CULTURE OF ISLAM

113 Salaah - Point 3 It's a Wicked World

Imtiaz Muhsin 18-Jan-13

The main objective of these talks (and therefore the scripts of these talks), is to stimulate thinking. Sensible, rational and logical thinking. So, my message, think, think & think! Be sensible, be rational and be logical.

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

Please Note
1. I have had the great privilege, (since Aug 2010), of presenting talks on the weekly Radio Program Culture of Islam [Every Friday 8 to 8.30 pm, Radio Sri Lanka - FM 97.4] 2. Since these are Radio Talks, I refer to, or address the audience as listeners 3. I am well aware that the audience to these talks would consist of people belonging to a variety of faiths. So as to make people of all faiths feel included, I very often use words and names that are common to all religions. 4. For these reasons, I use the name GOD, as well as Abraham, Moses, Jesus etc as well as the names Allah, Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam), Moosa (Alaihis Salaam), Easa (Alaihis Salaam) etc 5. Muslims by habit usually say Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam, when the name of Prophet Muhammad is mentioned, and Alaihis Salaam' when the name of a Prophet is mentioned. However, in these series of talks I have reduced the use of these prayers & sayings to the bare minimum. 6. Muslims, also by habit, use a number of Arabic prayers or sayings, such as Alhamdulillah, Insha Allah and so on. Again, I have reduced the use of these prayers or sayings to the bare minimum. 7. Sometimes I have to write Arabic words in the English script. I have devised my own way of writing Arabic in English, as follows;

th TH

s Ss SW

DHL DHZ

H h

Gh GH

Information on these talks along with all download links can be found on my on my Blog (http://imtiazm.wordpress.com/) The dates or the schedules of these talks can be viewed on the Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/ImtiazMuhsin786) The Scripts of these talks can be downloaded from www.ScribD.com (www.ScribD.com Author Imtiaz Muhsin) The audio files of these talks can be downloaded from YouTube (YouTube Channel Imtiaz Muhsin) The YouTube Link to this talk is at

All Praise and Thanks is due to Allah and Allah alone Alhamdulillah!

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

113 Salaah Point 2 Its a Wicked World!

Dear Friends, Assalamu Alaikum, The drift of these talks are getting complicated. Let me explain. I am trying to discuss the first 5 Aayaths of Surah Baqarah. To do this I am taking the different phrases in each Aayath as the topic of discussion for each week. Thus far I have discussed 3 phrases I first descussed the phrase Zaalikal Kithaab, which means in that book Actually I discussed the word Zaalika in one talk and then the word Kithaab in another. So that was 2 talks. I then discussed the phrases Laa Raiyba Feehi which means there is no doubt in it and Yuminoona bil ghaib which means believe in the unseen So that was another 2 talks, totalling 4 talks. Now Yuminoona bil ghaib was a phrase from the 3rd Aayath of Surah Baqarah and this Aayath was describing or pointing out to us, 3 diagnostic qualities of the Mutthaqi. It is these qualities that I am discussing as phrases. So I had discussed the first quality, namely Yuminoona Bil ghaib or believe in the unseen The second quality is Wa Yuqeemoonas Swalaath, which means and establishes swalaath But then I realize that to discuss this phrase Wa Yuqeemoonas Swalaath, I would first have to describe or discuss the word Swalaah itself. So I began discussing the word Swalaah. Now, Swalaah, like very other word or phrase in the Quran is a very huge topic and I found, that especially for Swalaah, if I were to even feel that I had spoken on swalaah properly, then there were many points that had to be first cleared or elaborated. Believe me, there are many many ineresting points or aspects on swalaah and all of them are necessary if we are to understand what swalaah really is. It is fascinating! So I listed out these points. As I said, there are many. I have now selected 5 points and Insha Allah shall elaborate or explain them by way of these talks, before I could actually get on to the topic Swalaah itself. Over the last 2 weeks I discussed two of these points. So that gives us a total of 6 talks, so far. Now the 3rd topic or the 3rd point leading to swalaah is what has to be explained today, and I fear, that because there is so much material that has to be explained, I may need more than one talk to discuss this topic, at least to my satisfaction.

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

This is why I say that The drift of these talks are getting complicated But then it is very very intersting, isnt it? So let us see how it goes! So today, my talk is on the 3rd point on swalaah or leading to swalaah and the subject matter is Knowledge filtered over the last 1400 years We may even call it Knowledge warped over the last 1400 years All of us know, rather vaguely that the Muslim World has faced a number of massive trials and tribulations over its history of 1400 years. All of us must understand that these massive turmoils and turbulations has to have had considerable impact on how we view or understand the Quran or even how we view and understand anything that we consider Islamic or of interest to Muslims. So then, what were these trials and tribulations? Then again, what were the responses of the Muslim World towards these trials? And then, yet again, what would have been their overall effects? It is through this description that all of us would begin to understand how many new concepts that we now call Islamic has to have emerged over the ages. Are they the still the pure original concepts or have these concepts been warped? Necessary to find out isnt it? Maybe, Insha Allah, with this knowledge, we could seriously try to work out what the original pristine pure concepts as described in the Quran should really mean. Now things become interesting, actually it becomes challenging, just listen!. If I am going to list out the trials and tribulations that has faced the Muslim World over the last 1400 years and then study the responses of the Muslim communites to these ordeals, and if I am going to find out or explain that through these ordeals and the responses, our collective knowledge, or our collective concepts of Islam has been warped or could have been warped, then is it not very necessary that I should have some idea or some points which would explain to me what original Islam really is. Is that not a very reasonable argument? How could I attempt to show or to claim that Islam or the knowledge of Islam has been warped or changed over the ages unless I can justify what real Islam really is or what real Islam really should be? For this we have to get down to the very basics, to the very basic fundamentals. We have to seek the correct answers, for this we have to first search for the correct questions. Interesting, isnt it? So, I get down to the basic fundamentals. The the first question I ask is, What is a Religion? or What should a Religion really be? I am not talking about Islam or Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism. I am inquiring about religion per se.I am voicing a very open unbiased question. What is a religion? To me a religion would inform us very clearly and convicingly about the truths. These truths should satisfy us. Actually the truths should liberate us, overwhelm us. So you could ask What truths?

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

I then ask this question, If you are in search of truths, then it must mean that you have identifed some untruths, that is why you want to know about the truths. So what are these untruths? So let us look at us humans in this world on Planet Earth. First let us look at Planet Earth itself. The view I present is from outer space imagine that you can see that pat of the Universe where our Solar System and Planet Earth are situated. It is not wrong to say that there is something different in every celestial body, but then we would all find that Earth just stands out from everything else. The Earth is covered by life and is blue in color. In fact we even call it the Blue Planet. We are told it is blue because the Earth contains massive quantities of water. And then something even more fantastic, through this water or because of this water, Earth contains life. As far as we know, no other celestial body contains life. Earth contains life and life in such amazing variety and diversity. In fact from the view that I am presenting to you of Planet Earth, you would even say that Earth is surrounded by a blanket of life, and that blanket would be around 1 km thick.. This blanket of life, surrounds the Earth, is on the surface of the Earth, above the Earth, and even below the Earth. Remember 2/3rds of the surface of the Earth is covered by oceans and the oceans just booms with life. Now, there is something very wicked about all this life, you would notice that this body of life is thriving just by consuming each other amazing! Life just seems to flow from one to the other. Death itself is necessary for life. There is a sort of a vigorous balance amongst these lives, and that is how this blanket of life is so vibrant so dynamic. It is a very fundamental fact, for life there has to be death. There appears to be a sort of a a system set in place. Apparently life flows. We have a sort of a heirarchy. We call it the food chain, maybe a better term would be the food cycle. It is not that the highest developed creatures are atop this food chain, even the low microbes would consume the flesh of these highly, maybe even overly assessed, carnivores. Now this wickedness confuses us. It is actually quite baffling. In this beautiful, well thought out and planned out world a dominant principal woven in to the fabric of the speciality of this Planet is death or death by killing. It confuses us. Killing is wicked it is unjustifiable. But then here the wicked is justified. Creature A has to eat to live. Creature A has to kill creature B to survive, to live. Even boiling a kettle of water to make it safe for drinking, is a process of killing of Millions maybe billions of germs or microbes. All animals have to kill to live. All life has to kill. We have a nice phrase for it. This was made popular by Charles Darwin. We call it the survival of the fittest

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

So all life in the battle for survival and perpetuation has to to be always involved in two life defining roles. We call it the roles of attack and defence. We observe with fascination the variety of adaptations taken on by all living beings to face these situations. Not only do animals possess tools to attack their prey and to defend themselves from predators, but we also observe ingeneous ruses adopted by these life forms. We see ruses for camaflouge. We observe ruses of stalking, stealth like in Lions and Leopards We observe ruses such as cunning as in foxes We observe ruses such as becoming enticing to the prey so that the prey would approach and then get caught like the the Venus Fly trap. We observe animals setting up elaborate traps like the Spiders. We observe animals hunting in teams We observe animals marking out their territory, their very own hunting grounds. We observe animals in defence and in attack, they attack for food, but then we also observe them attacking when seeking out new hunting grounds or defending to protect their own staked out hunting territory. Their hunting grounds is their wealth and they would attack and wipe out animals of their own species who dare tresspass in to their staked out territory. This list agin, could go on and on. We could even say that every animal or living being has their own survival methods. Their own game plan. Their very own, their unique game plan. This game plan is actually a plan of cunning and deception. All Animals practise it. They would not survive without it. And then we see this balance. For example let us say that somewhere in Africa there are 10,000 lions and One Million deer. The Lions have to kill the deer for food. Let us say that a Lion eats one deer every week. So you would find that 10,000 deer are killed by Lions every week. You would also find that 10,000 Deer are also born every week. This is all just a generalization. But we can see the balance. If for some reason, let us say some disease or drought, brings down the deer population. Then, we would also notice a corresponding drop in the Lion population too. This is not just peculiar to the balance between Lions and Deer only, but is so, in all types of life. There is this continuing dynamic balance. Now all forms of life have been pracising this cunning and this deception right through, maybe a few billion years on this earth. We call it evolution. And the defining principal? As Charles Darwin has infromed us, it is the survival of the fittest Now human Beings have arrived on this Earth, at the most, around 200,000 years ago. Now just like all other living forms Human Beings too have to depend on other life forms for our food. We too have this inbuilt ability to be cunning and to be deceptive. You may even call it natural. But then, Human Beings are very different to all other animals or forms of life.

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

You may say that all the different species of animals, there are literally millions of them on Planet Earth are uniquely different to the others. But then I am sure everyone would agree that Huamns are different in a very special sort of way there are many factors or many ways of looking at it. Let me describe one. Our numbers are not being balanced with the numbers of the other animals. Or maybe I could describe that better, we are in a position to change the numbers, to manipulate the delicate balance that has set in over billions of years. Because of our behaviour thousands of animals have just gone off the balance we call them extinct. Because of our behaviour, selected plants and animals grow in profusion. We call it farming and herding. We have been over farming and over herding so much that we have polluted the Planet. We have changed its entire balance, not just in the numbers or the life styles of other animals but we are also altering the environment, we are polluting the lands, the waters as well as the atmosphere. Our environmentalists tell us that we are fast approaching the point of no return They call it the tipping point This is all due to our greed our cunning and deceptive ways. Now by observing all life we do realize that this ability to be cunning and deceptive is necessary for life, for survival itself, but then when coupled with greed and the ability to plot, plan and scheme then we move away from nature or what we could say we move away from natural necessity to destructive, vicious, ruthless, downright wicked greed. Let me further describe or elaborate on the example I cited. I assumed that a Lion would need one deer a week. We would find that a Lion would just hunt and kill only one deer. It would use its cunning to observe and detect a weak link in the herd of deer and then target the weakest deer that it sees. After the kill, the Lion would not hunt for a whole week, even if a number of even weaker deer were to be well within striking distance. He would let them be. But not so Man. He will herd as large numbers of cattle as he can. He will deforest and plant as much crops as he can. He will ruthlessly kill any animal that even attempts to just approach any of his cattle or his crops. This is man. He has his greed. He has his pride. He has his ambitious plans. This is the wickedness of Man. It is a scientifically accepted fact that Man arrived on Earth not more than just 200,000 years ago. However, though there appear to be fossilized evidence of parts of skulls that indicate that Man was on Earth for 200,000 years, evidence for civilized man or for civilizations is just around 10,000 years. Therefore in my estimation, civilized Man or greedy man arrived on Earth maybe a little over 10,000 years ago. All religions inform us that Man arrived on Earth.

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

It is only science that claims that all life forms evolved and thus conclude that man too has evolved. The Islamic view point would be that man displays many features that have evolved you may call it the blue print, but then man is favored with other faculties which we call intellect or brains that make us stand out from all other forms of life. These faculties of the brain could not have evolved. These are God given favors to man. Because of these faculties we simply stand out. We dominate earth, we are colonizing earth. Infact we are changing the very face, as well as the very make up, or the delicate balance of Earth. All religions inform us that this life on Earth is just a testing place. It is here on Earth that we are going to be seperated in to the good and the evil, and then the reward or the punishment of our good or our evil ways would be our destination after death. So life is a test. A testing place to separate the good and the evil. Now, with that point in view do we not realize that Earth has the inbuilt set up for this testing? All animals or all living beings including us humans possess this inherent quality for what I could call wickedness. But then it is justified wickedness. We all kill to surive. We kill to live. We need to kill to ensure perpetuation of our species. Under certain conditions this wickedness is justified. Animals demonstrate to us the limits of this justice. They do not kill out of greed, or out of anger or out of revenge, or out of jealousy. They kill just for their food or for their defense sometimes their collective defense. But then man, who should use his intellect, who should contribute towards maintaining the balance, unfortunately allows his desires, greed and ambitions to dictate his destruction. Now man establishes a very complex system. A system he justifies with the logic survivalof the fittest He claims that his cunning ways, his scheming and his downright wicked exploits are all for the good of man, for the good of his community, for the good of his society, for the good of his nation, for the good of mankind. There are so many glorified but deceptive words that he uses to describe his actions. We now live in a natural world, where unfortunately man has built up his artificial institutions. This man-built world, this artificial world that man has built is a wicked wicked world. We are all sucked in to it. We just do not realize that we are all participating in this wickedness. We are told that the successful man is he who is rich and who is powerful. We also say power corrupts. We have certain terms to describe those who have mastered this system we call them God Father, King Rat, Mr. Ten Percent and so on. We are all involved inthis mad chase to become richer and richer. To accumalate materials after materials to keep on asceding the rungs of power. We cannot see our wickedness. What do we do? We are always scanning. Scanning every body and everything. We are looking out for weaknesses and then when we detect the weakness we go in for the kill. If we find out that someone is selling something because he is in a desperate plight, then decent human nature would be to go and assist him, but then our cunningness dictates, we see the opportunity to lower the price, to increase the profits in our favor. We do not want anyone to detect weaknesses in us. So we use this ploy of showing off.

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

The houses we live in, the vehicles we use, the clothes we wear, the perfumes we apply, all are made use of to proclaim that we are rich and not in want. We hide our weaknesses, our greed is hidden, our liabilities are hidden and we flaunt a false picture of ourselves. So we lead very deceitful lives. We use our cunning to hunt. We use our cunning to defend. This is man. Man is on Planet Earth. His stay on Planet Earth is for testing. He is in the examination Hall. We, all of us, are now in the examination Hall. We are being tested. We are being examined. Is this set up not an ideal testing ground? It is a place where wickedness can be justified. We can be blatantly wicked and claim that infact we are being very very good. Do we not think, Hey! I am being a little deceptive Is what I am doing correct? Is God not watching me? Are not evil forces tempting me? How do I resist? Deep inside I know that what I am doing is wrong. Deep inside I hate myself. Deep inside we all hate ourselves. But then pride is a very powerful force. Greed is a very powerful force. Selfishness is a very powerful force. We cannot resist that temptation. So then how do I change? The ingredients that could bring about this change is first belief. We must now look around and realize that there is a God. We must look around and realize that we are being tested. We must look around and try to instill will power in to our character, in to our personality. That process is only Swalaah!!! The topic for today was knowledge filtered over the 1400 years As I mentioned at the beginning of this talk, I would have to now move on to the main part of that topic for next weeks talk. Todays talk was just the introduction. I sincerely hope that all you listeners benefit from these talks as much as I benefit from preparing and then presenting these talks to you. May Allah Taaalah guide us all and accept us all. Jazza Kalla Khairan. Assalamu Alaikum

113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World

Imtiaz Muhsin Colombo Sri Lanka crescent786@hotmail.com

You Tube Channel - HaneefanMusliman

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113 Salaah - Point 3 - It's a Wicked World