 Interesting topic tonight, the Qur'an, the 1400-year solution to today's society. When most non-Muslims hear the term Qur'an, their minds are often flooded with many interrogative particles. Like, who, what, when, where, and why? What is the Qur'an, or Qur'an? Is it the same as the Qur'an? Did you know there's a book called the Qur'an? Have you heard of that? K-L-O-R-A-M. It's the handbook of the KKK. It was written in 1915 for the Qur'an. Obviously very different than the Qur'an. So Qur'an, out of the Qur'an with the definite article, means the recitation, the recursal. It comes from a root meaning to read Qara'ah, and the exact equivalent of this root, Qara'ah in the Hebrew, also means to proclaim, to rehearse, or to repeat. This verb is found some 739 times in different forms in the Hebrew Bible as well. So, as the story goes, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he was about 35 years old, he was a merchant. But he started to lose interest in the trade. At this point he started having dreams which Muslims believe was the beginning of prophecy. Muslims also believe that at no point in his life did the Prophet worship idols. The Prophet was in the spirit of Abraham as ancestors. So it was a group of monotheists living in Mecca called the Hunafa, and these people claim to be in the tradition of Abraham. So these are Arabs, they're Ishmaelites, so they're following the traditions of their forefathers, Abraham, Ismaili, peace be upon both of them. So the Prophet at this point, he used to go to this retreat he had. It was a cave called the Hara'ah, on Jabal An-Nur, the mountain of light, and he would go there to do devotional practices. It's called Tehinnah, which probably comes from Tehinnuf, which is Hebrew, meaning some sort of devotional practice. He would make Mecca, he would remember his Lord, he would contemplate the plight of his people, he would prostrate to God, things like that, or he would just go there to get away from the city life being solitude. So while he was there on the night of power, late at the time of the Night of Destiny, as it's sometimes translated, he was visited by the Archangel Gabriel in human form, and Gabriel came into the cave, and there's no small talk, there's no kaifahaluku, ahlan wa sahlan. It was just iqra, it's read, so it's the fi'l amr, the imperative for read. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, who has no formal education or schooling, responded, ma'ana biqari, I cannot read, I am unlettered, I am not from the reciters. The angel repeated the command, iqra, again, ma'ana biqari, third time, iqra, ismi rabbika lallahi khalaq, khalaqa linsana min a'alaq, iqra wa rabbuka aqra, alladi a'ala biqra, min qala, a'ala ma linsana, ma'ala mi'ala. So the first five verses of the Quran was revealed, read in the name of your Lord, creates created man from, it says, congealed drop of blood, but I don't like that translation. Read for your Lord is most bountiful, we talk man by use of the pen, we talk man that which you do not before. So, I'll take that down the stroke. Reminds me I just shut mine off too. If it goes off you'll understand. So these are the first five verses of the Quran. And this is in chapter 96 of the Quran, which is interesting. You would expect this to be in chapter one of the Quran because it's the first five verses, but it's in chapter 96. And there's wisdom behind that. The order of the Quran is not in chronology, it's based on how the prophet ordered it and so on. So, Muslims believe also, an important aspect of Islamic prophetology is that the prophet fulfills ancient prophecy. So, for example, in the canonized book of Isaiah, in the Old Testament, there's a story of one who receives a book, and it says, Leimur Iqra in the Hebrew, which means it will be said to him Iqra. Iqra and Iqra are the exact same word. It shall be said to him, read. And his answer, according to Isaiah 29-12, is Lo Yadati Seifah, which literally means, I don't know letters, I can read. Ma'ana Iqra. And according to Catholicism, there is a law known as the law of discernment of spirits. Because when the prophet, so Lo Yadati said to him, when he was first approached in the cave, he had thought that something evil had happened to him or that he had been possessed by a jinn or a demon. Now, this is interesting because the Catholic doctrine says that when the spirit of God comes upon a prophet, immediately he will feel a constriction and then an expansion. Whereas if it was a demon, there's an expansion and then a constriction. It's a prophet's constriction first, which according to the law of discernment of prophets, which is Roman Catholic doctrine codified, it was a true vision. And this is based on experiences of former prophets. For example, the prophet Isaiah, when he was in the temple, the spirit of God came upon him. He was in the corner of the temple saying, what a wretched person I am, Musa A.S., the Holy Prophet Moses, very reluctant when God commissioned him to go to Pharaoh to pick someone else. I can't speak properly, so on and so forth. Jeremiah as well. So the Quran is the revelation of God. We have to make a distinction between the revealed word of God and the inspired word of God. So for example, traditional Christians would say that the Bible is inspired by God. God inspired not a word for word dictation, but rather an expression of an author's unique understanding. So Matthew's personality is very evident in the New Testament. He quotes the Old Testament. Luke is a physician. His Greek is very clean. You can see his personality in his work. John, a very high Christology. Paul uses sarcasm a lot in his works. So Christians would say these are inspired by God, but articulated through a material vehicle. A human agency, a created mechanism, a human mind, a human heart, and human understanding. So Muslims have something similar to this, and the Islamic tradition, known as hadith. Hadith are defiantly inspired statements of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, words chosen by the Prophet to articulate divine inspiration. So God inspired the Prophet to exhort his followers to be humble. And the Prophet chose his words how to articulate that. And many times the Prophet uses conditional clauses. That's almost his signature. You can see conditional, if then, clauses. This is how he chose to articulate this inspiration from God. He said, whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever exalts himself will be debased and humiliated. But the Quran is something different than that. The Quran is not the inspired speech of God. It's the revealed speech of God himself. Now before we get into that, we have to sort of define who is God in the Islamic tradition. God in the Islamic tradition is completely and radically transcendent of creation. He transcends space, time, and direction. And when I say he, I don't mean to imply that God is a male. This is a big deal now in graduate school. If you take classes in theology, the graduate school level, your professor may actually mark you down. If you refer to God by masculine pronoun, they'll say, use an equal number of she's. Or just use she because sh-e, the he is already in the she. So it's both. Well, certainly God doesn't have two genders, doesn't have any gender. So this becomes problematic. Or they'll say, don't say him and himself, say God and Godself. Now certainly the Old Testament, the Hebrew refers to God as who, which means him. And the Quran, whoa, which means him. The Greek and the New Testament, autos, which means him. It's masculine. Or hafias, the God, masculine. Ha-kuryas, the Lord, masculine. And there's a neuter gender in Greek. It could have been neuter. That does not mean God is a male. That's how God chose to reveal himself. But it does not mean that he's male. The word Allah and the word Adonai and the word hafias, these are grammatically male. You see, words in Hebrew and in Arabic, all of the nouns are genderfied. Every noun has a gender. Some have natural gender, some have lexical or grammatical gender. For example, the word for boy has a natural gender. Boy, walaad, hada, walaad, walaad. It's masculine. It's a boy. It has to be masculine. Bintun, a girl, is naturally feminine. But the sun, ashamsu. The sun, ashamsu. There's nothing morphologically there that will inform you or indicate that this is a feminine word, but it is in fact a feminine word. So it's grammatically, it's lexically feminine, not naturally. The same with the name of God. God does not have a gender. It's a natural gender. The word itself is lexically masculine. Now interestingly, the dominant attribute of God in the Quran, rashma, comes from a word meaning the womb of a mother, right? The rasha. And in Hebrew it's the same word. The rehtem means mercy of God. And the rehtem also means the womb, which encloses the fetus. So the Prophet, salalati sallam, under inspiration would sometimes give examples or demonstrate divine attributes by using feminine imagery like the woman who had lost her son, and then she saw him and she picked him up and she kissed him and hugged him and breastfed him. And the Prophet said to his companions who were there and they saw this, can you imagine that woman throwing her son in a fire? And they said, lau wallahi, by God, no. And he said, allahu arahamu bi ibadihi min hadi ibi wa la diha. God is more merciful to his servants than this woman is to her son. So he's using feminine imagery to describe divine attributes. Right? So the Prophet also is a reflection of his Lord. Muslims believe that he's a perfection of the Adamic creature. The Prophet is the perfect equilibrium of janali attributes, janali majestic attributes, which are predominantly found in men like courage and fortitude and things like that, bravery. And the janali attributes which are predominantly found in women, the beautiful attributes, not just physical beauty, like mercy, forbearance, things like that. In fact, the Prophet's title in the Quran, Nabi al-Umi, has three meanings. The most dominant meaning is that it means the unlettered Prophet. Okay, another possibility that the exegents, the Mufassirin of the Quran mentioned, Nabi al-Umi, the Gentile Prophet. Because the Jews at the time used to refer to the Arabs as ummiyin, Gentiles. Another meaning is Nabi al-Umi, the motherly Prophet. Because um means mother, the motherly Prophet. Wa khfad janaa haqad il-mukmiyin. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells the Prophet in the Quran, lower your wing upon the believers. So the images are like a mother bird concealing her young or protecting her young. When the Prophet had a adopted son named Zaid Ibn Haritha and Zaid's father from Bani Khalil came back into Mecca during pilgrimage and he saw his son Zaid. So he asked the Prophet for his son back. Zaid was taken unlawfully and sold into slavery. The Prophet adopted him. So now Zaid's father wants Zaid back. And the Prophet said, let Zaid choose. And Zaid said, I choose no man over you. You are my father and my mother. So the Prophet has peace be upon him. He's a reflection of his Lord. He has both qualities of both genders. Because he loved the feminine qualities of the Prophet peace be upon him. Weep frequently. He would never raise his voice. He never struck anyone out of anger. He loved children. He would pass his hands over their heads in the streets. He would greet them initially. It was very hard to pre-empt the Prophet with his salam. He would greet you very quickly before you can say salam to him. Al-Badiu-Bis-salami. The one who initiates the salam, the greeting, is free of arrogance. So going back to God. God is not located anywhere in creation. He does not have an address or a residence. So he doesn't live at 1, 2, 3 Temple Mount Boulevard or 786 Holy Ka'ba Avenue. When we pray to the Ka'ba, we don't pray to the Ka'ba. We pray in the direction of the Ka'ba. It's a qiblah. Qiblah means direction. Even though it's called baytullah, which is a construct phrase, which can be translated as the house of God. Certainly God does not reside in this cube. No one believes that. It's a house dedicated for God. Just like the Beth El, which literally means house of God in Hebrew. No Jew or Christian believes that God lives there physically. No address, no residence. It's outside of time. It has no calendar. It's not November 17, 2010. Thank God. So he's not located outside of time. So Imam Ali said, Allah was before any place that he is now exactly where he was. The prophet actually said that the closest a human being is to his Lord is when he is in prostration, the closest. So God is outside of the temporal world. There's no proximity with God. If you're in prostration, like those miners 2,000 feet below, if one of them is in such doubt, he's closer to God in reality than a man praying on the 89th floor of the seer's power. The theologians use example of the prophet Jonah, who was fitfulumat in layers of darkness, but prostrating to God. They say he's closer to God in reality than an angel in the seventh heaven, who's flying around because he is in such doubt he is prostrating himself. So God isn't facing any particular direction. There's no up, down, left, right. They say the qiblah, the qiblah of dua, of supplication, is the sky. So it's permissible to look up, to supplicate. That does not mean God is located somewhere in the physical realm. It's just a direction of supplication that is used to engender humility in the supplicant. So God and his attributes are completely dissimilar to creation. So how do Muslims reconcile their beliefs that the Quran is a revealed speech of God when the Quran is an Arabic and created human language? So the answer to this question is at the heart of the topic tonight. How can a book written in the seventh century be relevant for a 21st century audience? God is radically unlike his creation, yet he speaks in created human language. So the first thing to understand is that God does not speak in any language. Not in Arabic. Not in Hebrew. Not in Greek. And believe it or not, not in English. Sometimes you hear people on TV say, God came to my bedside and said, my son? Oh really? Did he sound like that? Did he have that country accent? I heard it clear. Okay. Why? Because God, his manner of speaking is completely dissimilar to our manner of speaking. So the theologians say that the codex of the Quran, like this is called, we call it the Quran, but in reality it's the codex. This is a mushaf. To be technical, this is not the Quran. This is the codex of the Quran which has the script of the Quran. They say the codex indicates upon, indicates upon the personal pre-eternal speech of God. It's just an indication. It's called dhalala, indication. The uncreatedness of the Quran is only with respect to its meanings which are infinite and they're not in any particular language. The Arabic indicates some of those pre-eternal meanings. This is why it's reported in Hadith and sacred traditions. When the Prophet was leading prayer, quite often he would come to a verse and he would repeat it hundreds of times. Hundreds of times. Sometimes he'd be there a third of the night repeating the same verse. So theologians said that's because when he would repeat it and he's instructed in the Quran to repeat the Quran, recite the Quran and slow measured verses, tones. When he was repeating these verses more of these pre-eternal meanings would occur to his heart so he would better elucidate that portion of the revelation. However, unlike an inspired word where the vessel will choose his words, the Arabic words of the Quran were chosen by God, chosen by God, not literally spoken by him but chosen as a means of expressing his word. This is why the Quran, a lot of Muslims don't know this, the Quran has multiple readings. The Quran doesn't have varied readings. There's a difference between the two. There are multiple readings of the Quran because according to our tradition the Quran was revealed in seven dialects. So you'll hear people say Alhamdulillah, alab el alamin ar-Rahman ar-Rahim ma li ki yaw mad-deen That's fine. Or Alhamdulillah, alab el alamin ar-Rahman ar-Rahim mad-di ki yaw mad-deen A slight difference. Madik and madik, one means owner, one means king. Both of these readings have Sen'at, they have transmission that goes all the way back to the prophet which means he recited it in both ways. Both of them are correct. Because they both express some of the pre-eternal meanings of the first surah of the Quran and these meanings are infinite. So the text is always secondary to the pre-eternal meanings. God does not speak in Arabic. He speaks in a way that is completely dissimilar to us. So there are multiple meanings. Multiple readings. What's the difference between multiple reading and a variant reading? A variant reading is like what we have with Christian manuscripts, for example. Aleph 01, known as Codex Sinaiticus found by Titian Dwarf. It dates to the fourth century. You'll have, for example, a chapter missing of John or the longer ending of Mark, missing versus our missing. We don't have that with the Quran. What we do have is differences in diacritical vowel notations or vowel or skeletal dots. The skeletal, the continental skeleton remains the same. So that's important. So with this understanding, how do we understand God's communication to Moses at the burning bush? It's not like the Charlton Heston rendition where he's walking and then there's a little bush and then he hears a voice coming from this little bush. Muslims understand the story that Moses did not hear anything with his ear. There was no voice because God speaks to Moses directly. It's not through an agency like Gabriel came to the prophet peace be upon him. He spoke to the prophet through exterior leucution. Gabriel said words in Arabic. The prophet responded and repeated them. But here God is speaking directly to Moses. He spoke directly to Moses. So Muslim theologians would say that Moses did not hear anything in any language that he could understand. The voice wasn't coming from any particular direction. God chose words and put them directly into his heart through interior leucution. Some of those meanings suggested Oh Moses, I am God, the Lord of the World Take off your sandals. Go to Pharaoh for he has transgressed beyond all bounds. What's really interesting is the story told in the book of Exodus it says God called out to him and the verb here is again. The Qara'a is used for Moses peace be upon him. It's used for the prophet peace be upon him. God speaks by saying recite or read it. So in this sense the Qara'a is very much a living text because there are exoteric and esoteric aspects of the Qara'a. There may be an immediate reference for a verse of the Qara'a but there is also an esoteric or infinite aspect of the Qara'a. A moral or lesson is good for all times. For example a delegation came from Medina and they asked the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him about the nature of the soul and the prophet said I'll do that tomorrow and 15 days go by and the revelation will not descend on the prophet. So on the 15th day finally it comes and God tells the prophet to the angel don't say don't say I'm going to do this tomorrow without adding God willing. The immediate occasion was at that time but we take a lesson from this and what is the lesson? The universal principle is a reminder that although we have a limited choice it is not an absolute choice and that we always tie things to the will of God. So this is why you hear Muslims say insha'Allah I'll do this, insha'Allah I'll do that. The immediate occasion was the prophet's time but it's good for all time. The Quran has this transcendental element to it. So meanings are dynamic. The text is not dynamic the text does not change but the interpretations will change based on qualified scholarship. One out of four human beings on planet earth is identified identifies him or herself as a Muslim. This is a book with an unchanging text. I think this is one of the greatest miracles of the Quran. A book that has an unchanged text for 14 centuries continues to influence millions and millions of people. Somebody might say, well that's in the third world. They're behind by a few centuries. Well 20,000 people in this country, every year 20,000 Americans I'm not talking about immigrants who move here. I'm talking about people born in this country, 20,000 a year become Muslim. This book finds relevancy with them. It resonates with them. That I think is a great aspect of the Quran. So just as God is at hayu the living the one who transcends death, he imputed if you will upon the Quran on this transcendental element thus rendering the Quran valid for all times. And this is something that religions seek this relevancy. That's why you have these translations for example of the Bible, like the New Living Translation. They'll take the Greek and put it into modern everyday English. Or you have, this is really funny, they had the Bible for teens so they use like teen language. So for example instead of a try of dereliction, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What is that? Why hast thou? It's very archaic, it's pretty. So the translation will say something like, OMG this ain't cool man. They're trying to give it this transcendental aspect of the text. The text they're trying to make the text transcend its time and be relevant for Americans in the 21st century. The Quran achieves that without such maneuvers. The Quran achieves that through the interpretation of the Quran by different scholars. And this is why it's very important for scholars to have requisite knowledge before they can interpret the Quran. Many Muslims think just because they know Arabic they're a PhD in Islamic studies. Well I'm speaking English does that make me, does that give me an honorary PhD in medieval literature? Certainly not. Now to be a Muslim scholar you have to know Arabic. You have to know it well. But the very fact that you know Arabic doesn't make you a scholar any more than me knowing English makes me a master of Shakespearean sonnets. You have to master different levels of knowledge. 13 or 14 levels of knowledge have to be mastered in order for someone to give an authoritative opinion. That doesn't mean you can't read a verse in the Quran and say it speaks to my heart and this is when I'm getting from it. You can do that, there's nothing wrong with doing that. But you can't go out and say this is what I think it means and it's authoritative and I'm going to publish this opinion of mine. That's very dangerous. So the Quran is not a book of history although we believe that it does describe historical events accurately. It's not a book of science although the Quran doesn't appear to make a scientific blunder and this is the opinion of Dr. Maurice Bukai, he's a French scientist. You can read his book The Bible, The Quran and Modern Science and he converted to Islam based on his research of the Quran from a scientific perspective. The Quran is not a deontological book of do's and don'ts. There's 6600 verses in the Quran 75 of those verses say do this or don't do that. 75 verses out of 6600 and another 450 verses explain those do's and don'ts. It's a roughly 500 out of 6600. It's a book of guidance. It speaks to the core of the human being, to the nature, the moral compass and it's supplemented by the sunnah of the prophet peace be upon him. His wife said his character was the Quran. Now there's a hadith of the prophet where he said towards the end of time Towards the end of time, nothing remains of the Quran except the script of the Quran. Meaning no one understands the meanings of the Quran anymore. And this is something that is problematic. And this is something that Muslims recognize as being a problem. That we need qualified scholarship that has what's known as sanah of transmission. The first hadith that children learn in traditional schools of Islamic education is a hadith of the prophet where he said mercy to those on earth and the one in heaven will show you mercy. It's a very short statement but they also memorize the entire chain of transmission which takes about 15 minutes or 20 minutes to recite because transmission is very important. You're getting your knowledge from and you think well it's only about 32 names that's not very hard but some of the names are like Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Hassan Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad heard from Muhammad Ibn Hassan Ibn Muhammad it gets very complicated but it's very important to know the chain of transmission. This is why Muslims value things like genealogies and credentials before someone gets up and speaks weak weak they should have credentials for information unless it's a reliable source so think about that often times in our society we see this inverse relationship between information and knowledge you would think the more information that's out there the more knowledgeable people are we're living in an age of information you can go on the internet and find a billion articles about Islam but why aren't people becoming more knowledgeable why is ignorance increasing why the inverse relationship the problem is because information is only converted into knowledge when the source of the information is authoritative it has to be authoritative the source so for example I use this example a lot if Kermit the Frog tells you not to drink Diet Coke because it gives you osteoporosis would you believe Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog here don't drink Diet Coke you would probably say Kermit he's a puppet for Elmo you'll say Elmo is a monster his best friend is Cookie Monster he's an addict can't control himself I'm not going to believe Cookie Monster but if Dr. Oz whose first name is Mohammed by the way did you guys know that it's Mehmet which is an apocapated form of Mohammed in Turkey of course you never hear about his first name there's a good reason for that you always hear about Oprah Feraldo then you say what's Oz's first name Doctor it's Mohammed Oz if he says don't drink Diet Coke because it gives you osteoporosis you might say you know what Dr. Oz he's a doctor because it's all about the source so the problem we have today in our contemporary society is you have a bunch of Elmos and Kermit the Frogs wearing Dr. Oz costumes and speaking for Islam that's what's going on whether they're Muslim or not you have these pundits these 9-11 opportunists to go on TV and say unbelievable inaccurate things about Islam I'll give you an example there's a Christian channel and you know how the heat stamp that came out ok it looked like this and then it said eat Mubarak here in Arabic calligraphy he showed us on TV and he said if you get a letter with this stamp on it don't open your mail because Muslims read from right to left die I was at a Starbucks recently I don't know about Starbucks I just needed I was craving a frack there was an older man there who tried to give his feel about his belief and he was saying things like this and I said you really should have listened to Pat Robertson and these guys and they don't know what they're talking about and I showed him this and I said look this is what one of them said and when I showed him this his reaction surprised me because he went would you look at there and then I said yeah and if you write Mubarak Karaboum and then he realized I was sassing him so when we say the Quran it's a 1400 year solution this is first and foremost a faith conviction however it is a faith conviction rooted in concrete life experiences the Quran continues to change millions of lives it's too difficult to dismiss just the effect of the Quran not even going into the text of it yet just the effects of the Quran it's too difficult to dismiss something I find wonderful about the Quran is that it directly addresses different groups of people it addresses believers it addresses unbelievers it addresses directly Jews and Christians Ahlul Kitab means people of the book the Bible and it describes to the Muslims who are Ahlul Kitab they're not all the same they're very different just like Muslims are very different you have a group of Ahlul Kitab that are in complete disagreement with other groups read a book by Chris Hedges a great Christian scholar very brilliant man an American fascism in which he talks about these militarized evangelical generals in the Pentagon the cathedral in DC who believe it is their duty to go tame the wild Ishmaelite and bring them the gospel and so on and so forth believing in going in and taking over countries this type of imperial building empire building mentality the majority of Christians find this idea very troubling but the vast majority of Chris Hedges himself is a Christian from Harvard Seminole they're not all the same this is very important Christians would say also that God does have a preferential aspect that God is with the oppressed he's with the downtrodden he's with the marginalized in society that he's not necessarily with the militarized general who wants to go and take countries over the vast majority of Christians would agree with that in fact Vatican II in 1962 1965 they had a council Vatican II in Rome and their position of Islam their official position regarding Islam is that it is a legitimate Catholic God that's official Catholic canonized doctrine Orthodox Judaism as well and they say any religion after the flood is a legitimate religion so I want to share just a couple of these verses in the Quran where all of mankind is addressed very unique aspect of the Quran it's not just like Paul's letters the different congregations the Catholic epistles the Christian congregations the Old Testament the God of Israel the God of Israel the Quran has a universal aspect to it Ya ayuha naas Inna khala khanapum min takarin wa kunta oh people the whole of mankind verily we created you from a single pair of a male and female so all of us are brothers and sisters the prophet peace be upon him he was the first person in recorded history to equalize humanity based on skin color there's no one before him that said anything close to that or using skin color Paul said in Galatians there's neither Greek nor June nor Christian we're all one in Christ he didn't mention skin color the prophet says very clearly no Arab is superior to non-Arab no black man superior to a white man no white man superior to a black man who come in Adam or Adam in Torah Adam is from dust all of you are from Adam and Adam is from dust equalizing this is why Islam resonates with for example African-Americans in this country the most receptive group of people to Islam in this country African-Americans those marginalize the subaltern the deletes in India the untouchables when Islam entered into India they would enter Islam and Maasai why there are more Muslims in India than Pakistan much more people don't know that there was someone the other day who what was this I think there was a cow I had a talk and there was an American woman there and she asked one of the Muslim students where are you from and the brother said India and she said are Muslims in India? yeah there's hundreds and millions of Muslims more than Pakistan alright it finds a home in these places and we made you into different tribes and nations so that you may get to know one another to know interact to learn diversity is celebrated the prophet said none of you will enter paradise until you believe and none of you believe until you love one another Verily the most honored inside of God amongst you are those who have the most taqwa the most God consciousness that's a good translation of taqwa really it's a it's a love that's rooted in fear right so there's two types of fear there's khauf which is a fear that one has a bodily injury like the theologians say if you're walking through a forest on a dark night and you hear ooo ow you have khauf you have fear of bodily injury that's how some people worship God and that's a level to be transcended we shouldn't downplay that it's mentioned in the Quran but then you rise above that to khashia which is a fear of displeasing God right so it's like a son there are some children that obey their parents because they're afraid of getting beat I can't do that because my dad will beat me they're afraid of the whip right and there are other children who will not disobey their parents because they love their parents so much that it'll hurt them if they knew that they hurt their father this is called khashia this is how the prophet worshiped God God how he worshiped his Lord al-Fala'a al-Kumu'adad shakura shall I not be a grateful servant when he was worshiping until his feet were swollen red this is the fear that I'm talking about the most honored amongst you are those who have the most top one another verse in the Quran so that's chapter 49 verse 13 chapter 30 verse 22 and from his signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the differences of your languages your tongues and your colors there's no tower of babel story in the Quran that diversity in languages and skin tone is a sign from God I don't know if you guys remember this movie called Robin Hood the one with Kevin Costner what's it called? not men and tights but the Prince of Thieves I think it was a little before your time I think it was 1991 there's a scene in that movie it was panned by critics because apparently he can't speak with an English accent or he refuses to I don't know there's a scene Morgan Freeman's in this movie right a really cute scene where he's the Moor and he's in Sherwood Forest and this little tiny English girl comes to him and she says did God paint you? and he says yes and then she goes why? and then he says because Allah loves great variety I love this it can't paint you so Muslims operate under the Quranic principle of I'll end with this inshallah repel evil with beauty the Quran says repel evil with beauty or something better so we are not allowed to answer evil for evil we're not sanctioned to do that and we can see this in the life of a prophet where he had people that were fighting against him actively fighting against him trying to kill him for over 20 years but at the end he welcomed them into his community no one is actively trying to kill us we don't walk down the street and think we're shooting arrows at us at least not most of us it's not a case you're talking about but we're so we're so sensitive there was a brother who came into the mosque Christian brother he came to the mosque and he was asking critical questions there's nothing wrong with that critical meaning he was asking very analytical questions that's what it means to be critical not to necessarily find fault and there was another Muslim there and just after five minutes lost it and said why don't you bring these blah blah blah into the mosque and get him out of here and listen to that and the poor guy was just like you know this is wanna get away one of those moments and he was just like that was his threshold five minutes the prophet the prophet the prophet the prophet all these people over 20 years tried to kill him and in the end he welcomed him then right so the prophet is the example of the Muslims in the Quran says that he's a mercy center to all the world not just for the Muslims or the Arabs for all the world including all the animals a very clear hadith he says don't don't don't turn the backs of your beasts into manadara into pulpits in other words don't sit on your your horse or your donkey or your camel and just start pontificating because that poor animal is holding your weight come down from your animal so he gives animals rights he said don't curse the rooster because he makes you love for the prayer don't curse the rooster imagine somebody like sleeping because I've been in I've been in countries where the houses are mud brick and you can hear everything through the walls and many times there's no door and when that rooster gets going at five in the morning it's just like it sounds like thunder it sounds like a name to us it's you crazy guy I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you I can't curse you so we need to implement this imperative in the fact that my teeth we need to accent implement the imperative now I didn't tell you what happened at the end of my encounter here with the starbucks guy at the end of my encounter because he at one point he lost it he said you muslims are violent you want to kill people and this and that I was like so I was trying to calm him down a little bit he didn't like my answers and then he said you know what when you have to walk behind the men what's up with that you guys are misogynistic and he sounded just like remember John Ashcroft he was the attorney general under bush I'm starting to think the only reason why he had that job is because he had a very scary voice do you remember his voice he said in a world of alchemy yeah he had a good singing remember he was like eagles anyway what was my point oh yeah so this guy says you guys are misogynistic so I said you know there's nothing in the Quran or hadith that says that a woman has to walk behind a man it's a cultural practice that originated in some muslim country in order to make the women comfortable when they're walking around at night so there's no men walking behind them so they would say men don't walk behind women and follow them around makes them uncomfortable that was the point of that not because they think they're inferior there is a story from the Quran where it says that Moses it's also in the Bible Moses held these two damsels in distress at a well right and then he was sitting there one of them came back and said my father who was Jethro or probably Shua'a al-Isra is inviting you to his house so Moses this is what the tough seer says this is what the commentary says it says that Moses had a dilemma he didn't want to walk behind her to make her feel uncomfortable because maybe he'd be looking at her or she doesn't really trust him yet he might attack her so he said I'll walk in front of you and you lead the way and she said how can I lead the way so he said pick up some stones and just throw them in front of me to go right and throw them this way he did that to respect her he married her eventually that's his wife Sappora not because he felt and I explained this to him this man here in Travis and that was it he sat down I kid you not he sat down and there's 15 people there maybe and he opened this whole magazine and then he turned around and he said in a very loud voice you need to die die I said who needs to die interesting so I couldn't say you die I can't I'm not sanctioned to do that so I was shocked though I couldn't say anything I was sitting there like and I looked around and everyone was going about business like oblivious right so eventually like 30 minutes later he comes back and I was screaming and he comes up behind me I didn't mean it like that I meant like we all need to die to see the truth and I said I accept your apologies with us when you come into contact with those who believe in our signs say peace be upon you that the Lord has inscribed upon his own self the rule of mercy so we need to spread peace we should say salam aleykum to people there's a hadith that says towards the end of time the youth will greet each other with insults and you see this a lot what's up dawg you try this like in the Arab world welcome to an Arab man how are you? how are you? excuse me I don't think so what's up? what's up fool? what's up dawg? I was in San Ramon I'll never forget this I was going in my car and I saw this girl walking right by me she saw her friend she said hey! wow so with respect to character we should spread peace the slaves of the most gracious they tread lightly on their worth they walk with humility and when the ignorant speak to them like die they answer with peace they say salam that's what I should have said but I was so shocked so the Quran invites itself to higher criticism do they not reflect deeply on the Quran? this is what we want we want people to think about the Quran to consider the Quran so we have time for about 15 minutes if you like for Q&A session I have to catch a plane at 9.30 so I have to be out of here in 15 minutes they also have to give more time because they're going to violate me in the little room there but I have to prepare for that it's a mental preparation in the car so if there are any questions or comments if not I'm sorry if I was boring and the yes, yes ma'am okay yeah, I have some questions in that instance I would ask for a reference if she said whoever doesn't believe in the Prophet Muhammad will go to hell first ask for a reference in the Quran where does it say that in the Quran? now the theologians have different opinions as to what happens to non-Muslims this is an issue that's highly nuanced they've debated these issues for a long time there's an orthodox opinion it's a valid opinion orthodox opinion that says that people who were not reached by a sound prophetic summons in other words they weren't reached by the Prophet's message in a good form then they're not responsible to become Muslim that's a valid opinion that's an authentic opinion that's not my opinion this is a 1,000 year old orthodox Muslim opinion that if someone was told their whole life that Muslims are terrorists and Islam is evil and they worship an idol and things like that and that's all this person was told according to this opinion that person is not responsible to even become a Muslim it's a very highly nuanced issue God is just okay this is very important God is just God is not going to put people into hell forever and ever and ever until they really deserve it in fact very difficult to get into hell forever and ever and ever in fact the word katha which means unbeliever in reality a hostile unbeliever the root meaning is a farmer a katha is a farmer it's used in the Quran as a farmer also because a farmer will cover his seed so a katha is someone who covers the truth while knowing the truth Allah says in the Quran describing kufr describing infidelity saying do not cover the truth with falsehood or clothe it while you have knowledge of truth while antu ta'ilamun so we're not allowed to say to anyone you're going to go to hell we cannot do that that is against our religion because we don't know the end of people the end matters I keep myself out of hell that's why we pray for a khusnah khatima you should pray for a good ending because that's what's going to come down to you we don't know how people will end one of the early salaf said he said this is Imam Zayn al-Adideen Rahimahullahu ta'ala he said God has concealed his saints his awliya amongst the creation so be very careful how you act towards people many of my teachers were non-muslim at one point now they're my teachers now they're world-class scholars at one point they were non-muslims at one point showed them love and concern and mercy they weren't condemned so we have to be careful about that Imam Qurtubi a great scholar from Al-Andalusia he said that when Sayyidina Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhu one of the companions of the Prophet when he was prostrating himself to idols he was beloved of God because God knew his end what was his end? he's buried next to the best of creation right now buried next to the Prophet SAW the Prophet SAW said this is my companion in the Dunya and in the Akhira right so we have to be very careful how we talk to people we should be very concerned about ourselves and concerned for others also and not in the sense that we're going around judging people it's not our tradition you know sometimes you see these guys on campus with a sandwich board with a megaphone you're going to burn hell you're going to burn hell you're going to burn hell or you see Muslims right they walk by men okay that beard is that's a Muslim right there I'm measuring beers there's an opinion amongst Imam Shafiq Imam Shafiq who is a codified Imam of jurisprudence one of our champions his opinion is that if you shave completely it's maqru it's not haram that's a valid opinion we have to be very careful who we condemn but you have like the beard police the pat leg police you know the hijab police and you know it's very easy to condemn a woman who doesn't wear hijab because it's something that's outward right it's in your face but you know what's in that person's heart it could be worse we have to think about this al-Ghiba to ashad ibn al-Zinah it's a hadith that backbiting talking ill of someone behind their back is worse than fornication do we think about that though how often do we backbite you know we won't commit Zinah of course you know Alhamdulillah no way don't even put yourself in a position don't even come near to it but you know she said he said she said he said she said it's al-Ghiba it's worse than Zinah in reality in reality but we don't see the reality so I would to make a long story short I would ask for a reference and then I would explain that God is just and this is a nuanced issue that the theologians have debated over so we're not allowed to judge anyone the only people we can say for certainty that are in hell with certainty because we stop Rahul on his messenger stop we don't speculate said Arun, Pharaoh Haman, Arun Abu Jahl right few other people how many people have six people they come out you know so we should we should not be so judgmental and that the brother is standing up which means I need to sit down now oh it was just really quick you kept using the term like free eternal meanings yeah ah whoa that's deep so so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he has al-Qudam at that tea which means that he has an essential pre-cournality which means that there's no beginning to God because he's outside of time there's no past, present and future okay there's no beginning there was not a time when God was not he was always there therefore all of his attributes also have this attribute of pre-eternality because there is attributes so the kalam of God the speech of God which is reflected in Quran and reflected in Torah and reflected in Jee the meanings behind the script also has pre-eternal meanings that are infinite because God is infinite and pre-eternal that's why God could not be matter he can't be substance because science tells us that you can't get something out of nothing you can't get life out of death right or life out of nothing and axiomatic truth and biology is what life from life right so where does matter come from because there had to have been a beginning there had to have been someone or some entity who was outside of time who was not made of matter who created this something related like so we shouldn't tell people like you said that the speech like the I forgot how you used to describe it you said like the codex of the ban indicates upon the the personal speech as reflected in I guess like should you not say that it is a speech like you should technically but you can say it's the word of God it's permissible to say that but if you want to be technical you want to be technical you would say that it's an indication of God's word it's an expression of God's word in the Arabic language because ultimately God does not speak in human language because God is not human he's completely dissimilar to the variations but we call it God's word because that's how we're accustomed so yeah on the cover this is the Holy Quran but in reality it's the mus'ha the Quran the Quran is the recitation itself so that's an issue that the vast majority of Muslims will never even hear of the reason I brought it up is because we're talking about the relevancy of the Quran today and that's directly correlated that the Quran transcends 4th, 7th century Arabia because of that reason the pre-Romanians are it can be applied and that's not my opinion you can see this with experience that's why again 20,000 people in this country become Muslims it's still working whereas if you look at what happened with Christian Europe when they started printing the Bibles when the printing press was invented there was a partisan confirmation and then there was a massive atheist movement that's still affecting Europe they just left they said no we don't believe it it's not relevant to anyone any other last questions? yes sir I love to look at you mentioned about this question about the question of the sister that sometimes come in a different version it's okay that I don't become a Muslim I'm fine if I didn't believe in the Quran and Prophet Muhammad so the way it came to her your answer is very correct in my understanding but how to answer it in this way because many people meet you as a Muslim and say I can be fine to remain as a Christian as you so what I would think of is you can be fine as you said if you never knew and got the mirror to slam clearly and accurately but I'm going to give it to you now and then I start to speak and explain what Islam is I mean if he's a friend or someone who's ready to listen there's a point I want to raise and I want to listen to what you're going to say when someone asks you if you're new to explain to him what Islam is of course yes good point I would quote the Quran the Quran says don't say Trinity desist and it's better for you and it's better for you not to believe in the Trinity we believe that, that's our faith conviction that Islam preaches a radical monotheism which we believe is the teaching of Christ himself and that Trinitarian belief is a later outgrowth that was decided upon by various church synods by vote many hundreds of years after Jesus Christ upon him walked the earth so I agree with you I would say that Islam and this is not a politically correct statement but I don't really care because I believe it that Islam is the best way of life that Islam is a superior set of beliefs that it's more authentic if I didn't believe that it wouldn't be Muslim that doesn't mean I don't respect other religions certainly doesn't mean that okay but we as Muslims what does it say in the Quran about Muslims a lot of Muslims they push the pause button we're the best people don't worry about the rest of the ayah what does it say you are the best people you are the best umma for the people what does Lin Nass mean all of the Mufassirin say this means for the service of mankind you're only great because you serve people how you serve people you give them the message you give them the guidance that's the only reason ultimately the most important thing is guidance of people so this is ironic that we're only superior when we think when we serve people we only become the masters when we become the servants right so it's inverse so that's the point is that I totally agree with you we should use the opportunity bandi wa ani bolo aya relate for me even one verse just take opportunities to present our deen and if you're not a good speaker or a good orator I don't think I'm a good speaker sometimes the best thing to do is just have a good character just a smile you know or give them if somebody asks you a question like that give them a reference to someone to someone that can answer it more adequately you know so so you know it's a question of sensitivity but we have to be sincere people at the end of the day will respect you more if you have principles if you're not just you know whatever it's all the same kumayama lord if you say I respect you but I think this is superior they actually will respect that more at the end of the day you take a stand at your work and say I'm not going to happy hour every week on Friday they ask me when I was working when I was an accountant a company that shall remain nameless every Friday you're coming to happy hour I don't drink alcohol I'm never going to go there okay next week you're coming to happy hour I don't drink alcohol no okay next week you're going to happy hour at that point where I said you know what next time I'm going for next time okay we're going to have to stop here because he has to get to the plane yeah if you guys would like corons we have two corons over there shall I jump in is that fair?