Hamza Tzortzis – The Media Warriors
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Yes, ma'am.
I believe we're alive, ladies and gents.
Probably swear when you say anything dodgy.
Welcome to the show.
I think we're live. Bismillah.
To our 2 brothers that are joining us,
and we'll introduce them very soon. But I
don't think they need an introduction.
And but dear brothers and sisters, we're here
potentially on the night of Leila Tughra,
27th night of Ramadan for some. And for
some, it's 26th.
But in any case, dear brother and sister,
these last 10 nights are very, very special.
These are the best nights of the year.
In fact, this is the best month of
the year. Added to that, we have the
best Ummah of all of the Ummah's to
have come. And, subhanallah, we have the best
of creation and the best of Nabi's,
to be our leader, which Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam. Right. And you know what's amazing?
He had the best of angels.
The greatest of all angels communicate with him.
And why was this? All because Allah
revealed the Quran. He gave it to Jibril
Alaihi Salam who gave it to the prophet
who gave it to this Ummah, and it
came in the month of Ramadan on the
special odd nights of Ramadan Allahu Akbar. So
we're in a very special time. And this
is why we're here to support Islam 21
c propagate, share, and express
the
Islamic viewpoint, the Islamic view, the Islamic narrative
in the 21st century
on this platform. And what do I mean
by this? I mean, all modern forms of
platform, all modern,
media, all social media, all 21st century media.
To the extent, dear brothers and sisters, the
conventional media outlets that we were used to
on our TV boxes,
is now becoming maybe irrelevant.
It is all about the online sphere. Enough
said dear brothers and sisters, we want you
to get involved to go to islam 21c.comforward/live,
and let me introduce our guest.
We have the famous, the notorious,
the brother who is known as
doctor Salman.
Joining us, he is the the great thinker
of thinking
Islamic thoughts,
and he is the head of, Islamic thought
by Islam 21 c.
He'll give you his lowdown on what that
means. And, we're joined by our dear brother,
Hamza,
Tortez. Hopefully, I've said that wrong if I've
said it well, I said it right. Sorry.
If I've said it wrong, then, I'm sure
Salman will correct me.
And, Hamid, I don't think he needs an
introduction, but our dear brother, they've been involved
in the DAO team for a very, very
long time.
He's worked with,
Aera. He's now heading up Sapiens Institute.
And the work that they're doing,
really it really goes hand in hand with
Islam 21c about propagating
the values, the ethics, and the morals of
Islam in the 21st century for the 21st
century person.
To you both.
It is after I have an introduction.
Just a few technical things. Someone's got their
phone on vibrate. It's really loud when it
vibrates. I think it's doctor Salman. No. It's
not Also, doctor Salman, we can't hear him
that well very properly. He's put his mic
closer to his,
lips. Yes, ma'am. So just imagine it's an
ice cream, bro, but do not lick it,
just to get in case you get any
some kind of bacterial viral infection. Allah protects
you always.
For the opportunity.
For having me. For being who you guys
are. Islam 21 c is very close to
my heart. In actual fact,
maybe one day I would love to work
for them. Like, formally, it'd be amazing, you
know. I'm just
living probably some 2 c before I was
May God bless you, bro. I think Islam
21 c has a great vision.
I love the brothers.
I've worked with them formally and informally,
a bunch of egoless brothers. I think they're
the easiest brothers to work with. I'm not
just saying that I haven't been paid to
come here. I haven't been given any kind
of, anything free. This is genuine from the
bottom of my heart. I have a lot
of love not only for the Islam 21
c brothers, but the Sabeel brothers and everyone
else connected to them. And I think,
you know, all credit goes to the Tarbia
and their vision because
Allah and their vision is connected to where
they wanna be in the akhirah, the highest
place in the akhirah.
And that's what drives them. And this for
me is just phenomenal. And their campaigns like
the Uighur campaign, the Palestine campaigns, all the
other campaigns that they're that they're engaged in,
they actually
change the discourse in the community.
And not only that, a lot of the
intellectual content, they have planted seeds in Sapiens'
hearts and minds.
From the point of view that when we
engage with some of Islam 21 c's work
concerning
our course on doubt, on Shubhahat, destructive doubts,
in actual fact that came from Islam 21c.
It came from,
Ali Hamouda, Shaikh Ali Hamouda. It came from
Islam 21 content, and that became that was
a seed, and we watered it slightly, and
it became our landmark course, which is called
no doubt, 10 effective strategies on how to
do with your doubts and the doubts of
others. Not only that, that's a mandatory course
for our mentors
to internalize in order for them to basically
learn how to mentor people and to navigate
the maze of ideologies and shubahar and that
exist. This came from Islam 21
c. And there's so much more I'd like
to say as well, which I'm gonna say,
and that's why I think it's so very
important for us to understand what Islam 21
c is about.
It's like the thought, the feel theological,
the theo philosophical,
the intellectual
engine or the seed behind many organizations.
If we wanna understand a perspective or a
narrative,
even if we disagree with it, it shapes
us because it refines us and improves us,
and it's part of that kind of collective
discourse because every drop raises the ocean. And
Islam 21c
shaped the work that we do at Sapiens,
shapes the work that I do on my
own individual capacity. If I want to learn
about something or find about something, I'll go
to Islam 21c. In actual fact, the stuff
that we have done on
the on vision,
on on mentoring du'aat and preachers and imams
and teachers on how to make an impact
in the dua, a lot of that came
from the vision
discourse, the vision articles and essays that are
from where? Islam 21 c. In actual fact,
a project that we collaborated with some of
the brothers who also belong to Islam 21
c, but we collaborate with Sibyl. It's called
the Visionaries.
A lot of that is from, lo and
behold,
Islam 21 c. So if you guys are
savvy with your sadaqah, meaning if you're really
smart, you wanna jump on the reward
gravy train, then you need to support Islam
21 c. In fact.
And this is why we have
to remind our brothers and sisters on why
we should support such organizations because they don't
really see it. They don't see the logo
everywhere.
They don't see the brand everywhere. Why? Because
they're Allah centric. They're akhira centric. They don't
care. They just wanna touch, move, and inspire
individuals and organizations to make positive change, especially
when it comes to ideological ideological
discourse, automatic discourse.
And Islam 21 c are the if you
like, the intellectual morabitoon,
they do intellectual rebat. They're on the frontiers
of defending and sharing Islam which is a
thing that we do as well as Sapiens.
But Islam 21 c have a huge role
to play, a great role to play not
only in the origins of other organizations individuals
but also shaping the discourse in a powerful
way. So brothers and sisters if you're smart
with your sadaqa, if you support islam 21
c, imagine the thousands of individuals
and the hundreds of organizations that they touch,
move, develop, and inspire because of their narratives.
I'm an example.
Right?
Sapiens Institute is an example. Key courses and
projects are an example how they've been touched,
moved, and inspired by Islam 21 c's work.
So if you re really wanna be smart
and you see all the great work in
the daw, you see maybe popular figures, you
see popular organizations, you see popular projects.
I would say to you that many of
those projects, you could trace the origins, the
intellectual, theological origins
to the work of Islam 21 c. So
if you're smart with your sadaqah, then you
support now. In actual fact, we should end
this in 5 minutes. Everyone should be given,
like, you know, at least £500 each.
Khalas. Sounds good to 0. It can be
Salat, dear brother and sister, it's really important.
Go to islam 21c.comforward/live.
Getting involved tonight. Who's gonna be the first
of those 50 supporters tonight, Inshallah, 100 pound
to support this amazing work, and really,
you will be the roots, you will support
the roots, and the fruits from different organizations
will come through as hamster has clearly mentioned.
And something really important that I think we
need to discuss and and touch upon and
break down a little salmon is the theological
and the automatic
mindset, in particular, the Afrocentric mindset. So, Salman,
if I can get you to touch upon
some of those and why it's so important
for our Islam 21 c and what it
means for Islam 21 c.
Yeah, bro. But before we we carry on,
just wanting to say, Zaknaqal again for Hamza,
Saad Hamza joining. Hamza, everyone
obviously knows you here and there from different
organizations, stuff you've had a hand in. But
tell us about Sapiens because this is the
the most recent one. So,
yeah, tell us a bit about what Sapiens
does does, please.
And,
you know, so to if there are people
who maybe don't know the ins and outs
of Sapiens and I was maybe different to,
you know, other other organizations that you you're
working with as well,
just to to enlighten us, please.
Oh,
By the way, when you were talking, I
was on my phone. I wasn't, like,
you know, distracted or anything. I was actually
messaging everyone. I know it's saying, yeah, we're
live with Hamza now. So that's something we
can all do, brothers and sisters.
Share the stream now wherever you're seeing it,
so more and more people can benefit. Inshallah,
we can benefit.
So, yeah, Sapiens Institute, we have a vision,
and that vision is a world convinced of
Islam, and we try to achieve this through
Oh, okay. As a team,
developing and empowering
individuals
and organizations
to share Islam academically and intellectually.
And that is extremely important because we believe
that we live in an ideological world.
Ideas
can kill. We've seen that in the genocide,
ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Ideas can have a huge impact on the
iman,
also on the well-being of humanity.
And we believe bad ideas can only be
overcome by good ideas, and the best idea
is Islam.
The best word, if you like, the good
word as Allah says, is la ilaha illallah,
the world view of Islam, and we try
to defend
and share Islam academically and intellectually. We do
it as a team, but we all we
also believe that the prophetic model is to
develop others. So we've trained over 40,000 people
to be able to share with some academically
and intellectually. We have, in my view, the
world's leading learning platform, the English language that
is free, that is dedicated to
developing people and how to share some academically
and intellectually, and we have free books and
free courses and in-depth series and all of
that stuff. And I think what makes us
not only unique, but where we share the
values with Islam 21 c
is that
we try and have
the understanding that the vision for the DAO,
the vision for Islam is bigger than the
organization, is bigger than any brand, and it's
bigger than any in any individual.
Because if you just focus on the brand's
vision, then the problem is there's always gonna
be a potential conflict of interest
between the visions vision of Islam, the success
of Islam, and the brand success because it's
not always the same.
To assume it's the same is a a
form of collective narcissism. Yeah? And I think
it's very important that we we highlight this,
and that's why
I, you know, I try to be inspired
not only by Salman and others,
by Sheikh Ali Hamouda, but also Sheikh Haitham
and others
that I I want to stay within the
barakah zone. Because barakah is not just about
more with less. It's not 1 +1 is
equal to 5, but it's also growth
and longevity.
And I want my dua, I want
my hayr, I want sapiens's hayr to have
not only barakah in terms of growth, but
barakah in terms of longevity.
And that will only happen if we're principled,
because Allah says the final outcome is with
the righteous.
And we want to be principle based rather
than brand or power based.
So
you have a choice between
power and principle, and you chose
power over principle, then your power or authority
will become your
destruction. But if you chose principle over power,
then your principle will become your success, and
I really, really believe that. And one key
principle is to work with others behind the
scenes, in the front, in the back, in
the middle, and engage with all organizations that
have an Allah centric and akhirah centric mindset.
If they don't, we try to enroll them
in our behavior, meaning we try to show
them that this is the best way forward.
It's about
Islam's success, and Islam's true success
is gonna happen anyway with with or without
us. Because Allah has promised that to us,
and what we need to be is principled
in order for us to maybe be enveloped
in Allah's grace and mercy for us to
be part of that work. So that's Sapiens
in a nutshell.
And as I said before, to reiterate, a
lot of the work that we're doing has
been inspired by Psalm 21 c. For example,
we have a book by Sheikh Fahad Tasneem,
could no doubt.
A lot of the content of that book
was inspired
in its origin by the work from Islam
21 c. We have a landmark
course called no doubt, how 10 effective strategies
on how to do deal with your doubts
and the doubts of others. We have lighthouse
mentoring service that mentors thousands of people with
Shubhahat, new Muslims, ex Muslims, preachers, teachers, influencers,
and imams to make an impact in the
dua.
A lot of the narrative of the mentors
comes from in origin Islam's 21 c's work,
and we developed it further.
So and that has gone to, like, thousands
of people, thousands. The book has been downloaded
thousands of times. The course has been accessed
by thousands of people,
and the work is global. We've been going
all around the world from South Africa
to Pakistan
to Canada, all around the world delivering this
type of content. So we potentially could have
accessed millions of people. And in origin, a
lot of that work or the seed at
least, the theological and intellectual seed was inspired
by some of Islam 21 c's work. So
this is why when you support Islam 21
c, look at the sadaqa jariyah. Look at
the reward that you're gonna be gain. It's
unbelievable because they're empowering not only influentials.
They're empowering not only individuals, but they're also
empowering organizations.
And because they're Allah centric, they're not putting
their stamp or their logo, their flag on
everything because that's not how they do business.
Their business is
and the and the reward that Allah will
give them nothing in the dunya can't even
match.
But I'm saying this just to be very
clear. There is no conflict of interest. I'm
not getting paid. I'm not getting any freebies
by being here.
And this is genuine from the bottom of
my heart.
You supporting Islam 21 c
is the most smartest thing that you could
do in Ramadan because you'd be supporting organizations
and individuals
that make
impactful change and transformative change that is Allah
centric and Aqara centric. And in an age
of brands, in an age of reels
and TikTok
and zombie scrolling, this is exactly what we
need. We need to transcend all of that
and understand that the real work and the
real reward is gonna become by being principled
like a sum 21 c, touch moving and
inspiring people because they're here for the long
game. They're here for the barakas. We said
barakas is not just about growth. It's not
about 1+1 is equal to 5. Barakah is
also about longevity,
and that's their mindset. And you've seen it.
They've been around for more than 10 years,
and they've touched mood in 5
organizations.
Myself, for example, I'm not saying I'm the
most popular person in the world, but I
have extensive reach. And we have an organization
like Sapiens. I'm managing Sapiens Institute, which has
huge reach with access millions of people all
around the world. And as I said, a
lot of our work has been in origin
from Islam 21 c from in its theological
and thought format.
So
support the brothers and the sisters at Psalm
21 c. They're doing phenomenal work. I always
try and support them when there's fundraising dinners,
I'm there.
When they need anything online, I try and
support my them as best as possible because
I believe Baraka is in that. That's how
you stick within the Baraka zone. And, I
wanna stay within the Baraka Baraka zone by
being attached to these amazing brothers and sisters.
So please support them. Go to where's the
link, bro? Go to Islam 21c. Com
forward slash live.
You've inspired people to,
go into the barakah zone as well. We've
got, some donations coming in. We got,
We got
Shabeel Aziz.
Donated. We got Zunera Butt.
Donated.
Mister the outside the Chinese embassy, man. I
think we need to do one of those
again,
this year. Absolutely.
Absolutely. We need to keep the we can't
forget our brothers, the Uighur brothers and sisters.
Many of them couldn't even fast in the
month of Ramadan. Yeah. Yeah. We have around
2,000,000 of them in concentration camps.
And to be honest, a lot of the
stuff that I learned about the Uighur genocide
and the oppression was from Islam 21 c,
to be honest. A lot of the material
was from an Islam 21 c because it's
not an easy campaign
to to fight for,
even from a nomadic perspective because there's so
much oppression going all around the world. And
people are like, you know,
not conflicted, but re you know, resources
are kind of stretched.
And to
fight for such,
you know, a a cause is is is
very difficult, but they brought it to the
scene. They're one of the true organizers
opened up so many doors. Anyone we we
were thinking, like like you're saying, you know,
it's gonna be uphill struggle.
But any organization we spoke to, they immediately
jumped on board pretty much.
Like a
100, plus in the first year, a 100
plus organisations in the coalition, the Stanford U.
S. Coalition. Then the following year it's been
slowly growing, like, 10 different cities around the
world. Australia,
South Africa, US. Wow.
Istanbul,
Turkey,
So
Allah's Allah's opening doors and
I think the thing you're talking about is
paying off that,
you know,
you know,
that not putting your kind of label and
your name and your branding front and center.
Allah's front opens up doors anyway. Anywhere I
go,
you know, get so much, you know,
a kind of a love and good reception.
Went to US a few months ago. So
many, like, the the and the,
you know, they're very sim similar, familiar
with.
Not necessarily the
the the the kind of, the the masses,
so to speak, or the average person in
the masjid,
But, you know, the the imams are influencing
Muslim shaker. And that for us is is
is so important as long as people know
that, you know, and and are strategic with
the sadaqah like you said. Now this is
why, you know, I I I try not
my best to do anything, you know, beyond
the call of duty for Assam Tunc as
well because
it's
about kind of making those strategic
investments of time and energy
and and going for kind of, people of
influence, people of knowledge, people
of, you know, that that that can be
moves and shakers in the future even if
not today.
And building something together, building something,
you know,
a common on a common vision with everyone.
So
the we would, stand for is is just
kinda one example of that. The previous,
the campaign before that was all in their
shoes. The Stanford is it was, you know,
I was just talking to some brothers about
it today. We're, revamping the website is gonna
be a a powerhouse of,
you
know, online information, you know, properly
resourced research much a lot of the,
the research has been done at Estea. It's
just about kind of making it easy for
people to,
you know, find,
quality information,
testimonies,
and, and, you know, direct them towards effective
action. Alhamdulillah, we have another donation.
It's
Khabir Rahmati
donated.
Zakmahira.
And yeah. Start, if you want to, they
we hooked up, this phone with a WhatsApp,
number. So you can WhatsApp call as well
if you wanna have a chat with Hamzah,
myself or, Usman gonna be back in a
second as well, InshaAllah.
And the number is,
07769-434-3414.
Alhamdulillah, we have another donation.
Ahmed
Marciev
donated.
Zunarabat donated again.
We got some, messages, some, comments coming through.
We're gonna have a look on them now.
That was
a f t 7.
Brother Hamza George's conference, team and Sapiens team.
That phone number again if you wanna call
in,
if you're from outside the UK, plus 4
4 7 7 6 9 4 33414.
We don't even need a smile here. We're
quite good at this, aren't I? I can
also,
you can also,
call the donate line, plus 44203880
2981. That's 0203-880-2981.
That's what we need. Our target today is
50 supporters invest a £100 each,
to reach our target tonight. What do you
think about that word invest, Hamza,
in this context?
I like it. I like it.
I like it. Because that's an Islamic concept
really. Because when you're giving, you're not really
taking anything away. We know the person said
that sadaqa does not decrease or diminish wealth.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in Surah
Al Baqarah verse 274, I believe, that those
who give day and night openly speaking,
then they're gonna have a reward from Allah,
and they will not fear nor will they
grieve. In actual fact, I was checking the
tafir of this today, and this
in the dunya,
which is so amazing. So even from that
perspective, if you go to Sur Al Baqarah
verse 274,
do your own tadabod, your own reflection,
and you will see
that sadaqa
is an investment because you're investing. What are
you investing in? You're investing in the akhara.
You're investing in
a greater reward, and that reward is from
your lord. And, wallahi,
what Allah can give you, and what Allah
will give you
cannot be ever compared in anyone's imagination to
what you receive in the dunya.
And that's that's a great investment plan. Not
only this, look what Allah is saying. You
will not fear, you're not you will not
fear the horrors of the day of judgment.
Allahu Akbar.
Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. And you don't grieve
with anything that you left behind.
So this is a great investment. Be one
of the 50 investors to give a £100
each. We should cover this today. I said
this so many times before.
Oh, thank you. Alhamdulillah. It's looking marvelous.
You know, I saw a clip on on,
yesterday, I think, when the
the
the the dog, Asad,
he his henchmen were pulling the hair the
beard
of the ulama
there.
And, you know, sometimes, you know you know,
the the Islamic faith is wide and there
are there's a scope of interpretation.
And sometimes you're thinking, you know,
maybe maybe show will look better and stuff
like that. But now I think I'm ashamed
to even, like, go back I used to
be. Like, you know, I'm not gunning anyone
down, but I'm the thing just personally, I'm
thinking
it's just it's just a shame. It's just
how can I do that? You know, people's
beards were being pulled off That's right. By
the henchmen of Assad. And how can I,
like, you know, it's horrific? Horrific. So, yeah,
make dua for me that I can keep
it as best as possible.
It has been fluctuating over the years.
So, man, like, keep It has to be.
Sorry, bro? It has to breathe in and
out.
But yeah. You know you know what's really
interesting, Right? Because people sometimes find these things
shallow. They're like, oh, it's this external thing.
But that's actually a secular framing, and it's
very important. We learned this from Islam 21
sees Mashaikh as well. The internal and external
are the same
in Islam, but they come together,
which is very very important because you have
the concept of Ikhlas, the concept of the
the Niyah, the intention.
And what is Ikhlas? Ikhlas is not only
doing things just for the sake of Allah.
Ikhlas as we learnt from the masha'iha Islam
21 c, Ikhlas is that you're doing it
because Allah is worthy of that action. He's
worthy of of life.
You're doing it for His divine reward and
number 3, you're doing it to shield yourself
from the consequences of your disobedience, which is
the art, which is the divine punishment.
The Ulema says it's best for all those
three reasons, but there's gonna be an element
where we're more focused or have an affinity
for. But generally speaking, that's what Ihlas is.
And, you know,
it's very important for us to understand that
when we see the actions of Islam, whether
they're big or small, when we see them
through through through that paradigm, for the paradigm
of Beidhada, the paradigm of worship, paradigm
of understanding what does it mean to do
something for the sake of Allah. Mhmm. But
anyway, so,
you know, I just You
know, Imam Abu Hanifa, there's a book,
there's a book attributed to him. Well, probably
his students were himself, Rahim Allah. Al Fikkhul
Akbar.
Yeah. Like the greater fiqh.
And it's about, you know, aqeed and, you
know, really important things. And he mentions wiping
the socks.
Yeah? And some people might think, what? Why
would you do but because
it's a framing. Its framing is different. This
is just an example of something that was
unanimously
agreed upon by the Muslims.
So it it gives us it gives it
value that way. And if it's something in
a particular time, particular place, there's a group
or if there's a, you know, a trend
that might be,
attacking or disagreeing or something,
it might it might, you know,
reframe what you what you focus on and
what you, you know, give attention to and
stuff. So,
really, it really interesting point that, you know,
don't look at how big or small a
particular thing might look from a secular perspective
in a outward of these types of things.
But, you know, it's fun
now. We've got some takbeers, overdue takbeers.
We got,
have you introduced Alana Bachi
who donated?
Hamza, what do you make of these, these
are controversial takbeers? Have you heard them yet?
We haven't we haven't got into them yet.
But what what I I don't know what
to make much about what you're saying right
now because you're very, like your decibels are
quite low, bro.
Is that any better? You need to reach
the bottom of your buzz. Really closer to
your mouth, like,
like it's an ice cream, but I guess
I don't lick it.
Just it might even be yours.
That's so nice. You might catch something. Sound
thrown random uncle in the masjid. Okay. What's
your take on this,
somewhat controversial Takabe? It's very cultural, and it's
close to Salman's heart. Go on, Salman.
It sounded very low to me. Can you
hear it, but but it came across as
not a Takbir.
We
have Jordan m also donated.
Jordan m. She also spoke to me. Jordan
m. Jordan m. I think it's the the
Jordan m. The He is a beast.
I had the pleasure of meeting very briefly
shaking his hand.
And after this, I'm 2 and c event,
actually.
Yeah. Yeah. He's,
he's he's handsome online, but he's even more
handsome face to face. May Allah preserve his
and protect him. I mean, I mean
So look,
I really wanna get to some juicy points
here,
and and discuss
the relevance of having Muslims
on,
let's say social media platforms or 21st century
media outlets.
Why is it important? Let's be honest. We
don't need it. There's enough of us in
the world. There's 1,800,000,000
of us. What's the, what's the worth. We've
got people on there. People know we've got,
celebrities, we've got athletes. They're doing enough dawah.
Why, why is there a need for us
to be on this, on this platform, Samza,
where there's so much fit now, for example,
or there's so many issues taking place?
Yeah. Well, the the social media platforms
are a key lay there's many layers to
the DAO, but the social media platforms are
one of the key layers of the dua
that help shape discourse and narratives.
And we also have to be very careful
when we say we have enough people doing
this. In actual fact, we don't.
Because when you study the algorithm, if you
look at the academic works, you see that
the algorithm online is basically encoded ideology.
And what we do, we get stuck within
this
algorithmic
bubble or this algorithmic echo chamber.
And we think we make we're we're having
great successes, but these are what I would
say
false successes.
Now there are we do have successes for
sure. There's immigration going in and out of
our own ideological space for sure. But what's
important to understand is that because that's how
the algorithm works, we need to make much
more noise. We need to have a greater
impact, and we need to have different people,
different temperaments,
different attitudes,
different perspectives, and different ways of being, and
different articulations to be able to capture different
audiences from other echo chambers. And it's hard
work. It's not easy because you're fighting against
the algorithm. Right? You are fighting against the
algorithm.
And we need to,
make sure of that. And not only this,
you need to be have a strategy in
place. In actual fact, ibn Hazam, one of
the the Andalusian scholar, the famous scholar of
the salami, he
actually says that that one of the greatest
forms of jihad, of struggle,
which he argues based on life was a
more priority than physical jihad itself
was strategic thinking in time frame.
And what does strategic thinking mean? It means
what benefits Islam, what benefits the Muslims in
a way that you understand the context.
And the brothers,
Islam 21 c and the mashaikh, they have
those kind of insights.
And you see this with what happened with
the Uyghurs.
Many people were talking about the Uighurs. Many
people were writing about the Uighurs. Many people
were being activists concerned the the Uighurs. But
it went up a notch
online and offline and united around a 100
organizations together and it to be across 10
countries
because of Islam 21 c's work.
So this is this is the reason not
only that you need,
more of us in the online space, but
you need more of us with a particular
strategy,
with strategic thing in terms of danger, which
would without argue is reviving a neglected sunnah.
Because in the dua, what do we do?
We say, I'm gonna do this action.
Okay.
Is this action good? Yeah, bro. It's good.
You know, feeding the homeless, you get reward.
Okay.
But in your context, is that the best
thing that you should be doing for Islam?
That question we don't ask.
But that is the kind of basis of
the think of Islam we wanna see folk
because I know they're masha'ikh. I I know
how they run, and that's what they think.
What is the best thing for the deen?
What is more pleasing to Allah in this
particular context?
Many of us in the dawah when asked
that question, we're like, oh, yeah. I'm gonna
give dawah. It's good. I'm gonna do street
dawah. It's good. I'm gonna write this book
because it's good. I get it. You gonna
get rewarded. Mhmm. But what's more pleasing to
Allah in your context? Have you have you
even asked yourself that particular question? And that's
why when you see great campaigns
the Uighur campaign, for example, stands for Uighurs,
you see that it made such a great
impact because that thinking is behind
that thinking that kind of thinking is the
basis for those projects.
How are we gonna make a strategic impact?
What is the thing that's more pleasing to
Allah? Yeah. Writing an article about the Uighurs
is great. Doing a news piece about the
Uighurs is great. Being active about the Uighurs
is fantastic.
But
how are you gonna take things to the
next level, online or offline?
How are you going to assess,
making a greater impact for the sake of
Allah? And that's why we need not only
more people on online space, but we need
Islam 21 sees voice
just
on on steroids.
We need to support them. So we've if
I can, we just had a zed from
Manchester saying first time he's tuned in. Uzzed,
alhamdulillah, from Manchester. We need you to get
involved and find out what Islam 2160 is
about. Just as, Hamzah was really articulating and
saying that, look, these platforms that, are out
there in the world, Muslims need to be
on them. We need to be strategic. We
need to take benefit from them,
and make sure we are, drowning out the
rest of the noise because the reality is,
unfortunately, as you said with the algorithms,
if you don't make noise, you're gonna be,
you're gonna be noised out or you're gonna
be drowned out by the other ones. So
it's really important to help you help Islam
21 c,
be the positive noise amongst,
all of this nonsense that's out there. How
how can you do that? You can support
us. That's through your ability of writing, that
through your ability of graphic work. But importantly,
it's your ability to donate a few pennies,
a few pounds, to support this work. And
you can be one of the 50 special
supporters tonight in Shamar, giving just £100 to
support this work. How'd you do it? You
can pick up the phone or you can
go to islam21c.comforward/live.
And on that note, Salman, we've got a
donation.
I love a cup.
Salman is. Masha Allah, baba.
So look And what you get what you
get with the Islamic point I see is
the humor. That's for sure. It's the humor.
And the good looks.
I and the good looks. Because I remember
when we did the visionaries together in,
in Turkey and Pakistan,
Doctor Salman was with us. He was part
of the team.
And, he was jokes. He came out with
some great jokes.
I don't know. Happens in,
Pakistan stays in Pakistan.
And what happens in Turkey stays in Turkey.
And, Usman, do you want me to read
out some of these comments while you're while
you're talking? Please. Or just, choose what shall
we go?
I'm go I'm getting, like, this this dopamine
thing now because
the the viewing numbers, it says, 976
people watching. And I'm thinking,
wonder if we can get to a 1,000.
Even when there's, like, 5 people watching, it's
like, I wanna get to 10, and then
I was like, you know,
we're getting sucked in. So we have lots
of salaams and lots of duas.
I think I played some of them.
The first
son.
Ahmed Tamimi is giving a dua.
Allah will make you from the
the the happiest of his creation and,
honor you,
and make you
those honored with him
and,
beloved to him.
And, forgive you and your all of your
parents and your children
and and the people that you love,
from the Muslim. Masha'Allah. You know, Salman, with
some of these comments, I just do, wanna
mention something really important. Look, Alhamdulillah, dear brothers
and sisters, you are giving your comment. You're
giving your duas. You're showing your appreciation.
And something that's really important, when we remember
Allah, when we remember the sunnah of the
prophet
is one of the ways they used to
thank Allah is standing in worship and making
lots of dua to Allah, making lots of
the hoor and sojood.
This is, of course, one of the ways.
And one of the other ways which is
very established, very known, very well practiced
was giving back for the sake of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And in particular, look, we
mentioned about feeding a poor person and looking
after an orphan, and these these are amazing
and valid and beautiful
in a way that's understood in its context.
And now what do I mean by that?
It's all good and well we're talking about
things.
But imagine we were in a place which
doesn't really have internet and we're launching an
internet based campaign. It's not gonna be effective.
You've gotta work with what's, what's apparent for
you, what's there. And the prophet,
what did he do in his time? He
equipped the most skilled people to take the
most skilled jobs,
and and to excel in it. And what
was that what was that form of media?
Poetry.
What was the the outlet at the time
before,
Islam came or before the prophet took his
prophethood? When people used to come for Hajj
at that time,
the pilgrimage, you would have poets and they
would stand up on their their their their
members, so to speak, or their spot. And
and they would give their poetry, tell the
stories from their village and from their time,
and people would crowd crowd around them. And
the one who was the most effective got
the biggest numbers. Just like today with the
biggest likes and the biggest thumbs ups and
whatever else you get the following, they had
the same thing. So the next year, everybody
knew I'm gonna go to that poet because
he he's good at what he does. Dear
brothers and sisters, now is the time to
interact with people on this very platform or
the platforms you're watching us on. All the
social media platforms.
And it's important that we articulate Islam
in its in its authenticity,
with its values, its morals, and its ethics
in a way that's understood.
Yes,
intelligently.
Yes, intellectually.
And also at the same time, in a
way that's very palatable for people. So hamdulillah,
hamza can do it very intellectually. Salman
can can also do it intellectually. We've got
other brothers who can do it, if you
want to say more subtly or for the
everyday person, but every form needs to be
done. And this is quite support for you
to get involved.
And and something I really wanna touch touch
base on and really hone in on for
both of you is, hamdulillah, hamza you've traveled
many parts of the world. Salman,
you've interacted with many people in different parts
of the world. The importance
of having a narrative. And I don't wanna
hone in on this current crisis of genocide
that's taking place. And some of the the
news outlets in particular, BBC and others, the
way they refer to one particular death and
a one particular death of a different person.
Why is death
different for one person or described differently? How
important it is that we are on this
platform. For Salman, I know you you
people within being in
the in the community space. Hamzah, you can
talk about the importance
of why we need to have our own
voices and their narrative in charge.
Yeah. Of course. I mean, I had a
debate with doctor Mark Humphreys on this issue
a few months ago. It was
basically where the there's an ongoing genocide.
And, you know, he was framing it as,
you know,
before October 7th
October 6th, everything was fine.
And, look what happened. You know, these nasty
guys started the war and now they have
to face the consequences.
And I was, like, saying to him I
said to him, why are you racist? And
he was shocked. He thought he thought that
was a cheap plot. So no. You're either
racist or ignorant.
Simple as that because where was your condemnation
of the equivalent of of 5 October 7th
that were inflicted on the Palestinians from 2008
to around 2020?
So you must be racist or ignorant. You're
either racist because you think an Israeli life
is worth more than a Palestinian life, or
you're ignorant. Which one is gonna be? You've
got a dilemma here, and it's not a
forced dilemma. And he was kinda shocked. Right?
And that's that's the pushback. That's the assertive
pushback and the narrative that we need to
take to people, not to
apologize, to reframe narratives. And Hassan Thomas did
that really well, not only with
not only with the Palestinian crisis, but with
regards
to the secular materialistic world that we live
in today.
Reframing
narratives
is actually one of the jobs of the
Dua. The jobs of people on the media,
the jobs of Islam 21 c and others.
Because if you don't reframe the narrative,
if you create a narrative from an existing
narrative,
an existing
an existing ideological
frame,
then there's gonna be problems. For example, if
you defend women's rights from a feminist frame,
then you're not gonna say much as Islamic.
If you're gonna, you know, defend Islam from
a secular liberal frame, then what you've done
is you've liberalized and secularized Islam.
So what Islam diplomacy do, and they do
really well, is they basically
reframe the narrative
with our own voice, with our own authenticity,
and with the with the truth because Islam's
values, Islam's perspectives
creates this
worldview or these lenses in order for you
to see reality as it is.
Intellectual bravery. I remember I was having dinner
in Oxford with the late doctor Shabir Akhtar,
who was, you know, one of our great
heroes
era.
He was defending
the prophet with regards to the Salman Rushdie
affair in the eighties nineties.
He wrote the book, be careful with Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and he passed away,
I think, last year. May Allah have mercy
on him.
And he made a great point. He was
like Hamza, what is the point of being
an intellectual if you're gonna be a coward?
And that kinda hit me. That kinda hit
me. And he also made a very interesting
point in that very book. I think it
was in that book. He said that,
you know, secularism and liberalism, they claim to
have this type
of tolerance, and they tolerate everybody, which is
not true. He's he basically argues that there's
always a boundary to tolerance. There's no such
thing as a boundless tolerance. And he says
when it comes to religious minorities,
secularism and liberalism would only accept religious minorities
as liberalized versions of themselves.
They want to subjugate
minorities under their ideological frame. And he says,
well, Muslims are not gonna be subjugate. Sorry.
We're gonna have our own voice and our
own narrative. Now it doesn't mean that we're
gonna hate and we're gonna be violent. Of
course not. But we're gonna expose
the ideological and worldview underpinnings of these alien
ideologies. Like liberalism, for example, its primary assumption
is atomism or individualism. It sees the self
and sees how the self relates to society
from an individualistic
individualistic perspective.
Islam doesn't have that false assumption, and therefore
we're gonna unpack that false assumption
and,
expose it to the world and show them
how profound and sublime the values of Islam
are.
So
from that perspective,
reframing narratives
extremely important if they're done in the correct
way.
They're done in the correct way. They have
to be done by people who are intellectually
courageous.
They have grounding in the deen. They have
connection to scholars,
and they remain true to orthodoxy. And that's
what Islam 21 c does, and they help
reframe narratives in a correct way. They don't
reframe narratives
within a false ideological frame. They don't reframe
narratives
from a false liberal or secular individualistic
frame. They free reframe the narratives from an
Islamic frame, and that is so important to
understand
because a lot of our brothers, unfortunately, when
they go out there and they may be,
you know, individual speakers and so on and
so forth, they may be saying great stuff,
but the way they frame the narrative is
Yeah. They adopt false assumptions of other ideologies.
Right? They adopt the false assumptions
of other
people like, you know, Mark Humphrey said to
me, you know, do you condemn? Or he
says something. I said, look, I'm under no
epistemic and moral obligation to believe anything these
people say because they're known liars.
I the even the question doesn't even apply
because if they're known liars, I don't have
to believe in anything, any of your framing
because they're already known liars. Right? I'm I'm
under no obligation
to actually
do this kind of obligatory,
you know, quasi religious condemnation just because you
want me to. I'm sorry.
You condemn
the 5 equivalent of October the summers that
happened from 2008 to 2020. You do that.
And if you're not willing to do that,
if you're not willing to go to origins
and causes, then you don't really care. You're
just an ideologue. And if you're an ideologue,
then shut your mouth.
This is a private joke with me and,
Salman. We I remember, I think it was
in Pakistan or Turkey. We were saying that
a lot. We'll be you know, we get
excited. We're talking about ideas and, you know,
the detractors to Islam when they're really stupid
and they say they're based on false ideologies,
you're just like, shut your mouth.
But anyway,
but you know, at this point is is
is really, really important. I think,
when when we start having discussions,
where we're based in the framework of the
narrative they want, it causes huge, huge problems
for many Muslims.
We have particular issues with brothers maybe discussing
this,
at a micro level rather than a macro
level, and it causes a lot of problems.
And Muslims, to be honest, they need to
be firm within their own
frameworks, their own orthodoxy, their own teachings
to to go on to speak about this.
Mhmm. Salman, and Yes. Maybe you can you
can discuss this word that you often use
a lot. I don't hear it as much
hegemonic
conversations or discussions.
And and and really, this hegemonic discussion
or these types of discussions,
they happen a lot. And people don't realize
that you're a big topic,
but you're looking at it from 2 completely
alien perspectives.
But you're trying to have a discussion,
on a common moral that doesn't exist. So
Salman, touch upon that. I mean we always
say,
it's one of my things I always kind
of my mottos when to inspire the Sanjay's
DT and authors and stuff. We wanna be
authors of our own narratives instead of being
characters in someone else's story.
Yeah?
Because,
you know, because there's so many things that
in one context you might say it, but
in other context, it would be, you know,
incorrect to say that or technically correct. But
because of the context
it'll be unwise, right? You know if your
friend, a a sincere non Muslim friend he's
asking you, you know, what do you think
about what happened, it's October 7th, whatever. It's
different to some Piers Morgan coming on saying,
do you condemn? You know, that's a hegemonic
discourse. That's where you've been,
put in a lower position.
Okay.
Forced to,
basically,
perform a role. Right? You're brought on you're
wheeled onto this program to perform a role.
You're the either the
the enlightened, you know,
kind of reformed,
you know, Muslim who's the moderate, the good
Muslim who's gonna kind of shed shed some
of his things. Say, yeah, yeah, condemn and
so
forth. Or you're there to to to, you
know, perform the role of the angry shouty
kind of the backwards person, the religious person,
you know. Even religion. Religion itself, that's why
we don't like, you know, using this term
in one of our kind of things on
Islam trying to see because religion is created
by secularism.
Right? Religion Yes. This whole thing of,
kind of,
kind of world religions and so forth. Islam
is a deen. It's a whole entire
existential,
metaphysical, epistemological,
you know,
package.
Ontological package, you know. And I I got
this, book off the shelf where I where
I refuse to condemn. Really recommend it. It's
from Excellent.
I think 3 or 4 of some transitive
authors, you know,
contributed to this. It was edited by Asim
Qureshi doctor Asim Qureshi. I refuse to condemn,
you know. So different perspectives,
kind of going going into a bit more
detail in that. So
while we while we spoke to your smile,
we had a few donations. So we should
give a little shout,
to the brothers and sisters.
Dawud Islam
donated.
Es Khan donated.
Shiraz Bat.
I'm loving some of these names.
Related
somewhere.
Sara Arif, Donator as
well.
Brother and sisters.
And got some nice comments as well. Lots
of,
people coming on and,
Yeah. Salman and Hamza, look, you mentioned some,
maybe some fancy words, some words that, need
a bit of unpacking,
ontological,
epistemological,
very logical. So can you, can, can we
put this in a, in a, in a,
in a way that it can break it
down for people and people can really understand?
Because what the key thing I want people
to to get is
using
these terms, which look, we have to use
because when you're discussing these terms, they encompass
quite a bit. But what do they mean,
and and how important are they to understand
these terms,
and engage with these terms and engage with
people,
in this type of discourse, this level of
discourse, or this this, this level of intellectuality,
that comes when you when you're discussing Islam
Yeah. At a very macro level.
Yes. So look. I mean, the terms are
not necessarily important. This is just like, you
know, academic language. But to put it in
a simple way,
every thought,
every idea
has its own assumptions.
Okay? There's no such thing as an idea
or a thought that is assumption
free,
and those assumptions are based on the lenses
that you wear over your
eyes, your heart's eyes, your mind's eyes, if
you like.
For example, if my lenses are colored yellow,
then everything you say and see is gonna
be tinged with yellow.
If my lenses are colored green, everything I
see is gonna be tinged with green. Absolutely.
But we're saying is Islam is not a
religion, it's a land, it's a world view
that deals with the whole of reality. So
when you say ontology, it basically means the
source and nature of reality.
When you say epistemology,
you're saying what is truth? How do you
come to truth?
What is knowledge?
When you say things like
anthropological,
you're saying what is the human being?
When you say morality, you're basically saying what
is good and what is bad.
Those
areas
are dictated by the lens that you have.
For example,
in a liberal society, they would say, well,
I should do it as long as it
doesn't harm anyone. And Muslims would argue this
way as well because they've adopted the wrong
lens.
Generally speaking, it's a secular liberal lens. They
adopt
a morality
that is the normative ethical theory of generally
speaking,
which is what?
Which is that a moral action is good
if it increases the well-being for society,
and more action is bad if it decreases
the well-being for society.
And that has its own assumption of what
is well-being.
But Islam has an answer to all of
those things. It says what is good,
there's a big debate as well, but generally
speaking what is good is following Allah's commands.
What is bad is not following Allah's commands.
And with that, we know that's good for
society too anyway.
And what is well-being is defined by Allah.
So you see already, even a Muslim living
in a second liberal space, they may come
up with things like, well I'm not harming
anyone, so it should be alright. But they've
they've got an assumption here. Their assumption is
what is harm, and their assumption is good
only that which increases the well-being of society,
and bad is that which decreases the well-being
of society
based on a liberal understanding of well-being, which
is usually an individualistic
understanding because they have the premise, the assumption
of individualism.
The correct lens would be, no.
Islam is true. Islam is the lens that
makes me understand reality correctly, all types of
reality,
including moral reality.
And those lenses are gonna be what? That
something is good if I'm following Allah's commands
and the commands of the prophet
Something is bad, I go away from those
commands.
And what is well-being is how Allah has
described well-being, which also is based on the
akhirah not just the dunya. So you don't
have a materialistic
understanding of well-being alone.
So that shapes everything now.
So these subtle this that's how world views,
affect us in in in in a huge
way. So I have a question, Hamza, and
for Salman.
So it might sound very obvious, and I
know you've briefly touched on that. How do
we
engage Muslims
to change their view and get rid of
a particular change,
and to make it more Islamic in that
sense? Because it it's very difficult for someone
to really take away their entire glasses and
and and place new ones because they might
like them. They don't know anything new.
How can we,
Islam 21c Sapiens Institute,
how can we have an impact in changing
people's view,
Muslim and non Muslim? It might be the
same. It might be slightly different.
Well, it's it's actually support yes. Sorry. Go
ahead, Hamzah.
Yeah. We're supporting the likes of Psalm 21
c because they create narratives,
and they frame those narratives in accordance with
Islamic perspective. It's creating that
private and public conversation.
It's getting people to see things from a
different way,
unpacking those false assumptions,
getting people
to stand in the possibility
that the way they're seeing things is not
the only way.
And Islam twenty one seems does that really
well when it comes to things like how
do you see Ibadah? How do you see
worship? How do you see automatic issues?
How do you
see good and bad? How do you see
the pleasure of Allah? How do you see,
you know, all of these things from an
Islamic framework? So that conversation needs to be
had. If we don't have those voices online,
if we don't have that narrative development, that
reframing the narrative from an Islamic perspective,
showing that Allah's word is the highest,
and doing in a way that is articulate
and effective to address all types of people
that engaged online,
then it's not gonna really hap gonna happen,
is it? And that's why it's so important.
Look. Take for example, Pew Research.
In 2017,
Pew Research did a study. It's and Pew
Research is an apparently a nonpartisan
fact tank.
In 2017,
they did a study that the the most
the amount of Muslims that become Muslim in
America
is actually the same as those who leave
Islam.
Now I'm not here to, you know, say
everything is negative. I'm not saying that. But
let's think about what's going on here. The
reason that's happening is because there is an
ideological frame.
There's an ideological frame that exists in particular
environments, whether it's a nation or a bunch
of nations, and that affects the way we
see things.
So you could be brought up as a
Muslim or you could become Muslim, but then
leave Islam because you're affected by the ideological
frame because you did not have alternative voices.
You didn't have people who were authors of
their own narrative. You did not have, you
know, influential media outlets that are actually challenging
some of these assumptions of these ideologies that
create that negativity, that create people leaving the
religion. So it's not just about seeing it
from a micro perspective, but a macro perspective
because you could be like, yeah, but we're
doing individual dua. We're doing great work. Look.
I had a 100 shahadas today. Yeah. But
that's good.
Keep on doing it. But look at it
from a macro perspective.
There's an ideological frame. You know, if a
fish is in murky waters,
you know,
the fish is not gonna be in clean
water if you convince the fish that it's
in murky waters. You need to change the
water. Right? And that's what narratives do. So
you you can have a bunch of fish.
Right? They're in this water, and the water's
really dirty, and they think it's clean. And
then we go to the fish and say,
hey, fish. Do you know you're in dirty
waters? Like, I can't really see it. You
know? That's how it is sometimes. That's how
ideologies affect us. What we need to do
is we need to somehow, like creating narratives,
change the whole water so they understand. Oh
my god. It's just like, you know, when
you have a fan in the background for
so long, it becomes that white noise,
and you think it's normal. And the minute
someone turns it off, you're like,
oh my god. That's what I was like.
And that's what narrative building is really. And
that's when you report Islam 21 c. I
I don't think I could have said it
any better, to be honest. But You know,
that that study you mentioned,
the peer research study that showed, the same
number of Muslim left Islam, I think, in
the US
as the same number as, identified,
as became Muslim.
I remember I was just looking at the
the Islam 2 zero c headline for that,
news analysis piece.
The headline that we wrote was new study
shows that if you leave Islam, Allah will
replace you.
Yeah. See, that's that's a refrain. I am.
Because I will enter the wallow.
In terms of,
so Usman is gonna be, back soon, inshallah.
He had to, leave for a few minutes.
But,
in terms of his
what was his question again?
Yes. The,
there was a few questions.
Yeah.
The narrative,
the importance of
the narrative and so forth.
Yes.
Points of narrative, explaining a world view.
Mhmm. Alright. But this is a change. How
how that that is how do you change
the lens?
How do you change someone's lens? Are you
you you did the the plug for Islam
to and see as the self's list.
Just a reminder, brothers and sisters, we're here
raising money for our target, for some currency
5 k Inshallah. We need 92 supporters
more to invest £50 each,
or half of that to invest a £100
each. You can call in or you can,
to the studio, you'd call in and donate,
0203-880-2981.
And you can donate online, islam20c.comforward/live.
There's a nice, way to,
donate. It's very frictionless. I'm not sure that
you're gonna Apple Pay and all that kind
of stuff as well.
But, yeah, in terms of the the
changing people's lens, one of the things that
we try and do I'm gonna try and,
do something and hope it doesn't break the
whole stream.
This is our vision.
Yeah? Well, our our kind of revised vision
as a few months ago
to see Muslims empowered and impacting the world.
Right? And the way we define empower is
to make people more, make them stronger and
more confident,
right, in their skin as Muslims. And this
confidence
is what and the way we do this
is by transformational digital content inshallah. So we
educate and inspire Muslims. It's our mission. We
educate and inspire Muslims with divine guidance and
solutions.
Divine guidance and solutions through transformational digital,
content.
Now
the,
the thing about confidence is
that, you know, when when you when you're
trying to let make someone realize or or
shift their lens,
what what differentiates someone? If someone were to
come to you and say,
or an average Muslim, they they they come
to them and say, you know what?
Something really ridiculous. Like, can God create a
4 sided triangle? I think you can have
shut up, man. This is just so silly.
What what's the difference between that,
that
reaction
and something that makes someone actually,
you know, begin to feel maybe inferiority complex
or begin to feel embarrassed about their deed,
begin to adopt
the tools,
the the the narrative tool, the discursive tools
of the of the, of the non Muslim,
of the, maybe, of the the the,
dominant discourse or something like that. And that
is a that is a thing that we
try and kind of craft
content and narratives and and things out. And
so to make any any kind of,
make people's confidence
in their skin as Muslims so robust
that they can shrug off these little things,
you know, that that that come their way
and recognize, you know so it requires some
some degree of learning to recognize how to
spot maybe a foolish argument, a specious argument,
a shubha,
And to and to be fortified against shahawat,
to fortify against,
you know, desires and whims,
and, you know, the the the desire to
maybe fit in,
with with the crowd or peer pressure, maybe
if someone's at work or at school or
something, you know. My friends will get to
do this. Why don't I why why can't
I do this? You know, that kind of
thing. And and and it it's
to to be a confident or to produce
confident Muslims,
we'll begin, you know, the the the,
next generation, alhamdulillah, where I see our children
begin to feel sorry for for,
you know, the person who isn't who hasn't
got divine value, hasn't got divine guidance Yes.
And solutions for their lives. Rather than
envy them, rather than look up to them
and be like
when they said to Musa alaihi Salam,
you know,
make us a a an idol like they
have an idol.
You know, they're they're feeling they they're just
come out of oppression. They're subjugated.
Musa al Islam reacts, you know. And like
likewise, some of the sahaba said the new
converts to Islam when, you know, when before
the iman was kind of strong,
they would say that in one instance, for
example, they said,
You
know,
make
us this kind of charm, tree charm that
they hang their swords on to bless their
sword. Can you make this for us like
they have? You know? And the prophet responded
like, you've
asked you asked me what most
people ask. You know, this is, you know,
this is this is,
indicative of
that
the the the the strength or the confidence
not entering
your heart and your mind yet such that
now, like, senior Sahaba or after, obviously, the
Sahaba that were in Islam in Tahu
for a a number of months years and
so forth, they would think, dude, this is
crazy. Why the * would I need this?
Because this is this is this is pitfall.
This
is, you know, shut your mouth.
But, so most of this is how most
of this reacted, you know, that
this is this is ignorance, this is
and that's the kind of thing you need
you need,
to attack both kind of
elements. 1 is, okay,
inform people.
Here's the here's how to recognize, yeah, you
know, as features down or here's here's a
narrative that can clarify things on an on
an intellectual level, just at the cognitive level.
But there's also, so importantly,
that
kind of
character and the the the the the fortitude
level of, you know, you know, you're not
you're not phased.
You know?
You're not so
impressed with with, you know,
kind of the the the the the the
narrative that's coming from,
from your your enemies or your opponents or,
you know, people who, wish to to harm
you.
We got some more, donations coming.
Rabia Akbar
donated.
We had
Azim Razak.
Let's have a let's so we have a
few, sound effects.
We had a bit of a
controversy and
there you go. I saw brothers answer.
Not very brothers.
But,
we had a brother donate saying, I'll only
I'll give you £50. I'll donate £50 if
you don't do the takbir sound effect again.
And the other,
someone donated.
And he said, until someone donates a £100,
we get it reinstated again. So there's a
bit of a back and forth a few
days ago.
They asked us to get asked me to
get more,
sound effects.
Someone requested this one.
Brother
e. Brother e. Brother e. That's if you
think that that goes into the, kind of
I was thinking we need to find a
way to make it relevant or or or,
appeal to it, but,
I just remembered that. I just realized that
that that's that's precisely what we've been talking
about. Instead of if somebody you know,
kids peer pressured into doing something
haram or to accept some kind of
you know,
anti Islamic discourse or norms or or whatever
like that.
That should be the reaction of of a
confident Muslim of of a, you know, younger
brothers and sisters,
especially that, you know, in our next generation.
I'm really excited to see what the next
generations have. You know? We're we're having
where where we have organizations
like Sapiens, so I'm trying to see all
the different kind of,
narrative building and and conference building.
Is so important that you have some of
you and so forth. You know, I was
just thinking the other day that for so
many years, my own kids,
they didn't even know that they're a minority.
I love it. For example. Because they're in
a homeschool and many, you know and when
they actually
were actually kind of introduced, you know, there's
something called kaffir and
people
worship this and some people worship that. They're
like,
but why would you do that? So, you
know, so, you know, you know, all of
our children. No one's
no one's, you know,
no one's, you know, kind of, protected automatically.
We ask Allah
is guiding,
all of us. We ask Allah to keep
everyone
sincere and steadfast.
But it it it's exciting to see what
the future holds, you know. If we if
we,
you know,
hunker down and and
protect and and flourish
all our our institutions
as a community,
you know. We had a a very good,
podcast a few months ago,
with this one actually with Sofia and Ismail.
Yeah.
And he detailed 10 institutions that Muslims need
to build.
Right? He said some of them we have.
Some of them we don't have yet. We
need to invent, you know. Things like creating
journalists, things like, you know, reporting Islamophobia properly,
things like,
you know, a legal fund to go after
defamation case. You know, things like that that
are institution because we said something really interesting.
He said
he said the,
the ordinary
individual the ordinary institution
trumps the flamboyant individual.
Yeah.
It's really interesting the the way he said,
for example, look at, you know, like like
a president of the United States, for example,
like Barack Obama.
You know,
also known as Barack
Obama. You know, I mean, he did he
he introduced some policy. He was kind of,
you know, really passionate about Obamacare or whatever.
Trump comes in and he just kind of
undoes it.
You know, so he's, you a flamboyant individual.
They have some kind of impact, but
he said, I bet you can't even name
the CEO
of Stonewall
when they're called. Right?
Yet Stonewall has a much
bigger impact
in your life, you know, at work, your
policies, your children's schools, for example, probably than
Barack Obama does.
So, you know, on institution that many sometimes
in the background, pressure groups, load groups,
whatever. Institutions,
the work that they
do,
if there's especially if there's longevity,
it can trump, you know, the the the
temporary blip of a famous individual or a
flamboyant individual. 100 percent. 100%.
And, Usman, I was just thinking,
it's we're 2 SunTrust here is 2 years
away from its 20th birthday.
Wow.
Yeah. 2006, I think.
Or is it way before I joined?
It was boring back then, isn't it?
I'm joking.
But, also, you you, you've been in Islam
to see much longer before. Yeah. I think
I joined,
2013,
13, 14.
But, yeah, let's get let have a look
at some of these,
things like that. So and let me just
do my passing words because I need to
jump ship. Okay. Sure. Brothers and sisters watching
this,
just watch it from the beginning and understand
exactly what I've tried to say to everybody,
which is really echoing the words of doctor
Salman
right now, which is we need to support
these institutions
that
do the reframing. They've reframed narratives. They become
authors of our own story
rather than being characters in someone else's story
as doctor Salman said. And the reframing of
the narrative is so important from a media
perspective and an online perspective because some truancy
are doing it without being infected and affected
by alien ideological frames.
So it's very, very important for us to
have that. A lot of the work of
Sapiens Institute, such as our works on doubts,
on Shuba Hart, Allat House Mentoring
was inspired in origin by the work of
Islam 21 c, and you never you would
never have known that if I didn't tell
you. So this is the type of work
that Islam 21 c is doing, support the
engine behind a lot of the dua, the
motivation, and the seeds behind a lot of
individuals and other organizations because Islam 21 c
have an Allah centric and akhir centric mindset.
It's not a brand centric mindset.
And this is where the sadaqa jariyah lies,
and this is where the barakah lies. Because
barakah is not just about growth, it's also
about longevity.
And if you want barakah in your sadaqa
and longevity in your sadaqa and the reward,
then please donate to
Islam 21 c. May Allah bless every single
one of you. For the opportunity, bro. I'm
gonna be off and I think I'm gonna
see you guys in a couple of days
as well-to-do another one. So my love gonna
be in here in 2 days again.
So tune in, brother and sisters.
That's, Usad Hamza Georges.
He's,
joined us. It's, 2 hours.
It's, like, 2, almost 3 AM where he's
where he is. So very grateful for him
to join us.
But, yeah, we're still here. Usman's gonna be
joining,
in this, few minutes.
So if you want to call in,
numbers, plus 4 4 7 769-433-414.
If you want to phone,
donate by phone, the number is on screen
now.
Plus 44203-880-2981.
If you want to donate by,
the Internet or your phone,
Apple Pay, Microsoft, Android Pay,
the URL is islam20oc.comforward/
live. That's islam20oc.comforward/live.
I'll, go back to some of our slides
if you wanna have a look, brothers and
sisters.
Oops.
This is our mission.
Our vision to see Muslims empowered and impacting
the world. Our mission is we educate and
inspire Muslims with divine guidance and solutions through
transformational digital content.
That's what we're doing this way about at
Islam 21 c.
If you're just joining us now, we're doing
these live streams in last, odd nights of,
Ramadan,
last 10 nights.
And they're meant to be very short to
squeeze them in between end of,
and beginning of, other and so forth. If
you are here at, oh, we have a
donation.
We have,
Azim Razak.
Irham Osman,
as well.
And
has donated as well.
Mark where you are. We're hovering around the
1500 people watching, Mark.
So, yeah, please do,
send in your comments, any messages, any questions
as you want, if you don't don't know
about something you see. So as I was
saying,
part of our,
you know, principles is to
you know, excel and and encourage brothers and
sisters to excel in their Ibadah as well.
And if you
joined in the first night I think with
Sheikh Doctor. Haitham Al Khaddan he was saying
that you know Allah has made it so
broad. Anything we do can be
with the right
intention, defending the Ummah, donating,
to,
produce
confident and impact for Muslims in terms of
the continent
campaigns as well. But at the same time,
we didn't wanna extend these things. We want
to give people,
encouragement to go back if you're going to
a masjid or if you're praying your qiyam
at home. And
made our Ibadah so broad. You can do
you know, if your body gets tired from
doing one thing, you can switch and do
another things. If you get if your legs
get tired from doing qiyam, sit down. You
can read Quran. You can go on your
phone. You can, do some donations. And if
it's little Qadr tonight, it's 27th Ramadan,
then it's,
it's magnified. It's it's multiplied by over a
1000 months, SubhanAllah.
So,
we need to have special ingredient, which the
prophet said is
is when you engage in these acts of
worship, you're you're
you're you're you have a constant intention, inshallah,
that oh, Allah, I'm doing this. I'm hoping
for reward from you, you Allah. So,
we should keep doing this. Have
in everything you do even when you're resting.
That's why
he
said, indeed, I hope for reward for my
sleep
just as I hope for reward for my,
standing.
Yeah? Where where we have 1500 people watching
across different platforms. We're on YouTube as well.
Famous YouTube, the biggest probably the most famous
YouTube, mister Beast. Yeah. You know, many of
his videos I watch with my kids. Many
of his videos,
Those those videos where he gives people his
credit card, and they can spend it on
whatever they want. They've got a challenge or
whatever.
They don't sleep.
They just, you know, they they they,
they spend and they buy things and they
strategically they're spending. And they only sleep when
they get so tired and the intention for
sleeping is I need to recharge my batteries
so I can kind of do more spending
or do kind of complete the challenge properly
and get some energy. And this kind of
really,
you know, highlights this this this the statement
of.
You know, he's getting reward inshallah.
We get reward for our sleep if we
have that intention. We're sleeping because we want
to get energy to do more and do
more other things. So our sleep becomes.
So that's Islam Tursi's,
mission. We educate and inspire Muslims with divine
guidance and solutions to transformation digital content. Next
slide is looking at some, basically an overview
of what we do,
our content and platforms. We're gonna make it
big so you can see it.
How you can split it split up into
products and platforms.
Platform, they have the mailing list. By the
way, if you're not on the mailing list,
head over to asamtransc.comforward/subscribe
to join the mailing list. We have
bespoke,
newsletters that go on the mailing list
with bespoke content that's not gonna be on
the website or other platforms. Just on the
mailing list.
We did this revamp. We did a big
you know, listening exercise and some interviews with
many of our,
readers and and and supporters.
This is something that we we came out
with that don't we don't just send mail
shots or or emails just with links and
stuff, but with actual content. So you can
go straight to your inbox and get, you
know, get some beneficial content from the likes
of sister Zamarina Sarwar, one of our key
authors, and the likes of Sheikh Ali Hamoda,
our Tarbia editor, and others.
So, yeah, though, we have a few mail
shots. We have a a website, obviously, .com,
our own platform.
The. Well, it's not as easy. You know,
you can't just it's not like Facebook turning
off your, you know, your reach and so
forth. It's our own website, and we're working
on releasing our app soon, very soon,
next quarter,
or sometime this
year, streaming our, you know, podcast and so
forth on the streaming platforms. We've got all
the social media platforms. And then we have
our products. We have guidance, news, podcasts, and
campaigns.
Our guidance is split up into many different
things. We have, you know, themed kind of
themed weeks, themed months even,
throughout the year. Obviously, articles,
ebooks, audiobooks. We have different series, videos, shorts,
long form article content as well. We have
news, but not news simply just reporting.
News from an Islamic perspective, from an Islamic,
you know, paradigm that that lens Hamza was
talking about.
Our, you know, epistemology, our ontology, and so
forth. All of that. Anthropology, our morality
is, Muslims,
reflecting on the news and distilling those things
which are important for us. And for every
news article we have,
an analysis piece by a sheikh, a scholar,
a thinker, or an expert in that, area.
Our podcast, the the main flagship one was
for many years ago, since many years ago.
It's unscripted podcast, a lighthearted,
entertaining podcast
where you might recognize the mic from. But
we also started EMPOWUR, the EMPOWUR podcast as
well. We had,
you know, a few of these were,
started a few months ago, empowered,
is just like this is online. We we
speak to a subject matter expert, different
guests,
and it's very it's a bit more concise
and,
to the point. So we have a bit
more kind of interview style question and answer,
rather than kind of, a fewer jokes and
joking around. The joking is reserved for the
unscripted podcast.
And we've yeah. I'm just going, showing some
of the podcasts that we've done.
Anyway, back to this.
We also have campaigns. So campaigns like in
the issues, campaigns like the campaign.
We have another campaign.
We have Sabrina Butt,
£50.
Sister for your donation. And,
all brothers and sisters watching, you know, we
make make dua for each other, especially in
this light night.
All are you love. You're the one who
pardons. You have to pardon, so pardon us.
And we ask Allah
to forgive all of our brothers and sisters
watching, those who are donating, those who don't
donating for barakah and of our,
wealth and our children, our family, our imam.
I mean
so our mining campaigns are major campaigns.
Pakistan for Eagles, for example, is a big,
coalition of of a 100 plus organizations with
the, most security and most community beyond the
UK and not hung up powered by Central
NC.
We had lots of
activity there, and we're we're planning, the next,
year's
activities as well. We're revamping the website. There's
gonna be a powerhouse
of,
of information, knowledge, and guidance, motivation, and action,
effective action for the Uighur cause, for our
brother and sister in occupied East Turkestan facing
genocide there.
That's very important because,
right, like we've seen with the Palestine or
the god Gaza genocide,
many people
might agree with us and might share, you
know,
you know, sentiments,
with us. But there are also many people,
if it's not done from an Islamic paradigm,
it's not done from Islamic perspective,
there will always or there will often be,
problems.
Right? So for example, someone might be very
good in, you know, pro Palestine,
but they they might end up being a
genocide denial of the genocide of the Uyghurs,
for example. Someone might be very pro, you
know,
highlighting the Uyghur genocide, but they might be
Zionist. They might be
supporting, you know,
the Zionist
occupation continued occupation of 75 years of the
last remaining European colony in the Middle East,
Israel.
And that's what happens when you're motivated by
maybe nationalist interests or a hatred of one
group or another. So you're kind of your
your enemies, enemies my friend kinda thing. You
know, temporary kind of, alliances and so forth.
Your frenemy.
So I mean, you know, it it's it's
it's useful and it's important to to make
specific kind of, you know,
a corporation.
Allah says made the the subject of cooperation
more important than the the person you're cooperating
with. So you can cooperate with someone who's
maybe has lots of problems with them. But
on the thing that you're cooperating with at
that moment is good. So Allah says,
incorporate on
goodness and righteousness, something which is,
you know,
pleasing to Allah
But the problem is,
you know,
elsewhere, those people may unless they're motivated by
a genuine level of of justice that Allah
put in their heart. Even if they're not
Muslim, if they have an appreciation for justice,
you know.
Unless it's that you know, if they're motivated
by just, you know, nationalism or we want
we want we hate this group or that
country. We wanna kind of,
weaken them, then, you know, there's not gonna
be much of Barakah. So that's why the
campaigns that we're doing,
is from an Islamic
standpoint, Islamic
perspective
and and and and principles.
Many anyone is is is,
free to cooperate with us, But the platform
is
something based on,
Allah and his messenger and our principles.
We have another donation
to
for your comments. Brothers and sisters, just while
I'm, going through these slides and, you know,
if when we want to know more about
something to see,
just a reminder, if you're watch wherever you're
watching this, give us a comment. If you
have any comments, you can put them on
the screen,
as well.
Someone, some people are giving good, ideas and
so forth.
So yeah. So people are asking what is
this about? What is the assumption you see?
So our statistics, I'll just put it on
the screen there.
We like we said, we've been here for
we sometimes it started 2006, I think, 2006
or 7. So coming up to our, you
know,
20th birthday.
Alhamdulillah. That's the the the good thing about
something with longevity
is we have the processes, we have the
systems in place.
So for example, our new campaign that we're
we've been planning has gone through the planning
stages of this called Palestine
Truth.
Where we we want to tackle 3 things.
The lack of knowledge,
that people have, Muslims and non Muslims,
the misinformation that is being spread and and
Zionist propaganda taking it, head on tackling it
head on. You know? And the strategies include
education,
promotional awareness, quality engagement,
busting myths, boycott guidance, elearning,
you know, FAQs,
Palestinian voices being shared, and practical things that
we can do to,
help the cause of our brothers and sisters
in Palestine.
If you're just joining, just remember, brothers and
sisters, a reminder to donate if you can.
The website is astharma27.comforward/live.
And the
the phone number to donate, if you wanna
donate on the phone, is 0203-880-2981.
And we need 85 supporters to invest £50
to reach our target tonight.
We,
had a recent revamp.
Kind of regular viewers might have noticed, the
whole new design language
and, branding in response to,
what what you, brothers and sisters, wanted us
to do.
You know, and, we we changed some of
our the way we do articles, for example.
Typically, we're making them shorter. We do have
separate long reads now still for the avid
readers. But for for, you know, the majority
of our articles, they're like this form now,
introduction and and and,
summary kind of bullet points at the top
and also action points
at, at the bottom as well. Why? Because
remember, this is what we're all about. We're
our vision is to see Muslims empowered and
impacting the world.
So brothers and sisters, if you're just tuning
in, this is, so I'm trying to see
live stream way. This is, number 4 or
5. We're gonna be back in, 2 nights,
with Hamza Georges.
Again, he, kindly joined us.
He was very,
eloquent and,
and forthright in his support for his time,
embarrassing us,
with his generosity and kindness. He's always.
He's been like a maybe he's not watching,
so I can praise him a bit. He's
been around the SunTrust longer than I have.
And he joined,
I think, down 13 or something. Hamza, George
is, you know, right from the beginning. He
was right from the,
beginning kind of, supporting some controversy, writing articles,
experimenting
narratives,
building them, crafting them
to to to,
help, you know,
this this mission of empowering Muslims, giving them,
divine guidance and solution through transformational digital content.
So,
I think we'll,
we'll, end it there, brothers and sisters. If
there's any, last donations, I'll give her a
few,
while I go through I've got another,
set of slides. I'm also looking at some
of our stuff. So I'm gonna go through
some of these slides
before we, wrap up and call it a
night and do other types of Ibadah shortly
inshallah.
Speaking of Ibadah, remember
to,
include your parents and your intention when you're
giving sadaqah, brothers and sisters, your parents, your
close, you know, friends, your loved ones.
You know, the the the topic of kind
of,
doing good deeds and and giving award to
other people. It's a contested one. Many different
many different scholars and so forth. But they
all agreed
that sadaqah,
you know, spending,
is one of those things that all the
scholars generally agreed on that we can give
sadaqah for, you know, our parents and our
loved ones and so forth. So please do
whenever and, you know, it's free to have
more intentions, and it gives you actual rewards
as well for showing kindness to your parents
and your awesome brothers and sisters and so
forth.
So, yeah, just
a quick chance to donate still. Islamtrenasi.comforward/live.
It takes, like, a few seconds, really.
The the tech team have done a great
job. Frictionless,
few taps, Apple Pay, and you can quickly
donate. I always encourage brothers and sisters, and
I try to implement this myself. Wherever you
see any opportunities to give, just give a
little bit. Don't ever say no for somebody's
messaging you. You know? We're we're getting all
these messages on in Ramadan. We call it
a month of fundraising.
But, we shouldn't feel,
we shouldn't feel when we're given an opportunity
to donate. Ah, I don't like this. We're
all the fundraising.
Because number 1 is the characteristics of the
fifteen.
You know? The hypocrites to
to,
criticize
and to dislike being asked.
Number 2, we should
feel that we're in need of giving sadaqa
more than charities and the and the organizations
and the nonprofits and so forth are asking,
more than they they need, for. So we
should always
feel that, there's there's an opportunity for us.
And it may be that Allah gave you
gave me that, you know, business deal or
that
promotion or that new job or whatever. Because
he wants
to honor me and you
that he's giving me something because he wants
it to end up in that project or
in that, for that person and so forth.
So please do remember, you know, whenever you
whenever you're asked or given opportunity to give,
just give something. Just give them because you
don't want Allah to
give you fewer and fewer and fewer,
opportunities next time. So anytime last month that
it gives an opportunity, it decrease it. You're
gonna get that text message or this message
or that message. Right now, maybe if you're
watching, just give something just give something so
then you can say to Allah, Allah, you
gave me the opportunity, announce the call. Alhamdulillah,
we have a donation, another donation.
May Allah
reward you all abundantly.
What I this is from,
Khatib Qureshi.
Brother and sisters, may Allah bless you, and
your families and your, wealth.
What are you donating for? Some of the
things on screen as well, like these weekly
mail mail shows I mentioned. If you're not,
again, if you're not subscribed already, head over
to islam truancy.comforward/subscribe
to subscribe to the mailing list to get
these,
bespoke,
weekly mail shots
that you won't find anywhere else on the
is just in your inbox from the likes
of Shekha Ali Hamouda, our editor,
and other, members of the team.
Social media engagement, got some stats there. Samples.
Our new social media kind of,
design language and,
kind of visual things. And remember, don't forget
this
du'a tonight. And every of these last 10
nights of Ramadan. If it could be Ramadan,
if it could be late in Qadr,
prophet
told us to
say, Oh, Allah, you
pardon.
You're the one who pardons. You love to
pardon, so pardon me.
Love
to pardon you. You are the one who
pardons you. You love to pardon us. So
some more stuff that, we've been going over
the last few months.
And,
yeah, that will be I think we'll we'll
we'll we'll end the stream there, brothers and
sisters. If you, like the stream, do a
like and a share wherever you're watching this.
If it's on Hamzah's start Hamzah's channels as
well.
Subscribe to that as well. If it's on
Samsung, see subscribe to Samsung, see as well
while you're watching this. Get us, if you're
watching maybe an archive recording of this, let
me know now
so I can see in the future.
It's kind of like a message from the
future. It's kinda weird.
But, yeah, and
for all of your donations and your support,
brothers and sisters.
Continue to donate. That number again,
0 208-0203,
I beg your pardon, 880-2981.
And the website is Islam truancy.comforward/live.
That's it from me and Islam truancy team.
Until next time.