Hamza Tzortzis – Stand Your Ground

			Alou.
		

			Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah Salam wa rahmatullahi wa
barakaatuh
		

			My dearest brothers and sisters, may Allah subhana wa Taala bless you. I'm going to give a talk a
little Nazi her little advice on some aspects of the farewell speech of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi
wasallam. And in the context of parenting and in the context of giving Tibet to our children, I
think I want to pick out two main aspects of the speech of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
The first one is as he begins, when he says to the Ummah, oh people listen to me earnestly, worship
Allah subhanho wa taala. So that's the first point. And then the other point, which is quite
connected, which is the famous Hadith that we mentioned over and over again, when we say that an
		

			Arab is no better than a non Arab, and a white is no better or is not superior, over Oblak and vice
versa, except in good deeds and piety, in taqwa in righteousness. Now, these are oft repeated
cliches in our tradition, we are always talking about worshipping Allah, especially to our children.
And we always talk about, you know, we're all the same, right? We're like the teeth of a comb. We're
equal in rights, in dignity, in spirituality, and all of these things, you know, didn't you hear the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that a white is no better than a black and a black is
no better than a white and an Arab is no better than a non Arab and a non Arab is no better than an
		

			Arab and all of these things. And we, we get so proud concerning these a meeting virtues and these
ethics that our tradition has. But I think what we have to do brothers and sisters is learn to
internalize this, because we have moved traditionally from an amount of internalization to an amount
of memorization, because if you look into the Arabic and you look into our classical spiritual
tradition, you will see that when they were taught to memorize something, it didn't mean memorize it
like an iPad. It didn't mean memorize it like a computational system. It didn't mean memorize it
like you're a database. That's not the reality of Islam, but rather, when they memorize something,
		

			they internalized it, it became part of their spiritual being. And this is why traditionally, we
always, we always had this concept of tarbiyah, this concept of cultivating the virtues in Islam
within the spiritual DNA of a Muslim. By now what do we do we throw the hadith of someone, we throw
the iron someone and we think, cool, cool, and they're gonna change. It doesn't work that way. Even
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had a lot of beer, who was his scholar? He was his scholar.
It was the angel,
		

			who was a scholar of the Sahaba, the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, who were the teachers of
the tabby and it was the sahaba. Right? There's this almost as unwritten spiritual law that you
don't just learn from abstract words and writing. You're not confined in the prison of ink and
paper. But rather you see the whole thing for what it is, you don't just see the blobs of ink and
think, Oh, these are nice words. It's very similar to the analogy that Oliver's Ali was talking
about, when he tried to basically debate against the atheist of the time, in his alchemy of
happiness. He says, these type of people like ants walking on a book, and someone's writing on the
		

			book, and they can't see the words for what they are, and they can't see someone was actually
holding the pen, right? This is very similar to what we're doing now. Spiritually, it's like we're
going towards that point of view, which I think we need to nip it in the bud. And really stop this
because we have to learn to internalize the words that we memorize. Because Islam is about a state
of being not a state of doing. We're not human doings. We're human beings. We be we do and we become
		

			if you just stop at Basic, abstract and memorization, it won't change you. This is unwritten
spiritual law, this teddy bear process, that first and foremost, the parent has to take charge. And
then the wider society is an outward Emma, you know, when I see lots of organizations, teaching, for
example, I instruct for an organization which is an institute brother said Tasneem also instructs
for an institute there are many great Institute's around May Allah, preserve them and bless them,
but I think that is
		

			Basically a symptom of a course. Because traditionally, we didn't need Institute's because
traditionally we had this environment of tarbiyah. Well, when people go to the masajid, they would
respect the imam in the scholar, and they'll sit under his feet. Because Wallahi brothers and
sisters, you will learn from a scholar that you will never learned from a book. Even if he reads
from a book, I am telling you from my own experience, and I've learned things the hard way. I've
learned things the hard way around so many mistakes, and all publicly available. And hamdulillah
humility is good for the soul. So from that point of view, you need to really understand that you
		

			will learn from a scholar, what you won't learn from a book, even if he's reading the book to you,
because there's something that's going on here sign that's being passed from heart to hearts. And
this is very significant. So when the Prophet says, I'm said, all people, listen to me earnestly,
worship Allah subhanho wa taala. We need to inculcate this in the hearts of our children, what
worship is, and I mentioned this yesterday, I touched upon this yesterday, worshiping Allah subhanho
wa Taala is not a thing that we do, because it's an identity. We all suffer from an identity
complex. Now, who am I? Am I Pakistani? Or am I American? Am I American? Pakistani? Am I Muslim,
		

			American, Pakistani, or Pakistani, American, Muslim, I'm a DC, Pakistani, half Mongolia, half
Lebanese, whatever is happening these days, right? Hamdulillah. But the point is, we have an
identity complex and what happens, the concept of worship is inserted in that need to belong. I
think that's the problem. We should not socialize our children that worship just become some kind of
identity, like you're wearing a new piece of cloth, or you're wearing a hat, or it's something that
labels you. This is problematic because worship is not a hat that you wear. Worship is something
that comes through you. It's a derivative of your own innate nature, we have to tap into the fitrah
		

			of our children to understand that there is something created within them. fitrah fattura Photron
Fatah Rahu, something is created within them. By Allah subhanho wa Taala is unchanging, that they
know Allah is a reality. And they know that Allah deserves to be worshipped. So our job as parents
is not to give them a label or socialism or give them an identity, but to make them realize who they
are from within. That's the key. And this is why they are they might say the way to awaken the
fitrah is giving them good tarbiyah is giving them Quran making them internalize things, it cleans
the fitrah. Imagine the fitrah is like a lens. And this lens, if it's clean, the child can see the
		

			Hawk can see the truth. But if if this lens is dirty, or it's clouded, it requires some cleaning.
		

			And that's the job of the parents. That's the job of Dawa. That's the job of the Quran of the Sunnah
of even sound rational arguments. That is the job to clean the fitrah. And we have to understand it
from that point of view. And the first
		

			lesson that we learn concerning this is to teach our children what worship really is. Worship is
that you fall in love with Allah subhanho wa taala. Worse worship is that you fall in love with
Allah worship is that you want to know Allah because you love him and you want to know him more
worship is that you want to obey Allah. Why your free will because the most rational spiritual thing
to do worship is that we want to show the child that all their acts of worship should be directed to
Allah alone.
		

			And what we need to teach our children is the concept of gratitude because I truly believe that
gratitude is the key to open the door to worship. If you see Surah Al Fatiha, it is the summary of
the whole of the Quran. And a summary of the Quran is Tao heed is affirming the Oneness of Allah
subhanho wa taala. And what's the first line in Surah Al Fatiha Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen, all
grateful, perfect gratitude and thanks belongs to Allah subhana wa to Allah. Allah is Seeing the
scene here now to open the door to understand what it means to have a relationship with Europe to
start from a premise from the basis of gratitude.
		

			And we need to talk to our children about this on a daily basis to make them make them understand
this, you need to be grateful to Europe, who is Europe, the one that nurtures you, the one that
loves you, the one that owns everything is the master of everything that maintains everything that
sustains everything that created everything. This is what he means that you have a Rob and you, you
are his Hulk you are his created thing. And there is a connection between the Hulk and alcoholic,
the creative thing and the creator and that relationship is master and slave, master and slave and
they
		

			For they should understand that everything is due to Allah, everything is due to Allah. And we
should be grateful. And We should be grateful for the ability to be grateful. Allah subhanho wa
Taala says in the Quran, that we could never enumerate the blessings of Allah. And I wanted to find
an interesting strategy to basically show this to children, to Muslims, to non Muslims, to those in
pain to those who are in a state of pleasure to really show the wildlife saying is Huck here. And I
think I found an example.
		

			Brothers and sisters,
		

			the thing that keeps us alive, the thing that Allah subhanho wa Taala uses as a physical cause as
the as bad as the cause, for us to stay alive is our heartbeat.
		

			I want you one day to sit at home, even with your children and put the phones away, put the TV away,
put the entertainment away, and just reflect on your heartbeat for an hour. You would realize how
limited you are how contingent you are, how dependent you are, you're going to realize that you
don't control your own existence, you're going to see how weak you are as well. And you're going to
realize who is the divine monster.
		

			And I want you to start thinking about if your heart were to stop right now, what would you feel?
And I want you to ask yourself this question. If I if I only had 1000 heartbeats left?
		

			What would I do?
		

			In extra fact, if you had two options, to have 1000 heartbeats, or to have 1000 heartbeats, but with
the ability to have an extra 1000 heartbeats, if you gave me $20,000, everybody would choose the
second option. And even if they didn't have the money, they would find it as best as they can just
to get the extra 1000 heartbeats. This shows us
		

			how precious one hobby is just one heartbeat. Just precious one heartbeat.
		

			Now I have a challenge for you. I want you to count every single heartbeat you've ever experienced
in your life.
		

			It's practically impossible.
		

			For the first two or three years you couldn't count. So you got backlog. You're sleeping, backlog,
eating, going toilet speaking with people backlog. In actual fact, even if you could speak from Day
Zero or day one, you could still never count all your heartbeats. It's a practical impossibility.
And yet this one heartbeat is the physical cause that Allah has given us, in order to keep us alive.
And our life is something that we don't earn, we don't own and we don't necessarily deserve. We
can't even create a fly. We're not the source of life and existence.
		

			So that one heartbeat is the physical cools of Allah has used to keep us alive. And this precious
gift of life we don't earn we don't own and we don't deserve is given to us freely, every moment.
		

			Freely every moment.
		

			So if someone gives you something you don't earn, you don't own you don't deserve. But it's so
precious. How should that make you feel?
		

			Grateful, even if you're suffering, even if you're happy, regardless of the situation, you've in a
state of gratitude, grateful to whom Allah subhanho wa Taala This is why don't be like the one who
receives $1,000 every day. And after a year, he starts thinking that $1,000 This is why Shimek and
atheism and all of these isms and schisms are totally incoherent, anti spiritual and irrational,
		

			so much to be thankful for, but all to be thankful to.
		

			And this is very important to inculcate in the hearts and minds of our children. And the way this
happens not to say to them Be grateful better, that's not going to work. Children don't listen, they
see, children don't listen, they observe, you could give a child a book, he won't change them. But
if you if you show them behaviors that will change them. This is why the earlier man what they will
do, they wouldn't say southern could diminish as well. They wouldn't say give southern chi purifies
your sins, what they will do is here's the money, go to the marketplace, get a bunch of apples, and
give it to everybody and you can't have none, just to show what Sadaqa means. That is self sacrifice
		

			for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala that when you're a parent, you see your children, you're
holding their hands and you're walking down the street, and you individually give them $1 Each and
you tell them give it to that man who's asking for money. It's an action. And then when you teach
them their Islamic ethics, the Hadith the Quran and do the action, then you bring it together, you
create a holistic human being, but unfortunately many of us we're just talking, we're not walking,
and this is why there's a big disconnect. I told my children one of these things fine, but what will
you
		

			doing you can say don't backpack but you're backpacking backpacking at home. You can say give sada
Cabo Oh you do spend on your alloy wheels you're crazy weddings and lots of gold for Maha, right?
		

			You think it works away?
		

			How many of you know what's the good diet? Put your hand up be honest. Greens, vegetables, right? Is
that good? Is greens good for you? Vegetables good for you. Okay, what do you have yesterday?
		

			Donut, and we will become donuts, don't we? That's the problem. Don't tell me knowledge is going to
change you. Knowledge won't change you, like Mr. Malik said is a true knowledge is the is the kind
of light that Allah puts in your heart. As a result of internalizing what you know, abstractly.
There's a disconnect between our knowing and are being and we have to link those things together.
One way of doing that is by one understanding it number two, enrolling people in your behavior if
you want love at home, be loving. If there's no love at home, there's no point waiting for love or
they don't love me. You know, one river Hindu sister came up to you once and said, I need some
		

			advice. There's no love at home. Okay, when's the last time you said you love your parents? She was
shocked. Well, there you go. You're part of the problem. Right? The millennials say you love them.
		

			So this is a very important lesson concerning worship brothers and sisters. Finally, what we need to
focus on is the other part of what I want to bring to light which is part of the sermon where the
Prophet has said all mankind is from Adam and Eve. And Arab has no superiority over a non Arab, no,
a non Arab has any superiority of an Arab also why it has no superiority of a black and a Black has
no superiority over why except by piety and good actions. And this links to the Hadith in Sahih
Muslim, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah doesn't look at your forms and your
colors, but rather he sees what's in your hearts and your actions. Okay? So this is very important
		

			for us to understand. So why is it the need of the time? What is what are the needs of the time
because I would even argue from a tabular point of view, you're pondering point of view, that the
first greatest sin, one of the first greatest sins was actually racism. shaytaan was the number one
racist. Why? Because he was told to bow down to Adam, he said, No, I'm different. I'm fire. He's
clay. That was his that was his response. shaytaan was the first racist. So if you're a racist,
you're a shape on crane. And this is a we need to really understand this carefully. Because what
does shaytaan do, he looked at his limited experiences, his limited access perspectives, his limited
		

			AKA, his limited understanding his limited, contingent, dependent self, and use that as a premise as
a foundation to claim something general. And that's the basis of racism. Generally speaking, you
know, I had a really bad experience with two black guys in my life, therefore, all black guys are
bad. I had 1000 Bad experience of DCs, therefore, DC so bad, right? It doesn't work that way. That's
actually the intellectual form of racism, right. And the other forms, which we could discuss later,
but the point here is, this is one of the biggest diseases, especially in America as well. And the
reason I want to mention it, because we live in a time, especially in the West, especially actually
		

			in the whole of the West, the whole of Britain and Europe, and America is now a center right type of
politics. And lots of people are using this as an anchor as a hinge to basically open the door to
this kind of fundamentalist nationalism. We're having right the kk k, did you see the videos of the
hands up? Held Trump, right? This doesn't mean Trump's a bad guy. But look what's happening. Look
what's happening, people. Look what's happening in Europe, an increase in Islamophobia. If you read
the newspapers, you see that it's no different jokes, juxtapose them with the newspapers of Nazi
Germany, same narratives. I'll give you this challenge as Google it. Newspapers, Nazi Germany with
		

			the Jews, newspapers in England and Europe, and you see what's happening. Just juxtapose them and
you'll see it's exactly the same narrative. We it's not all doom and gloom, by the way. But the
point I'm trying to say is the reason when I mentioned this is a lesson for our children, because
our children must be beacons of light concerning this. They must understand our history, our
tradition, and where we need to go. Even the likes of Ajay Toynbee. Look what she said Look what he
said, the extension of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements
of Islam in the contemporary world. And there is, as it happens, the crying need for the propagation
		

			of this Islamic virtue
		

			This is why Allah subhanho wa taala. Maybe this is why He said, We were created from a male and a
female and made it a different tribes and nations in for you to know one another, the two out of
four to know one another. Do you know what this means? It doesn't mean come together on your
commonalities, look at the tafsir. Look at the exegesis, it doesn't mean oh, we have common things
we're going to come together in so happy, he doesn't mean that it actually means know your
differences. If you know what makes you different to somebody else, and you know why that person is
different from you. And you explain that difference in a compassionate, intelligent and human way,
		

			then those differences are not going to be excuses for hatred, and for bias. And for prejudice. This
is a profound Islamic teaching, very profound, because there's no point talking about what brings us
together because it's a given, I'm going to connect with you because you're a human being we have
similar needs right easily. But the things that are bringing us apart, the things that are causing
hatred, and divisiveness and prejudice, are the things that we're unsure about. Where is she
covering her head? Why does he have hair and his beard? Why do you ask the why does he have to go
and pray? Why are they not eating in this month? Just say, oh, forget that this has come together
		

			and commonality, it's still not going to answer the question, it's still not going to
		

			prevent that fire of hatred and prejudice from emerging. We need to start talking about why we're
different, but with compassionate intelligence, and when you show that that difference is human,
it's valid. It's relevant, it comes from a compassionate tradition, even if they don't accept it, at
least they won't hate anymore. And this is a profound Islamic teaching a profound ayah in the Quran.
Talk about what makes you different.
		

			Now, brothers and sisters, I had a rant yesterday, so I'm not going to tell you off about the
internal racism. I already have done that. So let me just end with some good news.
		

			You know, the orientalist and historian Hamilton gave he said the following words that I think
should encourage us to basically look into our tradition and try to internalize his values at home,
he said, But Islam has a still further service to render to the cause of humanity. It stands after
or nearer to the rural east than Europe does. And it possesses a magnificent tradition of
international understanding and cooperation. No other society has such a record of success, uniting
in an equality, of status, of opportunity, and of endeavor, so many and so various races of mankind.
Islam has still the power to reconcile, apparently, irreconcilable elements of race and tradition.
		

			If ever, the opposition of the great societies of East and West is to be replaced by cooperation,
the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition. Brothers and sisters, we got work to do. Let's
internalize our tradition. properly, it starts at home. It starts by being not only knowing and I
play and I ask ALLAH SubhanA to bless every single one of you. So we become beacons of light for the
whole world on the whole community. Because people need this. You know, it's no point having a
candle in the dark right or candle in one room, bring out into your society. We have this node,
spread this node star home and then work on others and inshallah is going to happen. It's all good
		

			news. May Allah bless you, somebody from Allah