peace be unto you thank you for tuning
in to another episode of the dean show
he's back again Dr Bilal Phillips to
help
clear that way there's some confusion
out there
there are many ways calling people
saying that they're the correct way so
how does one differentiate the true way
of life the true religion
the true way to be successful from all
these thousands hundreds of ways saying
that they're the way so when he comes
out we're going to try to answer this
very crucial question here on the dean
show you don't want to go nowhere we'll
be right back
Jesus was his messenger of Allah
I don't know why I did that maybe maybe
it's just to break the ice
back again on the Dean's show my
pleasure to be back all right thank you
very much my pleasure people can read
about you at thedenteshow.com you have
your own private section is that right
that's right has your picture there and
they click on the picture and your bio
is there and the show that we did
purpose of life that's a crucial
question
but another question is people are like
you know what religions are all the same
they're man-made I'll just do my own
thing how does one differentiate the
true way of life if one is already
acknowledged what's in his very nature
that is a creator
but now you have all these different
isms these different ways how do you
differentiate what is the true way the
true way to success happiness peace and
the pleasure of the creator of the
heavens and earth talk to us please well
if we're to find the true way
we have to believe of course that this
true way must have come from God
so if it's coming from God
it must have what we call a scriptural
basis there should be a scripture there
and then that scripture should be one in
which there is no doubt
no doubt no doubt about the authenticity
of its text its origin the
protection of that text from any change
or modification
so that we know what is in our hands was
what was revealed
then we know we have a religion whose
basis whose Foundation is solid
otherwise if the document that is
claimed to be the origin is something
which they've got so many different
manuscripts of and no two manuscripts
agree with each other like the gospels
for example yeah over 5 000 manuscripts
no two manuscripts agree in all details
with each other and at present we have
something like 5500 manuscripts in Greek
of the new testament which is a lot for
an ancient book it's far more than any
other ancient book The problem is most
of these copies are hundreds and
hundreds of years after the originals
and all of them have differences in them
so that the scribes who are copying
these manuscripts changed the text that
they were copying uh sometimes by
accident I mean sometimes they just made
mistakes they were sleepy or incompetent
or whatever but sometimes it looks like
scribes actually thought the text should
say something other than it did and then
they so they would change the text so
then which one's right how do you figure
it out yeah you know are the Gita or the
you know scriptures of the Hindus and
others you know when they were written
they have no idea bits and pieces here
and there you know it's of Uncertain
origin who wrote they don't know
clouded clouded in in confusion and
uncertainty yeah so when you have text
like that I mean even the the Old
Testament which may be a little more
accurate and more solid than the New
Testament writings but even that the
scholars scriptural criticism are shown
contradictions that exist in it uh some
places it looks like it's a manipulation
of the text where where the author wants
to change where the Scribe wants to
change what the author said I mean in
many cases it may be that the Scribe
thought this is what the author really
meant and so he changed it but uh but
sometimes the the text gets changed to
say just the opposite of what it
originally said and so uh that's uh that
can be a little bit troubling yeah
different documents which have been used
stories which are being repeated and you
know in different ways and all kinds of
doubts there yeah you have doubts so we
can distinguish we just have to put the
basic scriptures on the table and say
like which one we can be 100 sure about
and that's the Quran
the evidence is there it speaks for
itself so it can't happen that is
external yeah that's from an external
perspective yeah then internally what
does that text contain yeah no is that
text if it's from God it should contain
accurate information it shouldn't have
fallacies and you know
contradictions with modern science and
these kinds of things
when you pick up the other texts you
read in there maybe you might find some
interesting things here and there but
there's a lot of old wives tales which
don't agree with what we know about
science today yeah whereas when you go
in the Quran you go from chapter to
chapter and you look at scientific
things which are talked about in the
Quran they match modern scientific
theory so much so that when the verses
were shown to Dr Keith Moore who wrote
the book on embryology yeah right the
book used in all of the medical colleges
around the world they showed him these
verses from the Quran which described
the development of the fetus at the time
when it's not visible to the naked eye
he said
Muhammad could not have known these
facts about human development in the 7th
Century because most of them were not
discovered until the 20th century that
God transmitted through Muhammad bits of
his knowledge that we have only
discovered for ourselves in recent times
1 400 years ago when the world was
immersed in darkness the Quran was
revealed which brought light to a
beleaguered world
and whereas the earlier books came with
many scientific mistakes due to the hand
of man having delved into them the Quran
had none of these contradictions
the world thought there could be no
reconciliation between religion and
science
but the Quran mentioned many scientific
facts in great detail like how a human
being developed in the mother's womb and
described other scientific facts which
amazed the world's renowned scientists
and scientific community
this could not have come from Muhammad
so they said then where did it come from
it must have come from God
no doubt not possible to describe what
is there when the microscope wasn't
developed until
many centuries after him yeah this is
the evidence
these are concrete bits and pieces of
evidence that's internal you have
external you have internal
and then the overall message which is
being taught
I mean it's not a whole bunch of fairy
tales wild fantastic Tales but things
which seem to match the realities of
this life you read the Quran this is God
talking to you directly
so now so a person doesn't have to go
deep into let's say Buddhism
Christianity or any kind of Hindu
religion or all Sikhism now at the face
of it so they're looking for
contradictions mistakes things that
aren't rational what are they actually
looking for these are some of the things
that you mentioned that it has to be the
message has to be Lucid clear something
that is basically not flawed by man and
then if it is leave it alone go to the
next does Islam encourage that you look
at these different ways and you'll come
to realization if you're sincere and
you're asking the Creator to guide you
that you'll eventually end up back to
this way the way of all the prophets
Islam
if a person is sincere
God is going to guide them yeah that's
for sure if they're sincere but they
have to be ready
to act then on the knowledge that they
get from this problem is that a lot of
people may come and realize yes
the truth is there with Islam yeah but
to take that on what is involved in in
becoming a Muslim creates such problems
and families you know how parents are
going to react how the wife and the kids
and you know or the husband and the kids
and how they're going to react how am I
going to deal with all of them some
people say hey too much that's the
relationship I like what you have yeah
it makes sense it's very good but I'm
just not ready to deal with the
consequences consequences and that's sad
because one cannot afford once you seek
the truth you know as it's mentioned in
the Bible the truth is going to set you
free that's true set you free from
ignorance
bring you to the realization of the true
God
so once you're there for you to turn
aside and say well because of people I
can't deal with this
that's a big mistake that is the most
serious possible mistake that you can
make in your life to have known the
truth
in its Clarity with certainty and turned
away
what can we say after that yeah so does
it seem like these other religions ways
are just things because the inside of a
person is searching yearning for
something so this is convenient now the
other religions you can just modify them
to your way it can just you can put it
in and it doesn't have to inconvenience
you or something but it's not easy yeah
yeah you know it doesn't require that
much commitment you know you can do it
once a week or you know when you feel
like you know it's it's it's it's uh and
they say fast food like fast food you
know so it's not it's not the real
change Worth to become a Muslim requires
major change
it requires taking on a commitment 24 7.
24 7. yeah there's no part-time Muslim I
mean of course there are people who
might
do Islam part-time but that's not really
Islam really Islam requires 24 7
commitment there's no time when you take
a vacation from Islam
wow yeah so that Islam that we're
talking about we're talking about that
complete conscious decision that I'm
going to surrender I'm going to submit
I'm going to be obedient to the one who
created me and this is summed up with
one word in Arabic Islam exactly yeah so
mission to the will of God some people
get hung up now on the Arabic now they
feel that possibly look this this is an
Arab thing this is an Arabic thing how
do we have them look past this well
reality is that the followers of the
prophet
may God's peace and blessing be upon him
came from
all parts of the world we had them
coming from Persia coming from abyssinia
coming from all over you know right from
his generation realities is that the
vast majority of Muslims in the world
are not Arabs Arabs only make up a
fraction 15 of the whole of the Muslim
Nation you know 1.5
billion people Arabs are only a fraction
the total number of of Muslims in India
alone is more than the total number of
Arabs
it's not an Arabic religion it becomes
but okay Arabic is there but this Arabic
is a unifier
so that the nature of our prayer is such
that no matter where you go you can join
in your brothers and sisters with them
in prayer yeah you know I go to China if
you heard the Advan in Chinese well then
you wouldn't even know what's going on
the call to prayer yeah but when you
hear it in Arabic you know exactly
wherever you are any Muslim here is that
they know there's a mosque here you go
in there the guy's gonna lead the prayer
he does it in Chinese again you're lost
what is he doing what's he saying if he
speaks in Arabic everybody can fall in
and it's the unifying factor and again
it is also the language of Revelation
the language in which God revealed his
final message so you learn Arabic not to
be an Arab but to be able to hear the
word of God as it was revealed I mean
Jesus spoke Aramaic
the gospel that he received was in
Aramaic but there are tribes in in Syria
today that speak Aramaic he didn't speak
English if you didn't speak English they
didn't speak Latin you know from which
Greek from which these things were
translated he spoke Aramaic so where is
his gospel
lost
not known
was it now meant for a particular time a
particular people and now we don't have
it because some people would argue that
well did God make a mistake now because
this is supposed to be for for all of us
until today so now how did this how do
we lose it now did God make a mistake or
was it meant to be saved well there's no
there's no mistake here because of the
fact that Jesus's message was for as you
said a particular people in a particular
place for a particular period of time a
prophet was going to come after him who
would bring the final message which
would be for all people in all places at
all times
so all of the earlier Prophets The
Scriptures were not guarded and
preserved by God as he guarded and
preserved the Quran
not because they were not scriptures
they're all scripture in that sense
they're all equal they're all the word
of God conveyed to human beings but
the changes that took place by human
hands to the earlier scriptures God
permitted because those messages were
not Eternal messages there were messages
for particular people particular places
particular times yes so the final
message if it were to be the final
message it had to be preserved and
that's again evidence of its
truthfulness and finality
do we still have the word of the Creator
in what we have of the Bible today
we have bits and pieces bits and pieces
yeah bits and pieces here and there and
these are affirmed in the Quran there
are many places which affirm texts from
the Bible but the totality of what's
there is confusion for a long time I
thought that the Bible was inspired and
inerrant that there were no mistakes in
the Bible but as I engaged in historical
research on the Bible as I was getting
my PhD in New Testament studies at
Princeton Theological Seminary I started
finding mistakes in the Bible and this
this cut away at my assumptions that the
Bible was inerrant and then I started
questioning other parts of my faith this
Jesus really Divine is a really a
trinity
it's confusion when a person who reads
it sincerely
from beginning to end
he will be forced to accept
the Oneness of God because that message
is there in spite of all the distortions
and all the other things that are there
the Oneness of God is there all of the
earlier prophets talking Oneness of God
and Jesus affirming when they asked him
what is the
the command God's command he said hero
Israel the Lord your God is one God one
God he's affirming the same thing that
came before so anybody who reads that
says okay well where did the Trinity
thing come from yeah it definitely is
not in the text you know this is
something people added
you know what is the text now which is
clear
Oneness of God is Crystal Clear it's the
Quran
now if we take what is meant for a
people at that time and people saying
the Son of God because many people
believe that Jesus was God Son of God's
a bunch of confusion here they have to
do a bunch of mental gymnastics to make
it fit but now if you take this what's
meant is it that he was a righteous
upright person close to God but if you
take this out and you take it now to
let's say the Greeks who are worshiping
demigods semi-gods this guy that guy can
can that be where a lot of the confusion
came where now they take what is meant
for that time and is understood and now
you bring it over to another totally
Pagan society and they're already
worshiping man gods and now we have what
we have today modern day man worship
Jesus is a son son of God
oh definitely I mean this is a one of
the explanations of the process of what
took place yeah I mean of course the
message of Jesus was crystal clear clear
it had to be crystal clear because if
it's coming from God the clarity is
going to be there and it remained clear
but what happened is that when it was
taken out of
the
the we could say the East and it came
now into the west then these changes
took place whether it was a question of
interpreting or misinterpreting earlier
attacks or really
introducing ideas which were never in
the original text which I I feel is
probably more of that than actually
misinterpretation because interpretation
sort of implies that the message wasn't
that clear whereas I don't believe
that's the case in fact the message of
Jesus was very clear in fact after Jesus
left
as they thought he was killed or
whatever you know but when Jesus went
away
the one who came behind him
who became the head of the Jerusalem
Church is none other than James who's
called in the gospels the brother of
Jesus and James is the head of the
Jerusalem Church
taught that Jesus was a prophet of God
God was one
he was a Unitarian he wasn't the
trinitarian
so it wasn't until that's for those that
period of almost like 70 years after the
time of Jesus
that was the main Church the Jerusalem
Church was a Unitarian Church preaching
the message of the one God and that
Jesus was a human being and a prophet of
God who was sent to convey this message
but with the dispersion of the the Jews
the breakup of the Temple of Solomon
Jews being dispersed from
Jerusalem and of course the the Muslims
or we could say the judeo-christians of
that time who are those who truly
followed Jesus externally they wouldn't
look any different from the regular Jews
so when they dispersed everybody had to
disperse so the Jerusalem Church which
was the main
core center from which the teachings the
true teachings of Jesus being taught
that was destroyed and people had to
flee so when that was lost then the
center in Antioch which was headed by
Paul right Paul now took over the
movement and he started he had already
been doing it earlier now he was given a
full clear hand James is assassinated he
has the full clear hand to change the
message and preach the new religion
which he called Christianity which
obviously Jesus his followers they never
taught never taught were opposed to
ok
Paul to task called him to Jerusalem and
question him why are you doing this why
are you doing that
that's what's even recorded in the
gospels today and the writings the
letters of Paul let's talk about the
uniqueness of this name Islam compared
to what the other religions are named
after well the other religions tend to
be named after people you know the Jews
or they may be named after a particular
person
Buddhists Buddhism from Buddha yeah or
they're named after a place Hinduism
from the Indus Valley you know they're
connected to people's persons places
whereas Islam
means submission to the will of God it's
the name of the religion is the central
pillar the basic concept the essence of
the religion that's what it refers to
Muslim is not the name of a person it's
the name of one who does Islam right it
is the what they call the present
participle you know one who does that
act of Islam or submission is called a
Muslim
so the name of the religion is found in
the text in the Holy text right you
cannot find Hinduism in the Hindu texts
you cannot find Buddhism in the Buddhist
texts you know cannot find Christianity
in the Christian text it's not there
that they
Jesus called his followers Christians no
this was Paul he's the one who invented
that name
so is it safe to say that Jesus peace
before if he was alive today did he ever
hear this word Christian if Moses was
alive today did he ever hear this term
to be would he be labeled a Jew or will
he be labeled a Christian or would he be
labeled the Muslim all of the prophets
would have been labeled Muslims because
this essential message was the same
message submission to the will of God
beginning with Adam what was the command
that he was given the command he was
given was to submit to the will of God
don't eat from that tree that's what
that's the essence of all that you know
that was the essence of the religion you
can eat from all of the other trees
quite similar to the one but this one
here don't eat from it
submission will you submit
or not and that's Islam that is Islam so
that's why we say Islam is the original
religion one cannot claim Christianity
was a religion of Adam no way
can one cannot claim Judaism or Buddhism
or any other isms but we can claim
maybe you don't accept it that's another
issue but we can claim that Islam was
the religion of Adam and Eve that was
the religion which God revealed to them
they were commanded to submit to the
will of God and that is what Islam means
so when when the first man Adam he
disobeyed and he ate from this tree was
this tree was it beautified for him that
he was lured into this and then that
when he did this was he forgiven
afterwards well the reality as it is
recorded in the Quran is that after Adam
and Eve ate
and they sought forgiveness from God
because of course for God to have put
them in a situation like that yeah
knowing full well that they were going
to eat
God knew ahead of time they were going
to eat
so for him not to have given them a root
and a way to remove the sin from
themselves would have been unfair unjust
unjust so he gave them that knowledge
how to repent if you sin so when they
realize that they had sinned they
repented and so the sin was removed from
them that's why the process of
repentance is in the hands of each and
every individual it's not a special
priest cast class that they're the ones
who do forgiveness you have to go and
sit in a booth and make confess your
sins and then they the priest comes out
and says your sins are forgiven that's
not the way you know it doesn't work
that way how are your sins are forgiven
when some of these priests are
committing more sins than the people
were confessing their sins yeah you know
as human beings so forgiveness belongs
only to God
that's the essence of religion and that
God will accept that forgiveness from
whomsoever
turns to him sincerely
with a repentant heart God will forgive
them
no matter how great the sin is he's the
most merciful the most loving all we got
to do is turn to him alone exactly
simple it's logical right and that's the
way the religion of God should be it
should be a simple rational logical
religion it shouldn't have you know as
you said mental gymnastics as a pillar
for you to be a follower you've got to
be a mental gymnast you know how to make
three one and one three no we just deal
with one one that's it a few more points
before we come to an end so much to talk
about so little time tell us now is the
same concept that happened with Adam I'm
interested to know is that
what was beautified or however he went
off and slipped today many of the things
that were supposed to stay away from the
fornication the adultery the alcohol and
the drugs it seems like that is just
beautified today well exactly the trick
of the the that's one of the
methodologies of Satan and the Quran
addresses that specifically is saying
that you know Satan and actually even
Satan makes that open statement recorded
in the Quran that I will beautify for
them ah you know so that's what I'm yeah
I will beautify for them corruption so
that they would accept it and that's
exactly what he did with the tree he
came to Adam and he told them that this
tree is the Tree of Life
of eternal life it's made beautiful I
mean before that Adam wasn't thinking
about eternal life in a short life Etc
eternal life yeah I need some of that
you know yeah who doesn't want to be
Eternal I need a piece of that yeah so
what he made it seem is that of all the
trees in in the uh in the whole of the
garden this is the one tree he had to
eat from yeah a big and that's it's not
exactly what's happening now we're doing
the media makes the corruption seem like
these things our life is incomplete if
we have not experienced and tasted this
thing our life is what you know life is
just not fulfilled unless we get to this
thing and these things that we're
chasing after which have been beautified
for us are corruption things which are
harmful to us as individuals harm to our
societies without us shadow of a doubt
has the truth always from the beginning
been opposed because you'll see a stigma
attached to this Truth where we claim is
from the creator of the heavens and the
Earth as it always been the way during
Moses's time Jesus's time all the
prophets has there been opposing forth
for us to try to lure people away from
the correct way absolutely
it began with Adam
and Satan
and will not end until the end of this
world and all that is living in it dies
and is resurrected the satanic forces
will always be there throughout this
life as long as this world is
functioning it will be there it has been
from the very beginning to remained
there till the end and this is a part of
the challenge and the test
will we submit our wealth to God
or will we submit our Wills
to Satan
and his forces
plays on our desires plays on our
our needs you know turns them into
things which are alluring to us but in
fact harmful to us
so this process is a never-ending
process we just have to be conscious of
it we have to open up and wake up to
know what's really happening we have
only two minutes for those there might
have been a Muslim one who is
consciously submitted to the crater now
he has a non-muslim sitting next to him
and you know what now what you're saying
is logical rational it makes sense and
now all that person has to do it's
already naturally in them
help give that encouragement for the
person that's read about Islam he knows
is the truth but you know what the Devil
comes up and says you know what you're
going to forsake the religion of your
forefathers and all the other doubts
that start creeping them how could we
encourage them to do the right thing and
what are the benefits of doing the right
thing submitting to God well the
benefits
are the eternal life
that we are all seeking
eternal life
in a beautiful and a good and a pure
sense one in a state where we are at
peace with God God pleased with us and
us with him I mean what better State can
we be in that is Paradise
so that reward and that
goal that we should all have can only be
achieved through submitting ourselves to
the will of God
known as Islam nice that is
the bottom line and without it
no matter what we accumulate of this
world it will be ultimately of no
benefit
it won't last
and we can't take it with us none of it
it all stays behind yeah others benefits
Michael Jackson died Bruce Lee died will
die too
exactly the Pharaohs died yeah we're
still looking at their bodies and their
wealth
didn't benefit them at all
you have an Islamic webs you have a
website where people can go and seek
knowledge and learn can you please tell
the people about this wonderful site
before we come to an end well we have a
site known as
islamiconlineuniversity.com
spell it all out Islamic
onlineuniversity.com there there are
free courses and most of them are by me
but there are others other Scholars
whose work is up there and we're adding
more and more material you can go there
and freely access basic information
about Islam in a course and organized
and and and and we could say
educationally sound structured
uh system you know because oftentimes
people try to learn you're learning
reading this book that book the other
book here there and all over the place
and when in the end after one year two
years three years you look at what
knowledge you have and it just doesn't
seem to come together you know because
it's it's scattered whereas what we need
is a structured program of learning and
that's what the Islamic online
university the IOU you know provides and
inshallah we're working on upgrading
that to ba level courses at either
minimum expense or completely free
I'd like to thank you may God Almighty
Allah the creator of the heavens and
earth reward you for being with us it's
always a pleasure alhamdulillah it's my
pleasure to be with you and hope to see
you many more times in the future yes
thank you thank you and thank you very
much for tuning in to the dean show
we're here every week to help you
understand the way of life of all the
messengers that's that way that way of
submitting yourself not to a man not to
a woman but the one who created man and
woman the creator of the heavens and
earth the one Jesus prayed to the one
Moses prayed to they want all the
messengers of God submitted themselves
to and the last and final messenger sent
to mankind the prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him if you want to accept this way
if you want to do it now if you want to
learn more call the number on the screen
1-800-662 Islam
come back here every week to the dean
show we'll see you next time God willing
assalamualaikum peace be unto you the
DVDs for dawah as Allah has said in the
Quran in Surah 16 125
invite all to the way of your Lord with
wisdom beautiful preaching and reason
with them in ways that are best and this
is a great opportunity for you to take
up the obligation take up the call as
Allah has told you to do and share this
beautiful message with the world Islam
submission to the one God come and see
what everyone's talking about if you
find one contradiction it can't be from
God
but the rational idea the rational
explanation is you do your best give up
worshiping God is one I will never give
up spreading this message I hope that
you take that necessary step you don't
know if you're gonna live till tomorrow
so you got to find that urgency to do
the right thing right now
if you say that you do not believe in
Jesus you have stepped outside of this
land you cannot be a Muslim is attended
our faith
thank you
it's cold it's late
everybody's sleeping
I arise and ask Allah to think in me oh
Lord you see oh you know all the sins I
do
I Turn to You to forgive my sins and my
heart
I'm the one who runs away
oh Allah guide me