This audio is brought to you by Muslimcentral.com.

Bismillah, al-hambul-lil Allah, and Salatou'hsalam,

and to Rassulah, and on Rassulah,

and on al-hahilihi and man and al-hahmahabad.

We are continuing today with the topic of religion

and the necessity of religion in the modern world

and the benefits that religion gives.

And, uh, inshallah, we're going to work our way to, uh, the religion of Islam.

Right now, we're just talking generically religion and we're assuming Islam as a paradigm.

Shallah, the goal is bit by bit we're going to get to, uh, defining the correct religion and how

we know Islam is the best religion.

That's going to come later on in the series.

We're still talking about overall the benefits of religion.

And in the last few classes we had done the importance of religion when it comes to giving meaning in life,

understanding where we came from, where we're heading, the what, why, and how.

Today we're going to take a bit of a slightly different look,

and that is an anthropological look about the benefits of religion,

i.e., what religion brings to the table when it comes to forming communities,

when it comes to forming bonds with fellow human beings,

when it comes to imbibing meaning in our day-to-day life.

And the reality is that what religion brings when it comes to forming communities and subgroups cannot be brought by any other system.

We as human beings are social creatures.

...