If we have an infinite amount of dependent things, we’ll have the fallacy of infinite regress meaning, we need a necessary being for everything to make sense. Now, this necessary being which has to be independent; we need an independent being in order for us to be alive. That makes sense.
For nothing comes nothing, right? Therefore, something has to cause us, which we call God in a nutshell.
Evolution talked about, for example, the first cell, the first cell, where did that come from? Even if you go evolution, Evolution is not random events happening. There’s an order, there’s things happening. So for example, our point is the first cell that was made, where did the first cell come from, which was my argument?
Allah (swt) created us and Allah (swt) gave us duties. Allah (swt) Then He told us to be mindful of the duties He has given to us.
One of the important things that Allah (swt) told us after He gave us this life, after He created us to be knowledgeable, to be knowledgeable, to get the knowledge, to acquire the knowledge, to get engaged with the knowledge, to be among the knowledgeable people.
However, the scholars (Rah), they said; the greatest favor of Allah (swt), which you are experiencing in your life is acquiring the knowledge, achieving the knowledge, being knowledgeable.
Why are you trying to get the knowledge? Why are you going to school or College or why are you going to the University? To get the knowledge, Of course. But for Muslim, it is beyond that.
Why? Rasulullah (pbuh) told us that your intention for you to get the knowledge should be only for the sake of Allah (swt).
Rasulullah (Pbuh) told us that if someone is only concerned about getting the Dunya, and not concerned about the pleasure of Allah (swt) By acquiring the knowledge, in the day of judgment, that person, he or she will not smell the fragrance of Jannah.
Rasulallah (pbuh) told us in the Day of Judgment, the first people who will be judged by Allah (swt), are those who claim in the world, I was or I am knowledgeable.
If you think or if you claim that I am knowledgeable, in the Day of Judgment, Allah (swt) will judge you before everyone else.
Allah will ask him, why did you learn? And why did you teach people? So that person will proudly say Ya Allah, for Your sake, as Allah will say, you are a liar. You’ve done it for the people to tell you that you are knowledgeable.
So if this is the case, we have to purify our intention.
Sometimes we are deep too into the knowledge that we forget Allah (swt). Rasulullah (Pbuh) told us to be concerned about religion, to be concerned about the duties of Allah (swt) has given to us;
Rasulullah (pbuh) advised us to get the manners before you get the education.
The gentlemen, He wanted to discuss about certain things in religion. I asked him, do you believe in God? And he says maybe, maybe not. He wasn’t sure whether he even exists. And then I think it from the progressed into matter and energy and about the existing of the universe.
So, Alhamdulliah, You know, this is something that we have to understand that not everyone is going to believe what you just claim. You need to substantiate what you claim. So you cannot just say energy always existed, and then assume that we will all believe it.
Even the Scientists don’t work like that. They need to substantiate. They need to go through certain peer groups to find out whether the theory that you believe in, can be falsified or the truth. Yes, it’s a scientific approach as well, to look at things objectively and to look at it.
But if you are going to then depend on a tool like science to understand things of the metaphysical world, then it is something which is beyond the scope of science. It is like the example of someone using a metal detector to find plastic. So the wrong tool for finding something which is metaphysical and that is science.
The science does tell us how things work. It does tell us, It will never be able to tell you things like the origin of the universe, won’t be able to tell you an origin of many things, like the first cell and so on.
Yes, they can speculate and assume things, but cannot tell you for certain how things originate.
From the four sacred months of the year is Shahrullahi Al-Muharram, Allah’s sacred month of Muharram. And if you reflect upon it, Allah azawajal nended the year with a sacred month; The month of Dhul-Hijjah and Allah began the year with a sacred month; Shahrullahi Al-Muharram.
Imam Ibn Rajan (Rah), he mentioned a benefit in this. He said the reason it is Allah’s month is because the action that is associated with this month is Allah’s action, the action that is only for Allah (swt) and the action that is only for Allah (swt), It is the action of fasting. And since fasting is something which is only for Allah in the sense that nobody knows if you are really fasting except Allah, then because this action has a greater level of attachment.
Something which is very, very important for us to point out is that with regard to the day of Ashura, there are two extremes, extreme behaviour that we see among people who claim for themselves Islam.
And in reality, they have nothing to do with Islam. And Islam has nothing to do with them.
It is a day of solemn, of fasting and a day of worship. It is a day of solemn, of fasting and a day of worship. It’s a day to worship Allah, the way the prophet (pbuh) worshiped Allah on that day.
If you don’t take advantage of your time, you will lose except those who believe and do good deeds.
So fill this month with fasting and obedience to Allah. Don’t oppress yourself in this month of Muharram. Take this time to come near to Allah with voluntary fasting.
Look for the day of Ashura and fast one day before it and the day of Ashura itself. And be from those people who take advantage of Allah’s Month of Muharram.
We are in the month of Muharram , which is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It has to do with something haram, something prohibited. So what is haram and why is this month called Muharram?
We’re supposed to be making resolutions every night. We’re supposed to be renewing our vows to with Allah (swt) every night. We’re supposed to be seeking forgiveness every night.
We should be making peace with Allah (swt) every single day. Seek forgiveness; promise Allah you are going to be a better person. Never give up. If you’ve fallen into sin again and again, you need to go back to Allah again and again and again.
May Allah (swt) grant us a beautiful returning to Him.
Some people believe that we are not allowed to get married in the month of Muharram because it is bad luck. Unfortunately, that is totally baseless.
Some people believe we are not allowed to wear any good clothing, which is also baseless.
And some people believe the opposite, saying that we are supposed to be celebrating to the degree that we should be partying and so on this day. That is also baseless, but rather it is more about the lesson.
some people don’t realize that in the month of Muharram, Allah (Swt) has ordained certain things and Allah (swt) has chosen the month of Muharram for certain things. He calls it Shahrullahi Al-Muharram.
let’s make resolutions on a daily basis and let’s look into the resolutions we’ve made and see how best are practicing upon them. Let’s see how best we’re actually fulfilling them.
Remember, if you have bad habits, this is the time to quit those bad habits.
How would you use logic to exclude possibilities? Why would a flying spaghetti monster not be the cause of our universe;
You see, if you try to deflect, you know, how you would come to believe by examining your mind, and then you haven’t really thought about yours properly?
What would you include as a possibility about the origins of our universe? Can our University be itself, the cause of its existence?
There are many things we don’t know, but we can exclude by logic and rationality.
How can you use logic and yet you still believe in contradiction?….
What scares me a little bit is the fact that a lot of people say to me, oh, yourself as religious, you’re not going to get into heaven.
When you say I’m a good person or if you do good, who defines what is good and bad?
So what we say as Muslims is this, In order for me to say I’m a good person, I have to first define what’s good. How we define good is how God defines us good, it’s not dependent on what I think.
So I can never say I’m good unless I’m really following God’s command completely,.
In Islam to be a very brief summary, a person who goes to hell fire, he needs three conditions.
If we don’t do what God tells us to do and someone else, let’s say we don’t follow the God’s commands and he follows it, is it fair for God to deal with us both in the same manner?
For God to create the universe that God has to exist first, then create the universe. If He existed before creating the universe, He cannot be inside the universe because there was no universe.
When we say existential questions, what we’re referring to is some fundamental questions; human beings will inevitably ask at some point in their lives when they realize, you know, what are they doing here? Where do they come from? What’s going to happen after death, Right?
All of us agree on this, that we want the better of the human race as well as anything else within our Cosmos that we can see. So when it comes to being compassionate, having empathy, having sympathy, tolerance, mutual respect, understanding, I think we all agree that this is what should be the basis of all living in this world.
As A Muslim, we believe we are not here because of a coincidence or a mere chance that we are here. We are here with a purpose by design. We have been put here with a reason and a purpose by Someone Who has created.
So we call this someone the Creator, to fulfill a purpose and how we arrived to this conclusion that we are a creation of a Creator is the question that we might be able to now have a discussion about in terms of what are the tools that we have at our disposal, which we can use to answer some of those questions.
Absolute nothingness is a conceptual understanding in which there was nothing. Can you imagine there was at one point in the past, absolute nothingness like that?
if we understand, at least conceptually what this is, that means this nothingness doesn’t have anything within it to do anything, to create anything, to produce anything, to manufacture anything, to bring about existence of anything else. Because simply it’s the absence of everything, in general in our physics that we understand to do something, nothingness will result in nothingness all the time.
No matter how far you go back, there will be eternally something in existence. And as a Muslim, I do find that the Quran actually mentions this point for us to reflect on it, were they created from nothingness? Quran:Ayah at-Tur (The Mount, The Mountain) ch.52. V.35
if I know for sure that I am here created by a creator for a reason and I do not fulfill that purpose, then what’s going to be my outcome?
Success in this life; It’s not only knowing who’s the best girlfriend or wife or a partner, what is the best job, what is the best restaurant? What’s the best thing to wear? Success in this life also means being successful in your purpose in this life.
So knowing these questions about our very purpose of life not only gives you the tranquility, peace and comfort in your heart, but it then gives you an outlook to live in this life. And you’ll find that outlook is one of working in harmony of this universe because the creator did not create this universe where everyone can just go and plunder and loot and and terrorize and oppressed people.
The creator wants us to live in harmony and to live in peace and tranquility, but also fulfill the rights of God as well as the rights of creation, just like the creation has rights over us.
if I know that knowing that I am a creation of a creator with certain obligations and prohibitions, I cannot wrong you even though I had the ability to wrong you. I can not commit oppression and injustice on you, even though I might have the power to do so.
When we look at the prophet (pbuh) and his relationship with Allah and our blessing and good fortune of being from the Ummah of Rasulullah (pbuh) There are two things that Rasulullah (pbuh) always does on our behalf.
He always advocates for Allah (swt) to lessen our burden and he always advocates for Allah (swt) to increase our blessing.
Imam Hasan al-Basri (rah) tells us about our Messenger (pbuh) anytime Allah gives him, the prophet (pbuh) thinks how does that translate into giving to the ummmah?
The prophet (Pbuh) wanted something for his Ummah. So Allah gave him Laylat-al-Qadr; Allah (swt) gave him Laylat-al-Qadr as a gift to the Prophet (pbu)’s ummah. The Night of Glory is better than a thousand months.
for some people, laylatul qadr is not even a thousand months. It’s thousands of months. For some people, the Tasbeeh of Ramadan is not even times a thousand. It’s times thousands up toward Allah (swt) decides to reward his servants with and that comes back to each and every single one of us calling out to Allah and Subhanallah you connect that …… better than a thousand months.
It is very easy for us 1400 years later, when we hear the stories of these miracles that took place with our beloved Prophet (pbuh) and with the prophets that came before him to say that had we been there, we would have believed the two right away. We would have, without any reservation, accepted what has come to us through him (pbuh).
What did Abu Bakr (Ra) answer when they told Abu Bakr (ra) what the prophet (pbuh) said? If he said it, he’s telling the truth. Abu Bakr (Ra) said, I believe him when he says that he receives revelation from the Lord of the heavens and the Earth in an instance and that’s a far greater miracle than this.
None of it physically make sense. It defies my logic in terms of physical dimensions. miracles, that if they were to happen in front of us, we would not know how to come to terms with it, and perhaps we would deny them. Why is that? And Subhanallah, We find that Allah connects the inability to believe in miracles from Him that defy our physical norms to believe in the hereafter/ to believe in the akirah.
Remember at the very beginning of the Quran, those who believe in the unseen.
Allah (swt) says, when the Prophet (AS) read the Quran to them, it’s a powerful verse. When you read the Quran to them, oh messenger of Allah, a barrier is placed between you and those that don’t believe in the hereafter. It’s like a hijab is between them because they can’t come to terms with the idea of the hereafter. Make these miracles make sense to me, okay. And the same barrier that would be in us to cause scepticism with the miracles is the same barrier that would cause us skepticism with the akirah,
And that’s why Allah specified we put a barrier between you and those who don’t believe in the akirah. If they have a hard time with the hereafter, how are they gonna believe that something miraculous is happening around them in real time?
There’s no such thing as easy or easier or hard or harder with Allah. It’s just Allah says, and it is …..be and it is.
How that scepticism starts to creep in you read some fiqh books, some Aqidah the books, and you say, you know what? This doesn’t make sense to me. My logic is greater than what Quran and the sunnah say.
So I’m gonna come up with some modern answer to undermine the Scripture, undermine the text, undermine the Quran And Sunnah because the dimensions it all has to fit with my dimensions with my thinking and Allah (swt) says, Know your place. Your dimensions have no relevance to Allah (swt)’s Dominion. Your perception has no relevance to Allah’s power.
Know your place and call upon the Lord who worked these miracles that seemingly defied logic and understand that Allah (swt) has that same power with you.
We believe in the unseen. We have no issues in our heart. When we read anything in the Quran, we believe the prophet (pbuh) went to Jerusalem and heavens and came back in one day.
The All-Loving 