Seminar: Loving The Loving - Why Allah is Worthy of Our Adoration with Hamza Andreas Tzortzis (2022-05-26) #

0:00:13 and sisters and friends
0:00:15 and welcome to the live
0:00:18 sapience institute
0:00:20 online seminar loving the loving
0:00:24 why allah is worthy of our utmost
0:00:27 adoration alhamdulillah i'm very happy
0:00:31 to deliver this seminar once again
0:00:34 inshallah this one is going to be
0:00:36 recorded
0:00:37 and it's going to be available on
0:00:39 our facebook pages and it's going to be
0:00:42 available on youtube insha allah
0:00:45 and we're going to be covering some
0:00:46 amazing things today brothers and
0:00:47 sisters
0:00:49 the first thing that we're going to be
0:00:50 covering in sha allah is we're going to
0:00:52 discuss who is the loving who is
0:00:57 okay this is one of the names of allah
0:01:00 he is the loving
0:01:02 coming from
0:01:04 the word
0:01:05 which means something loving that is
0:01:07 giving
0:01:08 we're also going to be discussing the
0:01:10 concept of ibadah the concept of worship
0:01:13 in the islamic tradition and we're going
0:01:15 to show how
0:01:16 love
0:01:17 is an essential aspect of the ibadah
0:01:20 and we're going to talk about shirk or
0:01:23 associationism or also known as
0:01:26 associating partners with allah
0:01:27 subhanahu wa ta'ala in the context of
0:01:30 love the
0:01:32 love okay
0:01:34 then we're going to be talking about the
0:01:35 relationship between
0:01:37 knowledge and love
0:01:39 and then we're gonna unpack seven
0:01:41 reasons why god why allah subhanahu wa
0:01:44 ta'ala is worthy of our utmost love our
0:01:48 utmost adoration
0:01:50 and
0:01:51 five of those reasons is
0:01:53 going to come from
0:01:55 are going to come from ali ghazali's the
0:01:57 11th century polymath and theologian may
0:01:59 allah have mercy on him his
0:02:02 his here the 36th volume of
0:02:05 his
0:02:06 revival of the religious sciences
0:02:08 because the 36th volume talks about
0:02:11 love
0:02:12 love of allah it talks about contentment
0:02:15 it talks about intimacy with the loss of
0:02:16 hanover ta'ala it's a phenomenal
0:02:18 phenomenal book
0:02:20 and so we're going to be unpacking seven
0:02:23 reasons why allah is worthy of our
0:02:25 utmost adoration our outermost love
0:02:29 and then when we unpack these reasons
0:02:31 we're going to be addressing a
0:02:33 contention and objection which is
0:02:36 how can a loving lord how can allah who
0:02:39 is all loving send people to hell and
0:02:41 we're going to unpack that and address
0:02:43 that insha allah then we're going to
0:02:44 talk about well how do you attain
0:02:46 allah's special love
0:02:48 how do we attain the love of allah
0:02:52 and
0:02:53 we're also going to be talking about how
0:02:54 to use what you're going to learn today
0:02:56 in today's seminar in the context of
0:02:58 sharing islam academically and
0:03:00 intellectually and we're going to have a
0:03:02 final note on islam and christianity
0:03:06 with regards to divine love with regards
0:03:09 to god's love and i want to introduce to
0:03:12 you why the conception of god in the
0:03:14 islamic tradition is maximally loving
0:03:16 and maximally forgiving and the
0:03:18 conception of god in the christian
0:03:20 tradition is not maximally loving and is
0:03:23 not maximally forgiving
0:03:25 and
0:03:26 it's important to raise this because
0:03:29 you know many christian theologians and
0:03:31 philosophers they think they have a
0:03:33 monopoly on the concept of god's love
0:03:36 and god being loving
0:03:38 in actual fact when we scratch the
0:03:39 surface when we move away from religious
0:03:41 public relations and marketing we
0:03:43 realize
0:03:44 that
0:03:45 when you look into mainstream
0:03:48 christian theology
0:03:50 even amongst the differences that they
0:03:51 have the many differences that they have
0:03:53 you'll understand that it is allah
0:03:55 subhanahu wa ta'ala who is maximally
0:03:58 loving and maximally forgiving
0:04:00 and in actual fact the biblical
0:04:03 conception of god
0:04:04 for sure
0:04:06 is is not maximally loving and maximally
0:04:09 forgiving
0:04:11 so
0:04:12 let's first start with
0:04:14 the question who is the loving
0:04:17 allah says in the quran in chapter 11
0:04:20 verse 19
0:04:22 ask forgiveness from your lord
0:04:25 and turn to him in repentance
0:04:27 my lord is merciful and most loving
0:04:31 so let's focus on the name here most
0:04:34 loving
0:04:37 now as i said this word comes from the
0:04:39 arabic word wood which means a loving
0:04:41 that is giving
0:04:42 so you see here that love is not just
0:04:45 some kind of desire or some kind of
0:04:47 internal feeling
0:04:49 but rather love
0:04:52 especially in a kind of from a
0:04:53 linguistic point of view is a way of
0:04:55 being it's a manifestation it's a
0:04:58 behavior and this echoes what many
0:05:00 people talk about concerning love for
0:05:02 example the famous popular book the five
0:05:04 love languages are ways of being because
0:05:07 the way you express love is through
0:05:10 your
0:05:11 utterances and through your actions for
0:05:14 example the five love languages include
0:05:17 gifts that's an action
0:05:19 touch that's an action
0:05:21 words of affirmation that is an
0:05:23 utterance it's like an action
0:05:25 spending quality time
0:05:27 that's a manifestation it's a way of
0:05:29 being spending time with someone that's
0:05:31 external right
0:05:33 and
0:05:34 i've got the other one now but the point
0:05:36 is those five love languages
0:05:39 or acts of service that's the other one
0:05:41 i think that's the one that i forgot
0:05:42 acts of service you're actually serving
0:05:44 someone right obviously there's
0:05:45 different manifestations of how to serve
0:05:47 someone but the point here is this is a
0:05:49 way of being it's an action and this
0:05:51 echoes what the psychologist eric fromm
0:05:55 said in his book the art of loving he
0:05:59 says love
0:06:00 is an activity it's not a passive effect
0:06:05 so yes obviously you're going to have a
0:06:06 want a desire love is intentional and
0:06:09 it's directional but it's a way of being
0:06:12 and it's interesting that the divine
0:06:15 name al-wadud comes from the word would
0:06:19 which means
0:06:20 you know a love that is giving right
0:06:24 now the root word for al-wadud basically
0:06:27 means love
0:06:28 affection
0:06:30 friendship
0:06:31 to desire to wish for to be amicable and
0:06:35 of this root six forms occur 29 times in
0:06:39 the quran
0:06:41 and specifically the
0:06:43 the term the name the word wadud
0:06:46 means very loving
0:06:48 or all loving and it's an attribute of
0:06:50 allah this is why we say allah is
0:06:55 you have the alif lam you have the
0:06:56 definite article here and you basically
0:07:00 are saying that allah is the most loving
0:07:03 he is all loving and from an islamic
0:07:05 theological perspective we know that
0:07:07 allah's names and attributes are
0:07:09 transcendent
0:07:10 but also we affirm the perfection now
0:07:13 what does this mean this means that they
0:07:15 have no deficiency and no flaw and this
0:07:18 is very key this is a very important
0:07:21 point when we're talking about divine
0:07:23 names and attributes that we affirm the
0:07:25 transcendent nature but also we affirm
0:07:27 the maximal perfection in other words
0:07:30 they have no deficiency and no flaw and
0:07:33 they are to the highest degree possible
0:07:36 so when we talk about allah is the wise
0:07:38 he is
0:07:39 his wisdom is transcendent but also it's
0:07:43 maximally perfect it has no deficiency
0:07:45 or no floor in other words allah god has
0:07:48 the totality of wisdom right
0:07:52 when we talk about for example allah's
0:07:54 knowledge his
0:07:56 the knowing and we say yes his knowledge
0:07:58 is transcendent but we also affirm that
0:08:02 his knowledge is maximally perfect is to
0:08:05 the highest degree possible it has no
0:08:07 deficiency and no flaw in other words
0:08:10 allah is all-knowing he knows everything
0:08:13 right
0:08:14 so when we focus on allah's love when we
0:08:17 say allah is
0:08:19 we're saying his love is to the highest
0:08:22 degree possible yes it's transcendent
0:08:24 but it's to the highest degree possible
0:08:26 and
0:08:27 it's perfect it has no deficiency and no
0:08:30 flaw but there's another aspect when
0:08:32 we're going to be talking about allah's
0:08:34 love which is extremely extremely
0:08:36 powerful
0:08:37 and i'm going to unpack that in a few
0:08:39 moments
0:08:40 and what is the powerful nature of
0:08:43 allah's love not only is it maximal in
0:08:46 other words it's to the highest degree
0:08:48 possible not only is it perfect in other
0:08:50 words it has no deficiency and no flaw
0:08:53 not only is it transcendent but it's the
0:08:55 purest form of love and this is what i'm
0:08:57 going to focus on that's that's quite
0:08:59 powerful
0:09:00 because think about worldly love when we
0:09:03 think about worldly love we generally
0:09:05 speaking think about a mother's love
0:09:07 because a mother's love
0:09:09 of course there are exceptions but a
0:09:11 mother's love is
0:09:12 the kind of highest form of love or the
0:09:14 most optimal maximal form of
0:09:17 form of love from a worldly perspective
0:09:19 okay you know a mother's love is
0:09:21 sacrificial it's
0:09:24 unconditional
0:09:25 and so when we think about love we think
0:09:28 about a mother's love yes some mothers
0:09:30 can cannot be loving for sure and
0:09:34 but we know generally speaking that you
0:09:36 know that when we think about the most
0:09:38 optimal type of vlog we think about
0:09:40 mother's love right now some may argue
0:09:42 what about a father's love well
0:09:45 you know with all due respect
0:09:47 even from an experiential point of view
0:09:49 from an anthropological point of view i
0:09:51 don't think fathers come even close when
0:09:53 it comes to unconditional and
0:09:55 sacrificial love now i'm not hating on
0:09:57 the fathers but you know generally
0:09:59 speaking intuitively and even
0:10:01 experientially we say that mother's love
0:10:03 is maximal
0:10:05 from a worldly perspective so
0:10:08 when you think about a mother's love you
0:10:10 think about it's unconditional and it's
0:10:12 sacrificial but the prophet muhammad
0:10:14 sallallahu alaihi wasallam said allah is
0:10:16 more merciful to his servants than this
0:10:19 mother is to her child
0:10:21 so
0:10:22 allah is so the prophet salallahu is
0:10:25 trying to say to us that allah's mercy
0:10:28 is is greater more maximal more perfect
0:10:32 than a mother's love even though a
0:10:34 mother's love from our perspective
0:10:36 is
0:10:38 is the most maximal love we can
0:10:39 understand from a worldly perspective
0:10:41 now
0:10:42 this hadith this prophetic tradition
0:10:44 which is authentic you can find it in
0:10:46 bukhari and muslim
0:10:48 yes this hadith doesn't mention
0:10:50 the the name of allah as
0:10:53 but rather it mentions mercy
0:10:57 now
0:10:58 they are they are different for sure but
0:11:00 they have a connection as well and
0:11:01 that's why i quoted
0:11:03 a
0:11:04 passage from ali ghazari's book on the
0:11:07 99 beautiful names of allah because he
0:11:10 he links
0:11:12 he links allah's maximum love with his
0:11:15 mercy it's it's connected
0:11:18 to his mercy as well there is there is a
0:11:20 similarity yes the distinct in some way
0:11:23 but there is a similarity because
0:11:26 you know when you think about rahma when
0:11:28 you think about a man allah being the
0:11:32 merciful
0:11:33 yes we believe this mercy is is
0:11:35 transcendent it's maximal it's perfect
0:11:37 it has no deficiency and no flaw and we
0:11:40 believe it's the most intense type of
0:11:41 mercy and it's such a powerful mercy
0:11:43 that if allah decides to shower his
0:11:45 mercy on something or someone nothing
0:11:48 can stop it
0:11:50 and it's a boiling over type of mercy if
0:11:52 you want to use that type of language
0:11:53 now
0:11:54 and you could even tell this you could
0:11:56 understand this linguistically when you
0:11:58 understand you know the word or the name
0:12:01 of man
0:12:02 now
0:12:04 from this perspective we also know that
0:12:06 allah's mercy his
0:12:08 encompasses everything
0:12:10 so we can argue that his rahma
0:12:13 is unconditional because it encompasses
0:12:16 everything
0:12:18 it encompasses everything yes there may
0:12:20 be different
0:12:22 manifestations of his mercy and
0:12:24 different intensities of that mercy from
0:12:26 a divine perspective on individuals and
0:12:29 persons and things for sure but
0:12:30 generally speaking his rahma as allah
0:12:33 says
0:12:34 encompasses everything his rahmah
0:12:36 encompasses everything so his mercy
0:12:38 encompasses everything now ali ghazali
0:12:40 argues there is a connection between
0:12:42 the name
0:12:45 and
0:12:46 there is there are subtle differences of
0:12:48 course because the subtle difference is
0:12:51 that the name of rahman or rahma itself
0:12:55 presupposes power and it also
0:12:58 presupposes in some way that the mercy
0:13:00 that you're giving that you're
0:13:02 manifesting
0:13:03 is to something or someone that is
0:13:05 impoverished that doesn't have power
0:13:07 that is weak to a certain degree
0:13:10 however
0:13:11 the love itself it doesn't necessarily
0:13:14 presuppose
0:13:15 that
0:13:16 the
0:13:17 the love that you're giving is to
0:13:18 someone that is weak of course in
0:13:20 you know when we try to understand
0:13:22 ourselves in contrast to allah you can't
0:13:24 even even ima you can't even make an
0:13:26 analogy but the point is this were all
0:13:28 impoverished and were all weak before
0:13:30 allah subhanahu wa
0:13:32 but the name itself doesn't necessarily
0:13:34 presuppose that the kind of intentional
0:13:37 and directional special love that you're
0:13:39 giving is because that thing is weak but
0:13:42 rather it's because of something else
0:13:43 that that love is being given to that
0:13:45 thing from that perspective like look
0:13:46 unpack this let's actually read what
0:13:48 al-ghazali says
0:13:50 so
0:13:50 he says
0:13:52 the loving kind accordingly favors them
0:13:54 and praises them its meaning is close to
0:13:57 the merciful so al-rahman
0:13:59 but mercy is linked
0:14:01 to the one who receives mercy and the
0:14:03 one who receives mercy is needy and poor
0:14:06 so the actions of the merciful
0:14:08 presuppose that being one who is weak to
0:14:11 receive mercy while the actions of the
0:14:13 loving kind do not require that so
0:14:15 hopefully what i said
0:14:17 is has been eloquently summarized and
0:14:19 explained by the chef himself
0:14:22 rather bestowing favors from the outset
0:14:24 results from lovingkindness just as the
0:14:27 meaning of his mercy may he be praised
0:14:29 and exalted consists in his intending
0:14:32 the well-being of the one who receives
0:14:34 mercy and his in his giving him all that
0:14:38 he needs while he is free from empathy
0:14:41 usually associated with mercy so does
0:14:43 his loving kindness consist in his
0:14:45 intending honor
0:14:47 and blessing and his favor and grace
0:14:50 while he transcends the natural
0:14:52 inclination usually associated with love
0:14:55 and mercy obviously from a worldly
0:14:57 perspective
0:14:58 so here other zlatans explain
0:15:01 explaining the distinctions the
0:15:03 distinction between
0:15:05 and
0:15:07 there is a similarity but there is a
0:15:09 significant distinction and that
0:15:11 distinction is about that
0:15:13 or allah being a man and he decides to
0:15:17 shower you know
0:15:19 a thing or an object or a person with
0:15:23 his intense mercy
0:15:25 his loving mercy from that perspective
0:15:27 it presupposes that that thing
0:15:30 is poor and needy but but when allah
0:15:33 decides to
0:15:34 you know intentionally and and in
0:15:37 in a direct way give his special love
0:15:40 aloud to
0:15:42 a human being or to a creature it
0:15:45 doesn't presuppose necessarily that that
0:15:46 thing has to be weak or needy although
0:15:49 everything is weak and needy everything
0:15:51 in the created cosmos and the universe
0:15:54 is weak and needy and is utterly and
0:15:56 solely dependent on allah
0:16:00 but that that special love is not
0:16:03 necessarily because we are weak and
0:16:06 needy that's the point so that's the
0:16:09 subtle distinction according to al
0:16:10 ghazali but the way to really summarize
0:16:12 it in a simpler form is to really say
0:16:15 look
0:16:15 when you think of
0:16:17 god being the the merciful a man
0:16:21 is it's it's
0:16:23 it's it's
0:16:24 probably easier to understanding as
0:16:26 allah is
0:16:28 intensely merciful to everything
0:16:31 he that mercy encompasses everything
0:16:34 and when you think about ala wadud
0:16:37 it's probably better to describe it as
0:16:40 allah's special love because in the
0:16:42 english language mercy and love are
0:16:44 quite synonymous so you could say a man
0:16:47 is loving mercy
0:16:49 and you can say al-wadud is special love
0:16:52 from that perspective okay
0:16:55 and just to summarize again for you to
0:16:57 understand that when you think about
0:16:59 allah's names and attributes remember
0:17:00 they are transcendent
0:17:02 they are perfect they are maximally
0:17:04 perfect to the highest degree possible
0:17:06 and this also means they have no
0:17:07 deficiency and no flaw this is very
0:17:10 important so coming back to the issue of
0:17:12 a mother's love why why is allah's love
0:17:15 pure now why and why is this very
0:17:17 powerful
0:17:18 now it's very powerful because
0:17:21 when a mother loves even though we may
0:17:23 describe it as unconditional either even
0:17:26 though we may describe it as sacrificial
0:17:28 when a mother loves she needs to love
0:17:32 it completes her it fulfills her
0:17:36 she needs to love
0:17:39 however when allah subhanahu loves
0:17:44 when he loves he doesn't need to love
0:17:47 allah is
0:17:50 the free the absolutely free he is
0:17:53 he is the totally self-subsisting and
0:17:55 independent
0:17:57 and when he loves he doesn't gain
0:17:59 anything by loving he doesn't require
0:18:00 any completion he doesn't need anything
0:18:04 he's totally free yet he loves and his
0:18:07 love is the most maximum his love is to
0:18:09 the highest degree possible without
0:18:11 deficiency without flaw so imagine how
0:18:14 pure his love is
0:18:17 allah
0:18:18 allah is greater
0:18:20 so
0:18:22 this is very important to understand
0:18:23 with regards to allah subhanahu wa
0:18:24 ta'ala yes he has
0:18:26 this intense mercy for all things that
0:18:29 encompasses all things you could
0:18:31 describe it as a intense loving mercy
0:18:33 for all things but he's also al-wadud he
0:18:36 is the loving the most loving and he and
0:18:39 he showers this special love to his
0:18:42 creatures and there's a way to attain
0:18:45 that special love
0:18:47 now since we've summarized
0:18:49 the name the attribute
0:18:52 the loving
0:18:53 the most loving let's now talk about
0:18:55 what is worship and how does love
0:18:56 connect to this well
0:18:58 first and foremost linguistically
0:19:00 worship ibadah comes from abbada which
0:19:03 means subservience
0:19:05 submission
0:19:06 subjugation and it refers to everything
0:19:09 that god that allah loves that god loves
0:19:11 and he is pleased with okay
0:19:13 now to unpack the idea of a bad or
0:19:16 worship from the islamic
0:19:18 tradition it's important to break it
0:19:20 down in the following way
0:19:22 so ibadah or worship entails knowledge
0:19:26 what do you mean by this it means that
0:19:28 we need to know god like how can you
0:19:30 worship god worship allah if you don't
0:19:32 know him okay and the more you know
0:19:35 allah the more the more you should
0:19:39 worship of allah or the greater
0:19:41 understanding of worship or the the
0:19:43 greater you have a greater understanding
0:19:45 of actually what it means to be a
0:19:47 worshiper and that would manifest in
0:19:49 your actions you're gonna manifest
0:19:51 you know the actions of the heart
0:19:54 the actions of the tongue and the
0:19:55 actions of the limbs right so the more
0:19:57 you know allah the more you have more
0:19:59 love for him that you'll recognize him
0:20:01 even more you have more certainty and
0:20:03 obviously in islamic tradition there are
0:20:05 levels of certainty right it's not just
0:20:07 a button that you press and that you
0:20:09 have certainty yapping
0:20:11 has different levels okay but that's a
0:20:13 different discussion but the point is
0:20:14 you'd be more more focused and you you'd
0:20:17 recognize allah more and he and he'll be
0:20:19 a central part of your life even more
0:20:22 and you'll be more god conscious and you
0:20:23 have more iman
0:20:25 more more more faith
0:20:27 and
0:20:28 you love allah more right so these are
0:20:30 like the internal actions then your
0:20:31 utterances you'll do more remembrance of
0:20:34 allah you'd remember god you speak about
0:20:36 allah you'd praise allah even more and
0:20:39 also your actions that you'd make dua
0:20:41 and you and you pray more and you do the
0:20:43 super gathering actions and you and you
0:20:45 do the night prayer and you give more
0:20:47 sadhaka you'll give more charity and so
0:20:50 on and so forth so the more knowledge
0:20:52 you have it should impact you know the
0:20:54 actions of the heart the actions of the
0:20:56 tongue and the actions of the limbs
0:20:58 now also when we talk about knowledge in
0:21:00 the context of ibadan in the context of
0:21:02 worship it also means really
0:21:04 recognizing allah and having him has
0:21:08 your central focus in your life and he's
0:21:10 like the ultimate truth that that you
0:21:13 believe in and this is
0:21:15 significant and very important
0:21:18 the another aspect of worship is that
0:21:20 you love allah that you have utmost love
0:21:22 for allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you have
0:21:24 utmost love for god
0:21:26 and it's interesting because you know
0:21:29 and we're going to discuss this in a few
0:21:30 moments that knowledge precedes love
0:21:33 because how can you
0:21:35 love something you don't know
0:21:37 you need to know
0:21:39 the object of adoration the object of
0:21:41 your love
0:21:42 and the more you know it the more your
0:21:44 love should increase
0:21:46 and from an islamic perspective we must
0:21:48 love allah more than anything and this
0:21:51 is what we're going to be discussing in
0:21:52 today's seminar
0:21:53 another aspect of
0:21:55 that is unconditional obedience okay
0:21:58 and that includes submitting to allah
0:22:00 submitting to god being humbled before
0:22:02 him and having a positive fear
0:22:05 now what does fear or or mean in this
0:22:07 context it doesn't mean fearing an enemy
0:22:09 or fearing a monster no this is a
0:22:11 negative type of fear that the fear of
0:22:13 allah is what you call a positive type
0:22:15 of fear because the more you fear allah
0:22:17 the more you run to allah
0:22:19 and it's like for example the type of
0:22:21 fear that a child may experience when
0:22:24 that when their parent is telling them
0:22:26 off and then they hold on to the
0:22:27 parent's leg you mean you may see this
0:22:29 in a shopping mall or in the marketplace
0:22:31 that sorry the child is holding onto the
0:22:33 parent's leg
0:22:34 and saying sorry mom or sorry baba
0:22:36 you're sorry dad forgive me because the
0:22:39 child fears the displeasure of the
0:22:40 parent the child fears the loss of their
0:22:43 connection and relationship and the
0:22:44 child fears the consequences of breaking
0:22:47 that relationship likewise and by
0:22:49 greater reason this is not an analogy
0:22:51 because you can't make analogies with
0:22:52 allah
0:22:56 there is no
0:22:58 you know example
0:23:00 that you can use to compare with allah
0:23:02 subhana water because that's like the
0:23:04 linguistic meaning here lisa
0:23:17 thing there is no
0:23:19 there's no example that you could
0:23:21 compare with allah subhana water because
0:23:23 he is transcendent and this is an
0:23:25 interesting linguistic ploy to show the
0:23:27 utmost transcendent nature of allah
0:23:29 subhanahu wa ta'ala but anyway the point
0:23:31 here is is it's an aphotirai argument by
0:23:34 greater reason when we disobey god when
0:23:37 we run away from his mercy and guidance
0:23:39 and we don't follow his commands
0:23:42 and we don't submit to god then we
0:23:44 should fear the consequences of that and
0:23:47 we should fear losing that connection
0:23:49 and we should fear the displeasure of
0:23:51 the divine okay and that fear is a
0:23:53 positive fear because it should turn us
0:23:55 back to allah okay
0:23:58 and also
0:24:00 a very
0:24:01 very obviously a key aspect of a bad key
0:24:04 aspect of worship is that we must direct
0:24:06 and single out all internal and external
0:24:09 acts of worship to allah allah
0:24:11 and i've alluded to this just previously
0:24:13 but let's just unpack it a little bit
0:24:15 more so what does it mean that we direct
0:24:17 and single out all internal and external
0:24:19 acts of worship to allah alone
0:24:21 well you have
0:24:23 internal acts of worship like extensive
0:24:25 praise right and obviously that's an
0:24:27 entrance as well it could be
0:24:29 externalized
0:24:30 extensive gratitude you could feel
0:24:32 utmost gratitude for allah
0:24:36 a reliance right this is like an action
0:24:38 of the heart and it does manifest itself
0:24:41 on the tongue and the limbs of course as
0:24:43 well but primarily it's in the heart
0:24:45 that you have reliance on god
0:24:47 these are internal acts of worship right
0:24:51 and then you have the external acts of
0:24:53 worship like you literally praise allah
0:24:56 right alhamdulillah allah
0:25:01 these are these external acts of worship
0:25:03 dua supplication the prayer
0:25:06 giving sadaka giving charity and so on
0:25:08 and so forth you know performing the
0:25:11 pilgrimage the major and the minor
0:25:13 pilgrimage hajj umrah
0:25:15 these are external acts of worship but
0:25:16 obviously
0:25:18 it's more nuanced because these external
0:25:20 acts of worship also have internal
0:25:22 elements because you have to have the
0:25:23 right intention and you have to follow
0:25:25 the sunnah of the prophet salallahu
0:25:30 sincerity that you're doing this solely
0:25:32 for the sake of god but the point here
0:25:34 is just to make it a little bit more
0:25:35 simple that the internal acts of worship
0:25:37 and external acts of worship are all
0:25:39 directed and singled out for god alone
0:25:41 to allah okay so this is a very
0:25:44 comprehensive kind of understanding of
0:25:46 what worship is or what worship entails
0:25:49 as you can see love is a key aspect of
0:25:51 worship
0:25:53 the ibadah entails love that you love
0:25:56 allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
0:25:59 and
0:26:01 the student of ibrahim tamir the 14th
0:26:03 century theologian
0:26:05 al jazeera he mentioned something very
0:26:07 interesting
0:26:08 he
0:26:09 even argues that
0:26:11 loving allah loving god leads to
0:26:13 submission
0:26:15 okay so yes as we said obedience and
0:26:17 submission is part of worship but you
0:26:20 need to love allah
0:26:22 or loving allah will lead easier to that
0:26:25 submission okay
0:26:27 and it's very important to focus on the
0:26:29 level of allah because submission will
0:26:31 be much easier okay
0:26:33 so he says there is no doubt that
0:26:36 perfect servitude
0:26:39 so being
0:26:41 in in a state of
0:26:42 enslavement and servitude to allah
0:26:45 to god is part of perfect love
0:26:48 and perfect love is connected to the
0:26:51 perfection of the beloved allah in and
0:26:54 of himself for allah for god may he be
0:26:57 glorified is completely and absolutely
0:27:00 perfect in all aspects
0:27:01 and could not possibly have any
0:27:03 imperfections whatsoever for one who is
0:27:06 like this nothing can be dearer to
0:27:08 people's hearts than him
0:27:10 so long as their basic nature and reason
0:27:13 are sound it is inevitable that he will
0:27:16 be the dearest of all things to their
0:27:18 hearts undoubtedly
0:27:21 love of him leads to submission and
0:27:23 obedience to him seeking his pleasure
0:27:25 doing one's utmost in worship of him and
0:27:28 turning to him
0:27:30 this is the best and strongest motive to
0:27:33 do acts of worship so i wanted to quote
0:27:36 this because it's very interesting that
0:27:38 you know when we are in a state of
0:27:40 servitude
0:27:41 when we are enslaved to allah subhanahu
0:27:44 wa we have this
0:27:45 we have this you know we're in a state
0:27:47 of connection to online submission
0:27:50 what that presupposes is in some sense
0:27:53 especially according to the scholar this
0:27:55 14th century scholar is that you it's
0:27:58 love because love would easily lead to
0:28:01 submission
0:28:03 so it's very important for us to focus
0:28:05 on knowing allah loving allah and that
0:28:07 would lead to submitting and obeying
0:28:10 allah subhanahu wa
0:28:14 now if you remember we said that we must
0:28:18 have utmost love
0:28:20 for allah so it doesn't mean we can't
0:28:22 love other things of course we could
0:28:24 love our parents which is a natural form
0:28:25 of love our spouses we could love our
0:28:28 brothers and sisters and so on and so
0:28:30 forth absolutely
0:28:32 but your utmost love must be directed to
0:28:34 allah
0:28:36 if you if if you love something more
0:28:38 than allah this is what you call
0:28:40 shook it's associationism and yes shuk
0:28:45 as a default position and generally
0:28:47 speaking is the greatest crime and it is
0:28:51 the greatest sin in islam but there are
0:28:53 levels of
0:28:54 there are
0:28:56 there's a greater shirk and there is a
0:28:58 minor shirt but shirk is the greatest
0:29:00 crime and it is the greatest sin
0:29:04 now
0:29:05 we're not here to unpack you know what
0:29:07 constitutes
0:29:09 you know
0:29:10 greater or minor that's for a different
0:29:13 on this for a different session but what
0:29:15 is very important to understand here
0:29:17 is that
0:29:18 in order for your worship to be complete
0:29:20 in order for you for for you to truly
0:29:23 worship allah
0:29:25 you must love allah more than anything
0:29:28 you must love allah more than anything
0:29:31 more than your mother more than your
0:29:32 father more than your spouse more than
0:29:34 anything you can imagine more than
0:29:36 yourself
0:29:37 and this is why we must have utmost love
0:29:39 for allah and the whole point of this
0:29:40 seminar is to show
0:29:43 seven reasons why allah is worthy of our
0:29:45 utmost adoration and utmost love but if
0:29:48 we don't love allah the most then this
0:29:50 is a form of shook it's a form of
0:29:52 associating partners with allah it's
0:29:54 it's the
0:29:55 love it's associating partners with god
0:29:58 himself
0:30:00 and this is why it's very important to
0:30:01 love allah more love allah more than
0:30:03 anything
0:30:05 and allah
0:30:06 talks about this in the second chapter
0:30:08 of the quran in verse 165 allah says
0:30:10 still there are some who take others as
0:30:13 goods equal
0:30:15 okay so there is an associationism here
0:30:17 there is a shook going on
0:30:19 they love them
0:30:21 as they should love allah as they should
0:30:23 love god but the true believers love god
0:30:27 love allah even more
0:30:29 so it's very important brothers and
0:30:31 sisters for us to have utmost love for
0:30:32 allah and this is the whole point of
0:30:34 today's seminar now just stepping a
0:30:37 little bit back concerning the whole
0:30:38 concept of shuriken associationism it's
0:30:41 important to know
0:30:43 that
0:30:44 associationism or associating partners
0:30:47 with allah includes that you direct acts
0:30:50 of worship to other than allah
0:30:52 so if you direct acts of worship to
0:30:54 other than god this is
0:30:56 okay
0:30:56 this is complete associationism this is
0:31:00 completely associated partners with
0:31:01 allah and this is the greatest crime and
0:31:03 the greatest sin
0:31:06 also associationism includes should
0:31:08 includes that you deify creation by
0:31:11 comparing their attributes to divine
0:31:13 attributes so for example you say oh
0:31:14 this mother
0:31:16 she loves her children like allah loves
0:31:18 us
0:31:19 this is totally shook this is
0:31:21 associating partners with allah
0:31:23 subhanahu wa
0:31:24 this is
0:31:25 associationism because you've deified
0:31:28 that mother
0:31:29 you've compared her love her love with
0:31:32 the love of allah
0:31:34 and it also follows the other way around
0:31:36 when you humanize allah's attributes by
0:31:38 comparing them to creations attributes
0:31:40 that's also a form of
0:31:42 and associationism so if you say for
0:31:44 example allah's love is like
0:31:48 my friend's love
0:31:50 you now humanized
0:31:53 allah's
0:31:54 names and attributes allah's love and
0:31:56 that is
0:31:57 and that is
0:31:59 associating partners with allah
0:32:02 something that i have important aside
0:32:03 here also if you reject allah's names
0:32:06 and attributes this is also a form of
0:32:09 this is a form of associating partners
0:32:11 with allah
0:32:14 and the these the types of the types of
0:32:17 association is not just mentioned these
0:32:19 are major
0:32:20 this takes you outside of the fold of
0:32:22 islam and for you to come back it
0:32:24 requires tawba and repentance and
0:32:27 sincere repentance
0:32:29 but the main point i want you to focus
0:32:30 on here is that if you want your faith
0:32:33 to be complete
0:32:36 we must love allah more than anything
0:32:38 utmost love
0:32:41 is what allah deserves not anything else
0:32:44 our utmost adoration and utmost love yes
0:32:46 we can love our parents we could love
0:32:49 our family our spouses and so on and so
0:32:51 forth
0:32:52 but
0:32:53 we must love allah greater more than
0:32:55 anything
0:32:56 more than anything
0:32:58 we encounter anything we can imagine
0:33:01 right
0:33:02 so this is extremely important in order
0:33:05 for our faith to be complete brothers
0:33:07 and sisters
0:33:08 now before we unpack the seven reasons
0:33:10 why allah is worthy of a love i think
0:33:12 it's important to talk about the
0:33:13 relationship between knowledge and love
0:33:16 okay the relationship between knowledge
0:33:18 and love now what's very interesting is
0:33:21 the 11th century polymath and theologian
0:33:23 and gaza ali may not have messed on him
0:33:25 he gave precedence to knowledge over
0:33:27 love and this is very interesting
0:33:28 because he says without knowledge there
0:33:30 will be no love now think conceptualize
0:33:32 this even from a kind of dunya worldly
0:33:34 perspective
0:33:35 can you love something can you truly
0:33:37 love something
0:33:38 can you really have true love
0:33:40 without knowing
0:33:42 the object of love or the object of your
0:33:44 adoration
0:33:45 of course you can't there must be a
0:33:47 basic level of love of knowledge even
0:33:51 recognizing that thing and knowing that
0:33:53 thing exists because that's a form of
0:33:54 knowledge you have to know it exists
0:33:56 before you could even love it and you
0:33:57 have to know more about it in order for
0:33:59 that love to grow
0:34:00 so
0:34:01 ali ghazali from this perspective argues
0:34:03 that knowledge
0:34:06 is
0:34:07 is is a prerequisite for love and not
0:34:10 only that the more knowledge you have
0:34:12 about something or the object of love
0:34:14 the more your love is going to grow it's
0:34:16 going to get stronger
0:34:18 now what's very interesting when you
0:34:19 analyze ali ghazali's work and this is
0:34:21 quite genius of al ghazali
0:34:23 he doesn't see
0:34:25 love as an emotion
0:34:28 he actually sees it as a the highest
0:34:30 form of cognition because it it results
0:34:33 from knowledge
0:34:34 because the fruit of knowledge is love
0:34:37 right so he sees love itself not only
0:34:40 just an internal emotion but he sees it
0:34:42 as a form of cognition
0:34:44 and he says for those endowed with
0:34:47 insight
0:34:48 there is in reality no object of love
0:34:52 but god but allah
0:34:54 nor does anyone but he
0:34:56 deserve love
0:34:58 and this is this is
0:35:00 this is very deep actually because if
0:35:02 you think about it allah is not only
0:35:05 he's not only
0:35:06 the loving the maximally loving the
0:35:08 perfectly loving not only his love is
0:35:10 the most purest form of love but he is
0:35:12 the source of
0:35:13 all types of love in the dunya that we
0:35:16 experience
0:35:17 so how can you love
0:35:20 things that give you love
0:35:23 and yet not love the one who is the
0:35:25 source of that love
0:35:29 so
0:35:32 let's now unpack the seven reasons
0:35:34 brothers and sisters so two of these
0:35:36 reasons are not necessarily taken from
0:35:38 ali ghazali's work
0:35:40 but five of the reasons of these seven
0:35:42 have been directly taken from al
0:35:44 ghazali's work and some of them have a
0:35:46 connection for sure but we're gonna
0:35:47 unpack this together inshallah okay so
0:35:49 these are the seven reasons why allah is
0:35:52 worthy of our utmost adoration or utmost
0:35:54 love and what's very important here
0:35:56 when we say allah is worthy of our
0:35:58 utmost adoration this also means that
0:36:00 allah is really the utmost of of worship
0:36:03 he's the only deity worthy of worship
0:36:05 because love is part of worship
0:36:09 worship entails love
0:36:11 so when you even talk to non-muslims
0:36:13 about this and we're going to unpack
0:36:15 this towards the end on how to use this
0:36:16 in the context of sharing islam
0:36:18 academically and intellectually
0:36:21 you know you can use these seven reasons
0:36:23 as arguments to show why allah is worthy
0:36:25 of worship because as we said
0:36:28 love is part of worship
0:36:32 so
0:36:33 the first reason brothers and sisters
0:36:35 and friends is just referring back to
0:36:38 what we summarized concerning allah's
0:36:40 name
0:36:41 allah's name
0:36:42 he is the most loving them his love is
0:36:45 maximus to the highest degree possible
0:36:46 is transcendent it's perfect it has no
0:36:49 deficiency in flaw and it's the most
0:36:51 purest form of love as we remember we
0:36:53 spoke about a mother's life yes it's
0:36:54 sacrificial and unconditional but she
0:36:57 loves because it completes her she needs
0:36:59 to love but allah doesn't need anything
0:37:01 he's elegant he is the absolutely free
0:37:04 he is
0:37:05 he is the totally independent everything
0:37:07 depends on him and when he loves he
0:37:09 gains nothing by loving yet he loves so
0:37:11 imagine how pure allah's love is so just
0:37:13 remember that
0:37:15 so what i want to do now is to give you
0:37:16 a little bit of a full experiment to
0:37:18 make you understand that you want to
0:37:20 experience allah's love that allah's
0:37:22 love is worthy of extensive praise and
0:37:24 that you want to love allah okay so
0:37:27 these are three points from this little
0:37:29 experiment okay
0:37:30 so
0:37:31 remember this is not an analogy per se
0:37:33 but we're giving you a thought
0:37:34 experiment and you could do what it's
0:37:36 called as an argument from greater
0:37:38 reason it's an a for terri argument
0:37:41 by greater reason these are the
0:37:42 arguments that the ulema that the
0:37:44 scholars make and allah ali ghazali make
0:37:46 makes these arguments even tamiya makes
0:37:48 aphoteric arguments by greater reason
0:37:51 okay but we don't make analogies
0:37:54 so here's the full experiment you ready
0:37:56 for it
0:37:56 are you ready for the full experiment
0:37:58 well let's go right imagine someone
0:38:01 walked into your life okay so imagine
0:38:04 someone walked into your life
0:38:06 and they were described as the most
0:38:08 loving human being to have ever lived
0:38:10 and that would ever live
0:38:12 now here are some questions
0:38:14 what do you think will happen to you
0:38:17 you will be naturally compelled to seek
0:38:20 understand or experience that love in
0:38:22 some way
0:38:24 you would also love and praise that
0:38:26 person
0:38:27 by virtue of their loving nature
0:38:30 right and this is this is so true so it
0:38:32 doesn't imagine someone comes to your
0:38:33 room night right now and they're
0:38:34 described as the most loving person to
0:38:36 have ever lived and that will ever live
0:38:40 naturally from a fitnah perspective from
0:38:42 your innate disposition point of view
0:38:44 you're gonna incline towards that you're
0:38:45 going to have a natural inclination and
0:38:47 an affinity to this person because
0:38:49 that's the heart
0:38:51 yearns for that for love right the
0:38:53 fitzray yearns for love and obviously
0:38:55 within halal parameters within the
0:38:57 permissible moral parameters for sure
0:38:59 but the point is something is going to
0:39:01 happen to you naturally you're gonna
0:39:02 have a natural inclination you want to
0:39:04 you want to understand the love you want
0:39:06 to seek that love you want to experience
0:39:08 that love in some way
0:39:09 but also you would love that person just
0:39:11 by virtue of them being the most loving
0:39:13 thing and the more you know about why
0:39:14 they're so loving your love is going to
0:39:16 increase for them not only that you'll
0:39:18 praise them by virtue of their love you
0:39:20 know we praise people all the time by
0:39:22 virtue of their attributes or their
0:39:24 abilities or their qualities all the
0:39:26 time even though their qualities are
0:39:28 limited and deficient in some way
0:39:30 so what about you know loving allah now
0:39:33 because remember allah's love is maximal
0:39:35 to the highest degree possible the most
0:39:37 purest form of love so we should praise
0:39:38 him extensively by virtue of who he is
0:39:41 and praise as a form of worship
0:39:43 we would we would also want to
0:39:44 experience that love because allah's
0:39:46 love is the most maximal the most
0:39:48 highest form of love the more is
0:39:50 transcendent and it's the most it's the
0:39:51 purest form of love only a fool would
0:39:54 not want to experience the love of allah
0:39:56 subhanahu wa
0:39:58 but also we would love allah remember
0:40:00 the more you know about even a human
0:40:01 being that is very loving the more you
0:40:03 have an affinity a natural inclination
0:40:05 towards them what about allah
0:40:07 what about allah
0:40:11 immediately by knowing just his name
0:40:14 and what that really means understanding
0:40:15 that allah's love is pure and maximum to
0:40:17 the highest degree possible
0:40:20 just knowing who allah is
0:40:22 would just compel you to love him too
0:40:26 so
0:40:27 the first reason is
0:40:29 that we love allah because allah's love
0:40:31 is maximum perfect and pure and we want
0:40:33 to experience that love and we want to
0:40:35 extensively praise him by virtue of
0:40:37 being the the
0:40:38 the most loving and we want to and we
0:40:42 and we love him too because the more we
0:40:44 understand
0:40:45 the purity of his love and the maximum
0:40:47 nature of his love we're just driven
0:40:49 towards him
0:40:52 alhamdulillah
0:40:54 second reason
0:40:55 spiritual fulfillment
0:40:58 now
0:40:58 i know you know you may not to say that
0:41:01 you should be watching these type of
0:41:02 movies but generally speaking in popular
0:41:04 culture you know when
0:41:05 they may be a husband or a wife and they
0:41:07 say you complete me
0:41:09 now that sounds very maybe cringe if you
0:41:11 like you know some kids say oh that
0:41:12 sounds so cringe but there's something
0:41:14 in there when something completes
0:41:16 another thing especially when it comes
0:41:18 to
0:41:19 two human beings and they have a
0:41:20 relation
0:41:21 even if it's just a friendship
0:41:24 you have a natural inclination towards
0:41:26 that person
0:41:28 and that natural inclination manifests
0:41:30 itself in love that you love that person
0:41:33 because they complete you in some way
0:41:37 now for greater reason allah completes
0:41:39 us
0:41:40 totally and utterly
0:41:42 and this is why our utmost love should
0:41:44 be to him
0:41:47 why because think about the whole razon
0:41:50 detroit of the human being
0:41:52 the
0:41:52 the reason we exist brothers and sisters
0:41:55 is to worship allah subhanahu wa
0:41:58 that is our spiritual fulfillment our
0:42:01 purpose in life
0:42:02 is to worship allah to know him to love
0:42:05 to know him the most and recognizing the
0:42:06 most to love him the most to obey him
0:42:08 the most unconditionally and to direct
0:42:10 all acts of worship to him the most the
0:42:12 internal acts of worship and the
0:42:14 external acts of worship
0:42:16 okay this is ours on detroit our reason
0:42:20 for existence it completes us
0:42:22 it answers our questions who am i why am
0:42:24 i for whom am i right
0:42:27 whose am i
0:42:29 where did i come from where am i going
0:42:30 what am i supposed to do worship it's
0:42:32 about worshiping allah subhanahu wa and
0:42:34 as allah says in the quran that he did
0:42:36 not create human beings in the spirit
0:42:38 world the jinn
0:42:39 except to worship him
0:42:41 except to worship him
0:42:43 and we unpacked you know the depth of
0:42:45 what worship actually means
0:42:48 so when we worship allah it fulfills us
0:42:51 and it defines who we are
0:42:53 and there are three beautiful verses in
0:42:55 the quran that really
0:42:58 explain what i'm saying here
0:43:00 the first verse as we just mentioned in
0:43:03 chapter 51 verse 56 is i did not create
0:43:06 jinn the spirit world and humans except
0:43:08 to worship me so our purpose is to
0:43:10 worship allah and when we worship allah
0:43:12 we fulfill our purpose it completes us
0:43:15 also
0:43:17 it makes us who we are it's part of our
0:43:20 kind of if you want to use this term
0:43:21 spiritual identity it's part of identi
0:43:23 our identity and i'm not talking about
0:43:25 identity from a kind of
0:43:27 ethno
0:43:28 religious perspective but truly what it
0:43:31 means to be human
0:43:33 it completes our humanity because what
0:43:35 does allah say in chapter 59 verse 19
0:43:37 and be not like those who forgot allah
0:43:40 so he made them forget themselves they
0:43:42 are the defiantly disobedient
0:43:44 so
0:43:46 if we forget allah we remove ourselves
0:43:49 away from our primary purpose which is
0:43:51 to worship allah subhanahu wa
0:43:53 it's like we're forgetting ourselves
0:43:54 we're not complete anymore we lose our
0:43:56 sense of what it means to be human
0:43:59 and also
0:44:01 if we're not worshiping allah we're
0:44:02 worshiping something else
0:44:04 and we're not going to be in a state of
0:44:06 that fulfillment
0:44:07 and this is beautifully explained
0:44:10 and articulated in the verse of the
0:44:13 quran chapter 39 verse 29 allah says god
0:44:17 allah puts forward this illustration
0:44:19 can a man who has for his masters
0:44:21 several partners at odds with each other
0:44:24 be considered equal to a man devoted
0:44:26 holy to one master
0:44:28 all praise belongs to allah though most
0:44:30 of them do not know think about this is
0:44:32 unpack this
0:44:35 from a pondering point of view when you
0:44:36 ponder this verse you could come to this
0:44:38 conclusion
0:44:40 if you don't worship allah who knows you
0:44:42 better than you better than you know
0:44:43 yourself
0:44:45 and who has more affection for you than
0:44:47 your mother
0:44:49 and by worshiping him completely if you
0:44:52 don't worship allah you're going to be
0:44:53 worshiping something else and they're
0:44:54 going to be many things
0:44:56 many you're going to be a slave to many
0:44:58 masters in the organ or quarrel and
0:45:00 you're never going to feel complete and
0:45:01 fulfilled and at peace
0:45:03 because if you don't worship allah
0:45:05 you're worshiping something else either
0:45:06 yourself your ego and ideology because
0:45:08 remember what did we talk about
0:45:10 concerning what love is what a bad day
0:45:13 is what worship is
0:45:15 to recognize allah to know allah to love
0:45:17 allah the most to obey him
0:45:18 unconditionally
0:45:20 to
0:45:21 direct and single out all acts of
0:45:23 worship to him alone the internal acts
0:45:25 of worship and the external acts of
0:45:26 worship
0:45:28 now you could universalize this the
0:45:30 thing that you want to know the most and
0:45:31 recognize the most the thing that you
0:45:33 love the most the thing that you obey or
0:45:34 refer to the most and the thing that you
0:45:36 direct acts of worship like praise and
0:45:38 gratitude towards the most that is your
0:45:40 object of worship even if you're an
0:45:42 atheist you're worshiping something as
0:45:44 martin ling said man cannot not worship
0:45:46 we're always in a state of servitude
0:45:49 if it's not allah it's going to be
0:45:50 something else your ego
0:45:53 an ideology a celebrity
0:45:56 a new fan whatever the case may be
0:45:58 because you could ask yourself the
0:46:00 question is this something in my life
0:46:01 that i have recognized the most it's
0:46:04 been the the most truthful thing in my
0:46:06 life is this something in my life that i
0:46:08 love the most is there something in my
0:46:09 life that i refer to the most is there
0:46:10 something in my life that i express
0:46:12 gratitude and praise towards the most
0:46:14 it may not be a constant thing it may be
0:46:16 different things but the thing is there
0:46:18 is something that you wanted to know
0:46:20 love obey refer to and express gratitude
0:46:23 and praise towards that's your object of
0:46:25 worship
0:46:28 that is your object of worship if it's
0:46:30 something that you've wanted to know the
0:46:31 most and love the most and obey the most
0:46:33 and express ultimate and extensive
0:46:36 praise and gratitude towards the most
0:46:37 that's your object of worship so even if
0:46:39 you're an atheist you worship something
0:46:41 from this perspective
0:46:43 but allah completes us by when we
0:46:46 worship allah
0:46:47 we are complete it makes us whole
0:46:50 it's part of what it means to be human
0:46:54 and so if by worshiping allah it
0:46:56 completes us we have that spiritual
0:46:57 fulfillment we're fulfilled
0:47:01 we are complete
0:47:03 then
0:47:04 we're going to have a natural
0:47:06 inclination and affinity towards it and
0:47:08 love towards allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
0:47:10 just like when we are in a relation with
0:47:12 a friend or with a spouse and they
0:47:14 complete us in some way even from a
0:47:15 worldly perspective we have a we have an
0:47:18 affinity an inclination and love for
0:47:20 that person but greater reason what
0:47:22 about allah wa ta'ala worshiping him
0:47:25 defines us completes us totally and
0:47:27 utterly it's our very purpose of our own
0:47:29 existence and these verses unpack
0:47:32 all of this
0:47:33 so being spiritually fulfilled by
0:47:35 worshiping allah is actually one of the
0:47:37 reasons why we must love him the most
0:47:42 the third point self-love
0:47:44 now this is ali ghazali's first cause of
0:47:47 love so he talks about self-love now
0:47:50 obviously ali ghazali being aligazali
0:47:53 the kind of
0:47:54 psycho spiritualist if you like he was
0:47:56 like a psychologist he just you know if
0:47:58 you read some of his works he just goes
0:48:00 right inside your heart and just
0:48:01 questions everything and you're like oh
0:48:04 now
0:48:06 may allah have messed on him he talks
0:48:07 about self-love and self-love should
0:48:09 lead to loving allah now self-love from
0:48:12 this perspective of course
0:48:14 is not
0:48:16 narcissism self-love is not being
0:48:18 narcissistic self-love is not being
0:48:20 egocentric okay
0:48:22 and this echoes what the psychologist
0:48:24 eric from talks about he talks about
0:48:26 self-love is like a mature love it's
0:48:28 wanting good for yourself so alexander
0:48:30 understands that this type of self-love
0:48:32 is not narcissism
0:48:34 it's more that you want good for
0:48:36 yourself and he basically argues
0:48:39 that
0:48:41 you want your well-being to increase no
0:48:43 one wants to suffer
0:48:44 you want your your existence to continue
0:48:47 those two things are a sign of self-love
0:48:49 you want good for yourself
0:48:51 and al-ghazali argues that we want the
0:48:54 conditions we want conditions in place
0:48:56 in our life to increase our well-being
0:48:59 whether it's internal or external and we
0:49:01 want conditions in our life to increase
0:49:03 and prolong our existence
0:49:06 right
0:49:08 so from this that's why we want jannah
0:49:10 we want eternal bliss in paradise now
0:49:12 from this perspective
0:49:14 argues well
0:49:16 who creates those conditions
0:49:20 who created the asbab the physical
0:49:22 causes in order to increase your
0:49:23 well-being and to increase your
0:49:24 existence it's allah
0:49:27 and therefore allah is worthy of our
0:49:29 utmost love you may love the things that
0:49:31 increase your well-being internal
0:49:33 well-being or external well-being you
0:49:34 may love the things that increase your
0:49:36 existence and prolongs your existence
0:49:38 and your health and your well-being and
0:49:39 so on and so forth that's fine you may
0:49:41 love them
0:49:42 but what about the one who created those
0:49:44 things and put those things in place
0:49:47 you should love him more
0:49:48 as ali ghazali argues therefore if man's
0:49:52 love for himself be necessary then his
0:49:55 love for him through whom first his
0:49:57 coming to be and second his continuance
0:50:00 in his essential being with all his
0:50:02 inward and outward traits his substance
0:50:05 and his accidents occur must also be
0:50:07 necessary whoever is so besotted by his
0:50:10 fleshy appetite as to lack this love
0:50:12 neglects his lord and creator he
0:50:15 possesses no authentic knowledge of him
0:50:17 his gaze is limited to his cravings and
0:50:20 things of sense
0:50:23 it you're just relying on the kind of
0:50:25 things that you sense right in front of
0:50:27 you you don't understand the greater
0:50:28 metaphysical picture that behind all of
0:50:30 that is allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so
0:50:32 self-love leads to the love of allah
0:50:36 and this was ali ghazali's first cause
0:50:38 of love
0:50:40 the fourth reason why allah is worthy
0:50:43 of our utmost adoration or utmost love
0:50:46 is that naturally we love one's
0:50:48 benefactor when people benefit us in
0:50:50 some way we have a natural inclination
0:50:51 towards them we love them and this of
0:50:53 course is ali ghazali's second cause of
0:50:55 love it's beneficence it's loving one's
0:50:57 benefactor now think about it when
0:51:00 someone benefits all the time and you
0:51:02 know whatever that benefit could be it
0:51:04 could be that they praise you that they
0:51:05 give you words of affirmation that they
0:51:06 give you gifts that they help you that
0:51:08 the committed to your well-being
0:51:10 however it manifests itself when there
0:51:12 is a prolonged continuous
0:51:15 kind of expression of this benefit given
0:51:18 to you from a benefactor you're going to
0:51:20 have a natural inclination of love
0:51:21 towards them and we know this even from
0:51:23 the hadith of the prophet sallallahu
0:51:24 alaihi wasallam one manifestation of
0:51:26 love is giving gifts right it increases
0:51:28 love and this is interesting because
0:51:30 this echoes the five love languages and
0:51:32 the famous book the five love languages
0:51:34 and one of them is gifts giving gifts
0:51:37 and the prophet salallahu basically said
0:51:40 give gifts for increases love amongst
0:51:41 you
0:51:42 so
0:51:43 you know when we when when we're
0:51:44 benefited by a benefactor
0:51:47 we have a natural inclination towards
0:51:49 them and we love them
0:51:50 but the question here is and this is
0:51:52 what
0:51:52 he talks about is well who is the source
0:51:54 of all of our blessings
0:51:56 who is the source of all of these of all
0:51:57 of these benefits who create these
0:52:00 benefactors that you experience in the
0:52:01 world
0:52:02 who's the source of pleasure itself it
0:52:04 is god it is allah
0:52:05 right
0:52:07 if that's the case allah is the greatest
0:52:09 benefactor and we know this because one
0:52:11 of allah's names is
0:52:12 the source of oh goodness he is the
0:52:14 greatest benefactor
0:52:16 and he is the source of all blessings on
0:52:19 all
0:52:19 and all benefactors and therefore all of
0:52:21 the benefits that we receive from
0:52:23 benefactors right
0:52:25 so from this perspective
0:52:27 if we love
0:52:28 these blessings and we love receiving
0:52:31 these benefits from benefactors and we
0:52:33 love these benefactors themselves about
0:52:35 the one who created this benefactor that
0:52:38 we experience in the world and what
0:52:39 about the one who gives us all of these
0:52:41 blessings
0:52:42 it's allah so we should love him the
0:52:44 most we should have a stronger
0:52:45 inclination and affinity towards allah
0:52:47 subhanahu wa
0:52:49 now
0:52:50 in fact we even know that we can't even
0:52:53 count allah's blessings
0:52:55 we can't even enumerate them
0:52:57 individually now consider for example
0:53:00 your life itself i want you to focus on
0:53:02 this brothers and sisters focus on your
0:53:04 life itself okay your life
0:53:06 if i give you 10 million pounds
0:53:09 okay if i gave you 10 million pounds no
0:53:12 string is attached how would you feel
0:53:14 let's be very honest
0:53:17 you could spend it in any way you want
0:53:19 you could spend it in any way you want
0:53:22 okay
0:53:24 and if you spend it in one day i'll give
0:53:26 you another 10 million pounds
0:53:29 how would you feel
0:53:30 and there's no strings attached and it's
0:53:31 guaranteed you're gonna get it
0:53:33 hypothetically speaking how would you
0:53:34 feel you'd be ecstatic you'd be
0:53:36 overjoyed okay good let me give you
0:53:39 another example now
0:53:40 or another scenario
0:53:43 if i said to you
0:53:44 i'll give you this 10 million pounds but
0:53:46 tomorrow morning you cannot wake up
0:53:48 would you take these 10 million pounds
0:53:50 every rational saying human being would
0:53:52 say no i'm not going to take the 10
0:53:53 million pounds because i won't be able
0:53:54 to wake up tomorrow morning i'll be dead
0:53:58 this shows that life itself is priceless
0:54:01 and more worth than any money that you
0:54:03 can receive
0:54:04 which on a side note should also means
0:54:06 that every time we wake up
0:54:08 we should feel as if we've got more than
0:54:10 a 10 million pounds if we are truly
0:54:12 grateful and have this true insight
0:54:15 but the point here is the gift of life
0:54:18 as we call it from a popular perspective
0:54:20 is priceless and we don't own earn or
0:54:23 deserve our conscious moments that allah
0:54:25 gives to us
0:54:28 we don't earn own these conscious
0:54:30 moments so it shows that life itself is
0:54:32 priceless
0:54:33 now
0:54:34 one of the physical causes one of the
0:54:36 asbab
0:54:38 that keeps us alive and we know life is
0:54:40 priceless we don't earn all or
0:54:42 necessarily deserve it
0:54:45 one of the causes is our heart beating
0:54:49 now his his he here is the crux now of
0:54:52 the matter
0:54:56 can you count
0:54:57 individually all the heartbeats you've
0:54:59 had in a lifetime
0:55:01 it's actually practically impossible for
0:55:03 the first two or three years you can't
0:55:04 count
0:55:05 when you're sleeping you can't count you
0:55:07 will never be able to enumerate
0:55:08 individually
0:55:10 the heartbeats you've had in a lifetime
0:55:12 now let me just change the scenario a
0:55:13 little bit
0:55:14 say alhamdulillah say all praise and
0:55:17 perfect gratitude perfect praise and
0:55:19 ultimate gravity belongs to allah
0:55:21 alhamdulillah say every time you've had
0:55:24 a heartbeat
0:55:25 you can't because the first two or three
0:55:27 years you couldn't speak when you're
0:55:28 sleeping you can't see it when you're
0:55:29 eating you can't see it when you're
0:55:31 interacting with doing other things you
0:55:32 can't say it
0:55:33 so you can never enumerate
0:55:36 the single blessing which is a heartbeat
0:55:38 that keeps you alive which your life is
0:55:40 a priceless gift that you don't earn own
0:55:42 or deserve
0:55:43 and you can't even be grateful for that
0:55:44 single blessing either
0:55:49 allah is the greatest benefactor
0:55:53 therefore
0:55:54 allah is worthy of our utmost love
0:55:56 if we love people that give us blessings
0:55:58 and benefits and sorry not blessings but
0:56:00 benefits and gifts
0:56:02 and you know the committed to our
0:56:03 well-being
0:56:05 you know we have a natural inclination
0:56:07 and love towards them but what about
0:56:08 allah who created them what about allah
0:56:09 who created a blessing that we don't
0:56:11 earn or deserve
0:56:13 it's a priceless gift and we can't be
0:56:15 truly grateful for it what kind of love
0:56:17 must you have from for allah now the
0:56:19 utmost love
0:56:22 alhamdulillah
0:56:26 the fifth reason which is connected to
0:56:28 the to the previous reason and this is
0:56:30 ali ghazali's third cause of love is
0:56:32 loving a benefactor without benefiting
0:56:35 so we already spoke about that we have a
0:56:38 natural inclination an affinity a love
0:56:40 for people that give us benefits okay
0:56:42 or gives us gifts or they committed our
0:56:44 well-being or their our service in some
0:56:47 way
0:56:48 but we also naturally love and we have
0:56:51 an inclination towards people of
0:56:53 goodness and people who are benefactors
0:56:56 even without experiencing their goodness
0:56:58 or experiencing any of the benefits that
0:57:00 they give to people
0:57:02 when you hear stories for example of a
0:57:04 leader or personality or a king
0:57:07 that is a source of goodness for people
0:57:09 and he
0:57:11 benefits people all the time what
0:57:12 happens to you over time the more you
0:57:14 know this person the more you have a
0:57:16 natural inclination and love towards
0:57:17 this person okay
0:57:19 so we have a natural love for people who
0:57:20 do good and benefit others even if we
0:57:23 don't receive that good or receive those
0:57:24 benefits ourselves and the more we know
0:57:27 about them the more affection is going
0:57:29 to grow
0:57:30 but given the fact that we already
0:57:31 argued that allah that god is the source
0:57:33 of all people's blessings all benefits
0:57:36 and all pleasures he is
0:57:38 the greatest benefactor as allah says in
0:57:41 chapter 52 verse 28 he is the good he is
0:57:44 the merciful one since he is the source
0:57:46 of for goodness
0:57:49 and his good is pure and maximal and
0:57:51 transcends all of these kind of worldly
0:57:55 goods that you receive and you
0:57:57 understand and worldly goodness right
0:58:00 and transcend these benefactors and is
0:58:03 the greatest benefactor if you could
0:58:05 love
0:58:06 as someone or have an affinity for
0:58:07 someone because they are a source of
0:58:09 goodness and they give people benefits
0:58:11 in some way what about the one who is
0:58:13 the greatest benefactor and the source
0:58:15 of oh goodness
0:58:17 allahu akbar allah is greater
0:58:20 we should have an affinity and a
0:58:21 stronger natural inclination towards a
0:58:23 loss of hand and water
0:58:29 the sixth reason and this is ali
0:58:31 ghazali's fourth cause of love is
0:58:32 actually loving beauty and goodness
0:58:35 brothers and sisters we love beauty and
0:58:38 we love goodness who doesn't love
0:58:39 beautiful things especially when you
0:58:41 talk about natural beauty i remember
0:58:43 when i was in wales
0:58:44 which is a country in the united kingdom
0:58:48 and i think it was north wales from what
0:58:49 i remember and we were camping it was i
0:58:51 think towards the end of the summer and
0:58:54 i was praying fajr the morning prayer
0:58:56 and when i walked out of my tent
0:58:58 and it was still dark i looked up i just
0:59:01 happened to look up from i remember i
0:59:03 happened to look up and i saw layers
0:59:05 upon layers upon layers of stars
0:59:07 and something just i choked and he cried
0:59:11 and it was one of you know the rare
0:59:12 moments when i look at natural beauty i
0:59:14 felt that natural beauty
0:59:17 beauty in the natural world
0:59:19 you know gives us that kind of reaction
0:59:21 we have a natural inclination
0:59:23 and all
0:59:25 to natural beauty
0:59:27 and we love natural beauty
0:59:31 also we love goodness we mentioned this
0:59:32 earlier we love good things we love good
0:59:35 people we love people that give goodness
0:59:37 and that spread goodness this is just a
0:59:39 natural part of what it means to be
0:59:41 human if you have a sound innate
0:59:42 disposition and a sound mind and a sound
0:59:45 heart you're going to incline and love
0:59:48 beauty and attributing your love
0:59:49 goodness
0:59:51 and that's just a fact
0:59:54 but the point here is who is the source
0:59:56 of this goodness and who is the source
0:59:58 of this beauty it's allah so how can you
1:00:01 love beauty and attribute and goodness
1:00:03 and not love the source of this beauty
1:00:06 and goodness
1:00:07 not only that allah loves beauty and
1:00:10 allah is beautiful as we know in the
1:00:13 authentic hadith of the prophet
1:00:14 salallahu
1:00:16 when he said verily indeed allah is
1:00:18 beautiful and he loves beauty also we
1:00:21 just repeat the same verse repeated in
1:00:23 the previous reason
1:00:24 he is the good albert he is the greatest
1:00:27 benefactor he is the source of the
1:00:29 goodness the merciful one so allah is a
1:00:32 source of oh goodness he's the source of
1:00:33 beauty and he is beautiful and by the
1:00:35 way
1:00:36 this gives us an understanding that
1:00:38 beauty itself is actually objective
1:00:41 because you can't say allah's beauty is
1:00:42 subjective so the kind of islamic
1:00:45 understanding of beauty is that beauty
1:00:47 has an objective aspect to it
1:00:50 but pointing that to aside
1:00:52 we have another online academic seminar
1:00:54 that you could see on our playlist on
1:00:56 the sapiens institute youtube channel
1:00:58 that chef fahad tasting talks about
1:00:59 natural beauty and when you engage and
1:01:01 reflect upon attributing the quran tells
1:01:03 us to reflect and to ponder on the kind
1:01:05 of natural world and you know the
1:01:08 manifestation of allah's names and
1:01:09 attributes right here's
1:01:11 he is the creator he's
1:01:13 the perpetually creative and everything
1:01:15 we see in the universe and all the
1:01:16 beauty that we see is created by the
1:01:18 subhanallah when you reflect on that
1:01:21 beauty it should increase in your all
1:01:24 it increases your or when your all
1:01:26 increases it increases your cognitive
1:01:28 your cognition your ability to think
1:01:31 clearly
1:01:32 it increases your ability to understand
1:01:34 your cognitive faculties and it
1:01:36 decreases your ego and it makes you more
1:01:39 humble
1:01:40 and that's very interesting very
1:01:42 interesting
1:01:43 very interesting brothers and sisters
1:01:45 but please you know watch that seminar
1:01:47 it's a very powerful summary it's linked
1:01:49 to the hadith or the prophet
1:01:50 salallahu which refers to allah's beauty
1:01:53 and it also refers to the whole issue of
1:01:55 arrogance as well which is quite
1:01:56 phenomenal the way
1:01:58 to steam unpacks it is really beautiful
1:02:00 but from this perspective
1:02:02 we love beauty and goodness we love
1:02:03 natural beauty we love people who are
1:02:05 good will have good things itself we're
1:02:08 like we love good stories we love
1:02:10 people who do good things we have a
1:02:12 natural inclination and love for these
1:02:13 people
1:02:16 so it means we must love allah the most
1:02:18 because he is the source of that
1:02:19 goodness and the source of that beauty
1:02:20 and not only that he is beautiful and as
1:02:23 we know you know allah's beauty is
1:02:25 something you can't even imagine it's
1:02:26 transcendent and it's something that
1:02:28 will you know
1:02:30 would blow your mind away
1:02:32 so from this perspective if you love
1:02:35 beauty and goodness you have to love
1:02:37 allah because he's the source of beauty
1:02:39 he's a source of goodness and he is
1:02:41 beautiful
1:02:45 the final reason brothers and sisters is
1:02:47 that we and this is ali ghazali's fifth
1:02:49 and final cause as well
1:02:51 the seventh reason that we're talking
1:02:52 about today is that we love something
1:02:54 due to an affinity or similarity okay
1:02:58 now alegazani argues that if you if you
1:03:00 have a similarity with something
1:03:03 or with your object of adoration or you
1:03:05 have an affinity a natural inclination
1:03:07 towards that thing
1:03:09 it's going to increase your love
1:03:12 so
1:03:13 loving lovers or something that you love
1:03:16 an object of your adoration and love
1:03:20 usually is the case because you have
1:03:21 some similarity to it or there is a
1:03:23 natural inclination there is an affinity
1:03:25 towards it
1:03:27 now from an islamic theological
1:03:28 perspective we have to understand that
1:03:29 we have a fitra
1:03:31 we have a innate disposition and we also
1:03:34 have a
1:03:35 we have a soul
1:03:37 and the roar has been created by allah
1:03:39 okay allah created ourselves he placed
1:03:42 the soul of adam alaihissalam okay
1:03:45 and interestingly the hadith the
1:03:47 prophetic tradition talks about that the
1:03:49 soul came out of his nose and he sneezed
1:03:51 and he said alhamdulillah he praised god
1:03:54 where did he learn that from
1:03:56 some or a scholar i i have heard has
1:03:58 said that this could be an indication
1:04:00 that the fit of the innate disposition
1:04:02 is part of the soul because where has he
1:04:05 learned to naturally respond by praising
1:04:07 god and you know that natural affinity
1:04:10 is part of the fitzvah is part of the
1:04:12 innate disposition but that's another
1:04:13 topic for another time
1:04:16 the point here is allah created our
1:04:18 souls and our innate disposition to
1:04:20 recognize him and to adore him and to
1:04:22 worship him
1:04:23 for example allah says in the quran in
1:04:25 chapter 15 verse 29 so when i fashioned
1:04:28 him and had a spirit of my own creation
1:04:30 breathed into him
1:04:32 so allah
1:04:33 created human beings allah
1:04:35 gave the soul
1:04:38 so there is an affinity there is a
1:04:39 connection
1:04:41 also even from the point of view of our
1:04:43 function as human beings on this earth
1:04:45 yes we're here to worship allah but also
1:04:47 we're here to be ambassadors for allah
1:04:50 allah says in surah al-baqarah 30
1:04:52 remember when your lord said to the
1:04:54 angels i am going to place a successive
1:04:56 human authority on earth we are the vice
1:04:59 church of god of allah for
1:05:01 on earth we need to be
1:05:04 we need to take care of earth we are
1:05:05 ambassadors for allah so there is an
1:05:08 affinity connection to allah it's as if
1:05:10 he's given us you know a job description
1:05:13 and given us the role so there is an
1:05:15 affinity if we're connected to our boss
1:05:17 because he's given us a role then by
1:05:18 greater reason we have an affinity with
1:05:21 panel at a time
1:05:23 also all of this worshipping online
1:05:24 connecting to him is part of our natural
1:05:26 disposition as allah says in chapter 30
1:05:29 verse 13
1:05:30 so be steadfast in faith in all
1:05:32 uprightness the natural way of allah
1:05:34 which he has instilled in all people
1:05:38 and very interesting of the famous
1:05:39 prophetic tradition the authentic
1:05:41 tradition that that's narrated by a
1:05:43 muslim
1:05:44 which many people know is about the the
1:05:46 hadith the prophetic tradition on the
1:05:47 natural instinct on the fitzwa where the
1:05:49 prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
1:05:51 no child is born but he is upon the fit
1:05:54 for the natural disposition or the
1:05:56 normative original state or the natural
1:05:57 instinct
1:05:59 his parents make him a jew or a
1:06:00 christian or megan and it continues
1:06:02 and then towards the end
1:06:06 he recited
1:06:07 this verse which is the verse that we
1:06:09 just mentioned chapter 3 verse 30 the
1:06:11 natural way of allah
1:06:13 so our innate dispositions
1:06:16 are designed are created by allah to
1:06:19 have an affinity towards him
1:06:21 so when you have an affinity towards
1:06:23 something
1:06:24 you have a natural inclination you have
1:06:26 a love for that thing
1:06:28 and our affinity for allah is far
1:06:30 greater than any affinity that we can
1:06:32 imagine because allah created our soul
1:06:34 allah gave us a function on earth a job
1:06:36 description and a road with ambassadors
1:06:38 for allah and worshiping allah and
1:06:41 connecting to allah and being inclined
1:06:43 towards allah is part of who we are is
1:06:45 our natural disposition
1:06:48 so we love things due to an affinity
1:06:49 having an affinity for those things
1:06:53 and if that's the case then by greater
1:06:55 reason we must love allah even more
1:06:57 because we have a greater affinity and
1:06:59 natural inclination for allah subhanahu
1:07:01 wa to add allah brothers and sisters
1:07:04 these are seven powerful reasons why
1:07:06 allah is worthy of worship allahu akbar
1:07:09 honestly this is one of my favorite
1:07:10 topics brothers and sisters it's just
1:07:13 it's something else it's something else
1:07:14 alhamdulillah
1:07:16 so let's deal with some contentious
1:07:18 brothers and sisters so one major
1:07:20 objection that comes to mind is well
1:07:22 okay fine you're saying allah is
1:07:25 he is the
1:07:26 maximally loving he's the most loving
1:07:28 he's got the purest form of love his
1:07:30 love is perfect well how can this lord
1:07:33 this god who is
1:07:35 the loving the most loving how can he
1:07:37 send people to help
1:07:38 well obviously there's a lot to unpack
1:07:40 here but i want to summarize it very
1:07:42 concisely just by saying first and
1:07:43 foremost this is a wrong question
1:07:46 there are some false presuppositions
1:07:47 here if you understand islamic theology
1:07:50 the correct question is
1:07:52 why does someone choose hell
1:07:55 over a loving lord that's the point
1:07:58 and there are so many verses and
1:07:59 evidences in the quran and the sun to
1:08:01 indicate this the first one is
1:08:03 well allah doesn't want people to
1:08:04 misguided to be misguided allah says in
1:08:07 chapter 39 verse 7 if you disbelieve
1:08:10 indeed allah is free from need of you
1:08:12 god is free of need
1:08:13 right
1:08:14 and he does not approve for his
1:08:16 servant's disbelief if you look at the
1:08:18 mufasa the classical exegetes that
1:08:20 explain this verse
1:08:22 this means allah wants you to be guided
1:08:24 allah wants good for you allah wants to
1:08:25 deal with paradise so that's very
1:08:27 important
1:08:29 second
1:08:32 when people reject allah
1:08:34 they associate partners with him they
1:08:36 have eternally rejected okay
1:08:39 they have closed the door to allah's
1:08:41 mercy from that perspective and i put
1:08:43 this inverted converse for a reason
1:08:45 eternally why look what allah says in
1:08:47 chapter 23 23 verses 99 and 100.
1:08:51 for such is the state of the
1:08:52 disbelievers those who reject the truth
1:08:54 until when death comes to one of them he
1:08:57 says my lord send me back that i might
1:08:59 do righteousness in which i have left
1:09:01 behind which i left behind and allah
1:09:03 says no it is only a word he is saying
1:09:05 so in other words if they were to be
1:09:06 brought back they'll do the same thing
1:09:10 so
1:09:10 we have wronged ourselves
1:09:13 we have wronged our own souls don't
1:09:16 blame allah
1:09:18 which is very interesting because from
1:09:19 this perspective
1:09:21 that person who ends up in hell they
1:09:23 have rejected allah's mercy and guidance
1:09:26 allah says in chapter 3 verse 117 allah
1:09:29 has not wronged them but they wronged
1:09:30 themselves
1:09:32 also allah says in chapter 8 verse 51
1:09:34 this is the reward for what your hands
1:09:35 are done and allah is never unjust to
1:09:37 your servants
1:09:39 so from this perspective yes allah sends
1:09:41 you to hell
1:09:43 by his will his
1:09:46 will and power
1:09:47 but it's not based
1:09:50 on the fact that
1:09:51 he wants you to go to hell
1:09:53 he willed you to go to hell as a result
1:09:56 of you wanting to go to hell because
1:09:58 you've chosen hell over a loving lord
1:10:01 that's the point
1:10:03 that is the point
1:10:05 and allah
1:10:06 from a kind of
1:10:08 phenomenological first person experience
1:10:10 perspective allah can't force this
1:10:12 special love and mercy on you
1:10:14 because it's like someone putting a gun
1:10:16 to your head and saying give charity it
1:10:17 has no value or meaning it's baseless
1:10:21 so we choose with our own free will to
1:10:23 reject god's love and mercy and we
1:10:26 choose hell over a loving lord allahu
1:10:28 akbar may allah protect us from this and
1:10:31 to summarize all of this the classical
1:10:32 scholar the famous scholar sufficient
1:10:35 authority he said may allah have mercy
1:10:36 on him if i were to choose between allah
1:10:40 between god and my mother to judge me on
1:10:43 the day of judgement i would choose
1:10:45 allah i would choose god because he knew
1:10:47 allah is maximally loving and merciful
1:10:49 and just no one's going to be more
1:10:50 loving no one's going to be more just
1:10:52 than allah so if whoever ends up in hell
1:10:56 it is the most just thing
1:11:00 and it doesn't diminish his mercy or
1:11:02 love because we chose hell over a loving
1:11:04 merciful lord
1:11:06 so this leads us now to the point well
1:11:08 how do we attain the love of allah well
1:11:10 there are three main points we need to
1:11:12 focus on the first point is you need to
1:11:14 follow muhammad sallallahu
1:11:16 the second point is you need to continue
1:11:18 your good deeds and your acts of worship
1:11:20 your subject to begatri acts of worship
1:11:22 and number three you need to become
1:11:26 what god loves and allah tells us in the
1:11:28 quran who god loves what is the way of
1:11:30 being to receive allah's special love
1:11:32 so just to unpack the first point allah
1:11:34 says in chapter 3 verse 31 say
1:11:37 if you love allah
1:11:39 follow me meaning follow muhammad sallam
1:11:41 and allah will love you and forgive your
1:11:44 sins allah is most forgiving most
1:11:46 merciful so if we claim to love allah
1:11:50 then to be forgiven by allah
1:11:52 and for allah to love us
1:11:54 then we need to follow the way of the
1:11:55 prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that
1:11:57 is a a a key path
1:12:00 to the special love of allah subhanahu
1:12:01 wa
1:12:03 also we need to continue the supergattry
1:12:05 deeds the extra deeds the acts of
1:12:07 worship
1:12:08 that are supergatory
1:12:11 for example in the famous hadith which
1:12:13 is narrated by al-bukhari it's an
1:12:14 authentic hadith allah says my servant
1:12:17 draws not near to me with anything more
1:12:19 loved by me than the religious duties i
1:12:22 have enjoined upon him and my servant
1:12:25 continued to draw near to me with super
1:12:27 gathering works like the extra prayers
1:12:30 the taj the night prayer the afghan the
1:12:33 dikka the remembrance of of allah and so
1:12:36 on and so forth and the sadhaka the
1:12:37 giving charity so that i shall love him
1:12:40 when i love him i am his hearing with
1:12:43 which he sees his eye his seeing with
1:12:46 which he
1:12:47 sorry i am his hearing with which he
1:12:48 hears his seeing with which he sees his
1:12:51 hand with which he strikes and his fault
1:12:53 with which he walks
1:12:54 were he to ask something of me i would
1:12:57 surely give it to him and where he to
1:12:59 ask me for refuge i would surely grant
1:13:02 him it i do not hesitate about anything
1:13:04 as much as i hesitate about seizing the
1:13:07 soul of my faithful servant he hates
1:13:10 death and i hate hurting him allahu
1:13:12 akbar you want to have that special love
1:13:14 of allah
1:13:15 not only be recipients of his rahmah his
1:13:18 mercy but his special love
1:13:21 then you need to continue the acts of
1:13:22 worship according to the son of the
1:13:24 prophet sallallahu alaihi
1:13:26 the third point is become what allah
1:13:29 loves and when we look into the quran
1:13:30 allah tells us these are some of some
1:13:32 examples
1:13:34 allah tells us who he loves this special
1:13:36 love
1:13:37 who's worthy of this special love when
1:13:40 surah al-baqarah chapter 2 verse 222
1:13:42 allah says surely allah loves those who
1:13:47 always turn to him in repentance and
1:13:49 those who purify themselves so if you
1:13:51 want to be loved by allah repent to
1:13:53 allah purify yourself also allah says in
1:13:56 the same chapter verse 1
1:13:58 9 5. and do good for allah certainly
1:14:02 loves the doers of good so do good deeds
1:14:05 and that means so many different things
1:14:06 acts of worship and so on and so forth
1:14:09 allah also says in the sixth sixtieth
1:14:12 chapter verse 8 indeed allah love loves
1:14:15 those who act justly be fair be
1:14:17 equitable be just
1:14:19 if that is your way of being this is
1:14:21 this is what allah loves
1:14:23 also allah says in chapter 3 verse 76
1:14:27 surely allah loves those who are mindful
1:14:29 of him
1:14:30 god consciousness be mindful of allah
1:14:33 allah loves those who are mindful of him
1:14:36 also allah says in chapter 3 verse 159
1:14:38 allah loves those who put their trust in
1:14:41 him so put trust in allah so if you're
1:14:43 someone who purifies themselves and
1:14:46 you
1:14:47 you not only purify yourself but you
1:14:49 repent to allah if you're someone who
1:14:50 does good deeds if you're someone who
1:14:52 acts justly if you have someone who is
1:14:54 mindful of allah if you're someone who
1:14:55 relies on allah this is the person allah
1:14:58 loves that allah's special love
1:15:00 is is directed towards you allahu akbar
1:15:05 so just to summarize the three points of
1:15:06 how to attain allah's love number one
1:15:08 follow the prophet salallahu alaihi
1:15:10 wasallam number two continue the acts of
1:15:12 worship and the subjective acts of
1:15:14 worship as per the hadith qutsi and also
1:15:17 become
1:15:18 the person and have the way of being in
1:15:20 the behavior of
1:15:21 of those that allah loves which includes
1:15:24 purifying yourself repenting doing good
1:15:26 deeds acting justly being mindful of
1:15:28 allah and putting your trust in allah
1:15:31 subhanahu wa ta'ala so
1:15:34 how do we use all of this what we've
1:15:35 learned brothers and sisters when we are
1:15:37 sharing islam though obviously sapience
1:15:40 institute's
1:15:41 strategic focus is to share and defend
1:15:44 islam academically and intellectually
1:15:46 and to develop and train others to do to
1:15:48 do so the same that's why we have these
1:15:50 online seminars that's what we have
1:15:52 lighthouse mentoring that's why we have
1:15:53 our essays our books our free books our
1:15:56 learning platform with free in-depth
1:15:58 courses if you go to
1:15:59 learn.sapiensinstitute.org
1:16:01 it's order for you to to engage and it's
1:16:03 all free and for you to be developed in
1:16:05 power and empowered to be able to share
1:16:07 islam academic intellectually so in the
1:16:10 context of this seminar how do we use
1:16:12 this when sharing islam well there are
1:16:14 two main ways the first three is well
1:16:17 after explaining god's existence that
1:16:19 it's a natural intuitive truth
1:16:22 and also using sound rational arguments
1:16:24 to prove that explaining his unique
1:16:27 oneness the proof of the quran his
1:16:29 revelation
1:16:30 and therefore you prove that our main
1:16:32 purpose is to worship allah then you
1:16:34 could use the seven reasons why allah is
1:16:36 worthy of our love in other words worthy
1:16:38 of our worship
1:16:39 to further acknowledge and internalize
1:16:42 one's purpose in life which is affirmed
1:16:44 by the quran which they believe now to
1:16:46 be true
1:16:47 and you can also seal the deal if you
1:16:49 like by getting them to
1:16:50 commit to embracing islam because not
1:16:52 only do they believe in god's existence
1:16:54 rationally and his revelation but
1:16:57 you know from the first person
1:16:59 experience and through their sound
1:17:01 reasoning and because the innate
1:17:03 disposition has been awakened
1:17:05 they using these reasons that we've
1:17:07 learned in this seminar it's it's helped
1:17:10 them internalize talk heed internalize
1:17:12 the fact that you know these are not
1:17:14 just abstract beliefs god's existence
1:17:16 proof of quran but rather it's something
1:17:17 that i should live and and and absorb
1:17:21 and internalize and live a path of
1:17:23 manifesting
1:17:24 you know the fact that i'm only here to
1:17:26 worship allah subhanahu wa
1:17:28 and part of that is to adore and love
1:17:30 him
1:17:31 another way of explaining this is to go
1:17:33 straight to the seven reasons why allah
1:17:35 is worthy of our utmost adoration and
1:17:37 love
1:17:38 now i'm not going to go into this too
1:17:40 much into too much detail of course but
1:17:42 please go to our learning platform which
1:17:44 is free
1:17:45 learn.sapienceinstitute.org and go on to
1:17:48 the advanced methodology dao training
1:17:49 course which is got awakening the truth
1:17:51 within and we talk about six main ways
1:17:53 to uncloud the fitwa
1:17:56 now yes one way is going through the
1:17:57 rational stuff for sure but another way
1:17:59 is is directly show them why allah is
1:18:01 worthy of love that could be a means to
1:18:04 uncloud the fitra to direct itself
1:18:06 towards the truth because the innate
1:18:07 disposition the fitra is like a vehicle
1:18:10 that is directing itself towards the
1:18:12 truth which is acknowledging allah and
1:18:13 wanting to worship and fulfill the
1:18:15 purpose in life
1:18:16 but that that vehicle gets clouded the
1:18:19 windscreen gets clouded for many
1:18:20 different reasons and there's different
1:18:21 ways you could get clouded and to
1:18:23 uncloud it
1:18:24 is not just using rational arguments it
1:18:26 could be used just direct arguments from
1:18:28 the quran or you could just show them
1:18:31 why allah is worthy of love and
1:18:33 adoration and worship or you could use a
1:18:35 combination the point here is
1:18:37 depending who you're speaking to and and
1:18:39 the sunnah of giving tao is to
1:18:41 individualize the person to understand
1:18:43 their context you may realize they don't
1:18:45 need abstract rational arguments they
1:18:47 need to know why allah is worthy of love
1:18:48 and adoration and that would awaken them
1:18:50 to embrace islam so those are the two
1:18:52 main ways brothers and sisters
1:18:55 and to know more about this please go to
1:18:57 our advanced our training course
1:19:00 methodology course awakening the truth
1:19:01 within which you can find on our free
1:19:03 learning platform
1:19:04 learn.sapienceinstitute.org
1:19:08 now before we go to questions and
1:19:10 answers i really want to just make a
1:19:11 quick note on christianity and islam on
1:19:13 god's love now i'm not going to unpack
1:19:15 this further because
1:19:17 we have a course called divine
1:19:18 perfection that dr uthman the thief
1:19:20 unpacks this in great detail and he's
1:19:23 written a book and as i've mentioned
1:19:24 here go to the sapience institute book
1:19:26 that dr usmanity
1:19:28 that he has written called divine
1:19:30 perfection which shows that the concept
1:19:32 of god in islam is
1:19:34 maximally perfect
1:19:36 maximally loving maximally forgiving and
1:19:39 mainstream biblical understanding of god
1:19:41 is actually not maximally loving and
1:19:43 maximally forgiving
1:19:45 and the reason i want to mention this
1:19:46 here is because sometimes when you think
1:19:48 about allah or you think about god in a
1:19:50 kind of abstract sense especially those
1:19:51 who living in the west or those who you
1:19:53 know who come from a secular or liberal
1:19:54 background christian background
1:19:57 you know there's been this kind of
1:19:58 religious public relations campaign this
1:20:00 religious you know marketing campaign
1:20:02 from the christian philosophers and
1:20:04 theologians that god is love and
1:20:05 unconditional love with all due respect
1:20:08 this is a fundamental lie
1:20:10 if they're going to refer to the
1:20:11 christian doctrine in the christian
1:20:13 tradition
1:20:14 in actual fact when you study islam
1:20:16 allah is perfectly forgiving and
1:20:18 perfectly loving
1:20:20 but the god of
1:20:21 the corrupted
1:20:23 biblical understanding is not perfectly
1:20:25 loving and perfectly maximally forgiving
1:20:28 and the way to understand this is number
1:20:30 one go to the course on the learning
1:20:31 platform by doctors manateef and
1:20:32 download his book which is free if you
1:20:34 go to sapience institute.org forward
1:20:36 slash books you can find his book divine
1:20:38 perfection you could also find a printed
1:20:39 copy on amazon which is just at the
1:20:41 print price we don't make money from it
1:20:43 now read that but just to summarize and
1:20:46 this is what dr samantha calls the
1:20:48 adamic conundrum he said let's start
1:20:50 from the beginning
1:20:52 in the christian tradition we know that
1:20:55 sin
1:20:56 is is it
1:20:58 kind of besmirches destroys the relation
1:21:00 between
1:21:02 human being and god
1:21:04 to the degree
1:21:05 that god cannot forgive directly
1:21:08 because according to the bible the wages
1:21:10 of sin is death there must be some kind
1:21:12 of sacrifice or blood sacrifice
1:21:15 so for god to forgive you in the
1:21:16 christian tradition there must be
1:21:18 something external to the relation
1:21:19 between man and god
1:21:21 and it must be a blood sacrifice and
1:21:23 that's why jesus is is is the lamb to be
1:21:27 sacrificed
1:21:28 to solve this problem and not only that
1:21:30 god is so holy
1:21:32 that sin the sin of human beings affect
1:21:35 god's holiness which is not part of the
1:21:37 islamic tradition because god transcends
1:21:38 that anything if the whole world were to
1:21:41 worship allah it wouldn't increase his
1:21:43 bounty and majesty if the whole world
1:21:44 and everything within it would would not
1:21:46 worship allah wouldn't decrease his
1:21:48 bounty and his majesty in actual fact
1:21:50 allah is
1:21:51 close
1:21:52 and allah is transcended from the point
1:21:54 of view that he created the human being
1:21:55 he knows a human being's weaknesses
1:21:57 and if the human being does that
1:21:58 weakness why would it affect his
1:22:00 holiness what kind of holiness is this
1:22:02 this is a human-centric holiness it's
1:22:04 not a divine holiness a transcendent
1:22:06 holiness because you know god's supposed
1:22:08 to create the human being knowing that
1:22:10 human being is going to slip and make a
1:22:11 mistake but when he does so oh i can't
1:22:13 forgive you i have to have a blood
1:22:14 sacrifice
1:22:16 how is that maximal perfection how is
1:22:18 that maximal forgiveness and remember
1:22:20 to be maximally loving you have to be
1:22:23 maximally forgiving because forgiveness
1:22:25 is the language of love
1:22:26 so the adamic story in the biblical
1:22:28 sense already shows that the christian
1:22:31 god or the conception
1:22:33 of mainstream biblical christianity now
1:22:36 not the original christianity because
1:22:37 you believe the original christianity
1:22:39 was basically taued it was affirming the
1:22:41 oneness of god it was understanding god
1:22:42 in this way but it got corrupted as we
1:22:44 know
1:22:45 the point here is
1:22:47 you know the christian biblical
1:22:49 understanding is not maximally forgiving
1:22:51 and maximally loving
1:22:52 remember
1:22:54 god couldn't forgive
1:22:55 adam
1:22:57 there must be a blood sacrifice
1:23:00 he's too holy even though he knows he's
1:23:03 supposed to be have full knowledge and
1:23:05 he's uh
1:23:06 you know he has uh omniscience he knows
1:23:09 everything and he created the human
1:23:10 being knowing that the human being could
1:23:12 slip in this way but yet it still
1:23:14 affects his
1:23:16 holiness this is not a transcendent
1:23:18 holiness right and not only that he
1:23:21 can't forgive directly this houses
1:23:22 maximum forgiveness
1:23:24 there must be something external to the
1:23:26 relationship that is sacrificed and that
1:23:29 thing that is sacrificed didn't even
1:23:30 commit the sin in the first place which
1:23:32 also is injustice so it's not in line
1:23:34 with maximal justice which is another
1:23:37 thing to unpack but the point here is
1:23:39 it's seen as a fall from grace and god
1:23:41 cannot forgive directly if you can't
1:23:43 forgive directly
1:23:44 it's not maximum forgiveness if it's not
1:23:47 mac if he's not maximally forgiving he
1:23:48 cannot be maximally loving because
1:23:51 forgiveness is the language of love
1:23:53 compare this to the quranic paradigm
1:23:55 just from this adamic story it solves
1:23:57 everything solves this problem about
1:23:58 love god's love
1:24:00 in christianity islam
1:24:03 allah describes the fall of adam not as
1:24:06 a fall from grace but as slip
1:24:10 not only is it as a slip
1:24:12 adam alaihi salam and his wife did not
1:24:15 ask for forgiveness directly
1:24:17 in actual fact what does allah say allah
1:24:19 turned to them allah inclined to them
1:24:23 and inspired them with words of
1:24:25 forgiveness words of prayer
1:24:28 and allah accepted his repentance
1:24:31 surely he is the accept of repentance
1:24:33 the most merciful and this is surah
1:24:34 al-baqarah chapter 2 verse 3 7.
1:24:37 and what was this prayer we know this
1:24:39 from chapter 7 verse 23 they replied our
1:24:42 lord we have wronged our souls if you do
1:24:45 not forgive us and have mercy we should
1:24:47 be lost and we know allah is maximally
1:24:49 forgiving perfectly forgiving when you
1:24:51 turn to him and say repentance he
1:24:53 forgives you directly
1:24:56 and what is this
1:25:08 holiness is transcendent sin doesn't
1:25:10 affect the mercy of god
1:25:12 but christianity says human sin affects
1:25:14 the mercy of god
1:25:17 allah is so forgiving that they didn't
1:25:19 even directly ask for forgiveness
1:25:22 but allah turned to them and told them
1:25:23 how to forgive and then they repented
1:25:25 and allah forgave them
1:25:28 this is maximum forgiveness therefore
1:25:30 maximal love because you can't be
1:25:32 maximally loving if you're not maximally
1:25:33 forgiving
1:25:34 and this is a summary of what doctors
1:25:36 manage has achieved in the book and in
1:25:38 the course please go to that
1:25:40 and i just want to summarize
1:25:43 with these two scenarios say two kings
1:25:46 one king
1:25:47 his servant makes a mistake
1:25:49 and he goes to the king and says forgive
1:25:51 me and the king says i can't forgive you
1:25:54 i'm too
1:25:55 powerful too majestic
1:25:58 in order for me to forgive you i have to
1:26:01 kill my son
1:26:03 right that's not maximal justice it's
1:26:05 not maximum forgiveness therefore he is
1:26:07 not maximally loving
1:26:09 think of or he's not max me loving from
1:26:10 a human point of view
1:26:12 second scenario servant in the king's
1:26:14 castle makes a mistake
1:26:17 the king knows he made a mistake
1:26:21 the servant doesn't ask for forgiveness
1:26:23 but the king says look
1:26:25 if you just come to me and you say these
1:26:27 things and you admit and you ask
1:26:28 forgiveness i will forgive you you will
1:26:30 not be punished
1:26:33 the king was looking for him to teach
1:26:36 him how to rectify the situation so the
1:26:39 king is more perfectly forgiving from a
1:26:41 human perspective by greater reason
1:26:44 compare now christianity with islam
1:26:47 the christian understanding of god in
1:26:49 the islamic understanding
1:26:52 he is the perfectly loving the most
1:26:55 loving
1:26:56 and his love is connected obviously to
1:26:58 his forgiveness
1:27:00 and you can't be perfectly loving if
1:27:02 you're not perfectly forgiving in the
1:27:04 christian
1:27:05 conception there's no perfect
1:27:07 forgiveness at all as we see from the
1:27:09 adamic conundrum
1:27:12 alhamdulillah brothers and sisters you
1:27:13 know
1:27:14 this you know i really enjoyed the
1:27:15 seminar you know may mellow bless every
1:27:17 single one of you i know it was like one
1:27:19 hour 27 minutes but it was well worth it
1:27:21 well worth it
1:27:24 so
1:27:26 right
1:27:27 let's have some questions let's have
1:27:29 some q a brothers and
1:27:31 sisters
1:27:32 and please brothers and sisters you know
1:27:34 this is going to be up now on my
1:27:36 facebook page it's going to be on the st
1:27:38 pence's facebook page it's going to be
1:27:39 on the youtube
1:27:41 uh channel says this to youtube channel
1:27:43 please forward it share it with lots of
1:27:45 people and the reason i'm saying this is
1:27:47 because
1:27:48 i don't think there's any seminar like
1:27:50 this out there and we like to fill the
1:27:51 gap in the doubt okay and i want you to
1:27:54 keep on sharing this kind of material
1:27:55 because we have to revive this
1:27:56 understanding that allah is is all
1:27:59 loving
1:28:01 right
1:28:04 okay so let's get some questions let's
1:28:06 there's probably been a lot of comments
1:28:08 so i have to scroll down or scroll up
1:28:10 rather to see what's going on here
1:28:13 um
1:28:14 okay
1:28:25 okay
1:28:35 let me
1:28:42 okay i need some questions brothers and
1:28:44 sisters there are some comments for sure
1:28:53 spare with me
1:29:08 okay
1:29:18 i need questions that are really
1:29:19 specific to the topic that i have um
1:29:22 delivered
1:29:24 please
1:29:26 spare with me
1:29:31 you know sometimes when you see in
1:29:32 comments people like you know insult and
1:29:35 they say things like
1:29:37 you know this is stupid or
1:29:39 this is
1:29:41 idiocy or this is rubbish
1:29:44 you know
1:29:45 i think one needs to have a sense of
1:29:46 self awareness and i say this hopefully
1:29:48 being committed to people's well-being
1:29:49 that
1:29:50 it says far more about you than anybody
1:29:52 honestly
1:29:54 because you have to understand that if
1:29:56 you feel something is wrong then fine
1:29:59 say it's wrong
1:30:00 but explain why have a conversation
1:30:03 stand in the possibility that you could
1:30:04 be wrong standing the possibility that
1:30:06 you have something to learn styling the
1:30:08 possibility that just me making a
1:30:10 statement and making a negative
1:30:12 observation with viral language or not
1:30:14 you know what we call polite language
1:30:16 doesn't really say anything about
1:30:19 the person delivering a seminar or the
1:30:21 content he says more about you
1:30:23 and you should have that kind of almost
1:30:25 shame and self-awareness to realize you
1:30:27 know what if i consider myself as mature
1:30:30 intellectual human being someone who's
1:30:32 rational and kind um then maybe i want
1:30:35 to learn something or maybe i'm going to
1:30:37 ask a question or maybe you know i have
1:30:39 this perspective and i have a strong
1:30:42 a strong judgment about this but let me
1:30:45 ask a question let me justify my my my
1:30:49 use of language at least do that
1:30:52 if not then with all due respect you're
1:30:54 wasting your time
1:30:55 and you're in a state of heedlessness
1:30:58 so you know it's really really important
1:31:01 brothers and sisters and friends of
1:31:02 course
1:31:04 for you to
1:31:06 for you to
1:31:07 just be a little bit more mature
1:31:10 uh when you basically uh
1:31:13 engage you know
1:31:15 this is very very important very
1:31:16 important so i actually sorry for you
1:31:18 i do i do philosophy it's like what like
1:31:21 what's going on what what's all that
1:31:23 trauma where did that come from you know
1:31:26 you need to unpack that trauma because
1:31:28 it's coming from somewhere right it's
1:31:30 coming from somewhere
1:31:32 because someone who reacts that way they
1:31:33 listen to an intellectual or seemingly
1:31:35 intellectual seminar it's articulated in
1:31:38 a seemingly polite and you know
1:31:40 articulate way there's hope yeah and
1:31:43 then you just have a judgment or you're
1:31:45 using vowel language what does it say
1:31:47 about you
1:31:49 you find you could totally disagree with
1:31:50 this i don't mind you could even have
1:31:52 harsh words but at least have the
1:31:54 epistemic humility and the duty
1:31:58 epistemic duty if you like to say you
1:31:59 know what i'm going to stand in the
1:32:01 possibility i may be wrong or at least
1:32:03 let me show them why i think they're
1:32:05 wrong
1:32:06 i'm willing to be proven wrong talk to
1:32:08 me why why is it the case that you have
1:32:10 these very strong strong opinions
1:32:13 um
1:32:14 so yeah
1:32:15 so you know i'm not mentioning any names
1:32:18 but i'm just saying
1:32:20 um it's very important to uh
1:32:22 to to acknowledge that is you know have
1:32:25 some self-awareness it's very very
1:32:27 important brothers and sisters
1:32:33 okay so
1:32:37 okay there's a lot of comments going
1:32:38 down so i need to
1:32:42 i need to just catch up very quickly
1:32:44 i actually need to actually ban someone
1:32:46 because they're being vile
1:32:48 block them
1:32:51 they're blocked
1:32:53 good so
1:32:55 bear with me
1:33:00 okay i can't really say any questions
1:33:02 that directly related to
1:33:05 okay there's a question by rahan khan
1:33:09 he says
1:33:11 quick question can you please give me
1:33:12 the correlation between loving allah
1:33:14 and loving someone for the sake of allah
1:33:18 oh this is a very very good question um
1:33:22 i'm gonna be very authentic and honest i
1:33:24 need to think about it i can't give you
1:33:26 a direct intuitive answer right now
1:33:28 i mean intuitively i'm seeing that there
1:33:30 is a correlation because if you love
1:33:32 allah the most
1:33:33 then the way you relate to other human
1:33:35 beings or other people even if it's in a
1:33:38 loving way it will be done because you
1:33:40 want to seek allah's love
1:33:42 right so i get that but to really unpack
1:33:45 theologically the correlation between
1:33:47 loving allah and loving son for the sake
1:33:48 of allah i just need time to think about
1:33:50 it yeah so i don't want to claim that i
1:33:52 have the answer but intuitively i can
1:33:55 say at least that if you love allah the
1:33:58 most
1:33:59 and then you have
1:34:00 then you then you have a relation with
1:34:02 someone
1:34:04 that relation and you want to even
1:34:06 display love for them and you want to
1:34:08 relate to them in a loving way for
1:34:09 example you have to love your brothers
1:34:10 and sisters and so on and so forth
1:34:13 you're doing it because you want to
1:34:15 achieve allah's love and you're doing it
1:34:17 because behind all of love
1:34:19 and behind
1:34:20 love itself and the most loving
1:34:23 being is allah
1:34:26 so you're doing it for his sake because
1:34:28 he is the source of all love and he is
1:34:30 the loving and you want to taste that
1:34:32 pure love of allah
1:34:34 so that's my kind of intuitive response
1:34:36 but it's not a formal response i have to
1:34:39 think about it much further and if
1:34:40 there's anyone here who could answer it
1:34:42 better than you know you could answer it
1:34:44 properly let me know but i need some
1:34:45 time all right i need some time so i
1:34:48 just want to be authentic with you i'm
1:34:49 not going to claim to say hey i have all
1:34:51 the answers
1:34:52 believe me i don't
1:34:54 okay
1:35:00 okay that's very good very good
1:35:02 very good question uh sue ellen q
1:35:05 she's uh she or he says how to best
1:35:08 relay this message to our christian
1:35:10 brothers and sisters in a way that can
1:35:11 soften their hearts without being
1:35:12 insensitive to the belief their whole
1:35:14 daily
1:35:15 well the first thing is you know
1:35:17 the kind of general principle when
1:35:19 you're engaging with someone
1:35:22 with regards to sharing a song with them
1:35:24 it's very important to individualize
1:35:26 that person understand
1:35:28 who they are because the way you relate
1:35:30 to them is going to be based on how you
1:35:31 understand them and that's why it's very
1:35:33 important to listen with the intention
1:35:35 to understand
1:35:36 you know come to them as much as you can
1:35:39 as a blank canvas turn off that internal
1:35:41 radio because generally speaking we have
1:35:43 limited experiences and understandings
1:35:46 and you know when we see someone they
1:35:48 call us on they call themselves a
1:35:49 christian we assume okay i've dealt with
1:35:52 these christians in the past i've read
1:35:53 about christianity in this way therefore
1:35:55 all of that becomes my lens in order to
1:35:57 judge this person but what you end up
1:35:59 doing is not engaging with the person
1:36:01 engaging with your judgment
1:36:03 but you know it's very important to
1:36:04 individualize them and try to understand
1:36:05 as best as possible and you'll be able
1:36:07 to know what's the right way of relating
1:36:08 to them obviously as a default position
1:36:11 you have to relate to them with with
1:36:13 wisdom and with the best possible way
1:36:15 and with rahma you know we know this
1:36:17 from the way musa alaihi salaam was told
1:36:19 to speak lean and softly nicely to
1:36:22 pharaoh and he was one of the worst
1:36:23 creatures to walk this earth
1:36:25 the default position is always
1:36:27 mercy and forbearance and so on and so
1:36:29 forth
1:36:30 now how do you relay this message that i
1:36:32 mentioned about the christianity and
1:36:34 christian and islamic conception of god
1:36:38 well again it depends on what the
1:36:40 context is but as a general rule what i
1:36:42 may try and do is just pull out the
1:36:44 heart strings because christians
1:36:46 generally speaking
1:36:47 many of them are not kind of what you
1:36:49 call
1:36:50 you know philosophically convinced per
1:36:53 se you know a lot of them they believe
1:36:55 they have a loving relationship with the
1:36:56 divine
1:36:57 you need to and they have a spiritual
1:36:59 experience you need to engage with that
1:37:00 so you need to focus on
1:37:02 you know
1:37:03 on how much they love god
1:37:06 and maybe having a conversation about
1:37:08 them
1:37:09 and
1:37:10 saying to them you know
1:37:11 you know i believe god is done and you
1:37:13 just explain who allah is i believe
1:37:16 allah god is the most loving he's
1:37:18 maximally loving his he's so forgiving
1:37:21 you know
1:37:22 and and you know
1:37:23 and you could even give an analogy with
1:37:25 the kings i mentioned and use that not
1:37:28 an analogy but those thought experiments
1:37:30 and you could say well by greater reason
1:37:32 so you can say look let me just give you
1:37:34 a scenario you know if there was this
1:37:36 king and there was a sermon they made a
1:37:37 mistake king couldn't forgive them
1:37:39 directly and all of the stuff that i
1:37:40 said previously and then give the other
1:37:42 scenario a king that forgave directly
1:37:43 and actually in actual fact was looking
1:37:45 for the sermon who made the mistake and
1:37:47 actually show them how to rectify the
1:37:49 situation and to be forgiven in the
1:37:51 court palace for example you say you
1:37:53 know who's who's worthy of our affinity
1:37:55 in these in these scenarios
1:37:57 well likewise wouldn't you say that you
1:38:00 know
1:38:01 the kind of god that deserves love is
1:38:03 the god that is directly forgiving and
1:38:06 max me forgiving
1:38:08 right and this was the god of original
1:38:10 christianity but it was changed over
1:38:12 time and we you know say and we believe
1:38:15 and we can show that this is the case
1:38:17 that the quran came down
1:38:20 as a differentiator as a criterion the
1:38:22 quran is the furqan
1:38:24 it came to differentiate and to show you
1:38:27 know the criterion what is the true
1:38:29 conception of god and what is not the
1:38:30 true conception of god
1:38:32 and you know just this i just want you
1:38:34 to stand in the possibility that this is
1:38:35 true i need to listen to who god is who
1:38:38 allah is who your creator really is and
1:38:40 then you explain to him
1:38:41 you explain to him that he's forgiven
1:38:43 you explain to him the whole adamic
1:38:44 story
1:38:45 and you say isn't that lord worthy of
1:38:48 our love and to to relate to him and our
1:38:50 relationship with him through acts of
1:38:51 worship
1:38:53 and they'll be like oh yeah you know i
1:38:55 haven't thought of it that way you see
1:38:56 my point so that's one way of doing it
1:38:58 right i obviously need to think about it
1:39:00 a bit more but that's one way of doing
1:39:01 it and brothers and sisters
1:39:04 right
1:39:06 so um
1:39:14 let me just scroll down and see some
1:39:15 questions
1:39:37 okay
1:39:50 some funny comments here
1:39:54 okay so
1:39:56 see which question i'm going to pick out
1:39:58 these questions
1:40:06 that's an interesting question let's
1:40:07 adjust this so mo el says do you think
1:40:09 this type of mystical psychological
1:40:10 approach for doubt could eventually
1:40:12 cause fitness amongst immature young
1:40:13 muslims or even bring other faiths like
1:40:15 hinduism to challenge or spiritually
1:40:18 no not at all i i wouldn't even say this
1:40:20 is mystical this is this islam
1:40:23 like everything i said
1:40:25 you could just directly take it from the
1:40:27 quran or you could infer it from the
1:40:29 quran the sunnah
1:40:31 so i wouldn't say it's like this kind of
1:40:32 external mystical or alien approach to
1:40:35 the religion no i would say this is
1:40:38 god's guidance
1:40:39 how could god's guidance cause fitna
1:40:42 and
1:40:43 you know
1:40:44 you know we're not we're not basically
1:40:46 saying something that is not islamic is
1:40:48 not part of the prophetic way in the
1:40:50 quranic paradigm so
1:40:52 you know if someone is
1:40:54 saying that in a mature muslim you know
1:40:57 um
1:40:58 it might cause fitna i mean what do you
1:41:00 mean by fitna what do you mean by
1:41:01 tribulation here what do you mean by uh
1:41:04 it being problematic i don't understand
1:41:06 if you're teaching someone that part of
1:41:08 worship is to love allah which is part
1:41:10 of the salaf the prior predecessors it's
1:41:12 a part of our classical scholarship
1:41:15 it's part of the quran and allah says
1:41:17 that the believers of allah right
1:41:19 it's part of the son of the prophet
1:41:21 sallallahu alaihi wasallam and it's a
1:41:23 manifestation of worship it's an
1:41:25 expression of worship it's a part of
1:41:26 worship
1:41:28 when you're teaching them this you're
1:41:29 really teaching that allah is worthy of
1:41:30 our utmost worship and utmost love
1:41:33 this is this is the main thing that we
1:41:35 should be speaking about
1:41:37 in actual fact all of this abstract
1:41:39 rational stuff in compared to this
1:41:42 in many cases is nonsense
1:41:45 i know that sounds like oh oh my god
1:41:47 hamza studied studied philosophy he's
1:41:49 doing a phd he wrote a book
1:41:51 that's got rational arguments yes they
1:41:53 have their place
1:41:54 but if you don't link those things you
1:41:56 don't link sound rational arguments to
1:41:58 the fact that allah is worthy of our
1:42:00 obedience at least worship or love
1:42:03 then you're doing a massive disservice
1:42:05 to the community and to your brothers
1:42:07 and sisters in humanity
1:42:10 what does allah say about the nbr about
1:42:12 the prophets that they came to teach
1:42:17 this doesn't mean there is no god but
1:42:19 god it means there is no deity worthy of
1:42:21 worship but the deity
1:42:24 allah the one that is worthy of worship
1:42:26 and part of that means having love for
1:42:28 him
1:42:30 how is this mystical crazy or this is
1:42:33 islam this is islam this is quran this
1:42:36 is the prophetic way this is the way of
1:42:37 the past predecessors
1:42:40 how can it create fitna to show that god
1:42:43 is the loving
1:42:45 to that to show that god is
1:42:47 a source of goodness that he is
1:42:48 beautiful which is based on a hadith
1:42:50 based on an ayah
1:42:52 we're teaching people who allah is how
1:42:54 is that causing fitness i want you to
1:42:56 explain to me how is that causing any
1:42:57 tribulation in actual fact
1:42:59 this is the stuff we should be talking
1:43:00 about this engages the fitra engage the
1:43:02 innate disposition
1:43:04 this is the main thing we should be
1:43:05 talking about and if we do talk about
1:43:07 rational arguments which have their
1:43:08 place and rational arguments they should
1:43:10 be linked to why allah is worthy of
1:43:12 worship otherwise you're not following a
1:43:13 prophetic approach in my view
1:43:18 and that's why even in my book i
1:43:20 towards the end i think the final the
1:43:22 final main chapter chapter 15 is why
1:43:23 allah is worthy of worship because
1:43:25 that's it that's the whole point
1:43:27 right
1:43:30 so i think this is should be spoken
1:43:32 about more
1:43:34 it should be
1:43:36 it should be part of our narrative as
1:43:37 muslims unfortunately we've been stuck
1:43:39 with
1:43:40 just focusing on something like i don't
1:43:42 know a rational argument for god's
1:43:44 existence
1:43:45 with all due respect that's that's one
1:43:47 part of it yes
1:43:48 it's needed in certain contexts it's
1:43:51 necessary in certain contexts with
1:43:53 certain people
1:43:54 and using the right approach 100 this is
1:43:56 part of our narrative too
1:43:58 but this is the main stuff this is the
1:44:00 bread and butter of the quran because
1:44:02 the main point of the quran was what to
1:44:04 teach us who allah is and how we should
1:44:05 relate to him
1:44:07 consider um
1:44:09 um
1:44:10 the mother of the book you know
1:44:12 al-fatiha al-fatiha the first chapter of
1:44:14 the quran and it's a mother because
1:44:16 generally speaking a mother the children
1:44:17 revolve around the whole of the quran
1:44:19 revolves around um or um
1:44:22 summarizes the whole of the quran
1:44:25 what's the summary of
1:44:27 its worship
1:44:29 praising allah
1:44:31 being grateful to allah
1:44:35 worshipping him alone
1:44:37 right this is key to al-fatiha it's all
1:44:40 about tawheed all about
1:44:43 affirming his oneness and relating to
1:44:45 allah as a servant
1:44:49 extensive praise belongs to allah we
1:44:51 mentioned this is one of the arguments
1:44:52 for why allah is worthy of love because
1:44:54 he is
1:44:55 maximally loving perfectly loving his
1:44:57 love is pure
1:44:58 he should be praised by virtue of who he
1:45:00 is
1:45:01 because if we could praise human beings
1:45:03 because they're loving what about allah
1:45:04 who's the source of love and he is
1:45:06 maximally imperfectly and and purely
1:45:08 loving
1:45:09 so he deserves extensive praise paul
1:45:11 al-fatiha is part of tawhid
1:45:16 should be grateful to him we mentioned
1:45:17 this in in another aspect where allah is
1:45:19 worthy of our love because because we
1:45:20 love benefactors allah is the benefactor
1:45:23 he is the source of our goodness
1:45:25 he is the loving
1:45:27 we kind of enumerate his blessings as we
1:45:29 mentioned kind of encounter them or even
1:45:30 be great for them for them individually
1:45:33 that's why he's worthy of love
1:45:36 and therefore that's why he's worthy of
1:45:37 worship again
1:45:39 part of
1:45:40 praising and part of being ultimately
1:45:42 grateful to allah
1:45:46 you could link all of this to tawhid
1:45:47 this is tawhid
1:45:50 this was an unpacking of an aspect of
1:45:52 tawheed an aspect of abaddon
1:45:55 that allah is the loving he's uniquely
1:45:57 loving perfectly maximally perfectly
1:45:58 loving transcendentally loving
1:46:02 loving to the highest degree possible
1:46:05 and we should relate to him in a way
1:46:06 that is
1:46:07 of servitude and part of that servitude
1:46:10 part that he badly is to love him the
1:46:11 most as allah says
1:46:13 as we mentioned
1:46:15 how is the quran the fitna
1:46:18 how is this fitness i want an
1:46:20 explanation
1:46:21 unless one by the way i'm not directly
1:46:24 attacking you my brother yeah um but i
1:46:26 just you know just even you know if
1:46:29 yani i mean see i'm baffled because this
1:46:31 is so islamic this is this is islam
1:46:34 and sometimes for me when people
1:46:36 question this i blame myself for maybe
1:46:39 being excessive in creating
1:46:41 and focusing on narratives that we
1:46:44 shouldn't focus on and that's why a lot
1:46:45 of my work is about why allah is worthy
1:46:47 of worship i mean just google why lies
1:46:49 worthy of worship and i'm not saying
1:46:50 this to blow my trumpet but a lot of the
1:46:52 stuff is from me even other websites
1:46:54 have taken it it's from my essay or my
1:46:56 article
1:46:57 because i i knew i felt that there was a
1:46:59 gap in
1:47:00 the tower
1:47:01 the gap in islamic outreach
1:47:04 the most important thing
1:47:06 is to believe allah is worthy of worship
1:47:09 is to affirm that and to live that
1:47:11 that's the whole point of the quran
1:47:13 there are only around one or two verses
1:47:15 that directly talk about god's existence
1:47:17 directly
1:47:20 but a lot of the quran
1:47:22 many many verses are about affirming
1:47:24 that we should be grateful to him how we
1:47:25 should relate to him that we should be
1:47:27 submissive to him that we should obey
1:47:28 him that we should love him that we
1:47:30 should worship him that we should be
1:47:31 grateful to him and all of this is part
1:47:33 of
1:47:34 worship the quran came down for that
1:47:37 brothers and sisters it was it wasn't to
1:47:39 solve the question
1:47:41 does god exist
1:47:43 this is
1:47:46 a self-evident truth and yes we have
1:47:48 rational arguments that are based on
1:47:49 sound reason and from the quran no
1:47:51 problem and the quran does address it
1:47:52 but the main question the quran
1:47:54 addresses is
1:47:55 who is worthy of worship because human
1:47:57 beings are in a state of worship whether
1:47:58 they worship allah or not as we
1:48:00 mentioned in the verse chapter 39 verse
1:48:02 29 we explain that
1:48:04 the quran came down to free people from
1:48:06 the shackles of the false slavery and
1:48:10 worship that they have of themselves of
1:48:12 other ideologies of creation and so on
1:48:14 and so forth
1:48:15 the
1:48:16 soul shares the same root as the word
1:48:19 liberty and ease and serenity
1:48:22 and the only way the the soul is going
1:48:24 to achieve that serenity and liberty and
1:48:26 ease is by submitting itself to allah by
1:48:30 serving allah being a slave to allah
1:48:32 loving allah obeying allah focusing on
1:48:34 allah worshipping allah direct
1:48:36 directing the internal and external acts
1:48:39 of worship to allah
1:48:40 that's where you get the raha
1:48:42 right
1:48:44 as the famous poet of the east
1:48:47 epibol he said this one prostration that
1:48:50 you find so difficult
1:48:52 frees you from a thousand prostrations
1:48:57 allah
1:49:01 so
1:49:02 brothers and sisters it's been about 1
1:49:04 hour and 49 minutes
1:49:09 um
1:49:12 yeah it's uh probably time to go
1:49:19 all right okay i agree with you hamza
1:49:21 but that wasn't my question but thanks
1:49:23 regardless oh sorry bro
1:49:25 i probably misunderstood your question
1:49:27 but you know what it was it was an
1:49:29 important answer anyway an important
1:49:30 point to make but if you don't mind i
1:49:32 don't want to leave you hanging can you
1:49:34 just re-articulate your question in
1:49:36 order for me to understand it better
1:49:37 please yeah and then we'll end on that
1:49:39 question if that's okay
1:49:48 so i'll just wait for your question bro
1:49:49 if that's all right
1:49:51 i know there are other questions here
1:49:52 about you know there is time limits um
1:49:55 we'll end on this one
1:49:57 now bear in mind we are going to have a
1:50:00 sapience live every two weeks is going
1:50:02 to start on thursday it might not start
1:50:04 this thursday we might start the
1:50:06 following thursday anyone who's asked a
1:50:07 question
1:50:09 that we haven't addressed you could ask
1:50:10 that's uh during that live because it's
1:50:13 an open q a session so it's going to be
1:50:14 a deliberate one and a half hour seminar
1:50:17 but rather you could directly ask a
1:50:19 question during the
1:50:21 the lives they should start this
1:50:23 thursday or the following thursday and
1:50:24 they will happen every two weeks
1:50:26 inshallah
1:50:28 okay
1:50:29 uh
1:50:30 mo is
1:50:31 not giving us
1:50:33 re-articulating the question i'm gonna
1:50:35 give him a few more seconds if you don't
1:50:37 mind bro
1:50:38 um
1:50:39 because i don't wanna just no i don't
1:50:41 leave him hanging
1:50:43 just bear with me
1:50:49 oh okay good okay so he says so due to
1:50:52 ego endower
1:50:54 this approach might cause clashes and
1:50:56 hindus also have a very similar
1:50:59 spiritual concept
1:51:01 okay i don't understand sorry again what
1:51:04 you mean by ego i know i know what you
1:51:06 mean by ego in the dao but i don't
1:51:08 understand how it connects to this topic
1:51:10 per se
1:51:12 and you're saying hindus also have a
1:51:13 similar spiritual concept
1:51:15 but the problem is they don't have tahit
1:51:18 that's the problem
1:51:20 and
1:51:21 the whole issue what we're talking about
1:51:23 today is affirming god's oneness and
1:51:25 affirming that he is worthy of utmost
1:51:27 love
1:51:29 and given the fact that the hindu
1:51:31 tradition doesn't have tawheed in this
1:51:33 sense
1:51:34 then
1:51:36 what are you directing your utmost love
1:51:38 to
1:51:39 and why and that would be the question
1:51:41 we'll discuss with hindus but there will
1:51:43 be another issue here
1:51:45 what remember the two ways of using this
1:51:48 within the context of dao focus on that
1:51:50 slide slide
1:51:52 the first context is
1:51:54 you first talk about god's existence
1:51:56 it's self-evident truth and you can use
1:51:57 sound rational arguments then you talk
1:51:58 about why he's uniquely one then you
1:52:00 talk about his revelation or even the
1:52:02 prophet
1:52:03 show evidence for that and then given
1:52:06 the fact that they believe in the
1:52:06 revelation is true then you focus on
1:52:08 that allah
1:52:10 is basically
1:52:12 telling us that our purpose life is to
1:52:13 worship him and that entails to know him
1:52:15 to focus on him to love him
1:52:17 to obey him and to direct our internal
1:52:20 and external expression to him alone and
1:52:22 then you could use this what you learned
1:52:24 in the seminar to really consolidate
1:52:26 that and to get to internalize that fact
1:52:28 so they could just take the job and say
1:52:29 yes i'm ready to embrace this now
1:52:31 because i know why allah is worthy of
1:52:33 worship whether you have love so that's
1:52:34 important so that's one way of doing it
1:52:36 the other way of doing it is just going
1:52:39 straight and just talking about this
1:52:40 irrespective of their previous beliefs
1:52:42 irrespective of the beliefs concerning
1:52:44 their theology if they're hindu or if
1:52:45 they're jewish whatever the case may be
1:52:47 because depending on if you've
1:52:49 individualized the person in the doubt
1:52:50 you've understood their context
1:52:52 it might just be the case they just want
1:52:53 to know who allah is because that the
1:52:56 the cloud of the fitra as we mentioned
1:52:58 might be that they just want to know who
1:53:00 allah is from a loving perspective and
1:53:02 they wouldn't know why they should love
1:53:04 him and once you give them that clouds
1:53:06 the fifth and they just embrace the
1:53:07 truth so it could be the case but
1:53:09 generally speaking with many hindus or
1:53:11 people other religions you may have to
1:53:12 take the first approach which is to go
1:53:14 through that strategy that we just
1:53:15 mentioned but to know that much more go
1:53:18 to the learning platform so you engage
1:53:20 with the advanced methodology course
1:53:22 that's free in our learning platform
1:53:24 which is learn dot sapience institute
1:53:28 dot
1:53:29 org
1:53:34 so yeah
1:53:35 any other questions from this seminar i
1:53:36 know we can't address all the questions
1:53:38 please visit the seminar share it with
1:53:40 your
1:53:41 with everybody insha allah and also if
1:53:43 there are further questions then
1:53:46 what you should do is just engage with
1:53:47 our live streams that we're going to
1:53:48 have every two weeks i'm not sure when
1:53:50 it's in zakistan it might start tomorrow
1:53:52 or the week after whenever it starts
1:53:54 it's gonna happen every two weeks and
1:53:55 inshallah will most likely to engage
1:53:57 with your questions so exactly for your
1:53:59 time i'm really happy that you know
1:54:01 allah has given me the opportunity to
1:54:02 deliver this seminar once again and this
1:54:04 is going to be up now insha'allah
1:54:07 and yes my dear brothers and sisters you
1:54:09 know anything good that i have said has
1:54:10 come from allah and has come you know
1:54:13 from allah because he is the greatest
1:54:15 benefactor his
1:54:16 good comes from him
1:54:18 and also brothers and sisters anything
1:54:20 that was wrong or a mistake has
1:54:21 definitely come from my nufs my ego
1:54:24 has come from the mistakes on mine
1:54:26 and
1:54:27 you know those the blunders have come
1:54:30 from shaitaan right so may not bless
1:54:32 every single one of you
1:54:33 these were the seven reasons why allah
1:54:35 is
1:54:36 worthy of the utmost love and the
1:54:39 obviously many many more reasons but if
1:54:41 you focus and and and ponder on these
1:54:44 then brothers and sisters um and insha
1:54:47 allah you love alive or more and you be
1:54:50 on a path of loving allah which is a key
1:54:52 part of worship and just share this with
1:54:54 everyone else show them that
1:54:57 and how we should relate
1:54:59 with servitude
1:55:01 and loving him the most
1:55:07 foreign