in the name of Allah the beneficent the
most
merciful May Allah's peace and blessings
be on all of you I would like to welcome
you in the first of a new series of
programs under the general heading
understanding
Islam myself dear viewers I am Dr belal
Phillips from Canada and I hope during
this series to clarify for you certain
areas which are commonly misunderstood
about
Islam it is very unfortunate that though
Islam is the religion of about a quarter
of mankind over one billion people yet
this religion is
misunderstood throughout the
world the reasons are many some of them
are external and some of them are
internal externally we have a history of
emnity towards Islam which began from
the time of the Crusades and prior to
that in Europe where the European powers
looked at Islam as being a threat to the
religion of uh Christianity there and so
a lot of false information was spread in
Europe
about Islam and Muslims in order to
discourage people from finding out about
Islam especially considering that Islam
had ruled Spain for a number of years
actually the total amount of time is
over 700 years and during that period of
time many Spanish Muslims converted to
Islam without being forced they chose
Islam themselves the ma the vast
majority of the population were never
forced to become Muslims and as such
many of them did
not however from this experience the uh
people who led the church the church uh
leaders they feared Islam and so spread
a series of false uh information about
the religion of Islam and this became a
basis also of an attack on the centers
of Islam uh with the Crusades and uh
this misunderstanding which was
developed during this period has been
handed down with each generation in
books in magazines in the media even
till today and this is a source of uh
distorted information about Islam but on
this other hand there are also internal
causes among them the fact that in
different places and a different periods
of time Muslims have strayed away from
the true teachings of Islam and as such
have presented a very false image of
Islam to
non-muslims uh today that image may
involve terrorism you know a tendency to
want to take the lives of Innocents and
these type of things where Muslims tend
to be associated with violence and War
Etc however this is really not the the
true case concerning Islam so in this
series we will be looking at really the
fundamental
concepts of
Islam not only to understand the
principles themselves but also to get a
better understanding of Muslims and how
Muslims should live their lives so that
if one is to try to find Islam one will
know what to look for because
unfortunately many times today Muslims
are the worst examples of
Islam so dear viewers
I hope you will be uh happy with what we
have to present for you in this series
which will Enlighten you as to the
actual meaning of Islam however I must
warn you that if you are to benefit from
this
program then you have to approach it
with an open
mind
emotions blind us so we must not look at
information if we want to find out the
truth about something we have to look at
it unemotionally we have to put aside
our emotions because emotions as I said
blind us often times to the realities of
things so we have to look at it
practically speaking see what the
information is and then we judge it in
the light of our
intelligence the reality is that each
and every religion claims that their
religion is the only true
way it is the only way which God has
ordained for
man this is a
fact what that does for us is that it
puts us in a position
where we are confused which in fact is
the True
Religion if everyone claims that their
religion is the correct way
then how do we know which is in fact the
correct
way the reality is that we can only find
out if we look at each
religion from its actual
teachings go to the sources and find out
what is the essence of this
religion at that time we can then judge
in the light of our reason is is this
correct or is this not correct because
if we judge right and wrong merely
because we are born in a particular
religion then we will have fooled
ourselves we have left our future to
chance God gave us intelligence in order
that we may choose between right and
wrong based on Reason Not Just based on
chance a person is born in a Buddhist
family or a Christian family or a Muslim
family not by their own
choosing as such we can be certain that
God who is most
just most
wise he will hold people to
account on the basis of the choices that
they made not on the basis of what he
has destined for them
if God destined that we be Idol
worshippers and in fact idol worship is
not acceptable to him and then he
punished us put us in hell because we're
Idol worshippers this would be
unjust however God is the most
just he may have destined for us to be
born in a family of idolatry where we
worship idols however he has given given
us an intelligence by which we can look
around us and analyze is this in fact
the correct religion which God wants for
man he will also show us various signs
in our
lives what in fact is the true religion
and how we should go about finding
it we only have to
trust our reason our intelligence
and what we feel within our hearts as
right and
wrong God is most merciful and he will
guide us
all therefore dear viewers I would like
to welcome you to this
program understanding Islam and hope
that you will continue to follow each
and every
episode because in each and every
episode we will be looking at new points
new issues which clarify for us what in
fact is the essence of Islam what are
the actual teachings of Islam why is
Islam the only religion which God has
ordained for
mankind I'm not pretending that Islam
doesn't claim to be the true religion of
God as all the other religions claim no
I will tell you quite frankly this is
exactly what Islam says and Islam has
evidence to back that claim up in this
series we'll be looking at the
evidence I invite you to put aside your
emotions and to examine the evidence
which we have the evidence which will
prove to you if you are open-minded
if you put aside your emotions and
listen carefully to the evidence it will
prove to you without a shadow of a doubt
that Islam is the only true religion of
God it is the religion which God gave to
mankind from the beginning of
mankind continuing until the last day of
this world the religion the way of life
which is to guide them to the
correct way of worshiping God of serving
God in this
life as such dear
viewers as each program enfolds before
you there will arise in your mind many
questions if you would like to get
information regarding these questions
then I would invite you to write to
us uh charger TV PO box
one11 under the heading understanding
Islam to Dr Bilal
Phillips understanding
Islam Char TV po
box11 you write in and get further
clarifications for the questions that
you are raising these questions may be
aired on this program if there is time
otherwise another program will be
started and will answer in more depth
the detailed questions that some of you
may like to
ask but we also
have in Dubai at the Islamic information
center PO Box
25020 another Channel by which you may
write in to get further information
about Islam you may write
me Dr Bilal Phillips at the Islamic
information
center PO Box
25020 Dubai this is for further
information about Islam uh you may call
in also there it is uh telephone number
35819 and there you can get direct
information about Islam if you would
like to get pamphlets or tapes Etc
giving you further information you can
write or call in and get that
information but to our topic at hand
understanding
Islam I would just like to sum up what
we have presented to you in this program
this introductory program that we will
be looking at the various misund
understandings about
Islam in order to clarify to you all
what in fact is the essence of Islam
this is why we've called the program
understanding Islam however I cannot
overemphasize dear
viewers that for you to benefit you must
put aside
emotions I will present the facts to you
and it is for you to to benefit from
these
facts listen to them analyze them and
then judge for yourself does this make
sense or does it not if it makes sense
then you must continue the search for
yourself until you find the true
religion of God which is without a doubt
Islam so dear
viewers I would like now to
wrap up
the segment of the program understanding
Islam thanking you
for following this program or beginning
with us hoping that you will continue to
follow this program on a daily basis
whenever it comes once a week uh you can
follow your television guides Etc to
find out exactly when the program will
be it will be announced and it will
follow a set date would' like you to
follow the program and dear viewers I'd
like to now B you farewell thanking you
again
for
watching the Islamic farewell was