Struggle with your Identity

Calisha Bennett

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The importance of understanding one's own identity and the state of their own identity is discussed, including the impact of Islamophobia on their personal and professional lives. They stress the importance of acknowledging struggles and experiences to support and acknowledge their worth and support their worth. The speakers emphasize the need for people to reclaim their identity and be the good guy, as it is crucial to building a foundation for success. They also discuss the importance of knowing one's identity and working on one's inner self to strengthen connections with Allah and achieve their goals.

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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.

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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.

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His district Alicia here

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

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

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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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

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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?

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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.

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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

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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

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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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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.

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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,

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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.

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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Quran.

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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

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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

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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?

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find good role models give back to the

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

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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,

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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

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your values, know your beliefs know your deen.

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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.

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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?

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Mashallah,

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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?

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geography people.

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I never know.

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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You know, it reminds me of a saying