Hosai Mojaddidi – Battling Jahiliyyah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I'm Juan ecom rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh
I know it's like late in the day, but like we have such an exciting
program. I need a little bit more energy from you guys. A Salam
aleikum wa rahmatullah Hello but
that was so much better than that. It
was like a little prayer for coming out tonight to go to via
for this awesome event that we have planned for you guys.
I know that either most of you guys are parents and his army
students or you are in his army students or you're interested in
an Islamic program. And so we'll go into a little bit of detail
about that throughout the program in sha Allah. But before we begin
I just want to talk about that to be a little bit
with Ramadan coming around the corner were less than 30 days away
now Hamdulillah you know, we are have already started planning we
have you know, programs getting planned out right now we have our
date set. And so I did want to let you guys know and we haven't
really made this announcement yet. So you guys are the first to know
that we have already established our list for our explorers are so
Hoover's and we have a sponsorship list ready because I know a lot of
people are interested in sponsoring if those awards, we
have the use clan, we have the sister scam, the brother scam, so
all of that information is available up there on the screen.
And then after the program is done. I will also be there with a
bunch of the other staff to answer any questions about Ramadan in
general.
Our seminary courses are also restarting for the next trimester.
Next Saturday starts science of Hadith taught by our very own Mr.
Sharif. For more information, you can visit our website. And lastly,
the topic for tonight is very relevant to all of you. It is
about this this still children in our lives in our community who are
being bombarded with everything around them on social media, in
their schools amongst their friends. And so along those lines
just recently a mom come on and Imam Aziz released a series called
The Age of atheism. If you have not already please check it out.
It's on our website. And basically it is a conversation a discussion
on the spread of atheism in our in our society, and how to kind of
gear our children on the right path and make sure that they know
they're aware and they have the knowledge to to fight back or to
answer or respond. They need to make sure that they have a solid
shield so that when they go out there and they're amongst their
non Muslim peers, that they have something to respond with. And
they themselves don't feel like they need to question their faith
because they don't know. So definitely check that out. I'm
going to start the program by introducing one of our own Asami
students. His name is Dr. Juan Aziz. He is the son of Imam Aziz
and sister go sir, and mashallah, he's 13 years old. He has been in
an Islamic program for two years and I was lucky enough to be the
Islamic director at the time when he was being oriented the program
with a brother our salon, mashallah, it's been two years
already. And the growth I've seen in him and obviously the other
boys has been amazing. So I'd like to welcome Ridwan up to recite
some Quran for us tonight.
bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim
in Nuremberg AR lembu Annika sample more and Anna Anika
Tolosa Layli one of ser who are thought to sample well or if a
Domina mark will love who you can't do Leila one.
Alima Alain de su verta come the Hora de ser Amina
Adina anseo Kumiko morado her own her own or you call your own Effie
surbey
Cora who matter yes sir Amin what ATHLEAN masala
At our
credo Allah have called Dawn has an woman to call them only
unforeseen men hiring that you do who are in the law who are hired
or heirloom I draw while some federal law was still federal law
her in no law have a folder Rahim. Salam Hello Rowling
just like a LeFevre the one that's beautiful. Mashallah.
So
initially, I was asked to just emcee the event. And then I was
also asked to share my story. I mean, I'm not. I'm not very young.
But I'm also not very old, that I don't know or cannot relate to the
youth of today.
You know, I graduated just a little over a decade ago.
But I think the struggles that our youth are facing now are pretty
similar. And obviously much worse, because of the spread of social
media of phones. You know, all of the information and misinformation
is spread so fast that I think when I was growing up, there was
misinformation, but it was just not as readily available. So I was
asked to speak about why the Nizami program is so important for
me, and so dear to my heart. For those of you who don't know me, my
name is Raj and I am the project manager at the beer Institute. But
I was previously the Nizami director. And so some of the
parents I am familiar with, you may remember me. But while I was
in the zombie part of the zombie team,
there was, there was a passion in it, I think, that stemmed from the
experiences that I myself felt when I was, you know, a youngster
in middle school and in high school. And so I'd like to share
that with you all. And I hope that the youth themselves can relate to
this. And I want to share my story so that not only do you get to
know me a little bit more, but that you understand the importance
of programs such as the Nizami program, such as the seminary
program, even the chaplaincy program, for instance. So when I
was in middle school, and in high school, I went to a school that
was predominantly non Muslim, there were very, very few, I want
to say maybe two or three people have the same ethnic background as
me. And there were probably other Muslims, but I didn't know any and
all of them, were probably hiding their identity similar to what I
was doing. As a youth, all you want to do is fit in you want to
belong, you want to be a part of some kind of a community. The
Masjid that I went to was pretty empty. For the most part, we had
Sunday school. But it was your typical Sunday school where you
went, you were lectured at for four hours, and you went home, and
you forgot everything you learned. And it was mostly history based,
we learned the CEDAW which to be honest, I had totally forgotten
how to relearn as an adult. But you know, I didn't enjoy myself, I
didn't have any connection with the masjid, I definitely did not
have a mentor, I did not have Muslim youth around me, that would
keep me on track that would keep me you know, in the right
direction, who were going through the same struggles as myself.
I was surrounded by non Muslims. And because of that, I was sadly
ashamed of my religion. You know, I went to school and I pretended
to be somebody I was not the only way you knew I was Muslim was
because my name. And I went through a middle school like that
I went through high school like that. I was a part of, you know, a
group of students who were of a diverse background, but they
weren't Muslim. Right. And so everything that I did was based on
the things that they wanted to do. You know, they all had boyfriends
or girlfriends. And although I wasn't allowed to I definitely,
you know, was thinking about that. They were drinking, they were
smoking. Again, maybe I didn't do those things, but I didn't realize
that they were wrong, because everybody around me were doing
them they were normalized. When I went to college,
it was not even a diverse crowd. It was mostly predominantly
Caucasian, non Muslim, right? And so I couldn't fit in even if I
wanted to. And it was when I went to college that I was finally kind
of around some Muslim students. There was an MSA that consisted of
about five maybe six people and because I didn't have anybody else
I clung to them. I didn't really identify as Muslim per se I knew I
believed in one God, but as most kids my age, unless you have a
you mentor unless you are surrounded by people of the same
religion, you tend to take a different path, the path of those
that are around you, which is why having Muslim students around you
is is such an important thing. But anyways, I found the MSA. This
very very nonpracticing, but Muslim named girl joins the group
becomes a treasurer, the next year becomes the Vice President, the
following year becomes the president. And nobody says
anything wrong with that, because it's not like we had a choice. If
there's only six students, one of them has to fill a position,
right. So I ended up being there. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed
belonging. But I don't think I enjoyed it for the right reasons,
it was just that everybody else was like me. And so we had the
same struggles, which is definitely something that was a
plus.
But again, still not very religious, going through life. I'm
like a junior in college at this point, right? How old are we at
that point, like 2021, that's, I'm an adult, right? So right after my
junior year, in the summer, I went through an experience in my life
that caused me to go into like a deep depression. I, it was just a
very traumatic event. And I was in such a bad depression that I was
taking summer classes, but I wouldn't actually go, I would
drive off park my car, and just sit there and read. And I was
reading like, you know, young adult novels. So it wasn't even
like I was studying or doing anything. I just didn't have the
passion, the desire the drive to do anything anymore. And I
happened to be that summer around my cousins who were also hijab,
and they were forced to jabi because they grew up in the same
environment that I was just, their parents were more strict. So when
I was around them, I also wore hijab just because I felt like the
odd one out. And I noticed something weird. I noticed that
when I wore the hijab, I felt a slight amount of relief, which was
completely unexpected, right? Because it's just a piece of
cloth. It doesn't mean anything, really. But it does. I realized
that when I wore the hijab, I felt at peace. And that little bit of
peace kind of pushed me in the direction to start praying. Just a
little bit. I mean, I was at rock bottom, what could it hurt? Right?
What else could I possibly do at this point? So I just slowly
started praying. And that prayer Subhanallah I wish I could feel
that way again. Because when you're down here, and you find
salah, and you find Allah, you're like, up here, you're writing that
high, right? But anyways, that was kind of the beginning of my
journey back to Islam. I mean, I always believed in Allah. But I,
you know, I didn't obey what He wanted me to obey, and what is
love, if not to obey the one that you love? So my point of sharing
all of this is to really hit home. The fact that programs like our
Sunday School hour and a zombie program, our seminary program,
they are super important. They need to be taken seriously. If
anything, my example I'm in Subhan, Allah if I hadn't gone
through that traumatic experience, I don't know where I would have
been in life. And at that time, I remember specifically making dua
when I started praying. And I felt that that spirituality in my heart
and my mind, in my soul, I would make dua crying that Allah would
guide me to the right path that he would forgive me. And I swear
we're lucky that this is the answer to my prayer, me being
here, finding that to be being a part of all of the different
programs we offer. It says if Allah is answering my prayer with
your kids Subhan Allah like we truly don't know the blessings
that we have around us. Allah Akbar.
So I don't have any children of my own. But I, I've seen all of the
kids mashallah here growing and changing in the last three years
that I've been a part of that idea. I mean, they started off as
like, you know, little 12 year olds, who don't really take life
seriously. And they're coming out mashallah, as these you know,
young adults who are so involved in the masjid, there are truly a
part of the fabric of our Masjid. Honestly, everything we do, we do
with their help. Most of the youth that are here right now were the
ones who helped us set up for the program. And they're here every
Friday and they're here every time they have mentioned us and they're
here every time there's something to volunteer for. But anyways, I
wanted to point out that the best person to talk about the impact of
Nizami in their family would be a parent themselves. So I'd like to
call brother with mon Heather up to the stage. He is a parent of
three children and then his AMI program mashallah we have Alicia
who used to be a part of us that the salah has mentioned this. We
have Leila who was a part of sister in the De Luz and we have a
man who is part of brother I salons. So please help me welcome
brother Simone.
and
slowly
Wow, that was that was really good. That was good to know your
story.
A lot of faces here, I recognize many I don't, and
I'd love to meet all of you at some point. So
almost smiling, you know, she told us I told you about my kids. And,
you know, my, my journey with tarbiyah started right from the
beginning when we had prayers out in the park, or Fridays. And, and
my personal journey for finding a place where my kids can have a
good source of Islamic education and whatnot, was when I moved, I
moved here from Pakistan back in 2006. And I had my daughter ally,
Alicia, at that time, in a, in a preschool environment where, you
know, I was able to volunteer two days a week with them, and really,
you know, engage with her and, and speak with, you know, other
parents who were engaged. And there was this game that the all
of them were playing, and these are little, you know, three year
olds and four year olds, and they were playing basically matching
the boys and girls together as boyfriend and girlfriend, and, and
that was fun. That was their way of having a great time. So that
night when I came home, me and my wife, but while we were speaking,
I said, this is just nuts. Like, what are what are we supposed to
do about this, this is this is not gonna work. And I'm humbled at
that time, we moved to Folsom and Folsom had an Islamic school.
You know, it wasn't really about the education, it wasn't about
grades and how the math and English is going, or the computer
scientist is going. But it was more about the environment, it was
it was a good group of parents who had the same mindset came from the
same background, and put their kids together to grow. So it was
it was it was great. But after fifth grade,
it came time to a same decision again. And that decision was the
same one where I went to preschool. So it was what do we do
now she's going to enter into sixth grade. And we're back in the
same environment, we were same, you know, circumstances where
she's going to be dealing with people who are not of our faith
and don't have the same background. And what is the
situation going to be in handler at that very moment. Third year, I
had started with a youth squad. And that's where it all began. And
it was a fascinating program that they put all these boys and girls
together to understand each other. And from there, the zombie program
broke out. And Alicia was part of the zombie program where, you
know, being being a child, you know, at her age, I didn't expect
her to see the changes that she was going through. But being an
aware parent,
I was seeing the changes, it's like,
you know, I look back at my mother, you know, at 18 advising
me on different topics. And so I'm like, Dude, I don't know what
she's talking about. But now I look back, I'm like, Oh, I get it,
I get what she was talking about. This makes a lot of sense now. So
you know, watching watching Alicia grow into an 18 year old now. And
the way she chooses her friends, the way she makes her decisions in
life, it's, it's all coming back to those. Those years that she
spent with the zombie, the relationships she made
understanding
that, you know, understanding what her moral code is. And those all
came from building those relationships and having a mentor
that guided her through that,
you know, a mine, my son, he's, he's been part of the zombie
program, I think about three years, four years now as well and
Lila as well. And, you know, speaking with Aman, I, you know, I
asked him when they asked me to speak about this topic, I asked
him like, you know, where are you? What do you feel that the zombie
has brought to you? I mean, as a parent, I see a lot but when asked
my kid as well, like, what do you feel, you know, you use the term
self awareness. And I'm like, that's a pretty deep turn for a 14
year old telling me that self awareness, I might explain that to
me, you know, that was a little hard for him, but I get what he's
talking about, that the decisions he makes in school, the
circumstances he comes about, he's aware of who his Islamic identity
is. And you know, another thing he said that was very fascinating to
me is like, you
You know, the zombie has created a safe place for me. And again,
that's a very deep term too. I mean, you know, kids talk about
safe places and all this stuff. What do you mean by the Nizami the
group, the friends, my mentor has created a safe place for me to
express myself. And I think that's primarily because of the like
minded, same faith based people that he's surrounded himself with
that he feels he has an identity to speak. And I think that goes a
long way when they go back into their school for eight hours a
day. Because they're able to now stand a little bit taller, that,
you know, they're not the only one struggling with this. It's not
just them, but they have a whole group of friends that they meet,
they associate with, that have the same kinds of struggles. And that
gives them the confidence to stand a little taller, and represent
themselves and speak up for who they are. They're not shy of
letting people know that they're Muslim. They understand because, I
mean, this would be undeniable if that someone thinks that, you
know, Muslim kids in school, don't get names called out, you know,
whether it be Allahu Akbar, it's a great thing to say. But you know,
for them, it's kind of like a bully this kid this way, that they
understand how to defend themselves, they understand that
they're not the only ones that that struggle.
One of the, you know, one of the things that sister illusion is
talking about, I experienced about three years ago as a parent was
and again, while I was in the the zombie as well. And, you know, we
talked about what character they're building.
We had prayed Ramadan, and we went out we bad would go ahead and back
home. And you know, the kid said, let's stop at Dairy Queen, no
dairy queen, designed the best of the neighborhoods. 12 o'clock at
night, you got a lot of, you know, ignorant people who see things
very differently. And Lila being a 10 year old pattern your job on.
And so I said what I should do you want, I want you to wait in the
car.
I don't know what it was, but she looks at me. And she says, Who are
you afraid? Because I'm wearing a hijab, and there's people out
there. I said, Wow.
I got myself on check here, like, what is this? Like, she's checking
on me now. She's like, you don't need to worry. I can handle it.
Because in my head, I was like, like, how am I gonna deal with
this, I was gonna say something, it's gonna be a confrontation,
what's going to happen, I'm going through all these scenarios of a
future event that didn't happen. But this kid tells me she's got
this, you don't need to worry about this, I understand
everything. And that's a you know, that's the kind of stuff I'm
talking about is that sometimes when you're around a group, and
you associate yourself with good people who have the same
discipline, and code of ethics in the learning process, it's
building character. It's just stuff the stories I when I when I,
you know, humbled, I'm very fortunate that I have been able to
partake, two years ago, we went for a, we had a three day event,
took 30 Boys stayed at a cabin. And it was very interesting,
because the age group of the kids was between 12 and 20.
am watching 20 year olds, helping the 14 year olds, the 14 year
olds, talking to the older kids, the older kids are talking to the
mentors, the mentors talking to them. And, and they all were very
vulnerable. They made themselves wonderful. They were expressing
themselves, and talking about deep issues that's troubling them,
whether it be health, whether it be bullying at school, whether it
be you know, careers, what they're looking for, they were all helping
each other, growing. And and that's, you know, watching this
firsthand with my own eyes was such a blessing for me, because we
really don't know the results of what we're doing. If we don't have
any way of engaging a tool to measure what are the changes that
are happening in our body or in our society or whatnot. And in
today's society, I mean, from the time when SR Rouge was going it's
it's much different. I mean, we're talking about, it's on a whole
different level now. And these kids, their questions are very
deep now. And I think that the sense that the zombie has given
these kids that the critical thinking that it's,
you know, a supplying them with with the foundational knowledge,
to understand and question, and it's like, you know, we can read
stories from Hadees and then we can restore the Quran and
the Companions, but there's, there's so many underlying issues
between each line
But defines today's society. And I think that, you know, watching
personally firsthand some of the mentors, explain those stories
related to today. It resonates with these kids. And that's what
gives them the ability to think that how do we deal with these
circumstances? How do we deal with, with really hard questions
in today's society?
Yeah, I'll handle I mean, there's this, you know, there's just so
many different things. Like, personally, I can keep going on
talking about the changes that I've seen in my own kids, and the
way they make decisions, whether it's, you know, like she's
mentioned about, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend, all these
different things, they have just been their level of maturity to
make these decisions of what's, you know, halal and haram. I mean,
little kids questioning haram and Hello, there's like, what's going
on? They're thinking about this right? Now, when I came into the
masjid, I was, I was passing through one of the rooms and one
of the hikers was going on. And interestingly enough, you know,
one of the one of the brothers was having a car one of the kids was
talking about,
you know, it's not even okay to eat this, this if there's this in
it, because therefore, it feeds into this, like this guy's level,
he's taking a topic and going three, four levels deeper. I mean,
the the 1416 year old people, like these kids are on a whole
different level, because of the understanding that's being
provided by their mentors, and then the zombie altogether. And,
and that's the thing, like, you know, last year, we had a seven
day camp. Now, this was an all out camp, like I'm talking about, the
struggle was real. Like, we went to a camp and
no electricity,
no air conditioning, it's summer. But yes, all these kids were
struggling, and they supported each other. Once falling, the
other ones like it's gonna be okay. And the other kids falling
in the afternoon, like, oh, it's gonna be okay. And, and, and by
the end of, you know, the seventh day, the bonds and the
relationships that they've created. These are long lasting
relationships. And they know that, I mean, let's put it this way. I
go skiing Sunday, my son's got a hug on Sunday, this guy doesn't
want to go with me, if I changed the day we got I gotta go to my
other guy. Like, that's, that's more important to him than
actually going skiing and doing something else. Like, that's, you
know, that's fascinating to me, like them wanting to do something.
My daughter wakes me up, for, for pleasure. I don't wake myself up.
She wakes me up for pleasure. One of the sons got the mother doll
being like, every kid's got their own thing going on, but I really,
you know, gotta, I gotta really say, Man, mashallah hamdulillah
I'm very, very blessed. That, you know, Allah put me in this
community and given me such great people to associate my life with.
And that's just a beautiful thing.
You know, like I said, I can go on with stories of what you know, the
Hanukkah and these, this army program has done for my family.
But it truly I want to, I really want to thank sister Salia.
Sister in a clo, and brother salon, brother salon, I've worked
personally with, I spent time with him. We've gone and done money
events together. I truly am indebted to these people, because
what they've done for my kids is fascinating. You know, we we take,
we take our kids, and we send them to school, eight hours a day, to
teachers, we don't know, I don't know, their background, I have no
idea where their quarterback is. And we trust them. But the people
that I pray behind, I eat with have the same fate as me. We all
have faults, but
there, there's people we understand. So I am just, you
know, like I said, I'm indebted to these guys that they they have
stepped up the plate, they have their own families, they have kids
and the amount of time they spend in helping, you know, my kids grow
into their other conference level, the way that they behave the way
they see things that I'm just, you know, like I said, I'm indebted to
you, man. I appreciate it very much for what you guys have done
so. But if you guys have any parent to a parent, if you guys
have any questions I I'd be more than happy to answer that anytime.
And you know if you have questions about the program itself, let me
be director okay. I appreciate you guys.
Have
a look at whether it's one that was very relatable I think for a
lot of the parents here.
And it goes to show the importance of having a teacher. I think,
though for those of you who attended Joomla today, email, I'm
sure you've here and I think human thought here and autonomous spoke
about the importance of having a teacher in your life. It doesn't
matter what age you are, it doesn't matter what stage of life
you're in. But having a teacher having a mentor has such an impact
on our lives. And so the mentors that are in the Nozomi program,
and they're volunteers, by the way, if you didn't know, they
volunteer all that time to spend with your kids and be their
mentors and be there for them. Because we know that kids are not
going to come to their parents and talk to them about their issues.
But they're very, very comfortable with talking to their mentors and
100 Allah. These are people we know, we know their code of
ethics, we know their background, we know what they believe in, and
so hamdulillah for that. Next up, I'd like to introduce Imam Sharif.
For those of you who don't know, which I find it hard to believe,
but imaginefx is the co founder of the beer Institute, and he is the
director of the chaplaincy the Nizami and the seminary program at
the VI Institute. He has studied in English literature, business
administration, Islamic Studies, and he's received a master's in
strategic business unit management from HEC in Paris and because that
was apparently not enough, he is pursuing his doctorate in
nonprofit leadership and management so please help me
welcome Imam shootie.
said I'll take what I have to lay
it's really hard for me to believe
I didn't believe anything yet.
It's really hard for me to believe that my brother has been doing
this for like 1015 years, close to 20 years that he will finish the
first shift and then second shift and then he will start working on
the tafsir for almost 1015 years today the moment I finished I
finished the second shift I checked out it wasn't really to do
anything it was legit always bless our teachers and mentors. And I'm
humbled to speak you know why my brother and and he's my teacher as
well while he is present. And I'm humbled to speak while this is
Jose and the mentor her you're here to
but I have to
and today my mission is very easy is the easiest one
just I want to introduce the problem to be honest with you and
just seek your help that's it that's what I'm trying here to do.
Sometimes I feel to be honest with you hopeless Allah Azim sometimes
I feel hopeless. Sometimes I want to call the parents like one by
one and bring them and sit with them and tell them guys these are
the challenges this these are the problems just wake up for God's
sake.
Sometimes I want to do this but you know what, what's mitigating
my heart today? Seeing golden zone students in the middle in the
heart of this organization? Please give them a round of applause
okay
whether useful actually you do no
I did okay
there you go
so battling jelly
there was giving you the whole book today about Jay Hillier.
And before we fight with anything today
let's introduce I don't think everyone here knows exactly what
he's done his own program. I can see so many new faces. So why
don't why introduce the program to them.
This is the visual of our program.
And I have to go very fast and I would pray that I don't want to
see any Inzamam student guys. Look at me please. I want all
Few to look at me, I don't see any phones in any hands.
Right? Just give me 30 minutes please.
And even for parents I will share some information and there is no
time to elaborate on them. So I would love for you to take some
notes and whenever you go home, just do your own research.
Our vision is very simple. We want to we want every single Nizami
student who sets in this room, to be a leader, to be a teacher to be
a mentor, as simple as that.
So if you feel that your students and your children in shall all of
you you do, they are ready to be mentors and leaders and teachers
in the community. They are at the right place.
And in order to do this, we have to supplement this them with two
things. Deen and duniya.
We have to, to give them two things. Deen and duniya.
We need a mentor, a teacher, a leader, an imam in the community,
who knows leadership skills.
Who can read the balance sheet? Who can read a p&l? Someone who
who knows who understands the meaning and the foundations of
public speaking.
Someone who knows the history
and of course someone who knows his deen
and for those who do not know, this is our hero. This is a woman
monk.
This is the man that we call the whole program after his name.
This is normal molk
one of the great leaders during the Seljuks.
He worked shoulder to shoulder with with Alpar Ceylon and Malik
Shah to kings from the soldiers. And he is the man who established
what so called a naval Armenia school. I'll madressa and Milania.
Remember ezeli was one of the teachers at Amazonia school Ignace
Hakon was one of the students so many great scholars that we spread
goodness and knowledge in this OMA for years and we carry the banner
of Islam for years. They are the graduate students of Ansonia
school.
And I pray Insha Allah, this group of students will do the same exact
role in the unmet that their exam students did.
And this our
soldiers,
the great souls, the mentors, the teachers, the leaders, the big
brothers and the Big Sisters
Brothers who hate brother Hassan, brother Jamal, and welcome Ron
brother, salon, brother, the rude Sister Michelle, sister for hot
sister for her and sister Mozilla, Sister Khadija and my daughter
Hamza.
And today
for some reason, for a very polite I would say, you know, family
emergency.
The program administrators, sister Sophia, who put everything
together, she had to fly to New York. So she has been working very
hard to put all the pieces together, but she had to leave
today to New York, please pray for her. She is just she's good
hamdulillah she's attending like nice family event, but she has to
go.
And I want to share with you that Hamdulillah we did reach 1102
students. And remember a mentor her visited us couple of years ago
while launching the program we started with, you know, one
measure is too much. And today Hamdulillah we have more than 100
students enrolled in the resulting program.
What happened here?
All of a sudden, we moved from the Good News to the bad news.
And that's what I want to share with you today. I want to just
elaborate on the problem a little bit seeking your help.
This chart
says here
the belief in God in us dips to 81%. This is like I would say
2021. It was here
close to 100%. And it has been going down and down and down.
There is no app.
Now we're almost at 1% I would say this year when 70s Just for
parents to understand the challenges and the problems
that our young youth the face.
If you look at Generation Z, this is the most important thing for
me. You look at the traditionalists, and the baby
boomers, and the Generation X and millennial, this vision, this is
our generation that we're looking we're working on. This is what so
called the unaffiliated people that we have no religion. So it's
just like, can you see the screen?
It can move here.
This is where we are 34%. Look at the chart, it goes up and up and
up and up.
But what goes the problem?
Where are we now? And why?
I want to take you to take a note of this this name The Trevor
Project, it's very important for anyone
that he has children, and teenagers to understand what so
called The Trevor Project.
It is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998.
Focused on suicide prevention efforts among Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and questioning youth. I like this
this word questioning youth.
very new for me. They offer a toll free telephone number where
confidential assistance is provided by trained counselors.
Look at look at their numbers.
This is their budget. I always focus on these things, to see how
they, how they think and how he proceeds. Look at the numbers.
This is the total assets in 2021 2019.
And this is their assets in 2020. So in one year, it jumped from 18
to almost 31. So 11 million in one year.
This organization, they played the biggest role in creating what so
called the the transgender, the LGBTQ propaganda.
My brother doesn't like me to say LGBTQ, they always ask me Don't
say LGBTQ. Don't follow them. Don't promote what they say.
Always say it sexual deviation.
Fascinating.
Look what they said.
In 2022, National Survey on LGBTQ South Mental Health found that 45%
of them have their youth seriously seriously considered attempting
suicide in the past year. Look at you know, in all the hood, they
did, you know, the victimization theory. They do the same exact
thing.
Allah as my witness, we play the same exact role with everyone is
against us.
Everyone is targeting us. Same exact thing.
Look at this, that more than 1.8 sexual deviation youth seriously
considering suicide each year in the US 1.8 million. They want to
commit suicide.
How about this chart?
This is the percentage for all the parents for God's sake who just
wake up, face the reality. It really breaks my heart
receiving a phone call from one of the parents should if I don't want
my kids to be exposed to these things. My kids are very innocent.
And I pray that all the kids will remain innocent.
Our kids are very innocent. We don't want them to be exposed to
these things. No. Let's let's focus here. This is the percentage
of second secondary school that offers students access to LGBTQ
relevant physical health services. Look at the charts. Look at the
chart yourself. 80% in Washington DC, How about how about California
65%. I'm telling you, this is like two years ago I'm telling you now
it's close to 80% 80% of secondary school here. High school they
offered students with access to the LGBTQ information
How about organizations just to understand how they how we play in
the dynamics of the society
it's not a random efforts. It's not random efforts at all. It just
very, very thorough and very structured.
Look at these places.
Sacramento City Unified School District as see, you see the
second LGBTQ community center, Rainbow Chamber of Commerce. How
about that?
Rainbow Chamber of Commerce.
How about city of Sacramento Police?
Look at this.
This is from the place that we send our kids to them every single
day. And we go ourselves and we drop them off and pick them up and
how was your day? It's funny 2012 This one he says this is all
public information is from their website.
Students who have same * attractions, who are uncomfortable
with their assigned gender, or who I who identify as lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender face enormous social pressures, and
challenges that affect their school success, health and well
being. As a result, the LGBTQ youth are more vulnerable to such
issues as school dropout bullying, academic failure, and parental
rejection. Sacramento City Unified School District's LGBTQ Support
Services program offers students, families, school staff and
community professionals, a centralized source of information
and support regarding issues facing the LGBTQ students that
attend Sacramento City Unified School District schools.
Amazing right?
How about this is my favorite one.
Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, look at their mission.
They have nothing to do with anything. But it's part of the
propaganda. They have to rally everyone and mobilize everyone
behind their cars.
This one is bringing me crazy.
It's our mission to combine business development, leadership
and social action to expand economic opportunities for home
for the LGBTQ plus community and those that support equality for
all.
Even the police department hamdulillah
even the police departments,
they are committed to an inclusive environment within its agency and
the community at large, lesbian, whatever, blah, blah, blah. In our
community have the right to live without fear of discrimination or
harassment. I pray that they will have vision like this. For those
that we steal cars and steal homes, they have zero vision, but
with this community, they are very good visual.
So many reasons.
What does California require on sexual deviation education? I
think every every parents that I send my kids to to Islam to public
schools to be honest with you have one kid who goes to Islamic school
and the rest they go to public school. Do they ever ask myself?
What does the Bible say? Look?
California, California law requires students learn and be
provided instructional materials that explains the role and
contributions of among others LGBTQ. How much leeway do parents
have in pulling their children out of lessons on gender identity?
Sadly, they don't.
parents or guardians can opt out of lessons about comprehensive
sexual health and HIV prevention, education but not only not out of
instruction that references gender, gender identity or sexual
orientation.
parents couldn't pull children from social studies lesson on the
US Supreme Courts 2015 ruling in favor of same * marriage, you
can't.
And this was that was
the gender identity bill was signed by the governor in 2019.
For the first time in state history, California legally
recognizes a third gender option for residents who do not identify
as male or female 2019. Imagine the progress they did in four
years or on three, four years. We are moving very fast.
This is one of my favorite slides.
We have scholarships now. For gays and lesbians.
And we say this out loud and say hi to discrimination.
University and College and organizations offer many academic
financial aid opportunities to whom identified students and LGBT
allies
who
While there are sexual deviation scholarships exclusively reserved
for lesbian, gay, bisexual, blah, blah, blah, there are sexual
deviation scholarships available to look look at this to
questioning sexual division student allies. If you're not
there yet, we still want to support you
How about this one?
So please.
School System, public school, Chamber of Commerce, scholarships.
How about this one? I have apple here
look at these companies.
Does everyone know that the CEO of Apple is a gay
that's what he said. I'm very proud of it. It's God's greatest
gift to me. Tim Cook
this is from Apple I swear to God, I'm not making anything here. And
I have Apple myself. I'm sorry.
Half of company's US workforce comprises employees from an
under President communities. This is apple. How about AT and T
more than two points 2700 LGBTQ individuals. The company continues
to sponsor the love load and annual LGBTQ Music Festival.
at&t.
They'll handle I have T Mobile.
Google's commitment to sexual deviation friendless reaches far
and wide. In 2021. Alone, the company donated 4 million alone to
whom covered relief for sexual division communities.
Discrimination, right? Just 4 million for covered relief just
for LGBTQ that's it if you have to bring the card and you have to
prove that you are LGBTQ now we give you the money.
IBM
also collaborates with a variety of external partners including out
and equal blah blah, blah. I like this one. IBM CEO appealed
personally to Congress to pass the Equality Act in 2019.
Microsoft This is the biggest name, the biggest name in the
markets.
The did host the global LGBTQIA plus employee and allies at the
Microsoft employee resource group. In 2022. The company launched the
full line of pride products, Microsoft and donated more than
170 1000 to LGBTQ organizations.
How about PayPal
they were about to start a big headquarter in North Carolina,
Carolina. And the moment the city or the state passed discriminatory
legislation against the LGBTQ they decided to back out
its longtime partner of ours and taken recently signed to the
corporate initiative.
Salesforce the aim by 2023 this year that this their Salesforce
aims for workforce to be 50% 50% to be among the LGBTQ.
Did you ever I you know because of because I respect
a place of worship. I do want to add this to my to my presentation.
If you Google best gay church in Sacramento
do it whenever you go home.
Just because of the respect to the masjid. I tried not to put this
here. I swear to God, you will find 10 best gay churches in
Sacramento.
Some of them they change the logo and they put the color
and with no shame with no shame. They say we support LGBTQ
just move very fast forward to the marijuana. The other one is states
that they accepted marijuana recreational and medical. We will
always hear
will always hear
the green ones only medical couple of them and that 100 There is
still some hope.
None is the gray ones. Of course we are in the middle
there is still hope by the brothers and sisters and seeing
all your smiling faces and our our teachers and our mentors. It gives
me hope
And this idea represents everything in my life
and I want you to read this is
a levena call Ella Humann is
a lovely enough call Ella Humann so in this I let enough call Ella
Humann so in so called the Gemma Ola comb function fuction whom
fuction whom further whom II mana. Further whom EML work on do work
on who has bounnam Oh, work on who has bone Allah who are now working
See
that's what we can say.
They mobilize everything, they rally everyone around their
targets. And they're making huge progress. I have to say that
in three, four years, they're going like like rockets. But
still, this is our hope. The more they do these things for their
home Imana this will only increase them in faith.
The more they are desperate to bring this and spend money and
resources and rally everyone around it even UN World Cup. They
want the players to wear the headband here.
Everywhere. next World Cup will be where
in the United States, I cannot wait for this one
was the expectations I have I just I want to leave you
with some
I would say like an action plan
to keep the hope.
What are the expectations from us as a community even as Islamic
organizations
we have to take a clear stance you guys
are the sexual division billing we have to take very clear stance.
Every Islamic organization, we have to stand our grounds.
We cannot allow our efforts to falter
understand the severity of the problem and develop creative
methods. Every single Islamic organization, we have to shoulder
to shoulder to think outside the box.
Be more vocal and fight we have to fight back. This is the moment for
the Muslim community to fight back. For every single student to
fight back to be more vocal.
We have to teach our students with Islamic perspectives of these
pressing topics and protect them from societal pressures of
conformity. And that's exactly why you're here today. Because we want
to launch
these topics that all your students here will be exposed to
these things based on Islamic perspectives. Imams will be with
them. Chaplains will be with them educated people and mentors and
teachers they will be with them.
This is the topics that we have to pull the trigger this time we have
to introduce these topics to your children and my children.
Puberty ministration Eugene, Healthy Living relationships
rights community and relationships self esteem, mental health
entertainment, sexual deviance and modesty.
What are the expectations from you from parents?
Don't be shy. Don't be embarrassed. Don't be ashamed to
talk about these things. Find the mentor I screamed my lungs out
today. Find the mentor find the teacher. Find someone that you can
relate to find someone that you go to him. You know what? My son
achmad, his mentor is Brother Arsalan.
And I told him if you need if you have something in your mind, just
go to your mentor talk to him. I'm totally fine with that.
So we have to accept the reality that our kids will not feel 100%
comfortable talking to us. And that's the whole idea behind the
InZone program.
face the reality by answering your children's questions with
seriousness with rationalism with patient stop saying haram haram
haram. I know it's haram.
I do but you know you have to have
A Conversation with your with your children. You have to talk to
them.
Be present, participate, get involved in the children's school,
go to the school, find the counselor, talk to the teacher. I
swear to God one time, I went to the kids school and I told them,
by the way, the principal, we are in the holy month of Ramadan, and
the kids cannot come at 730 it will your time you guys, you guys
can come. I will say like 930 That's fine. I will work with
their teachers to adjust the schedule.
We have to stand our ground, be proactive. Go to the principal,
talk to them. Tell them like I don't like my kids to be exposed
to these things.
Get involved at your local Islamic organization. Keep your children
busy building a community and working for a cause Alhamdulillah
we have so many activities. Find something for your kids. For for
your children. Giving back is tomorrow. therapy or giving back
find something for them. Let them come and play soccer. Let them
come and help with with anything at the masjid there are so many
things to be done. Ask the Imam all the sensitive questions that
your children share with you don't keep them
acquire relevant and beneficial knowledge. just joined the
seminary my brother had an amazing videos about you know ages of
atheism. Just watch it. Today it just melted my heart to find one
of the teenagers came to me is 18 years old. He told me I watched
your brother's videos. I have so many questions. I told him please
just arrange a meeting with him and put all your questions. This
is the whole point. We have the videos to trigger people to come
and talk to us. Please come you will find so many things that
might blow your mind. That's totally fine. That's the whole
point bring them on come
enroll them and then his only program I'm very biased here I
know.
The last thing
this is can I see all the resumes student can can you raise your
hands? Every exam students raise your hands stand up
greatly.
Wait you guys.
Don't sit down.
Be grateful for the blessings growing up as Muslim boy and girl.
Be grateful, oversell Hamdulillah.
We don't hate sellers. Listen to this. Muslim, do not Muslim does
not hate sailors. And we always give them a sincere advice. That's
my expectations and our expectations from you. Not to
despise people not to have them. Be a source of guidance. Be a
source of knowledge.
Love your own faith and be proud of your identity. Be proud. These
guys they are different and they are proud being different.
And they have scholarships for them and rainbow Chamber of
Commerce.
Love you enjoy being different. Ask your mentors, all this sense
of questions that are running through your head that Islamic
classroom is a safe area for you. Let me repeat this, then Islamic
classroom is a safe area for you. Find something that keeps you
closer to your local Islamic organization. Treat those around
you with respect, including the homosexual ones. But do not take
them the proud sinners as friends. They are not your friends.
You cannot take them as friends. You cannot treat them with adults
with SN with mercy with love. But they are not our friends. Proud
senators cannot be your friends Hamdulillah.
Sit down. Thank you so much.
I want to conclude by acknowledging one of my Holika
brothers.
He tried to be here today.
And here's the one so how do I have boys brothers, boys Halaqa
and 20 to 35 years old and one of them he helped me with collecting
resources for
I'm not quite sure why it's not here
for the for the presentation. And today. He had sadly he had a very
big accident
and his his his his his sister is our executive director sister
Leila
handle he's safe, but I really miss seeing him in the hole with
me because he was my partner putting this
This presentation together please pray for brother Ibrahim for
safety for good health law memorable Alameen zappitell hair
Santa Monica Hampton labor
you
you had heart
failure gums
Next up I would like to invite her on work. He's joining us from the
Bay Area and just a little bit of background. You haven't thought
here is an American Muslim scholar and preacher born in London. He
has lived in San Francisco in the Bay Area since 1983. After
completing his religious studies, Mr. Bligh has served the Bay Area
Muslim community since 2000. He also teaches Islamic law at the
reality college America's first Muslim liberal arts college
located in Berkeley. Today they'll be sharing an Islamic perspective
on why it is important to have these discussions that we've been
talking about.
Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayyidina
Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi woman to whom they are son in law
Yomi Dean
I would like to begin this evening with a narration of Aisha Radi
Allahu anha
that Sofia Radi Allahu Anhu been Shiva reports and she says nierman
Nisa Oh nice, Apple unsalted. How excellent are the women of
unsalted lamb yakun can Yumna or Hornell higher or a yet a coffee
Dean, they do not allow their shyness to prevent them from
understanding the religion.
Many of us come from a culture
and rightfully so in some ways were
difficult discussions are usually not verbalized.
tough topics are not talked about.
Married adult men and married adult women
still cannot have certain conversations with their
biological parents.
This is not what I'm talking about.
You still can't have some conversations with your own
biological parents. This is all after you've been married and you
have kids, not everyone, but it exists.
And with that mindset,
many of us are unable to have a relationship with our children,
where we can communicate with them,
where we can actually talk to them.
And not just talk to them, but actually be able to be on the
receiving end of a conversation as well.
The vast majority of our conversations are how are you? How
was school? What are your grades? Like? What did you do in class
today, et cetera, et cetera?
And we don't want to have difficult conversations with them,
beginning with the conversation of puberty. Come on, let's be real
here. Right? Most dads would have a you know, a fit, couldn't have
this conversation be really awkward. And the young children
that I do talk to about puberty, I say you should thank God that you
don't have to have this conversation with your dad because
I had to have it with my dad. And it was not easy
that we don't have these conversations with our children,
yet. We are also part of a culture where if our children work
To ask us certain questions about certain things, A, we may not have
the answer. And B, even if we do for some of us, the response would
be something like, we can't talk about this. We're Muslims, we
can't talk, we can't have these discussions. And the reality is
that the society that we happen to be living in, these discussions
are being had.
And the discussions some years ago, I briefly alluded to this in
my hotbar, earlier today, there was a time 1015 years ago, when
some of these discussions were happening when children were
older. Okay, when children became teenagers, you, even after you
became teenagers, there's a lot of things you didn't know, especially
if you were raised in a Muslim household. And you were kind of
protected. I mean, let's be real, some of you may be able to relate
to this, some of us not. But if you're sort of in my age frame,
where a few of your hairs are wider now,
you kind of know that there's a lot of stuff that we probably
didn't know, even well into our teams. Right, we really didn't
have anywhere to go to read this stuff. Now, all of a sudden, you
just got this, all you have to do is Google, Google's become a verb
now. Right? All you have to do is Google and all of a sudden, you
know, exposure is very real. Now, again, this we're not we're not
blaming time.
We're not blaming the land that we live in. We are not blaming the
environment, per se, it this is just the trajectory that the world
is headed in.
Wherever you may live in the world, wherever you may be. This
is communication. I'll give you a simple example. I was in Medina,
just a few weeks ago, I was in Medina. And I saw a young man,
just not close enough that I could scream at him and call him. Right,
but close enough that I could see him. And I'm thinking that maybe
this is my cousin, son from England, but I wasn't sure. I have
a cousin who lives in England, it's maybe her son, I took a
picture of him, I zoomed in a little. I took a picture and sent
it to his uncle in India.
My cousin, and I said is this yes means son. And within 10 seconds,
I got a response back and said, Yes, it is. I said, text him and
tell him to look to his left and come and sit next to me.
Right, and we chatted for a little but this is a real story. This is
so it's not it's not that an American has a cell phone. And an
individual in India has a cell phone.
A young 16 year old kid sitting in a masjid and Madina Munawwara from
England has access, there was a time when you and I would go
abroad, and we'd have to get a local SIM card to have access,
things has changed, things have changed. So now when these young,
two young individuals have access to a lot of these things from a
very, very young age.
And so the questions are going to come at us now with a lot of what
was shared, you know, by Imam Sharif a few moments ago, these
are amongst the challenges of the times that we happen to be living
in.
There was a time when,
you know, the issue was sister orange mentioned this boyfriend
and girlfriend.
And I want everyone to understand this in context. If someone young
were to come to me today and say, Boy, boyfriend and girlfriend, the
first thing that would go through my mind is Alhamdulillah.
And then let's get you married.
I hope you get what I'm trying to say though, these are real. Again,
these are just real challenges of the times that we happen to be
living in based on our faith based on our moralities based on our
character. And this is not just Muslims, there are many other
faith communities, right here in the United States and in other
parts of the world, whom we align with on issues of morality. So
we're not the only ones. Though it's getting more and more
difficult to be those individuals that are standing you know that
the last frontier if we made
these things don't align with our values.
And so what do we need to do now?
One of the things we have to be mindful of is that when what's a
parent's responsibility? A human being is made of rule, and just a
body and soul.
A lot of our efforts today are towards the body.
Right? That just said, adjustment? How are you going to live? How are
you going to survive? The boyfriend, girlfriend comment,
Don't get any ideas, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.
We talked about the rule, and the adjustment, the soul and the body.
A lot of our efforts in this world are simply around the needs of the
body.
Right, everything that we do in life, and again, I spoke about
this in my cookbook earlier, that it's all about, you know, your
career and where you're going to end up in life. And most parents,
like most conversations
that parents have with their children, after a certain age, for
a certain frame of use for a certain time of years, is simply
about their education. Right? And if a child decides, or if a child
is not doing so well, we immediately reached conclusions.
Right? You're not doing well, in school, your grades are not good.
All of a sudden, because I've been there, don't worry, all of a
sudden we reach conclusion, the conclusion is, you're going to end
up being a garbage man. I mean, come on, let's be real, you know,
with all due respect to our cleaners, and those individuals
who drive around, or you're gonna become a custodian right agenda
like these, this is the kind of language that kind of comes out of
our mouth, in reality, right? As long as anyone is earning a halal
risk, halal sustenance, that is honorable in our tradition, okay,
that is honorable Archer. But for a number of years, those are the
conversations and we tend to not focus as much as we need on the
road, and the soul.
And the soul is that which will truly matter in the eternal
afterlife.
Alright, two words that I used eternal salvation, or eternal
damnation
based on our rule, and the needs of the rule, the needs of the
soul, right, the needs of the soul. And in order for that to
happen again, this is one of those child you know, raising children
lectures, and we can go we can take this in a million different
directions.
Raising children, raising wholesome children, taking our
faith and passing it along to the next generation doesn't begin
after you have children. As I always say, it actually begins
before you even get married, because it'll all depend on who
you get married to write values on who you get married to. And will
they be able to maintain those values and then having children
and it's not just about the physical needs of the children and
when we talk about Halal it's not just about halal food, but it's
also about your Halal income. Right? Your Halal is your income
Halal that which you are feeding? Is that halal for your children?
Right, the effect that that makes on the rule of yourself your own
rule and the rule of your children.
Right, what goes in comes out. Halal goes in Halal comes out.
Haram goes in Haram comes out. So how important is it for us to have
a comfortable duniya
and while we may have that we may be sacrificing the accuracy. And
then you have parents saying I did everything right? Where did I go
wrong?
And it's not just and when parents say I did everything right? Their
responses, I gave them shelter, I gave them food. I gave them
clothing. I gave them an education. But sometimes you
shouldn't eat you need to ask yourself What was your income
like? Right? These are simple questions like the rule is so
powerful in our tradition.
And we happen to be living in a world where there's constant
tension between values. There's an attempt to divorce God that's the
slide Imam Sharif began with there's an attempt to divorce God
from every conversation. Right? This is an attempt to divorce God
from absolutely everything. And everything has to do with the
knifes pleasing yourself. Please these are now let's be real
SAME GENDER attraction.
Okay, I'm gonna get into a little bit of trouble here, same jet, it
could be very real, someone may genuinely be attracted to a person
of the same gender.
And you can't, you can't disagree with that someone may genuinely be
attracted. Just as an individual may be attracted to a person of
the opposite gender.
Allah says, What do you do, you keep your gaze down,
you keep your gaze, that's a challenge that you have. Just
because you have an attraction doesn't simply mean that you
follow that attraction.
That it could be a challenge for a person to not be in a
relationship, pre marriage with a person of the opposite gender,
that's what your faith requires you to do. And as a result of
that, that's your challenge.
And so people may have those tendencies, but the reality is,
that's our challenge. And it makes life and this is kind of, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna move on a little here, that our lives need to have
a Quran centric worldview, we need to shape a narrative that happens
to be our own. Otherwise, we will have children who may end up
leaving Islam altogether.
You know, Sister Rose, when she began, I think that we could have
just ended it there. And then brother of mine kind of just put
everything the cherry on top, and then we're just kind of the
fillers at this point.
But, but what I mean to say is that,
you know, she talked about, you know, faith.
There's many people who are involved in many different kinds
of sin.
But they still identify as Muslim.
And I think that's really powerful.
Okay, that's really, really powerful, they still identify as
Muslim. And you would hope that in sha Allah, that Allah would make
it easy for them with whatever difficulty that they happen to be
going through. But we need to have a Quran centric centric worldview.
And we also need to shape our own narrative. Otherwise, we're going
to we're going to just end up losing people one after the other,
that we're going to end up losing people. And in order for that to
happen, right, in order for that to happen, and again, I'm sure
you've talked about this at length, right? We're being molded
into thinking in a very interesting direction. I'm telling
you during that presentation of Imam Sharif, there were probably
some people here, you know, in a room this large there were
different people thinking very different things, you have to be
real about that too.
And so we need to create our own identity. We need to create our
own circles we need to create our own safe spaces. We need to create
again as SR erode said a little while ago, there's always this
need to belong all human beings feel this need to belong to
something, someone somewhere.
And one of the greatest things that we have is the example of the
Sahaba
companionship. Samba. This is a word that's being used again and
again and again today. Saba Saba Saba companionship, companionship
companionship, I'm going to give you a few examples. In Ramadan
shift Allah had hosted in the Bay Area, a youth program and after
the youth program, I still remember this like it was
yesterday, after the youth program, a few of us walked out
similar aged individuals and we were just talking about something
and someone said something that I will never forget. And he said
that you know, there's people our age, let's say our age, we're
talking about 40s Here he goes. There's people our age, who don't
have genuine friends to be able to hang out with.
They're still people struggling to find good friends. And if you have
good company and good friends, that's that is part I truly
believe that good friends, good company. A good Masjid a good Imam
happens to be part of our risk and sustenance.
Right if you when we think sustenance and risk this we're
just thinking dollars should drop down you know what I'm saying?
But in reality, a good Masjid is part of my risk. A good Imam is
part of my risk. A good community is part of my risk. A good friend
circle that I can hang out with and be vulnerable with
Man and I talked about this, right? Be vulnerable with, let
your guard down a little Be yourself. Right? Expose yourself a
little let people know what you're going through to be able to find
those friends who will lift you up. That is also part of our risk
and sustenance.
And so there's people who are struggling to find good friends,
as adults, let alone children.
My kids are a little older. I have a son who moved away from home a
few years ago.
He's home right now, by the way, which is why if I leave a little
early, please forgive me. He called me up yesterday. He said,
Dad, I'm coming home pick me up at the airport. So, you know, we kept
it a surprise for mom. And so mom was over the moon Mashallah.
Someone once asked me and said, you know, your children are older,
give me some child raising tips. And I thought about it for a
while.
And I'm telling you, I could stand here for at least 15 minutes, just
going through things like right off the top of my head, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like, it's all kinds of different
things. You know what I'm saying? Like, no phones in the bedroom at
night, door's always open. I had a policy at home, right? I told my
kids your bedroom doors can't be closed if they're ever closed. And
I will simply take them off the hinges and you won't have a
bedroom door. Okay, like there's, there's no privacy, we're all in
this together. The only time you need okay, I could like I'm
telling you, I could roll off a list right now you know what I'm
saying. But I'm not going to do I just kind of already did. But
I tell you this probably one thing, especially as they become
older, that has been a life saving factor for me, especially during
COVID.
Their friends,
their friends,
who they hang out with. And part of that had to do with who I hang
out with. There was a time in my life very early on, in which I had
to reevaluate my social circles. Right because I wanted my I wanted
to raise my children in a certain way. And in order for that to
happen, I needed to make certain changes in my life. And it came
with a lot of grief earlier on Oh, you don't want to hang out with us
anymore. If you're doing you understand this buddy, hoagie,
nomadic had been out there, you know what I'm saying? You become
big. Now you don't come to our house anymore. Like you have to go
through all these things.
But at the end of the day, I wanted my children to be exposed
to a certain kind of people.
And as they got older and they became independent, you know,
children will become independent very fast. Right? Once they hit
1314 and the flash of an eye, they're adults. A very Dear Elder
friend of mine, Elijah Hamill, who passed away he was an Iskandar,
Ronnie, he once told me he said she thought her one day, it was
me. The only adult the only male adult in my home. And then he
said, When I close my eyes, and I opened them, there was three men
living in the home. He had two boys. I've never forgotten that.
He said, there's three men living in the home now.
Very interesting. Saba companionship brothers and
sisters, who your children are able to hang out with. And we
don't get to choose a lot of that in the neighborhoods that we live
in. When I was growing up, there was a time when we played on the
streets, I'm telling you most of my friends. In fact, I didn't have
a single Muslim friend growing up on my street. You know, we played
football, we rode bikes.
And we did a lot of other things, too.
But, you know,
but we didn't have this. And so, uh, you know, a saving grace, as
we may call it, it's really coming from the heart. I don't even know
if this is what you told me to speak about. So I'm going to ask
for your forgiveness. Okay. But my sin, this is him being kind by the
way, lazy.
You're saving grace brothers and sisters, is for your children. And
for some of you your grandchildren, right is
companionship. It's truly companionship, who your children
get to hang out with and not just hang out with. But the Nizami
order has taken this a step further, where they happen to be
in a safe space, being able to ask questions and educate themselves
from individuals who happen to have gone through these challenges
from individuals who happen to be educated. I'm telling you if your
children are part of this program, this is far greater than the risk
in terms of the dollars and cents that you earn from going to work.
I truly believe that
and I said this earlier again in the book but today one of my
greatest you know someone
once told me and said, Hey, listen,
you know, and I'm going to come back to the story. So Abba and
mentor so we're talking about this mentors, we've used this word
mentorship. We've all had mentors in our lives at some point or
another. Right? And for these young individuals to be able to
look up to someone, big brother, as they call in America, they have
these nonprofits Big Brother, Big Sister, right? Big Brother, Big
Sister nonprofits, where kids just get to look up to someone.
There's a sister in our community I once told her, I said, Listen,
man, I'm Hinomoto. I told her, I said, Hannah, I'm old now. Like,
I've completely like, you know, there was a time when I used to
think I was young, I used to pretend I was young. Now I'm old.
And I've completely embraced being old. And she said, her mom told
her look, we understand that we're all old. But she said, Your, I
said, I'm an uncle. That was my lying to her. And she said, You're
not an uncle. She said, You're a young girl. So I kind of I've
embraced the Yong Chol part. And I will continue using that young
uncle. For those of you that didn't get it right, a young
uncle.
But mentors for our children to be able to look up to someone, right
for our children to be able to look up to someone. And in that,
looking up, finding that safe space and finding that safe
environment. And this is really, really powerful. You know, someone
once said to me, again, in terms of raising children, they said,
you're kind of you're done. Now, you know, my kids are older, like
I said, my, my youngest is a junior in high school. So you're
kind of done, you know what I'm saying? I mean, in sha Allah, we,
you're as a parent, you're never done. You know what I'm saying?
But you know, in a certain you've, you've gone through certain stages
that you no longer have to go through again. And I said, Yeah,
but you know what, believe it or not, I've already started thinking
about my grandchildren. I swear to God, I'm so worried. I feel like
raising my kids was so much easier than the challenge they may have
to go through and raising their children.
And I'm already thinking, you know, I've already started having
conversations with my son. I'm like, Look, kiddo, you know,
wherever you decide to settle down, think of the community that
you want to be in and make sure there's a good Islamic school
there too. This is way before you even get married because you need
to start thinking about this. And which is why we need to make
Islamic schools affordable. If I couldn't, I couldn't send my own
kids to Islamic school because I couldn't afford it.
I'm very open about this. I couldn't afford to send my kids to
Islamic school. My kids went to public school for many years. And
at some point, we pulled them out and they were homeschooled. And my
high schooler continues to get homeschooled. Right, he's a junior
in high school homeschooled. And by the way, best thing that ever
happened to us. Yeah, besting if you can pull off homeschooling, it
is so awesome. And they'll your kids will get ahead in ways that
you can begin to imagine. Well, my son's peers were done with high
school, my son was finished memorizing the Quran and done with
two years of college.
Okay, now it's nothing to clap about is this from this the funnel
of Allah subhanho wa taala. This is not me, this is the funnel of
Allah. And I only share this not because he's my son. I only share
this to encourage parents that it's doable. Okay, it's not the
end of the world. If you're thinking about it, if your kids
want it, if you think you can pull it off, it's very doable. But I've
already started thinking about my grandkids. And so I kind of want
to close the point I'm trying to make brothers and sisters. Is that
our deen our faith teaches us to ask questions.
But not everyone is qualified to answer those questions, including
parents.
And when we have been given an opportunity, a place a safe space,
in our community that will do this part for us.
We need to support it in every which way possible.
Not just at least speak of it to others. I'm telling you this. I
don't think I've seen anything like this. In most mosques in the
United States of America. There's 2600 messages in America messages
in masalas. I don't think there's probably less than a handful that
have something of what you have here. Based on the way it's
organized.
Right. So so good friends. You know, again, this is very
personal, but I feel like I just want to share, my kid moved off to
Dallas. So sometimes when he comes home, I asked him I said Peter, do
you miss home? Here? Yes, we do say beta, you can make fun of us.
It's okay. So I said better? Do you miss home? And I swear to God,
he's kind of very honestly, you know, very respectful. He looked
at me and he goes, you know, like, I mean, I miss it because it's
home but like, I've made my new life, you know, all my friends are
out there. And I was like, okay, that's that's pretty awesome. I
said, So what keeps you there? What makes you happy? So just my
friends, my friends, and so the
Friendship, the software, the mentorship that we have, the way
our faith encourages us to make these things possible for us to
learn from the right sources to learn that which is correct and a
matter and method in which it should be learned, is extremely
powerful. The fact and I will close with this, the fact that all
of you are here tonight.
Right? All of you are here tonight. It means that you are
people and people who want it to be here and people who didn't know
about this and would have been here, all of them, all of you and
all of them. It just means that you are people with concern. And
you are people with desire for goodness in terms of our faith for
your children. And simply as a result of your concern in sha
Allah, Allah will make you and your children successful. And
Allah will make your children the coolness of your eyes in sha
Allah, jackal Mala. Hey, Ron said Imani from Rahmatullah hookah
Allah
going to go for a half an hour
I want to share something
called stealing, right.
So one of one of the division of this organization is
to build a community. But Hello, we're proud community builders, co
founders, the staff, the executive management, volunteers, everyone.
And in order to build the community, you have to take care
and look at the small components of the community, you have to
create a complete picture, you cannot just exclude one.
So what's happening in most of the masajid is we have the half solid
Sunday school. And whenever kids are 12 years old, the system say
what's gonna happen, you have no programs for them
in the time that they really need our support. Whenever we reach the
zenith and the peak, what we do is
we live in this league.
And that's what triggered us to start, you know, the Masonic
program. So whenever the kids they finish Sunday school, next year,
they go to the new zone. Well, what's going to happen after that,
mashallah golden zone as students become like 1819 20 years old, and
some of them, they really want to continue this journey of
knowledge, and this journey of education, right, because the
problem will shape the personalities. So we said, you
know, what, we should have what to call a Muslim seminary.
And then handle it has been the second year,
operating, and offering classes, and graduating students and
facilitating knowledge, and offering Islamic subjects with all
humility, and with all the love.
And I'm very humbled today.
Without I don't have enough information. So please don't ask
me after we finish, when and what and how and why I don't have any
information today. But I'm very humbled to say that
we want to add
more mentors, more teachers, and more scholars to teach at our
Islamic seminary.
And we are honored
to have a mentor her honor. As one of the teachers of the seminary in
sha Allah, He will teach one of the classes very soon business.
And I know it's a bit of a commute for him. He has to drive all the
way from the Bay Area. But this is the route and the path of the
scholars and the teachers. Please pray for him. And now that
concludes by public invitation.
The last component that we want to add to this organization is to
provide our boys and girls with a safe space so they can start a new
relationship.
Right? It's not haram we try to create this kind of, you know,
sonically correct space and without mentioning any names, I
can see brothers and sisters, they are with us now. We got to know
each other in the masjid
and this time
Their journey inside them as a matter of fact my daughter
Hamza Can you stand up
what is best for
both of you I want you to stand up
so I want you I want to invite all of you because this public
invitation
this is our community this is our home. It's not we're going to
invite some people and they're excluding others their wedding
inshallah will be next month March 18
at the same place
the image here
so that was the first place for them to meet and even I remember
before Ramadan was like two years ago, Basil came to me and me we
want to do something before Ramadan. We want to just make you
know fat how anything for them vessel, Ramadan is just around the
corner. What is the point? He told me because I will come every
single thoroughly so I can see her
for like 30 nights and that's what we try to add to the older
components of what's called an Islamic community. Inshallah
Lamine March 18
at 5pm at the same place will be honored to have all of you in
Sharla Santa Monica
I'm sorry, I had two
more sorry for
I think it's a dad thing.
proud dad moment is like a lookout for sharing the both of the happy
news with us.
All right, next up, I would like to introduce this data. Jose was
that as I say is the co founder of mental health for Muslims, a
website dedicated to disseminating research driven, driven research
driven sound content that relates to mental health and Islam. She is
a mental health advocate and a freelance writer, slash editor she
speaks locally and nationally on various subjects relating to
spirituality, self development, parenting, mental health, and
women's issues. And she will be sharing with us the importance of
this discussion from a social perspective and if you don't
already follow her on Facebook and Instagram, she always has a very,
very, very insightful and obviously you know Islamically
driven and knowledge based information that is very relatable
to parents to use. So check her out as well. Please help me in
inviting the southern side.
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam
ala Chevelle MBI evil mursaleen say that one Mowlana Where have
you been? Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while he was
Sofia salaam to Sleeman Kathira Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh
Hamdulillah. It is such an immense honor to be here with all of you.
My sister told me today actually that she received a Facebook
memory that about three years ago to this week, I was with you.
Allahu Akbar.
It right before COVID This facility is just beautiful. The
Gathering just to look upon all of you. Being here with your children
is so heartwarming. May Allah protect and preserve all of you.
May Allah protect him as he is I was looking for you. And
subhanAllah moments ago, I finally saw you because, you know, should
have mentioned you were here. I didn't know where he's hiding. I'm
sorry to point you out, but I'm so honored to have you here. I'm so
honored to be speaking on the panel with Imam Sharif and our
dear beloved Imam Taha from the Bay Area who is our teacher.
It's really a difficult act to follow them, but and I know you're
it's late and you're tired. I don't want to belabor the point or
keep you for too long, but I do have some slides here on this
topic when the topic was presented. So panel on 30 minutes
battling Janelia to tall order emotion Eve
This is a lifelong battle.
No for all of us, as we know as Muslims, but I thought about what
can I concentrate on in this discussion? Inshallah, of course,
I'm sure I'm sorry, sorry that I'm not loud enough. Let me raise the
mic. Maybe Is that better? Better? Okay. Alhamdulillah. Just like
your local Institute. Also, I want to acknowledge the previous
speakers, all of them incredible testimonies, medical or physical.
But I wanted to focus on a few different things for this talk,
and I'll try to go as fast as I can, Inshallah, the three areas
that I want to talk about today, the three areas of struggle in my
observation working within the community are outlined for you
here. One, the toxic culture, and we're going to define what that
is, to is indoctrination. I really want to emphasize this word,
because this is what we're up against. We're up against
indoctrination. And then three is the issue of powerless parenting,
which we are I feel it's we're at a point where this is an endemic
problem epidemic problem in our community. So let's get into this
toxic culture. How do we define toxic culture? First, I'll mention
this quote from someone that I know in Montana, knows very well
as well. It's, he's also someone who works very well within the
Muslim community, Dr. Leonard Sachs. I have had the privilege of
speaking with him on a couple of panels, but this is a quote from
him. He is an American board certified psychologist and
physician. He has worked with 1000s of patients throughout the
country. This is from an American he believes and he's told me this,
I heard him directly say it, American culture is toxic. He
literally says that. And this is a quote from him, American children.
And by the way, our children are now considered American children.
So he's, this is all encompassing. If you're in America, your
children are in America. He's counting you in this quote,
American children are immersed in a culture of disrespect. For who
parents, teachers and one another. They learn it from television,
even on the Disney Channel where parents are portrayed as clueless,
out of touch or absent. They learn it from celebrities on the
internet. They learn it from social media, they teach it to one
another. They wear T shirts emblazoned with slogans like I'm
not shy. I just don't like you. By the way, the prophesy said I'm
foretold the toward the end of time, people the youth
specifically would greet each other with curse words. Is this
not happening?
So we are living the reality that our promises I sent him told us
what happened we are observing it this culture of disrespect. And I
just want to mention, we have to give credit because Mr. Thakur I
don't know if you know But Dr. Sachs, he gets emotional actually
talking about how much of an impact you've made on his life by
by being such a great supporter for him. So may Allah bless him
and reward him for all that he does. But he's even impacted
people as successful as Dr. Sachs martial law to medical law. So I
get an immense honor that he's here with us toxic culture what
does it promote? Self worship, this worship of the neffs This is
everywhere now and social media has only made this infinitely more
than it was prior to the advent of social media and the internet.
People can't help but but but look at themselves constantly.
Everything is Me me me NFC NFC NFC NFC. So we are in an age where
this culture promotes worship of self and when you worship the self
Who are you not worshiping? You're not worshiping Allah subhanaw
taala you can't you can't you it's either one or the other. And
that's why I was kinda tells us have you not considered those who
worship their own selves or take their own selves as deities. So we
have this an indulgence, constantly getting into your every
impulse, every desire, everything is focused on fulfilling your what
lower base Shephelah your knifes. So that's all that people see
themselves as, as the mom taught her spoke about this is what this
culture is teaching our youth and teaching us to only see it
ourselves in a physical sense, which we'll get to later on in a
moment. risky behaviors, right? Toxic culture promotes risky
behavior. Go experiment, everything is about
experimentation, drugs, substance abuse, alcohol, violence,
marijuana vaping. I spoke to someone once who told me first day
of her high school, she had students in the back who were
openly vaping with the teacher in the classroom, because culture of
disrespect, risky behavior. I want attention why not to put it all
together. And this was the first day of her high school experience.
This is the culture she was thrown into hyper sexualization. If
you're not awake to what's happening with media, Hollywood in
particular, and many other very dark forces that are coming after
our children, they absolutely are coming after our children with
regards to hyper sexualizing them at a very early age from the way
young boys and girls are taught to dress the way that they're taught.
How to behave, especially on social media. What is it all
about? It's all about putting themselves out there and behaving
as adults do and not the best of adults, of course, low low things,
right? putting yourself out there. So they're, they're targeting
this, and they're spreading this. And also, as has been mentioned,
sexual deviation, to explore, to experiment to see yourself as a
fluid person who can do whatever, because if it's like, the world is
a buffet, why not just do whatever you want to do. That's what they
are teaching. And this is what this culture promotes the
disrespect of authority. And where will who is the ultimate
authority, who is the ultimate authority, the ultimate authority
is Allah subhanaw taala, the creator of everything in
existence, they start with Allah subhanaw taala and erase God from
this culture, you don't see even people people are afraid. And this
to me, is one of the points that we have to be so unapologetic
about that we have been conditioned to not speak about our
faith, that it's seen as a taboo topic, that you can't even
reference your faith anymore. But you can talk openly about your
sexual preferences. That's it's insane. But so they erased God
from from the discourse. And people don't even mention them.
You know, it used to be back in the days when people would receive
some award recognition, they always started with I think, God,
now it's shameful to say they don't say it. Because you will be
looked upon, you'll be ridiculed, like what do you still believe in?
Right, as the statistics showed, subhanAllah, 80% Dip. I mean,
that's just tragic. So that starts with always had and then of
course, religious figures of authority, the ridicule of our,
you know, religious authority, from all traditions, we see it,
you know, the Catholic Church took its hit, right, everybody sees the
Catholic Church. Now with this, I have, what the only thing they
think about is what, you know, priests, and their abuse of
children. That's not what the Catholic Church represents.
They're, you know, a tradition. It's one of the great world
traditions, but they've reduced it to just that, and they're coming
after Islam as well, they were all just a bunch of terrorists and all
of our scholarly class are seeing the same way. So it's a matter of
just, you know, getting rid of all respect for people in positions of
power. And then when you come to even in academic settings, how
many of us went to college, where it was encouraged to not just
debate with your teacher, which is an intellectual exercise debate is
a good thing. We teach debate. But this isn't debate with the sense
of seeking truth. It's debate with humiliating the teacher. And now
they're coming after our Imams and our teacher and our scholars. You
I've seen this, I've heard this people outright showing total
utter disrespect, not realizing that this position, these are the
men who inshallah are, it's because of their efforts, their
prayers, look at this, look at this effort. Subhanallah and we
don't see them as we used to. They had the highest place in society,
our teachers, our scholars, and now cast aspersions doubt, you
know, scandalize them for whatever reason, it all comes from this
culture, and then the loss of purpose. There's no meaning to
anything. This is what they're teaching our children life is
pointless meaningless. What does it matter? This is all nihilism,
right? This is all atheism comes from the lack of faith, a lack of
something that holds you in binds you. So they're promoting this at
every point very early, and then leads to identity confusion, which
is by the way, if you know of Eric Erickson's, you know, stages of
human development and child development, the critical point of
adolescence, this is the struggle of adolescence, they are confused.
It's identity versus role confusion. So you throw all of
these labels at children who are already confused. And then you
wonder why you have an absolute mental health crisis. The highest
now we're seeing ever it's unprecedented the level of anxiety
and depression, suicidal ideation, that we see among our youth,
because they want you to be confused. They want you to be
fragmented. They want you to not know who you are, have nothing to
hold you to anchor you in this world. It's like throwing someone
in the middle of the ocean in the dark abyss and not giving them a
lifeline not giving them anything. That's what they want from you.
This is from the CDC.
This is their own for a 10 year study. I want you to look at I
know I'm sorry, the images is small to see, but Youth Risk
Behavior Survey 10 years they're looking at the issues that are
affecting our youth. Number one issue of focus areas sexual
behavior. That's what the youth are struggling with children who
should be worried about studies and learning skills and becoming
the best versions of themselves, their their struggles, our sexual
behavior, substance abuse, number two, violence, mental health and
suicidality.
New and Emerging nutrition nationals that oh, sorry. And
that's just
ongoing stuff. But look at those areas SubhanAllah. This is what
the you in the US what our teens are struggling with? Is this
indicative of a healthy society that we look up to, that we should
look to emulate? These are the things that they're worried about
and immersed in. And they're looking at longitudinal lack of 10
years studies to try to assess what's going on with youth
culture. And we look to them as being successful. How is this
successful? Now I want you to just in contrast, this is from Save the
Children international relief organization, look at the
challenges the children worldwide are dealing with. So the US kids
are dealing with all that stuff. Children worldwide are dealing
with living in conflict zones, bombs dropping dropped on their
head, real life issues, global hunger,
disrupted education, climate change, crossing borders, imagine
having to flee into a land that doesn't want you or hostile to you
to you, because they see you as an invader. This is what children
outside of this society are struggling with. And then child
mortality. So you can see, this culture is so toxic that look at
what it's what it's forced upon children to struggle with, when
the rest of humanity is dealing with actual real problems. It's
all, you know, by design.
And here, you know, if you want to see further proof, this is again
from the Harvard youth poll 2022.
They asked, you know, teens, during this period, towards the
end of the year, in over the last two weeks, have you been, you
know, bothered by the following problems.
Look at that feeling down depressed or hopeless thoughts
that you would be better off dead, or thoughts of hurting yourself in
some way. Look at those startling numbers. So yes, this society is
pushing our teens towards these problems, because it's so toxic.
And here are the things that they're struggling with work, high
school, social media, politics, news, media, all of this, which
are everywhere. Now, as has been mentioned, these devices give us
24 hour access to all of these things. And they're coming into
our homes, it used to be that the home was a refuge from danger,
right? That you went home, you went inside, to protect yourself
from the dangers of the society outside. Now the threats are
coming straight into the home, not just into the home into the most
private spaces into the bedrooms, because children have access to
these things in their bedrooms, or in their bathrooms or in their
closets, or wherever else they're hiding, and looking into these
things, but these are the things and look at the effects. You know,
more than a quarter in some cases, are struggling with these things.
This is should outrageous, we should be angered at what's
happening in this society and that they're targeting our youth.
Now, the second point, I mentioned indoctrination,
there, you know, I'm an I'm an educator and education I know
mashallah many, I'm sure there are many educators here. When when I
was in school, I remember that there was a very clear line of
respect and personal boundaries. between myself and my teachers, I
did not know the private lives of my teacher, I had no idea if they
were married, had children, where they went to, there was no private
information discussed because they weren't there to give me their
worldview, to share with me their beliefs to tell me about their
ideologies. They weren't there for that. They were there strictly for
one thing, and one thing only, which was to teach me a subject.
And that's it, they had a job to do. There's 30 plus students in
the class, they don't have time for that. But now we've moved away
from that model of education into indoctrination. So be sure and
especially in the most progressive state like California, that your
students if you're sending them to public schools, they are being
1,000%. indoctrinated, it is not education that they are receiving,
they are being indoctrinated. Because there is an agenda and
says, I will echo everything that Imam Dyer said, I have been
homeschooling my children, I have two boys, 14 and 11 on
Hamdulillah. They have been homeschooled their entire lives.
And we heeded the advice of teachers who knew better who are
elders who saw all of this collapse in society coming. My
teacher in particular Sheikh Hamza he warned he said, Don't send your
children to public schools. They are dangerous breeding grounds for
your children to be indoctrinated. So he was very adamant. And this
was 25 or so years ago. So what about now? Right SubhanAllah. Now,
that doesn't mean there aren't good people in these places. Of
course, there will always always panda here. We are not people of
despair. There are always good people.
There are always people of light, even in places of darkness, but
it's a risk you're going to take whether or not your children are
going to meet those people. So what is indoctrination?
First and foremost, indoctrination includes something and I don't
know how many of you familiar with this, it's an academic word. But
post modernity is something you should be very familiar with,
because it has infected and I use that word very deliberately. It
has infected like a sick of virus, the minds of many people in our
society. What is post modernity? It's a worldview. It's a worldview
that is divorced from everything is this antithetical to our faith
and every faith tradition, it is literally a departure from
religious tradition. It is, it's a worldview that aims to separate
human beings, from religion from organized religion from a concept
that there is what one objective truth that there is a there's God.
And I was found that God created all of humanity for a single
purpose. Post modernists do not believe this, because they are
most of them, if not all of them are secular atheists. And they are
everywhere, their ideas are everywhere, they are promoted in
academia, they're promoted in media, everywhere you see. So when
we see the statistic that eventually put up, that's not
surprising, it's because their ideas are everywhere, but they're
going after schools. They're in our education systems. And they're
influencing the curriculum that your your students are being
taught. And as well as the education of the teachers who are
teaching, excuse me.
ideological beliefs are shared widely in the classroom. Now, you
can't go really too many schools now without ideologies being
promoted. And what are ideologies, as we mentioned, you know, whether
it's a person's political leanings, or just their views I've
had someone recently told me that they've had, they had many
teachers who've openly told them, there's no God, you still believe
in God, just like Mocha,
that they, that they, their teachers were so open about their
atheism, and their lack of belief that they would actually, you
know, encourage or somehow invite debate with their students, and
these are in high school, so even college classes anymore Subhan
Allah, so this is happening, they're bringing forth, they're
very proud of their views, and they seek to demean they seek to
make people of religion look like we're backwards, we're anti
science, we're dumb, we're completely in the dark ages. And
that's the way that they engage students even so they start
questioning, you know, students are really still believe in that.
And they put all these seeds of doubt. What when did this become
acceptable? Why is it a teachers? Why is the teacher doing that?
Because there is an agenda, right? And then political beliefs. So you
have flags, you know, whether it's the LGBTQ flag, or the BLM flag,
or whatever flag it is, their political ideologies, their
political beliefs, their political systems, these are private
matters. But it's okay to now bring these into a classroom and
to engage your students in debate and to be proud of these things.
Apparently, it is. And so when you again, look at the efforts that
are happening in our schools, be clear, please, that they are
indoctrinating our students and they are turning them against our
faith, they're turning them against the family. This is a big
part of the postmodern idea. And if you're not familiar again, with
post modernity, here's just a little bit more detail. Post
modernists believe in social constructivism. What does this
mean? It means that morality and truth do not exist objectively,
there is no moral objective. There's no such thing as moral
objectivity or objective truth, that everybody has their own truth
with a capital T, I have my truth, you have your truth? Do we believe
in that, of course not. We believe in a singular truth, which is
Islam, which is that we have a creator. And so obviously, that's
going to pose a problem. But they believe that all of this is just,
you know, whatever we want it to be, we don't have to turn to any
single idea that binds us. And then cultural determinism, again,
people are formed, fully formed by cultural forces language, for
example, determines what we think of. So they use a lot of these
ideas, and they're very, again, academic terms, but we can't
afford to turn a blind eye to this framework or to this movement
anymore. It is a very dangerous movement. And I really encourage
you to look into it. Abandoning one zone individuality, people
exist primarily as members of groups. So we have identity
politics, now, you aren't as an individual, you don't have a
purpose, right? You're just a part of a group. And that's all they
want you to see yourself. And so what does that group your skin
color? Right? So now you're in racialized your gender eyes,
right? You're either male or female, and they're, you know, and
it's all then to cause division, right? So now we have red pill,
and we have feminists, they hate each other. We have race baiting
almost every single day. We see so much aggression between different
races, right, because they're perpetuating ideas that make
people turn
against one another in terms of just looking at each other based
on skin color, religious wars are being now. I mean, they've been
for a long time, but they're inciting these things as well,
when they have been for a while. So it's all to just force us to
see each other again, according to these labels, and to lose the fact
that we, we have a purpose, every one of us I was created all of us
singularly with intention. And that raises the issue anyway,
raise the bar for all of us, right of what you aspire to, when you
start to think, wow, so how am I the one who created the sun and
the moon and the stars and the Heaven? And everything in
existence created me? Doesn't that make you feel good? It should. And
that's exactly why Allah Subhanallah intended us to be
inspired by that, but they don't want you to think of yourself as
being important. They just say you're just this are you that this
group or that group, and then a rejection of humanism, so not to
really look out for one another, not to care for one another.
Because enough's enough. See, it's all about what I want, right? And
so they're perpetuating a lot of these ideas. And there's much
more, we don't have enough time to go into post modernity. But please
look up this. And here's a resource for you. It's a wonderful
book, if you've never read it, please read it, it will open your
eyes to everything that's happening, the collapse of our
society can be explained very well through this book here. And it's
called cynical theories, by Helen pluck rose and James Lindsay,
ideologies and politics. I'll just briefly again quickly go over this
but progressive and liberal ideology. This again purports that
the world is dystopian, right? Those who have those who have not.
So what it's breeding is actually envy, they are forcing envy into
the hearts of human beings. Everybody who doesn't have
something looks at those who have and immediately what, you know,
eat the rich like this is on T shirts. Now. You know, the 1%
demonize people who have wealth, as though you were forgetting
Who's the one who distributes who is the one who gives to some and
doesn't give to others. It's all his dominion, he does as he
pleases. But when you don't believe in God, then you just look
at it like you're a victim, right? It was shared victim mindset, I'm
the ultimate victim because I don't have what they have. What is
Allah Sparta say? What what are we taught when we look to people, if
we if we don't have something, we don't look to people who have
more, we look to people who have less, so that we can be grateful
that insha Allah as he then the Quran, Allah Subhana Allah says,
if you're grateful, I will increase you. But we're not
grateful because we're envious. And it's again by design,
secular interpretation of the world, right? Again, morality is
subjective. They don't want you to have the world view the
metaphysical worldview, that everything is of our color. This
is a sixth Article of our faith, we believe in that the things are
willed by Allah subhanaw taala, and we're supposed to submit,
they're removing all of that erasing it all. And you're just
becoming this reactionary triggered person, everything that
doesn't go your way you're entitled, you're upset, you're
angry, volatile, just volatility everywhere. This is what they
want. And again, as I mentioned, identity politics. So all you are
our tribal affiliations, gender, race, religion, sexual
orientation, forcing a worldview, seeing only through these pressure
systems of oppression, racism, ageism, did you know now that it's
ageist for a parent, whose child may come out as transgender to not
want you to put them on to puberty blockers to not want them to go
into for, you know, surgery, it's considered ages by these people,
that you are undermining the mental capacities of a 12 year old
13 year old to think of himself. This is the kind of mental
language games that they play on people and and you know, confused
people so that now what do you do, I don't want to be considered a
just I don't want to be considered a racist. So you try to remove
yourself from their labels by doing what compromising your
principles and this is why we have what we call the silent majority.
Because there are a lot of people were upset, but nobody can speak
up anymore.
post modernism, post modernism seeks not to find the foundation
and the conditions of truth, but to exercise power, for the purpose
of social change. So they have hijacked something that is
inherent in our deen. We are the dean of social justice. We don't
need to look to other isms or other groups to learn from them.
Where else will you find the amount of social justice that was
done on this planet other than in the city of Mecca and Medina with
the prophesy centum leading the way? You will not find it
anywhere. But we now look to them to get our cues from for social
justice. Give me a break, they have hijacked it. Why? Because
they want to turn youth into these zealous outraged activists who
have no idea what they're even fighting for fighting for what why
are you angry? Why are you angry?
55% of youth in this country are leaning towards progressive
politics. And um, this isn't about democrat or republican because as
far as I'm concerned, they're all the same. This is about the the
impulse behind these parties and
The Democratic Party are what are more likely to consider gender,
race, ethnicity, and sexual identity. That is their mission,
that is their platform. Those are the things they're fighting for.
So you have the majority of youth in this country. That's what
they're leaning for how it's all by design, right? Get them to only
see themselves according to labels. And then you get little,
you know, an army of activists who will go and light cities a fire,
you know, kill
down with the police, like, Give me a break, what are you going to
do? When criminals come into your neighborhoods? Who are you going
to call if there's no police force? But you had all these youth
who have no idea what they're doing out there protest?
insane, insane?
How comfortable do you feel with the following?
Here's on specifically the LGBTQ issue, look at the difference,
where the Democrats and the Republicans and the independents
fall, you can clearly see that this political group is dangerous
for us. And unfortunately, we have been, you know, emotionally
manipulated for many decades to feel that we have some alliances
with them, but they are not our allies, they will we have a target
on our back, it's only a matter of time for right now. We're a token,
you know, marginalized group that they can use to advance their own
agenda. But at a certain point, they will turn against us just as
they've turned against Christians and other traditional groups. So
we have to be smart. And we have to know that this agenda has,
again, their own plan, and we're just convenient right now. But
when we become inconvenient, they'll do away with us. Do you
agree or disagree with these statements? Look, again, at the
political disparity here, I would vote for a candidate who supports
K to 12. Public schools teaching that racism, intentional or not,
is a fixture of American laws and institutions. So basically,
turning people against again, you know, looking, I mean, the history
of this country, obviously, is complicated. Nobody's denying it,
it was built on horrible systems, we all know that, but to turn
people against their own government and to make them only
see everything with this negative lens and to see all for example,
white people as being demons. And this is what's being perpetuated
now that you're just inherently a racist. If you're a white person,
I know many white people who are not comfortable anymore being out
in open society, because everywhere they go, they think
they're just gonna be labeled a racist, even people who have been
activist for a very long time. So this is what this is what they
perpetuate, though, I would vote for a candidate who supports K to
12 public schools teaching critical race theory, critical
race theory is one of the posts was one of an outcome of post
modernity, it's again to see the world only through the lens of
race, and those who are privileged, and those who aren't
in all this hierarchy. But it's very dangerous to teach this to
young children, because then that's all they will see in the
world. And this is not our dean, or the teachers that as our father
tells us that our external, you know, forms don't matter. It's the
hearts that matter. And then parents should have more control
over their children's education than they do now. Again, we see
disparity so they don't want children to be parents to be
involved in their education, they want to move remove parental
authority they want to remove, you know, that connection that brings
families and communities together, mainly the family.
The third point and this initial, I'll try to again, wrap it up
quickly, powerless parenting, this is really important, because I've
seen it I see it almost on a daily basis with a lot of parents who
are just exasperated. They don't know what to do. They're spent
there. They feel they feel like they've tried, they don't know how
to get through to their children. They don't know how to get ahead
of this. But we have to identify what is a powerless parents
powerless parent, parenting is when a parent or when parents are
absent if you are too busy, that you're you know, with your own
goals with your own career objectives or whatever other
passions you have as a parent and you're not at home paying
attention to your children, you are a powerless parent, you will
not have an effect over your children and that is the manner
with which you are given your children are your Amana Kulu
camera and macoco masala Nanda at each of us as a shepherd. Your job
is to shepherd your children. But if you're too busy with you know,
hustling, making the money grinding, whatever you want to
call it, at the expense of your children. It's the Allah. When I
say this, first and foremost to myself, we have to fear Allah
subhanaw taala. If you're unaware, I know many parents who just
willfully ignorant I don't want to know I don't want to know and as
the month I mentioned, it's because you're preferring your own
cultural discomfort over guidance of your children and Allah will
take you to task for that your children are being misled lambs to
the slaughter and you are going to put your own comfort before them.
It's up Allah
passive, you know
Do you just kind of look the other way? So maybe you're around, maybe
you're in the house, but you're not an active parents, you're not
ahead of things. Again, I use the analogy of the shepherd because
this was the analogy given to us by the best of creation. So Allah
Hollywood, so to understand leadership, the shepherd is ahead
of the flock. The shepherd wakes up early, the shepherd prepares
the food, the shepherd knows the harm and the dangers for the
flock, the shepherd is not sleeping, the shepherd is not
passively watching Netflix and playing video games. That's not
shepherding. That's being lazy. And it's being passive. We must
fear Allah permissive, you are not given children to make friends
with them solely. And I say that as a caveat. Yes, there is a time
for friendship with your children. But your job is to lead them not
to to worry if they like you, not to worry, if they are going to be
upset with you, they will be upset with you at times. And that's
okay. Especially if you are acting in their interest in their best
interest. It's okay, if they're upset with you. Because as was
mentioned, today, you may be upset. But later on, you will
realize Subhanallah Thank you, Allah, my parents, thank you for
not letting me you know, do sleepovers or thank you for not
giving me a curfew for this hour or that hour, you will thank them,
because you'll see that they were doing their job. But you as a
parent have to be more concerned with protecting them than worrying
about being their friend.
Parents who are authoritarian, this is the opposite end of it.
There's a difference between authoritarian parenting and
authoritative parenting and we've completely lost the plot. We've
confused them. We don't even know the difference. Authoritarian is
my way or the highway. no discussion, no discourse, no
respect your children, as Imam Tara mentioned, when they reach
the age of violence that when they're when they're now at the
age of accountability, they are adults, you should speak to them
with respect. You don't just give them demands and commands and talk
down to them as if they're nothing. Where did you learn this
from this is not our deen the prophesy centum elevated the youth
how he had so many youth around him and he would give them high
posts. He would send them as emissaries, they will be leading
battles. And we talk down to our children treat them like they're
dumb. And then we wonder why they'd rather go spend their, you
know, time with their friends or on the internet, watching videos
because they get something from those people some modicum of
respect. So we have to change our way to be an authoritarian parent
is the right approach, which is I am the lead. I am the leader of
this household my rules. However, I will take the time with
emotional intelligence to explain things to you, I will take the
time to speak with you because I see you as an intellectual, I see
you with the capacity to understand and I will, again,
imbue that into you, but I'm not going to talk down to you.
And then parents who are afraid. If you're afraid. This is an issue
that we have to confront and hamdulillah for again, our
scholars and our leaders and our teachers. Take your fears to those
who know I was trying to tells us if you don't understand something
you don't know something, ask those who know take the fear and
do something with it. But don't be immobilized by fear. This is
exactly what shaitan wants. Shaitan is the one who should be
afraid, but we don't have no fear when we're with Allah subhanaw
taala so we have to deal with our fears.
All this other says, Yeah, you have Edina mn oh cool and Fusa
como Alikum naira. This is a an iron, that should stir our hearts.
We love our children. We love our families. How many of us would do
anything to protect them from harm? He's telling us now is the
time to protect them from harm. Wake up, pay attention.
And just to
bring it back to the theme, the way we battled Mahalia is by what
is Jehovah God is ignorance. The only way to battle it is through
through understanding through learning through highlighting what
is important, and language matters meanings matter and hear the word
Jamal. Jamal means great beauty. And there are this is a quote from
Robert Mueller is funny. And there are two aspects to this. The first
is the beauty with which a person is characterized in soul body or
actions. The second is that which connects to something else. In
this regard. It is related to the prophesy someone said God is
beautiful, and he loves beauty,
which indicates that all goodness comes from him so he loves those
who are characterized by this goodness. This is what we need
more of if we want to battle Jamelia, we want to put out the
darkness the only way to do that is through light and through
beauty and through understanding beauty. And here are the specific
differences that he also mentioned with the different aspects of
beauty intellectual beauty, that which the intellect or mind finds
attractive, spiritual and moral beauty found in righteousness and
most mentioned in the Quran, impulsive beauty that which the
impulse finds attractive and sensory beauty when
All of these are come together, we have what the purified heart
collarbones sorry. And this is what we all should aspire for it
within ourselves first and foremost. And then for our
families, our children, our loved ones, that we create homes where
beauty is the hallmark. Beauty is the most prominent aspect of the
home. That's how you battled Jamelia.
And also this hadith I mentioned this hadith, because it's very
powerful. If you read it literally, yes, there's meaning to
it. But also, in the sense of what we're undertaking right now this
is a very powerful Hadith, the Prophet said, for one that towards
the end of time, people from my OMA will drink wine, calling it an
other than its name. Why does this matter because we are living in a
time where everything's inverted. Meanings are being inverted
meanings are being manipulated, meanings are being distorted. So
we have to be, again,
follow our dean and realize the importance of understanding and,
and we can't do that if we don't use our faculty. And this is I
want to have to show my graduate team, I'm fired because he
mentioned something during his talk. And I said, Wow, that's an
important point, I have the slide from another presentation, I
should introduce this, because it's so beautiful. This is one of
the most beautiful things that our scholars left us, which every
child should know. And I when I teach children, I teach them this
because I want them to know that when this society only sees you as
a body of flesh, and an a stomach and an appetite. And that's all
they want to they want you to see yourself as our Dean has elevated
you. And this is probably my middle Saudi who taught us that we
are three parts three and one. He said number one, Allah subhanaw
taala gave us quarter a clear, the rational faculties the ability to
think the abilities or reason, the ability to derive meanings. And he
put that at the crown of our of our being the top of our head. The
second thing he gave us his quote about the beer and beautiful
analogy. He said this ability to emote, this faculty of emotion. He
likened it to what a hunting dog because a hunting dog is a useful
companion, a hunting dog, you train it, and then you dispatch
it, and it brings what you need. And it's under your control.
Emotions should be under our control. We are a dean of control
of comportment of adept. And this is from our Dean from our prophesy
center. So emotions are important but they do not define you in this
society. What do they want everybody to just be emotional
reactionary triggered constantly see yourself just as an emotional
person, check the emotion or the teacher this and then the last
part of our being is the bottom of our being the base of our being
our stomach and our private parts. Putin Shania, the appetite of
faculty, he likened it to a pig. Because why he says, If you don't
learn to govern it, it will enslave you see yourself as these
three and then define what you're going to be. Our dean calls us to
be the higher of the form. The rational being, this culture wants
you to be a dog and a pig. It's your choice. It's your choice, you
make the decision, are you going to follow their way? Will you just
become a dog person and a pig person? Are you going to rise to
your deen and to the level that ALLAH SubhanA your beloved calls
you to to see yourself as a higher form? And finally, solutions
moving forward? I don't want to leave people feeling like what do
we do now?
Number one, we have to define and maintain clear traditional roles.
Our traditions are important. We do that we must continue our
traditions whether those are cultural, or religious, hold on to
them because they want you to erase them. They want you to just
forget at all and start a new humanity 2.0 No, hold on to the
religious traditions, family traditions.
Prioritize your time spent with your family and build community at
the masjid here's Subhanallah Look at this beautiful community look
at what all was fine has blessed you with to have teachers and
amazing people who are willing to give up their time. And these are
not positions that are lofty in the sense of the material world
where they're just you know, pouring forth with so much
incentive there they know they have the mashallah right mindset
cyber corner right they're looking at the the next life in sha Allah
but these people are willing to give their time to raise help you
raise your children, establish and support community. And then I'm
sorry, it may goodness appealing through your beautiful character
work on your character, discuss critical topics with your
children. It is so important to have discussions as Imam Schiff
said, anyone thought her as well talk Sahaba Yes, your children are
going to make friends and they're going to have a lot of
conversations with their friends. But you you have to be the first
person as especially for the mothers and I'll say this to all
my my sisters here. You are the Mother Teresa of your home. You
are the first school the first teacher be the one who teaches
your children don't let society with their distorted disk
Casting lens, teach them things be the one who's teaches them because
inshallah you're a pure vessel, and that purity will come through
you for the father's Of course, as well. And then last invest,
please. I say this with so much passion, I hope you'll hear in my
voice. Please teach your children, the arts of love, that are found
in the liberal arts, education. I know there's a lot of emphasis on
STEM. But what's more important for our children is that they have
the skills of grammar, rhetoric and logic, if they if we're going
to send them into this crazy world, and they don't know how to
defend their faith, and they don't know how to explain their faith or
defend their faith, we are again sending them to the wolves. So
reinforce your children with the ability to speak with the ability
to really have, you know, articulation, to be able to debate
with logic, not with emotion with logic, which is a subject. So
these are the things I highly encourage parents to invest in,
especially if your children are small look for speech classes,
look, make sure that you emphasize the importance of language, we are
dealing again, where language is very, very important that
hamdulillah the second one failing, I'm sorry, I tried to go
as fast as I can, but inshallah we can maybe stick around for some
q&a. And on that note, I'm on a camera from Zillow here, but uh,
Katherine.
Forgive me
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh,
I think you
want to call this really?
Zack Allaha.
Does that the law fair to say, I would like to just really quickly
mentioned that, when we are in a setting where we have speakers
speaking, I know that it's it's long evening and everybody's, you
know, probably waiting for the food. But at the same time, I
would really appreciate if everybody could just take some
time and rethink the etiquette of being in a setting where there is
a speaker who is speaking, and people in the back are talking
and, you know, having their own conversations. So I just wanted to
make that point.
And also, I wanted to kind of finish off the evening with a
with a follow up everything that has been discussed today by our
three amazing speakers, they will discuss the different topics that
our youth are facing all the different challenges that they're
coming across. Things that we never even realized existed, you
know, the things that we thought our children were safe from, but
they actually know more about than we do. All of these these topics
are very important to address beforehand than to wait until you
know they are already learning about them in school and they will
get their gain information from school. And so through the MS AMI
program, in collaboration with our chaplaincy department and Sister
Michelle, who I'd like to thank for running our chaplaincy
department, mashallah she's doing a phenomenal job. We've gotten so
many chaplains on board trained, they're educated. And they've
already talked about these topics with people who come to them
at when they're doing their their Chaplain duties. And so what will
happen is that all the zombie students, all of the Majelis will
actually have Kaplan's attend, and kind of be guest speakers to
address these, these issues. And because these are so you know, I
would say like hot button issues, but also issues that parents kind
of shy away from, we will be sending home a waiver with the
students that will kind of explain the process, it'll explain the
different topics that will be discussed. And then we would like
for all the parents to take a look at it, sign it and send it back.
And that way you are fully aware of what's happening. But I do
guarantee that these conversations are absolutely important, vital,
and they're coming from sources that you are comfortable with that
you know, are, you know, Islamic based, knowledge based
information.
So Zach also to our chaplains, so we have a couple of them in the
audience. And there's phenomenal people that are mashallah very
well educated, they're out there and how that goes themselves in
adulthood levels. And so there'll be attending, that is Daniel
Majelis. I would also really like to thank you Monica and startup
aside for coming all the way up to Sacramento in the rain. This
weather has been interesting and they you know, they came they
prepared and manipulated and did phenomenal job. We'll be ending
the evening with a
we would have done a q&a, but I feel like everybody's getting a
little antsy. So
Hungry and hungry. So what we'll do is, once everybody everything
is done, feel free to stick around and ask questions. We'll have we
have two booths on the side over there. One is a zombie booth and
one of the chaplaincy booths. And there'll be staff members on both
available to answer your questions regarding the zombie regarding
chaplaincy, or anything else that you have and our speakers will be
around as well. So feel free to you know, come up to them and ask
them questions. But before I close, I would like to invite one
of our Nizami students, Elisa Siddiqui, who is going to be
attending our events with a DUA.
Otter Ashman going mad if no, maybe, yeah, can I put you like me
again staring at us syrup and stuffing, Syrah that lady in our
dolly and later Dinamo Luciani in one of them. Monome, lulling.
Ya Allah thank you for gathering us here today and letting us be
part of this beautiful community. You are in Harkey, we ask that You
grant us the wisdom to stay steadfast in our joint effort to
pursue knowledge. You are healthy, please continue to guide us and
show us the best ways to worship You. You are educating we asked
you to fill this wonderful new version of our beloved program
with success. So this program program with baraka and make it a
means for us to attain good stay on one straight path and inspire
our generation and future generations to be proud Muslims.
Yeah, love you are every call we grant us the strength to overcome
our weaknesses and distractions of this dunya Yeah, Allah we ask that
you accept our efforts and reward the team for all of their endless
hard work yeah Allah we ask that you bless all of our wonderful
mentors for guiding us grant them mercy and the best of this life
and the next y'all love we asked that the way you've gathered us
today in this beautiful question that you gather us in the
hereafter among you and Libby and his companions as well as in
the new world
how clean was the West
love food everyone I mean to beautiful doll by Elisa.
Now, time for food. So if we could line up we have a already aligned
form. Okay. So I guess just continue the line and inshallah
after in about 1520 minutes will Croatia so you can have