 أحمد الشيطان العين الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين سيدنا ونبينا أبل قاسمي محمد الأمين وألأ أحلى بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المأسومين المفلومين ولعنة الله لأعداءهم أجمعين من الآن إلا قيامي ومدين أمين يا رب العالمين أردت أردتكم شكرا لكم أردتكم أردتنا once more على this show back to the basics في which we have been discussing of course our differences with others and more importantly how we would approach this difference from a framework which is sustainable allows us to save our time allows us to maintain both conduct and discuss in a way which we have been taught to by the holy household of the holy prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم namely the أحلى البيت may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all now I hope that I don't need to inform anyone who the أحلى البيت are may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all but of course those of you who might be viewing and might not be from a Shia background then know that the أحلى البيت are the partner of the Qur'an and they are the co-equal of the Qur'an in terms of bringing us guidance they are those who have preserved the teachings of the holy prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and so we act in accordance with what they have taught us and we need to always follow their lead we do not precede them in any way shape or form for they are rightly guided and can never be preceded back to where we were dear viewers we were discussing of course the differences of worldviews worldviews have of course been defined in several previous episodes and I am not going to bore with a dear viewer by regurgitating or reiterating the definition of a worldview there is way too many other details which I need to constantly reiterate on a daily basis for me to have to do that again Insha'Allah of course dear viewers just to inform you if you hear any loud background noises which can sometimes be a bit disturbing in terms of concentration then know that we are broadcasting live from the holy city of Kerbala and of course there are who constantly come to visit this particular area because at the right hand side of the channels building there is the hand of so people go in order to pay their tribute and understand what happened at the battle of Kerbala may Allah's mercy be upon those who remember the martyrs of Kerbala now back to our topic we have of course been discussing atheism or the worldview which entails that there is no God namely the worldview which cuts and removes the person or rather allow me to rephrase myself person is not a good term rather the being of God from our understanding of the universe and therefore our conceptualization of reality we have stated on many occasions that the atheist is prone to the same amount of evidence as the average person but rather it is their presuppositions and their pre-existing beliefs which allow them to interpret the evidence in a certain way allow me to give you an example if I were to believe fullheartedly with full conviction that there is no such thing as the supernatural that natural laws can never be broken and that miracles do not occur then no matter how many miracle claims I see in front of me no matter how many things point towards the existence of the supernatural I will approach it with my naturalistic assumptions which force me to assume that there will be a naturalistic and scientific explanation for this phenomenon so if I see people rise from the dead before my very eyes if I see people cured from the blind before my very eyes instead of allowing myself to believe that a miracle has occurred I will continue to say well miracles do not exist and therefore I will eventually and science will eventually find an explanation for why these things occur it's essentially an appeal to what we call the science of the gaps which is to make claims that science will be able to uncover something which it never could because it doesn't belong within the dual realm of the natural sciences so we find that atheists can approach things with this very lens and it is these very lenses these presuppositions which force the atheists to deny sometimes what seems like the most rational and objective evidence and we've seen this particularly with the person of professor, the respected professor Alex Rosenberg who is of course professor of the philosophy of science at Duke University and not Duke University as my American colleagues would say and he in his great book The Atheist Guide to Reality has laid out the full details of his very elaborate world view in which of course we are denied the ability to think the concept of thoughts are removed from the picture the morality is stripped down to a personal arbitrary choice there is no such thing as right and wrong more importantly we are incapable of choosing anything because there is no such thing as free will and of course why did Rosenberg come to this conclusion Rosenberg came to this conclusion because he's convinced there is no God and therefore the only reality which can exist is the physical reality which we see in front of us the physical entities and their physical properties and of course molecules in motion don't have morality molecules in motion don't have free will and molecules in motion don't think either and therefore Alex Rosenberg prefers to go down the rabbit hole with Alice and join her in Wonderland in which everything's a giant delusion everything has become the matrix in the realm of Alex Rosenberg and unfortunately people like yourself and myself are just prone to this giant system in which delusions are fed to our minds now of course this is a very grim view of reality and one thing we certainly see about the worldview of atheism is that it is unlivable and I absolutely mean that it is unlivable you will not find a sane rational dignified person living by those presuppositions they might fully fullheartedly allow themselves to believe that these presuppositions are true but what you'll never find is that they live such presuppositions so when they have children they do believe in a thing such as love when someone who is historical is attacked by someone within society for no other reason than the fact that they could be attacked they don't invoke the fact that this person doesn't have free will they condemn such a person as a monster they're equally as emotionally aroused as you and I when bad people do things which are bad to good people of course good people to suffer the atheist doesn't believe when he gets angry that this is just a thought which is an image being fed to his mind and he's being deceived and that there's no such thing as the concept of thoughts but rather he's just been predetermined to do it by previous physical events nor when he gets upset with his children for doing something distasteful does he invoke the fact that morality is subjective and that therefore they can do whatever they want for you see the atheist lives in the real world and in the real world there is objective morality there is free will and there is the concept of thought but of course why is it so difficult for such people to see that and how can someone like myself have the audacity to claim that everybody deep down knows that Allah exist when we go back to any of the or any of the key creeds books which contain the doctrines of we would find that these beliefs have been stated quite clearly this is the book the book of the book of the book of its life and the life of our righteous alama insha'allah he states and this is of course the great english translation which is done by one of alama of the uk may Allah bless him the fourth way faith in Allah the exalted is innate in human nature therefore humans naturally find themselves to be weak and needsy beings who must refer to an omnipotent and seek help وصفة ومعرفة وتعرفة وصفة هو هو who is free of need لكن أخباره وإصداره إلى إضافه من إضافه إلى إضافه من صفة ومعرفة ما الذي يجب أن يصحب أن هناك الأشياء التي يصدرنا من أنتها When he is placed in danger and losses, hope from all means of salvation, he sees himself helpless, and he wakes up to his sleeping nature, thus unwillingly he turns to the omnipotent and essentially self-sufficient to which he refers and naturally seeks help from. say, who is it that delivers you from the dangers of the land and the sea, when you call upon him openly humiliating yourselves? And in secret, if he delivers us from this, then we should certainly be of the grateful ones. And when distress afflicts a man, he calls upon his Lord turning to him frequently. Then when he makes him possess a favor from him, he forgets that for which he called upon him before, and sets up rivals to Allah. That he may cause men to stray from his path. He it is, who makes you travel by land and sea until when you are in the ships, and they sail on them with them a pleasant breeze. And they rejoice, a violent wind overtakes them, and the billows surge in on them from all sides. And they become certain that they are encompassed about. They then pray to Allah, being sincere to him in obedience. If you do deliver us from this, we will certainly be of the grateful ones. And of course, this particular quote from the Holy Qur'an from Surah 10, ay 22, or the translation that the author has selected for the Holy Qur'an of Surah 10, verse 22, rather. We would see that Allah is invoking the concept of mankind as being that needy being, who when he lives in luxury, he forgets Allah. But when trial and tribulation and need fall over him, he all of a sudden invokes Allah. The great Sheikh Waheed, he cites, that Imam Sadaq, alaihi salatu was-salam, said, Oh son of a messenger, a man came to Imam Sadaq and said, May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Imam Sadaq. Oh son of a messenger of Allah, those who debate with me have confused me. Guide me to Allah. What is he? Hence the Imam, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, stated, Oh servant of Allah, have you ever ridden a boat to which the man responded, of course, Oh son of the messenger of Allah. The man looked at the Imam and the Imam responded. Then did it ever sink leaving you without a boat to rescue you and with insufficient help, strength to swim. There are people, of course, who don't know how to swim. And this is a common phenomenon, especially amongst Muslims. The Imam responded, yes. So the Imam, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, states, At that moment, did your heart have faith in something all-powerful that could rescue you from this difficult situation? Thus, the man replied, certainly. Imam Sadaq then said, then that thing is Allah, the all-powerful, the one who rescues when there is no rescuer and the one who helps when no help is available. And it is possible for human beings, of course, to attain this recognition and natural connection with Allah in states other than necessity, i.e. other free will, with the two wings of knowledge and practice. The first being that the veil of ignorance and negligence departs due to the light of the intellect and he sees that the existence of all beings and their perfection is not due to itself or due to himself. He knows that all ends to the Almighty. He is the first and the last and the ascendant overall and the knower of hidden things. And he is the one who is cognizant of all things. He is Allah, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner. His are the most excellent names. And the second is that the terapidity of sins, loneliness and darkness declines from the essence of his spirit due to purification of the soul and devoutness. Indeed, the servant is only availed from his Lord due to ignorance, negligence and the darkness of sins and loneliness. Therefore, it is mandatory for him to strive in removing it with knowledge and practice. As Allah states, and as for those who strive hard for us, we will most certainly guide them in our ways. Dear viewers, that is a brief introduction to the concept of the fitrah, the innate nature. Join me after the break in which we continue to elaborate more upon this concept. Dear viewers, you would have observed before the break that we were discussing the fitrah and I quoted from our scholars of creed who have of course elaborated upon the fitrah as a legitimate means for us to know Allah, and to come into a knowledge of Allah. Now, of course, one necessary facet to understanding this is that I am not invoking the fitrah as a circular argument because of course if I was invoking the fitrah alone it would be an argument from my religious texts that might have no basis. The atheists could come forward and say well I don't believe in God and I could just say well you do and none of us would get anywhere. And that is why yesterday for those of you who tuned into last night's broadcast you would note that I cited a very very important scientific study in a peer reviewed journal that of course was the international journal for the psychology of religion in which Marjana Lindman and a team of three other scientists focusing within the field of the psychology of religion did a very elaborate test testing the stress levels essentially a very academic and very advanced and sophisticated form of a lie detection device. They tested whether or not atheists are truthful in their ability to dismiss God. Now of course I know that there is some people out there who might say that everyone will get stressed when invoking bad things to happen to them it's difficult to say for example but I wish cancer would befall upon me for example but this particular study shows that when the atheist would say I dare God to do this to me the stress levels seize and they rise and there is a level of stress that is not observed in the quantity that we saw with making other statements such as I wish this happens to me why is that? Some might argue that when you're making a dare like that people it's uncomfortable for them it's a bit uncomfortable true but I guarantee you if I were to go to before a lie detector right now and say that I dare Zeus to give me for example I mean Allah preserve all your lives but to give me AIDS then I don't think my stress levels would be quite as high as the atheists who challenged God to give them these afflictions in their lives and the lives of others who are close to them now of course what the scientists who stated who conducted the experiment did rather was that they stated several possibilities and one of them is that the claim of the atheist is not really in line with what they actually believe but of course they did try to offer more naturalistic explanations which are less offensive to atheists such as well you know many of them used to be believers and perhaps they're still affected by that background but of course I don't believe that's the case I believe if you were to interview many ex-Christians for example who had converted to Islam you'd find that many of them would be more than willing to say that I challenged for example Jesus to do this to me if he is God and I don't think they'd be reluctant whatsoever but of course that would be a very interesting area to look into for a scientific study and it's perhaps unfair of me to invoke this particular claim when we haven't got the evidence in front of us but there is something very very interesting that I wanted to cite inshallah to Allah and that is of course what I believe many of us have not considered when looking into particularly the claims of atheists that if they did believe in God they would just say it namely why would they claim to be the atheists when truly they believe in God and of course this is something which you know the world is not oblivious to in the realm of psychology in fact many of us as believers to some degree suffer from it too but I argue that the atheists suffer from it to a much higher degree and that degree is of course of course slightly raised in the claims that they make and the defiance of the way they live their lives is of course what we call cognitive dissonance what is cognitive dissonance cognitive dissonance is when I hold two beliefs which are entirely opposed to one another and would essentially invalidate both beliefs because of course and of course this will bring us to another point against the atheists in a few minutes varies the rule of non excluded middle or the rule of excluded middle as it's called by some which is that something is either true or it's false there would never be a position in between true and false because the two are contrary opposites so if I hold one belief which is contrary opposite to the other so for example I believe that God has created every human being equal but then I'm a racist idiot that would be a form of cognitive dissonance because on the one hand I'm claiming that God created everyone equal but on the other hand I believe that just because of the accident of your birth of race you're deficient that's a form of cognitive dissonance or if I believe for example that every if I believe that for example every elderly person needs to be treated with respect but then at the same time I hold the belief that if someone's useful to society they should just be removed that again is cognitive dissonance because it would necessitate that I invalidate the first belief so this problem known as the problem of self-deception is one that has long been noted by psychologists philosophers historians and others and this concept of self-deception is something which is very very real and what I mean by very real here is that we notice there are those who even acknowledge that there is a desire to downplay the role of God and the necessity of God because it doesn't fit their desires in fact there have been some studies carried out on some of the most major atheists thinkers of the 20th century in regards to why they had such a distaste for the concept of God and in many cases there is a psychological trauma in their childhoods which caused for them to have this level of hatred but of course those studies are not necessarily as conclusive as say the study I've just cited from the international journal for the psychology of religion which is why I'm not necessarily going to cite from now but I am going to quote some very interesting quotes from the self-admissions of certain atheist thinkers Thomas Nagel is a philosopher and an atheist and a particularly great philosopher in the philosophy of science he states the following I want atheism to be true and I'm uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers it isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right in my belief it's that I hope there is no God I don't want there to be a God I want the universe to be I don't want the universe to be like that now of course this is Thomas Nagel and he's cited here from the secular and philosophy and the religious temperament book which was published in 2005 that is one quote I did want to elaborate on more but inshallah to Allah that should suffice for tonight and we will continue with more quotes later on والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته