Morad Awad – Lecture 08092023
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the impact of artificial intelligence and tech advancements on individuals and their lives, emphasizing the importance of acceptance of Islam's principles and advancements. They stress the need for parents to value and acknowledge the negative impact of parenting practices on children and the importance of learning to be successful in life. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of caution and protecting individuals from evil and malicious activities in the face of technology advancements. The upcoming workshop on parenting and technology for children and parents will also address the topic of technology and its impact on society.
AI: Summary ©
We start by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And sending our peace and blessings to our
noble and beloved prophet Muhammad
And I remind myself and yourselves on this
blessed
and joyous day of Yomul Jumu'ah
to fear Allah
As Allah reminds us of this in the
holy Quran when he says,
All you who believe, fear Allah the way
he should be feared, and do not die
except
in the state of submission to him. Ask
Allah to die in the state.
Brothers and sisters,
I stand here today
and I can comfortably
tell you
that
my Khutba was not prepared by artificial intelligence
or chat gbt
or any one of these platforms.
Although, it may seem absurd that I'm saying
this
before
you
but it will not be
in the coming future.
As the way things are going,
perhaps, in 10 years
or in 15 years,
people would have to stand and make these
types
of
disclaimers
in the beginning of their speeches.
Because
we are becoming more and more dependent
as these platforms
increase and spread,
and their use spreads.
Today's does
not only pertain to those
who know about
artificial intelligence or are in tune with technological
advancement,
but they pertain to everyone
because
they're ultimately going to affect and impact anyone.
Everyone in here.
Young
and old.
Big or small,
in the IT field and outside of the
IT field.
Every single person in here will be impacted
by these new advancements
that we are witnessing
in our day and age.
Of course, as Muslimi and we have a
great
track record of embracing
technological
advancement.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala encouraged us to
explore this world and to discover.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted us to
know
that the more we discover,
the more of a reason
we have to believe in him,
and in his divinity, and in the wisdom
of create, of our own creation.
So, unlike other faiths, we do not see
innovation and advancement
and discovery
as something that competes with the faith but
we see it as something that complements
our faith. But
we also recognize
as muslimian that everything
that is
invented
and every advancement
that is made by humanity
can be an advancement of good and can
be an advancement of bad.
And just like our faith
is resilient,
and versatile, and it
and it went through so many ups and
downs historically.
Our faith proved and will continue to prove
until the day of judgement because it is
the final message
to humanity.
That
it will adapt
and create
guidelines
through this divine scripture for everything
that
humanity will discover.
There is not a single thing.
There's not an invention,
an innovation,
an advancement,
a technology that comes out until the day
of judgement.
That we cannot extrapolate
Islamic guidelines from the Quran and authentic sunnah
for.
And this is from the naaam,
from the blessings and the bounty
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on us and
on this ummah.
As every other faith, when you see faith
that do not have
a solid foundation.
Every single advancement,
every single generation
whether it be a philosophy or a technology
or an innovation or
a convenience or something that was introduced to
humanity,
they need to keep adjusting their faith,
changing
their basics,
their their their foundations
to adapt where Islam
will continue to preserve
its foundations
and adapt
to the modern
world.
So there are guidelines. But
these guidelines may be difficult
to comprehend in a world
where secularism
is prevalent, and specially in a country where
we live in, where the pursuit
of happiness
and comfort
are
perhaps one of the foundation
One of the foundations of this country.
As one of the first thing,
the founding forefathers
of this country that we live in wrote
was that we must have
the right
for pursuit of happiness. So happiness became something
that is glorified.
Happiness became something that is
given
given
the place of God for some people.
As they seek
their their own happiness
before
the pleasure of Allah,
before their afterlife,
before everyone around them. It's it's
it's our own happiness.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned this.
Actually, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned this in
the Quran.
When he said,
And do you not see who took
the one who took
their lord or their god as their own
desire?
Like do Can you be in control of
them?
Because
there is no control over a people that
individually
seek
their own pleasure and happiness. But,
in a society where this pursuit of happiness
became number 1,
and convenience and comfort became number 1, obviously,
anything that achieves this happiness,
and anything that achieves this convenience,
and anything that it maximizes this efficiency
becomes
something that is glorified and something that is
deemed to be good without any guidelines.
But this does not apply
to us as Muslim.
Brothers and sisters,
sometimes
the gathering
of things,
compiling
all these advancements and trying to attain them.
We see ourselves as soon as a new
phone comes out, the new iPhone comes out,
we hasten, we go buy it. A new
computer comes out, a new technology or software
that makes our life easy comes out. We
download it, We buy it. We install it.
A new car comes out that's more convenient.
We buy it. We get it. We make
sure we have it.
And it's unfortunate. It bites us even when
not only do we want it for ourselves,
but we
irresponsibly give it to our children
without knowing how it's going to affect or
impact their life.
I do programs here for younger children, and
sometimes I see
a child 9,
10 years old,
11 years old.
They have the newest phone
with
fully open internet.
They got their own phone number.
They have internet.
No restrictions whatsoever.
When I mentioned restrictions to the parent, they
don't even know what restrictions are, and they
haven't heard about them to begin with.
They just said, hey, you know they asked
me, and I'm a nice person,
and I have the money. Allah blessed
me Why not give my child
this new iPhone, this new device or iPad?
And I call this very irresponsible.
And there are words that I want to
say but I wouldn't say because I'm on
the of
to describe a parent like this unfortunately.
But
because this parent does not know of the
negative impact that not only are they causing
to their children,
but they are causing to all of the
children around them that perhaps have parents that
are aware or even slightly aware
of the proper use of technology and when
to give it. The moment
a child comes and he has the most
advanced iPhone, what do you think
his group of 5 or 6 friends are
going to look at him or her and
say?
They're going to go back and say to
their parents,
Mommy, daddy,
my friend Muhammad, or Khaled, or Mustafa, or
Ahmed, they have x, y, and z. They
have this iPhone, they have this iPad, they
have this app, they installed this this application.
They bought this game, and they're playing it
day and night at home.
And putting pressure on parents until the parents
unfortunately,
some actually give in.
Say, you know what? If everyone has it,
I I don't want my son or daughter
to be deprived.
I can afford it.
Now, my son or daughter are gonna think
I'm too strict.
I don't want them to think I'm too
strict. I want them to see me as
the cool parent.
That's what I want to be like.
So, under the pressure,
they actually give in.
So that
irresponsible parent
caused a ripple effect
of irresponsibility
in the community.
And these kids that are on these phones
are exposed to God knows what.
In a society where
foolishness became
the biggest commodity that is sold.
TikTok creates short videos
seconds,
perhaps a minute or less than a minute
long. In the last year or the year
before, they made $35,000,000,000.
$35,000,000,000
selling what? Selling foolishness.
They don't sell they don't sell this, you
know, gold or silver. They don't sell this
rare, you know, mineral that's found in in
the mountains of some country. They don't sell
something that is of actual use. They sell
nonsense
and foolishness.
They sell a guy who's standing and spraying
salt or somebody who's dancing with his belly
hanging out or someone who's trying to fool
or prank his friends or his parents or
his teacher or his classmates.
And they watch that day and night
until their subconscious mind
becomes overflowing
with what? With selfishness.
Hence doing what?
Creating
a false perception
of this world.
Making this person, this child not take anything
seriously in life.
Nothing whatsoever.
It's all a joke.
And then when a parent says,
son or daughter, you know, I actually want
you to be,
you know, I want you to grow and
and give back to society.
I want you to be successful.
Say that, why should I be
Why should I do that? I could just
upload
these foolish videos and get millions of followers,
and actually monetize it, and get a lot
of money.
So,
this technology
that we're advancing in
will bite us back if we're not aware
of it. If we don't know how to
use it. If we're irresponsible and unaware of
the Islamic guidelines
that surround it.
And this is inshallah what I wanted to
shed light on. Obviously, this khutba is only
a reminder
and will not serve as
as like, you know, defining the guidelines of
technology and advancement. But it will give you
an idea of what's out there, and
and
perhaps,
get everyone to start thinking of, okay. Where
are my boundaries? And what am I doing
to
let this technology
and these advancements serve me
and my my progeny, rather than harm me
and my progeny.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in a surah
that we memorize and recite in in one
of the shortest surahs in the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the beginning
of the Surah,
A takathur
means
the increase of things.
The hoarding of hoarding of things, wanting more
and more and more.
That is what will continue to distract
us. Until you go to the grave,
humanity will continue
to see
that
getting more and more and more
is going to benefit us.
We're pursuing more
but it's biting us more.
It's biting us more and more and more.
Perhaps digging our ditch and it's subhanallah
as if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
because we're buried
under the ground. Right? Until we visit the
grave. And
perhaps there's a correlation between
seeking more and us digging
the grave that we're ultimately going to be
buried in.
And that's why Allah connected both of them
in the beginning of the surah.
Brothers and
sisters,
we need to, number 1,
to be aware
of the culture of dependency
that's being developed
with the spread or with the advancement of
these technologies.
If
I were to stand on the
30 years ago,
and ask anyone
of the people in the audience
to name the phone numbers
of the people that they
love, and the The people that they are
close to, the people that they are related
to,
they would at least name 10 phone numbers
or 15 phone numbers.
Today,
some of us developed
complete dependency to the point where we can't
even memorize a number if we wanted to.
Because we're so dependent on it.
There's a brother one time,
someone told him, oh. He said, I forgot
my phone. And the other person is like,
Insha'Allah. I'll text you. He's like, No. Tell
me your number. I'll remember
it. I was like, oh, you could remember
it?
As if it's something
special type.
This was normal.
Back in the day, you would They would
recite poems with 1,000 with like a 100
lines.
From the first time they would remember the
whole
thing. And I'm not talking about any special
people. This is the average people.
Average person would at least
remember
every single point that made sense exactly the
way it was said.
SubhanAllah.
But we're developing
a culture of dependency on this.
We're dependent on it
when it comes to what?
When it comes to
studying.
Hence, why I began this khutba saying that
I did not use chat gpt to prepare
to prepare it.
Or artificial intelligence. Why?
Because people will ultimately become more and more
dependent on that.
Even research, education is gonna be affected.
The public will be dumbed down
as the time and the dependency increases. And
we thought we had it bad. When I
when I was in college,
Google was out there and ask Jeeves and
whatever there was out there, if you remember
it.
We used to use that and we're like,
you know, we we had spark notes, and
we thought, man, we're not learning a single
thing.
So actually skim through the book,
read through the material,
study it,
try to find whatever we can find on
Google or Wikipedia,
and then we'll think that we're cutting corners
and taking the fast route out. Now, the
whole
research, as a matter of fact, the moment
AI came out,
jobs
and professions
that required years of studying
and experience
were rendered obsolete.
A 14 year old can now design something
using artificial intelligence online
that took somebody 8 years to learn.
A 14 year old can learn how to
do it.
Go on a website and it's over.
Careers were completely gone.
But you know what this means? This means
that
less people have to learn that skill. And
more people have to depend on those platforms
that are convenient
and comfortable.
So as Muslimian brothers and sisters, I urge
everyone
to
be very cautious
as we
move into this new era that we're living
in.
This era of advanced technology.
We've been in it and we're perhaps we're
going a little bit too fast.
But we should
we should
tread carefully
because
our
culture
or the culture that we develop, the culture
of comfort and convenience,
the culture of easy accessibility
and maximized efficiency,
that culture might
bite us in the back
if we don't
put the guidelines
and think about them at least in our
life and when we're raising our children or
associating with with our friends
SubhanAllah. As we when we read the sunnah
of the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
we noticed that there was one dua
that the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
would make every single salah.
And in a time where he encouraged us
to do dua, which is after the tashahood.
Right before he finished salah, he
the obligations of salah. Before he says,
Right before that,
the messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam
would say, O Allah.
I seek refuge in you
from
incapacity
and laziness.
Incapacity
and laziness.
And there's other things that he sought refuge
in. But this is the first you know,
this is one of the first duas he
made.
And the relationship between the 2
is
apparent to all of us insha'Allah.
Laziness,
there's no good in laziness.
As a matter of fact, the
one characteristic
that we cannot describe any companion with. Read
the biography of every single companion
around the Messenger
You
will not find a single one of them
with laziness.
Hence, why they were capable of spreading their
deen to the rest of the world in
a effective manner that they did.
But,
when
these technologies come out,
and they are making us
lazier and lazier. We are only
we are only making ourselves more
incapable.
We're paralyzing ourselves.
So,
the message today insha Allah ta'ala is not
as much to warn
from technological
advancement and all but it's it's to be
aware as a Muslim
of where we are going.
Casting it away will render us obsolete.
It will make us old. We need to
be at the forefront.
We do not want as muslimine to make
the mistake
of our forefathers
in the Ottoman Empire.
For those who know and who do not
know, one of
the first spikes to the throne
of the rule of the Ottoman Empire was
one they refused.
When they refused to use the printing press.
Europe had invented a printing press
and was able to propagate their agendas more
effectively and efficiently.
And the Ottoman Empire
had
thousands of scribes.
So,
the rulers at that time or the Sultan
saw that this
would
put a lot of people, tens of thousands
of people out of work. People that worked
as scribes day and night, they would get
paid.
But if we brought the printing press,
5 people can operate the whole thing and
that's it.
All the rest of the 10 of 1,000
have to find something else to do. So
they said, you know, we don't want to
cause economic instability
so let's just continue
and hire more scribes
rather than learn how to invent a printing
press or import it, and then use it
to spread.
And because of that, Europe advanced
and surpassed the Ottomans. And for other reasons
as well but this is one of the
main reasons.
So rather than fall into that and cast
something away,
absolutely not.
As Muslimen, we should be number 1, we
should be at the forefront
but we should be aware
of what is to come and we should
be aware of the guidelines to follow so
that we do not become incapacitated
and subservient
to these technologies,
and we do not allow them to fool
us. Wallahi, we are already seeing the effects
of it right now. Videos of scholars, videos
of prominent people, videos of respectable people
with their voices
saying things that they would never say. When
you watch it, it's very disheartening.
Think of someone you respect.
Think of someone you admire. Think of someone
you
truly
see
the amount of effort,
scholarly effort they put to get to the
place they got to. Just so a foolish
person can come
using one of these
softwares
to do what?
To make this respectable
prominent person look like a fool.
This is why the
Rasul told us, indeed in the hadith, the
Abu Huraira
narrated,
the prophet
said,
indeed, prior to the day of judgment,
the trials and tribulations will increase
and the lies will be prevalent. You will
see them all over
until
you do not know if this person
is the true one or this person is
the liar. Because you're not sure
who it is that is speaking. Did this
person really say this or not? It looks
like him, it sounds like him, but it's
not him.
It looks like her, it sounds like her,
but it's not her.
That's why the Prophet
told us, do not
If someone comes to you and says something
Look at this.
Look at what the messenger sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam advise us. And I'll end with this.
He told us when these times come,
When these times come.
Do not let people misguide you from what?
You inherited from your forefathers, from this deen.
To something that
you just came to know, but stick to
what you already know and what you took
from your authentic sources
until you discover something.
Until you discover whether it's reliable or not.
So the automatic default, if you hear something,
it's like, hey,
this this sounds very
I don't think this person would say this.
Do not accept it
until it is verified,
until it's authenticated. And that's why the science
of hadith
would never be rendered obsolete, inshallah ta'ala.
Because it is the science that was developed
by the Muslimeen, and that preserves this deen,
the Quran, and the sunnah, insha Allahu Ta'ala.
We ask Allah to guide us to the
truth, guide us to the Quran and sunnah,
and guide us to the proper correct use
of these technologies. We ask Allah
to protect us from the evils of these
technologies
and to guide us to the best uses
of these technologies. We ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to guide us and our children, and
our progeny, and our spouses, and our parents
to unite us all in janmatul firdaus. Ask
Allah
to have mercy on us, to protect our
brothers and sisters who are being oppressed
all over the world. We ask Allah
to preserve the blood of the muslimeen. We
ask Allah
to show us guidance
and to show us the best of what
this dunya has, and to protect us from
the most evil of what this dunya has.
We ask Allah
if
this
world carries good for us that will achieve
us the high ranks of jannah, then keep
us in this world and keep us alive
in it. And if this world is going
to guide to lead us astray and to
make us
be from the people of the hellfire, then
to take our souls
whilst we are still righteous.
Fill in the rows inshallah on the main
Musa Allah on the right and the left.
Still.
Stuff.
We have a couple of of important announcements
inshallah.
You could pray your sunnah right now,
if you want to catch it before,
before Asr.
Asr is in about 5 minutes.
So we're going to do adhan and then,
pray right after.
Important announcements.
So,
first tonight, insha Allah, we are going to
start our terbiyah program.
That's for,
boys and girls from 3rd to 8th grade.
3rd to 8th grade, it's called the Tarbia
program, and it's going to be every Friday
from 6 PM to 8 PM inshallah ta'ala
where they get mentorship
and sports,
and and you know, friendship building.
It's gonna con continue until December 15th. So
it's gonna be every Friday, except for holidays,
until December 15th.
That starts,
that starts tonight.
It's a $100 per registration,
and I think we only have like 20
spots left. So,
if you want to register then you can
before it's before it closes.
Regarding the kutba,
we have
a very important,
workshop or seminar that's coming up.
It's gonna be delivered by 2,
by 2
people who are
very credentialed,
and,
they are very qualified
to deliver and to talk about the subject.
And the subject is parenting and technology.
I hinted to it in the and I
gave the about this because I want you
to see the urgency of this.
Parenting and technology. It's gonna be a program
on Saturday,
September 23rd
from 12 PM all the way until 6
PM. There's going to be programs and breakout
sessions and workshops,
all for for all ages. Right? Yeah. So
whether talking about kids, teens, tweens,
parents, for father specific, and mother specific,
we're gonna have a whole full fledged program
inshallah
just to address parenting and technology, and how
to deal with these advancements,
and how to monitor
your children, how to create rules and boundaries
inshallah ta'ala. So I don't want you to
think that I gave a khutbah about these
guidelines and you're saying, oh, you're talking about
guidelines but you're not giving us anything. We
have a whole seminar
about these guidelines inshallah. So do register for
it. It's $30.30
inshallah. And that's, you know, for the refreshments
and and what not that we're gonna have
that day. And also for the professionals that
the therapists,
and workers,
you know, counselors and whatnot that we're going
to bring,
that day.
We also on this
on because it's Yomal Jumah, there are several
people that that messaged us
to make dua for them as they are
sick. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
give them a hasty and complete recovery.
If you want to
pray as soon as inshallah, we got 2
minutes and then
we'll make a then for Asar, and we'll
pray Asar inshallah.
Well, we were playing Asar with the terbiah
program will be after the Asar prayer
later at 6 PM.