Muhammad ﷺ: Assessing His Claim To Prophethood (2020-11-21) ​

0:00:01 assalamualaikum brothers and sisters
0:00:03 welcome to
0:00:04 uh this three-part live stream series on
0:00:06 the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:00:09 um what we're going to do inshallah over
0:00:10 the next three weeks starting with us
0:00:12 within today is we're going to do a
0:00:15 series on the life of the prophet
0:00:16 sallallahu alaihi sallam
0:00:18 touching upon different aspects of his
0:00:20 life so for example today
0:00:22 is going to be discussing starting with
0:00:24 the foundations and discussing
0:00:26 uh the claim of the prophet peace be
0:00:28 upon him in particular and other things
0:00:30 related to it uh his claim of being the
0:00:32 messenger of god and really going
0:00:34 through this in
0:00:34 some detail with us then next week we
0:00:37 have sheikh father slim who will be
0:00:39 covering the topic i think it's called
0:00:43 if i'm not mistaken
0:00:44 if i can remember it correctly uh war
0:00:46 peace
0:00:47 and the purpose of prophethood and then
0:00:49 the third week
0:00:50 we have sheikh mustafa who will be
0:00:52 covering
0:00:53 a serie or a live stream on how
0:00:56 we can learn from the prophet sallam and
0:00:59 see him as a practical role model
0:01:01 for our lives today and how his life is
0:01:04 relevant for humanity today
0:01:06 so that's the three-part series welcome
0:01:08 to this series if you've just joined us
0:01:10 please make sure to share this on your
0:01:12 channels your social media platform so
0:01:15 many more people can be aware of this
0:01:16 and benefit from this especially
0:01:18 brothers and sisters non-muslims let's
0:01:20 get this out
0:01:21 to as many non-muslims as we can
0:01:23 inshaallah that's the objective
0:01:24 because we want people to understand who
0:01:26 the prophet was if anything
0:01:28 we live in times where the prophet peace
0:01:29 be upon him is
0:01:31 if not one of probably the most
0:01:33 misunderstood men in history
0:01:35 although at the very same time he is
0:01:39 we can argue the most well-known man in
0:01:41 history right
0:01:42 so we have to resolve this inshallah and
0:01:45 we have we have a lot of work to do in
0:01:46 clarifying
0:01:47 and informing people of the true nature
0:01:50 and character of the prophet peace be
0:01:52 upon him and who he was
0:01:53 so without further ado i'm going to pass
0:01:56 it over to
0:01:56 start us and the breakdown of the or the
0:01:58 format of this live is as follows
0:02:01 is going to be giving us a presentation
0:02:03 for about 30 to 40 minutes
0:02:05 maybe a bit more maybe a bit less and
0:02:07 then after that we're going to open up
0:02:08 to your q a
0:02:09 where we're going to be asking your
0:02:10 questions
0:02:17 very good how are you i'm good good good
0:02:20 you're well and safe alhamdulillah very
0:02:22 good yep we're just
0:02:23 uh getting through the kobit inshallah
0:02:26 so
0:02:26 start i'm gonna hand over to you i'm
0:02:28 gonna go switch my camera off i'm gonna
0:02:30 be monitoring the questions in the
0:02:31 background
0:02:31 and if anything relevant comes up i'll
0:02:33 pop it up on the screen if you want to
0:02:34 address it you can inshallah
0:02:36 um and i'll speak to you
0:02:43 okay so uh we'll begin inshaallah um
0:02:46 so imran is actually frozen on my screen
0:02:48 hopefully
0:02:49 he got off okay okay he's off now okay
0:02:52 that's great
0:02:53 okay so uh alhamdulillah
0:03:01 in the name of allah in the name of god
0:03:04 the most merciful the bestow of mercy
0:03:07 and may he send his peace and blessings
0:03:09 upon
0:03:10 the final prophet muhammad sallallahu
0:03:13 alaihi
0:03:14 okay so this talk
0:03:17 uh that i'll be giving it's really
0:03:19 focused on
0:03:20 a number of things uh that i'll be
0:03:22 covering in this presentation
0:03:24 so i want to start right from the
0:03:27 beginning
0:03:27 rather than actually proving that the
0:03:30 prophet is
0:03:31 the the claim that he is a prophet and
0:03:33 it's a truthful claim
0:03:34 and the fact that he is indeed a
0:03:36 truthful prophet i want to start even
0:03:38 before that
0:03:39 so the first thing that i'm going to
0:03:41 address and the things i'm going to
0:03:42 address
0:03:43 in this presentation is first of all why
0:03:45 do we need a profit
0:03:47 in the first place
0:03:52 sorry just a quick i think your your
0:03:54 signal is breaking up
0:03:55 your signal is breaking up um so it's
0:03:58 it's very
0:03:59 uh it's yeah can you check your
0:04:01 connection please
0:04:02 charla uh yeah it's the internet's fine
0:04:05 it's full bars
0:04:07 okay okay shall i carry on if there's
0:04:10 any other issues that let you know in
0:04:11 charlotte
0:04:11 okay i'll keep my phone near me as well
0:04:14 just in case you need to uh message me
0:04:17 okay so the some of the things that i'll
0:04:20 be discussing in today's presentation
0:04:22 is why do we need a profit who can be a
0:04:26 profit
0:04:27 to what extent can we rely on our
0:04:29 intellect alone
0:04:30 and give it credibility because that's
0:04:32 really important i'll discuss the reason
0:04:34 why we'll be discussing that
0:04:36 how to determine if a person is a
0:04:38 prophet
0:04:39 then i'll be talking about the
0:04:40 preservation argument and then i'll be
0:04:42 talking about the testament
0:04:43 to the prophet's truthfulness and that's
0:04:46 what i'll conclude
0:04:48 okay so the first thing is why do we
0:04:50 need a prophet
0:04:52 so when discussing islam with
0:04:54 non-muslims the conversation is akin to
0:04:56 a journey so there are stages to a
0:05:00 journey
0:05:01 so what is said to one person may not
0:05:04 need to be said to another person
0:05:06 the conversation and therefore what is
0:05:08 mentioned
0:05:09 differ based on the background of each
0:05:12 individual
0:05:14 so i would argue that there are four
0:05:16 types of non-muslims
0:05:17 when you're speaking to them the first
0:05:19 one is an atheist
0:05:21 the second one is agnostic the third one
0:05:23 is the deist
0:05:24 and the third fourth one are those who
0:05:26 believe in god and the prophets but not
0:05:28 necessarily
0:05:29 the prophet muhammad peace and blessing
0:05:31 be upon him so let me just break it down
0:05:33 atheists as we know are those who do not
0:05:36 believe in god nor do they believe in
0:05:37 prophets
0:05:38 agnostics are those who don't
0:05:40 necessarily negate
0:05:42 god's existence but admit that they have
0:05:45 not come
0:05:46 with enough evidence to believe in him
0:05:48 and at this point
0:05:49 the conversation's main focus should be
0:05:52 the existence of god
0:05:53 right so there's no there there isn't
0:05:56 too
0:05:57 much uh point speaking to them about
0:05:59 prophethood
0:06:00 it's better to speak to them about um
0:06:03 the existence of god now the fourth
0:06:06 group
0:06:07 of people who believe in god and the
0:06:10 prophets
0:06:11 they do not to be they do not need to be
0:06:13 convinced about the need
0:06:15 for a prophet so not this particular
0:06:17 part of the discussion
0:06:18 they would need to uh they'll they'll
0:06:20 need to understand
0:06:21 why uh we can prove that the prophet
0:06:24 muhammad peace and blessing be upon him
0:06:25 is in fact a true prophet
0:06:26 but they won't need to know why do we
0:06:28 need profits but they already
0:06:30 are convinced by that point this now
0:06:32 leaves us with the third group
0:06:34 and that is the deists deists are those
0:06:37 who believe in god
0:06:38 but they believe that he is not involved
0:06:40 in our daily affairs
0:06:43 now according to deists they do not need
0:06:45 a prophet due to a number of reasons
0:06:47 firstly god gave us an intellect
0:06:50 to think and discern from what is right
0:06:52 right and what is wrong
0:06:53 so we are no need of the guidance of a
0:06:55 prophet secondly the universe points us
0:06:57 to a
0:06:58 designer a creator he created and shaped
0:07:01 everything but he's not merciful
0:07:03 due to the problem of evil the fact that
0:07:05 evil exists
0:07:07 that means that god is not merciful this
0:07:08 is what they argue thirdly
0:07:10 people believe in prophets due to
0:07:12 miracles and the dies
0:07:14 argue a more science so-called science
0:07:16 orientated approach
0:07:18 and they don't need miracles and they
0:07:19 cannot be proven and they cannot be
0:07:21 proved
0:07:22 as it's not observable right so
0:07:26 if they hypothetically believed in
0:07:28 prophethood
0:07:29 that doesn't mean that islam is the
0:07:31 truth as other religions
0:07:33 also claim this like the jews and the
0:07:35 christians so there are two
0:07:36 stages of the argument of prophethood
0:07:40 the first one is number one firstly
0:07:42 proving the need for a prophet
0:07:44 which i'll be discussing now number two
0:07:47 proving uh that the prophet muhammad
0:07:49 peace and blessing be upon him
0:07:51 is uh uh is a is a messenger from a long
0:07:53 line of prophets and messengers
0:07:56 okay now we've discussed the importance
0:07:59 of
0:07:59 the who we are addressing we have to
0:08:02 first of all
0:08:03 discuss how do we even reach the truth
0:08:06 so the dsa there we
0:08:07 have our own intellect it's enough but
0:08:09 how do we how does each person reach the
0:08:11 truth
0:08:12 so there are three main ways that a
0:08:14 person can reach the truth
0:08:16 the first way is the internal the
0:08:19 gnosticism or the spiritual element the
0:08:21 second is the
0:08:22 is is intellect and the third way is by
0:08:26 the sending of prophets and messengers
0:08:27 who tell us
0:08:28 how to reach the truth so the first way
0:08:31 is through
0:08:32 gnosticism spirituality which involves a
0:08:34 person
0:08:35 from being away from the people and
0:08:38 leaving off desires which is effective
0:08:40 monasticism and the problem with this is
0:08:42 that there's no
0:08:43 proof there's there's nothing that has
0:08:46 been
0:08:47 provided as proof to state that this is
0:08:49 the main way to reach the truth
0:08:51 except through subjective experience
0:08:54 that i had a dream or i had
0:08:56 this feeling or had this or something
0:08:57 happened to me or that is very
0:08:59 subjective
0:09:00 moreover there doesn't have to be a
0:09:03 contradiction between the soul
0:09:05 gnosticism and the mind philosophy or
0:09:08 intellect
0:09:09 using your intellect now there are
0:09:12 millions of people who are involved
0:09:14 in this and everyone has their own
0:09:16 viewpoint if
0:09:18 if it had been the truth then they would
0:09:20 have all agreed
0:09:21 upon something but then you find a lot
0:09:23 of spiritual
0:09:24 um uh methodologies that they don't
0:09:27 agree with one another
0:09:28 now the second way uh that people
0:09:32 uh try to reach the truth is using the
0:09:35 intellect which is used by philosophers
0:09:37 so philosophers argue that they don't
0:09:40 need prophets
0:09:41 but people need to use their own common
0:09:43 sense and intellect
0:09:45 now the intellect god gave us makes
0:09:48 the sending of prophets unnecessary this
0:09:51 is what they say
0:09:52 so eben rushed a muslim scholar who is
0:09:55 sometimes known in the west as avaros
0:09:59 who died in
0:10:00 1198 in the gregorian calendar
0:10:04 uh he argued that if it was the main way
0:10:08 to reach the truth if the intellect of
0:10:10 philosophy was a main way to
0:10:12 reach the truth then all the
0:10:14 philosophers would have agreed on the
0:10:15 same thing but that's certainly not
0:10:17 happened very similar argument used
0:10:19 against the nos
0:10:20 against narcissism now the intellect is
0:10:22 limited and not
0:10:23 cannot see the metaphysical the
0:10:25 metaphysical are things which are the
0:10:27 unseen such as
0:10:28 paradise and hellfire such as the day of
0:10:31 judgment
0:10:32 uh resurrection and so on and so forth
0:10:34 they can only focus
0:10:36 on the observable now the intellect
0:10:38 cannot reach the details
0:10:40 of legislation and behavior
0:10:43 only broad concepts as
0:10:47 jean jacques rosso the genevan
0:10:49 philosopher
0:10:50 who died in 1778 he argued that the
0:10:52 intellect guides
0:10:53 us to the truth but it does not lead us
0:10:56 to the details
0:10:57 of that truth so prophets give us a
0:11:00 legislation they gave us a system
0:11:02 of how people should live and people
0:11:04 will not be able to legislate
0:11:06 for themselves right everyone's read um
0:11:10 what's that book by golding um forgot
0:11:13 the name now we're ready at school
0:11:14 um lord of the flies right so let's just
0:11:18 take an example
0:11:19 stu uh students of a school will not be
0:11:22 able to educate themselves
0:11:23 this is why we need teachers we need
0:11:25 staff we need management so on and so
0:11:27 forth
0:11:28 so as we can see the need for profit
0:11:30 hood
0:11:31 is a necessity as it compensates
0:11:34 for the deficiency that is found in our
0:11:37 intellect and also in our soul
0:11:39 so an exam a number of examples that we
0:11:42 cannot
0:11:43 reach the truth or reach uh
0:11:47 some truths based on intellect and on
0:11:50 the on spirituality alone
0:11:52 such as knowing god knowing him through
0:11:55 his names and attributes they cannot be
0:11:56 reached by the internet
0:11:58 the intellect may lead you to the
0:11:59 existence of god
0:12:01 but it will not show you the details of
0:12:03 god in terms of his names and attributes
0:12:06 also human beings are subjective because
0:12:08 of their desires perhaps someone can say
0:12:10 that i don't like meat you know i don't
0:12:12 like meat so it's impermissible it's
0:12:13 haram
0:12:14 so the criteria has now become the
0:12:16 desires
0:12:17 and in fact most of the laws today if
0:12:19 you think about it are biased
0:12:21 right they're all subjective some
0:12:23 systems they lean towards rich
0:12:25 people some system they lead towards uh
0:12:28 you know
0:12:28 that they are biased towards men some
0:12:31 systems they lead
0:12:32 they favor poor people as an example so
0:12:35 our subjectivity
0:12:37 is based on our desires so
0:12:40 another thing is the justice of god and
0:12:42 this is a very nice deep point
0:12:44 that establishing the proof against the
0:12:46 creation
0:12:48 uh from the fact that the pro that
0:12:50 prophethood
0:12:51 from the from from the prophet is
0:12:54 clearer
0:12:55 and more just than for it to be done
0:12:58 any other way and for this allah uh god
0:13:02 says in the quran
0:13:19 verse 134 that if we had destroyed them
0:13:21 through punishment
0:13:22 before this messenger came they would
0:13:25 have said lord if only you had sent us a
0:13:28 messenger
0:13:29 we could have followed your revelation
0:13:30 before we suffered humiliation
0:13:32 and disgrace so god has made
0:13:35 life a test he has made this place a
0:13:38 paradise or a hellfire
0:13:40 imagine if a teacher enters a room and
0:13:42 tells his students
0:13:44 that you have a test whoever gets a low
0:13:46 mark will be punished whoever gets a
0:13:48 high mark will be rewarded
0:13:50 the students respond okay but what is
0:13:51 the syllabus what's the curriculum
0:13:53 the teacher responds no you have to
0:13:55 guess and you have to use your own
0:13:57 intellect
0:13:58 this would not be considered to be just
0:13:59 or fair
0:14:01 so another reason
0:14:04 why we need profits is that truth is not
0:14:07 only just based on theory
0:14:09 but it's also based on application in
0:14:12 implementation
0:14:13 so the prophet muhammad peace and
0:14:14 blessings be upon him is an example in
0:14:17 all matters a role model
0:14:19 all and the creation is a need for a
0:14:21 model in
0:14:22 in matters of in all aspects of life and
0:14:25 having
0:14:26 a human paradigm is the best way of
0:14:28 reaching the end
0:14:29 and here's a practical implementation of
0:14:32 the truth
0:14:34 now comes the next question now we've
0:14:36 dealt as to the reason
0:14:37 why we need a profit and the necessity
0:14:39 of needing a profit
0:14:40 now we will discuss who can be a prophet
0:14:42 so there's three possibilities
0:14:44 the first possibility is that all people
0:14:47 are prophets
0:14:47 which is completely false and it's wrong
0:14:50 because i'm not a prophet you're not a
0:14:51 prophet you've never claimed to be a
0:14:52 prophet i've never claimed to be a
0:14:54 prophet
0:14:54 so this goes out the window the second
0:14:57 possibility is that some
0:14:58 are prophets now some people may
0:15:01 consider this to be oppressive why
0:15:03 is this person being chosen to be a
0:15:04 prophet why haven't i been chosen to be
0:15:06 a prophet
0:15:07 so the third possibility there's no
0:15:09 prophets at all
0:15:11 so let's look at those who say that
0:15:15 uh who those who have a problem with
0:15:17 saying that some people can
0:15:19 be prophets well when god chooses the
0:15:23 prophet it's not done
0:15:24 randomly you know they were chosen uh
0:15:27 due to a wisdom
0:15:31 second of all god tests the prophets and
0:15:34 this is not
0:15:35 this is not something that every person
0:15:36 can take one of the companions of
0:15:38 prophet muhammad peace and
0:15:40 blessings be upon him said o messenger
0:15:42 of god
0:15:43 which people are tested the most
0:15:45 severely he said
0:15:46 the uh they are the prophets and then
0:15:49 those who are like them and then those
0:15:51 who are like them
0:15:52 a person is tried according to his
0:15:54 religion if he is firmer upon his
0:15:55 religion his trials will be more severe
0:15:57 but if he's weak upon his religion
0:15:59 his he will be tried according to the
0:16:00 strength of his religion
0:16:02 so the servant will continue to be tried
0:16:04 until he is left walking upon the earth
0:16:06 without any sin right so the third
0:16:09 argument is that if all people were
0:16:12 prophets
0:16:13 then there will be no wisdom in giving a
0:16:15 test a giving life as a test to begin
0:16:17 with
0:16:18 as everyone would know the truth it
0:16:20 doesn't make sense
0:16:21 and finally all people have been given
0:16:23 something from god
0:16:25 some special revelation some natural
0:16:28 theology which in
0:16:29 islam is called that you recognize
0:16:32 you don't have to be told about
0:16:34 something you recognize it straight away
0:16:35 everyone knows that lying is wrong
0:16:37 you don't have to be taught that lying
0:16:39 is wrong just like you don't have to be
0:16:40 taught that god
0:16:41 exists you in fact you have to be untold
0:16:44 that god
0:16:45 doesn't exist right so however people
0:16:48 cannot rely
0:16:50 on the intellect to get to the truth in
0:16:52 details
0:16:53 that's why we need profit for the
0:16:55 details
0:16:57 okay now this comes up this brings in
0:17:00 the next uh very important discussion
0:17:02 and that is
0:17:03 to what uh extent can we rely on our
0:17:06 intellect
0:17:07 alone and give it credibility so we can
0:17:10 rely
0:17:11 on our intellect only if
0:17:15 we realize that there is a god so i'm
0:17:18 gonna repeat that again
0:17:19 and it sounds very controversial and if
0:17:22 you've got a problem
0:17:24 yo i'll solve it no i'm not gonna go
0:17:26 into a wrap
0:17:27 uh i i will uh we can discuss this in
0:17:31 more detail in the question and answer
0:17:32 session
0:17:33 but i'll repeat that again we cannot
0:17:36 give credibility to our mind to our
0:17:39 intellect
0:17:39 if we do not believe in a perfect god so
0:17:43 let's look at the different groups and
0:17:45 see how
0:17:46 they should they can actually use their
0:17:50 internet so let's look at the atheists
0:17:52 the atheists they say that intellect was
0:17:54 designed to survive and reproduce
0:17:57 and anything else is a byproduct so
0:18:00 it is not about seeking the truth
0:18:03 in fact if the main purpose of our
0:18:07 intellect according to the atheists
0:18:09 especially those who believe in
0:18:11 darwinian evolution
0:18:12 then it's about survival and survival
0:18:16 can be based on false beliefs
0:18:19 so listen to uh retired professor john
0:18:22 gray an
0:18:23 atheist philosopher very well known in
0:18:25 his book
0:18:26 straw dogs thoughts on humans and other
0:18:28 animals which is
0:18:29 uh what you'll find um you'll find in
0:18:32 his book a really
0:18:33 interesting quote he said modern
0:18:35 humanism
0:18:36 is a faith that through science
0:18:39 humankind
0:18:40 can now can know the truth and so be
0:18:42 free
0:18:43 but if darwin's theory of natural
0:18:46 selection is true
0:18:48 this is impossible why professor why is
0:18:51 it impossible
0:18:52 listen to what he says next this is
0:18:53 crucial he says the human mind
0:18:56 serves evolutionary success
0:18:59 not truth i'll repeat that again the
0:19:02 human mind
0:19:03 serves evolutionary success not the
0:19:07 truth
0:19:07 to think otherwise is to reset resurrect
0:19:10 pre-darwinian error
0:19:11 that humans are different from all other
0:19:13 animals
0:19:15 so according to the atheist intellect is
0:19:18 survival of the fittest and
0:19:21 in order to have that mechanism or that
0:19:24 process of survival of the fittest
0:19:25 then we can even believe in things which
0:19:27 are false let's look at what the deer
0:19:29 say
0:19:30 the deists they do not believe that god
0:19:33 has
0:19:33 perfect uh attributes
0:19:37 due to the problem of evil they said
0:19:39 look there's evil that exists in the
0:19:40 world
0:19:40 that that is a reflection of god so that
0:19:43 means that god is not perfect
0:19:45 now they can't they cannot give
0:19:47 credibility to their intellect as well
0:19:50 right why because what's not to say
0:19:54 that the intellect was created
0:19:57 to deceive us who said that the
0:20:01 intellect was trustworthy
0:20:03 and this is a really powerful argument
0:20:05 mentioned by
0:20:06 the french philosopher descartes who
0:20:09 died in 1650 and he said that if
0:20:11 i find that there is a god i must
0:20:14 examine likewise whether he can be a
0:20:16 deceiver
0:20:17 for without the knowledge of these two
0:20:19 things i do not see that i can ever be
0:20:22 certain of anything
0:20:23 and he said this in the meditation of
0:20:24 god that he exists
0:20:27 so to summarize
0:20:30 a person cannot give credibility to the
0:20:32 intellect unless they believe in god
0:20:34 that exists and has complete
0:20:36 perfect names and attributes so let me
0:20:38 just summarize what we've discussed so
0:20:40 far because uh it may be a little bit
0:20:41 intense a little bit deep
0:20:44 deists believe that that god does not
0:20:47 have complete attributes
0:20:48 the only way to know that deist that
0:20:51 know that
0:20:52 deist doctrine is true is through mental
0:20:54 cognitive evidence
0:20:56 so they believe you can only reach god
0:20:58 through intellect and not through
0:20:59 prophets
0:21:00 you cannot rely on your intellect
0:21:02 without relying on who created it this
0:21:04 argument of discuss if you don't believe
0:21:08 god is complete you cannot rely on your
0:21:11 intellect
0:21:12 so deists believe that god uh does not
0:21:15 have
0:21:16 complete attributes so you have to rely
0:21:18 on your intellect but how can you do
0:21:19 that
0:21:20 if you don't believe god is complete or
0:21:23 he is perfect
0:21:24 if the point that i'm trying to make
0:21:26 that if you undermine the creator
0:21:30 you have to undermine the creation that
0:21:32 if you have to undermine the creator
0:21:34 you have to undermine the creation but
0:21:37 as muslims
0:21:39 we believe uh in a complete something
0:21:41 different
0:21:42 and then this may come up just to uh
0:21:44 kind of um
0:21:45 nip something in the bud because someone
0:21:47 some smart aleck may say
0:21:48 or someone can't may come up with a
0:21:50 really good response and say well hang
0:21:51 on
0:21:52 uh why are we perfect then doesn't
0:21:55 undermining the creation
0:21:56 because we are you know imperfect does
0:21:58 that not tell us that god is imperfect
0:22:00 no no of course not
0:22:01 we are the bible because
0:22:05 let me give you an example imagine that
0:22:07 there is a very clever worker who sells
0:22:09 furniture
0:22:09 in different places in one country he
0:22:12 makes some furniture very expensive
0:22:14 really expensive amazing furniture
0:22:17 because of the market
0:22:18 but then he also makes cheap furniture
0:22:23 for another market another country so
0:22:26 the poor
0:22:26 quality is not reflection of his ability
0:22:30 this quality can be deemed perfect in
0:22:33 this context
0:22:34 and that is that this imperfection
0:22:38 has been is fit for purpose
0:22:41 so therefore god created the creation to
0:22:44 test them this requires some
0:22:45 deficiencies such as
0:22:46 uh deficiencies in our character in
0:22:49 terms of our anger
0:22:50 envy desires these are defec
0:22:54 these defects are necessary for the test
0:22:57 without these defects the tests will not
0:22:59 be a proper test if you look at
0:23:01 the creation of god they are not perfect
0:23:03 if you look at the process of creation
0:23:06 which is the action of god it's perfect
0:23:09 as it will reach the reason or the main
0:23:12 reason of why it was created in the
0:23:14 first place and that is that it was fit
0:23:16 for purpose okay let's move on
0:23:20 so the atheists and the ds cannot say
0:23:23 that morality is good or not
0:23:25 then how do you deem something moral if
0:23:27 you don't believe in divinity
0:23:30 if it is society that accepts it it's a
0:23:33 cultural issue and not a moral one
0:23:36 okay okay so we've dealt with that we've
0:23:38 dealt with
0:23:40 uh the need for a profit we also dealt
0:23:43 with
0:23:44 who can be a profit now the third thing
0:23:46 that we'll deal with now is how to
0:23:48 determine
0:23:49 if a person is a prophet
0:23:52 so there's a number of ways the first
0:23:54 way is
0:23:55 to know that this person to know if a
0:23:58 person is a prophet we need to know the
0:24:00 details of this person's life
0:24:02 because otherwise you can be deceived
0:24:04 about them
0:24:05 right another thing is that if i know
0:24:08 the details of someone's life what are
0:24:10 the proofs
0:24:11 of prophethood so this person may be a
0:24:13 good person but what are the proofs
0:24:15 that this person is a prophet the third
0:24:18 thing is that this message
0:24:19 must be uh going against
0:24:23 the status quo so the prophet example
0:24:26 when
0:24:27 the prophet muhammad peace embarrassment
0:24:28 be upon him went against the
0:24:29 transgressions and the dominant culture
0:24:32 and a prophet cannot be someone who is
0:24:34 enticed by the leaders of the dominant
0:24:36 culture
0:24:36 if the status quo does not need to be
0:24:38 changed then why the need to send a
0:24:40 prophet
0:24:41 right also his propagation cannot be
0:24:44 against the intellect
0:24:46 generally speaking from a foundational
0:24:48 perspective
0:24:49 and finally his propagation has to be
0:24:52 applicable and practical and something
0:24:55 that can be applied at any time and
0:24:57 any place okay so
0:25:00 when you want to know the life of
0:25:01 someone there are a few questions you
0:25:03 need to ask
0:25:03 how did that person live what evidence
0:25:06 did he bring for his truthfulness what
0:25:07 did the people get from his efforts
0:25:10 so the first thing that we will discuss
0:25:12 is the preservation
0:25:14 argument right the preservation argument
0:25:18 um so
0:25:24 we have to first of all prove that
0:25:27 the biography of the prophet in some
0:25:30 form
0:25:31 is preserved right so there are three
0:25:34 options
0:25:34 the muslims would say that the biography
0:25:37 is preserved
0:25:37 the norm some non-muslims would say that
0:25:40 the biography of the prophet is just
0:25:42 like fairy tales
0:25:42 or the third uh option and this may be
0:25:45 some coming from a neutral person
0:25:47 would ask the the muslim the methodology
0:25:50 of how
0:25:51 the the uh preservation uh the the the
0:25:55 biography
0:25:56 is preserved before making a decision
0:25:58 right so it's worth noting
0:26:00 that the discussion on the preservation
0:26:02 of the biography of the prophet
0:26:04 is what ends the discussion it ends the
0:26:07 dispute
0:26:07 it's not the beginning of it because the
0:26:09 reason is
0:26:11 if anyone who reads
0:26:14 realizes that the biography of the
0:26:17 prophet is authentic
0:26:19 then this should lead that person uh to
0:26:22 accepting islam
0:26:24 so upon providing the truthfulness of
0:26:26 the prophet and then him claiming to be
0:26:28 a prophet
0:26:29 should strengthen your conviction in his
0:26:31 message additionally i like
0:26:33 unlike many uh authentic biographies of
0:26:36 propagators of various ways of life
0:26:38 uh the um the message of the prophet is
0:26:41 reflected in the followers found today
0:26:44 for example if we find the authentic
0:26:46 biography of jesus
0:26:48 and we were able to prove it then would
0:26:51 it
0:26:52 uh would that necessarily prove that
0:26:54 today's christianity is true
0:26:56 no this is because christianity does not
0:26:59 necessarily
0:27:00 reflect the biography of the historical
0:27:04 jesus so for example there's no traces
0:27:07 of trinity
0:27:08 uh during looking at the biography of of
0:27:10 jesus
0:27:11 and yet there are so many christians who
0:27:14 follow the trinity so the prophet's
0:27:18 biography has been well documented and
0:27:20 it's confirmed by historians including
0:27:22 non-muslim ones as well so let's look at
0:27:24 example
0:27:25 there's a number of quotes i'm just
0:27:26 going to mention one uh by
0:27:28 reverend benjamin uh bosworth smith who
0:27:31 died in 1884 he's an american
0:27:33 participant bishop
0:27:34 and he's got a very long quote and he
0:27:36 talks about how
0:27:38 you know a lot of the details of jesus's
0:27:40 life cannot be proved
0:27:42 and you know it's just but then he goes
0:27:44 on to make mention
0:27:45 that but in mohammedanism which he's
0:27:48 referring to as islam he said everything
0:27:50 is different
0:27:50 here instead of the shadowy and the
0:27:52 mysterious
0:27:54 mysterious we have history we know as
0:27:57 much of muhammad as we even know of
0:28:00 luther and milton
0:28:01 the mythical the legendary the
0:28:02 supernatural is almost wanting
0:28:04 in the original arab arab authorities
0:28:07 while
0:28:08 or at all at events can easily be
0:28:11 distinguished from what is historical
0:28:13 but in other respects the miraculous and
0:28:15 mythological elements in mohammedanism
0:28:18 comes almost exclusively from persian
0:28:21 sources
0:28:22 nobody here is the duke of himself or
0:28:25 others there is the full light of day
0:28:28 upon all that light can ever be can be
0:28:32 can be reached he goes on
0:28:34 but we know everything of the external
0:28:36 history of muhammad his youth his ex
0:28:38 appearance his relations his habits the
0:28:41 first idea
0:28:42 and the gradual growth intermittent
0:28:45 though it was
0:28:46 of his great revelation while for his
0:28:48 internal history
0:28:50 about his mission had been proclaimed we
0:28:52 have a book
0:28:53 absolutely unique in its origin in this
0:28:55 preservation
0:28:56 and in the chaos of its contents but on
0:28:59 the authenticity of which no one has
0:29:01 ever been able to cast serious doubt
0:29:03 so this is what uh bosworth says there's
0:29:06 a very famous saying by
0:29:08 ernest renin who was a clear opponent to
0:29:11 islam but he famously declared
0:29:13 that islam was born not amid the mystery
0:29:16 which cradles the origins of
0:29:18 other religions but rather in the full
0:29:20 light of history
0:29:22 so one of the things that we need to
0:29:24 look at in order to prove
0:29:26 the uh if prophet muhammad or any
0:29:30 prophet is in actual fact
0:29:31 a a real prophet is that we need to look
0:29:34 at the person's character
0:29:36 so this is what uh reverend bosworth
0:29:39 smith
0:29:40 says again he says this in his book is
0:29:41 muhammad [ __ ] he said head of the
0:29:43 state
0:29:44 as well as the church he was caesar and
0:29:47 pope in one
0:29:48 but he was pope without pope's
0:29:49 pretensions caesar without the legions
0:29:52 of caesar
0:29:52 without a standing army without a
0:29:54 bodyguard without a palace
0:29:56 without a fixed revenue if ever any man
0:29:59 had the right to say
0:30:00 that he ruled by the right divine it was
0:30:03 muhammad
0:30:04 for he had all the power without its
0:30:06 instruments and without his support
0:30:08 he cared for the he cared not for the
0:30:11 dressings of power
0:30:12 the simplicity of his private life was
0:30:14 in keeping with his public life
0:30:17 so from the character and this is
0:30:19 something that i want to
0:30:20 conclude on because i think it's a
0:30:21 really important thing to discuss and
0:30:23 i'm going to be discussing this for the
0:30:25 next
0:30:25 next 10 10 15 minutes is the idea
0:30:28 of truthfulness truthfulness is so
0:30:30 important
0:30:31 so the testament to the prophet's
0:30:33 truthfulness if you want to judge the
0:30:35 prophet peace and blessings
0:30:37 be upon him you have to have only two
0:30:40 choices if he was truthful
0:30:43 and some and subsequently he was a
0:30:46 messenger
0:30:47 you can't believe uh he's truthful
0:30:51 and then not a prophet so if he is
0:30:54 truthful then you have to believe that
0:30:56 he's a prophet because he said he's a
0:30:57 prophet
0:30:58 but if the second option is that he's
0:31:01 not truthful
0:31:02 and if he's not truthful then he would
0:31:04 be the biggest liar because
0:31:06 uh to lie and say that i am a prophet
0:31:09 when you're not a prophet is considered
0:31:10 to be one of the biggest lies
0:31:12 so either he's the most truthful of
0:31:14 people or he's the biggest of liars
0:31:16 that's the only
0:31:16 the only two options there is no third
0:31:20 option he was a you can't say that he
0:31:22 was a good man but not a prophet
0:31:24 you can't say that as claimed by some
0:31:26 orientalists
0:31:27 because anyone who claims to be a
0:31:29 prophet he must be the most truthful
0:31:32 or people or the biggest of liars
0:31:35 so whoever claims that the prophet peace
0:31:37 and blessing be upon him was not
0:31:38 truthful
0:31:39 and that he was pretending to be a good
0:31:41 man then that would mean that his whole
0:31:44 life was just pretending it was just an
0:31:45 act it was just a show
0:31:47 and you cannot do this all of the time
0:31:50 this can only be done for a short while
0:31:53 even if you do it for
0:31:54 a whole you know for the whole of your
0:31:56 life you will
0:31:58 only be able to pretend with some people
0:32:00 and not all
0:32:01 the prophet peace and blessings be upon
0:32:02 him was good at home and when he was
0:32:04 outside
0:32:06 so people who lie will act normally at
0:32:08 home but deceive outside the world
0:32:10 so let's look at what people have said
0:32:13 regarding history history from us
0:32:15 paul casanova uh he's a well-known
0:32:18 french orientalist he's someone who
0:32:19 denied the quran he spoke
0:32:21 ill of islam he died in 1926 he said
0:32:24 before going into the source of the
0:32:26 question i would
0:32:28 like to say first that i reject a priory
0:32:31 any theory leaning against muhammad's
0:32:34 sincerity
0:32:35 no doubt one can be led to believe that
0:32:38 in later times
0:32:39 the necessities of politics led him to
0:32:41 present his own desires as divine
0:32:43 revelations
0:32:44 so he could better be better be better
0:32:47 be obeyed
0:32:48 but this should not put into question
0:32:50 his sincerity
0:32:51 a modern psychologist could think of
0:32:53 auto suggestion
0:32:55 and it's contrary to all scientific
0:32:56 spirit to assert
0:32:58 without evidence that he had been an
0:33:00 imposter
0:33:01 in posture and calculation the whole
0:33:04 history of the arab prophet proves
0:33:06 that his character is positive serious
0:33:09 and loyal
0:33:10 and you know what allah says this god
0:33:12 says this in the quran he says
0:33:17 that allah says or the god says about
0:33:20 his prophet he said we certainly know
0:33:22 that what they say about you grieves you
0:33:24 oh prophet
0:33:32 it is not your honesty that they
0:33:35 question
0:33:36 it is allah signs and the wrongdoers
0:33:38 that the wrongdoers deny
0:33:40 so the example the prophet in his
0:33:43 lifetime was known to be sadiq
0:33:46 he was considered to be sad someone
0:33:48 who's trustworthy and he's truthful
0:33:50 one time he gathered his whole uh tribe
0:33:53 all the people of makkah the quraish
0:33:56 tribes
0:33:57 near a mountain called safa and he asked
0:34:00 them this is before he declared
0:34:01 prophethood
0:34:02 he said if i say that an army is
0:34:04 advancing on you from behind the
0:34:06 mountains
0:34:06 will you believe me all of them said yes
0:34:08 in one voice
0:34:10 yes because we have never heard you
0:34:11 telling a lie
0:34:13 so this is something that none of his
0:34:16 people
0:34:16 before he claimed to be a prophet
0:34:18 considered him to be a liar
0:34:20 in actual fact the prophet was so strict
0:34:22 when it came to the truth
0:34:23 is that one of the companions when he
0:34:25 the prophet was joking
0:34:26 one of the companions said oh messenger
0:34:28 of allah do you joke with us
0:34:30 the messenger of allah he said peace and
0:34:32 blessing be upon him said yes
0:34:34 i do but i say nothing but the truth so
0:34:36 even when you are telling a joke
0:34:39 as a muslim you are not allowed to tell
0:34:41 a lie
0:34:42 so one of the strongest proofs that he
0:34:44 is not a liar
0:34:46 is that a perpetual liar usually has a
0:34:49 big
0:34:50 reason to lie if we analyze his life we
0:34:53 know that he was a person who was not
0:34:55 interested in the world
0:34:57 why would he choose a simple simple life
0:35:00 if he was a liar
0:35:02 montgomery what he came up with a really
0:35:04 really nice quote he said
0:35:05 he's again an orientalist he said
0:35:10 uh regarding uh the idea that he was not
0:35:12 truthful he says his readiness to
0:35:14 undergo persecution for his beliefs
0:35:16 the high moral character of the men who
0:35:19 believed in him
0:35:20 and looked up to him as a leader and the
0:35:23 greatness of his ultimate achievement
0:35:26 all argue his fundamental integrity to
0:35:29 suppose muhammad is an impostor raises
0:35:32 more problems
0:35:33 than it solves so the dichotomy between
0:35:36 the truthful of the pro the truthfulness
0:35:39 of the prophet peace and blessing be
0:35:40 upon him
0:35:41 whilst believing that he was not a
0:35:43 messenger cannot be solved
0:35:45 but to acknowledge that he was indeed a
0:35:48 prophet there's no other way
0:35:49 to point to posit that he was a good man
0:35:53 but not a messenger is rationally
0:35:56 inconsistent so let's also look at the
0:35:59 testimonies of his followers
0:36:01 you know william moyer christian
0:36:03 missionary orientalist
0:36:04 he came up with a really good quote
0:36:07 really good quote
0:36:08 he said he was taught he was arguing
0:36:11 that one of the most
0:36:12 important things that enhanced the
0:36:14 truthfulness of the prophet was that the
0:36:16 first people
0:36:17 to accept him were those who knew him
0:36:20 the best those who are closest to him
0:36:23 because if
0:36:24 think about this someone who's
0:36:25 pretending to be an impostor
0:36:27 they wouldn't try to tell their family
0:36:30 and their friends those who know him
0:36:32 but go to another city and try to you
0:36:34 know uh you know sell a lie over there
0:36:37 because they don't know who he is so
0:36:39 listen to what william moyer says it is
0:36:40 a really powerful argument he says
0:36:43 it is strongly corroborative of
0:36:45 muhammad's sincerity
0:36:47 that the earliest converts to islam were
0:36:50 his
0:36:51 his friends and the people of his
0:36:53 household
0:36:54 who intimately acquaint who are
0:36:56 intimately acquainted with his private
0:36:58 life
0:36:59 could not fail otherwise to have
0:37:02 detected those discrepancies
0:37:04 which more or less invariably exist
0:37:06 between the professions of the
0:37:08 hypocritical deceiver abroad
0:37:10 and his actions at home really powerful
0:37:13 argument the people who know you the
0:37:15 best are your parents your wife
0:37:18 your husband you know your children your
0:37:21 best friends they are the ones who know
0:37:22 you the best
0:37:23 and they tend to be the people who will
0:37:26 not accept you
0:37:28 if you make such a big claim and yet
0:37:30 when it came to the prophet muhammad
0:37:31 peace and blessing upon him the first
0:37:32 one to become muslim
0:37:34 was his wife khadija then his cousin ali
0:37:37 then his
0:37:37 servant zaid then his best friend abu
0:37:40 bakr all of these people became muslim
0:37:42 as soon as he said it so let's look at
0:37:45 the testimony of his
0:37:47 enemies regarding his truthfulness abu
0:37:50 sufyan who at that moment in time was an
0:37:52 enemy to the prophet he later became
0:37:54 muslim and he had a meeting with
0:37:56 heracles
0:37:57 heracles you know this great roman
0:38:02 emperor he you know he he's
0:38:05 he he basically asks he asks about the
0:38:08 religion of
0:38:09 the prophet he asks about islam and he
0:38:11 said that
0:38:13 he said that he actually said have you
0:38:15 ever accused him
0:38:16 of telling lies before he claimed to be
0:38:18 a prophet
0:38:19 abu sufyan said no iraqi says does he
0:38:22 break his promises
0:38:23 and then hara then abu safyan he said no
0:38:26 we are our truce with him
0:38:28 but we do not know what he will do in it
0:38:31 and i could not find the opportunity
0:38:33 he said abu sufyan said i could not find
0:38:35 the opportunity to say anything against
0:38:37 him
0:38:38 except that and then
0:38:41 um heracles said i further asked whether
0:38:44 he was ever accused
0:38:46 of telling lies before he said what he
0:38:48 said and your reply was in the negative
0:38:50 so i wondered
0:38:51 how a person who does not tell a lie
0:38:54 about others
0:38:55 could tell a lie about god
0:38:58 so in conclusion i have we have
0:39:02 discussed three
0:39:03 main points the first thing is why do we
0:39:06 need a profit
0:39:08 and i've gone into some detail as to why
0:39:09 we need a profit the second
0:39:11 thing is who can be a prophet
0:39:14 and the final thing that i discuss is
0:39:17 why the prophet muhammad peace and
0:39:18 blessings be upon him
0:39:20 is in fact a true prophet
0:39:23 now i've actually discussed this in a
0:39:25 very kind of academic way
0:39:27 but i'm going to mention something in a
0:39:30 very
0:39:31 easy way because maybe some of the
0:39:32 things that i mentioned went over your
0:39:34 head
0:39:34 or maybe uh it's not very clear i'm
0:39:37 going to do i'm going to use
0:39:38 an argument that is called the trilemma
0:39:41 all right the trilemma
0:39:42 is that uh that muhammad peace and
0:39:45 blessing be upon him
0:39:46 was either uh
0:39:51 an imposter he was mad or he was
0:39:53 truthful
0:39:54 right so very it's a very clear uh
0:39:58 clear way of of of of actually
0:40:01 understanding
0:40:02 that the prophet muhammad peace and
0:40:03 blessing upon him was in fact a true
0:40:05 prophet
0:40:05 so first of all either he was imposter
0:40:08 or he's truthful right let's just
0:40:10 discuss
0:40:10 whether if he was an imposter if he was
0:40:13 an imposter
0:40:14 he was either insincere or he was
0:40:17 sincere but he was mad
0:40:19 so if he was insincere then what if
0:40:22 what his motivations his motivations
0:40:24 would be uh
0:40:26 women money and status okay so if he was
0:40:29 lying for women
0:40:30 then you know he actually decreased or
0:40:33 he actually
0:40:34 decreased the number of women that a man
0:40:36 can marry
0:40:37 from unlimited to fall he's he he
0:40:41 he made obligatory bridal gifts
0:40:43 something that was not there at the time
0:40:45 uh before and it was actually being
0:40:47 abused should i say
0:40:48 women can expect to be maintained women
0:40:51 were permitted to
0:40:52 inherit from their family something
0:40:53 which is unheard of in the world let
0:40:55 alone in arabia
0:40:56 that women are equal to men in terms of
0:40:59 their reward that they can gain right so
0:41:02 wives have some right
0:41:03 over their husbands so islam
0:41:07 and so on and so forth so if he was
0:41:09 lying for wealth
0:41:10 was he was ready wealthy from the
0:41:12 marriage of his first wife khadija
0:41:14 islam prescribed charity to direct it to
0:41:17 the needy
0:41:18 any wealth received was spent on the
0:41:20 needy he refused to prefer his family
0:41:22 over the needy
0:41:23 uh he lived a very simple humble
0:41:25 lifestyle and he died with minimal
0:41:27 wealth
0:41:28 if he was lying for status then he was
0:41:31 from
0:41:32 the tribe of banu hashim who are
0:41:34 considered to be the most respected and
0:41:36 the best
0:41:37 most uh honored uh
0:41:40 tribe in his in the city that was living
0:41:42 in uh
0:41:43 and he was you know he he was actually
0:41:45 he had a hand in rebuilding the kaaba
0:41:47 this is a great honor and status for him
0:41:50 he was parked he was he was part of a
0:41:52 pact which
0:41:53 which was you know was considered to be
0:41:55 very honorable he had a lot of status
0:41:56 because of that
0:41:57 the prophethood starts with fear doubt
0:41:59 and despair and you know he was actually
0:42:01 offered uh to become a king of arabia
0:42:04 or of of of makkah of mecca
0:42:08 if he gave up the preaching of uh of of
0:42:11 um
0:42:11 of the oneness of god and also he is
0:42:15 rarely mentioned in the quran he has
0:42:17 only mentioned by name maybe four or
0:42:19 five times the entire quran
0:42:21 if he was lying for status then we would
0:42:23 find his name all over the quran but it
0:42:26 certainly is not the case so if he was
0:42:29 not an impostor maybe he was sincere but
0:42:30 mad
0:42:31 that's a possibility but we the allah
0:42:33 says oh god says in the quran
0:42:37 your companion that you've seen from
0:42:40 from birth
0:42:41 until he has become an adult you know
0:42:44 that he's not mad
0:42:45 he can't be mad just because you know
0:42:47 just overnight just like this
0:42:49 and there were so many people they
0:42:51 realized people who were enemies who
0:42:53 became
0:42:54 uh who end up embracing islam and they
0:42:56 re they knew
0:42:57 that this tag that they were giving him
0:42:59 that he was a madman
0:43:00 was only to undermine him not that it
0:43:02 was actually the truth
0:43:04 so when we take out these two
0:43:05 possibilities the fact that he was
0:43:07 insincere or that he was sincere but mad
0:43:09 the only other possibility is that he
0:43:12 was truthful
0:43:13 and this should actually end the
0:43:16 debate so i hope that i've not been
0:43:19 speaking to myself because i can't see
0:43:21 him right here on the screen
0:43:22 um but if you have any uh oh you're here
0:43:25 i'm wrong great
0:43:26 okay i mean i was worried i was worried
0:43:28 you know that when you left oh my god i
0:43:30 was
0:43:30 checking my phone making sure that am i
0:43:31 just speaking to you no i was there i
0:43:33 was happy a few times you know
0:43:35 sometimes i'm on the phone and then it
0:43:37 cuts off and then
0:43:38 i'm speaking to myself for like two
0:43:39 minutes
0:43:41 now i was there i was just looking at
0:43:43 the comments and making sure everything
0:43:45 was uh
0:43:46 going smoothly back in the challenge
0:43:49 so what we'll do we'll open up the q a
0:43:50 inshallah and uh
0:43:52 there's a question that's come from
0:43:53 brothers and sisters while we address
0:43:55 the first question if you have any
0:43:56 questions
0:43:57 uh foreign because there were some
0:44:00 masala some you know interesting and
0:44:03 technical points
0:44:04 which may be difficult to understand the
0:44:06 first time around so if you have
0:44:07 questions please do ask inshallah we'll
0:44:09 put them down and we'll pop them up on
0:44:10 the screen so
0:44:12 first question uh by dk
0:44:16 says i believe that he has taken things
0:44:18 from jewish sources referring to the
0:44:19 prophet
0:44:20 sallam uh hence why islam is almost a
0:44:22 mirror of judaism
0:44:24 now would you like to address this
0:44:26 inshallah
0:44:27 yeah so okay
0:44:32 him taking it from jewish sources
0:44:35 actually in actual fact when i was
0:44:36 actually uh researching this idea
0:44:39 uh of prophethood because i was doing a
0:44:41 lot of research on this topic
0:44:42 um you know one of the things that i was
0:44:44 looking at uh
0:44:46 in in a lot of detail is this argument
0:44:50 related to whether he had taken it
0:44:53 from jewish uh sources so
0:44:56 there's a number of number of things uh
0:44:59 to have in mind when we're talking about
0:45:01 him taking it from jewish sources
0:45:03 but the first thing is did he have
0:45:05 access to those sources so the
0:45:07 christian sources the jewish sources is
0:45:10 this something that the prophet
0:45:11 had had access to and we will actually
0:45:14 find that in actual fact that at that
0:45:16 time and i did some research on this
0:45:17 point
0:45:18 uh that at the time when prophet
0:45:20 muhammad was
0:45:21 around in the seventh century in arabia
0:45:25 at the time in which he was living there
0:45:27 was no translation
0:45:29 of the bible of the old or new testament
0:45:31 or the talmud or anything like this
0:45:33 right in the arabic language the
0:45:36 only things that they had were in
0:45:39 non-arabic
0:45:40 language so even if he had access to
0:45:43 them
0:45:44 then then we would then we
0:45:47 which is which is a massive stretch then
0:45:50 how was he able to learn these things
0:45:52 when he was
0:45:53 someone who's not able to read and write
0:45:54 he was not an
0:45:56 academic scholar and in actual fact
0:45:58 there were times when
0:46:00 uh you know he would contradict what is
0:46:03 considered to be
0:46:04 uh aspects from the jude jude judaism
0:46:07 judaic christian
0:46:08 uh uh uh um uh narratives
0:46:11 so i'll give you an example so if you
0:46:14 look at
0:46:15 even in the mundane things let's just
0:46:16 say okay from law that he took it from
0:46:18 christians and jews and so on and so
0:46:20 forth
0:46:20 okay let's talk about it from a from a
0:46:23 less
0:46:23 uh something that a an impostor could
0:46:26 get away with
0:46:28 and that is uh from a story right so a
0:46:31 story doesn't have
0:46:32 too much of an impact in terms of the
0:46:34 message
0:46:35 uh as long as it's you know in line with
0:46:39 monotheism and so on and so forth right
0:46:40 so even in very simple things when we
0:46:43 when we actually look at the story of
0:46:45 joseph or this
0:46:45 the 12th chapter of the quran which is
0:46:48 called surah yusuf which is a
0:46:49 story just on on one of the prophets
0:46:52 um joseph
0:46:55 the if you compare the stories is so
0:46:57 fascinating because it's not just
0:46:59 uh some the quran doesn't just differ
0:47:02 from the the the old testament version
0:47:06 of it
0:47:06 in big matters but even in small matters
0:47:09 right so
0:47:10 it just doesn't make sense so if you are
0:47:12 going to say that you know
0:47:13 prophet muhammad peace and blessing be
0:47:15 upon him took it from the uh you know
0:47:17 judaic uh christian or even you know um
0:47:21 from the christian religion that's not
0:47:23 completely true there are
0:47:24 certainly certain things which are there
0:47:27 which are found in the jewish and the
0:47:28 christian
0:47:29 uh traditions but not fully so you
0:47:32 because we can we as muslims you can we
0:47:35 consider
0:47:36 islam to be from one of the abrahamic
0:47:39 religions right
0:47:40 so it's considered to be one of the
0:47:41 abrahamic religions so of course there
0:47:43 are going to be some similarities
0:47:45 there are going to be certain things
0:47:46 some concepts which islam agrees with
0:47:48 because islam hasn't come
0:47:50 out of out of nowhere it's actually a
0:47:52 continuation in actual fact each
0:47:54 prophet was sent in order to um to
0:47:57 correct
0:47:58 the the the you know how far the people
0:48:00 had had actually got away from
0:48:02 uh what their previous prophet had
0:48:05 taught and we believe
0:48:06 as muslims that this has certainly
0:48:07 happened with uh with other religions
0:48:10 so to say that this has come just he
0:48:12 just took it from
0:48:13 from judaism just it's not academically
0:48:17 it doesn't even rationally make uh make
0:48:19 sense
0:48:21 absolutely and just to uh
0:48:24 just quickly if i may add a quick point
0:48:26 on that like you said
0:48:28 like you said um that it is actually an
0:48:30 interesting book by a
0:48:31 professor named one cole on the prophet
0:48:34 sallam it's a recent book that is
0:48:35 published
0:48:36 which predominantly takes into
0:48:38 consideration the environment of the
0:48:39 prophet said between the romans and the
0:48:41 persians who were
0:48:42 at each other's throats literally at
0:48:44 that point in history and he does
0:48:46 mention the process went on caravan
0:48:48 you know trips and he traveled he may
0:48:50 have come across
0:48:51 and you know ideas of jews are
0:48:52 christians but
0:48:54 one thing we have to keep in mind the
0:48:55 process didn't have
0:48:58 the he didn't have as much information
0:49:00 as is required about
0:49:02 judaism and christianity for someone to
0:49:04 take these religions
0:49:06 so make a mix of them and not only that
0:49:09 but to then correct
0:49:10 them where they're going wrong and and
0:49:12 point things out about them which only
0:49:13 someone
0:49:14 extremely trained in their theologies
0:49:16 would know
0:49:17 right so we see the quran correcting the
0:49:20 jews and christians at certain points in
0:49:21 regards to their own theology their own
0:49:23 outlook their own views their own laws
0:49:25 etc
0:49:25 so i thought that was a very interesting
0:49:27 point that even if you say the person
0:49:29 had access to
0:49:31 some christians or he may have met some
0:49:33 christians on his journeys and
0:49:34 jews but he didn't have the type of
0:49:37 scholarly knowledge
0:49:38 about their religions that's required
0:49:40 for one to do what people are claiming
0:49:42 he did or some of the orientalists claim
0:49:43 he did
0:49:44 claim he did um so i just wanted to add
0:49:45 that i think you know the claim
0:49:47 is that someone oh he just copy judaism
0:49:50 with copy christianity if you really
0:49:51 sort of scrutinize it you see it falls
0:49:53 apart
0:49:54 um so on that point yeah yeah
0:49:58 it's really interesting because even uh
0:50:00 i'm currently doing a phd at the moment
0:50:02 uh so i'm kind of a little bit familiar
0:50:03 with some of the what the uh current
0:50:05 academics are actually saying and
0:50:06 they're not
0:50:07 they're not even using these lines
0:50:09 anymore because they're just being
0:50:10 debunked this is this kind of thing
0:50:13 about the borrowing theory
0:50:15 is something that that you know the
0:50:17 orientalists from the previous
0:50:19 generation used to use like montgomery
0:50:21 what and moya and others as well
0:50:23 that has been really you know has been
0:50:25 refuted quite um
0:50:27 quite quite emphatically and even the
0:50:29 current
0:50:30 uh orientalists or the you know people
0:50:32 who are involved in islamic studies from
0:50:34 a non-muslim perspective
0:50:36 who are very much against islam they're
0:50:37 not even bringing up these arguments
0:50:39 anymore
0:50:40 so it's a really old argument that that
0:50:42 is just not even
0:50:43 considered to be credible anymore
0:50:46 a question here uh by rtq
0:50:50 ssqh i'm not going to try to
0:50:53 spell that but they say what if someone
0:50:56 says that and this is again
0:50:58 an orientalist argument what if someone
0:50:59 says that wanted to create
0:51:01 changes in morality society etc due to
0:51:04 the injustice at the time
0:51:05 amongst the people so essentially what
0:51:06 they're saying is he was a good person
0:51:10 he saw those problems in society moral
0:51:12 issues so
0:51:13 what he did he made this white lie
0:51:15 quote-unquote white light up which is to
0:51:17 say
0:51:18 you know i have to fix these social
0:51:19 moral problems i have to therefore make
0:51:21 up this idea that i'm a prophet
0:51:22 and take power and then reform society
0:51:25 morally
0:51:26 so they're saying what if that was his
0:51:27 objective how would you address
0:51:29 this point yeah so if so if that was a
0:51:32 case then he could have done that within
0:51:34 the first year
0:51:35 or a first couple of years of him being
0:51:37 a prophet because he was offered the
0:51:38 chance
0:51:39 to make a reform to become the king of
0:51:42 the whole of society so you know in
0:51:44 actual fact that
0:51:45 you know some people uh within his tribe
0:51:48 said look can you stop preaching about
0:51:50 the oneness of god uh
0:51:52 because that is the main thing it's not
0:51:53 about you know what is right and what is
0:51:56 wrong
0:51:56 the biggest wrong we consider it to be
0:51:59 in islam
0:52:00 is the associating of partners with god
0:52:02 or to say that god doesn't exist
0:52:04 right so he they said stop preaching
0:52:06 this and what we'll do is that we'll
0:52:08 make a compromise with you
0:52:09 you know one year you'll be the king for
0:52:11 one year and we'll worship your god
0:52:13 everyone worship your god
0:52:14 and in the second year we will get
0:52:16 everyone to uh worship our gods
0:52:19 right so it wasn't even about reforming
0:52:21 injustice he could have done that
0:52:22 straight away
0:52:23 you know so again that's that that
0:52:25 really uh
0:52:26 is not is not completely correct because
0:52:29 even there are certain things also
0:52:31 that the prophet wanted to do himself
0:52:35 but then god actually said to him no you
0:52:37 shouldn't have done that you should have
0:52:38 done it this way
0:52:39 so that's another proof of the fact that
0:52:41 it wasn't the revelation wasn't coming
0:52:43 from him
0:52:44 you know what is considered to be right
0:52:45 and wrong wasn't something that
0:52:47 came from the prophet but it actually
0:52:49 came from god that was sent down to the
0:52:51 prophet
0:52:53 so dk again he's making a further point
0:52:55 i think he's saying jews pray three
0:52:57 times a day muslims five we wash me
0:52:59 prayer we eat kosher halal uh the list
0:53:02 is endless so again he's making the
0:53:03 point about similarities and sheikh
0:53:05 you pointed out that you know similarity
0:53:08 doesn't it doesn't logically follow just
0:53:09 because two things are similar
0:53:11 therefore they copied each other it can
0:53:13 very well be the case that
0:53:15 two things are similar therefore they
0:53:16 come from the same source that's exactly
0:53:18 what you were saying right
0:53:19 exactly so an example i normally give on
0:53:22 this point is
0:53:23 take for example ibn kathir a famous
0:53:25 exege
0:53:26 of the quran and we know he wrote many
0:53:30 books
0:53:30 you know he wrote history and we know he
0:53:32 wrote absir now when you read both of
0:53:34 them you see that there's many things
0:53:35 that
0:53:36 emerge in both books right you will see
0:53:38 things in ibm
0:53:40 which are right now just because you see
0:53:43 similar things you don't conclude that
0:53:45 they copied one another
0:53:47 yeah you can conclude well it's the same
0:53:49 author so essentially what you were
0:53:50 saying
0:53:51 is we believe that there is one god and
0:53:53 the same god has sent messages
0:53:54 throughout history he sent messengers to
0:53:56 the jewish people
0:53:57 and other people and if you see
0:53:59 similarities this is because the source
0:54:00 is the same
0:54:01 right exactly so anything else you want
0:54:04 to add on this point because i've seen
0:54:05 this come up a few times
0:54:06 or in the comments yeah i mean um
0:54:11 we there of course there's going to be
0:54:12 similarities if we have similar profits
0:54:15 right there's definitely going to be
0:54:16 similarities and but there are things
0:54:19 which
0:54:20 we don't uh that are not similar so for
0:54:22 instance you said it in your question as
0:54:23 well
0:54:24 dk the jews pray three times a day
0:54:26 muslim freight five that's not a
0:54:27 similarity that's actually a
0:54:28 dissimilarity right
0:54:30 so um there are obviously some some
0:54:33 similarities like you mentioned washing
0:54:34 before the prayer
0:54:36 uh but then you know there are so many
0:54:38 other things it's fundamental things
0:54:40 that we completely disagree upon and one
0:54:42 of the most fundamental things that we
0:54:44 disagree upon
0:54:45 um is that is the proof is the
0:54:48 truthfulness of the prophet
0:54:49 uh muhammad peace and blessing be upon
0:54:51 him and in actual fact the
0:54:52 the prophet was very uh what was very um
0:54:57 careful or he really wanted the jews in
0:54:59 medina
0:55:00 when he went from makkah he made
0:55:02 migration makkah to medina
0:55:04 he was really trying to do um
0:55:07 trying to trying to kind of attract uh
0:55:10 the jews to uh islam and in actual fact
0:55:15 to include another similarity is that
0:55:17 the muslims
0:55:19 in the in that when they were used to be
0:55:21 a mecca before the prophet
0:55:22 migrated they used to pray towards uh
0:55:25 masjid al-aqsa which is in jerusalem
0:55:27 um and so this is what the jews did
0:55:31 in that time as well but then it was
0:55:32 changed you know there are certain
0:55:34 abrogations actually happen
0:55:35 from uh profit to profit or from system
0:55:38 to system as well
0:55:41 like you said uh quite clearly uh iran
0:55:43 is that
0:55:44 we we have similarities but that doesn't
0:55:46 mean that it's
0:55:47 everything's borrowed it's just the same
0:55:50 source
0:55:51 as and that's what islam teaches right
0:55:53 allah says god sent many messages
0:55:55 um i've got a question for you on what
0:55:58 you mentioned
0:55:59 um about the trilemma okay and you
0:56:02 you mentioned it at the end and i think
0:56:04 there was someone earlier up i couldn't
0:56:06 find a comment now
0:56:08 um but they said something about
0:56:12 it i don't i don't think they
0:56:14 appreciated the logic behind the
0:56:16 trilemma
0:56:17 so can you just summarize that for us
0:56:18 again and highlight you know what you're
0:56:20 saying there please inshallah
0:56:22 yeah so there's three possibilities when
0:56:24 it comes to the prophet there's three
0:56:25 possibilities number one
0:56:27 he was an imposter right
0:56:31 uh or number two he was
0:56:35 not an impostor but he was sorry let's
0:56:38 say in a different he was insincere
0:56:40 right or he's impostor number two that
0:56:42 he was sincere
0:56:44 but he was mad in that he believed
0:56:47 himself to be a prophet
0:56:48 but he but he was he was someone who was
0:56:51 who
0:56:51 was mad right and the third thing or the
0:56:54 third
0:56:55 only other option is that he was
0:56:56 truthful so if we explore the first
0:56:58 possibility
0:56:59 that he was someone who is insincere or
0:57:02 he was
0:57:03 an imposter then there has to be a
0:57:05 reason why
0:57:06 he would uh pretend to be a prophet when
0:57:09 he wasn't a prophet
0:57:10 so the three main possibilities was
0:57:13 women
0:57:13 was wealth or status and those three
0:57:16 possibilities
0:57:17 they are not reflected in uh his life
0:57:20 at all and i went through a lot of the
0:57:22 examples as well the second possibility
0:57:25 is that he was sincere but he was mad
0:57:27 this is an argument of some of the
0:57:28 orientalists
0:57:29 uh but they fall short of this how is it
0:57:32 someone who isn't mad
0:57:33 can actually be so coherent can be so
0:57:36 you know someone must have realized you
0:57:38 know even his own enemies
0:57:40 um they ended up becoming muslims right
0:57:45 they must have realized that he's you
0:57:46 know that this person
0:57:48 was mad but clearly he wasn't right
0:57:51 uh because there has to be certain uh
0:57:53 you know certain traits or certain
0:57:55 things that would
0:57:56 would lead you to believe that he was
0:57:58 mad and no one's able to bring any proof
0:58:00 for that
0:58:00 and the final possibility was that he
0:58:03 was truthful and this is the only
0:58:04 logical thing that you can do because i
0:58:07 i also
0:58:08 mentioned this other than the trilemma i
0:58:09 mentioned this as well that there's only
0:58:11 two possibilities either you believe the
0:58:13 prophet
0:58:13 to be the most truthful of people or you
0:58:16 consider
0:58:17 him to be the biggest of liar so if you
0:58:19 consid if you say that he
0:58:20 is someone who never told a lie in his
0:58:23 whole life
0:58:24 right then you are forced to believe
0:58:26 that he is a prophet there's no other
0:58:28 option
0:58:29 but then if you say that he was a liar
0:58:31 then come with the proof
0:58:32 and you won't find any proof from his
0:58:35 life
0:58:35 from his own enemies from his followers
0:58:38 someone must have seen something
0:58:40 not one person's ever said that he's
0:58:42 ever said that he's actually told
0:58:44 a lie right so this the problem
0:58:47 lies with some that some people pretend
0:58:51 or they try to be neutral as some
0:58:52 orientalists to try to be neutral
0:58:54 and they say no no no he was sincere and
0:58:56 he's truthful but we don't consider him
0:58:58 to be a prophet
0:58:59 well you've actually cornered yourself
0:59:02 by saying that you consider him to be
0:59:04 truthful
0:59:04 but not to be a prophet because you
0:59:06 can't consider him to be truthful and
0:59:08 sincere if you don't consider me a
0:59:09 prophet
0:59:10 there's only two options there's no such
0:59:12 possibility as a third option
0:59:15 one last question is uh someone asked
0:59:18 for a reference on the heracles
0:59:20 uh hadith so have you got a reference
0:59:22 you can share this um
0:59:23 not off the top of my head um you can
0:59:26 just if you
0:59:27 you can post in the comments section
0:59:28 under the video once you're done
0:59:30 inshallah
0:59:31 okay um and and then everyone have
0:59:33 access it's a very famous
0:59:34 very special incident uh if you want to
0:59:38 at least have a reference for a book
0:59:40 that you can consult that probably has
0:59:42 the
0:59:43 the first source for it is uh there's a
0:59:46 book called the life of the prophet
0:59:47 muhammad
0:59:48 uh peace and blessing be upon him uh by
0:59:50 an individual
0:59:51 by the name of muhammad so this is a
0:59:53 three
0:59:54 two i think a three volume book yeah
0:59:55 three volume book just on the life of
0:59:57 the prophet
0:59:58 and he he mentions it in there oh okay
1:00:00 fantastic so someone actually says he
1:00:02 said
1:00:03 book of revelation fantastic thank you
1:00:05 very much
1:00:07 any last uh summarizing comments words
1:00:09 before we wrap up the livestream
1:00:10 inshallah today
1:00:11 yeah so i would actually say that um uh
1:00:14 it's really good
1:00:15 uh that uh that that many of you have
1:00:17 actually attended this
1:00:18 and hopefully you're gonna learn a lot
1:00:20 in terms of the next two
1:00:22 uh lectures are gonna be coming up uh
1:00:25 next week
1:00:25 by my colleague
1:00:29 teslim and then also dr mustafa
1:00:32 but what i would actually suggest
1:00:34 everyone to do is to just learn
1:00:36 about the life of the prophet you know i
1:00:38 actually when i actually mention the
1:00:39 different arguments
1:00:41 and the different types of audience and
1:00:42 the different types of non-muslims
1:00:44 um and i said that you know you when it
1:00:46 comes to atheists and agnostics and
1:00:48 perhaps you should just talk to them
1:00:50 about
1:00:50 existence of god it's probably better to
1:00:52 speak to them
1:00:53 the idea of the proof of profit here is
1:00:55 so powerful
1:00:57 that it's actually like a short circuit
1:00:59 that you could talk about to talk about
1:01:01 it to even people who don't even believe
1:01:02 in god
1:01:03 right it's so powerful that you can
1:01:05 speak it to an atheist regarding it and
1:01:06 if you're able to prove
1:01:08 the proof of prophethood to an atheist
1:01:10 then he actually deals with everything
1:01:11 else
1:01:12 and that's why the the idea of proof of
1:01:15 prophethood is
1:01:16 considered to be one of the strongest
1:01:17 proofs of islam and
1:01:19 probably the most written argument
1:01:22 amongst muslim scholars there's so much
1:01:25 material on this topic in the arabic
1:01:26 language
1:01:27 uh because it it it's something which
1:01:29 was you know
1:01:30 which was discussed because they were
1:01:33 talking about
1:01:34 who could possibly become be the author
1:01:36 of the quran it's impossible
1:01:38 that is the prophet and then they
1:01:39 started talking about the proof of
1:01:41 prophet from that angle
1:01:43 so i recommend everyone to to read a
1:01:45 biography of the prophet
1:01:46 uh what i would suggest is that if
1:01:48 you've only got very short time
1:01:49 uh i would actually there's a really
1:01:51 good uh in the introduction of
1:01:53 the professor abdul haleem's translation
1:01:55 of the quran he mentioned about four
1:01:57 pages
1:01:58 uh a very nice overview of the summary
1:02:00 of the prophet
1:02:02 uh if you're looking for something a bit
1:02:03 more to read then there's actually a
1:02:05 book by written by
1:02:06 a scholar by abul hassan ali nadui it's
1:02:09 an intermediate book it's very good
1:02:11 and he basically talks about um the life
1:02:14 of the prophet in about 100 pages is
1:02:15 very good
1:02:16 if you want to if you're looking for
1:02:17 something a bit more academic
1:02:19 then there's a really good book called
1:02:21 seera and the orientalists or the life
1:02:24 of the prophet and the orientalist
1:02:25 and it's written by muhammad muharra ali
1:02:28 so those are three books that you can
1:02:30 console for beginner
1:02:32 intermediate and advanced
1:02:35 bless you for coming on uh so brothers
1:02:37 and sisters uh
1:02:39 and by the way i was gonna that was the
1:02:40 last question i was gonna ask you what
1:02:41 book would you recommend
1:02:42 what books would you recommend on the on
1:02:43 the topic you've done that uh so
1:02:44 brothers and sisters
1:02:46 for coming online if you're joining us
1:02:47 late please watch the recorded
1:02:49 um stream it should be up on youtube by
1:02:51 tomorrow i think uploaded
1:02:53 as probably immediately on facebook
1:02:55 watch it share it inshallah and
1:02:58 we have two more parts of this series so
1:03:00 we're gonna have one next friday i want
1:03:01 the following friday which is going to
1:03:02 build on what
1:03:03 started ourselves laid down as the
1:03:04 foundations and we'll carry on the
1:03:06 discussions then may allah bless you
1:03:08 salaam alaihi