 اسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رمب العالمين وصلى الله عليه وسيدنا وحبيب قلوبنا وشفيع نفوصنا أبل قاسم محمد وعلى آل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المعصومين لاسيما بغية الله روحي وأرواح العالمين لترابي مقدمه الفداء أما بعد رسبكتت سكوليز ألوذيز بلوز and سيستيز السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته شاء الله to start off we'd like to first and foremost congratulate our Imam Imam صاحب العصر والسمان on the auspicious occasion in which it's the birth anniversary of our Imam Imam علي ابنى موسى الرضا in which we have this celebration over the past two nights to look at the significance of such a person and what kind of aspect we can learn from him and put into our lives inshallah now for the topic for tonight in reference to the Imam that we are celebrating I'd like to look at one aspect of his life and that aspect is in reference to a particular debate that he's had in the court of the Ma'amoon Khalifa at the time which was the seventh of the Abbasid Khalifa's in which he brings forth the best atheist scholars if we can refer to them as scholars the best Christian priest and the top Jewish rabbis if we can refer to them as such when he brings them together he wants to challenge the Imam first and foremost when he looks at seeing the knowledge and the depth of knowledge of the followers of Ahl al-Bait or the furthermore the actual people that look up to the Ahl al-Bait and what exactly they look up to as in is the Imam all knowing all knowledgeable as the followers say or does he not stand a chance against the best of his time now it was a very definitive aspect in reference to the Ma'amoon and what he had to do now when first looking at this particular event in history we have to look at first and foremost inshallah in our day because that happened 1000 odd years ago and we look at it how can we learn from such an aspect learn from how the Imam debated how the Imam went on to teach the message of Islam how he went on with the morals to play a part in teaching us how to have dialogue and what did he say and how did he say it and that's inshallah we can apply to the 21st century nowadays because when we look at it we look at the aspect of knowledge of the Imam first and foremost and then secondly we'd like to look at the aspect in which we want to learn from ourselves as in many of us are in primary school he tonight in front of me other people maybe in universities other people would be at college other people would be at tapes in the workforce wherever you may be it's not just it's not a country in which it only has one specific religion however we are gifted to be in a country in which it has an abundance of religions an abundance of beliefs in order so that we can talk within one another have dialogue within one another to better understand the different fates and to strengthen the faith that we have in our Imams now the first aspect is knowledge when we look at knowledge and we've discussed knowledge on many aspects before when we've discussed knowledge we've advised ourselves that knowledge is not enough that's gaining knowledge yes that's one aspect however there are many types of knowledge that someone may gain that may make you arrogant as in how many people do we know that they've learnt a couple of verses of the Holy Quran or they've learnt a couple of texts or read a couple of books and they become very arrogant every time you try to speak with them every time you try to invite them over every time you try to gain closeness towards them they might look down upon you may look down at your particular rank why? because they say to themselves that I've attained a higher rank I've achieved a level of greatness that he may see or a level of knowledge that he may see now in saying that that we know the first and foremost knowledge is not enough there's a certain aspect which we want to look at tonight is this aspect of wisdom how to go about debating how to go about portraying the vision of Ahl al-Bayt the knowledge of Ahl al-Bayt as in Ali ibn Abi Talib gives us an aspect of this the particular knowledge and then insha Allah we'll move on to the debate that our Imam that we're celebrating tonight had and what we can learn from that debate Ali ibn Abi Talib once upon a time a person whilst he was around with his friends a person came and cursed Ali ibn Abi Talib now look at the aspect of Imam nowadays if you want to learn from Ali ibn Abi Talib nowadays when we look at universities and we're saying in a first hand perspective in primary school in high school people come and they may say ill things about you they may not necessarily say the best things towards you they may try to encourage the anger within you encourage the retaliation aspect they want to see what your reaction would be now on that aspect on the first level we look at what our Imam have done because it's one aspect and this is a very important thing we need to look at in all ages because one of us would say that yes learning about the imams that's one thing and it is 100% it's very very important to learn about your imams the second level the second level is that once you've learned how much do we apply it's one aspect saying that Ali ibn Abi Talib did such and such another aspect following in his footsteps when we learn in school or in our workforce or within our friends or wherever it may be if we learn that Ali ibn Abi Talib what he does when someone enrages him or attempts to enrage him do we follow it or do we do the opposite nowadays someone may enrage us you find that we have our friends on speed dial we get all the boys together or if it be females I don't know what happens nowadays the boys all get together they wait for someone outside the school or outside the universities there's some aspects of harassment that may take place there's many aspects in which someone can retaliate someone can have a negative effect on the person that has started or has initiated the oppressive nature Ali ibn Abi Talib teaches us you shouldn't do such a thing and he teaches his companions when someone walks past and curses him in his circle around his companions a person straightaway gets up does what we would do straightaway takes out his sword and says you know what I'm going to prosecute you I'm going to judge you based on what you've said and I'll prosecute you takes him into his own hands Ali ibn Abi Talib says yes that there is an aspect of yes and I for an I we have that in Islam because he's cursed him he says so you can curse him he's cursed you you can curse him he says he's a sinner you're in an aspect in which Allah can elevate you or he can degrade you when we have our hadith that say if you use your intellect over that which you have pleasure in doing if you use your intellect other than your emotions and we're saying negative emotions in this aspect if you use your intellect that Allah has granted you saying that what Ali ibn Abi Talib would do such and such I will act in such a manner even though my self want another thing even if my self would prefer such and such which is negative my mind and my intellect and my knowledge about Ahlulbayt teaches me that they would do Ali ibn Abi Talib teaches us that yes he's sinned you're in a position of power either you have the power to prosecute or you have the power to forgive and Ali ibn Abi Talib teaches his company he says yes and if you forgive it is greater in the eyes of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala so in that aspect if we look at it in the first level and try to apply that first level to our lives if someone enrages you try to look at Satan yourselves what would Ali ibn Abi Talib do what has Ali ibn Abi Talib done now moving on to the aspect of dialogue and we want to look at it why is it such an important dialogue to talk about tonight why is it such an important topic to talk about especially in this particular age the age of communication the age in which you may say something and it may be it all across the world something someone may video nowadays we look at and it goes viral across the world some people may find something funny other things there are calamities that happen however we find that people can communicate they can be across the world and they can communicate their ideas they can communicate their beliefs they can communicate that which is good and beneficial and that which is destructive to a society therefore why is it that it's important to learn how to go about talking why is it important to learn how to go about acting in the path because in this particular age we know that one action we may do may travel the whole world without the shadow of that one thing it could be video it could be documented someone could say it and it would be carried all across the world instantaneously therefore watching what we do as followers of Ahl al-Bait as people that hold themselves very close towards the message of the Prophet of Islam and the message of Ali ibn Abi Talib we have to on the first level have an importance of knowing how to act knowing what to do in particular circumstances and especially on this level in which we have different beliefs in this country that we live in people of different beliefs different ethnic groups people that have different ideologies how is it that we can go about not necessarily preaching but how can we go about teaching by our actions and how we talk now that's what we want to learn from Ali ibn Mus Arrida tonight in reference to the debate that he has and we want to look at three particular points one he had a debate with an atheist we want to take one point from that and the debate with a Christian we want to take two points from that and the third we want to take a point from his debate with the Jewish Rabbi and we want to end it to look at how he had dialogue with the Ma'amoon in which was the Khalifa of his time because as we know Imam's Imamate was 20 years 10 of those years were under Haroun al-Rashid 5 were under the Amin and 5 were under the Ma'amoon how is it we can look at in reference to the last 5 years of his life in reference to the Ma'amoon and that particular event that happened in which he brought all the greatest scholars of the time to have that debate with the Imam now let's look at the first level Imam teaches us that we have to have an eloquence in how we approach things an eloquence in how we speak and a respectable aspect of whom we speak to it could be the worst person it could be a person from a very degraded status and I'm saying that in the reference to the status in Allah's eyes not in a status in a social status or a wealth status nothing that Islam looks at Allah SWT says the best amongst you are the most God fearing or the most pious so when we say the degraded rank in the eyes of Allah SWT so on the first level we have to look at the aspect of respect that the Imam had that even his followers are after him and we've mentioned this many times before in which we had the great scholar that writes Al Meezan in which when he had a dialogue with the French Christian priest of his time and he writes a book called Ashi'a the first thing in which he does he mentions to the person he says no no community without a shadow of doubt however I want to first and foremost elevate the level saying that we want to look at each other as human beings firstly to not have any bias or anger towards one another and what he does he takes off his turban and puts it down he says you know what now we can talk as humans he says I've taken off my turban it's in figures we want to have a dialogue based on knowledge and not based on anger and corruption he lays down the foundation that's when we have nowadays when we go and say you know what this person from that faith don't associate yourself this person is from this particular faith don't go towards him and we have it nowadays when you find that ISIS and first accounts when people have caught in Iraq and to say what kind of religion are you on what kind of God do you believe in what kind of prophethood do you believe in because they say in the name of Islam we kill Muslims what kind of religion is that's irony it's destructive what they've been taught someone may come to them and say do you have an aspect of moral do you have an aspect of what listening to the other party and they try to talk to them you know what the reply is after someone begins to talk they say if we talk to you because they go on days without talking towards the people that give them the food the people that have enclosed them after they've captured them they say we're not allowed to talk to you why does your religion teach you not to talk to people he says no we're not allowed to talk to the followers of Ahl el-Bayt why why is it you're not allowed to talk to the followers of Ahl el-Bayt they say we're not allowed to talk to the followers of Ahl el-Bayt do you know why this is because we're associated with the Husaynian that's very right it's because they say that they've been taught that the people that come to this Husayniyat the people that come towards this mosque don't talk to them and if you do you have to fast 3 days you can tell them صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم إن شاء الله so the brother has pointed out that he wants a bit of quiet thank you so much and inshallah look at the aspect that we want to look at as what they've been taught the aspect of how they've been taught because the aspect we can learn from that person in particular jail what does he say he says we've been taught not to talk towards the Shi'a of Ahl el-Bayt why he says because they will mesmerize you they are magicians that make and take away your mind set and elude to that which doesn't exist the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم before when he brought the message the same thing that people called them they called him magician they called him the liar after the entire Arabian Peninsula called him الصادق الأمين the trustworthy the truthful so we find that that particular aspect is being carried down through the generations until now nowadays you have people calling themselves ISIS saying what saying that do not talk towards the followers of Ahl el-Bayt however what we learn is not from these people what we have to what they have to learn is not from people that they find fanite we find people that are infinite are infallible people that you cannot utter something bad in reference to them people that have never made the mistake the entire life you find them as role models and one of the role models is the one that we celebrate tonight that we aim to learn from look at how he has respect towards other religions when he has and he begins the debate by talking towards the Christian man the Christian man the other side of the courtroom he says how is it that I can have a debate with this Imam the Imam says why he says he believes in a book that I do not believe in I believe in a book that he does not believe in then how can I go about debating him how can I go about having dialogue the Imam looks at him he says don't worry about getting references from my book the Quran he says I'll debate you based on your book the first level what did we say knowledge Imam had such grand knowledge not only of the Quran he had knowledge of the Bible of the Torah of the books that ascended from the heavens so he says to the question I will debate you based on that which is written in your books I will debate you based on your Bible so the person looks at him the Christian man he says then how do you prove your prophet from our religion why is it that your prophet is greater than that of what we believe to be the son of God why do you think that the prophet has an elevated rank so the prophet look how beautiful the Imam replies to this question knowing that having knowledge and having wisdom are two different things having knowledge and having wisdom can be in balance if you follow if you follow in the footsteps that Allah has preached for us to follow in some people have knowledge but they can become very arrogant they can speak out of turn they can speak when it shouldn't be spoken and do not keep quiet when you should keep quiet but having wisdom means what means that even if you have the knowledge you know and you are wise enough to know when to speak and how to speak the Imam teaches us both in this instance he knows when to speak and how to speak he asks him he says we believe that our prophet Muhammad he says is a greater rank from the prophet Isa because he prayed more now look at this instance he used praying he didn't mention anything else of the miracles he says that we believe that he is greater because he prayed more so the person the Christian man he is enraged he says how can you say he prayed more than our Lord Jesus so the Imam got him in the corner he says hold on you say that Jesus is the son of God and you've given him divinity can you tell me if you worship him as a God and you believe that he prayed more than our prophet who he was praying to question person puts his head down look at the perfection of the wisdom of the Imam and how he puts it in a circle so the Imam asks him he says why is it that you say that he is the son of God why do you say that Isa and giving him the rank of divinity is the son of God so look at the reply of the person the person says he says to him we believe that he is the son of God because he resurrects the dead and anyone that can resurrect the dead should be worshipped so the Imam has captured him once again using his wisdom he says hold on in your bible it says and in the Torah it says there are many prophets that have resurrected the dead and he mentions two prophets he mentions Al-Yasa he says he resurrected people after their death and he mentions another by Hasqil I believe Hasqial do different things that they use so Hasqil he says he resurrected 35,000 people after their death after 60 years of their death 35,000 after 60 years he resurrected them he says why is it that you believe in Jesus son of Mary and you do not believe in them because if you take him to be divine you have to also take them to be divine on the second level he puts his head down in shame doesn't have an answer on the first level he didn't even know that the Imam knew from his book amongst many other debates he looks at the Jewish Rabbi and he asks the Jewish Rabbi he says oh Rabbi he says can you tell me why is it that you concluded that the prophet of God is Moses and no one else after him he says of course he says we've come to the conclusion that this particular prophet is a prophet of God because of that which he has produced in miracles so the Imam asks him he says does everyone that produce miracles have to be worshipped and be put in a rank in which he is the prophet and be followed he says no he says then what he says only if he has brought forth the miracles in which mosa has brought forth so the Imam says he begins to mention miracles and miracles and miracles of different prophets within history then he asks the question he says hold on you believe or has it not come across to you when the Maryam has produced then he replies by saying yes we've heard about it but we have not seen it for ourselves the Imam again puts him into a corner with his wisdom he says hold on have you seen the miracles of mosa with your own eyes hasn't the miracles of mosa being dictated to you by different sources the same mannerisms the miracles of Asa have been dictated towards you and prescribed towards you then how is it that you believe in mosa and don't believe in Asa that's the second level puts his head down he says the Imam has got me once again wisdom and knowledge when they go hand in hand you become unstoppable wisdom and knowledge especially when put into the path of Ahl al Bayt it's unstoppable following in there for steps unstoppable as in there and the final level and this is a very jurisprudential question and question which is used in theology when he looks at the atheist and the atheist says to him look at the question I want you all to think about it before I answer it we'll move on to another then we'll go back to it to allow you to think about this question the atheist looks at the Imam and he says to him I'll ask you a question about Tawheed so Imam says carry on he says is Allah in his creation or is the creation in Allah what's the question is Allah in the creation or is the creation in Allah think about that question and I'll return back to it with the reply of the Imam another aspect I want to look at before I return to the question and end for tonight an aspect in which you reply to other schools of thought in Islam now that's how to go about in different interfaith dialogues and having knowledge and wisdom how is it that we can go about in dialogue within Islamic thought within Islamic schools and that's knowledge upon knowledge we can refer to books such as Peshawar Nights books such as Murajat in which all the misconceptions are being looked at someone reads it their knowledge will increase their معرفة will increase the knowledge of Ahl al Bayt the responses everything you will be equipped with the weapons to defend yourself if you refer to these books one instance المأمون comes towards علي ابن موسى الرضا look at the question he asks in front of a crowd he says he says can you tell me how is it that you believe that علي ابن أبي طالب is deciphering between جنة and نار he says where do you find or how do you conclude that علي قسيم الجنة و النار where is it that you find this and the Imam looks at him he doesn't reply from his own books because we have an abundance of treasure an abundance of Ahl al Bayt of knowledge of Ahl al Bayt however when having different dialogues with people outside the school of thought of Ahl al Bayt you need to have knowledge of their books because if you bring forth we say such and such we don't believe in what you believe in if you have knowledge of what they believe in the Imam replied to them using their تورات their انجيل their philosophy in reference and even in this he refers to a hadith from his family he says does not your father say from your father so his grandfather from عبد الله ابن العباس he says a hadith he says what's that hadith that you refer to he says doesn't that person say and whoever loves علي ابن أبي طالب is in heaven and that person who hates علي ابن أبي طالب is a kafir حبه إيمان وبقضه كفر does not your grandparents say that the person from whom you are descending say that that علي حبه إيمان he says yes he does he says فقد قسم الجنة والنار whoever loves him will go towards paradise and whoever hates him will go towards hellfire look at the response not from what he says not he says I heard my grandfather I have an abundance of treasure here how many times علي ابن أبي طالب saying that which he has how many times the more you learn about أهل البيت the more you will understand that treasure علي ابن طالب how many times he says to himself here is an abundance of knowledge he says people come towards him he says we know a hadith in the thousands as we know the first and second didn't allow hadith to be portrayed and carried on he says dig a hole and say it within the hole and then cover the hole because no one will listen to you he says here is knowledge abundance and treasure going back to the point that says what how can we reply to the atheist that says is Allah in us or are we in Allah have we thought about it enough how can we reply to someone that comes and says where is Allah is he in us are we in him were his creations has he created something away from him or is it in him are we in how does it work the Imam gives an example that no one may have come across that may think outside the realm or outside the box that we may think in he says tell me about the mirror look at that example he says tell me about the mirror are you in the mirror or is the mirror in you how does the mirror work he says neither he says likewise what you see on earth is a reflection of Allah's mercy a reflection of that which he has created when you look at the Ahlulbayt you find that they are reflections of his names reflections of his mercy reflections of his justice that's why we hold on to them because in them we see salvation and close towards Allah Subhanahu و تعالى and insha Allah on that note tonight we can learn that to go about dialogue with other religions with interfaith dialogue whether it be within the school of thought of Ahlulbayt or outside that school of thought that's first we have to have knowledge and second we have to have the wisdom to say how to go about saying something and saying it at the right time and after all of that knowing that on the first level you have to first and foremost act accordingly without saying a word if you act in the righteous manner act in a manner which pleases Imam صاحب العصر والزمان you will draw people towards you without even uttering a syllable and that's what insha Allah we want to learn from tonight and try to our best abilities in the future to come to have this in mind when having interfaith dialogue or having dialogue within any particular person whether it be within islamic thought or outside islamic thought when I say this brothers and sisters we want to pray to Allah to elevate us in knowledge we want to pray to Allah to elevate us in rank so much so that he may raise us with the companions of Imam صاحب العصر والزمان with صورة المباركة الفاتحة but before it three of your loudest salawat على محمد وآلي محمد