Calisha Bennett – Struggle with your Identity

			In this globalized age and time, we are often struggling with our identity. Is it compatible to be a
Muslim and a Hong Kong are 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 attitude towards
life. So for those of you some of you are not here yesterday, so I will introduce sister Felicia
again, while she's working through the whole system. Felicia Bennett 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.
		

			His district Alicia here
		

			Oh, she's here. Okay, cool. Great.
		

			So everyone, please join me in welcoming Mr. collision.
		

			I'll be lying in a shade llanera James Miller Rahmani Raheem
		

			in Al hamdu lillahi Narmada who was dying who wanna sell Pharaoh when are older below him in surely
on fusina woman sejahtera Melina Maja de la who fella mobila home a little fella hajela eyeshadow La
ilaha illAllah who the hula shriek Allah wa shadow Mohammed Abu rasuluh, about very early on
operates 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 evil consequences of our evil actions. Whoever
Allah subhanaw taala guides, none can misguide. And whoever is led astray none can God. I bear
witness 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 Sara Lee Emery olahraga data melissani of Cabo Cali salaam aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa
wabarakatuh.
		

			So I want to 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 her I mean, 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 come along. 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 look, I don't want to go to 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 Salah. So that was the age I decided to make, start
making solar. So hamdullah this is from Allah subhanaw taala. 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 inshallah. 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 own mind? I want you to ask yourself, do you think there is an
identity crisis in this online? I can already see some sisters nodding brothers, do you think
there's identity crisis in our oma?
		

			Yeah, we'll see. inshallah, if we enhance that understanding of this crisis. 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 that 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, Pamela, also that there's 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 they feel
		

			about their thumb. There was a first of its kind research done in 2016, called the Muslim doll study
of Muslim identity study. And it was done and conducted by the center, 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 Isa said, Can we be Muslim? And what
		

			is that Hong Kong? Hong Kong a nice, I don't know.
		

			I'm saying and even more upsetting one in six children that would pretend not to be Muslim. So
hiding that Islam feeling embarrassed of the Islam. 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, Mashallah. They put out a video showing a study that they did with
3000 articles in Australia, we're referring to Islam and Muslims, alongside words like terrorism,
radical extremism, via violence, etc. 3000 in a year, over 3000 in one year on a law, 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 come along.
		

			So now we have the issue of the Islamophobic narrative that is being, you know, strung out by the
media scandal 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 as dead 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 anywhere. So these are
very destructive conditions of the mind.
		

			So now, when we look at this concept of identity crisis, did 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 if we're
confident to make Salah in the workplace, they don't feel confident to wear hijab, their 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 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, what they were gonna think of me and I was in hijab. And you know, I didn't want my mom
to leave me, you know, and she's like, okay, it's normally going 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 the hood. Just following behind like
I was some alien UFO panel that had arrived from Mars, spawn along. 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 town. They didn't know, Muslims. This was before September 11. It
was 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 have a shower with that
		

			thing on your head? All these funny sorts of questions. 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 you know, 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, a lie and reclaiming your identity and it 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 smart Allah who you are. He tells you who you
are in his
		

			Book, a few points that we can take I won't mention the actual idea but the points from those is
number one is that Allah wants 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 policy is a great blessing. You are the special creation You are the chosen ones are the last
one to Allah.
		

			Also the miracle that Allah Allah 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 that fits at all is a great blessing. We are born knowing a lost model
and being connected to him and throughout life, we lose our way. That's kind of like even though
belief in Allah tala 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 halifa 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 Allah honored our identity because he subjugated the universe to mankind. Allah
		

			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.
As Pamela Why are we dishonouring ourselves? Why are we not stepping into our identities as human
beings with intellect, with freewill born on the fifth raw, as Khalif is on earth that Allah tala
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 is 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. Thought
remember you were born with your God given identity you were born with it. It's in your fifth or
last month Allah created you upon it. throughout life along the way this identity gets molded and
shaped and influenced, sometimes broken, damaged, traumatize 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, without parents without children without 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, you know, brainwashed and influenced us to believe otherwise then I
the identity that we were born with, when we lose sight of our true identity and our fits at all,
and our God given purpose and identity. What is the issue with that? What you know, why is that a
problem for us? Allah dialer says in the Quran,
		

			Allah takuna Kala de Nana sola has the answer home and foster home hola como el fassi upon, 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. Because we
forgotten who are lost when $1 is, when you know who our last one or dialer is, then you know who
you are, then you know what he wants from you, then you know how you're 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 Allah subhanaw taala wants you to be and created 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 shavon who doesn't want you
to have a strong identity because if you have a strong identity, you will constantly overpower him.
Or maratea Lohan when he would walk down the street what would happen? So it's almost like another
path. Why? Because oh my god Lohan had unbreakable Islamic identity. It's Pamela. So you have to be
able to overcome shaylen 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
Pamela?
		

			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, Pamela, 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 weak traits, the
impatience, the anger, the all these types of things that you have within yourself, you have to work
on them. It's 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 you know your connection with Allah
subhanaw taala try to keep good company to strengthen your your Eman. You know your community
centers, your Jamaat your message and your your classes, your programs, your learning. There's a
thing 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 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 the
		

			It 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 grow, 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 like two years trying to finish one book 45 minutes a day, if you allocate that
time you 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 manner 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, 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 Shelly 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 of us not a good
bedtime story. So please don't fall asleep I can see some brothers falling asleep Mashallah.
		

			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 she make?
		

			Mashallah,
		

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

			it would bleed like a sheep and I 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 to 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 and older lion from afar of jungles, these 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
is it running away with the other sheep? The younger lion shakes in fee and says please don't eat
me. I'm just a young sheep. Please let me go. Upon hearing this, the older lion growls That's
nonsense. You're not a sheep. You're a lion just like me. The younger lions simply repeated. I know
I'm a sheep Just let me go. At this point, the older lion gets an idea. he drags the younger line 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 herd.
		

			I don't need to tell you the morals of the story. inshallah 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 the lions, 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
dry little programs and sometimes when a speaker would come it was a big deal. And I don't know if
you guys know Shakeology has seen 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, or 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 this life and in the next life. And that was the moment I laughed. I watched that DVD I think I
watched it a few times. I remember I cried a lot and it was just like wake up call was like wake up.
Now you need to get serious about your exam. 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 upon Allah. May Allah
reward him for that reminder that he gave in that lectures, Pamela that. That lecture was like the
		

			stimulus for me to really start building things in our community start learning and in teaching the
very basics of Islam. that's helped me even now being able to stand before you now was this panel
sparked by someone's dour to me that helped to impact and change me. I want to read you a short
quote, by brother David McClung. He's think he's an American revert 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 the
good Muslim is a good human being strung along.
		

			So let me 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 a Tanzania?
		

			geography people.
		

			I never know.
		

			That's not my expertise. Again. niagra syndrome by Anthony Robbins. You guys know Anthony Robbins,
Tony Robbins, that really excited guy, john, his jumps on the stage. It 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 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, an 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 allows my dialer 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. A lot once again, saying
he honored the children of an 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 allotments Allah created us with a
definite preference you are preferred you already are the special chosen beings of a last one I saw
like 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 oma 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 earn, earn our identity for our children. This panel is very important. And we end with the DA
where Allah, Allah says only inequality one usuki one mahiya yahama Mati lillahi Rabbil aalameen say
truly my prayer, my sacrifice for my identity, my living and my dying for Allah, the Lord of the
worlds Jazakallah hirens Chronicle long Moby Hamdi his chronicle of Moby handicar Chateau La Ilaha
Illa antenna satirical wa to be like salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			Like a love hate 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, it reminds me of a saying