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WHO IS GOD? ALLAH, JESUS OR EMINEM...
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Okay, so the 2013 charts of Google's most popular searches in Australia are just in,
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With the top Google search at No. 1 being What is twerking? shortly followed by - Who
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is God?
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Now on saying this, I don't think you have to be a genius to figure out which of the
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two questions is more important to be asking Google.
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I mean one would potentially explain the reality of our existence and the other would potentially
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leave us scarred for the remainder of our existence.
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And look, I know that there is a lot of skepticism surrounding this issue and quite frankly I
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don't blame you. I mean the meaning of God has been thrown around so often that we forgot
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it means -from some Zeus like man in the sky with a big beard, to Thor, to a half animal/half
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human creature, to Kanye west shamelessly producing a track titled "I am God" on his
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album YEEZUS, to Eminem then self proclaiming himself as the "rap God", a new brand of clothing
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titled "I Am God", and yes who could forget Justin Bieber and his believers.
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And now I understand that most of this may be exaggerated, and many of these examples
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are mere semantics and plays on words that are probably being taken out of context -- as
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let's face it no body actually believes in Bieber and I highly doubt that Kanye West
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considers himself a God...
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When someone comes up and says something like "I am a God", everybody says who does he think
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he is. I just told you what I thought I was -- A God.
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Kanye West smashes into a pole.
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Okay, so with all these misconstrued definitions of God, the least I could do is help clear
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the water and help us finally find out -- WHO IS GOD?
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Well to begin, let's start with the things we can all agree on.
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First and foremost we're here. We just began and we exist.
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And like all things that begin to exist they require a cause. Things don't just come out
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of nothing. And although at times we sometimes wish they would... they don't.
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"If I told you that this glass sprang into existence, this glass made it self, you'd
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say Muhammad Ali is crazy".
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So on saying that, knowing the cause of "us" is crucial to understanding who God is. Although
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we are able to explain that we did have a beginning, as many leading cosmologists have
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affirmed, we are still left unanswered as to what was the cause of our beginning.
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And before you lash out saying "Oh but we can't see what happened before we began"...
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or "Oh you can't prove there was a Creator".
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We say quite openly, neither can you "disprove a creator".
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And by observing the reality of our world and existence, its order, structure and systems,
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I see no reason not to believe in a creator.
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But then one may ask...where did this Creator come from? -- What was the cause of Him? And
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it would go on forever and ever, which would most probably lead to us never have been created.
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So for God to exist, He must exist without beginning, therefore not requiring a cause.
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Making him eternal --He should also be transcendent from His creation and not bound by any of
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the realms he had created -- whether it is time, space or matter. For instance when Steve
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Jobs makes an iPhone he doesn't become an iPhone. He is separate.
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And of course we could also argue that He is One. This makes the most sense and it would
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also avoid any potential conflict between two disputing All Powerful Gods with conflicting
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interests.
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But we still don't know which God is He?
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"Are you Zeus, Thor?"
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Well if you agree with everything I've said up until now, you will realize that each of
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these God's don't fit into our established criteria of who God is. They are all created
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beings, they are not eternal, they have not created anything, they are dependent, and
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they require sleep, rest, oxygen and food.
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So who is the one and only true God?
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Hmmm.... I present to you a God who is One and only, eternal, exists without a beginning,
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who was uncreated, requiring no cause for Himself, yet being the absolute cause and
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creator of everything else.
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Allah.
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A simple definition of God that is logical and rational.
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There is nothing like him, no man, no creature, nothing imaginable.
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He is the One who is perfect - although I don't like using the word perfect, as our
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understanding of perfection would never encompass His true essence.
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He is in control of everything, whereby nothing can benefit nor harm us unless he wills it.
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He is the All knowing, the All hearing and unlike our friend Kanye, He is the All seeing.
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Many of us would then argue that although these verses do provide a logical and sound
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concept of God, how do we know that these words are in deed the words of God.
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Well first and foremost the Quran isn't just any book. It was revealed 1400 years ago,
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as direct revelation from God to the final prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and was sent as the
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most eloquent piece of literature to befall mankind, revealed at a time where poetry was
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rife and to a population housing the best of poets, only to leave them speechless and
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at a loss for words.
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Now, what is important to note, is that the Quran, it doesn't fit in any of the known
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classes of poetry, nor prose, rather is a fusion of both, that even to this day shakes
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the hearts of Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
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"It's almost trance like, you can hear it's very euphonic, there is a lot of internal
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rhyme and end rhyme, and the rhythm is not predictable. And it's beautiful".
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Even to this day, the Quran remains incomparable and stuns humanity with its accurate references
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to science and history - From accurate descriptions of the human embryo to historically accurate
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references to the different rulers in the different Egyptian dynasties.
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And no matter how many times people will try to discredit the Quran on its authenticity,
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it remains standing.
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"Will you please the very next science lesson, get some salt water, get some fresh water,
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mix them and see what happens."
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*Clap, Clap*. The Quran says "two seas" not "two cups of water".
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And to those that doubt it is from God, the challenge is simple - bring forth something
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that can compare. And now although this challenge has been attempted multiple times throughout
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the past, History has witnessed that no man has been able to rival the Quran
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But does this challenge still apply. Well we could surely put it to the test.
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And who better to choose than-- the self proclaimed "Rap God"... Eminem. Dubbed the best of his
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time, being incomparable with anyone in his league.
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Now if we compare the works of Allah with the works of Eminem, we are left with this.
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"This slickety, gibbedy, hibbedy hip hop...rappidy rap, Packing a Mac in the back of the Ac,
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pack backpack rap, yep, yackidy-yac-yac. The exact same time I attempt these lyrical acrobat
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stunts"
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...Look content wise...I don't know.... however we can't deny that lyrically he is impressive,
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he has rhythm, rhyme, style, alliteration and assonance. A short video online even indicates
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that in one of his songs he almost made every second, to third word rhyme.
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But how does he compare with the Qurans smallest chapter of 3 verses - Surah Al Kauthar.
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Now in just ten words, Allah is able to use over 30 linguistic and rhetorical devices
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including Emphasis, Multiple Meaning, Grammatical shift, Word order and Arrangement, Ellipsis,
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Conceptual relatedness, Intensification, Choice of words, Repetition, Intimacy, Exaggeration,
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Prophesy, along with many, many more.
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What's also important to note is that the linguistic devices in the Quran, aren't just
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thrown about randomly, For instance Allah would use palindromes, strategically to describe
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the terms "glorify your Lord" and "the orbiting" of planets. As though both processes are occurring
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continuously, non -stop one after the other.
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The shortest chapter in the Quran also contains a rhetorical device that no one can compete
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against nor replicate -- prophesy. At the end of the first verse, Allah promises Muhammad
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(peace be upon him) that he would be given abundant good... at a time when he was at
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one of the lowest points of his life, with a small amount of followers and low social
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status. He had even just lost his son and his enemies were taunting him with a cut off
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lineage and progeny, yet Allah was promising him abundant good at this time. Such was the
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prophesy of the Quran -- and we certainly indeed see its fulfillment today.
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With the Quran being the most recited, memorized and practiced book across the entire world
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with over 1.6 Billion followers today from all walks of life.
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Now I know many of your probably thinking, "Okay Cool Story Bro", but what's the purpose
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of the Quran?
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Well the importance is, that it gives meaning to life, from our overall purpose of existence,
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to why we're here, to what happens when we die.
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God teaches us is that each and every single one of us is being tested. We weren't created
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for mere play, we were created with a purpose and that is to be obedient to God and His
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rules. Those that believe there is a reward and those that don't and are arrogant there
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is a punishment.
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And look I apologies for trying to squeeze all this in to one short video, but I've given
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you everything you need to find out who God is, and why we're here.
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So read.