people of course call the gospel books
Matthew Mark Luke and John well they
call the Matthew Mark Luke and John
because we don't know who wrote these
books and there's no point calling them
Sam Fred Jerry and Harry I mean they're
they're written by people we don't know
who they were written by they are
anonymous can you make any comparison
with that in the Quran there were many
Christians who began to question the
doctrine of the Trinity now to the
question did you as someone now who
attained his doctorate did you have some
of the same struggles when you went
because you went deep you took a deep
dive you my father went to the
Philadelphia College of Bible and I
definitely wasn't convinced that that
Christianity was correct why why weren't
you convinced of Christianity
dr. Tiger white is a published academic
an experienced entrepreneur and
instructor of Islamic studies in
comparative religion during his 21 years
of studying and teaching in Saudi Arabia
he attained several degrees including a
doctorate in theology he was also the
only American ever to be appointed to
teach in the prophets alehsalaam
mosque and Medina the second holiest
site in the Muslim world
dr. Tahoe currently lectures both
nationally and internationally at
mosques universities and other
institutions of learning he serves as
the executive director of the United
Muslim ushered in Philadelphia and is
the president of the Quran Arabic and
reflection Institute and he's here with
us on the Deen show
Salaam alaikum how are you doing sure
how are you it's very nice to finally
meet up with you it's been a few years
are you trying to teach other laws the
best of planners now in this part of
what I was reading at the end what
really caught my attention also was the
reflection Institute this is part of
your your Academy what had you in a
state of reflection where many people
are in a state of all sorts of other
things beyond what they really should be
reflecting on on the purpose of life why
am I here why have I been created but
you started to deeply reflect that you
actually left Philadelphia ended up in
Saudi Arabia and became a doctor in
Islamic studies begin with the praise of
a loss and a piece of blessings upon his
messenger Mohammed the final messenger
sent to mankind so there's a few things
to kind of unpack that question right
the first is what do we mean by
reflection when we're talking about
Quran Arabic and reflection the the
reflection is actually what what Allah
calls us to do with the Quran right he
says FLA it's a double una al-quran
not reflect over the Quran didn't have
ponder and contemplate so the issue is
not just that we read a book it's
understanding what we read and then
after that understanding comes the next
level which is which is contemplation
right because if you can understand what
somebody says but if you're not thinking
about it and really contemplating over
it then your understanding may be
somewhat superficial right so the
reflection part is of the Institute
right when it comes to the name of the
Institute is that we're trying to teach
people the the language of the Quran
which is Arabic we're teaching them the
recitation of the Quran and how to
memorize the Quran which is the Quran
part and then the reflection part is a
little deeper because that goes into
various Islamic Sciences that would
allow somebody to be one who better
Ponder's the The Book of Allah what what
led meet so the second part of your
question which is the the reflection
part that kind of led me on my journey
to learning more about Islam was a
reflection of our life in general and
and that was believe it or not I mean
looking back on it was somewhat of an
early age because I guess I was about I
was 15 when I accepted Islam and it was
at that point that I began to ask myself
those what they call the big questions
right philosophers call the big
questions and one of those questions is
what is life really about right I mean
you get to a certain point where you've
done you've accomplished certain goals
that you've had or you you begin to
ponder about life as a whole and you
look at the society around you people's
lives in front of you and and people
that are older than you and then you
start to ask yourself wait a minute what
is this really all about and you know
how many that there were other
circumstances that led to to an
accelerated pondering if you will and
then I'll come back you know finally
entering into the Deen of Allah subhana
WA Adam and then you know pursuing my
studies overseas I compared it to being
on a plane right or you just popped up
on a plane and then you know there is
some entertainment that you can be
indulgent in on the plane but you know
someone
would want to know like how did I end up
on his plane and the plane is about to
land where am I about to land I mean
that's the exam and then yeah no no it
really is you can kind of compare the
life's journey today
right especially for but some people
that the problem is and use that analogy
of entertainment some people are
actually drugged by entertainment right
I mean it's it's a narcotic or it can or
it can become once so much so that it
takes people's minds off of the journey
as a whole and they get caught up right
there in the entertainment phase and
they don't think about life as a whole
you know at that point in my life I was
I was in Philadelphia which is where I
was born and raised not not to sound
like a Will Smith introduction right but
literally I was I was raised in West
Philadelphia and at that point you know
after high school I went to Temple
University for in Philadelphia for a few
semesters and then I got a scholarship
to study at the University of Modena and
that's where the journey took another
another turn right because the more you
learn and the more you become let's just
say the more you are exposed to the
Islamic Sciences the better chance you
have to reflect over the Quran and about
life in general were your family mother
and father were they Muslim no no what
was your background before Islam so it
was an interesting journey I was to be
honest with you it's it's the it's the
American story a lot of us just grow up
without religion and that's kind of that
was kind of my story I grew up without
religion I think at one point I
considered myself to be an atheist
though looking back on it I'm not sure
how convinced that was that there wasn't
a guy which is what atheism is and I
probably was more of an agnostic which
was which is to not really be sure and
to not really care to be eyes with you
so I think that that was my journey was
very typical American journey of not
really caring too much about religion
as a whole and then but I was to be eyes
with you I was not convinced of
Christianity so I had a lot of members
of my family who were Christian not my
parents but many you know other members
of my family and I definitely wasn't
convinced that that Christianity was
correct why why weren't you convinced of
Christianity because Christianity rests
on the concept of the Trinity and the
Trinity really is I mean for people who
do any type of deep dive into the
Trinity it really does not make sense
and in fact there are many Christians
who themselves came to that conclusion
and you know with the Protestant
Reformation in the in the 16th century
and Christians beginning to have more
access to the Bible and begin to read
the Bible for themselves and not depend
on the you know hierarchy of
interpretation that existed you know
within the Catholic Church and in to
some degree also within the Eastern
Orthodox Church what happened was there
were many Christians who began to
question the doctrine of the Trinity
they still believed in the messengership
of Christ they still believed that he
was an exceptional human being that he
was sent from God and so forth but they
did not believe that they did not
believe in the concept of a Trinity or a
triune Godhead and so they that actually
you know there was several Christian you
know sects that were formed after the
Protestant Reformation in a sixteenth
century where they did they just didn't
believe in the Trinity and they base
that on doctrine they base that on the
scripture that they had with them you
know the specifically the New Testament
but also taking from what they would
call you know what Christians would call
the Old Testament and what Jews would
call the Hebrew Bible how did you get
exposed to Islam I mean it was it was
through individuals specifically one
individual who just you know kind of
gave me some literature books to read
about his land that was my
major exposure I mean I I think that at
that time we're talking about the early
90s Islam was definitely not in the
media the way that it is today you know
wasn't just like all over the place it's
that right now is for somebody to say
they never heard of his name that would
be far-fetched not that they've heard
the correct message but that they've
never heard of the term or they've never
heard of Muslims that would be
far-fetched but back in it back in the
90s it wasn't necessarily that
far-fetched back then but also I think
in certain urban populations
you know Islam was you know somewhat
known and so it wasn't like I had never
heard of this land I've never read
anything about Islam so there was there
was particularly one person who you know
introduced me to certain books and
through those books I began to my heart
you know unless Panchala began to open
up my heart to the to the idea of
becoming a Muslim we see how important
Dawa is sharing if you really care like
this individual did he cared about you
and he shared he shared some educational
materials and look what happened from
there it's amazing you know you know I
think that I actually think there was a
lot more sharing in the 90s and and then
when 9/11 happened I think a lot of
Muslims kind of shied away from Dowell
only because you know there was a big
push to kind of paint all Muslims with
one brush and all Muslims are terrorists
and this type of thing
yeah a lot of good came out of that
because you know Muslims began to
understand the importance of being a
little bit more proactive you know and
being kind to their neighbors and
engaging people but I think that also
what happened with that was a desire to
I want to call it a simile but a desire
to placate to you know to kind of just
be like hey we're all the same and it
wasn't like that before you know we I
think we were a little bit more
confident about Islam being the true
religion right and later it became it
changed that message changed because we
felt this huge reject
from from society as a whole we felt
this you know alienation all of these
people are terrorists and I think we
wanted to counter that narrative and and
so encountering that narrative I think
we've lost which is important by the way
I mean I do think it's important that we
you know show people the beauty of our
religion but but not to lose that
message of the oneness of Allah the
oneness of our Creator his uniqueness
and his right to be worshipped alone and
the finality of the message of Muhammad
SAW Allah Allah
what were some of the things a few
things about Islam that had you so
enamored by it that obviously took you
to a whole nother level that you got
your doctor in Islamic studies well I
mean that was that's a real long journey
there but I would say that the initially
what made me interested in Islam is that
it made sense you know the concept of
one creator that the creator created us
with a purpose so that he's a wise
creator that that purpose was
communicated to us through messengers
that the final of those messengers was a
name a man named Mohammed Eve and I did
not
maybe peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him and that he you know he
revealed to Muhammad even have been that
a book that book is called the Farhat
and that that book would remain
preserved and untampered with until the
day of judgment and that there is a day
of judgment and that we will be
accountable like all of those things
actually made sense to me and that's
that is what initially led to me you
know becoming a Muslim of course we
believe that Allah is the one who puts
that guidance in our hearts and so but
in terms of just for me let's just call
it a cognitive perspective and my own
mental abilities that made sense whereas
there were you know several other
religions that I read about including as
I mentioned before Christianity
where I wasn't able to connect the dots
and it didn't work for me mm-hmm did you
I've interviewed I had hamdullah I've
had opportunity to interview a lot of
people over the years and people who
have also taken that journey in life to
search for the purpose of life and they
found all the evidence and everything
that captivated them and convinced them
that Islam was the truth but they had to
go through a journey a lot of times it's
like the Creator God Almighty Allah had
them taste a little bit of this little
bit of that until they finally came to
the truth tasted the truth and they're
like this is 100% it some of them were
from the Christian background and many
of them and this is not to to belittle
anybody's religion or anything but the
truth of the matter was that when they
went deep into the studies and they
studied textual criticism and they went
deep into the text they found that there
was different there was problems there
and this actually had them in a
crossroads and many of them relate their
stories that they had to because there
were certain things in the Bible that
were not in some of the earliest
manuscripts and you being a student of
comparative religion you also know about
these things that I'm discussing so they
they were the crossroads either they're
gonna start preaching things that are
not in in the some of the earliest texts
not to mention that there was no
original text and this led them away
from what they were upon now to the
question did you as someone now who
attained his doctorate did you have some
of the same struggles when you went
because you went deep you took a deep
dive you went deep into studying Islam
did you come across anything with the
Quran anything anything that you know
was you know put created doubts in your
heart or did you just the more you
studied did your Iman and Islam
increased to a whole nother level so let
me just say two things insha'Allah
number one I'm glad that you began by
talking about some of the people who
you've come across who have done their
own deep dive in Christianity and then
wound up you know not believing
the that the text was from God directly
right really questioning the what we
would call the caddesi or the the
holiness of the of the Bible now let me
because there's two things there number
one that stands out in my mind is dr.
Gerald Dirk's may Allah have mercy on
him well I know you've had the pleasure
of meeting in person and I've I've had
you know conversations with him in the
past and I benefitted tremendously from
his books to be honest I think that you
know his first book that I can remember
coming out the cross in a crescent it's
a it's a great read let me let me let me
just for the audience I don't know this
was also someone who had a master's in
divinity finished from Harvard
University he was all he was a a
Christian preacher was it our Deacon
Deacon yeah and he accepted me in the
same year um three amazing the Layla
grant him Jenna yes I mean so so I want
to tell you also my father went to the
Philadelphia College of Bible he was it
was a youth minister your father my
father yes the Bible and I guess this
was the the late 60s and and then that
is actually when he began to study the
Bible and the history of the Bible and
it's compilation and so forth that's
when my father left Christianity so you
remember I told you I wasn't raised as a
Christian I had a lot of Christians at
my family I wasn't raised that way and
from a very early age you know my father
you know shared with me his experience
with the study of Christianity and why
he left Christianity specifically
because he had problems with the with
the Bible and how it was compiled for
for me as you mentioned doing a deep
dive so I think there's a there's a
couple things I like to say here and I
hope you still if you bear with me the
the first thing is that Islam has
sciences and disciplines and
specialities and just be
a person has a doctorate does not mean
that they are a specialist in everything
so I want to qualify that my doctor is
in theology specifically my doctorate
was on the Unitarian movement and their
critique of Trinitarian doctrine so
which was done in the Arabic language
but was a was more a a study of
Christian movements and then there was
obviously a big comparison with the
Islamic viewpoint on many of those
topics so I want to qualify that I'm not
a the the Quran and Kira act or the
different modes of recitation and have
seen it and and so forth that has its
own it's its own science it has its own
sub categories or sub disciplines if you
will and there are people who spend
their whole life studying that I'm not
one of them but I'll hunt Allah Allah
hangs out of less than me obviously I
mean when a Muslim studies no matter
what they study even if it's you know
far away from you know even if it's
fifth core hadith or whatever because
the Quran is our basic text that is our
basic source it is the speech of Allah
obviously we give it a lot of attention
and the other thing I want to say before
I ask you a question is that I think
it's also very important that people
realize that these type of interviews
that you and I are doing are to raise
awareness right these are not
educational seminars where people
themselves are going to be able to you
know go deep and should not expect us to
go very deep you know because we're
dealing with an interview setting and
the education should not be limited and
I'm saying this because we live in an
era man where a lot of people cannot
read more than 140 characters at a time
you know it's like man you know more
than a tweet is very difficult for them
to read and we we have to get back to to
our literacy you know the first thing
that Allah spent Xyloto revealed to the
Prophet was if cannot read write or I
mean another translation probably more
accurate is recite but the the point is
that emphasis on knowledge and and and
literacy
is very important for us from the
Islamic perspective and we should not
get caught up into the mainstream
culture which is really dumbing down you
know who we are by this information
overload and changing the way that we
receive information and so I think is I
just want to point that out
put that out there right now because I
think it's it's an appropriate point to
mention to get to your question which is
did my deep dive in the sciences of
Islam or my study of Islam did that
caused me to doubt or did it raise my
faith and I would say without a doubt it
has increased me an amen well humbly now
the the knowledge that we get actually
erases doubt it doesn't create them and
even even when you expose yourself let's
just say to some of the critics of
because every religion has its critics
for various reasons but even when you
expose yourself to to some critique for
a person who is well grounded and reads
those critiques and asks Allah for his
life and for his guidance then I'm
telling you that the majority of the
time you will find an answer that is
very clear of where you end up and that
makes the road clear so I will say this
my study of the Quran and the sciences
of the Quran has confirmed you know what
we have what we know and believe to be
the truth as Muslims which is that the
Quran that we have today is the Quran
that was revealed to the Prophet
Muhammad SAW below I think it was enough
I'll tell you something and then if you
have specific questions we can you can
go through it in about a decade ago my
mother visited me in Saudi Arabia and my
mother is not a Muslim and we were
riding around and in Jeddah and at the
time of prayer so a mother dove time he
had time if we were out as you know
everything kind of stops right all of
the
stores shut down even if you're in a
mall everything shuts down when the
event is called the call to prayer and
then we go and we pray okay the reason
why I mention this is because my mother
not being a Muslim she would sit in the
car right
oh boy side through the master and pray
but the there's loudspeakers outside the
messages so you hear the Quran being
recited outside the messages my mother
really liked the recitation and you know
she would ask me about it and then it
really hit me and I said Subhan Allah
this this Quran has been being recited
like this allowed three prayers a day we
pray five times a day but three of them
are loud right the the frigid prayer at
dawn the mother to prayer at sunset and
there's a prayer which is you know at
night and I'm saying to myself look at
how Allah preserved his Quran not just
the physical written copies of the Quran
but it was preserved in the hearts of
men and women and it's been being
recited out loud it's a public book see
if you look back at the history of of
the Bible the New Testament in the Old
Testament these were not public books
they were reserved to a certain
religious class right that would then
read and interpret it for the layman to
you know the rank and file of that
particular religion but the core I was
never like that look where I'd has
always been a public book it's always
been recited out loud and that should be
is amazing because that is part of the
preservation of the cry so if somebody
makes a mistake when they're reciting
somebody else's you know and I'm sure
you know most of the Muslims here have
experienced this praying totally you
know in Ramadan when the man makes a
mistake what happens somebody somebody
behind him correction and so this has
been going on for you know 1,500 1,400
in you know 40 years right I mean this
this to me was and it hit me at that
moment and it's not that it you know
nobody else has ever had this
flexion but I was saying to myself Wow
my mother is here listening to the Quran
and this Quran has been recited every
day allow for the last fourteen hundred
and forty years I mean amazing that is
something that is truly amazing it's a
miracle it's something that has
convinced so many people that Islam is
deed in the true because you have a
living miracle the Quran recently you
you've had and this is nothing new
you've had nefarious attempts by by some
missionaries to try to attack the Quran
and and this is something that yesterday
I had I had a I had a nice talk I I met
some Romanian Christians usually
Romanians are Orthodox Christian but the
other dock yeah but these were a
Pentecostal they're here in America and
we almost spoke for like two hours and
they were really engaging I had to go I
was I really had to leave but but they
were really you know excited about
speaking and trying to share their faith
with me and I was really trying to not
offend them but at the same time to get
a point the point across of the true
monotheism the true message of Jesus
peace be upon him and and I and I didn't
because it becomes sometimes like you
know okay the ego gets involved a lot of
times like back and forth and you you
feel like you have to prove your point
and sometimes you offend someone and
they offend you and back and forth but
at the end of the day it was like let me
let me share the truth with them and I
actually even got a Romanian I called
that we have a brother who's Romanian he
accepted Islam I don't know if you you
know him brother Jew real I got him on
the phone to talk with them he's from
their culture make a long story short
the point was that I relayed the truth
and I left them with a good experience
of a Muslim so even at the end I said
when I said I said I want you to
remember one thing before we leave that
a Muslims believe in one and only one
God we worship like Jesus we're not
terrorists and I want you to speak for
Islam even if you don't accept it
tomorrow even though I've you know I've
relate all these troops to you we had a
great time we departed not as enemies
but actually as as decent human amis
would
so there was no evil and nefarious
attempt on my side to try to smash
someone put someone down so now when I
share this next video with you leading
into this it's not my attempt nor I'm
sure it's not yours ever to try to
create enemies or to try to us depict
Christianity or to insult any Christians
but this is our humble attempt to try to
share the truth with people so I'm going
to share this video with you and then we
can contrast that with some of the
deliberate attempts and you when you
look a lot of times at what many of
these people are doing they twist the
truth they lie and this is something
that we can we can learn from that we
don't fall into these traps because we
have the truth and when truth comes
against falsehood it's it's it's bound
to perish as God Almighty says so let me
let me get into this video I want to get
your reaction and then we'll connect it
with this topic that we're talking about
the Koran people of course call the
gospel books Matthew Mark Luke and John
well they call the Matthew Mark Luke and
John because we don't know who wrote
these books and there's no point calling
them Sam Fred Jerry and Harry I mean
they're they're written by people we
don't know who they were written by they
are anonymous you might not think so
because they have the title the Gospel
according to Matthew whoever put that
title on it was an editor later the
followers of Jesus were Aramaic speaking
peasants from Galilee lower-class men
who were not educated in fact Peter and
John in Acts chapter 4 verse 13 are
literally said to be illiterate they
couldn't read and write of course not
they were fishermen they didn't go to
school the vast majority of people in
the ancient world never learned to read
let alone write and their native
language was Aramaic these books are
written in Greek by highly educated
rhetorically trained writers who are
skilled in Greek composition okay so now
the the whole purpose you got to see
that yes the whole purpose of my kind of
semi-long introduction was that as I was
talking to these Christians I had to
because sometimes you get timid you
to relay the truth and you feel like
okay am I gonna offend him or whatnot
but I try to show that my intention is
not to offend you or nor do I have a
nefarious agenda but it's just because I
care about you now here we're sharing
this why I share this is not like Oh our
team your team I got one on you you see
but these are just these are this is an
academic we're sharing things that are
very clear this is not something hidden
it's out there and because I care about
you I'm sharing it now on the flip side
we've had some controversy now regarding
the Quran and we have we've had some
people start to attack the very book
that we say is a miracle that has been
preserved because there was some reading
into some statements that another
scholar said and they deliberately went
in and they look for you know like God
Almighty Allah tells us there are clear
verses in the Quran clear then there are
some verses not so clear but the people
whose hearts are twisted people who have
evil intentions they go for this unclear
so there was some unclear vague things
that the Islamic scholar said but in no
way did he ever discredit the Quran
being authentic and having it preserved
as we have it today but they capitalized
on this and now you have people who
already have some shaky faith maybe
they're left with some doubts and now
who knows where their faith can go from
here and be shattered so do we have let
me ask you explicitly when you watch
this video is there any comparison that
you can make when you went deep and you
dwell deep and you dove as far you know
very far into Islam that you can now
like this academic here that he's coming
out now and saying what he's saying you
know that these books from Matthew Mark
Luke and John they're not actually from
them we don't have a copy of a copy of a
copy of anything original can you make
any comparison with that in the Quran no
no I mean it's it's two totally totally
different realms of of study and and
that is because as I mentioned to you
before the Quran was not just preserved
look the the New Testament as we have it
today
no Christian claims that it was written
by God that
not that's not the claim of the
Christians the the claim of the
Christians is that the authors and they
recognize that the New Testament has
several authors but Eddie stay with me
man because I want us to really get this
point down because we we first have to
even look at the claims of both sides
before we say okay can we compare so so
Christians I'm saying scholars and non
scholars alike amongst the Christians
they do not claim that God is the author
of the New Testament the New Testament
has several different books and pistils
half of them almost written by paul who
was was an enemy of christ right and did
not write these and pistols until after
the alleged crucifixion of Christ
Matthew Mark Luke and John whoever they
may be right whoever they may be they
they are not God I mean I'm saying even
according to Christians they were
inspired according to Christians they
were inspired by God to write their
accounts their Gospels and so so we're
not talking about the authorship here of
the creator himself I think that's very
important to cut to the side and then we
look at the clear distinction between
you know John is it's almost I mean most
of the Christian scholars you know will
tell you that John did not meet Christ
and I'm talking about the author of the
the gospel or the one that's attributed
to John the point being is that that's
one side with the Quran we are claiming
as Muslims that this is the verbatim
speech of the creator that was revealed
to the Prophet Muhammad through the
angel jibreel and that that was done if
we talk if we look about that if we look
at the compilation of the core I we're
talking about three main stages right
the compilation that was done during the
lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad SAW the
love idea was of themself
and so the Quran was revealed to him he
recited it to his companions he had over
20 scribes one of the main one of his
you know the main scribe was a timid
abbot brother alongside any who but he
had many other scribes they would write
down the Quran as he recited it to them
the other thing that we have to look at
here is that it there was a written text
and there was the oral tradition of that
text which is amazing because even the
Greek so you saw that Bart Ehrman there
how he's referring to the fact that the
followers of Jesus were you know Aramaic
speaking people and that the Bible the
New Testament that we have today or the
oldest manuscripts are Greek and so you
know there's a there's a discrepancy
there but even the Greek that is written
we don't know how to pronounce it
it was not passed down in oral form yet
you understand this this is the
difference between the Quran the Quran
was written down and it was memorized so
it was it was preserved both both in its
written form and phonetically right
which is amazing because the science of
phonetics didn't reach the the English
language until the 19th century right I
mean so we don't even know how
Shakespeare spoke like that wasn't
passed down to us so it's it's quite
interesting so that being said we have
this first stage which was during the
lifetime of the Prophet himself okay
this nobody claimed nobody claims that
any of these were written during the
lifetime of Christ okay so now we take
it a step further after the prophets of
light he was someone passed the first
Khalif for the first caliph who was the
leader of all of the Muslims after the
Prophet Muhammad his name was Abu Bakr
Siddiq they may have lost faith I'll be
pleased with him and what happened was
there was a battle the Battle of Yamana
it was called in the 12th year after
regional and so the prophesy shall have
died in the eleventh year after the July
and the twelfth year after the hit was
this battle is called the Battle of the
Amana
and many of the people who were known to
be the who father those who had
memorized the entire Quran many of them
were killed in that battle and so Roma
love your lover and who happens to be
the second cut Eva
he went to a bucket and he says to him
you know I fear that the Quran you know
we in order to preserve the Quran and
keep it from being lost for generations
and to keep it for posterity we need to
compile the Quran in a written form into
one book so during the lifetime of the
Prophet
it wasn't compiled in one book the
different scribes of the Prophet had you
know had it written in a they obviously
they weren't writing on paper at that
time um they were writing on you know
leather skins they were writing on bones
specifically the shoulder bone of the
the camel which which is a long you know
bone eat to write on so the point is
that it was it was scattered in the
lifetime of the privacy some in its
written form in terms of him being
memorized but many of the contains who
have memorized the Quran from sort of
some Fatiha until sort of to next the
yet first after to the hundred and
fourteen chapter during the time of a
bucket it was compiled into one
compilation one codex you know here from
cover to cover and then the third stage
if you will of of compilation of the
crime happened during the Caliphate of
with men whether you love wine and the
the reason why is because when some of
the companions came back from what is
now called Azerbaijan and maybe it was
called that then I'm not sure but what
happened was many of the Muslims from
the various Iman taught if you will so
you have the Caliphate right which is
the whole thing and then under that
there are different governorships we can
call them right so it's kind of like I
mean if you wanted to compare it to
today there's
like this federal and then there's like
you know state levels so you know you
have Muslims coming from Damascus
Muslims coming from kusa Muslim coming
from different places and they all come
together and what they found was that
there were variations and their
recitation of the Quran okay and that is
because the Quran was revealed to the
prophets of allah oh allah some of them
on a sobriety a health okay so these are
what they call the seven horse of the
quran now what is a huff well there's
different ways that you can translate
like that but let's just for the sake of
ends let's call them dialects right so
the prophets of allah he was seldom when
the quran' was being revealed to him and
he's cora she right there are Arabs of
other places who have different ways of
expressing themselves like if we kind of
looked at it like the english's of the
world in America if you want to buy
something to play basketball in Eddy
what do you call those things that you
put on your feet
jumpers not know which would eat yet
sneakers sneakers yes jumpers right I
thought in America we call them sneakers
yes sneakers but but in England they
call them trainers trainers jumpers
trainer sneakers right no no they're all
synonymous but they are different words
all right they are different words but
they're all synonymous and so the Arabs
likewise they had different you know
ways that they express themselves I
think this is important for us to kind
of understand so for I'll give you
another example in America we buy our
baby's diapers right yes in England they
call them nappies yeah tomato tomahto
pronunciation okay right these are
actually different words here that we're
talking about so I'm gonna I'm gonna
call them diapers and England they're
gonna call them they're gonna call them
Athens so like
the Quran was revealed in different
dialects to the prophets of the light it
was sullen because his but it was all
Arabic but it was revealed so that
various tribes would not find difficulty
in the cry what happened after the
lifetime of the Prophet I think it's
Elijah was sedan and this is what
happened when the Muslims one time
Azerbaijan and then he came back to its
men and they said listen we fear that
there's going to be some contention
amongst this ummah and that we are going
to differ over our book the way that the
people of the scripture before us have
differed over their book so let's
standardize the crime we need to
standardize it put it on one heart and
that would be the heart of croatia okay
because the prophet isaiah salatu
wassalam
was from croatia and so this idea was
something that the companions came
together they agreed upon and Zaytoven
favics who was described of the prophet
idea solarz person who was also a
memorizer of the Quran by heart began to
bring the companions together who also
known to be scribes of the Prophet so
the light he was sun them and they
standardized the Quran under the
guidance of it with men
well the Allah who died and who also was
a scribe of the prophets of light of
asylum and who was virtuous and so what
we have now is the the Quran this is why
they call it there with many quarter I
write not because it looks man wrote the
crime but because he standardize the
language all of those what was revealed
to the Prophet I didn't select it was
sin
now again the scholars of Islam have
talked about this from the beginning
this is not some new Western criticism
of the Quran the scholars of Islam in
the past have differed over exactly what
does a harsh entail because we don't we
don't actually have the knowledge of
what existed now before the the
compilation that was done during the
lifetime with men so some of them said
that there was you know that some of the
Arab tribes preferred to speak in
singular
terms and others prefer to speak in
plural terms
I'll give you example today if I said
for example if I was to translate the
hadith of the practice a lot of us ever
believes men can t let me know below you
on your meal action funny or cool - oh
yes much
whoever believes huh whoever believes in
Allah and the last day let him say that
which is good or keep silent okay if I
was to translate that as those who
believe in Allah and the last day should
say that which is good or speak or or or
stay silent there's me saying who
whoever and those does that change the
meaning it doesn't change the me no
right but some people may prefer this
way and other people prefer that way so
it was known you know this is one of the
opinions that it was known that some of
the Arab tribes preferred one way over
another way and allows for has either
revealed to the prophets of light it was
sellin those different ways okay now
again what we can confidently say is
that the Quran that was removed that was
revealed to the Prophet idea of select
was - that was the Quran that was man
compiled there wasn't something in the
Quran that was man and compiled that was
not revealed so the Prophet ID is
selected was sedan that contains
themselves agree that this was the
standard version of the cry this was
done during the lifetime of it with man
which was only twenty years after the
death of the Prophet I do so like to say
that and then it was man told me told
say dab it dab it to make 5 copies of
that and that would be sent to the
different you know governance you know
in my right of the of the Muslim Ummah
at that particular time so once a
Damascus one the cool and so forth and
then I was man told the rest of the
Muslims who may have had their own
copies of the Quran that they began to
write down themselves right because we
didn't have a standardization process at
that point there was no publishing house
right where you could just print three
million copies and send them out that
didn't exist and so he told everybody
else to get rid of their person
copies of the Koran so that there
wouldn't be any you know contradiction
with the standardized version and so
some of them got rid of it by before you
say because with that ink you can take
it down to a river you can take it down
to the ocean an ink will go off the
pages out of respect for the Book of
Allah right out of the respect for the
words of Allah like even today you don't
just find a Muslim if even if you're
crying you know you've had the most hot
for a long time and it gets ripped you
don't just throw it in the garbage with
you know with food scraps we don't do
that out of respect for the Book of
Allah so at that time he told them to
get rid of it and so some of them burned
the crime right so I'm only mentioning
that because some of the Orientalists
they say you see he ordered with you
know it's man ordered that the qur'an's
be burnt as some as if this is some kind
of show of disrespect the opposite is
actually true and that's why I was
understand you know it's important to
understand cultural context that the
Quran was being burned the pages were
being burned out of respect for the
Quran so that it would not be you know
that the actual words of Allah would not
be mixed with you know other form like I
said food scraps or other just garbage
right and so some of them burn the Quran
some of them took it so that the you
know down to a to a river or ocean so
that the the ink would wash away the the
point is from that point on until today
we have had that one standard version of
the Quran the issue of al-qaeda act okay
which is which is where for example the
majority of the people today where a
customer majority of the Muslims we're
accustomed to hearing what is known
huffs and Allyson putting fish out the
beer and these variant readings of the
Quran are are different we talked about
before when we talk about the concept of
the heart or the dialect so the the
variant readings of the Quran the actual
must have that we have today and can't
compare it for example with the oldest
manuscripts of the Quran which at which
which date to the first century right so
so we're talking about in fact
I'm sure you're aware five years ago
approximately they found a manuscript at
the University of Birmingham Birmingham
easily right yes and and that manuscript
they carbon-dated it back to the
lifetime of the Prophet sort of light it
was someone yeah people can go check
this up this is a fact yes yeah this is
a fact
so they if you look at that one and you
compare it and you can do it you can
actually do it online like you can
actually pull up that main script online
and if you compare it to the moose hawk
that we have today
it matches letter for letter to and and
that is the only moose hat there is no
other Muslim there's no other Quran that
is out there so what happens if the
sometimes you know the missionaries
whether it's they're being disingenuous
or they really just don't know they'll
come and they'll compare the most half
of naphtha and lux for example which is
commonly read in North Africa like
Morocco Algeria Tunisia and then they'll
compare that with Hudson awesome right
they'll try to make that as if there is
a different version like King James
Version like ours V version not so the
skeleton what they call the the
continental skeleton right the
consonants of the Arabic language
because as you know the Arabic language
is it has consonants and then it has
what we would call diacritical mark so
the hell I can't write
so the consonants all remain the same
sometimes the dots are going to change
but the skeleton of the Quran does not
change cannot change has been the same
okay
the dots may change and that may may
offer somewhat of a different meaning
from a variant reading to another
variant reading but it you know again
these are these are very I'm not even
gonna call them discrepancies because
they're not discrepancies this is just
different variant readings of the Quran
and there's there is only one core I
know versions of the Quran as it was
revealed we have it
we have it today this is no doubt about
it Eddie and I I mean we have to
emphasize this point the Quran is a
recited book that is the that is the
origin of it right the the the Prophet
idea selected was sanam did not read
read or write he recited the Quran and
it was memorized and it was passed on
you know in an oral tradition in fact
just last night
alhamdulillah we have a young brother 17
years old he's not an Arab I want you to
look at this he's not an error if you
try to have a conversation with him in
Arabic we would not be able to hold a
conversation with you in Arabic he
finished last night his his memorization
of the Quran with ijazat meaning a
testimony to his mastery and proficiency
of recitation with a chain of narration
that goes back to the Prophet Muhammad
to gibreel to rub the lie to me
right so his Sheikh read to his Sheikh
who read to his Sheikh all the way back
to the Prophet Muslim align it with
something he's 17 years old and he's not
an error now what I'm saying is that I'm
saying this is just last night I mean as
you know I mean we have Quranic
competitions throughout the United
States throughout the world but the
reality is that this book is preserved
and there is no doubt about it it was
passed on through oral tradition before
we worried about the written text and
the written text is clear so it's been
passed down both with the written text
and we know how to recite that written
text and that's the difference even even
if we were to you know hypothetically
you know assume that the Greek Bible as
it is today right
or what they have in their manuscripts
was somehow you know what what was
written by the followers of Christ
during his lifetime how would we say
that's the part I think we take for
granted as Muslims yeah we take for
granted that we actually know how to
recite the Quran because there's a whole
science today right yeah but no no they
don't have so you when you when you
compare because some people may get
attached so much and put so much
emotional investment and
say let's say a watch that's actually
not gold or a counterfeit bill and then
they want to convince themselves that a
hundred percent this is real it's real
but we're just sharing to you the person
who's saying look take the test it's not
it's not really what it is to be and you
have something over here that it is a
hundred percent from your Creator from
my Creator so this is out of love and
concern and and and want to help
humanity the Christians agnostics
whoever we're pointing certain things
out and and also directing people to
examine what we have here that is indeed
from their Creator this is the creator
of the universe is the creator of all
mankind you have it here there's no
doubt about it how should someone deal
with the doubts we're almost out of time
but so for someone when these doubts
come because Shaitaan is the one who
wants to put these doubts out to confuse
people confuse the masses how should a
Muslim or or human being you know this
is thrown out so they put themselves on
their brain on hold or they go and they
follow their desires so I think it's
very important for us to emphasize that
for those who believe in a creator they
believe that they are created that they
must have good thoughts about their
creator and know that if they raise
their hands up to God and they call upon
him and they ask him for guidance that
it is not known throughout the history
of mankind that somebody calls upon
al-hadi the one who guides the creator
of the heavens and earth that one calls
upon him with sincerity truly asking for
guidance and then they're not guided it
may be a like you said before may be a
winding path the guidance will come and
so asking Allah asking the creator of
the heavens and earth for guidance is
essential do not rely on your own
abilities or your own intellect rely
upon the one who gave you those ability
if those abilities and who gave you your
intellect and who gave you your ability
to reason rely on him and he will guide
you to the truth one of the the prayers
that the Prophet Muhammad SAW the lida
was someone would make
the most in fact his wife umm Salama
probably allahu taala and said that this
was the dua
this was the prayer that she heard the
Prophet make the most yah mo Knievel
Kulu that bits can be added Enoch
allahumma ya mo Knievel Kaluga that bit
can be added Enoch
oh Allah Turner of the hearts make my
heart and keep my heart firm on your
Deen on your way on the way that is
pleasing to you this is something that
we should do frequently and often in
emulating our prophets of Allah do send
one other point just quickly do you do
we have to we know that God Almighty
Allah has promised to preserve the
verbatim words of God Almighty the
creator Allah this Quran we have it
memorized by millions to this day if you
were to burn all the Quran you lock them
up in a vault somewhere you would get
those people memorizes of Quran how fast
you'd come together like no other book
in the world if you threw all the
Bible's and oceans all of the texts
every other book out there you would not
be able to bring back any of those books
like you are able to bring back the
Quran so and that is the promise that's
the promise of Allah Allah says in the
fifteenth chapter of the Quran in naneun
is an advocate will another hula happy
but in that level a happy note indeed we
have sent down to you in the night moon
as Elna we have sent down the advocate
that is the reminder the Quran itself
what email a hula have done and truly
indeed we will preserve it we are the
ones who will preserve it so that is the
promise of allah subhanahu wa tada and
his promise is true we see that promise
being fulfilled we see not just that but
we see a blueprint for life the purpose
of life you have everything there to be
successful in this life in the hereafter
it's there in the quran do we as as
muslims do we have to fall in this
sometimes from the Western academics do
we have to how far do we go that we have
to sometimes just deconstruct everything
that we have to you know take everything
apart and know all the nuts and bolts
and we have like you just went eloquent
and you explain like four
every person you had two witnesses
coming you know you had the chief scribe
you get all of the the the main body the
meat potatoes is there but now can a
person get lost when you go into all of
the intricate nuts and details and all
of the house and you try to where do you
put your mind where do you say your mind
is like at a point where hold on it's
like a balance between now trying to put
together every single thing from just
the like for example like for example
you take a car you're not an expert area
and someone just takes apart a car
engine or anything else and for the
layman say ok you try to put it back
together when it's already been put
together for you Allah put it together
for you and it's been the promises come
true and that's that's exactly what I
was going to say there for those who are
well-versed well grounded in the Quran
they don't need to listen to me you tell
them how to how to study it and so forth
but but for those who are not well
grounded it should be enough for them as
a law says about himself in the Quran
often that he said you have any doubt
about Allah mm-hmm you know let us let
us you know we should in innately
innately we have a desire to to know our
creator and to and to submit to them
that is actually part of a part of our
human nature and so we don't need to go
around being these you know radical
skeptics who you know who just doubt
everything about life because that's
that is a very slippery slope and it
will lead to you know basically the the
Philosopher's dilemma about you know
life and in general and not even knowing
whether they exist or not or whether
they are you know part of the
imagination of some alien creation and
basically like we're all just living in
a video game because if you go down that
road there's no end to it I think it's
pretty clear for those who have some
basic understanding I'm specially
Muslims who have some basic
understanding of how the Quran was
compiled and how it was preserved from
the lifetime of the Prophet idea select
Allah said that should be enough
to know that indeed a la strada as he
promised them before I that he were
preserved that book and indeed that is
what he did let's end with this advice
now you came from Christian background
you became atheist agnostic you went all
the way out of your love for the truth
you went down you got your doctorate so
with your life experience now for advice
for the skeptic for the missionary for
the Christian for the agnostic for
anyone who's tuning in and they're
scratching their head they still haven't
figured out the purpose of life deaf is
around the corner what advice do you
have for them that is my advice
think about the inevitable and prepare
for that day that death is inevitable
and there is life after death and the
preparation for life after death is to
know what this life is about and to
totally know what this life is about we
have to have revelation they there has
to be the creator of life has to have
communicated to us that purpose and that
purpose is communicated eloquently in
the quran allah subhanahu wa da da tells
us in the Quran will not collect or
jindal an insect in Latty a boon that I
have not created jinn or mankind except
to worship me the concept of worship is
a very deep concept it does not stop at
ritual worship but what it entails is
that we dedicate our lives and we devote
our lives to the one who has created us
we fulfill his commands and we avoid his
prohibitions and with that we will
attain happiness and success in this
life and salvation in the next thank you
so much thank you so much for sharing
your time and your advisers well with us
thanks for having me Eddie hi thank you
mellow blushing rewards you and you too
may Salam alaikum Kolkata
and that was our special guest Sheikh
dr. Tahir white and inshallah this has
been a benefit it's beautiful that over
the years all the people that I've
interviewed the more that they have
engrossed themselves into the study of
Islam they've gotten well grounded in
the Deen so this is really important a
takeaway you got to get grounded well
grounded in the Deen people who have
gotten grounded or try to get grounded
man-made religions and usually it's the
man-made religions that even just pushed
she's one of Satan's traps to push
people away from the right way the
direction that they need to be on to get
to their crater but when you really call
upon the one who created you homework
number one if you're tuning in and you
want guidance you got to ask from
guidance you got to humble yourself and
you got to ask the creator of the
heavens and earth and arbic we say Allah
this is God Almighty the creator the
most loving the most merciful the most
compassionate you asked the one who
wants to guide you guide me you ask him
he's not a man he's not a woman he's not
a statue he's not a stick he's not a
stone he's not a dead person in the
ground no this is the everliving without
beginning without end the
self-sufficient doesn't eat sleep go to
the restroom no it doesn't walk to earth
but he created the earth he is the
creator you worship Him you call upon
the crater not worshiping the creation
very simple pure monotheism start with
that start with that and then start to
look into Islam and then when you start
to really look into Islam and those who
are Muslim you have to get grounded in
the deen so then you're not shaken up by
anything that Shaitaan throws you away
so this is the interesting thing the
most this is the amazing thing that our
guest the more he looked into Islam it
drove him all the way to Medina look to
study it and then he took a deeper dive
into it and now look that it drive him
away no it gained him more conviction in
it he was more that he was more enamored
by it the sublime beautiful teachings
and all the proofs and evidences that
are there so of course there gonna be
some attacks that come they're gonna
attack the Quran but there's nothing
like it there's nothing like the Quran
it is indeed the verbatim word of God
Almighty read it put it to the test but
most importantly get grounded in it live
it you'll have all the answers that you
need
to get you through life because it's the
blueprint for life in the Quran and the
Sunnah where else you gonna go if you
abandon that because death as we close
with is around the corner
and Islam clearly the Quran clearly
gives you the details and the Sunnah
give you the details what is to happen
as soon as your soul starts to leave the
body as soon as death comes like no
other book like nothing out there and
then the great rewards of Jenna so are
you gonna sacrifice Jenna to follow your
desires and hit the back door because
shakedown put some doubts out there and
now you use that as a scapegoat to go
ahead and run to the clubs run to to the
party that you are suppressing yourself
to as you were being peer pressure to go
to and now because that's what it is at
the end usually it's about following
your desires or following the right path
we all go through those struggles so to
conclude this is just another testimony
of an individual someone who was sincere
and went into studying Islam was
convinced of it so much so that he went
all the way to Medina to get his
doctorate and he was here just another
witness to express and to share those
facts that the Quran as it was revealed
back at the time of the last and final
message of Prophet Muhammad peace and
blessing be upon him we have that exact
same Quran verbatim today being recited
the blueprint for life for the
missionary for the agnostic for the
atheist you could try to throw it behind
your back you can try to fight against
it but you're fighting against your own
selves you're fighting against your
Creator you're fighting against the
truth so don't fight against the truth
accept the truth accept this Deen accept
submission to the Creator not the
creation Islam and we'll see you next
time go ahead and subscribe right now
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we'll see you next time peace be with
you
assalamu alaikum
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