Mae o agoredd�araith gweithiau o ddweud i gael ei ddweud iddangos ei ddweud i ddweud i in collaboration with the Department for Work and Pensions, and, as such, the Scottish Government does not retain a list of local authorities using the scheme. The Scottish Government does recognise that water direct is being used in Scotland and is working to facilitate discussions between relevant pasties to support the development of a common understanding of the appropriate use of the scheme. Colin Beattie. I thank the cabinet secretary for his response. Given the Scottish Government's commitment to poverty reduction and to alleviating the impact of changes to benefit payments brought in by the Westminster Government, has the cabinet secretary offered any guidance to local authorities regarding the need to take into account the customer's ability to pay and whether a benefits deduction for water and sewage charges or debt resulting from unpaid water and sewage charges will cause financial hardship to the customer before the local authority applies to the DWP to make deductions from the benefits payment? The member raises a good point, but he will be aware that there is a matter for local authorities to decide what tools to use to collect water charges and, in what circumstances, they should apply any particular approach. However, it is important that any debt recovery tool, including water direct, is used responsibly. A forum is being established that the Scottish Government will chair to ensure that stakeholders, including customer representatives, can discuss the implications for different groups of individuals of using water direct and other charge recovery methods, with a view to establishing a common understanding of good practice that best protects the most financially hard-pressed. It is also worth noting that water charges in Scotland are on average £39 lor than in England and Wales and have been falling in real terms in recent years. The linkage to council tax means that charges are the most progressive in the whole of the UK. 2. Christian Allan To ask the Scottish Government when it is the next review of the industry authority seafish that is scheduled to take place. 3. Aileen McLeod Following the report of the Smith commission, options for making administrative changes to seafish have been under discussion across the four UK fisheries administrations. We do not believe that the discussions address the fundamental flaws inherent in seafish as a reserved body attempting to operate in an area where policy is devolved. We have therefore asked the UK Government to support the devolution of powers to raise and administer food levies, including the seafood levy, that is currently administered by seafish via legislative change to the Scotland bill. Once such powers are devolved, we shall be in a position to undertake a proper and fundamental review of food levies in Scotland, including Scotland's place in seafish and the implications for the role of that body within the UK. Christian Allan I thank the register for the answer, but I am quite surprised because, of course, the best type of body that UK-wise has to have a regular review every three years. As I understand it, the last review was to be taking place last year in 2014. The Smith commission asked for the Scottish and UK Government to work together on this, and I will ask the minister if the discussions have been taking place and have not ended up yet as a devolution that we want to have. Even isn't it time for seafish to be reviewed out of Scotland? Christian Allan Christian Allan is absolutely right to point out that our view of seafish is overdue. Indeed, we believe that a fundamental overhaul of the arrangements for raising and administering seafood levies has been pressing for some time now. Following the report of the Smith commission, options for making administrative changes to seafish have been under discussion across the four UK fisheries administrations, but we do not believe that those discussions addressed the fundamental flaws inherent in seafish as a reserved body attempting to operate in an area where policy is devolved. That was recently demonstrated when seafish chose to use the UK Fish and Chip Shop awards, deservedly won this year by a Shetland business as a vehicle for the Norwegian Seafood Council to promote the marketing of frozen Norwegian whitefish into the UK market. While that plays to the interests of powerful importers of frozen fish elsewhere in the UK, it fails to put Scottish interests first. Therefore, we have asked the UK Government to support the devolution of powers to raise and administer food levies, including the seafood levy that is currently administered by seafish, via legislative change to the Scotland bill. Once such powers are devolved, we shall be in a position to undertake that proper and fundamental review of food levies in Scotland, including Scotland's place in seafish and the implications for the role of that body within the UK. I share the industry's concerns at any suggestion that seafish should in any way be promoting Norwegian Seafood given the quality and sustainability of our own Scottish fish. The UK Government has said that it is prepared to work closely with the Scottish Government on giving Scotland a greater say over how the levies are spent. Can the Cabinet Secretary update us on the minister's priorities for spending on seafood promotion in Scotland? I am very happy to write to the member with some further details around that for me to make sure that we are given as comprehensive information as possible. To ask the Scottish Government what its views are on bus re-regulation. Our position has not changed in that I have no plans for wholesale re-regulation but want to see closer partnership working between operators and transport authorities. We are shortly bringing forward legislation that makes changes to the registration of bus services and provides an opportunity for the sector to demonstrate how it can work together to better manage changes to the bus network. I thank the minister for that answer but I have to say that I find it very disappointing. I am sure that I am not the only constituency or list MSP whose communities have been blighted over the years by the relatively fast withdrawal of bus services from local communities, mostly recently the M3 bus and the 10 bus in my constituency. It seems to me that transport authorities are also hide bound in this regard because their current guidance means that they have no opportunity to intervene when there is another or a similar service operating in those areas, which is the case with those two particular instances that I mentioned. I really would ask the minister to think again, and if he is not content to have, as he described at wholesale re-regulation, perhaps he could look at another model that might give communities the opportunity to have a say in the decisions being made that so badly affect them. I think that there are proposals that I have outlined that will assist in terms of bus services across Scotland. There is also the provision already within legislation for quality contracts, which is local franchising and quality bus partnerships. In addition to that, through community planning and strengthen community planning, local transport strategies could be addressed. I would disagree with the point that there is no opportunity to intervene. Local transport authorities can intervene if there is assessed social need and implement subsidised services. The legislative change that I am proposing surrounds the ability to engage for better engagement with local authorities in assessing transport changes through bus regulation. I am sure that that will be welcomed by the whole chamber, but on the issue of wholesale re-regulation, if Patricia Ferguson is disappointed, I am sure that she should be equally disappointed in her own colleague Ian Gray, who abandoned his bill, which was apparently about re-regulation, but, like many things with the Labour Party, it was not quite what it said on the tin. David Stewart brokered a meeting between me and Ian Gray, and I was happy to be supportive to strengthen the legislation, but it was Mr Gray who withdrew his bill. I will do what I can through grant conditions, through transport strategies, through strengthening community planning and the national transport strategy to support local communities working in partnership with the bus industry, rather than bringing the kind of volatility that I think that the Labour Party would reap upon the public transport system of Scotland. Is it not the case that re-regulation would cost more than £3 quarters of a billion pounds? It is a height of cynicism for the Labour Party to suggest such a thing when they know that the comprehensive spending review is likely to have further cuts to an already diminished Scottish budget. Mr Gibson is right in the respect that wholesale re-regulation, or indeed re-nationalisation, would be incredibly expensive. However, just like on the situation with the Labour proposition on the railways, it says that it is re-nationalisation. It turns out that it is not what Labour says is not necessarily what it does. It did not deliver re-regulation administration. It is not even proposing it now in opposition, having abandoned their bill. That is why we will take the right pragmatic and practical steps to support local communities in engaging changes to bus services, while maintaining the national concessionary travel scheme, BSOG and other measures to support accessibility and connectivity right across the country. We will do so in partnership with the confederation of passenger transport. I know that that is the kind of conditions that will lead to enhanced public transport in Scotland. Thank you very much. As the minister hinted at, there are a suite of options for local authorities to improve bus services, quality partnerships, quality contracts and punctuality improvement plans. When did the Government last review the take-up of those mechanisms? Is he able to tell the chamber how many there are? Does he plan to review or refresh the bus strategy generally? The good news is that the refresh of the national transport strategy is under way as we speak. I have set a very challenging timescale for it to be concluded by Christmas. Within that, there will be the imminent legislative and regulatory changes that I have proposed and will be shared with the chamber, and with the national transport strategy review, in which we have to prioritise bus transport if we want to get the modal shift from the car into public transport. I am equally disappointed that the local authorities and transport partnerships have not taken up quality bus partnerships or quality contracts. If I can make it easier for them to do that, I will do it. Sometimes it is about resource, not necessarily regulation, but there are the tools to do the job at the local level, and local authorities need to seize those opportunities and make it happen to help to address need. That is why, if those kind of practical measures are not necessarily blanket wholesale re-regulation, it will make the difference, because it can be done and it can be done now. It is regrettable that this issue gets seen as just another example of Labour-SNP rivalry. Is it not clear, if we look around Europe, to the kind of countries that enjoy the excellent public transport service provision that Scotland deserves but does not have, one thing is clear. It regulates firmly, it subsidises and not just at the margins, and it recognises that the private sector alone, a free-market approach does not deliver the goods. I point out that the subsidy to the bus network was around 45 per cent of total bus incomes, about 45 per cent of public sector subsidy. I think that there is more that we can do around integrated transport. I think that there is more that we can do around smart cards and partnership and local connections, and all that work is under way. I disagree that wholesale re-regulation is the answer when there is a suite of actions that I think will improve bus patronage in Scotland. However, we should celebrate the positives and empower people at the most local level to address social need where it is established, and it is my job to ensure that the conditions are there to do that. That is exactly why we are refreshing the national transport strategy to make it clear to local authorities that they have the power to take action now to address need but in a pragmatic and positive way. Neil Bibby I have been contacted by many constituents in Renfrewshire. The minister also represents concerns about the high price of bus fares and a lack of services, particularly in the evening. I have also been contacted by bus passengers in Clydebank, where they have made that they cannot get a direct bus to the new Queen Elizabeth University hospital. Some pensioners have to get free buses to travel just seven miles for a hospital appointment. If the minister is not going to regulate the bus industry—which he is clearly not—can he tell us what is he actually going to do to address the problems that are facing bus users on a daily basis? I do not think that Neil Bibby has been listening to me. I have been outlining the actions in the national transport strategy, the ability of quality contracts or quality bus partnerships, the investments in the subsidies that we are making or the previous answers that I have given. If there is social need, how local authorities and transport partnerships can address that or wider issues around a personalised journey in the contacts that can be made through travel line to support that. In addition to all that, fantastic investment in public transport of more than £1 billion every year, including the bus industry. Neil Bibby says that he is disappointed that I am not re-regulating and that he will also be disappointed and angry that even the Labour party is no longer proposing re-regulation either by abandoning the very bill that was to do that very act. We will get on with the job of ensuring that there is satisfactory public transport and sustain the very impressive record of infrastructure investment that far surpasses anything that the previous administration was able to deliver. No 4, Richard Baker Thank you. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote cultural events in the north-east. Cabinet Secretary, if you want to hyslop. The national companies are supported in 2015-16 to perform 30 times in the north-east with an associated programme of over 170 workshops and events and have specifically been asked to support the north-east during the music hall revamp. Partners engaged with includes schools, family centres, the lemon tree and the Royal Aberdeens Children's hospital. In 2014, Creative Scotland invested £3.6 million in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire local authority areas through 35 awards. Creative Scotland has provided £90,000 funding towards Granite and made it a new site-specific piece of participatory theatre made by and for the people of Aberdeen. Under 130,000 funding towards the sound festival for its work in 2015 and 2016, promoting new music through performances, installations and learning and participation activities across Aberdeenshire and beyond. Today, I can announce that Creative Scotland is providing the sound festival with an additional £140,000 to support next year's sound festival and enables sound to deliver a high-quality dynamic programme of education and performance during 2016 and 2017 in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and the north-east of Scotland. I thank the minister for the cabinet secretary for that answer. A recent survey by Aberdeen and Grampian Chambers of Commerce showed that seven out of ten of their member businesses believe that cultural investment has a strong role to play in making the city more attractive, place to live and work. Given that, notwithstanding what the minister said, funding for the arts in Aberdeen is specifically lower per capita than in our other cities. What further future plans does the Scottish Government have to promote arts city? I am very welcome to the announcement on the sound festival, but does the minister believe that Creative Scotland should consider awarding the sound festival funding from its core funding stream to secure its long-term future beyond next year? I am very much welcome the survey that he has highlighted. Businesses in Aberdeen recognising the culture offer has been very important to economic growth. I am delighted to hear that. On what we can do for investment, I would point out that the statistics that he sites in relation to perhead a population are from where the applicant resides as opposed to where the arts activity takes place. Obviously, the infrastructure of having more organisations that can apply for regular funded activity from Aberdeen particularly would be helpful, bearing in mind that 100 per cent of those that apply for regular funding from Aberdeen itself did achieve regular funding. The sound festival is delighted that it welcomes our announcement today, but over the period since 2012, the sound festival has almost £0.5 million of investment, recognising the quality of what it produces. Clearly, we want to ensure that not just the central but every part of Scotland can enjoy the great cultural performances that this country has to offer. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a progress report on how the Borders rail link is operating. Minister Derek Mackay Patronage on the Borders Railway has been exceptional since its opening, with nearly 200,000 journeys being made in the first six weeks. Some performance issues have resulted from the business services that ScotRail are mitigating through additional carriages and some affected services. The performance of the Borders Railway has been closely monitored alongside the rest of the Scottish rail network. Jim Hewn. I thank the minister for his answer. The minister will be aware that some of the services have been cancelled because of overcrowding. Does the minister think that it is acceptable for ScotRail to advise passengers which trains are busier than others so that customers can make alternative options? The minister tells the passengers what he is doing in conjunction with ScotRail to increase capacity on a longer-term basis. Would he give a clear commitment today that he will initiate talks with stakeholders to get a feasibility study under way into extending the line to Carlyle so that even more communities can reap the benefits? We have made it clear that we would judge the performance of the Borders Railway and talk with the regional transport partnership in terms of a future feasibility study. Yes, it will engage with stakeholders. I think that it is helpful to advise passengers when the busiest trains are because some are leisure passengers who might want to avoid the busier times. I think that that is helpful advice. Most importantly, what has the Government and ScotRail done to address the huge success that is Borders Rail? That has meant adding extra carriages and, in some cases, doubling the capacity at certain times to try to address that success story. There has been immense positive economic impact as a consequence of the Borders Rail. We will look further at improving the capacity and the rolling stock that has been used to the maximum within Scotland to address the now fantastic demand levels for the success story, which is Borders Rail. In due course, we will have new trains, 70 new high-touch electric trains coming to Scotland, and that allows us to cascade existing rolling stock across the country. I hear Jim Hume saying that it is not happening quickly enough. You cannot magic up new trains, but we have ordered them through the franchise. If the Liberal Democrats were in power, they would indeed be no overcrowding on the Borders Railway, because there would be no Borders Railway. It has been delivered by this Government, providing a fantastic service. To ask the Scottish Government how it can encourage library usage by children. The Scottish Government places great importance on public libraries and everyone should have access. With our work with the Scottish Library and Information Council, we are providing support for many public library projects that can encourage use by children. In August, the First Minister launched the Every Child a Library Member Pilot, which the Scottish Government has funded from the culture portfolio. That will work with key stages in primary 1, with a number of different programmes to improve literacy and provide access to libraries for our children. Cabinet Secretary may be aware that 4,000 primary 4 children in Scotland were provided with a superstar reader card, encouraging them to take part in the sixth visit challenge to libraries. Does she agree that children can only take part in those initiatives if there is adequate access to libraries and that closing libraries will be likely to have an adverse effect on the number of children who visit them? I commend the programme that he talks about. Clearly, libraries have a central role in our communities. We have published our national library strategy, the strategy for public libraries. Any closure has to be considered very carefully. We need libraries at the heart of our communities. Thank you. Before we move to the next side of business, members will wish to join me and welcome to the gallery Her Excellency Alicia Castro, the ambassador of the Argentine Republic to the United Kingdom. We now move to First Minister's Questions. Question number one.


In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. And peace be upon you. We pray you. We pray to Allah. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah on us all. Dear beloved community, I hope you all doing well and staying safe. May Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala increase you in all good things and relieve you of your troubles and hardships. Allahumustaan, Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala is the one whose help is to be sought. This is your brother Ali speaking to you on the occasion of the blessed night of the 27th of Rajab, 1,442 lunar years after the Hijra of our Master Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wa sallam, from Mecca to Al-Mukarrama to Medina to Al-Munawera. Tonight I'm going to talk to you about one of the greatest miracles, one of the greatest of the Majizat of our Master Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wa la alaihi wa la alaihi the miracle of the night journey and ascension, Laylatul Islah wal Mi'araj. Even though there are numerous miracles attributed to the prophets in general, there are a select few that only he, sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wa la alaihi received. They are from the khasais of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi the special qualities of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wa la alaihi. No one before him received them and no one after him will receive them. First and foremost of course is the wahi of the Quran. The Quran is the final revelation of God, there is no more wahi after the Quran. The Quran supersedes all of the previous revelations, the injunctions, the ahkam of the Quran supersedes all of the previous revealed injunctions. In the Torah there are 613 commandments, these are called mitzvot, yet about 40% of them have no application in the world today because they are predicated upon the priesthood and the temple and the sacrificial system at the temple, there is no more temple, there hasn't been for 2,000 years, the priesthood is dissolved, sacrifices are not done, thus the qadr of Allah swt, His irada koniya in effect, abrogated 40% of the Jewish or the mosaic mitzvot, they are abrogated as a circumstance of history, so Allah swt saw it fit for those mitzvot to be rendered obsolete. So this is compelling evidence that the Torah was never meant to be the last and universal sacred law for humanity and that something else would be forthcoming. Of course there are certain mutable theological and moral principles and foundations, we call them maqasid that all of the prophets affirmed, however the religion, the deen found its ikmal, its completion and perfection with the revelation given to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa la alayhi wa sallam which includes the Quran and the Prophet's precedent, in other words the Prophet's firmly established ethos and practice. And of course then you have the splitting of the moon which is from his special miracles and finally you have the isra and miaraj, the night journey and ascension and body and soul, arruh wa l-jasad. Allah swt says in the first ayah of surat al-isra also called surat bani israil so he begins the ayah, he begins the ayah with the word subhan which denotes and tasbih, so the utter dissimilarity of Allah swt is absolute perfection as well as his glory and majesty, that Allah swt is not bound or dependent upon anything such as space, time, or matter says this is one of the great theological statements of the Quran that there is nothing like the likes of Allah swt okay the six directions cannot contain him everything in creation right is contained by the six directions like for example there's something in front of you and behind you something to your right to your left above you and below you none of these things apply to Allah when it comes to creation you're either moving or you're still Allah swt is neither moving nor still there's no color to Allah swt our theologians also mention that he is neither transcendent nor imminent with relation to his creation so Allah swt utterly crashes the logic barrier he is the first without a beginning he is the last without an end he is the necessary existent who created space time and matter ex nihilo out of nothing not as a necessary or compelled effect to a cause but rather freely as an act of will okay so subhanal ladi assalabi abdihi laylan abd glory be to the one who took his servant on a journey by night okay his servant his abd his slave this is one of the greatest titles of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa la ali wa sallam that he is abd Allah par excellence this is his great title in the Quran abdina many times he's mentioned by this exalted title in the Quran and of course Allah swt uses this title for other prophets as well the prophet isa alaihi salam is quoted in the Quran okay so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi salam he so this name denotes the idea that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam perfected abdia to Allah swt okay he perfected servitude slavehood to Allah swt this was demonstrated uh just before the isra okay when the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam visited the city of taif right and he went there for da'wah to call the people of bani taqif to tawhid okay and the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam was rejected by the people and he was abused by them they stoned him out of the city uh they bruised and battered him okay and the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he made this beautiful dua to Allah swt in which he said oh Allah I complain to you due to the weakness of my strength okay so he did not complain to Allah swt he didn't say that I complain to you because of what you've done to me right he attributes the weakness to himself I complain to you due to the due to the weakness of my strength okay and then he said that if this is happening to me and you're not angry with me okay then I don't mind the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam his only concern is if this is a manifestation of the wrath of Allah swt and if it isn't then he's willing to go through it and give the ultimate sacrifice give his life uh if need be uh for the sake of Allah swt so this is good erbudiya this is beautiful erbudiya beautiful servitude to Allah swt so erbudiya deals with your your attitude towards Allah swt okay and the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he said you know so how wondrous is the affair of the believer okay the affair of the believer is always good okay then he elaborates when the believer is in a state of hardship he shows patience when the believer is in a state of prosperity he's grateful there's gratitude so sabr and shukr very very important these are two of the greatest of the theological virtues in our tradition patience and gratitude patience and gratitude we should be in one one one or both of these states constantly now interestingly the quran does not seem to affirm atheism right that everyone worships something everyone is a servant to something the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he said lu'ina abdu dinnar wa abdu dirham cursed is the slave of the gold coin and the silver coin meaning wealth or money in general and this is a very common form of idolatry anyone who tells you that they don't worship anything you should be very skeptical you know just like you know how the atheist tells the theist to be very skeptical of the claims of your religious book we should also tell the atheist to be very skeptical of his own claims that he doesn't worship something because when the nafs of the disobedient okay says to him ya abdi oh my slave right the nafs says labbaik ya rabb at your service oh my lord people have to make a decision who do they want to serve do they want to serve god who is the all-powerful creator of the universe or something else the quran says have you not seen the one or have you seen the one who takes as his god his desires his caprice if you can be a guardian over him or do you think that the majority of them listen or use their intellects in them okay they are nothing but cattle or even worse right so for a lot of people it's really all about eating and drinking you know reproducing you know people are becoming more and more hedonistic in other words the pursuit of pleasure okay becomes the goal of life is very common now a severe difficulty that many muslims face today in our day and age is the loss of faith the loss of iman among their immediate family members friends and relatives due to the prevalence of atheism of existential nihilism of this idea of you know this idea of doing whatever feels good hedonism a cancel culture that is offended by everything people are afraid to say things now they're afraid to believe in things as well as this insidious revolt against tradition traditional religion traditional values young people in particular are led to believe that faith in god is somehow antiquated old-fashioned and even opposed to reason okay and that faith equates to quote belief without evidence now what is especially disturbing about this phenomenon is that Islam is often portrayed as being the one major religion that is the most fundamentally antithetical to reason and this is simply erroneous nothing is further from the truth as muslims we have traditionally adhered to a a three-dimensional epistemological approach okay that that we can know that things are true based upon three sources working in conjunction the senses the hawas the uh the intellect or reason the akal and revelation wahi okay and with respect to the latter two the intellect and revelation or nakal and akal since both of these came from the very same source uh allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that they cannot be in conflict okay in other words revelation does not task us to embrace the irrational or the falsifiable quite the contrary it is the revelation itself that constantly uh bids us to exercise reason the quran declares indeed the worst of creatures in god's sight are those who are deaf and dumb those who do not reason and at times the quran also reveals the uh rational basis for its commands such as the command to pray for example the command to prayer indeed prayer prevents indecency and wrong action the rationale behind the prohibition of adultery is is similarly given in the quran you see the quran says wala taqrabu zina okay and notice here that the quran does not say wala tazinu the quran does not say don't don't commit adultery it says don't even draw near to adultery okay don't even put yourself in a position where that could even be possible it is indecency and an evil path so once you go down that path things get worse and worse i mean we can make a cogent argument that people destroy their lives and they destroy their lives of their children do and and and their children's children due to their engagement in illicit sexual relations okay the rationale behind fasting is given in the quran just as it was prescribed upon those before you in order for you to attain taqwa right and taqwa is often translated as uh piety or the fear of god god consciousness and these certainly have something to do with taqwa so linguistically the word taqwa is related to wikaya meaning protection or prevention okay now unfortunately the word faith okay the word the english word faith has been sullied in our modern culture or people like material reductionists you know what we would call one dimensional empiricists these are only people who who uh these are people who only rely on their on their ability to see and hear and touch and smell and taste they imagine faith to be something that religious dogmatists cling to blindly cling to in spite of their intellects in reality however we believe precisely because it is reasonable to believe you see so perhaps the word uh confidence rather than faith uh is a more appropriate word in our context you see uh the word confidence comes from the latin con which means with and fides which means faith so it means with faith yet this word does not have the unfortunate negative connotations of the word faith in english for example if i were to tell a modern atheist that i that i have faith in the occurrence of a hurricane tomorrow okay he would probably deem me to be some sort of religious oddball or superstitious soothsayer however if i said that i have confidence in the occurrence of a hurricane he might ask me if i happen to be a meteorologist right if i've done actual studies um because the word confidence is is a better word so used in this sense used in this sense it becomes apparent that everyone is with faith concerning a multitude of things everybody there are no exceptions the staunches of atheists have confidence that the law of gravity will continue to function uh from one moment to the next or that the the sun will rise in the east tomorrow and set in the west so both experience and reason convince them right convince with victory it convinces them of these things similarly both experience and reason convince us as muslims that an ordered material universe dependent upon space and time must have been brought into existence by a being who is necessarily spaceless timeless and immaterial as well as unfathomably intelligent and powerful beyond comprehension okay and oh you who believe who so ever among you should pronounce his religion god will bring a people whom he loves and they love him humble toward the believers stern toward the disbelievers striving in the way of allah and fearing not the blamer fearing not the blame of the blamer that is the grace of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which he bestows upon any whom he wills and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is all encompassing and omniscient now according to the commentators this renouncement of religion this irtidad that the ayah is indicating is due to a lack of love for god who is the source of all good things in reality those who lack the love the mahabba of god actually lack knowledge ma'rifah concerning him okay if they in other words if they were to know allah subhanahu wa ta'ala intimately through experience and reason and revelation okay this three-dimensional approach they would necessarily love allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also the true believers in this ayah are described as not fearing the blame of the blamer that is because they are intellectually formidable in the face of aggressive attacks upon their convictions so we need to study theology both creedal and natural from teachers of transmissional knowledge when we acquire the ability to be discursive with our knowledge when we acquire the ability to be discursive with our knowledge of god in other words when we are able to speak with confidence and conviction about allah subhanahu wa ta'ala his messenger and his book then ease will follow and these feeble and convoluted philosophies that are dominant in our culture and are challenging our young people especially in the academy will fall like a house of cards okay in the face of our robust intellectual engagement and logically superior discourse okay continuing going back to the ayah then so subhanahu wa ta'ala as-sala bi-abdihi l-aylan glory be to the one blessed be the one who took his servant on a journey by night he took his servant on a journey by night from the inviolable mosque the sacred mosque okay masjid al haram the kaaba in mecca to the farthest mosque the farthest mosque masjid al aqsa in jerusalem okay so the kaaba to jerusalem the ancient name of mecca by the way was uh bakka allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the quran indeed the first house ever established to the worship of the one true god was at bakka full of blessings and interestingly this is a name that the ahlil kitab are familiar with it's mentioned in the psalms of david psalm 84 okay you'll find this in christian bibles psalm 84 it begins how lovely are your tabernacles oh lord of hosts the word tabernacle and it's in the plural sometimes in some translations this is given in the singular mishkan but it's actually mishkanot a tabernacle is a house of worship how lovely are your houses of worship oh lord of hosts what joy for those whose strength comes from the lord have set their minds on a pilgrimage to jerusalem okay so it's going to describe sort of the pilgrimage experience of of these pilgrims as they pass through the valley of bakka okay and the Hebrew says the mecca bakka the valley of bakka they make it a spring a maian okay and so the valley of bakka bakka so in in in uh Hebrew bakka as well as an arabic you bakka yabaki it means to weep so this is sometimes translated in english as the weeping valley why is it called the weeping valley well because this is where ismael aley salam was weeping for water so this psalm right attributed to dowood aley salam uh is describing um uh pilgrims of bani israel moving through or passing through the valley of bakka the valley of bakka the meccan valley on their way north into jerusalem okay so this was a place that was known by bani israel so according to the hadith then the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he was uh sleeping in the house of umhani who was the sister of sainah aley karam allahu wajah and he was taken to the kaaba by jubil aley salam and his chest was split open and then it was sealed this is called shakusadar okay and his heart was placed on ice uh there was a there was a golden vessel that was brought and his heart was put on ice this was literally open heart surgery the incision scar uh was seen by the sahaba years later and we're told according to the hadith that the haddu shaitan was removed from his heart the haddu shaitan portion of of the shaitan it's hard to translate there's two ways of thinking about this because it's a construct phrase right haddu shaitan either a portion from the shaitan which is inconceivable or a portion for the shaitan so the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he had a portion of something in his heart for the shaitan right so imama supti he mentions this beautiful interpretation he says that since the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam is rahmat al-lil alamin he is he is quite literally mercy i mean his essence is mercy in the quran he is described as rahma wa ma'a rasana ka illa rahmatan lil alamin and that's a that's a noun it's not a verb so the noun denotes the essence of a person okay so imama supti says that this was a portion of mercy that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam could possibly could possibly have had for even the shaitan but it was taken from his heart because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not want him to have mercy for the shaitan so in other words the heart of the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam is literally overflowing with rahma and then the buraq is brought to him okay and the buraq was some sort of daba some sort of beast that was about the size of a small horse the word buraq is from burq okay and of course you know people like Richard Dawkins famously ridiculed our belief in the buraq while he was being interviewed by Mehdi Hassan right you know Richard Dawkins he's a mustahzi you know he's one of these mockers and this is what they do right and they were mustahzi at the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam abu jahl was a mustahzi abu lahab was a mustahzi none of these people became muslim okay and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran that he will take care of these people that we're not even to engage with these people okay but Richard Dawkins is one of these people and this is the same man who says that you know we're all african apes that the universe may have been created by aliens and that there's no such thing as good and evil okay so on his atheistic worldview on his atheistic worldview we are all just fizzing stardust with no purpose just atoms moving around aimlessly okay on his worldview if i kill a man there's nothing essentially wrong with that that's just atoms colliding into other atoms that's like a stone rolling down a hill okay i mean there's no real objective moral component to a stone striking the earth likewise on atheism there is no real objective moral component to my knife stabbing my neighbor it's just stardust it's just it's just atoms right so that's a very strange worldview and i think just intuitively normal people rejected and i think he rejects it as well but this is what he's uh these are the positions that these atheists are forced to take for various reasons a lot of it has to do with ego the burak was not of this world okay the burak was from the barzakh from the intermediate realm it was a special creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and it had the ability to travel at very high speeds as if moving at the speed of light in the word you know burak as we said comes from bark meaning lightning so it took 30 days at that time to travel from the hejaz from the arabian peninsula like from mecca to sham okay to uh to you know Damascus the the levant took 30 days to travel at that time today it takes one hour by airplane there's something we have to understand and and and realize that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has power over time and space you know hypothetically if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had manifested an aircraft behind one of the mountains of Mecca and the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam flew to jerusalem and back at one night the koresh would still not have believed him and they and they would have continued to ridicule him you know so so my point is that time and location okay context in general change our perception of reality okay on earth i weigh 200 pounds on on mars i weigh 76 pounds i'm 43 years old on earth okay i would be 23 years old on mars mass is relative time is relative the closer you get to a to an event horizon of a black hole the slower time becomes the faster you travel the slower time slows down it's called time dilation okay our mother ayesha said the bed was still warm when the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam returned home after the later isra the latch of his door was still swinging when he returned okay so natural law what we call al hukum al adi okay you can call it you know the law of physics it's the customary laws of space and time these were suspended by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam this was to demonstrate that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has power over all things okay there's there's no such thing as natural causation there are only patterns of the divine will in the created world okay this is also known as the sunnah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so a miracle then is a suspension of the sunnah of perceived causation a suspension of the psychological construct that we call cause and effect according to the theology of ahl sunnah wal jamaa Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the direct and sole cause of everything in creation you know nature in and of itself has no power no potency to do anything in every microsecond of existence Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is destroying and recreating and recreating the atoms and accidents of all things in creation God continually creates from moment to moment okay nothing other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has any causal potency or power in reality la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah okay when Suleyman aleyhi salam asked his council to bring him the throne of bilqis the queen of sheba okay and afrit minat jinn okay a very powerful jinn he said i'll bring it to you before you rise from the majlis in a matter of hours okay so like today you know at the time jerusalem to to yemen you could fly down there and uh you know a couple hours load up a throne put it back on the airplane and bring it back you know before Suleyman aleyhi salam rises from his from his seat but then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us but someone that had kitab someone who had knowledge of revelation he said to Suleyman aleyhi salam i'll bring it to you before the twinkling of an eye in the urlama say that's because this person who had elmu kitab he knew the sort of nature of revelation he had he was uh he was familiar with theology with Allah subhanahu understanding Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the sunnah of Allah that he made dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he disintegrated creation in that moment he recreated it in the very next moment in jerusalem right in front of Suleyman aleyhi salam okay so you know this is a complicated theological issue uh you know that deals with the difference between things like um Aristotelian what's known as hyelomorphism uh and you know something called atomism occasionalism concurrentism so that's outside of the scope of this lecture but here's the main point a break in natural law okay what we call kharkul adat uh is not customary but it is not irrational okay it is not irrational if i told you that a saint of god walked through a wall a skeptic might say well that's impossible it's irrational to believe that and i would disagree it is not customary at the subatomic level okay the quantum level this happens all the time it's it's actually called quantum tunneling some physicists believe that this may eventually be possible with larger man-made objects okay so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he knows the physics of everything we're trying to catch up okay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he is the master of creation and then Allah says that he brought his servant on a journey by night from the sacred mosque to the farthest mosque in Jerusalem the precincts of which we did bless okay there's barakah due to the number of prophets that resided in that area in and around the land of sham also according to the sound hadith the descent of Sayyidina Isa alayhi salam will take place in the land of sham okay and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he began his ascension through the samawat okay and these are not the paradises these are not the jannat okay the samawat are seven realms of creation okay and you know six of them are not perceptible to us the first heaven we call we'll call it the heaven again by heaven i don't mean the garden i'm not talking about the place where the believers go after the day of judgment talking about something else the first heaven is called a samawat dunya in the Quran and the Quran says that it is the realm of the stars okay the universe as we know it at the end of the samawat dunya according to the hadith there is a door or a gateway of some sort that jibreel alaihi salam and the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam reached after passing through this gateway they entered into a new realm the second heaven okay now today astronomers and you know physicists they espouse the existence of something called a multiverse they talk about something called string theory okay so they postulate different or multiple dimensions of existence okay allahu alam again we're trying to catch up okay uh allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has power over time and space these things are very easy for allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he saw various prophets who were in these various realms of existence and the significance of these specific prophets is very interesting okay so the visions of these prophets point to certain what we might say muhammad in typologies in other words they prefigured events and the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam so for example in the first heaven okay the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he had a vision of adham alaihi salam okay uh and so the some of the ulama mentioned that the significance of that is that just as adham alaihi salam was exiled as it were from the garden the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam will be exiled from mecca he'll make hijrah in the second heaven the second realm the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he met the two cousin prophets isa alaihi salam and yahya alaihi salam okay and and so the ulama mentioned here that this is an indication that just as isa alaihi salam and yahya alaihi salam were persecuted by their people and yahya alaihi salam was assassinated by his people isa alaihi salam according to the christians was also killed but according to uh the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rescued him so there was an attempt on his life just as those things happen to those prophets there's going to be attempts on the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi alaihi salam as well in the third realm the third samaa the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he met yusuf alaihi salam okay and so the ulama mentioned that just as just as uh yusuf alaihi salam came into power over his brothers eventually okay the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam will also come into power over his brothers the quresh when the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam entered mecca during the conquest okay he said la tath la tathriba aleykum ulyum quoting yusuf alaihi salam from the Quran there's no blemish on you this day and when he came into the fourth heaven he met with idris alaihi salam and the Quran is a bit limited with with descriptions of idris alaihi salam but Allah says with qur fil kitabi idris all right that remember or mention in the book the story of idris alaihi salam he was truthful and a prophet and we raised him to a high station okay so idris alaihi salam was raised to a high place to fourth heaven um um and Allah says about the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam that we have raised your remembrance okay we've exalted your remembrance in the fifth heaven Allah allowed the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam to meet haroon alaihi salam or erin peace be upon him so this was a prophet uh who initially was hated by his people right they wanted him to make the golden calf in the Torah it says he actually made it we don't agree with that uh narration uh in the Quran um he refused and his people hated him but eventually they loved him okay in a similar fashion initially many of the Quraish they hated the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam but then they came to know him and love him in the sixth heaven the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he met musa alaihi salam okay and of course there are many similarities between the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam and musa alaihi salam probably the greatest similarity is that both of them received a sacred law from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the shari'a and in the seventh heaven okay the seventh realm of existence the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he met ibrahim alaihi salam and he took from ibrahim alaihi salam the rights of the hajj and of course the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he his message is a restoration of the millah of the creed of ibrahim alaihi salam and then we'll end inshallah uh with some ayat from the quran uh in regard to the laylat al-isra wal-miaraj so this is surat al-najm Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and he begins taking an oath one najmi either hawa by the star when it goes down okay and there's a difference of opinion as to what is a najm some of the ulema say that it's pleiades the star constellation to raya others say that the najm is the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam okay that he is the star uh that he is the najm he is the he is the illuminating uh guide for humanity your companion meaning the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam uh has neither strayed nor aired nor does he speak from his caprice that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he does not speak from his desire or mayan tickle right this is strong negation he never speaks from his desire it is nothing but revelation uh revealed to him he's taught by one mighty in power okay possessed a vigor he stood upright while he was on the highest horizon so some of the ulema say that this is a reference to the first time the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam saw jubil alaihi salam in his actual form after the initial letter to qadr when the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam received the initial revelation of iqra that he looked to the heavens and he saw that jubil alaihi salam had covered the horizon okay so possessed a vigor he stood upright while he was on the highest horizon then he drew near and came close and he was within two bow lengths or even nearer so here some of the ulema say that this this is an indication that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he came near his lord during the mi'araj so we understand this not in the sense of anything physical right in the sense of direction or or distance or anything like that that this is majaz that the that the meaning here is figurative to draw within two bow lengths or even nearer is a way of saying that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam was was very close very very beloved uh to or very or very near spiritually to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then we have an extraordinary statement and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed to his abd whatever he revealed okay and it's left open now ibn mas'ud he tells us a few things that that that uh Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on that occasion revealed to the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam the end of al-baqara khawatim al-baqara the last two ayas of surah al-baqara without any type of angelic mediation because jubil alaihi salam could not go um because this is this is a um this is a an experience of the ru'iyah of the beatific vision that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam had at the base of the arsh and it's not to say that Allah is located anywhere that's not what we mean okay that so the meaning is not that the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam he traveled to a place a physical place and he encountered Allah at this place no this is where he experienced the ru'iyah but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is transcendent of space and place Allahummajood bilamakan Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exists without space or place okay but it was in this where the prophet was where he experienced these things Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed to him the the end of al-baqara jubil alaihi salam was not there he could not be in this in this place and then also the promise the wa'ad of of of jannah to him and his umma and then the the prayer five times daily prayer was made fart upon the prophet and his umma so a couple of things that we notice and then we'll close is that the importance of prayer prayer is so important the salawat okay the five daily prayers the prayers were given to the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam when he was uh when he was uh at the when he was at the base of the arsh and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was communicating to him was revealing to him whatever he wanted to reveal okay um so this was placed directly into his heart without any type of angelic mediation so the importance of prayer i mean it's just it's we can't state it enough it is our connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala our it is all to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and it's a direct connection okay in fact the word salah and arabic is related to connection but something else we notice is the importance of connection to the messenger according to the tradition uh when the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam went beyond uh the seventh heaven right where the sidra to the montaha was the the load tree of the uttermost region um jibreel alaihi salam could not pass it was only for the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam to go by himself okay and jibreel he said i would if i if i did so i would combust into flames okay but the prophet proceeded and one of my teachers said well why didn't he ask us a question one time and he said why didn't the sandals of the prophet combust and burn or his turban or his clothes and the reason is because they were connected to him sallallahu alaihi salam his sandal was connected to his foot his his turban was connected to his blessed head okay so the importance of connection to the messenger of allah sallallahu alaihi salam that we stay connected to him that we will not burn okay uh inshallah ta'ala so we'll end at this point inshallah ta'ala um i i pray that allah sallallahu alaihi salam increases us in iman in faith and in understanding give us the tofiq uh to to continue to learn to continue to benefit uh from uh this religion to give us the ability to um to become more in tune with the book of allah sallallahu alaihi salam to increase our relationship our connection to allah sallallahu alaihi salam to increase our connection and relationship the messenger of allah sallallahu alaihi salam please keep me in your dua you are in my dua salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh


TfNN headline news update Good afternoon everybody. I'm Tommy O'Brien coming to you live from TfNN headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida 1 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday three hours left to go in the trading day We got a mixed market out there right now Dow Jones negative by 56 points trading 26,000 776 Nasdaq positive by 51 points trading at 81 71 and the S&P's right now flat trading at 3,005 gold catching a bid back above 1,500 gold trading up eight dollars at 1503 80 oil another positive day extending the big gains we had yesterday oil contract up 39 cents at 56 37 notes and bonds a little bit a higher price and lower yield the tenure up three ticks at 129 30 the 30 or up 11 ticks at 164 and the dollar index with a little strength up 163 ticks at 97 654 we'll start things off. Let's jump over to the charts. We'll see if those charts are loading There's a lot going on in the market folks in these charts a little bit delayed gold not quite coming up We'll pull it up on the Bloomberg if we must we're gonna start it off with the crude oil chart How about it making session highs as we speak? $56 and 46 cents for a little bit of context back this baby up and how about the low from yesterday at 9 a.m? 5363 we're approaching three dollars in the span of just over 24 hours in that price of crude S&P's currently trading at 3,005 Two troughs throughout the day making it right at around 300 and bouncing off that level Nasdaq 100 a little bit of a different story approaching the highs of the session currently trading 79 62 There's your Dow the laggard of the day Dow Jones trading 26,000 723 and the euro US dollar on the day we have an ECB meeting we get Mario Draghi's final press conference and The euro trading just above 111 actually did below that briefly the euro trading 111 08 Terms of what else you have happening across the market? We are big into earning season Amazon with their earnings after the bell tonight Amazon up about 1.1% right now coming into that number up $20 and 81 cents trading at 882 the number to look for here We're on the analyze tab of the thinkorswim platform the expected one-day move $63.65 as we await the Amazon earnings after the bell that basically the Volatility that is priced in one way or the other so no direction $63 if you were playing one-day options. That's what they're looking for on that move Stay tuned folks We got a man Steve Rhodes coming up right now at the trader's edge Dave white live at 2 o'clock with the power Trading hour and Tom O'Brien live at 3 stay tuned folks will be right back with Steve Rhodes