Seerah Halaqah Episode 11

Last week in the CLR, Halacha, I talked about the first, I give an introduction about the first three years of his prophecy out of his thoughts. And we got through the first week, basically, or maybe the first three, six months, I talked a little bit about how the Prophet alayhi salatu salam had to come up with a plan, how there was a period where why were revelation stopped and the Prophet Allah, your thoughts that I've struggled with that a little bit, and it caused him a certain degree of doubt, to a certain degree. And that's important, I think, I think it's an important aspect of learning historiography of salatu salam that he was someone who had a very high level of

conscientiousness, and this is, if a word is unfamiliar to you, then I'll explain it because it's an important one to have.

It's when you continuously

hold yourself accountable or question yourself. This is not, obviously there's a certain degree of that that can be harmful if you're at the point where you're not able to make a decision, or you have no confidence. And that's a problem. But in general is someone who does not question themselves and do not take a step back and wonder whether they're doing whether they're what they're doing is correct or not end up making a lot of mistakes, and really not achieving the goals and the objectives that they want to achieve. And the raw value to them was that type of person. And this is why Yanni This is one of the one of the characteristics that Allah subhanaw taala chose the Prophet

alayhi salatu salam for it was his ability to always wonder whether he was doing doing it right or not, and going back and revising and looking again. So whenever it's things, he came up with the plan and the execute. And then if things didn't work out, or he felt that things weren't working out, he would take a step back. And he would wonder, being a bit too confident or being too sure about things is not always a great attribute to have, especially especially early on in life, especially when you're you're just learning or just starting things out. You have not gained a lot of experience. And I think that's an aspect of his of his character, it your Serato sound is very

important. And it was established in that in those first six months.

I pointed out that the first three years were selective years, they usually the translation that we usually use acidity, meaning is secretive, it's really selective, providing a slot that was around was was choosing people he wasn't he wasn't talking to everybody. What he knew that he was claiming prophecy, most of what he knew, almost within the first couple of days, Abubakar went and spoke to a lot of people he brought in aid. It people were hearing about it, they start to talk.

So there was that clarity that the Prophet alayhi salatu salam was now clear. He claimed prophecy he had Revelation, there was the Quran, but he was not offering it to everyone. This is really important to keep that in mind, because as long as the Prophet alayhi salatu salam is not making it public. Quraysh is fine to keep things quiet. They stay neutral, where he stayed neutral until the product is taught to him. I used to assume went public we make reached that point today. We may not. And that's that's a trick because it's a turning point in his in his story that he went public because he could have said, Well, why don't you stick keep it a you know, a selective process, just

keep it under under the radar and keep on going. But no, I had a certain point he needed to he had to go public Islam would have not reached when it reached today, had he not done that. But the fact that the first three years his his assessment of how he was going to spread Islam, all across the globe, right from one person and McDarrah, two people, him and Khadija and then maybe three or four that added on there is going to take this and it's going to spread all across the globe, that he decided that for the first three years, he was going to just talk to specific people, it's very interesting to me, that he believed in the importance of building a core group first, he started out

to be extremely valuable. And he didn't say, Well, I don't have enough time, I'm 40. Now I barely have enough time I have to go public immediately had he done that, by the way, I don't think things were would have worked out, the challenges would have been very different. And the story would have been very different. But no, he actually spent three years just talking to specific people and building that core group. And I've always thought that that's maybe where we were we I don't say fail, but you don't pay attention to those stuff, maybe in when and community building processes with in the West, and even back home. Where we get we got foot we get lost in the importance of

quantity versus quality. All right. You're taught this early on when you're young when you're being prepared to form data, and what type of data do you want to perform? Do you want to be the traveling email, go from one place to the other and use large crowds of people and talk to them? And yes, you'll be very famous. And that's you get and that's quite in that by the way. I'm not actually you know, dissing people who do that, that's fine. But what you get is a lot of quantity, but not a lot of quality, or do you want to be the man that's focused in in a small spot, and they just focus on certain people or a number of people and they try to build a core group, meaning that you'll

struggle a bit more the struggle will be more, the whole process a little bit more difficult in it to find things is harder and you don't make as much and you spend way more hours way more hours like the person who just travels and speaks spends, you just go you deliver your hour and you're gone. You have no idea. It's very racist.

similar, it's very simple. But when you're when you're when you focus on a core group, that's a lot of investment and people, people don't learn from two, three hour lecturing a week or something. No, no, people have problems. And they have challenges and obstacles, and they have questions. And you have to be available for a lot of this. So if you're talking to 50, or 60, people trying to help them out this is a lot of time is being invested. And not all of them will actually see it all through me a lot of people you'll spend, you'll invest a lot of time in certain people, and then at the end, they'll just walk away. And that's just maybe there was a 50 hours of your life invested

that will never occur that you didn't, you weren't able to build a core group. So it's a difficult, it's not easy to figure out what the right approach is, I believe in quality, I think it's more important. I think this should be a healthy balance between the two. But the prophet Isaiah thought there was it was very clear at the beginning, he needed quality, he needed a core group and he could build on it, he wasn't interested in the large group of friends, he didn't start talking to foreigners, and they go to the different tribes, pitching it and seeing how many people who can get up. Because if you do that, you'll get some people to latch on to what you're doing. But you don't

know what type of people you're getting. You don't know if they're dependable or reliable, or if they have if they're with you for the right reason, if they have the correct mentality and perspective, whether they whether the values and principles that lead them to actually join you are correct or not.

So the Prophet alayhi salatu salam select this specific people for three years.

And the question I asked you last time is would you know this question I was asked by one of my teachers when he taught me this and he said, What do you have chosen you? And may Allah Jonnie, smother him with mercy and compassion? He killed me at age if I couldn't, till this day, I think of this question, what would he have chosen me?

Or what I would have been someone that you can you can add on later. You're welcome. Maybe Maybe after we go public, you're welcome. But not not I don't want I don't see you to be any eligible or valuable as part of the core group, which will lead a lot of scholars to take a look and say, Well, what exactly was he looking for out of his software center? Right, what exactly was he trying to achieve? And today, I'm gonna share with you the four, the four, the criteria, or the four points that the scholars believe are what the prophet Allah usato was that I was looking for in people when he was when you're trying to choose them.

And allow them miss these four things

as maturity, ethics, grit, and, and excellence. And they sound like they're just fancy words that people slapped on a on a slide to make to make it seem interesting. But really, each of them has their specific niche niche to each each and every one of them that's important to think about maturity. He didn't care about age ally, his thought was time you could be eight years old, 10 years old, he'll welcome you in. If you're mature. You could be 50 and not matures and doesn't want you there. Maturity means that you're able to take the serious things seriously. And then the light things lightly. It's actually maturity is both. Sometimes we miss explain, or we misunderstand

maturity to be No, it's just always being serious. No, if you're serious, at a wedding, that's that's not maturity. If you're upset at a gathering where it's there for plate funding games, that's not maturity, by the way, that's just being a party pooper. Like you're not gonna have fun, you're someone who doesn't understand how maturity is being able to know is always knowing what exactly how you're supposed to behave in any given situation. What is it that requires your attention requires your commitment, and what what what does, when to take yourself seriously, and when to take yourself lightly as well. If you take yourself seriously all the time, it's hard to be around you. And if you

take yourself lately, all the time, it's also very hard to be around you. Maturity is just knowing where to put these things. Children don't have maturity, obviously, very young children two or three years old. So if I take my son to a funeral, it's very, very likely that he'll be running around laughing and playing. It's a funeral, someone just passed away, people are crying, he's running around laughing, but no one's gonna feel bad because he's a child. He doesn't have maturity, he doesn't have the ability to be mature. At the same time I've taken with me to our wedding, he'll be screaming and yelling and sad the whole time, people. But if I did that, there'll be a problem. If I

am if I'm watching a funeral, having a great time laughing and joking around, or if I go to a wedding and I'm you know, sitting there telling people about judging them and making them scared from then instead, there's something wrong with my with my brain. And there's something which is maturity, there's something missing. So it's really about maturity. Maturity is not about age, it's about knowing what to do having that social high social IQ, knowing what does this situation require. It looks right now that I should listen. So I listen. It seems right now that I should get up and help and serve. So I get up and help answer. I don't need someone to tell me this what you do

next. It's, you have that ability to figure out I think at this moment, I should maybe maybe I should step out, maybe I should step in, maybe I should help out. Maybe I should sit back. Maybe I should speak up maybe I shouldn't. Maturity is your ability to observe and then start to learn pick up on social cues and figure out what it is that you're going to do. And if you decide to commit that you actually have the ability to commit. That's maturity. That's why I say no, I didn't I thought it was chosen. upfront. Wasn't that because you live close to him?

There's a lot of the prophet Isaiah sought to Islam's cousins who are young, who we don't know their names, or we, they weren't early Muslims, meaning we're not going to hear it or the Allahu Andriola. Like, oh, well because his cousin, your habibi. He had maybe 15 cousins of that age. You don't know their names, because they didn't, they didn't meet the criteria. He didn't speak to them. And they accepted Islam late. And they were just one of the one of the the Muslims who were there when the Sahaba the names aren't famous, but it was spoken to because it had something. It was 10 years old, but it wasn't mature. He had the ability, he thinks things through, he would make decisions for

himself. He knew what was serious and what wasn't. So he was chosen. He was offered the D. And same thing goes for this debate. And and I haven't read it all. They're all young, all young teenagers. They were chosen, though, for a good reason. high ethics. He can't imagine that someone this is like a this is a deal breaker, I always ask the question to people, when you look at the four, what do you think is the most important?

You do this as a workshop every once in a while for high school students. And we argue on which is the most important and the conclusion is always that Allah Allah, we have no idea which is the most important. It's very rare, but we can put we can actually agree on maybe what's the least

practical practice where the deficit exists in our lives the most? I think that's what it's worth talking about are the four, what do we seem to miss the most, depending on your age group, you're missing something, if I'm talking to great ones, and twos and threes, there's going to be futurity, that's going to the problem. But then I need high ethics, you'll find that the deficit exists for different age groups at different times. But high ethics is definitely a deal breaker. Meaning if the opposite, if it's not there, then for sure the proper audience was on an interesting meal. For sure, at any time, no matter what you got, you could be whatever you want. If you don't have ethics,

then there's a problem. There's something missing. And this is something you're going to this is an issue that you're going to watch or going to observe as you go through the seal of the profile. You saw too many of his enemies that Allah has decided to sell him from Operation around. They disliked Islam, they oppose him, they use lottosend. They oppose his message, but they did have ethics. They had ethics.

There were they drew lines somewhere, they wouldn't do certain things.

It's a problem when the world lose, its it loses its moral compass. We don't want when ethics don't exist anymore. When ethics don't govern decision making, it becomes a problem, it becomes a real problem. Because there has to be some unspoken code, or spoken, written, documented, signed code fine. But there has to be some there ethics have to exist. You can't you can't kill children. You can't bomb hospitals, certain things you can't do, you just don't do them. Because there's because you have to have some degree of ethics. Something if you remove ethics altogether from from the equation, then anything can happen. Now you're basically you're pulling everyone into the mud, kind

of you're removing decency from society, what do you think is going to happen? What do you think is going to happen? When that occurs? It'd be we resigned, we got back to the law of the jungle, and then we lose all that defines our humanity to begin with. The Prophet alayhi salatu salam had no interest in people who did not have ethics. If the mafia clock if there's no cloud, he doesn't. That's why if you study any if you study his Hadith, Allah, His salatu salam, you'll find a big big chunk, like 30% of what he talked about it, it starts with 30%. A third of what he talked about, was focused on talking about ethics and morals, just focusing on your character, and he would say he

assaulted said on the LUCAM nine of Krabi comm mini Nigerian, well, I have become Ilya Jamelia, and how can I tell you about the ones who are closest to me on the day of judgment, and the most beloved to me mean the ones who will be big, even though I don't know them? Or maybe they didn't live during my time, probably the closest to me on the day of judgment, you'll know pm and Jenna it'd be very close to them for calling Ella Bella is tell us Scarlett O'Hara, Sunoco McLeod, aka the ones who have the best ethics amongst those who have ethics that have good morals.

They know they know the importance of being trustworthy and honest and, and having integrity and not being corrupt on the inside that these are important. This is very important.

It's actually one of the if you go to European Institute, and they have a they did a survey on what I shared this in the in the summer, I think or maybe before this, I can't remember so not too long ago, I talked about I just use their data because they had surveyed around 600 Muslims, those who some of them who missed you, attendees, and some of them who were not. And one of the some of the questions were what repels people from Islam the most in the West. And the number one answer across the board was was the behavior of Muslims are those who claim to be motivated and meaning those who came to claim to be religious is the behavior of those who claim to be religious. across them. I

didn't like the reason I shared the hot button and the information because I didn't see that one coming like I didn't. I always knew it was there, but I didn't think it'd be number one. Like I thought it'd be somewhere down the list. I thought other things would repel people, but apparently this is the most number one repeller people feel the people feel less attached to the dean when they

See people who are right in the front row, those who are leading players and leading July's and giving kudos and those who are visibly religious and there'll be ending it in their behavior is not. Their behavior does not match their ethics and morals don't match the amount of religiousness that they are projecting into the world. This becomes a problem. The Prophet alayhi salam could not he could not afford, he could not afford to add to his group, someone who has some ethical problem or an ethical breach in their past, or someone who had the potential of having an ethical breach moving forward. No one is perfect. I'm not trying to say that you have to be perfect. Everyone can make

mistakes. But there has to be a healthy amount or a healthy degree of morality within the person or the for the Prophet. I think it's awesome to choose them as someone that he was going to build upon. Imagine, imagine if the early Muslims were liars. Or if they were traitors, or if they were sneaky, and they and they took their wealth from haram backgrounds or if the people that you dealt with in terms of business they they cheated on you and they lied to you and they mistreated you? How far do you think Islam would have made it? Like it's that would not have made it outside of Mecca, I promise you no matter how amazing he was Allegan salatu salam, by the way, and he his, his, the

impeccable pneus of his ethics Alia Salatu Salam is something that is worthy of, of study for sure. But, but even if he was like that, if the people that he chose to build Islam upon were not, Islam would have come to a pretty early halt there or there would have been a pretty early stop to what he's done with looks like and, and Islam would have been a very small faith that exist in a very small part of the world. It wouldn't be what it is today at 2 billion populated the nation that spreads across most of the world. Not all of it.

So high ethics,

and to have high ethics, to be someone who's known that they don't, you know, don't reach their morality. Number three grit. This is my favorite one.

I love grip.

I look for it quite quite a bit.

Grit is your ability to be resilient and relentless. And there's a lot of different definitions to the word grit and his next book that's written about it. I think he's a Canadian author, and it's totally worth your time to read. But grit is your ability. When you commit to something you're in it till the end. There's no okay I should have Allah Allah Allah, Allah Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah and the first time you're pinched or things go, going difficult, okay, I have to step step back. I have personal problems. I need to take care of certain things. I'll see you. How about you go ahead and do what you need to do. Yeah, Mohammed, I'll come I'll join you later. He was he was not interested

in people like that. He did not he did not want you involved in what he was doing upfront. If this was if this was the the outlook he needed. People want real grit. Once you put your hand in his alley, you salatu salam, you give the buy out of la ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasulullah you're with him till the end, till the bitter end or beautiful end, whatever the end was going to look like. You mean you would never stop trying your your ultimate best, till the last moment of your life. Show the last moment of your life. It's not even about there's no accomplishment in Islam, there's really no accomplishment that we're looking for. There's a path Islam is a path. There's no milestone that

we need to once we achieve. We can all we can all sit back and, and relax the moment Yeah, once you're in your grave, sit back and relax there. Aside from that, it's time is a path you walk, there's no accomplishment if you if you lose yourself that we just have to achieve 123 And then we will be good as Muslims and you misunderstood this whole story. You continue to strive for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala within yourself, within your community within the world to make things better, because everything can always be better. And everything can always be worse. And that which is needs to be protected from becoming worse and we should and pushed and encouraged to become

better. And that's that's a struggle that never ends. That's a struggle that never ends. The moment you you lower your guard for a moment, say find finds a way in, on a personal level on a communal level on a national level. The moment you stop paying attention, Shetland finds a way in and things are ruined, and greed and lust and and and envy and, and human. And all of the problems of the human soul find their way and it can corrupt everything. So Islam is a is a pathway. You have to be you have to have grit.

And this is not asked this question. A couple of years ago she was the LA Zylka asked me this question. I keep on thinking about it, because I wasn't prepared for it. And he told me what's the biggest

obstacle or what's the biggest challenge in running massage or doing Dawa. And I told him, I told him commitment. Commitment is grit. Grit. People don't have grit. They'll show up for a while and then they're gone. But float in for a while they're there and then they float out. And they come back a year later and they come back in and out and there's frequency of in and outs and it's nice to have of course hamdulillah people go through struggles, but there's lack of grit. You can't build a community and you can't change

things and you can't actually achieve progress. If there's no grit, you have to be there for for better or for worse, Honeywood. Whether it's regardless of what the weather is like outside, regardless of where you are in your life, what's happening to you what struggle you're going through how you're feeling, show up, show up. That's, that's what grit is. You do that for your job. And you do that for your family, Islam should not be seen as anything less than, than those two, if not more important than them. And grit, the prophet is on needed people, he looked for that one. Now, I don't know what Allah has ever said, I don't know how he assessed it. I can figure out how you assess the

other two, I can figure out how you assess maturity. And sure you can observe it you can watch people you can figure out if they have maturity that they know when to dis flip or switch from being in a very light mood to be to being focused in series and taking things you can see that you can assess someone as AI ethics, all you have to do is ask about them, ask their friends as people who dealt with them. But grit I don't know. How do you assess grit? How do I assess if someone is resilient,

and relentless, and will stay? Think of these early names, which of these early names fell off?

I'm gonna share with you the names today, which are the early names that we have the people the prophet Isaiah, so some shows fell off later on none of them. He had like 100% success success rate with the people who actually accepted Islam within the first three years that he chose, none of them fell off. None. Like I don't I actually went look for this because I wanted to share it because I thought you'd probably have like a, a healthy or reasonable percentage of people that that didn't commit to after they accepted Islam. But no, those who accepted Islam in the first three years, those are the names we have. Those are the names that you know, we don't have any any documentation

of any of those early Muslims that walked away from Islam. Yes, some people performed read that later. Like some people did perform apostasy and they left Islam, but they weren't from those early three year Muslims. None of them since really impressing impressive. I don't know how I don't know how he was able to assess the grid. Because you can get tired really easily. Oh, there's a million reasons why they're going to stop. But why you would walk away. Things from this moment forward, do you just part of the see it was fun. It's nice. It's nice and relaxed. Things from this moment were only get worse. It just gets bad. I'll talk to you about 10 years, 10 years of different forms of

persecution, and oppression and mistreatment that he and the Sahaba had to go through. And the different decisions he had to make out of his lottosend the sacrifices he had to offer and the Sahaba had to offer just to stay alive just to keep the system alive just for a while. Because things didn't work out perfectly, by the way, like the plan that he made earlier. So it didn't work out immediately.

When you plan things out, you always plan it out. The trajectory looks like this right? Three years, we've got a core group, then we'll go public, then it didn't work that way.

Now what no didn't work that way at all. Oh, things went, it was a roller coaster. The graph was going up and down zigzagging it was it didn't go out the way and things never go the way you planned, by the way, like ever since then. That's okay. And one of the most important things in life is figuring out that's okay, plan things out to achieve ability and then reassess, because it's not going to work out the way you were hoping for it to work out.

But at least in that early stage, those first three years, the people that did except this time, I mean, the people you spoke to,

they had grit, and they they stuck with them, they did not walk away.

The fourth piece is excellence

is where I feel there's maybe

a deficit.

Excellence is always trying to do your best. That's to make it easy, not to complicate the concept of the word.

Success is based on it for you to be successful. You have to be someone who's willing to pour their heart into what they do. And do your ultimate best what everything you can, all that you got put it put it all in, you're all in every time. I think you saw those. And that was just the type of his character he, whatever he did, he did it with all of his might. He puts all of his focus and all of his heart in and out of his SelectUSA. And he got Bert many, many times. It didn't stop him from doing it again and again. And again until the day he passed away out of his thoughts and never stopped. He could never it was never Oh, I tried I gave I gave this this company or I gave this

relationship or I gave this community or I gave this message or I gave this group or I gave this effort. All of me and I got burnt. Okay.

So continue what what's the point? Because I'm not going to get give all of my all of me again. Why? Why wouldn't you? Of course you do. Every time you go back and you try it and you give it all of you again. Mediocre mediocracy is not an it's not a it's not a nice it's not a good thing to be. Mind you. We're all mediocre by the way. Mine. Yeah, well, most of us at least 99% of the population makes over the world mediocre. And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't feel bad is normal. Don't use try something for the first time. What do you think is gonna look like it'd be amazing to be mediocre? But then excellence is like no, no, I'm gonna get this right. And you try again.

And you try again and you practice again, until you're able to do it well. But you have to care enough like you, you actually have to care enough to practice many times, be okay with taking feedback, be okay with being told that wasn't great. Be okay with writing something, have someone send it back to you with all of these corrections telling you that the you what you put out into the world, you poured your heart into this and you're told, yeah, maybe 60%, maybe 55% It hurts. But that's the only way to achieve excellence. The the percentage of the population that are amazing, right off the bat is like 0.0001%. You know, like, very, very rarely, everyone else was, who was

successful, or people who worked hard. People who who would, who pursued excellence in what they were doing.

Now, I don't claim and I'm not a very good public speaker, but you didn't see me 20 years ago. Now, even if this is bad, you should have seen me 20 years ago,

I was just sharing. There was a direct teacher of mine, someone I love. May Allah bless him. He's a beautiful, beautiful man who looked me in the eyes at the age of 17. And told me in your pursuit of Dawa, I recommend you don't do any public speaking. He said, You're like a machine gun when you speak. And it's not very comfortable listening to you. So do something different. Just how lucky he was right? For many ways I learned from it. But you have to be okay with pouring your heart into something, and then it not working out and being told, Oh, that's your best. That's my best. Yeah. All right. I'll give you like a six out of 10. If you're not okay with that, then you're not going

to achieve excellence. No one gets it perfect from the first try. Or you want to No one does. We're all and yet we're all mediocre and we start thinking, but the question is, Are you someone who pursues excellence? Will you continue to try? Will you continue to take feedback? Will you listen? Will you put your ear to the ground and even ask people? What do you think, and then go back to the drawing board. And then and then figure it out again, and keep on trying to perfect your craft and what you do so that you can do things, you can do it really well, then you can put and don't feel scared of pouring your heart into something and being told you're not that great. It's okay. We're

all that way. Those who are great, weren't born that way. They worked their way to that point. They work their way to it and everything that they do. But the concept of excellence is not an innate value is to pursued one.

Right? It's not something that you're just born just born with excellence. No, no, you have to be someone who pursues excellence. That's what I mean by that, by that characteristic. Or as a part of the criteria. Are you someone who tries to do things with the sun, right? Isn't that the third pillar of our deen in many forms, is doing it well. So you can stand and pray. And you can stand and pray

and do a you know, Tiger cake, whatever. And in 35 seconds you're done. And tablet will be has them meaning your pair now is as far as the shower is concerned, you will you've done your parent, you're good to go. Or you can do it like well, they can do it really well. Like you're actually standing there and you can pray appropriately. You can actually speak to Allah subhanaw taala you can actually engage in what you're doing and allow it to affect yourself, you and you can actually feel you're doing it here both both people, technically speaking, prayed raesha fortifies you. But when did it with excellence and the other one didn't?

X. That's what I was talking about spiritually, because it's easy for that no one can judge you on that piece. So if you truly pursue excellence, then even when it comes to your, your spiritual status, you'll try to do that well, because I can't judge that one. Because you can you can pray slowly and move up and down. I look at your motion. Amazing. I have no idea what's happening on the inside. If you truly pursue excellence, then you're trying to actually

fix what's going on on the inside because you want to be and again, when you first tried to do this, what do you think you're going to do? You're going to be excellent, no, you're going to be very mediocre. You stand there trying to pray? Well, it's not gonna work out. First time and second time, the third time, but if you some if you're someone who pursues excellence, you'll get there. You'll figure it out. Eventually you'll learn and you'll achieve it. That's the beauty of ESSA. These are the four things the Prophet it is salatu salam was looking for.

So now you can ask to answer the question.

What do you have chosen you? So Allahu Allahu Allah. So have you said it's okay. Especially if you're younger, to say Well, based on this, no, I don't think he would have. Alright, well, now you have something to work on. Now you have some you have a little bit of a of a roadmap here. Here are a few things that maybe you can change. Sitting get those those four corporate them into your life. See if you can maybe see what they do for you. See, if you think about grit a little bit, think about ethicality think about morality is very important. Think about maturity think about excellence and see how much do you have both. Every time I do this workshop you always agree that what we all

what we lack is as interesting point of view. I've done this maybe six seven times. Every time we finished this quarter this workshop I just asked what do we think we missed the most and people just vote and it's always excellent

After explaining always excellence, everyone feels like you know, we are okay with mediocracy, I'm okay with just just barely getting by just passing the exam, just getting the guy just just want to anything, I don't care, I don't care if I do my best. I've never actually, a lot of people have even tried to do their best at something. A lot of people haven't really experienced the beauty of you trying your best and being told you suck. And it's an important a very important moment in your life, it's a character building moment for you try your best. And then someone tell you didn't do very well, that wasn't good, wasn't good at all. That's how you build character. Because the next

time you, you, now you you don't have anything to be afraid of anymore. You tried your best, you heard the difficult piece of news, now you can actually go back to the drawing and become better and improve on yourself. And that's how you'll get there.

And every person I know who is really good at something was okay with that when on their person, they didn't care about what people thought they didn't they were okay with people being told that they were doing well. They just kept on trying. They stuck to it, they learned they studied, they practice the gold skill sets, they went and they to other other places and people to learn from the observed and they watch and they kept on kept on

fixing that craft is making a little bit better until until they were able to present something or produce something that was worth worth their time. So think about these four and and maybe follow them along

in the stories.

Why is it that I'm talking about? What do we have chosen you? The reason I'm talking about why? I'm asking because you would have chosen you because if you were chosen during that period, you can get the answer. And this is why I'm saying this. If you if you internalize this intention and say, Yo, Rob, I didn't live back then. But I would love if I want to be a type of person had I live back then the prophets of Allah Holly's like whistling would have chosen me, you can make that intention. And you can pursue these four characteristics with the intention that it hadn't lived back then the Prophet Allah Islam would have chosen me and I'll be one of the early Muslims, you get the idea of

actually doing that, just by internalizing that intention, and then actually pursuing these characteristics. And the importance of being a pioneer is something I don't know if I have to spend time convincing you of. But the beauty of being someone who started something, someone who began something, it's a beautiful thing to be the first to do something. And no one remembers, unfortunately, the the brown bronze and silver medalists, even though they should always remember the person who got there first. It's just what happens is how the human brain functions. Being a pioneer being the people who did it, who were there first, there's value to it, there's value for

for that being the point, the people who are with the profit, upfront.

There are, by the way, a lot of

opportunities even now, to be a pioneer. You don't have to be an absolute pioneer. We can I can't be the first Muslim in the world, because it just by time sequence that I like kind of lost that a long time ago. But you can be you can be the first Muslim within your family, within your group within your community within your message to do something, to bring something forward that no one had noticed before to fix a problem that was lingering and no one know how to fix or you can be a pain, it doesn't have to be on the scale of what the Prophet alayhi salam did, because that was then but you could be can still be a pilot, being a pioneer is a beautiful thing. And right now as Muslims in

the West we have, we have that opportunity to be pioneers, to build societies to build to be the first generation within your community to memorize the Quran, or to you know, just to educate the or to mentor the next generation or to establish an endowment fund for example, or to establish the Chinese Islamic academy or to teach or to establish Johnny booboo, some organization to take care of youth who are struggling with substance abuse and mental health problems. There's a lot of things you can do and be the pioneer, be the first person who talks about the first person to actually establish and do it. And then you what's the point of that you get the pleasure of all those who

pick up after you or are inspired by your ideas, or do it until the day of judgment. You bank in your grave Hassan just in the he just keeps on coming in. Because you were the first

we all like to be first. I do and I think all of you do too. Let me tell you a few stories though.

There's a man by the name I shot him no place.

I shot us

was a merchant charger. So when you sold an important sold, he came to Makkah.

Fourth, fifth day of his prophecy. So Allah has right fourth, fifth day. That's how early on he came to America. He came because he had he was an acquaintance of Abbas Ibn Abdul Malik the Prophet alayhi salatu salam uncle,

and he was coming to do some business with Abbas. Abbas and him had agreed and agreed that they will meet in front of the Kaaba

It's a place where people would meet and that they would talk there. So she would come.

And my boss would meet him right in front of the cab and they're talking.

Now she was looking, he has been standing in front of him. He looks behind our bus he sees. He sees something really weird happening. As he's talking to our boss, he keeps on looking.

And he finally is who what are they doing? So Ibis looks behind him and said, Oh, no, they've been working. It's my as my nephew. Mohamed Salah Muhammad was on his mind.

So who's with him? His wife Khadija and my other nephew already. What are they doing? Are they gonna saloon they're praying? Yes, I'm gonna be he claims that he is a prophet Ibis was not he had not accepted Islam yet, as far as we can tell.

According to an SLR, who actually I feel like I wanted to go in and ask you about what this was called after Shalini Abbas who believe it was Shiva. But then I was like, Well, okay, what are we doing now? Are we agreeing to this thing and assigning it to how much you're gonna take and how are you gonna sell? But eventually they go back? Yeah. And you take this much and I'll take this back with me on the caravan. I'll see. So many seats that I forgot.

And I went back. I never asked 20 years later.

20 years later, I would come after the Hammacher to the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam with his with his tribe. To give thereby I'm pledge their alliance to do the prophet is going to accept Islam. So I shot comes to the Prophet SAW Allah. So Allah Hadees can be humane, and he put his hand in his hand and his tears are running down his face. He's crying, sobbing, for calling to do it. It's also a male kick. I might alimta and Islam you Boomer kind of problem. Why are you crying? Don't you know that Islam forgives all of the sins that happened before don't cry, all of your sins are forgiven. The Prophet it is also on thinks that's why he's, he's upset for kind of Allah he

Mahala the up Nia Rasulillah This is not why I'm ill and nanny or a Touka mindware sharena Armen to suddenly feel fina acaba. But I saw you 20 years ago, praying in front of the Kaaba will also took a Yamaha. And if I spoke to just that de la creme, toma Ali, it'd be thought if I would have been right now at the same status of Ali Newtype. Can any chakra Lithonia dunya. But dunya took me for a day to earn who I know Roger Ramana Muslimeen. And now I'm coming to you, I'm just one of the Muslims. I'm just another Muslim, I lost I lost my chance. I wasn't there. I didn't, I didn't attend any of the day. I just didn't

missed out.

Missed out.

There's a man by the name of the Josha and Bobby, they'll hear this story and they will never remember his name again. And that's kind of the point of the story, though Josha Bob beam, also a man who had come come through,

come through Jonnie Maccha. In the early days of Islam, the Prophet alayhi salatu salam came up to him and he performed our, for him in a really interesting the reason I'm telling this story because the way he performed I was very unique. I don't have any other narration or documentation of him It has AutoSum ever performing Dawa in this way, aside from the story. Ballet of Indonesia is telling us a story, by the way by the attorney Rasulullah sallallahu. Ala Takala. Yeah, that is the ocean.

She does ocean was a merchant as well. The Prophet alayhi salam knew him before

because he was a businessman, so they had kind of been travel buddies a few times on the trade on the routes and he knows him so they probably knew something about him. He wanted to offer him Islam, because they either Joe Shan halacha was in the desert halacha ILA and tekun I mean, our in how I'm gonna make you an offer. How about you will be one of the first

How about you will be a pioneer for call to our in murder. First of what euros Yeah, Mohammed Yaga Kasim Salah has always been

for I don't know, I like it Islam. So explain to me Islam, but that's how we performed the dollar. halacha Isla and akuna minal oh well, how would I offer you something amazing? How about we offer you the opportunity to pick amongst the first first ones. He offered me Islam I listened to what I told him, Allah He and NEMA that I had that one hula, hopefully, what you're talking about is very dangerous. We're in need of any human animal. I don't need to be in this in this problem for Mr. Tanaka, but he it took if you become if you if you succeed, I'll come to you.

And he left.

He would come 20 years later to

you will come with his tribe.

And as everyone is offering a profit out of your southwest, thereby

the Joseph comes to the Prophet alayhi salatu salam puts his hand as his guru. Baba Ania rasool Allah so Allah he's like his main, well who he is, and moody tuber sumo hotbar and then he was smiling. But it was a smile that has some degree of it was not anger, but just you know, when someone when you do something wrong and your father smiles at you, but you know, that's what's coming next.

because it's not great, but

it's that kind of the Prophet of Islam smiled at him.

I gave you the chance I told you, you could have been a pioneer. You didn't watch Hulu and para Aina delusion.

Yeah outdoor allah God, we saw him after that one day standing there biting down on his, on his knuckles. This is an act out of doing to symbolize regret. I don't know if it's it's a universal thing. I'm not sure if the world does that. It's the same thing. But by federal aid. Oh, yeah. Outdoor, I know your day he has to let an alum Yeah. Can you know our I would have regrets that he missed out on being a pioneer. Could have been one of the first could have been he was there. He's right there. And I couldn't care. Imagine how hard it was for these two people. But I think about it. Yeah. I find it really, you missed out.

You had an amazing opportunity. You could have been like up there with those names. And you didn't. What were you thinking?

And they those are tempting some later felted I don't know what I did. Sad whenever your calls on the other hand, so it's not all negative.

Mariah Yeoman with sudo Sunni Islam. There was a day in life where I was a sixth of Islam. I was maybe 15% of his standards, there's only so many people now he probably wasn't right or the Allahu Anhu because it's early on the provider your sources and didn't tell everyone about everyone else. Like he didn't tell everyone about everyone else. So sad. As far as he knew. There was only it about Kota and Zaidan hottie Jaya and I live in the Prophet and himself. So he didn't know about other people will accept them early on, he kept everyone kind of in there, just keep it done. You accept Islam will teach you he had not started the gatherings have an outcome. If he doesn't all come

together. He didn't know that yet. So side, you know, just thought he was that he probably wasn't that. That early. It was early but but still that feeling facade was very meaningful. It took it took him far or the Allah who I knew in his life, knowing that he was one of the early people to stand by him it is the early people to accept Islam. It's why he was he has so much pride in Islam itself is why he was committed to the to be on the end and saying this it is the prison he is the sahabi who led who led the Marrickville kadhi see he was the guy who is the person who who conquered the army basically the Persian Empire in the know in the known battle.

You can't be the first at everything but you can be the first to do something. Think about that. Think of the value of that. Think within your family within your community within your Masjid within your school wherever you are be the Think of the value of doing some thinking and being the first to do something call you something that is that is value my sense as soon as that has no right my center students and Hi Senator Phil Islam in Canada who me through Algeria, why are you even Amitabha yo Millia Mattila Yun Posada Ali coming at him Sharia, if you come up with as soon as you if you start something beautiful in Islam, something beautiful, then you get the you get the reward

of everyone who doesn't after you until the adjustment without them losing reward. It's not like it's taxation on their reward or you just get a copy paste part of their reward to the value of doing of being a pioneer and being first.

The first five, six months of Islam, the Prophet alayhi salatu salam had to lay down some ground rules. There were some some things that everyone had to understand and agree to early on.

And the two main rules that all new Muslims almost had to agree to and to understand number one, no violence so when I say no violence, I mean no bearing arms, meaning you were not allowed and this is chronically This is within the Quran. It's documented in total hydro right after the Prophet Allah you saucer made his Hijra from Mecca to Medina and establish the Dota Oh, Xena Latina, your cartoon, the permission for those who were oppressed to bear arms to build their armies into bear arms. They did not have permission.

In Metka, no matter how they perceive much they persecuted you. You are not given permission to to fight back or to lash out, which is why the story of Satan the uncle Bob is so much fun, because he accepted Islam and no one told him that up front, right because you accepted Islam and no one told him that piece up front. So he went and he just started punching people. And then the problem is I'm talking about no we don't do that way. But he didn't know upfront so it was a different story, but they were not allowed to bear arms.

And that's why if you studied his the first 13 years of his of his prophecy, Ali Asad wisdom, give me an example. Give me an example of of an assassination in Makkah.

I honestly if I were living back then after maybe three or four encounters with my youth, I would have talked to one of those younger Sahaba and we would have, you know, planned the next rendezvous with him. He would have been taken out of Mecca and buried him somewhere in the desert. But none of them did it. I Bucha Hell yeah. And he time after time, like the amount of humiliation

He would specifically go out of his way to try and humiliate the profanity sought to present physically, financially, socially, verbally. We don't have examples when I was young, I used to ask this question like, this is how I learned about this whole topic that why weren't the Sahaba doing something about this? So because the command was you don't bear arms. You know why? Because they were citizens of Mecca. When you're a citizen of a country, you follow the laws of the country, you can't become a vigilante. You can't, you know, I know enjoy Robin Hood and Batman, you can't do that. In a civilized society. It doesn't work that way. If everyone decides to do that, then things

don't really function. They're fun for comics and Marvel movies, but it doesn't work in real life. The problem it solves them was very clear, you do not

think about it, they never knocked down a slum 365 aisles around the Kaaba, at least one of them, at least once now, I'm sure one of the Muslims, I always thought about did none of the most of at some point, just get fed up and just kick any one of these snom and have just, no, they didn't. They didn't, because there was a clear ruling. You don't you don't do that. You don't do that. I think in my opinion, this is a level of political and social awareness that the Prophet alayhi salatu salam had, and that the deen is based upon, and that the Sahaba were able to restrain themselves according to that we should all learn from we should all learn from from as Muslims, because they knew exactly

how, again, maturity,

maturity, right. When your lack of maturity, you behave based on emotions, you get upset so you go do you lash out, you do something, you lash out, you do something you harm yourself and your harm everyone around you. And now the Muslims will be looked at as what?

What do you mean people who are breaking things again, that's what they'll be seen as? That's why they never bought, and I'm going to prove to you that it's more than just what I told you. No, no, it's getting really bad. It's gonna get really bad and points we're going to talk about, what about now is now not a good time that they fight back. What about now? What about the deaths and the killings and in people being removed from their homes? No, they didn't. Not until they had their own state. Not until it was a country with an army. Or else you start a civil war. And it turns into gangs and it turns into a blood tool and, and Islam loses any form of it doesn't have the ethicality

of his time is lost and you can't perform Dawa anymore. So the number one rule was no violence. The second one, I'll end with that and show him your cahoots. Everyone was responsible, everybody. We are all equally responsible for Islam.

I was not designated by any superior force to sit here and talk to you about anything. I have no more ownership on Islam than any other human being on the planet. I have no special connections. There's nothing there's nothing unique about any imam who sits in these positions or stands on remember, we are all equally responsible for Islam. The only reason we sit here is that he's talking about law here you have good assumptions that maybe I know a few things you don't. So I'm just sharing them with you out of love and out of togetherness. But there's nothing else more than that. That's all this is. We are all equally responsible that I'm going to talk about that next week a

little bit. But that was so crucial to so how I didn't feel oh, this is Mohammed sauce and he'll take it no, they felt ownership is done was theirs is done was their faith was their religion was Derek cause they lived for it. Yes. He taught him how to use AutoSum because he was the chosen one by Allah to actually bring revelation, but they felt responsible for every aspect of Islam was and they behaved as such. Well, why else did the robot gonna go and bring an eighth one the first day? Why also the Sahaba because they felt that they felt that they were a part of things and you have to feel the same way to Islam is your faith is your cause it's your religion. It's not the shifts. It's

not the guidance of the people in the midst. No, no, no, no, no, no, it's not. It's not I know it's not. It doesn't exist that way. Maybe other faiths have some doesn't exist in Islam. And some we're all equally responsible for it. And if you understand that, and if you're able to, to internalize that things change, the communities change when we start actually comprehending that idea. I'll end with that. Inshallah. Tada. We'll talk about the demographics of the first maybe 50 Muslims inshallah to Allah next week. We'll start with the hooter if you miss my god hunting, Shinola Illa, Illa untestable people to break most of Allahu wa Salam o bargain, said Muhammad, always mine