Observations on COVID pandemic

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. While early he was a happy woman Wala. Dear Brothers and Sisters, welcome, everyone to 18th annual Masha Dinorah conference. We don't have you with us in person but we have you virtually so welcome one and all. We're very happy for you to be able to join us. And inshallah we would like to formally begin our three day conference with our first lecture in sha Allah. I'd like to bring on chef Jamal Zaragoza Allah who has joined our live stream and would like to welcome in on

so I want to come Felicia

how are you? How are you doing Alhamdulillah Bananaman Good to see you she has mashallah looks like I feel like it should be this way, reach out and grab.

That's a good one that that means a good quality stream that our team has set up Michelle.

And the team has been working on it Mashallah. And we hope that people have a good experience trying to make it as real, as interactive as possible as we we definitely miss our regular conferences

from the Rabbil Alameen. So chef inshallah Wood was yet another Bozo. As you all know, we don't need a formal introduction. So Jeff, he's our local resident scholar here in Sacramento area. Michela very well known. You can read his bio on our conference website if you are new, and have not interacted or benefited from shizuma before. But I don't want to take more time because I would love to benefit from Gog Matera Bozo and his lecture.

She has a mal will be sharing with us some reflections and some lessons from this COVID pandemic, which is very relevant. And we'll be doing that throughout the conference learning and benefiting from the musharaf and their knowledge and observations. So I'd like to hand it over to Sheila DeMarco and we have about a good 4550 minute lecture and then we can take some questions if we end before the hour inshallah.

Good luck, sit on the lower go to the left. And hamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Nabina Muhammad wa Sharon Ilhan Omar who allegedly could have I should have won them Hamelin have the horse I'm about. So I guess. So. I forget what the exactly the title I gave for the the organizers, some observations. So I'm the law one of the observations that we can already get is even though sometimes you have to adjust Inshallah, as they say in English, if there's a will, there's a way so I'm delighted the organizers of this conference did not want to lose the opportunity of interacting with the community and inshallah having a chance to share with them and bring other scholars bring

other people from outside of the community to share with you Inshallah, we can all benefit and use this time that we have in sha Allah to benefit from it. I pray that Allah subhanaw taala makes this unique conference inshallah a beneficial one and then although we cannot be with one another in person to interact on the level that we usually do during the Mr. Dinner conferences have, Inshallah, we will still at least get some benefit, which as I said, is another one of the observations and one of the benefits that we can get experiencing through this.

Or this kind of trial that

we as an alma, we, as a community, and actually the world as a whole,

as you all know, is, is experiencing. So we've been,

we've been going through this for almost a year now, the pandemic, and it's obviously something new, you new, new and unique and for most for most of us, I'm sure that many of us were not alive in 1918, on the last pandemic of this nature hit hit the world. And so for us to, to go through something like this, and not to reflect and not to

understand like, what are some of the lessons that we can get from going through an experience like this? Because obviously, what we're going through it is Allah subhanaw taala who has decreed everything that we're going through, I mean, this pandemic is not a surprise to all the sudden with Allah, when Allah subhanaw taala nothing happens in this existence without Allah willing it without Allah subhanho wa Taala allowing it to exist, but we know that Allah is Al Hakim, Aleem Rahman. We know that all this fun what Allah is the most knowledgeable he is the wise. He is the merciful

And so there must be

if we sit and reflect, we should be able to understand that there must be benefits that we should be getting from, from experiencing this in our own lives, we can always read about, there's been number of plagues and so forth throughout history, we can read about them, but to actually go through some, such an experience, and live through this kind of thing, and get what they call like experiential knowledge, this is a unique opportunity actually, for us, even though we have to face a lot of difficulty a lot of hardships make a lot of sacrifices. And as we know, obviously, many people are dying from this pandemic in the process, but all of this is by the decree of illness.

And so, in the lectures, if you look at the schedule of this of the conference, hamdulillah there are a lot of lectures that are basically

essentially the main purpose is to make us understand a lot of the things that are a lot of the lessons that we should be getting through

go going through such an experience. So for example,

if you look at one of the some of the later lectures, on Sunday, the problem of of of evil,

or as well as, what is known as a theocracy, so again, these things that Allah has decreed, even though there's looks like there's a lot of suffering, and so forth, you know, what's, how can they be some point how can they be some wisdom behind it, that is obviously very important for Muslims to understand, as they as we go through when we experience these kinds of things, Inshallah, so hopefully, all of you will make sure to make it to that lecture. And before that they have a lecture on Toggle or putting one's trust and reliance and Allah subhanaw taala. And before that election, I will cut avocado believe in Allah's divine decree. And this, these three lectures, they highlight

something that is very important for us that sometimes

sometimes we don't remember or think that much about. And that is the relationship between the reality that we are living, and the things that we see around us and the things that we experience. The relationship between that and our belief system are Arcada, what we believe about Allah subhanaw taala. And what we should know about Allah subhanaw taala. In reality, the better that we can understand our Arcada in our belief system, which includes especially like with these last three lectures are going to talk about the better and the easier it is for us to be able to understand reality, and the veteran shallow we can understand reality, the better we were going to be able to

cope with reality. And that is soulless man without a central revelation, Allah subhanaw taala has sent lots of the truths and the secrets about this, this reality, it is the believers who have knowledge, it is the believers have knowledge and Sharla, who can take advantage of that, and turn to that, and inshallah this will be a guide for them both through the darkest times like pandemics, as well as through the best of times as well. That guidance, some delays the complete guidance that helps a believer get through both times difficulties, as well as times of his times, these are also kind of trial as well. Sometimes they're a greater child because sometimes it's more difficult to

control yourself when you have the ability to do a lot of things than it is to control yourself when you recognize that you are powerless or there's not much that you can do. And you just have to be patient and turn to

to a list of how to get that and this idea of coping inshallah and understanding and understanding reality.

This is, I guess from a secular perspective, you would call this mental health. And since the pandemic started, there's a lot of people who have issues, mental health issues, you know, they're having anxiety, they're having stress and so forth. They're having difficulty understanding why they're going through what they're going through and, and you know, if there's any light at the end of the tunnel and so forth, so mental health is always a concern for every human being. And Hamdulillah we have Inshallah, on the schedule,

more than one lecture inshallah we'll be touching upon mental health

And then obviously, when things of this nature happen as well, one of the, one of the first things that sometimes come to our mind

is the idea of punishment, punishment coming from all this mental Atallah and what's the relationship between punishment and sins and so forth. So, we, so we also have a lecture Inshallah, that will discuss that in detail as well coming up. So Hamdulillah this, this conference, and mashallah the people who arranged the topics of this conference Malasana with Allah, reward them for their efforts,

they have hamdullah captured in giving you and will be giving each other specific topics to specific talks, they will, they will touch upon and show us some of the main

topics that inshallah in the future will help you get through this pandemic, or at least, allow you to understand it in a positive way.

And not allow it to be just something very negative in your life, if you can, if you can imagine that. And

so those

so those are a number of important topics, Inshallah, that are going to have specific lectures dedicated to them. As you can see, there's a lot of Arpita or belief related issues that are central to living through times of this nature show. So I don't want to,

I don't want to discuss those topics too much, I might get a little bit into, into some of them. So instead, inshallah I want to maybe focus on because if you if you sit and reflect upon what's happened in the past year, and all of the kinds of like life adjustments that we've had to make and all the kinds of lessons that we can be,

that we can get just from, just from observing us as human beings, whether it is observing us as human beings, or observing us as believers, just by just by observing ourselves Inshallah, we can actually get a lot of lessons. So, this is, so Inshallah, my lecture is going to be focusing more on these kinds of observational kind of lessons Inshallah, that we can get, from what, what it is that we have experienced, and then I'll leave the details of, of those topics Inshallah, that I discussed,

to Inshallah, those respected scholars and speakers who will be coming up after me inshallah.

So, you know, one of the first of all, one of the things that we can see right away, and this, this was very clear from the, from the, some of the first days of the, of the pandemic

is that the pandemic reminds us of the importance of number one, having scholars, having scholars available, and turning to those scores, and listening to those scholars getting other words, the photos or the, the information from, from those from those scores.

First and foremost, for most probably for a lot of Muslims, when they think about turning to scholars, of course, they are thinking about at a fixed level, you know, what are we supposed to be doing what,

you know, what is it that we cannot do and so forth. And so, as I said, we kind of saw from from very early on,

that when this pandemic hit, we are we as an ummah, and we as a community, we are in need of people who can guide us and guide us based on knowledge. Because

as soon as this pandemic hit, or as soon as people started to realize the magnitude of this pandemic, all sorts of all sorts of questions, obviously.

Rose questions like, what's the status now of going to the mosque? What's the status now of the of the Juma prayer? What's the status of Umrah and Hajj? Is it permissible for example, for for people in authority?

Let's see, like, people in authority over a mosque or people in authority for example of a Masjid Al.

Haram.

Do they have the right to say, Okay, there's difficult circumstances right now. So we have to limit the number of people that we're going to allow to come to a mosque and we're also going to tell them not to pray in the way that they usually pray, you're gonna have to stay you know, six feet apart, and so forth. There's there are from

A lot of people from the earliest days of the pandemic, you know, most people, they just think, okay, the prayers obligatory, you should be praying in the mosque, the prayer in the mosque should be done like this. How can how can the scores come out and say no, you have to just under under different circumstances. So

the one who doesn't have much knowledge, the one who doesn't know the details, let's say of the example of the processing, and how he guided us under different circumstances and the teachings of the Quran, for the cases of necessity and so when those without knowledge, they just kind of look at everything at a very superficial level, and they understand things at a superficial level. And as a result, unfortunately, many times they demand that that understanding that they have be implemented, and they they're not willing to accept even what the scores of said. So it is, it is especially in times of crisis.

It is especially in times of crisis where you have difficult issues, difficult questions, which need a score of someone with an in depth knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah, to be able to weigh to be able to take the guidance of the Quran, sunnah. And see what kind of science is kind of indicating for us, indicating for us to fall, of course, the

issue of vaccinations, and you know, is there something not halal in the, in the ingredients of the vaccinations? Are they halal and so forth? This is another, this is obviously another big issue coming up as well. If we leave if we leave these kind of questions to be answered by people who do not do not have in depth knowledge, then it's very possible that the answers that we get are incorrect. And when the answers are incorrect, and in cases like this, it's a matter of life and death. We actually have an example of that nature and in the time of the Pollux incident, where someone gave a photo without knowledge and it led to somebody dying. So we know that giving photos

without knowledge and having in depth, knowledge of it sometimes actually can be a matter of life and death. So we need so this highlights, this highlights the importance of having scholars and obviously resorting to the scores. And the question of

the question of having scores. First of all, you know, how many, how many in depth scholars do we have in the Muslim ummah right now to the different Muslim, for example,

communities in the United States? How many do they have? How many are there going to be in the next generation? Do we have parents who are now grooming their children and trying to steer them in the direction of becoming scholars for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala or are people as a whole, you know, kind of, either out of fear or the chasing after this dunya they're pushing all the children in a in a certain direction. So this, so this pandemic, it highlights, once again,

it highlights once again, the importance of having knowledge, having scores, who have in depth knowledge, who will give us the appropriate fatwas and will guide us in the right direction. And as I said, many times, this is a matter of life of life and death.

What I

felt was just one thing, you know, that is, I think, unfortunately for many Muslims, their understanding of Islam is also sometimes a very superficial kind of like external understanding of Islam. To them is that means to pray and to fast and you do those our kind of action. But obviously, Islam and true Eman 20 minute goes much beyond much beyond that. And it's what is what is in the heart, it is what is in the mind, it is it is it is all about what the person is really all about in in a holistic sense. And, again, it is especially during times like this, where people can have crisis, what is what they call what many people call a crisis of faith. They cannot understand why

Allah subhanaw taala may allow and decree such things to occur as a pandemic. And for them, it just doesn't make any sense at all that I was fine with the islands allowing all people to suffer Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah is allowing young people to suffer and so forth. And in that, obviously, to understand that reality, you have to go beyond the fact that we have to pray five times a day and here's how you pray. You put your hands you put your hands there, and you move up and down. No, you have to understand the Arcada or the man

under the belief aspects of the belief aspects of, of Islam,

to understand what is going on, and it is this knowledge, it is this knowledge beyond I'm not, I'm not trying to downplay the importance of the of the practical and the ritual and the knowledge of the ritual acts. And so we'll obviously that is very important as well. But this aspect, but this aspect of what we actually believe, and how we understand this reality

around us, this is actually the foundation of what it means to be a Muslim, and the foundation of what it means to be a believer, you enter into Islam by the shahada, and the shahada is not supposed to be just a statement on the tongue, but it is a reflection of what you believe in other words, it is a reflection of, of what you have now understood, and recognized as the reality you understand it, and you accept it. And it is especially in times of this, of like, what we're going through nowadays, where this knowledge related to what is in the heart and related to understanding about Allah subhanaw taala and the reality of this cosmos

it is this knowledge inshallah that is liberating, it is uplifting

and inshallah it will be a key for people to get through this reality inshallah.

And, and as I said, inshallah you have other lectures coming up, especially on Sunday, we'll have them are special on Sunday, you have other lectures coming up, Inshallah, that will discuss that and explain that, in more details on Shabbat, I will leave that for those speakers, inshallah.

But there's another, there's another so, so, number one scores are supposed to give us the right conclusion Shala we need scholars to find the right fit conclusions, how can we pray under these circumstances and so forth, can we take the vaccinations and so forth, they also scholars are

people who are supposed to give us an understanding of the reality of what is going on. And so, therefore,

make things clear to us that we understand this is why all of a sudden, without a decrease these kinds of things over where there is there is also another very important aspect related to having scores, and being around scholars and having scholars Inshallah, in our, in our presence, because you want to get beyond the abstract, and you want to be get to beyond the theoretical. And, and so scholars are also very important to be

essentially sources of examples for us, they lead, they don't just lead by teaching and by the word, but they also lead, but they also lead by, by example. And when other people see the scholar leading by example, that also increases their confidence and increases their faith and so on. But if you have a scholar, who was saying this is how things how we should do things, and we should be careful about X and Y, especially during times of trials and difficulties, and then that person doesn't live up to that, number one,

it could be the case that that person is perhaps not a true scholar, because a true scholar inshallah is really going to apply the knowledge that the have those that's the definition Russian definition of

have a true score, right in the mugshot law, meaning buddy,

the ones who have the ones among our servants who have the true fear what was going on with Allah, they are the people No, is the ultimate.

So

but what happens? So what happens is, if you if you have people of that nature, who people are looking up to, as an example, in that example, is telling them look, this is an extreme situation, this is a difficult situation, and then they don't live up to the teachings that they are giving, that they're saying, here's how we should behave in these circumstances. This is This is very dangerous, this is very harmful. And this is why it's extremely important that scores are people who are looked upon as to add or looked upon as scores of people of knowledge for them to, to actually implement and live the example that they should be setting for for others.

For example, during this during this pandemic,

we see from a secular level from like a secular kind of aspect, we can see the importance of examples

So there were some, there were some studies that were done, a lot of studies have been done during this pandemic. But in particular, in the UK,

in the UK, they did a study, or over time, they were studying how people were abiding by the COVID-19 rules. And of course, you know, there's a lot of talk about how people get tired over time and this kind of fatigue, when it comes to, you know, especially locked down and so forth. But some of the studies found, some of the studies found that, that in England,

actually, the bulk of the people,

the bulk of the people, for many months, they were actually abiding the head with the court good compliance with the rules.

However,

when

people with privilege, when people with privilege, you know, those people who are being looked up to when people would privilege or violating those rules, and especially when it is those people who are, first and foremost expected

to live by the rules,

when they violated when they violated those rules.

This is what led to a loss of confidence in the rules. And this is what led to a great drop in the compliance in the UK. Some of you might know, Dominic Cummings, Cummings, who was part of the government, and he was found, you know, violating, violating the same rules that they had set down for, for everybody else. And you will see this, you know, Governor Newsom, here and even in California, we see this over and over time that those people who are like in privileged positions,

even though many times there are the same ones who are telling us we should behave and this and that, and this in that manner, and people are listening to them, and they're making sacrifices. And they're putting up with the constraints that they have to face. But then when they see when they see these people in privilege, they're the ones who are the first ones to violate these laws and violate the rules that are meant to help everyone. That's when people lose confidence. And when they lose confidence, they no longer start to abide by,

they now start to violate the rules, and the instructions that were given many times by these same people.

That violated the rules.

The most important point that I'm not particularly concerned so much about the exact example.

But the most important point that I want to emphasize from this is that as human beings, as human beings, it is not unusual for us to look up to people and to respect to respect people, and to listen to people. But when those people that we are looking up to and that we're respecting,

when they when we find that actually they are not living by the same moral principles, and they're not living by the same standards that they are talking about. Well, that means that that can easily lead to a situation where we lose trust in those principles that people talk about so beautifully. And whether you're talking about democracy, for example, or whether you're talking about religious principles, if those who are expected to live by them, if they are found,

if they are found to be not living by them, then you should not be surprised if the other people around them, they lose confidence in those things. And, unfortunately, specifically with respect to

with respect to Islam, it can even lead to a kind of crisis, faith. So this, this experience that we're going through

this experience that we're going through reminds again out the importance of

specially for those people in positions of authority, those people who are looked upon as respected, respected individuals and leaders and people of knowledge. It is extremely important.

It is extremely important that they

live up to what they're preaching and they live up to what the state will you know, the teachings that they are conveying. Because otherwise if they don't, and they are the ones who people look up to as having this knowledge and understanding it in depth, and they're the ones who are not living up to it, then you should not expect others to live up to it. The same is true by the way with respect to parents and children. Many times children

they lose faith in Islam because they hear their

parents talk about Islam so much. And then they come to the reality that on so many things, their parents are not living by what they're talking about. And on so many occasions, they are disobeying Allah subhanaw taala. So they're talking about how great Islam is, but they're not living up to it. So this, as I said, this pandemic, gave us once again, kind of like a real example of the importance of having role models and those models, especially people of status, and privilege, they have to be the one setting the examples for, for everybody else in Shaba, because they are the ones who are

being looked up to,

we also

one of the other aspects that we can also see, again, just kind of like observing what is going on in this pandemic, is, is the selfishness that many people have.

And so when you when you think of selfishness that many, many people have the middle, probably the first thing

that will come to mind is, you know, like those anti maths kind of people who are those people who insist on having a party on New Year's Eve and having Christmas gatherings and so what their their desire to have

their desire that to have what they want, overrides the general interest in overwrites the knees. I mean, we are in the middle of a pandemic, the number of people who are who are dying, you know, is as high as it's ever been during this during this pandemic, and yet people are insisting on a quote unquote, their rights

to either party or to not wear a mask or whatever the case, whatever the case might be, so there is there is this, like, inward looking at my rights, and this is how I should be and this is what I want, and how this affects others. how this affects others many times gets completely lost. And obviously, this is this is very dangerous, and from from an Islamic perspective, hopefully inshallah.

Hopefully, inshallah no Muslims take that kind of attitude.

I hope, what?

My guess is probably many Muslims do take that kind of attitude. And I'll talk about, I'll mention, now why I say that. First of all, we have to keep in mind,

we have to keep in mind that we don't have the right to

put anybody else in a state of harm.

Even with respect to

even with respect to plagues, and a plague is similar to pandemic that we're going through the prophesizing himself either Samaritan be Tom be up for that Hulu cooloola. Way, the worker, we are the one to be Falletta crucial for like the flu. When the Prophet SAW Selim said that if you hear of an outbreak of a plague in a lab, do not enter it. What if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place. So the promise I sent him here is giving us very clear instructions when it comes to question of the plague. So obviously, the plague spreads. And if you if you are in a place where you are, you have the plague, and you know that people have the plague

in that area. If you leave that land,

if you leave that land, you're putting now new people at risk, you don't have the right to do that. You don't have the right to do it, you don't have the right even to put yourself at risk. If the plague is in a certain land, you don't have the right to say it's okay.

I don't care, I'm just going to go ahead and to that land, even though I know that there's a plague there, this is not this is not the instruction that the Prophet sets in him has given us and the power system also has told us what are there There is to be no

there's to be no causing of harm nor reciprocating alarm. So we should not be we should not be causing harm towards towards anybody else. We should we don't even have the right to cause harm towards ourselves. So if there's a conflict between

what we need to do and what we want to do, if there's a conflict between what we need to do, from a rational perspective, from protecting ourselves and protecting others, and what we want to do that freedom and so forth. From a Sharia perspective, it's very clear which one it is that we have to abide by. And then to, you know,

too, to violate

principles that have been set there to protect people as a whole, in the name of personal freedom.

This is not correct from from a Sharia perspective. But with respect to Muslims in particular, there's another area, or another way in which Muslims

let's say, like violate this principle in a sense, and this is with respect to

what they envision their relationship to Allah subhanaw taala is, and as I said, unfortunately, many people their understanding of Islam is a very superficial understanding of Islam, the only thing that they know from Islam,

they don't know things about what is going on in the heart, right? They don't, they don't recognize that actually what is going on in the heart and your intention to do what is right, and your intention to live by what is right. This is really what is important to all of us no matter what data and from that should flow, the actions that you should take. No, unfortunately, for many people, for many Muslims, their understanding of Islam, and what their relationship is supposed to be with respect to all this data, is that basically, there are certain things that Allah has told us to do, and I have to do that. So the Juma prayer and I have to go to Joomla, then no matter what i

No matter what I have to do to get to Joomla. No matter how many, you know how fast I have to speed, no matter if I have to park in a place that is blocking the fire escape or blocking ambulances or whatever, it doesn't matter. Because all that matters to me is that basically like the whole world is revolving around me, I'm supposed to catch the Juma prayer. And that's the understand they actually think that by doing this, by doing this, they're doing something that is pleasing to Allah subhanaw taala. And I could actually give you we had more time, we don't have more time, I could give you example, or after example, of people, Muslims who actually put other Muslims lives at risk,

just because they wanted to attend the Juniper blocking ambulances, for example, when I when I said blocking eminences, I'm not speaking on a theoretical level, I'm speaking about something that actually happened. And the response of the person was, you know, this Juma prayer I have to make that I don't care about. I don't care about that. This, obviously, this understanding of Islam is absolutely incorrect. And shows, as I said, there is some kind of superficial understanding of Islam, that Islam is all about doing certain deeds, and you never excuse from them, obviously, if doing those deeds are going to be more harmful than beneficial, then for the sake of Allah subhanaw

taala, for the sake of Allah subhanho wa taala, you don't do those deeds. So for example, during the pandemic,

in different parts of the Muslim world, where,

and I assume probably is happening here, too, but I know of some stories in different parts of the Muslim world, where, you know,

the Imams or mosque or the or the governmental authorities, you know, closed mosques, you still people, you still find people insisting to coming to come and to pray. And probably all of you have experienced this, this before where

where people will come to the mosque, and it's clear that they're sick. It's clear that they're sick, they're coughing, sneezing, and even look like they must be running a temperature or whatever. I'm not talking about necessarily, now I'm talking about in general, you know, you find Muslims coming to the mosque, and bringing their children to a mosque and so forth. When they are clearly sick, it's as if no, I have to come to mind. Because for them, this is the it is the actual coming and being there, that without that they think they don't have a man or they don't have Islam. So what is going on in their heart and the relationship of their heart with a listen with data, and

their understanding that it's what is in their heart that is most important that seems to be completely gone. And so during this pandemic, where we might have to restrict ourselves, we, we cannot be going to the mosque, in the same way that we've been going to the mosque and other times during a time of a pandemic, especially if we feel like we are

even acts of worship, even acts of worship, that if you if an act of worship that you're going to do is causing more harm than benefit

for your fellow Muslims and obviously this is not truly probably this is not truly something that is going to be Beloved to us.

Because we know from the Hadith the process the process and I'm say that humbleness Elijah Allah and far homeliness.

The most beloved people to understand what are the ones who are most beneficial to the people. And then the process and I'm continued what happened, Amanda Illa Sorauren, to Hello who Allah muslim, that

the most beloved deeds to our son, what Allah is, is a source of happiness that you bring to bringing Muslim a disease where maybe he or his father or his children are going to end up in the emergency room and perhaps dying. This is not this is not bringing happiness to your fellow Muslim. And this is not what Allah subhanaw taala is asking of us, obviously. And in that same Hadith the Prophet says him continued

to say, well,

Willie, I'm sure Ma, if we heard your team, humbly Leia men, and who if he hadn't, Masjid shara, and for me to walk,

in order with a brother in order to fulfill his need, is more beloved to me than making ethic AF in this mosque, meaning the Mosque of the promises.

Part of our worship of Allah subhanho wa Taala

is to behave towards other people properly as well. And if there's a conflict between an act of a ritual act of worship, and causing harm to a fellow fellow Muslim,

it is very, it should be clear to everyone, it should be clear to everyone that you don't have the right to cause harm possible death to your brother, just so you can fulfill some kind of act that you that you think this is, this is how you're supposed to be worshiping someone with that you aren't supposed to be worshiping Allah subhanaw taala by doing those acts when they are good and safe. But once you start harming your fellow brothers and sisters, these are not long, no longer the way in which you are supposed to be worshiping, all of a sudden, what that and, and especially in this time, this time of a pandemic, where, you know, so many people have lost their jobs, people are

looking for income.

Look, they're looking for ways to support themselves, they're looking for food, the food banks, how many people now are showing up to the food banks that they haven't, you know, they never been there before. So this,

this experience as a whole should really bring to us the importance of being part of a community that we are, you know, we're not just worshipping again, we're not just worshipping Allah subhanaw taala, by ourselves, but how we're interacting with others is, is very important if we start if we truly understand our relationship to Allah subhanaw taala. And what is believed, you know, the the province I sent him one time he praised the Ashanti tribe. He said that when the people of the strike when they ran short of food during battles,

or when the when the food industry would run short, they would collect all the remaining food in like one sheet, and distributed equally among themselves, and the promises and said, for whom many will earn a minimum.

The promises seldom said these people are from me, and I am from them. After describing what they did, how, how they looked after each other, how they took care of each other, when things were scarce.

And how they would put things together and just distributed among the among those who needed them, who needed it, the promises and said, for whom many one a minute. And of course, the process of them said that they are from me, and I am from them. Of course we know that the reality. The reality, what we're facing nowadays is not a lack of resources.

It's not a shortage of resources, but it is a mal distribution of income, or the system, the capital corporate neoliberal capitalism that we're living under. We are people who are not suffering at all. And but then we have like the 99 percenters, many of them nowadays, are suffering.

Even though those other people are not even though those one percenters maybe are just kind of

taking care of themselves. We as believers, we as believers know that we have an obligation towards others. The promises of them said Lisa Marino, and levy Yeshe. Bell were Jara Hoja. That the it is not it is not becoming of the believer, the true believers, not one who he goes to bed and his stomach is full while his neighbor is, is hungry. So bringing us back to the idea of

of community, and recognizing that we should be here for one another. This is something that this pandemic, that has put a lot more people in need. And so makes us really understand the reality of need.

This is another lesson that we should be getting from this. And of course, related to that is the question of racism.

Racism is a type of room that we see, unfortunately, even throughout the Muslim ummah. And this, this pandemic, has highlighted, once again,

the harms of systemic racism, racism,

both racism, as well as obviously discrimination against the poor, not coming to the,

to the help of the poor, who gets help, who gets quality, help, and so forth. Many times, everyone knows, every time

many times it is based on what money you have, you know, who haven't so forth, how important are you, and those who are less important, so forth,

they may not get the help that we need. I mean, though, if you think of essential workers,

there's a lot of people who are still getting food for us and preparing and, you know, bringing in food from the from the, you know,

bringing the crops together, and so forth. These are people who cannot live without, but they are very poor. And they're probably going to be very low on the, on the scale scale of getting,

getting the help that they need, what they're around, you know, some people think of racism that just kind of like blow it off.

Obviously, as I said, it is a type of volume. And it has ramifications. For example, just to give one example, before I need to move on. So

they found that a large number of health care workers and frontline workers, they are refusing to receive the COVID 19 vaccine.

So now the vaccine finally came out. And yet, people were shocked why so many frontline workers and so forth, are refusing to,

to receive the vaccine. Well, a lot of those frontline workers are black and Hispanic. And so a study was done among among those people who

study was done among those people who are who said that they do not want to get the vaccine. And as I said, a disproportionate number of,

of those

of their frontline workers are black and Hispanic, and a disproportionate number of those who are refusing to take the vaccine, also, black and Hispanic as well. And they found in interviewing them, that it goes back to racism, they don't have any reason to trust the system, especially the miracle system. And so there was a time what was known as the Tuskegee syphilis study, and other things that were done. Tests, you know, the some of the experimental kinds of surgeries were done, on minorities, and so forth. These are things that people that people who say, they don't want to take the virus, the vaccine, these are some of the things that they have mentioned, when being asked why

they're not interested in taking the vaccine. They don't trust the vaccine. So

as a result of racism, they have been mistreated. And now that racism might be coming back to bite those people who who are racist in the first place. Because if they're not, if they're not going to get the vaccine, then you're not going to get that herd immunity, right, you need like 80% of the population to take the vaccine. So if you don't get that herd immunity, it might be your brother or your sister, or your father or your mother or whatever, who ends up getting the COVID-19 and maybe ends up dying from it. And when you chase it back, you might be able to trace it back to the reality that you yourself.

You will your your people were

were racist, and that racism is what has led to some of these led to some of these

developments. I'm pretty much out of time because I know we want to leave the for for some comments and so forth. So I'll just mention one last thing. And as I said, I'm trying to make I'm trying to make observations and maybe touch upon some things that may be some of the other topics, some of the other

some of the other

the titles or some of the other topics that they hadn't may not touch upon them so essential. And one other thing also that I think that is very important, is the relationship between Islam and science and conspiracy.

Here's, I think this is also something that if you observe what is going on once again, you can you can get some interesting points related to this as well, you know, conspiracy conspiracy theory.

Basically what happens in, you know, any good conspiracy theory is not provable, that's otherwise it's not a good conspiracy theory.

So basically a conspiracy theory is you take one plus one and you end up with three, you add a whole bunch of other stuff, and you end up with three. So the so the evidence doesn't point to it, and you don't have any clear sign for that, but you make the conclusion that you know, this is what is going on. Obviously, conspiracy theories can be very dangerous,

and conspiracy theories, you can find them oftentimes throughout the Muslim world.

Conspiracy theories are also used against Muslims. So basically, when we insist that people be objective, when, when we insist, for example, that Islamophobes be objective, and not make up conspiracy theory about Muslims, then we also have to do the same as well. We also have to be objective and not get into conspiracy theories, either about vaccinations or whatever the case might be. Because if we do that, then

if we don't, you know, if we don't live up to these principles, then what happens is also the conspiracy theories can be used against this as well like like for example, this was now many, many months ago months ago. But in India, for example, there was a movement calling for the boycotting of Muslims. There was different occasions in which Muslim poor tact which he goes to happens throughout the India different times. But in this particular case, in this particular case, what was what was fueling a lot of this anger towards Muslims. And the harm that was being inflicted upon Muslims was a conspiracy theory that came out that the Muslims are intentionally trying to spread the

Coronavirus and they talked about

Corona, jihad, Corona terrorism and these, you know, these are hashtags that went viral or viral on social media. They pointed to a meeting of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi and they said you know, this meeting was held there on purpose for the purpose of spreading the Coronavirus and so forth.

So, the problem is that, you know, if you are, if you got to be willing to espouse conspiracy theories and talk about conspiracy theories with respect to others,

and you are not being your objective yourself, then you cannot demand that they be objective, and Islamophobes are more than happy to split all kinds of conspiracy theories about,

about,

about Muslims. So, one last thing about science and as I said, I need to stop whichever

one I think about science that we as Muslims understand that everything that happens in this

cosmos, it is part of the creation of Allah subhanaw taala. And that includes plagues and viruses and so forth. These are actually part of what Allah subhanaw taala has decreed, and to understand the reality, and to defend yourself against them, like what the promise I sent him said, if you are in the land of a plague, don't leave that land. This is called following the ESMA following the world that causes and we as Muslims have to recognize that Allah subhanho wa Taala

part of the manner in which Allah subhanaw taala decrees things for this existence, it is through worldly causes or us and we cannot deny them and we should not. We should not deny it. So a lot of Christians, for example,

here in the United States, a lot of Christians, they're like denying that Coronavirus can touch them. They some of them said I believe in faith in over disease and stuff like that. And then they think somehow just because you have faith that that means this kind of disease cannot afflict

obviously our understanding of trials which are what you would want the lectures and show that there's going to be coming up in which will

explain inshallah to all of us that that's not necessarily the case on this one, what the others told us what type of fitness and lead to see when the leadin of aluminum and comparsa that ultimately with dialysis and fear trial, which will not just strike those who have committed wrong among you. So these kinds of diseases they are a type of intellect that comes from oversight or data. They can come to the to the PIs and all

To the Empires as well, and as I said, Inshallah, you will have another lecture, discussing that in detail. And so what we as most of the courts we look for as far as the worldly as club, and then we behave, we behave accordingly so, we don't follow,

we don't follow, as I said, conspiracy theories. Now, there's a rabbi in Israel, for example, saying that the COVID 19 vaccine is going to make people gay, and all these kinds of stuff. So we as Muslims Inshallah, we need to be smarter than that, raise yourself above that inshallah. So, these are some, some of the observations some of the reflections obviously, there are many more but there's some Dylan many other lectures coming up and it will touch upon many of the other aspects and many of the other actually benefits and lessons that we can get by experiencing the thing that we have experienced, even though we might think about it as something as a hardship as a difficulty.

In reality, there are lots of benefits that we can get from it, that inshallah moving forward hopefully moving forward this experiencing this will actually make us better Muslims and think if we had incorrect ways of thinking before inshallah improve our understanding of our existence in a holistic sense, and our relationship to Allah subhanaw taala in a holistic sense, as well, I shall so apologize for running a little late, but hopefully, inshallah I turn the floor now back over to Omar, I guess there isn't

that luxury Mark Luffy.

Still a very, very filled with information and

some hot button topics during the community that you touched on Mashallah. So this is really, really good. I think people need to hear more about it.

We have some time here, I know officially ends at five but this is not gonna break and mother doesn't come in until another 10 minutes from now. So if you're okay, we can take some questions and chill.

Okay, so one question that we have is, you talked about, you know, we don't believe we as Muslims don't believe in conspiracy theories.

So that's maybe in theory, right? Practically, we see so many people falling for that, or sometimes more than falling forward. They believe it, they propagate it and they're Muslims. How do we deal with that in response to that, and if we see one of our own family members doing it or somebody that we care for, what's the best way to give advice.

So even you know, part of our etiquette,

whatever etiquette even when dealing with non Muslims in doubt, for example, that

shows us in the Quran, you know how to put Harlequin condoms on you, you have to bring your proof, you have to bring your proof if you are truthful. So if you ever stood up, you're speaking, you're speaking something and it is true that you should have evidence should have evidence for it. And in our data, when we talk to non Muslims, this is an important principle of our data that we can back up the things that we are, that we are that we are saying. So when it comes to, as I said, when it comes to conspiracy theories,

essentially, a conspiracy theory is like one plus one equals three, obviously no conspiracy theory is going to take off. If they don't have anything unless they are extreme extremist.

would usually they have like a point they catch a point here and they catch a point there. But they don't have anything that can prove their conclusion. And they're hoping Inshallah, they're hoping that people will kind of accept that conclusion. And they will not question that. Okay, yeah, you highlighted these two things. But those two things don't prove the final thing that you're saying. And that's what we need to ask of our we ask others, we should ask that of others, which we should also ask ourselves. So when someone brings, for example, a for example, with respect to vaccinations,

and whether or not vaccinations cause autism and so forth, this is one of those commonly held ones. So sometimes it may require, you know, sometimes it may require actually people to go into, into detail and to study something. So sometimes it is a case where they're just making a conclusion from a few things that they saw or heard. And that kind of person, you can, you can you can show them, look, you're making a logical leap here. You cannot do that you have to you have to find the steps that will lead to that conclusion. And you put the burden on them to provide that evidence of what other things like there might be actually some evidence, some studies out there, and those kinds of

things. I

Think they require that does require some time and effort. So for example, especially like the vaccination one, myself personally, a few years ago, I actually sat down and I read, I don't remember how many studies, there are both pro and con. And it seemed very clear to me that this is again, another one of those

conspiracy theories. So sometimes, some conspiracy theories cannot be undone except with a great deal of knowledge, a great deal of research. And that, again, points to the importance of knowledge and the importance of people with knowledge that can be respected that are people who are examples and Choma that people will listen to. So I think you can find conspiracy theories as a whole and to those two kind of big categories. One where someone is just making a claim based on one or two points, but doesn't have anything to back it up. And another one where they might even have some studies that they claim are supporting their conspiracy theory that requires more research and going

into it, maybe there's there's something or they're not, obviously if it can be proven, it is not a conspiracy theory.

Right.

I mean, you make a good point that people that are affected by, you know, knowledge coming from different sources. I mean, there are a lot of people that are believing in these things are reading them off of social media and maybe unverified sources. While on the other hand, we see some of them are shy, or people of knowledge that also happened to be involved in the field of medicine or, or whatnot, are coming forward and telling people, you know what the facts are. So it really comes down to where they're getting their information from. And again, just as you said,

the point that you just made highlights, again, we need people who are people of knowledge, and not just very specific, how to pray, but sometimes also in a very holistic sense as well.

Let's see if we have any other questions before we end here.

So to our viewers, we do apologize, there's a chat feature that we have, where we can take questions and there's having some technical issue there. But we will have that fixed momentarily. Inshallah we do have another break coming up. So make sure that that comes up. But That basically sums up what we had for a question. Let me ask the team if there's any other any other questions, they see.

Nothing

Yeah, questions. Questions are not mandatory during a pandemic.

No, but mashallah, you have to you touched on some really good issues. And I know there's there were questions coming in and from the law, at least we got one of them answered, very well handled, local affair. So I think with that we can go ahead and conclude get people ready for sloty Multilib. And for the next session coming up, we really appreciate your time. She XML May Allah Allah bless you and your knowledge and make us all benefit from beneficial knowledge and Sharla always nice to have you in our conference. And we appreciate your your time and your benefit, but

we don't have the same background. This is what I'm trying to figure

this Michelle the team helped with it on the Lila and we can we can send you the graphics inshallah. The Lakisha as their

local aphasia is the team mashallah Marcela Fagan chef May Allah Allah protect you have a look Allah medical Luffy

All right, so brothers and sisters in sha Allah, we're going to transition to a break coming up. And as you know, the next session after the break is