Is There A God Part 2

Is There A God? Part 2 of 2

By Shaykh Abdur Raheem Green

The Fallacy of God Having a Son

If you don't mean that God actually, literally had a wife, and by the way, God could not condemn fornication for us and then commit fornication himself, that's why God must have had a wife, not a mistress or a girlfriend, you know, stuff like that, well, no, but you know. So, what do they mean? Did God adopt Jesus as a son? Is that fitting for God? The Quran asks this question, is it befitting, the majesty of God, that he should take for himself and adopt for himself a son? Well, you know, all you have to do, let's just think of it in human terms to understand something. If I bought myself, with myself today, you know, a little goldfish, yeah, in a bag, I say, this is Jules, yeah, my son, you say, I mean, that's a goldfish, no, it is a goldfish but he has a room in the house, he sits with me at dinner, okay, on the table, the adoption papers are coming through next week, that is my son, and you say, look, you're a human being, that's a fish, you can't have a fish as your son.

If you want a son or adopt a son, you need something like you, a human being, yes, it's very easily understood. So then, what is the comparison? I am much more like a fish than I am like God. If it's, if we insult each other by saying, you son of a dog, you son of a cow, your mother's a snake, yes, your mother-in-law is, you know, if that's how we insult each other, right, why? Because why am I insulting? You called me an animal, I am not an animal, I am a human being, yet some people go around saying God has a son, who is a human being, a human being, what are human beings? We are little creatures, fly up in an aeroplane and see human beings, in fact, you can't see human beings because they are little specks, on an earth that is a speck, in a solar system that is a speck on the outer spiral of our galaxy, which is 100,000 light years across. The galaxy is one of millions of galaxies in a universe that is estimated to be 10 billion light years across, but God's son was a speck in a speck on a speck in a speck. That's insulting God. But, that's making one so great like something incredibly small.

That is why in fact the Quran says:

"The heavens are ready to rent asunder and the mountains are ready to crumble into ruin because the people say God has a son." (Quran 19:90-91)

It's insulting God. Okay, it doesn't make any sense, what does it mean, actually, these words? We find really it doesn't mean anything.

The Illusion of Materialism

Now I want to talk about something slightly different, materialism. You know, it's not a new philosophy. Thinking that this world, money and power and technology and science, we may think in this day and age that it

is unprecedented. This is the age of science and technology. But in fact, in reality, if we look at human history, we can look at the ancient Egyptians, the Quran gives the example of Ad and Thamud, people who were incredibly intelligent, could build the most amazing structures. They were extremely gifted, intelligent, they had great engineering capabilities, yet Allah says in the Quran:

"Travel the earth and see what happened to those people who rejected faith." (Quran 30:42)

Of course, in reality, this thing is the one that seems to have more of a real impact in our lives. It does seem that money could in some ways make our life better. It does seem that technology and medicine can make our life better. It may seem to some people that these things could therefore give us everything. But that, in reality, is an illusion.

Lessons from Past Civilizations

Because we only need to see many civilizations that came before us travel to Rome. I remember, whenever I go up north, not up north, whenever I used to go to Middlesbrough, almost always I used to make a trip to Hadrian's Wall. It's not that far. And I used to do it to think about something. I used to stand on that wall and I used to look south and I would think to myself, once a Roman soldier stood here and he must have looked south and thought, as far as I can see and as far as I can travel is Rome. Where is Rome now?

The ancient Egyptians who built pyramids. People can't even figure out how they built them. How was their wealth? The Persians. The Persians, when the Muslims went to see General Rostrum, the Sahaba Rabia, he walked over a carpet that was inlaid with precious stones. A huge, massive carpet in which everyone was sitting on chairs. These are the nations that came before. Where are they? What happened to them? With all their power and all their wealth and all their technology that they had amassed, what benefit did it really have for them in the end?

Even the Muslim civilization. We often talk as Muslims, we talk about Alhambra. Alhambra, the peak of art and architecture, the beautiful irrigation system that still exists in southern Spain today, yet look at the reality. The reality is that the king of Granada, Abdullah, the last king of Granada, he finished Alhambra two years later, the Spanish conquistadors came and threw him out. Ferdinand and Isabella, two years after they threw him out. What did his palace achieve for him? You know what it achieved for him? He's still on the hill crying. Crying. His mother said to him, you cry like a child for what you couldn't fight like a man. You cry like a child for what you couldn't fight for like a man. What did his wealth do? What did his palace do?

In fact, Howard Hughes, they've got the film about him now, The Aviator. I remember reading about that guy when I was a teenager. The Onassis family, the Gettys, the Rockefellers, read the lives of these people. If wealth equals happiness, there's something wrong with that equation because a lot of them don't seem very happy to me. So Allah says in the Quran, travel the earth, see, see what happened to those people. You think really that

success is in these things? There were people that knew greater in wealth. Greater. Yet look at their traces. That's what Allah, God has left some traces of their civilizations for us to learn a lesson by it.

False Gods People Worship

The point being, those who put their faith in those things and they put their trust in those things, they put their faith and trust in something ultimately that will let them down. It will let them down. There is another thing, another type of God that people have. This God is nationalism, racism, maybe I'm not using the right word. It is the belief that because I am born of a certain race or a certain tribe of people, I am innately superior and gifted and destined for success in this life and the next.

All of the things I have talked about are common throughout the world, not just to one set of people. But the Quran uses paradigms. The Christians are used as a paradigm for those people who believe that someone is God. The pagan Arabs and the people of Abraham, for those who worship idols. The Jews are used as a prototype or a paradigm for those people who believe that by being born or being a member of a particular race is an automatic type of ticket for success and salvation. Because that is one of the qualities, I'm not saying every Jew has it, but that is one of the qualities that you find strongly in them. Yet, Allah mentions in the Quran and talks about this very self-same thing. If this was the case, then why did God punish you? Why has God punished you? In fact, God has said this is a lie. It is a lie against Him. Belonging to a certain tribe or a certain race is not a guarantee of anything. It is not a guarantee of success in this life or the next. It is not a guarantee of God's favor. This is something that is very, very strongly denied by God.

And, you know, we can see in front of our eyes many reasons to support that. These that I have mentioned are some of the things in which people put their faith and their trust. Probably the main ones. My race, my money, some man-god, some idol. These are the things that you find in one degree or another degree people worship, they put their faith in, they put their trust in. These are the gods that people worship.

Affirming the True God

All I have done so far is negated. I have tried to show why these things are not worthy of being worshipped. But now I want to affirm something. I want to affirm to you and I would like to give you some reason why I think all of us should affirm that the one that is truly worthy of worship is the one that has created this universe. The one that has complete power and control over this universe. The one that controls life and death. The one who is the king over all things and the controller of all things. But my argument to you now is not going to be a rational argument. I'm not going to base it on a reason.

I'm going to base it on something completely different. I'm going to appeal to some completely different faculty in you. I'm going to rely upon the fact that deep down inside you know that what I'm going to tell you is absolutely true. That every single one of us, every human being knows innately, and this is what our religion Islam teaches, that in the innate nature of every human being is an instinctive knowledge that this world and everything in this world is ultimately of no real benefit. And also we innately know that there is a being that

exists that has the ability to give us what we need and to give us what we want. That has the ability to control everything in this universe and everything in our lives.

The Parable of the Storm

What's the proof of that? The Quran gives an example of some people who are merchants. They go onto a boat, a ship, with their merchandise looking forward to all the money that they're going to make, all the trade they're going to do, and they sail out to sea. However, when they get out to sea, a storm starts. Not just any storm, but a massive storm. The Quran describes the waves of this storm as coming over the ship like the roof of a tent. Can you imagine that? So you're in this ship and the waves are coming over you like the roof of a tent.

And these people at that moment and that time, their faith in the technology, the ship, they don't think the ship is going to save them anymore. The captain, he's gone, he's washed overboard. Their money? They're going to call on their money? They think their money is going to save them then? No. Their girlfriend, their boyfriend, their wife, their children, the country you belong to, is going to help you then? The idols that people worship? The things that they call upon? No, at that moment, when all of those things they realize are of no benefit, then the human being, instinctively, makes a call, makes a plea, sincerely, with complete faith and complete conviction and complete trust and hope, Oh God, help me. Oh God, save me.

This is not a God that is sitting next to them in the boat. This is not a God that is here in this world. This is a God that has power over it. They may not know the word God. It's not the word that's important, it's the fact that deep down inside they know that this power exists, that has the ability to rescue them from their predicaments. Every single human being knows that. That is a proof, in fact, in every human being, that in fact nothing is worthy of worship except that one God. Indeed, that there is no true God except that one God.

Then the Quran says to humanity, why? Why is it that at that moment, at that time, you recognize your Lord and your Creator? Yet if He saves you, if He saves you from your predicament and returns you safely back to shore, what do you do? What do you do? You just go back to worshiping all those other things that you used to worship before, all those false gods that you used to worship before. Why? Understand that fact right now, in every part of your life, in everything, that the one who truly can give you what you need and give you what you want is that same one that you know in your heart who can rescue you from that predicament that you would find yourself in. That is the one who is worthy of worship.

The Quran as Evidence

Of course, whether you believe the Quran is from that God, that's another matter and that's a whole different subject and discussion. But maybe one of the greatest clues that it is, is the very things that I've been saying right here tonight. Anyway, I hope I've answered the question here today, is there a God? So thank you very much everyone for listening to this.

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Question and Answer Session

I'd like to thank the Beloved Imam of Hebrew for delivering our lecture. There will now be an opportunity for questions and answers. So, can all the questions be forwarded to the front? And you can ask by putting up your hand up as well, inshallah.

Question 1: Praying Without Concentration

Question: I am a Muslim and I don't pray regularly. Reason being, it is not from the heart. I keep thinking of other stuff when I'm praying. What is your advice?

Answer: Okay. What is my advice? What comes to my mind right now is that about 18 years ago, when I first started practicing Islam, I had the same sort of problem. I would start praying and I would be thinking of absolutely everything except my prayers. I mean, it was so severe. I mean, it was like I could actually think about, you know, what the Quran was saying and I could think about, you know, God and all sorts of things outside the prayer. But it was literally the minute I raised my hand and started to pray, you know, I just could not seem to focus and I couldn't seem to concentrate and all sorts of things came to my head and it was very, very hard. But the thing is, I didn't give up. I just, you know, I stuck, I just kept with it.

I found one of the things that helped me a lot was learning the last three surahs of the Quran and reciting them. That helps a lot. If you are just asking about concentrating in your prayers, then I suppose maybe that is slightly different from the issue of whether you are praying from your heart or not.

Understanding the Heart Issue

If you mean that you are just doing it because you feel that if you don't do it, you know, your friends who happen to be Muslims and your family who happen to be Muslim will say some things and you don't want them to say those things. In other words, you are doing it almost in a type of hypocrisy. You don't really believe is that what you are saying. If you are saying it's not really in your heart, you don't really want to pray because you don't really want to obey God, you don't really want to live your life according to what God says because maybe you don't feel there is a God or maybe you feel if there is a God, maybe He just doesn't care about us or maybe you feel that the Quran is not from God. I mean, that's really the thing is that if it's not from your heart, if that's what you mean by it's not from your heart, your issues are deeper. Your issues are much deeper than I just can't say my prayers.

You have to ask yourself why. Why don't I want to obey God? Why don't I want to do the things that God tells me to do? Is it because you don't believe that it's from God? Is it because you don't really believe that God's threat of punishment is a true threat? What is God like when He says He's going to punish people who don't do this and do that? Maybe you don't believe in God's reward. So, the problem here is a problem of certainty. It is a problem of certainty. You are lacking certainty if that's what you are talking about.

Building Certainty Through Knowledge

So, how do I get certainty? How do I feel more sure? How do I feel convinced that the Quran is from God, that Muhammad is the messenger, that these things that it says are true? I've asked the questions. A bit of a big question for me to answer myself, okay? But, I mean, part of it is really getting knowledge. The big part of it is getting knowledge. Certainty, knowledge, and certainty are two things that come together. When you study the Quran more, when you study Islam more, when you study the life of Prophet Muhammad more, when you look into these things more deeply, the more you study them, the more deeply you study them, and you ask people of knowledge and so on and so forth, then more and more your certainty will develop. One of the best things to dispel certainty, to dispel doubts, and to increase certainty is knowledge. So, that's one thing.

Understanding What You Say in Prayer

As for, if it is just like you're being distracted in your prayer, and you can't focus and you can't concentrate, then one of the things you need to do is, first of all, I would recommend that you make sure that you understand, and this is something that really surprises me. I mean, there are Muslims who pray and don't understand a word of what they're saying. If I ask them, what does (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - al-hamdu lillahi rabbil-'alamin) mean, they don't know. What does (الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - ar-rahmanir-rahim) mean, they don't know. What does (مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - maliki yawmid-din) mean, I don't, I just say it. Well, I mean, if that's the case, then of course you can't concentrate in your prayer, because you're not really praying, you're just saying some words that you don't really know what they mean, and that's not what prayer is about.

In fact, you know, there's no disagreement amongst the scholars that the minimum amount of Arabic you have to know is to understand what you're saying in your prayers. In fact, the reason why Allah prohibited people being intoxicated while praying is, as the Quran tells us, the meaning of what the Quran tells us is:

"You will not know what you're saying." (Quran 4:43)

If you're drunk, or stoned, or wasted, right, you're going to be standing there saying all this stuff that you just don't know what you're saying. So if you're praying in Arabic and you don't understand what it is you're saying, it's the same thing. You're not knowing what you're saying. You have to know what you're saying, you have to understand.

But prayer has a purpose, it has a reason. When you understand what you're saying, then you begin to understand that purpose and reason. I think that would be one of the first steps that you could take if you haven't already been helping yourself with that. I think that otherwise, without knowing more details and talking to that person personally and seeing where they are and stuff like that, I can't give much more advice than that.

Question 2: Unanswered Prayers and Suffering

Question: I'd like to combine these two questions. If there is a God, why is it that our prayers are sometimes not

answered? Also, if there is a God, then why is there so much suffering in the world?

Answer: Right. Okay. Well, I mean, the answer to the second question is I don't understand the connection between the two things. I don't understand. If there is a God, why is there so much suffering in the world? Okay. What actually, logically, is the connection between the two? What's the actual, logical connection between those two things? Between God and their being suffering or not being suffering? Unless, of course, your presumption is that you shouldn't suffer. I mean, me? Why should I suffer? I'm so important. Or maybe you think you are God, or I don't know what you think, that you think you shouldn't suffer.

Suffering Does Not Negate God's Existence

So, there is a presumption in the person who asked that question that you shouldn't suffer and that God doesn't want you to suffer. I mean, the question of human suffering doesn't actually tell us about whether there is a God or not. Does it really? Does the question of suffering actually tell us whether there is a God or not? Does the question of suffering make the brain any less organized? Does the human suffering make the alternation of the heavens and the earth any less amazing? And in need of a creator? Does human suffering make any of these things go away? No, it doesn't.

What is the compelling reason for believing that there is a creator? Because we look at our universe, we see it works according to these laws and these patterns. It's compelling that we believe that there is a creator. So, the existence of a creator and the existence of God and the existence of human suffering are not two things that are connected at all. I make this point because it is a totally false argument of atheists to say there is so much suffering, how can there be a God? Because the two things are not logically connected. It's a very emotional argument from people who tend to be very rational. It's actually emotional. It's an emotional argument. It's not a rational argument.

The Purpose of Suffering

So, the correct question should be why does God allow us to suffer? That's a different question altogether. If you want to know why God allows human suffering and why does God allow us to suffer and why has God made the world in which there is suffering, then in order to know the answer to that question, we need some information from God. That's all we need. We need some information from God. We need somewhere where God can explain to us why the world is the way it is and why he's making us suffer and why the things are the way they are. And then we can say, oh, now I can understand the purpose of that. Yeah. So, it comes back to that. It comes back to this issue. Did God reveal something to us? Has God sent some guidance to us?

Muslims believe, and I personally believe for what I think are very good reasons that the Quran is from God. The Quran explains to us why the world is the way it is. What is the purpose of our life? What is the reason for our existence? Why are human beings here? We have a purpose and the world is the way it is in order to reflect the purpose for which we have been created. The purpose of our existence as human beings is to choose to

worship God and obey him and to choose to leave disobedience to God and rebellion and denial of him. That is the purpose of our existence. That's why God has created the world it is.

Choice Requires Good and Evil

Because if there was not good and evil there would be no choice. If there was no evil in the world how could you choose not to do evil if there was only good? Yes? That's one of the reasons. One of the reasons why there is suffering and evil and so on and so forth and whatever these things are. One of the reasons is exactly that. Because it is only through these things that we can actually make a choice. And that is something unique about the human beings. We are creatures who have the capability of choosing and we have been created to choose.

There are other creatures that God has not who has created just to worship him. The angels, they worship God and they have no choice except to worship God. That's what they do. So he has created them for that and he has created us for something else. That's the purpose of our life. We can accept that information and we can act upon it. And as we look into it deeper and there are more, there are other reasons as well but this has been the main reason.

Actually, part of the something that is quite amazing when you begin to look into this issue is that even though the existence of evil is necessary in order for us to choose yet still the existence of evil is a consequence of our bad choices and our wrong choices. So that in fact at the same time we have brought evil upon ourselves as human beings. Maybe not individually not every human individual that suffers some evil, it is a consequence of their personal actions. But in general, human beings live in a world where there is suffering due to some wrong choices that we have made.

Question 3: What is the Quran?

Question: What is the Quran?

Answer: The Quran is the words of God, the speech of God that was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad about 1400 years ago over a period of 23 years. It is what Muslims believe to be a miracle. Quran is a miracle. It is something that could not be written by a human being and even Quran challenges any collection of human beings and jinns and spirits and whatever you want to use to give you inspiration that you should try to make just one chapter like the smallest chapter of the Quran and the Quran says you will never be able to do it.

The Miraculous Nature of the Quran

It is miraculous in many different levels. It is not only linguistically a unique work that is not comparable to any other form of the Arabic language. It is not like normal speech, it is not like poetry, it is not like any other types of speech the Arabs used to use before or after, yet still the words are Arabic words and they are comprehensible and understandable. This is a miracle. How could such a thing and also at the same time of such great beauty and eloquence from where and how was such a work been able to produce by the likes of someone as the

Prophet Muhammad whereas the greatest poet of Arabia who existed at that time could not make a single chapter like it. That is just one of its miraculous qualities. So this is the Quran.

Question 4: Jesus as the Spirit of God

Question: Muslims call Jesus the spirit of God. What is your response to the Christian argument that this term is akin to the son of God?

Answer: What does it mean the spirit of God? It means that it is every human being has a spirit that belongs to God. Every human being has a spirit, a soul, a ruh, and everything belongs to God. My ruh, your ruh, everybody's ruh, everybody's spirit, everybody's soul belongs to God. Okay? But in Arabic, in fact in any language and in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala God, He sometimes emphasizes something by attributing it to Himself to show and to emphasize that He loves it especially.

The Meaning of Divine Attribution

So for example, the Kaaba is called Baitullah. It's called the house of Allah. It doesn't mean that Allah lives in that place and that's the place where if you want to go and have some tea or something, go to Allah's house there, knock on the door, excuse me Allah, could I come in? No. Every house is Allah. It means it's a possessive term. It belongs to Allah. Everything belongs to Allah. But when He says it is His house, means that Allah has specialized it. Allah has dignified it above the other things. Ruhullah means this spirit is something especially that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has exalted it by attributing it to Himself. That's what it means.

Question 5: Are All Religions the Same?

Question: All religions are essentially the same. What do you say to this?

Answer: Wow, after what I just said? I would say listen to my lecture again. There's the answer.

Question 6: Duty to Protect the Weak

Question: What does Islam say regarding their duty for the strong to protect the weak, be it the Muslim or not?

Answer: Yes, it is very important for Muslims to stand up for justice and to protect the weak and the ill-treated and oppressed. In fact, that is one of the reasons that is mentioned in the Quran and one of the causes for which Allah commands Muslims to go and fight even if it is physical to save people from injustice and tyranny and those people who are weak and ill-treated and oppressed who are crying out for help and it is the duty of the Muslim to even if necessary give their life to help such people, whether they are Muslim or not Muslim.

Question 7: Seeking Guidance from Scholars

Question: I am going to a Sheikh, a scholar, for guidance in certain matters. Is this the same thing as idolatry, e.g. marital violence? Urgent?

Answer: No, it is not the same thing. You can go to people to ask them some things and to seek some guidance from them. We believe as Muslims that in this world we shouldn't get confused about something. As Muslims, we believe in general that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created this universe according to certain patterns and certain norms. One of those patterns or one of those norms is what we call cause and effect.

Using Means While Relying on God

If we do a certain action, normally the result of that action is a certain event. Yes? So, normally if I want to get married, yeah, I have to find someone to get married to. I am not just going to sit in my house, close my doors and just think I am going to get married because I trust in God. Okay? No. In fact, this contradicts what Islam teaches. In our religion, we should do everything that we can that is lawful and permissible in order to bring about the desired goal. If we want to achieve this, we should take the means that are evident and normal and clear in order to achieve that means. That's not idolatry. The difference is however, we don't rely upon those means. That's the difference. We don't rely upon those means. It's a very important difference. We do them, but we don't rely upon them. Because ultimately, we rely upon God. This is the difference.

So, there's nothing wrong with having money. There's nothing wrong with working for money. Yes, in general, you know, they say money makes the world go round. And it's true that by and large, in order to get things and obtain things and achieve things, you need money. And our religion teaches us, therefore, go out, earn money, make a livelihood. Use the means that are available in order to achieve that goal. But the difference being, I don't put my faith in those means. I don't put my faith in the money. I don't think that money is going to make me successful. I believe it is Allah that is going to make me successful. I'm using these means because that's what God has told me to. But I don't trust in it and I don't rely upon it and my faith is not in it and my hope is not in it. There's a big difference between the two things.

Warning Against Worshipping Wealth

The sound that goes in your head is when you are ready to do haram things, forbidden things, in order to get what you want. When you're ready to disobey God in order to get the things you want, that is a very clear indication that you have stopped relying and trusting upon God and now you've begun to rely and trust upon the means. That's an indication. I'm not saying you've moved to worshipping money yet but it's an indication that's the way you're going. And the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 2887)

"Woe be to the worshipper of the dinar and the dirham." (Sahih al-Bukhari 2887)

Dinar and dirham was money used in the time of the Prophet. And then he described these people. He described these people. How are they? When they have it, when they have it, they are happy and content. And when they don't have it, they are sad and they are distressed. Whereas, the quality of a believer in God, a true believer in God, is contentment. Is contentment. Whether I have it or I don't have it, I use the lawful means, I do the best

Question 8: Who is Right Among Religions?

Question: Different religions have different beliefs and each say that they are right. You are a Muslim, you say you are right. Who is right? I am a Sikh.

Answer: I say I am right. You know, that's why we are sitting here today, coming to lectures, listening, talking, discussing because everyone just has to find out for themselves. Yes, everyone claims that they are right, but claims have to be proven. Anyone can make a claim. Anyone can make a claim.

The Burden of Proof

City University does not belong to City University anymore, it belongs to me. It is my land, my property and I am going to turn it into a big hippie commune where we are going to smoke marijuana mad. And it's my right to do that and that's my claim. Now, anyone can make any claim that they like. Right? I can claim that I am a prophet of God and I am receiving revelation from God. If I want to, I can sit here and make that claim. But the onus, the proof, the burden of proof is on the claimant. The one who is making the claim has to prove that claim. And that's the real, that's the crux of the matter. That's really what it's about. If you are right, bring your proof. If what you say is true, bring your evidence. Let's prove it. Bring some convincing, clear evidence that what you say is true.

The Quran as Proof

So, Muslims will bring the Quran. That's what we do. Here is the Quran. This is one of the reasons I believe that my religion is true, the Quran. Why? Well, I gave some reasons already. We can give some other reasons. Why do I believe this book is from God? Well, one of the reasons we would ask someone to believe this book is from God is that it has things in this book that no one knew 1,400 years ago. Yet, we just discovered it today.

The brothers here, they have a book that they're giving away, Brief Illustrated Guide to Islam. And the brother was telling me that there is a couple of sisters here in this university who converted to Islam from reading that book. And one of the reasons was because of the statements in the Quran that were mentioned 1,400 years ago that we just began to discover these things today. How could that be in that book? How? So, bring your proof. If you're going to claim that your religion is the right religion, well, give me your argument. Give me your proof. Give me your reasons that you claim that your religion is the right religion. That's all we can do.

Personal Experience is Not Proof

By the way, to say something like this, and this is getting, I'm going to go on to another topic, but to say something like, I believed in this and then it changed my life. I used to be like this, but now I'm like that. And I used to be this bad person, but now I'm this good person. Well? And you say, that's the proof. The proof is this

thing happened to me I accepted this religion and my life is completely different and now I'm saved. Okay? Fine. You know what I'll say? I'll say I respect you, I respect your experience, but you know what? The same thing happened to me. I used to follow your religion and then I changed to this religion, Islam, and I got saved. And my life became so much better.

So, what does that prove then? Yeah? I mean, some guys take up snowboarding, right? And that changes their life, right? Some people go skydiving, that changes their life. Some people smoke marijuana and that changes their life. For a year or two. So, some experience and that, you know, that's, you know, because lots of people experience those things. It's not really a proof of anything. Meaning, my point is, you can't really prove much with that. It's a proof to you, sure. And I can't deny you your personal experience. But, that's all it is, a proof to you. It's subjective. You don't prove anything to me by offering me how such and such changed your life. You know, but it's interesting. You know, it's good that it changed your life, but it doesn't really prove that much. You know, the proof has to be something we can all sit down at the table and we can examine it. Yeah? That's what we need, something like that.

Question 9: Free Will and Destiny

Question: We say that we humans have the option to choose what we do. However, doesn't this contradict the concept of faith and destiny? If we all have a particular faith and destiny, then how would praying help us when the events of our future are fixed?

Answer: You know, the person who wrote this question is really regurgitating a whole series of misconceptions that people have about faith and destiny. I mean, I don't even like this word faith. Let's just leave faith out of it. Because the moment I say faith, something pops into my mind. And a lot of the time when I'm having, trying to discuss this issue, but they say, but faith, but faith, I say, just forget that word faith, please. Just forget it. Okay?

Understanding Al-Qadar

What do Muslims believe? We believe in Qadar. Al-Qadar. The measure and the decree. We believe, and what does it really come down to? It's very simple. We believe that, number one, God knows everything that is going to happen. Yeah? Everything. Big, small, everything, God knows it. Number two, it's all been written down. 50,000 years before Allah created this universe and this creation, everything was written down in the lawh al-mahfuz, the preserved tablet, that was going to happen from the beginning of creation to the end, including who's going to go to paradise, who's going to go to hellfire, which leaf would fall where, which raindrop would fall where, which atom would vibrate at what rate, everything. Who would be the next president of the United States, who would be the next, it's all been written down from God's knowledge. He knew everything that is going to happen and it's all been written down in lawh al-mahfuz.

Yeah? So that's one. God knows everything. Number two, that's the knowledge of God. The second is Kitab, the writing. The third is the mashiah of Allah. That means that nothing can happen unless God lets it happen. We wouldn't be sitting here today unless God let us sit here today. Nothing takes place in this universe unless God

lets it happen. And everything has been created by God. Nothing creates itself, nothing brought itself into existence, so everything that happens happens because Allah let it happen and God has created everything. Yeah?

God's Knowledge Does Not Negate Free Will

That doesn't contradict free will because one of the things that Allah let happen is that he let us choose whether we would obey him or disobey him. He created the world in which we live. He created the world the way it is and part of the way that Allah created that world is that he gave us the choice to obey him or disobey him. Even though he knew from his knowledge before he created everything whether we would obey him or not, he knew it. He did not force us to obey him or disobey him. We did that from our choice. He did not compel us and I will give you a simple example. Okay?

The Teacher Analogy

Imagine you are all my students and you've been my students now for three years here at the university. I know all of you very very well. Okay? I know you so well that I predict your grades. So I have some knowledge of you. Yes? My knowledge of you allows me to predict your grades and I write down a prediction of those grades. Does my knowing it and my writing it down force you to pass or fail or to get those grades? Does it force you to do that? Does it compel you to do that? Yes or no? No. You still choose to study, to work, to do whatever. But I know and of course if my knowledge is greater then I know even more. I'm not comparing any of the human beings to God. I'm just saying if this is true and it is possible with human beings, it is more possible with Allah.

So therefore this person is mixing ideas up. They are thinking that God's knowing it and God's writing it means God's forced us to do it. No. Okay? We obey or disobey Allah from our choice. The consequences of our actions determine what happens to us ultimately. Although of course Allah knows what is going to happen to us and what we are going to choose to do. Yeah? Don't ask me anything more than that because that's all I can say. I can't explain it any better than that.

Closing Announcements

Are there any further questions? I'd like to remind you that you can speak to Brother Abdul Rahim in person and inshallah. And there's just a couple of announcements inshallah before we close. The first one is I'd like to invite you to our next event tomorrow inshallah you can see up on the screen. The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the man who will be presenting the message. That will be delivered by Abu Ali in the Berlin Exhibit in the Centenary Building. So I'd like to invite you to that.

Also I'd like to also inform you on Westminster University they're having their annual dinner on Wednesday the 9th of March. So if anybody would like tickets for that please contact the ISOC. And there's also one of the there's also a double tour at the back inshallah so please take a look at that. And it's all free.

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh