So hi guys The talk I'm going to give tonight is called no rest for the wicked But actually it's just an introduction to GraphQL So some introductions first my name is Jew I'm an engineer at alphasites and build ambitious apps in ember So talk to me if you want to know more about that So who knows what the GraphQL is has heard about it half-and-half say yeah, so GraphQL GraphQL stands for a graph query language It was invented by Facebook in 2012 and now it was made open and it powers most of the Facebook native apps So it's called GraphQL which stands for graph query language, but I think what they should have done is to add this So it doesn't actually require a graph. It's called GraphQL, but you can it's back-end agnostic so you can use everything in GraphQL you can use your Postgres you can use actual like graph database you can use no FTP I guess you can use if you really Like risk you can use something like MongoDB Was this okay, so I was thinking we can start with a very simple example on Just like how GraphQL works So if we have a table like this, it's called users It has ID name Twitter handle age and country and It's a very simple table. Also. We know the will is a vampire There is a very easy way to get all the users in this table and this is Called a string because actually is a string so usually GraphQL has only one endpoint and you send a payload to it Is this normal? Okay But I can change it if you want to In one click yeah, is it a challenge maybe three is it fine Let's try this To white oh my god, maybe this is better. Well, I think this is better Yeah, good Yeah, so I think it's fine. So okay So I'm trying to fetch the users and of those users. I want the ID and the name and this is a result I have data. There's a users inside and there's the fields have asked to the GraphQL endpoint So which is a bit weird is that we're sending A string here and here we're getting adjacent response, which is okay. I mean So let's try to do something else We're passing some fields now to the GraphQL endpoint and we're asking only for the user Which ID is one and we still want the idea in the name and the GraphQL endpoint just returns like this to us It's pretty simple Obviously we also want to create Users so which is different in this example is that we start the query with this little keyword Which is mutation which indicates that we actually want to make some changes in the database. So we say, okay, I'm going to use this Thing which is called crazy user I'm going to pass a name Tom Twitter handle Tom Dale country USA and I want the ID and the name of this newly created record and I want you to assign it to a field Which is called user and the GraphQL endpoint return something like this Obviously there will be errors and for example, let's say in our example the name is required and you forget to send it and The API will return something like this. Let's say, okay, you've tried to Create a user, but you didn't pass anything for the argument of type name so usually when you're defining the schema on your GraphQL endpoint you define what is required what should be passed what cannot be passed and Usually the errors are really good, especially compared to a normal API where you have to do all the dirty work So all this was really simple, but as always relations chips make everything more complicated So if we have another table she's come company and they're alpha size and Roku and Here we add a company ID to each user in this way we can send Queries which are a bit more complicated. So for example in this case I'm still asking for the user which ID is one But now I'm interested in his ID in the name and then on the name of his company So in this way, basically, I'm telling that endpoint. I actually want all this information in the same payload who and The endpoint will return something like this. So it just like does everything exactly as you would expect Something a bit more fun is actually we can repeat this process So for example, I can ask for this user with this ID I can ask its ID the name the company and for that company I want the name and for that company I want all the names of his users and I want the endpoint to assign it to the employees field So the endpoint will return something like this So data user ID name company office as employees and if you notice something It's quite striking the similarity of what I'm asking for and what I'm receiving. It's exactly the same thing So I think I mean Well, I should stop like shocking you like this So why should I use it if you read through all the Facebook? articles they will you read like use a lot of these buzzwords Usually my actual response when I read any of the words in this page is something like this So, yes, it was really really hard for me even to read the articles because every three sentences It would use this really really Buzzwordy words, which I think a bit.  It's just like guys So too much about the word. I just So Instead of using all the buzzwords, they thought well, maybe I can just do just like explain why I think GraphQL is Amazing and I'll just start from the title of the talk, which is no rest for the wicked and I mean who likes the good guy Right, so let's say we have a rest request get users one So what's going to be the response to this request and the thing? Is we don't know we have no idea. I have literally no clue what the response is going to be like Our only way to is to like understanding that is to load up a documentation If there is one if there isn't you have to open up the source code Or you just try to call it and then look at the payload in the Chrome inspector Instead if I see something like this a GraphQL request and I'm user of the idea of one and return me the idea in the name I can pretty much predict. This is going to be the response So you can see like there is like a striking similarity between the shape of the request and the shape of the response they have the same shape and It's like and this is something I think we've always taken for granted that it's not possible We don't care about that because I mean I'm just talking for myself, but I've Started programming as a Rails developer. So I feel the rest is like part of my blood in some sort um so there's really like cool programming concept which is called what you see is what you get and I Think it's Really really nice when you're working with something because you have no surprises what you're going to get and If you want to be a little more sophisticated about this is every time you're sending a GraphQL query. It's actually a Contract between you the client and the back end And what's more interesting about that?  So you the front-end developer you're Setting up a contract with the back end and you're driving the whole thing So you can basically ask the back end to do a lot of things for you You can ask him to alias fields You can do a lot of things and the back end would probably just like do that There's this concept which is very well known. I'm sure most of you know this which is called like solid They're like good like object oriented programming principles, and I'm sure the someone of you knows what the I stands for No, and that's one no come on guys Everyone would know at a Ruby meetup. Well, anyway It's called interface segregation principle and when you're studying like of your rented patterns and your programming Ruby or like Yeah, I don't need this. This is mostly like meant for Java interfaces But what I want to do is I'm just trying to Read aloud some of the concepts of the interface segregation principle and I want you to think about rest and GraphQL So it says clients should not be forced to depend on methods. They do not use Many client specific interfaces are better than one general purpose interface The dependency of one class to another should depend on the smallest possible interface Make fine-grained interfaces that are client specific. Okay So Let's go back again to the example, right? I'm just using this totally Random service where you can post repos to and I'm sending this rest request to this endpoint I'm creating a new repo And this is the actual payload they get back You can't see it right because there's so many fields. You can't really see anything of it There's like a lot of URLs and a lot of information of the owner of the repo If we try to do oh, exactly, so I like to Give like a bit more character to rest and ISP So instead if you think about a GraphQL request is something like this, I'm creating a mutation I'm creating a repo name description home page private has issues as weakest downloads And I want you to return me the ID you name the clone URL and the avatar of the owner But assign it to a user because I don't care. I just like I want you to call it user for me and The API endpoint will return something like this Well, if everything goes successfully that is if it doesn't it will tell you exactly what went wrong What you missed and what was required all these like as soon as you define the schema So you don't have to write your own code to handle all these errors, right? So the endpoint returns something like this so basically GraphQL loves the ISP and What is like it just means what does it mean is that every time you're writing? GraphQL query, you're just like creating one very client-specific one Interface which is very client-specific which just for that page And it basically means that every time you can write a different query It will create another interface and you can create an infinite number of them when whenever you're creating a new query But yeah, I mean it's just like if you talk about principles I think it's really really easy to think oh, it's a principle So you must be true and I guess in natural reactions like well, I don't care about the principles I just want to build code who cares about ISP. I've never heard it before right But I think that if you just like stop for one second and think about how you develop amber applications You realize well first of all ISP has been stew. So please don't be too mean But let's say you have an article's endpoint which returns some articles for newspaper and in the front page You want to display related articles for each article So well, it's easy, right? You add them to the payload So every article will have some related articles or a list of IDs of related articles and this will fetch other articles, right? And now every time you have to use in any way the articles endpoint You have to pay the performance price of either serializing all these other objects or at least Running some queries to fetch them from the database and just return the IDs So there is no way you're not paying the performance price every time you're using that But what if you could do this You could just like ask for articles is just say okay for these articles I want the ID the title excerpt the preview image I want the name of the author and I want five related articles and of them I just want the title and the preview image and This will only apply from the front page So every other time you're using the articles you're not paying the performance price and there's no way that someone who just joined your company and Needs something for an API and add something slows down the rest of the whole app Because they just like doesn't happen There's another So hopefully I got you a little bit interested in GraphQL But as we all know GraphQL has been made by the devil So can we actually use it in number? and The answer is yes, so we've written we've wrote this Adapter for ember data and it's called ember GraphQL adapter and It does some like a couple of nice things. So for example, it automatically generates queries and mutations It supports field and object and aliasing. It supports async relationships It's fully supports belongs to relationships and it sort of supports has many relationships We still haven't decided how to handle them properly So You basically import the adapter So it's nothing fancy and then you import the serializer as well and then you have a model which is Has a name you fetch all the companies from the store the Eddon will generate a query like this will send this query to the GraphQL endpoint the GraphQL endpoint will turn something like this The serializer will convert this into just an API payload so that ember data can just Munch it and it will work So the cool the really cool thing about the whole setup is I think Just like everything I've said is possible just because of how ember data is well built So for example right now we're using this in production But we don't have the time to convert all these resources to GraphQL But we have one resource which is using GraphQL and it has Relationships with other type of resources which are on JSON API and some of other than our own rest and they still Communicate between each other using async relationships and you can when you open the inspector You can just see them like loading up from different endpoints But in the app it just like works automatically You don't have to risk like you don't have to pay the cost for the whole trends transition and so you can just replace one resource and you can try it out see how if you like it see how it makes sense to you and So I don't think anyone has like an actual excuse. Oh, I have to port every no you have just have to try one single resource and On the back end there's this like reference implementation made by Facebook, which is called GraphQL JS Well, we are using on Ruby's this jam, which is called GraphQL Ruby, which basically Gives you the ability of exposing this GraphQL endpoint. You can specify the types. You can specify different types of queries of mutations You can provide callbacks. You can you can basically do a lot of things which are written in the GraphQL specification and Also, I've just added a couple of references to I think the first one is the best resource to actually learn GraphQL. Then there's the Facebook Page about it. There's a Hacker News thread where one of the authors replies to every type of question and These are some of the articles I've read which are really good and these are three videos I've seen So maybe I was thinking if I have time I'll just show something really quick, which is this tool, which is called graphical and Using this tool you can play with GraphQL so it's completely client-side so you can do things like For example right now I can do this here. I Want to show all the authors the name and the Twitter handle and also use this introspection to see to show you Basically, what are the possible types of things that you can do? so for example in the you see like usually in In GraphQL it's really important to distinguish a query which is just read only and a mutation which is writing on a database So for this block schema, there's posts So you'll see okay. This is the post I can pass a category category. I can ask for the latest post So for example, I could do something like this Latest post and I want the title of the latest post new feature tracking error status with Kedira or I can do recent posts recent posts count five or Recent post count three. Oh, I refreshed those Okay, they still work and also you can create mutations. So as I said before you can do something like create No, I have to type mutation in front and then create author and then I can say okay I'm using this ID just to and I want to pass a name Which is too as well and of these objects. I want back the ID, let's say and If I run this will say okay create author and see like this one It just like returns author, but I could assign this to something else, right? So you could say Jew is this create author, but if I rerun this again, you will say Actually you try to create this but this isn't didn't work because this author already exists and will tell you Or for example, if you try to do something like Hello Maybe here You will like This is like a bit too big, but I will say like something like really explicit. So Unknown argument hello on field create author of type block mutations You don't get this when you're using JSON API. I think but and It's just like you can see like how much easy is to track down all these like little small incompatibilities between the front end and the Back end and it's just like I was never a fan of like type systems in this case I think it makes perfectly sense Because like you spend like countless amount of times to try to coordinate the front end in the back end and This case everything is handled for you It is like you see like this one the first thing is what I passed which wasn't not like wasn't like the back end Couldn't recognize and then it also told me but you should have passed the name to me and you didn't and If you just like I'm trying the sandbox you can try out all these different types and mutations you can just like gets just like see how it feels like and They and if you follow the course, which is exactly on learn graph scale, it's really good and it goes through like all the possible things that you could do with it and it's also like goes like more in detail and how it works what was like the reasoning behind it So I think that's it good. You can find the sites here and There's the the adapter Yeah The service what what methods are available? Yeah, exactly. So basically you can you can ask There's a keyword she's called underscore underscore type and then you can ask I Think it's you can read here type I Don't know if I can read there, but basically it's the same thing as you're seeing here on the right So you can ask for like for example for a post what is a post and will return something like this So and it still respects the same graph QL Syntax so you can extract the fields you can just like get only the names or if you want to get like their dependencies Their arguments you can just like fetch them in the same way as you fetch your normal data But you can introspect all the types and see how like what they do expose Something I haven't said which the Facebook guys are super proud of is that if you're using graph QL Basically, you don't you will never have version in anymore because as soon as you introduce A field to your API. It will be there Forever if you want to if you want to add a new field and you want to deprecate an old field You can deprecate it and this will keep the old field still working But when you do introspection you won't show it anymore. So we won't show the new field anymore so if you think about If you have the central API and it powers Hundreds of different applications How many versions of the API can you have like in a year 15 20 a hundred who knows But instead if you use something like this You still like maintain restore compatibility and then as at some point when you're shorter No one ever is using the field anymore then you can remove it But still it's all completely transparent and also the client can do already some of the work because if you want to rename some fields You can still pass an alias and just change your query and it just like works. You don't have to coordinate anything and And it works like a very High granularity so you don't have to switch completely an endpoint You can just like change what has changed there if you just want to obtain the new field Which is improved and has like some more capabilities But yeah, I was super impressed by this tool just like to how see how it plays out and it's pretty fun Yeah Yeah This page Exactly This is a really good question because exactly what we're doing right now in the add-on is just Enumerating all the attributes right and then we create this payload. We just like send it. So it's a bit anti Idiomatic right because they're all about just ask for what you need and we actually have all the fields in the ember data model Even there I think it's still better because we just send Like we just like ask for these fields. Well right now we get all the fields anyway But apart from that I think what could be improved what I'm planning to do is to add this support when you're setting on a Relationship between objects to be able to tell that I want this other Object in a relationship and I only want these fields of this object So it overrides basically all the attributes in the ember data model But just like giving precedence to this list of fields You've just specified and I think it's super useful because even if you're using async relationships in ember data it you're still loading a lot of stuff you don't care about most of the times and it just it feels weird and Over time it's dangerous because people will have will need more from a certain endpoint We will add those fields to that endpoint You will have to pay the price even though you shouldn't pay the price because you're not using those fields And especially like right now everybody's going towards microservices, right? So you're using the same API in 10 different apps and 10 different apps have their sort of like own terminology if you have their own necessities of what actually to load and You're always like fighting and making like right now in my company I have to play the role of the gatekeeper of that API because I don't want anyone to make it slower And it should be but instead if we had a graphic on that endpoint I wouldn't need to I wouldn't need to do that because if you want to load more stuff and you want to make your apps lower Yeah, it's okay as long as the rest of the other like 10 applications don't get slower So I think this like we've given for grant we've taken rest for granted for a long time But the more you try to go over a service oriented architecture You feel this pain every day and what they do with a graph KL Apart from all the syntax and nice things They're just like inserting these layer in the middle. So for example, I've heard this talk by and I think I've added a link here Oh, yes, it's here. I've heard this talk with this guy who Worked and reworked financial times website And the he said they had like 10 different APIs in the back end and five front-end apps And this each one of the front-end apps was like sending a lot of requests to different services And instead now they just sent to the central GraphQL endpoint, which then loads stuff around but it's a huge advantage and Even though it was made by the devil, I think the devil has like a lot of Tools at his disposal Exactly exactly My main problem with Jason API is that it could do all these things but it doesn't so for example it includes and possible like fields you want to extract they're part of the specification but Like I think like it's they're not really being pushed, you know They're they're part of the spec because someone thought it was interesting to have but Even if you see the syntax that you use in Jason API to do this, it's a huge string So if you think about making something a bit more complex just becomes completely unreadable, right? I think that when you see something it's just like under engineered for this purpose And instead when you read the J GraphQL query, it's just like the right way It has the right feel and then you see the shape of the request. You see the shape of the response It's exactly the same shape if you see the Jason API request is still sort of It's like it doesn't it doesn't feel right Well, it's going to be part machine but you are not the machine right But when you're especially when you're working we're developing very often You want to see how stuff is like what the thing is doing you You still have no idea most of the times anyway about like what the computer is doing But at least when you get a chance to see the thing and you compare there's like, okay this makes sense and Instead what I feel like in Jason API is exactly they're trying to make a protocol which is readable in my machines But I have to work with it unfortunately and just like doesn't feel right to me But I don't know if it's like something person But there's a lot of people I've spoken with I feel like Jason API is too verbose. It feels like soap. They said soap and And like in something else for example, which I think is really cool in GraphQL It's like you have the capability if you want to to just write one giant GraphQL query, especially if you're developing a native application and that query just loads everything You don't have to have links to go around go back and do all this sort of stuff and that Giant payload is actually going to be used just but that part of the app or by that specific app It's not going to slow down anything right like anything of the other apps that you have and I Know it's a bit of a pity especially in ember because like all the adapters for example Jason API compliant, but there's since it was like Written in such a good way. You can just use a serializer to port your own representation into the Jason API compliant representation You just take that Jason API as the ember Specification and I'm perfectly cool with that But if I have to work with that on a daily basis and try to get the right gem on the back end to do Jason API in the right way and getting on the on the payload it just like too much for me And I couldn't do it You know by example When you request, let's say 50 articles and each article has an author. Yeah, this happens to happens to be the author of many of these articles is this Do you have this information duplicated inside each article or you have this article? Sorry this author in the rule level only once and it's referenced by You can specify them separately so for example in all the examples I've said there's only one graphical query, but actually you can specify multiple of them and actually GraphQL will try to be smart and try to Basically compress the data If you don't want him to compress the data you can pass some aliases in order to tell him Okay, no, actually, I don't want you to compress the data Just like give them back to me separately one to one a very valid concern is Since you're writing a query, right? You're basically writing SQL and you're writing this SQL which is open to the world So you could write a really really long and complex query which crashes the database like theoretically, right? so I think the Facebook guys what they do to do that is They assign a cost to each query and if they have this these these query gets Transformed parsed and transformed into an ST and they evaluated the cost of the query and if it's too big They just thought you don't do it. It's just like return something say The thing is actually like too expensive. We can't do it or another idea was just like to do a timeout So if it takes more than five seconds just abort or something else is just check Like how many because the the main problem is just like the nesting right so you can just say okay if you're trying to do more than three Nestings just like give up because you won't be able to do that. I think something else which is bit left also a bit Open on the spec is how to handle like pagination for example And I'm sure the face because they're only turn implementation of pagination But you know like most of the things you can just like do them yourself. You could just like pass some meta attributes It's not like super complicated. I think it's much more important to have a Good mental model for how you're working rather than like having all like all the small things you Most of the times you can work out the small things But if you have the big problem on the mental model that you have of your back end There's no tool which is gonna fix that and especially if you're working with a lot of other people Yeah, you're out of luck. There's no way to fix that like you have to fix the system You can't fix like the little tools Yeah, it's a it's a problem because basically it means that you can't really cash because you only have one endpoint About this I think what the Facebook guys do is to Store some basically prepare some statements, you know the good old trick of database You prepare some graphical statements and you send IDs to them and then the client just tells you okay run me the statement with ID 227 and they have the service just like Lists all the like available hot queries But yeah, like usually it's a bit of a problem because you can't cash this like in the way you cash rest calls Yeah Yeah, exactly and that's how what like relay does like if you take a look if you Take a look like how they're they built relay. It's super interesting to see The potential that they use like to the full potential which you can use GraphQL to so for example They have this really cool example where they Show a list of elements and they just fetch a very small representation with each object And then as soon as you go into the more detail It will run a query which just fetches the fields you haven't fetched yet So it's really smart and I know that for most people just say well But it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things because you're loading an image with just five megabytes, right? But I think it just like shows like how much potential That type of approach can have and you would never be able to do that using rest So it's not I don't think it's the matter of like how many kilobytes you can save But it's just like how much potential can you have this sort of approach and I think it's worth it Well, is this issue of like in like super nesting so You have as many is then basically the in the You have like right now in our Serializer where we transform the GraphQL payload into Amber like JSON API compliant payload You need to basically be able to distinguish like if there's duplicated data or if there's Mmm Like if there's like too many nesting and stuff like that so for right now We're like oh, we're just gonna use a sink relationships So when you're using a second relationship, obviously you don't really care about the has many that much anymore And you you don't specify all the fields you and also like when you're using has many's which are a sink false It means that you're a sink in this they should I think the other one then it should I think the other one is just like Maybe we can solve our own issue, but we can't really I mean we still haven't figured out how to write a Generalized solution to expose to the world in the add-on so and that's like the main But but the thing is like in the graph can like mental model. You shouldn't do that anyway I mean You like you shouldn't like try to be too inclusive include everything But right now just like for the simplicity and like when I when I released this ember graphical adapter And I switched one of the resources that we have in production I didn't have to change any line of client of like application code I just kept everything else the complete same and just switch the Adapter and a serializer if we want but our plan for the future obviously is to exploit this more So we want to have like more customized endpoints to have like to be able to really exploit these Graphical endpoint that we have so in the future we'll have to explore that a bit more but right now We're just like I'm just gonna touch this as like just like This is really surgical intervention to it and see how it goes and it's been working quite well And I like I like never seen like something going wrong there for now. It's really small, but Postgres so actually just like Ruby code which is fetch this from postgres anyway So the back end code is just exactly like a Ruby controller, but in a more structured way


يعتمد على كيف نستخدمه. إذا نستخدمه لأمرنا. فكذا يمكننا أن نجعل لدينا عالم مختلفة خلال هذه المعروف الأساسية. لذا عندما يجب أن تأخذ الناس يريدونك أن تأخذ جيداً. أو يجب أن تأخذ شخصاً who is at the, for example, as all those who are your mom, يجب أن تأخذ شخصاً لك لك أن أخبرك that I've done a lot for you at the start. I mean this is priceless. Absolutely priceless. And this can only come from the beautiful facet of a human being. So thank you so much for putting up with me. And thank you for your prayers. We are talking about continuing to talk about the importance of religion. And we stopped yesterday at point number three which we talk about the encounter with ideological vacuum. i.e. religion comes to encounter with ideological vacuum. It comes to fill that ideological vacuum. And you will see inshallah as I go on with my speech how it actually literally helps fill your life with so much pleasure and so much meaning when you become somehow religious or affiliated or closer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى. Yesterday we stopped at the point where Allah سبحانه وتعالى says verily the remembrance of Allah soothes the heart and fills it with tranquility and peace as it has been verified and it has been corroborated by medicine itself like we said yesterday that when you go through a stressful situation the adrenaline glands fill the body with harmful chemicals. The studies that were conducted at Dartmouth University and Yale University and so on and so forth have proven that the only way that these chemical or harmful chemicals can come back into balance is if you read something which is uplifting something that is spiritual and Allah سبحانه وتعالى comes to confirm this when he says surely with the remembrance of Allah the heart will be filled with tranquility and peace Quran brothers and sisters is not to be used for sleeping time some people say if you don't know how to sleep or you have a problem sleeping read the Quran it will send you to sleep it will sing you lullabies but the Quran is not about singing you lullabies Allah سبحانه وتعالى when he talks about the Quran he talks for those who are alert for those who are alert but surely the Quran make you feel relaxed there is no doubt about the fact and maybe that's why some people or Muslims read the Quran at bedtime so that they can find that tranquility and find that particular peace within themselves How does it encounter with ideological vacuum because a human being cannot live in an ideological vacuum for long and as much or as such his tendency towards a wrong ideology and a false values become definite meaning if you do not have a strong system of belief to rely on you have to rely on some sort of a belief in your life and that's why people then start going into tangents evil worshiping cults that they take Iblis as their lord instead of Allah قبالة such as her highness you know right مدونة مدونة and her royal highness Lady Gaga and all these singers that come to pollute our minds with some sort of ideas that goes contrary even to the nature of a human being to the very nature of a human for example when you hear a song being played on the ipad or the iphone by our own Muslim brothers and sisters for her other royal highness Lady Pink and in one of her songs you know what she sings today I want to sing that's one of her songs today and you see a Muslim you know turning and shaking and saying today I want to sing can you imagine can you imagine the ideological vacuum that it creates when you don't have the ability to sustain yourself on a strong belief system we're not against music but we are against something that makes you lose your sanity and identity as a human being like the example I gave you that you become so engrossed sometimes in certain musical lyrics and beats that you don't no longer understand or appreciate what you are doing the example of that lady I told you in America when she was listening to music and ironing at the same time and the phone rang instead of answering the phone she answered the iron because she was under the influence of so much influence of the beat that was taking place that she had lost all level of concentration as to what is happening in her surroundings and in the environment she finds herself in if this intellectual life or if a person's intellectual life is not filled with sound belief and healthy teaching then what takes place superstitions and even destructive ideas may find way into his or her spiritual permanent and may forever pollute his own or her own cognizance even thinking become something that is not tangible to you anymore it does not synchronize with your level of humanity when your mind is being polluted and that's why you find for example when there is an ideological vacuum in the mind of some people they resort to crime and I will prove it to you by statistics Alhamdulillah thank God for the west when it comes to statistics thank God they have not left a stone unturned everything they'll back it up with numbers so that we can benefit from these statistics in order to enhance our level of understanding and appreciation of what constitute a proper set of belief and a proper set of ideological richness when I of course talk about religion brothers and sisters I'm not talking about rituals this is the least I want to touch upon or even endorse or even encourage because Islam never spread through the medium of rituals it only spread through the medium of truth and advocating truth in action living the virtues that Allah wants us to live in a practical manner in a practical manner look at how our level of ritualistic dependency on Allah leads us to think in a way that is absolute insanity a man goes to the mosque sits in the mosque and he prays يا الله I need a child one day two days three days he's praying for a child is there a problem with that there's no problem then the Maulana comes he says something wrong with you it's been a month surely God must respond somehow what are you doing I don't know have you checked yourself medically I'm A1 okay no problems at all no problem then the Maulana left then he came back he said it just occurred to me are you married are you married he said no he said get out of here who do you think you are Maryam لا حولا ولا قد this only happens once Allah gave Jesus to Maryam he's not going to give you a child without the completion of the human form but due to that ritualistic you know endorsement that we are pray for anything Allah will give you Allah says pray for anything that is logical pray for anything that makes sense pray for anything that is within the device and the scheme of Allah سبحانه وتعالى because you know what Allah has placed certain laws and he said سنة الله في الذين خلوا من قبل ولا تجد لسنة الله تبديلة these are the laws that have been passed in nations that came before you and these laws shall never alter or change these are laws of Allah it takes a male and a female to have a child that's a law only Hollywood tells us a man can give birth to a boy that's Hollywood that's fantasy that's fantasy when I don't know what fell pregnant all right or do you know I don't know what he said yeah whatever okay so only fantasy leads us to that but when it comes to the laws of Allah and mind you the laws of Allah never contradicts the laws of physics or science because it is Allah who created the laws of physics so when he speaks about laws he knows what he's talking about he's not talking about something that doesn't make sense for example imagine you're driving a 740 IL BMW or a 500 AMG S-E-L Mercedes Benz right man this is a $400,000 car right imagine if the engine light turns on in that car where would you take it to a German dealership right you're not going to take it to your local I don't know next door mechanic right because firstly you're going to lose what the warranty on it secondly instead of using fine 40 to 70 synthetic pure oil he'll probably use the leftover oil from yesterday's bakoras you know in your car and he stuffs the whole engine up for you the whole engine is gone finished done right you take it to the expert why do you take it to the expert because the expert knows this car inside out Allah says when you malfunction don't go to Tom Dick and Harry come to me I will fine tune you because you were made in my factory I know you inside out why are you going to the fortune tellers you go to women's weekly cosmopolitan new idea I don't know if you have these magazines here you open you go to the star sign and you will find the love of your life he will come to you on a white horse with a green tail and he will take white horse green tail what's this this guy is riding on a turnip not on a horse this guy is riding on a turnip because a turnip is made from white and green whatever you know that vegetables that you cook what fantasies are these you know and if you come and tell me I will tell you one day you're going to get married so what's the big deal about fortune telling رسول الله رسول الله says what he says fortune tellers are liars even if it coincides with the truth they're liars they don't know they are to con you some people you know I read a book once it's called the sick men that govern us have you read this book read it it's about world leaders it's called the book the title of the book it's called what the sick people that govern us one of these people was the ex-prime minister of France Mitteron you know what they say in that book that this guy before he took a government decision that affected the policies of his countries and neighboring countries he used to consult a fortune teller can you imagine this is the level of intelligence that me people have reached that they will consult a fortune teller to tell him whether you should you know what you should allow people to increase social welfare or whether you should provide medical services to the poor and the underprivileged so what happens if this fortune teller tells you it doesn't look good so 50.000 people of your family or if you of your community suffers just because a lunatic got it wrong that morning because he had a fight with his wife the day before you know based on his psychological state and what he's thinking at that time and you know we have the same rituals as well although two different mediums at hand and that is when we abuse rituals in the way we use them as much as the concept of استخارة استخارة is a useful medium but don't abuse it like someone he wanted to buy a fridge and he went for an استخارة is it LG or Westinghouse come on please what sort of us insanity is this to take the name of God in vain and you know what six months later it came out on the LG it went bust it take another استخارة and now we're gonna try for I don't know what another brand Sony it doesn't make sense that's when ritualistic take over the mind of a human being and Allah SWT says in the Quran he says don't allow superstition to take over your ability to think even if your four fathers have told you so because that's the very concept that Quran objected to when the prophet came to the Meccan setup and he told them why do you worship idols they said that's what we found our four fathers doing and we shall follow the track the prophet said even though your four fathers were wrong they didn't use their intelligence you know what the answer was even if they were wrong even if they were wrong we will continue to do the wrong and then we turn to Allah SWT and we say why aren't you fixing this world for us he said I gave you a brain to think with I gave you 120,000 124,000 profits same number as the coaches in the world I gave you what else do you want what else do you want more than all this you know intelligence that I have given you so that you can plan your life accordingly and appeal to my brothers and sisters to study well the concept of predestiny from a religious perspective and a Quranic perspective Imam Ali SAW once was walking in the streets of Medina and a wall fell on him so he jumped so he jumped one of those quasi-aitollahs one of those pseudo-mawlana's came to teach Imam Ali about qaba and qadr about destiny and predestiny he said how can you run from the destiny of Allah this guy thinks what that the destiny of Allah means that the wall has to fall on Imam Ali that's his concept of destiny so he shouldn't jump Imam Ali SAW I jumped I ran from the destiny of Allah to the destiny of Allah the destiny of Allah maybe maybe the destiny of Allah was for the wall to fall the destiny of Allah tells me with my own brain that I should jump that I should jump and you know what don't blame the destiny of Allah on the falling of that wall but go and see which ingenie built that wall under the table and got some bribe so that he will put it in 2 months instead of 6 months right isn't that what happens sometimes you see building falling down all of a sudden out of the blue in Dar es Salaam 4 years ago 8 level building came down and then you say Subhan Allah Allah willed for these people to die in that way Allah willed or the ingenie who was crook that he built that building country to council regulation of course Allah will certain things yes but Allah SAW also says make things in a proper way and then come and say ya Allah أمن يجيب المطر إذا دعا take things within the legal framework of what Allah SAW wants you to work within don't blame Allah for corruption that is taking place in the world for poverty that is taking place in the world all this is because of man making Allah SAW said this وَمَا ظَلَمْنَا هُمْ وَلَا كِنْ كَانُوا أَوْمْ فُسَهُمْ يَضْلِمُونَ surely we have not acted unjust towards the human race but surely they acted unjust towards one another they are the one who caused this injustice to grow and to become bigger and to become more engrossed in their lives and so on it's not Allah SAW it's not Allah who wanted a poor person to die and live as a poor person within the context of what within the context that Allah wants you to be poor no you know the medium of Homs and Zakat if the medium of Homs and Zakat is in the way we understand that a Homs giver will always be a Homs giver and a Homs receiver will always be a Homs receiver or a Zakat giver always remain as a cat giver and the Zakat receiver will always remain as a cat receiver then there is a flaw in the system of Homs and Zakat and by God there is no flaw in the laws of Allah SAW because what Allah intended that when you pay Homs the Homs receiver will one day himself become a Homs giver and that's how you maintain a level of what a level of social equality you don't see the poor and the underprivileged and there is nothing in between until you reach the apex where there is complete richness or complete poverty that is unbelievable poverty that is not in the scheme of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and it is never possible for that to be in the scheme of Allah why is it possible then for richness to prevail yes we are told for example in some of the Ahadith that speaks about the richness of the experience of the government of Imam المهدي عجل الله تعالى فرجوه شريف we are told that when people take out their Homs and Zakat and they want to pay it to the Imam the Imam says I have no place to spend it people are already satisfied people are already at a level that they don't want this money anymore why because that medium had already worked in the right perspective that the Homs giver now is a Homs you know the Homs receiver is now a Homs giver and the Zakat receiver then there is a problem in the way we administer the expenditure of Homs and Zakat so much so that we don't even use it in the proper perspective look at the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when it comes to the expenditure and the shares and the dividends of the question of Zakat there is one of the items that you can pay Zakat to it's called in Arabic the share of what does that mean the ones which act as a buffer zone between Muslims and non Muslims يعني those who sympathize with you those who don't want to become Muslim but they appreciate your faith and they have no problem with you at all Islam says you can pay these people a share of your Zakat money يعني what يعني if you know that Islam is being attacked left right and center it would be good to look for a few journalists who are very good and pay them from Zakat money so that they could put a good article in the New York time or whatever time you know do we use it no no no we become so pedantic about the expenditure of our money that we have to specify the race or the background or the method of where our money should go to صلى الله عليه وسلم as if our money when it comes to charity or as if poverty knows ethnicity or background or religion should brothers and sisters in your sane mind and you are all intelligent human being should charity be restricted only to our kind or should charity reach beyond and transcends any level of religiousness or background or ethnicity in order to reach the human being and the human being full stop when Allah intends and he says give for the sake of Allah Allah is going to tell you whether you gave your you know اتن عشري brother or not or he says give for the sake of giving give for the sake of giving let not giving restrict you from giving to those that don't affiliate with you on the same level of you know school of thought or what have you no extend your giving to include even your enemies even your enemies because whatever you give falls in the hands of Allah سبحانه وتعالى before it falls in the hand of this or that I'm reminded of a story of a young boy who was once roaming the streets of London or America I don't know exactly the background to the story but he became tired he stopped at one door and he was selling clothes so he became tired knocked on one door and he asked for a cup of water for a cup of water the young lady that answered the girl was a young very young was his age nearly she gave him she saw him very tired instead of giving him a cup of water she gave him a very big cup of milk he drank it satisfied himself he offered her few pennies that he was working through she said no my mom told me that an act of charity is not and will not accept payment in return we don't take payment for an act of charity time came time went all of a sudden this young girl fell ill they could not treat her in her city they sent her to another city سبحان الله when the name came of that girl that young boy now had become a surgeon and he knew that girl he said I will take care of her when he took care of her he did everything in his power of course with the will of Allah to cure her and then he said once she is done and she leaves the hospital you write you send me the bill so they sent him the bill he wrote on the margin of the bill a very nice sentence and sent it to the girl the girl thought she's gonna stay all her life paying this bill but when she opened the envelope she found all paid in full for a glass of milk it was the same boy she gave him a glass of milk he became a surgeon سبحان الله because Allah says when you give you are giving me and your name is already recorded in my books and then I know how to look after you but give don't be confined to your own surroundings and to your own set ups yes it is good to give within your own set up but the horizon is the limit it is religion sisters and brothers which can fill the ideological and intellectual vacuum with sound teachings and can save one from a tendency towards absurdities and irrationalities for example look at our kids I don't know your places of entertainment here but I was here in 1989 not in Karachi I had the privilege of visiting Islamabad I was doing a Dawa course in Islamabad but it was hot man Islamabad was hot and we were coming from Australia and we don't know this heat so one of our professors told our drivers you know these Australians you know being barbecue dear in Islamabad take them to marry Allahu Akbar what marry man this is a place to chill so we would go to marry every day you know please take us to marry man this place is unbelievable the scenery I mean this country is amazing you know my heart goes out to this country and I say bring some peace and sense into people so that they use this country to its fullest potential because it is sad to see the state of affairs of this country and what's happening to it and mind you it's happening because of our own doing of our own doing anyway so what's the story with marry imagine if you live in that area and you take your children to marry you take your children to I don't know what Faisal mosque you take your children to these beautiful places with gardens the minute they hit home what do they tell you the big statement is as big as that I'm bored right don't you experience this with all your kids why because there is an ideological vacuum there is nothing for them to fall back onto the only thing they fall back to is the gadgets so many Playstation Nintendo Wii you know that game then you and type when version 1 finishes version 2 finishes version 3 finishes what else you gonna fill the time of this young person with if he does not fall back to his ideological richness there is nothing or chit chatting wastefulness of chit chatting on Facebook that produces no benefit whatsoever except you know saying and words that we would not even allow it to our own selves let the case be allowing it for others and then when someone says why don't you pray he says I slept at 4 in the morning of course you slept at 4 in the morning because you were chatting what a beautiful eyes you have you know what the picture she has is fake that's not hell you think that every girl on Facebook puts her own photo you are a fool to think that this is her and you would of being mismerized I've never seen someone with eyes like you goodness me if her was silk then yours would be silk incarnate you know where do you get these words from huh I married at the age of 22 23 I didn't know how to express my feelings to my wife 14 years old 15 years old I express it good express it but reserve it for later for the right person reserve it for the one you want to share your life with not everyone on the street then you become a player right you become a player and people don't trust you a girl came to me in my center once she said look at this letter that this guy sent me you know and this at times when there was no Facebook right so I read the letter my god this guy really was eloquent when it came to the language of expressing his love this guy was Shakespeare of his time you know I was a shock reading this I said you know what sister trust me this letter has not been sent only to you she said come on sheikh look at the wordings he is telling me I said what later on you know what we found out that guy has sent this letter in a fax to a thousand girl he said maybe one of them will click huh maybe one of them player but the question is would you allow this to your sister would you allow this to your mother would you allow this to your aunt would you allow no of course you not dignity is far greater than allowing you to allow this to your own sisters and next of kings and siblings and so on and so forth so that's why religion can play an important role in combating superstitions though it is true that even religion itself if not understood correctly may promote superstitions itself and that is when we turn to ritualistic Islam rather than the pure pure essence of what the Prophet ﷺ and Ahlul Bayt and the righteous companions of the Prophet ﷺ had taught us and had fought, struggled and persevered for now let us examine the words of Herbert Benson a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School and chief of behavioral medicine at DeCornis Medical Center in Boston what does this man has to say he said these are the words of that doctor Herbert Benson remember google him huh so you would know I'm not telling you fibs from now on no more fibs from these members huh and anyone that comes to a member and start playing with your mind stop him you have a right for people not to abuse your intelligence brothers and sisters this is a member of Rasool Allah what is uttered from that member should synchronize with the teaching of Rasool Allah ﷺ and not just anything that we hear we repeat for the sake of repeating so what does he say he said spiritual belief is a powerful force and doctors cannot afford to ignore it when 60 to 90% of patients visit are in the mind realm people are coming because this is not resting 60 to what to 90% people are coming and say I'm not happy right I'm not happy there's something bothering me and you know what the Quran says in regard to this statement and whosoever abandons the remembrance of the most merciful indeed shall lead a miserable life it's you when you abandon the focal of your existence the access of your existence which is Allah then you don't find the meaning to this life you are living in anymore and that's why we say we must always click to the correct understanding of faith so that that ideological vacuum does not come to haunt us and does not come to play with our intelligence number 4 religion is an aid to the progress of science and knowledge contrary to common misconception that says what that says faith and science cannot marry you know where this cannot go hand in hand when the religion you affiliate with stops you from thinking the spanish inquisition brothers and sisters it happened because of what it happened because faith could not sustain science Galileo said this earth we are on is not flat it's around and now they found out that it's not even round it's egg shape right it's egg shape it's not even round and Allah tells us in the Quran this very fact that the earth that you are standing on is not flat Galileo a scientist someone who use his brain he said this earth is not flat what was he condemned to death on the basis of what on the basis of the religion of the time because the religion could not marry with science because that religion was telling them that so much so also in some of our literature that the world is standing on the horn of a ball can you imagine a hadith that is subscribed to the prophet that the prophet said that this earth we are on is actually standing on a horn of a bull I hate to know what happens if this bull sneezes or does something else I don't wanna say what what will happen to this world and what will happen to the people who will inhabit this world right Allah says why do you want to stop your intelligence why do you not allow people to think and let them you know have the horizon as not their limit when it comes to their thinking religion with its firm and sound teachings can be a sound with its sound teaching can be an effective factor in scientific progress because its foundation has been laid on the solid bedrock of freedom of will and on the fact everybody is accountable for his own deeds Allah says everyone is entangled in the outcome of his own deed so go and explore the world Allah says in the Quran the land of Allah is vast go and explore it don't be content with the place or the locality or the region you live in and don't wait for others to think for you for example Jack Cousteau the famous marine biologist you all probably heard of him or watched some of his program Jack Cousteau he passed away now he came across an ayah in the Quran you know what that ayah is مراج البحريني التقيان بينهما برزخن لا يبغيان the two seas meet in between them there is what a barrier but you can't see it where sweet water does not mix with salt water Jack Cousteau a French marine biologist he had nothing to do with the Quran or the sciences of the Quran he says if this comes from this book I want to see it I want to explore it he kept roaming the seas until he came to the tip of Cape Town South Africa he sailed and he started going diving until he docked his ship after painstaking effort to locate the meeting of the two seas and he got to that place he took some water from the left hand side of the vessel the salt world right hand side what sweet water he said to these divers go down go down and show me this barrier they looked they could not see a barrier physical to the naked eye and then you know when he found it reclaim authority over it always the case oh yes we Muslims you know this is the Quran of truth you know the Quran truth why don't you find it yourself why were you munching or eating baklava and not going to the sea and to the world and finding these treasures instead of waiting for someone else to come and tell you this is how you can prove your Quran and the authenticity of your Quran again when this guy in Canada the famous gynecologist I don't know what's his name I forgot his name no one knows Ahsant Keith Moore the famous Canadian gynecologist he was studying gynecology and he said according to science there is only about 2 or 3 stages or 3 stages of embryology he looked at the Quran he found there is 5 stages of embryology or 4 stages he said impossible impossible we've been told there is only 3 stages he went to the Canadian National Library and he asked for a stage which was missing you know what was that stage the stage of the leach like structure the alaqa the alaqa that clenches to this side of the womb they were not aware of it and Allah mentions the word alaqa alaqa means what something that holds to something else and one of the interpreters of the Quran he said alaqa actually looks like a leach a water leach so he went he said give me a slide of a water leach they gave him a slide of a water leach he went and he started doing his own examination on pregnant women he found that at one of the stages in the stages of embryology there is a stage that the Quran refers to as alaqa which is identical to a water leach so he came a public national TV in Canada and declared his founding you know the next day what the Canadian paper said a scientific finding is found in an ancient religious book referring to the Quran another journalist you know what he said this is when falsehood blocks your intelligence he said yeah it's possible for Muhammad to know that so Keith Moore said how how did Muhammad knew this 1400 years ago he said he must have performed autopsy excuse me autopsy 1400 years ago are you for real how could anyone 1400 years perform autopsy and if you want to then he has to line about 50 pregnant women because he has to go stage by stage and then when he opens up what does he do with them he sacrifices them for the sake of knowledge that's when the intelligence stops to see the truth and that's when we fail to see the beauty of the Quran when we let others come and discover the Quran for us yet Allah is the one who said what in the Quran he's the one who said we shall show you our signs in the horizon and within yourself until you can believe that our words is the truth and until we prove to them that this is the right religion faith in religion brothers and sisters teaches us that limitless knowledge is the source of this limitless knowledge is the source of this cosmos which is like a very grand book penned by an oradite scholar where he is the source and an oradite scholar where every page every line and every word of it contains a glaring truth which stimulates us to further study and contemplation this attitude towards the cosmos undoubtedly stimulates persistent thinking over the mechanism of creation and consequently helps in the advancement of science and knowledge and that's what Allah wants us to do not just sit at our computer laptops or laptops and chat he wants you to explore what Allah has given you because your potential as far as your ability to think is limitless limitless Imam Al-Mahdi we are told that when he comes the world now shares one part of 36 parts of knowledge he will come to reveal the other 35 of 36 parts of knowledge for people can you imagine the level of thinking then to a human being at that time and you know what 1400 years ago the Imam or 1255 years ago the Imam gave us gave us a bit of insight of that knowledge but unfortunately as usual it took the Koreans to understand what the imams talking about when the Imam says when I rise or when my time becomes close to rise people will see each other in the palms of their hands you know what we thought the Imam is going to come with a miracle so that your palm becomes a screen where you can see your brother in the east the Koreans came and gave us the palm they said no no this is what your Imam is talking about this is what he is talking about this is something which is tangible something which is reachable not something that is a fantasy it's not a fantasy brothers and sisters the Imam says when I will come people will flock the world from east and west in an instant in an instant and you know what we are thinking we are thinking about some sort of a bird you know that the Imam will send all over the world to bring our support just 2 days ago I was reading a magazine not 2 days ago when I was flying here in Emirates airline I was reading a study in 2050 a flight from where from Hong Kong to Paris from Hong Kong to Paris in 3 hours in 3 hours this is what the Imam is talking about but who invents these so but do you see Muhammad Ali Omar do you see these names you don't see it it's always Johnny Marcus Elizabeth Charlie just put one name in between you know when that name came I was watching the news once about that guy who was killing people in America his name was his first name was what then what was it thank god he is not a Muslim all of a sudden Muhammad I said why why does he have to be John Thomas Muhammad at the end so these people will say we are terrorists you know he had to be a Muslim unfortunately where are the Muslims in the field of progress and you know I know they exist but do you know this world because only those on the catwalk of France and Britain are recognized and Miss World is recognized but when someone comes with an invention for humanity no one hears about him when someone comes with a vaccine for you know a malaria no one hears about him when someone only the trash gets honored sorry to say this word because this world is geared towards the materialistic aspects of our existence and that's why things are going wrong I took so much of your time I thank you for your attentiveness I thank you for allowing me to speak to you I sincerely thank you for lending me the opportunity to be with you and to put up with my anger sometimes it's not anger it's love it's passion for the truth and I hope you can see it from that perspective and not from any other perspective والسلام عليكم جميعاً ورحمة الله وضعكاته سؤال السؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال سؤال because God has given that intelligence to the jurist of yesterday and to the jurist of the present and to the jurist of the future why then doubt the fact that the jurist of yesterday are the only jurist and for those who ask and doubt about the jurist of today if i tell you that some of the jurist of yesterday were even more progressive than the jurist of today will you accept the مؤtype spots take their example of take the example of sheikh al Moffeed okay i'm going to drop a Bum She You know Sheikh he will start with and who was he Sheikh Al Moffeed was someone that communicated directly with Imam Al Mahdiproduction 않아term業appa على فرجاء شريف د于 اقل that자 يعني لackenyard the authenticity and the knowledge of that person. View checklist من المؤكد أنه عندما يجب أن يجب أن يدفع الوقت of افطار يحدث now do you accept this statement or would you allow another 12 minutes before you break your افطار he's a jurist and a renowned jurist and he said if you have certitude that the sun has sung down behind the horizon then the time for افطار has come he was a jurist of his time okay then why do we do this extra timing for we said on the basis of احطيات on the basis of precaution but in the view and you know what don't go too far away for you know شيخ المفيد does anyone know the name I to Allah سيد الخوي سيد الخوي سيان تفك سيان تفك افنين يعني when he studied the religious edicts of the jurist prudence of اهل البيت سلام الله عليهم on the basis of the Quran as the question suggests and as on the basis of the tradition of the Prophet which we call the sunnah and the consensus of the previous jurist and the عقل which are the four principle from which you can extrapolate the laws in اسلام and draw an edict his scientific opinion is what is the same as شيخ المفيد he said that once the sun goes down افطار time happens but we don't follow it right why because the other jurists say otherwise and we have been always affiliated with that opinion so to tell me that why we doubt we are not doubting what we are saying and this is sorry whoever wrote this question this is not a reply to him personally don't take me wrong brother now i'm not rebutting to you i'm rebutting to the general consensus of how we deal with certain matters i'm not personal with anyone so don't take it personal for me i beg you when you write a question and i respond to it right so we have to come to terms in accepting that if a jurist excelled in the jurisprudential laws of the past surely the jurist of today are as important and as clever and as intelligent to arrive at also conclusions based on the quran and the traditions of the prophet who may differ with the opinion of previous jurists and that is completely normal because the quran is fit for every time and the error it does not stop from progressing and i think and you agree with me all that the school of ahlulbayt in particular prides itself on the question of ishtihad right so if we put to an end to the question of ishtihad here goes the whole setup of ahlulbayt the whole setup of the school of ahlulbayt if we put a stop to the question of ishtihad in that regard question number two when it comes to alcohol the first reaction from parents to their children is no way are you crazy but when it comes to girls getting a ballad at nine and wearing proper hijab parents are very relaxed and laid back can you please stress on the importance of proper hijab how is a definite must and there are no two ways about it i think this is not for me to comment this is a statement in its own so i can't put it any higher than that i mean the laws of allah are the laws of allah if alcohol is haram it doesn't become that hijab becomes haram يعني if hijab Allah says observe it it is as a law as when Allah says alcohol is haram حقا so why why becoming lenient in here and there this is something that we need to identify and learn why is hijab a important concept in our life and what is the meaning of modesty and what constitute modesty in as far as us muslims arkansas i think the ayat of the quran are very clear on the issue that once a person reaches the age of accountability or the age of what we call it responsibility they must begin the process of observing hijab however observing hijab does not become an overnight practice it is something that has to be dealt with on a proper training program from the outset or from the moment that child is born or comes into and the question of hijab should also be endorsed and taught to our kids males and females for that حال right from the perspective also of both physical and mental not just the physical because i could wear the hijab but this is a wreck يعني i can undress the most hijabi woman in the world right if this is a crook mind right if this is a mind that is not based on curbing its inclination that are not within the lines and the parameters of what constitute lowering one's gaze tell the believing man to lower their gaze not to keep their gaze مساء الله you go into the markets here people they look at you is there a problem why are you looking at me is that it's cultural it's cultural we have to look at we have to inspect you from head to toe yeah keep to yourself there is better things to look at point on the heaven point on the horizon point on the you know on on on someone on yourself of course check yourself do you have to look at me from top to toe يعني why am i any different it's not you anyone it's a practice you know in our culture libanese culture sorry i don't like to talk about culture but if you look at someone for more than two seconds they'll kill you they'll come up to you say is something wrong if you want something come and tell me let's talk about but don't look at me you intimidate me don't look at me what's the problem because we have nothing else to do sometimes we are too much into other people's business we pray into other people's business look at this story what happened to the prophet once he was standing with his wife zaydam at his door steps you know all of a sudden two companions of the prophet come so they they come they see the prophet they start running so the prophet said come come he said what you are so i said come come said what he said this is my wife zaynab i'm talking to my wife i'm not flirting they said we didn't mean it that way the prophet said why did you run just be yourself why did you run come and greet me i'm standing speaking to my wife what's the big deal no we have to pray into you know sometimes in the west what people do they come you know people work and they knock at your door you don't answer the door they go to the backyard why are you going to the backyard if someone does not answer the door it means go back الله said that when you go to someone's house when you knock at someone's door and he doesn't answer the door don't pray into his life go back الله says and if you are told to go back go back because it's closer to righteousness you know why because maybe this guy cannot receive you and entertain you as a host should entertain his أخبار because maybe he just heard a bad news about something happening to his family how is he going to fabricate his emotions in front of you at that particular moment when he is not ready to receive you look how islam thinks about the individual and the feelings of the individual so we need to set up these proper understandings from the day go نيروز نيروز نيروز right نيروز why on the 21st march and not by the لونة كالنده because نيروز is based on the perjian calendar and it is celebrated predominantly in perjia i don't know whether it's celebrated here as well okay however if we purely want to look at the question of نيروز from a from the religious perspective then we should look at every other phenomenon natural phenomena in the world and celebrate it for example نيروز is the beginning of what spring right so what are they celebrating they're celebrating the beginning of a new season which is one of the creation of who الله right then why not celebrate the solar calendar it's one of the signs of Allah isn't the sign a sign of Allah alright isn't some a sign of Allah isn't winter a sign of Allah isn't all these seasons the sign of Allah then where do we end with celebration we want finish right we want finish so is there a strict religious connotation to the question of نيروز no there is not there is absolutely no religious connotation and when Imam al-Ridha was asked about نيروز he did not say anything more than the fact that it is a natural phenomena of God's creation that's all it does not mean that this is an endorsement by Imam al-Ridha that we should celebrate نيروز if certain cultures want to celebrate نيروز and endorse it with some religious backing we say sorry we don't affiliate with it with all due respect with all due respect to that okay should we recite should we recite Imam Ali's name in تشاهد if no then I want to ask how can نماز be complete without Imam's name when religion was itself incomplete tell his declaration of ولي on غدير you have to take up with Allah this question because when Allah gave the Salah to the Prophet he didn't tell him when you read تشاهد you add Ali's name to it so if you want the words of Allah over what you want then you follow what the Prophet did because the Prophet said what pray in the manner you have observed me carry out prayer and none of the Imam's none of the Imam's the brother or the sister which is a very clever and very intelligent question did Imam Ali take his name in تشاهد if he didn't he doesn't believe in his Imam or does he believe in his Imam did Imam Hassan believe in the Imam and his father or not did all the Imam's believe in the Imam of عليبن عبي طالب took the name of their father and grandfather عليبن عبي طالب in تشاهد to introduce it to us as a sunnah well if they didn't then let us not use something that does not make sense in prayer the Prophet said you don't do it you don't take that does not negate the right of Ali to the Imam does not negate the right of Ali to the Imam why because the prayer is subscribed or described in a particular manner from Allah to the Prophet from the Prophet to us and that is how the prayer has been handed down to us generation after generation by corroboration of authentic hadith to say that at the time of تشاهد we say أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمد الرسول الله according to the Australian full stop according to the American period period no additions after that in this regard وعليكم السلام وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله excellent I do play a role but I don't subscribe to the concept that genes play the dominant role in the upbringing of the children one of these roles one of these you know different aspects that contribute to the raising and training of children genes may play a part on it but can you modify the genetic behavior of a human being yes you can through training and discipline you can easily overcome this inherent gene in the mindset or the psychological or the physical built up of a human being so we can no longer use this as an excuse that when children turn out bad it's because of your uncle or because of your cha-cha or because of your mamo let these people rest in peace let us do our responsibility towards our children and raise them in the proper dimension of what constitute you know training our children rather than bringing outside influences into the equation yes anyone else a written question a written question interesting okay if there's no one oh sorry the mic was it's about yes yes okay if I understand manmat to be intercession intercession it's a different question but manmat is manmat can you describe it to me in proper terms it's like I do this according to the I will speak predominantly on the concept of intercession firstly in light of the Quran itself and in light of the practices of the prophet himself do we have the concept of intercession do we understand from the way the prophet ﷺ taught us religion to be and the imams after him that there is this inherent concept of intercession or does the Quran itself speaks about intercession firstly if we examine the ayat of the Quran we find that the Quran initially negates any form of intercession and then in doses one type where Allah says إلا من أذين له الرحمة except for those that Allah give permission to number one as far as the Quran is concerned is there another place where the Quran speaks specifically about taking the names of the prophet for example we look at this ayat الله سبحانه وتعالى the ayat says what when they transgress they will come to you and ask pardon from Allah full stop go home the ayat doesn't stop there the ayat continues and the prophet ask for pardon on their behalf يعني they say oh Allah forgive us maybe you can also do something the ayat is saying this not me the ayat is saying if only when they transgress against themselves or Rasool Allah they come to you جاوكة the verb جاوكة is to the prophet they come to you to do what to ask Allah to forgive them and then that you ask forgiveness on their behalf when they come they will see that Allah is of forgiving of merciful okay the argument against this ayat by some of our brothers from different school of thought is that this ayat is applicable at the time of the prophet there is no problem if the prophet is alive you can approach him and tell him to do that I say okay how do you prove to the time of the prophet let's see the practices of the Sahaba right what did the Sahaba do the companions of the prophet I don't want to talk about it now let's talk about the companions of the prophet there is a person by the name of أثمان ابن حنيف أثمان ابن حنيف is a companion of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم a very close companion of the prophet he says once and this Rewire is mentioned in صحيح مسلم okay he is mentioned in Sunan Tirmidhi he is mentioned in Sunan Ibn Maja he is mentioned also in Sunan Ahmed so you can go and refer to these books he says this man أثمان ابن حنيف we were with the prophet once and a blind man came to the prophet he said I am blind I can't see please ask Allah that he gives me my eyesight back the prophet said would you be patient and I guarantee جنة for you I will give you guarantee the man said جنة is far جنة is too far I want to see now he said okay go and ask Allah go and ask Allah say Allah says in the Quran when my servant ask you of me say I am close call on me directly the prophet didn't tell him that the Rewire says in صحيح مسلم the prophet said to the man go to the place of وضوء perform وضوء then come and pray to raka'at namaz good so far okay now the bombshell is coming okay when you finish from your salah come towards the qiblah and say اللهم إني توجهت إليك بحبيبك محمد يا الله إني أتوجه إليك بمحمد إلا ردت علي بصري والله I turn to you through your beloved محمد oh Allah by Muhammad I turn to you that you bring my eyesight back أسمان إبن حنيف said listen this is good man I waited to see what's gonna happen the man came and he could see us his eyes were open again people will argue but this was at the time of the prophet okay wait wait be patient time goes when the prophet dies أبو بكر comes and assume the first khilafa then umar assume the khilafa then the third خليفة أسمان assumes the khilafa in his reign a poor person came to usman ibn hanif he told him oh usman you know you are related to usman ibn affan there is some strong bond between you and usman and every time I go to usman the Khalifa of the muslimin when I tell him to fulfill my hajjat he doesn't us hanif thought he said I have something for you he said what he said go to the place of wudu pray to rakat namaz and say oh Allah إني توجهت إليك بمحمدا إلا قضيت لي حاجتي oh Allah I turn to you by Muhammad that you fulfill my need and see what happens the man says I did when I went to usman again to ask him to fulfill my need and before whenever I went to him he would not even recognize me the minute he saw me after I did this particular prayer he straight away he said brother come come come is there anything I can do for you he said yes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 anything else yeah 8 9 10 11 he said fulfilled whatever you want so that man comes back running to who to usman ibn hanif he said ah thank you Bana saying you know the haba didn't know Bana okay but I'm saying he said thank you so much for mentioning me to usman ibn affan he said well I haven't seen him in 2 days he said ah then it must be the prayer when I took the name of Muhammad okay this is not she you know hallucinations we are not talking about we are talking about we are talking about not that not that and and and these all the names of sunni renown scholars that have written history of the prophet they said they said a famine hit madina a famine hit madina and the people of madina wanted water so they came to the door of aisha ام المؤمنين رضوان الله تعالى عليها okay and they said ام المؤمنين mother of the faithful people are dying from the drought what do we do she said go to the grave of the prophet uncover it uncover the grave because the grave used to have like a canopy like this one uncover it take the canopy away and then stand at the grave of the prophet and seek Allah's assistance why because the prophet is an only person who came and died we has no value no let us examine the value of the prophet within within the Quran so we don't dispute with one another and here this is an academic research I'm not bashing anyone I'm saying these are the references that are there available to us so that can both of us our sunni brothers and sisters our shea brothers and sisters can come together and examine in an atmosphere of love academia intelligence and see what do we have in regard to the question of intercession in that regard third and final point does any shea under the sun believe that Ali or any of the imams are separate entity to Allah and they can fulfill our hajat and need beside leave from Allah if anyone comes and says that to me he's a mushrik and say it from this member but there is not a single shea under the sun that believes that every shea Muslim believe that anything that happens in this world is granted leave by Allah first and the reason why we take the names of the imams sometime is because we know that the imams are infallible and they are much much regarded by Allah than me I know myself I'm a sinner I know however having said all this now am I less of a shea if I call on Allah directly am I no no you're not the option is yours you wanna take the name of the imam correctly knowing that this leave is granted by Allah and without leave from Allah the imams can't benefit you or harm you not even the prophet himself صلى الله عليه وسلم so if we look at the question of intercession from that perspective what are we arguing about as muslims I don't know why do we have issues among one another if this is the question of intercession when it comes to the prophet and there are so many other things that I can speak about now I don't know more questions هج come stand next to me okay I think the three questions that have been given each one of them requires a whole lecture for example I'll say why do we take the name of Ali in the adhan I can't answer this in one minute honestly because I have to give references when the incident started why the incident started and is it but I will sum it up I will give one last answer does any marja of taqlid under the sun say that Ali is part of the adhan does any marja say does any marja say if you don't include it in the adhan your adhan is battle your salah is less or importance not going to be accepted your salah is negated your adhan is man guaco does any marja taqlid say that none of the marja of taqlid say that right but you know what the question is you dare not put it in the adhan you dare not put it in the adhan and see what will happen to you right this is the discrepancy that we have that marja taqlid says you are not part of the adhan but dare you not put it in the adhan of course I am not arguing now whether we want to put it in the adhan or not but I am saying from a strictly jurisprudential shia etnaashari point of view is the taking of Imam Ali in the adhan part and parcel of the adhan no it's me part and parcel of eqama no it is not why was it introduced in the period of history Imam Ali with all his dignity with all his status with all his rank was being cursed from the member of muslims for 81 years so how can you think back in the mind of muslims that Ali is a good man how how how would people know if 80 and you know what the media campaign at that time during the time of the umayyad period was honest to god was worse than fox news worse than fox news I don't know what news we have here in terms of disturbing the facts and changing you know and fabricating facts so much so so much so that Imam Ali was his name was taken in laanat on the member for 81 years until one of the umayyad rulers by the name of umar ibn abdel aziz history records these brothers and sisters umar ibn abdel aziz the son of abdel malik when he took the reign of the umayyad period he said under what justification is the name of Imam Ali being cursed on the members they said because he was the enemy of bani umayyad and killed our four fathers in badr and killed our four fathers in uhud and killed our four fathers in hunayn and killed our four fathers in so yeah he's not a good man he said you should change the laan of amir al mu'mineen and he stopped it and changed it with an ayah of the Quran which is يا عذكم لعلكم تذكرون and in our sunni mosque what do they say after they read this at the conclusion of the second khotuba why? because it was at the conclusion of the second khotuba that the laan of amir al mu'mineen was taken so umar abdel aziz said this is a false practice i don't care what my four fathers used to do it's wrong stopped it and change it with the ayah of the Quran and we say thank you oh umar ibn abdel aziz for that because you're a man of truth you're a man who stood against all the odds and said no we will not keep sustain that's why the shia during that time of 81 years and among those who were very passionate about imam ali they took the name of imam ali in the adhan simply and squarely for the reason of emphasizing that ali is a companion of the prophet and the husband of the daughter of rasoolullah because there was no other medium of communication to relay openly what you want to express at that time alright so you just mentioned that sheikh mufid spoke to imam mahdi mufid with the imam ended with the last naib i didn't say he spoke to you i said he communicated with him and it has been authenticated and if you want the reference i'll give you the reference that imam mahdi sent a signed letter to the sheikh mufid and he used to communicate to the sheikh mufid through signed letters i didn't say he met him face to face and he sat with him and talked to him no i didn't say that i said there was communication between sheikh mufid and imam al mahdi i'm very aware of the four naibs and that after the four naibs a safara of imam al mahdi there is no one and whoever who claims that he has any connection with imam al mahdi today or those who appoint the time of the return of imam mahdi are not saying the truth these are the words of imam mahdi himself and i'm very aware of what the imam has said and what not said what are your views on cloning from a religious perspective and what does our religion say about mercy killing euthanasia in a nutshell so i don't take much of your time the question of cloning if it does not lose connotation with the question of ethics and morality if cloning will enhance the productivity of crops the productivity of cattle which will enhance to eliminate poverty in the world then Islam does not stand against the concept in principle but if it can lead to cloning tyrants we're cloning reviving a sort of drones that we have among our mits in order to have these drones be the prominent culture or the prominent ideology then in principle again Islam stands against any form of injustice so when it comes to the question of cloning we need to understand first and foremost for what purpose is it being used and Islam does not give a fatwa against cloning outright without understanding the dynamics of any particular issue at hand when it comes to mercy killing there is no question of mercy killing killing is killing killing is killing let us not play with words when a doctor takes an oath to become a doctor the first word he is asked to do is i will ensure everything in my power to preserve life to preserve life not to kill because that person decided that i had enough secondly who knows whether you had enough or not and who knows what is awaiting you after this if you think what you are going through is bad enough wait until you get six foot under who told us what's going to happen there right i'm not scaring you about the grave but i'm saying who knows secondly maybe what you are going through is a phase so that when you end up down there you are cleared why worse your opportunity why take that opportunity away from yourself and say no i had enough pain i had enough suffering let me go to my last about these people who say let me go to last about because they think life ends after this that's the problem when it comes to the question of the so-called mercy killing and it is amazing how we twist and turn terminology like for example instead of calling a con man a con man we call him a professional how is that possible is a con man man killing mercy killing what sort of language is this and in what connotation are we going to talk about mercy killing and how it conforms to the ending of the life or what constitute death to a person is it brain death is it total heart death that's what the jurist argue about or debate when it comes to do we believe that brain death is death you can pull the plug or is it otherwise that is left to the professionals the doctors and the jurist to come to a conclusion of what constitute death and then the jurist with issue he is verdict on that and not a general concept of what constitute the so-called euthanasia or mercy killing with this i conclude والسلام عليكم جميعا ورحمة الله وبرك