Adnan Rajeh – Towards a Modern Awakening – Q&A Session
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of learning to improve understanding of Islam and the need for formal learning in London to achieve goals. They suggest resources for youth to build their understanding and find mentors and mentors within their practices. They also discuss the importance of networking events and creating a strong network for finding mentors. They stress the need for people to regain interest and trust in their work and find mentors within their community. They also discuss cultural rules and the importance of deep thinking and deep thinking in building values and building values.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, welcome everybody to the Q
&A session that we had promised we would
run, inshallah, post the seven episode series towards
the modern awakening.
There are a few questions that were posted
that brother Amr is going to post on
the comment section from other people so that
I can answer.
And if you have any questions yourself, just
post them at the comment section and I'll
be looking at that section as we go
along and answering inshallah the questions.
Or even if you have suggestions or concerns
or anything like that, I'm happy to engage
inshallah in discussion.
The first question I see is can you
provide a reading list, specifically the books you
mentioned a few days ago.
So I did, if you do go to
the last session, last post, you'll find that
there is a list of books and Amr
inshallah can post it here in the comments
as well.
For those who are interested, I don't really
have a good reading list in English, that's
not my, I didn't study Islam in English
unfortunately so it's hard for me to kind
of give guidance on what English books to
read.
The books that I gave in that section
are written in Arabic but many of them
may be translated and some of them may
be translated well also because they're quite famous
books.
As for putting books per topic, I would
have to, I think that's something worth doing.
I can definitely spend maybe a bit of
time compiling a list of books that I
think relate to the different topics that I
covered during the series that you can engage
in reading and allow you to get a
better idea of why I talked about them,
why I had a certain way of thought
going by them and maybe offer you some
clarity on the issue as well.
So inshallah I will do that, I'll put
together that list maybe in the next few
days and post it somewhere in the comments
as well for those who are interested inshallah.
I'm seeing here another bunch of, there's a
few questions here, let me see.
What is the basic and essential knowledge or
religious specifically for life in general and that
every Muslim must have?
Well, what is the basic knowledge that everyone
should have regarding Islam is a difficult question
to ask, to answer because first of all
it will be limiting.
I think there's no limit, I don't think
that we should look at the basic amount
of knowledge when we talk about it.
I think we should talk about the fact
there should be a basic amount of talab
ilm, of knowledge seeking, meaning you should seek
knowledge for a specific amount of time at
least in your life for a couple of
years with shuyukh informally and even look for
a formal setting whether it's a year or
a two year program because there's no amount
I think that we can talk about that
is measurable.
However I think if we must put something
down then what I would say is that
within each Islamic discipline you should read a
basic text.
You should be aware of the simple form
of that knowledge, you should read something simple
in it meaning in aqeedah and creed you
should read al-aqeedah al-tahawiyah for example
with a simple commentary which is the basic
of Islamic theology.
You should read a small book in fiqh,
it doesn't have to be a comprehensive fiqh
on the four madhhab, it could be just
one madhhab, study the basics of one madhhab
so you know how to practice your rituals
in a way that a known trusted scholar
has explained.
Understanding of course as a part of my
series that that doesn't mean that what other
people are doing is wrong and that you
need to be going around rectifying people's behaviors
which is really what I'm more interested in
within this series is making sure that your
perspective is clear because sometimes knowledge if it
comes, if you gain knowledge and you don't
have the right outlook to the world and
don't have the healthy perspective, knowledge can make
people or knowing more things, having more information
can actually make you a bit more closed
minded which is why I talked a lot
about perspectives and the concept of open mindedness
and understanding that Islam is quite wide in
the fact that there's room for different practices
within the limits of what it actually allows.
So I think if you look at each
discipline, so hadith, usool al fiqh, tafsir, you
study a simple text in each of these
disciplines, seerah, nabawiyah, and that's the least you
can have but I think you should, we
should all actually give ourselves a bare minimum
amount of talab ilm that we should put
effort in.
I think the voice is low, I don't
know if I need to start yelling.
The second question I have here is how
should we go about centralization within and among
our institutions?
Well centralization is a tricky concept.
I brought it up because I think it's
extremely important and I think it makes a
big difference in how populations function, meaning I
started my series by talking about leadership and
fellowship because I think it's essential in order
for us to actually make progress we need
a certain amount of leadership and fellowship to
exist within our communities and leadership is a
form of centralization, we just have to figure
out what exactly, what type of centralization we
actually want or need.
I think financial centralization is probably the most
feasible and that's my opinion on the matter.
I think socially either we are all living
in one area by the taqsir of Allah,
subhanAllah, we just end up living all in
one place so we already have social centralization
and that's not the case in London, I
don't think we can actually achieve that.
I think religious centralization is a bit difficult
as well, I think it'll take time, I
think we should be working towards it but
it may take more time.
I think financial is something that can be
done.
I think if we can get the people's
trust in our institutions and bring in professionals
from our community who people also trust and
put together the concept of a fund that
can take the maal of zakah and general
donations and distribute it amongst those who are
in need of it whether inside the city
or outside and meet the needs of our
community, that would be something that would definitely
be worth our while.
But it's a difficult question to ask.
I'm going to go to some other questions,
this one, Mashallah, has six or seven or
eight questions put so I'll come back to
them Mashallah just to give everyone else a
chance.
Question, would you say the formal seeking of
Islamic knowledge is something missing in the City
of London versus Windsor or Toronto?
If not, what resources do you recommend?
If so, what solutions do we have?
Yeah, I don't think we have formal teaching
in London.
Well, it's not that I don't think, we
don't have formal teaching, it's not a matter
of opinion, it just doesn't exist right now,
which I think is of course a problem
because we definitely have resources here in the
city that would allow us to put together
formal knowledge seeking in the city for different
age groups and also different levels of learning
depending on where you are in your life.
And that is definitely something that can be
achieved, it's actually easier to achieve than most
of us think.
You just need enough people who are interested
in seeking knowledge and offering knowledge to come
together and to put a plan and to
start working towards it.
And I've worked on a few initiatives of
such and they haven't come to fruition yet
and there'll probably be a bit more time
for them to do so, but if that's
something you're interested in, then get in touch
and we can definitely start working on that.
Because I think we live at a time
where people like structured learning and they would
like to know that once they're finished doing
something, they get a certificate for it, which
allows them to kind of later on explain
it to others and teach it, and that
to me makes a lot of sense.
That's how informal Islamic teaching has existed for
many, many, many centuries.
Meaning there weren't universities maybe back in the
day that gave full certificates, but you had
ijazat.
An ijazat was a certificate saying that you
have learned this text to the point where
you are capable of teaching it to others.
And that's how they judged you.
Scholars judged your knowledge based on the fact,
can you teach this text?
We taught it to you, but can you
teach it?
Show us that you can teach it.
If you can teach it, then they certify
you can go and you can learn.
And that's what I did, Yani, growing up.
And I think that's something, we can put
together something that is similar to that.
And I know that there are formal settings
in different cities that exist and we can
copy, we can benefit from them, and we
can work on our own as well, Yani.
I think when it comes to these things,
every community has a specific needs and we
can probably figure out the needs of our
society if we just have enough people who
are willing to work on the details.
Stuff like this will need funding, it will
need people who are willing to be trained
to teach and willing later on to teach.
And we're going to need to put together
a curriculum and a program that allows students
in high school and in university to actually
enroll in it and benefit.
And the concept of actually getting credits in
high school, we can get high school credits
that are related to the Arabic language or
related to Islamic history or Islamic knowledge.
I think all that can be done, we
just need different people with different skillsets working
on the aspects of that to actually get
it done.
So I think it's doable, I think we
just have to have more people involved, inshallah.
Can I recommend resources for youth to start
building their knowledge?
Well, again, my issue is always the fact
that most youth here want to read whatever
they want to read, they want to read
it in English.
And I don't have a good understanding of
what's out there in English that's written well
because I didn't really study in English.
But I think what I did when I
was younger that really helped me, it wasn't
so much the reading, it was more the
listening.
I did a lot of listening when I
was younger and I took a lot of
notes.
Later on, the person who had put together
the series wrote a book that literally was
exactly what I had written down because I
just kind of copied what he was saying
or she was saying.
So I think it's about offering them, they
need to find a figure, an Islamic figure
who they enjoy listening to and then they
can follow along with the series that these
people put out.
And we have a large variety, a wide
variety of Muslim speakers here in the West
that are well-spoken, well-educated, quite intellectual,
and will cover topics that actually affect and
the youth are interested in.
And it just becomes kind of following along
with what they're saying and looking for the
series that they put forward.
Most scholars here in the West put together
the basic series.
They put a series on creed, on aqid,
on theology, put a series on seerah, put
a series on hadith.
You'll find them online and you can always
attach yourself to them.
In terms of books, I think I've been
asked this question so many times that it's
probably time that I take interest in that
and start looking to see what's really written
well in English and ask people who have
done that before me to recommend books and
maybe compile a list that people can relate
to.
And that'll be something I'll be working on,
I guess, in the next period.
Just because, subhanAllah, when you study it in
Arabic, it's just...
I don't know.
If I recommend the Arabic book, I'm not
sure it'll...
There's a nice book called Ayyuh al-Walid
for Imam al-Ghazali.
It's a very small book.
I remember when I was young, it was
one of the first books I was given
by my teachers to actually read.
It's called O, Child, or O, Son.
It's a bunch of pieces of advice that
Imam al-Ghazali gives people.
So it's a nice book to look into.
I don't know if it's translated, though, or
not, unfortunately.
I'll go back to one of the million
questions that this brother has put here.
Is mentorship something that should be either sought
or offered, or should there be some way
of matching youth with mentors and mentors with
youth?
There definitely should be a way that we
match.
We had put together an initiative a few
years ago called the Muslim Fellowship Network, and
it really never saw the light or hasn't
seen the light yet due to just a
lot of difficulties in actually organizing it.
I think that it's our job as a
community to actually set it up for people.
Meaning, I don't think that our youth should
be running out looking for mentors or those
who have the ability to offer mentorship in
a certain time of their lives to be
walking around searching for people to do it.
I think it's our job as a community,
as a Muslim community, as leadership, to actually
set that all up and organize it and
facilitate it and fund it and make it
feasible and easy for both parties to participate.
And that's something that I think that we
should work on within this next upcoming period,
because it's extremely important.
But in the meantime, if you are someone,
you should look for a mentor.
Meaning, you should go and ask people.
Mentors are usually people who are busy because
they have a lot going on in their
lives.
Obviously, you're going to be looking for a
mentor who is someone who is quite successful
in multiple disciplines of life, quite knowledgeable.
Usually people like that are quite busy.
But you should go and ask them to
mentor you.
And you'll be lucky if they say yes,
and you have to be okay if they
say no.
And especially my sisters.
I think it's important for younger sisters in
our community to do that and to seek
out mentors within their community from the practicing
Muslim women.
And the thing is that we have an
abundance of them.
And that's why I feel like we shouldn't
really struggle as much as we do with
keeping our girls and our sisters following the
practices of Islam.
Because we have so many role models that
they can attach to and affiliate themselves with
and associate with and listen to and benefit
from.
And parents can definitely contribute to that.
You should be looking for a mentor for
your kids.
You should help them find them.
Because you need help taking care of your
children as they get older and as they
become teenagers and they go into university.
You want another set of ears and eyes
helping your child or your son or your
daughter make it through the difficult times.
And make it through and navigate a world
that is changing every day, that is getting
more complex.
I mean, if you've been out of university
for six, seven years, ten years, you probably
have no idea what's happening anymore.
I haven't been out that long and I
have no idea what's happening anymore.
And that's just how it is.
Life is changing so rapidly that we need
people who are still on the inside, people
who are just fresh out, who can take
the knowledge and the experience that they picked
up and filter it back to the generation
that is coming after them to help them.
So yes, I think mentorship is something that
you should seek and the community should definitely
be working on organizing.
Oh, very good.
So there's a translation there.
That's the benefit of having these.
Do you believe it's important to have our
institutions invest in these things, academic otherwise beneficial
programs run by and mentored by Muslims community.
It's fine for them to remain focused on
what they do already.
So the question is.
Yeah.
So yeah, I think.
Well, when I remember when I came in
2013, even the Hifz and Halaqa programs weren't
there.
So I mean, usually that's what we start
with within a community.
We start with the simple stuff, having a
Halaqa, having a Hifz program, something where the
Quran is being taught.
But yeah, we definitely need something a bit
more attractive, especially academic, from an academic perspective.
I mean, there's so much more that can
be done that needs to be driven by
youth really.
It needs to be driven by those who
are in that age group or have just
left that age groups to know what is
actually attractive.
Again, when you depend on someone like me
to put together a program to attract people
within their teens, I don't know what is
attractive to people in their teens anymore.
I just don't.
I'm going to base my program on my
best assumption.
However, if it's driven by youth, it's suggested
by youth or people within that age group,
then it's definitely be much more beneficial because
they know what their peers would actually be
a part of and what they wouldn't.
And then my role would just be to
offer whatever guidance or material or content or
even just space or supervision that is needed.
And I think that's what the Muslim institutions
should be pushing towards more.
We don't have enough representation of youth within
our institution.
That's a definite.
We don't have enough.
You're not represented.
And it's partially the fault of institutions.
It's also the fault of families and youth
not coming and pushing for that.
I usually whenever I talk to university students
specifically, this is what I tell them.
I tell them, you are the most powerful
demographic in the world.
Whatever you think is right is eventually going
to be what is right.
Whatever you want is what needs to be
offered.
No one can actually beat this demographic.
The demographic of youth, especially university students, have
all the ammo.
They're just not using it.
Everyone is afraid of university students and youth
within a certain age group actually agreeing to
something and having an opinion that is unified
on any matter because that will force everybody
to comply and oblige them because nothing else
really matters.
I mean, this demographic is the demographic that
everything in the world is targeted towards serving
them.
But the problem is within that age group,
it's just the matter of life and just
how things work.
That age group doesn't really care that much.
They're young and life is full of surprises.
So they're just doing their thing and they
don't really care about their communities.
But if they do start to care and
they do start to wonder why their masajid
and their institutions aren't offering them solutions and
aren't offering them programs that they need and
aren't filling their gaps and not answering their
questions, then these institutions will have no choice
but to immediately fulfill that gap and offer
them what they want.
So it's a two-way road here.
Institutions aren't engaging them as much and aren't
really listening to what they have to say,
but on that same note, our youth have
to start demanding more of institutions and getting
more involved.
And you try and see.
You'll be surprised how weak these institutions are
whenever this demographic pushes for something or asks
for something.
At least that's my firm belief.
Not just Muslim institutions, governments, everything in the
world, they're always fearful of the unity of
opinion, of the demographic, of the youth, especially
university students and high school students and people
who are young professionals.
Because this demographic is the demographic that has
the passion, has the time, has the argument,
has the popularity to actually change anything and
make anything happen.
In comparison or opposition to old fat guys
who sit around and want things to happen
however they want it to happen because they
feel entitled.
So push for things and you'll see that
change will happen and I really do hope
that that happens.
I really hope that the masajids are flooded
with youth who are demanding change and asking
for more to be offered to them and
that would be the happiest day of my
life when I start actually serving those who
know what they want and whatever I have
to offer I can offer.
I know that other institutions have the same
intention as well but there is a lot
of politics and bureaucracies that kind of make
that more difficult that can be removed if
there's just more public demand for something.
So inshallah the series will be packaged meaning
inshallah brother Amr who is the magician behind
all of this live streaming content and material.
This will be put together inshallah.
It'll be edited within the week bithnillah ta
'ala and then hopefully we're hoping that during
the last week of Ramadan it's published again
on the Facebook page and on YouTube so
that it's put together as a full series
that people can access bithnillah ta'ala.
So yeah that is the intention.
I ran it live this year because I
had intended to run it this year live.
Oh yeah I was hoping people would exist
in the message at the time but I
was going to stop doing it and then
I thought well you know might as well.
We don't have good online following here in
London right now what maybe 30 people are
watching.
The reason that we don't have good online
following is we actually never invested as a
Muslim community in London in the social media
world.
We didn't really put any effort or time
into investing in that and I think this
whole pandemic really forced us to look at
a lot of it changed our perspectives on
a lot of things.
At least for me I've really you know
changed the way I view certain issues quite
heavily and I think it's worth investing in
the online world because people you know I'm
traditional in terms of how I like to
run halaqat any type form of halaqat whether
just they're public or they're focused in you
know ilm.
I run them.
I like people to come to the masjid
and specifically the masjid and then we run
it there and we get to be together
and I think what I have to accept
right now as a you know as someone
who's involved in this type of education and
dawah is that that's probably not going to
be feasible all the time.
That people actually don't always have the ability
to physically come to certain places and that
even though even those who want to learn
Islam academically they may not be able to
come and be present all the time so
we must offer things that online and find
a way to offer online that still preserves
their ability to interact, their ability to feel
that they're a part of the group and
I think you know we haven't really invested
much in that and it's probably time that
we do so.
So yes inshallah it'll be packaged and it'll
be you know fixed up inshallah.
Can you start your weekly halaqat virtually after
Ramadan?
Hopefully after if I can survive until the
end of Ramadan.
If I survive until the end of it
and I'm still you know functional at the
end of Ramadan inshallah and the masajid are
still closed and there's really no other options.
I mean we're not looking forward to allowing
anybody in the masajid then yes I will
probably restart most of the halaqat virtually.
It's really heartbreaking for me.
I feed on being with people.
You know I'm staring right now at a
Canon Vixia HFG 50 camera and Mr. Canon
here doesn't really have any facial expressions at
all for what I say.
So I have no idea whether he's enjoying
what I'm talking about or where he's bored
out of his mind.
He doesn't really interact that much.
He's quite rude that way and subhanallah when
you run halaqat you really it's really about
you know the togetherness that congregational feeling.
It means a lot to me and I
enjoy it and I like people you know
and I like people asking you know blurting
out questions and objections and it makes it
interesting.
The controversy makes it fun and you know
and we really come together and you know
it hurts me that I would run for
me to imagine running the Haseera halaqat for
example without people here is just devastating.
It's just a very difficult idea for me
to imagine.
I feel you know staring looking at the
eyes of the youth who are listening you
know is what really you know energizes you
know subhanallah and the scholars talked about that
by the way.
I'm not making this up.
Many scholars talked about that you know fact
that subhanallah the you know the the listeners
will feed the nur of the listener's eyes
will feed the heart of the speaker and
bring out the best of you know out
of them and that's something that you know
is quite wise.
But inshallah the plan is that if the
masajid don't open that we run them virtually
somehow inshallah.
What are the main issues you see with
leadership in our London institutions?
Oh well no I don't mind talking about
stuff like that.
Amber is asking me to shushing me because
I shouldn't be talking about this but no
I don't think it's a problem.
I think that we have a lot of
there's a lot of history in all cities
by the way and all around the world
between institutions a lot of history bad blood
you know bad experiences and just people who
don't get along and I think that what
we need to do actually first of all
our leadership institutions they have leadership these leadership
the leadership that they have these people don't
come from Mars they're a part of our
communities and if people can't seem to get
you know things done or don't get along
that we need to filter you know those
figures out and get in others who are
willing to work to be to you know
to cooperate more with others who have I
think what we're lacking really is vision is
vision that we can all come together on
we have we don't we don't we don't
really talk about the concept of visions we
need to know what is it that we're
trying to achieve for the next five years
in London on every domain possible in every
domain on every venue what exactly we're trying
to do from an educational perspective what are
we trying to do from a social perspective
what are we what are you trying to
achieve do we know what we want leadership
is supposed to offer vision and I think
it's that it's vision that that's that that's
missing or the visions that we have aren't
practical or and aren't comprehensive enough and they're
not covering the needs of community leadership has
to be has to have their ears to
the to the ground mean they're listening to
what people are talking about they have to
be working with with the public on a
daily basis figuring out what people are actually
needing and where they feel the gap exists
and where the void is and and that
is what I feel kind of there's this
discrepancy between you know what people want and
what leadership is saying that the vision needs
to look like and then the institutions just
don't get along very well and you know
this is getting better and in the last
two years I can I can and I
can vouch for the fact that you know
it's actually much better than it was before
but we're not nearly where we need to
be because this is you know I I
think everyone should focus on the place they
live I don't think we should be start
we should we start we should be talking
in terms of universal you know the umma
you know we care for the umma but
in order for us to fix the umma
we have to take care of where we
live we live in London forget about it
forget about all the other cities that are
around us London itself we have there's more
that we can do and we can actually
there's not too many of us we don't
have a lot of you know our institutions
aren't at war and we haven't really divided
our yet we still have a chance to
actually keep everyone connected and still work together
so um instead of you know that question
being what you think the problem is I
think the problem is that whoever asked the
question is not involved everyone needs to get
involved everyone should have memberships and the institutions
that we that we have everyone should be
you know questioning them asking them for vision
demanding and everyone work together and you'll see
institutions you know they they they exist to
serve the public and once that narrative becomes
powerful within the public they will oblige and
they will you know start you know offering
that but when there's lack of interest when
people you know lose trust or lose hope
and or faith in their institutions and they
don't care anymore that is really what causes
the problem you know that's really um what
what where I find the issue to uh
to be to be is that we just
for some reason we people have lacks lack
interest now and what I want to do
is I want I want people to regain
that trust again and regain interest again and
start talking and getting involved and that will
help or that will change how leadership uh
function Allah on him there are very nice
uh that people are putting for us and
his team they work uh extremely extremely hard
um okay I think there's one more did
I miss anything okay there's nothing new so
I'll go back to that brother's eight questions
I'll answer one more inshallah um how do
you think we should go about having a
stronger network in our wider community or networking
events networking and events are um are definitely
one of the more complex complex issues to
cover and to actually get done I I
don't have a good grasp on how it's
going to be done that's not my field
of expertise networking is definitely not what I
know how to do I don't know how
exactly how we can go by it but
I think the fact that we don't have
it is a problem and I know that
we have the potential to have networking events
and to bring people together I think it
starts by the institutions first of all coming
together and networking a bit more and people
getting to know one another and more discussions
happening amongst leadership figuring out what we want
and what we need and and if change
is is uh you know at the doorstep
then change needs to be needs to be
made and then it kind of filters out
it filters down to everyone else in the
community um you know the idea is this
that networking can be a community or a
public-based initiative uh if people are interested
in or people believe that this is something
that can make a difference I really do
think it will once you know people you're
less likely to have problems with them you're
less likely to have bad assumptions about them
you're more likely to support them when they
have initiatives themselves and it's just a matter
of you know figuring out uh you know
how to do that and and we did
have something called the Muslim Fellowship Network as
I said you know we're going to look
into seeing how we can launch that and
get more people you know who are who
are interested in this this type of work
involved in it and see if we can
launch something that is that is helpful bismillah
um what time is it now okay so
we're um six oh three all right so
I thought we would run for maybe half
an hour I don't think there's any new
questions um the questions that we have from
this but there's a lot of questions I
saw more and then if there's nothing new
we'll uh we'll we'll end it inshallah um
should we not more should we should we
not be more blatant during speeches and affirming
connection between dean and logic and discerning any
valid ideas conception practice and bigotry associated with
the dean that arose from culturalization okay um
yeah that's a big question should we be
you know making getting people to see the
connection between dean and um and logic or
rationale and proper methods of thinking definitely that's
been what I you know that's my my
firm belief that's what I've been working on
you know personally most of my life I
believe that we have the stronger idea not
because it's my idea it's because it's all
it's allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's revelation whatever
he says subhanahu wa ta'ala is going
to be the truth because he is the
truth and that means the idea that I
have not being mine has nothing to do
with me it's came from him so has
to be the stronger idea and I believe
whoever has the stronger idea is not afraid
from debates and arguments and logical and rational
disputes because because if you have the stronger
idea you will prevail at the end and
it's strong ideas that rule the world eventually
it's not you know it's not military power
it's not it's none of that it's whoever
has the strongest idea and I think if
we continue to cover our ideas with the
with a lot of cultural clutter and a
lot of I need traditions and a lot
of fear that people you know may ask
too many questions or we can't really talk
about this in detail because people may lose
their iman or they're not I think that
is the biggest you know crime that you
can you can you can commit as a
muslim and the quran talks about in the
latina the quran talks
about those who withhold knowledge or or try
to change narratives because they for whatever reason
it's it's it's always it's always harmful in
the long run you know explain things properly
inform people well you know offer knowledge that
is pure that is proper regardless of how
you know whether you what you fear of
regardless of whether you think people are going
to like it doesn't matter just explain things
properly and it will eventually work out and
I think because of the fear of that
a lot of uh you know we we
have been kind of suffering with with cultural
rule you know with cultural ruling the dean
instead of with culture ruling the dean instead
of islam ruling culture or islam getting the
last say on what is going to be
acceptable culturally what is not we have the
opposite happening we have culture getting the last
say on what is going to be acceptable
religiously or not meaning the religion will say
this is okay but then you'll say well
but culturally it's not acceptable in this place
yeah but I don't understand how is culture
ruling or the and then the opposite it
happens and it's uh you know the dean
doesn't accept this but well culture is okay
with it so you know we continue to
do it and that's where this has to
we have to change in that in that
in these regards and we have to change
quickly because uh you know youth are very
a lot the thing about youth is that
they're extremely logical they're very passionate they're very
logical if you show arguments that are flawed
a few times in a row they will
lose connection to whatever it is you're doing
and you know a lot of parents want
their kids to follow their culture but they
don't tell them it's culture they tell them
it's the dean and the cultures most of
the time don't make that much sense and
the dean always does and that causes discrepancy
for the youth because they're like well if
this is what the dean is saying it
makes no sense maybe the dean isn't all
that great as you're telling me but really
what they're being told is something that is
cultural and not really islamic and I think
that that you know the differentiation has to
happen and that's going to require parents educating
themselves on islam properly and accepting accepting that
a lot of their you know cultural all
of the cultural aspects of their lives aren't
as important as they think they are and
you know they have to choose their battles
and if they want to win over any
uh their children and have their children actually
follow islam that they have to you know
compromise certain certain topics okay um oh there's
one more um oh that's actually there's a
lack of interest within our youth you think
because the time the place we live in
we need to be using a different mentorship
program to serve our community uh could it
be that world foundation before it needs to
be changed elementary yes definitely uh those who
are going to mentor have to be uh
you know have to be uh realistic and
pragmatic i mean they have they have to
be a part of the popular culture they
have to understand how that works i i
don't think you know people in their 50s
are going to be you know mentoring people
in their you know teens that doesn't happen
um it rarely happens it you know does
but it's very rare what i'm thinking about
is more is is closer like when i
started teaching quran i was literally 15 years
old that was the day that i when
my sheikh uh you know had we had
finished i memorized when i was 13 i
was 15 i finished reading my first and
he's and he told me you know you
have to go and you know the you
know the the learning of the quran is
based on the fact that the moment you
learn it you go teach it so go
and start teaching so i was 15 i
was still grade nine i think or eight
grade nine so i go and i and
i put together in a room my brother
my two brothers and they each brought a
friend and there were four children and i
just sat down and i started you know
teaching them and then you know a week
later they my they brought another friend who
you know they told her this is fun
and cool and because i was young and
like them and i wasn't i wasn't this
old man with this and no hair i
was just a young guy so they you
know i gave them candy at the end
of the memorize and they liked it and
you know we did it in a room
in our house and they and after a
couple of days a couple of weeks there
was maybe 15 of them that were coming
and the room wasn't big enough so i
went to the masjid and i started there
and i before i left syria literally almost
every child within the village or every you
know was was enrolled in the program over
400 500 children in a village that only
had you know 2800 people to begin with
so things can grow like that if it
wasn't because i you know i was very
green very naive and i wasn't that knowledgeable
at 15 or 16 but i was young
and i knew a little bit more than
they did obviously they were you know grade
three and two and one and five and
so i had i had some advantage over
them in terms of life experience which was
something i was able to offer them and
i continue to mentor them throughout their lives
and i had people doing the same for
me when i was 15 i people in
their 20s were mentoring me and teaching me
and guiding me and telling me you know
what the my best options were going to
be and who i should go who are
the shoes i should go learn from and
what the university i should enroll in and
you know whenever i had a problem and
with a student or with someone i was
helping i would go to them and ask
for them and that's how it works so
it's more getting you know it's getting that
uh it's the demographic of the guys and
ladies in their 20s that i that i
can't seem to you know get them to
get on board with this i need people
in their 20s when you're in your 20s
you're you know you're just you're at that
perfect place like i wish i you know
i wish i just stayed 25 all my
life and just never never grew just stayed
there because it's a perfect time to be
you're you're you know you're physically at your
peak you're mentally at your peak you're you're
you're young you don't have as many you
know you don't have much to worry about
in life you don't you really haven't if
you started a family is still young family
if you haven't you still don't have much
you know so it's the perfect place for
you to take interest in others and start
helping out so if that's the uh that's
the demographic that that's the key demographic that
we need to engage that those university students
who have within their hands the power to
change any community they can do anything they
want really if they just put their mind
to it and they have the ability to
mentor the younger generation yeah if you know
if you bring the message to the message
of your your teenager to talk to me
you listen to me it's not going to
go that well you know no matter how
hip i try to i'm not hip anymore
like i'm not cool anymore i used to
be in my 20s i had a motorcycle
and put my long hair i look i
look i look much more i'm not anymore
and that's fine that's how life is you
move on in life you move from one
stage to the other it's just that that
this demographic the you know our brother and
sister in their 20s they have to start
working on you know getting this community on
its feet again from every from getting to
leadership positions from mentoring and then my job
is to help educate them and guide them
like they'll probably need to have proper islamic
knowledge a lot of them would go i
can mentor but i don't know much about
islam i'll take care of that i'll teach
you everything you need to know i don't
know much quran i can fix that as
well and i need uh advice on how
to deal with no not a problem that's
where we come in we come in to
offer that that extra advice so really if
you want to make a difference for your
you know for the younger generation you know
go after those 20 year olds and you
know the university students you know early professionals
and get them involved uh and ask them
to start you know working on uh you
know all it takes is just look for
someone younger than you to you know if
there are any 20 year olds listening to
me look for someone younger than you in
your family or in your vicinity to to
aid to support to mentor to teach to
educate to help um in their lives and
you'll see a huge difference in how all
this works so that's that's my two cents
on it um do you have any recommendations
how to how to operationalizing values any practical
tools oh yeah values are interesting things values
are this mix of of of of beliefs
and convictions uh that are embedded with deep
thought that have been positively reinforced by the
community and by your upbringing so it's actually
it's a complex process that we don't necessarily
understand in detail what you can do or
what you should do is you should engage
in deep thought to fuck or is a
very underrated act of worship in islam to
fuck or which is for you to take
time uh really thinking about about your life
and about you know bigger questions and issues
and and and the more you do that
the more you spend time doing that the
more you're building values and you don't even
know it your subconsciousness is is picking up
on this deep thought process that you're spending
on a certain issue and it's organizing what
it wants and what it's going to do
in specific scenarios or in given any situations
or circumstances so that's why the prophet alaihissalaatu
wasalam performed a lot of tafakkur that's why
the quran talks about tafakkur that's why all
scholars historically perform tafakkur all scholars hands down
had time where they would just sit and
they would perform tafakkur where they would just
you know sit in a place that is
relaxing where you have a you know nice
scenery and a cup of coffee i would
say ramadan or a cup of tea and
you just engage in thoughts where you're just
thinking people meditate today you don't need meditation
we have prayer and we have tafakkur we
have more than what we need in terms
of spirituality and tafakkur is is extremely important
and it makes a difference because it's how
you it's how we build values and then
another thing i can give you is that
after situations after circumstances after any given uh
encounter in your life pause and think about
it we don't do that as much because
we feel we're sometimes embarrassed by the way
we behaved or we weren't happy with it
so you want to delete it from our
minds quickly so we can move on no
don't move on go back and revisit why
is it that i spoke that way why
did i not respond you know the way
i think i should have responded what caused
this and then you you kind of backtrack
and you figure out what values you have
that caused you to suffer at that moment
or not be able to behave the way
you think you should have behaved whether you
were you know you felt you were too
weak too passive too aggressive too rude whatever
it is that you did that you thought
i didn't like how i behaved that then
backtrack and figure out what value you had
that you know produced that behavior and then
spend time thinking about it and spend time
figuring out what caused it what happened in
your you know in your within your your
your younger life and your upbringing and what
affected that and and that's how you change
values is through deep thought and through time
and uh spent uh reflecting on these on
these problems if i have suggestions or ideas
who would i contact um really you can
uh you can if you have any suggestions
for anything i mean for how we can
build you know our community make differences you
can contact you can contact me you can
contact any of the leadership and you can
email the institutions uh you know you can
uh you can come up to board members
you know look out for look we have
board members who are shabab or youth now
on almost every on every in every uh
institution in the city and come up to
them and you can talk to them about
uh about about what you want to say
and what you want to and you bring
forward and i think uh i believe the
the lmm still has their their youth council
i started that a few years ago i
believe it's still there and i think uh
i think it still has people on it
so you can always contact them i'm not
very i don't know to be honest time
is my is the bottom line for that
question i'm not sure but i'm i'm positive
that if you if you contact institutions you'll
figure you'll find something that you can talk
to and bring your forward your suggestions and
and if you want to work on something
which is what i think you know i'm
hoping that you know people will be more
interested in is what you want to work
on um which because ideas there's an abundance
of ideas people shoot me ideas day and
night i have my own set of ideas
as well so there's a lot of ideas
very few people willing to work on them
very few people who can uh you know
really champion an idea take it and and
move with it and work with it and
actually make it happen and get people interested
with them so that's kind of what we're
lacking and uh and even if the institutions
don't don't listen to you if you have
a good idea yeah i mean again you
you're you're you're you're young this is your
time uh whatever is whatever initiative you do
will will actually be much more beneficial and
much more uh effective than whatever others are
doing so just go for it even if
you have to do it outside the institutions
go ahead and do it but yeah i
think i think you'll find support inshallah um
so okay one more i think there's one
more new question i'll answer nothing else comes
we'll we'll end it uh what services do
you think we are lacking in our institutions
oh there's a lot of first of all
formal islamic education and informal islamic education what
i do in misogyny for example i give
public halaqat they're public halaqat they're just open
if you come today you'll benefit if you
don't come for another year and then come
the day after you'll also benefit it's just
it's open i try you know it's it's
what we need is something that's more structured
where you know you enroll in something and
at the end of it uh you know
you get a certificate you need to learn
so we need formal and informal islamic education
whether through halaqat or through an actual institution
that we run and that we fund and
that has its own entity and we're able
to actually certify people with degrees at the
end of it so i think that's an
extremely important one i think we lack in
mental health services i think uh you know
that we're at a it's extremely important that
that we take time to talk about mental
health um whether whether um the the narratives
that we have as muslims we need to
fix a lot of the narratives because we
don't seem to have the right narratives and
we need to offer support for uh for
families who have issues that relate to mental
health i think that's a that's a big
issue right there that we need to focus
on i think um we need to have
services that are directed towards immigrants our muslim
brothers and sisters who are coming from different
countries who don't have the language who don't
have prospect in terms of getting jobs and
actually service them prepare to integrate them into
our society help their kids and help the
wives and help the husbands actually figure out
what they're going to do and how they're
going to do it i think we need
to have academic uh services tutorship uh you
know tutoring uh youth and and career selection
and profession yeah i need choices and helping
people figure out what they're going to do
with their lives and and why they're going
to do it and help them guide their
their choices um yeah i mean i i
we put together a list of services that
are needed uh when we put together the
muslim fellowship network i i'm not going to
share all of them right now but uh
at the end i don't even think my
opinion matters when what services are needed i
don't think my opinion matters i think whoever
is on i think your opinion matters you
say what services are needed so that i
can i can provide it um i can
for me to sit down and say i
think this is what it needs is what
needed but i don't need any of these
things myself um i'm just trying to you
know brainstorm what i think others need but
if others just came and said this is
what we need then that would end the
discussion and then it would be upon myself
and people who are like me to provide
that service that's why involvement and interaction uh
from the larger public uh in abundance is
needed that's why we need to survey more
we need to get people more involved we
get people to care again and explain what
is that is needed so that we can
provide it instead of me yeah assuming what
is needed you know i'm shooting in the
dark here seeing is this what you need
no just come and say what you need
and let others also say with you and
we can put together things and programs and
services that actually meet these needs and um
and that's what i think is more important
okay i think we've finally come to the
point where we're finished with all the questions
uh the brother will put eight questions i'm
not going to answer all of them it's
going to take forever but i will answer
him inshallah um personally on on a different
uh a different forum inshallah okay for uh
tuning in uh we will be repackaging this
um this series soon to be uh you
know published and put out again i really
encourage people to uh to listen to it
to watch it um to give us feedback
on it and i'm going to inshallah record
an arabic translation of it and do it
in arabic as well and i think if
you know the topics that we discussed in
it are um you know are um you
know thought about revised revisited and studied that
we can actually do something inshallah that has
a lot of khair in it for our
our communities um ramadan kareem and inshallah subhanahu
wa ta'ala this uh these difficult times
pass and we emerge from them much uh
much more wise uh and and uh filled
with optimism ready to actually you know bring
bring change and into our communities again thank
you for listening