip and expelled them from the state in which they were a slip I thought but then maybe I was trying to force the traditional understanding the traditional interpretation maybe was just a slip I mean after all they didn't commit murder didn't commit robbery rape pillaging assault they date of date a couple of pieces of fruit well it's not the greatest in the history of humanity by any means and then the next verse says and then they were expelled from the state in which they were what state were they let's Cena we know let's go back for more we started first mankind is being taught we see he's an intellectual being then we show he's a moral being moral being means he's a being that's gonna have to make choices and then God gives him this choice it's not a huge deal it's not the gravest sin in the history of humanity by any means is minor by any standards they make it though we see that God originally intended to put man on earth as his vice Turin we see a period of preparation where he's being prepared intellectually where he's growing intellectually where he's growing as a moral creature when this God finally put him on earth what signals that he's ready to begin he makes his first independent choice it's not the worst deed in the history of humanity it's minor on anybody scale but it shows the mankind is ready to act on his own to be his own to make his own choices that God has empowered him to make choices and he's ready to make them and carry them out and see them most often to their expected ends if God wills and that seems to be the only real significance of it but I thought maybe I'm getting this wrong maybe God just blows off into an angry rampage the next verse so I look at the next one and it says and then Adam received words from his Lord and he turned then God turned to him mercifully for his off returning ever merciful if I had any doubts up till now that God is not enraged by what this has happened that God hasn't prepared mankind for this choice for what was eventually going to happen but all this was preparation for mankind to begin his earthly sojourn in this famous allegory if I had any doubts before now I had them certainly didn't have them after reading this verse this verse is entirely consoling reaching it and merciful reaching out to mankind and mercy mankind goes to earth he's obviously afraid he obviously feels remorse he's in an unfamiliar environment and was God do he turns to him he turns them in Arabic the word is like as the meaning of like a father turning towards an infant or a child or somebody or a parent a mother turning towards her child and he turns them mercifully he forgot his off returning ever-merciful and Adam recedes words from his Lord what kind of words probably words of consolation words hope words tell him not not to be scared and in the next verse we see those are exactly the type of words that Adam receives he says go down Adam in his files go down from the state all of you together repeating that again just so that we know that this is not a punishment here go down from the state all of you together and truly there will come to you guidance from me and whoever follows my guidance has nothing to fear nor shall they grieve it is a it is an emotional picture this is a couple young couple is here you know if in fear and in shame feeling remorse and God reaches out to them in turns Thursday and tells them you have nothing to fear nor shall you agree I know this is tough for you but you've been prepared for it up till now through your entire existence it had to happen this is a necessary stage in your development in your growth but just hang in there follow my guidance be true to me and I'll be true to you I'll guide you I'll help you I'll do whatever you need just follow my guidance and you have nothing to fear nor shall you agree okay so I was impressed you know I thought this author whom I didn't know I thought was extremely brilliant because the story is entirely coherent but it's bringing out an entirely new meaning and it's stressing something the human equation that I would never have normally thought of actually I thought these sort of things argued against the existence of God here the author was using them to say look at these these play a fundamental role in the purpose of life what in command human beings have intellect in response to the Angels question there are moral creatures and they are subjected to evil and angelic promptings and they have to choose between them again and again and again throughout their existence and their growth which the Quran talks about frequently it's going to depend on that we're here to grow as we will see but it emphasizes choice you mean these are creatures of choice it also emphasizes suffering right an awful emphasizes suffering human beings are going to suffer here on earth that's the first thing that the story mentions spread corruption and shed blood havoc suffering pain yes these three things play a central role somehow the story is saying in our development on earth and our very purpose of our development these are the three things we've always had the most trouble grappling with all theologies have I'm gonna sit delay if it leads us often to challenge in our minds the existence of God if we can't reconcile the existence of God with our minds with our reason why give us choice if we can choose to do wrong just make us angels why are the sufferers on earth just pop us into heaven and here the ground is telling that these play essential roles that are in our taining of faith not only these of course it also mentions guidance God's forgiveness revelations etc and javac forces satanic temptation and mentions all these other things as well but these three essentially really caught my attention I never expected that these three things would be emphasized and so as I read through the Quran I look anytime I saw anything that seemed to relate to this I've been write down notes and underlying it you know and I would walk up and down in San Francisco and my pen as I'm walking because I like to walk about seven miles every day and I'd be underlining my friends would always say Jeff what book are you reading and I would lie to them I tell them all it's a great novel or something kiddo I didn't want them to know that I was reading the Quran I think they thought I was going it's but in any case so up very quickly I was wondering that's the crown really emphasized reason there's a really emphasized choice does it really emphasize something how much more time do I have madam Speaker thirty five twenty five okay I'll do the best I can so let me just try to indicate to you as I read through the Quran and I'll try to get through this quickly because you guys look tired and I know you're interested to find out how that basketball game is turning out let's see does the Quran really emphasize reason as essential to human growth that this experience were having on earth to our very purpose and the answer is definitely yes so much so that even Western Orientalists people who wrote against the Quran and said that this is a major feature of the Quran a feature that you cannot miss honor ela men's writing in the early part of this century the fame one of the famous orientalist you know who wrote very much against muslims hoping to unseat them from their religious belief he wrote the Quran and this is his quote is not far from considering unbelief as an infirmity of the human mind unbelief is he thought and he was saying it mockingly is like you know you can't think straight not using your mind right as my father used to say maxime rodents in' wrote at length about the the rationalistic approach of the quran to faith and this rational tone of the quran is one of its most salient features beyond doubt I'll just give you a few quotations is that one of its fundamental themes is that people ignore a reject God signs and corrupt religion precisely because they do not use their reason the Quran will say that again and again and again the Quran says about the disbelievers they refuse to reason and our people who do not reason I have seven such quotes in the Quran the crime will say will you not reason it mentions that 14 times to the reader God reveals signs and lessons and admonition so that and this a quote from the Quran perhaps perhaps you will finally use your reason there are eight such statements in the Quran from the crimes viewpoint reason and faith our allies just as the logic and false belief our allies and it clearly sets the conflict along these lines it says the right way has henceforth become clear from error those who benefit most from the Quran are persons of insight 16 such statements in a Quran firmly rooted in knowledge eight such statements used a reason ten such statements stand on clear evidence improve seven such statements those who oppose this revelation are deluded 9 such statements in manifest error twenty eight statements ignorant fifteen foolish three have no understanding nine only follow surmise and conjecture nine and blindly adhere to tradition multiple multiple times say states that an almost Socratic style the qur'an repeatedly quizzes the reader and calls into question his or her assumptions again in an N it asks us what do you think 18 such statements have you considered this or that thirteen did you suppose seven sounds like a math teacher do they not ponder two such statements do you think do you even think eighteen such statements the message is clear two grain true or faith we need to free ourselves from inherited notions and examine our beliefs rationally learning plays a key role in human development read the Quran exhort the reader for God taught us to use of the pet and taught humankind what it otherwise could not know in life nature and history and the Quran there are signs and lessons for those who are wise there are twenty one such statements the Quran states over 100 times that has been revealed to make things clear I thought the author of this Garron must have had strong mathematical insight you know a natural mathematician all throughout when I was reading I was trying to imagine what he must have been like God teaches humanity both directly and indirectly and thumbs sometimes so subtly that we are unaware of his instruction thus he tests us multi-fit not multifarious ways of course I just want to make it clear Muslims believe the God Himself is the author of the Quran you know sometimes I give this speech and people come away and ask me Jeff who is the author of the Quran anyone um but you know I was I didn't know so I was just trying to make figure it out repetition is indicative of the importance given to certain ideas that should be observed that the Arabic word for knowledge in the Quran Arum appears 854 times in the text in its various forms it's one of the most frequently occurring words so the Quran really does but great emphasis and reason in our spiritual quest does it put great emphasis on choice well here's what has to say let there be no compulsion in religion the right way is henceforth clear from error the choice and it must be freely made and it's a choice between correctness and error between right and error between reason and falsity had God willed he could have indeed guided you all it says in the Quran why not I thought why not just guide us all why let some of us choose to go this way in that way the Khurana is constantly provoking me as I read it do not the unbelievers know that had God willed he could have guided all mankind oh do not the believers know that had God willed he could have guided all mankind okay I'm an unbeliever I thought tell me why didn't you guide all mankind if you want us to be in the conformity of your will just make us that way and if we had so willed we could have given every soul its guidance why did you let us be creatures of choice just program us to do the right thing never make a wrong choice had God willed he could have made us all one community could have made us clones of one another but he didn't wasn't part of this plan enlightenment has come from your Lord he who sees does so to his own good he Oh is blind is so to his own hurt it's your choice says it again and again a crime remember when I was reading this I was a disbeliever and the Scriptures constantly reminding me it's your choice yeah it's no compulsion in this it's your choice it's up to you no you don't you know you're not met you're probably not reasoning correctly here think a little harder come on try few more steps and whoever is guided is only to his own gain and whoever is stray I am only a Warner to your choice we have revealed to you the book with the truth for mankind who lets himself be guided does so is for his own good he who goes astray it's his own to his own hurt it's his choice there are many many such references I'll stop there but you get the point Quran clearly emphasizes that choice plays a key role in our development but what about suffering I mean you know sufferings the biggie right I mean that's the real major question what does the Quran have to say about suffering no because every religion deals with suffering in a different way you know you see there's something you have to be saved from and so some religions stress salvation or it's something that you have to sort of transcend through meditation and training so you can sort of not feel it so much get above it and beyond it some religions seeing it as primarily punishment some see it as some of the more ancient religions see it as the result of the precarious and whimsical you know control of many gods working against each other playing with human beings different religions have dealt with it in different ways but almost all of them I would indeed say all of them have sort of seen it as something not so good let's see what the quran has to say about it something to be avoided to transcend it to be saved from the quran says just the opposite you are going to experience it you will suffer in this life and it plays a fundamental role in your development in your growth and what you are to become this scripture didn't just say you're going to experience it it says you should Racing you should struggle through it your good life should be a struggle it says it should be a jihad but that's that's what it says jihad means struggle when the Quran most says she had very seldom it's most often not in the context of fighting qatal is the Arabic word for fighting but you know it says even in the Mecca verses long before Muslims had to defend themselves against their oppressors mentions that you have to struggle in the path of God with the Quran it even says struggle in the path of God with this Quran life is a struggle it says in one verse most assuredly we will try you with something of danger and hunger and the loss of worldly goods with the loss of your lives and the fruits of your labor most assuredly we will try you it's not just talking about evil people good people but give the good news the glad tidings be happy for those who are patient in adversity and suffering good news I thought doesn't the author understand the terrible effects of suffering give the good news to those who are patient through adversity when calamity befalls them say truly unto God we belong and truly unto Him we shall return in other words that this could benefit them it's such a remarkable statement here's another one do you think that you can enter paradise without having the like of those who passed away before you and the next verses start to explain these people were good people who suffered terribly do you think that you can enter paradise without having going through this without going through the same why I thought why the why do we have to suffer in life misfortune and hardship befell them and so shaken are they that the Apostle and the believers with him would exclaim when will God's help come these are good people when will God's help gum o truly God's help is always near you will certainly be tried in your possessions in yourselves the Quran tells the reader you're gonna have to face hardship it's guaranteed every soul must taste of death and we try you with calamity and prosperity both as a means of trial and to us who are returned you are going to have hardship here there is going to be no pet no heaven on earth this is a vow environment is made to be an environment of adversity it is made to be an environment where you have to work we have to struggle where you have to strive and it plays a key role oh man truly have been toiling to your Lord and painful toil but you shall meet him your toiling yes but you shall meet him we certainly created man to face distress what I thought We certainly have created man to face distress you made us thus a face distress does he think that no one has power over him sometimes people get you know so so down they just think this no one's can't be a god I'm look how I'm suffering he would say I have wasted much wealth some people just become totally devoted to worldly names does he think that no one sees him have we not given him two eyes to see you in a tongue and two lips to communicate with to learn from by communicating Kenny see round him Kenny tell from communication with other people have when we pointed out to him the too conspicuous ways what are they too conspicuous ways but he attempts not the uphill climb one of them is uphill climb and he says this is the way you should be pursuing and what will make you comprehend the uphill climb just to free a slave or to feed in a day of hunger an orphan nearly related or the poor one lying in the dust then he or she is of those who believe and exhorts one another to patience and exhorts one another to mercy you have not attained to faith until you struggle the uphill climb it's telling us you should pursue the uphill climb what is the OP hill climb reaching out to your fellow man who is innocent who suffers to feed the poor one help the poor soul that's lying in the dust and all over the world are people in stay and we watch the news as if it's just entertainment the Quran tells us this is something you should involve yourself as that is the road that you should travel it describes a successful life as an uphill climb well I could see I'm running out of time so I'm gonna have to tie this up in about 15 minutes I guess but definitely the Quran emphasizes these three elements in a human drama but as I read through it I couldn't see how it all fit together I mean why didn't God just why why why do we have to experience these what purpose did I play just pop us in the Hellmouth beam us up I thought well one thing like I mentioned before the connell repeatedly emphasized that we're here to grow and to learn and some just I'll give you four or five quick verses because I know you're tired it says our Lord and raise up in their midst the messenger from among them who shall recite unto them your signs and shall teach them the book and the wisdom and who shall cause them to grow we have to learn did we learn wisdom in the book of Revelation in particular and who shall cause us to grow and we have sent among you of yourselves a messenger to recite our science to you and to cause you to grow truly God was gracious to the believers this is in the third surah when he raised up from among them a messenger from themselves the recite his signs to them and to cause them to grow it is he who is sent among you the who was sent among the unlettered people a messenger from among them to recite his signs that caused them to grow these are all distinct references just two more there are many more and the soul and that which breathed into it it's immorality and it's God consciousness he is indeed successful causes it to grow and he is indeed a failure who stunts it and in verse 90 second surah surah alejo it says far removed from it will be the righteous who give his wealth that he may grow so the purpose somehow is to grow we're in a growing learn developing experience we weren't just created when we came into the world this is actually a stage of our creation just as our development in the womb was a stage in our creation essential stage and our physical creation this is an essential stage in our personality creation in the creation of our real being that which we take into the next life our essential selves we've gone from the physical creation in the womb primarily physical now to the human creation the personality creation in this stage I thought maybe I'm you know projecting my own neuroses into the scripture maybe it doesn't really emphasize that life has a purpose but time and time again I would find it does for example just quickly it says those who remember God's standing and sitting and lying down and reflect upon the creations of the heaven on earth and say our Lord you did not create all this in vain you did not create all this in purpose just when I was starting to think maybe the Quran really doesn't state a purpose or life it really doesn't mean there's a real purpose of life maybe I'm reading into it something that is there I would come upon verses like that it would force me to just read a little further make me think well maybe it's just around the corner we have not created the heaven and the earth and whatever is between them in play if we wish to take a sport we could have done it by ourselves if we were to do that at all God doesn't create the satisfies whims or fancies or entertain himself do you think that we created you purposely and that you will not be returned to us it says in the 23rd surah the true sovereign is too exalted above that and the 44th sorrow we did not create the heavens on earth and all that is between them and play if that serves a purpose now what sort of purpose could possibly serve so I tried that you know apparently the Quran speaks about believers and those who who are the rejecters if the believers aren't in one hand the rejecters on the other now apparently God has created us to be believers so I tried to study what the Quran has to say about the believers it's a natural thing to do to see how what it wants us to become if it has anything to do with these essential elements that it stated I mean it's a natural way to approach it I think you agree do you agree somebody nod your head so I say to my math students you know just one head nod is enough for a mathematician get one head going okay I did my job okay so how does the Koran describe the believers what are they supposed to attain to what is their ultimate thing that they're supposed to get what are they ultimately supposed to achieve and it's very clear when you read the Quran that what they will achieve in this life and will experience to so much greater degree in the next is they will experience a relationship of love with God they will turn to God in love and God will turn to them in love and the Quran God's mercy compassion forgiveness kindness beneficence warmth generosity all the things we normally think associated with God are freely given to all mankind but when a god Quran speaks of God love we would normally think of that as God's love but when the Khan speaks about God's love it's talking about something very special his love is always presented as a relationship a relationship between two without if we do not turn to God in love then we just receive His mercy forgiveness kindness beneficence warmth generosity all those wonderful nurturing things his nurturing and we rejected and so we never really experienced that love because we never really turn to it and open ourselves up to it it is always there for us but unless we enter into that relationship that love that give-and-take that relationship of love this never develops we reject it and that's what the word kafir means means to reject to turn your back to ignore to throw something a gift that someone gives you behind your back and so the Quran tells us that the believers will experience this sublime relationship of love it says yet there are men who take others besides God is equal loving them as they should love God but those who believe love God more ardently say if you love God follow me and God will love you and forgive you your faults for God is the forgiving the merciful o you believe if any from among you should turn back from his faith then God will assuredly bring a people he loves and who loves him and throughout the crime I'll mentioned time and time again that God loves this the believer God loves this type of person God loves that type of person and so forth and so on so it's quite and I'm trying to pick the speed up here so you'll have to excuse me for that but it is apparent from the Quran that one of the purposes of creation may be the essential purpose of the creation is to produce from this subset of humanity the subset of humanity that will freely enter a relationship of love with God there will not only experience the beauty of other relationships in their lives but this love that they will experience with God is the sublime experience that they will enjoy not only in this life but infinitely greater in the next when all the distractions all the masks are stripped away okay I thought you created us to love you for us to turn to you in love and to experience your love to receive and experience your love just pop us into heaven love us don't make us love you program us to love you you know you make my dog love me know sort of me I kept on coming back to the same issue just do it you know okay still couldn't see it I was almost through the Quran and I thought either I'm dumb or this scripture does never really got to it okay so I didn't give up I thought okay what's the next natural thing to do okay so the births so we're here to develop this relationship of love with God the Quran tells us that you know if we are believer and we do good will experience great joy and peace in this life not only through our relationship with God but through complementary relationships with all the people around us in this world will be a one for us a peace and serenity even though we have to struggle and survive and suffer but I couldn't see you know how this all tied in with this suffering business and why you couldn't just put us into heaven so what's the next natural thing to say ok so we created to have this relationship of loved with God to enter this relationship to experience and receive all that he has to offer us so the natural thing to do is to study the two partners in that relationship what does the Quran have to say about us the believer what does it ask of him and her what does it require of them and then one of the crime tell us this about God and then is there some essential Nexus some essential connection between them and doesn't have anything to do with these because if the Quran doesn't show that then the essential link that links all this together that pieces all together is missing and as I thought to myself whoever this author is and by now I know we had fantastic genius even though he came from the primitive confines of the most backward most uncivilized sector of humanity of people that had no literary history really to speak of no great works of literature no scriptures that preceded him even though he came from the desert of culture even though this came out of that environment and the mind behind it had to be tremendously in Jean phenomenally genius to come out of that surrounding and produce something like this if that essential link was missing I knew that you know he was great but you know and it's extremely great but you know he's you know what do you expect how could anybody answer those questions nobody in the history of humanity has been able to ask and answer them ok so I thought first I'll see what the quran has to say about the believers what is it require of them then would ask to say about God and see if there's essential link are you following me you're giving me the note get off the stage okay I'll do my best it's a deep subject we're almost done bear with me a few more minutes I'm sorry really I know Suraj mahadji when he gives you sort of speeches he always says okay I'm finishing up now and then 10 minutes later it says you thought I was telling everything I won't say that but just give me a few more minutes bear with me okay quickly what does the Quran ask of the believers from the qur'an's many excitations and his descriptions of acts and types of individuals loved by God is not difficult to compose a partial list of things that the Quran wants us to do which it calls good deeds time and time again to believe in God to have faith in God to have a relationship with God and to do good so what does it describe as these good deeds well as I read through the Quran it says that can I take this away remember intellect choice suffering it says we should show compassion show compassion we should be mercy I have the references here but just excuse me I'm not going to list them all running on time we should be forgiving forgive us we should be just we should protect the weak and defend the oppressed defend the oppressed we should be seek knowledge and wisdom knowledge wisdom bear with me ladies and gentlemen we should be generous truthful and we should love our be peaceful and we should love our fellow man love others I'll just give you one verse because I know we're running out of time madam Speaker truly those who believe and do good will the most merciful endow with love and to this end we have made this scripture easy to understand in your own tongue so that you might convey a glad tiding to the god-conscious and warn those given to contention to this end we have made this easy to understand so that we will learn to love others okay that's all I'll say about that I would like to say a lot more but I don't have time now what does the Quran tell us about God you have to realize I'm just about through with the Quran here my first time reading it and now I was really caught I searched my head what the Quran tell us about God tells us nothing could be compared to him that is out anything he's outside anything that we may compare to that our definitions do not encompass him that our reason cannot comprehend it that he is transcendent and we are finite that he isn't more is on transcends time and space and we are bound by it that is immortal we are mortal he is uncor / real we are corporal that we have no way of comparing ourselves to him nothing could be compared to them that oh my god I'm so close and yet so far because I'll never understand the essential link between us and God and why these three things fit into place because the Quran tells us that we will could never really quite understand God or at least that's the way I thought and so I put down the Quran when I had finished it and much to my dismay I was honestly disappointed because I thought and this the author made a brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant try but he never quite made it and so I was sitting in front of about three four weeks later I was sitting in diamond Heights in my apartment watching a football game I think it was and you know sometimes this things just slip into your minds when you least expect them and I'm sitting there watching it and all of a sudden into my mind came a thought and I said wait a minute the Quran does tell us so much about God tells us again and again and again but somehow I just missed it just skimmed over it every single time because if you turn to almost any page if you turn to the beginning of any surah you could see time and time again essential information about God that I just thought was sort of a literary device something can make it just sound more beautiful because if you turn to beginning of any sewer you'll see the words bismillahirrahmanirrahim in the name of God the most merciful the most compassionate if you read almost any passage long passage when you come to edit and if it it's punctuated by dual attributive statements like that is the merciful the compassionate God is the forgiving the gentle that is the kind the protector God is the generous the truthful that is and so forth and so on there are tens of thousands of such references in the statements in the Quran what the Quran defines is God's most beautiful names its attributes of perfection repeated again and again and again on almost every page and as I sat there sitting by the television to jot them down in my you know on my little piece of notebook there city notebook I used to jot these down before and I began to list from my own mind the attributes of perfection as I remembered them and they were we should be God is the compassion that is the mercy that is the forgiving that is the judgment the protective the defender of the oppressed in the lead the knowing the wise the generous the kind the truthful the loving the peaceful the source of all peace the truth and so forth and so on every item I had listed it in my list for the qualities that we human beings are supposed to develop the Koran was telling me at its infinite source and perfection in a lakh and God and then all of a sudden all the pieces fell together then I suddenly saw it as I see most of you probably see as well but now I mean something it all began to make sense to me in what way do I say that well he's now obvious why we had to develop these qualities was not Evans now obvious how these things on the floor here fell into place and I'll just say it clearly we're here to develop a relationship with God to become closer to God but how can you become closer to God when he's transcendent in your finite when he's immortal in your immortal when you're in vice versa when he's immortal in your mortal then he's unbound fettered by time and space and you are and so forth and so on how can you become close to that one if I want to become close to you I need to have something to share with you something that we have in common so for example if I'm gonna come close to this young man here physically I'll approach him because we both have bodies and I could position my body closer to him physical presence bodily presence is something we both share if I want to become closer to that gentleman back there if I want to become closer to him intellectually I'll reason with him so we will have a convergence of minds because we both possess reason if I want to become closer to one of the my sister-sons it this side emotionally I'll try to appeal to their sentiments because we both share our feelings and similar types of experiences that generate those feelings but how does one become closer to God what do we share with him we share with him we'll exactly what he gave us because the Quran tells us that when we were came into this life he breathes into our spirit something of his spirit and that we come into this world with the seed of these very qualities within us and we could either kill them stump them as the Quran says or caused them to grow and when we grow in these we grow in our ability not just to experience tremendous beauty of life through all this but we grow in our ability to receive and experience the infinite beauty the infinite peace ended truth the infinite compassion the infinite mercy the internet etc all the way down list down the list that only comes from the infinite purse perfect source of all these the more we grow in mercy the more we grow in our ability receive and experience in this life and in the next to an infinitely greater degree the mercy of God the more we grow in compassion the more we grow in our ability to receive and experience God's compassion in this life through prayer and through ritual through contemplation and through other experience of others and and of course infinitely more in the next life the compassion of God the more we grow in our truthfulness we more we grow in our ability to experience God the truth because all truth comes from God the more we grow in these things the more we grow in our ability to receive and experience God's attributes of perfection the more we grow in our ability to receive and experience his being and that sort of nearness we are growing to him this tied to our essential nature and to his it's more than just physical nearness it's more than just a convergence of ideas it's more than just a convergence of feelings it's a convergence of essential beings it's the closest type of nearness to can feel to can experience just give you a quick analogy because this helped my children let's pretend I have a cat a goldfish a dog and three children three daughters let's say and I do after he daughters no matter how much of my love compassion forgiveness caring I pour upon that golf thing it could only experience it to a tiny degree it might not even really be aware of it this is a very primitive creature but my dog on the other hand when I show it all my kindness all my love all my compassion all of what is essentially me it can experience it to a much higher degree than my goldfish and to its interaction with me so it's all trying to skip its own self to me we could experience a quite wonderful relationship but my children as especially as they grow over and go through their own experience and their own development could receive and experience all the love and the compassion and the forgiveness and the caring and the generosity and the protection everything I have to offer they could experience my being to much higher degree than my dog ever can and we could have a relationship of beauty that I could never have with my dog as much as I love animals having had three daughters I know that the relationship with that you have with three beautiful daughters could never even come close the no other relationship that approximate that of course my relationship with my wife is also extremely beautiful and she might hear this and she's a wonderful woman really I mean she's the source of so much beauty but ok madam chairman I am ready so that seems to bring it all together so now wait a minute that doesn't explain this why the intellect why the choice why the suffering I thought you almost had me this crime you almost duped me you almost tricked me seduced me into accepting this philosophy but wait a minute what about intellect choice suffering why do we have to experience these why couldn't you just programmed us to be merciful compassionate forgiving I said why do we have to go through all this and then of course the answer came to me as quickly as I thought of it so we are creatures and we grow and we become and yes and you could make us anything you want but you can't contain any of those attributes I listed without these three things in mathematics we try you know three premises that go into you know proving a theorem we try to see if we could take one of them away and if it is essential and all three of these are definitely essential for example you could program a computer never to make an incorrect statement but it doesn't become a truthful computer never heard anybody say to me Jeff this Macintosh is the true most truthful computer I ever saw if it's programmed it's not truth you could program a cat scan to help the sick but it doesn't become compassionate never heard a doctor say Jeff if you want to see a compassionate Kass can you come right over here right because all those things compassion forgiveness truth caring love all are born out of choice suffering and reason in order to do a compassionate deed when we consider reaching out to someone in compassion that person first of all that's inconceivable without the presence of suffering an environment where they're suffering and when we decide to help them or not we reason in our minds what is this going to require of me it's going to require some suffering on my part some in my giving of myself and without that mental process it doesn't become a compassionate deed and if it isn't by choice it's not a compassionate deed it's that choice that makes it compassionate same thing with truth truth is a choice between telling the truth or not telling the truth oftentimes we tell it when rrah and risk to our own personal loss the more suffering that might come out of that choice the greater is the truth behind it the greater an act of truthfulness and all the time we have to weigh the consequences of that choice if I tell the truth there my teacher is going to give me an F if I don't tell the truth I may get an A we weigh it in our mind last example the famous wedding Bob do you take this woman to be your wife in sickness and in health for richer or for poorer until death do you part what are they asking us do you knowingly make this choice understanding full well what's at stake here that they might involve richness but poverty health or sickness that suffering is going to be involved until death once a young lady told me you know you never really loved me because when the growing got tough when things got hard when we hit rock bottom when my life fell apart you just got up and left and she was right and she understood full well that that's what love is all about it is through giving and suffering together and hanging in there with each other and not bailing out and persevering through suffering making that choice and knowing what you're doing all those three things are essential so it's very easy to see why the krod stresses these prophetess for an order for us to go in these I've dropped it we have to have these and that's why it's very easy to see ladies and gentlemen why the Quran thirty-seconds no instrument why the Quran talks about sin as self-destruction the Quran says when we sin we commit the Arabic word is domme or zoom however it dialect you have though against ourselves we oppress we destroy ourselves because when we don't grow in these we don't grow in the very opposite of these we are literally destroying ourselves when we grow into the things that are impolitic 'el to these we are destroying our natures it will not allow ourselves to receive and experience the beauty that could be in store for us that this life and the next it's like coming into this world and developing in the womb none of the physical things you need to experience comfort and joy and peace and happiness on a physical level in this life as if you're coming into this life and you've destroyed yourself physically somehow in the womb and you came into in here nothing to protect you from the cold from the heat from the harshness of the elements from germs from disease nothing to protect you nothing to satisfy you give you the ability to satisfy your thirst or your hunger nothing to for you to fear experience any physical comfort this is all it matters as we go into the next life if we don't develop these through our relationship with God our very purpose of our being then we will experience strength terrible suffering in this life worse than if we came into this life in a physical state that in the valence of any of the comfort of this life and so it will be worse than five it'll be worse than endless fire it'll be worse than inhale the worst hell we could possibly imagine so the Quran tells us you know that yes you know when it talks about heaven in hell it's use very powerful symbolic language but what essentially is telling us is imagine the greatest joy and wonderful and peace and serenity you could ever experience and that's what's open to you on the one end but on the other end imagine the most terrible suffering that you could possibly bring on yourself and you could also do that to yourself as well it'll be worse than anything you could have ever imagined so and it's the Quran tells us that God says on the day of judgment I did not harm you in the least you destroyed yourself and I could say that the total objective truth and that's why the Quran well I think I'll leave it at that because madam Speaker is about to shoot me I still have other things to talk about but I want to find out how that basketball game is going so thank you so for month so much for listening to me for so long and may the presa mercy of allah be upon you all I didn't mean to try to scare anybody at the end that wasn't my goal I was just trying to make a point I made the peace and mercy of God be upon you all thank you so much so Naima all right we'd like to thank dr. Liang for that very heartfelt very long presentation I have a few things to say before you all leave so just be patient with me for a second

Channel: Islam On Demand

Views: 1,162,622

Rating: 4.9210773 out of 5

Keywords: the purpose of life in quran, quran, final verse of the qur'an, our purpose in life, miracles of the quran, koran, greatness of the holy quran, scientific mistakes of the quran, scientific miracles of the quran, implementation of the holy quran, english translation of the quran, muslim, islam, talk islam reaction meaning of life, last verse of quran, jeffrey lang, dr. jeffrey lang, prof jeffrey lang, doctor jeffrey lang, jeff lang, jeffery, allah, revert, religion, problem of evil

Id: ifllgTA2pmY

Length: 91min 4sec (5464 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 27 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/AndTheEgyptianSmiled]

One of the greatest video's I've ever seen. The first 15 min. is ....I can't believe he shared that...

His understanding of the Qur'an from his (then atheist) outlook was fascinating.

[u/qftransform]

I've watched this one a few times over the past year and it is still one of my favourite talks.

[u/CurlyFatAngry]

His book "Even Angels Ask" was life altering for me.

[u/hashtagreckt]

The man we all need, but not the one we deserve.