Maryam Amir – Political Role of the Women Companions
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
It was a lot
when we look at Oh yeah, sorry, just Miriam friend, oh, I know I
want to be respectful, though, so I do want to give the an
introduction, if that's okay with you. Oh yeah, you don't need to.
But sure, okay. I do because I feel like I need to, because we
should really celebrate the scholars that we have among us,
especially someone as yourself. So I do just want to take a minute. I
sent everybody the sheik bio, but I will read it, just in case you
didn't get a chance. Mariam Ahmed received her master's in education
from UCLA Bruins. She holds a second bachelor's degree in
Islamic studies throughout a university, Mariam has studied in
Egypt, memorized the Quran mashallah and researched a variety
of religious sciences, ranging from Quranic exit exegesis, oh my
gosh, I know how to read
English word
Islamic jurisprudence, prophetic narrations and commentary women's
rights within Islamic law and more. For the past 15 years, she's
featured in a video series on faith produced by goodcast.net
called the Mariam EMEA show. She actively hosts women who have
memorized the Quran from around the world to recite and share
their journeys through her into the revelation series and the
foremothers campaign. If you aren't familiar with that, please
go to her Instagram page, because it is phenomenal. She is an
instructor with Swiss, which is the sohai web Institute and hekma
institutes, and an author with virtual mosque and online she has
been interviewed for her work by major news outlet, outlets
including BBC and PR and CBS. Maryam is focused in the fields of
spiritual connections, identity actualizations, social justice and
Women's Studies have humbled her the opportunity to lecture
throughout the United States and the world, including in Jerusalem,
Mecca, Medina, Stockholm, London, Toronto, and so many more. And
this is like the coolest thing, I think, of all of that, she holds a
second degree black belt mashallah in Taekwondo and speaks multiple
languages. We are also excited to have you here, Sheikha, and I
always
think it's amazing that we have you in the community. You're
changing so much for us. I me and my sisters talk about this a lot,
the culture and a lot of the things in, unfortunately, in our
societies that are conflicting with Islam and actually not not
Islamic principles, and so I love that you're speaking up and
bringing all those Hafid and of the Quran to your space and your
platforms. Recently, I just want to share one thing recently,
shayka Mariam brought to her platform on social media the first
individual Down syndrome to memorize the entire Quran. Her
name is hafida Rawan, which is speaks volume to to mashallah, the
beauty of the Quran, and also to the capabilities of this
individual and her intellectual capabilities. So again,
highlighting very important people in our community, JazakAllah
khairan and I will meet now
Hana Kala, PK, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be
here seriously this morning, when we look at the way that we talk
about women's issues in our community, it's often in a
particular lens, and that lens is often what what lens would you say
that you hear about women's issues? Share with me
that we have, I feel like a lot of times, people tell us the things
that are haram or prohibited, more of like
telling us where to go, what to do, and it's not, even though it's
supposed to be empowering. Islam is empowering women, but that's
not how it's framed.
Absolutely, yeah, yeah,
anything else?
Like, what are women's roles in Islam? Yeah,
from the perspective of men,
so much, so many moments at one time. I almost feel like a lot of
it is, like, focused on, like, child rearing, and which, like
mashallah, that's also like, so positive and great. But I feel
like, like even the women at the time of the profit, like their
roles were so much more and so it feels like very restricted,
yes, absolutely, absolute session with focusing on a woman as as one
particular type of type of space, in one particular type space. Yes,
anyone
else? I also feel like sometimes the way we're taught Islamic
history, it's almost as if women are like sign line sideline
spectators. In one of our fellows, we had a sister talk to us about
one of the companions of the prophet that was a woman, and she
played a vital role, but also a lot of times in like the top of
Sierra and um.
Even the way we discuss the companions of the Prophet, the
men, it's like they were like main characters, and it's almost like
the women are like peripheral, like background care, you know,
like in a movie, like background characters, like extras, right?
Unfortunately, do you? Do you remember?
Do you remember who they mentioned, which, which companion
it was,
unfortunately not the same. And, Aya, you were there. Do you
remember who it was?
Desi, you're on mute. I don't know. Um,
unfortunately I don't remember. I'm so sorry. No, exactly. That's
why that. No, no, that's, that's literally, but just like power to
the point that's literally, like part of what, what, what proves
the point. Subhanallah, I mean, all of the things that you all
mentioned, whether they were related to just women, kind of
being told what we should be doing with our lives, or that there's
really like an emphasis on one specific thing that we should be
doing with our lives, or the fact that, yeah, we did exist somewhere
in some place, but who were they? We don't really know. It's kind of
like the messaging that many of us have heard growing up in the
Muslim community or in Muslim spaces, even if you come from a
family where, excuse me, maybe your your parents or your family
members support you and what you want to do in terms of like, maybe
you have particular goals you want to fall and you come from that
kind of background when you walk into the community, not every
space, obviously, but a lot of spaces kind of focus on this,
marriage, motherhood, modesty as the most important parts of A
Muslim woman's life, and of course, they're very important. No
one's disagreeing that they're important. They're not important.
But when we actually look at like the time of the companions, we can
name women companions like when you ask, what are names of women
companions? Typically, the names that come up very quickly are
Khadija and Aisha and Fatima rodiloha and hun but what do we
know about them. When you are taught about Khadija radilo Ha,
this is typically what we're taught. We're Tada Khadija radilo
Han Ha, when we give, you know, let's say, a presentation to a
group of of individuals who are not Muslim, who want to learn
about Islam, we say things like, she was older than the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasalam. She was a businesswoman. She was someone
who supported the Prophet. Peace be upon him. Look at how
empowering Islam is for a woman. The Prophet's wife proposed to
him. She was a widow. And we say all of these things as like, these
empowering, you know,
points. But when it comes to actually practicing any of those
in the Muslim community, it's like, yes, Khadija radila Ha was a
businesswoman, but women should never go into business. Yes, she
was a widow who was older than Prophet saw them, who proposed the
props Holy Son, but a woman should never be any of those things like
the way that we present the few women who we actually talk about
is such an injustice to who they really were. Because when we even
look at Khadijah, how many of you have ever thought of her as, have
you? Have you have any? How many of you have ever thought of her as
a political revolutionary, because that's who she was, because she
was the first person who accepted the message of the Prophet
sallallahu, alayhi wasallam. So she accepted the message of the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasalam. And with that message
came what a complete, a complete change of the structure of the
economic system in society and the structure of social hierarchy in
society. It wasn't simply I accept that I believe in God. It was a
complete shift of society. So when there is political pushback when
there are, when there are, when there are the leaders of society
who are forcing, physically persecuting, to change people, to
change their perspective. This becomes political. She's the first
person to accept this message of complete transformation from the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam. And when we look at Asmaa
bint, Abu Bakr, odiloha, anha on Huma, bint, Abu Bakr, Huma, we can
see that she was a few a political rebel, because what did she do? We
talk about how she helped the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
sallam, Abu Bakr radiloha and Huma rodi Aloha, and who leave and make
Hijra. And we know that story, and we say that story with pride that
she was the one of who had the two. She cut her her garment into
two, and so she was able to use that garment to to support the
Prophet sallallahu, wasallam. But we have to realize that she was
aiding fugitives. Was a political act for her to not only put
herself on the line, but to to to also put her family on the line.
She was seven months pregnant when she was helping the Prophet
sallallahu Abu in the desert. The Quraysh physically assaulted her
for her actions, and yet she continued to be steadfast in the
form of support the Prophet of the Prophet, sallAllahu alayhi
wasalam. But how many of us have ever heard of her in that light,
even the fact that she was seven months pregnant or in the third
trimester of pregnancy? Has anyone ever heard of this before? Why?
Is that not focused when we talk about these women who gave up
everything and yet we only focus on one aspect of their lives? Why?
So? Why does this happen? There's a an author, Dr Asmaa ziada. She
wrote a book that her father, who's a sheik, started to write,
and he passed away before he could complete it, and the the
introduction that she wrote for his book is so beautiful. She
talks about her father in such a way. I mean, I was bawling when I
read her introduction. And the reason I was bawling is because
the way that he she talks about this father is someone who
invested in her, and he's starting this work. And what is the work
called? The work that she completed in his name, door, the
role al Mara a CSI
filat. So she is writing a book about the political role of woman
in the time of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam, and
in the righteous belief in the righteous Khalifa, the Rashidun.
And in this book, what she talks about is that when people examined
the time of the past, a lot of times they did it in their own
lens, right? So like, if somebody wants to write something about the
time of the Prophet sallallahu, Islam in the Sira, they might be
looking at a particular aspect of the Sira. They're not necessarily
looking at woman in the Sierra. So if you're not looking for
political involvement of women in the zero, then that's not going to
be a part of the book that you write. And that book, which
becomes a resource for people to read and for people to spread
Islam, doesn't include that perspective. So now you have lots
of books written without this perspective being included, and
those are the books that are used as resources and references, and
now this perspective is not even being included. And so her work
looks at how woman came and gave the baya to the Prophet sallallahu
alayhisam. That was political. Woman made made hijra two times
why to seek political asylum. This is political so she's looking at
the woman companions in a completely different perspective.
Not simply, yes, women who fought in battle, because there were over
30 women campaigns who fought in battles, really, Lahore, anwon,
but also in looking at them in these perspective of in these
comprehensive perspectives that we would say for men, of course, we
would say that men were politically involved, but women
were literally doing the exact same action. Why wouldn't we also
put that as part of their involvement? So when we simply
look at the way that we frame women's roles and
responsibilities, we can absolutely emphasize, and, you
know, highlight the fact that they were actively involved as mothers
and actively involved in maintaining their home. But we we
harm every woman who doesn't fit into that narrative when we don't
share all of the aspects and all of the faucets of who these women
were, and even women who do follow that narrative, because some women
give up everything to be, to be housewives and mothers for their
entire for their for their youth, through their through their
middle, middle age, and now they are faced with maybe a marriage
that might, might, might have been supportive, or maybe they're no
longer married for whatever reason. And now they have children
who have grown and what is their role, they have never explored it,
because they've never been told that it's important for them to do
so. So we do an injustice to every woman. When we don't give a
comprehensive picture of who the companions were radila, who were
women, we don't injustice to all the sacrifices that those women
gave. Because when we look at the way that Sheik is, he talks about
how women's roles, unfortunately, have been so mis understood and
throughout, throughout Islamic history because of politics. So
for example, Sheik Akram nadaway talks about how there were women
who were Hadith scholars and felt scholars and scholars of all
different paths, who taught men scholars. And we all know this. We
all know that there were, there were women who were scholars in
Islamic history. But what about the fact that ima mere, ima Hajj,
Ibn Taymiyyah, all of these great names who we constantly quote, can
all trace back their teachings to women who taught them. And when we
look at that and we say, what happened throughout history? There
was a time period in which Greek books of philosophy were
translated into Arabic. And this was a time period in which Arab,
Arab scholar and Muslim scholars who were reading Arabic,
translating into from the Greek to the Arabic, started using part of
this, you know, discussion of philosophy, both to refute it and
also the part some of it was included. And part of that
discussion had to do with women, and what did women what did it
have to say about women, that women were not they were
questioning whether or not we we know this questioning or not
whether or not women had souls. We've heard that before, and the
time when Europeans were questioning whether or not women
had souls. Islam gave women the right.
To inherit. Islam gave women the right to be a businesswoman. We
use that as a talking point, but they were also saying that whether
or not women should actually receive an education, whether or
not women should actually be a part of these spaces in which they
in which they are actively involved in society. And so what
we see from the Greek the time of the Greek philosophers is when
those started to be translated and they started to become part of the
text of the Muslims. And those Muslims who identified with being
philosophers actually took the rule. They became the rulers. They
started shifting policies related to education. So if they're
closing the doors of education for a woman, and they're in rule in
the in the rulership, and this is a policy that's impacting the way
women are seen in society. How do you think that's going to change
just a few generations so in just a few generations ago, from women
who are scholars, who are teaching men and women to to women who are
not even able to receive the type of education that they had
received a few generations ago. Because when you set policy that
starts impacting not just my personal experience, but all of
our personal experiences, which is why so many of us have the same
experiences, because the policies in our misadjut are often
reflective of the culture which the masjid has chosen to create as
part of their policy. This is why, when you look at the many women
who have been so honored to interview from mashallah all over
the world. You see women who's part of their culture's policy is
that women are in spaces of Quran. So when you have someone like
Sheik war dahasan, and she is the the woman version of Abdul Basit,
and she's reciting and she has won on competitions on television, and
we ask her a question of, where did you learn this from? And she
says, Oh, I learned this with my whole family, like my dad, my
everyone in her family has been taught this. And it's not that she
is. I mean, she's very special in mashallah, but she's not as
unique. There are so many women who are part of the culture of
Indonesia who learn Maka mat as children, and she's
actually an Azhari graduate. She went from Singapore, studied in
Azhar, and she learned and of Quran. Her Quran is incredible.
She's won international Quran competitions. When I asked her,
when did you learn Quran? And she's like, here in Singapore, we
learn it like you learn a sport in school, like physical education,
like PE it's part of our curriculum. From the time young
girls are three five, they are not just learning how to memorize
Quran. They're learning how to perfect their recitation of the
Quran because it's the policy, it's their culture. So it's not
she's so special. She memories Quran. It's the whole culture is
encouraging all women to memorize the Quran. And you see this panel
in Malaysia. I went on a on this TV program in Malaysia that is a
woman, fartuza. She is a Korea who has again won Quran competitions,
and she is reciting with two other men. They are the host of this
show, and they're reciting, and they have people call in, and they
they do recitations with them, and the culture was all about her
perfection of Quran when she recites the way that the men
respond, or Allah. It's not stuck for Allah, it's a law. It's this
upliftment and this enjoyment and this love for the Quran, not
because she's a woman, why she in this space? Because the way that
the scholars in that region look at these issues are very different
from the way that scholars in other regions look at these
issues. And we see the same thing in Morocco when I interviewed
hafida Mariam, she's again, another Mashallah. I mean, all of
these women on TV winning international Quran competitions,
incredible recitation. And I asked her, like, what is it like for
women to memorize the Quran like, Are people kind of, you know,
uncomfortable with you reciting in competitions? And the way she
responded to me was, Where do you live? I was like, California, and
she's like, listen, maybe in California, you don't know what
it's like for a woman to recite the Quran. But here,
all of the woman, she's actually from Algeria, all of the women
recite Quran. Women recite in competitions with men and women
beat men, and the powerful response to her, when I
interviewed her, I suddenly got like, I can't even count how many
messages from Morocco and from Algeria, from women who are like,
I'm also a party. I've also won in Quran and competitions. Can you
interview me too? I was so shocked at all of a sudden I'm getting so
many messages from women from this region, that region, and the
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, like Subhanallah, the amount of
women who are are Quran, not just Quran memorizers, Quran reciters,
the perfection of the recitation, and it's something that's
encouraged in the culture.
Sure, and that shift is something that we we don't know. When we
don't live it, we don't see it, and so we assume it's a
controversial topic. It's a progressive, liberal, feminist
opinion, and that's just, you've just been influenced by
westernization. The other day, there was a girl on Tiktok who is
asking me, like, why is it that you and she mentioned, like,
Yasmin will get hit and Dr Rania, she's like, why are you, like, the
only woman scholars? And I'm like, like, all I'll do respect like
you, you just don't know who they are. That doesn't mean there are
none. It means you don't know them. And her reaction to that was
like, okay, okay. But like, maybe United States, but like, there's,
like, really, no, you know. Are you influenced? Are Muslim women
here influenced by western culture? And that's why they are
speakers, because there's really no speakers, like around the
world. And I was like, again, with all due respect, you do not know
they exist. That doesn't mean they don't exist. And part of the
problem for us here in our community is that we don't have
structures to create the culture for women to be in these spaces.
So for example, you might know a few women from social media. Maybe
you've met a woman in your Masjid. Maybe you know medium to beef mom,
and you go to her and you ask her for advice. Maybe you have like
these you know women who are in your masjid, who you can go to,
and you're like mashallah, that chala, she knows something. I'm
gonna ask her a question. But how many of you know of a woman in
your community who has actively been teaching Islam and giving
lectures, MMA sa Quran? Maybe you know one. Maybe you even know two.
But do you know that person as a source of authority in your
community, or Shia RAM Khala that you go to in the masjid. When you
have advice, you need to ask for advice. The authority that is
given to women is created in our spaces when we create them, when
we demand the creation, when we are creating these roles. So that
all of little sisters who ask me, I want to study Islam, but I don't
know where to go. I don't know what to do with it after I study
it, that's what all of us went through. We went and we studied
Islam, and we come back and we're like, what do I do with this? You
can teach Islamic school to third graders, which is really, really
an important role, but you don't need a degree in Sharia to do
that. Or you can teach Islam in the masjid. Free Sabi da one
Sheikha, I know, who has a PhD in Islamic law, she could not teach
Islam in the masjid because they're not willing to pay her at
all. But she did not have enough of an income on her, on her
husband's income, so she had to open her own business, and she
does something completely unrelated to Islam so that they
can make ends meet. She has a PhD in Islamic law. What kind of
benefit could she have brought to her community, but the community
was not willing to support her to be able to live. So when when we
look at the importance of having women scholars, it's not just this
is a sister who speaks at a conference that's wonderful,
that's inspiring, but we need massaged. Who are creating spaces
where you have an Imam, and the Imam is accessible to men and
women, but you also have a woman who is a resident scholar, who is
at the masjid, who is accessible to men and women, but especially
to women, because I don't know about you, but I have definitely
gone through the experience of not knowing if my period was done,
having no clue who to ask, and the only person that I know who to ask
is the Imam of my masjid, who I don't know how to access, except
through the men's prayer hall. So I need to find a random man to
find the Imam to come outside and talk to me about my period. This
is so absurd, and the fact that that has been so many of our
experiences speaks to the point that we are not prioritizing
women's needs in our community, when
Panama, when we look at Islamic history, and how the way that we
present women's issues in our community so intentional, and it's
so skewed. And I don't think that this comes from a malicious place
by any means. I think truly, we have had generations of trauma
because of colonialism. With colonialism came the ideas of
puritanical Christian
taboos on women. And so we go from again women coming from a time
where women were flourishing in different places. Colonialism
happens, ravages Muslims, Muslim space, Muslim majority countries
and the Imams, the she, you of these countries are making the
tower to protect women in that time period, to protect women from
*, to protect women from being harmed. And so a lot of times,
this concept of protection, the protection from fitna, which is
two points. It's a completely different one, unrelated to the
one I'm sharing. But this concept of protection sometimes is
sincerely to protect women from a serious harm. Of course, we can
say that we don't want women to be.
Are going out into the street and, God forbid, facing any sort of
harm because of colonists who are coming in and literally raising an
entire an entire city. But did those scholars intend for those
fatawa to last until, until forever, or was the intention to
protect women in that time period? And this goes back to the concept
a set of Lara Yar, which is something that's used so often for
women. It's the concept of blocking the means to evil before
you can actually get to that evil. And it's it's really what the
concept of woman, we say the Quran is based in the woman. We say the
Quran is not based on ijumara of an ayah in the Quran. It's not
based on a consensus of of a Hadith from the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi salam. In fact, the Prophet sallallahu alays and Muslim ibn
Muhammad heard a woman recited in the Quran, and he was emotionally
impacted by her recitation. And we have to realize the woman
companions were in the time of the revelation. There's more than one
narration of a woman who recited and memorized the whole qur, a
whole Surah, like Surah Kahf, or a different surah of the Quran,
because she heard it from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, he would recite it in the masjid. So the Lahore, they would
send them, she would hear it. She would memorize it. So you, you
have to think the woman were memorizing Quran. How do you
memorize Quran in your head every day, like you have to say it out
loud, you're reciting Quran. So whether they were reciting in
their homes, in the way that, of course, women recited in their
homes, and it was, and it was the walls of their of their home
wasn't super thick that no one could hear outside. There are too
many narrations, including the famous one of Amar hearing a
daughter and a mother speaking about the justice on something
that they were going to sell. And so he asked his son to propose to
one of his sons to propose to the daughter. So we have too many
narrations of women's voices being carried out of their homes, even
Amar Aldi laho Anu approaching and hearing the wives of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And he's like, you speak to the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam like this. And they say to
him, Well, you're like, stern and you're harsh. Of course, we're not
going to speak to you like that. And Prophet SAW, Islam responds.
Asthma takes another road from Amarillo Anhu. And so the point is
that we could hear women's voices in the street. Don't you think
that if it was haram for a woman to recite the Quran, the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi salam would have been required to say that it's
haram for women to recite the Quran in a public space, because
he would have overheard it multiple times. Sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. But if it was the norm, if it's part of the norm and the
abnormal is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam hearing it and
becoming emotionally impacted by it. That is a recording that we
have. The fact that he was emotionally impacted by hearing
her recitation. Not the not the fact that the Prophet sallallahu
Sallam heard a woman reciting that was already normal. And I'm not
saying, of course, if I saw some hearing the Quran, of course, is
always emotionally impacted. But I'm saying the point is that we
choose what we're going to focus on, which is why, when we talk
about atika radila bin Zayed, who was the wife of Amar Odilo anhu,
she was the wife of Amar ODI lahohan, who who he did not want
to go to the masjid because he was very jealous. And we have to also
realize who was Amma. He was someone who said that we used to
think of woman as nothing. We used to think of women as absolutely
nothing, until Allah revealed what he revealed, and he divided what
he divided. And so he's coming from a time period where women
were seen as nothing. They were inherited like property. They were
buried alive as baby girls. That's the culture surrounding woman. So
what shift Did he go through in just a generation because of the
revelation, to see woman as his partners, as the Prophet
sallallahu sallam said, to see women as allies, as the Quran
says. So now you have to recognize that that shift as he's in a
position of power and women are coming to him, and he says that
Omar made a mistake, and it was corrected by a woman, that he is
making the shift that women are his equal, spiritually, that he's
taking advice from them, that on his political cabinet, ashif had
been told. So look at the shift of what he went through and his
personal preference for his wife, Attika, not to go out. That's his
personal preference. Now, the way we hear this, I don't know if
you've ever heard of this narration. Have you heard of the
narration of Amar being jealous of his wife going to the masjid? Have
you heard that before
I heard it? From you? Anyone who has, oh, from me. Okay. Alright.
Have not okay. Often times when I've heard this, the way that it's
presented is, see sisters, someone as great as Amma did not want his
wife to go to the masjid. So you should realize the importance of a
woman not going to the masjid because someone, as you know,
someone who, who's, who's a guaranteed paradise, worldly,
Allahu anhu, such an amazing example for us all. Didn't want
that for his wife. The problem is that this doesn't look at the full
picture, because atyaka had put in her marriage contract that she
wanted to go to the masjid before she married him. This is mentioned
in Ibn hazard book. And then after that, she asks Amma, why about
why? Why he's not stopping her, and Ibn Amar has a narration when
he asks her so.
This is basically his stepmom. She's going to the masjid. And Ibn
AMR is asking her, why are you going when you know the armor
doesn't like you to go? And he's respond. She's responding and
saying, Why doesn't he ban me from going? And the response to her,
Radi Allahu anhu, from Ibn AMR is that because of the words of the
Prophet sallallahu, sallallahu alayhi salam, do not prevent the
the maid servants of Allah from going to the from going to the
house of Allah, that TAM Naru, ima Allah, Sajid, Allah, and so she
keeps going. Now, what happens when she goes? Amra radila huanhu
is stabbed. He eventually is martyred. Rodi Allahu, Anhu. And
again, the way I've heard this story, atiak was in the masjid
when he was murdered, doing something that he did not approve
of. So you might think that as a wife, she could feel guilty, she
could feel regret, she could feel like I should have listened to the
person I loved so much I was in love with my husband. I should
have done what he wanted me to do. He died and I was doing something
that he didn't love. Instead, when she gets married again to azube
rodi Aloha anhu, she puts it in her marriage contract again that
he cannot stop her from going to the masjid because the masjid was
so important to the woman of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, who surrounded him. This is why Sophia radila. Maybe you've
heard of the narration. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
is walking with one of his wives, and he sees a couple of
companions, and they're saying to them, and then he clarifies that
This is Sophia rodilla Juan, and they're like, of course, we would
never think something of you. And there and then he talks about, you
know the how she Aton can run through your blood, that the
importance of clarifying these matters. Have you heard this
before? But have you heard why they were walking together? Do you
know why they were walking together?
No, because she was praying at the mosque. She went to the masjid to
visit the Prophet sallallahu Alam. He was making Arti Caf. She went
to visit him. Visiting is a voluntary action. It's not an
obligation to go to the masjid to visit someone. Azikef is a time of
seclusion. You don't talk. You stay in the masjid, you focus on
your worship. The Prophet sallallahu Sallam didn't tell her
to leave because she came to visit and hang out. The Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spent time with her in the masjid, and
then didn't walk her back because it was necessary for her to walk
back with him, because she walked there without him. SallAllahu,
alayhi wa sallam. She walked back. He walked back with her to spend
more time with her. Salalah and atikaf. You don't leave ratikaf
Unless it's a necessity. Or, for example, like Ibn Abbas mentions,
or might have been Ibn Maserati Lohan, who I unfortunately forgot
off the top of my head. I have to look at the the narration again,
but that if somebody comes to ask you for some sort of help, it's
more beloved to you, to for the for Allah to for you to go and
help that person, than making a tikkap and that mister to the
proposed some for a number of years. So yes, there are times to
leave your attikaf, but the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa left
it just to spend more time with his wife. And why aren't we
focusing on the fact that that Sofia rodilla, as a Mother of the
Believers, went to the masjid just for fun to see your husband. Why
isn't that our focus? Instead of clarifying gender relations as the
only part of that of that narration, and when we look again
at the way that we pitch specific stories of the woman companions.
Think about the daughters of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
salam, like Zainab ardilo Juan Ha, what narrations come to your mind
when you hear about Zainab rodi la Juan Ha,
none, literally none.
Okay. Oh, sorry, yeah, the one about how pleased that she'll be
the first one to follow
him. Oh, yes, this was his wife. Oh, rodilla, a different Zainab.
Great. Great point. Excellent point. No, no, this is an
excellent point that actually brings up a totally, a totally a
totally different point that we're actually going to get to you.
Segued me into the next point, Baraka Loki, but Zainab radilowha.
So there's a narration in which she is Wait, waits for the Prophet
sallallahu, alays to start salah. And they're praying. They start
salah. They're praying. And she calls out with her voice over the
salah that she has given basically security to her husband, who, at
the time, was not yet Muslim, and there were wars between Muslims
and the Quraysh, and he she gave him security. So she calls this
out across the Masjid. After the Salah is done, the prophet Allah,
while they will send them, talks about how he had no idea she was
going to say this. And then he goes to her and she and he talks
to her Salalah about, what about the rulings on how she should
interact with alas. And he goes to the Companions and talks about the
rulings of the property of alas. He never says, you should have
should not.
Have raised your voice in the masjid, because women, being a
part of the masjid space, being a part of the masjid where their
voices were heard asking other men companions, Hey, I didn't hear
what the Prophet sallallahu alaihi salam said. Can you repeat for me?
Are all in our books, because they were present in society as full
time mothers and as not. They were just part of society and all the
different roles that they could be. And when we talk about Zainab
roll the Allahu anha, the wife of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, how
did she have the longest hand? How did the longest hand amongst them,
which meant the most generous one? How is she going to be the one to
join the Prophet sallallahu? Sallam, how did she have money?
The Prophet sallallahu lived in poverty. How did she have money,
unless she was working to make money, the wife of Ibn Saud,
another Zainab,
asked about giving zakat to Ibn azaud And to her family. How did
she have money to give zakat if she was not working. These women
were actively part of society in all different ways, and until we
start looking at them in a comprehensive way that talks about
all the roles in which they fulfilled, whether they were
political or whether they were full time moms, or whether they
were a part of the masjid space, or whether they prayed at home,
about a woman praying. I already gave a lecture on this. I don't
want to like share it here, because I don't want to waste your
time. But there is a difference of opinion on whether or not it's
better for a woman to pray a homer in the masjid, because some of the
scholars talk about the hadith of umaid and being and being better
to pray in her home, being contextual for her situation
because of her marriage. Sheik jaser oda talks about this that
that was never intended to restrict all of the Hadith that
talk about the benefits of praying in the masjid in congregation.
When the Prophet sallallahu is talking about the extra reward of
praying in congregation, the fact that you go to the masjid and your
sins are forgiven as you're walking to the masjid, all of the
benefits of praying in the masjid, does he ever say only four men,
and in fact, when he mentions the word men,
Ibn mentions that that description of men isn't intended to be only
men. It's intended to be used as men and women, because if women
pray in the masjid, they get the same reward. So the point is that
we have taken narrations, and we oftentimes use them to talk about
paint a very specific picture of what women's world should be,
when, in reality, women's were very vast. And to conclude with
women's roles, because I realized that we want to leave time for Q A
for sure, or just discussion in general, because I'm the one who's
here to ask you all and learn from you, is that, um, haram, she
wanted to be with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi. He was sent
them. Or, excuse me, she wanted not, not, of course, she wanted to
be the Prophet. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi had a dream, or
had a had a dream of the which is like a vision of the companions
going to a particular battle in the future. And so she asked that
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi, salam, make dua that she could be
with that group of people who go and they was over the sea,
and Subhan Allah, He made dua that she be with them, and she was with
them. It was after the passing of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam,
and Abu Shukla takes from this, and he says, Do you see how
praiseworthy it is for a woman to be a part of the battle? Because
the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam could have told her, don't
worry, you get the same reward when you stay at home. But he
didn't. He made dua for her to join as she requested, and she
did, and that is how she passed away. So when we look at the rules
of women who come to the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, and
they talk about how, you know, men are on the battlefield, and
they're doing all these things, and we're at home with the kids,
and he's comforting these women, and he's saying you get the same
reward of the as the men who are doing all of these things. You get
the same reward by what you're doing. It's not because they
weren't allowed to be on the battlefield, because they were on
the battlefield. It's because he's giving them comfort that even if
you're not doing all these things, even though it's not your only
role, maybe for many of us as women, it becomes our primary
role. And instead of wishing that you could be out there and do
other things and wishing you didn't have the responsibilities
of your kids, embrace the role that Allah has given you, because
there is so much reward in that, and honor in that, and status in
that, that does not negate doing other parts of social work as
well, but it encourages and it comforts someone who may feel
sometimes stuck, because this is a very real feeling for a woman who
others sometimes, as much as you love your kids and as much as you
want to focus on them, when you give your all to them, you
sometimes feel like you've lost yourself. NOTICE recognizing that
you're honored, and that is so important. The Prophet sallallahu
Sallam is comforting these women. They're the status of their role,
while also giving us so many other examples that you can be this and
that, that you can be someone who loves praying in the masjid while
you bring your children with you, because the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam when, when there were a.
Um children who were crying, he would shorten his prayer so that a
woman would not feel distressed. And that is because he put more
priority, as Abu Shaka mentions in women going to the masjid and
feeling like it's accessible, than increasing the prayer, even though
there's more reward in a long prayer, access for a woman who had
children was more important to the Prophet, sallAllahu, alayhi wa
salam, than the reward of an extremely long prayer. And that's
why women kept coming back to the masjid with their kids as part of
the society of the Prophet. So Allah, who are they? He was of
them. And I see that somebody wrote about a particular Masjid.
So I want to clarify also firsthand too, like for my
lecture, but the the role of the Imam, I think, like, you know,
it's so important for me to clarify. The Imams of my Masjid
are so amazing Mashallah. They're very accessible. They care about
women, they smile, they welcome us when we have questions. But the
message itself doesn't have the infrastructure that openly makes
it easy for us to ask questions. I know when I got older, they
created some sort of office hours for the Imam. So hamdullah for at
least having office hours for the Imam, but for people who can't
make those office hours, and the Imam should not be required to
work at all times. But this is why there can be a structure set where
there are also women scholars as part of the masjid space where you
can divide up the time, where women know how to access scholars.
So it's just so important to realize that sometimes it's not
because the Imam isn't accessible and doesn't want to support women.
It's just the structure. It's physical, physical architecture.
And how can we create that in a way where women know they're able
to ask questions and know that they're welcome? Okay, so
Inshallah, we're going to segue to discussion questions. It's so good
to see all of your faces, mashallah and so many. Nuran, it's
good to see you. Maria, and is this Iman or is this Asmaa
where?
Oh,
the person are you asking about Yeah, no, I'm Noura. I actually
attended one of your
probably like,
something like that. So, so nice to see you again. Thanks for you.
Thanks for doing I'm so sorry because I saw your face when you
got up close to the camera, that's when I saw you. But from from
back, from when you were in the back, I couldn't really tell. So
I'm so sorry for getting your name wrong. Noura,
does that go hide on? Um, that was phenomenal. I feel like we could
talk about this all day. But on a more practical, yeah, on a more
practical perspective, for instance, like when I walk into
the masjid here, I actually don't like to go to the masjid,
unfortunately, because I feel like I'm a second class citizen.
There's, like, not a really clean space. There's no accessibility,
like you were talking like I just, I don't even enjoy going, because
that's how I feel when I'm there. But how can I practically act ask
for that when the mentality is the mentality we've been talking about
with, like this patriarchal mentality, and even, like
demanding these things, or even when I try to join groups or
boards or whatever, feeling like, my opinion, is value valued. And
in a person of authority almost feels like, unless a man says it,
it's not really beneficial. I mean, practically, how do I even
do that when I'm the only one, for instance, trying to change
something here? Or maybe there's other women that I'm not saying
I'm the only one, but that that have been discouraged and don't
come anymore, something like that. You know, when you just go into
them as, yeah, I don't want to prolong the question. You get it?
No, no. I think all of us have felt some sort of version of that.
And again, like it really depends on your Masjid space, like this
particular answer would really depend, like, I'd ask you so many
follow up questions, but let's say you do, you try, you try to
change. You call for change. It's not working. This is why people
are creating third spaces. This is literally why people are creating
a space outside of the masjid, because the people on the board
sometimes are not ready to listen, and they're the same people who
are cycling for generations, and so they're just not willing to
listen for generations, and you're stuck with that. There's so many
people have left the mission, they haven't come back, and
Alhamdulillah, that you still even try. But the reality is that so
many people feel so isolated that they just don't want to try again.
And Alhamdulillah, things are changing. I feel like things are
really changing slowly, very slowly, but at the same time, what
we can do is honestly, I'll be honest, and people may have a
really big issue with this suggestion I did when someone
first recommended it, I was like, why would you do that? But now I
see the benefit of it. To be honest, if you know people who are
contributors to the masjid, who are active donors to the masjid,
you target them. You go to them and you say, I know you donate
every month, and I know.
Donate a significant amount, and more than half of the population
who is supposed to come to this Masjid many times, who are
bringing the little half of the masjid who are supposed to carry
on this Masjid are not welcome. We don't feel like our bathrooms are
clean. We don't feel like we can even pray without you know, we
can't even hear the emails speaking. We don't even know what
the email looks like sometimes. So you go to these people and you
say, you know, please go to the masjid like, sign, write a
petition, right? Let them know, you know, if, within the next
year, these issues are not changed, we will no longer be
donating to this masjid, and we're going to find a different message
to support our to send our funds to so that you, you, you, you
pressure them into making that change. And when I first heard I
didn't hear this. I heard an idea. It was one woman who said, I'm not
donating to a masjid that doesn't give me space to pray. And I was
like, Yeah, but what about all the men who want to pray there, which
I still feel, of course, we don't want to close down a masjid. We
want all Masjid to be open, but what if that Masjid is reading
people are leaving Islam? What if their experiences in that Masjid
are so painful that they feel like they can't even stay Muslim?
People leave Islam not because they don't believe in Islam, but
because they don't feel at all like they can connect to the
Muslim space. And while they might love Islam, they see it as a
reflection of religion, and so they leave. So really, this is
like we need to stop prioritizing the concept of it's better for
women to pray at home, and therefore we're not going to
create as much space for women. We're, in fact, it's going to make
her feel guilty and disgusting by even coming we're going to make
her feel like it's better for her to pray at home, because we don't
need to prioritize her spirituality when that is the
message I I mean, what? Where do we expect the future generations
go? This is something that boggles my mind, like all of us right now,
okay, I'm assuming that you know, we're in a generally same time,
you know, age in our life, like you know we're in our 20s, 30s,
40s, like that, that time period. Okay, so now let's say some of us
in the future, maybe, if, Allah, you know, has maybe, maybe if, for
some reason, some of us have children, and then those children
have children. Now we're just talking about our great
grandchildren. Okay, so what if the woman whose children, what if
those women who have children right now don't feel connected to
Islam, don't feel connected to the masjid, and they leave, or they
don't even leave, Inshallah, not Islam itself, but they just leave
being part of the community. Their children don't grow up in the
community. Their children don't grow up with Muslim spaces. Maybe
they have Muslim friends from outside, maybe they have a third
space, but maybe they don't maybe they're fed up, and they just
don't like don't want to deal with this community, the toxicity that
they feel. They don't want to pass this on to their children. What
happens to the great grandchildren? Maybe those kids
find Islam again, but maybe they don't. So now we have great
grandchildren who don't feel connected to Islam because their
mothers didn't feel connected to Islam. And those mother the
mothers of those children, didn't feel connected to Islam. That's
our generation. So in just a couple generations, if we wonder,
where are our children? Where are the Masjid? What happened to our
ummah? Who is to blame is not the the mother who didn't feel
connected to Allah? I mean, that's a part of it. All of it is
personal responsibility, of course, but at the end of the day,
are we going to finally prioritize the fact that we have generational
impact as women, or are we going to continue to say it's just
better for women not to be here, and that's why we prioritize
Ben. Aloha. Stan,
second, I'll say, Oh, that was like, so on point, like so many of
these things, I think we've like been feeling and, you know,
thinking about for a long time, and it's good to just, like,
discuss it and talk about it. I wanted to ask you specifically
about I know, when I was in California,
but one of a friend of mine, she had, like, started, I don't know
if you've heard about the woman's mosque there, and I wonder how you
feel about, like, maybe having more spaces like this, where it's
like a women's center, or something like that, you know,
where maybe a woman scholar is accessible, where women do feel
comfortable. So I just wanted you to speak on that. If you could
just I could, yeah, so the controversy surrounding that, the
issue was praying Juma, specifically that a woman was
giving the chutzpah and she was leading Juma. And that's not an
opinion that I follow. I don't think it's permissible for a woman
to give a chutzpah for Juma and to pray. Jamal scholars who talk
about this issue say that maybe a woman could give like a short and
they can pray for Kaz, for the like, if they can't, you know,
access the masjid, then maybe they can come together on a Friday,
pray the whole together. A woman can give a give a give a khatira,
no worries. But that's different from counting it as Juma. That's
my that's the opinion that I, I think is that's, that's the
opinion I follow from the scholars. But at the end of the
day that if that's not the issue, if it's to create a space for a
woman to just join together and pray, then that's, you know it one
it's something that we see, you know it that's created mashallah
and rabata does an amazing job of this online. But they have like
this, this woman's woman led woman.
Fueled women attended space where it's really empowering women and
just helping women feel safe. And so I think it's really, you know,
it's really necessary for us to have these spaces where we know
that we are safe and and I know that that's like a word to use.
People are like, What do you mean safe? No, I literally mean safe.
Because I'm approached by women who are domestic violence
survivors and they don't feel safe because they've talked to the Imam
of the masjid, and that Imam has told them they should just be
patient and try to seduce their husband when he's holding a knife
to her neck. That Illa the haul. And this is so common. I've heard
from so many women who shared the story with me like different
versions of that story, and so, yeah, sometimes women don't feel
physically safe because they go to the masjid, and the masjid
protects the abuser. They don't protect the victim and survivor,
and so they we need spaces where women feel safe.
Follow up question. And again, if someone else has a question I
don't want to ask too. If someone else has one,
okay, I'll go ahead and ask it, how do we it's almost like the
same narrative, not specific to Muslim women, but in general, like
building allies. A lot of this has to be work done by men and people
in the masjid, and they have to come to this realization. You
know, we can talk all we want to them and educate them, but if
they're not convinced by it, then the change is less likely to
happen. They have to be the ones to also make the change with us.
So how do how do you suggest we get those allies? I mean, how do
we get our Imams and people in the Majed to talk about these things
and change the way they think? So on
one person, on one hand, it's really important to recognize
there are so many Imams who many Imams who are actively working for
women's access. Like, I can't tell you how many moms I was so, like,
I worked with a lot of Imams before I started the foremothers
campaign, just just researching women recite ruins recitation.
Super famous imams in our community who like, everyone's
name, you would know I talked to them about it, and they were like,
there's nothing in Phil that would prevent it. There's nothing solid.
But it's based on set of it's based on these concepts of
preventing fitna. There's not like an ijmara on this from the Quran
or the Sunnah. Like, you're not going to find delille that's going
to say, like, no way woman shouldn't do this. But what you're
going to see is that our community is very emotional, and so we're
going to react emotionally. And our community might not be ready
for this, but when I started the campaign, I cannot even tell you
how many Imams messaged me privately, saying, if you need any
support, if you need anything, know that I support this. I'm so
excited that you're doing this. Thank you for doing this for women
inviting me to their masjid so that I could go to their masjid
and share the message of women being reciters. And they share my
posts and say, you know, share the recitations. Say like this, you
know, follow, follow this work. And again, I know I'm saying I
it's from my account. It is from my account, but it's not about me.
It's a concept of women who are out there, who are doing these
amazing things, and these are men who are scholars, who are
supporting them, because they realize, look, we're in the United
States. What are we exposed to? We don't live in a place where women
have, you know, our own sides of the job and our own universities
and our own, you know, spaces and our own gyms. And we live in a
society where the Wap Song is something that is celebrated as
women's empowerment, if that is what we are taking for our younger
generation as examples, then of course, these scholars are
recognizing that, like, look, this is not, it's not a fits not, by
the way, the concept of a woman's voice being fitna when reciting
Quran, the word we use is temptation. A lot of times, like a
man might be tempted by her voice. It's not, it's not temptation.
It's he's sexually aroused. If a man is aroused, listening to the
Quran, he has muddled, which is what the Quran says. That the
issue is, someone who has muddled, they have a serious disease in
their heart. So alhamdulillah, imams now are recognizing like
look, men here have exposure to a lot of other things. So for us to
close the door for women's recitation, we're closing the door
for women to access other women, which is more important than the
potential of a man having this level of disease in his heart. So
I think Alhamdulillah, right now we have a lot of men who are
actively working to support women, but there are definitely so many
Imams who could, could, could benefit from hearing from those
other emails. And I think this goes back to, like, honestly,
networking and grassworks, grassroots organ organizing. So
where we have these Imams who support women, who to gain access
to knowledge, to gain the ability to, you know, I love there was a
young girl, not a young girl, she she's a she's in her 20s, and she
told me, when she was a young girl, she was memorizing the Quran
with her brothers, and when she became like around 12 years old,
the Imam said he can no longer teach her because she was on the
cusp of womanhood, and so it would be hot on for him to teach her.
And she stopped learning. He was the only imam in her mister. This
was before.
They had online institutes and or maybe she's 30, but anyway, she's
older. That's the point, older than teens and her brothers, masha
Allah Now, are memorizers of the Quran. They've memorized the
Quran. They lead taraweeh. They are actively well with the masjid.
And she said that she never continued with the Quran because
she was discouraged. And then after seeing the foremothers
campaign, she said, I'm going to start again now. I feel like that
inspired. I didn't know woman could continue to do it as they
were adults. And she excused the Imam by saying, I understand why
he wasn't okay with me learning from him. I could have become a
fitna for him. And I was so angry hearing this because of the
internalized discussion that she, as a 1213, 1415, year old girl,
could not be top Quran man because he was worried that she might be a
fitna for him, like a that's literally illegal for him to feel
like, for anything to happen from, from that there's like so much in
our community that has come from like, yes, we have grooming in our
community. We have * in our community. These are real
issues. So if any ma'am knows this about himself that he needs to
prevent teaching a little girl, a young teenager, because he's
worried about what might happen to him, then it is his responsibility
to go to the masjid and say, We need to hire another Quran
teacher, or we need to hire another Imam who's a Quran
teacher. Can be a woman an imam who's a man who is comfortable
teaching young girls, because it's not right that all of the
community can't learn because one man is concerned about what might
happen to his heart. Like yes, we protect our men with their hearts.
Of course, no doubt we want our Imams. We hear about issues in our
community when people in religious leadership have made serious,
serious breaches of trust, of trust. So we know that's real.
Yes, we want to protect our Imams, but not at the expense of not
continuing to teach women. So we need a solution. If this is the
issue, then we need people who are honest and say, we need more
individuals who are able to teach women and that just needs to be
part of the masjid policy. How do we create that culture that you're
asking about? How do we get these allies? We start writing we write
documents that have co signatures from different massages that go up
to these Masjid spaces and say, Please create this position, we
have people who are willing to donate. We have we have launched
good campaigns that can pay for the position for a year, while you
guys figure out how you're going to support this position. We have
a whole community who is here and ready to change the culture of our
community so that women know that we have access to knowledge and we
are welcome to seek knowledge, and that we know that we have a space
to be in.
I think my name is typing something.
Oh, I'm laughing at it, because it's not a very important thing.
Oh, okay, well, you could just tell it's not, it's funny. No, I
was just, this is what I was typing.
I could,
yeah, money's not an issue for a community, which is also another
thing is like, it's crazy that our community doesn't like it's just,
it's, it's crazy how much there is money and like and worldly
opportunities and and all that's missing is just like, directing
that towards something that spiritually grows our community.
Anyways, sorry, yeah, I think it's important to note that, like,
Miriam and I come from the same community, and like, that
community has, like, the highest like, oh my god, Mashallah. Like,
the the the rents, the to buy a home is so expensive. Like, you
have to have a two family income, or you have to have someone who is
really, like, making a lot of money to be able to just survive
there, so that masjid, masha Allah has a lot of donations, and that's
really, really important to take into account. Because, yes, we can
afford this. If we made it a priority instead of buying another
two buildings, maybe we could create, you know, create the
structure and infrastructure necessary for our own building
first and then open up to other ones. And I'm not going to, I
don't mean, comment, this isn't a personal thing, like May Allah
reward them so much for what they're trying. Of course, you
know, more space to do different things, to rent it out, to build
an income. That's awesome. All of that is so important. I'm not
trying to diminish how important that is. But there are other
communities that don't have that level of financial, you know,
stability, and they really just are basically trying to survive.
And this is a longer discussion, like we've talked about this, how
do we make massages self sufficient, so that it's not
always about monthly donations and about Ramadan donations, it's how
do we make massages self sufficient? And I think it's part
of the discussion that I've never heard is, how do we make massages
self sufficient and ensure that in an exclusion, in its inclusion of
sufficiency, are actively accessible spaces for women,
because it's not just about having a lounger woman can sit and
gossip, which is not I said. I said gossip, not because that. I
meant for that to be my word. I meant that to be a stereotype.
Because unfortunately, a lot of times people say women just come
to the message to gossip. And that's so it makes me so angry. It
makes me so angry when, like, women removing their hijab is
because they're upset.
With the dunya women come to the message because they just want to
gossip like, please stop care. Like, making these caricatures of
women as like, women who are obsessed with materialism and
beauty and gossip like, no. You know why women struggle with these
issues? Because that's all you focus on. That becomes all we are
to you. And so, yeah, what do you expect? Even though that's wrong
in the first place? Um, I'm really sorry, because I have to go. I
have another appointment right now, but it was such a gift to be
here. Thank you so much for having for listening, mainly to me
speaking, ranting.
Oh, thank you so much for coming you guys, or ladies, mashallah,
like, has a full schedule, so we've kind of been going back and
forth for like, months, and I'm so happy a year I literally, may
Allah, bless Ella so much. So she's like, literally, I looked up
my calendar a couple of weeks ago and I'm no, it was like a month
ago almost, and I was like, Huh, why do i Why do we have that
written on july 11? Because I was supposed to. I gave a lecture
right before this, and I was looking at my schedule, and I'm
like, What time can I do that lecture? Because I have something
else on my schedule. And then I messaged her, and she's like, Oh,
yeah. Like, a year ago we scheduled,
because she kept asking me when I could do and I couldn't do any of
those times. And so we just scheduled out into the future. So
much. Thank you all so much for coming. Thank you, Mariam, like, I
know you're busy, and I appreciate it. Keep her in your doors,
everyone. And we'll end with if you need to go, Mariam, that's
okay, so you're not late. But no, of course. But let me just say,
subhanho, we haven't mentioned on that either kind of too late. Go
ahead.
Okay, out of Allah regime, Bismillah, Rahman, oh, maybe we
should have Sheikha. Actually. Mariam, would you recite? Oh,
no, no, no, really, no, no, please. I'd love to hear your
recitation. Okay, out of Allah regime, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
well last in San Anna fee horse. All will help you with the well so
this,
thank you.
Thank you so much. Welcome. Sanaa, so
good to see all of you. Mashallah, bye.