Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Blessings and Burdens of Culture
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of living in a home environment, being functional and practical, and not being racist, as cultural differences between Pakistan and India are discussed. They also emphasize the need for language learning for children in certain countries and the importance of finding one's own way of doing things and staying true to Islam. The speakers stress the importance of bringing children up in the home environment to teach them to be strong and positive, and the negative impact of nationalism on society. They also emphasize the importance of teaching children values and values in their learning process to become more aware of their deeds and values.
AI: Summary ©
Like, take it naturally, right?
If I didn't have the phone, I wouldn't
speak to ten of you at once.
I would speak to one person, maybe he'll
take a minute or two.
Let's just say I'm somebody who's really important
and I'm trying to sort out people's issue.
An inspector or, you know, somebody who needs
to help people.
One person comes to me, he'll take one
or two minutes.
Another person will take one or two minutes.
Okay, that seems...
This is in one minute, we're watching more
than ten different subjects, ten different things.
What is that doing to our brain?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام على المرعوث رحمة للعالمين وعلى أهله
وصحبه وبارك وسلم تسليماً الكثيراً إلى يوم الدين
أما بعد One of the things that is
confusing a lot of people, and I don't
think many people speak about this.
One thing which is confusing a lot of
people, especially in the West, and sometimes in
the East as well, is what is your
culture exactly?
So, if I'm to ask different individuals what
exactly is your culture, how would you respond?
Abdulkareem, what is your culture?
Yeah.
You're telling me your Pakistani culture.
Now tell me, what about you is Pakistani?
You probably enjoy Pakistani food, you have your
paratha, kebab and that, right?
But if I look at you, you don't
look like a Pakistani, you look like somebody
with a Saudi thobon and a British jacket.
The hat is probably from China or somewhere.
So, how are you Pakistani?
How is your culture Pakistani?
You understand?
This is a major confusion, right?
What's your culture?
Same as Abdulkareem.
Anybody have a different opinion?
Have a different culture?
Yeah.
You're Bangladeshi.
Bengali culture.
What exactly is Bengali culture?
Exactly.
You don't know what it is.
So, first, a few things about this, which
is very important.
You have some people, they think they are
whatever culture they are.
And then there's some people, they don't want
to be part of a culture.
One person came and he said, I don't
want to marry a...
I can't remember what his background was, but
let's just say Pakistani.
He said, I don't want to marry a
Pakistani.
He said, why not?
He said, because they come with baggage.
He said, who do you want to marry
then?
I want to marry a convert.
Now, converts are wonderful to marry, but anybody
a convert here?
Any converts here?
No.
I mean, some of you will know converts.
Do they come with baggage?
Everybody comes with baggage.
It's just a different baggage.
Some people are just tired of seeing something
from their culture, so they want to look
for something else, not knowing that it might
be more complicated.
If I get married from somebody from my
culture, at least I know what that baggage
is, or what expectations there are, what celebrations
there are, and other things.
If I get married to somebody else, it's
a whole new set of things.
Everybody in the world comes with baggage.
Culture is something you can't take away from
yourself.
Is there anybody here who doesn't like to
be part of a culture, who'd rather not
have a culture?
Is there anybody like that?
There might be, but they don't want to
mention it, right?
The thing is that you can't take culture
away from the human being.
Culture is one of the most powerful forces
in your life.
It's just that for anybody who's lived in
England for 10, 15 years, or been born
here, for you to tell me that your
culture is Pakistani, it's absolutely wrong.
When you go back to Pakistan, have you
been back to Pakistan?
Only once.
That's not how your Pakistani culture is.
You've only been back once, right?
When was that?
When did you go back?
2013.
When you went there, did you agree with
everything?
Or did you see things differently because you're
from Birmingham?
There were things that were different, right?
Yeah.
So exactly what I'm saying.
So you're not proper Pakistani culture anymore.
You can't be.
You eat fish and chips.
They don't eat fish and chips in Pakistan.
Well, it's not normal culture.
So the thing is that you can't avoid
culture.
And I'm not here to say you should
get out of culture because you can't.
But we need to define what our culture
is.
About 70 to 100 years ago, we would
never have sat together.
Maybe.
Because everybody would have been in their little
villages.
Whether that be Mirpur, Punjab, Karachi, Gujarat, wherever
it is.
And they probably travel no more than 3
or 4, 5, 6, 10 miles.
That's it.
That was their life.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has brought us
together here in this great city of Birmingham,
right?
Where apparently non-Muslims can't even walk, right?
According to various politicians sometimes or speakers.
But now we have to decide what exactly
is our culture.
I'm supposed to be Gujarati.
But there's nothing on me which is Gujarati.
My hat is Turkish.
My turban is Indian from somewhere in India.
I just got it in Rajasthan, right?
My coat is Chinese and my jubba is
Saudi and my shawl is Kashmiri.
There's nothing Gujarati.
My watch is Japanese.
There's nothing Gujarati about me.
We have Moroccan Harira soup at home.
We have fish and chips.
We have Italian pasta.
We have pizza.
British fish and chips.
We try to do some...
Gujaratis don't know how to make paratha and
kebabs but we try to do some of
that.
What is my culture?
It's not English.
Exactly, that's what I'm saying.
Is that what...
How are we gonna define especially for our
children?
What happens with this confusion is a lot
of the time when our children get old
enough and then we say, you have to
marry your cousin.
Now that worked in the villages.
There was no other option.
It worked in...
I just went to Rajasthan in India, village
area.
There was a...
The jamiatul ulama fiqh seminar there.
Talk to the local guys, they get married
by the time they're 19, 20, 21.
They get married.
They don't get to see their wife before
they get married.
Right?
They only see them on the day of
their marriage.
And I ask the guy, did you cry
or are you happy?
Right?
Because I know of another guy from a
similar culture who cried on the day of
his wedding.
But that's their culture.
It's not even Islamic.
It's against the sunnah.
But they think it's religious.
Right?
That they're not even allowed to see the
woman they're marrying until they marry her.
And they don't get a choice either.
From the time they're 4 or 5, they're
already fixed.
But it works.
Down there in the village, it works.
But when I went to Bombay, it doesn't
work there.
When you come to England, it doesn't necessarily
work here.
Because there's a whole different mindset.
There's a different paradigm.
There's a different educational system.
There's different dynamics at work here.
So, what happens is, you know, you got
a kid and then they're finally 20, 21,
22.
It's like, hey, you have to marry your
cousin.
What?
What are you talking about?
If you wanna do that, we need to
have this conversation from a young age that,
you know what, you're gonna be married to
your cousin.
And you have to prepare them.
Or you have to see what their reaction
is gonna be.
And you have to meet somewhere.
Otherwise, families break.
People are turning away from Islam.
One woman called me actually.
She had a question about something to do
with salah or something like that.
Something that only a practicing person would ask
you.
Does my salah break because of this?
Only a person who's practicing is gonna ask
you that, right?
A person who doesn't pray, doesn't care about
whether his salah breaks or not, right?
So, I thought, okay, just a regular question,
regular practicing person.
So, it wasn't surprising.
But as we carried on speaking, she then
somehow mentions that I'm married to a non
-Muslim.
I said, what happened now?
Like, you're a practicing person, it seems from
your question.
How are you married to a non-Muslim?
Because you don't get that.
That just doesn't usually happen, right?
Especially a woman, marrying a Muslim woman, marrying
a non-Muslim man.
Then she goes, long story, when I was
younger, I was forced into a marriage.
I left and just married whoever, and now
I'm coming back.
But this is the kind of things that
happens because there's a confusion.
The Prophet ﷺ did not change everything in
the way he dressed and ate, and did
things in Makkah Mukarramah.
His clothing, a lot of people they say
that, in fact, people use this wrongly.
They said that if the Prophet ﷺ would
be alive today, then he'd probably wear a
t-shirt and jeans.
I don't think so.
I don't think so, right?
The reason that the culture there, in fact,
the Roman culture, the Prophet ﷺ wore some
Roman clothing.
The Prophet ﷺ, because Rome was a big
power at the time and a culture at
the time.
He didn't change everything in Makkah Mukarramah.
Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab, they must have had
very similar things.
But the reason is that those were within
the paradigms of Islam.
The culture of the Prophet ﷺ was Muslim
culture.
And anything that is within that is fine.
That's what we're gonna bring our children to
do because we are in a very, very
amazing situation and a setup and circumstances where
we get to see the best of, we
can take literally the best of the Somali
culture, the best of the Yemeni culture, because
I know you got Yemenis here somewhere, right?
You can take the best of the Gujarati
culture.
You can take the best of the Punjabi
culture, best of Kashmiri culture.
You can maintain the best of your culture.
Every culture has some wonderful things within it
because we're Muslim cultures.
But there's also some weird things that have
crept in.
And one of the best places to check
out the weird things is in a wedding.
That's where a lot of the weird stuff
comes in.
Celebrations.
That's where the weirdest things come out which
are not Islamic.
So, what is the way we judge things
and we teach our children to judge things?
Be a proud Pakistani.
Be a proud Indian.
That's completely fine.
Proud Somali.
Proud Egyptian.
Proud Yemeni.
Whatever you wanna be.
Nothing wrong with that.
That's what Allah made us.
And alhamdulillah, that's fine, but not in an
arrogant way.
So, we avoid racism.
If there's some good points in our culture,
and there surely will be, every culture, and
I've traveled probably about 60 countries in the
world, and every culture has its amazing qualities.
I was in China, they have issues, but
they have some amazing qualities.
I went to Japan, amazing qualities.
Amazing akhlaaq.
They're just looking for somebody with better akhlaaq,
and they're willing to become Muslim.
The Japanese culture is amazingly soft, wonderful, generous,
very amazing.
MashaAllah.
So, you have different things in different cultures.
Our job is to maintain the good, take
out the bad.
How do we do that?
Number one, the deen.
Our religion, Islam, trumps everything.
That is what guides us.
Say, what we're gonna keep in, what we're
gonna keep out.
I'll give you a simple example of a
cultural issue.
You go to some people's house, and they
will force you to eat, even if you've
already had a big meal.
They will embarrass you, they will blackmail you,
they will cry, they will do all sorts
of crazy stuff to make you eat.
Otherwise, it's an issue of their pride.
They will force the food in your plate,
and then embarrass you to eat it, unless
you're some Pathan ka bacha, ki mujhe toh
kuchh pata nahi hai, main toh nahi kaunga.
Jo kuchh karna hai, kar lo.
Right?
Otherwise, you know, you're gonna feel obliged.
Then there's some cultures, you go to their
culture, would you like a cup of tea?
And you're like, no, no, no.
And they're like, okay, fine.
And you're like, oh no, man, why did
I say that for?
Right?
What is the Islamic culture?
In fact, a friend of mine, who's half
Egyptian, half Palestinian, he was, he went to
a friend's house, after having eaten already, and
he's a bit particular.
And his friend said, please eat.
He said, no, I don't wanna eat, I've
already eaten.
And he kept insisting.
And then finally his friend, this is an
Arab thing, alhamdulillah, Asians don't do much of
this, but he swore an oath, that if
you don't eat, my wife is divorced.
The poor woman, she's the one who cooks
the food, and now she's gonna be divorced,
because this guy doesn't eat.
And again, if he was like, main toh
nahi kaunga.
I don't care about your wife, mujhe kiya
pariye?
You know?
So, it goes extreme.
Now, is that Islamic?
What was, I mean, we can learn what
the Islamic thing is from Ibrahim a.s.
What is reported is that, when you come
to the house, he won't keep asking you,
kayenge ab?
Hoping you'd say no, right?
Kayenge, kayenge, kya kayenge?
You know, he would just bring whatever was
present, and if you ate, please eat.
And if you ate, alhamdulillah, and if you
didn't eat, then that was your issue.
He's presented whatever it is, and I think
that's really a cool way to do it.
Rather than insisting, or not knowing what to
do.
Somebody comes to my house, please, just bring
in whatever it is.
Even if it's one dish.
I've been invited to somebody's house multiple times,
and they cook about 10 things each time.
They go out of their way.
Right?
MashaAllah, they got a lot of, their women
have amazing capabilities of cooking 10, 15, and
then they even label everything, as to what
it is.
And you can't even go through everything, that's
how much they cook.
Allah bless them.
They came to my house, I cooked two
things.
I said, I'm really sorry, this is what
I could do.
Right?
Should I go and try to cook 10
things, which I can't do?
You understand what I'm saying?
You just have to show the best of
your ability.
And that's what the culture, our culture is
Islamic culture.
And you can't divorce yourself from culture.
For example, I'll give you an idea.
On the day of Eid, how does Islam
tell us to spend the day?
So, I'd like your participation.
What do we know, what our faith tells
us, of how to spend the day of
Eid?
Tell me.
Start off, you know, whichever different ideas you
have.
Yeah.
Having a bath in the morning, putting some
fragrance on, what else?
Decent good clothes, yes?
What else?
What else you do on Eid?
Islamically.
So, in Eid al-Fitr, you eat something
sweet before you go.
What else?
Yeah.
Well, that's for sure.
You better pray Jumu'ah, if it's a
Friday.
Yes, definitely.
What else on the day of Eid?
Sorry, only you know everything.
Nobody else knows everything here.
What else you do on Eid?
Not from cultural perspective, but from an Islamic
perspective.
You go for Eid prayer, obviously, right?
You go one way, you come back the
other way.
What else you do?
Yes.
Eid al-Adha, you do qurbani.
Great.
MashaAllah, that takes few hours.
Yes.
Visit the family.
Visit the family, you could say, is a
sunnah in the sense that the Prophet ﷺ
said that the day of Eid, the day
of Eid is for أكل و شرب و
بآل Eating, drinking, halal drinks, and with the
family.
So, yes, you could say that visiting family
is a good thing on that day.
What else do you do?
You give your صدقة الفطر.
Now, how long does everything mention, how long
does that really take?
A few hours, what do you do for
the rest of the day then?
That's not sunnah though.
What I'm trying to say is that sharia
doesn't tell you 24 hours what you must
be doing.
It gives you guidelines, tells you certain things
you must do.
You could do those things in 3 hours.
And then after that, what do you do?
It's up to you, whatever your culture says
you do.
You do what your culture says.
Right?
However, where do we put a line?
If what our culture says is not Islamic,
we're not allowed to do that.
For example, at one time, when I used
to study up north, it was the culture
that the Muslim guys would hire cars on
the day of Eid and go and race
them on Wilmslow Road in Manchester.
Now, is that Islamic culture?
That was a culture of some Asian lads,
right, that have been doing for years, but
would you say that's allowed or not?
No.
But if you took a race course and
you did it there, that'd be okay.
So that's how we have to deal with
our culture and that's how we teach our
children that this is what Islam says rather
than this is what is...
Yes, we are Pakistani or Kashmiri or Indian,
that's completely fine.
We take pride in that.
We're not self-hating people like that.
We're proud of the good things that our
culture has given us because they've been Muslim
cultures, but they're not 100% Islamic.
I'll give you another example.
I've been looking for an answer for this.
Have you been to some Muslim weddings that
are more halal than normal, right?
And they put nasheeds on while everybody is
eating.
Can somebody tell me why they do that?
Have you seen that?
Instead of music, they'll put nasheeds on.
Yeah, so why do they do that?
What's the function of it?
What's the purpose of it?
Has anybody done it here or seen it?
Yeah, you've seen it.
Some of these little kids are seeing everything.
The rest of you, I don't know whether
you don't want to commit or you don't
know what you're talking about or what it
is.
But I want to know why they do
that.
Why do they do that?
Why do they put...
So you can't complain about the food.
Just give good food then.
Why give bad food and put music on
or put nasheeds on?
In fact, the one thing that you should
be doing is giving good food within your
means.
That is absolutely sunnah.
I just got my son married.
The one thing we did not scrimp on
is food.
We made sure we got the best caterer
to give the best food.
But we didn't have anything extra like flowers
and all of that stuff.
Not to say there's something wrong with that,
but you know what I'm saying?
Food is something because that is...
That's a religious thing is that you feed
people.
Cut out all of the other stuff.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that
one thing which is so confusing for a
lot of people is what their culture is,
what is demanded of them, what is expected
of them is where the confusion is.
For example, there's some families, right?
There's a girl in there who wants to
wear hijab.
But nobody in that family wears hijab.
It's their tradition.
It's their micro-culture.
And then they start getting resistance.
Our family doesn't have anyone wearing it.
Like, what are you doing?
Right?
And...
Oh, there's a guy who wants to now
keep a beard.
Nobody in the family has got a beard,
for example.
There's a guy who wants to start praying
in the masjid.
The culture is just to pray Jumu'ah
in the masjid.
No other prayer.
Massive resistance.
That's the bad aspect of culture.
That's the bad aspect of culture.
Or let's just say that we got a
family where they're into business but dodgy business.
We want to do halal business.
You know how much resistance you'll get?
There's a guy who was in another country.
And he said, I want to...
This is now the second generation taking over
from the first generation.
I want to make sure that all my
books are correct.
When we import, I want to give the
right invoicing.
I don't want a short invoice, whatever.
So I said, we'll do it then.
What's the issue?
He said, no, no, no.
My first generation in America, it's my father's
business.
And everybody does it this way.
So I don't want to do it.
I said, well, why not?
Why don't you just...
Just curious.
Why don't you want to just carry on
that way?
That's what everybody's doing.
Why aren't you doing that way?
He said, it's just psychologically very, very upsetting
and troubling that I'm doing this wrong.
And how do I feel about lying?
But it's so difficult.
It's father's business.
He can't just take off and do another
business.
It's a weird tension situation.
This confusion has to go away.
We have to be clear in our lifestyle.
Especially for our own families.
Because there's just too much confusion in the
world.
So that was one confusion.
Now, another confusion.
I'm just throwing a few things out there
that I find, which is in this modern
world we're living in.
Matters of confusion.
Another confusion is this.
How many TikToks can you watch in a
minute?
Average.
About 10.
Okay, that's good.
Everybody agree about 10 TikToks a minute?
I mean, that's not bad.
I mean, it could be more than that.
20, right?
Or reels or whatever.
Now tell me, is it natural to watch
10 different things, different subjects, different issues in
one minute?
Have your ancestors, anybody, from the time of
Adam a.s. until about 10 years ago,
do you think any human being has looked
at 10 things at once?
So consistent.
Take it naturally.
If I didn't have the phone, I wouldn't
speak to 10 of you at once.
I would speak to one person, maybe he'll
take a minute or two.
Let's just say I'm somebody who's really important
and I'm trying to sort out people's issue.
An inspector or somebody who needs to help
people.
One person comes to me, it'll take one
or two minutes.
Another person will take one or two minutes.
Okay, that seems...
This is in one minute, we're watching more
than 10 different subjects, 10 different things.
What is that doing to our brain?
In fact, you won't even remember the 10
things you watched.
And it's not one minute you do this
for.
You do this for half an hour or
one hour or two hours.
Can you imagine how many things does a
person see nowadays on Instagram Reels or TikToks
within, let's just say, half an hour?
How many different contexts do you think you're
saying?
Probably over a hundred, you probably won't remember.
You do this constantly throughout the day and
every day.
We're not retaining anything.
This is unnatural.
Just think of it as being unnatural.
This is not good for us.
I can understand if you watch a one
hour documentary on one subject.
But to watch a hundred things in half
an hour is crazy.
Nowhere did any human being do that in
history.
How can that even be correct?
Okay, another one.
Even 70 to 100 years ago, how many
times do you think people looked at themselves
in the mirror a day?
Once, that was some people.
Probably some women.
You think men looked at themselves?
I'll tell you something.
In 2000, I moved to America.
And my wife made an observation.
She said, you see, in America, people were
all groomed.
Hair was always done, at least the area
I was in.
England wasn't like that in those days.
England's become like that since then, where everybody
must have some makeup and must be groomed,
general person.
It was just casual stuff.
Because there's more products out there, and you
have to use them.
You get enticed and encouraged to use them.
Motivated to use them.
You get promised that you'll have fairer skin.
There's called fair and lovely.
I go to India, go to different people's
bathrooms, and it's got fair and handsome, fair
and lovely, skin whitening.
What is going on here?
Sri Lankan people are usually this darker tone.
But all the advertisements of these fair-looking
people, they say, what's going on here?
They're trying to make you like somebody else.
Why don't you just celebrate your darkness, your
darker skin complexion?
What's wrong with that?
Nothing wrong with that.
So we're living in some really confusing times.
People are looking at themselves multiple times a
day.
And not only that, they're taking pictures of
themselves multiple times a day.
The vanity that has created.
For example, 100 years ago, if there was
a really stunning looking woman, in a village,
that her beauty would only be the talk
of town until she got married.
Once she got married, khalas, she's done.
She's now settled down, she's gonna have children,
and she gets on with life.
Now, you can literally capitalize on that and
make money on that.
For the next 10 years or so until
your beauty remains, until you kill it off.
And then you get all lonely because you've
been messing around all your life.
And completely unnatural, this is what we're doing.
Unnatural.
And the thing is that, this is just
gonna continue and become even more complicated the
more types of technology are invented.
We're not against technology at all.
We use it.
AI is out there right now.
I use it for some very useful things.
But then there's also the...
It's about learning what our deen says.
And all of these things have been discussed,
not by word, but in terms of general
guidance as to what we need to do
and what...
My suggestion, my advice, which I found useful,
is be functional in life.
Be practical in life.
What that means is, the new iPhone came
out, and you're an iPhone lover for some
reason, which you don't even know why you
are.
Anybody into their iPhones here?
Okay.
Why?
You don't know.
Why?
You can see that on a Xiaomi phone
as well.
You don't have to have an Apple phone,
pay extra money for that.
Yes.
Yeah, but every phone does, not just an
iPhone.
So why do you have to give your
zakat to iPhone every year just to get
that new phone?
I am so faithful to Apple that I
have to buy the new phone, even though
my old one is completely fine.
This is the kind of challenges that we're
going through.
It's peer pressure, but there's nobody even peer
pressure.
It's just for you.
I need to have it.
I need to make myself feel I've got
it, which is even worse.
What are you doing to show somebody else,
okay, you might get validated.
Even that's wrong.
The other one is nobody cares.
In fact, now I don't think anybody cares.
There was a time when people cared what
phone.
I got questions about this shit.
What phone should I buy?
I said, why are you asking me this
question for?
I said, because this is, you know, some
friends are saying this, some friends are, what
should I buy?
I said, you buy what you think is
functional for you.
Now the thing is that, listen, the policy
is very simple.
If you've got the money, and you need
a particular phone with certain qualities, certain characteristics,
bismillah, go and buy it.
Halal, completely halal to do that.
But if you're buying it just to show
off, if you're buying to keep up, if
you're buying just to make yourself feel good,
that's a bit silly.
You're just giving zakat to a billion's company
for no reason.
Give it to somebody else, and you'll get
more benefits.
Simple thing in this life is, if you
need something, and you got the money, be
functional and do it.
Don't do it because somebody else wants it.
If you've got lots of money, you got
the capability, and you wanna feed a thousand
people for your family wedding, bismillah, go ahead
and do it.
Nothing wrong with that.
But if you're doing it because my brother
did it, you're doing it because they did
it, that's the expectation.
Then you are just a slave of everybody
else.
You're just a slave.
It's as simple as that.
I know it feels bad for us to
be like that.
We're a slave of wrong culture.
And wallahu, لا يريد أن تكون عبدًا لغيره.
Allah doesn't want you to be a slave
for anybody other than Him.
I'll give you an example.
I've got a friend who is very wealthy,
makes lots of money, right?
And he buys a new iPhone every year,
doesn't use a case.
Because if it breaks, he just buys a
new one.
That's how much money.
He's been trying to buy me one for
the last five years.
I said, you need a new phone.
I'll get you the latest phone, iPhone.
I said, no, I don't want it.
I'm not against Apple.
It's a function.
I have an iPad, right?
So, but it's just that I don't need,
I don't think I want to get into
this whole craze of it.
So I said, no, no, no, no, no.
Alhamdulillah, I met him about five, six months
ago now.
And he showed me his phone.
He said, Sheikh, look at this phone.
He's showing me his phone again.
He said, it's the old one.
It's not the new one.
What's the new one, 17 or something?
You haven't got the 17 one yet?
You're still a bit behind, man.
You don't have the 17?
How do you know?
It's not out in Birmingham yet?
Okay, 16.
I think he had the 15.
I don't know the difference, right?
So he's like, you got the 15.
I said, what do you mean?
He goes, I didn't get the 16.
Then I realized, he said, I've given up.
I've told him a lot.
Like, I've been really.
So he says, I'll get it next year.
I'm going to, one year, I'm just going
to do Qadha, right?
I'm trying to push him not to have
one for two years.
Because we really need to wean ourselves of
these crazy things.
These are addictions that are not good for
us.
They help nobody.
So these are the points of confusion that
we have.
And it's only getting worse.
A woman told us, a family friend from
America.
We used to be there.
She said, now it is so crazy.
And I don't, you know, this is America,
England.
This kind of thing is absolutely possible.
She said, she's got daughters only.
But mashallah, they're very decent Hafiza of the
Quran.
But she's so worried.
She said that what's happening now is that,
you know, your daughter's friends will come home.
They'll put themselves in the room.
They just, you know, like, lock the door.
Within a few minutes, they've done stuff and
put it on to, forget TikTok, you can't
make money.
Can you make money on TikTok?
You can?
No, there's another one that you make money
on.
No, no, there's another one for bad stuff.
Right?
Yeah, something like that.
These are young girls, 14, 15.
They literally, somebody's in, you know, like, let's
just take an interesting photo and, oh, sorry,
a video.
And they put it on there.
And somebody's making money.
Because now you can make money.
Young, young boys and girls, especially girls, are
making money just showing themselves.
And sometimes the parents don't even know.
I got a call once from a woman,
marriageable age, 19, 20, 21.
You know what her question was?
The person who is, the Rishta, as they
call him, right?
The Rishta.
He's asking me if I can send her
a, send him a * picture.
Is that permissible?
And what I am amazed by, and most
shocked by, is that she's picked up the
phone to ask me whether that's permissible or
not.
Like, why don't you just scream at the
guy and tell him, get out of my
life.
I don't want to hear about you again.
You understand?
So, she said, no, I thought so, but
I just wanted to confirm.
Because sexting is just so open, that it
almost like, is it okay or not?
Another guy tells me who's 60.
His wife just passed away.
He's trying to get married.
And he's just shocked.
And this is not in England, he's in
America, but there was one in England.
He said, I've, I just can't find a
decent person.
I'm like, what do you mean you can't
find a decent person?
He's like, tell me what you're talking about.
He said, I'm talking to somebody, they seem
decent, hijab, whatever.
And then suddenly, they'll send me a weird
picture of themselves.
I'm like, why?
Because they probably think that he might get
more interested, and he just messes up.
He came all the way to England.
He was going to visit me, and he
was going to go to another town to
visit a woman.
Two days or so before he's going to
come here, she tells him that she got
Botox.
Somewhere on her face.
And he's like, I don't want to see
her anymore.
She said, but I did it for you.
He said, well, that's wrong.
I don't want that anymore.
I don't want that.
I don't know women and men, they feel
they must do something because it's become culture.
It's become the norm.
If they don't do it, they get left
out.
Yes, they might get left out of some
of the bad stuff.
But that's why it's only getting more confusing.
And for our children, it's only getting more
confusing because it's becoming normalized with this.
We have to really, the home environment needs
to be the filter of the Islamic paradigm.
We do things based on what's right and
wrong.
We don't care what any culture says.
Yes, we're proud to be our culture and
to adopt the good things of our culture
and to maintain them, right?
But everything needs to be Islamically sanctioned because
that is our way.
That is the only thing that we can
do.
And the last point before I open it
up.
One of the reasons why things are more
confusing, I've been to one Muslim country.
Sometimes in Muslim countries, the religion and the
culture are seen as two separate things.
Everybody's Muslim, like Pakistan, everybody's Muslim, or they're
supposed to be Muslim, right?
Or some other country like Egypt.
What happens there is they feel that religion
is one thing, it's something separate to them.
I see this less in India because in
India there's an attack against Muslims.
It's Islamophobia.
So, they're on the defensive.
Whereas in Pakistan, it's Pakistan.
You know, like it's established on the faith.
And in many other Muslim countries, they don't
have that defensive mechanism except the few people
there, you know, who see the onslaught of
globalization.
So, there's this confusion about what is religion
and what is culture.
And almost like you can have both of
those things separate.
So, for example, you can have some of
the elite of these countries, and I've worked
with them.
They think religion is for the lower class.
Some of the wealthier people think that religion
is for the lower class.
Why?
Because then you have ability to buy what
you want.
And you're living well.
You have a sense of security, right?
It gives you a false confidence that you
don't need, a false sense of independence that
you don't need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So, they feel that God is only and
praying, etc.
is only for the lower class.
What happens then is you get students from
these countries who have paid huge amounts of
money to finally make it to Oxford and
Cambridge and Imperial College and UCL.
And they come there and then they see
British-born Muslims with hijab on.
British-born Muslims who are in their same
class at these top universities with beards and
hijabs, and they're praying, and they're shocked.
Like, you guys are like our heroes.
You know how much money I paid to
get here, and you guys are praying?
They're shocked.
This false sense of security because you have
amazon.co.uk where you can order whatever
you want, and sometimes get it on the
same day or the next instant gratification.
You can watch whatever you want and binge
yourself to death through Netflix and other things.
Creates a false sense of security.
So, you don't feel that you need Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala until it's too late.
So, I'm gonna leave us with a few
points.
That the first thing is we need to
get our home environment.
That is the most important one.
The school, the outside culture.
Online, the home environment is the filter for
all of these things.
We can't impart that to our children if
we're not clear on what's our way.
And we can't leave this to anybody else.
I'm responsible for my children.
I can't blame the maulana at the masjid
or the maulana in the madrasa.
I can't blame him.
I can blame him in this world, but
in the hereafter, I can't say it was
his fault.
Allah will say, no, it's your children, I
gave them to you.
You should have found another maulana.
You should have found another teacher.
It's my job to look after my children
and to have the home environment.
Now, we can't be hypocritical in trying to
have our own lifestyle and have the children
be in another lifestyle.
There's just too much confusion with that.
Too much confusion.
There's another woman.
She's now 40 years old.
She's finally gotten divorced.
So what happened?
What's the issue?
She said, I got married when I was
young, forced to marry my cousin.
The guy was a loser.
I tried to tell my...
He didn't work, he had lots of issues.
I tried to tell my mom.
Actually, I was blackmailed into it because my
father was sick at the time and they
said that if you don't say yes and
something happens to him, you're gonna be in
big trouble.
Blackmail and a half, right?
And then she complained to her mother.
So her mother said, have a child and
he'll sort himself out.
That's the magic.
She has a child.
Allah gave them a child.
No difference.
Tells her mother again, have another child.
Have another child, three children.
Still the guy, still a loser.
Finally, she gets out of that life.
Alhamdulillah, she joined an alimah class.
Otherwise, I know at least 10 women, like
locally, not here but in London, that are
depressed, lost their mind.
When they get divorced because many cultures don't
even allow women to get married again.
That's a taboo.
Another woman called and she said that, actually,
a daughter called and said, my mom is
like this, got divorced.
I said, well, just get married again.
You don't understand, man.
You're a weird chachi.
I think that's what they said.
What does that mean?
A particular place, yeah?
They can't get married again.
I said, look, I don't know what your
culture is but I'll tell you what Islam
is.
That you can get married again.
If you're divorced, you can get married again.
These are some of the weird aspects of
culture.
Some people take them very seriously but they're
un-Islamic and they're bad for you.
I got a friend whose mom died.
So, mashaAllah, his father got married again.
So many people came and said, we wish
we'd done the same thing and done that
for our father or mother.
Because we know how lonely they are.
And that's Islamic.
In the sunnah is that, even if you've
got a day left of your life to
live, you should be married.
The sunnah is that even if you've got
a day left of your life, and you're
a divorcee or widower or widow, you should
get married again.
Remember, in paradise, you will be with your
spouse.
Nobody is a single bachelor in paradise.
Paradise is developed and designed to be with
your spouse.
So, that was several different points that we
spoke about.
And hopefully, it gives us some food for
thought.
Because I thought, you got this topic.
This is what's stopping the inner warrior from
coming.
We just got too much confusion in our
life.
Both in our own cultural life and in
the outside dominant culture of modernization and post
-modernism and all the other stuff.
We need to be able to understand what
is right.
So now, obviously, I've raised some questions or
confusions.
Please, if you have any questions, we've got
some minutes, inshaAllah.
We can take them, inshaAllah.
Sending children to an Islamic school is absolutely
essential.
You're saying, would I say that?
You see, it's...
The answer is not that straightforward.
The answer for me would be that the
best thing you can do is to send
your children to a good Islamic school.
So, there's a number of things in there.
Do you have a good Islamic school or
not?
Some, you've got Islamic schools or Muslim schools,
but they're just for the sake of...
They're just there for Muslims with absolutely no
strictness, no criteria.
They're just running it.
Would I want my child to go there
just because it's a Muslim school, but just
mess around?
No, probably not, right?
So, there's a few factors.
However, if there are two schools that are
equal, I would rather go to a Muslim
school, and that would be the optimal thing,
is to go to a Muslim school if
all other things are equal, right?
Having said that, I never went to a
Muslim school, though from secondary school, I was
in a madrasa anyway, boarding school, right?
But even my children, they all go to
an Islamic school, because we just didn't have
them available.
But if you do go to a normal
school, they're getting more complicated now, because of
the whole agenda that's going on.
It's just become more complicated in the last
five years, right?
Compared to what it used to be.
So, now I would say that I would
encourage more homeschooling, but it's not for everyone,
and for more Islamic schools to be brought
up, because that's definitely the better option.
But I won't just close my eyes and
do that, because sometimes, you know, there's cases
where you've got a Muslim school and a
really good secular school.
And the students at a secular school don't
have time to mess around.
It's just too much pressure to perform, whereas
the other one, they're a lot more lax,
and they're doing all sorts of stuff there.
So, it's not always the same, but usually,
the Muslim school would definitely be better.
Yeah, if the sisters have questions, they can
send it through somehow as well, inshallah, if
there's some.
Yeah.
Yes, brother?
Islamic culture.
So, Islam is very interesting in the sense
that in very few things is it prescriptive
for every single detail.
For example, in Salat, it's very prescriptive exactly
how your Salat must be.
Otherwise, everybody would be doing some crazy things,
right?
However, if you look at, for example, how
your dress must be in Islam, there's not
one dress that it needs to be, right?
There's guidelines.
There's limits.
There's boundaries that Islam provides.
So, it needs to be baggy.
It needs to be concealing.
It needs to be elegant.
These are the guidelines.
Then each culture will have their own Islamic
dress.
For example, in the Indian subcontinent, it's usually
a longer tunic.
It doesn't have to be as long as
mine, which is more Saudi style, but it
has to be longer, so that at least
the midsection and the bottom and everything is
kind of covered, right?
The groin area is covered, right?
That's usually the idea.
And it's usually baggy.
However, that's not the same in the Malay
culture.
In the Malay culture, it's these longer shirts
that they have with baggy trousers.
Then you have, for example, the Kurdish culture
where they have these shalwars that are different
to the Asian shalwars.
And that's completely fine.
Then you go to the Mauritanian culture and
they have these flowing robes, right?
So, whatever it is, Islam is very open
with that.
So, it can apply anywhere.
Just some guidelines, what's necessary.
That's all.
Islamic politics, for example, there's not one system.
There's not one system in Islam.
For example, when the Prophet ﷺ was on
his deathbed, though he made so many indications
that Abu Bakr r.a is the next
person.
He made so many indications.
Made him the imam.
When a woman came and said, if I
come back and I don't find you, who
should I go to?
He said, Abu Bakr r.a. There's so
many, but he never said he'd be the
next khalif.
He left it to the people and they
chose Abu Bakr r.a. So, that's one
model, is to not name the next person,
but maybe just give hints.
Number two, when Abu Bakr r.a, he
did not follow that same way.
When he passed away, he literally named Umar
r.a, that he will be the next
khalif.
That gives us a second model.
Umar r.a, what did he do?
He had two models before him.
He didn't follow either of them.
He left it to a committee of six.
Okay, there's these six.
Of the Ashura Mubashara left, you can pick
any of them.
They will pick any of them.
It wasn't a vote from everybody else.
It was within them.
And he had his son join in as
a tiebreaker if needed.
And Uthman r.a was picked.
We have three different models there to pick
from.
There's not just one way.
Also, for everything else within that, what a
country should do, what Islamic rule should do,
there's general guidelines.
For example, Mufti Taqi Uthmani, damad barakat, has
a book called Islamic Politics.
He shows in there the different hadiths and
the verses that tell us what the guidelines
are, what the limits are, what the boundaries
are, what they should be.
I'll tell you one particular model.
Because there's gonna be different realities of people
on the ground.
So that's why Islam is very flexible in
that regard.
Food-wise, is there an Islamic food?
Bidayani is an Islamic food?
You understand what I'm saying?
Yes, there are certain things the Prophet ﷺ
ate, but it could have been because he
didn't have them imported.
They were local, dates were local.
You understand what I'm saying?
Are dates sunnah?
I guess they are, but they were local
at the time.
You understand what I'm saying?
So it's...
We're allowed to eat whatever.
There's some things the Prophet ﷺ encouraged.
The Prophet ﷺ mentioned shifa in them, certain
benefits.
That's clearly a medicinal, spiritual benefit that you'd
have in there.
But it wasn't restricted to that, that you
can't have pa'ay, or you must have
haleen.
You understand what I'm saying?
So, there's a lot of variety in that,
but we're not allowed to eat haram animals,
haram ingredients, and so on and so forth.
So in lots of things, Islam is like
that.
Yes.
You're telling me to give you a bayan.
Right, you're telling me...
I mean, I've got about 10 to 20
different lectures on ZamZam Academy, on marriage, and
on bringing up children.
So I would suggest you go there, Nusayna.
But everything I said, that's definitely one of
them.
But the other thing I would mention for
everybody, not just you, but everybody else, is
that there are different types of children.
Some of them, mashallah, are very expressive.
They tell you everything that's going on in
their life, what they're thinking.
And sometimes it might be a bit too
much, that you have to listen to too
much, but at least you know what's going
on, it's very transparent.
Then you get some closed books ones.
You don't know what's going on in their
life.
And sometimes until it's too late.
The last few years, I've dealt with about
three cases of 16, 17 year old, usually
girls, where they've left the faith.
It's like, didn't you see it coming?
No.
Why not?
She would never express, she was wearing hijab
until last week.
So what do you do in that?
It's always good to have a communication.
With our children, at least one, if not
both, have to have open communication.
Any topic is allowed in the house.
No topic is taboo.
Very important.
That you should be able to discuss anything.
In my house, literally the children can discuss
homosexuality, gender dysphoria, whatever they want.
Somebody will discuss it.
Right?
Because if you don't have that filter system
at home, then they're gonna learn it somewhere
else.
Some of our children, we pull them out
of the, what do you call them?
Those classes that they do at school sometimes
on * education.
So we pull them out.
Next day when they go back to school,
their friends will tell them everything with some
masala on top.
So that's why the home environment needs to
be a very open one where you discuss.
For example, when you're eating, it's like, do
you have any friends?
Like, how are your friends?
Does any of your friends smoke?
Have you seen any of your friends vaping?
Do your friends have boyfriends or girlfriends?
Yeah, they do.
How do you feel about that?
You're gonna have to strengthen them.
And if we never discuss this stuff, then
they're gonna make their own life.
The culture outside is totally different to your
internal Pakistani culture or Bangladeshi culture or Indian
culture.
You don't know what that culture is outside.
But yet we can take from the best
of the British culture and we have already
because when a lot of us go back
to Pakistan, we frown on a lot of
stuff that's going on down there because you're
British now.
British don't do things like that.
Right?
You can't help it.
You are British Pakistanis with a peppering of
whatever else that you enjoy doing, you know,
from other cultures.
And I'm happy to do that.
Ours is a Muslim culture primarily.
I'm primarily Gujarati.
But I've traveled to so many countries.
I've taken on so much stuff from people.
Alhamdulillah, it's for us.
Allah's not gonna ask that which culture were
you.
He's gonna ask whether you did it right
or wrong.
Take the best of any culture, man.
Yes.
Yes, go ahead.
What's the sister saying?
I mean, how do you deal with our
elders?
Just give them some nasiha.
You know, sometimes they just haven't heard it
in a different way.
Right?
I mean, tell me something.
How many of you have ever thought about
culture the way we discussed it today?
Nobody talks about this.
But it's been bothering me for a long
time.
And I finally...
I talked about this in India right now.
Because I think it's very...
Because in the cities, the cultures are...
Village cultures are still kind of still intact.
But in the cities, like in Lahore.
Do you know that in Lahore, there are
universities that don't have a masjid inside?
In Peshawar, I was visited by two professors,
the vice-chancellor and somebody else, of a
university that do not allow any Islamic talks
at that university.
And that's Pakistan.
There's some schooling systems in Pakistan that tell
their little kids when they take them out
that don't buy any local products, buy foreign
products.
They have this weird inferiority complex.
I've been to Pakistan, been to India, and
I'm talking in English and they listen to
me.
But if the ulama speak to them in
Urdu, they won't listen.
I tell them the same thing in English,
and mashallah, mashallah.
They don't wanna speak Urdu.
They wanna speak English.
In their own Hinglish and Pinglish.
It's a really...
There's a lot of confusion even in our
own countries.
Right?
So that's why define yourself as a Muslim
culture.
And you can take anything good in that.
And you maintain of your own culture anything
good.
And that should cut off the racism.
If you have good qualities, and everybody has
good qualities in their culture, thank Allah for
that.
But don't be racist over somebody else, because
they probably have something else in their culture
that is probably better than yours.
So don't focus on racism.
Racism is wrong.
It's destroying us.
I just spoke to a Somali brother.
Somalia is in chaos because of the racism
within Somalis.
Do you have any Somalis here?
So these are the wrong things.
People...
Yes.
Not necessarily.
Because in South Africa, where it's the 4th,
5th or 6th generation, they don't speak their
mother tongue anymore.
But mashallah, they've managed to really impress the
Islamic culture as such.
Right?
Language definitely does have a connection.
But it doesn't have to be...
Oh, jazakallah.
It doesn't have to be a loss all
in that.
Because it's very difficult.
I think it's only Bangladeshis in this country
who...
from the Asians who really maintain their language.
A lot of Gujaratis are messed up in
that regard.
And quite a few Pakistanis as well.
Some maintain it.
I believe that children should know more than
one language.
It's actually better for them.
In fact, I get quite upset when I
see a recently arrived family who speak in
some weird English.
And they're talking to their children in weird
English.
Like, you don't have to teach your children
English.
The school will teach them whether you like
it or not.
Teach them your own Sri Lankan.
Or your own Urdu.
Or your Gujarati.
Or whatever it is.
Why are you speaking to them in some
weird English?
Right?
It definitely has an impact.
And that could be a sense of loss.
But if we don't make our home environment,
even if it's in English, if we don't
make it Islamic, then they're gonna lose everything.
So, I don't think it's like a complete
compromise.
But it probably does have an impact.
Nationalism is something else.
Nationalism is when you become...
But there's no escape from culture.
It's just maintain the culture.
Just like, don't take the bad aspects of
culture.
Also, don't become racist with your culture.
Don't become biased because of your culture.
Because while you just focused on the good
aspects of your culture, which is giving you
a superiority complex, we could probably point out
so many negatives of your culture as well.
Every culture has positives.
And every culture has weaknesses.
Just like every human does.
So, that's why nationalism in that sense is
wrong.
Right?
Going crazy like that is wrong.
Again, that's just...
That's politics.
There was no nationalism in Islam.
That's just become because of the countries.
India subcontinent was all together at one time.
And then they...
This is history.
There were never religious problems in India for
most of its history.
In fact, not the Ottomans, the Mughals, when
they came to rule, they did not come
to rule on the ticket of Islam.
Otherwise, the whole of Islam, the whole of
the subcontinent would be Muslim today.
You know what I'm saying?
If you join Pakistan, Bangladesh and India together
as it was before, probably about 40%
would be Muslim.
Because right now there's 15 to 20%
Muslim.
That's 200 million people.
There's 200 million people in Pakistan.
So, join that together.
And then Bangladesh, 40-45%.
It was never 100% Muslim.
Because the Mughals did not come to rule
for Islam.
The most religious one out of all of
them was Aurangzeb rahmatullahi.
So, it wasn't a Dawah movement.
It was just their rule.
They just came to rule.
You understand what I'm saying?
So, there was never a religious problem.
This was created by the British pitting the
Hindus against the Muslims and the Sikhs and
so on.
This is what the British did when they
finally could not stay there longer.
And then they split the country up.
So, these are political things and we have
to be careful of what politics does to
people.
I mean, I don't want to get into
this but why would you celebrate an Independence
Day?
I don't see the point.
You're independent now.
Do something to make your country great again.
Why are you celebrating Independence Day and going
downhill?
Go and do something.
So, when students in those countries tell me
what should we do because they all want
to come out to the West.
I'm like, do something for your country.
Something positive so that you can help people
with it rather than just celebrate these weird
things that you do and you get nothing
out of it.
So, in the home environment, for example, the
simple thing is this, we need to, it's
very difficult to bring children up.
However, the job can be made 50%
easier for us if we get them connected
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And that has to be done in an
organic way, not like namaz paragh.
It has to be done, for example, by
taking everything back to Allah.
So, Allah needs to be a presence in
the house.
For example, a friend, somebody I knew, his
father just passed away.
In his obituary, he wrote that my father
was such that from a young age, if
something broke and he couldn't fix it, he
would always tell us, I'm really sorry, I
can't do anything.
But you know what?
Allah can.
Ask him.
The whole point was bringing everything back to
Allah to make sure Allah is the reality.
We're having food and it's an amazing food.
So, we say, Alhamdulillah, look at this amazing
food that Allah has given us.
Other people don't get that.
Our children will pick that up.
They'll take everything back to Allah.
Number two, we need to teach our children
values.
So, what's your surname?
Ahmed.
Ahmed is a first name.
I want a surname.
A family name.
Distinctive.
What's your family name?
What's your khandan?
What's your tribe?
There you go, Mullah.
Okay.
So, you tell your children, you don't vape.
Mullahs don't vape.
What do they?
What's your surname, Abdul Kareem?
Mahmood is a first name.
I want a surname.
I want like a khandan in them.
I've got...
What's your khandan, man?
I don't want like Ahmed.
Ahmed is a first name.
Mahmood is a first name.
What's your surname?
What's your surname?
Khatri.
Okay.
And what's your surname?
Muazzam.
So, Muazzams don't smoke.
They're gonna have a sense of pride that
Muazzams don't do this.
Teach them values.
Right?
So, I'm just trying to, because I don't
have much time, but I'm trying to condense
it.
So, literally, for example, a woman, a girl,
right?
She's eight years old.
How old are you?
You're nine.
So, she was eight years old.
Her brother, older brother, two years older, had
to go to the opticians and needed glasses.
So, when he came home, she found out.
So, she started making fun of him.
You're gonna need glasses.
Right?
You're gonna have glasses.
She started making fun.
The mum said to her, stop making fun
of your brother, because your dad has glasses,
your mum has glasses, your older brother now
has glasses, you're probably gonna have glasses as
well.
Nothing more was said.
Ten years later, how old is she now
ten years later?
Eighteen.
She's got younger ones as well now.
They need glasses.
Everybody in the house needs glasses, except her.
Now, she reveals that, you know, mum, when
I was eight, and you told me that
you're gonna need glasses as well, I started
praying to Allah, that I don't want glasses.
And Allah worked for her.
Question is that, where did she learn that
from?
Where did she learn to turn to Allah
from?
That's the big, if I'm gonna give you
one message today, is teach our children the
consciousness of Allah.
And then the guide will be simple, inshaAllah.
Allah will be there for them.
احفظ الله يحفظك احفظ الله تجده تجاهك As
Abdullah ibn Abbas was taught.
That's the short answer, but I've got several
lectures on this topic.
Please do go and check them out on
ZamZam Academy channel.
Yes.
So, what question is this?
Is there practical ways to stay on top
of spiritual diseases and increase your strong ideas
for culture and media and so on?
Practical ways, there's only one practical way.
In fact, there's two things.
Number one, go and learn more about your
deen.
Most people, their knowledge of their deen is
what?
Where did you learn about your religion from?
That everything you know about your religion, where
did it come from?
Think about it.
A madrasa when you were young, until you're
about 10-12 years old.
That was all geared towards children, they didn't
teach you any adult stuff.
Alhamdulillah, it worked for you.
But after you've become mature, have you studied
anything formally about Islam?
Yeah, you get the odd WhatsApp messages that
you can't even trust.
You might hear something in the Jumu'ah
bayan, random different things.
But have you gone and studied the life
of the Prophet ﷺ?
Either listen to a seerah program, a seerah
whole series, a tafsir of the Qur'an,
what the Prophet ﷺ hadith.
Most of us haven't.
We're still literally just going by the stuff
we studied in maktab.
And then when a new issue crops up,
we have our own opinion about them.
Seriously, practically, you wanna improve, you have to
study your faith.
And there's so much available now online.
From reliable scholars, just keep studying.
At least take one class a week on
something.
At your own leisure at home.
Go to rayyancourses, something through our white thread,
.org, rayyancourses.
And literally there's a course on there called
the Islamic Essentials Certificate.
20 short modules on hadith, and tafsir, and
fiqh, and so on.
If you can't get something locally, or you
don't have time for that, then this is
on demand.
Believe me, you will thank me because then
you'll get a basic, on an adult level,
understanding of your faith.
And that will really improve, inshallah.
And then have some dhikr in your life
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's the two things I would say.
The point of a lecture is to encourage
people to act, to get further.
An inspiration, an encouragement, persuasion.
The next step is to actually start learning
seriously.
To read books, to take on a subject
of Islam, and to understand all the subjects
of Islam, at least at their basic level.
So that we can become more aware of
what our deen wants from us.
And that's why we started Rayyan courses.
So that you can actually take organized lectures
on demand whenever you have free time.
Especially, for example, the Islamic Essentials course that
we have on there, the Islamic Essentials Certificate,
which you take 20 short modules.
And at the end of that, inshallah, you
will have gotten the basics of most of
the most important topics in Islam.
And you'll feel a lot more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind.
You can continue to listen to lectures.
But you need to have this more sustained
study as well.
Jazakallah Khair.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.