سید عبدالله حسینی

سلسله نشست های دوره "فلسفه عقاید؛ نگاهی منطقی و استدلالی به دین" توسط حجت الاسلام و المسلمین دکتر سید عبدالله حسینی با حضور دانشجویان غیر ایرانی و خارجیان مقیم تهران و ایرانیان علاقمند به زبان انگلیسی در روزهای پنجشنبه بعد از اذان مغرب و عشاء (نیمه دوم سال) با اقامه نماز جماعت و قرائت دعای کمیل در تالار اشراق ایوان شمس برگزار می گردد

:جلسه سوم

A'udhu Billahi min ash-shaytaan-i'r rajeem. Bismillah-i'r Rahman-i'r Raheem.

The topic of our discussion is on this series of philosophy of Islam we are going to discuss about the criteria of the right religion. As we promised at the beginning we are not going to speak at all about reasons from Quran and Sunnah. We are going to focus only on the logic and rational aspect of religion because it should appeal to everyone with a common sense, with logic. Even an atheist can be our audience here because we are not going to give him any reason from Quran or Sunnah. Somebody who denies the whole foundation of religion can be our audience and we can talk to them, and we don’t have any problem with anyone coming and asking any question when it comes to logic of our religion.

As we are talking there are lots of religious nominations around the world; I was just checking today on the internet, I found this text which says there are 19 basic nominations of religion and from each thousands. Only from Christianity there are 3,400 sects within Christianity alone. 3,400 sects in Christianity, so many in Islam, you know about it. We have… you know if you calculate all of these things together probably hundreds of thousands of nominations with different schools of thought just now they are all active around the world. And each of the claiming, ironically, that they are the only right religion. That is the part that we have to a little bit discuss about, ok, if God is one, how he can have so many religions. Definitely the right path has to be one and it is one, and we worshiping one God and one God can’t have so many paths, so many ways. 

As you can see here, only 4,684 groups in USA. Only in South Africa 3,364 group nominations. If you can check all of these histories, these all religions of the world, you cannot find even one when you talk to them that “why you are following this particular religion?” the answer is one thing: ‘this is the right religion’, so everyone thinks he is right, or she is right, or the religion which they are following no matter where he is coming from, what background has got, how he was introduced to this religion, no matter what… they are all around the world, they are thinking that they are the only one religion which is the right path to the God, but the reality is that God is one and His path is only one, so we cannot have so many right paths, right path is only one path and we have to understand that one, and we cannot unfortunately deny the situation that at the moment so many nominations around the world are there.

Now, from logic point of view, when we touch the issue of religion there are few criteria that if you don’t have these criteria, you may be misguided when you’re following a religion. When you shop for religion, it’s like shopping for something in a shopping center. You enter to a shopping center, and in that shopping center there are one thousand shops. From anything that you… from groceries, to clothes, to shoes, to books, to stationeries, to anything you want you can find in a shopping center. Now, you have a million Toman and you want to shop. Sometimes you have criteria for shopping, and sometime you don’t know what you want to shop. If you have criteria for shopping, it’s very easy, it doesn’t take so much of your time, you just enter to the shopping center and there is a map at the beginning that which shop is where. You know that you want a specific product for example you want shoe, but you want sports shoe, you want a ….. And you want it to be an Adidas for example, and you want it to be for ladies, and you want it to be white color. It’s all criteria. You want shoe, that’s a criterion, two, you want it to be sports shoe, that’s a criterion, and then you want it to be for ladies it’s also another criterion, and you want it to be white it’s also the criteria, and then it’s going to be that size of 9 or whatever your size, so, easily when you enter to the shopping center, you don’t look for grocery shop, you don’t look for the clothes shop, you don’t look for stationary shop, you just ask for the sports shop, and when you enter there, there is a lot of other shoes there. You go to the shoe department, and in the shoe department you go for the Adidas shelf, and in the aides shelf you look for women’s section, and then there you looking for all of the designs which are there, simply 15-minutes to half-an-hour you’ve done your job, you got your shoes, you come out, you pay and the job is done. But just imagine you have no criteria for shopping; and there is hundreds of thousands religions around the world. In a shopping center there are so many things to pay, and you have a million Toman, you want to spend the one million, so you have to start from shop number one, you go there “okay, no, I don’t need this, I don’t need that” you go to the shop number two, again three, four, five, six… finally you may end up buying something that you don’t need because you wanted to spend the million Toman, the thousand dollar, whatever you have, the money!

So having criteria when you want to shop for a religion, when you want to search for a religion, it’s so essential that without this criteria you will be misguided; you may getting a religion, or finding a religion which is attractive to the rest of the people, but it’s not for you, it’s not the right one. It is not the right one. The reason a lot of people are going for Buddhism, or for Hinduism, it’s because in the absence of the right religion, these things are attractive, and I gave you this example before. Go under the… In the middle of the night go with a strike, or matches, or lighter for cigarette turn on your lighter, what happens? Everywhere is going to be enlightened, you see that there is a big light that has been produced, you can see by that light even your front, you can see your way, that can help you, and everyone will notice that you have actually created this light and the lighter is on, you have actually noticed, but go under the sun, in the middle of the night if you turn on the lighter everyone will notice, but in the sun, just 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock in the day you come and you turn on your lighter, who is going to notice? No one.

The same lighter has got enormous light during the night because everywhere is dark. In the absence of sun even a lighter can be attractive. That’s exactly the example that we have today. If Buddhism has attracted so many European even, thinkers, some philosophers, some doctors, some scientists going to India. It’s because they are living in an age of darkness that the absence of the right religion is there and they have no access to the right religion, so anything which is attractive to them, that lighter, they are attracted to the lighter in the middle of the night.

That is the whole reason so we are here to give you the criteria’s and all logical criteria I’m not giving you no examples from Quran or sunnah  what ever make common sense brain whatever your brain will digest an atheist also can come and actually relate with us so we are here to help with the criteria we don't want to tell you which religion you have to go and follow we are not going to introduce a religion to you we are not going to tell you that listen you must do this you must do that but there is one religion which has got all of this right criteria the rest of wrong religion failed something you must also know that this table that is here has four legs you cannot trust a table that has got 3 legs because this table has all four legs it should be there to be called a table. If one table is missing it' s definitely going to fall for sure. It’s not saying this religion that three criteria are there and so even that one is there so I can cope with it no when you are looking for a religion don’t look for a religion which suits you know that’s not the case we should look for the right religion even if it doesn't suit me I have to suit that religion I have to fix my life according to that criteria because I'm not the criteria that criteria is that religion I have to follow religion not that the religion should follow me a lot of people are looking for that religion which allows to drink drunker he wants to drink and because he can't follow Islam because in this religion drinking is haram so I'm looking for a religion ok wait Christianity is better for me because it allows me to drink It's not a personal preference 2plus 2 is 4 you suit yourself to this reality not that I am looking for a scientist who can prove to me that 2 plus 2 is 5 so the first criteria of a right religion  logical criteria is it has to be divine   why because mankind has no authority has no capacity has no capability to write religion for the rest of  the other people it's just like for an example sonny has produced a million computers now these computers must come and write a program for themselves the situation is Allah subhanallah wa tala is the producer of mankind he is the creator of mankind God has created me he knows everything about my past he knows everything about my future he knows everything about my physical world and he knows everything about my metaphysic world as I explained to you last week he knows everything about the mechanism of my soul and the mechanism of my body and the relationship between the two he knows how I can get the potential to become united with Allah subhanallah wa tala  and become one with him he knows the better way for me to reach to him and he knows the better way to paradise to hell to everything that's why  when he talks to me I can follow but another man who does not have those knowledge that I need a man who is exactly like me a man who has got interest in my life and interest in the other peoples life he cannot write a religion a religion has to be 100% divine not even 99.1%  A to Z of this religion has to be a divine one writing and if that is the case then you can trust this religion otherwise any part any part of a religion which is manmade that part is not divine that part is not religion that's a manmade idea and believe me brothers and sisters every single manmade idea has been changed during the history of mankind do you remember communism in this world were dominating probably half of the world half of the world were communists and the whole world with 2 blocks block east and west in the east it was only communist and even in the west there was a lot of countries which they were related to this communist block  for so many years Esteline, Lennon and Marx  were ruling on this world and the brilliant ideas which they were presenting to the people it was so attractive that the people were ready to die for the sake of communism in our country we had a lot of people they were ready to die and we had very ????? communist people in the time of shah which were fighting with the regime and they were ready to die for it you remember ???????? in the famous shah court very bravely they were ready to die for their ideology it was attractive to them but what happened to communist what happened to it was all manmade ideas and all manmade ideas is subject to change but here there is a book written 1400 years ago still not changed and it won't change up to the end of the world a book that is written for the rest of the life for mankind why because the one who has written it knows everything about the past he knows everything about the future he knows everything about everything so Quran is a constitution that will never change but all constitutions of the world have been changed every single country has been having a constitution in the last whatever centuries that you talk about but all these constitutions have been added has been reduced or introduced???? In our country in the beginning of our revolution we wrote a constitution our alma experts all of them came together and wrote a constitution what happened after 10 years 15 years then came to conclusion that there is some problems it needs to be changed and we changed it the constitution changed and it happened in the time of Imam Khomeini and believe me 100% the same constitution that we have written it is going to be changed it can take probably another 10 years maybe 15 years but it will change because it is manmade constitution but the constitution that is written by God it is unchanged it will continue to be unchanged for the  rest of the history of mankind that’s one God knows more about everything that we have discussed tonight and last week even last year and God has no interest in our life we discussed about that also that is the first criteria of the right religion it has to be 100% divine you find any religion that there is a man behind it completely rejected no matter what no matter what no matter how much attractive that religion is it is written by a man finished end of story religion has to be divine man has no authority no capacity no capability to write a religion the 2nd criteria religion should be logical religion has to be logical if a religion is not logical that religion is not going to last it's not going to be acceptable specially now in the time of science in the time technology in the time of advancement in the internet highway which every single second we sit here ???bites of information are moving around in the internet and every single second knowledge has been produced universities are active scientist are busy testing are done logic is the time of logic in the time of logic you can't come with an illogical religion logic has to be there why because we have 2 types of prophets the one prophet from the inside the other one is from outside these 2 are sent by the same God it is not that the axel and wisdom is created by one God and then prophets 124 thousand prophets is sent by another God on the same God who has built into your brain something called wisdom based on which you can digest between right and wrong between numbers between everything good or bad between evil and righteousness all of that the same ability has been given from the same God sent by the same God made by the same God which this God is the sender of those prophets so if we have 124 thousand prophets is the creator of the wisdom which is the one that has been the sender this should be no contradiction between the 2 medium God is communicating with us through prophets from outside and through wisdom from inside you know some of the computers come with a self repair  system inside any damage somewhere the computer itself will start to fix it and giving you the options also so God has built in such a processor inside your computer in your brain even if there is no one outside to come and fix you should be able to fix yourself using that system that God has introduced that why the 2nd part wisdom the prophet of prophets I’m asking a question our Prophet became Prophet which age of 40 now tell me who was the prophet before our Prophet became our Prophet whom he was following so simple he was not following Jesus he was not following Moses he was not following anyone but he was following his brain wisdom and that is the Prophet to all prophets Look at Quran  is this is not the reason I am not giving you reason from Quran this I’m giving you an example of a prophet called Abrahim Quran says Abraham wake up one day and he saw the sun the stars in the night these shining things they should be Gods so many shining things these are  Gods and then when it was morning there was no sun no stars this can't be God because logically God should be everlasting should not disappear then he saw the moon he said no this is the big one this can be the God then he saw the moon also disappear ok this can't be it either so logic works with the Prophet  logic works so it also can't be God because it also disappeared and the next day he saw the sun wow this is definitely God look at the whole world it's so bright because of this creature it has to be  God and then when the sun also set he said no  (ARABIC SPEAKING)those that keep vanishing like this can't be God this is not something that I'm looking for then he reached to the real God which is not sunken which is not disappearing and that's why we call Abrahim (Arabic) is the one who used the wisdom to reach to Allah subhanaallah wa tala uses the wisdom we are trying to be haneef follow your wisdom  will direct you so prophets before they become prophets they follow the inner prophet  inside  themselves to  become qualified to the prophethood so they can't reach to the position of prophethood if they don't follow the prophet inside  so religion has to be logical has to be according to the wisdom if religion is not according to the wisdom it will be sooner or later will be buried and no one is going to follow a religion which is not logical in fact we are not talking about everyone yeah a lot of emotional people they are cow worshippers I'm not talking about illogical people I'm talking about a very minority of the world we are talking about a very small minority of the people of the world the thinkers not everyone is a thinker we are not dealing with emotional people at all we are just dealing with that small minority which they are the main part of human being the rest of human being they are just numbers only those thinkers are the ones which Allah subhanallah wa tal is proud of them somebody who uses if you ask me what is the greatest aspect of our Prophet I'm not going to tell you it's because he's the final Prophet I'm not telling you he's the father of Fatemeh or the father of Hassaneh or the one who brought this noble religion the final message the greatest aspect of our Prophet is the  capacity that he used his wisdom he's great because he has used his brain and his wisdom at most and if you also use your wisdom too you will reach to the same stage as our Prophet 

We are following wisdom following wisdom has given our profit capacity and capability and ability to become profit Allah so that we didn't all of these people have created down which of the is mobiles so making profit illogical religion want to appear to the thinkers of the world  even if you look Quran it says اکثرهم لا یعقلون majority of the people in the world they don't think but does a small numbers that they are thinking they are the main people that they have to work attract and unfortunately if you don't if you don't have a logical religion it can't be attractive to some emotional people it won't be attractive to logical people and thinker I have been working in Africa my brothers and sisters and I have discussed about some of my colleagues which too much about number they were too much of worried about numbers 10,000 or 15,000 but I say to them that a village which can become Muslim food, it counters the Christian in 2 bags so morning they will be Muslim in the afternoon the Christian groups comes and three bags of better fruit come Christian next day jutes  comes and gave it better food and some fruits and the next day Muslim see all that so increases our substances that is not we are going, so we have to have logic on appeal ,religion should be practical even Gandhi has got say and religion has no accounts of practical affairs and doesn't help to solve them is not a religion that's the kind and nice advise word, we have to see practicality is religion  works or not because I wanted to put into practice ,in Afghanistan the Taliban comes to the    power  and the next thing and give them order everyone have to have a beard  which has to and should be able to see a heads of beard  and put your feast day and you should see something is coming out of you and if somebody doesn't any have growing and I have a some friend that says you should be arrested if you don't have a long beard so each part of religion is logical my brother and they go to the best party and kill everyone and also small children and because you have the best party this is the biggest kofr and sherk ,   it's  not  logical not practical women should not study or driving in Saudi Arabia if you have money you should put in the bank of your husband each part of the this religion is practical you can't drive and for ladies reading book is Haram , and you should not be seeing with a book  just cooking just helping her husband to get the pleasure finished that's your function you are type of slaves ,Inshallah  one time I will talk about how ladies bring more food to the table than the husband's I can prove that to women with each training the children with housing the day brings more money to the house   and  husband ,or Jews we have some Jews from the USA some figures of Jews are anti-Israel so we invite them to our conferences , came to the  IR also  a came to South Africa we hold conferences about three four years ago and delegation and people came  and we had a biggest problem and they come and participate in your program they were walking 10 km they walked to each our conferences why and they say it is Saturday and we can't drive and we cannot get into the car it's not  practical isn't it?

So religion has to be practical and logical and the third criteria is practical to second has to be the logical religions should be natural it should be according to the nature of mankind not against the natural  for example it should not sleep don't have sexual abstinence and don't marry for example Christian priests in the church with child abuse because religion has to be natural went to sleep we need to eat and mankind needs a sexual relationship we need to have husband and wife we need to grow up our community , and writing in this world is necessary but you go against the nature and the result will be the child with the filly  and everyday you get this report and that you can check this kind news get these report from all that so religion has to be natural it should promote my natural aspect of mankind religion should be the realistic in south Africa there was a show it was a live show from natural TV and representative of the religion was there Jews Islam and Christian and you were discussing about somebody which his job and he had a club kind of club that you were with your wife and other person, come with  your wife  and you exchange your wife and the manager of the club was there and the question came we have this man and a woman and they are happy to get there and they are not happy that marriage and Mr. what is your solution ? And they said God doesn't like this and we can't accept this and the Christian said it's not possible and if they talk to me I said is a solution there is a solution for that man and the manager of the club  was saying my discussion only think that makes me to the job is Muslim guy  I come to you  I want to divorce you I will want to divorce my wife what you say Mr. Christian what you say what is my solution I I'm not happy with my wife what should I do there's a man says you can divorce and that solution was given by this man and if I want to choose from these three I will choose Muslim men because of solution we have to be realistic you don't look at the reality there was a problem husband and the wife they cannot come together there is already emotional divorce and also they leaving for the rest of life and children because they too must be separated should be should realistic close your eyes and no it's a marriage don't touch it doesn't work it should be effective in parts of your life you close your eyes to see reality , introducing Islam is completely based on the reality of the world  if there is a   marriage law if there is economic law  in a social law every law  which has introduced in base reality religion should be all inclusive ,,,in Quran  these law concerning sleep eating what we should eat how to walk if you meet somebody how to salam , small issues   God has solution,,,,

That God can tell us about the small issues and forget about the when it comes to vote God said choose yourself no don't ask me when it comes to sleeping and eating small issues he comes to interfere with my life this is what you should eat this is what you should not eat this is whom you can marry this is not this book you should read this one you should not tells me interfering with the small issues of my life but when it comes to the big issue Israel sorry I don't know nothing voting this party that party justice discriminations racism poverty injustice around the world oppressions happening in Palestine occupation of a great territory there sorry how that can be possible religion has to be all inclusive and the same way that the religion gives me direction about my sleeping and my eating the same religion has to give me direction about my big decisions of my life when I want to vote which party I should vote religion should not be mute about it religion has to tell me how to vote whom I should vote what should be the criteria of voting religion has to tell me God should not be mute when it comes to in fact God should not interfere with my small issues but when it comes to big issues it must tell me why the same God has religion has to be all inclusive because it's the way of life anything which is called life religion has to interfere everything which is called life because religion is a way of life and everywhere that wisdom can reach religion can also reach in fact religion even goes beyond religion can go beyond wisdom because wisdoms capacity is so much only 2 of the five senses that we have wisdom axel(brain) and science and technology can reach when it comes to any metaphysical thing beyond wisdom religion says what you call wisdom says sorry I can't think any more but religion can still tell us about those things which is beyond brain and wisdom the other criteria of the right religion is it has to be tested when you want to test this you know you go and buy a cell phone so the first thing you do is you tell them to please turn it on for me when he turns it on ok you yourself go there and start playing with a few  buttons they say no just turn it on the light comes on you can see the picture even you take a picture you here the click and they tell you it's working  you test it religion has to be testable and a tree will be judged by its fruit you look at all the fruits that this religion has produced imagine there is a religion which you know created Abuzar a man like Salmon a man like Meqdad aman like Abrahim a man like Prophet a man like Imam Ali (PBUT)so fruits you judge a tree by its fruit because how delicious how nice this fruit of this tree is no matter if the shape doesn't look so attractive a religion which creates a crucifixion can't be in the right in the name of religion you killed so many millions of people in the middle age remember that a religion which creates conflicts in the middle east like now the daesh, ISIS can't be the right religion that you saw the report 200 children 200 children they refused to join the military of the ISIS they lined them up and all of them have been killed which part of religion which part of God talks about killing children in that way so definitely you must put it into practice and see if this religion has produced proper fruits and the last one religion should be a solution not that the religion itself becomes a problem a religion has to be a solution some of the religions of the world those religions become a problem and a part of problem so we have to now think how we can remove these religions now look at the Zionist Zionist they call this a religion but then when you go you want to become a Jew you can't become a Jew sorry if I want to become a Jew it's not possible they don't allow me to become a Jew because it's a race not a religion but they promote this as a religion and as soon as you talk about it you are anti sematic they give you a brand this an anti Jew and then the laws have been passed in Europe that if you are an anti sematic you are put in the prison and a lot of people have already been sentenced we should be doctors in fact that is something that I have to talk about it in detail that we are doctors we should be like doctors we should be ????? ambassadors we should not be the pain we should solve other people’s problems we should look for an opportunity to serve our fellow human being Imam Reza Ashes got a sentence he says I am always looking at the door waiting for someone to enter with a problem and as soon as he comes with a problem he rushes to solve his problem because I know that this problem is going to be sorted out with my help or without my help so why I should not get the reward for it while some of us we are running away from other people’s problems it should be a solution now there is only one religion around the world that has got all these criteria together you go and search I want you to compare I already have compared Islam and the school of thought I follow with all of those religions I have studied Shinto Buddhism any religion which is appealing around the world the Christianity the nudism communism all of them is that are around I have studied them for my own sake to find out what is true and based on these criteria which is logical not any logical people can come and deny that the criteria which I have given are not logical criteria with the logical criteria I have searched and I have compared between all religions I found only one denomination one sect one religion one mazhab which has got all of these criteria there is only one religion that has got A- Z book divine only one religion you go to Christianity you will find the bible the bible has been actually the first narrator of the bible was living forty years after Jesus Christ how you can trust for 40 years nothing has been written and all of a sudden and somebody came and remembered some things he heard in the time of Jesus Christ how that can be trustworthy just 40 years that now you are here now you are sitting here with all the technologies you are hearing my voice now 40 years later no forget about 40 years later tonight that you’re going home your child is asking what did Seyyed say can you tell exactly what I said just tonight you tell them now how 40 years later the narrator of the bible was written how he can be a true narrator of the exact word of God can't be the word of God such books we have it also don't call it the word of God we have the Nahjabalaghah.

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