The Existence of God & The Purpose of Life

The Existence of God & The Purpose of Life

Lecture by Abdur Raheem Green

Opening Supplication

I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah. He is the Knower of the unseen and the seen. He is the Beneficent, the Merciful.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah. The King, the Holy, the Peaceful, The Believer, the Guardian, The Exalted in Might, The All-Powerful, The Supreme. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him.

He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner. The Best Names belong to Him. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth exalts Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.

Introduction and Opening Praise

I begin by praising Allah, the One God. We praise Him, we seek His help and we ask for His forgiveness. And we take refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequence of our evil actions.

Whomsoever Allah guides, no one can misguide and whoever God leaves to go astray, no one can guide. And I testify that God alone is worthy of worship and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.

First of all, I would like to profoundly apologize for not being able to speak to you in Norwegian. It sounds a very nice language. But yes, English is pretty much my limitation. So, I'm sure most of you understand English. You probably understand English better than most English people and you probably speak it better than most English people as well. But inshallah, I will try to make my words as understandable as possible.

The Topic: Combining Two Essential Questions

My plan for today is since the Imam was not able to make it, my plan today is to try and combine some aspects of his talk with the main topic that I've been asked to talk about, which is: does God exist? And his talk was going to be about the purpose of life. But I do think that those two topics, from our perspective as Muslims, they come together very well.

Now actually, I want to start by asking you some questions and I'll probably be doing this throughout the evening just to make sure you're still awake and that you do understand what I'm saying. So, my first question really is very fundamental to what we are going to be talking about over the next two days.

The things that I want to discuss are: God. What is a God? And from that also I want to talk about what is religion?

What is a God? Understanding the Concept

So my first question to you is, what is a God? Can anyone please define for me a God? What is a God?

Someone says: A God is the creator.

Let me ask you a question then. You know the Greeks believed in a pantheon of gods. So did they believe that Apollo was the creator? Or how about Aphrodite? Did they believe she was the creator? But she was a god or a goddess, right? And Apollo was a god.

The same with Hinduism. Do they believe Ganesh is the creator? No, but he's still a god for the Hindus. So now you get my point. I'm not asking what is the God. I'm asking what is a God?

Someone else says: Something you can worship.

A God is something that you worship. Let's ask another question: Why do people worship Gods? Why do people worship anything?

To seek guidance. Hope. Out of gratitude.

The reason why people worship a God is because they think that God is going to give them what they want and what they need. And in many religions, there are different Gods for different things.

For example, if you are warrior people, like the old Norwegians, the Vikings. In Scandinavian history, you have actually Valhalla, right? Valhalla is a place where the Vikings go to continue fighting. They have many Gods. Gods of war. So, if you want to win the war, you pray to the God of war. Because why? You believe that this God will give you what you want.

You have Gods of rain, Gods of sun, Gods of the crops, Gods of fertility. If you want a child, you worship this God. If you want something else, you worship that God. And the reason people worship these Gods is because

they believe that by worshipping them, they will get what they want and they will get what they need.

Expanding the Definition of God and Religion

But, let's extend this idea. I want to extend it from the point of view of what we could call the Islamic philosophy. The way Islam sees and views things.

If a God is worshipped because people believe it will give them what they want and what they need, then from another angle, whatever you believe is going to give you what you want and is going to give you what you need, that is your God.

And what is religion then? Religion is the set of rituals and belief system that is connected to the worship of that God or those Gods. It could be formal, it could be informal, but this in a sense is the religion.

The Worship of Money and Material Things

Let's extend this further. And let's think therefore about what the Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, said. He said:

Woe be to the worshipper of the dinar and the dirham (Sahih Bukhari 2887)

Woe means misery and disaster. The dinar and the dirham is the money in the time of the Prophet, may God's peace and blessings be upon him. So, we translate that: Woe be to the worshipper of the dollar, the pound, the yen, the krona. Woe be to the worshipper of money.

Does that mean the person is praying to the money, literally, and worshipping it? No, what it means is, woe be to the one who thinks that money is going to give them what they want and what they need in life. You put your trust in money. You put your hope in money. You put your faith in money. You think that money is going to buy you what you want and what you need, and money is going to make you happy in life. You are the worshipper of money. And money is your god. This is also therefore a god. It's also an idol. It's something that people worship. Why? Because they put their faith in it.

We can go on: Fame. Beauty. Beautiful clothes. Belonging to a particular part of society.

Personal Background: The Religion of Social Class

I came myself from what we can call the upper middle class in the UK. My school was a Roman Catholic monastic boarding school. At home, we were taught certain manners, certain etiquettes, and they had very rigid

rules that we had to follow.

I remember one of the great rituals of the British upper middle class is the dinner party. If you have seen that film, Titanic, when Leonardo DiCaprio sits at the upper class table and he sees this array of spoons, knives and forks and spoons. And he sits there like, my God, what am I supposed to do with this? And the lady says, don't worry. Just start from the outside and work in.

We had different glasses for different drinks. A red wine glass, a white wine glass, a water glass, a liqueur glass, different knives, different forks, different spoons. Each one has a different function.

There is even a special way to butter your bread roll. The right way to butter your bread roll is you take your bread roll and you put it on your side plate. Then you take a bit of butter with the butter knife that belongs to the butter dish. And then you put the butter on the edge of your plate with the butter knife that belongs to the butter dish. And then you return that butter knife to that butter dish. And then you take your own personal butter knife -you know that's your butter knife because it's the smallest knife. And then you break your bread roll on the plate. Woe betide the one who breaks their bread roll up in the air. No, you break it on the plate. And then you take your piece of butter with your own butter knife and you spread it.

And the same people sit around the table saying, "Oh, we're not really religious in our family. Not really religious." But isn't that a type of religious ritual? It is. If you understand that it's all connected to the belief that if we belong or you belong to this class of society, it is a doorway to success and happiness in life. And so all of these rituals are connected with that.

Deconstructing Society's Religion of Consumerism

So what I'm doing is I'm trying to deconstruct in your mind the narrow parameters that have already been constructed for you by your society. I'm doing something very dangerous. And in reality, if you want to know why people think Muslims are dangerous—it's nothing to do with terrorism. It's nothing to do with jihad or these type of things. It's to do with the reality that you have been socialized. You have been conditioned. You have been brainwashed by your society to think in a certain way, to react in a certain way, and to invest your energy, your mental, your psychic energy towards certain goals that the society has defined for you.

And the dangerous thing that I'm doing tonight is I'm trying to divert you. I'm quite open about it. I want you to divert your energy from that to something else. Now that doesn't mean I want to create a chaotic society. No, I don't. I just believe that there are goals that are more worthwhile you investing your time and your energy in than the goals that the society has set up for you.

Because the goals the society has set up for us—I don't think Norway is different from Sweden, which is different from England, which is any different from the USA. We have all one thing in common in these societies. The West, what is called the West. One thing that we have in common is that we are consumer

societies. It's a society that is based upon the idea, the ideology-I would like to call it, with my new definition I've given you, the religion—the religion of consumerism. And the God that you are worshipping is the God of money and material success.

So what your society tells you is that by having money, by having things that the money can buy, by being materialistically prosperous, through these things and by these things, you will be happy. And this is the definition the society gives you, by and large, of success. This is the religion of the West. It's not Judeo-Christian. It's a materialistic consumer society that is orientated around making you and indoctrinating you to be producers and to be consumers in that society.

The False God and False Religion

I am sure a lot of you here are going to agree with a lot of things that I say anyway. You probably know already that what I'm saying is true. And what I'm saying to you is that the God of materialism, the consumer society, it is a false God and it is a false religion. It is a false God and it is a false religion. And this is the purpose that you have been given in your life. You have been given this purpose.

And your society, the media especially, the media essentially is controlled by the interests of who? The media, the mass media in general, the TV, the newspapers, the magazines you read, the TVs you watch─how do they make their money?

Advertisement.

Through advertising. What do they advertise? Cars, houses, property, clothes, make-up, drinks. Their interest, these advertisers, their interest is for you to buy their products. If you don't buy their products, then that's a problem for them. That means the media is largely driven by the needs of advertisers. And therefore there is a symbiotic relationship between the advertising and therefore the people who produce those things and the media. Their interests are together. So by and large the media is going to reflect the interests of multinational corporations and big business.

Who Controls What We Think Is Right and Wrong?

Don't you think that every human being has some idea of this is what we think is right and this is what we think is wrong. We think this is good, we think this is evil. We think this is acceptable behavior and we think this is unacceptable behavior. Doesn't everyone have some concepts of that?

Where did you get this information from? Where did you get this piece of knowledge from? That this is allowed and this is not allowed. This is acceptable and this is not acceptable. This is the right way to behave and this is the wrong way to behave. Where did you get this information from?

Your influence

Your parents. Then you go to school. Then school they teach you and your friends, your peer group. They influence you in the way you think. And of course the media.

I think it's important to realize: who is trying to control the way you think and the way you behave? Who is controlling what you think is right and what is wrong? And don't you notice another thing? The goal posts of what is moral and immoral, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil are constantly changing. Something that was really not so good 50 years ago is suddenly okay today. Why? What made it not good then and it's okay now? I want you to think about it.

Because most people don't think about these things. But it comes back to religion in the broadest sense. What we would call in Islam deen. You see, I don't think we have a word exactly religion. The Quran uses the term deen, which I suppose you could translate as a way of living. A way of life. So everybody has a deen. Everyone has a way of living. Everyone has a way of life. Everyone has a set of standards by which they account themselves and they account others.

The False Promise of Material Success

Let's go back to our consumer society. Let's go back to what I am claiming is a false idol. Now you may say, Abdurrahim, look at our society. Look at the wealth. We are happy. Look, we are materialistically successful. We've overcome so many diseases. We've overcome so much poverty. We live happy, comfortable, prosperous lives. We live longer than we ever have before. If you want the evidence of our success, it's right here. Look at it.

And it's true. From one angle I have to admit that. I am not an outright critic of every single thing about western society. Absolutely not. There's too many things actually to admire and respect. But what I want to do is examine the core aspects here.

The Reality Behind the Advertisements

Let's look at some of the advertisements. You ever see those advertisements for Coca-Cola? You see in the Coca-Cola adverts, what do you have? You have young girls and boys, the most good-looking. And they're there drinking Coca and smiling and laughing. And the water spraying and the sun shining. And they're brown-nice Caucasian tanned brown. And, you know, these individuals, they're trim and slim. And you look at that and you say, "Man, I want some of that." And so what do you do? You go out and buy Coca-Cola.

Now, let me ask you a question: Does Coca-Cola make you slim and young and give you shiny white teeth? Does it?

The reality is what? In America, obesity is such a major problem. And in UK as well. Obesity is such a major problem amongst the youth that they are saying that for the first time, a generation of kids are going to die before their parents. The single most major culprit are fizzy, carbonated, sugar-loaded drinks.

Coca-Cola symbolizes this whole consumer society. You know what it's called? Sex, drugs and rock and roll. If you want a phrase that summarizes the whole attitude: sex, drugs, rock and roll. You don't want to believe in this God and this paradise that's in the life to come, pie in the sky. If you want to have fun, you need to have fun right now. This is the time to have fun.

We had the atheists in England, now they're putting advertisements on the buses: "There's probably not a God, so just enjoy your life right now." And it ties in so nicely, doesn't it, with the materialistic religion.

Selling Emotions, Not Products

If you look at the advertisements, what are they selling? Are they selling you a product? Most of the time, you know what they're selling you? They're selling you an emotion. It's emotional appeal. They want you to buy based upon emotion.

Why do you buy a Mercedes? Not because the Mercedes is the better car than the Toyota. The Toyota is probably more efficient. It's probably more reliable. It probably produces less CO2 gases. It's probably more comfortable. But you drive a Mercedes, why? Because of what it says about you. And why do you think that? Because that's the image, the idea that has been put into your head. You've been indoctrinated. You've been brainwashed.

My life is miserable. Let me have a holiday. Let me go shopping. Shopping therapy, they call it.

And now we have the biggest depression that's hit the world since the 1930s. What is the reason? Because people are spending too much and getting into too much debt. And what do they tell us to do? The solution is go out and spend more. Spend your way out of it. It's madness.

We haven't even mentioned, by the way, what's happening to our planet in the process. We are polluting the atmospheres, destroying the ozone layer, causing huge amounts of carbon emissions. We generate so much rubbish, we don't even know where to bury it. We waste so much and we're still not happy. We still consume more. More and more and more.

The question is: does it really make you happy? Does all of this stuff really make you happy? This is the question. Is it really true, the equation, wealth equals happiness? Is it really true? This is the question I'm asking you. And my claim is no.

The Evidence: People Are Not Happy

I remember seeing a documentary on the TV in UK and it was about raves. Basically, people would have a big party in a field. They would literally dance all night. And this guy, they're interviewing him and he is totally drenched in sweat. And they're saying, "Why do you do this?" And you know what his reply is? He said, "I have a miserable life. A miserable job, a miserable life and I come here in the weekend until I forget myself. Until I forget myself."

We have a problem in the UK. We have a problem with young girls drinking too much alcohol. Binge drinking. I remember reading in the newspapers, "Why are you drinking?" You know what they said? "Our life is so boring. Our life is so boring. So miserable. The only thing that gives us a bit of relief is unabated hedonism."

Now does that sound like happy people? Does that sound like happy people? It doesn't sound like people who are happy. It sounds like people who are actually desperately sad but need something to fill that void and that emptiness.

And look at the words we use: I was stoned. I got wasted. Wasted, stoned. I was on cloud nine. Pissed as a newt.

University—four o'clock in the morning, people tumble into the room, they puke up. They fall asleep in a pool of their own sick. And they wake up the next morning and they say, "Man, I had such a good time last night." So what happened? "I don't remember." The less I remember, the more of a good time I had.

That doesn't sound like people who are happy. What I'm saying is there is something missing. There is something wrong. Something fundamentally wrong. Money does not equal happiness. Wealth does not equal success. You are being sold a lie. You are worshipping a false god.

The Real Question: What Is the Purpose of Life?

The question I'm putting to you here is: if wealth and so-called material success is not the purpose of life and I'm pretty sure deep down inside everyone in this room knows that is not the purpose of life. That is not the reason for your existence. I know you've been asking yourself, "Why am I here?" I know you've been asking yourself, "What is it all for?" I know you've been asking yourself, "Where did I come from? Where am I going to?"

But you're not finding answers. I hope that by the end of tonight I'm going to give you some answers that make some type of sense, have some type of logical consistency and importantly as well, appeal to what I believe is an inner state of knowledge that we all have.

Understanding Purpose Through Examples

Let me ask you some questions. What's this called? The ear. And what's the ear for? To listen, to hear. Well

done. The ears—what else does the ear do? Balance, well done.

The nose is for smelling. And what do we call these? The eyes. And what are the eyes for? Seeing.

How about these? The teeth. What's that for? Biting, eating, chewing.

What are those glasses for? They make me see better. They help you see better.

What's this? A pen. And what is it a pen for? It writes.

Everything Has a Purpose Except Humans?

What's the point of all of this? Think about everything. Think about your body. Think about every single constituent part of your body. It has a purpose. Even your appendix, which they used to think has no purpose—actually, they found it has a purpose. Everything you have: your lungs, your heart, your kidney, your eyes, your nose, your feet, and even the externalities, your glasses, your pen. Everything has a purpose. It has a reason.

Now, let's think about this. Is it really conceivable that every single constituent part of your body, every bit of your body has a purpose? The sun has a purpose, the moon, the stars, the sea, the grass, even the worm in the earth has a purpose—to fertilize the soil. But you, the whole of you, what is your purpose?

Is it possible that each thing, everything has a purpose, but the human being does not have a purpose? It's not something we can accept. It doesn't make sense.

Clarifying the Question

When you ask people, "What is the purpose of your life?" sometimes people misunderstand the question. What they understand by that is, "What do you want to do with your life?" So then they say, "Well, you know, my purpose in life is to become a doctor or an engineer, or my purpose in life is my girlfriend here."

And isn't that nice? The purpose in life is your girlfriend until she runs off with one of those guys from the Coca-Cola advert. And then it's like, what's it all for? Because you just realize that that can't be the purpose of life. You thought your business was the purpose of life until you became bankrupt in the credit crunch.

You thought the purpose of your life was what you wanted to achieve in your exams, but you fail your exams. And many people, I'm sorry it's very sad, they feel despair. In fact, it's so bad, people kill themselves. They commit suicide because they feel that everything that what they thought their life was about, it's proved to be nothing.

So I'm not asking, "What do you want to do with your life?" I'm saying, why do human beings exist? We know why ants exist, why birds exist, why the sun exists. We know what the pen is for. The pen, we know why it

exists. The human being? What is the purpose of our existence?

The Analogy of the Mobile Phone

Does anyone have a mobile phone? Let me borrow your mobile phone. Now, how much does this cost? Someone give me a more advanced mobile phone. An iPhone. I know that that's not cheap.

So, I go down to the marketplace, and I buy myself an iPhone. And what do I do? I use it. I bought myself a nice armpit scratcher. And I use the mobile phone. I spend 6,000 kroners to scratch my arms.

You know, there's a reason I'm mentioning this. Because I know some of you today, maybe you're thinking, "Look, it's all very nice to talk about the materialistic society. But I'm enjoying my life. It has use. It has benefits."

And my comparison is: most people's life is like taking a 6,000 kroner mobile phone and using it to scratch your armpits. Yeah, you can give some use to it. You can give some use to your life. But is this really what you have been created for? And unlike a mobile phone, you are not an inanimate object. There is much more complexity to the human being.

Most of us would agree, this person is a fool. I mean, either you got too much money and too little sense, or you really are a fool. That's a waste. That's a really criminal waste.

The Need for an Instruction Manual

When I first got my first mobile phone—actually, for many years I refused to have a mobile phone—but my friend gave me his one. Now, I had never used a mobile phone before. There is something he didn't give me with the phone that would have been really useful. What is that?

The instruction manual.

I admit, the most basic function I could make a phone call. But I know the phone had about 20, 30 different functions that I never ever learned how to use. Because I never had the instruction manual.

Now that phone, let's say it was made by Nokia. Now let's say I get an instruction manual by Sony Ericsson. Is that any good for me? I've got a Nokia phone. I've got a particular model of a Nokia phone. What do I want? I want the instruction manual from the manufacturer. I want the one who made the phone to give me the instruction manual on how to run that phone. If I want to know how to use it, what's it for, what is its features, what is its functions, I need the instruction manual from the one who made the phone.

And I hope that you're getting my analogy.

The Instruction Manual for Life

If you want to know what is the purpose of your life, if you want to know the reason for which you exist, if you want to know how to live your life in the best possible way, according to the reason for which you were created, I don't need instructions from Freud, Lenin, Marx, Descartes, Aristotle, Plato. Believe me, they all need instruction manuals themselves.

I want the instruction manual from the one who made me. I want the instruction manual and I want the guidance from the one who created me and brought me into existence. Because everything else is really just guesswork. Everything else is conjecture, what they call in Arabic, (ظَنّ - dhann)—speculation, guesswork, conjecture.

If I want to know what is the reason for my existence, if I want to know what is the purpose for which and by which I exist, the only one who can really inform me of that is the one who gave me existence, who created me and who made me.

Does God Exist? The Most Effective Argument

I'm not going to go through all the different philosophical arguments that discuss as to whether God exists or not. What I'm going to do is I'm simply going to present to you what I think is the most effective argument.

Can I prove to you that there is a God? Intellectually, rationally, to be frank, I don't think I can prove it. But what I do believe I can do is illustrate why believing in the existence of a transcendent creator—meaning believing in the existence of a God who is different and separate and unique, who is distinct from the creation—is the most rational and sensible explanation for the existence of our universe, our world and ourselves.

The Mobile Phone in the Desert

I'm going to go back to the mobile phone. Here we have a mobile phone. What are the essential components of this phone? The materials it's made out of? The casings made out of plastic. And inside there's a little chip—a silicon chip. What's silicon? Sand. Plastic comes from? Oil.

Name me a place where there's lots of oil and sand. Iraq.

So, the brother was visiting Iraq. He was walking along and there he found on the ground the mobile phone—a product of millions of years of chance and coincidence. The oil bubbled. The sand blew. The lightning struck. The sun shone. The camel trod. And after millions of years of random events, this phone randomly formed itself by chance and coincidence into the mobile phone that we have here today. He picked it up, pressed the button, and he called his mum.

Now, I'm sure we all agree that that is preposterous. How preposterous is it? Is it because I said a million years? How about a billion? Does it make it less preposterous if I say a billion years? How about two billion years? How about 875 billion years? Do you still think you might get a mobile phone? Maybe someone might say, yeah, maybe.

And this is the thing. What the atheist is asking us to believe is something actually more incredible than that. More incredible. Because the most basic living cell is much more complex than this mobile phone. Yet they are still trying to make us believe, and I don't care how many billions of years you want to put it, that that is a product of merely some random events.

The Universe Is Even More Complex

In fact, if we look at the universe itself, if we look at the mechanisms through which and by which the universe exists and continues to exist, they are even more complicated and complex than the biological processes that exist on our earth.

I am telling you that the claim that this universe is a product of random events, it's a product of chance and coincidence, is not a rational claim at all. In fact, the most rational claim is that when we see things working according to laws, according to systems, according to patterns, when we see mechanisms, our human experience, our common sense, our common human experience tells us that if I find a mobile phone, if I find something working according to mechanisms and patterns, it could be something even more simple than a mobile phone, a pen.

In fact, it could be more simple than that. I could be an archaeologist digging in the desert and I find a simple piece of pottery. And for me, that piece of pottery is conclusive proof of the civilization that brought it into existence. I don't need to see that civilization. I don't need to see them. I don't need to see those people. But the existence of that is proof of the intelligence that brought it. In fact, I can examine it and tell you many things about that civilization just by examining one piece of pottery, which is a lot less complicated than a mobile phone.

The Most Powerful Argument for God's Existence

So the most powerful argument, in my opinion, for the existence of a creator is the existence of an organized, systemized universe in which we live. And there are other arguments, but this, to me, is clearly the most powerful and the most profound one and the most rational one. And the proposition that it is a product of chance and coincidence, to me, is merely that, a proposition. That's all it remains.

Now there are some people who are dedicated atheists, and they literally dedicate their lives, simply, all they're trying to do is make the proposition less likely. That's all they can do. Because fundamentally, human beings,

intellectually, rationally, and by the way, by our very instinctual selves as well—I believe it's a basic instinct—we believe that this universe has a creator.

All the atheists can do is try and show how it is less likely and how it might be possible, through some processes, that these things may have happened through some random events. All it ultimately comes down to is a proposition.

Atheist Arguments Are Emotional, Not Rational

Is the argument of the atheist rational? Most of their most powerful arguments are not rational arguments. They are emotional arguments.

"There is so much suffering in the world. Children are dying. There are earthquakes. There is disease. How can there be a God?"

"All wars have been caused by religion." First World War, Second World War, Pol Pot, Stalin—not much religion there. But let's go back: All wars are caused by religion. Is this really a rational argument? What has this got to do with the existence of an organized, systemized universe and planet in which we live? Absolutely nothing.

All it questions is theological discussions about the nature of God. But it doesn't tell us as to whether there is a creator or not. So what actually what they're saying is, "How can there be a good God? How can your Christian God, your Muslim God exist?" But actually it's got nothing to do with the fundamental question as to whether there is a creator who exists that has brought this universe into existence. But it's an emotional argument.

The Materialistic Society's Theological Backbone

Most people, like we are, are indoctrinated, socialized into this system. Similarly, it's a materialistic society. A materialistic society—it's in its own interest as a materialistic society to make you or to persuade you not to believe in a creator. To invest your time, your energy, your effort into this world.

And that's why the theory of evolution is a major theological—and I use this term on purpose, theological-backbone of the materialistic society. Why? Because basically the theory of evolution is saying that human beings are basically sophisticated monkeys. I know evolution doesn't say that we evolved from apes. I know that evolution says that we and apes are supposed to have evolved from common primates. But the point being is if we reduce it, basically we are just animals. Sophisticated animals. Sophisticated monkeys. And that's it. There's nothing more to us. There's no deeper purpose.

So it's very simple. How do you make a monkey happy? Give monkey banana. Monkey's happy. Give man monkey, woman monkey. You got a happy monkey. Keep the monkey safe from the dangerous things. And what

have you got? You've got a happy monkey.

How do you keep human monkey happy? Same thing. We give you some food. We give you some clothes. We let you have lots of sex. If man monkey doesn't like woman monkey, okay. Man monkey, man monkey. Woman monkey, woman monkey. It's all your animal passions. It's just your basic animal passions. Just do it. Just follow your desires. Because that's it. All you are. You don't need to be lumbered down by these taboos.

Because basically you're just an animal. A slightly sophisticated one, but that's it.

So that links up very nicely with the whole consumer philosophy. If you think science is merely some dispassionate examination of the facts, you need to think again. You need to see some of the scientific evidence produced in the Soviet Union, who outrightly dismissed any theory, any scientific theory, that indicated that there may be some intelligent being that created this universe—it was written off. It didn't actually matter what the data was. The fact that it suggested an ideological viewpoint, contrary to their own, was dismissed.

Similarly, there is a lot of scientific research done by alcohol companies, tobacco companies. How much of the medicine that we consume is produced under so-called scientific conditions, but it's all biased. Biased based upon a system of medicine that makes you buy the medicine. It's not based upon curing you. No. In fact, it's in the interests of these multinational medical companies for you to be ill. Because as long as you're ill, you'll keep taking their pills.

So scientific research, scientists are just as open to ideological influences as anybody else. Now, it's not my intention to say evolution is true or not. It's just a fact that there is a very convenient connection between that theory and this.

The Most Convincing Explanation

What I would say is really in reality, the most convincing explanation for an organized, systemized universe is the existence of an intelligent, wise being that has brought it into existence.

Now, I know there are many questions that go on from that. I propose just now to answer some of those questions. But in order to do that, I just need to develop a few ideas.

Let's agree, just for the sake of this discussion, that yes, the universe works according to laws. It works according to systems.

The Fine-Tuning of the Universe

Let's just briefly mention some things like the alternation of the night and the day. It's very interesting. The Earth spinning on its axis once every 24 hours. I want you to imagine the Earth spins very, very slowly on its axis. Instead of it spinning on its axis once every 24 hours, imagine it spins on its axis once every 30 years. So

imagine one part of the Earth's surface is exposed to the sun for 30 years and one part of the Earth's surface is absent from sun for 30 years. And in astronomical terms, that's not a big difference. But what would that effect you think that would have on life, on this planet? What do you think? You think life would exist? Well, not the way it does. Almost definitely.

What if the Earth was closer to the sun? Or what if it was further away from the sun? We have other planets. We can see the result. What if it was bigger or smaller? The gravitational effect.

How about the composition of gases in the atmosphere? Oxygen, essential for life. Too much oxygen actually poisons life. You need carbon dioxide, you need nitrogen, you need a fine balance.

And how about that fantastic gas, the ozone? How about that? That has this amazing quality of filtering out the harmful effects of the sun's radiation. What if that wasn't there? We'd all be nuked by the sun's radiation.

What an amazing balance, an amazingly fine balance. You know, if you compared the Earth, if you shrunk the Earth to the size of a billiards ball, the Earth is smoother. And this is just concerning some things. If we actually started to go into the whole way the universe is constructed, it becomes even more amazing.

Understanding the Nature of the Creator

So we have a question. The question is: how did it happen like that? There must be some intelligence behind it. There must be some creative power behind it. But this question leads us to ask something about the nature of the universe and this being. Or these beings, because it may not be one being. We accept that.

So let's ask the question: Did the universe create itself? Do you ever get something coming from nothing? You don't. That's our universal human experience. You don't find something coming from nothing. It didn't create itself. It didn't come from nothing. And we're not the creators of it. So the universe must have a creator.

Now, one thing we can presume logically, rationally, is the nature of the creator must be different from the nature of the creation. Why? I'll tell you why. The reason is because if the nature of the creator is the same as the creation, then, well, that's not the creator. That's just more creation. And then we still ask the question, well, who created that then?

Who Created the Creator?

And you've probably heard this question: If everything needs a creator, who created the creator? It's actually another silly argument. And the person who asked that question doesn't understand the nature of what we're discussing. And I'll tell you why. And I'm simply going to illustrate this with an example.

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However, in spite of that, by and large, we could say that there is nothing that contradicts the idea that creatures could have or have evolved through small stages into the complex different organisms that we find in the world today. There's nothing in principle that says we can't believe in that.

In fact, the Quran teaches us how the human being is developed through stages of embryonic development. And those stages are different. So the stage of (نُطْفَة - nutfah) is different from the stage of (عَلَقَة - alaqah), which is different from the stage of (مُضْغَة - mudghah), which is different from the state in which we finally look like a human being. So Allah, in a sense, has developed us through distinct stages in our mother's wombs.

So the idea of development through different distinct stages is not an impossibility. In fact, it's a reality that the Quran acknowledges in human embryonic development. So how about this idea applying to life in general?

Well, it's certainly a possibility.

However, I make a proviso. There are two things that we will say we cannot agree with. As Muslims, we can't believe that these processes are completely devoid from and separate from the power and the guidance of God. So if evolution has taken place, it's because God is the Evolver. God is the one who is evolving the creation. In other words, we can't accept the premise that these are purely natural processes that don't have anything to do with the power of Allah and the knowledge of the creator. So do we believe they are random things that evolved? No, we can't accept that.

Secondly, I stick to the—although there are other opinions, but I don't agree with them—I stick to the Orthodox opinion that God has created the human being miraculously, that Adam was created in a way that is miraculous. Just as Jesus was created in a way that was miraculous. Jesus was created without a father. No father. God created Jesus miraculously in the womb of Mary and God just needs to say "Be" and something is. So Jesus was human. He was a human being. We don't believe that because God created him miraculously without a father, therefore God was his father. No. That doesn't follow. God just created Jesus without a father.

Similarly, God created Adam without a mother or a father distinct from whatever processes were going on in the world at that time. God introduced Adam into the order of the world in a miraculous way. So do we believe that human beings descended along with monkeys from a common primate? No, I don't believe that Islam can accept that and I stick with the Orthodox position.

Does that mean that there could not have been human-like creatures existing? That is certainly possible. Why not? Because what makes us different actually as humans? There are some differences, but the most fundamental difference is that what makes us different from the animals is that we have the choice to submit to God or not. That's what makes us different. Not just some physiological things. My fundamental thing that makes me human and that makes me different from the animals is that I can choose to submit to God or not. I can choose to believe in and obey and worship the creator or not. That's what makes us different.

So I do believe as the Quran teaches, and that's how I literally understand it, that God created Adam miraculously and God created Eve from Adam. But does that mean that evolution did not take place? No, it doesn't. Islam does not have anything to say about that definitively one way or the other. So it's certainly possible.

So I hope that answers that question and Allah knows best.

Question 2: Heaven Versus Hell, Believers Versus Non-Believers

Question: If God loves all humans equally, why do Muslims say that only believers get a seat besides Allah in paradise?

Answer: You see, I think I'm guessing that the person who wrote this question is either a Christian or used to be a Christian, because a Muslim would not say that. Unless it's a Muslim who knows more about Christianity than Islam. Because there's nowhere that Allah says in the Quran that God loves all human beings equally. Doesn't say that.

And this is actually—the Quran says the opposite. Allah loves the people who are good and who are obedient to him and who are sincere to him. So Allah loves the sincere, the (الْمُخْلِصُونَ - mukhlisoon), the sincere people. And Allah clearly says:

Indeed, Allah does not love the disbelievers. (Quran 3:32)

The transgressors, the sinners—they have choices. Shall I take this way or do I take that way? Shall I obey God? Shall I disobey God? So based upon those choices, this is the truth. This is how God makes judgment.

But the opportunity—God is going to judge us all justly. God is completely just. And God will judge us according to the opportunities we had and the decisions that we made. We may have different opportunities, but still we made those choices and based upon those choices, Allah is going to judge us.

Now, some of us may be less intelligent than others. Some may be—but that's not what's important to God. Not how we dress—not whether we have designer clothes or not. The point being is that ultimately we have choices that we have to make. And God is going to judge us based upon those choices that we make.

I want to make a very important point as well, brothers and sisters. The other important point is that it's not for you or for me to judge people. I mean, in a way we do. If I see someone doing something evil-selling drugs or stealing or raping—of course I make a judgment. That's a wrong thing and that person should be stopped and that person should be punished. But what I'm saying is we can't look into the hearts. We look at what people do on the outside but we can't look into the hearts.

You may not know that the person you're looking at and you're condemning may be better than you. They may be a better person than you. They may have more sincerity. Maybe they don't know what you know. Maybe they

don't understand. Maybe they have some problems in their life that you can't possibly even imagine.

So what I'm saying is, brothers and sisters, we should not be judgmental. Even about people who are not Muslim. It's not that simple just to be judgmental about them. You're not the one to say, this one's in the hellfire, that one's in the paradise. No! Alhamdulillah, Allah didn't make it our job to do that. So we shouldn't have that. It's a very dangerous type of attitude to have. And it's quite easy to fall into that type of mentality.

So we shouldn't have that attitude. Our attitude should be of compassion, of care, of kindness, of concern. We believe that Allah has given us a guidance as to what is right and what is wrong. So we should try to guide ourselves and others in the best way that we can to what we believe is right. And away from what is wrong. But we shouldn't be judgmental about people.

One scholar, one wise man, he said: "Blessed is the person who is so busy looking at his or her own faults that they don't have time to notice the faults in others." It's a very beautiful saying.

But the point is, let's not be judgmental, inshallah. Let's try and find the good in people. And if we see something bad, let's try and change it in the best way, inshallah.

Question 3: Can You Explain La Ilaha Illallah?

Question: Can you explain about (لا إله إلا الله - la ilaha illallah)?

Answer: Yes, really (لا إله إلا الله - la ilaha illallah) really is the acknowledgement that we do not worship—which means we do not make dua, which means we do not supplicate or pray to anyone else other than God.

So our prayer is for God. Our worship is for God. Our deeds that we do, the good deeds that we do, we do it sincerely, seeking God's pleasure. And we try to do it according to the way that God has taught us. So we have to be sincere and we have to do things according to the way prescribed.

So, yeah, we pray to God, but not any way I feel like praying. We pray the way God has taught us to pray.

So essentially (لا إله إلا الله - la ilaha illallah) means that you accept there is one God, one creator of the heavens and the earth. God is not like anything in this universe and nothing in this universe is like God. And we worship God alone. And we try to make our life and our religion sincerely and purely for Allah, the creator of the heavens and the earth.

And that's very, very simply and shortly what (لا إله إلا الله - la ilaha illallah) means.