The Dilemma Of The Muslim Youth Today
Date:
Channel: Abdullah Hakim Quick
File Size: 55.69MB
Related
- Ibrahim Nuhu – 141 The Disease And The Cure
- Karim Abuzaid – Yusuf The Dreams
- Mohammed Mana – The Shama’il – Description of Messenger (part 3)
- Waleed Basyouni – Bulugh Al Maram – Book of Etiquette & Manners #06 – Hadith No. 1236
- Mohammed Hijab – Atheistic vs Religious Justice – LSE University of London
- Ismail Kamdar – Names of Allah 2 – Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem
- Sajid Ahmed Umar – Provisions for the Hereafter Series Part 13
AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of providing services to address problems in society, including abuse and mental health issues. They also discuss the "monutors" situation where teenagers, children, and women are involved, as well as the "monutors" situation where "branded man and his wife" are involved. The challenges of dealing with government agencies and finding graduates who are not Muslims are also discussed, along with the importance of praying and setting boundaries in the community.AI Generated Transcript ©
Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa salam ala ha Azza Milan ba you are more saline. Say Donna Mohammed, Allah Allah He was Hobie edge mine by
the name of Allah most Gracious, Most Merciful. I began with the greeting words of Paradise salaam aleikum, wa rahmatullah.
And I want to bring the sincere salams and greetings to you, from your brothers and sisters in the Toronto area.
And as many of you may know, there are over 250,000 Muslims in Metro Toronto
Alhamdulillah, Allah is blessing that community
to have the presence of Muslims from all over the planet.
And it also is a challenge to the community, in that
the practice of Islam,
which is being carried out throughout the planet, is coming into the large cities in North America, because we are a melting pot. And so we are experiencing and hearing about what is going on in different parts of the Muslim world.
I've also had the opportunity to travel extensively in the Muslim world. And I really feel honestly and sincerely that we are at the at the doorstep of a great change.
We are at a crossroads
in front of us, is a bright future
in one road, but on the other road is also the possibility of some very serious confusion in our ranks. So I want to speak to you tonight, not from a lofty position as an intellectual or scholar but as a brother in Islam, and also as a parent.
Allah has blessed me to have nine children and three grandchildren. And so when I'm speaking about education and the youth, I'm talking from experience, I'm not talking just from theory.
And in watching our young people growing up, watching the changes they are going through and the changes that our families are going through. I think it is very important for us that we speak not only from the mind, but we speak from the heart and that we are very open with each other and very honest. And Allah subhanaw taala has told us yeah, are you hola Dena Amala topo la wa kulu colon sadita you slip la Malecon Are y'all feel welcome to new Baku? May UT Allah wa sallahu, for CAD files are frozen alima Oh you who believe have the consciousness of Allah and speak a straightforward word. He would repair your deeds, forgive you of your sins, and whoever obeys Allah
and His Messenger has surely gained a mighty triumph.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit South Africa.
And in traveling through that beautiful land and visiting the Muslim communities, especially at the Cape Point, I found many miracles, many strange phenomenon. This is a part of the world that is not so well known in a physical sense to people. But there are many strange phenomena there. And there are many aspects of life there.
That I would like to share with you because I believe it is of utmost importance, that we begin to look at ourselves, not just as Muslims here in Miami, or North America, but connected with Muslims everywhere.
When you stand at the Cape Point, the southernmost part of South Africa, you feel the presence of Allah in front of you is a vast horizon.
And the only thing that separates you from the South Pole is the ocean.
And when you look to your left and the right and you look along the coastline of the southern part of the African continent, which is such a great continent and so powerful in its natural resources, you see that the southern coastline is filled with mountains, that there are great mountains holding down the southern part of Africa.
The scientists have recently recognized that when you look at a mountain you are seeing only once
Third of the actual creation, that the top of the mountain that sits
at the point where you can see with your eye only masks two thirds of the mountain, which is underneath.
And so the mountains are like pegs. And it is only recently with modern technology, that scientists have been able to recognize the fact that the mountains are in strategic parts on the globe. And that the weight of the mountains is literally holding together, the surface of the earth, the crust of the earth, because inside the earth is molten lava.
And so the mountains are like pegs. They're like pegs which literally hold a type of skin on which is protecting us from the danger of the lava.
And we recognize that Allah subhanaw taala inserts and nabba
verses first number six to seven, Allah tells us our lemenager Allah adame hadda, well, gee Bella, our Tada. Allah said, Did we not make the earth as a spacious place? Like a bed and the mountains as pegs?
And so in the language of the Arabs, when you were talking about, oh, Tad, you are literally talking about the pegs that they used to use to hold down their tents. How could a man living in the in the 14th century? or How could the man a man living 1400 years ago with no scientific technology, understand that the mountains are pigs.
It is the revelation of Allah subhanaw taala, which we'll see in creation.
When you are standing at the Cape Point, you also recognize the fact that on the right side of you is the Atlantic Ocean.
On the left side is the Indian Ocean.
And so you can literally swim on the right side and the water is cold. And you go to the left side and the water is warm.
The scientists also found out that the amount of salt in the Atlantic Ocean is different than the salt in the Indian Ocean.
And what is so strange is that there is a barrier. There is a barrier known today to the scientists. And in that barrier, the salt is not as much as the Atlantic, nor is it as much as the Indian Ocean. It's not as cold as the Atlantic not as warm as the Indian Ocean, it's in between.
and at certain points during the day, you can literally see the line of the barrier, which separates the two oceans.
It is also strange to see this and you can recognize this also in the Straits of Gibraltar
with the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean. You can also recognize the barrier when salt water bodies meet freshwater bodies.
But Allah subhanaw taala revealed in the Quran in Surah Rahman in verse 19 muda gel Bahar en el Tachyon baina, Houma la con la jolla. In this verse, Allah revealed
he has let free the two seas meeting together, there is a barrier between them, and they do not transgress the barrier.
How could a man living 1400 years ago without scientific technology, recognize that there is a barrier in between these oceans and the scientists up until today to not really understand how this barrier continues to exist. Especially when the salt water is meeting the freshwater and the salt is so large, the oceans and the fresh only tiny bodies. Why does not the salt water pour into the freshwater areas and overtake it? It is the miracle of Allah subhanaw taala.
Also, what we recognize in the southern part of Africa is that there is a thriving Muslim community. And in the Cape Town area, we find that there are Muslims who came from Malaysia, from Indonesia, from Madagascar from East Africa, and Muslims began to enter that part of the world in the 17th century. The Dutch brought in slaves from Malaysia from Indonesia, and they brought in political prisoners. People who resisted colonial rule in Southeast Asia were carried to South Africa and put into prison camps.
But the miracle that we recognized in that part of the world, is that by the mercy of Allah, they were great scholars or Lama, like Chef usif, who came with a number of political prisoners, and who established himself in that area. And not only did they just established themselves, but they built Quranic schools, they built my dresses, and they and they developed a living community around the madressa. And so today, when you go into Cape Town, you see a tradition that stretches back over the centuries, and there is a local Masjid the first mosque. This is the first mosque built by the Malaysian Muslims, who are fighting to maintain their identities. Many of the people have their
names changed. They have an Arabic first name and a Dutch second name, similar to what happened to the African American people in this part of the world. But they struggle to maintain their faith, and the other great scholars to one who guru Sheikh Abdullah, other scholars maintained their Islam, not just theoretically. But what they did was they made sound transmission of knowledge. And so in the first mass, you can see Korans written by the hands of the original scholars who came, they preserved the historical texts, so that young people can see their heritage.
They also wrote books of fear. And they were following the Shafi school of thought. Later on, there was the Hanafi school of thought introduced into Cape Town. And they maintained the fifth and the studies in these living bodies. So the Islamic school
was not just a place of rote learning. It was not just a place of memorization, but it was the basis of a living community. This is a great lesson for us, that when you leave the madressa when you leave the masjid, the Muslims are living in the area. The young people have peer group pressure from other Muslims,
their friends, those who they look to marry, their social life is with Muslims. they interacted with with other nations, but they preserved the community of Islam. And one of the only blessings that the apartheid system did. You all know, the terrible system of the separation of peoples were the European people were the mixed people were the Indian or Malaysian people, the African people were all separated into distinct communities. The only blessing of apartheid that the Muslims can really recognize is the fact it forced them together.
It forced them to set up their homes next to other Muslims. They thought they were being pressured when the apartheid system was coming about, but later on, they recognize there was some blessings in the fact that they were living around other Muslims.
And so when we look at this community, and recognize that the community there in Cape Town was reaching out to the rest of the world, they kept their snap that chain of transmission of knowledge. They trace them back to themselves back to Imam Shafi Rahim Allah, they traced it that Quranic recitation back to the great recite as
they trace their culture, they recognize the importance of traveling to Hajj, for the pilgrimage.
And they reach they were reaching out to the rest of the Muslim world. And so when we look at them, and we reflected on the cape Muslims in relationship to other Muslims in the world, Allah has blessed us to be in many parts of the world. And we were just discussing last night about the New World Order.
And we recognize that the Economist magazine, which is one of the think tech magazines, for this part of the world, recognized in the 90s, that in the coming 21st century, there would be three great powers, the Western world, which they now include in, in it, Russia, so Russia is there with America and Europe.
The second is the powers of the Pacific Rim. With the growing economies of the the countries in Malaysia and Indonesia, and China, all the countries in the Pacific Rim. They saw this as the second world power, but the third world power that they said that would be influencing the whole planet in the 21st century would be the world of Islam.
And it's interesting that they said the world of Islam
They didn't say any faction of Muslims. They didn't say fundamentalist, a little cult.
But they were realistic to recognize that Islam is not just a religious dogma, but it is a civilization.
It is a way of life that transforms itself into an economic system, a social system, a political system. It has answers for personal problems, family problems, and community problems.
And so with this in mind, and we are looking at the Muslim world, now, it comes clearer why, when people are attacking Muslims, they are not only attacking military positions, but they're also attacking cultural positions. And this is a strange phenomenon. And we recognize this. So when the Serbians were attacking the Bosnians, they were not only fighting soldiers, but they were bombing museums, schools,
they were trying to find intellectuals, libraries, they were trying to destroy not only Muslims, but the memory of Islam, the memory of Islam, the history of Islam, also, they were using rape as a strategic weapon.
And the same thing is going on in Kashmir.
The same thing is going on in occupied Palestine in other parts of the world, that the Muslims are not only just being attacked militarily, but the culture is under attack.
And this is very germane to what I'm about to say to you. Because at this crossroad point that we find ourselves at today, it is crucial that we begin to, to look at ourselves to re analyze our situation here as Muslims to understand the past, recognize the present, and project ourselves towards the future, with the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
We recognize that this cultural attack is happening to Muslims, and that people are finding themselves in strange situations. And we opened up the Islamic social services in Toronto to deal with social problems. And I left the position of being Imam in a mosque, to be the head of a social service agency, dealing with family counseling, youth problems, the crises we are having with Children's Aid Society, with police departments, the Board of Education. And last year, over 5000 phone calls came into our office 5000 phone calls, in people in crisis, parents in confusion,
the parents and on one side and the teenagers on the other side.
So I want to talk to you something about the reality, externally We're under attack.
And Muslims are going through a great change. Many people are coming to this part of the world, not how many of us came before, in the past 20 or 30 years by choice. Some people are coming here by force
in North Yemen, in Mauritania, in East Africa, in Somalia, places like this. There are great confusion going on. And when the struggle is happening, we find that visas are being given out. In one part of Yemen, they came to the village, they did it in Mauritania. They did it also in East Africa, coming into the village area where the Muslims had a strong tradition of scholarship.
And then bringing in electricity and also giving out free TVs and free satellite dish.
So when you get that satellite dish, and you can start turning the channel, the people we're seeing some some instant some things going on between men and women they didn't even know existed. But now it was right inside their home, beamed into their homes. Then they said to the teenagers, you're seeing this. Now if you want a visa, we'll give you a visa. You can live in New York City. Not just watch New York, PD.
But you can actually live in the city, you can go to Los Angeles, you can live in Houston. And so the people came, but when they came here and found out what was happening to their families, and they were cut off, they found themselves in a very serious crisis, a very serious crisis.
And so, when we look at the Muslim world
and there was a recent study that was done
We find the hand of Allah moving. And we need to be part of that plan.
A recent study that was done by the International Center for population studies, which is connected to us our university in Egypt, they looked at the Muslim world.
And they found out that Muslims make up 23.1% of the earth's population.
And not only did they find that there were millions of Muslims in China, and the former Soviet states that Islam is the fastest growing religion in North and South America, that Islam is very strong in Europe, not only
did the study yield these results, but also the study showed us that the majority of Muslims right now in the world, are teenagers and children.
They also find found out that children below five years old, represent 43% of the Muslim world below five years old.
In Canada, Dr. Hamdani reported to the parliament from Statistics Canada, showing that right now 20% of the children born in Canadian hospitals are Muslims. 20%.
And the study in Cairo is show that if we continue to grow at the present growth rate, that by the year 2020, we will be 2.5 billion strong. And just by natural growth, we will be one of the most potent forces on the face of the planet Earth.
But we have to be honest with ourselves. Because when we look at the Muslim communities,
and it is so
heartwarming to me to come to a community to see the young people out, to see families out. But when you go to most of the communities throughout America, not just in the Muslim world, you will find that the majority of activities are for men over 30 years old. I'm sorry for being so straightforward. But this is a serious situation when if the majority of Muslims are teenagers, and children, and you said for instance, 60%. That leaves 40%. So if we set this 20% men and 20% women, which is probably not, but we'll say that 20% women, that means 80% of the Muslim world, are teenagers, children and women.
Now, where is the money going into Islamic activities
80% of the money in the building structures is going to ferment over 30 years old, the programming for men over 30 years old. So if you look strategically, if you want to sell products,
if you want to set up a business, and you investigate the people in the area, you look at your constituency, as a politician, you will gear your project towards the people you are serving.
So therefore, it is only natural for us when we analyze our situation, that the majority of our projects are building structures, our time should be at this point geared towards teenagers, children, the family structures.
And we have to be honest enough to look at ourselves and look to the future what Allah has put in our hands, with so many young people. But if we don't do something, then I fear, some serious confusion. And you can go right down to Florida right down to Miami Beach.
And you see what I'm talking about? Go right down to the beach.
Because the reality is, is that if there isn't a strong cultural alternative presented, then dddd fantastic society, which is being beamed at us through the television, and the movies. It is so alluring, it's like that story of the Pied Piper, the Pied Piper, who would you know, sing his song and play his pipe and all the children who followed after him. This is what is happening in our communities. And so the teenagers and I've spent a lot of time
traveling to cities, talking to the young people, what is happening? It is a very serious situation. And when we look at our families, we find that people came to this part of the world and in most cases, people wanted to get an education
or to get some money and then go home.
People accepted Islam, many people who reverted to Islam looked and said, You know, when my
Children's start to grow up, I'm going to move out of here.
But now five years went by 10 years went by 20 years went by, and those little children who are running around, and they were so cute. Now they're looking you in the eye,
that little bill out that you used to know. Now he might be about six foot two, and he's looking down on you. Because you know, they put steroids in the chicken, here in this part of the world and make it big. And so in the beef, so Americans are very big. And so our youth are also getting these big bodies, and towering over their parents slam dunking and doing things that maybe we never, ever imagined could be done.
And they look at us in the face. But the dangerous part about this study that I want to share with you tonight is what is developing in our youth. It exists in the parents, but it's developing the youth, it is what I call what I call the dual watch chain. It is the person with two faces, two faces.
Now everybody does role playing. And the psychologists recognize that a person has to play roles in order to fit into different aspects of society. So if you want to apply for a job and and then it is a job for a businessman, you put on your suit, and you put some real cream in your hair, and then you get your briefcase, and you go to the job. If you want to go out for a football team, you're not going to have that suit on, you're going to have some big running shoes, and you look like an athlete. So we play roles. And that's okay. But the problem is, is that when that role affects your morality, when your values are affected by the role, it is a dangerous situation, what is happening
to the young people,
to those children go to public school.
And this is now even affecting the most ritzy private schools. It's hitting everybody now that the youth culture in America and Canada
is getting so radical and so strange, and so infested with drugs, and with strange behaviors, that it forces the young people to play a role.
And so when Bilbao leaves the house,
and he turns the corner, and as soon as he sees the school, he becomes Billy
Mohammed becomes mo
Ali becomes our
assay and might become Asia.
The names change.
And I don't blame the young people because they have to survive, right? You go if you get the parents with go into some of these high schools and see what they have to live with, you should be thankful that they even make salaat
after what they have to hear and see and experience during the day, I'm talking reality now.
Dual faces to faces.
And what the psychologists have recognized now and we have had clinical cases, I'm not going to use the word schizophrenia. Because I know this is this is a medical condition. I'm talking about role playing. But the problem is, is that the role playing we have noticed turns into a medical condition. Blood chemistry begins to change. Because the person cannot cope with with with being so different in such a short period of time.
They have to change from this guy with an attitude.
defending himself looking me in and looking tough
fitting into society. And then he comes home and my shot lots of radical law. How are you 100 in that way, because we're all Muslims, we have respect for each other. And especially for the parents, but they're not learning that in the schools. They watch TV did not learn and respect.
They see the movie problem child one, problem child two.
You know what I'm talking about? The Simpsons.
And this little guy is torturing his father. He's torturing his father.
So how do you learn respect when you see in The Simpsons, and you're and you're looking at problem child too.
So this dual personality is going on. And one of the dangers about this is that the Prophet Mohammed alayhi salatu salam has said in a hadith reported by Abu huraira he said tagit Mashallah nasce Yama, Yama.
The law e Valois chain LLC yakkety how law Eb watchin what law e b watch will tougher.
In this hadith the Prophet alayhi wa sallam said you will find amongst the most despicable people on the Day of Resurrection is the one with two faces. The one who used to go to this group with one face and the other group with another face.
He also said alayhi salatu was Salam. In a hadith reported by Ahmad ibn yasir rhodiola Juan Houma.
The properties of Islam said men can Allahu wa hanifa dunya can Allahu Yama, Yama, Lisa nanny Menard.
This Hadith is an Abu Dawood and it was authenticated by Ebony headband,
in this hadith that said, Whoever has two faces in this life will come on the Day of Resurrection with two tongues made of fire.
So it's a serious situation.
It's a serious situation. And it is getting so drastic. Now, I have to be honest with you. I might even have to be a little bit explicit with you. But we have to speak a straightforward kulu Colin sadita. What is happening right now in our area, which is probably the same here is that there is a discussion going on now about what makes up the families? Is that a man and his wife, a man and a woman? Or is it a woman and woman?
Or is it a man and a man?
That's what's happening in our area. And the people who've established your family to men, they want to get benefits. They want social welfare, they want to raise a child.
That's the discussion that's going on. And there is homosexuality being taught in our schools, as alternative sex life and a homosexual teaches the class
750,000 of the como loot marched in Toronto this year 750,000 of homosexuals and their supporters and they said, we're queer. And we're here, and we're not going away.
They said we're queer by nature.
That's a new one. They said we're queer by nature.
They want to now deal with the fitrah with the nature that Allah subhanaw taala has made. That's the situation and that's what the young people have to live in.
And then come back to our community and try to be Muslims.
But this is having a severe psychological and sociological effect upon the young people in our community.
And so I want to
make some recommendations to you
all sincerity, because the situation is very crucial.
And tomorrow inshallah at our next program, we will be talking about the dilemma of the youth.
We want to talk about some of the specific issues with the youth in the homes, and some of the actual problems from the tongue of the youth. We will be talking about in tomorrow's program in sha Allah. But tonight, we wanted to talk about some of the alternatives.
We cry for change. We cry for a lot to help us yeah, Allah. But Allah tells us in Allahu Allah uma be Coleman hataoka, you must be unforeseen. Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in themselves.
So we have to begin inside of ourselves, in our own hearts, in our own families, in our own communities. What is the direction of our communities, I want to propose to you tonight, that we have to consider and do the best that we can to have a total Islamic educational system complete.
In the same way the Catholics went through a great change
or the proud of the moments in some places, the Jews, we need a total Islamic system.
And one of the things in Cape Town which is so remarkable about remarkable about their community is that not only do they have from kindergarten to high school, they have Islamic colleges
where you get a BA that is recognized internationally where you can compete with other students in academic subjects, not just Quran and Hadith, in academic subjects in science, in math, English, other subjects you can compete. This is what we need a complete school system.
So that the peer pressure among
You would not be who is the toughest? Who's the baddest, you know, this language is happening now. It's even changing for my time I was raised in the 60s in America. I'm from Boston Originally, I was raised in the 60s. But now that talking about you know, they say that something's good. They say that's dirty.
So they're saying it's dirty, or they say it's sick.
And that's sick means it's like It's good, right? Right. or dirty.
So it's all these adjectives, which have negative meanings are supposed to mean good things. But if you start saying, wiki, it's wiki, know what I'm talking about. It's sick. It's dirty, it's bad. And you keep saying that this is like a vicar.
It is like a type of, you know, remembrance. But as the ridiculous shaytaan is the remembrance of the evil one. Because the shaitaan is always talking about in his West visa, he always comes with these filthy things, dirty mentality. This is what goes along with the devil.
And so we need the code of law. We need to have young people who their peer group would be who is the best and character
who is the most modest? Who's the most polite? who respects the elders the most? Could you imagine that? young people fighting with each other to see who can serve the elder generation? That's what Islam is supposed to be
that the young people recognize what the parents have done for them, but also the parents recognize the young people. And this is an important point, because it's a two way system.
In this part of the world, when many of us came and we said to young Bilaal, we said to him, makes a lot Bilbao Bilbao turned around and said, Why?
And the father said, Why could you imagine in Pakistan, you say Why? Why makes a lot imagine this.
But really, we should know why.
Core answers in this a lot of time, under the fascia, you want one card that solid prohibits you from evil and corruption. There's many reasons why we make us a lot. It purifies your body, it purifies your mind. It relaxes you, you know, the problem is a problem used to say, Oh, no, this salata, Bilaal, relax us with salaat.
It should actually lower our stress. If we will make it solid properly, you should come out of there, but your blood pressure should go down.
Okay.
And that's important to answer the young people. And to explain why we are doing the things we do. Why do we fast? Why do we make Hotch? Why do we wear modest clothing? Why do we lower our gaze? Why do we remember a lot much?
another proposal I would take this opportunity to make to you is that we need to have social service agencies.
Now I don't know the situation here in this particular community. But judging from what's happening in Toronto, and we are dealing with your cousins
many of your cousins are living in Toronto, you start calling your names. I know who your families are.
Judging from our situation, we have a crisis in the family.
I'm going to be honest now. Many brothers don't understand about what divorce means. And they say talaq talaq, talaq talaq comes out their mouth like water.
They understand how to deal with how to respect their wife.
Many of the sisters get caught up in women's liberation movement, and they break down their husband,
attack his manhood and break him apart. And then expect him to get up and then be the mom, or be the provider and protector of the family. But you just broke them down.
So there's a crisis in the family and I suggest to you in our communities, we need to look at institutions as a safe place, if there is abuse.
If there is abuse in the family, there is a place where a child or a woman can go and speak to somebody and they will not tell your business. Yeah, talk.
They come to us and they say, brother Abdullah, I want to tell you the secret what has happened. And I'm from Pakistan, but don't tell the Pakistanis. Don't tell them.
The Somali comes in. He says I'm from Somalia. But don't tell the Somalis. Don't tell them.
A Syrian comes in
says, Please don't tell the Syrians What happened to me? What is this,
but we have this bad habit of talking.
And so when one person commits a minor sin on one side of the city, within two days, he's a major center on the other side.
Cause scandal gets bigger, bigger and bigger as it travels. The Mima
is a dangerous thing.
And so we need social service agencies that provide what we call holistic models. And that holistic model is Islamic spirituality, I'm using a term which which is which is used by the people in social work in this part of the world is Islamic spirituality, our way of answering the problem, according to Sharia, if there is a problem between husband and wife, we don't break up the family immediately and put the husband in jail. We want to repair the family. We're going to deal with the husband No. But the object is to repair the family. That's a different concept.
So using Islamic spirituality, our Sharia and also the best professional methods in this society, to service the problems we are having. There are some psychological problems in our community, there are clinical problems that only a Muslim can answer. They called me up one time from Queen Street, which is one of the mental institutions and they said, Mr. Hakim, we heard that you are a new mom, we have a Muslim here and this person is out of control. And I said What's going on? They said this person keeps going up and down and bending down standing up and falling on the ground and putting their head on the ground facing Mecca East this person's out of control I said that person is now
repairing themselves that make the person's making a lot.
But they didn't understand what so not was that they thought the person was going berserk put him in a straitjacket.
So there's some problems that only we can deal with.
And we have to understand ourselves
fraid of the jinn.
They come to me brother Abdullah, I got a headache. My eyes is a pain in my head. I know what happened. They went to the village and they gave this molana some money and he put the genie on me.
Please take him out and me brother Abdullah, take him out. And I look at the person they got two jobs. I said look, this person is stressed out.
But they want to blame the gym. So we make to our and send them to doctor the doctor sent to a Muslim doctor.
So we use the best of both worlds.
Another suggestion is to have Islamic camping.
And what some of the communities are recognizing now we need camps that extend the whole summer.
As soon as they leave school, they're in a camp
the whole summer.
And in that camp, prayer is established. There is recreation. There's swimming, there's fishing, survival skills, horseback riding, shooting, self defense. The things that are Muslims need to learn
in a camp environment, and also healthy Islamic teachings. Not just preaching down to somebody, but it is the type of Cheez Its living teachings teach people how to share through a group activity.
teach them about taqwa. Can people rise at fudger together in the countryside, hear the birds look at the animals as the animals rise with the sun. This is a great lesson to call and it's got many great miracles in it in the natural world that can be taught in that natural setting. Self Defense is needed.
The young men need to be able to defend themselves. They need to do this. They need to learn what manhood is. And this is not being a big bully and kicking sand and everybody's face down in Miami Beach doesn't mean that the Prophet peace be upon him could wrestles.
You know we talk about the provinces now you're talking about sooner. Sooner is not just sooner. salaat Yoda sooner is one time a man came to him was a famous wrestler. And he said Where is the Messenger of Allah? And he said, There he is. And he said, okay, you're the Messenger of Allah. Let me see what you've got. This is our language here in America. Right? Okay, I want to wrestle with you. So the Prophet looked at him and threw him down on the ground.
The man got up and came at the Prophet again. He threw him down on the ground. The man got up,
came at the property, threw him down the ground, and then the man said, I said one La ilaha illAllah Muhammad was
he could defend themselves.
Although he was the Messenger of Allah with the best of character, Elise latos,
women also need to be able to defend themselves. There is a backlash going on in this society. There's a right wing backlash. And many of the Muslims are under attack. You remember what happened in the Oklahoma City situation. There was a period of time before they found out that it was a right winger, they thought it was a Muslim, you remember that it had the mark of a Middle Eastern,
you know, hit.
And they were ready to put all of us in jail.
They're written ready to attack the Muslim women. So Muslim women need to know how to defend themselves. And as I believe I mentioned to you last year here, we have established window and we still have what is called window class, women's self defense, taught by a woman
established, so the system is able to defend herself. If somebody comes to try to rape her. She knows how to defend herself.
And hamdulillah. At the end of that course, the sisters break a board, they break a board.
And then it says Fatima broke this board on March 22 1997.
And so many of the sisters put it on their bed in their bedroom. Next time their husband got into an argument with them. He looked at the board.
And he said Mashallah, well, I'm sure I've been a home, we will solve our problem with mutual consultation.
As Fatima was ready.
Not that we want Fatima to use this on her husband.
But she needs to be prepared. She needs a sauna.
So we need to be able to teach this to our young people in a good environment. Another suggestion I would like to make to you, and this great potential here in this building. And in this land space,
is the idea of Muslim community center.
This is a very important idea, a community center. That is a place where young people can go on Friday and Saturday night, the weekends. Because in many families, it's a crisis on the weekend. Right? You know what I'm talking about Friday night? Where are you going to go? Well, I want to go to the mall.
I want to go to my friends to having a little party at the house and you say oh no, don't go down the mall. What am I supposed to do? sit here and watch television. We already watched all of the atoms worlds.
I've seen 20 times the use of tapes. Now what am I supposed to do?
You need to have alternatives. A Recreation Center. We have ping pong is there where they can go swimming, where you can have basketball, different sports counseling is there young activities where the young person can express themselves as a Muslim and then when the time comes for salaat then we can stop and make Salah.
The swimming can have swimming for women and swimming for men, not like it is in regular swimming pools. You know, in Toronto, we established a swim for it with with the parks and recreation of Metro Toronto, we got control of our swimming pool. And we had some Muslim sisters trained to be lifeguards, they took the course and they got their medals. They became lifeguards, and we had our own swimming for women, when they could come you know dressed in modest clothing, take the swimming and when the non Muslim woman heard about it.
They all wanted to come to it to reach the point where in the whole pool, there was no room all you could do is stand up in the pools because there was no room to swim. So many women wanted to come even non Muslims instead of going to the pools with the different perverts and other people who are standing around inside.
So Muslim community center. This is another practical suggestion that I want to make to you. And lastly, that within the present education while we are moving toward that, that we try to have a Quran class, or Hadith class that we teach not only to memorize, but start to teach the meaning of what is being memorized meaning and the practical application of Islam. A similar to number
two prophetic biography teach the life of the Prophet Mohammed Elisa to teach the story of the Sahaba companions of the Prophet is that Islam, the great Islamic heroes, scholars, men and women, let the young people have other role models besides Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson.
So I want to leave you with these thoughts and I praise
Allah would have mercy upon you and me and our younger generation. And I pray that we would have the sense for sites and the tofik to be able to have the type of community that would deal with our problems and the direction we are going in the 21st century. I leave you with this and wakulla holy hell done while stuck for lolly welcome. I say what I have said and I asked a lot to forgive me and you was Salam. Wa Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
we have a half more hours so we'll open the floor for questions and answer inshallah. For the sisters, there is paper and pencils, provided they want to write down the question right now we'll just open the floor. If anybody has any questions, please raise your hand and please keep the question to one minute link. inshallah. Any questions?
Yes.
What is the destiny? What kind of
solve social problems? Are you mean? Like what people would make up the the agency itself? Well, what happened in our experience in Toronto, was that it actually came out of a Masjid. Because when I was serving as the Imam,
there was so many social problems, psychological problems, economic problems, that I was calling on professionals. So what happened was, it was a coming together of people who had a knowledge of Islam and professionals. So that would be lawyers, doctors, social workers, people who are serving the community service givers. So those service givers come together and form the nucleus of the agency here, and then it can either be within the masjid complex, or it can have a life of its own. In Toronto, because of the politics of some of the masters. We felt that it is better that the agency has a life of its own, so that we can serve any Muslim, even non Muslims we serve regardless of
their school of thought or persuasion. We will serve anybody who comes inside of their office.
Yes, we are registered with with the Canadian government, we have charitable status. Also, we have constitution Board of Directors, nonprofit
organizations, organization.
People, like specially invited me, Jonathan involved, that mostly children, they are giving a non profit families. So I think we have to have some foster parents, mostly foster parent has to come up, we'll get on board. This is one of the very important areas, what we had done is that we made a connection with the Children's Aid Society. And so we were able to give sensitivity classes to the children's aid workers. And we brought them into the masjid had the moms meet them. And then also we are encouraging Muslims to register with the Children's Aid Society. So they would be registered people to be foster parents. And then if a Muslim has a problem, they can call our agency, and then
we contact immediately to the worker who's on it. And we try to get towards solving the problem and having that child stay with the Muslim family. Because what was happening in the past is that most of the children were taken to Christian families, and even even non Christian families and the people eating pork, drinking beer, all types of strange things. And it was really, really dangerous for the young people. This is a very good, yes.
Know, I have a perception question here, which is
saying that, you know, some speakers encouraging older women can sit one side and on the other? Although it's not a very serious question. But I just like to see, you know, whether are we trying to modernize the swamp and all by giving a different solution to a problem? Or are we being fanatic that we have two standards, that we are living in a society that are women and children go to the school
with a voice, and when they come down to hear the center, we kind of want them to be in such a strict environment, that it doesn't look like a practical situation? You know, what I mean is, I don't want to see from the practical end, I want to see, what I mean is what do you think
of that industry? Well, you know, it is very important for us to understand the difference between Islam and culture.
We all have cultures from our societies. And unfortunately, most of the Muslims today, especially who have come to this part of the world, know Islam through their cultures, and not necessarily through the principles of Islam. And so the culture in India is different than Egypt. And so you find that Egyptian Muslim or Indian Muslim or Malaysian Muslim is culturally different, but what is important is the principle
What is the principle established by the Messenger of Allah Lisa to salam, and then we take that principle and we bring it to life in America.
You see, what is happening is that people are trans porting Islam from their country, and they put it down here. So when you come inside of the many of the mosques and out in our community is like you've entered India, or you've entered Turkey, or you've entered Malaysia, when you go inside the mosque, and everything is like you've, you've like transported yourself, and you beam down in another country. In the masjid, you're another world. Okay? Now, where the wisdom comes in, is that we don't, we cannot have a similar lifestyle to the average Americans within the society. Because in terms of morality, they lost, they are lost, and their social workers and psychiatrists, even though
they might not say it publicly, they recognize that this society isn't a mass confusion. When it comes to family, when it comes to to children, it's a massive confusion. Okay, so so we don't want to do that. At the same time, we don't want to fall into a trap, where we would be oppressing women,
not allowing women or children to be educated islamically, we need to go back to the principles of Islam. This is a storming process that we're going through. And there's different levels of this in University of Miami last night, we had another storming process. It's happening all over the place now. And basically, what we do recognize is that in the master the Prophet peace be upon him, that women were inside the master, there was an area for men an area for women, people lower their gaze, right, they dressed modestly. And they were able to function because their intentions were right, their gaze will lowered, that they were dressing in modesty, and so they were able to function.
Okay, so this is what is different ways of approaching this. What it does require is the wisdom and the balance, to be able to take the principles of Islam and put them into practice, in a living relevant context. in this society today, this is not easy. But we are in a storming process now. And I believe sincerely that we're making a lot of progress. We're making a lot of progress going towards the right direction for the principles of Islam. The question here is a question in the back.
advice
on a problem and I challenge
in South Florida,
to be working as least 20 to 25 different centers, Islamic centers,
educational centers, so
one of the challenges that I personally
what often is, how do you go about united all the major costs,
such as school board, hrs, governmental agencies,
a lot more within their own communities and their service. However, when you get to the issues of regional levels, as I mentioned, dealing with government agencies, social event pregnancies,
it doesn't seem like
you know, that's
just your experience and how we went about overcoming?
Well, basically, I mean, I don't claim that we have overcomed it, we've actually overcome this problem we haven't, we have a similar situation. What is happening, though, is that there is a mom's Coordinating Council. So the Imams from different mosques, meet together and discuss the issues that's going on amongst the Imams, the presidents and leaders, there's one group called assura. And so it has it has united, maybe 60% of the masters. And so we can't force unity amongst people, but we want to naturally have unity, you know, based on those issues, you know, where we are all united.
And practical issues are, as you say, dealing with the youth getting education, these are practical things. Usually for Muslims, it takes some, you know, calamity to unite us when they attack martial arts or we marched in the streets, sell mad, rush D wrote Satanic Verses. We marched in the streets all together. But there's only these these, these issues, but we can't just be reactionary. We have to be proactive in the sense to try to deal with these issues that that that everybody shares.
Just answer your question. In terms of
what's going on with the Council on American Islamic Relations in the South Florida chapter. They are working on that today. They are planning to get all the community centers have the leaders of all community centers, as well as the Muslims.
Activists together to establish a meeting to develop objectives and goals and a strategic plan to establish these social and these community services. So your expertise, and your enthusiasm and your volunteer volunteers, and it's really appreciated, and you can contact
members of care.
You can contact with our sonrisa, or myself as a matter of fact, or any of the some of the college youth that are here. We are in the process of establishing that. And inshallah, as soon as we don't question answers, I'll tell you more about future events that are going on Shama.
The question says, How do we approach and handle the youth gone straight, to the point of refusing to believe in Allah, and adopting all the evils of the society? Well, the first thing is that we have to pray for each other, we have to sincerely believe in,
in praying for the young people. But it's also important for us to set an example. Because many, most people learn, for example. And lastly, we have to try to develop that type of environment, that that that that creates a healthy Muslim, a healthy Muslim, what is happening now is that we have these two worlds that we are living in, and people are developing with this type of dual personality, this is what's going on. And to a certain extent, some of these evils of the society are being made into good things. And actually, you find, you know, you find all these programs on about the devil, the devil isn't lawyer, the devil is a US ambassador to the UK, the devil is this
new devil, so cool. And even even criminal actions are being made to seem like they're very noble things. Many of the heroes of the young people are watching, you maybe, you know, maybe secret agents or whatever, but they were criminals, so that they are actually glorifying
evil. This is what's going on in the society. And of course, we see it in Halloween, and all the things that are going on with a glorify evil, and they make a joke out of it. So it's a very difficult situation. But I believe that that we have to have patience, and develop that type of environment, that that creates healthy Muslims. In dealing with that problem with that young person, you have to bring in somebody you have to bring a counselor in.
It has to be somebody, a third party to come in, and listen to do to the problem, try to present relevant solutions to the problem. And try to be realistic in the solutions. Not shooting for ideals. But But shooting for some progress, some compromises that might help that person to come towards Islam. Of course, each case is different. And in the case, we have to be judged upon the VDD. The actual problem under that is happening with that person. And the last question here is that how can we change the two faced adults?
For some of us, it may be too late.
But at least we have managed to hide our other face. So that at least the young people or maybe other other people don't see Billy, you only see below.
But really all of us have to look into ourselves to.
Because if we are saying to the young people, we want you to be upright and good. And we ourselves are sneaking in the middle of the night, taking a little drink, go into the office party playing around, leave it leading leading dual lives being oppressive inside of our own homes, then what type of signal are we giving to the younger generation?
And they and they will generally take it a step further.
They'll take it a step further. So we have to look at this. Also,
I would like to just
relate to you also a problem that we're having it is in terms of marriage. How do the young people get married? This is a crisis. We want to talk more about this tomorrow. But we have to present some valid, practical solutions to the problem. It cannot be the same system that we had in our villages or our cities, because we're living in America.
Some of the of the bloodlines, some of the family trees that we had, and we cherish so much, you may not be able to continue them.
We've had cases where people, young people want to get married. They're both Muslims, but the people said, Oh no, we don't marry those people. They come from the wrong part of the village. We live on a hill and they live down the bottom by the river. We don't marry them.
But this we're in America. Now. We're a melting pot.
So if the young person finds a Muslim, you gotta say Alhamdulillah they found a Muslim. Go back to your principles of Islam, right? Go back to the principles. It's very difficult. I know it's difficult, because it's hundreds of years of tradition. But this is the crisis that we're facing now. And hopefully in our next
program, we want to look at this in details. So I want to end at this point, because I believe there is something that will be served.
And then we also have the fear to make. So I want to end at this point and I asked Allah to have mercy upon you and have mercy upon me. So pelicula has become deca shawanda. Enter, the stock broker went to blue lake, wa salam ala Sayidina, Muhammad Ali, he was off to the edge Marine, after the DA Juana al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen.
l o well, Masjid the first mosque. This is the first mosque built by the Malaysian Muslims who are fighting to maintain their identities. Many of the people have their names changed. They have an Arabic first name and a Dutch second name, similar to what happened to the African American people in this part of the world. But they struggle to maintain their faith. And the other great scholars to one who guru Sheikh Abdullah, other scholars maintained their Islam, not just theoretically.
But what they did was they made sound transmission of knowledge. And so in the first mass, you can see Qurans written by the hands of the original scholars who came, they preserved the historical texts, so that young people can see their heritage.
They also wrote books of 50. And they were following the Shafi school of thought. Later on, there was the Hanafi school of thought introduced into Cape Town. And they maintained the fic and the studies in these living bodies. So the Islamic school
was not just a place of rote learning. It was not just a place of memorization, but it was the basis of a living community. This is a great lesson for us, that when you leave the madressa when you leave the masjid, the Muslims are living in the area. The young people have peer group pressure from other Muslims,
their friends, those who they look to marry, their social life is with Muslims. they interacted with with other nations, but they preserved the community of Islam. And one of the only blessings that the apartheid system did. You all know, the the terrible system of the separation of peoples were the European people were the mixed people were the Indian or Malaysian people, the African people were all separated into distinct communities. The only blessing of apartheid that the Muslims can really recognize is the fact it forced them together.
It forced them to set up their homes next to other Muslims. They thought they were being pressured when the apartheid system was coming about, but later on, they recognize there was some blessings in the fact that they were living around other Muslims.
And so when we look at this community, and recognize that the community there in Cape Town was reaching out to the rest of the world, they kept there is not that chain of transmission of knowledge. They trace them back to themselves back to Imam Shafi Rahim Allah, they traced it that Quranic recitation back to the great recite is of course,
they trace their culture, they recognize the importance of traveling to Hajj, for the pilgrimage.
And they reach they were reaching out to the rest of the Muslim world. And so when we look at them, and we reflected on the cape Muslims in relationship to other Muslims in the world, Allah has blessed us to be in many parts of the world. And we were just discussing last night about the New World Order.
And we recognize that the Economist magazine, which is one of the think tank, magazines, for this part of the world, recognized in the 90s, that in the coming 21st century, there would be three great powers, the Western world, which they now include in in it, Russia, so Russia is there with America and Europe.
The second is the powers of the Pacific Rim. With the growing economies of the the countries in Malaysia and Indonesia, and China, all the countries in the Pacific Rim. They saw this as the second world power, but the third world power that they said
would be influencing the whole planet in the 21st century would be the world of Islam.
And it's interesting that they said the world of Islam, they didn't say any faction of Muslims. They didn't say fundamentalist, a little cult.
But they were realistic to recognize that Islam is not just a religious dogma, but it is a civilization.
It is a way of life that transforms itself into an economic system, a social system, a political system. It has answers for personal problems, family problems, and community problems.
And so with this in mind, and we are looking at the Muslim world, now, it comes clearer why, when people are attacking Muslims, they are not only attacking military positions, but they're also attacking cultural positions. And this is a strange phenomenon. And we recognize this. So when the Serbians were attacking the Bosnians, they will not only fighting soldiers, but they will bombing museums, schools,
they were trying to find intellectuals, libraries, they were trying to destroy not only Muslims, but the memory of Islam, the memory of Islam, the history of Islam, also, they were using rape as a strategic weapon.
And the same thing is going on in Kashmir.
The same thing is going on in occupied Palestine in other parts of the world, that the Muslims are not only just being attacked militarily, but the culture is under attack.
And this is very germane to what I'm about to say to you.
Because at this crossroad point that we find ourselves at today, it is crucial that we begin to, to look at ourselves to re analyze our situation here as Muslims to understand the past, recognize the present, and project ourselves towards the future with the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
We recognize that this cultural attack is happening to Muslims, and that people are finding themselves in strange situations. And we opened up the Islamic social services in Toronto to deal with social problems. And I left the position of being Imam in a mosque, to be the head of a social service agency, dealing with family counseling, youth problems, the crisis we are having with Children's Aid Society, with police departments, the Board of Education. And last year, over 5000 phone calls came into our office 5000 phone calls, in people in crisis, parents in confusion,
the parents and on one side and the teenagers on the other side.
So I want to talk to you something about the reality, externally We're under attack.
And Muslims are going through a great change. Many people are coming to this part of the world, not how many of us came before in the past 20 or 30 years by choice. Some people are coming here by force
in North Yemen, in Mauritania, in East Africa, in Somalia, places like this. There are great confusion going on. And when the struggle is happening, we find that visas are being given out. In one part of Yemen, they came to the village, they did it in Mauritania. They did it also in East Africa, coming into the village area where the Muslims had a strong tradition of scholarship
and then bringing in electricity and also giving out free TVs and free satellite dish.
So when you get that satellite dish, and you can start turning the channel, the people we're seeing some some instant some things going on between men and women they didn't even know existed. But now it was right inside their home, beamed into their homes. Then they said to the teenagers, you're seeing this. Now if you want a visa, we'll give you a visa. You can live in New York City. Not just watch New York, PD.
But you can actually live in the city, you can go to Los Angeles, you can live in Houston.
And so the people came but when they came here and found out what was happening to their families, and they were cut off, they found themselves in a very serious crisis. A very
serious crisis.
And so when we look at the Muslim world,
and there was a recent study that was done, we find the hand of Allah moving. And we need to be part of that plan.
A recent study that was done by the International Center for population studies, which is connected to a university in Egypt, they looked at the Muslim world.
And they found out that Muslims make up 23.1% of the earth's population.
And not only did they find that there were millions of Muslims in China, and the former Soviet states that Islam is the fastest growing religion in North and South America, that Islam is very strong in Europe, not only
did the study yield these results, but also the study showed us that the majority of Muslims right now in the world, are teenagers and children.
They also find found out that children below five years old, represent 43% of the Muslim world below five years old.
In Canada, Dr. Hamdani reported to the parliament from Statistics Canada, showing that right now 20% of the children born in Canadian hospitals are Muslims. 20%.
And the study in Cairo showed that if we continue to grow at the present growth rate, that by the year 2020, we will be 2.5 billion strong. And just by natural growth, we will be one of the most potent forces on the face of the planet Earth.
But we have to be honest with ourselves. Because when we look at the Muslim communities,
and it is so
heartwarming to me to come to a community to see the young people out, to see families out. But when you go to most of the communities throughout America, not just in the Muslim world, you will find that the majority of activities are for men over 30 years old. I'm sorry for being so straightforward. But this is a serious situation when if the majority of Muslims are teenagers and children, and you said for instance, 60%. That leaves 40%. So if we said this 20% men and 20% women, which is probably not but we'll say that 20% women, that means 80% of the Muslim world, are teenagers, children and women.
Now, where is the money going into Islamic activities
80% of the money in the building structures is going to ferment over 30 years old, the programming for men over 30 years old. So if you look strategically, if you want to sell products,
if you want to set up a business, and you investigate the people in the area, you look at your constituency, as a politician, you will get your project towards the people you are serving.
So therefore, it is only natural for us when we analyze our situation, that the majority of our projects are building structures, our time should be at this point geared towards teenagers, children, the family structures.
And we have to be honest enough to look at ourselves and look to the future what Allah has put in our hands, with so many young people. But if we don't do something, then I fear, some serious confusion. And you can go right down to Florida right down to Miami Beach.
And you'll see what I'm talking about. Go right down to the beach.
Because the reality is, is that if there isn't a strong cultural alternative presented, then dddd fantastic society, which is being beamed at us through the television, and the movies. It is so alluring, it's like that story of the Pied Piper, the Pied Piper, who would you sing his song and play his pipe and all the children who followed after him. This is what is happening in our communities. And so the teenagers and I've spent a lot of time
traveling to cities, talking to the young people, what is happening? It is a very serious situation. When we look at our families, we find that people came to this part of the world and in most cases, people wanted to get an education
or two
Get some money and then go home.
People accepted Islam, many people who reverted to Islam looked and said, You know, when my children start to grow up, I'm going to move out of here.
But now five years went by 10 years went by 20 years went by, and those little children who were running around, and they were so cute. Now they're looking you in the eye,
that little bit allow that you used to know. Now he might be about six foot two, and he's looking down on you. Because you know, they put steroids in the chicken, here in this part of the worlds and make it big. And so in the beef, so Americans are very big. And so our, our youth are also getting these big bodies, and towering over their parents slam dunking, and doing things that maybe we never, ever imagined could be done.
And they look at us in the face. But the dangerous part about this study that I want to share with you tonight is what is developing in our youth. It exists in the parents, but is developing the youth it is what I call what I call the dual watch chain. It is the person with two faces, two faces.
Now everybody does role playing. And the psychologists recognize that a person has to play roles in order to fit into different aspects of society. So if you want to apply for a job and and then it is a job for a businessman, you put on your suit, and you put some Brylcreem in your hair, and then you get your briefcase, and you go to the job. If you want to go out for a football team, you're not going to have that suit on, you're going to have some big running shoes, and you look like an athlete. So we play roles. And that's okay. But the problem is, is that when that role affects your morality, when your values are affected by the roll, it is a dangerous situation, what is happening
to the young people,
to those children who go to public school.
And this is now even affecting the most ritzy private schools. It's hitting everybody now that the youth culture in America and Canada
is getting so radical and so strange, and so infested with drugs, and with strange behaviors, that it forces the young people to play a role.
And so when Bilbao leaves the house,
and he turns the corner, and as soon as he sees the school, he becomes Billy
Mohammed becomes Mo.
Ali becomes our
sem might become Asia,
the names change.
And I don't blame the young people because they have to survive, right? You go, if you get the parents would go into some of these high schools and see what they have to live with. You should be thankful that they even makes a lot
after what they have to hear and see and experience. During the day. I'm talking reality now.
Dual faces two faces.
And what the psychologists have recognized now and we have had clinical cases, I'm not going to use the word schizophrenia. Because I know this is this is a medical condition. I'm talking about role playing. But the problem is is that the role playing we have noticed turns into a medical condition. Blood chemistry begins to change. Because the person cannot cope with with with being so different in such a short period of time.
They have to change from this guy with an attitude.
defending himself looking me in and looking tough
fitting into society. And then he comes home and my show lots of radical law. How are you 100 in that way, because we're all Muslims, we have respect for each other. Right? And especially for the parents, but they're not learning that in the schools. They watch TV did not learn and respect.
They see the movie problem child one, problem child two.
You know what I'm talking about? The Simpsons.
And this little guy is torturing his father. He's torturing his father.
So how do you learn respect when you see in The Simpsons, and you're and you're looking at problem child too.
So this dual personality is going on and when
The dangerous about this is that the Prophet Mohammed alayhi salatu salam has said in a hadith report by Abu huraira he said touch it men Chava nasce Yama Yama and de la Vela watch hain Alessi Yachty hula a be watchin wahoo la he be watch will tougher.
In this hadith the Prophet alayhi wa sallam said you will find amongst the most despicable people on the Day of Resurrection is the one with two faces. The one who used to go to this group with one face and the other group with another face.
He also said alayhi salatu was Salam. In a hadith reported by Ahmad ibn Yasser radi Allahu anhu ma.
The prophets of Salaam said men can Allahu wa hanifa dunya can Allahu Yama, Yama, Lisa, nanny min now,
this hadith is an Abu Dawood and it was authenticated by Ebony headband,
in this hadith that said, Whoever has two faces in this life will come on the Day of Resurrection with two tongues made of fire.
So it's a serious situation.
It's a serious situation. And it is getting so drastic. Now, I have to be honest with you. I might even have to be a little bit explicit with you. But we have to speak a straightforward kulu Colin sadita. What is happening right now in our area, which is probably the same here is that there is a discussion going on now about what makes up the families. Is that a man and his wife, a man and a woman? Or is it a woman and woman?
Or is it a man and a man?
That's what's happening in our area. And the people who establish your family to men, they want to get benefits. They want social welfare, they want to raise a child.
That's the discussion that's going on. And there is homosexuality being taught in our schools, as alternative sex life and a homosexual teaches the class
750,000 of the como loot marched in Toronto this year 750,000 of homosexuals and their supporters and they said, we're queer. And we're here, and we're not going away.
They said we're queer by nature.
That's a new one. They said we're queer by nature.
They want to now deal with the fitrah with the nature that Allah subhanaw taala has made. That's the situation and that's what the young people have to live in.
And then come back to our community and try to be Muslims.
But this is having a severe psychological and sociological effect upon the young people in our community.
And so I want to
make some recommendations to you in
all sincerity, because the situation is very crucial.
And tomorrow inshallah at our next program, we will be talking about the dilemma of the youth.
We want to talk about some of the specific issues with the youth in the homes, and some of the actual problems from the term of the youth. We will be talking about in tomorrow's program in sha Allah. But tonight, we wanted to talk about some of the alternatives.
We cry for change. We cry for a lot to help us yeah, Allah. But Allah tells us in Allahu Allah uma be Coleman hataoka uma be unforeseen. Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in themselves.
So we have to begin inside of ourselves, in our own hearts, in our own families, and our own communities. What is the direction of our communities, I want to propose to you tonight, that we have to consider and do the best that we can to have a total Islamic educational system complete.
In the same way the Catholics went through a great change
or the proud moments, in some places, the Jews, we need a total Islamic system.
And one of the things that Cape Town which is so remarkable about remarkable about their community is that not only do they have from kindergarten to high school, they have Islamic colleges
where you get a BA that is recognized internationally. You can compete with other students in academic subjects, not just Quran and Hadith, in academic subjects in science, in math, English
English, other subjects you can compete. This is what we need a complete school system.
So that the peer pressure amongst the youth would not be who is the toughest? Who's the baddest, you know, this language is happening now. It's even changing from my time I was raised in the 60s in America. I'm from Boston Originally, I was raised in the 60s. But now they're talking about, you know, they say that something's good. They say that's dirty.
So they're saying it's dirty. Or they say it's sick.
And that sick means it's like It's good, right? Right. or dirty.
So it all these adjectives, which have negative meanings are supposed to mean good things. But if you start saying wicked, it's wicked, know what I'm talking about. It's sick. It's dirty. It's bad. And you keep saying that this is like a vicar is like a type of, you know, remembrance. But it's the ridiculous shaytaan is the remembrance of the evil one. Because the shaitaan is always talking about in his worst reason, he always comes with these filthy things. Dirty mentality. This is what goes along with the devil.
And so we need Nicola, we need to have young people who their peer group would be who is the best and character?
Who is the most modest? Who's the most polite? who respects the elders the most? Could you imagine that? young people fighting with each other to see who can serve the elder generation? That's what Islam is supposed to be
that the young people recognize what their parents have done for them. But also the parents recognize the young people. And this is an important point, because it's a two way system.
In this part of the world, when many of us came and we said to young Bilal, we said to him makes a lot Bilbao Bilbao turned around and said Why?
And the father said, Why could you imagine in Pakistan, you say Why? Why makes a lot imagine this.
But really, we should know why.
Core answers in this a lot of time under the fascia one one cut. That salon prohibits you from evil and corruption. There's many reasons why we make us a lot. It purifies your body, it purifies your mind. It relaxes you, you know, the product is upon us to say,
no, this salata, Bilaal, relax us with salaat.
It should actually lower our stress. If we were making solid properly, you should come out of there, but your blood pressure should go down.
Okay.
And that's important to answer the young people. And to explain why we are doing the things we do. Why do we fast? Why do we make Hutch? Why do we wear modest clothing? Why do we lower our gaze? Why do we remember a lot much?
another proposal I would take this opportunity to make to you is that we need to have social service agencies.
Now I don't know the situation here in this particular community. But judging from what's happening in Toronto, and we are dealing with your cousins,
many of your cousins are living in Toronto, you start calling your names. I know who your families are.
Judging from our situation, we have a crisis in the family.
I'm going to be honest now. Many brothers don't understand about what divorce means. And they say talaq talaq, talaq talaq comes out their mouth like water.
They understand how to deal with how to respect their wife.
Many of the sisters get caught up in women's liberation movement, and they break down their husband,
attack his manhood and break him apart, and then expect him to get up and then be the mom or be the provider and protector of the family, but you just broke them down.
So there's a crisis in the family and I suggest to you in our communities, we need to look at institutions as a safe place, if there is abuse.
If there is abuse in the family, there is a place where a child or a woman can go and speak to somebody and they will not tell your business. Yeah, talk.
They come to us and they say brother Abdullah, I want to tell you the secret what has happened, and I'm from Pakistan, but don't tell the Pakistanis
Don't tell them.
The Somali comes in. He says I'm from Somalia. But don't tell the Somalis don't tell them.
A Syrian comes in it says, Please don't tell the Syrians What happened to me? What is this,
but we have this bad habit of talking.
And so when one person commits a minor sin on one side of the city, within two days, he's a major center on the other side.
Because scandal gets bigger, bigger and bigger, as it travels, the Mima
is a dangerous thing.
And so we need social service agencies that provide what we call holistic models. And that holistic model is Islamic spirituality, I'm using a term which which is which is used by the people in social work in this part of the world is Islamic spirituality, our way of answering the problem, according to Sharia, if there is a problem between husband and wife, we don't break up the family immediately and put the husband in jail. We want to repair the family. We're gonna deal with the husband No. But the object is to repair the family. That's a different concept.
So using Islamic spirituality, or Sharia, and also the best professional methods in this society, to service the problems we are having. There are some psychological problems that are community, there are clinical problems that only a Muslim can answer. They called me up one time from Queen Street, which is one of the mental institutions and they said, Mr. Hakim, we heard that you are an Imam. We have a Muslim here, and this person is out of control. And I said What's going on? They said this person keeps going up and down. And bending down standing up and falling on the ground and putting their head on the ground facing Mecca east. This person's out of control I said that person is now
repairing themselves that make the person's making a lot.
But they didn't understand what so that was they thought the person was going berserk put him in a straitjacket.
So there's some problems that only we can deal with.
And we have to understand ourselves
fraid of the gin
it comes to me brother Abdullah, I got a headache. My eyes is a pain in my head. I know what happened. They went to the village and they gave this mowlana some money and he put the genie on me.
Please take him out and me brother Abdullah, take him out. And I look at the person they got two jobs. I said, Look, this person is stressed out.
But they want to blame the gym. So we make to our and send them to doctors to the doctor sent to a Muslim doctor.
So we use the best of both worlds.
Another suggestion is to have Islamic camping.
And what some of the communities are recognizing now we need camps that extend the whole summer.
As soon as they leave school, they're in a camp
the whole summer.
And in that camp, prayer is established, there is recreation. There's swimming, this fishing, survival skills, horseback riding, shooting, self defense. The things that are Muslims need to learn
in a camp environment, and also healthy Islamic teachings. Not just preaching down to somebody, but it is the type of Cheez Its living teachings teach people how to share through a group activity.
teach them about taqwa. And people rise at fudger. together in the countryside. hear the birds look at the animals as the animals rise with the sun. This is a great lesson to call and it's got many great miracles in it in the natural world that can be taught in that natural setting. Self Defense is needed.
The young men need to be able to defend themselves. They need to do this. They need to learn what manhood is. And this is not being a big bully and kickin sand and everybody's face down in Miami Beach doesn't mean that the Prophet peace be upon him could wrestles.
You know, we talk about the province and started talking about sooner. Sooner is not just sooner. salaat yodas sooner is one time a man came to him was a famous wrestler. And he said Where is the Messenger of Allah? And he said, There he is. And he said, okay, you're the Messenger of Allah. Let me see what you've got. This is our language here in America. Right? Okay, I want to wrestle with you. So the Prophet looked at him and threw him down on the ground.
The man got up and came at the Prophet again. He threw him down on the ground. The man got up
came at a property threw him down the ground. And then the man said, I said one La ilaha illallah wa, Mohammed was.
He could defend himself. Although he was the Messenger of Allah with the best of character, Elise lottos.
Women also need to be able to defend themselves. There's a backlash going on in this society. There's a right wing backlash. And many of the Muslims are under attack. You remember what happened in the Oklahoma City situation. There was a period of time before they found out that it was a right winger, they thought it was a Muslim, you remember that it had the mark of a Middle Eastern,
you know, hit.
And they were ready to put all of us in jail.
They're written and ready to attack the Muslim women. So Muslim women need to know how to defend themselves. And as I believe I mentioned to you last year here, we had established window and we still have what is called window class, women's self defense, taught by a woman
established, so the system is able to defend herself. If somebody comes to try to rape her. She knows how to defend herself.
And hamdulillah. At the end of that course, the sisters break a board, they break a board.
And then it says Fatima broke this board on March 22 1997.
And so many of the sisters put it on their bed in their bedroom. Next time their husband got into an argument with them. He looked at the board.
And he said Mashallah, well, I'm going to whom should I be in a home, we will solve our problem with mutual consultation.
As Fatima was ready.
Not that we want Fatima to use this on her husband.
But she needs to be prepared. She needs a sauna.
So we need to be able to teach this to our young people in a good environment. Another suggestion I would like to make to you, and this great potential here in this building. And in this land space,
is the idea of Muslim community center.
This is a very important idea. A community center. That is a place where young people can go on Friday and Saturday night, the weekends. Because in many families, it's a crisis on the weekend. Right? You know what I'm talking about Friday night, where you're gonna go? Well, I want to go to the mall.
I want to go to my friends to having a little party at the house and you say, Oh, no, don't go down the mall. There's a What am I supposed to do? sit here and watch television. We already watched all of the atoms worlds.
I've seen 20 times the use of tapes. Now what am I supposed to do?
You need to have alternatives. A Recreation Center. We have ping pong is there where they can go swimming, where you can have basketball, different sports counseling is there young activities where the young person can express themselves as a Muslim. And then when the time comes for salaat then we can stop and mix a lot.
The swimming can have swimming for women and swimming for men, not like it is in regular swimming pools. You know, in Toronto, we established a swim for it with with the parks and recreation of Metro Toronto, we got control of our swimming pool. And we had some Muslim sisters trained to be lifeguards, they took the course and they got their medals. They became lifeguards, and we had our own swimming for women, where they could come you know dressed in modest clothing, take the swimming and when the non Muslim woman heard about it,
they all wanted to come to it to reach the point where in the whole pool, there was no room or you could do a stand up in the pools. Because there was no room to swim. So many women wanted to come even non Muslims instead of going to the pools with the different perverts and other people who are standing around inside.
So Muslim community center. This is another practical suggestion that I want to make to you. And lastly, that within the present education while we are moving toward that, that we try to have a Quran class, or Hadith class that we teach not only to memorize, but start to teach the meaning of what is being memorized meaning and the practical application of Islam. A similar to number
two prophetic biography teach the life of the Prophet Mohammed Elisa to teach the story of the Sahaba companions of the Prophet is up to snuff, the great Islamic heroes and scholars men and women, let us
Young people have other role models, besides Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson.
So I want to leave you with these thoughts. And I pray that Allah would have mercy upon you and me and our younger generation. And I pray that we would have the sense for sight and the tofik to be able to have the type of community that would deal with our problems and the direction we are going in the 21st century. I leave you with this and Baku lowpoly howdah istockphoto. Ali, welcome. I say what I have said and I asked a lot to forgive me and you was salam wa Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
like beer,
beer,
beer
we have a half more hours so we'll open the floor for questions and answer inshallah the sisters there is paper and pencils, provided they want to write down the question. Right now we'll just open the floor. If anybody has any questions, please raise your hand and please keep the question to one minute link. inshallah. Any questions?
Yes.
Problem. What is the destiny? What kind of
solve social problems? You mean? Like what type of people would make up the the agency itself? Well, what happened in our experience in Toronto, was that it actually came out of a Masjid. Because when I was serving as the Imam,
there was so many social problems, psychological problems, economic problems, that I was calling on professionals. So what happened was, it was a coming together of people who had a knowledge of Islam and professionals. So that would be lawyers, doctors, social workers, people who are serving the community service givers. So those service givers come together and form the nucleus of the agency here, and then it can either be within the masjid complex, or it can have a life of its own. In Toronto, because of the politics of some of the masters. We felt that it is better that the agency has a life of its own. So we can serve any Muslim, even non Muslims we serve, regardless of their
school of thought or persuasion. We will serve anybody who comes inside of their office.
Yes, we are registered with with the Canadian government, we have charitable status. Also, we have constitution Board of Directors, nonprofit
organization,
people,
the Muslim children they are giving families
to foster parents.
This is one of the very important areas, what we had done is that we made a connection with the Children's Aid Society. And so we were able to give sensitivity classes to the children's aid workers. And we brought them into the masjid had moms meet them. And then also we are encouraging Muslims to register with the Children's Aid Society. So they would be registered people to be foster parents. And then if a Muslim has a problem, they call our agency. And then we contact immediately to the worker who's on it. And we try to get towards solving the problem and having that child stay with the Muslim family. Because what was happening in the past is that most of the children were
taken to Christian families are in even non Christian families and the people eating pork, drink and beer, all types of strange things. And it was really, really dangerous for the young people. This is a very good
reception question here, which is
saying that, you know, some speakers encouraging older women can sit one side and on the other? Although it's not a very serious question. But I just like to see, you know, whether are we trying to modernize Islam and all by giving a different solution to a problem? Or are we being fanatic that we have two standards, that we are living in a society that are women and children go to the school
with a voice, and when they come down to hear the center, we kind of want them to be in such a strict environment, that it doesn't look like a practical situation, you know, what I mean is, I don't want to see from the practical end, I want to see, what I need is what do you think?
Well, it is very important for us to understand the difference between Islam and culture.
We all have cultures from our societies. And unfortunately, most of the Muslims today, especially who have come to this part of the world, know Islam through their cultures, and not necessarily through the principles of Islam. And so the culture in
India is different than Egypt. And so you find that Egyptian Muslim or Indian Muslim or Malaysian Muslim is culturally different. But what is important is the principle. What is the principle established by the Messenger of Allah Sato Salaam. And then we take that principle and we bring it to life in America.
You see, what is happening is that people are trans porting Islam from their country, and they put it down here. So when you come inside of the many of the mosques, and our and our community is like you entered India, or you've entered Turkey, or you've entered Malaysia, when you go inside the mosque, and everything is like you've, you've like transported yourself, and you beam down in another country. In the masjid, you're another world. Okay? Now, where the wisdom comes in, is that we don't we cannot have a similar lifestyle to the average Americans within the society. Because in terms of morality, they lost, they are lost, and their their social workers and psychiatrists, even
though they might not say it publicly, they recognize that this society is in a mass confusion. When it comes to family. When it comes to to children, it's a massive confusion. Okay, so we don't want to do that. At the same time, we don't want to fall into a trap, where we would be oppressing women,
not allowing women or children to be educated islamically, we need to go back to the principles of Islam. This is a storming process that we're going to, and there's different levels of this in University of Miami last night, we had another storming process. It's happening all over the place now. And basically what we do recognize is that in the master the Prophet peace be upon him, that women were inside the master, there was an area for men an area for women, people lower their gaze, right, they dressed modestly. And they were able to function because their intentions were right, their gaze will lowered, that they were dressing in modesty, and so they were able to function.
Okay, so this is what is different ways of approaching this. What it does require is the wisdom and the balance, to be able to take the principles of Islam and put them into practice in a living relevant context. in this society today, this is not easy. But we are in a storming process now. And I believe sincerely that we're making a lot of progress. We're making a lot of progress going towards the right direction for the principles of Islam. The question here is a question in the back.
Yeah.
Electricity replies
are the problem and
challenges
in South Korea,
in
2025, different centers, Islamic centers,
mosques,
educational centers, and so forth. One of the challenges that I personally feel
quite often is how can the United all
major force against such entities and
hrs governmental agencies
work within their own communities and their service? However, when you get to the issues of regional levels, as I mentioned,
agencies, social agencies,
it doesn't seem like he or
she can share your experiences.
Well, basically, I mean, I don't claim that we have overcomed it. We've actually overcome this problem we haven't, we have a similar situation. What is happening, though, is that there is a mom's Coordinating Council. So the Imams from different mosques meet together and discuss the issues that's going on amongst the Imams, the presidents and leaders, there's one group called assura. And so it has, it has united, maybe 60% of the masters. And so we can't force unity amongst people, but we want to naturally have unity, you know, based on those issues, you know, where we all united
and practical issues are, as you say, dealing with the youth dealing with education, these are practical things, usually for Muslims, it takes some, you know, calamity to unite us when they attack Marshall oxa we marched in the streets, sell mad rush D wrote Satanic Verses. We marched in the streets all together as only these these, these issues, but we can't just be reactionary. We have to be proactive in the sense to try to deal with these issues that that that everybody shares.
Just answer your question, in terms of
what's going on with the council under
So, in the South Florida chapter, they are working on that today, they are planning to get all the community centers have the leaders of all community senators, as well as the Muslim activists together to establish a meeting to develop objectives and goals and a strategic plan to establish the social and these community services. So your expertise, and your enthusiasm and your volunteer volunteers, and it's really appreciated. And you can contact
members of care.
You can contact with our astronomers, or myself as an effect, or any of the some of the college age youth that are here. We are in the process of establishing that. And inshallah, as soon as we don't question answers, I'll say more about future events that are going on Shama.
The question says, How do we approach and handle the youth gone straight, to the point of refusing to believe in Allah, and adopting all the evils of the society? Well, the first thing is that we have to pray for each other. And we have to sincerely believe in,
in praying for the young people. But it's also important for us to set an example. Because many, most people learn, for example. And lastly, we have to try to develop that type of environment that creates a healthy Muslim, a healthy Muslim, what is happening now is that we have these two worlds, that we're all living in. And people are developing with this type of dual personality, this is what's going on. And to a certain extent, some of these evils of the society are being made into good things. And actually, you find, you know, you find all these programs are about the devil. The devil isn't lawyer, the devil is a US ambassador to the UK, the devil is this new devil, so cool.
And even even criminal actions are being made to seem like they're very noble things. Many of the heroes of the young people are watching, you maybe, you know, maybe secret agents or whatever, but they were criminals. So they said that they are actually glorifying
evil, this is what's going on in the society. And of course, we see it in Halloween, and all the things that are going on with a glorify evil, and they make a joke out of it. So it's a very difficult situation. But I believe that that we have to have patience, and develop that type of environment, that that creates healthy Muslims. In dealing with that problem with that young person, you have to bring in somebody you have to bring a counselor in.
It has to be somebody, a third party to come in, and listen to do to the problem, try to present relevant solutions to the problem. And try to be realistic in the solutions. Not shooting for ideals. But But shooting for some progress, some compromises that might help that person to come towards Islam. Of course, each case is different. And in the case, we have to be judged upon the VDD the actual problem on that is happening with that person. And the last question here, is it How can we change the two faced adults?
For some of us, it may be too late.
But at least we have managed to hide our other face. So that at least the young people or maybe other other people don't see Billy, you only see below.
But really all of us have to look into ourselves to.
Because if we are saying to the young people, we want you to be upright and good. And we ourselves are sneaking in the middle of the night, taking a little drink, go into the office party, plan around, leave it leading leading dual lives being oppressive inside of our own homes, then what type of signal are we giving to the younger generation?
And they and they will generally take it a step further.
They'll take it a step further. So we have to look at this. Also,
I would like to just
relate to you also a problem that we're having it is in terms of marriage. How do the young people get married? This is a crisis. We want to talk more about this tomorrow. But we have to present some valid, practical solutions to the problem cannot be the same system that we had in our villages or our cities, because we're living in America.
Some of the of the bloodlines, some of the family trees that we had, and we cherish so much, you may not be able to continue them.
We've had cases where people, young people want to get married. They're both Muslims, but the people said Oh no, we don't marry those people. They come from the wrong part of the village.
We lived on a hill and they lived down the bottom by the river. We don't marry them.
But this we're in America now we're a melting pot. So if the young person finds a Muslim, you get to say, Alhamdulillah, they found a Muslim. Go back to your principles of Islam, right? Go back to the principles. It's very difficult. I know, it's difficult, because it's hundreds of years of tradition. But this is the crisis that we're facing now. And hopefully in our next
program, we want to look at this in details. So I want to end at this point, because I believe there is something that'll be served.
And then we also have the career to make. So I want to end at this point, and I asked a lot, to have mercy upon you and have mercy upon me. So pelicula who become deca? shawanda illa. Enter, a stockbroker went to Lake wa salam ala Sayidina Muhammad Ali. He was a big Marine, after the dot Juana and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen.