 So my topic is how do we fortify faith in these faithless times, that is to say, how do we strengthen our iman in the face of such disbelief in the modern world? So the answer is actually quite simple. The answer is by dedicating ourselves to seeking knowledge. So the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim. So there's a reason why it's an obligation. There's a reason why he ﷺ said that. He said everything in the dunya is a person. مَا لَعُّنٌ مَا فِيهَا إِلَا فِيكُرُ اللَّهِ وَمَا وَالَهِ وَعَانِمٌ اَمُتَعْنِمْ اُوْكَمَ خَالَهِ He said that everything in the world is a person except three things. The remembrance of Allah ﷻ and whatever is beloved to Allah ﷻ and the teacher and student of knowledge. There's a reason why the only thing in the Qur'an that Allah ﷻ commands us to ask him for an increase in is knowledge. Which also happens to be the Isidunah College school model. Some universities, they have like Fiat, looks that they're relight from the gospel or looks that Veritas light and truth. That's truth of the capital T. You know, these other schools no longer teach traditional religion nor even objective truth. Now they teach that truth is relative and scripture is archaic and irrelevant, even oppressive. But scripture cannot be ignored, so it must be radically reinterpreted in light of the current zeitgeist or prevailing culture. So let me see a few more things about the state of modern academia. Colleges and universities in the West in particular are becoming total disasters. Absolutely toxic for people of traditional faith. So-called higher learning academia is becoming fundamentally anti-theistic. So at first academia was theistic, right? So like Harvard and Yale and Georgetown, these actually started as Christian seminaries. Education used to be sought primarily for the sake of God. There was a theistic worldview, a metaphysic that was based on scripture and tradition. And then academia became atheistic. There was a theistic term at some point. So there's no God, and if you believe in God, that's your business. Just keep God out of here, out of the institution. But now in this postmodern, post-truth world, academia has become anti-theistic. Which really means two things. Number one, the belief in God, in practice of religion, need to go. Just throw it all out. Or if you insist on believing in God, that's okay, but you must reject traditional religion. You must change your beliefs for the sake of hurt feelings. Otherwise you are a patriarchal misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, regressive, bigot. There are still a few Catholic colleges that continue to keep it real, as they say. Thomas Aquinas College, I think they make their faculty and students pledge that they are committed to the magisterium, which is the traditional teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church. I think Alma Maria University as well. If you're not familiar with Zaituna, Zaituna College is the first ever accredited Muslim college in North America. Our founders, our pillars of the community, our fundamental metaphysics and worldview are rooted in traditional Islam, Sunni Islam. And we teach both the Islamic and Western tradition, as well as both canons, so seminal texts in both traditions. So students, they read Badali, they read Putemia, they read Suyuti, they also read Aristotle, Platinus, and Aquinas. We teach the Trivium, which is grammar, logic, and rhetoric. So these are the liberal arts, right? You know, when people hear the phrase liberal arts, they often get the wrong ideas. They hear the word liberal and they think of political left. They think Joe Biden or Beto or Bork. They hear arts and they think under water basket weaving. So the word liberal comes from the Latin for freedom. So these are the freeing tools, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These are tools that free our minds. They allow us to think critically. They allow us to think outside the box. These are the most powerful tools that one can possibly possess. Why? Because they can move the world. The most influential people in history were masters of these tools. As one of my teachers said, the Prophet Muhammad SAW was the most logical human being. He was always grammatically correct and was the most rhetorically powerful person who ever lived. So language is very powerful. And advocates of the current zeitgeist understand this. If they can control our language, then they can control our ideas. Stanford University just released something called the harmful language guide. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but at Stanford University, it is now considered harmful to say the word American. You can't say American. You can't say immigrant. You can't use expressions like beating a dead horse. You've heard this expression? Because apparently, if you say beating a dead horse, you're more prone to abusing animals. You can't say the word landlord or manpower or stupid or homeless person or prostitute. You have to say a person engaged in sex work and we wouldn't want to offend the prostitutes. The tragic aspect of this is that these free tools are seldom taught anymore. And people don't really value them anymore. There's a reason for this. The elites who imagine themselves in control of this world don't want people to think for themselves. They want people to become cogs in some corporate machine. They put it into our heads that unless we study STEM or their version of the humanities and social sciences, then not only will we be financially impoverished, we will also be socially outcast, cancelled, as they say. So this is what the Shaitan does. He threatens us with poverty. They want to destroy the nuclear family because individuals are easier to control than family units. People are more likely to acquiesce the tyranny if they are alone as opposed to having a spouse and children. So they want men and women to hate each other. This is cultural Marxism. And this is happening right now. This is an epidemic. We have things like the big Tao movement, men going their own way, men swearing off women. We have incels, men who are involuntarily celibate, catapulting spouses. And we have the rise of radical and militant feminism amongst women where they are taught by their college professors to denounce marriage, marriage as being oppressive, even a form of slavery, because everything for these people is power dynamics. They make the false assumption that human beings are constantly motivated by power and nothing else. It's a very cynical worldview. These postmodern philosophies bifurcate the world in the two classes, the oppressed and the oppressor. That's cultural Marxism. And ironically, those who are often labeled as oppressed are actually the oppressors and vice versa. So Toa Ba and Shukur and Toa Dur are thrown out the window. These are the three of the greatest, what we consider to be theological virtues. Toa Ba is repentance. Shukur is gratitude. Toa Dur is humility. So now Toa Ba is replaced with living your authentic self. Hey, just accept yourself. There's nothing wrong with you. If you don't think there's anything wrong with you, why would you make Toa Ba? Shukur is replaced with self victimization. Shukur is gratitude. But if you're constantly told that you're a victim, why would you be grateful? Grateful for what? I'm a victim, right? And Toa Dur, humility, is replaced by, off the charts, narcissism. The U.E.s controlling this current zeitgeist want to domesticate men. They want men to work from home, to marry their computers, to get fat, and to eat bugs. Why? Because traditional masculinity is apparently toxic. They want women out of the workforce, not at home managing a household, or raising children. And women who prefer to take care of the home are often shamed and accused of, quote, internalizing their patriarchy. In fact, Rockefeller admitted that he supported feminism for financial reasons. The American government can now tax the other half of the country that wasn't previously working. It was a big money grab. So in the future, people will wake up in the morning, you know, alone, in their rented pods, getting into their expensive, climate-friendly electric cars that the government can shut off remotely, and go to some job and be a cog in a corporate machine. What a wonderful life. So my advice is don't fall victim to these things. Our tradition works. Our Islamic tradition works. It is tried and tested for 1,400 years. It comes from Allah SWT. Listen to the advice of Allah SWT. Listen to the words of our prophet, Muhammad SAW, when a man came to him and said, Ya Rasulullah, qulif il-islami qawlan la asal wa anku ahadan ghayrak. Tell me something unique about this religion. And the prophet SAW said to him, very short, concise, beautiful, but deep, qul'anan tu billah tu mastatin. Say, I believe in Allah SWT and be upright upon that. So this is why nihilism is on the rise. Nihilism is this belief that there's no meaning to anything. There's no meaning to life. This is why people are depressed. People are drowning in a notion of meaninglessness. But it's okay. Just amuse yourself and social media. Just entertain yourself endlessly with your technology. Nihil Postman, he talked about this in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. This was a few years ago. But he said that religion, politics, and education are all becoming entertainment. We need entertainment to dull our sense of meaninglessness. This is why we now have a 24-hour news cycle. This is why now we have social media addiction. Like TikTok and Instagram. People spend hours and hours a day on these things. It's a quick dopamine hit. The average TikTok video is about 11 seconds. You just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. Actually, you know, it's an hour later. Two hours later. Three hours later. Right? This is why we have a pandemic of Internet pornography addiction. You know, a 10-year-old child today will see more sexually explicit images in 10 minutes than a 70-year-old man who lived pre-Internet during his entire life. In 10 minutes, a 10-year-old child. So our brains are being rewired. These things clash with our fitra, our natural disposition. The result of this is depression on a massive scale. But rather than seek out our true purpose in life, we fill the void with entertainment, with pleasure, with hedonism. What happened to modesty, dystoicism, to discipline, to piety before God? So traditional values are being replaced with just do you and get it and yolo and do what thou wilt. Right? So we have to take this very seriously. Seeking knowledge is all over the Quran and Sunnah that's absolutely central to our tradition. Knowledge frees our mind and freedom is powerful. What was the very first word of the Quran revealed to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam? It was iqra-ri. Right? I saw a Christian magazine called Christianity Today. And there was an article in this magazine. Written by Christian, the writers were all Christian. And the name of the article was The Greatest Book Never Read. The Greatest Book Never Read. And it was about the Bible. Here's a Christian complaining about other Christians who never read the Bible. And in this article he said that he went to churches at random and he asked Christians coming out of church. So these are people that not only identify as Christian but actually go to church. And he said to them at random can you name the four Gospels in the New Testament? Just name them. And he said 50% by 0% could not even name the four Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. People don't read. How many Muslims? So I actually mentioned this to one of my teachers. And he said, I wonder how many Muslims coming out of Salat al Juma can quote one hadith of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. One hadith in Arabic. How many Muslims know the names of the surahs of the Qur'an? If I say surat al-Ankabut, what surah number is this? Anyone? 29. How many Muslims can properly cite iconic ayat? You don't ever watch a football game and you see this guy in the crowd completely drunk but holding a big banner that says John 3.16. You ever see that John 3.16? That's their verse. They're sort of Christian theology in a nutshell. We have a verse We have a verse Our prophetology in a nutshell. What surah is this? What ayat number is this? Very seldom of us know these names. Ayat al-Kursi. Where is this in the Qur'an? 255. That was kind of an easy one though. How many Muslims can name the children of the Prophet SAW? Or explain the difference between Fard and Wajid and Sunnah and Mustahab? These are basics. So, Em is Nur. Knowledge is light and light is guidance and Arabic is a sacred language. So it's not an accident that if you rearrange the tri-literal root letters at the word, you get action. Because a true a true knower puts his his knowledge into practice. These terms are related. There are Jewish professors of Islamic studies with double Ph.D. Teaching all around the country are these Of course not. They don't put their knowledge into practice. Now rearrange these letters again and you get which means light, luster, radiance, resplendence, brilliance, t'ajeeb, knowledge plus action equals light. The word Iman comes from the root Amina which means to be safe and secure. The word Iman is a form for infinitive. Form for an Arabic denotes causation. So Iman billah or a mu'min billah is one who makes himself safe billah by means of God. And Allah SWT is al mu'min one of his Asma'u al-Husna the ultimate cause of safety and security. The giver of Iman. So Iman knowledge increases our Iman. And I actually prefer the word confidence as a translation of Iman rather than the word faith. The English word faith unfortunately has been sullied by the new atheist movement. They define faith as belief without evidence. Right? So belief without evidence. Unless you say I have faith in myself or something or I have faith in Bill Gates. But if you say I have faith in God they say oh, faith in God. And so they set up this false dichotomy with faith in God on one side and reason and science and knowledge on the other as if faith and knowledge are diametrically opposed as if faith and knowledge are somehow incompatible or antithetical. And so many people unwittingly indoctrinated by their rhetoric think that they have to make a choice between knowledge and faith. So they choose knowledge and abandon their religious tradition. Right? And so they become atheists and agnostics and deists which means I believe in a creator God but I don't believe in a religion or none. They become nuns, not Catholic nuns. Some of them become Catholic nuns but not really. N-O-N-E-S these are people who check none of the above when it comes to religion. So I say use the word confidence rather than faith. What does confidence mean from the Latin con with fides faith is a safe meaning but doesn't carry the baggage of the word faith does. So if you say to an atheist are you a man of faith? No, no, no. Faith is for people who don't think. But if you say are you a man of confidence? Oh yes. It's the same thing. Here's the point. Everyone has confidence in something. The Quran does not entertain atheism. There's no such thing as atheism. In the Quranic world view everybody worships something. The atheist has confidence in the chef at the restaurant. Right? At the chef won't poison him with spoiled food. The atheist has confidence in the pilot of his airplane that he won't crash the airplane. The atheist has confidence in the in the the architects and engineers of the elevator he's about to get into at the 50th floor of some high rise of building. The atheists will claim however that he has good reasons for being with faith when it comes to these things. And we have good reasons for being with faith when it comes to Allah and his messenger. This is not a a belief without evidence when we acquire knowledge our confidence in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger increases and becomes stronger. The atheist believes in so the past is great we don't have access to the past. But if you ask an atheist what do you think about this historical event in the past? He'll give his response. He'll give his opinion. That's technically Iman bil Ghayt. What did our master Ibrahim alaihi salam say to his people? We have to read the Quran. So his speech is trans-historical. In other words the speech of the Quran is relevant for all times. Okay this is timeless. There are timeless timeless lessons in the sacred narratives the Qasas of the Quran these are not meaningless fairy tales as the Khufar say. He said You and your father are the same. They are the same. Have you really considered what you worship? Ibrahim alaihi salam is telling his people have you really considered what you worship? So one of our scholars Imam al-Razi he says in his tafsir that these verses are one of the strongest proofs against theological taqlid and for istidlal So make a note of these terms. What is theological taqlid? It is blind conformance. It is uncritical belief. It is following someone without doing inquiry. It is to believe without evidence. So here we can actually use definition of Iman as an accurate definition of theological taqlid belief without evidence. Taqlid in matters of creed or theology is unacceptable. You have to be convinced of your aqidah. You must engage in istidlal. What is istidlal? It means to seek a dhalil proofs and evidences. So in this vein the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is within that asking good questions is half of knowledge. You have to actually believe what you claim to believe and you should be able to even be a bit discursive in your theology. In other words, you should be able to explain and justify your beliefs even if it's just at a basic level. We don't have to be theologians but we have to know something. So if a teenager stops praying because his father dies or if a teenager goes off to college and stops praying and he was just making taqlid of his father, this is unacceptable. This is not real confidence. This is not real Iman. May Allah SWT guide us. We should be able to explain if only to ourselves why God exists and why he is one and be able to explain why we believe in the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam that he's a messenger of God and why the Quran is a word of God we might use rational and historical and linguistic and scriptural proofs we believe because it is rational. Belief in God is rational and all of God's commandments have a rational component so naqal and aqal which is to say revelation and reason cannot ultimately contradict and sometimes a rationale of a certain commandment is mentioned explicitly in sacred text Allah SWT says that indeed the prayer it prevents and fahshah usually means some type of sexual sin indeed the prayer prevents one from sexual deviancy and wrong action if you have to pray five times a day at different times with ulu engaging in fahshah and munqar become very very difficult and Imam al-Qurtubi and Imam al-Zamaqshali they mention in their tafasir that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said of a young man who prayed but was inclined towards indecent acts soon his prayer will prevent him from doing that this is time tested but we have to be patient and constant the prayer comes from Allah SWT and we must trust the process it works don't leave the prayer this is very important but even here with the prayer we don't know the reason for everything why five times a day why four units at bahur three at maughrib at some point we say aslamna we submit the religion is called al-islam it's not called al-yaqeen or al-ma'rifah or something like that you know I used to teach arabic in the masjid the brother came in one time and he said to me in the middle of arabic basic arabic and he said I have a question I have asked numerous mullahs no one can answer my question so okay maybe I don't know if I can answer it it's a tough question so go ahead I'll give my best shot so this is what he said he said why do I have to wash my hands when I pray wind and he said this issue is not allowing me to pray I need an answer I need a rational answer to this and so I said you know Allah SWT oh no no no give me an answer okay so I said in the prayer sort of prepares us the wudu prepares us for the prayer it puts us in the right state of mind no this is what all these mullahs and mullahs give me a scientific answer so I said excuse my crudeness I said you know when you break wind fecal particles fly up into the air and whatever goes up has to land on your hand you put your hand in your mouth you get sick he said ha ha ha ha ha and I was completely joking and he said okay alright and I was just sitting there making du'a don't ask me why we wash our feet the point is that the affl has limitations and has a jurisdiction right what did you have for lunch 18 days ago good luck so in actual fact submission to God is intelligent the true affl the true intelligent one submits to Allah right because Allah is good Allah is God and God is a source of all knowledge and wisdom you know when the Quran were told that when the Bani Israel were leaving Egypt and they came to the Red Sea right they saw the sea in front of them and they flew behind them and they said this is it we're done this is what their akal suggested to them right what did he say he said by no means indeed my lord is with me he will guide me and Allah swt striked the sea with your staff right musa aleyhi salam didn't say strike the sea with my staff what was that going to what do you think about no no immediately he did that right why because he's dealing with Allah swt he's a true akal that is rational the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he said he said the intelligent one the truly intelligent one is the one who subdues his lower self and works for that which comes after death why is that intelligent because the afterlife is eternal it's everlasting and the unintelligent one is the one who puts his desires who enslaves his desires to his lower self and has vain hopes in Allah swt furthermore there are things that we believe like the day of judgment that are suprarational in other words unseen matters mentioned in safer text these are called seven year yet but even here I would argue sorry my voices I did a four hour podcast today speaking for four hours straight I would argue belief in the day of judgment is rational you see human beings constantly see to establish justice in this world injustice is repugnant to us as human beings this is innate inherent part of our collective consciousness as a species we establish courts and judges and witnesses does anyone really believe that rapists and murderers and oppressors who are never brought to justice in this world they just get away with it I don't think so if people are honest they don't really believe that an atheist once told me well I don't believe that I believe in karma it's about karma I thought you were a materialist karma is a metaphysical process who regulates and controls this process called karma so on atheism it is impossible to be objectively immoral in other words there is no true, right and wrong on atheism because atheism atheists are materialists they don't deal with morality in such a world view can lead to total social chaos on atheism we're just fizzing molecules that's all we are I'm a fizzing mole I'm fizzing right now we're just carbon based monkeys we're just atoms colliding into each other stone rolling down a hill a stone rolling down a hill atoms colliding with atoms colliding with atoms is there a moral component to this? is this moral or immoral? no it's just atoms colliding with atoms fizzing molecules if I take a knife and stab a man in his heart what's the difference? atoms colliding with atoms murder is just a breach of subjective societal norms in atheism it cannot be objectively wrong there's no higher standard of morality on atheism you know there's a book by David Berlinsky called The Devil's Trap and this book just lays to waste Dawkins' God Delusion but people have never heard of this book David but they heard of the God Delusion but anyway Berlinsky and here we quote say philosopher from a few centuries ago and the philosopher said a theist who believes in God he said imagine you have a magic button and if you press this button all of the wealth of the world will come into your possession but there's a catch there's a caveat one human being in the world will fall down and die and it could be anybody right? it could be your own mother it could be a stranger in a different country so the philosopher says to whom will you entrust this button to an atheist who doesn't believe in ultimate accountability on some day of judgment or to a theist who doesn't believe in a day of judgment so this idea that if you just get rid of religion and turn all these churches and synagogues and mosques into Starbucks and Hooters and Chick-fil-A's then everything's going to be okay we'll hold hands and we'll be peaceful no no no the main thing that is preventing people from doing harm is religion is the fear of God this is just a fact it's what Imam Ghazali said we should never refer to atheists as intelligent it doesn't matter if an atheist has a 200 IQ disbelief in your creator is the apex of idiocy right? and so Allah SWT says the messenger said to their people is there really a doubt about Allah SWT the originator of the heavens and the earth right? I asked somebody who created this phone did this phone create itself? no you'll say no I said who created this microphone did it create itself? no? who created this building who created this building? did it create itself? no who created this universe? did it create itself? yes okay you're an idiot universe created itself from nothing this is what they say wow the universe created itself from nothing from nothing for nothing this is a big metaphysical claim a big claim something that did not exist prior to its creation created itself inshallah amazing something cannot come from nothing in nature not at the Newtonian level nor at the quantum level life cannot come from death life only comes from life our life comes from and this is rational there's something else about the akhala that's amazing just another proof of the sacredness of the Arabic language which means to hobble or to control something right so there's this iconic hadith of the Bedouin who came into the masjid and his camel was outside running around in the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said who's camel is this? I trusted Allah and he said hobble her down then trusted Allah s.a so the function of the akhala is to control both the emotions and the appetites and Plato spoke about the tripartite division of the soul and Plato was right about this the rational soul the emotive soul and the appetitive soul the rational soul must be in the driver's seat as it were while the emotions and appetites are on the back seat the point is not to kill the emotions or appetites that's not our tradition you don't kick them out of the car no emotions and appetites are healthy right so we have to hobble them to control them to discipline them for the sake of Allah s.a so that the intellect takes precedence in our lives and this leads to a happy and fulfilled life so there are millions of people right now in the world in major existential crisis there are millions of people in the world right now whose entire world view is being turned on its head by the current times their own common sense their own common sense is being questioned their own conscience common sense fundamental principles of being language definitions objective truth all of this is being challenged and as I said this new generation of children are steeped in nihilism this idea that ultimately there is no objective meaning or purpose to human life if your life meaning any meaning that you want that's what they say existence precedes essence this is their apida existence precedes essence this is what Sartre said a philosopher and his consort Simone de Beauvoir one of the founders of modern feminism she said one is not born but rather becomes a woman a rejection of human nature of human essence this is called existentialism or you can make your own reality right there is existentialism as a philosophy and there is existentialism as a lifestyle so get ready for meta the metaverse is coming in a few years billions of people are going to be living fake lives married to fake spouses living in fake houses raising fake children it just reminds me I took a picture of this in a builder bear oh yeah this is a picture from builder bear workshop this is what it says they wrote this on the top for the kiddies you know you aren't born a bear you've become a bear this is parody Simone de Beauvoir a radical militant feminist existentialism is all about you so a traditional theocentric life a life of rubudia to Allah which is our purpose according to the Quran which is the high purpose when the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam heard the Quran recited back to him and he was referred to as abd this is the highest title of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in the Quran I am the servant of Allah this is our purpose to worship Allah this is being replaced with an essentially ego centric like ego centric rather than the theocentric rather than God being at the center the ego is put in the center the nos it's a very subtle type of idolatry it's actually called egalatry the worship of the nos it's a very subtle type of idolatry it's actually called egalatry gallantry, the worship of the nafs. And this happens when people impute the unique nature of Allah upon themselves. This is just shirk, right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I raita man itta khadha ilahahu ha'la. Have you seen the one who takes his own desires as his god? This is all related to this revolt against normativity and objectivity and this movement towards queer identity. What does queer mean? Unique, different, special, individual. You can't define me, my identity and gender. I am the undefinable and I'm fluid. I can change whatever I am, depending on what I want to be. I decide what I am. I am whatever I want to be. There's nothing like me whatsoever. This is just idolatry. You know, there's this YouTuber who goes around, he's a 5'9 white guy, right? And so he goes around these college campuses and he goes up to college students that are dropping 100k on an education. Anyway, so he goes up to the man and says, can I ask you a question? Yes, am I a woman? And they say, yeah, sure. He's already sure about that? Yeah. And he says, okay, am I a 6'5 woman? And they go, and he goes, what's wrong? Oh, nothing. Yes or no, am I 6'5 woman? He says, okay, yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. And then he says, am I a 6'5 Asian woman? And they say, yeah, sure. And he said, what's wrong with you? What is going on? You have children in elementary school identifying as animals. They're called furries. So they start, you know, so-and-so, what's the answer to 2 plus 2? Meow. And so the teachers are saying, no, you have to answer the question. And then the student goes back to their parents and the parents complain to the school, my child identifies as a cat. This is really happening. I'm not making this up. And so the teacher has to entertain this delusion. And one of the student's parents actually said, you have to put a litter box in the girl's bathroom. This is real. This is what's happening. They start very early. Allah says, the people of essential understanding in the Qur'an. What did they say? You did not create this for nothing. Glory be to you. So save us from the punishment of the fire. So perhaps the central message here is that existence has objective meaning. Your life has objective meaning with Allah SWT. Even if you're not on social media, even if you don't have any friends, even if two people in the world don't know your name, you mean something to Allah SWT. And Allah SWT suffices us who must not let this world deceive us. The only opinion of you that matters at the end of the day is the opinion of Allah SWT. This is it. The only opinion that matters is the opinion of Allah SWT. On the day of Taif, the Prophet SAW, he was stoned out of the city. He was bleeding. They were abusing him, insulting him, right? And he sat under the tree. We know the story. His only concern was what is the opinion of Allah SWT about me right now? This is his only concern, right? So he made that beautiful du'a. If this is happening to me and you're not angry with me, falaaubali, then I don't mind in the least. If the whole world is against you, but Allah is for you, you win. So life is too short to be a salaf. We shouldn't be salafs. It's too short. Life goes by quickly. Anyway, I think I should stop here, Insha'Allah. We have a couple of minutes. I think we pray at eight. So if there's any comments or questions, insha'Allah, take them. Yes, sir, with the masjids. Right? So my question is, you know, what are you talking about? You mentioned many times, it's all about submission, submission, submission, right? Submission to Allah SWT. However, in the Holy Quran, in many occasions, they always mentioned Ya'iqat-l-Ladina, amen. Not Ya'iqat-l-Ladina aslam. Ya'iqat-l-Ladina, amen. However, in Pharaoh, in many occasions also, mention all of the NBs, wakanim, and muslim. But the conclusion is, it's all about submission. All the prophets, alaykum as-salam, are muslim. But and then, when Allah SWT talked to the human, Ya'iqat-l-Ladina, amen. JazakAllah. So, you know, I mean, I don't know if I caught a question, but I would say that, I would say that submission to Allah SWT is intelligent. That's the point I was making in my talk, right? That it's not a type of submission without any type of reason, right? It's a submission that's based on Dalaqat, on Istiqlal, that it's intelligent to submit, right? It's intelligent to have imam. And imam does not mean blind faith. That's not our definition. That's the definition of these, so far, okay? Our definition of imam is safety through God, safety by means of God. And this is intelligent. And we can provide evidence that this is intelligent. So that's what I'm saying. You mentioned in the talk about the religions of people provided. But looking at the history, I mean, there is a lot of wars started by religions, just haunted even between the Sunni Christian and Christian Christians, Christian muslim Christians against you. So how can we answer that, especially for students? Yeah, so I think it depends on your definition of religion. So I would say that radical ideology is really what people, is really the sort of champion of the ideology that's claimed the most lives, is just a radical type of ideology. So not necessarily a religion as we understand Judaism, Christianity as well. Because if you look at the 20th century, we have secular war, right? We have millions and millions of human beings, innocent human beings, right? And you might say, well, these people, you know, Mao and Stalin and these people, you know, Hitler, oh, oh, Adam, Paul Pot. So these people are asias. And that might be true, but I think they believed in a radical type of ideology. So if you want to call that religion, I would call that a type of religion, right? So we're really going to compare things. We have to look at, you know, you look at Islam, you look at Christianity, you look at Judaism, yeah, there's been conflict in the pre-modern world. You know, basically you have, you have different empires that are borderless, that are constantly vying for territory. This was a status quo of the pre-modern world. The status quo of the pre-modern world was one of warfare, right? So it's a very different type of world we're living in. So that's why if you read, you know, Fatah of pre-modern scholars, they talk about Darul Islam and Darul Harul. They bifurcate the world into these two, these two divisions, because that was a status quo of the world back then. Nowadays, this bifurcation doesn't really work, because wait, now we have nation states that have borders. Now we have international peace treaties. The status quo of the world should not be one of warfare. So it's a completely different world, right? But even with that said, in the 20th century, you have radical ideologies that do not espouse Judaism, Christianity, and Islam who are killing millions, millions upon millions, right? So that's how I would understand it, that it's religion, but it's false religion. And I think that we have to go for a shot. Let's go ahead and talk to Dr. Elia Cai. A shot, of course, 8 p.m. in the prayer hall. In one quick announcement, tomorrow we have a game day, because it's a rainy day, and we want families to come out. We'll have board games, we'll have lunch, bring a snack to share with the board games, and come enjoy the day at Elia. Are we going to have a lecture? Yeah, the devil's trap, yeah. Berlinsky. Devil's trap, the devil's delusion, something like that. David Berlinsky. If there are more questions, are you okay to come back after a shot for like 10 minutes? Yeah, sure. If there are more questions, but can I just get a quick hand? Are there more questions on the audience? Okay, you're off the hook. I'm off the hook then.