Understanding Islam (Discover Islam)
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T14:53:23.261754+00:00 | Topic: Knowledge
Understanding Islam
Speaker: Nouman Ali Khan
Event: Discover Islam @ ICI
Date: May 10, 2013
Opening and Greetings
As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Good morning everyone. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.
All praise and gratitude belongs to Allah. And we send praise and peace upon his messenger and his noble companions. I'd like to start today by just giving you some introductory comments so that the groundwork for today's conversation is laid.
Introduction and Teaching Approach
My profession, as was mentioned, I am a teacher and I consider the primary difference between a teacher and a speaker the following. A teacher likes to engage in conversation while a speaker may be very professional at putting people to sleep. So I'm going to try to act like a teacher today.
In other words, I'm going to try to spark as much conversation as possible. There are quite a few ideas I do want to share with all of you today and maybe perhaps present a perspective that you may not have heard before. And that's really going to be the core of my attempt.
Stuff that you could have read in a textbook or googled and things like that. I'll probably go through it kind of quickly. And things that I think are unique perspectives that you might not get a chance to hear unless you come to a place like this. Those are the things I'm going to try to highlight more so.
Now, you may have questions, and I'm sure you do, that have nothing to do with what I talk about. And that's absolutely fine. And you may have already come here with a bunch of questions of your own. And I do encourage those kinds of questions, but I'd like to keep at least this conversation focused to what I'm sort of dictating. And in our breaks, in our breakout sessions, and especially the Q&A, dedicated Q&A session, feel free to ask whatever you like.
I don't claim to have the answer to any of your questions. What I can say is, hopefully I do have some, I can point you in the right direction for some of them, and perhaps if I can answer them, I will myself. So that's basically a little bit of an introductory orientation.
The Subject Matter: Understanding Islam
Now let's talk about what my subject matter today is going to be. Basically in this hour or less in this conversation, I have to share with you what Islam is about. And, you know, how to think about Islam.
And what I ask all of you to do is to put your preconceived notions, and all of us have them, about everything, aside. Just pretend that you, you know, like it was, you know, attempted that we're on a flight or something. You know, where you're sitting on a plane, next to you this guy, and you look at his, like, A- blinking beard, and you say, hey, so what's that about? And it's not Halloween, so is that real? And then you say, and I say, okay, well, I'm Muslim, what's that? Never heard of it.
Apparently you don't have CNN, but still. So we're having that kind of a conversation. Just, let me just tell you some stuff about Islam.
Faith in Allah: The Foundation of Islam
And if somebody wants to know about Islam, the first thing they want to know about, or they should know about from a Muslim perspective, what's the priority? Well, what's our faith? And our faith starts with faith in God. So I'll talk a little bit about faith in God Himself, and what Muslims believe about God.
The Concept of Ilah
The term God, the closest thing to it in the Arabic language, is the word Ilah. That's a sacred term. It's used in the declaration of Muslim faith. When somebody converts to Islam or accepts Islam, then they say this phrase, this Arabic phrase,
"(la ilaha illa Allah) - "There is no god but Allah"
, in which there's a term ilah.
If you want to write that in English, it would be I-L-A-H, ilah. It's pretty easy to pronounce in English, okay? That's the generic term you would say closest to the word God. In the English language.
In other words, ilah is pretty rich in Arabic because it means a few things. It means an entity that's worthy of worship, a deity. It also means the object of devotion and love. It actually also means someone you turn to in desperate times. It also means someone you are passionately in love with and can't stop thinking about. There's a slew of meaning that comes from the word ilah.
Ilah literally also means the thing you lean on, what you lean on. In other words, when you're exhausted, you lean. So what you lean on is God.
Now, for a lot of people who don't know that, they ask, well, you know, we believe, or someone from another faith tradition might say, we believe God is love. Do you guys believe that? Well, actually that's already embedded in the word ilah as we have it in the Arabic language. So, oftentimes in translation, it's not put that way for oversimplification purposes, we just say God.
But the word God in the Arabic language and as it's used in sacred text is so rich that if we tried to do that for every word of the Arabic language, we wouldn't actually get a translation. We'd get like eight
synonyms per word and then move on to and, and then eight synonyms. It just wouldn't be functional language anymore.
So that sort of thing can only come out in discussion and conversation, not really in translation.
The Name Allah
So we call him Allah. His name is Allah. That would be spelled in English, A-L-L-A-H, an emphasis on the L, okay, Allah. And we don't consider, there's difference of opinion among our scholars about what the word means. Some say it's the original name of God, true to God in all previous scripture as well.
Interestingly enough, the Arab Christian tradition, which predates the Muslim tradition of Arabia, has been using the word Allah for God much before Muslims have. So, for example, to this day, you will find, for example, Christians in Egypt and you'll find Christians in Lebanon, Palestine, other places. And their biblical tradition is actually pretty old.
As a matter of fact, our prophet even met Christians in the city of Najran at one point and had interchange with them and discussions with them. And actually they as well use the word Allah for God. So it's actually an ancient term for God across cultures. It's not even something limited to Islam. That's the first or one of the things I wanted to highlight when we talk about the word Allah.
The Attributes of Allah
Now, what do we believe about this Allah? First of all, we believe that he's one, he's unique, he can't be compared to anything, that there can't be any imagery or something that kind of limits the imagination to what he might look like or what he might be like.
We also believe that he has perfect attributes. In other words, if he hears, his hearing is perfect, it's limitless, it's infinite, and it has no beginning and no end. His vision is the same, his wisdom is the same, his knowledge is the same, his power is the same, his mercy is the same, his love is the same.
So we attribute three things to every quality of God. So I'd like to highlight those three things so everybody's clear about them. The first of them is that they have no beginning and no end.
Like my hearing has a beginning and an end but God's doesn't, Allah's doesn't. It has no beginning and no end. The second of them is that it's infinite. That mine, for instance, if someone's talking on the other side of this wall, I can't hear, but God's is infinite. Allah's is infinite, it's unlimited.
And the third is that mine, my hearing or my seeing or any of my attributes for that matter, are granted. In other words, I don't own my hearing, it was given to me. It was gift-granted. My seeing was a gift- granted but His is His own originally. In other words, all other things are granted their qualities from Him. They are a grant from Him, but His are actually originally His own.
So just to see if you're still awake, out there somewhere in the wilderness, what are those three things that make God's qualities unique? No beginning, no end. Good, that's one. I'll make this awkward. I love making things awkward. That's what I do. It's infinite, sure. Third? Yep, originally His own.
Originally His own, not given to Him by anyone else. Right, so this solves a big theological problem for Muslims because we say things like a teacher is wise, and we also say God is wise. We say something like, you know, a mother is loving. We also say God is loving. We will say things like, you know, this car is powerful. We'll use the same attribute, powerful for God. God is powerful. Well, how do we distinguish? Because the language unfortunately shares the word with us, with creation and with God. Well, you keep these three distinctions in mind and you won't fall into trouble.
The Concept of Shirk
And what do I mean by falling into trouble is my next point. In any of these attributes of God, first of all His oneness, His uniqueness, and in any of His other attributes, if the Muslim says that I attribute that sort of perfection in any way to anything else, then I'm committing the highest crime there is, blasphemy. That to me, that to the Muslim is blasphemous.
You don't attribute that sort of perfection and that sort of limitless power in any way shape or form to anybody else except Allah Himself. No one else gets that. Everyone else that, for example, life, the living. So God's life is infinite, it has no beginning and no end, and it's His own. My life, however, is finite, it has a beginning and an end, and as a matter of fact, it was given to me. Right?
So if I attribute eternal life to someone else that has no beginning and no end or something like that, then I've considered the act of blasphemy.
Now we don't use the word blasphemy in Muslim tradition much, even Muslims from different cultures use the same Arabic word. And that's another tangential point, but only 18% of Muslims on the planet are Arabs. 82% or more, roughly, are non-Arabs.
So this is a religion that spans Europe, Southeast Asia, Asia, the Africas. Obviously there's a significant population in the West here in the United States, also Australia, there's about a million Muslims in Australia. It's a global phenomenon, and it's not even an ethnic phenomenon, it's not limited to one ethnicity.
And for many, many, many centuries, well over a millennium, the majority has been non-Arab. So even though it started in Arabia, the majority of the people that carry the religion with no political ties to Arabia even, have actually been non-Arabs.
So this act of blasphemy, of attributing something that equates something else to God, is called shirk. I'll spell that out for you too, S-H-I-R-K. So nothing worse for a Muslim, from a faith perspective, nothing
worse than shirk. S-H-I-R-K. Sounds like Shrek, so that's easy to remember, right? Nothing worse than Shrek for Muslims. That'd be confusing. But anyway.
So that's the first thing about God, His perfection in every possible way, and how we're not supposed to be doing shirk.
God's Expectations from Humanity
But that still doesn't answer a very important question. What do Muslims think God wants from them? What do they think God wants? What's their purpose in life? Why do you put them here on the earth? What are they doing here? So a few things that I want to highlight, that again, I think are unique perspectives. Some of these things you might already know, some you may not. So I'm gonna just kind of bullet list them, so you have kind of a concise view of how we see things in our faith tradition, as far as our relationship with God is concerned.
Purpose in Life: Willing Servitude to Allah
The first of them is our purpose in life. Our purpose in life is to find God in ourselves, and to engage in a continuous struggle to submit to His will, to accept the fact that we were brought on this earth, and the greatest joy we will ever find is to actually be in servitude to Him. If we can find that willingly ourselves, then we have found our purpose in life. Willing, consensual, servitude to God in any respect He wants.
Now, when we say someone completely submits to someone else, or someone's completely under somebody else's will, then in the social sense, we actually consider that a form of slavery. In any other context, to take God out of the picture, when someone is in complete submission to somebody else's will, they do what somebody else says, regardless of what area of life. You know, in our jobs, there's at least a job description, right?
So, if you're an accountant, sorry to pick on accountants, then you're only working at certain number of hours, and you're not gonna be asked to mop the floor unless the economy is really bad. You know, you're gonna be... there's a particular set of things you're supposed to do. Beyond that, if you're told to do them, you say, well, that's not my job, I'm just an accountant, right?
But when you're in absolute submission to another entity's will, in other words, you're in slavery, well, a slave owner can turn to the slave and say what? Mop the floor, do the accounting, wash the windows while you're at it, do my laundry, whatever. He cannot be told, well, that's beyond my job description, right? And obviously, I'm using the term slavery, and it has negative connotations.
But I want you to understand something, that in one sense, we do actually proudly accept willing slavery to God as Muslims. We actually call ourselves abd in Arabic, literally meaning slave. There's no... I can't give you a politically correct translation, that's what it is. Abd literally means in Arabic, slave. And that is actually the call of God to us, accept yourselves as slaves of mine.
The Unique Nature of Islamic "Slavery"
Now the difference though is slavery, let's just compare slavery in every other context and slavery in the Muslim context to God. Slavery is willing or unwilling. Does someone enter into slavery willingly or unwillingly? Unwillingly. It's never like, hey, I'm in a... I've exhausted all other career paths, so might as well... No, it doesn't work that way. Never has, never will.
Islam, our slavery to God is already unique, because he's saying (فَمَن شَاءَ فَلْيُؤْمِن وَمَن شَاءَ فَلْيَكْفُرْ - fa man sha'a fal-yu'min wa man sha'a fal-yakfur) - "Whoever wills, let him believe; and whoever wills, let him disbelieve" (Quran 18:29). By the way, whenever I quote something in Arabic translate immediately.
Whoever wants, they can come and believe, whoever wants, they can walk away. It's your choice. So it's already different because it's willing.
Second, a slave would have to be a slave in every matter of life, right? Everything he does is up to the master's whim. God basically says, it's very beautiful in Islamic literature. The Quran says (وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ - wa 'amilu as-salihat) - "and do righteous deeds" (Quran 2:25). Which actually says, they do the few good things expected of them. In other words, God didn't make a long endless list of stuff you got to do.
There's a very short list of do's and don'ts. Take care of this and you live your life. Take care of this and everything else, you do however you do it. And even those few things, they're actually very, very few. They're very, very few restrictions and they're very, very few obligations. You meet those and you're in the clear.
Other than that, enjoy life. Do whatever else you want. And even in those few restrictions, what God continuously explains is, you only put them there because not putting them there will put you in harm's way.
God's Restrictions as Loving Guidance
Our scholars traditionally explain God's restrictions like, medication for a sick child. Which child? I have six kids myself. Yeah, seriously, six. What child ever likes to take medication? I mean, honestly. But is it necessary? Yeah, it's painful sometimes too. And the mother is forcing cough medicine down her son's throat and he's yelling and screaming and he's saying, I hate you mom.
I can't believe you're doing this to me. Why would you do this to me, etc. But you know, at the end of all of it, that is an act of love from a mother. It's a painful act of love, but it's still an act of love because she knows something the child doesn't. She understands something the child doesn't. And in some sense, some of the restrictions of Islam are explained in that way.
In other words, (waasaan takrahu shay'an wa huwa khayrun lakum wa 'asa an tuhibbu shay'an wa huwa sharrun lakum wallahu ya'lamu wa antum la ta'lamun) - "But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and
perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not" (Quran 2:216). God says, maybe you hate something, but it's good for you. Maybe you really like something but it's bad for you. Allah knows and you don't. Just trust me. So it's not a long list of prohibitions, it's a short list. And outside of that, you're free to live your life.
The Two Lives: This World and the Hereafter
Now, so that's the first thing. The second thing about us and God is that He created two lives for us. There are two lives. There's a life of this world and there's a life in the afterlife. We believe in an afterlife, heaven and hell, day of judgment. All of our deeds will be presented before God and people are going to be begging for God's forgiveness and nobody's actually making it to heaven in Muslim creed unless through God's love and forgiveness.
Our deeds alone aren't enough. That's unanimous Muslim creed. Nobody disagrees with this point. The Prophet was explicit in saying this. In other words, we can do all the good we want in the world, it's still not enough. It's gonna have to be God's mercy and love at the end that saves us. It's always been this way. This is not a new idea I'm presenting to you. But regardless, there are two lives.
Building Both Homes: This World and the Next
One that we live here and one that we live there. What's important to note in Islamic tradition is that God expects us to beautify and build both homes. He expects us... Now this is unique, you might not have heard this before. God actually expects us to build both homes.
As a matter of fact, yesterday's Friday sermon that I had to do in Plano, I was explaining one single verse of the Qur'an in which the terminology uses, (wasta'marakum fiha) - "and has settled you therein" (Quran 11:61). He wanted you to build on the earth. He wanted you to build.
And (استعمار - isti'mar) is used in Arabic when you build something that lasts a long time and while you're building it, you don't end up destroying other things. In other words, you build what you call in the modern sense sustainable societies, eco-friendly societies. Societies in which the few that are building major corporations and cities are not doing so at the expense of others that are being economically manipulated.
So the idea of building something that anybody can benefit from. And so God goes out of his way in the Qur'an on countless occasions. It's really hard to put a count on this to describe how beautiful the earth is, to describe how gorgeous mountains are, what a joy rivers are, what a great thing even.
I mean the desert Arabs didn't have a lot of that stuff. So he didn't even talk about camels and how awesome they are. And the stars, I mean they really didn't have much else to look at, right? So at least the stars are pretty cool. So he talked about the stars. Even you can find beauty too. Even you can find beauty, you know.
And so you talk about these things to let us know that this, the life of this world, worldly existence is not a curse. We're not damned here. We're blessed here. We're blessed here. Just stay away from these few restrictions, abide by these few regulations and this world is beautiful. And your job is to make it beautiful and build it.
Resources for Building This World
And now of course when you build something, when you ask your child, I ask my child, hey, build me a castle. He says, buy me the Legos first. You can't build something until you have the ingredients, right? So
he says, (waja'ala fiha aqwataha) - "and He placed therein its [various] foods" (Quran 41:10). He put in the earth all of its inherent powers.
In other words, all you will need to make this world a beautiful place for yourself and others has been put in this earth. And we human civilization has been here for quite a long time, and we've had resources enough for everybody. Now it may not seem that way because of the varying economic situations of many countries, right? And economies in the first world, second world and third world and all of that, right?
But from the faith perspective, we believe actually there are enough resources for all human beings to live well on this earth and live in a healthy and a fair way. So that's our faith perspective on life in this world. You don't choose the next life for this life. You don't abandon the concern for the next life for this life.
Either you balance both of them. In other words, we live a spiritual existence while being involved, you know, greatly in this world at the same time. So there's nothing materialistic for a Muslim in, for example, running a multi-million dollar business. There's nothing wrong with that. However, there is something wrong if that's his goal. So that's the other subtle point.
So you can engage in this world but it can't be your goal. Your goal is higher. Your goal is to do something that benefits others. And your goal is, if you really want to build a home, your goal is to build your real home in heaven. And so all that you do here is only a means to get there. Okay, so do a good job and enjoy it while you're doing it here. But make sure you're building your next life.
The Concept of Continuous Charity (Sadaqah Jariyah)
And how do you, what's the easiest way to build your next life? This is another important Islamic concept. It's the concept of what's called (صدقة جارية - sadaqah jariyah), continuous charity.
Now what does that mean, continuous charity? It actually means, if I leave a good legacy behind, I'm only gonna live so many years. I don't know how long I'm gonna live. If I can do some acts of good that actually live longer than I do.
For instance, I go to a, you know, a desperate location where education, for example, is a desperate need. And there aren't any resources. And I help set up a school. Let's just say, hypothetically speaking, I help set up a school. And the school takes off and now, you know, children are getting a good education and they're building a better and better society for their, you know, for the next generation. And this school takes off and it goes on, it's about 200 years old.
I left the world a long time ago. But every student who graduates from that school and does something good in life, I have a share in. I get commission out of that. That's called continuous charity. The Muslims are supposed to build their afterlife, not just through good works of their own, but to create, to invest in opportunities of continual good. Continual, and that's how we see preparing ourselves for the next life.
The Motivation to Teach
Like my motivation to teach, for instance, I was not originally a teacher. I wasn't even a public speaker. I was a nervous wreck when I have to speak in front of people. But just last month I had to speak, I had to give a sermon in front of 15,000 people in Malaysia. I was pretty nerve wrecking. But I pushed myself in this direction, my teachers did also.
(Bukhari 5027)
And one of the most motivating instructions or teachings from our religion that pushed me in this direction was a saying of our Prophet in which he said, (khayrakum man ta'allama al-Qur'ana wa 'allamah) - "The best of you are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it" (Bukhari 5027). The best of you are the ones who learn the Qur'an and teach it. The best people are the ones who learn this book and give this inspiration to others so they can do awesome stuff.
That's what I've been doing for the last, I don't know, 12, 15 years. I lost count. That's what I've been doing. I also feel in our next session, not this session, but our next session, I'm gonna talk to you about how I believe the Qur'an, one of the most popular books on the planet, like it or not, most popular book on the planet, most well read by many statisticians.
And if not the top, then up there even if you disagree with the statistics, is actually one of the most misunderstood texts in world history. One of the most misunderstood and underestimated, overlooked by Muslims and non-Muslims. And I'm gonna highlight some of that stuff to you in our next session.
Like what do I mean the Qur'an gets overlooked or something's in it just people don't even know it's there. So we'll talk about that in the next session. Anyway, coming back to God's expectations from us.
Summary of God's Expectations
The first one was, just a few restrictions, don't do blasphemy, that's one expectation from God, right? The second one is, build a good home here, so you can build a good home there. And how do you build a good home here? By making sure you do things that benefit not just yourself, but others. This is a fundamental concept in Islam.
The Importance of Continuing Good Deeds
As a matter of fact, it's really beautiful tradition in our history, where we believe that there are sayings of the Prophet about the end of times and when there's gonna be great war and catastrophe. The biblical version of that is the Armageddon and all of that sort of thing, right? So major catastrophic events happening in the world.
And the Prophet said, when the Antichrist shows up, and we believe in the Antichrist too. When he shows up, and one of you is busy planting a seed. The companions of the Prophet are sitting there listening, the Antichrist has just shown up. You know, the devil manifests. It's come out, great war is coming. And you were just busy in your backyard doing what? Planting a seed. What should you do? Drop it and run? He goes, no, finish planting the seed.
He said, finish planting the seed. Now, what does he mean by that? He means, don't be overwhelmed by world events. Things are looking pretty bad in the news and they're gonna look worse and worse and worse. And you're gonna think, what is my insignificant good deed gonna matter? Who's gonna benefit from that? Don't underestimate the power of good. Just do it. And you may not even live to see that tree.
You may not even live to see it. But the fact that one day that tree might grow and somebody might sit in its shade. Somebody else might eat from its fruit. Somebody else might take from that fruit and take one of its seed and plant another tree somewhere else. You don't know how this will benefit others and therefore yourself in the afterlife. So, don't underestimate it.
So, we value all good things and we don't get overwhelmed by the negative forces around us. The negative forces in the media around us. You know, for a lot of Muslims they get overwhelmed. Muslims are getting bashed in the media all the time.
Experiences in Qatar and Media Perceptions
I'll give you a crazy perspective. So, I went to Qatar in the Gulf States. Some of you might know where that is. So, I went to Qatar recently and I was talking to Qatar TV. And they have this weird impression of what life must be like for Muslims in America. Because the only thing they have in the news from America about Islam is, you know, let's burn a Qur'an or, you know, somebody flushed it down the toilet or, you know, Guantanamo Bay or whatever. They have this weird... That's all they have. They have no other image of what Muslims are like in America.
So, I'm sitting with this anchor, a TV anchor. It was a British man himself. And he's like, so, life for you lot. You've got concentration camps to you. I was like, what? What are you talking about? It must be really hard being Muslim in America. I was like, I live in Texas. He was just like... They let you? I had a great kick out of that.
The Importance of Dialogue and Understanding
I don't think it's easy. If I only knew about Islam from listening to the radio. If I only knew about... Oh my God. If I knew there was a mosque in my neighborhood, I'd move. That's terrifying. So the fact that you're here to me is an act of bravery, honestly.
But at the same time, I think there needs to be more acts of bravery. Oh, it's okay, baby. Okay, it happens. I'll wait, I'll wait. It's okay. So what I was going to say, you know, I stop and give kind of moms their due because my kids do that all the time in the middle of my speeches. So it's all good. What was I talking about though? God, I forgot. Ah, bravery.
You know, I learned something. I recently started traveling, like internationally. I've been traveling across the US for a long time. But one of the things that I've learned, and it's been a real life lesson. And you know, it sounds cliche, but it's a true life lesson. It's so easy to dehumanize people and to simplify what they're all about without ever talking to them.
It's so easy. I mean, for God's sake, you could just say, all of them are like, and you can fill in the blanks yourself. They all must be like, and fill in the blanks yourself. Because you and I haven't actually made, in my opinion, enough of an effort to actually make connections, to make real connections, to talk. And to talk in a civil way.
You know, a lot of times, what you see on talk radio or what you listen, or hear on talk radio, or see on TV, that's not how normal people talk. That kind of overly aggressive, I'm gonna shove this in your face, I'm gonna put you down, I'm gonna show people how evil you are. That's not how normal people engage in conversation. So a lot of times, we hear so much of that, we figure the only time we're gonna talk to the other is we're gonna talk in that way.
That's not healthy. It's not normal. We wanna be able to have normal conversations. And we should be able to have perfectly fine disagreements.
A Story of Interfaith Marriage
I'll tell you a really cool story from last week. A person I don't know came to me from McKinney. You guys know where McKinney is? It's almost Mexico. No, I'm kidding. But he came from McKinney. He drove all the way from McKinney to my office in Irving. He wanted to see me. He says, I've seen your YouTube videos. I wanted to talk to you. He sat me down. We're sitting down talking.
He goes, Well, you know, I became Muslim about 10 years ago. And that's around the same time that my wife, who was Muslim, converted to Christianity. We hadn't met each other yet. So they met each other in college. And they got married. And around like five months after, he became a Muslim from Christianity. And she became a Christian from Islam. And they got married. And they have three kids.
And they're living together. And he's very devout in his Islam. And she's very devout in her Christianity.
I mean, her dad went on to become a pastor. And her brother is becoming one too. They're very devout in their Christianity. And they talk about their faith all the time, but they never fight. They talk about their faith all the time. And their disagreements. And their disagreements, but they never fight.
And he, as a matter of fact, for the last 10 years has been going to church with her. He doesn't join the worship service, the prayer service. He'll listen to the sermon every single week. Everybody at the church knows the guy. Everybody. You know. And I hear that and I say, man, people need to know about people like you. Because we think that these conversations in a civil way, in a friendly way can exist much less to imagine that they exist in a civil way inside one loving household.
That's crazy. That's unheard of to me. But it's happening. There are real people that are having those conversations. So if that can happen inside one family without conflict, it can certainly happen in our communities, right? Now coming back to Islam itself. Sorry, perspective.
You know, I figured. Drop it on you guys. It's a really old iPhone ringtone, by the way. It's really time to update that. That's when the first one came out. Seriously? Okay. Anyway.
This World is a Blessing
So, this world is, I mentioned already, this world is not a punishment. It's a place to live a wonderful life. Right?
"(wa ja'alna lakum fiha ma'ayisha) - "And We have made for you therein livelihoods" (Quran 7:10). The Qur'an says, we put means in here for you to live well. I already mentioned that to you.
Interacting with People of Other Faiths
Now a little bit about Muslims discussing with people of other faiths. What does God tell us about how we should interact with people of other faiths? This is again, I think, gonna be a unique perspective. I think. I didn't hear it enough. Not from others. So I have to share this with you.
Understanding Revelation vs. Authority
So there are two perspectives in Revelation. When I read Revelation, I am a servant of God trying to understand His word. Much like a Christian would try to understand the Bible. Much like a Jew would try to understand the Torah or the Talmud, etc. Much like that a Muslim is trying to read the Qur'an and understand God's words to him. He's coming to the book as a humble student. As thirsty for wisdom. Thirsty for guidance. That's why we come to sacred text. Okay.
God, however, doesn't have to be humble. God's not humble. God's all-powerful. We have to be humble. God's the authority. He can speak how He wants. And He speaks from a position of authority. I mean, look at a courtroom, for example. The judge doesn't speak in a humble way. Who does? The guy taking the testimony at the stand. You understand? He's in a position of judging and authority. He's not gonna tone it down.
I've been watching Judge Judy since high school. She doesn't tone anything down. You, be quiet. Now the thing is, I'm gonna give you this crazy example before I turn to the Qur'an itself to help you understand this perspective. How many kids do I have, pop quiz? Very good. Okay.
Six kids. One of them got in trouble. And I say, come here, young lady. How come you didn't show me your report card? What's that about? How come your teacher had to call me and tell me? I'm talking to her. And she's standing there. I said, sorry. And then my other daughter walks in and goes, yeah. You should have shown it the first time, young lady. Now at that point, who's also in trouble? Excuse me? When did you become me? Who do you think you are? I speak from a position of authority.
And just because she agrees with me or I, you know, she's my daughter, we have a relationship, does not grant her the same what? Authority. It doesn't. Revelation speaks from authority. The reader of Revelation is not granted that authority. You understand?
God's Perspective vs. Human Response
Now let's talk about an example. God in the Qur'an finds, for instance, and I'm not gonna wash it down for you, I'm just gonna tell you like it is. God in the Qur'an, for instance, believes or shares, teaches Muslims that attributing a son to God is, it angers Him. It's beneath Him. That having a child is a quality of creation and those who say it are engaged in blasphemy.
Oh my God, if I tell that to a Christian friend. It's in the Qur'an. I can even cite the verses for you, chapter 19, read the ending. Have fun. Now here's the thing. Here's a story from the prophetic times. Just to put things in perspective.
A group of Christians heard that a man in Arabia is claiming to be a prophet. Claims that the angel Gabriel came and gave him revelation. And it confirms previous scripture that was given to Moses and
Jesus. And talks about all previous prophets that, you know, of notice. And especially Arab prophets that aren't even mentioned in the Bible.
And says that it's a confirmation of all previous scripture and he's claiming that this revelation for all those who have previous scripture will find confirmation of their truth in it. So they say, let's check it out. So a group of learned Christians from a place called Najran in Arabia traveled to Medina where the prophet was to meet with him and say, what are you talking about? We're Christians. We believe in revelation. What is this thing you call revelation? Let's see.
The Example of Christians in the Mosque
Now they didn't have hotels back then. Those are some really squeaky chairs. Hold on, let the squeaky speak and then I'll talk. Because this is a fun story, I don't want you to be distracted. Okay. So these Christians came and they want to engage the prophet and his claims in dialogue. They didn't have hotels back then. Guess where they stayed for the few weeks that they were in Medina? In the mosque. They were kept in the mosque. They were guests of the mosque.
And they were to pray. Because these are obviously people of religion, people of faith. So on a daily basis, they are going to engage in their Christian acts of worship. Guess where they prayed? In the mosque. By the prophet's dictate. And guess who they prayed to? Jesus.
Openly. Out loud. The companions of the prophet hearing Jesus being prayed to, where? Inside the mosque. And the revelation itself says that when anyone says, Ar-Rahman, the most loving, merciful, took a son, the heavens shake. That's how offensive God describes it in the Qur'an. But that's God's perspective.
And the prophet and the companions are just human beings. His wrath cannot turn into what? Our wrath, we still have to deal with our neighbor with love. And what they believe, they believe that's between them and God. Not between them and us. We don't... So God can pass judgments and He has the power to. He passes judgments in all revelation.
Sure. You can disagree with those judgments and they may be up to discussion. But the fact that we don't have the authority to take that rage and convert it into ours. That's important. Because that to us is blasphemy. Because now you're saying, I share in God's control, in God's authority.
Unfortunately, there are people who read God's word in other religions too. And they don't understand this very important point. They start drawing from the authority of God and start exacting that authority for themselves. It's a very tragic thing. And it leads to a lot of hateful speech. Alright. We'll do.
Humble Students of the Quran
So, when we study the Qur'an, we study it from the perspective of humble students, was my next point. We understand the Qur'an from the perspective of humble students. Not from a position of judging others. That's up to Him. Let His revelation judge between you and Him. You work that out. That's not my domain. That's not what I'm there for.
Examples of Respect and Tolerance
Does Islam preach respect for other faiths? A funeral service was passing by and the Prophet was sitting. It was a Jewish girl who died. He stood up. When he stood up, the companion said, why are you standing? It's a Jewish girl. And he said, is she not a human? He was teaching them. Is she not a child of Adam? He stood up. And he made them stand. Out of respect. The religion preaches, it teaches respect for others.
It even teaches respect for people who act ignorantly. Who act or say hateful things. A man shows up to the Prophetic mosque. The Prophet's mosque now is one of the most grand structures and most revered, you know, sacred sites for Muslims in the world. At the time the Prophet was still there, a man walks into the mosque, goes in a corner and starts urinating. In his presence.
The companions get up and are about to tackle this guy. And he says, wait, let him finish. And the guy finishes. And he's walking away. And he pulled him to the side and said, my dear brother, this place is sacred, we pray here. It would be wise to not do such a thing here in the future. If you could. Nothing else. The guy became Muslim. Because there's a way to deal with others.
The Need for Humanization
Why am I sharing these stories with you? Because we're living in times of very low tolerance. We're living in times of very, very low tolerance. The first thing needed when you want to understand someone else is you have to humanize them. You have to see them as a decent person. You have to see them as a fellow, not just a fellow human being, in our case, even fellow citizens.
People that have the same concerns. People that want the best for their neighborhood, their city, even their country. If you don't see them that way, there's no point in conversation because the preconceived notions can override any hopes of civil conversation. They override them, they undo them. And so, these are the few things that I thought were priority in highlighting in our conversation today.
Islamic Practices
Of course, Muslims pray five times a day. We fast in the month of Ramadan. We have this really, really cool ritual called the Hajj. I'd love to tell you all about it. It's the commemoration, it's the celebration of the legacy of Abraham and his sacrifice. I mean, those of you that come from Judeo-Christian backgrounds believe in Abraham and his sacrifice, of the many sacrifices he made for the sake of God. We have this yearly worldwide convention that celebrates his sacrifices.
It's called Hajj. We go and we sacrifice animals in the millions and give them in charity in Mecca. We actually go around, if you've seen pictures of Mecca, that house we believe was built by Abraham. The animals we sacrifice are actually a commemoration of the alternate sacrifice he made. We give the animals in charity. And then on top of that, we pass by these three places and we pebble.
There are three monuments, we pebble them. They're considered pebbling the devil. It actually commemorates that when he was taking his son for the sacrifice, the devil came to him three times and tried to stop him. And symbolically, he threw pebbles at the devil to shoo it away because he was going to make a sacrifice for the sake of God. And we actually, that's a part of our ritual at Hajj, at that pilgrimage.
So actually, Abraham is a really heavy figure in Islamic discourse. We consider ourselves a very Abrahamic faith. Abraham is a very, very, very big deal. And Muhammad himself, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is a descendant of Abraham from the line of Ishmael, which is another fun conversation. But anyway.
Moses and the Israelites in the Quran
But as I leave you, because in the next session I'm going to talk to you guys about the Qur'an and now I'll just take open questions from you guys. As I leave you, I just want to say one more thing. Most people don't know. The most talked about person in the Qur'an, the most talked about person in the Qur'an is Moses. Moses is a really big deal to us.
He's a really big deal to us. And by the way, far more, and Muhammad by the way, by name, is only mentioned four times in the whole book. Moses, there's over 70 passages about him. You know why I mentioned that? I mentioned that because a lot of people think Muslims are anti-Semitic. They hate Jews. Moses, we can't.
The phrase sons of Israel, Israel, Isra'il, we believe is a prophet. His other name is Ya'qub, Jacob. He's a revered figure. The word itself, Bani Isra'il, sons of Israel, is a respected term in the Qur'an. He criticizes some among them for their behavior. That doesn't give anybody license to be anti-Semitic.
And this is even a conversation with the Muslims in the audience who don't understand their book properly sometimes. It's not. And the more prophets from the Israelites are talked about in the Qur'an than any other. These are honored people. God chose them. God gave them great honor by giving them many prophets and many revelations.
And they are a huge chunk of our own sacred tradition. They became a necessary part of our sacred tradition. There's no way we can have hateful attitudes towards them as a people. However, what the Qur'an does do, and you might have read it too, it highlights certain bad behavior that some among
them did. And the purpose of that is to leave an example, don't be like that. Don't do what those among them did.
And here are the mistakes they made. You don't make those mistakes. That's the purpose of history in the Qur'an. Not to incite hate, but actually to teach lessons. Good role models and bad examples. Both. Learn lessons from the good examples and hear lessons from the bad. And actually some of the heroes mentioned in the Qur'an, non-prophets are also Israelites. Some non-prophetic heroes.
Believers who stood up for the right thing no matter what, and you should learn from them, are actually Jews. They're talked about in the Qur'an. This is in the text itself. I'm not making this up. I can cite it for you if you're interested in finding out where this stuff is. So that was a little bit of an overview.
Question and Answer Session
You are totally free to ask questions. And hopefully they have to do with some things I talked about. But if not, you can just, if you're curious about something else. And you'd like at least my perspective and I can share that with you. Yes. Sure.
Question About God's Human-like Attributes
Great question. Her question wasn't very loud so I'll repeat it. But when we talk about the expectations God has of us, it almost makes him sound like a human being. Like a human being having expectations. And a lot of the attributes we describe of him like love, and you know, mercy, and things like that. They seem like human attributes.
And there are reasons for that. The first reason for that is actually that human qualities of love, mercy, you know, pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, justice, all of these things actually inherent qualities in us that reflect what God gave us of him. Because he put of his special, the special thing he created, the ruh, which is in English, translated the soul into us.
Now, and it resonates with us. Now, we don't believe that God is a human or human like, but we do believe in a personal God. In other words, a God that speaks to us, a God that loves, a God that wants, a God that even hates. He hates certain things. You know, the Prophet would tell us, he likes three things, he hates three things. God hates three things.
Like, you know, just hearing something and passing it on without verifying. He hates that, for instance, right? So there is that personal relationship. It's not a philosophical entity of some kind of divine being or unique powerful being that's machine-like or, you know, a personal. It is a personal God that in fact we believe in. And that personhood of God where he, you know, directly communicates with us and expresses his expectations to us. And even I consider his love to us through his word is... It just pours out of the text.
It pours out of when he speaks to us directly. And in the Quran session, I'll share some of that stuff with you. And I think that will become clear. Sure? Yeah, you and then you. Yeah. I'll stand up.
Question About Islamic Leadership and Intolerance
It's a war authority that is called the Pope. Sure. My question, and I will explain why I have a question, is if the Muslim war has a worldwide leader. And the question is because of... When you mentioned the war on tolerance, that yes, there is a lot of... a lack of tolerance toward Islam. When I hear the news and when I read the news and I hear, in this case, Muslim people behaving a certain way in some countries in Africa, behaving a certain way sometimes in the Middle East, and acting intolerant with other people from the same country who have different faiths. I mean, who is leading them? You know what I mean? Of course, it's not a situational problem.
It's a situation that happened before in the Christian world, especially in the Middle Ages, intolerance towards other people. Sure. My question, why is this happening?
Well, I think the postmodern context is a very difficult context not just for religious groups but for countries and nations. The world is recalibrated, right? And what religion meant 100 years ago is not what it means now. And the way that religious communities are organized, it actually also has a lot to do with the kind of stability a country enjoys or doesn't enjoy.
So, for instance, you will find at certain points there are massive riots in the Muslim world over some religious issue, right? And there is violence breaking out, cars being flipped over and burned, and all kinds of crazy stuff happening. And at the same time, you'll find some other countries, Muslim countries, where none of that's happening. And they're also very conservative, religious Muslim countries. And if you look at the differences between them, it's pretty interesting.
It actually is directly correspondent to the number of educational institutions, infrastructure, transparency of government, et cetera, et cetera. So, for example, when riots were happening over this YouTube video thing, if you remember, maybe almost a year ago now, right? Riots were happening in Libya, in Pakistan, Bangladesh, all over the world, right? Turkey was calm, and Malaysia was calm. Indonesia was okay.
There's no big deal, nothing. Why? Because... And they're also very Islamic governments. They're very religious countries. But I think a lot of the chaotic situation actually has to do with a lack of education overall, not just religious, but lack of education, lack of economic opportunity, lack of infrastructure. You know, corrupt government institutions from the bottom up. So from the village, you have the village leader who sucks up all the money, and the farmers are starving.
And then from there on, the city governments and other, you know, it builds. And that kind of frustration, it's like people are ready to explode. You just need to give them a very small reason. And it just, it goes on fire. And this is really, and it's continuously happening, right? It's continuously happening for this reason.
Like the Arab Spring, there's a lot of talk about the Arab Spring, right? And what it means and how it's going on. Look, the undercurrents of the Arab Spring are not religious. The undercurrents of the Arab Spring are, you have dictatorial governments that have been economically suffocating their people for a long, long, long time. And things like freedom of speech, freedom of the press has been suffocated for a long, long time.
There's only so much before it boils over. There's only so much. You know, in the Quran, we learn, interestingly, that the Pharaoh, who enslaved who, you guys should know this. The Pharaoh enslaved who? The Hebrews. The Pharaoh in the Quran actually is deeply, deep inside, afraid of the Hebrews. What? He's enslaved them.
He's got them all mocked out. He can slaughter them if he wants. Ah, but he's afraid of an uprising. He's afraid of an uprising. The people you oppress the most are the people you're scared of the most, actually. Right? So that's on the political front, but that does make for some pretty interesting conversation.
Questions About Prayer and Evil
I'll take a written question, and then I'll take your question. So there was a question. Is it true that you pray to both evil angel and god angels? So why would you pray to evil in your faith? Evil you've got as a schemer.
No, we don't pray to angels, and we don't actually believe there are such a thing as evil angels, also. And we certainly don't pray to angels. We believe angels are servants of God in some sense, like we are. And they carry out God's commandments. So we don't pray to them. The only one we rely on and pray to is God Himself.
Do we believe God is a schemer? The Quran's response to that, actually is
(wa makaru wa makara Allah wa Allahu khayru al-makirin) - "And they planned, but Allah planned. And Allah is the best of planners" (Quran 3:54). And it's beautiful. He says people who scheme evil make their plots, and Allah makes a plot to undo all of their plots. So we learn in the Quran on multiple occasions that God does extensively and secretly plan, and plan against enemies that's only when they have an elaborate plan.
And then at the end of it He says
(wa Allahu khayru al-makirin) - "And Allah is the best of all planners" (Quran 3:54).
Historical Coexistence
At one time, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace, harmony, as readers from the book. When was this? What happened?
Well, it wasn't that long ago. I mean, one of my teachers is Palestinian. He comes back and forth to the U.S. He teaches law, and he goes back. He's about 60 years old. So he's actually, he was living in Jerusalem pre-occupation. So before this, he was living there. And his neighbors were Jewish and Christian.
And they got together for tea every morning. Then the bell rang for the church. And then the Christian friend would go pray there. And the Jewish friend would go to the synagogue and pray. And he'd go to the mosque and they'd come back and play chess together. This was the life.
I mean, can you imagine? This seems like some hypothetical, crazy, fantasy world where Muslims, Jews, and Christians were hanging out with each other in the Arab world. I shouldn't say. Yeah, this was actually happening 60 years ago. This was our world. This is not some pre, like ancient times that are long gone. And if it happened then, it can happen now.
It can. It's just, we think these things have become so difficult. And I honestly think it's a direct result of alienation. People don't actually talk to each other. People don't talk to each other. You'd be surprised how many barriers that breaks. Anyway, so yeah, what happened was stuff.
Questions About Homosexuality and Prayer
How do Muslims or Islam view homosexuality? That's a good question. Why do you pray five times per day? Shouldn't people pray simultaneously?
I'll address both of these, okay? So why do we pray five times a day? We actually pray at least five times a day and we pray spontaneously all the time. That hopefully answers that question. So you've got to meet a minimum requirement, okay? You meet a minimum requirement. You show up, you know, and you report back to God after a few hours and say, hey, Lord, I did this.
And you recite this revelation, stand in front of Him, drop everything else, refuel like a car, then go back out there. Then engage the world, and a few hours later come back, talk to Him again, drop everything else, refuel, go do it again. So that's five times a day.
And we do, as a matter of fact, pray spontaneously all the time. All the time. And on top of the spontaneous prayers, we have even like situational prayers. A prayer to enter the mosque, to leave the mosque. A prayer to go into the bathroom to seek refuge from filth. A prayer when you leave the bathroom to thank God for relieving your body of what has been harmful to it.
Just other words, special words for occasions just to remind ourselves. There are prophetic prayers for beginning your food and finishing your food, putting clothes on, buying new clothes, entering into a store, walking out of a store, going to work, getting in your car, getting out of your car. They keep coming. So many questions. Okay. So what was the other thing? Homosexuality.
Islam believes, or Islam gave us the right, Muslims the right, to judge behavior, but not people. Who gets to judge people? Allah does. He says, our revelation believes homosexuality, the act itself, the final act itself, is wrong. The tendency itself, the Quran is silent on. It didn't give a position on well if somebody has those feelings, and somebody has that thought, and they're fighting that urge, et cetera, et cetera, then actually, historically in Islam, they have been counseling thousands, even a thousand years ago, there were people who reported to have those feelings, and they were given the counsel to fight their urges, and not engage in the act itself.
The act itself is considered evil, and it's considered the same as fornication, an act outside of marriage. So Islam has a pretty strong stance on that too. That is not to say that if somebody, a homosexual sitting in the audience, that I'm going to judge them. I don't have any license to. I have no such license. That's really that line that so many people fail to draw. So many people fail to draw.
And there are things Islam says. Many Muslims, for example, in the United States, aren't very practicing. They don't really practice a lot of the regulations I talked about. The few of them, they don't practice them. But that doesn't change the fact that those are the regulations. So if I was asked to talk about Islamic regulations, I wouldn't say, well maybe I shouldn't talk about this to a crowd that's not that practicing.
They might find it offensive. No, you can do what you want. That's not my business. My business is to tell you what it says. You decide what you do with that. That's not me, you know. But that is its stance. We do not condone the homosexual act itself. And it's talked about in the Nation of Lot is mentioned in the Quran. And that discourse with the angels, that story, I think the biblical narrative is there too. That is in the Quran. Sure.
Citation Request
Please provide a citation of to unify this world that you mentioned earlier.
Surah number 7. Surah number 7, first two pages somewhere. I'm not Google. But I can pull it up for you if you come to me after the break.
Understanding Evil and Satan
Could you elaborate on your understanding of evil? Where do you believe evil comes from and what do you understand Satan to be?
Satan is a jinn. There are three kinds of creatures that have choice. Human beings, angels, and jinn. Jinn, we believe, are made of smokeless fire. We believe that Satan was a jinn.
The difference between angels and the rest is that angels obey God unconditionally. They are creatures of light and they obey God unconditionally. Satan was originally a jinn who believed in God and worshipped
Him in our tradition. And worshipped Him so much willingly that he was even given a rank above angels. So he commanded an army of angels even though he himself wasn't one.
Then finally the fateful day comes, Adam is created, the soul is blown into him, the angels are commanded to prostrate. He refuses. And he refuses in our creed because he was from among the jinn, not among the angels. And so he made the choice to disobey.
Now he then, from then on, commands an army of two. An army of jinns. Not all. Some jinns are Muslims. Some jinns accept the iman. Because they are creatures of choice also. And an army of people who don't even know he's controlling them. So he's got two. That work with him. That are both talked about in the Qur'an.
We believe that about evil, it's not something that's talked about in the Qur'an as a separate information. But we do say, (لَيْسَ إِلَيْكَ وَشُدُّوا - laysa ilayka wa shaddu) - "And they cannot [attribute] to you [any evil[" (similar concept from Quran). We don't attribute evil to God ever.
In the next session, I'll talk to you about how the Qur'an talks about evil. And I think it will highlight our stance on evil a lot better. I talked about the good things as well. That's good.
God's Love
Is your God considered a loving God? You can answer that for me. Can you answer that for me? Yes. Why? Where do you get that from? Because from the word I gave you in your notes that one of you wrote down. What was that word? (إله - ilah). The word which is the Arabic word for God actually includes obsessive love. And the object of love and love itself is included in the meaning.
And that's not some meaning that you'll find in a modern dictionary as a matter of fact. That's the classical Arabic meaning of the word. (إله - ilah). To be obsessively in love with someone and to incline towards someone.
Is your God considered a loving God or a mean angry God? As in He punishes people for their sins. One of my favorite quotes in the Qur'an. I know you're going to love this one. I don't know if you're going to love this one. I love this one. He says
(ma yaf'alu Allahu bi-'adhabikum in shakartum wa amantum) - "What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe?" (Quran 4:147). What's God going to get out of punishing you anyway? I love that one.
Another place he says,
(illa man rahima rabbuka wa li-dhalika khalaqahum) - "Except whom your Lord has given mercy, and for that He created them" (Quran 11:119). The ones except he's talking about people that were obsessively disobedient and rebellion against him. And he goes, that his justice might come to them except the ones who he shows love and mercy to. And that is why he created them to begin with.
In other words, he created them to show them love. The purpose of human beings. One of their purposes on the one hand, turn to me in slavery. On the other, so I can show you love and mercy. It's the function. You know, God is not out to destroy people. Or to throw them in hell and fill hellfire with them. And then, you know, this fire needs some fuel. It's not like that.
Houses in the Seventh Heaven
One of the most favorite, my favorite traditions of the Prophet. Oh, it's awesome. They believe heaven has levels. Seven heavens. Okay, there are seven levels of paradise, of heaven. When people go to heaven, good people, economy class heaven, then there's like deluxe, premium, and then, you know, there's the elite golden package, platinum, whatever, you know.
There's the seventh heaven. And the Prophet would describe the distance between the first and the second heaven is like the distance between the earth and the stars. So they're ways apart, right? And of course you would imagine the highest kind of heaven would be for what kind of people? Like super awesome people, in other words, not myself.
These must be some really, really good people that are up in where? The seventh heaven. The highest heaven there is. The Prophet tells us that God built a house in the seventh heaven for every human being on this earth. He built a house on the seventh heaven for every human being since Adam. Some people didn't want to go. Some people just refused.
The house is waiting though. You know what that tells you? What that tells you is God has an expectation that you'll make it. He's already signed you on, not signed you off. You know how some teachers write you off? Sometimes parents write their kids off. He's not written us off. You don't build a house for someone if you don't expect them to show up.
He built it. It's waiting. It's waiting. So we don't even aspire for the lowest. We aspire for the highest. Yeah?
Purgatory and Judgment Day
So is there any concept of purgatory? No. There's a temporary place on Judgment Day called Ashab al- A'raf, the heights. It's called the seventh chapter. It begins with that. There's a brief reference to that which means on Judgment Day there are people whose deeds are weighed and their forgiveness and all of that.
And some people end up exactly at middle. Just enough good, just enough bad, and the scales are even. And they're not flipping to either side. And they're on top of these heights and they can see hell on the one side and heaven on the other. And then they pray to God and then Allah sends them to heaven. Yes?
Questions About Jinn and Protection
Sorry, it goes back to the question that someone asked about angels and non-angels when you said that God commands other djinns. Right. So angels are good beings of light that obey God's every command. That's right. Do you not believe, I guess you would say, like in demons or are the djinns the closest thing to demons?
The closest thing to demons would be djinns. So they're kind of like who do you believe bad, unseen things that we move in our lives. Sure. Sure. Yes. We also believe that they don't have power over us. We believe they can take control. They can. But if we grant them that. Exactly.
And we also believe that people who resort to like trinkets and like, you know, symbols and turn to other things for protection. Like people put something around their neck, amulets, you know. What that does, this is exactly what they want. They want you to look for protection in something other than the unseen God himself. That's what we believe.
So it's when you seek His refuge, you're safe. When you start seeking refuge in anything else, any object, you know, once I put this scarf on I'll be okay. Or once I pour this on I'll be fine, et cetera, et cetera. Then you've attributed protection to something other than God. And that's what they wanted to begin with. That's what they wanted. Yeah.
Question About Religious Objects and Intentions
So I have in my home a crucifix with a corpus on it. That was my great-grandmother. She was Catholic and she used it. I don't pray to that when I pray. But I'm not attributing any power to that. It's just a reminder to me. So that goes back to the intention, doesn't it?
When something's a reminder, it's just a reminder. When something's there and you look at it and you say, thank God it's there, it's protecting the house, then it's a problem. So it's a matter of two people could be doing the same exact thing but their intentions are what changes everything. Right?
So it's and our faith, by the way, intentions are everything.
(Bukhari 1)
(innama al-a'malu bil-niyyat) - "Actions are but by intention" (Bukhari 1). All matters, all things you do are based on the intentions you carry them with. Nothing else has value but the intention behind.
Conclusion
And we'll let that be the final word as we break for lunch. Thank you so much.