Mohammed Mana – Social Media Lessons From The Epic Of Moses

			Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to another episode of the tagalong. I'm your host,
Peter Pan, and I'm here with man, in this video, if you haven't been following along, please go
check out the playlist, watch all of the different videos that we've been discussing on the
different topics that we are pulling from the story of
		

			his class once upon the now The Epic of Moses. So we discussed a number of topics in this video, the
topic that we're going to be discussing is the subject or theme of Dao, which is the idea of, or the
concept of inviting people to worshiping a lot, right?
		

			Is that how you define that? Well, I got to think about that. Seriously. Yeah. Okay. inviting people
to the worship of Allah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. There's definitely validity to that. I'm not
saying you're wrong. I'm just thinking of I mean, that's how I've always understood it. Yeah. No,
but I'm not debating that. I'm just thinking, what are the different facets and definitions are a
challenging thing to grapple with? Because you want you want them to be? Well, you define things on
multiple layers, right? Like even a single word. When I mean, from, from in Islamic sciences,
somebody might define something on a linguistic level, something on a shoddy level, right, which I
		

			guess is kind of related to linguistics being legal level. Yeah. And illegal. Okay. Gotcha. On a
cultural level. Yeah. Right. So I guess when it comes to dallah, yeah. What are the known at least
to you the known understandings and definitions of it. There's there's informing, inviting,
clarifying the three of those are three very different things. Yeah. Right. Like, if you're
informing someone, it's like, hey, FYI, inviting is ideal. Come check this out. Right. And
clarifies, like, just so you know, you know, well, actually, which brings us to a very interesting
point, which is that dharwad isn't
		

			conversion. It's no, yeah, it isn't that it's not cookie cutter, you know, okay. The Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. I mean, he dealt with different
people in different ways, and in a very nuanced way, in a way that's sensitive to their background
into their understanding and their level. When you mentioned just once, I think, would it be more
appropriate to study
		

			as case study? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Because look, there are principles. Yeah. And this
is what's important is for us to learn principles, okay. And then the application of that principles
will vary from one circumstance to another. And that's where the case study stuff comes. Yeah.
Right. Okay. Yeah. So, I think a big part of Dawa is, before we even learn.
		

			And this is this is really important, because when you see these messengers, okay, and, and, and how
they were successful, and how they were effective, and their Dharma, and you see the companions and
scholars and, and people that that are effective in Dawa. It's, as one of his one of my, my, my
teachers used to say, it's not always about what you say, but how you say it. Okay. So I think, you
know, an important principle of Dharma is the ability to communicate effectively, I mean, even even
how so indication is big, there's certainly the communication factor. But when you talk about how
you say something, in that situation, it's even less about communication and more about how you made
		

			them feel. That's part of communication, because at the end of the day, they may not remember what
you said to them, but they'll remember how they feel how they felt around us. That's really
important. That's really important. And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam used to always make people
feel comfortable. That's something he took steps towards and made an effort to do. So it's fair to
say that one of the principles of Dallas is to establish rapport. Yeah, definitely. Absolutely.
Okay. So how what can we take away from the life of Musa and especially how you share it on the on
the downside, you know, what's really amazing
		

			when we go through the versus the ayat in the Quran
		

			where Moses having a dialogue with fit around with the Pharaoh, and we noticed that I mean, when we
a big thing is we have to set the context. Okay? Right, when we're just talking about this right now
we're like Musa Pharaoh, okay, cool. But no, we really have to understand who is this Pharaoh? What
kind of a person was he? How did he deal with people? How did he treat people? What did he think of
himself? So you gotta establish that character yet? We really and that's what we spend a lot of time
doing this course. So we can really so when we talk about these things here, yeah, we can actually
picture being there. Okay. Right. So it's you know, and when you do that, it makes the the message
		

			and the lesson so much more powerful. You know, it's interesting is
		

			In story writing, and screenwriting, yeah, there's a
		

			there's a principle that was outlined by this one gentleman, who basically was known for like,
making like best selling screenplays. He wrote a book called save the cat. Right? And it's like,
what does that mean? The title of the book is the principle of storytelling. So, before you go into
the story, you have to establish the character. And one of the basic ways that you can establish
your character is based on the behavior that they do. You know, he's a good guy, or she's a good
guy, if they save the cat, you know, they're bad guy if they kick the cat, right? And what you're
explaining is like you basically that that human principle of storytelling, you're, you're sharing
		

			that and even Allah smart Allah is establishing that reality. Yeah. Pharaoh is, yeah, based on how
many times he's kicking the cat. In this case, the cat being people, right? Or does he do more?
Yeah. Oh, that's that's an understatement.
		

			But once you understand that, and then we look to these dialogues, it makes us so much more
incredible. So Moosa is is in that situation, right? And he's, he's addressing he's giving Dawa, in
front of Freetown, okay.
		

			One of the worst people in history, because of their actions, because their behavior and their
attitude.
		

			And in the process of that fit our own, utilizes so many different tactics, to throw Moosa off his
game, okay. He questions his message. put, like, you know, doubt or skepticism in the minds of the
listeners, or maybe the shake Musetta rattle him, you know, like, if you come and tell me something,
and I just respond with a bold question. Oh, yeah, really, is that what you know, is sought for so a
lot of people it'll call kind of balance. It's kind of like, the marketers dilemma for the last few
years, I might be trying to invite the individuals or the prospective client, hey, you know, you
need to do such and such thing in advertising or marketing or social media. I don't like social
		

			media. I don't.
		

			And but the thing is, the question that comes about is like, Hey, what's the what's the return on
the investment? It's like, my, like, my gut reaction is like, what's the return on investment? of
putting your pants on in the morning? Right?
		

			Right. This is where I feel like I would relate with the story of Musa in that situation where,
like, he's clearly coming forward with something of real value. Right? Okay. Somebody's responding.
Now you're bringing it back home, I'm starting to understand, you know, the person and the
individuals is why you This is why you like notebooks. I don't have lines, oh, I don't want to be
restricted with lines. You want to just be all over the page. To understand, yeah, I have my mind
works. I've been mentally chasing you.
		

			So it's just the idea that like, here, I'm bringing something of value in you would benefit so much
from it. And it's like you're bringing forth a question is like, okay, there's a real fundamental
facet, you really don't understand. Yeah, yeah. So like, Yeah, what's amazing is that Mussa doesn't
get shaken. And then it's not just about, like, fit around, you know, kind of sort of putting him on
the spot light and questioning what he's coming with. But then he also ridiculed him right? In front
of other listeners. And all of those listeners, by the way, they're all Yes, men to their own. Yeah,
so it's not like anyone there is on most, you know, mu says, definitely, you know, the minority in
		

			this situation.
		

			And he's coming from an ethnic minority, right, which is like, their bottom of the tubes man, like,
you know, so it's crazy when you after all those. The other element is that he's also from that
society's perspective. And they wanted to go ahead, you know, to sub 20 years before, it's just
amazing. And they call him names. And then and then Pharaoh and Pharaoh threatens him. And you look
at mooses responses. And all of each response is more confident than the one before and he doesn't
waver and he doesn't get defensive. And he doesn't feel the need to respond to phones, Petty name
calling or,
		

			you know, shallow attempts at distracting the audience from what Moe says coming forward with, he's
just moving forward confidently and with strength, it almost seems like a substance. It almost seems
like his dialogue and his conversations with Pharaoh. It's more so and I think Allah small data, at
least is my assumption. My assumption is that the wisdom behind Allah smart Allah, putting Moosa in
a dialogue with Pharaoh wasn't so that he could potentially convince the Pharaoh, but more so to
assess the stage so that everybody else could listen in and watch. Yeah, right. Kind of like from
the story of the boy in the king. Yeah, right. And where everybody
		

			else in the end ended up embracing the idea of tawheed. Yeah. When the king killed the boy, if
anybody doesn't know the story of the boy, the king sort of liberal, sort of boorish kind of gets
right into the finale of it. Yeah. No, no, definitely. That's part of the strategy of masa. Which,
which brings to another point is that he strategizes is DARPA is not random. It's not haphazard.
It's not, it's not just, you know, it's interesting, because you'd mentioned strategy and the fact
that he's going after the individual who has the greatest influence in that town. And this is like a
write out of like books of business and military strategy, like Carl von Clausewitz, is a Prussian
		

			general from like, the 14th or 15th century. And one of the things that he mentioned in that in the
in the derive is like, Look, if you want to get your message across, you need to attack and or ally,
ally yourself with the centers of influence those who have the greatest amount of gravity in
society. Because if you do that, one of two things are gonna happen. Either you're going to win, or
you're going to
		

			garner more mass from those around them. And I think this is kind of like what's happening in this
situation in the dialogue Well, most that is obeying the command of a lot a lot told them is heavy
left around in the hall, okay, you know, go to Pharaoh go to this Pharaoh and he is he's tyrannical.
He's He's a tyrant, he's an oppressor. He's transgressed.
		

			So Moses fulfilling that command and that mission, that objective that that Allah has assigned him,
okay? With,
		

			but he's very aware and cognizant of the greater audience as well. Okay. And he strategizes You
know, when, when he wants to bring forth the miracles that Allah has given him, yeah, he chooses a
day on Mr. Ito como Xena, he says the appointment will be on this particular day a day when when
people will gather okay and everyone will be there to witness the miracles of Allah.
		

			So, he was strategic, he was intelligent about about his dharma.
		

			Now, the thing is, so
		

			Musashi has been commanded by Allah to go talk to Pharaoh and he fulfills that but the decision of
how to talk to him of where to talk to him all of that is that from him, or is that from Allah?
		

			Is that like instruction from online do it this way? do it that way? A loss of habitat I definitely
did give him certain instructions.
		

			Like for example, a lot tells him Buddha who bought a Lena, okay. So, you know, speak with him in a
in a manner that is that is gentle you don't don't be Don't be offensive. Don't be don't don't
curse. Don't don't, you know, be just yell and scream but be polite. Be respectful. Yeah. About
your, your manner of speaking, which is really important. And it's amazing that allow it tell Moosa
to do that. When talking to the fitter. Yeah, who's like the most disrespectful person ever? Okay,
you know, but still a lot tells Mustafa put on a Hong Kong and lay in and it also this is a really
important principle in Dawa you there's no effective dharwad with with insulting there's no
		

			effective dialogue with abusive speech or character or behavior. I think that's an awesome
reflection but at the same time, or and at the same time, one thought that comes to mind this is one
of our one of our other videos, we're talking about emotions, right? And what what the messengers
might have felt, yeah, I'm wondering how much self restraint and discipline and self control sighs
that I've had to have to not lash out? Yeah, at Faro? Yeah. And and for, because musasa he himself
is a very passionate individual. Yes. Right. And he's strong. Yeah. And he's not the type of person
to see someone doing wrong and just walk away from the situation. That's not he's not that type. He
		

			can't, so he can do that. So to be gentle with this tyrant, with a passionate personality,
incredible self control and restraint. Yeah. And, and, and understanding of his mission and
understanding of the importance of his data. And I think that comes down to it also is just like,
self control, self discipline. But But keep in mind, Moosa doesn't watered down his message, of
course, his, you know, in applying that instruction from a lot, yeah, he's not like,
		

			ashamed of his message. He's not, you know, he's not presenting it in a passive way. His sentences
in his statements are very confident, okay. And very profound, very strong. Yeah. You know, he's
talking about a lot he's describing who Allah is and the might of Allah and the dominion of Allah.
And Allah has control and the fact that he is a creator, and he's created everything from this you
know, the heavens to the ground and from the east and the west and everything in between, you know,
and your Lord and Lord
		

			your forefathers, okay, it's not just you Pharaoh but you know, they believe they were descendants
of gods, all of your line of Pharaohs, their creation of Allah, their creation of this all up above
what I mean that I'm telling you about. So his application of Allah instruction to him for Buddha
Allahu COVID. And lay in and yeah, it did not result in him watering down his message or changing it
or altering it or, or being passive he was he was respectful. You know, it's interesting, he was
confident the idea of respect. And you know, the common saying the same heat that would soften a
carrot would harden the neck. Right?
		

			It just brings me back to the thought of
		

			the dialogue that takes or in this case, maybe it's monologue of the movement early on. And even the
way that he speaks, and this is something from the class, yes. And he was like, whoa, oh, my people
like that. Genuine, genuine concern. Yeah. care. And, and I think this is something that comes down
to it is like, Do you care about Yeah, whom you're talking to? Yeah, Darwin is not Darwin is not,
you know, keeping a list and checking names off the list and, and getting more number of shadows
under your belt. That's not our it's not what it is. It's it's having genuine concern for people and
wanting what's what's good and what's best for them. You know, it's interesting because this
		

			principle of sincerely, genuinely caring about people. Yeah. That's the thing with social media, if
you were to sum up social media in one piece, because essentially, it's communication. Okay. Okay.
Okay. And the sense of when you are producing content, Mm hmm. you're targeting
		

			people. Okay, a profile. Yeah. But what you're doing is you're trying to give them value. Okay. And
I think this is a misconception that a lot of people have, I'm using an incredible amount of self
restraint.
		

			An incredible amount of lack of genuineness on social media. Okay, so, and maybe this is where maybe
I can help clarify. Okay, right. bringing him back one of the if there's no doubt.
		

			So the idea is that you can produce content, especially in social media, because it is a major form
of communication today, it is none denying that. Yeah, it is. And but even in that communication,
what a lot of people use it for is like, hey, look, I'm eating at a Chinese restaurant. It's like,
nobody cares. But at the same time, it's like, well, if I were to produce it, or like, if I were to
say, hey, look, Chinese restaurant, how do you when you're eating out? How do you
		

			make sure that you are not overeating, and staying healthy with a particular goal for anybody who
cares about this? So basically, there's something of value in your content, right, what you're
sharing and why you're sharing it. Right? Right. Okay. So what's your right now? I'm curious, here's
the thing, okay. There are individuals that I really respect and love, and they're so active on
social media, okay. And, and, and I really love and respect them, you know, why? Because their
activity on social media has not diminished, or taken away from or hindered their human interaction.
And that's how it's supposed to be. But unfortunately, that's not what we're seeing, especially in
		

			people of my generation and the generations okay. After, okay, is that social media has replaced
that element of live face to face human interaction, right, which and it's, and it's caused problems
with that which is, is dangerous. And to tie it back to our topic here in this video is
		

			a big element of Darwin. Is that human interaction? No doubt. Yeah. Can Darrow be done in social
media and all these different mediums? Yes, it can. I don't, I'm not denying that. Yeah, we should
utilize different mediums of communication, to communicate with people, right? No, there's nothing
wrong with that as long as it's within certain parameters and keeping certain principles and
etiquettes in mind, but nothing can take the place of good
		

			quality genuine human interaction. Okay. So in my opinion,
		

			social media dunrite is social media. That is an augmentation of what you're doing offline.
		

			If you have nothing going on offline,
		

			then perhaps one needs to reevaluate what they're doing on social media. Yeah. And unfortunately,
most people are not.
		

			They're not reevaluating. Yeah. Because it's, it's it's the norm of the day. But then the other
question that comes into play is you have an entire generation of people who haven't been given or
nor do their parents have the therapy or the know how of coming and giving it their beer. Yeah, of
being able to connect with people on a human level. I think it's a similar factor of like, how it's
people who grew up with the telephone. Yeah, right. Because Because the older generation is like,
you know what, the way you talk to an individual
		

			As you pick up the cell phone call seven,
		

			we used to
		

			back in mind, we used to walk to school uphill both ways.
		

			But no, I mean, but the idea is, and I think this is even even even further. Yeah, right, the idea
of the printing press was so like, like, yeah, like, Oh, well, they're not gonna be able to learn
how to read. No, no, you know, I see what you're saying. Right? That there are these there are
these, there's evolution and how people communicate. Yeah, and I don't disagree with you that there
will be a diminishing factor of like, just how people who had a strong and now we're talking about
social media, and we don't know what's coming, what's coming to your mind, we think so you're
thinking what, like, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, all of the blogs, already about it. In a few
		

			years, it's gonna be like, people are gonna be talking about Dr. You know, like, two years ago,
nobody knew what it was. Yeah, right. We're and even augmented reality in like, 360 views and all of
that, all that stuff, but like, virtual reality, but no,
		

			possibly, who knows? Right? I mean, I think there still needs to be a lot, but video, and I think
that the implementation of video is going to be a lot more across the board, whereas before, it was
just kind of restricted to YouTube. Yeah. Right. And so but, and again, let me let me try to bring
it back home, you know, when when we talk about in the course movement, around leaving man from the
people of Pharaoh
		

			that defended the data of Musa Yeah, he's talking to his people. He's got Bomi Yeah. And he's
appealing to their logic, he's appealing to their, their emotions, he's talking about the mercy of
Allah. He's talking about dunya versus Osceola and, and gender versus gender, paradise and hellfire.
And in order for him to hit those points, yeah, he needs to know his people. And, you know, it's
really interesting and this is another thing that that that that makes me, you know, uncomfortable
about people that are so engrossed in social media is, you know, how much do you really know about
this person? You need there needs to be that element of human look. All the messengers, and and we
		

			see this in Moosa and we see this in the Prophet Muhammad's life, send them incredibly
		

			good people skills, how to talk to people effectively, how to deal with people how to handle
different types of people, right Moosa deals with a plethora of different personality types. Sure,
you know, and and that's a that's a big part of his story. I think the uniqueness about musasa
Lance's position is that he is one he's one of bunnies. Right. Yeah. Right. And being having also
been raised by his real mother. Yeah. He understands the nuances and the society and the culture of
bunnies, right? Yeah. At the same time, he grew up in the house at home. Yeah. So he understands
that culture as well. Right. Yeah. And it's like, even in like, if you look at Islamic history, that
		

			people who are very effective in communicating governing and giving that what to, like, for example,
North Africa, those people who are like part of Moses Berbers, and part Arabs, and they,
		

			I'm so impressed that you know, the word MSU. Thank you so much.
		

			No one knows.
		

			Berbers.
		

			So, like the fact that somebody who had both cultures, they were actually excellent. Like moose,
I've been to say, I believe he had a dual background. And even in Spain, when they did the dealt
with the people who had a multicultural background were able to communicate even best. And this
brings me back to like one thing I'm realizing is that, because I'm from Houston, I will not from
Houston, I'm living in Houston. Yeah. And I'm really close to geographically to Islam and Spanish.
Yeah, and these guys are educating Latinos about Islam. And what's interesting is, you know, talking
with them, and and my general reaction would be, hey, you know, what, all of these other like non
		

			Hispanic Muslims should go to Hispanic Muslims, Islamic Spanish, and folks, and learn from them. How
do you communicate Islam to Latinos? Because there's not only Latinos in Houston, there's Latinos
all over the US. Right. But and it's it what's interesting, what I find is that it's happening the
other way around. Like, they're people telling the Latino Muslims, this is how you give out to
Latinos. Right? It's like, no, that's not how you give the other Latinos because there's, you don't
even understand the nuances and the cultural language
		

			around. So and I think that's why Allah said that he sent messengers be nice, and you'd call me.
Yeah. But with the tongue with the language of his people. Yeah, you know, so that they can
understand who they're talking to.
		

			That's a big part of effective, understanding who your audience is, knowing where they come from.
And I think being able to relate to them. And I think this goes back to the social media factor,
too, is that if somebody wants to be successful, in dour and even not even that well, but just
marketing and PR on social media, is that you need to communicate from a point of genuine
authenticity and knowledge of nuances to the crowd that you're talking to. Yeah, unfortunately, the
		

			problem. You know, what's sad to see is that a lot of people are one type of person on social media
and other type of person in real life. Unfortunately, that's, I think that's a catastrophe. And then
the other thing is, you know, the point that we were alluding to earlier about Moosa dealing with
different types of personalities and the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam also dealing with
different types of personalities. You know, it's, it's problematic when, you know, if if me if I as
a person, I can only have a good, authentic, good quality interaction with one personality type.
Hmm, that's problematic. You know, that. We also learn from Moosa one of the things we learned from
		

			Moses, how to be flexible, how to adapt to different situations. He went through different phases of
his life. And each one was totally different than than the one before it. Yeah. But he doesn't just
break. He adapts Yeah, how can I How can I learn how to adapt to disability? Yeah, if a person can
only function well, can only find fulfilment can only be happy when all the cards are in one
particular way. Like that. That's not how it doesn't work like that, you know, we are we're we're
meant to be able we learn from the Prophet Mohammed salatu salam and from Prophet Musa and from the
other messengers to deal with different segments of society. So I guess, I guess the question is,
		

			maybe an appropriate takeaway
		

			is and I think I see two major takeaways from this, right? takeaway. Number one, is perhaps, if one
doesn't get if, if one doesn't move out of their comfort zone much. If you only say socialize with
one ethnic group of people. If one is so ethnocentric, or or what not, perhaps one should take time
out and try to meet with other types of people. Yeah, you know, expand your comfort. Yeah, and let
me also add to that, look, people are of different personality types, for sure. Not everyone's gonna
be a social butterfly. Of course not everyone is a super extrovert you know, just super happy to
talk to everyone not everyone's like that. Yeah. And that's okay. Can they still be effective in
		

			Dawa? Yes, they can, you know, they have no one's perfect. Allah is perfect. We say I'll come and
let perfection belongs to Allah. Okay. All of us have certain strengths and certain weaknesses
course that's the nature of human beings. So the idea is, how can I use my strengths, you know, in
be effective in my Dharma, and what are some of my weaknesses that I can compliment or maybe you can
compliment