Seminar: Born To Worship — explaining how everyone worships and why Allah is worthy of our devotion (2021-07-31) ​

0:00:11 and welcome to
0:00:12 today's seminar or tonight seminar
0:00:15 depending
0:00:16 where you are in the world it's called
0:00:19 born to worship explaining how everyone
0:00:22 worships and why allah
0:00:24 is worthy of our devotion in other words
0:00:27 why allah is the only deity
0:00:29 worthy of worship for those who don't
0:00:31 know my name is hamza andres jose
0:00:33 and i'm really looking forward to
0:00:35 spending some time with you today
0:00:37 to articulate a very powerful approach
0:00:40 to sharing islam intellectually and
0:00:44 academically
0:00:46 and when we talk about intellectually
0:00:48 and academically sharing islam
0:00:51 it's not only talking about theo
0:00:53 philosophical issues
0:00:54 it's not only talking about abstract
0:00:57 deductive
0:00:58 arguments or abstract philosophical
0:01:00 arguments
0:01:01 but rather if you study the quran
0:01:04 if you study the book of allah subhanahu
0:01:06 wa ta'ala or rather when we study
0:01:08 the book of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:01:11 and we study
0:01:12 the sunnah of our beloved prophet
0:01:13 sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:01:16 and we study the way of our spiritual
0:01:19 masters our early scholars
0:01:21 the classical tradition we will
0:01:23 understand
0:01:25 that sharing islam is quite broad
0:01:29 meaning that there are different ways to
0:01:32 engage with the human being
0:01:33 there are different means to uncloud
0:01:38 the innate disposition of the human
0:01:39 being i'm going to explain what that
0:01:41 means in a few moments
0:01:43 now what i'm trying to say here is that
0:01:46 it's also very important to use
0:01:49 spiritual arguments or
0:01:50 existential arguments or an existential
0:01:53 approach
0:01:54 or a phenomenological approach
0:01:57 really tapping into people's real world
0:02:00 experiences
0:02:01 and getting people to understand their
0:02:03 real world experiences
0:02:05 and to engage with them in that way
0:02:09 and it becomes far more powerful
0:02:12 and hopefully by the end of today's
0:02:14 session you will understand
0:02:16 that this approach that we're going to
0:02:17 take today is one of many approaches
0:02:20 within the broad spectrum of sharing
0:02:22 islam according to the quran the sunnah
0:02:24 pious predecessors are pious spiritual
0:02:27 masters if you like
0:02:28 and you're going to find it quite
0:02:30 powerful insha allah so
0:02:33 what are we going to cover today the
0:02:35 first thing that we're going to cover
0:02:36 is spend a few moments on speaking about
0:02:39 the kind of metaphysical backdrop
0:02:41 in other words what is
0:02:44 the metaphysics in the islamic tradition
0:02:47 concerning
0:02:48 the human being what is the human
0:02:51 and this is very significant in the
0:02:53 context of any type of dawah any type of
0:02:56 sharing islam
0:02:57 whether it's intellectually or
0:02:58 academically otherwise because
0:03:01 we are calling a human being to
0:03:04 the way of allah meaning the fact that
0:03:08 allah
0:03:08 is worthy of worship that we must single
0:03:11 out and direct
0:03:12 all of our internal and external acts of
0:03:15 worship to allah alone
0:03:16 and we must recognize him we must
0:03:19 understand
0:03:20 that he is the sole transcendent unique
0:03:23 creator maintainer sustainer of
0:03:25 everything that exists
0:03:27 and he is worthy of our utmost gratitude
0:03:29 and extensive praise
0:03:32 so this is very significant because when
0:03:36 we're sharing islam
0:03:38 and we're speaking to the human being
0:03:39 and we're telling the human being
0:03:41 to follow the way of
0:03:45 wa to allah as allah says in the quran
0:03:47 called to the way of allah
0:03:49 we need to understand not only who allah
0:03:51 is as well which we're going to talk
0:03:52 about today of course but we have to
0:03:53 understand what is the human being
0:03:56 because if we treat the human being as
0:03:58 other than the human being
0:04:00 then we're not really engaging with the
0:04:02 human being in an effective way
0:04:03 so if we're treating the human being for
0:04:05 example as some kind of
0:04:08 artificial intelligence machine that
0:04:10 we're treating the human being
0:04:12 as an abstract
0:04:15 ai machine we're treating the human
0:04:17 being
0:04:18 as a kind of functional model of the
0:04:20 mind because in the philosophy of the
0:04:22 mind
0:04:23 functionalism is generally speaking in
0:04:25 simplistic terms based on
0:04:27 inputs mental states and outputs there's
0:04:29 a relation between
0:04:30 inputs mental states and outputs so are
0:04:33 we treating the human being
0:04:34 as a just a functionalist model of the
0:04:36 mind that would just give
0:04:38 the human being some input and we're
0:04:40 going to expect some kind of output
0:04:41 right we're going to give some kind of
0:04:43 dawah algorithm
0:04:45 and then we're going to expect some
0:04:47 positive change we're going to expect
0:04:49 them to basically
0:04:50 accept islam this is the wrong approach
0:04:54 and this will betray the human being
0:04:57 other than the human being is so what's
0:05:00 very important when we're talking about
0:05:02 sharing islam intellectually and
0:05:03 academically
0:05:04 otherwise we have to know who the human
0:05:07 being is
0:05:08 in order to effectively deal with the
0:05:10 human being
0:05:11 in order for us to share islam
0:05:15 effectively
0:05:15 because we have to be sincere to allah
0:05:17 subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:05:19 and we have to be sincere to the human
0:05:21 being because as you know
0:05:22 and i repeat this a lot in the islamic
0:05:24 tradition based on various
0:05:26 hadith various prophetic traditions
0:05:29 and even based on the quran as well when
0:05:32 allah says that the prophet saw was sent
0:05:33 as a rahmah
0:05:34 as a mercy to all the worlds to
0:05:37 everything
0:05:38 also the prophetic teachings of the
0:05:39 prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi
0:05:41 wasallam when he said as noted by
0:05:43 bukhari in tariq al-qaeda and this is a
0:05:46 authentic hadith
0:05:47 that you must love for humanity love for
0:05:50 li nes that's the arabic lin-ness for
0:05:52 the people for humanity
0:05:54 what you love for yourself and we have
0:05:56 the other prophetic tradition
0:05:57 which was collected by the famous
0:06:00 scholar and nawawi
0:06:01 in his arabian in his 40 hadith 40
0:06:04 ahadith 40 prophetic traditions it's the
0:06:07 13th hadith
0:06:09 and the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:06:10 wasallam says
0:06:15 you won't truly believe unless you love
0:06:17 for your brother or your love for
0:06:18 yourself
0:06:18 and now we he comments on this prophetic
0:06:21 tradition he said this also means
0:06:23 your brother and sister in humanity and
0:06:25 what does it mean to love for others
0:06:27 what we love for ourselves
0:06:28 what does it mean to to
0:06:31 love for humanity what we love for
0:06:32 ourselves it basically means that we
0:06:34 must be committed to the goodness
0:06:36 and guidance of all people and this is
0:06:38 exactly what i know and now we were
0:06:39 saying
0:06:40 and even the maliki scholar
0:06:44 he says something very similar we must
0:06:46 be committed to the well-being
0:06:48 to the goodness and guidance of all
0:06:49 people this is the prophetic approach
0:06:52 this is the islamic approach so if we're
0:06:54 sincere to allah say to people
0:06:56 we must be sincere in the commitment to
0:06:59 their well-being
0:07:00 and if we're sincere in the commitment
0:07:02 to their well-being which means goodness
0:07:04 and guidance
0:07:05 then when we're talking to them about
0:07:06 islam we have to do it in the most
0:07:09 sincere way
0:07:10 so it means we can't treat them as some
0:07:12 kind of functionist model of the mind
0:07:14 we can't treat them as some kind of
0:07:17 abstract ai
0:07:18 machine that was going to type in some
0:07:19 kind of rational argument some kind of
0:07:21 algorithm
0:07:22 and we're going to get some type of
0:07:23 results and this is why
0:07:25 it's very important in
0:07:28 any context concerning the tao of
0:07:30 concerning sharing islam
0:07:32 is that we understand who the human
0:07:34 being is
0:07:35 because that's missing really in our
0:07:37 dhawa discourse that's missing
0:07:39 in our discourse today what is the human
0:07:42 being because we
0:07:43 in some ways we presume
0:07:46 that the human being is some kind of
0:07:48 function this model of the mind some
0:07:50 kind of
0:07:50 abstract artificial intelligence entity
0:07:53 and we're just going to give them some
0:07:54 kind of
0:07:54 you know robust feel philosophical
0:07:56 argument expecting results
0:07:58 but that's a very in due respect an
0:08:00 intellectually pathetic
0:08:02 approach to the human being why because
0:08:06 allah who created the human being knows
0:08:08 the human being
0:08:09 better than we know the human being and
0:08:11 allah is telling us that's not the human
0:08:12 being
0:08:14 so obviously i'm not going to get into
0:08:15 like islamic psychology or islamic kind
0:08:18 of
0:08:18 metaphysics concerning what is the human
0:08:21 but the human
0:08:22 as allah says in the sunnah talks about
0:08:24 various things
0:08:26 and the human is a roar has a soul
0:08:31 has a pub has a heart and remember the
0:08:33 heart does
0:08:34 it wavers and a
0:08:38 function of the heart according to the
0:08:39 ulama according to the scholars
0:08:41 is the aqua is the intellect right it's
0:08:43 a function of the heart
0:08:45 then we have the nafs the kind of ego or
0:08:47 psychological disposition
0:08:49 and we have the fitra the kind of
0:08:51 normative
0:08:52 original state of the human being
0:08:56 and all of these things are in the
0:08:58 dynamic interplay
0:09:00 so we have to appreciate this and once
0:09:03 we appreciate this
0:09:05 then we'll be in a better position to
0:09:07 understand like
0:09:08 how do i how do i express that
0:09:10 commitment to the goodness and guidance
0:09:13 in their context meaning how am i gonna
0:09:16 convey to them the message of islam and
0:09:19 treat them
0:09:19 as they should be treated as a human
0:09:22 being
0:09:22 rather than some kind of abstract
0:09:25 artificial intelligence
0:09:26 machine and by the way what we're going
0:09:28 to talk about is so in line with western
0:09:30 cognitive science anyway
0:09:31 from the perspective of that people
0:09:33 think that you know they're rational
0:09:34 but in reality you know the kind of
0:09:37 rational or intellectual positions are
0:09:39 motivated by non-rational fact such as
0:09:43 psychological
0:09:44 and and otherwise anyway i don't do that
0:09:46 too much
0:09:59 [Music]
0:10:01 obey him and to direct all acts of
0:10:04 worship the internal acts of worship and
0:10:06 the external action
0:10:09 then we're going to talk about the
0:10:10 concept of everyone worships because if
0:10:12 you universalize the kind of underlying
0:10:14 logic
0:10:15 of the concept of worship you're going
0:10:17 to really understand that even if
0:10:18 someone rejects god even if someone's an
0:10:20 atheist
0:10:20 they actually worship something and
0:10:22 we're going to give an example of
0:10:24 extreme nationalism
0:10:25 to basically highlight this point and
0:10:27 then we're going to
0:10:29 once you talk to human beings in this
0:10:31 way and you ask these questions
0:10:33 concerning you know worship and you ask
0:10:36 the particular
0:10:37 which we're going to unpack in a few
0:10:38 moments inshallah concerning this
0:10:41 topic it's going to create some kind of
0:10:45 spiritual and existential vacuum if you
0:10:47 like because they're going to be like oh
0:10:48 my god yes i actually do worship
0:10:50 something
0:10:51 and it's going to raise something's
0:10:53 going to raise in their minds and
0:10:54 they're going to think well
0:10:56 is that thing that i'm worshiping
0:10:58 actually worthy of worship
0:11:00 and then that's when we introduced the
0:11:01 fact that allah is the only deity worthy
0:11:03 of worship
0:11:04 and i'm going to give you seven
0:11:05 perspectives or seven approaches or
0:11:07 seven arguments
0:11:08 of why allah is worthy of worship and
0:11:10 then we're gonna deal with some
0:11:11 objections and go into questions so
0:11:13 hopefully this is clear
0:11:15 so awakening the truth within
0:11:19 there's a few things we need to
0:11:20 understand brothers and sisters we
0:11:21 already spoke about
0:11:22 at length it was supposed to be
0:11:24 introduction but concerning the
0:11:25 metaphysics of the human
0:11:28 when we're giving dao when we're sharing
0:11:30 islam intellectually and academically
0:11:32 we are actually talking to a human being
0:11:34 we're inviting their human being to
0:11:35 allah
0:11:38 so in order to effectively invite the
0:11:40 human being to the way of allah
0:11:42 the fact that he is worthy of worship
0:11:45 we have to treat the human being and
0:11:47 understand the human being as the human
0:11:49 being is
0:11:50 and not in any other way and therefore
0:11:53 we should raise the question well what
0:11:55 is the human being
0:11:56 and that should make us realize that
0:11:58 maybe our current understanding is
0:11:59 completely wrong
0:12:00 because a lot of people think the human
0:12:02 being is this kind of abstract intellect
0:12:04 right
0:12:04 which is fundamentally flawed because
0:12:07 the human being
0:12:08 is not that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:12:10 talks about the human being
0:12:12 has a hazard it does
0:12:15 wavers the heart the spiritual heart
0:12:17 wavers then we have an alkaline
0:12:20 intellect which is not an abstract thing
0:12:21 but rather it's a function of the kalb
0:12:24 right and this is very interesting
0:12:26 because we know even even when someone's
0:12:28 super intelligent
0:12:29 and their great philosophy if you like
0:12:30 and they're really intelligent they may
0:12:32 still not accept islam
0:12:34 why because the the intellect is a
0:12:37 function of the kaab is a function of
0:12:39 the heart
0:12:39 and the heart can be diseased with
0:12:41 spiritual diseases such as kibber
0:12:43 such as arrogance and arrogance will
0:12:45 basically not allow the occult to
0:12:47 function properly within that dynamic
0:12:49 right it's very very very significant
0:12:52 right
0:12:53 so anyway come back to the point you
0:12:55 have an aqua which is the function of
0:12:57 the heart then you have
0:12:58 the nafs the ego the psychological
0:13:00 disposition then you have the fitrah
0:13:02 and all of these these things are a
0:13:03 dynamic interplay now i'm not here to
0:13:05 basically claim i know how that works
0:13:07 in totality no but i just want to give
0:13:09 you some advice in the context of
0:13:11 sharing islam in order for us to be a
0:13:12 little bit more elevated in our
0:13:14 discourse
0:13:15 and be more effective in our tower and
0:13:16 fundamentally being
0:13:18 do things that are more pleasing to
0:13:20 allah because
0:13:21 if we're sincere to allah we're sincere
0:13:23 to the human being we're committed to
0:13:25 the goodness and guidance
0:13:26 then basically we should do things that
0:13:29 are in line with
0:13:30 what with allah's guidance right
0:13:32 irrespective of success
0:13:34 because success comes from allah
0:13:35 subhanahu wa ta'ala but even in saying
0:13:37 that
0:13:38 when you're closer to guidance you're
0:13:40 gonna get success
0:13:41 the true concept of success not limited
0:13:44 numbers in the next two three months or
0:13:46 even two three decades
0:13:47 but rather continuing even after your
0:13:50 death
0:13:51 and that so if you're closest to
0:13:52 guidance you're always going to be more
0:13:54 successful
0:13:54 so coming back to the point when we zoom
0:13:56 into the fit from the context of sharing
0:13:58 islam intellection academically
0:14:00 there are two main opinions concerning
0:14:02 the fitra the fitra is the kind of
0:14:04 normative original state it's the innate
0:14:06 disposition
0:14:07 the normative original innate
0:14:08 disposition of the human being
0:14:10 and we know this from the quran in
0:14:13 chapter 30
0:14:14 verse 30 we know this from the hadith of
0:14:16 the prophet sallallahu alaihi
0:14:18 wasallam that's in muslim in the
0:14:20 authentic hadith
0:14:22 narrated by by muslim and
0:14:26 the concept of the fitra is very
0:14:27 interesting because in the islamic
0:14:28 intellectual tradition and by the way
0:14:30 i'm not here to unpack the whole
0:14:31 tradition here we've mentioned this in
0:14:33 other
0:14:34 seminars and webinars i'm not going to
0:14:36 unpack it too much here but generally
0:14:38 speaking there are two main opinions
0:14:39 concerning the fitra
0:14:41 yes it's the normative original innate
0:14:43 disposition
0:14:45 however there are two main opinions one
0:14:47 opinion is
0:14:48 that the fitra has some type of
0:14:51 knowledge within it
0:14:52 call it primary knowledge or call it
0:14:54 proton knowledge and there is a
0:14:55 discussion on what this type of
0:14:57 knowledge is
0:14:58 but the two main elements within the
0:14:59 fitrah are that
0:15:01 allah is worthy of extensive praise
0:15:04 worthy of worship and he is a reality
0:15:06 right
0:15:07 and that's within the fitra however as
0:15:10 per the prophetic tradition that is
0:15:12 authentic
0:15:13 the prophet sallallahu talks about
0:15:16 something happening that the the child
0:15:20 or the human being
0:15:22 actually somehow doesn't acknowledge
0:15:24 that truth within them
0:15:26 and as you know inshallah we should know
0:15:29 the hadith of the prophet sallallahu
0:15:30 alaihi wasallam basically says
0:15:32 that every child is born in a state of
0:15:34 fitra but it's his
0:15:35 parents who change him into or make him
0:15:38 into a christian a jew or a megan and so
0:15:40 on and so forth
0:15:41 so the scholars discussed as some kind
0:15:44 of
0:15:45 veiling or we like to call it a clouding
0:15:48 over the fitrah
0:15:50 so there is this proton knowledge
0:15:52 primary knowledge within the fitra that
0:15:53 allah
0:15:54 is worthy of extensive praise he's
0:15:56 worthy of worship
0:15:57 and that he exists he is a reality but
0:16:00 something happens to the fitra because
0:16:01 of socialization
0:16:03 because of even maybe shubu heart
0:16:05 destructive doubts
0:16:06 maybe of because of sins because of
0:16:08 transgressions
0:16:09 it could be a range of things but the
0:16:10 point is something happens
0:16:12 we like to use the kind of metaphor the
0:16:14 clouding of the fitra
0:16:16 so the fitra does get clouded
0:16:20 and in the context of this first opinion
0:16:22 when we said there is a form of primary
0:16:23 knowledge within the fitra
0:16:25 the fitra gets clouded and therefore
0:16:30 they can't see the truth that's already
0:16:31 within them
0:16:33 so our job as people who like to share
0:16:36 islam
0:16:37 is we need to ask the question how do we
0:16:39 uncloud the
0:16:40 fitra or help uncloud the fitra or
0:16:43 facilitate that process
0:16:44 in order to awaken the truth within this
0:16:47 is a very important question
0:16:49 and you will realize if you studied the
0:16:51 quran the sunnah and the way of the
0:16:52 scholars in our classical tradition
0:16:54 abstract rational arguments are not just
0:16:56 doing it
0:16:57 yes that may be one of the means to
0:17:00 uncloud the fitra
0:17:01 absolutely but i may not
0:17:04 and will only realize this if we ask the
0:17:07 question if we understand the human
0:17:08 being as the human being is
0:17:10 and when we and this makes sense of over
0:17:12 a thousand years of conversions of
0:17:14 people
0:17:15 people conveying to islam it makes sense
0:17:17 of the quran it makes sense of the
0:17:18 sahaba becoming muslim it makes sense
0:17:21 of islamic intellectual tradition
0:17:23 islamic psychology even makes sense of
0:17:25 western cognitive psychology
0:17:27 and this is why sometimes when you're in
0:17:28 this kind of discussion rational debate
0:17:31 with someone and it's still not working
0:17:32 even though you're intelligent and the
0:17:34 person's intelligent
0:17:35 but something is not happening that
0:17:37 should give an indication that maybe
0:17:39 you're using the wrong means to uncloud
0:17:41 the fitra maybe they need something else
0:17:43 and that's why you're looking at this
0:17:45 slide at the moment you have the fitra
0:17:47 is clouded
0:17:48 and there are different means to uncloud
0:17:50 the fitrah yes rational arguments can do
0:17:52 the job
0:17:53 revelation direct revelation can do the
0:17:55 job we have experiences
0:17:57 practical real life experiences
0:17:58 concerning this and this could be
0:18:00 considering the quranic beauty the
0:18:02 meaning of the verses
0:18:03 people pondering over the quran all of
0:18:05 these things can become
0:18:06 means to uncloud the fitra to awaken the
0:18:09 truth within
0:18:10 it could be your character your good
0:18:11 character could be a means to uncloud
0:18:13 the fitrah
0:18:14 getting them to critically think
0:18:16 empowering people to teach them how to
0:18:17 critically think
0:18:18 could be a means to uncloud the fitra to
0:18:20 awaken the truth within and accept the
0:18:22 truth
0:18:23 it could be experiences getting them to
0:18:27 reflect on natural beauty because
0:18:29 natural beauty if you attended one of
0:18:30 our seminars previously
0:18:32 you could find it on our youtube channel
0:18:35 talks about natural beauty
0:18:36 natural beauty increases all and when
0:18:39 someone is
0:18:40 has all it basically increases cognitive
0:18:42 function
0:18:43 and it decreases one's ego and these
0:18:46 things are very important in terms of
0:18:48 guidance because someone has an ego it's
0:18:49 a buyer to divine guidance
0:18:51 and when someone has heightened
0:18:52 cognition they're more likely to accept
0:18:54 the truth
0:18:55 it's a phenomenal phenomenon and it's
0:18:56 based on research by the way it's a
0:18:58 phenomenal seminar please attend it
0:18:59 it's recorded it's on our youtube
0:19:01 channel
0:19:02 we could refer to experiences as trauma
0:19:05 even positive experience the human
0:19:07 or negative experiences human
0:19:09 relationships all of these things could
0:19:10 be unpacked and we could teach people
0:19:12 to stand in the possibility that the
0:19:15 meaning that they're giving these
0:19:16 experiences
0:19:17 may not be the correct meaning and the
0:19:19 meaning that they should give those
0:19:20 experiences is the meaning
0:19:21 that allah wants them to give those
0:19:24 experiences
0:19:25 that approach itself could be a nissan
0:19:26 cloud you don't have to use
0:19:29 use all of these in isolation or they're
0:19:31 not exclusive
0:19:32 you could use them in combination but
0:19:35 the point here
0:19:36 is if we don't know what the human being
0:19:38 is and you don't have this approach
0:19:40 and you don't ask the right questions
0:19:42 then you're going to be using only one
0:19:43 means
0:19:45 or you're not going to be intellectually
0:19:47 spiritually mature enough
0:19:49 to understand when you should shift your
0:19:52 approach
0:19:53 or combine certain ways to try and try
0:19:56 and awaken the truth within try to
0:19:58 uncloud the fitrah
0:20:00 to awaken the truth within and this is a
0:20:01 summary we're going to have a
0:20:03 in-depth session on just this topic as
0:20:05 well but it's very important to
0:20:07 highlight even in the beginning of the
0:20:08 seminar
0:20:09 because what's important is the whole
0:20:11 seminar is based on one of the
0:20:13 approaches to uncloud the fitra which is
0:20:15 spirituality
0:20:16 and this whole issue of allah is worthy
0:20:19 of worship and showing to humanity
0:20:20 allah's worthy of worship
0:20:22 and using that in the context of today's
0:20:25 seminar
0:20:26 that would be an approach to on cloud
0:20:28 the fifth route to awaken the truth
0:20:30 within and we call it
0:20:31 the spiritual approach of spirituality
0:20:33 and we're going to obviously unpack it
0:20:35 and make you understand what that really
0:20:36 is but that could be one way
0:20:38 to uncloud the fitness we're not saying
0:20:40 this is the only way to give dawah the
0:20:42 only approach
0:20:43 you could use with a combination of rash
0:20:44 with rational arguments
0:20:46 with experiences with revelation you
0:20:48 could use it on its own
0:20:49 depending you know if you listen with
0:20:51 the intention to understand the human
0:20:53 being
0:20:53 and you understand their context because
0:20:55 the sunnah the prophetic way
0:20:57 of engaging with human beings is to
0:20:59 individualize them and understand
0:21:01 the the individual context you could
0:21:03 understand what the best approach is
0:21:06 anyway notwithstanding you know once
0:21:08 you've done that then you may realize
0:21:10 this
0:21:10 is one of the approaches to use
0:21:12 standalone or in combination with the
0:21:14 other approaches
0:21:15 but obviously we're just going to give
0:21:16 you this particular approach in the
0:21:18 context of today's seminar
0:21:19 so that's one opinion of the fitra the
0:21:22 other opinion of the fitra
0:21:24 is that it has no knowledge and this is
0:21:26 based on the verse in the quran
0:21:28 subhan award to allah talks about that
0:21:31 the human being when it's born before
0:21:34 it's born it didn't know anything it
0:21:35 doesn't know anything at all right
0:21:37 so there is no knowledge at all within
0:21:39 the fitra okay that's another opinion
0:21:41 however it's this opinion this classical
0:21:45 opinion still understands the fit of to
0:21:46 be
0:21:47 an original normative innate state or in
0:21:49 the original normative
0:21:51 natural disposition and instead of it
0:21:53 having knowledge
0:21:54 it's more of a kind of it's like a
0:21:57 vehicle just like in this diagram
0:22:00 that directs you towards the truth if
0:22:02 it's not clouded
0:22:03 and all the other variables are in place
0:22:06 then it will direct itself towards the
0:22:07 truth
0:22:08 however if it's clouded the vehicle the
0:22:11 fitrah cannot direct
0:22:13 itself towards the truth and similarly
0:22:16 to the first opinion
0:22:17 there could be different ways to uncloud
0:22:19 the fitrah to allow the fitor to direct
0:22:21 itself towards the truth
0:22:23 these include revelation experiences
0:22:25 character rational arguments reflection
0:22:27 introspection
0:22:28 and introspection critical arguments and
0:22:30 of course spirituality which we're going
0:22:31 to be using today
0:22:34 so how do we pull this to context we'll
0:22:36 pull this in context to make you
0:22:38 understand that there are different ways
0:22:40 different means to uncloud someone's
0:22:43 fitrah to awaken the truth within
0:22:45 and we can't treat the human being as an
0:22:47 abstract artificial intelligence machine
0:22:49 as some kind of functionless
0:22:50 understanding of the mind in the
0:22:51 philosophy of the mind they have this
0:22:53 understanding of functionalism which is
0:22:55 a particular understanding
0:22:57 and it's about inputs mental states and
0:22:59 outputs and we just think we're going to
0:23:00 give them some kind of input some kind
0:23:02 of
0:23:02 dollar algorithm and expect certain
0:23:04 results that's not the human being and
0:23:06 that's why a lot of idawa is not very
0:23:08 successful
0:23:09 and we're missing the true profound
0:23:11 engagement with the human being
0:23:13 because if we listen with the intention
0:23:15 to understand and we connect with the
0:23:17 human human being or we try to connect
0:23:19 with the human being
0:23:21 as the human being is as we as we've
0:23:23 just discussed and we're committed to
0:23:24 the well-being which is that we're
0:23:26 committed to the goodness and guidance
0:23:28 then we're going to stand in the
0:23:29 possibility that my approach that i'm
0:23:32 currently using
0:23:33 is not effective and we need to stand in
0:23:35 the possibility that there are other
0:23:36 ways of unclouding the fitra
0:23:38 in isolation or combination to awaken
0:23:41 the truth within to uncloud the fitra
0:23:43 to awaken the truth within or if you
0:23:44 follow the other opinion and cloud the
0:23:46 filter to allow
0:23:47 the filter to direct itself towards the
0:23:49 truth and this is an
0:23:51 elevated understanding of the dao and
0:23:52 when someone adopts this their
0:23:54 psychology changes
0:23:55 their relationships change with the
0:23:57 other human being
0:23:58 they're more committed in a sincere way
0:24:00 to the goodness and guidance
0:24:01 they have more effective power and it's
0:24:04 closer to
0:24:04 allah's pleasure and and which is
0:24:06 allah's guidance right
0:24:08 close to allah's guidance therefore
0:24:09 closer to allah's pleasure and you'll be
0:24:11 far more successful
0:24:14 and what we mean by success is success
0:24:16 as allah defines it
0:24:17 right no are kind of you know abstract
0:24:19 numbers and you know i'm going to get
0:24:20 this many shahadas
0:24:22 yes you're going to be successful in
0:24:23 that way as well but true success which
0:24:26 outlives our kind of temporary
0:24:29 finite lives so
0:24:33 yes okay let's pull this together now so
0:24:36 yeah so hopefully
0:24:36 you've got the point now so this seminar
0:24:39 is just discussing
0:24:40 one way to uncloud the fitrah to either
0:24:43 awaken the truth within
0:24:45 or to uncloud the fitra to direct itself
0:24:47 towards the truth and that's going to be
0:24:49 a key way that allah teaches us in the
0:24:52 quran or
0:24:53 alludes to and it's the approach of the
0:24:56 anbiya
0:24:57 because the quranic strategy when it
0:24:59 comes and it's not the only strategy by
0:25:01 the way
0:25:01 but a key strategy and one would argue
0:25:04 the central strategy in the quran
0:25:07 is to announce allah to mankind
0:25:10 is to engage with the human being in
0:25:12 such a way to get them to
0:25:14 realize that allah is the only deity
0:25:16 worthy of worship
0:25:18 and that we must direct and single out
0:25:20 all our acts of worship to allah alone
0:25:22 the internal acts of worship and the
0:25:23 external acts of worship
0:25:25 and allah says this very clearly in the
0:25:28 quran in chapter 21 verse 25
0:25:30 and we sent not before you any messenger
0:25:33 that we reveal to him that there is no
0:25:36 deity except me
0:25:37 so worship me meaning
0:25:40 that we must worship allah subhanahu wa
0:25:42 to allah that we must direct our
0:25:45 internal and external acts of worship to
0:25:47 allah alone
0:25:48 and that obviously includes that we have
0:25:50 to affirm his divine oneness
0:25:52 and and so on and so forth i'm going to
0:25:53 explain that in a few moments
0:25:56 and what's interesting is when you look
0:25:57 at the quran and you do
0:25:59 of the quran you you ponder over the
0:26:01 quran which is very important by the way
0:26:03 because allah says in the quran
0:26:04 do they not ponder over the quran or are
0:26:06 there locks on their hearts and you
0:26:07 could mirror the meaning here
0:26:09 so the more you ponder the more your
0:26:12 heart becomes
0:26:13 unlocked to receive the guidance and
0:26:15 mercy of allah
0:26:16 so when you ponder on the verses many of
0:26:19 these verses that
0:26:20 talk about natural phenomena or point
0:26:23 you to look at the interconnecting
0:26:24 principles of nature
0:26:26 you see that they tend to affirm god's
0:26:28 creative power
0:26:30 his the oneness of his creative power
0:26:32 his transcendence his wisdom his power
0:26:34 his knowledge
0:26:35 his majesty and so on and so forth and
0:26:39 that affirmation is there for you
0:26:42 to realize just by reflecting
0:26:46 on the natural phenomena in order for
0:26:50 you to conclude
0:26:53 god's divinity allah's divinity the fact
0:26:55 that he is worthy of worship
0:26:56 so that's the general quranic strategy
0:26:59 when there's talking about allah's power
0:27:01 majesty the interconnecting principles
0:27:02 of nature the sun the moon the orbits
0:27:04 the stars and so on and so forth
0:27:06 it's there to get you to realize and
0:27:08 affirm something that you already know
0:27:10 within your fifth
0:27:11 if you like if you follow the first
0:27:12 opinion or something that's obviously
0:27:14 self-evident which is the kind of
0:27:16 existence and
0:27:18 power of allah for you to affirm this
0:27:21 and that will be used as a kind of
0:27:23 anchor if you like
0:27:25 to conclude and to place yourself
0:27:29 intellectually spiritual and spiritually
0:27:32 in the understanding that allah is
0:27:34 worthy of worship so this this general
0:27:36 strategy in the quran concerning
0:27:37 natural phenomena or talking about
0:27:39 allah's majesty and creative power and
0:27:41 transcendence
0:27:42 is that you affirm that and that helps
0:27:44 you
0:27:45 realize that allah is worthy of worship
0:27:48 and this is very interesting this is a
0:27:50 a key strategy in the quran and the
0:27:52 quranic arguments and the quranic
0:27:54 strategies are the best strategies
0:27:56 because they come from allah
0:27:58 so it's time we use them but
0:28:00 notwithstanding we've already given you
0:28:02 the kind of metaphysical backdrop about
0:28:03 the fitra and the clouding and different
0:28:05 ways
0:28:06 to uncloud the fitrah to either awaken
0:28:08 the truth within or
0:28:09 to allow the fitzra to direct itself
0:28:11 towards the truth we've already spoken
0:28:13 about that so this is
0:28:14 one of a multiple ways of uncutting the
0:28:18 fitra or one
0:28:19 means amongst other means to uncloud the
0:28:21 fitrah
0:28:22 to awaken the truth within but to be
0:28:24 honest this is one of my favorite
0:28:26 because it applies to everybody whether
0:28:28 you believe in allah or not if you you
0:28:30 know
0:28:31 if you claim to reject him or not it
0:28:34 applies to everyone it applies to
0:28:35 atheists it applies to christians it
0:28:37 applies to non-religious people to
0:28:39 humanists and if you do it in the right
0:28:41 way you can have an effective powerful
0:28:43 discussion
0:28:44 and really introduce to people the
0:28:46 beauty
0:28:47 of allah his beautiful names and
0:28:50 attributes the fact that he is worthy of
0:28:52 worship
0:28:52 and it will be placed in a
0:28:54 phenomenological context it will be
0:28:55 placed in this kind of experiential
0:28:57 context because it's going to refer to
0:28:58 their own existence and life
0:29:00 because you're going to make them
0:29:01 realize that they worship something
0:29:03 but they should be worshipping the one
0:29:05 that is actually truly worthy of worship
0:29:07 allah subhanahu wa that's what we're
0:29:09 going to discuss in sha allah
0:29:12 so what is worship
0:29:15 worship brothers and sisters entitles
0:29:17 the following
0:29:18 it is to know allah which
0:29:22 means to recognize him to have your
0:29:24 life's focus on allah subhanahu wa
0:29:26 ta'ala
0:29:27 and to make allah central to your life
0:29:30 and to know
0:29:31 allah in terms of getting to know who
0:29:34 who he is
0:29:35 so this is what it means to know allah
0:29:38 so
0:29:38 that's an aspect of worship also it's to
0:29:41 love allah
0:29:43 and loving allah
0:29:46 is something extremely important which
0:29:48 we're going to unpack when we talk about
0:29:49 why allah is worthy of worship
0:29:51 but loving allah sometimes is not spoken
0:29:53 about much but it should be because this
0:29:55 is
0:29:56 very central to the islamic tradition
0:29:59 because when we say that allah is worthy
0:30:01 of worship it actually also means allah
0:30:03 is worthy of adoration
0:30:05 he is worthy of our love and we must
0:30:08 love allah more than anything else
0:30:10 which is which echoes the prophetic
0:30:12 teachings of the prophet sallallahu
0:30:14 alaihi
0:30:14 wasallam so worship entails to know
0:30:17 allah to love allah
0:30:18 and to obey allah now what does that
0:30:21 include
0:30:22 that that includes to be humble before
0:30:24 allah to be humbled before the divine
0:30:27 it also means to have positive fear of
0:30:30 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:30:31 obviously there's a difference between
0:30:32 positive fear negative fear i don't have
0:30:34 to unpack this too much
0:30:35 but negative fears that you're afraid of
0:30:37 like a monster
0:30:38 that's not the type of fear that we have
0:30:40 of allah subhanahu wa
0:30:41 ta'ala it's more of the type of positive
0:30:43 fear that we fear losing the connection
0:30:45 with allah
0:30:46 we fear losing his pleasure we fear the
0:30:49 consequences
0:30:50 of removing ourselves away from allah
0:30:53 just like a a mother in in in a shopping
0:30:57 center with a child and she tells of the
0:30:59 child and the child because
0:31:01 doesn't want to lose the pleasure of the
0:31:02 mother doesn't lose lose that connection
0:31:04 wants to come closer to the mother
0:31:06 actually holds on to them on the says
0:31:07 sorry man please forgive me
0:31:09 it's that type of positive fear also
0:31:12 obeying god
0:31:13 includes submitting to allah subhanahu
0:31:16 wa ta'ala
0:31:17 this kind of peaceful submission to
0:31:19 allah
0:31:21 another aspect of worship is that we
0:31:23 must direct
0:31:24 and single out all acts of worship to
0:31:26 allah alone
0:31:27 the internal acts of worship which are
0:31:29 the actions of the heart because in the
0:31:30 islamic tradition
0:31:32 you have an understanding of the actions
0:31:33 of the heart like
0:31:36 like a reliance that you rely on allah
0:31:39 and also you have actions of the limbs
0:31:42 the external actions such as
0:31:45 dua sadaka giving charity
0:31:48 prayer you know the bowing and the
0:31:50 prostration and so on and so forth
0:31:52 now obviously the external acts of
0:31:53 worship also have an internal element
0:31:55 because you must have ichlas which means
0:31:57 you're doing it for the sake of allah
0:31:58 you must be sincere
0:32:00 you must have the correct intention but
0:32:02 it's
0:32:03 in it's it's useful just to categorize
0:32:05 them as internal and external
0:32:06 but they both have a connection from
0:32:08 that perspective so this is summarized
0:32:11 what is worship it is to know allah to
0:32:13 love allah to obey allah and that
0:32:15 includes being humble before him having
0:32:17 positive fear of allah
0:32:19 submitting to allah and also it means to
0:32:21 single out and direct
0:32:23 internal and external acts of worship to
0:32:26 allah alone and this is summarized in um
0:32:28 kitab
0:32:29 right what's um kitab it's you know uh
0:32:32 the um
0:32:33 is the mother so it's the mother of the
0:32:35 book and what's interesting
0:32:36 you know the children revolve around the
0:32:38 mother right so the um
0:32:40 the mother of the book is quite central
0:32:43 to the book and he explains the whole
0:32:45 book and um
0:32:47 the first chapter of the quran and allah
0:32:49 says in the fifth verse
0:32:51 it is you we worship and you we ask for
0:32:53 help
0:32:54 obviously these are the words that we
0:32:56 say to allah
0:32:58 we say this every day in our five daily
0:33:00 prayers
0:33:01 we say in every every unit of prayer
0:33:05 we say it is you we worship and it is
0:33:08 you
0:33:08 we ask for help and this basically
0:33:13 you know opens the door to massive
0:33:15 exegesis volumes and volumes on just
0:33:18 what this means
0:33:19 and you know this means love and
0:33:21 reliance and so on and so forth but as a
0:33:23 useful kind of
0:33:26 conceptual analysis if you like worship
0:33:27 entails to know allah to love allah to
0:33:30 obey allah
0:33:30 and to direct and single out all acts of
0:33:32 worship to allah alone
0:33:34 so let's quickly focus on knowing allah
0:33:36 because it's very important to know
0:33:38 allah
0:33:38 which is you know a key aspect of
0:33:41 worship but also it's very important
0:33:42 because we spoke about
0:33:44 the importance of knowing the human
0:33:45 being because you're calling the human
0:33:47 being to the way of allah
0:33:49 and we now need to understand well we
0:33:52 need to know who allah is
0:33:53 in order to invite the human being to
0:33:56 allah
0:33:57 now obviously with allah is the greatest
0:33:59 example and i'm not making an analogy
0:34:01 you can't make analogies with allah says
0:34:04 in the quran
0:34:06 there is nothing like his example laser
0:34:10 can he as mithil his example
0:34:13 anything so there is nothing like any
0:34:14 any there is no example
0:34:16 that you can use to compare with the
0:34:18 example of allah
0:34:20 which is a very interesting linguistic
0:34:23 strategy here because it's not saying
0:34:25 there is
0:34:25 nothing like allah there is nothing like
0:34:28 allah's example which is more of an
0:34:30 emphasis if you like that
0:34:32 the total transcendence of allah
0:34:34 subhanahu wa ta'ala so what i'm saying
0:34:35 now is not an analogy it's more of an
0:34:37 a4i argument meaning by greater reason
0:34:40 so you know if i'm a salesperson and i'm
0:34:43 selling a car to a human being
0:34:46 not only must i know the human being in
0:34:47 terms of what their likes and dislikes
0:34:50 are
0:34:50 you know a bit of human psychology to be
0:34:52 a good salesperson
0:34:53 but in order to make an effective sale i
0:34:55 have to know the car
0:34:57 if i don't know nothing about the car
0:34:59 i'm not going to sold the car so if i'm
0:35:01 sending trying to sell the the the
0:35:03 person
0:35:04 a lamborghini and all i know is about
0:35:07 peugeots then with all due respect i'm
0:35:09 not gonna sell the lamborghini
0:35:10 effectively right
0:35:12 so from by greater reason
0:35:15 not only must we understand what the
0:35:17 human being is as per the quran and
0:35:19 sunnah and to really
0:35:20 you know from an islamic psychological
0:35:21 perspective address the human being in
0:35:23 that way
0:35:24 but we have to know who allah is as well
0:35:26 which is very important
0:35:27 and this is important because part of an
0:35:30 aspect of worship
0:35:31 is to know allah as allah says in the
0:35:33 quran chapter 47 verse 19
0:35:35 so know that there is no deity except
0:35:38 allah so when we say knowledge here to
0:35:41 know allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we're
0:35:43 really also saying to acknowledge allah
0:35:45 to be aware of to recognize and to have
0:35:48 certainty in allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:35:50 in the islamic tradition allah in terms
0:35:53 of affirming his existence and the fact
0:35:55 is where they worship this is the most
0:35:57 certain thing for
0:35:58 us this is absolute certainty
0:36:01 so this is what knowing allah entails as
0:36:03 well so obviously i'm just going to
0:36:05 summarize this but it's important
0:36:06 especially when we talk about wildlife
0:36:08 worthy of worship
0:36:09 but when we talk about knowing allah
0:36:11 we're really talking about the tawheed
0:36:13 of allah the oneness
0:36:14 of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we
0:36:16 could talk about allah's oneness in the
0:36:18 following way and
0:36:19 have spoken about in other ways but this
0:36:21 is a nice way of
0:36:23 putting it together so one way of
0:36:25 talking about allah with regards to his
0:36:28 tawheed affirming his oneness
0:36:30 is to talk about first and foremost the
0:36:32 oneness of his creative power
0:36:33 what does this mean this means that we
0:36:35 affirm that allah is transcendent
0:36:37 he is the unique only
0:36:41 sustainer maintainer fashioner owner
0:36:44 master of
0:36:45 everything that exists and this is very
0:36:47 important
0:36:48 and if you give these descriptions to
0:36:50 other than allah
0:36:51 then this is what is called as shirk
0:36:53 which is associationism this is a form
0:36:56 of associationism or associate
0:36:59 associating partners with allah
0:37:00 in the islamic tradition this is the
0:37:03 gravest transgression something that
0:37:05 we're going to
0:37:06 briefly talk about in a few moments then
0:37:08 we can affirm
0:37:09 the wonders of allah's names and
0:37:11 attributes that allah has
0:37:13 names and attributes he says allah's
0:37:14 names are the most beautiful names
0:37:16 all the beautiful names belongs to allah
0:37:20 in actual fact this is something that my
0:37:21 dad says which is very interesting you
0:37:23 know
0:37:23 and i think i told him once actually
0:37:25 that's what the quran says right you
0:37:26 know
0:37:27 the beautiful names belong to allah
0:37:30 anyway so when we affirm the wonders of
0:37:33 allah's names and attributes what are we
0:37:35 saying here we're saying that they are
0:37:36 transcendent
0:37:37 lasik mithlih we affirm them
0:37:40 and we also believe in their maximal
0:37:44 perfection
0:37:45 in islamic tradition and all the schools
0:37:47 of creed the main schools of creed they
0:37:50 affirm this that allah
0:37:52 is maximally perfect what does this mean
0:37:55 well allah's names and attributes are to
0:37:57 the highest degree possible
0:37:59 they have no deficiency and no flow
0:38:02 okay so take for example allah's love
0:38:06 so allah is he is the loving
0:38:09 so allah's love is to the highest degree
0:38:11 possible it's transcendent
0:38:13 it's the most purest form of love and
0:38:16 it's the highest degree possible without
0:38:18 any deficiency without any flaw
0:38:20 okay now when
0:38:23 you now say that allah's names and
0:38:26 attributes are like a human beings
0:38:28 what you've done now is humanization
0:38:32 okay you've humanized allah's names and
0:38:34 attributes which is
0:38:35 shirk which is a form of associationism
0:38:38 if you do the other way around if you
0:38:40 say this human being
0:38:42 he is like or his attributes are like
0:38:44 allah
0:38:45 like he is loving like allah then what
0:38:48 you've done
0:38:48 is you have dare find that human being
0:38:51 which is also
0:38:53 which is also associationism or
0:38:54 associating partners
0:38:56 with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is
0:38:58 the gravest sin the gravest
0:38:59 transgression
0:39:00 and we're going to speak about why
0:39:01 that's the case in a few moments
0:39:03 then another way of understanding
0:39:05 allah's oneness
0:39:06 is the oneness of his divinity what does
0:39:09 this mean this means that allah
0:39:11 is worthy of our worship he's whether of
0:39:13 our unconditional obedience
0:39:15 of our utmost love of our prayers or our
0:39:18 extensive praise of our ultimate
0:39:19 gratitude
0:39:20 he's the only deity worthy of worship
0:39:23 all acts of worship the internal acts of
0:39:24 worship and the external acts of worship
0:39:26 must be dedicated and directed to him
0:39:28 alone
0:39:29 if you take these acts of worship and
0:39:31 you give it to something or someone or
0:39:33 some things other than allah
0:39:35 this is again associationism this is
0:39:38 shikh this is associating partners with
0:39:41 allah which is the greatest
0:39:42 transgression
0:39:43 so in summary to know allah means to
0:39:46 acknowledge allah to
0:39:47 affirm his existence to be aware of him
0:39:49 to recognize him to have certainty in
0:39:50 him
0:39:52 and you can really talk about knowledge
0:39:54 of allah from the perspective
0:39:56 of tawheed affirming the oneness of
0:39:57 allah which
0:39:59 can include if you want to categorize it
0:40:01 in this way the oneness of his creative
0:40:03 power
0:40:03 the one of his oneness of his names and
0:40:05 attributes and the oneness of his
0:40:06 divinity
0:40:07 just to summarize the oneness of his
0:40:09 creative powers that he's the only
0:40:10 unique transcend
0:40:11 transcendent soul creator state and
0:40:14 maintainer
0:40:15 master of everything that exists if you
0:40:18 give these descriptions to other in
0:40:19 allah then this is a form of
0:40:20 associationism which is the gravest
0:40:22 transgression the greatest injustice the
0:40:24 greatest injustice the greatest
0:40:26 greatest immorality and it's the
0:40:29 greatest sin
0:40:30 then another way of understanding an
0:40:33 additional way of understanding allah's
0:40:35 oneness affirming his oneness is
0:40:36 affirming his names and attributes
0:40:38 that we affirm them we affirm their
0:40:40 transcendent nature we also firm them
0:40:42 their maximal perfection
0:40:44 that they are they are maximally perfect
0:40:46 to the highest degree possible without
0:40:48 any deficiency
0:40:49 and without any flaw and to
0:40:52 compare allah allah's attributes to
0:40:55 human being
0:40:56 and to compare human attributes to allah
0:40:58 both of these cases are a form of
0:40:59 associationism which is a form of
0:41:02 also the key understanding of allahi
0:41:07 is that is that oneness of his divinity
0:41:10 that allah is the only deity worthy of
0:41:12 worship
0:41:13 our utmost gratitude and our
0:41:16 our greatest love and our prayers and
0:41:18 our extensive praise
0:41:20 and our acts of worship must be directed
0:41:22 to allah alone if we don't do that
0:41:24 that's associationism
0:41:25 and that is the gravest crime in sin
0:41:29 so briefly on associationism the
0:41:32 greatest sin is
0:41:34 the gravest transgression allah says in
0:41:36 the quran in the 25th chapter verses 68
0:41:39 and 70
0:41:40 indeed allah does not forgive
0:41:42 association with him
0:41:44 but he forgives what is less than that
0:41:46 for whom he wills
0:41:47 and he and he who associates others with
0:41:49 god with allah
0:41:50 has certainly committed a tremendous sin
0:41:53 but there is a caveat
0:41:54 allah does forgive associationism what
0:41:56 this verse is talking about
0:41:58 is people who die in a state of shirk
0:42:01 or die and not doing tawba not repenting
0:42:05 from associationism not repenting from
0:42:08 shirik
0:42:09 not repenting from associating partners
0:42:12 with allah
0:42:13 but if you do in your life and may
0:42:15 allah protect everyone from this
0:42:17 if you do associate partners with allah
0:42:19 in your life and you repent to allah
0:42:20 you find allah off-forgiving and
0:42:23 merciful but if you
0:42:24 close the door to allah's
0:42:28 mercy and guidance which is always open
0:42:30 for every human being
0:42:31 if you close the door deliberately by
0:42:33 continuing a life of associating
0:42:35 partners with allah to the degree
0:42:37 that that is your eternal intention if
0:42:40 you like because allah says the people
0:42:42 of hell
0:42:43 you know if they'll be brought back to
0:42:44 earth they will do the same thing so
0:42:46 it's like you have you're internally or
0:42:48 you're perpetually intending
0:42:49 associating partners with allah and you
0:42:52 and you've died in that state
0:42:54 then you've made the decision for
0:42:55 yourself you've you've pushed away
0:42:57 allah's guidance and mercy
0:42:59 you've pushed it away and allah is going
0:43:00 to give you what you want
0:43:02 yeah and that's something very important
0:43:03 for us to understand and
0:43:05 you know allah doesn't want us to to
0:43:09 associate partners with him allah wants
0:43:11 people to connect with him to love him
0:43:13 to know him
0:43:14 to have a relationship with him allah
0:43:16 wants this allah says in the quran that
0:43:17 he doesn't prefer disbelief for his
0:43:19 servants
0:43:20 this is the essence of the meaning and
0:43:21 the mufasarin those who explain the
0:43:23 quran say that allah wants people to go
0:43:25 to paradise
0:43:26 we push people away we push allah
0:43:29 subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:43:31 in terms of his guidance and mercy away
0:43:33 we push it away
0:43:34 and we commit injustice to ourselves and
0:43:37 we throw ourselves into the punishment
0:43:40 that's why allah says don't blame allah
0:43:43 allah didn't wrong them they wronged
0:43:44 themselves
0:43:45 and this is why the question is not how
0:43:47 can a loving lord send someone to hell
0:43:49 that's the wrong question
0:43:50 it's how can you choose hell over a
0:43:53 loving lord how can you do that
0:43:55 why are you choosing hell right guidance
0:43:57 and mercy and divine perfect love is
0:43:59 waiting for you
0:44:01 now you know for that to be forced on
0:44:04 you from the perspective that you have
0:44:05 no free will anymore
0:44:06 then everything loses its meaning anyway
0:44:09 if i put a gun to your head and said
0:44:10 give charity your charity has no meaning
0:44:12 likewise in order for these things to
0:44:14 have their profound value and
0:44:16 significance
0:44:17 you have to have a choice so what's
0:44:19 going to be your choice are you going to
0:44:20 choose hell
0:44:21 over a loving lord that's the choice
0:44:24 that you need to think about carefully
0:44:26 allah says in the quran in chapter 23
0:44:28 verses 99 and 100
0:44:31 and those who invoke not any other deity
0:44:33 along with allah
0:44:34 except those who repent and believe
0:44:37 and do righteous deeds for those allah
0:44:40 will change their sins into good deeds
0:44:42 and god is of forgiving most merciful
0:44:45 not only will allah forgive you but he
0:44:47 will make those evil deeds
0:44:48 into good deeds this phenomenon and this
0:44:51 includes
0:44:52 if you repent to allah if you turn back
0:44:55 to allah
0:44:56 now just to be a little bit more nuanced
0:44:58 and obviously when i have time to unpack
0:45:00 this right here and that's why i put it
0:45:01 in the notes here
0:45:02 now when we're talking about
0:45:03 associationism and allah will not
0:45:05 forgive associationism that you're going
0:45:06 to be
0:45:07 in in you're going to throw yourself
0:45:09 into hell for eternity
0:45:10 this applies to major forms of
0:45:12 associating partners with allah
0:45:14 there are lesser forms that do not lead
0:45:16 to disbelief
0:45:17 in this context however major forms of
0:45:20 associating
0:45:21 with allah include you know praying to
0:45:23 other than allah
0:45:24 and believing other things are worthy of
0:45:26 worship other than allah and that is all
0:45:28 disbelief which is if you die in that
0:45:30 state
0:45:31 then you've thrown yourself into eternal
0:45:33 hell
0:45:34 and obviously there's nuances here and
0:45:37 you know there is a discussion amongst
0:45:38 the scholarly tradition that even if you
0:45:39 do the lesser forms of associating
0:45:41 partners with allah
0:45:42 the lesser forms of such as
0:45:44 ostentation
0:45:46 doing a deed for other than god's sake
0:45:48 like you know
0:45:49 giving a seminar right this is supposed
0:45:51 to be dalla which is
0:45:53 you know virtuous in islam you're
0:45:54 supposed to be doing it for the sake of
0:45:55 allah if i'm doing it for my ego for
0:45:57 pray play
0:45:58 praise or pleasure this is ostentation
0:46:01 and this is what you call the lesser
0:46:03 form of but there is a discussion that
0:46:05 if there's a continuation of that
0:46:07 then that could end up being a major
0:46:10 form of
0:46:11 in some way there there is that
0:46:12 spiritual discussion the point i'm
0:46:14 trying to say here is
0:46:15 that there's more to be said about this
0:46:18 matter there are major forms and lesser
0:46:19 forms major forms lead to disbelief
0:46:21 lesser forms don't necessarily do that
0:46:23 at all and i'm not going to unpack that
0:46:25 right here but the most important and
0:46:27 that's why you need to continue your
0:46:28 intellectual spiritual journey
0:46:29 but what's important is to understand
0:46:31 that associationism
0:46:32 worshipping allah is the greatest sin
0:46:35 and if you don't repent from it
0:46:37 and you die in that state you die in the
0:46:39 state of disbelief the major form
0:46:41 of then you've thrown yourself into
0:46:43 eternal hell perpetual
0:46:44 hell but allah says if you repent
0:46:48 and you do good deeds allah would change
0:46:51 that evil into good deeds and allah will
0:46:52 forgive you and you will find allah
0:46:55 in the greatest of your expectations so
0:46:58 that's why it's very important as well
0:46:59 to have husson of
0:47:00 a good opinion of allah subhanahu wa
0:47:02 ta'ala if you if you believe he's going
0:47:04 to forgive you
0:47:05 then he will forgive you and that belief
0:47:07 is not just
0:47:08 lip service but it manifests in your
0:47:10 heart on your tongue and how you act
0:47:12 so if you translate that into turning
0:47:15 back to allah
0:47:16 allah will forgive you okay so
0:47:19 because we believe allah's love is
0:47:20 maximally perfect without any deficiency
0:47:23 and without any flow which is totally
0:47:25 different from the christian tradition
0:47:26 by the way
0:47:27 you know just as a side note and i don't
0:47:28 want to go too much into this because
0:47:30 with
0:47:30 sapience institute we've got a book
0:47:32 coming out on this that
0:47:34 i don't believe that mainstream
0:47:35 christianity has sold the world a lie
0:47:38 that the biblical god is a loving god
0:47:40 with all due respect how can that be the
0:47:42 case
0:47:43 because maximal love perfect love
0:47:45 entails perfect forgiveness
0:47:47 but if you start from the beginning of
0:47:49 the adamic
0:47:50 narrative adam can't be totally forgiven
0:47:53 in the christian tradition there must be
0:47:55 a black
0:47:55 blood sacrifice forgiveness of humanity
0:47:58 the so-called inherent sin which we
0:47:59 don't believe in
0:48:00 that can only be forgiven outside of the
0:48:03 relationship between
0:48:04 the believer and his creator it has to
0:48:07 be
0:48:08 an external sacrifice and you have to
0:48:11 acknowledge that sacrifice at the same
0:48:13 time
0:48:14 which no which is not only a form of
0:48:16 injustice but it's not a form of maximal
0:48:18 perfection
0:48:20 but if you if you contrast that to the
0:48:22 quranic narrative
0:48:24 it is a manifestation of maximal
0:48:26 forgiveness
0:48:27 and a loving lord is
0:48:30 maximally forgiving so what's the
0:48:33 summary of the story
0:48:34 adam alaihissalam slips it's not full
0:48:37 from grace
0:48:38 as the christian tradition says it's a
0:48:40 slip allah describes it as a slip
0:48:42 and then what does allah say then allah
0:48:44 says and and then allah
0:48:45 turned to them because who moved allah
0:48:48 didn't
0:48:49 move from that perspective it was the
0:48:52 sin
0:48:52 the sinner in that this case who moved
0:48:55 in his wife
0:48:56 they moved and allah turned to them
0:48:59 told them words of forgiveness and allah
0:49:02 forgave them
0:49:03 it's based on their relationship it's
0:49:06 based on
0:49:07 them the sincerely for asking for
0:49:10 forgiveness
0:49:11 but what's very interesting allah turned
0:49:13 to them and taught them how
0:49:16 allah will forgive them
0:49:24 beautiful so this is maximum forgiveness
0:49:27 because not only
0:49:28 is will allah forgive someone who asked
0:49:30 for forgiveness
0:49:31 allah turned to to us
0:49:35 if you like by extension because islam
0:49:38 is our father
0:49:39 and and taught him the words of
0:49:41 forgiveness
0:49:42 so contrast the two scenarios the
0:49:45 biblical god can't forgive
0:49:47 unless there's something outside of the
0:49:49 relationship and it's a blood sacrifice
0:49:51 right right it's not based on the
0:49:54 relation
0:49:56 cannot forgive because he's too holy
0:49:58 right
0:49:59 but allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:50:02 he is transcendent nothing affects him
0:50:07 he is complete he's perfect he's asmed
0:50:09 he is the independent he is the
0:50:10 self-subsisting
0:50:12 and he is the loving al-wadud he is the
0:50:15 forgiving
0:50:16 and allah
0:50:20 when a servant transgresses and moves
0:50:22 away from allah
0:50:23 allah has taught us how to come back
0:50:27 to come closer to him just to have a
0:50:30 sincere heart
0:50:31 and to ask for forgiveness right so it's
0:50:34 based on the relationship this is
0:50:35 maximal forgiveness
0:50:37 anyway there's more to unpack by the way
0:50:39 is a quick summary but i wanted to
0:50:40 mention this because
0:50:42 it's a big lie anyway so
0:50:45 why is associationism the greatest sin i
0:50:47 have to give credit here to
0:50:48 our beloved brother ustad abdullah al
0:50:50 and
0:50:51 i know it's something that he wrote very
0:50:53 recently and
0:50:55 i don't think he mentioned all of the
0:50:57 stuff i've mentioned but
0:50:58 it's complete anyway and he
0:51:01 motivated me to add this in and it's
0:51:04 motivated me for you to tell you to go
0:51:06 to his website abdullah
0:51:09 al-andalusi.com he's got a piece on why
0:51:12 uh associating partners with allah is
0:51:14 the gravest sin
0:51:15 and you know he's got a beautiful quote
0:51:17 from his piece
0:51:19 that says no ephemeral crime done by
0:51:22 one human to another whose consequence
0:51:24 is temporary
0:51:25 and effect is limited can ever match the
0:51:27 crime done against the eternal source of
0:51:29 all creation
0:51:30 i thought that was very beautiful and
0:51:31 there's more beautiful statements in his
0:51:34 piece concerning that so please read
0:51:35 that so i'm just going to briefly talk
0:51:36 about why
0:51:37 associationism why should why associate
0:51:40 partners with what is the greatest sin
0:51:42 well think about this since we are
0:51:43 created by allah subhanahu wa
0:51:45 and solely depend on him denying and not
0:51:48 worshiping him is
0:51:50 a crime against reality which is
0:51:52 something that abdullah mentions it's
0:51:54 the greatest
0:51:54 in gratitude it's the worst evil and the
0:51:57 greatest injustice
0:51:59 so let's explain this why is it a crime
0:52:01 against reality
0:52:02 because rejecting allah is a reject
0:52:04 rejection of
0:52:05 al-haq that's one of his names the truth
0:52:07 itself and the basis for all reality
0:52:10 everything exists because of allah and
0:52:13 not extensively praising the one worthy
0:52:15 of extensive praise
0:52:16 is a rejection of reality so not
0:52:18 worshiping allah
0:52:20 associating partners with allah
0:52:21 associationism is a crime against
0:52:23 reality itself
0:52:25 also it's the greatest in gratitude why
0:52:27 because not worshiping the one who gives
0:52:29 us life
0:52:30 and who is the one that everything
0:52:32 depends upon is the peak of ingratitude
0:52:35 you know our own very existence is
0:52:37 because of allah
0:52:39 and not being ultimately grateful for
0:52:40 this priceless gift which is something
0:52:42 we're going to explain in a few moments
0:52:44 is the greatest in gratitude
0:52:47 you know we may you know you could be
0:52:49 ungrateful to your parents i'm grateful
0:52:51 to your teachers and grateful to someone
0:52:52 who's helped you
0:52:53 which is very wrong by the way but the
0:52:56 greatest
0:52:56 form of gratitude is to be ungrateful to
0:52:58 allah because allah created them
0:53:00 and all of these things happened as a
0:53:03 result of allah subhanahu wa tad
0:53:06 it's also the worst evil why because
0:53:08 allah is the foundation of our objective
0:53:10 values and morals
0:53:12 allah is the foundation of the uh
0:53:15 the fact that human beings have
0:53:17 objective value
0:53:18 allah is the foundation for our
0:53:20 objective morals now we're going to
0:53:22 unpack that philosophy right here
0:53:24 but rejecting allah is rejecting the
0:53:26 foundation for all values and all morals
0:53:28 therefore it's the worst immorality to
0:53:31 reject allah
0:53:32 not to worship allah also it's the
0:53:34 greatest injustice because worship is
0:53:36 allah's right
0:53:37 not that he needs anything and we're
0:53:39 going to talk about that later
0:53:40 concerning the objections allah is free
0:53:42 is independent of his self-subsisting
0:53:45 but this is
0:53:45 worship is allah's right by virtue of
0:53:48 who he is
0:53:49 and not worshiping him is the greatest
0:53:51 injustice
0:53:52 because if you think about it if worship
0:53:55 is allah's right
0:53:56 and not worshiping him is is is is is
0:53:59 removing
0:54:00 is being unjust to allah then being
0:54:02 unjust to allah
0:54:04 is actually the greatest injustice why
0:54:06 because allah
0:54:08 is the foundation for all of our rights
0:54:11 allah gives our rights value
0:54:13 objectivity and he is the one who
0:54:16 gives our rights because he is the one
0:54:19 who created us and he knows us better
0:54:20 than we know ourselves
0:54:22 he is the foundation for all of our
0:54:23 rights so not giving allah's right
0:54:25 is tantamount equivalent of not giving
0:54:28 anyone anyone's rights and more because
0:54:30 remember allah is perfect and eternal
0:54:32 so this is a summary of why sherlock is
0:54:35 the great
0:54:35 is the greatest sin is the greatest
0:54:37 transgression it's a crime against
0:54:38 reality
0:54:39 it's the greatest in gratitude it's the
0:54:41 worst evil and this is the greatest
0:54:43 injustice
0:54:44 please go to abdullahandaluci.com to
0:54:46 read more
0:54:48 so i know we've been this has been going
0:54:51 quite long right
0:54:52 but you know i'm enjoying this and it's
0:54:53 very important these are very important
0:54:55 topics brothers and sisters okay
0:54:56 so now we're in the crux of the matter
0:54:59 we've got the essential backdrop now
0:55:00 let's go into the point what we want to
0:55:02 talk about here
0:55:03 let's universalize now the understanding
0:55:05 of worship that we mentioned remember
0:55:07 is to know allah to love allah to obey
0:55:10 allah
0:55:11 to and to direct and singular all acts
0:55:14 of worship to allah alone
0:55:15 so let's universalize this this
0:55:18 understanding of worship
0:55:20 so it's to know something or some things
0:55:23 the most
0:55:24 right and remember knowledge here
0:55:26 includes the focus of your life
0:55:28 what you're aware of the most the thing
0:55:30 that you're most certain about
0:55:31 from an intellectual and spiritual
0:55:33 perspective the thing that you're most
0:55:34 certain about
0:55:36 also we could say it's the thing that
0:55:37 you love the most you know
0:55:40 the thing that you love to love
0:55:42 something the most okay
0:55:44 also it's to obey or to refer to
0:55:46 something or some
0:55:47 things the most and it's direct acts of
0:55:50 devotion to
0:55:51 something or some things the most and
0:55:52 that includes ultimate gratitude and
0:55:54 extensive praise
0:55:55 so let me just summarize universalizing
0:55:57 the understanding of worship in the
0:55:58 islamic tradition
0:56:00 it's to know something the most which
0:56:02 includes focusing the thing that you
0:56:03 focus in your life the most
0:56:05 the thing that you're aware of the most
0:56:06 the thing that you're most certain about
0:56:08 it's the thing that you love the most or
0:56:10 the things that you love the most
0:56:12 it's the things that you obey or refer
0:56:14 to the most
0:56:15 and it's the thing or things that you
0:56:17 direct acts of devotion to something the
0:56:20 most such as ultimate gratitude and
0:56:21 extensive praise
0:56:24 and what's interesting is when we have a
0:56:27 discussion
0:56:28 obviously with hikima with wisdom and
0:56:30 with rahman with mercy with our fellow
0:56:31 human being
0:56:33 you know we want to get them to
0:56:34 understand that actually worshiping
0:56:36 something by virtue of
0:56:38 what we've just done concerning
0:56:40 universalizing the
0:56:41 the concept of worship right the thing
0:56:44 that you know the most the thing that
0:56:45 you love the most the thing that you
0:56:46 obey the most the thing that you direct
0:56:48 acts of devotion towards the most like
0:56:50 ultimate gratitude and extensive praise
0:56:52 and there are many examples that we can
0:56:54 use obviously
0:56:55 within the specific context of the
0:56:57 dialogue in order to get them to realize
0:56:59 that it could be
0:57:00 someone's ego someone could be a
0:57:01 narcissist it could be other people it
0:57:03 could be an ideology like nationalism
0:57:05 it could be materialism right so let me
0:57:07 give an example with extreme nationalism
0:57:10 just to make you understand how you
0:57:11 could universalize this concept of
0:57:13 worship
0:57:14 first let's focus on the thing that you
0:57:17 know the most so
0:57:18 for some extreme nationalists
0:57:21 nationalism its values ideas its
0:57:24 philosophies
0:57:25 and so on and so forth is the thing that
0:57:27 they give most recognition to
0:57:29 it's the thing that they give most
0:57:30 attention to and the thing that they
0:57:32 focus more and also the associated ideas
0:57:36 and values that come from nationalism
0:57:38 are their center of attention right yes
0:57:41 you know
0:57:42 say for example they may have to study
0:57:43 at university and they may have to study
0:57:44 psychology
0:57:45 that may become the center of attention
0:57:47 for for a temporary period
0:57:49 but generally speaking the main focus
0:57:51 recognition
0:57:52 attention awareness is
0:57:57 the kind of nationalistic ideology
0:58:02 so that's what it means when they want
0:58:04 to know something the most in the
0:58:05 context of nationalism nationalism
0:58:07 becomes the thing that they want to know
0:58:08 the most because it's the thing that
0:58:09 they recognize the most
0:58:11 they give the most attention to they
0:58:12 give the most focus
0:58:14 to uh their actions are connected to
0:58:16 this ideology the most
0:58:18 and you know they give the associate
0:58:20 ideas and values
0:58:22 more over focus and attention and also
0:58:25 they have certainty in this ideologies
0:58:27 you know one of the the key things
0:58:29 you know if they were to write down what
0:58:31 they're most certain about
0:58:32 this would be you know extreme
0:58:34 nationalist you know they will put their
0:58:36 extreme nationalism
0:58:37 as as you know the top that in in the
0:58:40 top list
0:58:42 so they want to know the kind of
0:58:45 nationalistic ideology the most what
0:58:47 about love
0:58:48 well they they love the nation and its
0:58:51 history
0:58:52 and the ethnic group the most to the
0:58:54 degree that it destroys
0:58:56 natural relationships and distorts one's
0:58:58 moral vision
0:58:59 so they love the kind of extreme
0:59:01 ideology the nationalism
0:59:03 the nation by the way there's nothing
0:59:05 wrong with you know loving your country
0:59:07 and loving your culture obviously
0:59:09 there's a criteria in the islamic
0:59:10 spiritual tradition as long as it
0:59:11 doesn't basically
0:59:13 you know go above islamic values and
0:59:15 ethics but
0:59:16 that's not extreme nationalism obviously
0:59:19 that's totally different that's just you
0:59:20 know liking your tribe
0:59:21 nothing wrong with that yeah obviously
0:59:23 within the same caveats
0:59:24 which include islamic ethics and you
0:59:27 know the understanding of the quran and
0:59:29 the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
0:59:30 in the
0:59:31 but let's put that to aside for a moment
0:59:33 so from the point of view of worshipping
0:59:36 you know nationalism as an ideology you
0:59:38 know they love the nation the most it's
0:59:39 history
0:59:40 and the the ethnic group that belongs to
0:59:43 the
0:59:44 the nation they love it the most to the
0:59:46 degree destroys natural relationships
0:59:48 like
0:59:48 you know you know fellow human
0:59:51 relationships
0:59:52 your neighbor right even say you know
0:59:55 your spouse right say for example
0:59:59 you know you got married to someone
1:00:01 who's not of your ethnic background
1:00:03 and then later on you start developing
1:00:06 this extreme nationalistic ideology
1:00:08 and then you get rid of your wife and
1:00:09 kids because they're not pure enough
1:00:11 right
1:00:11 so it destroys natural relationships
1:00:13 distorts one more
1:00:14 moral vision one's a moral vision you
1:00:16 start judging people by by virtue of
1:00:19 the the the you know the allegiance to
1:00:21 your nationalistic ideology
1:00:23 and you judge them and you you you
1:00:25 perceive them
1:00:27 through the lenses of the particular
1:00:29 ethnic group
1:00:30 not because of the virtue of the god
1:00:32 consciousness or the good character
1:00:34 but rather because of this particular
1:00:36 ethnic group so it distorts your moral
1:00:38 vision
1:00:39 that's how much you love it right and
1:00:41 you have people like that
1:00:43 also you have the obedience part so you
1:00:45 obey the dictates
1:00:47 of the nationalistic ideology you d your
1:00:50 baits leaders
1:00:51 you refer to its symbols to its rules
1:00:53 and obligations related to nationalism
1:00:56 right also
1:00:59 you also direct acts of worship to
1:01:03 nationalism how do you do that how do i
1:01:05 how do you direct acts of worship to
1:01:06 nationalism it's very easy
1:01:08 remember extensive praise and ultimate
1:01:11 gratitude actually
1:01:12 forms of worship right and
1:01:16 if you extensively praise the nation its
1:01:19 history or the destroyed view
1:01:21 of uh the nation's history you
1:01:24 extensively praise its present state of
1:01:27 affairs
1:01:28 notwithstanding that no one's perfect
1:01:30 and no nation's perfect you do it to the
1:01:31 degree that skews your mind
1:01:34 and you extensively praise its
1:01:37 nationalistic symbols
1:01:38 and leaders more than anything and you
1:01:40 give the ultimate gratitude you're like
1:01:42 oh you know i wouldn't be me if it
1:01:44 wasn't for
1:01:45 my nation you know life would be
1:01:47 meaningless without this
1:01:49 you know without my nation and you know
1:01:51 the adherence to this extreme
1:01:53 nationalism and so on and so forth so
1:01:55 this kind of extensive praise
1:01:56 if it's the thing that you praise the
1:01:57 most and the thing that you direct your
1:01:59 utmost gratitude towards the most
1:02:01 well that's acts of worship so you can
1:02:03 see now that extreme nationalism
1:02:05 could be your idol
1:02:08 you could be an atheist nationalist
1:02:12 still your idol by virtue of what we've
1:02:15 done with regards to universalizing the
1:02:16 concept of worship
1:02:18 or making it applicable here because
1:02:20 remember it's to know something the most
1:02:21 to love something the most to obey
1:02:22 something the most into direct acts of
1:02:24 worship towards something the most and
1:02:25 we've just discussed that with an
1:02:26 example
1:02:27 extreme nationalism and allah makes this
1:02:29 clear that
1:02:30 you know association associationism or
1:02:33 worshiping something
1:02:34 or worshiping something other than allah
1:02:35 it's not just about you know worshipping
1:02:37 a physical idol
1:02:38 you know allah says in the quran in
1:02:40 chapter 2 verse 165
1:02:41 and yet among the people of those who
1:02:44 take other than allah
1:02:45 as equals to him they love them as they
1:02:48 should love allah
1:02:49 but those who believe are stronger in
1:02:51 the love of allah
1:02:52 so again here you know if you know
1:02:56 they they love things other than allah
1:02:58 but allah should be loved
1:02:59 the most also allah says in the quran in
1:03:02 chapter 45 verse 23 have you not seen no
1:03:04 one who takes his desire
1:03:06 as his own lord he takes his god as his
1:03:08 own desire
1:03:09 right you know the narcissistic people
1:03:12 in the world you know this like self
1:03:13 worship well
1:03:14 self self-worship their auto deity you
1:03:17 know self-worth
1:03:18 self-worship you know the egos to the
1:03:20 degree where
1:03:21 they basically just worship the dictates
1:03:24 of
1:03:24 the blameworthy desires and the ego
1:03:27 centric and egotistical
1:03:29 desires right that becomes an object of
1:03:32 their worship
1:03:33 also allah says in the quran chapter 9
1:03:35 verse 31 they have taken their rabbis
1:03:38 and monks as well as the messiah son of
1:03:40 mary as lords besides allah even though
1:03:42 they were commanding to worship
1:03:44 none but allah there is no deity worthy
1:03:47 of worship except him
1:03:48 glorified is he above what they
1:03:50 associate with him
1:03:52 obviously we're not unpacking these
1:03:53 verses any depth but it's just to give
1:03:55 you an indication it's not just about
1:03:56 physical idol
1:03:57 it's also about another human being it's
1:03:59 also about your own self your own ego
1:04:01 it also includes things like love and so
1:04:04 on and so forth
1:04:06 so in the context of dawah in the
1:04:08 context of sharing islam with people
1:04:10 you could ask certain questions with
1:04:12 regards to the topic that we're dealing
1:04:14 with today
1:04:15 so you could ask for example and say you
1:04:16 know was there something at any moment
1:04:18 in your life that you wanted to
1:04:20 know the most meaning that your whole
1:04:22 life was was was based about about
1:04:24 recognizing this idea them also this
1:04:26 thing the most
1:04:27 or your whole focus of life was centered
1:04:30 around this thing the most
1:04:31 right or what were you most certain
1:04:33 about you know was there something
1:04:35 in any moment in your life that you
1:04:36 loved the most to the degree where
1:04:39 you know it you loved it more than you
1:04:41 know natural love like the mother
1:04:44 the love of your mother or or love of
1:04:46 your siblings and so on and so forth
1:04:48 you know was it something that you
1:04:49 obeyed or referred to the most it could
1:04:51 be not one thing could be many things by
1:04:52 the way you know all the things that
1:04:53 we've spoken so far it could be not just
1:04:55 one thing but many things you know
1:04:56 maybe obedience is something you may not
1:04:58 recognize but you know something that
1:05:00 you refer to the most it's
1:05:01 it's your frame of reference it's your
1:05:03 it's your basis
1:05:05 it may be your explicit implicit kind of
1:05:08 frame of reference the thing that you
1:05:09 always refer to the most for some it
1:05:11 could be you know
1:05:12 you know a celebrity or a leader or it
1:05:15 could be the dictates of materialism
1:05:17 whatever and obviously you don't have to
1:05:19 ask these questions in this way but i'm
1:05:21 asking them in this simple way so it
1:05:22 just opens your mind on how
1:05:23 you can interact with your fellow human
1:05:25 being and you could
1:05:27 raise the question concerning you know
1:05:31 you if have you ever expressed you know
1:05:33 ultimate gratitude towards something or
1:05:35 some
1:05:36 things the most or praise some things uh
1:05:38 the most or gave extensive praise to
1:05:40 something the most
1:05:42 so when you ask these type of questions
1:05:44 of related questions
1:05:46 you get to get you get them to think and
1:05:48 then you say to them or from an islamic
1:05:50 spiritual tradition
1:05:51 that thing or those things are actually
1:05:53 your objects of worship
1:05:57 and and this is very interesting because
1:05:59 it also echoes what the thinker martin
1:06:01 ling said
1:06:02 he's something very profound he said man
1:06:05 cannot not worship because that's the
1:06:06 default position of human beings because
1:06:08 if this
1:06:08 something that you've loved the most at
1:06:10 one point or obeyed the most or
1:06:11 wanted to know the most or you've you've
1:06:15 directed acts of worship like ultimate
1:06:17 gratitude and extensive praise towards
1:06:18 the most
1:06:19 then that is your object of worship and
1:06:22 human beings
1:06:23 always do that right and that's why it's
1:06:26 very interesting that martin ling said
1:06:28 man cannot not worship and he says
1:06:30 equipped as he is by his very nature for
1:06:32 worship
1:06:32 man cannot not worship and if his
1:06:34 outlook is cut from the spiritual plane
1:06:37 he will find a god to worship at some
1:06:39 lower level
1:06:40 that's endowing something relative with
1:06:42 what belongs only to the absolute
1:06:45 which is very interesting he makes
1:06:46 another interesting point which is not
1:06:48 entirely related but he says
1:06:49 the desire for freedom is above all the
1:06:51 desire for god
1:06:53 absolute freedom being a central aspect
1:06:55 of divinity which is very interesting
1:06:57 now you know the euro 2020 just happened
1:07:01 obviously it's 2021 but because the
1:07:03 pandemic
1:07:04 euro 2020 just finished and who won
1:07:08 i forgot who won oh the italians one of
1:07:10 course yeah
1:07:11 i watched the game i was quite upset
1:07:13 that england lost anyway so
1:07:15 um the italians won so if you look at a
1:07:17 lot of football fans especially the kind
1:07:19 of
1:07:19 you know extreme
1:07:22 football fans right football becomes the
1:07:25 the idol worship
1:07:27 right or the football team is the object
1:07:29 of worship
1:07:31 because if you think about all of these
1:07:32 fans these fanatics if you like
1:07:35 that's the main focus of their life
1:07:36 that's the only thing they want to know
1:07:38 about the most
1:07:39 um they also
1:07:42 love it the most right their football
1:07:44 team could be a means to break
1:07:46 relationships with their friends and
1:07:47 their family
1:07:49 also they would obey the most what does
1:07:50 it mean by obedience meaning
1:07:52 if one of the celebrity football players
1:07:54 of the team says something
1:07:56 like spinach is good for you as an
1:07:58 advert everyone's going to start buying
1:07:59 spinach right
1:08:01 so you have this form of obedience to
1:08:03 the dictates of the celebrities that you
1:08:05 know are part of
1:08:06 your favorite football team and
1:08:09 obviously i'm just thinking loudly i'm
1:08:10 not analyzing it too much but you get
1:08:11 the point
1:08:12 what's the other thing oh um acts of
1:08:14 worship
1:08:15 you have football fanatics who have
1:08:19 who who basically express ultimate
1:08:22 gratitude and extensive
1:08:24 praise for their football team or their
1:08:25 favorite football players
1:08:27 like life is meaningless without the
1:08:28 football team life is meaningless
1:08:30 without their favorite football player
1:08:32 and you know the whole life you know
1:08:34 even if it's subconscious explicit or
1:08:36 implicit
1:08:37 you know they they are so happy that
1:08:39 they have
1:08:40 a purpose in life which is literally to
1:08:42 worship this team spend loads of money
1:08:44 to watch the games home games away games
1:08:47 and you know there is a kind of analysis
1:08:49 if you like that you know
1:08:50 modern football is like the new religion
1:08:53 if you like right getting everyone in
1:08:54 the stadium and
1:08:55 you know this is like a form of idol
1:08:56 worship but you know i haven't analyzed
1:08:59 it too much but you get the point even
1:09:00 when it comes to football
1:09:02 you know for many people their football
1:09:04 team and favorite football players can
1:09:06 be the the objects of worship even from
1:09:08 the perspective of what we've just
1:09:09 discussed in terms of what worship
1:09:10 entails
1:09:13 now this is one of my favorite verses in
1:09:16 the quran because it elucidates and
1:09:18 elaborates on this idea that everyone is
1:09:20 in a state of worship allah says in
1:09:21 chapter 39 verse 29
1:09:23 allah puts forward this illustration can
1:09:25 a man who has several partners for his
1:09:27 masters of which
1:09:28 our odds with each other be considered
1:09:30 equal to a man devoted holy to one
1:09:32 master
1:09:33 all praise belongs to allah though most
1:09:36 of them do not know
1:09:38 think about this amazing amazing analogy
1:09:40 allah is giving you this illustration
1:09:42 allah is giving
1:09:43 he is basically saying to us from a
1:09:44 double pondering point of view he is
1:09:46 telling us
1:09:47 that there are two states of the human
1:09:49 being either you are worshiping
1:09:52 something other than allah or some
1:09:54 things other than allah
1:09:55 and they don't know what's really best
1:09:57 for you and they don't love you and have
1:09:59 merciful and have affection for you
1:10:00 like allah does because the prophet said
1:10:02 that allah has more affection for his
1:10:04 servants than the mother has to her
1:10:06 young ones right
1:10:07 and allah knows you because he created
1:10:09 you these things that you worship don't
1:10:10 you know don't know you
1:10:11 they don't want best for you right and
1:10:13 they're all quarreling so that's one
1:10:14 state
1:10:15 the other state is that you're actually
1:10:17 connected to and worshipping the one
1:10:18 that is worthy of worship
1:10:20 and isn't this this describe life if
1:10:23 you're not connected to and be us
1:10:25 being at service to and worshiping allah
1:10:27 you're going to be worshipping something
1:10:29 else
1:10:29 your football team your ideology your
1:10:31 nufs your ego
1:10:32 your shahad your blameworthy desires
1:10:35 i don't know it's so many things that
1:10:37 you could that that replace allah
1:10:39 subhanahu wa ta'ala
1:10:41 if you're not knowing allah loving allah
1:10:43 obeying allah and directing acts of
1:10:44 worship to allah alone
1:10:46 you're going to be knowing something
1:10:47 else loving something else obeying
1:10:49 something else and directing acts of
1:10:50 worship to something else
1:10:52 so what situation would you rather be
1:10:54 the person who is enslaved to all of
1:10:56 these masters and they're all quarreling
1:10:58 or the one who is enslaved to one master
1:11:00 whose condition is best
1:11:02 and this will give you true freedom and
1:11:03 that's why you know i want you to call
1:11:05 this seminar the free slave
1:11:07 because what's interesting when you
1:11:08 enslave yourself to allah you are truly
1:11:10 liberated you free yourself from the
1:11:12 other shackles of the enslavement to
1:11:13 yourself
1:11:14 and to other people or to other things
1:11:18 and this freedom is amazing because you
1:11:21 know the word for soul in arabic is raw
1:11:24 and it shares the same root as the word
1:11:27 which means ease and liberty right in
1:11:30 turkish
1:11:31 they have the word i believe which is
1:11:33 you know from the arabic it's like ease
1:11:35 and liberty
1:11:36 and what's interesting is that the soul
1:11:39 can
1:11:40 only achieve this ease and liberty and
1:11:42 serenity
1:11:43 if it is that service to allah connects
1:11:46 to allah
1:11:47 if it doesn't worship allah then it
1:11:49 won't have raha it won't have
1:11:50 that spiritual liberation so if you
1:11:52 truly want to be liberated
1:11:54 then don't worship the one the things
1:11:56 that are not worthy of worship
1:11:57 worship allah subhanahu wa tala so
1:12:01 in your discussion with your fellow
1:12:02 human being and you raise these
1:12:04 questions and you get them to understand
1:12:06 that okay if this is true then i'm
1:12:07 worshiping something and
1:12:09 you get them to realize that the thing
1:12:10 that they're worshiping is not actually
1:12:11 worthy of worship
1:12:13 and that would create an existential
1:12:14 spiritual vacuum for you now to talk
1:12:16 about
1:12:16 but let me introduce to you why allah is
1:12:18 worthy of worship so let's do this give
1:12:20 me seven reasons why allah
1:12:22 is worthy of worship brothers and
1:12:23 sisters reason number one
1:12:27 allah is worthy of worship by virtue of
1:12:30 who he is
1:12:31 allah says in the quran in chapter 20
1:12:32 verse 14 indeed i am god i am allah
1:12:35 there is no
1:12:36 deity except me so worship me and
1:12:38 establish prayer for my remembrance
1:12:40 okay so allah subhana water is saying
1:12:42 that there is no deity where they
1:12:43 worship except him
1:12:45 allah is worthy of worship by virtue of
1:12:49 who he is
1:12:50 now let me give you an example to
1:12:52 understand this
1:12:55 we praise things all the time by virtue
1:12:58 of the attributes so for example you
1:13:00 know if you like mixed martial arts if
1:13:02 you watched
1:13:03 some of the fights of khabib you were
1:13:05 basically praising him
1:13:07 by virtue of his martial arts ability of
1:13:10 his athletic attributes
1:13:12 of his fighting attributes of his
1:13:14 strength and so on and so forth
1:13:15 you gave him praise by virtue of because
1:13:18 of
1:13:19 his particular attributes even though
1:13:21 he's not perfect
1:13:22 and even though his attributes are not
1:13:24 to the highest degree possible he's
1:13:26 a contingent limited human being also
1:13:29 forget martial arts let's talk about
1:13:30 poetry you might love poetry
1:13:32 you might like the point of the east
1:13:34 iqbal when he said
1:13:35 this prostration that you find so
1:13:37 difficult frees you from a thousand
1:13:39 frustrations
1:13:40 or you could talk about rumi right you
1:13:42 might like rumi
1:13:44 and you know he came up with some
1:13:46 amazing lines
1:13:47 phenomenal lines actually in in in many
1:13:50 of his lines are
1:13:50 quite deep you know when he says things
1:13:53 like the
1:13:54 the cure to pain is in the pain itself
1:13:56 all right
1:13:57 also when he says and i'm paraphrasing
1:13:59 you know true lovers
1:14:00 don't really fall in love they are they
1:14:02 were already in love before they met
1:14:04 right which is another beautiful thing
1:14:07 and
1:14:08 so on and so forth so you might love his
1:14:10 poetic attributes so
1:14:11 you praise him by virtue of his
1:14:13 eloquence or his act
1:14:14 his poetic attributes and linguistic
1:14:16 attributes right even though he's not
1:14:18 perfect he's deficient and flawed he's a
1:14:20 human being he's contingent
1:14:21 but you still give him praise by virtue
1:14:23 of his attributes
1:14:25 likewise if you're not interested in
1:14:26 poetry maybe you like football
1:14:28 as we say in the uk or soccer as you say
1:14:30 in north america
1:14:31 in america you might like soccer you
1:14:34 know uefa the euro
1:14:36 2020 has happened and
1:14:39 you may you may have been you know
1:14:41 extremely
1:14:42 um impressed by i don't know one of the
1:14:45 italian players
1:14:47 and you know you praised him you gave
1:14:48 him a round of applause you you stood up
1:14:50 you're like wow brilliant right bravo
1:14:53 whatever they say in italy
1:14:54 and so you praised him by virtue of his
1:14:58 because of his football attributes his
1:15:00 soccer attributes his athletic
1:15:01 attributes and so on and so forth
1:15:03 but he's not perfect he's a human being
1:15:05 he's probably rated eight out of ten
1:15:07 he's not 10 out of 10 and even if it's
1:15:09 10 out of 10 it's within the human
1:15:10 context is contingent and limited flow
1:15:12 and flowed in some way
1:15:14 so these examples i'm giving you to get
1:15:15 you to understand that we naturally give
1:15:17 praise to things by virtue of their
1:15:19 attributes
1:15:21 even though their attributes don't
1:15:22 directly benefit us in any way they
1:15:24 don't sustain us
1:15:25 or you know keep us alive and even
1:15:28 though their attributes are not perfect
1:15:29 they have some deficiency and flaw
1:15:32 so if it's true that we can praise
1:15:34 things that don't directly benefit us in
1:15:36 any way
1:15:37 and praise them by virtue of their
1:15:38 limited and flawed attributes
1:15:41 then what does it mean about praising
1:15:44 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
1:15:46 whose names and attributes are to the
1:15:48 highest degree possible
1:15:49 without any deficiency and without any
1:15:52 flow
1:15:54 what does it mean it means allah is
1:15:57 worthy of extensive praise
1:15:59 and extensive praise is a form of
1:16:01 worship we already mentioned
1:16:03 um kitab surah al-fatiha the summary of
1:16:05 the whole of the quran the first chapter
1:16:07 of the quran
1:16:08 what does allah say in the first line
1:16:10 alhamdulillah
1:16:12 all perfect praise and gratitude belong
1:16:14 to the lord of everything that exists
1:16:17 praise and gratitude our keys to worship
1:16:19 are forms of worship
1:16:22 so allah is worthy of worship by virtue
1:16:24 of who he is and not necessarily because
1:16:26 he's
1:16:26 manifested his names and attributes in
1:16:28 your life in any positive way
1:16:31 don't get me wrong he is worthy of
1:16:33 worship and worthy of praise and
1:16:34 gratitude because
1:16:35 what he gives us and provides us but
1:16:37 even if he didn't
1:16:38 allah is worthy of worship by virtue of
1:16:41 who he is
1:16:42 even if there was nothing to worship him
1:16:46 allah is still worthy of worship
1:16:48 and allah is so majestic and his
1:16:51 attributes are so perfect
1:16:53 that if the whole world were to worship
1:16:56 him it wouldn't increase in his majesty
1:16:59 and if the whole world were to not
1:17:01 worship him he wouldn't decrease in his
1:17:02 majesty
1:17:04 so the first point allah is worthy of
1:17:06 worship by virtue of who he is
1:17:08 it's essentially is allah's right to
1:17:11 worship it's a necessary fact of his
1:17:12 existence because of who he
1:17:14 is just like what we just discussed
1:17:16 second point
1:17:18 the second reason why our lives worthy
1:17:19 of worship allah created and sustains
1:17:22 everything allah says in the quran in
1:17:24 chapter 35 verse 3
1:17:26 o mankind remember the favor of allah
1:17:28 upon you is there any other creator
1:17:30 other than allah
1:17:31 who provides from for you from the
1:17:33 heavenly earth there is no deity except
1:17:35 him
1:17:35 so how are you deluded again think about
1:17:38 this allah is
1:17:40 he is the creator he he is the
1:17:43 perpetually creating
1:17:45 and allah subhanahu wa
1:17:48 he basically created us in our lives and
1:17:50 i need to think about this whole
1:17:51 experiment
1:17:52 there is something in our life that has
1:17:55 been given to us
1:17:56 freely that is priceless that we don't
1:17:58 earn own or deserve
1:18:01 and if it's true there is something in
1:18:03 our lives that is given to us freely at
1:18:04 every moment of our existence that we
1:18:06 don't earn own
1:18:07 or deserve and it's priceless then how
1:18:10 should we feel we should be grateful
1:18:13 what is this thing
1:18:14 it's every moment conscious moment of
1:18:17 our existence
1:18:18 these conscious moments come from allah
1:18:20 we don't earn own or deserve them we
1:18:22 can't even create a fly we can't create
1:18:23 life
1:18:24 and we know it's a priceless gift
1:18:26 because if i told you you have 10
1:18:28 minutes of conscious moments left and in
1:18:29 order to have another 10 days you have
1:18:31 to give me all of your wealth you give
1:18:32 me all of your wealth
1:18:34 such is the priceless gift of these
1:18:35 conscious moments
1:18:37 and they're priceless and they're given
1:18:39 to us for free
1:18:40 and we don't earn own or deserve them
1:18:41 how should it make us feel grateful but
1:18:43 grateful to whom
1:18:44 grateful to the one who gave you these
1:18:46 conscious moments allah subhanahu wa
1:18:48 ta'ala
1:18:48 and gratitude as we explained is a key
1:18:50 and a form of worship
1:18:53 the third point allah provides us with
1:18:55 innumerable innumerable favors
1:18:57 allah says in the quran in chapter 14
1:18:59 verse 34
1:19:01 and if you should try to count to
1:19:03 enumerate the favors of allah
1:19:06 you could not enumerate them indeed
1:19:08 mankind is generally most
1:19:10 unjust and ungrateful now i wanted to
1:19:12 find a thought experiment or an example
1:19:14 to show
1:19:15 that we could find one blessing and that
1:19:17 we couldn't count that blessing
1:19:20 and and i wanted to apply it to someone
1:19:22 who suffers or someone who has a great
1:19:24 life
1:19:25 right i didn't i didn't want to just
1:19:26 just to be applied to someone
1:19:28 who has a great life but someone who has
1:19:30 a life that may not be
1:19:32 full of well-being and there is a good
1:19:35 example
1:19:36 by the way this example has come from
1:19:38 also our
1:19:39 early pious scholars and it's the
1:19:41 heartbeat
1:19:43 think about the heartbeat as a blessing
1:19:44 brothers and sisters the heartbeat is
1:19:47 the physical
1:19:47 suburb physical cause that allah uses to
1:19:50 keep us alive and we already spoke about
1:19:52 the priceless gift of life of every
1:19:54 conscious moment
1:19:56 the heartbeat if we had 10 heartbeats
1:19:58 left
1:20:00 and if i set you to get another 10 000
1:20:02 heartbeats you have to give me all of
1:20:04 your wealth you will give me all of your
1:20:05 wealth
1:20:05 such as the priceless reality of every
1:20:08 heartbeat
1:20:11 and we don't remember what we said
1:20:13 previously we don't earn
1:20:15 these conscious moments or own them or
1:20:17 deserve them and it's given to us freely
1:20:19 in these conscious moments as a result
1:20:20 of a heartbeat
1:20:23 so here's the question i want you to
1:20:26 individually count all the heartbeats
1:20:28 you've had in a lifetime
1:20:29 i want you to individually count all the
1:20:32 heartbeats you've had in a lifetime it's
1:20:33 impossible
1:20:34 for the first two or three years you
1:20:35 can't even count
1:20:38 when you're sleeping you can't count you
1:20:39 have a huge black backlog
1:20:41 it's practically logically impossible to
1:20:43 count enumerate individual heartbeat in
1:20:45 a lifetime now let's shift this with
1:20:47 regards to gratitude
1:20:48 i want you to think about alhamdulillah
1:20:50 for every single hobby you had in a
1:20:52 lifetime it's impossible
1:20:53 you got such a backlog even if you
1:20:55 started from the day that you don't have
1:20:57 to count and how to speak
1:20:58 you couldn't do it because you when you
1:20:59 sleep you can't do it
1:21:01 so isn't it true that we can't enumerate
1:21:04 individually each of our heartbeats and
1:21:05 even be thankful for each one of our
1:21:07 heartbeats
1:21:09 one blessing and if we have this correct
1:21:12 perspective we understand that
1:21:14 anything above a heartbeat is a bonus in
1:21:17 actual fact even if you had the ability
1:21:18 to be grateful for every single
1:21:20 heartbeat you've had individually
1:21:22 you would have to be grateful for the
1:21:24 ability to be grateful
1:21:26 there'll be an infinite regress of
1:21:27 gratitude the point here is
1:21:30 we can never truly be thankful
1:21:33 and count the favors of allah
1:21:36 and interesting is in this verse i think
1:21:38 allah doesn't use the favor
1:21:39 in terms of blessing in terms of the
1:21:41 plurals and the singular
1:21:43 as a linguistic ploy to show forget
1:21:46 all the blessings one blessing you
1:21:48 couldn't count not even the heartbeat
1:21:51 so if we can't even truly be grateful
1:21:52 for a heartbeat imagine
1:21:54 what type of gratitude we must have for
1:21:56 everything else brothers and sisters
1:22:00 and all of those things that as a result
1:22:01 of allah subhanahu wa
1:22:04 our utmost gratitude is due to allah
1:22:10 the fourth point while allah is worthy
1:22:11 of worship is concerning self-love
1:22:14 now self-love leads to the love of allah
1:22:17 now what do i mean by self-love don't
1:22:19 accuse me of promoting narcissism here
1:22:20 yeah i'm not talking about narcissistic
1:22:22 traits culvert narcissism or you know
1:22:26 you know the the the normal narcissist
1:22:30 none of this narcissism i'm not talking
1:22:31 about this
1:22:32 i'm talking about a mature self-love
1:22:34 it's the kind of self-love that
1:22:36 the eric from the psychologist he writes
1:22:38 in his book the art of loving
1:22:40 it's like wanting good for yourself so
1:22:42 it's a mature and it's intellectual type
1:22:44 of self-love
1:22:45 and also you know if you think about it
1:22:47 there's nothing closer to you than you
1:22:49 if you don't love yourself happy not
1:22:51 love anyone else right
1:22:53 and you know if you want to be loving
1:22:55 and to be is to be related
1:22:57 if you can't relate to yourself in a
1:22:58 loving way then how are you going to
1:22:59 love anyone else
1:23:00 and that's why a lot of these people who
1:23:02 really hate who are not nice people
1:23:05 they don't really want good for
1:23:06 themselves they don't really love
1:23:07 themselves
1:23:08 and this echo what the polymath the
1:23:10 proof of islam ali ghazali the 11th
1:23:12 century theologian
1:23:13 may allah have mercy on him he talks
1:23:15 about this in his ihea in his revival to
1:23:17 the
1:23:18 village of sciences i think he's in the
1:23:19 36 volume he talks about love he talks
1:23:21 about this type of love this self love
1:23:23 that you want good for yourself you
1:23:24 don't want bad for yourself
1:23:26 and ala ghazali is saying if you truly
1:23:28 love yourself
1:23:29 from the perspective that you want good
1:23:30 for yourself you have to love allah and
1:23:32 why
1:23:32 because who created you who created the
1:23:34 aspar the physical causes that you can
1:23:36 use
1:23:37 to actually come towards good
1:23:40 to get pleasure to run away from pain
1:23:42 right to achieve your goals
1:23:45 who is the source of love so all of it
1:23:48 so these are the kind of
1:23:49 basic concepts that he's trying to
1:23:50 allude to and if you
1:23:52 love yourself and you don't love allah
1:23:54 then you're basically in a state of
1:23:56 delusion
1:23:56 and he says whoever is so besotted by
1:23:59 his fleshy appetites as to lack this
1:24:02 love
1:24:02 neglects his lord and creator he
1:24:05 possesses no authentic knowledge of him
1:24:07 his gaze is limited to the cravings and
1:24:10 to things of sense
1:24:12 so self-love should leave lead to the
1:24:15 love of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
1:24:16 by virtue of asking certain questions
1:24:19 who is the source of love
1:24:21 who created me who created the physical
1:24:24 causes in order for me to use to
1:24:26 actually
1:24:26 achieve pleasure achieve goodness for
1:24:29 myself
1:24:30 and run away from pain who actually
1:24:33 knows what's really good for me allah is
1:24:36 the source of all goodness
1:24:37 and so on and so forth so if you love
1:24:40 yourself and you don't really love allah
1:24:42 then you don't really
1:24:43 you you just you just besotted by your
1:24:45 fleshy appetites as al-ghazali says
1:24:47 and you don't have authentic knowledge
1:24:49 of allah and that's why knowledge and
1:24:51 love are very important in islamic
1:24:52 tradition
1:24:53 because in order to love something
1:24:55 properly you have to know it right
1:24:57 so to know that allah is a source of
1:24:58 love to know that allah creates
1:25:00 everything and causes everything to
1:25:02 happen and so on and so forth
1:25:04 these things are very important because
1:25:05 once you want good for goodness for
1:25:07 yourself and you know allah then you're
1:25:08 gonna love allah immediately
1:25:09 because he's the source for all of that
1:25:12 goodness
1:25:14 and remember loving allah is a form of
1:25:16 worship
1:25:17 the fifth point allah is worthy of
1:25:19 worship
1:25:21 because he is the most loving so we're
1:25:23 focusing on
1:25:24 on one of his names here the fact that
1:25:27 he is
1:25:27 the loving now allah says in the quran
1:25:31 in chapter 85 verse 14 he is the
1:25:32 forgiving
1:25:33 the loving allah says in the quran in
1:25:35 surah baqarah second chapter verse 165
1:25:38 we already mentioned this
1:25:39 and yet among the people are those who
1:25:41 take other than
1:25:42 god as equals to him they love them as
1:25:44 they should love
1:25:45 allah but those who believe are strongly
1:25:47 in the love of allah
1:25:48 also the prophet said which connects to
1:25:50 this in some way allah is more
1:25:52 affectionate
1:25:52 seventh than a mother to her children
1:25:54 narrated by abu dhawud
1:25:56 now this is very important when we spoke
1:25:59 about allah's names and attributes and
1:26:00 that's why we had to mention
1:26:02 allah's names and attributes annoying
1:26:04 allah we said allah's names and
1:26:06 attributes are perfect without any
1:26:07 deficiency and flaw and that they are to
1:26:09 the highest degree possible
1:26:11 so just by virtue of understanding this
1:26:12 in the context of allah's love because
1:26:14 he says he is
1:26:16 and understanding who allah is and and
1:26:18 having good and having correct knowledge
1:26:20 of him as al-ghazali says
1:26:22 you're going to be compelled to love
1:26:23 allah why allah is
1:26:25 coming from the arabic word wood which
1:26:26 means a loving that is giving his love
1:26:28 is to the highest degree possible
1:26:29 without any deficiency and without any
1:26:31 flow
1:26:31 without any deficiency and without any
1:26:34 flaw
1:26:35 his love is to the highest degree
1:26:36 possible and it's the most purest form
1:26:38 of love why because when allah loves he
1:26:40 doesn't need to love yet he loves allah
1:26:42 it doesn't require completion he is
1:26:44 ahmed he is
1:26:46 he is the independent he was the self
1:26:48 subsisting he is elegant
1:26:49 he is the free he's the rich he's the
1:26:51 independent
1:26:53 and his love is greater than any love we
1:26:55 can imagine even a mother's love because
1:26:56 when a mother loves she
1:26:57 needs to love it completes her allah
1:27:00 doesn't require completion yet he loves
1:27:02 imagine how pure his love is so allah's
1:27:04 love is to the highest degree possible
1:27:06 allah's love is the most purest form of
1:27:07 love
1:27:08 so we must be compelled to love him
1:27:10 here's a thought experiment
1:27:12 if someone came into your room and i
1:27:13 said this person is the most loving
1:27:14 person to have ever and will have ever
1:27:16 walked on this earth
1:27:17 something is going to happen to you
1:27:18 something is going to happen do you want
1:27:20 to be able to understand what that love
1:27:21 is
1:27:22 by greater reason and allah is the
1:27:25 highest example
1:27:26 if allah has the most purest form of
1:27:29 love
1:27:30 and allah's love is the most maximal
1:27:32 perfect love with no deficiency or no
1:27:34 flaw
1:27:35 then we must be true of allah we must be
1:27:38 compelled to love allah
1:27:40 and loving allah is a form of worship
1:27:42 the sixth reason why allah is worthy of
1:27:44 worship
1:27:44 is because we are natural born
1:27:46 worshipers allah says that our purpose
1:27:48 in life and this is in chapter 51 verse
1:27:50 56
1:27:50 i did not create the spirit world the
1:27:52 jinn nor mankind
1:27:54 except to worship me meaning except to
1:27:55 worship allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
1:27:57 we are natural born worshippers we
1:28:00 already discussed this by universalizing
1:28:02 the concept of the aspects of worship
1:28:04 and we know that we we have something
1:28:06 that we focus on the most or we want to
1:28:08 know the most we have something that we
1:28:09 love the most we have something that we
1:28:10 obey the most we have something that we
1:28:12 direct our
1:28:13 extensive praise and gratitude ultimate
1:28:15 gratitude towards the most these
1:28:17 it could be one thing or many things the
1:28:19 point is we do do that
1:28:21 so that's our object of worship we're
1:28:23 natural born worshipers
1:28:24 whether worshiping allah worshiping
1:28:26 something other than allah and we
1:28:28 already spoke about the fitra and the
1:28:29 innate disposition
1:28:30 that we have this natural tendency to
1:28:34 worship and to love something the most
1:28:35 to refer to something the most
1:28:37 and to give extensive praise to
1:28:39 something the most it might be your own
1:28:40 ego or other people or an ideology but
1:28:42 the point is we do that
1:28:44 it seems to be that we have a natural
1:28:46 from a phenomenological perspective
1:28:49 from the perspective of the first person
1:28:51 experience that we we
1:28:53 we worship something by virtue of what
1:28:56 we've discussed concerning the aspects
1:28:58 of what the aspects of worship
1:28:59 are
1:29:03 so if we're natural-born worshippers
1:29:06 then we need to realize that we need to
1:29:10 worship the one that is actually worthy
1:29:11 of worship
1:29:12 and just by merely talking about allah
1:29:16 who he is
1:29:18 describing allah as allah described
1:29:20 himself and as as the prophet
1:29:21 described allah allah is beauty and he
1:29:25 loves beauty
1:29:26 allah's names are the most beautiful
1:29:28 names allah is the soul creator the
1:29:30 sustainer he is
1:29:32 he is the loving he is the intensity
1:29:34 merciful he is
1:29:36 al-barr the source
1:29:46 and so on and so forth when you when you
1:29:48 just introduce people to allah and since
1:29:51 they are natural born worshipers they're
1:29:52 going to be compelled
1:29:54 to worship allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
1:29:56 this may not be necessarily a reason why
1:29:58 allah is worthy of worship
1:29:59 but it gives you the kind of you know
1:30:02 background to why allah
1:30:04 you know is worthy of worship or or why
1:30:07 we should worship allah or the kind of
1:30:08 driving force behind all of this because
1:30:10 we're natural born worshipers we are
1:30:12 born to worship
1:30:13 and some people don't have allah in
1:30:15 their life they don't know who allah is
1:30:17 and that's why they worship other than
1:30:18 allah but the minute you introduce who
1:30:20 allah
1:30:20 is his names and attributes his reality
1:30:22 who he is
1:30:24 people are going to be compelled if they
1:30:25 have you know sincerity they're going to
1:30:27 be compelled to worship allah
1:30:30 finally the seventh reason why allah is
1:30:32 worthy of worship
1:30:34 is we must obey allah
1:30:37 allah is worthy of our unconditional
1:30:39 obedience
1:30:40 allah says in the quran in chapter 3
1:30:42 verse 132
1:30:43 and obey allah and the prophets that he
1:30:45 may so that you may be given mercy
1:30:48 and we know obedience to the first islam
1:30:50 is as a result of obeying allah because
1:30:52 he commands us to do so
1:30:54 so why is it the most rational thing to
1:30:55 do to obey allah some people say oh you
1:30:57 obey god how primitive and medieval this
1:30:59 is no i'm sorry we need to be proud
1:31:01 about this this is the most it's the
1:31:02 high
1:31:03 of rationality it's the peak of the
1:31:05 intellect to worship
1:31:07 to obey allah which is a form of worship
1:31:09 why well think about this brothers and
1:31:11 sisters
1:31:12 who is allah he's the ultimate authority
1:31:16 he is the knowing he is the wise he has
1:31:17 the totality of knowledge and wisdom
1:31:19 allah has the picture
1:31:20 we just got a pixelated understanding of
1:31:22 reality allah knows and we don't allah
1:31:25 is
1:31:25 the source of oh goodness so we're going
1:31:27 to follow his commands we're going to
1:31:28 obey him because he is the highest
1:31:30 authority
1:31:32 and remember the door swings both ways
1:31:34 don't build it to this
1:31:35 don't people atheists non-religious
1:31:37 people
1:31:38 obey things all the time don't you obey
1:31:40 the dictates of your ego and your shahad
1:31:42 your blame where
1:31:44 don't you obey the dictates of your
1:31:45 politicians and the scientists and
1:31:47 people of knowledge and doctors i'm not
1:31:48 saying you shouldn't obey them in their
1:31:49 particular particular
1:31:51 fields of expertise of course you should
1:31:53 of course you should refer to them
1:31:54 but don't you do that anyway what does
1:31:56 that show it shows that you refer to
1:31:58 something or obey something
1:32:00 by virtue of their
1:32:03 expertise when you're on a plane and you
1:32:04 know nothing about turbulence or the
1:32:06 science of how a plane flies
1:32:08 and the pilot says ladies and gentlemen
1:32:09 we're going to be experiencing some
1:32:11 turbulence please
1:32:12 sit down buckle up or you may harm
1:32:13 yourself you're not going to say
1:32:15 forget this guy i'm going to start you
1:32:17 know moon walking on the aisle of course
1:32:19 you don't do that you sit down you
1:32:20 buckle up you make dua you supplicate to
1:32:22 allah right
1:32:24 because you know he has an authority
1:32:26 that you don't
1:32:27 and you obey him or refer to him by
1:32:29 virtue of his authority when we go to a
1:32:30 doctor and we say we have these symptoms
1:32:32 and we don't have any medical
1:32:34 expertise but we know they have the
1:32:35 background medical expertise and the
1:32:37 experience
1:32:38 and you know the curriculum vitae the
1:32:40 the history of
1:32:41 of being a good doctor and so on and so
1:32:43 forth you know
1:32:45 the they have the education we we listen
1:32:48 to them we say yes
1:32:49 okay i have covid for example
1:32:52 or have a mala protect us or you know i
1:32:56 have
1:32:56 you know a certain disease and they tell
1:32:58 you to go to a pharmacy and they
1:32:59 prescribe some drugs for you and you
1:33:00 take the drugs you don't start now
1:33:02 questioning the chemical compound of the
1:33:04 drug or questioning the expertise of the
1:33:06 doctor fine you may ask for a second
1:33:07 opinion but generally speaking
1:33:09 you don't reject them you obey them or
1:33:11 refer to them by virtue of the
1:33:12 particular expertise and authority that
1:33:13 they have
1:33:14 even when you go to school by the way
1:33:17 and if you refer to
1:33:18 the previous seminar that i did on god's
1:33:21 testimony i spoke a lot about the
1:33:23 epistemology of testimony so i'm just
1:33:24 summarizing it here now
1:33:26 when you look into epistemology of
1:33:28 testimony
1:33:29 you understand that we have to refer to
1:33:31 the authority of other people we can't
1:33:33 know everything just like dr elizabeth
1:33:34 fricka says that you know given that her
1:33:36 limitations are parametric
1:33:38 she can't know everything she has to
1:33:40 refer to the authority of others
1:33:41 so if it's true we have to refer to the
1:33:43 authority of others then by
1:33:45 greater reason how must we refer to the
1:33:48 authority of allah
1:33:50 since he knows everything he has the
1:33:52 totality of knowledge and wisdom
1:33:54 right he has the picture we just got the
1:33:56 pixel
1:33:57 it will be the most rational thing to do
1:33:59 to obey allah it is irrational
1:34:01 to not obey him if it's irrational
1:34:04 to reject and disobey and not refer to
1:34:08 experts in science or in medicine
1:34:11 then imagine how irrational it is to
1:34:13 disobey allah subhanallah
1:34:15 who created the scientists who created
1:34:17 their minds and he who is
1:34:18 who has the totality of knowledge and
1:34:20 wisdom
1:34:22 so that's that's why we must obey allah
1:34:24 subhanallah now by the way you may argue
1:34:26 and remember i said this was a
1:34:27 phenomenological existential approach
1:34:29 i'm not saying this is a deductive
1:34:31 argument because you may think well
1:34:32 doesn't this
1:34:33 doesn't this assume allah exists doesn't
1:34:35 assume that this is what allah says
1:34:37 doesn't this assume that the quran is
1:34:39 true
1:34:40 don't worry about that because remember
1:34:42 what we said about the fitra
1:34:43 the cloud could be the cloud could be
1:34:46 unclouded
1:34:47 by virtue of introducing them to who
1:34:49 allah is and why he's worthy of worship
1:34:52 and that's very significant from a
1:34:53 phenomenological first person experience
1:34:55 perspective
1:34:57 so to conclude the seminar brothers and
1:34:58 sisters there are two main objections to
1:35:00 this
1:35:01 the first objection is what does allah
1:35:03 need our worship
1:35:04 of course not we've already affirmed
1:35:06 this but just to affirm it again allah
1:35:08 says in the quran
1:35:09 allah is free of need the praiseworthy
1:35:11 he says this in chapter 22 verse 64.
1:35:14 and we know allah he is the
1:35:16 self-subsisting he is the free he is the
1:35:19 rich
1:35:20 if the whole universe were to worship
1:35:21 him and what's within it it won't
1:35:23 increase in his majesty
1:35:24 if the whole universe was within it were
1:35:26 not to worship him it wouldn't decrease
1:35:27 in his majesty
1:35:28 allah does not need our worship at all
1:35:31 he gains nothing from our worship
1:35:33 and our lack of it takes nothing away
1:35:35 from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
1:35:37 we worship allah because through allah's
1:35:38 wisdom and mercy
1:35:40 he created us that way and allah made
1:35:42 worship good and beneficial for us
1:35:45 from both a worldly spiritual
1:35:46 perspective
1:35:49 now one would further probe and say well
1:35:50 why did he create us for worship
1:35:52 fine he created us for worship but why
1:35:55 there's two
1:35:56 main ways of answering this question the
1:35:58 first way is we don't know
1:36:00 maybe this refers to the part of god's
1:36:02 wisdom that's beyond our limited
1:36:04 cognitive abilities
1:36:05 and there's nothing wrong with that
1:36:06 because you can't compare our
1:36:08 understanding or
1:36:09 our cognitive you know faculties with
1:36:12 the knowledge and wisdom of allah
1:36:13 subhanahu wa tala is it's impossible
1:36:15 it's just you know if if a baby
1:36:18 cannot you know understand quantum
1:36:20 physics the quantum physics of a
1:36:23 professor of theoretical physics or
1:36:25 quantum physics
1:36:27 by greater reason how we are ever going
1:36:29 to even fathom the full wisdom and
1:36:31 knowledge of allah this is ridiculous
1:36:33 right so one way just is just citing the
1:36:37 wisdom because not being able to answer
1:36:38 this question doesn't undermine the fact
1:36:40 that allah is actually worthy of worship
1:36:43 but there's another way of looking at
1:36:44 israel it's focusing in on allah's names
1:36:46 and attributes now allah is
1:36:48 he is the source of oh goodness and that
1:36:51 means he loves good
1:36:52 and allah is a maximally good being so
1:36:55 when we say allah is a source of
1:36:57 goodness we're saying he's a source of
1:36:59 of all goodness from the point of view
1:37:01 that is to the highest degree possible
1:37:03 without any deficiency without any flaw
1:37:05 so therefore allah's actions in terms of
1:37:08 creating us
1:37:08 are not only good but the expressions of
1:37:11 who he is meaning
1:37:12 he is the source of oh goodness and the
1:37:15 fact that he created us as creatures who
1:37:17 could freely choose to worship him and
1:37:18 do good
1:37:19 and some even attaining the virtue of
1:37:22 people like prophets
1:37:24 and then as a result of doing that being
1:37:26 giving eternal life
1:37:27 in the presence of allah to pass an
1:37:29 eternity of intimate love and
1:37:30 companionship
1:37:32 is actually the greatest story ever told
1:37:34 and since allah loves all good
1:37:36 it's clear why he would make the story a
1:37:38 reality
1:37:40 allah the this whole thing that's being
1:37:42 played out
1:37:43 is an expression of allah's names and
1:37:46 attributes of who he is in other words
1:37:48 allah being
1:37:49 the source of all goodness it's one of
1:37:50 the greatest stories ever told
1:37:52 allah loves good things great things and
1:37:56 this story playing out in reality
1:37:59 isn't it is an expression of his names
1:38:01 and attributes
1:38:03 just like a painter he's going to
1:38:05 eventually paint
1:38:07 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a source of
1:38:09 goodness
1:38:11 and this good great story is now being
1:38:13 told is
1:38:14 an expression of who he is and
1:38:17 interestingly allah says in chapter 11
1:38:18 verse 118
1:38:20 if your lord had pleased he would have
1:38:21 made all people a single community but
1:38:23 they continue to have the differences
1:38:25 except those on whom your lord has mercy
1:38:29 for he created them to be this way he
1:38:32 created them to be this way
1:38:34 i'm not going to unpack that for you too
1:38:35 much but hopefully that answers
1:38:37 the objections brothers and sisters
1:38:40 so alhamdulillah
1:38:44 where are we we are question times
1:38:47 question time rather okay
1:38:51 so how long how are we doing with time
1:38:54 what is the time
1:38:58 lost track of time
1:39:01 um it's not telling me oh we've been
1:39:04 going on for nearly one hour 40 minutes
1:39:05 subhanallah okay so
1:39:08 uh brother says let's take some
1:39:10 questions okay
1:39:16 okay there's a question here
1:39:20 which is worse atheism or idol worship
1:39:22 well they're both the same
1:39:24 so in the islamic spiritual tradition
1:39:27 atheism
1:39:27 brothers and sisters is actually a form
1:39:31 of shirk
1:39:32 why because what we said about what
1:39:34 associationism is
1:39:36 when we spoke about allah's oneness the
1:39:38 fact that allah is worthy of worship
1:39:40 when we spoke about the fact that he is
1:39:42 the sole creator maintain a sustainer
1:39:44 of everything that exists rejecting this
1:39:47 or giving this to something other than
1:39:48 allah
1:39:49 is a form of associationism is a form of
1:39:51 idol worship is a form of associating
1:39:53 partners with allah
1:39:54 so atheist what they do they reject that
1:39:56 they reject the results create a sustain
1:39:58 and master of everything that exists
1:39:59 but at the same time if they don't any
1:40:02 and at the same time they may implicitly
1:40:04 or explicitly give those descriptions to
1:40:06 other than allah like the universe
1:40:08 created itself or whatever the case may
1:40:09 be
1:40:10 and even if they don't give it those
1:40:11 explicit descriptions to others
1:40:13 by virtue of rejecting these
1:40:15 descriptions of allah subhanallah this
1:40:17 is a form of associationism
1:40:19 right but one would argue that you you
1:40:21 have to implicitly or even explicitly
1:40:23 you know give these descriptions to
1:40:26 uh something other than allah if you
1:40:28 don't give them to allah subhanahu wa
1:40:30 ta'ala so
1:40:31 atheism is actually a form of it's it's
1:40:34 it's associating partners with allah
1:40:38 okay so let's take
1:40:41 a few more questions
1:40:56 and second
1:41:07 uh just bear with me
1:41:10 there's not that many questions by the
1:41:12 looks of it
1:41:24 um scrolling down just check out some
1:41:26 questions stay with me
1:41:41 you guys are having a discussion and
1:41:42 debate and debate
1:41:44 so it's very hard to find questions
1:41:54 yeah i don't know why this happens you
1:41:56 guys like have a discussion
1:41:58 you're supposed to be at least listening
1:41:59 and you know focus on the topic at hand
1:42:01 and ask questions relate to what we just
1:42:03 discussed but you
1:42:04 you guys end up having alhamdulillah
1:42:06 it's good because you guys are
1:42:07 passionate which is a good thing
1:42:09 but for future maybe we should not um
1:42:12 [Music]
1:42:13 have these you know side discussions and
1:42:14 just maybe just listen and then we can
1:42:16 interact after
1:42:31 okay uh it looks like there's not much
1:42:33 here apart from you guys discussing
1:42:50 all right then some of the questions are
1:42:51 not related to this topic so
1:42:53 i'm going to leave it here you know i
1:42:56 really apologize
1:42:56 for you know spending too much time on
1:42:59 this topic it's one of my favorite
1:43:00 topics and by the way there's so much
1:43:02 more that needs to be said
1:43:03 but it is an introduction you know the
1:43:06 the more that needs to be said is going
1:43:07 to be in the classroom settings
1:43:09 and that will be in our alert that will
1:43:11 be with our learning platform inshallah
1:43:13 at sapiens institute we're
1:43:14 filming the the the professional
1:43:18 recordings or various courses to empower
1:43:20 you
1:43:21 to focus on our strategy which is to get
1:43:24 you
1:43:25 people to intellectually and
1:43:27 academically share islam and to empower
1:43:29 you to do that
1:43:30 so inshallah that's coming up we're
1:43:31 trying to fulfill all of our
1:43:33 kind of goals that we set in ramadan
1:43:35 when we were fundraising
1:43:36 and that and that included 10
1:43:39 professionally formed courses on our
1:43:40 learning platform
1:43:41 we also have books coming out with a
1:43:43 book on doubt coming up dealing with
1:43:44 most of the doubts and the strategies
1:43:46 concerning how to deal with doubts
1:43:48 we have a book on divine perfection
1:43:49 coming out we've got so much things that
1:43:51 are happening brothers and sisters and
1:43:52 maybe what i'll do
1:43:54 is i'm going to basically um do a live
1:43:56 stream just
1:43:57 on where we are so far maybe with some
1:43:59 nice graphics to show you what we've
1:44:01 been doing behind the scenes because
1:44:02 there's a hell of a lot of work going on
1:44:04 doctors manatee is about to publish a
1:44:06 book with us on divine perfection
1:44:08 concerning you know who allah is and and
1:44:10 who god isn't from a biblical
1:44:12 perspective
1:44:13 because the accusation is that allah is
1:44:15 morally inadequate
1:44:16 and he's not maximally perfect and we're
1:44:18 dealing with that objection that hasn't
1:44:19 been really dealt with properly for the
1:44:21 past two decades or so
1:44:22 so may not bless every single one of you
1:44:24 uh any mistakes has come from my ego and
1:44:26 shaitaan anything good has come from
1:44:32 allah