We take Islam from its true sources: the Quran and the Sunnah. The Quran is the holy book, and the Sunnah includes the authentic sayings of the Prophet (Hadith) and his noble biography (Seerah). Anyone who contradicts what is found in the Quran and Sunnah or introduces something not established by the Prophet ﷺ and his companions falls into innovation (Bid’ah). The Prophet ﷺ said: "I have left with you that which, if you hold on to it, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah." He also said: "Every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the Fire." This is the straight path, and whoever adheres to it will be rightly guided, while those who deviate from it fall into misguidance.
Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (PBUH) is the one who proclaimed himself as a Prophet and brought forth a religion called Islam. And this Islam is the only monotheistic religion on the face of the earth! No other religion upholds the pure monotheism that all the Prophets called for-the monotheism of al-fitrah (the natural human disposition)-except for Islam! All other religions have been influenced by some form of polytheism, whether small or large! No religion has maintained true monotheism and total submission to Allah alone, except this one! Now, this Prophet (PBUH) also brought a book called the Qur'ān. This book contains knowledge, laws, guidance, self-purification, stories of the ancients, parables, exhortations, commands, and prohibitions-all conveyed in a literary style that the Arabs had never encountered before! He challenged them to produce something like it, but they failed! The level of rhetorical beauty in the Qur'ān is nothing short of miraculous! Furthermore, this Prophet was supported by Allah, and his mission was victorious. His message reached lands and empires the Arabs could never have dreamed of conquering. The Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) conquered Persia, the Levant, Iraq, and the Byzantine Roman Empire. What does this indicate? Not only that, but this Prophet (PBUH) did not die until he had completed the Shariah (Islamic law)! He passed away just days after the revelation of the verse from Allah: "Today I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion." (Qur'ān 5:3) The religion was completed, perfected, and shortly after, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed away, having fulfilled his mission. Now, here is the point: The coming of this Prophet, Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (PBUH), was prophesied thousands of years before his birth! For example, in the Book of Daniel 7, it mentions that there would be four great kingdoms: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And at the time of the fourth kingdom, the nation of the saints of the Most High would emerge! This nation would defeat the four kingdoms and restore monotheism to Jerusalem. This was mentioned long before Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came! Daniel (PBUH) also prophesied that the emergence of this nation would take place 350 years after Constantine the Great, who was also prophesied in the same book! Constantine appeared around 300 AD, and adding 350 years brings us to approximately 650 AD, which is the time when the monotheistic Muslim forces entered Jerusalem under the caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him). This was the first time since the time of Daniel (PBUH) that Jerusalem was ruled by a monotheistic nation! This prophecy is remarkable! 'Abd al-'Aḥad Dāwūd, a former priest of Urmia, said about this prophecy: "The most wonderful, and perhaps the most manifest prophecy about the divine mission of the greatest man and the Messenger of God (PBUH)!" He later embraced Islam after recognizing the truth of this prophecy. The prophecy also foretold that this nation would conquer Constantine’s land, Constantinople itself! What more could one ask for?! There are countless prophecies like this! In fact, there is a text in their scriptures stating that the end-time Prophet would appear 1750 years after the death of Moses (PBUH), which aligns exactly with the time of the mission of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This is why the Jews of Muhammad's time used to say: "The time of the last Prophet has come, and he will soon appear." Additionally, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was known for his honesty, and this is crucial! Anyone who claims to be a Prophet must either be the most honest person in the world or the most dishonest. A Prophet claiming divine revelations would have to be constantly truthful or a compulsive liar, spreading lies about receiving divine commands every moment. But Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was known for his impeccable truthfulness. If you want to accuse him of lying, you need to offer a complete theory that explains all the evidence of his prophethood: the prophecies, the miracles, the divine support, and the knowledge in the Qur'ān. If he wasn't a Prophet, how did all this happen? How did prophecies foretell his coming thousands of years before his birth? How could miracles happen at the hands of a liar? Why did the Companions believe in him so deeply that they were willing to sacrifice their lives for him? This doesn’t make sense unless he was truly a Prophet. Now, let’s consider the possibility that he was a sorcerer. This is an incomplete theory as well. It fails to account for the prophecies, the infallibility of the Qur'ān, and the call to pure monotheism. The polytheists accused him of sorcery simply because they couldn’t understand where he was getting his knowledge from. They were unable to trace its source, so they resorted to accusing him of magic. But this accusation only proves their inability to comprehend the truth. The bottom line is: Think for yourself! If Muhammad (PBUH) was not a Prophet, then how did all this happen? His prophecies, miracles, divine support, and the completion of his mission-it is a puzzle that cannot be solved by any theory other than the one that acknowledges him as the true Prophet of God. There is no other explanation that fits all the facts.
Last episode “I fear for my life talking about Islam. Also I don’t know enough Islam” next episode proceeds to give opinions about Islam. And seriously people always giving us this bad violent name. Muslims welcome critical questions and challenging if it is respectful cause educated muslims have all the answers and proof. If it’s internet trolls which made u feel this fright, that is all rubbish
Because his engaged with some Muslim scholars before and they were hostile, verbally abusive like the religion teaches them to be to non believers @@BanAaron
My god, the amount of new content on the internet featuring Alex is insane! I would say keep it up, but please don't burn yourself out man! Thank you for all of the immensely thought provoking conversations
I agree with this. The guy is a genius and I feel like I wish Hitch had done more but by the same token he’s so loved and revered because his entire body work is a greatest hits.
Criticism isn’t a practice they’re accustomed to in Islam. When I was a Muslim, the only thing repeatedly drilled into my mind was that it was a perfect religion, one of love and peace.. i never heard any critisicm, and as soon as i did, it was clear there was absolutely nothing divine about it .. I think the conversation would either not last very long or turn into an unbearable display of fallacies and a complete inability to respond to any questions. This is because Sunni texts (Quran + hadiths) are, how can I put it, particularily horrible.
I’m sorry to hear of your experience. I am a Sunni Muslim, with degrees in Philosophy and Political Theory, and I’m constantly experiencing critical reflections on our faith, be they in academic settings or in local mosques. Especially now in the online da’wah age, Muslims are constantly engaged in debating their worldview. Yet as mentioned, I’m not here to belittle your experience. I’m sure there are Muslims who aren’t very charitable, but you’ll run across that in any community; generalisations aren’t helpful to overcome that. As for our primary sources being ‘horrible’, safe to say I disagree, but I’d be happy for Alex to challenge one of our representatives on the reliability of the Qur’an+Ahadith.
@dri-fit9712 Good to know there's you people like you who value skepticism, but do you really think mainstream muslim thinkers like muhammad hijab would be willing to sit down and have an honest and civilized discussion like this?
@@mohammedhanif6780 don't think i am. In short, belief isn't knowledge. While mainstream religion is basically just beliefs, if i understand correctly mysticism deals with actual experience/knowledge of God/reality. Not saying i have this knowledge or anything. I'm agnostic tending towards believer
I am an esteemed psychologist from Yemen, and I once went into the great pyramid of Giza and found a jug of urine that belonged to Pharaoh Ramesses ii, I drank 50ml of it and had strange dreams for a whole week:- 1- This might sound a bit odd and random, but I have actually dreamt of Zeus mating with a palm tree and begetting an ant that is capable of crawling on the edge of the Higgs Boson! 2- I also dreamt of my mitochondria protesting to break free from my organelles, claiming that nature has enslaved them! 3- On another night of a full moon, I dreamt of Professor Noam Chomsky eating books and regurgitating the field of Modern Linguistics! 4- The funniest dream I ever had, was when I had a vision of a Neanderthal swallowing a whole apple, and it played ping-pong with his heart while passing down his esophagus! 5- This is by no means a joke, but the most disgusting dream I ever had, was of a female's menstruation blood turning into jelly and being marketed by an Oompa Loompa as Halloween treats! 6- I also had a nightmare of riding on a mare at night, with the Pharaoh's personal witch, she was pregnant with a fetus that was eating her placenta! Do you think my dreams have any philosophical implications at all? I'm just a little concerned that I'm having a neurological malfunction! Given that I've heard my neurons conspiring to abandon the dwelling of my skull, things don't seem to be heading in the right direction, ever since!
Why are you a philosophy student? Why do you need to sturdy philosophy? What can you achieve from it? By asking what will you achieve from it I do not mean to ask about the values you will learn but I ment what will you achieve in the more logical way like what job can you have if you sturdy that.
I really like Philip and his videos, but I believe that this conversation is an example of how the academic approach can get in the way or understanding rather than facilitating it in some cases. I see that Philip is very conscious of nuances and counter-examples to common understanding. This is great to go into with people already familiar with the subject at hand, but for introducing a subject to a new audience, I believe it causes the plot to be lost a little bit. I think the introduction of mysticism in Islam and Sufism would be much better served by assuming a core narrative and representing it, sacrificing the nuances in favor of a big picture view. Not to lose the forest for the trees so to speak. Specifically in the case of Sufism, I was hoping that a taste of the tradition would be transmitted to the viewer rather than an overview of the academic view. Perhaps another discussion is in order with a Sufi practitioner to cover the topic from an experiential angle which I believe Alex is more and more interested in. I think it would be amazing to interview someone who makes sense of the world through a Sufi perspective and question them on theology, critiques of Islam, view of other religions, etc.
Thanks Alex for bringing a guest to talk about Islam. It would be naturally much better to invite a traditional Muslim scholar to talk about the religion of Islam. Tim Winter is the best candidate from England. I would recommend people like Omar Suleyman, Ali Ataie, Tom Facchini. Of course you know Muhammad Hijab as well.
why would it "be naturally much better to invite a traditional muslim scholar". This is about sufism and filip seems a very informed and balanced thinker on this subject.
Sufism does exist in Shi'a but also its important to note that Shi'a is generally more spiritual and mystical in itself and many of the general Shi'a practices are Sufi in nature. Even the Salah prayer being the centre of spiritual experience. The 12 Imâms guided the Muslims in spiritual experience.
Disagree. Shiism is a Fiqh, not a spiritual science. Read the works of Khomeini and Mullah Sadra. They affirmed that Irfan is the spiritual science equivalent in Shiism.
@wrs1627 I never said it is called Tasawuf. I mean mysticism. And if you disagree that Imamiyya Shi'ism is not more mystical than Sunnis then you haven't experienced Shi'ism. In regards to Fiqh, if you understand the concept, Jafari is the Fiqh.
would be great to see Alex do more stuff on Islam, engaging with Islamic polemics especially these days where it's so prevalent (at least where I'm from) would be interesting to watch! anyways, great vid
He'd already debated their king, muhammad hijab and it was abysmal. Except for javad, there are few high caliber english speaking muslim polemacists, they are very stupid, and Javvad is often accused of being a secret atheist. So there's that.
@@SubtitledArabicSongs Hijab a king? He’s just another loud dawah bro like any other Muslim TH-camr from UK. Javed T Hashmi, Shabir Aly, Mufti Abu Layth, Mustafa Akyol, Myriam Francois are better choices.
Yes! More scholars who are knowledgeable in Non-Abrahamic/Eastern philosophies please. There is an absolute lack of those perspectives in these discussions. A discussion of Advaita Vedanta or other Vedantic thoughts perhaps? Or discussions about the development of Buddhism, Jainism and other heterodox sects. Let'sTalkReligion has done a great job in exploring these areas. Since you already have him on the channel, why not utilize him properly!
Hi Alex. Just to pitch in my two pennies, Tasawwuf, or Sufism, is traditionally seen as a normative and necessary part of Islam, representing the aspect of Ihsaan in the Islamic way of life. It pertains obviously to our spiritual relationship with God and the world, and the development of human character. This concept has obviously been skewed in some modern muslims' minds due to the advent of the Salafist reformist group stemming from Saudi Arabia. Anyway, lovely to see you engaging Islamic concepts and persons beyond the jarring sensationalist and pop culture Islam that typically makes a splash on youtube.
As a Muslim I can validate and appreciate this conversation so much. This guest really knows his stuff and this summarization was very helpful to process and validate a lot of loose bits of information I’ve heard all around into a cohesive concise narrative. Very important conversation.
I am impressed by the depth and the accuracy of knowledge....starting the video,i didn't have much expectation as not many people go into that much depth....really really appreciate it
I've never found out about Sufism until now, but after watching this video, I became certain I'm a sufi. It came natural to me. I've always preferred praising The Almighty's greatness through unyielding my curiosity beyond human scriptures, like my field in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Sufism to me is embodying the attributes of the truth so I become one with it, not having an opinion, but rather being very present with my consciousness and read through the signs and lessons to become more righteous. Thank you Alex for this video!
@@RusIanRoy Sufi and Muslim is inseparable. Every man is Muslim at heart when born-naturally inclined to submit to God as their Fitrah demands of them. To be Sufi without being grounded in knowledge of the word of God and the greatest Sufi of them all, the prophet pbuh, however-is a road to perdition. So be cautious, my friend
I think there's actually a relatively simple reason why there are less Shia Sufis: if you believe your Sheikh is the Qutb, the perfect man who stands at the top of the human hierarchy before God, then that is a threat to the authority of the Imam. Afaik the leaders of Shia orders generally didn't claim to be Qutbs but rather representatives of the Imam, but were still seen as a threat by religious and secular Shia leaders.
22:02 the easiest answer is because organized self identified Sufi orders developed among Sunnis rather than among Shias. The name/word developed among them first
The best thing about Philip is his understanding of various nuances that exist within Islam and Sufism. It might be hard for a beginner to grasp some of these ideas, but these nuances are absolutely essential and they give you a complete picture of what the tradition is all about. Amazing conversation!!
I find mysticism fascinating. Vladimir Lossky's 'The Mystical Theology of The Eastern Church' is a wonderful book I discovered when converting to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Something tells the aramaic-speaking rabbi who (supposedly) preached radical torah observance 2000 years ago around judea wouldn't understand the greco-roman-persian ideas of Vladimir Lossky.
@@irreview occasionalism is where it gets interesting. Identifying oneself as Sufi is a bit strange and a foreign western imposition not trained in the Sufi Tariqa generally
"Beware of the maker of claims, he who assigns himself special weight has no weight at all" - Shaykh Abdul Qadir Al Jilani (The famous great Sufi) Calling yourself a Sufi, is heavily frowned upon in the sufi tradition.
@@Snowydervish same goes for those calling themselves a sheikh or disclosing dreams of the prophet pbuh-gererally those that declare such things are insincere with ulterior motive. One with a purified heart need not say such things
@@cloroxbleach6344 Couldn't agree more. The easiest way to tell if someone is insincere is through their flaunting of spiritual gifts. May Allah swt grant us sincerety on the path to Him and His Beloved ﷺ
Since Salafism/wahabism became prominent through Saudi funding because of the oil boom, sufism came under attack as bid’ah as a deviant innovation. They threw the whole Sufi tradition of under the bus.
Well the problem with quantum immortality is that many branches have dead ends where there is no escape. In those branches you will be gone but as long as some branch exists that has an escape, you will exist there- but there’s no reason to expect that your experience is contiguous across branches
@@disastrous_ad8686You’re confusing two people. Hasan Piker is the leftist streamer. Hasan Spiker is a Muslim philosopher in the tradition of Ibn al-Arabi.
I love that you're exploring more experiential forms of religion in your latest interviews. Could I put a recommendation of speaking to someone who has studied taoism?
Alex you have to have a debate on the simple question of "if Islam is the one true religion from God" like you have done multiple times with Christianity.
He won't, he won't have the balls to contradict it ( and it can be contradicted A LOT ) because he will get a lot of hate and death threats from the followers of the religion of peace
@@MrGhosTRideRrRby who? Orientalists? Maybe Alex is just not well versed enough in Islam to debate it. Ppl who claim Islam is contradictory usually have no real understanding of the religion other than what they hear from Sam Harris who's more of an islamophobe.
Sufism provides a long term pathway towards adherence to more orthodox, stricter forms of Islam. In the Indian subcontinent Sufis played a pivotal role in converting large numbers of people to Islam. Initially, many converts would follow very syncretic/heretic forms of Islam incorporating Hindu or other cultural/religious elements. Over the long time, the descendants of the converts become more ‘religious’ and swear by stricter and ‘purer’ forms of Islam.
Well Sufism is at the beginning conveys the same message as the other orthodox Muslims do but with singing phrases attributing to the Allah's glory later on it involves such things which contradicts Islamic principles such as grave worshipping, playing unlawful musical instruments, leads to a more towards poetry instead of Islamic teachings which makes it as an innovation to religion which affects the preservernece of Islam that's why today's Muslims know very well that this things can take u far away from what Islam really is otherwise if they follow Sufism in an extreme way then there would be no difference between us and the Kafirs.
😂..dont use christian term like orthodox or conservative..islam is based on Al quran and sunnah..all muslim must follow Al Quran and sunnah .no such thing as orthodox, conservative,..
Sufism does not come from Islam. It comes from other cultures which influenced those who converted to Islam from India and is also practiced in Turkeye.
@CosmicSkeptic Alex, we are perhaps the only ex-muslim group that dives deep into philosophy of religion and evaluates Islam through that lens. My cohosts and I have been listening to you for quite some time. It would be nice to have a conversation with you. We have in the past had Joe Schmidt and Phil Halper on. We would really love to have you on as well. Islam is vulnerable to most of the arguments that Christianity is, but sometimes you have to go deeper into the scripture to evaluate its claims.
Why invite Ex-Muslim to talk about Islam? They can invite Muslim to talk about Islam. Ex-Muslim are no longer Muslim. You invite policeman to talk about fireman? Just invite Fireman to talk fireman.
Christianty contradicts with the trinity. Thats a dead end. Islam does not. Ever. Give me 1 problem and i will clean you up really quick. Then i will give you 1 for your religion and you won't solve it. Deal? Go ahead...
@@tasinahmed601 *What is a ex-muslim?* Oxford Definition: Ex-muslim is someone who uses his/her cognitive faculties to come out of a 7th century fairy-tale.
I really like this guy! His videos taught me I should be more precise in my critique, and that understanding what other people believe is a worthwhile pursuit for many different reasons.
@nicco-sixty except that isn’t actually true-complete blanket impermissibility of music besides drums as being a hegemonic view of the ulema is a modernist innovation
There's no consensus, it's a majority opinion, you don't understand the difference between the majority view and ijmah which is a scholarly opinion unanimously agreed upon.
Alhalaj also one day while deeply meditating in a certain mountain, he saw someone and asked him “who are you” and the man replied “I am you” which implied a high level of enlightenment or mysticism where one fully liberates from the ego mind (the ego death) and their thoughts and unites with God who is the ultimate sense of origin, consciousness, life and existence
Sunni Sufi Muslim here. I believe in strong adherence to shariah etc. yet I must say Salafis have this hilarious inability to contextualise Islamic texts it's become a meme/insider joke among other sunni Muslims. Salafis will even consider it 'innovation' and thus a wretched practice for someone write poetry to God. There's no reasoning with these guys, they usually experience the 'Salafi burnout' eventually. The important thing to consider is that Sufi forms of worship that we commonly think of when we think of the term, are not canonical aspects of worship nor are they a replacement for mandatory prayers, but they are a way of connecting to God - it falls under the Dhikr category (remembrance of God). The only gripe would be to avoid structures where everyone is singing and there's an Imam in the middle as it *looks like* reverence of the Imam.
Strong adherence to Sharia? As in cutting off the hand of a thief, beating your wife if you fear her disobedience, the possibility of marrying a child/minor, killing an apostate, inheritance divided unequally depending on whether you’re a man or a woman, the possibility of having slaves and sexual slaves, or the ability to sleep with a married woman if she’s your slave? I was a Sunni Muslim before. These are a few excerpts of Sharia law I’m familiar with. Is it different in Sufi Islam?
How gracious of you to visit an atheist’s comment section to talk smack about your fellow Muslims. Yet then you’ll turn around and accuse salafis of sectarianism lol
@@dri-fit9712 Salafis are trying to protect tradition which I appreciate and respect, but they go overboard and it deserves to be criticised especially when they bring a bullying attitude. Forget mere sectarianism, Salafis takfir other regular Sunnis more than any other 'sect' takfirs another.
Surely the only appropriate way to contextualize a religious text is to view it as the imagination of a profoundly uninformed primate species that happened to evolve on a small planet in an unremarkable corner of the universe?
I think it's quite funny how various sects, schools of thought or whatever within religions are so much like fans of fiction discussing their own take on random nonsense and speculation that expand on the source material and make inferences to conclude things that they have no way of knowing whether they were intended by the author or whether they are of their own invention and that were never conceived of by the author that they're just reading into it. To me this seems a very obvious parallel to draw but is rarely brought up in the stuff I watch. I think it makes even professional study of religion as a sociological phenomenon a bit frivolous to be honest.
Idk about abrahamic ones, but dharmic traditions were literally based on philosophical esoteric foundations. For example Hinduism is based on substance based monism, Buddhism is an anti essentialist process theory, Sikhism and Jainism also follow the footsteps of Hindu substance monism. So you don't need infer more than required with in these traditions because here it's a case of deducing what's already written in the primary scriptures of these traditions.
I loved his definition of Sufism. “In Islam you are expected to meet God in the afterlife, but sufis are impatient and want to meet him now.” Brilliant description!
That's why God is called the Beloved in Sufi poetry. The people who find themselves on the path of mystical Islam have had a taste of the good stuff, a glimpse of the Light of God - and it has left them yearning for more. Nothing in this world can satisfy that yearning.
@@dri-fit9712 Andani is an academic as well. I was going to say Alex should also have Peter Adamson on too, in order to get more into the historical weeds of the subject. The very idea of a "mainstream" Islam is problematic, by the way. Mainstream at what time, in what place, at what point in history, and according to whom? The reason why it would be helpful to have Andani on is because he fairly represents the internal diversity of Islam, precisely unlike the types you would probably like to come on and represent "mainstream" Islam.
“ helpful to have Andani on is because he fairly represents the internal diversity of Islam” No he doesn’t, he says things that are obviously false and serve no purpose but to denigrade Sunni Islam. For example, in the Islam video he did for capturing Christianity, he claimed that Sunni Muslims pray to Muhammad (saws) and sacrifice to him. You don’t need to be a Muslim to realise how absurd that is (in fact, I was sent the video by a Catholic friend who told me “no way this is true, right?”). As for it being supposedly so difficult what normative Islam is, that simply seems to me a symptom of over-academising the subject. Sunni Islam has been the preponderant paradigm throughout Islamic history, with sects like Shi’ism, Kharijism, etc. always having been fringe movements.
@@dri-fit9712 Who would come and best represent mainstream Islam in your view? Because Alex’s platform has gotten so large that it actually matters, and the attitude with which he has up to now treated Islam leaves a bad taste in my mouth (constant random appeals to Islamic civilization as having such “other” and “offensive” moral practices that bespeak our moral realist intuition that “that just has to be wrong!”). I just want to see Islam represented in academic and fair way for the public to digest; not in a proselytizing way by some camp within the religion, nor by someone who is simply going to “double down” on the moral charges against Islam (like Daniel Haqiqatjou on child marriage for example). So who do you think is a good choice?
Alex, why don’t you invite actual Muslims like Tim Winter, Hasan Spiker, or Ali Ataie to your channel to explain Islam instead of Christians like let’s talk religion?
Sufism is an offshoot of islam if you need a politically incorrect explanation. Most sufis were non Arabs. They were iranian , turkish , uzbeki , Afghan, punjabis , sindhi, Africans and North Indians.
I went to an orthodox monastery and for the homily, in the middle of the Liturgy, the priest played Hafez poems for about 15 minutes. It was amazing how well it fit in. It felt very Christian and was awesome.
I'm glad he countered the misunderstanding many people have, that Sufism is a branch of its own. Very nice episode, although there is much more to explore when it comes to the depths and the meaning of "being" in Sufism.
“Very nice episode yet much left to explore” The episode was uploaded 15min before you typed that comment lol. Are the views drying up or why do you have to roam around youtube for new attention seeking?
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I enjoyed your evisceration of Cliffe on your live debate and his odd appeal that agnosticism is both impossible for you and humble for him lol.
You should have Hasan Spiker on your show
We take Islam from its true sources: the Quran and the Sunnah. The Quran is the holy book, and the Sunnah includes the authentic sayings of the Prophet (Hadith) and his noble biography (Seerah). Anyone who contradicts what is found in the Quran and Sunnah or introduces something not established by the Prophet ﷺ and his companions falls into innovation (Bid’ah).
The Prophet ﷺ said: "I have left with you that which, if you hold on to it, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah."
He also said: "Every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the Fire."
This is the straight path, and whoever adheres to it will be rightly guided, while those who deviate from it fall into misguidance.
Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (PBUH) is the one who proclaimed himself as a Prophet and brought forth a religion called Islam. And this Islam is the only monotheistic religion on the face of the earth! No other religion upholds the pure monotheism that all the Prophets called for-the monotheism of al-fitrah (the natural human disposition)-except for Islam! All other religions have been influenced by some form of polytheism, whether small or large! No religion has maintained true monotheism and total submission to Allah alone, except this one!
Now, this Prophet (PBUH) also brought a book called the Qur'ān. This book contains knowledge, laws, guidance, self-purification, stories of the ancients, parables, exhortations, commands, and prohibitions-all conveyed in a literary style that the Arabs had never encountered before! He challenged them to produce something like it, but they failed! The level of rhetorical beauty in the Qur'ān is nothing short of miraculous!
Furthermore, this Prophet was supported by Allah, and his mission was victorious. His message reached lands and empires the Arabs could never have dreamed of conquering. The Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) conquered Persia, the Levant, Iraq, and the Byzantine Roman Empire. What does this indicate?
Not only that, but this Prophet (PBUH) did not die until he had completed the Shariah (Islamic law)! He passed away just days after the revelation of the verse from Allah:
"Today I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion." (Qur'ān 5:3)
The religion was completed, perfected, and shortly after, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed away, having fulfilled his mission.
Now, here is the point:
The coming of this Prophet, Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (PBUH), was prophesied thousands of years before his birth!
For example, in the Book of Daniel 7, it mentions that there would be four great kingdoms: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And at the time of the fourth kingdom, the nation of the saints of the Most High would emerge! This nation would defeat the four kingdoms and restore monotheism to Jerusalem. This was mentioned long before Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came!
Daniel (PBUH) also prophesied that the emergence of this nation would take place 350 years after Constantine the Great, who was also prophesied in the same book! Constantine appeared around 300 AD, and adding 350 years brings us to approximately 650 AD, which is the time when the monotheistic Muslim forces entered Jerusalem under the caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him). This was the first time since the time of Daniel (PBUH) that Jerusalem was ruled by a monotheistic nation! This prophecy is remarkable!
'Abd al-'Aḥad Dāwūd, a former priest of Urmia, said about this prophecy:
"The most wonderful, and perhaps the most manifest prophecy about the divine mission of the greatest man and the Messenger of God (PBUH)!"
He later embraced Islam after recognizing the truth of this prophecy.
The prophecy also foretold that this nation would conquer Constantine’s land, Constantinople itself! What more could one ask for?! There are countless prophecies like this!
In fact, there is a text in their scriptures stating that the end-time Prophet would appear 1750 years after the death of Moses (PBUH), which aligns exactly with the time of the mission of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This is why the Jews of Muhammad's time used to say:
"The time of the last Prophet has come, and he will soon appear."
Additionally, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was known for his honesty, and this is crucial! Anyone who claims to be a Prophet must either be the most honest person in the world or the most dishonest. A Prophet claiming divine revelations would have to be constantly truthful or a compulsive liar, spreading lies about receiving divine commands every moment. But Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was known for his impeccable truthfulness.
If you want to accuse him of lying, you need to offer a complete theory that explains all the evidence of his prophethood: the prophecies, the miracles, the divine support, and the knowledge in the Qur'ān. If he wasn't a Prophet, how did all this happen? How did prophecies foretell his coming thousands of years before his birth? How could miracles happen at the hands of a liar? Why did the Companions believe in him so deeply that they were willing to sacrifice their lives for him? This doesn’t make sense unless he was truly a Prophet.
Now, let’s consider the possibility that he was a sorcerer. This is an incomplete theory as well. It fails to account for the prophecies, the infallibility of the Qur'ān, and the call to pure monotheism. The polytheists accused him of sorcery simply because they couldn’t understand where he was getting his knowledge from. They were unable to trace its source, so they resorted to accusing him of magic. But this accusation only proves their inability to comprehend the truth.
The bottom line is:
Think for yourself!
If Muhammad (PBUH) was not a Prophet, then how did all this happen? His prophecies, miracles, divine support, and the completion of his mission-it is a puzzle that cannot be solved by any theory other than the one that acknowledges him as the true Prophet of God.
There is no other explanation that fits all the facts.
Last episode “I fear for my life talking about Islam. Also I don’t know enough Islam” next episode proceeds to give opinions about Islam. And seriously people always giving us this bad violent name. Muslims welcome critical questions and challenging if it is respectful cause educated muslims have all the answers and proof. If it’s internet trolls which made u feel this fright, that is all rubbish
Thanks for having me on Alex! Greatly enjoyed the conversation!
I can't believe my two favourite youtubers are collabing. What a great day to have eyes and ears
@@BanAaron same thought!
If you can't see ISALM is a copy and Paste from Christiaty maybe your in the wrong field 😂
what a cross over
Because his engaged with some Muslim scholars before and they were hostile, verbally abusive like the religion teaches them to be to non believers @@BanAaron
Lets Talk Religion is such a good channel - thoughtful and considered
I started watching him not long ago and now Alex is featuring him in his video!!! Two of the best TH-camrs honestly
Alex dropped this on a Friday evening. It'll be a slow night in the clubs of England tonight.
Just fot back from one. You can tell by the typing.
Na mate it was hectic
People who go clubbing aren't watching this type of content
@@Snowforest60I do
@@Snowforest60 i usually listen to this type of content on my way home from the club lol
My god, the amount of new content on the internet featuring Alex is insane! I would say keep it up, but please don't burn yourself out man! Thank you for all of the immensely thought provoking conversations
:)) I had the same thought
I agree with this. The guy is a genius and I feel like I wish Hitch had done more but by the same token he’s so loved and revered because his entire body work is a greatest hits.
God?
@@young_kooda5940 🙃
@@buzzinbites8962Alex is far better than Hitchens a communicating in this space.
Finally videos on Islam. Do more Alex!
almost
@@Ibrahim.l20 a video on islam wouldn't be complete without comments claiming it isn't *real* Islam 😂
@@Ibrahim.l20 What do you mean almost, Sufism is islam
@@supervache5067 Abu Bakr's "suffism" was Islam. Twirling and spinning and singing and dancing is not islam.
@@Ibrahim.l20your right about dancing but it is the Sunnah of rasoolullah to hear and respect poetry sung about him
Filip's channel is awesome, so glad you got him on!
Filip's arabic pronunciation is surprisingly good for a swedish man! he's nearly nailing all of the tricky letters!
I thought he was Arab I am fascinated now.
@@ArekDod you really thought he was arab?
@@cunjozwhat?? He’s not arab? I thought he was Syrian like is he a born Muslim or?
@@cunjozis he a Muslim convert
@cunjoz yup 💯%
Would be cool to have an Orthodox Muslim on at some point, we’ve seen Within Reason with hardline Christians, but not with Muslims.
Criticism isn’t a practice they’re accustomed to in Islam. When I was a Muslim, the only thing repeatedly drilled into my mind was that it was a perfect religion, one of love and peace.. i never heard any critisicm, and as soon as i did, it was clear there was absolutely nothing divine about it .. I think the conversation would either not last very long or turn into an unbearable display of fallacies and a complete inability to respond to any questions. This is because Sunni texts (Quran + hadiths) are, how can I put it, particularily horrible.
@@AkEl-ManI second that… talking to a wahabi would be like talking to a wall.
I’m sorry to hear of your experience. I am a Sunni Muslim, with degrees in Philosophy and Political Theory, and I’m constantly experiencing critical reflections on our faith, be they in academic settings or in local mosques. Especially now in the online da’wah age, Muslims are constantly engaged in debating their worldview.
Yet as mentioned, I’m not here to belittle your experience. I’m sure there are Muslims who aren’t very charitable, but you’ll run across that in any community; generalisations aren’t helpful to overcome that.
As for our primary sources being ‘horrible’, safe to say I disagree, but I’d be happy for Alex to challenge one of our representatives on the reliability of the Qur’an+Ahadith.
@dri-fit9712 Good to know there's you people like you who value skepticism, but do you really think mainstream muslim thinkers like muhammad hijab would be willing to sit down and have an honest and civilized discussion like this?
@@dri-fit9712maybe you could debate him
Oh hell yes Sufism on the show finally!
Can we get Swami Sarvapriyanada on next for Advaita Vedanta?
I second this! 👋
Would love Alex to delve more into other religions and more mysticism bc dogmatic believers prolly know nothing about their God
@@CamouflageMaster Facts. Mystical religions and organizations have taught me more about Christ and God than Christianity has
@@CamouflageMaster stop stereotyping
@@mohammedhanif6780 don't think i am. In short, belief isn't knowledge. While mainstream religion is basically just beliefs, if i understand correctly mysticism deals with actual experience/knowledge of God/reality. Not saying i have this knowledge or anything. I'm agnostic tending towards believer
As a Sufi & Swedish who follows both of you, i really enjoyed this intellectual conversation and the deep ideas of "being" you both talked about here.
You mean swedistan. Trump will remove all the migrants.
how could you be a sufi and a swede? doesnt make sense .
@@sixghill1925 there are Swedish Sufi Muslim scholars publishing books on Islam out of Medina rn lmao
@@sixghill1925 there are many ethnically Swedish Muslims, you are ignorant, do not be ignorant
@@sixghill1925There is no rule in Sufism preventing Swedes from being Sufi 😂
Philip is a westerner and his Arabic is better than most born Muslims. He really inspired me to try and perfect my classical Arabic skills.
That's because Arabic isn't the native language for most Muslims. With practice anything is possible.
I'm a philosophy student and these two are my two favourite TH-camrs this is a dream come true
I am an esteemed psychologist from Yemen, and I once went into the great pyramid of Giza and found a jug of urine that belonged to Pharaoh Ramesses ii, I drank 50ml of it and had strange dreams for a whole week:-
1- This might sound a bit odd and random, but I have actually dreamt of Zeus mating with a palm tree and begetting an ant that is capable of crawling on the edge of the Higgs Boson!
2- I also dreamt of my mitochondria protesting to break free from my organelles, claiming that nature has enslaved them!
3- On another night of a full moon, I dreamt of Professor Noam Chomsky eating books and regurgitating the field of Modern Linguistics!
4- The funniest dream I ever had, was when I had a vision of a Neanderthal swallowing a whole apple, and it played ping-pong with his heart while passing down his esophagus!
5- This is by no means a joke, but the most disgusting dream I ever had, was of a female's menstruation blood turning into jelly and being marketed by an Oompa Loompa as Halloween treats!
6- I also had a nightmare of riding on a mare at night, with the Pharaoh's personal witch, she was pregnant with a fetus that was eating her placenta!
Do you think my dreams have any philosophical implications at all?
I'm just a little concerned that I'm having a neurological malfunction!
Given that I've heard my neurons conspiring to abandon the dwelling of my skull, things don't seem to be heading in the right direction, ever since!
Why are you a philosophy student? Why do you need to sturdy philosophy? What can you achieve from it? By asking what will you achieve from it I do not mean to ask about the values you will learn but I ment what will you achieve in the more logical way like what job can you have if you sturdy that.
@@noorulainanwar4083 Mainly in academia or public policies in government sectors..
Sometimes they pursue law as well!
@@noorulainanwar4083 I plan to work in academia
Time to give the Christians a breather😭
This guy he has on is a Christian, Alex doesn’t seem to engage with actual traditional Muslim scholars for some reason
@@cloroxbleach6344”for some reason” i can think of a few reasons.
@@cloroxbleach6344
Maybe he doesn't know much about Islam.
@@cloroxbleach6344You can find his debate with Mohammed Hijab posted on this channel 4 years ago. See how that went...
@cloroxbleach6344 is he Christian? Fairly sure I remember him saying he used to be Christian.
Filip is incredible! I've been watching him for years! Thank you so much for having him on!
Omg the collab I always wanted!!!! Lets talk religion is one of the best channels out there. Thank you!
This is coming from a muslim btw ❤
I really like Philip and his videos, but I believe that this conversation is an example of how the academic approach can get in the way or understanding rather than facilitating it in some cases.
I see that Philip is very conscious of nuances and counter-examples to common understanding. This is great to go into with people already familiar with the subject at hand, but for introducing a subject to a new audience, I believe it causes the plot to be lost a little bit.
I think the introduction of mysticism in Islam and Sufism would be much better served by assuming a core narrative and representing it, sacrificing the nuances in favor of a big picture view. Not to lose the forest for the trees so to speak. Specifically in the case of Sufism, I was hoping that a taste of the tradition would be transmitted to the viewer rather than an overview of the academic view.
Perhaps another discussion is in order with a Sufi practitioner to cover the topic from an experiential angle which I believe Alex is more and more interested in.
I think it would be amazing to interview someone who makes sense of the world through a Sufi perspective and question them on theology, critiques of Islam, view of other religions, etc.
Could you do a brief summary of how you would've approached it? (I kno this might be difficult haha but pls)
I agree …. Some topics are better experienced than discussed and Sufism is one of them.
@@younes5043 you should look into Hasan Spiker
Great timing, Alex. I just bought my first collection of poems by Rumi & then you go and release this little doozy!
Read book on Ibn Arabis teachings by William Chittick.
Thanks Alex for bringing a guest to talk about Islam. It would be naturally much better to invite a traditional Muslim scholar to talk about the religion of Islam. Tim Winter is the best candidate from England. I would recommend people like Omar Suleyman, Ali Ataie, Tom Facchini. Of course you know Muhammad Hijab as well.
Only Tim Winter is the right choice here
Maybe not M.Hijab but the others are great suggestions.
Omar Suleyman is a great suggestion
Agreed
Even Mohammed Ali or 'Muslim Lantern'
why would it "be naturally much better to invite a traditional muslim scholar". This is about sufism and filip seems a very informed and balanced thinker on this subject.
Completely agree I would love to see tim winter on here.
2 of my favorite youtubers having a conversation, delightful!
Sufism does exist in Shi'a but also its important to note that Shi'a is generally more spiritual and mystical in itself and many of the general Shi'a practices are Sufi in nature. Even the Salah prayer being the centre of spiritual experience. The 12 Imâms guided the Muslims in spiritual experience.
A shia can never be a sufi.
Shia is stain to islam
Disagree. Shiism is a Fiqh, not a spiritual science. Read the works of Khomeini and Mullah Sadra. They affirmed that Irfan is the spiritual science equivalent in Shiism.
@wrs1627 I never said it is called Tasawuf. I mean mysticism. And if you disagree that Imamiyya Shi'ism is not more mystical than Sunnis then you haven't experienced Shi'ism. In regards to Fiqh, if you understand the concept, Jafari is the Fiqh.
@@Abdalazizofficial you cannot be a sufi(Mystic) unless you are a sunni.
would be great to see Alex do more stuff on Islam, engaging with Islamic polemics especially these days where it's so prevalent (at least where I'm from) would be interesting to watch! anyways, great vid
He'd already debated their king, muhammad hijab and it was abysmal. Except for javad, there are few high caliber english speaking muslim polemacists, they are very stupid, and Javvad is often accused of being a secret atheist. So there's that.
@@SubtitledArabicSongs Hijab a king? He’s just another loud dawah bro like any other Muslim TH-camr from UK.
Javed T Hashmi, Shabir Aly, Mufti Abu Layth, Mustafa Akyol, Myriam Francois are better choices.
get out of here. Hijab is a joke.
you only hear the loudest.
not the smartest.
@@hnaonoThe only good Kuffar are the ones who convert to Islam.
I think you two are twins in: Demeanor, tonality, sincere approach and intellectual honesty.
Your energies and "vibes" completely match.
Religion for breakfast is a bit dishonest when it comes to Islam because his trying to please his growing Islamic followers
@@Snowforest60 religion for breakfast? how about you actually look into who you are slandering. idiot.
@@Snowforest60 I assume you meant to say "Let's talk religion", because this is not "Religion for breakfast" but "Let's talk religion".
Yes! More scholars who are knowledgeable in Non-Abrahamic/Eastern philosophies please. There is an absolute lack of those perspectives in these discussions. A discussion of Advaita Vedanta or other Vedantic thoughts perhaps? Or discussions about the development of Buddhism, Jainism and other heterodox sects. Let'sTalkReligion has done a great job in exploring these areas. Since you already have him on the channel, why not utilize him properly!
Islam/sufism are Abrahamic. Abraham is a central prophet of Islam.
And contemporary paganism like heathenry, kemeticism, Wicca, etc
I agree, but I’d like to see more practitioners of eastern religion rather than just academics.
Actually this is a rare case of Abrahamic mysticism. But yes mystical traditions tend to interestingly be similar to the Eastern philosophies.
I agree but Islam is Abrahamic
Hi Alex. Just to pitch in my two pennies, Tasawwuf, or Sufism, is traditionally seen as a normative and necessary part of Islam, representing the aspect of Ihsaan in the Islamic way of life. It pertains obviously to our spiritual relationship with God and the world, and the development of human character. This concept has obviously been skewed in some modern muslims' minds due to the advent of the Salafist reformist group stemming from Saudi Arabia. Anyway, lovely to see you engaging Islamic concepts and persons beyond the jarring sensationalist and pop culture Islam that typically makes a splash on youtube.
As a Muslim I can validate and appreciate this conversation so much. This guest really knows his stuff and this summarization was very helpful to process and validate a lot of loose bits of information I’ve heard all around into a cohesive concise narrative. Very important conversation.
@@SkateIslam he doesn’t know his stuff lmao
I am impressed by the depth and the accuracy of knowledge....starting the video,i didn't have much expectation as not many people go into that much depth....really really appreciate it
I enjoy and have learned a lot from Filip's work and content, as I have yours, Alex. Glad to see this dialogue and cross over happening.
The most interesting hour and half in my whole life is this 👏🏽🙏🏽
It was just a matter of time for Let'sTalkReligion to make an appearance here. Excited to watch this episode!
Thank you for this lovely conversation!
I've never found out about Sufism until now, but after watching this video, I became certain I'm a sufi. It came natural to me. I've always preferred praising The Almighty's greatness through unyielding my curiosity beyond human scriptures, like my field in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Sufism to me is embodying the attributes of the truth so I become one with it, not having an opinion, but rather being very present with my consciousness and read through the signs and lessons to become more righteous. Thank you Alex for this video!
You might like Inayat Khan's works. They are online for free.
@ I'll give it an interest, thank you.
People don't associate or label themselves as a sufi...
Sufi is a level of thought
@ I'm associating myself with the Philosophy of Sufism, and by saying Sufi I'm pointing that out.
@@RusIanRoy Sufi and Muslim is inseparable. Every man is Muslim at heart when born-naturally inclined to submit to God as their Fitrah demands of them. To be Sufi without being grounded in knowledge of the word of God and the greatest Sufi of them all, the prophet pbuh, however-is a road to perdition. So be cautious, my friend
I enjoy these long format 1 on 1 videos thank you!
I wished you two, would've jammed out by the end of the podcast. His keyboard and with Alex on guitar . . . 🎉 It will be fun
Yesssssss I've been waiting!!
I think you teased this collab like 6 months ago. Glad it finally happened ❤️🔥
An intersection of two of my favorite commentators and channels, thank you!
I think there's actually a relatively simple reason why there are less Shia Sufis: if you believe your Sheikh is the Qutb, the perfect man who stands at the top of the human hierarchy before God, then that is a threat to the authority of the Imam.
Afaik the leaders of Shia orders generally didn't claim to be Qutbs but rather representatives of the Imam, but were still seen as a threat by religious and secular Shia leaders.
Oh fantastic- thanks for having Filip on Alex. Looking forward to this.
22:02 the easiest answer is because organized self identified Sufi orders developed among Sunnis rather than among Shias. The name/word developed among them first
Are you a quranist?
Such a satisfyingly enlightening discussion. Thank you both!
The best thing about Philip is his understanding of various nuances that exist within Islam and Sufism. It might be hard for a beginner to grasp some of these ideas, but these nuances are absolutely essential and they give you a complete picture of what the tradition is all about. Amazing conversation!!
Sufism has absolutely nothing to do with Islam.
@@samboy90 youre crazy
Love the direction you're taking, Alex!
(a talk with Sarvapriyananda feels almost inevitable at this point)
I find mysticism fascinating. Vladimir Lossky's 'The Mystical Theology of The Eastern Church' is a wonderful book I discovered when converting to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Something tells the aramaic-speaking rabbi who (supposedly) preached radical torah observance 2000 years ago around judea wouldn't understand the greco-roman-persian ideas of Vladimir Lossky.
I could’ve listened to this conversation for hours on end. So good
Alex, it's great you're moving in the direction of mysticism and spirituality
Let's all thank Alex for making working over the Christmas period less boring with all these pods❤️
As a Sufi, I'm amazed Alex can give a crash course on God's transcendence versus immanence.
what silsila or tariqa do you follow?
@@irreview occasionalism is where it gets interesting. Identifying oneself as Sufi is a bit strange and a foreign western imposition not trained in the Sufi Tariqa generally
"Beware of the maker of claims, he who assigns himself special weight has no weight at all" - Shaykh Abdul Qadir Al Jilani (The famous great Sufi)
Calling yourself a Sufi, is heavily frowned upon in the sufi tradition.
@@Snowydervish same goes for those calling themselves a sheikh or disclosing dreams of the prophet pbuh-gererally those that declare such things are insincere with ulterior motive. One with a purified heart need not say such things
@@cloroxbleach6344 Couldn't agree more. The easiest way to tell if someone is insincere is through their flaunting of spiritual gifts. May Allah swt grant us sincerety on the path to Him and His Beloved ﷺ
This was a great interview, Alex has an open mind and great line of questioning and Flip is very knowledgeable, greatly appreciated guys.
as an ex-muslim who is well versed in islam, this was really top-notch and a delight to listen to!
"You will always experience what you believe and nothing else. And this invalidates your experience."
As a Muslim, I never expected this conversation. It just made my day 😂
Same I wish Alex does more
@@CrescentCrusader99 yea, it would nice if he could invite more Muslim intellectuals.
Yea really cool to see
@@AncientMonarch the guy he had on isn’t Muslim jsyk
Since Salafism/wahabism became prominent through Saudi funding because of the oil boom, sufism came under attack as bid’ah as a deviant innovation. They threw the whole Sufi tradition of under the bus.
Super interesting, hope you guys can do more together.
Alex, if you want to have in the future muslim guests I suggest the Muslim Lantern, blogging theology and hamza's den
Well the problem with quantum immortality is that many branches have dead ends where there is no escape. In those branches you will be gone but as long as some branch exists that has an escape, you will exist there- but there’s no reason to expect that your experience is contiguous across branches
Have a sufi sheikh on plz. It's gonna be interested
He should have hasan Spiker on
@@cloroxbleach6344 No, dude is a straight terrorist supporter and pos - he literally said he loved what hamas did on oct 7.
@@cloroxbleach6344😂
@@cloroxbleach6344communist sufi 💀💀
@@disastrous_ad8686You’re confusing two people. Hasan Piker is the leftist streamer. Hasan Spiker is a Muslim philosopher in the tradition of Ibn al-Arabi.
My two favorite creators in one video. WOW! What a day.
I love that you're exploring more experiential forms of religion in your latest interviews.
Could I put a recommendation of speaking to someone who has studied taoism?
Wow my 2 favorite TH-camrs in one video. I couldn’t get more excited.
Awesome episode! Filip Holm also does a great episode on the Baha'i Faith.
As a Muslim, I thank you Alex! for having Philip to share his views on Islam.
Alex you have to have a debate on the simple question of "if Islam is the one true religion from God" like you have done multiple times with Christianity.
He won't, he won't have the balls to contradict it ( and it can be contradicted A LOT ) because he will get a lot of hate and death threats from the followers of the religion of peace
@MrGhosTRideRrR Yeah I guess, but I still wish he does.
@@MrGhosTRideRrRby who? Orientalists? Maybe Alex is just not well versed enough in Islam to debate it. Ppl who claim Islam is contradictory usually have no real understanding of the religion other than what they hear from Sam Harris who's more of an islamophobe.
@@MrGhosTRideRrRSnowflake ❄️
Nice! Two of my fave TH-camrs in one video!
Also, damn! Homeboy Alex has been on fire with the uploads.
Sufism provides a long term pathway towards adherence to more orthodox, stricter forms of Islam. In the Indian subcontinent Sufis played a pivotal role in converting large numbers of people to Islam. Initially, many converts would follow very syncretic/heretic forms of Islam incorporating Hindu or other cultural/religious elements. Over the long time, the descendants of the converts become more ‘religious’ and swear by stricter and ‘purer’ forms of Islam.
Interesting
Well Sufism is at the beginning conveys the same message as the other orthodox Muslims do but with singing phrases attributing to the Allah's glory later on it involves such things which contradicts Islamic principles such as grave worshipping, playing unlawful musical instruments, leads to a more towards poetry instead of Islamic teachings which makes it as an innovation to religion which affects the preservernece of Islam that's why today's Muslims know very well that this things can take u far away from what Islam really is otherwise if they follow Sufism in an extreme way then there would be no difference between us and the Kafirs.
@@griefwnl7641that is some transformation from peganism to monotheism.😊
😂..dont use christian term like orthodox or conservative..islam is based on Al quran and sunnah..all muslim must follow Al Quran and sunnah .no such thing as orthodox, conservative,..
Sufism does not come from Islam. It comes from other cultures which influenced those who converted to Islam from India and is also practiced in Turkeye.
Thank you for doing this!
I'm a Christian but I was very happy to see this video on my feed. Intellectual conversations about the details on other religions is needed.
Absolutely 😊
As an atheist the more I know about my enemies the better. 🥰
All that matters is evidence. Otherwise it's just fluff.
@@pioneerfullstacka true atheist would not care abt theism.
A huge thanks to both of you for supplying my ever hungry mind with this delicious food for thought!
@CosmicSkeptic
Alex, we are perhaps the only ex-muslim group that dives deep into philosophy of religion and evaluates Islam through that lens. My cohosts and I have been listening to you for quite some time. It would be nice to have a conversation with you. We have in the past had Joe Schmidt and Phil Halper on. We would really love to have you on as well.
Islam is vulnerable to most of the arguments that Christianity is, but sometimes you have to go deeper into the scripture to evaluate its claims.
What is a ex-muslim?
Why invite Ex-Muslim to talk about Islam? They can invite Muslim to talk about Islam. Ex-Muslim are no longer Muslim.
You invite policeman to talk about fireman? Just invite Fireman to talk fireman.
Christianty contradicts with the trinity. Thats a dead end.
Islam does not. Ever.
Give me 1 problem and i will clean you up really quick. Then i will give you 1 for your religion and you won't solve it. Deal?
Go ahead...
@@hafizuddinghafar2867yeah i agree❤ literally so unfair
@@tasinahmed601
*What is a ex-muslim?*
Oxford Definition:
Ex-muslim is someone who uses his/her cognitive faculties to come out of a 7th century fairy-tale.
I like how Alex was enjoying listening the last idea, even though he's non-religious. I like how he's curious and enjoys learning things.
I really like this guy! His videos taught me I should be more precise in my critique, and that understanding what other people believe is a worthwhile pursuit for many different reasons.
Best episode yet, salute to both men 🙏🏼
Another rare Islam video, awesome!
Amazing colab! If you can, I would love to see Jay Garfield talk about Buddhism
Concerning music, the consensus of the scholars of ahl as-sunnah is that it is impermissible to play instruments, except this one kind of drum.
Yup, one of the saddest "divine rules" that took the joy out of my childhood
@@AkEl-Manyour desires are nothing but short time amusment and delusion. We all worship something and you are just choosing your own feelings
@nicco-sixty except that isn’t actually true-complete blanket impermissibility of music besides drums as being a hegemonic view of the ulema is a modernist innovation
@@AkEl-Man true joy only comes from God, purify your heart and you shall receive
There's no consensus, it's a majority opinion, you don't understand the difference between the majority view and ijmah which is a scholarly opinion unanimously agreed upon.
Nice to see Alex do a video about Islam.
It's 1:35 AM here in Korea...why did you upload this now I have to listen this till I sleep...
checking in from korea at 1.49am - and watching 🤓
Alhalaj also one day while deeply meditating in a certain mountain, he saw someone and asked him “who are you” and the man replied “I am you” which implied a high level of enlightenment or mysticism where one fully liberates from the ego mind (the ego death) and their thoughts and unites with God who is the ultimate sense of origin, consciousness, life and existence
Alex you really need to talk to someone who is NOT a scholar but a person who has had the identity shift associated with non-duality
Gibberish
Yes
Was not expecting this one but so glad two of my favorite TH-camrs are collabing
Sunni Sufi Muslim here. I believe in strong adherence to shariah etc. yet I must say Salafis have this hilarious inability to contextualise Islamic texts it's become a meme/insider joke among other sunni Muslims. Salafis will even consider it 'innovation' and thus a wretched practice for someone write poetry to God. There's no reasoning with these guys, they usually experience the 'Salafi burnout' eventually.
The important thing to consider is that Sufi forms of worship that we commonly think of when we think of the term, are not canonical aspects of worship nor are they a replacement for mandatory prayers, but they are a way of connecting to God - it falls under the Dhikr category (remembrance of God). The only gripe would be to avoid structures where everyone is singing and there's an Imam in the middle as it *looks like* reverence of the Imam.
Strong adherence to Sharia? As in cutting off the hand of a thief, beating your wife if you fear her disobedience, the possibility of marrying a child/minor, killing an apostate, inheritance divided unequally depending on whether you’re a man or a woman, the possibility of having slaves and sexual slaves, or the ability to sleep with a married woman if she’s your slave?
I was a Sunni Muslim before. These are a few excerpts of Sharia law I’m familiar with. Is it different in Sufi Islam?
How gracious of you to visit an atheist’s comment section to talk smack about your fellow Muslims.
Yet then you’ll turn around and accuse salafis of sectarianism lol
@@dri-fit9712 Salafis are trying to protect tradition which I appreciate and respect, but they go overboard and it deserves to be criticised especially when they bring a bullying attitude. Forget mere sectarianism, Salafis takfir other regular Sunnis more than any other 'sect' takfirs another.
What do you mean by Salafis can’t contextualize Islamic texts? And which Salafi scholar forbid writing poems where you are addressing god directly?
Surely the only appropriate way to contextualize a religious text is to view it as the imagination of a profoundly uninformed primate species that happened to evolve on a small planet in an unremarkable corner of the universe?
Love both of your channels
I think it's quite funny how various sects, schools of thought or whatever within religions are so much like fans of fiction discussing their own take on random nonsense and speculation that expand on the source material and make inferences to conclude things that they have no way of knowing whether they were intended by the author or whether they are of their own invention and that were never conceived of by the author that they're just reading into it. To me this seems a very obvious parallel to draw but is rarely brought up in the stuff I watch. I think it makes even professional study of religion as a sociological phenomenon a bit frivolous to be honest.
Honestly it’s no different than people who debate power scaling of pop culture characters.
The history of many religions is their biggest refutation. None of those people way back then would understand the discussions of today.
Idk about abrahamic ones, but dharmic traditions were literally based on philosophical esoteric foundations. For example Hinduism is based on substance based monism, Buddhism is an anti essentialist process theory, Sikhism and Jainism also follow the footsteps of Hindu substance monism. So you don't need infer more than required with in these traditions because here it's a case of deducing what's already written in the primary scriptures of these traditions.
Such a great review of whole of sufism in one video. It was awesome!
I loved his definition of Sufism. “In Islam you are expected to meet God in the afterlife, but sufis are impatient and want to meet him now.”
Brilliant description!
That's why God is called the Beloved in Sufi poetry. The people who find themselves on the path of mystical Islam have had a taste of the good stuff, a glimpse of the Light of God - and it has left them yearning for more. Nothing in this world can satisfy that yearning.
And it is against Quran..
Let's Talk religion is great channel. Glad you collabed
Alex can I kindly request have Hamza Yusuf on your podcast?
Thanks in advance.
So nice to see this guy here
Nice Alex! You should have Dr. Khalil Andani on too.
No he shouldn’t, just as he shouldn’t have a mormon on to discuss mainstream christianity
@@dri-fit9712 Andani is an academic as well. I was going to say Alex should also have Peter Adamson on too, in order to get more into the historical weeds of the subject.
The very idea of a "mainstream" Islam is problematic, by the way. Mainstream at what time, in what place, at what point in history, and according to whom? The reason why it would be helpful to have Andani on is because he fairly represents the internal diversity of Islam, precisely unlike the types you would probably like to come on and represent "mainstream" Islam.
“ helpful to have Andani on is because he fairly represents the internal diversity of Islam”
No he doesn’t, he says things that are obviously false and serve no purpose but to denigrade Sunni Islam. For example, in the Islam video he did for capturing Christianity, he claimed that Sunni Muslims pray to Muhammad (saws) and sacrifice to him.
You don’t need to be a Muslim to realise how absurd that is (in fact, I was sent the video by a Catholic friend who told me “no way this is true, right?”).
As for it being supposedly so difficult what normative Islam is, that simply seems to me a symptom of over-academising the subject. Sunni Islam has been the preponderant paradigm throughout Islamic history, with sects like Shi’ism, Kharijism, etc. always having been fringe movements.
@@dri-fit9712 Who would come and best represent mainstream Islam in your view? Because Alex’s platform has gotten so large that it actually matters, and the attitude with which he has up to now treated Islam leaves a bad taste in my mouth (constant random appeals to Islamic civilization as having such “other” and “offensive” moral practices that bespeak our moral realist intuition that “that just has to be wrong!”). I just want to see Islam represented in academic and fair way for the public to digest; not in a proselytizing way by some camp within the religion, nor by someone who is simply going to “double down” on the moral charges against Islam (like Daniel Haqiqatjou on child marriage for example).
So who do you think is a good choice?
@@dri-fit9712 I just thought of one. Hasan Spiker.
Love it Alex ❤
Alex, why don’t you invite actual Muslims like Tim Winter, Hasan Spiker, or Ali Ataie to your channel to explain Islam instead of Christians like let’s talk religion?
This man has literally spent years studying Islam and Sufism specifically. He’s an expert on the topic regardless of his own religion.
@@aggad16No he isn't.
Alex, please do one with Javed T. Hashmi, Dr. Shabir Aly or Myriam Francois or Mufti Abu Layth. Would like to know your take on Islamic modernists.
Sufism is an offshoot of islam if you need a politically incorrect explanation.
Most sufis were non Arabs. They were iranian , turkish , uzbeki , Afghan, punjabis , sindhi, Africans and North Indians.
Sufism itself existed before islam much like catholicism in a way it's a concept
Exactly. It came from Iran area where they believed in this nonsense before islam. Sufism has nothing to do with Islam.
@@AssyriacUnitarianIslam existed before Islam
@@qrx4057 in a sense of monotheism
I'm not sure if you are Muslim or not but you got it correct. Interestingly huge Muslim population can't get it right.
filip holm and alex on a podcast talking about Sufism is something I never knew I needed ajrgofijeaorigj
Please invite Seyed Hossein Nasr to your show.
Really wanna see this happen
Does he do podcasts now? Isn't he old old?
@@aswinunni1811 he still does lectures, I’ll actually be studying under him for a couple weeks in a month or so
That would be nice!
@@cloroxbleach6344 that's so great to hear.
You two are some of my favorite thinkers on TH-cam. Thank you for having him on Alex. I would love to see more content with both of you in the future!
@@anewdayhomeinspections7219 thinkers isn’t term I’d use so much as ingesters
13:20 nice to know his name is Philipe
I went to an orthodox monastery and for the homily, in the middle of the Liturgy, the priest played Hafez poems for about 15 minutes. It was amazing how well it fit in. It felt very Christian and was awesome.
where?
New Skete, NY
Now we need more Taoism (or Daoism), Buddhism etc. eastern philosophies.
Good program thanks
I'm glad he countered the misunderstanding many people have, that Sufism is a branch of its own.
Very nice episode, although there is much more to explore when it comes to the depths and the meaning of "being" in Sufism.
“Very nice episode yet much left to explore”
The episode was uploaded 15min before you typed that comment lol.
Are the views drying up or why do you have to roam around youtube for new attention seeking?
@@ApostateProphet I want to see you in one episode with Alex on Apostasy in Islam
@@dri-fit9712 he's just trying to get an episode here, looks like his new gods aren't giving him much these days.
It’d be great if you could collaborate with Alex, maybe he could interview you on your views and why you left.
Sufi is nothing but a try to ripoff yoga practices.