Calisha Bennett – Identity Speech Video

			In this globalized age and time, we are often struggling with our identity. Is it compatible to be a
Muslim and a Hong Kong or at the same time? How do I define myself? Who am I really what is my most
important trait as a person? These questions will determine our actions and our attitudes towards
life. So for those of you some of you are not here yesterday, so I will introduce sister Felicia
again while she's walking to the hall. Sister Felicia Burnett is the founder of developing diamonds
and has over 12 years of experience as an active community leader, speaker, teacher and mentor of
Muslim women and youth specialized in Islamic identity coaching and personal development. In her
		

			years of community service. She has helped to establish an Islamic Community Center as well as a
wide variety of Islamic classes and programs for Muslims of diverse ages and backgrounds.
		

			Is district Alicia here.
		

			Oh, she's here. Okay, cool. Great. So everyone please join me and welcome Sister coalition.
		

			I'll be learning in a shade Lonnie regime Smilla Rahmanir Rahim
		

			in Alhamdulillah Hina. Madhu when a star you know when a still feel when are all the biller Himanshu
Rory and fusina women sejahtera Molina, Maria de la who Fela medulla mama you lil fella her de la
eyeshadow Allah Allah Allah Allahu the hula Cherie color wash. Hello, anna muhammadan Abu rasuluh
I'm about fairly old praise is due to Allah, we praise Him and we seek His help and we seek his
forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil within ourselves, and the evil consequences of
our evil actions. Whoever Allah subhanaw taala guides, none can misguide. And whoever is led astray,
none can guide I've ever witnessed that there is none worthy of worship but Allah, he's alone and
		

			has no partner and I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his slave and
messenger. Rubbish rally Saudi wire serially Emery Lulu Gazeta. melissani of Cabo Cali Salam aleikum
wa rahmatullah he wabarakatuh.
		

			So I'm gonna tell you a story. When I was 11 years old, I was going to sleep at night. And I was
just thinking random things as a child, my grandmother had passed away when I was eight years old,
about three years before this time, and I was reflecting about her death. I wasn't that close to my
maternal grandmother. But I thought about my mother, and I thought, my mother must be so sad that
her mother passed away. May Allah have mercy on him. And then I thought, hang on a second. As a
child, my mother's mother passed away, my mother must be sad. But hang on, my own mother will pass
away one day. And then that made me very upset to its parent alone. I'm a child crying, my parents
		

			don't know that I'm having all these thoughts from a lot. Then as I reflected about the sadness of
my parents, one day passing away, I realized that one day, I too was going to pass away. And as an
11 year old child, that just absolutely my heart, just freaked out. So that was my first moment of
realizing my identity as a human being and that this life is temporary, and that this life will come
to an end. So that moment really shook me. And what happened was when I thought about death for
myself, I thought what happens after you die? And I knew in the basic limited understanding of Islam
that I had growing up as a Muslim that when you die, if you are good, you go to paradise. And if
		

			you're not good, you go to the hellfire, may Allah protect us. And although I don't want to get a
hellfire, I definitely want to go to paradise. What do I need to do? And in my basic child childish
understanding of the deen, I knew we had to make the law so that was the age I decided to make,
start making Salah. So Hamdulillah this is from a last one a dialogue. So that was my first
connection with some concepts of purpose, accountability, and identity. If I look back in my life,
there are three different times where I connected strongly with my identity. So that was the first
one and inshallah I'll share the other two during this, this talk and Sharla so the topic I was
		

			given is identity crisis and the struggle of the Muslim identity. But first we have to ask ourselves
		

			Do we have an identity crisis in our OMA, I want you to ask yourself, do you think there is an
identity crisis in this Alma? I can already see some sisters nodding brothers, do you think there's
identity crisis in our Alma?
		

			Yeah, we'll see Inshallah, if we enhance that understanding of this crisis. Now, the crisis, we also
have to realize doesn't just apply to young people, even the adults, the parents, the elders can
also suffer from identity crisis.
		

			So let's have a look at the state of Muslims in the world. One of the oldest migrant, I guess,
Muslim communities living in western lands in the world is in the US. And in the US, the statistics
that are coming out, they say that 23% of us muslims born Muslims, they don't identify as Muslim.
One in every five, they're born Muslim, but they say they don't tick the box of Muslim, even though
they were born Muslims aren't alone. Also, that there is 357% more media coverage on Muslim terror
attacks than on the attacks of others. So in their society, in their community, Muslims are very
much demonized and portrayed in a very negative way. And likely, it is affecting the way that
		

			Muslims there feel about their Islam. There was a first of its kind research done in 2016, called
the Muslim doll study on Muslim identity study. And it was done and conducted by the San San
Francisco State University. And they did research on the effects of Islamophobia and on the Muslim
identity of small children aged five to nine years old. And the results were very, very concerning.
This was three years ago, one in three of those small children, they didn't want to tell others that
they were Muslim. So they were scared, wanting to children they didn't know. So half of them didn't
know whether they could be both Muslim and American. Just as brother Issa said, can we be Muslim?
		

			And what is it Hong Kong? Hong Kong is
		

			saying, and even more upsetting one in six children that would pretend not to be Muslim. So hiding
that Assam feeling embarrassed of the Assam. So the sense of identity clearly, is not very strong in
a proportionate number of young people. So what is the effects or the impact of Islamophobia on our
identity?
		

			There was a 2012 study on coping with Islamophobia and mental health as experts said, they said many
Muslims not only experienced religious discrimination in their daily lives, but they're fully aware
of their devalued position in society.
		

			So let me repeat that last bit, they are fully aware of their devalued position in society. So
they're aware that society feels and thinks a certain way about about them.
		

			In Australia, the the video player one path network, maybe you guys have heard of them, they make
amazing videos dollar videos, Michela, they put out a video showing a study that they did, where
3000 articles in Australia were referring to Islam and Muslims, alongside words like terrorism,
radical extremism, via violence, etc. 3000 in a year, over 3000 in one year spent a lot that's eight
articles a day slandering or saying negative things about Muslims, demonizing our community. 152 of
those articles were on the front page of the newspapers, and they see a spike when hate crimes are
being reported. It's connected to negative media coverage. Hello.
		

			So now we have the issue of the Islamophobic narrative that is being, you know, strung out by the
media spotlight and the impact on us and our identity and a concept called internalized oppression.
So what is internalized? oppression? Dr. Gale Peterson says it's the incorporation and the
acceptance by individuals within an oppressed group of their prejudices against them within the
dominant society. What does this mean? This means that over time, as certain things are said as
negative depictions are made of a community, the community itself starts to accept it. Yes, we are
like that. Yes, we are backward. Yes, we are. Terrorists. Yes, we are less than, yes, we should be
		

			ashamed. Yes, we should hide Yes, we should fully integrate. Yes, we should drop our cultural
religious practices.
		

			And what does this result in and this results in negative feelings about yourself and your identity?
And psychologists have identified three destructive conditions of the mind that if you have this
stuff going on in your mind, it becomes very destructive to yourself very destructive to your
progress and your growth and your strength. And what are these three destructive conditions they
have fear, self hatred, and loneliness.
		

			And when we internalize the Islamophobia that hang happens around us and we fall into internalized
oppression. This is what we end up carrying great fear of going into society of interacting with
other people of Standing Strong and proud as Muslims. We develop self hatred. We don't like
ourselves. We don't like our Islamic practices. We don't like the halal and haram guidelines.
		

			And loneliness, because you feel isolated, you don't feel like you belong anyway. So these are very
destructive conditions of the mind.
		

			So now, when we look at this concept of identity crisis, do these evidences tell us that there is an
element, a strong element of identity crisis? Definitely. So the struggle is real. And we have to
acknowledge that struggle, whether we experience it ourselves, or whether it's our family members,
or our children or other members of the community, we have to acknowledge we shouldn't shame it. We
shouldn't shame that someone feels unsure about you know how much they should be practicing their
Islam and is it safe enough and they don't feel confident in practicing their Deen that I feel
confident to make Salah and their workplace, they don't feel confident to wear hijab, the brother
		

			doesn't feel confident to grow his beard. We shouldn't feel feel shame or judgment towards them, we
have to support them and we have to acknowledge that it is a real struggle and it is very difficult.
Omar Suleiman chef Omar Suleiman, he says it's very powerful to experience validation for your
struggles and experiences. And the opposite. If your struggles are invalidated and undermined, that
is also powerful, but in a negative way. So we should never say no, to sort out your Eman. Fix
yourself, just fear Allah and it's not that easy. For today's Muslims. It's very, very difficult
times that we're in.
		

			So the second situation where I connected with my identity was when I was 13 years old, my family
moved out of the city, in a in Western Australia small town called Perth, we left Perth and my
family moved a couple of hours down south of Perth to our country home that we had. And I attended a
public school for the first time in my you know, I guess older,
		

			older childhood years. And so I was 13 years old, my parents took me away from you know, my friends,
my school, my Muslim environment, because I was at a Muslim school. And then I was now in a public
school environment. In that environment, I was the only Muslim female in that high school. And I
remember on the first day, my heart was like, beating out of my chest, I was so scared,
		

			obviously, of what they were going to think of me and I was in hijab. And you know, didn't want my
mom to leave me, you know, and she's like, Okay, someone, they go home, off you go. And they had
some of the girls in the class to show me around the school. So these two girls next to me, I think
it was Tamara and Emily, two nice little white Ozzie girls showing me around the school. So we're
walking around the school, they're like, this is the gymnasium, that's the oval, that's the art room
and this and that. And as we're walking, you know, they're just showing me around, we're having
small talk, I'm feeling like very insecure, my body language is very lacking confidence. And then we
		

			I can hear noises behind us as we're walking like footsteps and muffled whispers and talking. And
then I turn around, and I look behind me and there's maybe 30 kids in a hoard. Just following behind
like I was some alien UFOs panel that had arrived from Mars panel. And that was a moment where I
thought, well, like, this is a big deal, how different I am is a big deal to those who don't know me
or understand me in this country time. They didn't know, Muslims. This was before September 11. So
it's just innocent ignorance that they didn't know what Muslim was. So they're very curious. And
they asked me lots of different questions. What's that thing on your head? Do you ever shower with
		

			that thing on your head? All these funny sorts of questions from or they just didn't know in their,
in their innocence. So that was another moment where I realized, okay, there's something different
about me that I have to figure out and I have to decide how I'm going to live in this difference and
accept this difference, or am I going to be in denial of this difference?
		

			So in my work that I do now, you know, with identity coaching and personal development, teaching for
sisters,
		

			specifically on the area of Islamic identity, the answers that I have kind of put together with the
sisters that I support and the youth that I support. With answering the question, where do the
answers to our crisis lie? I would say they come from three stages of recovery. They lie in
discovering your identity, they lie and reclaiming your identity and that lies in strengthening your
identity. So I'm going to cover those very briefly. Now. Shallow, discovering your identity, how do
you discover your identity your identity is contained in the message of the Quran. So if you want to
know who you are, ask Allah subhanaw taala who you are, he tells you who you are in here.
		

			his book a few points that we can take I won't mention the actual layout but the points from those
eight number one is that Allah's monster Allah chose humans as the special creation. He didn't
choose the trees as the special creation with intellect he didn't choose the rocks he didn't choose
animals he chose human beings as the special creation you are the special creation in as you are as
a human beings prominence is a great blessing. You are the special creation you are the chosen ones
are the last one Darla,
		

			also the miracle that Allah subhanaw taala created humans from nothing. Once upon a time we were
nothing, we didn't exist. And Allah brought your individual existence into this world into this
dunya for a reason. What is that reason you have to find out what that reason is, you are special.
Also that humans natural disposition, the fitrah is a great blessing we are born, knowing Allah
subhanaw taala and being connected to him and throughout life, we lose our way. But it's kind of
like even though belief in Allah subhanaw taala is the fitrah we also have the blessing of freedom
of choice. And we mustn't take that for granted. We shouldn't abuse the fact that we have freedom of
		

			choice.
		

			Also that we are the leaders, the Khalifa on Earth, we are the supreme species, we are the leaders
on Earth, men and women, believers, we are the leaders on this earth. So when we shy away and when
we experience identity crisis, when we feel embarrassed about who we are and what we stand for, and
you know the rest of the world saying this and that about us or putting us down doesn't matter. Why
because we are the leaders of Earth. We are the supreme species as human beings and as believers,
you have a responsibility to lead others and be the good example and share your Eman with others.
Also that Allah is meant to Allah honored our identity because he subjugated the universe to
		

			mankind. Allah wants to Allah says in Surah Ibrahim, that the sun and the moon and the day in the
night were created in service of us. Think about that the rotation of night and day is in service to
us as human beings Subhanallah why are we dishonouring ourselves? Why are we not stepping into our
identities as human beings with intellect with freewill born on the fitrah as Khalifa is on earth
that allows me to Allah has subjugated the heavens and the earth, you know the night and the day the
rotation of the sun and the moon for us Pamela, so discover your identity through connecting with
the Quran. The next point is to reclaim your identity, what does reclaim your identity mean?
		

			Sometimes in life, our identity gets broken through different experiences, it might be stolen from
us through different influences, we might overall just have struggled with our identity, we might
have neglected our identity, we might have a traumatized identity from things that were said or done
to us or might be damaged. These types of things happen that take away sometimes from our from our
identity or that clouded. But remember, you were born with your God given identity, you're born with
it. It's in your fitrah Allah subhanaw taala created you upon it. Throughout life along the way this
identity gets molded and shaped and influenced, sometimes broken, damaged, traumatized, neglected or
		

			stolen. And reclaiming your identity means taking back your rightful ownership of this god given
identity from Allah subhanaw taala. There are lots of different identity influences that are
instilled in us or that we're brainwashed to believe about ourselves. We have internal influences
that come from our own personal zone, emotionally driven, identity issues due to close
relationships, our childhood experiences can influence our identity, how we were raised, our
relationships with our friends can influence our identity with our parents, with our children with
our spouses and relatives. And then we have external influences to our identity. And these are
		

			desire and habit driven influences. Things like the exposure to media, social media, public opinion
of us, the workplace influence on our identity, music, movies, beauty, fashion trends, etc.
Especially for the Muslim women to choose hijab and modesty and simplicity over all these painted
faces and pictures and advertisements. panela it's not easy. So these influences can brainwash and
influence us to believe otherwise then, is the identity that we were born with. When we lose sight
of our true identity and our fitrah and our God given purpose and identity. What is the issue with
that? What you know, why is that a problem for us? Allah's wanna die, Allah says in the Quran,
		

			Allah takuna Kaladin Anna Salah has the answer whom and for whom Allah Iike human firstborn. He says
Be not those who forgot about Allah and then they
		

			Forgot about themselves. So when we lose our identity we lose our sense of self is because we
forgotten who Allah subhanaw taala is. When you know who Allah Spano, Tala is, then you know who you
are, then you know what he wants from you, then you know how you are supposed to be defined and
identified. So that's where our liberation can be found. We're not becoming who we're meant to be,
because we're very, very busy trying to become like someone else. And every time we try to be like
somebody else, and we don't want to be ourselves who Allah subhanaw taala created us to be it means
that our minds have been conquered, our minds have been conquered.
		

			A lady named Luvvie Ajayi. She's a Nigerian author and speaker she says, Being yourself in a world
that wants you to be somebody else is a revolutionary act. But I'll take that a step further and
say, being who our last one adalah wants you to be and created you you to be in a world that wants
you to be like everybody else. That truly is a revolutionary, liberating and life changing act.
Don't be who anyone else wants you to be, don't even be who you want to be. Sometimes we don't know
who we want to be, be who our last one or Darla wants you to be this what I call is owning your
identity to own it, that it belongs to me, I will not sell it, I will not trade it, I will not, you
		

			know I will not give it up for anything or anyone else, and I will not compromise my identity. So
how do we now strengthen our identity we had discover we had reclaim and how do we strengthen it? To
strengthen your identity? First, you have to overcome barriers. You have to fight shape on who
doesn't want you to have a strong identity because if you have a strong identity, you will
constantly overpower him. Or my idea Lohan when he would walk down the street what would happen? So
I thought, honestly, I'll take another path. Why? Because O'Meara de la han had unbreakable Islamic
identity as Pamela so you have to be able to overcome che lon you have to sort out your motivation
		

			issues, why aren't we motivated to change? Why aren't we motivated to practice? What we know know to
be true and right. We have to work on our confidence. To stand for our deen to be proud in our deen.
We have to overstep and face our fears. Sometimes the thing we're most scared of that holds us back
from action. When you overcome it. You're like, oh my gosh, Pamela was no big deal. Why didn't I do
this sooner? You have to strengthen your conviction. You have to let go of your regrets of the past.
A lot of people say but I was like this before. I don't deserve to be good now or better now. So we
have to let go make Toba regret the past but move forward into the future. And we have to let go
		

			what other people think? Who cares what other people think everyone's busy worrying about what other
people think about them than to worry about actually having an opinion about you. It doesn't matter
what other people think Spamalot,
		

			one of my favorite speakers, Imam Abdul Malik from the US. He says how can we understand our
greatness when we don't understand the blueprint that is the foundation for our greatness? What is
the blueprint for the foundation of our greatness, the map of it the Quran, as I mentioned earlier,
your greatness lies in the message of the Quran and you reading it and implementing it and
internalizing and having conviction in it. No other YouTube videos, self help books, Oprah Winfrey,
Dr. Phil all these things. These are not going to bring out your greatness upon Allah. The Quran has
the message for you, but you have to give yourself fully and wholeheartedly to that message of the
		

			Quran.
		

			Also, to strengthen your identity, you need to work on your inner self, your inner transformation,
your o'clock your purification of your heart, your connection with Allah subhanaw taala your
feelings even about yourself, the negative self esteem and the self doubt and the the weak traits,
the impatience, the anger, the all these types of things that you have within yourself you have to
work on them very very important. That comes before working on your outer self. Focus on your inner
self and then let the outer self the actions follow too often we are fixing the outward part it's
very easy to look like a good Muslim, very easy. Wear the right outfit. You know wear your hijab a
		

			certain way. grow the beard long what you can look the part but the internal work that is where the
real challenge lies. That is where you really see your connection with Allah subhanaw taala try to
keep good company to strengthen your your Eman. You know your community centers, your Jamar, your
message your your classes, your programs, your learning, there's a saying that says that you are the
sum of the five people you spend the most time with. If I told you now write down who are those five
people you spend time with? Do they swear Do they smoke? Do they listen to music? Do they pray? What
are their habits because you're the sum of that? If there's an issue with those, that group of
		

			people it's not about looking down upon them but you have to decide for yourself is this the quality
of the person that you want to become?
		

			Find good role models, give back to them
		

			society read and learn please put the phones down and pick up the Quran pick up books read
		

			this the first commandment of Allah subhanaw taala. It got read. Don't browse, don't flick through
things. Don't double click likes and all these sorts of things spend time reading. You know, I read
that if you spend 45 minutes a day reading your finished one book every week.
		

			Sometimes one book is like two years trying to finish one book 45 minutes a day. If you allocate
that time you'll finish a book a week 52 books in a year. Imagine the mind of a believer with 52
books, in a year in their heart and in their, in their heart and in their minds, transforming their
internal and external. Also know your values and beliefs. What do you stand for? What do you not
stand for? Have some principles don't just go wherever the wind blows, know what values what traits
what morals or luck are important to you, about not lying about being trustworthy about being modest
about valuing intellect and knowledge about valuing your time about looking after the Amana
		

			entrusted to you know your values. Know your beliefs know your deen.
		

			I do have a free ebook on this topic of 10 steps to strengthen your Islamic identity. I think this
is just have my business card if you want to go to the website, www dot developing diamonds.com.au
sisters especially if you scroll down, you can get a free ebook emailed to you and surely goes into
these 10 different steps to strengthen your Islamic identity in more detail. So I want to tell you
the story about the lion and the sheep. Everybody likes stories. It's a story about it's not a good
bedtime story. So please don't fall asleep. I can see some brothers falling asleep, Michelle? No.
		

			It's not it's a wake up story. Okay, not a bedtime story. So let's wake up. There was once a
pregnant lion. And she was on her last legs and she died soon after giving birth. The newborn didn't
know what to do. It made its way to a nearby field and it started mingling with a herd of sheep, the
mother sheep's or the cub, and she decided to raise it as her own. So the lion cub grew up along
with the other sheep. And then it starts thinking and acting like a sheep. It would bleed like a
sheep what sound does sheep make?
		

			Masha Allah,
		

			I won't start singing Old MacDonald had a farm because
		

			it would bleed like a sheep and would even eat grass. But it was never truly happy. For one, it
always felt that there was something missing. And secondly, the other sheep would constantly make
fun of it for being so different. Trying to conform but it still wasn't accepted anyway. They would
say you're so ugly and your voice sounds so weird. Why can't you bleed properly, like the rest of
us? You're a disgrace to the sheep community. The lion would just stand there and take in all these
remarks feeling extremely sad. It felt it let down the sheep community because it was so different.
And what a waste of space it was. One day an older lion from afar of jungle sees the herd of sheep
		

			and decided to attack it. While attacking it sees this young lion running away along with the other
sheep. Curious as to what was happening. The older lion decided to stop chasing the sheep and
instead pursued the younger lion. Instead, it pounced on the lion and growled, asking why isn't
running away with the other sheep? The younger lion shakes and Fiemme says Please don't eat me. I'm
just a young sheep. Please let me go. Upon hearing this the older lion grouse, that's nonsense.
You're not a sheep. You're a lion just like me. The younger lions simply repeat it. I know I'm a
sheep just let me go. At this point, the older lion gets an idea. He drags the younger lion to a
		

			nearby river and says for it to look at his reflection. Upon looking at the Reflection THE LION,
much to its astonishment, realizes who it really was. It was not a sheep. It was a mighty lion. The
young lion feels so thrilled that it led out a mighty roar. The roar echoes from all corners of the
jungle and frightens the living daylights out of all the sheep that were hiding behind the bushes to
see what was happening, and they all ran away. No longer will the sheep be able to make fun of the
lion or even stand close to it for the lion had found its true nature. And its true hood.
		

			I don't need to tell you the morals of the story in Sharla. you internalize that yourself and you
realize who you really are and what your identity is.
		

			So there's that third situation in my life where I connected with my identity when I was 21 years
old, where I learned and discovered what my purpose was and it was based on knowledge. And then I
realized I was a lion or lioness Wright Brothers, you have the lines, you have the beard, whatever.
		

			So I was 21 years old and we had Perth is a very, very small city. And we didn't have a lot of like
Dawa a lot of programs and sometimes when a speaker would come it was a big deal. And I don't know
if you guys know Shahar Lydia sin you guys know him? Yeah, Mashallah. May Allah reward him he can
		

			And he did some talks and they sold the DVDs. And I think like a bought all the DVDs, we put all of
them. And I started watching them and one of them it was called what is true success in life. And
when I watched that I had that same feeling that I had when I was 11 years old.
		

			Of like, well now my, my, my feeling of my purpose was now based on knowledge, because he explained
it in a way that made me understand my role in the world. For me to understand what is true success
in his life and in the next life. And that was the moment was fun laughter watch that DVD thing. I
watched it a few times. I remember I cried a lot. And it was just like a wake up call was like, wake
up. Now you need to get serious about your Islam. You need to make a decision you need to start
learning you need to start giving Dawa. You need to start taking this life seriously. Subhan Allah,
may Allah reward him for that reminder that he gave in that lectures from Allah that that lecture
		

			was like the stimulus for me to really spawn or start building things in our community, start
learning and then teaching the very basics of Islam. That's helped me even now being able to stand
before you now is Pamela sparked by someone's Dawa, to me that helped to impact and change me. I
want to read you a short quote, by brother David McClung, his think is an American River brother,
but it's really beautiful about Islamic identity. Islamic identity is your utmost possession. It is
the only identification that matters on the Day of Judgment. It is your faith, your religion, your
moral values and your whole life. The identity is the one that makes you recognize Allah as the one
		

			and only God of this universe. This identity is the one that makes you wake up before sunrise and
pray to Allah. This identity is the one that makes you kind, sincere, responsible and thoughtful
when you deal with people. This identity is the one that forbids you to lie, to cheat, to steal, to
gamble and engage in any immoral behavior. This identity is the one that makes you realize and
understand that Islam is a way of life. This identity is the one that makes you a good human being
because a good Muslim is a good human being spawn along.
		

			So I'm gonna give you an analogy before we close Inshallah, and it's, it's called the Niagra
syndrome. You guys know Niagara Falls. Big waterfall is in Africa, which part of Africa is Tanzania?
		

			Geography people.
		

			I live in a hot way.
		

			That's not my expertise. Again, I go syndrome by Anthony Robbins. You guys know Anthony Robbins,
Tony Robbins, that really excited guy, John, his jumps on the stage, he gives this analogy. Life is
like a river for many people. They just jump into the river of life without ever deciding where they
want to end up. So they end up getting caught in the current current events, current challenges,
current fears, and then they come to know, then they come to the forks in the river. And they don't
consciously decide which way to go. They just follow the currents that go with the flow of the
river, the flow of the majority, instead of being directed by their own goals and values. And as a
		

			result, they feel out of control. But they continue to drift downstream. And to one day, the sound
of the raging water wakes them up and they realize they're five feet from the falls. And they're in
a boat with no oars. And then they say, oh, no, but it's too late. They're going to take a fall down
that waterfall. Maybe it's a financial setback, or a breakup a relationship or health problems or in
our instance and identity crisis. And in almost all the cases the fall could have been prevented by
making better decisions upstream. So we don't want to wait until we hit rock bottom, before we make
changes. And before we step into our identities. If it happens and you hit rock bottom, remember
		

			that Allah's monitor Allah says in the Quran, chapter 17, verse 70, and we have certainly honored
the Children of Adam and carried them on land and sea and provided for them of the good things and
preferred them over much of what we have created with definite preference. Last once again, saying
he honored the Children of Anna Adam, we are honored. We already have the honor. You don't need to
go and seek honor and seek validation you have the honor and Allah's wants Allah created us with a
definite preference you are preferred you already are the special chosen beings of the last one I
tell you that you don't need to seek it externally. So remember, own your identity. Why? Because you
		

			owe it to Allah subhanaw taala to own this identity that he's blessed you with, to own the honor
that He has blessed you with.
		

			The OMA needs you to own your identity. Look at what's happening around us in our communities in the
global community. We cannot help the Ummah at large until we help our own selves. And we know the
famous you know, saying that you won't allow someone to Allah will not
		

			Change the condition of a people until they change what? That which is within themselves and we owe
it to own own our identity for our children. This panel is very important. And we end with the DUA
where Allah Subhana Allah says oil in masala tea one Sookie Why am I here Yama, Marathi. Lillahi
Rabbil Alameen say truly my prayer, my sacrifice for my identity my living and my dying for Allah,
the Lord of the Worlds Jazak Allah Hirens chronicle locomobi Hamdi Hispanic along with the
hamburger, I should have Allah Allah Allah and Turner Saphira Cava to be like Salaam Alaikum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
		

			does like a lot of theater and sister. Please stay on stage we'll have a panel session coming up but
I just want to say a few words about this roaring speech just now I personally felt very inspired.
		

			You know, I It reminds me of a saying