Reduced Concepts #07 Ethics, Taqwa, Tawakkol and Jumah Prayers
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Channel: Adnan Rajeh
Series: Adnan Rajeh - Reduced Concepts
File Size: 59.32MB
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AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of finding a way to reassess one's approach to Islam is highlighted, as reducing their ethics and values is a problem. The speakers emphasize the need for individuals to invest in preventative measures and rebuilding their individual success through behaviors and actions. Leading and acknowledging their own strengths and values is crucial in achieving success and rebuilding their individual success.AI Generated Transcript ©
At the end of this series or at
the end of this episode today, I will
point out how
there are many, many, many more
issues that are worth,
bringing up and and discussing.
My goal was not to pinpoint specific topics
or say these are the these are the
issues, but rather,
get you on a track of of a
certain thought process
of how you how you should be looking
at things and maybe reassessing them and
reevaluating
your approach to many of of the values
and principles and concepts that you've inherited within
Islam and that you accepted as a part
of your, you know, of your deen and
your faith.
And and and that goes even beyond the
faith, just general ethics and general,
values are worth, reassessing
every once in a while in life and
making sure that they have not lost their
essence and their substance and that you haven't
been left with a dysfunctional shell. The skeleton
that has no meaning to it and or
is reduced to something that's no longer serving
its purpose within you. It's not helping you
live better. It's not helping function better.
And that's what we fear for. We fear
that we start preaching
Yani,
Islam in a way that's no longer
meaningful to people because it's not,
serving a purpose.
These teachings are doing anything for them. They
can't they're not they're not when they practice
these these teachings, they don't find it that's
that's helping them out.
Now
I'm not saying that everything has to be
egocentric within the deen.
But
when you start practicing Islam, if you don't
find
that Islam as a faith as these teachings
are actually helping you
improve,
help you become a better person, elevate your
status with a loss, pound, in terms of
your connection, allow you to see the world
through a better lens, deal with difficulties in
a in a more in a healthier manner,
then then upfront
this is gonna cause people to to kind
of regress and step back.
So right off the bat, if that's the
case, then they're not gonna want to continue.
And this is the the majority
of of this is the case for the
majority of people or younger people who who
are being taught Islam and asked to walk
into it. They they don't find that, what
they're being taught is is, I mean, is
meaningful. Now some of them are patient and
like yourselves, they stick around and they know
that I know there's no more to it
than this and this. But some people don't.
Some people say this I just don't I
don't find this being helpful at all.
And what I what I'm listening to, you
know, doesn't seem to be
that profound, and I I don't see how
it's going to help my life. And and
I can tell you that the Sahaba Yani,
when they listened to the prophet alayhis salatu
wasalam preached to them initially they not only
saw the example of what these teachings did
for him
but but they found the difference in the
in their own lifestyles and their own life,
stories quite quickly. Like, it was it was
it was upfront. It was very it didn't
take a long time for them to feel
that this is a big that that we
need to hold on to this. This is
worth living for. This is worth dying for.
Right?
And and that's and that's what I think,
I mean, we should we should be able
to get back to. And that requires obviously
some reassessment and reevaluation. So today, we'll start
with
the
ethics. I think some general morals, ethics and
morals. And this is a again, this is
a general term. Like, I told you that
most of what I'm going to cover, again,
is Islamic specific topics. There's a few that
weren't. Freedom, for example, wasn't knowledge, wasn't. Ethics
is not. It's something generic, but but but
I think it's worth thinking about. When we
think about our ethics and our morals, there's
there's an issue here that say but whether
you're religious or not, this benefits you. Like,
even if someone who doesn't believe in God
altogether, we still find benefit in what I'm
going to explain because ethics and moral is
something that morality is is a part of
the human experience.
Yes, it's much more difficult to define, and
it's much more difficult to defend and understand
and, and and hold on to when you
when you lack religious faith or when you
lack under a bigger picture understanding of why
you would hold on to morality. But let's
say, you know, you for somehow you figured
out your own you made up your own
little thing and you came up with why
you want to be moral or or why
you want to be ethical. And you're looking
at it from a perspective of this is
the only way for things to work for
everyone, which is fine. It doesn't work for
the in the long run, but we we
we can we can, you know, entertain this,
this this conversation.
So what is the problem with, with ethics?
Here
is different. Here, there's real reduction problems. Meaning,
unlike the ones the times before where I
told you what it's being reduced to is
not a bad thing. No. No. When it
comes to ethics, what it's being reduced to
is a bad thing
differently than every different than everything else. I
left it till the end because so that
could I could make the exception at the
end of the
series, not at the beginning of it and
confuse you. Everything I talked about before, whatever
it was being reduced to, the thing it
was being reduced to wasn't necessarily wrong or
bad. It was just if if if the
bulk or the weight of the value or
the concept becomes on that one
slither, it just doesn't it can't carry it
and it doesn't function anymore. But in ethics,
what it whatever you reduce an ethic to,
it becomes a problem. Whatever you reduce an
ethic to becomes a problem almost across the
board. Even Haya, when you if you reduce
it to modesty becomes a problem because it
can't carry all that. And and and an
example that I I put here just things
for you to think about.
When when when when ethics are reduced to,
you know, those empty smiles and that fake,
humility and fake humbleness and you act like
you That when you reduce ethics just to
you're going to, you know, the people who
walk around, the the Haqq police or the,
you know, the or the Biddah police. If
you walk around and they're gonna say the
Haqqan, they don't. And all they all they're
really doing is just finding a way to
giving themselves
a free any of free rudeness card where
you can just walk up to people and
just say whatever they want and however they
want to say it. Or we reduce it
to, I need to to to elitism where
you only treat specific people in a certain
way. And ethics have and ethics and morals
are very are very sensitive topics,
for not just for for Muslims, but for
for humanity in general. When and when ethics
are reduced to that, where we're just
we're just complementing one another. It's a supply.
It's a compliment. Oh, and you just compliment
me. I compliment you, but there's no there's
no real realism to it. It's not pragmatic.
We're not actually critical of anything that that
is meaningful. There's no conservative
feedback. And we're not actually looking for what
that
that then it becomes a problem
because ethics don't don't present themselves in those
situations. You know, I need to see so
you can't judge ethic ethics in here,
Or or at least not for adults, maybe
for children. It's hard to judge ethics in
here. It can happen every once in a
while. Someone can, you know, lose their temper
and do something. They can figure out a
a flaw. But in general, most people, you
know, are on that are on their best
behavior. So ethics are hard to be judged
in the mess ethics are usually judged outside
or elsewhere.
Because here, we're all gonna, you know, put
on that, smiley face, so we're gonna be
very kind. They're gonna be I'm not saying
we shouldn't, by the way. Don't don't change
that.
Keep keep that in the Masjid for sure.
But I'm saying ethics themselves, it's hard to
judge them within within this, protected
environment.
So
this is a this
is
a quote from a fiction novel.
False humility is more insulting than open pride.
And and you think about it, it it
it's very it's true. And I'm I'm using
humility or humbleness as an example even though
almost every other other ethic will will fall
under the same, you know, category or or
or can be addressed in the same manner.
If I believe that I'm humble, if I
say it to myself, you know, I'm I'm
a humble person, what that really means is
that I see myself to be in a
higher position than everyone else, but I am,
out of ethical superiority, bringing myself down. So
I've actually made 2 mistakes all at once.
I've combined 2 masayyib with this with this
way of thought.
I see myself higher,
and I see myself to be ethically superior
for bringing myself down to your level.
When I say I'm humble, I've done 2.
Not 1. It's 2. Number 1, I already
thought that I was higher.
So I already think that I'm superior and
that everyone else has been below me. And
then I'm ethically superior because I brought myself
down. Like I actually did something you're not
doing. I'm bringing myself. I'm actually doing something
that is ethically superior. So now I have
2 most likely.
So this is the problem with fake humility
or fake humbleness.
When you reduce concepts to something that then
it actually they backfire.
Ethics, they backfire. They don't you can't reduce
them to something and it still functions. No.
It will backfire horribly. It turns into the
opposite of what it was designed to be
and to begin with. You can't no. You're
right. You're better off being openly proud because
at least that's one problem.
It's just one problem. You just you just
you have pride. It's it's one. It's clear.
It's out there. It's honest now. Yeah. And
it's 2 problems, plus you're lying.
Plus that you're you're lying. And then maybe
you can call that a problem.
You can't. It's whatever you want. So
it's it's this now it's this confounded problem
of where open private is just is just
1. We'll see. But and I can fix
it. And I I because it's identifiable and
we can it's tangible. We can sit and
talk and someone could change it. But the
other one is impossible to change.
Now how do we get rid of something
like this?
Here's the here's the rule.
Either consistent or nonexistent,
period.
An ethic is either consistent or it's nonexistent.
It's it's either always there or it's never
there. There's no middle ground when it comes
to values and ethics and morals. There's no
middle ground. It's either always there or it's
never there.
Either you are humble at all times towards
all people,
truly, or you're not. If there's 1 person
on earth that you are arrogant towards, then
you are arrogant.
If there's 1 person walking around, 1 person
that you think you're better than, that you
think that you're superior to by by by
birth or by by the acts I'm not
talking about don't get me don't don't you
know, just ask me if you ask me
the question about oppressors and persecutors and abusers,
I'm gonna I'm gonna leave. Don't ask I'm
not talking about that. I'm not talking about
someone who's a Vadim, someone who's taking away
your habuq and your rights and who's, you
know, putting you who's oppressing you. No. That's
different. There's a whole different the discussion becomes
much more complicated there. It's a different approach
altogether because you're supposed to actually be fighting
back. You're supposed to be actually pushing back.
And it's not an issue of humbleness and
and and arrogance anymore. That's not that's not
the assessment anymore. Now this is a person
who's persecuting you, and you were trying to
take back your health. So it's different. But
I'm talking about general human beings. Just people
around you. People in your surrounding in your
in in your vicinity, people in your environment,
or outside of your environment, people you know,
people you don't know.
And it goes for everything.
Take any ethic that you want. If it's
not consistent,
generosity.
It's only an ethic,
if it's consistent, meaning if you're always generous.
If you're only generous and you have over
a certain threshold, then you're not really generous.
Generosity means you give. If you have a
lot, you give a lot. And if you
have a little, you give a little. But
you're always you're generous. This is a this
is the ethic. You're always going to be
trying to give from what you have. That's
that's how you live your life. You're kind.
You're if you're kind to people, that has
to be across the board.
It can't be it can't be selective.
It can't be if it's selective, it's not
an ethic. This is why this is why
I'm talking about, you know, this topic at
the end of the course.
Ethics,
when they're reduced,
it becomes a real problem. It becomes a
real, real problem. Islam and hamdullilah, the Islamic
topics, they're reduced, but they hold on to
something of what they were. So that's why
people, you know, still practice something. You guys
hold on to something. And you can see
within that something. Yeah. There's there's light there
somewhere. I know I know that this is
not exactly what the prophet, alayhis salam, probably
did, alayhis salam, probably did it much better
than this, but I can see the light
in doing this so you hold on to
it. But ethics don't work that way. No.
No. No.
Ethics are either consistent or they're nonexistent, and
you and you have to take time and
and think about that so that you would
start to identify what ethics actually you carry
and who you are.
And
and and and you take, for example,
Why don't you overcome the obstacle?
He's talking to the prophet, alaihis salam. From
this happened Surah alaihis
salam was denied,
access to Mecca.
He wasn't allowed to come back. After after
he was horribly treated, probably one of the
worst days of his life actually, the the
worst day of his life. He he he
he articulates this was the worst day of
his life
because he was, yeah, he had no direction.
He had nowhere to go. He was lost.
And he was denied
entry to his home. He couldn't go home.
Right? So he's out in the outskirts of
Mecca. He couldn't go home. Had nowhere else
to go. So probably whenever he saved his
life and then Jibid would come with this
surah.
You deserve to be in this country, obviously.
Your your your forefather and your children, all
you know, this is where they're this is
where they were born. How can they hold
you out? You have no right to do
so.
What what do I
do? So overcome the obstacle.
What what do you mean?
Do you know what the obstacle is?
Free a slave. Free someone who is under
debt or under slavery.
Or feed someone who is hungry when you
are hung just as hungry.
Feed someone who is hungry when you are
just as hungry.
Because values and ethics are either consistent or
they're not. Either
you are someone who stands for people's rights
moment of my life. I I I want
to focus on myself. I I pull back
all of the chayd that I was given
before. No. No. No. Ethics have to be
consistent Even in your in your lowest point,
in your lowest moment, you still have to
do this. You still if you want her
to be because other than consistent, they're nonexistent.
This is what I I want you to
read this quote. There's nothing written under it
because it's,
I made it up. So
that's that's certainly not someone's quote. Maybe someone
said something similar, and I I just I
don't know.
Now people's true colors, where do they where
do they show? Where do where do they
shine? And the way they treat people can
do nothing for them.
They can do absolutely nothing for you. They
can offer you nothing. Sometimes they can't offer
you anything, but the image of you helping
them can offer you something
So that that you can
the image of you helping them can offer
you something. Politicians know how to do that.
Right? Politicians will, you know, kiss babies and
give sedatives to people who are poor, and
then they'll walk away immediately because they don't
care. Because this is just it's the image.
But some people, even the image of you
helping them will do nothing for you. Like,
there's nothing they can offer you. Nothing they
can say. Nothing people will say about you
for doing it for them. Nothing. They are
completely useless to you. They have nothing to
offer you. It's those people, the way you
treat them, that you show show who you
truly are.
It's those people who have absolutely not they
can do nothing for you at all. Nothing
about their existence can add any benefit to
your existence in any form or manner. How
you treat them,
that's who you
are. And you'll find out who you are
in life
because this will happen. And you'll be faced
you're facing someone who is completely meaningless to
you, and then you'll find out how you
are. You'll you'll you'll see, and you'll you'll
it's it's an ugly picture in the mirror.
It's really ugly when you find out who
you truly and then you have to figure
out, okay. Yeah. I don't like these colors.
I don't like these colors.
And then you go back and say that
I'm not gonna be like that. And you
start focusing. The prophet al Aziz is when
you look at his life, how he treated
the people who are the alab. Right? The
alab is a great example. The Bedouins.
Bedouins have nothing to offer you. The Bedouins
are rude. They are poor. They have no
status. They say nothing kind no matter what
you do for them. And no one cares
about what they have to say or no
one and no one looks at you as,
you know, ethical for taking care of them
at all. This is what the Bedouins were.
The Bedouins in Arabia were despised people. And
and this is a different problem that we'll
talk about in a different lecture of why
that was the case and how it was
dealt with. I'll just explain to you how
they were as a as a group of
individuals. They were in groups, and they were
small tribes that had very little status. They
had no lineage that was worthy of of
of of,
of pride.
They had no wealth. They were actually despised
by people because they lacked hygiene. They lacked
ethics and manners, and they were always raiding
others and stealing. And they were they just
lacked like ethics.
And you find this all
you
find the verses in the Quran explaining,
the the problem of
So he comes from, from behind him, alayhis
salatu wa sallam, and takes him by the
gala biyah and twists his hand until the
prophet, alayhis salatu wa sallam, face turns blue.
Then he pulls people back who want to,
you know, literally murder him, and then he
just
just let let me go and I'll give
you. And he takes and puts them in
this tent and he talks to them. What
do you want? How much do you want?
This much? No. That's not enough. Like this
much, not enough. This much, maybe enough.
Right? So go out and say something kind
in front of people as you just like
you said, because everyone hate everyone doesn't like
it right now because of what you just
did. So say something nice so that they
you'll feel rudak.
So he you know, and he'd be
This is this is what he came up
with. Yeah. This is how they were. And
the man would walk away, and the prophet
would would protect him. Leave him alone.
The example of me and you is the
example of a man who lost his nakah.
The people who run after him and the
nakah the nakah runs away farther. He's like,
leave me and my nakah. He'll come back
to me.
If I let you do what you wanted
to do, he would have been in front
of the people of the hellfire.
The prophet, alayhis the way he treated and
the the same thing. The alabi who peed
in the Masjid and the alabi who the
the examples are are countless of the prophet,
alayhis salawam, ethics with the Arab. Right? Because
they're the people who had nothing to offer
him at all. This Arab, he took the
wealth and left. He did nothing.
There was no dawah. There was no he
didn't come back with a tribe a few
years later. Nothing. He just took the wealth
and
left.
Absolutely nothing. He would stand with Yani elderly
ladies, elderly slave ladies. Forgive me for the
katru, but this is Yani with, Aindus and
Afirullah for hours as they talked to him
about their problems.
A lady in her seventies who who's been
a servant all her life, her name is
not even known. We don't even have her
name. If you don't even know who she
is, you have no idea who these people
are. Hold the prophet an hour to hour.
He's chatting with you, talking to him about
my.
He's he's
listening and offering help and
Yeah. 4 or 5 year 5 year old,
6 year old, young girl or young boy
would come and take him by the hand
because she needs help to buy groceries or
she lost the the list or something. You
go walk with her. They still have to
some help her buy her stuff and then
take it home. You see you see, it's
it's it's it's examples that we're not none
of us are good at this, Yani. Or
maybe maybe Shelley, I'm not good at this.
But we have to take time and think
about these things. Because because ethics are either
consistent or they're not. And you have and
it's if you're if you end up treating
someone who has nothing to offer you whatsoever,
someone has no there's no benefit for you,
in this interaction at all. If you treat
them differently than you treat someone else, then
you're running into real problems.
It's not really an ethic anymore.
It's a selective choice of behavior.
It's a selective choice of behavior. That's what
it is. It's a longer sentence. It's a
couple more syllables, but it's not that's what
it is. And you can selectively choose how
to behave in certain situations. Say in this
situation, I'm gonna be generous. This one, I'm
gonna be kind. That's fine. And ethic, no,
is a defining characteristic.
Right? And ethic is defining you are what?
You're you're compassionate. That it doesn't defining ethic
characteristic, that will be across the board.
Even when you're really upset, you still have
some degree of compassion and you're not cruel.
Like, it never never turns into the opposite.
You don't become cruel. You don't become no.
You continue to to have that that compassion
or you don't.
You're humble even when someone is testing your
waters. You're still you're still you're still humble
even if someone
because that's who you are
versus I'll selectively be humble with this group
or
fake humbleness here so that I win
any
there's a couple of there's wins. If you
if people believe you're humble, then it's a
win. It's a it's a it's an ethical
superiority.
People like people who are humble. You like
people who are humble. You don't like people
who are arrogant. You don't want you don't
wanna deal with them. You don't. You don't
like dealing with people who who who are
showing arrogance, but you we want to deal
with people who show humbleness. So if you
if someone shows humbleness to you, then you're
more likely to to listen to them, to
deal with them, to work with them, to
say something nice about them. So if they
fake humbleness even if it's not real, then
they they'll they'll gain something out of it.
You're understanding the problem?
This is a real problem. With ethics, it's
a big deal. Like, I left it till
the end not because it's not important, because
I want because it's actually probably the most
important part part of this whole,
picture.
And it it affects everyone, not just religious
people. It's a problem in the west today
and the east. It's a problem in the
world. We've removed ethicality and morality from almost
everything, especially from finance.
We removed it from politics
openly.
We've openly removed it from politics. We don't
even expect politicians to be ethical anymore. Like,
we're not even surprised when they're not ethical.
It's it's normal. Yeah. Well, he's a politician,
which is really, really weird. You're a representative
of someone like, your leader is someone that
you don't expect any ethicality from. Think about
that. That's a sad existence of lying. How
how well could we do? Like, how how
well can we do as a as a
race if we don't expect if we know
that our our politicians are all corrupt
and have no morals, have no ethics, and
we'll just they just want to vote, and
they'll do anything to get it, and they
will stoop to any load that they have
to to get sting,
and then we'd still vote them in and
we hope that the country is gonna function.
No. I don't I don't see how that's
going to be how that's possible.
Unless you, you know, believe otherwise and then
you have another problem where you're delusional.
I was talking about
I I I
I I have I don't think anyone in
the world today looks at politicians and say
those are the ethical. That's the ethical golden
standard. The golden standard of ethics right there.
Yeah. We all know that they're
they're full of it. They're all lying all
the time. They just say what they need
to say. And then sometimes we're in such
difficulty that we're willing to to believe.
Right? Because we're we're desperate. We're desperate for
something. We're desperate for some substance. And if
he's able to convince us that he'll actually
do something good or something's in writing that
maybe maybe we'll we'll give him a chance.
But then we do it and the same
thing. Come back to the same problem again.
You find others. You you never cared about
you didn't care about your best interests ever.
That's a problem.
Before we do that,
we're gonna go to the next piece. I
wrote elitism at the first on the first
slide.
Elitism,
where you only treat people well if they're
wealthy
or if they're highly educated.
You know?
We only go after people who have certain
qualifications,
and we show them,
yeah, we show them kindness and tenderness, and
we try to recruit them over to our
side and try to build
one of the, yeah, worst
honestly, one of the lowest behaviors on the
planet,
where you're selective in who it is you're
going to be extremely welcoming and kind to.
They have to have a certain standard. They
have to be a physician or a or
a engineer or or or a lawyer, someone
who who has a PhD, someone who's very
wealthy. Those people they're they're they're courted, they're
pursued, and they're trying and they're wooed into
into becoming your friend and close to you
and having on your side, and everyone else
doesn't matter.
No one else makes it just it's elitism.
It's horrible. It is the opposite of ethicality.
It is the absolute opposite of what being
ethical means. It's where you actually
very openly just go and you pursue people
that meet a certain criteria and you show
them all the good good ethics and everyone
else is completely they don't matter. You're not
interested in their inputs. You're not interested in
their existence. They don't don't care if they
ever
well, I'm gonna see, but the prophet alayhi
saw this, and that's what the An'biya always
started with a Bu'afah. Abu'afa. All the prophets.
Who was always surrounding? Bu'afa.
You know, the the miskeen.
The well, one of my teachers is a
sheikh Shukri. I I still don't understand how
we do this, and I'll I probably will
die. I'll never know.
He when I spoke to him, I told
him at some point I'll probably go into
into Canada. He had no idea where Canada
was. Like, he had never heard of this
country in his life. He's an elderly gentleman.
So I told him it's like right before
right beside where America is. It's right beside
America. He said, yeah. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
has granted them barakah.
Like, barakah. He said, yeah. It doesn't doesn't,
face it. So he's quoting me in Arabic.
Don't they don't they say on their yeah,
honey, on their, on the statue of, on
their statue that they welcome and I I
what is written on the Statue of Liberty?
Right? Give us your needy, your poor. Give
us all the people that know you don't
want. Give them to us. We'll take care
of them. We'll we'll incorporate them. Now they're
not doing that anymore, but that's what they
that's what they built their their mentality. That's
what they their basic their basic value was
that that what you're you're you know, you
have you have 2 layers of society somewhere.
Give us your needy and your poor. Give
give them to us. You don't want them?
We'll we'll we'll educate them, and we'll we'll
see what we can do.
This is what understanding Allah granted them barakah
because of that. We don't have barakah anymore
because we don't do that anymore. Because Muslims,
we don't we're not we're not welcoming the
weak. We're not making sure are the vulnerable
taken care of? We incorporating? Are we listening
to them? Are we are we empowering them?
Are we no. We're elitist
now. You know, we only I've seen the
circles. I've seen the circles.
All of them. All of them. Extremely well
thanked, extremely highly educated, all doctors.
There's no one else. There's no there's not
one cab driver in the whole group. Yucky.
There's not one cab driver. Oh, lie. Our
community has a lot of cab drivers. Not
one.
No one. Not militi. Not one. You have
not one representative. Militi. Why? Because, well, this
is a problem. The problem well, hey. This
this country these countries
saw success because of the barakah of that
mentality because the barakah of that mentality upfront.
No. They maybe lost a lot of them.
They did a lot of boom. I'm not
defending. I'm not Yeah. I'm not commending everything
that they did. I'm just saying that that
was there. That they saw the value in
in yes, you're looking down at this group
of people. Give them to us. We'll take
them. We'll take them. We'll take care of
them. That is that is the that is
the work of a pea people of God.
That is someone who is ethical,
who's not interested in the what did Khadija
tell the prophet, alayhis salaahu alaihi wa sallam?
He came running down the mountain. He was
scared for his life.
He was like, oh, this is Allah's wrath
upon me. And she's like, no ever. Never.
Allah would never punish him. Why?
You you take care of the, of the
of the dirt poor. You give them wealth.
The person who can't take care of themselves,
you help them take care of themselves. The
people who can't even do that, you take
care of them yourself.
That's how he lived his life before prophecy
alayhis salatu wasalam. That's why he deserved prophecy
alayhis salatu wasalam because his ethical were consistent.
Study the story of Yusuf.
Yusuf on top is the same as Yusuf
at the bottom. Yusuf in the well is
the same as Yusuf in the in in
the palace, same Yusuf in the
in in in in prison. Same Yusuf running
Egypt. Same guy.
Same thought process. Same ethics.
Same same values. Same morals. Treating people the
same way.
That's the whole point of the story, is
that life is a is a is an
ongoing up and down. The graph just keeps
on spiking and
He enters he enters prison. The first thing
he does is perform dawah.
It's the first thing he does. He starts
talking to people about God. The first thing,
he's thrown into prison unjustly
for refusing fahecha. That on its own is
a whole lecture. He was he was punished
for doing something that no one would do.
He was punished for doing something no one
would do. Would you say no to not
one. He's like
after. So they were all asking for him.
He was 17. He was a slave. No
one cared. Could've done anything. He could've had
he would've been he could've done whatever he
wanted. He could every every young man's dream,
basically.
He said no. I'll go to jail if
I have to. And he went to jail.
It wasn't for a couple of days. No.
For for years, he spent a I need
the better part of a decade.
So ethicality means
It's that
consistency. And I I I think we should
think about this again in our societies, in
our communities, and how we how we how
we treat each other, how we treat the
world around us, and how we see it.
So that's my my spiel on on ethics.
Let's talk about taqwa.
Taqwa, it's a it's a known phrase. You
hear the word taqila a lot. You hear
it so many times. You don't even know
what it means anymore.
Taqwa like, alright. Whatever whatever whatever that's supposed
to mean. Taqwa. What does it mean? What
is taqwa? Taqwa is reduced.
Taqwa was a system
a system that proactively allowed you to protect
yourself and allowed you to it gave you
a system how to deal with with decision
making. It's a process decision making process. It's
very, very meaningful. It takes a while to
achieve every ritual is designed to help you
achieve taqwa. Every ritual is designed at
the end of it. All of them. Whatever
you where you study, you look at suyam,
you look at salah, you look at zakar,
you look at Hajj, they're all there so
that you can be you can have taqwa,
So that you can learn how to do
this. So you can always make decisions that
are not going to harm you in the
long run or the short run.
And now it's just a word that we
throw out there. And and we don't even
know how to to translate it. So we
say piety. What what does that what does
that even mean in
in English? Honestly,
we we have lack of understanding of what
this concept is. Taqwa comes from waka, from
protect,
from prevent.
You you I've heard the pro the the
proverb,
you put a little bit of money to
prevent is way better than whatever you have
to spend after the problem actually occurs. So
the concept of prevent of preventativeness,
like preventing problems and protecting yourself from them,
is what Taqwa is about. Taqwa is a
beautiful system that if we learn it's not
just the concept of,
of being a good person or being a
good Muslim. Like, it was reduced to something
that we don't we can't define. Like, the
problem with Taq was that we reduced it
to something that we don't fully understand. We
don't comprehend what exactly it means. We just
know that it's a good thing. It's a
good thing. It's a good part of Islam.
The prophet alaihisam talking about a lot. It's
like 258 times in the Quran. Must be
a big deal. It's a big deal. But
what exactly does it mean? Like, what what
exactly is this supposed to and we don't
know exactly what it means. And
it's a simple question before every decision. That's
all.
It's just you ask a simple question before
every decision, before you decide to do something,
before you
and you say anything or you do anything,
just ask one simple question. The question is
not that, complicated.
It's just will my action cause harm, short
term or long term? That's all.
Will this action later on be something I
regret
immediately or even maybe years down the road?
And if the answer is yes, then you
don't engage. And if the answer is no,
then you go ahead.
That's what taqwa means. That's what waka or
vikaya is.
I work in
in oncology and a lot of people
the the common belief amongst people is that
oncology is corrupt. Like, the the whole discipline
that big pharma is corrupt.
And I tell them that there is truth
to that, but it's not where you think
it is.
Like, people think that the corruption is that
we have the, cure for things, but we're
just holding back to make more money. Like,
that that's what big pharma is doing. I'm
not a part of big pharma at all,
so so it's not me. But but that
somehow it's there. It's just being held back.
No. That's not the case.
The the corruption
is that
we
invest almost no money
in trying to prevent
the
prevalence of cancers or the development of cancers.
Like, we don't spend money there. Like, we
don't have screening
tools we have today for cancers are the
same that we've had for the last 50
years. You you have nothing. Very, very few
that we have. No. Very, very few things
that are coming out because big pharma companies
can't won't invest there because there's no money
there.
Like, if you invest in a screening tool
or you invest in a preventative measure,
you don't make any money. So they're willing
to spend 1,000,000,000
of dollars
on developing a drug
that is given to a patient who has
spread cancer spread all through his body, who's
already received
3 lines of treatment.
So it's a 4th line treatment.
So this person has widespread disease, they get
this treatment.
Cancer breaks through, we give another treatment.
Cancer breaks through, we breaks through, we give
another treatment, and then they'll invest in a
fourth line treatment.
And the drug itself
will cost somewhere between $2,040,000
per
per dose. And, yeah, it may grant the
person who is dying from a terminal illness
maybe 6 to 7 months. And, honestly, 6
to 7 months, you know, you get standing
ovations in in in in medical oncology.
In our, yeah, in our conferences, it's like
a standing ovation. Cardiologists mock us for how,
you know, how we we talk about curves
over looking at, look, the difference is, like,
there's, like, a solid 3 months 3 month
difference because it because it's your life. You're
gonna die. People don't like
unless somehow this happens to someone you love,
3 months becomes meaningful
because it's it's you live only once. Right?
But the question is why isn't money invested
in the screening process and the there's no
money in it, but that's how you fix
it. But it's way better. So how do
you fix that? You just need you need
the public funding.
You need you need public funding to look
into preventative measures. Because if you get if
you prevent stuff before they start mammograms,
as simple as they are, have made the
huge the biggest difference in the world of
of breast cancer because you're catching it so
early that you're, yeah, you're avoiding the majority
of people who are going to need very
costly treatments that you can just avoid it
by by plucking out early.
The concept of taqwa, as Muslims, we live
like that.
We always think we're always thinking ahead. We
understand that life can can end any time,
but that's in the hands of God. It's
not my business. Whenever he wants to take
me, he takes me. Whenever, it's my time,
it's my time. But for my life, the
way I live is I'm always wondering, Always
asking that question.
What what is my how is this decision
going to reflect on me later? Positively or
negatively? Negatively, no. I'm not going to engage.
Not only as individuals do we think like
that, but as societies we think like that
too. That's how we're supposed to at least
think. Societies, we shouldn't be always
reacting to masa we should be proactively thinking
about what may happen and how to deal
with it now before it actually happens, before
we run into a problem.
As Muslims right now, we are just we
are running behind
all of the major challenges that we have.
Like, we're we're running behind and we're quite
behind.
Like, we're we're well behind the problems.
Taqwa if taqwa existed in our society, then
not only would we be meeting our challenges,
we'd be a few steps ahead.
The the the the most interesting thing when
he study
It's how Haniva would sit with his students
and with the people with the scholars around
him, and they would think about
scenarios
that did not happen yet. They'd just sit
down and talk because they had because they
they had answered all the questions, and they
provided people with with, you know, with guidelines
of how to how to perform their deen.
Everyone knew what to do, and they would
just spend their time
planning for the future. Abu Hanifa and his
students, with the you'll find this in, Al
Badaha, little Imam al Qasani,
talked about the fact that would how would
you pray if listen to this. You were
standing
on a piece of
something solid that was not connected to earth.
A k
a plane.
Right? If you were this is how it
was defined. It was worded. If you're standing
on something solid that was not connected to
the earth, how would you pray?
Would your prayer be acceptable? And how where
would you where would you go? Because you're
on top now. The Kaaba's down. Do you
do you face do you pray
downwards? Do you pray So he talked about
this and they came up with the fatwa.
Planes came in. We had no the faqaa
had to do nothing. They just pulled the
fatwa that already existed like a 1000 years
before, and then here's what you do.
This is this is a this is the
group of people who understood what taqaa meant
is that you're always thinking ahead. You're always
trying to get ahead of problems, ahead of
Muslim. You're protecting yourself. You're preventing issues.
The real question
is will my action displease Allah? It's not
the question is will my action please Allah.
No. No. No. That's that's a higher level.
You may reach that. You may not reach
that. We're not interested in talking about that
here today. If you reach that, yeah, I
need congratulations
and good for you. If your question is
always will this please Allah? And if it's
not, you won't do it. Because there's a
there's a the majority of life is that
gray zone.
You know, that there's a neutrality. The.
Well, it doesn't matter.
White cake, red cake, who cares? There's no
doing this. It's Majority of life is Like,
it's it doesn't matter. Like, there's no there's
no reward or punishment in most choices, by
the way. You can make it. You can
change that. You can make their reward in
every choice that you make, but that requires
a revamping of the whole system. Like, you
have to go back and you have to
get the Abdullah and Muhammad Fa'id to kind
of format everything and bring in a whole
new mixer and just change the whole thing
because it now you're gonna be thinking differently
altogether. But the question that of, which is
very simple, just will this displease Allah
And Allah is displeased by when you harm
yourself or harm others short term or long
term. That's why I put the first question.
That's how Allah Subhanahu wa'ala is displeased. Are
you gonna cause harm to yourself or to
others now or later?
No? Go ahead. Yes? You hit the brakes.
To ask the question, will I please Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala makes it much more difficult.
The margin of of behaviors become much much
is not as wide. But this question is
wide.
You just stay away from that which displeases
Allah.
Everything that is neutral is is, is is
gained.
Everything that is not causing display everything that
is not going to displease Allah is open.
That's is this mentality.
Before I make this decision, before I take
this job or before I enter into this
interaction or before I say this word, whatever
it is I'm gonna do, will this please
Allah
If the answer is yes, then I when
I hit the brakes and even if I
sin and I make a mistake, at least
I was aware of that.
See, at least you're aware of it because
next time you can think, well, how do
I prevent this from is that Tawba? Is
is it how do you prevent it?
Tawba is about preventing
You you you Tobah, you repented from the
sin. You said, okay. I won't do it
again. How?
Is that what Tobah is? You're up. Forgive
me. Won't do it again. Hold on. How?
How are you not gonna do it again?
Elaborate, please. How are you not going to
do this again?
I I just won't do it. No. No.
Like,
explain. Because you did it once. I did
you put you set up some system, some
is how are you not gonna do it
again? You need to change nothing?
Oh,
is is there a betting?
Can I bet somewhere that you'll do it,
make some money? I
just put money on that. You're gonna do
it again. You made no changes at all.
You just said you're gonna you just said
you weren't gonna do it.
I'll I'll if I'm a betting man, I'll
put money on. And I'll I'll make it
a lot. I'll I'll I'll put money that
you're gonna do it again a 100%.
So the concept of taqwa is is no.
No. I have to how did how do
I how do I prevent this? It happened
now.
But how do I make sure it doesn't
happen again? If you don't think like that,
then nothing changes.
And and I'm talking about an individual level.
What about on a communal level? Or if
you zoom out a little bit.
You understand that we have the exact same
problems as Muslims all across the world for
the last 50 years?
The exact same problems. Go anywhere you want.
I know you're gonna go go visit a
Masjid and see how beautiful it is. Right?
Take the pictures, share them with everybody,
and take the selfies. It's a beautiful architecture.
When you're done, go and knock on the
imam or the guy who's running the masjid's
door. Ask them what their challenge is and
write them down. Right? And then bring them
back here. And if you can share with
me something that we don't have here, I'll
take you out for lunch.
Same problems. Oh, I've been in Masajid since
I was 5. I have yet to hear
an original problem.
I have yet to hear an original,
struggle. Same thing. Same politics.
It's the same egocentric approaches. It's the same,
you know, any fight between the old and
the young. The same trying to hold on
to the, you
know, investing in in infrastructure, not investing in
people. The same problem. Like, there's nothing different.
Nothing.
And it tells you because something about the
way we think that we must not be
thinking very
in a very healthy manner. We're lacking.
We're not preventing problems before they come. We're
just we're just falling into the same pattern
every time.
It's a proactive prevention of harm is what
taqwa is. It's a beautiful, beautiful
thing. It's a tool it's a tool in
your toolkit as a Muslim.
It allows you to prevent to proactively prevent
harm from occurring to yourself and people around
you. Jahannam is the biggest harm. There's nothing
more harmful than Jahannam. How do you prevent
that from happening?
And you start there and you work backwards.
You start there and work backwards. How do
I make sure I'm not there? Alright. Start
making some different choices now. Start asking that
question before every decision, and you'll be okay.
If you do that, you'll be okay. That's
why taqwa and the prophet oh, I'll give
you the prophet talking about taqwa. Nothing is
heavier in the in the reason and then
taqwa.
It goes on and on. Taqwa is an
easy it's an easy target. If you ever
wanna give a talk and you're not sure
what to talk about, just just write just
punch in taqwa in in in Google and
just write down the first
couple of sentences. You'll you'll have you'll have
material for an hour. Easiest thing to talk
about. Easiest target because it's a very well
established part of our deen. Yet I don't
know we understand exactly what it's what it's
designed to do.
Tawakkul. Tawakkul has been reduced
to the concept of well,
I ain't ready so
I'm not I don't know what's gonna happen
next. I completely failed to prepare it also.
We use the word in the worst
possible moment. We use it when it's least
it should be least used because it's not
understood.
Tawakkul is a beautiful concept. It comes Tawakkul
is the is the result. It's the baby
of understanding Allah's will. You understand Allah's will
and then you understand from Allah's will his
qaba and qadr and then from that results
the concept of tawakkul, and it's an extremely
powerful tool.
It's probably the most powerful one that you
have. It's a life change. You have tawakkul
in your heart, in your life, and you
live better. You live well.
You're different. You deal with the world and
you deal deal with life differently than everyone
else does.
And you're much more stable, you're much more
calm, and you're capable of I'm actually
capable of absorbing way more,
challenges
than others around you. Like, your your resilience
is your your level of resilience is much
higher just by having this concept of.
So add to the boldness.
You're you're much more courageous.
Right? You're not you're not scared. You'll take
risks. Calculate it with people. Take risks because
you're bold. Because you and the tawakkul. Because
you know that if you if you just
meet
you just meet the basics. You have that
verbal contract with Allah hasbiallahu alammarwakeel.
I am you are my trustee. I trust
my life with you. That's all he needs,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Just that verbal that verbal
converse. It has to be allahun. I'm gonna
be once in your life. You don't take
it back. It's it's it's an ongoing contract.
He he is your trustee, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Okay. That's the case? Great. Now you're just
putting your fill effort. Just just go offer
all you got. Everything that you have,
exhaust every resource, make sure that you're making
decisions that are that are
that are plausible, that are based on appropriate
assessments that you're you're doing you're doing it
right. You're checking all the boxes in terms
of your effort. Right? You do that in
your heart. You know that at the end,
the results are delivered by god himself. He
chooses whether this works out or if it
doesn't work out. If it's successful, if it's
not successful, I have to do my best,
and then I accept whatever it is he
gives me.
That is.
I accept whatever he gives me. He dishes
out what I wanted. He dishes out the
opposite. Makes no difference. I'll continue to accept,
and I'll just look back by myself and
say, well, maybe I should have tried harder.
Maybe this is not what I should be
doing, and then go back and try again.
And that's still good.
And people who have that are bold. They're
they have they have courage. They're brave.
Why? Because all they they know the issues
with Allah
I'll try my best. This is an important
thing. It's risky. It's scary. It's uncharted territory.
These waters have not been tested well, but
they're it's an important issue. I'm gonna give
it a shot. Shot. You know, I try
my best to you. You spend the time.
You do your research. You gather you build
the proper team.
Blah blah blah. All the etcetera. All the
stuff that you have to do. You try
your best. You'll never be able to do
a 100% because, you know, we're flawed. We'll
try our best. Yeah. Whatever whatever that means
to you. Whatever that, you know, however that
reflects as from, you know, off you as
a person. You try your best and, you
know, what whatever you send, y'all. I accept
that. If it works out, I'm happy. If
it doesn't work out, like,
If it doesn't work out, like, I'll hand,
I'll go back reassess, reenactment, reevaluate, and try
again. Or maybe do something different if this
didn't, if I don't I didn't see this
working out. It allows you to try stuff
and to take risks and to to embark
on a journey that maybe is unknown to
you because you have to work good. Tawakkul
is not,
it was too busy this semester to study,
so I'm gonna go write the exam to
aqat Allah. No. No. No. No. No.
That's not tawakkut.
That's not that's not you didn't you didn't
no. That's not tawakkut. It's
I only get the word tawakkut when the
student hasn't hasn't prepared anything for the semester.
That's when they come and use the word.
I'm like, no. No. You you don't have
the right to use that word.
Use that word when you've actually studied and
you know the syllabus, like you actually know
what you're gonna do. And then they asked
me, but what's the point of doing tobacco
then? Exactly.
Exactly.
See, this is where we're struggling. We don't
understand our own deen. That's exactly when you
perform tawakkul. You actually believe that there's no
way for you to fail after you prepare
properly?
You cannot fathom that any any circumstance would
take away your ability to pass it seriously?
That's how naive you are on this world,
That you know the syllabus more than the
the professor? And so it's impossible that I
ever fail. It's impossible that you fail. You
cannot fathom a scenario where you could fail.
Wow. You're gonna be very disappointed in life.
Yeah. The curveballs are gonna knock you down
hard. Of course. Tawakkul is that. Tawakkul is
if you can understand this, if you can
take time to comprehend what I'm talking about,
then you understand Islam in general. Not just
Tawakkul. You understand Islam as a whole. You
do you you put in your full effort,
and you and then you have tawakk because
you have to accept the result, whatever it
may be. You have to know that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who controls.
Someone who does not put any effort, someone
who presents themselves to a challenge and they're
not prepared and they didn't try at all,
and they're like,
And then they're and and then they're not.
They they they fail. They're like, well, I
I don't know anyone. What what don't you
know? Well, I, you know, I put my
trust in a law and didn't happen now.
What are you talking about?
You didn't fulfill the contract, like, at all.
You're supposed to fail. If you didn't fail,
it would be really weird.
Again, if you would if you didn't fail,
then this would the whole story would be
very, very awkward. If you could if you
could afford to say and
put in no effort and not try at
all, and the other person were is working
day night and somehow you win, if there's
something messed up,
that means Allah subhanahu wa'ala doesn't respect his
own laws. I mean, he put laws and
he's not gonna go by them.
People who work harder, they they they achieve
more.
You know, you put in the hours, you
get you get the results. That's the law.
That's that's how he designed the universe, but
he's gonna go against his own that's his
law. I didn't make it up. It's he
made it. It's not it doesn't exist outside
of him. He's the one who made that
law. You work hard. You put in the
effort. You put in the hours. You get
the results. You don't. You don't.
Well, I'm gonna say
and that's going to mean that I put
in no effort and I and and then
I prevail.
Well, and and I see this mentality all
across our our ummah.
We think that with maybe
a small amount of effort, just a small
a small amount, we're going to suddenly
flip
300 years of destruction.
300 years of corruption
and and and poverty and ignorance
and lack of of ethicality. We're gonna slip
with a with a month or 2.
I put a little effort a little bit
of effort in the couple of years and
I'm alive and you do too, and we
expect at the end of it that Allah
changes
yeah. I mean,
that's not you you don't understand
means that you
you'll try your you'll do your best, and
you still under understand
that the results are not in your hands.
They're in his. That's what Tawakkul means. And
that he will deliver whatever he sees fit
and you will accept it. That's what Tawakkul
is.
Tawakkul is not this
wishful thinking where I did nothing.
And if you do nothing and Allah subhanahu
delivers for you, then you're right now in
a I call it this is a danger
zone.
You're in the danger zone.
If you don't wake up quickly, this is
istidraj.
He is luring you out.
You need to quickly wake up and come
bring yourself back. Because every once in a
while, he'll throw you that lifeline. Every once
in a while, get a lifeline. Didn't work
hard? Made it anyways.
It's a lifeline. It's designed for you to
wake up and quickly get yourself back to
where you need to be or else he'll
continue to lure you with that throughout the
rest of your life.
I'll end with this.
Here's my pet peeve
in in life. This is my problem.
Not because I do it. It's because I
have to do it.
My problem is the the way that it's
dealt with.
This is a Friday prayers
has been reduced to
a time where we can fundraise,
where we can, you know, basically
share a few words with people,
tell them what's coming next, ask them to
donate and to participate in whatever. It's announcements.
Right? It's a vibrational announcements. We make make
a I get
on and there's a paper with like 7
points.
So I tell them, I'm going to give
a but I'm not I'm not reading any
of these points. You know, someone can do
it before but I'm not reading these. It's
an announcement. Just an announcement. We need to
make announcements all the time. Right?
And it's just an issue of the guy,
bringing in people and seeing if they can
get them to donate. And
Friday prayers used to be khutbah used to
be the
weekly gathering of the community to
have their leader address what the next steps
are going to be or what failures or
successes they have achieved.
That's what Jomah was about. Jum'ah was not
given
by the scholar of the community.
It was given by the leader of the
community. It was the Khalifa and the Wali
and the Amir and the Kha'id. Those are
the people who gave the.
Saying the Kha'id and the way we go
on a on a
conquest, and with him, sometimes he would have
the great scholars like Muad ibn Jabal would
be with him and Zayd ibn Faaib, but
people who are much more knowledgeable. People know
the Quran word for word.
Saying the Khad knew very little of the
Quran, by the way.
Very little. He accepted Islam in the 7th,
8th year. He was very late. He didn't
have enough time. He died like, his whole
life was spent on the battlefield.
He didn't have time. He didn't know. But
when he went on the conquest, he led
prayer,
and they would sit down and coach him.
He would have
the and teach him, like, the the the
surah so he'd memorize them so he could
read them correctly. Because he'd and when there
was a Khutba Jum'ah, he would get on
the mimbar, and he would give the khutba
even though he is not the best public
speaker nor he's the most knowledgeable person there.
It was about leadership. It always was. I'm
not making this up. This is not something
I'm I'm coming to conclusion of outside of
of of scholarly traditional knowledge. No. This is
well known. This is well established Islam. This
is not even everyone knows this. Yes. Everybody
knows this. Even those who are are treating
Jum'ah differently, they know that. They know that
this is an issue of leadership.
It's been reduced where the person on the
minbar has no
weight no real weight in the community, has
no decision making capacity at all.
And and when that's the case when that's
the case, you end up having a dysfunctional
community. Now you have on the middle someone
who's not a leader, who has nothing to
offer. I can sit down and give this
halakat. That's what I do. I sit down
and educate. I talk to kids. I talk
to people. I talk to young people. I
offer, you know, I offer these courses. Mimbar.
I have to speak to a leader. Give
me who's the leader here? Get them on
the mimbar so they can express.
They can have the consultation of the scholars.
They can have the consultation of the religious
figure. That's fine. But it has to be
the leader.
It has to be. And if it's not
them, then we have a problem. Or the
person on the neighborhood has to be speaking
on behalf of the leader.
So tell me who the leader is, and
I'll speak on behalf of them. No problem.
I did this when I was younger. It's
not I'm not yeah. There's there's no issue
with that. It's it's fine.
But then if you take away leadership,
if you remove leadership from from Jumuah, then
nothing is left in it. It's just another
halakah.
Like this.
Is how many people are here? A 100
people? Maybe less? Fifty people?
That's that's the number of people come to
Al Hakatz. Right? Jumuah, they're not coming for
me or for anyone else for that matter.
They're coming because Allah
Allah said you all come here. Why? Because
this is how you can maintain your community.
You have leadership.
Because without leadership, you end up headless chicken
and you don't go anywhere. And you just
run around in circles for a very long
time. Same problems. Repeat themselves every generation.
Same thing. Get a little worse. A a
bit worse with time, but nothing changes. You
have leadership, then you'll at least go in
a direction. Maybe it's wrong, but it's a
direction. And if you hit the wall at
the end of it, you know that this
is not the right direction. We tried it,
doesn't work. That's good information.
Right now, I have no idea redirection is
worth going into. It's not because we haven't
tried anything yet. I don't know. People ask
a question. I have no idea. No clue.
No clue what we should be trying to
do. What is it that we're trying to
achieve here as Muslims in this community? What
are we trying to achieve as a community?
Are we trying to achieve anything? Or it's
just what is the point of these places?
Bringing people to Allah. Okay. Then what? Then
what? What are we trying to do after
that? There has to be a bigger picture.
Islam is here to grant
grant
an improvement and, of the wellness of life
in general for people. That's what Islam is
there for, to to establish haqq and justice,
to establish istiqama, to make sure that there's
no. This is what Islam is for. Islam
is to establish this way of life that
allows people to exist freely and safely
and fairly.
If that's not being achieved or not trying
to approach that via a specific angle, then
what are we doing?
Now what exactly is the point of all?
I don't know what the point of this
is. I can understand what we're trying to
why are we here? What are we trying
to what what's the end game? There is
no because there's no leadership.
Because there's no one.
I I went I've had these discussions, like,
for years. I remember at L and M,
I used to say this. Look. Whoever should
be on the minbar is the leader. And
I point it out to the person. Like,
the chair of the board. You're the leader.
You should be on the minbar. Or whoever's
on the minbar should be speaking on your
behalf. You can't have a sheikh who has
a vision
on the mimbar with no authority, and you're
running the show behind. This is like you
kinda you it's not about being a puppet
or anything. It's the idea either this guy
on the mimbar is is preaching the teachings
of the of the leader himself, whoever the
leader is. So this is without leadership, there's
no accountability.
Who's that? Who's responsible? Who's responsible for where
we are right now? Who's responsible for how
things run? Who?
You have no one. You don't you don't
know.
Don't you dare look at me.
Don't you dare look at me. I have
I have no I have no authority whatsoever.
What? No. I don't I'm not a good
leader either and I wouldn't wanna do that.
I honestly wouldn't wanna do that. That's not
me. So you can't point out the no.
It's it's not me. I have no decision
making capacity at all. I can barely make
decisions in my own home to make it,
Yani, but I can barely do it here
in the Masih to make it a fraud
community. No. So we don't have leadership in
our community. We don't. We don't. And since
we don't, we're gonna continue to be in
the same position. So we don't have leadership.
Leadership is is a is a big deal.
When you have leadership, jomama becomes meaningful. Now
now the jomama'as will actually start pointing in
the direction of what the leadership is trying
to go in. Where is leadership trying to
go? Now the jummas will all address this
because the jummas is only as valuable as
the leadership of the community is. I will
speak about whatever it is where where wherever
we're going.
Wherever we're going. Who's leading us? Alright. Where
are we going now? What's what's the biggest
problem that we're trying What are we trying
to fix right now? What are we trying
to achieve? This is what we're trying to
achieve? Alright. I'll address it with my own
words. I won't take out a paper and
read like, as they do elsewhere. No. I'll
address it with my own way of looking
at it, but I will address the same
topic and I will push the same agenda
because that's what the leadership is going towards.
If it imagine that happens across the city.
It's the same message every week or the
messages are the same as they're going the
same direction. You'll see change.
Something will be achieved.
Like, you'll have something tangible. You have to
say we did this. We were able to
do this. And you can stand this and
and it's very and and honestly, we just
need something. I think that we're so desperate
for some form of accomplishment. Anything.
Anything that if we were able to do
something like that, say that we were able
everyone did the same thing. We talked about
the same stuff. We put our mind in
the same direction. And we were able to
achieve this one objective. And this objective is
helping everybody, and we and we'll feel good
about ourselves. We feel good, and we'll be
we'll we'll praise Allah that we're able to
do that. And then we'll try again. We'll
achieve something else. There's nothing you can't achieve
when people are united. There's nothing you can
achieve when you have people who are diverse
and are youthful and are wealthy and are
healthy and are dedicated. If they have direction
there's nothing you can achieve. Imagine how you
messed up this system.
It's a weekly gathering.
Everyone comes. Do you understand the difference of
the numbers of people who pray Ishaq versus
Jum'ah around the city? Do you understand the
difference? It's not even funny
because it's not even like, Isha, you're talking
about maybe 600 people across the city. Jum'ah,
you're talking 6000 to 7000 people. It's 10
times
10 times the number
with 0 efforts. Open a jum'ah anywhere.
Anywhere. Go ahead. Anywhere you want.
Anywhere you want. Announce a jum'ah and then
somehow a couple of hundred people will come
in. People come for jum'ah because they it's
it's an issue of obligation.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala embedded in Islam
a system of leadership.
Here, you'll never go wrong with this. How
we messed this up is beyond I we
are professional.
We are professional at ruining. Oh, it's impossible.
How could this
been all you need all you need is
just to make sure you have some degree
of leadership
and make sure that the mibrah is reflecting
it and you're good. You're good. You'll always
be able to make decisions. You'll always be
able to achieve things. You can you can
always move as one body because you have
that.
That's what he did. That's how he did
it. That's how he did it through Jum'ah.
This this tool that we ignore. This this
platinum tool. It's not even golden. This this
platinum tool that we have. It's amazing. It's
still there. People still attend by the way.
They may not forever, though.
It's it's not it doesn't live it doesn't
last forever.
They're still attending Jomar. That means they still
see hope.
We continue to mistreat this this this beautiful
the system that we have, this tool that
we have, we continue to mistreat it,
people will stop attending with time and will
become like, you know, our cousins.
Wanna go see Sunday mornings?
Oh, take a look at Sunday mornings.
It's right over here. Go to Sunday mornings
over there.
Tomorrow morning, go take a look.
Poke your head and see how many people
are there. See what the demographic looks like.
See the age group.
That's exactly what will happen here.
You're gonna do exactly what they did.
If they put their head into the into
a rabbit hole, you put their head in
a rabbit hole
or a dog hole
unless you wake up and you decide to
do it differently. And we revive the system
of leadership that we have in the community.
I've been calling for this for years.
I've been calling for this I I said,
okay. Maybe you're not a leader, then have
a leadership
committee.
Leadership committee. Have the heads of each all
the boards and then come up with the
direction, and they share it with the Imam
council.
Make sure that the people who give khutbas
are verified by the Imam Council because khutba
jama again, I don't know how this works,
but I was given permission to give khutba
jama. I was given multiple permissions, and it
was level by level, meaning I was allowed
to do it in a specific time when
it was placed with its super super vision.
Then I was given the permission to do
it conditionally. Now it took years. It took
20 years of Taliban before I was allowed
to. I had to
now anyone just can just stand there, put
a hat on his head and so I
can help the Jummah. It's really it's really
bizarre. I don't understand it at all. I
find it extremely like, I don't mind it
for schools and universities. That's where they're young.
They're they're trained. They're learning. There's actually a
really good opportunity. But for a message to
be established and then on the member, someone
who does not have the qualifications, does not
know how to do this appropriately,
Unless they're the leader.
Unless they are the leader of this community,
then they should not be up there.
If they're the leader of the community, that's
great. If not, then it has to be
someone who is qualified and who has the
proper knows what to speak, knows what's worth
talking about on amimbar and what's not worth
talking about on amimbar. Not everything is shared
on amimbar. Not everything can be brought up
on amimba. You have to know what to
talk about.
Jomama is is,
is, in my opinion, the way back.
Jumah is the way back. Why? Because when
I thought about this series, reduced concept,
it came it came to my mind from
the ayah.
This is where I this is where I
first thought about this concept.
Is this ayah that exists in Surah Al
Jumu'ah that talks about the leadership, that talks
about what prophets came to do and then
gives us the command of attending Jum'ah. In
the middle of the Surah, he gives an
example of the people who were asked or
burdened with carrying the Torah, the holy book.
But they never really didn't really do it.
What do you mean they carried it, but
they didn't really carry it?
It's like a a mule carrying books.
Carrying books.
What what is a mule gonna do with
the books? He has the books. He doesn't
understand the books.
This is what my this is what my
this is what I came to mind. These
are reduced concepts.
Being the values are there, but they're not
really embedded. They're there, but they're not being
practiced. They're there, but not understood. It's like
you gave a mule a book and now
the mule is walking around with a book.
You're gonna call that mule knowledgeable.
You're gonna call that hamar alim.
No, You're gonna call that hamar. He's not
alim. He's just carrying a book.
Carry a book. We carry a salah. It
doesn't mean that we act it doesn't does
anything for us. It doesn't mean that because
we have not embraced the actual value.
And you're saying what
so it came here in jummah because jummah
has the ability to exchange that because good
leadership can change that. Leadership that is ethical,
leadership that is moral, leadership that is value
driven, can change people, inspires people. People want
to change. They want to be better when
their leadership wants to do that, when the
leadership are are focused on servicing them and
in bringing forward values and ethics and morals
into back into the society, and they're aiming
towards goals that are ethical in nature, it
inspires people and it changes people.
And we can do it. Today today in
the west, we have nothing holding us back.
It's just our egos. It's our egos and
personal, you know, agendas and politics. That's all
it is. There's no there's no, regime that's
holding us back. You can't do this in
in the Middle East. You can't like, I
I can't have this lecture in the Middle
East. I can't I couldn't I'd have to
give this lecture, and I have to take
this piece out. I can't talk about that
one
because that that's not possible. It's not possible.
You're just gonna go to jail. You're gonna
gonna be removed because they know what Jema
does over there.
They don't know what Jema does here.
Just like an apple. They don't know.
The people here, they don't know what Jomad
is capable of. They don't. Over in the
Middle East, they know, so they regulate it.
A khatib who has a little bit of
a a strategy. They move immediately.
He sleeps in jail for a few weeks
and he comes back. He gives again the
same thing back and forth. He just named
it Hari. I don't know if he's alive
or dead.
This man used to give a hopah in,
in a place called Mahalbami. Right? Where I
used to go study. I used to go
study there for, like, a month for exams.
I would be in the village all year,
and then for the month of exams, I
have to leave because there's just too many
students and stuff I have to go. So
I go study there. And right beside my
Masjid, my house, or I have to walk
for a couple of minutes, called Jamah Zaydura.
His masjid,
for Jum'ah
prayer, an hour before Jum'ah started, was packed
and people were out on the street. It
would close the intersection. People knew on Friday
not to go within a certain intersection in
that city.
He would speak for a full hour. He
would go on the minbar and he would
say, my hut was an hour. If you
don't want to attend an hour, walk 50
10 minutes down this way to sheikh Abu
Umar's masjid. He gives a 15 minute hutba.
When I was,
I
was engaged to my wife.
She my my
my uncle lives in in that area,
and I would go and spend Friday with
him.
And whenever Jummah, yeah, the time for Jummah,
my uncle will be like, you know, Sheikh
Abu Ambar is close by here. Do you
wanna
and I'm like, no. No. I'm I'm going
to Sheikh and I'm and he was and
he was like, oh, it's not he didn't
feel appropriate that I go to one Masjididid.
I'm like, that's okay. I'm going to the
Abu Amr. It's like, no. But, you know,
have you ever attended Abu Amr? It's a
really nice
beer. Sheikh Nain would go on the mimbar
and he would speak for an hour.
I
I've never heard anyone who was more fluent
and articulate than this than in my life.
He would speak in Arabic and he would
not hesitate. He would not make a mistake.
Not in a fatan, an obama. Not through
the whole talk. And if you fell asleep,
he would bang on the halab.
It would bang.
Either wake up or leave.
Yeah. The message was packed.
It was packed to the point where he
would close the streets and people listened to
him. Granted he went to jail every month,
like, for a couple of days, but he'll
people listened to him. People listened to him
and he and he was able to to
impact make an impact. Jomua is a tool
that if the community decides to use to
utilize
where it's properly regulated,
it's properly planned out, there's leadership and that
leadership is reflected in the messaging and the
teaching, then you can move a community. You
can move a society. The only thing that
hold is holding us back is the fact
that we've reduced the concept of jama'at to
a reminder and an opportunity to do some
fundraising and make some announcements.
We reduced it to that.
Maybe maybe the public refuses that. Maybe the
public starts asking and forcing institutions to start
working together and making Jum'ah something more meaningful.
And maybe that will reflect on all the
other concepts that I that I shared with
you.
There are many, many more. This is a
topic that goes on and on and on.
You'll find examples in every, what, in every
field of life and
I urge you, I encourage you to, you
know, analyze. Analyze your own life. Analyze your
values and your concepts and your principles. Analyze
them and see have any have any of
them been reduced to something that's no longer
functional?
And do you need to relook you you
you under relearn it. Understand it again so
that it becomes functional, which may require some
changes in your life. Maybe some some attitude
adjustments. And
do you need that? Or or or
because the list just continues.
Finding our way back means restoring the essence
of these concepts and values. Finding our way
back as Muslims requires us
to
to to bring that back again, to restore
the
to to to reclaim this narrative, to reclaim
the narrative of of our values and our
concepts again and restore their meanings. And If
we do that, then I think inshallah to
Allah, you know, we we can we can
we can see in our future despite the
the the misery and the horror and the
sorrow that we are witnessing today and the
weakness and the lack of of utility that
we see within our Ummah. It can change.
It can change if we can restore
the the essence of our values.
Thank you for attending this. May Allah subhanahu
wa'ala will put it in your mizanhasanat.
Keep me your offer. My offer feedback regarding
how this went
and for, you know, for sitting and listening
Offer a few minutes for, you know, any
Offer a few minutes for, you know, any