00:00Bismillah. My name is Zaid Thabit. I'm a postgraduate student of comparative religion, and I'm one of your biggest fan, Dr. Zakir. Welcome to Indonesia.
00:09What was your name again, once again?
00:11Zaid Thabit.
00:12I want to ask regarding your lecture, Universal Brotherhood.
00:16Nowadays, we find many graduates of comparative religion, or we call it now as religious studies, who promoting toleration, religious harmony, and interfaith dialogue,
00:30yet, in which there is a hidden pluralism agenda in it. What do you think about this, and how do we face it? Thank you.
00:39If I understood the question correctly, the Brotherhood is saying there are many people who are doing studies of comparative religion, and they're having interfaith dialogue,
00:48and trying to bring pluralism, trying to believe that all religions are same, or equal.
00:55Correct.
00:56As far as interfaith dialogue is concerned, I'm not too much in favor of the interfaith dialogue that normally people have.
01:05They have one Christian, one Hindu, one Muslim coming, and praising all religions.
01:11So I tell them, if the Hindu, Christian, or Muslim is coming together on the platform, and they're praising all the religion,
01:16I'll ask the Christian, will you become a Muslim? He'll say no. Will the Hindu become a Christian? And the answer is no. Will the Muslim become a Hindu? And the answer is no.
01:25I believe in calling a spade, a spade.
01:29I rather talk about similarities, rather than saying, all religions are same. All religions are not same, there are similarities.
01:36So my formula is different. What I say, my formula is simple. I say, okay, you believe in one book to be the word of God.
01:46They say, yes. Christians, they say, Bible is the word of God. The Hindus, they say, that Veda is the word of God.
01:54We Muslims, we say, Quran is the word of God. So my formula is simple.
01:57Whether you call it interfaith dialogue, whether you call it compassion. I say, let all of us agree to follow what is common.
02:04What is different, we'll discuss tomorrow. Let us agree to follow what is common.
02:10And no one should object. Why should the object? I'm, you know, in school we learned about the Venn diagram.
02:16If there are three circles, the part which is overlapping, all three letters follow that.
02:21So I, my compassion region, I try and prove to them, which I did today, Bible says God is one.
02:30The Hindu scriptures, Veda says God is one, Quran says God. Let us believe in one God.
02:35Bible says God should not have image, Veda says God should not have image, Quran says that.
02:39Why do we have image of God?
02:41At this, let us agree what is common, what is different, we'll discuss tomorrow, right or wrong.
02:45There are so many commonalities in Jakarta on 18th of July, after about five days from now,
02:54I'm going to give a talk on similarities between Islam and Christianity.
03:01This is a master key.
03:03Come to common terms as between us and you.
03:05Which is the most important term in comparative religion?
03:07Allah, Na'bda illallah, that we worship them, but Allah.
03:11So the most important commonalities, Allah, Na'bda illallah.
03:15My son will be giving a talk on 20th of January, concept of God in major world religion.
03:19The second most commonality, I gave a talk two days ago in Malang,
03:24Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the various world religious scriptures, three days ago.
03:28On Thursday.
03:30Most important, one God.
03:32Number two, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
03:33If you read the scriptures of all the major world religions, it talks about one God, Tawhiq.
03:39It talks about Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
03:42These are the main aspects.
03:43Then you can talk about alcohol, you can talk about many things.
03:46So this I believe in interface.
03:48Nothing like you're good, my good, you scratch my back, I scratch your back.
03:53So there's neither here, neither there.
03:55So if we have an interface, dialogue, have a proper one.
03:58Like what the Quran says.
03:59Taala vila kalimatin, survive.
04:01No, no, okay, you're good, I'm good, both are good.
04:04What you're good, I'm good, both are good.
04:06If both are same, then you should change, correct?
04:08Correct.
04:09I'm talking about similarities.
04:12So, we should keep Quran as our guide in how to do dawah.
04:19Many times when you go to these universities, they may not be,
04:25unfortunately, I've been to many universities, we have wished to PhD in comparative religion.
04:31Okay, very good.
04:31Muslim university.
04:32I said, brother, how many non-Muslims have you spoken to?
04:35He says, zero.
04:37You're doing comparative religion for four years, five years.
04:41You have not spoken to any non-Muslims.
04:43What are you doing for what?
04:45Unless you want to become a non-Muslim.
04:47What is the use?
04:51So, something is theoretical, something is practical.
04:54I am a practical man, not a dharaj man.
04:56Practical.
04:57So, practical dawah is, you have to do PhD in dawah, and you haven't spoken to any non-Muslims.
05:03What is the use of that PhD?
05:04It will not benefit you, it will not benefit you in Jannah also.
05:08If you go to Jannah, if you don't take it to Jannah, sorry.
05:11So, we have to make Quran as our guide, follow the guidelines, and I have given, there is a program,
05:21there is a course on al-hidayah, which I call as a halal netflix.
05:26Let's become effective dawah, where I train how Muslims should use the Quran and the other scriptures
05:33to effectively convey the message of Islam.
05:35I hope that's the question.
