New Level Of Thinking

Welcome to allow salatu salam ala rasulillah salam wa sallam,

I have a lot of things that I want to talk to you about.

And I really I have so much stuff

that I feel like we shouldn't be recording this,

that I don't know where to start, and what to share and what not to share, and how much are you talking about. But what I intended for this session to be I intended for this session to be

a session for for

as

I intended for it to be and production to my plan next year, next year,

you might have me once or twice,

maximum twice a month, for the adults program, I'll be with the youth HR for for two Fridays, it's good to see

that that one once a month, the session that we will have once a month a Shama will be

a very important one, and it will be inshallah something that we will prepare and, and that will have some kind of that will engage your audience, and they will have some activities and exercises to show.

But basically, what I'm going to be a model I'm going to be following is as taken out of a book, bestseller,

book that I was, I became familiar with five years ago, and just see few of the pages if you go over the table of contents of the book, it will, it will help you it will actually raise some questions. And it will,

at least with me, it made me ask certain questions. And I think these these kind of pushes are very important to be asked.

Right? I think she already got maybe, maybe you can go talk to them. So

I think asking those questions is very important. And what is more important is figuring out an answer for them. Or at least having an answer to those to those questions.

So I suggest that you, you know, check it out. Some of you may be familiar with this book, you might have it in your library, some of you maybe took it as part of their job training. It's a very famous book called Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by a famous author, by the name of Stephen R. Covey.

Now,

it is one of those books that talked about

changing habits, leadership, adopting better qualities becoming more effective,

becoming more productive. And then he wrote another book called The cool seven habits,

the Seven Habits of Highly Effective teens.

Right.

Now, one thing you notice is that some of those

principles that they talk about, are things that we find in a brief outline, remember, you know, attending one of those seminars or workshops. And as the instructor was talking, I started smiling when I was in front of her. So she said,

you know, what's, what's the smile? So I said, it's interesting that you're saying all these principles, and you're saying these things, and every time you say something, howdy pops up, in my mind. She's like, what's that? He said, a headache is a statement attributed to our political commerce a lot, isn't it? So they either there's a hadith or there's a verse from the Quran, and he said, Oh, that's interesting. Could you share one with us? So you know, so I mentioned some of the problems from the prophetic statements, some of the statements made by our Prophet so loudly so for example, they have done amazing, very expensive program right on weight loss. Right? Weight Loss

isn't so bad. Now it says, It's diet and weight loss is it's a big industry in America.

And people usually gain

whatever weight they gain intentionally. You know,

some people like they're shocked, oh, my God, I just can't wait. You get every pound that you gain, you gain intention. I know that about myself. At least I know that about myself every single time that I gain, and I have actually may not notice it.

But every single pound that I've gained, I gained intentionally over the past

year I gained maybe about like 15 pounds over the past four months.

And the reason I say intentionally is because

Every time I

usually when I when I eat, you know, it's never an accident.

I know that I'm eating and I know where the food is going. So how did I do not sleep, walk and eat during my sleep without knowing that. So every time I ate every bite that I take, I'm aware of it.

But yet, there is a big industry right now, right in America, weight loss and, and getting in shape and all of that. And one of those

one of those techniques that they teach with some of those techniques that they teach, you'll find it already speaking about, do not eat until you feel hunger

will enter the process of us and we said that we are people that do not eat until well, because sometimes people you know, eat just for the sake of me. Maybe because there's free food or they're in Sam's Club, there weren't there were three samples, they ate the subtitles, because there's nothing better to do that they opened the refrigerator. They forget what why they open the frigerator. But they see something they remember something Hello has been there for a while nobody ate it. Okay, I guess.

And then moderation and all of that. So you find prophetic statements talking about all of this. Likewise, when it comes to leadership and character building, the proximate body setup taught us a loss of contacts.

And sometimes we have the wrong attitude as Muslim, we take these things for granted. Oh, we already have it in the center. Okay, implemented the study. That's what where we fail, we continue to say, Oh, we have all of this in our history, we have all of this in our traditions, we have all of this in our books and our scriptures. Okay, put it into action.

So we fail, and some of us might even know some of those things, some of those things might be very basic and obvious.

principles and values, the problem is that we do not have, we do not have that connection, the connection is lost. And hopefully Sharla that's one of those things that we will accomplish in 2008. Ish allows us to become more effective communities and families and, and individuals. And,

you know,

I don't want to say for the sake of feeling better about ourselves, for the sake of becoming better.

Because as a Muslim,

we have to as Muslims, we have to, to improve, we have to look forward, we have to learn for improvement and for change every day has to be better than the day before. Otherwise, you're you're cheating yourself as stated. Right? So your day has to be your today has to be better than your tomorrow and you have to plan and be determined for your years today has to be better than you were yesterday. And you have to be determined and you have to plan for your tomorrow to be better than today. If everything is as if every day is the same, then is that problem. Now in order for that to happen, brothers and sisters, we need a little shaking, we need to get out of our comfort zone.

And it's that's quite challenging. Especially for Muslims, especially for Muslims in America. You know, sometimes it takes a catastrophe to make us

say, oh, because unfortunately, we have become reactionary. We are reactionary people. Although we're supposed to in our our game teaches us to be proactive.

So we are reactive instead of being proactive. And we'll talk about the difference between the two that in a second. So what do I mean by just getting out of our comfort zone?

I'll just give random examples. An example is, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Many of us have this kind of mentality.

Right? especially those of us who are 35 and older and I'm getting here. I think I've already been No, I have made a couple of years.

Right? If it's ain't broken, don't fix it. If it's if it's working. And by the way, men tend to have this kind of mentality more than women. You know,

another car is fine. Don't mess with it. If it's if it's not. So we have a problem when it comes to change, right?

All of the examples that I'm going to give you it's going to lead us to something suddenly called comfort zone. Like for example, you know, the corner where his brother is sitting right now that's like his comfort zone, this comfort zone where you feel comfortable. You don't you don't want to change. We have this tendency as human beings. We are anti this kind of chain because we're afraid. We are scared. We don't want to leave our comfort zone. We're happy. I'll give you an example actually, just to

Could anyone do this? Can you can you cross your fingers? Cross your fingers?

You have any difficulty with this?

Some people have a habit of doing this right? Now, can you shift it? Like, just go like this?

How comfortable? Can you shift it like shift?

Instead of doing this just do this?

How? How many of you are comfortable with that?

You switch between the two? No problem. This this No.

Okay, so anyone had difficulty doing that or felt uncomfortable?

You felt uncomfortable. You're used to doing this, we're also going to ask you to do, but it depends. If you're left handed, most people who are left handed will do this.

And people who are right handed will do this.

Right. So if I tell you to switch,

right, if something has changed, you're not you're not comfortable with it. There's something called

I'll give you another example. Cross cross your arms like this with like the brothers.

Now, can you switch? Like the other way around? I

know some people

can you switch? You know, some people did this. And they found that they switch you didn't switch?

I'm saying instead of doing this, I want you to do you can even do it. I mean,

you know what I'm talking about? This is exactly what I'm talking about, you know, just leaving your comfort zone.

changing things that you're used to. Or sometimes

being forced to see things from a different angle. It's kind of it's kind of weird. It's sometimes scary. Sometimes it's it's something people might find it interesting. And some people might find this Whoa, whoa, what all of this and I don't I don't like this, some people might say, Oh, this is interesting. I'll go home and challenge myself have continued to do this all night long until I get it right. So

So change or improvement sometimes Mike requiring from you to leave your comfort zone.

And to see things from a different angle.

To get as they say, out of the box, see things you know, get out of the box.

It might require sometimes does anyone have pennies? Okay, I was gonna do some of it. We'll we'll do some other kind of film. It might require a viewer to see things differently. Right? But it's good.

Imagine if Imagine if the prophets actually one thing that you lose the great prophets of Allah. Brahim, who's a prophet Mohammed alinco salatu salam, there is a step before they even became profits, where they left their comfort zone.

Problem Hamas Hola, they said that he could have just sat at home, you know, he isolated himself from the society. But he wasn't like us. He didn't stay in that comfort zone.

In a sense, he didn't isolate himself from from the Mexicans. Actually, he didn't actually himself totally, but he abandoned. And he stayed away from their own practices, from their idolatry from their ship, and all of that. But the processor was proactive. And the pastor did have a problem leaving his comfort zone. The proof for that is that the Prophet used to go

and worship and meditate in the case of hell.

He's not obligated, he did not receive a message telling him that he has to do that he did it on his own.

He was searching

for for that for that guidance. So he came out of his comfort zone, and he went to the cave of hell. And he did that for years. And that's what prepared me and then finally when the time came and loss account and central nervous system

is still because we're human beings, when when the message came through, the process went right away. It was choppy, it was scary, because it's a big shift.

It's a big shift, and it requires some, some kind of transformation. Same thing happened with profitable salesianum when when he

would know when he saw the his cane, or his sick, basically, his rod turned into a snake, probably the most it is and then he got scared. And he ran away and said, Come back

in about a half a day and you don't have to worry about anything. So he had to be you know, a muscle car guy that actually, you know, brought some comfort to his to his province. But initially they left their comfort zone imaginable. So I have a word that type of people that didn't want to leave their comfort zone that didn't want to question their ways of doing things. Many of them would have not because,

in fact, some of them

took some time, and converting or changing and becoming Muslim. It was the fact that they wouldn't let go of their traditions and their way of seeing things. Right. It's the fact that they have blinded themselves with the with the with with the wrong propaganda about Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu Allah. So the minute they left their comfort zones, and they opened their minds and their hearts to snap it caught. And this is, Islam is so powerful, and it's so overwhelming, because this is the truth. And the minute the person exposes himself and allows us now and he man and all these values and principles that the prophet SAW said and brought full access to his or her heart and

mind, it will appeal to them. If they're sincere, they will follow that they don't mean and there are various examples. Along the way, he became a Submariner read about how I'm going to live on accepted to snap, when it was that I want to be alone, I became, in a he took a piece of

the scroll that had verses from soula, PA, and he opened it for him as an animator, he said

he didn't sit for years or days or months researching and debating, and it was a very intellectual, very, you know, how am I this right? I want to when he has conviction, it's very hard to get to get him to, to give up his convictions.

But it was compelling, it was powerful. He read it and that said, same thing with the rest of the of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi, Salat nanosci, probably a lot more than that they the people of machinae told him Listen, don't don't miss it to Mohammed,

Mohammed Ali Salatu, salam, his spells could get you he's a magician. And he is very powerful. So out of he was so scared that he had to cover his ears, with with the bread with the with God, some some of them some said, you know that he covered his ears was cut off, because he didn't want to hear the profit and loss and recitation of the while he was making it off. So in the middle of historic he said, Wait a minute, let's have a look how foolish and how silly you look. You are under the chief of your trade dose. And even a wise man you are not.

This middle aged young man cannot manipulate smart, intelligent person. How silly does this look?

In fact, after he took care of him, because he felt that he should have not done that he went to the prophesize. And he said,

Mohammed What is this that your people say about you? And he started talking to him? So the process and said, Are you done with what you have to say? Yes, so the properties reporter

decided some verses of the Quran he told me this is what my message is all about. He became Muslim instantly, for the love of love. And he was responsible for him for the entire tribe of DOS, accepting Islam. transformation, the minute he left his comfort zone. So sometimes people don't see what what it is that they're missing. When they click when they hold on to their comfort zone, they don't know.

Right? If you were to listen, tell a family about our Friday night program. And I suggest that you do this challenge to 2008 inshallah, you're required to bring someone with you, right? We tell them Come here, come to this

method, like a night. Imagine on a night like this, you will have called someone let's say last week.

And he told me that we'll have an exciting program come and tonight you call them just to check whether they're coming or not. And they use the excuse that was too cool. I feel like you know, making hot chocolate and staying home and drinking hot chocolate and watching 2020

is a factor of 2020.

Right, they will come up with any excuse, right? I don't know, whatever people watch American Idol.

People come up with all kinds of they will, they will give you all kinds of Oh, there was so much traffic today that I'm tired and I have the Restless Leg Syndrome.

People just come up with all kinds of random excuses, right? They will just come up. Why? Because they don't want to leave your comfort zone.

They don't know. Now you don't just come once to get a taste of it and then you will see you would want to come back.

So this is what what holding on or this is what sometimes comfort zone does to people. So you have to be if you want to be successful.

You have to have this adventurous approach or nature. When it comes to you know, you have to be able to really challenge yourself and say no, I'm going to try different things. I'm going to listen.

You know, I'm going to put myself in the other person's shoes. I will you know, start to you know

seeing things from different angles.

I can't be always right, you will start challenging yourself and you will start getting out of your comfort zone. And you want, you will not

be scared to try different things.

I mean, yesterday, was it yesterday or this morning, I was actually it was yesterday, I was, you know the story of people who 500 $580 million,

I think it was

special $580 million.

The guy had to give up his job, he was an IT, he had to give up his job, steady income, you know, secure job, with full benefits, he gave him that to go and try an idea.

Sometimes we tell people, these kind of stories that we call, he must have been crazy, it was luck. It was he was determined.

And sometimes people try more than one thing, but he left his comfort zone. And guess what $580 million.

He and another guy who was unemployed, they work on a project, a little project that, that is now known as MySpace and they made $850 million in a matter of year, a year or two or four years.

Same thing with all those big, you know, big companies. Right? So, so this is what what people get at, you know, sometimes I use the same example, when it comes to couples, couples will have issues problems, or families who have problems children with their parents, many families, they do not realize what they're missing. Because there's one, either one of the parties or all of the parties involved, are not willing to try different things, they're not willing to leave your comfort zone, they're not willing to compromise, they're not willing to put themselves in the other person's shoes, they're not willing to see things from the other person's angle. They don't want it because

they're in their comfort zone, I must be right everything, everything else is everyone else's.

So, so, this is very, very important that you have to be willing to leave your comfort zone to challenge yourself and and try different things.

Now, another point that I talked to the, to the to the children about was that this is not going to be and sometimes we have tendency to do the same thing, even in Islamic lectures or, or workshops, or we have tendency to talk about add up,

you know, add up, you know, this is the way you walk into the machine. You know, you walk with a right, which is good to know those things is good. But you know what, there are certain things that one needs before you even

you know, how many people know the the etiquette of a conversation?

How many of us know that the etiquette of eating and drinking? I

mean, seriously, how many people know that you have to save us from that if we have to right at the right hand? How many times have you caught yourself violating those add up that you you know, and sometimes you might even demand it from your kids?

Right? How many of us know the etiquette of you know, the prophetic teachings? Is it that we're not interested that we don't want or that we're not connected or not connected to them.

They don't get mean a lot to us, you know, as I said before, people do things out of passion or out of desperation, they either desperate or out of either discipline or passion, they have discipline routine, but when it comes to a band, that cannot be a routine,

right? It won't benefit you I mean, we go through the motions of salaat sometimes doesn't affect us, because there has to be that connection. So it has to be out of passion. So, this is this is all about developing this, this passion. So I talked to them about how, how in the old days, one of the oldest how there were two to two types of theories. One theory is called personality ethic. The other one is called character ethic.

Character ethic is what what's what Islam and religion actually preaches and talks right and then there has come this this personality ethic, personality ethics means that success, success is a function of personality. So you are successful based on your you're successful in your relationship. Your success in a relationship depends on your personality, your success at work depends on your personality. So, what is the difference between personality and character? Could someone tell me what you think is the difference between personality and character?

Okay, once you once you are

Which may be not what you are, but what you're trying maybe what you're trying? Yes, character is who you are.

personality is what you're trying to do. Your personality usually

relies on attitudes, behavior, skills, techniques, especially techniques, you know, you want to do something, then follow this these techniques, the tissue techniques. Right. And that has proven its failure. Even even with businesses, businesses, who adopted like, businesses would who treated ethics work ethics, as techniques, you know, you follow certain techniques, or you follow procedure, you know, you follow the manual tells you without necessarily believing or buying into it, sooner or later, you're going to violate it. Right? How many times have you walked into a hospital?

I was trying to give an example of a case.

You know,

I, myself had to deal with something like that. And my family, how many times have you walked into a hospital, where, let's say nurses and people who are working, they have they have a body or they have a patient?

Right?

with due respect to all people in the medical profession, they have a patient or that they are dragging, and they're saying all kinds of things. Sometimes they might be even backbiting. We'll talk about that patient because that patient is sedated. They might be you know, I actually I was at a hospital without naming the hospital. I was at a hospital visiting someone speaking of visiting people, St. Jude's St. Jude hospital, St. Jude's hospital.

This way, okay, there is a brother by the name of sorry,

forgot his last name. And Jerry and brother, room 577 577. Please go and pay him a visit make droplet have, he has a severe case of

abdominal cancer that has spread in his abdominal areas and his over his liver. So maybe throughout.

He's only in his mid 30s.

So make up for that. But I was at a hospital without naming without giving any visiting someone. And then I see this group of nurses are caring and someone walked in with that person. And I don't want to talk about I don't want to say what they were saying. But I was very offended. So I missed them. They went into an elevator, but there was someone else following them. So I stopped that lady, that nurse and I said, Can you please go and tell these people that they have a human being with them, let them show some respect.

It's not just a body, it's a human being, to show some respect. So some sensitivity, I mean, it's just another one.

So the the way they were conducting themselves, the things that they were talking about, while the other person was in pain, they were sedated. And sometimes they may be saying things about that that individual was I found to be very office, there is and that's the difference. But if the chief doctor or whoever is in charge, or you know, an inspector is there things are different

things are doing, right. So that's the difference between people adopting techniques and having a

certain type of personality and having character.

Personality usually focused on public image, how people perceive you, that's your personality, how people perceive you, not how how you really are. And other people think that you're funny and nice and kind and outgoing. And these are issues of personality. character is who you really are.

So I was talking to them, I was talking to them. And this is what we're going to be focusing on about this, that this is what we are trying to do. And this is what we meant by a new level of thinking. You know, the title of this session was new level of thinking, looking at ourselves, looking at our lives, looking at our organizations, looking at our communities, looking at our families, inside out.

Not I'm not we're not trying to go and put on something we don't want to put on something, we want to bring out something.

So whatever we were bringing out of is good at hamdulillah it will it will then

it will it will show whatever we'll bring out if it's bad, then we're going to get rid of it. We're going to see that it's bad we're gonna get rid of it and then we're going to take something else in lots of power outages, you have any Adam zendala reversing it. So what

all sons of Allah or children that we have given you we have bestowed upon you we have brought down for you evason garments that cover your our of your

you know your your

deficiencies in your, you know, that's what this is what Garmin does, it beautifies you and everything, but it also covers up covers a lot of things. Right? So Allah Subhana, Allah said that this is we have given you this, what he, what he looked up what that he has failed, however,

the garment, the dress of tough one that is better, because step one comes from inside.

And that's why, you know, people might go on something, if there is no tough one to react with what they put on with this process of dressing up, they may not meet meet the Islamic guidance, they may be dressed, but undress at the same time. Because it's not. And that's what we mean by it has to come from inside, we're not minimizing for example, if the job is very important, many things are very important that people put on, but it has to come from within because if it comes with it from within, then it will meet the guidelines, the Islamic guidelines, it will be more suitable and it will be it will look good.

And it will it will have the proper attitude and it will have a proper behavior with it. Sometimes we might see people dressed

physically, but they are undress.

behavior, right, the way they the way they carry themselves. And that's why it was it was a tough one. Because that is the best.

Right? It is not what you put on, you know, you might see someone watching a nice dress and looking like a chef but that person has has nothing to do with the with the way they dress.

Okay,

so this is what we're trying to do, inshallah, and this is what we are going to focus on looking at ourselves and our communities, our families, inside, inside out.

We're going to also focus on primary, something called greatness, everybody is great, and lots of has created us with greatness. And with honor, a lot says one of the 11, he added, we have honored this and the children of Adam will have enough. It's all about bringing up that greatness, that honor that we have, that also have Allah gave us but people have to we have to realize that this there's primary greatness in the various secondary grades, unfortunately, we we tend to focus on the on the secondary greatness, the primary greatness is the goodness of character, even if people don't realize it, and people don't see for the loss of habitat season.

And last

season, and today i was i was i was

i don't want to say shocked. But I was I was amazed at someone I was listening to, to an instructor talking about character and talking about, and he talks about, he said, even if even if you're a religious person, and of course he uses online, which may not be appropriate to to, you know, to attribute something like that to God. But he said, he said, worship or connect with God, like he's in front of you. Or you see, I remember the concept of

when the Prophet said, and he said on top of

it is worship Allah as if you've seen him, fail him in Iraq. And if you don't see him, then it must have that, you know, he's easy.

So this is this is the primary greatness focusing

on the goodness of character, even if people don't see it, or don't notice it, you're doing it, because that's who you are. Because you're worthy of that person. You need to you need to allow that great person that is hidden inside of you, or that was somewhat buried with all these stresses of life, and you need to let that come out.

Without without any.

And it is now the secondary greatness is the social recognition of your talent, and that you can achieve through people giving you opportunities to come and serve and help me show what one of those outcomes of this will be.

We'll be getting more involved, more involved. And one thing I learned over the past three years, if we think that we are better off

hiding our heads in the sand,

right, as the brothers would say, if we're better than if we think that we're better off, not confronting anything and staying home and not doing anything keeping low profile as communities and as individuals and just getting by in life, and maybe even changing our names or hiding our identities just stay away. And that's gonna make us safe. It won't happen. And it's not if there's one lesson that we should have learned from, for example, one of those, you know, you have the issue of the mapping of the Muslim community. Imagine if there was a community to come very passive

very passive and very,

you know,

there's no other words that I can describe it with other than passive. Imagine if we just took a very passive stance and position on this, and we let it happen, what's going to happen?

If this, if this price succeeded,

we're going to be further isolated, our kids are going to be further isolated, we're going to start living in pockets, we're going to be cornered, right.

And every time we're cornered, we go back to a hole and we try to hide.

Right?

Now they're saying that we want to know where you're hiding, we've got nothing, we don't have a reason to hide.

We have nothing to be afraid of. We have nothing to be ashamed of. If you hide, people would want to know why you're you're hiding, and where you're hiding. That was the whole idea of that of that of that project. You need to come up.

And you need to be who you are. And this is what we came to this country for.

The opportunity that is presented, and nobody has the right to rob us, or deny us that opportunity. Nobody. We came here illegally, we came here. You know, we did not rob anyone's man, we did not kill or massacre or committed any atrocities or any, we didn't commit any of those things, we came in a very honorable fashion. And at the end of the day, nobody left your information alone. So lots of habitat.

So nobody has a right to tell us Oh, you don't belong here. Well, that will go into a corner, you know that nobody has that right to do. So we need to understand our rights. And we can only know this if we if we are involved in we engage in if we are proactive. And we if we come out of our comfort zones.

Another and I will conclude with this another reason why why we need to take this kind of approach. And we need to be a little more involved is the fact that you know I tell some of the young brothers who are not married or some of the people who are a newlywed, I tell them you know what, you need to be involved for your own good. I'm no longer going to bet we did this 2007 2006 2007 we backed people, college students and everybody if you know, to come get involved, please come and try. We get 100 that we have open door policy here in Michigan, we received people with open arms. I said, we're no longer going to do this. The opportunity is there. You want to come season, it's yours. But

I but I tell them I tell young couples that sooner or later you're going to be involved. You know, I was teaching a class in Canada, when a friend of mine childhood friend walked into the classroom, he has a three year old. We grew up together.

So he walks into the class. I was given a class, most of the people or the average age of the people who attended the class were high school, college college. So although we had people who are like 6070 years old, you know, people are different. But the average level was, so he walked in after the class, he came and said something to me. He said, You know what? I forgot about this, this group of people this age group.

I said, What do you mean? He said, You know, when I saw you teaching there, I said to myself, and this is someone who when we left, he was not any less than me. In fact, it was someone that I you know, look up to, but he got engaged in his, you know, he's working for corporate America is and how can i is very successful in that sense. But he said, You know, I forgot, if we do not teach this generation or this age group, who is going to teach them we are the link between our, the older generation, and the younger generation. And if we are busy making a living, and we're busy pursuing the American dream and pursuing our own, who is going to attend to those people and teach them.

You know, that's when I looked at him and I said, I looked at his son and I said, you know, there's something else that I forgot.

These are the links between you and your son.

And few years, your son is not going to be listening to you. He's not going to be I mean, a few years trying to be looking up to you, you're going to be you know, there will be a gap between you and him. He might connect with you again later, when he grows over. Like now, I feel like I'm more connected to you like that than I was, you know, when I was when I was younger, or when he was a right when he was around, but

there's a time where he's going to be looking up to those people who are older than that. The cool guys and these are the ones so if we do not do something for them, they're not going to be ready to do anything for our kids.

You know, so he said yeah, you're right.

So I said yeah, we have an obligation, but also we are going to reap the fruit one is of course in the hereafter inshallah, from Allah subhanaw taala. But later also when it comes to our own

So what I found, I told him, what I found is that many people like him, you know, you know, people in my own family, the amount of people that I know, they get involved,

sometimes it's never late, I don't want to say when it's too late, but they get involved at one point they have to, they find themselves forced to be involved, what because now they have children who need to come and learn that the you know, the language, the culture, the dean values, the principles, so now they become involved.

So isn't it better for someone to be involved from the beginning and be part of the decision making, being part of building the the policies be part of, of the making of our institutions, be part of it.

So later, when your kids are in, or when you Your family is in need, our institutions are ready

to accommodate the needs of your own family and your descendants. So if we're serious about passing on this legacy that we have, to the next generation, we have to be involved, we have no option, we have no choice. I mean, it's just the pressure is beyond any one single family's capacity or ability to resist or deal with, we have to come together as a community, we have, so inshallah we are going to build this kind of network and 2018 show will also have on Friday nights, we're going to have ideas and activities and programs for the parents to bond and for the parents to exchange ideas and to get to know each other. Because whether you realize it or not your kids interact with each other.

Right, and they're getting to know each other and they influence one another.

And then they're going to know each other and they're going to you know, get closer to each other.

So it is better for the family to come together and know each other and know who are the people who are influencing their kids and and help one another. So inshallah we're going to keep the records. One thing that the youth committee wanted me to, to announce in this session was that inshallah we have a youth registration for 2008.

And we want those filled up. If you're, if your child watching any of those, please fill it out, we want the parents to be involved in this, and inshallah we're, you know, we're not the Friday night program, the youth program is not

it's not like the weekend school, it has different objectives and that we have simple objectives inshallah, we'll we'll make those objectives very clear. Last week, I think there was a presentation, Brother khadim. And many of you will have heard that many people liked it. And we actually want to,

to nominate someone to be the parents link with the youth committee, this committee will run inshallah, by the youth and the college students who are involved their advisors, I myself will try to put myself separately when it comes to providing the guidance and being involved in that at that level, but when it comes to day to day activities and programs, and they need to be able to do that on their own. So, so we'll try to minimize the adult involvement, you know, we want to give them some kind of sense of independence.

So therefore, we,

I actually asked people, various peoples to not to nominate, you know, someone that they think would be a good liaison or link between the parents, and the youth, the youth committee, or whatever, and that person could basically rally. So inshallah, if you have any suggestion that you want to send me Please send it in a written form or email it to me, or send it in a written form with your with your child and hand it to me before I leave, I'm leaving Sunday, actually, now before I did, sorry, you have 24 hours to do that. So if you have

if you have anyone who you think is I got feedback from the youth and I'm pretty much you know,

I have a couple of people in mind to take this position and be the world

and inshallah we'll announce them to you manassa name of that of those individuals in the next two weeks. All right, please do not forget to make drive for me.

I will see you like three weeks when I come back from

until then, please take care of yourself and each other and

may you have a plus a three. Do not forget to actually

make this retry to make this a very special one and, and celebrate by the way leading up high school days, is four days. So let's show that could be wrong. Do not stop for four days, we ask the Lord to forgive our sins make us all those who take advantage of those

special Cedars Sinai.