Opening Bridges Between Faiths
Date:
Channel: Yusuf Estes
File Size: 37.78MB
Episode Notes
Sheikh Yusuf Estes, American Muslim Preacher & Teacher giving public lecture on the topic ‘Opening Bridges Between Faiths’
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AI Generated Transcript ©
I'd like to do is begin by setting the tone for the program tonight, we want to talk on the subject
of working together
of all human beings that is here on our planet, working together, side by side, regardless of what our faiths are working for something good, something for the future for all the people.
And in doing that, sometimes, we have to have a better understanding of the words that we're going to be using.
To be sure that when I say something, you understand where I'm coming from with it, and how we're using expressions, what we mean by what we say.
And then also a little bit perhaps, of what it is that Muslims actually do believe.
And help, I hope to remove some of the misconceptions, misunderstandings, that have to date been a problem between Islam and other face.
They basically already told you my background is that I was a Christian, I'm becoming Muslim.
But I do recall specifically that when my father told us, we're going to be doing business with a Muslim, I was very upset about it. Because,
of course, following the media, this is back in 1991. I was listening and watching what's going on with these Muslims. We had a lot of influence in Texas. They're from the Shiite Muslims who were coming over from Iran at that time, learning to fly helicopters and so on. And all I could think about was terrorist hijackers kidnappers.
Bad people. They don't believe in God.
They're worshipping a black box out in the desert somewhere, and they're kissing the ground five times a day, on a part of it.
But it wasn't until I actually met the Muslim for the first time.
And began to learn more about what Islam really is, wasn't it until then, that I began to realize that there was a lot of misinformation out there.
And the more time I spent
with him,
and then with the Koran, and then with the Arabic language, the more I realized that not only the non Muslims are having a problem, getting it, even some of the Muslims today are experiencing this difficulty. Not because there's anything really tough about it, other than we just don't apply ourselves.
You know, when you want to bad enough, you find a way to get something done.
somebody tells you, you can make $400,000 a year in a new vocation, but it's going to take you four years of study to get there. You're going to have to learn a new language to do it, and also learn some stuff about computers, you would have absolutely no problem doing that, would you?
And in the same way, if you really want to learn something about Islam, you could do it.
First word I'd like to clarify is the word Allah.
There is a question mark in the minds of a lot of people, whether or not a law really is the God that created everything to start with. Some question whether or not this is even anything to do with Christianity or Judaism.
Others have flatly denied it. So there's no possible way this is totally some pagan moon God was made up. In fact, one
PhD in California wrote a whole book about it.
But I'll share with you some just facts and let you consider for yourself what you want to believe.
All of us probably been in a hotel or motel at some time in our life.
I wonder if you'd ever noticed that when you pull out the drawer by the bed, there's a Bible in there never noticed that the free place there by the Gideon society, these guys do a pretty good job. Muslims take note. Be nice if we did a little bit of work once in a while. Now, if you turn five pages,
and look, you'll find that they're going to give you examples of languages that they have translated
the Bible into the first being the Afrikaans language, which is a form of Dutch.
The second one is Arabic.
And they've translated the verse out of the gospel of john, chapter three, verse 16. JOHN 316 says, For God so loved the world. So just go there and look and see what did they say?
Arabic
it says for Allah so love the world. What it says Olive lamb lamb Heis how you spell it is right there.
So if you don't believe that it's the same God, then you need to tell the millions of Arab Christians in the world that they're saying the wrong word.
And if you want to carry it a step further, somebody might say, Well, okay, forget about Christianity, but it's nothing to do with the Jewish God.
I have a Bible at home in Arabic, called terrible muchness, which means the sacred book, or holy book.
When you open it up to Genesis, page one, if you read Arabic, you can count 17 times, page one, the word Allah.
So now, what do you think?
Why, then, why then is this such a problem? For the Western world to accept a law is none other than the same one mentioned there.
One possibility, and I want to open this up so that it's not we're gonna just talk about conspiracy theories or anything like that. But one possibility that you might like to consider is the fact that English is a very weak language. When it comes to the subject of religion, it's very difficult to express many things that come from Hebrew,
Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and Arabic, it's very difficult to bring those to English. If you doubt what I just said, read the diaries,
of those who translated the Bible to English in 1611, because they had a diary, and talked about the difficulties and how they had were forced to make lesser choices of words. And a lot of it deals with the subject that English is the weak, very weak.
proof. Now that you think about it,
go to the Webster's dictionary, and look up the word God.
And what does it tell you God.
Anything which is the object of worship,
could be a rock, a stick, a stone, a bone,
could be a person.
Could be stars, the moon, could be money,
as in, In God we trust.
All others pay cash.
Could be
a woman, a man, something that is the object of your devotion, affection, worship, Thanksgiving, one that you supplicate to one that you would
dedicate your life to etc. These all of these things can be a god a god. So now I'm going to ask you
that's general that's very general, what is the name of the one and only God that created the heavens and the earth and the universe and everything in between? The one who created Adam and Eve, the one who brought forth all that we see here today, what's his name?
What should Christians call me?
If you look in the Merriam Webster's dictionary, you won't find that.
But Nice try.
Noted.
You don't have a name because English doesn't have the word. That's the problem.
In Arabic, there is a word it's always been there, but you don't have anything to translate it to the word in Arabic. If you go to the Mel read Arabic dictionary, you'll find the word for all the things we just described is Isla. And Isla is an object of worship.
And you can say the God of Isla,
the gods, gods, Ali Ha.
And this word can be made plural was you just saw and it can also be made male or female.
But the word in Arabic that we're talking about Allah comes from the root, but cannot be made plural, nor can it have gender.
No gender can't be man or woman.
Can't be more than one and can't be a man or anybody that walked on the earth.
It is a very good word.
To try to describe the creator and Sustainer of the universe,
because it doesn't offer any comparison to the creation at all.
But you don't have it in English. In English, you take the same word God, and you just put a big g on it. And that's the difference between the two.
Problem. Well, if I'm talking to you, how do you know when the big G is do I have to like jump up and go.
And then you go, oh, that that's the big g God.
Likewise,
when you're writing, if you start a sentence, you're forced to capitalize the G, even if it's the God, right or wrong.
So the problem isn't with Islam,
and it's not with Arabic, the problem is English, you just don't have a word. So you're doubling up and you're trying to use the same word. And it's caused a lot of problems in misunderstanding, mis translation and misinterpretation
from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and from the Arabic language. And unless you study those, unless you spend time to find out, you will be highly misguided by a lot of folks that don't know any more than you do. So that's why I always recommend to get more knowledge.
Because there's a lot of people willing to jump out and speak without knowledge. But it doesn't really benefit us very much. Let us turn to another word. But before I do, I guess I better clarify something because it has happened to me in some instances than some of the universities I've visited, that I have some armchair experts who like to jump out and interrupt program. So in case that might happen, let me save us that trouble. There are some who would jump up and say, Well, I read it in Arabic, and it uses the term we our and us referring to the Almighty.
How would you explain that if it's not plural? Again, this is just simply that you're not understanding, in this case, your own language, English provides an answer for that one. The English language does have this capacity, although we're not real familiar with it. And that's when a king or a queen or in a mirror, a leader,
you uses the term wi at any time they make a proclamation. This is historically to go all the way back to the Magna Carta. And you'll find that the king says, We declare the following decree. Instead, we and they refer to themselves as we our and us out of respect, honor and dignity. That's all it is simple as that.
Same thing, if somebody said, Well, wait a minute, it also says in Arabic, he he his referring to Almighty Allah.
And you said it doesn't have gender.
The exact same thing holds true here. It's out of respect, honor and dignity. It is not to imply that God is having the anatomical features of a man as opposed to a woman does not how it is.
So and just one more little reference for your common everyday usage. Be sure that we don't misunderstand each other. Whenever you use the the verb to be you say is
this is
that is, these are?
He is she is they are get it.
But when I speak to you directly watch the verb. I say you are my friend. Is that correct? Why? When there's only one person there?
And why do I say I'm referring to myself instead it is it's because of this respect, not plural. Next word, Islam. The word Islam has to be understood in the way that it comes from Arabic Arabic is route driven. And they're based on verbs, usually two to three letter verbs and there are over 5500
so an amazing language. Now watch this. From the root silly seen lamb mean? We have a llama and us llama is the action or the verb of doing something.
And when you bring it as a known as Islam, then you have the name of doing this, which is and look at this. And Arabic, it takes five English words to understand what's us llama all of these are in this word, surrender,
submission
obedient
sincerity and peace. Often I've heard Muslim say that Islam is peace. But in fact, that's not true because the word for peace in Islam, from Arabic actually is Salaam.
It's the exact same word in Hebrew only it's pronounced with the sheen, instead of the scene they reverse. There's a sheen and scene in both Hebrew and in Arabic. They say shalom.
Salaam shalom is exactly the same word.
Just for reference. So you know that there are some other words that are the same to the word yom is the same in both that means day or period of time. The word bate in Arabic is pronounced death in Hebrew, Beth Shalom
is the same as
baitul. Set out
means house a piece that this house got it.
So if a person understands that there is God, one only God, and they want a relationship with God, that's based on surrendering your will to God's will
actually better said, Your choices because God has a Will you have choices, there is a difference, when he will something that happens when you will it. Maybe Maybe not. But when you're willing to give up your desires, your loss
in favor of what God has ordered for you. What you think pleases Him, you're willing to surrender, submit to Him on His terms, to obey Him. Follow the commandments. We're talking about the commandments of Moses, and you're ready to do this. Then in essence, in Arabic, you're saying I need to us Lama, I want to Islam, and therefore that would be Islam. And interestingly enough, that automatically makes you a mu Islam Muslim. Because Arabic uses the prefix mu instead of the suffix er, for instance, walk and Walker, talk and talker, think and thinker, stink and stinker, all of these things. Thanks for laughing that's a pretty dumb joke.
All of these show you the one performing the verb and Arabic more than one who calls the prayer. Most suddenly one who stands in prayer mood, the column the one who's talking, mood suffered the one who's traveling, and mu Islam Muslim, the one who is Islamic, having this beautiful relationship with their Creator. That's what it means. These words are used in Arabic In the Bible, referring to the exact thing, same things I just described to you. You're welcome to check that out. But it really will help you better to understand it from that aspect.
Next word is core on the word Koran doesn't mean holy book. In fact, I already told you to tell me that this is the name of the holy book. That's the Bible.
Koran, even Muslims, I tell you Muslim, have some problem. Watch this.
What is the first word masking the Muslims this one? What is the first word that came up of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu salam in Arabic language?
ikura. Very good. And it means
I know you're going to say that.
How many think it means to recite.
The Prophet Mohammed says don't know how to read.
No. So that would be kind of interesting that
Gabriel said then for you who don't know, Gabriel, the angel Gabriel went to Muhammad peace be upon him in order for him to recite. Now, why wouldn't the angel know this? Why would he Oh, you sent me the wrong guy. What is that? It doesn't make any sense. But in fact, the recitation of the Quran is the secret to understand what it's all about.
The Quran is not like the Bible,
because it can't have more than one version.
There are over 5500 5700 according to Jimmy Swaggart, versions of the old manuscripts, old manuscripts.
And it's true, there are a lot of them. I don't know the actual count. I'm just taking from what he said.
But there's not one single one you can point to and say for sure, that's exactly it, but it's very clear. There used to be a bye
Ever, nobody argues that point that knows anything about the history of the Bible. But for a reference on this one, I want you to look into getting a copy of a book, if you don't find it, write to me and we'll see if we can help you. It's called who wrote the Bible. It's known that the Old Testament by Richard Eliot Friedman, check it out. He gives you a lot of history on it. That's his forte, that's his bailiwick, look into it and see, it will help you a lot.
will also explain to you how they lost all of it during the Babylonian occupation, and when they were taken out into captivity, and then how it was reconstructed by uzair, who is we mispronounce his name in English, we call him Ezra, and he has his own book in the Bible, you can find very clearly from his work talking about Friedman's work, that the in fact this is most likely the person who reconstructed from what he heard from others. This proves that to him, and this is his contention, as well as many other biblical scholars, that the works of the Old Testament used to be recited.
And this is, if you stop and think it makes sense, because very few people throughout history really knew how to read and write. It's only been in the last, maybe 500 or so years, there's been a big focus on the common people learning how to read and write. And especially in the last 150 years, there's been a huge emphasis in the Western world for that. But way back, then we're talking 3000 5000 years ago, very few if any of the people could sit down and really write out something but they definitely used to recite it. They used to recite it for each other and listen to it and critique it, and re recite it over and over and pass it down generation upon generation. The scrolls
were preserved in writing and buried and then they would dig them up on the celebrations. And then they would have a reciter and then be sure that what he was reciting still matched what they had. This is all found in the books that I've just talked to you about. Now.
There's another work. Some Christians will just say, well, that's Jewish stuff. I'm not gonna listen to it. Okay. For the Christians, there's the work of FF Bruce, and he's well known scholar in the Kony Greek, and Aramaic. And he makes some very clear claims about this in his book, The history of the translations of the Bible to the English language. If again, if you need any help finding that write to us one try to help you with all of that is to set up the tone for one word for on what is called on. It is the recitation, the recitation of God himself
to his angel Gabriel, who then in turn recited it to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in pieces, small pieces, sometimes a little bigger, but it took a total of 23 years, for all of it to come. And when it came, it was always relative to things that were happening in their lives. Yet today, we find that when we look at the words, even in translation, they can have a lot of meaning to our lives as well.
Quran is not written from a human point of view. It's written from God's point of view.
That includes the fact that it doesn't run in chronological order. Anytime a human writes a book, they start with, well in the beginning, and that's exactly how the Bible starts.
But that is not the way that the Quran
is. It begins, not in the beginning, but it begins in the name of Allah Bismillah R Rahman Rahim.
The Quran has been preserved exactly word for word for over 1400 years. There are not different versions of Quran. Again, I've been interrupted in my speeches by those who like to cause problems and show off in university so I'll save you the trouble. Yes, there are three that exists today, one in England, one in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and museum. They're the other ones in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, and I've been there.
I just for the benefit of those who don't know, I have been there. And yes, they're different from what we have written, because the words are the same, but because they didn't have the diacritical marks in those days. The diacritical marks were never invented for any of the Semitic languages until about the eighth or ninth century.
So it wasn't available in Hebrew either. For the reference on this, you can check the Masoretic text is the first time there was ever diacritical marks in
The Hebrew language in the Bible, and that was ninth century. They followed what the Muslims had done with the Quran.
The Semitic languages do not have vowels. You have to find the vowel based on the
consonants and how they're structured in the word. If you know the word, then you can understand what it might be. Then in the sentence, you'll see what it is. So to make it easy for non Arab speakers, they put these markings as a slash above a letter meant
a slash below letter man, II, and then a little comma looking over it, man. Ooh, that's the difference. So if you went there, and you looked at them said, oh, wow, I found a difference. Okay? The calligraphy is different, but that's just like style of writing. Other than that they're identical. But I don't want to refer too much to about this part of the Quran because it's really not important. I just told you Quran is recitation. What we need to know is how is it recited today, you heard the Quran in the opening portion of this program. You heard it recited, I promise you if he had missed a single letter, not a word, a letter, there would be plenty of Muslims in here to
stop and say, Look, wait spatola yes or no.
That's just how it is. Ramadan is coming up. tearaway is going to happen every night we read one 30th of the Quran from memory, every single night for 30 nights. This has been going on for the last 1400 years. All over the earth, Muslim scholars, teachers, leaders, most days in moms are reading this letter by letter by letter every single night and there are not two versions. There is a bit of a riff between two large groups of Muslims. There's a group called Sunni as a group called Shiite Shiites are mostly in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.
And then the Sunnis are pretty much in the rest of the Muslim world. And there are there have been times throughout history where there's been some confrontation, but I assure you,
they have exactly the same book. There's no difference. We had the Shiites had a Quran recitation contest in Pennsylvania, United States. And they recited exactly word for word for word, the same thing, that when the Sudanese had their little thing that they did the same thing, there wasn't any difference.
So there are not two versions. So if you have any doubt about what the Quran says, or how to interpret it, it's not difficult at all, you just go to the Quran, and there it is. The problem is to take the jungle in Arabic. And when you understand it, there you are. So it's as simple as that.
I set this tone for a reason, because we have both Muslim and non Muslims what is today and I want the Muslims to be more responsible
themselves by looking into this subject, studying it more, spending more time with the Quran, and then properly representing the true meanings, when we discuss with other people.
Let us look now to what the Quran teaches the Muslim about our relationship with others. Allah says in the Quran that he does not forbid you to hold good relationships with the Jews and the Christians. He doesn't forbid you to have good relationships with your neighbors and others around you. If they're not trying to destroy your religion or turning you out, then this is something you're supposed to do have good relationships. The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him himself as the example of that. He very clearly had good relationships with the Jews and the Christians in particular, and all people in general.
There are several stories about his good mannerisms, with the Jews, to the extent that even one time
and it's a historical record, that there was a child, Jewish child was sick. And he liked Muhammad. He looked up to him. And on his actual deathbed, he was very sick. He asked that he could talk to him, his father brought him over. And well, he was talking the to the boy, he told the boy except that there's really only one God. And Muhammad is His Messenger. The boy look to his father and his father told him, go ahead, OBEY Him say it. And he did and he passed away. That was said that when Mohammed left the house that he was smiling so much, you could see his molar teeth, meaning that he was very happy about this.
It might seem a bit strange to those who don't really care about religion. We do have a lot
Today, it's gone from two to 3% of atheists in the world, who now close to eight 9% in some areas that have absolutely no belief whatsoever in anything, and don't want to believe.
Which is to be, by the way, distinguished from those who are agnostic, they believe something but they don't know what to believe in.
The Christian and Muslim faith together comprise approximately half of the people dwelling on the planet with about 1.7, Christian 1.5.
That are Muslim billion, that's billion 1.7 billion 1.5 billion.
Now, when we talk about working together, and I want to use the term a little differently than from what we put in our brochure, it says, building bridges. Well, according to the Muslim understanding, we don't need to build anything because the Lord is the one who builds things. And Allah has already perfected his way his Deen 1400 years ago, but what we can say is opening bridges there, there, we just been too lazy to open them up and allow folks to come on over. So let us in that spirit work together and see what we can do to help each other know more about this. Now, I'm gonna jump On another subject again.
Because of past experience has shown me that it's an area of interest to a lot of Muslims and non Muslims alike.
They'll ask you about questions in the Quran. regarding our relationship with other religions, in particular, when it talks to them, says to them, Do not take
these pagans and idolaters This is not talking about Jews and Christians, but it says pagans and idolaters as Wally for you. And in one case, don't take Jews and Christians as bitterness to you. I use the Arabic words because you can see those they sound different to your ears. I'm not asking you to know Arabic. Can you hear a difference between the word batana and Wally? You don't hear anything close, right? Both of these are translated as the same word in English friends.
Says friends.
So again, what do you think the problem is?
English there's no word for it.
batana
is like the inside of my garment. This is what it means. This is the tongue in here.
And while he is very clear, in Quran, you're not allowed to go get the dictionary and come over today and say it must mean this. You have to use the Quran itself as the dictionary. In other words, the words appear many times throughout the Quran. So you take them how they're used in other sentences, the Quran compared to the Quran, is how you make the first level of explanation or Tafseer.
How many of you know that Quran defines Quran?
Yeah, don't be shy.
It's not FBI. And
so that's first. And this word while he in the Quran is very clear what Allah is talking about. He says, oh, the black ninja toner regime.
Allahu wa Leela. Allah is the Wali to the
what movement
to the believer.
He also uses this phrase talking to us about along being the wall E to those who have faith, they have belief.
He is the one that the people turn to for support for help for protection. Again, it goes back to that no god except God.
There is a phrase that we use in Arabic
for the sponsor of a lady whenever she's going to get married.
The man who's responsible her father, usually as a father, to help her select the proper person for her marriage, to speak on her behalf, if she wants him to is called a what?
Wally?
So, when the verse says don't take people outside your religion as a Wally, then it's clear. This isn't a problem.
Additionally, when it talks about not taking somebody as a baton, and this is somebody that's close enough to smell under your armpit. You're talking about
Somebody really, really close like that has to be from your family, or at least from your religion. Somebody's really, really close. And that makes sense. But nowhere Muslims pay attention. Nowhere does it say we cannot have friends, from people of other faiths. That is so wrong. And it's detestable to say that Allah said something like that. And I have heard some Muslims preach that. And
very sorry to say that we're being misled by these people. That is not true. And the evidence is from where I just told you, I only went to the Quran, I didn't go too heavy.
We can we spend all night on the subject if you want to. But the point is, the Quran is clear on this, it does not forbid us to have good relationships with others who are not of our faith. This is something very critical today. I want the Muslims to break down these barriers. I want the Muslims to open up the mosque and let people come and see what we do. I want the Muslims to open up their hearts and hands to the other people on this planet because this is ridiculous. It really is.
The same time, as a footnote, I will mention that some people may wonder why Muslims don't shake hands. The ladies are ladies don't want to shake hands with men. And our men, many of them don't like to shake hands with women. It is not because we don't like you. It's not because we think you're dirty and more clean. But it's out of modesty When I was a boy, and that's been a few years ago, that was the customer in our whole country. My mother, I can remember my mother saying how rude A man was, who extended his hand out to a woman. And she said this is just totally wrong. A man doesn't extend his hand. If a woman wants, she'll extend her hand, go look it up in etiquette books
from 6070 years ago and see if that in what it says. But because our society changes, we just want everybody to change along with it. But certain things for the Muslim don't change. And that is when we follow a lot of commandments. We try our best to stay with what they are. For instance, it tells us real clear in the Koran
that you can't lie. You can't tells us real clear that you cannot
commit adultery and you cannot kill. Those things are very clear.
Those are also in the 10 commandments. And the Book of Exodus chapter 20. You can read it for yourself. Also in Deuteronomy, read it the 10 commandments are listed. first commandment those don't worship other than God. That's the first commandment Islam. No idols are statues. Same in Islam. Don't take God's name in vain.
Anybody that takes God's name in vain. Islam is out of Islam.
Remembering the Sabbath,
I daresay most Christians don't even know that Sabbath is the mispronunciation of the Hebrew word which means seven means the seventh day. It's not a sacred word. It's just the number it means seven, it means Saturday.
Now, it wasn't until 325 ad, at the time of Constantine that they changed it to Sunday. Who go look that one up? Yeah. Where do you want to find that one? Believe it or not Catholic website, they tell you right there when they started.
We have a copy of that on our website, too, if you want to check it out.
The next commandment after that after these relate is 40% of the 10 that I just mentioned, deal with what your relationship with God. Again, that's Islam, isn't it? Do what God wants you to do. Let us look now to the next commandment. What do you think the next commandment is after all this? Now it talks about your relationship with the people don't What?
Don't how many times people said don't I think that sets enough of a tone for the better understanding. I talked on some harsh subjects and I did. But to be fair, I travel like this all the time, week after week. And I get some pretty harsh questions. So I thought well, tonight, let's do it a little different all throw it all out there. And now we can have the speech afterwards in the questions.
Slam really is a beautiful way of life because it covers everything for you. everything for you, showing your purpose from the time you're born, to the time you die. How to deal with your life from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. The things that allow What have you do to make your life better for you, showing you things that if you just adhere to them, your whole life will be better. Your health will be better. Your mental attitude will be better. Your whole psyche will be jumping up down going hey, I feel good.
Now that's the easy statement for somebody to say isn't it
but the truth
It's so amazing that if you took the time to find out about it, you'd have to at least accept, as many scientists have today, there must be a god, there's got to be because there's no way that 1400 years ago, somebody could have come up with these things. Some of the few, I'll just touch on a couple of them for you. Probably Muhammad peace be upon him told us never to stand up. When we eat or drink, always sit down when you eat or drink a few years ago, I was coming home from a fundraiser. And on the way home, I was falling asleep, my daughter turned the radio on in the car, real loud to wake me up.
And it was a speech given by a doctor in Washington DC, talking about the damage caused to your body. And he mentioned the various organs and parts of your body that are damaged by people standing up when they eat or drink. They just discovered it.
What about that? Now, if I stop right there, that'd be interesting, wouldn't it? But how about this, let's go back 1000 years
or less. And look at Europe when they were in the black plague. When they were in that horrible situation, that the Black Death, there was the Dark Ages, so often referred to that in history.
There was interaction from the Europeans with the Muslims of Spain, the Muslims of Spain were in their heyday at that time, they were the ones in charge of science and medicine. And it was not mumbo jumbo
medicine, like you might find from the medicine man in an Indian tribe. We're talking about something very specific
that we refer to today, even in some of our
thesis, referring back to works that were done back then.
Now,
those Europeans who had these diseases, these plague and so on, never ever spread it to Spain. They did in other places where they went out, but it didn't spread to the Muslims in Spain, or Morocco somewhere to Morocco. Why?
Well, today, it's easy. We can look at it and say, Well, duh, that's really easy. Muslims wash at least five times a day. Because we do this before we pray. And watch this. We're washing our hands several times, then the mouth and nose and cleaning it out, cleaning out the cavities, several times the face, then again, back to the arm and hands, then the arm and hands against several times, then the head and then the feet. And this is not once several times a day, every single day, Muslims are doing this.
Another one
Muslims eat only with their right hand
cleaning themselves with the left hand.
What's the benefit of that?
Well, in the United States, I'll tell you what, they ran a little test on this, on one of the ships out at sea in the Navy. And they talked about it, I saw the report.
They had one group of the men who washed regularly and another group who didn't just how you normally behave at home, when you go to the toilet and everything. And guess what?
The side of the ship that was under the test of cleaning regularly
had almost no cold, no sicknesses. Whereas the other side had the normal thing that we see every day, sicknesses and colds and so on. And they proved it. Then after that they released these studies. They've made it real clear that that the
trying to think of the name of that disease that you get from when people don't wash their hands.
Hepatitis B, hepatitis B, this is so famous in our country because all the fast food places and they got big signs in there in the bathrooms telling the employees wash your hands when you go back to work. Wash your hands before you go back to work. Muslims know that we always wash our hands, especially we clean ourselves that we use dollar.
This is 1400 years ago
and been doing it ever since.
Is there any value to that? Well, I'll tell you what next time you think about it when you go artificial chips. The guy there just came out of the bathroom. You better hope he's a Muslim.
Stop with a
proven fact.
What you don't know is that that's where the fact came from. They realized
miswak it's the Arabic word
the miswak
is usually cut about this big. It's a long route from a tree called a pillow tree. But we take out pieces about this big trim and back and clean our teeth with them. This was the habit of Mohammed to the extent that he said, peace be upon him
that if I could make it an order on people, I would do it. But he didn't. But he said I would because it's very important thing. And he used to do it all the time, he would always have this thick going in his mouth, cleaning his teeth, clean his teeth.
The only teeth he lost were in a battle and that arrow hit him in the face like that. Not just eat that. But other than that, up to the time he died, his teeth were firm, and beautifully white. Today, and I saw again, in a health food store, I saw the report from the Medical Association about this great
pillow tree.
Now the toothpaste that it's in only has particles of it in the toothpaste. It's called Dr. Mohammed's toothpaste.
Yes. And it says right on it, it is the only ingredient on the earth that they have found. That will remove the tartar
and remove this.
What's that what's the plaque that gets on your teeth
and brighten your teeth and does not have any abrasive will not take off the enamel.
And I'm one of the people who suffer from something called pearl drops back in the 70s. Because I used it all the time to keep my teeth white, but then they wouldn't get white anymore. They were kind of yellow. And then finally it destroyed the gums. And now I wear false teeth because of it.
And by the way, I can't get these any different by rubbin miswak over.
I was surprised at how many dentists in the United States had not heard of it. Every time I see a dentist I tell him about miswak. And I say what do you think about this? There is no such thing. Then they come back next time I see him and they go. That's amazing. How come we don't know about that. I said you know what? It hadn't been around very long, 14 years.
It's kind of new, still has to pass the FDA and you know, that takes time.
Those are some of the things about health. How about food?
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, never ate red meat twice in the same day.
How many of you didn't know that?
Muslims didn't know that did you?
And he never ate. According to Ayesha, he didn't have smoke from his house twice, like one day after the other, meaning they didn't cook meat two days in row
in their house
means that they didn't eat very much red meat. Even though they had it wasn't like his main diet.
He also fasted. They just did a dis just came this week. I heard it here in New Zealand, just this week.
they've discovered now a real healthy way for people, especially in the West and the obesity and the problems we have with help. It would be real good if you would fast three days out of every month.
How many days they profit mom says mom used to fast every month. At least three it wasn't it? Duh.
This is sad. It's sad, because you don't realize how much is being kept from you.
You need to stop and think about it, whether it's your politicians, whether it's the media, whether it's your teachers and professors. But if I'm telling you this information, and it's true, then you need to ask how come we don't know this.
And if I'm not telling you the truth, then all you got to do is just send me a little letter and explain to me how I made all these mistakes. And I won't say it anymore.
It's as simple as that.
But by the way,
I took everything I said to you tonight from references. So you're going to have to argue with an awful lot of professors. And while we're on this subject of professors,
one of the history professors in universities United States by the name of lowen
wrote a book. He's got a sequel coming out that I heard about, you really owe it to yourself to read what's going on in the United States in the academia. His book is called the lies my teacher told me, he's taken me to task 12 of the publishing companies, the only 12 that are allowed to come up with the books for the history department.
Many of the history professors know there are lies in these books, but when they complain that people won't change it, read the book. Don't argue with me about it. I read his book
Go to amazon.com or bought his books or music or what's it called noble Barnes and Noble. Go look.
The lies my teacher told me.
It's very interesting.
Before I leave the subject of food, I like food by the way.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him told us an amazing thing. He said, Never eat until you're hungry.
And never eat until you're full.
You might say, Okay, so what? So what that's one of the biggest contributors we have to obesity today, people eating when they're not really hungry, but they're nervous, or they got a problem or something by them or somebody giving them food or insisting You have to eat Come on eat. And by the way, Muslims don't do that to each other. That is that your culture that's not your religion, forcing people to eat.
And I'm one of the people that really doesn't like that, because everywhere I go, people are just trying to force food on me, I don't want to eat.
And it's a problem. I'm not blaming you for the fact I'm overweight.
But
the other thing was, he said this.
One third of your stomach is for food. One third of your stomach is for liquid. And one third of your stomach is to remain empty. He said it by for air, but it means to leave it empty. Never, ever, ever feel your stomach. Now, if somebody adheres to the few things that I mentioned, I just mentioned a few tonight. What would be the difference in their lifestyle? Would they be in better health? Would they feel better?
Islam is preventing you not only with a way to think but a way to live.
What to do when you first wake up? Do you know what to say? Do you really know what to say? Or it is something you just made up or somebody told you to say? Muslims know exactly what we're supposed to say when we wake up.
And we know what we're supposed to say, to come back to our Lord before we go to sleep at night. We know even if we have a bad dream what to say and we wake up to our phones.
Human beings on this planet, for the most part, don't even know what their purpose is much less how to live.
But a lot told us that in the Quran as well. Well, maharlika Jin, well, it's a lovely afternoon. He said I only created you guys to worship me without partners.
He also told us he's provided us a complete way of life, which is his big favor bestowed on us by him in its complete form.
Nothing is needed to be added to it. That's why I said we're open bridges, not build them. He said oh yo mo s mo to let convenor come when mum to Alec from Liberty, we're ready to lukumi Islam and Deena
that's what it says. Read it chapter five, verse three. On this day, have I perfected for you your way of life, and conferred upon you my biggest favor, and have chosen for you to submit to me and all Islam.
If we do that, Muslims, I'm talking to you, if you follow your religion, if you will leave your hair alone and stop shaving it off of your face, if you will cover up the way Allah told you to cover up, you will find that your life will suddenly become a lot better because he's the one controlling everything.
Nobody else but him, please your Lord first.
And then you'll be better representatives of Islam. And then when we open these bridges up and let folks come and share with us, they'll see a much better picture than what they're seeing now. Because what the average person sees in the media today may be exaggerated.
It may be corrupted, but it's still based on the fact that we as Muslims have not really lived up to what Islam is.
For the benefit of those who are here as our guests, you heard me pick on the Muslims pretty hard tonight. But it's because this is my only chance to be here with them. And otherwise, I will if we were going to have our Juma here tomorrow with you. Then of course I would save it for that and blast you then. But
you had to catch it all tonight. I'm sorry.
But for our guests, I want you to know what is Islam.
Islam is something that's a perfect balance that if you really study it, you'll understand it a lot better. But it is your relationship with your Lord.
If you don't want to call him a law, that's okay. You won't get upset about it.
But if you want to associate something he created with him as a partner, chapter four verse 48 of the Quran he said I will never ever forgive anybody.
To commit the blasphemy of worshipping other than me, are partners with me.
But anything else I can forgive?
That's the worst of all the sins there is.
God is one. And that's what he said, on a quote to you one more from the scripture that you think about this. It says real clear, and God is not a man.
And God is not the Son of man.
How many disagree with that statement? Raise your hand if you disagree with that. I knew you would. That's waiting for you. Yeah. Where is that? Do you know where that is?
The expression I quoted from Scripture, do you know where that is?
I'm not quoting from the Quran, I'm quoting from the Bible.
Numbers 2319.
Well, now what I don't know if you're going to try to tell me the Bible contradicts itself. But I will tell you that the Quran doesn't contradict itself. So this is what it says real clear in Quran, tell the Christians not to say three, it'd be better for him.
Because God is one, and he has no partners. That's the only real bone of contention you're going to find out there. Because everything else, Adam and Eve, same story, creating the creation in six days, same story, Jesus being the Messiah, this is in the Quran.
Miracle birth, in the Quran, Jesus is with God. Coming back in the last days, this is from the hadith of Mohammed.
So you'll find more compatibility and a lot of the teachings between
Christianity and Islam, and you will between Judaism and Christianity.
We don't deny any of the profits.
And we don't deny the books.
But we try to put everything in proper perspective. And I think we pretty much set the tone of what we wanted to do tonight. We didn't intend to come and apologize for our religion or attack anybody else's, for that matter. But we wanted to make clear what is this.
And that way, it opens it up so that we have some common ground to work for the future. All of us, I believe, would like to see a better world.
We all know that. We're gonna die, we're gonna go away somewhere. And then future generations will be coming where we were. So I believe it's up to us to set the tone
of harmony for those future generations for our children, and our children's children. And really, I have that concern. Because the way things been going in my life, the last 70, almost 70 years. I'm not, I'm not pleased with what I've seen happening to our world. I'd like to see it be better for everybody. I like to have fun that tonight's lecture was probably one of the hardest that there is, I really put it on myself. The subject itself should be pretty simple. But because there is such misunderstanding, I felt it was necessary to really put pressure on myself to deal with the areas maybe you didn't even think about yourself. But after I leave, there's no way to come back then and
say, Well, what about this? And what about that? And because we are experiencing this around the world and attend these peace conferences in different countries. And I have heard a lot of this back and forth. I wanted to share that with you tonight. I hope you'll forgive me for if I heard him his friends wouldn't intention whatsoever. It asked you what's the meaning behind the statement that Muhammad is the last prophet?
First of all, the statement, is there such a statement in Islam? It says in the Quran in chapter 33, verse 40, I think is important.
39 4033
I think it's verse 40. But it says that he is the last the hotma nambia, which is the pearl of Nabil had to miss the seal. He's the seal of all the prophets. Then he said about himself, that the Prophet hood is like a structure building and all these profits are like the bricks in this building, like you're looking at right there. And then there's this final brick or Capstone that fits it all together. And he is that he's that last and final brick. He also told us that no new religion from Allah is going to come, no new revelation, and no new Prophet, that when Jesus comes back, he and we believe that he's coming back, that he's going to be basically saying the same
thing, as always, to believe in God and follow the commandments. Which by the way, the Bible even today in English still says that Jesus said that, that you have to obey all the
reference for that one is Matthew 517 18 and 19 real clear
Can't even disobey one commandment.
But the meaning of last prophet is that there won't be any new dean no new Prophet, but in fact that Jesus when it comes back can be found that there you are.
says Why do some people have the right to punish others?
It said I mentioned whipping.
But isn't a law in charge?
A lot describes the answer to that one himself in the Quran, when he talks about the fact that there are some people even that there will be nations that will fight against nations, even there will be killing, he says that, but that's not new. That's an Old Testament as well, you see it all the time.
But it should be that righteous people will be in the proper places to keep
justice
and equity for everybody.
But it's going to happen either way, there will always be problems, just because let's say you have a righteous king or a righteous president, that doesn't make the people behave properly doesn't know.
People will still do what people do. But the difference would be that if you have a righteous King or president as opposed to another corrupt person, then at least the proper people will be punished.
Otherwise, it could be a situation where the evil people are rewarded, and the good people are punished.
You have heard of income tax, right? Yeah. Okay.
That was one of those who slips up on you went, Whoa, wait a minute. I got that.
Just asking about our website and some information there. I don't want to do a big commercial. Let me just real quick tell you go to share islam.com you can access our 2000 websites from there, they're listed there. If you want audios or videos, just go to share slam calm. Thanks for giving me a chance to stick a commercial in there. And I love you for a lot of tickets. Well, there's a one
implication about secularists, infidels, people who have no faith.
That are the real opposition. you rationalize the conflict.
I don't know if you met phrases in
Okay, you're just referring to some of the verses in the Quran real quick. Let me share with you something. The word infidel is English. The word infidel, it was used first against Muslims 1000 years ago during the Crusades. That is how the Pope, the pope described Muslims as infidels said they don't believe in God. And they have to be driven out of the Holy Land, and send out to Crusaders to assassinate
every single one that got in their way. And not only did they kill the Muslims, they killed the Jews, and they killed Christians of other faiths. Well recorded. This is not me telling you something that brand new to you. You know that? You can go to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Americana. You can go to the World Book encyclopedia. You can go to what is that called? The carta something carta.
Online.
Encarta, go to that and just read it for yourself. There is the whole story in Fidel, this is English. It means not true. Because fidelity is talking about being absolutely true
or honest, fidelity, infidel, the opposite.
non Muslims translated the Quran first to the English language. Muslims later use those as a basis to try to work off of because they're not having English as their first language. I don't have that problem. In fact, my master's is in English. I understand it. I'm still working on the Arabic but I'm not having a trouble at all with English. The word infidel is inappropriate to be used in translating the Quran and talking about people who are of the book meaning Jews and Christians.
Because infidel does not describe them whatsoever. In fact, the opposite is true in chapter three, verse 110, because it tells us in Cairo Mateen nohcra, gitlin sh up maroondah bill my roof with 10 how not until moon car would be known a bit less.
But then it continues. Now most of the Muslims know this one more, right. How many of you know that verse? Yeah, you know that. Did you know that's not all of it? There's more. You're the best of nations.
raised up because you call
to what is right and righteous and you forbid what is evil and unrighteous. And you believe in a law of karma. And if the people of the book had believed it would have been better from them, and from them are those who have imagined, they believe in the law.
But most of them are fossick.
It doesn't say, infidel, it's a fossick. What is fossick mean? disobedient, means they break the commandments. Ask any pastor, preacher, priest ask them.
You most of the people in your community break the commandments? Well, yeah, that's true. They do. So the what's the problem?
The word infidel, is inappropriate to be used in reference to these people.
It's difficult for me to imagine any of the words to be translated to this from the Koran, except maybe you could use the word that should be pagan, or idolatry. And then you could substitute that and say infidel, but it doesn't give the right meaning of pagan and an idolatry. These are very clear, we know what we're talking about religion, we'll use that term. But infidel is subjective. Because that stage, you're saying that one person could call the other person that and that's exactly what we have.
I say you're wrong, because I'm right. Oh, really? Well, I think I am right, and you're wrong. Oh, okay. That's basically how you use that word. But a pagan shows you exactly what their belief system is. And I dollar term means they use idols.
But a person who's not using anything
other than their belief in the one God, this is called a manifest.
We consider Christians to be monotheistic. Even though some of them say God is three and one at the same time, it's still basically monotheistic, and that's what a lot calls them in the Quran.
same holds true, of course, will choose artistic. So it's inappropriate to use this word
to translate the Quran for them. Now, as far as people who have no faith at all,
this word that they're translating, there is Kaffir.
Kaffir comes from cover cloth, which means what our word in English cover is exactly the same word. It means to cover the truth. And nobody has Kaffir until they know it's been shown to them. And then they totally covered up in denial. And Allah talks about this throughout the Quran, those who deny the proofs of a law,
Chapter 55, the whole entire chapter 55 cert to Rockman. Almost every other verse says that which of the favors Will you to then deny?
That's what he's talking about, to cut the ban.
So
when we use this word, infidel, and throw it around like that, it's very inappropriate, you should go and get a little bit more education, and find out what it really says. And talk to the scholars that have both languages. And better represent that because it's, it's, it really looks nasty when you if you if you call me that, I'm going to be upset if I call you that you're going to be upset. But if I say you don't believe in God, and the guys at this, you'll say That's right, I assure don't you won't be mad. That's what he believes. And if I say you're an eye doctor, and he likes idols, he'll say you're absolutely right. That's what he does. So try not to use words that taint the
picture. That's basically what we're saying. What do we say that
people who say hateful things about our religion?
Well, I have a whole section about that. And one of our websites
go to we have a website called search for Islam search for Islam. You have to put all those words to get three words, search for islam.com, type in the word harsch. type in the word H, a, r, sh. And all of these will come up. And not only will give you the answers to the questions that most people throw out their hateful questions, but at the same time, it's show you how to answer it by being nice and polite as Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him used to be not like me, not, don't don't follow my way. Don't be like somebody from Texas.
You asked me a point of view on what's going on in Palestine. I've never been there. I only know people from there. For sure. It's very difficult and I'm glad I don't live there. But I have no opinion about things that I'm not an expert on or don't spend time with. I have no right to answer a question like that.
I do pray for the people posting all the time, though. And I asked for a lot of make it better on
somebody asking why I went to Islam after being a pastor and another religion. I was a preacher, but that's a moot point.
Yeah, you're comparing the law and code of conduct in Islam. In your right, you said it seems to you You're absolutely right. It's Islam is called a codified religion, instead of the grace given freely by Jesus? Well, we will, we'll, we'll make one
little adjustment here. We don't believe that Jesus is the grace, but rather that he called people to the grace. That's what we believe.
And we don't believe that Jesus died for our sins, but he told us how to deal with our sins very clearly. And that we didn't need somebody else to die for our sins that we needed to be responsible ourselves. And we needed to learn how to apologize. And we learnt needed to learn how to ask forgiveness of a law, and not just say, charge it to him. We don't have that concept in Islam. You're right. But as far as saying that we don't have the grace, then you're wrong. Because in Islam, the grace is so beautiful, that it begins even at birth, at the moment of birth, allows mercy starts. He starts the Quran off, I'm gonna give you some reference for some words, and every single
chapter except for one, and then it's mentioned in another inside of chapters, so it's a total of 114 times Bismillah R Rahman, r Rahim, Rama and Rahim are from the same route Rama. And Rama is the basis of all the words in Arabic for benevolence, graciousness.
compassion, mercy, Grace, all of the words that we can come up with English together will not describe this word rahama. It is powerful. Our hum and Rama and Rama are all from the same room. How many of you know I was also describing body parts in a woman?
Yep, was because the law said it in the Quran. He used that exact phrase to describe what we call the uterus, which sounds very clinical. But in Arabic, it's very beautiful. Because it says that don't break the ties of the womb. But it says, Our hum.
And when you're conceived inside of your mother, it's called the place of mercy. That's where you started out in God's mercy inside of your mother and developed into who you are.
You started in mercy.
And the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him twice, that every child is born in the state of Islam already. Every child is born as a Muslim,
doesn't mean it's on their passport doesn't mean it's their, you know, ethnicity, but it means that they're innocent.
And they have grace from alone. Any child that dies, regardless of the belief or disbelief of the parent, goes to paradise. All children when they die, go to Paradise, Zoo teaching in Islam, this is the grace.
If your religion doesn't teach that, then you need to look at it. No wonder about that. Because the common statement of all people on the earth, all society use the expression innocent as a newborn baby.
So if your religion is teaching that people aren't innocent when they're born, then this is in contrast that the common usage of the term
Islam teaches exactly that. very merciful. In fact, the prophet SAW some of them said that all the babies, all the children are born into the natural fitrah or inclination to be in submission to God, but it's their parents that will raise them up to be these different religions, or lack of it. Makes sense. And in fact, we know that anybody is a sikeston knows that's exactly how it goes. As the quote comes from the Bible, so as the tree is bent, so grows the tree, as you bend the twig. That's how the tree grows. And that's how a child is the same way. It's no different.
As far as the grace in Islam, look at this, we work all the time trying to please along by following the commandments.
Christianity calls for the same thing. It's very clear, the Gospels insist that Jesus ordered his followers to obey the commandments. In fact, he says If you love me, you'll have the father and you will obey the commandments.
He even went so far as to say according to the Bible, in English, it says that he told his followers that he didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, which is the Torah, the Old Testament, but he came to fulfill. And not until all things are accomplished, show a single dot a jar or an i o to be in any wise lesson. And if anybody broke a single commandment, listen to this, anybody who breaks one commandment and teaches it in, it's okay to break it, there'll be the least in the kingdom, but whoever keeps the commandments and teaches that there'll be the highest in the kingdom.
That's what it says. It's not what preachers say, I've been around a lot of preachers a lot more than most of you guys know. And I know that they do a lot of talking. But I also know what they do when they're not up there in front of people.
And a lot of times we say things, people say things to please the audience.
They do that.
And a lot of stuff I say, maybe won't please the audience. But I didn't come here to please you. I came here to please Allah. And I hope that he'll accept that.
You said, there's no grace in Islam or you imply that let me share with you this prophet Muhammad peace be upon him after the prayer one day turned to his companions. And he said, Did you know that nobody will enter Paradise except by the grace, and that's the word to use Rama have a law? And they said, even you, he said, Even me.
But he went further than that. On another occasion, he explained that if a man came on the Day of Judgment,
with no bad deeds at all, and a mountain of good deeds,
he would be asked, Would you like to enter paradise on your good deeds, or on the grace, the mercy of God, he said, Hey, I don't have any bad days, I'll go into my good days, you know,
then they would bring a scale.
And they would put on one side, his good deeds, this mountain of good deeds, and on the other side, the value of one eye, one eye, and it would totally outweigh all of his good deeds.
What is one I do this little test with me right now it's free, by the way, you can do it, watch, put your hand over one of your eyes, do it. Now look around the room, it takes a couple seconds. Now all of a sudden, while your your hand covering up that one eye, you're going to notice you lose depth perception, you see that? You can't tell how far away something is anymore. You need the other eye to do it.
And this is one eye is a grace from Almighty Allah, how about both of them, and just one outweighs all the good deeds that you could ever possibly do? Absolutely. There is no doubt in Islam, we talk about the grace and the mercy of Allah all the time. We all hope for that. But we don't count only on that. We make some good intention along the way. The first saying of Muhammad collected in a number of great works. Remember Chari, remember, now where we are buying, the first study says in the amount of money
that for sure all of the actions of the human being are going to be judged and rewarded according to the intention. If you had a good intention, you already have a good deed, even if you didn't accomplish it, if you accomplish a good deed you receive 10 rewards for or 70 or 700, or as much as I would like to give you, but on the other side, if you did a bad deed, and you intended to do that, bandim you only have one bad deed. And he told us follow it up with a good one to get rid of it. But one of the keys in Islam is you have to admit,
you don't have to go out to the public until all your sins No, actually you shouldn't do that. But you have to admit to yourself, I am wrong. And that's something that a lot of people in society today don't want to say. They want to justify what they do and rationalize it. It's not acceptable in Islam, if you're wrong, you have to admit it to yourself and to your Lord and ask Him to forgive you. But if you'll do that, then you'll get the grace.
You'll have the grace. And you'll get to go to Paradise. Oh, this is a good one to end our program with tonight. Excellent.
It said How did our Prophet
peace be upon him speak to Christians about Islam? What kind of tone of voice did he use? Did he get angry with them? If they annoyed him with the things that they said? I think maybe you're talking about me now You're right. I do get annoyed pretty fast. You're right. And I blame that partly on being raised up in Texas.
But I am not the example of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
But I will tell you what I read about him. I wish I was like him.
Because not only when they insulted him, was he patient.
Not even when he said this, they said be huge despite
things against him. And all he said to them was worship God without partners that will be better for you. That's what he said that was his message over and over and over and over, and they would say the most horrible things. And then they would do one, they would physically beat him up. Once they nearly, they nearly beat him. And his close associate, which is Abu Bakar, nearly beat him to death, in front of the Kaaba.
They still didn't go back in person didn't. And on one occasion, he went, he walked to a place called a tie, which is a healthy walk, by the way. And when they were in that type, he went to talk to the leaders there and tell them about this way of life called Islam, believing there's only one God and leaving these pagan gods, the leaders there were three of them, they're all should have the respect that Arabs have for any guests to come. But instead, they turned him away, and they put the street urchins against him with stones and rocks, which they threw the stones and rocks on him and his companion, until they said that the prophet SAW Selim, his body was meeting all over and filling
his shoes with blood.
And in this condition, the angel came to him and said, God is ready now. To drop these mountains down on these people. All you got to do is say the word.
Now
ask yourself a question. If that had happened to you, what would your word been? Hey, they stone me, stone them.
ravine revenge is sweet. Yeah, no, turnabout is fair play. They did it first. Those are all the things that popped in my head.
But look what he said. He said no. And then he prayed for him and he asked that Allah would guide them and in from them would become those who would worship God without partners. Is that a true story or not?