Our next section, our conversation with Abdullah Antepli, a primer on Islam. We're going to talk about Muslim theology, Islamic theology and practice. So let's dive into it. Sure. Very hard questions, what is it that Muslims believe? Believe it or not, as difficult to conceive, there is a core piece of theology which is clearly outlined in the Koran and exemplified in the life of Prophet Muhammad which is common to all 1.7 billion Muslims. Don't get me wrong, Muslims are as diverse as it gets, 1.7 billion people. But there is a piece of theology, common to every single person, five, six million people every year circling around the Holy Shrine of Ka'bah, that they believe. And there has been intentional deliberate attempts for early Muslims to simplify the core teachings, core ethics of this religion, learning from early Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity with all these doctrinal and belief wars, that they really wanted to simplify their core teaching of Islam. Whatever you are going to take on, what makes someone a Muslim is very simple, if you can believe it. Basic, the six belief, six belief, you have to believe in six articles of creed and doctrine to become a Muslim. If you believe these six things, you are Muslim, If not, you are not part of the mainstream and the six belief is common to both Sunnis, Shias, Indonesian Muslims, Chinese Muslims. In its interpretation, we have so many different denominations, different understands, different churches etcetera. But these six believe, if I can go very quickly, people usually mix this up with five pillars, that's different. But what makes somebody a Muslim, as a belief, is six creed and doctrine, one and the most important one, is God is One. God's oneness and that radical monotheism is the essence of Islam. For anybody, If they tell me to tell all about theology of Islam on one foot in 30 seconds, God's oneness and your ability to submit your will to the will of God and worship God and have a relationship with that one God is the heart of Islam, that's the essence of Islam. It's so important that the religion itself is named after this first creed. Islam, Islam means surrender, submit to this one God. Most world religions are named after the founders, like Christianity, like Buddhism or they are named after the location, geography that they were born, like Hinduism, like Judaism. This core teaching is so important, God's oneness is so important, that religion itself is named after it. The second, you have to believe in God's angels, that God create cosmic robots, the civil servants of God. So, all the biblical, both in Judaism and Christianity, the biblical angels are mentioned in the Koran are respected as well. The third, God revealed Godself, that's the main, to me the most fundamental question, how do we know that God exists? God revealed Godself in the form of word, in the form of revelation. To cut a long story short, the third thing, you have to believe that God revealed Godself to humanity in the form of revelations and scriptures and holy books many many times. But the ones we know and believe, that in order to become a Muslim as part of this third article of faith, you have to believe the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David and the Gospel of Jesus and Koran is the word of God. With only reservation that the previous revelations unlike Koran, is not a word by word the revelation of the god because they were not written down during the time of revelation like Koran, they were not kept in its original language like Koran, they were translated and written many many centuries later. Therefore, some human experience entered those Torah, Gospel and Psalms, Koran in its entirety, as we believe confession is the word of God but the previous revelations, also the gist of it, the heart of it, the central message of it is also a word of God. The fourth, you have to believe them prophets and the messengers. The prophethood and messengerhood, is a very important office and theological concept in Islam. Again, the long story short, God revealed and God spoke to these individuals according to one tradition that has been 124,000 prophets. Adam, the first human being is the first prophet and Muhammad is the final prophet and in between all the biblical prophets and even the biblical figures who are not prophets in Judaism and Christianity is considered as prophets for Islam as well. Noah, Abraham, very important figure, Moses, Jesus, Solomon, David, Zechariah, John the Baptist are also considered and respected in Islam as well. The fifth, you have to believe that there is a life after death, there is no reincarnation, you will live this life on new ones and you will build your heaven and hell on this earth but you will die, you will be resurrected, you will meet with your maker, your Lord and there will be reward and punishment to life after death. And the sixth is, divine destiny, you have to believe, the fate, FATE, that there is a prescribed plan for every single one of them, which makes every single Muslim a default Presbyterian. So I like the students. You can't control that faith by your actions on earth? You can, you can. There's a very important emphasis on free will, therefore, you are responsible for what you do, therefore, you will be held accountable for what you do, therefore, God will reward and punish you for what you have done in your life because pretty much, ultimately your free will determines the outcome. if I may use those economic and commercial terms, your free will maybe quantitatively 0.1% a fact, in all everything has been done. 99.9% is the plan of God because most of the things you cannot plan, your race, your mother, your parents, where you were born, just imagine, how did you meet your wife? And how much of that is your own free will do you actually planned to meet someone exactly like her? And how much of that is web of coincidences and surprises and things happen? So for Islam, there's no coincidence, this is all loving caring God's plan for you and God is inviting you to this journey, to life and recognize God's fingerprints along the way. I am sure your students and you, have seen Forrest Gump. Yes, of course. I think, Jesus, Muhammad and Moses came together and said, okay, we're going to explain divine destiny, let's write the Hollywood script and they wrote Forrest Gump. I watched 79 times because always watched that movie, then I talk about divine destiny because that movie really explains Islamic understanding of free will versus divine will and what is the role of free will in that sense. It explains much more beautiful than many other boring theologians and Imam, that I have ever seen. But one more of important thing, look at the six creed of Islam, six doctrines of Islam, for Jewish and Christian audience, none of it should be completely foreign, like referring to previous revelations seeing itself rooted in those biblical figures and scriptures and etc. What does it say about the self imagination, religious imagination of Islam? What do Muslims think or Islam think about themselves? Is it a completely new religion, distinct religion? Or its a religion of continuation, God's monotheistic message of humanity, Abrahamic message to humanity? That's a very important. I was just thinking while you were talking about Jews or the one thing we're supposed to say every night is the Sh'ma, which say God is one. It's in some ways, it's that exact same, message. That's exactly. When I tell my Muslim friends, when you enter a Jewish home if you see a Mezuzah, don't hesitate to just salute the Mezuzah because everything in it, is part of your own creed as well. God's oneness is something that we dearly and identically share with the Jewish community.
