the next two topics that we'll be
covering are dawa to atheus endow to
Christians um and these are particular
issues that we need to deal with uh in
terms of daa here for example in the
UK uh
that people today actually the majority
of people today tend
towards
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deism and a minority to atheism atheism
being the belief that there is no
God right atheism has always been a
fringe belief amongst
humans
historically you go through this
countries of the world archaeologically
Etc finding people who as a people
disbelieved in God you can't find
them nowhere in the world did they exist
it's only in the 20th century with the
rise of Communism that you actually
found a nation you know promoting the
idea Russia then China then some of the
European States Vietnam and others uh
promoting the idea that there is is no
God that is a part of communist ideology
this was something
recent this is why when you look in the
Quran in terms of the different
arguments that Allah uses you don't find
hardly any arguments which purely argue
for the existence of God it already
assumes a belief in God but that that
belief is distorted and there's
misunderstandings regarding it about
resurrection and these kind of things
so when we deal with atheism know that
this is a fringe group a a group whose
Minds have become so
darkened you know in terms of the light
of faith and knowledge right their minds
have become so darkened that they reach
that state remember I said to you in
terms of the
called that such a person because
they're so rare you need to find out why
why did they become an to try to reach
them you need to know why find out
what's at the bottom of it because it's
unnatural that's how we should look at
it it is something abnormal and it's
unnatural though when they try to
present it they try to present it that
it's normal and natural really you know
it's in fact it's quite logical and
reasonable that it is the belief in God
that is what is
unreasonable I say you people believe in
God this is by your Blind Faith you know
you blindly believe you have no
evidence you can't prove this and you
know it's it's
illogical but
really our position is that in fact it
is
logical it is
reasonable it makes
sense so how do we argue logically that
belief in God is in fact logical we
say where did logic come
from when you go to university and you
take a class in logic who did they teach
you
about H nobody's taken any class in
philosophy
logic who do they teach you about
hm Greeks the Greeks that's who they go
back to the Greeks Logic the rules of
logic when they teach you there are
certain rules of logic who who put laid
down those rules the Greeks it's known
that the the laws of logic were laid
down by ancient Greeks not to say that
people may not have done it before but
as far as historically archaeologically
those are the earliest records of it
laid out systematically the Greeks
known for their logic using the mind and
figuring out things from the mind and
this is the Greeks who had a heavy heavy
thing about the mind so much so that
they despised
experiment the idea of trying to figure
out things by experimenting and finding
out they said this the law you should be
able to use your mind and just looking
at things you can come to your
conclusions this was their they they
favored the Mind Over experiment
experiment was like a last resort but
the Mind itself should be enough and
that's why for example the belief that
if you dropped a
cannonball and a
marble The Cannonball from a height The
Cannonball would hit the ground before
the
marble this was Greek logicians had
proposed this and it was accepted for
thousands of
years accepted as a part of Science in
in Europe all the way up until one
individual forgotten his name went up on
the Leaning Tower of Pisa he drops the
Cannonball and the marble somebody's
there looking wow they hit the ground at
the same time you know but thousands of
years they believe logically the heavy
one should drop faster than the light
one that's logic right so logic we know
has its limits anyway the point is that
the Greek logicians Plato
Aristotle Greek philosophers who used Ed
their minds to to understand the world
around them what did they conclude that
there was no God no Aristotle and Plato
and others concluded that there has to
be a God so if it was so illogical how
could the masters of logic come to the
conclusion that there has to be a God so
we say no no it's you saying there's no
God that is in a state of illogic you
know you are illogical your ideas are
illogical logic points to the absolute
existence of God there has to be a
God
so we can take them they say okay what
is your evidence what is the what is the
proof what how do you logically come to
the idea that there is a
God we can take it from what they call
the imma principle imma we know in
Islamic law means
what consensus of agreement you know
people agree all the people agree on
something becoming Islamic law well this
was really in the case of the sahabah
and you know leading Scholars Etc so
using this principle ofar we say if you
travel around the world everywhere
people believe in God everywhere Every
Nation historically people have believed
in God this is something which seems to
be byar everybody has a belief in God
sure the belief might be distorted
changed you know variations but the
basic belief in a Supreme Being is there
everywhere okay
that being the casee we know that the
anthropologists they have this struggle
between what they called nature and
nurture what things do we inherit and
what things do we learn from the society
we grow up
in they have always considered religion
to be something learned and not
inherited however some uh Anthropologist
some British anthropologists you know
studying this concept of of it being
Universal belief in God being Universal
they made a proposition that perhaps
this thing is something inherited of
course they were laughed out of the
scientific Halls you know and it was
just brushed
aside but if one were to apply the basic
principles by which they determine
nature and
nurture they say that the thing which
you find
everywhere human beings eat they
sleep they use the
bathroom they
marry these things which they find
everywhere they say this is natural this
is a part of their nature they don't
have to be taught this by the society
they it's natural they're born with
it whereas other things like the dress
type of dress they wear um the the types
of foods they eat the way it's cooked um
the way they organize their family
structures and you know these are the
things they say this is what is learned
a person grows up in that society and
they're taught this and that's why
you'll find it varying from country to
Country right so they say that is from
nurture you are nurtured that way and
that's why you do it that
way so if we look at the belief in God
actually it doesn't fit under the
nurture it fits under the nature
fundamental belief in God now how you
believe in that God that would may come
under nurture that that's where we have
our variation you're born in that
Society so it comes that way you're born
in this Society comes that way and this
is of course in agreement with the
Islamic concept right that uh every
individual is born with a natural belief
in God right as the prophet had
said every child is born with a natural
belief in God but it is his parents that
uh turn him into a Christian Jew or as
AAS
and also inah where Allah says
concerning the descendants of Adam Adam
and all of his descendants were created
in the spirit form Allah takes them out
of the loin of Adam and makes them all
bear witness am I not your lord and they
all
said we all yes we all bear witness so
this is something imprinted on the soul
of every human being comes into this
world already has the belief but the
prophet wasam said
maani orani but it is his parents
through the nurture who will turn him
into a Jew a zor asrian or a
Christian but the fundamental belief in
God is natural it is he he's born with
it and recently that is in
1997 scientists in the University of
California at Berkeley they analyzing
the brain of patients who have um
various mental ailments connected with
seizures you know brain uh um anomalies
or abnormal activities of the brain
which cause them to to pass out and go
into Comas and these type of things
they're studying people with these cases
probing different parts of the brain
they found that these people in the
course of their experiments that um
there was a portion of the brain in the
frontal lobe where if this was
stimulated the people experienced uh
religious uh powerful religious feelings
a sense of God and the presence of God
this kind of thing you know and that
when they had seizures and it fected
those areas they had these experiences
so from those experiments and it's in
your notes there on page 57 they
concluded that there was in the brain
what they called a God
Spot the god nodule or they call it the
that the brain is hotwired for belief in
God this is their own
scientists who have come to that
conclusion for us the other logical
argument which we usually find in the
Quran is the argument from
design will they not look at the the the
camels and how they were created Allah
created the camel in a special way
in a way that he can cross the desert he
can retain liquids in his His Hump you
know so that he can go without water for
days on end the way his feet are made to
walk on the hot Sands which normally you
couldn't handle no other animal could
handle it you know so many different
characteristics which make the camel
unique designed specifically for the
desert and Allah says look at that
design he's saying that had you had to
have a creator you had to have somebody
who is going to design that this is not
something which comes about by
accident and this is the argument really
of you know many of the Christian
philosophers Etc is around the argument
from design a design indicates a
designer of course the counterargument
is that no design could come from chance
but from accident you know sometimes you
if you're painting you splatter some
paint on the wall somebody say oh that
hey does not look like a hand you know
does not look like a head or a foot or
something like this so splattering paint
on the wall you can get some things
which look like things you know design
things but we say to them okay that can
happen but do you think that you could
mix
paint different colors of paint in a
bucket throw it against the wall right
and how many times you throw it you thow
it a million times or however many times
you want you throw it against the wall
do you think that at any time you will
accident come out with uh Leonardo D
Vinci's uh what's that um Mona
Lisa you think that's going to happen
Anytime by accident just keep throwing
throwing they say yes yes you have a you
have an infinite amount of time and you
infinite amount of tries and yeah one of
those times you'll get that you know
this goes against Common Sense this goes
against Common Sense Common Sense tells
you hey the first time you try it the
chances of it happening are
what zero less than
zero and the billionth time that you try
it is it any different than the first
time
no so we said no they usually give the
example that if you put 100 monkeys in a
cage give them 100 typewriters pieces of
paper and let them bang away at the keys
with their nose their elbows their toes
anything sit on the keys
whatever eventually one of them is going
to type out for you the whole of the
Quran if you give them Arabic
typewriters the whole Quran from F to
NAS they usually give the example of the
Bible I'm just giving it in our context
Quran has more significance the chances
of that happening we say zero don't tell
us don't tell us that this is possible
this is not
possible but for them anything is
possible and the whole issue of the Big
Bang this is what they're talking about
isn't it a massive explosion of matter
producing this
world with all the complex organisms and
everything in it from a massive
explosion we say to them listen Common
Sense tells us that explosions produce
chaos they don't produce
order you take atomic bombs you drop
them in a
junkyard right you have a junkyard where
they have bits and pieces of cars you
drop atomic bombs in that
junkyard do you think there's a chance
of one time an atomic bomb exploding in
the junkyard and a Rolls-Royce pops out
door open keys in the ignition engine
purring you just need to just get in and
drive away you think there's a chance of
that
happening no but that's what they're
saying human beings who are a billion
times more complex than a Rolls-Royce
being produced by the big
bang that is totally
illogical totally unreasonable that's
why we say for them they try to bring
their thing as a logical thing is no it
goes against all logic and reason when
we see design we assume that it was
created by a designer somebody did
it you're walking on the beach you see
Footprints in the Sand you don't stop to
think how amazing the tide came in sunk
into the sand and made a footprint look
at that no you automatically assume
somebody walked there ahead of you
that's your common sense
and for the Arabs the ancient Arabs they
used to they they put it you know in a
way this is before even the Quran was
revealed they
said that Camel dung indicates the
camel meaning you're riding out on the
desert you come across a clump of camel
dung you don't stop and think how
amazing the sand you know rolled itself
into a little ball and you know some
things fell on it or whatever and here
you got thing looking like a camel dong
no you assume a camel went by and did
his droppings right that is common sense
but they want to say no no maybe the
sand did blow it did roll together
something did fall on it and that's how
it happened you know no we say this is
illogical and
unreasonable so the argument from design
indicates really there had to be a
designer and that is as I said the most
common uh argument and you find uh big
Scholars even amongst the uh Christian
background Scholars you know Isaac
Newton and others made these kind of
examples to people in the Quran though
we do find in one place a purely logical
argument that goes beyond the concept of
design it goes into creation itself we
find it in Surah verses 35 and 36
were they created from nothing or did
they create themselves or did they
create the heavens and the Earth indeed
they are
uncertain Allah gives them two
propositions he leaves the third as so
obvious he doesn't mention
it did they were they created from
nothing or the Arabic could be by
nothing were they created from nothing
come Common Sense tells you nothing
cannot produce
something right you cannot get something
from
nothing no thing cannot produce
something right so that's
out
illogical or did they create
themselves are we
self-created did we create
ourselves Common Sense again tells us
that we couldn't have created
ourselves something cannot be
self-created
meaning it had to be out of existence
because to be created you had to not
exist and then
exist right so if you didn't exist how
could you make yourself
exist this is completely illogical
make sense if you didn't exist because
to be created meaning you had to not
exist if you didn't exist then how could
you make yourself exist because you're
not
existing so common sense tells
us we can't be
self-created so what else is
left something had to create us
something someone had to have created us
that is the only thing left and not only
that cuz some people want to ask but
then who created that one
no the one who created us had to be
himself uncreated not
self-created but
uncreated had to be because if he is
himself
created then the one who created him is
the real creator and if he was himself
created then the one who created him is
the actual Creator and some of them say
well yeah that that's how it is just go
back infinitely created by another one
created by another one back into
Infinity we say that actually that line
of argument Plato shut it down already
and he argued that if it were the case
that creators go back to
Infinity it would mean that it will take
an infinite amount of time to get here
to this point
in time and that's the same as saying we
would never get
here once you say that the creators go
back to Infinity it means it will take
an infinite amount of time from the
first of the creators back in Infinity
to get here it will take an infinite
amount of time therefore that's the same
as saying we will never get
here right so this is this is where
Pluto sorry uh Plato shot down that
argument no that line of infinite
creators is illogical the only thing
that is left is a Creator
without being himself created so we
don't ask the question who created God
no he is himself uncreated if he is a
part of the creation system then they
are he like everything else is in need
of a Creator
so there had to be a Creator who was
himself uncreated
proves itma of the humankind prove it so
what do we have on the side of
the uh atheist what do they have on
their side what can they argue from to
say logically why there couldn't be a
god well they come back they say
okay your God is an all powerful God
right he's all
powerful is he a good God or not yes
he's a good God God is good so where did
Evil come
from this is their line of argument they
say that the existence of evil is proof
that there is no
God the existence of evil is proof that
there is no God because if God is all
powerful and he is all
good and he created
evil then you've got a evil God
if he didn't create evil then he's not
all
powerful so there couldn't be a
God that's their
argument or our response to that is that
yes God created evil is a part of his
creation that's what Allah said he is
the creator of all things though he
doesn't directly attribute evil to
himself he says
instead say I seek refuge in The Lord of
the Dawn from the evil of what he has
created he didn't
say he could have
said from the evil he created but he
said the evil of what he created so
Allah
deliberately uses this terminology and
you find the prophet wasallam using the
same terminology
you know that evil is not directly
attributed to God meaning that the evil
comes out of his creation but his intent
is not
evil that whatever he has permitted
whatever he has created even though we
may see in it evil an element of evil it
is not for that evil that it was created
but for the good which would come from
that evil because everything that exists
everything that God has permitted has a
good element to it whether it is obvious
to us or whether it is not there it is
there because God is
good so we explained to them that the
obvious good from Evil we can
see in certain
cases in our own lives personal lives
how many times things happen you say oh
man how why did that happen why did that
you know that's really horrible then the
next day something else happens and you
see based on that oh that's great I
didn't realize you know that thing had
good in it for me really and they said
you know every cloud has a silver lining
one of the expressions in the west to
explain
that there are many times we experience
that in our
lives I remember there was a newspaper
article I'd seen where this um uh
individual he's uh
in Egypt he's there with his thumbs up
his father is kissing him on one side
and his sisters kissing him on his other
side of his cheek right he's a big smile
on his face then the caption underneath
it explained that um the previous day he
missed his flight there was a flight
going to
bahin and um that flight you know was
for teachers mainly was for teachers and
uh it was like the last flight before
the beginning of the term and know
whoever missed it then the next flight
is like a week later so they would miss
a week of school and you know big
problems coming maybe you lose your job
all these other kind of things anyway he
had gone rushing to the airport last
minute you know and when he produce his
passport a stamp was missing right in
Egypt to do anything you have to have a
thousand stamps right the same person
may stamp that same document three times
four times you go around they come back
he stamps again another one goes with
the stamps and comes back you know they
have a huge bureaucracy anyway he missed
one of his
stamps and he was couldn't travel he was
frantic you know at the airport no you
have to let me and you know no we can't
let you on the plane you don't you know
please begging crying you know they
didn't let him on the plane he missed
his flight for him the world had
ended
however that flight
crashed and everybody on board
died so the next day there he was in the
newspaper thumbs up big smile on his
face you know he was the lucky one right
what appeared to him at that point to be
a disaster absolute disaster in his life
turned to
be what saved
him and if you read the story of
Al right Al is is the story
in Surah kah we're supposed to be
reading it every Friday right Prophet
wasam recommended it we find in that
story the essence of the story is about
this about the same reality that what
may appear to be evil is in fact
good and Allah says it in
statements perhaps you might dislike
something and it's good for you and
perhaps you might like something and
it's bad for you Allah knows you don't
no he says it openly this is in a story
form true story but in a story
form breaks the boat M says what are you
doing you want the people to drown you
know of course those people when they
see the boat with the hole in it they're
saying oh who did this broke our boat
they're upset they're sad but of course
an hour or so later when the king comes
down the the river right and he's
grabbing everybody's boat he sees a
broken boat I don't need that one they
say ah
alhamdulillah alhamdulillah our boat was
broken
right shortly before that they were
upset was look what
happened so that's an example of things
like the Egyptian where the evil comes
and the good in it becomes obvious to
you shortly thereafter maybe the next
day maybe the same day maybe a week
later
whatever you realize it was in fact
really good for you
then there's the example of the other
one because of course the non-muslims
will say okay we can accept that one but
what about hurricanes floods you know uh
earthquakes hundreds thousands of people
die lose their lives where's the good in
this little children dying where's the
good in
that well of course you'll be
hardpressed to try to give an example
how there's good there you know you say
well okay I can't really say you know or
give you an example of how good comes
out of that but I believe there it's
there I believe that if God has had it
happen then it's
there whether we find out or we don't if
God has permitted it it is for
good and the other story
in's uh musa's adventure with
it describes that circumstance where the
young boy 10 years old 11 years
old takes him and Pops off his
head in the Quran it just mentions that
he killed him in the Sunnah it mentions
that he Rings his head off you know like
some people kill chickens like that take
the head and just pop that's what he did
with the boy's head so imagine the
parents finding their child with his
head ripped
off how they would have felt their son
murdered like that something evil it
would have been a massive blow for them
later the Sunnah explains that Allah
gives him gives the family a girl who is
Honorable to them and treats them well
and they they love her Etc
but in their hearts they will always be
that spot that hurt for what happened to
the Sun for what appears to be know
reason of course on the day of judgment
when they stand before Allah then Allah
tells them that that boy had he grown up
he would have made your life such a
hellish life you would have become
disbelievers they would say
alhamdulillah
alhamdulillah they won't know before
that so like that yeah we see things
happening around us we can't find any
Rhyme or Reason for it we say you know
this is but we believe there is good in
it we don't have to wait until to accept
that there's good in it
Allah has created nothing which is 100%
evil even Shan people say what about
Shan even
Shan didn't Shan teach Abu
hura that reciting ayat before going to
bed at night protects you from Shan
throughout the
night besides that of course even before
Satan had uh disobeyed Allah he was
known to have done righteous things he
was good so the point is that uh Allah's
creation of Shan is not for the evil
that Shayan did but the good which came
from his evil when he tricked Adam and
Eve into eating from the tree which was
an EV thing
sin what happened Adam and Eve turned
back to Allah in
Repentance they turned back to Allah in
Repentance which is one of the
greatest acts of worship that we can
do to turn to God in Repentance is one
of the greatest acts of worship we can
do Prophet mallam said
what one who repents from sin is like
one without
sin so
powerful Prophet wasallam
said that were it
not that you commit sins and turn back
to Allah in Repentance Allah would have
removed you from the earth and replaced
You by a people who would have committed
sins turned back to him in
Repentance so this act of repentance is
one of the greatest acts of worship
because our nature is to commit
sins
right huh all of Adam's descendants are
always making errors always committing
sins so
therefore the best of those who
constantly make errors that is human
beings are those who turn back to Allah
regularly in Repentance so the act of
repentance this is what distinguished
Adam in his sin from Satan in his
sin isn't it what is it that took Satan
into kufur into
disbelief is it the sin he did of not
dis of not bowing before
Adam so some people mistakenly think
that the reason why Allah described
Satan as a disbeliever was because he
refused to bow to Adam
but that's not
true if that was what made him a
disbeliever meaning you commit a sin you
become a disbeliever then it means that
Adam when he ate from the tree he
committed a sin but he wasn't a
disbeliever so it isn't the sin
committing a sin doesn't make a person a
disbeliever the issue is whether
One turns back to God in Repentance for
it or whether one becomes arrogant this
was the difference between Adam and El
Adam turned back Adam and Eve both
turned back to God in Repentance and God
forgave them El became
arrogant and actually blamed
God he blamed God when he said how can I
bow before Adam when you created me from
fire and him from CL meaning he is in
inferior he
said I'm better than him so what does
that mean if I am better than him he is
the one who should be bowing to me not
me to him so you have asked me God you
have asked me to do something which is
not
befitting you made a mistake and this is
where he fell into
kufur this is where the kufur
came and instead of being humble
recognizing his mistake turning back to
God in Repentance he went arrogant and
blamed
God
so
Adam El's creation both Good
Creations El goes into evil Allah knew
he was going to go into evil yet he
created him
anyway not for the evil that he would go
into but for the good that he would
produce through Adam
similarly we can give them an example in
terms of
children when you take your child to the
doctor for the first
time and you tell them this is a nice
doctor you know he likes you he's
smiling and the kid is smiling and
everything then the doctor sticks the
needle in the kid's arm ah kid screams
right you told him it was good but now
in the mind of that child
what has
happened that man is evil okay he is an
evil man he's not a good man so every
time you take the child you tell the
child we got to go to the doctor oh I
don't want to go to the doctor right and
you drag them in there screaming and
crying you
know now you
know that what the doctor is doing is
for
good right you know it because normally
yes the act of sticking a needle into
somebody's arm this is something evil
it's painful there is evil in it
somebody comes to you and says listen I
have this needle I like to jab it in
your arm do you
mind nobody's going to say Allan was
Allen you know unless you're sadist you
know masochist you like pain or whatever
I mean the average person is going to
say no that's evil who would want that
for themselves so the child is re acting
as a on a
normal uh person would act to pain harm
that has come to them the point is here
you know that it is for
good you know it is for good but no
matter how much you tell that
child will the child ever accept that it
is for
good this is the point you know because
you are an adult you can see beyond the
act that that is for protecting the
child from disease and whatever so on so
so you have that greater knowledge so
you can understand that that is for good
but for the child that was just evil and
no matter what explanations you give it
it's just too young the Mind cannot
grasp the good in what they can't
see they can't all they can see is pain
so no matter how much you tell them they
can't grasp it their mind is not on the
level to be able until they mature and
they get from experience life experience
they start to understand how an evil
seemingly evil thing can be a good thing
so we are like the children with regards
to certain things that happen to us we
can't see beyond it all we can see is
evil yes that you
know flood came and how many people lost
their
lives earthquake how many people lost
their lives where is the good in that we
can't see it but we don't say simply
because we can't see it there is no good
and this is important because this is
where as I said a number of people fall
into kufur I mentioned this to you
before a person has an experience like
there was a time when you had the madcow
disease
right you have they had the mad cow
disease here they were killing cows left
right right to wipe out the
cows and what happened there was a
picture in the newspaper I saw it it was
printed local newspaper here it reached
Us in the I was in the Emirates at the
time they had this picture of a little
girl she had a poster on
it they had the poster with some some
dots with circles around it and an arrow
to it it said and it had a picture of a
little of a
calf
right it the arrow was there it had
written on it these are my
tears her tears that dropped on the
poster as she was making the poster
these are my tears picture of the calf
she lives on a farm whatever and this
Cal must have been born and she kind of
helped to raise it whatever it be you
know became attached to it so it was
like her calf on the farm and when they
had to to kill all the cows they killed
her
calf so she had on it the the
poster
God why did you kill my calf question
mark you see for her there was no
explanation why would you have killed
this calf who I love so dearly you know
who was you know I had this relationship
with and you've taken his life why did
you kill my Cal
and of course their family had no
explanation obviously that's why the kid
is holding it the father was there right
no explanation that would be for her the
beginning of
kufur beginning of denial of God because
there's no explanation why would God
take that calf and you find that if you
listen to number of people like this um
that uh mathematician you have here
what's his name um crippled uh Hawkins
right if you listen to him you know when
he wrote his book about the history of
time and so and so it was denying God
complete atheist at that point earlier
he was believing in God you know he was
quite intelligent Etc but then he hit
around late teens early 20s whatever and
he had this debilitating disease
affecting his spinal cord he just became
to the point where he couldn't
speak and for
him he went they took him to trips to
India you know he gave talks there
through
the uh voice created by computer and so
this traveled around India for him you
see there was this anguish that he
had why
me why me me with this huge brain genius
and look what happened to my body and in
India you have all these people useless
in his concept yeah just living these
lives and dying like animals you know
contributing nothing to to human you
know knowledge and so and so and so and
they're living healthy physical Lives
why of course you you can't explain why
you know why them why not you why don't
you have the good body that makes you
you know pleasurable life Etc you have
that brain so much to offer why you have
to go through all of
this
eventually he um uh fell in love with
his uh nurse and divorced his wife and
married her so he found love in his life
and then God came back in his life his
later writings you hear him talking more
about God Etc so this was um this
was the uh you know as I said an example
of atheism coming from tragedy personal
tragedy this what you find for most
people you look into their lives who are
atheists they will go back to some
personal tragedy so you need to get to
where they have things have fallen apart
for them and try to help them to
understand that though it might seem to
you to be evil there's ultimately good
in
it in the previous session we looked at
daa to
atheists uh basically clarifying
that the dawa uh to believe in Allah is
one which is logical it's reasonable and
that it is atheism the call to atheism
which is irrational and illogical
and we looked at the various arguments
to support it and we also looked at the
arguments of the atheist for
atheism there is one other argument
which is used by them which we need to
look at and which is also used by some
Christians to justify
Christianity and that is the argument
which uh Christian philosophers who were
leaning to atheism through a against the
uh Christian Scholars during the
Renaissance the question
was if God is able to do all
things
right can he create a stone which is too
heavy for him to
lift right can he create a stone which
is too heavy for him to lift
it's good to know this one cuz somebody
is likely to throw it at you sometime
some place
right because it seems that you are
caught and what we call Catch
22 if you say yes he's able because he's
able to do all things to create a stone
which is too heavy for him to
lift
then you are saying
that there will be things or they can be
things which is greater than
God
right if you say
no then you are nullifying the concept
that God is able to do all
things so what is
it so the answer from the Islamic
perspective is that when we speak about
God being able to do all things
we are not referring to things which
contradict him being
God this is not
included when Allah talks
about not having a
son and he also adds to that and it is
not befitting for him to have a
son it's not
befitting because to have a son
son is to make him no longer
God to have the characteristics of his
creatures so when we talk about God
being able to do all things it doesn't
include things which contradict his
divinity
meaning if we Define God as having no
beginning and then somebody asks you
can God be
born that is contradictory you've
already defined God as having no
beginning so to ask can he be born is
absurd we call this an
absurdity or we say God is one who has
no
end this is part of the definition of
God to then ask can God die that is an
absurdity can the one who has no end die
no can the one who has no beginning be
born
no because if he was born he would not
be the one without beginning if he died
he would be not be the one without
end so it contradicts him being God so
anything any
question which contradicts God being
God we don't include this in
so we say the idea of God creating a
stone which is too heavy for him to L
lift is absurd because
allahar Allah is greater than all
things to create something which is
greater than himself then he would no
longer be greater than all
things he would no longer be Allah so
you're asking really can Allah not be
Allah that's really what you're asking
you know since he's able to do all
things can God no longer be
God well yes if he was no longer God he
would not be God
anymore so it's an absurdity so we end
that discussion by putting it in the
general category of absurdities which we
don't attribute to God in the general
statement that God is able to do all
things I mention this why because for da
to Christians they may bring this at you
isn't God able to do all things well
can't he have a
son you see you you get caught in
that argument but you lump it together
and you say okay you want to ask can God
have a son can he create something which
is too heavy for him to lift you know
take it back to
them no they won't accept this because
it is absurd goes against God being God
similarly having a son goes against God
being
[Music]
God atheists we add to them the deest
this is this is what is more common than
atheists in your course of argument you
may more find D because many Christians
actually have become dest the dest is
one who recognizes that there is a God
but that religion is made up by human
beings God did not communicate his will
to his creatures he just created the
world and left it to run left it to run
on its
own that is quite common amongst
Christians who recognize Christianity to
have so many faults so many
contradictions Etc in it so they reject
Christianity and anything like it so all
religion is contrived
I say you know we don't believe in
organized religion so we say to them you
prefer a disorganized
religion you don't like organization you
don't like rules you know they commonly
you find people say too many rules in
Islam you know you Haram Halal
everything just rules rules rules but in
life does any system work without
rules you know whether it's a business
business whether it's a
school whether it's a
government is there any system that you
can think of that works without rules no
you want rules you need rules
everywhere but when it comes to religion
you don't want
rules why because you want to do your
own
thing that's it you recognize that doing
your own thing in all these other
systems creates chaos and confusion
but religion you want to do your own
thing this is
illogical religion which is even more
important more
comprehensive it will more be in need of
rules even than the systems that we
devise ourselves that's reality anyway
for the
dest the simple way to approach their
argument that God created the world and
left it to run on its own we say that to
to raise that issue is to attribute to
God characteristics which we don't even
want to attribute to
ourselves what do I
mean
imagine you as a businessman you set up
a
business and you put an ad in the paper
for people to come and work in your
business the people come you hire them
but you don't tell them what they're
supposed to do in the
business do you think they're going to
March into your factory and just go into
the places they they're supposed to be
and just do what they're supposed to do
or will they just go to the
cafeteria sit down and drink tea and
coffee and chat and till somebody comes
and tells them what they're supposed to
do that's common
sense if you don't tell people if people
people are not told what they need to do
then your system is not going to work
your business or your whatever it's not
going to work you must inform
people why do they bother to produce
manuals you know for whatever product
you buy why do they bother why not just
sell them the radio sell them the TV
sell them the whatever and let people
figure it out for themselves why not
because they're likely to turn something
they shouldn't have turned plug it in
someplace they shouldn't have plugged it
in and the whole thing explodes chaos
so you have manuals to explain how to
use these things that's common
sense so to say that God created
us and he did not inform us of our
purpose here he did not communicate his
will to
us is to attribute to to
God
elogic to attribute to God
disorganization
stupidity things like this because we'd
say such a person is stupid a person who
sets a business up and doesn't hires
people and doesn't tell him what to do
he say this guy is a fool he's an
idiot and that's what you end up
attributing to God to say he created
this world and he didn't tell us what we
need to do here because what are people
going to
do they're going to do everything but
what they're supposed to do if they're
not
informed this is common sense
God is the most
wise then he is going to tell us what to
do here he is going to communicate his
will to us that is a natural consequence
of
wisdom
so after you know showing them that it
doesn't that doesn't make sense then
it's just a matter of dealing with the
systems because of course the next
question is okay God communicated his
will but there are so many
religions you know which one which is
the right
one because this is one of the arguments
why they're all wrong because everyone
is saying that they're the True Religion
Etc and there's so many of them how do
you know
well you identify the necessary
Criterion for a True Religion a True
Religion what should it what should be
its
characteristics and you look at the
religions and see which one fits into
those
characteristics you use your reason this
is where God gave us reason to determine
what is correct and what is incorrect so
you
compare and we're not saying you must
accept Islam and so so though we it's
what we want you to do we'd like you to
do that we feel it's best for you but
you look at the systems and compare
compare Christianity compare Islam
compare Hinduism compare sism Buddhism
whatever compare
them look at what they have to offer and
make an educated
choice and that is the that is our
responsibility to convey that message to
to put them get them to the position
where they say okay I will go and check
these things out very
important and this is why actually
giving da to many of these peop it's
important to focus on purpose self
creation why are you
here you need to find out this is
something vital something very important
you need to know why you're here because
if you don't know then it means likely
you are wasting your
life you're involved in so many
different things taking up all of your
time but it is not what you are here
for and at the end of this life you will
regret having not found out the purpose
of
life so we try to direct them over to
finding that out look at what the
different religions
[Music]
say outside of theism and Atheism
there's another group called The
agnostics those who say I don't know if
there's a God or
not some say also I don't
care not only don't I know I don't care
doesn't matter it's not
important of course people in that stage
is very difficult for you to reach them
if they don't
care very
difficult the bottom line though is of
course uh
people often times say it's enough for
us just to be
good just being good why can't I just be
good why isn't that enough why do I have
to believe in God and why do I have to
join this religion and all this other
thing that comes with
it why can't I just be good well the
question is how do you define good
what you consider good today you might
consider bad
tomorrow and the opposite or what you
consider good I might consider bad so
what really is
good how do we determine
good and this is where we come back to
the idea that it has to be somebody
Beyond us if it's left up to us
then we can't find what is really good
sometimes we hit on it but many times
we'll miss it because we are influenced
by our own
desires so what is good will be what is
good and pleasing to
us that is what people will normally
fall
into and even if you know something is
good you might do it for a while but if
you find that it is not beneficial in
the end it's going to hurt you to do
that good then what is going to motivate
you to continue to do the good when it's
no longer advantageous or at least
neutral it's now harmful to
you nothing because your Criterion is
the world what benefits you and what
harms you if it's no longer beneficial
then you won't want to do it anymore so
the belief in God is what motivates
people to do good even when when it's
not beneficial to
them so belief in God is
important knowing our purpose is
important so for the agnostic we say the
agnostic is really a lazy
atheist he's just lazy he's an atheist
but he's lazy doesn't really want to
deal with the implications of it all
[Music]
I was born into a rigorously Catholic
Family not a harsh in its belief but
genuine especially my mother it this
this religion did not take root in me
with serious conviction As I Grew and
until in my mid teens I had a Revival
but it did not last because it was more
about the brother and sister
Hood than belief in Prophet Esa as the
Messiah and the Son of
God my interest waned As I Grew to know
the corruption of the official
church and my interest in Justice and
communism the pure anist form grew the
Pope's support of evil people like dined
the brutal dictator of Chile and Nora
some the same but from Panama and his
opposition to Liberation theology as as
the preferential option for the poor
simply put a genuine religion from God
would oppose oppression as immoral even
if
inevitable the pope did not do
[Music]
this it still does not so I fell into a
state of complete kuer or
disbelief
atheism what appeals most to me about
Islam is that although it is based on
faith as the true religion must be it is
faith based in Reason Not Just
emotion what Allah and his or Messenger
s Al wasam tells us to believe makes
sense we are told now ordered to examine
Islam to find faults if we
can and also to find reasons to believe
not just accept what priests or other
intermediaries
invent or
interpret some of these Miracles uh I
just got notes here now
uh there's one about mention about waves
upon waves and and the water being kept
separate
and this is true and I knew this from
reading about submarines trying to enter
the Mediterranean during the war and
things like that and it affected how
they did this and this this is something
we've only discovered this Century
through going under the water in
machines and yet it was written and
spoken over 1,400 years
ago this impressed
me the shape of the earth is is
described with a word that means
flat spread
out shaped like an
egg and when viewed from space this
is what the earth looks like it's not
exactly like an egg but it's not a
sphere either the the rotation uh pushes
it towards the the poles and this is
what it looks
like and this was said over 14400 years
ago and this is something we've only
known since we sent monkeys into
[Music]
space and one of the most amazing of
all the development of the human being
just after conception is described in
very good
detail and this is something that could
only be discovered with the invention of
the
microscope which again is very
recent in
closing I will touch on a few points
that I've discovered since becoming a
Muslim once you become a Muslim every
other Muslim in the world is your
brother or
sister and this really means
something you will meet complete
strangers in the street willing to take
the jacket off their backs for you if
you think if they think you need it this
has actually happened to me I had to
stop the man from taking his clothes off
his back cuz it was cold
I had if I didn't just live half a block
away he would still insisted of giving
it to
me others you will sit down with and
talk to about the greatness of Allah
while one of you buys the others lunch
or
tea as complete strangers you've just
met and 30 seconds later you're sitting
down and buying each other lunch and
talking about the most beautiful thing
in your
life and competing
[Music]
to give Hospitality to each
other if you have any problems you can
share them with willing and interested
friends something a lot of us can't say
even for those you know are
non-believers as I was you know you have
good friends but after a while people
don't want to hear the same problem
again and
again strangers will open their doors to
you just because you are Muslim
[Music]
if we shift over to Da to
Christians the most important
thing to know about the Christians is on
page 67 onwards is that Christians are
divided into two main sects
two main groups
Protestants and the Catholics of course
you know that well here in the
UK you should know that they are split
down the middle it's about 50/50 though
the ratio may be different here in the
UK in the world it's about 50/50
Catholics and
Protestants the
Protestants came
about in the period of the Renaissance
15th century 16th
century when Martin
Luther a German
priest had gone to Rome seeking
Enlightenment spiritual enlightenment
only to find the
pope acting like a temporal King wearing
golden robes a big crown of gold on his
head which was so heavy he couldn't
actually wear it on his head it was
suspended from the ceiling by Iron uh
rods and he would just come and sit it
was over his throne gold Throne he would
just come and sit underneath it and it
would appear to people from a distance
that he was wearing this this Crown but
it was too heavy solid gold encrusted
with with rubies and emeralds if he
didn't have that wire holding it it
would crack his neck right and this was
the pope holding in one hand a staff
made of solid gold and an orb circle
with a cross on it made of solid gold
and Martin Luther came to seek spiritual
enlightenment he said I can't get any
Enlightenment from this man you know so
he was sick to you know sick to his
stomach of what he saw he went back home
to to Germany and he started to write a
series of protests against what he saw
and from the protests he and his
followers came to be known as
Protestants
Protestants that's where it came from
okay now the difference between the
two what he protested against was the
hierarchy of the church so the Pope the
Bishops the Cardinals all those
gone I know you have a Protestant group
here the anglicans I mean they came
about with Henry VII right when he
wanted to get married again and the pope
didn't want to give him permission to
remarry divorce he wouldn't allow him to
divorce so he made he broke with the
church and said okay we'll make our own
church here his was over
marriage but the main group from Martin
Luther they were actually protesting
hierarchy Etc that's why the anglicans
still keep a hierarchy quite similar to
the Catholics the difference is not that
great but the are rest of the
Protestants they have dropped that
hierarchy you know they have councils
and things like this instead and um a
major difference between the
two is the Bible
itself the Dua version of the Bible the
Catholic Bible has seven more books than
the King James Modern
Standard Bible so they have a difference
in their Bible itself this is important
because they often times will say to us
well you have Shi you have Shiites and
sunnis you know just like
us no it's not just like you guys you
have different Bibles even the Shia and
Sunnah they have the same
Quran still the same Quran in spite of
the differences not only that you all
are split down the middle you know the
Shia are only like 20% of the main body
of Muslims so it's not the same terms of
course you might say it sounds like the
same but it's
not among the
um Christian sects you have some groups
which are quite active the Mormons the
uh 7-Day Adventists and the jehovas of
course you need to know something about
them I've brought some details here for
you about them you can do more research
these are the active
uh groups that are trying to raise
followers all the time you know
according to 1980 figures Mormons uh
gather over 200,000 converts every year
similarly Jehovah's Witness are doing
the same that was from the 80s so
they're very active but of course most
of the converts are from Protestants and
Catholics not amongst
Muslims anyway you should know that the
Mormons don't
believe that Jesus is the son of God
uh the Jehovah's
Witness they believe Jesus was the
created Son of
God right so Son of God is more symbolic
term that he is a part of the creation
Jesus the s-day Adventists they believe
in the traditional that traditional
belief but they believe in worship on
the Sabbath on Saturday
and they ban alcohol as well as
uh even for women makeup and smoking you
know they and pork they don't eat
pork so these groups it's important to
know the different beliefs that they
have the Mormons have some weird beliefs
you know um and they're probably some of
the most active of the of these groups
uh they have a belief that God is
actually a big man
a huge man is a man looking like us but
he's just big very very
big and that you know Adam was him
incarnate he became a small man on the
earth and Eve was one of his wives from
the heavens that he brought down to the
Earth with him you know got some stories
like this um they also had a
belief that uh they're also well known
for polygamy right of those groups
they're particularly known for po
polygamy they're um uh the main sort of
spokesman Brigham Young Who the main
University in Utah State briam y
University is named after him he was the
main uh person who gathered their
followers after the the the founder
Joseph Smith had died he had himself 25
wives you know and I mean they had
unrestricted polygamy but the the the
the nature of their organization their
movement or their
sect is that whenever they have
problems their leaders get Revelation to
correct the problems so when the US
government threatened
them with the removal of their statehood
in Utah state that they would take away
statehood from them if they don't stop
this polygamy all of a sudden the the
leader got re ation that polygamy was to
be banned
abrogated similarly after the Civil
Rights
Movement in America because earlier um
the temples they have this system of
temples where women can't enter the
temples and only males who have reached
a certain age you know can enter the
temples and black blacks cannot enter
the temples only whites are allowed into
the temples as priests right that's what
they believed and practiced all the way
up until after the Civil Rights Movement
when the whole idea of discrimination
against blacks became not good anymore
all of a sudden the the leader got
Revelation that uh blacks can now become
priests also right similarly more
recently they had you know after the
women's whites movements you know
feminist movements Revelation came that
uh women can now come into the temples
right so you see this is the nature of
their group you know and many of the
other groups you'll see that that
they're always changing with the times
you know and we say this can't be a
religion of God you know if it was wrong
in the now that blacks couldn't be
priests it had to be wrong in the
beginning and if this was according to
the teachings of your
founder who claims to have heard his
messages from an angel called
Moroni
right somehow strangely like
but anyway the point is that
that's the name of the Angel and you
have this book and he received this
Revelation and he's like a prophet and
that's what he taught he was in error no
he said this can't be from God this is
something you made
up similarly with uh seven days
Adventist Jehovah's Witness of course uh
of seven days Adventist Ellen White one
of their founding members she became a
prophetess they have a prophetess she
has written books and you know her books
are considered to be Revelation and they
follow her right some of their later
followers showed that she plagiarized
writings from other people's writings
you know and and they have a book called
the white lie if you want to know how to
to um refute them this book called the
white lie you know this is some of the
leading followers who wrote against uh
Ellen White who was their proetus and
they they bring enough issues there that
most 7 Day Adventists they don't even
know about this book you know so it is a
revelation for many of them anyway the
Jehovah's
Witness they focus on Jehovah when they
give their daah they come to Christians
they say to them what is the name of
God yeah Christian say God said no no no
no that's not a name God is a title it's
not a name so what actually is the name
of God and the Christian is stumped so
then they tell them actually his name is
Jehovah and their Bible the new world
whatever translation they have Jehovah
written in throughout the Bible from
beginning to end right the point is that
for them when they bring this we can
easily end their argument because the
word Jehovah we ask them does that exist
in
Hebrew in the Hebrew Bible which is what
you have translated into English from
does that word exist
no it's a word which was made
up the word Jehovah was unknown before
the 16th
century in the Hebrew
Bible they have
letters yah
wow ha
wow and the Jews were forbidden to say
the name of God
actually a person who said the name of
God could be punished with
death so they considered it sacrilegious
to say the name of God so they would say
instead
Adonai which
meant the
Lord or the god instead of
saying this four
letters they refer to the letters four
letters as the tetr grammaton this is
what but you'll hear this term used but
tetr grammaton just means four-lettered
word no big
deal but
Yahweh is uh
What uh when they it got corrupted and
the letters from Adonai was added to
those four letters without vowels they
came up with Yahweh and from Yahweh they
changed it into
Jehovah Yahweh is closer to the Hebrew
original
Jehovah is
far so their claim to to have the name
of God is false a false claim they don't
have the name of
God um there other beliefs one of the
things which shows their falsehood is
that their their belief
system included predictions for the end
of the world the founder
uh
claimed that the world was going to end
in
1914 of course 1914 came and it didn't
end then he said it would be in 1918 he
died in
1916 so he wasn't around to know that it
didn't end in 1918
either then the next follower who took
over after him he claimed it would end
in
1920 and it didn't and then either and
1925 and
1941 and
1975 predicting and each time those
dates came they lost followers you know
but the new followers they were always
out there turning up you know bringing
in new followers new followers didn't
know what happened before so you know
that's how they were managed to 1975
right cuz now news is spread around much
more easily when it didn't happen in
1975 they said that there was a a
problem in their calculations
they had been calculating from the date
of creation of Adam cuz in the Bible
genealogy is mentioned Adam had so many
kids he had so many kids who had so many
kids you know so they make calculations
from that and they conclude that the
world is only 6,000 years old
right so they said we had been
calculating from the actual date of the
um uh birth of Adam but we should have
been calculating from the birth of Eve
and since we don't have exactly when the
birth of Eve was in the Bible we're not
certain exactly when the world's going
to end so they ended the problem in 1975
about predictions about the end of the
world but the point is hey if your
founder and Prophet said 1914 and 1918
and he was wrong what kind of prophet do
you have you know that's the bottom line
you know they don't have there's this
this inconsistencies that exist in their
system which you know are so glaring
most of the followers not aware of
it you know most of the followers are
unaware of it the other major group are
what are known as the Born Again Born
Again Christians now these are the most
active now of the Protestants the m and
also amongst Catholics the born again
you know who basically stress the idea
that you have to be born of the holy
spirit for you to be a true Christian
you have to be born of the Holy
Spirit right and actually this idea is
an old idea uh which had been introduced
by the Pentecostals it's a branch of of
Christianity formed by John Wesley and
John flesher back in 1901 where they
stressed the importance of baptism in
the Holy Spirit but they had a limited
following what happened is that in the
60s you know when Christianity was
really losing its its hold on people
people were leaving the churches and
droves Etc then this idea of Reviving
The idea of the Holy Spirit Spirit birth
in the Holy Spirit set it began amongst
the Protestants and it spread over to
the Catholics and it became the active
uh element of Christian
da and eventually Pope fall I six
himself even gave a seal of approval to
it because churches were emptying and
they were the only one that were gaining
followers and basically their followers
are coming from Main still Christians
they're just bringing other Christians
back into their belief system but the
unifying belief held by the majority of
Christians is the concept of the Trinity
God the Father God the son God the Holy
Spirit
and when we're going to give da to
Christians I said you do need to know
which branch they're coming from because
though we said the unifying belief is
the Trinity the seven the um Jehovah's
Witness don't believe in a trinity
neither do the Mormons so you may giving
da about Trinity and they don't really
believe in it so it's good this is where
the importance of listening before you
speak comes in you need to hear where
they're coming from maybe you ask the
average Christian you know what is your
belief he says really you know I believe
in God
and
Jesus what do you mean you believe in
Jesus Jesus he was good person maybe he
was God I'm not really sure you know
you'll hear this kind of vagueness right
the the the general Christians each
person may have his own idea of what
what it is if they are saying well yes
he is the Son of God then you deal with
that issue you clarify for them Son of
God what does Son of God mean God having
a son what does it
mean cows have calves cats have
kittens what do gods
have little
Gods yeah does that make sense I mean
hey you know you got a big God a God you
have two Gods here I mean if you're
going to make that kind of a analogy he
had a begotten son and if you stop and
think for a minute it doesn't make sense
really or the idea that you know somehow
Jesus was
God you know Jesus himself was God you
need to clarify for them no Jesus wasn't
God if Jesus was God as you said after
he was resurrected where is he
now so he's in the heaven sitting on the
right hand of God God but you just said
he was
God huh God the father is God the son
but he's sitting on the right hand of
God then who's sitting on his left hand
God and he's God yeah complications here
you know this idea but this is part of
their belief you know they'll say oh
it's a Divine mystery you know that's
the way out or they want to try to
explain to you how God is three in one
they have a series of
theories some of them we call there's
one called the water Theory you know
water it's either liquid or it's gas
steam or it's solid it's ice but it's
still water
one we say okay that's your God you got
a water God our God is not like
water or some have the tree Theory the
tree has a trunk it has roots has
branches this one tree your God has
Parts divisible into Parts like a tree
we our God is not like a tree
or the egg theory the egg has a shell
has the white has the yolk but it's one
egg come on please you know you're
making God like his creation really this
is what you this what you're coming down
to some say okay well you know you can
be a father a brother and a son can't
you but you're still one
person okay but now if me as a father
dies what happens to the brother and the
son
right problem here for you you know when
Jesus died on the cross that means the
father and the Holy Spirit all died so
it means God was
finished
right our God is a mystery it's a
mystery this understanding God is a
mystery we just believe it but we say
you know God is not the author of
confusion it says that in your Bible
this is
confusion is that what the early
prophets called too can we hear Abraham
Moses were they talking about this that
you're talking about did Jesus speak
about that did Jesus speak about a
trinity these are all things which came
about hundreds of years after
Jesus know that your religion was
fabricated by human beings try to show
it to them through
this of course um there are some people
who say listen he has to be God because
he made the dead come alive he made the
lame walk made the blind see made these
Miracles we say go back to the Old
Testament on page 71 you can you have a
comparison there all of the miracles of
Jesus were done by prophets of the Old
Testament mentioned so we say this is
not the basis of Jesus being God he was
born without a father what about Adam
What About Eve Eve had no mother Adam
had no father or mother so what does
that make them you know problems you
know the arguments which they use for
Son of God can even be more ludicrous
some of them will tell you look in the
Bible wherever yes it is mentioned
throughout the Bible Son of God term is
used and note that Jesus doesn't say
anywhere I am the Son of
God people around him May mention it but
Jesus doesn't say I am the Son of God no
note then that in the Bible they say
well whenever Son of God is used and
David is called the Son of God Abraham
is called Adam is called all these
people are called sons of God but
whenever they use Son of God they use a
small s in the Bible you'll see small s
but when they're talking about Jesus
they use capital S Jesus is the son of
God capital S they see see the
difference it means the real son what we
say to them in Hebrew and Greek which
the Old Testament is written in
Hebrew and Greek the New Testament
written in they don't have
capitals like Arabic there's no capitals
and small letters so where did that come
from it's contrived something contrived
to create a an an understanding in your
mind that doesn't
exist and then the best thing to do is
to take them to to the way of Jesus
because the most uh popular statement
that if if a Christian doesn't
know anything of the Bible and most
Christians don't even read the
Bible if a Christian doesn't know
anything of the Bible he will quote for
you that Jesus is supposed to have
said I am the way the truth and the life
no one comes to the father except by me
so we say to them okay what does that
mean I am the
way Jesus is the way well they say we
have to pray through Jesus to get to God
we say
no all of the prophets spoke about being
the
way they showed the way to
God now where are you from Jesus's
way where are you from Jesus his
way and we show them that the way of
Jesus in fact
is expressed now in the way of
Islam Muslims follow the way of Jesus
more than Christians
do the average Christian is he
circumcised
no but Jesus is mentioned in the gospels
as being circumcised on the eighth day
and of course thinking about God being
circumcised on the eighth day is really
something
absurd but just take it back down to
Jesus you know you're following the way
of Jesus you don't do circumcision Jesus
didn't eat
pork but you love
pork three little piggies went to Market
you know I mean you teach your little
children everything is about Piggies and
pork right but this was not the way of
Jesus Jesus didn't eat it didn't promote
it you know so and you can go through
and in the notes we have a variety of
different practices whether it's
prostration in prayer Jesus is recorded
as prostrating in prayer and Christians
now pray like Hindus with their hands
clasped knees bent this is Hindu prayer
this is not uh the prayer of Jesus and a
variety of other things even the
greetings itself how did Jesus greet
each he and his companions greet each
other hi how you doing good morning no
he said Salam
that's how they G greeted so we can by
going through those points clarify for
them that the way of Jesus is embodied
in Islam Muslims are closer followers of
Jesus than Christians who claim that he
is God and the final point that we can
use and um again this is for people who
really are into Bible issues Born Again
people is that the scholars of CHR
Christianity are
unanimous
in
accepting that the authors of the
gospels were
unknown they don't know who wrote the
gospels so their doc doctrines their
systems their documents are of dubious
origin we don't know who wrote them and
so there's contradictions amongst them
you don't have a reliable source of
information but as I said this is for
people who are heavy into the Bible and
it's authenticity it's the word of God
Etc you can get into that kind of
discussion with them but the main focus
I would advise if we're giving dawa to
Christians is to focus on the most
important aspect and that is who is
God make the clear distinction between
Jesus and God
logically scripturally for them or
whatever you know get that clear once
they accept that yes Jesus is not God he
couldn't have been
God then you have a beginning point to
understand Islam because really after
that the teachings which exist in the
Bible and that belief in the Angels the
books and all these other things these
all exist in Islam you know and it's
just a matter of giving them the clarity
that Islam has on it