The Most Honorable Practical tips for becoming the most honorable in the sight of Allah.

I said mid Kumar what Allahu barakato Missoula, but hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah

Ali he was a woman with a llama Luna and found out one time hobbema alum tener una casa mia Mooji Buddha Allahumma Nia or do we come in and rely on fat or cobia Sha one I've seen Latisha bahwa lifesmart bombonera to scicluna bad additonal habla nama don't cut off from inner content will hub ob strictly sodbury waste sadly only one of the 10 melissani of Falcone salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah everyone jack ma here for joining us. Another Tuesday night Allah gave us life gave us the tofu that he facilitated that we meet again with Lila hamdulillah Mina I was pantalla in his glorified book sortal Hojo right verse which shot law many Muslims are familiar with yeah yohannes

all people in Allah had addressed to humanity he addressed humanity didn't address believers or non believers here you oneness all people you and mean everybody in a hollow on validly we are law created you mean the Korean War into a man and a woman or a male or a female? What you know come show balaclava and and we have made you nations and tribes different, we have different different background, different color, different action, different geographic location, different everything. Why your ob Lita, how awful lamb the lamb here is the quality in the Arabic language, language, suburbia, the reason it's allowed for a reason Allah is explaining it, why later out of all, so you

both know each other. And you get to know each other. And to know the quality of each other. And to learn from each other. towable has a lot of meaning is not to meet only meet and learn and get to know and get to respect and get to learn. Even then they're worse, which we all use whenever we talks about equality, human rights, equal rights in Chroma commander law he wordly indeed for sure, the most honorable among you, all these nations and tribes in the sight of Allah in chromic command Allah He at the one who has highest level of fourth of all Allah conscious fields Allah all the time. No Allah is with him all the time and knows a lot with him or her watching knowing angels

recording in Allah Halim Kabir Verily Allah or knowing, all knowledgeable.

This is the title of today's

program.

Some of you may have said, well, they're going to be talking about DACA some gonna say maybe they're going to be talking about equality. We wanted to talk today and I have an amazing guest with me. And I was I am blessed to come to know her and Nita, we're going to talk about what does it mean, the most honorable?

And do we as Muslim nation, Muslim or non Muslim community, Muslim family? Do we really, really know who is the most honorable? What are the parameters that we put or categorize this person she or he that they are the most honorable? It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you all joining us from Dallas, our beautiful stadard fusina Muhammad and her name as I always love to call on she's gonna smile right away. Her name is actually Hussein. Jose not originally is from Ghana Subhan Allah What a beautiful Deen that last pantalla blessed her with Islam Olivia Hansel and I asked her actual nine met wife Hussein and she said no, it's for Cena like

so the female hasn't is our female forcing is unforeseen. So Hosseini joining us from Dallas. I'm going to give a quick introduction and then I will leave the rest for her to introduce herself hamdulillah hellenbrand by background and by profession she's a software engineer Walia have joined in and by profession in the sight of Allah subhanaw taala. In addition to the first one, he's actually a student of knowledge. hamlet of Kitab loss has he ever carries the book of Allah with her handler? She graduated from Calum finish two years of Calum currently doing her master's with soloists, a very reputable University in London itself. And she has a lot of dreams and a lot of

still way to go and I will leave her to share this with you and when we

gonna discuss today and I want to give it to phocoena. And wholesaler. Can you share with us Yahoo. Cena, more about you again joining us from Dallas. And then when you read this verse that you probably as you were reading and reviewing, and you probably were tested in it as I was, because that's a common place to

run because of what comes afterwards.

What do you want to share with our viewers? So that's why they go over how to live better cats. And hamdulillah. It's really beautiful to be here to be speaking about this amazing verse. And you're right, you know, when we read this verse, I know it really touches me in many, many different ways. I feel like anytime I read this verse, I find something new, I find something new and beautiful to learn to implement in my life.

You know, this particular verse especially, is so impactful, because it starts by speaking to all of humanity, as you had pointed out, it's not just for Muslims, it's not for non Muslims. It really is for all of humanity. And when I read this verse,

I feel like there's a conversation going on, and I want to share, you know what the conversation I saw in this verse was, that Allah, Allah starts by telling us about our origin, right in that whole iconography that can tell Los Angeles as we created you from a male and a female. So we all come from one set of parents, which truly means we are all related. We are all brothers and sisters, which is why, you know, a lot of the times we'll call each other sister brother, right?

So unless until it starts by telling us that we are all from one,

couple, Adam and hawala, his slides are so loud, that a lot of centella tells us that he divided us into tribes and nations.

Now, we know that we're in tribes and nations, but maybe somebody might ask, okay, if we are all from one single pair of people, why are we divided? Why aren't we one nation? Right? Why couldn't we all just be the same? So Allah santella tells us, Lita

so that you can get to know each other so you can appreciate differences so you can learn from one another. We all have different strengths and talents and if we bring them together, our Ummah would be strong, we would be a strong community, we would be a beautiful community. Right? So almost santella tells us Lita out awful. Now the verse continues on the conversation that I have with this verse continues as well because when Allah says, Allah says Lita, Allah Fu, so that you can get to know one another, and so that you can learn from one another. Maybe I start to think, okay, I want to get the best teachers to learn from Should I go and learn from this culture? And this ethnicity?

Or should I learn from this culture in this ethnicity? Now, sometimes in our minds, we judge people based on superficial things. It could be, oh, these people have a language that sounds nice. I like their accent, you know, it could be physical features like height or skin color, and so forth. So maybe in the first part of the verse, I said, Okay, there's an action item, I need to go out and I need to learn from other cultures. But how do I pick who to learn from before I go astray before I start making my own decisions about who's the best to learn from? Allah pulls me back and Allah says, In the chromic Amanda law here at Qualcomm, the most honorable of you in Allah sight, is the

one who has the most God consciousness. Now immediately I have to stop because God consciousness

isn't something I can see from the outside the prophesized sun and what did he tell us about tequila? He said, A tequila hoonah. And he pointed to his chest three times, right? taco, a God consciousness is something internal. So I can't look at someone and judge whether they're honorable in Allah sight. I can't look at someone and judge whether I'm better than them or they're better than me. Right? And then the IR ends in mama or demon hadir. Allah is fully aware. He knows Allah is knowledgeable of everything. Allah is the one who knows, who are the most honorable in His sight of Allah is the one who knows the wisdom behind why he turned us into different tribes and nations. And

unless Habib, Allah is fully aware, or is fully aware, for example of maybe the things that I have in my heart, that are preventing me from getting this blessing of town of getting to know one another. Allah knows the things that I have in my heart, that make me feel that I might be better than someone else.

that make me feel a little bit, you know, iffy about learning from other people, Allah knows those things. And so in this verse, Allah is encouraging us to realize that there is a beauty in our diversity, that there is great benefit in getting to know one another and having a diverse community having a diverse social circle. So Allah santella gives this very beautiful idea which is very positive, to spur us, right to encourage us to see these nations and tribes and cultures and ethnicities and so forth, to see them in the way that Allah centella intended them to be seen. It's such a beautiful verse, it packs so much into it. And of course, we said this is from spiritual

rights, which is Surah number 49. There's so much context around this verse as well as which unfortunately we can't get into today, but inshallah that might be for another day.

There is one beautiful thing as well, that is mentioned about Lita ruffle, right? Which is that there's a saying in Arabic that things are known by their opposites. Right? So one of the, one of the explanations of Lita RR foo to get to know each other said litella, foo, and

so that you get to know each other, and you are not arrogant, you are not boastful, you're not trying to one up each other. Right? I don't start to tell someone, oh, I'm from this in this tribe. So I'm better. I'm from this in this clan. So I'm better. I'm from the My father is so and so. So I'm better, right? I love science, Ella, is trying to remove that from us. And so when we see that Allah is taking us in a certain direction, that direction must be good for us. That direction is helping us on our journey to gender. So we should go on that direction. Right? We should accept the guidance, because there's nothing but good in it for us.

So some of the things that we want to look at, yes, I can just comment because this is cached my, my

attention. I was like, This is beautiful. Is the two things you said I'm going to say it again, because I really want our viewers to pay attention to it. I lost putting two facts in this is he like stating a fact that we all know but I think we don't know. Yes.

Number one, same origin.

Number two, were absolutely different.

absolutely different. Because what you have now come and I wouldn't I have no hand in it Jimena. We made you. That's his hikma. That's his wisdom. shoba nwaba. And actually is like nations and tribes because even inside the nations, there's tribes, and fusina grew up in jeden. As we were talking the other day, and when you live in the Arab world, tribes become something very well known. So even the same country, right? But there is there from this clan, or this clan or this part of this part. The point is, we are different. We have to accept it. We're not the same. But we are the same in origin. It does this leads us Yeah, for saying that if I bring it now, as I always say to myself, what is

this gonna tell me and I'm living 2021, half of the year is gone. Right? And let's say I am 1314 year old in public school, or I am a working mom, what I am a Muslim, and the grocery store. What is this gonna? How I will live this verse. See, that's the crux of the matter, right? I really like that. You said, we know it. But do we really know it? Is it in our hearts? Right? So that's that's a beautiful question. And in order to understand how to live this verse, what I want to actually do is share an example from the life of the prophesies on them because there's no better example, right? So I'm going to say a name. And I want us to just take a moment and think if we've ever heard this

name before. Okay, so let's think of the name Sandman. Have we heard the name Selman before. I know I have I have a nephew named Salma. It's a very common name amongst the Muslims, right?

I know that many of my friends and family whether they are African or Asian or Middle Eastern, they've all heard the name Selma.

Why do we love the name Sandman so much? Because the prophets lie Selim had a companion named Sandman allphotossee salmaan, the Persian now, I'm going to tell you the external if you look at Sandman just from the outside, Who was he?

He was an immigrant. A foreigner

He wasn't an Arab, he was Persian. So he was an immigrant to the Arab lands. He was a foreigner. He was poor. He was a slave.

And I want you to think of all of those things. If we saw that kind of person, what would we think of that person? What would our, what would our initial reaction be? How would we judge that person? Maybe we wouldn't think that they have a lot of worth in the community. He's poor, he doesn't have any money. He at some point, you know, be for he.

He accepted Islam, but he didn't gain his freedom right after he accepted Islam. So as a Muslim for some time, he was still enslaved. He's not from our country, he doesn't really understand our language so well, he doesn't really you know, understand our customs. So well.

What would you think of this person today in 2021?

Now, you know, if we were going to talk about the benefits that we got from some man and fantasy, being part of the Ummah, being part of our nation, then we would spend the whole hour but I'm going to share three things that I want us to think about the first so manifestos you know, the a lot of time and, and a lot of classical books of Syrah that talk about the life of the Prophet slice, and then his story is almost always mentioned as a proof that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam was predicted in the scriptures of the Christians. Because salmaan when he was studying, his teacher was a Christian monk, he converted from Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism where they worshiped fire, he

converted from that to Christianity, and his teacher told him that in our scripture, we know there's a prophet coming, and he told Sandman describes Medina for Solomon and told him to go there and wait for the Prophet. So we know from the strips and manual fantasy that the prophesied son was predicted in Christian scriptures. And the Prophet used to ask Solomon to tell his story to the companions, so that they were aware of this. That's what I said I was gonna share three, that's just the first one. The second segment and fallacy was the one who suggested digging the trench around Medina to protect the city when the Quraysh and their allies came to destroy Medina. And what's beautiful is that

digging a trench to protect a city is something that the Persians knew. This wasn't something that was common for the outcomes. They didn't know about this. So he brought something beautiful from his culture to protect the city. When the Kureishi army showed up to destroy Medina, they were stunned. They didn't know what to do with this trench.

And so Alhamdulillah because of Sandman and fantasy, being there, a loss it allowed him to be a means to protect the city. And then the third thing, which is very beautiful, is that it's recorded that sun man translated portions of the Quran into Persian to share with Persian people, Persian students who were interested in learning. He didn't translate the whole Quran but some portions of it so some people mentioned that he might have been the first person to attempt some sort of translation of the put on. So So can Allah, you know, you think of all the translations we have now, so many of us benefit from translations, and we know that he is the one who started this beautiful

tradition of translating.

Now, if I tell you all of that now what do we think of sunlight? Is that

right? Do we look any more at any of the other stuff that I talked about? No, it's not important. Right? I, I, I wish I could be submitted Fatty, right, the prophets. I said, and we know he said about him submount amin, right, so man is one of my family. That's what the prophesies Some said about him. He's one of my family. Right? So when we look at this example, even today, in you know, 2021, we see that in our communities, there are sometimes people who when we look at them, just from the outside, maybe we would dismiss them wouldn't realize what a gem this person would be in, in our community. What an amazing asset this person would be the amount of hair and beauty and goodness

this person would bring to our community. We completely miss out, completely miss out on that, right? And this doesn't matter whether you're a student studying or whether you're working or whether you're someone in the masjid. It's true for any community, right? We're not just talking about the Muslim community, right? It could be someone in your class or someone at your job or you know, someone in your your community as well.

Right. So

Of course, the next question people are asking, okay, you know, I feel like I'm with you, I'm starting to understand maybe the gravity of this verse. How do I get to the point where I can be like the prophesize on them? Because looks on Madden fantasy. When he suggested digging the trench. He felt included. Right? They were making a big decision, we are under attack. How do we protect our city? Selma was included in that conversation. He felt empowered to speak up, his voice was heard, he wasn't the little. And all of this happened because the profit slice of them fostered that sort of community. Right? The profit slice silom in his community, a mother Yes. Sorry.

I'm gonna Laos. He says that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam would make everybody feel like they were the most beloved to him. Right? Anybody who met the prophesize, someone felt like the prophecy son loves me and cares about me. Because the prophets, I saw them would go out of his way to listen to people to hear their stories to include them. And so we want to incorporate this prophetic model, right? So, so if I if I want to come here, and I was like, Okay, so what is wrong with us? We're fine. We're Muslims. We love each other. Why we are talking about this subject? I'm gonna be I'm gonna get tough here. Exactly.

Yes, that is fine. And I will be blunt.

I will be very blunt. And I will answer the question, we are not fine. Okay, this is

fine, no matter what, because I think this is where all of us, myself included, if not number one, we need to agree that as I You said it, and I repeated it that there is these two facts, we know it, but we really don't know. And I will give one example. I want you to comment on this. And this example is very common everywhere IE, I lived or I traveled or I attended when we enter the mosque. And I'm talking about the woman area, right? I can't comment on downstairs or the main area when I come to the woman area, and I entered the masjid. And I see two women. And I have never seen them. What is our my normal reaction? Number one,

these two women, I don't know them. But one of them is somehow similar to me. Maybe the way she dressed. She's just so I assume she's from this background, that background. He or she probably was born raised here. So she's not coming, Lauren.

Looks, let's say well to do dressed well. And the other one is a very ordinary person like to describe sickness and man faricy is the normal reaction. Yes, the normal reaction is that we gravitate towards the person who we feel is normal, right? So you see someone well dressed, you see someone who's speaking, maybe your language or you know, you feel you see someone who you think is respectable. You'll go to that person, you'll say Salaam Alaykum to that person. But then if we see someone who we don't think is as respectable, then you know, I'll give you

an example that really struck me again from the the life of the prophecies, the lambs.

Right, the liberation of Mecca, the prophet SAW Selim comes into my cup, and they finally are able to bring a man to bring faith to bring to heed the oneness of Allah to Mecca. The Prophet sallallahu Sallam tells me lol, who is his personal, right? He tells Bilal to stand up on top of the Kaaba and to call the, the first person to call me that in this newly liberated city. While Bilal is calling the done, there are people who start to look and this was recorded that one of the people who was from Mecca, looked at him and said, Could Mohammed not find anyone better than this black crow to call the

another person said, Thank God, my father died before he saw this tragedy. The third person said, I'm not gonna say anything, because I'm afraid that God might tell him what we're seeing. And of course gibreel and he said, I'm came to the prophet SAW the light and told the prophets I saw what these people said, it's not a mistake, that at Fatima, the prophet, some of my son them, made that beautiful speech where he said that no

black person

Or no white person is better than black. No black is better than what he said that the occasion of Fatima right. And there's a context that came before it, right? And unfortunately, we still continue that in our societies today. Right? So as you're speaking about when we go to the masjid, and we see someone who we don't think is really, you know, worth anything, they're not worth our time or our attention, we may not say so on why they come to them, maybe we will. But we won't try to include them in any of our social circles or anything, right? We won't invite them to our home, we won't invite them to our gatherings, right? On the other hand, we see someone and we think, all martial

law, look at the way she's dressed, she's got expensive clothes, or maybe Oh, she's from my country as well, then we go out of our way to make that person feel welcome. We invite them to our home, we introduce them to our family, we give them our phone number, right. And unfortunately, this is the experience of many people in the community. It still is the experience, right? I just told you a story from the life of the Prophet, slice Allah, those things still happen today. Right? 1500 years later, we're still having the same problems. So that's why we're here to talk about them. So let me let me let me say, maybe somebody who's listening to us, one of our audience will say it's natural.

It's natural. You know, if I see someone, I think it's from the same country, so it's natural. I go, and I talk to her because I will feel more comfortable. You know, there's maybe things more more common morning in common. What is wrong with that? I am not prejudice. I'm just doing something that makes me comfortable. How do I fight? This? Me? Plus, you know, I'm saying how do I tell myself, this can lead to this and this? And this is not how roswaal is sought? Or Sara would have done it if he has entered this Masjid. Yes. So there's a couple of things. Number one, just because something makes you comfortable doesn't mean it's good for you. And this is true for everything, right?

You know, if you're if you're somebody who doesn't work out or exercise very much the first time you go to the gym, you're going to be uncomfortable. The first time you get on a treadmill, you're going to be uncomfortable, right? But just because you prefer to sit on the couch, because you're comfortable, doesn't mean it's good for you. So we have to be very careful that we don't continue doing things just because we're comfortable. Right? That's the very first thing I will say, Okay. The second thing is then the question is okay,

I was comfortable. It doesn't mean I'm prejudiced. Okay, maybe it doesn't mean I'm prejudiced. But it certainly means that I'm not following the example of the prophets. I send them to Sarah and here's an issue right? If we consistently ignore the guidance that Allah gave us, and consistently ignore the guidance of the prophesies some gave us we're going to lose our way. This is not me saying this. What does the last 90 let's say and syrup Ah, he says, feminine tobacco. Daya Fela lB louella ash power woman aerodynamically marisha Zamboanga, natural Yeoman piano tr ma, ma santella says that whoever follows my guidance, that person will never lose their way. And they will never

suffer. But the person who turns away from my guidance, that person will have a difficult life and on the Day of Judgment, they will be raised up blind.

Why would I turn away from a loss guidance just because I'm comfortable.

I'll be comfortable maybe in this dunya but I like to be comfortable in the afternoon. I'd like to be comfortable in the here after. That's where it counts, right? So this idea of Well, I'm comfortable, I'm not purchased. Okay. You know, and that's, honestly, that's the scariest thing to be comfortable and not even realize there's a problem.

Right to think that everything's fine. And everything is not fine. This is a dangerous place to be

Subhan Allah. So

I'm going to come to the something which is very relevant, specially for us living in the United States is related to this verse related to just what you said which these days they call it, I mean, the issue of racism, the the issue of discrimination. Number one, it's reality. We don't even have to talk knowledge. It's there. We all know about it.

How do I know in my daily life, that I am acting or feeling or saying something that is indicative indicative of this meaning? I'm a physician, as you know, it is, what is the symptoms? And then I will make the diagnosis then we'll come to the treatment. Yes, you

Ha, see, this one is difficult because like I said, sometimes we do things we don't even realize these sorts of writers we were talking about last until it gives the gives us advice. And he gives us this advice. And he says, and to help us look more into Latasha, right, it's possible that you're losing your good deeds and you don't even realize it. So how do I know in my daily life, that maybe I have some things to work on? I think the best way is that I have to be honest with myself, I have to sit down and I have to kind of take stock of my daily life.

A simple thing that we can do, I really like writing, I feel like writing kind of solidifies our what we're doing, you know, so we can write things down. So here's what I would suggest. If you really want to know, grab a piece of paper. Don't do this now, because you'll be distracted. Do this after shala. Grab a piece of paper and you're going to write down the following things you're going to say for the people that are in my social circle, right? The people that I follow on Facebook, the people I hang out with the people I have on WhatsApp, you're going to write the following questions down question one. Are they mostly the same culture as me?

Question two? Are they mostly the same ethnicity as me? Number three, do they speak the same language as me? Number four, do they have the same socio economic status as me? Okay, so those are going to be the four questions that you'll you'll write down? Can you say it again? Yes.

The first question you're going to write is for the people that I spend most of my time with? Are they mostly the same culture as me? Are they mostly the same ethnicity as me? Do they speak the same language as me? And are they the same socio economic status as okay? And you're just gonna put Yes or No?

Then wherever you have a yes, you realize that there's probably a gap there that needs to be addressed. So let me give you an example right, I am Ghanian American.

So maybe I write down that most of the people I spend time with are also Ghanian Americans then that means I have a gap

maybe I don't know so much about Pakistani Americans or Mexican Americans or you know, I I have a gap that needs to be filled right? This doesn't mean that in my daily life I'm going around constantly offending people, but I might be doing so subconsciously because I don't know

about other people, other cultures and so forth, right? I haven't gotten to know someone so how do I know if something I'm doing might not be the way I'm interacting might not be very positive. Right? So that's the that's the first thing that we might do. There are other questions that we could write down for the sake of time I've given these four major ones right. There are other questions that you might ask such as you know, do they all live in the same areas me Do they all have the same interests as me etc etc. It goes on but if we look at these four questions, most of us will find that there's probably some sort of gap in our intimate social circles.

So So basically, look around you and I will add if you allow me your

are the same religion. Yeah, definitely. Right.

Meaning especially for the mature people, simple for us and is your neighbors

right neighbors is the best example and actually I look at the neighbors the best opportunity and the best test for my last pantalla

Yes, right. I mean literally you're gonna move to a house or an apartment is because you have already checked your neighbors and you're gonna move very quickly

right so this is this is the question now do you feel that you are quote unquote better than them? Because you're younger You're prettier You are a Muslim you Are any of this? Number two, did I have or did I make

the effort to make them know me? And I'm talking here about Muslims and woman wearing Hijab specifically right because again, you come I and you will have the line very proud of it. And may Allah reward this all but we came with a perception from the other person. What do I do to break that because that's all goes under it? It's perception. Yes, Yeah, I do. Read the the I personally do and what did I do to break the perception and I will give an I get I'm going to be very transparent. This is how we learn even us looking at certain criteria in the other gender these days. We assume this person is this and he thinks of me

This way Yes. So Pamela and Allah have taught me and personal have taught me how wrong I was. How wrong I just assumed because everything fits. Yes and needs me say something he responded and I said Subhan Allah May Allah forgive me so we all have to agree that yes we have a como como en de la he at koco the no was the my job in front of Allah I showed them I am a talker

I showed him I am at home I'm not better because I am this person or that person. But because I am in the sight of Allah if I do this so looking at all the surroundings, the one I have a choice which is more easier to change because it's my choice. And the ones that I have no choice in them. Yes. What did I do to break barriers in me?

Yes. So now we're

sorry she's she's just excited to be here

to be on the screen.

So So now if we said yes, if we said no, no, no, everybody in my group in my immediate circle is all the same same thing, whether they are all second generation born raised in the States. I don't know any foreigner I don't know any immigrant or the other way around, or eat the same food or this. So if all the answers were Yes, yes, yes, yes. After I say your love, please forgive me. What do I do? Hmm. So this is where we can start to rectify the situation right once like you said, first we we identify the problem, then we look for solutions, the easiest solution is to say, Okay, let me change that. Right. One of the beautiful things about our day and age we have so much technology

Mashallah, let's say for example, that one of the will continue with the idea of everyone in my group is the same ethnicity as me. Well, it doesn't take much to go up on Facebook or Instagram or you know, social media, and join a group from a different ethnicity, right? So maybe I'll join a group for Hispanic Americans so that I can learn a little bit about their culture, I can learn a little bit about the struggles that face this particular community, right? So the first thing I can say that's very, very easy is I can go online, I can find a group and I can say, Okay, I'm going to join this group. And when I do that, I want to be a minority in the group, right? So when I when I

say I want to be a minority, you see, sometimes we think, Oh, you know what, I don't have friends of this particular ethnicity, right? Keeping with my example, right? Let's say that all my friends are Ghanian American. And I say, you know, I don't know any Mexican Americans. Let me invite a Mexican American to come and hang out with me and my Ghanian American friends, what do you think that party is going to look like, is going to be Ghanian food is going to be you know, we're going to be speaking whatever Ghanian languages that we speak, we're going to be wearing Ghanian clothes, and there's going to be this one poor Mexican lady who got invited and feels left out. So that's not two

out of four. That's not, that's not hoping me to build a meaningful relationship with someone who's different from me, right. But what I could do is, you know, for example, here in Dallas, we have a group that's called Islam and Spanish, they do a lot of work with the Hispanic community, you know, with the Muslims, and so forth. And they have stores, for example, during Ramadan, obviously, before COVID. So going to those farms, where I get to eat a different kind of food that I'm not used to eating for fun, right? I get to hang out with people whose culture is completely different from mine in some aspects, and it's also very similar to mine in some aspects, right? So I go and I let myself

be a little uncomfortable, right? I may not understand the language completely. There might be some cultural practices that I'm not certain of, or I'm not familiar with. It'll be a little weird at first, but that's okay. Right? If I keep going, and I keep persisting, I'm going to make friends, I'm going to realize that we have so much in common, I'm going to benefit from this group. And that's, you know, that's true for all of these different, you know, different questions that we wrote down, right? Think about, for example, the same socio economic status.

You know, if anytime I go out with my friends with my friend group, we're always going to the latest restaurant and we're all spending $30 on dinner. Maybe there's somebody who can't afford to do that. And so they don't get to, I don't get to spend time with that person. I don't get to bond with that person. But maybe that person says, Hey, you know what, there's a park over here. Why don't we have a little picnic that I go out and you know, we have a little picnic and I get to spend time in the fresh air. I get to realize that there's a park five minutes

from my house, you know, I get different ideas on how to spend time I start saving my own money, which is great as well, right? Like, there are so many benefits to this to being inclusive to being open to new ideas, it's honestly, it's a shame when we miss out on, it really is. So, you know, actively seeking to build those relationships, that's the first thing. The second thing is we have to recognize, reduce and remove any negative input that is influencing our thoughts. Right? If, for example, I'm hesitating to, to engage with a particular culture, because in my heart, I feel like all these people are they're not good people, I have some bad ideas about them, I really have to be

honest with myself about where did I get these ideas from? Why do I have these ideas in my heart? And how can I get rid of them, sometimes it's the media that we consume, right? Maybe there's a particular TV show that I watched, that constantly makes fun of a particular group of people or a particular ethnicity, right? If I constantly watch something like that, it starts to come into my head and into my heart, right? Because anything you put in your body goes into your heart, the things you see the things you listen to the foods you eat, all of these affect your heart, right? So I have to be honest with myself about what are some of the things that are negatively influencing me

and stopping me from trying to fix this problem and I have to cut them out, right? Whether it's some media that I consume, whether it's people that I hang out with who have negative ideas and are are encouraging this awful behavior towards other people could be people in my family, right? Who I have to sit down and talk to and say look, this is not correct. You can't talk about people this way we can't use this sort of language against other people etc etc right? So those are two things we have but we have to be active right we have to take an initiative to do these things. So So basically, identify the issue which is the four questions you asked which most of us the answer is going to be

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Meaning it is only the people I know have the same background the same food, the same culture the same status number one number two is

I will add if you allow me and again we are here Muslims, number one I'm going to ask the last pantalla to remove this from my heart

to remove this because this is not easy again because we grew up with it comfortable I don't see myself as this So number one is a dua ask Allah Subhana Allah that Allah Lift Away strip my heart

from arrogance, and this is actually one of the guys from

my cousin

hemiola has old as you like I said, What part of it is in Cuba?

argot. I don't want to be arrogant. Number one, number two, your Allah put in my way.

And this is specifically for women or for whoever and all our audience. If you are in a workplace and workplace specially in this country, you will be exposed to different people. Number one, and child is in school and will be exposed to different people because especially if the school three or 400, the class itself is 100. You have

there's a real possibility. Some of the people in that group are very different than that I have to be proactive. If I want to use the word I need to initiate because that's an act of worship. This is what I wanted to remind everyone it's an act of worship, when I remove the ill feeling and the elegance inside me because that's something does not

please Allah, Allah Sophie Jana muthoni caffrey

mata Cadbury. So when I asked for love I do I lift it away, I am being rewarded, number one, number two, when I do pro active, even if the person and this is something may be the one of the the hurdle is like maybe they will not accept me. Maybe they will be mean maybe they will say why you're talking to us. The answer is I'm doing it for a law. Exactly. Law will reward me and then in the Day of Judgment I will say your law I tried I want to share this story with your scene and with everybody and I loved it. And it taught me so much in action. This is why our actions and very important is our children will see what we are doing

and they will learn from us so we were in hajj and you know had my last pantalla invite us y'all have been every everybody. So here we are and this is before things become much easier as it is now.

The ruler was on the ship who was with us in the group. And we ended up getting into one of these small cars going from minute to marker. And we all get into the car and the ship gets up and there was people already in this small minivan and the ship says Salaam to these two men. And I was like, Chappelle Elia share what is what what is what a coincidence in between those millions. And you find these two people, your friends, as a panel law, he said, I don't know them.

But that's our dean.

That's, that's our religion. That's what the

and, and he said, this is how we grew up.

This, this is one of the points I want to try to bring. This is how we grew up, in our home, parents, and in our neighborhood. Everybody treats everyone as if they are the closest friend. Now, again, this also may bring in I want you to comment on this, because people will say if I'm going to be friends with everybody, I'm going to expose myself maybe to things that is not the best, my safety, all of this, how do you respond? And comment on this? Yeah, for sale.

So I feel like sometimes we say these sort of things, because we're just trying to make excuses. Honestly.

I don't know how to respond otherwise. Like, if somebody doesn't want to do something, they will find a million excuses not to do it, and I can't answer it. Right, um, people will say things like, Oh, I really love my culture. And I want my kids to know my culture and my language. That's why we only hang out with people from my culture in my language. Okay.

mashing, go ahead, you know, like, What am I supposed to say to that, right? Or people will say something like, Oh, well, you know, I had a really bad experience for with someone from this cultural group. So, you know, I just, I don't want to be involved with them. Okay. You know what? I can't, I can't force anyone. You know, people make all kinds of excuses for things. And eventually, I have to be honest with myself. That's why I said, the first thing you need to do is you need to be honest with yourself and be honest that this might be a little bit weird. But you I don't know what's in your heart.

I don't know what's in your heart. You know, what's in your heart. Right? So when you make an excuse,

it shows us a sincere excuse, then you do what you need to do. All I can say, though, is on the Day of Judgment, I hope that excuse will hold up in front of Allah

Subhana Allah, which is true. I mean, in everything, you know, it's like, why didn't you wake up for federal I was tired. Right? And so there's always excuses. Yeah. The point we're trying to make, and I hope the message is, is there if I'm gonna use the word racism? And this is what is very commonly used these days, do we have racism as Muslim?

What do you think you're saying?

I definitely think we have elements of racism in our communities. In Islam. We don't have a place for racism. But we definitely have these things in our communities, right?

There are different ways that if we really wanted to find a solution to things we could do so right, where we could be advocates for other people where we could help other people. A beautiful example that I'll give you since we were talking about like different cultures, or maybe I want to preserve or something like that, right.

There's a beautiful story that is shared by a Holland for the law of Thailand, her one of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam where she says that, a little background about Khalid she was from a family that had migrated to Abyssinia. Okay, so her parents had moved from Makkah to Abyssinia to Ethiopia.

When the Muslims were having a hard time in Mecca, so she was actually born and raised for part of her life in Abyssinia.

When her family moved back to Medina, you know, they start to integrate into this community again and as a community she doesn't know she's not very familiar with because she's not grown up around them.

She tells us this story that the prophesied Salaam was given some clothes as a gift, some garments and some clothes and there was a dress amongst them, right a little dress amongst them with some embroidery and some decoration on it. So the profit slice on looked around and he said Who should I give this dress to?

And everyone was quiet nobody wants to be greedy, you know? prophesized Some said wish some holiday bring some holiday to me so I'm Khalid was brought to the prophesies the lump sum narration say that she was carried to him so she must have been a little girl, right? And the prophesize so I've said here, try this dress on you know, try this on and he makes Donna, he says

I pray that this dress will become ragged and will wear out which means I pray you love it so much you wear it so much that you'll wear it out. Anyway, so she puts it on, and the prophesized silom admires it on her. And he says center center on potted. B, it's beautiful. It's beautiful and potted. The thing is that the word that the province says I'm used for beautiful Santa is a word from the Abyssinian language.

And the prophesied some use this with her to make her feel comfortable. To make her feel like I realize that you're new to our community, this is probably the language that you're more familiar with. And so he learned, you know, he used some words from a foreign language to make her feel welcome, right? I'm not saying that we have to completely discard who we are. Right? I'm not saying look, if you like like, you know, in my culture, we like eating jollof rice or, you know, we like listening to certain kinds of lectures or, you know, whatever it is, right? I'm not saying we have to completely discard who we are. But I am saying we have to make room for other people. And I think

Unfortunately, sometimes we let these excuses these, these questions become an excuse not to make room for other people. Right? The Prophet sallallahu Sallam

welcomed people into his community. When we see the way he interacted with people, he interacted with them at a level that made them comfortable. So if I can't get out of my own space to try and make someone else comfortable, then I'm not following the prescription and the way of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. And to be honest, it's really not that hard, right? It's really not that hard. To help somebody to feel comfortable. We see that here. All the prophesize on did is say one word in another language. And Khalid is narrating this, too. She's telling everyone that she can write, I'll tell you a personal story

about this. So you mentioned I grew up in Saudi Arabia. And then I moved to the US for college. At the age of 70. I didn't have any family in America. I moved with my sister, my twin sister, and I remember the first day of class, we're 17 years old, the campus is huge. We have no idea where we're going. And we were in separate classes. I had a class you had a class so we didn't have our first class together. So just imagine, like, you know, came from Saudi Arabia hijabi there's no other heat jobbies you know, within like, there seems to be no there. Hey, Gabby's like, you know, I got lost on my way to class. It was just a miserable day, I'll just I'll finish by saying was a miserable

day. So I got my first class late.

And it was an English class. And the teacher made us break up into groups. Because his first day of class, he made his break up into groups, and introduce ourselves to get to know one another. Right? I came late. So I just joined the first group that I couldn't I sat beside this young man who was a white man, white, also college student, and I think he was from Iowa. I don't remember anyway. So he asked me about myself. And I said, Oh, you know, I'm originally from Ghana, it's in West Africa. I have to say, West Africa, because most people don't know where Ghana is, right? I said, I'm from Ghana, from West Africa. He goes, Oh, which part of Ghana? And I was shocked that he even like had

heard.

Exactly. The white kid from Iowa, right? So I said, Oh, from the north, right? And he said, Oh, which part of the North? I'm like, you are nosy. So I said, Oh, I'm from a small town, you've probably nobody's ever heard of it. Even people in Ghana have never heard of this town. I said, I'm just from a small town. It's close to this in this city. And I named the city.

And he looks at me and he says one word. He says the Suba which is the way we say good morning in our language, this language is spoken by only 200,000 people in the world, by the way, yeah, Allah is only 200,000 people speak this language. So he said, dasilva. And, you know, I probably like fell through the floor. And he looked at me My reaction was I was shocked. And also he goes, Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't pronounce that. Right. I said,

Where did you learn that? How do you know that? And he goes, it means Good morning, right? It's a morning class. So of course, good morning. It's appropriate. I said, Yeah. How do you know that he told me that his parents were missionaries. And so they lived in Ghana for a time and they lived in our part of Ghana. So he had learned the language a little bit. He didn't remember most of it. He was a kid, but he remembered how to say good morning.

And my day changed completely just by hearing someone say good morning to be in a language that I love. If he didn't ask you.

This whole thing will never happen. It would never happen. No, because if someone

Look at you. You would not assume you're from Ghana. No, no, I don't have the accent. I don't you know, I'm not wearing the outfit, right? And if I look at him, I'll never assume that he lived a part of his life in Ghana. He's a white kid from Iowa. So what do I find? Is this is what you have said earlier, is initiate. Yes. initiate the people. If you are in the comfortable seat, he wasn't the comfortable seat. I mean, he grew up here is fine. At first day of college, what is the big deal? But it is not fine for you was absolutely, you initiate and that's actually that's actually this our Dean? Yes. Is what who starts the salon? The best person starts.

There's even etiquettes about that, you know,

the first finding the older the younger.

So yes, we're gonna come out of this beautiful discussion when he says, I will say number one, look around everybody. This is actually I was thought and I specifically when I go might come in a lot again, invite this again. Often all these millions people, you always wonder, different human beings, absolutely Shogun wakaba nations and tribes. You always wonder which one among those people they will be Olia Allah hopefully him but

those are the allies of Allah no fear, no sorrow. So always assume and I handler I was taught this that everybody around me is better than me.

in the sight of Allah that will make us what humble? Much humble. Hey, man, Shama number one and number two, initiate with this a start. Yes, I am then learn from them not I'm gonna teach them exactly.

What do you want to add your for saying to this action plans take home. The final thing that I would like to share because we're talking about making someone else comfortable, and it sounds like I'm asking you to do a lot of work to help somebody else. So I want to share with the prophesies seldom taught us the prophesied someone told us manifesto and movement and corbetta Minh COVID dunya, knotfest, Allahu Allahu Kuru button and Kirby omen. The prophets I seldom told us that anyone who relieves a Muslim of some hardship in this world, Allah will relieve hardship from them on the Day of Judgment. So when I advocate for someone, someone doesn't understand Arabic and I help them or I

go to the masjid board, I say, Hey, can we have some lectures in English because this person doesn't, when I try to make that person comfortable, Allah will make me comfortable on the Day of Judgment. When I see someone who can't afford to keep going on all these outings and I say, Hey, guys, let's have a picnic in the park. Let's stop spending all of our money. And that person finally feels covered. They don't feel embarrassed that I have to tell everyone that I can't afford this. Allah will protect me on the Day of Judgment.

I think that's enough, right? I'm not doing this for myself. Now. I are not doing this for someone else. Now I'm doing it to save myself. Right? Exactly. Exactly. So initiate, start the initiate step by thinking everybody around us is better than us. Because we don't know who's our karma commander law. We don't know as you said,

the attacker is inside. I don't know number two, number three. It is an act of worship and you said that beautifully manifests our morning corba when I am going to make the person around me more comfortable like the story you just gave. Why? This man made you much more comfortable day one. This is actually an act of worship. It's something pleasing to Allah pantalla so don't do it because this person is this or that. Do it because that's something Allah loves. I will be rewarded number four I will add if you allow me Don't get discouraged if it didn't work the first time. Yes.

Because you're doing it for a lot you're doing it for the sake of Allah.

So do it. Especially now I'm going to emphasize on this and I will leave the last few minutes to you is when we entered the masjid, especially the woman area, and if there is somebody who you have not seen if you're somebody who goes to the masjid frequently, there's somebody you haven't seen make an effort to go and say Salaam, specifically to her, make her feel more comfortable, you know, and if she didn't respond or she will do your best, but then again initiate maybe she is way better than I am. I'm doing good for our last panel Tyler. I will be rewarded. I suppose. It's already eight o'clock Can you believe

this has been an amazing discussion, I pray that Allah allows us to really

internalize what we've said and really take the best of what what we've said to heart from what do you want to end up with anything else you want to leave with our audience?

Honestly, I think that the the most important point to take from here is that this is advice that Allah and His Prophet have given us, right? This is not just something that I'm talking about because I want to talk about it or because this is something only I care about. This is something that I learned from the Quran. This is something that I learned from the Prophet sallallahu Salman. And so as Muslims, we want to take this advice from one from the profit slice, and we want to use it to get to gym. So I pray that Allah tala will accept from us that a lot of santella will really allow us to be Muslims, who are truly brothers and sisters, in faith in our words, and our actions.

And alongside that will make us a community that learns from each other that strengthens each other and we lift each other up. Yeah, we I mean Jazakallah Hayden, and unfortunately we have to stop because it's all the time and motive is getting very close to this is not going to be the end I can assure you inshallah, we will talk again.

Because this is a really important topic we need to remind ourselves as Muslims as woman, as community as a nation, that this is something we really have to work on Japonica, llamo handicare shadow Allah,

I stuck through COVID to boudic so a lot of Satan them hammer while he was happy to see him and fifth era desert como la, la he will do for Cena for the time. And joining us again, yellow B and M in general and so really call him to law here but I can't consider more often