Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Way Ahead Being an Imam
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa
salatu salam whiner, so you will know Salim are the early he was he
Ovako seldom at the Sleeman Kathira Illa Yomi Deen another
just to clarify,
chaplaincy is not first for any particular reason.
So this the seminars here, they're not in any particular order. It's
not like chaplaincy is the best thing you can do. Right? Just want
to clarify that.
I'm going to be speaking about a moment.
And firstly, because I only have 10 minutes, I'm going to try to
the idea is that we provide a basic overview here, and then
anybody with further questions, Inshallah, that will be taken care
of in the workshops. So
a moment, initially a moment, especially in the subcontinent,
and other places, were simply leaving the prayers. And maybe
they did a few extra things, janazah, goosal, etc. But
otherwise, it was simple. In fact, in many places in Pakistan, they
have the immaculate position, and they have a hottie position. So
the Imam doesn't necessarily have to give the Joomla Beyonce that's
a hottie, sometimes just the Hatim they take from the local mothers
or the teachers, they do the heat of it. And they don't necessarily
do at the moment. So you have that in many places. However, looking
at the West in general, UK, US, etc. The Imam that is a job that
is Subhanallah a superhuman job, right, as many of you are probably
aware of, it requires you to be a multi talented individual with
various different
abilities and skills. Now, it would this would be something
typical that any decent Imam at post if you want to make it
successful, and you want to really do something with your Imam, and
this is what would be required. Right? So you'd need to leave
prayers. Of course, that's very important, in fact, because if
you're leading prayers,
you're leading a few prayers because there's another imam who
does the majority of prayers and you're just doing a few prayers
and you're doing everything else like mucked up, counseling and
everything else, they will be a good segment of the community that
will think that you're not doing anything. And if you have a
15,000 18,000, maybe 20,000 package, then they will take that
20,000 package and divide it to the number of salads you do in a
week. And let's say that for every salad, you get paid 100 pounds,
and that's too much. They won't see anything else. So some people
implement is just leading prayers. They want to see you on the masala
but really a moment is leading prayers, generally teaching
children through the mucked up, whether that be managing the
mucked up or just teaching in a mucked up counseling, whether you
like it or not, you have to do counseling in this people will
come to you with some
some issue some agony and you have to be an agony uncle and agony
Imam. Right. You have to do that. I mean, to learn some kind of
counseling to study some kind of counseling would make it very,
very, you know, it'd be very useful. Of course, it's a
leadership role. That is, it's a leadership role. Everybody says
Imams up Imams up, you know, Imam, Imam, Imam, everything is Imam,
whether it's your responsibility as an imam or not everything is
Imam and they expect you to take care of everything. An imam then
has to become a leader, which means that he doesn't have to
necessarily do everything himself, he has to at least delegate that's
a successful Imam, to preempt these things to find needs in the
society and maybe delegate, find concerned members of the community
or the Obama set up certain classes and things like this.
That's what you call him on these days. Religious guidance, of
course, answering people's questions, and comforting people
who are in need, somebody's lost a son, somebody's had a divorce,
somebody's lost the business. All of these things come about
believing you on a day to day basis. It's it's a really, very
comprehensive task, aims and objectives. None of this is
exhaustive. These are just some points. None of this is
exhaustive. None of this, you know, we don't claim that this is
the only points here. These are just some of the points. guide
people in this industry should be in their religious needs. That's
one big one big plus one big
aim and objective, make religion practical and relevant for them. I
believe that that is really what matters. Anybody can go and lead a
prayer. But as I said, to fulfill the the more widespread role of
being relevant, how would you take the dean that you studied in a
madrasah and deliver it in a practical way that people want to
take it? That is what you call wisdom? That is what you call
hikma, the delivery of that knowledge? Do I have to say this
in a soft way? Do I have to say this in a harsh way sometimes. Do
I have to shout? Right we should be just really sometimes
All right. Do I have to talk about something else first, get their
attention their sympathy, then bring this issue up to them, or
should I just go in and bulldoze everything? Right. These are the
challenges it's the hikma of how you deliver that knowledge. That
is, I believe the the crux of a successful Imam. And that is the
Prophet salallahu Alaihe. Salam, right of how you deliver a
knowledge,
help unlock the door to Wilayat. Right? Be as essentially take
people to Allah, whether they are common people, none Allah ma, you
have to tell them the door of Wilayat and closest to Allah is
open to you as well. It is not just for the alumni, it's not just
for the few it's for everybody. As long as they fulfill the fluoride
and obligations, that's what we have to tell them. And of course,
lead people to paradise inshallah be at the forefront on the Day of
Judgment with your congregation. Sounds very ambitious, but that's
really what it should be insha Allah
suitability, again, you need a lot of wisdom in delivering your
message and how would you get this wisdom?
I would generally suggest to people that, you know, people have
different personality types, some people are very interactive,
mashallah, if you're of a studious type, somebody who just like
studying a lot, right? Who likes his books? For you, Mr. Ahmed, is
going to be a bit difficult because you're not a people's man,
I'm telling you this from exam, you're going to be forced to be
extroverted, you're going to be forced to go and do things that
are mundane, like listen to people, you'd rather you'd rather
be studying. Right? So there's a person nullity type there, you
need a lot of flexibility, you will be called up in weird hours
of the of the day and night, strange times you will not have
flexibility to say no, no, this is not my time.
You know, of course, you can put your foot down in some cases. But
otherwise, you have to be open to the public. And what you have to
realize, and this bothers you a lot. Sometimes somebody will call
you in the middle of the night or something like this and ask you
like, you know, you know,
Robbie, is that kind of a thing? You know, the desert Eric came and
asked Brian, give me of that which Allah has given you. This is what
they say to reporters a lot is unknown. And you really you want
to get angry, like, I've got so much miniata You know, you want to
get angry, but you can't. You have to just take it and then try to
explain to them and hopefully it doesn't happen again. Just don't
give you a phone. I have two phones. Now that works a lot have
your personal phone and have another phone for question answers
which you can shut off when you want. So that's that's the public
phone number. You can't hide yourself. You can't be any mom who
does is solid. And then he's gone. There's sometimes I've gone to
find any mom and I want to talk to him. And believe me, I was
waiting. And then I was I started seeing somebody else and the mom
is gone.
Because they think you shouldn't talk to anybody that doesn't make
us successful. Successfully mom is that they go outside and they talk
to people, they make themselves available. That's the idea of it.
You have to have a lot of compassion, soft heartedness and
compassion. One thing good for people. Right? This is a character
trait one thing good for people wanting to help people. At the end
of the day, if you keep that in mind and altruism, which is just
my understanding of altruism is for the sake of Allah, that, okay,
this is bothering me, I'm going to be late, my wife is going to be
waiting and saying, you know, you're always late for dinner or
whatever the case is, but at the end of the day, this is for Allah
subhanaw taala. If you've got that in mind, then inshallah things
become easy for you. It's not just about money, forbearance and
forgiving personality, you have to have a very thick skin. Believe
me, you will be told there'll be some people will come and say, you
know, so and so he was saying this about you?
What are you supposed to do go up to the ganja? Why are you? Why are
you saying these things about me? Right? They will do that. And
Hamdulillah you know, when we experience you have to build a
thick skin and then go and make salaam with that brother, the next
day, somebody come over your brother,
how you charge, you know, whatever it is. That's what happens at the
end of the day, you have to win them over.
And of course, Punctuality is very important. The reason is that, as
I said for most people, they want to see you there exactly on time
and especially many of our masjid, they have these fitna clocks with
the seconds on them. Right, this is a big fitna and they just wait
for this, and they waiting for that time. And if you're not there
and you're not on time, then what you have to remember is that, you
know, if you're going for a meeting, you don't want our
meeting and you go there five minutes late. It's it can be
accommodated, right, it's tolerable because you got to our
meeting chart or five minutes late, but when you're on a moment,
you're solid is five, seven minutes, maybe 10 minutes, maybe
15 minutes. And if you're late in that you're in big trouble because
every minute there are second counts as multiplex multiplication
of many things, and then they wonder why they paying you. Right?
So it's very, that's very important. The benefits of the
role, opportunity to perform your Salah tyndrum
So, I'm serious that is it forces you to be in the mercy for your
salad. And I believe you know if you if you're doing this with
sincere intention on the Day of Judgment, you will just be
Subhanallah amazed at the amount of reward you have accumulated as
long as the intention is so he attained the greatness the
greatest reward of the prayer so within a Jamar, the greatest
reward goes to the Imam right so you are mashallah getting the
reward the greatest reward of them because the baraka comes down to
Mercy comes down as well. Bara Hamitic Allahumma Dalio Barbara
hermetic, this mostly comes down to the Imam first, then it goes to
the row behind him to the right then to the left and second round
like this, you're getting mashallah, you are the source of
this mercy.
Benefit hundreds of people I won't say 1000s, but definitely hundreds
of people which means if you have the you have the best audience
because you have a live audience in front of you who have to come
to them operate. For example, if you're doing how to if you're
being a hottie, even a hater, but you will benefit these but believe
me, generally they say that a Bian there's generally a 5% a 5% take
up of any speech, which means 5% out of 105 people out of every 100
will do something with what you say, if it's a solid ban hedge
ban, for example, and maybe a bit more Ramadan, you know, increases
20% 30% 40% But, as an Imam, you constantly get this ability to
benefit people. You obviously benefit numerous people, you
benefit the men, the women, the children, the the the wider
schools, if you're doing your job, well school visits, why the non
Muslim community through interfaith work, open houses,
whatever else that you're doing, you have a massive scope to do a
lot of work. So the kajaria through everybody that you teach
or assist everybody that you have told something to, for example,
you say to them, you mentioned that you know, when you go into
Sainsbury's and Morrisons or Harrods or wherever, and you read
La ilaha illallah, Hula, hula che Nicola Hula, hula Mercola will
handle you where you need to be at the hill how you do or who or how
you lay a Moute behind the other condition included you get a
million rewards.
And then then 10 People went and did that. You also get the reward
every time they go into a shop and, and read that dollar until
and then everybody they teach and those people teach, it all comes
back to you. So can you imagine how much investment you can make
us anymore. It's quite amazing.
Of course, you receive the doors of your congregation, everybody
you help, they will have an impromptu dua that will come from
their heart, Allah bless this Imam, establish yourself in the
community. Establish yourself in the community means that if you
want to do something else you don't want to do at the moment
really, you want to start an organization and Institute you
want to do something else? Well, you need money, you need support
you need
you need a standing in the community, you need people to
recognize you. One of the ways to do that is to become an imam.
First, you get some recognition people understand you, they can
see what you've done, then you can leave and do something else and
give somebody else a place of your mallet. Challenges of the role.
This is the one job where you'll have everybody in the committee
and some members of the community as well who are not members of the
committee. They will all be your supervisors and bosses. Everybody,
you know, like if you're a chaplain, you only have one boss.
That's why that's an easier job. To be honest, right? But in this
case, every member of the community is going to think Imams
up, you know, you did it too long today and somebody said, Man You
took you were too slow today. Okay, you know, how do you balance
this? And this is just a simple thing. Right?
You have, you will be open to a lot of criticism and comments. You
just have to learn how to take them. Don't get defensive. Learn
to understand, understand, people will exaggerate, but there may be
an ounce of at least a bit. Proportion of truth in there
maybe, right? So don't ever become defensive
that some boards and communities will already have a conflict
within them. There are already two parties. How are you going to
negate negotiate that if you're an imam in that masjid, firstly,
don't ever go into a masjid like that unless you have serious
negotiation skills, conflict resolution skills, otherwise, you
will be in big trouble because each party will try to make you
this. And if you do become one party to the others, then you have
lost your job. Meaning you've you failed, you need to be above
everything you need to be the go to person that will provide some
solace and comfort and guidance to both sides is a very difficult
thing to do. Cultural or liberal demands or restrictions. This
could take a long time. You have cultural demands, they want you to
do something and you know it's not Islamic, it's just cultural. Or
some people want to be very liberal in a masjid. They want to
open up to this particular activity or that activity, maybe
have some speed dating. Right? And they have justification for these
things that you know, the Masjid has to be a role for this and I've
dealt with all of this in America where this is
normal stuff everyday was a new challenge in England is a
different challenge. In England, you have to tell people that
things are permissible, right, we've got some 100 different
challenges everywhere.
Interaction with the coach Imam that sometimes provides its own
challenge. Sometimes the other Imams there from before. He's got
a particular way of doing something. And he wants you to
conform to that. How are you going to do that? You have to learn how
to do because if the two and there are places Subhanallah that two
Imams have a conflict.
That's very, very detrimental because then it's what you're
focused on. You're praying Salat, and you're worried about, you
know, your argument against the Imam. These are the challenges.
Okay? These are the prerequisites qualifications I'm sure most of
you know, but this is just a refresher of mine. Good sound
recitation with dish with please, we need that. We need people to
enjoy their prayers to have good recitation.
And masjid should get people with good recitation. No memorization
of a sufficient portion of the Quran. I mean, I'm just being very
pedantic here. That's obvious, right? But you need to know
being sufficiently knowledgeable of the related rulings of solid
Imam as a normal everyday fitna, Al Hamdulillah, will be mostly
ADAMA, they should know all of this.
Counseling knowledge and skills, take a course if you have to, it's
very, very, it would be very, very helpful. If you tried to learn on
job you will make a lot of mistakes, you may break a few
marriages in the process.
Language of the community, that's another factor. If you're in a
Bangladeshi community, we'll learn some Mongolian. Right, if you or
if you're in a vigilante community, well, you better know
some Gujarati. It helps, it helps a lot to be in that
the demand of the moment. It's huge, seriously, it's huge.
masajid cannot find Imams, right, they can't find your mom's good
leadership is extremely important at this time. And generally, it's
the Imams of messages that will lead their communities with all of
the challenges that we're facing today.
I was unconventional hours, right? You start off at four o'clock in
the morning or 130 depending on which time you follow sometimes so
Fudger right. And it just depends when it's Ramadan or which time of
the year it is SubhanAllah. But that's all part of the job. Right
salary. Salary is anywhere between um, being, you know, generous
there. 12,000 to 33,000. Right now, both of those ends are the
extreme ends generally and there's even more than 33,000 There was a
recent place in Tower Hamlets offering like 40 something else.
Right. Stamford Hill was offering around 33,000 they broken the
ceiling, you know, the salary, salary ceiling, they broken, but
they can't find any money.
Which is really sad.
Unfortunately, there are somebody I just Just this weekend I was
somewhere the two Imams were getting 12,000 a year. That's it.
Right, that's half of the lowest band of chaplaincy. hamdulillah
have is portail sub Rahmatullah Haley had visited he asked him how
much is your pay? He knows somebody in the committee and he
mashallah pushed it up to 18,000. And he said next time I come in
Sharla 23 or 24, but unfortunately, he passed away
before that. Right. But unfortunately, this is a bit of a
sad case.
You see, we should do it as Imams, and we should take it easy, but
communities should not do it as heat. They should not force us to
do it. They should give they should be generous. But anyway,
that's another story. Is that it?
Just like a local