Reduced Concepts #03 Freedom, Jihad, and Knowledge
Date:
Channel: Adnan Rajeh
Series: Adnan Rajeh - Reduced Concepts
File Size: 52.91MB
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of freedom and the need for individuals to contemplate their own values. They stress the need for students to have a positive mindset and use their learning experiences to grow and learn about new opportunities. The importance of consistency and the importance of building a positive mindset is also emphasized.AI Generated Transcript ©
Of rights or the charge of of of
freedoms. And you'll find it's it's still making
that noise.
Yeah.
Hey, Shraddi.
Yeah. Of course.
Yes, sir. Alright.
Today,
the 3rd episode of, of reduced concepts that
we're talking about Freedom, knowledge, and jihad, and
they're a bit generic in terms of,
as values or concepts. They're not necessarily specifically
Islamic. The majority of this, this series until
the end of it will be touching base
on Islamic specific, values that I think are
reduced. But I wanted to, to give you
a little bit of a glimpse or or
at least, talk about a few topics that
I think,
are worthy of of our analysis,
that are generic, that are part of the
world around us in general. It gives you
methodology, a way to do that within your
life about or regarding topics that you may,
take as important in your own life or
you see as as were important in the
way that you grew up or what you
thought was valuable for you to be able
to re to reassess and analyze. And I
think the example of, of intentions in our
deen is a good way to kind of,
walk into this, Because understanding intentions in Islam
requires an ongoing process of renewal and. You're
always kinda correct. You have to go back
and because they can they they can get
rusty and they can lose their essence and
substance because it's just how we are as
human beings. We lack that ability to,
sometimes,
to to to focus and to to remind
ourselves exactly why we're doing what we're doing.
So
when we talk about freedom specifically, when we
talk about freedom here in the west, freedom
is the the the the cornerstone
of, of the western
civilization.
It started in Europe and it moved moved
its way over over to the western countries.
And it became and liberty became the number
one topic that everyone,
looks into or talks about or wants to
defend and and wants to protect. And I
and I don't blame them, and I don't
think it's something that is negative in any
form or manner, actually. And I and I'll
at the end of of talking about it,
I I will touch base on what the
Islamic view is of the concept of freedom
and where and how we're supposed to look
at it. But
the example I'm trying to give through freedom
is is the Western civilization was built on
this extremely profound value of liberty.
And then I I think it's not difficult
for us to to see what has come
of liberty today. Like, is liberty or freedom,
which as a concept that this whole civilization
was built upon, Is it the same today?
Does it function in the same way? Do
people view it in the same way? Do
they practice it in the same way? Or
has it lost value over time? Has it
lost substance and essence over time? I think
it's safe to say that almost everyone,
living in the west knows that the concept
of liberty and freedom has lost a certain
degree of its substance just over over the
course of time. And I think that as
as people living in the west, unless
we,
renew this concept, unless we get rid of
the reduction that has occurred upon this value,
then as a society, as a country, we're
going to we're going to suffer because of
that. Like, I don't think we can afford
not to go back and and renew our
understanding of what freedom actually is. So the
question that that that I pose here is
is it just hate speech? Is freedom is
there freedom of of of speech or the
freedom of expression?
Is it reduced just to being being able
to say things that are extremely offensive and
extremely harmful and hurtful to to large groups
of people?
Is freedom of speech or freedom of expression
or freedom of of press just the freedom
of saying things or taking something that is
holy or sacred to a group of people
and offending it or disrespecting it or talking
about it in a way that lacks, any
form of decency.
Is freedom or is or personal liberties,
are they are they means? Are they excuses
for us to disregard the well-being of the
collective or of the group?
These are questions that I think we should
be asking ourselves.
And, yeah, there's there's an there's a lot
for us to look at that. I want
you to take this quote of of Chamstee.
This is a really important quote
that that he put out that a couple
around a decade ago, he actually said said
this one of his one of his books.
He said the smart way to keep people
passive and obedient is to strictly limit the
spectrum of acceptable opinion.
It's a smart way to do it. But
allow very lively debate within that spectrum, even
encourage the more critical and diss dissident views.
That gives people the sense that there's freedom
theme, freedom of thinking going on. Well, all
the time, the, presuppositions
of the system are being reinforced by the
limits put on the range of the debate.
So this may be a little bit complicated.
But really what he's saying is that
if you want to control people, you wanna
do it in an intelligent way where people
don't even notice that they're being controlled, you
just make sure that you limit the spectrum
of of acceptable opinion. You just put limitations,
and then you encourage and you engage in
in a lot of debate, in a lot
of discussion and conversation within that spectrum. Right?
And you encourage people who are opposing one
another and you support them just as long
as they say within the limitations that you
have already put that along those presuppositions are
are are set. And if you do that
long enough, people will start to believe that
those limitations are actually real, that they're sacred,
that they're holy, that you can't think outside
of them. And that's and that's basically what
we're seeing here today. That's that's what's happening
in the west. Now in the Middle East,
they don't they don't, put themselves to the
trouble of doing this.
They just don't allow you to think. And
if you try and think, then they make
make it very clear for to you not
to do it again.
And they do it belligerently and very openly
and just, you know, in a in a
dictatorship fashion. They don't put themselves through this
trouble. This here is the same thing. It's
just happening in a much more
there's more there's more finesse to it. It's
just a little bit more, sneaky and and
and flashy, and people don't notice it as
as much. So when when I came here,
this is what I found out to be
the the the issue that there's really no
freedom of speech here. It's just that the
spectrum is a little bit wider. That's all.
But freedom has a value. And this is
what we're going to, you know, discuss over
the, you know, the the the course of
these days, is that values are only values
if they're consistent.
If they're not consistent, they're not values. They
don't they don't really they don't mean anything.
If if there's exceptions to these things, if
there's exceptions, then then it's not really real.
Like, there's no liberty. If there is one
thing, just one thing that you're not allowed
to question or talk about. One thing.
There's an infinite number of things. If just
one of them, is you're not allowed to
think about this or talk about this or
discuss it, then there's no liberty. There's no
there's no difference between one thing not you
know, not being able to talk about one
thing versus not being able to talk about
anything but one thing.
Right? There's no difference between the 2. They're
they're equally problematic. They just don't present the,
the the the negative that comes from it.
The consequences of that just just presents itself
at different times in history. That's all. Just
maybe when you limit it even when you
severely limit, freedom, maybe you see the negative,
yeah, any impact of that a bit quicker
than you will when you have the spectrum
a little bit wider. But freedom is not
freedom unless you have the ability to just
discuss and talk about absolutely everything. When you
think about his life
or you think about his dua, his dua
was
based on the premise
of. This is what he this is what
he was arguing with Quraysh the whole time
the whole time. Just let me speak to
people. Don't limit my my right to to
to speak about what I wanna speak about.
Like, I wanna explain things to them. If
they accept it, they accept it. If they
refuse it and reject it, they can refuse
it and reject it. Islam, there's no way
there's no space in it for for people
to be coerced into accepting a religion. It's
it's it's it's insane to even imagine that.
But the prophet alaihis salaam's problem was that
people the Quraysh were not allowing him to
speak, that he didn't have the liberty to
be Muslim, and people didn't have the liberty
to accept Islam, and he did not have
the freedom to go and speak to people
openly. He had to do it under radar
at all times, or else he was going
to be persecuted and oppressed and and people
would be, you know, threat their lives would
be threatened. So this problem here is is
really is real here in the west. We
we we're we're allowed to talk about certain
things. You can you can go ahead and
you can speak out again against the, the
the the politicians who represent you. Right? For
us, it's refreshing for people coming from the
Middle East. It's it's refreshing because you can't
do that. You ever heard the joke where,
right, where where a western politician is speaking
a western leader is speaking to an eastern
leader. So the western leader is trying to,
Yaniv, preach a democracy
or their their
version of it to, to an Eastern leader.
So you're telling, my people can, you know,
walk in the street and openly curse me,
and no one will speak to them.
No one will harm them. So the Israelites
said, yeah. The same thing. My people can
walk in the street and curse you out
openly, and no one will speak to them.
No one will harm them either. They can
they can curse you in my country too.
So the I there's
there we came and found that that was
the case where, politically, you can speak out
a lot. But then then you start figuring
out that there are certain topics that if
you do speak about, then then the outcome
is not the same.
And maybe you're not gonna be taken, by,
by an intelligence agency, but there are other
ways for for you to know that this
is not, this is territory that you're not
welcome to, discuss
upon. So where do individual liberties end? This
is why I wanna talk about when it
comes when we talk about freedoms and liberties.
Is there a limit to individual liberties,
Or are they open for you to do
anything, absolutely anything that you want?
And I think that's something that,
the the emphasis
upon it in at this time and in
this country and in this part of the
world has become a little bit confusing for
people.
There's a lot of emphasis on individual liberties.
The priority of the individual liberty has become
has has trumped everything.
Everything else is, cannot hold nothing can hold
a candle to the concept of individual liberty.
Regardless of what the consequences are, regardless of
whether there is indirect harm from that individual
liberty, regardless of whether the the the the
well-being or the best interest of the collective
is being compromised by the in by that
individual liberty or not. And that, to my
in my opinion, is a problem. Because one
of the basic,
laws or rules that societies are built upon,
not just an Islamic society, but society in
general, is is is do no harm or
You're not allowed to to, you know, afflict
harm upon yourself, and you're definitely not allowed
to afflict harm upon others. But then the
problem come becomes, how do you define harm?
And this is where this is where this
issue becomes a little bit more, tricky and
difficult to talk about. How do you define
harm?
Individual liberties,
they the way that they're designed and the
way that people look at them here today
is that they completely ignore any form of
long term harm or indirect harm. Like, they're
only they're only willing to identify or,
acknowledge or recognize
harm that is direct.
Meaning, I mean, my my my my individuals
my individual liberty ends when I'm starting to
punch you or take away your wealth or
threaten your life. That's where my individual liberty
ends. But if I do something that will
lead
to the loss of your life, right, maybe
a couple of years down the road or
in an indirect manner, that is not identified.
Like, it's not it's not the time to
take into actually look or analyze that is
much is much weaker. I'm not saying it
doesn't exist at all. No. These arguments obviously
these arguments amongst law lawmakers exist, but there
is just not it's not as well emphasized.
And really, I'm not I'm not interested in
what the lawmakers are talking about or what's
happening in courts of law. What I'm interested
in is the mentality of the human being.
If the human being does not recognize that
his your their actions
have to be assessed to make sure that
they're not causing harm, not just directly and
short term, but indirectly and long term, then
we're we're in a we're in a dilemma.
We're in a real dilemma in the world
in terms of what we and how we
how we define our our own liberties.
So how do we distinguish, for example, hate
speech from from freedom of speech? Now that
that first amendment,
as they say,
right for you to speak your mind. Well,
how do you distinguish that from from from
hate speech? Where you're saying things that are
that are discriminatory
or things that are that are racist or
that, you know, are are putting people down?
This is actually a very a very thin
line, and it requires a lot of intelligence
and and and a lot a lot of
reflection. As Muslims, I mean, we we
we absolutely
do not accept any form of hate speech.
This is a part of our deen, actually.
And if you study any any aspect of
Tezgi and you attend Tezgi of the groups,
then you know that one of the first
thing you learn is that yeah. I need
yeah. You're not allowed to not forget about
saying things that are harmful to others. You're
not allowed to think things that are harmful
towards others. Like, you're not allowed to even
carry it in your and within within your
mind. Because if you do, then that's an
aspect of of a bad assumptions. That's an
aspect of arrogance that you have. And you're
not allowed to do that. Forget about actually
expressing it openly and and carrying it as
an opinion towards other people. You're not even
allowed to carry it on the inside. Actually,
Islam is more is yeah. The the bulk
of the work of the Quran is to
focus on how you're going to get rid
of that from the inside of you. Yeah.
Which is why I think is is is
worthy of,
of contemplation. When we talk about freedoms in
the west and we talk about what hate
speech
is,
it kinda seems that we've reduced this beautiful
concept of freedom that that may that in
that ensures that as individuals,
we will be able
to govern ourselves, we'll be able to speak
out for ourselves, we will not be enslaved
again, whether financially or socially or both,
but then we reduce it to just wanting
to to to say hateful things. And then
when when someone comes up or or or
when it's pointed out to you that that
was, you know, that was racist or that
was disrespectful, that was harmful to people, and
there was no benefit. There's no gain in
it. You're actually critiquing an idea of any
sort. It's one thing to critique an idea.
But if I have an idea and I
and I stand by it, you critique it.
Like, if you come here to critique my
religion, that's not racist.
I'm sorry. It's not racist if someone doesn't
like Islam and he speaks out against Islam.
I know it's not pleasant for you or
me, but it's not racist because it's an
idea. You can go ahead and you can
speak as much as you want about an
idea that you don't like. We actually welcome
it as Muslims. Go ahead. Make your make
your points. Make your arguments because we have
a better one. We'll just have a counter
one that will make more sense and actually
work in our advantage. Like, if you go
ahead and you speak out against a strong
idea, you give us reason to to to
rebuttal, and that rebuttal actually will be more
powerful so it'll mean more in the long
run. And people actually being closer to Islam
than farther away because of the fact that
you're making these statements.
It's when you speak out against Muslims, for
example, specifically.
Not about the practice. Again, you're not focused
on the practice, but you're looking at you're
bulking them as a group of people,
and you're giving them a specific,
a stereotype. And you're you're belittling them because
of that stereotype. That that's different.
When you take a, a character
within Islam, some someone who who's who's meaningful,
someone who who,
who is seen with a certain degree of
sanctity, and you mock them.
See, mockery is not critique.
Mockery is not critique. For if I don't
like, a leader of some sort, if I
don't like, religious figure of some sort, then
I have the right to point out what
I think is wrong or I think was
is problematic.
I don't have the right to mock. Mockery
is not, like, an an academic approach of
of freedom. Like, it's not it's not a
form of of of freedom of speech or
critiquing or, criticizing or scrutinizing something that that
you think is problematic.
Mockery is a whole different which is basically
what we reduce this to.
Our freedom is just a freedom to mock
and to make fun of things and to
get laughs off someone else's
sacred or holy figure or holy, or holy
idea.
And, many of you remember maybe back in
2006
and then 2,007 and and the characters that
that that would that emerged from parts of
Europe and even that would depict the prophet
and it caused a lot of uprise and
and anger within within the Muslim world.
I look at this and the reason I'm
talking about freedom because I wanna look at
this from both perspectives.
I don't think it's I I don't agree.
I don't agree with the with with this,
expression of freedom, expression of, of opinion in
in a form of mockery. I don't think
it's I don't think it's smart. I don't
think I don't think it actually is what
freedom is about. If I don't like Hinduism
or Buddhism or Christianity, if you don't like
a a religion, I think there's something wrong
with it. For me to take the path
of mockery, to take something that they think
is sacred and make fun of it,
which which serves no purpose. It does not
actually get them to rethink
their faith. It does not yeah. And he
put them in a position where they have
to now critically
logically go through the points that I've made,
but rather just feel extremely offended and feel
hurt that they now are marginalized or targeted
or they are the the the laughing stock
of of a group, it doesn't work very
well. Now the response Muslims had was worse.
Our response was worse. Our response was that
you don't have the right to say anything
about about Islam or about the prophet, and
that's not true. They have the right to
say whatever they want. They have the right
to express their opinions about him. They have
their right to express the opinions about our
deen, and they should. And if we don't
have a strong idea, we should not be,
Yani, holding on to it. Freedom is very
important. Because if you limit freedom, then people
will be stuck with a with a
with a lousy idea for a very long
time because there's no freedom of actually critiquing
it. So not only do we think it's
okay for people to speak against us now,
we actually encourage it. Go ahead. Bring it
on. Because our idea is superior, not because
it's my idea or your idea, because it's
Allah
word. So we have complete confidence that Allah
word and Allah
teaching is superior to anyone else anyone else's
argument. So bring it on. Because if you
do, then we can respond, and then actually
this argument becomes becomes meaningful, becomes fruitful, and
the person who's listening will actually figure out
who has the stronger and superior argument, and
then you actually bring people to Islam more.
So we're not against anyone critiquing. This is
a problem.
Muslims for a while, they they they look,
no. You don't have the right no. You
have the right to speak about whatever you
want.
You you can point out that mockery is
not a very civilized manner of doing it.
But to go break things and to try
and kill people,
and and for that to be embedded somewhere
in the Islamic mind is is problematic
because that's not we don't understand liberty we
we don't accept that. We don't limit liberties
as Muslims at all. We refuse any form
of coercion. I'm I'm trying to make I
know this is a little bit, I need,
difficult.
Not everyone will will agree with this, but
I but I think it's important for you
to contemplate.
Because for a long time, even from an
Islamic perspective, you've been led to believe a
little bit that no. No. People don't have
the right to say this or don't have
the right to do that. No. They do.
People have the right to to express their
opinions, whatever their opinions may be. It's not
a problem. The prophet
invited these things. Here we go, give me
bring bring it on. Explain explain say what's
wrong about this so I can argue back
with you.
But to make something, oh, you cannot speak
out against this. As a Muslim, you can't
point out that that maybe was wrong. You
can't point out that maybe the our history
has has some serious flaws and there's some
actual, yeah, any harm that was done by
Muslims. You can't say that. You can't speak
about specific figures that maybe they'd made mistakes.
You can say the word mistake, then then
suddenly you're no longer a Sunni Muslim anymore,
and now you're gonna be called something else.
So you're gonna be removed from the. Why?
Based on what? You are limiting you're limiting
a freedom of thoughts and freedom of expression.
That doesn't serve anything in the long run.
What that does is that after a while,
it just people
start to feel repelled, and they start ignoring
Islam and they walk away from it. Because
anything that is not any idea that is
not open to critique
is an idea that is scared and afraid
and weak.
That that's that's that's the end. And is
is that Islam? No. And not nothing this
time is like that. So there should be
no problem of people expressing and speaking and
and having their opinions.
I believe that tyranny in this country
exists or in this part of the world
as just as bad as it exists in
in the Middle East. I don't think there's
any difference at all. I think it just
comes in a different, package. I think it's
a prettier package as most things here are.
They're prettier packages. Yeah. Yeah. You'll you'll buy
buy food. It comes in a nice little
box. It's colored. And it's and in Syria,
they give it to you in a newspaper,
but here, you eat your. It's the same
thing. It's just it's just the packaging is
a little bit more fancy here. You know
how to package stuff, but the tyranny is
the same. The concept of a cancel of
of cancel culture that has become a prevalent
word. Like, it's a word that now exists
in the, you know, within the realms that
we live in. It's no longer something that's,
it's
it's it's very clear. The concept of cons
of cancel culture, where someone can have an
opinion, again, outside of those limitations that Shamsi
was talking about, outside of those presuppositions
that were, put there,
you speak something outside of that, and then
you can be removed. You can lose your
job. You can have your reputation ruined. You
can lose your relationships. You can lose your
status. And that's basically all that the human
being works towards. How is that different than
just, you know, you're being thrown into a
cell?
At least in a cell, when you're thrown
there, you still have your integrity and dignity.
Your reputation still stands. Like, someone who speaks
out against the government in the Middle East
and then disappears or is thrown in jail,
at least they can
their legacy and their reputation stays something that's
respectful.
In the west, no. No. They don't put
you in jail. Just make sure that they
smear your name,
that they just drag your name in in
into the in the mud for a while
so that you can't show your face anywhere.
And you don't have the ability to express
yourself properly anymore, and you're not taking seriously
what you say.
How is that any different? I don't see
that to be any different. That's exactly what
we're going through right now. The concept of
of canceling people because they have an opinion
outside of the acceptable range of or acceptable,
the range of acceptable opinion.
And remember when the when
a 170 days ago,
just after October 7th,
And then for 3 or 4 days afterwards,
they just bomb, bomb, bomb like crazy. And
we went from, like, 0 deaths to maybe,
like, 3,000 within within the course of just
a few days, which was a huge. We
had never seen that amount of of death
within just a course of a few days.
And when we're talking about that that look.
All these got all these people are civilians,
but you're you're killing civilians. You can actually
not actually killing the, the fighters or the,
you know, the resistance. You're not you're actually
taking out women and children in their homes,
and it was not even coming through media
outlets. It was people just holding up phones
and showing I'm not sure if you're watching,
if you're keeping up anymore, if you're able
to. Yani. But, the images that are coming
that are emerging from,
neighborhoods in Gaza is just,
Yani. The last time I saw destruction that
bad was in cities in Syria back in
2012 and 13 and 14 when they when
when when the regime bombed and destroyed complete
regions just to to, you know, to silence
the
the
you know, and to silence the resistance.
And when we tried to talk out against
it, all you got was the questioning. Do
you condemn Hamas? You do you do you
condemn?
And because they just want to see if
you maybe you'll say something outside of the
range of acceptable opinion.
They just want you to say something else
because that would that's what that then then
then they can counsel you. Then then whatever
you say afterwards doesn't matter. Like, if you
you have an amazing argument, but you say
if you refuse to condemn openly, the, now
you've said something outside of the range of
acceptable opinion, and now you can be canceled.
And anything that you have to say or
any opinion that you carry now can be
completely ignored and neglected. It doesn't have to
it doesn't matter anymore. Because of that person,
they they're an open supporter of they're they're
an open supposedly they're an open supporter. I
mean yeah. So so they're no open supporter.
The the argument doesn't matter? Yeah. No. It
doesn't matter anymore.
How does their argument doesn't how is that
possible?
How if the if someone has 2 opinions,
one that's good and one that's bad, the
bad one will cancel this good one. That's
that's that's how we're going to think about
things. Imagine if we did that in science.
Imagine if we did that in science, if,
if a scientist had a good opinion and
bad opinions and the bad opinions that can
cancel the good ones or the bad research
cancels all the good research. That is not
how this works. But this is what we're
we're we're dealing with today. So when we
talk about liberty, because we've accepted the reduction,
of this value,
just to the ability to mock,
to have satire, to have late night shows.
Like, there's 6 late night shows now. You
can watch it. Or they just they just
mock politicians. You can do that. You've accepted
that this this this value is gonna be
reduced. Just the ability to, you know, mock
politicians
and to, you know, protest and carry hate
speech based, and then walk and and and
then undress yourself and walk however you want
on the street and and put out whatever
obscene material online. No problem. If we've accepted
the reduction so now what we're dealing with
is this. We're dealing with this. We don't
have the ability now to speak our minds.
You don't have the ability to have an
opinion on certain things. You know that.
When the poster came out in Western a
year and a half ago remember that? That
was a time. That was a fun time,
wasn't it? That was fun. When that when
that poster came, yeah, came out, we figured
out everyone's like, well, who's gonna say something?
No one's gonna say anything.
Why would they say? Why would anyone say
anything? Why would you come up publicly and
and and speak out against, Yani? Why? Why
would you do something that was going to
literally end your life
right then and there? And everyone who's gonna
sit down and watch, no one's gonna do
it. Of course, they're not gonna do it
because we don't have a community set up
to allow us to protect we we don't
have any we don't have a set up
to protect our liberties. We're living in a
time where your liberties outside of a certain
range are not protected, and we don't have
a communal setup to actually protect people who
want to question some of those some of
those limitations. We don't have it. So you
have to you have to dance around the
topic, and you have to be very careful.
How are you going to address it? When
you didn't have to really. You don't really
have to. From a logical perspective, their arguments
make no sense at all. There's no longer
an, an issue of logic anymore. Like, when
you're arguing, you know, the the when we're
talking about we're gonna talk about, like, gender
identity later on in this course or in
this, series. But when you talk about these
things,
logically or scientifically or psychologically, there's no basis
for for the majority of these arguments almost
at all. Like, logically, it makes no sense
the way what what what they're saying. Doesn't
make sense biologically. Doesn't make sense socially. Doesn't
make sense psychologically.
But but that that doesn't matter because they
were able to limit the liberties regarding
addressing or criticizing the actual topic. That's smart.
I have to say, Johnny. Touche.
No. Pretty brilliant. That's a smart way of
doing it because you don't have an argument
at all. Just
take the the, the spectrum and just shrink
it a little bit and put it outside
the spectrum. So the moment you open your
mouth, you're you're
no one no one's interested in hearing what
you're trying to explain. Like, yeah, I want
to no. That exists for a lot of
things.
If if someone wants to talk about health
care
health care. Yeah. If you if you open
your mouth and start saying, maybe maybe
the system that we have here is not
is not gonna work. Maybe it's going to
crumble under its own weight at some point
in the near near future, and then people
will die. A lot of people will die.
Do maybe we don't wait for that. Maybe
we start talking about may having a 2
tier system. You say that and immediately you're
removed. You're removed. Now this is this is
a far right person because that's outside
of
the of the spectrum of proper of or
appropriate or acceptable opinion. At least in certain
realms, they are politically and in the health
care world. You can't talk about this stuff.
Can't come out and say these things.
It's a problem that we are living in
a time where, yeah, I need you want
you want to offer a I don't I
don't care about the politics. I'm not trying
to say that someone I just just listen
to it. Nope. Nope. The moment you say
that, it it's not going
to be fully public forever and ever than
harass, you're evil.
Alright?
Accepting that is accepting a limitation on our
liberty that I think is, I mean, is
problematic. How does Islam view liberty?
The beauty of all this is that Islam
came to people who were truly free.
Islam was revealed to people who were truly
free. Even those who were enslaved amongst them
were free.
Even those who were enslaved amongst them were
free because their minds were free.
Even if maybe they didn't have the ability
to take care take care of themselves financially
or they had to work in service of
others, but no one told them how to
think. And no one no one told them
what they could or could not say or
who they could or could not be. This
was a hallmark of Arabian
people.
As an Arabian man, you get on your
horse, you take your sword, and that's it.
That's it. You did you spoke and did
what you you you feared no one
aside from whoever was going to bring a
sword and fight you back. That's it. There
was no limitation of what opinions you you
you wanted to have about anything, about absolutely
anything. It's because of that it's because of
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose the Arab
to receive this message because they had nothing
else going for them. Honestly, they had nothing
else going for them. Aside from their, you
know, the mastery of their own language, really
not there was really nothing else. They didn't
they were not extremely they were not,
well educated. They were not scientifically advanced. They
didn't have an amazing
public they had no political governance whatsoever at
the time. Their ethics were, you know, up
and down, and some ethics were extremely problematic.
Their understanding of of certain things were, but
they were free.
They were free. They were never conquered.
Now,
arguably,
not for the right reason, but they were
never conquered.
My my understanding of it is that they
were not conquered because none of the, yeah,
any
empires around them thought it was worth conquering
them. Because it was why? It's a desert
and it's
there's nothing there. Why why go why why
go through the trouble of trying to organize
these people? They have nothing anyways. Just leave
them. So they're never conquered. Forget about the
reason for it, but they just never were.
They they lived freely for for over a
millennia
or over a millennium that they lived like
that. So they were the best group to
receive this message. Because this message of Islam,
you cannot you absolutely cannot carry this. You
cannot live as a good Muslim if you
are not free.
Yeah. Tawhid
I talked about this yesterday, and I wanted
to leave that as got an extra piece
for it today. Tawhid, another thing that it
does for you, that it frees you from
the red lines that others will draw. So
it's not just the fact that Allah subhanahu
draws the lines and then you accept those
lines and you live by them. But no
one else gets to draw lines.
No one else gets to force you,
within a box.
No one else gets to tell you who
you are or what you can and cannot
do aside from Allah
It doesn't mean that you won't follow a
law. No. No. It doesn't mean that you
don't come to a line and accept a
law, but it means that you are critical
of that law. It means that you will
speak out against it when you don't think
it's acceptable. It means that you will question
things and that you will stand up if
you think that there is oppression or or
transgression happening towards you or towards anyone else.
That's what this means. So Muslim, because of
Tawhid, is free. He's not enslaved by other
people, not by wealth because Allah
not by strength because Allah
not by but by the fear of life
because Allah
because you because you you you're a servant
to Allah He is the one who dictates
these things so you're not
You're not shamed out of out of being
who you are and speaking what you want
to speak as a servant of God, as
servant of Allah
So this this piece of it is actually
extremely important for us as Muslims to remember
that we value liberty. We value we value
it very much.
And and for a Muslim to look at
liberty as something that is that is negative,
the, oh, there's too much Sharia. You've heard
this before. I'm sure you've heard this before.
I'm sure you've grown up somewhere and someone
said, oh, no. These countries have too much
haria, too much too much. What do you
mean too much? Or you want less?
We want less? You want it to be
similar to what you're living right now in
where in the situation that you're in? That's
what you want?
It's a problem when we look at liberty
in a negative way because some will use
it in a chaotic manner or some will
use it for hate speech or some will
use it to offend other people. But what
are you better off doing?
Limiting liberties that will cause people to lose
the ability to actually practice Islam properly and
they lose their integrity and they don't they
can't carry this message versus accepting liberty with
the good and the bad. And then trying
to take this concept that has been reduced
and and and and resurrected again to for
it to be exactly what it should be.
Not only should we
accept freedom of speech and freedom of expression
and freedom of religion and freedom of we
should all we should also,
I mean, be be champions of it. I'm
gonna end with this part for for freedom,
COVID.
COVID is the argument I make when it
comes to individual liberties and and understanding.
COVID is the perfect example.
Have the liberty to do whatever you want
unless you harm people.
Now I'm pretty sure the guy who was,
you know,
deep frying his lovely bat, Tiani,
and putting some salsa and try to get
bring himself to have his meal, didn't really
think that doing that was going to have
this is free freedom. This is liberty. I
can eat whatever I want.
But then you did that, and then the
you you shut down the bloody planet for
2 years.
And you and you sent us into a
in a financial
recession that we did that we weren't anticipating
at least for another decade.
At least for another 10 years, we're in
a position right now as a as a
not not just as a country, but as
a but a but as a globe, as
a as a planet, in in a in
a in a deep financial
predicament
because of the behavior of a couple of
people. Now I'm not blaming them, by the
way, at all. I'm just saying that if
you didn't learn if you didn't learn from
that, that your behaviors have to be scrutinized
under the lens of whether they can cause
harm maybe indirectly in the long run. And
if that matters, then we we're we're, you
know, we're running into into
problems. We reduced liberty. Just
instead of it being reason, just question authority,
to stand up against oppression, to govern thyself,
to to express them ourselves so that we're
not
so we don't end up with dictatorships and
we don't end up with with actual, actual
persecution
to just I want to do whatever I
want. I get to do whatever I want,
and no one gets to tell me what
I what what I can and cannot do.
That we've reduced it to that, and that's
a problem.
Because now that becomes the the emphasis of
this value, and that can cause cause harm.
We've seen it cause harm. What happens the
the next time someone eats something else?
What what happens in then what? When another
super virus comes along and starts
then what do we do? Lock down again?
How many times can we can we actually
afford to do these things? And this is
just a simple example of, Yani, of,
of help when there's so many so many
more. When we talk about,
Yani, the social,
social behaviors, how you dress and how you
do deal with the opposite gender, what you
expose, and how you, you know, oh, it's
my, it's my life. It's my body. It's
my eyes. I can look whatever I want.
I can say
sure. But you're part of a society.
You don't think that your behaviors will affect
the larger group as a man and as
a woman?
It's just I can do whatever I want.
That that's no. See, this is the problem.
When the the emphasis on just individual liberty
and there's no sense of what the collective
what the group actually benefits from, That that
that what you're doing actually harms the group
that actually causes harm to to to people
around you. It's it's it becomes a a
problem, you know, when a difficult situation.
The second topic I wanna talk about is
jihad.
To exert that's what it means. It means
to exert effort. I'm not gonna take much
time for for the next 2, but, I
want you to take time and think about
it. Jihad is a word that we have
been, taught or designed I mean, programmed to
be ashamed of or to say under our
breath. And if the and if the word
comes up, you kinda just whisper it down
because you don't want someone else to hear
it because the because we it's been used
in a way that is so negative that
we don't want to talk about it. Even
though Islamically, it's probably one of the most
important Islamic concepts that we have. It's extremely,
extremely important. Like, it's central within what Islam
is. It's 41 times in the Quran. That's
a pretty high, yeah, recurrence for a value.
For a value, it's a high recurrence for
something that the values don't come in the
Quran, like, in in that, degree of frequency.
Other toolkits do and names of Allah, for
example, and other acts of worship. But when
it comes to values, this is a pretty
high one to talk about jihad. And jihad,
it means to exert effort.
Juhd is your effort. Yeah. Jahad, that means
you you strived against something. You're striving against
something.
Now
the prophet alaihi sallam says,
The, the head of this matter is is
submission of Islam, yani, is submission.
And the pillar of it is your connection
with the and
the pinnacle of it, the highest point on
the the hump of the camel,
which is the pinnacle, is jihad. It's the
concept of jihad.
The problem, obviously, is the is the common
or ongoing
and confusion of this word or mixing of
this word with combat,
with with with being in the battlefield.
Now the word jihad,
existed way before it was permissible for Muslims
to bear arms.
Yeah. And so on the way to, to
Madinah.
Now you've given the permission to bear arms.
And the verses that would come after that
in Surah Al Nisa, for example,
so
The Quran had to do a lot of
advocacy to get Muslims to prepare themselves that
they were going to have to fight. They're
going to have to defend themselves. They're asked
they're going to have to build an army,
bear arms, and go into combat. The Muslims
didn't wanna do that because for 13 years,
they they weren't, and they like that. They
like the the peacefulness that Islam brought to
them, and they like the fact that they
were, you know, civilly,
they were civil in comparison to others who
were barbaric. But it doesn't mean that you
don't so, of course,
jihad, a part of it is,
is that.
Is a part of jihad for sure. But
is that what the word actually meant? No.
The word when it first existed in the
Quran
These verses were revealed in Mecca way before
the concept of combat was even acceptable, before
before bearing arms was even permissible.
So this word was used by the prophet
at a time when bearing arms was not
even an option because the concept of jihad
was much wider than that. Scholars talk about
14 different categories of jihad,
starting with the the jihad of the,
of your nafs and and jihad with the
tongue and against, sin and and and regarding,
doing good deeds and just goes on. And
then the the last or the the final
one that Ibn Qayim has in his in
his al Mahad and he has also
He
has he he talks about the final one,
which is jihad with with the sword when
you when you have to actually go in
con it's one of out of of 15
different categories, 14 different categories of of what
striving actually is.
But what does jihad do? Jihad is in
regarding the purpose of your life,
the ambitions that you have, the achievements or
the activism that you do. Yeah. The self
purification that you're trying to achieve. That's where
jihad jihad is an umbrella concept. If you
understand it properly, it makes sure that everything
that you're doing in your life, you get
ajul for. Everything.
Everything absolutely, everything that you're doing will fall
under the bigger picture of you striving for
the sake of
Allah. So getting up in the morning, going
to work, you're getting
Doing your job properly, get Taking care of
your family,
get Because it's all forms of It's All
forms of you working against the challenges in
this life to achieve a goal of pleasing
Allah
with the totality or the entirety of your
life, the bigger picture of who you are.
The The umbrella concept for jihad is very
is very rich. It's very important for us
to
contemplate.
So if you look at,
what it ends up meaning, it ends up
being a state that you are constantly in.
You're always in the
state, state of mujahada. You're you're never outside
of it. You're always striving against things.
When we reduce this beautiful concept that actually
that literally allows every aspect of your life
to be an act of worship, that puts
you in a position where you are constantly
assessing your you know, your your surroundings and
working towards a goal and striving against difficulties,
reduce that just to to to combat, which
is maybe less than 1% of of of
when it's used and less than 1% of
Muslims have ever actually had to do that.
If you think about historically, how many Muslims
have had to be in a position where
they had to bear arms, very few. It's
very very specific points in history, very specific
times. The the majority of Muslims the majority
of Muslims of Saudi Haen lived and died
and never built war arms, never had to.
And then why is it talked about so
much?
It's talked about a lot, Danny, in terms
of of, of combat because it's the ultimate
sacrifice.
Striving requires sacrifice of your time, of your
effort, of your energy, of your passion, of
your wealth. You're striving. You're you're putting you're
putting all of that forward.
The ultimate sacrifice is when you put your
life on the line.
So the Quran talks about it a bit,
and it points it out because
it challenges you.
Are you you fully accept your status as
a mujahid,
someone who is who is constantly striving? Yes.
Well, are you willing to put your life
on the line? No. Well, then there's something
missing. You had it's not it's not again,
it's not constant. So values have to be
consistent. You have to be they they can't
be an exception to them. You guys, you
know, offer everything but not that. That doesn't
work. It doesn't mean anything then.
Then there's some self serving purpose that, you
know, you're doing this for. You're not actually
doing it for the right reason.
But if you're willing to offer your life,
then you'll offer everything else that is less
valuable. Your wealth is less valuable. Your time
is less valuable. Your your your passion, your
energy, your expertise, your knowledge, all that is
less valuable than your ROI.
So if you're willing to put your on
the line, then you put everything else on
the line. That's why the Quran talks about
it, not because the Quran is blood hungry
and that the only and that the meaning
of jihad is specifically to to fight. But
because as an example, it serves as the
ultimate one. It serves as the ultimate example
of striving, where you put the most valuable
thing you have on the line for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I think I think that understanding jihad also
puts us in a position where we not
only accept but also welcome challenges.
You see, it's a it's a it's a
mindset
where you're expecting that life is going to
be challenging. You're not walking in with the
expectation.
Oh, expectations ruined so much.
Yeah. I mean, if you understand how expectations
work, you you live
it's it's it's, you know, 60% or 70%
of how I live my life. It's just
you have if you have the right expectations,
you'll live better.
Right? If I go tomorrow to work,
in my mind,
I'm going to see, you know,
one consult in the morning and 3 in
the afternoon.
That's that's what I'm expecting.
I go, and I end up seeing seeing
3 in the morning and 6 in the
afternoon. That's a bad day. I walk away.
I'm I'm I'm physically upset.
Physically upset. I don't wanna be. If I
went in that morning thinking that I'm probably
gonna see all the consoles in the morning,
all 4 of them, and probably gonna see,
like, 10 in the afternoon. And I end
up seeing 3 and 6. I'm happy.
Right? See the difference? I'm happy.
Same timing, same thing. It's just 1st day,
I walked away upset. 2nd day, I walked
away happy. It's just about it's it's all
in here, what what what I was expecting.
If you expect a lot from the other
person,
you're going to be very, very, very, very
disappointed.
Very. Going to be constantly disappointed and upset
because
rarely do people ever live up to your
People
People ask me, oh, hold on. How do
you do all this? That's what I expect
from myself.
Like, if I don't do it, I'll actually
be, you know, physically upset.
I'll be mentally depressed that I didn't I
didn't do all of this. I mean, shame
on me. How could I not? So it's
an issue of expectation.
If your expectation is,
15 minutes of when we make it 20,
you're upset. If you're coming in with 2
hours and then make an hour and a
half, you're happy.
Right? It's just an expectation. With time,
with training after a while, now you're okay
with it. You're okay with 1 an hour
and a half. So if I end up
finishing 1 hour 25 minutes, you walk away,
you're like, awesome. That was amazing. He finished
5 minutes early. You feel good. Even though
maybe the year before because you you were
so it's all about how you what expectations
you carry in life. Jihad is a mindset
where you're expecting is going to be difficult.
There's going to be challenges. So when if
a day comes by and there's no challenge,
like,
well, that was nice. It's only one problem
just today. I didn't have to deal with
a 100. But you walk into life where
no, I want smooth sailing smooth sailing, please.
I I'm I'm here for the smooth sailing.
Where is that line? Can I stand in
that line? I I'm I'm here for the
ease. I don't want any then you're gonna
be very, very disappointed and very frustrated because
it's going to be difficult. Jihad is very
important for us. It is without we've lost
it. We've reduced it to just combat. And
since we don't we're not in combat, we've
completely removed the word. We don't think the
sheikh could talk about it. We don't really
look at the verses as important, but it's
a mindset that puts you prepares you to
deal with difficulties. And if you live like
that, then you'll always be pleasantly surprised when
things are a little bit less difficult than
you thought they were going to be. You'll
always be you'll always be a little bit
happier, and you'll hold yourself to a higher
expectation and be more productive. You do more
because you're holding yourself to high expectations. You
expect nothing from people around you.
Try it. Try to expect very little from
people around you. That's how you keep
friends. Well, that's how you keep friends. That's
how I, you know, I you survive doing
dawah.
Very little expectations from anyone. You come here,
I expect no one to show up. I
expect this not to work out. I expect
not not to be online. Because if I
expect it all to be perfect, then the
moment there's a problem, I'm gonna get upset.
Why wasn't the title right? Why wasn't the
because I was expecting something. Don't expect anything,
and you'll be pleasantly surprised the majority of
your life. I know it sounds, yanny,
cynical, but it really isn't.
If you stop expecting a lot from others
and start expecting a lot from yourself, it
changes the whole thing. Jihad puts you in
that man mindset. Look. What's coming is going
to be a lot of problems. There's gonna
be difficulties and challenges. You're expecting it. You're
ready. You're welcome. Yep. Bring it on. Bring
it on. That's what I'm ready for. I
have all this I have a loss of
on my side. I have that my understanding
in my deen. I'm ready. So if you
come run through through a day or 2
or a small
a small patch in your life where it's
quiet,
it's it's very pleasant for you versus
yeah. I mean, you're constantly worrying about things
getting a little bit difficult. And when they
get difficult, you lose your your ability to
to function because you weren't expecting it. I
hope that you know what I mean? This
is why I'm talking about concepts. We've we've
we've lost it. We've lost what jihad meant.
We don't have it because we reduced it.
We accepted it just being combat. And We
don't actually have it for what it is,
which is extremely helpful for us as Muslims.
Education or knowledge.
We reduced it to I'll end with this,
Inshallah, and, we'll be done a few minutes.
We we reduced it to a a degree.
Just to a degree. Something you put on
the wall.
Point people to it. That's what I did.
If you have 4 or 5 of them,
the the the more, the better. You have
them nicely framed. You put them on the
wall. People can walk into the room and
read them for a few seconds, and you
watch them as they do,
feeling good. It's it's reduced to a degree,
and it's it's a problem, Alain. One of
the most knowledgeable people that ever taught me
in my life didn't even go to school.
One of my teachers knew memorized
with the
by heart. He'd never been to school in
his life.
He could he could quote
from his mind, from his head. He could
quote word for word.
This man knew more Arabic than I've ever
met a human being on this planet know
Arabic.
Never been to school in his life.
Reduce it to a degree.
It's important. I'm not saying a degree is
not important. Like, remember I told you this
at the beginning that I am not saying
here that what we're reducing
something to is not valuable. Like, when you
talk about Jihad reduced to combat, is combat
not important? No. It's the pinnacle. I'm not
saying it's not important. I'm just saying that
we're losing the bulk. I hope this is
making any sense to you because if I
see see, I have expectation. If if I
expect if if someone if someone puts this
out that, yeah, anyway, he's saying this is
not important, I'm gonna lose my mind. Like,
no. I'm not saying that what is things
are being reduced to are not valuable. I'm
just saying that we're losing the bulk of
what actually is important and and and we're
stuck with something that that that is just
a a a slither of what the actual
value and count concept once was. So for
education, for it to be reduced to just
a degree that you put on the wall,
it's problematic.
You you you you're gonna be very disappointed
when you when you graduate and you don't
feel like you know more. You don't feel
like you're ready to deal with life. And
you'll find out that to learn things, you're
gonna have to do that on your own.
University just give you a tool to know
how to look things up. If I if
a patient comes in with a certain type
of cancer, I know where to look to
figure out what type of chemotherapy or what
type of therapies you can get. You don't
know how to do that. Not because I
didn't want with you. You just didn't go
through medical school and training in in internal
medicine and medical oncology. But within your
law,
if something comes up and,
and he says, but doesn't know what what
to look up. He knows where to find
it. I would have no idea even where
to begin. I have I'd have no training
in that. But to actually be proficient
from a knowledge perspective,
to be proficient, you have to do a
lot of work on your own. It's it's
it's the it's the work that you do
later. It's the reading that it's it's a
personal reading that it's a personal effort that
you put. Islam was a well, I the
the the the tradition of Islamic knowledge was
so beautiful. It was oral. Like, you know
how how how you learn Islamically? I try
to do this in the academy is hard
because the number of students, Michelle, is high
and I don't have enough people to help
me. But the way this would happen is
that if I taught you a method,
the way you would pass the, the the
assignment, you would come you know, pass the
course, you would come, recite it, and explain
it to me as if I didn't know
what it was.
Right? And you you would prove to me
that you understood it by being able to
explain it. And if you were stuttering and
you weren't able to, you know, explain things
and define them and then you would basically
say to yourself, say, I I don't know
what I'm doing. I need to go back
and study this again. You basically do it
yourself. You didn't you need the teacher to
tell you you you don't know what you're
doing because you don't have the the capacity.
That's how it was done. That's how I
learned a lot of what I'm doing. I
had to sit down and explain.
And that's why I learned a little bit
how to talk about stuff. I had to
sit down and articulate, explain to my teacher
as if he was a grade 5 or
grade 6 students. And
then he would listen and he well, if
that makes then he would question me. Well,
that doesn't make sense. What does that mean?
And if I couldn't answer questions, I I
got lost, then then go back go back
and study again.
These exams are garbage, Willy.
You know, they they assess nothing.
Exam assess nothing. They they they get they
get you the degree, but they they don't
teach you anything, just so you know. I
have written more exams than probably everyone in
this room.
I've the number of exams I've written is
ridiculous.
And I can tell you that you learn
almost nothing from exams. They don't they don't
they're not a very good assessment tool. Even
the OSCEs that you stand up and do,
they're not very good assessment tools. Assessment tools
to assess people's knowledge requires time. There's a
law it requires ongoing observation and investment in
their in their in their learning process. Produced
by academics is is knowledge only academics? Is
it just yeah. I mean,
those high degrees of, you know, law and
medicine and
engineering. What about the other stuff? Are they
are they not, important? Does it have to
be an academic degree? Is knowledge nothing else?
How about skill sets?
Should knowledge be applicable?
Is it important for knowledge to be applicable,
or does that not matter?
Do you do you ever think about the
amount of useless information that that you pick
up on a daily basis?
Just when you're staring at your phone and
looking at media, the amount of of useless
information that you learn, stuff that will you
will never
ever require.
You learn something about how snakes mate or
how
or where where tigers
like to live in the jungle and how
they who cares? Like, how is that going
to explain to me how that's going to
affect your life in any form or manner.
It's just it's just clutter in the brain.
It's just information your brain does not need
to know. You don't have to memorize it.
And we've disconnected learning and education from mentorship.
This is my, you know, this is my,
you know, pet peeve in life. And we
disconnected learning from mentorship. It's not there's no
mentorship anymore.
Just here's information. Go.
Here's information. Here's how you use it.
Here how here's how it's supposed to affect
your character watch. This is how you behave
with it. This is how you make sure
it doesn't go to your head. This is
how you make sure you use it for
service. This is how it humbles you. This
is how it puts you at awe of
the universe and of Allah
Without that peace, without that per interpersonal, but
it's useless, Walehi. What is the, Ministry of
Education called in Syria in in the Middle
East? You know what it's called?
It's called.
It's called the ministry of raising.
Raising, not talim.
Talim
and educators. 1st, it's talim. That's what knowledge
is supposed to be. We disconnected
knowledge from mentorship, and now now we're suffering.
Even in Islamic even in Islam, we we
have they come, they memorize, recite the soul,
and believe.
I didn't realize that was the case in
for a while later because that's not how
I learn and that's not how I teach.
When I have a halakh, I don't do
that. I listen to them, but, no, we
sit down, we chat. I get to know
them, know them well. I poke, I probe,
I bother them, I follow them. I I
so in Syria,
we started,
we started this Quran program there. We went
we had 350 students at the end out
of a in a in a village that
only had 3,000 people to begin with. Right?
So we had almost all of the kids.
And I had a deal with both schools,
the elementary school and the and the they
would send me
the report cards of their students
to me. They would come to the report
cards would come to the masjid, like, to
me. I would pick them up, and I
would hold the kids accountable. And there would
be a day an annual day of fella
where all the kids who who who raise
their feet are up
and I would hold it because their parents
didn't care. Their parents didn't care if they
if they if they stayed in school or
not. Their parents didn't even most of the
parents didn't even know their kids were coming
to the Masjid. Like, most of the parents
didn't even know that their kids like, I
remember, like, I ran into I I watched
one time a a father come to the
Masjid because he was asked to bring,
like, a Mazolt,
Yani, diesel. And he found his kid there.
And he's like and his name the kid
is Mohammed. I never remember it's Ham Hamad
Adnan his name was. His father was name
is Adnan as well. So he looked at
him. What are you doing here? Why aren't
you at home? He's like, I'm at the
halalakha. What halalakha? What?
Since when I've been at halalakha, he lives
there, like, for 3 years.
Yeah. Yeah. He he memorized.
And he's telling his name, I know.
You know.
He he didn't know. That was the, that
was the reality of the of the sign
that we're living in. They didn't they didn't,
these kids, we have to mentor them. We
have to teach them. We have to take
them. You have to invest in them as
human beings, you have to spend time. We
actually we actually made the papers 1 year.
Like, we have a Marcus Sakhafi, brother
Samir. He ran it. He ran it, and
he actually did, he he he he he
gathered data for us. I didn't know he
was doing it. We went from a 11%
retaining of students. Like, I when I was
in grade 6 6 or grade 5, there
were there were 2 classes of 30 students
in my village and the other village. So
altogether, you're talking
60 and 60, a 120 students. In grade
10, there was
13 of us from both villages. That's it.
13.
13 out of a 120 13. That's the
retaining level. We were able to take it
from 11 or 12% to 47%
within 2 years. In 2 years. That doesn't
happen through just samya or roe. No. That
kind of that happens with child and then
you get to know the person. You invest
in them a little bit. You actually spend
time with them. That that's being lost. We're
losing that. We don't have that anymore. We're
not doing that in our communities. We're not
making sure that teachers are actually doing that.
This is why we're trying to make some
changes.
Skill sets. Seal cut skill skill sets are
knowledge. Knowing how to present yourself. Walk into
a room
and
my name is
and knowing as a young at a young
age, be able to do that confidently.
Like your dad, come in, say salaam, and
then you run away. Go stand behind the
roof. That's not cute. It's not cute. If
you're young, it's not cute. You'll walk in,
give salam, be very clear on who you
are and state state.
Manage money. I don't know how to do
it. If it wasn't for my wife, I'd
be standing outside the Masih after the asking
for donations for myself. And if my wife
didn't if my wife didn't take care of
the I would give the to stand outside
because I don't know how to manage money.
I didn't learn. No one taught me. And
we didn't I my my dad managed money
for me all my life and I never
learned how to manage money. And there's a
lot of other stuff. And and and time
management time management, the number one problem for
all the youth that I feel with. Time
management.
Sleep management. You don't know how to sleep.
I I you would think
out of all the skill set that comes
naturally. Apparently, it doesn't. Apparently, people don't know
how to sleep. They don't know how when
to go to how to go to sleep,
when to go to sleep, how long to
sleep, how to make sure that they have
good sleep hygiene, and they'll wake up in
the morning and go do their thing. And
they manage their time where they do this
in the morning, then they I I scheduled
my when I'm in my twenties, I scheduled
bathroom breaks.
I scheduled bathroom breaks. I scheduled leisure.
Like, the time that I had off, I
mean, I'm gonna have time I had fun.
I had fun. I I did I did
everything.
Oh, I had I had a lot of
fun. I got friends with my friends. We
had motorcycles. We'd go. We'd do whatever we
wanted. But it was scheduled. It was by
schedule. It was by schedule. This is what
this is when I was going to do
it. So when I was doing it, that's
it. I wasn't doing anything else.
Learned how to these are skill set. This
is not knowledge.
This is, like, this is the this is
knowledge. This is the most important knowledge. What's
the point if you know how to, you
know, subtract and subtract and add and then
divide and and you don't know how to
run your life. You don't know how to,
you know, sleep properly and wake up in
the morning and do your thing. You don't
have to what's the point? If you don't
have to don't know how to deal with
people. If you don't have that the the
social skills to know how to speak to
others and listen to them and interact with
them in a positive manner and accept criticism
and feedback and offer it in a way
that's respectful as well.
How do we view human sciences? We we
talked about human sciences in this community. Everyone
has to be the right? Everyone. Your kids,
all of them. All of them because that's
all that matters. And or Mohan Dessin or
maybe Mohammi. I remember you know the proverb?
So what what is the what is the
future of an Arab kid? Either a doctor,
an engineer, or dead. Well, that's it. There's
no there's no
we're all human sciences. We have no one
because we did this, because we, you know,
and who and who am I to speak
in? I'm a physician myself, Yani. But but
when you but I what about human sciences?
What about political sciences? What about arts? You
know? What about media specialties? Why are these
not important? Why are these frowned down upon?
Oh, that's all he studied.
The the poor guy comes out, what do
you do? I studied the political sciences.
Well, he's not a doctor.
How are you going to do do you
not see the value of this today? You
don't see the problem that we're in because
we don't have people in these specialties.
Are trades and crafts not considered education? So,
you know, are are plumbers and and welders,
are these not people people
mechanically not people who are educated Is this
not a a valuable piece of knowledge? We
have to see we've reduced knowledge to one
thing. It's a degree on the wall that's
taken from a university where it's higher education.
Everything else is not worthy. It's not important.
It's and that's untrue, and that's wrong. And
knowledge is sacred. In Islam,
I'm on with this. Islam, it's lifelong learning.
I don't do I need to preach to
you the importance of
in Islam? I hope I don't have to.
I hope that we've done enough here to
is the most important thing you have as
Muslim. You are commanded to do this all
your life. From the moment you're able to
understand to the day you die, you continue
to learn. You learn everything that is worthy
of learning. Everything is worthy of learning. You
learn it. Whether it's Islamic knowledge, whether it's.
Anyone know the the the picture in the
in the background here?
Do we have an idea what we're looking
at?
No. We're very close, though. No.
Yeah. Right? That's there.
The first university ever ever was built by
a woman by the name of Fatima and
then tune tune tune it. It was called
because it took in the people from
and didn't know the city. It took in
till this day it works. Till this day
it still happens. And as a university that
was started in the 3rd Islamic century, the
3rd Islamic century, the 9th century in terms
of to 20 24. The 9th century,
it taught medicine.
It was a degree in medicine. They gave
me degrees in medicine and degrees in Sharia.
It's the earliest. It's in the Guinness book
World Books Book of World Records. It's the
earliest university to offer a degree in in
sciences.
Yeah. That's how we view knowledge as Muslims.
We view it as something that is beautiful.
That is why that everyone has something to
offer. Everyone is knowledgeable within what they know
how to do. We should value that knowledge.
We should respect that knowledge, and we should
I hope that was a benefit to you.
I hope that was a benefit to you.