Abdullah Hakim Quick – What You Didn’t Know About East Africa

			Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa salam ala sailed over Lima
Afridi Nabina Muhammad and while alihi wa sahbihi wa bedico Southern. All praise the due to Allah,
Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad,
the master of the first and the last, and upon his family and companions and all those who call to
his way to the Day of Judgment. My beloved brothers and sisters, I begin with the greeting words of
the righteous are Salaam wa Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. And I sincerely pray to Allah
subhanaw taala for the safety of this world 2020 We are going through amazing changes with the covid
		

			19 pandemic. And I pray that Allah subhanaw taala would spare the children and the elderly and all
those who are in need, during this pandemic, and would give the Muslim world the ability to rise to
the surface, and to show the world that the real solution is within the revelation. It's the
lifestyle revealed by Allah subhanaw taala, to all of the prophets and to our last prophet Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him. And so, this time is, we could say, a time of isolation.
		

			And as the Muslims and the rest of the world are forced to stay within their homes, it is a chance
for us to reflect it is a chance for us to look into ourselves and not just be caught up with the
things that are happening around us on a daily basis. And so, self introspection and looking inside
oneself also should connect us to the past, because by connected to the past, we gain clarity in the
present. And people who do not understand their past will actually be confused in the present. And
so we find that in the book of Scripture of the Muslims the last testament Alcor, an, Allah subhanaw
taala has revealed one third of the revelation in a historical form, I'll pass us these are the
		

			stories of the prophets. These are the stories of the nations that came before us. And it is through
these stories, that we gain valuable lessons to help us in the present day. And Sarah to use her
first 11 Allah tells us laqad canovee, apostasy, him Ebert, only Allah Al Bab, that in their
stories, is wisdom, great lessons for those who would reflect. And so the history the stories that
are being given to us or not being given just to read, but to benefit from. And so, in looking at
our history, and looking at the world, it's crucial for Muslims to understand the background that we
are coming from. And I want to focus in this series, inshallah, on the African continent, and
		

			especially East Africa, to look at this mysterious part of the world misunderstood. And I can say,
honestly, that East Africa and Africa as a whole is one of the most misrepresented, Miss under
misunderstood places on the planet Earth.
		

			And so, to break through the ignorance, to break through the barriers of confusion, we want to go
back in time to understand what happened in this continent. And to put it in perspective, so that we
could understand more about the people who are living in this region. today. Many European
historians, when they look at Africa, they write about a dark, backward continent. They write about
ignorant people, and some of the top historians have even said, Africa has done nothing for the
onward flow of civilization.
		

			They couldn't be a great ally than this, or greater distortion. The reality is if we go back and try
to understand Africa, not as an isolated continent, but actually as part of a huge portion of the
landmass of the earth. We understand that over 55 million years ago or so, according to scientists,
they were tectonic plates shifting. There were major changes that went on in the geography of the
world. And the African continent split away from what is now known as Arabia and the Red Sea and the
Horn of Africa. Then from
		

			25 million years or so, with tectonic shifts going on a great Valley formed, it is called the Great
Rift Valley. And that valley in the northern part reaches all the way to the Jordan Valley, in the
Middle East, and goes all the way down to Mozambique in the south. And so this is a large system, a
large ecological system, a valley system. And it is this area that we want to look at. And
especially with the formation of the Red Sea, and with the movement of the currents and the ocean,
we're looking at East Africa as being from from the top of the Red Sea, all the way down to
Mozambique. And the inland form of East Africa, would be not only Egypt and the Sudan. But it would
		

			also stretch down to Ethiopia, to Uganda, to Kenya, to Tanzania, all the way down to Mozambique.
That whole region, there is what we are considering to be East Africa. And it's important for us to
have that perspective, when we are looking at history because nothing is static. And as time
changes, the earth changes, circumstances changes. And Allah subhanaw taala continues to make
revelation continues to give us information. But we are the ones who have to give perspective to the
changes and understand what is going on in our lives today. So again, if we go back in time, we find
that the oldest our remains or records of Homo sapiens is actually coming out of that Eastern
		

			Africa, Southern Africa region. We are people from 1000s of years ago homosapiens, then migrated
north, and then moved from the highlands of Ethiopia, and Uganda and Kenya, they move down. Now,
it's important when you look at the map of Africa, you would think that the Nile River flows from
north to south, but in actuality, according to the geography, it is flowing from South north. So the
upper part of the Nile is the southern region. And it is from there that the early human beings in
Africa, then migrated and finally reached what is now known today as the Nile Valley.
		

			Some historians go back to 17,000 years that the Nile Valley actually was had the ability to be
cultivated. But we know that around 10,000 BC,
		

			that the early people coming out of that Eastern African region, settled into the Nile Valley, and
began to organize themselves and to cultivate crops. And so they developed the early city states of
the Nile Valley. And we have solid information that by 3500 BC, there were a number of states in
what is now known as the Sudan, Northern Sudan and southern Egypt, the Nuba region
		

			and these states
		

			were known as taciti. And we have proof of 12 kings, who that recorded themselves and we're living
in this area with their people. And it is from these civilizations that the people again, continue
to follow the Nile, they followed it down. So this is the Upper Egypt area, and they follow the Nile
north, so they're going down north, and
		

			they migrated until they reached the Delta. And that is what is known as Lower Egypt. And so Upper
Egypt was that Nubian area, the area of Sudan, and southern Egypt and lower, lower Egypt was the
Delta region. And it is reported that around the year 3200 BC, that a great leader whose name was
nemea, he united Upper and Lower Egypt, and number, who in some cases, is called minase.
		

			This was a great political move. And we could say it is one of the greatest unifications that
happened in the ancient world. And so he united Upper and Lower Egypt and we still have a bust, a
sculpture of his face. So we can say that Manet's The Great Leader of Egypt, he united Upper and
Lower Egypt and he was able to bring about
		

			This unification and bring together the strength of the upper section and the lower section. It is
through this unification that the ancient Egyptians, sometimes known as the unknown people who
originally came there, that they were able to develop an amazing society. And one of the Egyptian
historians manito, he actually records 30 dynasties over 561 different kings, who we now know as the
Pharaoh, or the pharaoh in Arabic. And the ancient Egyptians were able to develop the early one of
the earliest writing systems, the hieroglyphics. They developed physics and math and philosophy.
They had a calendar going back 1000s of years. And because of this development, they were able to
		

			control the Nile. Remember, the Nile is flowing down. And this Nile is the gift of Egypt. It is the
gift of the Sudan, this whole area. So the Nile flows into this desert like region, it turns green
agriculture grows, and the ancient Nubian Egyptians were able to subjugate the river to control it
had to send it out into the different agricultural areas in order to develop their civilization. And
so, by the year 2650 BC, this is what is called the Old Kingdom of Egypt. It is around that time
that they built the Step Pyramid in Saqqara this step pyramid is an amazing structure that is still
standing up until today.
		

			It was built for the pharaoh whose name was Xhosa. And I had the opportunity to go below the pyramid
and to look at the different chambers. And to see that they were doing complicated brain surgery
that they knew decimal numbers, they physics, math, they had an amazing understanding of how to deal
with structure and architecture. So this society now continues to develop. And by the year 2500 BC,
approximately, the ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid at Giza.
		

			This pyramid up until today is one of the wonders of the world. Just imagine this, this Great
Pyramid of Giza that is built, it had approximately 2,300,000 blocks of granite. Some of these
blocks were a dump two tons, the blocks were actually cut out in Aswan, which is in the south. And
they were taken up, remember going down, they were taken from s one which is in the salt of Egypt,
all the way to the area of Giza, which is near near that delta.
		

			And they were put into perfect position to develop this amazing structure. It's It's shocking that
this pyramid, built by African people buy the ancient East Africans was the tallest building in the
world up until the 19th century. It's shocking to 1,300,000 blocks of granite, it's shocking that
the corners of the Great Pyramid are perfect right angles, that the corners are go exactly north,
south, east and west. And there is more granite, there is more stone in this building than all of
the churches and cathedrals in England from the time of Christ until now.
		

			It's also shocking
		

			that it was not slavery, as we have been taught, because the ancient Egyptians saw it as national
service. And it was actually done during the time of who fooled again, an African Pharaoh. And he
developed this pyramid, and we see that it was practical science. Now just to have the right
perspective, because especially for Muslims, Christians and Jews, there is an understanding of the
Prophet Abraham Ibrahim Alayhi Salam who travels from Iraq, through Syria and then down into Egypt
and
		

			Ibrahim alayhis salaam, his time is approximately around 1640 BC. So we need to put this into
perspective. If you look back at the Step Pyramid 2650 BC, you look at the Great Pyramid done much
later 2500 bc or so. And then now Abraham
		

			Islam is coming in much later than that. If you look at the time of Moses, or Musa alayhis salaam,
he is coming approximately around 1525 BC. So that means it is over 1000 years after the time of the
building of the great pyramids, and so he was not done by slaves. He was not the pharaoh beating the
children of Israel, and they're carrying stones on the head. The pyramids were built long before
Abraham himself actually entered into Egypt, long before masala Salaam was born. And so we need to
have the right perspective. even greater than that, in terms of perspective, the Greek civilization,
which many people say is the basis of civilization in Egypt and an Africa, Greek civilization kicked
		

			in somewhere around the eighth century, which is the seven hundreds. So if you look at that, the
ancient Egyptians developed their early pyramids 2000 years before the Greeks even started their
civilization. And the ancient Greeks were not racist. The ancient Greeks wrote about their
civilization, and they said, We got it from the ancient Egyptians, and they were dark skinned people
with Willie here.
		

			And so, the reality is, is that with the development of calendars with the development of
hieroglyphics, with the development of architecture and, and science on this level, we can safely
say that this part of East Africa was one of the most important places on the face of the planet
Earth.
		

			30 dynasties 561 kings, so many things happen, so many incidents happened, even the concept of the
belief in one God, because the Quran is telling us that prophets and messengers were sent to every
nation and every tribe. And so therefore, at some point in time, prophets and messengers were also
sent into the Nile Valley region. And so the pharaoh that we know, that comes in our Quranic texts,
and we find in the biblical texts as well, that is probably the son of Ramsay's, or his grandson.
And again, that is coming long after the building of the pyramids, long after the basic development
of Egyptian society. And so again, now looking at our East African structure, from the top of the
		

			Red Sea, all the way down to Mozambique. We go to the year 1473 BC.
		

			It is around this time, that the daughter of the pharaoh took most the first she became the queen of
Egypt, Hatshepsut was her name, and she married her half brother took most the second who was 12
years old, and she virtually was the Regent of Egypt. Eventually, she completely took over Egypt.
And so Hatshepsut was the very famous woman in ancient Africa and the ancient world. And she did a
number of very powerful things. People remember Hatshepsut, for two major reasons, one was the fact
that she built a beautiful temples structure and a city structure. And this is Dr. Darrel bar. And
		

			she organized this area and built this beautiful structure. And you can see on the walls I had a
chance to go to the temple of Hatshepsut. And you can see on the walls, the reliefs, they actually
drew pictures on the walls, and some of the remains up until today. And there's hieroglyphs on the
walls. And I looked at the walls and I saw a discussion happening about trading going on between the
ancient Egyptians and the people of a land called Ponte. Ponte plan was to the south. And it's you
can see the Egyptians now meeting the people of punt and a brisk trading going on in this area. So
Hatshepsut was known for using the Red Sea and then traveling down to the bottom of the Red Sea, to
		

			what is now the Horn of Africa. It would be now the present day, Djibouti, Somalia, this area down
in there, and this was a land that was so important to the Egyptians at that point in time, that
they call it the land of the gods. And they said that in this land
		

			And there are so many products that can be used for religious purposes. In their poetry in their
writings. They looked at Ponte as a type of mythical land, a mysterious land, and some say even the
mother of Hatshepsut, hatha that she came from that region. And so a brisk trade was going on. Some
of the interesting products that were coming out of point was gold, frankincense, ivory, Ebony,
leopard skins, also, aromatic resins, live animals fragrant woods, I make up for cosmetics,
cinnamon, kapa, carved amulets, nappsa, myrrh, with your Frankincense. And so so you can see some
very important products for religious purposes, you'll see that in many parts of the ancient world,
		

			they were using frankincense and myrrh, which was coming from Southern Arabia hadramaut, in this
region, and plant was a type of trading center. And so the people of that area were gathering the
products that were coming from Southern Arabia from the resin of the trees. This is the
Frankincense. There's also a type of frankincense, which is gummy, and you can chew it. So it's like
the first chewing gum.
		

			Cosmetics. So think about this, the level of society going now, cosmetics, beautiful air, you know,
glitter, aromatic smells, perfumes. And so this is a magical land, and a very important Center,
which today, we would call the Horn of Africa. And so drawn on the walls of Hatshepsut, up until
today is this connection to show what was happening in East Africa, moving from the Red Sea, and
then taking us up later on. Egypt was conquered by the Persians. And we find that, although there
was a connection made by the ancient Egyptians, between the Red Sea, they used the Nile, okay, and
they were able to connect the Nile to the Mediterranean. So the red seats of the Nile to the
		

			Mediterranean. But it was later on in the time of derrius, the great. This is the Persian leader who
conquered that area, that they were able to really develop that. And so this enabled the Greeks and
the Romans to come from the Mediterranean region, when we look at our map again, and we see the
connection between the upper part of the Red Sea, going down to the Horn of Africa, and then down
into East Africa itself, along the coastline to Mozambique, we recognize that there are a number of
civilizations.
		

			One of the great civilizations that comes in our ancient texts, is the empire of Exxon. And this
came into prominence from around 100 ad to about 940 ad. And it was basically Eritrea and northern
Ethiopia.
		

			But at different points. It included the Sudan,
		

			Yemen,
		

			Somalia, it actually stretched out at different points. Because of the achievements that were made
by the people of Exxon.
		

			They developed a high technology. And the proof of that is the fact that the largest obelisks in the
world are not found in Egypt, although they have the obelisk. And the obelisk is that straight
structure, that granite structure, one piece of granite sticking up to the sky, and when I visited
the area, the guide actually told me on the side because I asked him the real reality of the
obelisk. He said it was a sundial, and it's actually something which was being used in their
astronomy, and their math. And so the largest obelisk in the world is not an Egypt, but it is in
present day Ethiopia, which formerly was excellent. You'll find herbalists all over the world. The
		

			Europeans stole some of the herbalists the Americans put one in Washington, DC, there are publics in
France, of course, they have the Eiffel Tower, this obelisk all over the world. And again, this is
trying to match that technology coming out of East Africa. Imagine somebody saying that Africa has
done nothing for the onward flow of civilization when the largest
		

			Building in the world's tallest building in the world, up until the 19th century, was an Africa.
		

			It was in Egypt, the Great Pyramid. And when the largest herbalists in the world were in Ethiopia.
		

			So the ancient exabytes
		

			that we could call Ethiopians, although it was dealing with a great territory, the ancient aksumite
dynasty was also known for its powerful armies, they had developed amazing formations with their
army and, and weaponry, and they were able to harness the use of elephants. And these elephants
change the structure of warfare. It's like in World War One, the tanks are coming in and they will
be in developed and then later on helicopter gunships. And now there are drones. And so technologies
change the relationship of people in wars, and because of this technology, and this power, the great
visionary called Manny, and he lived in Babylon and Persia. And this saw famous visionary of ancient
		

			times.
		

			He and coming in around the third century AD, so he considered that there were great four great
powers in the world. And at that time, he considered Persia, the sassanid dynasty, to be one of the
great powers, also the Roman Empire. The third were three kingdoms of China. And the fourth was the
empire of Axel. And so East Africa, East African people were considered to be one of the most
powerful groups of people on the face of the planet Earth.
		

			There are many different traces of the civilization there in East Africa. And it's interesting to
note that the followers of Esau, a slum of Jesus, when they were under persecution, and Jesus was
raised, they had to migrate to different areas. And it is reported that mark actually reached the
Nile. And so the teachings of Jesus you could call the real Orthodox Christianity, the original
religion went up south. And the people there developed a type of pure Christianity, which is
actually closer to the original teachings of easily Islam. And we remember that he was actually
Jewish, and all of his followers were Jewish, they were following the Old Testament. And this
		

			revised form that came with Esau Islam, it went up the Nile until it reached the southern part of
Egypt, and Sudan, and went all the way into Ethiopia. And so the xo mites are accepted Christianity.
And they were a powerful dynasty, and they were linked with the Roman Empire. So in the same way
that there are diplomatic messages between different powers in the world today, that there is a type
of United Nations and there are different agreements that are made between world powers. today. In
the ancient times, there was also understanding between the world powers, and the Romans were in
direct communication with the x Semites of Ethiopia. And it is reported that around 520 ad, that
		

			King Caleb, of the acts of mites of the Ethiopians, he sent an expedition into Yemen. And this is
because a Jewish King by the name of Dune was, he had been persecuting people and torturing people.
And so he sent an army there. And he eventually defeated Dune was who wrote into the ocean, never to
be found again. And the acts of mites conquered Yemen. And so they took over that whole region
there. And it's interesting, it is interesting to Muslims because this story appears in the court
and in the chapter called bhuj. So it is in this chapter was summer that will brooch in this mighty
chapter of the Quran. It tells us cotulla, as hobbled of Dude, that the people of the trench, these
		

			people were killed.
		

			And it gives a beautiful rendition of this story, and what happened at that time. And so,
		

			the Christian x somites, getting a message and in unity with the Romans, that time Byzantium
		

			they conquered the region. So the Christians had a block going up the Nile, and all the way over
into Yemen into this area. And it was a struggle that went on between the Christians and the
Persians. Because again, the Persians considered the Ethiopians and the Romans, to be the greatest
enemies to Chinese was sort of landlocked, in the eastern side. And so a power struggle went on. And
it is from this power struggle, that the Ethiopian General abraha was able to seize power in Yemen
in this area. And he built a place, he built a type of Cathedral or church in Yemen. He was defiled
by one of the of the Arabs who is in the area, because the Arabs had the Kaaba in Mecca. And it is
		

			from there, that abraha made the decision to attack Mecca.
		

			The rest has been recorded in the history of Islam and in world history, that abraha did go forward
to conquer Mecca. And Allah subhanaw taala, revealed in the chapter of the birds sort of feel, and
speaking about these small birds, which flew in the air, and they drop down stones upon the
elephants, because remember, abraha went north with elephants. And so with the elephants going
north, and reaching into the meccan area, the Arabs at that time, had no power to stop them. And it
is also part of what Allah who sent
		

			birds carrying small stones, and drop them from high altitudes, and crush the army. And it's
interesting to note also, that historians also show that along with the stones
		

			that hit the elephants, there was also a virus, there was also a plague that broke out, and that
virus then decimated. And as Allah said, with Giada, home cosmin moku. And so they were so
destroyed, their bodies were so destroyed and diseased, that they will like the cut, they will like
grass that is chewed up in the mouth of a cow, and then spit down. And so, the virus
		

			and army of Allah subhanaw taala, along with the birds, we are facing one of these armies today with
the COVID-19.
		

			And again, history is repeating itself. And we see that East Africa is a venue of major events that
are that are taking place in the world to the point where that year is called in history, Hamill
field, it is the year of the elephants. It is a crucial year. So
		

			the ancient lands of Egypt of Nubia of Aksum. Now, Ethiopia, Eritrea
		

			were connected all the way down that Valley region. They were connected to the south. They were also
connected to the north with the extension of the Red Sea going to the Nile and to the Mediterranean.
So the business was now bristly going from that Mediterranean region, all the way through to the
point where the court and again in the chapter of Quraysh, it is speaking about relative sheeta he
was safe, that the the journeys that the Arabs would take in the winter and in the summer, and it is
recorded that the Arabs have hadramaut. And there is the MAR society and great societies in Yemen
and and how the remote that the Arabs would get the resin, the frankincense, the mer, the spices,
		

			even there was coffee, so many products came from that area, they would take these spices and they
would ship them to different places. We saw how Puntland how Somalia was like a trading house for
these aromatic spices. And we also can see that the Arabs would use the Arabian Peninsula now, and
this is now running parallel to the Red Sea trade. They would go overland, and they would take care
of ants. And they would travel from Yemen, to Mecca, all the way to Gaza,
		

			on the Mediterranean into Syria into these regions there and they would trade and barter and bring
back products and carry
		

			themselves. So brisk trade routes were going and the frankincense and myrrh that came out of
hadramaut and out of Yemen, and then through Puntland, Somalia, up into Egypt, this was able to
filter to different parts of the world. And people in ancient religions in the Mediterranean in
Asia, throughout the world, people wanted to have this beautiful smells, because that frankincense,
that low bond, that that that smell that comes, it purifies the air. So this region was considered
to be an area of great riches. And it was connected not only to the north, but it was also connected
to the south. So we could say that East Africa in ancient times, was a connected region. It was a
		

			region that actually reached all the way up to the Jordan Valley. But for our intents and purposes,
we can say from the Red Sea, it went all the way down. And you find on both sides of the Red Sea,
whether it be in Egypt, or in Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia. And on the other side, which is Arabia, and
Yemen, the people were very similar. The languages were similar, the culture was similar. And trade
was very brisk. And so we find not only physical connections between the people, but also linguistic
connections. And so the ancient Semitic languages, there is the Semitic languages of the ancient
Arabs, halibel, bat yada, there are the ancient perishing Arabs, whose languages in AD and the mood
		

			and muda in solid, they are dead languages today, then there is a lot of elounda there is the
original Arabs, you could say, who were or the base Arabs, the pure Arabs coming out of Yemen.
		

			And then there is a lot about mastaba. And these are the people who learn to speak Arabic, are later
on and we see as Arabic went north, to Syria into Lebanon, Lebanon, and Egypt and Morocco and other
parts of what is now known as the Arab world. So these Semitic languages actually were connected to
East Africa as well. And we see in ancient Ethiopia, Amharic, which is a symmetric tongue, which is
spoken in Ethiopia, we see Jewish people called falesha Jews, who were living in Ethiopia,
		

			we see languages, they call hermetic languages, or languages, which are related to the Semitic
Semitic languages being spoken in East East Africa, in Egypt, in parts of the Sudan, in Eritrea, we
find this linguistic connection, we also find the connection in their coinage and the connection in
their understanding of the world. And so, so much was there in the ancient world, so much of a
connection. And even when we go back into our biblical literature, we see the story of Solomon Nabi
Suleiman alayhis salaam, and the famous King Solomon, who thought he was the most powerful person on
earth. And then you heard about a queen in the south. And this is the story of Bill peace, or the
		

			Queen of Sheba, whose base was in Ethiopia and in Yemen, remember that connection that is there. And
so they met at a salon because he was given the power to control even the jinn, and to to connect
with the birds and to connect with insects. And so he was able to bring the throne of Bill peace,
all the way from Ethiopia, all the way into, up into what is now Palestine into this region there,
he was able to bring that throne, he was able to make that connection with Bill piece. And this is
an amazing understanding, up until today, if you go to what is known as exome, and this is an
Ethiopia high land Ethiopia, you will find a temple there that the Church of of St. Mary, and you
		

			will find the special place where the Ethiopians believe is the Ark of the Covenant. And so it is
believed that so they manually slam that with the ancient records and the scrolls and there was a
chest and there, the power that was given to humanity through these testaments, these early
testaments was manifests in this ark of the covenant and according to the Ethiopian
		

			Humans are so a man or a slam, gave it to his son menelik, who took it to eat to to Ethiopia. And
that is still resting within that area in excellent. Allah knows best, I had the opportunity to
visit there an exome. And I reached the place where the Ark of the Covenant is lying.
		

			There is a priest at the door, and there's another priest who's living on the inside. And people are
so serious. The Ethiopian priests are so serious about this, they are living in a type of ear to
calf, a type of isolation, a spiritual isolation, and they are constantly doing their repentance,
and they are protecting it and the and the one who lives inside, never comes out his whole life. And
when he's about to die, he brings his successor, he appoints a successor, and that person comes in,
and the Ethiopians refused anybody, even the Queen of England, to go inside to see the Ark of the
Covenant. I asked about it to historians, especially to Palestinian historians, who really were deep
		

			into that ancient history. And they don't believe it's the actual act, but they believe there is
something of value inside something from the ancient times. And so the ancient is connected to the
present. And people up until today have that connection to the ancient world. There's no separation
really, between what is now Arabia on the eastern side and Africa, on the western side of the Red
Sea. It was all originally part of one continent. And when it's separated, the people coming in,
moved on to both sides. And because it is so close, when you're in Djibouti, you can see Yemen on a
clear day. So the region is very close. And the people are close, they intermarried. The trade was
		

			brisk conquest, we're going on constantly. And this is crucial for us in understanding East Africa,
and looking at its connection with the ancient world. And we pray and we hope that we will be able
to continue our understanding, to go on to understand our East Africa, remember from the top of the
Red Sea, to the Horn of Africa, and then down the coastline to Mozambique, and then inland to the
societies living in Tanzania, and Malawi, going up to Uganda, to Kenya, to Ethiopia, to Somalia, to
the Sudan to Egypt, that whole region there. We want to look at that region to understand what
developed further south. What happened in the history that can give us lessons for today.
		

			This is so important. When we look at East Africa, there is a tendency for people today, when you
mentioned Africa, they think about a Dustbowl, they think about refugees. They think about a state
of confusion. And no doubt. East Africa and the Sahara region have been struck with climactic
changes. But what we have to understand is that there are resilient human beings living in this area
who have carried on a tradition that goes back to ancient times. And I can safely say that that
tradition, which was coming out of the highlands of East Africa, and which went into the great Nile
Valley, which traveled along the Red Sea and moved over to Portland, and then later went down the
		

			Swahili coast to coast of East Africa, that that civilization is one of the most important early
civilizations in human existence. And it is affecting us up until today, the past is connected to
the present. And although people may be suffering at one point, it does not take away from the
contributions that the people of any region have done to the world. And that is what is being a true
human that is what is using our intelligence, that we are able to connect the past to the present
and then look to the future.
		

			So let us reflect on the past. Let us look at the achievements of all of the peoples of the world.
Put it into proper perspective. Look at the situation today. And what is happening in the world.
Recognizing the achievement of all human beings throughout this planet and then connected to our
projection for the future.
		

			And maybe inshallah, we will be able to develop a type of society where those who have freely give
to those who do not have because as they say in the Arabs would say Yeoman laka, where Yeoman Holic
there is one day for you, and there is another day that would be against you. So I pray that
Almighty Allah subhanaw taala would bless the people of ancient East Africa would bless all of those
righteous ones from the beginning of time, as I leave you in peace with these thoughts, was Salam
Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh