Friday Sermon by dr Rashad Khalifa Revelation of Quran to Revelation of Miracle Importance of Daw
Transcript
0:07 LA ILLAHA ILLA ALLAH
0:29 ALHAMDULILLAH.
0:30 We praise God.
0:31 WA ASHHADU AN LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH, WAHDAHU LA SHAREEKA LAH.
0:35 And we bear witness that there's only one God. We worship the one God who created the Heavens and the Earth.
0:41 Douglas was supposed to give this KHUTBAH, but somebody called and apologized on his behalf. So, I'm stuck with the KHUTBAH.
0:49 I just chat with you. I will have to go through a lesson in history for a while. Carl Skinner called from Canada
1:00 yesterday. He was talking about Islam to a bunch of students and one student asked him
1:09 He was talking about the miracle in the Quran and how the Quran is mathematically composed beyond
1:15 the human ability on the basis of the number 19. Every letter, every word in the Quran
1:21 mathematically composed beyond the human ability, so we know that this is a book from God. So, that was
1:26 the topic of his lecture. One student asked him "how long was it from the time the Quran was
1:37 revealed to the time the miracle was revealed?" And this is what I'm going to go through with you.
1:45 The prophet Muhammad was taken to Heaven, to the seventh Heaven and the Quran
1:54 was placed in his heart in one night, the blessed night that's mentioned in
1:58 SURA 44, specifically in the month of Ramadan. So, let's call this time zero.
2:07 This is revelation of the Quran.
2:18 The prophet was sent back in the same night and the Quran was with the person, with the soul
2:27 not with the body which requires a process to have released from the person to the body. You
2:35 may have information with you. It is not in your body. It has to be released from your soul to your body.
2:40 It comes in your physical brain. Then, you can... you'll be able to express it by talking and writing or whatever. So,
2:47 the angel Gabriel did this process of mediating the release of the Quran from the soul to the body
2:55 and the prophet started to preach the Quran slowly, three verses at a time and started telling the
3:02 people to worship God alone and, of course, he was persecuted. They told him "you are crazy. You want
3:10 us to worship one God." They threw garbage at his house and at him. They threatened him. They called him all kinds
3:20 of names. Some of them are documented in the Quran. And the people started to believe in
3:28 him secretly. This went on for three years, three years secretly, preaching secretly, hiding, sneaking in,
3:37 praying to God alone, mentioning the name of God alone in their prayers and then when they became known
3:47 inevitably, the people boycotted the believers. They called them all crazy. "You worship God alone."
3:57 "What do you mean God alone?" Sounds familiar, doesn't it? And all the believers were persecuted and
4:04 they were boycotted. They told them not to stay in Mecca. So, they went out of Mecca in
4:08 tents about a couple of miles out of Mecca. They were forbidden from going to the Kaa'ba.
4:14 This is Muhammad and the people with him. And this lasted for, I believe, a year and a half
4:22 or two years. You know, the people of Mecca said you cannot trade with them. You cannot
4:28 talk to them. You cannot marry from them, from their families. Just a total boycott. This ended
4:39 let's say, two years. So, this makes it five years. Three years in secret, two years of boycott. They
4:46 were banished outside of Mecca. So, this makes it five years. And then, Omar joined the Muslims.
4:53 Omar was one of the strongest disbelievers and then became one of the strongest believers. When
4:59 Omar joined, they were able to come out of the closet, so to speak. They became public and then
5:12 the number of believers increased. This is inevitable. The number of believers always
5:17 increase. If you move to another town and you start a Quranic study based... or a place of
5:24 worship based on worshiping God alone and you're all by yourself, you're guaranteed to
5:30 grow. Somebody would come out of nowhere and join you and this will keep happening. When
5:36 you have four people and one of them leaves, two people will come or ten. So, the believers
5:43 increased and the movement became too strong for the disbelievers to stand, so they decided
5:49 to kill Muhammad. And, of course, God protects His messenger and on that night, he was
6:00 inspired to, to emigrate. That was thirteen years after the revelation of Quran. It's called Hijra.
6:16 This is emigration from Mecca to Medina and this is very well documented.
6:23 The dating of the Islamic calendar started from this point. So, this was
6:30 year zero for Hijra. From the Hijra, this year is 1409.
6:38 We are now in 1409 of the Hijra calendar. Now, when Carl called them asked "when what
6:49 was that length of time from the revelation of the Quran to the revelation of the miracle?"
6:54 I went back to my documents, here. I have published my magazine called "Islam." It was very luxurious
7:03 beautiful colors. Every issue had a different color and beautiful paper. And so, I went broke
7:10 after three issues. All I have is three issues. In fact, I started to be cheap after the
7:17 two first two issues. I put number three and four together if you... you probably all of you saw that
7:23 but anyway I went back to those documents. Now, I know why God made me publish
7:28 that magazine with that year: 1974. I also went to the publication's in Egypt where I have written
7:36 about the miracle and we put it in the biggest... God mobilize all kinds of forces who put it in
7:44 the biggest magazines that have the dates on it: the Hijra dates and the regular dates.
7:50 And I was able to pin down the time of the revelation of the miracle to one month when the number 19
8:00 as the common denominator throughout the Quran became a reality. That was January
8:08 1974
8:16 And this corresponded to the.. to what... the last month. This is the first month of 1974 corresponds to
8:23 the last month of 1393. This is from this point from Hijra, 1393 of Hijra.
8:36 So, from the time of revelation of the Quran, you just add 13.
8:43 So, here we have three dating systems which gives us happily, three years divisible by
8:51 19, every every 19 years. But anyway, we have the Christian Era from the time of Jesus
9:02 1974, from the time of Hijra 1393. From the time of revelation of the Quran, this time
9:10 here, we can call it Quranic calendar, Hijra calendar, or Christian calendar. So, when
9:16 you add these to get from time zero, revelation of the Quran, the total is 1406.
9:27 This is the time of revelation of the miracle and this equals 19 times 74.
9:42 You can see... you can see the connection, don't you? And 74 is the SURA where the number 19 is mentioned.
9:51 So, this pins it down. For the last
9:57 couple of weeks, Sammy has been saying 1974. This is the year. This is the SURA. This is the number.
10:03 And I'd say "what's he talking about? you first..." I'm not thinking of exactly when the miracle
10:08 was discovered. Cause I started the research in 1968 and this was going on and Sammy was saying
10:14 "1974 is the year." And I thought he is off by a few years, but turns out he is exactly right. January 1974.
10:23 So, what does this tell us? This tells us that all history of Islam from the very beginning
10:29 from the revelation of Quran to the revelation of the miracle of the Quran and all these
10:32 things have been predestined since before the creation of the Heavens and the Earth.
10:38 God put them... I mean, look at the Christian date and the Quranic date. It's 1406 which equals 19 times 74.
10:52 So, I think this is enough for one KHUTBAH. So, I am asking you to turn
10:57 to God and repent and clean the slate. TUBU ILLA ALLAH, repent.
11:15 ALHAMDULILLAH. WA ASHHADU AN LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH, WAHDAHU LA SHAREEKA LAH.
11:25 We praise God and we bear witness that there is no god except the one God.
11:33 I want to... before I go to another subject... like I
11:37 said I'm just chatting with you, not supposed to be giving this KHUTBAH.
11:44 I want to emphasize the dawn prayer. The dawn prayer. You have no idea how important the dawn... dawn prayer is.
11:53 It dawned on me. No pun intended. It just came out. I was reading the Quran the other day and it dawned on me that
12:03 God used the word the dawn prayer and when we were growing up they taught us to do the morning prayer
12:14 and I noticed that even until now I say I intend to do the morning prayer, SALAT AL-SOBH, in Arabic. That is
12:22 wrong. If you miss... if the sun rises before you do the morning prayer you've missed the dawn prayer
12:30 because the Quran calls it the dawn prayer which means it must be done at dawn and ironically, this
12:40 morning, there's a commercial now, you can hear it. If you listen to the radio, you're gonna hear this
12:44 commercial about a truck driver who... listen carefully, Iman... a truck driver who... he's complaining... it's an Anison
12:54 commercial... and complaining that he's driving long distances and then he becomes stiff after a long
13:00 distance. So, again the commercial's saying "don't stay in the same position for a long time. Get out
13:07 and stretch in order to evade arthritis." And God is telling us to do the dawn prayer for our benefit
13:18 Cause if you want your mental health before your physical health, you have to get up at dawn
13:26 and stretch your... and lubricate your joints at any cost. And we had this problem in Canada when I
13:33 was visiting ten days ago and people were saying how the alarm... they just shut the alarm
13:39 off and go back to sleep and I told them "get the biggest and most obnoxious alarm and put it
13:43 far away... far away from you at the other end of the room cause It's what you need to do at the
13:49 beginning." The beginning, it is difficult to do the dawn prayer which is an indication to you
13:57 that your soul is too weak and is unable to control your body. This... this gives... this is a thermometer for you
14:07 cause as you do the dawn prayer, as required by God, your soul will grow and your body will become
14:15 become obedient to you. And then it will become easier and easier and then you'll enjoy
14:23 actually getting up for the dawn prayer, but it is for your physical benefit and for your mental
14:29 benefit. Do the dawn prayer. Also if you're here in masjid Tucson, you're a very special person.
14:38 I assure you, you have no idea how special you are and you must... you know the slightest must be perfect.
14:48 You have to do the five prayers. You have to do the dawn prayer cause your responsibility is also great.
14:55 God has given you a great opportunity and, and a great responsibility comes with the deal. So, you
15:07 have to do the, the dawn prayer, please. The five prayers, but I'm emphasizing right now the dawn
15:14 prayer because this is how it is mentioned for your physical health and your mental health.
15:23 The next subject is I sense that some people didn't like Mahmood Abibs KHUTBAH because he was
15:29 talking about another human being emphasizing the miracles... Is Mahmood here? OK. I hope your
15:37 feelings are not hurt. A couple of people maybe didn't like your KHUTBAH last time. The reason is
15:45 Mahmood is presenting a lot of physical evidence that has to do with God's... God... God likes to send...
15:51 God's system is to send information to all of us and it is very exciting and I'm excited along
15:57 with you and the believer that God is sending to us a lot of information, fantastic information
16:04 and God picks out one person to distribute this information and he gave us the evidence
16:11 to do that. So, I want to say that... remind you that Ibrahim was a very good believer.
16:20 God calls him his friend, one who never was an idol worshiper. You and I have been idol worshippers
16:27 some time in our life, but he never was an idol worshiper, Abraham. And this is repeated in the
16:33 Quran so many times. This makes him special and I'm only stating the Quranic facts.
16:42 It's not idol worship when you state Quranic facts since God is the one who said that because when we read the Quran and
16:47 mentions names, God is the one who's mentioning those names. So, Abraham asked God to show him how
16:55 God revives the dead and a rhetorical question was asked "don't you believe?" This is to teach
17:03 us that it does not reflect disbelief or lack of faith but Abraham said I want to assure
17:11 my heart. So, God is sending all this physical evidence to assure our hearts to strengthen
17:18 our faith and we cannot say we don't need it, you know, cause we've been convinced long time ago.
17:27 But for 8 years, it was my opinion not to make any announcements or any declarations,
17:36 For eight years. I was resisting that and I was saying I'll just... together, we will just
17:43 worship God alone and uphold the Quran alone and this is enough. But
17:49 it turns out to be a very important test. In SURA 17, verse 94, God says
17:58 "what prohibited... what stopped the people from believing was that they said that God sends a
18:06 human messenger." In other words, a human being like us being a messenger. The exact words say "what forbade
18:15 the people from believing and and asking God for forgiveness is that they said that God sent
18:21 a human messenger." And those were believers who dropped out. So, it turns out that that
18:28 announcement was a very important test because we are here to sift away... sift away the drop-outs.
18:37 I mean something happens and then that will sift away some people because basically we committed
18:47 a horrendous crime back billions of years ago and this is why we are here to redeem ourselves.
18:55 The original sin is very much a fact, a Quranic fact. And it is not Adam eating freely from
19:02 the tree, either. It goes billions of years before that. So, you notice that God designed the world so the Sun
19:10 will rise at at 7:15 like in the last two months to see how many people will pray the dawn prayer.
19:20 So, let's say a hundred people pray when the sun rises at 7:00, 7:15. At 7 o'clock, they're doing their dawn
19:27 prayer. It is perfect. And then the design of the world is that the sun will rise at 6 o'clock in about a month. Then
19:36 15 people will drop out and we have only 85 people praying the dawn prayer because now the Sun rises at
19:42 6 o'clock, too early for those 15. And then in about 4 months, the Sun will be rising at 5
19:50 o'clock and 25 people will drop out and we have 60 people left doing the dawn prayer. The Sun rises at 5
19:58 o'clock and they are doing the dawn prayer, 60 people. And then, in about 6 months I think, the Sun
20:06 will be rising at 4 o'clock and there'll be only... 40 people will drop out and be only 20 who are doing the
20:13 dawn prayer. These are the 20 that God wants back into His kingdom. The other 80 dropped out. The same with
20:22 the fasting of Ramadan. It's just... it's a sifting process, elimination process. God wants in His
20:30 kingdom those who are the real believers who will carry out God's commandments, no matter what.
20:37 And I may be a believer. I'm telling myself "I believe in God and in the Hereafter" and then doing the
20:42 five prayers. I'm doing the commandments, but God knows that there's something in me that must be
20:49 brought out. So, He tells me this person is God's messenger. "Oh, come on." "No, I don't accept that." Then, I
20:56 drop out. I become a drop-out. It's a very important test that is stated in 17:94 and in 14:44. 14:44 God
21:07 says "on the Day of Judgment, there's a whole bunch of people who will say "please God send us back and we'll
21:12 believe in the messengers and follow them." It is not the person. It is God's information
21:17 that we are following all together. It is not the person. In SURA 3 verse 164, God says "it is
21:26 a blessing from God that He's sending information through one of you to distribute this information
21:31 and recite God's revelation." But I realized that that announcement was very important for that purpose.
21:40 I was ignorant. I didn't realize it was necessary. And God has been teaching me that it is necessary
21:47 for that purpose. Because I see people whom I thought were perfect believers, all over the
21:54 world. Let me mention one name, Kassim Ahmad, for example, in Malaysia. A beautiful person. I
22:03 still think he will be saved but at this time he says "I can accept everything but I can't accept
22:09 I cannot accept that you're God's messenger." So, he is temporarily dropped out, but he is a perfect believer
22:18 in my opinion, let's say before the announcement. He was a perfect believer upholding the Quran alone,
22:28 doing the prayers, the duties, the commandments. But then the announcement came and this he dropped
22:35 out. I still have hope for him but he stopped from the political point of view. He says "you were doing
22:42 fine. I did... I don't think the announcement was necessary." I said "this is how I thought, how I
22:47 fell for 8 years." I thought it was not necessary, but God has His system. We cannot go against the system.
22:57 And as you know the announcement started by by firing me. I was fired. I was told
23:06 "You're a chicken. You cannot do it. I'm gonna find somebody else. You're going to Hell." And I reached
23:13 the conviction that I was fired. I was lost. I was going to Hell. I really believed that. And I cried
23:20 as I never cried in my life on that night. If I remember the date as I remember everything. And
23:27 then, I started repenting and when I reached that point, of course, you don't care anymore. I
23:34 said "I'm gonna make the announcement even if my my children tell me "you're a crazy man. Get out of here."
23:39 Even if I lose my children, my family, my friends. I don't care if I lose everything. When I reached the
23:46 conviction that I will make the announcement without any fear without any hesitation
23:52 and without any fake modesty. Cause modesty if you... if you... if you live a lie that
24:02 is... that is actually arrogance. It's not... it's not modesty. You're a
24:08 civil engineer and you say you're a civil engineer. That is not arrogance.
24:14 It'll be arrogance if you think that this will alienate the people around you by saying
24:20 you're a civil engineer and you hide it. And you say I'm a poor uneducated person like you guys.
24:25 I mean, in a situation for that civil engineer who wants to be friend of the laborers, for example.
24:32 Maybe, I used a bad example but that will be arrogance on his part to say that.
24:40 Also, God wants to teach us that the messengers were just human beings who are not better than anybody around them.
24:52 We have the great lesson from Moses, one of
24:57 the great messengers of God, a prophet who brought the Torah.
25:04 but not just a messenger. A messenger and a prophet and God gave him fantastic miracles: parting the Red
25:10 sea and all these things. And then God sent him to one of Our servants to teach him a
25:16 few lessons. Remember that in SURA 18? So, we learn... it is very important to learn that the messenger
25:26 is a human being who's just as silly as we are. And you can kid around with him and wrestle with him.
25:35 Why are you laughing Lydia?
25:51 So, Mahmood Abib's KHUTBAH was necessary for us to reassure our hearts.
26:03 And you go to Lydia after the KHUTBAH to explain to you why she was laughing.
26:09 I don't wanna have anything mysterious here. So, and she will tell you. Today, IN SHAA ALLAH
26:18 tonight, we'll celebrate Soad's birthday and Hamid's birthday. Who's the cake maker?
26:27 Flory, the best cake makers of... and the Erishen's anniversary. Three occasions.
26:36 And they will only have... we only have happy occasions in this place. This is God's promise. So,
26:44 AQEM AL-SALAT. ALLAH-O AKBAR. ALLAH-O AKBAR.
