Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 11)
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam
ala she will then be out you will mursaleen say that our Mowlana
were happy with them Hamad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while
he was still in the Sleeman Kathira assalamualaikum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Dear brothers and sisters Alhamdulillah
it has been a few weeks since our last meeting. And I want to first
apologize for anyone who may have been online last week waiting for
the class to start, I just got my schedule mixed up completely. So
please forgive me for that. My responsibility, but hamdulillah
MTC was kind enough to accommodate us this week. So inshallah it kind
of works out because this will be the last session for the this year
and then we'll resume inshallah Tada when we come back. But we
know that a lot of people have already begun their holiday break.
Maybe they're traveling, maybe they're not, but they might be
just spending time with family. So inshallah you'll enjoy a nice
break. Whatever before we come back, but for today, Al
Hamdulillah, we're going to go ahead and kind of pick up from
where we left off last time. And so I do have the presentation, let
me pull it up. For those who may be joining us for the first time.
In case you've never been or I've never attended before. We've been
covering a text that is called agenda to change your condition.
And it is a it was written by a Manzi jacket and Showhomes
Youssef. So Alhamdulillah, I have the text with me, and I'll show
you in just a minute. Actually, before I screen share, I should do
that since the cameras nice and big, so you can see it. So this is
the text, social housing use of anyone's a check and wrote this.
And it is really a life altering transformative text. That just
covers so many different topics. And so I'm really excited to jump
back into it because we kind of, we almost closed out Chapter Two
last time, there is a couple more things to talk about. But we're
going to begin chapter three, which is on the practical steps to
change our condition. So if you don't have the text, I definitely
advise you to get it because it's just something that everybody
should have at home. But also it will bring you up to speed so that
you know what we're going to talk about moving forward. So look into
that in the the next week or so if you again are new to the class and
you'd like to stick around and show up, I think it'll be a great
thing to do to prep you before we come back after break. So with
that said, I'll screenshare Bismillah.
And we'll pick up where we left off. So just give me one second
here.
Here we go. So this is the presentation. But we are quite a
little bit of head here. So we almost Yeah, we were on this last
slide here. So actually, the last slide if you go back by the way
MCC 100 records, all of these sessions, so there are recordings
available, you can go back and watch them just kind of follow
along. But the last slide that we talked about actually were that
was the slide it was on the different enormities, which are of
course, you know, the sins that we do with the different limbs that
we have. And so we ended on this slide. And then the very last
slide for Chapter Two were recommendations on how to achieve
or reach sincerity. And so these are just general advices. But
again, very important for all of us to reflect on the recitation of
the Quran first and foremost, that is the first advice, you know, if
we really truly want to be sincere, we want a class
Inshallah, all of us want, if last in our iba, and in our
relationship with Allah subhana data, then we cannot underestimate
the importance of really committing to a daily practice of
reading the Quran, and really thinking about its meanings in sha
Allah if we're able to. And then if we're not able to contemplate
its relevance, then to at least recite it, you know, some people,
maybe because of language limitations there, they don't,
they can't really, you know, go beyond the recitation, they may
be. I mean, I know, I have family members who don't read the Quran,
from the texts, because they were never taught and they're much
older, and it's very difficult for them, or they have vision
problems. So that could be many, many reasons why someone can't
commit to actually doing more in depth, you know, reflections on
the meanings.
But if they're not able to, if you're not able to do that, then
the least that we should be doing is reciting the Quran. And really
finding a routine and a rhythm that is that works for us.
Everybody's schedule is different. Everybody's abilities may range
based again on on your experience or how much you've studied. But
it's important to note that learning Tajweed is one of the
further I mean, it's one of the obligatory deeds or actions that
we must all do as muslims and
So, you know, in this day and age with so many opportunities online,
to learn, you know the that once upon a time, it may have been much
harder for people because they didn't have access to knowledge.
But now that we are in this very, you know, connected world, and we
have all of this access, we should take it very seriously to learn
the book of ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. And make sure that our recitation
is done correctly. Before, you know, we leave this world, it's
one of the, again, the foul line that we should commit to doing, or
at least make the intention and start looking around chopping
around as they say, you know, ask around, you might find friends or,
you know, community members that have that know someone, maybe
there's someone in your community who is willing to teach you. But
maybe, of course, right now, we're all in quarantine, so they could
do zoom sessions, they could somehow figure it out and be
willing to pay if they asked for that, because this is something
that is really important. And, you know, don't get, don't let that be
a barrier to learning is, you know, try to find in those very
reasonable programs. I mean, I know many international programs
now, that will accommodate schedules, even if it's really
late for them in different parts of the world, Pakistan, Egypt, I
know people who use different services, I've used different
services, I still actually use services for my children that are
international and they're very affordable but the point is, is to
make sure that you really take it seriously to recite the book of
ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada in the correct way. So today we'd becomes
a priority. And then learning the OS and iOS applications and
litanies or Elrod, right or Dawes, these are very important to commit
to I've written several posts on my social media about the
importance of committing to a daily formulaic set of prayers.
Again, this is all what our teachers taught us, for many,
many, many years ago, that we need to rely on the protective dogmas
of the bra was less than left for us, all of it is from the Sunnah.
And throughout history, all of our great Allamah had this practice,
they were very committed to regular, you know, recitation of
the Dawes and that the officers have left for us. And we know Al
Hamdulillah, our deen is complete. So from the morning, you know,
time the that we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep
throughout the day, there are laws to say at every point, you know
what, regardless of what we're doing, we leave the house, we eat,
we get dressed, and going into the bathroom, leaving the bathroom,
there are so many different eyes, that we could, we should memorize
and learn, right waking up going to sleep. So finishing our meals
or drinking, right, all of these different activities that we do
throughout the day, we should know those honors and really commit to
them, and then the specific protective devices that will
protect us from all the evils and harms in the world. So when we do
these things regularly, you know, we recite the book of all those
problems and try to really focus on its meanings, or at least get
in the practice of regular recitation, and then we recite but
the eyes and the supplications of the prophesy sound left for us.
Obviously, all of that benefits us in more ways than one. But it also
inculcates sincerity, because now our claim of faith is proven by
our the follow up of our actions, right? Where it's aligning, you
know, a lot of people are nominally faithful people, right?
In all religious traditions, you have many people who will, you
know, claim to be a part of a faith, but the proof of one's
faith is certainly in one's actions. And so that's how you
want to think about it. And here, of course, the prophesy said is
through these Hadith that he's left for us is re emphasizing the
importance of learning the Quran. And of course, teaching it if you
take it to the next level, if you do know the Quran, this is also an
incredible way to gain many, many rewards is to teach. And so those
were the last four, that was the last section of chapter two. So
again, we're back to now the text. And so the chapter chapter three
is titled practical steps to changing our conditions. So, up
until now, we've really been talking about I mean, if you look
at chapter one, right, we talked about taqwa, its definition and
benefits. Chapter Two is about the heart and its treatments. So it's
really starting from you know, the foundational
beliefs that we should all have about Allah subhanaw taala how to
inculcate Taqwa. And then of course, to prove our sincerity, so
working on purification of the heart working on matching again,
or aligning our deeds with our beliefs. So now we're getting into
more practical everyday day to day activities that our beloved
teachers here shumsa anyone's they'd have left for us in terms
of really taking it to the next level, sustaining your faith,
right, because all of what we're doing now
was talking about how to purify and really tried to maximize the
our potential in terms of our, our own devotion and our own beliefs.
But now it's like, how do you sustain that? Well, let's look,
let's look at what the advice is. So chapter three practical steps.
So there are a lot of different sections in this chapter, which
each section has a lot of, you know, just amazing advice. And
I've gone ahead and made this slide just for us to kind of look
at all of the different pathways, you know, practical things that we
can do, to again, solidify, fortify, sustain, maintain our
level of faith. And so let's, you know, just look at some of these,
the five pillars, of course, we know this is, you know, Islam one
on one, we all know that you have to know what those five pillars
are, and know how to regularly tend to those everyday our prayers
are fast, or as a cat or hij, of course, our testimony of faith,
all of that is essential to the, to sustaining your faith, but then
also we look outward, right? Because that's very internal work.
But then you want to look outward. So there's the active outreach or
Dawa, that we that we'll get into the focus, cooperation, good
character, right, coming back. So you'll see this theme ongoing
throughout the text where, especially from this point
forward, whereas there's this back and forth, back and forth, this
emphasis on outwardly, you know, doing things practically, you
know, basically, you know, actions that follow that, that prove one's
faith that benefit, not just you, but other people, right, being
good stewards of the Earth, but then it brings it back inward. And
so you'll see this repeatedly and in here, you know, kinship
families, maintaining ties, you know, so important, giving
charity, a lot of that is outward, right? Then we bring it back to
the Quran, we bring it back to the remembrance of Allah commending
good and evil. Again, we are doing that outwardly, when we see
injustice is and things that are wrong, we should be speaking up
empathy, it's another very outward action, you know, to be empathic
with people is to feel their pain and to try to remove burdens, and
to really be selfless and to think of others, right. And then we
bring it back to supplication physical health, we bring it back
to our own, taking care of the Amana, that Allah has given us,
being committed people Respecting time, our attitude devotion. So
all of these really great topics are covered in chapter three, that
obviously, we're not going to have time to go through all of them. So
we'll just do the best that we can in this hour that we have. So
let's start off right away with the first one, the five pillars.
So this is again, remember, the point of this chapter is to for
you to sustain your faith, it's the whole book is about agenda to
change our condition. So if you've done all the internal work, or at
least you're working on those internal things about, you know,
purifying your heart, you need to also realize that burnout is real,
right? Spiritual burnout is very real. And we also have a sworn
enemy that will do everything possible to prevent us from moving
forward, which is why we have to rely on the GMAT. The GMAT is very
important in Islam, you know, we're not, we are a deen, where
pretty much everything we do. And in many ways, if you think about
it, there is that group component to it. Right? When we pray, of
course, we have our own internal, very deep dialogue with almost
prayer that when we're praying, but we're also encouraged to pray
in Gemma as often as possible. When we fast we fast in a month,
we should fast as often as we can, of course, it's very beneficial.
But there the emphasis of fasting in Ramadan is that we're doing it
as a group and everybody's doing it together, we go to Hajj
together. So the GMR is very important in helping to sustain
the momentum and to, to take us to the next level, so that we're
always growing. So right away, you know, the advices that we have
formed as a serious study group to learn the five pillars, and this
is really good advice, too. For all Muslims, you know, as I said
it in the beginning, that it's kind of one on one, but if we're
really being honest, this isn't just something that converts
should be studying, right? Every all of us can benefit from, you
know, just reviewing and making sure that we have a clear
understanding of the five pillars, the spiritual components, the
benefits of them, and really looking at each one and trying to
perfect our practice of those things. So when we talk about the
five pillars, you don't have to simplify it as something that you
know, like we teach in Sunday school or you know, even in non in
secular schools. That's one of the first things they'll teach you
about Islam. You know, there's five pillars of Islam and you'll
see a lot of references to that. That's not
have, you know, that's not a very deep study of the five pillars,
it's just naming them. But when you take when you form a study
group, this is actually looking at, you know, the more detail the
more into intricate aspects of these five pillars and really
getting a detailed understanding of it. With guidance, of course,
looking at what are great scholars of the past advised how to do the
prayer, for example, just a prayer alone to have a HELOC on the
prayer alone, this would be impossible to cover in one
session, it would have to be ongoing, so you could break it up.
And there's many, many different ways to do it. But the point is to
take it seriously for yourself that I need this to sustain
myself, if I'm feeling those spiritual low points, maybe it's
because I'm trying to do all this by myself. But if I form a group
with 2345, maybe just a small circle doesn't have to be a big
giant group. And I know Michelle, there are many people throughout
the country or world who are blessed to have such, you know,
good good companions that they can do these things with, and maybe
they meet with them regularly, you might already have a Halacha, that
you're a part of, which is great. And if you do Al Hamdulillah, I'm
sure you feel the weekly or monthly or bi weekly, whatever
sustenance you're getting from that group, you feel the benefit
of that. And in its absence, you also feel you know, that, that the
effect of that. So this would be really for people who don't have
that, and they may have never thought of of doing that. And I've
certainly had many, many instances where I've given this advice of
creating hung up as and not to get intimidated by the idea that, Oh,
I'm not a teacher, I don't know, anything, you know, what am I?
What, what can I teach people and so a lot of people, they get
deterred, because they think you'd have you have to be qualified
with, you know, a certain amount of knowledge in order to do
something like that, but you don't, you know, study circles are
exactly what they are just like in college or in school, when you are
a student and you're learning. And you realize, hey, I learned a lot
better when I work with groups, it's the same idea. So you're an
equal member, with your peer group or whichever group you get
together. And the purpose of it is to enhance the you know, the, the
studying instead of just being on your own and getting burned out or
kind of not being motivated. So there's immense benefit of it. And
then of course, you look to the to the you know, the the texts that
like agenda change or condition purification of the heart, all
these other Greek texts that can offer you guidance on what to talk
about what to study together, you know, book just reading a text
together or even listening to I know people who've done that they
will get together in a group, but then their study is the roots of
another scholars. So they'll listen to a scholars you know,
that's and then they'll talk about, it's like a discussion
group. So there's so many different formats, but the point
is, is take it seriously take it to the next level, make sure you
have a Gemma or circle that you study with. And then hear the
second advice, once you reach adulthood, it is required to learn
the fourth line the individual obligations, which I mentioned
earlier, one of them anyway, which was the attenuate, and the five
pillars at a starting place. So, you know, this is for, for our
young children, even we should inculcate this in them that they
should have a knowledge of these things, when they reach the age of
adulthood and maturity, and that they know that these are very
important things. And then, you know, back to, again, what we
should be focusing on for our own development, we should learn a
PETA or creed. What does a Muslim believing? You know, what are the
six articles of faith, for example? And what do we believe
about Allah? subhanaw? taala? Right, what do we believe about
heaven and *? What do we believe about the prophets and
about the scriptures, all of those things are very important. And we
should commit to studying them from sounds traditional sources,
and teachers, but making sure our understanding is solid. And I
would say, you know, just in my experience with working with the
community, and I say this a lot,
that I really think a lot of faith crises that we're seeing today is
because people have don't have very solid creedal understanding.
They may have learned, you know, just some basic things growing up
or through their family or even, you know, in their local
communities, but they haven't formally studied it, and there are
Alhamdulillah, you know, texts available, but I would, I would
definitely encourage you to look into setting it with someone who's
qualified because there will be questions that you may have, and
you want to you know, make sure that you you get those answered
correctly. I had actually someone reach out to me just earlier this
week, it was a very deep Akita question. And you know, it was on
Instagram direct message and so I just replied to her, she was
really struggling with certain faith concepts. And I just told
her you know, the the questions you have a very deep
It's difficult to have a textual exchange about these things,
because they're very high level. But I referred her to a clip of
one of our teachers discussing the very issue she was asking about.
So there are there is great content Alhamdulillah online, and
there are classes being offered, you just have to, you know, find
out where people are teaching up paida and try to, you know, make
sure that again, there are good sources and sign up, because it
will really help you to understand your place in this world, and how
to react accordingly. Because if you don't understand the design
element, for example of this world, or that's that it's
ephemeral, and it's fleeting, and you shouldn't attach your heart to
it right, then you may be susceptible to things like you
know, the spiritual diseases like Herbert dunya. And because you're
not seeing it for what it is where, when you study Akita
deeply, you'll understand the value of this dunya that and and
especially when you contrast it to the alpha, and you start to just
have a better grounded understanding instead of getting
swept away. So it's very important to study up here to, of course,
the prayer, making sure that you understand the fifth of the Hatha
of Salah, making sure you know how to pray and follow a meth habit
and make sure that you are doing it according to, again, how it's
been done for hundreds of years, and that there's a consistency in
your practice, you know, making sure you pray on time, and that
you have that solid Inshallah, and it's a cat fasting, pilgrimage,
all of those, again, as we talk the five pillars that you have,
that you've studied it
as as part of your own journey, that this is something that you
really did formally study. And then, as you learn, you practice
what you learn, pretty simple, but you take yourself seriously. And I
think this is something I've heard our teachers say, which is an
important little note to make. Little side note, but you know, we
live in a time and era where there's just so much, you know,
frivolity and everybody's just constantly joking around and
entertaining themselves and eating and, you know, consuming and
finding all of these ways to not take life very seriously. You
know, watching sports all day watching movies all day listening
to music, browsing, shopping, all of these things we do, of course,
we have to live in this dunya. But as Muslims, we know, to do these
things, in moderation and when you know, necessary, but that's not
why we live, we don't live to do those things. We live to worship
Allah subhanho data. But we see that in the world that we live in,
there's so much running away from responsibility, running away from
serious subjects like death, you know, nobody wants to talk about
death. Nobody wants to talk about things that are too serious, you
know, because we're also conditioned to think that life is
about fun, fun, fun. Well, it's not, it's about taking, you know,
responsibility for yourself, realizing you will be held
accountable, making sure that you watch what you say how you behave,
but holding yourself to a really a higher standard than just being
silly, and trying to have fun all day. That's not the purpose of
life. So you want to practice what you learn, you know, it's not
enough to just learn something, absorb it, and then repeat it to
other people, you have to put it into your own practice. So very
important piece of advice. And then, when all of these things
with regards to those five pillars are are solid, and you really are
practicing what you what you've learned, then you go on to other
aspects of FIP, which are the rules of marriage, you know,
buying and selling, and any other sections that would pertain to you
specifically, you know, there's different people in different
circumstances, but if you need to study certain areas, that would be
certainly something that you should look into. And so that
becomes your focus, right? That you're taking account of what you
know, what you don't know. And you really are trying to become better
and that's how we should all be every day or every month every
week, we should look back and feel like we're progressing because
we're doing something and that doesn't have to, you know, be a
big monumental change you know, we don't Big changes are hard to to
sustain. But doing smaller deeds, as we know from the headache is
better right than just kind of going becoming very, you know,
super, super religious overnight and trying to or ambitious and
taking on too much. And then you go back to your ways or completely
go the opposite direction because you're burnt out. So certainly not
saying that, but you want to just keep yourself always moving
forward and feeling like I've been I've been doing better than I was
right if you're the same person or relapsing to
To worse than there's something off. And that's what should tell
you, I need to start doing something differently, right? And
then
go on to more advices about, again, related to the five pillars
commit to studying Arabic. So if you're able to, again, important
to know how to read and write Arabic, Arabic is the language.
It's obviously one of the greatest languages, if not the greatest
language, because it is the language of the book of Allah
subhanaw taala. But in terms of study, you know, many people who
are Subhanallah, not even Muslim will recognize its beauty and its
utility. So there's so much usefulness in studying Arabic, you
know, if you can just, you know, some people have a knack for
languages, and it's easier for them. Other people, maybe they're
not very, you know, that's not easy for them. But you can at
least learn the basics. And the basics in this case, which would
be the most essential part of learning Arabic is to read to make
sure that at least you know, how to recite the book of Allah's
Prophet. And if you want to take that further to the next step, and
learn grammar, and all of that shall, of course, that would be
great.
So then the next advice here, we're going back to the slideshow
is to study at least one sacred text on purification of the heart.
So there are different, you know, texts on on the skin. And the one
that we may have heard, I've certainly referenced it several
times, because it's very much connected to this text agenda to
change our condition is the book that was translated by Showhomes
use of called method at the globe, which is imamo ludes book on the
purification of the heart. And she comes as did a translation
commentary of this book. And so I haven't actually right in front of
me, I always have the books that I think are a really, you know, just
we should have them in every muscle home library, you know,
easy access for me, because I do speak often. And I like to refer
people to them. So hopefully you can see this, but here it is,
again, again, I'm posting this for people who don't are listening for
the first time, or may not be familiar with this text. This is
the probably in my estimation anyway, because I've seen it the
most popular English written for the English audience book on the
diseases of the heart and mashallah, and it's an incredible
text, I love it, I actually have several copies of it. I just think
that everybody should have this, this book. And you can learn teach
it to children, I actually did a children's class on purification
of the heart, it's available through the MCC website, if you go
through the playlist, you'll see it there. It was, I think we did
it during Ramadan of this past year. We certainly did it this
year, but I'm not sure I think we did do it yes, during the month of
Ramadan. But check that out for if you have children, very important
to teach these subjects to your children early on, because, you
know, you want to prevent your children from forming habits that
are destructive. And that's the reality of the human being, we're
creatures of habit. And so once we start, you know, doing something
over and over and over again, we're especially you know, in that
those formative years, right, children, before puberty are just
kind of, you know, in their own world, but once they come to
maturity, they do start to solidify their personality, their
temperament, all those things come together. And so you want to make
sure that they are very aware of the potential shortcomings or, or
spiritual pitfalls before them, and recognizing the spiritual
diseases knowing that signs and symptoms and then of course, the
cures is very important and critical to help them overcome
their knifes because, you know, Majah naps are the struggle with
the self the ego is the lifelong struggle all of us have, we all go
through this every day, every you know, hour minute of the day,
we're struggling against our, our base, carnal desires, our you
know, our irascible self, the part of us that is quick to anger.
That's just, you know, irrational or, you know, just isn't isn't
thinking about long term, you know, benefits we have, we all
have our nups the ego, right? It's thinking about immediate
pleasures, and it can be very indulgent and selfish. That part
of us is a barrier between us and Allah subhanaw taala. So, for us
parents, the best gift we can give our children is the tools that
they need to overcome that part of us. And the earlier you start the
better if you wait for your teenager or childhood, yeah,
reach, you know, mid teens or late teens or early adulthood. And
they've now have five or six years or seven years of bad habits. It's
harder for them to regulate themselves. But if you enter, you
know, introduced
These things early, then inshallah Tada, you can really help them to
learn to pay attention to their thoughts, learn to pay attention
to their inclinations, their desires, learn to self regulate,
learn to control those impulses, and inshallah to Allah that will
really tremendously pay off for them spiritually speaking, you
know, as they grow older. And so if you have never studied as an
adult, the diseases of the heart, then certainly, that's something
that you want to look into and say, I need to understand what
they are, what does Islam say about spiritual diseases, because,
you know, in other traditions, they have the same ideas about
spiritual diseases, but then they may vary, you know, here and
there. But But Hamdulillah, our scholars identified 2526 different
main diseases, and how they, some of them are very subtle. And you
know, unless you really know their definitions, you may not know that
you have that disease. So once you are aware of it, then it's like,
Whoa, I had no idea I had that disease, the huddle on May Allah
forgive me. But a lot of these things are, again, all available
in this in these textbook, this particular one purification of the
heart. So I encourage you to get that if you don't have it. So do
that, you know, at least once in your lifetime. I mean, you should
my opinion, we should be studying this as often as possible and
putting it into practice every day, but at least try to get the
book and read it through one so that you have some understanding
of insha, Allah. And then
in this case, are the last advice here, a qualified licensed teacher
is always recommended, but if not available, find a study route
based on humility and the ability to say, I do not know when
necessary. I love this advice, because it's kind of you know,
what I was saying earlier about starting Holofernes, you don't,
it's not required to have a teacher that is in more
knowledgeable or that has certain licenses in certain areas, it's
not required, of course, it's ideal. Certainly, if you can find
someone who has that, join those groups. But if you don't, then you
should just form that group with your friends or people that you
know, are committed, and just agree to this philosophy that we
have humility in this group. And we're not trying to prove
ourselves to anybody, we're here to study together. And if we don't
know, we don't know, we can look to getting answers from, again,
those who don't know, as the Quran tells us, right? If you don't
know, ask those who don't know. So this was the first section for
Chapter, three practical steps to change our condition. The next
section. So again, if you look at what I was saying earlier, this is
a lot of it's focused on oneself, right? Again, we're working a lot
on improving ourselves. Now, we look outward. So it goes back to
that, you know, inward outward. So the this is active outreach.
First step here, and again, the advice you have to think about
where you are on your journey, this may not be right for you
right now, maybe you just entered Islam, and you're like, wait a
second, I've got a lot to do. This is all you know, it's not
necessarily in any particular order. It's just giving us advice
on how to move forward in our journey. So some people, they may
have worked a lot on those internal, you know,
just working on themselves internally. So they're, they're
ready now to move forward or move outwardly. But if you're not
ready, don't worry about this, but it's still valuable to go over. So
first point here, create an active outreach, sow a program designed
to produce results. So if you feel like how did that you've been
practicing the Dean consistently 510 years, you have a really good
rhythm, you're really committed, but you want to do more you feel
there's this calling, or something that's compelling you to do more
for your community, more outreach, this is where you start. So you
may want to look to you know, does your first of all your particular
Masjid have a program in place that is focused on outreach in
that way? And if so,
you know, you can join them sign up as a volunteer and figure out
what your part in that group would be? Are you going to take a lead
position? Or do you just want to be called on for certain events,
but you kind of have to figure out what is best for you. But if you
do have that leadership, you know, impulse and you want to start sort
of start things that aren't there then here's Advice number to reach
out to the non Muslim community through teaching, doing community
work and feeding others. So you can start to you know, take your,
again those those that feeling of wanting to do more beyond just
yourself and look to what other community groups are in your
particular area and see if there's a way to collaborate with them. I
know their martial law. There's a lot of great interfaith
groups and churches, synagogues, temples, other groups that do do
things together. And this is really important, I think, in this
day and age, when religion and religious institutions and
religious groups are attacked. So fervently and you know, there's a
lot of, unfortunately, really negative message messages that are
directed towards religious groups. I think it's important that we do
band together on those things that we have in common or you know,
shared values, shared principles. So obviously, feeding people, and
just doing outreach is really important. You know, I was very
fortunate and humbled. When I first came into Islam. I met some
great pioneers in our community here in the Bay Area, trailblazing
women that I credit to, I call them my heroes. But we have people
like Sarah mutagen, Danny's sister, Maha Junaidi, mashallah,
who started the ing Islamic networks group. And I remember I
was, you know, I believe I was either fresh out of high school or
very, like, first year of college, when I became aware of their work,
and I attended some of their sessions where they would go to
churches or schools and speak about Islam. And, you know, I was
so impressed by seeing these very strong, empowered Muslim women
speaking to non Muslim audiences about Islam, but in a very, just a
beautiful way, in a way of, you know, not their intention was not
to convert people, it was just to educate. And so I was just really
impressed by their, their skills and their knowledge. And then a
few years later, or shortly after, I actually ended up working for
ing for a while. And it was really great to learn, you know, on just
be on the ground. And, you know, I was a speaker, I spoke with them,
as well, that's kind of where I started a lot of my public
speaking. But I learned so much, not just from them, and all of the
other great speakers, but also the non Muslims that I had access to
going to churches, going to police stations going to different, you
know, events that we were invited to high schools, colleges, it was
really great because you just see increased 100 Your increases your
faith to do those things. Because you see this healthy pride, you
know, that you start to have about being a Muslim, and just really
wanting to share your faith. And so interfaith work, it's not for
everybody. But if it's something that does call to you, then look
into it and see how you can start. And I would absolutely say, img is
a wonderful resource. Even if you go to their website, I N g.org,
they have so much wonderful content, you can reach out to them
and tell them if you're interested in learning more about how to get
some of their resources and think about even opening, I'm actually
not sure if they still do that. But when I was working with them,
they had chapters all throughout the country, of different
affiliates that were working with them. So you can see if that's
something that is lacking in your community, but you want to do it,
that's certainly an option for you. But the point is, is to feel,
you know, to do it, right, right to do it. Right. So here, you
know, point number three is something to talk about point
number three and four relates to this. So work to allay the fears
of the dominant community and show them that we're not a threat to
anyone safety, as we know, because of Islamophobia. It's real, there
is a very targeted attacks against Muslims and Islam, to have that,
you know, mission to say, I'm going to, you know, just do
whatever I can work with my community work within, you know,
my, even if it's a school setting, like sometimes people are maybe
not connected to their local masjid, or on a large scale, but
even working in smaller efforts, like, you know, at your children's
school, but somehow making that part of your mission, which is I'm
going to make sure that, you know, people realize that I as a Muslim,
bring so much a blessing, because of my faith, to whatever I'm
involved in. And so this is why it's so important that we work on
ourselves, because when you're a part of a group, you're
representing that group, you should have the highest standards,
because not only is your person you know, being represented, but
you're also representing your faith. And so, if upon doing
things, right, so when there's school meetings, or boards or
committees, if you belong to them, doing it, just with that
intention, I'm going to show up on time, I'm not going to come in
late, I'm going to let these people know that I am an asset to
this organization. And so I'm going to hold myself to that high
standard and inshallah make sure that they realize that I bring so
much value and so that's a beautiful intention that we should
all have in everything that we do, because it's a slam you know, just
having like I said high, high standard is part of it is a big
part of our faith. So doing things correctly and then the the next
point point number four, when we put
Isn't Islam at the institution level, whether again, it's because
we're doing interfaith work or just in our own private lives, in
our schools, in our neighborhoods in our work, that we do it with
the aim of educating and informing not trying to convert people,
right, because our faith is not one of you know, where we go and
proselytize or or try to convert, you know, outwardly we invite
people to see the beauty of Islam through our inshallah good
character, our care and concern, our desire for the Commonweal and
really wanting to benefit people, that they want to know more about
our faith, because we're representing it beautifully. So
that those are the intentions when we're talking about outreach,
interfaith work, any type of contribution you're making, to
your community, that you do it with that intention, and then back
to a more intimate, you know, intention, I guess, in our
personal lives, we should be proud of being Muslim. And we should be
open to discuss and share our faith with others. You know, for
example, you know, when you're, I know many people I've over the
years, and I have worked with non Muslims, I've worked in corporate
settings. So I know that things have drastically changed. First of
all, like when I was, you know, much younger, there weren't a lot
of representatives or, you know, like Muhammad Javad, for example,
in my community have, it's grown exponentially since then. But it
was hard to be a hijab, when very few people knew what that was or
what that meant. And of course, you know, prejudice was real, all
those things were very real, I experienced it. So I know. And I
know others who have experienced it. So it was hard to sometimes
have open dialogue about religion. And we know also in this society,
there are certain taboo topics, right. So and I would say, it's
still in place with certain things, but you know, you don't
openly talk about politics, or, or religion and certain things that
are very private affairs, people tended to not really be receptive
to those discussions. But we've changed, you know, the society has
shifted so much now that people are very open about their
lifestyle choices, they're very proud. Identity, politics is real,
everybody's out and showing up with their symbols, you know,
whatever those symbols are, they're very proud of who they
are. And so we as Muslims, I mean, we didn't have to wait for all of
this to happen, we should have always had that. That, you know,
sense of honor and our faith and humbly love feeling like we do
want to share it with other people. But even more so now that
all of those barriers, societal barriers and norms have have moved
away, and we can openly discuss these things, then why not? Why
not talk about, you know, for example, if you're fasting during
Ramadan, instead of shying away from telling your coworkers,
because you don't want to make them uncomfortable? Oh, you know,
I've heard a lot of things over the years where people are, you
know, just trying to navigate these things. And they don't know
how, but it's a lot of it is, you know, I don't want to bother
people I don't want to impose I don't want to impose, oh, you're
not imposing if you just tell your co workers, oh, I can't attend to
the company lunch or dinner because I'm fasting, I need to
break my fast. That's not an imposition, that I think we need
to reframe the conversation. What you're doing is just being honest
and truthful, and you're being open and proud of who you are. But
also, if you need to pray, you know, how many people don't pray
in their workplaces because of fear, that they're going to be
misjudged and miss, you know, the, the there might be consequences,
oh, I, you know, might affect my, my relationship with my boss, or
my co workers. You know, if I have to keep taking breaks, I don't
want them to think I'm slacking off. I have heard every excuse
that people have. But fundamentally, it comes down to,
you know, you're not praying, because maybe there is a hesitancy
to share aspects of your faith with people. You want to address
that and figure out, you know, what is it? Is it really, you
know, is there a shyness there that I need to work out? And
actually, if you study the purification of the heart, you'll
find that one of the diseases of the heart is what we call
blameworthy modesty, where there is a sense of feeling, right?
Embarrassed in certain circumstances when you shouldn't,
and you become shy or, you know, it's there. It can manifest in
different ways, but there is a bit of cowardice. And it's considered
a disease of the heart. So if that's the case, you want to have
honest conversations with yourself and then say, well, you know, if I
change that, if I start to be more proud of my identity as a Muslim,
you know, you wear hijab or you have a beard, you wear a Koofi,
their brothers, mashallah who represent who are out there very
proud of their identity there so they're outwardly clearly Muslim,
but then also they're happy to tell people Oh, I don't drink
alcohol. Yeah, we don't you know, we don't shy away
From topics like that, and then if you do that, guess what your
children will also learn from you so that when they're in high
school, and it's prom or some other social event, and someone
asks them why they can't attend, or can you come to this party,
it's a mixed party. They can be very strong to say, Yeah, I don't
do parties, I don't date I don't do those things. I'm a Muslim. And
there's no conversation beyond that, that has to be had, you
know, they don't cower when those conversations come up. So it's so
important that we have that understanding of real just pride
in who we are not pride in the sense of, we think we're better
out of 11 other people, but that we are very honored, you know, Al
Hamdulillah and Yarmouth Islam, I just thought that we should say
everyday, thank God for the blessing of Islam, that we're so
honored to share our faith with people. And to talk about things
openly Ramadan, Hajj, you know not to minimize conversations, I've
been in those situations where I can see the discomfort that some
Muslims have around non Muslims when talking about faith. And it's
sad, because, you know, they shut down the conversation, sometimes
all the time talk about that, it's okay, don't worry about it. And
it's like, know, that maybe that person genuinely wants to know,
but you've
assumed or you've projected your discomfort onto them, and then the
whole conversation is gone. And that person could have maybe
benefited, maybe they would have, you know, learned more and been
interested more, or they would have helped to counter all of
these lies against Islam and Muslims, because you gave them the
knowledge to do so. So the point is, is in our own personal lives,
let's have let's show up more, be more courageous to talk about
things. Of course, with decorum with proper understanding time and
place for everything, you know, you don't want to take over a
board meeting or an important staff meeting just to do that,
what No, that's not what we're talking about. But it's more, not
shying away from those conversations for any reason, but
being proud of your Muslim identity. And then, you know, the
sixth point here, which is also really important, is that we
should try to be collaborative people, you know, instead of just
starting something on, you know, on our own, just because we like,
control, you know, we just want to do things our way, it might cause
further problems and how many, you know, communities have suffered in
that way. Because there were people who may have had
initiative, but they didn't have that, that foresight to see, hey,
you branching off and doing something on your own may actually
affect, you know, an existing group or an existing organization
or something that's doing that work already. How about reaching
out to them first and seeing if there's an opportunity to
collaborate, and being that's the spirit with which we should do
things, you know, it's not about me. And I think we have to get
away from centering individuals in these types of efforts. You know,
it's not about the individual, it's about the greater good. And
in the case of starting up an initiative, whatever that may be,
if you think it's something you want to do, always look to see
what's already in existence in your particular area, and see if
you can work with them first. So this is, again, great summary,
great guidance on how to actively do outreach in the best way with
hikma and with real, you know, just an order or an organized way
of doing things. Now, in the time that we have, I'll try to do the
last one here that I had prepared, because I only I knew we weren't
gonna get through all of them. So we'll do this one, focus. So now,
remember that it's bringing it back to you know, it's kind of
bringing it back to oneself, right, but also focusing on the
work that we're doing, but just giving us guidance on how to focus
our intentions here. So the first point, and it's a bit of an
extension of the previous slide, but it's it's, let's let's look at
it so find an area of concern, that instills a passionate
response, and begin to work to alleviate the respective obstacles
to produce change in that area. So there's a lot of people and I
would say, maybe, you know, new Muslims may feel this a lot or
just parents who are looking to get their kids involved. You know,
I work a lot with parents and family. So I know sometimes around
those teen years kid parents were like, oh, gosh, I don't want my
kids to be get caught up in all those terrible you know, things
that behaviors that a lot of teens can risky behaviors that teens can
get caught up in. So I want to preoccupy them. I want to get them
involved in the masjid. I want them to start volunteering. Do you
know any things that they could do? Well, whether you're doing it
for that for your own self, there are people who've retired and they
may want to, you know, use their time hamdulillah they've worked
there now in those you know, comfortable years of life where
they have ample time. And so they want to start to do more outreach
or do something with their time. So this is really good guidance
for all of those different, you know, people or if you're young
Professional, there's some people who are students, college students
or, you know, even high school students who are working towards
building their experience, you know, their, their CV and they
want more experience. So whatever your Nia is, and whatever phase
you are in life, you want to make sure that there is, whatever you
get involved in, it's passionate to you, you know, there's some
people are very politically active. So they are an
organization like hair, maybe right up their alley, because
they're politically activated. They you as soon as something
comes up about politics that, you know, they perk up, other people
are more oriented around relief work. So if you find yourself
wanting to do, you know, local relief, work, soup kitchens, you
know, all those things, you know, pantries, helping build pantries
and feeding, you know, working with immigrant communities, within
your community to try to help new immigrants or do things that are
relief oriented 100 A lot, there's a lot of potential there. Some
people love education, you know, so if there's a way to teach and
to go out into offer people, you know, workshops, and different,
you know, ways of teaching them something, you can do something
orphan relief, you know, there's so many different organizations,
but you want to make sure that the where you give your time to which
you whatever organization or group, it really does come from
the heart, and it's something that you're very passionate about. And
then figure out again, what you can offer in terms of time,
resources, money, guidance, knowledge, whatever you have in
shot law, those organizations will benefit from, but pace yourself,
don't don't, again, go overboard, always be aware of that impulse to
do too much too fast too soon. Because a lot of times, those are
from, from shaitan, he knows that it's like a pendulum, you know,
push, push us into something really fast, then it'll overwhelm
us, and then we just back away, and you see people do that, you
know, they'll just want to do it all and then all sudden they
disappear. So this is where being aware of yourself is important to
recognize the power of one Do you know a lot of the wonderful
organizations that we have, even the massage it and hamdulillah in
our community. Oftentimes, if you go back and you read the history
of that organization, it's usually one or two people who were
grassroots bare bones and nothing, very limited resources, but had so
much high him, right had a lot of ambition. And Allah subhanaw taala
gave them Sophia, and now they're, you know, have multimillion dollar
organizations or, you know, groups or businesses or whatever. But the
point is, is they they started with that strong intention and
that trust in Allah subhanaw taala. And so never let shade on,
take that away from you and make you think, Oh, I can't do
anything, because there's a lot of people who have great ideas, but
they don't really go far with it, because they let these thoughts of
oh, it's not going to happen deter them, you know, but there is
immense power in one. And of course, Allah subhanaw taala is
proof of that. Right? He is one so that it's mentioned here in the
book as well.
About focusing on that they said, when we tried to find that
section, we should remember that the greatest Oh, wait, sorry,
that's not the right section.
It is Allah's number. And everything good in this world of
human endeavors was initially one individuals intention, action and
vision. When there is commitment with sincerity creation moves to
serve the purpose. And we must keep in mind that actions are
judged by intentions right in the Menominee vignette. So very
important to remember that also, we must work on changing
ourselves. So now look, the advice even Subhan, Allah within the
advices, bringing it back to ourselves, you can do all this
outreach, do all this focus, try to find every cause, or any, you
know, a cause that speaks to your heart and have high ambition. But
you have to commit to changing yourself first. You know, if
you're trying to go out there and make the world a better place, but
internally, you haven't done the work at all, or aren't really
doing the work regularly. Then, you know, you don't really have a
lot of weight in your words, right? Or as they phrased it,
little moral authority and demanding of others what we
ourselves fail to practice, we if you don't have those changes that
you're you're speaking about, you're trying to go out there and
you know, inspire other people with if you're not even doing
those things, and you have no authority to speak. So focus on
improving oneself, committing to making those lasting changes
constantly this internal and external, you know, dialogue. It's
always about what do I need to improve? What can I do to improve
the world but make sure that they are always at play and you don't
leave one for the other? Then
In the greatest struggle is speaking the truth in the presence
of unjust authority. We know that this is a you know, it's very
difficult most people struggle with this all people I would say
struggle with this, but I love how they took a different direction
using this very commonly understood idea right? But it's,
it's one of the greatest things to do is to speak to someone who's
unjust, but here, what do they say This includes unjust authority at
our own lower self, when it disobeyed Allah subhanaw taala. So
when your knifes takes over you and prevents you from obeying
Allah subhanaw taala, it is an unjust authority. And so you have
to speak against yourself, you see, so actually being able to
admit that you make mistakes and that you do wrong. And you don't
have to go out and screaming at the mountaintops, you know, on the
mountaintops, or or confess your sins to other people. But when you
look at yourself in the mirror, or when you're sitting there on the
prayer rug, hopefully with your head, you know, hello, and
humility that you recognize with with internal shame before Allah
subhanho data, where you've gone wrong, and you are willing to
rebuke yourself, you know, to really take ownership of those
things.
And then the last point they made here is that the internal struggle
or greater jihad is really purifying ourselves. So constantly
reminding ourselves of that is a lifelong, we need to be doing
this, we're never gonna get to a place where, you know, we're done
with, with Majah knifes, it is an everyday process. And that's why
we have to revisit toil away work hard, and why it's so important to
have these continuous conversations and a Gemma that we
can work with so and hum de la. Wow, we are almost at the end of
the hour here. Mashallah. So let me stop share, and I will go ahead
and open up the Facebook page here. I don't know why it closed
it, sorry. And I'll see if there's any questions. But Inshallah,
again, for those of you who are joining us, thank you this is
we're still in the early part of chapter three, there's a lot more
sections to go. So when we resume Inshallah, after this break, and
in the new year, we will pick up with with Chapter Three from where
we left off. So let me just quickly see if there are any
questions,
I realized I forgot to share the this on my page. today. I'll share
it, I'll share it afterwards. But bear with me while I open up this
page. And then in the meantime, I can also go to YouTube. So I hope
you enjoyed today's session in sha Allah and let people know if you
have any, you know, non Muslims who are looking for a group, I
hope inshallah you know that they can benefit. So please feel free
to share with them.
Sorry, let me so I see some questions here. So Mike might need
help learning the rules of marriage, martial law. So there
are classes, you know, on Fifth classes, I think I would certainly
look at groups like the rathna Foundation,
because they offer regular classes for women on a variety of
different topics and FIP is absolutely included in that. So if
I can post their name for you, Inshallah, it's called the Rama
Foundation. They are here in the Bay Area, but they have online
programs that anybody can join. So inshallah you can benefit from
them.
Sorry, I'm at the MCC page looking for the live video. But I don't
see it. I don't know if it was posted this talk. I hope it was
but I don't see it.
On YouTube.
That's odd. It's usually here.
Yeah, I don't see the live feed on YouTube. So um,
brother so man, if you are listening, I don't know if you're
there. Is that Is it available on YouTube today? Because I don't see
a link for it.
So man, I don't know for this one that is there.
Okay.
Well, if you're on YouTube, I am sorry, I don't I cannot find the
link on YouTube. It's not up or I don't see it. So I apologize.
If you're there and I don't see your question, but I didn't sha
Allah. May Allah subhanaw taala reward you and thank you for being
here. You can always send in your questions if they're urgent or you
have any
you would like you know any if there's a specific thing that you
need, just let me know. You can check with MCs info I think email
and
And I'm sure they'll get it to me
but for Facebook, I only saw that one question so I don't see
anything else but I do thank all of you for sharing your evening
with us here at MCC send it evening it's nine o'clock so
inshallah we will end in the off and I look forward to seeing you
guys next year after the New Year inshallah in in health optimum
health the best of health I hope all of you are Stay Stay Stay safe
your you and your families in sha Allah and and that we resume and
shoulder and better in a better condition. So let's go ahead and
Mr. Learner him
I'm sorry one second.
Oh, sorry. Give me one second. I feel bad because I just got a
message from brother to the man. I said brother Son of Man, I saw
your your WhatsApp. But where's the YouTube link? Because I don't
see the YouTube like there. But are there any questions? No
questions? Okay, okay. Hello. As you said there's no questions.
Thank you, brother so much does that help? So we'll go ahead and
ended the sabbatical. Lomo behind the crescendo Allah Allah Allah
antenna software corner to gooey Lake along, Macedo senemo vatic
honestly, that I will mode I don't have even I'm Hamid sallallahu
alayhi wa salam while he was like you're sort of the Seaman cathedra
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim while Assar in Berlin Santa Fe hospital
Isla La Nina Amman wondrous funny Haiti, whatever so it will happen.
Whatever so this summer Alhamdulillah thank you so much
everyone. Inshallah again, we'll see you guys next year. I know
that sounds like it's a long way off but it's only a little over a
week. So males want that again, protect all of you and your
families and your loved ones inshallah have a wonderful
remainder of your year. And we'll see you inshallah soon. Santa
Monica what I need to heal but I can't do