Abdurraheem Green – What’s in a name

			starts it off we go
		

			a Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. Brothers and sisters, thank you for joining me again for
another Facebook Live here tonight, Thursday night, every Thursday night in sha Allah.
		

			I'm going to be talking tonight about a story a story from my life.
		

			Why did I change my name. And the reason that I've decided to talk about this is because a couple of
times now, on my personal Facebook page, so you're watching me on my official public abdur-rahim
Green Facebook page, but I have another Facebook page, which I set up really, back in the days when
no one even knew what Facebook was. I mean, you know, Facebook was a pretty much a new thing at the
time. And but I heard a lot of people were connecting with their old friends via Facebook and stuff
like that. So I thought, well, that's a great idea for me to be able to get in touch with my old
friends from the past. But they're not going to know me as Abderrahim green, they're going to know
		

			me as Anthony green. So I set up my Facebook pages Anthony green, thinking that some of my old
friends might get in touch with me. And then inshallah I might be able to give them some doubt that
was my idea. Now, lo and behold some people who are my friends on my, you know, personal Facebook
page, you know, saying what happened to abdur-rahim, you know, why are you abdur-rahim? Sorry, why
you Antony, what happened to abdur-rahim? Now, you see, the thing is here, brothers and sisters, why
is in a name anyway? And what is this thing about changing your name? Is it really even important or
relevant to change your name when you become Muslim. And there is a very important lesson in my
		

			story that I want all of us to benefit from in Sharla tonight, so let me tell you the story. When I
first became Muslim, I,
		

			I when I first became Muslim, I was living in London, and I used to go down to the London central
mosque, and I made some friends there are hamdullah very nice brothers very good brothers. And but
they were like Moroccan, mostly they were Morocco and Algeria.
		

			And, you know, they used to say this thing is they couldn't say my name, you know, like, how do you
say your name? Anthony Anthony, right? That we they just couldn't say my name, Anthony. And they
kept saying, you know, you need to give yourself an Islamic name. And I said, I don't want to change
my name. Why do I need to change my name? No, no, it's good. You should change your name, it's you
should give yourself a nice name, a good name. And they kept on going on. And the main thing was,
these were my friends. That's the reality. These are the guys that I was spending a lot of time
with. I was hanging around with Al Hamdulillah. They were very good, beneficial influence on me, Al
		

			Hamdulillah did a lot of good. So the main thing was these were the people I was very close with at
that moment. And they kept insisting that they had a real problem trying to say my name. So what
they really wanted was an Arabic name. That's what they really wanted. So eventually, they made
suggestions and how about this and how about that? I said, I'm gonna choose abdur-rahim. That's what
I like. They were saying Abdul Rahman. But I said, No, I want something a bit different.
abdur-rahim. That's what I decided to call myself. So then I became known from that time on amongst
the Muslim community as Abdur Rahim, Abdul Rahim green. So everyone's called me abdur-rahim amongst
		

			the Muslim community. And you know, even my dad and my brother. You know, some of my family call me
abdur-rahim, some of my friends, I don't know.
		

			But that's the name that I've been known as, but I've never changed my name on my passport on my
passport. My name has stayed Antony green. On, you know, my birth certificate. I never went to a
special office and by deep hole, change my name, my name on my passport has been Anthony. And my
mother has never agreed to call me abdur-rahim. She always calls me aunt, which is the nickname she
used to get give me or Antony. She's never agreed to call me abdur-rahim. And actually, really, the
reality was, my mum was upset that I changed my name. What's wrong with the name she said, that I
gave you. That's the name that you are when you were born. I gave you why, why do you have to change
		

			it? And there's a really good question that why there is absolutely no justification from the
Islamic point of view from the point of view of Sharia to change your name. Absolutely. No, there is
no necessity. Let me give you a few names Fatima
		

			Hamza. Zainab Ayesha
		

			Abu Bakr, of man, Ali,
		

			are these Islamic names. They're not Islamic names. They just happen to be the names of people who
are companions of the Prophet.
		

			sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and every single one of them who I mentioned, was at one stage, not a
Muslim. They were born with those names. They were names given to them by their pagan, Arab mothers
and fathers. They were the names of Arabs, they were Arab names given to them by pagan, idolatrous,
Mushrik parents. So they're not Islamic names. They became, they just, they were Yes, they were
great Sahaba but the only named the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the only names that the
Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam mentioned is a Hadith. He mentioned, this is a good name,
		

			Al Hadith. And another name I forgot. And he said Abdullah, and Abdul Rahman. These are the most
loved names by Allah subhanaw taala, Abdullah and Abdul Rahman. And by the way, though the father of
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was called Abdullah. It shows by the way, the pagan Arabs
believed in Allah. They believed in Allah. They believe that there was a creator of the universe
they believe that Allah sent down the rain they believe that Allah caused the crops to grow. They
believe that Allah controlled the universe, they did not dispute they were not atheists, they
believed in Allah subhanaw taala their problem was that they worshipped others along with Allah. So
		

			the only names that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam insisted that people had to change when
names that had sugar in them, like Abdullah chumps, the worshiper or the servant of the sun, or
Abdullah Kumar, the worshipper of the moon or Abdullah Oza. Was, was one of their idols. So meaning
servant or slave or worshipper of Al Azhar of the idol. So if someone had a name like that, then the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam insisted that they had to change that name. Otherwise, the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the only other types of names that the Prophet salAllahu alayhi
wasallam insisted that people change were not insisted, but when he did, he told people to change.
		

			So if a person had a name, like herb like war, or a name, that had a bad meaning or a harsh meaning,
then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, would tell them to change that name. So otherwise, the
you know, the best names as well the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the best names The Prophet
said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam are the names of the prophets. Now,
		

			I don't know anyone who had a name that was an Arab name that was given to them by their mother,
that was from Arab, pagan, whatever, that they decided to change their name to Musa or ISA or
Suleiman to make it more Islamic. Now, that would be really Islamic. But they didn't do that. Now,
as you see, the thing is here, brothers and sisters, this is ignorance. Actually, this is ignorance.
A lot of us have ideas about what we think Islam is. And you've heard me go, if any of you have been
listening to my lectures, over the years, you would have heard me go on and on and on, about the
difference between culture and religion, the difference between culture and religion, and people get
		

			very confused, especially if religion is very, very intimately linked into your culture, like in
Pakistan and Morocco, and all over the Muslim world, Indonesia, Malaysia. unhemmed, I don't want to
mention every single country, if I didn't mention your country, forgive me, it's not the name of the
countries that's important. But all of those lands where Islam has been established for a long, long
time, all of those lands,
		

			culture and religion is very, very, very, very intimately linked and connected, okay? But not
everything that people do. And not all the practices that people follow are actually from the
religion and this is where people get confused, because Islam allows us in Islam, you know, Islam,
allows us to keep our cultural practices. This is what Islam allows. Islam allows us to keep our
cultural practices, as long as those cultural practices do not contradict what the religion teaches.
So the name Antony, what is bad about that? If I had the name, George, actually, the name George, I
looked up the meaning of the name George, probably the future king of England. The name George
		

			actually means Hadith. It has the same name. It has the same meaning as the name which the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam said it's the truest of names, right? And it really means farmer, the one
who cultivates the Earth. This is actually what the
		

			The name George actually means has exactly the same meaning. So why do you need to change it? Why do
you need to make your name sound Arabic and therefore it's Islamic. This is the same confusion that
we have brothers and sisters. This is why we come to countries like England, we go to countries, you
know, European countries, and we build mosques. And those mosques we think have to follow a certain
format. We think it has to have a dome and it has to have a minaret. There's nothing in Islam that
says a dome and a mirror. There's nothing in Islam. That's just cultural civilizational symbols, the
Mosque of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam did not have a dome, the most of the Prophet
		

			sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not have a minaret. It didn't. And since we have loudspeakers these
days, or even you can't use loudspeakers in these countries. Why do we even need domes? Why do we
even need minarets, we've got air conditioning. So the domes were built to help cool the building.
We don't need that stuff anymore. But these are just cultural things. But the worst thing is, is
that when we when we come to Western countries, and we build these mosques, that really look like
they've been taken from a completely different culture, a completely different environment, and put
slap bang in the middle of
		

			wherever it may be. And then, of course, people feel alienated, of course, people feel that they're
being invaded and the things they're being taken over by all these Muslim Muslims. Yeah. And they
don't feel like coming into those mosques, because it looks strange to them. It looks alien to them,
it doesn't look like a place that they're going to feel welcome at all. And this is not just
anecdotal. This is something I know, people have said. And if you study architecture, you will
realize that
		

			there is a whole philosophy about how you design a building, you can design a building to make it
very imposing, you can design a building to make it very warm and welcoming. You can you know,
there's a whole there's a whole way of designing buildings to influence people and how they interact
in that building. But we don't think about that. So all I'm trying to point out brothers and sisters
is a very, very important thing. And I want the lesson of this. Now I want to bring this back to my
mum. Because at the end of the day paradise lies at the feet of your mothers. I want you to remind
you of that brothers and sisters, Paradise Jana, lies at the feet of your mother, meaning in serving
		

			your mother and being kind to your mother and being good to your mother. This is a route to
paradise. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, may he may His face be rubbed in the dust
may His face be rubbed in the dust, may his face be rubbed in the dust, the one who either one or
both of his parents reach old age and he doesn't enter Paradise by serving them. You know, when your
parents reach old age, it is one of the easiest ways for you to enter Jannah by serving your parents
by serving your parents, especially when they reach old age. Okay, you know that Allah has said in
the Quran don't even say off to them don't even go like that. That's awful. Like,
		

			don't even make a noise like that to your parents right? Now. Why am I saying about my mother?
Because until now my mother does not call me abdur-rahim. My mother calls me Anthony. What? Why did
I upset my mother?
		

			I didn't know. That's the reality. I didn't know. And
		

			I have no problem with my mom calling me Anthony. In fact, anyone who wants to call me Anthony, I
don't have a problem with it at all. It doesn't bother me whether my name is Anthony Abderrahim or
any other boy, you know, bro, whatever name you want to call me. It doesn't bother me whatsoever.
You know, but what bothers me is that until now my mum is upset. And this reminds me of the truth of
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the Hadith of the Prophet, where some people have returned
who had gone on a military expedition and one of the companions had received a wound in his head.
And in the nighttime, he had a * and he needed to take hosel and he asked the Companions
		

			Yes, I mean, the battery's running out on this now says low battery. Okay, and he asked the asked
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and no sorry. He asked the Companions, the people around,
he was asking them
		

			what do I need to do? I've got this wound in my head. Do I need to take a hustle? And they said,
Yes, you have to take a hustle. You know, you've had the *. You have to take a hustle. But
he said I'm afraid you know, like of my injury. No, you have to take a hustle. So he took a hustle
and water from the hustle entered into his head and it because of that he died it killed him. Right.
And when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam heard this he said something very harsh and the
prophet could say some tough things. He said you killed him may
		

			Allah kill you. You kill him. May Allah kill you, you kill him, may Allah kill you. If you don't
know, then ask the people who do know, if you don't know, ask the people who do know.
		

			And this is how ignorance okay? I mean, no one's been killed in this particular instance. But is it
worth upsetting my mother was it is is the status of my mother? Is it worth upsetting her to change
my name? I don't even want to do it anyway. Well, you know, at the end of the day Alhamdulillah
whatever, it's from Allah subhanaw taala.
		

			And you know, people know me as Abdur Rahim. But if you want to know why, my you know, my non
official Facebook name is Anthony green if you happen to be a friend of mine on that page. Well, now
you know the story of how I changed my name. Oh, here's another interesting thing I just want to add
		

			one day, we were watching a movie with the brothers in the movie, you probably will heard of it.
It's called the message.
		

			And in this movie, the message the actor who plays Hamza is who? Antony Quinn, right? And the
brothers rule going on Masha, Allah, we love Anthony queen, right? I said, you just said my name.
And this is after I had changed my name, right? And you know, like, everyone now knew me. As I said,
you just said my name. That's my name, Anthony. So why didn't you tell us and Tony queen, like so.
In the end, they could say my name perfectly well anyway. And here's the funny thing is that most of
the non Muslims, like most of the people are not Muslim that I interact with. They can't say my
name. They really struggle. They really have a problem saying my name.
		

			Abdul, can I call you Abdul? They say no. I said you can't call me Abdullah. My name is Abdul Rahim.
It's just embarrassing. But now I I don't say that anymore. I say no, I say you can call me Anthony.
As you can call me. I'm gonna him what Anthony? What's easier for you? Anthony? That's fine.
Anthony's good. You can call me Anthony, if you want to, because it doesn't change a thing in
Sharla. It doesn't change me being a Muslim. It doesn't affect my level of Eman. It doesn't affect
my level of Islam. What does it affect? Really, in reality brothers and sisters. So please, don't
speak about Allah and His Deen. Without knowledge. It is not enough to say, Oh, we intended good.
		

			Oh, yeah, we were just trying to do the right thing we were we had good intentions.
		

			You know, this is you know, just having good intentions is not enough. You need to make sure you
have knowledge and you have understanding. Because the things that you do have the things that you
do, and the things that you say, have an effect. And when you say this is halal, and this is haram
and you should do this and you shouldn't do that. Actually, you're giving a fatwa, you're giving a
type of ruling, right? You're actually saying what is pleasing to Allah and what is not pleasing to
Allah? And in this case, what evidence did they say it was more pleasing to Allah for me to change
my name, on what basis but you know, the boys were young, we were young, they didn't understand
		

			their knowledge was limited, their wisdom was low. And this is the problem as well brothers and
sisters of not really appreciating and understanding the wisdom of our elders. Right and I'm all for
mashallah these young brothers and sisters, these YouTubers these guys coming up speaking about
Islam and but I just My advice to you as listeners, and to them as people who are teaching and
preaching don't make the mistakes that we made. Don't talk about Allah and His Deen without
knowledge don't give fatwas and rulings about the religion
		

			and you don't really understand the full depth and the full scope and the full the full potential
consequences of what you are advising people with right
		

			so anyway, that's it for me tonight brothers and sisters very, very simple. The story of how did I
change my name or did I change my name?
		

			And I haven't Hola. So when you call me I'm gonna Hema Anthony. It's all right by me. Anyway. So
your brother in Islam, saying to us salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah. Please don't forget to share this
video. Because sharing is caring. And you never know who might listen to this video or might benefit
from it and who may stop doing some stupid thing that we're going to do or may start doing some
Great Good Thing Alhamdulillah and be inspired by it. That's what it's all about. Inshallah, I will
be with you next Thursday. Inshallah. I hope I have reception because I'm going to be up in Scotland
all the way in Boonie. Scotland.
		

			I'm going to be in skill load. So I'm going to be all the way for Williams. So it's like far away
for everything, but I think they have phone reception there. Okay. It's not like it's the middle of
the desert and
		

			The air handler, I'll be doing a Facebook Live, after that, I might well change the night I do my
Facebook Live, I might move it to Wednesday, I might move it a bit earlier as well, because I know a
lot of you are listening from Bangladesh and Pakistan, and it's really, really late there now. So
may Allah bless all of you who have been listening to me Alhamdulillah Be patient, stay with it. If
you haven't checked out, mastery, classes.com mastery classes.com You should do it and hamdulillah
it is there to help you help all of us, control our muffs control our ego, fight our bad habits,
keep away from sins and hamdulillah I've got some exciting stuff coming up in sha Allah, with that
		

			online platform Alhamdulillah very exciting ideas that I've got, Inshallah, that's going to open up
a whole wall, a whole realm of possibilities to those of you haven't been able to access it until
now in sha Allah. But don't let that stop you. Because I'm going to make sure that no one loses, no
one's going to pay more than others and then feel bad that I paid this much for that course and I
didn't get this, I really want to give everyone a fair deal. So whether you pay now or later,
Alhamdulillah Inshallah, you're going to get something great. Just I want to mention something
Subhanallah I got a very, very emotional
		

			email from a sister Subhanallah the other day, and her child, her daughter, her little baby daughter
died in hospital.
		

			And she emailed me to say that, you know, to thank me for the seven pillars of willpower, the course
that she did. And she said that, if it wasn't for that course, and having gone through it and learn
the things that I learned, I don't know how I would have managed, I don't know how I would have
managed to make hostel for my child and go through everything that I went through.
		

			And you know, subhanAllah she was talking about how she was giving dower to the hospital staff as
well. You know, me I love that this is a true these are the true these are the true qualities and
these the real, real lack of real hero really, somehow Allah. So you know, it really has real real
life benefits this course brothers and sisters, so I'm inviting you please, to have a look at it in
sha Allah have a go. If you if it doesn't work for you. You get your money back. It's always that if
you do that course and you go through it and you do it and it doesn't, it doesn't change you and it
doesn't have a real effect on you. We're always ready to give your money back. Okay, so brothers and
		

			sisters, that's it for me. Until next Thursday. Insha Allah may Allah be with you remember Ramadan
is coming up soon. This is the month month of Shaban it is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
used to first Allah in this month in it's a great preparation for Ramadan. Don't let Ramadan catch
you unawares. And I don't think there's anything that there's a lot of great things you could do.
One of the great things you could do to prepare yourself for Ramadan is actually to do that course.
Alhamdulillah So brothers and sisters, until next week as Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh