Daood Butt – Gardens Of Change And Benefit

			Mashallah, you're all tired day? You heard too many lectures today it's Friday hamdulillah No, I
know we all have energy and we're good to go for the next few days inshallah I will take up less
than 20 minutes in sha Allah to Allah mainly because I know we're falling behind schedule and I have
a flight to catch. So I know that I need to get out of here in sha Allah to Allah change and gardens
of change when we talk about change in the Quran and how Allah subhanho wa Taala reminds us as we
you know, highlight the verse and it's probably mentioned to you in the schedule or the timetable,
the verse of the Quran where Allah subhana wa Taala says in law hola yohei Roma be a comin had your
		

			va euroma be
		

			forcing him, Allah subhana wa tada is telling us that he will not change the state or the condition
of the people until they themselves change their own state or how they do things and what they're
doing etc. Now, I want to give you an example of poor attempt or a failure at change, a failure at
change we notice every single Friday at Juma ha, when the Imam is up there on the road, whether it's
Allah or Shaykh, Abdullah NAMM is up there and they don't fail. We fail. We're listening. We're the
ones that are failing. They're telling us brothers and sisters, when you're leaving the masjid make
sure that you leave in an orderly fashion. Thank the volunteers that are helping out with parking.
		

			Try not to cause a fuss at the entrance. And we see this in every single mustard. I do joma clippers
and various different massages. And sometimes they tell you please do a hook but only on parking.
Like what do you mean only on parking? Like do a joma football only on parking. I'm like, you just
take your car, put it between the two lines. And I mean, how's that hard? Everyone got a driver's
license, you had to learn to park your car in order to pass the test to get your license. Why is it
that as Muslims, it's like we're getting our license out of a crackerjack box, simply because we
don't respect each other. And we don't know how to grow as a community. We listened to the Imam
		

			sometimes telling us brothers and sisters, when you leave, leave in a nice way we know that you're
late. So we shorten the clip, but we make it you know, 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes or 30
minutes instead of one hour. But yet still, when we're leaving, and we know that we're all late, we
need to get back to work. Sometimes the Imam himself has to get back to work, you don't think humans
are just leaving drama and that's the only thing they do. They got to get back to work as well. They
know that they're going to be late if everyone else is late as well. But Subhana love when we leave
the masjid. As soon as the football is over, everyone's like stop at a lot. They're running out
		

			there pushing people putting their shoes on, you know rushing to get their car cutting people off
the the person who's telling them come, you know, come forth, turn this way. You know, they come
forth and they they just speed off and go the opposite way and the like, you know, I don't really
care.
		

			Where is the change in our community? How do we expect to see change amongst ourselves? And how do
we expect a lot to help us and to help the Muslims around the world? We're making all the time to
Allah Allah, please help the Muslims in other parts of the world. But you know what, we don't care
about parking our cars and how we respect others. Do you think Allah subhanho wa Taala is going to
listen to us and want to help us help others if we can't help our own selves? Obviously not. So my
brothers and sisters, that's a failed attempt. A successful attempt I witnessed from this building.
		

			Three days a week I teach the life session here at the at the high school is now High School.
		

			And I gave the high school students a project. I told all of the students, I said get together the
brothers in your grades in your class, you get together the sisters in your class get together.
Every single classroom has a group of brothers and a group of sisters. They're all roughly the same
age and I said I'm traveling for the next I think it was three weeks. At the time. I said when I'm
gone for three weeks. This is your project. You have to do whatever you want. Anything that you
want, that will contribute back to society that will give back to the oma that will give back to
people to humanity to human beings. Do something that will have an impact and make your stamp your
		

			footprint. Remember last year at the convention I spoke about leaving your footprint behind leave
your footprint behind through this project.
		

			And out of you know 200 to 300 students when I came back and I asked where's all your projects, no
one gave us no one gave in their project.
		

			And I told them I said, make a video, or document it by writing out what you did and how you
contributed towards society, etc. No one did anything except one group of girls in grade 11. From
this high school from this center, this organization Alhamdulillah, one group of girls, less than 10
girls in grade 11 got together.
		

			And they decided to raise $1,000. And the day that they started to raise money, they realized that
they raised almost double.
		

			And they still had people giving them money. So they raised over $2,000. And they came to me and
they told me, they said, You know what, we're not finished our project, can you give us a little bit
more time, and they had a proposal, they showed me the proposal. And they said, this is the proposal
for our project, we plan on doing all of these things listed here. And it was not one page, it was
two pages, I believe stapled nice with a title. They called it the hope project. And it was really,
really well done. And what they did was they raised over $2,000. And they thought initially, they're
going to just make 100 food baskets or, you know, life baskets that will help people who are
		

			homeless, to have simple things like you know, a few snacks and things that they might need maybe
some socks or you know, some Tylenol, you know, simple things, Advil and so on. Because they raised
more than double than that the you know, the amount they expected. They put together luxury baskets,
like they had double the amount of things or more things in it. And they ended up doing double the
amount of baskets. So instead of doing 100, they did 200 baskets, and they went to a homeless
shelter where we won't identify where it is, etc. But they went to a homeless shelter that is packed
with people. And they started to give out these baskets, these you know, packages that they made to
		

			each one of them. And they also used a bit of the money to have pizza, and you know, some drinks and
so on for them to enjoy a nice meal a meal that's not you know, here's your oatmeal. Just slop it on
there you go to your bowl of oatmeal. Now it was nice, something that they would enjoy.
		

			And Subhanallah You know, when they showed us the video, they made a video it's like 10 minutes or
something eight or nine minutes. They showed us the video in front of all the school and all the
staff right here in the masjid. When we saw the video, we were all in tears. Because one group of
girls did something that made the whole school and the community look good. Not only the community
as in Islam, but the entire Muslim community in this area. All of the people at the shelter felt,
wow, the Muslims came and did something for us, a group of Muslim girls, they came and they spent
the day with us. And there's men and women that are staying there. And they helped us and they did
		

			good things. And the girls were saying that even though we gave them three weeks, they allocated
three pieces of pizza for every single person that was there. Now for us were like three pieces,
man, I could down four pieces. That's half a large pizza, I could do that in no time. Right? It's
four pieces, half a pizza, they gave three pieces to each one of them. And when they went up to get
the pieces, they're like no, no one pieces, okay? Give it to someone else.
		

			Give it to someone else, we're giving this to you as a gift of like no one is enough for me or two
is enough here would you like to eat with us, they were telling them, you know, here take something
for yourselves. And that goes to show us how sometimes if we want to make a change, we need to begin
we need to start. And here's a real life example coming right from this center right from the high
school here is showing us how girls and how you know Subhanallah we just finished hearing how the
majority of our oma is women, the majority of the people out there, whatever, we have conferences in
organizations, you know, at organizations Look at this, the amount of seats for brothers and sisters
		

			roughly about the same. But we know very well that the brothers are going to be tossed up to the
front tomorrow because the whole place is going to be packed with sisters. And we know very well
that there's always a majority of sisters that are coming to our events. And that's because
Alhamdulillah we allow it here, but I've been to countries on Earth where you go to the masjid and
you see a sign outside that says women are forbidden from entering this Masjid.
		

			I have pictures of I've taken pictures of it because I couldn't believe it. Women are not allowed.
No ladies section, men only. And so Pamela in one of those countries. I was lecturing and I was
there teaching and there's one sister and I was talking about women and empowering women and how
women need to, you know, be a part of society and contribute greatly. There was one sister a mother
who raised her hand she says I have something to tell you. She says our local mustard and I've been
to that mustard
		

			in that country, it's not here. It's very far away. Don't worry. All right and another part of the
world. She tells me she says our local mustard, a massive mustard you go to this mustard like
Mashallah beautiful carpet soft, beautiful, lots of space, you know decoration painted nicely air
conditioning fans, beautiful and it's a country that you know, you would think air conditioning,
they can't afford beautiful beautiful mustard. She says I would go to that mustard as a single
mother with my five children. And they would walk them there in the evening. And they would sit on
the steps of the masjid every single day, she said she would go four or five days a week, she would
		

			sit on the steps of that Masjid every single day that she would take her children there. And her
children would go inside to memorize Quran. In 12 years, her five children memorized the entire
Quran. But she said in 12 years, I never stepped foot inside the masjid 12 years, 12 years, sitting
on the steps of the masjid, but you contribute to raising a single mother contributes to raising
five or five and current MMS of massage five individuals who now lead the oma who teach people, the
dean who went on to further their studies. And also did you know other studies in other fields not
Islamic and you know, not in the academic realm, other types of studies. And that's an example of
		

			successful change coming from a single person, a single person, you know, earlier today, and I
didn't want to mention it because I know my wife's here and I know the community knows me. But
earlier today, so
		

			I'm sitting in my in my office at home, and my walls are covered in in bookshelves. And
		

			I'm preparing my joma football.
		

			And my wife comes in and I'm just you know, sitting there jotting down some notes. And my wife comes
in, and she takes something off one of the shelves and goes out and I'm like, whoa, wait a second.
What did you take? You know, I don't like when someone takes things. And I don't know what it is.
Because if someone takes it and I know what it is, and they don't return it, I will go and get it
myself. So I'm like, Wait a second, what did you take, she's like, excuse me, I need permission to
take stuff from your office. I took a book and she's like, it belongs to me. And by the way, I
bought all of these books too. And she's right when I was a student in Medina, my wife used to work.
		

			And she would send me money every year during the book fair and she bought 90, at least about 90% of
the books that I own, my wife purchased for me. And so I was telling her this afternoon that you
know, after Jeremiah said, you know, when I go and I teach and you let me leave in fly places and
teach, we ask Allah Subhana Allah to give you the reward as well because you contributed towards
purchasing all of these books that I read and study so that I can go and teach people around the
world. And that's another example of how we can be an individual who does something so simple, but
contributes towards change across the globe. My brothers and sisters,
		

			Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us in the Koran what is to
		

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			Cold War, Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us that there shouldn't be from amongst us a group of people
that call towards goodness. Now the question for you and I is am I am I part of that group? Am I
doing something good? Am I contributing towards society? And if not, how can I start? Where can I
start? What should I start with? And you ask yourself so canon law? What am I capable of doing?
		

			Can I fund another student that is studying? Can I help another family that is struggling? Can I
gather some of my friends to do something like the grade 11 girls did here at ISNA. Hi, what can I
do? And some Hannah law when we think of it, unity as the community shows strength? You know, when
those group of girls went to the homeless shelter and they gave them some food, and the whole
community looked good, because they did that? I want you to think of the strength of the home of
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Remember when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam goes
from Mecca with goes for aundre to Mecca with the Sahaba and they're performing the walk around the
		

			caribou.
		

			Right, they're performing they're performing the offer on the Kava. Now this habit of the Aloha home
there were people who sometimes didn't even have food. But in order to show their strength, what did
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tell them to do? Take off half of your home
		

			As the men and throw it under your arm and chuck it over your shoulder, why? Why did he tell them to
do that?
		

			to show off your bicep, to show off your bicep to show we as Muslims are strong, and then he tells
them in the first few rounds. Hey, let's go everyone, when we're walking around the combat, let's
go. We can't just walk around, you know, nice and slow it give me a time up five minutes. I know,
five minutes, don't worry, I got a flight to catch. Right? So they're going around the camera and he
tells them jog in the first few rounds jog a little bit in your place just like this. You know why
your biceps are showing you're moving your arms like this is showing strength. And all of this a
hammer, they're going out rasulillah we made this journey. We're hungry, we're tired, we're It's
		

			hot. We're in front of you know, the camera and and people are watching us. They're ready to attack
us. He's like, Don't worry, showing your strength in what in your measly arms, but you're showing it
and from a distance. They see Oh, look at those Muslims. Look at their strength. They're so strong.
They made this journey and they're showing off their muscles and they're running, they still full of
energy. These people are strong. And that shows unity in our community. A simple thing, a simple
thing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells them to do. And so my brothers and sisters, it's
time that we unite and show strength as well. We have to unite. We have to unite in our communities.
		

			If you don't know what to do, begin by bridging the gap between your Masjid or your community or
your household with another household or your mustered with another Masjid or your organization with
another organization bridge those gaps. We need to show strength in our communities here. And it
begins with one person doing it with their family, another family getting another family together,
multiple families getting their community together, that community comes together with another
community. And then all across Canada, we see unity in sha Allah hota hai Allah and the month of
Ramadan is at our footstep. It's right in front of us knocking on our door. We see that the month of
		

			Ramadan is right in front of us and on Milan is a month where we are supposed to plan for the next
11 months of the year. It's not a month where we you know we're stagnant in our Eva and Ramadan
comes and all of a sudden Yeah, you know Iron Men Muslim who's reciting the entire Quran every
single week and standing in our way and fasting 18 hours a day and paying zeca and giving sadaqa as
well and helping and all the massage and fundraisers because it's the month of money I mean month of
mercy and the loss of Hannah who is Anna wants me to give money. I mean, he's merciful upon me and
Subhanallah we're always you know, plugging that plugging that giving it listen Pamela Where are we
		

			after Ramadan? So this month of Ramadan, make it a month where you establish yourself to be
consistent and constant throughout the year in trying to unite yourself with your community and your
community with other communities. We ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah to grant us a deeper
understanding of the verses of the Quran. We ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to make it easy for us to
learn this Deen to spread it and to teach it and we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to unite all of us
so that we are strong together and we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to accept our efforts and grant us
the highest level of jedna jacumba level higher than or subtle la senemo American enter Vietnam
		

			hamadryad le us Aviva Salim was sent Mr. alikum warahmatu Allahi wa barakato