Islam at the Crossroads – Class 5
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Channel: Abdullah Hakim Quick
File Size: 54.56MB
Episode Notes
Islam at the Crossroads: Reform or Revival | Sh. Abdullah Hakim Quick | March 5th, 2019
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of Islam in addressing issues such as psychological and lifestyle problems, as well as the use of the "has been in the heart of Islam" concept. They stress the need for respect and modestity in achieving success in Islam, as well as the history and importance of sexuality in avoiding violence and embarrassment. The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by young Muslims in the transgender community and the pressure they face to change their identities. The speakers emphasize the need for everyone to wear a mask and not risk getting sick, as well as the benefits of social interaction and the need for mask-wearing.AI Generated Transcript ©
We're back with Salah. Our prayers are due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Mohammed, the master of the first and the last, his companions, all those who quality, his way, establish his surrender to the day of judgment as to what follows a Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
We thank Allah subhanaw taala, for the blessing of being followers of the last prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And we thank Allah subhanaw taala that through him was revealed. Last Testament, the final book to humanity was revealed. And this book gives life and soul the life of guidance, the life of Revelation,
the light, and the sense of being able to understand the unseen. And it is through this guidance that Muslims have been able to
revive Islam, and be able to
go back to their roots. And this is important because when we speak about revival,
we are not speaking about a reform,
where
people change the religion in order to meet the standards, or the culture of the people. We're talking about living in the society, you are in the world, but you are not of the world.
So you're living in the world, but you're not controlled by it. There's a difference between that and a person who lives in the world and just flows inside of the world. And we recognize this is one of the early Hadeeth.
As a sale, they are the profit designated them as the foam
and the twigs on the water, which can be carried to the right, carry to the left.
It has no weight, it has no roots. And because it doesn't have that foundation, then when new trends come along, when new ideas come along, they shift towards it. And that is the difference. Really, because the foundations of Islam, by the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala are life and they will continue to be alive, right to the end of time. And so in this light, or in this
stream of Islamic revival, we are looking at 40 hadiths, which are amongst the essential
idiots in the Islamic revival in the 21st century. And I say this, because of having experienced these traditions popping up in different parts of the world, and also after many years in the field, recognizing that the issues
facing the community in North America, and central South America, Europe, were the same as in other parts of the world, slightly different according to the circumstance, but fundamentally the same.
And so, within these traditions, we recognize that Islam is not a religion, in a Western sense. A religion in a Western sense, is only just your religious dogma. I believe in one God, I believe in three Gods I believe in the sun. I believe in the moon. It's basically your theory about creation, about death, about existence, but our way of life is different because your idea, your Kedah, your belief impacts your life. So it literally structures the way that you're living inside of the world. And so this is a dean, but we call Dean. And
after many years in the field, I was given the burden of being the Imam in one of the big masters of Canada, the Jambi mosque in Toronto, which was one of the largest in the country at the time. And I took this burden on expecting that they would be so many questions about faith, questions about
questions about Islamic sciences. And I was worried because I'm not an expert, really in this. I was really trained to do Dawa and also have a flair for Islamic history. But after a while, I recognized that the majority of the questions and issues were not dealing with al Qaeda or with fic they were
Actually social problems, psychological problems, family problems, but you could say lifestyle problems. Its lifestyle problems, that the Islamic way of life,
which is rooted in certain countries and based upon the level of Islam in a country. In other words, were their scholars, their other people literate in Quranic understanding?
Do they understand? Do they do they have a good basis? Do they implement it. And that's usually in the heartland of Islam in the centers. Based upon that level, you will see differences in Islamic practice. Okay, so the people were coming here to this part of the world with different levels of practice, different types of practice. But there were similarities. And by going to the root foundation of Islam, and Islamic way of life, we were able to unite ourselves. Because it's the principles of Islam that unite us. It's not our culture.
It's not our culture, the cultures are extreme, extremely different. But the principles are basically the same. And so, after many years,
in this level of leading, I dropped this and joined a group of social workers, and psychiatrists and people in the field, and we opened up Islamic social services. And Islamic social services, which is used as a data center as well, was basically to deal with the social,
economic, psychological family problems faced by Muslims. This is the greatest issue facing us in this part of the world. And so what I recognized is that analyzing the problems of the people, and trying to present an Islamic solution,
lead to certain trends in lifestyle, certain issues and lifestyle. And it is these issues and lifestyle, which are impacting us, it's eroding our Islam. And in order to revive Islam, we have to bring back
the original principles in these areas. And so this is what is unique about this approach to Islamic revival is that
it is touching on certain key areas, which we can benefit from, as individuals, our families can benefit from this, our communities, and even the Muslim world itself. And so,
in this light,
we recognize that the essence of the Islamic revival is in intentions. It's the very intention of the person and that Nia or that intention starts to come out and and affect the body in the form of character.
So the character of the individual,
generally, in most cases, reflects their intentions. Okay, so the character now comes out. And the character is what the prophet SAW, Selim said, that is that really the essence of the message? So it is these qualities, it is these aspects of Islamic life,
which you could call aspects of character,
in a sense, so this is what we're looking at. And when you look at the different areas, you will then be able to reflect upon the onslaught of the secular upon the Muslim communities minds, and especially the minds of the children.
One of these areas that we are looking at in the area of character is the area of decency and vulgarity
and uphold at a rather low on our reports of the messenger will also seldom said al-hayat woman or a man while he man filled gender well by that luminol Jafar was your father in law. He said decency comes from belief.
And belief leads to paradise and vulgarity comes from crudeness and crudeness leads to hellfire.
So here, the focus is on alhaja
and alhaja.
It is being described, that it is part of faith
and higher is described as modesty. Keeping the limits shyness
this
People use this word higher in different ways. But
I think that the yield the idea of keeping limits, knowing your limits,
because higher is not supposed to be weakness. So generally people connect modesty and humility and shyness with weakness in the Western countries especially, and it's all over the world. Now, the strong guy is the strong man. Now it's the strong woman. And in most of the movies, now the women are beating the men.
So now it's the Superwoman is the Superman.
Right, it's that you know, a powerful person who kicks in your face, who doesn't care out of control, right? That is supposed to be strength.
Okay, and the person who is modest, the person who is shy, is looked upon as weak. And this was a problem for Muslims who were coming into Canada and America,
when they were applying for jobs.
Because in many of our countries, we are taught to show respect to leadership.
So the child, and even the teenager shows respect to their parents, in some cultures, they kissed the parents hand.
Right, they do not stare in their father's face or their mother's face, they do not shout back at them, even though they might differ with them on the job as well, you respect your leader. So if the person is your Amir, or the person is your director, or executive, you have respect for that person. And you show it by in a sense by humbling yourself to the person because that person's in leadership. But the way people are taught today is that and they're looking at you. You know, when you look me in the eyes, you know, talk, you have to talk. They even make athletes, basketball players and football players and hockey players who are not good speakers, they are gladiators. It's
like a Roman Gladiator, right.
So now you're making a gladiator take an interview. So after the game, they expect all the players, some of them who are who cannot talk. They're not. They're about physical things. But you have to have a personality now.
And you have to look in the camera. And you have to talk, you see. And this was the same for the First Nations people.
Because the native people of these lands also are very
modest, and shy within the culture, they are very modest. And they don't talk a lot.
And that is a description of Prophet Muhammad SAW seldom that he was the kind of person you'd be with that person. And he's not he's listening to you all the time. And then every once in a while, he'll say something important, right, and then listen. And if you don't say anything, there would be silence. And to be silence for a period of time. Now, if you try that with somebody here in Canada today, especially the young people, after about 10 seconds, they get nervous.
So you got to talk about something, even it's about a bird flying by anything, but the chat must continue. And even now in social media, everywhere, they have chat rooms, because you must chat. You see, so it's talking all the time. And it's the opposite of modesty.
And again, modesty is really the essence of modesty, why a person is shy and modest. And this is a crucial point. It's for Allah subhanaw taala. It's not because you're afraid of the person.
difference between the two. So you are modest with another person, because of Allah. The man is modest with a woman, he looks down, he's not staring at our eyes, and he's not looking her up and down. The woman is also modest, you know, with men, not because they're afraid,
but because of a loss of data. So the higher is for Allah. And that really is a noble quality.
And one of the best examples of this
true modesty was one of the great companions Sahabi jahleel estamos, Abu Zubaydah, Eva da da da rhodiola. And Abu Zubaydah
was described and you get a chance to read about his life. If you get any books on the companions. He accepted Islam one day after Abu Bakar.
That's a close remember Obama was early right? But nobody realizes that Abu Zubaydah accepted Islam the next day.
Right and Auerbach is doing
Our next day he came in. So he's early companion. And he is described as cathedrale hyah. He was extremely modest, he would not even look you in the eye. He was like, when you're around him, you know, he's like really soft, unkind, you know, kind of person, and extremely modest kind of dishonest personality was. But at the same time, when danger came, he is described as the sharp side of the sword
as how they describe him. So he's a highly modest person. But when danger comes, he turns into a lion.
You see this now? Now you don't normally get this connection, the shy one is the little sheep.
Right, and the lion roars and scares everybody. But this quality, and this one of the beautiful qualities of a Muslim
is to be modest, but strong.
Right, you are shy at the right points. You are shy from things which is prohibited by Allah subhanaw taala.
But those things where your courage is required, you go forward.
Big difference between the two. And we find today
as the second part of the Hadith is saying that vulgarity and that is swearing, insulting, you know, being a rough neck, as they say, a dog, a tough guy, right? That is makes you like a crude low person.
So you become like, you know, really, you know, rough and ignorant kind of person. And that leads to hellfire. This is the words of the Prophet moments on Sunday. What we see now is an onslaught on modesty.
It is an onslaught. And the onslaught comes in different ways. Number one, it was coming in fashions,
the fashion, how people dress. And if you can, Google, I don't know whether we'll come up with so much on internet now. But if you say bathing suits, in 1920.
Okay, bathing suit, in even 1930. And you look at the bathing suits. And you will find that the women had on
almost like a dress, they were cut, they were covered. And the men also were basically, you know, were covered to a great extent. Okay, and it wasn't until
the 50s and then 60s now. That's when it really started changing. That, you know, the hire was under attack. And the
bathing suits became more
tight, and immodest.
And
even the next area, which is when the television came, because the television now is visual images. And that starts impacting on how people think about themselves. And the early television programs, I remember when I was very young, growing up in America, there was a television program called I Love Lucy.
So this is a very old program from way back. Right. And, and I Love Lucy,
Lucy and her husband
could not be seen going to bed together in the same room.
It was against the rules of Hollywood at the time, modesty rules for a man and woman on a television screen to go inside of a bedroom together. Okay. And if they did, if you did see the resting, they're resting in different places.
Now look at the difference of what you see on television.
Right especially in the 60s with the sexual revolution, when they especially when they develop birth control pills. Right and there was this British model Twiggy, you know, and then they develop span decks, span decks, which is that material that sticks to your body. Right the tights now, right span decks, and that span decks.
What it does, is exactly as a prophet moment. So as Alan was saying, that people that they would come when people would be naked, would be closed, but naked.
They have clothes on, but they're naked. What does that mean?
If you look at somebody with the spandex tights on, it literally describes the whole of the body yet it's it's a covering. You see. So when these things came in modesty seriously under attack.
And then birth control pills. And then it continues and continues and continues. And in the movies and the television programs that people watch, they have a thing that is called erotica.
And erotica, comes from the Greek word arrows.
And arrows was the Romans column Cupid.
And Cupid was supposedly, the messenger boy for the goddess of love. Who was Aphrodite for the Greeks and Venus. For the Romans, and Cupid's mission
was to get people in love. He would fly around in the Greek Roman mythology. He shoots you with an arrow, and then you fall in love. And we just went through Valentine's Day. This is like two weeks ago, right? Was Valentine's the 14th or so. So we went through this, that's what's left and it's still here. Now it's rising back. And as Muslims given Valentine's
right, so everybody's is rising, right? What is erotica?
erotica, can we speak straightforward about this? erotica is the concept of sexuality and physicality in relationships, especially of male and female, and how erotica plays itself out. If you look at the ancient if the art of the ancient Egyptians, I saw this, I was comparing ancient Egyptian art. That was those are the nubians, who built the pyramids, and Greek.
And the Egyptians, whenever they drew a person, they have long arms and the features were not described.
Okay, but when the Greeks did it, they tried to describe the human body. And they took great pleasure in doing sculptures and everything for the human body that was your destiny erotic. So how it played itself out in Hollywood in our visual education's is that when the movies are being shown, and this has a big impact on our family, and again, this is part of the Islamic revival, we have to face this, because this is how we're being attacked. When the movies are being shown. In every almost every movie, there is some form of love.
That's how the movies go. If there's no love or violence in a movie, they don't want to watch it.
Okay, sometimes the level of love or violence, or the complexity of it will determine who gets the Oscar award, you know, or whatever it is, okay? And perversion is now involved, you know, also in this thing as well. So they're out in space fighting aliens. They're on a spaceship fighting aliens. And somebody amongst the 12 people on the ship is going to fall in love.
They're under the ocean, fighting against a huge whale.
And somebody usually the leading character is going to fall in love. They're playing baseball, or they're playing hockey, watch all the movies, somebody is going to fall in love. Why in every movie, somebody has to fall in love. erotica, you see. So when your mind is concerned with this with sexuality, then you're easily easy to be pushed into it.
And Allah subhanaw taala tells us are very clearly
Allah Takara Xena, in the who can have a huge return what was as a bill and do not come close to adultery.
It is an abomination. It will ruin everything. So a lot didn't say do not commit adultery. He said Don't come close to it.
You see, so erotica now, the images that we are being given
the clothing that we are wearing, and now even men's clothing now is so tight now, the men have to pull their pants and you see that's all it's the spandex clothes.
Right? That's how they're making men suit look like it's one or two sizes too small.
Right? So it is all leading toward physicality. You see, which is the Greek Roman erotica concept, which breaks down higher.
And Prophet Muhammad SAW seldom said in one tradition
is our lambda study. First now,
if you do not have higher if you do not have modesty, then do what you want to do.
In other words, if you don't have modesty, you're capable of doing anything.
So that's, that's one of the first things they got to break down. If they break down your modesty.
If your limits are broken down, there's no limits not in between. Male and female, are between you know, you know people in a job society normal limits normal.
Respect,
right, then you can do anything. And that is one of the worst aspects of drinking alcohol,
drugs to a certain extent also. But the drinking of alcohol, one of the first things that it does is that it kills or destroys your sense of modesty. So the person is now maybe a fairly shy person.
And many of us have seen this have worked on jobs with people who drink. I was in the University of Toronto studying for a PhD. And they have this thing called wine and cheese party.
Right? And all the PhD you must go to the party.
Okay, it's part of the whole process, or your professor is going to hate you, right? So I attended the party, I came in the beginning, just people standing around talking, right? They're talking about the papers and whatever, then I look to the break it out Why?
Okay, soon as they start drinking the wine, they change,
they change. And as soon as that breaks out, that comes, I say, Please, excuse me, I showed my face, I leave.
Right, as soon as I see that wine, because what will happen is, you'll see a person who is normally shy, and then they start getting drunk, and they're all up in your face.
Right? You've seen that before, right? They're up in your face talking and saying to you things, they would never say before, what has gone higher.
You see the limits, the limits are now gone.
Even a shy girl who normally would not be talking to men, is now drunk, and sometimes in the middle of the floor, dance.
Totally embarrassing themselves. And some of these other drugs that they've gotten, and even you know, even go further. So, so
higher
is very important point is very crucial for us, you know, in our struggle. And young people have to recognize that being modest, right dressing, modest, lowering your gaze, whatever, this is nobility. This is not weakness. And the first example comes from the parents, and from people in the community, but also in our teachings as well.
And so once they have that strength, and they understand that if they're modest, they're actually doing something good. They're doing something, you know, which is closer to the province of Solomon's companions, it is a noble thing that they're actually doing. Okay. And you will see that, when, generally speaking, when people become nobles, if a person is going to be a queen, or Princess, she goes to charm school.
If he's going to be a prince,
they will send you to a type of etiquette training school. Sometimes they will come in the boys schools that you go to private schools, and they're teaching you how to wear your clothing, how to sit, you know, how can you see a lot of their actions is that they had they know limits, right? They thought limits, whereas in the lesser lower schools, they're not teaching you those things. And that's the difference between what they call here, upper class and lower class. That's one of the differences because the basis is money. But one of the differences is that the lower class people don't have add up. They don't have etiquettes. You see, they don't have training. And this is what
Islam actually gives. It is giving us etiquettes it is giving us trade really it is giving us nobility. That is what it is nobility. And I have seen in Arabian Desert Bedouins
who don't have hardly anything on, but they're really noble people. Like their character, and how they treat you and how they talk. They're noble, but if you look at them, they don't have anything.
You see, because character, right. And that is what is under attack. And that is what we need to recognize in the Islamic revival. I want to open up the floor for any immediate questions are, these are different areas, each one of these areas is a whole workshop. It could be a whole evening just on this. Although this is a big area. Okay, any any immediate questions or? Yeah.
There is dress, right? There is television. And I said there was three
Well, I mean, the whole
Yeah, I mean, the reset that there was the birth control pills, right? That that was part of the whole onslaught on modesty. As when birth control came in, a lot of people changed.
Because
pregnancy was part of the limits. I mean, really, the religion is supposed to be the thing that keeps you away from it. But the fear of the girls getting pregnant,
stopped a lot of them from going out and, you know, having relationships because they were afraid to get pregnant.
Okay, but when that was taken away,
serious problems came, not the other general questions anybody has.
places you can go to.
And they're walking the streets. That's right. That's right.
away.
Time Square, do you think okay, you're just in a public place walking on a wall? Yeah, that's unbelievable. Also the one and drinking one of the things about drinking whereas before we were talking about I encourage you to be in groups. of mixed group. That's right. That's right.
Yeah, and because the idea of erotica is planted in our heads, right. It's planted by the movies, it's planted by stories and different things, the knifes your lower side. Once the limits gone, the lower side moves to a debt fast. If the limits are there, it controls your lower side. That's your we'll call not solo wama. Not solo wama is a good side of you. You know that that gives you good advice. nafsa. Amada su is the one that commands you for evil. The limits hold down the knifes llamada. But when the limits are gone, it's wide open.
That's why the alcohol Scourge right along with erotica, it is destroying the society. And then they took it to another stage. And they put millions of dollars in pornography. And that is this is now one of the most dangerous levels. And it comes back to hackers. The whole concept of pornography is that it breaks down your limits. Because the things that you will see within a space of five minutes is something that you're that in the past, people young people would never see, unless they were married even when you're married. They didn't do some of them things.
The point is, so they never exposed to it. But now they're on their cell phone. There it is.
So there are limits are now being shattered.
Right, and the hierarchy is broken. And once your higher is gone, as a prophet said, you're capable of anything. You can lie. You can steal, you can commit murder.
You can you're capable of anything, because you don't have any limits anymore. In other words, your taqwa right, your fear of Allah subhanaw taala is being broken down. And that is the struggle of the shaytaan what he has to be law and the forces of evil, you know, it is to break down the modesty within the people. The other general questions are anybody has
a new generation is growing up with a very different concept. Right?
That's right. That's right non stop.
And it's like you and and this is a problem. Because if a person is constantly talking, that means they're not listening.
And if you don't listen, you're not learning.
So when the person is teaching them something or saying something, they say yah yah yah yah, yah, yah, yah, yah, yah, yah. Right. There's so they do yah, yah, yah, yah. So, as you see somebody's talking to you, they're not listening to you.
And if you get into an argument or debate, they don't listen to your point. They just wait for you to breathe and then they talk.
Then they talk, they did not listen to your point. But and this is a major problem, because the person cannot learn. The person cannot correct themselves. Right, and they easily bombarded by evil.
Right. So all of this comes out of this hierarchy. This is a big area. And it's something that Muslims need to develop. And it's a struggle to because many times in many Muslim countries, they connected higher with long, long clothes like Arabia, or black or Baia.
If you don't have a black eye buyer on you're not modest
before when I lived in MIDI, I lived in Medina in 1973. Okay, I brought my family there in 74. And in 74
living in the bedroom section, they will black a buyer and three levels of cloth on the face, three over the face,
and gloves and down on the ground dragon on the ground.
Okay. And so their whole struggle was their whole thing about being a Muslim was wearing that Avaya.
Even sometime my wife would go with the women and some of the women not saying all of them, but some of the women. She got up for salaat. And some of them will laugh. And while she's making a lot,
and she recommended me they don't even pray. But they were the layers. And I'll never forget, there was one girl in our area, she was an unknown girl.
And she would walk from one section of the Hidalgo to via the western section with Bedouins live, she'd walk by, and all the men or anyone around the week ones we'd look at.
Right, and I'm coming from out of the West. And one day she's walking by.
It's a woman in a complete Avaya.
But she has bangles on, and the bangles make noise. And then she has some nice perfume.
So the perfume carry the smell.
So when she comes by, you hear this nice sound. And this is nice smell. And the rest is in your naps fantasy. So they would fantasize about a woman in a complete tent.
totally covered. And she by doing that was immodest.
She was she's an in modest person. And there are some women in the West who could have a dress on, right, and nothing on the head. And they're more modest than her.
Because they're trying to stay away from Southern not trying to beautify themselves like that. And do that. Because modesty is not just physically it's mental to your character and your actions. So So, you know, this was a, this was a shock for me, you know, but
this is where we need to have a balance in our clothing. Right that Muslim girls could wear Islamic clothing, but yet they don't feel totally out of place here in Canada.
Okay, the Muslim man can distinguish himself, and he doesn't feel totally out of place.
You have modesty, you learn how to dress, you know, in a modest way.
Any other questions or anybody else floors open? Yeah.
Muslims
take responsibility, deprogram or children when they get home.
When looking at the last seven hours, that's right.
This is why people have to invest, you know, in their children, you have to have to spend time and they have to invest, whether it is traveling, whether it is whatever, you know, providing camping, or, you know, whatever they have to invest, so that some quality time is spent by them around Muslims and not underneath this society. Okay, and I can remember a nice cell phone. This is a serious issue.
And I remember traveling two years ago, we had a special trip that we organized,
you know, to Spain, and it was also to deal with counseling as well. So we had a lot of young people. And we were walking in the woods in Spain, and the psychotherapist sister, Marian was a name so she
said, you know, you give him a little talk or whatever. She said, Okay, now, for the next half a mile. I want everybody to
turn off, turn off your cell phones.
Right? Don't Don't, don't use your cell phone at all.
Okay, now that's a shock. Because everybody now wants to capture everything. The selfie, and the selfie is a selfish way of putting yourself in everything is not a beautiful mountain. It's now you and the mountain. You see what you're doing? You captured the mountain.
Right? That's selfishness. So she said no cell phone.
And then after a while, she said silence. Nobody talk because as we're walking through and there's no cell phone, they're chatting. The animals are all running right? All these noise coming right? Then we said no sound for the next 10 minutes and we're walking okay.
After we walked for 10 minutes in the woods, hiking, we came to a clearing formed a circle. And then we said, Now, what was your experience, and their experience was, for the first time I heard the birds
I heard birds, I actually could hear the wind, you know, the beauty of this mountain, they were seeing things
that they couldn't see when it evolved with chatting or with their phones is.
So so. So this is an issue, that is what they need to do, you know, to be away from all these things, and then learn some, you know, very serious lessons, you know, that is there. So this leads us on to the next area. And
this is also connected to the higher to a certain extent, and it goes further. And that is the concept of the two faced one.
Now, part of the problem I faced as a counselor, dealing with the Muslim community in the transgender community, was the younger generation looking at their parents, right, and then having to cope with society itself. And when parents came in, when Muslims came in large numbers are in the 50s, and the 60s, Muslims were a minority in this part of the world. I remember, even in 1970, if you saw a Muslim across the street, you like wave into the person, you're like, it's amazing to see a Muslim. Right. And
so there was a lot of pressure. So and the world politics is there, and you know, whatever. So people would then change their identities, or at least they would hide their identity. So that man would get a job. And he would say,
you know, you don't have to call me Mohammed, call me Mo.
Or he puts on his thing, mo dabit as sustained.
So instead of saying Ali is an L. Now, Muhammad Ali clay, the boxer, he made Muhammad Ali very famous, right? So that was a nice name to have. But alibi itself, right? Or, you know, Bilbao,
right. He said, No, you guys can call me, Billy.
And why is it that they have a problem pronouncing Arabic names? Right, when they have Greek names, and they have Romanian names and Russian names, which are difficult to pronounce. So why is Arabic a difficult thing to pronounce? psychological, right. And part of our problem was, we were so shy and weak,
that we submerged the name. And you know, it was a strategic move. I don't blame anybody. They had to survive. They had to get a job.
So we took on the identity. And then when we came home, we became the Sultan, when we came in the door of the house. Now I want my roti, you know, I want this everything must be in order. I'm back home. So now he's the king, right? But when he's outside, he's Mo,
right? And he's these different kind of guy. So the children are watching this.
And, okay, two faces, you know, whatever. They now have to go to school.
How do they function in school, they're under a lot of pressure. So they will also have two faces. So Bilbao, when he's in the house, he's always in the masjid with you. Very polite boy.
But when he goes to school, he becomes a gangster. So Bilbao becomes Billy
and sometimes he has to become a gangster to survive bestehen some of these public schools, and unfortunately, some of our so called Islamic schools, too. They have fighting and lots of things go on to you got to be you know, it's it's peer pressure, which we're going to cover in another session. The point we're looking at now is the two faces. Now the problem people face is that they're used to seeing Bilaal in the house, below, in the masjid, below, driving in it walking. They don't know about Billy.
And one day that young boy is now growing up. And people in many Muslim countries tend to be you know, a certain height that you come from a certain part of the world. But say you're about 575557.
You know, now, their children are drinking milk and eating chicken which has steroids in it.
So the children will be like a foot beef, there'll be giant six feet.
And now they're looking down on you. So that little boy that you brought here or you maybe you had the baby and you say after after seven years, we're going to make some money, and we're going to go back home and build a house and a villa and finished
didn't work like that. Fight.
broke out in your country, you were just able to make enough money to survive. Right? So therefore, you're stuck and you turn around and now standing in front of you is not allowed. It's Billy.
And you say, Billy, we got to make a lot. And he said, Why?
Now can you answer? If you say why t? In most Muslim countries, why is not in your vocabulary? You don't say in Pakistan? Why?
You're gonna say why you make salaat you more Ted? Right? You will apostate
that is not in the vocabulary of people man does not exist. But here, that's the struggle.
He should know why. He should be able to say it's got to protect you in a salon to have a shower monkey to protect you from evil and corruption was the benefit of salaat.
Explain it to him.
Also, we need to explain an institute or the level of the parents and the children the issue of two faces. This takes us to Hadith number 13.
And again, this is an issue that I've faced all of these issues. I face these things in communities
over and over again in counseling, and traveling to different countries and seeing it again, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said today to women sharada Nast, Yom Okayama and dolla dolla chain, Allah Yachty, how will I be watching? Will? How will he be watch, you will find the worst among the people on the Day of Resurrection is the two faced one.
He comes to one some people with one face, and another people with a different face. See, now it's one thing if you have role playing, if you're going to go to an office and work in an office, then you learn office procedure,
you will work in an office you will wear your suit, you will act a certain way. And you have to function like that. Okay, if you're going to do construction, you will learn construction procedure, you will wear your hardhat you will learn safety when you're in a structure where things can fall and people can be hurt with equipment and whatever, you will learn your procedures. So you can't go to the construction with a three piece suit on and cross your legs.
Because they'll look at you are you the boss or something?
Like what are you you're working construction and a three piece suit.
Right. So you got to roleplay you go to construction and you put on your boots, and you put on your tough you know, pants and shirt, and whatever you're ready for construction. Because it's going to be a rough environment. That's okay.
But that doesn't mean that when the time comes for salaat because you're in construction that you can't pray,
you should still be making your salad. You should still be eating halau food.
Right? Because the people are on the job. See, and girls go by, you know construction workers are famous for this and whistling at them. Right? You don't have to whistle at them to make them laugh. Right? Go away from them.
They like to swear and say bad words, you don't have to say bad words. You see? So that's the difference. The problem is with when the face becomes the personality.
Okay, that's a hypocrite. That's a two faced one. And look what the Hadith is saying.
Okay, it'll be the worst amongst the people of the Day of Resurrection in the sight of Allah
is somebody like this?
Who's got these two faces? So this is an issue that we have to go into. And I'm not saying schizophrenia. schizophrenia is a psychological disease. Right where the person has dual personalities, right? That's not talking that's medical thing. I'm talking about in character wise.
And and when the role playing becomes personality this Bilaal came home. And suddenly he turns into Billy, and something happens. He stubbed his toe and he swears in his house and his mother never heard him swear like that.
And she said, What is this? What's going on with you? And he turned around and realized that he couldn't switch off, Billy. See, he couldn't switch off Billy and become Bilaal.
So how do we solve this, and that is that we learn wisdom, how to manage the society, to be in the society, your construction worker, your office person, your student, but you're not controlled by the society.
Right, so your principles are there. And you tell yourself, I'm going to make a lot of dough here. I'm going to make Assa here. Right for my lunch, I'm going to carry a halau lunch, or I know how sharp you plan it out.
You plan out your day, you organize yourself with that particular job. And when the children see this, they also it will reflect on them at school.
So that they will say also Alhamdulillah this happened in many schools, from the 80s and, you know, 90s that the students even organized a masala for their prayer in the schools. Because in many cases, they couldn't leave the school come to masters, so they organize masalas and even in some cases, when it's far away from your Masjid, they can't get out a Juma prayer. And we used to go I used to go to the schools and actually train some people in making the Juma and work with a counselor teacher, getting permission from the school and setting up a place and even doing a Juma hotpot show how it goes, and then empowering them and then they will do it and then continue and now
this has helped it's helped a lot but it's only part of the issue. Right It's a deep issue here that covers all aspects of life, but it starts with a mentality right that I am I have one face for a loss of Potala. Right, I use my wisdom in you know, in situations, but my face is for Allah. I'm a Muslim. And I'm not going to be ashamed to be Muslim. Okay, so this is the issue of the two faced one. This is a big one. This is a big one.
Any questions anybody has floors open for this issue of the two faces. And we face this and many cultures. In some countries, they might say his name is his name is Abdul Razak, but just call him Johnny. Right? In many cases, it depends upon the influence of the other people on you.
Okay, if it's on you, you have a problem. And, and the probably the worst form that ever existed of this is in Spain.
And that is because the Inquisition, when the Catholics took over, they were forcing people to be Catholic. And they will do that, by questioning you, they take you to an Inquisitor. And if you if you if you fail the test, they will burn you at the stake. So Jewish people and Muslim people and Christians who believe that one God, they will burn them alive. So some people couldn't take it.
Okay, so they say, Okay,
I'll accept the Trinity. Inside, they will Muslim
they call moriscos. The name is called morasco.
The Jewish people
is called Moreno's Moreno is a Jewish person who is Christian on the outside and Jewish on the inside. And it's deep because when you know these names, you hear certain things. And I know I think it was Columbia or whatever one of the big officials, Moreno was his name like
Carrie Moreno, right. So that that's where it is. So they keep some of these names. But that was the concept is the concept was
that they were trying to get this out to you.
And they instituted eating pork, and drinking wine in every meal. And the Spanish diet.
And in some shops and you'll see it when you go there. You go by a shop, and you see a side of pork hanging in the shop.
And sometimes they're not even selling meat. But now today they have a plastic one. But the way it was that you had to show that you were a good Trinitarian you hang your pork in the shop. So you definitely not Muslim. You hang in your pork. Okay. And that was the worst form where people had to like, hide their identities. And they really had to it was life or death. It was life or death. Right? But in today with Muslim so scattered around the world and in some countries we have, like here we have rights. If we stand for our rights, you don't have to be a to face person.
ourselves, we tell ourselves sometimes
you know that we can't do this and we can't do that.
Right. Okay, floors open for any questions. Anybody else?
Yeah, I mean, they tasted the Spanish sort of column this moriscos like
and then they I mean, it became a name amongst them but it was cold communities and people moresco community
So So these would be people who are from an Islamic background, but they are Christians.
Because if you if you weren't a Christian, you're going to kill you. And you got to run. Okay, so you had moresco communities, Moreno communities. That's what in Toledo if you go to Toledo, you'll see Moreno's communities, some of their synagogues that were, were that were hidden. So you'll find whole communities that were like that. Then the next level of Inquisition, and this is not our topic, is that they even purged the moriscos.
The ones who said they were Christian, they went into them. And they said, We know Moscow woman can be a midwife. Right? You know, no, Morris command can deal with slaughtering of meat or anything they want to take. Hello, are you completely if you took a bath on Thursday night? As a Christian, you might get burned the life? Why? Does anybody know why
Joomla Joomla starts on Thursday night, right? Laila to Joomla. So your Christian Father, Son, Holy Ghost,
drinking wine, but you took a bath, there's a little Islam left in you. And they want to take it out.
And see, so that creates this schizophrenia, dual personality, the, you know, they had to do, and we have different versions of this personality.
So they were losing their Islam.
Islamic Oh, yeah. I mean, what they did was it, you know, Muslims ruled for 781 years, you know, and so we knew they would take back a section, right, from the, from the north, so the trinitarians would come down, say they say they were able to, there was a corrupt Amir.
And they would take his section. And many times, you know, unfortunately, they would work with another me against him.
So knowing that the two Muslims are fighting each other, the second one, let's get him, he, he, and I send them and so then they both fight him. Right. And when they defeat that Muslim, then he kills the other one. And he gets two provinces. So when he takes over the province, he is learning, you know, Muslim culture is almost 60 to 70% of Spanish culture. Up until today.
If you look at Spanish culture,
Paya is their main meal, their famous meal pie, and pie is like what we used to do, you know, you take all your leftovers and everything, and some rice in spice and you put it all together. Right, and then you it's a nice meal. And this was Baka, Baka. Baka means what's leftover Arab, Baka.
They say piano
because of Muslims, when you have all your leftovers, and we all have this in our culture, right? And you want to make your leftovers taste tastes good. Right? So you get a little rice, some spice and whatever, put all the leftovers together, and you make this this nice meal. Right? This is pie. This is a national dish. Now.
Don Quixote, the famous poet of Don Quixote, if you look closely was actually a Muslim.
The two leading attractions in in Spain today is in Granada. And in Cordoba.
And you will see in the structures of their house, you will see in their lifestyle is still there. So they were learning culture from us, so they know us very well.
But they would take the culture and add a little pork to it put across or a little devil on the top of it, you know, they would change it around a little bit, but they knew who we were, because they their culture was fundamentally coming from us. They had a very weak culture, you know, at the time, and so and Muslims were there. I mean, 781 years is a long time now. How old is Canada? They just celebrated 150 years right? in Granada, that province? 781 years. That's a long time to be ruling a place. Okay. So this is where I'm, you know, this this way of wisdom.
You know, that they can even look at a suit. Like in the army MOS we even we even had fashion shows for men.
Because brothers are trying to figure out how can I be Muslim and work in an office, there's Okay, make a nice Nehru thing. Matching pants, you know, in a suit style. You know, and you will stand out people look at you and say, Whoa, that's that's not but it meets the fashion standard of an office.
Right? We're around neck, you know on your shirt.
Started, we're in a tie.
Right? You see the Iranian diplomats do that, right? They were around neck, they don't wear ties. Okay. So this is a way of, you know, keeping the so called standards. But yet when they look at you, they say that's different. He's one of us. He's here. But he's little different, what's different? That's we're distinguishing yourself. And a Muslim is supposed to distinguish himself, not just the sister wearing hijab.
But even the male should be distinguished himself as well. Now,
any questions that anybody has on this two phase style concept?
I'm thinking about this to base within the family. Because if you're trying to break down this last one is that the family know us coming into West here, and then
the male's working the female is working, everybody's getting their independence and everybody kind of have their own life. Yeah.
Looking at divorce, under rice, that's right.
When you say
we have to be married. And again, like I say, I traveled to many places. And when I was in Malaysia,
not was actually sorry, Singapore, and Singapore.
The Muslims were 90% Malay,
they were having serious problem with the youth.
And that is because Singapore, is so much pressure on people. It's like the model of the New World Order. They wanted to make a state that is the ultimate state of control of its population. So Singapore is a highly controlled place. You can't spit, you can chew gum publicly. Everything is by rules. And it's very expensive. You get good benefits, by the way, but you got to work. So most families, father and mother both worked.
And the children would come home from school, and they would be by themselves. And a lot of social problems developed. And they even start calling the Muslim children, latchkey children.
There was a name because they have the key to the house, right? So they called latchkey children. So when they come home, and you got that two, three hours before anybody else was coming back, sometimes more, a lot of drugs came in, and a lot of things crept in, it was a way that corruption could creep in, because the parents weren't around to defend your family, you know, from these things. So it this is a very serious issue. This is why one thing I used to notice about the Jewish killed children in a place right when I went to school when I was young. And there was some Jewish students in our school. And so after school, we'd be walking home. And the Jewish kids would go that
way. We go back to the housing projects, we live to live in the ghetto, right? So we go back and we're gonna play some basketball or whatever. But the Jewish kids were you going Hebrew school?
Okay, so after school, they're going to Hebrew school, in order to keep busy. And as a teacher, they are paid by the community, they'll learn Hebrew language, they'll learn values of their religion, right, and they keep out of trouble.
And they stay there until their parents come home.
So they organize that in their community. And we used to do that more here. Before we had our regular schools. We used to have afternoon Quran classes and stuff, where everybody would send their kids after school, you get a Quran and you know, whatever, and you go to the masjid, and you have karate class and what that was serving, the purpose that serve was it's also a place where they could go, you know, and they could be learn etiquettes and be under the protection of the community. So it is part of what you could call the need for Muslim community centers, and also what they call scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, where you have activities in the afternoon,
they go to the scouting activities, they might go home from school and go to a scouting activity.
But that time in the afternoon, is very serious.
So so these are the issues that we face, you know, in dealing with
the personalities of Muslims.
Now the last part in this
section, because we're dealing with the issues of character, and the extremes, you know, that people were on. And
in this tradition,
Prophet Muhammad SAW a solemn
was the best example.
You know, he, this one is called balance in religion.
And it is a narrative in this I'll go through the narrative part to the words of the province on solemn. And what it is saying is ns reported three groups came to the homes of the wives of the Prophet Mohammed Salim asking about his worship. So they wanted to know,
how did he pray? How did the fast you know they because they want to know more about the Sunnah. When they were informed,
they appeared to belittle what was being said
that these are no Muslims who haven't been acculturated. They want to learn Islam real fast. And you'll find many times people are like that, okay, they didn't get the character fully. But they appear to be little by little. And they said,
How can we compare ourselves to the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salah all of the sins He has committed in the past and the future have been forgiven?
And one of them said,
he wants to show what he does. Okay? And he said, As for me, I pray all night.
And I rest in the morning.
Okay, so he's saying every night, he's going to pray, and he's going to rest in the morning. Okay. And then.
Yeah, he said it. He said, another one said, I will fast for an eternity. And I will never break away and I assume a dot. Well, I have to
know if
I will fast for an eternity.
Okay, every day he's going to make, of course you can't fast or eating food. What he means here is that every day is going to fast. Okay, so it's not just 30 days of Ramadan, every day.
See, the data is showing off now. About you know where they're at. Okay. And the next one said,
I will avoid women, and I'll never get married. Right? So I'll solve the problem of, you know, sexuality and everything. I'm just not going to get married. Never. And I will avoid women. 100%. It's like a monk in a monastery. Right. Okay. And the province of Salah arrived. And he said, Are you the ones who said this and that?
Right now he's questioning them. And then he said our lie in the lack shakun lie at Comic Con la who would like kidney asuma will often or Saliba article what is origin DISA for men? Ravi ba uncertainity. For laser many. Those words, you hear it? marriages. Right? Right. It's part of the formula, right?
And so what he's saying here, he said that By Allah,
I fear a lot more than you. And I am more conscious of a lot of you.
Right? And they did not they admit that. He said, But I fast and I break my fast. I pray and I sleep.
Right. And I marry women. So whoever turns away from my son has nothing to do with me.
But this was a harsh rebuke that he made, you know, for these people. Because they thought that, you know, by the fact that they you know, we're doing these things that they will actually higher level Muslims. And this is what you find many times people think that high level, you know, Muslims because they're like literally on extremes. Okay. But the prophet SAW Selim is showing balance.
balanced. And that's that one concept. Not one extreme or another extreme. It's a balanced, you know, you know, approach that, you know, the person says one time the premises of them came to a Masjid, similar to this. And he looked in, and the man was there.
And, you know, the man said, so he said, What are you what are you doing? He said, No, I read Quran all the time. I fast.
You know, I'm praying all the time. You know, like he's bragging right? So then he said, Okay, are you married? The man said, Yes, he is who takes care of your family. He's older as my brother, like my brother gives for my family and for his family. The Prophet Salim said, Your brother's a better Muslim than you.
You see this.
This a person's fast and all the time praying in the mosque reading code and but the brother is taking the font. He's dealing with the compulsory part. He's taken the weight called hwam right. taken care
I have the wife. So he said he is actually a better Muslim than you.
So that shows that a lot of these things that people are doing giant turbans, clothing, all the kind of extra thing, you know, all these Knopfler and, you know, whatever, all these things that they're doing isn't necessarily a sign of the highness of the day? No, it may be the opposite. It may be that they're actually showing off,
you know, in their religion, you know, instead of being a balanced person, like they should be. Okay. So this is the last part,
dealing with character.
I want to open the floor for any questions. This is the balance, right. And this requires wisdom. putting things in the proper place, the more Islam we understand, the more sooner we live, it develops a way of like, Islamic thinking. So therefore, you can make decisions islamically in new situations, because we might run across some things, especially when you travel that travels, go traveling as wisdom. Because when you travel, you're out of your comfort zone.
And you'll run across things that are new, and you got to make a decision, right? And you got to make a decision on your feet. islamically, what am I going to do? We're going to have a problem with our prayer.
How are we going to make salad?
Where are we going to eat? You know, like, you got to now make decisions.
Right? So and this is where the wisdom comes in.
And this is a very important part of our
revival. Because one of the things that's ripping our community apart is extremism,
is extremism. Some people are all dunya. They're all secular, and their religion is weak. Some people they go extremely religion, and they have no sense of what's happening in the world.
They useless in the world, the balance is, you understand your religion and you function in the world. That's what we're looking for in the revival. We're not looking for extremes. And this is a very important point
to learn, because many times, young people, especially they think if they're not extreme, they're not a good Muslim.
Even sometimes, you will have a young girl who wants to come to the mosque. But you know, she doesn't wear a full hijab. Sometimes they won't even wear a job. Right? They'll come to the mosque and put it on. Right? Let her come to the masjid.
Because by being in the masjid around, other people wear it all the time, then she'll be more comfortable with the wearing of the job. Right. But the but 100%, as I call them, you must be 100% if that person does that don't let them in. Or else they ostracize them with words and actions, and they make them feel uncomfortable, right? some mistake. It's a mistake, because all of us have had high points in our life and four points. Everybody has it. Nobody's 100%.
Now, the other general questions if anybody has brought this
know, work with the kids, and take the
campaign or garbage or whatever, and wherever you go on going there. And while you're there, you still, you know, pray and all that. So they learn that? That's right. So it doesn't matter where you go to Niagara Falls, open area pressure and just go above and
these things, you know, this is this can instill in them, the responsibilities, most of the families that I see, when they go out, they forget or forget it. But that's not this issue for you. And if you're going, we went to the east coast on a trip, and we plan where we go to be on a Friday.
So and we went to Halifax, right?
Jamal Busby. And then we went to his mosque and we pray and then we went on from there. That's right. You know, we have a two week trip, and then we plan everything. And same thing with going to college campaign, whatever. And even in the campaign, we pray that they will go over you
see, so it's these youth who have that background. They are the ones who will be the leaders of Islam.
You know, and and the more it is known in the community, that thinking way of thinking, that's what we're talking about. That's revival.
Because revival is you're still part of society. You're using modern things, but your principles of Islam is there that
The Islamic revival, that's tough deed. And that's not an easy thing to do. It's easier to go to an extreme, lock the door and hide yourself away, which a turban and everything. And you know, you're the super Muslim.
But you're locked away. So what are you going to do when it's time to come out and eat food? What are you going to do in the society? See, that's when people develop to faces inside the super Muslim.
Right outside is everyday. Joe. Right. He's a regular guy. Everyday Mo, we'll call him. Right. Any, any other questions? Anybody else?
That's right, this has a big impact, and especially where you are, I was in Jamaica, when I was finding in the 80s in Jamaica, to a certain extent now, but especially in the 80s.
It was so ripe for Islam, that we would travel from between one city and another. And then when it was time for salaat, it's tropical, so you can just go on the side of the road. And so you know, people are you know, so we say okay, brothers, let's make a lot. So we put our rugs down and we pray.
Okay, and when we turn around, there's a crowd standard. So we say Olli, give them a talk.
So one of the brothers would stand up and you know, explain Islam. And all the time people would taking Shahada.
They were taking Shahada man, right on the spot. Now the problem was how to keep them in Islam, right. But they would take Shahada because they were impressed by what we were doing. And we explained it to them. Right. And, you know, so depending upon where you are, it's also you have an influence on society. You know, when you can be part of the society, and you'll be surprised the impact you have on your colleagues at work. Also students in a school
I can remember even
you know, my, even my own daughters that happened and other young girls they used to go to Oakwood collegiate, and they wore their hair jobs, and Oakwood collegiate. This is back in the 90s. And there are people come to me and say they're Muslim now. And I didn't know that they said, but you know, I knew I used to look at look at your daughter's at school.
You know, and just by looking at them, and how they acted, you know, he later on thought about Islam. So what they did, right was a example of Islam for this person. They planted the seeds, and the person eventually became Muslim. Because not not hands anyway, right. So so so there's a lot of
benefits in Islamic revival, not only for the Muslims themselves, but also for society. Because this is the best form of Dawa is the best form of the spread of Islam. And that's how Islam spread through character.
merchants, pious people, not conquering armies, that's propaganda, conquering armies, we're there for the warfare when when the state is attacked, when people are attacked, you got to fight. That's not to spread Islam.
Islam cannot spread by the sword. And this character shows us how important that actually is. So we're going to close here now with this and inshallah we will continue on next week. And we see how important all these areas on this is an example for us for our families. These are important workshop areas for our community. So we'll continue on with the 40 Hadith next week. Insha Allah Have a safe journey home was Salam alaykum. warahmatullahi wabarakatuh