Abdullah Oduro – Iman Cave – The Muslim Marijuana Epidemic
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The speakers discuss the addiction and potential harm that comes with smoking marijuana, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and embracing its use as a means of addiction. They also touch on the transition from young men to men with a history of addiction to drugs and the importance of following rules and boundaries. The Mah eminent act is seen as a way to avoid harm and should be respected, with the potential benefits of detoxing from a drug addiction and the importance of following rules and boundaries. The conversation shifts to the topic of addiction and the potential for negative experiences to be "byproduct."
AI: Summary ©
One of my students comes to me with their cousin. She's like 1415
year old girl. And I told her that I really appreciate you coming
here. She was like, Look, I do not find any serenity, any peace in
the prayer. I find peace by smoking weed. I find peace by
rolling one up. Lighten up a spliff, a blunt, you know,
whatever it is. That's why I find my peace. Right?
That is definitely some type of addiction. But she mentioned she
was addicted to it. And she was happily addicted to it wasn't like
she was coming to me like solve my problem, right? No, she was more
like, convinced she was expressing her. Yeah, her happiness. He was
more like convinced me that there's something wrong with this.
I remember when I became Muslim, you know, I can listen, guys like,
look, the wheat is from the earth, bro. Oh, man, I just heard that so
many times, right.
It's not It's nothing. It's worth what's wrong with it? What's
right, we just want to Earth call us my brothers. And let's allow
one day. He actually is only gonna tell us he lit it up. So he lit it
up and he passed it after the prayer immediately, immediately
after. And I remember I'll never forget and I was That's it not to
pray for that. But I was like, Oh, should we be doing this man? And
then one of those like bruises from the earth.
Call you bugging, bugging me? I'm telling you. You bugging. You're
tripping out? You're weird? Yeah. So okay, video games. All this is
a form of, you know, getting that dopamine which brings a sense of
pleasure. And hopefully transferring that dopamine
response to something more euphoric, that deals with the
shitty Avila which Allah has legislated. But like weed man, do
you see that it is prevalent with young men? And how do you counsel
in that? What advice would you give in that regard? It's very
prevalent. There's no doubt it's not most of the Muslims are in the
400% for the Muslims. But if someone is convinced that it's
okay, if they don't want to hear the other side, like this young
woman, then there's not really much we can do about them. In
fact, that's true for any type person coming for counseling.
Right? Okay, so why are you here? Because my mom wanted me to be
here. Okay, okay.
You don't really want to make the changes, it's not really a whole
lot we can do. Right. So the first is recognition. And a lot of times
that's lacking, there's not a recognition, that recognition of
the that, like marijuana is a haram substance, right. So until
that changes, it's very hard to take a step. Now for those that
are it's going to be, it's going to be a process just like any
other type of addiction. It also depends how severe it is. Right?
So somebody smoking every now and then is different. If somebody
lighten it up seven days a week, five times a day, right? That's
different. So if it's less severe, maybe we can get by with less, if
it's very severe, then we may need to take more drastic steps such as
inpatient or outpatient clinics, detox, so on and so forth. I found
anecdotally,
in our communities, it's, it's kind of like a social thing. So a
lot like it's like,
people will stop it when they're not in that environment. Right. So
they're they,
they change, you know, they were all in high school together, they
were smoking. And then after they graduated, like, when's the last
time spoke on that since high school? Right? Oh, like six months
ago. So that's not an addiction, right? That's just, that's just a
bad habit that flares, every literally literally, where's
everything
that lights up every now and then. So it's just kind of depends on
the severity, but if they don't, if they're not going to accept
that this is not something they shouldn't be doing, then it's
gonna be hard, you know, to go anywhere. So what would you say?
What would you say to the brothers that are convinced that it's not
harmful? If Allah subhana wa Dyana told us to do something, there's
benefit if he told us to stay away, there's not benefit, whether
we recognize all that benefit, or recognize all the harm, it doesn't
matter. It's still we still have to follow it. You can find
anything you want, about darn near anything and you can justify
anything and people are doing that with core beliefs and it's not
right and they can do that. So I'm not here to argue with them on
that.
What we're saying is ultimately why why are we refraining from
this because Allah subhanaw taala has given us boundaries and
guidelines to live it right. There's no end to justification
well you know, if I if I protect myself then I can have relations
with with anyone I want. And I can be really I can really protect my
right there's no there's no end to that. So it's just opens up a
slippery slope and doors go back and forth. It's not there's no end
to it. Now it reminds me the verse is versus foundational, you know,
when the last month autism I started when I started Yes. Aluna
kanila how many will make
the people ask you about liquor and gambling? Wolfie, Hema if Moon
kebenaran woman left
earliness he said, tell them that in both of those things are great
sin and benefit there is Yeah. What is the Mahamat act bottlemen.
That's, he said, but the sin is much more than the benefit in
those things. And how who knows the benefit Allah? That's what he
said. We don't you know, if Allah subhanaw has legislated it, that's
what we say submit and well done. It is we hear and we obey. It's
not a condition for our worship to know the reason of the ruling.
Right. Right. And that's the ultimate submission. And that is
where, I humbly feel. That's the transitionary point from that
young boy to being a man,
a Muslim man, a responsible man, a purposeful man, a Transcendent
Man, where he says, oh, Allah is not pleased with this, I'm not
going to do it simply simply because Allah, Allah is not
pleased with it. And I think the challenge is to or they have to be
okay with that. Right. Right. And that is the drip of water. That's
the process, you know, that first day of 5g is going to be, you
know, 90% of the time, he was thinking about that I'm just, I
guess I got to do this.
And that's where it becomes, you know, an unseen force where law
affects your heart. And that's what I want to say about this girl
in my mind, as we talked for, like four or five hours is this this
youngsters like what I was saying, in my mind, just like you said,
it's not my job here to convince you. Like you already seem
convinced. And the attitude of you asking is like, you prove to me
that this is like, we're not gonna go in there. And we know, if
everybody stays, it stays in their lane. Oh, it won't be any what is
it? There won't be any accidents. Everyone stays in their lane.
Right? So let's just make sure that okay, are you coming to get
advice and trying to find out? Firstly, What's your connection
with Allah? What do you think about a lot come to find out?
There was some doubts in Allah in general, right? Before even this
issue? Yeah, this is a byproduct, sometimes the guy's got a little
let a little stress off, man. And that, and that may do it for them.
You know what I'm saying? So there's healthy outlets, and
there's all kinds of ways to let off stress. Exactly. What are some
of them? What are some? What would be a good swap? Because me
personally, I mean, sports is a huge thing. If I'm able, like,
it's literally my drug, I call it my month doesn't mean, you're
gonna play soccer again, it's like almost, you know, 12 a month. If I
don't do this, I'm either gonna just get depressed, or go a
different route. So this is my outlet like this is even if I
don't win, even if I have a horrible match, I get my body gets
that relief. Now I'm able to get her off off of me. And I think I
think Subhanallah it's, it's kind of transferring that dopamine
release, because you find your pleasure. It's euphoric. I mean,
there's nothing like a buzzer beater moment. Yeah. You know, I'm
saying where it the Time is winding down, and you make that
move and then or your teammate makes it and then it's just the
crowds going wild internally, and then externally as well. There's
nothing like that. But then allowing that also to be a buzzer
beater moment within some type of even though that can be bad. Yeah,
it is. It is. Definitely, but to where when it's okay. I had those
alone moments as well. When I'm reading the Quran while I'm
praying or I'm sitting with good companions. They're talking about
good things. Yeah. You know, I think those it's really that
element of transferring that dopamine from smoking weed from
*, which we'll talk about, from, from, you know, from video
games, to where they make that conscious choice to do these
things that they know are better for them.