Quran Study - 29 Oct 1982 - By Dr. Rashad Khalifa
Transcript
0:01 As you noticed in the khutbah today, I was trying to rush through these slides, but we're not giving them justice, so we'll just go slow and look at them carefully, and also ask questions, because in the khutbah there isn't much chance for asking questions, and ask for clarification, so we'll just go from this slide very carefully.
0:30 Because when you're speaking, when you're continuing to speak.
0:34 Okay, these are the ones that we saw so many times.
0:40 And when people go to the Christians and say,
0:44 Christ is not the son of God, he's the messenger of God,
0:47 they will accuse you of hating Jesus.
0:53 When you're actually telling the truth.
0:55 And the same is true with the Muslims.
0:56 When you go and say,
0:58 you follow only the Quran,
1:00 then they accuse you of
1:02 hating Muhammad,
1:04 which is not true.
1:05 When you say Jesus is a messenger of God,
1:08 you're actually a friend of Jesus,
1:10 and you've got to be with him in heaven.
1:12 And the person who accuses you
1:14 of hating Jesus, because he thinks
1:16 that Jesus is not God, or God, or
1:18 Trinity, or whatever, that person,
1:20 Jesus will disown that person
1:22 on the day of judgment, and that person
1:24 will never be with Jesus in heaven.
1:27 So don't let this, don't let them tell you that you don't like Muhammad and you're against Muhammad because you're against Hadith.
1:33 What happened was they fell in a trap where shaytan told them
1:39 Muhammad said this and that, when he didn't.
1:43 And the Quran says that hadith other than Allah were fabricated by enemies of the Prophet.
1:50 So, this is why I started the first page by saying there is no salvation without obeying the Messenger.
1:54 because the message of the Messenger is the Quran.
2:03 And you see this biblical instruction, when delivering God's messages,
2:07 messengers do not speak on their own.
2:09 Here is Moses in Deuteronomy saying,
2:11 A prophet like me will the Lord your God
2:14 raise up for you from among your own kinsmen,
2:17 to him you shall listen.
2:20 Now he is referring to Muhammad, very clearly, because it says,
2:22 from among your own kinsmen. Now, some people may say that it's a prophecy for Jesus,
2:30 but Jesus came from among them, not from among their kinsmen. So, coming from among their
2:36 kinsmen, Muhammad came from Ishmael, but Jesus came from them, from the line of David.
2:43 The next statement in Deuteronomy, God said, I will raise up for them a prophet like
2:49 you, from among their kinsmen, and will put my word into his mouth.
2:55 He shall tell them all that I command him.
2:58 Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will require it of him.
3:06 So this is a very clear commandment to obey the messenger, even before, way before he was born.
3:13 The Quran says, obeying the messenger is obeying God.
3:17 So obviously, since the messenger is not God, it is when he uttered the words of God.
3:23 And in the Gospel of John we see Jesus saying,
3:27 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?
3:32 Now this statement is similar to obeying the messenger is obeying God,
3:36 which we find in the Quran.
3:38 In other words, if you obey me, you are obeying God. This is what Jesus said.
3:41 When you obey me, you obey God. But it doesn't mean that he is God.
3:46 But the Father abiding in me,
3:50 He does His works. For God put His words
3:55 through the mouth of the messenger. And this is why it is absolutely required that you
4:01 obey them. In John 16:13,
4:05 "When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you
4:11 into all the truth.
4:14 For he will not speak on his own initiative but whatever he hears he will
4:20 speak and he will disclose to you what is to come." Then we have verses
4:26 saying that Muhammad does not speak on his own initiative.
4:34 Muhammad represented 100 percent by Quran alone. We sent down to you this book
4:44 in truth, confirming all previous scriptures, and superseding them. You shall judge among them
4:51 according to what is sent down from God, which is defined as this book. And do not follow their
4:58 opinions, if they deviate from the truth. You shall judge among them, we see the repetition now, you shall judge
5:05 among them according to what is sent down from God, which is this book. Do not follow their opinions,
5:11 and beware that they divert you from some of that which is sent down to you from God,
5:17 which is defined at the beginning as this book. Will they seek the laws of
5:22 ignorance? Who is better than God as a lawmaker for those who firmly believe?
5:31 Now today I was trying to just bring into focus awareness of God and how He
5:38 designed the moon and the universe. And how much did human beings contribute to this?
5:44 How much did Jesus contribute to the creation of the moon? Or determining the speed and
5:48 rotation of the earth? How much did Mary contribute to the creation of the stars?
5:53 It doesn't matter. And it's just very simplistic and naive and downright stupid to delve into human polemics.
6:10 The problem with most people is that they don't like to learn from God.
6:14 They're walking around, riding down the streets, and they think of God as something abstract.
6:20 You know, that God runs the world like the chairman of the board.
6:25 This person is hired, this person is fired.
6:28 Move this person, promote that person, then nothing happens without God's permission and control.
6:35 So, you can see, I used the moon as an example. Did you see the moon tonight?
6:40 See the two eyes, the mouth and the nose? See the face?
6:44 Am I the only one who sees this?
6:46 I see a very clear face.
6:53 So, I mean, you have to know that this is a deliberate design by God.
6:59 The reason we see the same side of the moon is that the rotation of the moon is very slow.
7:06 The moon takes 28 and a half days to go around itself.
7:11 28 and a half, which is the length of time it goes from new moon to new moon.
7:17 And it is going very slowly around itself.
7:20 It goes around like I showed you this afternoon.
7:26 And the idea is to bring into focus awareness that God runs the world and designs everything
7:32 on purpose.
7:33 Everything by exact measure.
7:35 The number of drops coming out in the rain is determined by God, the number of drops,
7:43 even less than that.
7:45 In surah 10, God says, not an atom in the heavens or the earth is out of my control,
7:57 I am forbidden from uttering any religious utterances other than Quran.
8:02 This is the verse where it says that the Quran is the utterance of an honorable messenger.
8:06 It is not the utterance of a poet or a soothsayer.
8:12 It is a revelation from the Lord of the universe.
8:14 And then it says, had he uttered any other religious utterances,
8:20 We would have punished him for this.
8:23 And none can protect Muhammad from God's punishment.
8:25 This is in that verse.
8:27 Therefore, the Prophet, after this divine instruction, decided to warn.
8:35 This verse warns Muhammad never to deviate from Quran, deviate from Quran, deviate from
8:40 Quran, deviate from Quran, deviate from Quran, deviate from Quran.
8:42 I will go a little faster in this, because we are coming to the end of the course.
8:47 This is the verse
8:48 that speaks specifically about Quran
8:50 where they ask Muhammad to change
8:52 the Quran and bring something else
8:53 and he is told right there to say,
8:58 "Tell them I cannot do that.
9:01 I have to
9:02 follow only the Quran."
9:04 The rest of the verse talks about
9:05 fabrication of lies
9:08 and talks about intercession,
9:09 by the way.
9:11 See the last part down there.
9:15 They worship besides God idols that possess no power to harm them or
9:21 benefit them, and they say, "These are our intercessors with God." Such is idol worship, and the
9:28 myth of Muhammad's intercession is quite prevalent in the Muslim world.
9:35 One God, one source. This is a verse in Surah 6, verse 19. See the number 6, 19. It says
9:43 that Muhammad preached the Quran and nothing else, and that if you go to other than Quran then you are setting up another god besides God.
9:50 So in your religious instructions, you cling only to Quran. You go to any other source, anybody,
9:59 then you are accepting their words, and you receive falsehood.
10:04 But if you stick to Quran you are a very happy person, and you are guaranteed success and security
10:09 and contentment, happiness and health in the right way.
10:14 If you stick to Quran alone, because God values that.
10:20 Another verse in Surah 17, verse 39, it says you don't set up any other god besides God,
10:27 or any other source besides Quran.
10:35 Quran is not a usual book. It's not like books of mathematics or physics or chemistry.
10:40 Not everybody can understand the Quran. If you have professors of Arabic linguistics,
10:45 they will not understand a word unless they're sincere believers.
10:49 At the same time, we're taught that God will put the Quran in the believer's heart, regardless of their language.
10:56 So don't let anybody tell you that you don't know Arabic or this or that.
11:00 Doesn't make any difference. When you are sincere, God puts the Quran in your heart.
11:06 And I say this from experience. I met so many people, sincere believers, who don't know one letter in Arabic.
11:12 But the whole Quran is in their heart. And they quote the Quran.
11:18 Let's keep that thought for a while. Unless you want somebody to speak.
11:25 Do you believe God or not?
11:27 On this page, I have three verses.
11:30 The first one says, "We did not leave anything out of this book."
11:34 The second one says, "Shall I seek other than God as a judge,
11:37 when He has sent down to you this book, fully detailed?"
11:41 And the last verse says, "The word of your Lord is complete."
11:47 You ask them if the Quran is complete or not.
11:49 They say, "Yes, the Quran is complete."
11:50 But? There's always a 'but', 'if', or 'and'.
11:56 And I always tell them, I want you to answer me without if, and, or but.
12:04 The consequence of not believing God is feelings.
12:09 Those who disbelieve Our revelations and are too arrogant to heed them,
12:12 the gates of the sky never open for them, nor will they ever enter paradise
12:17 until the camel goes through the eye of a needle. Thus do We requite the criminals.
12:23 This is a proverbial impossibility for those who refuse to believe God to enter Paradise.
12:28 The Quran is a great blessing, or a terrible curse for those who don't believe and follow it.
12:39 But the blessing is just unimaginable. It points to a precise and divine revelation.
12:47 When they tell you Hadith is a divine revelation, tell them they don't know what they are talking about.
12:54 Because the criterion is complete preservation.
13:00 The blasphemy is evident when they claim that Hadith and Sunnah are divine revelations.
13:04 You may not be aware that God Almighty is capable of preserving His revelations.
13:09 It's a blasphemy to say that Hadith and Sunnah are divine revelations.
13:15 That is accusing God of being unable to preserve it.
13:24 And we're familiar with the big verses in the middle,
13:27 but one at the bottom says,
13:28 They insist upon following conjecture
13:30 while the guidance has come to them
13:32 from their Lord.
13:36 Do you remember the definition of Quran?
13:38 It is in the Quran, Sura 2.
13:40 It is defined as Huda, guidance.
13:43 And this is exactly the word used here.
13:49 We have physical proof that the Quran is from God,
13:52 but they don't have a single shred of evidence that the Hadith was ever uttered by Muhammad.
14:02 Obeying the messenger is conditional, and this is the verse where
14:07 it says that they are not to disobey you in what is right.
14:16 This is the verse that says, if anything good happens to you, it is from God, and if anything
14:22 bad happens to you, O Muhammad, this is specifically to Muhammad, if anything bad happens to you,
14:27 it is from you.
14:32 Oh, good.
14:34 Yeah, because there is some...
14:36 Yeah.
14:36 So, tell me now how, how much does it mean?
14:48 So the personal opinion of Muhammad may be bad, and may cause bad things to happen.
14:52 On the other hand, Muhammad as a messenger offers the Word of God, that is the Quran,
14:58 and must be obeyed absolutely.
15:00 For whoever obeys the messenger is obeying God.
15:03 And we have to obey the commandments of God, not the commandments of Muhammad.
15:09 This is the verse where Muhammad's adopted son divorced his wife, and Muhammad was ordered
15:17 to marry the divorced wife of his adopted son in order to establish a precedent.
15:25 It is perfectly right for a man to marry the divorced wife of his adopted son.
15:31 But the Prophet Muhammad didn't want to do it because it was
15:35 contrary to the traditions of Arabia at the time.
15:38 He was afraid of the people instead of fearing God.
15:44 And this is the famous surah entitled, "He Frowned."
15:48 I don't think God would want us to neglect the poor person because he is poor
15:52 or give our attention to the rich person because he is rich.
15:55 That is not a behavior to be imitated.
15:59 And I don't think the Prophet would want us to do that either.
16:03 So this is Quranic proof that we are not to follow the sunnah.
16:07 Sunnah means imitation of the Prophet.
16:20 This surah simply rules out the business of hadith and sunnah as sources of religious laws.
16:25 I will read it straight to you.
16:31 I'm going to read to you about Muhammad.
16:37 This is the verse where Muhammad is described as a human being like you.
16:44 And like you is repeated in the other verse.
16:47 Like you, a human being like you.
16:49 You can be right and you can be wrong.
16:51 Muhammad can be right, and he can be wrong.
16:55 You are not really a complete, devoted believer unless you realize that you can be equal to
17:02 or better than Muhammad, or Jesus, or Moses, or anybody; all human beings are like you.
17:09 And you are capable of being like them or better than them.
17:12 A statement like this makes their hair stand up.
17:16 This is a choice; it's either/or.
17:20 They just don't think they can be equal to and better than Muhammad, Moses, or Jesus.
17:25 But any human being can be equal to them or better than them.
17:30 In Surah 4, there is a verse that says, if you simply follow what God says,
17:36 you're going to be with the prophets, so you will be equal to them.
17:43 This is the other verse that says Muhammad is a human being like you.
17:46 And both verses end by saying, do not associate any partners with God.
18:20 Tomorrow or the day after, I'll give you a copy of the book that was being distributed today.
18:26 Yeah, here you go.
18:27 It was just copies.
18:28 It doesn't mean that, no?
18:30 Yeah.
18:33 Okay, an abuse of the Quran. This verse says,
18:36 God and His angels make salat on the Prophet.
18:39 Now, I put the translation right there: "encourage the Prophet."
18:43 O you who believe, you too shall encourage him and support him completely.
18:51 This is about the most abused verse in the Quran because they have at least a hundred hadiths
19:00 that say, you say Allahumma salli ala Muhammad a thousand times a day for, I don't know, how long,
19:06 you're guaranteed, yeah, that you'll never go to hell, so you can do
19:11 You can do anything you want after that.
19:13 Quit your prayer.
19:16 You don't have to fast or nothing.
19:21 Yeah.
19:24 And they do it. People do it.
19:28 Now, at the bottom of the page is the verse that says
19:36 that God and His angels do exactly the same thing for every single believer.
19:39 But not just the Prophets. So they take that one out of context.
19:46 And it is used all over the Muslim world to praise the glory of Muhammad day and night.
19:53 Literally. Right after the morning prayer and after the night prayer. Every day.
19:58 They do a few hundred of those. And we keep getting books called Durood Sharif.
20:05 They'll give you all different forms of
20:06 Salat on the Prophet
20:08 and at the end of the book they say if you make a hundred
20:10 copies of this book and distribute it to a hundred
20:12 friends, they do it like a chain letter.
20:15 That's why you keep getting them.
20:16 in the mail
20:19 they go straight to the
20:20 verse.
20:20 This verse here is also abused.
20:25 In the Prophet, the messenger of God,
20:28 is a good example for you.
20:30 and we say of course he is an example
20:32 for us. His example is to follow the Quran. Nothing but Quran. That's his example. Now
20:41 the same words are applied to Ibrahim. Word for word.
20:45 Not word for word.
20:47 No, not word for word.
20:50 This teaching is a good thing, but most of the time it is a wrong thing.
20:53 Right. But I took that verse at the bottom of the page because as far as Ibrahim is concerned,
21:01 the very same words are used for Ibrahim, but they don't mention Ibrahim, they refer only to Muhammad.
21:15 Would God hate Muhammad? Of course not.
21:18 But when you repeat the same things that God says about Muhammad in the Quran,
21:23 they accuse you of hating Muhammad.
21:25 I remember a stand-off that I had with a friend of mine in Libya where I told him,
21:32 "Did the Prophet frown and turn away from the poor man and give his attention to the rich man or not?"
21:37 And he wouldn't answer me.
21:39 They just refused to acknowledge it.
21:43 And he stood there for a half hour waiting for an answer.
21:49 Did he frown or not?
21:58 So when you say the same things that God said about Muhammad, they say you hate him,
22:02 that you are a hater of the Prophet.
22:05 Muhammad cannot guide anyone.
22:07 This verse in Surah 28 says, "You, Muhammad, cannot guide even the one you love."
22:15 God is the one who guides whomever He wills.
22:17 And this makes sense because God knows the secret thoughts of everyone, and He knows who is sincere.
22:30 The true love of Muhammad, the true love of Jesus, is to recognize him as a human being and a messenger of God.
22:37 The Christians love Jesus so much, yet he will disown them on the Day of Judgment.
22:43 The true love of Muhammad is to recognize him as a human and to follow his teachings.
22:49 That is, the Quran, and nothing but the Quran.
22:52 Those who follow Hadith and Sunnah are named as Muhammad's enemies.
22:56 And Muhammad will disown them on the Day of Judgment.
22:59 So, the Muslims are no smarter than the Christians.
23:03 Why should they be? They are all human beings.
23:07 This verse refers to the Day of Judgment.
23:11 On the Day of Judgment, the messenger, Muhammad, will say,
23:14 "My Lord, my people have deserted this Quran."
23:17 Thus have We made for every prophet an enemy from among the criminals. And your Lord suffices as a Guide and a Supporter.
23:26 Note the word-for-word similarity between verse 31 above and verse 112 of Surah 6, where it says,
23:33 We permitted enemies for every prophet, inspiring one another with fancy words.
23:37 Do any of your partners do any of this?
23:40 God is the one who created you. God is the one who provides for you.
23:44 God is the one who terminates your life. God is the one who resurrects you.
23:48 God is the one who calls you to the Ka'bah. Muhammad does none of these things.
23:52 That is not true.
23:56 Say, "O Muhammad, I do not bring anything new that is different
24:00 from any other messenger. I have no idea what will happen to me or to you."
24:04 I simply follow what is revealed to me. I am no more than a manifest
24:08 warner. The next verse says, "Say, O Muhammad, I possess
24:12 no power to benefit or harm even myself, except in accordance with God's will.
24:18 Nor do I know the future. Had I known the future, I would have increased my wealth,
24:22 and no harm would have afflicted me. I am no more than a warner, as well as a bearer
24:27 of good news for those who believe." Yet, we will see in the Hadith,
24:33 The text says Muhammad does not know the future, yet hundreds of hadiths narrate future events
24:43 that have nothing to do with Quran, and represent personal predictions.
24:47 One of the most prominent Hadith is shown below; this is the hadith of the established
24:51 Sunnah.
24:52 Hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs after me.
25:01 That doesn't concern me.
25:05 Yeah, you see?
25:09 I oppose that.
25:13 As you can tell.
25:15 Now, the expression "the Rightly-Guided Caliphs" was not used until a hundred years after the Prophet had died.
25:21 It doesn't take much intelligence to realize that this hadith is false.
25:27 and could not have been said by the Prophet. First of all, how did they know he would have
25:31 successors? And how did they know that all four of them would be righteous believers?