By Maulana I. Suleman
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu.
Respected guests, elders, brothers and sisters:
Today, I would like to present an analysis of what is going on in this
world today. From the corners of the world, people are either
complaining about materialism--that they do not have enough of it;
complaining about their children, complaining about the people in
power, complaining about thisor complaining about that. We are
becoming a community of complainers and we are sitting in peace
complaining about thisperson or that person. Every single one of us,
when we are in salah, we do not finish that prayer until we say:
Allahummah inni dhalamtu nafsi dhulman katheera. "OhAllah, the
complain is that about the MIS or MIB or Scotland yard orthe IRS. The
complain is, Oh Lord, I have wronged myself," but straight after
salaam something magic happens that we start talking about other
people. There are two different pictures coming along. On one hand, we
acknowledgein front of our Creator that me, I, myself am toblame, but
when we go outside of salah, westart talking about somebody else. This
is not the teaching of Islam.
What is the game of the day today? The game of the day today is to
change people's minds--how they thinkand how they behave. These
advertising campaigns are no joke.The people who work for these
advertising companies have a Ph.D. in psychology. Psychology is the
art where you learn how to control a person's mind and you see this
coming into play whenwe look at the advertisements. Why does a child,
when they pass McDonald's or Burger King with their father say, "Dad,
I want McDonald's or Burger King. I want a haram burger." Why
everytime do we see a new gadget coming out and Christmas or birthdays
or Father's Day or whatever is coming up and the child sees
advertisements being played and all of a sudden the child comes up and
says,"Dad I want that!" Where do they get this idea from? The
essenceof the ages that many people just fail to understand is what
exactly is going on in this day and age.
Allama Tabrani narrates a hadith in hismu'jam. The Prophet (sallallahu
alaiyhi wa sallam) said to his companions who wereassembled in a
gathering like you people are assembled over here: "What will be your
situation, whatwill be the framework of your mind when a good thing,
when ma'roof will become munkar (evil)?" Evil will become good.
Roguishness will become righteousness.Falsehood will becomerighthood.
Lies will become good. The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) told
us about this age that was going to come. Munkar, deviation,
evil,falsehood, vanity, will become good. Just to give you one
example, in 1999 in the UK, there was a decision made in the House of
Lords that there was a couple, well they calledthemselves a couple of
gay orientation and these two males lived together for 20 years in a
council owned house. One of them died. According to British law and
council tenancy law, your family has the right to occupy that council
property after the person whose name it is in has passed away. So this
person, who called the deceased hispartner, took this case to court
claiming, "The council cannot evict me from my house. Why? Because he
was my family." To cut the long story short, this case went to the
Houseof Lords, the biggest judition. Eventually thecase was decided
that yes, this person is fromhis family and yes, this person has the
right to stay in this council house. For us, the decision is
unimportant, but look at what is happening in this world today.
Ma'roof (good) has become munkar (evil) and munkar has become ma'roof,
evil has become good. A gay person has been established as a family
member. This is what the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam)
saidover 1400 years ago:"What will your situation be when ma'roof will
become munkar and munkar becomes ma'roof?" This is the exact scenario
we find ourselves in today. Thecompanions of the Prophet (sallallahu
alaiyhi wa sallam) asked: "Will this actually take place in the
world?" The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, "More than
this will take place. Not only will good become bad and bad will
become good, more than this will happen." The companions of the
Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) asked, "What will this be?" The
Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wa sallam) said, "You will order people to
do wrong and you will stop them from doing good." My dear respected
brothers andsisters, if we look at the world today, is thisnot the
case? People are accepting Haqq (truth) as Baatil (falsehood) and
Baatil as Haqq, roguishness for righthood, vanity for truth. This is
the scenario of the world today, but the fact of the matter remains
that see the concepts of life change as periods go.
In the 20th century, wehave entertained manydiscoveries. There is a
book named Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st century.
It talks about what role science will play in our lives,
wherescientist are going towards. In it are opinions of 150 great
authorities on science in this day and age published by the Oxford
University Press. In this book, it states that between 1990 and 2000,
no other period has entertained extra scientific knowledge that what
we have been discovering for 500 years according to western theory and
Muslims were well intoit before all this.
All these discoveries took place in the last 10 years because of 3
main discoveries.
The first is the Quantum Theory. This theory is based on mankind being
able to split the atom. Once he split the atom, he now had knowledge
and power over matter. What is matter? Matteris anything you can
touch. This bench is matter. This tape recorder is matter. Because of
this discovery, we have TV, digital TV, DVD technology, where you can,
at a press of a button of a remote, select any angle. All this was a
direct result of the Quantum Theory.
The second revolution in the 20th century was the biomolecular
revolution or the DNA. Anyone who has been arrested will know that in
certain cases the police takes a DNA swab. A swab of saliva from the
inside of yourmouth and they use that and keep it on record to
identify a person and as a result of this DNA revolution, mankind was
able to have control over the human being. Now he can claim that 'I
have the intelligence to create a bionic man. I have the intelligence
to give that father any kind of son he wants. I have the intelligence
to give that woman any kind of baby she wants whether she wants a
clever one, an intelligent one, a blue-eyed one, a green-eyed one, or
a dumb one. Because mankind has masteredthe biomolecular revolution
and this is what it says in the book, Visions, that now scientists are
at an astounding position.
The third revolution of the 20th century is the computer revolution
and the computer revolution is that revolution with which mankind
believes he isable to play God. This isone idea of the computer
revolution.
Those who have a bank account, will most probably have a service tip
card (ATM). There will be a pin number on it which nobody has in the
world. It must need some brains for somebody to come up with this idea
that no one has the same pin number, but now its moving on. Barclays'
Bank is introducing another system which is already prevalent in
London. Allah, in your eye, has made a part called the iris. In that
part, Allah has created seventy different features from one eye and
the other eye has seventy different features. Next time yougo to
Barclays' Bank, you will not need your card, you will not need a pin
number. It will recognize you from thefeatures of your eyes. Allah
says in the Qur'an: "And in yourself, do you not see there are signs?"
Mankind is now discovering this. This is Allah's unlimited power,
which we wereunaware of and today it is coming in front of our eyes.
So these three revolutions, the Quantum Revolution, the Biomolecular
Revolution, and the Computer Revolution, mankind has mastered. Now he
is saying, "Now, I can play God. I'm going to be Allah. I'm going to
decide who is going to have what kind of child."
Islam is not against any progress. Muslims were conquering astronomy
in the sky at a time when it was innovation to look at the skies in
different religions. The scientists say that there will not be any
more major discoveries after these three main discoveries.
The hadith that I statedearly on, you tell me, when mankind thinks
that he is becoming God, is that not batil and munkar? Do we not find
an example in the Qur'an when Namrood said the same thing: I am God.
Is there not an example of Pharaoh, who claimed to be Allah, God?
Mankind is losing his goal in life as a result, many Muslims, educated
or uneducated. The sole purpose and function and role of a human being
in his life has been totally forgotten. We are failing to understand
our function in life. As one poet says: "I have many different
passions in life." One ofthe signs of Qiyaamah is that people will
havedifferent hobbies (to stray them away from the remembrance of
Allah), as Allama Tabrani narrated. I willgive you a real life example
of it, which is that when you walk in to any shop where they sell
magazines and you look at the topshelf to the bottom shelf, whatever
topic you want--hunting, computing, pornography or this or that, you
will find it there. We have this in our minds that people actually buy
this? If people didn't buy themthey would not produce them. So, one of
the signs of the Day of Judgement is that people will have different
passions. People will become busy in sports and computing and in
theirother hobbies that nobody will be aware of where this will lead
and the poet says: "I have different passions. All my different
passions and interests and hobbies became one from that moment when I
realized my central passion in life and that was Allah and those
people who I envied." because they have these new Mercedes with the
computerizeddashboards and posh mobile phones and these big houses
with a press of a button the gates open and like BillGates' house when
he leaves his house in Seattle, he can control the temperature of his
house miles away--people envy this type of person in the modern day
and age. This poets says, "that those people who I envied because they
have this (money) this time they are becoming jealous of me. Why?
Because I have found Allah in my life. I became a liberated slave of
mankind from that moment when I recognized Allah."
The new discoveries are having an affect on the human beings, so much
so that the knowledge in this day and age is taking mankind in the
direction of forgetting Allah. I have explained to you the progress in
this day.
Now, in a nutshell, I would like to point outthe consequences of the
discoveries that have taken place. I would like to take only one area
of this, which are the wars. If you look at the history of the 20th
century from 1900-1915 there was awar called the British Colonial War.
From 1914 to 1919 there was the first World War where one
millionpeople died. From 1921, for some years there was a war against
England and Ireland. From 1939 to about 1945 the secondWorld War took
place where fifty million people lost their lives. From 1956 to 1962
we had the colonial fighters in Africa, Angola, Tunisia, and Algeria
and today we have Chechnya, we have Bosnia, we have Afghanistan and
Russia and a whole host of other countries.Eighty percent of the time,
in the 20th century, mankind has been fighting with each other. What
is theprogress here, I ask you? We claim, on the one hand, that this
is the century of progress, but four-fifths of the time, mankind has
been fighting with each other. What kind of progress is that? We
cannot even learn to live with each other, soin this day and age there
is no doubt that we have progress, but where has the progress taken
us? Have we actually learned to live as human beings on the face of
this earth? The human being is no longer worthy of beingcalled a
human. Why? Because he does not recognize his Lord anymore.
It is necessary upon you to make sure that you look after soul. Why?
Because you are a human being by the mere fact that you have a soul
inside you and not by the fact thatyou have a body.
As a poet says:
The world would like to change you
There are pressures all around
You must decide just who you are
Then firmly hold your ground
So be yourself and don't allow the world to take control
Preserving your identity (as a Muslim) is life's most precious goal.
Wa akhirudda'wana anil humdulillahi rabbil alameen.
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