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alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
and may Allah's peace and blessings be
on the last prophet Muhammad sallallah
alaihi
wasam and on all those who follow the
path of righteousness until the last
day the topic who is your
lord addresses the
issue as to
whether
belief is really
enough is it enough just to say we
believe our Lord is
Allah
or do we have to
have a sufficient level of
knowledge to justify that
claim
because we have a
Hadith narrated by a number of
companions
among them
Al Malik Abu Hur and
others who narrated from the prophet
sallallahu alaih
wasallam that after a person
dies and he enters into the
Barak that
is the spirit
world a
world from which he cannot come back
a
world which prevents him from contacting
those who are
living when he enters into that
world Allah causes him to hear the
footsteps of those who walk away after
his
burial and he will be sat up
by two
angels jet black in color with bright
blue
eyes and they will ask
him who is your
lord and what was your
religion and who was your
prophet
these three
questions tonight the topic of this
lecture is
man who was your
lord if the answer was simple as simple
as we might want to look at it right now
everybody here can say
Allah but if it were really that
simple then for these two angels monar
and to ask us that and this is the
beginning of the trials of the grave of
the state of the
Grave
then the question that they would ask
would be
meaningless so
obviously understanding
what our Lord really
is in this life
so that we'll be able to answer that
question in the next life is
critical because those questions that
are coming to at us in the next
life they are not like the examinations
that we have in this life where if you
get 50% you pass
no this is the beginning of the trials
of the grave
those who knew who their lord was in
this life and knew what their religion
was and who their Prophet really
was they will answer with
ease and the state of the Grave will
become a garden from The Gardens of
paradise for them whereas those who are
unable to
answer because they really didn't know
who their lord was in this life the
prophet Sall wasallam said they will
only be able to say ah
ah I don't really
know when they're asked what was their
religion even though culturally where
they were considered to be
Muslims but in fact they really weren't
their answer will only be ah ah
and who was their
Prophet because they didn't understand
who Muhammad sallallah alai wasam really
was he had no meaning in their
lives so when they're asked who their
Prophet was they will only be able to
say ah
ah
so we must come to grips with this
reality knowledge of whom our Lord is is
the foundation of our faith how can we
believe in our
Lord if we don't know
who he
is
furthermore we have in the 12th chapter
of the Quran verse
106 a severe
warning a grave
warning in which Allah
says most of
those who claim to believe in
Allah worship others besides him they're
pagans Idol worshippers but they claim
to believe in
Allah so it means that this issue of who
our Lord
is is
quite detailed there are details of it
that we must be clear
on otherwise we can end up like
others
Christians who believe that their lord
is Jesus they address him as dear Lord
Jesus and they believe that he is
God and he and God the Father are
one
yet he was
born yet according to them he
died that is their
belief and others Buddhists and Hindus
and
others believe in
God but their belief in
God Is So distorted that they end up
worshiping
Idols while claiming to believe in
God so
tonight I am going to raise for you some
questions by which you can
use to
judge to what degree we do you know who
your lord
is the first
question do you agree with those who
say that
belief is a matter of Blind
Faith do you
agree with those who say that belief
belief in God is a matter of Blind Faith
you can't prove
it it's just either you believe or you
don't
believe if you
agree then you don't know who your lord
is if you are asked the
question if everything has a a
Creator then who created
God and you scratch your
head I really don't
know then you don't know who your lord
is if somebody said to
you if God can do
anything we believe God can do anything
why can't he have a
son and if we scratch our heads again
and
say I think uh he could have a son but
he decided not
to then we don't know who our Lord
is and if somebody puts the idea to us
that if God is all
powerful
can he create a stone which is too heavy
for him to
lift and our head
spins and we don't know what to
say if we said he
can then it there's something greater
than him if we say that he can't then it
means he can't do
everything what's the answer if we are
there we don't know who our Lord
is
and if somebody raises the big
question if God is all
good and he's able to do all
things then where did Evil come
from if our answer is human beings
they're the ones that made the evil and
Satan he made the
evil then we don't know who our Lord
is
now these questions require an
answer so that you don't walk away from
the lecture tonight and say
we came to learn about Islam and Dr Bal
confused
us he left us
confused so that you don't walk away
that way I'm going to give you the
answers but this is only an
introduction to understand where we need
to
be because if these questions are
unclear to us truly we don't know who
our Lord is
and it means that we will be open to
false da false
calls to other than Islam to
misguidance we will be susceptible to
these false ideas and fall into them
because we didn't know who our Lord was
so let us go back to number one
on is belief in God a matter of Blind
Faith
no it is
not this is the claim that the atheists
make those who deny the existence of God
belief in God is a matter of Blind Faith
whereas our disbelief in God is logical
it's reasonable it makes
sense we can't see him we can't smell
him we can't touch him therefore he
doesn't
exist that is reasonable that is logical
as for your belief in this unseen God
this is illogical
well we
say
who were those who
recorded the rules of
logic who were the first people in
history that we know about who wrote
down the rules of
logic if a equals
b and b equals c then a must
equal
C who wrote those rules down
down the
Greeks and the most famous philosophers
amongst the Greeks Plato and
Aristotle they be both believed in
God both Plato and Aristotle argued
logically for the existence of God so we
say belief in God is in fact logical and
reasonable and it is the disbelief in
God which is illogical and
unreasonable it's the other way around
it's the disbelievers in God whose
disbelief is BL based on blind
faith belief in God is
logical
reasonable natural
disbelief in God is
unnatural that is why the vast majority
of human beings in the world throughout
history have believed in God those who
denied God's existence are a minute
number that's why in the Quran when when
the Quran addresses belief in God it
doesn't begin from those who don't
believe in God's existence there are a
few verses which address them but the
vast majority of verses address those
who already believe in God but they have
a confused idea about who God really
is
so if we look at the
argument of those philosophers the Greek
philosophers first among them
Plato Plato's
argument for God's
existence is the same basic argument we
we find throughout the
Quran that
argument is
primarily that
design indicates a
designer
design indicates a
designer what does that mean it means
that if we go walking on the
beach and we see a footprint in the
sand we don't stop to think and to
wonder how amazing it is that the tide
came ashore sunk into the sand and made
the impression of a
footprint that could
happen but do we think that no when we
see that footprint what automatically
comes to our mind is somebody body
stepped
here that's number
one
automatically that's common
sense it is illogical and
unreasonable to
assume that that footprint was a product
of
chance though we can say it is not
totally
impossible but
that is not what comes to our
minds our reasoning Powers tells us
otherwise however those who deny God's
existence this is their
argument it's
possible it's by accident our very
existence here is a product of a huge
accident a huge accident which be began
with the big
bang the Big
Bang the Big Bang
which ex was an explosion of
matter compressed in a very small point
of course those who talk about this
don't explain where the matter came from
in the first place but they start from
this point of matter
exploding
and this huge
explosion produced you and I complex
human beings from a massive
explosion however all of our Common
Sense tells us that explosions produce
destruction not
construction explosions are not
constructive they don't
produce results that are meaningful they
are chaotic they create chaos not
order so if we are to believe as they
claim that this huge big bang created us
think for a moment if somebody were to
take an atomic
bomb and drop it in a
junkyard the junkyard where you have
bits and pieces of old cars you can buy
spare parts the junkyard you drop an
atomic bomb in the junkyard and it
explodes like Hiroshima and Nagasaki
massive
explosion and when the cloud
settles we see in front of us a Rolls
Roy engine purring
door open you just have to step in and
drive
away what do you think are the chances
of that
happening we say
zero those who think logically and
reasonably they say
zero but for the illogical atheists they
say no it's possible if you drop enough
atomic bombs in enough junkyards
eventually one time we'll get a
Rolls-Royce coming out of
there it's
possible so we say what kind of logic is
that what kind of reason is that a
person with any degree of Common Sense
will tell you the billionth time that
you drop that bomb is no bit different
from the first time you drop the bomb
the chances of it happening are zero
so the atheist turns to the
mathematician and he asks the
mathematician what are the possibilities
of this happening can you give me a
formula for that so the mathematician
tells him well it's chances of this
happening is one to the
minus billion zeros with a one at the
end of
it he says Ah there is that one chance
the mathematician said a billion zeros
with a one at the end of
it there is the chance we say to him
please this is
mathematics does
mathematics
Define 100% the real world say yes
mathematics is
supreme it tells us the realities we say
no it doesn't mathematics is an
approximation that we have placed as
human beings on this world and we
calculate and it works to us great
degree so we depend on it however it is
not
100%
because according to
mathematics think about this
according to
mathematics if I were to walk out of
here through that door over
there 100 m away I will never be able to
reach the
door according to
mathematics I will never be able to
reach the
door why because one 100 m when I walk
towards the door I must walk through the
50 m Midway
right after I walk through the 50 m
Midway then I must walk through the 25 M
midway between the door and the 50 m
right and after I go through the 25 M
Midway I must go through the 12
12.5 M
Midway and after the
12.5 M Midway I must go through the six
point and then the thre point and then
and then and you can keep dividing on
your computer and never reach
zero zero is the
door that's
mathematics according to math
mathematics you will never reach zero
you can keep dividing
infinitely so what does that mean we go
to doors all the time we go through them
all the time that's the real
world but according to
mathematics we never go through the door
so one to the minus billion zeros with a
one forget it that means zero no chance
it's not going to ever happen
these atheists usually give another
example they say okay if you put a
hundred monkeys in a
cage and you give them a 100 Arabic
typewriters and let them of course with
new with paper you have to put paper in
the typewriters right let them beat away
at the keys with their elbows their
heads their feet knees jumping up and
down everything
everything eventually one of them will
type out the whole Quran for you the
whole
Quran from fa to
NAS what do you think about that
possibility zero no The Atheist said no
it's possible if you give them enough
time eventually one of them will do it
we say
illogical
unreasonable doesn't really make
sense so belief in God as Plato argued
is necessary for us to understand the
design that we see in the world around
us in his
time before the time of
Christ he saw just gross elements of
design since then science has gone into
the atoms it's gone into the heavens
it's gone all over the world and
everywhere that science goes it finds
design every
snowflake which
Falls has a
design different from every other
snowflake
every grain of sand on the beach has a
form different from every other grain of
sand this design this form was not a
product of
accident accident May produce design one
time May on a limited scale but design
every where that you look in the
universe
no that is
unreasonable that is
unreasonable on the other
hand Aristotle
argued that
if the Creator had a
Creator who had a Creator who had a
Creator who had a creator and we keep
going back
infinitely to
Infinity then there's no way to explain
how we got here because if the origins
are in infinity that's the same as
saying there are no
Origins without an origin we cannot be
here our very existence is proof that
things began at one point and it was
begun by one who was not himself a part
of that same process of
creation were he a part of that process
then he would have been in need of a
Creator who would have been in need of a
Creator and so on and so forth so no
beginning
that was Aristotle's
argument and that is the
reality if we def find
God as one without a beginning to ask
who created him is
ludicrous any
question which
involves God doing ungodly
things doing things which make him no
longer God these are ridiculous and
ludicrous
questions so once we said God is without
beginning and he is Without End to ask
can God be born can God die these are
ludicrous we have already said he has no
beginning and no
end
similarly the
question if God is able to D all things
can he create a stone which is too heavy
for him to lift that is ludicrous
because it implies I that there would be
something greater than
God so you don't ask the question in the
first place because it is a ludicrous
question now the question with regards
to
evil that is a more precise question
which is important for us to
understand if we said that evil was
created by human beings and
Satan then we fall in the realm of those
who believe in more than one God more
than one
Creator like the zor
asrian of Iran of Persia the pares who
believe in a god of good Aur Mazda and a
god of evil angram
Manu because they didn't want to assign
evil to God they gave the creation of
evil
to Satan elevated to the status of
God Allah tells us very clearly in the
Quran he is the creator of
everything nothing takes place in his
creation except by his
permission so who created evil where did
Evil come from it came by the permission
of
God it came from
God God permitted it to take
place so what does that mean do we have
an evil God here no God is
good and
every evil incident which takes place
has behind it
an element of good for which God
permitted that evil to take
place as they say every cloud has a
silver
lining the Silver Lining this is the
good that is behind the
cloud this is what is Illustrated in the
story of Moses
and Surah Al which we are supposed to
read and reflect on every
Friday in it
Al seeks to learn from or seeks to
teach Prophet
Moses some of the knowledge which Allah
had revealed to
him and
Moses promised to be patient with so
that he could learn properly from
him he and Moses crossed a river in a
boat the boatsman kindly took them
across when they reached the other side
and the Moes man walked away Alid Took
an Axe and broke a hole in the
boat Prophet Moses was a gas he he said
why did you do this this is not a good
thing Al told him didn't I tell you you
weren't going to be able to be
patient in order to learn from me
really he said oh
sorry then he later explained to him
that after they left there was a tyrant
coming down the river a ruler who was a
tyrant who was snatching the boats of
everyone all of the boats that were
mored at the shores of the river he was
capturing them all and of course when he
came to that broken boat he said oh
don't need that one it's got a hole in
it and he went on and took the
others and the owner of the boat of
course when he came back to his boat and
he saw the hole in it first he would
have said ah what a horrible thing hey
somebody made a hole in my boat who
would have done such an evil thing but
then when the Tyrant came and left his
boat what did he say then alhamdulillah
there was a hole in my
boat turned around what he thought was
evil turned out to be a good thing and
how many times in our Liv lives have we
not experienced things similar I
remember there was an
article in the newspapers from
Egypt where it showed a picture of a
young
man
standing with his father kissing him on
the right cheek and his wife kissing him
on the left cheek and he had both thumbs
up and he had this huge smile on his
face I read the article the article said
that this young man was AB about to
board a plane in Egypt the last flight
going to Bahrain he was a teacher in
Bahrain and he was to catch the very
last Gulf Air flight flying back to
bahin if he missed the
flight then he would lose his job
so when he rushed to the airport the
previous morning with his bags all
packed he rushed through he got his
tickets everything he went to
immigration and the immigration officer
as he opened his passport looking at the
various stamps he said you're missing
one
stamp one stamp said all the stamps are
here he said no there's one one stamp
missing oh
no he's
shattered can I get some money can you
take1 can
no you can't get on this flight you're
missing one stamp he's
crying my
job he falls on his knees begging the
man please let
me man said no
way he finally gets up
shattered going home meeting his
family everybody crying he was the one
who was working in Bahrain earning money
which was coming back benefiting the
whole family then the next morning in
the
newspapers the news
came that flight that Gulf Air flight
crashed no
survivors so the next Evening Edition of
the paper you saw him there thumbs
up big
grin
happy what he thought was a
Calamity half a day ago turned out to be
a mercy he was very happy about it and
that's life isn't it we find many many
examples like that in our lives where
something seems to be evil and we find
out shortly or sometime later that in
fact it was a good thing that's one
example of Good and Evil there's another
example of Good and Evil
where you can't figure it
out evil
happens and you can't see the good
that's in it
and that was in the story of Moses
and after they left where the boat was
they went along the shore and he came
across came across a boy a boy about 11
years old and he grabbed the boy's head
and
he tore it off he tore the boy's head
off Moses was shocked how could you kill
this innocent child child who hasn't
even reached puberty is not held
accountable how can you do
this told Moses didn't I tell you you
wouldn't be
patient oh sorry sorry sorry anyway he
went on to explain to him that the
parents of this boy were two righteous
people who this boy would grow
up to create some such a trial for that
it would drive them to the verge of
disbelief he would make their life a
living
hell so Allah
instructed to take the boy's
life of course in the case of the
parents when they saw their son
decapitated dead they would have been
shocked they would have been hurt Allah
gave them another child a girl who loved
them stayed close to them Etc and they
appreciated that but they would always
remain that whole in their heart for
their son who was murdered and it would
not be until the day of
judgment when they stood before God and
the truth about everything was revealed
to them they would realize then it was a
good
thing some things are like
that and we can see an example of this
with our own
children where the first time you take
your child to the
dentist before you take the child you
build him up you tell him how nice the
dentist is he's a good man he likes you
he's going to give you a lollipop
whatever so the kid is happy to go see
the
dentist then when he gets in the
chair and the dentist takes out that big
needle kid is looking at this
needle and he takes it and he sticks it
in his mouth and the kid
screams then he pulls out this
drill and he starts digging it into his
teeth a kid is balling tears are running
down his face
and when he leaves with his father at
the end of all that he says Dad you said
he was a good man he's a bad man he's
not a good man he's a bad man and of
course the next time you have to take
him to the
dentist he's going to be fighting you
tooth and nail he won't allow you to
take him he'll be kicking fighting
screaming you Tred to explain to him
listen
son what the D
did was to remove a greater pain that
could come the little pain that he did
to you was to prevent a bigger
pain bad teeth root canal all these
other things that can come out of it you
think your son can understand that no
all he can understand is the pain that
the dentist did to him all of that
explanation is way above his head can't
see
it and that's how it
is
things we can't see the good
behind some people assume there is no
good and so they fall into
atheism this is the
common disease that happen to some
people who haven't understood God and
how God operat Ates in human life so
when tragedy occurs in their life they
fall apart and the only conclusion they
can come to is that there can't possibly
be a
god you see people
like
Dawkins Professor Dawkins in the UK
considered a genius mathematical genius
who wrote about
the world and time basically a defense
of atheism arguing why there is no
God if you see him he is a shriveled up
individual in a wheelchair who can
hardly move
anything his eyelids that's
it so what
happened when he was in his prime he was
18 years old mathematical genius in
Oxford
and
Cambridge he was stricken by a disease
which affected his spinal cord and he
slowly just shriveled
up so when he came to India when he came
to India traveled around India and he
saw all of
these billion
Indians most of whom had little or no
education living lives
healthy while he who has so much to
offer the world is shriveled up he said
there can't be a god this is just not
fair why shouldn't I have a healthy body
and one of these millions be shriveled
up that makes more
sense he couldn't accept his state so it
led him to disbelief in God and this is
what you hear at the bottom of the
statements of many atheists when you ask
them how did you become an atheist why
are you an atheist they tell you well
listen I had this aunt she was a
wonderful person she used to do so many
good things for everybody she used to
come and visit me and take me to the
park and take me here and there and give
me money and ice cream and everything
and then one day when we were walking
across the street a truck came hit her
and killed
her why she was a good person why should
she be killed like that there's so many
other bad people who are walking around
they're fine they're not dead why is she
dead he doesn't have an explanation so
where does he
go there can't be a god this stuff is
just happening anyhow
anyway so this kind
of understanding
misunderstanding
leads to disbelief in God itself when a
person doesn't know their
lord
there is a further
question which I would like to raise for
you and that is the statement of those
who
say God created this world and left it
to run by
itself he's not involved it's too
insignificant he just created it and
left it to run by itself they accept
there's got to be a God so they are what
they call deists they believe in the
existence of God but they don't believe
that God conveyed his word to
humankind no they say
that's fairy
tales there's so many religions around
the world everyone claims that he's
right they're all wrong they're all made
up by human beings
of course the possibility that one is
right and the rest are all wrong it
doesn't reflect on that one he just sees
all of them claiming to be
right and they have different teachings
therefore he can only conclude they all
must be
wrong
so if one accepts that then of course
he also doesn't know who his Lord is he
said he believes in God but he doesn't
know who God
is
because Common Sense tells us practical
Common Sense tells us that if a man set
up a
factory and he put an advertisement in
the paper for for people to come and
work in his Factory and he hired all of
these
people and then on the day when the
factory was supposed to begin
operations they all came down to the
factory and he didn't tell them what
they were there for what was their
individual jobs and they walked into the
factory what do you think they're going
to do is each one going to go and find
his place in the factory
and slot in and just be working and the
factory is just humming and working well
or is he going to go to the canteen
where there is tea being served sit down
with his friends and chat until somebody
comes along and tells him what he's
supposed to be doing
here if nobody told him what do you
think would happen to that company it
would be
a resounding success or a stup ous
failure it would have been a failure of
course and what would we say about a
businessman who did that we'd say he is
an
idiot he's a
fool he's dumb stupid unwise we have a
whole string of terms for
him all of them indicating
foolish now if we can accept that with
regards to a company what about the
world and what about the God who created
this
world for us to say he didn't tell us
what we're supposed to do here is to
make him like the owner of that
company he is the most wise as Allah
describes him in the
Quran
the most wise of the
wise one of his names is
Alim the absolute
wise so wisdom
demands that he would inform human
beings of their purpose on this
Earth beginning with the first human
beings they would be in formed why they
are
here that's what wisdom
demands we accept it in our own lives
for sure on the scale of God who is all
wise it is beyond him it is beneath him
to have created this world and not
inform people what their purpose is so
true belief in
God where one knows who one's Lord is is
requires the belief that God sent
Messengers carrying his message to
humankind informing them of their
purpose
here that is without a
doubt absolutely necessary belief in God
requires that we believe in him sending
Messengers
with the message that he wanted to
convey to
humankind
so in the
end we know
that God's message was create was sent
to the first human
beings referred to as Adam and
Eve that message which was
sent was in fact Islam
we can say that the religion of Adam and
Eve was Islam while a Christian cannot
say it was
Christianity nor can a Jew say it was
Judaism nor can a Buddhist say it was
Buddhism but we can say it was Islam
because Islam means submission to the
will of
God which
encompasses all of the messages which
were sent by the prophets of God to
humankind submission to the will of
God there
is only one
God and he created Only One race of
human beings I know people say no
there's different races there's the
race
there's the negroid
race there's the Caucasian race and so
no this is nonsense there is only one
race the human race one the proof of
that Allah left amongst
us
where if a man from the quote
unquote Caucasian race from the north
North from
Norway whiter than
white blonde hair and blue eyes he needs
a
transfusion and his blood type is oh
negative his
family is all
positive their blood can't save his life
but another
man from
South
India blacker than
black whose blood is oh negative can
save
him so what is that saying who is closer
to him his own family who look like him
or that person from South India who
seems to be the total opposite of
him
these are the signs which Allah left
amongst us to remind us that we are one
human race and as such God revealed to
that human race one
religion he did not reveal a bunch of
different religions thereby confusing
human beings no he only revealed one
religion human beings changed changed it
and he would send more prophets and they
would change it again and he would send
more
prophets but all the time it was one
message as Allah
said I've sent to every
nation to every people a
messenger calling them to worship
ship Allah
alone and to avoid the worship of false
gods one
God one human race one
religion
Islam that is the message that I wanted
to share with you tonight knowledge of
who our Lord
is takes us ultimately
to knowledge of Islam so as we need to
go back and understand who Allah Lord is
by reading the Quran Ramadan is around
the corner and it's the month dedicated
to the Quran as Allah explained it was
the month in which the Quran was
revealed so we dedicate our time to
reading the Quran but we should read it
with
understanding read it and reflect on its
meanings not read it as a ritual so that
we fall into the category about which
Allah
said will they not reflect on the
meanings of the
Quran or are their hearts locked up
sealed let us not be among those with
sealed hearts in this month of Ramadan
before us let us open our hearts to the
Quran and read it with understanding and
come to know who our Lord
is because at least the third of the
Quran is dedicated to explaining who is
our
Lord and that is
why Surah
alas
this
Surah this chapter as small as it is the
prophet s wasallam said one who reads it
has read a third of the
Quran because that Surah is dedicated to
explaining who our Lord
is
say he is Allah the uniquely one
Allah the one who depends on nothing and
all depends on
him he does not give
birth nor was he
born
and there is nothing similar to
him so I ask
Allah to let us walk away
tonight with a
renewed desire to want to know
Islam and to know who our Lord
is and to implement that knowledge in
our
lives so that this nation this nation of
the Maldives can rise again and be
counted among the nations of this world
that have
contributed have contributed to human
civilization it is with Islam that we
will achieve that without it we never
will
[Music]
Allah
[Music]
sh