Quran Study 1982 By Dr Rashad Khalifa
Transcript
0:08 It's uh, it's not Gabriel, the spirit. It's something different.
0:15 How about the Holy Spirit?
0:16 The Holy Spirit is in the Quran.
0:18 In the Quran?
0:19 In the Quran.
0:21 Because it says in the Quran it gave Jesus the Holy Spirit.
0:26 Right.
0:26 It doesn't say Gabriel.
0:30 Was it?
0:32 I don't know if I read a verse or not that the Holy Spirit didn't grab you, because it's repeated in...
0:38 It's actually repeated in the verses of the Quran.
0:40 Brought the Quran to Muhammad's heart.
0:42 Yeah.
0:43 The Holy Spirit.
0:44 Oh, the Holy Spirit didn't say grab you.
0:47 I don't remember.
0:49 There's something about Muhammad that the Holy Spirit brought it into his heart.
0:53 That it was revealed with Gabriel.
0:57 Yes.
0:57 They could actually be two different things.
1:01 In other words, Gabriel bringing the Holy Spirit...
1:03 No, I mean, the Holy Spirit putting it there, but Gabriel is, of course, the cause of it being released.
1:09 Yeah, probably. But Gabriel is, of course, the associated source. Gabriel constantly carries the messages from God to the earth.
1:17 No, I just...
1:18 That's his function. He went to Mary to tell her about Jesus. He went to Muhammad to bring the Quran and so forth.
1:26 Well, I was just wondering if there was clear evidence that they were synonyms, if they
1:32 meant the same thing, that Holy Spirit and Gabriel were clearly the same thing.
1:35 Yeah, I can see that.
1:36 I could understand.
1:38 But also, Michael and Gabriel, and the angels and the messengers and...
1:42 Yeah.
1:43 Well, it doesn't say in Hebrew.
1:44 Because, no, they also say, oh, it's where the angels, and then they say, well, the one
1:49 we were looking at this morning, and Gabriel and Michael.
1:52 But there's somehow a difference, too, from angels, don't you think?
1:56 When they're archangels...
2:05 If you break down the name Gabriel, it's like...
2:17 If you take the El from Hebrew for God, it means power.
2:22 I'm going to see if I can find it.
2:24 Yeah, I always try, but I don't see it.
2:27 Huh?
2:28 Anyway, I'm seeing...
2:29 I'm seeing many things in the scripture that reflect all these, uh...
2:32 What is it?
2:33 What?
2:34 What is it?
2:35 Okay, you guys stand by, please.
2:37 How far are we from here?
2:39 Is that the Holy Spirit?
2:40 Is that the Holy Spirit going to get me?
2:42 I think that the Holy Spirit is going to be over there on the fence there.
2:45 What?
2:45 What's that?
2:46 The fence, man.
2:47 All right, thank you.
2:49 Yeah.
2:49 Is that the saying when they come to a verse, when they come down to a wall?
2:54 These are all different things that they want.
2:58 It's possible.
2:59 There are many other angels that will do it.
3:06 So God will carry the inspiration.
3:08 Where you can't find the inspiration, He will bring it to you.
3:13 And He puts it to the wise.
3:28 I'm going to take you back to 1 Thessalonians.
3:31 Thank you, Donna.
3:34 1 Thessalonians, if you don't mind,
3:35 if we believe in God, then what will become of us?
3:43 And then what will become of Abraham?
3:46 Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob?
3:57 I'm sorry, I can't hear, it's a lot of noise.
4:00 Yeah, there's too many voices.
4:06 2:136 says that
4:08 God is telling us what to say.
4:11 We say we believe in God, and in what was revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob and the Patriarchs, and what was given to Moses and Jesus, and what was given to all the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit.
4:28 And we are told,
4:31 and it's important, God is telling us to say, we make no distinction among any of them.
4:38 So when you say, 'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,' you are mentioning two names.
4:47 Some people become quite upset when you mention God alone. They say, "I bear witness that there is one God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."
5:07 So we are committing a distinction. We are breaking the commandments when we do that.
5:12 At the end, it says, "and to Him we submit."
5:16 La ilaha illallah. That's what we say.
5:19 It doesn't say that.
5:20 Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam... I am not a Muhammadan. I don't see it.
5:22 It's simply that you believe the Quran was revealed to Muhammad.
5:25 It says that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
5:30 No, but no.
5:30 Well, their logic is that by accepting Muhammad, you accept the Quran, and by accepting the Quran, then you believe in God.
5:37 Oh, that's all good. That's all good.
5:39 That's like, first there was the Word with God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, you know.
5:47 You're coming to salat, which is fixed in time, ain't it?
5:50 I'm not talking about doing the salat, I'm just talking about what's in the salat.
5:53 Any time you say, Ashadu anna Muhammadun rasool Allah, you're making it sinful.
5:58 And this commandment is repeated in the Quran, and it warns you against sin.
6:06 So what we do is, you say, I must not add another commandment.
6:10 You want to name any prophet, you have to name them all.
6:14 You know, you're opening a big...
6:17 First you have to know them, so you might...
6:22 That's right.
6:25 You have to spend a half hour saying many different names, but it doesn't make any sense.
6:32 This is very interesting. When I formally converted to Submission, I was with three Muslims,
6:41 three people of the Muslim community were praying in front of the Ka'bah.
6:45 And he made a paper for a witness to the fact that I said that, a statement several weeks later, with my photograph on it.
6:52 That's when the secession started.
6:57 That was like a legal document.
6:59 Like the old law, yeah.
7:00 That was like a legal document.
7:02 And sometimes they didn't even let you in when they were the masters of the mosque.
7:07 You can't get to enter it.
7:10 But it's a rule.
7:11 Right.
7:15 So then they are appalled. They go to the center and say,
7:18 What is this about the number?
7:19 We say,
7:20 Because it's their god.
7:25 You're eliminating their god.
7:28 Not The God. That's right.
7:31 Then they are appalled.
7:32 Actually, if a Muslim guy in some Arab country
7:36 was giving out leaflets to white-looking people or European-looking people,
7:40 so that just anybody could walk into the mosque.
7:43 Like the tourists would be wandering around and they would just say,
7:46 "Look, can we just walk in this mosque and look around?"
7:49 Like it was just some curiosity.
7:51 I mean, in certain areas, you know, like the
7:54 mosques of Asia, and so on and so forth.
7:58 They didn't want any non-Muslims to go in there.
8:01 So, well, this is understanding the history, you know, the history of Mecca.
8:05 But the one who says, "I don't like that," that is his Imam.
8:07 You know what?
8:09 That is enough.
8:11 Yeah.
8:43 It's not required.
8:47 It's not required?
8:48 No.
8:49 You don't have to accept Muhammad as a prophet
8:50 or anybody as a prophet.
8:52 All that is required is to accept God alone.
8:55 Thank you.
8:59 That's the point of the Quran.
9:01 That's the point of the Quran.
9:04 See, that's the Quran.
9:05 I think they won't set foot in there if it's like this.
9:08 I didn't ask her if she's a Muslim or not.
9:10 That's not something I have to ask.
9:15 It is not what she is saying; it's what's in her heart.
9:17 What does she believe?
9:21 See?
9:22 She wants documents to go into Iran.
9:25 Whether this has anything to do with her beliefs or convictions or not, I don't know.
9:30 If a person believes in God alone, this is what we're saying about Abraham going through...
9:35 Is it just Muhammad? How about the people before Muhammad, the people in Greece? It's not
9:42 required to believe in any particular prophet, but you have to believe that God
9:49 did send messengers. Even that is not required. If you remember, the minimum
9:55 The minimum requirement for salvation at the beginning of this surah is anyone who believes in God, the Last Day, and leads a righteous life.
10:02 That's what's required.
10:05 You don't need to know about any prophet.
10:07 So we make a distinction between Muslim in the sense that Abraham was a submitter, and Muslim in the sense of people who believe in the Quran.
10:15 And then Mohammedans in the sense of people who believe in the Quran and all kinds of other sources.
10:19 Well, I'm reading the Quran now, and it says, do not make any distinctions among the prophets.
10:23 This is what the Quran says.
10:26 But there are some people who believe in God, but don't believe that the Quran is the word of God.
10:32 It was not required.
10:34 In fact, that's the problem that most of the Jews have.
10:37 They believe in God, they believe in Allah, Allah, Allah.
10:39 They're perfectly all right.
10:40 But what they don't believe in, what they won't be able to say, is that Muhammad was a prophet and that the Quran is the word of God.
10:47 That's not required.
10:48 They go to heaven.
10:49 It says here, for the Jew and the Christian, obviously the Jew doesn't recognize Jesus.
10:56 And the Christian doesn't recognize Muhammad, obviously.
10:59 But if they believe in God, the Last Day, and lead a righteous life, they go to heaven.
11:03 What about the Christian who also idolizes Jesus?
11:08 They don't go to heaven.
11:09 To be a Christian, I mean, if you ask any Christian, they have all kinds of different definitions.
11:15 And I know, because I come out of a Christian background, all of them will tell you.
11:19 I mean, the fundamental doctrine is that the blood of Christ's sacrifice saved us from our sins.
11:27 This is the fundamental doctrine. I mean, the Catholics have a different belief from me.
11:30 I know Christians who don't say that. I know Christians who have a book here called
11:34 The Myth of God Incarnate, written by a top Christian clergyman, who says that Jesus' divinity is a myth.
11:42 They don't believe in the divinity of Jesus.
11:44 No, not even in the sanctity of Jesus, not in the Trinity.
11:52 The Unitarians are also Christians.
11:55 These are people who actually came to that conclusion through studying and researching in the Bible and so forth.
12:01 I think they can't know that much about anyone else, as much as you do.
12:05 Well, actually, I didn't read that book well either.
12:08 You know? But I glanced through the whole thing and I underlined the whole thing.
12:16 The Quran says among the Christians and Jews there are people who worship God alone
12:22 and do not idolize anything, and they go to heaven.
12:26 I have always been confused about that because it seems from my contact with Christianity,
12:33 which has been all over the world.
12:35 The same is true about the Muslims.
12:37 The same is true about the Muslims.
12:39 It's the same. Why should the Muslims be spared?
12:41 Are they smarter human beings?
12:44 As a matter of fact,
12:45 when Islam came,
12:47 I mean, when Muhammad came,
12:49 and the "Islam" associated with Muhammad,
12:52 Satan was a lot smarter.
12:53 He had practiced the rules and the tricks.
12:55 His principle.
12:59 is very
12:59 benign-looking. This is pointed out in the Quran.
13:01 And in Surah 6, verse 22, it says that these people, when they face God, will swear, "By God, we were not idol worshippers." But they were.
13:09 Because Satan made them idol worshippers without them ever realizing it. The Christian will tell you, "I worship Jesus. Jesus is God, the son of God." They will tell you that.
13:17 But the Muslim will never tell you Muhammad is God, or son of God, or an idol, never.
13:24 But for all practical purposes, they idolize Muhammad in their actions.
13:28 Because they believe that Muhammad has the power to intercede.
13:30 You go to an Islamic Center there and tell them, "I declare: Lā ilāha illallāh."
13:37 Yes, go on.
13:39 Because they believe that...
13:40 You're finished.
13:41 Because they believe that...
13:42 What do you mean finished? What about Muhammad? See?
13:45 They believe that Muhammad has the power to intercede.
13:48 Exactly.
13:49 But they're saying, but they're asserting that Muhammad is a prophet,
13:54 does that detract from our belief in the power of Allah?
13:57 We don't need to say that Muhammad is a prophet. We acknowledge him, of course.
14:00 Because we know that already.
14:01 In the same sense, we don't have to say, "God is God," because we know that God is God.
14:04 Exactly. What?
14:05 We don't have to say that God is God because we know that God is God.
14:07 Exactly.
14:08 So what we say is...
14:09 We say, "Lā ilāha illallāh." See, this is exactly why. We don't say, "God is God."
14:13 We don't say that God is God. Do we?
14:15 Lā ilāha illallāh means, "There is no god except God."
14:17 We are negating. We are negating any other god.
14:21 But with the first one...
14:22 what we're saying is Muhammad is a prophet, but we don't say, "God is God."
14:25 Because Muhammad is a prophet, we know that.
14:29 It's not a double negative.
14:32 No, it's not.
14:33 I've heard it explained before that Lā... illā... is a double negative.
14:39 That's a very good point.
14:40 One thing is that, you know, after coming this far,
14:43 you went backwards, actually.
14:46 You know, someone said, "Lā ilāha illallāh,"
14:51 and secondly, you were told, "And Me alone you shall fear,"
14:54 and accept none but Allah for guidance.
14:57 Okay?
15:00 You see that?
15:01 You said something like this.
15:04 You are coming back to the straight path.
15:09 Right. But why do you worry? Why should you worry about accepting him or not accepting him?
15:14 No, no, no, no, no. This is not the point. The point is, he was afraid. He was afraid.
15:20 He's saying, "I'll say I believe in the Quran and I believe in God, and then I'll get out."
15:25 It's not the point.
15:27 No, that's a contradiction, because the Quran says Muhammad is Rasool Allah.
15:32 The Quran says Muhammad is the messenger of God.
15:36 That person obviously doesn't believe in the Quran.
15:39 No, she has never seen the Quran.
15:43 Had she seen the Quran and she said she doesn't like it, then she is not a believer.
15:50 Whatever her religion may be.
15:52 But those who reject the scripture and say the Quran is wicked.
15:57 Yeah, so you're saying that you don't have to, you know, it's not required to accept the Prophet Muhammad as a prophet?
16:08 Right.
16:08 But if you don't accept him as a prophet, then you don't accept the Quran.
16:13 I'm talking about people who never saw the Quran.
16:16 They've never heard of it, they've never seen it, they don't know what it says.
16:19 Isn't it impossible to not know about it? Because the whole world knows about it.
16:23 Oh, are you kidding?
16:23 I had a colleague at work yesterday, the day before, and this fellow said,
16:32 he reads the title in the back of my car. I said, "Read the Quran."
16:35 He looks at me and says, "Is this the Jewish scripture?"
16:37 No, no, no, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that, you know,
16:40 is it just for us to not forgive them?
16:42 Yeah, well, they know Quran, don't they? I mean, they...
16:45 I mean, Quran, maybe they didn't read it, you're right, but...
16:48 You don't know the Quran?
16:50 They don't even know it.
16:54 They say it looks like it depends, and they think they know what it is, and that it doesn't have all the right things and it's a terrible, evil thing.
17:02 Or it's just some trivia like the Book of Mormon or some little book.
17:08 I've heard it compared to the Book of Mormon more than once.
17:11 People really don't know. You don't know because I've heard from a lot of people who have passed through, you know, passing through town.
17:18 For some reason, no one did something like that for me. It would be nice, you know.
17:22 It's one of the classics of all literature.
17:24 Really, that's how they think of it.
17:26 You know, not so much now, the message is getting more out, you know, but even 40 years ago, you know.
17:33 This verse 136 is very important to you because in this mosque we do not mention Muhammad.
17:41 Surah 72, there's a commandment that says, do not mention anyone else beside God.
17:47 Do not call on anyone else beside God in the masjids.
17:52 So they call, so they, you know, I hear now they're calling, you know, in my mind I hear the call to prayer.
17:57 You know, I've heard so many times from the mosques in Morocco.
18:00 And they said, you know, they said, "Oh, you're not a Muslim."
18:03 And they said, "Oh, you're not a Muslim."
18:07 I don't see it as such.
18:11 They are breaking the law because God says, "Don't make a distinction."
18:14 But the problem is that you say you don't make a distinction.
18:17 You claim you don't make a distinction.
18:17 You are making a distinction.
18:23 You're only mentioning the last one.
18:26 Because if you don't recognize the last one, in one sense you don't recognize the Quran.
18:31 That's the tip of the iceberg. They call him the Imam of the Messengers.
18:34 They call him the Master of the Messengers. They call him the Seal of the Prophets.
18:39 They even call him...
18:40 Okay, well that's the question. The Seal of the Prophets.
18:43 The last one.
18:46 Just to assert that Muhammad is a prophet, especially if you're a Christian coming to Islam,
18:51 It's only to assert, it's only another way of saying that the Quran is divinely revealed.
18:58 It's just, and I'm saying it's just another way of saying that.
19:01 Now, if you go on from there and start to say other things like the Hadith were divinely revealed
19:06 or that we have to follow the Hadith too, that's another, that's a step beyond the word of Muhammad then.
19:12 That's a step beyond that for me.
19:14 To assert that Muhammad is a prophet, to assert that Muhammad is a prophet is only to assert that the Quran is divinely revealed.
19:21 First of all, what you say is not important.
19:23 What's important is
19:24 what's in your heart.
19:26 You don't have to...
19:27 You don't have to go out and
19:28 champion yourself,
19:30 God knows the intent of your heart.
19:31 I mean, you're going to be judged by where you're going.
19:33 Are you then to declare anything?
19:37 I wanted to pray in the mosque.
19:39 That's why I declared myself to be a Muslim.
19:42 Because until I went to declare that,
19:44 I couldn't pray in the mosque.
19:46 Maybe you've never had that problem in your whole life.
19:49 They're keeping you from the mosque.
19:51 Preventing the believers. You know, it's the truth.
19:53 It's the truth.
19:56 Isn't that against
19:57 the verse that warns against preventing
19:59 the believers from going to the mosque?
20:02 Somebody
20:03 was pulling your leg. Because first
20:05 of all, when you go in the mosque
20:07 and pray, you are saying, according
20:09 to them at least,
20:10 in the prayer.
20:16 When you pray there,
20:18 you're supposed to be in the
20:22 it is part of the prayer
20:27 it's only because
20:29 in areas where there have been a lot of Europeans
20:32 that they go in the mosque
20:35 not to worship but just because they're curious
20:40 I think if I would have been
20:41 black skinned
20:43 or African looking
20:45 I don't think they would have
20:46 I mean, I was, I had been refused entrance into a mosque when I wanted to go and pray in Morocco, and with the paper, I wasn't refused entrance.
20:55 That's the reason I did it. Not because, because I felt that it was, that it was...
21:00 They have other problems, like colonialism and the French were desecrating the mosque.
21:03 No, exactly. I mean, this is, they don't, they don't want to...
21:07 But you're talking about this particular commandment. We are not to make a distinction between His commandments.
21:13 this is why we cannot say
21:14 that you're completely right.
21:18 in saying that every Arab mosque
21:20 I have ever been to, and they say that
21:21 as part of the prayer.
21:22 This is the only mosque in the world,
21:25 I assure you,
21:26 the only mosque in the world.
21:28 I've been to some old mosques too,
21:30 not just the ones around town.
21:33 I've been to the old,
21:34 one of the oldest mosques in Sinkiang,
21:36 they've probably been praying there since the 10th century AD.
21:40 This is the only one.
21:42 I think that person has been told that.
21:44 Yeah.
21:47 Let's all listen to one.
21:50 Let's have one person talk.
21:52 Ahmed.
21:53 There is a verse in the Quran that says
21:57 do not mention any name besides God.
22:00 72:18.
22:02 And there is a...
22:03 the holy prophet said,
22:05 "When you are a worshipper, you shall not worship in a mosque where I am worshipped."
22:14 I remember something that I read in a book, but then I lost it.
22:18 I mean, you cannot worship in the mosque? You cannot pray?
22:25 No, no, there is no such thing.
22:29 You may be thinking of another verse.
22:33 Right.
22:36 That's Quran 9.
22:39 Yeah, but that has nothing to do with idol worship.
22:44 It's a mosque that was built to
22:47 divide the believers.
22:54 It was related to a specific incident that happened during the Prophet's lifetime.
23:01 So it had to do with some people who built this mosque and used it as a jumping-off ground against the Muslims.
23:10 So, in fact, the instruction for the prophet was personal:
23:12 Do not pray in it. That was a specific instruction.
23:22 If you notice in the prayer, the Shahada, you see, one part is for Allah and one part is for Muhammad.
23:32 Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, and Ali, yes.
23:38 So, what has happened to them?
23:40 I don't know.
23:41 I don't know what has happened to them.
23:43 But, you know, Ali, you know, Uthman, you know, Omar,
23:47 things like that, and Muhammad.
23:51 You know, and you make up a prayer,
23:54 and you say, "This is from God." This is not God's work.
23:57 You know, this is their work.
24:00 You know, you have to be in a world of your own.
24:11 When you know that there is idol worship going on there, don't you pray in that mosque?
24:16 Doesn't matter.
24:17 What does it say?
24:17 What do we have to do with that?
24:19 That has nothing to do with your prayer.
24:20 You are idolizing other than God.
24:22 Yeah, but the Friday sermon is important.
24:28 The Friday sermon is supposed to be for your heart.
24:30 Yeah, but when you go on Friday, they serve the Taghut, Taghut, Taghut.
24:34 Maybe some day, maybe some day I will have a mosque by myself.
24:41 Here is a very good word.
24:43 I'm going to just try to do it.
24:44 Do not try to do it like your imam.
24:48 Let's do it one more time.
24:50 It is not sufficient to profess. The one who has taken a name other than the Lord, is the one who has taken a name other than the Lord.
24:58 Great and different are the degrees of the believers and the disbelievers.
25:04 Do they think by taking a servant of God as a child for the Lord, that they have no rivals with Him?
25:10 He has permitted on earth the things which are good and the things which are bad.
25:17 and do not stand in that mosque of harm.
25:19 A mosque founded on righteousness
25:22 from the first day
25:24 is more worthy for you to stand in.
25:25 Here you have a choice.
25:28 But you see, when you go to Egypt
25:31 or Saudi Arabia or any of those places,
25:33 you have no choice.
25:35 We were going to go and make Hajj
25:37 in the big mosque of Mecca,
25:39 and they give you
25:40 additions in worship,
25:42 what do you do?
25:49 The Prophet himself and the early Muslims were praying in the Ka'bah with the idols there.
25:56 The statues were there.
25:59 So if you have a choice, of course, you go to a mosque where only the name of God is mentioned.
26:08 I mean, it mentions specifically that He protects the places where the names of God are commemorated.
26:23 It's not exclusively about a Masjid of Submission, though, is it?
26:28 Like that other mosque, the church, if you turn it to opposition, it would be shut down, you know.
26:37 There's several verses on this issue, but they're not...
26:42 I mean, we mentioned so many, and since we know they're not on Mars, they still must be around.
26:50 Like I said, the Ka'bah, they have the statues there and the Prophets have no choice but to go there.
26:55 You have to go there. You have to make Hajj there. Even if the whole land becomes disbelievers, you have to go there.
27:09 So, among the Shi'ites, there are hundreds of people who believe in God alone, in spite of all the idol worship encouraged by the government.
27:19 Now, when you go to Iran, the Adhan adds also,
27:23 "And I bear witness that Ali is the Wali of God."
27:29 I had it on tape.
27:32 It's part of the Adhan.
27:34 When the Iranian Imam was praying here, they did that.
27:42 You know, they're not here anymore.
27:44 But God said, His law is, "I will not stand in that mosque."
27:55 Some of you people remember telling me, why do you let these idol worshipers pray here?
27:59 And I say, if they pray, maybe one or two of them will be guided by God's grace.
28:05 And if God wants them, He will keep them. If He doesn't, He will take them out.
28:10 Is it true or not? Is it you who guides? You didn't do anything.
28:19 This is a very important commandment, remember Satan is quite powerful and he wants to make
28:25 you an idol worshiper.
28:32 Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah.
28:34 That's all that is required.
28:35 That is what every prophet preached.
28:49 The question is, are they considered to be part of your home, and what do you do?
29:04 Yes.
29:37 Thank you.