066 what makes us stand out?

7/29/2019 066 What Makes Us Stand Out?

1/11

1 066 What Makes Us Stand Out?

CULTURE OF ISLAM

066 What Makes Us

Stand Out?

Imtiaz Muhsin

17-Feb-12

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.


2/11


Please Note

1. I have had the great privilege, (since Aug 2010), of presenting talks on the weekly Radio ProgramCulture 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 listeners3. I am well aware that the audience to these talks would consist of people belonging to a variety offaiths. 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 thenames Allah, Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam), Moosa (Alaihis Salaam), Easa (Alaihis Salaam) etc

5. Muslims by habit usually say Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam, when the name of Prophet Muhammadis 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, InshaAllah 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 s DHL H Gh

TH Ss DHZ h GH

SW

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 atAll Praise and Thanks

is due to Allah and Allah aloneAlhamdulillah!

P.S. The Picture on the Cover is of the Devatagaha Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka


3/11


066 What Makes Us Stand Out?

Dear Friends,

I greet you all with Assalamu Alaikum!

Alhamdulillah, it has been my pleasure and privilege to present these series of talks on the weekly

Radio ProgramCulture of Islam

Whilst presenting these talks, I had this urge to talk about what is most central to the Culture of

Islam, or I could even call it say the belief of the Muslims - and that is the belief in Godwho

we recognize as Allah, I prefer to use the name Allah Taaalah which means Allah the most

exalted. But then, Muslims are not just required to believe in God, their Faith demands that they

should spend their life in searching for and recognizing the attributes of God and through this

process change their whole lives, every aspect of it, in submitting to the will of God or AllahTaaalah.

Now, just to understand what this will of Allah Taaalah is, is itself a long and arduous search or

journeyarduous but completely satisfying!

Let me word it this way.

1. We look around us, at this world, at this Universe and it becomes obvious to us that there are

many systems and processes taking place in this universe - all the timeprocesses engaging

systems that possess brutally terrifying powersbut all beautifully regulated and modulatedWe

begin to think or begin to realize that there is a Power or a God controlling everything.2. Now this thinking or this realization itself, gives rise to an enormous number of questions. We

have to rationally work out the answers, and the amazing thing is that in searching for these

answers, we do not really find the answers, but we find that this search is actually sprouting a

plethora of many other questionseach one as intriguing as the other.

3. One major question or we could even call it a stumbling block is that we cannot see God

There is so much evidence that every system and process we observe in this universe is a balance

of enormous powers and forces and something we may even call it logic, tells us that there has

to be that someone designing this order, creating this order, controlling this order and even

sustaining this orderbut then who is that somebody?

We cannot see him, we cannot feel him, we cannot hear himwe do not have any sort of

detection meterssay a God meter to detect himso we have this gnawing worryis there aGod? There has to be a Godbut then why is it that we cannot see him?

I call this the biggest question that there ever was, that there is and that there ever will be.

But then what about the biggest answerhow do we discover it?

It is worth a try, isnt it?

Actually it is worth devoting our entire life to this life of discovery the life of discovering God

or Allah Taaalah.


4/11


4. As Muslims we believe that everythingwhen we say everything we mean simply everything

happens through the Will of God. We have our senses, we cannot detect God or Allah Taaalah

through the use of these senses, but then we have been provided some toolswe could simply

describe them as tools for thinking, and when we put these tools to work, and to work out the

purpose of our creation, then we would open up another sense, a hidden sense, a sense deep

within us, and that sense would detect Allah Taaalah what this sense would actually detect or

read are the Signs of Allah Taaalah this sense is more powerful than all our senses. In many

instances our sense would give us some information, but then this hidden sense this sense that

detects God, could override all the readings of our other senses and indicate to us the truth the

core truth of what is actually happening.

We call this sense conviction

A true lover spends all his resources to be near his beloved or to be in the company of his beloved.

What is actually happening is that he is stimulating all his senses, through the presence of his

beloved.

A true seeker of GodI like to refer to him as a true Muslimwould spend the rest of his days

invigorating his conviction through the signs of God or the signs of Allah Taaalah. And we have

this belief or we could call it our further conviction that Allah Taaalah would now guide thisseeker, through amazing ways that would further inspire his convictions and keep him enraptured

with the ways of God or the ways of Allah Taaalah.

It is like saying, a true sincere searcher or seeker, would first study some points which would be

Signs of God or Signs of Allah Taaalah, and the more he thinks and the more he reflects, his

conviction grows and then he begins to notice other signs and then he would begin to think about

and to reflect on those signs too and his conviction would continue to grow, and then he would

now begin to notice other signs, and so on.

He will gradually begin to see the world, as well as his presence in this world, in new

perspectives.

So to those of us who want to embark on this journey of seeking God or seeking Allah Taaalah,

we all need some points, some material which we could use as material for our reasoning out

process or our logicwe may even call them clues or signs that we see.

That is the purpose for this series of talks.

I began by talking on the main topic Knowing God or Knowing Allah Taaalah

Alhamdulillah, this is a huge topic so I broke it up to many episodes and was able to deliver 6

talks on different aspects of that topic. I called each of these talks an episode

I then began to prepare for the topic Is this what we are created for? you could even call it Whyare we on Earth? but then, Maasha Allah, there was again, so much material, that I had to

decide to break this topic in to many sub topics or episodes.

So, to this topic Is this what we are created for?, there were 8 sub topics or episodes viz;

1. What do we see, on Earth?2. Who are we? Where do we fit in?3. Our special benefits, on Earth4. What makes us stand out? What makes us special?5. Who is really in charge?6. What does God or Allah tell us about Himself?7. Our special faculties how they should be used, how they should not be used.8. The two paths.


5/11


During the last 3 weeks I was able to talk on the 1st 3 sub topics, so today I shall speak on the 4th

sub topic, which would be; What makes us stand out? What makes us special?

Again, let us just use our reason. Let us look around and see what makes us special, what makes

us stand out on Earth?

There are many, many points. Let us take some of them, and let us take them one by one;

1. We DressOne of the most obvious points that would strike all of us is that we, human beings, dress. We

have a sense of shame and something in us some sense wants us to cover ourselves.

We cover ourselves through a sense of shame.

We also cover ourselves for warmth or for protection against cold.

We also use this feature, of covering ourselves, to express ourselves, or as is commonly referred

to as making a statement

For example we could recognize the dress of people from different parts of the Worldthis dress

we refer to as traditional and reflects the culture of the people, especially the climate or the

environment. So those peoples living in cold places would be warmly covered whilst those living

in temperate climates would wear loose fitting clothes.

Then, we also have clothes for occasions.We have evening wear, office wear, even relaxing at home clothes.

Then we have clothes which are recognized as uniforms, and then we have clothes of pride. To

proclaim our status, our wealth, our positions, our tastes and so on.

No other animal would look for or wear clothes, especially not in such elaborate variety as the

human beings do.

So this makes us special.

2. To see, hear and think

1. We see beauty2. We hear beauty

3. We love beauty

4. No other animal appreciates beauty

5. We try to surround ourselves with beauty

6. The beauty in the Universe makes us meditateit captures us and draws us in to meditation

mode


Only we are distracted, we are unable to give time, we are unable to give clear headed time.

3. We Learn & We Teach1. We learn through seeing hearing and thinking

2. We learn according to our environment

3. Thus we learn different languages and different trades or vocationsthus the variety of

cultures

4. We acquire knowledge from our parents and society

5. We build on our knowledge

6. We share knowledge with the rest of society

7. We pass on our knowledge to future generations who in turn build on it and pass it on

8. We teach animalswe call it training animals

8a. Watch Dogs, hunting Dogs, Sheep Dogs


6/11


8b. We can also teach Cattle, Horses, Camels even Elephants for riding and for carrying loads, so

that they serve us

8c. We also teach Monkeys, Dolphins, Elephants so that they entertain us

8d. We teach Mice and Monkeys so that we can experiment with them and increase our learning.


4. Our Farm Crops We Herd Cattle1. All animals huntthey are either the prey or the predator in a complex food chainbut human

beings are neither the prey nor the predator in these food chains.

2. Human beings Farmwe sow seeds, we harvest crops.

3. We herd cattlemake use of them for milk, dairy products, for the meat industry for the leather

industry for the wool industry even for transport.

4. We can manage fireno other animal would go near it

5. Our ability to adapt to every environmentthrough the use of ingredientsespecially spices

and fire, we process or cook foodthus we are able to process indigestible and unpalatable foods

into foods that are both digestible as well as tastefully flavored to rouse our tastes.

6. Our ability to live as communitiesto urbanize


5. We Barter We Trade.1. We possess a mathematical mind

2. We possess the ability to seek, to search, to detect, to decipher, and even to encrypt

3. We possess the ability to process what we seeto enquire, to categorize, to reason out, to

detect and to capitalize

4. We possess in built greed, and we possess the ability to be ambitious to plan to scheme

5. We possess the ability to serve; the ability to exploit; the ability to coerce to bully; the ability to

enslave; the ability to colonize;


Alhamdulillah, I have provided tons of material for us to contemplate about, and there are tons

more.

Here we are on Earth. A special Universe; A special, solar system. Everything made to serve us,

even the animals, the other inhabitants of this planet Earth serve us; Even the elements appear to

be made to serve us.

Now let us try to see, what is special in us. What is it that we possess that makes us special.

In my view just two things. Our hands and our minds.

Other animalsespecially what we call the vertebrates just have fins, feet or wingsonly the

Primates have hands, but that too they use for limited purposesbut the hands of manthat is

amazingman can do many things with them and he can innovate or make machines for tasks

that he would find too difficult for his handsindeed amazing.

So we are on this Eartheverything seems to be tailor made for us, we are given many benefits

and talents and then we have this brainan amazing organall our senses feed information to

this brain and this brain processes this information. Sorts it, categorizes it, archives it at different

memory levels, and then compares these sensations with other similar sensations so that with time


7/11


his knowledge or this processed and stored information keeps on maturingthen we can ask this

question, how does he get things done? How does he meet his goals, his ambitions?

Now, I am going to say something that is going to take everyone by surprisefrom what I have

seen, man only has to think and his wish is fulfilled. This, you would say is an amazing statement

that I am making, but it is trueGod has put us on this Earth, made the earth comfortable for us,

provided for all our needs, given us a brain that can see, hear and think and that brain can decide

what it wants and this want or this need is fulfilled amazing! amazing! amazing!

Just view our lives, the lives of our relations, our friends, our society, well known personalities etc

etcwe can detect a magic in our thinking. We think - we get!

Just inspect our liveshow did we start, how did we learn, why are we in our profession or

vocation, how did we get all our needs. If we were to map out our lives and mark out the

landmarks, then we would realize how amazingly things happened that led us to what we wanted.

The trend is so obvious to anyone who observes the thinking of human beings, that in this

observation we come up with 2 questions.

1. How is it that we think, and we gethow can that be?2. Why is it that sometimes we do not get what we think about?

Actually the more we study this subject, we first get amazed to find that wethat is all human

beingsget what we think about, we have to think, then only do we get. The trend, the

relationship is amazing.

Then later on we begin to get amazed as to why in some instances we do not get what we think

in fact we sometimes get the opposite of what we thought or what we wantedwhy is that?

So I began to search for and read articles on the Web as well as books on the working of the mind

but I found these articles and books to be too academicaltoo heavy for a layman.

But then, Alhamdulillah, I got my hands on a book by a Sri Lankan Professor of Psychology, Dr

Erantha De Mel, who has written this bookOptimizing the Infinite Mind it is written for the

layman and he has tried to use as simple words as possible to explain a very complex topicI

thoroughly enjoyed reading his observations, and would like to quote some sections from this

book, which contains over 500 pages.

This is what he says;

Open Quote

Optimizing the Infinite MindBy Professor Erantha De Mel

From the Preface

Life is an exotic buffet with lots of choices. But the tragedy is that most people are starving to

death. We are surrounded with joy, with prosperity and love. Unfortunately, most of them have no

idea of this whatsoever, because they are programmed to think that such things are beyond their

reach. They tend to think that they've got a raw deal in life.

If you try to understand the mind processes and resolve to change your mind, you can change

your life. What you perceive and believe create the actual circumstances in life. By changing yourinner attitudes of mind, you can change the outer aspects of your life.


8/11


9/11


So what is it? Do we get what we think or do we not get what we think.

To understand this phenomena I shall give explain a simple example, which I am sure everyone

will understand.

All of us know that there are some people who are always punctual. There are others who are

always late and still others who are always early.

Those who are punctual tell us that we decided to be on time, so we are on time.

Those who are late are so full of regrets. Sometimes they even say, I will somehow or the other,

be on time, next timebut then next time too they are late.

Why is this? Because they have developed an attitude, a mindset that they can be latethey do

not realize it, even though they keep on saying I will be punctual, I will be on time there are

some mismatches in their thinking. So they have to identify those mismatches and correct their

thinkingthen they would always be on time. This would be the explanation for all those who

say, yes many things happen according to our thinking, but there are somethings that never seem

to go rightit is an attitude a mindset that needs rewiring!

So, now we start thinking a little deeper. We begin to think, how is it that we get what we think

surely there must be someone who can read our thoughts and give us what we want! Otherwise

things would just not make sense.

Once we realize this, then we begin to turn to God to fulfill our needs, not just our needs but all

our desiresI call this the lifestyle of getting God to submit to OUR will.

But then a truly wise person, who does some contemplating, would think, would it not be better if

Iwere to submitMy Willto God rather than trying to get God to submitHis WilltoMy

Desires?

So there would be two paths;

1. Leading a life trying to get God or Allah Taaalah to submit his Will to my desires

2. Leading a life where I submit my Will to God or Allah Taaalah.

Now that is the journey we should all be undertaking.

Out of the 8 topics, I have now covered 4 topicsviz.

1. What do we see, on Earth?2. Who are we? Where do we fit in?3. Our special benefits, on Earth4. What makes us stand out? What makes us special?Insha Allah I hope to cover the following topics in the next few weeks.

5. Who is really in charge?6. What does God or Allah tell us about Himself?7. Our special facultieshow they should be used, how they should not be used.8. The two paths.


10/11


I sincerely pray and hope that all of you benefit from these talks as much as I have benefitted

from doing research from the Quran and then preparing and presenting these talks to you.

May Allah Taaalah guide us all and accept us all.

Jazza Kalla Khairan.

Assalamu Alaikum

Imtiaz Muhsin

Colombo Sri Lanka

[email protected]

You Tube Channel - HaneefanMusliman
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


11/11


Series 2The 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 Talk Number & TitleDate

BroadcastDetails of Picture on Cover

Episode 1 054 IlmKnowing AllahDec 9

th

2011

Wellawatte Jummah Mosque in

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Episode 2 055 Rationality - The Foundation of Islam Dec 16h

2011Parasangaswewa Mosque(a remote village)

in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Episode 3 056 Is Man Special?Dec 23

t

2011

Mutwal Jummah Mosque in

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Episode 4 057 Ar Rahmaan - The BeneficentDec 30

th

2011

The Akbar Mosque in Slave Island,

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Episode 5 058 Nature or GOD?Jan 6

th

2012

Mosque in Matara, from the

Southern Province of Sri Lanka

Episode 6 059 Our Relationship with GOD!Jan 13

th

2012

Beach Mosque at Kalmunaikudi

in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka

Episode 7Sub Series:

060 Is this what we are created for?

(Is this what we are created for? Part 1)

Jan 20th

2012

A Mosque in the Kurnegala District,

Sri Lanka

Episode 8

Sub Series:

061 What do we see on Earth


Jan 27th

2012

Maradana Jummah Mosque in

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Episode 9

Sub Series:

062 Who are WE? Where do we fit in?


Feb 3rd

2012

Colpetty Jummah Mosque, in

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Episode 10Sub Series:063 Our benefits on Earth


Feb 10th

2012

The Jummah Mosque atNatpidimunnai, in the Ampara

District, Sri Lanka

Episode 11

Sub Series:

066 What makes us 'Stand Out'?

What makes us 'Special'?


Feb 17th

2012

The Devatagaha Mosque in

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Episode 12

Sub Series:

067 Who is in charge?


Feb 24th

2012

A Mosque in a rural village in theAmpara District, in Sri Lanka

Episode 13

Sub Series:

068 What ALLAH Teaches Us,

About Himself


Mar 2nd

2012

The Jummah Mosque in Oluvil a

village in the Ampara District, Sri

Lanka

Episode 14

Sub Series:

069 Our Special Faculties

How they should be used,

How they should not be used!


Mar 9th

2012

The Dhanakawewa Jummah

Mosque in a remote village in the

Anuradhapura District in Sri Lanka

Episode 15Sub Series:

070 The TWO Paths

Mar 16th

2012

Mosque at Madhavakulam in the

Puttlam District, Sri Lanka

Episode 16

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?

Mar 23rd

2012

A Mosque by a river in the Eastern

Province, Sri Lanka

066 what makes us stand out?

Documents