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[Applause]
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peaceful peaceful peaceful peace
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I pray for all of
us to choose the path that's
right
Al every day of our
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life we have a book that Allah has
preserved from all corruption
we have the Sunnah the authenticated
Hadith of the Prophet s. wasam what
excuse therefore do we have when our
book is preserved how about the case of
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democracy ald
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Muhammed
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We Begin by praising Allah we praise him
we seek his help and we ask for his
forgiveness we seek Refuge with Allah
from the evil of
ourselves and from the evil consequence
of our evil
actions whomsoever Allah guides there is
none to
misguide and whomsoever Allah leaves to
go astray there is none to guide and I
testify that Allah alone is worthy of
worship and that Muhammad s. wasallam is
his
messenger after that the best speech is
the book of Allah and the best
guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad Sall
and the worst of all the Affairs are
those matters that have been newly
introduced into the religion of Islam
and every matter that is newly
introduced into the
religion is a b or an innovation and all
of these religious
Innovations they are by their very
nature a going aray from the straight
path that has been shown to us by
Muhammad sallallah alaihi was am and
whatever deviates and goes astray from
the straight path of Muhammad s.
wasallam is eventually going to lead to
the
Hellfire the topic Islam and
democracy is without doubt in this day
and age a topic that
is inevitably going to be controversial
but there is a clue already in what I
have just
said that it doesn't need to be a
controversial Topic at least certainly
for
Muslims because if we were to transpose
ourselves to another time another
era then the topic would not be one of
concern the concept of
democracy did not even
exist except in history where a small
state in Greece practiced a form of
governance which was known by the
philosophers of the time as
democracy and it is very interesting to
note that a number of Greek philosophers
themselves considered democracy to be a
unbefitting and weak and corrupt form of
governance in fact one of the great
Greek philosophers
said that one of the major problems with
democracy as it was practiced then by
the
Greeks was that the leader would always
have to pamper
to the desires and the whims of the
people in order to gain their
supports and thus a leader would not be
able to take the firm decisive and
conclusive decisions and a leader would
not be able to take the morally sound
decisions that a leader
should because by doing so he would have
to contradict the opinion of the masses
he would lose their
support and therefore would not be able
to continue his position as a leader
even
then those many many hundreds of years
ago the Greek philosophers had already
expounded and discussed some of the
weaknesses and the deficiencies of this
system and it is only relatively in
recent relatively recent history that
this idea of
democracy has been
reinvented and
reintroduced and has been spread mostly
by first of all
Britain or perhaps to be Fair perhaps
first of all
France and then Britain and
America this concept of democracy as the
ideal form of human governance the ideal
way through which and by which human
beings should govern their Affairs now
really to go into the historical and
philosophical
context and
causes of development of democracy is
beyond the scope of our lecture today
and even if we had time I myself
personally do not have the resources at
hand to be able to deliver such a
lecture and also I
question the benefits of going too
deeply into such
issues now I know that there are many
voices in the world
today that are leveling their
criticism towards Islam and Islamic what
they call Islamic
fundamentalism or the islamist
voice and
reflecting the
naab's very precious
statement and reminder and call for
Unity amongst
Muslims I would first of all like to add
to
that beware of allowing
ourselves and allowing the agenda
to be set by the non-muslims for
us I remember
after the events of September the
11th and the imminent
invasion of
Afghanistan I did a huge number of
lecture tours in the United
Kingdom and the theme of my lecture was
the Tali
and Afghanistan and Islamic
fundamentalism and there was a huge
response from the non-muslims I saw
numbers of non-muslims in my talks that
I had never seen
before but one of the messages that I
wanted to convey to the Muslims as I
found many Muslims would stand up in the
question and answer session and they
would speak very strongly against the
Muslim
fundamentalist these fundamentalists
this and these fundamentalists
that and I advise those people as I
advise you
now do not let the media and the
agenda of those people who do not
believe in our religion and who are not
part of this precious um of Muhammad S.I
wasallam do not let them divide us
further they want to divide us into
fundamentalists and
moderates and
modernists and the more different groups
they can divide Us in and the more they
can have us fighting amongst each other
and refuting each other the more happy
they will be therefore I don't even like
this term fundamentalist Muslim islamist
Muslim every Muslim must be a fun
fundamentalist in the literal sense of
the word because we
all because we all believe fundamentally
in Islam we all believe the Quran is the
word of Allah subhana waala we all
believe that the Quran has remained
unchanged and will remain unchanged
until Allah subhana wa ta'ala lifts up
the Quran from this Earth we all believe
that Allah has sent with the Quran a
messenger whose words were true words
whose example was the best example whose
life was a practical explanation of the
Quran and that this practical
explanation exists with us today and we
call it under the generic term the
Sunnah of the messenger S.I wasam we all
believe in the Quran and we all believe
in the Sunnah of the Prophet s. wasam
and whoever disbelieves in one verse of
the Quran or whoever comes to know of
one Hadith of the prophet and they know
that this is authentic and they
disbelieve in it they have disbelieved
in the whole
religion this is what every Muslim
believes this is the fundamental of our
deed
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the Salah is the most important pillar
of Islam after IM after Faith indeed
successful are the Believers those who
pray with humility and attentiveness you
have no excuse for missing your Salah if
you can't stand pray while sitting if
you can't sit pray while lying on your
sides you can even pray with isara with
just indication but offering Salah is
compulsory there's no excuse for you to
miss your Salah Salah the programming
towards
righteousness Dr Zakir Nik speaks on
Salah the programming towards
righteousness in Truth
Exposed the only religion acceptable in
the sight of almighty God is the
religion of Peace Islam is a religion of
Peace Islam and Quran talks that force
can be used as a last resort only to let
peace Prevail peace a vision of Islam is
not meant only for the Muslims or the
Arabs it is meant for the whole of
humanity Dr Zakir Nik speaks on peace
vision of Islam in Truth Exposed sequel
to the Interfaith dialogue this book was
printed in an emergency said something
in har can writing a book black and
white proof If a person doesn't
know what is they common in Islam and
Hinduism he should not attempt such
things misquotes and
misconceptions do not criticize the idol
worshipper for thousands of years people
have been doing Worship in our country
did I criticize idol worship it is the
Hindu scriptures who criticize and I'm
quoting the scripture
this sequel is mainly to remove the
other misconceptions that people may be
influenced sequel to the interface
dialogue between Dr Zakir Nik and Shri
Shri ravishankar on concept of God in
Hinduism and Islam in the light of
Sacred Scriptures in
crossfire and having introduced this
topic of the fundamentals of our Dean
the
Quran the Sunnah of the Prophet s. wasam
and by extension
also that the people who understood this
religion the best were the people who
lived with and listened to and were
taught by the prophet sallallah
wasallam his
companions the companions of the Prophet
were the living students
of.am when the Prophet prayed they saw
him
praying they saw the prophet sallallah
alai wasam when he was sitting on his
camel and the Revelation Came Upon the
prophet and it was heavy so the prophet
would begin to sweat and even the camel
on which the prophet sat began to Sag
and had to sit down from the weight of
the Revelation his companions saw that
they lived with the messenger sallallah
alai wasallam
therefore it is only logical and
rational and this is confirmed by the
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Quran it is confirmed by the verses of
the
Quran that their understanding is the
best understanding Allah subhah wa
ta'ala he mentioned in his book the
meaning of which is whoever contends
with the messenger and chooses a path
other than the path of the Believers
then Allah will leave them in the path
they have chosen and land them in hell
what an evil
refuge and the prophet
s.
said when he gave a he gave a sermon and
the companions began their hearts were
moved and they began to
cry and they began to feel as if this
the prophet s. wasam was saying goodbye
to them as if it was a farewell sermon
so one of them stood up and said oh
messenger of Allah it seems to us as if
this is a farewell seron so advise us
they were waiting hoping for some
precious piece of advice from the
prophet sallallah wasam that if he was
to leave them at that moment there would
be something they could hang on to and
so these were the words of the prophet
sallallah alaihi
wasallam he said I advise you to fear
Allah I advise you to fear
Allah and to hear and obey your Amir
even if he is an abuan
slave he said after me you will see
great differing you will see great great
differing the prophet is telling his
companions that after I have gone you
will see people differing to a great
extent so he said cling to my
Sunnah and the Sunnah of
the the rightly guided
successors and bite it with your Moler
teeth bite it and Beware of the newly
invented matters in the religion this
was the viice of the Prophet sallallah
alai wasallam he didn't just say cling
to my Sunnah but he also mentioned the
Sunnah of
the the rightly guided successors which
means of course first and foremost
abak and then Omar IB alab andman afan
and Ali Talib these first and foremost
are the
and of course the house of the Prophet
sallallah alai
wasallam which includes his wife AA and
Fatima and whoever else the prophet
sallallah alai wasallam included as his
house and then the righteous Companions
and the people of knowledge people like
Abdullah Abbas Abdullah Mas Abu
H and many many other of the
companions these are the ones the
prophet told us to hang on to their
example when we see
differing we must always refer it back
to Allah and his messenger not our whims
not our opinions not our desires not our
intellect but before anything we refer
always when we have a disagreement about
anything we must refer it back to Allah
and his messenger
so the very essence of Islam the very
essence of what Islam means
Islam to
submit to surrender to the will of Allah
obedience to Allah and his commands this
is the very essence of what Islam means
that is why the saying of the Believers
is
always we hear and we obey we hear and
we
obey so this is Islam submission to
Allah to the commands of Allah and the
commands of Allah are contained in his
Shar the laws the commands and the
prohibitions that Allah has given us
whether they are the commands to pray
and how to pray to give charity and how
to give of
Charity to fast and how to fast to make
pilgrimage and how to make pilgrimage
all the beliefs that we should hold
about Allah and the angels and The
Messengers and the books and the Divine
decree and the life after death or the
laws by which we should live what is
halal and what is Haram this is the Shar
this is the laws of Allah subhana wa
ta'ala the laws concerning divorce the
family laws and the criminal laws and
international law all of this is
contained within the
Shar so at the very heart and the very
essence of what Islam teaches us is that
we are people who submit ourselves to
the law of Allah to the law of
Allah and this is what it means to be a
Muslim
by our very essence of what Islam
teaches us that if
ever the Muslim is
faced with a
situation where Allah has commanded us
with
something and a human being commands us
with something which opposes the command
of Allah the Muslim is the one who must
always choose to obey
Allah it's the very essence of what it
means to be Muslim to submit to Allah we
submit to Allah first we we submit to
Allah before we submit to our parents
our teachers our wives our children our
desires our rulers whoever it may
be being Muslim means that Allah comes
first and if in our heart hearts and in
our minds we put anyone equal with Allah
this is
sh this is the unforgivable sin this is
the sin about which Allah mentioned that
he will forgive any sin that he wishes
but he will never forgive that we should
ascribe Rivals and partners and equals
to him
sh that whoever makes sh with Allah
whoever makes Rivals and partners and
equals with Allah whoever puts anything
in this
universe on the same level with
Allah then surely the paradise is
forbidden for them and the fire of Hell
will be their Eternal Abode this is what
the Quran tells
us Allah subhana ta'ala
mentioned a very important verse for all
of us that we must take extreme notice
of
this Allah mentioned about some people
who came before us and they still exist
today the Jews and the Christians have
taken their
priests and their
rabbis as Gods besides
Allah and there was one sahaba who used
to be a Christian he said oh messenger
messenger of Allah we didn't used to
worship them he used to be a Christian
and he was thinking that we didn't used
to prostrate before them we didn't used
to supplicate to them and pray to them
and worship them but the prophet then
clarified the meaning of this
Ayah and the prophet sallallah alai
wasallam said didn't they make Halal for
you what Allah made Haram
and you accepted
it and didn't they make Haram for you
what Allah made Halal and you accepted
it again didn't they make lawful for you
the things that Allah made unlawful and
didn't they make unlawful for you the
things that Allah made lawful he said
yes we used to do that and the prophet
Sall wasam said that was your worship of
them that was your worship of
them therefore surely without doubt
whoever accepts any human being to be a
legislator along with Allah subhah wa
ta'ala
and accepts that they have the right to
legislate along with Allah subhana wa
ta'ala than they have taken them as a
partner with Allah whoever believes that
any IM any Muti any mulana any sheh or
any human being has the right to make
Haram what Allah made Halal or to make
Halal what Allah made Haram they have
done exactly what the Jews and
Christians did you have taken them as a
God and you made them equal with Allah
and you worship them as an idol along
with
Allah and I say to you my brothers and
sisters what Abu hanifah said to his
followers and what Imam Shafi said to
his followers and what Imam Malik said
to his students and what Ahmed IB hul
said to his
students all of these great imams they
said do not blindly follow me take from
where I took the book and the Sunnah if
you find that Allah and his messenger if
you find a Hadith or an Ayah that
contradicts what I say leave what I say
and follow the teachings of
Allah what kind of importance does Islam
give to the concept of Justice the
protection of human rights that Allah
subh does not consider us by the color
of our skin or our social status or any
of that rather Allah judges us according
to our deeds and according according to
our actions that is justice that no one
is worthy of worship but Allah and the
angels bear witness and those who
possess knowledge they bear witness that
Allah stands firmly for justice when you
pay your Mah is credit if you don't pay
her your relationship is considered as
Zena that is her
like you cannot take away their right
until they allow you to do so Islam is a
tissue the basic human
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rights
child child I pray for our
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world and this is what it means to be a
Muslim by our very essence of what Islam
teaches us that if ever
the Muslim is
faced with a
situation where Allah has commanded us
with
something and a human being commands us
with something which opposes the command
of Allah the Muslim is the one who must
always choose to obey
Allah it's the very essence of what it
means to be Muslim to submit to Allah we
submit to Allah first we we submit to
Allah before we submit to our parents
our teachers our wives our children our
desires our rulers whoever it may
be being Muslim means that Allah comes
first and if in our hearts and in our
minds we put anyone equal with Allah
this is shik
this is the unforgivable sin this is the
sin about which Allah mentioned that he
will forgive any sin that he wishes but
he will never forgive that we should
ascribe Rivals and partners and equals
to him
sh that whoever makes sh with Allah
whoever makes Rivals and partners and
equals with Allah whoever puts anything
in this
universe on the same level with
Allah then surely the paradise is
forbidden for them and the fire of Hell
will be their Eternal Abode this is what
the Quran tells
us Allah subhana wa ta'ala
mentioned a very important verse for all
of us that we must take extreme notice
of
this Allah mentioned about about some
people who came before us and they still
exist
today the Jews and the Christians have
taken their
priests and their
rabbis as Gods besides
Allah and there was one sahaba who used
to be a
Christian he said oh messenger of Allah
we didn't used to worship them he used
to be a Christian
and he was thinking that we didn't used
to prostrate before them we didn't used
to supplicate to them and pray to them
and worship them but the prophet then
clarified the meaning of this
Ayah and the prophet Sall wasam said
didn't they make Halal for you what
Allah made
Haram and you accepted
it and didn't they make Haram for you
knew what Allah made Halal and you
accepted
it again didn't they make lawful for you
the things that Allah made unlawful and
didn't they make unlawful for you the
things that Allah made lawful he said
yes we used to do that and the prophet
Sall wasam said that was your worship of
them that was your worship of
them therefore surely without doubt
whoever accepts any human being to be a
legislator along with Allah subhah wa
ta'ala
and accepts that they have the right to
legislate along with Allah subhana wa
tala then they have taken them as a
partner with Allah whoever believes that
any any IM any Muti any molana any sheh
or any human being has the right to make
Haram what Allah made Halal or to make
Halal what Allah made Haram they have
done exactly what the Jews and
Christians did you have taken them as a
God and you made them equal with Allah
and you worship them as an idol along
with
Allah and I say to you my brothers and
sisters what Abu hanifah said to his
followers and what Imam Shafi said to
his followers and what Imam Malik said
to his students and what Ahmed I hul
said to his
students all of these great imams they
said do not blindly follow me take from
where I took the book and the Sunnah if
you find that Allah and his messenger if
you find a Hadith or an Ayah that
contradicts what I say leave what I say
and follow the teachings of
Allah do not put anyone up on a
pedestal where you think that their
words are Beyond
question or their statements are Beyond
thinking and understanding does this
correspond with what Allah said and his
messenger said I am a human being
Imam Malik IM Abu hanifah IM
Shafi IM Ahmed they were human
beings we all make mistakes we forget we
make errors we our tongues
slip so everything we always refer it
back to Allah and his messenger
always I don't mean by the way that just
you can pick up the Quran and pick up
the Hadith and now start making fatwa no
we still always need the scholars and we
must always look to what the scholars
have said we are not Scholars I am not a
scholar not a scholar like Abu hanifah
or Shafi or Malik no I am not a Muti
able to make it Jihad but we can look to
what the have
said and we can compare it what Allah
and his messenger said and what other
have
said brothers and sisters think about
this think about this
is the Bible that we have today the
Torah that Allah gave to M and the injil
that Allah gave to ISA and the zabor
that Allah gave to D is this Bible the
same as those yes or no no
alhamdulillah
alhamdulillah so is it not true that the
that those books have been altered and
corrupted and changed and some things
have been taken out and some other
things have been put in is this not the
truth concerning this book
yes now believe me if anyone had an
excuse to blindly follow their imams and
blindly follow their rabbis and blindly
follow their priests it would be the Jew
and the Christian they say look our book
has been changed and corrupted we are
how can we understand even a book that
has been corrupted so we will follow our
rabbis and our priests because our book
is not even reliable now if anyone had
an excuse they would have an excuse but
did Allah make give them an excuse
no Allah said they took their priests
and their rabbis as Gods besides Allah
as the prophet explained they made Halal
what Allah made
Haram we have a book that Allah has
preserved from all corruption we have
the Sunnah the authenticated Hadith of
the Prophet sallallah alai wasallam what
excuse therefore do we have when our
book is
preserved Subhan
Allah then how about the
case of
democracy how about the case of
democracy of
course the controversial issue is
this what is
democracy what actually is democracy
that's a good question you
see no one is actually really ready to
define democracy all they will tell us
is democracy is good democracy is right
what is democracy well there's lots of
different versions of
democracy they don't really want to
Define it because they know that every
definition they give does not actually
realistically Des describe the system of
government that they call democracy that
they are
practicing Abraham
Lincoln described democracy as the
government of the people for the People
by the people this is one famous
definition of democracy in fact the
actual word democracy itself means in
the original Greek rule of the people
that's what it means
if we take the concept of democracy in
its absolutely pure sense it's literal
meaning the rule of the people for the
People by the
people and that's all we're doing right
now we don't pretend to get any more
sophisticated let's just take that
meaning and examine that meaning because
at least that's one we can start with
then is this something compatible with
Islam how the media is playing games
50-year-old Muslim Arab married a
16-year-old girl but when a 50-year-old
non-muslim rapes a 6-year-old girl it
comes in news briefs today the fastest
going religion in the world is Islam the
fastest growing religion in America is
Islam the fastest growing religion in
Europe is Islam watch Dr Zakir n before
the Americans came to Iraq there was no
suicide bombing after the Americans came
then suicide bombing people worry that
one day nuclear weaponry will fall in
the hands of the Arabs they fail to
realize that the Islamic bomb has
already been dropped it fell the day
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was
born Islam is destined to supersede all
this religion of Peace this religion of
H will supersede all the other ways of
life and enough is Allah's a witness
media and Islam war or peace why things
closer to I are invisible to us we have
been gifted with a treasure the Glorious
Quran but we live in our darkness of
ignorance and suffer struggle strive
understanding what prophet Muhammad
pleas be upon him has said how his
companions lived will lead us to the
path of peace and light wherever we are
anywhere in the world our problems are
the same and so is the solution we have
different forms but the spirit is one
let us invoke the spirit within the
spirit of
Islam living the faith watch atar Khan
and others in the spirit of Islam
tonight at 600 p.m. UK and 700 p.m.
Europe on peace TV
we don't have records that 911 was done
by Muslims it is just a
hypothesis Muslims are being targeted
they're called as terrorist directly
indirectly they are the politicians for
the V bank for the power for the money
the thousands of innocent people that
have been killed in Afghanistan goes to
Iraq more people are being robbed more
people are being raped the main purpose
is what oil it's an Open Secret the
Buddhist terrorist the Hindu terrorist
the have sick terrorist we have Jewish
terrorists we have Christian terrorists
terrorism is not the Monopoly of any
religion it is
[Music]
not if we take the concept of democracy
in its absolutely pure sense it's
literal meaning the rule of the people
for the People by the
people and that's all we're doing right
now we don't pretend to get any more
sophisticated let's just take that
meaning and examine that meaning because
at least that's one we can start
with then is this something compatible
with Islam is it I just told you what
Islam is in its
Essence Islam is submission to
Allah Islam means obeying Allah's
Shar Islam means obeying Allah's
law Islam means that what is halal has
been decided by Allah and what is Haram
has been decided by Allah and what Allah
decides is
halal was Halal in the time of the
Prophet sallallah wasam is halal today
and will will be Halal until the day of
judgment and what Allah made Haram in
the time of the Prophet sallallah
wasallam is Haram today and it's going
to be Haram until the day of
judgment We Rule ourselves in our
personal lives and we should as Muslims
be ruled in our public lives by the law
of
Allah therefore one of the names of
Allah is AAR the lawmaker
and he is Al the wise and Alim the judge
so that when we judge we should judge
according to what Allah has
revealed and as Allah mentions in the
Quran those who do not judge by what
Allah has revealed they are the
disbelievers and those people who do not
judge by what Allah has revealed
they are the wrongdoers and those who do
not judge by what Allah has revealed
they are the evildoers and the
oppressors so therefore how
can the law and the sovereignty being
with Allah be compatible with the law
and the sovereignty being with the
people since at its very fundamental
level democracy teaches
that the people have the right to decide
what is halal and what is
Haram the people have the right to
decide what we should do and what we
shouldn't
do therefore the people have been made
equal with
Allah and whoever makes people equal
with Allah has made sh with Allah
without a doubt and whoever believes
that human beings have the right to
legislate in contradiction to what Allah
has
legislated is without doubt a
disbeliever whoever believes that the
legislation of the people is superior to
Allah's legislation is without doubt a
disbeliever whoever believes that it is
permissible and allowed to judge and to
legislate in contradiction with Allah's
judgment and leg legislation is without
doubt a
disbeliever however if some
Muslim out of
weakness out of a deficiency in their
Iman or due to their particular
situation in a particular
environment is forced to do something or
from their desires and their weakness
does something or implements something
in their life which contradicts Allah's
Shar this of course does not make you a
disbeliever this is a sin because you
accept in your heart that what Allah has
legislated is the
best and that we must follow Allah's
legislation so let us take a simple
example if a person drinks alcohol does
that make them a
disbeliever no if a person drinks
alcohol it does not make them a
disbeliever and all the Muslims from The
Companions and all the scholars
afterwards except the extreme sect of
theage which many scholars said they are
not Muslim anyway they all agreed that
no sin the committing of a sin does not
take you out of Islam so if you drink
alcohol you do not become a disbeliever
you are not you do not leave the fold of
Islam yes your Iman May hover above your
head during that time you are drinking
alcohol but you do not actually stop
becoming a disbeliever in fact there and
the same with fornication or adultery
and there were people who committed
adultery in the time of the Prophet as
you know the woman and the man who
committed adultery in the time of the
prophet and they came and they said oh
messenger of Allah implement the Allah's
punish M on
me and when they started reviling this
woman the prophet said leave her cuz her
Toba is so great that it has would it
its Toba the amount of this Toba would
Encompass all of the people of
Medina so she did not become a
disbeliever because of this
act but if someone was to say there is
nothing wrong with drinking wine it's
Halal now that would make someone a
disbeliever cuz they had claimed now
that what Allah made Haram they made it
Halal okay so back to the the issue of
democracy there is no doubt that we
Muslims must Implement Allah's Shar in
our personal lives because the Shar is
not only some punishments that we find
in the Quran like chopping off the hand
of the thief this is one of the and
there only four or five of such hads the
Shar is everything praying fasting your
personal life this is all the
Shar so we must implement this in our
life but if we were to fail due to
weakness in our Iman or due to being
forced due to circumstance not accepting
it in our heart then this does not make
us
disbelievers this is very important to
understand
that so therefore now let's go back and
let us ask if democracy means that
sovereignty is with the the people that
the people have the right to decide
what's Halal and Haram and it's up to
them they no muslim with any mustard
seeds worth of Iman can agree with
this just to illustrate I want to tell
you a joke it's not true it's a joke
there was this
man there was this man who made he
immigrated from the United States of
America from San Francisco he immigr
ated to
Afghanistan you know when the Taliban
were in power he went to live there so
they said to him they were asking him
it's just a joke it's not true they
asked him why did you leave the land of
the free and the land of the Brave
America with all the money and all the
all those nice things and everything you
want and you came to live in Afghanistan
why he said when I was a young man
homosexuality was a crime
when I grew up they made
homosexuality lawful in fact they made
it a crime not to to dislike
homosexuals and called it homophobia he
said I was afraid if I stayed around in
America any longer they would make it
compulsory and really if we think about
it this is the case of democracy
if you say the sovereignty are with the
people and the people can legislate and
the people can
decide I mean here on the very basic
philosophical level I know that
countries have
constitutions I know that different
ideas of democracy Encompass different
limitations for minorities and so on and
so forth but that's not what I'm
discussing I am discussing the very
basic concepts and that's
it at the very basic concept we all have
to agree as
Muslims that making a crime which is a
crime in Islam to say it is actually a
crime to have a problem with this crime
do you understand what I'm saying it's a
criminal
offense in England to revile someone
because of their
homosexuality so now
it has been made a crime to hate the
crime can we accept this as
Muslims can we say that Islam is
compatible with this does any person in
this room think that this type of
ideology is compatible with what Allah
has
revealed I hope
not if he's
Muslim and even if he's not Muslim logic
would say no I can see how your religion
and this ideology ology are not
compatible so on the very basic
philosophical level we have to say Islam
is not compatible with
democracy if we mean by
democracy that people have the right to
legislate and people have
sovereignty but of course democracy
doesn't necessarily mean
that people have many different ideas of
democracy people have many different
concepts of what democracy
constitutes but it is not my task
tonight in order to discuss all of those
different possibilities and all of those
different aspects and how we could
possibly reconcile Islam with democracy
I don't think we need to do that because
I believe Islam has already
fundamentally laid for
us a good system a good method of
governance and that good system and that
good method of governance was shown to
us first of all
by.
wasallam in fact if we go back and we
look to the life of the Prophet
sallallah Ali wasallam what do we
find we find that in many aspects
the way that the prophet sallallah alai
wasam dealt with people was more fair
and more just and more Equitable than
any Democratic Society that exists in
the world
today we have a system called sh which
is
consultation and the prophet sallallah
wasallam always used to consult his
companions about any matter that was
concerning their public Affair or
he would consult certain members of his
companions who were more expert in
certain areas so not everybody would be
consulted about every single thing
because not everybody is knowledgeable
about every single thing shackles of
Life two types of shackles first is
other people imposed on us and second we
impos on on our Muhammad sahu alaihi
wasallam is a liberator he came to
liberate the human
he relieves them of their burden and he
liberates them of their
[Music]
shackles
[Music]
bless of Allah and Allah will teach
you will give you knowledge
so this means the tawa which is Faith in
Allah helps you to learn more and from
the
world Darkness was
Gone with
salvation Rising
with Muslims do you need to change what
a challenge for somebody all their lives
been thinking one way and all of a
sudden somebody tells you
change this life you have to
struggle man can have nothing except for
what he strives
for struggle is the very nature of human
beings
[Applause]
just to illustrate I want to tell you a
joke and it's not true it's a joke there
was this
man there was this man who made he
immigrated from the United States of
America from San Francisco he immigrated
to
Afghanistan you know when the Taliban
were in power he went to live there so
they said to him they were asking him
it's just a joke it's not true they
asked him why did you leave the land of
the free and the land of the Brave
America with all the money and all the
all those nice things and everything you
want and you came to live in Afghanistan
why he said when I was a young man
homosexuality was a
crime when I grew
up they made
homosexuality
lawful in fact they made it a crime not
to to dislike
homosexuals and called it homophobia he
said I was afraid if I stayed around in
America any longer they would make it
compulsory and really really if we think
about it this is the case of
democracy if you say the sovereignty are
with the people and the people can
legislate and the people can
decide I mean here on the very basic
philosophical level I know that
countries have constitutions I know that
different ideas of democracy Encompass
different limitations for minorities and
so on and so forth but that's not what
I'm discussing I am discussing the very
basic concept and that's it at the very
basic concept we all have to agree as
Muslims that making a crime which is a
crime in Islam to say it is actually a
crime to have a problem with this crime
do you understand what I'm saying it's a
criminal
offense in England to revile someone
because of their homosexuality
so
now it has been made a crime to hate the
crime can we accept this as
Muslims can we say that Islam is
compatible with this does any person in
this room think that this type of
ideology is compatible with what Allah
has
revealed I hope
not if he's
Muslim and even if he's not Muslim logic
would say no I can see how your religion
and this ideology are not
compatible so on the very basic
philosophical level we have to say Islam
is not compatible with democracy if we
mean by
democracy that people have the right to
legislate and people have
sovereignty but of course democracy
doesn't necessarily mean
that people people have many different
ideas of
democracy people have many different
concepts of what democracy
constitutes but it is not my task
tonight in order to discuss all of those
different possibilities and all of those
different aspects and how we could
possibly reconcile Islam with democracy
I don't think we need to do that because
I believe Islam
has already fundamentally laid for
us a good system a good method of
governance and that good system and that
good method of governance was shown to
us first of all
by.
wasam in fact if we go back and we look
to the life of the Prophet sallallah Ali
wasallam what do we
find we find that in many
aspects the way that the prophet s.
wasam dealt with people was more fair
and more just and more Equitable than
any Democratic Society that exists in
the world
today we have a system called sh which
is
consultation and the prophet sallallah
was always used to consult his
companions about any matter that was
concerning their public Affair or he
would consult certain members of his
companions who were more expert in
certain areas so not everybody would be
consulted about every single thing
because not everybody is knowledgeable
about every single
thing and in fact this is common
sense I don't know about here in India
but in England the government government
does not consult every single
individual when it wants to look into
some detailed scientific matter that is
only understood by a few individuals
what do they do they gather those
individuals together and they question
them about this matter and then they say
we have consulted the experts and the
experts tell us this and this and now
that becomes our policy that makes
sense so we had this type of
consultative
interactive process that was given to us
by the prophet Muhammad s wasam and that
operated on all different levels of
society this is the way which the Muslim
should conduct thems with Justice with
understanding with compassion we should
love for our brother what we love for
ourselves all of this means that we need
to consult and discuss and share our
knowledge amongst each
other but I don't like to call this
democracy I like to call it
Islam why do we need to say Islam is
democratic for what reason because
that's the time what we're in we feel we
need to adjust our religion to fit this
predominant culture and this predominant
uh philosophy that seems to be
dominating the world at the moment
but I don't think we need to do that in
fact I really don't like it at
all I don't like it at all and I often
Give an example like this it might shock
you what I'm going to say but I hope you
will think about what I'm going to
say imagine we live in a society where
prostitution is the
normal mode by which a man and a woman
physically interact with each other
imagine prostitution is so common that
it's the absolute norm and imagine these
prostitutes when you look at them they
all seem so happy and they seem to be
enjoying such a prosperous life in fact
it seems that this Society generally is
very prosperous they are building
amazing machines and they have great
technology and so you imagine that
because they've got these machines and
they've got this technology prostitution
must be a good system as well you think
it all comes together in one big pack
package so some unfortunate Muslim comes
along and says you know what we've got
prostitution in Islam as
well yes we do it's called nikah you see
just as you go to The Prostitute and you
give her money we go to our wife and we
give her M you see it's like
prostitution when you go how can you
compare what Allah revealed and this
beautiful way of life with that
therefore I find it very sad when
Muslims start talking about Islam has
democracy because to me it sounds like
saying Islam has
kufur it's like saying nikah is like
prostitution it's not and democracy is
not like Islam on its philosophical
basis and the only reason that we feel
we have to say this is because of the
dominance of Western culture
intellectually philosophically and
politically and it's another very Stark
warning for us why do we always feel
that we have to accommodate and bend
over backwards and this is something we
hear said a lot something we hear said a
lot Muslims have to move into the 21st
century Islam has to move and go with
the flow we have to adapt ourselves and
change ourselves as I read in an article
recently if Islam as we claim is a way
of life for all places and all times
then Islam has to adjust itself for all
places and all times this is another
straw man you build up an argument only
to knock it down yourself but it's not
what we
claim we claim that Allah expects us to
worship Him and follow his religion to
the best of our ability in every place
and every time that does not
mean that Islam
changes in order to make itself
fit that is not what it means if modern
society conflicts with our religion you
know what I say stuff modern society
stuff
it I need to worship Allah subhana wa
ta'ala how long am I going to be here on
this Earth a small amount of
time I don't say and I'm not saying here
that there is a
contradiction there are many things in
modern society that are perfectly
compatible with Islam and there are many
things in modern society actually they
came from Islam
originally and in fact this is the
amazing thing when we actually study
many of the qualities that we find
existing in the western world when we
look at the history we find that these
things already existed in the Islamic
civilization and in fact the west or the
those th the West took those ideas from
us they implemented them and we stopped
implementing
them we don't have records that 911 was
done by Muslims it is just a hypothesis
Muslims are being targeted they're
called as terrorists directly indirectly
they are the politicians for the V bank
for the power for the money the
thousands of innocent people that have
been killed in Afghanistan goes to Iraq
more people are being robbed more people
are being raped the main purpose is what
oil it's an Open Secret the have
Buddhist terrorist we have Hindu
terrorists we have sick terrorists we
have Jewish terrorists we have Christian
terrorists terrorism is not the Monopoly
of any religion it is not
[Music]
we can take many
examples if you read the writings for
example of Western observers of Islam
who were writing 150 years ago they were
praising how Islam did away with racism
how Islam was a religion that
accommodated all Races and All Peoples
now we find who is the one
leading and stepping forward in
eliminating racism it is America it is
Britain it is these countries in their
own countries they are making big
efforts to eliminate racism it's not
something they invented we had that in
our religion for hundreds and hundred
thou for so many hundreds of years but
unfortunately that is one thing that the
Muslims that we had and we've lost
it the there are many things that we had
if we look in our
religion the idea that it doesn't matter
what background you are from you could
be the son of a dust bin cleaner a farm
worker and you could be a scholar you
could be a doctor you could be an
engineer you could do any career if we
look in history and we search where does
this concept come from if we look in the
west we find
that the West had something very similar
to the cast system they had the feudal
system the feudal system meant that if
you were born a peasant The Peasants
were called surfs if you were born a
peasant born a surf you were a virtual
slave to your
lord who is the land owner you are a
virtual slave you stayed a surf you were
born a surf and you stayed a surf you
were born a merchant you stayed a
merchant you were born a knight
Knighthood stayed in your family you
were born a Barron that stayed in your
family so all of these things were set
in concrete a surf could not become a
knight it couldn't happen nor did a
knight become a
Tradesman which civilization in the
world do we find did not recognize such
distinctions allowed freedom of movement
between people and
professions Islam this came from Islam
which civilization if we look had a
system of justice where it didn't matter
what part of society you are from you
could be the leader you could be a noble
man you could be from whatever section
of
society but the Ki or the judge could
bring you in front of him and make a
judgment from you and it didn't matter
this is was
Islam we have so many famous stories and
so many famous incidents from the life
of the Companions and in fact we can
find so many true accounts of the
Justice of the Muslims it didn't matter
who you were or from what part of
society were you were you were all under
the same law this is an idea that they
have in the west and I remember a friend
of mine recently he gave me not quite
actually quite a long time ago he phoned
me up and Dick Cheney Dick Cheney who is
one of of the most important people in
America very close to the parent maybe
he's even the vice president I'm not
quite sure you may know that reason that
he was recently taken to court for
corruption so my friend F me up he said
have you heard the news you see these
Americans that Dick Cheney he's now in
court for corruption and this brother
he's a friend of mine he's from he's
from
Dubai I said yes isn't that amazing
I wonder my brother do you have anything
like that in Dubai where one of your
princes or one of your
leaders committed an act of corruption
and he would stand in front of the court
like
that and then he got
embarrassed then he got embarrassed and
he didn't say anything you see brothers
and sisters if you really want to know
why if you really want to know why and
you want to see why Allah has given
these people power in the land and the
power has gone from us is because these
are the principles they live
by they may have many bad qualities but
still by and large although I think it
is changing but still by and large they
have this concept of
Justice and Justice for All but look at
us look at the Muslims look at our lands
look at the way we treat each other we
can't even talk about each other we
can't even critize criticize each other
in a just way we find this one from this
group is criticizing that one from that
group even though there is a man in his
own group or his own sect who is doing
something worse but he doesn't criticize
him just because he's in another group
he'll criticize him oh you see him he's
doing this and doing that but the one in
his own group he turns the Blind Eye is
this Justice is this Justice or even he
will lie against this person or slander
this person or invent stories about this
person is this Justice we can't even
deal with Justice amongst each other and
these are the so-call Islamic groups how
about the ordinary people and we wonder
why we are in such a state if these are
the things that we mean by democracy
that's not
democracy that's Islam and that's what
our religion taught us 1,400 years ago
these things are our
inheritance which we have to claim
and if we look at the kuf and we can
benefit and we can see what they are
doing and the way they are doing it and
we feel that this is something that we
can benefit from then alhamdulillah
there is no problem with
that but we don't and we should never
feel that we have to compromise our
religion we should never feel that we
have to give up our Dean we never feel
we should never feel that we have to
change our whole religion in order to
accommodate some ideology that to tell
you the truth brothers and sisters to
tell you the real truth democracy is
falling
apart in many many countries you will
find that democracy is
failing in fact they are subtly bit by
bit giving up on Democracy in fact my
personal belief is that there is no such
thing as democracy anyway it doesn't
even exist it doesn't even exist what
they have in the west actually in my
opinion is the illusion of democracy
it's the illusion of
democracy they make people think and
believe that they have a choice that
they can influence things but in reality
they can't change anything the people
who control the world are the same
people who have always control the world
they are the big businesses they are the
multinational corporations they are
those few Elite people who have the
power and the money in their control and
the world runs according to the
principles they want they don't care
whether you have girlfriends or
boyfriends whether you're a homosexual
whether you drink alcohol or take drugs
in fact you know what they're like that
because the more you follow that
corruption the more miserable your life
will become and the more miserable your
life becomes the more you need to fill
your life with fashion with film with
drink with music with all the consumer
things things that they want you to say
look buy this buy that have this have
that that's the way to be happy
miserable people consume so actually
it's for their benefit to create a
society like that so they
imagine so I'm not really sure anyway
that the so-called democracies even have
democracy and one of the one of the
things that highlights that for me is
that in England recently not only in
England but in Italy and all over Europe
they had massive demonstrations against
the war in Iraq in England we had
2.5 million people gathered together to
protest this war in Italy it was five or
six million this is the biggest
demonstrations there have ever been in
history in Europe that we know
about they found through polls that the
majority and in some cases the large
majority of the population opposed this
action but they still went ahead and
fought the War what happened to the rule
of the people for the People by the
people what happened to the people
deciding what we should do and what we
shouldn't
do and so we find in many countries that
is the case we find in many countries
that is the
case I don't know much about Indian
politics but I suspect that a very small
minority actually decides what happens
in this country in
America in America George Bush was not
even democratically elected he was
appointed by the Supreme Court in fact
he was in the process of losing the
election he was in the process of losing
it and they stopped the count as it's
very famous what happened in in Florida
and in fact they manipulated the vote so
that George Bush should win
what sort of democracy is this so this
is what we really find that the famous
saying goes democracy is hypocrisy and
the reality is when we look at these
socalled many of these so-called
Democratic countries what do we find
exactly that hypocrisy and I look
forward to the day when Muslims will
stop
apologizing stop being so apologetic
realize that they have the most
beautiful Dean that doesn't need need
any changing it doesn't need adjusting
all we need to do is recapture the true
Spirit of Islam as it was practiced by
the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam
and then once a again brothers and
sisters once again we will be a Shining
Light and a guide for Humanity to follow
but this is going to happen this is only
going to happen when you change your
life when you you and me brothers and
sisters when we Implement Allah's law in
our life when we Implement Allah Shar in
our life when we obey Allah when we
display the characteristics of
gentleness and kindness and love and
compassion and Justice yet at the same
time firmness upon obedience to Allah we
will see that when we have established
the Islamic State in our heart
Allah will establish the Islamic State
on the
earth
ofam that makes you fair and kind and
helpful to your fellow
men so living as a Muslim means that you
must play A
Part Allah looks not how you look but
what is in your