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Send peace and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah!
In the name of Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah!
Dear people! Yesterday, a young boy, fourteen years old, from one of the countries, contacted me without mentioning the name of this country, meaning to preserve his privacy. The young man had inquiries that made him, or doubts that made him leave Islam inwardly. He said: "But I pray because my family is religious and I do not want them to be surprised by my leaving Islam, otherwise, I have lost conviction in Islam."
The correspondence was through one of my friends, so I told him: "Tell him to prepare the two most important questions he has so that I can answer them." And I will mix colloquial and formal language and add some Egyptian, even though one of my friends told me: "You don't speak anything in Egyptian, the speech comes out mixed in some parts." But because I am keen that the speech reaches my brothers and sons of this generation 14 and 15 and 16, I will simplify it to the utmost simplicity so that they understand, if Allah wills.
There are honorable people, I asked him to bring me the two most important questions. He brought the two most important questions and sent them to me on WhatsApp.
The second question, because it will not be our topic today, the second question is related to the creation of Adam. And I told this young man: "It is not reasonable that I will repeat the journey of certainty for you completely, so no, bring the journey of certainty and then come back and discuss it with me if you have questions."
But what is the first question that made him doubt Islam? One of the most important questions, meaning the most important thing he wants to hear the answer from me. He told me: "Where is the justice in the verse that says: {O you who have believed, prescribed for you is legal retaliation for the slain - the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female}?"
He told me: "This verse is clear in meaning, meaning that if I kill your daughter, you cannot kill me because I am a male and she is a female, so you must kill a female from my side. If you kill a slave of yours, it is not useful to kill me, you must kill a slave from my side. So what is the fault of this poor female who did nothing to be killed because I am her father the killer? What is the fault of this poor slave so that he is killed?" He said: "This meaning is clear, the verse says this so clearly."
I told him: "Okay, my dear, why do you tell me this? Where did you get this from?" He told me: "A man named so and so." This is an unknown name, an unknown name, and I do not want to mention his name because he does not want us to publicize it to those who do not know these unknown names.
Of course, I told him: "No, this is not the meaning of the verse, my son, but its meaning is what the commentators mentioned. And in order to understand its meaning, you must know the reason for its revelation."
What is the reason for its revelation? There were customs that existed among the Arabs, which is the custom of blood retaliation. How is the blood retaliation? That is, a tribe sees itself as more noble than another tribe and of higher status. If a man from this tribe comes and kills a person from here, he says to you: "Did the person come from him? No, I will not be satisfied that the killer is killed. I will retaliate the weight of this noble killed from him with fifty of them, a hundred of them, twelve of them, five of them, according to what they see of his nobility and status." And thus, they are not satisfied that the killer is killed with the killed, no, in return for this killed, we will kill a larger number from them.
Okay, a man from this tribe, or a woman from this tribe, quarreled with a woman from this tribe and killed one of them. The father of the killed woman says: "No, my daughter was killed, I cannot accept that this woman is killed in return for my daughter, a man from them must be killed." Because, of course, they considered the woman to be of lower humanity than the man, they do not see her as complete humanity like the man. And thus: "We are a more noble tribe, our status is higher, how dare they kill a woman from us? We will kill a man from them in return for this woman."
They killed a slave, the slave: "We have a free man from them." And thus: "We will kill a free man in return for this slave who is killed, even though the free man is not the one who killed." Therefore, the reason for the revelation of the verse is the phenomenon of blood retaliation, blood retaliation, that they do not content themselves, in the days of ignorance, with killing the killer, but they kill what is equal to him in their eyes in nobility and status. And in order to take them out of the sin with pride, and because they see their condition better than others? No! In return for a female from us, a male must be killed even though this male has no relation. In return for the slave from us, a free man will be killed even though this free man has no relation. The one who actually killed a female or the one who actually killed a slave, no! We will go and kill one of them who has no relation, but only to discipline them.
So Allah abolished this ignorant custom with this verse and said: {O you who have believed, prescribed for you is legal retaliation for the slain - the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female} meaning only the killer is the one who is killed if the guardians of the killed wish. The free with the free, the slave with the slave, and the female with the female, do not exceed these killers to others, meaning, do not exceed these killers to others.
Okay, this verse speaks about this condition: female with female, free with free, slave with slave. Okay, what if a man kills a woman or a woman kills a man, for example? There is the other clear text that Allah said: {And We ordained for them therein: life for life}. Life for life, the killer is the one who is killed if the guardians of the killed wish or if they forgive.
So I told him this speech. I told him: "Okay, so-and-so, if this speech of yours is correct, did it happen that a man killed a woman and the Prophet took the daughter of this killer man? Did this happen in the time of the Prophet? Did this happen in the time of the Companions? Did any of the scholars say this? Did any of the commentators say this? How did you convince yourself of it?"
He said: "This so-and-so whom I attended his episode said they used to do it, meaning this speech was revealed or Muhammad said this speech to frighten people from killing each other. So I am afraid if I kill a female of yours that you will not kill me, do not go and kill my daughter and my daughter is a source of pride for me. And thus, I am not afraid that I will kill your daughter." Meaning, a thousand stories and they slipped on this young man and his likes, and Allah is the one sought for help.
Before we continue, by the way, when I told him this speech, he told me: "Okay, you want a video from you, you must make a video." I said: "Okay, I will make a video, if Allah wills." And by the grace of Allah, before I joined the live broadcast, my friend who was also in contact with this young man informed me a little while ago, he told me: "After you finished with him, I continued the discussion with him and treated other points for him, and he said I now feel that I was ignorant, very stupid, forgive me. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." And he returned to Islam by the grace of Allah. He still has doubts but he returned to Islam.
Lesson number one: Many of our youth have not built their faith on solid foundations. Therefore, one word can make them respond, another word can make them turn away. A simple clip can make them laugh. In contrast, all the talk I gave him, I spoke about it for two and a half minutes about this verse, and he returned to Islam, glory be to God. The problem is that he is not sufficiently founded.
And I told him this talk, I told him: "O so-and-so, if you focus your faith on the clear, evident doctrinal foundations, answering the great existential questions: Who am I? Where is the destiny after death? Why am I here? Who created me? What are the attributes of the Creator? What are the attributes of the prophets? What is the evidence that Muhammad is the Messenger of God? What is the evidence that the Quran is the word of God?" All of these questions have clear answers in Islam as in no other religion. If you focus your faith on these great truths and these great convictions and these evident truths, you will not be shaken because you do not understand a particular point. The work happens with many of the youth, this beautiful picture of Islam has a black point for you because you do not understand it. So you do not see the whole beautiful picture, but you see this small point and that small point because you have not learned. So this is the first point.
That there is a methodological problem with our youth who spend twelve, fourteen years in school, then four, five, six years in university, and they do not learn how to think. They do not learn the rule of the clear and the ambiguous, and God is our helper. Therefore, we do not rely on schools ever or universities. And to teachers and teacheresses, teach your students and female students how to think, how to deal with the rule of the clear and the ambiguous, which we explained in the first episode of the Journey of Certainty. So this is the first lesson.
Second lesson: What made this young man lend his ear and listen to this lying person who laughed at him with a fabricated story, and said to you that Muhammad did this verse and claimed it was from God so that people would not kill each other, and he wanted to kill the girl in exchange for the girl, what is the meaning of the poor Nadim Al-Hashznb? Why did this young man lend his ear to this liar and his likes?
Because many of our youth say to you: "I have a mind, I will listen to this and that, and I will judge with my mind." We say to him: "No, doubts are like water, if you are a skilled swimmer, you will be able to swim in the sea, and if you are not a skilled swimmer, you will drown in a pool of one and a half meters or two meters." Likewise, you, O youth, you, O my son of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, twenty-three, thirty-three, and forty-three, it is not okay that you do not have sufficient knowledge, then you lend your ears to those who want to tempt you from your religion, want to mislead you, then after that you say: "By Allah, I have a conviction that Islam is not correct." But you have tempted yourselves, you are the ones who exposed yourselves to temptation, and you are not qualified to listen to such doubts, you do not have immunity.
If a person has immunity, thousands of microbes, in fact, millions of microbes enter his body, and he is not affected. But if his immune system is weakened, a few viruses, or a few bacteria can kill him directly. Why? Or within a short period, why? He does not have immunity, he does not have protection. Likewise, if you do not have sufficient religious information, you do not have the correct way of thinking, the simplest doubt will destroy you.
Of course, someone may say: "No, Yiad, come on, you say that these atheists who doubt Islam want to deliberately take me out of my religion and they have an agenda, what is your evidence for that?"
What is my evidence for that? Okay, listen, my dear, so that you know that you are completely ignorant. I ask you by the great God: Why would anyone want to take you out of Islam to atheism when he does not believe in the hereafter, nor in paradise, nor in hell, nor in a Lord, nor in good deeds, nor in bad deeds? Okay, this is his condition, why does he overwhelm me? I, in your opinion, Yiad, set up the camera, do a montage after the text, wake up in the morning, wake up at the end of the night to prepare, I hope from God Almighty good deeds, to remove some of the bad deeds, to enter paradise, and to be far from the fire. This atheist who does not believe in good deeds, nor in bad deeds, nor in paradise, nor in hell, why does he bother himself in this way? Why does he bother with the montage, preparing the episode, publishing the episode, promoting the episode, the lighting, the sound? She commits suicide, and he commits suicide, and the third commits suicide, and the fourth commits suicide after a long record of fighting Islam? So why do they invite you to atheism? Why do they make you doubt Islam? Have you ever asked yourself?
I will tell you why? If you go back to the plans of the RAND Center, the RAND Center for Strategic Planning is the largest American center for strategic planning and has branches in fifty countries around the world. You can extract this information from their website Rand.org. This center was concerned during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and America, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, its main concern became the Islamic world, the strategic enemy of American interests or the interests of the ruling elite in America. This center issues one study after another about the necessity of changing curricula and we see, and the necessity of highlighting moderate Muslim media figures who doubt in religion and in Sharia and we see.
In one of its studies, the first sentence of the study was in 2005, the first sentence was: "Most of the wars in the Islamic world today are wars of ideas, wars of ideas." That is, we must work on their thinking. Michael Flynn, the retired general who was an advisor to Trump, the current American president, Michael Flynn in a speech I published on my page and I can bring it to you if God wills, he said in so many words, he said: "Islam" of course not translated "Islam is a cancer present in one body period seven billion" meaning one billion "people and must be eradicated." Okay, how is it eradicated, O military advisor or national security advisor Michael Flynn? He said: "That is, by undermining the credibility of Islam." Do you think, my dear, that these are like Arab conferences that give recommendations and then they are buried in the sand or put in jars and preserved and forgotten, they are not applied, they are applied to the letter and they strive to apply them 24 hours a day.
Where is the credibility of this claim? Anyone can see universities, as reported in a report also published, universities that teach a specialization in evangelism to some extremist evangelical groups there, teaching them how to make a Muslim doubt his religion, not how to support him, but how to make him doubt his religion. And it was published, and I will put that in the links, inshallah, a specialization that spreads in Muslim countries under the cover of relief associations and education. And I personally have been exposed to this, a doctor at the university here in my country, it happened that after a discussion with him, he took out the Bible from his bag. The goal is not just to sow doubt. Teaching, relief operations, economy, business, under various covers. The goal is to make Muslims doubt their religion.
Also, dear audience, when you see a channel like or a website like Magharebia Voices. Magharebia Voices, go ahead and type "About Us" in Magharebia Voices, you have a strip and you have three tabs, click on it and it will show you "About Us". Click on "About Us" and they say openly that we and Radio Sawa and Alhurra Channel are affiliated with the American Congress-funded media network, funded by the American Congress. These are not secrets, this is not a conspiracy theory that I alone discovered somewhere, this is talk available on their websites. Funded by the American Congress, these channels Magharebia Voices spread what makes Muslims doubt their religion, what makes them doubt the Quran, what makes them doubt Bukhari, what makes them doubt the person of the Prophet peace be upon him. People who tell you openly that we have come to make you doubt your religion and we have come to take you from Islam to atheism to disbelief. These people offer you their ears and you do not have immunity, you do not have information or have learned how to think or how to respond to the clear verses to the ambiguous ones, how to learn psychological tricks and logical fallacies and let's talk about them in detail in the journey of certainty, Allah is our helper.
Therefore, young people, the idea that I listen to everyone and then choose for myself, you laugh at your situation. You are swimming in the sea and you are not a good swimmer. Therefore, when you want to listen, listen to those who show that they want your interest, not those who want to destroy your home and cut your Islamic roots, cut you off from your religion so that it is easy to control you, steal your wealth, and control your country.
Another issue, dear audience, this young man I am happy with him because he asked, others do not ask. And unfortunately, a situation happened that I mentioned to you once, a man in his fifties after I spoke in a mosque about the fact that a person should not have any discomfort in his heart towards any verse, and if he has discomfort, he should ask and learn and seek the opinion of scholars. He said to me: "Come, Sheikh Iyad, honestly, in a verse, something from it has occurred to me." Go ahead. He said: "How can Prophet Lut peace be upon him say: '{These are my daughters if you must act [on your desire]}' meaning do they want to fornicate with my daughters?" I said to him: "No, of course not." "So what is the answer?" I will not give you the answer now, why? So that I encourage you to go back and read the book "The Pleasure of Reflection" which is available and published on the internet. "The Pleasure of Reflection" when Prophet Lut peace be upon him said: '{These are my daughters if you must act [on your desire]}' what does this verse mean? Does Lut call for fornication? God forbid, God forbid. So what is the answer? No, leave it as your homework, leave it as your homework. You go now and look up "The Pleasure of Reflection" and we will put a link inshallah and read with your children what this statement means.
And doubts seep into them from their sleeves and from around them and from every direction. Therefore, it is necessary, necessary, necessary, necessary by Sharia! And it is forbidden for you! And I tell you, do not have children if you do not want to bear the costs of childbearing. Of course, have children and bear the costs. Do not say, "Some people do not have children." But it is forbidden for you to have children and not bear the costs of childbearing and not raise them. You must, dear audience, sit with your children and read the Quran with them and stop them at some verses. By the grace of Allah, I do that with my children, sometimes we are sitting and my daughter stops me: "Daddy, what does this word mean, Daddy? Daddy, what does this verse mean?" My daughter Sarah, may Allah have mercy on her, I remember her, and it happened that while I was reading the Quran: "Daddy, how does Allah say this?" Of course, notice, brothers, if the child asks in an inappropriate way, we say to him: "My dear, we do not talk about the words of Allah, we want to talk in such a way, but the answer to your question is such and such." Let them speak what is in their hearts. So I answered her and by the grace of Allah, she died with a good opinion of her Lord, inshallah, as we believe. And by Allah, this is a treasure for me more than all the treasures of the earth that my child or beloved dies with a good opinion of his Lord and the words of his Lord, glorified and exalted be He.
Therefore, dear audience, I ask you to open the Mushaf, read with your children and make it also practical training from today when we finish this video instead of moving to another sermon and another word and another article and another clip, we learn, we learn and then we apply. If this is an argument against us on the Day of Judgment. No, I ask you, I ask you after this clip, pull the book "The Pleasure of Reflection" that I and some brothers made from the internet, open it and you can do the following: meaning your children will not be memorizers of the Quran, the book is excellent for memorizers of the Quran. Your children are not memorizers of the Quran, sir, what do you do? Well, for example, the answers to the first part, go to the answers or see the question and go to the answer. Then sit with the children: "Come, children, I will ask you a question from this page from the Quran." Determine the issue, do not be in a complete part in one page. Tell them, for example, on the first page of Surah Al-Baqarah, on the fifth page of Surah Al-Baqarah, I will ask you the question, say to me: "Where is the verse that indicates this meaning? Where is the verse that carries this meaning?" You will hold the book? The first half of it is questions, the second half is answers. Well, the questions are divided according to the parts. Questions of the first part, the second, the third, the fourth to the end. Take, for example, the first part, which part, sir? Take the first part, and see, this question, its answer comes on which page? On which page is its answer? Go to this page and say to the children: "Come, children, bring me the verse that indicates this meaning or answers this question." Do this talk even once a week, sir, even once a month. But you connect your children to the Quran and prove to them that the Quran is indeed an explanation of everything so that they get used to reading the verses and understanding them, and if they are difficult for them, they look up the interpretation with some and understand it, not as happened with this young man.
This is another point. Another message I address to the callers: We, brothers, sometimes some people who are learning, they learn, they learn, and they do not practice calling. They have a state of scientific congestion, and the information becomes stagnant in their minds as if everyone knows it. They imagine that everyone knows it. By Allah, by Allah, we see young men, old men, men, and women who do not know very obvious things that are very, very clear to you. For example, this young man misunderstood a verse of the Quran, and it was one of the reasons for his apostasy. He returned to Islam and gave us some methodology. There are many verses, for example, "Say, 'I do not ask of you any reward for it except that whoever wills may take to his Lord a way.'" There are many verses. I have time, we can make a series "Verses that many misunderstand." Let's take these verses one by one and understand their meanings. May Allah bless you, focus on the issue of proper understanding of the Quran.
This is what I wanted to say, dear ones, take care of your children, open your hearts to them, sit with them, study with them the Book of Allah the Almighty. Allah the Almighty did not impose on Muslims to memorize the Quran, this is not an obligation on all Muslims. But He imposed on all Muslims: "A blessed Book which We have sent down to you, that they might ponder over its verses." Let them ponder, reflect, and be certain. Teach your children that their religion is targeted, and money is spent day and night to make them leave their religion. If they understand it, it is a source of their strength, honor, and dignity. The criminals, Arabs and non-Arabs, do not want them to remain steadfast in their religion but want them to be humiliated, enslaved, and subjugated. Listen to the facts we mentioned today about the RAND Center, Michael Flynn, and his statements, the Maghreb voices, and what they declare about the subjugation of the American Congress, the specialized universities in America as in the article we published and will publish, God willing, entitled "False Prophets," those who specialize, learn, and excel in making young people doubt their religion.
And a final message to you, young people: Do not be complacent and say, "I will listen to everyone and decide for myself." First, go and fortify yourself, learn how to think first, learn from those who truly wish you well first. Then, Allah the Almighty will guide you and help you to the right path. This is all I have. All praise is due to Allah who returned our brother to his religion in a beautiful manner. I ask Allah to strengthen him in his religion, increase his guidance, and make him a soldier calling to Allah the Almighty. May Allah protect our children, your children, and all Muslims. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.