Adnan Rajeh – Towards a Modern Awakening #03 – Networking and Mentorship
AI: Summary ©
The importance of networking and mentorship in modern times is highlighted, particularly in regards to modernized issues like women and women Drive. The Prophet's movement has led to " brokerage," and people are working together to live in a culture. Networking and entrepreneurship are essential for achieving success, and skill sets and financial and social skills are crucial for managing money and social environments. Networking and finding ways to improve one's life, particularly in society, are also crucial. The importance of finding ways to connect with others and finding mentorship is emphasized, particularly for those who have children.
AI: Summary ©
As-salāmu alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh, Bismillāhir
-Rahmānir-Rahīm, wa-l-ḥamdu li-Llāhi Rabbi
l-'ālamīn, Allāhumma ṣalli wa-sallim wa-bārak ʿalá
nabiyyinā wa-ḥabībinā Muḥammadin wa-ʿalá ālihi wa
-ṣaḥbihi ajma'īn wa-baʿd, Allāhumma ʿallimna mā
yunfaʿūnā wa-nfaʿnā bi-mā ʿallamtana wa-zidna
ʿilmā wa-baʿd.
Welcome to the seven-episode series of Towards
a Modern Awakening.
This is episode number three, and I'll be
talking about networking and mentorship.
And maybe when you look at the title
and see those two words, you're wondering what
exactly can be said about these two topics,
and why are they of any importance at
all.
And I hope today, inshallah, through the discussion,
to actually be able to convince those who
are listening of the importance of these two
issues, and how little we are spending time
thinking about them and investing in them.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says
in the Qur'an, يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا
خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُم شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلٍ O
human beings, we indeed have created you from
a male and a female, and we have
made you tribes and nations and races, شُعُوبًا
وَقَبَائِلٍ These are words in the Arabic language
that have multiple meanings, and it's referring to
the fact that the human race, have so
many lineages and heritages, and live in different
parts of the world, and have different cultures,
and have different backgrounds, and different races, and
they even look differently, they have different tongues,
and they speak differently.
But why did He do all that, Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la?
The ayah says, لِتَعَارَفُوا So that you may
get to know one another, so you may
be introduced to different cultures, and to different
societies, and to different backgrounds.
لِتَعَارَفُوا If you look at Surah Al-Imran,
He says, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا And hold
all of you together to the rope of
Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
The word حبل means rope.
It's a figure of speech, meaning, anything that
will connect you to Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la.
So it's the way of Allah, Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la, the teachings of Allah,
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا Do not divide amongst yourselves.
وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنْتُمْ أَعْدَاءً Remember
the blessing of Allah, the bounty of Allah
upon you, as once you were enemies.
فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ When you brought your hearts
together.
فَأَصْبَحْتُمْ بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا And then through His bounty,
you all became brothers.
He says, صلى الله عليه وآله وصحبه وسلم
مَثَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ مَثَلُ
الْجَسَدِ الْوَاحِدِ The example of the believers, is
like the example of, the example of the
believers in the way that they are compassionate
towards one another.
In the way they show mercy towards one
another.
In the way that they are kind to
one another, is like the example of one
body.
He says, صلى الله عليه وآله وصحبه وسلم
أَيُّ الْإِسْلَامِ أَفْضَلُ Which is the best aspect
of Islam, or the best practice of Islam.
قَالَ أَن تُطَعِمَ الطَّعَامِ For you to feed
those who are in need.
وَأَن تُلْقِيَ السَّلَامَ عَلَى مَنْ عَرَفْتَ وَمَنْ لَمْ
تَعْرِفَ And for you to give salam, to
give greetings, to those whom you know, and
to those whom you don't know.
A part of our Deen, a central part
of our Islam, الصلة الرحم, is to strengthen
the relationships of kinship within families.
To continue to visit your relatives, and not
to allow a gap to exist between you
and those who you are related to.
In my opinion, one of the most understudied
parts of the Prophet ﷺ's life in seerah,
is something he did that is called المؤاخه.
This experiment that the Prophet ﷺ was able
to pull off and make successful, is something
that is extremely interesting.
I can't imagine, it is so difficult for
it to have happened because of all the
contributing factors towards it, and I'll explain what
I mean.
You see, the Prophet ﷺ moved from Mecca
to Medina.
It may seem to us that these are
in the same country, same people.
But back then, that wasn't the case.
You see, in Mecca, the people of Mecca
were Qurashi.
They had a lineage that took them back
to Ismail ibn Ibrahim ﷺ.
The people of Medina were not.
Their lineage was very different.
They were not Adnaniyyin.
They didn't come from that same background.
They didn't, from a genealogical perspective, they didn't
really meet with the people of Mecca, up
till Nuh ﷺ.
Because their genealogy takes them back to Hud
ﷺ.
They're not all the sons and daughters of
Ibrahim.
Which means they had a lot of different
habits.
Their culture was different.
The way they spoke Arabic was different.
The people of Mecca, they were businessmen.
The people of Medina, they were farmers.
They were just so different in every way.
That when the Prophet ﷺ actually introduced the
idea of Mu'akha, of bringing the people
of Mecca to Medina, to Yathrib, and to
have them not only live there, but to
live inside the homes of the Ansar, of
the people of Medina, all of Arabia was
talking about this.
Everyone in Arabia thought this was extremely interesting.
How is it that someone from Mecca is
going to come and live in the house
of someone from Medina?
Is that possible?
And some, there are narrations that some people
came and visited Medina wanting to see, did
this actually happen?
Is there actually a man, Abd al-Humar
ibn Awf, the Quraysh, actually living in the
house of Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' al-Khazraji?
Is that possible?
But it did happen.
And it's an example of ukhuwa, of brotherhood,
that we don't have any, it's unparalleled historically.
And the concept of al-ukhuwa, of brotherhood,
of us working together, of being together, of
feeling each other's pain and working with one
another and sacrificing what we have for our
counterparts.
He says, subhanahu wa ta'ala in the
Qur'an regarding this mu'akha, what the
Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam was able to do
in Medina, he says وَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِهِمْ And
he brought the hearts of the people of
Mecca and the people of Medina together.
لَوْ أَنفَقَتَ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا مَّا أَلَّفْتَ
بَيْنَ قُلُوبِهِمْ You could spend as much money
as you want to try and do this,
you could not achieve it with money.
وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ أَلَّفَ بَيْنَهُمْ But it's the love
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that was
able to bring them together, to live together.
Now you may still not be at all
from this experiment, but let me give you
the alternative, what could have happened.
The Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam brings the people
of Mecca to Medina and they take a
piece of land in Medina and they build
homes there and they make their own neighbourhood
and they live there in isolation from the
rest of Medina.
They have their own neighbourhood and they isolate.
And now we have two societies in Medina,
both Muslim but different.
These are the Quraishi Muslims from Mecca, these
are the Quraishi Muslims from Medina these are
the non-Quraishi Muslims from Medina and they
live separated.
What would that have caused?
What would have happened to the concept of
brotherhood?
What would have happened to networking?
For people to know one another and to
get to know one another and to live
with one another and to deal with one
another.
The Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam refused that.
No, no, we're going to integrate.
You're going to come in and then the
people of Mecca are going to get to
know the people of Medina.
And there's going to be brotherhood and there's
going to be closeness.
It was not a smooth sail.
It wasn't easy.
This is not some quick fix, it's not
a magical potion.
There were a lot of problems that came
from it.
You say, well if we separated then these
problems would have happened.
It wouldn't have happened.
True!
But then a lot of khair would have
been lost.
It's the khair that we're losing today because
we don't have networking, because we don't network.
We don't know one another.
The Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam taught us through
this example through this very important example that
stems in the Quran that we need to
bring people together and then deal with the
difficulties that come with that.
It's okay.
It's not easy when people come together from
different backgrounds but it's much more valuable for
communities when we do so.
Mentorship is similar to networking.
It's a bit different but it's very similar.
And they work together.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran
talks about mentorship.
In the surah that Imam al-Shafi'i
says about, he says that this surah if
nothing else in the Quran was revealed but
this surah would have been enough.
If none of the Quran made its way
to us but this surah did, we would
have been able to find our way.
That's his opinion.
And of course you probably know by now
surah al-Asr.
He says subhanahu wa ta'ala ...
I swear by time that the human being
is in continuous loss.
In a state of continuous loss.
Of what?
Of time.
Obviously because that's how the Quran works.
When he takes an oath by something, subhanahu
wa ta'ala is very much attached and
affiliated with what's going to be talked about
later in the surah.
We're in continuous loss of time.
Not all of us though.
...
Those who believe and fulfill the purpose Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala created them to fulfill
through doing righteous deeds.
...
...
...
And they continuously offer each other advice on
what's worth living for.
...
And what's worth persevering for.
...
...
It's not a one way road.
...
is to give advice.
...
is to give and accept advice.
It's going to be a two way road.
You're going to give advice and you're going
to accept advice.
And that's how we win time that's how
we don't lose time because I learn from
your experience and you learn from my experience
I save you some time by telling you
how to do something that I tried to
do and fail the number of times and
you do the same for me and that's
how we grow we don't lose time fathers
and mothers they hate it when their children
make the same mistakes that they made you
don't tell your child that that's why you're
so upset you don't want them to know
that you made the same mistake most of
the time but that's why you're so upset
with them when they're making these mistakes because
in your heart like I've already done this
it doesn't work it doesn't work listen to
me take my experience because I know I've
done it before walk down this path it's
better I've tried the Prophet alayhisalaatu wasalaam when
it came to mentorship then not only did
he practice it but he had it practiced
upon him alayhisalaatu wasalaam was mentored throughout his
life he was mentored obviously by Jibreel alayhisalaam
he was mentored by his wife Khadija he
was mentored by but most importantly Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala made sure he ensured that the
Prophet alayhisalaatu wasalaam was going to be mentored
through his life by the true mentors the
Anbiya alayhimusalaatu wasalaam well how is that the
night of Al-Mi'raj the night when
the Prophet alayhisalaatu wasalaam ascended to the sevens
and made his way to the seventh sky
and spoke to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and
brought us prayer before all that happened on
the way up he would stop in each
sky and he would meet one of the
Prophets we unfortunately we don't have a lot
of details of what they talked about but
I would have loved to be able to
listen in when the Prophet alayhisalaatu wasalaam spoke
to Adam in the first sky and wondering
what he would what he would ask him
what he would what they would talk about
he would keep on going alayhisalaatu wasalaam we'd
meet Isa and Yahya and he would meet
Yusuf and he would meet Idrees and he
would meet Haroon and he'd meet Musa and
he would meet Ibrahim Ibrahim who he was
told in the Quran to follow he's your
leader it tabi' millat Ibrahima Hanifa I can
only imagine every time he said and I
did a series about this a number of
years ago every time he went to one
of those skies and he met one of
those prophets I imagined what would they talk
about what would what would the questions the
Prophet alayhisalaatu wasalaam have for them and how
they would answer and explain to him and
tell him we did this before we tried
that and Musa alayhisalaam in this story actually
mentors the Prophet alayhisalaam physically he tells he
on the way back the Prophet alayhisalaam bringing
with him the number of prayers 50 prayers
at the beginning and Musa was like no
I've tried before you go back and ask
for less and he keeps on sending the
Prophet alayhisalaam back until there's only five prayers
and Musa wanted to send him back yet
again but the Prophet alayhisalaam said no the
Prophet alayhisalaam got to meet his mentors and
speak to them in the Quran Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala tells us about a mistake
that Bani Israel made وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا يُحَرِّفُونَ
الْكَلِمَ عَمَّ وَاضِعِهِ وَيَقُولُونَ سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا وَاسْمَعْ غَيْرَ
مُسْمَعٍ وَرَاعِنَا what they said with the mistake
that Bani Israel said is what they told
their prophets and their leaders and their teachers
سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا we heard but we don't like
it we're not gonna obey وَاسْمَعْ غَيْرَ مُسْمَعٍ
and you need to listen to what we
have to say even though we are going
to refuse to listen to you وَرَاعِنَا and
we need you to lessen the amount of
orders make this easier for us make whatever
you're teaching suit us because we don't like
it لَيَّمْ بِأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ وَطَعْنَمْ فِي الدِّينِ they're playing
around with words and they're making accusations against
the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and the teachings of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala which is a mistake وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ قَالُونَ
if they had said the opposite what's the
opposite this is what we're taught they were
supposed to say سَمِعْنَا وَآطَعْنَا وَاسْمَعْ وَانظُرْنَا they
were supposed to say سَمِعْنَا وَآطَعْنَا we've heard
what you've taught and we've accepted it if
this is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's word
we accept it fully we accept it in
completion we have no exceptions we accept we
heard you and we accept you وَاسْمَعْ and
we're supposed to say وَاسْمَعْ to whom?
to the people who are teaching us we're
supposed to say وَاسْمَعْ and now listen to
us listen to me I have some concerns
I have questions I have issues I have
intellectual challenges I'm unsure about certain things I
have an opinion about something this is supposed
to be a two-way road relationship between
people who are teaching and people who are
being taught which is what mentorship is it's
supposed to be a two-way road you're
taught if this is the word of Allah
you say I hear and I understand and
I accept but I need you to listen
to me وَانظُرْنَا and then give me time
so that I can learn to practice this
properly وَانظُرْنَا means give me time I need
time to learn to practice this properly which
is what mentorship actually turns into what is
our problem today?
our problem today is that we do not
invest in people anymore we don't invest in
human beings we invest in a lot of
other things we invest in places we invest
in possessions and in materialistic things we don't
invest in people Islam is very big on
investing in human beings that is how you
turn regurgitating information back to someone into Tarbiyah
if you actually want to achieve Tarbiyah where
people are raised where they actually change where
you're able to transform the way they behave
then you need to invest in people you
have to look at the Prophet's example as
he took interest in human beings around him
he knew the names of the Sahaba, all
of them to him the Sahaba weren't just
a mesh of human beings who were following
him he didn't treat them like a herd
he knew them individually he performed da'wah
for them individually he listened to their problems
individually of course for him, alayhi salatu wasalam,
it was much more difficult I'm not saying
that you have to know everybody but there
has to be some personal interest in others
the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam would see Mu
'adh he would call Mu'adh, ta'ala
ya Mu'adh, irkab khalfi he would call
Mu'adh ibn Jabal and sit him behind
him on his donkey and they would go
for hours and the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam
would tell Mu'adh, I love you ya
Mu'adh and Mu'adh would sit there,
wa'ana uhibbuka ya Rasool Allah and I
love you back and then the Prophet alayhi
salatu wasalam would ask him tell me what
you know of poetry and then he would
teach him some of fiqh mentoring him and
preparing him to later on be one of
the most knowledgeable Sahaba to live after him
alayhi salatu wasalam he would mentor Ibn Abbas,
take him with him sit him in gatherings
where he was so young that people would
frown upon his existence and tell him to
leave and the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam would
tell him, no you stay and if someone
is giving water, they want to skip the
young boy the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam said,
no give him treat him like an adult
that's how we teach our younger generations, our
youth to behave like adults, we treat them
more like adults and then we tweak their
behavior slowly as we go along the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam was sitting with al-Fadl
ibn Abbas behind him on his horse and
a young lady is asking a question and
al-Fadl is staring in a way he
shouldn't be doing so the Prophet alayhi salatu
wasalam looks back at al-Fadl and he
moves his head towards him meaning he takes
al-Fadl's face and has al-Fadl look
at the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam and he
smiles at his face and al-Fadl understands
immediately the mistake he made so he shies
away, he doesn't stare anymore Tarbiyah, we're actually
doing Tarbiyah we're actually teaching Abdullah ibn Wahab,
one of the known scholars of Egypt said,
I learned from my teacher Imam Malik ibn
Anas the great Imam, owner of the Madhhab
al-Maliki said, I spent with him 20
years I learned all his knowledge in one
year and then I spent 19 years learning
from him manners learning from him how to
behave and he said, if I spent وَلَوْ
قَضَيْتُهَا كُلَّهَا فِي الْأَدَبِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لِينَ if
I spent all 20 years just learning manners
from him it would have been better for
me and this takes us to the concept
of having idols having Quduwat having examples within
our communities we have a crisis when it
comes to Quduwat you turn on the TV
and there's all these programs the Arab idol,
whatever idol the word idol here of course
means as an example and when you look
at them, what type of example are they?
when our youth are looking up to people,
who are they looking up to?
they're looking up to what type of individuals
are they trying to emulate and be like?
are they individuals that are actually worth their
time?
whether they may be artists or athletes are
these really people that our youth should be
looking up to?
what happened to the Muslim idols?
the Prophet ﷺ taught through example he taught
through example if you were hungry, he was
hungrier than you if you were tired, he
was much more tired than you he didn't
teach you by telling you what to do
he taught ﷺ by doing it in front
of you and living it and then you
saw and you felt that you were falling
behind because you weren't keeping up to his
example ﷺ that is how he taught that
is what he did ﷺ that is how
Islam came to us the way I learned
Islam is something called mulazama mulazama is you
go and you stay by a scholar you
live with that scholar for a week only
going home for sleep and sometimes even sleeping
at their house so you can observe the
way they behave during the night and how
they do qiyam and that's how we actually
learn Islam you learn doing that for one
week more than you learn four years of
academic studies at a university because there's that
human touch that closeness that we're missing today
that we desperately need to bring this back
I believe that if we can fix the
problem of networking and mentorship in our societies
then a lot of the other problems that
we have will slowly start to dissolve and
go away because it's actually that powerful another
problem that we seem to have is skill
sets there's a lot of information being given
like what I'm doing right now I'm just
giving information but are you actually walking away
from any of these halaqat with more skills?
unfortunately you're not and we're not oriented to
do it that way and that's why a
lot of our youth they're growing up with
and they're lacking social skills and lacking financial
skills and lacking political skills and lacking religious
skills and lacking personal skills being able to
manage money being able to manage time being
able to present themselves amongst others to fit
in with groups that are different than them
there's a known saying from where I come
from علم المجالس قبل علم المدارس you learn
how to carry yourself amongst your society in
social gatherings before you go and learn what
they teach you at school and that only
happens if we train that only happens if
there's closeness if there's one-on-one coaching
if we're spending time if we're investing in
people the concept of jama'ah in Islam
is so central it's so central which is
why this Ramadan is so difficult because we
don't have that closeness of jama'ah which
is why we have to figure out ways
so that we can interact with one another
a lot of what we're doing here is
you're watching an imam give a talk or
pray taraweeh or give juma'ah but there's
lack of interacting not just with the imam
but with other people within your society and
we need to find ways to solve that
because jama'ah is so important in our
deen and the concept of jama'ah goes
to the step where I don't need necessarily
to feel strongly about whatever you're working on
no, I don't have to but if you
and I are part of a jama'ah
and we are like-minded and I know
that what you're doing is serving the community
then I will fully support you even if
I don't have the time to actually help
you out and work for you moral support
and financial support and social support allows people
to achieve a lot and that's something again
today that we have to bring that back
again you have no idea the number of
times that I think of an initiative and
then figure out that the person that I'm
talking to about this initiative has been working
on that initiative for the last two years
I just didn't know and it's so embarrassing
when that happens when you figure out there
are people who are actually already doing that
in your society it's just because we don't
have good networking skills because we don't know
one another we have to start introducing ourselves
to each other people have to start getting
to know one another when you go and
pray in the masjid I want to ask
you a question when you go and pray
in the masjid and you've been going to
this masjid for example for years I want
you to look around at the people that
are praying there inshallah when this is all
over and ask yourself how many of these
people do you actually know?
do you know all of them?
do you know half of them?
or do you just know whoever is in
your bubble?
and the rest you know their faces but
you don't know their names you don't know
what they do for a living he says
subhanahu wa ta'ala لِيَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُكُم بَعْضًا سُخْرِيَّ
meaning he's made life the way it is
some people rich some people poor some people
strong some people weak different backgrounds why?
so that you may benefit from one another
سُخْرِيَّ here doesn't mean mockery it means usage
make use of one another I mean if
we actually properly networked in our societies and
took time to get to know one another
first of all a lot of the problems
that we have and the animosities and the
bad feelings would go away because it's difficult
to hate upon someone you know and it's
easy to have bad assumptions and bad feelings
towards people you don't know it's just human
nature if you were able to actually network
a lot of the needs in our society
would be solved because you would start seeing
people who are like-minded who have similar
visions of certain services that need to be
done they'll start coming together because we're networking
because one person is getting to know the
other introducing to the other person and as
we build this beautiful network within our society
and people start to figure out well I
have interest in this issue and well the
brother that I just got to know today
also has interest so now you can work
together on actually achieving something that will have
benefit for community instead of both of you
working on it on your own wasting time
it's wasting time when we could have been
working on it together and achieving better results
every generation is responsible of taking care of
the generation behind that comes after them I
cannot emphasize this point enough the only reason
I sit here and speak is because countless
number of people who are older than me
took interest in me when I was younger
and they taught me and they mentored me
and they coached me and they took the
time to sit down and explain things to
me and that human touch that investment that
care that I received allowed me to grow
and it's my job to do the same
for people who are coming after me but
this is not a one man's job or
two or three or ten this is everybody's
contribution we all have to do it every
human being has something to offer you don't
have to know everything about yourself you have
to be a scholar to be able to
mentor someone who's younger than you you walked
ten steps ahead of them in life just
teach them what you learned on those ten
steps that they may not know and that's
mentorship watching out for them making sure that
they're functioning that they're focusing that if they're
struggling someone's there to listen to them to
hear them to support them to offer them
advice not to judge them if every twenty
year old or twenty five year old or
thirty year old had five or six younger
people whom they were mentoring then the society
the Muslim society in any city would look
very different than the way it looks today
and what does it take?
tell me really, what does it take?
a couple of hours of your week and
you feel good at the end of it
because you're communicating with people because you're caring
and being cared for and it's beautiful this
closes this jama'a this networking feeling this
mentorship feeling is beautiful and it's very productive
and you have to keep yourself in check
when you're mentoring someone and helping them out
you can't go out and make mistakes because
it doesn't look good so this actually works
for us as people who are going to
mentor because we have to be an example
because we teach by example introducing people to
one another mentoring each other this is how
Islam arrived to us when we look at
the Prophet peace be upon him would pair
people up pair Muadh ibn Jabal with Abu
Ubaid ibn al-Jarrahi would pair Abu Darda
with Salman al-Farisi would pair these people
up so that mentorship would happen and they
would learn from one another actually the concept
of mu'akha that I talked about was
built not just for networking but for mentorship
why?
well the Muslim in Medina how much of
Islam did he actually know?
well they've been Muslim for a year two
years the Prophet peace be upon him has
not lived with them yet so they know
a little bit about Islam but the Muslim
from Mecca has been with the Prophet peace
be upon him to wassalam for at least
10-13 years this Muslim coming from Mecca
knows a lot of the Quran knows a
lot of Islam so this person is going
to live in the Muslim from Medina's house
so the Muslim from Medina is offering the
house and the Muslim from Mecca is offering
the knowledge and they're mentoring one another and
this strengthens bonds if you're a parent and
you have teenagers you want to be able
to help them through their journey you want
to lessen the possibility of them losing focus
get them a mentor because sometimes and this
is common and you probably know this children
and youth are less likely to listen to
their parents' advice but are much more likely
to listen to other people's advice correct?
if you can get mentors for them then
you fix the problem as I said at
the end of each halaqah I want an
action plan this is probably the most important
action plan of the seven episode series we
need collectively on an individual level and on
a community level to contribute effectively to building
an Islamic network that is filled with people
who are well trained who are skilled professionals
who are forward thinkers we have to contribute
to building this network we have to go
out of our way to get to know
people to introduce ourselves to others and to
introduce people to others it's not easy it
takes time it brings problems but this is
how you strengthen a community we don't perform
outreach in our community very well do we?
it's the same people who watch this halaqah
that I'm giving today same people who pray
in the masaj it's the same 400-500
people who are involved there are 30,000
Muslims in this city many of them only
show up to Jummah sometimes not even to
Jummah many of them only show up to
Taraweeh which is a loss because we don't
have Taraweeh this year some of them only
show up for Eid which is another loss
they're not going to be able to engage
in any Islamic activities this year because there's
no Eid and the rest of the year
they're not involved in anything do we not
have the ability to network to get to
know them to see what their needs are
to see how we can serve them to
mentor their youth many of these people they're
not good practicing Muslims but they would love
their children to be and if they can
get a mentor for these children bring them
closer to Allah bring them closer to the
Masajid they would want that but we don't
have those skills we don't even know each
other networking has to go beyond the Muslim
community to the larger human race community but
we're struggling with it within our own community
like I can't even we can't even get
networking done within a Muslim society in a
city how are we going to network with
people outside this is a very important action
plan that we have to engage in I
don't have the answer I don't know exactly
how this is going to happen I don't
know I come from a village I lived
in a village in Syria where half of
the people in that village carried my last
name networking was a piece of cake I
knew everybody and everyone knew me it was
not a problem three thousand people no problem
living in cities in North America it's a
different story I don't know exactly how we're
going to strengthen our networking skills so people
know one another so people are introduced to
one another so we have good social relationships
people who have businesses know that when you
invest in networking sessions that is extremely lucrative
you put a lot of money just to
build relationships just so you know someone within
your field that one day knowing them will
benefit you and they put money into it
because they know how well networking works so
we have to contribute to building a network
a Muslim network an Islamic network that is
filled with well trained skilled professionals who are
forward thinkers like minded who want to who
want to strengthen the Ummah and serve their
community and I want you to find a
mentor anyone who's achieved anything in life is
achieved because they had a mentor or a
coach and if they tell you that they
didn't they're lying if I tell you that
I didn't have people who mentored me I
did this I'm a liar I was mentored
by many people by my father by my
teachers at the universities that I went to
by the shuyukh that I spent time learning
from and my teachers in the Quran these
people mentored me for years allowing me to
become the person I am and it's not
that I'm not that great but that's how
we move forward in life and that's what
we all have to do find a mentor
no matter what age you're at find a
mentor and then find people to mentor find
someone who you can contribute positively to their
lives to help them to guide them to
be there for them to listen to them
to support them to give them the advice
of life that you have to offer and
if we can do this you will see
change I want you to start with family
members mentor younger family members there must be
some teenagers in your family bring them over
for some food chat with them get to
know them try to mentor them and find
a mentor for yourself and help build a
network today's halaqat is very personal to me
it's very important to me because I feel
like I was granted something in my life
that I can't seem to offer people and
I can see the lack of it affecting
everybody and I wish we could fix it
but I don't know how hopefully we can
walk out of this pandemic with some idea
with the right will and the right intention
to rectify that I hope that was beneficial
سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا
أنت أستغفرك وأتوب إليك وصلى الله وسلم سيدنا
محمد وعلى آله وصحبه جمعين السلام عليكم ورحمة
الله وبركاته Al Fatiha