 I thank you once more for joining us live from the Holy City of Karbala for this episode of this show, Back to the Basics. For those of you who did not have the pleasure of joining us for the previous two episodes, I shall just recount some of the things that we had brought up. The whole concept of Back to Basics or Back to the Basics rather was something conceptualized by the management of this blessed and humble channel, Imam Hussain TV, in which it was suggested to me that there be a show responding to some of the claims, some of the engagements with Shiaism or as we would say original Islam and these claims and how these claims impact upon us and how to respond to them. Because of course it is without doubt that some of the claims against Shiaism and particularly due to the way they're brought out to the fore light, things are done, activities are done, debates are had, discussions might be had on Facebook, these debates can cause doubts and particularly in the generation which we've traditionally failed to equip our youth with the right answers and the right solutions for how to deal with such problems. Unfortunately, I find that many of the ways that we as a community have been dealing with these doubts, it becomes indicative of the real and bigger problem that we have and that we've all been facing. Namely, we're very reactionary, we're people that like to respond to things when things happen and as a result we tend to only respond to challenges when they come and hit us. We don't have a tendency to equip our youth with how to think outside of the role of these challenges and so the responses become very much at the beck and call of the one that challenges Shiaism. And what I mean by this is that we become a people who define our theology in light of what others say, something extremely dangerous to do. And that was the whole intention behind this show, Back to the Basics, is to bring everything literally, as the name states, back to the basics, where we discuss the ways in which Insha'Allah we can respond to these challenges appropriately, adequately and in a way which does not make us reactionary, but Insha'Allah to Allah is a bit more loyal to human rationality and indeed to the tradition of the original Islam as was brought by the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa ala and protected by his purified holy household and progeny. One of the things I had stated particularly in the first and second episodes is that one of the key problems to this reactionary approach is that instead of dancing to the call of someone else, we should really be as two people engaging in a dialogue, setting down the rules of a dialogue ourselves and basically agreeing to what the rules of such a dialogue are, what the evidences entailed are and what is considered to be suitable evidence. If you watch many of these discussions as they take place, you read many of the discussions on Facebook, it literally becomes a case of what I like to call personal pontification. That is to say that each person becomes the individual judge of the discussion and unfortunately we get nowhere. So if you were to discuss with a Christian who would tell you that the only thing I believe to be true is the Bible and I don't care what anything else says because the Bible is true. And when you were trying to challenge the very foundations of the Bible, he would say to you, well look, this is what I believe, I want proof from the Bible. You would never try to engage with him on that basis where you would literally bring an entire theology, an entire school, an entire world view, namely original Islam or Shi'ism out of the Bible alone. No, you might be able to bring out one or two references to certain key concepts. And even that is a failed project because the entire book is filled with corruption. It's something that's been distorted and yes, whilst there are original kernels of truth in the book, from the Islamic perspective at least, we would say that we do not take the entire book to be trustworthy and sound. Likewise, the approach goes back to those who have discussions with those who call themselves the Ahlus Sunnah wa Jama. If we're to say that, look, I want you to prove the doctrine of Imamate from the Quran and the authentic hadith. And then you're restricted to the authentic hadith as being a hadith in the Sahihain, namely Bukhari and Muslim. Is such an approach going to work? No. Because even if you were to find authentic hadith in the Sahihain, then you would still come across a plethora of evidence in those books which supports the madhab of a person that believes in those books because at the end of the day the compiler was Sunni and the whole book was put together in a milieu and a community that believed in Sunniism. So for you to find Shiism in that book and to expect to only find Shiism in that book and Shiism in its most perfect and complete form as the true original Islam is a fallacious belief. That's not going to happen. So before we have any dialogue, as I mentioned before, we need to sit down, discuss terms, go back to the basics and discuss what is evidence and what is the approach we take. So I'm proposing over these next few nights inshallah ta'ala that instead of being reactionary, instead of wanting to justify every single isolated belief we have instead of trying to prove our beliefs from an evidential let's build up from belief one to belief five type of approach where I have to therefore justify everything from the fact that I pray with my arms down by my side to the fact that I pray on a turba to the fact that I choose to face the holy city of Makkah to a Christian. Let's look at instead of isolated beliefs, let's look at everything as packages of beliefs, world views things which when we compare to one another how do they line up and this is the approach which I'm suggesting tonight inshallah ta'ala I believe this approach is quite consistent with the approach of the holy Ahl al-Bait al-inshallah Before I move further into this approach, allow me to give an analogy from the perspective of simplicity an analogy which I hope you'll keep all in your minds and an analogy which I'm hoping will become made clear by the end of the episodes that is to say you might not understand the analogy right now if I give it to you We've all lived in major western cities I would hope and for those of us who speak English we've watched enough movies to know what life is like in major western cities but every now and then I'm always surprised when it happens that you're going down the tube or the subway or you're going down a busy part of say New York or London and a homeless person who's clearly high on drugs or alcohol comes out and tries to convince you that everything is just a global conspiracy but everyone's in a giant matrix or delusion and that something really is happening behind the scenes and they're the only ones that have got it right and I literally mean them as an individual When we meet such people, we normally have certain thoughts about such a person in our minds I certainly know that I struggle to take any person that believes that reality other than their own self-perception cannot be trusted and therefore I don't trust what such people have to say Keep that analogy in your mind inshallah it will come back to it by the end of the project So looking at the concept of Aqidah as a world view as opposed to individual separate doctrines looking at things as a complete package we need to ask ourselves what is a belief system or a world view So that's the first question we have What is a belief system or what is a world view? And I don't want to use tautology as like saying it's a view of a world or it's a system of beliefs because that's very clear from the names but rather what do we mean by a system of belief or a view of a world What we mean by this is a network of interconnected beliefs and assumptions about man, life and the universe their origin, their purpose and future which shapes how we view and understand our experiences and surroundings in addition to our behavior So repeat that again A world view is an interconnected system and set of beliefs which pertains to man, life and the universe It pertains to our role within the universe what our future will be, how we connect with our past and how we understand our experiences This is the definition of a world view Everyone has a world view because they couldn't function without one but the problem is most people don't actually understand what their world view is A lot of the time, even Muslims included, we allow society and the dominant world view of society to dominate how we actually shape our beliefs and how we interpret the data in front of us So allow me to give an example, and quite a key example, in western liberal society we'll generally take the world view of western liberalism as our dominant governing world view That is to say, whilst we might profess a belief in Islam deep down we're shaped and affected by the dominant beliefs of western liberalism So one of those beliefs might be, for example, the right for somebody to engage in a marital relationship with somewhat of the same gender If we know that Islam is clearly against this you'll find that some Muslims will say, well, yeah, that's how I view things and that's how Islam views things but I don't want to judge this particular action And that's as a result of western liberalism where they've been influenced to a degree that they don't want to take a clear cut stance on these issues They cannot admit that the Ahlul Bayt have a clear cut stance Or another particular consequence of western liberalism would be saying that we're not going to judge a person as committing a morally incorrect act when in reality Islam does teach that that act is morally incorrect I'm sorry for sidetracking I just wanted to give a key example of how we're sometimes affected by the prominent and dominant world views in societies that we live in and we're not necessarily loyal to the world view that we claim to follow So world views are primarily concerned with the bigger questions which one dealt with actually shape how we act and think in regards to the smaller questions A world view is a very lens, prism, glasses that we use to understand and interpret and rationalize the world around ourselves and understand our experiences So allow me to give you a very clear cut and key analogy If I as a particular person that follows the original Islam the Islam brought by the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa ala and the purified progeny of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa ala have an experience in which I have a crazy phenomenon of deja vu that is to say the experience that I have been in this situation before I as a Shia will interpret this in light of the doctrine of animavar that is to say that there was a realm for realm in which we pre-existed in in which Allah asked us, am I not your Lord? Is the Prophet Muhammad not your Prophet? and asked us about the one I as a Shia Because we have a doctrine in which we believe that there was an experience in that world I can now take this experience of deja vu and connect it to that and it makes sense of that experience I've had likewise someone that claims to be a Hindu may take that experience and say well this is clear cut proof of reincarnation Now I'm not saying that these are sophisticated explanations for that experience I'm just giving an analogy and an example at the time being or for example someone who believes in Christianity particularly Roman Catholicism were part of my families from the Philippines when they see this action of self-flagellation or the crucifixion in which people will crucify themselves to crosses I might look at that and say wow they're able to do this because they have really strong conviction and psychological belief in this event whereas a Roman Catholic might say that look they're only able to do this because it's the true faith and their miraculous experience saves them from any harm So there's different ways to interpret all these different facts a particular case that is given today is of course the concept of a miracle most of the religions believe that there are certain cases of divine intervention or what we would say is an action which breaks the natural laws and is created and carried out by God as a means of liberating his prophets or demonstrating his prophets and his guides are truly sent by him We would take those examples and we would say that wow this is an excellent proof of our religion whereas an atheist who doesn't believe that there is such a thing as supernatural no matter what evidence you bring him of miracle claims no matter how many people you bring him who are healed here at the very holy shrine of our master Abul Fadl al Abbas he would just go ahead and say that well there's going to be a natural explanation for it because at the end of the day that's what his world view is it's a naturalistic world view which doesn't allow for explanations which fall outside the realm of the natural by natural of course I mean that which can be seen by the five senses and empirically studied so everyone they shape their beliefs according to their very world view when someone who is homeless and asks for charity comes to us of course our particular world view is going to shape how we engage with such a person so it affects our thoughts our experiences and certainly our behavior so every religion and sect in the world falls under a particular world view most cultures also teach people to think in a particular world view too and what I mean by that is you may be in a country where you follow a religion which is not the dominant world view of that society be it for example a Muslim in Tibet but I guarantee you whichever world view influences Tibet the most be it Tibetan Buddhism is most likely going to have had some beliefs which crept into your world view as a Muslim because society does always nonetheless affect people under particular belief sets so every culture happens to teach people to think in a particular world view too and we as Muslims in the West need to be very clear that that happens to us and I of course am included in that but nonetheless we're trying to make a point for trying to understand the point of this entire discussion inshallah discussing under of a broad range of world views allows us to do the following number one make useful comparisons between reasonable beliefs and absurd ones number two make meaningful conversations with others by asking big questions and understanding world views without reading libraries of books and books on understanding the tiny and intricate details of those individual world views it allows us to have constructive conversations and make headway in tabligh and in da'wah without asking 500 questions because you'll learn what questions to ask by studying the nature of a world view it allows us to reject methodologies and beliefs because of the bigger picture as opposed to just saying well let me analyze this tiny isolated belief sometimes you have a tiny isolated belief that makes no sense that is to say that we don't have enough evidence to prove this according to our rationality but nonetheless the wider picture makes sense and therefore you would accept that one belief and other times you will have that one belief that makes a lot of sense but then the wider picture is completely detestable by the intellect and so we have to throw that out it allows us to also make reasoned evaluations of the different world views and it allows us to protect ourselves and our children from what we could describe as absolute foolishness and I use that word foolishness not in a way in which I'm insulting those who engage in such debates and discussions over minor issues but rather I literally do believe that this is an act of foolishness in the sense that it wastes a lot of time and it gets nobody anywhere and I fully admit that I say that as someone that used to engage in such discussions frequently so when we look at these world views questions we would ask ourselves are number one is there a God what is the nature of that God how does that God relate to the universe how does God relate to human beings and how does God relate to me personally then we would ask about the nature of man we would ask what is man is he by nature good or evil bit of both perhaps what's the future of man and how should we care about other human beings but one of the most important things when it comes to the nature of a world view is the concept of knowledge we would firstly ask what can we know about the world around us what can we know about Allah as an agent how do we know what we know that is to say what are the sources of the knowledge we have are there limits to our knowledge can we trust our rationality and can we increase in our knowledge and it's this particular point that I want to focus on I think it's probably the most important point that all Muslims all sheers and indeed all human beings need to ask themselves when analyzing their beliefs we're trying to go back to the basics and I think this is the most basic foundational question can we trust our rationality can we trust our intellects and this goes back to that analogy I gave shortly before entering the discussion of a world view what do I mean by can we trust our rationality as many of you will know I'm certainly from a non Muslim background and I'm certainly from a non Shia background in terms of parental ancestry but when it comes to these particular questions these were questions I investigated as a young teenager and certainly there were certain questions I had which led me along the path to discovering this blessed original Islam the Islam of the Ahlul Bayt, aleyhum salam some of the questions I asked were as follows where am I heading in life and is there a goal to all of this now of course these questions I asked were heavily premised upon the fact that I trusted in my reasoning abilities and indeed it was my reasoning abilities that allowed me to come outside of a box that I was born into that environment that I was raised into because it allowed me to question certain key bigger questions that comes back to the concept of the world view where we have the bigger questions that we question we don't question silly little questions like in which year was this particular edition of the Bible translated and was it translated from the Latin or the French that's irrelevant to me a bigger question would be what is the nature of revelation according to Roman Catholicism can I trust that model of revelation does the history of the Bible seem to align with that model of revelation that they claim these are the bigger questions not smaller little tiny details and Alhamdulillah in asking for bigger questions I was able to come to an understanding of the truth when it comes to the intellect thank God Alhamdulillah the school of the Ahlul Bayt may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all is certainly the school which gives a predominant and primary scope to the ability to trust our intellect as for others then inshallah ta'ala will be going through that over the next few nights but I want you to ask yourselves all this question if we are to engage in dialogue with anyone what would we need to believe about the intellect in order to engage in successful and fruitful dialogue one of the things that certainly attracted me to the concept of theism and to the concept of rejecting atheism entirely was a great argument formulated by one of the 20th century philosophers and a Christian literature writer but nonetheless a truly brilliant rational argument he states in his book naturalism or miracles rubber if a strict materialist refutes itself for the reason given long ago by professor Haldain and he quotes professor Haldain as saying if my mental processes are determined wholly and entirely by the motions of atoms in my brain just to say that all that goes on in my brain according to the naturalist, the naturalist atheist is that atoms move in my brain I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true that is to say if it was all physical and I had no choice in any of this and that everything was just a physical motion creating a belief I would have no reason to believe it's true and hence I have no reason for supporting my brain to be compulsive atoms C.S. Lewis correctly points out that if your belief is that we cannot trust the intellect then even engaging in believing such a thing requires the intellect so either you should switch off your intellect and hold that belief but in doing so you'd basically be saying don't trust me because you can't trust my intellect or you should acknowledge that this belief itself is fallacious back to the analogy of the man I gave in most of the major cities who comes out and says we're all in the matrix all the delusion can we trust such individuals who come out and say that reality as we experience it daily but our very minds that are very intellects cannot be trusted this is the major question that I want us all to ponder over tonight does it make sense to believe in a set of doctrines a set of doctrines which you have shaped scrutinized come up to by using your human mind by using this God-given ability which Allah has shaped us all with this ability to trust our minds does it make any sense to take that God-given gift of rationality and therefore start believing in things where you are told that you must switch off your rationality that you are told that your rationality is not only something limited but rather is something that will misguide you inshallah ta'ala I know that one of the things that will be raised is to say that our rationality is subjective but inshallah ta'ala we'll discuss that more in the next few nights dear viewers thank you once more for joining me live here in the holy city of Karbala please do not forget us in your du'as and likewise we will not forget you in our du'as here by the shrine of Abul Fadal Abbas As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh