Abdurraheem Green – Importance of Consistency
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of consistency in life, particularly in achieving success in life, and the need for passionate learning for Islam. They stress the importance of regular donations and support for individuals, particularly those who cannot afford it. The speakers emphasize the importance of regular donations to support individuals and encourage them to make a monthly donation. They stress the importance of setting goals and boundaries, focusing on individual success rather than meeting financially.
AI: Summary ©
Anyway,
as salam Wa alaykum Welcome to this live stream, I am delighted to be with Sheikh green today we are going to be discussing a very important topic, especially in light of the fact that the holy month of Ramadan is coming. And this trait is something which is very difficult to acquire. But it has life changing impacts on your life. The word life changing is used frequently, and it's lost its meaning but consistency, share, what would you say about consistency? What is it? And why is it so important?
Well, I mean, consistency, really, very simply put is just the ability to
stick with something to keep doing it. And every will almost anyone can get motivated and excited. Like right now we can, you know, we can get run stood up and yeah, everybody.
You know, and
and, you know, the Americans are great at organizing all these events where everyone gets super excited. And yeah, oh, you know, when you get all pumped up, and you get, you know, you get all the hype going. And you know, and of course you go home, you're hyped up for maybe another day. And you know, maybe once in a while you think about it, you get a little bit hyped up. But in reality, what's changed almost nothing, right? is a classic deception of shaytaan. It's like anyone who studied willpower has done my willpower, cause they know it. They know that big, the biggest deception of all, is, you know, the the decision to change. Yeah, I have decided to change. And why
it's the biggest decision of all, is because it sounds it makes you feel like, right, you're doing the right thing. It feels like change, right? Of course, it's nothing, anyone can make a decision roll, you know, you and me can decide, right? And today we're going to become millionaires. Yeah. But you know, that just that decision alone doesn't mean anything, right. And nearly every single thing in life, like, without exception, nearly every single thing in life, it takes a series of real commitments that involve hard work.
And that involve grafting basically, and just not doing it once, but doing consistently, day after day after day, after day after day. Right? And you we live in this world where this illusion, this illusion, that everything is going to happen through big momentous events. And like even history is written that way. Right? Like, that's what you know, that's why we read history books, and we read novels, and we watch movies. And because all of these things seem to tell us that all these you know, fantastic things happen.
In an instant, like recently give you an example. Right, I went to
I went to Portsmouth to visit HMS Victory, the oldest, longest serving battleship in the world. HMS Victory is still a serving naval ship, and used to be the flagship of the British Navy, and it's still there. It's absolutely incredible. You can go and visit. There's over 200 year old warship made out of timbers. And it's honestly one of the most, you know, incredible experiences. And one of the things is you have this audio tool, and it takes you through the life of what it was like an HMS Victory. But really, I mean, this ship is famous for one thing, and it's famous for one thing is engagement with the French feet in the Battle of Trafalgar and for the death of you know, Admiral
Horatio Nelson, right? That's what it's really famous for. That battle itself lasted six or seven hours, right? The rest of it roll you know, I was thinking actually the funny thing was as engaging as the battle was as terrifying as it was. And honestly you know, with a bit of imagination and empathy you can feel yourself there and it's like even now as I talk about it, you know, you feel oh my god how did they do that? But actually bro the thing that sort of really stuck with me was the years and years of literally nothing sailing around in the ocean even before the Battle of months and months sailing around weeks and weeks sailing around supplying putting on you know, all the
gunpowder all the training that took place there every day after day, day after day these these people who man the guns Yeah, the gun crew would train and train and train because literally the ability to fire two more rounds a minute than your enemy.
What's the difference between victory and defeat? And this is the stuff bro, this is the graft. This is the day in, day out day in day out this training this effort, this boring stuff that people go through repetition. And that's the only thing that makes the difference in these ultimate these big events when they do happen and they do happen, but they're really the outcome is most often determined by the consistent practice and application of effort day in day out. Absolutely. Absolutely. I could not have put it in a better way.
Something which I wanted to start off with the UN fully in? I'm not sure if you looked at the picture for this livestream.
Okay, you didn't get done. It's actually a really ladder keep, I might have to roll off to Lou.
Any moment put on mute, you know, yeah.
You have a dog in the picture. I had a picture of you from the old days, like, all day, like, and then I had a picture of, you know, the similar setting, wearing like a white fold in both
something like maybe 25 years later, right. So I consistency, because, you know, you could have just done a bit of dour than going to politics and done a bit of charity work and then started off and if an agent, you see, but someone can say, well, you know, Sheikh Green is a one trick pony. He's just been doing power. He's not been doing this with this. But why were you consistent? Why do you like it?
And you know what I'll handle if I'm a one trick pony. You know, you Hamdulillah you know, Hamdulillah? You know, it's interesting, bro, when I was in the London central mosque. Yeah.
It was very interesting listening to the Imams who would sit and listen to my talks that I would give to the school children that were visit? And oh, yeah, it's very easy. What you're saying? Abderrahim? You know? And I just think, yeah, whatever. Yeah, whatever. Because I would love to see them try and say it. Yeah. And, you know, whatever. You know, what happened a lot. A lot will take people to account. You know, though, I just, you know, you just think.
And it's like, no, but it's not easy. It really isn't. Because literally, they have no idea how many countless hours you sit down thinking very deeply about every word that you say every concept that you put across. I never heard anyone put these concepts across. I never heard any of these Imams ever did deliver, you know, a talk to Western kids about what is Islam in a very deep, clever, subtle way that they could really grasp it. Right. I never heard of,
you know, schools in Denmark, for example, making it a compulsory part of their curriculum to visit the central mosque, right, because of the talk that I would give.
And schools coming back and teachers saying, Mr. Green, you might I and I'm not saying this lightly, my class flew. You've got flying colors in their religious education lessons simply because of your talk, because it was so wide in its scope, and got them thinking so deeply about religion in general, not just about Islam, right. Okay, I never heard of the Imams ever getting that sort of thing, right? But so it's very easy to look at someone. Right? And that's it, bro. Like, you see, like, you look at any athlete, some people may think, oh, yeah, you know, I could ride a bike down that,
you know, I could do that. And you're just laughing, bro. Like anyone who knows anything is just sitting there sniggering to themselves and realizing that person will be a heap of, you know, hospitalization at the end of it. Right. And a lot of kids who do they think yeah, you know, just get on a bike and fly down the hill, and they end up in hospital, sometimes with life changing injuries, you know, so I mean, bro, all of these things roll, you know that just being you know, when I think part of the thing is, is that you can when you're making something look effortless.
When you make it look effortless, you can almost be sure when you're looking at someone who is actually doing something quite complex, right? And like most people, bro, they don't even that scared to even talk publicly,
to actually talk publicly let alone in front of large audiences of people let alone being able to convey complex ideas in a very simple way. It looks effortless, but that effortless again, is a product of consistent practice purposeful practice and application of effort. And you know, bro, I realized a long time ago, right? A long time ago. I thought I'm never going to
I mean, although I've given talks on many, many subjects, right? And I studied many different aspects of Islam, I realized I'm never going to be a scholar. Right. And actually, I never had an ambition to really be a scholar. And part of the reason is, is because I realized that
I, I would be busy going around giving talks, simple talks about Islam and inviting people to Islam. And I could do that for 60 years, and I'll still be busy doing it for 60 years, right. And so, why am I going to put my energy into something that the very best I will be, you know, mediocre acid, right? I will never master Arabic never. Right?
Unless I put in a huge amount of effort.
And what would what would it be? What would the consequence of that be? What would the result of that be? Right?
It still would be mediocre right? So what's the point? Why don't I muster something that I'm good at? Why don't I master something that I already have a skill base for? And this is part of the problem bro, the Muslims unfortunately, you know, the funny the irony is bro many Muslims, the Ummah itself is a bit of a one trick pony, when it comes to just understanding human nature and requirements a bit deeper. Right? Now they will not like that in the time of the Prophet. No one insisted Khalid bin Walid should become a scholar, no one insisted he should sit down and memorize some more Hadith, right? No one insisted he should, you know, improve his, you know, Tafseer of
Quran because he did something absolutely excellently which no human being possibly in the whole history has been able to accomplish what he's accomplished, right. And I don't say that lightly. He is probably one of the greatest military leaders in the history of mankind, right? And Alhamdulillah. And he was good at that. And that's why he put his effort and attention and what he did for Allah and Islam is unparalleled, right, if Sam would not be where it is today without the likes of Khalid bin Walid, and many, many other individuals within the history of Islam amongst the Sahaba, who had specialist skills, right, including, by the way down, including dalla Right, yeah.
So you look at most Arbib and omega, for example, right? Again, a hugely undervalued and under talked about companion, mostly because the Muslims don't really care about doubt today. If they did, he would certainly be up there with the great heroes of Islam like Khalid bin Walid. Yeah, because he's single handedly this guy, this, this, this Sahaba single handedly converted
the most of Medina to Islam. And if he hadn't done that, the way would not have been open for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to go and live in Medina and establish the first Islamic governance in the world. Right.
So any somebody had a skill set, bro, his skill set was dower his skill set was to be able to invite people to Islam. And it was hugely important and vitally important. And we have to learn to appreciate these things as Muslims, right. And actually, we have to be able to realize what things are really, really important.
Right? There are some things that are actually really, really important. They are pivotal. They are key to transformation, they are key, they are a key to change. And without these things, change is never going to happen. And actually dour and inviting people to Islam. And more than that role, having a deep and profound culture within the whole Muslim community. I'm telling you, this OMA will never ever come out of its slumber it will never emerge into anything that amounts to a civilization again, until there is a deep and profound culture of doubt again, yeah, I'm telling you that there anyone, anyone who cares about Muslim civilization, the glory of Islam, right, on a civilizational
basis, who wants to see Muslims,
you know, develop? Again, it's not going to happen without a dour mindset. And it's also a test, a test from the perspective of how committed we are to Islam. Because if somebody says, well, Apple's a really great company, and then someone says, Well, how many products have they sold and say, It's the year 2014. And they're not doing well? Oh, they sold 5000 units.
The obvious thing will be well, if they're so great, why are they not spreading? Why are they not crazy in terms of their employees going and telling other people about the great
In this have the Apple products and so on and so forth. So it's a byproduct of understanding Islam, that Islam will be spread by the Muslims. Because if you truly understand Islam, you will spread it. If you truly are not committed to Islam, then it's the cultural inheritance that you have. And you simply need to maintain the identity for social credit reasons. And then you just pass it on to your future generations. This is one of the things shake, they really
hit me when I first started practicing just literally just early, early days. Why aren't other people doing the same thing? I'm enjoying this relationship with God. Why? Why is no one else like these people are not doing I need to talk to people. And I'm sure a lot of people
whenever we think of a pious Muslim or religious Muslim or anything like this, they don't think of that when they think of somebody that's a hermit or somebody
finding Islam you'll spread Islam, like it's simple as that. Get Allah says in the Quran, when Arsenal kolam in Medina, Allah Allah, yeah, I'm a little solid ahead. We'll call it in any minute. Muslimeen it's very interesting that you know what, hustle bustling?
He said about this idea.
He said, These people are always talking about who is better in speech than the one who invites to Allah and does righteous actions and says, I am from the Muslims, right?
Hustle and bustle he said about them. These are the audio of Allah, these are the friends of Allah, and the best from amongst his creation. He said because they they believed in Allah and then they invited people to what they believed in. And this rhetorical device that Allah use when Allah says mon Arsenal Hola, Mimmo, Allah is asking this rhetorical question and rhetorical question means a question that you don't need to answer it. It answers itself, what Allah is saying is there is nobody that's a no one speech is better. And no one is better in speech than the one who is inviting people to Islam. Yeah. Or is inviting people to Allah subhanaw taala. Right.
And so roll these things that, you know that this is the crazy thing is that actually, it? In a sense, it doesn't take a lot to be from those people who are close to Allah. Right? It takes a bit of sincerity, you have to work on that. That's really important. Right? And just to invite people to Islam, to call people to Allah.
And people who do that Allah loves them, because they're doing what the prophets did. They're doing what the messengers did. You know, this was the task of the messengers, what are called The Birth knarf equally omoton Rasool and now bordoloi, he watched Tony Buddhahood did Allah tells us in the Quran, that he did not send to any people a messenger, except that he invited the people are not Buddha, Allah to worship Allah, which Tony Buddhahood and to reject the worship of the false gods. And actually, it's not complicated. By this is not a complicated thing. This is not a very deep thing. This is not something that demands a huge amount of knowledge and understanding. And you
know, yes, you have to, you should know what you're talking about. You shouldn't just say any sort of nonsense that pops into your head, of course, you need a little bit of grounding. God, it's not, it's not something huge, bro. It's not something that your average person can't learn and acquire. So just on that point, because this livestream is about consistency, and we started off with consistency in that hour, I think it will be good because Ramadan is coming up that we generally speak about what can be achieved by being consistent. And I know you've done a lot of research, when it comes to your willpower course, you've done a lot of research in terms of your other talks and
stuff when it comes to consistency and the power of consistency, the power of habits. So the first thing I want to ask you is
let's stick to if you like the
personal development side of things and what people read about consistency, what have you learned about consistency in your readings and research? Okay, so here's the interesting thing. Yeah. I think we need to dispel some myths about willpower, right? And even the ability to make profound changes, right. And here is the thing. It doesn't demand some sort of magical.
I don't know, mental ability. Yeah. I mean, the problem is in the word willpower, that's the problem, because the word power is there. Right? And then people think it's the ship how
as well, your ability through sheer willpower to overcome anything, right? And actually, the evidence is, is that people who are able to produce these type of consistent results are not actually people who have some particular mental aptitude or some sort of powerful, you know, I don't know, whatever they have people think they have, it's actually all it is, is that they have discovered some strategies that they use to make it easy for them. Yeah, make it easy to do the right thing. And they make it hard for themselves to do the wrong thing. Right. And so literally, it's almost they're better at it because they're lazy, right? It's almost the opposite. It's
actually almost the opposite of willpower, right? It's actually just cutting strategies that they use, they realize, right, that there are certain temptations, there are certain things that are very easy to fall into. And they find strategies, and they find ways to avoid that. And they realize that doing certain things can be challenging and difficult. So they find ways to make it easy. Right? Let me give you an example. All right. Oh, my gosh, I really want to do something for the dollar. Right? Dow is so important. abdur-rahim is so right. How are we ever going to move forward as a Muslim civilization if we are not outward looking? If we're not thinking about the betterment of humanity
and calling them to this beautiful guidance of Islam? Yeah, yes, Allah will certainly definitely considered to continue to humiliate us and object us to all sorts of humiliations unless we have this mindset. Right? Oh, what can I do? Oh, my gosh, I'm not going to stand up in Speaker's Corner. I'm not going to go and do lives in front of seriously, bro. There's a sister, one of our sisters, we know quite well. And, you know, she might even be listening. Right? And even the brother might be listening. It's his wife. Right? And it's like, yeah, I think you should do a, you know, I should do an interview with you about this organization. There's our organization, not I or another, our
organization is now like, How can I go and do a live stream in front of, you know, 1000s of people I said, you just want to scream like, don't
write, and it is intimidating. Of course, it is intimidating, right. And so when people think, oh, that's what I have to do.
It gets really scary. But you know, mashallah, the sister is doing really good work supporting our organizations, right? And she's not doing that. She's doing something else, right? She's managing this and managing that. And, you know, sending off emails here and there. Right. And there are actually hundreds of 1000s of people who are consistently supporting the doubt effort through something that is actually really easy to do a regular monthly donation. Right. Now, the thing is that we you know, and we often say, we don't want 1000 pounds a month, we don't want 500 pounds a month, we don't want 50 pounds, we don't even want 50 pounds a month, or that would be nice. Yeah.
But honestly, really 510 If everyone just gave 510 15 pounds a month, right? regularly every month and stuck with it, right? And it's very easy to do, it's not hard to set up a direct debit, it still would only amount to what 150 pounds a year, 200 pounds a year, right?
It still comes down to less than the price of a cup of coffee, right? You know, less than the price of a cup of coffee a day. But that's all regular and this is the thing bro what we are finding as an organization and we knew this from the beginning, right? When we started I era has been our message over and over and over again. And even so that brothers and sisters you've probably made probably may you don't follow it like we do. But we were the first people to start coming out with this message just for the price of a cup of coffee. And you know, but now everyone says it just for the price of a cup of coffee. It's like okay, we started that we couldn't copyright it or you know, even
if we could we wouldn't right? But that was us we are the one started it because we you know, right in the beginning I said look, if we're going to build an organization, right, we need people we need to employ people every month and that's it. The reality is brothers and sisters the bills come through every month. Right so do so do the bills for the hour do the bills for they come through every month. And just just to add we have the input, which is obviously the regular donations that people give but then we have the output which currently on average per day is 100 jihadist right. want everybody to just think about that, guys. I mean, it's literally a seminal change a massive
Bro. I mean, the change from a year ago where I think in the whole year we had what 20? You know, 20,000, less than, less than 20,000 shareholders which we thought, yeah, that's really good. This year, we've we've, it's nearly quarter of a million. Now I want everyone to think about every single one of those 250,000 Jehovah's that we got this year need support.
They need supports. They need to be taught how to recite Surah Al Fatiha, how to pray five times a day. We when we say 250,000 shareholders, brothers and sisters, we're not just talking about going to an African village with a suitcase full of watches and say anyone who says Leila Allah will give them a you know cheap Casio. I don't mean to think any brand. Yeah.
We're gonna give you a watch, right? Anyone can do that? No, no, these are people who are still Muslim six months later. And they're still Muslim six months later, because our outreach specialists that you brothers and sisters people, they stay in these villages for three weeks for three months, sometimes and they go back, right? A huge part of what they do is just spending time teaching these new Muslims, about Islam so they can stay Muslim. Right? So that's 250,000 new Muslims, and every one of them needs support brothers and sisters. And guess what? That support, by and large, does not come for free. Often we need to feed them when we hold our new Muslim camps. And if you've been
watching us and following us, you'll see we do live appeals help our new Muslim camp. But honestly brothers and I'll be honest, brothers and sisters, it's not sustainable for us to keep on doing these appeals. But at the rate we are expanding, right? You know, we have so many camps so much happening
hamdulillah
regular donations, brothers and sisters, we absolutely need it. And I know everyone's sort of stopping them now and just doing one offs. But honestly, the regular donations are so vital for us we can't we can only keep growing this work. When you brothers and sisters give that small regular thing the price of a cup of coffee, right? To honestly and the work is just tremendous. Got brothers and sisters. Honestly, it's it will be so sad to see us stop or slow down just simply because we don't have the funds. And that's literally all it is. That's what we're faced with right now brothers and sisters, what is in our faces, the only thing that is stopping us getting more
shareholders at the moment, right, exponentially more shareholders is the ability to finance the dots on the ground. Absolutely. And I just want to give everybody the broader picture. I era started in 2010. And consistently every year in the beginning years, our shareholders did not even reach 1000. Okay, I just want everyone to be aware of that. We reached 1000 when it came to 2016, then all the way up to 2019. And our operational year is from July to July next year. So our results in 2019 to 2020 was actually 5000 5000 shadows. So we reached a landmark, then from 2020 to 2021. It was 20,000. Then from 2021. And I want everybody to just think of this 2021 July to July 2021. This
year, we still have a few months left. But now from last July to now we are the latest statistics I got yesterday, we were on 37,000
I want everybody to look at that look at the trajectory 11111225 20. And now we're approximating this is what they call exponential growth. Yeah, right. And if so, if that exponential growth continues, next year, we will be talking about five to 6 million.
If you if you
go grow if you if you follow that. If we
draw a graph of exponential growth, draw it roll, right. And you will see that by this time next year, following that pattern, right, it will actually be more than five it'll be more contingent upon our growth financially being not I mean, not even necessarily bro because if you think about it, right, almost all that needs to happen is for 20,000 people who have taken shahada right to get 100 shareholders oh, by the way,
Yeah, just 20,000 people have taken shahada themselves get within a year, which is not really difficult. And you know how enthusiastic new Muslims can be? Right? If they each one of the managers to get 100 people, which is a lot, right, but let's just say it's possible, right? Then you've got 200,000. Right now, every one of those 200,000 people, manages to invite 100 people to Islam.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, just on this point, I wanted everybody to just note that we cannot. And it's difficult for us to actually note down the people who accepted Islam from the new Muslims that took shahada with us. So for example, we have cases where we have a person who accepted Islam because of some of our activities. Then some years later, we found out a whole bunch of people that were practicing racism underestimate this is underestimated, vastly underestimated. And by I just want to double or triple, triple. And I want
people who are still Muslim who still come to our new Muslim retreats, right, who still, you know, talk and consider themselves to be Muslim months later, right? So very strict criteria, we have an eye error, guys, we're not messing around with you, right? I'll give you mine is when you when you give us your money. We look at it like this is an investment. You we know that you brothers and sisters are giving us your money, because you want to see the reward of that on the Day of Judgment. And what is the point? If those people take shahada and they're not praying? We you we know you want to be rewarded for that present for that fasting? And for that sadaqa? All good they do. Right? So
it's that's how we look after your donation by making sure they are still Muslim. Right? Six months later, and abroad. Brothers and sisters, please, I just want you to please use your imagination, right? And to think about communities where numbers like that are becoming Muslim. I mean, you're talking about you're not talking about a few people like in Europe here and there. It's still scattered. Yeah. You know, even if they say in France is 100,000 converts to Islam, right. It's still it's still a drop in the ocean, right? It's still here, there and everywhere scattered about it's not, you know, it's not like, No, we're talking about whole villages, whole villages becoming
Muslim, a whole village and then having to build a masjid, which they do themselves. They make it out of mud bricks, they make the masjid themselves brothers and sisters, they find termite mounds, turn them into bricks, I've seen the pictures. It's incredible. And they build their own message. It's right. And we are refusing to take money for messages. Actually, we want them to build their own messages because they will be proud of it. And they've done their own thing. We don't need money for messages, brothers and sisters. We need money for dower get this stuff out of your head. Right? Right. Wake up and understand what is important, right? What is important is not the Masjid. There
are mustards in Africa that have been built by our brothers and sisters that are being used by pigs, pigs dies. And people have seen this Masjid used as pigs dies because they were just built, and no one was there to fill them up. What's the point in that? You know, the thing is brothers and sisters, sometimes we hear a hadith or read a hadith. We just don't use an icon. We don't use any sort of light. You know, aka, what are you going to get from a masjid? That is the only thing that is it is a pig. You want people in that Masjid. You want people praying in the messenger? You don't get a walk on, John, are you going to get from a pig being in your most?
Right? Wake up brothers and sisters, this is your money. Now I'm telling you we look after your money.
We look after your money that that's what we think about the whole time our donors, what have they done? This is their money, right? This is our Imana how are we utilizing this in the best way? Right? Because I know brothers and sisters, I know what Allah knows. And some brothers and sisters and you know, my wife knows what I've sacrificed throughout the years. Yeah, to go around and give dower and this and that and how I've lived in debt. And this I don't have a lot of alarms looked after me. I have never, I've never once thought oh what how am I going to buy food tomorrow? Alhamdulillah Allah has looked after me. But you know, it's it's been tough sometimes when I know
what it's like, you know, like the heating bills going up and this and that. I know what it's like not having enough money to pay my bills. Right. But brothers and sisters are handled, it's all worth it. Right. And so I've been there. So I care because I've been there. Right? We care about your donations, brothers and sisters, right? And all of us everyone in this organization. They work hard. Brothers and sisters. They work hard to make your money work for you in Sharla in the ACA, which I was so pleased to
Right, the one of the things you can do is this, and this is why we're going to be pushing this message. consistent, regular donations, brothers and sisters, even if it's little, please, just five pounds a month. You know, I know a lot of people now are just canceling their direct debits. But that's what the stuff we need we need those regular donations that just the price of a cup of coffee or tea. Absolutely, absolutely. And I just want to give everybody the bigger picture.
We have big plans, and our conservative estimate is by 2024. In total, we will have 250,000 Shahada. Inshallah,
I want everybody to understand that that's actually less than the projection we are upon right now. What is currently stopping us is actually the amount of money a cost to take care of those new Muslims. Now, I just wanted to challenge yeah, just like for example, there's a brother who said, they saw Sheikh Green's videos converted to Islam in 2013. I just want to highlight this useful videos. So you learn about Islam you converted in these African villages are in these other places that we are like Philippines or the remote Amazon rainforest in Peru, people don't have mobile phones, some people don't have shoes. So people can learn about Islam and your within the Western
world to some extent, you can have the internet, you can have these things. But in these remote areas, you have nothing. And when you convert, you need an entire ecosystem of support. So what we have, and I think it's worth going over this, it's easy for anybody to go and show pictures and say, hey, look, these are people who became Muslim. For us, we have a very strict criteria of measurement to see whether this is quality, and whether these people are going to remain upon Islam, we have permanent territorial officers who are there simply to monitor the villages, and to report back to us about what is happening in those villages, whether the villages that converted to Islam, some
months back or still upon Islam, or if they need a refresher course. So we have a long term vision when it comes to this new Muslim ecosystem of support that we want to build. And all of this costs a lot of money. And one of the things that Sheikh Green has been emphasizing is for us to have strategic plans to grow in an exponential way to be able to budget into the future years, we need monthly recurring support. So what I'm going to ask you a green is this, somebody may say you have these grand plans, you want to make 250,000 shahada Inshallah, by 2020. For this many people will accept Islam, and you're asking for something so little, 10 pound a month, 20 pound a month, you
know, whatever.
But what is I want to ask you What does Islam say about doing things consistently? Which are small? Yeah, but you know, this, I mean, yeah, you're right. We've talked a lot about
the concepts without mentioning you know, what, but it's like, it's well known the Prophet sallallahu is is beautiful, saying the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam and, and this is the thing you always find these great gems of wisdom. In Islam, Islam is because it's from Allah, He knows. And Allah knows the human being, He knows us better than ourselves. And so the Prophet said to us, and this is very important, he said to us, that these that Allah loves the most.
And let's say that, again, the deeds that Allah loves the most are the ones that are consistent, even if they are little.
Brothers and sisters, and like, this is the opposite of how we are, right? So if we like, look, even right now, if someone phoned up and said, I'm gonna give 20 million, it's true. I listened despite me just having said the Hadith right now. Right. Despite me, having actually said that, me and Cebu will be going on low hanging.
Oh,
yeah, we'd be doing that. We'll be doing it for three weeks we go.
Right? If a million of you, right, give 20 pounds a month. That's 20 million a month.
If a million of you give 20 pounds a month, that's 20 million a month it that makes that 20 million donation look like absolutely nothing. That is the power of consistency. That's the power of numbers, bro. That's the brothers and sisters. That's the power of you doing something consistent? So you don't think what is my 20 pounds a month gonna do? What is my five pounds or it's going to do a lot because when there's a million of you doing that, that's just huge. And it means brothers and sisters that we can plan. We can say subhanallah we're not and this is what I guess part of the problem is that we have planned based upon the regular donations that we've
been given, but a lot of those donations dropped, which I totally understand is true. Listen, every now and then I do it as well. I go through all my accounts, I purge all my, you know, my dirt my, you know, whatever, right and I think, okay, that Moscow that event I went to back in 2015 Why am I still giving them 10 pounds a month? Right? Okay.
You know, and I think no, there's something else I want to give my money to, there's something else I feel more committed to. Right? So I do that. And I can understand guys, if you've forgotten about us. And maybe, you know, we haven't made an effort to tell you what's going on or you haven't been in touch with what we're doing. It's just normal anyway that these donations Do you know, they drop off. But, you know, we've planned for things based on those regular donations, but obviously, you know, we need to keep reminding you that we need these regular donations from your brothers and sisters. Right? They are so so so important for our continuing functioning and planning as an
organization. Right. And as excited as we would get by 20 million pounds, right? Someone folding up and and listen, if you got it, we will happily take it. But honestly brothers and sisters, I am not kidding, you do not like we really do value those regular donations, those regular 510 1520 pounds a month, right? It's huge for us. It's really our, it's the air that we breathe. It's what allows us to breathe as an organization and allows us to do what we need to do. Absolutely. What's the lowest limit? Someone's asking, bro.
So firstly, there is no limit. If if you can give us you know, five pound $5 $2
as the Prophet peace be upon him said that the most beloved deeds to Allah are those which are consistent, even if they're a little below why. Just Just consider this way.
You could have, for example, you could have somebody doing something consistently every single day. Or they could try and do one big thing, like once in a year. So somebody can be like, Okay, I really want to lose weight, I'm gonna go to the gym continuously for 24 hours, or they can go to the gym for 20 minutes every day for a month and saying,
Yeah, so 24 hours in the gym is going to do almost nothing, almost nothing. You can't, it doesn't matter. Even this is one of those things that look, if Allah wanted, he could have said to us, okay, so you can pray all your prayers at the beginning of the month, and then the rest of the month, you're off. Now, Islam is built on consistency, Islam is built upon you doing something to remind you of the greater goal that we're trying to achieve. And with these donations coming in every single month, it helps us plan it helps us grow, it helps us actually strategize. Because one of the things which I find don't think I'm sure she agreed find it daunting, and the rest of the IRA team
does this a huge burden of responsibility. When you think about these new babies, these new young Muslims, literally, I mean, yesterday, I was very happy to see the latest statistics are 37,000. But at the same time, that 37,000 individual people who need help, that's an incredible amount of of support. And it's something that we're going to do the best of our ability, a lot of support. By the way, guys, I really want to emphasize this, we use volunteers. We have stakeholders who do things for free in Africa and other places. However, it does cost money to feed new Muslims when they are attending classes. It costs money to give them hijabs because that is a requirement. In Islam, it
costs us money to give them the male's
Islamic clothing which helps with identity, all these things are very important. And of course connecting with Allah in terms of the classes that we do for them. All of these things add up and when you multiply those support systems that we have in place times the number of people the costs get higher and higher and higher and higher. However, I just want to say something I era is
a 5 million pound charity approximately Okay? However, compared to the work that is being done 100 people accepting Islam on average per day.
If you look at the size of the income that's actually coming in this there's no proportion, there's no proportionality. I was up here shake green. I know you're
this is going to rile you up. I was up north a few years ago and the brothers were telling me oh, you know, we did up our dome of this mosque and it costs somewhere 120,000 pounds 120,000 pound brothers and sisters I just want to let you know currently the statistics that we have is that almost 100 pounds
and almost 100 pound donated to I era would mean that 20 to 30 new Muslims, if not more, can get support for about a month compared to a tonne, which is gonna cost 120,000 pounds just to make the shape look a bit different to how the building looked before we have money as a as an ummah, we're spending it in the wrong places. I'm sorry, we don't need more shiny domes. We need to actually spend our wealth in the way of Allah in the mission of the prophets of salaam so that we can see Islam and to every house.
Brothers and sisters, listen, I know this sounds, you know, what I'm going to say? Is like flying in the face of probably everything you're experiencing right now. Right?
But what I want to say is that I'm telling you honestly brothers and sisters
you don't know when he honestly don't know, right? When we're not even going to be asking you for money anymore. And it may happen because we don't need it. Right. And I'll tell you something, right. And I was having this conversation with Cebu just the other day and with Adnan Rashid. And I was saying, look into the history of Musa Mansour now I don't know if you guys know, right, who are listening. Does anyone know who Musa Mansour? Is Taipei in comment section right? Anyone without googling it, if you know who Musa Mansour is type it in the comments section in sha Allah right? And when if some of you give the right answer even if you don't, in a few minutes, I'll come. Okay, the
big Okay big man. I need a little bit more detail. Yes, Musa Mansa is the rich King a little bit more? We know him from civilization. What's he famous for? Right being rich, but not just that once the video game more than that, brother, what did you say? I'm not asking you to boy, but not. I'm saying he was the king of Mali. Yes, he was right. Uber cats, but he's also famous for being what? Right the king of Mali? Right. And you You guys are really close. Yeah, during Hajj. Yeah. What happened during Hajj? Yeah. richest man in the world. Yes. Thank you flan Ibn for that. And even
the richest man in the world ever that we know about? Right? The richest man in the world ever. He was the king of Mali. Mali is a place that is one of the poorest places on the planet right now. Right? Yes, he caused inflation for years. I think it was 20 years when he made Hajj. He handed out so much gold in Cairo and spent so much money that it actually altered the economy of Cairo for like 2030 years, right? Okay, this was Musa Mansa, the richest man in the world ever richer than Elon Musk richer than Bill Gates richer than Jeff Bezos, right? richer than the Emperor's and this and that this guy, richest man in the world ever Musa Mansour from Africa? From my Lee?
Yeah. And what did he do? He literally built this country up from his civilized thing from almost zero. And what did he do? He did it by through education, through trade, through building a society, successful society Subhanallah through education and trade, and he transformed and this is what Africa is capable of. And he was Muslim. And only not only that, let me tell you brothers and sisters, his brother, his brother, set sail with an A mother of ships to north to over to North and South America. I think there was like 20,000 ships, they sailed over and there's evidence until now there's evidence of his expedition, right? In South America. Right? This is way before this before
Christopher Columbus and all of that Musa Mensa. Now let me tell you something brothers and sisters, who knows? Who knows, maybe right now, the father of the next Musa Mansa is taking shahada this moment as we speak? Allahu, yeah. And who knows, maybe in the next 20 years, he will transform the whole of eastern central Africa. Right. And believe me, it has the capability of being the richest place on the planet. Because the people are smart, they are intelligent. You only need to go to Rwanda and see what Africans are capable of they are extremely capable. Right?
They are extremely capable of despite what people say and think about Africans. No, they are smart, they are clever. They are. They have morals, right? They care. They are kind, they are loving. They are happy people, right? And give them Islam. And they are Believe me, brothers and sisters, they are they they love Islam. You just need to tell them about Islam.
This place is in Rwanda, you literally they said to us, if you literally just go to a village in Rwanda, and just spend a few hours talking about Islam, the whole village, they'll become Muslim. This is what I knew to eight years ago. And we didn't have the resources to be able to do that. I was trying really hard. But now right now it's happening. And the people love Islam there. Because the Muslims did not participate in the massacre and the genocide. Right. But brothers and sisters, what are we doing? Right? What are we doing? We're so busy inviting Justin Bieber. Right? Over for a * concert. Yeah, because we want our youth to be singing and dancing. Yeah. And now we banned
the prayers. Right? May Allah may Allah, you know, give us May Allah guide our rulers on the right path. Subhanallah What a waste of life. What a waste of money. Right? What a waste of resources. Right? This is what we're doing brothers and sisters. Right? And anyway, who cares about those people? I remember Subhanallah brothers and sisters. You know what I remember? A typical Yeah. Back in the days, we were doing one of our dowel training. Yeah. About You know, and then we always do a fundraiser, and this one typical Algeria and Morocco. And you know, brother, right. I say typical general, I'm done. No, I'm generalizing. Yeah. But I've heard this so many times. Why don't you get
those Saudis to fund this dowel work? Why do we have to give our money?
Brother, why do you want them to give their money?
Why don't you want to have the reward? Why do you want to give a reward to them? We don't want to give the reward to them. They don't deserve it. Those people don't deserve it. Brothers and sisters, you deserve it. You deserve the archer. That's why me and Cebu are right here talking to you. Yes, you because you are the ones who are making this happened. You are the ones who got to have it on your award on the scale of deeds of the Day of Judgment. Right? Not Mr. Bs, right. And those people, right and those fake Subhanallah
I don't even want to whatever right. Okay, let's leave that judgment to Allah subhanaw taala wasting their money on every frivolity and yachts and God knows what and all the rest of it. Yeah. What are they given for Dawa? Allah knows, maybe they have given something for Dower, maybe they do a lot of good deeds. Maybe they do more good deeds, the me. Maybe they're better than me. I'm not the one to judge them brothers and sisters. But all I'm saying is don't ask silly questions like that. Oh, why don't you get money from this? And that? No, we're asking you because you have the opportunity to get the reward. And who knows, maybe you will be going with a begging bowl, to the very people that
we give Dawa and say oh, feed us help us. Because they're the ones who are rich and we will be the ones who are poor. You don't know brothers and sisters. But right now, the right now today, Allah is giving you the opportunity. Right? And Allah will never shortchange you never you will never lose because of your sadaqa never ever ever you will never lose because of your sadaqa never it will only increase your wealth it will only increase you and goodness Allah will protect you protect your family from ill health from calamities right and it will be an increase of your wealth inshallah good Halal wealth which is worth more than tons of light haram rubbish. Yeah, so brothers and
sisters look at this as an opportunity. It really is. It's an opportunity.
It's a privilege that you meet and Sabra here, asking you this that Allah gave us you know, is really a privilege sub row that Allah has given us that privilege to ask you brothers and sisters for these donations to make this organ, bro brothers and sisters listen.
Is it is the people of the West, right? With they're mostly mostly
but hamdulillah many generous brothers and sisters who have built this organization through their donations.
Right and I tell you something else you know I era was mostly started half of this organization was built in the early days but one rich brother who Subhanallah helped us. One brother 50% of the donations came from him he built this organization alone. Let me tell you something else. He said to me, you know I have the right
Am I loved our data is very important. I know it's an obligation but you know my heart is attached to the Quran that's what I really love I love the Quran I want people to learn Quranic Arabic I said to him bro if that's what you love and that's your passion that's what you should spend your money on
yeah I didn't say no brothers stuff for Allah right you know I era you How could you think of anything else? Because at the end of the day brothers and sisters the risk is not from him. It's not from whatever, it's from Allah. But this is the reality like in the end it's your opportunity brothers and sisters right Allah is going to support this work
with or without you but if you don't give those donations is you're the loser. You're going to be the loser I'm going to be the loser if I don't give my time and my energy and my money Cebu will be the loser if he spends time doing other things
bro
that's, that's that's a good segue completely unrelated to a donation that we can see brothers and sisters are actually committing to so brother Hamza Awad is saying I'm only saying this to encourage others I've committed to regular donations, we are loved. Bless you Hamza. Also, other people who are committing right now live in front of other people in saying that they're going to be committing to giving donations. We are brother purveys, Sheikh tahj, JazakAllah khair for your time, I will donate.
And,
you know, what's what's very interesting Sheikh is that, you know, when we think of when we think of something we want to do for the sake of Allah, we think, okay, I need to do this grand thing for Allah, I need to do this huge thing. Well, sometimes it's the small thing that you do consistently. Yeah, it is actually one of the keys of success is because you don't and because it's small, you don't think about it. And because you don't think about it, guess what? It actually often tends to be more sincere. Right? Because the thing you think about and oh, yeah, I did this big thing. Yeah, I didn't you know, I did this three day fast. I did this. Whatever I did this massive trip to
wherever I did. Hajj, I did this and that, and obviously, you know, because it's so exciting. You want to tell everybody about it. But then you are telling everybody about it. And who knows, maybe you're destroying
the sincerity of your deed as you're talking about it. But when you're giving like Oh, I'm just giving 3020 20 pounds a month to IRA, like you probably feel embarrassed to even say anything because it's so little right? He probably would because we will say what is that it? That's your contribution to the Dow but honestly like who knows it may be the thing that Subhanallah save yourself from hellfire even whether it's even if it's with a date Allahu offer date
if you don't have that habit smile, you see you don't know what little deeds you know, as native Dean used to seeing small little deeds never overlook going to write in the holy book, something
like that. So can you remember well, I like that so much. Just Calaca Nice name surname. They donated for the Grant section. Now I'm wondering if new converts will be able to read it is an elementary Arabic cause during the three weeks of teaching. Good question. So when you donate it towards the Quran section, this These grants are not actually going to those new Muslims, this is actually going to non Muslims who ordered them and non Muslims in Latin America where we have Spanish Quran and also here in Europe. The actual teaching of the new Muslims doesn't involve teaching them Arabic. What we do is that when they learn when they learn salah, and they learn
Arabic Yeah, and we teach them the meaning of Yeah, we teach them the meaning of the prayer in Arabic, bro. Yeah. A lot of people might be listening today. No, bro, by the way. Yeah. So we don't teach them like your question. Is there an elementary Arabic course during the three three weeks of training? Well, no, there isn't here. We don't teach Arabic as a as an elementary course. What we do do is something very important. We teach them to connect with Allah. We teach them the meaning behind the actions that they're doing. And so that they can understand the basics of prayer, the basics of boo of taharah of Aqeedah affect basic things so that they can live as Muslims and we have
to clearly demarcate where our duty ends because this is no exaggeration, although I do sometimes like to think of other things we can do for these Nielsen's, but technically, we can spend 1000s and 1000s of pounds on Steam village, but that opportunity
Unity cost means we cannot go to other villages and people can accept Islam there inshallah. So the, what we have to do is we have to stop at a point. And at that point, we have other organizations and other partners in countries who try and take over. And sometimes they're not there. And you just have to, you know, bite the bullet and accept that this is the most we can do. And what we do do on a minimum is check up on them to make sure that they're still upon Islam. And if they need a refresher course, we do that as well. So we don't have a system in which we're teaching them, you know, the, the intricacies or the nuances of the G, then the elementary Arabic language, none of
these things, but we don't need to do that, that can be done by other organizations. And of course, you know, if someone's really passionate about Islam, you know, you can always where there's a will, there's a way there's loads of questions coming in and lots of things going on. However,
we have come to the one hour mark, we are going to be live everybody. We're going to be live regularly. In the month of Ramadan, we are going to be directly asking you to get involved in the Prophetic Mission. We started 1400 years ago, so that Islam enters every house because this is a Promise of Allah is a promise, the Messenger of Allah and it will happen will it will, we do not say without us, with or without us with or without us and shake I just want you to just wanted to highlight something.
There is such a powerful verse in the Quran. There is such a powerful verse, a verse in the Quran, in which Allah is reminding us of our duty. Allah is reminding us about why we should be involved in the work of Dawa. And what is the last day Allah says, Let the arise a group from you. Walter Commencal Amato near the owner al Haile Morona. Bill now roofie were young Hona. And elementary what hula? ikaho? More flavor on? That's right. That's right. Yeah, okay, we'll be the successful one, we will be the successful ones. And I just want everyone to just think of something. The work of that? Well, let's be honest, brothers and sisters. Everybody should be doing Dawa in some shape or form.
However, you need specialists, you need people who are fully dedicated and working 24/7. To do the work of the hour, we have people and I'll share green knows some of these examples. Some of them some of the examples he doesn't know, we have situations where we have hired the art in some poorer countries. And that particular month, because it's the first month or there's some issue, but say we haven't been able to process their payments that month, or give them money for the projects, they will spend from their own money to go buy food for new Muslims or do this, they will not stop, they will not stop by a day or two days, just because there's been a delay on our end. Okay, so we are
not, it's not like there are people out there who are like, you know, just wearing a suit and they're doing it like you know that how missionaries do it. Like it's some sort of profession? No, people do it because they love it. So in a way, we don't really pay anybody to give that well, we pay to free up their time, because they're giving now there's a huge that people who would be doing it anyway. Absolutely. That's the reality. And I hopefully that's more or less everybody in here. I mean, you know, maybe a few people who are very specific professional skills that we have on board, but generally everyone in our era is here because they will be working with us. Or they will be
working for the dour if we existed or not. And we if we paid them or not. And that's the sort of people we need. And that's the sort of people in you know,
that's it the same in African see the dedication that some of our brothers and sisters have in Africa in the Philippines and South America. I mean, I you know, I don't want to mention names. Maybe I should, maybe we should but honestly, then there's a brother in South America, brother and sisters half his house, he's just given over his own house he has given over to turn it into an Islamic center. Can you imagine that? Brothers and sisters just giving?
I couldn't imagine it. My wife just I don't think she would. I don't know. Maybe she would. She's She's good. But I have to say, like, difficult Subhanallah that's your house where you live with your wife and your kids and you just give half over it so they can have an Islamic center because they've got nothing brothers and sisters. This is the dedication of the people that we're working with. It is a privilege to even just be associated with such people. Right? Truly Subhanallah This is a type of dedication. I could name names of people, brothers and sisters, really extraordinary individuals truly extraordinary. And then
others who maybe we don't know their names, but in their own way, right? Yeah, maybe because it's not big
to say, you know,
but they're all Mashallah. Good Guys, good brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, and they need your support, they really do. And they need this regular support, this is what is so key, these regular small, regular donations, please set up these direct debits, you know, help us build this base that we need to in order to continue running these operations. I do promise your brothers and sisters we are working as hard as we can to develop other sources. So we won't, you know, like you may regret the day that we don't have these live appeals anymore.
Because then that's it, you're going to you know where you're going to give your money to. But in the reality is even from our point of view, we don't want to be spending all of our time asking and asking and asking for donations. Ideally, we want to set up, you know, permanent streams of income, right? So this thing can run itself, right. But until then brothers and sisters we're going to be keeping them asking you we're going to be keeping them begging, we're going to be coming with our begging bowl shakin saying money for that our
regular donations, please.
You know, shake have had.
It's amazing. You know, some brothers and sisters have obviously been supporting us for many, many years. But I've literally heard comments to the effect of thank you for giving me the opportunity. Yeah, yeah, like, honestly, like some people are like, shake, there's
the brother, I'm not going to name him. But he found out that I asked somebody to fund a particular project. And he rang me and he sounded really jealous. You know, like, imagine someone, someone got a nice car like a Tesla. And then they made me jealous. And then he said, Pro I heard you gave this guy this thing. And he was like, I gave him money. Or I gave him a call actually did actually did because he understands all of these people who give like that they know. They know. And I'm sure bro like if, you know, I am sure that people will see exponential growth in their wealth just as we're seeing exponential growth in the shareholders right, it will grow their wealth grow exponentially,
bro, it will happen. Right? Well, you know, it may not happen straight away. It may take five years, 10 years, but it will happen bro because this is baraka the baraka in this bro. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I was looking for a coin to make a point, but
no one just saw digital.
It's all digital now.
You know, sometimes we have spare change is just lying around the house. Before it used to be like that and stuff. Sometimes to get an item for a new Muslim. It can be as little in some places as 50 P for a job.
For it, sadly, you know, it's sometimes it's not even something that could be cheaper or more expensive. But sadly, it's the case where we have new Muslim sisters who want to cover their hair, because they want to age up but they can't. I want I want people to just imagine that imagine not having enough cloth to put over your head. It's like in the time of the prophets. That's what the Sahaba were like, what imagine it but it's there. It's actually there. So she thank you so much for your time we're going to be suitable
anymore. We haven't even started Ramadan yet. And when Ramadan starts, then we're going to be giving you insomnia.
We're going to be live inshallah regularly, so that you can see the great work that's been happening all across the world. And you can have the opportunity you can actually thank us for or thank to the art for giving you the opportunity to actually get involved in this amazing work. shagreen any last words? No brothers and sisters, just tell us share. You know, like even that's what it is. Sometimes even if you can't donate anything yourself, you can encourage someone else to donate, you know, how about that. Sometimes just spreading the word is the greatest thing you can do. And so everyone can do something, everyone can do something and whatever it is try and do it regularly try and do it
consistency consistently. Try not just to be a person who listens to one talk gets all excited for half an hour and then you forget about it. Right really commit yourself to being someone who does something, you know, consistently until it until it literally just it becomes a normal part of your life. Right? And honestly, that's how we'll change the world.
Absolutely. There's our color cache green. Are you watching a salon with a camera?