Webinar: A World Without God — From Existential Nihilism to Islamic Theism (2020-09-12) #

0:00:06 brothers and sisters and friends i hope
0:00:08 all of you guys are doing well so
0:00:12 today we have a very interesting session
0:00:15 for you guys which we've titled
0:00:17 uh a world without god from existential
0:00:19 nihilism to islamic
0:00:20 theism or life without god whichever way
0:00:24 you want to look at inshallah
0:00:25 but what we're going to be discussing
0:00:26 today is a topic which
0:00:28 is near and dear to my heart something
0:00:32 i'm
0:00:33 really passionate about and something i
0:00:36 you know really want to push and
0:00:37 emphasize which is
0:00:39 the implications of turning away from
0:00:42 god the implications
0:00:44 on one's life as an individual as a
0:00:47 society
0:00:48 as a community what are the implications
0:00:51 one has to face when you turn away from
0:00:55 god and this is something we'll be
0:00:56 exploring and looking into a lot of
0:00:57 detail
0:00:58 today um so a few key things
0:01:02 or points we'll be covering in today's
0:01:04 session
0:01:05 is number one we're gonna look at a
0:01:08 brief history of
0:01:09 how we ended up where we ended up how
0:01:11 we've ended up in a world
0:01:13 where secularism is prevalent you know
0:01:15 atheism
0:01:16 is you can say on the rise to whatever
0:01:18 degree it is although
0:01:20 you know it is there is a lot of hype
0:01:21 there and things are blown out of
0:01:22 proportion in regards to how popular
0:01:25 atheism is and how many people are
0:01:26 actually following this
0:01:28 worldview or adhering to it we're going
0:01:30 to also look at atheism and naturalism
0:01:32 and we're going to look at the
0:01:33 difference between
0:01:34 these terms and the different shades of
0:01:38 atheism
0:01:39 we're also going to look at the
0:01:40 implications of such a worldview
0:01:43 when you deny god and you turn away from
0:01:44 god whether that's in the form of
0:01:46 atheism or whether that's in the form of
0:01:48 any other
0:01:49 philosophy or ideology we're going to
0:01:51 see what what that means
0:01:53 for you you know what what if what would
0:01:55 happen
0:01:56 or what would you have to face and what
0:01:59 would you have to acknowledge in your
0:02:00 life
0:02:00 when you turn away from god so we look
0:02:02 at how atheism
0:02:04 naturalism or other ideologies result in
0:02:06 no ultimate hope no ultimate justice
0:02:09 no true value no you know happiness or
0:02:12 purpose etc
0:02:14 then we're going to take a look at
0:02:14 atheism and existential nihilism and
0:02:17 the nature of man and how all of these
0:02:19 things play with each other
0:02:21 uh following that we're gonna look at
0:02:22 the proposed solutions
0:02:24 that are you know given by individuals
0:02:27 who ascribe to such world views in
0:02:29 regards to
0:02:30 existential nihilism how to overcome it
0:02:32 how do we deal with it how do we
0:02:34 uh you know
0:02:38 live in a way where we don't have to
0:02:39 deal with the implications here that's
0:02:41 what we're going to look at explore
0:02:42 further
0:02:42 uh propose solutions to the problem so
0:02:45 you know we're going to take a look at
0:02:46 that sorry repeat the same thing again
0:02:48 then following that we're going to look
0:02:49 at
0:02:50 why it's a problem you know why is
0:02:53 nihilism a problem in the first place
0:02:55 and finally we're going to look at how
0:02:57 islam
0:02:58 is the solution to these issues and
0:03:00 problems that we face or the human being
0:03:02 faces when
0:03:03 they adhere to atheism or naturalism so
0:03:07 three key things i hope that you guys
0:03:08 are going to take away from today's
0:03:10 session
0:03:10 uh inshallah is number one how we ended
0:03:14 up
0:03:14 in this godless world number two the
0:03:16 implications of atheism
0:03:18 and the reason i want us to really
0:03:19 appreciate this today is because a lot
0:03:21 of the times when we have discourse with
0:03:23 atheists and we engage with atheists
0:03:25 we tend to immediately go into a sort of
0:03:29 rational discussion where we're sharing
0:03:30 arguments for god's existence and
0:03:32 they're sharing arguments against god's
0:03:34 existence
0:03:34 and then it becomes a battle of you know
0:03:37 the intellect
0:03:38 and just to see who can justify their
0:03:40 position in a stronger way but something
0:03:41 i want us to appreciate here
0:03:43 is that atheism is bankrupt
0:03:46 foundationally
0:03:47 they don't they don't even the
0:03:49 implications of atheism put you in such
0:03:51 a situation where you can't even begin
0:03:53 to
0:03:54 account for some fundamental truths
0:03:57 that make you a human being you know and
0:04:00 further
0:04:01 they can't even atheism can't even
0:04:03 account for the fundamental principles
0:04:05 you need in place for you to have a
0:04:06 rational discussion or discourse with
0:04:08 someone else
0:04:09 um so i want us to really appreciate
0:04:11 this so before we make
0:04:13 atheists or put the atheist in a
0:04:15 position of judge
0:04:16 and we say look here is my presentation
0:04:19 or here is my argument for god's
0:04:20 existence now you
0:04:22 judge whether you believe god exists or
0:04:24 not before we even give them that
0:04:26 position we're going to explore and see
0:04:27 well are they even qualified to be a
0:04:29 judge
0:04:30 right so that's something we're gonna
0:04:31 look at today and finally
0:04:34 we're gonna hopefully appreciate and see
0:04:35 that atheism it doesn't exist because
0:04:37 it's a rational position
0:04:39 it exists because of its utility from
0:04:42 the perspective of the world that we
0:04:43 live in and how it's in line with other
0:04:45 philosophies and ideologies
0:04:47 in the world that we find ourselves in
0:04:48 today so
0:04:50 let's make a star and the very first
0:04:51 thing i want to look at sort of a brief
0:04:53 history
0:04:55 of how we ended up in this world because
0:04:56 look we're born in the 21st century
0:04:58 right we're born in a world and when we
0:05:01 grow
0:05:02 we grow up in this world and we
0:05:04 therefore are colored and influenced by
0:05:06 society educational institutions
0:05:09 ideas and the philosophies of the world
0:05:11 that we live in and we can't help this
0:05:13 whether we're muslim or non-muslim
0:05:15 we're just colored and shaped by the
0:05:16 world around us and therefore
0:05:19 unfortunately in many cases muslims run
0:05:21 into issues because of this
0:05:23 and so do non-muslims because they find
0:05:25 it very difficult to appreciate certain
0:05:27 realities
0:05:27 we're molded to think in a certain way
0:05:30 and see the world in a certain way
0:05:32 and therefore it's very important that
0:05:34 we appreciate the history
0:05:36 that's led to the world that we find
0:05:38 ourselves in today and therefore we can
0:05:40 really understand how we ended up where
0:05:41 we are
0:05:42 and we can also see how do we deal now
0:05:45 with the issues and problems that we
0:05:46 find ourselves facing because of
0:05:49 you know the philosophies that are
0:05:51 governing
0:05:52 the reality that we live in today so
0:05:54 it's very important we understand this
0:05:56 and i want to start just briefly taking
0:05:59 a look at the pre-modern world
0:06:00 and let me just define these terms
0:06:02 briefly here obviously there are many
0:06:04 ways you can define these terms
0:06:05 historically
0:06:06 speaking but when i refer to the
0:06:07 pre-modern world i'm referring to the
0:06:09 period
0:06:10 prior to the enlightenment so prior to
0:06:13 the 18th century
0:06:14 and i want to go back as far as maybe a
0:06:16 thousand years right so the year 1000
0:06:18 maybe and work
0:06:19 from the year 1000 all the way up to the
0:06:21 18th century the 1700s
0:06:23 now this period from a european
0:06:27 perspective
0:06:28 was a period where the world was
0:06:31 governed by christianity
0:06:33 and every facet of life was governed by
0:06:36 christianity whether it's education
0:06:38 commerce law christianity dictated every
0:06:42 sphere of life
0:06:43 now there are some positives in regards
0:06:46 to this because
0:06:47 for one which is obvious which is that
0:06:48 humanity was connected or
0:06:50 to some degree uh aware of
0:06:54 uh the the the the true purpose of our
0:06:58 existence which is to
0:06:59 recognize god and to worship him
0:07:00 although obviously at that time
0:07:02 we know that you know the christian
0:07:04 doctrine uh
0:07:06 that existed was not what islam would
0:07:09 jesus had brought to the world
0:07:11 and therefore the christians were
0:07:12 adopting or following a
0:07:14 sort of uh distorted conception of who
0:07:17 god is but nevertheless they were still
0:07:19 connected with
0:07:20 realms beyond the physical they were
0:07:22 still connected to god to whatever
0:07:23 extent
0:07:24 they uh were able to be so
0:07:28 there were some positives but there were
0:07:29 a lot of negatives too
0:07:31 now one of the issues which you know we
0:07:34 see
0:07:35 people were facing throughout these
0:07:37 centuries was
0:07:38 there was a an agitation a struggle that
0:07:40 was taking place because
0:07:42 the christian world was becoming aware
0:07:44 of the muslim world and they were also
0:07:46 becoming aware of
0:07:47 how the muslim world was able to
0:07:49 reconcile reason and revelation
0:07:51 how there was a beautiful synergy that
0:07:53 was taking place there
0:07:54 you know how the muslim world was
0:07:56 flourishing
0:07:58 and we see for example you know there
0:08:01 were certain christian theologians
0:08:02 and thinkers who tried to achieve the
0:08:04 same synergy
0:08:05 for example thomas aquinas was one
0:08:07 individual as is mentioned in
0:08:10 the book rethinking islam and the west
0:08:12 by ahmed paul keller on pages 82 and 83
0:08:16 he mentions that thomas aquinas for
0:08:18 example understood and he saw that
0:08:20 in the muslim world you had the likes of
0:08:21 ibn sinha ibn
0:08:23 rushd and others who you know
0:08:26 were were were you know engaging with
0:08:30 the sciences they were engaging with
0:08:32 rational thought
0:08:33 and there was a beautiful amalgamation
0:08:35 between reason and revelation and he
0:08:37 tried to achieve the same
0:08:39 and he tried to do this in his
0:08:41 introduction to theology
0:08:42 but he failed and the reason he failed
0:08:44 to do this was because
0:08:46 the fundamental doctrines of
0:08:48 christianity the fundamental tenets of
0:08:50 christianity their very theology
0:08:53 was adverse to reason it was averse to
0:08:55 reason it was
0:08:57 anything but rational the concept of the
0:08:59 trinity you know
0:09:00 they ran into problems they couldn't
0:09:01 explain this rationally hence in this
0:09:03 quote
0:09:04 he says in this particular quote delay
0:09:07 at the heart of this schism a profound
0:09:08 theological problem with christianity
0:09:10 the relationship between faith and
0:09:12 reason that did not arise
0:09:14 until a higher understanding of logic
0:09:16 philosophy and metaphysics was
0:09:17 introduced
0:09:18 through the works of ibn sinha even
0:09:20 rushed aquinas in his
0:09:22 introduction to theology attempted to
0:09:24 achieve the synthesis that had been
0:09:26 realized in islam
0:09:27 but was unable to do so reason
0:09:30 encountered fundamental contradictions
0:09:32 when approaching the incarnation
0:09:34 and the trinity uh and this was an issue
0:09:37 that
0:09:37 was prevalent within christianity it was
0:09:39 always this struggle and hence you had
0:09:41 uh certain theologians such as a
0:09:43 protestant theologian martin luther i
0:09:45 believe in the 15th or the 16th century
0:09:47 uh he you know didn't mince his words he
0:09:50 was very
0:09:51 uh clear with his uh disliking towards
0:09:55 reasons and he came out he said reason
0:09:57 he referred to reason as a
0:09:59 the greatest enemy of faith right and
0:10:01 this now further progressed up into up
0:10:03 to the 17th century in the 18th century
0:10:05 where
0:10:06 where whenever a free thinker you know
0:10:09 emerged someone that wanted to discover
0:10:12 and understand the world someone that
0:10:14 wanted to engage with reason and
0:10:15 rationality
0:10:16 they were persecuted they were tortured
0:10:18 you know they were burnt at the stake
0:10:20 there was they were
0:10:21 killed and this eventually all of this
0:10:24 agitation then
0:10:26 resulted in the period of the
0:10:28 enlightenment where people
0:10:30 you know some thinkers said enough is
0:10:32 enough and
0:10:35 a type of rebellion took place where you
0:10:37 know eventually people got together and
0:10:39 they were like you know what we need to
0:10:40 move forward we're not gonna
0:10:42 we're not gonna succumb to the dogmas of
0:10:44 the church anymore we're not gonna
0:10:46 uh you know we're not gonna succumb to
0:10:48 this sort of outdated way of looking at
0:10:50 reality
0:10:51 we're rational beings and to be honest
0:10:52 as aside from brothers and sisters it's
0:10:54 a part of human
0:10:55 nature to use the uncle the intellect
0:10:58 the rational faculties that allah
0:11:00 has blessed us with and what's very
0:11:02 interesting
0:11:04 is that you can't suppress this it's
0:11:05 gonna it's it's a part of our very being
0:11:08 so we're going to use reason we're gonna
0:11:10 reflect and this is something that islam
0:11:12 encourages
0:11:13 as we'll see later on but it was
0:11:15 something that the
0:11:16 the church and christianity generally
0:11:18 speaking discouraged
0:11:20 and they disliked uh hence you had the
0:11:23 enlightenment movement where thinkers
0:11:24 got together and they said we're going
0:11:26 to do away with this dogma of
0:11:27 christianity we're not gonna worry about
0:11:28 christianity anymore
0:11:30 nevertheless there were people who were
0:11:32 all about reason and rationality
0:11:34 but there weren't people who turned away
0:11:37 from god
0:11:38 they may have turned away from
0:11:39 christianity in the church but many of
0:11:41 the thinkers of the enlightenment period
0:11:43 if you were to ask them well do you
0:11:45 believe in god they would acknowledge
0:11:46 god they would say yeah we believe there
0:11:47 is a creator and
0:11:48 this was the very reason they engaged in
0:11:51 the sciences
0:11:52 to study the world because they believed
0:11:54 that there was a creator that created
0:11:56 this natural world and through studying
0:11:58 the laws that were present within the
0:11:59 natural world to study nature
0:12:01 we would get closer to understanding the
0:12:03 mind of god this was their thinking
0:12:05 right so they were they were people who
0:12:07 who lead towards natural theology as
0:12:10 as it's known natural theology meaning
0:12:12 people who believe in a higher power or
0:12:14 creator
0:12:15 and people who are therefore studying
0:12:16 the world in wanting to come
0:12:18 closer to an understanding of this
0:12:20 higher power
0:12:22 right something something i believe if
0:12:24 these individuals had come across
0:12:26 the true understanding of islam at the
0:12:28 time which they didn't
0:12:29 and there's reasons for why they didn't
0:12:31 but if they had come across the true
0:12:32 understanding of islam
0:12:33 they would have really inclined towards
0:12:35 islam and i would i would even say many
0:12:36 of them may have become muslim
0:12:38 or at the very least favored islam a
0:12:40 really brilliant example of this
0:12:41 is in voltaire a philosopher from the
0:12:44 18th century who
0:12:47 initially when he read some of the early
0:12:50 translations of the quran and came
0:12:51 across material on islam
0:12:53 which was by the way being done by some
0:12:55 some of the christians the missionaries
0:12:57 uh he took he had a a a huge disliking
0:13:00 towards islam
0:13:01 a disliking towards the prophet
0:13:02 sallallahu alaihi through the prophet
0:13:04 peace be upon him
0:13:05 so much so that he wrote plays against
0:13:07 the prophet peace be upon him
0:13:08 uh where he mocked the prophet but later
0:13:12 later on in the 18th century when he
0:13:14 actually came across a decent
0:13:15 translation of the quran which was done
0:13:17 by cells
0:13:18 he changed his views and he even spoke
0:13:21 highly
0:13:22 of islam and he defended islam against
0:13:24 other
0:13:25 individuals who were actually speaking
0:13:26 out against islam because many there was
0:13:28 a view amongst many of the thinkers of
0:13:30 the time that islam was a religion of
0:13:32 extravagance it was a religion a
0:13:34 religion of uh
0:13:35 uh luxuries and and and and
0:13:38 uh uh worldly pleasures
0:13:41 uh and it's interesting that the
0:13:43 christian missionaries are pushing this
0:13:44 type of idea because
0:13:45 one of the issues that that the church
0:13:48 had was because of his injustice and the
0:13:50 misuse of its power
0:13:51 many of the the popes uh prior to the
0:13:54 enlightenment after the renaissance
0:13:56 almost took on
0:13:57 uh the the grab of uh um
0:14:00 empires of the po sorry emperors of the
0:14:03 past
0:14:03 uh so so they were the ones that were
0:14:06 living in luxury
0:14:07 and it's almost like when they were
0:14:09 exposed now what they wanted to do was
0:14:10 they wanted to paint islam in a negative
0:14:12 light as well so no one inclines towards
0:14:13 islam
0:14:14 but when people like balti actually came
0:14:15 across the true message of islam
0:14:17 they actually spoke highly of islam and
0:14:19 defended islam
0:14:21 so what happened during the
0:14:22 enlightenment period basically were
0:14:23 several things
0:14:24 they moved away from the church they
0:14:27 moved away from religion
0:14:28 and as professor leo damorosh in one of
0:14:31 the a brilliant course by the way i
0:14:33 really encourage you guys to go through
0:14:34 the enlightenment uh
0:14:35 invention of the modern self uh by the
0:14:38 great courses if you have audible you
0:14:39 guys can go and listen to this course
0:14:41 and one of the things he mentions one of
0:14:43 the ideas
0:14:45 of the enlightenment was to get human
0:14:47 beings to
0:14:48 to disconnect from the vertical plane
0:14:50 and to focus on the horizontal plane
0:14:52 meaning
0:14:53 they wanted people to to turn away from
0:14:56 ideas of the hereafter
0:14:57 from ideas of a paradise jannah they
0:15:00 wanted to
0:15:01 move people away from an eternal life
0:15:03 that's coming in the next life and
0:15:04 wanted people to focus on
0:15:06 this life and progress in this life and
0:15:08 one of the ideas they sold people
0:15:10 was that of a utopia on earth in the
0:15:13 future
0:15:14 so man was to focus on the world and
0:15:17 progress in the world to attain this
0:15:19 perfect
0:15:20 utopian world this perfect utopian
0:15:22 future in the near
0:15:24 coming future so this is what they
0:15:26 wanted people to focus on
0:15:28 right and what's very interesting is
0:15:31 that you see
0:15:32 therefore even in in individuals that
0:15:34 came
0:15:35 uh shortly after such as marx for
0:15:38 example he
0:15:39 he took an aversion to religion he
0:15:41 disliked the idea of religion because
0:15:42 one of his issues with religion was that
0:15:44 it made people comfortable in
0:15:48 the little that they had right so
0:15:50 remember
0:15:51 he was he wanted to push socialism right
0:15:52 this idea that look
0:15:55 capitalism has flaws because the rich
0:15:57 get richer the poor get poorer
0:15:58 so we want to make it that people all
0:16:00 are on the equal plane from a
0:16:02 social perspective and a financial
0:16:03 perspective and one of these
0:16:05 for him to achieve this man again had to
0:16:07 be focused on the material world
0:16:09 and progress in the material world it
0:16:11 had to be so that man was uncomfortable
0:16:13 with having little from a social and
0:16:15 economic perspective
0:16:17 and he knew that what religion did was
0:16:19 it made man comfortable
0:16:21 with little you know so and and he
0:16:23 disliked this idea
0:16:24 he wanted people to be uncomfortable if
0:16:26 they weren't doing well socially and
0:16:28 economically
0:16:29 because only then would they would they
0:16:30 would there be a drive to move forward
0:16:32 and to progress from a worldly
0:16:33 perspective
0:16:34 right so they wanted the thinkers at the
0:16:37 time and the ones that came after they
0:16:38 wanted people to disconnect
0:16:40 from any reality was that was beyond
0:16:43 this material physical world and they
0:16:44 wanted people to focus on the material
0:16:48 but what happened during this endeavor
0:16:51 was there was people fell out of balance
0:16:53 because
0:16:54 what wasn't recognized and appreciated
0:16:55 that human beings are physical material
0:16:57 beings who have material needs
0:16:59 but they're also spiritual beings but
0:17:01 the enlightenment got humanity
0:17:03 to focus on the material and by doing so
0:17:05 disconnected human beings from the
0:17:07 spiritual
0:17:08 aspects of reality and inevitably human
0:17:11 beings were going to fall
0:17:12 out of balance the other issue was or
0:17:15 one of the things they wanted to achieve
0:17:16 was they wanted to achieve a blend
0:17:18 of of reason and revelation so another
0:17:21 interesting
0:17:22 point was that they didn't want to get
0:17:24 let go of religion
0:17:26 altogether or revelation altogether
0:17:28 because they realized that if you to
0:17:30 turn away from god completely
0:17:32 well then that throws man out of balance
0:17:34 also from the perspective that now
0:17:35 nothing is objective
0:17:36 uh there's there are no absolutes there
0:17:38 are no truths there are no ethical moral
0:17:40 truths
0:17:41 so they want they took the good from
0:17:42 religion from an ethical standpoint
0:17:44 and they took from greek reason and
0:17:46 rationality and they
0:17:48 they brought these two things together
0:17:49 and amalgamated the two in a way which
0:17:51 worked
0:17:52 right and also the new goals they gave
0:17:55 humanity a new goal
0:17:57 because nihilism was an imminent threat
0:17:59 and danger
0:18:00 that they faced because again if you
0:18:02 take people away from religion and god
0:18:05 then human beings well there is no
0:18:07 ultimate meaning or purpose to life
0:18:08 something
0:18:09 again we're going to explore in in a few
0:18:11 moments so what they had to do is they
0:18:13 had to sell another vision to humanity
0:18:14 something we mentioned already
0:18:16 to make sure to ensure that people don't
0:18:18 fall into existentialism
0:18:20 and they don't experience the pain
0:18:22 that's accompanied by existential
0:18:23 nihilism
0:18:24 so what they did was they sold this
0:18:25 vision of a future utopia as we
0:18:28 mentioned already
0:18:28 now obviously alongside this you had
0:18:31 other revolutions
0:18:32 which were taking place at the time
0:18:33 which more specifically
0:18:35 you know paved the road to atheism and
0:18:37 this was something we'll touch upon in a
0:18:38 second
0:18:40 so that was the enlightenment period
0:18:42 which led to
0:18:43 modernism and the objective of modernism
0:18:46 was for humanity
0:18:48 to focus on a worldly utopia to for
0:18:50 humanity to focus on the material plane
0:18:52 the physical plane
0:18:54 to achieve as much as they can from a
0:18:56 material physical perspective and
0:18:57 obviously this leads to materialism and
0:18:59 consumerism and all of the other
0:19:00 ideologies and philosophies
0:19:02 uh which resulted that was then but in
0:19:05 the 20th century
0:19:07 we had another almost revolution
0:19:12 another intellectual revolution which
0:19:14 was of post-modernism
0:19:16 and which basically you know came out
0:19:20 and highlighted the problems with
0:19:21 modernism highlighted the flaws of
0:19:23 modernism
0:19:24 they had an aversion to the modernist
0:19:26 mindset
0:19:27 they pointed out you know that this
0:19:29 whole promise of an amazing utopian
0:19:31 future is not true
0:19:32 you failed basically and they had a
0:19:34 disliking towards modernism
0:19:36 um almost an aggressive uh
0:19:41 an aggressive rebellion towards it where
0:19:43 they wanted to sort of disprove it and
0:19:45 completely turn away from it
0:19:46 because they said look what has
0:19:48 modernism resulted in you sold these
0:19:49 amazing dreams to humanity
0:19:51 all it's resulted in is world war one
0:19:53 world war ii
0:19:54 capitalism colonialism uh the soviet
0:19:57 union
0:19:58 socialism and all of these isms and
0:20:00 schisms which have come
0:20:02 about by this and all of these wars that
0:20:03 resulted from this war have led to a lot
0:20:05 of destruction
0:20:06 uh let alone a a perfect utopian future
0:20:10 it's the opposite right so they
0:20:12 basically
0:20:13 the whole underlying philosophy of
0:20:15 post-modernism
0:20:16 is there is no absolute what they
0:20:19 basically have done
0:20:20 is they have fully followed through the
0:20:22 implications of turning away from god
0:20:24 there is no abs there are no absolutes
0:20:26 there is no truth there are no objective
0:20:28 truths or realities it's all subjective
0:20:30 it's all up in the air
0:20:31 right it's all about opinions of
0:20:34 any group that's in power right there
0:20:36 are no absolutes in any way shape or
0:20:38 form
0:20:38 right we do it's like it's like we live
0:20:40 in a world of pick and mix now this is
0:20:42 the world that we're a part of today
0:20:43 anything goes pretty much right
0:20:47 language has words have no meaning we
0:20:49 define them as we want to define them we
0:20:51 understand things as we want to
0:20:52 understand
0:20:53 things so like i said fully following
0:20:55 through with the implications
0:20:57 of a world without god the purpose is to
0:20:59 deconstruct everything deconstructionism
0:21:01 this type of ideology which which
0:21:03 uh emanated alongside which is you know
0:21:06 to to break down everything to his core
0:21:07 opponents and just call a spade a spade
0:21:09 right so in a way something you have to
0:21:11 commend them for is
0:21:13 they exposed some of the lies of
0:21:15 modernism by highlighting look
0:21:18 you know this they're all of these these
0:21:20 absolutes that you're claiming without
0:21:22 without god you you
0:21:23 there are no absolutes but at the same
0:21:25 time they didn't deal with the real
0:21:26 fundamental issue
0:21:27 which is humanity turning away from god
0:21:30 right they didn't deal with this
0:21:31 and therefore they too are falling into
0:21:33 the same problems if anything they're
0:21:34 just
0:21:35 like i said they're following through
0:21:36 with the implications of turning away
0:21:38 with
0:21:39 turning away from god fully and
0:21:41 therefore now we ended up we've ended up
0:21:42 in a world which is
0:21:45 almost completely nihilistic there is no
0:21:47 meaning behind anything literally
0:21:49 um there is there is no ultimate truth
0:21:52 or meaning as they would say we
0:21:53 interpret reality as we choose to
0:21:55 do so i i become what i want to become
0:21:58 is the type of motto
0:21:59 right so whatever whatever goes pretty
0:22:02 much
0:22:03 some interesting quotes the freedom
0:22:06 to choose to do and be anything and
0:22:09 everything makes all consumers
0:22:11 makes makes us all consumers of reality
0:22:13 um
0:22:14 another very interesting quote i think
0:22:15 this one summarizes uh the point a bit
0:22:17 better
0:22:18 in modernity nihilism may be cons
0:22:21 conceived as the devaluation of life
0:22:23 resulting from the secular project
0:22:25 of the enlightenment which which trades
0:22:27 off the sense
0:22:28 of meaning and values applied by myth
0:22:31 and religion for the gains of an
0:22:32 increasingly rationalized world
0:22:34 the goals of modernity however take on
0:22:37 the form
0:22:38 and function of the religious categories
0:22:40 of meaning and value
0:22:41 by positing a future utopia displacing
0:22:44 the source of value
0:22:45 from an afterlife to a distinct future
0:22:48 to a distant future
0:22:49 in modernity the religious esc
0:22:52 eschatological narrative is replaced by
0:22:55 a grand narrative of the
0:22:58 emancipation of man as the universal
0:23:00 subject of history
0:23:01 from suffering this grand narrative
0:23:04 supplies human existence with a sense of
0:23:06 orientation
0:23:07 and meaning in place of the old
0:23:08 religious doctrines
0:23:10 the nihilism of postmodernity however is
0:23:13 characterized by the bankruptcy
0:23:14 of this grand narrative of history and
0:23:17 the subsequent loss of the sense of
0:23:19 meaning it's supplied
0:23:20 so this sort of summarizes exactly
0:23:22 what's been going on
0:23:23 modernity you know try to deal with the
0:23:25 problem of
0:23:27 existential nihilism at least by selling
0:23:30 a new vision of a utopian future in this
0:23:32 world
0:23:33 postmodernity has just exposed that
0:23:35 pretty much
0:23:37 now here's another way we can look at
0:23:38 what's the the sort of history of the
0:23:40 past thousand years
0:23:41 initially the pre-modern world was where
0:23:44 man focused on god
0:23:46 although from a christian perspective
0:23:47 got many things wrong
0:23:49 the modern world was a time when man was
0:23:51 made to focus on the material world and
0:23:53 worship the material world
0:23:55 and the post-modern world which you're a
0:23:56 part of now is where man has rejected
0:23:58 all of this and almost has become
0:24:00 has started to worship man human beings
0:24:02 have starting to worship themselves
0:24:05 this is where we've ended up today
0:24:07 because none of the
0:24:09 they haven't addressed the real
0:24:10 fundamental underlying issue
0:24:12 which is human beings have turned away
0:24:14 from the creed and therefore have been
0:24:15 thrown out of balance
0:24:16 now where does atheism come into all of
0:24:18 this atheism is not in a vacuum
0:24:20 and the reason i wanted to present this
0:24:22 sort of backdrop to you guys was because
0:24:25 when you look at atheism one thing you
0:24:27 realize is when you start to look at the
0:24:29 foundations of atheism one thing you
0:24:30 realize is that atheism is a
0:24:32 a very weak position you know it doesn't
0:24:34 have any these foundations are very
0:24:36 shoddy they're very weak it doesn't
0:24:38 really have legs to stand on
0:24:40 but then it makes you think well why do
0:24:41 people still adhere to it
0:24:43 and the reason is because it's in line
0:24:45 with these underlying philosophies which
0:24:47 govern the world today
0:24:48 right because the world we live in a
0:24:50 world which pushes you to focus on the
0:24:52 material
0:24:53 what does atheism tell us there is no
0:24:55 creator there is no god you only live in
0:24:57 this material physical existence what
0:24:58 does naturalism tell us
0:25:00 everything is matter focus on the matter
0:25:03 right
0:25:03 so it's in line with all of these other
0:25:05 ideologies it allows
0:25:07 it puts the human being it removes all
0:25:09 guilt from the human being
0:25:11 it puts the human being in a position
0:25:13 where they have no other choice but to
0:25:15 focus on the material world let's just
0:25:16 focus on the material
0:25:17 unless we've got one life you know yolo
0:25:20 do whatever you want make the most of it
0:25:22 and then we sold these other visions
0:25:24 like you know it's all about how much
0:25:26 you can gain and how much you can make
0:25:27 in this world
0:25:28 and how much money you can attain you
0:25:29 know and how how
0:25:31 how much of a luxurious life can you
0:25:32 build for yourself
0:25:34 until you die but the funny thing is
0:25:36 when you die you don't take any of it
0:25:37 with you
0:25:38 and this is something again death is
0:25:40 something which is sidelined and people
0:25:41 don't really are made to think about it
0:25:43 you know we're made to think about life
0:25:46 and to make as much as you can in this
0:25:47 world
0:25:48 but death is not spoken about because
0:25:49 death is one of those things which again
0:25:51 puts things into perspective and this is
0:25:52 why subhanallah
0:25:53 in the quran allah
0:25:56 continuously over and over again because
0:25:59 it's something that gets the human being
0:26:00 to refocus on on what's actually going
0:26:02 on here
0:26:03 you're not here forever you're not going
0:26:04 to live forever you know
0:26:06 so what is this all all of these things
0:26:08 that you're massing here mean
0:26:10 what does it all mean where are you
0:26:11 going to take all of this at when you
0:26:12 die
0:26:13 that wealth you've acquired in your life
0:26:15 is no more yours as it is your enemies
0:26:18 you're just leaving you all behind you
0:26:20 know so but people don't think about
0:26:21 this so we met with we sold this so
0:26:23 materialistic
0:26:24 uh notion of reality again you know
0:26:27 i don't want to get into the details of
0:26:28 this here but you know all of these
0:26:30 ideologies work together it's almost
0:26:32 like a well-oiled machine
0:26:34 you have money drives everything money
0:26:36 the the pursuit
0:26:38 for the material drives everything the
0:26:40 all of these models you have such
0:26:41 capitalism which drive
0:26:43 you know consumerism and and to have
0:26:45 consumers you need to create a need
0:26:47 for consumerism and then for to have
0:26:49 consumers well you need to
0:26:51 you need to sell a philosophy of
0:26:52 materialism you know and for you to sell
0:26:55 philosophy materialism effectively well
0:26:57 you need some other philosophies in
0:26:59 place such as atheism and naturalism
0:27:00 which which which put the man in a
0:27:03 position where they can't focus on
0:27:04 anything other than this
0:27:06 material world it's it's it's really
0:27:08 interesting that the way
0:27:09 all of these pieces come together and
0:27:11 fit together right so
0:27:13 just to emphasize the point here atheism
0:27:16 to whatever degree it's prevalent is not
0:27:18 prevalent because it's rational we have
0:27:20 strong foundations
0:27:21 it's because it fits it's that peace
0:27:23 that fits the system
0:27:25 very nicely you know that's that's the
0:27:27 only reason
0:27:29 okay so let's just quickly define
0:27:31 atheism and naturalism
0:27:34 right we've also already discussed how
0:27:36 atheism and naturalism fits into
0:27:37 into the whole system of what's going on
0:27:39 here
0:27:41 what's the difference between atheism
0:27:42 and astros they're very similar but just
0:27:44 one difference i want to highlight here
0:27:45 is that
0:27:46 generally speaking again there's no
0:27:47 defined um
0:27:50 although you'll get you'll get
0:27:53 dictionary definitions of
0:27:55 these terms but uh there's nothing
0:27:58 that's
0:27:58 solidified here but generally speaking
0:28:01 if we talk about atheism atheism the
0:28:02 idea there is no god there is no creator
0:28:04 there is no personal
0:28:06 uh abrahamic conception of god um
0:28:09 you know and and that's essentially what
0:28:11 they will say that there is no god there
0:28:13 is no creator
0:28:14 behind everything that exists uh the
0:28:16 naturalist is a bit more hard line the
0:28:18 natural is a bit more
0:28:20 clear-cut if you like in his perspective
0:28:22 and he would say look
0:28:23 all that exists is the material physical
0:28:26 realm
0:28:27 it's all matter in motion even if there
0:28:29 is something behind this material
0:28:31 physical existence it has nothing to do
0:28:33 with this material physical existence
0:28:35 all everything that we see that's in
0:28:37 existence is a result of prior physical
0:28:39 causes and it's all physical physical
0:28:40 things leading to other physical things
0:28:42 the atheist may say most atheists will
0:28:46 be naturalists
0:28:47 as in for example richard dawkins and i
0:28:49 think this is what richard dawkins
0:28:50 himself has said
0:28:51 most atheists are naturalists however
0:28:53 there may be some atheists which leave
0:28:54 the door open slightly
0:28:55 to other explanations they may say some
0:28:58 of his may turn around and say well i
0:28:59 believe there may be something out there
0:29:00 which is beyond the physical but it's
0:29:02 not your god it's not a
0:29:03 it's not a sort of uh personal being
0:29:06 that you refer to
0:29:07 you know from the abrahamic traditions
0:29:08 no but there may be some sort of power
0:29:10 some sort of energy that's you know
0:29:13 something like that that explains
0:29:14 everything right so
0:29:15 there is a subtle difference that we can
0:29:17 appreciate between atheism and
0:29:18 naturalism
0:29:20 however like i said and something that's
0:29:22 acknowledged by richard dawkins himself
0:29:24 most atheists are naturalists
0:29:26 or most self-proclaimed atheists that is
0:29:28 although on the ground when you speak to
0:29:29 most atheists in public
0:29:32 you wouldn't even call them atheists
0:29:33 when you really get to know their
0:29:34 position nevertheless
0:29:35 for the sake of what we're discussing
0:29:37 here we're going to assume naturalism
0:29:39 as the default position and atheism and
0:29:41 naturalism i'm going to use
0:29:42 interchangeably
0:29:42 here here on going forward so that's the
0:29:46 main difference between the two
0:29:48 so what are the implications of atheism
0:29:52 and naturalism
0:29:53 what are the implications of a world
0:29:55 which generally speaking pushes the idea
0:29:57 that there is no god
0:29:58 there is no creator there is no
0:30:00 hereafter you
0:30:01 are born you know you live and you die
0:30:05 what are the implications of such a
0:30:06 world
0:30:06 now something i want to appreciate here
0:30:09 as soon as you say there is no creator
0:30:11 there is no
0:30:12 god essentially what you're
0:30:14 acknowledging without saying this
0:30:16 is that everything in existence is a
0:30:18 result of just blind
0:30:20 cold physical processes it's all random
0:30:24 everything that exists today including
0:30:26 ourselves
0:30:27 are just a result of one big random
0:30:31 accident everything is an accident there
0:30:34 is no creator
0:30:35 there is no god there is no being that
0:30:37 that that intended
0:30:38 all of this that brought all of this
0:30:41 into be it just happened
0:30:43 it's all one big accident that's what
0:30:45 you're acknowledging by saying that
0:30:46 there is no god there is no creator
0:30:48 okay this is what most atheists and
0:30:51 particular naturalists will acknowledge
0:30:53 now as soon as you say this or you
0:30:55 believe this well then that means
0:30:57 everything is an accident and therefore
0:30:59 everything
0:31:01 if everything is an accident there is no
0:31:02 ultimate meaning there is no ultimate
0:31:04 purpose
0:31:06 you know nothing means nothing anymore
0:31:08 pretty much it's just all pointless it's
0:31:10 all random
0:31:10 okay and therefore we can ask these
0:31:13 questions now and if we logically follow
0:31:14 through
0:31:15 and if we try to take the atheist or the
0:31:17 naturalist on the journey here and ask
0:31:18 them well okay
0:31:19 if that's the case well where is the
0:31:21 ultimate hope on your world view
0:31:24 you know the and when we talk about hope
0:31:26 we're referring to the feeling or
0:31:28 expectation and desire for something
0:31:30 to happen in particular something good
0:31:32 to happen
0:31:33 right where is the hope now think about
0:31:35 the scenario of someone that's sick
0:31:37 on their deathbed where is the hope
0:31:41 you know that they would move on maybe
0:31:43 move on to somewhere better
0:31:45 that the pain and the sickness and the
0:31:47 the the tribulation they're going
0:31:49 through will be over
0:31:50 you know where is the hope for that
0:31:52 person where is the hope
0:31:54 for a person who's had a life full of
0:31:56 suffering that there's something better
0:31:58 to come
0:31:59 where's the hope for a person who's had
0:32:00 a life full of joy that they're going to
0:32:02 move on
0:32:03 and that joy is going to continue where
0:32:05 is the where is this hope for something
0:32:07 better to happen on a world view which
0:32:08 tells you life is an accident everything
0:32:10 is an accident occurrences are an
0:32:12 accident
0:32:12 the future too will be an accident right
0:32:15 it's just a chain of accidents
0:32:17 just this lengthy chain of accidents
0:32:19 which has been taking place
0:32:21 where is the ultimate hope for such a
0:32:22 person now someone in that someone may
0:32:25 turn around and say well
0:32:26 you know i hope that i'm going to die
0:32:29 and then the pain is over
0:32:30 you know but okay
0:32:34 the pain is over but you're no longer
0:32:35 there to experience what comes after
0:32:37 because according to them do you you are
0:32:39 no more
0:32:40 you are your physical body you are your
0:32:41 physical being and when that's over it's
0:32:43 over lights out
0:32:45 right so there is no hope that you're
0:32:46 gonna experience anything other than
0:32:49 what you're experiencing up until the
0:32:50 moment you die
0:32:52 so there is no ultimate hope and this is
0:32:55 why subhanallah says in the quran
0:32:58 certainly no one despairs of allah's
0:32:59 mercy except the people who disbelieve
0:33:02 they have nothing to look forward to
0:33:06 and what's very interesting you know
0:33:07 just to think of just thinking about it
0:33:08 now human beings we're beings
0:33:10 that have the ability to project into
0:33:12 the future our minds so we have the
0:33:14 ability to see
0:33:15 into the future to plan for the future
0:33:18 right this is something that's unique to
0:33:20 us human beings we can we we can we can
0:33:22 sit there and we can
0:33:23 we can look we can peer into the future
0:33:26 not literally but
0:33:27 but just in our minds eyes and we could
0:33:29 plan therefore for the future and hence
0:33:31 we have goals
0:33:32 and we we set ourselves challenges to
0:33:34 achieve things for the future
0:33:36 but on atheism and naturalism where is
0:33:37 the ultimate hope whenever you peer into
0:33:40 the future what do you have looked to
0:33:41 look forward to
0:33:42 nothing at the end of the day literally
0:33:44 nothing
0:33:45 so there is no ultimate hope on atheism
0:33:47 or naturalism where is the ultimate
0:33:49 justice on atheism and naturalism now
0:33:52 look this is a very interesting point
0:33:54 brothers and sisters
0:33:55 something atheist and naturalistic
0:33:56 knowledge alongside us
0:33:58 as theists in particular muslims is well
0:34:00 life is unfair
0:34:02 life is un unfair we live in a world
0:34:04 which is not perfect
0:34:06 from well i'm going to i'm going to
0:34:07 quantify what i'm saying in a second but
0:34:09 we live in a world
0:34:10 where things aren't all good we live in
0:34:12 a world where there isn't
0:34:14 justice all the time you know we live in
0:34:17 a world where sometimes you do really
0:34:18 good things but you still end up getting
0:34:20 something really bad
0:34:21 or something really bad happens we live
0:34:23 in a world where someone is really bad
0:34:25 but still good things happen to them and
0:34:26 you think what's going on
0:34:28 right there is this there is this what
0:34:30 you would some people call the
0:34:31 irrational aspects of reality just
0:34:33 because they don't have the fundamental
0:34:35 understanding that allah has blessed us
0:34:37 with in the quran
0:34:38 knowledge which really helps us
0:34:40 understand reality puts things into
0:34:41 perspective
0:34:42 but generally if we look at the world
0:34:44 and just see it and what's very
0:34:46 interesting is that you can look at the
0:34:47 world in two levels
0:34:48 on one level there is great order you
0:34:51 look at the laws of the universe you
0:34:52 look at mathematic mathematical laws of
0:34:54 the
0:34:55 universe you look at the fine tuning of
0:34:56 the universe there is order within the
0:34:58 universe it's precise
0:35:00 you know there's fine tuning there's
0:35:02 something that even dawkins has to
0:35:03 acknowledge and say well it looks
0:35:04 designed
0:35:05 there are there are constants and
0:35:06 quantities which are precisely
0:35:08 fine-tuned in this universe
0:35:10 and us muslims you can look at this and
0:35:11 we can say subhana these are the signs
0:35:13 of allah
0:35:14 but on another level on a on a human
0:35:18 you know day-to-day life level if you
0:35:20 like where we're engaging with people in
0:35:22 society and we're living our lives
0:35:24 there is a lot of disorder you know
0:35:27 where things go wrong bad things happen
0:35:29 we suffer we go through pain hardships
0:35:31 you know for for the non-muslim for the
0:35:33 atheists
0:35:35 they can't make number one they can't
0:35:36 make sense of these realities for one
0:35:38 they can't make sense of the order
0:35:40 because they have to deny it because
0:35:41 they don't believe in god and they have
0:35:42 to come to some really irrational
0:35:43 conclusions because they deny it
0:35:45 and number two they can't make sense of
0:35:46 this disorder within this within this
0:35:48 realm where we we know
0:35:50 where there are bad things that happen
0:35:51 you know but from their perspective
0:35:53 another thing to look at is well there's
0:35:54 no ultimate justice
0:35:56 because it all ends at the grave and in
0:35:57 this life there is no ultimate justice
0:35:59 right so so you know it's a very bleak
0:36:03 outlook
0:36:03 but from the islamic perspective we
0:36:05 would what do we know
0:36:06 allah is gonna kiss as he says in the uh
0:36:12 in the 18th ayah i think that he is he's
0:36:14 firm he's established upon his justice
0:36:17 and therefore we know allah ultimate
0:36:20 justice is going to take place
0:36:21 everything will be equalized in the day
0:36:23 of judgment right
0:36:24 so at the end of the day because it
0:36:26 doesn't end at the grave
0:36:27 everything is going to be equalized
0:36:29 ultimate justice is going to be
0:36:31 established and take place
0:36:33 you know no one's going to be wronged in
0:36:34 the slightest
0:36:37 allah puts everything into perspective
0:36:39 so we
0:36:40 therefore ultimate we we can acknowledge
0:36:42 ultimate justice because we know we
0:36:44 believe in the creator who is ultimately
0:36:46 just he is the justice established
0:36:47 upon justice and ultimate justice will
0:36:49 take place
0:36:52 and he also informs us of his mercy as
0:36:54 to why
0:36:55 these things happen in this life why
0:36:56 they are there is this
0:36:58 aspect of reality which seems disordered
0:37:00 you know there's suffering in this pain
0:37:02 and these hardships because life is a
0:37:03 test
0:37:04 we're going to be tested we're going to
0:37:06 go through hardships we're going to go
0:37:07 through trials and tribulations
0:37:09 so islam comprehensively accounts for
0:37:11 all of this
0:37:12 and provides a comprehensive answer and
0:37:15 accounts for ultimate justice and
0:37:16 informs humanity
0:37:17 the ultimate justice will take place you
0:37:19 know don't judge that based on this
0:37:21 temporary life because you know there is
0:37:22 an objective behind this life which is
0:37:24 for you to be tested
0:37:26 so be don't worry ultimate justice is
0:37:28 inevitably going to be established from
0:37:30 an atheist perspective there is no
0:37:31 ultimate justice
0:37:32 there's nothing no ultimate value
0:37:36 you know this is one i really like this
0:37:38 is one of my one of my favorite examples
0:37:40 there's no ultimate value in atheism or
0:37:41 naturalism remember everything is an
0:37:43 accident therefore you are an accident
0:37:45 right everything is a just matter in
0:37:47 motion
0:37:48 you and me we are just an arrangement of
0:37:50 matter and carbon
0:37:52 just just just atoms and molecules which
0:37:54 have just formed in
0:37:56 in a particular way which forms us
0:38:00 and what we see as human beings
0:38:02 therefore
0:38:03 really if we think about it on atheism
0:38:05 and naturalism there is no difference
0:38:06 between me
0:38:07 and the table or you and the computer
0:38:09 screen that you're looking at right now
0:38:11 you are an arrangement of atoms and
0:38:13 molecules the computer screen you're
0:38:14 looking at right now is an arrangement
0:38:16 of atoms and molecules there's literally
0:38:18 no difference on atheism or naturalism
0:38:21 there is nothing that distinguishes you
0:38:22 from
0:38:23 anything else around you there's nothing
0:38:24 that makes you more special than
0:38:26 anything else around you that's the
0:38:29 reality on atheism and naturalism
0:38:31 you know and this is why you know we
0:38:33 always present an example
0:38:35 you know and the example hamza gives in
0:38:37 the divine reality in his book is
0:38:38 of the chocolate bunny it's a really
0:38:41 very interesting example look
0:38:42 you know imagine and i'll paint this
0:38:44 scenario for you guys right now imagine
0:38:45 you
0:38:46 suffer from a condition where
0:38:49 whereby you have this anger problem
0:38:53 and you've gone to your doctor and your
0:38:54 doctor's told you there's no medication
0:38:55 for your issue
0:38:56 or your problem all you can do is you
0:38:58 know you can carry a hammer around with
0:39:00 you
0:39:00 and whenever you get angry just release
0:39:02 your anger on something go smash
0:39:03 something and you'll feel better
0:39:05 so you always keep a hammer with you now
0:39:06 imagine for some reason you get really
0:39:08 angry
0:39:09 you know imagine we and right now we're
0:39:11 not online we're in a class somewhere
0:39:12 we're sitting together and i'm
0:39:14 right in front of you imagine for some
0:39:15 reason you get really angry with me
0:39:16 right
0:39:17 and you know you're triggered and you
0:39:19 need to release your anger and you have
0:39:20 a choice you can either smash me or you
0:39:22 can smash
0:39:23 a chocolate bunny that's sitting on the
0:39:25 table next to me what would you smash
0:39:27 who would you smash
0:39:30 where and i want you to think about this
0:39:32 from the atheist mindset put yourself in
0:39:33 the
0:39:34 shoes of a naturalist or an atheist what
0:39:36 would you smash in that scenario me or
0:39:38 the
0:39:39 chocolate bunny every sane human being
0:39:41 would say the chocolate bunny
0:39:43 it just makes sense it's intuitive and
0:39:45 it's rational but if i was to ask you
0:39:46 why
0:39:47 you would turn around and probably say
0:39:49 well it's obvious you're a human being
0:39:51 and that's a chocolate bunny but if i
0:39:53 was to press a bit further and ask you
0:39:55 hold on a second what does that mean
0:39:57 what what distinguishes me
0:39:59 as a human being from that chocolate
0:40:00 bunny well you say well um you know
0:40:03 you're more complex you're sentient
0:40:06 you're conscious
0:40:07 uh you know you are alive uh
0:40:10 you're human but that chocolate bunny is
0:40:13 just chocolate
0:40:14 i i'll say okay that's interesting but
0:40:16 what does that mean on atheism and
0:40:18 naturalism
0:40:19 what does it mean when you say that i am
0:40:21 more complex
0:40:22 therefore i'm more valuable than that
0:40:24 chocolate bunny
0:40:26 why because what you're essentially
0:40:27 doing here is you're inserting in a
0:40:29 principle an
0:40:30 idea which is that complex things are
0:40:33 better or more valuable than less
0:40:35 complex things where did you get this
0:40:37 idea from and why does that have any
0:40:39 value
0:40:39 in and of itself on atheism or
0:40:42 naturalism in a world view where
0:40:43 everything is just random in an accident
0:40:45 then you may say well okay forget
0:40:47 complexity you're conscious
0:40:49 well hold on a second on atheism and
0:40:51 naturalism what does it mean to be
0:40:52 conscious according to naturalist at
0:40:54 least most of them
0:40:55 your consciousness is just an illusion
0:40:58 of your physical material brain
0:41:00 so there's nothing special there's
0:41:01 nothing extra there it's just your brain
0:41:03 which is matter
0:41:04 therefore saying you're conscious means
0:41:06 really nothing what does that mean
0:41:07 you're not distinguishing yourself from
0:41:09 that chocolate bunny
0:41:11 then you may turn around and say well
0:41:12 you're you're i don't know you're
0:41:14 you feel you're sent here okay that's
0:41:16 another principle you're injecting there
0:41:18 which is
0:41:18 a being that feels is more valuable than
0:41:20 a being that doesn't feel well why does
0:41:22 that hold any value
0:41:23 that idea you then you may say well i
0:41:26 feel pain
0:41:27 or you will feel pain and you will be
0:41:29 you know pain is not good
0:41:30 okay that's interesting i agree with you
0:41:33 but on atheism and naturalism
0:41:35 why is feeling pain really a bad thing
0:41:39 and where is that ethical or moral ought
0:41:42 that's pressing down
0:41:43 you when you say that coming from where
0:41:46 is that where is that where's the
0:41:48 ethical ought that's pressing down
0:41:49 that moral ought that you don't want me
0:41:52 to feel pain because that's
0:41:53 something not good where is that coming
0:41:55 from on atheism or naturalism
0:41:58 ethics and morals in and of themselves
0:41:59 are just subjective whims
0:42:01 of the human being based on either
0:42:03 social constructs or evolution or
0:42:05 whatever else there may be
0:42:06 so at the end of the day whichever way
0:42:07 you play your look at at the end of the
0:42:09 day on atheism and naturalism there is
0:42:11 literally
0:42:12 literally no difference between you as a
0:42:15 human
0:42:16 being and any other inanimate object
0:42:18 your phone your table your chair
0:42:20 a kind of pepsi you know i don't know
0:42:23 a book there's no difference literally
0:42:25 no difference and
0:42:27 then the irony brothers and sisters the
0:42:28 friends the irony
0:42:30 atheists claim to be humanists you know
0:42:33 many secular humanists claim to be
0:42:35 atheists
0:42:36 outspoken atheists well how do you now
0:42:40 literally these are contradictory views
0:42:42 if you really sit down and knuckle down
0:42:44 and really look at what's being said
0:42:45 there so there is no ultimate value
0:42:47 on on atheism naturalism therefore you
0:42:49 almost and we can start to see the
0:42:50 pictures building now
0:42:51 you are degrading and i'm using my words
0:42:54 very clear
0:42:55 carefully here you are degrading as soon
0:42:57 as you adopt atheism and naturalism you
0:42:59 are degrading yourself
0:43:01 and your worth as a human being you're
0:43:03 reducing yourself to something
0:43:05 less than what god has made you as a
0:43:08 human being
0:43:08 because you can't help but do that your
0:43:11 world view
0:43:12 pushes you to that position and that's
0:43:15 one of the the the the sad realities of
0:43:17 atheism and naturalism
0:43:20 moving on no ultimate purpose i mean
0:43:23 again
0:43:24 accidents don't have a purpose at least
0:43:25 from their perspective
0:43:27 you spill milks it spilt milk that's it
0:43:30 there's no purpose behind it it happened
0:43:32 you know it that's that's pretty much it
0:43:34 your life is an accident everything is
0:43:36 an accident then where is the purpose
0:43:38 where is the ultimate purpose there
0:43:39 isn't any you know atheist material said
0:43:41 well
0:43:42 you know i have purpose my purpose is to
0:43:43 do x or y or z
0:43:45 or that's something you're making up and
0:43:46 again we'll explore this a bit later
0:43:48 when we look at
0:43:48 some of the responses but there is an
0:43:50 ultimate purpose on atheism or
0:43:52 naturalism whatever they say whatever
0:43:53 they come up with
0:43:55 you know whatever they push i want to be
0:43:57 a philosopher i want to be a
0:43:58 philanthropist i want to be
0:44:00 i want to do charity work i want to set
0:44:02 up a an orphan for children okay these
0:44:04 are beautiful things but an atheist of
0:44:05 naturalism you're doing all of these
0:44:06 things means nothing
0:44:08 these are these uh this is purpose
0:44:11 you're ascribing to yourself you're
0:44:13 making it up you know like children
0:44:14 kids they play dress up sometimes and
0:44:16 they act like batman or superman or
0:44:18 robin
0:44:19 that's essentially what they're doing
0:44:20 it's playing it's like playing dress up
0:44:22 oh i don't have any purpose or meaning
0:44:24 to my life i'm just going to make up
0:44:25 purpose for myself
0:44:27 you know and that's the absurdities it
0:44:28 may work for some but it's not going to
0:44:30 work for many
0:44:31 you know but we'll explore this a bit
0:44:32 more as we go along
0:44:34 no ultimate happiness this is a big one
0:44:36 as well because
0:44:38 human beings chase happiness we want to
0:44:40 be happy you know you know the why game
0:44:42 two kids play why why why you answer a
0:44:44 question they say why
0:44:45 you know if you speak to people and ask
0:44:47 them well okay what you want to do in
0:44:48 life i want to be a doctor why
0:44:50 because i want to help people and and
0:44:52 get lots of money
0:44:53 why uh because it's a good thing to do
0:44:55 why because you're taking care of others
0:44:57 why
0:44:57 uh well i want to take care of this why
0:44:59 because um
0:45:01 you know it's going to make me feel good
0:45:02 and i'm gonna be happy
0:45:04 at the end of the day if you play that y
0:45:06 game with most people
0:45:08 inevitably in most cases they will end
0:45:10 up with because i want to be happy human
0:45:11 beings want to be happy
0:45:13 right but on atheism and naturalism
0:45:15 there's no ultimate happiness how can
0:45:16 they be
0:45:17 when you don't know why you're here when
0:45:20 you don't know why you're here brothers
0:45:22 and sisters
0:45:22 friends we're purpose driven creatures
0:45:25 every aspect of our life is purpose
0:45:27 driven
0:45:28 literally like we wake up in the morning
0:45:30 with a purpose
0:45:31 every level of our lives is purpose
0:45:33 driven we brush our teeth and have our
0:45:35 breakfast and leave our houses and go to
0:45:36 work with a purpose
0:45:38 we come home we have dinner we go to bed
0:45:40 with a purpose we go to the toilet with
0:45:42 a purpose we wear shoes with the purpose
0:45:44 you know we have a bath with a purpose
0:45:48 it's all purpose driven when we when we
0:45:50 look at the world around us we see
0:45:52 with the with the eye of purpose we give
0:45:54 we ascribe purpose to things around us
0:45:56 when we make things and design things we
0:45:59 design and make
0:46:00 things with a purpose we're purpose
0:46:02 driven creatures we can't escape this
0:46:04 but when it comes to our very existence
0:46:07 our very being
0:46:08 our being a reason for living there is
0:46:11 no ultimate purpose
0:46:12 there's nothing how does that make sense
0:46:14 how how is that going to sit well with
0:46:16 one's nature with one's fitra
0:46:17 you know start to think about that i'm
0:46:19 just planting the seed right now but
0:46:20 really think about that
0:46:21 and this has caused a lot of problems
0:46:24 because it just doesn't make any sense
0:46:27 everything around me has a purpose i see
0:46:30 that
0:46:30 i have the ability to see and appreciate
0:46:32 that but
0:46:33 and i have the ability to ask the
0:46:35 question about my very existence and the
0:46:37 purpose of my very existence
0:46:39 but there's no answers from the
0:46:41 worldview of atheism and naturalism
0:46:42 there is no ultimate purpose of meaning
0:46:44 how is that going to feel
0:46:46 i can tell you from my personal story i
0:46:48 spent many years before i came back to
0:46:50 islam
0:46:51 dealing with this very issue i didn't
0:46:54 know who i was anymore
0:46:56 i just could i just didn't have the
0:46:58 reason to get out of bed in the morning
0:46:59 and brush my teeth
0:47:00 why when i'm gonna end up under the
0:47:01 ground dead why was i alive why was i
0:47:04 conscious why could i see and understand
0:47:06 the world around me
0:47:07 why could i reflect about it why could i
0:47:09 think about the future these were things
0:47:11 that really got to me and they were
0:47:12 hurting me for many many years
0:47:14 i just couldn't just everything around
0:47:16 me just blanked out a point i just
0:47:18 the world around me didn't seem real
0:47:19 anymore and
0:47:21 i'm thinking about it now it didn't seem
0:47:23 real i disassociated with the world
0:47:24 around me because
0:47:25 i couldn't see value in it or the
0:47:27 meaning behind it
0:47:29 i disassociate from myself i look look
0:47:31 at myself in the mirror i look down at
0:47:33 my hands and i couldn't recognize myself
0:47:34 anymore
0:47:36 what was i who was i and then i
0:47:38 dissociated from it i didn't feel real
0:47:40 because i couldn't understand the
0:47:41 meaning
0:47:42 behind my existence if there wasn't any
0:47:45 meaning well it may
0:47:47 it's probably not even real and it
0:47:50 caused me huge issues and many people
0:47:52 suffer from this type of existential
0:47:53 angst this absurd
0:47:55 the awareness of the observed albert
0:47:57 camus a existential philosopher
0:48:00 he writes this in one of his book i
0:48:01 think sisyphus i think he's called if i
0:48:03 can't remember i read this and it really
0:48:04 struck me
0:48:04 he really paints this in a very
0:48:06 beautiful prose he speaks about when
0:48:09 one man or woman first comes into
0:48:11 contact with the absurd
0:48:12 they go through that door and they
0:48:14 realize that on that world view without
0:48:16 god and this is something i'm injecting
0:48:18 in there because he doesn't say that but
0:48:19 as soon as you turn away from god and
0:48:21 god given meaning and the reality god
0:48:23 reveals to you as soon as you walk
0:48:25 through the door and really ask the
0:48:26 question about what does life mean and
0:48:27 what does my existence mean there are no
0:48:29 answers it's just darkness
0:48:31 you know and that and he speaks about
0:48:33 the absurdities it's like everything
0:48:34 loses meaning it's just it's
0:48:36 removed it's sucked out from the from
0:48:38 the world around you
0:48:40 but at the same time he says and this is
0:48:42 very interesting he mentions that there
0:48:43 is a fascination
0:48:45 there is this there's this desire in the
0:48:47 person that he can't focus on anything
0:48:49 other than that absurd
0:48:51 because this is yearning inside the
0:48:52 person to figure things out
0:48:54 and i think one thing he did i think
0:48:56 what he was referring today was the
0:48:58 fitra of man
0:48:59 the nature of man that allah has created
0:49:01 us upon and he's given us certain tools
0:49:03 within us to look
0:49:04 and to understand and to and to seek out
0:49:06 allah because the power of the fitra is
0:49:08 to recognize the line to worship allah
0:49:10 and when human beings are disconnected
0:49:12 from this reality they're gonna they're
0:49:13 gonna they're gonna end up in turmoil
0:49:15 existential they can have existential
0:49:16 issues psychological issues they're
0:49:18 going to go through depression and
0:49:19 anxiety at least some forms of
0:49:20 depression anxiety
0:49:22 so there is no ultimate happiness
0:49:24 because if you don't have the answers to
0:49:25 the fundamental questions of life who
0:49:27 are you where did you come from where
0:49:29 are you going things that are pressing
0:49:30 upon us as human beings
0:49:32 how can you ultimately be happy you know
0:49:34 imagine the example of
0:49:35 right now for some reason you guys get
0:49:38 really bored and you feel really sleepy
0:49:40 and you fall asleep
0:49:42 and you just knock out and then suddenly
0:49:44 you wake up but you're not in your room
0:49:45 anymore imagine you're on a train
0:49:48 and you're the train is just moving
0:49:49 really fast and you look out the window
0:49:50 you're on a track there you see
0:49:52 you know you don't know how you got on
0:49:53 the train what's your initial feeling
0:49:56 how do you feel initially what's your
0:49:57 reaction this is going to be anxiety
0:49:59 there's going to be worry there's going
0:50:00 to be questions that are racing through
0:50:02 your mind how did i get it who put me
0:50:03 here where is this going what the hell
0:50:04 is going on
0:50:05 and then you look out the window and
0:50:07 although you're worried about all of
0:50:08 these things suddenly you see the most
0:50:10 beautiful scenery the sun setting over
0:50:12 the mountains
0:50:13 right and as and suddenly you there's a
0:50:16 sense of appreciation you have of the
0:50:18 beauty you see outside the window
0:50:19 and then as soon as you turn back around
0:50:21 you realize that there's beautiful
0:50:23 music or nasheeds that are playing in
0:50:25 the train soothing the sheeds
0:50:28 and then suddenly some you know someone
0:50:30 brings a five-star meal to you and puts
0:50:32 the meal right in front of you
0:50:33 and you taste the food and it's the most
0:50:35 delicious food that you've ever tasted
0:50:36 and at the same time you start to notice
0:50:37 the comfort of the chair that you're
0:50:38 sitting in it's the most comfortable
0:50:40 chair you've ever been sitting in
0:50:42 now as you're enjoying these
0:50:45 pleasures that you're picking up through
0:50:46 your senses ask yourself the question
0:50:49 although you may be temporarily
0:50:50 distracted and may
0:50:52 experience a sense of joy at the things
0:50:55 that you're experiencing via your senses
0:50:57 are you truly happy in any meaningful
0:51:00 sense
0:51:00 without getting the answers to those
0:51:02 fundamental questions that you had
0:51:04 how did i come here where is this train
0:51:05 going who put me here the answer is no
0:51:08 in most cases
0:51:09 in practicality i mean if you ended up
0:51:11 in such a situation
0:51:12 you probably flick the tray and you just
0:51:15 get up and start running
0:51:16 right you wouldn't know what you start
0:51:17 screaming right
0:51:19 and this is what this is this analogy
0:51:21 applies to life in a very beautiful way
0:51:22 because
0:51:23 we we live in a world where you know
0:51:26 which is so disconnected from god that
0:51:28 we were born and we're
0:51:29 in this world and we're looking at the
0:51:30 world around us we're enjoying certain
0:51:31 aspects of reality
0:51:33 we you know enjoy certain things and you
0:51:35 know there are so and trust me there is
0:51:36 a lot in this world to enjoy
0:51:38 they have decked it out it's been kitted
0:51:40 out it's been beautified for you to just
0:51:41 focus on and just to just lose yourself
0:51:44 in right
0:51:45 and the more you focus on this world but
0:51:47 at the same time you may be
0:51:48 deriving temporary pleasure from the
0:51:51 things around you
0:51:52 but are you truly happy without knowing
0:51:56 who you are
0:51:57 what's your purpose who created you who
0:51:59 put you here where are you going
0:52:02 are you are you going to be truly happy
0:52:03 no you'll never be truly happy you may
0:52:06 be distracted but you'll never truly be
0:52:08 happy and on atheism and naturalism
0:52:09 there is no ultimate
0:52:10 happiness or meaning so
0:52:14 let's quickly think about this idea and
0:52:16 go back to the period of enlightenment
0:52:18 and one of the underlying
0:52:19 uh the mission statements which was
0:52:22 progress from a worldly sense to
0:52:25 progress and to create a worldly utopia
0:52:27 did they achieve that no you know this
0:52:29 is something that
0:52:30 the post-modernists have recognized and
0:52:32 hence you had this post-modernist
0:52:34 movement which was
0:52:35 you know just just completely exposing
0:52:37 modernism from that perspective
0:52:39 okay so they didn't achieve that in any
0:52:41 way shape or form if anything
0:52:43 by turning away from god sure you know
0:52:45 we pray
0:52:46 this helped propel the industrial
0:52:48 industrial revolution and helped
0:52:50 you know develop immunities and luxuries
0:52:52 at least for some aspects of the world
0:52:54 or some parts of the world while
0:52:55 it sort of sucked the life out of other
0:52:58 parts of the world and other human
0:52:59 beings in other poorer parts of the
0:53:00 world
0:53:01 uh you know
0:53:05 overall it was a full project right and
0:53:07 this highlights to us
0:53:10 man is created to worship god as soon as
0:53:12 you disconnect human beings from its
0:53:13 creator and you try to sell them another
0:53:15 vision you're going to fail
0:53:16 you're going to run into problems it's
0:53:17 not going to work at least not for long
0:53:20 and this is exactly what we saw take
0:53:22 place in the
0:53:23 uh you know in the 19th and the 20th
0:53:25 century or 19th and early parts of the
0:53:27 20th century
0:53:28 like we said already world war one world
0:53:30 war ii
0:53:31 socialism capitalism i mean think about
0:53:34 the soviet union the atrocities that
0:53:36 just that the the way people were killed
0:53:41 just because of the religious views you
0:53:44 know the way they were pushed to turn
0:53:45 away from religion and god
0:53:47 you know massacres at the hands of
0:53:49 stalin
0:53:50 think about world war in world war ii
0:53:51 how many deaths took place
0:53:53 during these battles colonialism itself
0:53:56 is a direct result
0:53:57 of this modernist mentality
0:54:01 you know because it's all about the
0:54:02 world it's all about pushing
0:54:05 you know as much as you can to try and
0:54:07 make us
0:54:08 you know just make as much as you can of
0:54:11 this material world and for that you
0:54:12 need resources
0:54:14 and for unity resources while the west
0:54:17 well most of the you know the world that
0:54:19 was pushing these these ideas didn't
0:54:21 have much
0:54:21 in the form of resources well you have
0:54:23 to get them from somewhere right
0:54:25 so you exploit other parts of the world
0:54:29 so it's a fail it was a full project and
0:54:31 this is something this is why i said
0:54:32 this is one of the
0:54:34 things you can you can you can give
0:54:37 some cred credential or some uh props to
0:54:40 post-modernism for they just call these
0:54:42 things out it was a failed project
0:54:44 you know and this is something
0:54:45 interesting because if you look at from
0:54:46 the perspective of
0:54:47 many atheists and non uh you know uh
0:54:51 those that that anti-theist they always
0:54:53 make the argument well
0:54:54 you know religions cause deaths
0:54:56 religions cause corruption
0:54:58 religions have have resulted in so many
0:55:01 uh
0:55:01 just you know massacres and etc etc but
0:55:03 when you look at the
0:55:04 it's not a numbers game i don't like
0:55:06 playing a numbers game with atheists
0:55:07 when they make this type of argument but
0:55:09 if you were to play the numbers game
0:55:10 i mean if you look at the the findings
0:55:12 you will see that the truth is something
0:55:13 else
0:55:14 i mean a very interesting analysis is
0:55:15 given in a book war and peace in islam
0:55:18 uh the results you look at them and they
0:55:21 conduct these you know over the studies
0:55:22 and
0:55:23 they have all of this data in their book
0:55:24 and all the tables and graphs but
0:55:26 they conclude by saying our findings
0:55:27 show that using the entire data set from
0:55:30 the period 0 to 2008
0:55:32 politically and religiously motivated
0:55:34 violence has cost between 447.86
0:55:38 million and 706.72 million lives
0:55:41 the christian civilization shares of
0:55:43 this is the largest with between
0:55:45 119.42 million and 236.66 million
0:55:49 victims medium uh 178.72 million
0:55:53 in second place is the antitheist
0:55:55 civilization
0:55:56 which has contributed with a median
0:55:58 figure of 124.41 million deaths
0:56:02 sixth is and a lifted uh remove some of
0:56:05 what was said there just to get to the
0:56:06 point sixth is the islamic civilization
0:56:08 with 31.02 million deaths
0:56:11 so look at the end of the day human
0:56:12 beings are human beings whether you're
0:56:15 muslim or non-muslim
0:56:16 human beings sometimes will make have
0:56:18 throughout history and will continue to
0:56:19 make mistakes
0:56:20 war is a part of the you know the human
0:56:22 condition
0:56:23 no one's perfect sure some aspects of
0:56:26 people that associate with islam
0:56:28 have led to many atrocities in the world
0:56:29 i have done some absolutely disgusting
0:56:31 and terrible things and we're the first
0:56:32 to speak out
0:56:33 against them but if you're going to play
0:56:34 a numbers game if you look at the
0:56:35 anti-theist
0:56:36 the death toll on from the perspective
0:56:38 of antitheism is far higher
0:56:40 far higher than that of islam right and
0:56:43 and again we could see why
0:56:44 if you just think about this from a just
0:56:46 a purely logical perspective well look
0:56:48 what's
0:56:48 look at what's going on we've seen the
0:56:49 implications of a world that turns away
0:56:52 from god
0:56:52 and that's exactly what happens you turn
0:56:54 people away from god you remove the
0:56:56 foundations
0:56:56 of humanity and therefore
0:57:00 when you get man to focus on the world
0:57:01 then it just becomes a selfish rat race
0:57:03 the enough is just going wild and it
0:57:05 just wants to achieve as much as it can
0:57:06 there is nothing grounding the human
0:57:08 being anymore right so anything goes you
0:57:10 can justify pretty much anything and
0:57:12 we've seen some of the atrocities
0:57:13 throughout history from this perspective
0:57:15 and there is a there is a beautiful ayah
0:57:17 in the quran
0:57:18 which which i think relates to this and
0:57:21 gives us some insight into this where
0:57:23 allah says in the 30th
0:57:25 chapter verse 41 corruption has spread
0:57:27 on land and sea as a result of what
0:57:29 people's hands have done
0:57:30 so that allah may cause them to taste
0:57:32 the consequences of some of the deeds
0:57:34 and perhaps they may return to the right
0:57:37 path i mean
0:57:38 we don't need to go into the exegesis or
0:57:39 or even a pondering of this ayah i mean
0:57:41 the eye speaks for itself
0:57:42 right i mean right now we're going
0:57:44 through a and literally a heat wave in
0:57:47 in the uk the past couple of days have
0:57:48 just been hot
0:57:50 and obviously if most of you guys are
0:57:51 from the uk you know how hot it's been
0:57:53 especially in london
0:57:54 and areas around london this has been
0:57:55 crazy it's hard to sleep at night
0:57:57 why is this happening it's a result of
0:57:58 global warming well we know why global
0:58:00 warming is taking place right
0:58:02 so we can we can see we can see how
0:58:06 turning away from allah has resulted in
0:58:09 just the destruction of our planet the
0:58:11 destruction of human beings the
0:58:12 destruction of the individual
0:58:14 on every level on every level and this
0:58:16 should be a sign for humanity if
0:58:18 anything
0:58:19 you know should be it should be a big
0:58:20 sign for all of us
0:58:22 this was something that nietzsche
0:58:23 predicted i'm not going to go into this
0:58:25 too much but
0:58:25 sometimes you know some of the atheists
0:58:27 like to take nietzsche's
0:58:29 context when he said god is dead you
0:58:31 know nietzsche is a very interesting
0:58:33 thinker because if you i think it was pr
0:58:35 uh i i watched a youtube lecture by
0:58:38 professor ken
0:58:39 james i think he was and he mentioned
0:58:40 this and he goes into explaining this uh
0:58:43 this statement of nietzsche's which
0:58:45 which he made where he said god is dead
0:58:47 god remains dead
0:58:48 and we have killed him how shall we
0:58:50 comfort ourselves the murderers of all
0:58:52 murderers
0:58:52 what has what has ha what what was
0:58:55 holiest and mightiest of all the
0:58:58 all that the world had yet owned had
0:59:00 bled to death under our knives
0:59:02 who will wipe this blood of us what
0:59:04 water is there for us to clean ourselves
0:59:06 what festivals
0:59:07 of atonement what sacred games shall we
0:59:09 have to invent
0:59:11 the the he most atheists use this as
0:59:13 saying oh look
0:59:14 nietzsche was a champion of atheism sure
0:59:16 there's much we can disagree with him
0:59:18 about right
0:59:19 but something he saw was that as soon as
0:59:22 people turn away from god and have
0:59:23 killed
0:59:24 god as far as turning away from god and
0:59:25 denying god
0:59:27 he saw the problems he predicted the
0:59:29 next couple of centuries
0:59:30 that they were going to be centuries of
0:59:32 nihilism meaninglessness because you saw
0:59:34 the logical implications of turning away
0:59:36 from god
0:59:36 obviously the you know during the period
0:59:39 of enlightenment and the thinkers tried
0:59:40 to patch this the best they could by
0:59:42 selling
0:59:42 humanity another vision a worldly vision
0:59:44 but obviously i mean
0:59:46 it it was going to fall through at some
0:59:48 point and it did
0:59:49 so so this it was very interesting his
0:59:51 insights i just wanted to clarify that
0:59:52 because sometimes
0:59:53 what nietzsche said in regards to god is
0:59:56 dead
0:59:56 is taken out of context and he basically
0:59:59 was saying you know he was asking he was
1:00:00 reminding people look you killed god
1:00:02 how are you going to deal with outcomes
1:00:03 what are you going to do you know how
1:00:05 are you going to now remedy this
1:00:06 situation we find ourselves in and
1:00:08 he he obviously didn't see a solution
1:00:11 on such an outlook where you don't
1:00:13 believe in a creator
1:00:14 so proposal proposed solutions by the
1:00:17 existentialists
1:00:18 and atheists now obviously it's a
1:00:20 problem
1:00:22 existential nihilism which i'm
1:00:24 specifically focusing on let me just
1:00:25 define that term quickly because i
1:00:26 haven't done it already
1:00:28 nihilism or nihilism is the idea
1:00:30 generally speaking that of
1:00:32 meaninglessness nothing has any meaning
1:00:33 but when we say existential nihilism or
1:00:35 nihilism what we're saying here
1:00:36 specifically
1:00:37 is there is no meaning from the
1:00:40 perspective of our existence our lives
1:00:42 our
1:00:43 existence has no meaning and that's what
1:00:45 i'm specifically focusing on
1:00:47 you know in this webinar although we
1:00:48 know atheism and naturalism and other
1:00:50 such ideologies lead to nihilism
1:00:52 as as a general idea which is meaning is
1:00:55 removed from all perspectives
1:00:57 from ethics morals etc so how they try
1:01:00 to resolve this remedy this
1:01:02 one of the ways was they said well let's
1:01:04 make up meaning and be responsible this
1:01:06 was something
1:01:06 jean-paul sartre pushed himself which
1:01:09 was the idea of living
1:01:11 responsible lives and he wrote hugely
1:01:13 being responsible again just to remedy
1:01:16 you know
1:01:19 provide a solution for human beings that
1:01:21 find themselves in a world without god
1:01:23 his idea was that look we have to give
1:01:25 ourselves meaning we have to live with
1:01:27 meaning
1:01:28 you know we have to and live responsibly
1:01:30 although i don't know how he accounted
1:01:31 for a responsible life
1:01:33 you know on he was an atheist himself
1:01:35 and again like we said if there's no
1:01:37 meaning to life
1:01:38 if everything is an accident well what
1:01:39 does it mean to be responsible you know
1:01:41 what does it mean to live responsibly
1:01:42 what does it mean to
1:01:43 live in a way where you're looking out
1:01:44 for other human beings well that's
1:01:45 another these are questions in and of
1:01:47 themselves
1:01:48 this wasn't going to work because as
1:01:49 soon as essentially when you say i'm
1:01:51 going to give myself meaning my meaning
1:01:53 or my purpose is to be
1:01:54 x y or z like we said already you're
1:01:56 making up meaning
1:01:57 you're making up meaning for yourself in
1:01:59 other words you're lying to yourselves
1:02:01 this is not your ultimate purpose you're
1:02:03 just making something up and what does
1:02:04 that mean
1:02:05 what does it mean to make up something
1:02:07 for yourselves just to get by
1:02:09 and why should that get you by i mean if
1:02:11 you really know what's going on here
1:02:12 that would that shouldn't work for you
1:02:14 you know so that's one option which
1:02:17 fails another perspective is let's just
1:02:20 accept it and face it this is something
1:02:22 richard dawkins i've heard pushing
1:02:23 recently
1:02:24 which is look we have to be brave and
1:02:26 religious people are afraid and they're
1:02:28 not brave and that's why they make up
1:02:29 religion
1:02:30 because religion provides comfort
1:02:32 religion religion is comforting
1:02:34 and that's why people have made up
1:02:35 religion now just just a quick thought
1:02:38 on this idea of religion is comforting
1:02:39 therefore people have made up religion
1:02:41 that doesn't logically follow just
1:02:43 because something provides comfort it
1:02:45 doesn't mean it's automatically made up
1:02:47 for that very reason i mean let me if i
1:02:49 could think i don't know but as an
1:02:51 analogy
1:02:52 it's like saying i don't know it's
1:02:53 probably not a good analogy but it's
1:02:54 like saying
1:02:55 water quenches thirst therefore
1:02:59 water was manufactured or created or
1:03:03 exists for that reason no well that's
1:03:05 one reason but that doesn't mean water
1:03:07 is only for that reason
1:03:09 so i mean the point i'm getting at here
1:03:10 is
1:03:12 just because something provides comfort
1:03:13 it doesn't mean it's made up
1:03:15 it can we could another way of looking
1:03:16 at is this that the creator
1:03:19 that that that gave you this religion
1:03:22 knows your nature knows what's going to
1:03:24 provide you comfort and get you through
1:03:25 this life and therefore he gave you
1:03:27 a religion which caters towards that
1:03:29 that's equally as plausible
1:03:31 so they i i don't get that type of
1:03:32 argument doesn't logically follow
1:03:34 so this whole idea about let's just
1:03:36 accept it and face it
1:03:37 okay there's one way you can deal with
1:03:39 it and to be honest that's probably the
1:03:41 that's you being most honest as an
1:03:43 atheist or a naturalist by saying okay
1:03:44 there is no ultimate meaning and purpose
1:03:46 in life i'm not going to act like there
1:03:48 is or make something up
1:03:49 i'm just going to face it and keep going
1:03:51 if if that works for you
1:03:53 you know all power to you but to be
1:03:54 honest with most people it's just not
1:03:56 going to sit well with the nature
1:03:58 because they're going to be in a
1:03:58 constant state of agitation
1:04:01 because the human nature knows we know
1:04:03 deep down inside we have
1:04:05 a purpose there are there is the reason
1:04:08 we're here
1:04:08 and we're looking for it and the last
1:04:10 place the the the fundamental
1:04:12 fundamental building blocks of that
1:04:14 within our very fitra within our very
1:04:15 nature
1:04:17 but at the same time world views just
1:04:19 atheist and naturalism are
1:04:20 are completely rejecting that nature so
1:04:22 you're always going to be in a state of
1:04:23 agitation
1:04:24 and it's not going to work for most
1:04:25 people i would say and and even if it
1:04:27 does if people just deal with it for a
1:04:29 while eventually they'll fall off and
1:04:30 this is why
1:04:32 you know people like jordan peterson i
1:04:33 really believe people are jordan
1:04:34 peterson
1:04:35 you know some of his stuff is really
1:04:36 really good you know amazing
1:04:38 but the reason he's gaining so much
1:04:40 popularity brothers and sisters and
1:04:41 friends i really believe one of the
1:04:42 reasons is because
1:04:44 what he's doing is he's speaking about
1:04:46 meaning
1:04:47 and purpose and value and he's giving
1:04:50 people something atheism and naturalism
1:04:52 is not giving people
1:04:54 so he's providing something to people on
1:04:57 such world views who come from such a
1:04:59 world view something to
1:05:00 incline towards and because what he's
1:05:03 saying is more in line with people's
1:05:04 nature than climbing towards him more
1:05:06 and they're following
1:05:06 people like him right it's very
1:05:08 interesting and this is why it's a
1:05:09 beautiful opportunity for us as muslims
1:05:10 today
1:05:11 to share the message of islam because
1:05:13 it's far more comprehensive
1:05:14 than what jordan peterson or anyone else
1:05:16 is providing right so we've got the
1:05:18 solution
1:05:20 the post-modernist response uh the way
1:05:22 they deal with this is well they say
1:05:24 there is no meaning
1:05:25 uh you know we'll define things the way
1:05:27 we want to define everything subjective
1:05:29 anyway
1:05:29 and they're trying to again like with
1:05:31 the first point they're trying to just
1:05:32 come to terms with all of this
1:05:33 and what they're doing is they just you
1:05:35 know they're saying okay well
1:05:36 this seems to be what's going on here
1:05:38 the thinking is well look okay
1:05:39 how do we deal with meaninglessness we
1:05:42 have amazing technology that we
1:05:43 developed
1:05:44 due to the advent of you know uh due to
1:05:47 the the enlightenment and
1:05:48 the industrial revolution has led to
1:05:49 some amazing technological advancements
1:05:51 which it has
1:05:52 you know uh let's just make the most of
1:05:54 that let's just lose ourselves in
1:05:56 technology
1:05:57 right how many people do we see today
1:06:00 the gaming culture
1:06:01 which is so prevalent people are losing
1:06:03 themselves in games
1:06:04 they live through the game they live by
1:06:07 the the rules of the game
1:06:09 they live literally by the rules of the
1:06:11 game right
1:06:12 they define themselves by the game they
1:06:14 reckon they
1:06:16 they they feel a sense of honor through
1:06:18 the game and how other characters in the
1:06:19 game recognize and this is why games
1:06:21 like
1:06:22 fortnite and games like uh pubg are so
1:06:25 popular because there's an element of
1:06:27 there being levels
1:06:29 you know there's an element where you
1:06:30 have to work there's a purpose in the
1:06:32 game it is defined
1:06:33 and at the same time you can live by
1:06:35 purpose vicariously through the game
1:06:37 at the same time disassociate with your
1:06:38 real life so you have to live in a
1:06:40 responsible way
1:06:41 it's very interesting what's going on
1:06:42 people are losing themselves in these
1:06:44 games so much so
1:06:45 that when they're told not to play these
1:06:47 games we've seen some crazy things for
1:06:48 example pubg
1:06:50 i believe was banned recently in
1:06:51 pakistan and the reason one of the
1:06:53 reasons it was banned
1:06:54 because there was two recent deaths
1:06:56 associated with the game
1:06:58 where some i think two youths or young
1:07:01 muslims uh obviously muslims i hope they
1:07:04 uh they were playing the game and their
1:07:06 parents told them not to play the game
1:07:08 and they killed themselves they killed
1:07:10 themselves
1:07:12 and this is not the first there was
1:07:13 cases in india over the past couple of
1:07:14 years where
1:07:16 apparently a guy uh beheaded his father
1:07:19 because he didn't buy him a phone i
1:07:20 don't know how true these stories are
1:07:22 but there's any truth to these stories
1:07:23 is worry and we know there is because
1:07:25 there's so many such cases
1:07:26 a guy beheaded killed his father because
1:07:28 he didn't buy him a phone that was
1:07:30 powerful enough to run the game
1:07:32 it's madness when you think about it you
1:07:35 know we've probably seen this issue
1:07:36 within our own families within our own
1:07:38 circles
1:07:38 you know people are spending more time
1:07:40 on these games and on these social media
1:07:42 social media platforms are another
1:07:43 avenue
1:07:44 where people are completely losing
1:07:45 themselves you know one of the biggest
1:07:49 crackpot social media
1:07:53 platforms is tiktok i mean some some of
1:07:56 the brothers i know have been showing me
1:07:57 some
1:07:58 like videos on it and i just think what
1:08:00 are people doing
1:08:02 this is madness like people and the
1:08:04 scary thing is brothers and sisters
1:08:06 there's muslims on there
1:08:07 who are putting out muslim content and
1:08:08 making a mockery of islam
1:08:10 literally they're defining certain
1:08:13 they're defining certain narrations and
1:08:16 certain hadith and certain quranic ayat
1:08:19 in a comical way and making videos on it
1:08:22 just removing the
1:08:23 severity and the seriousness of what's
1:08:25 being said and therefore ultimately
1:08:26 removing the meaning and it's
1:08:28 it's worrying because it also shows how
1:08:30 this post-modern mindset has
1:08:32 has influenced us muslims too because
1:08:34 anything goes you define things the way
1:08:36 you want how how many times we see
1:08:38 muslims trying to define
1:08:40 islam in a way they want to define it
1:08:43 you know
1:08:44 wanting to reform islam when the the
1:08:46 irony is they don't realize that islam
1:08:48 indeed is the solution to all of these
1:08:50 issues
1:08:50 islam has the solutions to the problems
1:08:53 that are created by modernism and
1:08:54 post-modernism
1:08:55 well but they want to define it
1:08:57 according to their the paradigm that
1:08:59 they find themselves in it's because
1:09:00 they're not educated on these points and
1:09:01 it's very important we understand the
1:09:02 world that we live in
1:09:04 and what's going on so we can save
1:09:05 ourselves and our families from this too
1:09:07 inshallah and also makes for effective
1:09:09 doubt to non-muslims because we know
1:09:10 what's going on
1:09:12 uh so that's so we see the sort of the
1:09:14 post-modernist response
1:09:15 or at least generally speaking even the
1:09:17 response of people today to escape
1:09:20 meaninglessness through gaming through
1:09:21 technology and it's crazy
1:09:23 you know it's it's it's absolute madness
1:09:26 another way is they say let's focus on
1:09:28 the meaning of life
1:09:29 or the meaning in life as opposed to the
1:09:32 meaning of life this is another
1:09:33 interesting one
1:09:34 this is something that the philosophers
1:09:36 are discussing i read this recently one
1:09:37 of the books
1:09:38 where there's a discussion okay when it
1:09:40 comes to the meaning of life and our
1:09:42 existence what should we focus on
1:09:44 should we focus on what's the meaning of
1:09:46 life or should we focus on what's the
1:09:47 meaning in life and most of the
1:09:48 philosophers inclining towards
1:09:49 especially those things
1:09:50 that take the that that you would
1:09:53 consider the more naturalist existential
1:09:55 type philosophers who are dealing with
1:09:56 these
1:09:56 issues they take they lean more towards
1:10:00 let's discuss the meaning in life and
1:10:01 it's interesting and it's it's i could
1:10:03 see why because
1:10:04 it's easier to think give you give your
1:10:06 think of it in the way that okay we're
1:10:07 here now
1:10:08 we have to live let's just give us
1:10:10 what's the meaning in life what could we
1:10:11 give us
1:10:12 meaning to what meaning could give our
1:10:13 lives which we you know which allow us
1:10:15 to
1:10:16 live a life which is fruitful it goes
1:10:17 back and ties in with the initial point
1:10:19 which is let's make meaning
1:10:20 up for ourselves uh but that's what
1:10:21 they're inclining towards and they're
1:10:22 not really dealing with what's the
1:10:24 meaning of life because well
1:10:25 uh from a worldview from the perspective
1:10:27 of godlessness there are no meaning
1:10:29 there is no meaning
1:10:30 and there's no way around this uh
1:10:32 another way is let's
1:10:34 uh let's leave according according to
1:10:36 our biology this is not
1:10:38 this is something that it's interesting
1:10:39 because i would expect richard dawkins
1:10:40 to
1:10:41 to ascribe to this view because he's a
1:10:43 biologist he pushes evolution a lot
1:10:45 you know i would expect him to say well
1:10:46 look the meaning of life is to do what
1:10:48 we're what our genes
1:10:49 want us to do which is to procreate and
1:10:51 pass on our dna
1:10:52 so that's that's that's really what you
1:10:55 expect dawkins to say
1:10:57 but he doesn't say that what's
1:10:58 interesting in a recent podcast i heard
1:11:00 him say well
1:11:02 the meaning of life should be to
1:11:03 propagate our dna but i don't think
1:11:05 that's what he
1:11:06 and then paraphrasing but he says
1:11:07 something along the lines of i don't
1:11:08 think that's what the meaning of my life
1:11:09 is
1:11:10 you know i think my meaning of my life
1:11:11 is something else and i was just shocked
1:11:13 when he said this well how are you going
1:11:14 to now account for that meaning that
1:11:16 you're
1:11:16 you think the meaning of your life is as
1:11:18 opposed to what your biology tells you
1:11:20 the meaning of your life is right so
1:11:22 even someone like dawkins
1:11:23 and it shows you the contradiction in
1:11:25 their world view it shows you that the
1:11:27 fitrah is screaming out by the same time
1:11:29 they're adopting a world view which
1:11:30 which doesn't recognize the fitra and
1:11:32 doesn't recognize the nature of mind
1:11:35 some would say pleasure is the key the
1:11:37 meaning of life is to enjoy life
1:11:38 that's it well this is just a statement
1:11:42 okay you enjoy things and it feels good
1:11:45 but just because something feels good
1:11:46 and as we mentioned already
1:11:47 just because something feels good how
1:11:49 does that now become the meaning of your
1:11:50 life
1:11:51 you're just you're just telling yourself
1:11:53 well that's the meaning of my life
1:11:54 because it feels good
1:11:55 that in itself is meaningless again it's
1:11:57 just an idea you're positing without
1:11:59 which has no
1:12:00 intrinsic meaning in and of itself uh
1:12:03 camus for example
1:12:04 he said that the meaning of life is
1:12:07 whatever keeps you alive
1:12:08 okay again uh it's
1:12:11 and it was i could see you could see the
1:12:14 desperation
1:12:15 in that statement in and of itself you
1:12:17 know
1:12:18 so those are some of the proposed
1:12:20 solutions and hopefully we've seen why
1:12:21 they fail
1:12:23 and the problem here is firstly if
1:12:26 there's no meaning
1:12:27 there's no progress and this is the
1:12:28 thing the whole idea of modernism
1:12:30 and post particular modernism not
1:12:32 postmodernism the whole idea of progress
1:12:33 in this world
1:12:35 is undermined when you turn away from
1:12:36 god because when you turn away from god
1:12:39 there is no meaning or purpose as we've
1:12:41 seen there is no
1:12:42 drive that's going to push you to go now
1:12:44 and progress in this world to go and
1:12:46 achieve things in this world
1:12:48 it's all meaningless you just become you
1:12:50 start floating in the void of
1:12:51 meaninglessness
1:12:53 you just sink into this black hole it's
1:12:55 it's contradictory the whole out looks
1:12:56 contradictory
1:12:57 right so another thing is it leads to
1:13:01 types of depression and anxiety and this
1:13:03 is an interesting point because okay
1:13:05 even if life is meaningless why should
1:13:07 that be a problem
1:13:08 why should that feel uncomfortable why
1:13:10 should we feel pain
1:13:12 and anxiety and agitation at the idea
1:13:15 that life is meaningless
1:13:16 why should we not be satisfied with that
1:13:18 and just go and procreate and pass on
1:13:20 our dna
1:13:22 why if that's what we're here to do
1:13:25 why is that there is agitation you know
1:13:28 why is it that we go and search for
1:13:30 meaning and purpose these are signs
1:13:31 which
1:13:32 point us or at least get us to hopefully
1:13:34 recognize that there is more to our
1:13:36 existence than
1:13:37 than just our a biology just passing on
1:13:40 genes and and and propagating our dna
1:13:43 right arguing from utility the fact that
1:13:46 thinking of the world
1:13:47 is as meaningless is problematic on so
1:13:51 many levels
1:13:52 is a sign that whatever worldview leads
1:13:54 to such a conclusion is incorrect
1:13:57 or at the very least unhelpful and this
1:14:00 ties in with the point that i've made if
1:14:02 recognizing
1:14:03 life is meaningless life is pointless
1:14:05 there is no ultimate meaning or purpose
1:14:07 to life
1:14:08 leads to such problems anxiety what the
1:14:10 philosophy was called the absurd
1:14:12 existential angst pain depression
1:14:15 anxiety leads to such conditions then
1:14:18 that should be a sign for us that that
1:14:20 world view which is putting us in the
1:14:21 position
1:14:22 which leads us to the conclusion that
1:14:24 gives us such pain and anxiety
1:14:26 must be incorrect it has no utility for
1:14:28 us as human beings
1:14:30 right so we could just purely argue from
1:14:31 utility and just highlight people that
1:14:33 look maybe you need to look elsewhere
1:14:35 right atheism and naturalism is not
1:14:37 cutting the muscle and some people are
1:14:38 naturally waking up to this reality
1:14:40 hence like i said already they're
1:14:41 turning away from people like dawkins
1:14:43 and that sam
1:14:44 sam harris is very clever because unlike
1:14:47 dawkins sam harris is trying to provide
1:14:48 an alternative he realizes people are
1:14:50 waking up
1:14:50 hence he stops he's right he's written a
1:14:52 book on waking up
1:14:53 and he has a app which helps people with
1:14:56 spirituality on atheism god knows
1:14:58 whatever that means
1:14:58 right uh so so people are turning away
1:15:02 from these people and inclining more
1:15:03 towards people like
1:15:04 jordan peterson and so on and so forth
1:15:07 you know so
1:15:08 some things for us to reflect upon
1:15:09 inshallah and at the end of the day
1:15:10 brothers and sisters i think this
1:15:11 particular eye of the quran
1:15:13 in a very profound and very unique way
1:15:17 encapsulates everything and by the way
1:15:19 we're coming to the end so we're not
1:15:20 going to go on too long i know we're
1:15:21 reaching the hour mark
1:15:34 brothers and sisters this ayah of the
1:15:35 quran is is the ayah that
1:15:39 for example iqbal his entire philosophy
1:15:43 was based on this particular ayah this
1:15:45 ayah i think
1:15:46 for me if you want to understand that
1:15:48 the seer of this ayah just look at the
1:15:50 history of the world over the past
1:15:51 couple of hundred years
1:15:53 allah has clearly told us here
1:15:57 and do not be like those who
1:16:01 turn away from allah who forget allah
1:16:03 and
1:16:04 allah made them forget themselves those
1:16:06 are the ones who have transgressed all
1:16:07 bounds
1:16:08 and what's very interesting is another
1:16:10 interesting nuance point here where
1:16:11 allah says
1:16:18 that this particular word doesn't just
1:16:20 mean forgetting out just
1:16:22 forgetting you know just being
1:16:24 forgetting but accidentally like it's
1:16:26 not your choice
1:16:26 but it specifically refers to forgetting
1:16:29 intentionally
1:16:30 it's to it's to is to force oneself to
1:16:34 turn away is to pretend to forget
1:16:36 if you read lane's lexicon and the
1:16:38 explanation he gives in regards to this
1:16:39 particular word
1:16:40 it literally it says there it's to
1:16:42 pretend to forget
1:16:44 to put yourself in a position where you
1:16:46 deliberately turn away
1:16:48 from something and and you forcefully
1:16:50 try to forget that thing
1:16:52 you know and as this lets us in on the
1:16:55 understanding that look
1:16:56 when people turn away from allah they're
1:16:58 turning off away from their very nature
1:17:00 and then the fitra recognizes allah it's
1:17:03 not something you're just going to
1:17:04 forget
1:17:04 and it's that easy you have to force
1:17:06 yourself to turn away from allah
1:17:08 and this further leads on to the idea
1:17:10 that atheism is not a natural position
1:17:12 it's an acquired position
1:17:13 something will probably touch upon in
1:17:15 the webinar on the fitrah
1:17:17 in much more detail but it's i thought
1:17:19 it was very interesting so let's sing
1:17:21 and do not be like those who
1:17:22 deliberately turn away from allah
1:17:24 deliberately forgot allah
1:17:25 and allah made them forget themselves
1:17:27 what have we seen this webinar so far
1:17:29 that humanity deliberately decided to
1:17:31 turn away from god
1:17:33 and in doing so they literally lost
1:17:35 their own bearings
1:17:36 they completely lost their bearings you
1:17:39 know they were completely thrown out of
1:17:40 balance and we saw the results of that
1:17:42 we are seeing the results from that on a
1:17:44 social perspective on a on every
1:17:46 perspective on an individual perspective
1:17:48 such as
1:17:48 no meaning no happiness no value no
1:17:51 justice
1:17:52 it's all removed you're you for you
1:17:54 literally are put in a position where
1:17:55 you're forced to forget yourself you
1:17:58 recognize certain things are true but
1:17:59 you can't account for them
1:18:01 you know certain things are part of your
1:18:02 very being that makes you a human being
1:18:04 but you can't account for them on
1:18:06 atheism or naturalism
1:18:07 what a sad position to put atheism
1:18:09 naturalism puts you in
1:18:10 you know how it degrades the human being
1:18:14 so islam is the solution we're going to
1:18:16 quickly wrap on the wrap up on this
1:18:18 so we're heading towards the tipping
1:18:19 point people are starting to wake up
1:18:21 something we appreciate already
1:18:22 islam provides a comprehensive account
1:18:24 for life
1:18:25 the entire message of the quran revolves
1:18:27 around the core theme which is the
1:18:29 purpose of our existence
1:18:31 the quran answers the fundamental
1:18:34 question we're in search of as a human
1:18:36 race what is my purpose why am i here
1:18:39 who am i
1:18:40 the entire quran revolves around the
1:18:42 core theme which is where allah tells us
1:18:45 that he did not create us except to
1:18:47 worship him
1:18:48 allah did not create us for any other
1:18:50 reason except to worship him
1:18:54 and and we really understand his
1:18:56 brothers and sisters this is
1:18:58 in other words when allah says he did
1:18:59 not create the jinn kind and mankind
1:19:01 for no other reason except to worship
1:19:03 him here allah is telling us the purpose
1:19:05 of our existence
1:19:06 that very purpose in search of and in
1:19:08 other words therefore the entire quran
1:19:11 is revolving around this fundamental
1:19:13 theme this fundamental question
1:19:15 the human being has and what else would
1:19:18 you expect from revelation from allah
1:19:20 the most merciful
1:19:21 to answer and provide answers to the
1:19:22 most fundamental questions we have as
1:19:24 human beings
1:19:25 right something you would expect again
1:19:28 something you'd expect from the creator
1:19:29 to inform us of
1:19:30 islam provides a meaningful life one
1:19:32 which brings the perfect balance to
1:19:34 humanity
1:19:35 right now this is something again
1:19:37 something that
1:19:40 christianity didn't get right you know
1:19:43 the christianity in europe
1:19:45 it it resulted in
1:19:48 the world that we find out find
1:19:50 ourselves in today it pushed the people
1:19:52 it because of the persecution because of
1:19:54 the irrational ideas the trinity and
1:19:56 reincarnation all of these ideas
1:19:58 which were averse to reason because of
1:20:00 all the persecution of the thinkers and
1:20:02 the early scientists
1:20:03 it pushed people towards
1:20:06 coming up with the ideas and the
1:20:07 philosophies which have ended up in the
1:20:09 atheistic world that we live in today
1:20:11 this
1:20:12 this anti-theist world that we're apart
1:20:13 of today generally speaking so in other
1:20:15 words
1:20:15 you can say or you can argue
1:20:17 christianity to a great extent
1:20:19 led to a godless world that we are part
1:20:21 of today you know and that's a very
1:20:23 very uh uh you know it's a very
1:20:26 difficult thing to swallow because
1:20:28 christianity you know is is a religion
1:20:30 which claims to
1:20:32 believe and follow or worship god
1:20:35 and it's unfortunate because we know the
1:20:37 christianity that we have in the world
1:20:39 today is not what was given to isa
1:20:40 al-islam
1:20:40 and if they had remained upon that truth
1:20:42 and allah knows best you know
1:20:44 this wouldn't have happened but anyway
1:20:47 the concept of god
1:20:48 is intuitive firstly the fitra and
1:20:50 rational and this was the thing so i
1:20:51 that's why i said i really believe the
1:20:53 early thinkers of the enlightenment
1:20:54 period
1:20:55 may have even become muslim if they come
1:20:56 across islam because the message of
1:20:58 islam where allah tells us about himself
1:20:59 where he says that he is
1:21:01 uniquely one he's uniquely one this
1:21:04 would have resonated with the thinkers
1:21:06 of the time allah says
1:21:07 for example um
1:21:13 indeed in the creation of the heavens
1:21:14 and the earth and the alternation of the
1:21:15 night and day in a signs for those of
1:21:18 understanding
1:21:19 imagine the the natural theologians at
1:21:22 the time
1:21:23 that were looking for god that turned
1:21:24 away from the dogma christianity had
1:21:25 come across these ayat
1:21:27 and the true and the real interpretation
1:21:29 or translation of these ayah
1:21:31 they would have inclined towards this
1:21:32 because this was in line with what they
1:21:34 were looking for
1:21:35 you know so islam also encourages us to
1:21:38 engage with the material world
1:21:39 study it do the science it is a means to
1:21:43 have grown closer to allah
1:21:44 and this is where allah says indeed in
1:21:46 the uh we read this already but another
1:21:47 very interesting guy in the quran says
1:21:49 and allah brought you out of your
1:21:51 mother's wombs not knowing anything and
1:21:52 then he gave you hearing and sight and
1:21:54 intellect so that perhaps you would be
1:21:56 thankful you'll be grateful here allah
1:21:58 is telling us
1:21:59 he is the one that gave us our senses he
1:22:02 is the one that gave us our
1:22:03 intellect two things mentioning here our
1:22:06 senses
1:22:06 hearing inside and the intellect either
1:22:10 the
1:22:10 the the mind the intellect both things
1:22:13 which are required for us to understand
1:22:15 and engage with the study of the world
1:22:16 why so that we can be grateful in other
1:22:18 words allah is telling us this thing we
1:22:19 call science today
1:22:21 allah has given this out to us the human
1:22:23 being the ability to engage in the
1:22:24 science
1:22:25 so when we reflect upon the world we use
1:22:27 our sciences to gather data and study
1:22:29 the world and then we ponder upon it
1:22:31 and we reason upon it this will allow us
1:22:33 to appreciate the signs of allah bring
1:22:34 us closer to him and allow us to worship
1:22:36 him
1:22:36 be grateful to him but unfortunately
1:22:38 many atheist scientists today have just
1:22:39 gone
1:22:40 off on a on a tangent with this stuff
1:22:42 right
1:22:43 so again point here allah
1:22:46 the quran is is showing us that balance
1:22:49 between
1:22:50 or showing us why or how we can engage
1:22:54 in the material world why gave god gave
1:22:56 us those senses why we should engage in
1:22:57 studying the material world because it
1:22:59 it all brings us back to our creator
1:23:01 something that the christian world
1:23:02 didn't have
1:23:03 at that time islam promotes the use of
1:23:05 reason how many ayah tell us to ponder
1:23:07 to reason to reflect
1:23:09 to understand you know as here in the
1:23:12 29th chapter verse 35 we left some
1:23:15 of the town there as a clear sign for
1:23:17 those who use their reason
1:23:19 so many ayat brothers and sisters in the
1:23:20 quran allah constantly continuously
1:23:22 telling us to reason to reflect to
1:23:24 engage in thinking
1:23:25 you know so the balance was always there
1:23:27 between reason and revelation in islam
1:23:30 that perfect balance was always there
1:23:31 and another balance that was always
1:23:33 there which was
1:23:34 the balance between the vertical and the
1:23:35 horizontal islam doesn't tell you to
1:23:37 become a monk go into a monastery and
1:23:39 then lock yourself up
1:23:40 no islam tells you to engage in the
1:23:42 world to engage in commerce to engage in
1:23:44 trade do business
1:23:45 earn your livelihood live in this world
1:23:48 and and through living in this world is
1:23:49 the means of your worship worshiping
1:23:50 your creator
1:23:52 you know the prophet sallam was a
1:23:53 merchant himself one call
1:23:55 in his uh book the the prophet of peace
1:23:58 a phenomenal book i really recommend
1:24:00 everyone to read it one of the things he
1:24:02 highlights about the prophet peace be
1:24:03 upon him heavily is that he was a
1:24:04 prophet
1:24:05 of of of trade he's someone that
1:24:07 encouraged trade encouraged
1:24:09 business uh and this was one of his
1:24:11 amazing traits
1:24:12 islam encourages and and it brings
1:24:14 together these two
1:24:16 planes the horizontal plane and the
1:24:17 vertical plane in a very beautiful way
1:24:20 you know something that the
1:24:21 enlightenment thinkers were forced to
1:24:23 try and achieve
1:24:24 because of the imbalance in christianity
1:24:27 you know and if they had come across
1:24:28 islam maybe the enlightenment would
1:24:30 never have taken place there would never
1:24:31 wouldn't have been a need for it islam
1:24:33 also comprehensively addresses all
1:24:34 aspects of lies
1:24:35 life even the suffering that we go
1:24:38 through in life something we don't need
1:24:39 to go into here because we mentioned
1:24:40 earlier about explaining to us that life
1:24:42 is a test and explaining to us
1:24:44 the rewards of being patient through
1:24:46 suffering how we benefit through
1:24:48 suffering how it's an opportunity for us
1:24:49 to get closer to allah
1:24:50 how is an opportunity for us to attain
1:24:52 paradise
1:24:53 how is an opportunity for us to get
1:24:54 expiation for our sins etc etc so many
1:24:57 wisdoms behind suffering and hardships
1:25:00 right so islam provides a comprehensive
1:25:02 account
1:25:04 again that point i made you know if
1:25:06 islam had made it to the rest of europe
1:25:09 you know in the year 732 for example
1:25:12 because that was the
1:25:12 the pivotal moment where the muslims
1:25:15 made it
1:25:16 very close to making it to the rest of
1:25:17 europe if they had won the battle of uh
1:25:19 taurus you know the muslims would have
1:25:23 europe would have been muslim today
1:25:25 right if that had happened
1:25:27 possibly or obviously there's many other
1:25:28 factors but possibly the enlightenment
1:25:30 would have never had to take place you
1:25:32 know and hence we
1:25:33 would have never had to end up with a
1:25:34 world which is godless
1:25:36 this secular world that we're a part of
1:25:38 because islam had that perfect balance
1:25:40 but it didn't happen
1:25:43 however nevertheless you know islam is
1:25:44 here today muslims are here in europe
1:25:46 today but then we may think well why
1:25:47 aren't things changing and i think
1:25:48 there's many
1:25:49 reasons there's something for us to
1:25:50 ponder upon from a dawah perspective to
1:25:52 conclude
1:25:53 you know we're not living islam and i
1:25:55 think this is a very big thing instead
1:25:56 we're living as everyone else just with
1:25:58 the muslim name badge
1:25:59 you know i think most of one of the
1:26:01 biggest issues we have
1:26:02 is that we claim to be muslim but we
1:26:04 live no different from the atheists in
1:26:05 many ways
1:26:06 and therefore we run into the same
1:26:08 problems that the atheists run into
1:26:10 and this is something we need to fix
1:26:11 within ourselves first and foremost we
1:26:12 need to try
1:26:13 myself included more than anyone else
1:26:15 probably we need to
1:26:16 really focus on ourselves and connect
1:26:18 with allah you know and
1:26:20 and once we do that everything will
1:26:21 start falling into place we can't
1:26:23 lead if we're not examples ourselves you
1:26:26 know so yeah and this is why
1:26:27 much of our dawah isn't that effective
1:26:29 today and and i mean look at the dawah
1:26:31 that's taking place online a lot of the
1:26:33 tao
1:26:33 look at the problems look at the way
1:26:35 we're presenting islam
1:26:38 i mean if we just do a quick browser go
1:26:39 to youtube and do a search just search
1:26:41 down
1:26:41 or go to google and search though look
1:26:43 at the stuff that comes up a lot of the
1:26:44 videos on the first page you'll be
1:26:46 surprised not surprised but you
1:26:48 you'll see that they you know there's
1:26:49 either this brother refuting this
1:26:51 brother
1:26:52 you know this individual making a
1:26:53 refutation to this person this
1:26:55 this person reacting to this person uh
1:26:58 you know
1:26:58 all of this type of stuff and it
1:27:00 literally has nothing to do with
1:27:02 the fundamental foundations of that word
1:27:04 or the key concepts and ideas that we
1:27:05 need to be sharing with non-muslims
1:27:07 where is that stuff where is the
1:27:08 information on that first page of
1:27:09 youtube
1:27:10 or google which tells you about who
1:27:12 allah is which speaks about
1:27:14 which speaks about how islam gives
1:27:16 meaning to life and accounts for these
1:27:17 realities
1:27:18 it's not there you know it's not there
1:27:21 and it's a problem on both parties the
1:27:22 problem with the power of the content
1:27:24 created is a part of the
1:27:25 problem on the power of those that watch
1:27:27 this content as well
1:27:28 because we're watching the stuff that is
1:27:31 is you know and when by watching it
1:27:32 we're encouraging it
1:27:34 and when we're encouraging it we're
1:27:35 encouraging people to to make that same
1:27:37 content which is not really
1:27:38 quote you know stuff that's been
1:27:40 justified under under the umbrella of
1:27:42 dawah
1:27:43 you know it's it's a huge problem
1:27:44 alright brothers and sisters i'll share
1:27:45 this one thing with you quickly here
1:27:47 a brother just called me earlier today
1:27:49 and he said he told me he said there's a
1:27:50 brother i just spoke to the other day
1:27:52 non-muslim wanted to become muslim he
1:27:54 went on to youtube did a search for
1:27:56 for islam and he came across just you
1:27:59 know certain brothers
1:28:00 refuting each other and he got really
1:28:01 confused and he went to the mosque and
1:28:02 the mosque got in touch with this
1:28:03 particular brother
1:28:04 and he had to clarify a lot of things
1:28:06 for this person to highlight to him
1:28:07 that what you came across and what you
1:28:08 saw is not the key things you need to be
1:28:10 focusing on
1:28:11 you know we need to be focusing on you
1:28:14 know the foundations but imagine the
1:28:16 difficult
1:28:17 job of him now having to rectify that
1:28:19 issue and imagine that the perception
1:28:21 that these things are creating in the
1:28:22 minds of non-muslims
1:28:23 when people are looking for the answers
1:28:25 to the meaning of life who am i where am
1:28:27 i here
1:28:28 who created me they're looking but all
1:28:30 they're seeing when they search for
1:28:31 islam online is
1:28:33 such and such refutes such and such you
1:28:35 know so-and-so
1:28:36 is responding to so-and-so i mean
1:28:40 how how are we when they see this stuff
1:28:43 what are they going to think
1:28:44 oh on one end these muslims claim to
1:28:46 follow and worship the creator of the
1:28:47 heavens and the earth and on the other
1:28:48 hand
1:28:49 they are just uh you know uh well it
1:28:52 seems like they they have some
1:28:53 issues very trivial issues that they
1:28:55 can't agree upon so
1:28:56 from a dower perspective it's highly
1:28:58 problematic you know there's some key
1:28:59 things that we need to be talking about
1:29:01 sharing and encouraging by watching the
1:29:03 right type of content inshallah
1:29:05 anyway so
1:29:08 we need to engage in the dow brothers
1:29:10 and sisters and we need to engage in
1:29:11 rectifying ourselves we need to engage
1:29:12 in sharing the message of islam
1:29:14 here's a beautiful uh quote that i'm not
1:29:16 going to read out to you that you guys
1:29:17 can read for yourselves
1:29:18 a very beautiful quote which i think
1:29:19 summarizes a lot of what we've discussed
1:29:21 today
1:29:22 and it highlights the situation that
1:29:24 humanity finds itself in the world today
1:29:26 and the choice that people are presented
1:29:27 with you know so
1:29:29 we we're born and people wake up in a
1:29:30 world which is godless
1:29:32 which is uh has turned away from the
1:29:34 creator of the heavens and the earth and
1:29:36 therefore we're born in a world which
1:29:38 is not going to satisfy the human being
1:29:40 and not going to help them fulfill the
1:29:42 purpose of their very existence which is
1:29:43 to recognize allah and to worship allah
1:29:45 and until and unless they find that
1:29:47 truth they're never going to be happy
1:29:49 they're never going to be satisfied
1:29:51 you know and there are certain people
1:29:52 that don't want them to recognize this
1:29:53 truth
1:29:54 as has been the case throughout history
1:29:56 for whatever reasons you know
1:29:57 uh so it's a it's it's a beautiful
1:29:59 opportunity we find ourselves in a very
1:30:01 interesting time for the da
1:30:02 as well the people are looking for
1:30:04 answers and hopefully we've just seen
1:30:06 at least the shred of how islam and i'll
1:30:09 just
1:30:10 briefly mention some ayah wallahi
1:30:12 brothers says i really encourage you
1:30:13 guys please please please please please
1:30:15 if you take one thing away from today
1:30:17 make the quran a central part of your
1:30:20 life going forward
1:30:22 just make it the book that you study you
1:30:25 know
1:30:25 and and we have translations today have
1:30:28 it with you study it read it finish it
1:30:30 read it again finish it read it again
1:30:32 make it a part of your dna because this
1:30:35 is the book that's going to save us
1:30:37 our families our friends and it's the
1:30:39 book that's going to save
1:30:41 all of the rest of humanity that are our
1:30:43 brothers and sisters in humanity who
1:30:44 deserve the message and need the message
1:30:46 as much as we do
1:30:47 and they lost they lost they completely
1:30:50 lost
1:30:51 you know they and and and they they're
1:30:53 in pain in most cases and they need this
1:30:55 message
1:30:56 and we have to share this message with
1:30:57 them you know and
1:30:59 we can see it people are the world's
1:31:02 getting worse and worse you know
1:31:03 things are getting worse and worse i
1:31:05 mean
1:31:07 the solution is islam the solution is
1:31:10 something what we have to be able to do
1:31:12 is know it know that solution and know
1:31:14 it well enough and in a way where we can
1:31:16 articulate
1:31:17 and communicate with our non-muslim
1:31:19 brothers and sisters humanity inshallah
1:31:21 so brothers and sisters i'll wrap up
1:31:22 here
1:31:23 uh if you have any questions uh please
1:31:26 put them in the question section below
1:31:28 uh i'm gonna pause the mic for
1:31:31 one minute so i'll just give you guys a
1:31:32 bit of a or two minutes give you guys a
1:31:34 bit of a breather
1:31:35 and an opportunity to write down your
1:31:36 questions and to post them
1:31:38 uh inshallah this will be recorded and
1:31:40 it will be up
1:31:41 on the sapience website webpage
1:31:45 um so definitely check it out they will
1:31:47 share it with people that haven't
1:31:48 watched it insha'allah
1:31:50 um so yeah any questions in relation to
1:31:53 what we've discussed today
1:31:54 uh please put them in the question
1:31:56 section and i'll address them i'm going
1:31:57 to mute the mic now for two minutes
1:32:10 inshallah
1:32:32 okay so this one i'm gonna i said two
1:32:34 minutes but i'm gonna start bit earlier
1:32:35 because there's some questions
1:32:36 already i'll keep posting your questions
1:32:40 we'll try to do this for about 10
1:32:41 minutes 15 minutes because i know we've
1:32:42 overrun by probably 30 minutes
1:32:44 i know you guys are probably used to an
1:32:45 hour so may allah bless you for
1:32:48 for staying on uh so the question by
1:32:51 i think it's tariq hassan he says i'm
1:32:53 already in love oh no sorry
1:32:55 uh that's jazakallahu for your comment
1:32:58 may i bless you
1:32:59 uh ademi says well i can understand that
1:33:03 we need spiritual
1:33:05 spiritualism as well but how do we grasp
1:33:08 the spirituality okay so i if i
1:33:11 understand you correctly i think
1:33:12 one of the things sheikh fahd slim told
1:33:14 me a few days ago and because i asked
1:33:15 the same question to him
1:33:16 on the live stream that i was doing with
1:33:17 him on my channel
1:33:20 he basically said look the road map is
1:33:22 there for us the prophet sallam has
1:33:23 given us everything that we need to do
1:33:25 to be able to connect with allah and get
1:33:26 closer to allah all we have to do is act
1:33:28 upon it
1:33:29 so if i'm getting your question right is
1:33:32 we need to go back to the
1:33:33 basics we need to have a good strong
1:33:35 understanding and grasp of our
1:33:36 philosophy when i say philosophy i mean
1:33:38 the tenets of our deen
1:33:39 what is our deen what is islam and also
1:33:42 understand what are the fundamental
1:33:44 principles and thing and
1:33:45 and and and tenants of islam and start
1:33:48 practicing them
1:33:50 with to the best of our ability and and
1:33:53 through that we're going to start seeing
1:33:54 change in our own lives and i know we
1:33:56 live in a time which
1:33:57 really affects us as well the world
1:33:58 around us is designed to turn you away
1:34:00 from god
1:34:01 it's designed to do anything and
1:34:02 everything but remind you of allah
1:34:04 so so we need to really you know go back
1:34:08 to the drawing board and hopefully help
1:34:09 ourselves and fix ourselves and then be
1:34:10 able to
1:34:11 and continue to carry on delivering the
1:34:13 message to others give dowa to people
1:34:15 and hopefully we can appreciate today
1:34:17 one of my objective was so we can really
1:34:18 appreciate
1:34:19 why we've ended up where we've ended up
1:34:20 and what the mindset or or what creates
1:34:23 the modern man and modern woman and
1:34:25 their mindset so we can really address
1:34:27 them inshallah
1:34:29 so hopefully that addresses that point
1:34:34 okay
1:34:38 okay nadia says post-modernism has led
1:34:40 to the idea of subject morality since
1:34:42 this is very
1:34:44 this is a very unstable ground will it
1:34:47 collapse
1:34:48 inevitably lead to the idea of absolute
1:34:50 objective morality
1:34:51 or is that something that the west will
1:34:54 never accept
1:34:54 in the post-modern society so look
1:34:56 there's a very interesting question
1:34:58 i think there's a few things here people
1:35:01 number one are starting to realize
1:35:02 that the past couple of centuries from
1:35:05 the enlightenment all the way up to this
1:35:07 post-modern world that we are part of
1:35:08 today
1:35:09 there are some fundamental issues we are
1:35:11 having issues accounting for what's
1:35:12 morally good and bad
1:35:14 especially now post-modernism like we
1:35:16 said it pushes the idea there are no
1:35:17 absolutes
1:35:18 there are there is no objective reality
1:35:20 there are no truths
1:35:22 everything is subjective and relative uh
1:35:24 although this may work
1:35:26 uh temporarily why people again like we
1:35:29 said it's a verse to human nature so
1:35:30 people are going going to realize this
1:35:32 and they're going to start to look look
1:35:34 for alternatives something that gives
1:35:36 them that grounds them a bit better
1:35:38 that gives them a bit more makes things
1:35:40 a bit more stable for them
1:35:42 uh and and and therefore they're going
1:35:44 to look elsewhere and like i said
1:35:45 i think they're already looking
1:35:46 elsewhere hence people like jordan
1:35:48 peterson are becoming very popular
1:35:49 because he's almost like the new
1:35:51 age existentialist philosopher of our
1:35:54 times because
1:35:55 you know because he appeals to many of
1:35:57 the ideas but he's given them a very
1:36:00 novel modern spin uh and some of the
1:36:02 stuff he thinks brilliant you know
1:36:04 but i think and the interesting funny
1:36:06 thing is all of the things he mentions
1:36:08 is everything you'll find in islam
1:36:11 everything is there and more
1:36:13 but we just need to find a way as modern
1:36:15 muslims living in this time
1:36:17 we need to find a way of being able to
1:36:18 go to our source text
1:36:20 find these truths which are going to
1:36:22 appeal to the modern man and woman
1:36:24 and deliver it to them in in a way they
1:36:26 understand
1:36:27 that's where we're failing you know and
1:36:29 that's what we need to do inshallah
1:36:30 i think that that's gonna and uh
1:36:32 generally speaking i think it's gonna be
1:36:34 a difficult uphill struggle because
1:36:36 look look let's face it we the past
1:36:38 couple of centuries have just exploited
1:36:40 the nufs meaning
1:36:42 it's all been about you and whatever you
1:36:45 want
1:36:45 the world is your oyster go and achieve
1:36:47 it go and have it
1:36:48 hedonism especially today this idea that
1:36:51 just go and fulfill your
1:36:52 desires enjoy yourself do whatever you
1:36:55 want is so prevalent
1:36:56 and when the nufs is spoiled to such a
1:36:58 degree it's hard you know it's hard to
1:37:01 repent and stay away from one sin you
1:37:03 know and i'm sure we can all testify to
1:37:04 this imagine
1:37:05 for a person whose whole life revolves
1:37:08 around doing everything that that just
1:37:10 satisfies their
1:37:11 their beast your their lower nature uh
1:37:14 it's gonna be it's gonna be an uphill
1:37:15 struggle it's gonna be a battle within
1:37:16 that person
1:37:17 it's gonna be a battle between the fitra
1:37:19 that pure soul which is yearning for
1:37:21 allah
1:37:22 and the lower human self which is
1:37:23 inclining towards the dunya
1:37:25 um and and if if they if they've gotten
1:37:28 to the point where there's something
1:37:29 they know there's an agitation and they
1:37:30 start looking
1:37:31 when they come across the message of
1:37:32 islam and if it's communicated clearly
1:37:34 to them
1:37:35 insha allah i really believe they will
1:37:36 incline towards islam and many people
1:37:38 are hence turning towards islam today
1:37:44 mira says iran even the first picture
1:37:46 chur the church is man worships man
1:37:48 absolutely in a way you're right
1:37:49 in a way you're right because it was all
1:37:51 about you know
1:37:53 the the authorities or the religious
1:37:56 authorities at least wanting to get the
1:37:57 the masses to
1:37:59 focus on them and to almost make them
1:38:01 objects of worship
1:38:03 you know and it's interesting because
1:38:04 allah says in the quran where he says
1:38:06 come to a common term between us and you
1:38:08 and referring to the christians and the
1:38:10 jews but we allah then stipulate the
1:38:12 three things that we don't
1:38:13 associate any partners with allah we
1:38:15 don't worship anyone besides allah
1:38:17 and that we don't take each other as
1:38:19 lords and i thought it was very
1:38:21 interesting that allah mentions we don't
1:38:22 take each other as lords
1:38:24 and he says something seems to be
1:38:25 prevalent throughout the history of
1:38:26 christianity where
1:38:27 certain people in power have almost
1:38:29 wanted to take that position
1:38:31 where they wanted to become almost that
1:38:34 deity
1:38:36 as a human which other people worship
1:38:38 and turn to as a religious authority
1:38:40 so it's very interesting point yeah so
1:38:42 we can see it that way as well bro
1:38:46 okay
1:38:51 okay there's loads of questions your
1:38:55 brother says i don't
1:38:56 think we were able to go through all of
1:38:57 them but let me just see if there's
1:38:59 anything else that we haven't addressed
1:39:00 it
1:39:01 so just bear with me each other
1:39:13 yep but the hashmi says you know the
1:39:15 whole individuality the philosophy of
1:39:16 individualism
1:39:18 materialism it's all in line with
1:39:19 atheism yeah it just goes hand in hand
1:39:21 like i said
1:39:22 it's that hat you can see atheism is the
1:39:24 hat
1:39:25 that fits this postmodern head the best
1:39:28 it just fits
1:39:29 not because it's rational or it makes
1:39:31 sense or it's true it just fits
1:39:33 and it makes things comfortable for them
1:39:34 because atheism removes
1:39:36 you know accountability and and that you
1:39:39 know all of everything
1:39:40 related to that so yeah of course it
1:39:41 fits
1:39:46 that's when the brother says would you
1:39:47 think that says would you think the
1:39:49 future holds will people turn back to
1:39:50 god
1:39:51 i heard that a lot of young people buy
1:39:53 into atheism and naturalism
1:39:55 but a lot of people turn to spirituality
1:39:57 later on
1:39:58 uh so my question is what comes after
1:40:00 the post-modern world
1:40:02 i think i think that transition is
1:40:04 taking place right now already
1:40:05 and i think people are looking they're
1:40:07 searching some people are turning
1:40:08 towards religion those that are coming
1:40:10 across the true message of islam
1:40:11 are turning towards islam but also
1:40:13 remember brothers and sisters we live in
1:40:14 a world where islam the way the picture
1:40:16 of islam is very negative
1:40:17 it's misrepresented a lot is all right
1:40:19 so hence it keeps people away
1:40:22 but allah is in control of everything
1:40:23 allah will guide whom he was insha allah
1:40:25 but if we want to attain some of the
1:40:27 reward in that process that we need to
1:40:28 start thinking of these questions and
1:40:29 it's a very good question
1:40:31 so i think people are turning back um
1:40:35 some will turn towards and this is why
1:40:36 like i said people like jordan peterson
1:40:38 are very popular
1:40:39 uh some will turn towards such
1:40:41 individuals others will turn towards
1:40:42 paganism paganism is becoming very
1:40:44 popular these days too
1:40:46 lots of people and again why it's very
1:40:47 interesting because it's it's type of a
1:40:49 way of
1:40:50 a pick and mixed way of life choose your
1:40:51 own gods choose your own way of
1:40:53 spirituality experiment
1:40:54 see it's it's just this it's the way
1:40:56 we've been indoctrinated so paganism is
1:40:58 very appealing too for some people
1:40:59 although
1:41:00 logically if you think about it an
1:41:01 atheist becoming a pagan is just strange
1:41:04 you know where's the where's the logic
1:41:05 and rationality in that which you
1:41:06 champion so much as an atheist
1:41:08 and we've seen many countless examples
1:41:10 i've heard it from many brothers
1:41:12 many atheists are turning towards
1:41:13 paganism
1:41:16 yes so we're going to wrap up now i know
1:41:18 it's uh it's it's
1:41:19 it's actually time for mother in the uk
1:41:22 uh past the time which is realized
1:41:24 for whoever put that reminder up so
1:41:26 let's let's take uh
1:41:27 just one last one
1:41:32 mashallah some of your comments are
1:41:33 brilliant guys because it's almost like
1:41:35 you guys are thinking about
1:41:37 you know how we engage with people now
1:41:39 what we do
1:41:41 and how we deliver the message to them
1:41:42 because some of these aren't really
1:41:43 questions they just
1:41:45 thoughts and it's beautiful to see may
1:41:46 allah bless you guys mashallah
1:41:50 okay guys uh so yeah on if you go to the
1:41:53 sapiens website this should be uploaded
1:41:55 onto the sapiens website once
1:41:57 the live stream is done if you just go
1:41:59 to the webinar section on the learn it
1:42:00 will be there as a
1:42:03 as a webinar that saved inshallah so the
1:42:04 slide should be on there too
1:42:06 um if you i know i wasn't able to answer
1:42:08 all your questions because it's time for
1:42:09 margaret we have to go now
1:42:10 um if you guys want more information on
1:42:13 this
1:42:14 shameless plug on my channel on
1:42:15 epistemics i've been doing loads of
1:42:17 videos on these topics recently where i
1:42:19 go into specific details on specific
1:42:21 points
1:42:21 so you guys can go check out this
1:42:26 episode
1:42:28 says imran hussein epistemics so if you
1:42:30 search down youtube you'll find my
1:42:31 channel you can find a lot of content on
1:42:33 this there
1:42:34 sapiens institute we've got loads more
1:42:35 webinars coming out there'll be loads
1:42:37 more linked to this stuff and other
1:42:38 stuff and from you know
1:42:39 profound topics so definitely register
1:42:41 to the other upcoming webinars that you
1:42:43 guys
1:42:43 uh if you haven't already insha'allah um
1:42:46 and yeah may allah bless you guys i will
1:42:48 join you next week on monday now remind
1:42:50 me personally
1:42:51 i've got a webinar on the i think it's
1:42:52 on the oneness of god
1:42:54 uh divine oneness yes i think his own
1:42:56 oneness so i will see you guys for that
1:42:58 inshallah bless you guys
1:43:00 uh please share this and until next time
1:43:03 take care
1:43:22 you