Welcome to Asian Review. I'm your host, Bill Sharp. Our show today, Can Taiwan Depend on a Volunteer Force? And joining us from Taipei, Taiwan is Lieutenant Colonel Scott Elinger, United States Army Retire. Before retiring, Scott served as a security assistance officer at the American Institute in Taiwan. He has over 20 years of experience in living in Asia. During his military career, he was a foreign area officer, which gave him a lot of very specialized training about all aspects of Asia. Welcome to Asian Review. It's great to have you back with us. Well, thank you, Bill. It's a great honor being on your show for a second time, which is a great honor for me. And I enjoy, you know, giving some of my inputs here, reference Taiwan and all volunteer forces. Super. Well, let's get right into it because we only have 30 minutes and that time really flies on by. You know, I remember the days when the Taiwan military had a personnel strength of between 550,000 and 600,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen. And now, personnel strength is less than half of that. Universal conscription is being replaced by the Volunteer Force. How did this change evolve? And what's your reflection on it? I do remember about 10 years ago, almost 12 years ago, when I was the Pentagon and I was the Taiwan Affairs Director at the Pentagon and the discussions with M&D and the joint staff at OSD back in the United States, as well as the other U.S. military services. We took a hard look at assisting them with this transition. So from my knowledge, I know it's been going on for about 12 years, maybe 11 years, where it became very serious was probably in 2009, 2010, and there was a lot of interaction between the U.S. joint staff, OSD, and the services with Taiwan and really assisting them with the experiences the United States had with our all volunteer force transition back in the 70s and 80s. And we went through a lot of things that dealt with the recruiting aspect, the retention aspect, as well as the veteran services and the retirement programs. That was important for a sustained long-term type of transition because it's not just recruiting new people for an all volunteer force, it also included the entire long-term investment in recruiting a soldier, a Marine, a sailor, an airman into the services. And it was a long-term type of investment, as we used to call it with them, as you're investing in a human being for four years, eight years, 20, 30, and you have to think it from a long-term haul. So we worked with them specifically on these phases that you need to focus on with that. And the other part we worked with that I thought was very unique was we work on the actual marketing strategy of each service, so that they're marketing Marine Corps and Navy and Air Force. But what we really stressed with them was the focus of the Marine Corps, the U.S. Marine Corps, and their marketing strategy. And I think as us as Americans, we definitely know the Marines, the few that crowd the Marines. And their marketing strategy in the United States is definitely one of the strongest ones. Therefore, we put a lot of time with the Marine Corps recruiting command for them to focus on their marketing strategy and how it's very effective overall in the United States. Okay. Well, that's a really good explanation of how it evolved. I learned a few things just then in listening to your answer. But, okay, from today's perspective, what's your reflection on this? Is it going well? Are there glitches? Some people would say it's been a disaster. I don't know. What's your take? Well, we'll go back to about 10 years ago, 11 years ago. And you can see with an M&D there was a very eager type of reaction to it. They wanted to learn everything about this transition and the experiences from the United States. So, we met with our service components. We met with joint staff. And we went over these experiences that we had on quite a few of the exchanges and visits that we had. After that part, from my personal perspective, you could see there was a lot of discussions in 2008, 2009, and going into 10 and 11 on how are we going to do this? Was the Taiwan kind of part of it? And observing them is like what we discussed about a year and a half ago. There's a lot of road bumps in it. But the other part that was really tricky, and that was about 2011 all the way to 2015-16, was we had to implement. And the implementation was getting closer. But they didn't know when they really wanted to implement it on an exact date. And so it keeps on getting kind of kicked down the road, getting pushed and pushed. And I think this year, or next year, it's exactly, it institutes for everybody. It's going to be the four-month kind of basic training, get some basic infantry skill sets. And then after that is done, then you'll be put into the mobilization system in the reserve system. And that's going to be, I think it starts next year from what I recall from reading the deduce. That's what's going to happen. So let me jump in here because I'm going to clarify something. So there still is a conscription system. In other words, men are still going to have to do this four months of training and then the annual, theoretically the annual reserve training. Well, it's not just annual. It's going to be within a, I think it's eight to 10-year period. They have to be mobilized twice. And within, and that's their mobilization, kind of like a very, for the U.S. reserves or national guard, that would be like where they do it every summer for two weeks. This is like, think about it, they do it twice in an eight-year period. They have to be mobilized twice to fulfill some requirements. But I do know that it's been grandfathered. And I think there's still some people that have to do up to 14 months of, you could say, conscription active duty service. I've heard that as well. But I think it's, I think the grandfather clause is just about over for a certain age group. And I think it's starting in 2019. I'm not sure, but it's going to be exactly four months. And then they'll be pulled off of active, you know, this four-month active time and then they'll be put into the reserve mobilization system. So we have a hybrid system in actuality. We have a volunteer system, plus we have a system that still depends on this short-term conscription system. Correct. Okay, good. But you remember, the old system was they were conscripted for three years, then it morphed to about two, and then it went to about a year and a half, 14 months, and now we're in the four months. So Korea's gone through a very similar process where it used to be three years, then it went to about two and a half, now it's two. But I'm not up to the news in Korea where they've changed from two years and made it shorter. But I do know it's very similar to how Korea went through their evolution from that part. But the time when it's always had, you can volunteer as a non-commissioner or as an enlisted going to the non-commission rank. So that volunteer part has always been there. It's just their system of training and how they become an NCO is a little bit different. I think we'll talk about where sometimes the, from Vietnam, if you remember, remember the shaken bay NCO, Taiwan kind of creates a lot of their NCOs in that kind of old system of shaken bay, where they'll send them to an NCO academy. And we'll talk about that in a moment, if you have any other questions. Let's talk about, so it seems to me Taiwan is still going to have trouble meeting needed personnel levels. They're not meeting the requirements I knew from the news. You could read, or I've read that in their military academies, they're not meeting the personnel requirements that they have for the incoming freshman classes and coming in. So I know that was last year had that discussion point within the news that M&D is struggling to make that. I do know from experiences and reading the news that for some reason the female volunteer force in Taiwan for the enlisted non-commission officer ranks is pretty much up at its limits. So for those physicians that they have, they're recruiting very well within the female dynamic. So that one's recruited very well. It's not the male part. They're not meeting the department of both officer and the enlisted. It seems to me also, as you pointed out to me the other day, there was an article just two days ago, I guess it wasn't a type A times talking about the budgetary concerns here. Well, first of all, the military wants a lot of money. It wants to build its new Air Force trainer. It has a submarine project that's going on. If you have a volunteer military, it costs you more money. And so the military budget is growing and yet again it's up against competition from what you might call social welfare programs. I wonder where all this is going to go. It's up against a lot of US pressure too to spend more on defense. Well, when you look at the Taiwan budget and you go back 15 years, it's been pretty static where it sits anywhere from about $10.5 billion, although it's about $10.9 billion US dollars. And so it's been very static with that. And you have the training programs, you have the training programs, and then you have the personnel programs. And the article is talking about that within the whole entire government budget for personnel, I think it was 53%, but you have to revisit the article with a specific number, that that's what made up the personnel budget. And the legislative UN and the people within the legislature were discussing this point. And they were shocked and like, oh my gosh, this is too much money. What are we going to do? And M&D, they kind of throw it back on M&D to make the fix. But the budget stays fixed. We discussed a year and a half ago, this is something for the executive branch. It's something for the legislative UN that deals with defense and foreign affairs. It's up to them to really figure out this requirement and budget it correctly. What I've seen here is, and it's unfortunate, is the executives and the legislative departments that are responsible for their national defense just push it and give it all to M&D. Oh, you guys fix it, but we're still giving you a static number of, this is your budget, but that will fix it. And then you have M&D sitting here, okay, we're still at the same amount of money. How do we have to rock Peter to pay Paul? Where are we going to rock Peter? And so they have these issues of, there's a lot of stress, and this is what's been going on for the last seven or eight years is M&D has been forced to make the change. So this is in the mind, Joe, administration. It's like, here's your budget. We're not giving you anything else. Now you run into this administration, the time one administration, and it's like, same thing. Here you go. You have a fixed number and not make the change. We're in the United States. When you look from the Carter transition and into the Reagan administration, Reagan increased the budget and specifically focused on the personnel budget and really gave the US military the budgetary requirements to make this dynamic change. And of course it took us 10 and 15 years just to get an implemented change, but there was a budget for it on top of the training, the procurement, the acquisition, and other things. So the budget was there to make the transition. So it was increased. The Taiwan really needs to take a hard look in the legislative and executive branches to actually consider the military separate from all the other civil border. We have about 45 seconds to a break here. So I just put that out to you so give you enough time to wrap up your answer. So you're okay there. Okay. Well, just a quick point, I'll just shove in here in the last 30 seconds we have before the break. It always seemed to me that Tsaiyia went really would like to restore the old system of conscription, but she knows she can't because her base is based on young people and they're not really the old-fashioned model of conscription. And this volunteer thing, they're really trying to make it work. So I don't think we're going to see the old conscription system restored in Taiwan, although a lot of people would like it. I mean Tsaiyia went herself is what I understand. Well, after the break, we'll peel back this onion on some thoughts here. And the thing is that from our perspective, and I'll talk a little bit from the U.S. perspective of why you have to take care of your national defense system because that's the cherished bread and butter of your national pride, your nation's defense, your nation's security. So if you're going to cut something and you're going to work with the budget, that's the one part that you don't touch in a negative way. You have to go. Okay, I think we're going to have to stop here and we'll pick this up when we come back from the break. We're watching Asia and Review. I'm your host, Bill Shark. My guest today is retired Lieutenant, Army Lieutenant Colonel Scott Ellinger. He's coming from us to us from Taipei, Taiwan. Before retiring, he was a security assistance officer at the American Institute in Taiwan and years and years of experience in living in Asia. We'll be right back in one minute, so don't go away. Welcome back to Asia and Review. I'm your host, Bill Shark. Our show today is, Can Taiwan Depend on a Volunteer Force? Joining us from Taipei, Taiwan via Zoom is retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Scott Ellinger. Scott, before retiring, was a security assistance officer at the American Institute in Taiwan and years and years of experience living in Asia. Moreover, before he retired, he was a foreign area officer, which is a great program the military has, the Army has to train Army officers to be conversant in all aspects of Asia societies. Okay, before the break, we were talking about, we want to finish up our conversation. We were engaged in before the break and we're talking about Saiyan Wen really has this kind of inkling that she would like to restore the traditional conscription system, but she knows she just can't do that. So let's finish up on that and not spend too much time and then we'll move on to the pension, pension reform. So I think we're, it's going to have to be an overall national security council type of discussion with MND and other ministries that have to do a complete overhaul and look at the defense requirements of Taiwan and what the future requirements are going to be in the next five, 10, 15 to 20 years and they're going to have to make a hard decision and unfortunately for whatever president has to make this decision, it may be an unpleasant decision if the all volunteer force does not transition the way that they want. But we discussed that real quick and it'll probably go on a pension, but it's the budget requirement and they have to have the budget correctly set to do the transition and we worked with Taiwan on this transition and the requirements on budget, budgetary, the budgetary requirement to make this transition. So it's been discussed in the, the MND, a law of correction, the executive branch in the legislative UN really have to focus on setting aside a budget that allows MND to make this transition. So it's kind of the balls in the legislative UN court on the national budget and setting it for MND to make it. That would be a very simple fix for them to actually transition to an all volunteer force versus bringing back inscription. Okay, that's, that's, that's a, there's a lot of things there to think about, but let's move on to the national pension plan, especially we should say the military pension plan, because Tsai Ing-wen has sought to reform all of Taiwan government pension plans. She's gotten a real lot of opposition, big street demonstrations from retired military folks. So let's pick it up from there and fill us in on how this military pension reform is working its way out. Well, it's, it's overall the, the entire pension system for certain parts of their civil service people. And with that, you have the military, I think teachers was in there and I can't remember the third civil service group that was included in this, but it was something where they wanted to change their pension structure, because I think the funds that they had and the fund, the trust fund or the type of fund that they had was if they kept on the old system, they would go bankrupt. And so they had to modify something to make it happen. And unfortunately, they lumped them all together. And I know from about a year and a half ago to now, it is, there was quite a few protests. And I think it was just earlier this year that it was approved and was not received very well. And I was, right before the break, I was going to say, when you look at your national security apparatus at large in your national budget, you have all these different programs and different departments. The, the one, the one thing that the United States, regardless of Democrat or Republican, you don't touch and you don't mess around like the taking a stick and hitting a beehive, which Taiwan did, the stick and start hitting the beehive and stuck it and all the bees are coming out. They made that mistake because they made a political parties are playing with it. You don't touch veterans, the veteran programs. You don't touch that. You don't touch and decrease your retirement system. You don't mess around with salaries. You don't mess around with the pension program long term, but they did it. And they, they should have just, they should have taken it separate and make it its own program and not lump it with all civil service because your bread and butter of national security and your national system that's going to defend you is your department of defense or your ministry of national defense and all the services because in Taiwan, this national treasure is the military, HADR. So who's the first one called to rescue somebody in the mountains after a typhoon or a flood or an earthquake? Who does all the digging? Military is called first, you have birth responders, but the military is the one that does everything. And so why do you want to take that stick and go into the beehive and, and, and stir it up? And unfortunately, it's caused a lot of friction in Taiwan over the last six months. Well, it seems to me this situation is quieting down now though. What's your sense? From a news perspective, yes, it's quieted down.  We're not happy with this because I think it's, it's morphed over a three year period. He had the old KMT directed system of this pension that would take care of the old term, the old timer, KMTs, KMT officers and non-commissioned officers. So, and then it morphed into something else. And now they have a hybrid system that gives them their pension process, but it, it, it got cut. Right, right, right. People that are retired already had their pensions cut. Really? Yeah. That's hard to swallow. And so, the M&D really needs to take a look at what we discuss with them. Recruiting is one. Retention is another. And retirement is another in the veterans programs. It's, it's one big package. And unfortunately, they didn't take it as one. They kind of sliced it into three areas and worked at them at different angles where they didn't look at it as a comprehensive one to the end of that program. So, go ahead. Okay. Well, time is racing on here. So, let's get to the reserves. And you know, I think I mentioned this on another show that we had recently here. And the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington held its annual Global Taiwan Symposium. I think it was two weeks ago, perhaps three weeks ago. Jim Moriarty, the chairman of AIT, American Institute in Taiwan, gave the keynote speech. And in that, he touched on the need for Taiwan to ramp up its reserve system. Also, Shirley Kahn, who's also appeared on the show, as has Jim Moriarty, in her comments at the Global Taiwan Symposium, she also talked about the need for Taiwan to ramp up its reserve system. Taiwan seems to be, how should I say, confused about how to rationalize its reserve system. How to make it a more credible part of its overall defense posture. Yeah. Well, we talked about this a year and a half ago, the first time I was on your show. We actually talked about this, where I think a great example would be looking at the United States National Guarded U.S. Reserve System for the Air Force, the Army and the Marines in the Navy. So, if somebody does four years act of duty or six years or eight years, they can go into reserve system and be a part-time soldier or a part-time Marine or sailor or airman. I'm sorry, I have to use all of our things. Sure. We don't want to overlook anybody. And we don't mean to slight the Coast Guard, but that's a different component of the Taiwan government. Yeah, they fall under the Ministry of Interior in Taiwan. But actually, I have a lot of Navy going there later after they're done with their Navy service. But the main thing is, we've discussed it and I think would be a really good thing is if M&D really looks at the U.S. system, because then you'll have a professional part-time soldier. If you look into maybe the Israeli model or some other models of the Swiss model, I think it doesn't fit as well, but because Taiwan is a true democracy modeled after the United States and some other than the constitutional monarchy, the reserve system of how the U.S. is set up, I think, is a great model for Taiwan to follow. And of course, they'll have to make some changes to fit their requirements. But that's how you keep a professional core of people. And if they created that system, I think it would be very effective versus the mobilization system that they have, which how do you keep somebody actually proficient in their skill and the old mobilization system they have today? That's a good point. That's a very good point. The term, it doesn't cut the mustard. And I think we used that term a year and a half ago. So they really have to take a hard look at the U.S. system. And I think the budgetary requirement, I think they can make it happen. It's just that they it goes back into making the change. They have to make the change, you know, just have the courage to make this change. But it goes back to legislative U.S. has to give them the budget to do it. I heard that from people that are also familiar with the reserve system that the big hang up is money, money, money and equipment. Okay, if you have this built up reserve system, then it costs more money. And you also have to give them more equipment. And that all comes down to, again, money. That's what you're saying. Okay, well, we only got a couple minutes left here and we have one minute left. I'm just told. And very briefly, very briefly, within one minute, what sort of enlistment incentives does Taiwan use to get people to enroll or I should say sign up for the military and also, as we would say in the U.S., to re-op retention. I don't know about the retention system, but I do know within the recruiting system, the incentives are they've actually increased the salaries quite a bit. So it actually it is lucrative for young people to come in. But again, it's there's it rolls into, okay, when I go in, what do I do after I leave? Looking kind of like we have the GI Bill and some instance, you know, Ministry of Education has to get involved on, you know, scholarship programs or something that meets Taiwan's needs can't be exact clone of the United States, but it meets needs of what will incentivize a soldier to raise their hand and volunteer. And we talked about that a year and a half ago. But if they do have incentives there, but I think it still needs to be tweaked a little bit and it goes back into increasing the budget a little bit, not too much, but they have to increase this budget. Well, the evil clock has just bit us again, and we're out of time. Wow, this this subject could we could go on and on and on this is a really interesting subject. Thank you very much for joining us. We really appreciate your insight, your long years of experience in Asia, your military background is really, you know, really brings a lot to bear to this show. And thank you very much for watching. We'll see you again next week when my guest will be retired US Navy Captain Jim Kimo Fanel. Before he retired, he was the N2 at Pacific Fleet, and he's going to talk about how to build a 350 ship Navy. So it should be a really good show. We'll see you then. Great to hear Jim's analysis. Great, great. Tune in then.


As-salamu alaykum, dearest respected brothers and sisters, dearest viewers wherever you may be. From Adam alayhi as-salam to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and his family, and a thrilling month ahead of us as we delve into the lives of the prophets mentioned in the Quran. What lessons can we take from their lives and how do we apply those lessons into our lives? Who was Prophet Adam? Who was Prophet Ibrahim? Ishaq Ya'qo, and lastly the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and his family. Now before I introduce our dearest esteemed guest, I'd like to remind the viewers that if you do want to call in to ask the Sayyida question, you can call in on 0203-515-0109 or alternatively texting your questions to the number down below. Without further ado, Sayyidina, as-salamu alaykum. Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullah. How are you doing today? Alhamdulillah, I'm buzzing, I'm very well. Thank you. Alhamdulillah, you seem very excited. I am, I am. I wonder why. Two congratulations are in order, firstly, congratulations on Ramadan and secondly I see that Liverpool shirt down there. You Scouts did your thing yesterday, how was it?  I think it was most amazing performance. We went to the game and you're thinking, I've seen some great nights at Anfield and I'm going to keep talking until this rubs into all the Manx out there who find it difficult to listen to this but the Manx have big games against Huddersfield and Cardiff so really huge games compared to ours with Barcelona and whoever we're going to play but it was just a wonderful experience, Liverpool were unbelievable. To be Messi's Barcelona, I don't care about no white suit shirts anymore, the Liverpool t-shirt has to come out today. I will get changed very soon however this was just testimony to the outstanding performance of Jurgen Klopp and his boys, they were unbelievable, shout out to Fabinho who I thought was out of this world getting a yellow card after ten minutes and still producing one of the best performances anyone has ever produced against the likes of Messi and the other rejects who are playing alongside Messi. Well you know I'm hoping that if we can't get the Premier ship, you know when Vincent company scores from 30 yards maybe not your year but hopefully the Champions League so you know it's the holy month of Ramadan, the day of Khafaj, this is a great month, we're going to have some wonderful nights coming up and I'm really looking forward to this introductory first night before we delve into the lives of the Prophets. Now let's kick this off as you said this introductory first night. Now just to get a bit of a background of because there are many topics you could have chosen to discuss in these 30 nights so what made you choose this specific topic? Yeah you know people write into me all the time asking me you know what's your series for the holy month of Ramadan and I think you as well had said to me how much the Imam Ali Aleyhi Salam series affected you about six years ago and others were affected by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, his family biography and others by the Quran series and others you know by the Imam Mahdi A.S. series but I just felt that the lives of the Prophet's peace be upon them in the Quran has not really been discussed within our communities with the depth that deserves there are many people out there if you ask them about the likes of the Al-Kif or you ask them about Idris or Hud or Saleh you find that sadly there is a lack of knowledge on their lives even though Ad and Thamud and all these nations are mentioned alongside those prophets on numerous occasions so I felt on the first level that there was a need for us to build our relationship with these personalities who form part of a central pillar of the religion of Islam that being Nubu'ah as in you know when when we look at the As-Solid Dean of all the schools of the religion of Islam after monotheism there is this belief in prophethood and there is this belief placed alongside the belief in the Quran and the angels and the day of judgment now to believe in these prophets of God there is no way that I can understand the Lord or the secrets of the cosmos or the secrets of the universe without studying the lives of these prophets of God so it's a shame when you ask Muslims in the world today about the prophets mentioned in the Quran and you'll find that there are many Muslims out there who don't know much about you know the likes as I said of of Idris and of Hud and of Saleh then likewise there are names which we mention often in our communities but you find that these names people are still uncertain about certain aspects of their life as in tomorrow we begin with Nabi Adam and every single place I've ever lectured where God has blessed me to be able to lecture people have always asked me did Adam commit a sin wherever I've gone in the world people have asked me about the flood of Noah was it local was it global why would God cause a flood to happen what was happening at the time with Nabi Noah alayhi salam so you've got this issue as well with Nabi Noah then you've got others who ask questions related to David and Solomon for example David and Solomon their story very much is important in relation to the Middle East today you know what is the what is the Temple Mount what is this issue related for example to magic Harut Marut the angels Babylon you know so there are these wonderful stories of prophets in the Holy Qur'an which I don't think we've given the attention that they deserve Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not just going to include any story in the Holy Qur'an he's going to include parts of a story which are going to be beneficial for all of us and so I sincerely wanted us to understand Nubuwa generally okay the philosophy behind Nubuwa the philosophy behind prophethood the philosophy behind you know the resale that came with different prophets but also at the same time understand the lives of these individual prophets what do they go through in their lives I'm living for example in London in 2019 some of the viewers are living in the States and you know in the Indo-Pac subcontinent the Middle East in Australia and Europe what even South America what can they say that you know what that particular prophet peace be upon his family I can relate to with the imams alaykum as-salam the imams their biographies we can all relate to one of the imams true so you'll have some people will say I can relate to the the the patience of Amir al-Mu'mineen or the bravery of Imam al-Hussain or the diplomacy of Imam al-Hassan or the al-Mu'mal al-Sadaq but I don't see that same relationship sometimes with prophets of Allah subhanu wa ta'ala even though you know Nubuwa is the central tenant within Shi'a belief I still find that there are many people out there who may even be experts on Islam but when it comes to the lives of the prophets peace be upon them there isn't much knowledge there even though there was a you know some of the greatest ulama across the schools in the religion of Islam used to pride themselves on writing works known as qasas al-anbiya you know qasas al-anbiya these were works which if you look at the likes of for example you know Qutb ad-Din al-Ra Wendi or the likes of Ibn Qutair they used to pride themselves on talking of the stories of the prophets of Allah subhanu wa ta'ala you know Majlisi Bukhari Al-Kafi different works exist which sought to talk about the lives of prophets from renowned authors like I mentioned Ibn Qutair like I mentioned Ta'alabi as an example so the first reason is understanding Nubuwa the second reason there's over three and a half billion people in the world who believe in these prophets yeah we're not the only ones who believe in for example Nabi Adam or Nabi Nuhs flood or Abraham sacrifice or Moses and Pharaoh or David and Solomon or the story of you know Shiba one of the only ones the Jewish community a huge community in London the Christian community a huge community in London yep Jewish community a huge community for example the States the Christian community a huge community worldwide I want us to seek to delve in this holy month to look at what are the similarities and differences to compare and to contrast yeah the Adam of the Bible the Adam of the Quran David and Solomon in the scriptures of the Jewish community and in the Quran Christ in Christianity Christ in the Quran yeah looking at Noah and his relationship with his for example family in the Bible and Noah and his relationship with his family in the Quran looking at lot prophet Lord and Sodom and Gomorrah and how that affects the Jewish and the Christian community today and their understanding of same gender relations you see we need the scriptural reasoning alongside the interfaith dialogue the interfaith dialogue is great sitting but not sitting and opening the scriptures to seek to understand what we all believe is something which I feel is a hindrance to the growth of peace and prosperity in the lands within which we live which brings me to my third point there is something which has been escalating now for more than 15 20 years and that is this myth which is permeating in our societies which the young grow up listening to and that is Islam versus the West and the West versus Islam yep many youngsters in the world today are growing up listening to this that Islam and the West are diametrically opposed to each other that there is a major problem between the two never shall they meet there are no similarities and sometimes when you look at certain people in who represent Islam I don't blame some of the Western mind for thinking this however I believe that when we're looking at the lives of the prophets of God who many non-Muslims many non-Muslims don't know that we believe in Adam and Noah and Abraham and Moses they think it's Mohammed is some random guy from Arabia who these guys worship and I do believe that if we're gonna move to a world where this whole you know this dichotomy between Islam and the West this clash of civilizations it's not a clash of civilizations on the contrary there are billions in the world who admire these names and so do we so we need to remove this idea that Islam in the West their morality is not the morality is a morality that goes back to Noah looks at the patience of a you looks at the knowledge of Idris wants to understand the search for the mystical transcendent world as well as the material world of the likes of Moses and his story with Khidr it's a shame that the world we live in today has become a world of Islam versus the West now we need to find a solution to that because otherwise now what you have in the world is people who are like listen Islam is the reason for our backwardness Islam is the reason for you know humanity's lack of progress and Muslims are terrorists Muslims are fundamentalist no no hold on a minute there's a need for us to reassess those figures who play a pivotal role and can continue to play a pivotal role there are many Christians Jews and Muslims out there who admire Prophet Abraham alaihi salam what can we learn from the sacrifice of Abraham from the closest to God of Abraham from the softness and the justice of Abraham the generosity of Abraham why was he called the Khalil so this clash that exists which some would say the likes of Huntington predicted that you know there is a clash between Islam and the West one of the ways to alleviate this is by having a topic which billions can relate to what I want is that when viewers hear these discussions I want the viewers to be able to say that here my non-Muslim friend this is night two on Nebbe Adam tomorrow did you know about sheath do you know about Noah have you heard of Idris let me tell you about Abraham Isaac Ishmael David Solomon job Zachariah Jesus Mary Moses and then hopefully our kids can grow up in environment where these sickening wars hatred sectarian escalation fundamentalism is removed when we're able to respect each other's heritage yep well say that's all beneficial for you know as you mentioned 3.5 billion people believe in those prophets but as we know the world population is nearly nearly at 8 billion now these things are beneficial for those who believe but how about the atheists how about the Hindus who don't believe in the prophets of Allah who have never actually come across the prophets of Allah how is that beneficial for a person doesn't have to be a Muslim or Christian or Jewish for them to a seek knowledge so if you have an atheist friend who wants to watch this program doesn't have to believe in Abraham as a man of God or Noah as a man of God or David or Solomon as man of God they can look at them for the morality they espouse they can look at them for certain trials and tribulations they can relate to I've got many atheists colleagues out there who will tell you that we may not necessarily believe in the God of so-and-so a mystic but we admire their words and we'll have a coffee table book which will be with their quotes there are people out there who don't believe in God but may revere for example somebody like Buddha and his words so therefore just saying that somebody is an atheist how would the lives of the prophets benefit them we need to remember that all of us at the end day in our basic humanity are seeking to understand the lives of people who influence the world you may call him Nebi Ayyub you may call him Nebi Musa you know you may call them Job or Moses if I was to remove the title of Nebi from them Prophet from them are there lessons from their life that any human can learn yeah there are human beings out there who are facing moments where they're you know they're suffering they have trials they correlate to Nebi Ayyub alaihi salam you mentioned for example the Hindus and you said well how would some of this benefit the Hindus I think in our discussions you're gonna realize Hindus Sikhs Buddhists Muslims Christians Jews a lot of them have more prophets in common than you imagine whether I call that particular person a prophet or whether they call him a prophet or whether they have deified somebody I think there's a basic understanding that there were certain great humans on this earth who's awareness of the material and the unseen and their consciousness of the mystical realm was far above those who surrounded them I've met Hindus and I met Sikhs who may not believe in my prophet but they're still wonderful spiritual lessons you can gain from them you know I used to get freaked out sometimes when I'd walk for example in central London and a Sikh man comes up to me and he's like to me listen brother there's good days ahead for you and I'm like really he's like I'll tell you your day of birth it tells me my days of birth he tells me everything about me what's my favorite color now that person has a certain mystical intuition yeah it's our arrogance that has stopped us from studying the works of the greats of the Sikh world or the Hindu world or the Buddhist world the heritage of the great Sikhs and Buddhists there are men of those paths I would even say there are you know woman of those paths as well who were great spiritual figures who were above the mundane so I think this series can help bring a closeness in those lovers of the spiritual world now say you know we believe that from the beginning of time until the end there will always be a guide now as we know the earth's exist has existed for thousands and thousands of years according to the Islamic view how many prophets were sent down as a guidance since the beginning of human creation until now there's this figure that's normally given and can be seen in works such as Bihar al-Anwar of an Majlis scene and man la yadah al-faqih of Saduk of 124,000 now this is not restricted by the Quran by the way we have certain traditions from one of the most important sources in understanding the lives of these prophets this month and that is the family of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him there's nobody who can provide you with knowledge of the world of the prophets like Imam al-Baqarah and Imam al-Sadaq especially now all the imams alaykum salam will provide us with great knowledge but Imam al-Baqarah and Imam al-Sadaq alaykum salam living in the earliest part of the second century they were the ones who were able to elaborate for us to understand the covenants that had taken place before the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him the lives of Noah the lives of Ayub the lives of Idris the lives of Samuel the lives and so on so I would say 124,000 is the figure that's normally mentioned as a guidance both in the Shia school and in other schools in Islam yeah now 124,000 as per as per Hadith how many of those are actually mentioned in the Quran well we're looking at in the Quran 2526 listen if it if there was more than 2526 we're struggling this holy month of Ramadan because can you imagine we've got 124,000 mentioned the Quran then by the time you know by by the time we would finish all of them even the angel that blows the trumpet for the day of judgment will be like listen guys you know what I think now it's time because you know 124,000 but 2526 are mentioned in the holy Quran and and during these nights I will explain why there's a difference about whether it's 25 or 26 and so those prophets you'll find the first of them is Adam and the last of them is the holy prophet peace be upon him and his family yeah but you know but 25 or 26 let's say 26 let's get foggy and say 26 to 124,000 it's pretty big it's a pretty big gap yeah you know why didn't Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la include some others in the Quran that there are been number of reasons posited while Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la doesn't mention all of them and I think one of the main reasons is that the Quran is not a history book okay yeah some might say for example you look at other religious scriptures that exist out there they're their books which give you a timeline of the development of human societies human communities and the relationship between the messengers of God with those particular nations the Quran is not a book of history the Quran seeks to provide us with certain certain epochs certain you know kernels certain moments in the development of humanity with certain figures now that doesn't mean that in the world of hadith we don't have certain prophets which are mentioned yeah but in the Quran Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has decided that these prophets especially the arch prophets these prophets and what preceded them and what follows them deserves the most attention that doesn't mean Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la doesn't mention the likes of for example Luqman and Khidr where there's a debate or the Qarnain whether there's a debate as to whether they are prophets of God or not but generally speaking it seems that these are the main figures for the Quran preceding the Quran we have the Torah preceding the Quran we have the Injil we have the Zabur as well there's a possibility that there are other prophets which are mentioned as we can see in those books until today but what's the point what's the point of sending prophets you know what's the what's the whole philosophy behind a prophet being sent down from God as in aren't we humans able to think for ourselves aren't we able to find our own way to God there's no doubt that we can think for ourselves you know tomorrow in the story of Adam we'll see what happens when he is offered intellect decency and devotion and which one he takes the intellect plays a major role in our lives but on the first level when I recognize that God exists it would be unjust of that Lord not to provide me with a guide to help my growth and my progress in knowing my Lord you know you can't if I was to talk to my Lord as Iqbal done in his famous Shakwa I would say my Lord how could you leave me on this earth telling me to worship you but you didn't provide me with anyone as a guide the internal proof of God is my intellect what ensures that my intellect matches my intrinsic nature my fitrah is the presence of a prophetic figure on the earth in Islamic theology they talk of qa'id at a lot of lot for meaning grace and God's grace is that he sent us wonderful personalities who are able to provide us with an understanding of how to balance hope and fear with a reminder of God's bounties when we sometimes forget and allowing our intrinsic nature to always be in a state of equilibrium Imam Ali alaihi salam answers this he says I mean he says wonderfully the prophets were sent to allow us to be at one with our intrinsic nature and to remind us and ensure that we don't forget Allah's bounties I recognize myself as a human being I'm imperfect there are many areas I'm limited I look at someone above me I find that they are more perfect but still with limitations there's some above them more perfect but we're still limited limitations there's some above them who are still searching for godly knowledge then there are those personalities who when they walked on the earth they were inspired with a God-given knowledge as if they were part of a pre-eternal covenant and so on the one hand you've got qa'id at a lot in Islamic theology in mysticism there is this recognition there's always a perfect man on the earth who ensures that the earth doesn't swallow its inhabitants or for other words for other words which one can use that there is a purpose for our existence that perfect man the Incarnal Kamil is somebody who is discussed in all schools in Islam it's Adam at one point it's excelled maybe by Noah Abraham Moses Jesus the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon his family not only are they people who show me how to get closer to the Lord but they are also those who allow me to see what is the path towards felicity rather than transgression I as a human can either enjoy a path of transgression or I enjoy a path where it's been mapped out by their special characters even there are non-muslims out there who admire the characteristics of these personalities so when someone asks me why do I need a prophet yeah my intellect has helped me but it's moments when I see their behaviors their principles and their guidance that I recognize which choice to make in a certain difficult situation yeah now before we go to the break just quickly sometimes there are there's a reference to Nebi sometimes there's a reference to Rasul now how do we distinguish between the two you know what's the difference yeah I mean theologians have sought to ask answer this question at what Nebi Rasul one thing we could tell from the word you know if you're breaking the word Nebi you could break it into two one is referring to somebody in a very important position another is a piece of great news so a Nebi is somebody of important position who brings great news yeah a Rasul is a messenger normally seen as unique because they have a particular Risaleh a particular message which they are giving their people others have commented on what type of methods God uses to communicate to a Nebi or Rasul is it in dreams only some will have dreams as well as the site of the angel Gabriel there are theological debates about this what's the vice for us is that every that there is an opinion that every Rasul is a Nebi but not every Nebi is a Rasul thank you very much Sayed and then thank you to the dearest viewers watching at home I'll get changed now yeah say they will get changed he will get rid of his little pressure I am a goon I said don't like the view of that but I'd like to remind the viewers that if you do want to call in us to say the question you can call in on 0203 515 0109 or what's up in your questions down below please stay tuned for the second part after the short break thank you for joining us again wherever you may be worldwide as we discuss the lives of the Prophet in the Quran and the lessons we can take from their lives this episode is just an introductory episode just for the viewers joining us now and inshallah we will discuss Prophet Adam alaihi salam tomorrow but back to our discussion with Dr. Sayed Amman al Qashawani since I'm sure you can notice a change with him when as he appears on your screen he's gone rid of that Liverpool shirt and he's dressed quite smartly looking like I could go back to the Liverpool shirt but looking like you're about to get married I have to I have to come into this formal way otherwise the producers will not be too happy with me considering the producers at the back none of them are Liverpool fans oh okay that creates a problem for you sadly sadly you look like you're about to get married thank you thank you so much now say that we hear about the prophets of Allah some of them we discussed Nabi and Rasul now we hear the word Ulil Azim now are they the same rank are they different ranks in the eyes of Allah if you could shed light on that yeah we'll come to the Ulil Azim prophets when we start with Nabi Nooh alaihi salam and again there are different opinions as to these prophets let's make something very clear the Quran there is a verse that makes clear not all prophets of Allah are at the same level just in case there are people out there who think that every prophet of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is on the same level as the other no when the Quran talks of a particular tafdil that exists a particular exalted position that some favor over others that some have over others in Surah 2 verse 253 in Surah al-Baqarah there are messengers we have exalted some above the others some we have raised them in ranks and clearly if you're looking at the traditions there is a difference between the number of Nbiya mentioned and the number of Rasul mentioned sometimes you hear that there's a hundred and twenty four thousand prophets yeah 313 messengers okay so as we said that the Rasul are for example seen as being Nbiya as well as Rasul whereas not every Nabi is a Rasul so when we're now looking at the Rasul these are the ones who have come according to some opinions to the whole of mankind and the whole of the jinn there are Nbiya who have come just for their local area Quran sometimes refers to some prophets where it says and remember their brother who came to them they may have come just to that local area that Rasul has come and the Ulul Azim Noah Abraham Moses Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon his family they have come where they have come to the whole of mankind and the whole of the world of the jinn because the Quran says we did not create the jinn or the humans except to worship me Allah says so the jinn believe in prophets the humans believe in prophets the jinn have had Rasul because when Surat al jinn was revealed the jinn had interestingly mentioned that they had heard the message before this one of Prophet Moses alaihi salam okay so that goes to show us that Prophet Moses alaihi salam is seen as being one of the Ulul Azim who has come for the human has come for the jinn has come for the east and has come for the people of the west unlike those Nbiya who may have come for example to a local area or a local vicinity and those Ulul Azim may have come with a NG with a Torah with a we're going to come inshallah in a couple of nights to the life of Nabi Nuh alaihi salam and we're gonna look at the Noahide Lord and when you're looking at the Noahide laws you're going to find that this is the beginning of these scriptures you're later gonna have the Suhof of Ibrahim the Torah of Moses the ng love Jesus and the Quran of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam so what we have is that the Ulul Azim part of the eye of the Quran which mentions that we have given excellence for some above others they are the ones who have come to the whole of mankind the whole of the jinn the east and the west and they have come with a particular message which continues the previous message for different reasons it's interesting that you mentioned the 313 Russell 313 Russell now if they came down with messages and they were Rasulullah you mentioned the Ulul Azim are the ones bringing down the books did they follow the books until the next Ulul Azim Prophet came or was it that they came down with a different book themselves well if we're looking at there are many different nations in the world many different countries you know it's a shame that we only know about the Middle East you know we always know about which Prophet went to Iraq or who went to Jerusalem you know or who went for example to let's say the Hijaz area it seems that there are Russell who have gone far and wide and whether they actually have a Suhof or they have a revealed text or they have a set of commandments there is a difference of opinion about but certainly you'll find that there are many prophets out there who sadly people have not dissected their lives maybe the lack of information sometimes it's also critical this I'll tell you something and I say this to the viewers extremely difficult process in in preparing these discussions is finding information sometimes information is very scarce yeah about certain nations about certain areas and so you know clearly when we're saying there's 124 thousand NBR there's 313 Russell it clearly means that there was a continuation of testaments covenants yeah tablets relics yeah you know when we come to Nabi Adam alayhi salam and when we go towards Nabi Nooh there is a continuation of relics which are passed from one prophet towards another yeah because the taboot comes later on exactly the story of if you look at the story of Nabi Musa alayhi salam al-Baqarah and with David as well prophet Dawood there's this there's this tablet that continues one may argue if you look at the red jafar and the white jafar and discussions concerning that which comes later in Imamology there is a continuation of holding on to the hair of so-and-so the stone of so-and-so the shield of so-and-so on what was the Feeqar before the sword of Imam alayhi salam did it belong to previous nations so there are different relics there's different forms of knowledge there's different revelations there's different tablets which are passed from one community to another because you look at somewhere like Japan the Japanese the Greek the Chinese even the Indians they have some of the oldest civilizations in the world so one would question whether they had prophets sent down to them or not I think they did you think the Quran makes it clear that they did okay on the first level the Qarnayn some called him Alexander the Great some called him Cyrus different opinions but you read his story in Sura 18 of the holy Quran he's traveling wide far he's meeting different nations I think there's a clear hint you know if you were to believe that tradition attributed to the prophet you know seek knowledge even if you have to go as far as China you know there's an indication there okay you know you mentioned interestingly Japan I would say there are countries in the world today which are amongst the most you know which are ancient states founded years before some of these big nations which are found only a couple hundred years ago you're looking at places like San Marino place like Japan places like India Armenia you know Iraq where we come to a very important point when we're gonna look at the graves of Nabi Adam and Nabi Noah in the next couple of days and so what you have is that there are prophets as the Quran mentioned Sura 35 verse 24 there wasn't an area without us sending a warna every area had a warna otherwise that area could turn around and say hold on God you want me to come towards your path but where was where was your guide why did you send everybody to Iraq what is it something nice about Iraqi food you know you're sending everyone to Iraq is it because the food's great why are you sending everyone to Mecca money were their profits in Japan were their profits in India were their profits in Greece were their profits in Armenia were their profits in San Marino I think they were profits in all these areas okay bro 124,000 is no joke no definitely 124,000 is a huge number and there's no doubt that what's the central message of these prophets central message of belief in the oneness of God monotheism and so on and so they've gone to nations you know of different areas now I'm not going to deny that some of these prophets may have been deified some of them may have been made to become God with a statue okay that doesn't deny that God God upon himself he would have ensured that every single area as the Quran mentions that there wasn't an area but that we sent a warna for every nation there is a warna and there are guides there are NBR Russell oh yeah yes yeah so so I think those countries that you mentioned you'll find that some of their greatest figures are prophets of Allah swt yep there are prophets like Daniel you know I've got I've got look after the name Daniel because I've attacked a couple of times in our communities and I've got good friends called Daniel and they say why did you attack the name Daniel so I'm gonna say good things about Daniel but the name Daniel is the name of a prophet a prophet who told us about the coming of the Holy Prophet peace be upon him but it's not in the Quran yeah yes in the next 20 odd nights we're gonna be looking at the lives of the prophets mentioned in the Quran but there are Buddha Krishna Aristotle and others these are prophets who may not be mentioned in the Quran yeah but can anyone deny that they're one of the hundred twenty four thousand yeah see just just before you mentioned that in my head those four historical personalities yeah literally just historical personalities that were revered by that are revered by cultures and different religions other than mine I thought that you know they have nothing to do with me and my religion but sounds like they do they certainly do yeah now you mentioned Prophet Daniel alaihi salam and you mentioned other prophets that are not mentioned in the Quran are those prophets mentioned in other sources where do we find those sources I still think that the Torah and the angel or the Old Testament and useless I still think these are all valuable sources for us and providing us with the Old Testament does go into a lot of intricacies which the Quran's not interested in the Quran may not be interested in it for a number of reasons either it's speaking to a Jewish community in Medina already know all of this so there's no need to say that this person's married to that person and there was eight people there and they're nine people there and there was this guy's uncle and so on so I think that what you're finding is that those those prophets and their family is mentioned in the in the Bible mentioned in the Jewish scriptures possibly mentioned in Hindu Sikh scriptures I definitely wouldn't deny that those personalities when when you're hearing names I'm not gonna say prophets but there are certain people in history who had a mystical edge to them they don't have to be prophets but like you know you look at the likes of Guru Nanak you study Sikhism has Sikhism has a has a lot of fine spirituality which can be taken you know from Islam and they go hand-in-hand with one another so I do believe that the sources of other religions are helpful in providing us with indications of great personalities who may have been those prophets as well now let's not say that also in our books such as Al-Kafi such as the Bihar there are mentions of personalities who may not be mentioned directly in the Quran you know you have for example we're gonna come to Nabi Sheeth alaihi salam and you know Nabi Sheeth has a grave some say in Lebanon and some say in Mosul and other places this is a personality whose name is not directly mentioned in the Quran there's no I am mentioning Sheeth but can still be counted as a source for our knowledge okay say it net just a quick question from one of our dear viewers Zahrat from Scotland says good evening I have a question did the prophets have financial aspirations thank you well what you have is that we're gonna see inshallah in the show on Nabi Nooh alaihi salam is he begins this trend of prophets who say that you know I don't ask for any recompense my recompense is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the only prophet peace be upon him and his family the holy prophet Muhammad is the one who said that I don't ask from you anything except love for my family otherwise the rest say I was with Allah someone asks why because it's a sign of their intellectual honesty that I have not come here to deliver this message on the basis of a bribe that you're gonna give me or money you're gonna give me rather I have come here with a basic message and that is to bring all of us closer to our path of God consciousness yeah so in terms of them doing this had it been and they always tell their people look have we asked for a penny from you guys for you to doubt us we could have easily did that and we'll see what the people of Nuh that many mocked him because his followers were poor okay yeah now back to our discussion you know the latest story we see with the prophets of Allah is goes back to 1400 years to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and his family the earliest some tens of thousands of years with Prophet Adam alaihi salam you know what sources should we use and how do you verify sources that we will use it's it's it's a huge challenge to be able to rewrite or reevaluate the biographies of the prophets in the holy Quran you know it's they it takes a while to come and do this and you know if I there are there are five six books in my head as I mentioned earlier which are purely Qasas al Anbiya you know the works of Ibn Qutair the works of a Thalabi the works of Qutb al Rawandi the works of in majlis these these are pure pure you know pieces of literature looking at the biographies of the prophets but then you see major differences in the way they look at prophets some are very happy to ascribe fallibility and sin to those prophets Moses punching the angel of death a stone running away with his clothes you know David committing adultery Abraham worshipping idols and so but we're all Muslims we all believe in the prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala how then can one group of Muslims be ready to happily say that amongst the reasons Abraham cannot do intercession or cannot intercede on their judgments because he committed a sin or that Adam sinned or that Moses killed someone sinned or that you know Moses punches the angel of death and then you come to another group of Muslims who believe in the infallibility of prophets clearly there's difference which is a challenge when we look at the sources and that's why I always say there is nobody who can explain to us the teachings of the prophets and the lives of the prophets and the lessons from those lives of the prophets in the Quran like Muhammad and I'll Muhammad salawat allah was salamu alaykum the ehlul bayt alaykum was salam imam al baqan imam salam there's a book out there if you guys want to read it it's called Jesus Jesus through Shi'a generations or Jesus in Shi'a generations by legion housing it's a fantastic work and it shows you just how much knowledge the ehlul bayt had about the biographies of the prophets now why did we need the ehlul bayt because we have so many when we look at the biographies of prophets there's so many hadith which are known as israeliyat now israeliyat is that there was a sudden rise of a sudden rise of ex-Jews and Christians Allah knows their intention who suddenly started to ascribe stories of prophets preceding the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon his family and put them into the genre of Islamic narrative and literature in the world of hadith sometimes you look at these israeliyat I'll give you a famous example the Prophet went into a mahraj and supposedly you know you've got this story about him you know him going and asking about Salat first Salat was 50 said make it easier for my people comes down comes down comes nine till five you know you got these traditions which suddenly start coming in Ka'bel Ahbar amongst others who start bringing israeliyat in yeah someone may argue that well sometimes in Shi'a literature you may have an israeli tradition narrated from an Imam firstly not everything in Shi'a literature is to be taken but secondly there are stages where the imams lived under tyrannical rulers where taqiyyah was fundamental at that time however if you were to compare them with other discussions on the same area you'll find that another Imam in another period is able to dissect this topic more freely so what we have is that from the Ahlul Bayt alaym as-salam especially I tell you somebody who's a wonderful source of understanding the prophetic mission and the lives of the prophets and that's Imam alayhi salam within Nehj al-Balaghah there are brilliant discussions right from the outset that creation of Adam tomorrow we're going to look at Adam's creation yep and the creation of Adam alayhi salam you look at Imam alayhi salam talks about it right from the beginning of Nehj al-Balagh and he always brings stories of the prophets who came before him and I think he's a wonderful source Nehj al-Balaghah is a great source Bihar al-Anwar Majesty that you know I think there's the English which is known as Hayat al-Qulub which seeks to discuss prophetic stories that can be used as well I don't discount and I haven't discounted the usage of archaeology you know to try and look at the understanding of structures and buildings in the lives of prophets proceeding the Prophet Muhammad peace family we might discuss that with the Ark of Noah how did they build the Ark of Noah how many days that it takes to build the Ark of Noah you know what happened with the building of the Ark of Noah maybe someone also we can't deny the usage of the Torah of the Bible you know I think their great sources to compare and contrast to see you know what's Noah saying to his people before the flood what's Abraham's discussion with the sacrifice you know what's happening with the angels how to maraud who's enough or do we call him Idris you know so I think those are sources as well that we can use but ultimately you look at Hadith of the Qalain I leave behind for you two weighty things the Quran and my Ahlul Bayt and the Quran ultimately is the best source you know what you got the verses of the Quran they're discussing these prophets some sorrows are called after named after prophets such as Noah and Abraham others have the stories of the prophets at different places that's ultimately your best sources which you can use just a few questions coming in from what's up this one here no name I am looking to overturn a conviction in the UK I spent five years and ten months in jail and wish to be exonerated what would be the best practice to get mercy from Allah I became a Shia in 2016 after seeing the 12 imams in a dream whilst in jail God's door of forgiveness is open for everybody as long you know you ask the Lord for forgiveness you've regretted what you've done you'll never do it again God's doors open for you another question here saying Salam Sayyid Ammar mentioned the prophets came for the for the Jinn as well as human beings please ask him how was there no prophets sent down to the Jinn prior to Prophet Adam alaihi salam because history suggests that the Jinn existed on the planet before human beings were sent down sure we're going to be discussing that in the story of Adam alaihi salam tomorrow and his interaction with the one who is named Iblis before he leaves the garden and who later is known as shaitan so we will discuss that inshallah tomorrow okay now you know you mentioned the different books that mentioned the prophets of Allah you know such as Bukhari, Bihar al-Anwar, Nihj al-Balaghah you know although all Muslims believe in prophets what's the difference between Sunni and Shia the sources is the difference Quran we both agree on after that it's completely opposite if you're looking at the main sources of knowledge about the lives of prophets of God apart from the Quran in the world of other schools in Islam you know they take the companions as being the main source of knowledge for us it's the imams of Ahlul Bayt alaihi salam as the main source of knowledge after the Quran for them to tell us what the Prophet peace be upon him and his family taught about those prophets that came before him so while we have thousands of hadiths from Imam al-Baqar and Imam al-Sadiq about Ayyub, about Nuh, about Musa, about Idris, about Isa, about Dilqif, about Al-Yasa, about Samuel, about you know all these prophets alaihi salam and they're the ones that we rely on you know with all due respect to other schools in Islam I don't take their sources as a guide for my understanding of the Seerah of the Nbiya and one more question there are plenty plenty coming in but one more question from Noor from Canada Salam to both of you I'd like to start off by sending my heartfelt salutations to Dr. Sayyid Ahmad. Thank you Noor thank you an absolute legend my question is who was made first I have heard in Majlis that Imam Ali alaihi salam was the individual to make Nabi Adam alaihi salam is this true thank you well you know there's no doubt that the two greatest creations of God are the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon his family and Imam Ali alaihi salam their light was created years before Nabi Adam alaihi salam and we'll see in tomorrow's show that when Nabi Adam alaihi salam talks to his lord there are certain names who he mentions in his dua who we as Muslims all have to mention when asking for our supplications to be answered okay also we have there's a lot there's a hasen from Dearborn he says salams to the studio hope everyone's fast is going well I was wondering Sayyid could you please comment briefly on the status of the Prophet and their ability to sin or disobey Allah are they infallible what is the term that is used if not infallible? Tune in every night as we go through the lives of every Prophet Allah swt especially in answering the questions about the asma and looking at different terminologies such as Tarkh al-Ola you know and what is the meaning of istighfar and them and so on we'll look at all of these you know every night but so far as for us to look at the shia important position that is that the prophets of Allah swt are guides for mankind and they are all error-free individuals linking to hasen's point actually you know talking about if a prophet wasn't infallible you know couldn't someone just randomly one day say look I'm gonna go in a cave I'm gonna sit there for a few hours come out tell the people I am a messenger of God I was sent by God firstly look at his character before he went into the cave yep if he's known as sadaq and ameen and not just the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon his family many prophets were known as ameen or known as sadaq never told a lie always trustworthy with their intellect there's two types of aman ameen intellectual honesty economic honesty okay and they never ever withered on both so number one if somebody just comes out and tells you I'm a prophet firstly you know his past character secondly you look at his behavior after that day what is he espousing I'm your prophet make sure you give me a million dollars every day and I'll guarantee you a place in jannah no I don't want anything I'm even willing in some cases to live in the Shi'ab of Abu Talib in poverty yeah I'm willing to see my family drown while I beg them to come on the ark I'm willing to sacrifice my son for my lord number three there is also miracles that some can perform it's not just anyone number four I believe people have a mystical consciousness why rationally can you deny that there isn't one figure on the earth who god has decided to give a level of mystical consciousness higher than others abdel kudus of ganja was a mystic and they asked him what's the difference between you and Muhammad peace be upon his family he said if I had gone on mahraj I wouldn't have come back I would have enjoyed where I was whereas Muhammad peace be upon his family came back the difference between a mystic and a prophet a mystic enjoys that world of the realm of being in god's divine grace a prophet knows he has a mission on behalf of the lord that he wants to fulfill and so if I can see there are people in the world today in my own family who are very righteous in the community who are righteous and the ulama circles who are righteous what's there to deny that god couldn't pick 124 000 to be the most right this is true Sayyidina we are being bombarded alhamdulillah with questions on what's up so just uh I'm just gonna pick a few here uh says salamu alaykum brothers salamu alaykum Dr Sayyidina Ammar was prophet prophet Abraham's father a monotheist prophet Abraham prayed for his parents my dear my dear brethren I will answer all your questions every night but you're asking me about nabi ibrahim nabi ibrahim is in a few nights time nabi ibrahim's father was a monotheist we should have left that for that but we will discuss that in a few nights yeah but because he was raised by his uncle and we'll discuss the difference between ebb and valid in that discussion okay okay which is coming when ibrahim refers to him as abi rather than to the valid and what's the difference between the two but his uncle was a polytheist whereas nabi ibrahim and his father were monotheists we go back these fathers they are all monotheists on the path of god yeah but I will discuss that inshallah in a few nights time this question Ramadan kareem my name is teslim i'm from panama where we have a majority catholic population my question is in regards to the mentioning of the firmament in the bible is there any correlation in the it's coming inshallah we're gonna look at the firmament we're gonna look at the different aspects of it as well and what's the relation to the islamic discussion thank you very much my pleasure i'm absolutely starving but you know it's great seven it's time we'll try and find a loophole to make it in one minute time and inshallah we will continue tomorrow with nabi adam alayhi salam inshallah join us tomorrow for an exciting new episode starting from nabi adam alayhi salam as you know this was only an introductory episode but inshallah we won't see a level pusher tomorrow and inshallah stay tuned for dua al istiftah istitah and dua al istiftah that's a legendary dua is that a new one i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you don't do that okay and inshallah join us tomorrow for the new episode on prophet adam alayhi salam as we dive into his life and the lessons we can take as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah


Good morning. It is Thursday, April 2nd, and I just wanted to give you guys some updates.  I know it was a little bit unnerving yesterday when things went down for a while in the late afternoon and evening. I do thank those of you who contacted me. I'm pretty much online all day, so I was monitoring things very carefully. And the first indication that we had that there was an issue, I did send a help message in and they ended up sending a message out saying that it was the connection into campus which had caused some difficulty with some of the authentication. But things are working now, so you guys should be able to keep moving on stuff. For my lab students, just keep working on your stuff, which is due Sunday. For my physics students, the material that should have been done on Wednesday, you can get that done today. The bonus problems can be turned in by the end of the day on Friday. If you have any questions or concerns, as always, you can email me or you can text message me. Either way, I've also got the virtual classroom, the virtual office hours on the Blackboard Collaborate classroom. I'm not having too many people in there and so a lot of times it's actually timing me out because I'm in there all by myself for a while. If you do go in there and I don't seem to be right there responding, just send me a text message because I am multitasking and trying to get a lot of other stuff done at the same time. I hope you have a good day today. Keep on going and I am here if you need help. Just get in touch with me. Have a good day.


Welcome to Tick Mill Weekly Market Outlook for a week commencing the 19th of October with me Patrick Manelwy. The US Joe Biden's lead in the opinion polls has been narrowing just slightly over the last week. President Trump will hope that this Thursday's second and final TV debate in Nashville presents an opportunity to score some points up by it. This is perhaps the last big opportunity to do this before the November 3 election. Any narrowing in the opinion polls will probably be taken as a negative by risk markets increasing as it does the chance of a contested election. This comes at a time when the financial markets are priced towards a benign outcome in the form of a democratic clean sweep. The debate comes against a backdrop of rising double dip fears and what stands out currently is the divergence between Europe, the US and China. Europe is priced towards a sharp slowdown. US markets are called in the middle, while Chinese markets are priced for a v-shaped recovery. In terms of data, next week it's going to be largely in the form of positive housing data. It shouldn't really be a game changer for the US assessment, nor should the Fed's page book, however, initial claims could receive a little more attention after a poor outcome last week and speculation could grow that the October non-farm payrolls released right after the election could actually be negative. Unless fresh fiscal stimulus comes to the rescue, this cocktail of data and events look slightly risk negative and dollar positive. So from a technical perspective, still tracking this dollar decline. As we pulled back last week, we didn't take out the sport area at the 9250 discussed in last week's session and instead buyers came in there and we have found some support. So now what we're looking at is a new equality objective at this 9570 to 96 area, this prior support zone. Now to act as resistance in an equality move that should set up a wave 4 peak and then looking for that wave 5 decline into the psychological 90 area. So, as long as we hold the last week's lows at 9295, look for a grind high into the elections beginning of November and then we'll be looking for that next leg to the downside. In terms of Eurozone, broadening lockdowns across Europe have taken their toll on European asset markets and taken some of the steam out of the Euro. The macro focus this week will be on the October PMIs released Friday where the services index is expected to fall again, but manufacturers should just about keep the Eurozone composite figure above 50. There's a whole host of ECB speakers due again this week, but it seems European fixed income markets certainly have received the message of the double dip. Here, German bun yields have recently made a new low for the year. Progress or lack thereof on Brexit will also play a role in Euro pricing this week as will Monday's OPEC Plus meeting. There have been periods this year when cyclical currencies including the Euro have rallied alongside all throwing focus on whether OPEC Plus members will dial back from planned output increases next year. If better Chinese data activity prompts another leg lower in the dollar one, then we could see some potential early support this week in terms of the Euro. From a cyclical perspective, tracking the potential five way of advance here and we're in a way for corrective pattern. Certainly that view will receive confirmation if we can take out this 116, but as we hold this 117 area, there is still the potential that we've actually seen the three wave decline here and that we have our fourth wave low in place and we could see a move up to test this 122 target. The base case for me at this stage is that whilst we hold the 118.20s resistance, I'm looking for a test now of the 115 to 114.50 area, where again looking for this election low in terms of the Euro and a high in terms of the dollar, so I'll be looking at long positions then targeting the 122. In terms of the UK, despite Prime Minister Johnson's comments about the UK government's willingness to go for the Australia style trade deal, the reaction in Stirling and the UK rates market was fairly limited as the UK Prime Minister did not call for an end to negotiations. One can interpret the latest comments as a face saving exercise characterised by tough talk, continuation negotiations, beyond the UK government self-imposed deadline of October 15th whilst Stirling fell in response to Johnson's comments, scale of the currency decline was relatively muted considering that no risk premium has been priced into the currency for some time. If the market credibly believed in the threat of a no deal Brexit, Stirling would have traded materially lower. What I'm looking for now in terms of the UK and EU trade negotiations, they're likely to continue next week with rhetoric coming out from both sides. On the data front, we should see a modest uptick in both headline and core UK September CPI released on Wednesday from the rather depressed levels. But with price pressures remaining low, the extension of QE in the November BOE meeting looking as a done deal and the odds of negative rates to be primarily driven by the outcome of the UK-EU trade negotiations, the UK data should have limited impact on Stirling. What I'm looking for now is Stirling to continue to trade within its range of the 12650 to 13050 area. I'm looking for a slow grind into projected ascending trend line support now coming in at this 127 handle before then we have the potential to retest price cycle highs 134.85 on route to an ideal 136. Dolly En remains trapped in very tight ranges and certainly is trading a non-correlated pair with global recovery. It's hard to see that changing unless the threat of a contested election becomes more real where traders would then even choose to avoid the dollar as a safe haven currency. Flow reports suggest a large amount of foreign bond buying by Japanese residents in the last report in weeks suggesting a 105 level remains an attractive area to go into the overseas assets. Let's see whether those purchases are repeated in this week's industry of finance portfolio flow data. The Japanese data calendar is light but should culminate in another minus 0.4% year on year reading in core CPI confirming very little progress in Japan's multi-decade battle against inflation. From a technical perspective, as we hold 105, I'm looking for an equality move initially testing ascending trend line support 10660 on route to an ideal 107 test. Breach of 105 would certainly open a move down to 10435 before another attempt to move higher. In Australia, the combination of Australia-China trade tensions and rising chances at the Reserve Bank of Australia will add more stimulus soon, approving to be a toxic mix for the Aussie dollar and in an already unsupportive environment for risk assets. On the first factor, it's still too early to understand how much the Chinese ban on Australian coal was indeed part of Beijing's protectionist agenda or whether diplomatic tensions were the main motive. Should the latter be true, the threats of more Australian exports being targeted may be a narrative for the coming weeks and may undoubtedly weigh on the Australian dollar. Looking at the second factor, the RBA Governor Lo's hint about the extension of bond purchases could prove to be more impactful and many think that a move will come at the November 3 policy meeting. Australia's 10-year yields dropped below 75 basis points for the first time since April on the back of the announcement. But there is still likely some sizeable downside potential for rates markets if markets fully buy into the prospect of the RBA buying 10-year bonds. Next week we will get clarity with the minutes of the RBA policy meeting released on Tuesday and a speech by Deputy Governor Guy De Bell. All in all, the Australian dollar now seems highly vulnerable to more risk appetite contractions, really more than any other G10 currency at this stage. So from a technical perspective, as we hold 72.40 cents as a potential B wave high, I'm looking for an equality move down to test 68.35. Again, I've got this date towards the back end of this month, at the beginning of November, where we should see a shift in terms of sentiment across the board reflected in the dollar. But for now certainly, as we hold 72.40, I look for a break of the 70 cents level to set up this quality move down to 68.40. As always, please join me on Thursday for my live market analysis session where I go into more details about the charts. As always, have a profitable and safe trading week ahead. Thanks very much.


Welcome to Rogue Gear Reviews, I'm Mark from RVLove and today we're talking about the Viair 450p RV air compressor. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Rogue Gear Reviews, again this is Mark from RVLove talking about the Viair 450p RV air compressor. So what it is, it's an air compressor is to pump up any of your RV tires or your car tires or anything else you need to add air to. The Viair air compressor is kind of on the higher end of portable air compressors. You can find some less expensive units, but this is a very high quality, very nice air compressor. The first couple years on the road I had a lesser quality one. This is one that I've been aspiring to owning because I have a lot of friends who have Viair's and rave about them. So when Viair asked if we would review one for them, I was very excited to jump on that opportunity. And though I had another air compressor that was kind of getting by, I was happy to give that to someone else and have this new air compressor. And I knew it would be better, but I didn't know just how much better this product would be. Now this air compressor runs on 12 volts, so it uses alligator clips that you would clip onto your battery bank. And if you're trying to connect that to a car's battery bank, you're going to want to have the engine running. Because at max load, this thing can pull up to 23 amps. Now I have a high power lithium battery bank in our coach, so I'm just going to plug it into the battery banks without starting the engine. Partially so you can see how quiet this is compared to the other units, but also because I just don't need to start the engine for that. It kind of draws. The alligator clips and the power cord have an 8 foot length to the compressor. And then on the other side of the compressor, you're going to have your air hoses. And this ViR 450P comes with not one, but two 30 foot long coils that are for your airlines. And these are really high quality coils. They look like they're braided inside, feel very durable, really nice attachments. But with 30 feet of cord, you can stretch this really far. As you can see in this shot right here, this is just the one of the two 30 foot cords. If I was to connect two of these, I'm going to have over 60 feet from my battery between the 8 foot power cord and the 60 feet of airline. Also included in the kit are replacement air filters. Replace these air filters and put a clean one in so you always have really good air coming into that air compressor. It's really simple to replace that.  This air compressor can pump up to pressures up to 150 psi and it pumps at a rate of 1.8 cubic feet per minute. Some people really like the 400 model instead of the 450. The 400 can run I think at 2.3 cubic feet per minute instead of the 1.8 on this 450. But the 400 model can't run as long as this 450. The 450 can run up to 40 minutes continuously. Actually, that brings up one of the cool features is that it has an automatic shutoff, so it won't just run consistently. If you're pumping up multiple tires and you're switching from tire to tire, when it has built up enough pressure, it shuts itself off in between tire changes.  It doesn't need to keep running. It's up to its maximum pressure, which is good for a couple reasons. It doesn't run the compressor consistently all the time. But two, it makes it a lot easier to connect the attachment to your other tire when it's not trying to have free flowing air. Speaking of attachments, it does have some really nice high quality attachments. This is the one I use the most. And with this attachment, you can push it onto a valve stem or pull it onto a valve stem the other direction. This is especially important if you run dual rear tires on a duly or on a larger RV. One of the other attachments, it has a gun with a trigger and a gauge, and the gauge is actually pretty accurate. You can actually plug this attachment right into it. Just pull back the quick release and it attaches right to it. And this is really nice and handy way to attach it and see how you're inflating. I use this feature to pump up the tires on an old trailer that had been out in storage for extended period of time. And it was really nice to just watch that gauge climb right up because those tires had under 10 pounds of pressure on them. It was great to just watch that gauge climb up to right where I need it and pop it right off. Pumped up all four tires in just a few minutes and it was on the road. Now that 1.8 cubic feet per minute, that is when you're at zero psi. When you get up to pressures like 130 psi, it's going to be more like 0.8 cubic feet per minute as the rate slows down as it's getting to those higher and higher pressures. But this pump can go all the way up to 150 psi, which is a big deal because a lot of these larger motor homes have tires that need to be inflated up to 130 and sometimes even higher pressures. If you have a vehicle that only needs to run 40 psi in it, this will make very quick work of that. But these lesser quality air compressor can't effectively pump up to this high pressures required on some of these motor homes. In fact, the old compressor I had, it said it could go to 120 psi, but when you plug it in and start trying to pump up a tire, it would say it was at 120 psi and maxing out and it blow fuses, but it was actually only 100 psi because the gauge was wrong. So it wasn't a true 120 psi that it was trying to pump up to. This is a much more robust unit and so I believe it could go all the way up there. I don't have a tire that can handle that kind of pressure, so I haven't been able to test that max capacity, but I firmly believe it will do it. So I love that this attachment allows me to attach to either one of the valve stems in here. I can reach back behind here and come at it from behind, which is a very difficult angle for the other compressors I've seen. And for this other one back here, I can just go straight on it forward. So much easier to use than other ones I've seen. This alone, the simplicity of being able to pump up the tires is really valuable to me. I can definitely tell the amount of quality in this product versus other air compressors I've had experience with. It's definitely heavier, but all the components are much higher quality. The air hoses are rated lines. They have really nice fittings and attachments. The unit itself is heavier, but it has nice quality foam grips and a nice diamond plate bottom. And it's so much quieter than other ones I've experienced. It has an inline fuse. Should you ever overload it and pop that fuse. Even the canvas bag that it comes in is a nice quality canvas bag. And it has storage on either side to store the hoses. And then inside it, you can store the main compressor itself, the alligator clips and any other attachments. That you use for inflating your tires. This unit is about 18 pounds when it's in the canvas bag. And it's about 13 pounds for the compressor by itself. It's about 11 inches by seven and a half inches by six inches in size. So it's definitely a little bit bulkier, a little bit bigger. But man, can this thing pump out some air. Now I can show you here, I can compare the two units side by side with my old one that I used to have. And my new Viere. Alright, for a sound comparison. You can clearly see the difference in the noise level when you're operating this. And that's important to me because a lot of the time when I'm trying to air up my tires, it's in the morning and I'm getting ready to leave the campground. I'm trying not to be disruptive to any of my neighbors. Now on the box when we got our 450 PRV, it says it can pump tires up to 37 inches. But if you go to the website it'll say that it can pump up to 42 inch tires. So quite a bit larger than what the box says. So they must have done additional testing or something to show that it has higher ratings. Now as far as the cost of this Viere, you probably see some knockoff units or some inexpensive ones at a store for under 100 bucks. I believe the 400 can sometimes be found for under 200. This 450P normally retails for around 329. At the time of filming this video, I believe it's on Amazon for 289 on sale. So it's definitely on a really good sale right now. It's definitely on the higher end and you might be wondering, well, is it really worth that extra money? And that was part of the debate for me because I hear people rave about them all the time. But I hadn't had the personal experience with it. But now that I have, I can say to me it's absolutely worth the money. The convenience of working with this and how much more enjoyable it is, more powerful, faster and less noise. I just think this is so much better. All the attachments are so much easier to use too. My old compressor, I literally could not pump up the tires on my current motor on because of the way the valve stems are. And so that was actually really concerning to me. But this new one with the way the valve attachment is going, you can go forward or back against that valve stem. This makes it super easy to attach and super easy to inflate, so much quicker and easier than the old one I had. If I can't properly inflate my tires, then I'm not going to be able to run my tires at the optimal pressure. And that's very important for ride quality and the lifespan of your tires. Tires on RVs are very important to get put under a lot of straining stress. You want to have them at the optimal pressures at all times. All right, well, that will wrap up my review on the Viere 450p RV air compressor. Really great product. I think it's totally worth the money, especially if you're going to be spending extended travel and you're going to be checking a lot of tires on an RV. You know, with a big coach like ours, which has six tires of its own that all run high pressures, plus our tow vehicle, plus bikes, and plus being around in campgrounds, being able to help other people. I really like having a high quality compressor. I'm really excited to finally have a Viere. We'll of course put links to this product in the description below. We'll also put a link for the 400 below in case you're more interested in that version. If you have any questions about the Viere, please leave those down below. If you have any other suggestions or products you'd like to see us review here on Rogue Gear Reviews, please leave those down in the comments below as well. If you like the video, please give us a thumbs up and a subscribe. Be sure to check back every week for new videos from Rogue Gear Reviews. Until next time, we'll see you on the road.