Articles of Faith - Part 1

Articles of Faith - Part 1

Clarification on Intentions

One clarification that Jeff brought up, because we had talked about this yesterday, and that was about intentions.

When I said that actions that you're judged by your intentions, that means an intention related to an action. In other words, what merely occurs to the heart, if it's evil, you're not taking into account for it, but if it's good, you're given a reward for it.

So if a person has a good intention, but they don't act it out, there is a reward related to that. Whereas with evil, it's not. Like somebody cuts you off on the road, and you know, I'd like to kill that person, or something like that.

As long as you don't go and do it, you're not taking into account for that. And unfortunately, people have recently started doing stuff like that. Now, just to relate to the Qadr.

Understanding Qadr (Divine Decree)

This is probably one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Islamic tradition. I think a lot of Muslims even misunderstand it. But, let me relate it to two very important concepts in the Qur'an.

Generally, khayr is understood to be good. And sharr is understood to be evil. But from the Islamic cosmological view, this is related to abundance, and this is related to want.

And the actual moral component in these concepts is played down, in a way that it wouldn't be in Christianity. So let me give you an example. I think for a lot of people, they have a hard time with the idea of a God who could create evil.

The Problem of Evil in Islamic Perspective

And this is a classic philosophical problem in the West. If God is all good, and He's all powerful, then there shouldn't be evil. Because if He was all good, He wouldn't want evil.

And if He was all powerful, He could do something about it. And this is a common philosophical problem. They call it the problem of evil.

But from a Muslim point of view, we believe good and evil are both from God. But, before we say, you know, what, you mean God is evil? Let's look a little deeper at what this means in terms of its philosophical implications. The word sharr is related to, for instance, poverty.

Poverty in the Arab tradition is sharr. Why? Because it's a want. There's no moral judgment there in a poor person.

You're not saying a poor person is evil. You're just saying poverty is sharr. It's a want.

There's a lack of something. When we talk about good and evil, from a Muslim perspective, good means there is a divine presence. Sharr means there's an absence of the divine.

When you look at this in terms of a moral action, if a person saves somebody drowning, that would be called khair. But if a person kills somebody, that would be called sharr. Why? Because if you save the drowning person, there is a quality, there is a divine quality that is embodied there, which is rahma.

But if you kill a person unjustly, there is the absence of the divine quality, which is justice. You have been unjust. And the Qur'an says that God is not unjust.

So in the absence of good, we have evil. And this is how the Muslims view it. They literally view evil as an absence of good.

Good as Divine Presence

So to the degree that the divine qualities are not present in the world, we have evil. And to the degree that the divine qualities are present in the world, the imminence is present there, we have good. And this is why there is a hadith that says, the Prophet said, (اللَّهُمَّ الْخَيْرُ بِيَدَيْكَ - Oh Allah, good is in your presence. وَالشَّرُّ لَا يُعَادُ إِلَيْكَ - And evil never returns to you.)

So while we believe that God has created a world of opposites, abundance, want, good, evil, we do not believe that evil goes back to God. Because evil is the absence of the divine. In other words, the divine is absent from the act.

Relative Nature of Good and Evil

Now the other problem, when we look in terms of khair and sharr, is the Qur'an says (عَسَى أَن تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ - Maybe you detest a thing, and it is khair for you, it's good for you. وَعَسَى أَن تُحِبُّوا شَيْئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَّكُمْ - And maybe you love a thing, but it's evil for you. وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ - And Allah knows while you do not know.) (Quran 2:216)

So there is an idea here, in this concept of good and evil, that we are in a relative situation. We do not have all of the information here. That one person's evil is another person's good.

One person's evil is another person's good. And this happens all over, you can see this. Somebody loses a job, another person gets the job.

So for one person it was sharr, for another person it was good. And this is the nature of the world. Now if you look in terms of the giver of life and the taker of life.

If there was no taking of life, then there couldn't be a continuation of life. This is the nature. We generally relate the taking of life to sharr.

It's a want, it's a lack of. But, in relation to the next world, there is a khayr. Right? Because death in this world means life in the next world.

Islamic Criterion for Moral Judgment

So this is related to, we are not putting moral components here, we are not judging things for ourselves. Now the Qur'an has given for the Muslims a criterion. It is evil to kill another person unjustly.

And a person is taken to account for that and killed. In relation to the big picture, we do not know and we can't make an eternal judgment. We can only make a temporal judgment.

We do not know. In other words, if somebody murders another person, and by all outward appearances, it was an unjustly murder, that person is taken to account and his life is forfeited. Or in certain circumstances, what are called the wulat ad-dam, can forgive him.

Islam has an interesting attitude towards the death penalty. The Muslims allow for a family to forgive the person. So you can't, the Christian ideal of forgiving.

And the Qur'an actually says to forgive is higher. So if a person killed another person, the family has the right to say they forgive them. They can do that.

But in terms of highway robbery, brigandry, there is no... Anybody that threatens the security of a society, in other words, indiscriminate. So if there was a fight between two people, and one person killed the other person, then the family could say, we don't want to take him to account for it. We're going to forgive him.

They can do that. But if it's somebody who goes in and robs a store, and kills somebody, then they forfeited their life by Islamic law.

Discussion on Fatwa and Islamic Legal Opinions

Uh-huh? A fatwa? Like Salman Rushdie? Okay.

Yeah, a fatwa is not a death... A fatwa is not a death penalty. It's a legal opinion. It's not binding either.

In other words, technically by Islamic law, a person can give a legal opinion. Like I can give an opinion. You can come to me, if I'm a faqih, a jurist prudent, you say, what's the punishment for somebody that curses the Prophet Muhammad? And you say, death.

Right? So then I say, well Salman Rushdie cursed him. Well, although that book is, what do they call it in literature? Romana Clef? Is that what it is? Romana Clef? Is that what they call it? Yeah. Is that what they call it? Does anyone know the literary term? There's a term for something where you hide a historical or a factual thing in a literary.

I think it's Romana Clef. I'm not sure though. Anyway.

you know, somebody can say, well, he slandered the Prophet Muhammad. Salman Rushdie can say, look, this is a piece of fiction. By Islamic law, completely unacceptable.

In other words, you have to take people to trial. You can't just kill somebody. You know, Muslims, we're not vigilantes.

Heresy and Islamic Apostasy Laws

There's actually a procedure. And apostasy has, it has, what's that? I said, I said, do you have a difference, if Rushdie was clearly an example, of the difference between the sacred and the prophetic? That's one way of looking at it. Yeah.

I mean, I think, you know, the modern West, I think Norman Mailer actually, during that time, said, you know, heresy has made us free. Long live heresy. In other words, there are a lot of people in the West that see heresy as a good thing.

And it's interesting, this gets to this whole idea, because heresy in Greek, eretikos, means to choose for yourself. It's, it's a, it's a, it's what they call the middle voice in Greek, the verb, heren, which is to choose for oneself. So, I choose my own way.

I'm not going to choose, you know, the way religion tells me, or the way God tells me, or the way, I choose my own way. And that is the original meaning of a heretic. Somebody who chose their own way, who did not submit to.

And in the West, we certainly have a tradition now, a post-enlightenment tradition, which is really, we don't have to be subservient and submissive to a church, or to some doctrinal authority, some dogma. The individuals have a right to choose what they believe, to choose what they, how they want to worship, or how they don't want to worship. Right? So, that's very strong, I think, in modern Western tradition.

And a lot of it is a reaction to, to the abuses of the church during the Middle Ages, and, you know, the burning of heretics, and things like that. There was a lot of that that went on. Now, in the Islamic tradition, traditionally, heresy, there are laws of apostasy.

I think they're a lot more difficult to prove, but there is a procedure. You cannot simply condemn somebody as a heretic in Islamic law. They have to be brought to trial.

The intention has to be looked at. Do you see? but that's a case where, you know, politics is being used within a religious context. You know, I really... The Iranian case.

Oh, very much so. Yeah, because the Egyptians had a whole different reaction to it. Like the Azhar, they had a different reaction.

Muslim Reverence for the Prophet Muhammad

So, you know, here was a case where, because, I'll tell you something about Muslims. Muslims, take the Prophet Muhammad, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), very seriously. They really do.

And it's interesting that the Iranians also condemned the Greek author who wrote the last... Yeah, Last Temptation of Christ. They also condemned him as disparaging a prophet, but that didn't make news. Do you see what I mean? So, they were just across the board.

You make fun of prophets, you're asking for trouble from us. That was their idea. Now, that was true.

There are still laws on the books in England, apostasy laws. There are laws that in England, they did not relate to the Islamic religion. Right? They relate to the Christian religion.

So, technically, there are still in certain countries, there are laws against, like in Greece and other places, there are laws against making fun of prophets, disparaging prophets, things like that. So, a fatwa is just a legal opinion and it's non-binding. It is non-binding.

If Rushdie was in a Muslim country and he did disparage the prophet, that by Islamic law, if he is tried and found to be guilty, that the punishment is death. That is a punishment for any prophet. Abraham, Moses, any of the prophets.

Not just the prophet Muhammad. No, I don't think so. Because I think, yeah, I think the Iranians have, like they offered a reward and things like that.

So, I think, yeah, he does fear for his life. You know. Personally, I'm not going to go out and hunt down Rushdie and things like that. That's not my business. I'm not... My understanding of Islamic law is that it's not a vigilante law. I can't take the law in my own hands.

Because that leads to anarchy. Let me think about this societally. If I'm with some guy in private and for some reason, I steal all his money, blow him away.

And then I tell the judge, well, he cursed the prophet Muhammad. Good alibi, right? You know, I mean, if you start thinking about it, it's crazy. You can't just... I'll give you an example.

Islamic Law on Adultery and Lineage

In Islamic law, if a man finds his wife in bed with another man, he cannot kill her? Absolutely not. He has four witnesses that see penetration. Pretty impossible, right? And I think you have to be pretty perverse to, you know, go into a room and try to, you know, see that.

If people are under covers. You can't do it. Not just on top of one another.

Seriously. And if... The only thing he has recourse to is if he does find that, immediately he has to do what's called mula'na, which is where he goes to a qadi, he says, I found my wife in bed and then the wife is brought

and they do what's called mula'na, which is a mutual cursing. Each one swears that the other is lying and on the fifth time they call the curse of Allah on them.

If she does that, then she is absolved, but there's a permanent divorce and the child does not go to his lineage. The child is not considered his child. Right? If she doesn't, then she would be guilty of adultery.

No, because it's related to lineage. That's the only reason. It's related to lineage.

The Five Purposes of Sharia

In other words, Islam is a patrilineal teaching. So, it's one of the five things and I didn't go into this, but it's very interesting. The five things that the sharia is believed to preserve.

The first is religion. The second is life. The third is lineage.

The fourth is wealth. And the fifth is name, honor. The sharia is law.

Law. So, Muslims believe that these are the five things. Every rule in Islam can be related to one of these five things.

So, the reason prayer is prescribed, preservation of religion. The reason the prohibition for fornication, preservation of lineage. It is a religion.

It is the right of a child to know who their father and mother are. That is a right. So, fornication is prohibited.

So, in that type situation, the best thing, you're supposed to veil people. Right? If a woman accuses the husband of adultery, that does not relate to her lineage. She can ask for a divorce.

Perfectly permissible. She can go to a qadi and say, I have ground for divorce. And she can call herself, what's called mutadarrera.

And she can say, I want out of this marriage. She is not supposed to say why. You see? The reason a woman is because of the lineage.

Mula'na and Protection of Lineage

If she, in other words, from the adultery, if there's a child as a result of the adultery, then it would be attributed to a man who is not the child of that man. And that is preservation of lineage. So, the sharia says that the man says, No, that is definitely not my child.

And he has to do it right away. He can't wait like six months later and say, Oh, I don't, you know, that's not my child. No, he has to do it right from the start or else it doesn't stand up in court.

If he was the adulterer... Then she has grounds for a divorce, but she does not accuse him. Why not? Because it's related to lineage. In other words, accusing somebody of adultery is one of the worst things you can do in Islam.

It really is. But the only reason that there is a situation where the man can do it is related to lineage because there is inheritance. A child inherits from the man.

And also the child takes the man's name. If it is not his child, then he does not want that child to have his lineage nor his name if he knows that the child is not from his seed. And that's the only time.

And if she does that, she is not condemned for adultery. But the child does not go to the lineage. She is not punished for adultery if she denies it.

Do you see? Yes or no? It's Quranic teaching. Mula'na. So the idea is simply lineage.

You are not making a moral... Do you see what I mean? The woman is not taken to account for something if she denies it. Her denial stands up in court. But the marriage is... She is separated from the man and the child does not go to the man.

Adoption and Lineage in Islam

Adoption? There is no adoption in Islam. There is what's called Wakalah which is where you take care of a child which is highly encouraged. But the child never takes the name.

Ever. It's prohibited. And this is because one of the things the Sharia came to do was preserve lineage.

The people should know where they come from. And this is why women, it is prohibited for them to change their names in Islam. A woman does not take the name of her husband because it changes lineage.

Why is lineage so important? Because it relates to within any culture you have honor that relates to lineage. A bastard in Islam is not the same as a child born in wedlock. Should the honor supersede lineage? I mean, shouldn't there be a respect for life and... Well, life is why a child is not aborted even if it's a bastard child.

Life is over lineage. He bears a stigma. He doesn't bear a stigma.

It's not on the child, it's on the parents. (لَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى - Lā taziru wāziratun wizra ukhrā) - No soul bears the burden of another. (Quran 6:164)

And that's why the child is not aborted. But it is a moral stigma for the wife.

If she was born out of wedlock, definitely. She goes under the category of Zania which is a fornicator. Definitely.

There's definitely stigma within culture. By the Sharia, the child is not supposed to suffer for it. But there's definitely a human failing here.

You do have stigma related to it in Muslim cultures. But there's not supposed to be.

Punishment for Adultery in Islamic Law

What is the punishment for adultery? If the person is... If there are four witnesses witnessing penetration and

they have to be just witnesses, they have to be people recognized as upright in the community.

It's impossible. I guarantee you. No, then she's punished.

And there's a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad that a woman during his time came to her and confessed to her. And he turned away. And then she came here, she turned away.

Till she confessed four times. And then he said, Are you with child? And she said, Yes. He said, Go have your child.

She came back after a year. Gave birth to the child. She came back and she said, Bahirni, purify me.

And then he said, Go nurse your child. She went two years. She came back.

And then he said, She said, Purify me. Because there's an idea in Islam, if you do a grave wrong action, not a minor wrong action, if you do a grave wrong action and you have the had punishment in this world, you're not punished for it in the next world. So what she was saying is, I don't want to take chances of being, whether Allah forgives me or not, I want to be certain that I don't have this in the next world.

The Story of the Woman Who Sought Purification

She said, Purify me. The woman was stoned and one of the companions said, May Allah curse her. And the Prophet said, Don't say that. Because if her blood was spread over this city, there wouldn't be a wrong action remaining in this city. In other words, her repentance was so great. He was saying that her repentance was so great that this entire city would be forgiven, had they gotten a portion of her repentance.

Now there's another thing, if a person leaves the pit, then there's no stoning. For a person who confessed, if they leave the pit, then you have to cease stoning. Stoning, I guarantee you, it's very rare in the Islamic history.

Very few cases. Really. I don't understand what you mean, leave the pit.

If they're able to get out? No, if they get out during the process, you have to stop. In other words, a person can say, No, no, I change my mind. At any time.

And our bullet has been taken as a substitute for stoning. No, no, no. That's unacceptable.

Don't stonings happen in Saudi Arabia? You know, this is a gross, to me, this is a gross breach of Islamic law. What takes place there.

Implementing Sharia as a Complete System

Okay, so it does happen. Yeah, they do implement that, but it's a gross breach of... I mean, you can't... Sharia, you can't just apply piecemeal Sharia. It's a total system. And within a healthy Islamic culture, those things are very rare.

For instance, in Islamic law, you don't go alone with a foreign woman. You don't. It's one of the things that is a condition within the society.

It's part of the social contract. You don't what? You do not... Like, I would not be alone with a woman who is not either a direct relative or my wife. I would not go alone with her.

It's prohibited for me in Islamic law. And vice-versa, it's prohibited for a woman. So, you're saying... When you say go alone... It means I cannot be in a room alone... You're traveling on a plane.

Uh-huh. That's not alone. You're in a company.

Would you use someone to ride to get you to the right car for you to eat with? You're not supposed to be alone with a woman. Absolutely not. And a woman is not supposed to be alone with a man? And this relates to... This relates to protection of honor so that you are not accused.

Preservation of Honor in Islamic Law

Because what happens often is your intentions might be perfectly good, but someone coming out of a room with somebody and they... Ah... Big problem. And I'll tell you something. In our culture, this is a major problem.

Sexual harassment, these type of things. If there are witnesses, you don't have the problem. When there are people that... When it's two people alone together, it's his word against hers.

Right? I believe... What was her name? Anita. I believe Anita. You get the society split Democrats believe Anita and Republicans believe... What was the other guy? And then, the thing about it is the man's honor is tainted.

Now, I'm not saying... I tend to probably incline to believing Anita, but... The point is maybe she wasn't telling the truth. Maybe she was paid by the Democrats to... I mean, I'm just saying these are possible possibilities. Right? In that case, here's a man whose honor is destroyed.

Or, here's a man who for the rest of his life people are gonna scratch their head. Didi or didn't he? Do you see? So, the idea of preserving people's honor is very strong in Islam. That a person has a right.

It is a fundamental human right. It's a divinely given right that you have your honor intact. And you do everything you can to preserve that honor.

You don't steal. You don't cheat. These are all things that disparage your honor.

And you become known for it. Which is one of the reasons why in Islamic law, if you see somebody do something wrong, you are told to veil their faults. Because if you expose people in a society, then the impetus for guarding their honor or for making tawbah or repentance is diminished.

In other words, if I become known for lying, then people, even if I start telling the truth, people are gonna still remember, oh, you know, it's the lie. So, it lessens the power of the ability of a person to do that and diminishes

the impetus. So, and then wealth, preservation of wealth, why there's no stealing, things like that.

So, these are the five things. Now, let me get, that was just a digression because somebody asked a question. They don't inherit.

Islamic Inheritance Laws

Good point. Yeah. An adopted child does not inherit.

What do you mean? Well, you're supposed to raise them and give them a job, you know, teach them how to provide for them. I mean, did you get an inheritance? A lot of people don't get an inheritance. You know what I mean? The lawyers ate up ours.

Because my family kind of got into a fight and ended up, you know, which happens. That's why it's nice in Islamic law. It's all portioned out.

You can't fight over it. It's fixed. The wife inherits it.

She's one of the inheritors. It's related. I mean, inheritance laws are related to the Qur'an directly.

The Qur'an determines what portions people get. And the wife does get inherit from the husband. Yes.

Not all of it. No. The children have portions as well.

The man can give one third of his wealth to whoever he wants. The other two third are determined by the Qur'an. And it's interesting that a man cannot divorce his wife on his deathbed.

If a man has an illness that is called marad mahuf, like cancer, where the terminology is probable, it is prohibited for him to divorce his wife as a way of kind of getting her out of the inheritance or something, spiting her. It's prohibited. No, Islam is very strict about inheritance.

Breaking Down Monopoly Through Inheritance

And one of the things if you look traditionally, Hodgson points this out in The Venture of Islam, that Islam actually breaks down monopoly. The inheritance laws are designed so that wealth is not accumulated into one small individual. Like in the 19th century, I want to think about, you know, if you read, if you read Jane Austen's novels, I mean, that is a real theme in her novels, the injustice of women being completely disinherited in 19th century England.

I mean, remember, this is the age of the Enlightenment. And here's women in 19th century England being thrown out of their houses because there was not a male heir to take care of them. They lost all their money or it went to somebody, the male, right? This happened very recent in Western civilization.

In Islam, the woman has a right to, she has a right to her husband and her father's wealth. She gets a portion of her father's wealth as well. And this is one of the ways that women became wealthy in Islam.

There are many, historically many women who had, Umm Hani is a wonderful example. She's in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Islam. There's a little section on Umm Hani who, she married a husband and she owned a factory.

And then the husband claimed that it was his, like community property or something. And it did not hold up in court according to Ibn Hajar. The judge said, no, it's her property.

And that was, you know, 13th century. So, I mean, that's a whole other thing. I'm working on Iman because that's really related to Sharia. And what I'll do, Inshallah, is, when we do the section on the last Hadith, I'll open it up to talking about some things about Sharia.

Because I think, Sharia is definitely one of the areas where there's a lot of misunderstandings, misconceptions in this culture. Umm, people see it as very primitive law.

And so, you know, I can talk about that and open it up to things. And another thing about the Islamic law is that there are many different opinions in the law. That the actual things that are clearly, there's no debate about, are not that many.

Many of the situations, there is an allowance for the intellect to understand and interpret the tradition.

Human Accountability for Actions

But if we go back to this idea, Khayr and Sharr. Human beings are taken to account for the good they do and the evil they do.

So, we are taken to account for good and evil that we do in the world.

The Muslims, the Qur'an is emphasizing the doing of good actions. Now, one of the words that it uses for this is hasanat. And the opposite is sayyi'at. Hasanat, the real word is beauty. In other words, there's an idea that a good action is a congruous action.

It is a harmonic action. That a bad action is... It is aesthetically unpleasing. It is cacophonic.

It is ugly. That the human being by nature recognizes beauty and recognizes good. And this is the idea in the Qur'an it says, وَهَدَيْنَاهُ النَّجْدَيْنِ - We guided the human being to the two roads of good and evil. (Quran 90:10)

That there is something inherent within the human being. Now, if you look at this in terms of the animal kingdom. If... When animals do something, we do not put moral judgment on it.

The Moral Component: Humans vs Animals

If a snake bites and kills a child, we do not say it's an evil snake. I mean, people might do that metaphorically. You know, but they don't... There's not a moral component there.

It's simply being itself. And there's this... Rumi tells the story about the turtle and the scorpion and the frog.

Right? They're at the side of the river.

And the scorpion asks the frog, Give me a ride across the river, so I don't have to walk around or across the lake. The frog says, I'm not stupid. If I give you a ride, you'll sting me.

And the scorpion says, Just think about this. If I sting you, we'll both sink and drown. So the frog says, That makes sense.

Takes him across. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog says, Why did you do that? He says, My nature.

Right? So the idea then is that there is within the animal world natures that they cannot change. If a lion is hungry and it sees you, it sees lunch. It does not see you as, I'm going to do something really evil today.

I'm going to go eat this poor person. It's just doing, fulfilling its nature. When a human being eats another human being.

Right? Like that guy Dower, or whatever his name was. Yeah, Dower. There's something, we say that is sick.

Why? What is the difference between the lion eating the human being and this guy eating the human being? The moral component. We say he should know better. That's a breach of the social contract.

Hudud: The Divine Boundaries

The person has gone out of its boundaries. And this is very important because in the Quran, there is an idea of hudud, of boundaries. And that the human being is morally bound to stay within the boundaries and not transgress them.

And the word in Arabic for an evil doer is fasiq, which comes from a root word when the seed splits and it comes out of the shell. So the fasiq, the evil doer is the one that splits the protective boundaries of the hudud.

Now these are seen, the hudud of Allah, which are the sharia, the sacred law.

As not simply arbitrary laws, don't do this, don't do that. They are protective laws from the Muslim perspective. These are laws designed to maintain integrity within the society.

Why? It says إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً - because it's a fahisha, it's a perversion. وَسَاءَ سَبِيلًا - And it leads down a terrible road.

So the idea is that, look, this is not simply an arbitrary law. There are consequences that are related to this transgression that will have wretched effects in your culture and in your civilization.

Discussion on Homosexuality in Islamic Law

I know that Islam and other faiths reject homosexuality and perversion. But how do you counter them when you talk about the very nature? You all know people that are born as children, you see them as acting feminine and boys. Yeah. Femininity... Femininity is not... There's nothing... It's not encouraged for a male.

But Abun is mentioned in the books of Fiqh, a feminine person. Somebody who acts effeminate is mentioned that it's undesirable that he leads the prayer. But there's no moral stigma there.

You're not saying that this person is bad or evil. When that person makes a choice to transgress boundary... Now, see, the thing is here... You know, I don't know because I haven't been... That's not my experience of the world. Right? I've been attracted to the opposite sex.

That does not mean that I don't recognize a handsome man if I see them. I think it's natural for us to recognize beauty. Right? There's an attraction to beautiful people whether it's a male or a female.

I think that's quite normal. From the Islamic perspective, if there's an impulse, then what is demanded of the individual is that they suppress that. So, from the Muslim point of view, if a person does have homosexual impulses or desires, which obviously there are people that have that, the Muslims would say that that is the same as having somebody having an impulse to steal.

That they like something, they want it, and they desire to steal it. They have to say, No, I will not transgress the boundaries. That there are implications.

Private vs Public Space in Islamic Law

And the implications, there's an idea within Western culture, modern Western culture, that as long as I don't harm anybody else, it's okay. From the Muslim point of view, there is a harm when this becomes, when it emerges into the public space. In other words, as far as the Muslims are concerned, what people do behind their closed doors is their own business.

That is not my area of judgment. If I see an effeminate man, I should not assume that he's a homosexual by Islamic law. That's not my place.

If somebody is openly doing these things, that is what becomes condemned. When there's an open breach. The same with alcohol.

Somebody that makes wine in their house and drinks wine, that's between them and God. Then they step out into the public space. Then that is where the Sharia says no.

So in terms of Islamic law, what applies to them in this world is only what moves into the public space, not what's in the private space. But in terms of the next world, we believe that God takes people to account for the public and the private space. So that's really the way I think the Muslims would look at it.

And the Prophet said that from my community, there will be different types of homosexuality. He said there will be homosexuality of the glance, homosexuality of touch, and homosexuality of the action. It's in the Hadith, yeah.

And it's also considered one of the signs of the end of time. And I'm going to talk about it when we get to the end of time. Homosexuality and lesbianism become very prevalent according to the Prophet Muhammad.

It is one of the signs of the end of time. And he actually said that men would marry men and women would marry women. That is in one of the Hadiths.

Predestination and Human Actions

Now, in terms of do we, you know, are we predetermined to hell? Or are we predetermined? Which is obviously a question that your students are going to ask you. From the Muslim point of view, no one gets to paradise with their actions, but no one gets there without their actions. In other words, there is an idea that we cannot be grateful enough for the gift of life, for the gift of sight, speech, hearing, power, volition, all of these things.

And therefore, anything that we do is still a shortcoming in relation to what we owe God. There is that idea. So, there is definitely an idea like in the Christian religion of grace, that you are saved by grace.

The Christians would see it as through the blood of Christ. The Muslims would see it as through the grace of God. Right? By the rahma, the mercy of God.

So, you will see your actions. And your actions, you are taking into account for your actions.

The Day of Judgment: The Sixth Article of Faith

And this relates now to the next, the last and final thing, which is the day of judgment. This is the sixth article of faith. Human beings are fully accountable for their actions.

According to the Islamic tradition, there is a day in which all the souls are resurrected. Now, also just to relate this in terms of where the accountability comes in. According to the Qur'anic view, human beings were brought into the presence of God.

And this is the proof. And so, what happens in this world is, the soul is to be reminded of this.

It's the parents' challenge to remind the child until it becomes firmly rooted in them, that God is their Lord and they should submit to God. If not, then prophets come and they tell people and they should submit to them. The day of judgment is a day when the debts fall due.

That is how it's called in the Qur'an يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - The day the debts fall due. The day the debts... يَوْمِ الدِّينِ (Quran 1:4) Yeah, it's very similar in the Hebrew, have that as well.

يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - The day the debts fall due. So, there is an idea that we are going to be taken to account. Now, the Prophet Muhammad said حَاسِبُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ قَبْلَ أَنْ تُحَاسَبُوا - Take yourself to account before you are taken to account.

So, there is an idea that the human being can take themselves to account in this world. And it's encouraged as a spiritual practice before you go to sleep, to go through your day and to ask forgiveness for the wrongs you did and ask for acceptance for the rights you did. That is a highly encouraged spiritual practice within the Islamic tradition.

And if one does that with perseverance and sincerity, then that is in a sense a lesser reckoning. It is a way of facilitating the day of judgment. Now, there is an idea.

Stages of Human Existence

I'll just go through the afterlife experience in the Islamic tradition, what happens here. The very first thing, there is a pre-worldly existence. And this is the existence of the spirits, the souls, before we came into this world.

The Worldly Existence (Dunya)

The next stage is the worldly existence. And this is called dunya. Now, it's interesting in the Arabic language, dunya in Arabic means the lowest.

In other words, this is the lowest, we are at the lowest level. What is above us is hierarchy. The highest level is the presence of God.

Dunya is the lowest level. This is the life of this world in the Qur'an is called الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا - the life of this world. Root word of dunya is one of the meanings is grapes.

Like the famous fox in Aesop's fables. The grapes are just out of reach. And that is the name.

There is an element in this world that the soul will never be content as long as it is in this world. But it will attempt to satiate its desires through the world. This is like in Hinduism, they have the idea of the person who spends sensual experiences.

These are attempts at a turbulence within the human soul. From the Muslim point of view, this is futile. The soul will never be at as long as it is attempting to fill the vacuum or the emptiness through worldly experience.

Modern Culture and Stimulation

One of the things that I think is happening in this culture now is human beings have become very jaded in their experiences. There is a need for continual and more extreme stimulation. It relates to the... I think a lot of it relates to the stimulation that people have with television.

The Resurrection and Day of Standing

The fifth is what's called the Nafkha, which is that Israfil is the angel that is assigned to resurrection. The first Nafkha, which is like, it means literally a blowing. The first blowing is all of the souls die. All of them.

So there is an idea that life will stop. And the Qur'an says that just as the universe was expanded, it will be contracted at the end. In scientific terms, kind of like the big crunch, right? That it all comes back.

And there is an idea of heat meltdown as well, because it says the oceans boil over, the mountains melt, everything is, there is a heat death. That's the Qur'an, definitely gives an idea of a heat death at the end of time. And then the second Nafkha is the resurrection.

That there is a resurrection of the souls. And everybody is brought to a plane, which is similar to Arafah. And then the Qiyamah takes place, which is the day of standing.

Now the Prophet Muhammad said that this is a day in which people literally will be, some people will be up to here in their own sweat. It's a very intense day of accountability. And everybody says, Nafsi, Nafsi.

Everybody says, Mi, Mi. And there is a Hadith that a child will go to the parent and say, help me. And the parent says, Mi, Mi.

That this is a day in which everybody is concerned with their own souls. And then the next stage is what is called the reckoning.

The Reckoning (Al-Hisab)

According to the Islamic tradition, your entire life will be placed before you. You will see all of your actions and you will be called to account and asked to defend yourself. And according to the Islamic tradition, it says, you'll know when your excuses are lame. It says, On that day, the human being knows very clearly all of his... In other words, if you want to look at it in psychological terms, all of your defense mechanisms are suddenly removed.

Your projection, your denial, all of these psychological mechanisms that we've used very well in this world to justify our actions are taken away from us. And it says in Surah Al-Qaf, that on that day, the veil is removed from your eyes and your eyesight is piercing. So you will see things very clear.

And there's an idea that we all know in truth if we will reflect what we're up to. So, each person is taken to account. And the Prophet Muhammad said that every people will be behind their Prophet.

So the people of Moses will be behind Moses. The people of Jesus behind Jesus. The people of Muhammad behind Muhammad.

The people of Karl Marx behind Karl Marx. Everybody's gonna be behind their Imam. The one they took as their example in this world.

And it's interesting because the Qur'an says that the oppressed will say to the oppressors, you got us here. And the oppressors will say, we didn't do anything, you followed us. And so there's this kind of conflict between them.

And each one will say, I don't want anything to do with you in the next world. So there's an idea of really everybody awakens to the truth of their own souls, to the truth of their own selves. And then, it's said that after the reckoning, there's the weighing in the balance.

The Scales and the Bridge (Sirat)

Once everything has been shown, then actions are put into scales. And the scholars say, Allah knows best their reality. And if the right actions outweigh the bad, then you are given a book in your right hand and it's the book of your actions.

And if the wrong actions outweigh, then you're given a book in your left hand. At that point then, you go to what is called a Sirat, which is the plane. It is a bridge over which the valley of Jahannam is.

And the bridge in the tradition says that it's more sharp than a sword. And everybody will have to go across this bridge, everyone. And there are angels on the bridge that shout to people.

And the Prophet Muhammad said that there are people that will go like light. They'll go the speed of light across the bridge. He said, kabark, like a lightning, they go right across it.

There's other people, he said, that will go like a wind. There's other people, he said, that will go running. There's other people that will go walking.

There's other people that will go crawling. And then there's other people that will not make it across into the pit.

And then at the other side of the Sirat, there is what's called the Huld.

And the Huld is a huge basin. And according to the tradition, anyone who drinks from it will never have thirst after that. And there is also a tradition that on that day, the death is brought before everybody in the form of a lamb and is slaughtered.

And so there's no death after that. The ones that don't make it across... Thirsting. Thirsting.

That's one of the... See, the idea is that only God can quench the thirst. And if one was attempting to quench the thirst in this world by other than God, then they failed in what their task was, which was to be quenched through closeness and not distance. So it goes back to this idea of rahma, mercy and wrath, that you bring wrath upon yourself.

That's really the idea, that God is not punishing people to punish them. That people literally take themselves to their final destinies. That's very strong in the tradition.

Stories of Mercy and Forgiveness

Now, some people will only... They will not abide in... There are people that leave it. There's an interesting tradition. I mean, this is just a story.

But there's an interesting tradition because the Prophet Muhammad said, how people die, that's how they're raised up, and how they're raised up is how they're judged. And there's a story of a woman, they tell, that she never did one kind deed, except once, she was going into her house and a carrot dropped, and a cat came and took the carrot. And this is based on a hadith that the Prophet said there will be people punished because they did not feed animals that were in their responsibility, that they're actually punished for that.

It's like a responsibility. And so this person was going to go get the carrot and they just decided, no, I'll let the cat have it. And so they're in the pit of fire and a carrot comes down.

And so they hold on to the carrot and they start getting pulled up out of the fire on this carrot. But then she looks down and there's other people coming out holding on to her. So before you know it, there's a whole string of people getting pulled out of the fire because of this one carrot.

And then she starts saying, no, this is my carrot. And she slips and falls back in. So it's just giving you an idea of the people, how they are in this world.

It's going to be confirmed in the next world that they're miserliness. Now there is a hadith that a prostitute, and it's a sahih hadith, that a prostitute went to a well and got water up from the well and she saw a thirsty dog and she said, this dog is thirsty like I am. So she put her shoe down and brought water up and quenched the thirst of the dog.

And the prophet said, for that she was forgiven and given paradise. There's another tradition that says that a man, he used to loan money and he would tell his agents, go out and ask to be paid. And if they don't have the money, tell them not to worry about it.

And so the prophet said that when that man is brought before God, God says, I'm more generous than this man in forgiving his debtors. And he forgives him. So if you look in the Islamic tradition, there's very, very strong emphasis on forgiveness and rahmah.

Balance of Mercy and Wrath

But there's also an emphasis on wrath. There's a balance here. Even though the Muslims say God's rahmah is over His wrath.

And there's a tradition that says that God's mercy is 99 parts. And only one part did He send down to the earth. And by that part of mercy, a mother shows mercy to her child.

A foal raises its leg. The mare raises its leg from stepping on the foal. So the idea is that all of the mercy in this world that we see is only one small portion of the mercy of God.

So there is a strong emphasis on God's mercy. But there's also a strong emphasis on the wrath.

Social Responsibility and Accountability

What happens about your citizenship in a country that causes problems, pollution, death? What does it mean to be a part of that citizenship? I think there's definitely accountability on all levels.

Muslims believe in accountability. That complacency is... The Prophet said, being silent about something is showing contentment with it. So if you're silent about a thing, it means that you're complicit in the action.

So unless to speak out against it would endanger your life. So there is an idea that people who feel that if I speak out they're going to kill me or something like that, they're forgiven. Although the Prophet said the greatest jihad is to speak the truth in front of an unjust ruler.

That that is the greatest jihad. So there is definitely an idea of responsibility in one's actions and in what does. And politics is a problem.

Henry Thoreau, he got arrested for not paying his taxes because he felt, you know, government supports slavery and he didn't want to support a government. And they say that Emerson went there, visited him in the jail and he said, Henry, what are you doing in there? And Henry said, the question is, what are you doing out there? That we do have a social responsibility. Yes.

Discussion on Suicide in Islamic Law

And I'll tell you something really interesting about that. There's a book called Life After Life by Raymond Moody and there's a section in there about suicide in which he mentions a woman who committed suicide. She was actually declared dead but then she was brought back to life after blood transfusions.

And he asked her, he interviewed her and asked her what happened. She said she found herself doing it over and over again. And the hadith that coins the Prophet Muhammad said, if anyone who commits suicide will continue to do that with the same intensity until the day of judgment.

Although it is not considered it is not considered a kufr. In other words, if a Muslim commits suicide they're still Muslim. They're buried as a Muslim.

But it's one of the worst things that you can do. No, absolutely. If somebody is anybody who is out of their mind is not held to account by Sharia.

Right? Half the 20th century. If they're out of their mind do you need them for witnesses? No, no, no, no. In other words, if somebody was clinically depressed to the point where they were non-functional.

You know, it's hard for the accountability to be, you know. I mean, those things it's just difficult. They're gray areas.

Mental State and Accountability

But the idea is that if somebody, if they really are not functioning you know, that accountability is based on sound intellect. That is part of accountability. And this again, like in Islam, you have somebody who's all their life they've been punished.

You know, since their time they were born beaten as a child and all these things. They become sociopathic or... From an Islamic point of view when they reach adulthood they're accountable. From, in real terms, we would say Allah knows what's gonna happen on the Day of Judgment.

Because the Prophet said many people, many parents will be taken to account for what they did to their children. You see? Because it is the parents' response. It's a trust.

That's why parenthood is so strong in Islam. You know, because it's a divine trust. Children are a trust in the hands of the parents.

And if they betray the trust then they can destroy the children.

Open Discussion and Questions

Any... I'm gonna open up to question, discussion. If a child dies before puberty do they go right to heaven? According to the tradition, according to the tradition, Abraham takes care of the children who die. The children whose parents are for Paradise. Abraham takes care of those children in his Habaana, what's called Habaana.

When the woman came and asked forgiveness from Muhammad, it wasn't Muhammad who forgave her. He can't forgive. Yeah, it's not like, you know, I mean, in the Christian tradition there's some verses that would indicate like Jesus said, go and sin no more, you know, for you're forgiven. And that was seen as kind of a blasphemy to the Jews.

From Muslim point of view they would say, Allahu alim. If that is a true account of Jesus, they would say that that is not Jesus forgiving but rather God revealing to him that the woman's actions were forgiven. Because the Prophet did tell people they were forgiven.

But he does not forgive. The Prophet does not absolve people's sins. It is God alone who forgives. The Prophet is seen as a human being. He's a man. He does not have divine... He is a human being like the rest of us in his human nature but not like the rest of us in that he's a Prophet.

So some of them said, you know, a ruby is a rock but it's not like other rocks. It's a mineral but it's not like other minerals.

Discussion on Prophets and Slander

I'm having a tough time trying to reconcile the issue of slandering a Prophet with an equalment of debt sentence in Islam's law with some of the things you just said i.e. that Prophets are merely men. And also something else that I think I've heard and I need to take for granted that people find God in their own time. You know, it might be at 16 for this person maybe at 40 years of age. So how is that true? Well, there would be no... Because... I mean, if you slander another human being you're whipped in Islam.

In other words, if I accuse somebody in here of adultery the Islamic punishment is that I'm whipped because that is prohibited to do that. And there's very severe consequences for it because of its impact on society. If you do something to a Prophet it's very serious.

With the idea that the Prophets are impeccable in their character. That they are people that have only brought good for human beings. And if you do want to say something about them then you say it not in the public space in the private space.

In other words, that's again between you and God. But if you bring that out into the public space then it creates a type of tension in the society that is very serious according to the Muslims. And I'd like to add to that that many of the people who were persecuted He forgave them.

absolutely physically persecuted Yeah, he forgave them. became Muslims themselves and he forgave them. Absolutely. Yeah. Now, if it was a non-Muslim who did it see, it's very different. If it's a non-Muslim who did it it goes under a different category than if a Muslim did it.

Do you see what I mean? In other words, this law relates to Muslims who say bad things about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Yeah, that's a good point. No, it's prohibited in Islamic law for a person to do that.

To blaspheme any Prophet. Right? But, for a Muslim it's a death penalty. For a non-Muslim they are tried and if they become Muslim if it was towards the Prophet Muhammad then it's not.

If they don't and they say that they adhere to that. Because it's prohibited for the Muslims even to curse false gods in the Qur'an. It says:

Do not curse the false gods of other people.

And that came later. Initially, the Muslims were saying bad things about the gods. So, even for a Muslim they are not supposed to make fun of Hindu objects of worship.

Right? Like, laugh about Krishna or Vishnu or Shiva. See, we are not supposed to do that. If it's in the private space that's another matter. But publicly, I should not do that. I should not disparage what other people hold sacred.

Clarification on Muslim Societies vs Islamic Teachings

Just to bring it back to you the way you started your talk. You see, these things happen in some Muslim societies. But that is not Islam. It may be Muslims who are completely getting wrong what Islam is supposed to be.

Right. Uh-huh? I'm a little mixed up. A Muslim a girl in the West Bank last week who has pictures of Muhammad as a cave dweller in Iran. She's... I didn't know about that but I think somebody mentioned it. She's Jewish. She's living in Russia.

She's been under... She's in jail now in Israel for fomenting religious discord. Right. I mean, is there a pop-up out against her? Has it occurred that... Oh, I don't know what's going on there.

I mean, the problem is for me personally for me personally there is no now in the Muslim world there is not any government that is implementing Islamic law. Not one. None. Zero. Sudan, I don't know. I mean, I'm not there and I don't know.

But I'd be amazed if they were. You know. But because she's not Muslim I don't understand. If a Muslim... She would be... In a Muslim country if that happened she would be taken to... There would be a trial. You know. That is... It goes against the... You know.

It's like a blasphemy. It goes under those laws. Right. Do all those Muslim countries those Muslim countries though contend that they are implementing Islamic law? Some of them do. Some of them don't. Most of them will say that it is the law of the constitution or the state.

But none of them do. I think probably the only ones that would claim to is Arabia like what they call Saudi Arabia now. Sudan and maybe Afghanistan would probably claim that they do also.

And Iran. Iran. But I'm going to get into... When I talk about the end of time and how the Muslims view... I'm going to get into that really discussing really how the Muslims view this period of time traditionally.