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Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. Verse 2:113 in the Quran says that the Jews said that the Christians have no basis, while the Christians said that the Jews have no basis, although both of them read the scripture. Such are the utterances of those who have no knowledge.

So, it is the people who are not knowledgeable who will label one group as a group with no scriptural basis, or the other group as a group with no scriptural basis. And this is because the ignorant people fail to admit that actually all the people of the scripture must have at least a little bit of scriptural basis, otherwise God would not call them “people of the scripture”. They must have some scriptural basis, at least some. They are not completely without basis. However, how much of the scripture do they follow?  That is another question. So, instead of labeling people into two distinct groups, people with scriptural basis or people without scriptural basis, the correct way, the way of the more knowledgeable is to put them in a spectrum, which shows that all of them have at least a little bit of basis, but they vary on how much and in which direction. And to show you that, let’s show it in the diagram below:

So, this line represents the spectrum of how much scriptural basis a certain religious group has. In the middle, we have the people who follow the full Quran, not more and not less. To the left, we have the people who follow less than the Quran. So, they follow parts of the Quran, but not everything. And to the right we have the other groups who follow more than the Quran, meaning that they add other books as religious sources on top of it. So, the best place here is to be at the center of this line, which shows that you have the most basis, and the further away from this center you are, the worse it is, the less scriptural basis you have. So, now let’s present the different groups of people of the scripture in their approximate appropriate place. Here they are:

In the middle, we have the submitters, us. We follow the full Quran, and nothing more than the Quran, and nothing less than the Quran. Then, to the left, we have the half-submitters. They follow the Quran partially. They follow only the parts of the Arabic Quran which Rashad Khalifa managed to translate. (Of course, Rashad Khalifa spoke the truth, but he as an English translator could not potentially cover all the truth. So, there is additional truth in the Arabic Quran, and the half-submitters will not accept any part of it, if it is not also found in the English version, and the English version is a true but limited version. So, they are based on less than the Arabic Quran, less than the Quran. Then, we have the Quranists, who are based on even less than that from the Quran. They tend to chop the Quran piece by piece, and limit the Quran only in what they understand as an individual. Basically, they limit the Quran only to their intellectual capacities, which often are limited capacities, and they end up following less than the full Quran. They don’t realize that they are people of the scripture, but by calling themselves Quranists, that’s exactly what they are. The Quran is a scripture, and by calling yourself a Quranist, you put yourself in the group of the people of the scripture, and the Quran does not mention the people of the scripture as the authorized religious group. Then we have the Protestants, who are almost exactly the same as the Quranists, except that they do with the Bible what the Quranists do with the Quran. Their doctrine is “sola scriptum” which means “scripture alone” which according to them consists of only the Bible, which would not be the biggest problem, but then again just like the Quranists they will limit the Bible only to portions which they themselves understand. If someone understands more, they will deny it, just because they did not understand it first. Then we have the Anglicans, similar to protestants, but their motives for following the scripture alone are more political rather than doctrinal. Then we have the Orthodox, who follow less than the full Quran, but they at least follow some aspects of it, like the doctrine of striving in the cause of God, and they understand the importance of hierarchy in religion, and how to preserve information across generations and so on. Then we have the Catholics, who are very similar to the Orthodox, but they just tend to ignore more of the scripture to adjust their lifestyles more to the modern world. Then, we have the Jews who are the furthest away from having scriptural basis, because they do not only disregard the Quran, but they also disregard the Gospel, which from the scriptural aspects is the meat of salvation – the essence of the scripture. The Gospel is the essence, and the Torah is the details, while the Quran is a summary of both.

By the way, the Quran supports this ordering which we did here. For example, it tells us in verse 5:82 that the Christians are closer to the believers than the Jews are.

Anyway, let’s present now the religious groups who are to the right of this spectrum. They are people who follow more than the Quran. First, we have the Sunnis. Basically, in addition to the Quran, they follow additional books, which God never authorized, like the Hadiths of Bukhari, Tirmidhi and so on. Then, slightly further to the right, we have the Shia who in addition to traditional hadiths which are attributed to Muhammad without his permission, they also have the hadiths and books which are attributed to Ali. Then further to the right, we have the Sufis who follow even more unauthorized sources, like their spiritual ‘masters’ and so on. Then we have the Barelvis and Deobandi who actually follow even some books of political and doctrinal leaders of the recent times. And then we have the Ahmedia, who in addition follow additional books of their leader, who are very human books, but they consider them almost equal to the Quran, if not completely equal. And then we have the Bahais who follow books which they think supersede the Quran, which is why they are furthest to the right. Just like the Jews end up ignoring the Quran, by following very little of it, the Bahais end up ignoring the Quran by following completely something else. We put them here, because they say that they accept the Quran, but once you see their other books, they have almost no basis in the Quran.

So, this is the spectrum of the people of the scripture depending on how much basis they have in following the Quran, the full Quran, and nothing more than the Quran. We should be following the full Quran, no more, no less.

Now, as time passes, these rectangles which we presented in the graph will actually stretch, meaning that there will be more variation within any of those groups, and as variation of individuals within each group increases, the variation between the groups themselves will decrease. So, the groups will become more and more similar. Basically, you will be able to find Sunnis for example who are completely to the right of this diagram, and also Sunnis who are close to the center of this diagram, and so on, or you might be able to find Jews who are completely to the left of this diagram, and Jews who are almost to the center of the graph. For example, there is a recent group of Jews who are called Messianic Jews, who are basically Jews who believe in Jesus, which means that they are Jews who have stretched their Jewishness closer to the center, all the way to the Protestants, and in some cases they have reached the Quranists.

But, anyway, in the future, this diagram will become fuzzier, and each rectangle will be more stretched to the right and to the left, until each group here will be all over the place, and that’s when the end of the world will come.

But, the correct group to be with is the Submitters, because we follow the full Quran. We try not to ignore any parts of the Quran to the best of our ability, and we try not to follow any materials which present information from other than the Quran. Of course, we do not manage to do it 100% of the time, which is why the rectangle here is a rectangle and not a single point, but we as a group are at the center of this spectrum, and the other groups also have some scriptural basis, but they also have deviated either to the right or to the left of this scriptural spectrum. And we know that they have deviated at least a little bit from the center because none of their names are found in the Quran as an authorized religion. But, only the submitters here at the center are found in the Quran as the authorized group. 

The Quran says in verse 3:64, “Say, “O followers of the scripture, let us come to a logical agreement between us and you: that we shall not worship except God; that we never set up any idols besides Him, nor set up any human beings as lords beside God.” If they turn away, say, “Bear witness that we are submitters.“”

Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. As most of you know by now, some bad intentioned outsiders are so desperate to discredit me, so they will seek anything which seems like a contradiction between Alban and Rashad, and then claim that Alban contradicts Rashad. And then, on the other hand, they say that they believe in the previous messengers. But, do they? The very fact that the seeming contradictions between Alban and Rashad are an unsurpassable stumbling block for them, it proves that they do not believe in any of the previous messengers either, because the seeming contradictions between the previous messengers are by far bigger. So, before we address the seeming contradictions between Alban and Rashad, let’s first remind them about the bigger seeming contradictions between the previous messengers. For example:

• Moses did not work during Saturday, while Muhammad did work during Saturday. Did Muhammad contradict Moses?
• Joseph invited the Children of Israel from Palestine to Egypt, while Moses lead them in the opposite direction, from Egypt to Palestine. Did Moses contradict Joseph?
• In the Bible, Jesus drank wine, but Muhammad did not drink wine. Did Muhammad contradict Jesus?
• Abraham paid 10% Zakat while Muhammad paid 2.5% Zakat. Did Muhammad contradict Abraham?
• All previous prophets fasted, but not necessarily during Ramadan. Muhammad fasted during Ramadan. Did Muhammad contradict the previous prophets?
• Noah did not do the Contact Prayers, while Abraham did the Contac Prayers. Did Abraham contradict Noah?
• Moses asked his people to kill each other, and then in another time he asked them not to kill each other? Did Moses contradict himself?
• Moses, David, and Solomon did not do Hajj in Mecca, but Muhammad did Hajj in Mecca. Did Muhammad contradict Moses, David, and Solomon?
• Moses was given miracles as a sign of his message, but Joseph was only given future predictions. Did Joseph contradict Moses?
• Abraham sacrificed a sheep, Moses sacrificed a cow, Aaron sacrificed a goat, and Muhammad sacrificed a camel once. Did they contradict one another?
• Muhammad told us that he doesn’t know when the End of the World will come, but Rashad said that he knows when the End of the World will come. Did Rashad contradict Muhammad?
• Muhammad said that he was the last prophet, but then Rashad said that Muhammad was not the last messenger. Did Rashad contradict Muhammad?
• The previous messengers told their people not to sleep with their wives during the nights of fasting, while Muhammad allowed his people to sleep with their wives during the nights of fasting. Did Muhammad contradict the previous messengers?
• And you know what, in the case of Muhammad, there are seeming contradictions between Muhammad and himself.
• First, Muhammad prayed facing Jerusalem, and then he prayed facing Mecca. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he considered mobilization (or organization) unnecessary, and then he considered mobilization (or organization) obligatory. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he said don’t pray while drunk, and then he said, don’t drink at all. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he paid the dowry before marriage, and later he said that he himself could get married without giving dowry. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he asked for no money in Mecca, but later he collected money to build the mosque in Medina. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he said that believers can defeat ten times as many disbelievers, but then he said that believers can defeat twice as many disbelievers. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he told the people in Mecca to simply be charitable individually, but then in Medina he made sure to collect it and distribute it. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?
• First he united with the Christians against the idol-worshipers in Mecca, and then in Medina he united with the Medinans against the Christians and the idol-worshipers. Did the later Muhammad contradict the earlier Muhammad?

So, the seeming contradictions between Muhammad in Mecca and Muhammad in Medina, or Muhammad and Jesus, or Muhammad and Abraham, or Moses and Abraham, or Joseph and Moses, or Noah and Abraham, or Adam and Noah, or between any two messengers of the past are by far much bigger than the seeming contradictions between Rashad and me. Rashad and Alban are so similar that God mentioned us together with one go on the same verse.

So, if anyone thinks that they have a reason to reject Alban because they think that he is contradicting Rashad, then by that same logic, they should reject the previous messengers of the past. They actually do reject the messengers of the past by rejecting me, but they don’t know.

The difference between what Alban says and what Rashad says is like the difference between grain fed sheep and grass fed sheep, but they are both sheep. But, the differences between what other messengers of the past said is like the difference between sheep, and goats, and cows, and camels, and rams, and bulls, and any of these sacrifices are acceptable to God.

And, of course, all the seeming contradictions between any two messenger have an explanation and a good reason, and God willing, we will explain the past ones in another sermon, but in this sermon let’s just address the ones between Alban and Rashad.

There are mainly three seeming contradictions between Alban and Rashad.

First, the Times of Contact Prayers. People claim that Rashad believed in five prayers per day while Alban doesn’t, but this is not true. Alban believes in the same number of prayers per Quranic day and night as Rashad did, and he proves this issue in my other video titled “Does Alban Contradict Rashad about the Times of Prayer”, and if you watch that video, you will see that it is not true that there is a difference between Alban and Rashad regarding the Times of Prayer.

Ok, now, the second issue: Proofs of Messengers. People claim that Rashad brought proof about his messengership while Alban did not, according to them, but this again is not true. The truth is: Alban did not bring proof and Rashad did not bring proof. Alban is supported with proof from God, and Rashad was supported with proof from God. Alban shows the proof, and Rashad showed proof. So, again it’s not true that there is any difference between Alban and Rashad when it comes to bringing proof or being supported with proof as messengers. Alban proves this in his other video titled “Does Alban Contradict Rashad about Proofs of Messengers”

Now, the third issue: Zakat. People claim that Alban does not do Zakat exactly like Rashad. The truth is that Rashad the messenger, and Rashad the Tucson imam had differences about this issue themselves, but for a good reason, and Alban is simply siding with Rashad the messenger, while some outsiders are siding with Rashad, the Tucson imam, even though Rashad is not their imam today. But, Alban completely do the Zakat exactly as Rashad the messenger said it should be done, and it came to us without change from the time of Muhammad. So, again, there is absolutely no difference between the way Alban does Zakat and the way Rashad, the messenger, said that we should do Zakat. And Alban proves this in his other video titled “Does Alban contradict Rashad about Zakat”.

And these are all the three main seeming contradictions between Rashad, the messenger, and me, and if you watch those three videos where Alban address these three issues, you can see that they are completely made up contradictions. They don’t exist, but evil intentioned people might twist the facts and mention them to you as contradictions, if they think that you don’t know these issues, to try to divert you from God’s path, and this has been consistently the case throughout history. Whenever a messenger preached something to his generation, they accused him that he is contradicting what the previous messenger said. And they clearly used this as an excuse not to believe, because had the messenger said exactly what the previous messenger said, then they would again reject him by saying that he is copying him. But, if he said something which sounded different, they again rejected him, by saying “He is contradicting him.” Guys, make up your mind. Should the new messenger say what the previous messenger said, or should he say something else, because whichever way he goes, they will use it as an excuse to reject him? And the Jews and the Christians used the same tricks against Muhammad. Whenever he said something which was in the Bible also, they said, “See, he is copying it from the Bible. He is not receiving a revelation from God.” But whenever he said something which was not in the Bible, they said, “This is not in the Bible, which is why we can not accept it.” Make up your mind, guys. Should the Quran be like the Bible or not? And should Alban say exactly what Rashad said or not? And the reality is that some things which Alban says sound like what Rashad said, and other things which Alban says sound different from Rashad. And for the things where Alban sounds like Rashad, they say that Alban is just copying Rashad, and for the things where Alban sounds different, they say that Alban can not possibly be right because that’s not what Rashad said. “He is contradicting Rashad.”

And by the way, the groups of people who are falsely accusing Alban for contradictions with Rashad are exactly the people who have cause the appearance of those contradictions. Let’s just take one example. Rashad published the video “Essentials of Islam” where he told the world as God’s messenger how Zakat should be done, and then in another video as the Tucson imam he said something else for his local congregation. Now, during his time, you could order his video “Essentials of Islam”, but his Friday Sermon where he talks about Zakat, you could not order it. It was not available for the worldwide public. However, after he left this world, the people who happened to live closer to him got their hands on those video tapes, and then when internet was invented, they published them on internet. But, when they did that, they made mistakes, because they published both of Rashad’s videos as a messenger, and his videos as an imam under the same section. In their webpages, and they have more than a dozen webpages due to jealousy towards each other, they published the videos under the same section together, and now that is causing the appearance of a contradiction, because now people are giving the same religious authority to both types of video for example. And then if you have to go with the videos which Rashad spoke as a messenger, today sometimes they say something different from the other videos, and then they accuse you that you have gone against Rashad the messenger, because to them all his videos have the same authority, because their leaders have put all the videos under the same sections in their webpages. So, the wrong ordering, and arrangement of those videos which they themselves did are causing the appearance of contradictions between Alban and Rashad. Otherwise, it wouldn’t even appear that Alban and Rashad have contradiction. So, they themselves caused the appearance of that contradiction, with the wrong arrangement of videos, and now they are using it against me. Alban has no disagreement with Rashad’s videos as a messenger. Alban only have disagreements with how people after him arranged his videos when they published them. They even changed the contents of the videos, to hopefully cause the contradictions between the two types of videos to disappear. It’s a fact, but that’s another issue.

But, in our webpage for example, we published Rashad, the messenger’s, videos under the section “Clarifications” without changing anything, and we published his other Friday Sermon videos under the section, “Friday Sermons” without changing anything, and people are aware from the start what they are dealing with. So, we kept and published Rashad’s materials, just like hundreds of other people have done, because it’s easy and helpful to do that, but the difference is that we arranged them correctly, in their proper sections, and with that arrangement you can not find any contradiction between Rashad, the messenger, and Alban.

And they think that they are protecting the popularity of Rashad by rejecting me, just like the Jews thought that they are protecting the popularity of Moses by rejecting Jesus. They didn’t want the popularity of Jesus to overshadow the popularity of Moses. But, in fact, had it not been for Jesus and the spread of Christianity, most of the world would not even know that Moses existed. Judaism is such a small religion. People know about Moses mostly from the spread of Christianity and Islam, and not from the Jews themselves. In the same way, more people in the world will hear about Rashad because of Alban than there will be people who will hear about Alban because of hearing about Rashad. And you know what, the similarity between Alban and Rashad trumps and destroys any seeming contradictions which the disbelievers might invent. And that similarity is the fact that we both preach the worship of God alone. Rashad told you to worship God alone. Alban tells you to worship God alone. And despite the fact that they invent lies about Alban and Rashad, God will eventually make Alban and Rashad and the believers with them, the winners, because they preached the worship of God alone. God supports those who support him.

Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. There are three main apparent contradictions between Alban and Rashad which the disbelievers use as excuses to discredit Alban. Alban address each of them in three separate Friday Sermons. This is one of them: In this sermon, we deal with the issue of Prayer Times; what Rashad said and what Alban says. They claim that Alban contradicts Rashad in this issue. Well, let’s see if it’s true:

First, it is true that in his English translation of the Quran, Rashad did say that there are five daily Contact Prayers. However, he also signed that book for a specific time and location. Look at this, it says Tucson, Ramadan 26, 1409, which is the 2^nd of May 1989. So, his statement about the five daily prayers is true, if you apply it on the 2^nd of May, 1989 in Tucson. Someone might wonder, “Doesn’t his statement extend to all times and all locations?” Well, not necessarily. Let’s take another example to show you what we mean: In footnote 13:15, of that same translation, Rashad said that the peculiar shape of the planet earth causes the FOUR seasons. So, he said that there are FOUR seasons. Well, that’s true in Tucson, but it’s not necessarily true for all locations. Check out this map.

It shows that certain regions on earth have four seasons (summer, autumn, winter spring), but other regions on earth have only two seasons. For example, the arctic has only two seasons (Polar night and polar day), and the tropics also have only two seasons (the wet and the dry season). So, as you can see, when Rashad in Tucson said that there are four seasons, his statement does not necessarily extend to every location on Earth. In some other locations, there are only two seasons. In the same way, when Rashad in Tucson in the month of May said that there are five daily prayers, that does not necessarily extend to all locations on earth, and all times of the year.

Nevertheless, the question is, “Regardless of what Rashad said in May in Tucson, had he traveled to Sweden during winter for example, would he still say that there are five prayers per day? In other words, if we talk about all locations and all times, could we still say that there are five Contact Prayers per day? And the answer is, “It depends what you mean by the word “day”.” And this is where it gets confusing, so let’s explain the issue:

There are many definitions of the word “day”, but we are going to mention only the three relevant ones here.

Definition 1: Quranic Day (There are actually two definitions of the day in the Quran (nahar and yawm), but here we are only using one of them.) When we say “Quranic Day”, we mean “the time period from the beginning of Dawn until the end of Evening”; anything which does not include full darkness.

Definition 2: Skylight Cycle Day. This is Rashad’s definition, which is mix of definition 1 and 3. He sort of understood it like the Quranic Day, but he also included the night in the English definition. So, when he said “day”, he meant from full darkness to full light and back to full darkness, that sky light cycle.

Definition 3: Calendar Day. This definition is a time period of 24-hours, regardless of what happened with the brightness of the sky. So, basically, every time the date in the calendar changes, we count it as one day. January 1 is one day, January 2 is the second day and so on – calendar day.

So, these are the three definitions of the word day, and for each of these definitions the answer is different when we want to describe how many prayers per day should be done.

Let’s start with Definition 1 – The Quranic Day, which is from Dawn to Evening. In the Equator, there are four prayers in a Quranic Day: Dawn, Noon, Afternoon, and Evening. But it does not include the Night Prayer. However, that does not mean that there is only one prayer during the Quranic Night, because the Quranic Night again includes Evening and Dawn. The night and the day merge according to the Quran.  So, Dawn and Evening are both part of the night and part of the day. So, during the Quranic Night, there are three prayers: Evening, Night, and Dawn. So, if we use the Quranic Definitions for Night and Day, the correct way to say it is that there are 3 prayers during the night, and 4 prayers during the day, which is 7, but two of them are duplicates (Dawn and Evening), so 7 – 2 = 5. So, the correct way to express it is to say that there are 5 prayers during a Quranic Night and Day cycle. And this is the correct way of saying it, but this does not mean that there are five prayer times during a calendar day, because the calendar day and the Quranic Night and Day Cycle do not always match exactly in length and depth, which we will explain later.

But now let’s continue with Definition 2. Rashad’s English definition which is a hybrid between the Quranic Day and the Calendar Day. Rashad’s definition of the word “day” is simply the same as a Quranic Day plus Quranic Night. So, the understanding of it comes from the Quran, but the length is more similar to the Calendar Day, in most cases. In most cases, it’s 24 hours, but not always in some regions of the earth. We can call Rashad’s English definition a “Skylight Cycle Day”. Basically, every time the sky goes from full darkness, to full light, and back to full darkness, you count it as one day, regardless of how much clock time has passed. So, if we use this definition of the word day, then there are five Contact Prayers per day, as Rashad said. This is correct. However, most people do not use this definition of the word day. That’s his definition. When people today ask “How many prayers per day there are?” they want to know how many prayers during each calendar day, during each 24-hours, and the answer for a calendar day is different, because it is not true that there are always five prayers during each calendar day. So, there are five prayers during a Quranic Day and Night, and there are five prayers during a Skylight Cycle Day, Rashad’s definition of day, but this does not automatically translate into five prayers during a calendar day, because the calendar day is not always the same length as a Quranic Day and Night and it is not always the same length as the Skylight Cycle Day.

So, now let’s continue with Definition 3: The Calendar Day. The calendar day is a period of 24 hours, regardless if the sky has turned dark or not. So, how many prayers should there be during a calendar day? Well, the answer depends on the location and the time of the year. And all we have to do is to see for that location and that time of the year, how long does the Quranic Day and Night last within those calendar days. So, that period of time of the Quranic Day and Night must include all the five prayers, but if that Quranic Day and Night lasts for several calendar days, that’s fine. God designed it like that for good reasons. We are still including all the five prayers in that Quranic Day and Night, or Rashad’s day, but if that means that there are four or three prayers during 24-hours, it doesn’t matter, because the Quranic Day and Night is not a period of 24 hours, it is a period from full darkness to full light and back to full darkness. Let’s take an example.

Let’ say you live in Frankfurt for example which is 50 degrees north of the Equator. On the 30^th of May for example, a full Quranic Day and Night happens within 24 hours, so you have to implement all the five prayers within that 24 hours, within the 30^th of May. However, then the 1^st of June comes, and it does not get completely dark on that day. So, now even though the first calendar day of June passes, the full Quranic Day and night does not happen. Only portions of it happened, but it does not complete the cycle. This means that you can only implement a portion of that five daily prayer. In that case, the Dawn comes, and the Noon comes, and the Afternoon comes, and the Evening comes, but the full Night does not come. So, you only do the Dawn Prayer, and the Noon Prayer, and the Afternoon Prayer and the Evening Prayer, but it’s not possible for you to do the Night Prayer. So, it’s not Alban who is stopping you from doing the night prayer. It’s simply impossible to do the night prayer. The night did not come. And this does not contradict the Quran, because if you believe that there must be five prayers in a Quranic day and night, or Rashad’s definition of the word day, they just didn’t happen. The full Quranic day and night did not happen, and Rashad’s definition of the word day did not happen, meaning they didn’t complete yet, they take longer, or several calendar days to complete. And remember, his definition was from full darkness to full light and back to full darkness, but full darkness did not happen, so you can not say that we are not doing five prayers in a Quranic day and night, because it is simply taking the Quranic day and night longer to complete, and when the night finally comes on the 12^th of July in Frankfurt, only then do we count it as one Quranic day and night, and then we do the fifth prayer. So, this Quranic day and night lasted from the beginning of June until the 12^th of July, and during that period, we implemented all the five prayers. So, you can not say that we are not doing five prayers within Rashad’s day which is a Quranic day and night. We do all the five prayers within a Quranic day and night, but it’s not our fault if that Quranic day and night lasts longer than 24 hours. So, there is no contradiction here. We are implementing exactly the five prayers which should happen within Rashad’s definition of the word day, but it’s not Alban’s fault that Rashad’s definition of day length does not always match the calendar day. So, it’s wrong to say that we do not do five prayers per day. We do exactly five prayers every day, if by “day” you mean Rashad’s definition of day. And again, we do exactly five prayers every day and night, if by “day and night” you mean the Quranic day and night. So, we completely agree with Rashad and the Quran. However, if you are going to define the day as a calendar day, which most people do, then we sometimes do four prayers, or even three prayers only in certain norther locations of the world, only during certain times of the year, which we clearly explain when and where they happen. So, all we are doing is telling you how to implement the five prayers per Rashad’s day into calendar days, and to help you with that implementation, Alban published a video clarification titled “Times of Contact Prayer” where he tell us during each calendar day, for every location on earth, how many of the five prayers apply, and that all depends on how much of Rashad’s day applies in that situation, or on how much of the Quranic night and day applies in that situation. So, all Alban is doing in that video is presenting the five prayers in a calendar day situation, which is how people today want to know them, because most people understand the day as a calendar day, a 24-hour period, and not as a Quranic day and night, or as Rashad’s English definition of the word day. So, there is no contradiction here. We are simply speaking about three different types of days. The Quran in Arabic was using the definition of the day to match it to the Arab understanding, Rashad expressed it into semi Quranic and semi English understanding, and Alban expressed it for us in a calendar day understanding which is how the modern world speaks about it. So, there is no contradiction here because we are talking about three different time periods. In some locations on earth near the Equator, they are the same length, but in other location, during deeper winters, they are just not the same length.  In fact, it would be a contradiction, if we all said that we should do five prayers every day, and then our definitions of the word day was different. Then it would be a contradiction. But it’s not. So, if you took Alban to Tucson in the month of May, he would do exactly five prayers, at the exact times when Rashad did them. There is no contradiction there. And, if you took Rashad to Frankfurt in June for example, he would take some time to think about it, but after analyzing it, he would end up doing four prayers in each calendar day, but that would still mean that he did five prayers per Rashad’s day, which in that case simply takes longer than a calendar day. And because Rashad never lived in Frankfurt, or in Sweden, or in any of those northern regions, then he did not have to implement this situation. But, Alban happened to have traveled in these northern regions like Germany, Sweden, UK, Netherlands, and this meant that he had sufficient reason to think about it more carefully, and eventually realized that it’s ok if the calendar day and the Quranic day and night do not always match. We should stick to five prayers per Quranic day and night, and if that does not match with the calendar day, no big deal. We implement the Quran, not people’s calendars. Alban express it in calendar days, so people can understand in English, but ultimately Alban made the decision based on Quranic day and nights, and in each Quranic day and night, every single time, in every location, we are responsible for doing all the five prayers.

By the way, God knew that people will use many different definitions of the word “day” in different languages and in different eras, so he completely circumvented this problem by not mentioning the number of prayers per day at all in the Quran. God solved this confusion by simply telling us the specific prayer times, and when they happen, and he did not mention the total number of prayer per day at all. And if we just implement the prayer times, as specified in the Quran, and as Rashad himself believed, then we will be in total agreement. For example, Rashad said that the Night Prayer should be done when the twilight disappears. If we just implement this, then we will always get it right. Whenever the twilight disappears, we do the Night Prayer, but if it doesn’t disappear, then we don’t do the Night Prayer. And that’s exactly what Alban and the believers with him are doing. They are simply not changing anything which Rashad said, and implementing it in all circumstances without any modification. In fact, people who insist on doing a night prayer even when the twilight does not disappear, they are the ones who are going against Rashad and against the Quran. They think that they are preserving the number of prayers, but they forget that even when you don’t do the night prayer because the twilight did not disappear, you are still preserving the number of prayers per day; It’s just that the Quranic day and night cycle took longer, and you do the fifth prayer when it’s time comes. So, you would still be doing five prayers per day, per Rashad’s day, or per Quranic day and night; five prayers per Quranic day and night, every time. This is the true preservation.

So, if you took Alban and Rashad, and Muhammad, and Abraham and took them everywhere on earth at each time of the year, they would always end up doing the prayers at exactly the same time, without any disagreement. So, there is no contradiction between their prayer times. The illusion of contradiction emerges from the fact that Alban simply clarified for the modern people how the Quranic days and nights fit within the calendar days, which is what the modern people use when they talk about days. So, Alban was simply translating from Quranic to modern English. But there is no difference in what we actually do in practice. Without even talking about it, if Muhammad, Abraham, Rashad, and Alban were sent to Oslo for example, without talking to one another, we would end up doing all the prayers at the same time, simply by looking at the sky, checking if the Quran criteria for that specific prayer time is fulfilled, and then implementing each prayer in its own time period, without talking about five, four, three, two, and things like that.  So, even without understanding how the calendar days and the Quranic days and nights correlate with one another, we would still get the correct answer, all of us, if we simply know the definition of each prayer time, without focusing on their number. And Alban gave the definition of each prayer time in the end of his other video titled “Times of Contact Prayer”, and let’s present that table again here. So, here it is:

So, we have the Dawn prayer, the Noon prayer, the Afternoon prayer, the Evening Prayer, and the Night Prayer, and they each have a specific time when they start and end, and we don’t see any contradiction here between Alban and Rashad, because these are the five prayer times in which Alban and Rashad believed in, and these are the five prayer times in which the Muslims traditionally believed in, and exactly the five prayer times which are described in the Quran, when you take all the verses of the Quran into consideration. There is nothing new here. God has guaranteed to preserve the Contact Prayers, and their times, to keep the religion of Abraham intact and He has done that. If Alban introduced something new about this issue, that would be wrong, because this is a traditionally preserved issue. It’s all old stuff. Alban only told us how that old stuff fits in the new modern calendars which use the calendar day as a definition of the day and not the Quranic day as the definition of the day.

Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. There are three main apparent contradictions between Alban and Rashad which the disbelievers use as excuses to discredit Alban. Alban addresses each of them in three separate Friday Sermons, and this is one of them: In this video we deal with the issue of Zakat – what Rashad said and what Alban says. People claim that Alban contradicts Rashad about Zakat. Well, let’s see if it’s true. Let’s first present to you what Rashad himself actually said about this issue, and by the end of this video, you will see that there is no contradiction between Alban and Rashad the messenger, but actually there is only an apparent contradiction between Rashad the messenger and Rashad the Tucson imam, which is resolved in this sermon.

But, first let’s show to you what Rashad himself said. He spoke about it in two videos:

• Video 1: Essentials of Islam
• Video 2: A Friday Sermon on 17.03.89

He says something else about Zakat in Video 1 and something else in Video 2.

In Video 1 he says: “The fourth pillar of Islam is Charity; in Arabic, Zakat. There is an Obligatory Charity where you sit down and you calculate exactly what you possess, what your possessions are, and you give away a portion, a fixed portion of your net-worth. You do this once a year, and then you give away 2.5% of that. See, it’s a small percentage, and you do it once a year.”

In Video 2 he says: “2.5% of your net income must go to the poor immediately which means a continuous flow of money from people to the relatives, their parents, and their cousins, and their sisters and brothers, and so on. That’s the correct way of doing Zakat.”

So, in Video 1, Rashad preached Obligatory Charity based on wealth which is done once a year, but in Video 2 he preached Obligatory Charity based on income done every time you receive income.

So, in reality, there is no contradiction between Alban and Rashad, as we will show in this sermon, but if anything, there is a contradiction between Rashad and himself – between Rashad in Vidwo 1 and Rashad in video 2.

Now, the question is, in which video was Rashad right? Well, let’s actually evaluate the authority of these two videos according to Rashad himself.

First, as you can see he did not put a date on Video 1, which means that he meant it for all times, but he showed the date in Video 2. You can see the date as 17.03.1989, which means that what he said in Video 2, he intended it for that specific time.

Second, in Video 1, he is facing the camera speaking to the whole world, and in Video 2, he is facing the local congregation in Tucson, speaking to the Tucson congregation.

Third:  In Video 1, Rashad introduces the video as a presentation from the Quran by saying, “The Quran tells us exactly what the Essentials of Islam are –  and they are very quickly – I’m going to go into details of these later on…” So, Video 1 is based on the Quran. But, in Video 2, Rashad introduces the sermon as a presentation of a pamphlet which he wrote as an Editor of a Bulletin by saying, “I have no idea what I am going to talk about –  but I put down –  this will help me a lot. This is something that I distributed last week, and I will just go through it with you. It is the May issue of the Muslim Perspective:” So, Video 2 is based on a pamphlet meant for May 1989.

Now the fourth point: Rashad starts Video 1 with the statement, “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”, which means that he is speaking on behalf of God in that video, which means that he was speaking as God’s messenger, but in Video 2, he introduces the preaching with an admittance that he is doing it as a substitute for someone else, and he also admits that he has no idea what he will talk about, by saying, “I was hoping today that the sermon today will be given by General Spooler, but he didn’t make it yet. He’ll be here tonight. Meanwhile, I’m stuck. So, “I’m stuck to give this khutba, and I have no idea what I’m going to talk about,” So, since Rashad had no idea what he was going to talk about, he was not doing this preaching as God’s messenger. A messenger knows what he talks about. So, actually, Rashad was just freestyling as the leader of the congregation in Video 2. So, Video 2 is not preached by Rashad the messenger, but it is preached by Rashad the Tucson imam.

So, now we have the four credentials of each of these two videos, according to Rashad himself, which help us decide which video to go with, because these two videos contradict one another today when it comes to the issue of Zakat.

And here is the list of those four credentials side by side for each video so you can compare them:

And especially the last credential shows that Rashad spoke as God’s messenger in Video 1 and simply as a local imam in Tucson in Video 2.

So, Alban is simply going with the messenger fully, with whatever Rashad says in Video 1. So, there is no contradiction between what Alban says and what Rashad, the messenger said. If anything, there is a contradiction between what Rashad, the messenger said, and what Rashad, the Tucson imam said. So, the problem here is the imam, and not the messenger.

And people think that because Video 2 was made later than Video 1, then it is a correction of Video 1. Well, this argument would be valid if the person in Video 2 had the authority to correct the person on Video 1, but he doesn’t. An imam does not have the authority to correct a messenger. An imam can not correct a messenger. He thought that he did, but it doesn’t ultimately matter what the imam thought. It matters what the messenger thought, and what the messenger thought is in Video 1, and not in Video 2. And Alban completely agree with Video 1, and Alban was forced to declare parts of Video 2 as outdated, for our circumstances, a mistake. So, we go with the messenger in Video 1, regardless of what the imam in Video 2 might have thought about Video 1. And by the way, Rashad, the messenger, never corrected Video 1. He kept it published just like that, until he died. He did not change any bit of it. He had the time and the authority to change it, and edit it, but he didn’t, because God knew that Video 1 is correct, and it is actually some parts in Video 2 which are the mistakes.

However, let’s actually try to save the face of Rashad in Video 2 by trying to justify his mistake. When you look at it, the mistake of Rashad the imam was actually harmless in his situation. It’s harmful for our situation today if we insist on that mistake, but it was harmless for his situation, because when Rashad talked about Zakat in Video 2, he said it in a very specific situation, and in that same video, about one minute before he starts talking about Zakat, he does in passing mention that situation, by saying that “There is not a single mosque in the Muslim world that follows this commandment, that the mosque belongs to God; you shall mention only God’s name.”

Now, this is a key issue. What does this mean? This means that because traditionally the Muslims have organized around mosques, given that during the time of Rashad there was no single mosque where the call for prayer was done correctly, that means that there were no organized aspects of religion in the world which were authorized by God. And Zakat, as it should be performed, as it is said in Video 1 is an organized religious duty. So, when Rashad made that mistake in Video 2, the mistake was harmless, because it was actually better to do less of the Zakat than to do the correct Zakat under the wrong organized religious structures. Let’s take an example, and show you how an unintentional mistake can actually be beneficial instead of harmful.

Let’s say that you ask someone when the month of Ramadan starts, and he makes a mistake and tells you that it will start one week earlier than it truly starts. Now, that’s harmful. However, let’s say that on that mistaken day when that person said that Ramadan will start, the whole food of the world is actually poisoned, and by fasting on the wrong day, that person actually unintentionally saved your life, because during that day, you did not eat the food, and then by the time you had to eat it, the others who got poisoned informed you that the food is poisoned. So, in the same way, if all the organized Zakat around the world was poisoned, which it was when Rashad made that statement, then he actually unintentionally saved you from idol worship, by making a mistake about Zakat. And we know whether organized Zakat, the correct way of Zakat is poisoned or not by checking if the people who organize it are doing their call to prayer dedicated to God alone or not. So, during Rashad’s time, all the mosques made the call to prayer in the wrong way, but today, there are mosques, including our mosque, including our online mosque where we do not use the wrong way of the call to prayer. So, there are organized people today, who actually do organize the Zakat in the correct way, which means that doing the Zakat as preached in Video 1 will not be harmful at all anymore, and because it is the correct way, that is what we should do.

So, to put it shortly. Video 1 is the correct way, and Video 2 is a mistake. However, during Rashad’s time, Video 1 was harmful, while Video 2 was harmless. However, today, in our situation, Video 1 is both harmless and correct, and the change of situation is reflected by the fact that now we do have mosques where the call to prayer (which represents the organized religion) is done correctly.

So, this is how we justify Rashad’s mistake, even though it was a mistake, but it was harmless in his times, but it is harmful for our times, and now that we have mosques where the correct call to prayer is made, we should not insist on that old mistake. We have the means to do better now, especially because of the internet which enables us to organize without idol-worship, if that is what we choose.

So, to conclude, Alban does not contradict Rashad. In today’s situation, Rashad, the imam, has ended up contradicting Rashad, the messenger, and Alban simply told us how to resolve that situation, by simply telling us to follow Rashad the global messenger, instead of Rashad the local imam.

Now, even if we ignore these two videos completely, and don’t even think about how these two videos contradict each other today, if we focus on what the Quran actually says about Zakat, we can still get the correct answer from there. And according to the Quran, we should give Zakat from 2.5% of our loanable wealth each year. And we can find this answer, if we choose to take into account all the verses of the Quran, everything that the Quran has to say about Obligatory Charity, and if we take all those verses, which are hundreds, and analyze them carefully, without ignoring any verses, then we will reach the same conclusion. And to save our time, Alban did that for us, and it is presented Alban’s video clarification titled “Obligatory Charity (Zakat)”. So, in that video, Alban restarted from scratch, completely ignoring what anyone thinks about Zakat, and after years of analysis, after finding, listing, arranging all the verses of the Quran about this issues, a clear picture emerged with God’s permission, that Zakat is basically given from 2.5% of the loanable wealth every year, which is what Rashad the messenger preaches in Video 1, and what Alban preaches in his video clarification titled “Obligatory Charity (Zakat)”, which means that there is absolutely full agreement between Rashad the messenger and Alban, between Alban and Video 1. It is actually those who are not doing Zakat like us who are contradicting Rashad the messenger, by going with Rashad the local imam, outside of his intended time, outside of his intended place, outside of his intended permission, and outside of his intended authority, an abuse of the imam’s local mistake of his time to contradict the global Messenger of the Covenant for our time.