Spiritual Awakenings In The Modern Age? | Mufti Abu Layth

Mufti are you familiar with the works of David Hawkins uh I am of reason I mean so this is a a somewhat of a more recent discovery and he's an absolute gem absolute gem I feel that it's you know I was speaking to somebody in uh one-to-one perspective sessions and I was just highlighting that wow it's unfortunate that we don't have

you know as Muslims we don't have many people tackling the the kind of problems that um unhealthy religiosity can bring with it so so just slightly without getting into it too much so let's just you know zero in on that religion the power of faith is

unfathomably and majestically Powerful I mean it's so it is such a boost in life it is something that will get you people who have faith are not only usually healthier they come back from adversity stronger they usually can um recover from whether it's going to be whether it's going to be physical or biological or even just situational crises much better than the counterparts who don't have faith Faith usually on

all levels is so empowering this is the gift of Iman that right throughout the Quran you see this being spoken of remember the Quran is speaking of faith faith it is always addressing Iman in fact IT addresses the Believers as just the people of faith those of you who have faith it seldom addresses Muslims as Muslims um the Quran does use the word Islam and it does use the word Muslim

but very really and in fact on one or two occasions it uses it to distinguish between those people who don't really have faith but they're just following the rituals um they may not be Hypocrites but they're just not the Arab the Bedouin said we have faith Allah says don't say you have faith you don't you know but but you've submitted to the fold of Islam now so that's and but there's nothing wrong in in using the word Islam or saying we

are Muslims there's nothing wrong in that and it's now a social identity but just first of all beginning from the fact that in the Quran and the Sunnah this is not the case Islam in the Quran and Sunnah does not really address you as a Muslim he addresses you as one of faith as the one who has faith and it's seldom uses but there's no harm in using the word it's not against you using the word Islam but this is not how in the prophet's time they used it they didn't used to go around saying you know those people are Muslims is that guy a Muslim is here they would have said is he a muttman this is how they would have used

it in the prophet's time it is true arguably that this comes in more during the the time of burning Omega especially with Abdul malikip number one trying to demarcate a different identity and make us very distinct to Christians and Jews so and then a lot of this appears in his time this usage and he there's a strong push and there's no harm in it I'm not saying it's a negative thing but it's just interesting to know where it comes from

so okay now coming back to this whole thing of faith it is so powerful so just enriching on every level however like anything they can be side effects okay which are which are unwanted and not from it so you could take like I could give you you could eat food which is very healthy but there could be a side effect maybe you have an allergy to a particular kind of thing maybe

the food when it was presented to you it went off maybe somebody left it in the Heat and the food's now got spoiled or maybe you know there could be many things food poisoning some you know some things got into it it doesn't mean the food itself the food itself is a source of nourishment and healthy but by the time it makes it from there to your to you something could have gone wrong and something could be wrong with you to start off with so you know you've got allergies so just somewhat analogously going with that

so religion for some people you see they it turns like they get caught up with some of the side effects which shouldn't really happen but it does and this is things like so people are let's say they're praying they're doing things but many people are just doing this as a kind of fear that if I don't do it I'm going to get burnt by the Hellfire and so everything is simply about

rendering a like ticking a box so as not to be put so as not to be hurt and tortured so a person thinks oh my God oh my God I didn't pray I don't pray I'm going to burn in the whole Farm I'm gonna burn in the Hellfire oh damn I better preach damn time I better kind of so this archetype that the project of God is this one who is a very strict accountant almost like he's like a Taxman that if you don't submit you when your accounts are submitted God to them is this kind of ultimate

mahasip this this one who will take you to account and you will be then punished just as the tax man will not spare you if he catches you and the tax man doesn't really have a relationship with you that is of afraid it's a very Stern relationship it's not what the dynamic is not like hey how you doing it's it's very professional and it's just about you know it could be polite when the tax hmrc write you that they can be polite somewhat friendly but Stern and professional

and there's no informality to it there's no bond and dynamism between you and them they're just there to take their money if you fall short you will be punished now right so this so now okay so people have they get caught up in this projection of God that they think God is oh my God I didn't pray Salah today you know damn I miss my Salam I'm gonna get punished I'm gonna get burnt yes forgiveness I better beg he's forgiveness and then what happens is then they look around

and everybody else not everybody but for the most part almost everybody doesn't do these things so most people don't pray as in Salah most Muslims don't praise a lot let's I mean I'm not saying that as a it's a good thing but let's just be honest I've argued that probably it's a stretch to say anything even 10 of Muslims I would probably put about five and argue that's a stretch that five percent of Muslims pray five prayers I I wouldn't believe that's the

case at all but that's okay let's just stretch it let's say five percent of Muslims so if you live in a Muslim area like okay Muslim areas ain't that far from here let's say we went to Alum Rock in Birmingham if I stopped randomly 10 people I would argue every 10 I stop it's very unlikely one out of those 10 people that are just walking praise five times a day I I think that would be very very that I can I'm that certain of it I mean obviously if you went and stood

outside a mask that's different but I mean just on the Casual Muslim populated areas so now this person is witnessing these other people and he's thinking well she's thinking damn you know this guy's gonna Burn in Hell she's going to burn they're gonna burn they're gonna burn oh my God all these people are just gonna burn now this becomes a very like a neurotic way of looking at the world this is very unhealthy this

understanding of everything is simply about firefighting you are simply damage control and then they don't know how to get out of these and then they hold and now this this has different elements to on one one kind of um Splinter reaction to this is self-righteousness sometimes people start thinking that they're actually better than all these people because they do pray um and that happens unfortunately people start thinking that the other ways they

just get so bogged down into thinking that oh my God oh my God and then life all this potential of life has gone this is not how you see okay if a person wants to live like that maybe to these people it debilitates them they can't function I've got actually clients I'm telling you that they cannot function they they their life becomes so it comes to a standstill it becomes like OCD it's so obsessive

and inclusive these thoughts are and no muslim Scholars uh that I'm aware of deal with this issue you see it's the elephant in the room and maybe that's because you know maybe they feel that if we address it we don't know you know maybe they they're not confident in addressing or maybe they are confident but they think that if I address it I might get too much backlash from people I don't want to ever I don't know but whatever the reason but generally people don't address this that how do you address that

and that is that you have to for these people and this is why the people I that are part of my kind of network loop that I'm speaking to people that I'm having this conversation for I always highlight to them that you see this in my way that of looking at the Quran with all its beautiful Glory is that it's speaking about mercy and compassion that a person shouldn't see God it never

addresses God as this kind of accountant this kind of tax man somewhat of a Taxman and people they need to stop that the especially these people who are becoming debilitated so yeah these are huge uh challenges because and I think sometimes um this is where we were mentioning I think in the beginning you're mentioning some other people um that they may have this so you you can listen today I feel many Muslims listen to

people that are non-muslim then but have faith and they find so much meaning from them that they unfortunately can't find from their own um speakers Islamic speakers because the Islamic speakers are just either just giving the normal kind of nice stories and nice preaching and there's nothing wrong with story stories are beautiful I mean there's nothing wrong with that but they're not tackling this issue and and maybe it's a scary issue maybe this why is it not being tackled is a conversation that needs to be had but yeah

so that's the elephant in the room yeah it comes down to the wrathful god of the Old Testament this is it's very you know it's very freaky for for people for some people those people who it isn't that's awesome but I've come across a fair share of people right let's move on let's see who we've got all right mm-hmm

all right I've got no all right yeah Dr Peterson yeah so this is why I feel that in this day and age many Muslims are gaining so much from people like Dr Peter Jordan uh Dr Jordan Peterson well I see that's my dyslexia which I don't own up to uh Dr Jordan Peterson amongst other people like you mentioned um uh was it David Hawkins or other people there's these people they provide some

nourishment for something that people are not getting um no one said that you'll be punished there's no he can also forgive he can also beginning when we yeah I mean I get the gist of what you're saying I know right I think you probably missed the point of what I was saying so I think it probably fair to leave it you see I think you've missed the tree for the trees for the wood it's I'm not saying you see you're saying no one said this what I'm saying

is there's an elephant in the room especially with several people that maybe you don't speak to people therapeutically you don't deal with people but if you did you'd realize that there's a lot of people who it's like saying you see you don't see things when they like you may not see people with illnesses but you're not a doctor so people don't come to you but they do go to a doctor you can ask a doctor in his locality how how you know how healthy do you think the people are in this locality that come to you and he could say well bloody L you know it's a nightmare he could ask

somebody just just wonders you know who just lives on a particular Road and just he says no I think everybody's fine I've never come across anybody with any Illness but then why would he come across people because people are not coming to him they're not approaching him is so when you have people approach you on matters of Faith you come to realize where people are struggling and a lot of people are struggling with this this kind of imbalance this um this narrative that life is just one that you ought to just just get out of

it clean like just save yourself and get out save yourself from the fire kind of thing this narrative it may have been very healthy for it may be very healthy for certain parts of the world but definitely people living in this part of the world find it very challenging and maybe many people do live up to that narrative but this is where they then suffer neurotically and they and then you see that when they raise these questions and they tell you in confidentiality what they actually think of the failure

and where they fear they're not being judged because I I have those conversations with people that say that they are you know that that they want to give up on Islam that they've had enough of it that they that this is what people keep telling them I've had people break down I've had people so this when you see that and you see it from many not one you you get a little idea that hmm okay so okay let's move on