the connection between Kingdom and power and Holiness and how in politics religion and politics have always had this I mean the right word to say it they've always had an Unholy marriage right they've had an Unholy connection between them and so even today politicians use the religious class in many countries to gain their votes so in in American politics for example if if on a conservative party or something a politician wants to gain their base they will go to a church and kiss some babies before they atat the election you know and make sure they take their pictures and talk about God and all of that even though they're they're the most anti-bible people in their lifestyle but they will still tout the Bible when they're trying to get their votes right so religion and politics have always had this kind of a relationship um this has happened among the Israelites also I've talked about this in some detail if you want to know more more about that concept uh there's actually a story in the Quran that details this Unholy Alliance and how the Quran comments on it in such a sophisticated way it could be a PhD in political science and that's the story of and Jal inak where Allah talks about religion and politics together and how people try to manipulate religion to serve political goals right so religion just becomes a tool in political agendas I've had some personal experiences with this too I was in a country that shall not be named um and uh I was giving lectures at the University I was giving uh talks at the Masid and all that all that kind of stuff all of a sudden I got a call from the you know the the the prime minister's office that that he'd like to meet me I'm like why does he want to why does he want to meet me and what what are you going to talk about and usually you think oh my God the Prime Minister wants to meet you I was like no I know what this is let me just check and I had to check whether or not he's doing well in the elections cuz when they're politically going down then they want to take a picture they want to take a selfie next to uh somebody who think will get them make them feel a little more normal right and they'll do these kinds of things so you know these these things are a reality in the world and we have to be mindful of that and that's something Allah alludes to inik but now let's get right to the work the word alus the second name of Allah mentioned in this Ayah let's dig into the origin of this word uh the rud theme meaning the the word the three letters seen originally have to do with Purity and Holiness and sanctity means to purify I'll show you that in the a of Bak it's one of the earliest words we learn about in the Quran uh the Angels when Allah told them that he's going to put human beings on the earth they said so they use this word to describe what how they are with Allah so we'll get to that Ayah in a second to help us understand this word a little better but its origin comes from this imagery of water that can get muddy easily and the Arabs they would have like a like a a truff like a mini well kind of thing like the picture you see here that's a water Tru and they would put stones in it so it doesn't get dirty so it doesn't get muddy underneath and this was an old way of keeping water pure but filling it up with stones okay so so it doesn't get you know contam the water doesn't get contaminated easily Alis is again it's also used because the camel have to put their head down to drink but sometimes the water level was too low so they would put stones in the water so the water would rise and then the camels can reach it and they can drink more comfortably right that kind of stone was called aades a kadas is if you guys know cuz back in the day in ancient times people didn't have like sinks where they turn on the water and wash their hands how did people wash their hands or wash their face they would have these bowls that you put fresh water in from the bucket and then you wash your hands in that right and even in some traditional families if you go in the in the Middle East and Asia some other places you sit and eat on the floor and before you eat on the floor they give you a bowl to wash your hands in and everybody washes their hands and dries over that right so the sink you don't go to the sink the sink comes to you right and that washing Bowl that's actually called AAS in Old Arabic the word for that is Al so there are other vessels in buckets in Arabic that are not for washing but the one used specifically for washing that one is called aladas okay now there's which is a sacred stone or a precious stone so it could be like a ruby or a pearl or something like that can be called a kadis or sometimes people had you know like in different religions they have trinkets that are sacred or holy right that they they ascribe a lot of value to right uh so for example in some Christian variations people have like crucifixes right or have amulets and the stones or whatever or in some other Traditions somebody can have a stone or a necklace and some you know Saint or Guru or whatever cast a spell on the stone and now the stone has special powers and you will never have diarrhea so long as you wear the stone Etc so that that kind of stone is called a kadis in language a sacred stone right um similarly jewelry was called Silver beads or trinkets interestingly from there we also get the idea that the the Kaa one of the words one of the names for the Kaa before Islam was alad because it's sacred and therefore all of its stones are also what sacred right so that's why it was called thead and Quran uses the word madas to describe Jerusalem so it uses the same term for so it's it's the name of Allah but now it's being used for other than Allah it's being used for a land right and now this is what the let's come to what the angel said to Allah actually means two things I've written them here one of the things it means is we purify ourselves for you we purify ourselves for you we keep ourselves pure for your worship that's what the angel said to Allah the other meaning is we keep declaring how pure and perfect you are so means two things that's one we purify ourselves for you we consider you we acknowledge you as pure this is a name of Allah that we use the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to use sub and sometimes in the prophet sometimes would say so it's used there it's also used for the angel jel right you'll find it in the Quran so what is uh what I want you to take from this so far is it seems to be similar pure purify what does that have to do with the water being elevated I'll explain in a second but it's similar to T because T was to make your concept of God pure and now is also having to do with Allah being pure right so what's the difference okay that's similar but what makes them different T is about anything that will be unfit for Allah to say to say about Allah anything unfit about Allah life and death like you know or or weakness of any kind like you know how in say right so so drowsiness exhaustion doesn't get to him and he never Falls to sleep right that's that's a t of Allah being forever present and ever aware constantly aware that's a of but is not about perfecting every quality is about making sure you don't say anything evil about Allah so there's a difference between saying something imperfect and saying something evil let's take a human example first if I say this is a really good person but they're not very healthy okay they're they have they have diabetes or something they're a good person but they have diabetes I didn't say that they are evil but I did say that the healthwise they are not in a state of perfection okay so that's kind of removing T in that sense right but is not about that is about this is a good person they're not jealous they're not angry they're not you know spiteful they're not a liar they're not a cheater they're not greedy I removed all these negative qualities from them I'm considering that person mad and that's why this word actually kis important word in Arabic was used for religious leaders religious leaders and Saints and things like that they were considered what and this is part of the psychology of religion in a village if one person knows the religion Rel more than any anybody else and it doesn't even matter which religion if it's Islam it's Islam if it's Christianity it's Christianity if it's Hinduism or Buddhism or taism or jism or any ISM the guy in the village or the lady in the village who knows more than everybody else all of a sudden everybody thinks that's the best person they are kis they are pure because they they have more knowledge of the pure scripture or the pure religion so the more knowledge you have of that the more pure you must be right and do Muslims have this kind of mentality when someone knows more they must be a better person yeah does the Quran come and take a hammer and destroy that mentality absolutely the Quran comes along and says there were people that came before us that had a lot of knowledge of the book and Allah criticizes them more than anybody else what's Allah saying knowledge having knowledge is great but that doesn't guarantee that you are pure of your flaws those are two separate things you could be a terrible human being with amazing T you could do that you could be a of the Quran and a horrible husband or whatever you could be both of those things but in the eyes of the village and in the eyes of the people or the community masallah this person oh you know so you because we have this concept of of people incidentally is used for other than Allah but is not is only for Allah right so when you when you say someone is not a bad person in any way there good in every way they have no Unholy qualities then you are considering that person M that's that's what you're actually doing and the prophet of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us the um he told us that we will fall into some of the same traps that people before us fell into you will end up following the ways of people who came before you and one of the things the people that came before us they did is they considered their religious leaders perfect they considered them perfect and so they turned them into Saints you know the concept right they turned them into and what that means is these Saints they had a different kind of clothing than everybody else they walk different from everybody else and if you're hanging out with your friends chilling you're just having lunch or whatever and one of these Saints walked in the the priest walked in the pope walked in the Holy One walked in everybody's like everybody just changes because the Holy One is here you understand and what did we learn about our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he used to be among the Gathering of the sahabah and some new person walked in they couldn't tell which one is the prophet they couldn't tell sometimes they went to Abu Bakr and said y Allah he's like no no no that's over here the wrong address that's over here so they they couldn't figure out which one is the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam because he was so among the people he wasn't it was in a special class or he did he didn't get treated in a special way or expect that kind of treatment in a certain way but but then you have other religions where the the Holy One walks in and he puts his hand out cuz you got to Kiss the Ring first and you see you know what I'm saying and we did and the prophet warned that you will follow the ways of the people before you and some people within this umah developed this kind of thinking and they develop this kind of Saint class of people right and what's amazing about them is if if if a group among them declares one person a saint and another group declares somebody else a saint this group say says your Saint is Shan and this one group says your Saint is Shan okay so not only do they make it their own Saints but everybody else is the devil and the only thing you're not is human now you're either Saints or Devils but you're no longer humans right and then this this mentality is so problematic because then when you when you put your your leaders or your teachers in this position then there a human in the end two things will happen one when you keep describing people as perfect if you keep telling someone they're perfect they're perfect they're perfect I'll give you a child's example if you tell a little girl when she's growing up you're a princess you're the most beautiful nobody's prettier than you everyone else is ugly you're the best you're the greatest and she said yes I am yes I am and when she goes to kindergarten or kindergarten uh she goes there she's going to walk in and say the princess is here hey hey what are you doing there ugly show some respect what did you do you praised this kid so much and you elevated their ego so much they actually started believing that about themselves they started expecting Royal Treatment and I'm giving you the example of a child but does that even happen to human beings adults it happens to adult you keep telling them they're the saint they're holy they're this every time they walk in everybody stands up everybody every time they walk in everybody stops eating oh like oh can I touch your hand can I please can can you put your hand on my child's head because if you put my then he will never go bald cuz in my family there's a lot of baldness please please rub his head good cuz we can't afford propa or whatever to do that when the guy gets used to that then he walks into a restaurant and nobody got up people kept eating their sandwich like so all these people I'm never coming back here again they have no respect for they have respect for they just they don't play this game they're not used to this game but this was a class that was developed and this was the M class now what is D in its origin it's actually someone who's pure and has essential goodness in it Allah considers Jerusalem a place that is meant to have great goodness because of the prophets that came there right and it was a place where Revelation kept on coming right until even isaam the Revelation came there and so many prophets received Revelation there so the place has a lot of goodness in its in its roots in its soil and the same way our sacred land Makkah is M because it's the place where ibraim Alam built Allah's sacred house and the final messenger was sent and jam came and brought the Quran in that region so it becomes madas you understand and the one who delivers this pure message becomes the the of Al or which is so these are some of the meanings of but now let's look at the scriptures that came before us this is a I can't read that so I just just a picture but it's it's it reads Yahweh uh the holy to Yahweh an inscription worn on the forehead of the high priest of Israel meaning Theus is is a word that was being used before you know the Quran talked about this word in Hebrew it was already being used by the Christians and by the Jews to describe High Holiness it's already a term associated with them in Hebrew the root is reflect in Phoenician in Hebrew in Northwest semetic Asus in Arabic in Central and South semetic in a Cadian text um and in all of them the word actually means to to be pure so this is a word if there was a rabbi listening to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam or there was a priest listening to the prophet Salli wasallam of Arabian background they would immediately say that word really that word because that's a very important word in their scriptures and what I want you to understand is nowadays if I want to to do this research I can go to wikkipedia or I can go to some biblical studies website and I can find this information right back in the day if I wanted to know what is in the Bible what words are used in the Hebrew text what word is used in the syak scriptures you know what what do they have you don't get access to that information that is classified documents that are rolled up in Scrolls and only their High priests and high rabbis have access to those documents even the general public among the the Israelites don't have access to that just like the archives in the in the Vatican for example that you have to have very high access in the in in in the hierarchy of the church to be able to access those manuscripts they're not you can't just Google them right so the when the Quran uses this word what I want you to know is it's taking a word and talking about it that the average Muslim Arab can understand but even the highest Priests of this religion are these religions Christianity Judaism that have been studying the religion for decades and decades that know the the special nature of these words are like how did he get this word and how did he use it in this way where's this coming from where's this knowledge who's leaking our information there's a wikileak situation that's happening in the Quan and this is actually a constant phenomenon in the Quran the Quran is commenting on things that actually only the knowledge that was only accessible to the highest Priestly sources in in previous scripture I saw an example of this in the last Surah I was teaching I was teaching in Allah says that you know like the Catholic religion they developed the monk life like people that lived a celibate life they didn't get married they lived in the church and they just remained there forever right and this was their their their their vow to celibacy they take a vow they take a promise that they're going to stay that way and stay pure Allah says about that the monk life they invented it they created it do you know that the at the time no CHR CHR knew that they invented it nobody knew that every Christian in the world believed that that was actually what the religion was that's how it's supposed to be no one had the background knowledge of how this was actually a later creation this was not public information and the Quran very casually says and their highest Prest are like hey wait that's classified you're not supposed to know that how do you get access to that you know so this is actually you know we read these aat quickly but behind them is a large story and it's actually it's it's quite telling how the Quran uses these phrases just some more about this background this is their own pronunciation is one of the names of Allah in judism the Holy One similar to the MU form meaning this form we see in Arabic being Al and our grammarians noted that there know like the beginning and a there are only two words in Arabic that have have that and those are the only two words in Arabic that have that sound like that with a d beginning with A D like that and a sh and then a wow so and and those are both names only used for Allah they're not used for anybody else this is just to show you how these words are connected to previous scripture now and are both typical Syriac Christian expressions for the glorification and sanctification of God now watch this there's in in red you see that title in red what does it say cave of Treasures this is one of the Syria Christian texts okay and in it they have stories of like we have stories of the prophets in the Quran they had their stories in it their version of the story of Adam Alam is very different than what we have so I want you to know this is about their version so just listen to this with me so or or of Adam meaning the glorification and in their scripture these two words in syak not even in Arabic were used for Allah but they were also used for Adam so Allah is Allah is and and according to them Adam is also in whom the Divine image dwelt meaning you know how the Bible says God created man in his own image so they use that to say well if God created man in his own image then the human being must also have Perfection inside him he must have God within him so Adam had God within him that's why he also has the qualities of being this is found in the cave of treasures hence God's command to the angels to worship Adam in their story God commanded the Angels not to do SJ but to what to worship Adam and the the logic behind it is well he has God's image in him so it's like worshiping God himself and that's why you should you know you should bow down to him in worship the Quran corrects this by having the Angels direct their and specifically to so for centuries they believe and belong to Allah and to Adam but the Quran says so brilliantly I am putting aif on the earth and the angels say are you going to put someone who is so flawed you know you're going to put someone who's who's going to cause corruption he's going to spill blood and then what do they say and we do of you and we declare you pure meaning Allah redirects the Christian discussion on and that was happening in the region for centuries and says no does not belong to Allah and Adam it only belongs to Allah let me correct the story for you this is the Quran correcting the story so as merely having Angels prostrate to Adam rather than worshiping him at the same time whereas the rabbis engaged with the Christian account by say saying the only the the Angels only worshiped Adam by mistake so the rabbis the Jews and Christians follow the Old Testament right they follow similar beliefs but they also disagree with each other now why would the Christians develop the idea that Adam has God inside him because eventually from the children of Adam Jesus will come and then he's going to be fullon God for them isn't it so they need to figure a way of justifying that down the generations the Jews want to undo that in their tradition so the the RAB Rabin tradition says yes yes yes the did bow down but they did that by mistake so the the debate that was happening before Islam was one was saying they did did they did s the Christians are saying they they did SJ to Adam because they worshiped Adam and Allah told them to worship Adam and the the rabbis are saying no no no they weren't told to worship Adam they just you know they made a mistake Angels make mistakes so they just accidentally did SJ to Adam okay the Quran vindicates the Angels the Quran comes and says no no no the Angels didn't make a mistake they were commanded to do SJ but not worship him so what does the Quran do it actually disagrees with the Christians and disagrees with the Jews and finds the middle correct path and retells the story and this is really important in the Quran you might not know this but the Quran is telling many many stories that are in the Bible many stories that are already in the Bible and in in in both Christian tradition and in Jewish tradition but the Quran is retelling them completely so the the names are the same the characters are the same but the story has completely been restructured to bring it to its original form as if Allah is saying you made this you made a change here you made a change here you made a change here you made a change here you know like in in movies CU you don't watch movies so this is hard for you to understand but in movies sometimes people write a novel and the novel turns into a movie okay but by the time it turns into the movie the director makes some creative changes to the original novel so people who read the Manga I mean the novel right they're like oh that's not what really happened this so much more interesting blah blah blah because there's a there's a director's cut that's different from the original author well some of that happened Allah revealed the story and then over time in the Jewish and Christian accounts according to the Quran you guys made some director's cut choices and you made some edits to the story and converted it to something else and then the Original Stories basically gone it's basically not there anymore and what does the Quran do it retells the story as it was originally and it challenges both of those accounts I'll take your question at the end insh so while while Kus is extremely common in the Hebrew Bible is unique toak and syak is Christian so what what I'm saying is the word and together in this ay actually targeted in a sub in a kind of very subtle way it targeted both the Christian and the Jewish audience together in just using that word so we of course Muslims are the main audience but there's also a secondary audience I'm reminded of a saying in Arabic let me tell you the meaning behind that it's kind of cool you know back in the day people lived in houses where they don't have a in in America we have backyards right and they have a fence in the backyard but in Old Days people had a front porch so you walk into the house and there's an open front yard with the wall around it and then you walk inside the house and the cooking and the hanging out and all that stuff happens in outside in the open and the only thing separating your front this is your living room under the sky basically yeah so the this living room is separate from your neighbor's living room by what just a half wall that's it so if the husband and wife are having an argument who's having a great time on the other side it's your neighbor right so the Arabs have a saying the husband is arguing with his wife he's yelling at her he says I mean you you can listen too neighbor cuz he knows he's like you know that's what she's doing well what does the Quran do the Quran is talking to the Muslim sometimes but the Quran is very aware that it's not only the Muslims that are listening who's also listening the Jewish and Christian neighbors the mush the other people they're listening also so the Quran demonstrates an awareness of second audiences and that's why this study becomes important right so there's primary audience and also secondary audience okay now I'm going to read through this because this was written by a couple of colleagues of mine Sharif rwa and um you know so so they they've they've put together a small piece on how the Quran tells the story and I'm going to read through this because I think it's just really well I tried to summarize it myself and I was butchering it so I'm just going to read through it for you the Jewish and Christian text discussed above from the inext for the Quran that is they represent the stories with which the Quran engages when tells its own authoritative account in doing this the Quran affirms and rejects elements from both the Christian and Jewish Renditions in a manner that expresses its own distinctive theological Outlook correcting their excesses with surgical Precision Allah is correcting both surgically it's not rejecting all of this or rejecting all of that a slice of this is taken out a slice of this is taken out now we're back to the original for example in agreement with the Christian narrative and against the Jewish narrative the Quran ceps that the Angels prostrated to Adam at Allah's command at God's command however in agreement with the Jewish narrative and against the Christian narrative the Quran maintains that Adam merely had a role of Vice jant or Khalifa right appointed by God a governor appointed by God and not that God's Divinity dwelled in him who believed that God's Divinity dwells inside Adam the Christians did and the Quran is saying no he's just a Khalifa accordingly the Quran only describes the angels as prostrating to Adam but not worshiping him moreover whereas the Christian account speaks of Adam's Divine Glory they use the word Tash which is similar to what it's a syc word similar to Tas and states that the Angels Sanctified him which is similar to what mad the Quran depicts the angels as declaring to God we glorify you with praise and sanctify you using the Arabic cognates of the syc terms but applying them to God instead of Adam meaning the Quran used the Arabic words that were very close to a foreign language to syc which the Christians were familiar with to actually secondarily even Target them these words you use them incorrectly the Quran therefore safeguards God's exclusive Divinity against the Christian account and upholds Adam's exalted but non- Divine status as a vice generate of God and absolves the angels of having wrongly worshiped Adam additionally the quran's affirmation of God's command to the angels to prate to Adam undercuts the meccan pagans justification for their angel worship meaning mus of Makkah used to worship who among go false gods they used to worship Angels now in the story Allah says the Angels themselves are doing SJ so they are not objects of worship so now in one story the Muslims are learning something the Christians are learning something the Jews are learning something and the mushin are learning something one speech multiple audiences one spe this subh is one of the most remarkable things about the Quran it targets multiple audiences in one shot you know they say two birds with one stone this is like four birds with one stone right accordingly the Quran presents its own distinctive Narrative of the story of Adam Alam which at the same time engages with and corrects both the Jewish and Christian versions of the story in a marvelous and precise and sophisticated way okay so this was some things that needed to be said in regards to Al because it has that story behind it that's why I shared all of this with you