What Is Worship? – Part 3

A’raf (7):180 “The most beautiful names belong to God. Invoke Him by them. And leave the company of those who do distortion in His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing.”

• The most beautiful names belong to God.
  • What does “name” mean here? The Qualities. Where are they? In the created things in the universe.
  • Husna means beautiful, it means PERFECT. It means no Names/Qualities that we observe are bad. Even poisonous snake, the poison is perfect, protects themselves. Cows/bees eat one thing, produces milk/honey. We observe wonderful mechanisms.
    • Fruit is perfect, but the rotting is also perfect
    • Question: what about imperfect things? Answer: Do you observe anything IMPERFECT in their creation in the world?”
  • Perfect manufacturing is happening (San’3a in Arabic)
  • Qur’an’s proposal/claim is that these mechanisms all belong to the Maker.
  • All deliberate actions before me necessitate Choice, Preference, and Conscious Will.
  • Something magical, inexplicable occurring in this world! Don’t have to be bias and say “divine.”
  • As a human being, will agree something definitely inexplicable and magical occurring in this world. Must be a deliberate Conscious Choice manipulating the things.
  • “99 names of God” on your wall Don’t sanctify a document on your wall. Leave the paper aside, go to the universe, and acknowledge not only “99” but Infinite observable perfect qualities in the created things. 99 of them are only the most prominent ones.
  • Whoever designed the universe, made it with this quality. The source of this quality is The Maker.
    • *Whoever GAVE EXISTENCE, made it with THIS QUALITY. Scripture says THIS QUALITY belongs to the Maker.
    • Whoever MADE this universe, the qualities observed in the universe are from HIM.
  • The most beautiful attributes that we find in THIS universe (not on wall or in text), are MADE, not “natural” (without recognizing Conscious Maker).
• Don’t be obstinate, rejecting human nature to wonder about The Agent of the world. Say comfortably, that The Agent of the world must be BEYOND this world, and must therefore be a Transcendental being.
• BE FREE! If you are not satisfied with your masjid/church/priest/, continue searching for a SATSIFACTORY ANSWER. Don’t block yourself. Be free.
• *Freedom is the 1^st thing humans must have.
  • Purpose of shari’ah – to protect human freedom
  • Establish your religion on basis of freedom, on your free choice.
  • “I’m atheist because my family is atheist” Does it make sense? Similarly, “I am Muslim because my family is Muslim” also does not make sense.
• Invoke Him by His names. Fad’uhoo beha.
  • “we are going to worship at mass on Sunday morning at 8am” by reciting verses from religious text Qur’an/Torah/Bible…
  • Qur’an says WAIT A SECOND, Worship me through The Most Beautiful Names.
  • Look at the eloquence of the Qur’an.
    • 1^st: Look at manifestations of the beautiful Names and acknowledge that they do NOT belong to beings themselves but to the One Who Gave existence to them.
    • 2^nd: If anyone wants to invoke, must invoke Him, meaning RELATE YOUR EXISTENCE TO HIM THROUGH these qualities that you observe.
      • Invocations include: I need this, Help me! I acknowledge your Awesomeness!
    • *Example: If want to write letter of appreciation to manufacturer of this machine, would you just say “THANK YOU”
      • You would say, I found these functions and those functions SO USEFUL, I really benefited from them! You made it very practical, efficient, multiple functions, ETC!
      • LIST ALL QUALITIES YOU SEE IN THE MACHINE! Instead of simply mentioning, “I appreciate it, thank you.” Make it MORE MEANINGFUL!
      • If you were invited to a delightful banquet, would you just say, “Thank you”? You would show gratitude and appreciation by acknowledging, “Thank you for the delicious food, the nice view, wonderful entertainment. It was perfect”
      • THAT is the CORE of worship! Acknowledging Him, His Presence, His Functioning in the objects.
  • You are MADE here, on purpose. Your Maker is not stupid, doesn’t do anything meaningless. If put you here and said acknowledge Him, then is giving you everything you need in order to fulfill that mission here
  • Ghayb – means Transcendental One that we cannot physically communicate with, but always thankful to Him.
    • Can I communicate with manufacture of my laptop every time I use it? No, but I am appreciating the usage of it and being grateful to the one who made it. Otherwise, it is THEFT, appropriating it TO ME. Being a man of TRUTH is priority!
• In absentia, I pray for maker of this machine when I use it and am ultimately thankful to the One who made this man, employing him in my service through this machine.
• Verse from the Qur’an (36: 71): “Do they not see that We have created for them among the things which Our hands fashioned…?” With my own hands, I made it for you.“ Deliberately for YOU only.
• Speak to God through this thing that He made for you. NOT in a vacuum.

Question: As a believer, how can I prove to my Marxist colleagues that these things in universe evolve? –Answer: this is an oxymoron. Cannot be a believer if don’t have proof.

• • Believer – have already been convinced about truth of something so have convincing evidence in your hands that led you to your conclusion.
  • Find the inconsistency in your own claims.
  • Don’t speak as a claimed “believer.” Rather, speak as a human being. Can these things exist by themselves? Marxism is out of fashion and people now claim atheism more commonly.
  • If you ascribe the origin of EXISTENCE, to another thing that Exists, logically inconsistent. Can’t define The Source of existence through something else that exists – which was also in need of being given existence. If something exists, it is being BROUGHT INTO EXISTENCE.
  • Can you buy into the notion of self-existing things? Inconsistent with your humanity, conscience, and logic because I have to explain the existence in order to understand the Essence of my existence and the Essence of this universe.
  • If you say “object A is moving” 2 things need to be explained: 1)source of existence of object, and 2)source of existence of “moving” ex/ “a mosquito is flying” have to explain the existence of the mosquito, the existence of all qualities that you find in mosquito, and explain the existence of the movement of “flying”, which are all phenomena that must be explained, **must look for THE SOURCE OF ALL PHENOMENA that we observe!
  • Atheists and “believers” both take existence for granted. Either “it exists just because” or “God created it because God created everything”

Question: Buddhist theology focuses on dependent creation: There is interdependentness amongst the things but not bringing the things to a Single Source. Answer: Can interdependentness be source of existence?

– does it make sense to say that all parts and systems of this computer, functioning by itself, DOES NOT NECESSSITATE an Engineer behind every particle. Logic says NO. Need a Causal, Necessarily Existent One behind every thing that exists.

• If someone is clever enough, in order NOT to fall into contradiction, should say “the universe does not exist.”
• “I have seen a quality here, needs source of existence. Whatever is The Source/Cause, cannot be of the NATURE of the thing itself”
  • leaves me that The Source of this universe is NOT of nature of this universe = GHAYB. *
  • Belief means: Conclusion about your observation of this world.
  • That’s why Qur’an says: HUWA: IT because I cannot describe “IT” in ANY other way.
  • We are not given the quality to imagine Non-existence! What a perfect existence. *It means I can only think of things in terms of existence. Can only be honest with myself that I exist, My Creator exists. I am wisely made, so my Maker must be Wise. Which kind of wisdom? IDK. Any speculation? No.
• Ism: Asmaa: whatever perfection you observe. “We know God by His Qualities” We should not speculate on God. You can simply speak on what you observe. ____ belongs to ITS MAKER.
  • It doesn’t belong to itself LA ILAHA. It belongs to whoever made it ILLA ALLAH.

A’raf (7):180 “The most beautiful names belong to God. Invoke Him by them. And leave the company of those who do distortion in His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing.”

• Distortion – attribute the qualities of the things to themselves.