Quran Study 10 Dec 1982 By Dr Rashad Khalifa
Transcript
0:02 Alhamdulillah, wa ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah. Gradually we are realizing that we have only one function in this world. We are here, we were created for one purpose, and that is to recognize God as the only one, the only king, and to worship Him, serve Him alone, without any partners.
0:32 Sura 67, verse 2, tells us that the whole purpose of creation is to test the
0:43 human being.
0:44 That is a very important point, Sura 67, verse 1 and 2, and verse 5.
0:55 God is the one who possesses all things, He is omnipotent, He is the one who created death
1:01 and life in order to test you, and to see which of you is most righteous among you. He is the Almighty,
1:08 the Forgiving. Because death is a new creation. Initially, there was no death, there was God.
1:17 Death. Then one of the angels had the rebellious ideas. He wanted, Satan wanted
1:24 to be a partner with God. So God wants to show Satan and to show the angels that
1:30 there are creatures who never see God but will worship God without need for a
1:35 partner. The whole idea of our existence here in this world is that God does not
1:40 need a partner. And we could fulfill the purpose of our life if we worship God
1:45 without a partner, without idolizing Muhammad, or Jesus, or Mary, or saints, or
1:49 anything, or anyone. This is the whole idea. And we want to come to a certain
1:56 knowledge that will stick with us no matter what happens.
2:06 Under any circumstances we would have that knowledge, what our banner says on the left.
2:11 Our motto is, God alone. This is our motto. And we put it here on this sign.
2:20 We realize that the only salvation is in worshipping God alone.
2:25 And we don't think that anything or anyone can benefit you or harm you.
2:30 Except in accordance with God's will.
2:41 And what I was doing the last few
2:44 khutbas was to bring to us awareness about the greatness of God, how great God is.
2:52 And this is a continuation in the sense that, I tried to
3:00 imagine with you, the seven universes, how vast this universe is, being the smallest
3:06 and inner-most of seven universes, and how all seven universes are in God's hand.
3:13 So, I think I will move on to the next slide. I'm going to turn this on.
3:21 Can you situate yourself where you can see the screen?
3:37 We must be different from anyone else in that we must acquire full awareness of the greatness
3:43 of God.
3:46 And what we have here is an actual picture. That's a slide from the
3:53 picture that we've seen before. This is an actual picture of the planet Earth
3:59 from 100,000 miles. 100,000 miles is nothing. 250,000 miles is the moon.
4:09 93 million miles to get to the Sun. The Sun is 93 million miles away. And these
4:15 are all small distances within the solar system, which is a small component of the
4:21 Milky Way galaxy. The whole solar system within the Milky Way galaxy is like a
4:29 speck of dust in this room. The Milky Way galaxy is like this room and the whole
4:38 solar system is a speck of dust. And there are a billion galaxies, 1,000 million
4:44 galaxies, and all of them are in the smallest universe. Now when you look at
4:51 it like this, who's holding it? Who's holding this in space?
4:59 Do you know where you are? Can you imagine where you are?
5:04 Just watch it, watch it go.
5:09 Now see Saudi Arabia, this is Mecca, right here.
5:12 This is the Red Sea, the Arabian Peninsula, right here.
5:16 My hometown, Cairo, is right here.
5:20 Giza is there.
5:22 Can you see my mother? You met her.
5:26 See?
5:26 I just want to bring to our minds how
5:30 minute we are, and how great
5:32 God is.
5:35 And the insignificance
5:36 of the human
5:37 the human beings that are being idolized.
5:40 You see, right in this
5:42 spot is Jerusalem, right here.
5:44 And in this spot,
5:46 2,000 years ago, a man lived for 33 years, which is a blink of an eye, as far as history is concerned.
5:53 Jesus lived in this little place here, on this small, tiny planet.
6:01 And, the people idolize, in his name, here.
6:09 Your head covered half the earth. That's how small it is.
6:18 And right here in Mecca and Medina lived Abraham and Muhammad for a very brief period of time.
6:25 Yet the people idolized him. They treat him like a god.
6:31 They cannot stand to mention God alone, without mentioning Muhammad beside Him, or Jesus or Mary or some saint.
6:41 We have to thank, now who's holding this?
6:46 Thanks a lot.
6:50 You're helping me. I would like to prove that the earth is very small.
6:56 This is all of Africa right here, you know.
7:01 This is the Mediterranean Sea over here.
7:05 And this is all of South Africa right here.
7:08 South Pole.
7:11 Now the other side is on the other side.
7:14 And you happen to be standing sideways.
7:16 Look at this picture.
7:18 And then you don't feel like you're like this, you know.
7:22 But you can see, back to the question, who is holding this in space?
7:29 Who is holding the solar system? The sun with its brightness, its heat?
7:36 God is holding it. The Quran teaches us that God is holding the earth, and the sun,
7:44 and the Milky Way galaxy, galaxy, and the billion galaxies, the billion,
7:49 billion stars, God is holding them. The Quran says, if God wouldn't hold them, they will tumble in space.
7:57 If He doesn't hold the earth and the heavenly bodies, they will all tumble in space.
8:03 You see? This is an actual picture. From 100,000 miles away, and this ball here is hanging in space,
8:12 teeming with life, including you. And God is holding. You have to think of the greatness
8:20 of God, and the insignificance of the human beings that are being idolized. When you go
8:27 out in the street at night and take a picture at random, you have 10,000 stars. Now this
8:33 is a very small portion of the sky, isn't it? Very small. You have to make a complete
8:40 360 degrees, is it, sir? And take picture, I mean, this is a very
8:45 minor portion of the sky that the camera saw, yet if you count them, on the
8:49 average, you count 10,000 stars. On the average. Just take a picture of that.
8:59 Okay, now let us skip the slide.
9:06 We'd like to understand the greatness of God and the insignificance of whatever they're
9:10 trying to idolize.
9:13 Then look up Surah 5 verse 75, Surah 5, verse 75, page 79, it says, Christ, the son of Mary,
9:27 was no more than a messenger, like the messengers before him and his mother, a saint.
9:34 Both of them used to eat the food.
9:38 Alright? Now remember that statement.
9:40 Then we go to 21:8. It talks about all the prophets. 21:8.
9:49 Verse 8.
9:50 We did not give them bodies that required no food,
9:57 nor were they immortal. And then we move on to 25:7, Surah 25, verse 7.
10:15 And they said, how come this messenger eats the food and walks in the markets?
10:22 How come he has no angel with him to preach with him?
10:25 And in the same surah, verse 20, all the messengers we sent before you used to eat the food
10:35 and walk in the markets. What does that mean? They used to eat the food. See, the Quran is very polite.
10:44 They are not as polite as the Quran. What happens when you eat the food? You digest it, and you excrete it.
10:59 See, these are the people they idolize, don't they? They idolize Jesus, and Mary, and Muhammad.
11:03 And God tells us in the Quran that all of them used to eat the food, and walk in the markets.
11:09 You have to go to the markets to buy food, clothes, and toilet paper.
11:16 But they didn't have toilet paper.
11:19 They didn't even have that. They had rocks.
11:23 Rocks.
11:25 And according to Hadith, you have to use three rocks.
11:34 The people who idolize the Prophet are the ones who are most disrespecting of him.
11:44 Or any other Prophet. They didn't have water, didn't have toilet paper, they had to use rocks.
11:52 So you go to the markets to buy toilet paper, in those days you must have bought rocks.
11:58 If they had guests, they'd have to bring in multiple sets, you know.
12:01 Get me nine rocks, will you?
12:07 If you have a big party, you know, it will be 18, 27.
12:16 You get...
12:19 But they can't reuse them.
12:21 See, if anybody is supposed to idolize anybody,
12:24 they, in those days, are supposed to idolize us, because we're a lot cleaner.
12:30 You know, they used to walk around unclean. They didn't have the means, though.
12:36 Let's keep it there.
12:42 We try to understand the insignificance of the human being, and the Quran is deliberate.
12:46 It tells us that all the prophets used to walk in the markets and eat the food.
12:57 Jesus, Mary, the saints, Muhammad.
13:00 You can see the stupidity of idolizing them.
13:04 And this is one of the things that the majority of the human beings in the Hereafter will discover,
13:10 how stupid they were.
13:11 What is the ugliest animal you can think of? The pig. The pig is about the ugliest
13:19 animal. And God made it haram. Yet people go and eat pork. So in the Hereafter they would
13:25 say, "How stupid, you know. I disobeyed God for this ugly creature. For this ugly
13:32 creature. Or idolize this insignificant human being who lives here, for a blink of an eye,
13:42 A human being who had needs, who had to go to the markets, eat the food, and had headaches and stomach pains.
14:00 We have to constantly be aware of the dictates of God, everywhere we go.
14:07 Because Satan will always take advantage of your unawareness. Anytime you're unaware,
14:12 Satan will try to make you forget.
14:21 And with this awareness you must be aware also that when you appreciate God
14:27 and worship Him alone, God promises that He will make you a king or queen on
14:33 earth. That everything will go your way. That nothing ever bad will happen to you.
14:39 And this has no exaggeration.
14:45 I can give you practical examples right in this mosque, that include all of us.
14:57 So this is about the only place that worships God alone, that we know of.
15:04 The word is spreading, alhamdulillah, as you will see in the second book.
15:08 But it is spreading painfully slow.
15:15 It is not a rejection on the part of Satan, but like God says in the Quran, they want to put out
15:22 God's light, but God will perfect His light. Again, it's the work of the idolaters.
15:31 So we have perhaps an example right here, and we have to thank God first,
15:40 before we talk about our group and how to expand it, insha'Allah. Because we owe it all to Allah.
15:47 Remember on the Day of Judgment, the people in Heaven will say, "Praise be to God who guided us to this,
15:53 for we could not be guided without His guidance. When we worship God alone,
15:59 God fulfilled His promise to us, making us kings and queens on earth. And you have to know that.
16:05 We must believe that without the slightest doubt or hesitation, because it is part of
16:10 believing in God. You know the Quran is truth. We have physical proof that it is
16:17 the word of God. And God says in it, I promise you if you worship Me alone, this
16:21 is in 24:55, God says I promise you, I'm going to say it literally, God promises
16:28 those who believe among you and live a righteous life, that He will make them
16:34 kings or queens on earth. And that is because, repeated at the end of the verse,
16:39 they worship Me without any partners. We know that Muhammad and Jesus and Mary are
16:47 insignificant human beings, they are helpless, powerless, they are dead right now,
16:51 they can do nothing. The Quran repeats that Muhammad cannot benefit you or harm you.
16:59 In fact, the Quran says I cannot benefit myself or harm myself, except in
17:05 accordance with God's will.
17:10 You cannot even kill yourself unless it is God's will, so don't try. But the
17:16 people who tried to kill themselves, we know one right here in this mosque, I mean
17:20 not one of us, but a relative of one of us, and she shot herself in the head, the
17:25 bullet went through her head, but she's still alive, she's alright, she couldn't kill
17:28 herself. So, nobody can benefit you or harm you, except God, except by His leave.
17:35 Not a bit more. Repent and think of God's greatness, and be aware of Him, always.
17:56 This opening statement of every khutbah says, praise be to God, I bear witness there is
18:01 no god except He alone, He has no partner.
18:07 In this second khutbah, I'm going to talk about a number of subjects, and of this great following.
18:21 But, I'm saying that the message is spreading.
18:25 I meant to bring a letter that I have on my desk to read to you.
18:32 Let me get just one letter and we'll come back. I always do that, don't I?
18:37 Our motto is God Alone.
18:46 And we follow the word of God alone. We don't follow the words of men.
18:49 This fellow from India, he writes to me every week.
18:54 He writes that he got a Quran, or a Submitter's Perspective, one of our translations.
19:03 And you can see the progression in his letters from an adamant Hadith and Sunnah supporter
19:10 to this letter. This is the last one of them, one of the letters.
19:15 I should have kept all of them, I didn't keep all of them.
19:34 Well, would you believe that is the wrong letter?
19:37 It is the same guy, but he sends a letter every week, and some of you saw the letter
19:45 before this one, where he said that because they cannot worship God alone, they don't
19:51 want to stick to Quran alone, so the nominal Muslims go to Hadith.
19:57 Can you give me one more chance to go and get the other one?
20:00 You can get the other one.
20:04 This is our city, a little light. And it comes
20:07 soon enough, once a week, at least once a week.
20:15 Well, I like this statement
20:16 you made, because, and it's very satisfying to see that people are coming to the conclusion that
20:19 because Allah alone is commemorated in the Quran, the nominal Muslims turn away
20:45 from it, and go to Hadith and Sunnah which upholds Muhammad and Allah both in
20:53 competition to each other. So you can see that he's come a long way and he
20:59 considers them going to Hadith and Sunnah as being nominal Muslims. That's one.
21:08 Two weeks ago, a friend of mine who just came from Egypt he called and he said that the
21:13 the Union of Islamic Banks printed one million copies of my summary, summary of
21:19 the summary that you see here. I have an Arabic summary, it's about ten pages. So they
21:25 printed one million copies of it, and the biggest contractor in Egypt, his name is
21:31 Ahmed Deedat, and some of you watched a program about that about a
21:37 month ago; he was on that program. He printed one million copies also, with
21:43 different editions. Now, they don't send a penny to me for this, which is
21:51 perfectly fine because God rewards, God rewards for everything you do.
22:00 Another subject is that starting tomorrow after dhikr, we're going to start our Arabic lessons.
22:10 Because usually after dhikr, we're kind of intoxicated and we don't feel like it anymore.
22:18 We like to have pillow fights. Most of you who don't come to dhikr are missing out.
22:26 So, instead of the pillow fights and chasing the kids around, we'll have Arabic lessons
22:34 starting tomorrow.
22:34 So, those of you who will come tomorrow, bring a notebook, and we're going to start, we're
22:40 going to learn the Arabic from the Quran.
22:45 Finally, and this is what I want to talk about, the names.
22:54 As it turns out, now this is a personal opinion, and you may like it or not like
23:00 it, but the Quran talks about adoption, and it orders us to keep the
23:08 children's original name.
23:13 I was listening to the radio the other day, they had some psychic on the radio,
23:18 you know, and he was saying that the name that you're born with, not that I believe this
23:24 stuff, but he can tell you things from the name you're born with, but that reminded me
23:31 of this subject, which, this is a position that I've held all the time, and I wrote about
23:37 it, and a lot of people didn't like it, so it will be your choice, but the Quran advocates
23:43 that we keep our original names.
23:49 Another thing we had, you remember, there was an Iranian fellow, he had a wife and a daughter
23:55 for two years, and she sat here and she said, "What are the names of the people here?"
24:03 And Susan told her, "This is Rashad, this is Mahmoud, this is Masooda, this is Iman, this is Laila, this is Fatima, this is Zainab,
24:13 this is Maryam, this is Latifa, this is Samira, this is Rahima." And the girl said, "Oh, this is not for me,"
24:21 because her name was, what was her name?
24:25 [audience member answers]
24:27 Her name was Sherry.
24:29 So that's another point, because people will think that Islam is for people who have certain names.
24:35 Because those names are unfamiliar to them. And whenever I wrote about this topic,
24:46 I said I don't see why a George cannot be a Muslim. I mean after all, I think there will be more
24:52 Muhammads in Hell than Georges, maybe. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'd like to
25:04 call, well Rashid changed his name officially then. I'd like to call Ray and Lisa, and
25:10 Martha and Kathryn, and Fathia Ghaban, and Latif and Barbara, you know?
25:21 Samira will be Debbie, and Wali will be Otis, and Dawood will be David, Raheema will be Loretta.
25:33 [inaudible exchange]
25:39 [Audience:] Is this the official
25:40 name?
25:40 [Rashad:] Yes.
25:41 Yes.
25:48 I mean it seems like the
25:50 Quran advocates that you are programmed
25:52 with them.
25:55 [Audience:] What if you don't like
25:06 it and it's your programming?
25:59 See, now, what if you don't like your height, you know, it's something you've inherited.
26:07 [Audience:] That keeps changing.
26:10 [Audience:] Even over time.
26:12 Yeah.
26:14 Like I said, it's a personal opinion.
26:17 We'll have to, I want to offer my best in front of the best.
26:21 Oh, okay.
26:23 Yeah.
26:25 I know for myself,
26:28 seeing the mess was getting crazy,
26:30 when I was a student.
26:31 That's one reason.
26:34 That's the matter.
26:36 So,
26:37 we became the students.
26:40 Yeah, but?
26:41 Yeah, but it really doesn't matter, you know.
26:45 I heard,
26:46 I heard the theory of
26:48 the slave name or something.
26:50 The master?
26:50 The name of the master from old times.
26:53 and so on.
26:55 You will have your opinion,
26:56 but it seems like,
27:00 yes,
27:02 if we look at it carefully
27:03 and we find that the Quran says
27:05 do not change your name,
27:06 then we have no choice,
27:08 but it has to be the father,
27:10 referring to the father's name.
27:12 It would be the last name.
27:13 The first name is kind of arbitrary.
27:18 There are many angles to this situation, because according to the present system here, where
27:28 people, the adopted children have the name of the adopting father, theoretically a person
27:35 can marry his sister, because children are scattered, they have different names, and
27:43 then these two meet and fall in love.
27:47 I don't know if it's my imagination or not,
27:48 but it seems like people who look alike
27:50 get together.
27:52 I mean, the boyfriend and girlfriend,
27:59 they really look alike, a lot of them, I feel.
28:02 I don't know about you, but I look like my wife.
28:06 Well, she's lucky, right?
28:18 Right. I mean, that too.
28:22 That's right. In the Middle East, we never change.
28:24 The wife doesn't change.
28:26 You don't mind the joke, do you?
28:29 This is a standard joke.
28:34 She's beautiful.
28:43 Allah is the greatest.
30:43 you
31:13 you
31:48 a description rather than a name
31:50 even if they read the Bible it's incomplete
31:54 because it was edited in 300 AD by a council of people
31:57 even in spite of all the corruptions and distortions
32:02 if they follow the Bible as it is printed today
32:05 with all the distortions and deficiencies and additions
32:10 They say that you're supposed to worship Jesus in the Bible.
32:14 No.
32:15 No, it doesn't work.
32:17 No, it never says that Jesus is God.
32:19 It says that the blood of Christ is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.
32:24 And that only through Jesus can you come to the Father.
32:27 Right out of the Bible.
32:28 Word for word, only through Jesus can you go to the Father.
32:32 Right out of the Bible.
32:33 Right, that's a mistranslation.
32:35 No problem.
32:36 The Quran says the same thing.
32:38 It says whoever obeys the messenger obeys God. Which is the same thing in the Bible.
32:46 Because, now you have to take the whole thing in totality. Because the Bible says
32:51 I'm going to put my words in his mouth and you must listen to my words that he
32:55 utters. So if you disobey those words you're disobeying God. Now when they
33:01 translated from the Aramaic to the Hebrew to the Greek to the English, you
33:05 You can see how it evolved into what you think it says.
33:09 When they tacked on the letters of Paul, which were written in Greek,
33:13 that's where most of the, that's like the Hadith that was put on at the same time.
33:17 Most of that, if you listen to these guys on Sundays, going on about Jesus,
33:21 they love to quote Corinthians.
33:23 They love to quote Hebrews.
33:24 They love to quote the letters of Paul.
33:26 Who was Paul?
33:27 Paul never even met Jesus.
33:28 He was never even around when that happened.
33:30 It was an opinion. But they take the
33:32 words of Paul and his letters to his
33:34 buddies in Corinthians and Rome and
33:36 all these places, they put that on the same level
33:38 as the words of Jesus or the words of Moses
33:39 or the words of God... That's exactly true. So actually
33:41 the Christianity of today is
33:43 Paulism, not Christianity.
33:46 But if you take the
33:48 Bible in totality,
33:50 you see that it says
33:51 that Jesus is not God
33:53 and says that we are all
33:55 children of God.
33:57 There's no such thing as the only begotten Son.
34:01 And if they take the whole thing
34:03 in totality, they will be a Muslim.
34:05 But they don't follow the Bible.
34:09 These verses here, 165
34:11 through 167, are identical to
34:14 Matthew 7:23.
34:17 A free mind, the prerequisite for salvation.
34:27 O people, eat from everything on earth that is lawful and good, and do not follow the footsteps of
34:34 Satan; he is your sworn enemy. He directs you towards vice and evil, and to invent lies
34:42 and attribute them to God.
34:46 When they are told, "Follow what God has revealed," they say, "We follow what we found
34:54 our parents doing."
34:56 What if their parents lacked understanding and guidance?
35:00 The example of such disbelievers is that of parrots; they repeat what they hear
35:07 without understanding. Deaf, dumb, and blind, they fail to understand.
35:14 O you who believe, eat from the good things We provide for you, and be thankful to God, if you do worship Him alone.
35:24 He only forbids for you animals that die of themselves,
35:29 blood, the meat of swine, and animals dedicated to other than God.
35:36 However, if one is forced to eat this, without being malicious or deliberate, then he incurs
35:45 no sin.
35:46 God is Forgiver, Merciful.
35:49 Those who conceal what God has revealed in the scripture, seeking a lowly material gain,
35:56 are eating fire into their bellies.
35:59 God will not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He sanctify them.
36:07 It is they who choose straying instead of guidance, and retribution instead of forgiveness.
36:14 Consequently, they will have to endure the Hellfire.
36:18 That is because God has sent down the scripture with the truth, and those who dispute the scripture are
36:25 in profound schism.
36:30 Well, I don't know what I can say about this. It's so clear.
36:39 Actually, at least we can conclude from what I've read that, aside from those things that
36:46 are prohibited, any rule adding prohibitions on certain food, and so on, made by human beings without authority
36:58 from God, is in the long run the work of Satan himself. And it is found all over the
37:06 world. I know for a matter of fact that in India and Pakistan, especially among the
37:15 Hanafis, they do not eat shrimp, they do not eat lobster, they do not eat crab.
37:27 Well, they are missing something.
37:32 That's for sure.
37:34 And also this idea of the holiness of certain animals, like cows and so on.
37:42 In the long run, this is not helping many people.
37:47 I can imagine that a doctor's order may be good.
37:50 Too much meat might be bad for certain people, but to say that the meat is a sinful thing.
37:56 But in India, I've been in India maybe 16 times.
38:01 I've seen cows go to the marketplace.
38:03 They are not at all touched.
38:05 They wander. They walk among the people.
38:08 And these cows have very long tongues.
38:11 They see vegetables, they stick out their tongues and then...
38:16 eat all the food,
38:18 and no one harms any cow;
38:20 they just shoo them away.
38:22 It's nice in some ways to see how people...
38:24 are gentle to animals
38:26 but the stealer becomes poorer.
38:30 But
38:31 if a human being steals one...
38:37 one
38:38 one
38:38 one eggplant,
38:42 they pick him up
38:43 and so on.
38:46 I think that this is, I don't know who invented this, this vegetarianism, as a religious, as a religious rule.
38:58 Anyhow, in Southeast Asia, we have a lot of Shafi'is too, may I add also, among some Hanafi,
39:10 They will not eat this cucumber that is slightly bitter because of a hadith which says that the Prophet once tasted one and said it's too bitter.
39:30 So this is an innovation. There are some hadith that prohibit certain foods and so on.
39:36 And this has caused a lot of wastage of natural resources. But now, how about this: some food that is good, but it just happened that it was dedicated to an idol.
39:56 Well, this is a prohibition also, because it involves, I think, the principle of shirk, or idol worship.
40:06 I would like also to mention something very interesting that you may not have in the States, but
40:14 I've traveled a lot.
40:16 There are some Chinese who embrace Islam, and they get the picture of their father,
40:27 and they put it on the wall
40:29 and they have beautiful
40:30 fruit: apples,
40:33 oranges, and they have
40:34 these apples, oranges, and they put
40:37 them
40:39 in front of the picture,
40:40 and then
40:42 they bow down
40:43 to the picture of the parents and so on.
40:47 They don't have to talk about it,
40:48 it's for them to know.
40:51 But yeah,
40:52 what you call
40:55 ancestor worship.
40:57 But it's a transition.
40:59 Sometimes
41:01 one cannot be very hard on this
41:03 new convert to Islam
41:04 because they are in
41:06 a transitory
41:09 period from a form of,
41:11 quote, unquote, paganism
41:13 to Islam.
41:18 But I personally think it's a waste of good food, putting it in front of the picture of a dead father or grandfather.
41:28 And in some ways, it is possible that this falls under this rule, that this has been offered in the name of someone else besides Allah.
41:41 And the thinking of some of the ulama in our country is that the fact that these fruits
41:47 are offered to a dead ancestor and not been offered to Allah, is in itself a form
41:54 of ancestor worship, a kind of pagan worship. The ulama says, "Just convince all of them not
42:02 to put those fruits there, so that all of us can eat them."
42:06 And they were successful in convincing some of these Chinese and so on.
42:13 But I think the question here is the matter of symbolism.
42:16 This is the uncompromising monotheism of Submission.
42:22 However, I think, personally, this is just an opinion.
42:26 If one is in danger of starvation,
42:31 then maybe, without having the intention of transgressing, as Imam al-Ghazali says,
42:43 between two evils, starving and eating a little pork to live in order to pray.
42:49 The situation is, there are two evils, we have to choose the lesser evil.
42:58 In other cases, it is not deliberate.
43:01 We know it's a matter of fact that when we Muslims travel, and people know this happens in Asia,
43:10 even among Christians, they know that we are Muslims and we tell them we cannot eat pork.
43:17 Yes, they say yes. It is a matter of fact that they sometimes make fun. They throw a piece of pork.
43:25 That's done in the army. I know this has been brought to my attention.
43:29 Among soldiers, they put a piece of pork and give it to the Muslims and say this is very good, it has no pork.
43:36 But the Muslims say, oh, this is very nice food. Then they all laugh behind their back.
43:41 Now, there is no sin for these Muslims. But it is very, very malicious.
43:46 And I say, the harm is not upon the Muslim who is innocent. It's on those who are malicious.
43:56 And there is no, nothing, there is no sin in it.
44:00 In Quran, the rule is very clear. Without being malicious or deliberate, there is no sin.
44:14 Well, I can't mention the other verses on this matter. You can help us here.
44:21 that it appears that for some time the Jews were prohibited from certain kinds of food
44:28 as a kind of discipline or punishment from Allah. If you remember, this is because of their transgression.
44:37 But it's very interesting because the Quran says that when Christ came,
44:41 He said that one need not follow that anymore.
44:46 anymore. I cannot, I don't have my notes with me, but it is very interesting.
44:59 Sister Laila was showing me a recipe of chicken liver. Now, this is very interesting.
45:08 I hope I'm not, it seems like gossiping, but it shows certain insights.
45:14 Sister Maryam gave me a recipe, wherein you can mix chicken liver with chicken fat.
45:21 But in the Jewish recipe, they use butter, although that comes from an animal.
45:29 In other words, the Jews never fry meat with oil or fat from the same animal.
45:38 The Jews will not boil meat with milk, this is haram to them.
45:44 The Jews will not fry meat with cattle fat or with chicken fat; they will use olive oil
45:54 or vegetable oil.
45:56 The Jews also will not eat food that is combined, like chicken meat and lamb; they don't combine.
46:04 Or beef and lamb. No, it must be only one of a kind. In other words, it has become
46:11 very, very neurotic. And we know that there is a law in society, unlike the saying that
46:20 a rolling stone gathers no moss. But in society it's different. As a social
46:28 institution grows older, it begins to acquire more moss. These are the barnacles, like a ship.
46:35 When a ship travels longer, it acquires more barnacles. And social institutions gather
46:41 more and more barnacles. And so, these religious prohibitions become more and more and more
46:47 involved. And this is what has happened to Submission. Without permission from Allah Himself,
46:56 Verse 169 says he directs you towards vice—that is the devil. And the devil also makes us invent lies and attribute them to God.
47:09 So our ulama, either they are not thinking well, and sometimes they are not really malicious, but they are not well trained,
47:17 they begin to give us so many prohibitions that these religious duties
47:24 become more and more difficult for some people until the time will come they get
47:29 so fed up they go away.
47:30 I think the Christians are very sober about this. The Christians don't have so many of these prohibitions.
47:39 Maybe we can thank Jesus Christ for it. I don't have
47:46 much more to say because it is so clear. But let me just conclude. If we don't like a kind of food,
47:59 well and good, but if we say this is prohibited in Submission without authorization from the Quran,
48:06 we are defying Allah Himself. It is a terrible responsibility. That's why we are saying this.
48:21 Just to add a few points to this, Satan pushes us to, when Satan tries to stop you from believing in God,
48:31 then it pushes you further into more restrictions, and more prohibitions, and more hardship,
48:37 until you become sick and tired of religion and can't take it anymore.
48:44 You would have heard in American Muslim jargon about prohibitions that they argue are good.
48:49 It is trickery.
48:52 And they are all made from hadith, you know, and sources other than the Quran.
48:56 Well, you can't brush your hair with certain brushes, because they're made of pig hair.
49:04 You can't brush your teeth. You can't wear Hush Puppies.
49:10 Because they're made—you cannot wear Hush Puppies. They're made of pig, pigskin.
49:29 Now God tells us
49:31 that when you
49:32 start prohibiting things like this,
49:35 then He will deprive you.
49:38 Now, the greatest example,
49:40 the community with the most prohibitions is India.
49:45 And if you ask the average person what is the poorest place on earth, they'll tell you it is
49:51 India.
49:51 And it is because of all the prohibitions.
49:54 Now, God gave us the cattle and the sheep and these things; their purpose of life is
50:00 to be slaughtered and eaten, and you can feel the purpose of their creation when you eat
50:04 them, actually.
50:06 And in the appendix about prohibitions, you know, I started out with the example that
50:12 if you invite some dear friends to your place, and you go through the efforts of
50:18 cooking a great meal, and then they come in and they turn their noses up, how would you feel about it?
50:26 So I would ask you to turn to page 185, you can see the consequences of
50:37 prohibiting what God permits. Verse 112 is about those who prohibit lawful food.
50:45 God cites the example of a community that enjoyed peace and security with abundant provisions from
50:52 everywhere. But then, it turned unappreciative of God's blessings, and consequently, God afflicted them
50:58 with hunger and fear. And this is exactly what happened in India. This is what happened in...
51:06 Look at it. Why are they starving?
51:10 Because of their prohibition.
51:12 This is what God is telling us. If you prohibit things, He says, okay,
51:17 you don't want my provision? Alright, I'm not going to give you provisions.
51:22 It's God's law.
51:26 This country is probably the richest country on earth because they eat everything.
51:33 They change the name of pig, calling it 'hot dogs,' and they eat them, you know.
51:36 And no one knows either.
51:40 They mix it all together.
51:44 God knows what else is in them too.
51:48 Yeah, chemicals, nitrites.
51:53 But it is a gross thing to prohibit things that are allowed to you.
52:01 And poverty is one result of prohibiting things to yourselves.
52:11 And this leads us to ridiculous extremes.
52:13 Like our friends who came here and they wanted milk, but they wanted it with vitamin D2,
52:19 but not D3 or vice versa.
52:22 Yeah, they go read the ingredients on the milk carton.
52:25 If it says D3, that's haram. D2, it's okay.
52:29 That is just too much.
52:33 It's a real life, real life story.
52:39 Yeah, but it is not meat.
52:48 Yeah, I see what you mean.
52:51 Well, whatever, yeah, probably.
53:07 There are a few other things that I wanted to touch on here.
53:22 Let's see, anyway the Quran lists exactly four things that are prohibited, anything beyond that is okay.
53:32 The four things are animals that die of themselves, and in
53:40 Surah 5 we are given details that even if the animal falls from high, or gored to
53:45 death, there's something wrong with that animal, possibly. So animals that die of
53:50 themselves without interference from humans, are prohibited. Pork meat.
53:59 Running blood.
54:05 And the fourth thing is an animal dedicated to other than God, because we have to
54:11 mention the name of God if you do the slaughter it yourself, because you are
54:15 taking permission from the Creator of this animal, to end the life of this
54:20 animal. Now, if you dedicate it to St. Jude or St. Francis, you're saying that St.
54:27 Francis is the creator of this chicken, or this sheep. What about all the store-bought meat that hasn't been dedicated to anyone?
54:35 What are the words of the Quran? The words of the Quran are very clear and
54:39 meat dedicated to other than God. So the question is, is the meat from Safeway, or Lucky's, dedicated
54:48 to other than God? Yes or no?
54:57 Right. In other words, it is not dedicated to other than God.
55:00 It was not dedicated to anything.
55:05 What is it?
55:07 A name involved.
55:08 It cannot be a human being.
55:09 Pardon?
55:10 It's a name involved.
55:12 It cannot be a human being.
55:14 You mean there is no name?
55:16 No, no, no, no, no.
55:18 It is the two.
55:19 Cough, kill, art, and death.
55:22 Peace.
55:23 It is a peace and it is a charity.
55:24 It is a name involved.
55:26 It cannot be a human being.
55:27 It is a human being?
55:28 No, no.
55:29 Dedication means, I killed this animal.
55:30 It is a name.
55:31 Yeah, exactly.
55:32 Or, of a friend.
55:33 to mention any name other than God
55:35 then it is
55:37 dedicated to other than God
55:40 therefore it is haram
55:41 these are the four prohibitions
55:47 that's haram
55:48 I don't think they say anything when they do.
55:51 No they don't.
55:52 Yes.
55:55 The Christians don't even know that
55:57 because when you buy it,
55:58 you don't even know.
56:05 if they didn't say
56:14 I think the problem was
56:16 the more serious at the time of the Quran
56:18 was the idolatry because there were a lot
56:20 of people who did dedicate
56:21 they do it now
56:23 they do it now back home
56:25 but in this country,
56:27 in this country where food is commercial.
56:30 It's a commercial process. It's not a sacred ritual to them.
56:34 But that is perfectly alright.
56:36 Yeah.
56:36 Yeah, some kind of religious ritual of pronouncing some sacred words or something like that over the slaughter.
56:45 But can you eat it?
56:49 Yes.
56:52 Well, that's why...
56:58 You're supposed to, when you start eating, you're supposed to say Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
57:06 When you start anything, you're supposed to start it in the name of God. When you start eating, make it a habit.
57:13 When you start your car, you start your meal, say Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
57:20 How can you get a ticket if you say Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim when you start the car?
57:26 I would like to tell you two things. There are countries that collect the blood and cook it.
57:49 So, this poured blood, according to Islam, you are not supposed to eat it.
57:57 Yes, that's right. You cannot eat it.
58:04 That's it. Running blood. You take it and cook it. You can take the pig and cook it.
58:13 It becomes like cooked pig.
58:14 No, but you know, the thing when...
58:21 Yeah.
58:23 ...
58:26 That poured blood, don't eat it.
58:31 ...
58:35 No, he said they collect the blood.
58:38 You collect the blood in a pot or a cup or something, that's running blood.
58:42 But if you just carve the meat, there's nothing you can do about it. It's okay.
58:48 But there are some countries that eat that.
58:51 What do you mean?
58:53 They also don't pray.
58:55 They pray.
58:57 And they follow Hadith.
58:59 I don't know whether they follow the Hadith or not.
59:02 A lot of them are atheists, you know.
59:06 What country do the righteous people live in?
59:19 It doesn't make it right.
59:21 It doesn't make it right.
59:44 If that blood existed
59:46 if that blood existed at any stage
59:49 in a pot or a cup
59:50 you can pour it,
59:51 then you cannot do anything with it, you cannot consume it.
1:00:00 What is clotted blood?
1:00:02 I don't know, it's not a clean thing.
1:00:05 If you get blood, it will invalidate.
1:00:08 But is that in the Quran?
1:00:11 Ok, let's not split hairs on that.
1:00:15 Righteousness is defined.
1:00:17 Okay, in the Quran...
1:00:19 Righteousness defined.
1:00:21 177.
1:00:45 Thank you for listening.