this is
the welcome back to the dean show I'm
with no stranger to the show Salam
alikum Fast and Furious here in the
house ah people let me bring them up to
speed so at one point people know Paul
Walker MH and you w did you actually uh
if people can go back and watch the show
we did you actually got in a really bad
car accident yeah you were former Muslim
turned atheist came back to Islam and
then there was a point in your life
where you actually were you watching
Fast and Furious you know I probably did
yeah probably did looking back yeah and
then you had that car accident and um
you went through the struggles that many
people go through and we're still
struggling it's a struggle this life is
you know uh that's my first question I
guess um tell us uh what do you see now
you're an Imam a spiritual leader you
run the uh College of Islamic Studies
what do you see people come in your
office what are some of the major a few
of the major challenges crisises that
you see young people old people going
through uh the the biggest thing is a
crisis of Faith right now I think people
don't know why they're Muslim anymore
and they're not sure if you know if if
this is if this is for them they're
trying to figure out you know many
people what they're doing unfortunately
is they're trying to be fulfilled
through religion rather than realizing
that religion or Islam is something that
you're supposed to fulfill a purpose or
mission that Allah has set up for it's a
test life is a test what happens is if
you feel that Islam is there to fulfill
you and you give in charity and you help
out in order to make you feel good the
moment you stop feeling good the moment
you go through some difficulty or
challenge or some problem that happened
in the Masjid or some Muslim friend you
know made fun of you whatever it is you
find a text that you can't understand
you all of a sudden start backing away
and you start going away from this
religion and I feel a lot of people are
going through that going through a lot
of questions uh they don't know the
answers to them and they just start
running away and they think that there's
no answers out there there they don't
know who to talk to you know so that's
one of the challenges that people are
going through you know another challenge
is just literally people not people not
having a good solid Islamic education so
what happens is you know almost everyone
in my community or the people that I see
it's very common Muslims will generally
go through University they have to have
at least a four-year degree if not a
master's degree so we're talking about
you know 16 years of education but very
little religious education their
religious education is like you learn
how to read Arabic learn Al ba how to
read the Quran then you throw a party
and you say you this guy just learned
how to read the Quran and that's it
you've graduated you've learned
everything you need to know about Islam
and that's it and when you go into
University you go into college you take
classes on philosophy you take class on
psychology you encounter all these
different theories you know Sigman Freud
Emanuel Khan
you know n all these things and it it it
messes with your head and it makes you
start questioning things that you don't
have a foundation to even come up with
an Islamic answer to so do you recommend
what do you recommend when somebody in
University you have that philosophy
class yeah I mean I'm i' I'm very honest
and I'm telling people that if you don't
have a solid Islamic Foundation don't
ever walk into a philosophy class
especially a philosophy class and don't
walk into any Islamic Studies class
that's taught from a secular perspective
it's going to destroy your understanding
of Islam it's going to teach you how to
what what they call deconstructing Islam
and looking how it evolved over time and
they're kind of presenting like a a
Christian evolution of you know all
these ideas on projecting it onto Islam
it's just going to mess with your head
and people go in and they think that you
know they're going to learn something
from this or you know they're they're
they're brave enough to you know
challenge their philosophy professors
who are hardcore atheists or maybe
agnostics and they've been thinking
about this and researching it for 30
years you're literally you don't even
know how to swim you don't even know how
to do a back float and you're jumping
into the deep end of the water that's
exactly what's happening and I see
people drown all the time you're get
into a wrestling match with a black Bell
Jiu-Jitsu that that's that that's
exactly what's happening you think
you're a Karate Kid and that's it you
know you're gone got a Katey chop that's
right okay so You' actually you have
overcome this
and you were an atheist you were very
well versed in atheism now you went to
debating atheist yes you've debated many
tell us how this has gone yeah so I mean
uh after doing a lot of research now I
have I know the arguments that they make
the modern atheist the what they call
the new atheist Richard Dawkins Sam
Harris all these guys and I know the old
atheists as well you know Emmanuel Kant
and you know David Hume and Kant was not
an atheist but you know skeptic David
Hume and these type of Pichi and all
that so the thing is I debate them on a
regular basis and I realize that there's
a few issues intellectually rationally
their arguments don't really stand up
and they see that but what's happening
is I notice in them there's this
intrinsic pessimism that they have and
it's emotional and they come up with
emotional arguments you know well you
know it gets down to they had some bad
experience in life they went through
some trauma they had a bad experience at
church with their religion whatever it
was and you see that emotional thing
coming out and you say well what
happened to all that intellectual
rationalism that you were talking about
when they complain about well why are
there so many bad things happening in
the world they make it all emotional I
say You're supposed to be that
intelligent person so so from a rational
intelligent perspective they don't win
any of these debates and you can see
that there's some internal psychological
trauma going on there and now I can see
it very clearly because I I I deal I I I
I study the psychology of that I deal
with people regularly on a regular basis
do counseling and all that and also I
deal with these intellectual arguments
so when you got these Islamic
understanding and Islamic Arguments for
existence of God why religion you know
why why Islam you know came what why is
there a purpose in life how do we
rationalize that it's just clear as
daylight now I want you to tell us about
the God hot spot that everyone is has
been wired as proof to this when we come
back we're going to go ahead and find
out more about it don't go anywhere
we'll be right
back back here on the dean show with
shik Mustafa tell us now um it's
actually now they've done studies that
belief is something that is innate yes
and fighting against it is something
that is acquired you have to like fight
against your your your nature it's like
this gas spot is put put in you is this
is this correct yeah absolutely I mean
they've done research uh out of the
universities in England is Oxford they
did a major study and uh they found out
that people are naturally inclined
towards this and and the reason why it
is this is the way our minds are
structured the same way that you know we
talk about scientific proof scientific
evidence our minds are structured to
accept that when an experiment goes One
Way 99 times and one way the other time
you say well we're going to go with
we're going to believe that it's this
way the one time must have been a
mistake 99 times the experiment was able
to repeat itself that's the scientific
method so that's why people are very
strong about believing in science the
same thing when we talk about this idea
of causality cause and effect that we
see when we think about things and we
say well what's the origin of this
entire universe all these planets
everything that exists what's the what's
the origin of all the complexities our
digestive system all the systems and how
they function together and everything
it's natural it's just it's built within
us it's built into us that we're going
to make a conclusion say you know what
if there is a creation there's a Creator
it didn't just pop out of nowhere it
doesn't make sense all of a sudden you
know you find something very complex and
you say yeah maybe you know that iPhone
that we see maybe the wind blew it and
you know just metal pieces kind of
randomly formed together somehow so it's
naturally built in because that's the
way we're designed to think and that's
what we call in Islam the F the natural
disposition that God created us upon so
in order for you to go against that
right to to disbelief in God and say you
know what I don't believe that God exist
or something like that you have to go
against your innate nature and it
actually takes like a leap of faith to
get to that level there's a professor
Pascal Boer from the Washington
University he talks about for our
cognitive senses that uh disbelief
that's uh belief is generally the path
of least resistance can you elaborate on
that so it's that's just that meaning
that's natural yeah I mean if you just
if you think about children you know the
same thing uh one of the early Scholars
IM fzi he says you know if you take a if
you take a rock and you kind of throw it
to the side and a little child is there
he'll look around to see where did this
rock come come from this is built in we
want we want to investigate we want to
find out what's going on that's exactly
what this professor is saying Professor
boy is saying the exact same thing it's
built within us we have this natural
desire to question things to get to the
bottom of things to try to understand
them and when we do that it
automatically inclines us to believe in
something which makes sense and that's
belief in God belief in God belief that
there's a Creator it makes sense so
that's exactly what he's talking about
now you know a lot of um people get as
you say stumped uh you know this is an
intellectual this guy has his PhD and
he's coming out and then one argument
they say well like you had brought up do
you believe in two fairies Santa Claus
and you of course not of course not then
then they put the Creator in that same
category how do you go ahead and refute
that see the thing is it's it's a it's a
deceptive argument because you know what
there are people who believe in strange
things that don't have any basis so just
because there are people who believe in
that and they may also believe in God
you don't throw the baby out with the
bath water as they say right so yeah
there are there are there are a lot of
false religions out there doesn't mean
that all religions are wrong because the
ones that you happen to come across
we're wrong right so this is not the way
that we function you know if someone has
some bad qualities in them it doesn't
mean that they're all bad and if someone
has some good qualities in them it
doesn't mean that they're all good right
so this is not the way we make judgments
so this is what people do is they start
going in they start making fun and they
say you know what see this guy they
believe in this they believe in that
they're all tricked and Confused no you
have to differentiate between what are
good rational beliefs that people hold
and what are bad ones so if you
encounter a Believer for example someone
who believes in God but then believes
that if you break a mirror you get seven
years of bad luck it doesn't mean that
all of a sudden because he believes an
idea about bad luck which doesn't really
have much basis all of a sudden because
of that belief his belief in God must
also be incorrect see we don't judge the
truth based upon what people believe
this was a statement of a a well-known
uh Muslim his name was Ali he was the
fourth cff in Islam he said don't know
the truth based upon what people are
saying know the truth yourself and then
you're going to know the people who
follow that truth and I think there's a
lot to that and what what many atheists
do is they try to focus and make fun of
people they have you know movies making
fun of look at how funny these Christian
preachers are and they're doing weird
things and all of that stuff that
doesn't negate the fact that belief in
God is something rational it's something
that you can you can you know be
convinced of it it makes sense uh to the
average human mind you can't lump
everything together and just cause that
to confuse people now the confuse the
spec skeptic also now because maybe they
don't have that solid foundation you can
usually as you grow in knowledge your
Iman grows you can see through a lot of
this deception that's out there but uh
maybe someone now is um confused because
all they see nowadays and and it seems
like the the media is a it's um it's a
It's Magic right you you you get uh
sucked in and you start to believe some
of the things out there maybe you're
Muslim also and you think like how could
this Islam be the truth that my parents
are pushing on me when all it is
associated with violence Isis all day
and night you know oppression of women
what do you say yeah I mean the the
first thing people need to judge Islam
not based upon what they see in the
media first of all I mean they need to
understand that the media has an agenda
it's a it's a for-profit industry they
have an agenda and what they're going to
report is has to be Sensational news so
that's the first thing whenever we see
something in the media we should be very
skeptical and we should say wait wait a
minute do they have some agenda behind
why they're promoting something like
that and then the second thing is you
know when you're a little bit skeptical
it's good to be a little bit skeptical
on these things say I want to find out
the truth so how do you find out the
truth you go to the sources or you go to
people who know the sources and you say
hey why don't you answer you know I I
saw that uh there was mistreatment of
women going on in such and such country
is that representative of the religion
of Islam go and ask a scholar and he'll
tell you and explain to you what does
Islam really say about women go and
check the Quran and see what it talks
about women there's an entire chapter
you know label chapter number four is
about women it's titled women so if you
look at what what status ISL Islam is
actually given to women and you look at
some of these practices that people are
doing and you'll find that they're
actually antithetical they're actually
in contradiction with the real teachings
of Islam you find out that Islam is a
solution to these problems there are
Muslims who will do bad things the same
way there are there are Christians there
are Buddhists there are Hindus and there
are atheists that do very bad things we
don't judge people's religion based upon
what people are doing you judge people's
religion based upon that religion itself
so you do you apply the same standards
to the religion of Islam you learn about
Islam you read about Islam you read the
Quran you read the other texts on Islam
you learn what Islam says and then you
can judge whether that those Muslims
that you see on TV or whoever else you
see if they're in line with the
teachings of religion or of religion of
Islam or not we're going to be right
back uh willing with the not the million
dooll question the billion dooll
question here on the D show don't go
anywhere back here on the dean show
thank you for tuning in again if you
haven't subscribed subscribe right now
so you get the next show delivered
directly to you I said the not the
million dollar question but this is the
billion dollar question every human
being should be asking
themselves I mean
we're functioning in this earth we we
live you know newborn Childs are coming
in old people young people are leaving
but people are just engrossed in
accumulating more wealth more money you
know live in the party and die YOLO you
only live once but they're forgetting
the billion dollar
question why am I here what's the
purpose yep and I've asked many people
have you ever asked yourself this
question and I just get astonished that
you know to now it's not a surprise
anymore but in the beginning it was
people don't ask that simple question
yeah I I I I think that people have
probably asked it when they were young
at some point in time but they just kind
of covered it up they couldn't find an
answer to it quickly you know we want
everything quick fast food food fast
instant coffee everything's just got to
be done quickly so everyone they think
about that question you know most people
think about it and then they just
dismiss it say I didn't come up with a
quick answer I talked to my friend and
you know someone just came up with
something weird and he said okay
whatever you know so the thing is we got
to ask the ultimate question you know
many people are redefining this idea of
the purpose of life it's not just what
you want to do in life it's not your
career there there it's being filled
with what your career is with what this
is there's an ultimate purpose in life
and that purpose in life is that we're
here to worship God to adjust our lives
in according to the guidance that God
has given us now someone says look I got
to work I got to provide for my family I
got to go play some ball uh what are you
talking about you want me to be stuck in
a in in a mosque all day worshiping what
do you actually mean exactly so worship
needs to be defined clearly Worship in
Islam doesn't mean that you're engaged
in prayer all the time doesn't mean that
you give up your job you quit your job
and you become a monk and you sit in a
cave somewhere and you know you're just
remembering God all the time Worship in
Islam basically means that you're
adjusting your lifestyle in your life
according to the way that God wanted it
so God knew he made this world where you
got to work you got to spend time with
your family you got to socialize you got
to do all these things but when you're
doing them you're doing it in a moral
way in a way that's righteous in line
with the teachings that that that God
actually wanted us to apply so we're not
going to steal we're not going to cheat
we're not going to you know abuse our
family we're not going to backbite and
talk bad about other people we're not
going to gossip these type of things is
what we call Worship in Islam it's it's
a holistic program for how we live our
life in every single thing that we do
knowing that God is watching and that we
will be held accountable you know after
this life in terms of what we did in
this life that kind of goes opposite
let's say you're an atheist and I mean
there are some good people who call
themselves humanists I mean because it's
part of also that nature to to be good
to be then you get corrupted you you
read a book like mcavan right and now
you you want more money so now you're
promoting or learning to lie deceive and
we see a lot of that whatever benefits
you yeah that that that's become this
selfish individualism is becoming very
very common and you know even people who
initially they say no no I I'm going to
follow good values it's very tempting
and there's nothing to keep you in check
if all of a sudden you know someone puts
a $100 bill in front of you you say you
know would you would you take that no
one else is watching you don't believe
any anyone's watching you don't believe
anyone's going to hold you accountable
you think you're going to get away with
it it's tempting and you say no no I I
can resist make it
$1,000 make it $10,000 starts to get
more and more tempting right what's
going to hold you back from doing that
if you don't actually have something if
you don't have a purpose in life where
it's going to help keep you in check and
make you realize that you're going to
have to stand in front of God one day
and you're going to have to account for
everything that you've done in this life
including that money that you took or
including that lie that you told you
would be so surprised people used to
play a game called what would you do for
a million and everything just went all
morals and everything just went out the
window people selling their soul they'll
sell their mothers that's it yeah life
is but when but when you're on that that
that Foundation of connection of Purpose
with your creator your living purpose uh
would you say that now these things
you're you're less likely to to get
tempted by these things absolutely as
long as you keep it in mind you know the
more conscious you are of God and the
more conscious you are of your purpose
in life you always remember that you
know what you know you you learn to
restrain yourself and you learn to
remember that not only you're going to
be held accountable but you develop
things you know we we fast as Muslims we
fast in Ramadan we learn that level of
self-control so when you give up some
food for a while you give up water in
the summer it's hot you're thirsty you
want some water when you remember I gave
up water when I could have drank water
right you learn a different level of
self-discipline I can give up lying I
can give up stealing I can give up
cheating I can give up these other
things if I learn to give up something
where I had to struggle against myself
so there are these spiritual practices
which make us stronger stronger
Believers and also we're able to resist
our own desires and temptations that
come our way if some so the person I was
always saying okay what's the purpose of
life is to have a family what's the
purpose of life is to help people is to
help the poor to feed the poor what's
the purpose of life to win the Nobel
Peace Prize how do these all fit in see
the thing is people need to zoom out you
know so this these are these are some
good things sometimes you know helping
your you know helping poor people
fighting for you know social justice
these are good things you know but this
is not an entire system or program of
why we were created in the first place
can this be a means this can be a means
this this can be one of the many means
that we have but what we need to realize
is that there's a predefined purpose of
our existence in terms of why we came
here there's a reason God created us
here for a reason we need to figure out
what is that reason and the only way we
can know that we can't just sit and
close our eyes and sit in a cave and
contemplate I'll try and figure out you
know why we're here in the first place
the only way to know that is if God you
know communicated to us and that's why
we got to read the Revelation and we got
to see you know what God telling us why
did he create us and what are we
supposed to be doing here so that's all
part of it charity donation helping
people the Golden Rule reciprocating
being nice to people that's all good
that's part of it but it's not all of it
so you got to zoom out and you got to
see how all of that fits together and
that's what the message of Islam is
where's a good place uh you know there's
the the few things that usually desires
blocks a person desires you know the
inheritant beliefs from and then the
culture um but you talk about right now
deep reflection contemplating how can
you before we leave motivate someone
where's a a good place to start and how
to put these things because you know
Johnny and Sally they Friday's coming up
and you know she's got the VIP access
he's hitting back to the club this other
person you know same thing he's hitting
the pub and now they tune in but where
where before they go back some
motivation to get them I like to mention
death a lot yeah yeah I I would
definitely reflect upon death you know
the more people think about death death
is something certain something that
regardless of what religion you you
follow wherever you're coming from you
think about the fact everyone believes
that they're going to die even those
people who think that you know they can
freeze their body and maybe some Day
science will bring them back or whatever
reflect on death and think about you
know what what's going to happen after
death you take it more seriously and you
start to reflect you know what I want to
know what happens afterwards I I should
go and check out a book on Islam I
should go and check out the Quran see
what it says in terms of what's going to
happen after death how we're going to be
responsible in this life and that starts
to wake you up there's no coming back
some people are deceived like okay God
can just tell me if there is that when I
die like uh
uh what was it all about so I can go
back and correct my mistakes see that
that'll defeat the purpose of the test
yeah so it's the same thing if if a
teacher gives you a test and all of a
sudden you make all these mistakes and
you turn it in and all of a sudden say
you know what we're going to we're going
to go ahead and give it back to you with
all the right answers now you go ahead
and fill it in what's the point of the
test there's no point so we get a we get
one shot one shot at this life one shot
right now it's done that that's it it's
done and you don't know when the test is
going to be over so if you're thinking
about delaying if you're thinking about
you know I'll think about this tomorrow
you know I gotta I got a I got a movie
to go watch I got a I got a coffee to go
drink I got to go hang out with my
friends you know you can do all those
things just cut it down take a little
bit of time before you go to sleep every
night you know read 30 minutes reflect
contemplate think about these things
take life a little bit more seriously
asking the Creator ask the Creator ask
the Creator just say pray for guidance
say you know what God show me the right
path and if you're sincere and you're
willing to put a little bit effort into
it he'll help you and he'll guide you uh
tell us uh you're the dean of the
College of Islamic Studies tell us if
people want to go ahead and start some
classes with you yes the College of
Islamic Studies is a is a full
comprehensive uh Islamic curriculum
Islamic education program we have our
website College islam.com where we offer
18 different courses which give you a
good balanced relevant contemporary
understanding of the religion of Islam
you can take courses on site and you can
take courses online you can register at
any time and you can start those classes
and benefit yourself we started with
peace one with peace Alum thank you very
much