My dear brothers, may Allah bless you
and reward you for coming. Today we are
going to be talking about how to give
da. The first thing I want to talk about
is your mindset. You have to understand
that if people don't smile at you, you
smile at them. If people don't accept
you, you accept them. Right? Right. If
people reject you, you accept them. Did
I say that already before? It doesn't
matter. Repetition is good. It's
emphasis. Quran repeats itself for good
reasons. So, let's repeat as well. So,
if people don't treat you nicely, you
treat them nicely. I want you to enroll
them in your behavior that you become
the state of being, the state of
character that you want others to adopt.
If you don't do that, you're not going
to have that reflection because human
beings are like mirrors of each other.
So if for example he doesn't look very
smiley at the moment, right? But if I
smile, he's going to smile. For example,
try not smiling
now. Do you see I'm smiling? So you're
enrolling people in your behavior. Be
like the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam
that he would smile in the face of
adversity. Okay? And that's what you
have to keep keep in mind. So that's the
state of mind I want you to be in. So
you really enroll people in your
behavior. Two pieces of advice I want
you to really understand. Number one,
speak to people as if you're speaking to
your own mother. And speak to them as if
they're better than you because you
don't know their ends. And if you have
that state of humility, I'm telling you,
you'll be able to connect with people in
ways that you've never connected before.
And don't preframe people. You may see
people that don't look like you, that
don't act like you, that are very
different, they don't even speak like
you. But don't use that limited
experience of, you know, I saw someone
who looked just like that last week and
he was really bad to me. So therefore,
this guy is going to be bad to me, too.
Don't be like this. Be like the Quran
when it teaches us in Bakar verse 30
when Allah says he's going to send down
Adam and the angels say, "What are you
going to do? You're going to send
someone down that's going to create
bloodshed?" And Allah says, "What? I
know that which you do not know."
Meaning that Allah has the totality of
knowledge. As Ib says, we have just the
particular. Allah has the picture. We
have the pixel. So don't use your
limited experiences and superimposed on
anybody else. So if you see someone
different, engage with them as they
deserve to be engaged with, not based on
your prefring your limited experiences
and ideas. Make sense? That's the
mindset people. So in your daer
brothers, you're going to be engaging
with our fellow human beings in humanity
and they're going to pose some difficult
questions. Hey, why do you have a beard?
Even goats have beards. What's so
special about that? Hey, what's wrong
with you? Why are you headbutting the
floor five times a day? How comes your
wife covers her
face? What's the matter with you? Why
are you mumbling to yourself, praying?
Yeah. So the point is you're going to
have these questions not like this
because human beings generally speaking
are very decent. They're inquisitive.
They want to know. But I'm just
highlighting the point that they're
going to be posing these questions and
they're going to be difficult. So don't
just start saying, well, you know, I
have a beard because it means I'm wise
or I have a beard because, you
know, my prophet had a beard
and he was wise. I have a beard because
it's natural. or just don't turn the
tables and just return the question and
say why don't you have a beard right or
my wife covers her face because it's
modesty and then the lady would say to
you you're trying to say I'm not modest
by not covering my face so don't end up
having difficult questions and
uncomfortable debates but rather use all
the questions to link
to the oneness of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala becausehed the oneness of Allah
the existence of Allah
The fact that he deserves to be
woripped. The fact that the Quran is
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The fact
that the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam
is the final prophet. This is the basis
of huck. And whatever comes from huck is
h. Whatever comes from truth is truth.
So don't give them the kind of fruits if
you like. They may not find them tasty.
give them the roots and once they
understand that they're grounded and
they're deep and they're unshakable,
right? Then they'll know that this fruit
is truly good for you. So from that
perspective, I want you to understand
that we have to understand people in the
flowing way. Say you have glasses. You
all have glasses, right? Including you.
And they're tinted pink. And my glasses
are tinted green. When I say, "Look at
that building. It's so green and nice."
What are you going to say? It's really
pink. It's really pink. You know, it's
just pink. Now, we can have a debate on
this. It's green. It's pink. It's green.
It's pink. We'll end up nowhere. So,
what do we have to do to connect with
one another? Exchange glasses or take
our glasses off. What we want to do is
give them our glasses, which is this is
how we see the world through the oneness
of Allah. So, don't just say, "Oh, look,
that building is green." Just give them
the tools, the framework, the world
view, the
truth in which you use to see your life
and your existence. Right? So don't end
up in uncomfortable questions. Does this
make sense? Good. So how do we take
these uncomfortable questions and link
them to? This is something called
initiation. And let me just show you
what initiation is. So say the brother
asks me a question. How comes your wife,
she covers her head? what's wrong with
her? And I'll be like, that's a very
interesting question. You know, before I
turned Muslim, I had exactly the same
question. And I realized that in order
to understand the answer, I have to
understand the concept of Islam. Do you
have a few minutes for me to explain
this to you? Yes. And then you get
agreement. Now, you may have some
contentions though. They may say, I just
want a yes or no answer. So, what are
you going to say? What I say in this
situation is this. Well, a yes or no
answer doesn't really represent my
beliefs. If I asked you, "What's your
name?" Yes or no, it doesn't make sense.
If I asked you how many days in the
week, yes or no. If I asked you, do you
believe in abortion? Yes or no? Doesn't
really represent your values. So, if you
really want to connect with me and I
know you want to connect with me, so
you're bringing them in to the
conversation, then please give me some
time to explain the concept of Islam,
which is the answer. Now, they may say
this though, I heard you guys like to
murder 5-year-old kids and drink their
blood. You're not going to say now,
well, that's a very interesting
question. In order for you to understand
the answer, you have to understand the
concept of Islam. You're never going to
do such a thing. When it comes to these
crazy questions, negate them. Say, "Of
course, we don't want to drink babies
bloods. We don't want to kill
children." But if you want to know
anything about Islam, you have to
understand this concept. So you always
bring it back to the daer. Now this is
when people are asking you questions but
as you know many of us we're going to be
going on the streets right and we're
going to have these flyers or some
flyers that are similar to this. What's
your goal flyer? So what I like to do is
first and foremost talk about posture
and behavior because you don't want to
basically say hello sir take my flyer
please. Yeah they have to come so close
almost taste your own vapor to come
close to you right. You want to be warm,
not too assertive, but warm and
encouraging as if you're hugging
somebody. Excuse me, ma'am. Today we're
talking about what's your goal in life.
Do you want to have this discussion
today? And she'll be like, "Yeah, sure."
And I'll be like, you know, in order for
you to understand what's your goal in
life, I believe you have to understand
the concept of Islam. Do you have some
time? So, this is proactive daer, asking
questions and then still linking it to
in the same way. So, that's initiation.
So now they're waiting for the concept
of Islam. You've established an empathic
relationship. You're feeling with them.
You're sincere. You're having a good
warm dialogue. So they're waiting for
the answer, the concept of Islam. So
this is where we talk now about common
sense. We say you know in order to
appreciate the concept of Islam you have
to appreciate that Islam itself as a
concept satisfies the intellect the mind
and gives tranquility to the heart or
the other way around it gives
tranquility to the mind and satisfies
the heart. Anyway you want to put it put
it. But the point is we want to show
them that it agrees with the mind and
satisfies the heart. And the reason it
does so is because it's based on reason
and common sense and our intuition. For
example, if I told any of you to cross
the road blindfolded, are you going to
cross the road blindfolded? Imagine
playing football blindfolded. You're
never going to score a goal, right?
Exactly. So, it's based on common sense.
So, get that agreement that we're not
just going to base it on just pure
emotionality that one day you just felt
something and now you believe that God
is a spaghetti monster or something,
right? It's not solely based on blind
emotions, but it's the combination of
both because we're holistic human
beings. So, that's common sense. And
this allows us to move on to now God's
existence. And we say, well, the first
part of the concept of Islam is that we
believe that God is a reality, the
divine reality. God is the truth. And we
have good reasons for this. And give
them some of your reasons. Now, many of
you may have your own reasons, but let
me give you
one. For instance, we know that this
whole universe began. It wasn't always
here. We don't live in the 1940s and 50s
anymore. We know the universe popped
into existence. Well, there are four
possible explanations. And by the way,
the Quran gives us the logic of these
explanations in chapter 52:es
35-36. These verses refer to the
creation of the human being. But you can
apply the logic to anything that began
that is mdath that came into being. So
the universe came into being. So what
are the four logical explanations?
Number one, it came from nothing. Number
two, it created itself. Number three,
smile. it was created by something else
that was created or number four it was
created by something that is uncreated.
So we have these four options and
actually make it into a dialogue ask
them these questions. So do you think
the universe could come from nothing or
via nothing? They were like well let me
think about that. Of course not because
out of nothing what comes. If I had
nothing gave you a little bit more
nothing added a little bit more nothing
sprinkled a little bit more nothing what
am I going to get? Nothing. Nothing.
Exactly. So, there must have been
something that brought the universe into
existence. Well, let's go to the second
option. Could the universe create
itself?
Well, the way I address this is in the
following way. For something to create
itself, it means it was in existence and
not in existence at the same time, which
is impossible. Could you exist and not
exist at the same time? Exactly. Also, I
use this as a little joke. Could your
mother give birth to herself? No.
Exactly. Your mother couldn't give birth
to herself. So we know the universe
couldn't create itself. So the third
option, could the universe be created by
something ultimately created? For
example, if this universe, universe one
was as a result of universe 2 and
universe 2 was as a result of universe 3
and universe 3 was as a result of
universe 4 and that went on forever.
Could we have the universe today? No.
Exactly. Even the classical scholars in
Islam like Ib Tamir, may Allah's mercy
be upon him, he said you can't have an
infinite regress of causes because you
can't have one cause after another cause
after another cause and that going on
forever otherwise you'll never have the
effect which is the universe itself. So
we understand the universe couldn't be
as a result of something else that was
created. Let me make this a little bit
simp simple for you guys. Imagine I'm a
marine and I want to shoot a bird,
right? And in order to shoot a bird, I
have to ask permission from the marine
behind me. But this marine also has to
ask permission. If this goes on forever,
if this goes on forever, will I ever
shoot the bird? No. Exactly. Same with
the universe. There must have been an
uncreated creator. And that's why we
have the last final option which is the
best option which is the must have been
an unccreated creator which makes sense
of God which makes sense of Allah. So
now we've established God's existence
and don't forget to get agreement. Do
you agree with this? Now if they don't
agree with you don't get stuck on
intellectual gymnastics and
philosophical ideas. Our job is just to
plant the seed. That's our job. We are
farmers. We plant the seeds. It's
Allah's job to ensure that it grows into
the fruits of iman. Don't get bogged
down. Rational arguments from the Quran
and Sunnah are only there to wake up the
fra what is already known within us. So
don't get bogged down thinking no you
have to understand this point to say
fine let's agree to disagree but let me
explain to you the concept of Islam.
You're planting the right seeds here.
Does this make sense? Good. So you get
agreement and now we're talking about
God's oneness. So if there's an
uncreated creator, well, it makes sense
that he must be eternal because he's
uncreated. It's very simple. The second
point is he must be powerful because he
created the whole entire universe.
There's around 10 to the^ of 80 atoms in
this universe. If I take one of these
atoms and split it, you have a release
of energy and that's just one of them.
So it follows that this uncreated
creator is powerful. This unccreated
creator is knowing. Why? If I drop this
card, what happens? Drops. It drops.
Why? Because of the law of gravity. And
a lawgiver implies something or a being
that knows, right? What's very important
though is that this uncreated creator is
different, disjined, and distinct from
us. Just like the famous scholar said
that creation is distinct and disjointed
from the creator. Why? If I made this
card, do I become the card? Exactly. I'm
distinct and disjined from the card.
Likewise, the uncreated creator is
distinct, unique, and disjined from his
creation. Does this make sense so far?
Yes. Not only that, but since he created
us and he created human beings who love
themselves, we all love ourselves,
right? Don't say you don't. The reason
we love ourselves because we don't want
to die. We want to prolong our
existence. We want to eat
food. Now, this self-love should make us
now love this creator. Why? Now, the
famous 11th century scholar Al Gazali,
may Allah's mercy be upon him, do you
know what he said? He said your
self-love should project you to the love
of God which is part of worship. Why?
Because who created you? Who sustains
you? Who created the universe and the
causes physical causes in the universe
to sustain your own creation? Who even
created love itself? Who's the source of
love? Aloud, as we know in Arabic, the
name of Allah, the loving, the
excessively loving. So, you must want to
love God. Not only love him but you want
to worship him because he is the creator
of the entire universe. Why are you
worshiping other things? I don't say you
don't worship other things. Even
atheists worship other things. You obey
your boss. You obey your parents. You
obey your wife, your siblings, the
culture, materialism, the system that we
live in. We all have these reference
points. We all have these enslavements.
We all have these kind of slavery to all
of these slave masters. But if God
created me, then I want to enslave
myself to him that would truly free me
from the
worldlyness from the emptiness of the
world. Right? So this is establishing
the oneness of
God. So we've established we've
established God's existence, oneness.
Now it leads us to revelation because if
God does exist, he's a reality. He is
one. He's transcendent. He's unlike his
creation. He deserves worship. He
deserves to be loved. Then surely he
announced himself to mankind and it
makes sense that there is a revelation
because we have this internal yearning
for truth for God to know who he is
right we all want to hear the voice of
God as they say but where is it now
there are two options you could think
about this internally or externally so I
could think you know I know who God is
he's in my heart and he is like this if
we all had that approach we have six
billion different versions of God we
have different hearts different
perspectives backgrounds, knowledge,
ideas, cultures, etc. So, it follows it
must come externally. It's like a
knocking on the
door. We don't know someone's coming.
So, what do we say? Excuse me, who is
it? And it has to tell us externally who
that person is. Similarly, we need an
external revelation to announce who God
is. And that makes sense of a thing like
a book.
Right? Now, someone may argue, but I
don't think we need revelation. Well,
fine. You don't have to entertain the
argument to say that I agree. But let me
show you why I believe we have
revelation. Let me show you why we have
good reasons to believe in revelation in
the Quran. Reason number one, the Quran
has the most logical, reasonable,
rational, natural concept for
God. What does Allah say? Say in the
Quran, he is one. He is unique. He's
eternal. He doesn't give birth. He
wasn't born. There is nothing like
him. Very simple. This is a God you
could worship. Use what I've just said
which is from the Quran as criteria to
understand the concept of God. Filter
that through, for example, Hinduism that
believes a form of God is everywhere.
But we said before in oneness that God
must be distinct and disjointed from his
creation from that perspective. Right?
Think about Buddhism. It doesn't even
believe in God in the first place. It's
like an agnostic philosophy. So the
point is when you use this from the
Quran as criteria to understand what
makes sense of a God, the Quran always
comes on top. It's very pure, rational,
reasonable, and in line with your mind
and with your heart. God is one. He's
unique. He's so he's self-sufficient. He
doesn't give birth. He wasn't born.
There is nothing like unto him. That's
the first point. The concept of
essentially the oneness of Allah. The
second point is this that the
Quran makes people think. It doesn't say
believe in me because I just said so. It
appreciates the human being as the human
being, not like a robot that you press a
button and it follows commands. And
that's why it makes you think. Read the
Quran. Engage with the book of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. As Allah says in
the
Quran, do they not reflect upon the
Quran or the locks on their hearts? So
the more reflection we do with the
Quran, the more our hearts become
unlocked to receive the mercy and
guidance of
Allah. And the Quran actually makes us
think and in themselves do they not see?
Do they not reflect? talks about man,
life and the universe in order to
conclude that not only does God exist
but he deserves to be woripped. He
created me, he deserves to be
woripped. So it makes you think. Third
point, it challenges the whole of
mankind concerning its authorship. The
Quran says in Bakar, the second chapter,
the 23rd
verse. And if you're in doubt, talking
to people who doubt, normal human
beings, this book we sent down to our
servant referring to the prophet
Muhammad upon whom be peace, then bring
one chapter like it, and call on your
witnesses and your supporters besides
God. If you're truthful in your claim,
engaging with hearts and minds. Now,
this opens a whole window, an array of
arguments for the Quran. The linguistic
miracle of the Quran, the historical
miracle of the Quran, the fact that the
Quran addresses different mentalities
and different ages in our human sphere,
in our human life. It addresses the 7th
century man, the 15th century man, and
the 21st century man. So, let me explain
some of these briefly for you. The first
point linguistic miracle. We know the
Quran came down to an Arab to the Arabs
who were the best at expressing
themselves in the Arabic tongue. This is
well known in Western and Eastern
scholarship. They were Arabic linguists
par excellence, right? And the Quran
challenged them and they couldn't
produce anything like the Quran because
the Quran says produce something like it
which is something like its language
according to many of the many of the
scholars. But no one has been able to
produce anything like the Quran because
it descopes the Arabic language. That's
why Professor Abu, a British orientalist
and translator, he said although several
attempts have been made to challenge the
Quran, none have yet succeeded. So he's
echoing what many other of the have
said. So what you have to understand is
that well how can we conclude now that
it's from Allah? We may not know Arabic.
The person you're talking to may not
know nothing about Arabic. This is fair
enough. All you have to get them to
understand that they have to accept
something called testimony. Do you
believe in testimony? Of course we do. I
believe China exists because of
testimony. I read it in a book. I saw in
a map. Therefore, it exists. Some guy
who looks different from me said he's
Chinese. Therefore, China must exist.
It's all testimonial. I haven't eaten
Chinese food in China before. I haven't
been to China before. So, it's all
testimonial. It's to say so of others.
But it has to be authentic and valid.
So from this perspective, we have to
make them understand that there is an
authentic and valid testimony that no
one has been able to challenge the
Quran. If they agree on that, then you
have four logical explanations. Number
one, the Quran came from an Arab. But we
know this couldn't be the case because
the best Arabs at the time said it
wasn't from a human being. It was beyond
them. Like the famous linguist, his name
was Wbb al- Mu. He said by Allah, by
God, this can't come from a human being.
So it can't come from the best Arabs of
the time. Someone may argue, what about
today's Arab? Well, we know today's Arab
has suffered from something called
linguistic degeneration. Go to Egypt,
ask for the telephone. They say ain't a
telephone. Where is the telephone? Yeah,
we know it's hatiff as well. We know
there are Arabic words for these, but
there's been too much linguistic
borrowing. So someone who's brought up
in that culture can't express themselves
in the same
way. The next option, maybe it came from
a non-Arab.
But this is impossible. Even Allah
subhana wa ta'ala in the Quran addresses
this
issue. This is this is pure clear
Arabic. How can it come from a non-Arab?
Doesn't make sense. The third option,
maybe it came from the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Well, again,
this is impossible because he was an
Arab too and all all Arabs failed. Also,
we know it couldn't come from the
prophet Muhammad sallallah.aii wasallam
for many reasons, but let me give you
one core reason. any human expression
just like this artwork here. What's your
goal? If you have the blueprint, you can
replicate the blueprint and do it
yourself. If you have the blueprint and
the tools
available, that's why in Picasso in
famous work, you have replicas that are
very expensive and they're almost
identical to the original work cuz they
know the texture, the brush strokes,
the stuff used. The Quran, its blueprint
is alive and well today, 1400 years on.
We have the tools, the grammar, the
finite letters of the Arabic language.
Yet, we can't use our capacity and
exhaust all the tools that we have at
our disposal to even produce anything
like the Quran. So, if the Quran was
human expression, someone would be able
to replicate it just like all human
forms of expression. So, therefore, it
must be from Allah. It doesn't make
sense. can't come from an Arab, can't
come from a non-Arab, can't come from
the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. Therefore, it came from God.
Let me go to the next argument, the
historical argument. Now, Allah in the
Quran addresses historical realities,
right? To teach us not to have
civilizational arrogance. Don't think
you guys are going to be on top all the
time. Look at the people before you.
Humble yourselves and through your
humility, you reach Allah. through your
humility, you come closer to God and you
receive guidance and mercy of God. But
if you think you're arrogant and you
could take over the world and you're
self-sufficient, that's when your
destruction begins. It's a spiritual
element. Actually, the Quran engages
with the heart and saying look at the
people before you they're all rubble
now. Who are you? And that's why in
Islamic spirituality feel like according
to the Quran and Sunnah, the more you
lose yourself, your ego, the more you
find Allah, which means the more closer
to Allah you get. Because if you're
arrogant, it's a veil between you and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah
just mentions historical stories using
these kind of spiritual lessons as well.
But also amongst many other things,
Allah addresses very specific minute
information that to be honest, if you
were to take it out of the Quran, it
wouldn't affect the message. And this is
how interesting it is. Now, let me give
you an example of the two different
titles for the leader of the Egyptians
in the Quran. One is the other is Malik
king. So you have two different titles.
Now Malik king was at the time of Ysef
Joseph
Alisam and the title of Pharaoh was at
the time of Moses Musa
alisam and it doesn't change. It's
always for the specific periods. And
it's quite interesting because the
historians of the time they didn't have
that distinction. The Bible didn't have
that distinction. The Torah didn't have
that
distinction. So where did the prophet
Muhammad upon him peace get the
information from? Especially when the
hieroglyphics which was the pictorial
language of the ancient Egyptians was a
dead language. It was
unknown. How did he know this accurate
information? Because if we fast forward
many many years we find the Rosetta
Stone which allowed us to decode the
pictorial language of the Egyptians. And
we find that actually at the time of
Yufisam which is the old middle kingdom
in Egyptian history they were calling
the head of the Egyptians the lead of
the Egyptians Malik king and in the new
middle kingdom at the the new kingdom
rather at the time of Moses they started
to call him the pharaoh.
What a slight minute detail in the Quran
is absolutely accurate. But if you claim
it came from a man like the prophet
Muhammad upon whom be peace then the
information at the
time is contradictory to that which is
in the Quran. So where did he get the
information from? It must be the one
that knows all of history. The final
argument I want to talk about and there
are many many more things to talk about
the Quran is the fact that when you
engage with the Quran you do tab
reflection you see that it's so
fascinating.
addresses different peoples at different
times. It's multi-layered especially
when it talks about verses that God
wants you to think about like man life
and the universe. And I want to give you
an example. Take the
word. The word can be found in chapter
23 around verse 14. And this word has
five classical meanings and academic
meanings. Number one, blood in a general
sense. Number two, blood clot. Number
three, clay that sticks to the hand.
Number four, a leech or a worm. Or
number five, something that clings. Now,
interestingly, when Allah talks about
Allah, which refers to the development
of the human being, the
embryo, it refers to the development of
the human being. And for a 7th century
Arab, they would take the meaning that
it's a blood clot. Because when you look
at dissections and abortions, it looks
like bloody, right? This was in line
with the Greek physicians like Galen who
wrote the book dye and he said in Greek
sarcoidis and emodos which means there's
a bloodfilled fleshy thing. So maybe
Allah is addressing the mentality of the
time cuz yes you do look like a blood
clot and wow from this Allah formed me
so he deserves to be woripped. That's
the point of these verses. So it's
addressing different times and places.
But if we fast forward to the 15th
century when we develop the microscope,
we discover the microscope, we invent
the microscope, we are now allowed or
we've given the capacity to see the
embryo around day 20 to 30. Using the
microscope, we see it looks like a
leech. Not only does it look like a
leech, but even the internal structure
of a leech looks like the embryo at the
same period.
Isn't that fascinating? So, it addresses
different times and places to make us
believe that look, look who you were,
look what you were, and look what you
are now. So, God deserves to be
worshiped. But what's very interesting
is this. It might not even have a
scientific or natural meaning. It might
have a spiritual meaning. God is
probably telling us maybe from a point
of view, from a reflective point of
view, hey, you're a leech. What does a
leech do? It's a parasite. It drains the
resources of its host. And we were just
like that in our mother's womb. We
drained her resources. So it's as if God
is telling us lower the wing of humility
for your mother because she sacrificed
for you willingly. Be compassionate and
loving to your parents especially your
mother because look you were like a
leech like a parasite. You know what's
very interesting? Professor Lord Winston
from Imperial College University in
London he says the following words that
the leech and the embryo act in the same
parasitic way. Isn't that amazing? Now
it may even have no meaning or we may
not have any meaning that we could find
in science or today's reality. But
that's fine. Science will catch up
because that's the whole point of
science. And it's as if God is saying to
us, you may not really know what this
means now. But it's encouraging us to
develop scientific advancements in the
future. It is no wonder the prophet
Muhammad upon whom he peace said for
every disease is a cure. So seek the
cure. It's an a spiritual encouragement
to go and look into science. So we're
not anti-science. So this is why the
Quran is so amazing. And there's so many
other different reasons that you all
know about. So this establishes good
reasons to believe the Quran can't come
from man. Can't come from the natural
world. Must come from the supernatural,
right? Which makes sense of God. The
final point I want to talk about though
is that what does the Quran actually
say? Now it actually answers all the big
questions in life. Who are you? Who's
are you? For whom are you? Why are you?
So why are we? We're here. We've been
sent down as the Quran says to worship
Allah which means to love him to know
him and to obey him. This is our our
reason for existence and it frees us
from the shackles of the empty world the
ephemeral
world and the Quran teaches us how to
worship God and it answers the questions
like why is the evil and suffering in
the world? What am I supposed to do?
What are my moral priorities? What's
happening after I die? Paradise and
hell. And this is a point where if
you've established good reasons for God,
his oneness and the Quran, now start to
talk about if you reject
this freely, there are two options.
Eternal bliss with your Lord in paradise
or eternal suffering in
hell and then get agreement. Eternal
suffering in hellish the revelation of
the Quran. Now this is the point where
you could get shahada. Now you could
facilitate them accepting reality which
there is no deity worthy of worship at
Allah and Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam is his final messenger. But we
have another really powerful argument
for Islam which is the prophethhood of
the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. Now and you could link this to
the Quran. You know the Quran talks
about prophets. We believe in Jesus. We
believe in Abraham. We believe in Noah.
We believe in all of the great prophets.
And we believe in Muhammad sallall.aii
alaihi wasallam upon whom be
peace and the prophets came to be
carriers of the divine revelation and to
tell us how to practice the divine
revelation in a way in a summary the
Quran is what to do the sunnah the
practice of the prophet is how to do it
essentially
okay now you could even remove the
prophet Muhammad upon whom be peace away
from the Quran just for a moment and say
just look at his life without the Quran
and when we look at his life we can use
his life as a proof for the Quran and
proof for the Islam itself because he
had a claim. He said he was the final
messenger of Allah. How can we assess
this claim in four ways? He was
lying, he was deluded, he was both lying
or deluded or he was speaking the truth.
So let's assess this by looking at the
facts in his life, the historical facts.
Could he be a liar? Well, this is
impossible because even his enemies
entrusted him with things. Even his
enemies said that he was the trustworthy
and he couldn't be a liar because when
you look at look into his life that his
psychological profile is so different to
that of a liar. Wall to claim the
prophet Muhammad upon peace a liar is to
claim your mother never gave birth to
you. You don't have much evidence that
she gave birth to you anyway. You have
her statements, your fathers and the
midwife. You don't have a DNA
certificate, right? But the prophet
Muhammad upon me peace when you analyze
his life there's so much overwhelming
evidence for example just for the pure
message
of he was tortured and abused he was
stoned by children for hours in a town
in
Arabia he was hungry to the point where
he tied two stones to his stomach there
was no smoke coming outside of the house
of
Aisha his wife for 6 months
plus he was boycotted from his beloved
city and so so many other things that
happened in his life and he was so brave
in the battle of Hanain when the arrows
were flying and some of the companions
had to inevitably retreat he was still
marching forward and said I am not a
liar I am the messenger of Allah is this
a psychological profile of a liar I'm
telling you a lie you claim he's a liar
don't even believe your mom is your
mom so he couldn't be a liar could he be
deluded well he couldn't be deluded for
many reasons number one look at his
teachings his beautiful teachings go go
into the Quran and the Sunnah,
specifically the Sunnah, his statements
in the authentic
statements. Look about the morals. Look
at when he talked about
love that you won't enter paradise until
you believe and you won't believe until
you love one
another. He talked about spreading salam
and peace, feeding the poor, taking care
of the elderly and the young, being
compassionate. There is no harming, no
reciprocating of harm.
doing things with
excellence, talked about economy and
distributive justice, talked about
essential limited needs. I mean, when
you go into the sunnah, into the
prophetic practice, you see so many
wonderful things. And even when you look
at the simplicity of his life in what do
you have? He said, "Oh, how great
vinegar is as a curry." Subhan
Allah. So, his teachings show that he's
not a duded man. Second point, there are
many instances in his life that a
deluded person would have used to
support his delusion. Many, but he
didn't. Let me give you one example. His
son Ibrahim passed away and there was a
solar eclipse. The Arabs thought, "My
God, he must be a prophet. Solar eclipse
happened because his son passed away."
What does he say in a hadith in Bkari?
He says,
"No, the sun and moon don't eclipse for
nobody's death. These are the signs of
God. When you see them, pray." and he
told them what to
do. If he was deluded, he would have
used these instances to support his
delusion. But he does he didn't. And
there are many instances instances like
this in his life. So he couldn't be
deluded. Let me give you another one.
Actually, third point, his prophecies.
There are so many prophecies have come
true. For example, he fortold the
martyrdom of Amar. He said, "Oh Amar,
what a pity. A rebellious group will
kill you." He fortold that
Fatima his daughter will be the first
from his family to meet him in paradise
after his
death. And he fortold the Mongol
invasion. Yeah. He said the time will
not come until you fight a people
whose faces are like shields. They're
flat. They got slanted eyes. They have
furry boots. If that's not the Mongol
invasion, then I'm Japanese. Right? Do
you see my point here? So, he couldn't
be deluded. The next option, could he be
could he be both lying and deluded? No.
Because if he couldn't be lying and he
couldn't be deluded, putting two wrong
things together is still wrong. It's
still false. So therefore, he must have
been speaking there. And that's how you
establish the prophethood of the prophet
Muhammad sallallah.aii wasallam. So now
you're ready for the shahada. And you
humbly ask them if this makes sense to
you. It agrees with your mind and with
your heart. Accept reality. Sometimes
you know what I do? I show my trainers
to the youth. I said, "Do you like my
trainers?" Like, "Yeah, man. Wicked
trainers." I said, "Acepting Islam is
like saying, "My trainers are excellent,
are really nice." Why? Cuz you're
accepting
reality. Do you want to accept reality?
Of course you do. Because then that
really engages with the soul. Like, you
want to be a human being of integrity.
You don't want to reject truth. You want
to accept truth. So, it's about
self-image psychology. Yeah, I do want
to accept reality. Well, why don't you
accept the fact that God deserves to be
woripped? that there is no deity worthy
of worship but Allah and that Muhammad
upon whom he peace is his final
messenger and then you just get the
shahada and by the way don't make it the
satanic shahada there is no god but god
and Muhammad is his messenger no even
shan knows that the shahada here is
there is no deity worthy of
worshipallah there is no deity worthy of
worship but Allah not no god but Allah
no god but god but deity worthy of
worship because they have to understand
in their hearts they have to have a
willingness not only to accept the truth
but a willingness to worship Allah
that's very important in the shahada
does this make sense good and once you
get the shahada remember this is where
the da starts this was the easy point
sincere human beings will become Muslim
but now is when shayan is at them oh
making them doubt making them be
confused so what you have to do be a
brother be someone who loves them for
the sake of god
Take the number, the emo, set up a
meeting, teach them how to pray, give
them a new Muslim
pack. And it's very important that the
first thing you do is not you don't talk
about beards or talk about clothes. You
talk about, the oneness of Allah, and
establishing that link with Allah, which
is the prayer. Once the prayer gets
right, everything falls into place. And
it's your job to do that, inshallah.