 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem For the past decade, he has served as a Human Relations Commissioner for the City of Fremont. As a religious leader, Dr. Rajavala has served since 2000 as a volunteer Muslim Chapman at Washington Hospital. He is the past president of the Islamic Society of Spain, Fremont, which is one of the Bay Area's largest mosques. If that wasn't enough, anything is. He also operates an active dental practice in New York. I have this too. Dr. Rajavala says this. I greet you with peace. As-salamu alaykum. Please be with you. Thank you for this beautiful. How's it going? You're okay. How's it going? It's on? Yeah. It's on? Yeah. Thank you. You hear me louder? Yeah. All right. So peace be with you. This beautiful Sunday and I just want to start by thanking the organizers. Thank you for having us here. It's our honor and privilege, honor. We feel very honored to come here and take time from your service time and be with us so that we could have a sensible dialogue and a talk. My worries are the back. I heard last week Bob was raped very high. He's a good friend of mine. Thank to God he's a good friend of mine. I have a lot of respect for him. So I hope I can listen to him this morning. I've been asked to talk about the Quran. I'm going to try to do something almost impossible in a lifetime study in one hour. And I talk a lot to Peter Freeman and we talk about it when he told me what it is. I gathered the information and I said if I answer three questions, maybe we could cover the whole. I answered three questions. Question number one is what is the Quran? What is it and how came the way it is today? Maybe that's the first question. The first question is how important is the Quran to Muslims? How they look at the Quran especially in their everyday life? That's number two. And number three is what are the common personalities? The biblical and Quranic personalities that are common. We can perhaps look at that. Any question, any time please. I understand we have a question and answer session afterwards. If you have a question outside those three questions that I'm going to ask, please feel free to ask. So your questions are not limited to the questions that I will answer. A couple of things before I start. In the Islamic tradition we always praise God before we start something. And every time I mention the name of any prophet who will say peace be upon him or multiple peace be upon him. So you hear me saying that a lot. And so let's get how the Quran is. What is the Quran? Technically the Quran is the last revelation that Muslims believe that God revealed to the human kind. So we have God, the same God of Abraham, the same God of Moses, the same God of Jesus, peace be upon them. Revealed the Quran. And Muhammad peace be upon him is the recipe of the Quran. And how did he come through? Angel of Gabriel. So Muslims believe that the Quran is the words of God given to bearded Gabriel and armed to Muhammad. The story started in a cave. Known as a cave or pyramid. When Muhammad peace be upon him was in his code east and he knew something was wrong in the world that he lives in. That's how I mean it. That he knew something was wrong and you look at the people of his generation of inage they wasted their time drinking, claiming animals. He knew there was something wrong to life. To the precious life. So he used to retreat in a cave out of the mountain. Seen a cave around the house in the cave. So he used to climb that cave and stay there. With minimal provision. Very silent. Moses peace be upon him. So it is on one of those nights that the angel Gabriel appeared in front of him and asked him to read the act of the tree. They read it. And angel Gabriel came in tightly, tightly to break his chest more and let him go and say a repeat after me. And he agreed. He recited the first verse of the Quran that was revealed chapter 96-1-5 to read in the name of thy road. To read in the name, paraphrasing read in the name book of your Lord the most gracious that has created everything that has told humans by the pan but they do not. That I said five verses were given to him. Then this process continued and it stopped on and off for a period of twenty three years. Now, I will talk a little bit about the compilation of the Quran. How it came into the form of a book. By the way, I brought some ten copies of the Quran. Please, I understand. You did not have enough last week. Please feel free to take them. And if you need more, you can contact me. I am very happy to send you some more. So there were two methods that the Quran was recorded. Those methods were very precise, very consistent, the same one at the same time, in the same way and very documented. The first one was memorization. Now memorization was very integral to the Arab culture. The Arabs loved to memorize. That was the entertainment of the time. There was no TV, no social media, what they used to gather and have music, have human dance, belly dancing, a lot of food, a lot of wine. They were drinking in those days, a lot of wine. A lot of wine. And they would recycle. Then, that was the culture. Beautiful Arabic language, beautiful Arabic one. And that would start a war too, by the way. If your boy come and insult me with his poetry, I'll fight for you. That's what the tribal society that's how it works. So memorization was with them. So when they had to memorize the Quran, it wasn't their culture. It was not something that they were not used to. The date memorizing the culture is ascribed that it would be wielded and that they could really live with it. They would, as soon as they memorize it, you would tell them and they can memorize it. That was the first method. The second method was writing. Camel bones, they were writing so that we have two methods that if one was not you could check with the other. If I'm the one who memorized and I had some problem, I could go to you and say, you know what, I missed that part. You tell me what it is. You memorize it. You tell me. The others were wrong. If I already wronged them so they had two ways of verifying they had memorization and they had it written. I've always believed in that. But something came up in 2015, very recently. That's two years ago, maybe a year and a half ago. 2015 in the University of Birmingham in UK. They had some manuscripts in their library and they wanted to go and test this carbon tested to know the age of that manuscript. And they did that together with the University of Oxford at the Canterbury University and the test carbon. The carbon tested the life they had. And they found out that those copies they were copies of chapter 18, 19, 20, 10, belong to the time of Muhammad. These are the accuracy of 95.4%. That's amazing. That's amazing. We have always been saying that but we are very happy that this came out. Showing and proving that what we were saying was always right. And those copies that they had in their possession were identical to what we had in the program today in those chapters of 18, 19, 20. But I just wanted to say that so that you and after that this continuity when after the death of the problem is happening it's a long process for time sake. Then they will start putting it to call and keep parchment by parchment whatever you had whatever you had. Remember it was a whole city of Medina. It's not just one person. And they would compare and keep and do it. And later on because people were from different parts they would read the Arabic with different phonetics. You say tomato or tomato. Chicago or Chicago. It's late like that. So one of the third success of Mohammed al-Baghdadi was of man who would standardize and verify all the dialect really that they would read in the same style that Mohammed al-Baghdadi read. So that's the first question I think you can talk a lot about it but I think that's a brief thing. Now let's look at the second one. How Muslims look at the book of Quran in their daily life. The first thing that you have to do that Muslim regards that Quran has a miracle it's not only not just a book it's a miracle. Now all prophets peace be upon them all in Islam we do not differentiate the Quran tell us to not differentiate among the prophet. By the way do you need Arab Christian here? No sorry don't need for me to read the Arabic because I don't want to read the Arabic because I'm listening to English. Quran say do not differentiate among the prophets of God. Just listen and obey that's what the Quran says. We translate a living miracle because all prophets came to prove themselves most of the prophets were common people some of them peace be upon them most of them were silver spoon most of the prophets were just poor and old in their funeral I give you the example of Moses peace be upon him he came to Pharaoh I am the messenger of God what the hell are you talking about? what the hell are you talking about? I know who you are I raise you I know who you are what prophet are you talking about what messenger are you talking about and what God are you talking about? he said Pharaoh are you ready to have something you know you can stall for you what did he produce? anybody knows from the background what he produced? his staff his staff so every prophet had that with the mighty Jesus peace be upon him Jesus would just put his hand and pray and the blind man would wake up the miracles and they all did their miracles in the name of God and all their miracles are locked in their time now I will tell you if I want to look at the blind man that Jesus peace be upon him pure and as he came and had a cup of tea he would be telling me how he goes how the processor because all the miracles of the prophets were locked in their time and we believe in all of them but how the miracle is the Quran because he didn't know how to read he didn't know how to write his people were the people of language and he just told you they used to recite poems so he came with that mystery he came with that miracle that's why the Quran was challenged to the Arabs of those times if you think this is human if you think Muhammad would compose it then bring the best of your poets and try to match it they tried one of them came of course they would came to do that but first I have to listen when you listen to it you came back to the head of the Quraysh the Quraysh was a tribe of the Arabs he said hey we are not believing what he says fine but believe him alone this is not human I can't even reply to that that one of the cream of the poetry so again quickly we go through why Muslims believe that it is a miracle today we don't believe that this is a miracle because he is the last prophet sent by God to humanity and that's why he said we believe he thinks and there are other reasons that I will give you around one of them is the Arabic language because we know today all the scriptures they exist in a dead language it means a language not using everyday use which means documents are not written in it letters are not written in it if I attend the United Nations Security Council meeting on the channels of translation I will not hear those that's what we call dead languages they are studied they are studied only for academy purposes the Qur'an is a little language we still hear it Muhammad peace be upon him I told you letters are written documents are written translation are being given so that's what we say even the Arabic language is a miracle it was recorded during the lifetime of the prophet there was no oral tradition passed down from generation to generation as we have seen the piece that we have seen and it hasn't changed over 1500 years we don't give credit to the Saudis the Saudis we are not too very happy with the Saudis you need to know that our government support the corrupted regime we are not we want you to join to express that we do not we are not happy that our government in the United States of America is monitoring the biggest problem so if the Qur'an didn't change it's not because of the Saudis it's because God himself saved it we have without doubt sat down the Qur'an and we will actually guard it from corruption 159 until the most read book in the world not only is it the most read book in the world when you look at it in a particular time zone the only book that is read by so many people it's amazing if you imagine a different timeline when I look at the world the country where I was born off the coast of South Africa it's with nothing so you have different times but you need to pick up a timeline hundreds of thousands of people are in the same thing and then when you get into month Ramadan is amazing but perhaps most important of that it contains again I speak about the Arabic language there's something called Hafiz Hafiz Hafiz means the memorizer the one memorised Qur'an is the correct how memorised Qur'an the part of Qur'an that I did not memorise from the first to the last but you'll be amazed how people memorise it from the first line to the last 7 years old 9 years old you take the children where in America we use America you use the children in America especially now this generation they speak English in the house they are the second and third generation we settle quite a bit we settle pretty much to speak English in the house I always spoke English in the home because me and my wife don't speak the same language so we always speak English but then I remember when I went to the high school what language do you speak at home I said English do you speak English yes I do so the Hafiz is amazing I mean you give a child a book of more than 6000 verses 140 chapters in the language that he doesn't know in the language that he doesn't understand in the language that his parents don't use at home and he said go ahead and memorize it and they do it in one and a half or two try that Russia try that Chinese try that any language this is what we say that he's in America now the other thing that we have now now what I have is more scientific it contains information the Quran contains information that was not known to humans when it was revealed 1500 years ago many of that from the world being ground from the climates orbiting our reminder that the Muslims in Spain got that gave it to the Spain and that's what led to the age of discovery of Magdalene Christopher Columbus used the maps of and if anybody knows his name was from Spain but I have to get more recent here I'll give the case of Dr. Keith Moore Dr. Keith Moore Dr. Keith Moore is an embryologist an anatomist head of department in Canada School of Medicine I think in Toronto or something always online you can check Keith Moore you look at the Quran you look at the science of embryology the science of embryology is a new science it talks about the development of the baby in the uterus of the mother and this came only after the development of the electron microscope when Dr. Keith Moore looked into the Quran about the development of the fetus he was shocked he was surprised at the precise description anatomical precise description and he published a paper I have the name of the paper here he published a scientific interpretation of the references to embryology in the Quran he was shocked he said there's no way Muhammad could have known that there's no human in the world at that time at this knowledge and they are asking do you believe the Quran is human he said no they are asking for are you willing to become a Muslim he said no I'm happy as a Christian but I respect the Quran there isn't human that the message I have that the message we want to have for America for our fellow country know the Quran for what it is we are not in the business of conversion God that's what we want we are not in the business of conversion but if you know what the Quran is that you will be there will be more than Dr. Keith Moore there will be more Dr. Professor John Espositan there will be more current Armstrong when you will respect the book you won't burn it you won't burn it and you will respect its adherence that's what it's all about and I give you an example of Dr. Maurice Bukai so again thank you all for coming a couple of housekeeping things before we get started one is you received the link from the speaker last week the presentation was recorded and it's on YouTube so I'll be forwarding the link to the office so they'll be able to post it on the website I also received from the speaker the list of the books that he described at the end of the presentation last week so we'll be closing those as well so without further ado let's go ahead and get started introducing our speaker for today Dr. Mohammed Rajabal he's a longtime community activist and layspeaker providing sermons at Mossack across the Bay Area and an active leader with two national groups that represent Muslim Americans as an advocate for the poor and vulnerable he founded a domestic violence shelter in the South Bay and serves as a member of the Tri-Cities Homeless Coalition for the past decade he must have served as a human relations commissioner for the city of Fremont as a religious leader Dr. Rajabal has served since 2000 as a volunteer Muslim chaplain at Washington Hospital he's a past president of the Islamic Society of Spain Fremont, which is one of the Bay Area's largest mosques if that wasn't enough he's also a active mental practice in New York so I have this too Dr. Rajabal peace peace be with you thank you for this beautiful thank you for this beautiful thank you here oh that's fine thank you peace be with you it's beautiful Sunday and I just want to start by thanking the organizers thank you for having us here it's our honor privilege honor we feel very honored to have you here and to take time from your service time to meet to us so that we could have a sensible dialogue and to talk the last week the ball was rate very high the good friend of mine thank the guy he's a good friend of mine I have a lot of respect for him so I hope I do these things this morning possibly a lot of time studying in one hour and I talk a lot to Peter Freeman and we talk about it when he told me what it is I gathered the information and I said if I answer three questions maybe we could cover the whole question number one is what is the Quran what is it and how became the way it is today maybe that's the first question the second question is how important is the Quran to muslim how they look at the Quran especially in their everyday life that's number two and number three is what are the common personalities the biblical and Quranic personalities that are common and we can perhaps look at that and any question any time please just I understand we have a question and I'll answer but if you have a question outside those three if you have a question that I'm going to please feel free to ask so your questions are not limited to the question that I will answer a couple of things before I start in the Islamic tradition we always praise God before we start something and every time I mention the name of any prophet who will say peace be upon him or multiple peace be upon him so you would hear me saying that a lot and so let's get how the Quran technically the Quran is a lot of revelation that muslim believe that God revealed him human kind so we have God, the same God of Abraham the same God of Moses the same God of Jesus peace be upon them revealed the Quran and Muhammad peace be upon him in the recipe of the Quran and how did he come through so muslim believe that the Quran is the words of God given to bearded people and armed to Muhammad basically it always started in a cave known as the cave of Hiram when Muhammad peace be upon him what he was coding is and he knew something was wrong in the world that he lives that he knew something was wrong look at the people of his generation of his age they wasted their time drinking he knew there was something wrong to life to the precious life so he used to retreat in a cave of the mountain seen the cave so he used to climb that cave and stay there with minimal provision very silent Moses peace be upon him so it is on one of those nights that the angel Gabriel appeared in front of him and asked him to read to read and angel Gabriel came to break his chest more and let him go and say repeat after me and he recited the first verse of the Quran that was revealed chapter 96 1 to 5 to read in the name of dialogue and paraphrase of your Lord the most gracious that has created everything that has stopped humans by the pen but they do not that I said 5 verses were presented then this process continued it stopped for a period of 22 years I will talk a little bit about the compilation of the Quran how it came into the form of the Quran by the way I brought some 10 copies of the Quran please I understand you did not have enough last week please feel free to take them and if you need more you can contact me I can hopefully very happy to send you some more so there were two methods that the Quran was recorded those methods were very precise very consistent the same one in the same time in the same way and very documented first one was memorization now memorization was very integral to the Arab culture the Arabs loved to memorize that was the entertainment of the time there was no TV, no social media what they used to do to gather in different tents have music have human dance a lot of food, a lot of wine they were drinking in those days a lot of wine and they would recycle then big one that was the culture beautiful Arabic language beautiful Arabic one and that would start a war too by the way if your boy come and insult me with his poetry I'll fight you that's what the travel society that's how they were so memorization was with that the Quran was in their culture it was not something that they would not use the date memorizing culture is ascribed that who will be with him if they really live with him they would as soon as they memorize it they would tell them and they can memorize it that was the first method the second method was writing camel bones, they were writing leather patterns so that we have two methods that if one was not you could check with the other if I'm the one who memorize and I have some problem I could go to you and say you know what I miss that part you may memorize it the other way around if I already wrong so they had two ways of verifying they had memorization and they have it written and we have always believed in that but something came up in 2015 very recently that's like two years ago 2015 in the University of Birmingham in UK they had some manuscripts in their library and they wanted to go and test this carbon tested to know the age of that manuscript and they did that together with the University of Oxford at the Academy of University and they test carbon they carbon tested what they had and they found out that those copies there were copies of chapter 18, 19, 20 all belong to the time of Mohammed in the academy accuracy of 90 95 and 4% it's amazing it's amazing we have always been saying that but we are very happy that this came out showing and proving that what we were saying was always right and those copies that they had were identical to what we had in the program today of those chapters of 18, 19, 20 but I just wanted to say that so that you and after that this 19 year after the death of the coffin is happening it's a long process for time sake I'm just saying then they will start putting it as you would call it parchment by parchment whatever you had it's not just one person and they would compare and do it and later on because people were from different parts they would read the Arabic different phonetics you say tomato or tomato Chicago or Chicago things like that so one of the third success of Mohammed was of man he would standardize old dialect really that they would read in the same style that Mohammed peace be upon him so that's the first question I think you can talk a lot about it but I think that's a brief thing now let's look at the second one how Muslims look at the book the Quran and their daily life the first thing that you have to do that Muslims regard the Quran as a miracle it's not only not just a book it's a miracle now all prophets peace be upon them all in Islam we do not differentiate the Quran tells us to not differentiate among the prophet are you Christian yet? no sorry don't even need to read the Arabic because I don't know if you can read some Arabic so that's a good question Quran says do not differentiate make no difference among the prophets of God just listen and obey that's what the Quran says so we translate a living miracle because all prophets came to miracle that's what they have to prove themselves most of the prophets were common people Solomon peace be upon him was from the silver spoon another prophet majority of prophets were just poor and old in Europe I give you the example of Moses peace be upon him came to Pharaoh and into a pharaoh I am the messenger of God what the hell are you talking about what the hell are you talking about I know who you are I raise you I know who you are what prophet are you talking about what messenger are you talking about and what God are you talking about that's what you do on it he said Pharaoh are you ready I have something in the stone for you what did you produce anybody knows from the battle of the barangal what were the miracle of Moses his staff his staff his staff so every prophet had that with him mighty Jesus peace be upon him Jesus would just put his hand then the blind man would wake up mighty mighty miracles and they all did their miracles in the name of God and all their miracles are locked in their time if now I would go to the Red Sea I would run I would run if I want to look at the blind man that Jesus peace be upon him pure as he come and have a cup of tea would be telling me how he goes how the processor I can't find that blind man because all the miracles of the prophets were locked in their time and we believe in all of them Muhammad miracle is the Quran because he didn't know how to read he didn't know how to write his people was a people of language and just told you they used to recite poems so he came with that mystery he came with that miracle that's why the Quran was challenged to the Arabs of those times if you think this is human if you think Muhammad composes then bring the best of your poets and try to match it they tried that challenge one of them I forgot his name to do that he said first I have to listen so I can reply when you listen to it you came back to the head of the Quraysh the Quraysh was a tribe of the Arabs he said hey we're not believing what he says fine but believe him this is not human I can't even reply to that that one of the cream of the poetry so again quickly we go through why don't we believe that it is a miracle today why we believe that this is a miracle because he's the last prophet sent by God to humanity his teaching remains and that's why we believe it is and there are other reasons that I will give you around one of them is the Arabic language Arabic language today as we know it today all the scriptures that we know they exist in a dead language it means a language that is not using everyday use which means documents are not written in it letters are not written in it if I attend the United Nations Security Council meeting on the channels of translation I will not hear those that's what we call dead languages of course they were studied they were studied only for academy courses the Quran is a living language we still hear it the same way I told you letters are being written documents are written translation are being given so that's what we say we simply believe even the Arabic language is a miracle of it it was recorded during the lifetime of the prophet from generation to generation as we have seen the piece that we have seen from the University of Birmingham it hasn't changed over 1500 years we don't give credit to the Saudis the Saudis we are not too very happy with the Saudis you need to know that our government support the corrupted regime we are not we want you to join us to express that we are not happy that our government of the United States of America support those monarchies the biggest problem so if the Quran didn't change it's not because of the Saudis it's because God himself saved it we have without doubt sat down the Quran and we will actually guard it from corruption 159 it is the most red book in the world not only is it the most red book in the world when you look at it it is the only time zone it is the only book that is red by so many people the same part the same page with the same name it's amazing if you imagine you are a different timeline when I look at where I am 12 o'clock the country where I was born from off the coast of South Africa it's midnight there so you have different times but you need to pick up a timeline hundreds, hundreds of people every two months of Ramadan it's been amazing but perhaps most important of that is it contains before I get that there is again I speak about the Arabic language there is something called hafiz hafiz it means the memorizer the one who memorizes the Quran that's exactly the same I have memorized quite a bit part of the Quran but I did not memorize it from the first to the last I really amaze how many people memorize it from the first line to the last you know they were just 8 years old 7 years old, 9 years old and you ask any you take the children where in America we use America you know the children in America especially in our generation they speak English in the house without your second and third generation we settle quite a bit we settle pretty much to speak English in the house I always spoke English in the house because me and my wife don't speak the same language so we always speak English but me I remember when I went to the high school to put my son in and she said what language do you speak at home I said English, she looked at me she said do you speak English yes I do so the hafiz is amazing I mean you give a child a book you've done 6,000 verses 140 chapters in the language that he doesn't know in the language that he doesn't understand in the language that his parents don't use at home and he said go ahead and memorize it and they do it in one and half or two try that in Russia, try that in Chinese try that in any language in English this is what we say that he's in America in that language the other thing that we have now now what I have is more scientific it contains information the Quran contains information that was not known to humans when it was revealed 1500 years ago many of that from the world being ground from the climates orbiting our reminder that the Muslims in Spain got that gave it to the Spain and that's what led to the age of discovery of Magdalene Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus used the maps of anybody knows his name was Adam Harris from Spain but I have to get more recent here I'll give the case of Dr. Keith Moore Dr. Keith Moore Dr. Keith Moore is an embryologist and I'm not the head of the problem in kind of school of medicine I think in Toronto or something all these are online you can check again Keith Moore you look at the Quran you look at the science of embryology the science of embryology is a new science it talks about the development of the baby in the uterus of the mother and this came only after the development of the electron microscope when Dr. Keith Moore looked into the Quran about the development of the fetus he was surprised at the precise description anatomical precise description and he published a paper he published a scientific interpretation of the references to embryology in the Quran he was shocked he said there is no way Muhammad could have known that there is no human in the world at that time at this knowledge do you believe the Quran is human he said no are you willing to become a Muslim he said no I'm happy as a Christian but I would respect the Quran that isn't human that's the message I have that's the message we want to have for America know the Quran for what it is it is not about conversion we are not in the business of conversion that's what we want we are not in the business of conversion but if you know what the Quran is then you will be there will be more like Dr. Keith Moore there will be more Dr. Professor John Espositan there will be more current Armstrong when you will respect the book you won't burn it and you will respect its ideas that's what it's all about and I give you another example of Dr. Maurice Bukai anybody heard of him amazing those people wrote those books when they were non-Muslims and Dr. Keith Moore is still non-Muslim but I don't know about Dr. I met him by the way influenced my life a lot I was born from Muslim parents but I met him through my own search and at that time of my life when I met Dr. Maurice Bukai it was very very important crucial time for me and I eliminated eliminated eliminated eliminated and I came to choose you could either be a Christian or Muslim Maurice Bukai was a big one he read that book it was amazing it talks about a lot of things finger printing talks about finger printing this is amazing you know the finger printing is 75% I was talking to a group of doctors and they are watching me and I told them Alzheimer is in the Quran look at me I think it's Alzheimer is in the Quran so at each generation as science make advancement we interpret the Quran we see it is in the Quran see we have no problem with that not everything that Darwin says is correct we take a lot of objections from Darwin we are not apes but many things he said is in the Quran many things Darwin said we have no problem in all science they teach evolution because two words in the beginning of the Quran the word Raab this is the first verse of the Quran Raab means somebody who creates something and makes it grow that's evolution let me go to the second part how the Quran helps Muslim the Quran is a guide it guides a Muslim the Quran is a book that tell us who is God so you'll be surprised I asked this question to a teenager he was talking to me and said who is God he said you know what I never asked him I said I don't know who is God but the Quran tells who is God you know two, one, 35 there are many verses of the Quran I don't have time to go in but he tells you who is God like he's one like he's closer to us and our juggler veins he's not close to you he tells us don't repeat the mistake of your father he warns us please the Quran addresses human beings that's what perhaps a lot of people don't know the Quran addresses human beings there are some verses specific to Muslim of course yes, that's only for Muslim but the others you have it in address of human, you have an ass in Arabic people and when you address a Muslim you are living in the air there's a difference in Arabic about the address of the Quran so tell us don't fall like a farm for Satan and then he tells us if ever you fall no I am merciful I love to forgive and if you ask me I will forgive he asks us to believe in your life to come and to do whatever best you can with our deeds for that life to come he tells us we will be responsible for our action and that put a sense of responsibility and accountability on me and that's what changed my life I grew up in the 60s you can imagine what that is welcome to my life I was a typical one I don't want to do too much detail I grew up in a small farm when I lived it was a small house in the island of Morsos in the city of Olives so where was I so he tells us you fall down, you commit mistakes on your cell phone you're at this call and say oh God, oh my father I pray that I had a piece of God when he called a father and said oh my God, I have wronged myself forgive me and save me otherwise I will be out of the losers and that's the prayer that I will repeat alright so he is the guy, that's why we give guys he tells us in the book uplift the poor to be with those who are in the pitch darkness a quality of suffering you have already in my intro that I I served I served because of my duty to you and when he says take care of the orphan he doesn't say Muslim orphan and say have the weak he said the weak so that's the moral values the old values the family values, respect your parents once a man asks the prophet who is the one I should love of the God and of you he said your mother your mother then I say second time he said your mother then I ask a third time he said your mother then he said fourth time before sorry guys we all then told that the paradise is not getting in us people this is a manufacture a maker we are told that paradise lies beneath the feet of your mother serve your mother that's your key so diversity 4913 I guess after Barack Obama president Barack Obama write this verse in the message that he visited this is the verse that we need to know know that I have created you from one being and feeling and make you into transformations that you understand each other that you do not despise each other but you aspire some of you to the one who is closest to God and look at that criteria who is closest to God the one who is more pious can you weigh that can you weigh that on a scale who is more pious that's the verse of diversity the Quran calls someone else to look at the animals to look at the color of the skin the different languages that we speak so that we respect each other the Quran calls from us to look at the stars and the moon to reflect to reflect on the creation and say there could not be other God than I am based on one God because they would fight each other to get into the mythology the Greek mythology or the Hindu where you have fights with God finding God's fight down on themselves because there is only one God I control this whole universe look at it and I had a man who talked to me the other day in the 80s he was trying to and I said this is a friendly conversation I don't plan to talk a lot to you but I will tell you another question I believe that God raised the sun in the east every day and made it set in the west you believe there is no God if you have any other power that can make that sun raise in the west then you will prove me wrong if you got from me wrong I said case close y'all I don't know there is something I need to say but that is very important for us to reflect there is a beautiful verse of 2.64 beautiful verse at the unicense in nature of the universe we can't see God but we can see the signs of God the signs of creation of God and I think I will take the last one I have a rush a little bit because I want to hear from you the last one is the Quran how does the Quran in relation to the biblical personalities that we know well to understand that we just go back to couple of verses of the Quran where the Quran clearly says that it is a book that conferred previous revelation it is a book that conferred previous revelation that 297 3 and 3 I hope you are following me the first number is the chapter the second number is the first 7, 3, 3 and 5, 4, 8 there are many others I just get free of course that's why we have to believe in all as a Muslim I have to believe in the Torah I have to believe in the sound of David I have to believe in the gospel of Jesus and the peace we have in the Torah I can't say I am a follower I believe in the Quran and I deny what was good I am not Muslim actually the Quran in conferred those okay it's very important so you have a lot of figures especially those powerful messages like Abraham Muhammad is called Abraham he is called Abraham he is called Abraham Abraham Moses is called Abraham Jesus is called Abraham a very very frequent dimension the whole chapter of the Quran is named after the father of Jesus you don't see a chapter of the Quran after the mother of Muhammad you don't see a chapter so you have to understand that there are some others who are less spoken of they are not I think it's mentioned in one sort of eyes peace be upon them a lot is mentioned quite a bit also peace be upon them Noah peace be upon them all goes on mentioned so there may be if you look at it there may be some variation but in principle there are stories there are life stories of those prophets we some of course the obvious difference will be the status of Jesus peace be upon us the Quran tells he is a mighty prophet God you need to know that we believe in his miraculous birth we believe that he was miraculously born that's why in our Quran whenever Jesus is mentioned who else is mentioned if anybody can guess John the Baptist John the Baptist because the Quran tells both miraculous birth and he is the God's power to create he creates whatever he wants whatever he has whatever he wants so that's why always most of the time in the story of John the Baptist Jesus peace be upon them all mentioned simultaneously a lot of similarities between the Moses and how they fight the enemies how they will be put in exile how they come back victorious, Moses and Muhammad peace be upon them so that basically tells us those personalities come to the Quran and come to as we know it today the differences in the Quran the wife of Pharaoh that believes in Moses peace be upon them I am not sure if I am wrong but I think unless it is Hollywood depiction I think it is his sister that believes in the in the vision of Moses peace be upon them so I will end here I will start here I will use tonight just feel free thank you Jordan and Israel and our tour company was an Arab Christian tour company and one thing that we learned and of course we would be this all the time is that Arab Christians are being persecuted throughout the Jewish part of that world and the Islamic part and they are being engrossed and I am wondering if there is such an affinity why is that happening true, that is so unfortunate I myself I can't really tell I was persecuted at the Muslim so it all depends it is a majority minority rule but unfortunately I am not sure where they get out if you go to Morocco Christians and Muslims get out in Morocco Turkey was an amazing example let me remind you when the Christians King Frederick kicked the Muslims out of Spain what did the Jews do they followed the Muslims in Spain they said you are kicking the Muslims today we are next tomorrow and they left Spain and followed the Muslims to that I would say the faith of Muslims in Turkey so it's sad and that's why maybe we get together we work together and I just told you about this Islamic Monarch that we as Muslims we do not support and you don't know that so we need to talk we need to speak out how we are not having understanding I listened to the speech which is a ban on the other day in Europe oh my god it sounds like Pope Pope in the second raising the Monarch for the crusade that's how it sounds we cannot afford a crusade as Muslims, as Christians as Jews, as Hindus we have so much blood in our hands we cannot go down that way blood has not solved our problem actually I understood and we are not going to tonight we are going to say it exists but hopefully we download talking diplomacy because it is the defined right that God has given any human being to worship God the way he wants or the way she wants it is not my business it is not my government business it is not my chief commanding, chief business to tell anyone of us how to worship God good morning and thank you very much for being here with us I am a little frustrated in my own Christian faith with the lack of information about Mary and I am just to hear that there is a whole chapter in the Quran can you tell us a little bit about that chapter sure that chapter is a tell us about Mary that he comes from the glory when I look at the chapter 18 it is the 19th chapter 19 Mary comes from the glory in childhood 10th and the career was in childhood how close right the career was going to bring the food so one day he came in to bring the food for before I had to go for the birth when Mary's man was pregnant when she delivered a goat so he thought God of course we know what he was doing but I still felt that I wanted to give him that so when the kaka came and brought the food to her he saw many us look at that she said God promised so then when he was at one time the angel appeared in front of him while she was retiring in the East Park and the angel told her Mary God had decided he would have the son she would reserve him but I am talking about having a son I have no boyfriend, I have no man I don't know anybody I am a cheap woman you better be careful and don't come close to me I am not an angel God has decreed you will have the son so retreat to the East giving seclusion and he cheated and at the time of delivering the pain of childbirth he said oh God I will never happen to me and he looked around God revealed shake the date the power trick the dates would fall and he and that became scientific today we know that date extract is a toxic substance that it might be muscle stimulant very aggressive and though Jesus is born he is beyond the name and he comes out with a child you can imagine that conservative Jewish community they went berserk now oh Mary what did you do you dishonored the Arab family that you need to come from and he says don't talk to me talk to the baby talk to the baby this isn't the Quran this isn't the Quran don't talk to me talk to the baby there is always something on the intelligence talk to the baby baby just I am the messenger of God brought to you I am here to lead you that's what we know about Jesus and good to know that and she asked me like what is the historical importance of that when Muslims were born in Syria Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and he told them go to Abyssinia where there is a righteous Christian king and he will not treat you with cruelty go there and they went there they got asylum there the courage local Arabs orange and the ambassador returned them they are prisoners of war and a companion of the prophet they got the place with him he recited the man he recited the chapter Mary when the Christian king asked him what are you talking about he recited that and he took his staff and walking and he draw a line the difference between you Muslims and us Christian is no thicker than that line that's a very historical event and the prophet Muhammad will return with him when the delegation of Christians of Najran came to visit him in Medina and it was this morning Sunday morning they had to pray and they didn't have the place to pray they offered them their home and those was the understanding the respect they are our teachers ladies and gentlemen they are our teachers and we have some solos yes please yes thank you for coming can you can you speak a little bit to a lot of the misconceptions I think that many Christians have about the differentiation between how men and women are brought up in the Muslim faith different roles that they have absolutely to know the answer we have to differentiate between culture and religion we are not going to deny that there are many places where men terminate women that is not Islam if women cannot drive in Saudi Arabia please don't blame Islam he is a Saudi Arab if a daughter who has been raped is killed in Pakistan to not blame Islam it is the travel culture of Allah we need to know that the Quran is very very chapter 4 verse 1 we have created you a man and a woman from that we have made many men and many women we were equal we have been created from the same essence the same material I remind you that Islam if is not blaming forgive me I don't need to do that we have to know that Islam came to give women the right that they never had not only in Saudi Arabia but around the world if you look at the British inheritance act do you know where the woman in Britain put her in property 1900 the muslim conference did it after the Quran was written 1500 years ago women were object of sex and I am afraid they are still up but Islam came to stop Islam said honor the womb 4 1 honor the womb that bore you honor the womb women didn't have right Arabia was searching that when a father died his eldest son when he had married his wife you look like your mother from the back and that would be enough to cook that woman the Quran came to contain that to stop that culture yes and that's why you have to be very careful when I was talking to a Christian congregation to make them understand right and I said if you see a Chinese Christian you see a Chinese Christian eating the stick you don't come to California and publish in the paper Jesus says to eat the stick you have to differentiate you have to differentiate between the Chinese being a Christian and the Chinese culture eating with a stick I have to differentiate between them just a quick follow up can you clarify whether women can church can be leaders yes if we go in our tradition one of the greatest scholars of Islam his name was Aisha she died in Greece they said this woman could have maybe 10 kids together she's our teacher she's our teacher absolutely a woman can be leaders and when I was in the president of the slums of the East most of our committees were led by women they were very active they still are very active but to lead a prayer they can lead among women but to lead a prayer with the first we have personal hygiene Islam respect the mentions and when the women are mentioned during the period, they are exempt from prayer we know we pray five times a day but when they are written that now today we have this hormone disturbance that we understand the mood the reflection of mood and we address that with the mentions while the Quran also recognized that a long time in that time the woman needs to be Prophet Muhammad told us how he was close to his wife when the mentions how to be with them how to be supportive of them because of their mood changes because of that they don't take that heavy responsibility of prayer because of the action that we do when we pray, we bend forward we bend on our knees, we go down we don't want that I don't think many women women would not be comfortable bending down the absolute man behind them as a man I wouldn't be comfortable with a woman bending in front of me when I do this see how we start our prayer this, what does that mean? surrender I'm surrendering from the world I say Allah Akbar I don't want anything comfortable but a woman with a music and with a food and that's why but absolutely, your leaders in the masjid I remind you that there are many many organizations you will have a lady coming out of both presentation Moina Shaikh what she's doing is amazing as a single woman meet the muslim project she has meet the muslim I won't talk about it, that's what she would talk about I'm surprised to see I did one muslim but she can't do it so you go to al-Azhar University you will see how many muslims teach you women so they are all absolutely absolutely only part of that is to lead the prayer they can lead prayer with women it's the problem the segregation of the sex is very important especially when we pray that's very important so my understanding is 60 years ago 60 years ago was the last time they discovered one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and that in the last couple of weeks they discovered another that I believe contains the 10 Commandments I'm wondering if something like this wouldn't be an opportunity to educate people who haven't had the benefit in the United States of this common tradition common scripture that we share because they're not getting it at school they're not getting it from television I think a lot of people have no idea of what you're telling us so the question becomes how do we let those people know in a non-threatening way I think we are doing what we are doing the right thing to do and that's why I'm so grateful for my father I'm so grateful that you allowed me here I'm so grateful because that's what he's made somebody picked me up from the public library of Castrovali I was talking to immediately invited me to be I think that's why we need to have conversation into the dialogue and research needs to be continued scientific research archeological research needs to be done needs to continue and this is what will bring us we talk we talk with an open mind and we are not you should not be afraid that I come here and I will convert you I should not be afraid that when you come when you invite me you will convert me and then you're Christian and I think that's a barrier that we have if we lift up that barrier you respect my opinion I respect your opinion I did not come here to say that you have to agree with me we have to respect we have to learn how to disagree we have to agree to disagree so as long as we do that and we know there is an element of truth what is bad is when you think and you call people from any religion they are murderers they are killers that's what it's all about when you burn a sacred book when you public you call for it burning the other sacred book you don't have to agree with the open as I said it's a divine gift that God has given us but I agree with you we need to talk more we need to make more research it occurs to me that much of our culture has been enriched by Muslim or Islamic art Muslim and Islamic art has been integrated into our culture and I wonder if there is some place in Fremont or the East Bay where those of us who are interested in art architecture music could go like a museum for instance to further that spiritual side and artistic side okay very good question no we don't have an illusion but you could visit a lot of mosques and once in a while I think a while ago there was something in the San Francisco library that had to do with Islamic arts and expressions calligraphy is one of them that is a beautiful thing that you can learn Arabic calligraphy Chinese calligraphy yes and then you have the use of art you will see that's my viewpoint I don't know much about architecture but I don't know the use of art but you have to see medicine was influenced in the Sinai other worlds in the Wush there were chemistry came from Muslim I mean it's amazing so absolutely so I would have to touch on TVS sometimes there are some exhibitions that travel around but we do not have an illusion as you are calling an illusion hopefully I know the founder of the Etuna Sheikh Hamza I do suppose was very interested in that project of making an illusion of Islam in America I don't know if that will be or not it's an extensive project hopefully we will learn this Monday Monday you Safi you know me if you are interested to get a group to go who will get you the world there are some beautiful most of our places of worship called Masjid are not built as Masjid they were the only place but there are some places like Fremont and Hewil those are built the Hewil one has an amazing calligraphy from the people of the part of Afghanistan and they brought somebody from Afghanistan to do that it's a very beautiful piece of architecture absolutely anytime absolutely yes ma'am we will talk to you very soon I just wanted to thank you for sharing your joyful love with us and spreading understanding so that we can all have more cultural understanding and the fact that the favor that we should do in return is remind the world that our scripture also calls us to welcome the stranger and to serve for the widow of the orphan absolutely it's a very good idea and I think that's the I guess your question in that question if I can say that on an average basis on an average in Muslim knows a lot about Christianity Judaism actually that's what I understand Muslim knows a lot about Christianity and that so we need to address yes and then we go in the back and then we'll talk to you this is just a curiosity of mine you mentioned the difference between culture and religion so I've been curious to know whether the hijab and the burqa and all those other coverings that women store as Muslims is that culture or is that a Quran it's a combination of both the coverings that women put the niqab, is it the coverings that's not Islam that's culture most scholars say no the hijab, coverings of the head that's part and it's easy as Christian you understand that I have many times talked to my Christian and I say I don't you show me a picture of Virgin Mary with her head fronting with a pest of shanku and yogurt and I went one day and Father Jeff invited me to the I said what is it Pespers and I sat down and listened to the Pespers and I said I don't know the sisters of the Dominican order I believe I said how come people don't understand each other how come people don't understand each other and I look at those sisters he has said how come they have problems so this is not what happened you know this when I was it's not what happened but what has happened the Jews have put it only to the rabbi and the Christians only maybe to the carlin and the pope and we put it all the time it's not compulsory it is part of it so the carlin yes or the woman and the carlin of the the whole thing because Islam is about respecting women not making women an object of sex and if we are true and honest today right man which we are sharing almost naked women you tell you tell this is a product for men to use naked women on there why? and that's what Islam is all about respect women their body the cause of the body reserved to their husband and I can tell you they do dress they do dress and I look creatively in front of the husband in the privacy of the home not in other one day I was on a cruise and I was in an island and I was in soccer with my son having one son and my wife was reading so she is calling so the cruise guy who was there I guess even so he walks straight to my wife and he is in the beach and enjoying the world and the wind I said sir can I talk to you one minute I see you pass by me and you miss me and you pass by me and I am the only man with long pale pants and not in the water you miss me and you went straight to my wife why? I said do you see what the media make you and I tell you this should happen on the first day of the cruise every night we are getting something special he felt so bad he felt so bad but it's true so what is bad for the woman is bad for the man it's not that I can't come and I go and flood I go and drink and my wife cannot it's not that my son can date and my daughter cannot date it's not that what is forbidden to the woman is forbidden to the man and vice versa absolutely yes I have a comment I think the Asian art museum in San Francisco as a Middle Eastern section thank you my question is we learned that Mecca was founded by Abraham which would have been centuries before the birth of Christ or Muhammad so what religious tradition did the inhabitants of Mecca have performed on alright so that's a very historical back into the history Mecca was a very isolated place it is a landlock you have only two places you have Jeddah and Sien then you have the Syria the other way is the landlock nothing was there Abraham under divine rule that's a different Islam we respect our universities but we believe that under divine not because of fights between the wives but because it was a divine commandment God instructed Abraham to date back to Mecca Abraham said tell me one thing before we believe that Abraham was new he said tell me one thing are you believing us here on your own who did God instruct you and he left so then what came this ritual the war of the Zanzan the well and Hajar was running crazy between the two hills they called Safa and Marwan and that's what we do when we go to Hajj we repeat what Abraham and his family did so she was running back and forth and climbing up to see if there was any caravan until the spring and then later Abraham came again and again you will have a vision that God told him to sacrifice his son and again in the Islamic tradition it is Ishmael and in the biblical tradition it is but he got that vision and that's the second phase of the history and the third part is when God ordered Abraham and Ishmael when he was big enough to build me the first house of worship for human beings that's where the caravan is and from that the tradition came on and then the tribe started people started living around Mecca around the caravan and then it evolved in a tribal society in a very tribal society and as time passes by we forget the teaching of Abraham which was only the worship of Wanda he told in the Quran Abraham is agreed with his father in the Bible he had the same narration but he decided to oppose his father his father was the sculptor of the islands and he decided to leave his father in peace and respect when he leaves his father to worship Wanda God so that people of that will have the main society many tribes that will develop their own powers they have their own organization a tribal organization and they ruled basically the importance of Mecca it's amazing because of Abraham and everybody would come for pilgrimage in Mecca and God became a business God became a business Mecca was open for building and the more you paint you you'll God get into the caravan that's a good status that's where when 100 came he told that there was only one God no 360 gods when he came the one God became 360 gods and that's where God went so basically that's the tradition of the Arabs in Mecca I've been shocked so we just have time for one more question that's for you to talk with us is there a protocol for visiting a mosque how can we arrange to do that is there a protocol for visiting a mosque absolutely you can visit anytime just have to let them know and like I said if you want you can talk to one of you I would prefer personally people like to go on Friday it depends where we go if you go to Fremont on Friday it's chaos if you want to see Friday you can see Friday but otherwise I discourage Friday I say let's go I usually take them there was a prophecy in the G.T.U. in Berkeley in Holy Hills of Berkeley he used to bring his glass to me and I used to meet between the late afternoon and the early spring so if you want to get to know the mosque you know then you come in a time where it is quiet and you can do that you can have a question and answer on Friday you won't have time to do that Friday on average it's over packed if you can pack 500 people you see people on the stairs people outside praying if you want you can decide on that the most welcome to come but if you want to really explore and do I discourage Friday and on top of that we sell food we have food everybody is buying food rushing to go to work anytime I leave my my card here I will leave my card here but here are my emails you know my last name Rajabali so it's M Rajabali at hotmail.com I will leave my card here for anyone of you contact me and don't worry I won't give you a new number that's what I was talking about and I get to conclude with that and one time David Slim was talking and I said why would he tell me my wife she's a Muslim she covers she drives her own car why do you go somewhere in Pakistan somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan do you know who is a Muslim woman there's one right here in 3 months you don't want that you just don't want to see that mom every Muslim woman is very out strong right and they are very strong but yes anytime please give me we will arrange it if you want to see the sting down and I will talk please give me a call thank you