alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
and may Allah's peace and blessings
beyond the last messenger of
Allah the Quran
a message to all of
humankind is within the
context
of
Islam being the
religion of all
humankind because the
basic
premise from which Islam
operates is
that as there is only one
God and one human
race and God revealed only one
religion so as not to confuse human
beings and he
sent one line of
prophethood to convey that
message and as such the message of all
of the prophets
was one single
message the last in the line of those
prophets was Muhammad Sall alaihi
wasallam and for him to be the last it
meant on one
hand that he was
sent not to particular people and
places as the earlier prophets had been
sent prophets who were sent to India to
China to Africa to Europe to
America they were sent to their
own
people in particular areas of the
world because of the fact that others
would come after them to continue that
message however
when
prophethood came to an
end with Muhammad
Abdullah that final
Prophet was a prophet sent not to a
particular people in a particular place
for a particular period of time but a
prophet sent to All of
humankind and and this is not an empty
claim dreamed up by
Muslims later on after his
time Allah describes him as a mercy unto
all of
humankind in the Quran
itself in the Book of Revelation which
he
brought he is described as a prophet
sent to all of
humankind and to underscore that
fact as it might be debated in our times
1,400 years after the time of the last
prophet a
miracle was
left a miracle
left that
humankind would know through
it the final message and
know that what was taught by the final
messenger was a message for all of
humankind all prophets were
given
Miracles which would convince their
people that they were prophets of
Allah Prophet Muhammad may God's peace
and BL blessing be upon him had said in
a
well-known Hadith or statement of his
which is recorded
authentically all prophets were given
something which would cause people to
believe in them what I was given is none
other than a revelation the Quran which
was revealed to
me all prophets were given these
Miracles however
because of the fact that they were
prophets for a limited period of
time their
miracles were limited to those periods
of
time because if we take for
example among the last of the prophets
the more recent
prophets
Moses the prophet to the
Jews his main miracle
as recorded and
described in the books of the
Torah as well as in the Quran
itself his
miracle was that of being able to turn
his staff into a
snake the type of
Miracle which may be associated with
magic because in in his
time magicians held a special place in
society in ancient
Egypt among the special positions in the
court of the rulers the Pharaohs was
magicians people feared
them people admired
them people were Amazed by them so
Allah sent with Prophet
Moses a miracle similar to the types of
Miracles which the uh magicians appeared
to
do except for the fact that his was real
theirs was
illusion people thought that what they
threw on the ground became
snakes rising in front of them
but when Prophet
mam threw
his
staff his became a snake which ate up
the
others indicating that what he had what
he brought was Superior to what they
had that the people could
see for The Magicians who knew what they
were
doing knew that what they were doing was
only illusion
fooling
people when they saw the staff of Moses
become a snake and eat
theirs they
knew this man must be a man of
God and that is why they fell down in
frustration immediately
they didn't have to think
twice because all that they did did not
involve changing the nature of sticks
and
ropes it was only
illusion whereas in the case of prophet
Moses his staff became a
snake so Prophet Moses was given a
miracle similar to The Magic of The
Magicians but greater
if we look after him to Prophet
Jesus Jesus again sent to the Jews the
last of the Prophet sent specifically to
the
Jews he was sent to a people who at that
time were the masters of
medicine and actually even until this
time Jews remain leaders in the field of
medicine they could
would
produce medicines which would cure eye
diseases they knew how to make splints
which would heal broken
limbs people who were
sick with fever appearing about to die
they could cure them through their
medicines and they would
be healthy
again so Prophet Jesus was sent with
miracles in those same
areas except that what he brought was
above Superior to what they
had so
he was able to make the blind
sea not just those who became blind but
those who were born
blind he was able to make the lame walk
people who were born
crippled he was able to make them walk
by the power of
God and
furthermore he was
able to make the Dead come back to
life a miracle from
God for the Jewish doctors they
knew this man must be from
God because what he was doing was beyond
anything they could
imagine in the field of
healing
however if someone were to ask us
today to show us the staff of Moses
which became a
snake where is it in a museum
somewhere
no
or the red
SE where he hit it and it
parted to demonstrate it to us to show
us where that took
place cannot be
shown because his miracles were for his
own
time same thing with Prophet
Jesus the man who Jesus brought back to
life is he around today so we can say
here he is Lazarus according
to the Bible Alive had been dead no we
don't have
him or any of those who were made to
see or the other miracles of Jesus
whether recorded in the gospels or in
the
Quran there is a miracle of Jesus
recorded in the Quran not found in the
gospels or any of the common gospels
known today it is found in some of the
ancient and lost
gospels where he gathered
clay molded it into the shape of a bird
blew on it and it flew away a living
bird do we have that
bird
no so the miracle of prophet Jesus were
limited to his
time so if Muhammad may God's peace and
blessing be upon
him was to
be a messenger sent to All of
humankind till the end of the world then
he had to have a
miracle which would not only win over
the hearts of the people of his time
but one which would
stand as
evidence for people until the last day
of this
world so
if somebody said where is the miracle of
Muhammad Sall alaihi wasallam we can say
here is his Miracle here it
is and that is the
Quran preserved
because it is a message to all of
humankind so it had to be
preserved this was a
necessity so
Allah on one hand chose an area in which
his people the original people to whom
he was sent who would then carry the
message to the rest of the world he
chose an area which these people
admired
loved
worshiped and that was in literary
eloquence the Arabs loved
literature so much so that their most
popular ODS were written in
Gold tablets and hung on the Kaaba the
place Place central place of their
worship and they would have contests
yearly gathering in places like T where
they would compete with each other in
pros and poetry they loved it they
didn't have
medicine they were not known for
magicians they didn't have
structures built
a built
civilization but they did love
literature so Allah gave Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam a
miracle in the field of
literature a
book written with the same letters that
they
wrote spoken with the
same vowel
and consonants that they
spoke but a book which was
inimitable which they could not
imitate a
book whose
magic was
beyond their
abilities a
book which captured their
hearts there response to it was that it
had to be some form of magic why they
couldn't make one like it and why it
seemed to just Captivate
them that literary
miracle was a miracle with a built-in
challenge you find in the
Quran in Surah Al is the 17th chapter
verse
88 where Allah says there a
challenge to the
people to whom the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam was first
sent and ultimately to
humankind
say if humankind and the Jin the
invisible World creatures from the
invisible World gathered together to
produce a scripture like this Quran they
would not be able even
if they helped each
other this was the
challenge produce a book like this
one then that challenge was
reduced reduced from a whole book
to only 10
chapters and that can be found in the
11th chapter verse
13 wherein Allah says there or they say
he has made it up in reference to the
Quran say to
them create then bring for us 10
chapters like it which are
invented and call whoever you wish to
help you besides Allah if you are
truthful if your accusation
that he made it up himself is
true then do something similar produce
10 chapters not the whole book anymore
10 chapters from the book
similar then that challenge was reduced
to one
chapter in the 10th chapter of the Quran
verse
38 or they say he has made it up say to
them then
bring a single chapter like
it and call on whoever you
wish for help besides Allah if you are
truthful and that challenge was repeated
again a final time twice now in the
Quran verse 23
[Music]
if you are in
doubt about what I have revealed to my
slave then bring a single chapter like
it and call your
Witnesses besides
Allah if you are indeed
truthful this was the
challenge of course
for the average person who reads the
Quran he or she reads it in
Translation so they may not find it to
be
miraculous if one reads in English the
translation of the smallest chapter in
the
Quran
or three verses
is if one reads the translation in the
best of
translations one would still feel in the
end I'm sure Shakespeare or Wordsworth
or somebody like that of the great Poets
of the past English poets they could
have written something more
eloquent so where is the
miracle furthermore when the diary is to
be given
and it's not the amount that was agreed
upon or the young man decides he wants
more and the girl cannot provide the
amount her family doesn't have the means
so what does the family do then her
husband and his mother catch her in the
kitchen pour kerosene over her and set
her on
fire bride burning a great evil though
something in Islamic law such Act is
deserving of the death penalty as honor
killing is deserving of the death
penalty but unfortunately Muslims don't
judge by the book of Allah
today and they avoid reflecting on its
meanings in the time of the Prophet may
God's peace and blessing be upon
him his comp compans used to
say we used to read the Quran 10 verses
at a time and we wouldn't go on to
another 10 until we understood what God
was saying to us and we tried to
implement it in our lives so they
reflected on the Quran and Allah said in
Surah Muhammad verse
24 will they not reflect on the meanings
of the Quran or are their hearts locked
up this is the
state of the Muslim umah today Hearts
locked up not reflecting on the
meanings nor do they use it as a cure
and Allah describes the Quran as a
cure a cure for whatever is in the
hearts get close to God
understand the Commandments of God and
the diseases of the heart will be
cured so Muslims
unfortunately in spite of the fact that
this was the universal message message
to all of
humankind and those who have accepted
that message or supposed to have
accepted that
message
Unfortunately they are not acting on it
today and this is the challenge which
faces the Muslim world today to go back
to the
Quran and to bring that message to
humankind back to
life to make
it the
core the basic source of
guidance
determining how they live their lives
how they relate to their
wives how do they relate to their
children their community
bringing that Quran
alive this is the
challenge the Quran a message to all of
[Music]
[Applause]
humankind jazak Dr abuin bil Philips for
your very elucidative and very
insightful talk on the subject of the
day the Quran a message to mankind now
we would
have the more interesting question and
answer
session and uh Dr Bal
is one of the very erudit and
well-informed and well-versed one of the
most eminent speakers in
English on Islam in the world today and
we are fortunate to have him here at the
10day International
Conference you may put forward your
question to Dr
Bal on the topic the Quran a message to
mankind it should be brief and to the
point you may ask only one question at a
time even if you have more than one
question put the priority wise
question
ahead non-muslims brothers and sisters
would be given preference to ask their
questions first and then only our Muslim
brothers and sisters would be given
preference questions on
slips I am sure would not be given a
chance but seeing the number of people
already lining up at the mics and that
we have to finish at 10
p.m. kindly state your name and
profession so that Dr Bal Phillips can
give you a more appropriate response
respon and understand your question in
better educational
context maybe again allow the first
question from the sister's side we'll
have one question from the sister's side
as we had earlier and two questions from
the brother's side again a question from
the sister's side and so on and so forth
yes Salam alikum my name is Ashraf
self-employed is it okay okay to make
dawa in our own style
except the style of the way
of sahu alaihi wasallam or which is
ordered according to Quran I mean like
the best of word is word of Allah and
the best of way of life is the life of
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam except
this is there any way or is is that okay
to make dawa to people who are not in
the right
path okay the question as to methods of
calling people or explaining to people
Islam whether these
methods are
limited to those employed by the prophet
may God's peace and blessings be upon
him or whether we can use other
methods as in our
time the
internet wasn't around 1,400 years ago
so the prophet didn't use the internet
so do we say then since the prophet did
what he was commanded by Quran that we
cannot use the internet as a means to
convey The Message of Islam to others no
we don't look at it in that limited
sense
what we look at is that the prophet may
God's peace and blessings be upon Him
used whatever means were available to
him to convey that message whatever
means which didn't involve Haram he
utilized them whatever was available at
his time so therefore if there are other
means which become possible now the
telephone the television the internet
these other various forms of
media then we utilize it the prophet in
his day may God's peace and blessing be
upon him when he wanted to convey the
message to his people he climbed up on
top of a mountain called the people the
people gathered this was his means of
Media communication on top of the
mountain everybody could see him and he
could say the message to everybody
that's the best that he could do at that
time now we have a television which will
broadcast it across the world we don't
question well the prophet s wasallam
didn't use television so therefore we
shouldn't use television today so what
we do
is utilize whatever media means are
available to
us
however where we find
principles not media but principles
wherein people try to convey the message
in a way which contradicts the way of
the Prophet may God's peace and blessing
be upon Him here's now when we say no we
don't want to use that method because it
is not keeping with the method of
prophet Muhammad sallallah alaihi
wasallam so for example if it was
suggested to us in order to win over the
hearts of some of the people in our
community we go to their
Temple
right and participate in their acts of
worship in order to get closer to them
and to build friendship so that they may
come into our place of worship and learn
about the message we say no that method
is not
acceptable and so on and so forth
yes brother uh good evening uh my name
is yantra I'm a businessman I want to
ask you one question I understand that
the Quran is a way to reach heaven I'm
not sure whether I'm right or wrong that
is what is my
interpretation if it is correct then
what happens to people who don't have
exposure or ability to understand Quran
like what happens to some tribals living
in Deep Forest where they have no means
to reach Quran what is their fate okay
reading of the
Quran understanding its
message and living in accordance with
its message is a way to
Paradise no doubt
however it doesn't mean
that those who didn't read the
Quran cannot go to
paradise we have examples even from the
prophet's
life
where one of the people who accepted
Islam accepted it before a
battle joined in the battle and died
without ever reading anything from the
Quran he didn't make a single prayer
and the prophet said that he would be
among the people of
paradise so the
fundamental key to
Paradise is the acceptance of God in
one's life the true God and to commit
oneself to worship him
alone that is the main key the Quran
explains that key in detail and how to
apply it throughout your life and God
has sent messages to human beings
throughout the world those who didn't
receive the
message in its pure
form or with sufficient Clarity to be
able to accept
it then God does not hold them to
account because he is the one who
destined how and in what circumstances
they were born and as Prophet Muhammad
may God's peace and blessing be upon Him
explained to us in some of his
statements ments that those people to
whom the message didn't reach they are
known
ASAT the people who were in a state
where the message didn't reach them such
people prior to the final judgment will
be brought
back and a Messenger will be sent to
them from God and they will be commanded
to believe in God and to obey the
messenger and those who obey him will
then go on to Paradise those who do not
will go on to
hell yes
sister asalam alaykum my name is zbi
Siddiki I'm a dental student uh brother
I'd like to ask you that uh the Quran in
spite of being so Advanced and
compatible with science or whatever in
spite of it being like that why is it
that the umah has distanced itself from
it
the
reason why
Muslims no
longer read the Quran as it should be
read has historical
Origins we have a
legacy in the early Generations when
Islam spread out of
Arabia
people learn learned the Arabic
language and the Quran was read and
understood however in
time when Colonial Powers entered into
the Muslim world and subjugated Muslim
countries the process of their languages
evolving into Arabic was stopped so
Generations were raised who did not know
Arabic it came came to be the language
known only to the priest class the
maanas and the mulis they're the only
ones who knew it and that's why a need
arose for
translation and those mananas and mulis
were opposed to the
translation they had vested interest Etc
or in ignorance not understanding that
the understanding of the message was
critical so translations appeared and
people had an opportunity to read it
more and to understand it more but in
spite of those translations from most
Muslims they're still living the legacy
of that earlier period where Muslims
didn't know Arabic and didn't know what
the Quran said and in that period of
time the reading of the Quran for
Baraka for the blessing of reading it
became such a standard a standard custom
that it requires generations to break
people have to be educated they have to
understand that this way this
inheritance this Legacy of the past is
an evil
Legacy it wasn't good and it needs to be
changed we need to go back and learn the
Arabic language make it a part of our
Educational Systems and at the same time
spread the translations make it well
known make sure that our children who
are growing up understand the Quran that
they read whether in Ramadan or outside
of Ramadan yes
brother my name isan from hyad my
parents were
non-muslims and they believe on Lord
Allah but they won't accept the Islam on
behalf of wrongdoing
Muslims is there any solution for my
parents to accept Islam because I don't
want to see him the hell
tomorrow welcome to Islam first and
foremost welcome to
Islam secondly you have to be
patient you have to be
patient how long ago did you accept
Islam years two years
ago let me tell you
that my parents took 21 years to accept
Islam if I were to have given up on them
after two years that would have been
Injustice so what you have to be first
and foremost is
patient and continue to convey the
message and and be the best example of
that message when they see Islam in your
life how it has changed you made you a
better person then it will have the
impact on
them yes
sister my question is as you said the
sahaba and Muhammad sallallah alaihi
wasam they would take 10 hour and try to
understand them before going to the next
10 so my question is how did the sahaba
and rasool s.
wasam understand the scientific verses
of the
Quran okay as I explained before maybe
you missed that point in my lecture that
at the
scientific points that we are finding
out
today and with each few years we find
out more and
more these signs which Allah spoke about
were understood in a general
sense for example the description of the
development of the embryo that I spoke
about that the people of the time
accepted Allah said it was this way and
they said it must have been that
way they didn't have a means to go and
check it they just accepted it because
believing in God accepting Allah into
our lives means believing in whatever he
has informed us so they accepted it when
he said that he sent down
iron they understood it that he gave
gave them iron it wasn't necessary for
them to know that iron didn't exist in
the earth until it came from
extraterrestrial
sources that didn't need to be known
they dug it up from the earth as they
dug up other things and they accept that
it all came from God so it wasn't a
problem so what happens is that those
verses that we speak about they describe
a variety of different natural phenomena
in the world earlier Generations when
they saw these verses they just accepted
them and they acted upon them similarly
for
example in the Sunnah of the Prophet may
God's peace and blessing be upon him he
instructed people in his his time to do
certain things which people just did in
our times we come to find out that they
have this benefit that benefit or the
other benefit for example he told his
companions not to sleep on their
stomachs he told them not to sleep lying
on their
stomachs when he told the companions
that they just gave it up it might have
felt nice might have been comfortable
but they switch to sleeping on their
sides or on their
backs in recent times in the
last 20
years medical the medical profession has
established on one hand that sleeping on
the stomach causes the ailment known as
sway back curvature of the spine where
old people walk and they can't
straighten them their backs it is the
main cause and so they advise people not
to sleep on your
stomachs furthermore it sleeping on the
stomach has been identified in the UK as
the main cause of cut death children are
put to sleep in the age of two or three
and the parents go back and find them
dead not knowing how why when they
researched into this they found that one
of the most common factors of these
children was that they were put to sleep
on their stomachs so it was announced
back in 1989 Front Page News doctors
warn people away from putting their
children to sleep on their stomachs in
1989 by 199 97 when they looked at the
rate of cut death they found that it had
dropped by nearly
70% from that
advice so the benefit was
there and that's why belief in the
prophet as belief in Allah means we
accept what he has told us as truth
similarly belief in the prophet means
may God's peace and blessing be upon him
that whatever he has informed us is the
whole truth truth and nothing but the
truth