 And why when we read this book, we don't find any name of a female messenger of God. And God said, sent only male messengers and prophets and apostles. Why females are excluded? What is the answer? In chapter 16, Surah An-Nahl, verse 43, God says, وما أرسلنا من قبلك إلا رجالا النوحي إليهم فسألوا أهل الذكري إن كنتم لا تعلمون. We sent no messenger before you or Muhammad. Save man, save man, only man who received revelation from their Lord. Now, some people come and say, look, God Himself in His book, He says, we only sent male messengers. We did not send female messengers, and this means that they are unqualified for leadership, to be messengers of God. They are not good for this job. Other people argue that look at the Quran, even the Quran, even Islam has detracted a view of women. Because God says in His book, only men are qualified. We only sent men as messengers of God. So what is the answer, my friends? The answer is, this verse came at a time where the idolaters of Makkah, the Makkans, the pagans, they argued with the Prophet. They said to him, we cannot accept you as being the messenger of God. Why? Because you are a mortal, you are a human being, just like us. And God, this God who's too great and too big, God is the omnipotent. God is the omniscient. God who is the creator of this universe. God cannot be represented by a human being. He must send someone who's above a human being, and that person should be, that person should be an angel. God is refuting the request. God is saying that, no, I am sending a messenger on purpose. I want him to be a human being. I want him to be one of you. I want him to share the feelings with you. Because if I send someone who's alien, stranger, he doesn't know what is going on. If we bring a scholar from outside America who does not speak English, he doesn't know anything about America. And now he wants to give consultation, advice to the people in this country. He wants to speak to women, he wants to speak to the young generation, to the youth, to the adults, and solve their problems. And he has no clue about America. He doesn't speak the language, he knows nothing about the culture. Would he be successful in his mission? He can't. Because he's unaware, he's ignorant of what is going on. You need to know what is happening. Therefore, God said to the Mackens, I am sending Muhammad and I know he's a human. Yes, he is a human. Because I want to send a leader from within you. Someone from you. Who knows you very well? Who knows what we need? Who knows our strengths as well as our weaknesses? So he can give us the best advice. If I send an angel, angel is going to be alien to you. Angels, they have no desires. They don't eat, they don't drink, they don't sleep, they don't trust, they don't have families. So they cannot even give you the best advice. They are strangers, aliens. This is why we send humans. So when God said, وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالًا We said men. He was trying to say that my messengers to the humanity are humans. But not necessarily. He didn't mean to say they are male. He didn't say male. He said men and men in this context means humans, my friends. رِجَالًا in this context of the Quran implies that the prophets and messengers are humans, not angels. They carry human characteristics. So God did not necessarily mean to say that they are males. رِجَالًا means they are humans. You asked for angels. I did not send angels. I'm going to send humans. This is number one. Number two. We find in the same book, my friends. This is the Holy Quran. Come to the story of the mother of Moses. She's a female. God says about her. وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَّا أُمْمِ مُوسَا عَنْ أَرْضَعِهِ We inspired her. وَحِيْهِ here does not mean revelation. It means inspiration. So God talked to her what to do. When she was busy carrying the baby Moses and the enemies were running after her to murder the baby, God revealed to her, God inspired her, God guided her. So if she's not, if women are not worthy of God's inspiration and God's speech, then why should God speak to the wife, to the mother of Moses? This is number one. You come to another lady from the children of Israel. And that is Maryam. Angels spoke with Maryam. Angels spoke with Maryam. Angel brought her food every day. كلما دخل عليها زكرية المحرابة وجد عندها رزقة. قال يا Maryam وأن لك هذا. قالتها من عند الله. Every time Zakariah comes to the sanctuary to check on her, he finds food. So he's surprised. He says Mary, where do you bring this food from? He says it's from God. So angels are serving her. If women are not good and not qualified and they are secondary citizens and they are inferior to men, how can angels come and serve them? This is a second example. The third example. Third example, God says about Mary herself. صديقة وأمه صديقة صديقة means truthful. And remember this is not a small title. This is a big title. Heavyweight title. Because God says about Ibrahim. واذكر في الكتاب إبراهيم إنه كان صديقة النبيه. Remember in the book Ibrahim who was truthful and a prophet. So God is given the same title that gave it earlier to Ibrahim, the patriarch, the leader, the most important prophet, the father of all the prophets. He carried the title صديق truthful. He gave the same title to Mary who's a female. So if females are inferior to men, can they deserve the same title? They cannot. But God says they are equal. We don't have inferiority and superiority when it comes to human beings, when it comes to male and female. No one is superior to the other. This is a misconception. This is a patriarchy syndrome. Now, my friends, again, why then we don't find a female who is messenger of God? Who is a prophet of God? Yes, we find the mother of Moses. She is highly respected. We find Mary, highly respected. We find Khadija, the wife of the prophet, highly respected. We find Fatima to Zahra. We find Zainab. We find many women. But why one of them is not a prophet or a messenger of God? Because my friends, at that time, because of this patriarchy syndrome that did exist and dominate all societies, not just Arabia. Not just Arabia. Go to every culture at that time. Every culture. And in some cultures right now, they believe in the dominance of men. They believe in the patriarch society. They believe that men are first, women are second. And this, if you did exist at that time. So if God sends a female messenger, people are not going to follow her. Trust me. People are not going to take her serious. Trust me. People are not going to respect her. Because in chapter 19, Mary, Maryam, Hannah, the wife of Imran, the mother of Mary. Her name is Hannah. When she made a vow that when she conceives with a baby, she's going to dedicate that baby to serve the temple in Jerusalem. Now, when she conceived and she gave birth, the baby turned to be what? Female. She said, Rabbi, I thought of you in a free country, so accept me. You are the knowledgeable. And then God says, when she gave birth, she said, Rabbi, I gave birth to a woman. And God knows what she gave birth to. And she doesn't remember When she bore the baby, she said, Oh God, I born a female. And God knows what she bore. He knows. And then Quran continues to say, and male are not like female. So God is telling us. This is in news. He's telling us that at that time, that society of the children of Israel at that time in Palestine, they did not perceive men and women to be equal on the same page. They didn't. Women were not equal to men. Now, some people say, but God is saying this statement. Yes, God is saying this statement in the Quran, but God does not necessarily agree with it because God says many statements in his book, but he doesn't agree. The statement that says, when they hear you reading the book, they say, he's mad. He's mad. Does God agree with them? Is it God who's saying that Muhammad is mad, insane or the Madkins? It is the Madkins. God only is conveying the statement of the Madkins, but does not necessarily agree with it. Not every sentence said in this book, God says, I agree with it. Sometimes God is a bringing you the statements of others. And some of them are non believers, but he mentioned their statements in this book. So men are not women are not equal to men. This is not the statement of God. This is the statement of that society at that time. They did not accept women as leaders. And remember, Hannah is a wife of a prophet. Zechariah is a prophet, an important prophet. And she's saying about Mary, she's not equal to men. If God would send females, they would not follow. And God wants people to follow the messenger. So when God does not send female prophets, he's not saying that they are deficient. It's not about their natural deficiency. It's not about their moral deficiency or spiritual deficiency. It's about the deficiency of the society who cannot accept them.