 أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم مسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والصلاة والصلام على أشف الأنبياء والمرسلين سيدنا ونبينا عب القاسم العمين وأهل أهلبيته الطيبين والتاهرين المأسومين المفلومين أعفوا رستم شعورنا، أمامكم for joining us once more on this your show broadcasting live from the holy city of Karbala back to the basics in which of course we have been discussing ولا ب Ashley تم أحدها من متى المرة أن نتحدث داخل من لي تحدث عن طريقات خاصة so they're all not the same I don't think it's practical I don't think it's practical I don't think it's practical I'm trying to have a great sense of my view something like something like something like something like something like something like something like something like something like something like something like something like ل indu d e I t e n t e w r each those desgytions with those of other schools of Islam and we have indeed engaged in just some of her critiques of Sheism and applying a worldview method to analyze what they have to say it is no our intention to enter into a mudsling match with anyone و n d e A d while it certainly is something that فهذا بالنسبة لي أنه شيء ما يشهد للناس في نفسنا وفي نفسنا وفي نفسنا who grow up in a very iron sharpens iron type world where we almost lock horns with anyone who disagrees with us on the smallest of things it has been my experience that such an approach is neither productive nor particularly fruitful and more importantly it carries far more obligations as well as it can lead one out with the specific boundaries provided and stipulated by the holy imams with a peace and blessings of Allah be upon them from the Ahl al-Bait with a peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all now I state this in the introduction because I want everyone to be aware of where we are and Insha'Allah to Allah where we want to be heading we certainly don't want to head into a direction where our soul concern is to act polemically nor one where we are condescending towards the beliefs of others intentionally we must understand that there are many people that are born into the belief systems that we may find heavy disagreement with and traditionally people who are born into such have a unique way of being able to adapt being able to justify why they believe in certain things and this is true of anyone that follows any religion this is not something confined to just the human psychology of Muslims so indeed we need to be very careful very delicate and more importantly we need to make sure that we do not judge anyone else for what they believe because we're not for the grace of Allah as a wajal we're not for this enrichment that we have been provided we may have never known of the original Islam of Al-Muhammad may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all and on that note dear viewers I'd like to continue where we left off from shortly before the Christmas break according to of course the calendars that you are all following in the western and largely non-Muslim parts of the world the last special kind of detour we had taken in order to accommodate some of the requests and also for a slight change of hands seasonally was of course the approach of looking at the intellect in light of the وصية of Imam Al-Kawm عليه الصلاة و السلام to one of the greatest companions هشام ابن الحكم and we stated that this وصية this particular piece of advice has been carried and taken by many of the علماء many of the scholars who have derived from such a beautiful narration and very insightful one the realities of the human intellect now of course I want to just focus on one line before we move back to almost a conjunction between where we left off prior to doing its special seasonal detour and also where we left off from the special seasonal detour Imam Al-Kawm عليه الصلاة و السلام states to hisham in this very golden وصية that او هشام الله أزواجل has two arguments two huges against the people that is to say upon the people upon the people there are two things that will bear witness either in favor of them if they of course act in line of those two arguments or against them and what are these two arguments one is explicit and the other is implicit of course these words are very known in the English language the explicit meaning that which is manifestly apparent or that which is in front of us and the implicit of course being that which is slightly more discreet the explicit arguments of God the explicit هجج of الله أزواجل are the apostles the prophets and the imams may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon all of those individuals the implicit arguments are the minds that is to say they are the intellects او هشام the true intelligence is he whose legal gotten provisions do not divert him from thanking God and whose illegal gotten provisions do not divert him from being tolerant او هشام as for those who extinguish the illumination of thinking with the long expectations erase the novel faculties of wisdom with curious wording and extinguish the lights of learning with the personal whims they will back their whims to ruin their brains those who ruin their minds will surely devastate their worldly and religious affairs او هشام how can you come how come you expect that God will accept your deeds while you are involving your mind with matters that are far away from God's commandments and you are complicit with your whims and letting them overcome and overpower your mind of course anyone which is capable of accessing the great work او هشام I believe it has been translated into English under the title the masterpieces of the intellect I would very much recommend that they read this very excellent and beneficial given to هشام by Imam Musa بن جعفر القاوم عليه الصلاة والسلام for indeed it is one of the pieces of advice which anyone that is able to reflect will certainly get from and of course anyone that happens to be watching this from a non-Muslim background or indeed a non-shia background I would even recommend it to them because there is much insight in there which if we were to apply in our daily lives and that is not to say by any means that I have applied such in my daily life and we ask Allah for all of us and particularly myself to be of those who are able to apply this in their daily lives and to be of those who are able to apply it much benefit and much wisdom for certainly the words of the أهل البيت are containing the ultimate truth and that truth which shall set us free back to our topic for tonight إن شاء الله just to explain where we have left off prior to the seasonal slight detour that we took we had demonstrated quite proficiently the consequences of the atheist world view in accepting that there is of course a consequence to denying the existence of Allah as a وجل they have acknowledged that there is a world view that comes along with this denial they have acknowledged that there is a consequence to denying the existence of a deity for certain the existence of a deity that deity who we call Allah as a وجل fulfills certain explanations and criteria by which we can ground justify and understand certain phenomenon around us when one extrapolates, extracts and removes entirely the concept of Allah as a وجل from our functioning sane world views then what you would find is that such a world view would if embraced to its logical consequences collapse entirely and cease to have the stability and even sanity that our world view once previously had and for those of you that doubt that one can merely refer back to what has been stated by Dr. Alex Rosenberg and was cited heavily in the episodes entitled introduction to world view now in continuing before moving on to the greater topic of tonight which of course is an extension of one of the specializations, realizations admissions of Dr. Alex Rosenberg and those atheists who have embraced an entire package of beliefs as a result of their disbelief in God which is of course as you shall probably notice from the title of tonight's episodes all about morality I just wanted to cite something very important in understanding the world view of the أهل البيت and understanding their prescriptions and descriptions of human reality we as human beings of course are very interesting creatures and as I have pointed out in many episodes prior to this it is not that the atheist interlocutor who I am engaging with is less qualified than myself absolutely not I am sure that of course the natural sciences being some of the areas that tended to not show too much of an interest in these individuals would by far excel my knowledge in them by far I mean they are leading experts in their field and more importantly I am sure that even on an IQ test such individuals might score much higher than myself so what is it that has blocked and censored their minds from understanding how absurd seemingly is is it merely something purely related to what we would call intelligence in our western understanding of the word or is there something more to it of course I have argued that veneration of the imams veneration of the prophet which states the one who is more in tune to a knowledge of himself the one who is more in tune to a knowledge of his lord has a great link and connection to the topic we are discussing at the moment that is to say one thing we realize is these atheists they take the concept of God they realize that without Allah we have no explanatory power for what we see in front of us and yet instead of following that through with what the average human being would do they will say well therefore I can't accept such an insane world I'm going to hold on to the concept of God they will instead choose to accept and embrace an insane world which belies every facet of their experience the way they live their lives on day to day basis and everything that their mind tells them in fact rendering the mind an invalid and useless tool and deception imposed upon humans by evolutionary coping mechanisms but dear viewers more upon that after the break I hope you will join me for such Wassalamu alaikum ورحمة الله وبركاته welcome back dear viewers I would like to primarily return to our topic before we continue to go on to the engines about the effects of morality because I had introduced what our topic was tonight purely in order to explain in which direction we're going as opposed to wanting to jump immediately into that topic the topic which we're discussing is that those who seemingly understand human reality and understand the limitations of everything around us physical reality around us and understand the limitations that would be entailed by accepting the physicalist naturalist godless worldview Alex Rosenberg would understand that essentially it's absurd essentially it boils down to saying that this is what is seemingly true but if it is true I could never really know it because at the end of the day there's no such thing as a thought process so any thoughts I have about this topic are likewise illusions because that's what my worldview teaches now there are some who are willing to take that red pill and jump into the world of the matrix or go down the rabbit hole and join Alice in Wonderland with such unique thoughts but the rest of us are unwilling to believe that our entire collective human experience has all been a giant illusion imposed upon our minds and that's essentially every event has merely been predetermined by a previous physical event and when we break down our essence and existence we are nothing more than physical atoms, fermons and bosons floating about in space clashing into one another it's interesting just how much I've been emphasis the Ahl al-Bait the imams of Ali Muhammad have placed upon the concept of self introspection of course we've already cited the narration which states whoever knows himself knows his lord we've already cited the narration that sets أعرفكم بنفسه أعرفكم بربه whoever knows more about himself would certainly know more or be inclined towards more knowledge about his lord now أمير المؤمنين عليه الصلاة والسلام in one of the works of traditions entitled الغرر والدرر of العامد is within it is a chapter which cites all the narrations in pertinence to the concept of knowing oneself allow me to read some of these narrations and the varying variations which are found therein an intelligent person is one who knows himself and does things with sincerity knowledge of the self is the more beneficial of the two forms of knowledge أعنور أعرف is someone who knows himself and releases it and repels it from anything that would further it from Allah the greatest of ignorance is a person's ignorance of his own self the greatest of wisdom is a person's knowledge of his self people who have the knowledge of themselves have more fear of their lord the best of the intellect is a person's knowledge of himself so whoever knows his self will be more knowledgeable and he who is ignorant of his self will fall astray it surprises me that someone who has lost something searches for it while he has lost himself but does not look for it it surprises me that a person who is ignorant of his self how can he expect to know his lord the goal of knowledge is for a person to know his self how can one who does not know others know his self it is sufficient in knowledge for a person to know his self it is sufficient in ignorance for a person to have ignorance of his self he who knows his self will struggle with it he who is ignorant of his self will neglect it he who knows his self knows his lord he who knows his self will increase in status he who is ignorant of his self will be more ignorant in knowing others he who knows his self سوف يكون أكثر تعرفة من أخرين. هو who knows his self will have reached the ultimate goal of every knowledge and science. هو who does not know his self will become far away from the path of salvation and he will fall into aberration and ignorance. نولج of the self is the most beneficial form of knowledge. Those who gain knowledge of the self will have achieved the greatest of triumph. And lastly, do not be ignorant of yourself for he who is ignorant of knowing himself is ignorant of everything. So when we see that Amirul Mu'mineen alaihi salatu wa salam Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib placed this great emphasis on knowledge of the self. We ask, is there any particular reason for why that is? And I believe that this will tie in very heavily with this absurd worldview that intelligent people like Alex Rosenberg and others have fallen into purely because they wish to deny the existence of a God, the God who created them and brought them into existence and the God who sustains this universe. Now, if knowledge is one of the consequences of rejecting God then of course there's a much more dangerous and detrimental one that could physically impact us on a day-to-day level. That of course is what we call the dilemma of morality for the atheist. Now the dilemma of morality is quite worrying for in the past. The atheists would at least try to acknowledge that no, there can be an objective form of morality that I can still be moral and be atheist. Now of course I don't want any believers out there to misunderstand what I am stating. I believe atheists can be moral and I believe in many cases they are more moral than many people who claim to be believers. Why is this? Because we don't live in the atheist world. We live in the real world and from my vantage point in the real world there's a God and that God has given us morality. I'm stating that if we ask the question, if we ask the question of accountability and explanatory power if we were to assume the very foundational assumptions of atheism philosophically and according to the absolute absence of metaphysics in the atheist worldview then we would also assume that there is no such thing as morality. Now am I arguing this from a vacuum? Again, this is not the case. Many atheists have traditionally argued that God is a necessary condition for objective moral values and the sort of moral truths that are discovered and not merely created by human beings and which are valid and binding whether anybody believes in them or not. Allow me to cite the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre A very important French existential philosopher He states, when we speak of abandonment a favorite word of Heidegger Of course Heidegger is another existentialist philosopher We only mean to say that God does not exist and that it is necessary to draw the consequences of his absence right to the end. This is an atheist that is willing to roll and run entirely with the consequences of his worldview someone that is literally willing to apply قاعدة الإلزام upon himself. The existentialist is strongly opposed to a certain type of secular moralism which seeks to suppress God at the least possible expense. Towards 1880 when French professors endeavored to formulate a secular morality they said nothing will be changed if God does not exist We shall rediscover the same norms of honesty, progress and humanity and we shall have disposed of God as an out-of-date hypothesis which will die away quietly of itself. The existentialist on the contrary finds it extremely embarrassing that God does not exist for there disappears with him all possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven. There can no longer be any good a priori since there is no way of finding sorry, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think of it It is nowhere written that good exists that one must be honest or one must not lie since we are now upon the plane where there are only men Dostoevsky once wrote if God does not exist everything would be permitted that for existentialism is the starting point everything is indeed permitted that is to say morally in terms of good and bad everything is indeed permitted it's allowed if God does not exist and man is in consequence forlorn for if he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself So there you have it This is exactly the root that these individuals are willing to go down in their stubborn rejection of the concept of God And of course we'll continue with this analysis tomorrow Dear viewers, thank you so much for joining me and I pray that you're all doing well Please do not forget us in your duos and likewise we shall not forget you in our duos here in the Holy City of Karbala والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته