Abdelrahman Badawy – The 3 Rule – King Talut
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of progress and unity in society, as well as the need for a majority of society to contribute to making change. They stress the importance of testing and fitna, showing faith, and connecting with as many people as possible to achieve the vision of um rights. The speakers also emphasize the importance of integrity, strength, and foundation in building um authorization, and encourage people to study the story of Talut. They express hope for um authorization and encourage people to study the story of Talut.
AI: Summary ©
Everybody.
I'm honored to be back here with you.
I appreciate you guys trusting me with your
time, and I pray that Allah makes it
worth your while.
Let's all take a moment, InshaAllah, to renew
our intention. We are here in the house
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
between two prayers,
and we hope that Allah counts us as
Al Murabitun.
The prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, intidarus
salaab adus salaafada salaafadaalikumur rebalt fadaalikumur rebalt.
Awaiting one prayer after finishing another. So staying
in the mosque from one prayer to the
other
is a form of
rebat. Rebat is a form of jihad. It's
a very high it's like guarding the frontier,
guarding the borders of the Muslim Ummah. So
the prophet of SAW Hassan said this you
for somebody who stays in the Masjid between
one prayer and the next,
they will receive a a form of that
ajr, that reward.
And and it's a humongous reward, but also
makes you reflect
on rebat. Rebat is to protect the the
Muslim borders from the enemy and those who
remain in the Masjid and do their adkar
and recite Quran. Like, when you be when
you await in the Quran in the Masjid
from one salah to the next, what are
you doing? You're not just sitting, right? You're
doing Quran. You're doing dikr. You're doing salah.
You're doing tawba. You're seeking knowledge.
This is a form of protecting the Ummah
also. Right?
Those who seek knowledge, InshaAllah Ta'ala, are the
ones who preserve the the preserve our Deen
for one more generation. And that is a
form of rabat jazakumuqin, barakalafiq.
Alright. So I pray that Allah includes us
amongst that honorable group.
So of course I begin in the name
of our creator, Bismillah Alhamdulillah.
Alright. So
what is the title of our talk today?
Do you remember?
It was a strange title. I
so the the yes. The the main title,
which is the Khutba, was luxuries don't last
forever, which is a quote from Umar bin
Khattab Radilah.
Today, the the the second, the lower title
at the bottom of the flyer said,
the 3% rule. Do you remember reading that?
The 3% rule?
I figured it's it's a, it's just, you
know, it's a strange title. You don't usually
see that as a as a as a
title for an Islamic lecture. But I I
promise you, they're all it's all connected. And
in parenthesis, it says, king, king Talut.
In English, they call Talut what?
Did I hear?
Saul. Yes. King Saul. King Saul, s a
u l. So that's the English version of
King Talut. Of course, we believe in him.
He was not a prophet. He was a
righteous man and a king appointed by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And we'll talk a little bit about him.
The Muslims, the Christians, and the Jews believe
in a person named Talut,
or King Saul. And he was a king,
not a prophet. However, he was, marched alongside
prophets and with the,
appointed he was appointed by God himself Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Okay.
So
before I get into a little bit of
the story of King Saul, of course, we're
not gonna cover every aspect of it. I'm
covering it in respect to the title,
which is the 3% rule.
Now, if we wanna be more specific, it's
actually 3.5%.
Where did I get this number from?
So do you recall in Jumah, we mentioned
the concept of very briefly, I said I'll
continue tonight.
How much well, let me ask you this
question first.
When society needs to change,
when there needs to be fundamental change in
society, it's too corrupt. There's too much evil
spreading. And the people who do good
keep finding themselves every time we we we
we make one step forward, we get slapped
down, and we get 3 steps back, and
then we start again. Every time there's a
lot of hope on the horizon,
the tyrants regain their strength, and they cut
everything down. They chop off some heads. They
throw people in prison by the 1,000, and
then it dies down for another decade. Is
this something we've been observing for the past
100 years?
So when does this
what's your understanding of this setup? Like, of
course, we all felt we all feel this
way. Every time there's something on the horizon,
like like what's happening now in Bangladesh,
you know, may Allah free them from the
shackles of oppression.
We don't know how to feel because we've
seen it before where this just landed in
worse. Right? They they ended up with a
worse tyrant,
the next generation. This happened in many, you
know, Arab Spring and many other things. Correct?
Right? Many the longer you live, the longer
you see this stuff,
I guess you can say, in a in
a on level it failed.
Although, other people can have a different perspective.
So you don't know how to feel. You
don't know if you feel hopeful. You don't
know if you feel like you're being duped.
You don't know if there's outside agendas and
and and, and, you know, malicious people trying
to,
cause this kind of stuff. So
what are your thoughts? Anybody have any thought
on this?
When will this cycle end that every time
we take one step forward, take 3 steps
back, and we're another decade goes by? Have
you ever thought about this?
Full for Fudge.
When we're full for Fudge. I'll so I
like that analogy. Of course, a lot of
people have strong opinions about it. The the
very famous expression that when the masjid is
as full for Fajr as it is for
Jumayd, then inshallah, the Ummah will have victory.
I like it. Of course, there's exact it's
exaggerated on on the level. The masjid is
never
I don't believe it will ever be as
full for Fajr as it is for Jum'am
just by the nature of things. However, there
there's truth there. There's wisdom there.
The Fajr prayer is, as the prophet Muhammad
an indication of,
true iman because the the hypocrites, may Allah
protect us from being amongst them. They the
hardest prayer on them is fajr and isha,
where you're not as seen and there's not
as much, prestige or dunya dunya
benefits.
And it's obviously hard for them because they're
they're fighting their nefs, the most. Okay. That
that's one thing. What's another thought you've had
on this? I'm sure we've all felt that.
Every time it looks like, oh, the is
getting some progress, we get hope, and then
it gets crushed, and then we're
the cycle resets.
You ever wondered when does this cycle finish?
So it's something to think about because we're
all living the same life. Right? And you're
all like, man, SubhanAllah, it seems like I
was really hopeful. Well, we talked a little
bit in Jum'ah. Prophet
Muhammad gave us some ingredients.
When do you how do you stop
the people picking you apart like a buffet?
Because that's the imagery that the prophet gave
us. Right?
Soon, the nations,
the jama'at, the plural of umma is umma.
Nations, other ummas are gonna sit around you
the same way they sit around the dinner
plates, and they will pick apart pick you
apart. So they pick apart our umma. I'll
take this. No. You take that. No. No.
Please, please. You take this piece. Take their
resources here. You take this country. Oh, no.
You this one's colonized by you. And that's
exactly what they did to us. So first
off, like, your iman increases despite the negative
the negative reality because the prophet
gave the perfect imagery of it. That is
exactly what they did with our resources.
That's exactly how they drew up our lines.
I the lines that make our countries today.
I remember reading I don't know if this
is true, but I read it online where
it said I didn't, like, do my homework
to verify, where they said that the Sykes
Pico agreement where they drew up the Muslim
lands, it took it was a meeting that
lasted half an hour.
They they divided the Muslim lands in half
an hour and said, alright. Let's go for
lunch.
I I don't know if it's true. I'm
I'm curious to look it up and and
confirm it first, but it it sounds accurate.
In fact, if they spent more time, it
would only be to divide us further. It
would only be if they would spend more
time to figure out where to draw the
lines to create the most havoc. Because that
is they are known to do that. Divide
and conquer. Divide and conquer. Right? Anyhow,
so this concept of every time we take
one step forward, it seems like we take
3 steps back. Right?
So I want you guys to never lose
hope and never lose faith because progress never
occurs in one shot,
ever in human history. And it never occurs
in one line either.
So those are 2 separate things. One shot
means one day we're at 100% corruption, Masha'Allah,
next day we're at 100% success. It never
happened. Not even in the time of the
prophets.
Prophet Nuh
Yes. Allah sent a flood and wiped out
all the kuffar. But after how long?
950 years.
So it wasn't like Allah told them, okay.
Preach for a few weeks or a few
years and then or even 5 years or
10 or 20, and then I'll send the
flood. No. Allah says, do all your work
until until I decide, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
then I will decide. And then here's here's
a lesson you have to keep in your
head.
When the victory comes,
it always seems like it was all of
a sudden
to the uninitiated, to the people who weren't
putting in the work. They say, SubhanAllah, it
all came all at once.
And only Allah knows the 100 of or
millions of people who've put in work, who've
planted seeds, who died before they saw the
victory and InshaAllah, they get all the hasanat
of it. SubhanAllah. Nothing ever happens overnight, but
to the to those who are unaware or
un or not putting in the work, it
always will appear that way. Right? Fat Mecca,
the conquering of Mecca, the conquest of Mecca.
It did not happen overnight. 23 years or
20 20 years or so.
But it was a long it was a
long time coming. Towards the end,
the dominoes start to fall a lot quicker.
Always throughout history. Towards the end, things happen
much more quickly and it seems like they're
all of a sudden. But no, this is
foundation building for decades decades decades. Okay. So
the 3.5 Percent Rule. I know I said
3% rule on the on the title, but,
you know, I just made it simpler. 3.5%.
Where's this number?
This is a theory about social change
that
man, I forgot. I wanted to do a
let me try this anyway. What percentage of
society
it's too late now, but what percentage of
society
needs
to be involved in making change for it
to happen?
He got it. Hey. How do you get
that number? It's very specific. Masha'Allah.
Yes. 3.5.
So okay. I I always I completely forgot.
But initially, I wanted to just ask you
well, I guess it was in the title.
I wanted to ask you guys. I love
asking this question. What percentage of society needs
to change? Because what's the what's the typical
number that might come to your head?
10%. What else?
20?
Come on. There's a number that I'm looking
for here. 50%.
51%,
majority.
5050 is still even. 51 is like you
officially have majority. You have, controlling
interest. Right? Just like elections. If you have
50.1 percent, Kalash, you're officially the majority, you
win. You know, if if we believe in
elections to begin with. If we believe that
they're honest.
Yes. If you're if you're 51%, officially, you
have won. You're the majority.
So the natural number that comes to people
is, well, for change to happen, you need
to have a majority at least. Right? That's
a natural number that comes. You think that's
what needed.
But that is could not be further from
the truth. I have not done my homework
on this to I'm not a sociologist, like,
but I've read what people who've researched this
have. And by the way, if you look
that up, that number, the 3.5% rule, you'll
find some of their research. There's some people
who've done research and reached this number.
They've basically said that never in history,
never,
whether the change was good or bad, by
the way, never in history
have you ever needed a majority to make
change.
Isn't that interesting?
Never. On a societal level. Maybe on, like,
a smaller level with a masjid board or
a group. Yeah. You need the majority so,
you know, just 10 people. You need to
out outweigh the others. Yeah. That that's much
more logical. On a societal change, when it
comes to millions of people across 1,000 of
miles of land, it has never needed the
majority.
Not and and here's here's the kicker. Not
even close, and we we reach a number.
The number they all differ, by the way.
There's different theories. Some of them say it's
anywhere from 3 to 10%.
That's what I've come across. You know, I'm
still researching it further. Anywhere from 3 to
10%, but it's usually the 3.5%
is the title of this article that well,
it's a paper that I was reading. And
they have they've they've cited a lot of,
historical evidences and whatnot. 3.5%
rule.
And they said that if 3.5%
of a society
are actively involved in making a specific a
particular change,
that is the turning point once it reaches
3.5%.
And it really made me think.
When you think about the protests in the
Arab world or in Bangladesh
or the the attempted changes that have occurred
in in our societies
over the past 100 years since our ummah
lost
or completely lost its unity.
Of course, that that was a long time
coming also. Right? But eventually, it was the
last straw, and we've been trying to regain
our unity ever since.
You always
you when you reflect on the attempted changes,
in my observation, it has always been under
that number. It's always been under 3% so
far. So when you have a 1000000 people
protesting in a country, that's still typically like
Egypt, for example, 110,000,000 people, that's still less
than 1%.
So if you do the math, also, we'll
talk about now,
within the 3% itself, you need to have
some level of cohesion and unity, and we'll
talk about that and and sincerity.
So let's get to the story. That's where
the number comes from. Where and I to
me, this inspires hope. Because it's like, wait.
I don't even need a huge number.
I just need to be sincere,
and I don't I need to be building,
planting seeds and building foundations.
And
if the science says or the the data
says
such a small number,
and Allah's and Allah in fact, Allah said
it first, and the science supports Allah's,
sort of, statement
or the sunnah of Allah.
This is straight from the Quran. Allah says,
how many small groups have defeated a major
group or a large group by the will
of Allah? And Allah is with those who
are patient.
Right? And this story comes up in the
story of Talut
as well. Alright.
Their prophet told them,
Allah has chosen for you or has sent
for you Talut as your king.
They said,
why should he have kingship over us
even though we have more of a right
to be kings than him?
And and they said, on top of that,
he's not wealthy either.
Their prophet told them, Allah is the one
who chose him over you, and he gave
him
blessings in in his body. He was a
strong man, as well as his knowledge. And
Allah gives
kingship to whomever he wills, and Allah is,
vast and Allah is all knowing. Allah knows
where he sends his kingship Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So this is the introduction of Talut.
We can say, I suppose, alayhi salam, he's
not a prophet. I just want to reiterate
that. He was a he was a righteous
man that was appointed by Allah. However,
he was a righteous man appointed by God
in God's service,
with the direction of the prophet of his
time.
But I actually want to backtrack, and I
I wanna start because today I wanna talk
about we're we're directing it in the direction
of the filter, of of the 3%.
Right? 3.5%.
And the my alternative title for this topic
was
the series of filters,
the series of filters. If you have some
dirty water, it's completely filthy.
You put it through a filter
to cleanse it. Right? If the filter is
not,
let's say you get some net net netting
or something. Right? And you filter out, that's
gonna take out all the big particles, the
rocks and the dirt, but the water will
still appear brown. Right?
Right? Because it didn't get all the tiny
stuff. So you put through a second filter
that's much more fine,
and then you the water gets a little
bit cleaner. And you put it through a
3rd if that didn't get everything, you put
it through a 3rd filter that's more fine
and more harsh.
And then finally, you have clean and pure
drinking water.
The question is,
when you do that,
when you finally have your clean water at
the end, is it gonna be the same
amount as when you started?
It's possible. Right?
You you might have how much more you
have left?
Small amount. I mean, depends really. Right? But
depending how much filth was there. But you'll
never have the same amount.
Right? I wanna make sure that this is
clear. When Allah
sends our ummah through filtration processes,
you we will never have the same amount
at the end,
but you will have pure
at the end.
Allah says in the Quran, Suratul Anfal, to
purify the believers. Allah sends tests to purify.
And along the way, don't think that everybody
who gets,
everybody who is lost along the way, excuse
me, got filtered out. That's not the case.
Allah says, along the path, Allah will take
shuhada from amongst you. So don't think that
everybody who, passed away is because they were
filtered out. No. Some of them actually made
it. They succeeded. They went to the highest
level.
And now it's you guys are,
tasked with getting to the next level in
dunya, but they they have succeeded. Right? Anyhow,
this story is found over and over in
the Quran and in society and history. And
I'm gonna give the example from the story
of Talut.
So before,
before Talut
we're gonna get into a story in just
one sec. I just wanna give you guys
the background that led to Talut. Do you
guys remember
when
Musa alayhis salam with his brother Harun alayhis
salam,
they
Allah granted them victory over Firaun,
and then they were now in the desert,
right, with the people of Bani Israel.
And then immediately, they started to say to
complain about their situation. Said, oh, we need
some good food. We need this. We need
that. Like, life is tough now. And and,
Musa alaihi salam said, but Allah just gave
us victory over the biggest enemy of our
life that we've been praying for for so
long.
Now, of course, we're going to endure hardship
to rebuild. And so we still have tasks
that Allah gave us. What was the task
that Allah gave them after Fir'aun?
They had one more thing left to do.
To go to the holy land. Palestine. Modern
day you know, Palestine. Right? The the Al
Quds,
their job was to get to the holy
land.
And
they said they when when when Musa alaihi
salam told them that, they said, woah. Woah.
Woah. Woah.
But there are people there. There's in fact
a very tyrannical
strong army there, and they were evil evil
people.
So they said, wait. We didn't sign up
for this.
We thought God was gonna take care of
our enemies the same way he took care
of Firaun. Musa alaihis salam told them, no.
That was stage 1. Allah promised you to
take care of Firaun despite all the odds
being against you, and he did.
And now Allah said, go and now you
have to take up arms and fight for
your rights.
And then Allah promised them the same way
he promised them about Firaun. If you do
it,
you will succeed.
If you do it with sincerity, you will
succeed. Even if you have fewer numbers, even
if you have
less arms, even if you do not have
the same training, and then so on and
so forth. If you step forward, you will
take it. You will receive that success. What
did they say?
What was their response?
They said,
They had reached level of cowardice
and arrogance
and entitlement
and patheticness,
basically, where they said,
And they said, listen. Let's we're gonna give
it to you straight.
We will never enter that city as long
as those tyrants are there and they outnumber
us and they out and they're they outrank
us and they have so much more power
and weapons and so on. We
will not set foot there as long as
they are there. So God better send a
miracle. Otherwise,
they're acting like they're doing God a favor
by getting their victory and their success.
So then they said,
peak arrogance. They said,
You and your Lord, go fight.
We're gonna sit right here.
So of course, what did Allah say? Now
they received a punishment from God.
As of that moment, Allah punished them, and
Allah says, It is haram now because I
told them all you have to do is
set foot there and try for Allah's sake,
and I will give you the victory, and
I will show you that. But because you
were so lazy and cowardly
and arrogant and entitled,
now it is haram upon you for 40
years.
On top of that, you will be left
to wander in the land for 40 years.
And Allah says, do not feel sorry for
a
defiantly disobedient people.
They deserved what they got.
So this is what you hear about the,
the Jews mentioned that their ancestors were wandering
in the desert.
So that is correct. It's in the Quran.
They were wandered, but the punishment that Allah
set was for 40 years. So it wasn't
forever, like, until today. It was for 40
years.
So okay. This is immediately,
after Musa. So Musa alaihi salaam and Harun,
despite it being their
their dream to to enter the holy land,
Because it was their people at the time,
they did not
get to,
they did not get to achieve that goal.
They achieved many of their other goals, but
this was not granted to them. And Musa
alaihis salam famously made a dua and said,
oh, Allah, you have decreed not to give
us the holy land in my lifetime,
but I ask you to
bring me as close as possible to it
before I die, and allow me to die
within literally a stone's throw away from it.
And Allah accepted that dua and he passed
away within a stone's throw of it. And
there's a lot in the tafsir about this.
So,
there's a lot of tafsir about how did
they remain wandering the desert and,
whether it was something, it was something supernatural
where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala simply did not
allow them to find their way. But there
was also other factors when you think about
it.
They were just not ready mentally.
They were not ready spiritually.
They were not worthy, I think is the
word. That's why Allah said, 40 years
you will be punished.
So let me ask you guys this, what
is
a wisdom you can extract from 40 years?
Why 40 years particularly?
One more time, who said?
Yeah.
And the tafsir mentions,
Allah kept this Allah designated 40 years for
every single person who was alive during and
was obligated at the time they were old
enough to step forward and fight for all
of them to die in in that punishment,
except for those who were not 20 years
old yet, obviously, by that time. Now the
next gen it's 40 years. By the way,
a generation is about 25 to 40 years.
It's when people tell you 1 generation, 2
generations, they typically
measure it by either 25 years at a
time or anywhere up to 40 years. That's
typically what's considered 1 generation.
Okay? So this is Allah saying, this generation
is punished. They will not receive it.
When they die,
then the next generation will get an opportunity
again.
And if they fail, they get pushed it
gets pushed again. And the next generation did
not fail, in their case. Right? Okay.
So the next generation was Talut alaihis salam.
And there's different narrations. Of course, we don't
have the exact timelines because this is 1000
of years ago. Some of them say Talut
was actually a few generations after,
some tafsirs mentioned because these are all extracting,
data from the,
the Israeliat from Jews and Christians. So,
the train of of, it doesn't make a
difference, like, if it was 1 or 2
generations or a handful. The point is the
logical transition towards victory,
happened. A second benefit,
beside the first benefit is the 1st generation
of people who were punished for their, ignorance
and cowardliness and arrogance, they don't get to
taste the victory. The second benefit is that
the next generation
was born and raised in the desert.
That life is extremely tough.
All they knew was hardship.
And now you have a whole generation of
people who were born and raised in hardship.
When they are commanded, hey, fight for your
rights, they can say, yes. Like I they're
they're warriors.
And subhanAllah. So sometimes,
Perhaps you may hate something, but Allah puts
a lot of good in it. It doesn't
mean that it's gonna be fun or easy.
It just means that good will come out
of it. When you want to plant a
seed, you dig deep. Right? And then you
you bury it, and it's not a lot
of fun.
But eventually, the the roots grow strong and
firm, and it the foundation is built from
there. So these are just some wisdoms wisdoms
of that,
situation.
So I mentioned this situation. This is before
Talut.
Afterwards, let's say one generation for the flow
of the story. One generation after,
or in that generation, Talut is born himself.
And then he becomes the king once he
became of age.
So
I said one of the titles I wanted
for this lecture was the series of filters.
The very first filter was that.
So Allah filtered out the people who were
not worthy of the victory
by delaying it for 40 years. That was
one of the ways that Allah filtered
them out. Next generation was born. It's the
children of those people. They're born in hardship.
They
their faith was growing. Allah sent prophets amongst
them. And amongst them, the heroes remember we
talked a few weeks ago about You Aisha
lahal jahabi, that the heroes
are already alive. Those heroes were born in
fiti, in in in the when they were
wandering in the desert. One of whom was
Talut.
So that's filter number 1. We said when
you have a bunch of garbage, you use
your first filter and it still looks dirty.
You need
a cleaner or
a finer filter to get out the smaller
filthy particles. Because the thing is, you can't
drink that water.
Correct? It's gonna hurt you. It's gonna hurt
you more than it helps. Even no matter
how thirsty you are, if you have filthy
water in front of you, completely dirty, you
can't afford to drink it, you're better off
drinking nothing.
Right? It's not going to help.
La yusminu wa la yukhniminjuah.
It's not going to actually make you better.
It's gonna make you worse. So you're better
off not drinking than drinking filth. Right? Same
concept with our ummah, and same concept with
victory and success.
Let's say, theoretically, you have a revolution,
but nothing got filtered. The ummah is still
in the state. People are still way far
away from the deen, and they're still fight
in fighting amongst each other, and it just
happened to happen through external circumstances or,
the tyrant died or fell or whatever or
got overthrown.
What happens immediately after?
The Ummah fights in fight in fighting and
problems and this and that, and then a
bigger tyrant gets the power.
And that's that. We're worse off than we
started.
By the way, I'm not my goal here
is not share my political opinions and this
and that. Allahu alam. I'm not a politician.
I know that there's
pros and cons, good and bad, and I
pray for the success of our ummah, and
I pray for the downfall of every single
tyrant. And I pray that Allah gives victory
to our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh and
everywhere in the world.
And I pray that
the tyrants
feel the fear in their hearts when they
see their fellow tyrants fall.
So my point is not to point, pointificate
about this or this, you know, political circumstance.
I'm just giving some
visuals or some observation we can make about
when the ummah when the water is not
clear and and and purified,
and we just land in a situation that,
Hey, we could do good with this. We
end up not doing good with it because
we just there was it was filthy. It's
like drinking,
filthy water. You get sicker.
So you need to get working on your
filters. Okay. So that's filter number 1. The
1st generation died out.
Let's take a look now at filter number
2, which is the ayah that we just
recited.
After Talut, who was born and raised in
that difficult situation, he gets of age. He
was raised in a righteous household.
He
was seeking 'alim. He was in the company
of
the prophets. He learned and so on. Eventually,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala appointed him. And through
the prophet, Allah told the people,
Allah has sent you a king.
And this king is by the name of
Talut.
And they knew Talut. They knew his history,
they knew his heritage. They said, Him?
This is filter number 2. They said,
why should he be a leader?
They had to throw that in there. They
said, two reasons why we don't think he
should be the leader. Number 1, we are
more worthy of leadership or or kingship than
him. What did they mean by that? We
have better bloodlines.
We are descendants of so and so and
so and so. We are the elites of
society, wealth wealth wise and this wise and
so on. It didn't make sense to them
that this poor man receives well, this man,
sorry, of doesn't have the same lineage as
us. That was our first objection.
Objection number 2,
He's not rich.
How could we have a leader who's not
rich?
And looking down upon him because of his
financial status.
And then Allah or the prophet says,
why did Allah choose him?
Because he has more 'ilm, and he is
worthy. And Allah gives leadership and kingship to
whomever he wills.
And ultimately, He finalized it and said, This
is Allah's choosing.
You either sign on or you can leave.
And that was filter number 2.
From that generation, technically for that generation, it
was filter number 1, but you get the
point. That generation,
a sizable chunk of them refused to follow
his leadership.
Filter number 2.
So by the way, just so we're clear,
when people refuse to follow righteous leadership, they
don't just die out. They're still here.
They just go about their own ways and
cause fitna or go about dunya lifestyles or
whatever. But they're still part of the Ummah
at the time of Tawut. They were part
of the nation. They did whatever they were
doing, but they just were not going to
be amongst the victorious crowd who ultimately
have the great success and they get the
edger with Allah
Okay? Because they went against integrity and they
were still holding on to arrogance, still holding
on to,
things that are unimportant in the eyes of
God, like,
his bloodline,
like his wealth. And they were overlooking the
fact that he was more righteous, that he
had more knowledge, that he was appoint the
prophet told them that this man was appointed.
They did not get over that. They still
had that arrogance within them. So Allah says,
you are unworthy.
Next, you get filtered out and now the
group has gotten smaller. We put it through
the 2nd filter. It looks a lot cleaner,
but there's still more filters. This is the
sunnah of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
You will not find a change in the
sunnah of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Next. Next
filter.
So now you have the group of people
who
overcame their arrogance or overcame
any objection to Talut, and they said, if
god chose him, we will submit.
And the Jewish narrations mentioned the Islamic narrations
don't mention the number. They just say it
was a large army.
But the Jewish narrators mentioned that it was
80,000.
80,000.
And this was again, the numbers are not
the most accurate, but it gives us a
visual. Other numbers of, like, the bigger crowds,
although the timelines might not be the most
accurate, they mentioned 600,000.
So perhaps the population was 600,000
and then the people who actually signed on
were 80,000.
So you can see the filtration process left
a huge chunk.
Okay, so 80,000 sincere people, believers,
said, You know what? We accept we will
submit to Allah's choice
and we will follow Talut as our king.
So then Allah,
through his prophet, trained Talut to be the
king who will receive the victory. Who will
go and fight who?
Jalut, right? Goliath. And the prophet that was
a young man at the time, he wasn't
the prophet yet, in his army was
Who
killed Goliath?
David, Dawud. Dawud,
it's estimated, was a teenager at the time.
And of course, he killed the biggest soldier
that, the tyrants had. But we're getting there,
InshaAllah. So that was that army.
So
Allah sends him with the 80,000
troops or the 80,000 sincere believers. Keep in
mind, these are sincere people.
And this is a lesson for us all.
Just because you're sincere,
doesn't mean you're absolved from being tested.
In fact, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sends his
most difficult tests to his strongest soldiers.
And this is a paraphrasing of a hadith
of our beloved prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. So, you know,
Ashadun Nasibala and Al Anbiya Thumma Akrabu Fil
Akrab. Right? That
the people who receive the strongest tests are
the prophets,
and then those who are most righteous, and
then who those who are after them, and
so on and so forth.
So
if you pass the first filter, you anticipate
there's another one coming eventually.
Right? Allah says in the Quran, we will
surely test you.
Everything everybody is this dunya is darubala. It's
a a, abode of testing and fitna. Right?
So we should not let our guard down.
We should also not get arrogant and complacent
and say, well, I passed a few tests.
You know? This what's happening in Gaza, I
supported, I donated, I I posted, I amplified,
I went to protests. I'm a good person.
Like, I don't deserve any any test after
this. If you have that personality or that
sort of mindset, then you've misunderstood how dunya
operates. Also, it's very arrogant.
It's very arrogant because it assumes that God
needs you or that the few dollars that
you donated,
changed the world. Alhamdulillah, I pray that Allah
accepts everything we did, but we are doing
it for ourselves.
Whoever purifies their soul, they're doing it for
your you're doing it for your own self.
You need this more than the people you
are helping. And Allah is not in need
of us, right?
Allah is
the self sufficient and we are the ones
in full need of Him. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Alright.
80,000 troops with talut. We are filter number
3 now, right?
And these are sincere people. They passed a
few tests so far, but there's always more
tests because
the closer we get to go time, the
closer we get to total victory, the more
pure people you need to be able to
withstand the tests that come with that.
Okay. 80,000.
Allah
wanted him to test his people because don't
forget, not these 80,000,
not all of them came with full submission
and full willingness.
They didn't like Tawut a lot, most of
them. But eventually, they submitted. They got over,
Alhamdulillah, they got over their
insincere objections and said, Fine. Okay. We'll take
this guy. And then they were falling. That's
not you don't do you want people like
that in your army?
Like, they're barely holding on, you know? They're
barely,
what's the word? They're barely obedient to you.
He's the king. Not only he's the king,
he's the leader of the army. I need
full I need when he makes a command,
he needs them to say, sir, yes, sir.
He says, go left. They go left. Go
right. Stop. We all stop. Put yourself in
harm's way for the for the sake of
the ummah. They put themselves that's what you
need from soldiers. Right? That's why they train
and they drill and they so on. These
people were not ready just yet. So
Allah sends a test their way.
The famous ayah and Surat Al Baqarah,
Allah will test you now with a river.
Very simple test for a huge army.
As we are marching towards the holy land,
we will come across a huge river.
Flowing water. It was during the summer. It
was a hot time. Everyone is extremely thirsty.
They had their water that they're carrying, but
it's, you know, it's running out and so
on and so forth. And you're about to
come to a fresh flow flowing
river,
cold and beautiful and so on. On their
way there, before they got to the river,
they know it's coming, you know, they know
the geography. He says,
This is a test from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
When we get to the river 80,000 troops,
you are forbidden from drinking from it whatsoever.
Whoever drinks from it, this is as far
as you go. You cannot continue with the
army.
Whoever does not even taste it, you may
proceed.
And then he added as an afterthought,
You are allowed to take 1 handful
of water.
If you are that, like extremely thirsty or
you just cannot, if you I will overlook
one handful.
It doesn't even say
like with his 2 hands. You're allowed one
handful like this.
So I I I'm I'm still reading tafsir
to find out what is the wisdom of
that little exception.
I'm sure there's a wisdom there because there's
gotta be something.
Perhaps, I'm just guessing here, it's a psychology
thing. Some people,
if they take just one sip, they feel
like they got something.
Other
people, they say,
I know myself. I cannot open that door.
I'm better off not even touching it.
Do you guys agree?
There's 2 personality types. Some people say, you
know what? If I just take a little
if I take a tiny nap, 10 minute
nap, I'm refreshed.
Other people say, If
I close my eyes,
I'm going to wake up 5 hours from
now. Right? So subhanAllah, perhaps that is one
of the wisdoms there. I'm still researching it.
Has anybody come across the tafsir of this,
some of the wisdom behind this, You're allowed
one handful?
But they were both allowed. The ones who
do not touch it and the ones who
take one sip are allowed to pass.
SubhanAllah.
Perhaps.
Perhaps. Because even in the ayah, it's added
as an afterthought.
So he says the full statement,
whoever drinks from it, is not from me.
They may not proceed. And whoever does not
touch it, let me at amhu,
does not even taste the water. They may
proceed. And then as an afterthought, I said,
whoever takes one handful, you can also proceed.
So there's wisdom there. I'm sure that we
have to study that in terms of leadership
and human psychology. There's some wisdom. I that
that's what I came across or what I
sort of speculated
about the whole napping for 10 minutes versus
I can't allow myself to close my eyes.
If I do, I'm done for. Right? The
2 different personality types,
in in the followers.
What did Allah say in the same ayah?
How many of them drank?
Allah
says
it.
Almost all of them drank.
Almost all of them failed the test.
And the Jewish narrations from the Israt Lafayette,
they say, out of the 80,000 troops, how
many proceeded?
Give us throw a number.
Well, 40 is tiny. No. It's more than
that.
Keep keep in mind our percentages here.
This is 5%.
The the narrations the Jewish narrations say 4,000
troops continued and they are the ones who
fought that, fought Goliath, Jalut. 4,000 troops.
So if you do the math, 4,000 out
of 80,000?
What percentage is that?
I know it's nighttime,
4,000 4 out of 80,000?
Come on.
5%. It's about 5%. We're right. Close to
the 3.5. Right? Not bad.
So
and by the way, again, I just wanna
reiterate because these numbers, I don't want someone
later to say, oh my god. The numbers
are wrong. I mean, these are israeliata that
the prophet,
permitted us to to benefit from them and
to speculate and to to to add to
the story and the details and so on.
Anyway, this is from the Quran.
All of them drank except for a little.
That's Allah's words
except for a handful, except for a few.
Keep in mind, these are people who were
sincere. They
passed the first test but the series of
filters goes on and most of them drank
and they were forbidden from proceeding.
There's a wisdom here. There's a lesson. And
in fact, this is the lesson that I
chose to touch on in the Khutba earlier.
Is that this was a luxury that was
presented to them. It was free. It was
from God.
They didn't
forbidding themselves from this,
they would say, why? It's a river. It's
free. Like, this is not,
like, it's not like we're spending more money
or doing it's just it's it's available. Why
shouldn't we take it?
This is a mentality that I find sometimes
in myself, may Allah forgive me, but sometimes
I find it in my community here because
we are gifted with so much,
in terms of our quality of life, our
standard of living here in America. And we
always ask Allah never ask Allah to remove
your blessings. Never. That is not the way
to say, I want to become more, ikhshawshinu.
Right? I want to become more tough and
rough. You don't say, Oh Allah, take away
my blessings. Never. In fact, you ask Allah
always to increase your blessings and to keep
them.
Oh Allah,
allow prolong or allow me to keep the
blessings you have granted me. And the way
you keep your blessings is to show gratitude
to Allah. Right?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said in the Quran,
it is Allah's decree
that if you are grateful, He will increase
you. So that's the number one way to
keep the blessings.
But
when they are present, it does not mean
you have to indulge.
That is a lesson for us now. Allah
blessed you with, masha Allah, a very high
paying job.
That's great. Don't throw the money in the
garbage.
But you also are not obligated to buy
the big to upgrade your house now just
because you have the money.
You get the difference? I'm not saying the
money is haram. Now you have so you
have an extra you have, excess
disposable income.
The the the American mindset or the western
mindset or the hedonistic mindset is okay. What
there's, there's a few terms for it. I
think they call it is it lifestyle creep?
Lifestyle creep, I think, is one of the
terms. Anyway, there's there's they've done studies that
when a person's income goes up, their lifestyle
matches it even if they don't intend it.
They just start spending more because,
their psychology says, well, I have more to
spend. So they start upgrading all the things
and then they realize
even when my income went up 20%,
my savings didn't go up 20%.
My lifestyle went up 20%. So I still
have the same amount of savings.
So what was the point of going up
20%? I just started wasting more money. I
started upgrading the house even though my kids
are getting ready to move out. I don't
need a bigger house. I got a better
car just because I felt inadequate because my
friend got a nice car, and I have
money. Why not?
That is what we're trying to combat with
the Jummah earlier.
That is what's meant here. Just because luxuries
are present,
doesn't mean you are obligated to indulge.
Just because you have, doesn't mean you have
to spend. Now go spend for good. Allah
increased your income 20%. Your donations should increase
20%.
I'm not saying all your extra money goes
to donations.
That's like a high level. That's that's not
even close. I was about to say that's
Abu Bakr level,
That's not even close to Abu Bakr's level,
but it's still good.
But
if and I want you to reflect on
this.
If your income went up, but your donations
didn't,
there's a real problem there.
You get what I'm saying? You say, well,
no, this extra money is for me, but
like Allah just gave you extra before what
you had before, from compared to what you
had before. So the more Allah gives you,
the more you give and that's how you
show thankfulness and so on and so forth.
So there's a big difference between
nam and blessings
and the gifts of Allah versus luxuries and
comforts. Oh, the more I get, the more
I use and I spend and I indulge.
So So one of the wisdoms of this
test was just because it's available, doesn't mean
you have to take it. And Allah wanted
to filter them because what was coming next
was much harder.
The next test, fighting the actual army of
tyrants who were much better equipped than the
believers,
they needed to have full obedience. That was
one of the number one,
tests here was, will they have full tolerance
and obedience of their leader that Allah appointed,
or will they only do what they feel
like doing? And when it's go time, when
it's battle time, there's no time to deal
with people, you know, going behind the leader
and doing what they want and messing up
the army.
So they were better off in the eyes
of Allah. Pay attention.
They were better off in the eyes of
Allah. Sorry, I don't mean that disrespectfully. I
know we have actually a lot of elders
here. I'm used to this language because I
deal with youth, so forgive me for that.
I meant, like, pay attention to this. It's
very important.
In the eyes of Allah, they were better
off as an army of 4,000 sincere people
compared to 80,000 people with some sincere, some
half half, some not so much.
And me and you, we can we will
always take the 80,000. I mean, come on.
Right? That's 20 times more people. We're like,
hey, I'll take it. It's a lot more.
I'll make it work.
But no. Allah says no. In the eyes
of God, the 4,000 sincere people were way
better than that 80,000.
And victory would not have come if they
went with the initial 80,000.
Isn't that interesting?
SubhanAllah.
And it really makes you think of our
Ummah today.
And I don't
lanu zakki and fusana, right? We don't claim
that we're the sincere ones. I would love
if Allah chooses me and you amongst those
3.5%.
I pray that Allah makes us amongst them.
But I will never claim that that's me.
Only Allah will tell us on the day
of judgment if we are worthy or if
we're the ones who get filtered.
But it makes you think,
we don't need
all 2,000,000,000 people to get back on their
deen. I would love to see it, but
that's just not the sunnah of Allah in
the world.
So I don't lose hope. I actually increased
my hope. I said, okay. We don't need
to convince all of America
to stop funding these wars.
We just need an active,
sincere,
small but powerful,
and high integrity group of people.
And that's always been the case throughout history.
And Allah prefers,
as He has shown us over and over
in the Quran, Allah prefers the smaller, sincere
group compared to the much larger,
mixed
group. Some sincere,
some half half, some not sincere, and so
on and so forth. In fact, I think
we mentioned this ayah a few weeks ago,
where Allah says in Surat Tawbah about the
Munafiqeen, about the hypocrites,
When Allah
commanded his Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, to accept
their excuses, when they made the most flimsy
excuses to avoid the battle. They were trying
to avoid the battle of Tabuk in Surat
Tawba.
And they made some poor excuses. The Prophet
said, you're excused. You're excused. The Sahaba,
the sincere Sahaba, they saw this and they
some of them,
they didn't care. You know, they're Abu Bakr
level. And some of them,
they're Sahaba. They're the best of the best,
but you know, they're human too. So they
said, Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam was accepting
these guys. They're obviously lying. Their excuse is
useless.
And they felt like, you know, I I
I had a better excuse. I had a
genuine excuse that's better than this guy, but
it was it didn't pass.
And this munafiq came and lied, and the
prophet just turned a blind eye to him.
And, you know, Shaitan came to him and
said, maybe you should have been excused. Maybe
you should have made an excuse. You get
it? That's part of the story of Surah
Tawba, the whole Surah. That's why it's called
Surah Tawba because some of the Sahaba who
made a mistake on that battle, they they
made Tawba to Allah.
So what happened was
Allah revealed in Surah Tawba why he let
those he told his prophet to let those
go.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was not fooled
by their lies,
but Allah explained why he excused them from
the battle.
Allah says,
It's one of my favorite ayat in the
whole Quran.
Allah says, The reason why Allah told his
prophet, Take every excuse from any munafiq.
You know they're lying, they know they're lying,
the people know they're lying. Just don't accept
them and don't let them go to the
battle. Allah says,
Had they marched out with you,
they would not have increased you in any
good,
nothing but evil and foulness and corruption and
weakness.
And on top of
that, for the entire journey, Tabuk was a
long journey in the summer desert. They had
to go all the way north. Tabuk
is still called Tabuk today on on a
map. It's I wanna say, like, probably a
1000 kilometers from from, from Medina. Maybe 800
kilometers, something. It's very far. So they marched,
they marched weeks
to go north in the summer desert.
And Allah says, had they joined you on
that journey,
They would have spent the entire journey
whispering in people's ears like, Oh my God,
it's so hot. Because it was the summertime.
Why are we doing? We're gonna fight it
was a battle against the Romans. Are we
gonna fight the Romans?
Come on. Look at their army. Oh my
god. What's going on? They would have weakened
the army the entire way with their excuses
and this, and the ummah is this, and
the ummah is that, and the evil people
are better than us, and they outrank us,
and this and that, and they're smarter than
us.
They are seeking nothing but fitna.
And then Allah
says the final word.
And some amongst you, oh sincere believers, would
lend them an ear.
Some of you are Abu Bakr's
level. You don't hear a word the Munafiqeen
say. You keep going, Allah. Let's keep planting
seeds. I don't care how dark it is.
I'm gonna keep installing lights.
Other amongst you are sincere. You're good believers,
but you fall for these tricks.
So Allah says, I I made sure they
don't come and spoil. If they came with
you, all would have been lost, even though
your numbers would have increased double and triple
and quadruple.
So Allah says, don't be saddened by the
fact that Allah filters out the evil and
the filth.
Okay?
So when it's go time, Allah sends his
strongest tests. And yes, sometimes you have to
leave luxuries behind, and sometimes you have to
show and prove to Allah that you are
worthy by donating extra, by giving extra.
Right? Just like Sa'at al Osra, and part
part of which was a tabooq when,
Uthman
kept giving and giving and giving and giving.
Under normal circumstances, you don't have to do
that. But
do you want to get the highest level
with Allah or not? Do you want to
be worthy of being the last 3% or
not? Right?
So
and part part of what's something to reflect
on is like, have you ever heard of
something called * Week?
It's in the US army.
* * week. It's a navy, I think
it is. Navy SEALs. You know, Navy SEALs
are like the elite of the there's something
they call it * week, which is based
on the title. They part of their training,
they put them through a week of what
they call *. Right? They just
they deprive them of sleep. They make them
stay for, like, 10 hours in freezing cold
water. They make them carry logs on top
of their head for, like, 50 miles. They
destroy them.
And they say that more than physical, this
thing is mental
to see who's going to survive and become
the top of the top.
And this reminds me of the story of
Talut with this final filter.
So ultimately, 95%
of his troops got filtered out and Allah
sent the final group of people.
And they,
when they reached this final group of people,
small percentage,
tiny percentage, when they finally reached,
the tyrant,
Jalut and his army,
they almost faltered at the very end as
well.
So even though this is the best of
the best of the best,
and they saw the army standing in front
of them, they saw that we have less
numbers, we have less weapons, we have everything
worse than them,
they still
said What did they say? The phrasing in
the Quran?
Again, this is the best of the best
of the best. They get there at the
end, and you know, finally they're there and
they say, Allah says, Fight now, and Allah
will give you the holy land. And they
said, We have no power or might against
Jalut,
Goliath, and his army. Like, we're gonna lose.
And then the sincere amongst them said, No
no no no no.
Didn't we go through all this? Didn't Allah
promise us?
And even if we lose, or if we
don't win this particular battle, we will be
shuhada in the eyes of Allah.
They needed to have that mindset, even though
they were guaranteed victory.
But they needed to say, I'm here submitting
to Allah regardless. And then Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala gave them victory.
And
they, had victory over them by Allah's permission.
And David killed Goliath. Dawud
was a young man, and he killed their
biggest and most,
powerful leader.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala shows you, that
pattern over and over. So let's go, just
very quickly go through the layers of filters.
The first filter was the 40 years
wandering in the desert. The 1st generation who
was the most arrogant, they died out.
And because they were raised the the 2nd
generation was raised in the desert, they got
raised in hardship.
And even though that's something we don't like,
it created some good in the sense that
they were worthy of victory and they were
willing to take it. 2nd filter
was the commandment to follow Talut. He was
not from the elites. He was not rich,
but he was a wise and honest, capable
leader who had alm, as Allah says in
the Quran.
Most chose not to follow him.
3rd
filter.
Those who did follow him, and we said
it was estimated to be 80,000,
Allah commanded him to test their resolve with
the river.
And 95%
failed that test.
And finally, the last,
group,
which was 4,000, a small percentage,
they saw how big and well equipped the
army
was. Their resolve crumbled again, except for a
smaller group amongst them who,
rallied the troops and they went forward. And
then the few finally got victory. And those
were the most sincere of them all. So
the lesson here is brothers and sisters, amongst
the things that we covered is never give
up hope. Never think that
the the external metrics matter. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala controls all and Allah will reward you
for the seeds that you plant.
We pray that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala includes
us amongst the most sincere, the ones who
are most worthy.
Never
be too saddened by how dark the world
is.
Just get to work installing the lights.
Right? That's our job. And I pray that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
put a spark in our hearts through this.
At the end of the day, their number
was just about 3.5%
because the 5% of the army, we didn't
factor in the previous filters. If you do
the math, it probably goes down into the
3. I want you guys to look this
up, but I want you to reflect on
this.
I've come across a number of,
of of discussions about the concept of such
a tiny percent of people making the most
major change.
And there's something that we can't discuss now
because I don't even have the answer for,
and the time is out
up. But the concept of
is this are we should we
should we be actively shrinking our numbers?
Or should we still be trying to grow
the Ummah and do dawah and and and
make as many connections as possible and and
so on and so forth. Right?
Our job is to grow the Ummah. Our
job is to connect with as many people
as possible on principle.
If there's no principles, don't connect. What's the
point? What's the point of having flimsy alliances
that are not based on integrity and principles?
We've learned that in the past 10 months.
So many of these so called allies
from liberals or or conservatives or whatever. And,
for Palestine, when our babies are dying, they
turn their back on us 1000%.
Where did that alliance go? Where did we
we made all the we watered down our
faith in order to appeal to them, and
where are they now? Completely useless when the
time gets tough and when we really need
help.
So our job is to grow the Ummah,
make alliances,
but base it on integrity and strength and
foundation. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala from Himself
will do the filtering.
Allah will send tests and not everybody's going
to make it to the next stage. And
I pray that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala uses
us and does not replace us. And I
pray that Allah allows us to be the
most worthy. And I pray that Allah accepts
from us and rewards us. I think we
have a few moments inshallah for for questions
before,
is that is that good?
Okay, so let's let anybody have any questions
or comments?
Any thought?
Are you guys interested in this concept, the
3.5 percent?
I am fascinated by it. I think Insha'Allah
Ta'ala,
this gives me hope for the Ummah.
A lot of the attempted changes in our
lifetime
did not pan out,
but the hearts are still there. I remember
reading an article that said,
I don't wanna again, I don't wanna get
people think I'm trying to be political here,
like, specifically, but they said
all those revolutions or attempted revolutions in the
Arab world, as well as Pakistan, as well
as these countries, Bangladesh now,
Bangladesh is new, inshallah. We have a lot
of hope for it, but the other ones
with that seemingly failed in the past decade
or 2.
This article said, where do you think those
people went?
Millions upon millions of people. They're still there.
They still feel the same feelings. They the
government has gotten more tyrannical. So they said
that
that means another wave is coming of people
who want change.
It's just a matter of time. And perhaps
the next wave will be wiser and and
more filtered and smarter and will have better
techniques and so
on.
But the worst thing a person can do
is to lose hope
when the tides have already turned. We're seeing
the tides have turned against the Zionists. We
see the tides have turned. People have been
exposed more than ever before.
So you can't lose hope when things are
already heading in a better direction. It still
might be a long way up, but at
least we're moving up.
Anything yes, brother?
Mhmm.
Yeah.
Crashed.
No.
It's
Allah's sunnah to humiliate the oppressors
by
catching them off guard and letting
a a a force that, by Dunya standards,
is weaker than they are,
completely decimates them. I remember similar to what
you said is,
earlier this year when the Yemeni rebels were
threatening to cut off the Internet cables in
the Red Sea, And the markets were
if they this is like
you thought you have all the powers in
the world. You can't stop a few people
in a boat. And, it
just goes to show you, Allah controls all
things, and nobody has absolute power no matter
what they think.
Similar concept we talked about before about the
social media.
They have created all these mechanisms to through
TikTok and these to keep our kids
foolish and watching videos and garbage and so
on. The same tools were used to spread
awareness, and they couldn't contain it. And they're
trying. They're still trying, but they're they they've
gotten better at it censoring, but they still
have not been able to contain it. And
the same tools were used to spread the
truth against the evils that these people spread.
I think it's a very powerful thought. We
should always have hope, and we should never
be no matter how dark it is, you
say, Kholas, the only thing left for me
to do is keep planting seeds and keep
installing new lights until it stops being dark.
Right? Jazakumullah khair.
Any last words brothers?
Jazakumullah khairan, everybody for your time. I pray
that it was worthy. I pray that InshaAllah
you study the story of Talut. There's a
lot that I left out because obviously we
can't cover it all, but it's a very
fascinating story. And it's very fascinating that Allah
exalted this man and mentioned him in the
Quran and the bible and the Torah despite
him not being a prophet. So there's a
lot of wisdom for us to extract there.