Ammar Alshukry – Advice to Minneapolis Youth Masjid Rawdah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, alhamdulillah wa
salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi wa sallimu alayhi wa sallimu ala
kathir wa ashadu an laa ilayhi wa laa
wahdahu wa laa sharika laahu wa ashadu anna
Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluh, wa salatu wa rabbuhu
wa salamu alayhi, amma ba'ad it's a
pleasure to be with you all in Minneapolis,
this is one of if not my favorite
Muslim community in the country alhamdulillah, it's always
a pleasure to come and be with you
all and to have Somali tea which is
basically sugar with a little bit of tea
in it, hope you guys are doing well
alhamdulillah and on behalf of all of New
York I'd like to thank you guys for
the trade for taking Julius Randall and giving
us cat, he wasn't doing anything over here
anyway was he?
So that being said my topic is navigating
modernity as a young person and I'll just
share with you a few points and I
want to hear from you as well because
I don't want to assume that I know
what it's like to be young right now
and what you're going through I'd like to
hear but that being said I'll share with
you a couple of constants that we learn
in the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam and even before that what we learn
in the Quran, I'll mention five or six
points, the first if I'm going to give
a young person any advice, who here is
in high school?
Who here is in high school?
Okay and who here is in university?
And who here is beyond that?
Okay so I remember when I was going
from high school to university I was 18
years old and my father alhamdulillah was driving
me to my campus I was going to
go to school out of state and it
was going to be my first time living
alone and so my father alhamdulillah is taking
this son of his 18 years old for
the first time now he's going to sink
or swim you know I'm going to send
him to the wolves so to speak and
he's either going to be anchored by everything
that I've taught him or he's going to
be swayed and so he was telling me
a story it was a four-hour car
drive and he said to me he said
imam al-shafi'i had a student who
used to attend his halaqa and then he
disappeared for a while and so when the
student came back the imam said to him
where did you go where have you been
and he said Egypt and he said well
how was, he said Misr not Masr but
he said how was Misr and he said
knowledge is in Egypt and so then he
had another student at one point in time
who disappeared for a while when he came
back he said where have you been he
said Misr, Egypt and he said well how
was Egypt and he said to him Egypt
is nothing but a party it's just it's
all frivolity it's just noise and so the
imam said to him Sadaq you've spoken the
truth and so you know you've always got
people who are like but what about you
said you said that knowledge is in Egypt
and now someone is saying the complete opposite
and you're saying that's the truth too how
do you say both of them spoke the
truth and he said both of them found
what they were looking for and so the
idea is if you go looking for trouble
you're going to find trouble in lots of
places and if you look for knowledge in
school if you look for opportunity if you
look for the expansion of your mind you're
going to find that too and that's probably
one of the most important lessons that I've
learned at that stage in my life which
is the importance of the decisions that you're
going to make that are going to affect
your destiny if you focus on one particular
thing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will grant
you Tawfiq and so what are some of
these things that I wanted to begin by
sharing as far as advices the first and
the most important is the Salah that Salah
that you've been told about since you were
six years old or seven years old five
years old maybe there will come a time
when it's just you and Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala there was a man I met
in the masjid one time and he told
me he said I tell my kids do
you want to know when y'all be
Muslim and his kids say to him what
do you mean we're already Muslim and he
says no y'all will be Muslim when
you pray without me or your mom telling
you to pray that's when y'all will
be Muslim if I only pray because my
mom says get up and pray my father
says get up and pray my brother says
get up and pray the teacher the sheikh
of the masjid says get up and pray
but when I am by myself my Salah
is shaky then who am I really submitting
to am I submitting to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala or am I submitting to the
will of my parents because the reality is
that those people are not going to be
with you every step of your life there's
going to be a time when you're separated
from them and so the question then becomes
who are you submitting to you are only
Muslim when you submit to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala I'm not talking about the theological
discussion I'm talking about the attitude the submission
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and so
he says I tell my kids y'all
will be Muslim when you submit to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala your Salah is because
of Allah it's not because of anybody else
and so that prayer is incredibly important and
one thing I want you to know is
that no matter what happens to in your
life do not give up the Salah don't
give it up Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says
Anas Ibn Malik says that there was a
young man from the Ansar who used to
pray Qiyamul Layl and during the night he
would go and he would steal sorry in
night he would pray Qiyamul Layl and during
the day he would go and steal and
so people used to come and complain to
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam this man is so
strange like he prays Qiyamul Layl and then
during the day he goes and he steals
and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said
his Salah is going to stop him from
what he is describing to you his Salah
is going to stop him from what you
are describing and so the man eventually he
repented and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he
said to Anas he said oh Anas didn't
I tell you that his Salah is going
to stop him from what you're describing there
are people who they veer off of whatever
path they're on for a period of time
but if they continue with the Salah and
they don't give that up the Salah becomes
an anchor it will bring that person back
and so whether it is you or whether
it is somebody that you know I want
you to be able to tell them this
and say if you're going out tonight pray
Isha before you leave pray Fajr when you
come back I don't care what you're doing
I don't care where you're going I don't
care where you're going to participate in Inna
Salata Tanha Anil Fahsha'i Wal Munkar Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says the
Salah protects from evil and it protects from
indecency and so hold on to this prayer
you know I've noticed in my life that
sometimes people will come to me and they
will be too embarrassed to pray and they
will say you please pray for me or
they say I'm too shy to pray to
Allah or to make Salah because I committed
this and I committed this and I committed
this and it's as if they think that
there is some level of righteousness that they're
supposed to reach that allows for them to
be deserving to pray to Allah none of
us deserve to pray to Allah there's no
person who becomes holy enough pure enough righteous
enough we're now okay I am someone who
deserves to pray to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la that doesn't work like that
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la allows
for us to pray to him Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la accepts our dua
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la accepts
our Ibadah not because of who we are
he accepts it completely totally because of who
he is it's about who he is not
about who you are otherwise Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la wouldn't accept from anyone
he wouldn't accept from any one of us
nobody the most righteous of the most righteous
nobody prays a prayer that Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la deserves and so the
idea here is that you should not let
shame of what you know of yourself stop
you from praying to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la because there is no level
of righteousness that you're ever going to reach
that makes you deserving of praying to Allah
anyway so you might as well pray and
not only that but how beautiful is it
that one of the duas that you are
taught to make when you enter into the
salah counteracts that exact notion if a person
feels too shy too embarrassed of my sins
to pray to Allah one of the duas
that you say when you enter into the
salah dua al istiftah is Allahumma ba'id
bayni wa bayn khatayai kama ba'adta bayn
al mashriq wal maghrib oh Allah distance me
from my sins those same sins that have
me ashamed right now oh Allah distance me
from my sins like you've distanced between the
east and the west Allahumma ghsilni min khatayai
he says Allahumma naqeeni min khatayai kama yunqa
thawbul abyadu min ad-danas oh Allah washing
of my sins like a white garment is
cleansed from filth oh Allah cleanse me of
my sins with snow and water and hail
you're asking Allah to be distanced from these
sins so the first thing is salah the
importance of salah the second thing that I
want you to appreciate as being young is
being young you know in America they'll say
a person's a kid the guy will be
six foot four two hundred forty pounds and
he's a kid he's a good kid in
Islam we don't have that in Islam you're
either a child before the age of puberty
or you're an adult Abdullah bin Umar at
13 years old 13 years old is trying
to enter into the Battle of Badr at
13 years old rather it's Uhud he's trying
to enter into the Battle of Uhud at
13 years old why because he's a man
now I'm not a child anymore I'm big
enough I can wrestle and so you are
either a prepubescent child or you are an
adult and if you're not a child then
you're an adult obviously in our culture now
we have all of these different stages they're
just a teenager until they graduate from being
a teenager and now they're an adult or
they're still considered to be a kid 25
year old kid 28 year old kid we
hear it in sports they'll be talking about
this is a great kid and the guy's
huge but you're responsible now and I want
you to pay attention to something Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala sends in every community he sends
prophets who are able to create the most
good what I mean by that is that
Musa alayhis salaam is not sent to the
house of anybody in Egypt he sent to
the house of whom?
Fir'aun.
Isa alayhis salaam is not from any family
in Bani Israel but he's from the family
of Imran.
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is not from
any tribe in Mecca or in Arabia he's
from what does that mean it means that
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala would always praise the
Prophets he would always place the Prophets in
places where they're able to create the most
change and so if Fir'aun accepts Islam
then all of Egypt accepts Islam and if
the family of or the rabbis of Bani
Israel accept Islam then all of Bani Israel
accepts Islam and if Quraish accepts Islam who
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was sent
to you see the difference Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam before the Fath of Mecca the
amount of people who had accepted Islam were
in the hundreds and then if Nasrullah or
a little bit over less than 2,000
you hear about Baitul Ridwan for example 1
,400 companions but they're in the early or
the the few thousands who had accepted Islam
but then after the conquest of Mecca when
Quraish accepts Islam in those last two years
more people had accepted Islam than the first
21 years combined either a job or a
tenacity at Huluna feed in Illahi of Waja
people enter into Islam in large groups after
Quraish accepts Islam what is my point my
point is is that the Muslim young person
who's growing up in the United States of
America is not like the one who's growing
up in Somalia it's not like the one
who's growing up in Bangladesh it's not like
the one who's growing up in Egypt it's
not like the one who's growing up in
the UK it's not like the one who's
going up anywhere you are in the belly
of the beast and I we are in
the world's superpower of our time we are
the ones who have more potential to create
change in that sense than anybody else and
so you can rise up to that responsibility
or you can squander that responsibility because there
are people all over the world who wish
that they could engage the American people they
wish that they could give that to the
American people Zaka look it thank you very
much is this is this event sponsored by
these guys or something it's like let me
just make sure the brand is on here
so the fact that you're here feel that
responsibility and wherever you see a vacuum in
society that's an opportunity for you to go
and fill it you know I tell people
this all the time but I don't know
if you have this feeling here but have
you ever felt like the older generation doesn't
really get what's happening they aren't connected to
the issues of the moment yes or no
am I speaking French yes or no okay
do you ever feel like if we were
given a little bit more responsibility if we
were given a little bit of a budget
if we were given a little bit of
authority for us to implement our ideas that
we'd be able to do a lot of
good yes or no so then the question
becomes why is it that almost every city
that you go to you find this feeling
young people saying the elders are not trusting
us with letting us run projects the elders
are not trusting us with this they're not
trusting us with the masajid we have so
many ideas we have so many different projects
that we can run the best answer that
I heard about this is from imam siraj
wahaj hadith Allah and he gave a beautiful
example he said you're basically asking for the
baton to be passed past the baton to
the next generation now if you've ever seen
a relay race the person who's running and
he's gonna pass the baton to that next
person that next person what are they doing
they're running if I'm sitting down and I'm
saying yo pass me the baton if he
comes to a full stop to pass you
the time you're gonna lose the race and
a lot of our community members a lot
of our elders they're feeling like that they're
like I'm running at full speed our community
is running at full speed if you're not
running if you're not doing anything if you're
not showing me something then if I pass
the baton to you we'll be back we'll
fall back five years we'll fall back ten
years and we can't afford to do that
so what do I need to be doing
I need to be running too and what
that means is that I need to be
launching projects in whatever capacity that I can
and let me show them that I know
what I'm doing let me show them that
I I cut my teeth on these projects
let me show them that I'm successful let
me show them some entrepreneurship let me show
them some brilliance let me show them a
angle that they never saw before let me
show them a service that they never imagined
we could actually offer to our community let
me show them grants that they never thought
that they could secure let me show them
different institutions or projects that they never thought
or they never believed in it's okay if
they don't believe in it the whole point
of being a visionary is that you see
something that other people don't if you expect
everybody to see your vision then you're not
gonna be a visionary you gotta have the
vision and then you gotta lead and then
when people see you leave then they're going
to trust you to pass the baton to
you but don't expect anybody to be able
to pass it to you while you're sitting
down and so feeling that responsibility Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala gave all of us different
talents different skill sets different potential in different
avenues and I'll share this with you this
is a very important hadith to know a
very important hadith to know Allah the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says in Sahih Muslim he
says he says focus on what benefits you
and what benefits you is different than what
benefits everybody else you have to have the
you have to have the confidence to recognize
what benefits you and to then to go
and seek what benefits you and what I
mean by that is even with regards to
the deen there are different things that benefit
different people there are some people who are
very benefited by seeking knowledge that's where they
find their spirituality they love reading books and
studying fiqh and memorizing they love these things
they enjoy it it gives them not only
does it give them spirituality but it's something
that they're good at Alhamdulillah and then there
are some people who they don't find spirituality
in it at all it's very difficult for
them some of them they love ibadah that's
what they love fasting for them is a
piece of cake and so they fast all
the time qiyamul layl is easy for them
so they pray they enjoy the salah there
are other people who they don't find their
spirituality in both of these things so they
do what's required of them they fulfill the
obligations but where they really find their iman
is in service to other people and so
you don't find them in the halaqat of
it but you find them in the distribution
of food you find them in the support
system you find them in services that people
are offering to different communities you find them
in homeless shelters you find them doing all
of these different activities you always find them
and every single one of them is upon
goodness and every single one of us is
required to focus on what benefits us if
Khalid ibn Walid tried to be a qari
of the Quran like Abdullah ibn Mas'ud
Khalid would not have succeeded and we wouldn't
have known who Khalid ibn Walid was and
if Abdullah ibn Mas'ud tried to be
a military general instead of being what he
was which was a reciter of the Quran
and a teacher of fiqh and a teacher
of tafsir then we wouldn't have known who
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud was Khalid was excellent
in his role that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
created for him and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud
was perfect in his role that Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala created him for a lot of
us spend a lot of energy trying to
be someone that we were never designed to
be I really like how this person does
that I'm gonna try to be like this
person I really so you have to ask
yourself the question the question that somebody asked
me once he said what's your unique superpower
what's your superpower and I have to figure
that out what is my superpower and every
single one of us has to figure that
out what is your unique talent or what
is your unique combination of talents because sometimes
it can be a combination of things what
are the things that you're interested in what
directions do you want to go so that's
number two which is the issue of responsibility
then really importantly is the issue of identity
identity and identity is so powerful you know
we're not the first muslim community to immigrant
to a to a non-muslim land we're
not the first muslim community to immigrate to
a non-muslim land and in fact Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala tells us a story of
one in the Quran Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
says am kuntum shuhadaa il hadhar Yaqub al
-mout were you witnesses when Yaqub was approached
by death Yaqub had migrated from the holy
land to Egypt with his children and when
Yaqub was dying he said to his children
what are you going to worship after me?
Qalu na'budu ilaha kawa ilaha abaika Ibrahim
wa Ismail wa Ishaq.
They said we are going to worship your
god and the god of your fathers Ibrahim
and Ismail and Ishaq we're going to worship
them Yaqub is dying and Yaqub you know
there are people who have very you know
people who have good lineage they're very proud
of their lineage do you guys like have
like people who are very proud of their
lineage in Somalia like it's like a big
deal I what do they say I'm from
this tribe and even within the tribe there's
like really and they get very serious about
it so the best lineage is guess what
what's the best lineage what did you say
Islam no even Ben Israel just in general
no the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was
asked who's got the best lineage because the
Arabs cared about that too who's got the
best lineage and he said Yusuf the son
of Yaqub the son of Ishaq the son
of Ibrahim that's the best lineage Al-Karim
Ibn Al-Karim Ibn Al-Karim Ibn Al
-Khalil the noble the son of the noble
the son of the noble the son of
the Khalil who's got a better lineage than
that none of us have a better lineage
than that I don't care what tribe you're
from right nobody has a better lineage than
that Yaqub has that lineage Yaqub is in
that chain and his son Yusuf is there
and when Yaqub is dying what is his
concern are you going to be you should
you guys going to be Somali after me
is that what he says did he say
are you going to be Sudanese after me
are you guys going to be Sudanese did
he say that no are you going to
be Palestinian after me no did he say
are you going to be Ben Israel after
me he didn't say that he said what
are you going to worship after me and
some of us and I know this isn't
you guys because you don't have kids yet
most of you at least but a lot
of our parents they kind of instilled that
in us that you are this is who
you are you are Somali you are this
you are that that's who you are it's
hard to be from a particular ethnicity when
you don't have the pillars of identity and
I'm going to explain what I mean the
idea of your identity so identity has a
number of pillars for you to have a
particular identity and I'll go through some of
these pillars with you the first pillar of
identity what do you think is the most
important aspect of a person's identity you tell
me what do you think okay principles so
your morality well where do you get your
morality from your your religion your aqidah so
very good so your aqidah becomes that first
pillar of identity where do you get your
sense of right and wrong from how do
you know that something is right how do
you know something is wrong huh no it's
your theology your belief your worldview okay so
I believe that the quran is the word
of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so
when I say that something is right or
something is wrong why do I believe that
alcohol drinking alcohol is wrong where did I
get that from a harvard study no I
get it from the quran I get it
from the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam right that's my theology that's where
I get my worldview of how I view
the world comes from this source that's the
most important element of identity where do you
get your sense of morality from is it
from the society around you so 15 years
ago something was okay or something was wrong
and then 15 years later because society accepts
it and now I accept it and then
20 years down the line something else switches
and so I accept it and I change
or is it something that's coming from something
that's more cemented than that and so the
first is your worldview where do you get
that from the second pillar of identity is
your history your history in minnesota do you
guys study about the california gold rush did
you guys study that in in high school
or middle school okay did you guys study
about the boston tea party did you study
about the alamo in texas remember the alamo
so my question is what about in canada
did you guys study um i don't know
anything that happened in canada to be honest
i have no zero historical facts that i
can tell you about canada and the reason
why we know about what happened in california
and we know about what happened in boston
and we know what happened in texas even
though we're not from these places is because
we were taught american history and the reason
why we were taught american history because history
becomes part of your identity and every country
wants its people to have a shared identity
and so for you to have a shared
identity you have to have a shared collective
memory which is history does that make sense
your history becomes what collects you all together
as one people what's my point my point
is is that if you do not know
your history then you can't have an identity
if you don't know your history you can't
have an identity and so i once in
san diego i met a somali student 24
years old he was doing his phd in
african history and i asked him i said
why are you doing a phd in african
history it's so random he said when i
was in high school when i was in
high school that's when the somali pirates were
all over the news this was around 2012
all over the news somali pirates and he
said i was in high school and you
know kids are kind of mean in high
school he said there was a a kid
who asked me he said why y'all
are still being pirates like 300 years later
like what are y'all doing somalis he
said the kid was teasing me and he
said to me what have somalis ever contributed
to humanity what do y'all ever contribute
to humanity y'all are like 300 years
late so he said the question itself was
very hurtful but do you know what hurt
me even more i didn't know the answer
he asked me point blank what have somalis
ever contributed to humanity and i had no
answer for him so he said that's that's
what sparked me to make my phd in
african history i want to know who i
am i want to know where i'm from
and you know this from history that when
slaves were brought from west africa they weren't
slaves when they were brought from west africa
but people were enslaved in west africa and
brought to the united states one of the
first things that they did was change their
last names why did they change their last
names because if this person knows somehow that
he's from a family of poets from he's
from a family of scholars that he's from
a family of merchants that he's from a
family of warriors he's from a family of
of of kings and princes and queens and
all of that if they know that there
is zero chance that i'm going to be
able to convince them that they're a slave
there's no way that i can make a
slave like that there's no way if they're
connected to their history that i'll be able
to convince them that they should be picking
cotton in georgia there's no way and so
i have to remove from them their last
names i have to make it illegal for
them to read and i have to remove
any semblance of their history i don't want
them to have an identity other than being
a slave why is this important there are
a lot of youth walking around who do
not have any sense of their history they
have no sense of their identity and so
they're trying to find value and they're trying
to find value in whatever is around them
your history gives you a sense of courage
it gives you a sense of inspiration it
gives you a sense of self-worth and
confidence i was walking in my village in
sudan years ago and i was walking down
the street with an eight-year-old boy
and it was night time and the electricity
was out and we started to hear a
dog barking and the dogs over there are
wild and so i said to the boy
i said are you scared we're walking in
the dark and you don't know how far
or close this dog is and he's barking
like viciously and i said to him are
you scared and he said to me my
grandfather killed a lion and i was like
yo we don't even have lions around here
where did you get this idea from maybe
100 years ago there were lions i don't
know how this stuff works but the fact
that he had a story in his mind
that made him proud and inspired him to
be courageous in a moment of fear as
an eight-year-old boy that's a beautiful
gift that your history gives you and what
i want you to know and my advice
to you is ask your parents the story
you have to know your general history you
have to know the history you have to
know the seerah of the that's your greatest
history you know the children of sa'd ibn
abu aqas they said our father used to
teach us the maghazi of rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam he used to teach us the
seerah of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
and he used to say he said this
is your honor and the honor of your
fathers the fact that you have rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam the fact that you have
these great sahabas man you should be proud
that you have somebody like abu bakr that
you are attached to that you have somebody
like aisha that you have somebody like umar
that you have someone like muad that you
have someone like hudayfa that you have these
people these are your heroes we're chasing made
-up heroes i'm so mad that they gave
black panther they gave him just because he's
black they gave him an imaginary country wakanda
everybody else they're from a real city captain
america's from brooklyn you can go to brooklyn
spider-man's from queens you can go to
queens everybody's from a real place the only
one who's from a made-up place is
the black superhero it's crazy they don't want
people to go over to you know they
could have made them somali people would go
all the way over to somalia just to
to sightsee the place where the black panther
is from or kenya or anything like that
but no no no we'll just make it
but the point is is forget all that
we have real heroes we have real heroes
but not only that it's not just the
sahabah it's the tabi'een it's not just
the tabi'een it's people throughout our history
we are a home we are an ummah
that's filled with heroes but we don't have
storytellers we don't have storytellers we don't have
anybody telling them stories those stories whether it's
through art movies comics whatever it is storytelling
or whether it's simply through the documentation of
our history but that's number one but then
number two and this is very important is
that you learn your own personal history that
you ask your parents where am i actually
from tell me about the village that we're
from tell me about the town tell me
about my country tell me up tell me
about these things because tell me about my
parents tell me about my grandparents tell me
about my great-grandparents and when they're telling
you the stories when they're telling you these
stories pay attention because this is your this
is your identity that they're passing to you
and you're not going to have them forever
i would suggest that you record these conversations
if you can maybe i don't understand it
now at 15 or 18 years old but
you know what maybe i'll be very thankful
that i recorded this conversation at 25 maybe
i'll be very thankful that i recorded this
conversation at 45 that you make sure that
you document your history and then number three
the third pillar of identity is your language
language is very important you see this every
year when you go to a masjid for
tarawih or for iftar iftar you'll find that
the people who speak english sit together the
people who speak urdu sit together the people
who speak arabic sit together the people who
speak somali sit together it's natural that people
when they have a shared language they feel
a shared identity and it's very important because
your history many times for many of us
our history is not recorded in english if
i don't have access to my original language
that i speak at home or the language
of my ancestors the language of my culture
i do not have access to the history
that i have and so i need to
learn my local language i need to learn
the language of my origin these three are
pillars of identity don't squander any of them
and what i usually tell parents is that
when you are trying to raise a child
who has a somali identity let's say and
you're insisting that your child be somali but
he didn't learn his history because you never
taught him that and he didn't have access
to learn his history he doesn't have access
to the language because he never learned it
and at the same time you're expecting that
they have this incredible somali identity like they
grew up in mogadishu it's actually unfair because
you made all of the inputs different and
you're expecting the outcome to be the same
you didn't raise them in mogadishu you raised
them in minneapolis which i understand sometimes looks
like mogadishu but it's actually it's a different
part of the world and so the fact
that you're trying to raise them to be
someone where all of these pillars are different
but guess what there's one pillar that does
stay the same no matter where you go
and that's your worldview you can be muslim
i tell my family too you're trying to
raise a sudanese person in new york city
that's not going to work but i can
be muslim i can be muslim allah that
your theology can be can be manifested it
can be ingrained anywhere in the world i
can be muslim speaking only english i can
speak i can be muslim knowing american history
and i can be muslim knowing french history
and i can be muslim knowing whatever it
is because islam transfers and that's why yaqub
alaihissalam to bring it back he was not
insisting that they have a pillar that was
identity based or ethnicity based rather he was
insisting that they have an identity that was
theology based theology based or iman based and
that is islam the last two things that
i'll mention and then we'll end inshallah as
far as being young one of the most
important decisions that you make is who you
surround yourself with who you surround yourself with
ibn abbas is the famous cousin of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he's one of
the most famous sahaba you guys know ibn
abbas right tell me something about ibn abbas
you guys said you know him so what
do y'all got tell me something about
ibn abbas yes okay no he's not a
teacher no no my man came from all
over there just to give me a wrong
answer he came from outside came running in
yes no ibn abbas there's people in between
ibn abbas and shabby yes he's a scholar
amongst the sahaba very good yes he started
studying at a young age yes hadith yeah
he's one of the most prolific narrators of
hadith for sure he's one of the most
who narrated hadith him and aisha and abdullah
ibn umar and others he's from the now
ibn abbas radiyallahu anhu is the son of
al-abbas al-abbas is the uncle of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he's the
uncle of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
ibn abbas when he's around 10 years old
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam died ibn
abbas is around 12 or 13 years old
so when ibn abbas is with the prophet
he notices something what does he notice that
whenever the prophet sallallahu alihi wa sallam would
go and relieve himself when he go and
use the bathroom he would always come back
and the first thing that he would do
is what?
Make wubu.
So Ibn Abbas notices that so what does
he do?
He sees him leave to go relieve himself
so he goes and he prepares some water
for wubu.
The Prophet ﷺ comes and he notices that.
I just want to go on a quick
tangent here real quick.
I once was having pizza with a kid
who's in college.
We were at a pizzeria together and there's
a salt shaker and a pepper shaker and
they're both covered with tape.
You don't know which one is salt and
pepper but there was only one.
So I had a slice in front of
me.
I was trying to get the pepper.
I look and I see that it's salt
and I'm talking to him about something and
I put it back down.
He's sitting across from me.
He notices that I had reached to pick
it up and I put it back down.
He realizes that I must want the other
one and so he jumped up and went
and he got me a pepper shaker and
he came and he sat down in front
of me and he just went on talking
about whatever we were talking about and I
said to him stop one second.
I said where did you grow up?
Because you didn't grow up in the United
States.
He said to me you're right and he
mentioned somewhere in the Muslim world that he
grew up.
Now the question is how did I know
that he didn't grow up in the United
States?
Because when you grow up in the United
States many times people don't have social intelligence.
Completely clueless.
They don't have social intelligence.
They don't they don't they don't notice things
about people.
So he notices a salt pepper shaker issue
and he jumps up to go get it.
Not only that he doesn't wait to be
told.
A lot of times with people who grew
up in the United States you will be
choking on your food and they'll be watching
you choke on your food and then even
then they won't get up to go to
something until you finally say to them can
you please grab me that water.
They're like oh sorry and then they got
up and do that.
So that idea of paying attention to cues,
social cues, being more aware.
It's the same stuff that your parents are
yelling you about in the living room all
the time when you have guests over and
what have you.
Paying attention, paying attention, paying attention and taking
advantage of learning.
Learning.
Being aware of the people around you.
Finding people who are just really smooth.
If you find somebody who's really smooth interacting
with people, spend some time with that person.
Shadow that person.
Learn how they became so smooth because these
are arts that you learn from being around
those people.
So to come back to Ibn Abbas.
Ibn Abbas notices that cue.
The cue is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
goes to relieve himself.
He makes wudu.
So he goes and he brings the water.
So then Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he
notices that he then makes dua for Ibn
Abbas and he says Allahumma faqihahu fi ad
-deen wa allimuhu al-ta'weed.
He says oh Allah give him knowledge of
the book and teach him the give him
understanding of the religion and teach him the
interpretation of the book.
Teach him interpretation of the Qur'an.
So then Ibn Abbas goes on a journey.
When the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam dies, Ibn
Abbas says to his friend.
He has a friend from the Ansar and
his friend from the Ansar, he liked to
like race birds, like to play with birds.
That's what he liked to do.
They didn't have video games back then.
What they did was they would play with
birds and that would occupy their time.
And so Ibn Abbas says to him, I
think I noticed something like the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam died.
And all of the people who are his
companions, they're like close to his age too.
You know, when you're 13, everybody just seems
old, 63, 60 years old, 55, 50, the
sahabah are old.
So they might die too.
Why don't we spend time learning now?
Let's learn from them.
So that if they pass away, we've learned
what we need to learn.
And so what does his friend say?
His friend says to him, Ibn Abbas, do
you think anybody cares what you know?
I'm trying to be a big shaykh, trying
to be a scholar.
Ibn Abbas, what are you talking about?
Nobody cares about you.
He didn't see the vision.
So what does Ibn Abbas say?
This is a very, very important word that
he says.
He says, he said, so I left him.
But that's my boy though.
My friend.
Spend time together.
We grew up together.
He says, I left them.
I had a dream.
I had a vision.
My friend didn't see it.
I left him.
And Ibn Abbas goes on this journey by
himself.
It's a long journey.
It's a beautiful journey of seeking a knowledge
in Medina.
And then when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
passed away, and Abu Bakr and Umar and
Uthman and Ali and that top tier generation
of the sahabah, that elderly generation of the
sahabah, remember that example of the relay race?
That's not the time when you start to
run.
Then the ummah looked and they said, who's
going to be our next generation of teachers
now that the elders have passed away?
And they found the next generation was ready.
And they were running.
Abdullah ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Aisha, Anas,
Jabir, all of these famous narrators.
They took on the role of Abdullah ibn
Mas'ud.
They took on the role of teaching the
ummah after.
But he made a decision that was calculated.
And that was, I have a friend who's
holding me back.
Let me change course.
And let me change my friends.
Your friends, they say as-sahibu, sahib, as
-sahib, sahib.
Your friend pulls you.
If you pick friends that are righteous, those
righteous friends will inspire you to righteousness.
And if you pick friends that aren't righteous,
people always ask the question.
They say, yeah, but you know, I have
some friends who do this and do that
and do this and that.
Should I still hang out with them to
give them da'wah and what have you
and be a positive influence?
I always tell people there's two scenarios.
Number one, the first scenario is that you
are strong enough in character and in your
effect that when you are with them, and
it's time for salah, they don't normally pray,
but you tell them it's time for salah,
so they pray with you.
Great.
You're a great influence on them then.
You are the leader.
You're the one who dictates.
If that's the case, fantastic.
Spend time with them.
The other scenario is you say to them,
it's time for salah.
And they say, shut up.
And they don't pray.
And you don't pray.
And they do more and you do more.
Those aren't people to be, if you don't
know how to swim, you don't jump in
to save somebody who's drowning.
You're just going to drown with them.
And so avoiding that, until you become strong
enough, you might say, that doesn't mean I'm
giving up on this person forever.
But I have this particular time, I need
to achieve certain goals, I need to develop
myself, I need to become strong enough.
And then maybe inshallah ta'ala in a
few years, but my priority in life, Allah
subhana wa ta'ala says, save yourselves from
the hellfire.
Save yourselves, that's my number one priority.
And so that idea of choosing your friends
wisely, I can't tell you how many people,
how many people, there are a lot of
people who are in prison because of the
friends that they chose, nothing else.
There are people who are dead because of
the friends that they chose, nothing else.
And there are definitely people who are going
to go to the hellfire because of the
friends that they chose, nothing else.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, on the
day where the person who oppressed themselves will
bite onto their hands.
I wish that I had taken a path
with the messenger.
But what else do they say?
I wish that I never took so and
so as a friend.
That's what I wish.
On the day of it, I wish that
so and so, I was not his friend.
That's it.
That's all I wish for.
On the day where those who were led,
or those who were leaders, the leaders of
every group, the leaders of whoever, whatever clique,
whatever, that leader will declare themselves innocent from
the ones who followed them.
And they will say, the ones who followed
will say, if we were to go back,
we wish that we could go back, I
could have like another chance that I could
declare myself innocent from you the way that
you declared yourself innocent from me.
And Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, close
friends on the Day of Judgment will be
enemies to one another.
They'll hate each other on the Day of
Judgment.
You take all of these ride or dies,
all of these best friends, all of these
whatever, they will all be enemies to each
other on the Day of Judgment, every single
one of them, except for the Muttaqi, except
for the people of Taqwa.
Those are the only friendships that continue to
the hereafter.
That's it.
Everybody else becomes an enemy.
I don't care how close they seem.
I don't care if they're blood brothers or
what have you, it doesn't matter.
Everybody's an enemy except for the friendships that
are formed on Taqwa, nothing else.
And so choosing who are going to be
your friends, and I'll just mention one more
point about friendship.
One of the greatest gifts of friendship is
that friendship raises your aspirations.
If you choose the right friends, man, they
will inspire you.
They'll inspire you.
I had, I'll give you an example.
I had some friends of mine who they,
they wanted to memorize the 40 hadith of
Imam al-Nawiyy.
You guys heard of the 40 hadith, right?
It's a famous collection.
Imam al-Nawiyy, famous Shafi'i scholar, he
has 40 hadith that he considers to be
the greatest hadith in Islam.
It's a very, very popular collection.
So my friends, they said, let's memorize the
40 hadith.
I said, fantastic.
They said, let's memorize one hadith a week.
I said, I don't think that's a good
idea.
Not because it's too hard, but because it's
too easy.
One hadith a week?
How long does it take to memorize this
hadith?
Da'ma yuribuk ila ma la yuribuk.
You think that's going to take seven days?
Maybe seven minutes.
Maybe, maybe at most an hour.
Once a week is too, why am I
taking 40 weeks to memorize something like this?
My point is, sometimes your friends, they don't
aim high enough.
Now I want to give you another example.
I met this Shaykh who was at the
time 16 years old.
And he had come to New York to
lead Taraweeh.
And everybody say, where's Shaykh so and so,
where's Shaykh so and so?
It was Ramadan.
I meet Shaykh so and so and I'm
like, yo man, the guy's like 16 years
old.
He's got three hairs here, three.
And his thobe, he's so skinny, it looks
like his thobe was a blanket.
It was so, and I'm like, and I
don't get it.
Like, how is he Shaykh so and so?
And they're like, he memorized the Qur'an.
I'm like, yeah, that's great.
But you know, I mean, how many people
here memorize the Qur'an?
They're not Shu.
It's like, memorizing the Qur'an is a
great thing.
Don't get me wrong.
But, and then he said, well, he also,
he memorized Bukhari Muslim.
So there's thousands of hadith.
And he did it in two months.
I'm like, Shaykh, come be my friend, Shaykh.
My man.
But now I want you to imagine this
person who memorizes Bukhari Muslim in two months.
What did that do to my sense of
possibility?
My friends were talking about memorizing the 40
hadith in a year.
And this one is showing me that you
can memorize Bukhari Muslim in two months.
The difference in what I felt like I
could do was insane.
Because now I feel like I could, 40
hadith, forget doing it in 40 weeks.
I can do it in one day.
I might be able to do it in
max two days.
If that's what other people are doing, and
that's the point.
If you surround yourself with people who aren't
doing anything, then you'll feel comfortable not doing
anything, too.
And if you surround yourself with people who
are doing incredible things, then you're naturally, just
by being in the environment, you're going to
do incredible things, too.
So be very, very careful with regards to
who you let into your space.
Be very careful with regards to who you
allow to be your friend.
And not only that, don't just befriend whoever
happens to be in your vicinity, but seek
out friendships that are valuable.
Seek out inspiring people.
Seek out mentors.
And this brings me to the last point.
And that is, when you're seeking out mentors,
when I was in high school, one of
the people who influenced me the most was
a man, he was, I mean, he was
in high school, too.
He was like two years older than me.
His name was Muhyiddin, though.
Hafidhullah.
Muhyiddin, we call him Muhyiddin.
Muhyiddin was, he was, he was two or
three years older than me.
And he was one of the strongest Muslim
personalities that I had ever seen.
Things that were, we're all going to like
public schools.
There's nobody who's going to Islamic schools here.
And, you know, like things like dating and
being a virgin, these things are embarrassing in
public school.
Like, you know, like you sit there and
you're trying to avoid the question and stuff
like that.
And Muhyiddin, he was such a strong personality.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala physically made him
very strong, but he wasn't just physically strong.
He was very, very proud to be Muslim,
even though he was maybe 17 years old
at the time, or 18 years old.
He was very proud.
And so he would say things like, yeah,
I'm a virgin.
And I want to get married at 25
years old because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
got married at 25 years old.
And everybody around him, they're like, you know,
even though they're not Muslim, they would tease,
you know, somebody else for saying it.
For him, they'd be like, yeah, that makes
a lot of sense, bro.
Yeah, mashaAllah, you know, because it's like Umar
ibn Khattab, like who's going to say anything?
He was that type of a personality.
And this is something that I learned, and
I'll share it with you.
People are very, very, very attracted to strength.
People are very attracted to strength.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, Allah says,
oh Yahya, take the book with strength.
Take the book with strength.
You know, if a person speaks falsehood, if
a person lies, but they lie with strength,
they lie with conviction, they lie powerfully, they'll
end up becoming the president of the United
States.
Just say it with like you mean it,
right?
So my question then becomes, what do you
think is going to happen when people speak
the truth with strength?
For us, we're all aware when we talk
about, let me ask you guys a question.
Who are the two, three, give me maybe
top four Muslim personalities that you think have
had that American people have gravitated to gravitated
to the most in the past like 60
years?
Okay, Muhammad Ali is one, who else?
Malcolm X.
Who else do you have?
Mike Tyson.
Now you're just naming boxers.
But okay, those two come up a lot.
If I ask this question, almost always, no
matter what city, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X.
Tell me what was it about Muhammad Ali?
What did they share, Muhammad Ali and Malcolm
X?
What personality traits did they share that made
people gravitate towards them so much?
Okay, sabbat, an apologetically Muslim, communication, activism.
We have a lot of Muslim activists all
over, but undoubtedly it's that attribute of strength,
strength.
That strength that manifests in their personality, that
strength that manifests in their sabbat, in their
steadfastness, that strength that manifests in their conviction,
in their calling people to Islam, there's the
strength of their, all of that.
And people are always attracted to strength, especially
y'all, especially young Muslim men, always attracted
to strength.
Alhamdulillah, God gave me everything, tomorrow night I'm
gonna smash your boy guys.
Why do people love him so much?
Strong, that's strong.
Stand there in front of a thousand, two
thousand fans cheering for the other guy and
Alhamdulillah, tomorrow night I'm gonna smash your boy
guys.
It's legendary, but that's strength.
People love strength.
My point is this, is that as Muslims
we have to communicate the truth with strength.
Communicate with strength.
Doesn't mean you have to be rude, doesn't
mean you have to be argumentative, doesn't mean
you have to do anything, but be strong.
Be strong in your conviction.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, we cast
truth against falsehood and we break its neck.
Falsehood breaks.
That's why they have to have all of
these systems to support falsehood.