LECTURE In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, all thanks and prais is to Allah, the Lord of the Universe, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. I bear witness that no god is worthy of worship except The Creator, Allah. That He has no son and no partner. I bear witness that Muhammad is his final messenger. Assalamu alaikom brothers and sisters, welcome to our fifth class today. May Allah reward you the best. Did God communicate with human beings? Did here communicate with man? Of course, God The Almighty presents His system of communication with human beings in the holy book, the Quran as follows: He started by denying that He created human beings without any reason. He said in Surah Mu’minoon 115 “Then did you think that We Created you uselessly and that to us you would not be returned” Then God The Almighty denies that the purpose of creation is merely having fun. He said in Surah Anbiya 16 “We did not create the heaven and Earth and that between them in play” Then He gave the reason, the purpose, of our creation and He said in Surah Thareyaat 56: “And I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship Me” In addition to the Quraanic affirmation of the communication with human beings, we have the evidence of wisdom. A wise human being does everything for a reason, A wise human being will never build a house and then leave this house without living in it or renting it. How can we accept for our Creator to do this?! An American atheist asked me about the concept of divinity in Islam and he asked me why God interferes in every everything, big or small, in Islam; controlling the universe or creatures, according to the faith of Muslims no female concieves and gives birth without His knowledge, it is He who causes the fly to fall in a plate of food. I told him see, is the true divinity for you ‘unconscious’? And does not hear, see, or respond to his creatures and look after them? The fly which appears to you to be so insignificant, that it does not matter if it falls in a plate of food or not, can change history with such an important fall! It could infect an army with cholera giving victory to the other side. Wasn't Alexander the Great killed by a mosquito! The most trivial premises can lead to the most serious consequences. We have evidence of ‘Fitrah’: God The Almighty built in our hearts the faith and belief in Him, and our desire to know Him and communicate with Him, to know more about our next life after death, about death itself, about our purpose of life. The human mind has the capability to ask these questions and search for answers. It is not fair that God The Almighty places this desire in man then leaves him suffering in this life without any help to find answers to his questions. We have moral evidence: The German philosopher Immanuel Kant says just as our thirst for water is proof that it exists, our yearning for justice is proof for us that a just God exists. God will never humiliate human beings. On The Day of Judgement heaven and hellfire represent the justice of the Creator. The world without laws would be a jungle, without compassion or morals. God’s commandments are mercy to mankind. When Doctor Abdel Wahhab Al Messiry was asked about the evidence of the communication between God and human beings, he mentioned a wise answer, he combined all the evidence that we mentioned in our class. He said that it does not make sense that God The Almighty gives human beings freedom of choice and then leaves them without judgement. Judgement follows responsibility, as long as they are responsible for their actions then it should be judged. The day of judgement is the completion of the system of our existence. Now after we gave proof about the existence of a Creator to the universe, and that this Creator had communication with human beings through messengers and revelations… which religion should we follow? The correct religion can be evaluated through three things: 1. The content of the message 2. The messenger himself 3. The concept of God in this religion 1. The content of the message: The message itself should introduce The Creator to human beings, it should clarify to the person the purpose of his life, it should have concepts that are within the framework of a person's mental awareness, it should provide rational proof of the validity of its concepts, it should have no contradiction between the religious implications of the message, it should not contradict the human moral nature law, it should not contradict the concepts of science, and it should not be separate from the reality of human life. In addition to these points, the meaning of the religious text should keep pace with development and must be suitable for every time and place. 2. The concept and the characteristics of the messenger: It should specify how the Creator communicates with the messenger, the message should show that prophets and messengers are responsible to introduce God and convey His message and not responsible to introduce themselves, the message should affirm that the prophets and messengers are the peak of limited human perfection as they represent the human role model and that is a much higher concept than the concept of people's heroes and legends. 3. The concept of God and its nature: True religion should contain ● The Creator’s deity, proving His existence categorically and His natural existence in the human soul. ● Deity is perfect and His wisdom and power transcend wisdom and power of humanity. When presenting the characteristics of God, there is now way to avoid using the words we use to talk about men such as anger, mercy, hearing. We don't have other materials formulate our perception of God, but in no way does this mean that God is like us. God said in Surah Shura 11: “there is nothing like unto Him and He is The Hearing, The Seeing” An American atheist asked me one day about the resemblance of God to human beings and if they created human beings in his image. I told him in Christainity they believe God created human beings in His image to prove that Jesus Christ was God. But in Islam when we say that God created us in His image, this means that he gave us some of his attributes. So while God The Almighty is the Most Merciful, The Most Gracious, He also gave us some of His generosity and some of His mercy to share with others here in this life. But this does not mean that God The Almighty is like us. For example when I say that my future is in the hands of God this is a metaphorical description, it does not mean that God has hands like mine, Glory be to Him, this means that God controls my life God in Hinduism, for example, is The One and Only, but He comes in the form of everything, God is everywhere for them physically, but in Islam God is everywhere with His knowledge, He knows everything.