Why Should I Believe in God Session 1

Why Should I Believe in God?

Speaker: AbdelRahman Murphy

Session 1

Opening

We begin always by praising and thanking Allah, God, the Lord, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Caretaker, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

We thank Him for all of His blessings which we cannot count. Those which we see and those which we don't see. Those which we consciously experience and those which we unconsciously experience.

Those which are happening now, those which will happen in the future, and those which have happened before. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to send His peace and blessings upon the beloved Prophet Muhammad, (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) who was a perfect shining example for all of us for the rest of time. Someone who didn't just talk the talk but walked the walk.

And someone who left that example for us to follow until the end of time.

Why This Topic Matters

You know nowadays if you have this question in your mind, why should I believe in God? The first thing that I want to really quickly just kind of talk about is that we shouldn't be critical of people when they have this question. We shouldn't go crazy at them.

If I could tell you the amount of times in my office people would ask me this question. Why should I believe in God? How can I believe in a God that I can't see? Is God even there? Is He real? Is She real? As some people would say. We shouldn't go crazy at them and show such an adverse reaction.

Because in reality sometimes when people are trying to make a point that they don't believe in God, that's what they're looking for. And so the purpose behind this event, the reason why I'm saying this is because a lot of people came up to me and said, Brother, why are you wasting our time? We all know we believe in God. We all know that Allah exists and He takes care of us.

Why are you wasting an entire, every month you do one huge event and you're wasting one whole month, one whole event on believing in God? Seriously brother? And that brother didn't know that it was his kids who actually were the ones asking me for proof in God's existence. It was actually his children

who were the ones who would come to me and say, I don't really know if I believe in God or not. And he's coming to me and telling me that we're wasting time.

And so before we get started, let's renew our intention and let's make our intention to reaffirm our Iman in Allah. Because as Ibn Taymiyyah says, Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, he said, Every day when I wake up, I accept Islam. Every day when I wake up, I become a Muslim again. I say, La ilaha illa Allah. He takes a shahada every day because having Iman is not something that you can guarantee. And so we don't want to sit here and say that this event is superfluous, it's a waste of time, it's pointless.

No. Sometimes we have to go back to basics.

The Problem with Google Searches

Unfortunately, the way that some of us go back to basics is through Google. Right? Google.com, type in the question, does God exist? Any of you who have done this or any of you who think about doing this or you know someone who does it, you know that this is probably the worst way to find the answer that you're looking for. Why? Because Google is the place where anyone can write anything they want. So instead of going to other sources which might actually be beneficial, a very common way which people search out the answer to their questions of existence, of faith, of purpose in life, the reason or the way that we exist, people will go to the internet.

The first place people go to is Google. Sheikh Google. Right? And if you type this question in, you find that the answers that are given to you, notice how I didn't say answer given to you, the answers that are given to you are many.

From different kinds of perspectives, faiths, belief systems, non-belief systems, different kinds of ideas, some that are crazy, some that are reasonable. You're never going to go to Google, you're never going to go to any of these websites or any of these search engines and find the answer, the one answer that's going to shine out, right? The number one response is not going to be, yes, believe in God, Allah, He's a creator.

Right? So, my advice to those who want to find the answer, or even if we found the answer, or we believe in the answer, but like we said, we're looking for reaffirmation, we're looking for something that's going to re-fortify our foundation, is not to go to the records of the internet, the records, the endless records of Google, and look for the answer to this question.

But it's to go to the one and only speech of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Proof We Should Seek

If I was going to tell you a claim, if I was going to say, you know what, I'm the best basketball player that ever lived in Dallas, Texas. Dirk Nowitzki, who's that? Right? I'm a big white guy too. Right? You would say, you know what, show me your proof. Give me some credentials. Give me a list of signs that you are the best person, that you are the best basketball player that has ever lived in Dallas, Texas.

It's not a very hard feat to achieve, I'll be honest. Coming from Chicago, Derrick Rose. But, you would still ask for this kind of, you know, proof. And so there's no better way, brothers and sisters, to find this proof. And for my talk tonight, until Maghrib, we have about 10, 15 more minutes.

We're going to talk about this proof. And our relationship with this proof, which is the Quran. You know, Dr. Israr Ahmed, who is one of, you know, Brother Noman, one of his teachers.

A very, very famous scholar of Quran. He recently, in the past year, he passed away. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to have mercy on his soul, insha'Allah.

And to make all of the people that he taught a proof for him and not against him, insha'Allah. Ameen.

The Relationship Between Ayat

Dr. Israr Ahmed, he once said something very interesting about Quranic terminology. He says that, what is the word that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses to call, or what is the name or the terminology for the actual verses in the book? What is it? Plural, right? Ayat, right? So it's ayah is ayat. Then when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and he talks about things that we should reflect on, things that we should think about, things that should spark our creativity and our connection with God that surround us, creation that he has made, what does he call those things? What is it? Ayat, right?

So he calls one thing in the book, the verse in the book is called ayat, but also the things around us that he says are also ayat, right?

Right? For all these people who think are different kinds of people. He says they reflect on these things.

Now when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and brother Noman who's here, he can elaborate on this because he's more versed in the study of Quranic tafsir. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when he uses one word for something, but he uses that same word for something else and they don't have the same meaning, it means that those things have a relationship. Those things have a relationship.

For example, in the Quran, he uses the word rahma. Rahma means what? Say it out loud. Rahma means mercy. He also uses it to describe rain. What does that mean about rain? It's merciful, right? Can you imagine living on earth without rain? Many of us who come from Saudi Arabia, we're like, yes, been there, done that. Right? Or Pakistan.

So we see that rain, one of the characteristics of rain, in the beauty of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's language, is that inherently in rain, built into the fact that it comes out of the clouds, is that it's merciful. The same thing with this word ayat. In Dr. Israr's words, he said that when we read the ayat in the book, the ayat of the verse are supposed to remind us of the ayat outside.

And when we experience the ayat outside, right? When we go out, when we see the birds in the sky. We see the bird that spreads its wings. When we see the ayat around us that Allah mentions in his book, we're all supposed to think back to the book.

Thus our life, in relationship with this God who we're thinking about, this God who we're wondering why should we believe in him, our life is always a circle of reflecting upon the ayat.

The Endless Circle of Reflection

And so we see that when people go online instead of in the Quran, you get caught up in an endless circle of debate. Can God create a rock so heavy that even he cannot lift it? It's like, did you brush your teeth this morning? We ask all these random questions that are just absurd, and you go online and Google and you find, can God make a four-sided triangle? What? Do you know what the word triangle means? Can you take it in your class, right? We go online and we get caught in an endless cycle of pointless, absurd questions.

But when you open the book instead of opening the browser, you get caught up in the endless cycle of beautiful reflection. And so the first tip I can give to anyone who is interested in diving into this question, why should I believe in God, is to close your laptop. Is to close the Google search window.

Is to turn off your iPhone and instead go and open up the Quran. If you really want to believe in God, if you really want to believe that God exists, if you want to see if he does or if he doesn't, go and look at what he says about himself. Go and look at the credentials that he presents. The qualifications that he talks about.

And really, I know we hear this week after week. We hear it from our parents. Did you read Quran today, beta? Quran-e-Faqr? Right? Quran-e-Sharif? We get these questions a lot, right, from our parents. And maybe we're reading it in Arabic, but ask yourself the question, especially my kids, my youth, how many of us, without our parents telling us, have gone in our room, have taken a translation, and have sat down and read the Quran translation with the purpose, the intention, of trying to understand it. Without the danda over our head, right? Without the chappal ready to hit us.

But just trying to open it ourselves. And so a lot of us are coming to me, Brother Murphy, I don't know if I believe in God, but my question is, have you ever tried to find him? And where have you tried to find him? And so Allah's method of finding him is much different than the one that we find today, and we should use that insha'Allah.

Examples from the Quran

One of the examples I use, and I'm going to give a couple of examples. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he talks a lot in the Quran, a lot about nature, about creation, right? And he says that all these things are signs. He talks about birds, he says:

"Have you guys ever gone outside and seen those beautiful birds with their long wings, and they're just soaring?" (Quran 67:19)

How many of you guys have ever seen the documentary called Planet Earth? Or anything like Planet Earth? No. It's a place where we live. It's called Planet Earth, you guys? And these birds, they show sometimes how Allah, watch Planet Earth, buy it, and Allah will give you a reward for buying it, insha'Allah. They show these beautiful birds with their wings spread, and they're just soaring through the sky. And the first thing that you think is, if I tried that, I would die.

Right? Especially right after you get married, you put on that weight, I would definitely die. Right? Gravity is my worst enemy. And you just can't help but wonder, subhanAllah, how is this bird, that if I caught it in my hands, and if I took its wing and I cracked it, or if I took the bird and I did something terrible to it, the wing of the bird would snap.

So fragile, so weak, but yet it has this strength and this capability to do this. And so Allah subhanAllah, He talks about it. He says:

He says, this bird that you're in awe of, that you can't take your eyes off of, that you're like, wow. It would not be able to do this unless it were because of, or unless it was due to the most merciful, Allah. (Quran 67:19)

Thus the sign that we're reflecting on becomes a reminder of our purpose in life, of the one who created us.

The Mountains as Pegs

Allah subhanAllah, also in the Quran, He talks about the mountains. He talks about the mountains that exist on the earth. And He describes them as pegs. Many of us have gone online and we've written, or googled Islamic scientific proofs of Islam, right? And we've seen this one.

But go actually to the verse itself and read the verse. And you'll see that the way Allah subhanAllah talks about the peg, and even the word itself, as Noman inshaAllah can elaborate on, the Arabic word itself actually means something, the connotation is something which is deep in the ground. So when Allah subhanAllah says that the mountains serve as a peg for the earth, for the landscape, it's not just the way that He's saying it, but He's also, even in the language, saying that the word itself means that this object, a jabal, a mountain, has to be deep into the ground.

When you put a tent in the ground, have any of you guys been camping before? Texas? Camping? No? Yes? No? Camping? Don't shoot rifles when you go camping, okay? Please, I don't want to... Have you guys ever tried to put a tent in? Can you put like a toothpick in and be like, there, done. Sleep safely tonight, my children, in the toothpick tent. No, what do you have to do? How long does the peg have to be? Pretty long, right? About as long as a skewer of kebabs, right? So you take that, you have to go all the way in.

Can you put it halfway in? You gotta go further, you gotta go way further, like almost 90% in, all the way into the ground, as much as you can. Why? Because it has to hold the tent in. And so Allah subhanAllah,

when He talks about this nature, and obviously later on they found that the mountains, what we see of the mountains is actually only 1 third or 1 fourth of it.

The other 2 thirds or 3 fourths are underground. And these scientific proofs came when? How many years after the Prophet 1500 ,1300 ,1400 (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā allahu ʿalayhi wasallam)? So many years after the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - ṣallā allahu ʿalayhi wasallam) passed away. But they were found first in the book, before they were found anywhere else.

Water as the Source of Life

And Allah subhanAllah, He uses another example, and this is the final example I'm going to give. How many of you guys, when you get really tired, like right now during Brother Murphy's speech, and you just want to fall asleep so bad, or you're coming from work, or you just got done working out, working out, exercise, what's the one thing you want to do to revive yourself, to make yourself feel good again? Huh? Okay, who said TV, dude? I want to go watch the Jersey Shore. That's the hate website to watch the Jersey Shore, right? Water.

Water, very good. What do you want to do with water? Take a shower, right? You want to wash up. When you're really, really tired, or when you're really, really exhausted in class, what do you do? Can I go wash my face with cold water, right? Or when you had a long day, and you're about to go meet your Lord, and pray to Him, InshaAllah, in five minutes, we go and we make wudu, right? Water.

It has this reviving quality, this quality that just gives you life. Right? When you're really, really thirsty, and you drink soda, you're still thirsty, but when you drink two glasses of water, you're like, uh, right? Coma. Water has the ability to give life.

Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran:

"And from water, we have given every single thing life." (Quran 21:30)

And in another verse, he says, that we created everything, every living creature with water.

And so Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, again, so far back in time, forget like, forget like a hundred years, 1400 years ago, man, Allah subhana wa ta'ala has explained to us that water is the object that will rejuvenate your life.

The Purpose of These Examples

These examples are not meant to be, this isn't supposed to be a science and Islam lecture. It's not supposed to be meant to be like an Islam and science, you know, speech.

But what it's meant to show us is that this book is more than just a fairy tale book. This book has more guidance in it than we may have thought at first. And so when we have this question that comes to our mind, which by the way, by the way, in Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah subhana wa ta'ala, He challenges humanity, not just non-Muslims.

He says, if you have trouble believing in this book, that it's true:

"Create a book like it, make a chapter like it." (Quran 2:23)

And He says, call your witnesses, and bring your witnesses, and have your witnesses read each book and tell them which one is better. And so Allah subhana wa ta'ala, He doesn't discourage asking the question of is this real? Or does God exist? No, He doesn't discourage it.

Allah isn't scared that someone's gonna say, haa, I thought He doesn't exist. Why? Because if you look with truth and certainty and ikhlas and sincerity, you will find that you have no choice. And if you read the statements of many atheists, many people who didn't believe in God, and then they later accepted Allah, they said that the reason why they didn't believe in God, the reason why they debated against people who believed in God, was because they had a secret desire in their heart that maybe these people would be able to convince them.

Historical Perspective on Faith and Science

And if you go back to the time of major scientists like Newton, like Galileo, like Copernicus, they were hardcore theists. They believed in God. And atheists have extremely difficult times, you know, reconciling this fact.

And so as youth who are surrounded by this narrative in high school, or in college, or in society, that believing in God, or that having a faith is something stupid, like how they portray Ned Flanders, is Ned Flanders cool or stupid? Guys, come on, be real. He's stupid, right? Why? Because he's like a churchy going like, how do we do, neighbor? Right? He's like some really religious churchy guy, right? So he's portrayed as like, he's dumb. I want to remind you, I want to tell you, that some of the smartest people in the world believed in God.

And it's just the agenda of certain people.

Three Points for Reflection

So I have three things to finish up. I have two minutes left. So I have three points that I want you guys to reflect on before Brother Noman comes after Maghrib. The first point, three things to reflect on. If you really have this question about believing in God, the first thing is reflect on yourself.

1. Reflect on Yourself

Reflect on yourself. Why do I exist? How do I exist? Why five fingers? Why not one finger? Chawal would be so hard to eat with one finger, right? I wouldn't be able to exist with one finger. I'd just be able to point at people.

Why five? Why two feet? Why hair? All these things. Sit and reflect on yourself.

2. Reflect on Society and Nature

The second thing is sit and reflect on society. You know, way back when, way back when, you know, when I tell people this, you know, reflect on society, they're like, how do I reflect on society? I just go to Gap, and then I go to, you know, Jamba Juice, and then I go home and play PS3. Right? I don't find God in there. You know, back then, dude, back then, they used to be like living in the desert.

They had no choice but to reflect on nature. Then they would take one or two weeks to go on vacation to the city to buy some stuff. Now, we live in the city and buy stuff, and when we want to go on vacation, we go out to the desert.

Right? It's like the exact opposite. So people are asking, why is it so hard to believe in God as time goes on? Well, it's because we're disconnecting ourselves from the creation of God. Myself included.

My wife and I have this rule now. No iPhone near the bed. Because every time I try to fall asleep, I stay up until 3am looking at my iPhone. We have to disconnect ourselves from these man-made things. They're not evil, they're not bad, but remember to sometimes immerse yourself in Allah's creation. If you want to find Allah, you have to take yourself back to the roots.

Right? That's why it's a lot easier to go on camps and things.

3. Reflect on Death

And the third thing you want to reflect on before we go to Maghrib is death. Is death.

As morbid as it might sound, Muslims, we don't have this idea of death that a lot of other people do. Death, for us, is not the end. Death, for us, is the passageway to forever.

The passageway to Jannah, Inshallah. I ask Allah to give us all Jannah. Death, for us, is the reason why we are here.

People who don't believe in an afterlife or don't believe in God, they have a lot of trouble understanding why we die. And they search their entire life, trying to extend their life. But as Muslims, if we reflect on death, for three or four minutes every day, we'll see that our purpose in this life is for a test.

And that day of test is going to be the day that we die. So sit and reflect upon your death, Inshallah. And we will, Inshallah, go pray Maghrib now.

Conclusion

JazakAllah khair. We're going to have Brother Noman and Q&A after Maghrib prayer.

Note: This lecture emphasizes the importance of turning to the Quran rather than internet searches when seeking proof of God's existence, using natural phenomena as signs (ayat) that point to the Creator, and

engaging in personal reflection on oneself, society, and mortality as pathways to faith.