Q&A Ep 1: Book Recommendations & Dawah inspiration (2020-07-08) ​

0:00:00 [Music]
0:00:05 Salam alaikum warahmatullahi oh but I
0:00:07 care - how're you guys doing
0:00:10 this is just something I've never done
0:00:12 before actually it's a Q & A session
0:00:15 where I'm looking at some of the
0:00:17 questions that you have put in the
0:00:19 community page of smart agenda which I'm
0:00:24 sure you've already subscribed to this
0:00:25 channel is a very important Channel hang
0:00:30 on to your seats so the first question
0:00:33 was what does his education consist of
0:00:36 and what would you recommend people just
0:00:39 and would he recommend people to study
0:00:41 philosophy a question from Norway okay
0:00:45 so my training or actual qualifications
0:00:50 in the Universities has been things like
0:00:53 political philosophy or other no
0:00:56 politics degree and focus a lot on
0:00:58 political philosophy history Islamic
0:01:03 Studies theology these kinds of
0:01:07 obviously these are these are the areas
0:01:09 that I've actually completed and
0:01:11 continue to do work in and and yeah
0:01:16 these are the and these are the things
0:01:18 I'm qualified and really but in terms of
0:01:20 do I recommend people to study
0:01:24 philosophy well I think that there are
0:01:27 some philosophies that are going to be
0:01:28 very important in the public discourse
0:01:30 so for example moral philosophy and
0:01:32 political philosophy in particular for
0:01:35 those who have a firm faith or grounding
0:01:40 in the faith I do recommend that those
0:01:42 two kinds of philosophy political
0:01:44 philosophy moral philosophy you could
0:01:48 add to a philosophy of science and you
0:01:49 can also add to a philosophy of religion
0:01:50 those four types of philosophy I think
0:01:53 are very important to discussion so I
0:01:56 would recommend if who that have a very
0:01:59 you know an okay understanding of the
0:02:02 you know a solid foundation if you like
0:02:04 in Islamic studies Islamic Sciences the
0:02:07 second question my question is what made
0:02:09 him decide to get involved in Dawa
0:02:11 and who is his biggest inspiration in
0:02:13 the field obviously the field of Dawa
0:02:16 goes back to the prophets yes so the
0:02:18 biggest inspirations in that sense would
0:02:20 be the prophets of Muhammad sallallahu
0:02:22 wasallam but for Abraham Moses Jesus etc
0:02:26 but if we're talking about like in
0:02:29 recent history then definitely I watch
0:02:31 the you know the material of Ahmed
0:02:34 Deedat and zakir naik and all of these
0:02:37 people growing up and certainly even
0:02:40 people and the organization working with
0:02:42 now like him green and hamza sources all
0:02:46 these individuals who preceded me in
0:02:49 doing the good work and I learnt from
0:02:51 all of those people I've learnt from
0:02:53 people doing Dawa in in those fields in
0:02:56 particular I am particularly interested
0:02:59 with the style of Ahmed Deedat I think
0:03:01 his thing is when I was younger growing
0:03:03 up and watching his stuff that he was a
0:03:06 real inspiration to me
0:03:07 he had that fiery kind of style which
0:03:14 was very strong like he he he he had
0:03:18 great confidence which I realized
0:03:20 especially in this field was the key
0:03:23 ingredient to success so this one this
0:03:26 guy wrote book recommendations book
0:03:28 recommendations book recommendations and
0:03:30 I've I've heard a lot of people ask me
0:03:33 there's a lot of times before I just
0:03:35 don't know where to start
0:03:36 because there's so many books you can
0:03:38 start with but let me let me address
0:03:41 like maybe give you five or ten books
0:03:43 and that maybe will be of use to you
0:03:46 which will be I think good good for you
0:03:50 in terms of like learning so I'd go with
0:03:55 obviously get a nice translation of
0:03:58 Quran I like the translation Abdel Halim
0:04:01 is very good he will Halim he's a
0:04:06 professor so as universities got a nice
0:04:08 translation I like his translation of
0:04:09 the Quran
0:04:12 in terms of my own books obviously the
0:04:18 one I would recommend would be Kalam
0:04:19 cosmological arguments because that one
0:04:22 has if you're interested in like the
0:04:25 arguments for God's existence it's got
0:04:26 what I think are some of the main
0:04:28 arguments I've written other arguments
0:04:31 for other books but this one is the main
0:04:33 one I would recommend the divine reality
0:04:36 of hamsa sources I think he's done a
0:04:39 really good job in once again in the
0:04:42 field of trying to prove God's existence
0:04:44 summarizing the key arguments the main
0:04:46 arguments there are other ones like to
0:04:50 be fair gods Undertaker by John Lennox I
0:04:53 think is a very good book for someone
0:04:55 who wants to know key arguments for
0:04:58 God's existence I think that he also
0:05:02 does a good job in that book so that's
0:05:04 that's for for example and therefore
0:05:06 God's existence these are these are the
0:05:10 books in terms of now moving on to the
0:05:12 prophethood of Muhammad al-amin and what
0:05:17 books would be nice in that in that
0:05:19 regard
0:05:19 maybe start with something mmm like
0:05:25 actually have a serie of the Prophet
0:05:27 Muhammad Allah Allah also with the
0:05:28 sealed nectar in the English language
0:05:32 this this book is well written if
0:05:34 actually I think won some prizes in
0:05:37 awards Mubarak for a embark War II I
0:05:41 don't know how they pronounce his name
0:05:42 but he's an Indian scholar he's written
0:05:45 this and it's been translated into
0:05:46 English and the translation is actually
0:05:48 quite decent I recommend so that's in
0:05:52 terms of ceará in terms of now the Quran
0:05:58 itself and some of the million Arabic
0:06:01 languages some really beautiful books
0:06:03 but I'm going to try and keep English
0:06:06 but in terms of the the English language
0:06:09 okay a book like maybe something to do
0:06:13 with linguistic miracles of Quran
0:06:16 which I think there's a book written by
0:06:19 Neil Robinson on on this I forget the
0:06:24 name of the book actually ready at some
0:06:26 time ago but I think it's quite good for
0:06:28 for for for that and Raymond Ferran has
0:06:32 a really interesting book on the
0:06:34 structures the Quran the the the
0:06:37 miraculous kind of structure on which is
0:06:41 academically RINs were very well-written
0:06:44 and it's based on classical works as
0:06:46 well so this will show you like how the
0:06:48 Quran is structurally coherent and stuff
0:06:52 like that it's a really beautiful book
0:06:56 so I've given you I think I've given you
0:06:59 eight books so far I'll give you two
0:07:00 more okay I'll give you two more so
0:07:04 we've got something on like the
0:07:05 linguistic miracle we've got something
0:07:07 on the arguments for God's existence got
0:07:09 some kind of process alarm let me give
0:07:11 you something on spirituality it is a
0:07:12 nice book called inner dimensions of
0:07:17 Prayer okay I'm Joe Zia
0:07:19 I think this is a very good book for
0:07:21 spirituality if you want to know as we
0:07:24 think we pray all the time or at least
0:07:26 we should be praying five times a day
0:07:27 but in terms of focusing on the inner
0:07:30 dimensions the spiritual aspects of
0:07:33 Prayer and that they have a good
0:07:34 translation to the English language is
0:07:36 very beautiful very beautiful
0:07:38 translation and in terms of why I also
0:07:43 recommend to be honest here I recommend
0:07:44 a book and I'll give you two more right
0:07:47 I recommend a book and fit or Islamic
0:07:51 law
0:07:51 I recommend obviously from just choose
0:07:56 the method we follow right that's why I
0:07:58 believe but in terms of what I thought
0:08:00 was useful to me the hammer light method
0:08:04 was a little filk translated by a hat
0:08:08 and hatch in his orange cover this is
0:08:11 pretty good introduction to humbly
0:08:14 effect if you're if normal happy if you
0:08:17 want to kind of see ray obviously
0:08:19 originally written by macadam and rocker
0:08:21 to see but he's translated well into
0:08:22 English so I liked it and got like
0:08:25 student note so you can put notes on it
0:08:27 on the side as well
0:08:29 and maybe you can get translational how
0:08:31 is Rp de thing is well to see to see
0:08:34 like a normative creed book it would be
0:08:37 nice to read something like that so this
0:08:40 is a mixed bag of things that you could
0:08:43 inshallah read obviously if you guys
0:08:46 want this is something on top of my head
0:08:49 but if you wanted philosophy and stuff
0:08:52 like that then to be honest with you
0:08:54 guys I'd say start with the introduction
0:08:56 books you know start with the
0:08:58 introduction books the introduction to
0:09:00 introduction to feminism introduction to
0:09:02 liberalism introduction they've got this
0:09:04 these small books they're very good
0:09:09 actually to be honest introduction to
0:09:12 philosophy of science with Samir al
0:09:13 kasha introduction to Mohammed Jonathan
0:09:18 Brown I just had a conversation with him
0:09:20 he's written one of those instruction
0:09:21 books introduction to feminism I forget
0:09:26 the name of the woman who wrote it but
0:09:27 it's quite good if you want to have the
0:09:28 depth and or some kind of understanding
0:09:30 in that introduction to liberalism
0:09:32 introduction to democracy introduction
0:09:34 to and so on and so forth this will give
0:09:36 you a good this will give you a good
0:09:38 background or good good introduction as
0:09:41 it says on the tin so yeah
0:09:45 start with that ok and I want to say to
0:09:47 you also make use of use resources
0:09:49 online so if you're trying to study for
0:09:51 example historical time piers there's
0:09:53 actually a really nice book is I think
0:09:56 it's called a brief history of the
0:09:58 worlds this is actually a book which
0:10:02 basically tries to cover encapsulate all
0:10:04 of world's history it's not that big is
0:10:07 it's actually a fun read so if you get a
0:10:10 chance because this will be like more
0:10:12 historical and yeah why not as a brief
0:10:15 history of the worlds is a nice book in
0:10:18 terms of stuffs here have some sexier
0:10:20 books okay and the obvious choice is to
0:10:24 fcm kefir ok Tessier urban kefir yeah
0:10:28 why not get that and whilst one the
0:10:30 topic of interest is why not get a bidet
0:10:33 inhaler but not all of it
0:10:34 for example the
0:10:36 times Khattab in Milan it's been
0:10:39 translated into English so you can have
0:10:41 the silence that they have judgments
0:10:42 very beautiful in glish as well
0:10:45 translated into English so you can get
0:10:47 that as well so have a tough sealed book
0:10:49 have something for those signs was
0:10:50 called eschatology you know apocalyptic
0:10:53 texts or eschatological texts so some
0:10:57 some something like the end times will
0:10:59 be very good
0:11:01 I recommend that and this book here is
0:11:04 very important it's called the eternal
0:11:07 challenge by Mohammed das it's also
0:11:10 another thing I forgot to mention which
0:11:13 is actually translated in English I
0:11:14 think that that will suffice for now in
0:11:16 Chawla obviously if I want to do a
0:11:20 proper reading list I've actually done
0:11:21 an entire like for our episode on
0:11:25 Islamic books write my name and put
0:11:28 reading list Islamic reading list I have
0:11:30 a massive reading list serious one but
0:11:33 that's for later on if your few read
0:11:36 those ones maybe ice parents religious
0:11:39 who convinced him to be a daya I mean I
0:11:41 would this whole concept of religiosity
0:11:44 like where does it start with and but I
0:11:46 would say my mom is religious and
0:11:47 practicing my father has been
0:11:49 oscillating from okay his life and and
0:11:53 you know I wouldn't consider it like
0:11:55 hamdulillah now he's becoming more
0:11:56 religious so who convinced me to be a
0:11:59 diet no one no human being it was just
0:12:02 something I wanted to do it was a
0:12:04 something I became but there's a there's
0:12:08 an interesting story my mom gives me all
0:12:10 the time he said before I was born like
0:12:13 my mom couldn't get pregnant for seven
0:12:15 years and then she went to the cabin
0:12:17 drank some Zamzam water power and this
0:12:19 is the legend goes and then and then she
0:12:23 made she went oh I that she has a son
0:12:27 who is a daya apparently so she said no
0:12:30 she made a long draw in Arabic and a
0:12:33 part of it was that the person because
0:12:36 you have it I'm I'm this her second
0:12:39 child so she wanted the boy sure they
0:12:42 had to go she made that for a boy he was
0:12:45 a diagnosed or of Islam and this and
0:12:48 and clearly that diet is still to be
0:12:50 answered but this is how the legend how
0:12:55 the legend goes explain some of the
0:12:58 complex words or references you uses
0:13:01 during debate well I mean that that's
0:13:03 gonna require you know some kind of
0:13:05 lecture or something isn't it
0:13:06 we have to see what kind of words we're
0:13:08 talking about and yeah every debate has
0:13:11 different things that we have to speak
0:13:14 about and therefore sometimes you have
0:13:16 some terminologies which are not known
0:13:17 to the lay audience but you know it's a
0:13:23 good opportunity for you to get a
0:13:24 notepad put them in your keywords and go
0:13:28 check them on your own time we want to
0:13:30 know the story of his life okay well
0:13:34 this is a long story and I don't I don't
0:13:38 know if I can I don't know where to
0:13:40 start where to start when it comes to
0:13:42 increasing our knowledge about Islam and
0:13:44 other topics at speakers corner
0:13:48 philosophy history other religions
0:13:50 science challenging Western values start
0:13:55 by the Quran so with the Quran
0:13:58 memorizing the Quran have a program of
0:14:01 memorization honestly take this
0:14:03 seriously if you want to take any advice
0:14:04 from me I'm going to give you this the
0:14:06 straightforward advice learn how to read
0:14:08 the Quran relearn how to understand the
0:14:11 Quran okay learn what allah subhanaw
0:14:15 taala is communicating to you and learn
0:14:18 about the Prophet SAW salem's life and
0:14:19 also learn something about the laws of
0:14:22 Allah this is a simple thing and who
0:14:24 Allah is this is the study of Arpita
0:14:26 like those those things there start with
0:14:30 that and spend time with that don't
0:14:32 think okay I've done it now I already
0:14:34 know it's keep going by this is advice
0:14:36 to me like I'm giving myself advice you
0:14:40 wanna really focus on those things you
0:14:42 know and it's if you focus on them
0:14:45 properly it will take you some time to
0:14:47 get to to get to where you want to be
0:14:52 you know I'll tell you one resource
0:14:53 which I found interesting or lie in
0:14:55 English language is maybe good ten years
0:14:59 ago now I listen to Bayon
0:15:02 nominally hunt that a nice pod podcast
0:15:06 of juice um I'm not sure of his
0:15:08 subsequent works or what he's been doing
0:15:11 since but that particular podcast I
0:15:14 listened to all of it it was brilliant
0:15:17 it was fantastic if you listen to that
0:15:19 particular podcast for just am it will
0:15:22 give you a nice beginning and I start to
0:15:25 Quranic studies learning about the
0:15:27 Arabic language certain words how it's
0:15:29 used he brings the Quran to life for
0:15:31 life does a really good job so I'd
0:15:33 recommend I really would recommend her
0:15:42 you