[SPEAKER_00]: So for instance, in one of the most profound Suras in the Qur'an, Surat Yusuf Allah says, Allah says, In Yusuf and his brothers, there are many signs or lessons or even miracles for those who ask questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea, sometimes Allah says, there are ayat, there's guidance for people of dhukwa, there are guidance for people of, remember, there's guidance for the grateful people and here are a lot of praises people who ask questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, you're supposed to be inquisitive in this religion.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not supposed to take things at face value.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're supposed to inquire and understand and come to conviction for yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Similarly, people would come and ask the Prophet's life so that I'm different kinds of questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: All kinds of questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they did, Allah didn't actually criticize them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah would actually honor them, but even by even mentioning them and making them part of the Qur'an.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Adu Naka'an al-Hambri Wal-Maisi, you can imagine somebody came and asked the Prophet ﷺ, what's so bad about why?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the big deal?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can't we consume it, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you would imagine that Allah would reveal some kind of condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: to the people who dare even ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Allah could have just revealed the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know how we believe that every word in the Qur'an is divinely revealed, a strategic, it has a purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing is extra, nothing can be taken away, nothing can be added on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everything is exactly in the amount and the kada that it's supposed to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that Allah could have just said, alcohol is this this and this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good for you, it's bad for you, whatever Allah wanted to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah actually first acknowledges the fact that they came and asked you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Alunaka, I mean al-Qamdu al-Maisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: They come and ask you.
[SPEAKER_00]: They ask you about alcohol and they ask you about, or why they ask you about gambling.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, yes, Alunaka, Anishahri al-Haramit-Talinfi.
[SPEAKER_00]: They ask you about the sacred months.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a matter of fact, what's important for the people is not that part of the ayah.
[SPEAKER_00]: They ask you, obviously, they know they asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: What matters to them is the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just why not just reveal the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is actually one of the benefits of doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is Allah acknowledging, honoring the people who even came and asked, acknowledging them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are these people who ask these questions forever became a part of the Quran?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we recite them when we recite these ayat.
[SPEAKER_00]: So questions themselves are actually a noble thing in this religion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's something that we don't condemn.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a matter of fact, from the very beginning, you find in the Qur'an Allah Azza wa Jad when he told us the story of the angels and the creation of Adam Adhi Hesanam.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the first things that starts that story off and creates the tension in that story is the angels actually asking a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: A Tajadufiha when you see Dufiha wa Yasfiqud Dima.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you really going to put on the earth somebody's going to cause a lot of corruption?
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody's going to spill blood?
[SPEAKER_00]: They asked a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's incredible about angels is that we know like in the Qur'an we learn in our view, angels number one, they don't disobey Allah, La Yasuna Allah, Ma Amraham.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they do whatever Allah commands them to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if Allah Almighty says, they do whatever they're told.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're all they do is declare Allah's perfection and they seek Allah's forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not blasphemous, they're constantly in obedience to Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet these same angels question Allah, why are you putting a human being on the earth?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the point of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're asking a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, asking questions in and of itself is not blasphemous, it's not a problem, it's not a bad thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it were, the angels would never have done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The angels would never have asked a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that on the one hand, but then the ayah that I want to share with you is on the other hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah says Amturi Luna and Tassalu Rasulakum kawasu ila Musamin Kabbal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you intending to ask your messenger?
[SPEAKER_00]: The way Musa was asked before, much before.
[SPEAKER_00]: One may say that Al-Qufrabil Imani Fakad al-Lalassawa a sabil and whoever one would replace, whoever would replace their faith, with disbelief, has gone far away from the straight path.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've lost their way, far away from the path that they're supposed to be on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this IS seems to suggest, how dare you ask questions the way Musa was asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't ask your prophet the way Musa was asked, because if you do, you've essentially replaced your faith with disbelief.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there seems to be this opposing view on the one hand, the Quran celebrates questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the one hand, actually, I had to list Sa'ili in Kabin ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fa Sa'li al-A'li al-Vikri in Kuntumla Ta'ala Moon asked the people who, of remembrance, if you yourselves don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, celebrities go ask them, ask, ask and ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the other hand, how dare you ask?
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have to reconcil this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's really the point of my code by today is what, you know, what the function and purpose of this IIS.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing I'd like to share with you is that the study of the Quran is a sensitive study.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the most fundamental approaches to the study of the text of the Quran is that you have to take into consideration the context, the place in which a statement is mentioned.
[SPEAKER_00]: For you that are university students, this is all too easy to understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: You never take a sentence in a chapter, ignorant of the paragraph it belongs to, or the chapter that it belongs to, or the textbook that it belongs to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Context is everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Outside of context, you can barely make sense of anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: The statement that I just shared with you, where Allah says, Are you intending to question your messenger the way Musa'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a
[SPEAKER_00]: the children of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And within those that discussion, there are a number of questions that the Israelites asked Musa.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Allah is saying now, are you gonna ask him the way Musa was asked?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you, do you wanna ask him the way Musa was asked?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's already a context in which we've learned how was Musa questioned, how was he asked?
[SPEAKER_00]: And before I share that with you, I'd like to actually give you like an easier example to understand this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a classroom, I've been in the teaching profession for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the classroom, there are different kinds of questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an inquisitive student who just wants to understand and hears she dares to raise their hand or raise their voice and say, look, I don't get this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or how does that make any sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't this contradict that, et cetera, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_00]: They ask a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a seasoned teacher knows well enough that the moment they hear this question, this student really wants to understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're eager to understand better, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: and they'll welcome those kinds of questions because it creates fruitful discussion in the classroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then there's the class clown.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the guy who A is not interested in learning, and B is interested in making sure nobody else learns either.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'd like to turn the classroom experience into an entertaining experience, and the way they do that is that they'll actually ask really obnoxious, ridiculous,
[SPEAKER_00]: And a seasoned teacher, or anybody would have the wit, would know that this guy is pulling my leg.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he's not really asking your question to understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's asking your question to distract from the actual subject matter or to be insulting or to be condescending.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes even in a question, you could be insulting to somebody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, for example, just to take an easy example, a couple of people are talking, are you for real?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a kind of question that puts you know questions somebody or their integrity or whether or not they're serious or whether or not they're they're telling the truth, you know, are you kidding me?
[SPEAKER_00]: that you want to through it, you want to learn.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all you're interested in.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to reconcile a contradiction.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to understand something better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something's not ending up to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are the kinds of questions that the book of Allah and this religion welcomes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Open door policy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there are the kinds of questions that are just meant to be obnoxious.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's actually not even in the way the question is phrased, but it's the attitude that lies behind that question, the motivations behind that question.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are a couple of things here.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it that you're asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: And why are you asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how are you asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's three pieces to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are you asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how are you asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the thing with Musa Alaisa, look, you can't tell why somebody's asking because intentions lie inside the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way for me to tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all I can judge and you can judge for others is number one, what are they asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: And number two, how are they asking?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all we can judge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Though, what you're asking if it's clearly purposeful, it's meant to serve some kind of higher understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a welcome question.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even then, even if it's a good question, the Quran makes sure that we don't just ask that we ask properly, that the how should we take in care of, that we should take into consideration the mannerism, the tone, like for example, I have a student, very passionate student, and he'll discuss the most the simplest of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, just yesterday he talked to me about some issue in Arabic grammar.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like a Eman and Guffer issue, it's the labeling of a sentence and how it should be organized or whatever, and his voice rose, and he got really passionate and had to say just, we're easy, we're just discussing nouns.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not like, you know, some great cause where blood is being spilled, relax.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, yeah, I know I get a little worked up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you don't have to get worked up about stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can ask in a civilized way, you can keep yourself cool and ask, so there's the what and there's the how.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now when Allah says, Qama Su'ila, Musam, and Kabal, there are a couple of things there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, the intention I can only check for myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't check your intentions and you can't check mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what we ask and how we ask is important.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The manner in which you speak to somebody, the words you choose to use, the tone you choose to use, the facial expressions you make.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all part of the how.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't do that before the Prophet said, I'm the way people did with Musa Al-Ali Salaam.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be condescending.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the Quran even makes a point out of indicating that facial expressions are offensive.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way you stare at someone can be offensive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Subma Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Abbas Ab
[SPEAKER_00]: And he stared, leus licona kabhi obsadi hem, they look at you in a way that makes you wanna almost trip up the way they stare you down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a level highlight, you know, latus al-Hadak al-Nas, don't have swelled up cheeks when you meet with people, don't be stuck up when you meet with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these expressions in the Quran about how your face looks when you deal with people, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is part of, you know, how to ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's actually not even the point of my whole body.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was one of the preliminary things I wanted to say about this ayah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other thing that I really wanted to talk to you about is the kinds of questions we have to deal with today, especially as Muslims and especially probably you guys as college students.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kinds of questions you face about Islam are of every variety.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, why do you guys believe this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you guys do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it true in Islam there's this or that or the other?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no end to these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not end to the number of questions there are about Islam in violence, for example.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Jihad questions, or Islam in its relationship with women, or Islam in pluralism, in our acceptance of other worldviews, or the exclusivity of Islam in the afterlife, and all kinds of things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you get asked about these things from a humanist point of view,
[SPEAKER_00]: from a moral point of view, how can you believe these things in the modern world and you know, how is this supposed to be a tolerant religion?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean you call it peace but then you say, this, this, this and this, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're bombarded with that kind of stuff all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the things that I wanted to highlight in, you know, as part of this ayah is what Allah as the Wajjal does with questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, the Qur'an does record condescending questions too.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Quran does record sarcastic questions too.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does record people that ask questions for the wrong reasons also, and teaches us how to deal with that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah does do that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I wanted to break this down into are two kinds of questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are root questions and there are branch questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's obviously the imagery of a tree, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: root questions and branch questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing about a branch is if, you know, let's say every time you address a branch question, you've cut off that branch.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing about a branch is when you cut it off, another one will grow in its place.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe two will grow in its place.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cut off and chop off another branch, another two or three will grow in its place.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll have a conversation with someone about how Islam mistreats women.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can have that conversation for four or five hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to lead to a question about slavery, which is going to lead to a question about Jihad, which is going to lead to a question about the Salman politics, which is going to lead to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to keep going.
[SPEAKER_00]: And about six hours in, you're going to come back to Islam in women.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, didn't we just do that one?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna come back in circles and circles and circles and circles, and they're not gonna end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody thinks, well, you know, here are the hundred questions that are being asked about Islam.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we can just answer these questions, we're good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the problem is solved.
[SPEAKER_00]: These from my own understanding of the Quran a lot of those questions are actually branch questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: They address one bit of the problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they don't address the root of the problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, these questions do have answers, but answering them before you deal with the root of the problem is pointless.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that these questions don't deserve answers, they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is, there's a deeper problem here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look what on, it makes itself concerned.
[SPEAKER_00]: It concerns itself primarily with the root questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the root questions most people don't ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: They actually don't ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can feed it's it's a long list of questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of them may be the fundamental core or root questions a lot of them are branch questions and they're all mixed in together so what I'd like to share with you today a little bit is what are some of those root questions like is there really a god?
[SPEAKER_00]: is this really revelation, from God, is Muhammad really a messenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got he speaks on behalf of the creator of all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: An angel really did descend on him and gave him this message.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what you actually believe in, what's your basis for believing that?
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys actually do believe that once you die, that life carries on.
[SPEAKER_00]: that were our bodies are decayed, they're turning into dirt, they're, you know, the thing that made up our bodies has now mixed in with the elements of the earth, insects, and all kinds of, you know, microbes have had their way with us, and we were deteriorated to a point where this piece of grass right here may have been aggrieved, but when you dig it now, a thousand years later, there's nothing to be found.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing but dirt and you're saying that we're gonna come back from all of this restored entirely and then on top of that There's a new kind of life where there's no aging There's eternity and you get to live forever and there's a kind of fire that burns but doesn't kill and it's much hotter than this fire This is the stuff you guys believe This is what you actually are convinced of this absolutely convinced of this you know what these are these are fundamental questions They boil down to three things.
[SPEAKER_00]: They boil on to questions about God about Allah
[SPEAKER_00]: about the message itself, Rezala, Revelation, the entire institution of Revelation, and a life after death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether we're talking about the life and the grave, or judgment day, or hell, or heaven, doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's another life, another life beyond this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Quran concerns itself with these three.
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually primarily concerns itself with these three.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah, Rezala, ahra.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you answer these questions to the satisfaction of a human soul, someone's internalized that these are actual realities.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, in fact, revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am content in the depth of my heart that this is, in fact, the word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then those other questions, you may still have them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you receive their answers, you'll actually be satisfied.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll actually be content.
[SPEAKER_00]: And another incredible thing will happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some questions to which you will never find answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he knows everything and you don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've accepted that already.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you'll ask, what does Aliflah mean mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll be given the answer, Allah knows and I don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you won't have a problem saying, I can't accept that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not good enough for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to know everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not going to be a problem anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you've accepted a higher authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've accepted a divine source.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see?
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah Azza wa Jalla in this ayah saying, are you gonna question your messenger in a way that indicates that you have a problem with the roots?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the root iman?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is iman, iman billah, iman ber-salah, iman billah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,
[SPEAKER_00]: actual matters of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now a lot of times, for example, there are Muslims, there are Muslims in this audience and there are Muslims around the world, that really have some deep questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they were asked by non-Muslims or they started thinking about them themselves and maybe they have questions like a lies way too harsh, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The God of the Quran is really, really harsh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is it going to punish people forever in hell or things like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: People have that kind of question, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or why are there such tough punishments in Islam?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, why are hands being chopped and people being stoned?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that stuff seems barbaric.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can that stuff be in the modern world, et cetera?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, these are questions you might have, but you're scared to ask your mom because she'll have hard palpitations and then she'll start reciting Quran on you and like, you know, and then, you know, then force you to go to Umbra with her and, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, so you're scared to ask, you don't even ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if, you know, if you were to ask your father or your cousin, your brother like a stalker, what are you saying, bro?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you need to watch this video.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, you know, so that that happens, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't actually ask, you keep it inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of young people, a lot of people actually have questions about their face.
[SPEAKER_00]: They haven't heard satisfactory answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: About the fundamentals of their face.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are they believers to begin with?
[SPEAKER_00]: They have those questions, but we've created a culture in which you cannot ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot engage those questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot arrive at a satisfactory answer, because we have made these questions into taboo.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as a result of that, a lot of people walk around with doubt.
[SPEAKER_00]: The outside looks like they're Muslim.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're praying, they're coming to eat prayer, at least.
[SPEAKER_00]: But on the inside, there are these questions that are just unanswered.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes they just come out, because you can't only keep these things inside for so long.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then at some party or some gathering, they just pour out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you're like, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you, how can you say these things?
[SPEAKER_00]: I never knew you were like a closet cafe or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is why the iPad doesn't just say don't ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing, even though I should comment on this, I'm just alunah Rasulakum, no, I'm turi dunah and just alunah Rasulakum.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you intending to question your messenger?
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah didn't say, are you questioning your messenger?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, are you intending to?
[SPEAKER_00]: The criticism in the ayah is actually not about asking questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the intention.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, the thoughts that are there, Allah is critiquing the thoughts themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have these thoughts?
[SPEAKER_00]: And do you, should you not address these thoughts?
[SPEAKER_00]: The way Musa was asked before.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason the Musa case is mentioned, and like to conclude with that in Shalda, is that with Musa and He said, He showed his people some incredible things.
[SPEAKER_00]: They saw a water that retains its shape, refused to retain its shape by the command of a line, water part, a body of water part so they can pass right through.
[SPEAKER_00]: They saw, you know, peace of wood turn into a snake.
[SPEAKER_00]: They saw clouds following them like an umbrella.
[SPEAKER_00]: They saw some incredible, incredible things.
[SPEAKER_00]: They saw a boulder, spring out, 12 gushes of water.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you and I happen to be there in that crowd, there will be no doubt left.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a god.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's his messenger, this is some pretty heavy stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to question him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Intellectually, there will be no doubt left in your mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: There will be nothing, no question left in your mind that that in fact is God's messenger.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way to question it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see, were you there when the water thing happened, bro?
[SPEAKER_00]: We walk right through it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no way that happens without a divine intervention, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So intellectually or completely satisfied, but the irony of it is, after being completely intellectually satisfied in Suntel Baccala, the Israelites asked the most condescending skeptical kinds of questions of Musa.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, there were logically convinced, yes or no?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Were there rational doubts addressed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did they still ask blasphemous questions?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, how can that be?
[SPEAKER_00]: How can you question after being convinced?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have every reason to be convinced now.
[SPEAKER_00]: What room do you have left to ask questions?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is actually an oversimplification in our times.
[SPEAKER_00]: We feel if you and I are logically or intellectually convinced, then faith is there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And until we're logically and rationally not convinced, then faith is not there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being logically convinced, being rationally convinced is a piece of our iman.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's another piece of our e-manders, another piece of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that piece of our faith has to do with our pride, our greed, our stubbornness, our ego.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this other thing that isn't rational at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our inner self.
[SPEAKER_00]: These people had no reason to doubt the religion intellectually.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they had every reason to criticize the religion because it went against what they really wanted to do themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: It went against their greed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It went against their desire for comfort.
[SPEAKER_00]: It went against it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other things that we have inside of us, human beings are not purely rational creatures.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were purely rational creatures, you wouldn't take a nap three hours before the exam.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're like, I'm tired, I'm just gonna...
[SPEAKER_00]: Just one more run of the game, just one more run.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me get to the next save point and then I'll start.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not rational.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just your laziness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some other parts to you that aren't, you're not a machine.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are things you desire to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are things you lust doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are things you have greed for that sacrifice even common sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do that in everything in life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when it comes to the faith, we say the faith has to be purely logical.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has to be purely unrational terms.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's silly.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are matters of the heart, there are matters of the Self.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do get in the way, they're pride got in the way, they're eagerness got in the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other places, they're cowardice got in the way, they're laziness got in the way, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they ask these kinds of questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: What on is actually saying in a very profound way that Allah will address on the one hand your intellectual curiosity?
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you think that that's all there is to you, that you don't have to humble yourself,
[SPEAKER_00]: that you don't have to accept that there is, in fact, you're not discussing some abstract God, you're dealing with Allah, that you have to actually put yourself in a, in the position that you were created in, until you can do that, you won't find faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will not find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the last example I'm giving you of this latter point, that there is something more than just a rational when it comes to accepting our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah Azzaujal would describe to him in being in the Quran how he created him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times people focus on, oh look, the Quran is a scientific miracle because it mentioned the sperm and it mentioned this and that and the other, you know why Allah says bin maniyyumna, you're going to question whether I can create, you know what I made you from the first time, I made you from a fluid that people wash after clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I made you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is a lot of doing when you talk like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's putting me in you in our place.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are gonna question me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what you're gonna do.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what you're gonna question what I'm capable of.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if a, and I gave this example, it's hard for us to relate to in the United States, maybe not for long, but if this was a kingdom, and a king, and a king did issue a verdict, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: People don't have to make any sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not gonna follow that.
[SPEAKER_00]: or a cop pulls you over and says, pull over to the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why that side?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to go on that side.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the make any sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I like the left side better.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a lefty.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to talk to a cop like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know why not?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you've accepted his authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: You realize that he's in a position of authority and you're not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to follow those injunctions.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have a, like you can hate cops all you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he's pulled you over and you've rolled the window down, you are in a humble position.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can call them pigs or this or that, whatever you want later on or before.
[SPEAKER_00]: But once you roll down the window, how are you, officer?
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice hat.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's, there's going to be a different attitude to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you recognize you're dealing with someone that has authority over you right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about Islam.
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk about the Prophet, so I show them, as subjects.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't talk about Allah, like he's an authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: witnessing our conversation, having power over what we do, and what we say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are consequences on the attitude that we show him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Subhad Allah, there's no humility in the way we speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, philosophy professors can talk about God however they feel like, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They just can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't have any concern for humility when they speak about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you use there, then how come this, like they can just, whatever comes in their head, they can utter.
[SPEAKER_00]: For a believer who's now come to the conviction that there is in fact a God, what shouldn't necessarily come with that is he's all hearing, he's all hearing, he's a witness to all things, which means he's a witness to me right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you speak about your boss the same way if he was in the room or if he wasn't in the room?
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you speak about an elder the same way, would he, would he, is there an effect when you realize somebody's present, does it change your tone, does it impact you?
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's not impacting us and it's just an abstract philosophical subject, there's no, there's no faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not faith at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wa ma'iyyata bada l-qufrabil i-man fakad l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-
[SPEAKER_00]: Distractions or branches and the questions that are at the heart of the matter and may Allah Azza wa Jalla make our hearts at rest and at peace with this beautiful gift this Islam that Allah has given us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Barak Allah wa Iwalaikum.
[SPEAKER_00]: Filk Quran al-Hakim wa la Fani wa Iyaikum bin Ayaat wa Dikrelaikum.