kill the polytheist wherever you find them why was this Ayah revealed what does it mean a daughter receives half The Inheritance compared to a son according to the Surah ala isn't this unfair isn't the Quran so strict in putting limits on Believers lives people want to live freely and enjoy themselves what is wrong with that the Quran is in Arabic thean is in Arabic the way of dressing and worship is Arabic style isn't this imposing the Arab culture brother Muhammad hijab welcome to towards theity cross examination concept today we're going to ask you the verses ayas of the Quran that the atheist object to the most we are Muslims but we are asking them to show that Islam has answers for every question you have 60 seconds for each answer if you're ready let's begin in verse 5 of Surah Al TBA it is said kill the polytheists wherever you find them why was this Ayah revealed what does it mean actually the verse starts off by saying when the sacred months have expired in that situation then fight the polytheist wherever you find them so it shows you there's a context so what is the context the context is that there was a peace agreement between Muslims and these particular polytheist the pagans of the Pagan Arabs and that peace treaty was severed from the side of those people on the other side and as a result of the severance of this peace treaty this was a command that was put forward then fight them now because now they have broken the peace the political peace treaty that was in place and even if you look at the verse right next to it okay that which is verse six it says we that if one of the disbelievers comes and seeks safety from you then give safety to him until he hears the words of Allah subhah wa tala so which shows you the following it shows you that even in a situation of War there are ethics of war that Islam puts forward that if someone seeks safety Islam says go ahead and give them safety and of course we all know that the prophet told us you you cannot kill women or children or or you know livestock or cut trees and so on and so forth so this is a war context and in the war context even then you have ethics of War so this is uh taken out context frankly it's a war verse and in this war verse it's talking about how to deal with the disbeliever okay I want to ask one of the most popular question that atheist ask does the 34th verse of Surah Al Nissa say that women can be beaten is it true well I mean the word used in right so and the word it means hit okay that's what the word means in the Arabic language it's used in different context in the Quran but the word does actually mean hit really it's not meant to be something which hurts the woman okay it's meant to be something which is symbolic really and truly it's meant to be if you look at the and what and others said they say it's like using a stick and something it's like symbolic it's not actually meant to cause pain if you like you know and in fact there is explicit negation or there is explicit prohibition I should say and also there is in fact a Prohibition in general not to hit your woman yeah do not hit the woman Servants of Allah Hadith actually so we understand this three stage process as a process where a man is controlling himself and then symbolically manifests his dominance on her his hierarchical dominance on her by doing something symbolic which indicates that it's not meant to harm her at all and and also it should be noted that the prophet Muhammad wasallam didn't actually hit any of his wives at all in facta herself who is the wife of the Prophet mhmad wasallam she makes this very clear in a Hadith she says he never hit any of his wives so it's attested to by primary source evidence and if you want to follow the prophet then you have to control yourself control your your your anger control stuff like that because you're not going to get you're not going to win in a marital dispute by uh raising your voice and shouting and being out of control and hitting and all those kind of things this is certainly not what the verse is intending in fact in many ways it's what the verse is trying to stop it's trying to create procedure in the marital environment of Discord between man and wife and of course in the western context because we have to make this very clear in the western context all of this has to happen within some level of consent I mean because if a if a man does this in the West for example then this can cause him to be leveraged against it actually has the opposite impact so this might be the fatwa might be that in the west using such a a technique is absolutely disadvantageous for the man in the first place and thusly is not something you should do anyway because even if it's is symbolic and she says he abused me and he takes her she takes him to court and something like that then she leverages him so actually the Mak of what that is meant to do which is leverage and a manifestation of dominance is actually um undermined and such therefore in many countries in the west if he does this then it makes things worse but I will say what the verse means it's a symbolic gesturing of dominance it's not trying to be causing pain or harm that kind of thing is Haram in Islam it is a symbolic gesturing of dominance of the man in the hierarchical setting of the house and that's where it should be if you want to follow the prophet then that you have to control yourself control your your your anger control stuff like that because you're not going to get you're not going to win in a marital dispute by uh raising your voice and shouting and being out of control and hitting and all those kind of things this is certainly not what the verse is intending in fact in many ways it's what the verse is trying to stop is trying to create procedure in the marital environment of Discord between man and wife according to the Ayah 11 of Surah and a daughter receives Heal The Inheritance compared to a son also according to verse 282 of Surah Al bakar the testimony of two women is equal to one man what would you say to someone who thinks these are unfair as towards eternity we need your support we are a charity organization that aims to spread the message of Islam to the entire world in 10 languages with your support you can help people convert to Islam give up harams start praying wear hijab learn to read the Quran and so on and get your share from all these Good Deeds insh donate it towards eternity and don't miss this golden opportunity what would you say to someone with thinks these are unfair well I mean the thing is those who think this is unfair do so on the basis of equality they say that Equity is equality so if you want to be fair you have to be equal with males and females in all cases and we know that there are many different situations which most of humankind historically and contemporaneously would agree that in fact there shouldn't be equality even in the west they have maternity leave even in the west they have certain uh jobs and roles that are still specified and dominated by men for example mining for example the military profession for example contract work and DIY and all that kind of equality usually is misappropriated or some some sometimes used strategically for people to get their way but the idea therefore the assumption that equality equals Equity is something which needs proven in the first place secondly the truth of the matter is that actually it's not the case that daughters get less than Sons it's brothers who get more than sisters specifically and in certain situations most situations however it's not even the case in inheritance that males get more than females in fact there is many situations where in which the female gets more than a man in fact the the single most inherited group in Islam is two daughters that if there were more than two two or more daughters they have two-thirds of what is Left Behind that's not something it's the largest number of inheritance given to uh uh given to females and it could be that they given the the same for example in the same verse or the verses that come after it it talks about the mother and the father receiving the same amount so there a male and a female but they receiving the same amount so in a situation where in which the brother gets more than the sister you got to ask yourself why could that be the case so you got to think about the philosophy of Islamic inheritance which takes into consider consideration two things so uh social responsibility number one and proximity number two so brother is going to have more social responsibility the Shar puts more burden on him because he has Mah has to pay he has na which is a monthly payment he has to give he he if there's death in a family he's part of the he has to pay for that there's so many different Financial Obligations that he has to shoulder and thus it makes more sense to give him a little bit of an advantage because he's going to have costs that his sister is not going to have the Quran forbids interest in Surah Al bakar verse 275 but today people can earn very good incomes this way right what is the wisdom of this band first of all you got to think about what interest is interest is getting something out of nothing that's effectively what it is you know we're not dealing with commodities here you're not dealing with something which you're trading which is has intrinsic value interest effectively saying okay I'll give you one gold bar for two gold bars you know so it's it's using a disadvantage that one of the parties have which is let's say for example the lack of capital in order to try and in increase an advantage that they have and this is a problem for many different reasons number one it increases the distribution which is referred to in economics as the Gen coefficient like the distribution between rich and poor it exacerbates that distribution and the Quran says for example it's mentioned that so it doesn't become something which is money doesn't become re revolving around only the elites amongst you in chapter 59 of the Quran so having and we know this from Modern societies that Bankers have the most money I mean some of the most money in in the entire economy because of this exploitative system they're exploiting they're taking advantage of people in weaker positions so that kind of thing is outlawed okay number one number two is you can say that interest actually messes up demand and Supply because what is demand and Supply like for example if I say this this phone here it's how what is its value so we say the value is say $800 how do we know that because the price of a good goes up and down based on how much is demanded and how much is in Supply so if it's demanded very high but it's in low Supply then the price goes up very basic economics which is known you know by free market economic analysis right but if you put interest on this thing it's manipulating and it's ruining the the process of demand and Supply because now you have an inflated price for this thing if I say I'll give you this plus interest I'll sell this to you plus interest so now we don't really know the value of this thing because we're talking about there's two kinds of value I mean k marks mentioned there is the intrinsic value of something and then there is the market value of something I'm talking about market value interest messes up the market values of of different Commodities and what so therefore inflates prices it inflates prices more than it should be infl so it leads to inflation so interest lead Le to inflation it leads to messing up of demand and Supply gives you the wrong kind of pricing market prices for things it's exploitative it gives you something for nothing in addition to all of that I mean if you think about interest it actually you could argue and I would make the argument that it actually contributes to boom and bust because if you look at the economies in West for example in America in England and all these kind of France and the kind of things they have very high levels of economic growth followed by very low levels of economic growth of stagnation and what they call even depression they call it depr economic depression yeah boom and bust why is this happening because it's not sustainable methods I mean if you look at 2008 when the crash happened as a case study it was to do with lending it was to do with interest rates it was to do with banks getting hungry and and giving loans to people that they couldn't pay back because of the interest rates that was a contribut contributing factor and because of that the economy plunged so everyone everyone including the rich people suffered but if they had controlled themselves and lent in a proper manner in the Islamic friendly manner then boom and bust wouldn't be so uh so unstable there would be more of a flatline maybe I'm not saying it would completely solve boom bus but I'm saying there'd be more stability in this regard so people can decide to get rich quick and then get poor quicker or they could decide to keep a more sustainable level and I think interest what it does is the first option rather than the second for all these reasons and more interest rates could be said to be you know a detriment to the economy and to the society to the individual as well isn't the Quran so strict in putting limits on Believers lives people want to live freely and enjoy themselves what is wrong with that oh I mean fine but the question is I mean who's asking this question and on what basis do they think that they have the right balance on what limits should be put on a human being right life and what what limits shouldn't be put on human beings life like so in other words it's almost as if they're coming with okay we want to live in this kind of way and the Quran forbids that but the question is who gets to set the Criterion so the Quran says does he not know what he created and he is all all aware the one who's most aware of the human being has the most right to tell the human being what to do and or to tell him how to best live his life to tell him conceptions of what is referred to as a good life the best quality of life how can you get it so the Quran is telling us how to get the best quality of life Allah wants good for you ease for you and he does not want difficulty for you at the end of the day that's what the Quran says now even the difficulties that you get from some of the you know from some of the uh commands of God which are short-term difficulties in the long run these are all going to be better for you than had you indulged in the things that you want to indulge in if someone's saying that I would say to them look this kind of mentality is not going to get you anywhere in life because at the end of the day those who are most successful are those who have the most trait conscientiousness in psychological terms most disciplined people the most temperent people and if you don't have Temperance and you're able to delay gratification then whether or not you decide to be a Muslim as an atheist you're going to be a failure that's something I can tell you for a fact whether or not you decide to be a Muslim you will be a failure because it's only successful people in any field who decide to delay gratification and who decide to discipline themselves in the short term for the longterm success all symbols in Islam are reminiscent of Arab culture for example the Quran is in Arabic the aan is in Arabic the way of dressing and worship is Arabic style why would a non-arab be forced to adapt to all these isn't this imposing the Arab culture for example an English man if he becomes Muslim does he have to leave his culture behind absolutely not I mean look the thing is Allah is he says it explicitly in the Quran that oh humankind we have made you into a man and a woman and made you into tribes and Nations so that you may know one another get to know one another and that the best of you are the most Pious if Allah wanted everything to be homog to be a complete homogeneity in the idea of nation hood or culture he wouldn't have created us in different tribes and people there would have been One Singular language and that was it but he created different languages created different foods different cultures different colors and there are many verses in the Quran which for example one verse is talking about the the mountains and the colors of the mountain and the people are like that they're varied just like the colors of the mountains you have this kind of color this kind of color the people are like that as well and that brings about a richness and a variety Into The Human Experience which Allah is telling us this is why we're doing it so that you can get to know one another these people have something you don't have and these people over here have something you don't have so get to know one another and see how these people are doing things see how these people here are doing things learn from each other because it's always going to be something these people have that these people don't have and these people have that these people don't have and so on and so forth so a Muslim doesn't have to implement the Arab culture no no of course not I mean even the Arab cultures nowadays they're so different from each other like if you go to Morocco and then go to Saudi Arabia this completely different uh cultures if you go to uh you know Jordan and then you go to Egypt and then you maybe go to Sudan I mean Sudan is an Arab country they're black people but they're Arabic people completely different people I mean they would think they would look at each other the only thing in common is a few words that they can maybe communicate with they can communicate with each other in language but in terms of there is no Arab one Arab culture there's so many Arab cultures nowadays like in morania they have a completely different you know they have this and the tents and this and that and I mean so no no of course they wouldn't have to be and you should keep your culture because you know Allah has blessed you with your culture and it's something that Allah wants other people to learn from you through having as is mentioned in the Quran if the Quran is the truth why aren't Muslims today significantly more successful than non-muslims well I mean there's an assumption here that for example if you're rich you're right effectively if you're rich that means you're right you know the Richer you are maybe the wrer you are maybe the more money you have the more truth you have as well so it's but that's that's obviously a false assumption I mean you can have a lot of money and be in complete falsehood you can be the richest man in the world and be the the lowest IQ man in the world that have no Truth at all or not even care for the truth what I'm saying is that the Assumption itself is a problematic one but even if we go for it with the sake of argument like when the Islamic Empires Islam has been around for 1,444 years and in that time let's be honest for 95 years of 95% of its existence Islam has been either one of the superpowers or the main superpower like even that argument doesn't work because why are they taking effectively the last 100 years since the disestablishment of the Ottoman Empire why are they taking that as the thing to analogize everything else with in the first place there were times where the Europeans were let's not call it the Dark Ages some historians don't like it having a difficult time economically call it and they they had Christianity at that time and Muslims were Advanced well Advanced those African countries Mali Mana Musa was doing better than some of the European countries economically as so was the truth with the Muslims at that time and Christianity and the West Was false at that time for example or should we say for for instance when uh the the Crusades only one Crusades Was Won by the Christians and the rest of them were effectively lost effectively I mean that's was happening so were the Muslims right then and the Crusades and the and the Christian West was wrong then for example or when you had all these the great Ottoman Empire and and what was going on in the beginning when facing the Russians and and beating them in the beginning so were the Russians and the Christian so this is a foolish argument in fact the Quran deals with it by saying and these are the days which we alternate between the people but to answer the question directly there's nothing in there's no argument there really I'm actually still waiting for it which indicates that the Richer you are the Richer you are the the rter you are finally what would you like to say to Muslims and non-muslims who have such questions from time to time I'd like to say that look I mean at the end of the day you have to look at the overall the roots of the tree before you think about the branches of it and the roots of the Islamic tree is is the proposition that there's no God worthy of worship except for Allah and Muhammad is that Muhammad sahu alaihi wasallam is the prophet of Allah if these this tree of Iman is implanted deeply and entrenched into your heart then these to be honest the branches of a tree become less problematic so for example if someone has a minor disease and they go to the doctor and the doctor says to them look take this tablet this I know what you have you and he says it with confidence look you have this problem take these few drugs and that's it you'll be okay most people would accept this they'll take the drugs and they'll be quiet because they know that they the doctor has Authority he has knowledge that they don't have so when you entrust your authority to a greater Source you accept the prescriptions of the greater source and what greater Authority is there than the one who knows everything so if someone finds himself having a lot of these questions it may indicate that they don't believe in the authority that is being conveyed that this is actually a book from God not from human beings or this person or that person or this culture or that one this whatever it's actually a book from Allah from God himself and so once you understand that then all the prescriptions that come from it are incumbent upon you and they should be authoritative to you as well and that's why I would say that if you have doubts like this you should go back to the basics and go to the roots of the isue which is to look at the signs of Allah to look at the the existence of God through the signs of God and his creation to read the Quran to get closer to his Revelation to get closer to the prophet mallam and see his life once you do all of those things you'll solidify your position as a Muslim and once you do that everything else becomes easy [Music] m