Why Worship Allah? - Hamza Tzortzis

[Music] you bismillahirrahmanirrahim in al hamdulillah mostly to was salam wa ala rasoolillah brothers and sisters i greet you with the warmest islamic greetings of peace assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wa briquette today's topic is why Allah is worthy of our worship now for me to unravel this topic I really want to discuss the most important part which is a key that opens the door to the rest of the discussion so what is this key it's knowing allah subhana wa ta'ala allah says in the quran know that there is no deity worthy of worship except allah okay know so Allah is saying to us that we need to be on this path of knowledge to know allah subhana wa ta'ala but as you know knowledge in Islam is not a secular understanding of knowledge it's not having a database or filling PDFs or apps on an iPhone right we don't have a computational model for the mind okay we have a spiritual model for the mind so when we know some data we internalize it and this is very critical because I don't want you learning one or two things here today then walking out and not internalizing them in your life so knowledge in Islam is actually the ability to take that data that knowledge and to internalize it becomes part of your spiritual DNA it becomes you it's part of your state of being and this is critical and an example - hallo I'm trying to say here is many mothers and fathers in this room know what good food is to feed their children right vegetables right good proteins right right will you cook your child last week yesterday would you buy them on Friday night last week chicken and chips rice full of ghee right so your knowledge in an abstract sense doesn't improve your actions at all there is a gap and that gap is Tobia that gap is the spiritual like spirituality in Islam which is very bad which is worshipping Allah it links that abstract knowledge and you internalize any changes your state of being anyway point is knowledge is not just abstract like being and iPhone and iPad lots of data it's internalizing that which you know so does memorization its internalization right and this is very very critical for us to understand so Allah says know that there is no dating where they worship but Allah subhana WA Ta'ala so let us summarize this one reality of allah subhanho wa taala he is our Rob okay now Rob generally speaking is translated as master owner he is your Lord but it has far more linguistic and spiritual connotations essentially he is the absolute owner master maintainer sustainer of the universe of everything that exists of all creation and not only this there is a subtlety in the root here which is he takes care of and is through an act of love and mercy this way in the Quran when you see changes in personal pronoun referring to Allah subhana WA Ta'ala rubber is used for intimacy forcefully Leo Rebecca one heart therefore pray to your Lord and sacrifice but in this chapter the first verse referred to Allah as we write we verily we have given you the abundance then it shifts for suddenly the Rebecca 1/2 therefore pray to your Lord of sacrifice so Rob has this sense of intimacy sense of also glory and power that Allah owns the universe he's the master of the universe he created the universe he sustains and maintains the universe so this is a very important aspect of allah subhana wa ta'ala and to deny any of this is what we call a form of associating partners with god which is one of the greatest sins in islam this is why atheists those who deny the the Rob the Ruby the lordship of Allah the mushriks by the spiritual definition of Islam right so this is very critical first nonsense Allah is the maintainer own a sustainer of the entire universe second point a lots of Hannah water has names and attributes right we reading in the Quran and we see in the Sunnah Allah describes himself as illudude the loving coming from the word would which means the loving that is giving right iliza wrong man he is the intensely merciful right sometimes we translate rock man or rock man as the merciful that's actually a bad english transition there are three connotations for this word number one that Allah's mercy is an intense mercy number two is an immediate mercy number three is such a powerful mercy that no one can stop okay so this is what needs to come to your heart and mind when you start thinking about the word al Rahman okay when the name alright man so Allah hasn't even had attributes these names and attributes right we believe they are maximally perfect this is very important to understand allah subhana wa ta'ala is maximally perfect meaning there is no deficiency of flaw concerning his names and attributes you hear this in Christian theology God is the most perfect being we we actually have something very similar in the Islamic tradition where Allah subhana what that has maximum perfect names and attributes for example when he is a lubu dude he is loving to the from a boundless point of view he's maximally there loving and he has no deficiency and no flaw this is very critical for us to understand because we're gonna link to other questions that we're gonna discuss later on so Allah is maximally perfect and he has no deficiency or flaw floor now we affirm all of the names and attributes we could find in our source tanks in the Quran and in the traditions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam okay we don't make ones up right there is no such name as the angry one right allah subhanho wa taala hasn't defined himself as the angry one for example so we can't just make that up oh yeah Allah is the Angwin that would be totally totally blameworthy in our tradition to do this we stick to what Allah has taught us and what the prophetic traditions have told us however there is a caveat there are few things that we can rationalize outside of text and and that is indicate in the text as well about some aspects of a lawsuit on Owatonna for example the hairs Kudrow he has power he has a will he has knowledge this could be ascertained rationally but the general rule is that you stick to the texts concerning allah subhanho wa taala this is not a blind faith issue this actually an intellectual issue because if someone was to knock on a door right now someone's knocking on the door we don't know who's coming in who is it we know there's an entity right there's a power must have some kind of will there is an entity behind the door but we don't know who it is I can't see now oh it's George oh it's your cat I can't say those things we would have to say who is it and the entity tells you similarly allah subhanho wa taala is outside of this universe he's transcendent right we have these ayat these signs in this universe are knocking the door the intellectual door there is a Rob there is a mode there is a crater something's going on right but we can't start saying oh yeah it's um it's it's it's it's the spaghetti monsters if you say right or the flying teapot or it's an elephant with 12 arms this is an irrational speculative that's why Allah calls it than me speculative a sumptuous and unjust as well because you're ascribing to Allah that which doesn't belong to him so we know there is a knocking on the door we have to if I lost a panel what other to give us the message in term in terms of telling us who he is now what we do with these names and attributes for example we do not humanize them right so we don't say Allah is there loving and Ilyas is very loving - this is a form of sugar keys of social importance of Allah you're basically saying that Ilyas is just like Allah right you can't do that so you're humanizing the names and attributes and we can't even dare fight people as well for example if we see hey hey from here and we say to him oh who day for do apologize the reason I said hey them bros because I treat him he's the CEO of Muslim ayahs and he had to do something for me so that's why he's in my head my love bless him as well on him Jennifer Dosan you and your family so who'd Ava masha'allah but was they gonna say do you know can you see the future do you have telepathy no because I told you forgot now you support my flow I've got it no so who David for example if I said to him you know he's powerful just like God right so I'm deaf eyeing him okay and this is shirk this is a sorry associating partners with God which is not only irrational but blameworthy and the greatest evil in our spiritual tradition the third point is that allah subhanho wa taala deserves worship we must direct all our acts of worship to Allah alone we single out our acts of worship to Allah and the best way to describe this before we continue is referring to the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he said the essence of worship is who knows do I the essence of worship is supplication right so when you supplicate to Allah you are asking for something right so if I say to Allah Ya Allah give me a glass give me sincerity right so if I ask Allah give me sincerity that's a form of worship it's actually the greatest act of worship because it's the essence of worship supplicating to your Lord because you know he has the power to give you sincerity right now if I said to Zackary over here you know I made supplicate as a career so he can give me sincerity that's that's right that's a socially important Allah because I'm actually being to him an ability that he doesn't have right I'm actually being to an ability to him an ability he doesn't have and not only that I have directed a key act of worship to something other than Allah right so from the Islamic spiritual intellectual point of view we direct our supplication to the Lord of the universe and this is very very critical for us to understand Allah mentions this it makes it very clear in the oft-repeated chapter we recite during our prayers Yakka na budu my year canister it is you we sing yeah it is you we single out for worship and it is you we single out for help okay and by the way this help doesn't mean you can't ask someone for a cup of water if you look at the toaster love it because there it's basically to do with the fact that you're asking help from Allah because only Allah can give you that help for example if you say Ya Allah want twins right Allah could give you twins but if you say Ilyas give me twins that would be impossible he's a for dry he has no power but you are strong no okay so from that point of view it's asking help from somebody that doesn't have the ability that we'll be sure to create that would be countered this verse so it's very important for us to understand that we single all our acts of worship to Allah alone and we're gonna start to discuss now why Allah deserves to be worshipped so we had to spend some time discussing who Allah is we have to know who Allah is briefly and then start to discuss why now does he deserve to be worshipped okay so the first point I want to discuss is a lot deserves to be worshipped because who he is and this is very critical for many of us I was here a few months ago and I had a brother come up to me I said I was praying every evening and then I fell to my exams I've stopped praying as I hold on a second since when are you on par with Allah when are you on par with God it's not business relationship you know you have a contract you know I give you a few prayers you give me something back with a little bit of interest okay I mean this this is a form of the ego we have deified ourselves we actually deserve something a lot deserves worship because of who he is he's the maximally perfect being therefore he deserves praise and praise as a form of worship we do this all the time people boom Messi is such a great football player right chef I send him out of Allah he calls him a Jin because he's so good with the ball he must be a genie can't be human right so he's so amazing look at that guy Wow right don't we do that don't we do that guys Usain Bolt the fastest man on earth right 100 meters yeah right well right don't we praise Him even me when I saw Mo Farah doing the ten thousand five thousand something inside me something was going on say go bro go bro yeah come on all right that's what happened my son was it was the Olympics one Olympics was it the scouts Olympics running 200 meters I didn't care he was in front of me beautiful brilliant Zakaria Cohen's okay I was acting like I don't care who's around right I'm just like my dad I'm like that yeah and you know how did he also my shoulders and people thinking who is this guy he can't be Asian yeah because they wouldn't do things like that some crazy Greek guy we break plates at weddings anyway so you know I was like expression was office Wow look at the movement isn't it brilliant you know I'm a boxing Frank for example when I see Mayweather although I'm not a huge fan of his personality may Allah guide him but basically you know his shoulder all his defense movement it's phenomenal right you praise him he's done nothing for you right but he has some attributes that are praiseworthy right even if you didn't even see the manifestation of his attributes used to praise these people if I said you in the next few seconds the most loving human being is gonna come through this door and you believe me but you haven't seen that love been expressed by him everyone still wants to meet him because he has that definition right right we even deal with the prime minister in the Queen right we don't necessarily know them right but you just wanna you know try and please them and see them because they have this high praiseworthy status right who do this all the time even in marriage no he's an engineer he's a doctor bro right he must be the best Muslim in the world oh don't worry he was in the pub because you know he likes that drink and he wasn't alcoholic but he looked very tipsy right we give all these excuses right just because I have a praiseworthy status so when it comes to allah subhanho wa taala who is maximally perfect right his names and attributes are perfect to the highest degree they have no division seem flow so when his alpha dude he is the loving and nothing can compare to his love and he is the most powerful nothing can compare to his power right and he's the all-knowing and nothing can compare to his knowledge and he is al-hakim he is the wise and nothing can compare to his wisdom then what should that do to us shouldn't something happen within us to praise allah subhana wa ta'ala right didn't just make sense but we do with everybody else some limited contingent creature reign limited but you could know could ever bench a thousand pounds no one could ever venture a thousand pounds benchpress right no one could run 100 meters in one second he said it needs something that is impossible we have limits all the time and we forget this because of what marketing and the egocentricity have spoke about earlier right impossible is nothing you have no limitations what a stupid thing to say so you're full of limitations you shape your size fine push the boundaries but I'll make it go towards the kind of spiritual disease of egocentricity yeah so the point is almost so kinda what today is the most powerful he's got pure maximally perfect love he is the most merciful and yet nothing happens in here for us to praise allah subhana wa ta'ala and the praises form of worship it's the key to worship al hamdulillah he rabbul aalameen all praise and perfect gratitude belong to Allah subhana WA Ta'ala it's the first line in the Quran right an indication here that you have to start with praise and gratitude to understand the rest of the book to understand the rest of your life to understand how you gonna have a relation with Allah subhana WA Ta'ala so regardless Allah could have given you the crumbs of the universe you could have suffered a life that was not very pleasant he still deserves worship you could failure he still deserves worship you could lose your husband he still deserves worship you could use your legs he still deserves worship because of who he is and even when these things happen there is a fundamental and absolute divine wisdom and goodness behind these things we just don't know it sometimes and it's only through connecting with lots of Hanna WA Ta'ala that we'll get that Sakina that tranquility to be able to understand why these things happen it is fundamental for us to understand brothers and sisters that if you were given nothing Allah still deserves everything from you because of who he is because he is the being with maximally perfect attributes names and attributes to the highest degree possible and if we could praise some runner who could run a hundred meters it was someone who does a little tune right or someone who could rap or great poetry or great poets then imagine how we should react or loss of Hannah water because of who he is this is very critical second point why Allah deserves worship first we said is because who are who Allah is right now Allah Jesus worship because of who we are this is very interesting because in the exam expert rotation the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa most told us that he created within us f it raw and innate nature and innate disposition Vitara fat on fat allahu something has been created within us as unchanging that has a form of knowledge and not knowledge is to know Allah to worship Allah and other element across the creation said to also understand a certain basic goodness right so there is an innate nature within us as unchanging being created by Allah and our very nature is to worship Allah it's who you are so when you don't worship Allah it's like committing spiritual suicide it's like having a pen with no ink and thinking you're gonna write it's who you are you are the Hulk of Allah you are the creation of Allah his alcoholic he is the creator and the creation of a creator is always fundamentally linked in some way your link is through worship and it is you you are designed for that and this is why Allah makes very clear listen to this is gonna blow you away Allah says in chapter 39 verse 29 consider the condition of two people one man is a slave a servant to many masters and they are all quarreling another man he's a slave to one master whose conditions best who who's got the best condition some guy who's a slave to many masters and they're all arguing or one man he's a slave to one master his conditions best the second who deaf is right the man who's a slave to one master might a double here my pondering of this over this verse is if you don't worship Allah you're gonna be worshipping so many different masters and you see in your life don't you who do you love the most who do you refer to the most who are you in or of the most right if you don't worship alive you don't love if you know in all if you don't refer to allah subhana wa ta'ala then you're going to be doing that to something else we see all the time look at looking at look at Justin Bieber right you have all these girls and little boys I love him so much right you know sign my hijab yeah hey or whatever right he's such a great singer follow him on Twitter right what's to know him writes in the diary are really really my dying wishes to meet Justin Bieber right even has acts of worship like gratitude pay for memory memorabilia and like products that link to Justin Bieber by a shoot expensive concert tickets right this is like a form of worship and then that person's gonna grow up and worship other things as well eventually like what their boss may be brain social pressure why are people gonna say heard that a lot in the Asian community haven't we why are people gonna say well why you take that abuse the biggest disease in the world it would you we've become expectations we haven't become human beings we become brands we haven't become humans and exist in our community we need to take it out even if it means embarrassing yourself because it will save you in the day of judgement I'm telling you some other things that we do we claim to worship Allah but what we do we care what other people think we do don't we what are people gonna say who gives a damn what people say what does Allah think about us that's the important thing if Allah is good with you it doesn't matter anybody else everyone's gonna fall in line anyway we were scared don't we right your dress is not sparkly enough on the wedding who cares your wife bro she's not fair enough little bit dark in it you know bring out the fair and lovely we see that in the aunties drools all the time yes or no it's a disease we need to speak about this it's a disease in our community we care what people think we have this post-colonial social spiritual slavery I was in Malaysia few years ago and they had a huge billboard and it was like why is right or something fair and lovely so I advertising matter Kareem would you believe it and in my talk was about God's existence but I had to speak about this in the beginning I like Malcolm X was alive today how do you describe you type of people right house Malaysians it's crazy we have to really understand this anyway the point here is it's a given that you're manifesting signs of worship even if you know worshipping Allah subhana WA Ta'ala some people do it as a football team I remember some of the brothers they hired a Newcastle football stadium part of the stadium to do some Islamic event and you had some of the football guys caught him saying hey we don't come to your Mecca don't come to ours right and you have this you know just think about the thing you love the most the thing you wanna know the most the thing that you obey the most and thing that your grat you have the most gratitude that's your day t right that could be a concept because that's like the the sashing partners with God that's the type of of realization you know you have this with some old-school communists don't you Marx becomes their God how can you say anything about Marx right he becomes like divine he is why he you know his his his what he called his manifesto was a cold I forgot his quote now what's his paper code anyway what he wrote and where his comrades role right it becomes like the gospel truth the divine doctrine how dare you challenge such things it's from a man bro I'm just conceptualizing here you know we have that don't we we get so like you know we have these forms of worship we have in everything when it comes to politics society sometimes even in our partners right it's a big test marriage isn't it if you're spat the spouse is the only one that you love the most and not love is a barrier to Allah's love there's a problem right right if our love becomes ich ich in arabic is like the possessive form of love that's a on us that's like you know evidence against us because that love should be for your creator no for creation don't get me wrong love just spouses people yeah we don't love them enough that's for sure yeah I don't think many people suffer from that problem but however I'm trying to give you an example here it's very important for us to understand so it's worship is part of who we are and if you direct your worship away from Allah you're gonna be worshipping all of these slave masters your politician peer pressure your friends society television lore'l marketing materialism what people think you're gonna be a master - you're gonna be a slave to all of these masters they're all quarreling and you're never gonna be happy Allah makes is Cliff Lee makes it very clear for you so worship is who we are and he found purpose in life are lots of panel what Allah says in the Quran that he didn't create man or the spirit world or jinn except Allah Liat badoon except to worship Allah subhana WA Ta'ala the next point why Allah deserves worship is actually because of his favors and bounties right but we see this in the wrong way we think Allah has to do me some good like get me a big house a lot loves me because I've got a good job this is totally wrong and it shows how greedy we've become and it shows how you know the world owes me a living we've become so sensitive to our own life right and we forget the fundamentals people and I want to break this down from an Islamic spiritual perspective right now for you to wake up we all wake up together this point there is something in your life that you would sacrifice a mountain of gold for and it's given to you freely every moment you don't deserve it you don't own it and you couldn't bring it about yourself boys this thing there's a thing that's given you and given to you every moment brothers and sisters and friends every moment and nothing is so precious you sacrifice ten Earth's for it it's give it to you freely and you don't own it you don't deserve it and you cannot bring it about yourself yeah it's give it to you freely all the time what is this thing who said that Vardhan bro it's our conscious existence every moment of our life you want a big house and a big car a nice wife and lots of money and you haven't been grateful enough for the very thing that Allah has given you to be able to even ask for such a thing we are deluded or in a state of heedlessness spiritual ruffler heedlessness with all of these great things Allah says you feel grateful who give you more but grateful about what Oh Thank You Allah for giving me a house no no no no no no there are some things are fundamental you have ignored and forgotten like your very existence which is so precious you don't earn you don't own you don't deserve you can't bring about yourself then you don't even think Allah you think oh I deserve life excuse me let me cry who are you you deserve life you rearrangement of electrons and carbon who are you who are you we need to belittle the ego and humble ourselves because that is a key to open the door to connecting with allah subhanho wa taala because ego is a buyer to god's mercy we have to realize this brothers and sisters there's something in your life is given freely it's so precious every moment if I give you a thousand pounds a day you don't deserve it you don't own it and you couldn't bring about yourself are you gonna think are you gonna thank me right okay now say I did this for a year and after a year you start thinking the thousand pounds you start thinking there thousand pounds it's not stupid right it is isn't it that's what we do sometimes don't we we think with the source of our own existence look at me I went to the gym bro I'm you know amazing sometimes we are born as if we're a catapult from our mother's womb with a briefcase on the time well lie we live in this excessive neoliberalism the disease of society because it teaches human beings that you're just an abstract individual divorced from social attachments that's not my words that's the feminist philosophers words man in Freedman check her out she's a communitarian she discusses excessive individualism even the children society reporters published in 2009 it said the same thing our children suffer from this excessive individualism right right we need to really be aware brothers and sisters that we are not the source of our own destiny we don't we don't control everything it's not all because of us the very fact that you were able to have a briefcase and have a good job it's based upon almost an infinite number of variables that were in place in order for you to do that your mother wasn't there for example if you didn't you know tolerate the pain of labor if you didn't have a hospital right if there was no food right nutrients medication all of these things have to be in place for you to be here and ultimately that goes back to whom allah subhanho wa taala so though think that you you know all of a sudden it is from your own power and your own ability that you are the UI's because of Allah fundamentally don't forget this so far as I sometimes you know when I reflect on the dog the animal I'm telling the dog is here I'm here why does Allah mentioned dog in the Quran for us to reflect a lot never you use these animals for jokes what you think you know and they just put dog in there that's not the case with a lot of panel water Allah reflect on the dog if you reflect on the dog brothers and sisters the dog feels that its owner its master is the source for its existence right the dog would tolerate a thousand sufferings if anyone has seen programs I had a dog before you see you hear a dog it stays with you you don't feel a dog it stays with you you backbite slander a dog it stays with you you gossip about dog it stays with you right you don't give love to a dog it still gives love to you right because the dog sees you as its source of its existence source of it being alive and it having a sense of security and look how a dog acts towards us but a lot of power we know he's the necessary being without him we could have anything everything depends upon him we're so contingent and dependent upon him yeah how do we act towards allah subhana wa ta'ala nothing like how a dog acts to its master something to think about another favour and bounty when you talk about is you know allah subhanho wa taala tells us that you could never enumerate his blessings you could never count allows blessings absolutely this is a fact I think I found a really good example to understand this and this example applies to people who suffer or people who have a good life regardless brothers and sisters the thing that Allah has used as a physical cause to maintain your life is the heartbeat right if I stopped your hobby right now what would happen generous King you won't survive right right good so we already mentioned that the priceless gift is life and one of the physical causes that enables you to be alive is your heartbeat now if I say to you have 1,000 heartbeats left and I said to get another extra thousand you have to give me your iPhone and two thousand pounds who would give me the iPhone and 2,000 pounds pre hand up everybody that's how precious just that extra 1,000 heartbeats is even though it might take us a thousand heartbeats to get that money and give you the phone give me the phone right so how precious is one heart be extremely right do you beat it yourself who controls your heartbeat in your life Allah okay right from now can all your heart beats you've ever had do it count all your heart beats you ever had count them one two three come keep going it's impossible for the first three years you didn't know how to count back log when you see pink you don't count your heartbeats you can never count the blessings of Allah ever even one small blessing like the heart be forget everything else like your health and your wealth and your and everything else that you have that's why I say to the kids anything extra from a heart beat is a bonus we're living in the lottery we have bonus ball water happen ran I'm telling you we're living in this life in which we should be so happy no one should have any excuse will lie especially living in the West and being in the top 2% of the world anything above a heart be grateful gratitude and if we're not in that spiritual state realize it it's a disease I'm not here to judge I have that disease too right minami ought to move in the believer is a mirror of another believer but I'm telling you wanna meet have a happy life you be grateful for the most basic things are so fundamental to your existence and realize you don't own those things you can't control those things you don't bring about bring about those things once you internalize that point I'm telling you never be sad anything above a hobby brothers or sisters is a bonus the next point we need to love Allah which is a form of worship as well and sometimes we don't speak about love but our Lamar classical scholars the Sahaba when they understood the verse about Allah yeah Badoon except to worship Allah right that meant to love Allah as well and to know him and it's very significant because we mentioned this earlier about maximal perfect attributes we say it that allah subhanho wa taala is illudude her from the word would which means a loving that is giving his love is maximally perfect it's greater than even a mother's love because a mother she needs to love it's a contingent type of love it's dependent for her to throw hold a loves love has no contingency Allah doesn't gain anything he's perfect independent and live any Ally is independent free and rich yeah he loves just imagine how pure that I love his brothers and sisters sure you can't even imagine it and that's all love love so how could you not even try and love that being I love Azadi the 11th century theologian and he's 36 book over the idea of the revival of religious sciences he closed the door on this topic very well like on many topics you know he was really powerful he mentions about love and he basically says that human beings love themselves and what he meant by love is what Erich Fromm spoke about love in his art of loving which is not a love that is look at me I'm an austere system so gorgeous I'm so amazing not that love that's ego less blameworthy but it's the type of love that you want good for yourself right you don't want pain you want pleasure we want to be happy Jenna paradise right we want to be happy that form of love I love me because I want me to be okay I want I wanna I don't want pain I want pleasure brain this form of love alaa ghazzal he says if you do have this natural form of love for yourself then it necessitates logically and spiritually you have to love Allah because you created you who created that establish opposes in the universe in order for you to use to run away from pain and to embrace pleasure and he said if you don't love Allah then you delude it it's like a drunk type of love or drunk type of happiness or a drum type of contentment you know because you haven't realized that necessary logical intellectual spiritual link between your self-love and the love of Allah subhana WA Ta'ala and also as I said earlier if someone came into this room and they were described as the most loving human being you don't care if you're married or not you just want to know where what is that love right obviously with halal means but you want to find out you know what is that love how do I taste something love how do I know to love like that you be it will be irresistible but I can be magnetizing right Allah is love is greater than any type of love so how much we be yearning allah subhanho wa taala finally brothers and sisters another form of worship is obeying Allah you know in secular discourse to have faith and obey things especially comes to religious things it's so you know so medieval so a few centuries ago yeah I want to basically take this out of your head obedience to Allah is the summit of rationality obeying Allah is the peak of what it means to be a human being obeying Allah is the peak of intellectual activity or being Allah is the most rational thing to do don't let people think this is irrational they have a ego the disease of egocentricity because we obey things all the time I travel a lot on the plane pilot says sometimes ladies and gentlemen we're going to be X producing media to severe turbulence fasten your seat belt buckle up what do I do I don't sound moon walking down the aisle do I I start moving around do some back flips hey no that's stupid what I do I sit down and I buckle up I have all bade the pilot why I have no idea on how planes work I also do the pressure but I did it wasn't good at physics ok Hollis I don't even know what 10 minutes is I just know it makes the plane move around right and sometimes it feels like it's gonna snap in two okay I all know the science or the wisdom of the knowledge of turbulence yet I'm obeying the pilot because I consider him an authority when I go to the doctor and I give them my symptoms and he says right if you take this medicine or do this physio you will get better Charla what do I do I don't say to him you stupid fool the decade of learning you've done is irrelevant I'm not going to do that if I cup my hands do a little spin I'm gonna get better immediately I don't do stuff like that I obey the doctor because I know they have an authority in this matter right we do this one most phrase of our life and this is part of Western philosophy I knew if you read the works of dr. Elizabeth frico she's an epistemologists someone who studies knowledge she says given my limitations as parametric meaning I have my own limitations right given that I have limitations I can't know everything I can't know everything so I have to rely on the authority of others it's just a given right many atheists do this to me all the time or bro your views on cultures are so wrong or why am i beloved friend oh because Dan did it wrong in a book oh really what do you say I don't know if I read the book all right you get it all the time you get it all the time right so obviously that's a cliche on atheists but I that's my experience right I can't change my experiences but that's been my experience is especially on social media anyway so point here is we obey all of these authorities and they are not the ultimate authority Allah is the ultimate authority he has the totality of wisdom and knowledge he has the picture we have a pixel if we have a pixel so even a more rational to obey Allah isn't he moral authority in the pilot isn't he mobile authority than the doctor of course that's why obedience is the most rational thing to do and Shaitaan story I'll end on this Shaitaan story brothers and sisters is a lesson for us Shaitaan was the first pseudo rationalist what did he say Allah says to him the ultimate authority says to him bow down to Adam what does Shaitan say because of his ego ego that's what made him disbelieve was ego very careful here Shaitaan said I made a fire he's made of clay thinking that he was more rational because he had his limited senses around him you need fire for clay but he disbelieved because he now dare fight himself he went against allah subhanho wa taala is the ultimate authority it's like a five-year-old walking to an oxford lecture by all the greatest mathematics professors and he's teaching people calculus and the fire road says that's not calculus this is calculus and it's his own scribbles of Humpty Dumpty or something went on a piece of paper and yet we have-we arrogate we have so much arrogance brothers and sisters you know as as humans forget Muslim whatever as humans were so arrogant and we feel and we think straight away we have to say or does it really mean this does the ayah really mean this is hadith really mean this fine it's good to use your mind over the text absolutely although it tells us to do stuff like this but the first question we have is my mind is more of an authority then then the ultimate authority allah subhana wa dangerous professor AC Brown he makes a really good point he studies hadith and you should check him up he's got really good books coming out and he he talks about traditionally the Muslims they had less ego from that point of view and when they looked for when they looked at a prophetic tradition that look there were bit uncomfortable with their first question was how do we bring it inside the fold of the Islamic discourse how do i reconcile but what we do these days is how do we dismiss and that is nothing to do intellectual activity is to do with our state of being auspicious there being our egos it's very important for us to understand this very clearly so I'm just gonna add a normal going over time but just three more minutes here I'd like to end on the snow every knife said oh the concepts that I'm trying to deliver to you these are the primary things we should be giving to our wider community our brothers and sisters in humanity the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam said in a hadith in Bukhari entirely terrific al kabir love for Lynne Ness for people humanity where you love for yourself the word here is not a he he like the other hadith it's not Muslim or Muslim moon or whatever it's a nurse linen s love for Humanity what you love for yourself and if we've understood worship properly and we love Allah the most we must be sharing this love with other people right how do you share this love with other people you give them dower you invite them to the beauty of Islam in the most beautiful way and if you disagree it's okay that's why you have to search into our tradition it's a tolerant tradition it's a masterful tradition and we're not afraid of discussion and dialogue and we're all haters right if you study our history it was medieval Baghdad you had like an atheist and empiricist a modernist of the time right all these are the different people having discussions at our universities right in a tolerant manner you know look good Maimonides mousse had been my moon he was not Muslim he's considered the second Moses in the Jewish tradition hero theological treatise in Arabic Moosa Ben Ben moon is a product of Islamic Spain and his I'm explained implemented some of these core values of convivencia coexistence tolerance bringing people together yes we were different but we're not gonna authorize you right and this is very important because it's social media today Muslims have become the other we've become otherwise what's other ization otherwise Asians the basis of genocide and it's not saying there's another group now other groups blacks whites religious non-religious groups are there is rational other ization is saying that group is all the same muslims they're all nasty muslims they're all terrorists that's the authorization that's the basis of a genocide and hatred extremism in all forms in all forms starts with the form of authorization in our tradition a key doesn't teach us to otherwise yes we have this non-muslims this hypocrite says all these categories but what does allah say insert any more on verse one one three leisa Sawaya people are not the same and if you look at that tough served the exegesis of this ayah the even amongst the Jewish and Christian community that people are upright and just do you see the point here there's not an authorization going on everybody is the same right and that facilitates connection dialogue discussion let's see if you're right I'm right how can we understand this if we don't understand each other if we don't want to embrace each other's teachings fine we're still live peacefully and move forward in a tolerant harmonious way right this is very important so share this love with others in a merciful tolerant and compassionate way as the Prophet sallallaahu mighty who some said to Aisha oh I should be kind be compassionate if you have kindness and compassion in something it elevates it if you remove it it degrades it so I've hope you've gained something beneficial from today's discussion remember these lectures of talks you know I know it doesn't mean who go outside now now I know everything about why allotted us to be worshipped no it's these talks about planting seeds in your heart and mind so you could continue your intellectual spiritual journey don't think you gain anything from me I'm just opening my mouth making some noise I've planted a seed if I have then let it grow but that's your own work the work doesn't stop here it's just the beginning it's probably intellect or spiritual journey and this is why it's very very important brothers and sisters that you start to be on that journey to water that seed so it grows into the fruits of good things okay absolutely important here because you know we have to take this stuff seriously okay because you know many of us if you have a house or a car I've seen how careful you are with the contracts and the wording and all the knowledge behind everything but when it comes to our Deen we go to some miskeen Hamza just became Muslim 14 years ago and says Oh Hamza said hums is nobody and as you realize in your spiritual journey that you're nobody to and through that nothingness it elevates us because we realize we are an Abbott I'm a servant of Allah subhanAllah dad well I bet you guys saw my corner table you

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Length: 50min 35sec (3035 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 27 2016