19 Feb 2016
Faaik Gamieldien – 143 – Jumuah
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss their political and religious contributions, including their pension and contribution to a pension. They also discuss their religiousity and commitment to their faith, including their clothing choices and religiousity. They also talk about the challenges faced by Muslims in the country, including socialization, transportation, and cultural differences. The transcript describes the construction of structures in buildings to protect against damage and the guidance against damage.
AI: Summary ©
hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah who wanna stay you know who wants to be here wanna talk Hello LA. When I will be learning I mean surely unforeseen. Amin se Malina, Mayor de la forma de La Hoya de la sala de la
la la la la la, la sharika wanna shadow? Mohammed Abu Rasulullah Salatu was Salam O Allah he was he was happy woman without what he
died. There are brothers and sisters in Islam a salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Last week, we and I've done this maybe over a number of weeks, I have referred continuously to the challenges that we face as a Muslim community in this country. And as Muslims, I think, all over the world. And last week, we discussed the question of the man, and how it is important to watch what we do in life and what we mix with and where we go.
because it affects our man, and sometimes in the process of what we do, and where we go, we lose it completely. And we refer to the ayah in the Quran, where Allah describes this process of the loss of the man in the Quran.
And inshallah, from time to time, we must speak about this, because I think these are important issues that confront us every day of our lives.
We find ourselves now in South Africa, in a time of great political upheaval, we can see it we don't even have to watch the television very much, you can just switch it on, and you can see what is happening. We have We are, we are on the brink of you're not into it yet, given the brink of recession in this country. Which means that lots of people, including Muslims are going to suffer lose their jobs, we will have to cut our cloth according to our earnings, whatever earnings we have, and we asked for lost hundreds with barakah in earnings and to protect us and to help us. But they say God helps those who help themselves. So we needed to have put away something for the rainy day,
and not spend all our money willy nilly and independent on our credit card to bail us out to the end of the day, and we get more and more into debt. So it's time now to get out of your debt and to get into a savings mode. because things are gonna get very expensive. The drought hasn't eaten yet, but the drought is going to mean that wheat is going to go up corn is going to go up all the basic things that we eat every day, our cereals, our pulses, these are things are going to get very, very expensive. Brady's gonna go very expensive. And so whether or not so so we have a lot of challenges. But I think the main challenge for us as Muslims in this country is the political challenge. And
we are part of South Africa, we are part of the rainbow nation. Without Muslims in this country, they will not be a South Africa as we know it. But it's sad to see that if you look at Parliament, and we can see it on the screen, we see that there are no Muslim voices anymore in Parliament,
or the voices of the Muslims in Parliament are muted. We haven't seen any Muslims stand up in Parliament in these in the Sona debate, to say anything about politics even.
And just representing the Islamic point of view. I mean, I've said to you before that the Catholics and the Jews, these communities have the offices in Parliament. They have offices in Parliament where the lobbyists are present all the time, to talk to government and to and to and to the political
representatives about the needs of the Jewish community and the Catholic community. And therefore, we have a position where we have had a bowl of Muslim personal law on the books for a number of years, many, many years, I would say
and nothing has come of it. It's because we don't have Muslims anymore that talk on behalf of this community.
So
it is a worrying factor that Muslims are in the decline in the political sphere. And I must immediately add that we need to also grow up and mature as a political community in this country. I think the days when people condemn you when you belong to the DA or the or the ANC or whatever other parties they are, that suddenly if you belong to a particular party or a traitor or you this so you that you get condemned. I think we need to mature and grow up
and leave the apartheid days behind and say that we have a choice. If a man wants to vote D that's his choice. And if he wants to vote ANC then that's his choice. If he feels that the DI or the ANC or whatever other party promotes it
is good for him as a as a Muslim and as a South African, then you should be left to its unconscious. After all. There is nothing in the Quran and Sunnah to say must vote for the ANC or vote for the deal. Although the ANC says there will be until Jesus comes back. But that's no guarantee that they are religious party, they certainly not a religious party.
If we place ourselves within many other faith based communities as African there are many faith based communities in South Africa, we have the Christian community, the Hindu community, so many other communities, the the ancestor worship community,
and all these communities, you will notice their contributions to this African way of life and to South Africa are very vocal on the in the newspapers, on the radio, you'll always hear that this Christian organization has done that to this person. In fact, in Parliament, now, you've seen how President Zuma loads people who have done well, for the society, not a single one of them are Muslim. Their main names are mentioned in Parliament's this one did that that one did that. But there wasn't a single, are you telling me there is not a single outstanding Muslim in the whole country that has done anything for this country in the last 300 years of the standing of this
country. But that is not a reflection of government that is a reflection of where we are at the moment. And we still see ourselves as a separate can we somehow or other we seem to think that, you know, we are the chosen people of God, somehow we are the chosen people of God. And then we we really shouldn't get involved in politics. And we, as it was in the days of apartheid, we should just, you know, go fetch our pension every month. And that is where things begin. And we think stuff. And as long as we have a job, you know, we're not really worried about everybody else in politics, while you know that for the ANC and the DA to work are not really out. But But that is
not. So we also need to make a contribution. And we do make contributions, no doubt about it. There is our personal contributions, we make our community our contribution as a community of Muslims who make it on a daily basis. And there is the external contribution that we make, we also make contributions to our own community as Muslims. And we also make contributions to the national effort, certainly, because we're part of and part and parcel of the politics and economics of this country. So a good Muslim is a good doctor, he's a good a good Muslim is a good doctor contributes every day to South Africa. A good businessman is a good Muslim is a good businessman. He contributes
the richest African, a good teacher, a good lawyer, we all make our contributions on a daily basis. But we don't seem to see that these contributions that we make are actually recognized by the powers that be not that we need recognition. But we are going to be sidelined as a community. And we will then become a target as a community.
When you trivialize the community, and you make as if that community doesn't exist anymore, then we become a target for all kinds of racism, xenophobia, and whatever it may be. And then we will find ourselves in a position where we we can't defend ourselves because we are outside of the political system. We are outside of the social system.
Because we have
become introverts. We see only Islam, the masjid, the wedding, the nica, the dogma, the Hadith, that is our life, Ramadan, nothing wrong with Ramadan. But that is how we see ourselves. And you know, the world is changing. We live in a very change, we live in an ever changing world, and we have to become part of the changing world.
We must be careful
in the way that we behave as Muslims in this country,
that we are not going to be psychologically bullied into a position that all we can do is to just become people who apologize for ourselves.
Oh, you know, it's not really like that. And it's not really like that. You didn't understand our faith, and we don't support ISIS, and we don't support this. And we sorry that somebody in France did that. And we Sorry about that. That is what we become, psychologically we become like that. And we must not accept that status of being psychologically inferior.
And what does it mean when I say that we become psychologically inferior? It means when people look at us,
they say, you know, these Muslims they're a problem people. They their problem people and they say
is not only because of what ISIS is doing in the Middle East,
or the Taliban is doing in avani, Stan, all the refugees that is crowding the streets of Paris and London, and Berlin. But they say this, because
of the way that we behave as Muslims, they say this muscle as a problem. They they're a problem. And what do they mean, when they say we have a problem, they mean that there's something wrong with a Muslim, she's Muslims, their problem, there's something wrong with these Muslims.
And I know from personal experiences, you know, as a so called colored person in the days of apartheid, who grew up in the heady days of poverty in it, you know, in, in the days gone by I, we've experienced this kind of, kind of, you know, these people are a problem, we need to keep them at bay, when you keep them where they are. Don't give them all the opportunities.
I mean, it was it was based on color.
It was also based on religion, I remember the entire care gave a statement at one point in time to say that
ceilometer was a falsehood.
I mean, they had the guts to say that in the days of a party, that this is a false religion. So we've we've we've experienced that.
And they will not stop at saying we are a problem community. Until and unless
that's something which they find a problem with that we change it, they want us to change the thing that is a problem.
And when we do change that, which is a problem for them,
then they shift the goalposts.
So every time they will shift the goalposts.
So let's assume a woman with a job she wears a scarf. So they will put pressure on the she doesn't have a scarf.
And then they shift the goalposts
then they will say, Well, fine, you know, wearing a scarf, you know, but you know, you can't read long dresses at work, you know, you have to wear shorter days. And so the goalposts shift all the time.
And we end up being modern slaves to the dictates of the majority.
Whatever the boss wants, whatever society demands from us, we will do it. We will write up your interest base books,
we will be involved in your wine industry, we will have our weddings, on your wind farms, and you still don't love us. We do all these things for you, and you still don't love us. What's wrong with you? Why do you shift the goalposts all the time?
You know, we we even prepare to eat at all our friendly restaurants, you know, in our lobby are offering What more do you want from us. And every time they shift the goalposts and we become these modern slave Muslims, we tap dance around what
other people want from us, the Christian majority wants from us.
And as I say, this is not only because of the socio political challenges of ISIS that has brought about this
state of mind in the in the rest of the community.
Those are big challenges. But
we also have challenges on a daily basis in our lives, all of us, like a change. And I want to talk about the the unsung heroes that I call him the unsung heroes of our society.
That probably face the biggest challenge
in this community and in the world today.
And these unsung heroes
are the women who wear hijab.
I'm not saying women will cover their faces, I'm just saying women who wear hijab, they wear my scarf, but they wear long dress.
And these women,
to me, deserve my admiration. When I see them, they deserve my admiration.
They are religiously committed women.
Otherwise they wouldn't wear the hijab.
And I'm not trying to place the hijab wearing women above the other women.
But I asked myself the question Would I wear hijab every day of my life if I go whether I go to a restaurant, whether I go to the to Kenwood center with I go to Claremont, whether I go when I go overseas, and travel, will I go with a job if I was a Muslim, if I was I as a person, would I wear a hijab when I go for an interview as a as a as a
nanuk advice in a big corporate company? would I do that?
I know that hijab is not all Islam is Islam is not all hijab, I mean, Islam is not a reflection of a man, or through commitment to our laws. But just wearing of that.
I think when we look at it
from the other people's for, say, from a Christian perspective,
it's tough for them.
To be immediately recognized as a Muslim today is not easy. Immediately when put somebody punches are gonna say, Well, this is a Muslim.
Answer. So all the negative images
that comes on the television, and comes on in the newspapers get conjured up in the mind of the person who looks at that, and you know, women do it, they do it every on a daily basis, not just on a Monday and a Wednesday and Friday, are not just on a Friday, no, they do it on a daily basis. And so
I asked myself the question,
would I be able to, and therefore I say to the women, I really admire those women.
I really relate my women. And I think a husband has to admire his wife, if she wears the hijab,
and it shows
those women have a deep down profound.
They have an inner strength that most men don't have.
I should ask us, how many of us who walk in a cell
with a coffee
every day wherever we go?
In order to say that? Here I am, I'm a Muslim?
Well, some of us will, because we've got big stomachs, but then That's out of the question.
And somebody to sustain that on a daily basis. Really, they deserve honor, they deserve our respect. And I say that those ladies are the unsung heroes, that is overcome that challenge in our community.
And I was also say that
these unsung heroes are unsung heroes of today. Because when I was growing up as a young man, and as a child, very few people will
cling to Cassandra,
and coach Curtis.
And some of you already 70 years old, they still wear the shorts, and they would still wear this movie. But it was that was then just part of the culture.
So if women do that, I think we should look at them with different eyes.
So these are some of the struggles and challenges that we have. I mean, I'm sure there are many of you sitting in this magic today. was struggling to keep your children engaged these karmically? How do I keep my child engaged islamically
a lot of us have the challenge. A lot of you have this challenge. Okay, my child is intelligent, and we have discussions, he goes to university. But he's not doing the things that I want him to do islamically.
My daughters are good children, but they don't wear scarves or short skirts, they don't accela these are challenges that Muslims have.
And a lot of these challenges are because of the fact that they grow up, they get socialized in what we call the New South Africa.
When back in the day, when I was young, we were socialized in a different kind of mulu in a different kind of environment,
which produce a different kind of person.
We were that we would produce in the 50s and the 60s in the 70s. And we have a certain set of values, and a certain set of virtues that is passed down to us.
And also our children don't live in that society. So they don't have the values that we have values of honor values of sexual virtue, values of patience, forgiveness.
Because they've been socialized in a different kind of environment. I'm not going to sing the praises of a party, but I think the separation of the races was in a way for Muslims a good thing. And as I say this in hindsight,
probably the fact that I didn't go to UCT at the time in the bush college in the 60s may have been good for me maybe I would have landed up somewhere else if I had gone to like many of my competitors and my the people that that didn't stick with me at the time and we'd have to use it
so yeah, it's good in in in good and bad in good and good in bed.
And our children. When they try to reconcile their values with their parents Time passed down to them the values of virtue of honor of sexual propriety is most important.
What are they get told what is the new environment tell your child when that child wants to be a good Muslim?
Hey, go out there, man, go get it. Go for it. Do all you can be, no matter what you do. Even if you're younger, you have to leave home as a girl, no, no, no problem, go go into the world, go for it.
That's what the new order tells our children
that your parents are not important. When you get become 18. And the night out, you can do what you want. They can go where you want. That is what the new socialization is about.
But we must realize
that we can live fully. But we must also live righteously.
Every Muslim can live his full life, there's nothing that prevents you from being everything you want to be.
But we need to tell our children that
the sweetness of a full life is when you live righteously.
When you do the right things in accordance with Islam, that's very important. And I know today even parents are struggling with it to keep that balance. And young couples are struggling with that, to balance their lives is working mums and dads and also to keep their marriages alive.
And so we need to develop a caring and sharing community which I don't find today. I mean, we have this magic.
I mean, there's magic is
a magic
bolt of bricks and mortar. But that is not the magic. The Magic consists of you and me.
And it's all our duties and responsibilities men and women
to use the masjid for the benefit of the community to show that we care and that we can share and we value each other's company and so forth and so on.
So internally among amongst ourselves must help each other people have problems.
The Magic must be the place where people can come and chat about who they are and what they are and what problems they have. And it's your responsibility my responsibility to start these kinds of initiatives in the community
Yes, I know you like your rugby in your cricket in your football but what really is the benefit of that in society?
Okay, now you're gonna shoot me down. Okay, and I know that's a wrong statement. Oh my god, what is it I that now? Now all my rugby mates are going to desert me.
Yeah, there's a lot of social value in that social value. We meet each other we play. What about the other values that we also need as a society. People say the kids play soccer fine. But it's that's part of life. That's all of life. You can't exercise the muscles of the body you have to exercise the brain you have to exercise the soul. And the most it is the repository of that. This is the place where we come and we share like I come here every Friday and I share with you but it's not enough one hour with me which is not enough. Okay, we provide a Wednesday evening also but you know, also people don't come many come but many don't come
and when I'm dead the day you say I you know should have gone is gone, you know.
Now now we've got this
package vacuum. So is the vacuum cleaner, things don't get better. Remember, they always get worse.
That's the nature of life.
From the prophets of Salaam right down to the to asherah things. There's a downhill downhill slide.
So then we have that is internal which we have to do as a community then these are external responsibilities or external contributions as a community to South African to South African society.
I was surprised to see the other day on a
on a poster of the cape times it said Musa Rafi in foundation feeds 15,000 people every day and I thought wow, this is probably the first time that I see a Muslim organizations name on a cape town's poster advertising what that organization is doing.
That is one once in only in Cape Town. What about all the other organizations what they are doing? So why is it that
Muslims must always prove what they're doing? Muslims always have to prove that to God the way to prove that we are we are we are we are also making a contribution to society. Why?
Why is it the others good recognition but most of them don't get recognition.
Have you heard this
non Muslim has always say, you know, the Muslims, they want to impose their religion on other people
was averted. People say that now you people want to impose their religion, you know, look at ISIS, you know, they want to kill everybody they in Iraq and that part of the world because you know, they must become Muslim. And this kind of mindset has been transferred also to the Christians and other people in this community.
And, you know, they make an example of the halaal stamp, as you know, it's, it's always comes up from time to time, why must we buy things with a nurse? In other words, these Muslims really want to put their stamp, you know, and they want to convert us,
and so forth and so on. But it's not only about ISIS,
is not because ISIS has put this in their minds. It's an ongoing thing. Now Muslims have a certain impression of us.
And the impression they have of us is
that, you know, Muslims, everything they do must be strictly according to the religion. Don't divert. Muslims winners do it extremely. And when they click on the religion, I mean,
they mean, the way we see our religion alpha, as a very strict faith, as bounded by boundaries, which we do not cross.
They see us as seeing our own faith, as a very narrow faith.
And we're not prepared to budge on the narrow face.
We will disturb the whole community for fudger in the morning, non Muslim and Muslim and when people complain, then we say, Are you anti religious? Are you anti muslim?
And the people we should wake up in the morning, they sleep.
They don't complain.
They should be getting up and coming to the masjid non Muslim to wake up in the morning when the alarm goes off. That's why they completely Strange, isn't it? So, you may say, but you know, you're Muslim, don't come to the don't go to your church in the mornings. Why do you have to make this big noise? Why do you wake us up in the morning you should wake up late and wake up. Maybe you should try some other way of waking them.
So you know, they see us as this very strange group because it's very narrow faith
that we talk we want to talk on a Friday
and so forth and so on many things that we do.
And we think like that is what we've internalized that this is Islam. Islam is coming to Jamal on Friday. Islam is Ramadan. Islam is very big in Amara, this is how Islam This is the beginning of the end about Islam.
We don't see Islam as a religious civilization we only see it as a religion.
If we begin to see Islam as a religious civilization we will change as a community.
After all, Islam as the
is the faith religious civilization that brought us to the world.
sciences to the world, culture
and just our genius as Muslims we took to the world.
If Islam was only the things which I said it was, the Sahaba would not have left Medina and Mecca was the best places to make that gives a kind of mix align to those are the best places to do it. Why would you leave Mecca Medina, why would you leave it because that is genius, that is Satan mission. And that was to change the narrow out of the people that and to bring Islam as a religious civilization to the world.
And none mostly is may not be able to participate
in Islam as a religion. But non Muslims have been participating in Islam as a civilization since the beginning of Islam.
And somebody will not believe this, but this is true.
non Muslims of every faith that participated and benefited from Islam as a civilization.
Con expecting Mexico obviously not who gives the car or go for Hajj.
Anybody here heard of a man called my money days?
Not my money days. It's
my money days. I was introduced to my monitors when I was a student of the social sciences.
Some time between 1967 and 1969
and my teacher of that subject
History of philosophy was Adam smolen was some of you may know him.
My money days
was a Jewish philosopher.
He was known amongst it as
my moon, evening a moon that was his, his Arab name.
His his, his Jewish name was
Moshe
Ben mamoon.
He was a Jewish philosopher.
And he was born in Cordova, in the 12th century, Andalusia,
Spain.
He was not only a philosopher, he was a
he was chief adviser to the Sultan of the time.
He wrote books on metzen
on the tour around the Angelus, very committed Jew.
And
he wrote all his books in Arabic.
He was a Jewish scholar, who wrote his books in Arabic, because Arabic in 12th century
Spain was the language of the sciences.
In fact, if you read the history of Spain, Muslim parents in the 12th century in 12th century Spain used to complain about the children who could not write letters in Latin, which is the Christian Catholic language at the time, but could write poems in Arabic and sometimes exceed the expertise of the Arabs themselves.
So here is an example. My monitor is of course, later left Spain,
went to Morocco
finally died in to start in Egypt.
And interestingly enough, he became the chief physician of Salahuddin a UB AFI conquered Jerusalem.
So it means this Jewish philosopher medical was a very important man respected by the Muslim King and what was his what was his language, his folk? What was the language he wrote in? It was the universal language of the Quran.
He participated in Islam as a civilization.
And so did the young people of Cordoba and Granada. Use the Arabic language as part of our contribution to civilization.
And
if we must regain our position in the world, we need to recapture our connection
with Islam as a civilization.
Well, this is not a newfangled idea is nothing new that I thought about that we must not become a civilization.
Read race, if you can see reverse civilization.
All civilizations felt at all within the civilization of Islam, whether it was my monitors, whether it was the Christian philosophers within Iraq, in Persia in Egypt,
people felt comfortable, people could participate.
You voted even has an
even has an Al andalusi, another Andalusian scholar who also lived
in the 12th century in Spain. It
was
what I call a polymath.
polymath is a person
who is wide ranging knowledge of so many subjects it's impossible to count. He wrote more than 200 books, he started the mother of his own called the hidden method.
And he wrote 14 volumes on his trip alone. He was a jurist.
He wrote
on he was the first Muslim jurists to write a book on comparative law. We compared the Torah and the Injeel and the
first man.
He was considered to be the second most prolific writer amongst Muslim writers of poverty.
We wrote more books, more books and probably the most books
even it hasn't
Are our books on
Hades, the fear of the Koran.
And he was very forcefully a very forceful personality.
He was again, things like that lead, you know, people who are not Muslim, he was very, you know, you want to say something, he said something
reminds a little bit of myself.
But you know what else, you know,
there are all these books on Islam. He was, of course, he wrote 10 books on medicine as well. So, great guy, great scholar. He hasn't landed loose.
But you know what else he wrote.
He wrote the book on what some people call erotic love.
I call it Islam. I wanted to use it with a rhotic love because that's in the wake you up, I think the new year with erotic love
the book as well Don't call him.
Phil old firewall, left
the ring of the dove.
A story about love and the beloved.
Now,
you say well, of course, it's all written within the parameters of what Islam
teaches us. Love out of marriage and * out of marriage. Now you should. This is not about the thing that the
the Hindu civilization wrote that is still going around. But that kind of book. But it was certainly a book about erotic love.
Now, what's the contradiction between this and all the books on the soul that he wrote the book that he wrote a thesis he wrote, it was a great scholar, in fact.
No, he didn't see a contradiction. He saw a contradiction in what he had written, having read the book. And by the way,
if you had seen a contradiction between that,
and he said he would not have written it.
But he saw Islam as a civilization.
So when people the Spanish looked at the Muslims, they didn't ask the question, What are these? What are these moves in contribute to Spain? Now they didn't ask this question. This evidence was self evident.
There's not like when the Christians asked in this country, what do these Muslims contribute
to South African society into South Africa.
And we may come up with a few recipes, I'm sure.
And some old buildings.
But further than that, we've not reached
the level of that kind of civilization that was reached in Muslim Spain. And they rolled it for 800 years and we just about 800 years after that.
And 800 years after we've left Spain, for 800 odd years now.
People go back there to look at what
tourists go there to look at what
Ah, to look at Muslim architecture.
Mostly non Muslim, believe an unbeliever atheists white, black, red, blue. When they go to Spain, they go to Granada, they go to Toledo they go to all these places to look at what the splendor and the beauty
and the profoundness of Muslim architecture
that is part of our civilization.
And
the architecture we see that the gardens and the rivers and the
water reticulation systems which they started
the gardens which is still growing the
is this in the Quran?
No, is nothing in the sun. No. Brandon talk about architecture. Providence speak about architecture.
But this is part of the civilization of Islam. These are the artifacts. These buildings represent the inspiration and values that Islam has.
That everything that we build and make reflects that the heat of our last 100
we have
an architectural style called arabesque
gray must have read the word the word some arabesque is a style where things are built and produced in such a way that it gives the
impression of infinity
I think the mosque in Coronado
you see these pillars. And if you look at the line of pillars as if it's running
to infinity,
if you look at some of the arts,
the fun Miller who dude, the art without
any means, the secular art goes on and on. And the dome is probably an expression of that kind of fun Villa Whoa, dude, art without any custom goes, hasn't got the beginning hasn't got a name. And that reflects the heat of our last panel.
So what did we hope to achieve by doing this kind of art, or this kind of so so so even today, people are
participating in Islam as a civilization.
Oh, by iPod civilization, but silly civilization.
And through these contributions that we've made throughout the world, where it's in Turkey, but Spain, of course, is a good example, because it's seated now in a, in a Catholic country. We add value Islam has always to add value to add conflict.
To add beauty, hassanal robina, Tina dunya, Hassan, ask Allah, Allah give us the beauty of this world, and the beauty of the acid to add beauty to the world.
And I've traveled the world. And I've seen the of the beautiful architecture, both modern and old.
I mean, you sit in the Blue Mosque.
In Turkey, you can sit there forever. It absorbs you completely. Those domes in the size of the just the size of it
is profound and very stunning.
And people go there just to see these beautiful ornaments that Muslims had built
without a single figure in in them without a single * figure, half * figure like
you find in Rome and all the other Christian places. This is pure beauty. And this is inspired by Islam, the civilization of Islam.
So in Spain, no one could ask the Muslims the question, What have you done for our society? Because it's there, you can see it.
So when I went to visit the mosque built by the Turkish gentlemen, in how
I was really impressed, this is something that I say to myself, represents Islam.
It speaks more than a million words and a million sermons to ever want to pass through this structure.
And I'm sure many people none of us have been affected by that kind of architecture, that kind of art.
So those civilizations that lived at the time and as I said, he wrote this book on love.
It meant
that every Muslim, young or old who lived at that time could refer to his own
for every subject that he needed advice on.
So if a young man needed advice on love, and the beloved, he didn't have to go to some Hollywood movie to see it, or buy some book in the, in the bookshop, Reverend buys by non Muslim equals refer to books written by his own scholars on a particular subject.
So
it means that
it tells us that if we are not going to see Islam as a civilization,
we are going to see Islam only in terms of our Salah
of the
heart
of fasting
and we will become in our really be becoming dependent on everything else.
For ideas outside of Islam.
The only inspiration withdraw from Islam is that if we want to know anything about should my child, what should my child study at university.
We don't open a book written by a Muslim scholar to say but you know, these are the halau sciences that we need to study. These are the needs in the community we need to set
or the architecture is a science of Islam that represent Islam as much as everything else represent Islam.
That studying
The oceans is part of your faith your human there has to be in a Muslim community, a person
who has studied every field of human endeavor not only makes it in legal sciences, but every science.
And so,
parents his compliments he have to speak about the kind of careers that our children can do meaning of course, which are the halaal career which are the heroine careers.
And that is a question that every parent needs to know he needs to know what is haram or
halal or haram obey. Allah is clear Haram is clear.
The reason we ask the mommies for no other reason that he must provide some loopholes for us.
So as always, you want to ask you
if your child wants to become a teacher and ask me
but as soon as you move away as a chef, you must give a lecture on
why should I give religion what is halal? What is not, you know what it is.
So in sha Allah, the praise that we go back
to that golden period, and I know you know, we say we talk about the golden era of Islam.
Whether is our touchstone that is where we come from, that is who we are.
And if we in this country can somehow regain our foothold within Islam as a civilization, people will get a different view of us.
There was a time when I had this.
You know, we always go through these ideas, the idea that why should people build mosques and embellish it? Why should they both have terminology, you know, why should they do this? And why should they do that come to realize that it is part of our faith.
That is part of our Islam.
The first thing that Alphonse are both in this dunya was a Masjid
that still draws the attention of millions of people.
As an architectural wonder, a square block
Subhan Allah covered with a black cloth, there is no other architectural
edifice that looks like that in the world, with only one
and that's probably an example of,
of the kind of divine architecture that we follow.
And I think we need not ostentation, with saying ostentation.
I'm saying that we should embody that the heat of allows
so
yes, the Quran doesn't speak directly about architecture and arts.
But our calligraphy is nothing but art.
Our calligraphy the way we write the Quran, Arabic letters
in Arabic skill kufic writing so many writings
is an expression that allows to have a hand with Allah cannot be depicted
anthropologically, or any other way. can't paint our last planet.
So part of our to heed is to express how to heat in the calligraphy in the words that allows 100% to reveal the crop
that only Allah Allah creates.
And we beautify
that which our last one is create and that's our job.
So now last one to give inshallah
that we think about something to think about.
Have we become just a religion
vilified by others?
Or should we think about becoming a civilization?
And it depends on all of us.
How many Muslims
in Cape Town in South Africa,
are studying architecture with a view
to recapturing the architecture
that Muslims are still showing off in the world today
as an example
so if I should encourage you by another sign I would encourage you to do architecture.
If we look at our mosques in Cape Town, we can see the depth, the lack
of an Islamic architectural style that we don't have people who have balanced the study of architecture comes with wisdom, Dutch architecture, whatever architecture base and Islamic architecture. So this is an open field.
And this community has managed to build these structures today. We may not have added in the 60s in the 50s but we certainly have it today.
So today when we build these new structures, we must
have it express the civilization of Islam. Now last one, a guidance protects us inshallah,
below Allah Salaam Alaikum.