Open session with Sheikh Abdur Raheem McCarthy

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Miss Blair have my Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Ashrafi lamblia was motioning in Bala and he was so big my Assalamu alaykum

welcome I got with me somebody very special who is actually come even further from the continent of Africa. We got with us today, Chef Abdul Rahim, Makati from United States. Welcome, Chair.

Thank you very much.

Chef has been here on on the on the invitation of Peace Foundation. And then you have been the speaker for the fourth, the legacy program that the brothers has actually Marshall actually had. I was actually asked the question next, you know, I'm sure as an international writer, you have actually said you've actually given speeches in over so many countries, and then your as a directive die, you actually involve the you must have come across this question numerous times, you know, we were saying, why, you know, why is Zuma bleeding so badly? You know, why is it you know, what's what's, what's the issue? You know, are we doing something terribly wrong? Are we is it just, you

know, how things are, I mean, this is just a fraction of what we hear from the media, but we all can agree, we are the lowest in terms of our uma can be right now, you know, so we have where did this all happen? How did they all started, you know, I'm sure, you know, if you come in from, from a different different way of life, and you know, the way of finding the light is completely an inspiration, you know, but how how does, you know, as, you know, this my is at this stage, you know, at this situation right now, it's actually

you know, we think sometimes it's a very, because the situation is so difficult, that we're going to assume that we think that the answer of why we're in this situation or how to solve it, we think it's very difficult but it's actually very easy to come up and say it can be said in action in a few words. And it's all in the Quran and the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. If you look into the sunnah of our beloved Prophet alayhi salaatu, WA salaam, he mentioned that a hadith several things that the OMA will follow from the desires of the dunya several haram acts that they will do and certain things that they will leave and not fulfill. And he said, once these things

happen, he said, at least at

some level, Allahu Allah, him ruler that Allah will put a humiliation upon them. And this is the reality of the Ummah today, we've we've done all of these actions that are mentioned and much, much more. And we've left all of these things in much more.

So what's happened is that Allah subhanaw taala has put this duel this humiliation upon us. And then he gave the solution at the end of the Hadith, and made it clear that there's only one way to remove the situation of being humiliated as we are today. He said layer of our own home hat day of July Dini, that he will not send a raise it from them until they come back to their dean come back to the religion. So there's only one way to solve the problem which is returning to our religion. When we support the religion of Allah subhana wa Atana. Allah will support us he made it very clear and very any clear, clear short iron? Yeah, are you holy, the enamel, oh, you have believed in tonsor, Allah,

young circum that if you support Allah, Allah will support you. You want Allah's help, then you have to strive for the religion of Allah subhanaw taala you have to obey Him. So we strive to obey Allah subhana wa Tada, then the Nasir in the victory in the help and the assistance from Allah will come right away. Oh, my God, Allah Who and he said it. And he in a very profound way, a very beautiful way.

If you looked at the if you look in history, the Arabs were one of the lowest known to mankind, nobody even wanted their country, the superpowers of that time, which was in Persia and Rome. They didn't even try to conquer them because they were useless. There was nothing there for them except for sand. Nobody even wanted their country SubhanAllah. So they were they were a nation of

any worthless at that time, honestly.

But then they became the most honored nation.

They became the top and everything. And throughout history, they started to become stronger and stronger, more powerful, and they became leaders. So how does someone come from being all the way at the bottom to being all the way at the top?

He said, I'm gonna call Pablo Villa one national Omen, as in a little bit Islam, that we are a nation. Allah has honored us to Islam, by Allah Magdalena zoafia at a Velleman Allah so we look for honored other than Islam. Allah will humiliate us once again, being here.

rarely, because we're looking for the solutions and other than Islam. So this is the reality of why we reached where we reached the date, we turned our back on our religion, and we're searching for solutions and other than the religion of Islam, and throughout history, we've only been successful as Muslims, when we hold foreign tourists in them. And we strive to excel, both in our religious affairs and our worldly affairs as well.

Wait, so now, it's a very truly, you know, it's actually described and explained in core one, why are we still you know, finding it difficult, you know, it's very, to go back to the roots, it is that we do not know is that is the issue with the knowledge people do not know, to how to go back to the religion, the roots, the real, you know, the way of Salah Salem, and the way the teachings are, why are we not actually going back to the roots, what seems to be obstructing us, what is the what is the barrier that is between us and the the real way of things. I think that a big problem that we have today as it is that the world that we live in, it's a world based on on Sherawat on desires.

And just as you know, the Western countries and other countries in the world, they fell into being people of desires and just following the desires. Also us as Muslims have followed in their footsteps and the Prophet that he set out to Islam, he mentioned that we will find all the ways of those before us. He said, even if they were to go into the lizard hole, we would follow them. And this is the reality is that we follow them into their lizard hole. So this the same problems that they've fallen into, we fall into our societies that hamdulillah are still as bad as their societies. And we give several examples. And any as we lecture around the world, that we still have

a lot of good. So even though we reach this low point, we still have some principles and some good, we haven't reached what they reach 100 Hamdulillah. They they're better than us, and maybe in some organizational skills and some other things that they have. So that's true as well, to be honest. But while I'm there, we still have other social values and other things that we still we excel in this and Hamdulillah. But the reality is that we've fallen into following our lust and our desires. And this goes back to not truly understanding what Islam teaches. And that is we believe that in so many of his lessons if we're going to practice our faith, that we're not going to be able to enjoy

the pleasures of this life. And this is a proper misconception that we I was saying to my wife when she was talking about Subhanallah I didn't know is one of the questions were coming. And I was talking just a handful of people think because we're practicing, that we can enjoy ourselves. That's it. Even though we're lecturing here, in the middle deaves All the time we have off from that we weren't yesterday with the brothers to the beach, and we're swimming, we're enjoying ourselves. And we're enjoying the nature and looking at the beauty. And we were able to spend a couple of days and resort and it with the family. This is the fun the pleasures and enjoy life. And Islam doesn't

forbid us from doing this when hamdulillah and I remember that some of our brothers young brothers, they realize this from the ask me to give a lecture in Dublin and Ireland. And certainly sometimes when you are the start of something that this is one lecture that I gave in this university in Dublin, I've actually given it all around the world now. And I've given it in a whole buzz and going in detail in it. And it's you know, we call it the the best of both worlds. And this would Islam wants from us. It wants us to excel in any religiously, spiritually. But at the same time, it wants us to excel in our worldly affairs as well. Also, we're allowed to enjoy the pleasures of the world.

If you look in the verse when ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada said, Well WV man attack Allahu wa our hero, while Athens and OC becoming a dunya. To take from what Allah has given you to prepare for the hereafter. But don't forget your portion of the dunya. Now the scholars have to have see you when you go back to the tough series. Many of them they focused on the portion of the dunya meaning that you take advantage of the time you have to prepare for the hereafter. So that's that's a tip. So that's mentioned in the books of Tafseer. Other scholars said no actually what's meant by this? What attends NOC becoming a dunya don't forget your portion of the dunya is enjoy

the pleasures that you have from the dunya

this is important Shekinah know what they mean Sheikh Rahim, Allah Tada. He mentioned that both of these tips are correct. And there's actually no contradiction between the two. Because what Islam wants from us is to take advantage of the time that we have now to prepare for the hereafter, but at the same time, don't forget and don't forbid yourself from enjoying the pleasures of the dunya. And after I explain this is in the lecture, I will in detail missing several Hadith from the prophets that Allahu Allah he was sending from one of the Hadith he said Ali salatu salam in Allah you hipbone your utter net material, Abdi that Allah loves to see the the impact or the effects of the

blessings that he's given on his servant, and another Hadith when he was asked about the Kibera in pride. The problem is that at least set out to sort of after describing it because the side of the Sahaba had asked

When he heard about the pride no one who has the pride he will call a thorough and adequate of pride in his heart he will not enter into the agenda right away when others have he said, but sometimes someone likes to have nice clothes, and likes to wear nice shoes likes to dress up likes to look good. What was the answer? The province was LM, he explained to him No, that's not what's meant by being arrogant because it Enola Jamila and you will demand that Allah has beautiful, he loves beauty. So having an even the Prophet and instead of some of the Hadith, he mentioned four things, and this is in the lecture.

We always no as the brothers

were sitting in front of us, if you were to get, you know, a million dollars today. And we can ask you as as the viewers as well, if you would have a million dollars, think right away, what would you want to do with those, with those millions, that's about the same thing that all of us have in our mind right now that we would do. If we had a million to $3 million, what we would do with it.

Islam teaches us the same thing. So Pamela, and I'll show you the Hadith, he said four things bring happiness. And he said from them, the the the having a nice house, and he adopted was having a nice, right. And the right obviously back in the day for them was

was to have, you know, a nice horse or a nice camera. And for us we can say a Beemer or, or a Benz or something like you have a nice car, as long as something doesn't go on your heart and make you arrogant, having a nice car. Um, that's there. Also, he said, the pious wife, and having a good neighbors mean living in a good area and a good neighborhood. That's all of us, we read immediately focus on these things, making sure we had a nice house nice car hamdulillah if we had a blessed wife, we would, you know, take care of her more, and we make sure we live in a good area for our family. Another thing that we would do is make sure that we had a good future for our children.

Saddam and Abu accosted are the Allahu and when he felt he was on his deathbed, he was very sick. He wanted to give sadaqa with all of his money. He wanted to give sadaqa with all of his money, and the prophets that Allahu alayhi wa sallam forbid him. And he said, you can only give a third. He said, we're thrilled with cathedra. He said and that's that's a lot. He said, It's better to leave your family better off. So once again, Islam is teaching us to prepare for the future is to make sure our family are taking it taken care of. He said it's better to leave your family better off than having to go big, and that's the people. So everything we want to do with our money, Islam is teaching us

to do it. The problem is we don't understand Islam properly. If we understood Islam properly, we can know that Islam wants from us Yes, to be obedient to Allah and be obedient to follow in the Sunnah of the Prophet said Allahu Allah was involved in the private area set up to Salam. But at the same time, it doesn't permit us from enjoying the pleasures of the dunya. At the same time, it wants us to excel when it comes to excelling in the affairs of the dunya as well. And that's why the enemies of Islam and those who have gone astray. And even we have in Muslim Societies now, different liberal movements or secular movements, who are coming in, they're trying to attack Islam, they're trying to

attack the practicing Muslims. And they're trying to take from the lessons that happened in the French Revolution. When those people, they rebelled against the church. But the problem is, is that when you come to Islam, and you come to the practicing Muslims, we never did the same thing. Look at our history is right here, right there. And here we are today as Muslims who are proud to be practicing Muslims, Muslims who are new or striving for Islam, we never forbid science, we never forbid, invest in ourselves in engineering. In fact, when you look in history during the golden ages, which the West called the Dark Ages, and it was their dark ages, which is true, but for us, it

was the golden ages. And it was the time that many of the inventions that we have even today with us, even the cameras that we have around us, who is a Muslim, an inventor who who reached the foundations of the aviation, who who reached it bass, even foreigners before the Wright Brothers, all of these examples, and medicine and engineering, we have all of these Muslims, scientists and inventors who understood the importance of knowledge and excelling not just religiously, but also in the worldly studies and the worldly affairs as well. So Islam is always different from from Christianity, so you can't make the comparison. So we have these now new Liberal or secular

movements who want to say that Islam is gonna hold us back. Islam is what put the people forward in the past is what made people in advance in the past. And that's what what Islam wants us to do today. Islam doesn't want to hold us back. It doesn't want us to not be modern, and not to benefit from modern technology, and to invent new things and to be more productive as Islam is telling us to do this. So once again, we're not understanding what Islam is what Islam wants. This is what makes people go straight. It makes people misunderstand Islam and not practice Islam. So once we understand those basic things, that we can enjoy life, and we want to be modern, we want to excel in

the affairs of the dunya as well we want to be to be the best and all of these things. Once we understand that then it's a may come easy for Muslims to come back and practice Islam, and then to excel in all aspects of life as well in general Tada. So it's actually like, we were finding if we want to bring back those golden days, so we have to actually go back. Go back to the roots

understand our stuff, it's all about, as you said, it's such knowledge right understanding of it. So there is definitely a gap in terms of understanding the modern day or the other youths are having difficulty in terms of understanding, I believe, that's where we actually get in, where we have to actually go back and then get things sorted out, we have the solution with us. And all we need to do is actually understand the real, if they understood that, then it becomes easy. The problem is we have these misconceptions. And that's what has to be removed. That's why many of the things that you said, you know, with yourself a group like the brothers of yourself,

the brothers in the Peace Foundation, the brothers who, you know, the from the youth, in the end, they understand what the youth need, and they're working with them to show them the way. And these are people who are who are having fun and enjoying themselves. And we show this all the time, then we go out. And I remember that. I met I was at a university in Ireland giving a lecture. And one of the doctors must he's one of the head doctors, they're in Ireland. He came with some with a youngster. And this youngster when he met me, he learned that I train you know, I lift weights and I trained MMA and things like this and jujitsu. And he was like he was shocked, you know, to see this

is like a shift, you know, because he's the mom and his budget is you know, haram. Everything's haram, you know, and I don't know what he has to be halal in the masjid and everything is haram haram. Everything is haram. So any for him, he's grown up this thing, haram haram, everything's haram, all the sudden, he sees another chef, wearing like, you know, normal clothes, and it doesn't have to be all the time. So, um, that we were, you know, like the job and this as well. But anyway, it's not something you have to wear, if you're a practicing Muslim, if you're a chef, you can wear like I'm wearing today. Alhamdulillah. But it has to be obviously in an Islamic and Islamic way. So

and when he when he saw this, he was he was shocked. He said that you can do these things in Islam you can, you can actually enjoy life, you don't have to be miserable, you can have fun and train so of course have the last word. And in fact, Islam encouraged us to do these things. So to have the balances, which Islam really wants from us. Now, we we find that the youth, you know, we obviously see that there's so much of the you know, knowledge gap, no understanding issues, or probably people scaring people off, as you said, you know, the Imam saying, you know, haram haram to everything. So we actually, rather than actually inviting people to Islam, we actually portraying ourselves as a

very negative, you know, we have our ways of doing it, and you are not, you know, you don't fit in there. So, we also have the issue of, you know,

using the technology, to gain in depth knowledge to gain that understanding, you know, some people, you know, some, especially the youth, rather than actually going and asking this collar, you know, or learn person, they actually resorting to Google. So we have more Google graduates than we have graduates nowadays. So what what is the side effects of having this kind of more graduates, you know, Google graduates,

I think that the problem here, there's two problems. One of them is the youth themselves, as you described as Google, Google graduates, it's a good one, I never heard that one before. So you have the Google graduates. And then you have the scholars themselves, both of them have issues that they need to focus on. And to be fair, it's not fair for us to paint all scholars and all students of knowledge with the same brush, because many of them are, you know, when it comes to technology, you have some of our chefs, who have any over 20 million followers on social media, and night and day, they're on Snapchat and Twitter because they realized that this was one of the ways to reach the

people, it was one of the new platforms and they focused on it. And that's what we need to do. And a lot of times what we've done in the past, and this, I think this is a it's a good sign. Because in the past, I feel that as Muslims, we kind of got on the boat a bit too late, and many of the things

when it came to, for example, television, and if you look at television, this is I talked to people who are you know, very big, and when it comes to media, and one of the things like when it comes to television Subhanallah Where is a proper, good quality Islamic cartoon station for the kids.

The one in US, Australia, there's, there's, there's tries now, but how good is it, there's also don't forget our kids are used to very high quality now. But when it comes to the potential of the ones who can make the sketches, the cartoons and do this, we have the people who can do it, when it comes to the money we have the money but what we chose to do in the past before the social media Rush is that we chose to have all of these, you know, a shift sitting in a chair for 25 minutes or 26 minutes talking to the screen, which is something and it's there. I'm not gonna say there's not a benefit, but it's not the most beneficial thing, the same money that we're using on these on these

stations we could have taken half of it and put it into making the cartoons a proper cartoon channel for the kids. So this is something you'll see that now you see if this is this group in Austria I don't know the group myself, but let's say for example, they're doing a good job. But is it too late now? Because now we're on the social media rationale. So how many people are actually gonna be watching these things? Maybe online? Yes, they might want you to have the net we have to obviously continue here and here to be productive. But this is this is just an example.

I have getting on the boat too late when it comes to social media, many of the shoe and Hamdulillah, they, they understood right away and they went with it and Hamdulillah. So social media, I think we're doing very well, when it comes to the do out in the scholars around the world in different languages, they're doing well, several countries have visited, you know, some of them are still very on to the old system. And the old system still is good, it still has its outreach, but you have to create a balance. So there and there is an issue with some scholars that we said this, you know, this haram guy, we're talking about the this one imam who don't really understand it, and that

happens, I think more so. And for us in the West, where people will come from outside and don't understand our society, but the ones who are from the society. And it's been very important for the even if they're a bit older, that they have this strong relationship with the local scholars, like, for example, here in melodies, that they have relations with the youth, and those who are in the practicing ones who understand what the youth need. And they they make the proper outreach to them. So there has to be efforts made on that side. But we have to be fair, there is good. And there is mistakes made. But sometimes you see all the scholars are what's holding us back, which is not the

truth. Because when it comes to social media, I think we've done very, very well. And socially, we couldn't we have done better. Can we do better? Yes, obviously there's room for improvement. But there are so there's a group of scholars who have done well and a group who need to improve on that. That's when it comes to the scholars, when it comes to the youth. They become very lazy when it comes to making efforts to learn. And so if I remember, there was a a bodybuilder he passed away some time back. And he was he was a bit crazy in many ways. But there was something that in some of his talks that really stuck out to me that I liked. And he had a movement, which he called the 5%

movement, meaning that most people don't do it. Everybody wants to do it. Everybody says he can do it, but they don't do it. So he's talking about the Five Percenters, he called the meaning the ones those are the ones who actually go out and do it. So the seven, it's a similar thing now with our youth, people they want to, they say they want to learn and they go and they get these clips here and there. But if someone really wants to do something, you have to do it property, social media, no doubt, it's a way of benefiting. You can find some good answers there, you can benefit from it, no, no problem, but the traditional way of learning and actually going back, and that's one of the

things when you look at the the Sahaba, or the islamic awakening, which happened maybe about 30 years ago, in the Muslim countries, where people started to come back in masses to Islam. And then the Dow was spreading, you'll see that there was Tao there was, you know, lectures that were, you know, emotional lectures, and a spiritual lectures, you know, just to do inspiring lectures to inspire the people. But at the same time, along with that, there was sitting down with, with, with the scholar, and

in studying from from from the books. Now, in the days we live in, it's brilliant, because sometimes you might say there's not enough scholars, you can do it online. We have online universities, we're talking to brothers the other day about IOU Islamic online university that Dr. Bilal Sheikh May Allah bless him preserve him that he actually founded, well, you can study for free online and you have the basic fundamentals and the things that you need to learn about your deen, there's other courses, you can find out, we need an improvement here. By the way, this is an area I think, with the courses in this that we need to improve when it comes to Islamic

Islamic sciences. And it's not knowledge. But having that it's available, you can find it online. So the youth, they need to make the effort to any, it's social media is good, that's one way. But they need to take out the time to be able to learn as well, if you really want to have you know, beneficial knowledge they're going to truly benefit from, they have to also go back to the traditional way. So what Islam is always about the balance and creating that balance and gentle Tada, and all aspects of life. SubhanAllah. So it's about you know, we need to have the tradition where approach as well as you know, adapt the ways of, you know, the culture or, you know, trying to

we might change a bit now, this this, this is an area where I'm, I'm many I have some issues, so I'll put it out there. We need to keep traditional, but how traditional debate any pay attention to this. So let's go for example, I'll give you two examples when it comes to public lecturing.

I'm of the opinion that these long lectures and now we've probably gone too long here as well. But sometimes we get lucky we get it right. And if you look at for example, the TED talks, what did they say the limit they put his 18 minutes. And it's very similar to what our beloved Prophet that he said not to mention, when it comes to the hope of Joomla which he said from the fifth of the Hadith, the understanding of the Hadith, is to have a short hotbar and tend to make his prayer longer. Whereas now we make our prayer very short and very long. So we shortened the talks. So this is something we these type of talks and even when I travel like I'm traveling here, I was a bit

reluctant. I said I can I can travel here even though much of the crowds in Maldives were pretty big mashallah, but and then sometimes I travel to some countries and there's 100 people sitting in front of me, and I do something on social media. And I can within a couple of minutes I can have 100 views. And then within a day I can have 1000 views and even sometimes even even it goes even even more

More than that. So I was thinking while I travel, but that traditional way of meeting the people face to face, it has a good impact on them, and even even on myself as well. But perhaps we need to focus on shorting the lectures. So something brilliant that the youth was the youth any, sometimes they think of a different and they have creed, and that's what we want from our youth is to be creative. I was in Denmark, and I explained that my my, how I felt to the brothers, I said, these long 45 minute, lectures, our lectures, but when you come from abroad, people want this because they you know, you're coming from so far, they only get to hear you once they want you to talk a bit

longer. I said it should be 20 minutes, 30 minutes, max. So what are the brothers do the ones who are in charge in the masjid of the organization of the Dow activities, they were from the youth, they broke it down into two different lectures, like 25 minutes each, and they put like a 2015 20 minute break in the middle coffee and biscuits and this, it was beautiful. So we came back to the second lecture, we're energized and this and it was really fun. So that we need to be more creative in how we do the things when it comes to the traditional knowledge. And this debate with many of the scholars, many of the students of knowledge, when it comes to,

you know, taking a book and reading it, this, it's a good approach. It's a proven approach, and we benefited from it and those before us. However, when it comes to these days isn't the best approach. Sometimes the books, they're translated. And even in Arabic, the wording is very difficult. Sometimes they really need like, what is this, but you come to a different way of teaching. And and like for example, with with a PowerPoint presentation, for example, or, you know, you break it down into bullet points, and then it opens up for the people, you change the language a bit to make it a bit easier. And we have this even our scholars in Arabic, the ones who wrote in the times we live in

the way they write and how they set up their books, is much easier, you can go to an old Arabic book, and it's like one big

run on sentence with no punctuation or anything just alone, you're like, wow, and you're like really struggling to read it. But then you go into your paragraphs, you have bullet points, that makes it very easy for us to read and understand. So we prefer this type of reading. So the same thing. Now when it comes to the teaching, perhaps we can make it in that way as well. Instead of doing the traditional way we're reading something I don't understand that the scholars can come and they go back to the original source, but and giving it to the basics to the to the to the youth or to the masses of the people who just need the basics of knowledge. To break it down in an easy way to make

knowledge easy for them to understand is a very important role of the scholars to do Inshallah, so we keep it. So it's traditional, we're taking from the traditional sources, but we're giving it to them. We said Arabic fulfilled God, like a new government, we give it to them in a new way. So a new a new way of presenting it. I think that's very important in general, it's about creative ways of actually, exactly, yeah, very true.

Just I want to just ask the last question, I think you said you said, I will talk it's now going beyond that 18 perhaps will be first will be creative, will cut it and make it exactly.

Now, what are the modern day challenges for the youth Muslim youth? You know, what do you find? You come in from from I know born and bred in us, but now living in Ireland, coming from a very different society and culture. What do you think as an ummah, you what what are the challenges that we are facing right now, I think the main challenge that we mentioned before is the issue of the Schauerte the desires and less than desires. We've talked about that in detail earlier. But also you have the Schubert the misconceptions to spread. And then obviously, when we live in an era where things are online, everything is online, you will find many misconceptions. And the only way to

protect ourselves actually from both of these, in terms of the shahada and the desires, and in strongman to be able to overcome it. Where does strong demand comes from? It starts with knowledge, having strong knowledge. That's what Allah said in the Quran, into my actual law firm in a bad heat and aroma, that the ones who fear alarming, truly federal law are the Allameh. The scholars, the ones who understand the ones who know the greatness of Allah subhana wa Tada, when I know the greatness of Allah, and I have strong to heat, strong belief, I know that Allah can see me, I wanna do that which I going to be held accountable, you'll fail under the greatness of Allah, I know what

happens, and the Hellfire know what I know what I will be able to get into the agenda, this knowledge is going to help me to be able to fight against these Shaohua these desires when it comes to the Shubha the misconceptions that are spread? How can I be strong in this because you have many misconceptions. And if for example, if you look at those of the youth who fell into different extreme views in the days that we live in, and they followed the path of extremism, and how do they fall into this because they started to practice. They didn't have the strong fundamentals of knowledge, but they had strong passion for Islam. And when they saw, as we talked about, in the

first question, what's happening now that almost bleeding what's happening, they felt that the only way for them to resolve this was to follow this extreme way to get back at the enemies and to try to help the Islam and Muslims. Perhaps they had a good intention. But the way that they took didn't lead them to be on the correct path. And there's something very profound that the great Sahabi Abdullah Massoud Radi Allahu Anhu said and we can take this as a general principle in many things.

He said come in Meridian limb, you'd recall that how many people who want it clear they want it good. They didn't reach it. Because if you don't take the correct path to reach the good, then you're not going to reach it. Even if your intention is good. It's not enough you have to follow the path. So here are you in the when it comes to these individuals who went astray, it's because they didn't have the proper knowledge. If you had the proper knowledge right away when you saw some of the things that were being said in these extreme views, some of the things that were being done right away, you know, that it contradicts the basic fundamentals and teachings of Islam because you

have the knowledge from the Quran or from the Sunnah. So you see you they some of these things that we saw that any throughout the history of Islam, we never saw crazy things and the days that we live in. So how could someone say this? How could someone do these things? Because it says this in the Quran says this in the Sunnah. So this couldn't be Islam. But if you don't have that knowledge, and you're only based on, you know, being, you know, you're inspired, you're pumped up, and, you know, help us now help the Muslims. These are the people who were swept away because they didn't have the knowledge. Also, as you mentioned, the secularists views, or the liberal views that people have

nowadays, they also didn't understand Islam as well. They also don't know the teaching of Islam, that Islam wants us to excel and the affairs of the of the not just religious affairs, but also the worldly affairs as well. It also allows us to enjoy life as though we're not forbidden or shackled as the as the people think. And we gave several examples for that. So any with the knowledge we're going to overcome, be able to overcome the show what the desires and also the Shabbat, the misconceptions. I think another problem that we have, that we need to really, really focus on when it comes to the youth is that we don't have proper programs for them. We need to have that we, it's

there's nothing wrong with making it fun.

Something brilliant, the brothers in the Peace Foundation were talking about last night, if they have a program now with youth with football or soccer, as we say, in the USA, playing soccer with the youth. So they're gonna be playing with one of the sheiks who is good in soccer. And he's also a practicing brother. And we see many examples. So this is something beautiful for our youth. Now that we see examples like our brother, Mohammed Salah, we see our brother, Kobe, who are people who are at the top of their game and as athletes, but yet they're devoted Muslims. You see our brother, Mohammed salah, he's reading the Quran on the plane, you see our brother Khabib. He's in the gym,

and he's sweating. But it does come in time for this. And he's what he is praying. So this inspiration, they say that we need to find these type of alternatives for our youth, where they have fun things that they can do, but they can be also any religious and practicing as well. So once again, it comes back to the issue of creativity, we have to have that balance. Because a lot of the times the things that we're calling to them, they're not fun, any many of them massage it in the West. They're saying the youth don't come say Well, first of all any is he's not at the level of Eman that you are at or that our he might not see things that way. We see. He wants to have fun. So

there's nothing fun for him to do here. That's it. Let's be honest. Secondly,

some of the people in the measure you might run him away like some of the old uncles and things like this. I remember I visited a masjid in Canada, and they made a beautiful program for with basketball. So they said that the youth that we had in the masjid who were practicing, they found a halal alternative. And the ones who weren't practicing and brought them into the Masjid. He said a bit of the uncle's were a bit disturbed when they came in because especially in basketball, always jumping up and touching things on the ceiling and hitting things and running around the masjid. And they said they didn't want this. So we sat down with them explain to him this is exactly what we

want. This is their centers. We want them to be in the masjid. They're okay to humble let them have fun and not do anything haram. So they're in the room. They're playing football inside of one of the rooms in the masjid. It's a side rule, let them enjoy it. You know, I remember something amazing that I met a British river he had been Muslim for six months, six years sorry. And he

was elected as the as the president and his Masjid in the UK of the committee in the of the Masjid. So one of the things he did right away with the change is that he took a room in the back that wasn't being used. And he put 100 inch plasma TV now the massage in America, they're a bit different because they're more like centers, Islamic centers. So you have the prayer room, and then you have you know, other rooms other other things that other functions. So some of the you know, the uncle's right away and

a television and the masjid so it's not in the prayer room. It's not in there. It's in the area in the back. And this is going to help the youth come he bought the PlayStation and they start to make like official tournaments like the FIFA games and this thing. So they started like like crowding into the masjid one of the students who was there. He was telling me that I can't keep my kids out of the masjid now so Panama he said they said it's more fun. He said you have PlayStation at home. They said there's more fun playing with the, with our friends in the masjid. So many of them weren't praying before. And they started praying because of this now so one of the they're playing their

games there that is called they start to pray. So we need to be creative and do fun things for them. And honestly, we don't have this and in most countries around the world and most communities so we need to be more creative and have these type of you know outreaches where we bring the youth in to do fun activities and show them that it's okay to have fun. And I'll finish with this a story that happened to me in Ireland.

We went out

with a group of youth, one of the brothers mashallah he is now studying in Medina, may Allah bless him. He came to our community and wanted to do something he's very active. So he went out and he grabbed, you know, a bunch of the youngsters, about 20 of them and went to the beach. And we were playing football on the beach. When it came time to play Maghrib. We went and we prayed over him. The next day, we took them back to the beach, again, there's an area that I live in Ireland, and it was our asset, and we were swimming, there's a nice place to swim there next to the sea. So we're jumping in with swim everything. Actually, I wasn't swimming with him. But I was I was watching them

was there with them. And we're talking and they got to talk to me about certain things, what they did and what came out of time. It came at a time when we're sitting in a park in front of everyone. So they

would hang out how to pray they made their will do and we pray together, and a joint in front of everybody. So the brothers said, We want you to give a small talk. And I said there's no need for a talk now. I said what they learned the last two days of having the pride of being a Muslim, having fun playing football the first day, swimming the second day, and praying, even in front of the people not care this is I'm a Muslim. It's time for me to pray in front of everybody. I'm going to pray. I said what they learned from this implementation. I said it's enough. I said, we don't need to talk. He was persistent. I gave like a two minute talk and it was about this as well. I said,

this is all you guys need. You don't need to hear words from me what you learned today from the implementation. You're having fun, but you still hold on to your deen when it came time for the prayer in a salata. kanatal movie Nikita Abba Maputo that indeed, the purpose of the prayer is prescribed time for the believers. Now it's time to pray. I don't care if someone says about me, someone sees me I care what a lot of things it's time to pray have to get up and have to pray. And then I'm gonna go back and enjoy myself like I was when hamdulillah

just we're just finishing off two words about Maldives your stay in you know, your trip to Maldives? What would you say? You know? Well, I think the first thing obviously beautiful anyone he talks about melodies. Absolutely amazing when you look at the beauty of the country of the water, but one thing that really stuck out to me was the people themselves and how much the love they have and the respect they have for the scholars and for the Duat. And it's funny, we were traveling to a different island. And we're going by plane, they said the plane tickets, you know, they're free for you and your family because you're visiting international lecturer or scholar. So the respect they

have the police force, they gave us any security detail who went around with us there to make sure that we're safe, you know, the country is very safe, Mashallah. But yet, because they want to make sure that you're safe and you enjoy your trip and nothing happens. The government, you know, how they also open up, we were able to visit a lot of the ministers and sit with them. And they facilitated for us in in the Ministry of Education as well to give lectures in the schools and they facilitate all of this. And it shows the respect and the love that they have for Islam for the Muslims so that we only act that beauty actually overtook the beauty of the beauty of the islands.

We'll have the

JSOC aloha and we pray that now you know, I was born with a problem serve you and reward you immensely, you know, and your work and then you know, spreading the dollar problem. Thank you very much once again, you know,

that ends our program for today and we hope to actually catch up with somebody else there in the near future. Thank you very much and salaam aleikum