Fatima Barkatulla – Zaynab al-Ghazali -Da’iyah and revivalist by Ustadha – Being Me Legacy Tour
AI: Summary ©
A woman named Missy, a doctor and teacher, talks about her education and struggles with men and pressure on women. She also discusses her early life in Egypt, including her work with men and her desire to be recognized as leaders. She talks about her struggles with parenting and the importance of finding the right balance between education and community. She emphasizes the importance of women in Islam and the need for them to prioritize family and community. She also mentions upcoming events and virtual programs for the legacy tour and encourages viewers to stay safe during the pandemic.
AI: Summary ©
No matter who we know Sally
green, I'm about I was below him in a shape on a regime Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Rubbish really sorry we are silly and revival of the term mainly Sania for whom Polly Robbie's in the IMA are busy in The Hague model visit niyama Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu I'm your host Sal was at the poverty for today on the legacy tour with our esteemed speaker was started off as a member of Allah, on the topic of a 20th century Egyptian activists and leader of women's Islamic revivalism.
At the legacy tour, we explore the lives of Muslim women throughout the ages, who rose to great heights overcame incredible odds and left a lasting legacy for those two come after. We are documenting these inspiring stories of the past as related to us by our foremost female scholars of today. The Legacy tour is brought to you by being me, a Muslim empowerment organization, we aspire to be the leading Muslim empowerment organization focusing on faith, confidence, action and community.
You can find us online and in person as the largest Muslim women's conference when we can meet again safely inshallah. We are so happy you're spending time in a beneficial manner. May Allah reward you bless you and put barakah in your time and learning. Let us know where you are joining us from in the comments section. And if you have any questions for the speaker related to our topic, please post them in the comment section. We will share them with the speaker inshallah. Please be sure to fill out our survey to let us know how we are doing.
Before we begin, we will invite our Ron reciter to recite half a dozen others. wender is a current high school student from Indonesia living in Toronto. She completed the memorization of the Quran without the Thiel Institute at the Abu hurayrah center Masjid in Toronto Mashallah. She's very multi talented.
Aside from school and afternoon grind classes Naga enjoys biking write writing poetry, graphic design spoken word spending time with friends drinking bubble tea and playing recreational sports now that I love studying social sciences and aspires to have a career where she can one day work with people to help improve their quality of life
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desikan l'affaire. Mashallah happy to another for the beautiful recitation, and for gracing us with your presence. I'm delighted to introduce our speaker today saw the fat number aka Allah. I'll start off at the map is a British alima author and presenter of film feed podcast based in London. She graduated with two Parliament degrees classical degrees in Islamic scholarship, one from the Ibrahim Khalid seminary with a specialization in faith. And the other with distinction from Al Salam Institute, awarded by chef Muhammad Akram nadwi. Masha Allah, she's currently completing a master's degree in Islamic law at S o A. S, the University of London. In her teens. She studied Arabic and
Islamic Studies in Egypt at the prominent fudger center and Cordoba Institute, as well as a college of as her University. She is currently working on her books, women in the Quran, and Ayesha the truthful having authored her groundbreaking first book for the IJA Mother of history's greatest nation. She has written numerous articles for Muslim magazines, as well as the Times newspaper times online and ml magazine, sharing the message of Islam with wider society. She was director of seeds of change, the biggest Muslim women's conference in Europe and a Dawa trainer for AI era. In 2014. She was awarded the icon of law in international award for young women in Dawa and community service
at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Today she FL Fatma is going to share the story of trailblazing Egyptian woman with who took on many roles Mashallah just a thought father Matic please take away
Somali everybody. Its Mila and handed a little salat wa salam ala rasulillah dear sisters, as salam aleikum, wa rahmatullah wa he will better get.
Today we're going to be speaking about and looking at
a lady
who
I actually really regret that I never got to meet. Because when I was a student in Egypt, she was actually there. And Subhanallah some of the sisters who I lived with, went to visit that. And because I was just a silly, 16 year old, who didn't know anything about who this lady was. I remember saying to this, this is Yeah, you go ahead and meet her, you know, I'm, I'm gonna do something else that day. Right?
And it's only now that I realized panela what an opportunity I missed that day.
And it kind of goes to show how important it is for us to know who the great people in our midst are, you know, who are the people in our midst? What are the roles that these different women and men are playing in our own society, so that we can value them and give them the do
You know, respect that they deserve. So anyway, inshallah I pray that Allah subhanaw taala allows me to meet
Xena ghazali in Jan Nigella, even though I missed meeting her, in my own life, she only passed away like in 2005. So this is really a very recent
legendary Muslim woman.
So here is a photograph of Xena Bella bizarrely,
there aren't that many photographs of her. But this is her in latter years. Okay. And on the left, you can see the lady on the extreme left, that sustainable has early when she was a bit younger. I'm standing there with the policeman and I don't know somebody else. That's another famous motor that exists.
And on the right, you can see this is one of her books. She wrote a number of books in her lifetime, and two famous ones. And she also wrote a lot for an Islamic journal.
So let's dig into her life.
I'm Zara Bella has early, early life. She was born in 1917. Her father was educated in Alsace, so he was already a religious teacher, he was already very conscious of, you know, the deen. And he really encouraged that you really encouraged her to become somebody who, who sought knowledge, and who was involved in our, in calling people to Allah.
And that's one of the things you'll notice about women of our past, you know, the great women, often, you will find that they had a man in their lives, either a father, a mentor, a teacher, a husband, somebody in their life, a male figure in their life, who really encouraged and empowered them.
So this kind of narrative that sometimes we hear, you know, about men not supporting women, and, you know, women have to fight to get their own
kind of voice heard, etc. When you look at history, you find that supplant a lot, many of the great women of our history, they had a male figure, who was very pivotal to their success. And our mother or our sister, Xena, because it was one of those women.
For a short time during her teens, she did join the Egyptian feminist union. Now feminism in Egypt was quite spreading, you know. And people saw it as a way to kind of express the rights that women and the civil rights for women as well.
They were seeking, however, very soon, after it's enabled, was early joined the Egyptian feminist union, she started to feel that actually, this
movement was very much a Western, instigated movement or, and
very Western, like it came from a Western liberal perspective. And she also felt that they were not promoting the moral values of Islam.
And by then, she was also studying Islam. So she really could see that whatever it was that women was seeking, they could find it in Islam, they could find it in Islam and through Islam through the implementation of Islam. So she left the Egyptian feminist union at the age of 18 to panela such a young age she founded the Jamaat say that and Muslim at the Muslim Women's Association, okay. And this was the Women's Association became they say that it became so big that they had 3 million members all over Egypt. That's an enormous number. And she would give, she would go to the event to do one Masjid and have a halaqaat there. And that's really the main place where she would preach
and, you know, call women to the values of Islam teach Islamic values and you know, connect women to the Quran
and 3000 attendees would attend that fell upon panel, right and this isn't the age before the internet the age before. You know, you get 3000 attendees even on a
on an internet kind of class, right?
are an internet lecture. That's amazing. But we're talking about 3000 people actually turning up to the masjid to hear, right, some kind of. So you can see she was having a huge impact. And that impact is through the teachings of Islam that she was promoting in Egypt that really had come out of the colonial era, and was a bit battered. And, you know, there were all kinds of ideologies being promoted communism and other isms.
There was probably, I'm sure, there was a lot of poverty there was, you know, people were struggling. And of course, by now, the Ottoman Empire had been disbanded. And so, you know, people like Xena Bella has early and then also in within Egypt, there was the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, etc, they were really trying to
bring society back to the teachings of Islam know, in a in a kind of organized way.
Before we read that, I want you to see that
surprised a lot. One of the things that is in the bill has only really promoted was the importance of the Muslim family, right. And she could see that the feminist movement in Egypt was actually kind of separating women from the family, right, and kind of affecting negatively affecting the family values of Egyptian society. So this is one of the quotes from one of her writings, she said, for a few limited pennies, we have sold our motherhood. And then we asked about the role of women in society. What kind of a society is this where the home that forms the seed of the society has been ruined, by tearing women, between woman and the between home and the workplace to kind of light. So
already, at that time, she was starting to notice that, you know, there were kind of women was some women were being pulled out of the home, and encouraged to
prefer careers, etc, to the importance of the family life. Now, that didn't mean that as Annabelle has early in promoting motherhood and promoting the value and importance of the Muslim family and home that she didn't believe that Muslim women should take part in other areas and spheres of life. She did. In fact, she encouraged women to take part in the political future of the country, right.
Um, but the important thing was for her, that it shouldn't be at the expense of the family, right, and the kind of
the health of the Muslim family.
Now
moment, she
was involved in the Islamic movement in Egypt.
She encouraged Muslim women to appreciate their distinctive roles as wives and mothers, and in the Islamic household, but she also encouraged them to participate politically. She supported the work of the Muslim Brotherhood, and her husband had been etc, they would often ask her to become part of the organization. And initially, she didn't. But later on she did. And she became one of the leaders of the organization really,
including later on, being a key writer for them the publication,
especially speaking about matters to do with women and children.
Now, the Egyptian government at the time, Jamaat de Nasir, they became suspicious of groups like the Muslim Women's Association, which is a organization and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Some people call it the Muslim brothers.
They were banned, Muslim Brotherhood was banned. And there was like a crackdown. And so Pamela, there were attempts made on the life of Xena because they saw her so influential
because of her huge following and huge membership of her organization that the Egyptian Government
pursued her and there were assassination attempts made on her life you know, so she
there was a car crash that she could she believed was a you know,
instigated by secret services, or people who were trying to assassinate her. And the reason why they were against her and the Muslim Brotherhood was one of the reasons was that they obviously saw them as rivals, but also because they had been trying to bribe Zainab al ghazali. And the Muslim Brotherhood, they were trying to bribe them and ask them to endorse their government. Because they saw that they were so influential, they wanted the endorsement of, you know, these religious figures, and zoomable bizarrely had refused. She had refused to be bribed, she didn't accept any bright, she's, she stayed independent. Because, you know, obviously, her message was Islamic
message. And she didn't want to sell out that message. And because they refuse to kind of acquiesce and go along with the government, the government began to target them.
To the point that they, when there was a crackdown, many people were taken to prison. And zanele, bizarrely, was one of them. He was sentenced to hard labor for life,
which is like 25 or more years. But in the end, she was released by Anwar Sadat, when he became president now, but you can imagine it's kind of like all those years, right? That she was in prison. And, you know, when we think of prison in the West, especially we think of like, kind of like a glorified institution, right. Like,
although obviously, it's still not a nice place. You know, you get fed you get certain rules, torture is not allowed that kind of thing, right. But Subhanallah in Egypt, that was not the case.
Later on in her life, and we're going to look at some of the things that happened. Later on in her life. She also wrote for journals, and authored the books days from my life, and return of the Pharaoh, which you can find online, she really goes into
the ordeal that she went through while she was in prison.
And so Pamela, here is one of the descriptions of her time in prison.
You know, they tortured her, they would set dogs on the hat, that what they wanted her to do was to sign a document or to kind of to, to say that she endorsed the government, right? And so that they could have her support and the support of all of her members, the members of her organization, but because she refused, she was tortured. And here is one little quote from my book. She says the dogs were unrelenting, digging their teeth into my skull, my shoulders back chest. I repeatedly invoked My lord, oh, Lord, bestow on me your tranquility. I expected that my clothes would be thoroughly stained with blood, but incredibly there was not or incredulously, there was not a single blood
stain on my clothes.
May God be exalted.
You can see from this and there were other accounts, that certain quite miraculous things happen to her like, and you know, we do believe as Muslims that sometimes Allah kind of Allah gives certain blessing certain keramat to pious people and people who are fighting in his way, right, who are doing, who are struggling and fighting in his way. And she was definitely one of those people she was in which I had Nafisa Vila,
and here supprimer we can't even imagine what it might be like to have dogs set on you, right.
And this is just one of many things she describes. That happened to her in prison. But all the while she was calling on Allah, all the while she had this sense of what was right and what was wrong, right. Another example of
something that happened to her in prison, she recalled she had a dream
and she would have these beautiful dreams. She said I I saw a vision that Allah had favored upon me. I saw the Prophet sallallahu wasallam wearing white clothes. I was standing with Arusha Avila and she was advising me about something. When the prophets Allah send them came up to us and called have patience. Our issue was pressing my hand and I
Asking me to be patient. So Pamela, what a beautiful dream, what a beautiful dream.
And so these are the types of things that kept her going. You know,
I think we can also reflect that sometimes, you know, when we're doing something difficult when we're in the path of Allah, we also get types of inspiration, and the types of messages that we feel, you know, a lot of Allah has sent our way. And they can help kind of guide us and remind us
while she was in, during her lifetime, I believe that she was married twice, the second time when she was getting married, you can see that this Gower, this work she was doing was so important to her, she actually said to her husband or her husband to be, and this is something that he says that if that day comes, when a clash is apparent between your personal interests, and your economic activities on the one hand, and my Islamic work on the other.
She basically said, then we should, we should part ways. Now, it's just kind of shows you how much she really didn't want anything to come in the way of her bowel work. And, you know, it's kind of understandable because she was already established in her bowel work. So now, she was getting married. Again, she wanted her husband to know what he was getting himself into, I guess. And also like, what,
what her expectations were.
And she says, you know,
she describes herself as a woman who at the age of 18, gave her life a full life to Allah and dour. In the event of any clash between the marriage contracts, interest and that of our marriage will end. But Darla will always remain rooted in me.
And that's quite an interesting thing, because some people they do say about available as early, but she really preached a lot about the family and the home, and the importance of them with the mother in the home. But in her personal life, she was actually not a mother herself. And she has said about this, you know, that this is something that Allah had a situation that Allah had given her that she didn't have mother motherly kind of responsibilities. And so she felt that this meant that she could spend more time and commit more time to that one.
Unfortunately, her husband passed away while she was in prison. So you can imagine she's been through so much he's been through so much, right?
So what are some of the lessons that we can learn from Xena belaz early?
I think for me, some of the key lessons are that,
you know, she did what was needed for the cause of Allah in hard times, based on knowledge. Now, that's a huge message for us. Because in every time in every stage, you know, of Islamic history, or more human history,
there's going to be different priorities, there are going to be different things that are needed. And we need women and men who are knowledgeable, bow out and seek knowledge of Islam,
not just based on, you know, some other ideology or some other philosophy, but we even just their whims and desires, but based on shore knowledge, they act in the way of unwell. And I think that's a huge, huge lesson for us, you know, we must identify what is it that's needed in our times for the cause of Allah? And what is it that I could contribute?
Another interesting thing I felt about and that I was really impressed with regarding her personality is that she didn't ask permission to do what is right. And, you know, sometimes us
we sometimes we undervalue our own judgment. You know, we know, we know what we should be doing. We know the work that needs to be done. But it's almost as if we're waiting for permission. We're waiting for permission from I don't know from the sky, right? In order to take action. When actually the permission is there. You know, the permission is there with you know what is right to do and you find a cause or something that needs to be done, that you feel passionate about and that you have the corporate competency to do something about, you don't need permission. You need to do the right thing.
Right.
And it's, I guess, a case of being confident. And one of the things that gives you confidence is studying this, you're not studying Islam properly, because when you study, you realize what happened for the great people of our past, and especially the prophets and the Sahaba. Right. And from that, you gain a lot of insight,
you can see that she was willing to suffer for her convictions. So Pamela, how many of us are willing to, you know, walk the walk,
we talk the talk, but do we walk the walk.
She was actually she believed in her core so much.
She was she was tortured for it
in supine, and like the way she describes her time in prison, you can read some of the books, and you can see.
And it shows you that we have to be willing
to put something on the line for the things that we believe in. Right?
She brought her family on board. So that's another important thing that if you're involved in any kind of work, any kind of cause
you've got to get your family on side, you know, so the way she communicated to her husband. And that's something I usually encourage sisters, that if there's something very important to you, when you're getting married, especially that you should express that, you should express that you that as part of your marriage contract, or just as a honorable mention, you know, just so that your spouse to be is aware, you know that that is an important thing, too. So as an example, myself, when I was getting married, I was just 19 years old, I had in my marriage contracts, part of my marriage contract that my husband would provide everything needed for my studies, up to a certain level, you
know.
So, what that did was it made my husband know that, okay, this is very important to her. And this is going to be a part of our lives, you know, her studying, I'm sure my husband's had enough of my studying now, but he's aware that it's probably never gonna end until till the day we die, right.
But at least it gives that person a kind of understanding, okay, this person seeking knowledge or studying is going to be a part of their life. And so I'm going to be part of that, and I'm going to support that, you know, that they can enter that situation in a clear and willing way, and in a supportive way.
Another thing that we learned from her is that she could not be bribed away from her Dean. She could not be bribed away from her team. spamela How many of us, actually, when we, when push comes to shove, when there's some dounia, we kind of benefit to changing our message or changing our style or changing our principles? How many of us would stay the course? No, it's very tempting, isn't it? Like, it's very tempting to think, Well, you know, if I just tone down my dour if I did, I'm not saying we shouldn't have good other Of course we should. But I mean, for example, changing the message, changing what we're saying,
you know, making Islam into a very wishy washy, meaningless message.
How many of us get tempted to do that, in order to be more accepted, right to be more popular?
So I think these are all things that we can learn from our sister, our dear sister, Venable has made a lot of dialogue around her gender.
And in sha Allah, if there are any questions,
we can go to them now. So panic Allahu
Allah, Allah
does Aquila fail
fast enough for an insightful talk? And there are questions definitely that are like on the top of my head right now I have been listening
myself and there are many listeners who have shared their questions as well. So we will go one at a time and we will try to stay in the time that we have inshallah.
The first thing that came in my mind when I was an actually this is something that I heard from your mouth. I
I saw and read some things, a very little study as of now, but I still I'm tempted to do more of research about her and how she actually lived her early, earlier life as in what was the tipping point? Like, I really want to know that part where she actually, you know, this, Is it this? What was the thing that happened in her life? Or was it innate that that she was
moving on with the this aim and mission of the hour? Was there anything that she was living an ordinary life, and then she came out in the open?
It was, what was that journey, like the earlier part basically,
as far as I'm aware, and you know, even I need to do more reading, to be honest, you know, like, really, I'm still learning more and more about
excuse me, about her and about others, you know, other ladies of our recent history, as far as I'm aware, the main thing was that she was very observant of her society, you know, and her father was already a person who really cared about Islam, and he really encouraged her. And he actually taught her about some of the female Sahaba yet, and they really inspired her, those of them that were very active and very kind of, even those who went on jihad, for example, you know, and she was really inspired by them.
And then I think what happened was that she was looking at the society around her and seeing that, you know, it's not matching up to the teachings of Islam, you know, it was as simple as that, really. And I think, in Egypt at the time, there were so many different political influences, you know, there was communism, there was feminism, and there were other isms that were and of course the western kind of influences as well. So in the wake of all of those in they kind of seeing all of those influences coming in and trying to affect the Muslims I think it really kind of a woke in saying level of anxiety, this instinct that you know, Islam is missing from the picture, you know,
Islam is missing from the picture. That's why she really wanted to reconnect especially women to that Islamic tradition.
And what exactly like there there are things that you actually touched upon and I would like you to elaborate on those specially
Well, if she was here today, like in the in the situation that is here, right right now
would she be categorized as one of the most important Muslim influential women who's working on the development as as a present day icon, where we see the present day women Mashallah, you You said that you never got a chance to meet her but at present with you if she was there?
Did she empower Muslim women to battle domestic violence? That is another question along with this. Plus, please do elaborate if she was, if you could do that for regarding regarding this particular era, basically, the time that we are living in how would she have reacted or Mashallah, the way she was? How would she have dealt with the situation of present times?
Um, that's a difficult question for me to answer, but I think, definitely, like, she was,
I think about what was very, was more within Egypt, you know, within her country, right, and how it's setting which is a very good thing really, because, you know, all of us we are more responsible for what we have influence on, right, we should focus on the society that we know best and that we have most influenced.
I think she was a trailblazer, definitely of her time, you know, because she used apart from giving her laptop as she used, what was the technology of the time, which is, you know, which was written material, printed material, you know, printing and spreading messages through writing. She used that as her main means for now.
I'm not really sure if later on if she was someone who was on television and stuff I don't think she was, um, but I think
I think the main thing is that she was trying to reconnect people with all the various aspects of Islam. You
Well, the various facets of Islam. And at the same time, she was telling women that everything they were looking for in feminism, right? Everything they were looking for, and they thought that they could find with
certain feminist organizations and movements,
the good things they could find in Islam, right, and more. And she was quite upset with those movements, because she felt that they were tearing women away from the family, and
encouraging them to become less attached to Allah, you know. So, I don't know if I've really answered your question. But yeah, basically, I'm in with reference to her presence in Egypt, a lot happened after she passed away, right? And I'm like, just wondering, oh, my God, if she was there at this point in time, what how she would have, you know, worked on these issues. For example, we do see an evolving an all over the globe, we and we are taking inspiration sitting where we are from her because there are certain things that we have kind of tuned ourselves to, to you know, okay, it's Oh, it's all right. And I think whenever, as much as I've seen her through the talk today, I
see she was constantly on her toes, she would not let go of any single matter if it came up, you know, the the kind of attitude she I see in her work, the one and her suffering in the jail, especially that that part where she she mentioned the torture.
bearing that. And I really would want to know, I'm sure there are women out there, this were suffering, like, at this point in time when we're doing so much for the community. But that suffering, it gives give me goosebumps, I mean, I can't imagine her going through that.
But Mashallah, this is something that, and by the way,
we have operon reciter, who also has a question. So sister, nada, if you could,
please.
Okay, does that kind of face you? So we're starting to Fatima? I just had one question, if you don't mind.
So I really like the topic of the session. And I really liked how, as you spoke about Xena Aloha, Sally, that she really prioritized education. And she really highlighted education about the same time, she also really prioritized the significance of the role of a woman in the family, because I think that's also very important. And one big question that I feel like it's very common around young Muslim women around my age group, is that what is the stomach perspective on how to have both a career as well as be able to raise a family? Because I feel like sometimes it's either one or the other. And so I want to ask you, what is the best way to go about having both?
Oh, by the way, your recitation was wonderful and beautiful. I forgot to compliment you on that before, before starting my talk, is I kill affair?
That's a that is a common question. And it's one of the things that women think about and struggle within our times.
The way I usually discussed this is,
as
we all know, that in Islam, Allah Subhana, Allah puts the responsibility for providing for the family squarely on the shoulders of the men, right. And that is a blessing that is a blessing.
What that means is that we as women, Allah considers our role in the home and our role as mothers is so significant and so difficult, in a way, right? That he has freed us up to be able to do it properly. You know, because one of the most stressful things that a woman can face is having to raise a family and worry about the finances.
So last month, I split the labor in a way, you know, allowed, because there are certain things that the mother will naturally be doing, you know, she's the one who
carries the baby. She's the one who gives birth. She's the one who breastfeed So naturally, you can see that she's going to be very devoted and busy in that role. And she needs somebody to take care of the
her living, you know, her being able to to survive and live and thrive. So, we, we can see that Islam already kind of acknowledges and last one of the Allah has divided that kind of labor in
Waiting, right? This shared the kind of burden and the responsibility of having a family between both men and women. Now, that the other thing to bear in mind is that,
you know, we have a biology biological clock,
right, which means that there is a certain period of time, within which
we probably need to get married, have children, you know, if we want to have a family, if we want to have a, you know, go through that very natural process that every human being deep in their heart they do yearn for, you know, having a family, these are things that, although people will try to put delay now times, eventually, you know, when they're older, the thing that gives human beings a lot of comfort, a lot of joy is having a family, right. And we know that when we're in our graves, one of the things that will benefit us is a righteous child, that who prays for us, right? There are very few things that are going to benefit us when we're in our groups. And one of those things is a
righteous child who prays for us, and righteous children. They are raised and nurtured. They don't just appear out of the blue, right? So
I guess what I'm saying is that,
as young women, you don't want to delay that, that window of opportunity that you have to get married, and to settle down, because it is a window. If you look at Muslim, the Muslim community, you will see that most Muslim men, young men, because they are staying chaste, the religious men, the same chaste, and they're trying not to have any relations.
They want to get married as soon as possible. As soon as they're able to get married, they will get a job and they will get married, they're not going to delay it till they're 30, or they're going to try to probably get married within their 20s at least.
Now, if, as a Muslim woman, you keep delaying marriage, okay? The reality that you have to wake up to, is that probably the religious men,
up to by the age of 30, or even younger, we'll all be married.
I'm sorry to put it in those terms. But, you know, I'm just being really realistic, right.
And so then it's gonna start getting harder to find, practicing religious men, right. And so what I say to girls is that, when somebody proposes to you, or when you add that in, during, you know, in that age group,
you should have value every proposal that you get, you know, you should not think of it as, ah, you know, I can find somebody else when I'm ready after I finished, whatever, whatever. Because even those proposals and the interest that people only pay you, that is, from a lot, that's a type of risk from a lot, you know, you should value and you should at least consider each proposal carefully. And not kind of just dismiss it, but no, no, no, not doing it until I finished my studies or until I have a career or whatever, right. So, I think it's a decision for every single family to make and every person to make by themselves, but I would certainly encourage sisters, that, you
know, very few people, when they're old, say, I wish I'd done that career, you know, the thing that gives them a lot of comfort is their family is having built the happy and, you know,
happy family, a good Muslim family, that then they will have grandchildren, they will have, you know, these are the things that give the person
comfort and joy.
And those things don't just come out of the blue, they can't just come out suddenly, you have to build them, you have to give your good years to them. You know, they're not like a side project. So I would like to see our society and community support women, as they should be, as we should be to prioritize the family.
Yes, we can do other things. There are other like I had all my children when I was young. So now I you know, they're a bit older, I've got more time to go back to university study to do whatever I want.
So there are different phases in life at certain times. I will
Say, family, children, they are the absolute priority, you know.
And they're an investment that's worth you making.
And I would say the younger, you can do that the better.
Simply because you have the energy, you have the, you know, your your body goes through certain physical physical toll.
And I'm being very kind of
blunt about it. But your body does go through a physical toll when you're going through pregnancy. And, and, and also there's a lot people don't highlight this, but it's a panel, like if I was to look back, the, even though they were probably hard years, the happiest years of my life so far were those years with those little children, you know, very blissful years.
And society doesn't tell us that, but and sometimes we don't feel that when we're in those years, you know, it's something you look back on.
But there's almost like a very divine touch to those years, you know, there's something very special
in that mother child bond.
But not no other period of life can capture. So
yes, I would encourage our sisters, to prioritize family and motherhood and for families to support
our daughters to be able to focus on that, you know, because I know that nowadays, a lot of families are putting pressure on daughters to
pursue careers and pursue other things.
And on the other hand, if a person is pursuing a career, and pursuing other interests, etc, then, you know, for them to bear in mind that the fact that family life should not suffer due to that, no. So if you can find the right balance,
if you can, and then make sure that you're not overdoing it, with the things outside of the home, somebody needs to be focused on the home. If nobody is focused on the home, then how can the home thrive? Right.
So I hope that kind of answers the question.
Does that closure? Yes, I did. It really gave me a lot of insight. And it really made me rethink my whole plan for graduation.
Thank you. It's very insightful. I appreciate it. Thank you. And and Mashallah, it's pretty motivating, especially when we're talking about, you know, zainul, badali, and all of all of her work that has been put to definitely
to benefit the society. If we're talking even if we were talking about the Egyptian population, which was part of her founding organization, the Muslim Women's Association, sister, correct me if I'm wrong. But there was a time as you referred to Stata that they are was their worst callers who argue that Eleazar Lee's own actions stand at a distance and even undercuts some of her professed believes, right. So
how exactly does this
and obviously, this is something that was a challenge for her in her lifetime as well. I'm sure how was she addressing those in her lifetime?
especially coming from Muslim women within her
surrounding?
Yeah, I mean, it was mainly from feminists who will
probably saw her as a rival, I think.
The thing is that
it's a bit like it shattered the line that right in the sense that I should have done her she didn't have children of her own. Right.
So she was able to do certain things that maybe somebody who was very busy with children and couldn't do, right. That doesn't mean now. I Shatila Anna is going to give women the wrong message. She's not going to say to women, you know what, I think you should just live like me be like me, okay? Because she knows that she has a different position. She has a unique position. She's not even allowed to get married now right after the death of the prophets arsenal. I should have given her was not even was not going to get married now.
She was at and when the Prophet asked him. Okay, so can you imagine like for the rest of her life, that's a number of decades of her life. I think she lived until she was like
64 or something,
she was going to be by herself, right? She's not going to be married.
So of course, what she does in her own life might be different to what she was going to preach to people, right? In the sense that she's going to encourage women to devote themselves to their families, motherhood, children. She also used to do that by focusing on her nephews and nieces, for example, I'm just using the example of I show that I have to say that there are certain women who maybe their own personal circumstance is different. So they might focus on other things, okay. But that doesn't mean they're going to preach now, the wrong thing, you're not going to preach to all women, like it would be it would be irresponsible, right to say to all women, you should be like me,
you should live like me, when your personal situation is different to the majority of women, right? So I think the main thing is that she was teaching and she was connecting people to the message of Islam, to what would be good for society, and what would be good for Muslim
for the Muslim society, and it's a revival. And whereas some of the feminists were more interested in individual rights, you know, individualism. And when you look at feminism, that's where it's really rooted. It's rooted in
individualism, the rights of the individual, the happiness of the individual, not so much about the family, or not so much about society or the community, you know,
those things are secondary, they're not as important, the most important thing is the individual. And that's not the way Islam
encourages us to be right. Of course, we look at the individual, but it's also in the context of the family, in the context of the community and for the benefit of the society, all of those things are important considerations. So I think that's where her kind of motivation came from. And, and she didn't do anything you know, from from what I have studied and what I've seen of her life that contradicted anything Islamic. No, she wasn't.
She was using her time, her talents, for the sake of Allah to pull people back to Allah at a time when the many, many people had left or were completely ignorant about Islamic teachings. Right. So yeah, I think she was doing what was right.
For her times and for her community,
using the talents that she had, and the kind of influence that she had
alumnus must Zack a lot It was an honor for us that you took time from your busy schedule to join the legacy tour and shared the story of an Islamic revival is like Cena Bella Sally, thank you so much for being with us. We we do have a few upcoming
events that we would like to let you know about.
This year during Ramadan being Nii will have 30 days of virtual programs in sha Allah please join us for our experience for for experiencing Ramadan virtually with daily online sessions.
There is going to be an interactive discussion and activities for ages eight to 12 as well there's going to be dropped by in session
four on based on resume a building one on one virtual events for ages 15 plus, this was the last legacy tour of this session. Thank you for joining in this journey as we learn about illustrious women of the past. Please join us for more of upcoming legacy tours after our break in Ramadan inshallah check a 10 vm.com for more information and about the future scheduled times in sha Allah.
Half of another if you would like to take the floor again in sha Allah for the recitation of the Quran.
It's not a crisis. So
to be human, I share your bond your writing. This means your Ruffner your Rafi, while also in San NFV hospital.
Naveen
Jindal saw he had he worked so well. So good to have what there well, so be happy whatever well, so you slobber is a crisis you saw what he does, I can log on to everyone, all the viewers especially with as a family member of Baraka law, who joined us today may Allah bless your Ramadan and help you prepare for it and keep you safe in the pandemic. Please do fill out our survey to let us know how we did and we hope to see you at the next legacy Tour, which will be held after Ramadan. Keep up to date by checking a 10 Bm com follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. So panicle lahoma will be hamburger I had one La ilaha illa Anta as the pharaoh power to be like a Salaam Alaikum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuh