No Doubt Course (Session 1): 10 strategies on how to deal with your and other people's doubts (2020-11-05) #

0:00:02 [Music]
0:00:09 [Music]
0:00:14 is
0:00:21 brothers and sisters and friends and
0:00:23 welcome
0:00:25 to this eight week online course
0:00:29 no doubt 10 strategies on how to deal
0:00:31 with your
0:00:32 and other people's doubts
0:00:36 this course brothers and sisters and
0:00:38 friends
0:00:39 is going to teach you how to fish it's
0:00:42 not going to give you fish
0:00:44 what do i mean by this when someone's
0:00:46 hungry
0:00:48 they want to eat and
0:00:51 say you give them some fish and then
0:00:53 after a day they'll get hungry again
0:00:55 and you give them more fish there's
0:00:57 going to be a point in time
0:00:59 where you're going to run out of fish an
0:01:02 effective strategy
0:01:04 is to teach them how to fish then
0:01:07 you would not need to provide fish for
0:01:10 that person
0:01:11 you may have heard of this before
0:01:13 because it's a really powerful way of
0:01:15 empowering someone
0:01:17 to be able to deal with doubts
0:01:20 it's an empowering way to deal with
0:01:23 anything when you
0:01:24 give the person the tools the
0:01:26 intellectual and spiritual tools the
0:01:29 effective
0:01:30 intellectual and spiritual tools to be
0:01:33 able to deal with doubt so
0:01:35 this eight-week course no doubt
0:01:39 10 strategies on how to deal with you on
0:01:41 other people's doubts
0:01:42 is going to be based on empowering you
0:01:46 to be able to effectively deal with your
0:01:48 own doubts
0:01:49 and the doubts of other people so
0:01:52 hopefully we're going to give you the
0:01:53 intellectual
0:01:54 and spiritual tools to be empowered
0:01:57 and equipped to deal with doubts
0:02:02 so this week
0:02:06 we're going to be going through the
0:02:08 metaphysical backdrop
0:02:09 we're going to talk about the nature of
0:02:11 the heart we're going to talk about the
0:02:13 heart's main
0:02:14 tribulations if you like the fitting and
0:02:17 we're going to talk about today's crises
0:02:19 and challenges
0:02:20 and we're going to stop at talking about
0:02:22 the source of doubts and as you can see
0:02:24 in this slide
0:02:26 throughout the next few weeks
0:02:29 we're going to be dealing with all of
0:02:31 the strategies the 10 effective
0:02:33 strategies
0:02:34 to do with your and other people's
0:02:36 doubts and these include
0:02:37 being aware not giving them any
0:02:40 attention
0:02:41 at a certain stage when you're
0:02:43 experiencing doubts
0:02:46 you need to be able to make the
0:02:48 distinction
0:02:50 between doubts questions
0:02:54 and whisperings which we're going to
0:02:56 talk about
0:02:57 in the next few weeks also one of the
0:03:01 effective strategies is
0:03:03 thinking about your environment your
0:03:04 friends your social environment your sub
0:03:07 group and we're going to go into social
0:03:09 psychology
0:03:11 and related matters to show you
0:03:14 the importance of having a correct
0:03:17 social environment also we're going to
0:03:20 be talking about the need to study islam
0:03:22 because the more you have
0:03:24 the more you study islam you are able to
0:03:27 dismantle very effectively some of these
0:03:30 doubts
0:03:32 and we're going to give you some case
0:03:34 studies
0:03:35 in which where when you study islam
0:03:38 when you acquire realm and knowledge
0:03:41 that you are able to dismantle
0:03:43 the doubts effectively also we're going
0:03:46 to
0:03:47 hopefully teach you critical thinking or
0:03:50 empower you
0:03:51 empower you to be able to critically
0:03:53 think
0:03:54 and we're going to give you some
0:03:55 examples concerning
0:03:57 ethical moral doubts intellectual doubts
0:04:00 such as
0:04:02 science the philosophy of science so on
0:04:04 and so forth
0:04:05 we're also going to talk about the
0:04:07 importance of finding a specialist
0:04:09 because
0:04:10 we know when you go out in the world and
0:04:12 you
0:04:13 try and access the specialists
0:04:16 in our community that you will find that
0:04:20 we have some
0:04:21 great minds some great minds in our
0:04:23 community that are able to deal with
0:04:24 these doubts effectively
0:04:26 and from this perspective we're going to
0:04:30 briefly go through the epistemology of
0:04:32 testimony
0:04:34 which is the say-so of others as dr
0:04:37 elizabeth fricker
0:04:39 she discusses that she has cognitive
0:04:41 limitations
0:04:42 she cannot know everything so she has to
0:04:45 rely on the authority of others
0:04:46 likewise with some of these doubts
0:04:49 you're not going to be able to know
0:04:50 everything that is the nature of the
0:04:52 human being
0:04:53 but we have been blessed with
0:04:55 specialists in our community
0:04:57 that are able to deal with these doubts
0:05:00 and we're going to also talk about how
0:05:02 to deal with trauma
0:05:04 because today we're going to be covering
0:05:06 the source of doubts and one of the
0:05:08 sources of doubts is
0:05:09 also trauma negative experiences
0:05:12 a death of a loved one you know the the
0:05:14 perception of too much evil and
0:05:17 gratuitous suffering in the world so on
0:05:19 and so forth
0:05:20 and we're gonna hopefully empower you to
0:05:23 be able to stand in the possibility to
0:05:25 give
0:05:25 a different meaning to your perceived
0:05:28 trauma
0:05:28 or to your experiences thereby
0:05:31 empowering you so you could be able to
0:05:33 deal with that trauma and by the way
0:05:36 everyone
0:05:36 has a level of trauma in their lives and
0:05:40 it's all about
0:05:41 in some instances being able to stand in
0:05:43 the possibility
0:05:44 and give a different meaning to that
0:05:46 trauma and
0:05:48 we're going to refer to cognitive
0:05:49 science as well at the same time
0:05:51 with regards to this issue and we're
0:05:52 going to unpack that
0:05:54 much later throughout the course we're
0:05:57 also going to be talking about
0:05:58 focusing on your heart because when you
0:06:01 learn today
0:06:02 about the nature of doubts the nature of
0:06:05 subuhat which we're going to
0:06:07 discuss a little bit more in a few
0:06:09 moments that they
0:06:10 attack the heart and they are like a
0:06:12 parasite
0:06:14 and they drain the iman the faith
0:06:17 in your heart and therefore what you
0:06:18 need to do you need to be able to
0:06:20 strengthen your heart spiritually how do
0:06:22 you do that
0:06:23 how do you traverse a path of valid and
0:06:25 authentic islamic spirituality
0:06:27 to be able to have a heart that is
0:06:30 strong
0:06:31 from a spiritual perspective also we're
0:06:34 going to end by
0:06:35 teaching you supplications from the
0:06:37 quran
0:06:38 and the prophetic traditions on how to
0:06:41 safeguard yourself by asking allah for
0:06:44 help because at the end of the day
0:06:47 these strategies are never going to work
0:06:49 unless it's in line with the will of
0:06:51 allah everything is dependent on him
0:06:54 and him alone and the whole process of
0:06:57 making dua of supplicating to allah
0:07:00 is a key act of worship it is the brain
0:07:02 of worship it's the essence of worship
0:07:05 because it is a manifestation of our
0:07:08 true state and the true state of the
0:07:09 human being
0:07:10 fundamentally is totally and utterly
0:07:12 dependent
0:07:13 on the divine will totally and utterly
0:07:16 dependent on allah
0:07:18 and if you make these supplications
0:07:21 something is going to happen and
0:07:22 something is going to change
0:07:24 and this is very important because we
0:07:25 even see this in
0:07:27 the life of ibrahim islam abraham
0:07:30 upon him be peace when he supplicate to
0:07:32 god this is in the quran
0:07:34 to safeguard himself and his family from
0:07:38 polytheism from associating partners
0:07:39 with the divine this is
0:07:41 abraham the one who smashed the idols
0:07:44 he was a force against the falsehood of
0:07:48 associating partners with god against
0:07:51 the falsehood
0:07:52 of shirk as we say in the arabic islamic
0:07:56 tradition
0:07:57 and also the prophet muhammad sallallahu
0:07:59 alaihi wasallam
0:08:00 may god's peace and blessings be upon
0:08:02 him he also
0:08:03 used to make a frequent supplication
0:08:06 to god to allah and asking him to keep
0:08:10 his heart
0:08:11 firm on his religion firm on
0:08:14 the true faith of god which is singling
0:08:17 out
0:08:18 all our acts of worship to god alone to
0:08:20 allah alone
0:08:21 so these are some of the strategies
0:08:24 obviously i haven't gone into too much
0:08:25 detail
0:08:26 but these are the effective strategies
0:08:29 and
0:08:30 i truly believe that if you are patient
0:08:33 enough throughout the next
0:08:34 eight weeks or so and you internalize
0:08:37 these strategies
0:08:38 you learn these strategies you implement
0:08:42 these strategies
0:08:43 there's going to be change in your life
0:08:45 now you may be
0:08:47 a muslim who has some doubts you may be
0:08:49 a non-muslim who used to be a muslim
0:08:51 you may be a
0:08:54 non-muslim that wants to become muslim
0:08:58 and all of you are suffering from some
0:09:00 kind of
0:09:01 doubts some kind of
0:09:05 which is the single for singular for
0:09:07 doubts
0:09:08 some kind of shubu hat which is the
0:09:10 plural
0:09:11 for doubts which really means
0:09:12 destructive doubts okay
0:09:15 so from this perspective i really
0:09:17 believe if you stand in the possibility
0:09:19 and i want you to really appreciate this
0:09:21 i want you to stand in the possibility
0:09:23 forget right or wrong for now
0:09:24 forget truth or falsehood for this
0:09:26 particular moment i want you to stand in
0:09:28 the possibility
0:09:30 that you're going to engage with these
0:09:31 strategies and when you engage with
0:09:33 these strategies
0:09:34 there is a possibility that some is
0:09:36 going to change something's going to
0:09:38 fundamentally transform and your doubts
0:09:40 will be
0:09:41 annihilated okay but you have to just
0:09:44 stand in the possibility you have to be
0:09:46 coachable
0:09:47 if you presume anything if you
0:09:50 superimpose your previous experiences
0:09:52 your limited ideas
0:09:54 and your ego everyone has the ego by the
0:09:56 way don't worry yeah
0:09:57 your ego your your
0:10:00 perception about the speakers and the
0:10:02 instructors whatever the case may be if
0:10:04 you superimpose this intellectual
0:10:06 emotional baggage
0:10:07 onto these strategies it's not gonna
0:10:09 work just
0:10:11 have a epistemic duty a
0:10:14 duty to knowledge that you're gonna say
0:10:17 you know what i'm gonna stand in the
0:10:18 possibility
0:10:19 that these strategies may have the
0:10:22 potential to
0:10:23 transform me now once you're open to
0:10:26 that
0:10:27 then it means you're coachable and then
0:10:30 we'll be able to engage
0:10:32 together in a very positive way to have
0:10:34 those transformations
0:10:35 now after being coachable and being open
0:10:39 and you know placing your
0:10:42 emotional intellectual baggage to one
0:10:44 side
0:10:45 after doing that and it hasn't worked
0:10:48 then come speak to me
0:10:49 but for now for the purposes of this
0:10:52 course
0:10:52 let's have intellectual humility and
0:10:55 let's have an epistemic
0:10:56 duty a duty to knowledge to stand in the
0:10:59 possibility that these may work
0:11:01 also it's not just about knowledge
0:11:03 because remember
0:11:05 abstract knowledge doesn't change anyone
0:11:08 here's an example i know
0:11:12 what it takes to be probably one of the
0:11:15 best boxers in the world
0:11:16 from an abstract knowledge point of view
0:11:19 i'll write you an essay
0:11:21 the question is though am i the best
0:11:22 books in the world no absolutely not i'm
0:11:25 actually really really good at training
0:11:26 but you know when i used to go into the
0:11:29 ring
0:11:29 it was like not as good as my training
0:11:32 there was a there was a gap
0:11:33 right so my abstract knowledge of being
0:11:36 able to be the best boxer in the world
0:11:38 doesn't translate in the real world also
0:11:42 let me give another example
0:11:43 i probably know what it takes to
0:11:48 have the best diet in the world and be
0:11:49 really really healthy you know
0:11:51 have your whole foods don't have refined
0:11:53 foods move away from sugars
0:11:56 you know eat in small portions have
0:12:00 fruits and vegetables
0:12:02 you know stay away from lots of meats
0:12:04 and oils
0:12:06 so on and so forth so i really know what
0:12:08 it takes to have a really good diet and
0:12:10 be very healthy
0:12:12 but what did i eat about an hour ago
0:12:15 do you see my point it just because you
0:12:18 may know something in an abstract way it
0:12:20 doesn't mean you become it
0:12:21 remember listen to this very carefully
0:12:24 knowing
0:12:25 doesn't give you access to being
0:12:28 knowing something in an abstract way
0:12:31 doesn't give you access to being
0:12:33 take for example being a really good
0:12:35 parent i could probably tell you
0:12:37 just based on my experiences and limited
0:12:39 reading what it can
0:12:40 what it takes to be a really good parent
0:12:42 but am i
0:12:44 the best parent no sometimes i'm not
0:12:46 sometimes i'm good i'm weak i'm a human
0:12:48 being i'm gonna fail
0:12:49 right am i the kind of parent that i
0:12:52 want to be
0:12:54 do i aspire to be a great parent of
0:12:55 course but am i the best friend would i
0:12:57 describe myself as the best parent
0:12:59 no i wouldn't but can i tell you how to
0:13:01 become a best parent in a
0:13:02 in in an abstract way yes i can so there
0:13:05 is a
0:13:06 there is a gap between knowing and
0:13:08 becoming
0:13:10 so i want you to understand that knowing
0:13:13 these strategies are not
0:13:15 going to be effective for that
0:13:16 transformation you have to become these
0:13:19 strategies
0:13:21 so this is the key
0:13:25 and this is why you have to attend the
0:13:27 whole course
0:13:28 so we could engage in a in a way that
0:13:32 helps you internalize them but in a way
0:13:34 that you have an experiential
0:13:37 and experiential process so the process
0:13:40 we're going to be going through is very
0:13:41 experiential
0:13:43 that's not going to be abstract knowing
0:13:44 but becoming these strategies
0:13:46 for example you know my mom makes a
0:13:49 great
0:13:50 sweet greek dish it's called it is
0:13:54 awesome i could go to my mom's house and
0:13:55 i can have 10 or 11.
0:13:57 no problem right okay i might feel a bit
0:14:00 guilty after that but
0:14:01 you know i'll have them no issue now
0:14:04 my mom can train someone how to make
0:14:07 them over the phone
0:14:08 she could give the person the exact
0:14:10 ingredients and measurements
0:14:12 but it won't be the same in actual fact
0:14:14 i think she's already done it
0:14:15 and it wasn't the same so in order for
0:14:18 you to truly appreciate my mom's gala
0:14:20 the bureko
0:14:22 there's no point you speaking to on the
0:14:24 phone and getting all the measurements
0:14:25 and doing everything scientifically it's
0:14:27 not going to be the same
0:14:28 your knowing is not going to give you
0:14:29 access to being you know
0:14:31 being the the the cook that my mother is
0:14:35 right
0:14:36 and you want me to experience the way i
0:14:38 am experiencing it but the way you can
0:14:41 do that
0:14:41 is by going to my mom's house and
0:14:43 tasting it for yourself
0:14:45 which has nothing to do with knowledge
0:14:47 it has nothing to do with abstract
0:14:49 knowledge
0:14:50 you probably don't even know how to say
0:14:51 the word
0:14:54 or you don't even know how to write down
0:14:55 you probably even know what it is and
0:14:57 who cares the point is
0:14:59 for you to experience that taste and
0:15:03 that sweetness and that amazing dish
0:15:04 you have to come to mom's house and
0:15:06 taste it for yourself
0:15:08 so this is why you need to understand
0:15:11 this
0:15:11 it's not always about knowing it's about
0:15:14 how
0:15:14 can this affect my being which means how
0:15:18 i relate to myself
0:15:19 how i relate to others and fundamentally
0:15:22 how you relate to allah
0:15:24 allah subhanahu how you relate to allah
0:15:27 glorified be he
0:15:31 so i hope this is clear so far let me
0:15:34 just
0:15:35 summarize this again so today we're
0:15:37 going to go through the metaphysical
0:15:38 backdrop the nature of the heart the
0:15:40 heart's main
0:15:41 the heart's main fitting or tribulations
0:15:45 we're going to talk about today's crisis
0:15:46 and challenge and the sources of doubts
0:15:49 after this week in the weeks that are
0:15:51 going to follow we're going to be
0:15:52 dealing with
0:15:53 the effective strategies to deal with
0:15:56 your and other people's doubts now some
0:15:59 of these strategies
0:16:00 are for before you have the doubt and
0:16:03 some of these strategies are full after
0:16:05 you have the doubt
0:16:06 most of them are for before and after
0:16:09 but some are for after and some are for
0:16:11 before which we're going to discuss
0:16:12 in the appropriate times let me just go
0:16:14 through through them again just so you
0:16:15 understand
0:16:17 we're going to be talking about the need
0:16:18 to be you need to be aware that
0:16:20 destructive doubts to your faith
0:16:22 exist and what they are remember the
0:16:24 nature
0:16:25 of doubts of hearts is that they don't
0:16:28 have any intellectual basis
0:16:29 they are the intellectual equivalent of
0:16:33 a wolf in sheep's clothing and we're
0:16:35 going to discuss that in a few moments
0:16:37 but being away is very important because
0:16:39 it allows you
0:16:40 to now be able to make a distinction
0:16:43 and be able to understand that there are
0:16:45 these things that are like parasites i
0:16:47 want to suck my
0:16:48 the faith from my heart and it's not
0:16:50 necessarily an intellectual phenomenon
0:16:52 it's
0:16:52 dressed as intellectual gymnastics or
0:16:55 something so-called intellectual
0:16:57 but it's really falsehood right and
0:16:59 we're going to discuss that in a few
0:17:00 moments
0:17:01 the other thing is not to give them any
0:17:03 attention this is before they really
0:17:05 seep into your heart
0:17:06 because once you are aware that you know
0:17:09 what to be aware
0:17:10 of and you now will be able to
0:17:13 understand that if they're coming or
0:17:14 they're
0:17:15 or they're in a certain place such as
0:17:17 the internet for example
0:17:19 then you put things in place to give
0:17:21 them no attention
0:17:22 or not to approach them or fundamentally
0:17:24 from this
0:17:26 second strategy point of view that if
0:17:28 they do come
0:17:29 into your heart and mind that you
0:17:31 basically stop
0:17:32 and ignore them and you seek refuge in
0:17:34 allah
0:17:35 because at this stage you know they're
0:17:37 wrong at this stage
0:17:39 you know you have a psychological
0:17:41 aversion to them you know at this stage
0:17:44 that this is not something that you
0:17:45 believe to be true and you know it's
0:17:46 false
0:17:47 but because it has that kind of
0:17:50 that kind of aura if you like
0:17:54 this doubt has an aura of
0:17:58 falsehood but at the same time it's
0:18:01 somewhat appealing to the degree where
0:18:03 you give it a little bit too much focus
0:18:05 and once you do that
0:18:06 then it goes into your heart and it saps
0:18:08 away slowly your faith in your iman
0:18:10 and this is why this stage you don't
0:18:11 give any attention then we're going to
0:18:13 be talking about making a distinction
0:18:15 why are distinctions very important
0:18:16 distinctions are very important brothers
0:18:18 and sisters and friends
0:18:20 because they empower you i give an
0:18:22 example
0:18:24 if i go to a village in say africa
0:18:27 and there is a hurts person and he's i
0:18:30 don't know he's
0:18:32 taking care of cows and all those cows
0:18:34 are brown
0:18:35 i can't really make the distinction
0:18:37 between the different type of cow
0:18:38 all i see is brown cows right but for
0:18:41 him because
0:18:43 he's made the distinctions through his
0:18:45 experience and knowledge
0:18:46 he knows that each cow is slightly
0:18:50 different because of its color
0:18:52 because of its size because it's type if
0:18:54 you like or it's breed
0:18:56 and he can make those distinctions and
0:18:58 he empowers him because he knows all
0:19:00 those cows are not all the same
0:19:02 but for me all i could see is like 100
0:19:04 brown cows because i don't
0:19:06 haven't made i haven't made the
0:19:08 distinctions between the different type
0:19:10 of brown
0:19:11 and maybe you know the size and the
0:19:14 different shade of brown
0:19:15 means something specific about that that
0:19:18 particular cow
0:19:18 i can't make those distinctions because
0:19:20 i haven't made those distinctions
0:19:22 but the heads person can conversely
0:19:26 if the hurts person were to come for
0:19:29 example to los
0:19:30 angeles and see all of these cars he
0:19:32 doesn't know the difference between a
0:19:34 mercedes
0:19:34 and a mclaren he doesn't know the
0:19:36 difference between a mclaren
0:19:38 and a bugatti right it's for him it's
0:19:41 like
0:19:42 metal things with wheels but for me not
0:19:45 that i like cars that much anyway
0:19:47 but i know how to make the distinction
0:19:49 between
0:19:50 a 19 year old honda civic and a bugatti
0:19:54 veyron
0:19:55 do you know what i mean because if
0:19:56 someone came up to and said do you want
0:19:57 a bugatti veyron
0:19:58 or 19 year old honda civic i'd be like
0:20:01 you better give me that bugatti veyron
0:20:03 because i might not drive it for a while
0:20:04 but i'll definitely sell it because it's
0:20:05 a
0:20:06 lot of money right i could make that
0:20:08 distinction because
0:20:09 through through my knowledge and my
0:20:11 experiences
0:20:12 i'm able to make that distinction so it
0:20:14 empowers me
0:20:15 in truly relating to those cars likewise
0:20:19 the hurts person
0:20:20 is is empowered because he has the
0:20:23 knowledge and
0:20:24 the experience and has made the
0:20:25 distinctions to empower him to be able
0:20:27 to
0:20:28 get relate to those cows in a way that
0:20:32 is a representation of reality
0:20:34 this cow is a different size a different
0:20:36 shade
0:20:37 this this cow you know has a particular
0:20:41 attitude for example or a particular
0:20:44 behavior
0:20:44 this other cow is a little bit bigger
0:20:46 it's got different shapes a different
0:20:47 shade of brown
0:20:48 and therefore this cow has a different
0:20:51 attitude or acts in a particular way so
0:20:54 the way he can relate to those cows is
0:20:55 more powerful and empowering because he
0:20:57 could make those distinctions
0:20:58 and that's why we're going to teach you
0:21:00 how to make distinctions between
0:21:02 shubu hat destructive doubts wasa
0:21:07 negative spiritual whispering like
0:21:09 shaytanic whisperings
0:21:11 and valid questions if you are able to
0:21:14 make a distinction between
0:21:16 those three it's extremely empowering
0:21:19 which we're going to discuss in the next
0:21:20 couple of weeks god willing insha allah
0:21:22 then we're going to talk about your
0:21:24 environment now we're going to
0:21:26 by the way when we talk about these
0:21:28 strategies we're going to be talking
0:21:29 about the quran and the sunnah
0:21:31 the the source text of islam on how they
0:21:33 approach these issues but also
0:21:35 the kind of modern studies that we have
0:21:38 available
0:21:39 for example in social psychology there's
0:21:41 loads of studies on
0:21:42 social influence and how it affects your
0:21:44 your cognition
0:21:46 and your understanding of reality we're
0:21:48 going to be talking about
0:21:49 the famous case studies concerning
0:21:52 influence and the development of the
0:21:56 social norm
0:21:58 informational social influence normative
0:22:00 social influence peer pressure
0:22:02 and all of these things concerning
0:22:03 social psychology just to make you
0:22:05 understand that
0:22:07 you're not you don't live in a desert
0:22:08 island some of these doubts can
0:22:11 be as a result of your environment you
0:22:13 didn't even know
0:22:14 to the point there are studies with
0:22:17 academics and their peers
0:22:19 and there is an obvious answer but
0:22:21 because the peers
0:22:23 or so-called peers have said no that's
0:22:24 not the answer
0:22:26 they've totally changed their
0:22:28 understanding of reality
0:22:30 just because of social pressure but
0:22:32 we'll discuss this later
0:22:34 then we're going to be talking about
0:22:35 studying islam having
0:22:37 i truly believe the more you study islam
0:22:39 and you're patient with it and you're
0:22:41 humble
0:22:42 the more wisdom is going to be revealed
0:22:43 to you we know this because when you
0:22:45 look at chapter 18 of the quran
0:22:47 you see musa alaihi salaam having a
0:22:49 dialogue with with hidden
0:22:50 and muslim comes in very humbly saying
0:22:53 you know
0:22:54 i'm going to i'm going to be patient
0:22:55 because says you won't be able to be
0:22:57 patient with me
0:22:58 but he is christ he tries to be patient
0:23:00 but he comes across very
0:23:02 humble and at the end divine wisdom is
0:23:05 revealed to him so this teaches us that
0:23:06 if you want divine wisdom
0:23:08 or if you want the wisdom of things then
0:23:10 you should be patient and be humble
0:23:12 okay and once you're patient and humble
0:23:14 and you traverse a path of
0:23:15 knowledge you could you'll be able to
0:23:18 destroy these doubts very effectively
0:23:20 and we're going to give you some case
0:23:21 studies concerning
0:23:22 the age of concern in the islamic
0:23:23 tradition we're also going to be talking
0:23:25 about women's inheritance as another
0:23:27 example
0:23:29 and the other example is going to be
0:23:32 actually i forgot what the other example
0:23:34 is but don't worry about it we're gonna
0:23:35 we're gonna get to in the next couple of
0:23:36 weeks
0:23:37 and when you study islam you're gonna be
0:23:38 like oh my god
0:23:40 how amazing is islam and you have all of
0:23:43 these accusations because people
0:23:45 don't have knowledge and the more
0:23:47 knowledge you have about classical
0:23:49 orthodox mainstream islam
0:23:50 the more you'll be able to really
0:23:52 annihilate these
0:23:54 doubts and this and these falsehoods as
0:23:56 allah says in the quran
0:23:57 that the truth will smash the brains of
0:24:00 the falsehood
0:24:01 okay then we're going to talk about
0:24:04 critical thinking which really here is
0:24:05 about
0:24:07 philosophy or theo philosophical
0:24:08 understanding of things
0:24:10 being able to understand things in a way
0:24:12 that
0:24:13 that shows that you understand how
0:24:16 arguments are connected how you
0:24:19 conclude in a philosophical sense
0:24:22 you understand philosophical assumptions
0:24:24 of certain
0:24:25 positions and we're going to give you a
0:24:27 case study concerning
0:24:29 science as a so-called intellectual
0:24:32 source of doubt which is not but we're
0:24:34 going to
0:24:34 unravel the philosophy of science to you
0:24:37 so you could empower you
0:24:38 we're also going to talk about ethics
0:24:40 and
0:24:41 and morality and show you how to be
0:24:45 how to be able to deal with these based
0:24:47 on critical thinking philosophical
0:24:49 thinking
0:24:50 which is all encouraged by the quran by
0:24:51 the way which we're going to uh
0:24:53 reference at length inshallah god
0:24:56 willing
0:24:56 and you know i'm looking forward to that
0:24:58 one because one of the
0:25:00 main sources of doubts is actually
0:25:02 morals and
0:25:03 science but when you're able to
0:25:04 critically think in this way
0:25:06 they will never become a source of doubt
0:25:08 for you anymore
0:25:10 then we're going to talk about the
0:25:12 epistemology of testimony and that we
0:25:13 have epistemic limitations we're never
0:25:15 gonna go
0:25:16 we're never gonna know everything and
0:25:18 even in western philosophy in
0:25:20 western epistemology this is the case
0:25:22 too there's lots of work in the
0:25:24 epistemology of testimony we have to
0:25:26 refer to the
0:25:27 say sort of others to specialists and
0:25:29 therefore when you seek a specialist
0:25:31 they'll be able to provide answers to
0:25:33 your doubts
0:25:34 we're also going to talk about dealing
0:25:35 with trauma personal trauma
0:25:38 life trauma negative experiences that we
0:25:41 have experienced that maybe is a source
0:25:44 of
0:25:44 our doubts and we're going to hopefully
0:25:47 give you a strategy which is in line
0:25:49 with cognitive science and psychology
0:25:50 and also in line with the islamic
0:25:52 tradition
0:25:52 on how to stand in the possibility to
0:25:54 give your trauma a different meaning
0:25:56 that would help you transcend
0:25:58 your particular negative your negative
0:26:00 interpretation of
0:26:02 those events then we're going to tell
0:26:04 you on
0:26:05 show you have to focus on your spiritual
0:26:07 heart how to remove the spiritual
0:26:08 blemishes how to engage
0:26:10 in valid and authentic islamic spiritual
0:26:13 practice of coming closer to allah
0:26:15 worshiping allah engaging with your
0:26:17 afghar with your remembrance of god with
0:26:19 your duas with your supplications
0:26:21 and so on and so forth your recitation
0:26:24 of the quran your prayers
0:26:26 all of these things are really really
0:26:27 critical in
0:26:29 strengthening your spiritual heart and
0:26:31 then we're going to go through some
0:26:32 supplications on on on how to deal or
0:26:36 how to ask allah to strengthen
0:26:38 your iman and your faith and for you to
0:26:40 be able to become
0:26:41 a force for good insha allah and for you
0:26:43 to become
0:26:44 a strong barrier against destructive
0:26:47 destructive doubts
0:26:48 so that's the summary and as i said be
0:26:51 patient
0:26:52 stand in the possibility that these may
0:26:54 possibly work
0:26:56 hark your you know limited understanding
0:27:00 ego experiences and all of that
0:27:04 to one side try and be a blank canvas
0:27:07 and i think we're going to enjoy
0:27:08 ourselves and we're going to come
0:27:09 out of this transformed inshallah god
0:27:12 willing
0:27:13 so the metaphysical backdrop
0:27:17 now some of you may be muslim
0:27:20 some of you may not be muslim you will
0:27:22 be agnostic this is irrelevant i'm not
0:27:24 telling you this in a way that i'm
0:27:26 saying this is absolute truth
0:27:27 yes i believe to be for it to be true
0:27:30 but for the purposes of the course
0:27:32 i do to stand in the possibility that
0:27:34 this is a metaphysical
0:27:36 backdrop that is effective in
0:27:38 understanding ourselves and
0:27:40 understanding the world
0:27:41 in the context of truth acquiring truth
0:27:43 acquiring faith
0:27:44 and in the context of doubts okay
0:27:48 so you have to understand that in the
0:27:52 islamic tradition
0:27:53 we have this understanding of the fitra
0:27:56 now the fitra has been loosely
0:27:58 translated as the innate
0:27:59 disposition okay the innate disposition
0:28:03 what is the fitra well let's start from
0:28:04 a linguistic point of view
0:28:06 the futura comes from the tri-literal
0:28:08 arabic stem
0:28:10 which you have words like fatron and
0:28:12 fatarahu
0:28:14 which basically means that something has
0:28:15 been created within us
0:28:17 and that is an innate natural
0:28:18 disposition or innate nature
0:28:21 to acknowledge allah that he exists and
0:28:23 that he is worthy of worship
0:28:25 and a basic understanding of objective
0:28:28 moral values and truths
0:28:30 now interestingly from a theological
0:28:33 perspective is based on
0:28:34 some verses and a prophetic tradition
0:28:39 the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi
0:28:41 wasallam may god's peace and blessings
0:28:43 be upon him said in authentic tradition
0:28:45 that could be found in sahih muslim
0:28:46 that every child is born in a state of
0:28:49 fitra
0:28:50 then his parents make him a jew a
0:28:52 christian or magen
0:28:54 now the scholars had an understanding
0:28:55 here that this doesn't mean every child
0:28:57 is born
0:28:58 muslim no in terms of a kind of you know
0:29:02 legal sense but rather every child is
0:29:04 born in a natural state
0:29:06 that will facilitate faith that will
0:29:09 facilitate
0:29:10 iman that would facilitate that person
0:29:13 becoming a muslim or it would facilitate
0:29:17 them
0:29:17 acknowledging the truth of islam and the
0:29:21 school is derived from this as well that
0:29:22 there is a an effect of
0:29:24 parenting but also socialization that
0:29:26 affects
0:29:28 the child and that's why the child
0:29:30 changes
0:29:32 changes their their understanding or
0:29:36 their child becomes something other than
0:29:39 a muslim
0:29:40 now interesting here this innate
0:29:42 disposition itself doesn't change
0:29:44 because it's created by god
0:29:45 but what happens and you could use this
0:29:48 as
0:29:48 some kind of metaphor is that the fit of
0:29:51 the innate dispersion gets clouded
0:29:53 it gets clouded and that's why someone
0:29:56 who's born a child that has this pure
0:29:59 innate state
0:30:00 when the fitra gets clouded then they
0:30:03 will they would
0:30:04 adopt a way of life or a worldview that
0:30:06 is antithetical
0:30:08 to the islamic tradition
0:30:11 in the quran chapter 14 verse 10 god
0:30:14 says
0:30:15 that the prophets say can there be any
0:30:19 doubt about god
0:30:20 creator of the heavens and the earth now
0:30:24 this here shows the kind of self-evident
0:30:28 natural belief of affirming the creator
0:30:31 of the heavens and the earth
0:30:32 which is in line with the understanding
0:30:34 of the fitra of the innate disposition
0:30:37 specifically the quran in chapter 30
0:30:39 verse that he says
0:30:41 adhere to the fitra of allah to the
0:30:44 fitra of god
0:30:45 upon which he has created all people
0:30:48 no change should there be in the
0:30:50 creation of god that is the correct
0:30:52 religion
0:30:52 but most of the people do not know so
0:30:55 here you have this understanding
0:30:57 that every human being has been created
0:31:00 upon this natural state that god has
0:31:02 created within us
0:31:04 and that natural state facilitates us
0:31:06 acknowledging the truth
0:31:08 now as i said previously based on the
0:31:10 hadith the prophetic tradition in sahih
0:31:12 muslim
0:31:13 the fitra gets clouded now before i get
0:31:16 into this issue about
0:31:17 the clouding of the fitrah i think it's
0:31:19 important for us to understand the two
0:31:21 main views in the islamic tradition
0:31:23 with regards to the fitra itself so
0:31:27 i've been using the words such as
0:31:28 natural disposition the fitra
0:31:30 directs you towards the truth but really
0:31:33 there are two main positions
0:31:34 number one the natural state the fitrah
0:31:39 doesn't only direct you to the truth or
0:31:40 doesn't direct you to the truth but
0:31:42 rather it has truth within it
0:31:44 and some discussed that this means that
0:31:46 the fitra has some kind of
0:31:48 proto-knowledge or primary knowledge and
0:31:51 there was a discussion
0:31:52 in the in the islamic classical
0:31:53 tradition that within the innate
0:31:55 disposition
0:31:56 you have god's existence and affirmation
0:31:58 of businesses with
0:31:59 knowledge
0:32:03 so in this perspective what
0:32:07 the scholars say is that there is there
0:32:09 is profoundly the primary knowledge
0:32:11 within the fifa
0:32:23 more values and more truths or
0:32:26 specifically more band
0:32:29 now that's the first position
0:32:32 so if it becomes counted
0:32:35 and and due to various reasons becomes
0:32:38 unclouded then what happens is
0:32:41 there is a self awakening
0:32:44 there's an awakening of the truth within
0:32:47 so the fifa doesn't really direct
0:32:51 the truth you already have truth in it
0:32:53 in some private form
0:32:54 and when you uncloud that
0:32:57 then it's like it's self-awakening
0:33:01 the truth is awakened within
0:33:05 now when the fitra is not clouded then
0:33:09 naturally that human being is going to
0:33:11 acknowledge the truth because it's
0:33:12 already inside them
0:33:14 the other view is that the filter
0:33:15 doesn't contain any knowledge at all
0:33:18 but rather it's like a spiritual
0:33:20 intellectual vehicle
0:33:22 from that perspective that it directs
0:33:24 one
0:33:25 towards the truth so it's like a vehicle
0:33:28 that directs you towards the truth if
0:33:30 the windscreen is clean
0:33:32 then you could see your final
0:33:33 destination which is the truth in this
0:33:35 case it's islam
0:33:37 however if the windscreen
0:33:40 is clouded or there's mud on it you
0:33:43 can't see where you're going where
0:33:44 you're driving
0:33:45 and you're going to be misdirected
0:33:47 towards falsehood
0:33:49 now irrespective of which position you
0:33:53 you like or you accept both positions
0:33:56 make sense
0:33:57 with regards to this whole course now
0:33:59 the first position has been attributed
0:34:00 to the likes of ibn tamiya the 14th
0:34:03 century theologian
0:34:04 and the second position has been
0:34:06 attributed to the likes of ali ghazali
0:34:08 the 11th century theologian okay
0:34:11 but irrespective what position you hold
0:34:13 they both make sense with regards to
0:34:15 this understanding of acquiring faith
0:34:18 and dealing with doubts and how our
0:34:20 fitnah gets clouded which i'm going to
0:34:22 discuss
0:34:22 now so in the context of doubts
0:34:26 brothers and sisters and friends it's
0:34:29 important for us to understand that
0:34:31 the fitra either contains knowledge of
0:34:33 the truth within it which is
0:34:35 that god exists he's worthy of extensive
0:34:37 praise and
0:34:38 and some aspects of morality
0:34:43 or that it directs you towards the truth
0:34:45 like a spiritual intellectual vehicle
0:34:47 okay but what happens is the future can
0:34:50 get clouded
0:34:51 if you remember the hadith i mentioned
0:34:53 in sahih muslim
0:34:54 this is because of socialization in
0:34:56 other words it could get clouded not
0:34:58 only because of parents and teaching
0:35:00 but it could get crowded because of
0:35:02 doubts themselves
0:35:04 so you could treat each cloud as a
0:35:07 the clouds represent shubu hearts the
0:35:10 clouds
0:35:11 represent destructive doubts okay
0:35:15 and there are ways to uncloud
0:35:18 the fitrah to awaken the truth within or
0:35:21 to allow
0:35:22 this intellectual spiritual vehicle to
0:35:26 to take you towards the journey of truth
0:35:28 okay
0:35:30 and it's not always rational arguments
0:35:32 and
0:35:33 throughout this course you're going to
0:35:34 really appreciate this especially when
0:35:36 i'm going to give you some of my
0:35:37 experiences in dealing with people
0:35:39 who have either left islam or who have
0:35:41 doubts
0:35:42 that it's not always about abstract
0:35:44 rational arguments
0:35:46 it's different things different things
0:35:49 can uncloud the fitrah remove
0:35:52 the shubha remove the shuba heart
0:35:55 in order to awaken the truth within or
0:35:58 to allow the fetra to be that
0:35:59 intellectual spiritual vehicle to drive
0:36:01 you towards the truth
0:36:03 so there's different ways of unclouding
0:36:06 the future it could be direct revelation
0:36:08 reflecting upon the quran
0:36:10 it could be having spiritual experiences
0:36:13 positive experiences or negative
0:36:14 experiences it could be just
0:36:15 teaching people to reflect an introspect
0:36:17 it could be rational arguments and
0:36:19 dealing with the shop
0:36:21 itself dealing with the destructive
0:36:22 doubt itself or dealing with an
0:36:24 argument itself a rational argument or
0:36:26 philosophical argument
0:36:27 it could be a combination of these at
0:36:29 different intensities and levels
0:36:31 you just don't know but the point here
0:36:33 is this is a brilliant model because it
0:36:35 makes sense of reality it's a
0:36:36 representation
0:36:38 of the actual state of affairs it makes
0:36:40 sense of reality let me give an example
0:36:42 there was someone who left islam he was
0:36:44 a pakistani apostate a student i believe
0:36:47 and after one university lecture he
0:36:50 basically came up to me and said
0:36:52 i did quantum physics your argument for
0:36:55 god's existence doesn't make sense
0:36:56 because causality doesn't make sense
0:36:59 outside of the universe
0:37:00 now because of many of my experiences
0:37:02 and the way he came across
0:37:04 i had a hunch from what i remember i had
0:37:07 a hunch that this had nothing to do with
0:37:08 an intellectual question
0:37:10 this was a veil that was hiding
0:37:12 something else that was going on
0:37:13 so i said to him what do you mean by
0:37:15 causality obviously because
0:37:17 i study philosophy i know that in
0:37:20 especially western metaphysics obviously
0:37:22 there's no rejection of cause and effect
0:37:24 per se but there's a discussion
0:37:26 on the nature of the causal link what is
0:37:28 causality
0:37:29 so i had a brief discussion with him on
0:37:32 this and then he basically says to me i
0:37:33 don't know
0:37:35 then i said to him my friend isn't it
0:37:37 very interesting that you
0:37:39 that the key word you're using to reject
0:37:41 god
0:37:42 you don't really know the meaning of
0:37:44 that word
0:37:46 what's up bro let's sit down so we sat
0:37:50 down and what does he conclude or tell
0:37:52 me at the end from i remember he said to
0:37:53 me
0:37:54 it was about the fact that he was
0:37:55 brought up in a secular home and when he
0:37:57 prayed he didn't really feel a
0:37:58 connection to god
0:38:00 so his problem was fundamentally
0:38:02 different from his initial
0:38:04 question so this goes to show that
0:38:08 sometimes
0:38:08 it's not just about rational arguments
0:38:10 it could be about spiritual experiences
0:38:13 reflection introspection revelation
0:38:14 whatever the case may be
0:38:16 and this allows us to become
0:38:18 intellectually spiritually mature
0:38:19 because we understand that human beings
0:38:21 are not abstract rational robots
0:38:23 we're not abstract rational robots we
0:38:26 have
0:38:26 a psychological disposition like in the
0:38:29 islamic tradition
0:38:30 the way we see the human being the human
0:38:32 being has a roar as a soul
0:38:34 as a fitra innate disposition as we just
0:38:36 mentioned
0:38:37 has the spiritual heart
0:38:40 and the is the intellect is not the
0:38:43 brain because according to the scholars
0:38:45 the intellect is a function of the
0:38:47 spiritual heart
0:38:48 and the heart the what does it do it
0:38:50 does
0:38:51 it waves and changes all the time so
0:38:53 there's already these crazy things going
0:38:55 on we're a dynamic thing we're not
0:38:57 an ai machine that you just put in some
0:38:59 code and you put an algorithm in there
0:39:01 and you're going to expect certain
0:39:02 results
0:39:03 you know sometimes when we think
0:39:05 something is rational
0:39:06 it's actually not really rational study
0:39:08 cognitive biases for example you you see
0:39:10 this for yourself
0:39:11 but the point i'm trying to see here
0:39:13 from a specifics point of view
0:39:15 in to to specify clearly with regards to
0:39:18 the notion of doubts
0:39:19 and faith is that standing the
0:39:22 possibility that we have this innate
0:39:23 disposition
0:39:25 it either has some kind of primary
0:39:27 knowledge that god exists and is worthy
0:39:28 of worship
0:39:30 or it is like a spiritual intellectual
0:39:32 vehicle
0:39:33 that drives you towards the truth in
0:39:35 this case islam
0:39:37 now it can get clouded
0:39:41 so we need to learn to uncloud the fitra
0:39:43 and the clouding of the fitrah can be
0:39:45 because of parenting of teaching of
0:39:47 of of sins of negative experiences of
0:39:49 misinformation maybe
0:39:50 but in the context of our course this
0:39:52 cloud it could be because of
0:39:54 heart destructive doubts how do you
0:39:56 uncloud the fitzroy to awaken the truth
0:39:58 within
0:39:59 how do you uncloud the fitra to allow to
0:40:01 be that intellectual spiritual vehicle
0:40:03 to drive you towards the truth
0:40:05 it's not just rational arguments it
0:40:07 could be personal experiences
0:40:08 maybe this human being wants to have a
0:40:11 positive experience with a muslim
0:40:13 maybe there is psychodynamic trauma
0:40:15 their parents i had another experience
0:40:17 in my town
0:40:18 where someone saw my debate with
0:40:19 lawrence krauss and he said oh great
0:40:21 debate but i'm still an atheist
0:40:25 he said something like that and then i
0:40:26 sent something about him
0:40:28 about him and i said how are your
0:40:30 parents bro
0:40:31 and he looked at me as if to say to me
0:40:33 from what i remember
0:40:35 how did you know and he start talking
0:40:36 about the negative
0:40:39 almost dark environment that he was
0:40:41 brought up in and he associated this
0:40:43 darkness with the islamic tradition
0:40:44 he had a psychodynamic issue
0:40:48 also i had another experience with
0:40:49 someone who works for a very famous
0:40:50 social media company
0:40:52 and we will talk about artificial
0:40:53 intelligence and the philosophy of the
0:40:54 mind and
0:40:55 can artificial intelligence become human
0:40:57 one day he thought he could it could
0:40:59 then i talked to him about you know
0:41:01 there's a difference between
0:41:02 strong ai and weak ai and you know you
0:41:05 could read this on the sapience
0:41:06 institute website
0:41:07 in the answers section where you know we
0:41:09 referred to professor john cell's
0:41:11 chinese room experiment for example and
0:41:13 there was a distinction between
0:41:14 semantics and syntax
0:41:16 and so on and so forth so ai can never
0:41:18 be truly conscious
0:41:19 anyway point is we had that discussion
0:41:22 and i really said to him look you know
0:41:23 what's your real problem
0:41:25 and he basically said that you know he
0:41:28 had an issue with
0:41:29 god's names and attributes that sounded
0:41:31 quite human
0:41:32 now to cut longer story short i
0:41:35 obviously explained to him that we
0:41:36 believe in lasik chemistry
0:41:38 there is nothing like allah there is
0:41:41 nothing like
0:41:42 uh god he is transcendent which the
0:41:44 quran affirms
0:41:46 and you know these names and attributes
0:41:48 of god
0:41:49 are understood in the sense of his
0:41:51 transcendence and
0:41:53 and and uniqueness but notwithstanding
0:41:56 that
0:41:57 i notice in our discussion that he
0:41:58 intellectually and logically
0:42:00 contradicted himself and for me that was
0:42:01 an indication that there was a
0:42:03 psychodynamic or spiritual emotional
0:42:05 thing going on and i
0:42:07 subtly hopefully with emotional
0:42:08 intelligence i presented that
0:42:10 contradiction to him
0:42:11 and i did it in a way to show that maybe
0:42:13 there is something else going on and i
0:42:14 refer to my own personal experiences
0:42:16 with my father
0:42:18 when i did that what i remember he stood
0:42:20 up and started crying
0:42:22 it's like it's as if i triggered him i
0:42:24 pressed the button and something came
0:42:26 out
0:42:27 and to cut a long story short we found
0:42:29 out from his mother
0:42:30 that his main issues from this
0:42:33 perspective was that
0:42:34 he had very negative experience with
0:42:36 father figures
0:42:38 at least one father figure and the
0:42:40 arguments that he was he was posing were
0:42:42 not well thought out
0:42:43 they were ridiculous and he contradicted
0:42:45 himself but for the average person if
0:42:47 you didn't
0:42:47 have these experiences maybe or these
0:42:49 insights you would have thought oh my
0:42:50 god they have a valid intellectual
0:42:52 question
0:42:52 but he didn't so that's another example
0:42:55 to show that
0:42:56 your fitra can get clouded you may have
0:42:59 a clouded
0:43:00 innate disposition that you think is
0:43:02 because of a rational
0:43:04 reason but it's not it's because of
0:43:06 psychodynamic reason
0:43:07 and it requires this kind of process of
0:43:09 engagement to understand that but the
0:43:11 point here is
0:43:13 it's just reaffirming the point that
0:43:14 there is more than one way to uncloud
0:43:16 the fitra so this is the metaphysical
0:43:18 back backdrop
0:43:20 so if you understand this properly when
0:43:23 we go
0:43:24 throughout all of the effective
0:43:25 strategies and we talk about certain
0:43:27 experiences and we talk about the
0:43:28 sources of doubts
0:43:30 you're going to start to realize and
0:43:31 hopefully internalize within yourself
0:43:34 you know what let me stand in the
0:43:36 possibility
0:43:37 that my doubt is not really an
0:43:39 intellectual doubt it could be because
0:43:41 of the way i've been brought up
0:43:42 it could be because of my spiritual
0:43:44 experiences it could be with my negative
0:43:46 experience with muslims
0:43:47 or with family it could be because
0:43:51 i have an ego problem we don't know but
0:43:53 the point is
0:43:54 standing the possibility that the cloud
0:43:56 over your innate disposition
0:43:58 is not necessarily just rational it
0:44:00 could be other other other
0:44:02 it could be for other reasons and we
0:44:04 need to now understand the process of
0:44:06 unclouding our fitrah and hopefully
0:44:08 these effective strategies will help you
0:44:09 do that
0:44:10 and we'll unpack that later on
0:44:13 throughout the course
0:44:14 god willing so let's now move on to the
0:44:17 nature of the heart which is very
0:44:18 important for this kind of metaphysical
0:44:21 backdrop now obviously when it comes to
0:44:23 faith when it comes to iman
0:44:25 as we say in the arabic islamic
0:44:27 tradition you know
0:44:29 iman essentially is
0:44:33 is means faith but it's something more
0:44:37 than that so i don't need to secularize
0:44:39 the term because we have a
0:44:40 post-christian post-secular
0:44:41 understanding of this term
0:44:43 iman really is not only just an abstract
0:44:46 belief but it's something that you
0:44:47 affirm
0:44:48 you know in your heart you affirm it
0:44:52 on your tongue the way you express
0:44:56 with the way you express it verbally and
0:44:59 you affirm it in your actions
0:45:00 you affirm it in the way that you relate
0:45:02 to yourself you relate to others and
0:45:04 fundamentally the way you relate to
0:45:05 allah
0:45:07 so yes there is an intellectual
0:45:09 conviction here but also it manifests
0:45:11 itself
0:45:12 and part of iman is is is how is what
0:45:15 how it affects your tongue what you say
0:45:17 and how you relate and how you act in
0:45:19 the world how you relate
0:45:21 to yourself how you relate to others and
0:45:22 how you relate to allah
0:45:25 but from the point of view of the heart
0:45:26 the heart is extremely important here
0:45:29 because your your conviction your yakin
0:45:34 as we say in the arabic islamic
0:45:36 tradition
0:45:36 is in your heart your pain is in your
0:45:39 heart
0:45:40 so it is extremely important for us to
0:45:43 understand the nature of the heart
0:45:45 its desired state and its main
0:45:49 tribulations so let's start with what is
0:45:53 the heart in the islamic tradition
0:45:54 that is the kind of spiritual heart is
0:45:56 called the
0:45:58 and it comes from the root which means
0:46:01 something that turns around and upside
0:46:03 down
0:46:04 it does so the heart engages in
0:46:08 which means to move around to change
0:46:10 around to waver to waver from that
0:46:12 perspective
0:46:14 so you know this makes sense when it
0:46:16 comes to doubts and
0:46:17 your faith going up and down slightly
0:46:19 and fluctuating
0:46:21 because the nature of the heart itself
0:46:23 is to waver
0:46:24 it is to ever you know someone may be in
0:46:26 love with a woman one day and after a
0:46:28 week they're not in love anymore
0:46:29 or you know one day you know i might
0:46:31 like
0:46:32 a curry but after a few days of curries
0:46:36 i've changed my mind
0:46:38 even you know when my wife speaks to me
0:46:40 and she says to me do you like this
0:46:41 color
0:46:42 i'll be like yeah it's a great color
0:46:43 then after a few months i don't like it
0:46:45 anymore
0:46:46 and she gets confused i'm like well i
0:46:48 was in a different state
0:46:49 right and your state of being is really
0:46:52 dictated about what's going on
0:46:53 in your heart right i know it's very
0:46:56 hard to live with me but you get the
0:46:57 point
0:46:58 you know your heart wavers the heart
0:47:00 wavers from that perspective
0:47:02 so the challenge here is is to ensure
0:47:04 that the heart remains
0:47:06 firm on the truth which is islam
0:47:10 so it needs to remain firm on the truth
0:47:13 so what is its desired state well here
0:47:15 is a verse from the quran and a verse
0:47:17 from the prophetic traditions
0:47:19 in the quran in chapter 26 verse 88 to
0:47:22 89
0:47:23 allah basically says to us that ah no
0:47:26 one would be safe on the day of judgment
0:47:27 unless you come to allah you come to god
0:47:29 with a
0:47:30 sound heart with a sound heart so aha
0:47:32 has to be sound
0:47:34 not always doing changing and wavering
0:47:37 right but to be sound and firm on
0:47:40 on on faith firm on the conviction and
0:47:43 allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that he is
0:47:45 worthy of worship
0:47:46 and this echoes a prophetic tradition
0:47:49 narrated by bukhari and muslim
0:47:51 tradition truly in the body there is a
0:47:53 muscle of flesh
0:47:54 which if it is sound the whole body is
0:47:57 sound and
0:47:58 when it is corrupted the whole body is
0:48:00 corrupted truly
0:48:01 it is the heart so this is the desired
0:48:03 state from the islamic perspective
0:48:05 we need to have a sound heart a heart
0:48:09 that is firm that has conviction that
0:48:11 has japan and by the way when we say
0:48:13 certainty japan in the islamic tradition
0:48:16 there are levels of certainty in the
0:48:18 islamic tradition and this is very
0:48:19 important for you to make a distinction
0:48:21 because sometimes we may think that uh
0:48:24 that we are uncertain but
0:48:26 in reality you are still certain it's
0:48:28 just there's been a fluctuation within
0:48:30 the realm of certainty
0:48:32 because in the islamic tradition
0:48:33 certainty is in the heart yaheen is in
0:48:35 the heart
0:48:36 and there's not one level of certainty
0:48:38 and that's why the quran talks about
0:48:40 three types of certainty you have
0:48:43 japan you have
0:48:46 yapen
0:48:50 the certainty of knowledge which is
0:48:51 equivalent of someone saying to you
0:48:54 someone calls you says oh bro your your
0:48:56 house is on fire
0:48:57 he's giving you information it's a it's
0:49:00 a knowledge thing
0:49:01 so you trust him he'd never lie to you
0:49:04 he wouldn't lie about something like
0:49:05 this so you're certain and that's the
0:49:07 case okay so this is
0:49:10 but then you have another level of
0:49:11 certainty in this case
0:49:13 which is which is the certainty of the
0:49:16 eye that you are actually seeing it for
0:49:19 yourself
0:49:20 so from an example the same as using the
0:49:22 same example
0:49:24 you walk on your street and you see your
0:49:26 house on fire
0:49:27 so that's anal japan seeing your house
0:49:30 on fire you don't need someone to tell
0:49:31 you because you're seeing it
0:49:33 then the other level of certainty of
0:49:36 japan
0:49:37 is what it's the certainty
0:49:41 of not only knowing and seeing but being
0:49:45 it
0:49:45 right and the equivalent here and may
0:49:48 god protect every single one of us is
0:49:50 that you're in the fire in your own
0:49:51 house
0:49:52 and you're burning yeah and you don't
0:49:53 need to be told that there's a fine
0:49:55 house you don't need to see it you're
0:49:57 feeling it right
0:49:58 it it it's true by virtue of your own
0:50:01 experience right
0:50:03 so but it's true by virtue of you being
0:50:05 in it
0:50:06 and being immersed in that truth so
0:50:08 there are levels of certainty here
0:50:11 so just because sometimes you may feel
0:50:13 that it may be in a certain aspect of
0:50:14 your islam or faith
0:50:16 that you may have an elimination you may
0:50:18 have a certainty based on
0:50:20 a certain transmission that you're
0:50:22 convinced in or someone has told you
0:50:24 something
0:50:25 or it's a form of certainty that is
0:50:29 based on
0:50:30 something that you haven't seen for
0:50:32 yourself and you haven't you haven't
0:50:34 experienced for yourself
0:50:35 this doesn't mean you're not certain
0:50:37 it's just a different
0:50:39 level of certainty so you should be able
0:50:42 to make a distinction between the
0:50:43 different
0:50:44 levels of japan but moving on
0:50:48 the main fitting the main
0:50:53 diseases baby disease is the wrong word
0:50:55 to use because diseases of the heart are
0:50:56 something else in the islamic tradition
0:50:58 such as the four major diseases of the
0:51:01 heart include
0:51:02 assad blame worthy jealousy which is
0:51:04 ostentation
0:51:06 which is self-amazement and the other
0:51:09 one is kiber which is arrogance
0:51:11 but here we're talking about fit and i
0:51:14 know i've mentioned in this slide it's
0:51:15 illnesses but really think about fitness
0:51:17 which basically means tribulations
0:51:19 there is two main tribulations of the
0:51:21 heart number one
0:51:22 and really understand this shahad
0:51:26 which are desires you know you always
0:51:28 want to follow your desires your
0:51:29 blameworthy desires your beastial
0:51:30 desires
0:51:31 you are succumbed by them you they have
0:51:34 mastery over you
0:51:35 then you have something called shubu hat
0:51:38 which are
0:51:38 destructive doubts are destructive
0:51:42 doubts as it bin ibn
0:51:45 says he was the student of ibn tamir the
0:51:48 14th century theologian may allah have
0:51:49 mercy on both of them
0:51:50 he says fitna is of two types the fitna
0:51:54 of shubuhat
0:51:55 this one being the greater of the two
0:51:57 and the fitna of shahawat
0:51:59 so the tribulation of destructive doubts
0:52:02 and the tribulation of
0:52:05 desires ibn qaim says
0:52:08 that shubu heart destructive doubts are
0:52:10 worse than shahawat
0:52:12 are worse than following your desires
0:52:13 and we know this to be the case now i
0:52:15 couldn't know islam is the truth
0:52:17 but i could follow my shahawat my
0:52:20 desires
0:52:20 by drinking alcohol by doing naughty
0:52:23 things
0:52:24 but i'm not saying that drinking alcohol
0:52:26 is now permissive permissible
0:52:28 i'm not saying these sins are naughty
0:52:30 things are allowed in islam i'm not
0:52:31 changing islam i still believe islam to
0:52:33 be true
0:52:35 but i'm following my desires which is
0:52:37 still blameworthy
0:52:38 but shubuhat is worse because shubahad
0:52:42 basically says to you
0:52:44 oh it's a type of destructive doubt that
0:52:47 changes the religion
0:52:49 it's a destructive doubt that changes
0:52:51 the truth of islam
0:52:52 it's a destructive doubt that basically
0:52:56 is like a parasite that drains your
0:52:58 faith and says you know
0:53:00 god doesn't exist or the quran is not
0:53:03 from god
0:53:05 or you know the prophet muhammad upon
0:53:07 him peace is not really the prophet
0:53:09 this is far worse why because you enter
0:53:12 into kuffar
0:53:13 you enter into the rejection of the
0:53:15 truth
0:53:17 now obviously we don't like to give
0:53:19 these kind of
0:53:20 binary examples but for argument's sake
0:53:23 what would you rather
0:53:24 who would you rather be someone who
0:53:26 believes in the absolute truth of islam
0:53:28 but yet is following your your
0:53:31 hawaii your blame with your desires your
0:53:34 your heart is full of shahawat
0:53:36 and you're doing all of these sins or
0:53:38 you don't do any sins
0:53:40 but you doubt the existence of god and
0:53:42 you doubt the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:53:44 saw you don't really believe in islam
0:53:46 but we all know if we really study
0:53:48 islamic theology mainstream
0:53:49 islamic theology having conviction in
0:53:52 islam
0:53:53 is far more far more important because
0:53:56 that is your key
0:53:58 to eternal paradise that's your key to
0:54:01 the special love of allah don't get me
0:54:04 wrong
0:54:04 allah has this loving mercy for all
0:54:07 creatures
0:54:08 muslim and non-muslim because allah says
0:54:10 that his rahma
0:54:12 his intense mercy encompasses everything
0:54:16 but if you want that special love where
0:54:18 you have to now
0:54:20 open the door it was never closed it's
0:54:22 not locked but you need to open it
0:54:23 yourself
0:54:25 in order to experience that special
0:54:26 divine love you have to accept the truth
0:54:33 so let's again now zoom in on this
0:54:35 concept of
0:54:36 so obviously in the next few weeks we're
0:54:38 going to be talking about destructive
0:54:40 doubts which are
0:54:41 shubu hat now shubohat is the plural for
0:54:45 subha so when we say
0:54:49 is a doubt and shubu are
0:54:52 many doubts many destructive doubts and
0:54:55 interestingly
0:54:56 the the shupah is quote so because it
0:54:59 it resembles the truth tush bihu
0:55:02 it resembles as as foyumi al-fiyumi says
0:55:06 a shupah is called soul because it
0:55:08 resembles the truth
0:55:09 from this point of view a dao it doesn't
0:55:12 have any intellectual basis
0:55:14 has no validity but it resembles the
0:55:16 truth by
0:55:17 his falsehood it's like a wolf in
0:55:19 sheep's clothing and that's why ibra
0:55:20 tamiya he comments
0:55:22 every significant belief usually
0:55:24 contains an element of
0:55:25 truth
0:55:28 since if that wasn't the case such views
0:55:31 would not have circulated
0:55:32 and that is the dangerous nature of
0:55:35 destructive doubts because they
0:55:37 they look true but in reality they're
0:55:40 not
0:55:42 in reality they're not so that is what a
0:55:45 shubha
0:55:46 is that's what shubu had are they are
0:55:48 something that resembles something
0:55:51 other than itself because the essence of
0:55:53 a shop is falsehood
0:55:55 but it resembles the truth and people
0:55:56 get confused
0:56:00 now before i continue you really need to
0:56:02 understand something brothers and
0:56:03 sisters and friends it's so important
0:56:05 for you to understand this
0:56:07 remember and we're going to discuss this
0:56:08 next week as well
0:56:10 well hopefully i think towards the end
0:56:12 of this webinar which is
0:56:16 are not intellectually strong
0:56:19 the reason we need to have these
0:56:20 strategies is because our hearts are
0:56:22 weak
0:56:24 and remember ibrahim alaihissalam
0:56:27 abraham upon him be peace
0:56:29 he's the this the destroyer of idols
0:56:33 he supplicate to allah in the quran
0:56:36 that him and his family are protected
0:56:38 from associating partners with god
0:56:41 that him and his family are protected
0:56:43 from i do worship
0:56:44 the prophet sallam the bible allah the
0:56:47 love of god the love of allah
0:56:49 he used to make dua that allah keeps his
0:56:51 heart firm
0:56:52 on faith firm on the religion
0:56:56 so even the sahaba the companions of the
0:56:59 prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:57:02 great sahaba they were worried about
0:57:05 nifak
0:57:06 they're worried about hypocrisy
0:57:10 if such great people the best people to
0:57:12 book this planet
0:57:15 were were aware of shubu hat and wanted
0:57:17 to
0:57:18 prevent themselves from entering into
0:57:20 the darkness of superheart and what
0:57:22 about us
0:57:23 it's not about intellectual arguments
0:57:25 there is no intellectual veracity
0:57:27 to these shubu hearts but it's because
0:57:30 our hearts are weak and
0:57:31 there's a spiritual dimension to this
0:57:33 and it acts like a parasite likes to
0:57:35 suck your iman suck your faith from your
0:57:38 heart
0:57:40 i want to add this here which is quite
0:57:41 interesting because you know
0:57:43 uh pious predecessors used to speak
0:57:45 about these things so
0:57:47 according to abdul rahman ibn yazid
0:57:51 he said that ibm may allah be pleased
0:57:53 with him said
0:57:54 the righteous would disappear and the
0:57:56 people of doubts will remain
0:57:58 and the people said oh abu abdul rahman
0:58:01 who are the people of doubts and ibn
0:58:02 masud said
0:58:04 people who do not enjoy good and do not
0:58:06 forbid evil in another narration
0:58:08 ibe masud said they do not acknowledge
0:58:10 good nor reject evil
0:58:12 so maybe one of the reasons that maybe
0:58:13 we're living in a time of doubt
0:58:15 is because we're not people who are
0:58:17 enjoining good and forbidding evil and
0:58:18 if you
0:58:19 enjoying good and forbid evil there are
0:58:21 a lot of prerequisites
0:58:23 and one of those prerequisites is to
0:58:25 have elm is to have knowledge
0:58:27 right is to have wisdom is to have
0:58:28 hikmah so we've lost knowledge and we've
0:58:30 lost wisdom in in today's society
0:58:36 so today's crisis and challenges so as
0:58:39 you know a lot of these should
0:58:41 a lot of these doubts come from other
0:58:42 isms and skillisms and
0:58:44 you know without a doubt we have atheism
0:58:47 skepticism
0:58:47 liberalism neoliberalism extremism on
0:58:50 both sides
0:58:51 post-modernism nihilism and all these
0:58:54 islamic schisms
0:58:55 and because of this kind of the internet
0:58:58 and social media
0:59:00 and mass sharing of information and
0:59:03 you know the post-truth culture that we
0:59:05 live in because no one
0:59:06 wants to verify anything anymore because
0:59:08 of the nature of social media and the
0:59:09 nature of the fact that we've
0:59:11 lost trust in authorities you know it's
0:59:13 creating a lot of
0:59:14 heart it's creating a lot of doubts and
0:59:17 has created a lot of destructive doubts
0:59:20 now moving on to like the main areas
0:59:23 of doubts there are three main areas now
0:59:26 i've taken this from the japan institute
0:59:29 website it's called what causes muslims
0:59:31 to doubt a quantitative analysis
0:59:33 and i really like this because you know
0:59:35 i've been trying to engage in this work
0:59:36 in the past what
0:59:38 past 15 years or more or maybe less a
0:59:40 little bit less
0:59:41 and throughout my experiences you could
0:59:43 take the shubu heart you could take the
0:59:45 destructive dust and put them into these
0:59:47 categories more on social concerns
0:59:50 philosophical scientific concerns
0:59:52 or personal trauma so these are some
0:59:54 examples
0:59:55 of the moral social concerns for example
0:59:58 islam's teachings about women the
1:00:00 hypocrisy of religious
1:00:01 people the bad things that people do in
1:00:03 the name of religion the intolerance
1:00:05 that some religious people show towards
1:00:07 other faiths the intolerance that some
1:00:09 religious
1:00:10 religious people show towards other
1:00:12 people
1:00:13 and so on and so forth so philosophical
1:00:16 scientific concerns could
1:00:18 include the issue of evolution through
1:00:20 natural selection
1:00:22 god's existence from a scientific
1:00:24 empirical point of view
1:00:26 uncertainty about the existence of god
1:00:27 the problem of evil and suffering
1:00:29 the unfair world you know feeling that
1:00:31 certain religious practices just don't
1:00:33 make sense from a scientific or
1:00:34 philosophical perspective
1:00:36 and so on and so forth the other final
1:00:39 the final source is personal trauma
1:00:41 which can include
1:00:43 you know find that being religious
1:00:44 doesn't really make you happy not
1:00:46 feeling welcomed in your faith community
1:00:48 the death of a loved one
1:00:49 maybe your own personal trauma in your
1:00:52 life
1:00:53 it could be a divorce it could be that
1:00:54 you're a victim of domestic violence
1:00:56 it could be that you know your parents
1:00:58 used to abuse you
1:00:59 we don't know trauma comes in different
1:01:01 shapes and sizes and in different levels
1:01:03 everyone has suffered trauma to a
1:01:04 certain degree
1:01:06 so that could be one of the major
1:01:09 sources of
1:01:10 heart of destructive doubts now we're
1:01:13 going to unpack all of these sources
1:01:15 much more when we go through the 10
1:01:18 effective strategies in dealing
1:01:20 with your and other people's doubts
1:01:25 so just coming back to you on what the
1:01:28 10
1:01:29 strategies are my brothers and sisters
1:01:32 and friends so the 10 strategies are
1:01:36 as we said and we summarize them already
1:01:38 be aware
1:01:39 no attention make the distinction
1:01:43 your environment your friends
1:01:47 acquiring aim studying islam critical
1:01:50 thinking finding a specialist
1:01:53 dealing with trauma focusing on your
1:01:56 heart
1:01:56 and making dua making
1:02:00 dua so these are the doubts that we're
1:02:02 going to be dealing with
1:02:03 next week we're going to deal with
1:02:05 effective
1:02:06 so these are the effective strategies
1:02:08 that we're going to be dealing with
1:02:09 next week we're going to be dealing
1:02:11 effective with effective strategy one
1:02:13 two three
1:02:14 so we're going to be talking about being
1:02:15 aware not giving attention and making
1:02:17 the distinction as i said earlier
1:02:19 between
1:02:23 and valid questions and that's a very
1:02:26 powerful point that we're going to focus
1:02:28 on because i said previously
1:02:29 being able to make distinctions empowers
1:02:31 you
1:02:32 and then week number three we're going
1:02:34 to go through strategy number four which
1:02:36 is your environment and social
1:02:38 psychology
1:02:38 your friends etc week number four we're
1:02:41 going to go through strategy number five
1:02:43 which is studying islam which would
1:02:44 include
1:02:45 responses to ki shubohat as case studies
1:02:48 week number five we're going to be going
1:02:49 through developing critical thinking
1:02:52 and islamic thought such as the in
1:02:54 dealing with the key sources of doubt
1:02:55 such as
1:02:56 moral moral issues scientific issues
1:02:59 philosophical issues
1:03:00 week number six we're gonna be going
1:03:01 through strategies seven to eight which
1:03:03 is about finding a specialist and
1:03:04 dealing with trauma
1:03:06 week number seven is about strategies
1:03:08 number nine and ten which is about
1:03:10 strengthening your spiritual heart and
1:03:11 supplicating to allah
1:03:13 and week number eight is a summary and
1:03:15 exam
1:03:16 so from this point of view now brothers
1:03:19 and sisters this
1:03:20 first week is now complete
1:03:30 you