Dawah in Times of Distress

Assalamu alaykum Welcome to this live stream today we're going to be speaking about a very important topic, which is dower during times of distress. Just before this just before going live.

I was reading up again on the story of BookCon. I'm sure chef, you've heard this story. So Burt Khan was a follower of sorry, was a descendant, direct descendant of King ISKCON. He was in the city of Bukhara. He was part of, if you like the oppressive force, the Mongols and he was given Dawa to by people who he met some Muslims that he met, he converted to Islam, he invited his brother to accept Islam. And when he went back to Mongolia, part of the one of the things that they used to do was select the Great Khan from amongst the children of King Hassan, something that used to they used to call the cooler tie. He while he was there, he invited the families.

Right, right all the way to the top of the hierarchy of the Mongols to Islam, they didn't accept Islam. But you know, that story is relevant for us today. Because of the suffering that we're seeing in the world. And recently, you gave an interview, which has been going around social media, and you know, a lot of people resonated with the message that the Palestinians had for you shake when you were there many, many years ago. So yeah.

Well, it's interesting that one of the things, I guess one of the few, I mean, I think, I wouldn't say few, because there's many really, I mean, it's very easy to despair and be despondent when we see the tests and the trials the Muslims are going through. But we always have to remember that we always as Muslims believe that whatever Allah has decreed for us is for the best. And as miserable and horrific as it may seem, there are many different benefits that these things have for us as believers, both individually and collectively. And there's no doubt that amongst the many things that is a byproduct of what is happening right now, in Gaza is an awakening, there is a massive

awakening amongst Muslims and non Muslims. I think this is what is really,

really fascinating and really interesting, and not surprising to me at all. It's not surprising to me that many non Muslims have had their curiosity about Islam, sparked by watching the behavior

and the faith and the you know, the fact that these people, the Palestinians, who are going through so much trauma, and unimaginable levels of trauma, yet, they're still thanking God, they're still praising God, they're still turning to God. And it's sort of it's a sort of proof of faith, that these people are just not used to seeing it.

And it's something that has spurred them to investigate further.

So, it's, you know, none of these things are particularly surprising to me.

Al Hamdulillah, and it's, you know, one of the blessings one of the one of the, I think there are many, many blessings, like I said, many, many and all of these things, we have to believe that as Muslims, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Everything happens to the believer is good, everything.

If you're a believer, everything that happens is good. Because if some calamity falls upon you, and some Distress ceases you, even if a phone picks your foot, like even if a phone, you know, picks your finger or picks you up for you, please feel some sadness or some depression, whether it's a mental anguish or it's physical pain, even a small amount, it's good for you. Because through it, Allah, God, there's actually many things that happen through it, what some of it is that God experienced some of your sins, he raises your levels in paradise. In other words, you will achieve a level in paradise that you would not have achieved otherwise, except through these tests, tests and

trials. And but also, I guess, most importantly, it is a sign of love that Allah tests the people that he loves. It is only it is like the the all of the iron ore of the metal, whether it's gold or iron, or any metal, you get this or this thing that is just the rock, you put it in the fire, through that process of going through the pressure and the heat and all that the the forces that are upon it, out of it comes something pure and useful and beneficial. So that's how we should always look at trials, whether it's individually whether it's you in

Be a sub or, or collectively as the whole Ummah or whether it's as a family trials are a way that Allah improves us if we are patients if we are patient. And another benefit is that we turn to Allah we make dua, we call upon Allah, it strengthens our connection with Allah subhanaw taala. It increases our alliances and our trust in God. And these are the very things that are manifesting themselves perhaps in a way that never has before, through the lens of social media is allowed people to see this up close and personal, I guess in a way that, you know, in the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam people would have seen it in person, right, that the mushrik

Quraysh would have seen the Muslims going through all their trials and difficulties and problems and, and how they persevered. And because the same thing for many of them, it was similarly transformative.

But now we're seeing non Muslims. But I think the main things of all we have to think about and that we have to discuss is

are we the Muslims of the West, particularly, because this interest is, as far as we can see, particularly manifesting itself in in the West? Are we ready? Are we ready? To Are we ready to explain to people what Islam is? Are we ready to

really fulfill these people's career curiosity? Yes, we can give them a translation of the Quran? And then what? Are we ready ourselves to explain to them why Islam has this transformative power? Are we ready? Are we ourselves? Examples? See, this is the crazy thing is that you know, and I, you know, I'm,

I have a little bit of sympathy with some of those people who are saying,

they're all these people who go on protests, they call themselves Muslim, they'll go on protest. And I'm, and I had a discussion about this, I'm not against protests at all, I don't think there's anything wrong with them within the right context. And they could even be beneficial. Barring some caveats. I have a discussion with this with Dr. Baker, we had a long discussion about it. I don't need to repeat that here.

But the point is, is that but

if you yourself are not praying five times a day, if you yourself are not worshipping Allah, if you yourself, are not, you know, I have to ask you, what is the purpose of these demonstrations? Now, some people say, well, it's just our humanity. You don't need to be a Muslim to do this. You just need to be human. Okay, very nice, nice soundbite, okay. But it just shows how Pitzer if you say that you are pitifully ignorant of the purpose of life, and the reason for your existence, right. And maybe, of course, any goodness you do in this life, we believe as Muslims, any good you do in this life, you will get rewarded for it.

But if you don't have Imaan, your reward will only stay in this life, you will not benefit on the Day of Judgment, you will not benefit, what the prerequisite for you to benefit on the Day of Judgment when you meet Allah is to have Imaan is to be his worship, to worship Him alone without any partners. That is the prerequisite without a vet. Without it, you're doomed. You won't be in the same place as those people you are protesting about the same people you are protesting about, you're going to end up sharing that destination with them. Because in the sight of Allah, the most important thing is that you single him out alone for worship. And then I have to remind all my

brothers and sisters listening right here right now. You know, and if any of you follow me on Instagram or on social media, you can see for yourself the amount of effort and the amount of time that I am putting into posting reposting articles and things that are going on about you know what's happening right now. I'm not blind to it. I'm not oblivious to it. But back in the days about

2030 years ago,

we were still, you know, having all of these discussions about Palestine. And I remember when we used to do before we started doing the Islamic exhibition in Leeds University. And I'm talking now about 30 years ago, 2530 years ago, right? This is how long this has been going on for. It didn't just start now.

That the ID

You have Tao what the brothers in the Leeds University and a lot of them were Arabs, their idea of dower was a Palestine Awareness Day.

That's what the exhibition was about. It was about the in the Islamic awareness week it was all about Palestine.

Now, you know, I'm all for highlighting, and, you know, helping oppressed people wherever they may be, especially the oppressed Muslims. But look, the Dow is not to Palestine, the Dow is not to Palestine, it is not to building another nation. We don't need another nation on this planet. We don't need any more nationalism. We don't need any more of that jingoistic nationalism, we don't need it. We need what the world needs is Islam, what the world needs is to return to Allah, what humanity needs is the message of la ilaha illAllah. And this may sound raw, and it may sound insensitive. And it may sound like oh, this is not the time to mention it. But in reality, brothers

and sisters, there is no better time to mention it, no better time to remind you that the solution to all of these problems of all of these issues, whatever problems and issues beset humanity, the root cause of every evil is that we human beings have turned our backs to Allah, we have turned our backs to his religion.

We have not fulfilled our covenant, our promise, our commitment, to call humanity to lead. This is the trust that Allah offered to the mountains, he offered it to the rivers and to the seas. And he offered it to the creatures and they all rejected it but we human beings, we took it upon ourselves. What was that covenant? What was that promise? What was that commitment that we made, actually to manifest Allah, that we would worship Allah alone, and that we would be responsible for making sure that this was the reality upon the earth everyone by the way, everyone committed themselves to that

Joe Biden, Netanyahu, every rabbi, every hindu pundit that that those whatever his name is that

leader of India don't even want Modi Modi here, that Modi? Yeah, all of them will lie, they will promise they all made this commitment. What to worship their false gods to follow their false religions? Yeah. No. They committed themselves to establish La ilaha illallah on this earth, anyone who is not doing that is treacherous. Now, some people may have an excuse. Really? Genuinely, who knows? Wouldn't that be scary? Wouldn't that be scary that some people we are lambasted them having an excuse? Because they don't know because no one gave them doubt. No one told them about Islam. No one explained to them what Islam was. How about us brothers and sisters? How about our civil right?

We're the Muslims, what are we, you know, really, again, and again, and again, it shocks me our lack of commitment to spreading the religion of Islam. And you started with something very, very important, a very important story, by the way, which is just one of hundreds of similar stories in our history. In fact, in history of the world support look at Sulaco calf, look at salotto calf. Yeah, what is written calf about?

Right, it's, it is, it's interesting that this surah

the first 10 ayat of surah, tell calf,

is a protection against the job. So there is a connection between this surah and what it says and the End Times, right? You can't help but make that connection. Now what is the main theme of this surah which is named after a group of youths who are living amongst idol worshippers who are giving dower to their people, but they were unable not only were they unable to make headway, they were their lives were threatened. So they fled. Right? They fled to the cave, they took refuge in this cave and then Allah made them sleep for 300 years. And then what happened when they woke up? Society had changed. Right? Suddenly, then he they found that the sights the people were believers, how did

that happen? Because people liked them. And you people who follow them, they were giving dower they were calling to La Ilaha illa Allah look at the story of the Volkl name, who travelled from one end of the earth to the other to the who could say the four corners of the earth. Okay,

calling people to Tawheed spreading the message of Islam. This is what he was doing.

Look at Musa alayhis salam is also mentioned and how Allah rescued him and Benny Surah II, from the evil of our own. So every you see, or you see you go through the Quran and you see this theme of Dower, this theme of calling people to Allah, this theme of calling people to the worship of Allah is coming again and again and again. And I think the only people who will not understand that are people who don't read the Quran. And they maybe they read it, but they don't understand it.

So it's hugely important. And like I said, this is something that is repeated itself in history over and over again, not just with, as you mentioned, with the Mongols, who many of them converted to Islam.

But other times it will start with the Quraysh. You see, you start with the Quraysh. They were the implacable enemies of Islam, but then they became the people who spread Islam.

And you see how Islam spread from one end of the world to the other. And you will find this theme happening again, and again and again. So this is something that Subhanallah we need to take a lesson for, from the importance of doubt, the importance of calling to Allah. And it reminds me of something else. So I was reading, you know, a very interesting book. And it's titled The obstacle is the way. Ryan Holiday. Yeah, the obstacle is the way Yeah, yeah, tells this story. This this story of a king hoofs is he wanted to see, you know, how, how determined his people were and how committed they were to, you know, like improving things, you know, he was very busy doing everything for them,

but he wanted to see, were they capable of doing something for themselves. So what he did is one night secretly, he put a huge rock, blocking the gateway to the city. And this is the main gateway through which all the trade came. And this is what caused the city to be extremely prosperous, and he sat there waiting to see what his people would do. And inevitably, as the story goes, most people just turned away, they did nothing. They did absolutely nothing. They made no effort to move this rock, they made no effort to do about anything about it. In fact, all they did was complain about the king, and did nothing themselves. Except one day, one poor guy comes and he just sees this rock

in the way. And he's sitting there looking at it. And then he goes away, and he gets some more logs and get some logs and gets a train he leaves. Eventually, after all this effort, he levers this, you know, he uses his strength to lend his ingenuity to lever this huge rock out of the way. And underneath it is a letter from the King and like a bag of gold, right? So the whole The whole purpose of the story is the obstacle is the way that the it is in the obstacle itself that you find the solution. This is what is really, really interesting. And that is something i Everybody needs to contemplate. I don't even see we've been through this before you and me. Right. And I era we've come

across many, many obstacles, but we don't look at them as obstacles. We don't we don't even think we don't even think of them. Oh, this is an obstacle. No, we think this is a challenge that Allah is giving us to see. How can we solve it? And what benefit can we get from it? So when COVID came along, you remember right? It was like our whole dallah a whole organization as anyone listening and I area is built upon sending is paying to go out into the jungle into the forest into the mountains into the villages into the streets and give dower face to face and COVID came along and stopped it because people were locked in their homes.

Right?

Now we could just we could have just said well, that's it, we better follow up our organization because stop now because all the things that we are doing, we can't do it anymore. So we just put a hole in it. No. We thought to ourselves, okay, there is an obstacle and Allah is trying to get us to do something else. Allah is showing us the way Allah is showing us a different way. And what is that different way? What did we started doing? We started doing online doubt. And now the online data portal and we started getting our dogs getting them online, opening chat rooms, and it's one of the most successful things that we do in terms of getting conversations and hamdulillah getting shahada

has its massive Alhamdulillah and the benefit is huge and

any day, any one of our days who for some reason can't go out or whatever, well, they could just go online and they can start. And that's a huge opportunity. By the way, anyone listening? If you want to get involved in data and you don't feel like going on the street, do you think it means giving down means going to Speaker's Corner and shouting, screaming like I used to do? And now and now the other brothers might, some of them still same old guys, man. Allah, He was there back in the days when I was there, and he's still doing it. And Hamdulillah. But um, yeah, I mean, you know, you don't have to do that. Obviously not you can go online. That's one of the things we want to do your

support, bro, isn't it, we want to maybe you can tell everyone a little bit about some of the things that we offer for ordinary people about getting down. Yeah. So the thing about online chat, just wanted to add that I recently came back from Nigeria. And on the on the on the ground who worked for hire a full time paid dot, they actually, they actually can't match the results that are given by the Nigerian volunteers for the one reason chat.

So you know,

the obstacle is the way every single problem is actually a challenge to grow. So anybody that wants to get involved, I'll put a link for you guys to look at the volunteering program. What I would say what I would say to anybody that wants to volunteer is don't expect that if you're going to stay away from say, direct one to one Dow in terms of the street that, oh, here's an easy way of doing it, which is the chat because the chat also has challenges. And in fact,

the intensity of the chat can actually give you a headache. I remember when when the chat first started. And it's sometimes when you run these adverts, we didn't know exactly the power of these ads. So sometimes the ads used to get a supercharged, and we were bombarded with questions from non Muslims. And there's literally like one message and another message. Now the message and other times Allah tests you in a different way, that the ads are being blocked, or certain things are happening, and

was it called the less people are talking, but now we have a very good balance. So if you join the chat, we know how many people out there, you get trained with your brother or sister, you go through all of our online portal, and inshallah on the other end, you will actually meet brothers and sisters who are involved in the chat, and then you'll have a entire program for you to follow. So we'll put a link up there but shaker really loved. The reference to the obstacle is the way because sometimes as Muslims, we want the easiest route, we want the easiest Fick we want the we want the easiest thing to do. And, you know, I do want you to remind us of when you went to Palestine, and

the solution that they gave you was not to go back and protest. It was something else.

Well, I mean, it's interesting. And I mean, you know, I think that, to be fair at the time, you know, like,

you know, I've heard some of our brothers point out like Chef or Maharaj, you know, who's been attending protests, since he was like, you know, six year old, six years old or something, I still think I've been been involved in it longer than him. But still,

you know, but but he said, you know, there was nothing that a few 100 people and a few lefties and now they're like, absolutely massive, you know, talking about a million people I heard at the last demonstration, which is, which is massive, right? It just shows the benefit of sticking with things and persevering. And I think they do have an effect. But you know, having said that, it is interesting that you know, as to repeat the story, you can hear the full interview, but the other brothers, you know, after these 10 days, or two weeks, or whatever it is we spent in you know, going around Palestine

and seeing all sorts of, you know, very, very sad and also very inspiring and incredible things as well.

The brothers who are taking us around, we asked them well, what should we do? Now we go back to England, you know, what do you suggest that we do? How can we help the cause? And the brother said, Go and call up people to Islam?

And I think no one really no one was expecting that at all. I can. And sadly, I don't think anyone really followed it through.

At least except I don't want to say I'm the only one who did it. Because I mean, I was doing that. Anyway, it wasn't like, the guys told me to do it. Therefore that's I mean, that's just what I was very much committed to anyway, through my you know, going to Speaker's Corner and, you know, giving talks in universities and you know, Leicester Square and stuff.

But I think what the important thing was, is what is really fascinating is, you know normally

when you know someone is really immersed in something very deeply.

You almost can't see anything except the situation you're in. Right? And you almost begin to see everything through that.

that particular lens as well, right, that's the other thing is that everything you look at, you begin to look at it through that particular lens of your narrow focus, you know of whatever test and tribulation you're going through. And I think what was remarkable for me was the

what was remarkable was this brother's ability to see the bigger picture. Despite everything he was going through, he saw the bigger picture. And that's something that came from his lab. That's something that came from his deep. That's something that came from his commitment, because for him, this was the early days, you know, the First Intifada, and it was the beginning of when people were moving away from Arab nationalism. They were not any more looking towards a socialist national nationalist secularist solution. They'd seen it. They'd seen all of that, and they'd seen it fail, and they'd seen the Arab armies, we shouldn't say the Muslim armies, the Arab nationalist armies

defeated and crushed, right. And they'd seen all of these nationalists, secularist movements go nowhere and lead to nothing.

And, you know, they were beginning to remember that they are Muslim, and their glorious history, and you know, subhanAllah, the glories of Islam. And so it began. So it was an it was a movement that was inspired by that Islamic values more than anything else. That was what is interesting about it. So that this distance is the distinguishing factor about this brother is his commitment to Islam. In fact, all of the guys who are showing us around we're very committed to Islam. And this was the feeling that we got the people you were seeing the people we were talking to, it was the the Islamic revival was happening amongst them. People were praying, and many of them didn't use the pray. They

were fast. You know, like, even in prison. Even in prison, they were fasting Mondays and Thursdays, you know, subhanAllah this is the this is how it was right? I remember there was a story of this kid who I don't know, whatever, something, you know, his his uncle or someone was in prison, and they were talking about it. And you know, and he was telling his uncle or his uncle, his uncle was telling us how his nephew had been telling him off for not fasting on Mondays and Thursdays why you always say, yeah, obviously hadn't excuse but that was like, shocked, like you didn't fast on a Monday and Thursday, like, I'm just saying that this was there. This is the background to what this

brother was saying. So and this is something you know, I think is really important. You know, it's something that unfortunately, with the onset of nationalism, which is, you know, a pernicious, wicked

plot of che time, to take us away from some cool aspects of our religion.

And I really, you know, I think, unfortunately, it's another thing that generally, we should spend a lot more time combating this evil of nationalism and reminding everybody that we are one OMA, we are the OMA of Muhammad, we are the people of la ilaha illAllah. We are not Pakistanis, and Bengalis, and Indians and Moroccans. And, you know, everyone's so proud to be Moroccan and Tunisian and Algerian and Palestinian and No,

no, no, no. What is this? What is this really?

50 years ago, these places didn't even exist? Were 70 years ago, these places didn't even exist. There was no Pakistan, there was no Bangladesh. There was no, there was they didn't exist. Yeah. And those

men, a lot of them were created by the British anyway. Yeah.

And those books, Tony weddings that you're so fond of.

I'm just remembering that clip, that famous clip, there was the one that the one that only nationalists really upset.

Yeah. So, you know, shake, I think you hit upon something, which is really interesting. In fact, I think a lot of young people don't know if this I mean, anyone born say, after the year 2000 wouldn't be aware that there was a time when, like you said it wasn't an Islamic cause. It was a Arab nationalist pan-arabism sort of variety of causes that they were supporting, and Palestine was one of them. And, you know, maybe that's one of the ways that nationalism, Allah made it fail. In your eyes. People believe that 100% Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the Six Day War is an exam.

Full of the,

you know? Okay, so I think one of the things, which is important to note here is, we now are living in a world where everybody can see what's happening. And, you know, the media can't, you know, have a monopoly on its narrative. So you get tick talkers, who are, you know, young people, they're watching videos of people in Palestine, and then they're researching Islam, they're converting to Islam. Some people are coming to Islam through emotion, some people are coming to,

to Islam, with emotions being a segue, but actually, they're getting a deeper understanding. And, in fact, a lot of people are genuinely interested in the faith of the Palestinians, the faith of the region, the generally the faith of the Muslims in these distressing times. So when you are a non Muslim, when you were looking at, you know, all of these conflicts in the Middle East, and I'm sure you must have come across this idea that Muslims are very resilient. And I'm sure you must have seen that in your time in Egypt as well. How do you see that as a factor to attract people towards Islam?

Well, I think, you know, the reality is that people are going through an existential crisis, and they have been for a long time. You know, people are questioning fundamental assumptions about, you know, Western civilization. And I think one of the things is that the whole situation right now is laid bare totally is this, all this talk about international law, human rights, labeling certain people as terrorists, you know, everyone just is beginning to realize it's just, it's all hypocrisy. It's all you know, it doesn't mean anything. It's all really a sham. And it's a lie.

And I think that's the big first step. But the we see what what happens with that is a big existential crisis, because the things that you believed in, and the things that you had faith in, suddenly you realize that they're false, you know, you're worshipping a false god. And with that comes the questions. Well, what is it all for? What's life about?

And so I think these when people are asking these questions, this is a huge opportunity.

Because I do believe that Islam offers a very, very rational, logical, and it's not just rational, and rational and logical. I've been thinking about this. And again,

one of the beautiful things about Islam is it's such a balanced way of life.

Now, people may not think of that, yeah, they may not think you may not

instinctively think about Islam being rational and Islam being balanced. But that's because we already have a very, very warped view of what we think reality is if you have a completely materialistic viewpoint, and so let's take that as an example. Right. So take an example of another religion, that you know, demands and almost, you know, complete Buddhism, for example, in its ideal form, as practiced by Buddha and his immediate followers, is demands, you know, complete monasticism. It actually demands a complete renunciation of the world. And it's, it's very, you know, Buddhism struggled from the very beginning, from its very foundations of how to manifest

itself practically. Because although it was showing that okay, here's a way to achieve enlightenment, it was to realize that, well, not everybody can do that. Because if everybody does it, humanity will literally collapse and cease to exist. So it needed some, you know, benevolent kings to build monasteries in which these particular few individuals could therefore go and spend their time meditating and contemplating until they reach enlightenment. But so therefore, it's not really a supremely practical religion for everybody to follow. So it's, I'm, I'm showing this as an example of a particular idea of religion that is extremely spiritual, that it has no real connection

with actual, actual worldly existence. Right? And of course, you have on the other extreme, pure materialism when there is no spirituality, you know, involved whatsoever. But the beautiful thing about Islam, and this is built into Islam, it's not something that has been artificially transposed onto Islam in the same way, by the way you feel it has with Christianity. If you actually look at what Jesus said and what he taught, you know, hate don't hate your enemy. Don't resist your enemy.

Turn the other cheek if your enemy strikes you given the other cheek to strike, right? How does that? How does that, you know, how does that for someone joining the American army, right and claiming to be an evangelical Christian believing in Jesus? How do you reconcile that? Right? Yeah. Well, they reconcile that because a long time ago, when Christianity got taken over by the Roman Empire, they started developing and inventing their own theology to try and justify it, that had nothing to do with the cheap teachings of Jesus, it's very clear that Jesus was extremely pacifist in his teachings, right. So they invented a home that they tried to invent, they themselves had to

invent a system that tried to find some sort of balance between that. But this balance between a living a life where you are spiritual, where you are connected to God, as well as living, a normal worldly life is built into Islam, it's not something that's artificially imposed on it, it's part of the religion from the beginning. Right? So Muslims, we pray five times a day, we fast regularly in the month of Ramadan, right? We have regular acts of worship, that we perform regular acts of charity that we perform, yet we trade, we buy, we sell, we live in this world, we marry, we have children, all of these things are encouraged as actual religious virtues as well, if they are done

also, in a way that is moral and virtuous and pleasing to God. And this is what I'm talking about this beautiful balance, you will find it again and again. And again, in Islam, when you start to look at it, you'll find this beautifully balanced way of life. And I think this is something that, that people will find very, very attractive about Islam, they will find it in Sharla. Very, very attractive. And I think the more definitely, the more you look into it, the more you study it, the deeper you go into it, you begin to realize, this is not something any human being could come up with. This is this is this is something that comes from an intelligence greater than human

intelligence. This is something that comes from a deep understanding of the needs of human beings, that is way beyond what any one person or even a group of people could have come up with. And it's in itself that the, the Islamic way of life is really a sort of evidence of its divine origin as well. I mean, I often I'm sure, I know, we've had this discussion. But you know, for me,

you know, and I do believe, you know, Islam, I'm sure we can show rationally, it's, it makes a lot of rational sense. But ultimately, probably the greatest evidence of Islam is when you follow it, and you live it, and you see how it transforms your life. That in a way is its greatest, you know, evidence, as we say, you know, we say the proof is in the pudding.

That's the, you know, the evidence is in actually eating it and living it and experiencing it. And so just, just on that point, I wanted to add one of the things which a lot of people are thinking about when they're seeing the images coming out of Gaza.

And this is linked to your point about the proof is in the pudding that Islam works, when you're planning your life. One of the biggest issues, not one of the biggest issues, the biggest issue in the human experience is death, is even thinking about death and mortality. And when people are seeing, you have an ideology, which is allowing people to cope with death, allowing people to cope with death of their loved ones holding their dead ones, and still saying Alhamdulillah still praising Allah still believing? I think, for a lot of people, it's not just a simple

it's not just that there's a conflict going on. And now they're interested in Islam because they're looking at people and no, I think my my personal view is that it's probably because something to do with death, they're seeing death and destruction and people are able to withstand the pressure of death and destruction and they thinking, I want to have that because, look, human beings don't really make decisions for rational reasons. No one really does is it's a minority of people. If someone wants to follow secular liberalism, or feminism or whatever it is, it's usually because that's in line with what they want to the lifestyle they want to live. People are looking at that

and they're thinking, I'm actually scared of death. I may have stage three cancer i In the future, something may happen. I may get hit by a car. How are these individuals dealing with death in this particular way? For you

As when you were non Muslim? Was that something that made you think about Islam the way that Muslims dealt with death?

No.

It was, I mean, I think it was more the way they dealt with life. And I guess I suppose, in a sense, yes, loss and tragedy is a big part of life. And it may not necessarily be your own death, but it could definitely be the death, or the injury or the suffering of those around you. So what impacted on me personally, was how people who are Muslims that I saw reacted to,

to poverty,

how they dealt with poverty,

like crushing poverty, right?

And how are they still happy when they were so poor? It didn't make any sense to me. Like, that wasn't it just didn't compute. So they were dealing with the struggles I saw people dealing with incredible struggles, but they were still happy. And they had an incredibly, incredibly positive outlook for me now, it's interesting because my dad, he found, you know, because he went to work in Egypt. So

he found it really frustrating. Everything was you know, inshallah Mallesh. You know, God willing, it's okay, you know, booklet inshallah tomorrow, right? Like, obviously, is a person who's trying to run business, and whose job is to make money and who's driven by, you know, efficiency, and what, you know, he found that incredibly frustrating. But for me, it was the opposite. This was liberation. This was literally liberation, like, cuz I thought, my God, these people are amazing. They're just so relaxed, they're so chilled. Nothing really bothers them. It's like, yeah, okay, that we should do that. But there's more important things, you know, and it's interesting that my

dad really enjoyed the more important things like he, he was able to finish his day at three o'clock and come home and spend time with his family. And, you know, play tennis, and it was an A lot of that was because how life was constructed there, right. So the one hand, he was extremely frustrated, but on the other hand, he benefited very much from the whole ethos that was there. Right.

And for me, it was like, that was the most amazing thing. For me, the most amazing thing about, you know, the the Egyptian people, the Muslims, was the fact that nothing ever seem to get them down. Nothing really seemed to bother them that much. Nothing. And always though, we mentioned God inshallah Alhamdulillah. Like, God has always been mentioned our whole time. And, you know, for me, I found that really, really, I'm saying this in the face of many of the people, I saw what poor people were really people who are really cool. But it didn't seem to

make them any less happy. In fact, they seem happier. Yeah. This is similar to the story of Solomon Sugimoto Salman, so be more to our, our guy in Japan. You know, he went to Bangladesh or the Japanese person, Japan being a very affluent society, seeing these poor people who were happier than he was. That was his segue into Islam. wasn't somebody coming up to him and giving him the cosmological argument?

You know, humans look cheap, humans are looking for happiness. This is different. That's what they're looking for. Why are right now if you just 20 minutes down the road, why are betting shops and clubs filled with people losing their money and their time because they're looking for happiness? That's it, that that's what we're looking for. Islam is, uh, has the ability to give people that type of happiness. And when people can see that, okay, there's somebody who's content with their life, right? There's somebody that can content with their life, they don't need these extreme bouts of pleasure in order to be happy, they can actually live on the outside what looks

like a mediocre life, but actually, they're pretty content

they are attracted to that. Yeah. And this, this is probably a you know, this is another way it can be linked to your willpower course. You know, controlling your dopamine controlling your peaks and your your baseline and these types of things because human beings, we today are overstimulated and we are depressed. And Islam gives you a way of life that is going to keep you happy, but it's not going to wreck you in the way that a lot of things in society, a lot of addictions and these types of things actually do. And the most important thing, which you know, you mentioned Ryan Holiday and Ryan Holiday and of Robert Greene

In the work together because obviously one is the master wants the student right. You know, they talk about death anxiety. Death anxiety is the greatest anxiety you can actually, you can actually have. I was looking at you know, do you remember Big Brother this this program that started like years ago on TV, right? Reality TV, the reality TV? Yeah, yeah. So

just the other day I came across

the first big brother that came out, I think 20 years ago or something. The woman who was kicked out with a big brother because no one liked her. And she got voted out, right. I think her name was Jodie Foster or something like this. Jodie Foster The actress. She became a fact actress afterwards, because someone else here anyway gone. Now, isn't she? She? She did? She did, she went on to other shows. Anyway, what was shocking is I just looked at that. And I remembered, oh, yeah, she was a big celebrity. And she went over to India to do the big brother in Indian racism route that was going on. I'm not sure if you remember, this is big news back then. Anyway, she came back because

suddenly, while she was on live TV, she gets the message. Right? While she was out there, she got a message on her phone or whatever, that she basically has cancer. She came back to the UK a few months later, she died. And what do you think now? She remember now? Yep. Yeah. What got me thinking is, she died at the age of 28. Now, I was 28. A long time ago. I was 28 a long time ago. So it got me I actually started getting anxiety when I was reading that.

Theory. And just a few days ago, I started getting anxiety. There was another time I was just,

you know, I have cancer, you know, just just thinking about the shortness of life. And I was, I was looking at this ancient mummy that was discovered. And it was, it was sorry, it wasn't, it wasn't a Egyptian mummy is basically a mummified body because of the environmental conditions is really well preserved with a woman with with long, beautiful hair and, you know, features, everything was preserved. And she was well over 3000 years old, with a necklace and everything. I started getting death anxiety, I started thinking man, she's been dead for 3000 years. No one knows a name. No one remembers her. She's a figment of imagination for people.

And, you know, all of us are going to face that. And I think a slam what this conflict has shown us that Muslims can deal with that issue, they can deal with the issue of death, because death is, you know, not going to come knocking at your door when you're a certain age, it can come at any time. And it's the equalizer. It is literally the equalizer. I mean, the narration of the puffs so lambda, you know,

about who is the wisest, you know, the ones who prepare, right. So I think, I think that for me, if I was to break down a lot of the stuff that's going on on Tik Tok right now, and a lot of the stuff that's going on, in terms of social media and people getting interested in the Palestinian issue, I'm just going to get down to nothing. xiety I think I think that could be why people are so attracted to why the Palestinians are so resilient.

Maybe Maybe that's part of it. I think, you know, from I'm not gonna have an argument with you.

But that's what people are saying is that they're going through all of this suffering, and they're still remembering God. Yes. Yes, I think so. For a lot of people, it's the suffering, and that how all of that, you know, doesn't turn them away from God. Right, is making people realize, I mean, even atheists, right, like, you know, I think some of it is just

I don't know, like, people are motivated by many different things. Human beings are very strange, right? You know?

Some people some people you know, they want to study it because you know, I hate these people, these Muslims that I won't go I want to find out. I actually there was this girl who was a Zionist, she was a full on Zionist she had gone to Israel joined the kibbutz, and everything. And this is mashanda. What's happened to this this lady many years ago. And she actually married an Emirati and yeah, and she Subhanallah she studied the Quran in order to fight Muslims.

So her her motivation to pick up the Quran was to fight the Muslims and she read it and said, Oh, this is the right religion and became Muslim, masha Allah. So Allah Akbar, it's just amazing. You know how Allah guides people, but I think to go back to the main thing support is that the fact that Allah is gonna guide who he wants to Islam, that's the reality and whoever he is going to guide is going to be

Got into Islam. But, you know, we should not be complacent.

And there are a few reasons for that, number one, because if we Muslims neglect the duty of doubt, then we ourselves should be afraid that ALLAH SubhanA, Allah will punish us for that.

And he will ask us about that on the Day of Judgment.

Right? You see, I got this message from a lady recently,

who said that she was studying in the US. And she had many problems, and her professor helped her a lot.

And so she was telling me a little bit about the interaction between her and this professor. And then she found out that this guy who she really felt really attached to him, she said, I loved him, but not in, you know, not in a passionate way, but in the way that he had really helped her so much. She felt this, like, even Muslims might helped her, but this guy had, and he was an atheist. Yeah. But he had said things to her, you know, like, you know, certain things, and she'd given him a Quran, but she'd never really talked to him about Islam. And then she found out that he killed himself.

Right?

And she was like asking, what's going to happen to him? I said, I wouldn't worry about what's happened to him, I would worry about what Allah is going to say to you.

Right? That's what I would really worry about. Because he's his situation is finished now. Right? That's past. But I would worry about what's going to happen, how this guy did all of these things for you helped you in all of these ways. And you never talked to him about Islam. You never told him about Islam. You never explained to him about Islam. Right? You called him your friend. Right? You called him someone you cared about.

And you never had a conversation with him about Islam.

I said, I would be more afraid I wouldn't. Why are you so worried about what's going to happen to him? I'd be worried about what's going to happen to you. I said, You treacherous you are treacherous, you betrayed him. I said the man was sick. He was so sick. And so ill. You had the cure.

But you never gave him it.

And that's it brothers and sisters. You have the cure, people are sick. And you have the cure. And you we are not giving it to them brothers and sisters. Right? Like at the end of the day,

they can take it or leave it. Right? Like they can take it or leave it but at least offer it or at least offer them at least give it to them. At least have a conversation with them. Right?

So brothers and sisters, really, you know, we don't take this obligation of dower seriously enough, right? We really, really don't. And, you know, hamdulillah Muslims fear Allah about lots of things. But I don't know why. When it comes to this matter of

inviting people to Islam, we don't seem to have that same level

that we fear Allah, we're afraid. You know, what will Allah say to us if we don't help our brothers and sisters in Palestine? But we don't think about what will Allah say to us? About the people who didn't know let Isla Illallah who are our friends and our colleagues, right?

And our neighbors and like, I just I just talking about people who's easy to have. I know some people it's really tough to have a conversation with, right?

It would be really tough. I would really, like I would struggle, I struggle to think how can I I'd love to, but I don't even see my neighbors enough to even have like a proper conversation with them. But I'm just talking about people that Allah puts in your way. The people that you are they're meeting in your life that you can have these conversations and you don't.

And these opportunities are there sometimes literally in your face. Even the person is almost begging you.

And you still don't literally begging you to tell me and you still don't say anything. Yeah.

Yeah, it's funny you say that shape because I was I was thinking about how this circle is completed. We started off with Burke Han. And then speaking about the Palestine issue, and you gave you example of how the Palestinians asked you to go back and give Dawa because even from even from a neutral point of view, a support point of view for the Muslim ummah and like those Palestinians said to you, if the West came to Islam, they would get supported. But Khan when he accepted Islam, and then his cousin who is the one who destroyed by God, he actually attacked his

doesn't, and some historians say that stopped Hulagu from attacking Makkah and Medina and other places, because Google's army was very strong at the time. So even if someone has the mindset of, okay, I want to help Islam, even if they have a strategic mindset, you helping someone accept Islam, who is here in the West that could lead to, you know, other events. And it could, it could help Muslims in main many different ways. In fact, some, there's just a conference today at Regent's Park mosque, I'm not sure if you know about it, it's about the Victorians who accepted Islam. And, you know, they've got some academics and these types of things, some of those Victorians, they played a

key role in the type of freedom that we have today. In the, you know, we, it's not just the case where you had a, a flood of migrants just just coming into the UK in the 1950s and 60s, before this, there was Islam here. And those Muslims did work so that the future generations do actually benefit. So, you know, there's a lot of work that's, that's actually happening in the background, and we forget about this. And the other thing I want you to add,

sometimes we should stop thinking about

Dawa from the perspective of how it's going to be received. You know, you said opportunities are thrown in your face.

The other day, I just happen to be in the cafe of our building, right? Yeah. And sitting right there. I couldn't believe my eyes was a person who I really don't like.

And in my head, for some reason, I didn't think, okay, how is this person going to think about what I'm saying or not saying, I shake my brain just switched off. And I just went over and I just told him, Look, you need to accept Islam, you should become Muslim. You know, easily Islam was a Muslim. And you know, you know, the person I'm referring to, he started talking about his old English Heritage, this this and shake, I went into Speaker's Corner mode, I started refuting him and saying, What do you mean, the West? I mean, you know, if you care about the West Islam is something that will help revive the West, even if you look at it from that perspective, right. Now, when I was

thinking in my head, afterwards, why I said those things. It was not my confidence. It was simply that sometimes Allah just wants the message to be passed on. And you just have to just do your job and don't think about it. Because what surprised me afterwards? Is that his, his response? Wasn't that negative is a bit strange. So sometimes shake, I think with us we do if someone asked me, you have to give dower to this person, I'd be nervous. And I'd say no, I don't want to give out to that person. It's gonna be really difficult and awkward and forget that. I'll go to this easy person to talk to in Leicester Square. But sometimes shake. We don't know, the people who spoke to BookCon.

Maybe they were scared, because according to the narrations that we have, it was Burke Hahn, who asked him about Islam this caravan and when, right now they could have thought maybe this is a trick, right? Just like Mao asked for a criticisms of his policies, and then He massacred people. I'm not sure if you know about this, right? In My Mouth actually did this. Oh my god, you don't know this. Check the Mao actually. Mao believe it? Okay.

So someone can take a book on us. He's planning on killing me. That's why he's asking me about my religion and to see what I'm what I'm going to say. But sometimes, you know, it's not about it's not about you. It's literally about just do what Allah wants done. And you don't think about it. You know, you sometimes we just

we rationalize too much is what I'm trying to do. Yeah, absolutely.

And Bulava new Hola, me as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, you don't have to sometimes you don't have to say much you never know, right? The simple small thing that you can say, but it is a seed that you put in someone's mind, right? It's something simple, but it's very, very powerful. And it sits there. And you know, and just the right time the rain comes, the sun comes and that seed, that seed that you planted, it grows it becomes something because that you know just is always just a piece of the puzzle that the guy is just you know, he's still trying to figure out things but you've given that piece of the puzzle.

So you should never underestimate

you know, the of course, it doesn't mean you just say any old nonsense that just comes to your head.

We do encourage people to you know, you know as the prophets Allah said in the Quran, you know, call her the He's severely Abdo Allah Allah Allah Allah sera and our Manitoba only so say on Muhammad had he's really there.

says my way Abdul Allah invite to Allah, Allah Sera, which basically means insight, right with, with insight with certain knowledge. So you don't have to be a scholar, but you should know what you're talking about at least a little bit. Right? You should have, you know, I mean, obviously, some boy you got, you know, years of dour experience. So just going and talking to him wasn't just some random thing. Right? You're right, what you said, what you said, is you what you said, but it's still

Yeah, based on a lot of experience and interactions that you've had with it is but you know, one of the things check is, look, Allah has made Dawa, so much easier than in the past, because nowadays,

you could simply hand out a flyer Now, some people mock this, and there's even memes about Oh, this guy's handing out flyers, cause it's our I have seen myself and I've met with people that a flyer has changed their life. And you could be someone that doesn't even have the ability to speak or you just are incoherent and you don't have any knowledge. You could give a flyer to somebody and it could absolutely change their life. Because definitely, there's one story from Japan, where there's an Imam and this is a verified story, that Imam is still an imam in in in Tokyo in one of the downtrodden mosques. And you will actually find his story on one of these YouTubes or Vice News.

interviewed him. He actually actually, when, when Vice News interviewed him, and then he was interviewed by another place, there's two different places where you find his story in one of the places which I think is called about AlJazeera. He is given a flyer by a Turkish Imam, a very old man whose name is Nicola. And he's given a flyer in one side, his English one side is Japanese. And this man says that when he saw

the Arabic,

the basically the word for Allah, the word for the prophets of Salaam, he recognized it. He actually says this as a non Muslim, I recognized it. So sometimes it's not even about the information on the flyer being something rational. And, and because a few years ago, when I used to try and encourage the brothers in the street down, you know, some people get get really demotivated because they're like, are we doing any shadows today? No one's stopping. And

anyway, one of the things I, I tried to remind the brothers of is you standing here, you have conveyed to some level, Islam to every single person that ignored you, because they've seen that somebody is standing here trying to propagate, like we forget, sometimes even that's enough. Even if they reject your flyer, even if they reject your call, even if they, and this does sometimes happen, they see you from fine, they walk a bit more of

a bit more tangent, and then they just to avoid getting in your way. You know, sometimes even that you've actually had an impact, because on the Day of Judgment, you know, they know I was walking past a stall. And you know, back in the day, brothers don't do this anymore. But I want to bring this back. This is the golden era of Dow in the 90s and early 2000s. People used to have the shahada on the dollar table banner, just clear, just they're just very clear the shahada and the meaning and that's it. Right? So nowadays, you know, we got nice slogans, you got nice, different things, but sometimes she is just just a simple stuff, man.

So, back to basics of back to basics. All right, shake we had the one hour mark, what? What would you say to wrap up this conversation, we were speaking about the faith of the Palestinians. This is a perfect time to give Dawa.

Any final remarks, it's a really good time to learn how to make you know, we used to do this dow training course. Well, we still do it. But I used to do this data training course. And part of it was how to make any conversation into a data conversation. That was the challenge that we would have is like, if you're really smart, you can almost turn any conversation about football, or anything into a conversation that could be a dour conversation. So I think you know, we have opportunities, people are going to be talking about Palestine, people are going to be talking about you know, what's going on, right? So I think mastering that skill of how to it's sometimes it's just about

having that mindset brothers and sisters, you put it in your head, right? How can I invite people to Islam? How can I turn this conversation into a Dao? How can I just say something that might get them to think about what Islam is? Even if it's just you know, you should read the Quran let me get you a copy of the Quran says something about Allah says

Something about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that is connected with your conversation. Who knows, like you said what it is that may spark that person's interest. So it's just about making it part of it should be natural to us. It should be instinctive. It should just be normal for us to think about. What can I say that might make this person interested in Islam? Yeah.

Absolutely. Disaster locker for your timeshare. Just want to read our last comment. I didn't actually know about this. And I hope this is a good example for others to follow Sheikh Asmodee that you always used to frame the ISRAEL PALESTINE crisis in Dawa he used to invite Israelis to accept Islam I didn't actually know I'm not sure if you know, Sheikh here if you know anything about that, but I wouldn't be surprised if shifty that did that because he mashallah, you know, reminded this OMA of Brokeback. But when I first went when I went to Philistine Yeah, I was saying exactly this to the brothers. I said to them, you know, you have to invite these people to Islam. You have to invite

these. And they said, Oh, no, there are some brothers who do this. And I met this group of brothers three, four brothers. Yeah. Who were in Masjid Al Aqsa, and they would give down to tourists and they will give down with Israelis. You know, they were giving down and I still remember this one brother. He's wearing a black black Imam. Right? Like a black, like a whole black coke. Much like remembering this tall brother with his black and beautifully made blocky mama. There was him another two brothers, these to give down Mr. Oxford Marshall and they would give dower to and there are there are Israeli derived Jewish converts to Islam as well. Of course, they get very badly

ostracized and stuff like that, but they do. So, and as you know, as you know, Salahuddin Patel gave gave dower training and Alexa IRA's our training Allahu Akbar There you go, will they go mashallah

mashallah, I said I did I can I can check for your time and I want to restart the streams with you. It was really nice.

It was very good inshallah I look forward to another one inshallah. Inshallah. Salam aleikum Rojas for joining us. Everyone's