CULTURE OF ISLAM

054 Ilm Knowing Allah

Imtiaz Muhsin 09-Dec-11

The main objective of these talks (and therefore the scripts of these talks), is to stimulate thinking. Sensible, rational and logical thinking. So, my message, think, think & think! Be sensible, be rational and be logical.

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Please Note
1. I have had the great privilege, (since Aug 2010), of presenting talks on the weekly Radio Program Culture of Islam [Every Friday 8 to 8.30 pm, Radio Sri Lanka - FM 97.4] 2. Since these are Radio Talks, I refer to, or address the audience as listeners 3. I am well aware that the audience to these talks would consist of people belonging to a variety of faiths. So as to make people of all faiths feel included, I very often use words and names that are common to all religions. 4. For these reasons, I use the name GOD, as well as Abraham, Moses, Jesus etc as well as the names Allah, Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam), Moosa (Alaihis Salaam), Easa (Alaihis Salaam) etc 5. Muslims by habit usually say Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam, when the name of Prophet Muhammad is mentioned, and Alaihis Salaam' when the name of a Prophet is mentioned. However, in these series of talks I have reduced the use of these prayers & sayings to the bare minimum. 6. Muslims, also by habit, use a number of Arabic prayers or sayings, such as Alhamdulillah, Insha Allah and so on. Again, I have reduced the use of these prayers or sayings to the bare minimum. 7. Sometimes I have to write Arabic words in the English script. I have devised my own way of writing Arabic in English, as follows;

th TH

s Ss SW

DHL DHZ

H h

Gh GH

Information on these talks along with all download links can be found on my on my Blog (http://imtiazm.wordpress.com/) The dates or the schedules of these talks can be viewed on the Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/ImtiazMuhsin786) The Scripts of these talks can be downloaded from www.ScribD.com (www.ScribD.com Author Imtiaz Muhsin) The audio files of these talks can be downloaded from YouTube (YouTube Channel Imtiaz Muhsin) The YouTube Link to this talk is at

All Praise and Thanks is due to Allah and Allah alone Alhamdulillah! P.S The picture on the cover is that of the Wellawatte Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka

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54 Ilm Knowing Allah

Dear Friends, Assalamu Alaikum, I greet all you listeners with Assalamu Alaikum which, I am sure all of you would recognize as the greeting of a Muslim and means Peace be upon you! This program, as the title suggests, discusses the many aspects of the Culture of Islam. The most centric theme of this Culture is the belief, or the better word would be the conviction that there is just one God, whom we Muslims call Allah I prefer to refer to him as Allah Taaalah, or Allah Most Exalted. Together with this conviction that there is just one God, Muslims are required to persistently strive to instill the conviction that everything in this Universe, all its observed as well as unknown dimensions, including the dimensions of space and time, completely belongs to Allah Taaalah and everything both the holistic, the intricate and the infinitesimal are all in His absolute and supreme control. That description was a bit of a mouthful but to put it into simpler terms everything, simply everything, belongs to Allah Taaalah and He is in complete control of everything. The second Aayath in Surah Faathiha describes this in even fewer words, very rich in meaning;

It is most informative to note that this Aayath the second in the Holy Quran, is couched between 2 other Aayaths viz. the 1st and the 3rd Aayaths - and what do these two Aayaths convey they extol two out of the many attributes of Allah Taaalah and those are the attributes of Rahmaan and Raheem. Both words are derived from the root word Rahima or Mercy; they both convey the meanings of Mercy, Beneficence and Kindness. The word Rahmaan conveys the meaning of the attribute The Beneficent and Raheem the attribute of Mercy. The two Aayaths are;

and

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The 3 Aayaths together would read as;

Today my talk is on the Topic Knowing Allah and as the title indicates, to know we need knowledge. The Arabic word for knowledge is Ilm; however Ilm does not mean any knowledge. It is a word that means enlightened knowledge, enlightening knowledge or truthful knowledge. The word opposite to Ilm would be Jaahil or ignorance. Now to all of us the word ignorance means not knowing or a lack of proper understanding. However, in Arabic the word Jaahil does not just indicate the lack of knowledge, or incomplete knowledge or what we sometimes refer to as half baked knowledge - but it also strongly indicates that knowledge or those branches of knowledge that clouds our vision and even includes those attitudes that leads us away from the truth or away from being enlightened. My talk today is however an attempt to demonstrate that there is considerable knowledge present in this World and to reason out that this knowledge could only have been given or we could even use the word taught by God, Allah Taaalah. I would even like to say that one of the main objectives of my talk is to reason out that this knowledge that is in this World, if viewed properly would lead us to the path of Ilm or in other words it is up to us to process this knowledge and thereby derive Ilm or enlightenment. Now that is quite a task, I have to be a little innovative. So the ploy I have chosen is to present the World to you in a new perspective. Lets say with new eyes. Let us just imagine that an alien being has come into our Earth and is observing the activities on Earth as well as in our surrounding Solar System. Let us imagine that this alien is invisible, intelligent and very perceptive. Now this alien would observe many things or many processes. So let us take a few of them, one by one. Let us begin with his observations of the Human Being.

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1. The Human Being. Now, it would become obvious to this alien, that the human being has a vast amount of knowledge. The manner in which humans communicate with each other, how they go about with set purposes and agendas, the manner in which they have built their houses, the roads, the manner in which they have discovered new technologies and making use of this knowledge to make life easier and improve lifestyles would be obvious to this observer. The alien would realize that this knowledge that the human beings are displaying is organized, and is shared amongst the whole human race and is also handed down from generation to generation and each generation improves on this knowledge and hands it over to the next generation. He would also realize that some branches of knowledge are eco specific for example people living in urban areas share a particular segment of knowledge that we could say are Urban specific, similarly for those living in Rural areas, in Jungles, in Deserts, in the Arctic and Antarctic Zones, in Coastal areas and so on. The Polar Bear and Penguin live only in the Arctic or the Antarctic Eco system, the Tiger and Lion live in the Jungle Eco systems, the Camel in the Desert Ecosystem and so on, whilst the Human Being has demonstrated his ability to inhabit almost all Ecosystems on this Earth, and has developed knowledge to invade even the far and deep reaches of the sea. Human Beings possess the skills and the ability to learn to adapt to any environment on Earth you could say they have been blessed with the learning skills or even use the term learning tools to imbibe knowledge from the environment. Now let us go to the second set of processes that this alien would observe this time also we choose the Human Being, but now we are observing the physiological functions or processes within the Human Being. 2. The Insides of the Human Being In the same manner in which the alien realized that Human Beings possess knowledge, and he deduced this by watching the activities of the Human Beings, if I may repeat the phrase I used earlier in describing the aliens observations on the activities of the Human Beings, the manner in which the humans communicate with each other, how they go about with set purposes and agendas well, it would surprise all of us to know that this would be the same observation he would make about the inner workings or the Physiology of the Human Being. What do we mean by Physiology this is the definition in Wikipedia Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system Wikipedia elaborates on this definition by providing for us a definition of Human Physiology, which is; Human physiology is the science of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of humans in good health, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed. The principal level of focus of physiology is at the level of organs and systems within systems

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Within the Human Body there are a number of organs and systems. The organs in the body can be described separately for example, the Heart, the Lungs, the Kidneys, the Brain, the Liver and so on. The workings of these systems can be described in isolation for example the digestive system, the respiratory system, the defense system, the nervous System, the reproductive system and so on. Though the organs and the systems can be described in isolation, it is actually amazing to find that all the organs and all the systems are well coordinated and work in tandem you could easily say work in orchestration, well synchronized well adapted. It could even be compared to a well rehearsed orchestra playing some very complex Musical composition, every instrument provides a different sound a different texture, each musical instrument following a different script, often to different beats or rhythms, but then, all together this orchestra provides beautiful well synchronized music. But then the workings of our body are so complex that comparing it with an orchestra would actually be belittling the physiology of the body the physiology of the body is simply amazing. The alien would realize that every organ is communicating with each other and responding and amazingly in this set up the whole body too is making a multiplicity of decisions at any given moment there are quite a few options for each organ and the whole body at any given time, but the organ and the body always seem to work in tandem, always taking the best and the most appropriate action. The Heart has a number of roles to play and apparently the Heart possesses the knowledge of its purpose, its structure, its function and all the intricate processes and responses within it and amongst the other organs that it communicates with apparently seamlessly this is amazing. Similarly for every other organ in the body it is obvious that each organ possesses or is imbibed with a great depth of knowledge. Some years ago there were these interesting series of articles in the Readers Digest titled I am Joes Heart, I am Joes Liver, I am Joes Kidney, I am Joes Eye, I am Joes Foot and so on. Anyone reading these articles would wonder, does not each of these organs posses amazing knowledge? How or where did this knowledge come from? Where is this knowledge stored and how is this knowledge accessed, selected, retrieved and acted upon? Big big questions, right? Now just for curiositys sake or to understand the depth of knowledge that is stored in our body or the depth of knowledge shared by the organs in our body, let us realize that there are many organs in our body and each organ performs a number of functions. For example the Liver performs its functions; the Heart performs its functions, and so on. Now each cell in that organ helps to perform that function. Every cell in the Heart has a specific structure and has a role to play in assisting the Heart to perform all its functions.

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Similarly for the Liver, Kidneys, Brain, and so on. So how many different processes are activated in our body at any given moment. We could get a grasp of the magnitude by trying to find out the number of cells in our body each participating in a myriad of processes. This is not a definite number that people can give, but estimates show that we have between 10 Trillion to 100 Trillion cells in our body. Do you know what a Trillion is? Looking at the multiples of ten, we have ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, One Million, ten million, hundred million, a Billion (i.e. a thousand Millions 9 zeros), Ten Billion, Hundred Billion and then a Trillion (a thousand Billions 12 zeros) But then the number of cells in our bodies is estimated to be between 10 Trillion to 100 Trillion Amazing isnt it? Each cell possesses the knowledge to perform its specific functions, synchronizing with the other cells within its specific tissue (part of an organ), its specific organ as well as the physiology of the whole body. When someone decides to sleep, the whole body goes in to Sleep mode. If someone decides to get aggressive, the whole body gets in to controlled aggressive mode. We even have what we perceive as uncontrolled aggression but do not be fooled, the whole body is precisely modulating every aspect of even this aggression. So, this alien, would observe that our bodies possess an amazing amount of well organized knowledge. A very important observation that this alien would make is that, there are two storehouses of knowledge in a human being. One is demonstrated by the outward or the manner in which the human being reacts to outside stimulation we could even call it behavioral patterns there are many factors that contribute to this. The second would be what is demonstrated by the insides of the human being the organs, the systems or the physiology. Now the most salient point or observation would be that these two storehouses of knowledge though present in one individual, they are compartmentalized. The Human being is apparently in charge of his outward behavior or the outward knowledge, but is completely unaware of his inward knowledge or his physiology. He has no control over it whatsoever. In our words we could say the physiology of Man is programmed whilst the outward behavior of Man is learned so we have 2 sets of knowledge the programmed knowledge and the learned, or the learnt knowledge. Now the question - who provided this knowledge, where is it stored and how is it retrieved and acted upon, how was this knowledge given, how is this knowledge modulated, how is this knowledge protected from getting corrupted and so on. As I said earlier, we possess the tools to think, in fact we are blessed with them surely we can apply ourselves to these puzzles that promise enlightenment, and seek out the answers.

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This is Ilm! Now let us proceed to the third set of processes that this imagined alien would observe. This time it is the world of the Animals. 3. The Animals Now when this alien observes the Animals he would obviously realize that Animals posses amazing knowledge, and he would also find that this knowledge would be species specific. For example the knowledge displayed by a Zebra would be very different to that displayed by, say, the Polar Bear. So we find that knowledge displayed by animals is species specific, as well as environment or eco specific. Unfortunately we have become so desensitized to the displays of knowledge by animals. We only become aware of it when this is pointed out to us in this perspective, and then we realize how elusive this fact has been, even though it has been staring us in the face right throughout our lives! We could cite any animal; however as an example lets take the case of a simple bird. Let us again view it as if an alien was doing the observing. The alien would observe that Birds are hatched from Eggs. The chick is unable to fend for itself and has to be fed by the parent birds sometimes the mother bird only and in some instances both the mother and the father birds. Anyway, the Chick lives in a small nest on top of a tree it can only eat what is sent down its throat by the parent bird. Gradually as the bird gets bigger it has to learn to fly. Now the alien would report that the bird already knows to fly we call it programming we say the bird is programmed to fly. By whom, how? These are big questions. The eager chick has no place to practice it has to just jump out of the nest, on top of a high tree and within 2 or 3 seconds it should get its act right, or else it falls on the ground and then trying to take off from the ground is more difficult. So the alien would tell us that the bird does not learn to fly as such, but it puts into practice or executes the lessons that are already programmed into it how, when, where and by whom are unanswered questions. This bird that now flies has never seen its surroundings from anywhere else but from its nest, on top of the tree. But now it flies around, sometimes many miles in search of food and always finds its way back to the nest how? No maps, no navigation equipment that we can see, and no familiarization trips how does this simple bird manage it? This is knowledge that the bird possesses.

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The Bird naturally knows how to search for its food, even hunt for it and we are amazed at its methods. The bird recognizes what constitutes its food, for example worms, insects etc and can immediately differentiate items that are not food or even harmful to it for example, poisonous worms and insects. The Bird naturally recognizes the other birds and animals that are friendly and those that are a threat. Without ever having seen an Eagle before, the bird would fly away raising the alarm, as it were if it were to ever detect an Eagle in flight where did this bird get this knowledge? To recognize, to sort, to act? Then the alien would observe the Bird in mating season how does the bird recognize this season. The Bird goes through a courting ritual again who taught it this ritual, then the bird mates, again the question who taught it to mate, and so on. The amazing phenomenon in some birds is what we call its migrations. The bird recognizes the timing or the season to migrate; the journey is sometimes over 1000 to 6000 miles. The bird possesses the knowledge of navigation, flying in formation with the flock, recognizing the migratory lands, recognizing the new hunting grounds in these new lands, building its nest, laying its eggs, patiently incubating the eggs for the required number of days, looking after its young, feeding them protecting them and seeing them off to a flying start all these routines need an enormous amount of knowledge each bird each animal, occupying a niche in the different eco systems and everything apparently functioning seamlessly it becomes obvious that not only do these animals possess an amazing amount of knowledge but all this knowledge is directed at making the animal play a pre-designated or a selected role in the grand design of the functioning of the World itself. It becomes obvious that someone is providing this knowledge, is precisely modulating this knowledge and orchestrating an enormous show, a gigantic project, every aspect of it, every intricate detail of it is imbibed with specific knowledge that is complete in its scope no half learning, no quarter learning, no part learning. So the question is, who is that somebody? Another area that the alien would observe and be convinced of the presence of deep organized knowledge is in the area of animal social behavior. This is altogether another topic amongst Bees, amongst Ants, amongst a Pride of Lions, a herd of Buffaloes, even in shoals of Fish all of them show complex as well as intricate behavioral patterns each member adding to the whole. Would not this alien tell us that there is social knowledge, the knowledge is shared and the duties or functions are delegated to each member of that animal society? Each animal knows its role within its social set up. Amazing isnt it? As an example of the Animal Kingdom we looked at the aliens view of the Bird, but then surely when the alien observes the animal kingdom as a whole, he has to realize that each species of plants and animals all play specific roles and to play this great role, an enormous amount of knowledge is necessary let us for example take the case of what we could call the Food Chains this is one of the areas where all Animals and Plants play their roles in the grander design, the holistic picture - amazing stuff! One of the most vital role of plants is to trap energy from the Sun, to breathe in Carbon dioxide from the air and to suck in water and minerals through its roots.

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And then there is this astonishing process that takes place in the plant through an amazing mix of these three ingredients the energy from the sun, the Carbon that is cleverly detached from the Carbon di Oxide along with the water and minerals sucked in by the roots, the plant grows itself yes grows itself, as well as produces energy rich and nutrient rich leaves and fruits to be consumed by animals. Wow, amazing isnt it? Processes intertwined within and with other processes, so many complex circuitries does this not indisputably demonstrate that plants posses well organized knowledge, intricate knowledge, precise knowledge - all of which is specific to its tasks. And now coming back to these Food Chains Plants provide all the food for all the Animals both directly and indirectly. The direct consumers of the food produced by the plant would be the insects, the worms as well as the herbivores of the animal Kingdom the animals that eat leaves and vegetation etc etc. These in turn are consumed by insectivores and carnivores, which in turn are consumed by larger insectivores and larger carnivores till finally we see the pure carnivores who occupy the pinnacle of the food chain or the food pyramid. That is what we see, but we do not realize that those animals at the top of the food chain eventually become the food of those organisms that we call the decomposers - the worms, insects and bacteria that live in the earth, breaking down the nutrients in to the top soil, which in turn provides the nutrients to the plants - so it is not a Food chain, but a Food or an energy and nutrient cycle. Every plant and every animal, or we could say every species of plants and every species of animal has a specific role to play in the grander design of things, the grander orchestration of the World, as we see it. Is this not what the alien would observe? But the question we should ask is, that this process of the food chain or the food cycle demonstrates a huge knowledge system at work where is the knowledge, who creates it, who teaches it, how is it attained, who modulates it, who orchestrates it, who sustains it whose plan is it? 4. The relationship between Man and Animals Now, let us discuss how the alien would have viewed the relationship between the Animals and Man. 1. He would realize that all animals and plants require a specific environment that is, it is adapted only for a specific location and it has knowledge that can be utilized only in that environment . However where Man is concerned, he is capable of adapting to almost every environment on land on Earth. 2. The structure of Plants and animals give it limited scope for example, a. Plants cannot move, b. Fish can only move its fins and can only use its mouth and that too only for feeding. c. Four legged Animals use their legs for walking and their Mouths for eating there are only limited or limited specific tasks that they can perform with their appendages. d. Reptiles and most amphibians can only slither along and can only use their mouths.

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Whilst Man, can stand upright, he can use his two hands for an innumerable innovative uses. The structure of the hand is simply amazing. It is through these hands that he can accomplish a number of tasks or even design tools to perform these tasks for him or for those tasks which he is unable to perform. It is an accepted fact that the unique functioning of the Fore finger and the Thumb is in itself the reason for civilization because man can use tools, use a pen in a most simple manner which no other animal can do. 3. Man is the only animal that can subjugate other animals, even domesticate those that are useful to him. 4. Man can enhance his environment to suit him thus the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution and now the IT revolution. However, the alien would notice something very unusual in man as I mentioned earlier Man has 2 categories of Knowledge the outward ad the insides. The insides or the Physiological knowledge is what we would call programmed whilst the outward knowledge has to be learned. Man is apparently born without any knowledge. This fact is amazing, you could spend hours, days and months just thinking on what arises from this simple observation maybe we can discuss those points on some other occasion! Anyway, Animals and Plants would go through the same lifetime processes even if they were isolated from their parents or isolated from their species even for generations. The best example is birds kept in captivity, without access to other birds except for mating purposes even if this was done for generations, the birds released would know how to build a nest, how to migrate, how to incubate their eggs etc etc Man needs tutoring in every aspect of his life. This is why man adapts to all environments, to all livelihoods, to all languages, to all cultures. So, the alien would observe that Man is superior to all animals and Plants, but the knowledge he has he learns from his environment and he also learns to build on this knowledge. This process of learning and then building on this knowledge is something human beings hold as very very dear. How does a Human learn? Through his senses he watches, listens, discusses, processes this information through his mind and then stores these experiences for future retrieval and comparison. Right through life he is comparing the different experiences and reaching conclusions the quality of the conclusions themselves keep maturing with time and experience. Human beings are always striving to improve their living conditions and the lessons they learn are very valuable. It is so valuable that every year a committee sits to discuss what humans have learnt and they present an Annual Nobel Prize to the person who in their opinion has used his knowledge to advance knowledge in a variety of fields. That is how important knowledge is.

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So, in my talk I am describing how an alien would view the world and how he would view the world as a place full of knowledge, and the most knowledgeable amongst everything in this World, is the Human being he does not possess ONLY programmed knowledge, but he is capable of increasing his knowledge bank through the combined use of his senses and his brain. Does it not become obvious that the Power that provided this knowledge to everything in this World would have kept an unusual a testing role for Man? What would be that role or objective it is for man to do his own outward learning to use his senses and the amazing processing facilities he is blessed with which we call the brain or intelligence and to accumulate good knowledge, or enlightening knowledge or the correct word would be Ilm Now this leads me to a intriguing question is what we are all learning, in our homes, in our schools, in our professions or vocations of life really knowledge is it enlightening us or is it clouding our vision? How could we find out? Are we pursing ignorance in the belief that it is enlightening or are we actually following the ways of enlightenment? I think the best way to find the answers is to try to answer these 2 simple questions. The first question is; 1. Where or who is the ultimate source of all this knowledge or in other words, who provides us with this knowledge? The second question is; 2. What could we consider to be the most valuable or enlightening knowledge that a man can seek or learn, or build on, in this World? To the second question there would be a variety of answers, a range of answers. Some would say in the field of Medicine, others would say in the field of History or Natural History, still others may say in the Field of Sociology and Political Science and so on. But then let us look at the knowledge or the avenues to knowledge of two of the greatest people we know. Firstly I would take the case of our Holy Prophet Muhammad (Sal) the choice is obviously because I am a Muslim. Secondly, since we are living in Sri Lanka and Buddhism is the religion of maybe over 60% Sri Lankans, I would like to look at the example of Lord Buddha. Muslims would claim that the epitome of all knowledge is demonstrated by Muhammad (Sal) and Buddhists likewise would claim that this is demonstrated by Lord Buddha. It is not surprising to find that both had many similarities. Lets start with Lord Buddha around 2500 years ago in Lumbini, a place in Nepal a Royal Prince named Siddhartha Gautama had been living in the lap of luxury. At about the age of 28 he was very worried about the misery he observed outside the Palace and he wanted to find out the way to get out of these miseries and what does he do, he leaves the Palace, living the life of an ascetic searching seeking all the time, for the enlightening truths of the World

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Obviously being a Prince who moves out of a Palace, he would have drawn a lot of attention of his people. And then at the age of maybe 38 39 he begins to tell people things, and what he tells them moves them. He tells them the truths of the World and of life people are amazed at his perception, at his wisdom at his articulation in a few attractively placed words he describes his lessons everyone accepts that this Prince Siddhartha Gautama has been enlightened and now we all reverently refer to him as the Lord Buddha. The lesson for me in this story is all of us know that there is misery in this world, all of us experience it, and all of us would say that the resources to solve peoples pressing problems, to ease the misery of people are all there in the Palace it is in the hands of those who rule. But then Prince Siddhartha Gautama thinks very differently he realizes that the solution to vanquishing this misery cannot be acquired or learnt by within the Palace he had to make the sacrifices, he had to move out, he had to live the life of an ascetic to acquire or to learn this knowledge. In many ways the story of the path to enlightenment of Prophet Muhammad is the same. Muhammad (Sal) belonged to the Noble Quraish Tribe the Trustees of the Baithullah in Mecca. His Father died before he was born and his Mother too passed away when Muhammad was only 6 years. He led a quiet life and is described as being a honest and trustworthy person. In his youth he joined a Trade Caravan to Syria and his merchandise was that of a Widow Lady Khadija. He returned with a good profit and people were impressed by his honesty and integrity. Lady Khadija sent a proposal to him, which was accepted and when they married he was 25 years old. Now all of us would expect that this union would result in a good business venture the Capital was there with Lady Khadija, the proven business acumen was with Muhammad (Sal) and Mecca was a seat of trade and the bazaar was administered by his family the Quraish Tribe. Surprisingly, we do not hear of any business ventures of this couple whilst on the other hand we hear that he spends his time on thinking, meditating and reflecting. After 15 years of Marriage and 3 young daughters we hear that he climbs a Mountain, Mt Hira, located a few miles outside Mecca in harsh desert environment and in rocky terrain the purpose to reflect or to meditate and whilst he is meditating he has an experience which we call Nubbuwath or Prophet hood we could also refer to it as enlightenment. Thereafter Prophet Muhammad (Sal) spoke words that moved anyone who heard them. The words were clearly describing the clear, absolute and ultimate truth of this World. Now that is Ilm So dear listeners, if we want to learn Ilm then there is a lot of thinking, meditating, reflecting for us to do. Are we accumulating and acting on knowledge as described by these enlightened personages or are we accumulating knowledge that is possessed or shared by those that desire the material world, and would resort to most unscrupulous ways of acquiring it? So let us tread the path of Ilm, the path of enlightenment,and the starting steps are so easy, just begin thinking, thinking clearly, think so that we can detect what is enlightening and what is clouding. In other words try to realize what Ilm is and what Jaahil means.

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So now returning to this program the Culture of Islam I began by explaining that the most centric theme of this Culture is the belief, or the better word would be the conviction that there is just one God Allah Taaalah And then I explained that another pillar of this Culture would be the striving for the conviction that everything is in the control of Allah Taaalah and that everything happens by the will of Allah Taaalah. I then read out the initial Aayaths from the first Chapter in the Holy Quran which gives a description of Allah Taaalah in a very few words. Now after having listened to this talk on Ilm I would like to repeat these 3 Aayaths again;

Now I would like ask you all a question, Did you not find that the perspectives we have of God or of Allah has been enhanced? If the answer is yes, then I would say Alhamdulillah, some part of the objectives of this talk has been achieved again Alhamdulillah! May Allah Taaalah guide us all and accept us all.

Imtiaz Muhsin Colombo Sri Lanka crescent786@hotmail.com

You Tube Channel - HaneefanMusliman

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Series 2 The Talks numbered 054 to 071 is under a series titled Knowing Allah Taaalah or Knowing GOD The details of the scripts of these 16 Episodes (Talks) are as follows;
Talk No Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Talk Number & Title 054 Ilm Knowing Allah 055 Rationality - The Foundation of Islam 056 Is Man Special? 057 Ar Rahmaan - The Beneficent 058 Nature or GOD? 059 Our Relationship with GOD! Sub Series: 060 Is this what we are created for? (Is this what we are created for? Part 1) Sub Series: 061 What do we see on Earth (Is this what we are created for? Part 2) Sub Series: 062 Who are WE? Where do we fit in? (Is this what we are created for? Part 3) Sub Series: 063 Our benefits on Earth (Is this what we are created for? Part 4) Sub Series: 066 What makes us 'Stand Out'? What makes us 'Special'? (Is this what we are created for? Part 5) Sub Series: 067 Who is in charge? (Is this what we are created for? Part 6) Sub Series: 068 What ALLAH Teaches Us, About Himself (Is this what we are created for? Part 7) Sub Series: 069 Our Special Faculties How they should be used, How they should not be used! (Is this what we are created for? Part 8) Sub Series: 070 The TWO Paths 071 Is this what we are created for? A review of Parts 1 to 8 from the Sub Series Is this what we are created for? Date Broadcast Dec 9th 2011 Dec 16h 2011 Dec 23th 2011 Dec 30th 2011 Jan 6th 2012 Jan 13th 2012 Jan 20th 2012 Jan 27th 2012 Feb 3rd 2012 Feb 10th 2012 Feb 17th 2012 Feb 24th 2012 Mar 2nd 2012 Details of Picture on Cover Wellawatte Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka Parasangaswewa Mosque (a remote village) in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka Mutwal Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka The Akbar Mosque in Slave Island, Colombo, Sri Lanka Mosque in Matara, from the Southern Province of Sri Lanka Beach Mosque at Kalmunaikudi in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka A Mosque in the Kurnegala District, Sri Lanka Maradana Jummah Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka Colpetty Jummah Mosque, in Colombo, Sri Lanka The Jummah Mosque at Natpidimunnai, in the Ampara District, Sri Lanka The Devatagaha Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka A Mosque in a rural village in the Ampara District, in Sri Lanka The Jummah Mosque in Oluvil a village in the Ampara District, Sri Lanka The Dhanakawewa Jummah Mosque in a remote village in the Anuradhapura District in Sri Lanka Mosque at Madhavakulam in the Puttlam District, Sri Lanka A Mosque by a river in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka

Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Episode 14

Mar 9th 2012 Mar 16th 2012 Mar 23rd 2012

Episode 15 Episode 16

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