Hamza Tzortzis – How To Convey The Call #01
AI: Summary ©
The importance of internalizing concepts in a educational program is emphasized, as it is a self-facing act of worship where individuals share their love for their actions. The "has" in worship is seen as a balance between personal and professional, and the "has" in Islam is seen as a balance between personal and professional. Personal expression and humility are emphasized, along with the importance of reward and happiness for individuals. The speaker also discusses the negative impact of having family members attend events and the importance of healthy lifestyle and being mindful of one's behavior.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman Al Rahim al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
How is everybody this morning?
Good. hamdulillah. So, this session today is a review session of what you did yesterday. And it's going to be interactive. And we're going to go through a whole bunch of questions.
And it will be your opportunity for you to ask any further questions from what we tried to understand yesterday. Now, any questions on a higher level, as we said, we're going to park them and address them on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, when we're going through the more in depth stuff, okay. So it's very important for you to understand that we're not deliberately ignoring your questions, we're going to address your questions. And I'm so looking forward to addressing the questions. But because of the structure of the educational program, we have to understand that we're building a set of concepts in your mind. And it's important to get the initial concepts first, and
we build other concepts on top of that. And we have found through experience that is far more
easier, and is better concerning internalizing the content. Because our objective in these nine days is for you to be able to take that concept and apply in different scenarios. And I want you to have that objective, too. We may have fun, we may laugh, we may have some jokes, we may find something interesting, it may be in demand boost. But that's, that's a secondary objective. For us, frankly, we're here for the real work for the grafting in order for us to get the concepts and able to apply them in any given scenario. And that's a challenge, actually, because it's not easy to basically get someone to understand a particular concept with the ability to apply it in any scenario, especially
new scenarios that they haven't experienced themselves. So I want you to have that objective. And we have that objective to. So our role is to ensure that you internalize the concert and you can apply it. And you should take us to account if we're not doing that properly. Does that make sense? It's extremely important.
So that's why we have sometimes a lot of repetition. And we have, for example, seeing the same thing in different ways in order for you to understand what we're talking about here. Okay. So hopefully, in this review session, we're going to go through round 12 to 13 questions. And those questions will bring out all the things we learnt yesterday, for example, why it's important to give our what are the rewards and motivations? What is the role of the fitrah?
What is the goal? rap methodology? Right? If someone asked you this particular question, how do you respond, right? What is the ethics of dour? How must one communicate with others? What are the characteristics of the art, all of these points are going to be fleshed out today in a way that hopefully you will internalize them.
And we should be finished around noon. And we're going to start the Shahada section at noon 12pm. And we're going to follow through the rest of the program that you have in your in your notes. For those who are new. The notes that you have up to today, you're going to receive new notes, almost on a daily basis from that point of view.
everybody happy?
Good. Now before we go through the review questions,
I just want to talk about why I think Tao is important for me, okay? Now Tao is important for me. Yes, it's an obligation and it's an act of worship one of the highest forms of worship, but from a internal psychological point of view. Tao for me defines who I am. Okay, it's a self defining issue for me. And this is based on two Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The first Hadith, as you all know, is the 13th Hadith in arbaeen of Unknowing
Where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, let me know that you hit me up, but enough See, you won't truly believe it unless you love for your brother, or your love for yourself. I believe Allah had to me and and now we had the opinion, they opined that this meant not only Muslim Brotherhood, but general brotherhood. And they refer to other Hadith and abodo, the Muslim Ahmed, that indicate this, that it means people as well. There's a secondary meaning of people, because true eemaan to elevate yourself spiritually is not only to love for your Muslim Brotherhood, love for yourself, but to love for your human Brother, what you love for yourself. Because essentially,
that means guidance. You want guidance for people, right? It's an innate fitly Drive, that when you love something, you want to share it. How many children do we see? Coming up to us if we're uncles or parents and they say, Baba, uncle, look, spider spider, you see kids dinner all the time. They like to share things that they discover and that they see. And sharing, right and expressing the things that they've just found or something that they love is part of human nature. We do this all the time, even with soccer, right? Or American football, or whatever sports you like, right? Like I'm a boxing fan. I actually, like the martial arts. So I'll be talking about Bruce Lee, who I'll be
talking about when I was growing up about you know, the famous boxer that I liked, which was like Tyson, or whoever, right? He's the best boxer. And you know, you argue with your friends and you you put up a defense in a fight about the things that you love, right? And so it's a natural thing to share the thing that you love. Now the reason is self defining is because I want to elevate my mind. I want to be a true believer I want to perfect my faith. However, our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying that you won't perfect your faith, you won't perfect your mind unless, unless you love for others what you love for yourself, you love for others with low fees. So the
question is, what do I love the most? Whom do I love the most? Right?
From a credo perspective, I'm supposed to love Allah subhana wa tada and I'm supposed to love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, therefore, I should be giving this love to other people. So from this perspective, not only does it define me because I want to perfect my Iman. And to do so I have to share the thing that I love, which is Allah subhana wa to Allah and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but at the same time, it enables me to give Dawa because that sharing of that love of Allah, that sharing of the love of Mohammed Sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam is Tao itself because how am I going to get humanity to love Allah? How am I going to get humanity to love the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is by giving that power, right?
And there's a very similar Hadith when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is authentic hadith narrated by Buhari but it's
al Kabir. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Love for leanness, the possessive for humanity, Lin s for humanity, what you love for yourself. So we see in the Hadith literature, we see that it's very important to
share the things that you love. Okay, so if you love Allah subhanho wa Taala. If you love the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, then you should want to share that love with other people.
So for me, it's a self defining moment. And it should be a self defining moment for everybody else. And that's why sometimes when we link our activities to an internal psychological state, I think it, it facilitates intrinsic motivation. You're always motivated because, you know, you're always thinking, look, who am I?
I am I'm Hamza. I'm a believer. I am an avid and I want to perfect my faith. How do I do that is by sharing the thing that I love. What do I love the most last panel to Allah and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So I need to be engaged in that work of spreading love. So Tao is essentially you're spreading the love of Allah subhana wa tada and the love of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
So that's a personal insight from my point of view. So we have a bunch of questions here. I want to ask this question. We'll have a little bit of a discussion, then we'll summarize this how it's going to work. Okay. Now, the first question here is, why is it? Why is it important to know Allah subhanho wa Taala before we even engage in the work of data, why is it important to know Allah subhanho wa Taala before we engage in the work of dalla excema
necessities knowledge.
We're saying
that love
to know that object.
Absolutely. So very good. So from that point of view, how can you love something you don't know?
That's what the earlier now when they talk about a bed and when they talk about worship, they define it as knowing Allah subhanho wa Taala, loving Allah subhanho wa Taala, obeying Allah subhana wa Taala and directing all our acts of worship to Allah alone. These are the essential elements of worship, to know Allah, to love Allah to obey Allah, and to direct all our acts, internal and external, all that acts of worship to Allah, Lord. And this is very significant. Because How can you call to that thing, which you don't know?
Are you going to be a good caller? If you don't know Allah subhanho wa Taala. And I'm not saying you have to be an expert in field philosophy, or theology? No, what we're saying here is that you know, what tawheed is on a basic factory level. And you know, what is negation is what should it is? That's it.
We're not saying you have to know the kind of bunches of faith and the differences of opinion and creed and the different kind of feel philosophical positions on this and that no, no, no, but I'm not saying that. And that's a very dangerous position to hold anyway. What we're saying here is no the fact that Allah deserves worship, know the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala has his names and attributes. Know the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala is a maximally perfect in Islam, we have a maximal perfection theology which means that Allah has names and attributes are the to the highest degree possible.
Or to the highest degree possible. They have no imperfection, they have no deficiency, they have no flaw. This is the last panel water.
This is a law. He is alright man. He is intensely merciful, and I think is a bad translation. I think it's his the lovingly merciful because our man has three main connotations. Number one, His mercy is intense. Number two is His mercy is immediate. And number three, His mercy is so powerful. If he decides to shower you with His mercy, no one can stop it. And also Allah will do the loving the excessively loving care from the Arabic word would which means the loving that is giving.
Right? This is Allah subhanho wa Taala and His love is the most purest form of love, because he doesn't need to love and he gains nothing by loving because he's alleghany he is rich and independent yet he loves
I love us all. He wrote an amazing book about love actually in his he is the 36th book of his here and it's an onsen intimacy and contentment. That book, that chapter is
he'll have his own little ham in my view, his own little ham. Now book, I'm telling you, it's like
sapana law and many of the theologians of the time actually bashed him you know that they've actually not loving.
Allah can't love his creature. They bashed him left find center for this issue, because how can you say Allah is loving? And he will look the Quran says it is in the Hadith literature is part of our tradition. Do you see? So and those kind of theologians who attacked him with a kind of very excessively philosophical theologians actually, not to say that philosophy doesn't have a place it does. But there is a balance as you know, and it was, I'm just thinking about I'm getting excited just going through that book, because that book is just phenomenal. It is phenomenal. There's some gems in that book. It's like who, who wrote the script? A lot of final words that is I advise to
really actually get hands even on the English or the Arabic is is phenomenal. I mean, 36 book of the year, and we have it here actually. You know, of course, of course Absolutely.
Nearly to Panama Yeah. Wow.
Achieve achieve. You know, it's interesting because, um,
you know, this whole discussion sometimes amongst the kind of high Nebula scholars, right, and especially the Neil Hannibal lights, and we respect all the madhhab respect all the classical scholars, we have some brothers who are not very learned they have a little bit of knowledge and the first thing they usually do is attack Allah bizarrely, right. And I did a rant the other day on a private group, because there's so much Arabic texts, like even taymiyah quotes and 58 times in a positive way. You have the likes of so many of the LMS amongst the HANA biller, refer to him as
I got it from him. I got it from him. He really is brilliant. So all the Arabic and everything
I was really impressed. And for me, it's more of a spiritual thing because I said to myself, no one's perfect. Right? Absolutely. But what's very interesting is this is that if you study Allah vasarely his life, his life is an idea. It's an idea. It's a social spiritual idea for us. He noticed ego, especially for the art, especially for the art, because he was the dawn of Baghdad. Right? He was the dawn of Baghdad, he, his students were early on.
And he noticed ego in his heart, and he traveled the desert, if you like, and he was a janitor in a Masjid for two years. Imagine us, we should be cleaning the sewers of London for 30 years, if that's the case, right? And for me, his life is so empowering. And for me, it showed a huge shift in theology, from the point of view, that Islam wasn't about abstract Thiele philosophical thinking that had its realm to preserve things. However, it was about experiencing the sinner live as it makes a beautiful point. May Allah have mentioned him, he said, Look, I dealt with the philosopher's. To have that philosophy. I dealt with this than the other I did logic, I did this, I
did that. But at the end of the day, the only thing that would give you Sakina, tranquility and conviction is practicing the son of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam being on that path of a bad of Vicar of Allah subhanho wa Taala in accordance with our tradition, that was his, you have to traverse the path. If you don't traverse the path is going to be abstract for you. And I noticed in my own life, right, you know, looking at philosophical tax system, the other end you'd like, you become very hard hearted, and your sunlight is like, Where am I in my Salah. Your spiritual coordinates are missing. Which reminds me another thing about Oliver's alley, someone wrote him a
letter, I believe and said, Where is the law? And he said, Where are you? At? You never, you never know where you are. You're talking about Allah subhanho wa Taala. You turn about the Lord of the heavens in the earth. Do you ever know where you are faint of heaven? Where are you going? Who are you? Alright, so anyway, the point is,
his his life is an ayah is less of an AMA, sorry, this bit of I usually go on these rants. So you have to bring me back on, on track. So the point is, you need to know Allah subhanho wa Taala, that he has names and attributes, and that they are perfect, they have no deficiency and flaw, that He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. He is the master and owner of everything. And also that he is the only date he worthy of worship, the only being worthy of worship that we direct all our x internal and external acts of worship to Allah Allah. This is the basic fundamentals of who Allah subhana wa Taala is. And once you know that, and you continue knowledge of Islam, then you are able
to direct people to Allah subhanho wa Taala. So
we will get the point here, right? That it's so critical to have some knowledge of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the essential elements if you like, before we start calling to Allah. Make sense? Any questions on this point? Before we move to the second question?
Yes, brother. Real quick. So it sounds a synopsis of what you're presenting here. Is that categories of domain? Yeah, essentially, the scholars have differed as to how many categories
for scholarship. So would you consider four branches off as mentioned?
There's a fourth one as well.
They say that's absorbed in the third category. But the point is, see these categories were helpful. They weren't really cool. I want to consider them. Why because the categories are rationalizations of what you see in the Quran and the Sunnah, right? Yeah, no sandstone. So that's why sometimes when we teach this, we like to do from the point of view that is understood across theological spectrums, because generally speaking, there are so many similarities, right?
As soon as we get stuck into the kind of credo academia, which is good has it played has its place. But for DOD, I don't think it has its place. We have a lot of them but when it comes to the Dow we are as what I would call Universalist as possible within the framework of our ethics. Does that make sense? Good. So second question.
Give ways in which our approach so we learned the goal rap approach in giving Dawa can be broader than just a table in the city center for on a weekend. So give other ways of doing dour, other than just being in a city center with a booth and handing out leaflets for example. Yes. Transforming Baltimore.
Transforming Baltimore.
Absolutely, absolutely. That's 1000 year strategy laser.
Seven, Allahu Akbar, lo equip you. But how the point here is what we want to discuss is you want to give down to your community how you do that sometimes what we do, just because we've been influenced by TV or YouTube is like, right, I'm going on the streets. Now, street out has its place, like when I was in Vancouver, took a whole team out, I didn't go in the streets, I went into the coffee shop, and I spent an hour and a half of someone just having a real conversation. I don't really like street owl, per se, I think it's a little bit unnatural, because people don't really talk on the street that much. It's more known for salespeople has its place. But for me, it's not my natural.
It's not my natural footing if you like I like to, I'm a coffee shop guy, come to a restaurant, serve some pizza, or even let's go for a walk in a park. Right? That's the kind of guy that I am to interact with people. So what we want to get here is, let's think about different manifestations of the Dow in public. So we have giving out leaflets in in the Baltimore Harbor. But what else do we have?
events, lectures.
Okay, events, lectures, seminars.
Businesses often give out information.
Yeah, some owners. There's one Chinese Chinese restaurant in New York, they're very famous.
But obviously not Muslims.
Oh, wow. That's brilliant. So the brothers saying that a lot of halal businesses in the States, like a restaurant, outside don't have free Qur'an. And they'll give free krenzel. So they go to have the meal to have the lunch or dinner or whatever. And if they interested, they just pick a free quote and brilliant. Yes.
post it. So
you could post leaflets and pamphlets. Yep. Anything else that haven't heard before, that's trying to be new that's trying to think outside the box. For me something like more direct, I mean, people that you already interact with. So it's your doctor, your building supervisors and managers, your colleagues. So you know, taking them out as you're seeing coffee one day or have you having this sort of active conversation that can be absolutely and that is more most powerful.
Of course, so the natural dour setting, colleagues, co workers, I remember when I used to work for the police IT organization, almost a decade over a decade ago, it's been disbanded now, I was a program office manager. And underneath me, I had the program officer, and he was from the Jehovah Witness community. So sometimes we booked out three hour meetings, just to have discussions on theology. And we had a great time and we connected, you know, and we took each other on a journey. Do you see at least one cache in the states that may be problematic?
Yeah,
absolutely.
But what I would do, though, just to serve for interrupting what I would do, I know there's even in the UK, there's legal issues, you can't preach at work. But why we do is create good relationships at work. We're in the weekend or in the evenings. Let me buy you dinner tonight. Right? maybe buy you some dinner. And that's one of the best ways of giving now it's actually Sunday. Right? If you want to call it Sunday, they know the polytheists that slept in the house of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had seven bowls of milk. And then he became Muslim, and he just had one bowl of milk. And then you have the famous Hadith that the disbeliever has seven stomachs. And I think some
of them I even said this is this was the person was humor as well. Right? There's a bumper on the Hudson. He was actually was humor, as well, as yesterday was how clickable is go rap to the one that I see every day. Like my neighbor. That was my question yesterday. Yeah, but we'll go rap can be done in one second. One minute, one week, one year, one decade. It's a journey. Because remember, Garp is a framework. So what you're saying is, you could spend a week on one part of initiation. So if you remember initiation, initiation, if you look at like a triangle, you had essentially a clock, right, your character and stuff. You had the concept.
And then you had agreement.
This was initiation.
The importance of a clock and body language, right? So you're speaking to somebody it could be in any context on the phone on YouTube, like someone sent me an email on Facebook yesterday, saying, You're Greek How do you become Muslim? Da da da da, you're wrong. So how you doing bro? You sound quite troubled everything all right. So the I am troubled. Why do you become Muslim? So he decided that he became more soft. I didn't respond by saying you rude so so I'm blocking you. I try to engage with him in a positive way. So you could do online offline body language a flat character.
have a sense of forbearance him, right being being forbearing, Allah, Allah Halim, and we must manifest that in a human way in our lives. So this o'clock could take three months, you can have a sincere strategy with somebody, that you are genuine and interacting with someone to the point where I'm going to make sure that they see me trustworthy enough. So when I give them why Islam is the truth, or when you give them the concept, that it's understood without any psychological barriers, this artwork or the critique, take months, you could spend a year with your neighbor. Honestly, you could spend a year with your neighbor, cleaning, cleaning their garden, helping them, you know,
doing so many amazing things. And then they may raise a question or and then you're ready to talk to them about Islam. And so you know what? That's a very interesting, interesting question. However, in order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of Islam. Now, there already, now it could be a minute, it could be a day depends who you are. It could be you know it for some people, it could be 10 years.
And I shared yesterday was very briefly, I had a in high school way back. My best friend was a Muslim uniform. But never once in that whole four years. That translated to Donald Yes, because he stayed too long here.
You make that assessment yourself. He stayed way too long. Right for years, because in my view, he probably had the strategy that Tao was only a flock. That was the problem. And that's not the case. I mean, whoever says that, I think, frankly, has not understood the Quran, the Hadith, the Sierra, or anything is a part of data. And I do truly believe when we review the fitrah again, good luck is a means of awakening the truth within. However, we must always have the strategy that we want to give them the cool. We want to give them the cool call to the way of your Lord. odourless ability Robic hold the way of this panel what Allah. So this is essential. Right. But it's not the only
means to the Dow is part of your toolset if you like, right. So as school of colleagues, you got four years at college university. And you may spend spend three months Well, you should always have had good luck anyway. Right. But you bet you should spend time thinking right? Are they ready for the concept? But there is no me. They haven't built any trust the process, Sam was on the Mount. Right? And he said, if there was an army behind me, would you trust us? Yes, of course you are. You're the truthful one. Right. And he's what further now?
Do you see my point, because he established that he was a person of trust. Now, there may be scenarios on a street dollar table.
You have to contextualize this, he may never see them again. Yeah. So that o'clock, you only have one minute for the o'clock. And it might just be a really good handshake, a hug, a free orange juice and a smile. And then you have your conversation. So they get your concept, right? Understand the idea of initiation and apply it to different scenarios. So this could be a minute, you may only have 30 seconds, smile, hug, positive interaction.
And then given the concept that we discussed yesterday, if you remember it was that's a very interesting question. In order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of Islam.
He
came up to me He's like, always smiling. They're always happy for you. So yeah, he's like, you're either one of two things. You either smoke the most weed all day long.
Which threw me off where is that? You're genuinely like, happy person. I said. Are you doing for lunch today? I love what you said Come with me. We went to lunch and I talked to my salon like look you know if you received he's a very nice and he basically said to him, bro is the towel. He didn't attach weeds? Yeah.
It's not the weed is the Tao he then the TED read.
Brilliant.
So my jokes are really bad. But I love them. That's the good thing about
Yes. So you're right. So it's about applying the concept, applying the strategy in different scenarios. I think you're gaining here. Excellent. So let's move on to the second question. Right, the third question. So a brother says to Why should I get involved in dour? How would you motivate him? See the art of motivation is very difficult brothers is so hard tomorrow.
Others if you know motivate yourself, because I'm a true believer that passion breeds passion. Passion breeds passion. certainty breeds certainty. Love breeds love. Compassion breeds compassion. If you don't have it, you can't give it.
If you don't have it, it's very hard to give it.
Yes, sir, that goes with what we learned yesterday. That's something.
Yeah, absolutely. It's a metaphysical principle, which we're going to go and discuss the more complex questions in a couple of days. But it's a principle with a face a first principle. Yeah, it's the intellectual conceptual lenses you put on your face in order to see the world. That is how the world is understood. That's what metaphysics is. And that's why you can never run away from metaphysics. It's impossible, because even when you say there is no metaphysics is a metaphysical point, which we'll discuss in a couple of days. Yeah, so the point here is, how do you motivate someone
to talk to me brother,
the Joe Pesci of our
positive life experiences to generate those positive life experiences. So how something's benefited you?
Before I did, how my life was in terms of reward and Baraka and stuff like that, when I started to do dollar change.
At that point, it was a change. So when I started doing, I felt an increase increasing blessings and
things happening. Goodness will love, happiness and advancement. And you know, you're the right answer.
As well, that's amazing. You feel like crying just by listening to you. So true. Just be rude. Give people your real stories, that, you know, many of us even in here in in AI era, we had the opportunity of becoming consultants, we some of us, were consultants of it, and project management and a lot of us changed our lives. Some were engineers or aspiring engineers, right. And they changed the whole life. You know, from a kind of commercial point of view downgraded, but from a life point of view upgraded. You know, do you see my point? Because if you walk the path of Allah subhanho, wa Taala, you're always gonna have Baraka, you'll feel it, you will feel it in your life.
So narrate your positive stories. I think that's very powerful, motivational, anything else you'll do? Yes.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We always hear about reward, right? human beings essentially want to embrace pleasure run away from pain.
There's no such thing as altruism, because altruism really is just embracing pleasure and run away from pain. Like Rachel Corrie, for example, who was bulldoze by a Zionist truck or whatever, right? She was there sacrificing, because the pain of her doing nothing was more than the pain of her doing something.
And that's why even the Dalai Lama, right? He says, compassion is selfish. And actually, I agree with him, being compassionate, selfish, because
it's your benefit, because not to be compassionate is actually spiritually painful, but you just don't know. Right? So the point here is we want to embrace pleasure, we want to run away from pain. So we also want the rewards of the prayer in JAMA of taraweeh, of Ramadan, of freeing a slave of being nice of smiling of giving South Dakota the rewards. But the reward of Tao is immense is the biggest reward. If there's any more Audible, let me know, let me know. And what's interesting, many of them are fascinating when they discussed struggle in Islam. This there was a conversation, and one of the teachers was saying, why is there not much rules of the dour in the keytab? In the Quran,
because the LMS said, Those who struggle for the sake of Allah are the daughters. Well, they were included in that category. Because the Mk set, the objective of struggle is our
dollar. Do you see my point? So it's very important for us to understand the immense reward here. It's, it's it's so immense, and I mentioned this yesterday, if one of your actions contribute to someone becoming a Muslim, you you've opened a new generation of Muslims, now they're going to get married and have kids. So within 50 years, they're going to have a couple of generations and you're going to get the reward for everyone's Salah. Everyone's Hutch, everyone's Vicar, everyone's sadaqa everyone's reading of the Quran. That's all yours. On your misery, like a mistake, man. What's that?
Do you see my point? If only we knew I love
If only yes or
no, it's not my point, the start was basically saying there's a heavy focus on struggle as well, from that point of view. And when you look at them a facility, they say, That's because the Dow is involved in that. Because the mcsa, the objective of that is dow itself. That's the point. So when you think of that, and the rewards associated with that, it also filtered down to the rewards of the dots. Yes. So quick clarification, when you say our
course context is is a
generic voice, it's not non Muslims, but in from my experience, when you give the gossip to Muslims, it changes their life, because many Muslims, unfortunately, and this is me being this is me culturally stereotypical, but especially in the Asian subcontinent community, they get taught in Islam, that is not Islam. Yeah. Generally speaking. It's like the do's and the don'ts. It's a cultural manifestation. They have no what are called meaning behind the actions is become a meaningless tradition.
For example, you know, think about the concept of Salah how many people when they pray, they actually understand what they say in the salon, but they're talking to Allah subhanho wa Taala, they're praising him and glorifying him. They're remembering him. How many people know actually the profound meaning behind Allahu Akbar, right? So
it just becomes a kind of tick box chore, a kind of identity, complex issue, right? I'm a Muslim, I have to pray. We have to derive the sense of meaning and the Sahaba. And the prophets have a long war. It was seldom they had that. And we missed out in our discourse, right? You know, that's why sometimes I say to people, why are you telling people something's wrong? You think they care? Some people don't care. There's no mean. How many times do you find the * Haram in the Quran? Very few times. Is it haram not to vast? Yes. Where does the last day though you must first in the Quran?
And his answer though, what does Allah say you must fast yet but it doesn't say you must, could advise in the passive form.
Look, I'm trying to show you how does Allah address something that's afforded? Yeah, you help me No. Cookie katiba la cama cama, cama pitiable Edina republican La Quinta con oh you believe you're a president of a manner of elevated you now person of Amana? Someone who's a rearrangement of carbon right? wing electrons right. You are now elevate to someone of a trust between yourself and the Lord of the heavens.
quotevalet calcium, passive form fast
like he was prescribed for those before you you know alone. You know, when you go to the gym, you see someone you see someone benching 150 kilos, they're human, they go to arms, I could do choose a motivation. It worked for them. It's gonna work for me. And what's the goal? taqwa, God, consciousness, closeness with Allah subhanho wa Taala. Look how Allah has kept the language in order to directly engage with your soul. You personally have ananna between yourself and the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Fast, fast, because it's good. Other people did it. It's easy. It doesn't want to hardship for you. And it's a great goal at the end, which is taqwa.
Perfect.
Case Study or
action? Yes, yes, that is absolutely. And it teaches us how we should connect with people and bring a sense of meaning behind even our data and the things that we do, right. So coming back to the original point was a sense of meaning, we need to start becoming godly again. Right? What I mean by that is reviving a sense of godliness, taqwa and God consciousness from the point of view of reviving meaning behind our data. For example, I know his book, keytab Word of God. How does he discuss Vicar? I see many brothers after Salah is I call it ak 47. The smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart, smart phones. And it's done. Yeah. What did he say? is a
suparna law you won't even talk to your wife, man, he will talk to me like that.
Did you understand this? He understood.
But the issue is this. Yes. And now when we talk Rahim Allah He talks about this. He says, Do it slowly. Number one. Make sure you utter it properly. you visualize it right.
And what you do is when you say Alhamdulillah for example, which is all perfect. Gratitude and praise belongs to Allah subhana wa Taala that your heart is included.
To that,
you don't want to be saying Alhamdulillah, but you're thinking I'm going to have for dinner, right? So your heart is in line with your actions, which is exactly what it sounds about. It's the internal and external together. It's not one, it's not the other, it's both right. And we need to revive this. And in reviving this, it changes our life, and it changes who we are. So, you know, internally, if you're passionate, if you have conviction, if you have that sense of connection, a loss of Hanover, tada, it will come across. So we want to motivate other people. You do so because it's within you already. Right? Because I think we got the motivation part. I have. Sorry. Yeah. So
I apologize. observationally I wanted to share or maybe ask about is that, I think, you know, once you're passionate about something, you know, sometimes what we tried to do is like we could becomes like, you know, one size fits all. And then everybody can see which I did that. Right? So part of that is as sincere naseeha. And then, you know, our doorway in a specific context may not be for everybody. So it's just like when you're talking to somebody is either you know, that person and then you tell them, okay, you're gonna address this type of crowd, or just muslimeen for example, whatever you like, you know, how we have like Muslim intrapreneurship, right? Or, you know,
enterpreneurship, blah, blah, blah, right? And then that style, their lifestyle is not for me. I agreed. That that's very, very, very profound point. Well, the brother is saying is sometimes we want to motivate people, we motivate them in like one way like everyone go buy Coke, Coca Cola, sorry, everyone go by McDonald's, like we're selling a product almost. But when you're saying the Dow is you're selling a life enhancement, right, you're saying to them dow is this general thing you fit within that don't say, Oh, you have to do street dow and we have that problem as I arrow to arrow for that wall street our just for you. Right. And then we found spot, when you've been in
doubt for years, like they've been speaking to their colleagues. For years, they've been doing neighborly work. They've been doing coffee shop doubt they've been doing writing, they've been doing this, that the other, and we realized that dow has many manifestations. So what you want to do is give the underlying motivation so people could express themselves in a way that's appropriate to their context to their skills, and who they are. Like, I wouldn't take an A 65 year old to st dour, right? And if he's like a businessman or entrepreneur say, well, you need something else you need to, you know, maybe have more dinners, right? It's your field. Do you see my point here? So you're
right, it's a very good point. So the way you motivate should be done that you don't squeeze them with only one action? Yeah, because there's a whole there's a whole range of things you can do when you articulate a compassionate and interesting case for Assam to the wider community. So next question.
Why do you feel the way in which some people give data can often be more detrimental than beneficial?
So why are some forms or some expressions of the Dow or the way we give our quiet negative
rather than positive and is detrimental to the Dow? Yes, sometimes the Demeter can be more aggressive,
aggressive, harsh.
Body language?
Absolutely. So I'm a strong believer of positive body language. I love you are very assertive, right? You have this very kind of direct dagger like, you know, no, you must believe in this. And I'm a true believer of adopting positive body language, which includes, it's like, I call it half a hug. Right? So a hug is a universal sign, right? universal action. So half a hug. Is is like it's more approachable, it's fluid. It's not direct in your face. So your body language is very important. Even the Sunnah of body language, when you look into people's eyes, and you speak to them as if to the most important thing in the world. And like, Oh, my God, this guy loves me so much. I'm
so important to him. And they truly believe that because what's the heavy flow? He was the most beloved to the promises of them. And he wasn't right. So imagine how amazing he was to each and every person he saw attractive. But in though there will be no they'll be like, no, you're my focus, right? So body language is very important. Absolutely. The way you come across. Sometimes we're very, very harsh. I mean, very famous ayah. When Allah subhanho wa Taala advises Musa alayhis salam when he speaks to Pharaoh, and he says, Lina Speak softly. I'll code to be you know, he says in his tuxedo on this, he says, If most alayhis salaam had to speak, speak softly and kindly and
compassionately to Pharaoh, the West creature, then imagine to everybody else, and one scholar said, Come down, bro.
You're not a Moses, and the people you talk to are not Pharaohs. But sometimes we do that, isn't it? We treat everyone's a pharaoh. It was a pharaoh own. And we're assuming that we're the Moses. So we need to basically understand that and also humility in my view, not to be conflated with
with a lack of manliness or dignity if you want to use the most appropriate language.
humidity is so important. I always say to the brothers, you say to someone Sorry, I made a mistake and I don't really know I'll get back to you could be far more powerful than giving them an answer.
I repeat your humility could awaken the truth within awaken the fitrah. far more powerful than an argument sometimes. And I've seen in my life because you know, sometimes with people and I'm going to go through this when we speak about atheism in the next couple of days, when you speak to someone and they splitting their hair excessively, and in your mind, and this is from my experience.
He doesn't do that for the rest of his life. For his business transactions for his marriage for his work, he's only doing it for God in this philosophical has playing some brothers while called our immature, and they want to answer that question by try and teach him Now look, bro, he doesn't need an answer, bro. You give you another philosophical hair splitting question. If he's that
hair splitting concerning these issues, there's a psychological issue going on. Right? As long as I respond to these questions with silly answers, and I say, let's have pizza. Let me give it to me by something. I change this strategy to a connection rather to a not to a discussion. Or one brother or one guy said to me, what was God doing for eternity before he created the universe? I was like, what does that really negate his existence? I mean, he didn't know me for 36 years, just because I don't know why I was doing 46 It doesn't mean I don't exist. And you know, sometimes the city question requires a city response and let's have some coffee or something. Let me buy you dinner while you're
gonna buy me dinner. Absolutely. Because I am a true believer of that many intellectual so called arguments I avail of what's really happening underneath I met some guy in Luton in my town. And he said, Oh, I saw your debate well done by I'm still an atheist. He was from the Pakistani community. I believe. I even addressed him. Just from experience. I said, how's your mom and dad bro? He sat there for 10 minutes telling me his problems with his mom and dad, his issues with psychodynamic. So Islam was seen through the prism of his negative experience with his parents. We have to learn that it's not about argument, like even the Western tradition, David Hume. He said, Well, we're really
emotional animals. There's no such thing as rational ethics. He said, we just rationalize our emotions. Do you see? And there's a truth in that. And there's a truth in that book about predictably irrational
talks about the predictability of how irrational people are. That's the violence fun? Absolutely. Absolutely. So good. So you got the point is to remind you about the clock and other the humility, body language, all the things that we discussed yesterday, these are critical. These are critical if you gave me someone who's giving dollar that is an amazing character doesn't know much. But you give me someone who is a student of knowledge, but doesn't have an amazing character. I would choose the one with amazing character, because you could teach them stuff. They could read a book, they go to YouTube, they could learn stuff, right? But it's very hard sometimes to instill a sense of humility
and tolerance and forbearance, and love and compassion in someone. It's difficult, right? is difficult. And that's why we have to become holistic. From that point of view, because we've treated as information. The enemy in the Islamic tradition was always knowledge that has an impact, right? You can know all of the Hadith on Vicar. You can know all of the ayat on Deacon in the Quran, but you will never be a person of Vicar I repeat, you can know all the ayat on Vicar of Allah subhanho wa Taala. You can know the toughest if you can know everything which has its virtues, because preservation of knowledge is very, very high in Islam. But the point I'm trying to see is that just
by knowing it doesn't mean you become it. And there's always been this distinction in Islam by knowing and becoming, knowing and becoming assumption change your state of being an I'm a true believer, the reason that many people know lots of things, but they don't become Muslim, they don't become true believers in terms of the character is because we have disconnected ourselves away from the scholars. That's my view, because traditionally, we will,
in some way, very few autodidact in our tradition, very few self learned early on in our tradition, right. Even the courses on how to scholar who was it? You know, right, the angel. So, and, and the Sahaba
the persona and the Tabby
Will you go is a simple as that, right? And we, we rather go to YouTube, then sit after fudger with a scholar and just, you know, just be patient with him. Right, greet patients.
Right.
And that's why Institutes of knowledge are actually not a good thing. In my view. They're a sign of our malaise. They're a sign of that we were doing something wrong. You have to have a classroom now.
Marketing, which is good and is contemporary. But that is not something that should be praised in its totality. It's should be praised for solving a problem.
Do you see because the problem was that we're not in the massage it with with our lemma and we're not attached with the scholars in the scene with him and I'm telling I did this was shocked I cannot do is he's a scholar in this country. And he's known for his tough assert very, very, he's he's an independent type of thinker. Don't even necessarily agree with everything he says. But let me tell you something, I have never met someone more humble than him. No one, he was corrected, blatantly in public in the dots, right? About 100 people there. And he was like, you're right, I was so wrong. Change my view. Now. That almost instantaneous, I've met no one do this before. There's always a two
and throw, always a two and throw you see even with, you know, the biggest scholars, but he took it so amazingly, that you can't learn you until you learn from a scholar where you can learn from books, you learn from a scholar, we call them from books, and he may be taught a bit from one scholar, another scholar might be another scholar might be tafsir. But at least you respect that tradition, right.
And I think it's very important. We've lost that connection. We've lost that connection, we to revive it. Okay, let's move on.
So, why is it important for non Muslims to understand Islam from our perspective?
Okay, so if you remember what we discussed yesterday?
Hint, Hint, the concept. Yeah.
Why is it important for non Muslims to understand Islam from our perspective?
Yes. Yeah. Well, obviously, people of different backgrounds have different ideologies as to how they worship.
So you may have a person who follows trinitarianism believes in the Godhead, as opposed to the Muslim theology, which is a monotheistic belief. So it's very important that they understand our point of view and our perspective, our theology, etc. Okay, good. So there's many ideologies, there's different worldviews of seeing things. And if we enter into their worldview, then we'll be talking with their frame of reference, but we should give them our way of looking at things so they truly understand how we see the world. Brilliant. Anything else? Yes. Are you referring to the point about like, letting them understand it is a submission involved into it? And it's not that you're
doing it to fit in the cultural context? Well, there is that. And I would emphasize on your first point, which is that we have to show them that it's about submission. So you're showing them what Islam essentially is about is the peace with submission to the word of Allah subhanho wa Taala. It's not the
rational submission to our own interpretation of what we see in Islam. It's not the rationalization of the outcome of Allah subhanho wa Taala, like the MIT and there's many, many, many of our alumni even in this country, especially in the 90s you know, they'll be like, they become doctors like GPS, you know, like Mulana. Saab became a GP and he wrote a piece on I read this once when I was non Muslim when I was new Muslim, and I even loved that. He did an analysis on the Salah, and how is good for your triceps or something? Yeah. And that's why you should pray kind of thing you know, you had that kind of follow on right, like pig, considered pig wise pig harem. Yeah, he has no neck,
where am I going to cut?
You know?
Because it's haram because Allah said so because, you know, it's peaceful submission to the will of Allah subhana wa Tada. And remember knowing Allah, He is so critical, because Allah is an alum. He is the know he is Al Hakim, he has the totality of wisdom and knowledge. Allah has the picture. We just got the pixel. So he just follows rationally and intuitively spiritually if he's gonna say something Holocaust is true. Do you see my plane? We have deified, the African we have deified our interpretation we have didn't fight the limited uncle. We have become shayateen from our point of view, no get offended. Yeah. Cuz what a shavon say?
Absolutely. I'm better than him. Would you know, a bite down to Adam? I don't care who told me um, fire is clay. You need fire for clay.
Right. But he was the greatest rationalist, pseudo rationalist. And he was like so like, absurd because of kibber. Because of Kevin. He denied the ultimate authority, Allah subhanho wa Taala, which is the most irrational thing to do. So he did find his own limited, aka brilliant. So another way of putting this is I like the lenses example. If I'm wearing lenses, and they call it green, I'm going to see green. If your lenses are yellow, what color are you gonna see? So if we debate What color is this room, what's gonna happen? No point. So what you do is exchange glasses exchange lenses.
They see the world, the way you see the world. And that's why when we focus on the concept, we get people to understand truly what Islam is about. In order for you to understand the answer, you have to understand the concept of Islam. Do you have some time for me to explain this to you? Right, brilliant. Next question.
What are the most important characteristics of a DI E and why?
What are the most important characteristics of a call to Islam? Let's Let's name them airfloss sincerity, sincerity for Allah sincerity for others as well. So you're sincere from the point of view that you know that giving or articulating your song with compassion and intelligence is an A bad it's an act of worship, and You can't do acts of worship for other than Allah right? You have to solely for Allah sake, and also sincere for your brothers and sisters in humanity that you want guidance for them you want this goodness is this goal that you have, you want to share this gold, brilliant next characteristic.
Empathy, of course, having the ability of taking someone's shoes off, sitting in their shoes and walking a few inches, right, just like the Prophet salallahu. It he was send them when the famous youth came up to him and said he wanted to commit Zina, right.
What is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say he empathized in his context to him to sit down. Refer to the fact that if I allow you What about your mother and your sister and then made him realize treated people appropriately sat in their shoes. So sincerity, empathy, what else? Patience, patience, you have to have some of that you have to suffer is linked to forbearance as well, because sobor and Helm are very connected because Helm forbearance is basically being patient with adversity. I give you a brilliant story. I say this all the time, a brother was in a booth outside of more than Stratford, a lady came up to him span his face. He was a man of Sunnah he was
forbearing He smiled kettle's smiling all the spit in his face. He wiped it with his tissue, and he went into his pocket gave her tissue as well because her own saliva was on her face. She ran away after three weeks, she came back, she became Muslim. After a few months or years, they got married. Allahu Akbar, they got married. So the lesson for our sisters is you want a good husband spilling
Udemy Okay, my second
good test will lie. Listen to this is a run by it's a profound run. I believe. fitna is Baraka, sometimes fitness is a blessing. And I say to the dog, if Allah hasn't publicly humiliated you, I don't think he may love you. Because he's showing you that it's not about us about Allah. And I say this to some brothers, when I look at their lives, if you hadn't been shamed, and humiliated, then you're not being refined. Either you were born perfect. Or you know whether you're refining, honestly, and you see this with life in human beings. I don't care if she's going to cop. I don't care if she's like the best sister in the world gives you the tahajjud every night. I don't care if
you know, the Quran, all the styles, I want to know how she reacts to pain. I want to know how she reacts or how he reacts to pressure. I want to know what he or she does when life smacks them in the face. Do they get up and walk towards Allah? subhanho wa Taala? Do they run away? That's the human being. That's why I don't judge anyone anymore. I don't care what you look like who you are, what your name is, what are your credentials? Ah, I don't think they give a damn as we say. Honestly, this is a very profound point. You want to be someone who's in my intimate circle that let me see how you react when you got some pain. Let me see what happens when you lose your job. Let me see how
Let me see your hands when you when you lose your children. May Allah protect us. Let me see what happens when you lose your wife. May Allah protect us. Let me see what happens when you squeeze and you're pressurized. Do you walk to a low towards Allah subhanho wa Taala do you run away? That's who you are. It's easy to be a good Muslim It is so good right? I so good. Right? You say in America It was so good, right?
Yeah, it's so good. I take care of my kids. Are you supposed to
Yeah, he's all good when it's all good, right? You could pray you for us everything is fine. But tell me when you squeezed what happens. What happens where is a law for you? Then where is the Center for you? Then where is Islam for you then and will lay brothers will live for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
You need to apply this to your own life for self reflection because sometimes we externalize all the time. We like pointing the fingers we forget three fingers are pointing back. This the Sahaba were the greatest people because they first internalized the Quran before they externalized they didn't always point to Pharaoh was the Pharaoh of the 21st century. They first pointed inside where they were
The Pharaonic elements in me. Where are the Pharaonic enemies in me and then they, they did what they had to do command the model from a bit amonkar. But the point I'm trying to say is when it comes to do art and if you build teams in the future, if you build a family in the future, that will be my key advice is understand how they react to fitna understand how they react to calamity, understand how they react to pain, understand how they react to tests and trials. Because that's when the true character comes out. The word fitness itself, remember comes from the word when you're heating, metal, you know, when the scum comes out the impurities of the metal come out. Yeah. So
then this is very, very important. Like Elijah mentioned this, like we, we we send the calamity on the nation so we could teach them humility, but the hearts became hard. Sometimes we think, you know, hardship and calamity is a sign of punishment. No, it's a sign Allah was good for you. He just wants to purify you, but you are running away from his purity and his mercy. And as a result Your heart is your heart is becoming hot. Final question. We have a break. Yes, sir.
So I'm not sure. I'm a milkshake. You know, I was I used to do some stuff for Cancer Institute, right? I was in Melbourne. It was like 500 400 people in the they had like an auditorium theater giving a similar course. And they always quit on chef and my policy is non commercial, right? And I said, Don't call me a chef. I said as a joke. I'm more like a milkshake. And someone from the back said no, your smoothie.
Okay, so which is not true, either, but
yeah, absolutely. Yes. Please. Oh, Mashallah. Beautiful. I'm not sure I was like in the UK, but oftentimes in the States, we get people who are explicit, vulgar and speech. Yes, we I've had a few experiences where requested that.
For example, we had one guy who I've passed by we set up a booth in Jersey City we do it often turns CDs right next to New York City. Yep. Just to tell him to tunnel away. But he came by our table, and he's like, why are you guys here? Why you guys, you know, you guys should leave our country, you guys are bombing our country. So please leave. So he came, came up pretty aggressive. But I think due to the reaction of the dots, they're so polite momentarily.
He was taken to a point he was asked in a few minutes, maybe we can discuss it. And he agreed. And within just a span of 10 to 15 minutes, it was maybe a step or two weeks.
It just goes to show exactly as what you were
presenting to us that really does matter. I mean, the idea of Southern is highly important when it comes to the Dallas in the Dallas scenario. Absolutely. There's another lady that came by and she said, I want acid spit in my face or thrown at me. So we get these comments pretty often in the States. I'm not sure how it's like here, but I think it's very essential.
I agree. And I think and for the DOD for them to become like that is that they have to know why they're there in the first place. Because it's a sign of especially when you're doing dow early on when you react in that way you know you're there for the game, you therefore I just want to win. Because remember, what's the nature of the knifes the nature of the ego that it wants to be right? It doesn't want to be wrong. Right? Because sometimes you'll be wrong is good for the dour. Yeah, so you will always be right never be wrong, you will impose yourself you never want to be imposed upon. You want to look good, you don't want look bad. shaitan is a symbol of the knifes he wants to look
good not look bad. He wanted to be right and don't be wrong. He wants to impose on to be imposed upon. He's not buying right. And that's the nature of the law. So sometimes we do the Dow for the ego. But if you're doing it for Allah, then it makes no difference what people are saying.
urinated in the masjid and the Sahaba to the beat the remote basically said, You hate to make things easy for people just pour water over it. And the way he spoke to him about the other Hadith the famous Hadith of the Jewish man who became Muslim, he was looking for the signs of prophethood which is what forbearance is a hallmark of prophethood right? And he was pulled by the neck once the Hollywood say what are you doing? I'm gonna suit you out. persona said we went to something better for you advise him and advise myself. So Paula, which is reacting positively to aggression Allah mentions is very clear in the Quran, the good and the evil, not the same, respond to good respond to
evil with that which is better. And what's the continuation, she had hatred between each other up as if your bosom friends bosom intimate friends and I always say to this brothers if you always apply this
whose words are more truthful yours Allah subhana wa tada
I you could give me 1000 years of experience and give me an eye of the Quran I'll take an eye of the Quran, right? So if we truly internalize that if you respond to that, which is better
Absolutely, absolutely. Yep. I would like to add another point to the current instincts of your art is detoxification is very important because, you know, when you're hanging around a lot of detoxification, right, so because as you mingle a lot with non Muslims, even new practicing Muslims, a lot of things become, you know, trivial for you. So you know what you were mentioning earlier, if you're not spending that time with sort of even scholars who may not be talking about relevant topics of the society, if you're not being patient with them or hanging out with them, or even the crowd that is, you know, setting them up for higher standard of worship. You're very, very, like,
that's a very good place. That's very good. We are productive environments. And sometimes you're always in this field. You need to basically have your detox time, take a few days off, take a week off, sit with the scholars, increase your provider, all of that stuff is extremely important, and it's totally advised. Absolutely. So, here are the rules, right? The rules are, you have a nine minute break, okay? Which means you're going to be back here at 10 to 11.
Okay, Bismillah Solomonic