Shia Islamic Belief System 3/46

'A'udhu billahi min al-Shaytan al-rajim, Bismillah, al-Rahman, al-Rahim. Al-Hamdulillah Rabb il-'Aalameen, wa assalatu wa assalam 'ala Sayyidina wa nabiyyina Abul Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, wa 'ala Ahle Baythi at-tayyibeen, at-tahireen.

Welcome back, brothers and sisters to another session of Mizan Live covering Shi'a Imamiya doctrine. Al-Hamdulillah, we had a week off last week for the winter break and now we are back again. So hopefully everyone is having or had a good winter break, depending on whether you work only or you go to school as well, or if you only go to school. Schools are still off apparently until January 7th, if I am not mistaken. But those of you who had the winter break, some of it off at least, hopefully you had a wonderful winter break, a refreshing winter break. You were able to unwind a little bit and relax and InshaAllah, we all have a good year ahead of us, a year of taqwa and a year of education and learning and practice InshaAllah Ta'ala.

So, I want to first give a little recap of what we have covered so far. First of all, just to remind everyone what we are doing here, we are covering the doctrines of Shi'a Imamiya thought. And when I say that what I have explained before, what I mean by that, we are going to go just through the precepts of Islam and the tenets of Islam, the beliefs of Islam, according to the Shi'a madhhab, not getting into too many arguments, InshaAllah, hopefully. And just to see what our faith says that we or the mainstream Shi'ism today says or believes in, and that is the main goal.

And on the way, we are going to have some some some articles of this book that I have already introduced before that are going to be explained a little bit more. Some are not going to be explained to much. Sometimes someone might just have to read through them. Some of them I might have to stay on and just spend more time explaining. But now I think I have explained enough, in previous sessions what our goal is in this part of Mizan Live versus Sheikh Mehdi's. Sheikh Mehdi's Mizan live sessions are about ahkam. These, the ones that we are covering or I am covering are about Islamic beliefs. This book is a book of 150 articles, I have explained that before as well. We have gone through the first and second article, so we are just getting going. And InshaAllah tonight we are going to cover at least two or three more, if not more, hopefully.

To recap, there is the first article that we covered in our last session had to do with the different ways of gaining knowledge when it comes to Islam. And, of course, some are, some of those tools, some of those faculties and some of those methods of gaining knowledge in Islam, they are for everyone. Others are specific to a certain number of people or a certain group of people. For example, Wahy revelation, of course, very clearly and obviously belongs only to the Prophets. That was the first article we covered and some of the verses there.

Second article we covered was regarding what the Prophets bring with them. What the Prophets bring and what their teachings can be summed up in, their teachings are either they have to do with our beliefs or our actions. In other words, what we are supposed to believe in or what we have to act by, act upon and how we have to act and do things in our lives. One of these two: Islamic law, in other words.

Now, there was one point here, I just want to reiterate and re-explain it one more time before we move on, in this second article. This whole discussion of, can we practice taqleed, can we just follow other people's word, take other people's word when it comes to Islamic beliefs? Or are we supposed to do our own research?

I explained last time that doing your own research would be the best, would be the ideal. But at the same time, we cannot say that a person who believes in God, not through research, but through I do not know, seeing the character and the personality of the Prophet, loving the Prophet so much that they believe what the Prophet said... I do not know, having ten friends that have done the research and have come to the conclusion that, for example, Islam is the right path and then this person believes in it because those ten friends believe in it.

What I explained last session was that this sometimes might be looked down upon or even devalued for some. While that should not be the case, iman is iman, even if it comes through taqleed. Now, I have to explain this one more time. Even if it comes through taqleed, taqleed can have two meanings. Sometimes you do taqleed when it comes to Islamic law, you follow someone else's word in Islamic law versus following someone else's word when it comes to beliefs.

Right here, as I read last week from our last session, from the books, from different books, other than this one that we are covering right now. Those books that we read, they said that taqleed is okay. Why, when it comes to Islamic beliefs, why, why is it ok? The answer was that belief, all that matters in it, the only thing that matters when it comes to belief is our conviction. If a person has yaqeen, that is all that matters.

Anything more than that, we will need a reason for it. Does my conviction have to come through research? If anyone is going to make such a claim, they have to provide the reasoning and proof for it. We do not have any reasoning for that, we do not have any proof for that. That someone has to necessarily gain their conviction through research. No, if someone gains their convictions through their conviction through the Prophet of God telling them, and then believing in the Prophet because he is such a trustworthy person, then that also counts.

Or else we have to rule out Islam and belief of many of the believers during the Prophet's time. Do you think during the Prophet's time people would do extensive philosophical research and then come to the conclusion that God exists? No, not necessarily, they would see the Prophet, the Prophet's personality and the Prophet's claim itself was enough for them to embrace the faith. Yes. So conviction is what matters, even if it is through going - if it is a result of me following someone else. All right. That is one. That is in beliefs.

The taqleed that we have when it comes to Islamic law, that is a problem if we are going to exercise it in our beliefs. Let me explain a little bit. Taqleed, or in other words, following someone else, when it comes to Islamic law, when we do taqleed of someone else, it means that we follow them, even though there is a chance that we feel they might be wrong.

OK, so, for example, if I am following mujtahid A, mujtahid A says that the ruling of this act is that it is haram. I will follow him because he is an expert in the field of Islamic law. But that does not mean that he might not have made a mistake. Yeah, so there is always a ten, 15, 20, 30 percent chance that he might have been mistaken. But I am still following him because he is the expert at the end of the day, there is a bigger chance of him being right than me being right.

So that is taqleed when it comes to actions and Islamic law. You are following someone, although you might not have 100 percent conviction in them. You know that you have to follow them 100 percent. But knowing that you have to follow them 100 percent is different than being 100 percent sure that they are right and everything they say because one marja' or one mujtahid might say one thing, another mujtahid might say another thing, they can not both be right. At the end of the day, one of these guys is going to probably be wrong, but we are still following them because they are experts in the field. Anyway, I do not want to get into ijtihad and taqleed and stuff.

So taqleed when it comes to Islamic law, means that you follow, you know you have to follow, but at the end of the day, there is a chance that there might be an error, there might be inaccuracies. That kind of taqleed is okay with Islamic law, but is not okay with Islamic beliefs. I can not just follow someone in beliefs and be like, "InshaAllah, they are right. I am going to, you know, my friend believes in Islam, so I am going to believe in it, too, but there is a 20 percent chance that they were wrong." There is a problem here. Why? Because here I do not have conviction. Taqleed of Islamic law cannot be applied to Islamic beliefs.

The only time I can do taqleed of someone else when it comes to Islamic belief is that through their research I gained 100 percent conviction. Yes. This is something that does not come about when we do taqleed in Islamic law. But it is possible when someone else we believe in them so much and they believe in Islam, for example, that I also gain conviction that Islam is the right path, tawheed is the right path, etc.

So that is the big difference between these two. So those people who say taqleed is not allowed when it comes to Islamic beliefs, what is meant is that taqleed is not allowed because taqleed is going to give you 70, 80 percent conviction, not 100 percent conviction, but if it were to give you 100 percent conviction, as I read from the books of other great 'ulama, it counts. And that person's faith does not hold less of value than anyone else's faith.

Yes, at the end of the day, though, this person, the person who does research and comes to a conviction, their conviction is less prone to change, less prone to doubt versus a person who is following others and has gained 100 percent conviction. So it has value, more value in that sense. But in the sense of this person on the Day of Judgment, their faith will not be accepted because they didn't do their own research. Not necessarily. As I said, other 'ulama have explained here. What matters is 100 percent conviction. All right, let us move on. That was just one point that I needed to really stress on Article two.

Article three of our book of Doctrines of Shi'ite Islam of Aytullah Subhani says that when it comes to figuring out Islamic law and Islamic beliefs, when it comes to these two, we have two tools that we can use. So before in article one, we covered what the different ways of gaining knowledge generally are. Now, we are talking about a specific form of knowledge. We want to gain knowledge of Islamic beliefs and Islamic laws. How can we do that?

He says, there are two ways to do that. Number one is that we can use revelation, although we are not going to be on the receiving end of revelation. But at the end of day, a prophet who receives revelation telling us that, you know, this is what God is saying in his book, or through intellect and 'aql, the word is used for this intellect, 'aql. Through these two. Now I have to explain this to a little bit.

For that he says, Ayatullah Subhani, he says, when we say revelation, what we mean straight up is the Holy Qur'an, that is revelation. And also, he adds to the Qur'an, the hadiths of the Holy Prophet and the Imams, but we can not or excuse me, not to the Imams, just to the Holy Prophet. The Imams he will talk about later. He says not any hadith that is attributed to the Holy Prophet. The hadiths that we know for a fact the Prophet has said, as these are the sayings of the Holy Prophet, they actually came out of his blessed mouth.

Because as you all know, even during the Prophet's time, the Holy Prophet was upset that his sayings were being subject to alteration and he was very upset about that. And the famous hadith that, "katharat al-kadhdhabatu 'alayya" or "al-kidhdhabatu 'alayya". There is different ways that can be read, that he informed the people during his lifetime that the lies regarding me have become abundant. People would spread, I do not know, rumors, lies, whatever, they would attribute false statements to the Holy Prophet, and this got the Prophet upset. And so he came out and he made a public statement to the people and this is in the Sunni and Shi'a sources, all of them. This is one of the most famous hadiths of the Holy Prophet that everyone agrees on, that he said that the lies regarding me have become abundant. And he continued by saying that whoever spreads lies, attribute lies to me, they can get themselves ready for the hellfire.

So because of that Ayatullah Subhani says, not just any hadith or any saying that is attributed to the Holy Prophet, but no, sayings that we know he actually said. So revelation is two things, is one of two things. Number one is that it is the Holy Qur'an, number two, the Prophet's sayings.

What about the sayings of the Holy Imams now? He says, as we shall discuss later, that these, the Imams sayings also fall under that same category, but there is an explanation that is needed. At the end of the day, the Imams, we do not believe that they received revelation the way the Holy Prophet did, and so there is an explanation there. After that explanation, whenever we get there, this, the sayings of the Imams will also hold the same weight as the sayings of the Holy Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi.

Some people try to say that, try to, you know, put the sayings of the Imams in the same category as the sayings of the Holy Prophet by saying that when the Imams would relate a hadith, they would narrate it from their father, from his father, from his father all the way to the Holy Prophet. But not all of the Imams' hadiths and sayings are like that and have such a chain of narrators. So we have to keep in mind that although that would be a good way of of explaining it, but it is not a general way of explaining it either. There are cases where that is not the case. So we have to give a general explanation that encompasses all of the sayings of the Imams and can somehow attach them to or put them in the same category as the sayings of the Holy Prophet. That will come later.

But right now, the Qur'an, the Holy Prophet's sayings and the Imams' sayings, these will all fall under Wahy and revelation, some I explain now, the Imams will be coming later. And, of course, the Holy Qur'an, that itself, it is an assumption in any school in Islam that the Holy Qur'an is the word of God and so there is no reason to even get into any discussion there, really. So those are the three that constitute revelation.

And intellect, now when it comes to intellect, intellect is a tough one here. We have to separate between intellect when it comes to the beliefs and intellect when it comes to laws and rulings. There is a difference here. Before I get into that, I will get into that as we finish this article, let me read off of the second paragraph onwards of article number three of the book. And we do not have any questions yet. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

He says, once he explains that, you know, revelation is Qur'an, hadith of the Imams and the Holy Prophet, then he talks about intellect. He says, intellect and revelation. Now, sometimes brothers and sisters, you might, there might be, you might feel like intellect goes against what the Qur'an says or what Islam says, what the hadiths say. Is that even possible or not? If God or Islam has appointed and designated two things, two methods, to gain knowledge of Islam, can they ever contradict each other?

Well, I mean, we see on the ground that happening. There is contradictions all the time. How do we explain that? If Islam, according to Ayatullah Subhani, has designated these two as the methods, as the means to gain Islamic knowledge, then there should be no contradiction. Right? He explains. He says, intellect and revelation are mutually corroborative proofs. That means they support each other. If, on the one hand, decisive intellectual judgment confirms the veracity of revelation, on the other hand, revelation confirms the validity of the intellect in its proper domain. You see, he adds this right here, "in its proper domain."

In many places, the Holy Qur'an calls upon us to use our intellectual discernment. It invites man to reflect upon and contemplate the marvels of creation and even goes so far as to enlist the support of the intellect in order to substantiate the content of its own call, to accept the truth of God and of Islam. So you see here as Ayatullah Subhani explains, what is the domain of the 'aql and intellect that he keeps referring to? He keeps talking about the 'aql, understanding, validating the call of Islam. To what? To the truth of God, the truth of God and of Islam, to look around and to reflect and contemplate the marvels of creation. You see, these are all intellectual things that we do regarding what? Regarding beliefs.

When you look at the marvels of creation, does that tell you whether lobster is halal or not? That is nothing to do with Islamic law. It has to do with Islam, the beliefs. Looking around, contemplating the marvels of creation means that you understand the greatness of God, for example. Thinking and pondering over whether there is a God or not, can there not be a God when all of this I am surrounded by all of this creation? Well, that is exactly what Islam is calling to. It is calling to what? To acknowledging the existence of God. So these are all beliefs.

So here he says, Ayatullah Subhani is explaining that their intellect and the Qur'an, they go hand in hand, they help each other out. The Qur'an says, hey, go think about what I am saying. Are you supposed to worship idols, things that you have created with your own hands, can not do anything for themselves, let alone you? Please think, ponder, reflect. The Qur'an keep saying this. So the Qur'an is referring us to the mind, to the 'aql.

The 'aql also refers us to the Qur'an. Once we acknowledge that there is a God and we want to learn more and more, what happens? What happens is the 'aql says, hey, now that you acknowledge there is a God and this is the Qur'an, His word, go to it and learn from it. So, you see, these two support each other mutually.

He goes on, he says, no other revealed book bestows so much value upon intelligible demonstration of beliefs and doctrines. That is his claim, so people can go and look into the other books, other books of other faiths, look at the the Old Testament, the New Testament, and see if how much you will find verses there that will push you or the people and its audience to reflect, to use the mind and 'aql and intellect and then compare it to the Qur'an. So that is a claim that Ayatullah Subhani is making here. He says that no other revealed book bestows so much value upon the intelligible demonstration of beliefs and doctrines. Such reasoned demonstrations abound in the Qur'an. These we will find more of them in the Qur'an than anywhere else.

He even says that the Qur'an uses, uses reasoning itself, it does not just say, hey, believe in it because I said so. It says believe in it because, look, does not it make sense? Think about it a little bit. He goes on. He says, the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt have also stressed the importance of the evidence provided by the intellect "in those domains where the intellect is competent to judge". You see, he puts that in there again. Use the 'aql for when you are supposed to use it. I will explain, I will explain a little bit more what that means. Several times, so he has stipulated that you use the intellect, and the Qur'an says to use the intellect. Where? Where you are supposed to. I will talk about that.

He says, he goes on, he says the seventh Imam, Imam Musa al-Kadhim 'alaihi salam, referred to revelation as outward evidence or hujja evidence, (the word for it in Arabic is hujjah). And he also and the Imam also referred to intelligence as inward evidence, the inner hujja. So according to the Imams, we have an outer hujja, which is the Qur'an or revelation, excuse me, and the inner messenger or the inner hujjah, as well as our own intellects. So God has bestowed two things on us. One, the revelation, two, the intellect. All right.

So now this stipulation that he keeps making here, that it has to be that use your 'aql, we are supposed to use the intellect where we are supposed to use it in the domain in which we are supposed to. I have to explain that a little bit. He does not, it does not really expand on that. Very quickly. If you remember in the beginning, I said that you can use your intellect to figure out Islamic beliefs and you can also use your intellect when it comes to Islamic law. So far, Ayatullah Subhani, the Qur'an and others. What are they talking about? They are talking about using it to ponder regarding the creation of the universe, regarding God, His attributes, Islam, what Islam says about that and so on. This is when it comes to Islamic beliefs. Coming to the conclusion that, hey, the Qur'an is a miracle, is the word of God and so on.

These are all things that we have to do using this guy over here, the 'aql. Because we can not go to the Qur'an and use the Qur'an to support itself. First I have to know that this is the word of God, that I can accept it. So, instead of going in circles and saying, I am going to believe in the Qur'an because the Qur'an said so, but why do I why am I going to even go to the Qur'an and to begin to begin with? Because the Qur'an said so, and just going in circles instead of doing all of that, I will say I will believe in the Qur'an. Why? Because my 'aql said so, my intellect said so. Then after that, I will see what the Qur'an says and I will accept it because of the Qur'an says.

Here we have to be careful. That is for Islamic beliefs. When it comes to Islamic law, it is a little different. When it comes to Islamic law, all of a sudden the Qur'an, that was telling us to use the mind, now says hey, be a little more careful about this. When I say to do something, just go ahead and do it. Even if it might not make sense to you, at first glance. We have hadiths, where companions of the Imams, would come to the Imam and ask them a ruling. The Imam would give them the ruling. But the companion would say, would be, hey, that does not make sense. The Imam says, hey, things are not supposed to always make sense. When it comes to what? When it comes to Islamic law. Why?

Because you have through using your intellect, you have come to the conclusion, that this is the Book to follow, so I am going to follow it now. So if that Book now tells me, hey, live your life like this, I do not have to, I can not question it anymore, because my intellect said I have to follow whatever it says.

Let me give an example. It is like you do your own research, right? You have like a heart problem and you feel like you need surgery. Or, you know, you need surgery, heart surgery. So now you go and do your research and find the best heart surgeon you can out there.

Once you find the best heart surgeon out there, you did your research, your research now tells you follow what he says. You go to the heart surgeon, he says, OK, look, you want to go through this procedure? A, B and C, have to be observed. What are you going to do? You are going to start debating? You want to ask him, hey, can you explain to me why this is so? He might explain if he wants and he may not explain. At the end of the day though, you are going to take his word. You trust him, you know he is the best.

The same thing applies here. The Qur'an, you did your work, you did your research, quote unquote, your intellectual work, you did all of that. You came to the conclusion the Qur'an is a miracle. The Qur'an is a miracle, and it is the word of God and all of that, I have to follow it. So now when the Qur'an tells you to do something or to stay away from something, you are not going to say, hey, that does not make sense to me anymore. Your 'aql told you, hey, the Qur'an comes from someone who knows more than you. As a matter of fact, not only does He know more than you, He created you. Right? So if you created you, He knows what's best for you in this life, in the hereafter. So you are going to follow him. Very simple, I think it is very simple, I do not think I need to explain any more than that.

So that is regarding the domain or the scope of the 'aql, the jurisdiction, if you may, of the 'aql. OK, that is article number three.

Article number four. Ayatullah Subhani explains how there is no contradiction between the intellect and revelation and science and revelation. This is a kind of a touchy subject here. We need to talk about this a little bit. Because nowadays everyone is talking about how, "oh my God, religion does not understand anything, religion is for the past, religion was for a time when we did not have science and we had no way of explaining the phenomena around us, the natural phenomena taking place. But now that we have science, we do not need religion anymore."

These things are said or "if there is a contradiction between religion and faith and science, we are going to take the side of science." Is that a problem or is that not a problem? Well, the Christian faith has been through a lot of ups and downs regarding that throughout history. Ayatullah Subhani wants to talk about this a little bit, let us see what it says. Once again, I am going to read off of it. He says, before I read it, I will just give you a quick explanation. If we ever he says, if we ever see, and this is not just him saying this, other scholars also say the same thing. He says, if we ever see a contradiction between revelation and science, for example, or revelation and 'aql, there must have been a misunderstanding on our part regarding the 'aql or regarding what the religion says. Regarding science or regarding what religion or Islam says about something in particular, a natural phenomenon, etc.

So, let us read off of that. He says, insofar as revelation is a definitive guide, and the intellect is an inner light, okay so both were from God, right? Placed within every individual by God, there should never be any incompatibility between these two divinely ordained sources of evidence, sources of knowledge.

If any opposition does arise between them, if there ever is any contradiction between them, we must deduce from this contradiction and opposition, either a lack of comprehension on our part as regards the religious point in question, or an error in the premises of our logical reasoning. Right?

So, to explain a little further. If Islam talks about how, let us say, if Islam says that God can not have a body, OK? If Islam says God cannot have a body, on one hand, like the Qur'an says, God is not material, He has no body. On the other hand, though, I look around me and I see that everything is in motion, I see that matter is in motion, everything is in movement in this universe. Nothing is stagnant, nothing is just sitting still. If I do some intellectual, you know, work and endeavor and I come to the conclusion that, OK, so if matter is moving, then there must be someone moving it, it is God and God must be matter then, must be material, because the thing that is moving is also material.

So I did some logical, let us call it logical deduction here. I came to a conclusion. I came to the conclusion that God is matter. But the Qur'an says: "laysa ka mitlihi shay"(42:11), the Qur'an says there is nothing like Him. That means anything you can see and you can comprehend, God is beyond that. So He is not matter, He is not material.

Okay so we have a contradiction here. On one hand, do I follow the 'aql that God had ordained or do I follow revelation that is telling me God does not have a body, does not, is not made of matter and material? Which one do I follow? Why is there a contradiction? If they are both from God, should there be a contradiction? Think about it, brothers and sisters. Like the Shi'a school, we believe in the infallibility of the Imams, right? So, if we ever come across two Imams conflicting or contradicting each other, there is a problem, we have to figure it out, right? Same thing here. If these are two divinely ordained endowments by God, the 'aql, which is the intellect and revelation, there should be no contradiction. So if there is a contradiction, we have to figure it out.

Ayatullah Subhani says, how do we figure it out? We must have either misunderstood the Qur'an or had a logical fallacy in our premises that we had, that we came to such a conclusion. So the contradiction is an apparent one. They are seemingly contradicting each other, but in reality, there is no contradiction. My understanding has a problem, the premises that I had were problematic. So he says, lack of comprehension on our part as regards the religious point in question or an error in the premises of our logical reasoning. Here, in the example that I gave you, there was an error in my logical reasoning.

Let me give you an example of the flip side, the other side of things, the other side of the coin now. Sometimes, no, my logical reasoning is not problematic. My understanding of what Islam says or the Qur'an says is problematic. So, example, another example. Let us say through logical reasoning and philosophical reasoning, you come to the conclusion that God cannot have a material body, because that would make Him limited, would make Him dependent on His parts, etc. Lots of different problems that will come up if God is really material. So you come to that conclusion that God is not made of material and matter.

All right. At the same time, though, the Qur'an says: "Yadullahi fawqa aydiyahim" (48:10), that Allah's hand is on their hand. We have a verse in the Qur'an talking about the peace treaty of Hudaibeeya, which itself is a very interesting story. And in this story, a time comes where the companions of the Holy Prophet that are with him traveling to the Ka'ba and Masjid Haram to perform 'Umrah. They feel that the Prophet's life is in danger and that the mushrikeen, first of all, they do not let them into Mecca. So they have to stay outside of Mecca. And then there is a chance that they are going to be attacked because they were small in number. There is a chance that the mushrikeen are going to attack the Holy Prophet and the rest and kill them. So what do they do? They renew their allegiance to the Holy Prophet, there, in that in that story of the peace treaty of Hudaibeeya. The Qur'an says that when they are doing their bay'a, renewing their bay'a and allegiance and they are putting their hands on each other, like on the hand of the Holy Prophet, Allah's hand is also on top of their hand.

So here someone reads this verse and says, "oh, so God has a hand, He must be material because only material beings can have a hand." So we have a contradiction, again, we have a problem. Exactly opposite to the previous problem I give an example for. Here the problem is what?

That my philosophical understanding came to the right conclusion that God cannot be material. But then the Qur'an says He has a hand, in other words, He is material. So is there a contradiction here? Well, seemingly, yes, but when you dig into it, no. It turns out my understanding of the Qur'an was wrong and that God, when God in the Qur'an says His hand is on their hands, it is figurative speech. Yes. Not everything in the Qur'an is taken literal. The doors for figurative speech are open when it comes to reciting, when we read the Qur'an and stuff.

And that solves a lot of problems, by the way, brothers and sisters, even in the story of evolution. I do not know if Ayatullah Subhani is going to cover that later. Something tells me he will, but let us see. Even there, one of the ways to solve the problem is through revisiting our understanding of scripture when it comes to this concept. Anyway, that is a different story. So we are going to read that part again.

It says, if any contradiction does arise between them, what does that mean? We must deduce from this contradiction one of two things, either a lack of comprehension on our part as regards the religious point in question. So, for example, in misunderstanding of the Qur'an that God has a hand. Or an error in the premises of our logical reasoning. No, we got the right understanding from the Qur'an, for example, but our logical reasoning was problematic, because I came to some conclusion through some premises, erroneous premises that God must be material, you know, so I give those two examples.

Then he goes on. He says, just as there is no real contradiction. So that was between, that was the contradiction between the 'aql and scripture, and revelation. Now he goes into science and revelation and the contradiction between these two. He says, just as there is no real contradiction between intellect and revelation, so between science and revelation, there should be no contradiction either. If there being apparent incompatibility between them in certain areas, it again has to be said that either our understanding of religion in those areas is deficient or that science has not attained definitive certainty in those same areas, and the examples are too many.

Lots of times science will come to a conclusion, medicine will come to a conclusion. Before you know it, ten, 20, 30 years down the line, a 100 years down the line, they will go against their findings. Not just in the medical world, even in the science world. Same thing, you will have this, it is it is on, it is continuously evolving, science is continuously evolving. Something will be super set in stone, but before you know it, all of a sudden it is refuted. So that on one hand. So sometimes there might be a contradiction between the Qur'an and science, but the scientific finding is a theory, it is not concrete yet or might change later, so our understanding is erroneous, our understanding, our scientific understanding is problematic.

Sometimes, no, the science is on point, OK, is on point, but our understanding of the verse is problematic, or the verses of the Qur'an that might refute such an understanding is problematic, might refutes that certain scientific understanding. Once again, I am going to use the example of evolution, right. Shaheed Muttahari, he addresses this concept of evolution in different ways. One of the ways that it is addressed is that, look, if you are going to believe in Darwinian evolution, all that means is that you have to change your understanding of certain verses of the Qur'an. It does not mean that there is no God anymore, it does not refute God, as a matter of fact, he says. He says this, not me. Now, that is something to look into in the future, maybe.

But he says maybe our understanding of that, of the story of the creationist narrative of Prophet Adam and the universe might be problematic. That is OK, that is scripture, we have to revisit it. He says that is what he says. So sometimes we have to revisit our interpretation of a verse of the Qur'an, sometimes, science might have made a mistake and now knows that it has made a mistake or does not know yet and might know in the future. So that is what he says here, Ayatullah Subhani.

He says now, this is also a claim by him, those who want to agree can agree, those who do not want to agree, they do not have to necessarily agree. He says in large part, it is the latter case that causes the divergence between science and religion. He is trying to say that usually science is mistaken, not our understanding of religion. Scientific hypotheses and assumptions being rationally accepted as verified science. That is true, though I personally agree with that. Lots of times we will have a little bit of evidence for something and all of a sudden it is taken as you know, as something that is verified, no, and then posited as refutations of certain religious principles. He says some things are taken as verified, without a doubt, and then since they go against religious precepts or religious understanding, religious statements and propositions, then there is a contradiction there. While there is not really, because we have just rushed to certain conclusions and thinking that this scientific finding is set in stone.

Anyway, this whole idea, this whole ancient fight between religion and science, it is an old one, and there is a lot of things that can be talked about here. Once again, I do not want to get into details too much. I just want to share some ideas and Ayatullah Subhani's explanation.

Next article. The next article I am going to skip, I feel like it is not too relevant to what we are trying to cover or our goal in these sessions, so I am going to leave that one. Let us go to the next one. He is done.

So this is the first chapter that we can call it where he talks about the ways of gaining knowledge in Islam. Right. So now he moves on, next chapter begins. It is called Existence from the Islamic viewpoint. So now we want talk about existence, now this part, some parts of it will be a little interesting as well. Article number six, something clear we all know, he talks about how the whole universe is the creation of God. And when we say the creation of God, it does not mean that it is necessarily that it has been begotten by God, and then he uses the verse: "lam yalid walam yulad" (112:3). When something creates something else, does not mean it necessarily has to beget it or it has to give birth to it or something like that, or it has to come out of it. No, no, nothing like that. Creation, philosophically, is more than that. So it is the creation of God, but it does not mean that it is the mawlood of God. Wa alaykum assalam sister Sara. That is it, article number six.

Article number seven. He talks about how this universe that we see it, will it always be the same or is it going to go through change in the future? This, when he says when he talks about this, he is not talking about normal change, brothers and sisters, it is something deeper or else science can also address this. And it has addressed it, yes, the universe is in constant change.

But he says this system that is dominating the universe, it is not something that is going to be eternal, and for that, he brings a verse of the Qur'an. So we can not really use logical reasoning here to prove that it is beyond our minds to know what is going to happen to the universe a billion years from now or a thousand years from now, or one hundred thousand years from now, whenever the day of judgment comes, but he uses a verse of the Qur'an. So you see, brothers and sisters, here, this is one example of where the 'aql will not have anything to say, it is beyond this jurisdiction. But the Qur'an will reveal or disclose some details.

It says in Surat Ibrahim, verse 48: "Yawma tubaddalu al-ardhu ghaira al-ardh wa al-samatu wa barazu li Llahee wahid al-qahhar"(14:48) , on the day, which apparently talking about the Day of Judgment, the day that the Earth, "al-ardh tubaddal", it changes, into what? "Ghair al-ardh", into something other than the Earth. What is that exactly? We do not know because the verse has not disclosed that. "Wa al-samawat", the same goes for the heavens. The heavens, not just this Earth, but the heavens, maybe you can call it the galaxies in the universe. They will also change into what? Something other than themselves. So that is one thing he adds here about all of existence. That do not think existence when we look around us, that it is going to always be like this. It is going to change into something totally different, not evolve. Yes?

Science right now will prove to us that things are changing, things are evolving and so on, things are in motion, things like that, and I am not qualified to speak about that stuff. But we are talking about here, what the Qur'an is talking about is something different than that. It is talking about a total change, and that is something to talk about when we get to death and resurrection. InshaAllah actually the Mizan courses will cover those.

Article number eight talks about causality, super important. Says this universe that we are living in, the system that governs it and dominates it is a system of causality, 'illa wa al-ma'lool, cause and effect. He says right here, let me say something that we should not mistake cause and effect or causality for what? For tafweedh it is called. Tafweedh, an example of that would be a clock, a watch. What is the clockmaker do? He builds a clock, he builds a watch, and what does he do after that? The clock ticks, works on its own. Right. There is a system in place that governs that clock or that watch. And as long as the battery works, it goes on, or as a matter of fact, there are some clocks out there that work without batteries even. They use the energy from other things to function.

So anyway, if that clock maker dies, ceases to exist, just blows up or something, does not it does not live anymore, is that going to affect the clock? It is not going to affect the clock. The clock will continue to do as it was doing before this person died. Right? Or before this person ceased to exist. True? Ayatollah Subhani says, yes, there is causality governing the world. For example, you are hungry, you eat, eating is the cause of you becoming full and not being hungry anymore, yes? Effect, cause, effect.

He says, yes, true that there is cause and effect, but do not think it is like the clock where God created this universe and then put certain laws to govern this universe and then says, OK, I am gone now, I am not going to have anything to do with it anymore. This is called tafweedh, to delegate, to leave alone, to leave for itself. Do not think that it is like that. He says there is causality, but causality does not mean that God has nothing to do with it.

As a matter of fact, the Qu'ran says this. He does not cite this verse, but I willsay it: "kulla yaumin huwa fi sha'n"(55:29), Allah is constantly and actively involved in the universe. We will get to this InshaAllah later. I am pretty sure he is going to cover this later as well. All right. But right now, he is talking about existence in its entirety, so he is not going to get into these details. He says, all he says here is causality does not mean tafweedh and just total delegation.

Then he goes on to cite two verses for this claim. The claim was causality plus of God's involvement, at the same time, God's sovereignty at the same time. So the first verse that he uses to prove that there is causality governing the universe, it is Surat Baqara verse 22, "wa anzalah min as-sama'ee ma'an fa akhraja bihee min al-thamarat rizqan lakum"(2:22), that Allah Subhana wa Ta'la sent from the skies "ma'an", water and rain "fa akhraja bihee" and so He brought out, "bihee", through this rain, and by the means of this water, He brought out "thamarat", fruits for you, "rizqan lakum", as a sustenance for you, as a means of life and survival for you, as a rizq for you. So you see all the whole, the focal point of this verse or his argument through this verse is the "bihee", which means by means of, through, yes? So through this water, Allah did this. Oh, so there is a cause and effect, right. If it was just Allah and there was no causality in this world, it would say God brought out everything for you. This says God brought it out by means of the water that He sent out. So the water plays a role.

But at the same time, do not think that God has nothing to do with it either. That is why he brings this next verse, Ayatullah Subhani. He cites this next year, he says, wal baladu tayyib, Surat 'Araf, verse 58, "wal baladu tayyib yakhruju nabatuhu bi idhni Rabbihee"(7:58), that the pure land or - what is the exact translation here - as for the good land, the pure land, its vegetation comes forth with the permission of its Lord. So true that God sends rain down, God through the means, by means of the water and by means of the different causes that are out there, He does things. But at the end of the day He is behind all of it, He is at the top of the chain of causes and effects.

So these are two verses, I like how he did it, Ayatullah Subhani, he said causality plus Lordship of God. He brought one verse for the first part and another verse for the second part.

All right. Let me see if we have time for another article. I think we will just leave it at that for now. Yes, OK, al-Hamdulillah, the class went on for 50 minutes. I think we have covered enough for tonight. If there are any questions, you can send them via the inbox of the Facebook page of Mizan, InshaAllah. Those who you think will benefit from these sessions, please let them know of such a thing, share it with your family, friends, etc. the page and the likes and all that kind of stuff, subscriptions and all that kind of stuff. I am not not too into that stuff, but yeah, that is what makes a difference, apparently. So keep up with what we have and what Mizan Institute is offering through that, one.

And number two, InshaAllah, this coming weekend, we have a course a Mizan course in Toronto. The death and barzakh course is doing its rounds still al-Hamdulillah, it is been received very, very well. InshaAllah this weekend, I hope to see the people that are in Toronto show up to that. Hamdulillah, we have got a good registration and a good turnout for that course. The next weekend after that, we have the same course in New York. The flyers for that you can find on www.mizaninstitute.org and then InshaAllah, Houston, the last weekend of January, we have the same course being held in Houston as well, al-Hamdulillah, and there are more cities to come, InshaAllah. Looking forward to doing it in Atlanta in the second weekend of February and other cities that we will let the brothers and sisters out there know. We are trying to do these courses in as many cities as possible, so the course does its rounds. Once that is exhausted, we move on to the next course. InshaAllah educating our cities one, one by one, InshaAllah. Keep us in your du'as until next week, and Sheikh Mehdi's ahkam sessions and the continuation of Shi'a doctrine, until then InshaAllah iltemase du'a. Salam 'Alaikum wa Rahmatullah.