Bilal Assad – 1 on 1 with Mufti Menk
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
A lot of people look at your lectures. And they say the same thing share with the mink is funny. He says jokes a lot. Some people love it. Some people don't know how to look at it. And some people, they're a bit sarcastic about it, they might hate it. They might hate it. Tell us. Why do you say jokes in your lectures?
That's an amazing question. I tell you something, when I was young, we grew up with a lot of fear of the short scholars, the imams in the masjid, there was a distance even though my father and Imam and a scholar and a mentor have but very strict. And initially, it was so difficult to communicate, I saw a clear clear gap between the scholars and the masses. And wherever I went at the time, I always saw that gap.
And I always told myself that I'd like to bridge this gap, there needs to be something, you know, we scholars are looked at as harsh people who never smile, they're always attacking people, you know what you got to say a thing or two, especially for the newer generations. And I think I'm probably similar to you in age, if not maybe a little bit older, Allahu Allah a little bit older. There we go. So what I want to say is,
if you know as we grew up, it was very different. And, in fact, the world is becoming more and more filled with so much of difficulty depression, hardship, anxiety, the last thing you want is the person calling you towards Allah doing the same thing to you. So as you know what, keep it light, and you know, I'll still crack a joke, a little bit of wit, a little bit of banter now, and again, if you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't mostly there is a lesson behind the there is a lesson behind whatever joke might have been cracked Subhanallah sometimes, it may be a big lesson, and sometimes it's a smaller lesson. But yeah, that's that's primarily the reason why I joke, you
know, break the ice, get the people to realize, you know what, this guy is calling me towards Allah, but he's doing it in a beautiful way. I can understand I can relate, I remember a thing or two, they will listen to more things. The idea is not the joke. The idea is what lies beyond that joke. So if I spoke for 30 minutes and cracked two jokes now, tell me what did I do for the other 25 minutes?
I listened to a lot of your lectures, Michelle, you're explaining the concepts, the principles, and the joke is to draw them in to make keep it low, or low. That's an issue. A lot of people who don't do public speaking, yes, they don't understand this art. You and I understand this art. And people pay big bucks to learn this art of how to engage the audience.
Would you say most of your audience are young people? I think so. But I think I've cut across the the age divide. So I have old people, middle aged people, young people, and very young and children as well. In fact, I went into cartoons. I went into kids content, I went into new teenage programs. And then we've been into marriage and divorce. And then we went into, you know, taking care of parents grandparents. And so we've cut across the entire age spectrum. Alicia, I've seen it. I've seen kids approach you giving you high fives and we give it back to them. So you got to speak to everyone on their level had different NASA Allah cadre okoli him, I will be my iPhone, I try my best
to speak to everyone as per that advice that you know everyone on their level. So if there is someone generally practicing, they may not appreciate that we're actually aiming at the vast majority who are struggling to practice or not practicing or sometimes not even Muslim. And a lot of people don't realize that, you know, those who are hardcore, and they are very practicing. Firstly, I don't expect them to listen to me. And if they do, I know that they just listen to a little snippet a lot of the times they wouldn't understand what you've done. I studied in Madina, Munawwara in 1991 onwards for a few years. And I can tell you that I was also very hard initially and rigid
with what I learned and the way I wanted to do things. But when I got home, my father told me sit and watch the people for a whole year. Don't go out and start talking to them until you see them for one whole year. So for a whole year I was just sitting in watching teaching little children a leaf and back at this madrasa and it was very humbling because I was public in bursting with a lot and ended up teaching at a madrasa adjacent to the masjid. I was leading the Salawat barely ever spoke to anyone and so on. And then by the time I opened my mouth, I was already calm. I already saw that, you know you're trying to bring me
people into an ideal situation, and we're living in a non ideal world. So it's really a beautiful experience to have had someone who's an expert in addressing people discipline you and your own wishes at the same time bringing the two together. Yeah.
Alicia, I'm similar to you when I first started about maybe 2627 years ago, similar, very similar. I was
pretty fiery.
And as time went on, you kind of ease up a little bit. You changed your approach, as you know the people. Yes. So people say you watered down or two that we've never watered down. We've just changed approach. And yes, there may be certain things, certain things that we might be more accommodating regarding, because of how we've learned about evidences of difference of opinion that we did not know before. And we are bound by evidence now. So if someone shows me an evidence to prove a certain rule or ruling, I will acknowledge it even if I feel that it may not be the most correct. But it there is a scope of it being correct. Leave it be it doesn't mean that what I always said is the
absolute truth when there is evidence otherwise. And this is the reason why we have if the love among the Sahaba among the tabby in among the IMA among the scholars, it's okay for as long as it's within a certain scope. So we I know that over the years, we face criticism from people who are not experts in the field of data, or they may be very, very knowledgeable and we look up to them in a way, but they don't know the the field you are working in. Yeah.
And I think I can relate with you that I was raised in Australia, in the West, yourself, chef in Africa, basically, you've traveled the world. My understanding is the more you meet the people you do realize that the approach and the language that you have to use with them
has to resonate. Definitely some people don't understand that language. Subhanallah I sit with your chef many times through the whole Arcada and I find that you are clear that is from Michelle lights, sound and safe Alison no Jim Alhamdulillah Allah Almighty grant us all acceptance. You know, I've sat with you many times. And just for interest sake, I first got to know you from Brother Azad, in Sri Lanka. Do you remember that time? Yes. And he told me Billa al Assad and I said Who's that? He said he's someone from Australia. And I knew that well if he relates to this person means he must be someone and then I heard some of your lectures back in the day when you used to wear cotton, Turkey
style coffee on your head as I wore that, like yes, like your know that the one was made of like cotton, you know? Colvin, yes. Woven
it wasn't and I saw this young guy, you know, strong looking and this, the speech was always correct in the sense that I agreed with it, mashallah, you know, much and said, Okay, this is a good guy. And I always have an eye for people who are beautiful in their approach and don't compromise, but still, they are understanding and accommodating of different temperaments of different types of people. And they don't just bash everyone. So I have an eye for those people. And I found quite a lot and mashallah, they're like minded, in a great sense. And that's why we enjoy the interactions. You know, Chef, because I'll tell you what, some people when they listen to someone else, they take
things literally, and others, they know how to read between the lines, they understand what this person is actually saying, I've listened to you very carefully, and found that Subhanallah I understand what Mufti mink is doing here.
You're saying something in a way where other people can take it, and then you'll build on it afterwards. And then third time and then fourth time and help the people go step by step because, as we say, Bashira Wellington a few years, sit over to our service process and give good news and glad tidings don't give bad news all the time and negativity, and give, make people happy. Don't make them sad.
And sometimes we may say something. And people may take that completely out of context. Say, nope, you meant that. Sometimes I look and say no, I didn't mean that. Subhanallah you should understand what I'm trying to do with these people. We live in a time where young people are suffocating. They're drowning. And unity is very, very important between us we have to work together and that's why I'm here in the UK with you on Russia, Hamid Suleiman Shukla, Abu Bakr Assad and arrest Chuck Well, and people are so excited to see how we're together because people want Why do you think she What do you think people? We had so many comments were in our hugs, for example that we put on on
Instagram. Why do you think people are so happy to see this unit in this brotherhood simple reason, tell us there is too much of the opposite out there. It's out
unbelievable to see this happening when everyone is just bickering, fighting, squabbling, you know, it's a war out there between not just scholars, but even general Muslims, you know, people. I mean, there's two things, a few things. One is this collegial philosophy, which is our career, this whole Palestine thing is our problem. It's our issue, right? And we take it seriously. And the way that the infighting amongst the people just pointing fingers at you did and you didn't do and you're not doing and you're doing and you're not doing and you're supposed to be doing that itself is already a show of frustration. I excuse people, and I was saying people don't know what we've done. And they
haven't listened to the lectures. They say, you've never spoken, you've never done.
I have and what am I supposed to do? answer you back to say, No, I have no, if you haven't heard it, remember, it's not my problem. And another thing is, there are other things that I have done that you cannot do. I don't tell you you didn't do this. You do because I know it's not in your capacity. It's okay. It's a big responsibility. You have to understand the people you're talking to as well. Yes, I've set with you a lot. Sure.
And
I know what Hamdulillah you call to the GitHub and listen, la mala Ken Ham. May Allah make it that way. And we're open to correction. Now we're open to correction. We always correct each other. Yes, it's true. We do. And is name calling wallet and neighbors will cop and others my tells us don't call each other names. advise one another wanting the best for your brothers. This is how we have to work together. Wallahi I love all my brothers and sisters, even those who possibly will say do the wrong thing and be say to bad things. We want the best
possible numbers. You check on that heavy feels like a letdown sometimes feels like a letdown. But at the end of the day, we want to please Allah subhanaw taala? Absolutely, absolutely. And our hum. And our worry is the OMA the community that is young people who are just searching for any identity. And he says something really, that always makes me extremely happy. When I was back in the days when I was a kid, you go to a masjid. People were over 40 Hardly any children. Whenever they see a chef, he's just a chef doesn't know what's going on. They walk away from them. Do you see now
even children as young as seven years old see a chef and they look at them as if they are superstar. There's they're a soccer player. There's just hopped out, you know, playing for a big team or something? Do you see this this difference? SubhanAllah? Why do you think this is the case? At the moment? I think it's because there's a lot of work that has
an effort that has been put in to creating that type of an environment. I mean, I remember a time and I'm sure you do you you are a vehicle of it will knowingly or unknowingly. I remember a time when the approach changed. And there are a lot of people who came in with a softer approach. They have knitted in many more people than before. And this is why I say early on, I said I pity those who are so harsh and hard. They don't realize they're catering for a small niche. But we live in the western world where the real life issues that are being faced by the people need to be taken into consideration when you're talking to them. We have little kids who are being bombarded with all
sorts of things from a young age in their syllabuses in the schools in some countries. And then you expect them to listen to you and you're going to bombard them from another angle. You need to show them with love, talk to them. Smile at them. Be humble cater for for them. I remember when I went into cartoons at one stage that people were refuting and saying all sorts of things I just looked down, kept on doing my work. They don't know one day they will be in it. And now many people are joining and many people are in it. They've realized that if you do a little study as to the consumption of cartoon material of Muslim children, you will be shocked nearly every child is
somehow connected to it. What Islamic content do you have? It is less than 2%. Today, less than 2%? Is it not your duty as a leader to cater for them to make content for them? If no one wants to do it, you do it. And you know what? It will go very, very far because from that little age, you've already created in them an interest in a person who's religious imam of the masjid Salah, the DUA has so many more things. People are using that to literally to to fulfill their agendas. Ours is the deen of Allah that we need to serve. So some people don't see the light in it. They say no, It's haram. You can't do this that okay, you know, you do your thing. Let's do our thing. But the sad
part is they begin to attack and block and hinder without understanding the caging for your children and grandchildren now, but it's okay to have been in education as a teacher for 17 years in one school, another three years at another
For nearly 20 years, and you yourself has been a teacher, so we understand from the perspective of education. And when it comes to education, you've got to understand the minds of these young people. So we can, we can tell you have to be creative and innovative. And I remember listening to Chef urban with Damian Milani, he was a bit open minded because he listened to the different mindsets of people in knew that hold on a minute. It's not just Saudi that the whole world is a little bit different in in different cultures. And when social media first came out, he was one of the first to say you need to go go in and beat the traffic into social media. So you can't let the others go in
and play with the minds of our youth, you might take a four year slightly before the, you know the revolution of social media. He'd already said that, yes, I'm just taking it as he's telling us if we go into the creativity, and wherever it is, and you take it over, because you got to reach the minds of these gives you a quick example, if you don't mind. Recently, the controversy of a sister's wearing an abaya. Are they allowed to wear a coat on top of that Avaya? So a debate and people said haram and they said whatever they said, and like a coat like this one coat like that one on top of the FBI basically now and something bigger. So if you look at the answers of the scholars, and I
have my approach my way of dealing with it, trying to
accommodate the 95% of the Muslims who are not very practicing, I mean, when I tell you 95%, I really mean it. They may be practicing, but they're not. They're not there yet. And from among them, perhaps more than half are not even in a place of that, which we would say is, is like, you know, breaking even.
So we're talking to masses who are facing challenges who have who have not yet even worn proper hijab, they haven't even gotten a cloak, yet. They haven't. So it depends who you're addressing. And you have to take into consideration the effort they've made to get to where they are before you open your mouth to talk about where they should be, which is correct to say, okay, they should be somewhere, but how are we going to address this matter? Have you seen the improvement? And then you get a cloak on and mashallah, that's a massive achievement? Do you acknowledge it, if you're in the field of Dawa, and you're a moron B, and you're a person who you know, helps people come up, you
would realize that to appreciate where they've gotten to, from where they were, is something very important. Now, you look at share with man homies, for example. Now,
in his words, when he was asked exactly the same question, he said, It's better to have, you know, the clock.
But you have to take into consideration where you are, the weather of the place you're in, you have to take into consideration the order of the place that you're in and so on, are facing the customs, the customs of the people. And so if you're talking to someone in Britain, in Scandinavia, in Greenland, in Alaska, in North America, in these freezing conditions, where they have to put on a coat, you know, how would you check out the matter? He is telling you it is permissible. And I wouldn't I mean, I didn't quote him, but I know. And I didn't
say that, Oh, this is haram. And this is like what Halal but we giving a general ruling to say Cover yourselves in an appropriate manner. Do it for the sake of Allah, and try and get better and better as time passes. That is a far better approach than the one who comes in hex down 90% of the Ummah and moves forward thinking I did a service to the deen of Allah. They don't have any expertise in the Dow another thing, I would, I would excuse those who live in very hot temperatures, thinking that I'm just putting on a coat for fashion, you know, it's a big difference. And they don't No one told them, it's freezing ice cold, we need to put on a coat. I mean, obviously, if something is
showing the shape of your body, we have a different issue. We're going to have to deal with that and tackle it for them to get to the ideal. But the thing here is when the vast majority don't even have that initial cloak that you're talking about, how do you address it? So when I addressed it, you know, in my own way,
trying to acknowledge what exactly the people had,
you know, were talking about and getting to a place of acknowledgement of their progress.
You find all sorts of people say all sorts of things, but 95% of the people will appreciate what you said because they have real struggles. Sure if I heard that lecture,
and what I heard Allahu Akbar what I heard
Hey, was this what I heard from you? You're trying to say yes to our sisters, sisters. Now I'm paraphrasing and understanding what you're trying to steal from what I say exactly being born in the West. Obviously, I studied overseas and Eastern West, understanding what's happening in the Dawa field and how sisters are being approached about their deen and they're covering and all of that.
What I heard mostly men saying is sisters, hijab is fault. We all know that. And I know that you love the Quran, and you want to follow Islam.
And that you will hear so many different approaches from different people on the internet. And I know that it's making you move away, because the approach of a lot of these men is harsh to you.
So I want to take this with wisdom. I want you to work slowly, step by step. And insha Allah improve on yourself. As for those who are talking too much, if it's affecting you don't listen to them. What matters to you is to please Allah Spanner with that, so long as Allah is pleased with you, then you think about that. And do that. As for the people, if it's affecting you to move away, no, don't listen to them.
But listen to what Allah is saying. And ignore the other people's words if they are hurting you and making you move away. This Annie as Allah says, Elizabeth Rebecca Bill Hekmati. Well, my daughter has an A call to the path of your Lord, with wisdom and with godly advice. This is what I heard from you. But not everybody can hear that. Unless you understand the people. One problem also that we're facing, I thought of it while you were talking is the new clips that you have on social media, sometimes do not cover the the topic. So it's a little bite of what you said a few seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, sometimes two minutes or so point. So the people who are refuting you, they
write,
you know, they publish articles, they write page upon page book upon book against a clip, claiming that you said this, but they didn't bother, or make an effort to go and listen to the entire talk, where it was delivered, who were being addressed. And what was the entire context. If they bothered to listen to the 2030 minutes, they would appreciate if they had a clean heart. Unfortunately, today, you have these guys who hold a PhD in refutations. And what they do is they sit, they listen to a clip and they create content in order to whatever. I pity them again, because they're not experts in the data. They haven't really achieved much besides refuting others. And then the worst
part is they will take a clip of someone who might have said oh, this is how it should be from one of the scholars. And they say Oh, this guy is like this. And that guy, they wasted their whole life talking about someone else may Allah subhanaw taala never make us from that party.
Oh my teachers, scholars and mache.
When they talk about advising someone, they always say advise them and find out first of all the full picture.
And you don't advise them in public or do things in a way where you draw the attention to yourself. The idea is to love for your brother, what you love for yourself and a dinner Manasa Dean is about advice and good advice in a wisdom and a way that works in a way that keeps the dignity of your brother as well. And in a way that you are assisting the Dawa, that it's going to work. Now, you mentioned something amazing and that's about tick tock and it annoys me Subhanallah several times whether it's Muslims or non Muslims, they'll listen to a little tiny bit, you've got a clip, which is about 30 seconds, there probably isn't a two seconds of that. And then make a comment Subhanallah
last minute is going to ask people what they write. I made one for example, once about the the what men like and women want men, women like in men, and someone had put only half of it what men like in women immediately you see the people what about the women? What about this? What about that? And you see, well have you listened to the whole thing yet? Or anything? So any athlete version value and make sure you read and clarify and verify the full picture before we jump to conclusions. So many times I feel like commenting and you know the qualities we have make us stay away from commenting because it's okay excuse them. I don't want to become ugly because of your ugliness I just lean in.
But so many times I'm tempted to say something just leave it Subhanallah
Shekinah in the field of Dawa, you've been speaking to a lot of youth as soon as they see you they love to come and sit with you. You have this thing called the Kaaba will people accepting Allah grant 100 So ALLAH ask Allah to make you as we assume the view and even better. What do you think?
The youth these days
yearning for the most What do you think they're lacking? You know, a lot of what is happening in the world today politically, and the crises, the wars, the challenges, the feminine the disasters, a lot of this is making people realize the importance of their connection with Allah. It's making the non Muslims come towards what they what is the truth, you know,
it's making the Muslims realize that they need to come closer and closer to Allah. And so at this moment, we have the greatest opportunity to address this matter to to help the youth they are desperately in need of a breath of fresh air with that guidance. So those who are, you know,
causing a an issue or a disservice to Islam are the ones who are doing all the bickering, and all the pointing and all the hurtful abuse and so on, because they're just chasing the people who are looking for a breath of fresh air away, but the others who encourage them and who are motivating them and trying to fill that gap, those are the ones who are Allah is using to do the good job. So I believe we should just occupy ourselves in serving the needs of the ummah.
I mean, I, I've been addressing a major problem that there is in our circles in the OMA basically. And that is that of unmarried women who are looking for spouses. It might sound random, but it is bigger than you think it is. If you take a careful look, and you have in your circles, a little bit of an eye on this matter, and this problem, you will realize how big it is, who is speaking to divorced women, widows, those who might have a problem, get trying to get married and helping them to actually do that. Or law hates a crisis, or life is a crisis single day, especially among the sisters. It is among some brothers as well. But now the sisters, it's more of concern. And then the
families make it difficult and they set the bar so high and it becomes difficult and Wallahi that's that's a major thing. I think that we sometimes don't address this matter enough. You know, talk about the widows who are struggling talk about the those who are divorced, sometimes they're divorced, obviously doesn't make them bad. Sometimes that was the only thing that they could have gone through. I mean, yes, every sit every single divorce has its own reasoning and so on. But I'm talking generally, we help these people up. That's just one crisis in the OMA we have so many more. We have those who are disabled, those who are challenged those who are, you know, disadvantaged in
one way or another. Instead of sitting and refuting people do something, you know, why don't you start up something to cater for people who,
who are disadvantaged, or people who have some form of problem, you help them in the problem, but no, some people just choose, sit back. I don't want to work. And I don't want people who are working to work either. I'm going to attack them, and I'm just going to sit and chill. It's a different thing. If you're doing a humongous job, you know. And then you want to say, Brother, what you're doing is wrong. I don't condone that, but maybe you're doing a better job, but you're not even doing a job. You don't even know how to do the job. It's like a guy sitting back and telling the mechanic. You know what, you don't know how to repair the car. But he doesn't know a thing. He doesn't even
know how to lift the spanner.
May Allah subhanaw taala make it easy for the mirror. Good, Shehu, I know about one Smit shift, if you ever heard of Chef hammer from Egypt, and she of course had said something and the chef said to him, it was still new said what you said is wrong and it's weak Hadith and so on. And the chef said to him something important you said Dr. Lamb cobbler and Dunker, go and learn first of all, and gain this knowledge understand the whole area before you oppose. And truly he went and knowledge is not just knowledge, we have this wisdom and understanding people as you've been doing. Schaeffler
Shirky, you know, I've been in the school system for a very long time, as I said before,
and I see that young people have an identity crisis.
And I see that those who have identity crisis, there's dysfunctional families, the relationship between the father and mother and the children. The involvement in children's lives, the communication something if I see, for example, a student reach here 11 And still they're asking me about a stranger or they're asking me about also, boys and girls, I wonder to myself, Where is the communication relationship?
with their parents, you mentioned before that singlehood. And marriage is a problem because parents are not helping much. I once heard a really good lecture from your show. And it resonated with a lot of young people advising the parents in how to allow their children to open up and talk about these matters.
What do you advise the parents? How should they
communicate with their parents about this? Do you do advise them to open up topics about sexuality, for example, in marriage, love liking? Firstly, I believe that as parents, we must invest in our children. If we don't invest, why did we have those children? So number one is time, even if you're just around the fact that you're there. Number two is to try to communicate to be there to help them to play with them to show them to guide them communicate, it wouldn't be easy for me to say, speak to them about these taboo topics that in today's world, I have to say you must speak to them about it, or get someone to talk to them about it, because they will definitely get it from somewhere else
in the wrong narrative. And in order to avoid that you are going to need to address this met. I tried to speak about these things with a little bit of ease, you just throw it in as though it's okay. Because trust me, the children of today know much more than you think they know, when they're only five years old. They pretend like they know nothing. They've heard about everything that we only learned when we were 15. And they can give you the details of it. And the embarrassing details, they can just rattle it out to you to say no, don't try and fool me. So we look like fools to them. When we're trying to duck and dive, don't do that. Get into the topic, talk to them. It doesn't have
to be so deep and so often. But they just need to know my dad spoke to me about this or mom spoke to me depending on how you want to set it up in your own home male to female or whatever. And for as long as they know, when they have an issue. You are the first go to many parents, their children are so frightened of them, even in the modern world, even in the Western countries, that when they have an issue, the parent is the last person they would go to they tell us please don't mention this. I want to anonymously I don't want I can speak to your parent, I would say they would say no please don't do that. You'd break me you do this, you know it's going to my father is going to kill me
whatever they say. So I wonder that you know, Allah is going to ask you to look Umrah, and Caloocan was all on Araya, you're all shepherds, you're all responsible for your flock. Here's your flock, running away from you scared of you frightened of you? How could you do that? You know, when you have that example is so perfect about the flock that is their sheep, one sheep is going away. You know you should be having sleepless nights, but bring it in, feed them be with them, you know, no matter what.
So I always go out of my way to greet the young. And then the teenagers, even the little children, if you ever watch me carefully, I would go out of my way to give them time because
my son as he grew up one of my sons as he grew up. He used to say, I don't want to come there. I said, Well, why come with me says you know what? I'm like non existent.
And these are shares sometimes that they interact with. And the youngster saying, You know what, they they just ignored me. Like, I wasn't even in my mind. I'm thinking but you're just a child. But then I think let me tell some of my colleagues, you know what, give these kids a bit of importance. Yes, greet them. That's the only thing they want from you. Yes. Salaam Alaikum. It could change their lives, because they've looked up to you. That's one of the reasons why when someone says she can have a photo with you. I try not to deny it. I know it's very difficult. I know, sometimes you have to make a plan, you know, you have someone. And look, it may not be ideal. But sometimes you
have a woman there.
You know, I have certain rules and regulations. Like I said, it may not be ideal, there could be people saying Oh, you're short, you shouldn't even be doing that at all. But look, when someone's really been impacted by you all their lives. So many things have changed one day, they suddenly see you in today's or in today's they want to capture the moment nothing more is captured. There's no halwa meaning there's no seclusion, you're not with them alone. This is in full view of the public, everyone is there. And they want to be to have the opportunity to say, You know what, I actually met this person who's my teacher who taught me knowingly, unknowingly for decades or for a long time. I
think to deny them that would probably be more
difficult for them to digest at times. Then to say, okay, you know what, there's a table between us. There's a few other people here. There's so much here. You can take
Quick picture and move on, you know, and what what's the quick picture all about? It is capturing the real life moment that did occur. It's not like I'm doing something absurd this thing happened in full view of the whole public, you know? And if I pass someone in the aisle in the supermarket and the people have happened to capture it without us knowing at times, a lot of the times what if I just knew and I just turned around and said, Oh, Salam aleikum? You know, I mean, people come to me and say, Can you do a video for my brother? Can you do one for my sister just to say Salaam? Why are they saying that? Because that person looks up to you? You're gonna say no, no, no, ha, Okay, fair
enough. You might not want to do it. But if you consider where I'm coming from, you would say, well, if they would really be moved by a little video of me making salaam with someone, what does it cost you? It handles so rude if you can't be movement, you know, to, to instill happiness in the heart of a movement. That's one but another one is to be able to say a word that might help them and encourage them in the right direction, it's not going to do any harm to them. So let's hear from Bourbon and Musleh. How will MEFs today looking at the benefit verse?
Yes. And like I said, this is not a religious ruling that that has to be this way or that way. You know, it's open. I like I said earlier, I know there is an ideal, we're living in a non ideal world. We have people out there who are struggling that and it has had such impact on people's lives today there was a youngster a little boy, I think about seven years old, Allah He He came up to me at the restaurant where we went for some some desserts. And he showed me said, you know, two years ago, I took a picture with you by the by the car, and I saw myself sitting in a motor vehicle, little boy outside and someone took a picture of us whatever it was, his name was use of. And he said, Can I
take a picture today? I said, No problem. Come, let's take another picture, then you can update that one, you know. I mean, I it takes time. It's very taxing. I wouldn't want to do it. You know, people say you're doing it for name and fame. And I tell them I'm already famous. I'm already famous. So what am I doing it for? Me a chef.
Throwing accusations at someone about their heart and when we know the story of the sahabi prophesized Salam said to him a Shakta uncalibrated. Did you open up in his chest and look inside into his nose in the battlefield, it was on the floor and said, a shadow on Leila and Allah He killed him. He said, He only said it out of anger. jasola is pretty obvious. If you ask everyone know, well, it's pretty obvious. He said, Did you open up into his heart?
This problem of assuming I lost Panther Island knows shelter, I understand where you're coming from. And that is difficult. People who are in that scene, they do understand people who are not, they're not able to understand that Allah subhanaw taala open their hearts and minds. And mellowest Mandela unite us on good always because they're always drowning, as I said, and we need to wake up and help them just get back onto the, onto the land, the only Salah is lost, the hijab is lost, the identity is lost physical identity, all sorts of identity in every way, shape, and form SubhanAllah. So I understand it's a very difficult road to maneuver through. We don't want to lose them. We don't want
to delude them, when they keep them somewhere in each person, according to their understanding. You know, I have a friend whose daughter
one time she was about six years old, and I smiled to her. And I went here one day, he called me up and he said, Do you know what my little daughter said? She said, this is a month later. Where is that man that smiles? She doesn't know who my name she does only thing. Where is that man that smiles. The children remember that. And
this is also part of that they see a frowning person all the time, they're going to say, Hey, there we go. This is another religion, of judgment. And they always frown they never smile, I might as well go to that celebrity and this celebrity and that soccer player in that 40 plan that boxer play and that singer in that whatever, because they make me feel validated and make me feel important. They smile to me, we don't want to lose that youth in a time when Subhan Allah so chef Allah who I understand exactly where you're coming from. I have people from all walks of life and all faiths and a lot of people from across the board coming and they actually have the courage. And it doesn't even
require courage, but they actually have the courtesy to come and salaam, salaam alaikum. She really benefited I follow you, I watched you I benefited from you and so on. And another thing very quickly is you know, people who revert to Islam,
and they come as a result of the approach that you've used as a result of them being able to relate to the way you've worded things Alhamdulillah they are in their 1000s in their 1000s. And so when I know that this has happened, it makes me ignore a guy who hasn't converted a single person talking about your method and the way you do things that sound like he
is a big, great successful day, you know, and he wants to quote this and quote that and so on. And I think to myself, they haven't studied and they don't know. They have blinkers. They haven't seen societies and perhaps they don't even know the role that the environment plays in shaping the methodology of Dawa.
Because you and I know that the hikma the method, it all depends on your environment as well, the orphan the people around you, and what's going on at the time and so on. So mashallah, when you see people coming into the faith, and there comes a time when they would move on to some other machines, who go into different types of details, different disciplines, someone who might be a little bit stricter, who might come across with a little bit more direct approaches, and so on, and Alhamdulillah that's what we expect. I don't expect you to stay in grade one and two forever, you need to move on. But if you don't appreciate the primary school teacher,
you're not going to appreciate anywhere else, because you're not going to move on.
I understand she SubhanAllah. I remember back in Sri Lanka, just
when you mentioned brothers ahead, as in Sri Lanka. So he told me a lot about you, and we're in an elevator and he said, you know, Mufti Menk, we would go into an elevator. And a non Muslim woman would just join us in the elevator. And he would go out of his way, say, How are you, madam? And this lady has never experienced something like that before to see a man like this and say to her,
I have a habit of saying, Have a good day. Yes, have a nice day, no matter who it is. Why do you do that shift for them to have the first interactions perhaps in their lives with a guy who's a practicing Muslim bearded robed person?
Let's break the ice. Let's let them no, we're humans, we care for you. I didn't even talk about anything. It was just have a good day, man. You know, in a lift, it happens often. It happens on aircraft. It happened in public transport. It happens in planes, it happens. These interactions happen. I'm always I'm always probably very conscious of my politeness. I love to be the most polite. And I tell myself there should not be another person more polite than you. That's what I tell myself.
Unless I go out of my way to be polite to anyone and everyone. Do you know what should be done? It has by the will of Allah changed lives. It has brought people into the fold of Islam over a period of time, just a little interaction. I've seen the results. So you cannot try and tell me otherwise I'm going to laugh at you. And that's one of the reasons why it doesn't bother me really.
Beyond a certain degree when people say things and I know listen, if you knew what I knew you'd fight me for the fort. We have no
malice pantalla bless you show you to my grandma's pantalla always keep us all on the straight path and protect all those who are doing the good work may Allah protect the ummah.
I mean, I mean you're up in Ireland when you're going to visit us in Australia in Sharla. Soon who knows? Whenever I'm that brings us towards the end of the year, which I'd love to see you in sha Allah, just like a low height. barnacle. It's very late at the moment we're in the UK load upon night. We had a big big day. We're both very tired Ashley has amazing yet the dollar never stops in Shandong, America. It was lovely speaking to you and I hope that whatever we've said a lot except from us. I mean, if we've made any blunders May Allah forgive us.
Allah