ST #48: Nihilism, Consumerism and the Islamic Antidote — Part 4 | Imran Hussein (2022-01-03) ​

0:00:12 assalamu alaikum brothers and sisters
0:00:13 welcome back to the sapiens thoughts
0:00:16 video series where we're discussing
0:00:17 nihilism consumerism and the islamic
0:00:19 antidote to these issues
0:00:21 in this
0:00:23 video we're going to be looking further
0:00:25 into nihilism in particular the views of
0:00:27 nietzsche
0:00:28 now nietzsche was very interesting
0:00:30 because a lot of his philosophy and his
0:00:32 works were on the topic of nihilism and
0:00:34 meaning
0:00:35 and what he proposed
0:00:37 as a means of addressing or dealing with
0:00:40 meaninglessness or nihilism was the idea
0:00:42 of what's referred to as the ubermensch
0:00:45 or the superman this character
0:00:48 which
0:00:49 a human should aspire to attain and
0:00:51 generally speaking the idea was that
0:00:53 this person
0:00:55 creates his understanding the
0:00:57 meaningless of my finding himself in a
0:01:00 world which has no meaning and realizing
0:01:03 that his life has no meaning that he now
0:01:06 creates his own value system he
0:01:08 transcends this meaninglessness
0:01:11 through himself
0:01:12 by creating a system for himself which
0:01:14 elevates him now again very interesting
0:01:16 idea
0:01:18 one which you can respect and you can
0:01:19 understand the value of in a meaningless
0:01:22 world however like i said already such
0:01:25 ideas don't address the fundamental
0:01:27 issue you still have to acknowledge that
0:01:28 life at bottom is ultimately meaningless
0:01:30 and the best you can do is just make up
0:01:32 something for yourself as you go along
0:01:34 but that idea you know essentially
0:01:37 it has no true intrinsic meaning you may
0:01:41 argue well it's more meaningful than
0:01:43 doing some just sitting around doing
0:01:44 nothing you can argue that however
0:01:46 it's made up if you really think about
0:01:48 it's made up it's a made-up idea that
0:01:50 you think is more worthwhile you know a
0:01:52 way of living which you think is more
0:01:53 worthwhile of engaging in as opposed to
0:01:55 another way of living
0:01:56 so what i found really interesting was
0:01:58 nietzsche's critique
0:02:00 of
0:02:01 the religious answer now remember
0:02:03 context there which is he was probably
0:02:05 most likely focusing on the christian
0:02:07 tradition and the christian answer
0:02:09 to
0:02:11 to nihilism or the the way christianity
0:02:13 dealt with this problem or overcame
0:02:15 nihilism
0:02:16 and he referred to this as
0:02:19 true worlds
0:02:21 and he understood that you know
0:02:22 throughout history people have proposed
0:02:25 the idea of true worlds and a true world
0:02:27 essentially is a world which transcends
0:02:30 this world which is eternal and may also
0:02:33 incorporate other things such as it's a
0:02:35 world where there's peace and
0:02:36 tranquility
0:02:37 um no suffering no pain and it goes on
0:02:40 forever you know it's it's that is the
0:02:43 true world that's where we truly belong
0:02:45 and nietzsche's
0:02:46 critique of this was especially from a
0:02:48 christian perspective well
0:02:51 true worlds
0:02:52 don't really help you escape
0:02:53 meaninglessness in this life
0:02:55 you know whereas other people saw you
0:02:57 know on the surface well yeah they do
0:02:59 because when you believe that there's
0:03:00 another world to come an eternal world
0:03:02 you know
0:03:03 you know human beings find meaning
0:03:05 through this value through this well
0:03:06 that's where i belong you know i am
0:03:09 created and i belong in the in the
0:03:10 hereafter i don't belong in this world
0:03:12 and i was created by god and so on all
0:03:14 these ideas lead want to find meaning
0:03:17 and purpose however niche pointed out
0:03:19 and rightly so if you look at it from
0:03:21 purely from a christian perspective
0:03:24 that
0:03:25 the idea of a true world
0:03:27 actually removed meaning from life in
0:03:30 this world because if one is to believe
0:03:32 that there is an eternity a paradise to
0:03:34 come
0:03:36 and that's it and there is no clarity as
0:03:38 far as the link between the hereafter
0:03:40 and the here and now this world well
0:03:42 then you have nothing to do in this
0:03:43 world and that's what he presented well
0:03:46 from that perspective you're just
0:03:47 waiting to die you have nothing to do in
0:03:49 this life other than wait for death and
0:03:50 when death comes you die
0:03:52 and therefore this life is
0:03:55 far less meaningful
0:03:57 than
0:03:58 an atheist perspective which is this is
0:04:00 the only life you have there is no
0:04:02 eternity there is nothing else to come
0:04:04 and therefore well at least we should
0:04:05 try to logically you know you can say uh
0:04:08 we should try to make the most of this
0:04:09 life so this life is meaningful from
0:04:11 that perspective he would argue as
0:04:12 opposed to you know a view that you have
0:04:14 an eternal life to come that's the real
0:04:16 life and therefore this life is just
0:04:18 nothing to do waiting to die so it's
0:04:20 meaningless now he was right from this
0:04:22 perspective however
0:04:24 i believe if he had come across
0:04:27 the islamic conception of the hereafter
0:04:29 and how
0:04:30 it's made clear in islam the link
0:04:32 between this life
0:04:34 and the hereafter
0:04:36 and how relevant this life is
0:04:38 for our eternal life
0:04:40 then i believe he may have actually he
0:04:41 may even have become muslim and the
0:04:42 reason i say this
0:04:44 is because
0:04:45 nietzsche didn't deny
0:04:48 true worlds or hereafter the concept of
0:04:50 god god based on evidence right he makes
0:04:54 this clear for example uh in his book
0:04:57 human all to human he states it is true
0:05:00 there could be a metaphysical world the
0:05:02 absolute possibility of it is hardly to
0:05:04 be disputed so he didn't deny this his
0:05:07 reasons for denying
0:05:09 what he referred to as the true world or
0:05:11 god were not based on evidence they were
0:05:13 based on utility from his understanding
0:05:16 that to believe in a true world was not
0:05:19 conducive to
0:05:20 you know survival in this world or
0:05:22 finding meaning in this world that's how
0:05:23 he understood it
0:05:25 and the way he expressed his idea or his
0:05:27 thoughts on this were you can find in
0:05:29 his autobiography ekohomo he states the
0:05:31 concept beyond the true world invented
0:05:34 in order to devalue
0:05:37 the only world there is in order to
0:05:39 retain no goal no reason no task for our
0:05:42 earthly reality and again beautifully
0:05:44 summarized in his words
0:05:47 he is the soul the ad the decree he says
0:05:49 the creation of an eternal life
0:05:51 a paradise as a means of removing
0:05:54 meaning from this world essentially is a
0:05:56 very interesting insight however like i
0:05:57 said if he had come across the islamic
0:05:59 concept and the link between this world
0:06:01 and the hereafter
0:06:03 he probably would have left you know
0:06:05 abandoned his perspective at the very
0:06:07 least and maybe become muslim god knows
0:06:09 best
0:06:10 um so how does islam bridge the gap what
0:06:11 does islam teach us in regards to this
0:06:13 life and the hereafter it's very clear
0:06:15 firstly god outlines the purpose of
0:06:17 humanity chapter 51 56 allah says
0:06:23 that god did not create the jinn kind
0:06:26 and the humankind for no reason
0:06:29 no other reason except to know him and
0:06:31 to worship him this is the purpose of
0:06:34 our existence this is why we live and
0:06:35 then further in other places god
0:06:37 clarifies even
0:06:39 you know why we exist within this
0:06:41 physical material world god says for
0:06:43 example in surah mulk
0:06:45 chapter 67 verse 2 he says that he who
0:06:48 created death and life in order to test
0:06:51 which of us is best in deeds and he is
0:06:53 the almighty all forgiving so god
0:06:55 outlines here that he created life and
0:06:57 death to test which of us is best in
0:06:59 deeds this life is a test and what's
0:07:01 really interesting is that this is
0:07:03 something that could be acknowledged
0:07:04 even by the secularists
0:07:06 if you look at life what are we doing
0:07:09 every single moment of our lives we're
0:07:10 making choices
0:07:12 you know we're being literally being
0:07:13 tested you know we're being tested to
0:07:15 see what choice we make sometimes we
0:07:17 make good choices sometimes we make bad
0:07:19 choices so life essentially even from a
0:07:21 secular perspective if you one way of
0:07:23 looking at is that it's a test it is
0:07:25 literally a test and god makes clear
0:07:27 that this is a life where we're being
0:07:28 tested to see who does good
0:07:31 and the most fundamental good word human
0:07:33 being could do is to recognize using
0:07:35 their faculties as they may be blessed
0:07:36 is to recognize the creator
0:07:38 that he exists and to recognize that we
0:07:40 were created to worship him and then to
0:07:42 engage in that worship
0:07:44 and we are going to be tested in regards
0:07:46 to this we're going to god is
0:07:48 essentially another way to look at this
0:07:49 test is to see god is seeing who is
0:07:52 actually truthful in the claim
0:07:54 that we make which is that we worship
0:07:56 god alone
0:07:57 you know that and that's really tested
0:07:58 when you go through a hardship or a
0:08:00 trial
0:08:01 you know so constantly life is a test
0:08:03 it's a battle we're going to go through
0:08:04 this this is a realm where our worship
0:08:06 is being tested are we truly worshipers
0:08:08 of god do we truly deserve paradise in
0:08:11 the hereafter
0:08:12 and god further in the quran in other
0:08:14 places many places for example chapter 4
0:08:16 verse 124 god says and whoever does
0:08:18 righteous deeds whether male or female
0:08:20 while being a believer
0:08:22 those will enter paradise and will not
0:08:24 be wronged even as much as a speck on a
0:08:27 date seed
0:08:29 very beautifully clarified for us
0:08:31 that
0:08:33 what we do in this life our actions have
0:08:35 a direct implication
0:08:37 what we do in this life
0:08:39 determines
0:08:41 where we end up in the hereafter
0:08:42 obviously by the leave and mercy of god
0:08:44 but our action our engagement in this
0:08:47 life every moment in this life will
0:08:49 determine where we hear where we end up
0:08:50 in the hereafter and if we understand
0:08:53 now this concept this philosophy from
0:08:55 our perspective well then
0:08:57 it's clear that this life is so
0:09:00 significant and so meaningful
0:09:03 because it has a direct bearing on where
0:09:05 we end up in the hereafter it's a
0:09:06 springboard to the hereafter now if
0:09:09 nietzsche had come across this and
0:09:10 understood this like i said he may very
0:09:12 well have become muslim and this is why
0:09:14 it's very interesting iqbal muhammad
0:09:16 iqbal in his javid nama he says had he
0:09:18 lived referring to nietzsche had he
0:09:20 lived in the times of ahmed i believe
0:09:21 referring to the prophet peace be upon
0:09:23 him he says had he lived in the times of
0:09:24 ahmed he would have entered into the
0:09:26 eternal joy
0:09:27 and iqbal by the way was someone who
0:09:29 really studied nietzsche's works in
0:09:30 depth and he's also
0:09:33 has said um had nietzsche been present
0:09:36 in the in this era iqbal would have
0:09:38 taught him what was in the glory of god
0:09:41 so i'm it's not surprising that iqbal
0:09:43 noted that nietzsche if he had really
0:09:45 understood islam
0:09:47 he may very well have become muslim and
0:09:50 especially understanding that niche was
0:09:52 really un interested in these in the
0:09:54 true world theories that religions had
0:09:56 to offer if he had come across the
0:09:58 islamic conception of a true world and
0:10:00 how it links to this world
0:10:02 you know i think that would have been a
0:10:03 game changer for him
0:10:05 so brothers and sisters
0:10:07 just to summarize and to conclude
0:10:11 nihilism
0:10:13 is a problem that cannot be overcome in
0:10:15 the absence of god you can find patches
0:10:19 you can come up with your own views you
0:10:21 can make things up for yourself to get
0:10:24 to try and overcome this problem but at
0:10:26 bottom you're never going to overcome it
0:10:27 you can just distract yourself and lie
0:10:29 to yourself
0:10:31 other religions don't provide in
0:10:33 particular christianity hasn't provided
0:10:35 historically a clear
0:10:37 you know
0:10:38 conception which links this world to the
0:10:40 hereafter and therefore which shows why
0:10:42 this life is meaningful and helps us
0:10:44 transcend
0:10:45 nihilism something noted by nietzsche
0:10:47 however islam does provide a
0:10:48 comprehensive answer which highlights
0:10:50 why this life is life is extremely
0:10:52 meaningful and and and and you know how
0:10:56 how this how you know the conception of
0:10:58 this life from an islamic perspective
0:11:00 completely demolishes nihilism and even
0:11:02 you know breaks down nietzsche's uh
0:11:05 complaints and his criticisms of what
0:11:07 religion had to offer
0:11:09 so that's it for this episode brothers
0:11:11 and sisters join me again for the next
0:11:14 episode where we will be looking or
0:11:16 diving into consumerism and really
0:11:18 understanding this particular topic
0:11:19 until next time take care