Mufti Menk – Where do I fit in?

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. While he was happy to mine, we
praise Allah subhanho wa Taala. We thank him upon all conditions. We send blessings and salutations
upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his entire household, all his companions, we ask Allah
Subhana Allah to Allah, to bless all of them, and to bless every one of us, and to bless the entire
Ummah and to bless humanity at large May Allah subhanho wa Taala protect us from evil and grant us
goodness and at the same time. May Allah subhanho wa Taala guide us all to the straight path and
keep us on that straight path. My beloved brothers and sisters in Islam.
		

			Where do I fit in? Where do I fit in? When it comes to the message that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wasallam brought? That's a question.
		

			You might wonder,
		

			What do you mean, where do I fit in? Exactly? Ask yourself who am I?
		

			In relation to the message of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, am I really a follower? Am I
really someone who is interested in what he said? Or do I just call myself a follower? And I'm not
really interested in doing much am I from among those who perhaps hasn't thought deeply as to what
exactly I am? Or who exactly I am what I stand for what I'm supposed to be doing? We all are to the
Shahada eyeshadow, Allah Allah Allah Allah wa shodhana Mohammed Abu hora, Sulu, I bear witness, that
I will never render an act of worship to anyone besides Allah because there is none worthy of
worship besides Allah.
		

			And I bear witness that Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam is the Messenger of Allah the final messenger,
meaning he got a message from a lot to give to us. So I'm grateful that I am part of those who has
received the message, calling myself a member of his Omar sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that's what
it is. So now, My duty is to follow How can I follow without knowing what to follow? So primarily, I
need to learn, all of us need to make an effort to learn all of us. From the time we were little
children. If we were lucky and fortunate, our parents were bothered about the amount of Islamic
knowledge we had. So even if we went to secular schools, they would be bothered to say, listen, let
		

			me get a tutor to come and teach you go to a madrasa go to the community madrasa perhaps and learn
the minimum at least when I say the minimum at least it's because they as parents felt that as
Muslims, you need to know something, I need to know how to read Salah. I need to know how to read
the Quran. I need to know a little bit of the doors that need to be made what's halal and haram
permissible, prohibited etc. So if you were lucky, they would send you to a madrasa but that's only
up to a certain period of time. Very limited learning beyond that you grow up when you grow up.
Voila, he my brothers and sisters 90% if not more of us are guilty of having withdrawn ourselves.
		

			What that means is we are happy with what we had. Can you read Quran? Yeah, by the way, I can just
read lm Tara Paula Coolio, Catherine one or two other suitors and that's it. But my brother, you are
now so old. Come on, don't forget about what your parents did for you. What have you as an adult
done towards your faith, your religion? How much time have you spent to build your palace in the
hereafter when you spend so much time trying to save money to buy a house in Kumalo for example, in
some way in Bulawayo, because you know that you need some form of surety and security yet, when you
die, all that surety and security is a waste of time, you will need surety and security beyond the
		

			grave that will only come if you really understand who you are. That's it. That's what we're saying.
That's why I'm here today to share with you something very beautiful. My brothers and sisters Your
duty is to learn. So what has Allah done for you? He knows you become lazy, he knows I've become
technologically savvy, he knows everything.
		

			He knows that now I cannot memorize even the phone numbers of the most beloved people to me, how am
I going to memorize extra surah?
		

			Allah May Allah forgive us, but it's reality. Allah knows this. So what Allah does for us is he
changes the way the methods, the methods through which you shall learn and makes them easier. So
there was a time when the only way of learning was tallac t teleki. Meaning you set with an O star.
There were no books because people couldn't really read and write this was prior to the reading and
writing
		

			Ah and they would sit and make you memorize things repeat something you repeated, repeated you
repeat it. That's how Rasulullah Salam got the Quran from GB raha salat wa salam beautiful,
absolutely amazing, wonderful and they memorized it thereafter they wrote it down as writing became
the same thing people started writing. Initially they used to write on skins they used to write on
little pieces of wood, they used to write on various other parchments and so on, and preserve it and
keep it and it was a big deal to be able to read and write because you are now a person a little bit
more advanced than those who couldn't read or write.
		

			What happened. There came a time when reading and writing became the norm. Everyone was reading and
writing Mashallah, I'm sure in this Masjid every single one of you reads and writes Mashallah. But
now Allah knows that you read and write, but you take it for granted. Why? Because now you're living
in the digital age. It's no longer to do with reading and writing. I am lazy. How many of you have
read a full book in the last five years? The answer is 1% 2%. Or you may be in Bulawayo might be 3%,
because you guys are a little bit more educated in China. But when it comes to other places, they'll
tell you honestly, we haven't read a full book in the last five years, in the last five years. I
		

			don't want to say put up your hand, but I can guarantee you, you guys, I haven't read a full book
perhaps maybe I might well, mind you, I have but the thing is, it's quite difficult for us to get
positive answers yet we read and write we take it for granted. So Allah says, hang on, hang on. We
want to give you no excuse, you know, when you want to, when you're attracted to the opposite *,
Mashallah, it's a good sign. It's not a bad sign. It's a sign that Alhamdulillah things are okay,
okay. You are attracted to the opposite *, but you need to get married. So in order for things to
happen properly, and Allah knows you have a desire, that is normal and natural, he makes it easy for
		

			you to do nikka but you make it difficult upon yourself or culture or society or family. Allah says,
watch out, I made it easy for you. It takes you 35 seconds to go through the paces of Nika. But you
took three and a half years or 35 years you kept on living in Harlem. What was the point? So
similarly, Allah makes things very, very easy for us. He knows to know to have knowledge is
absolutely vital. It's the first step.
		

			It's what the first step because without knowledge, I can't follow the Prophet Mohammed Salah Salam
soon now what is the sooner I don't even know what it means because I haven't even known knowledge.
So Allah says, I'll make it easy for you. You no longer read books, okay? I am coming up with
something I will give my creatures, the human beings, the ability to come up with technology that
will be so much easier for you in the form of a radio program. You just turned on the radio. So
Pamela, what happened? You started hearing things that other people learned from the books. Wow. But
guess what? You still didn't turn on the radio? Because you told yourself Zbc Why should I listen?
		

			It's a waste. It's boring. Oh, that molana again, that shape. Again, look at him. He's telling us
this and that, switch it off. So Allah says Hang on, we make it a little bit more interesting. We'll
have for you the television. So panela it will come up and you will learn what you would be learning
in the books and the key tabs but from something that you're used to watching in the wrong way. Now
we coming up and in the right way, we will beam it to you. Are you ready? We've brought it to your
house. That's the question. That's the issue. Are you ready? You were lazy to come to the madrasa?
You were lazy to eat a book you were lazy to sit in the lesson in the masjid. You were lazy to sit
		

			in the seat so far that you were lazy to come early for Juma to listen to the talk once a week.
That's how lazy Allah says Okay, no problem. It's on the telly at home. Are you ready to flick the
button? there too. We become lazy. When it comes to Bollywood and Hollywood and Hollywood and
Bollywood and Hollywood. We are so fast. What do we do? Click Click and we sitting there a thief can
enter the home and clear it and we still watching the soap and we crying. We cry. You know when soap
gets into your eyes What happens? You all know what happens? You start crying. So what are you busy
watching something in Ukraine somehow my brothers and sisters Allah says Hang on, flick it one more
		

			time and you will get a law Colorado law. Flick it one more time, get to the right channel, the same
thing. You will now hear what Allah has to say. Do you have an answer on the day when Allah will ask
you my worshiper, I made it so easy for you to learn. You had to sit at home and you had to either
turn on a radio or put on a disk, a CD, a DVD, an mp3 or perhaps a flash drive, etc. And you didn't
do that. Or the question is did you do that? So my brothers and sisters, spend the time. make the
effort and dedicate a portion of your week. If you're really weak. If you're a weak person, once a
week, and if you're stronger once a day. Why not? Every day
		

			You would like to go to work, wouldn't you every day? How much do you earn? a daily basis is not too
much. Some people might tell you $5 some people $10 some people $1,000 a day. I don't think there's
anyone who earns $1,000 a day. But if they do, you're lucky and have the knowledge good. But you
have to go to work every day you miss a day, what happens? chop the cut off your salary, right? So
islamically it's much more important for me to earn reward to be able to come close to Allah, can't
I spend 10 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day learning a little bit? How do I make money for the
afternoon? If I were to give you a book and tell you listen, take this book, it's how to make money,
		

			quick money, and it's guaranteed you're going to make it very fast. What will you do? I swear you're
going to sit exactly where you are without moving without talking without looking at other people
reading the book and you're going to be nodding your head, it's I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do
that. Because this $200 this $2,000 this $20,000 Oh, by the time I'm finished by next week, I'll
have 25,000 bucks, yo, and then you close the book, and people will say I've been talking to you for
half an hour and you haven't listened. So don't worry, I'm doing something more important. While
llahi my brothers and sisters, what Allah has given us in terms of the deen is more valuable than
		

			that. Come on. Don't you agree with me. So I want to speak to you about something even higher than
just the television or perhaps a CD or a radio program, etc. And I'm talking about using these tools
in the right way. I'm not promoting the wrong use of any of these things, using them in the right
way, the correct channels. Now, there's something called applications that you can get on your
phone, it's an app, what is an app? You might ask? Don't? Don't you dare pretend like you don't
know. Because you know what an application is Android app. You have these iPhone, you know, the App
Store. And you know, people actually pay to buy these little apps to be able to be in touch with
		

			whatever they want to do things. Mashallah, nowadays you have applications, how do these
applications work? Someone some way somehow put their mind to it, they invested either for purposes
of the dean or the dunya. And in the case of Islamic knowledge is for the dean. And they made an
application in order to bring together Islamic learning. And the effort that was required to do that
you don't even know for you. It's just a click of the button, a click of the button, you download
the app. But no, you say I can't download the app. Why? Because my phone is full, well delete some
of the pictures.
		

			A large percentage of those pictures might not even be Halloween pictures.
		

			They might not even be Halloween pictures. Like I say, You know when you see someone and they really
have something to hide. They've got you know, you get a double security on the phone. They've got
triple security on the phone. They've got a thumbprint. They've got a code and an iris scanner, and
then tidied and it opens my brother What do you have to hide so much security more than the American
president is on your phone man? Come on Linux, may Allah subhanho wa Taala help us all you can have
something to deter maybe the kids or someone from getting access but so deep The idea is if you have
something to hide, perhaps you need to consider deleting it. If it is haram May Allah subhanho wa
		

			Taala help us download this app. You choose the speaker you want Who do you like to hear? Which Imam
of the harems, Salah? Would you like to hear? What would you like to be motivated by choose the
name, get down there, pick the name, you click on it, the app is downloaded every time that person
talks. Every time that person says something, if you are really bothered your stat so to speak in
inverted commas or your teacher say what you want. Every time they do something, your phone will
have a message to say there is a new lecture, you want to listen to it, listen to it, it's available
for you Do you know that and it's free, totally free Subhanallah one such application is the one I
		

			use. And the one I'm a part of, and I want to share it with you today. It is called Muslim Central.
That is the name of the website. So if you say Muslim central.com we have so many speakers a wide
selection. In fact, there's a few languages now and we have 1000s of lectures. And so many of these
speakers myself included this talk as well that I'm delivering now within five to 10 minutes of me
walking out or getting into an area where there is decent internet, a press of the button and suhara
lights up it goes out to more than 100,000 mobile phones almost instantly or depending on the
settings that you have chosen. It gets to you as soon as you are interested in it and people listen
		

			to it. Within moments by this afternoon we'll have 1000s of people who would have heard what I said
here in Bulawayo.
		

			But why I raised this is because learning has become so easy. Where we allow made it simple. If I
give you a big book and say brother read this, you're gonna think
		

			When am I gonna finish this thing here? When am I gonna finish this thing here, but I'm telling you
listen, it's technology. It is so attractive. It is magnetizing use it. It's beautiful. You want to
Quranic recitation, it's there. So Muslim Central has an many applications for many speakers on the
Android platform. And they have it also on the iTunes platform. And they have it on the website
itself. If you want to see it, they have a Facebook page, a Twitter page, etc. You can follow the
right things. A lot of us we're on Twitter, we're on Instagram, and where else are we? We're on
perhaps you know, vine and Snapchat and everything else. Yes, there is a permissible usage of these
		

			things and there is a prohibited usage of these things just like a knife and a gun. Okay. If you are
a true Muslim, at least when people see your profile they will be able to say this person is
inclined more towards the deen than the dunya and say you're a Muslim was a little bit weak at least
people recognize this person is a Muslim they've got some link but with us the reality is I have
gone through a lot of Muslim people's profiles that are public and there's no saying that they are
Muslim besides the name country change that country change that. Besides the name you know, by the
name is Mohammed bin Abdullah something something of Fatima Binti Khadija or something like that,
		

			Mashallah beautiful name, we hope and hamdulillah people are okay, but don't be shy to relate. I
follow this guy. I follow that that sister for example, the sisters or you can even follow a person
who's a chef who's a male for example, if you want to benefit from them, there's no harm in that I
have benefited from this person tremendously. That's a gift of Allah, my brothers and sisters make
use of these gifts.
		

			Mashallah Tabarak Allah, may Allah subhanho wa Taala, grant us ease they are people who spent money,
effort, time, and so much of their resources in order to get this to you.
		

			And we just go ahead, sometimes we might say, well, we didn't know about it. Well, now you know,
Subhan Allah. So inshallah we can download the Muslim Central app with the name you want, say, for
example, my name, if you want to search Mufti, mink, you will get so many applications, the one that
is sanctioned by me, or the one that I'm involved with completely, is called Muslim Central. So
that, you know, it's definitely sanctioned by me. If you download that, I promise you, you will get
every lecture as it's delivered, no matter where in the world for as long as I have chosen to upload
it. That's it. How simple and if there is a video link to it, the chances are perhaps you're going
		

			to get a video link there as well. Some of the countries that are more advanced where the internet
is a little bit cheaper, or sometimes even free. They prefer video over audio. I know when I was in
the UK recently, a lot of the kitchens have these television screens that are computer friendly.
There's a word for it, which doesn't come to my mind right now. But Subhanallah they from their
phone, they're all straight onto the screen, they can watch with whichever lecture they want.
Whatever Dilawar they want whatever they want. A lot of the Muslim sisters in the kitchens are
preferring not to watch their soaps, and not to watch these movies and so on but rather listen to
		

			something regarding your deen. That's a very good sign. But the question is with us, how much are we
doing? It's no longer waiting for someone to come to your city. No, you have access to them before
they come to your city. When I was coming through here, I stopped in gweru we had a bit of tea
there. And Mashallah the masjid as you know, is renovated is looking quite smart Alhamdulillah we
make dua for whoever made that possible because it's only the hearts of those who are close to Allah
that actually feel that they for the sake of Allah without even wanting to be known. They want to do
things, you know, for the house of Allah subhanho wa Taala, obviously, through proper channels and
		

			so on, but it's so good. hamdulillah when I stopped the the Imam asks me, so when are you going to
come to guru for a program? I said, my brother, I have programs every day in guru. And I think he
didn't know where that was going. And I told him, turn on your phone, I can show you how to get it.
That's all because it's just comes in onto your phone. I once went to a restaurant, and we asked for
the menu. Can we see the menu they said turn on your phone and Bluetooth turned on phone and
Bluetooth. Next thing we turn on phone Bluetooth, they pay the device, and the whole menu is on your
own phone. And I'm thinking wow, technology. And then I said no, I can't do this because I know you
		

			might you might hack into my system here. So then the brother says no, no, no, no, you got to trust
us. I said, Well, that's something. However, when it comes to lectures, you that's it you download,
you can listen straight from there. I know of a brother in Nigeria in one of the rural areas where
they don't have internet, he drives or he catches a lift somehow to the city with his internet. He
downloads the lectures. He goes back to his village and he has his little speakers. The people come
together as a community and voila he plays these lectures and the in the week the week finishes
during the week.
		

			He goes back to the city to download more lectures. And he goes back, he is the chair of the
society, how he's not talking, but he's facilitating it. The problem with us is, I know life is
difficult. And I know we are struggling. And I know economically, things are not so easy. But we
have to make the time my brothers and sisters in our societies. A lot of the times, we are so
interested in building our dunya our life, our world, that we're lucky, we forget to build the app
here, I'm just being honest, I'm not being harsh. I'm being totally honest, we are so engrossed in
going to work every morning, coming back will lie, sometimes we forget to build the app here. So the
		

			message I have for you is make use of this. It's really good. It's something brilliant, and you know
what? conveyed to others, because when you convey good messages to others, say each one of you talks
to 10 people about the Muslim Central app or the Muslim Central page, go and choose the speakers,
you'll be surprised how many speakers they are. And you'll be surprised how much money and effort
has been used. And yet it's free. There's no advertisements, a lot of the people that have adverts,
you know, and that's how they make their money. Muslim Central, no adverts, no, you don't know that.
They said, Because what's the point of listening to an Islamic talk and just before that, you
		

			listening to something about alcohol, something about how something haram and so on. But if each one
of us conveys the message to 10 people, imagine the reward we would get, you know, when you talk to
one person, the Hadith says you guide one person, it's better for you than the most expensive and
valuable of conveyance of this world. What about if I spoke to 10 people encourage them speak about
it now and again, forward. And I'm going to perhaps end on this note, I can't really see the clock
there. For some reason, this is a fan in the way. So you've got to excuse me to look at my own clock
here. Okay. A lot of the times we use the phones, you know, we have WhatsApp, I think it's the most
		

			common WhatsApp at the moment in our part of the world. You might have telegram and various other
platforms. Ask yourself, how much of Islamic content that is interesting that I forward? I tell you
why I use the word interesting. Well, ah, he I have done a little study. And that study is asking
people about how they receive Islamic clips,
		

			and how much they listened to, and who they listen to it from. So you know what they say they say if
there is a guy who sends us long and uninteresting messages every day, then we just see the message.
And just to get the green ring of that name, we just opened up the message and close it immediately.
We haven't even seen what they've said, because we know that it's a long message from here all the
way to Harare, I'll be reading and I might even knock a few cars in the way. But at the same time,
what you need to know is if it's a short, sharp message, they know this person only sends really
interesting stuff there. Stop it, read it. That's the beauty today, the concentration levels are not
		

			more than one and a half minutes. That's why while I'm talking I'm trying to make it interesting.
I'm moving from pillar to post Can you notice and I'm trying to crack a little joke or two? Not
because I want to but because I have to I have to hold your concentration. Three minutes is maximum
wigs going on for almost 30 minutes here. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us all. You cannot every
day have 30 minutes of time of all of the people. So when you're forwarding things on WhatsApp, make
sure it's interesting. Very interesting. Make sure it's calling towards the dean somehow, even if
it's through a lighter moment, a lot of us will live. There's a dirty joke that came through. And
		

			what do you do you think about all your friends
		

			have a good laugh. And if someone said it to me, you'd even phoned him at night at that joke you
said today please don't forget to forward it to me while I eat reality on the ground. How many of us
you had a beautiful recitals a brother, please send me that recitation, listen to the recital. Even
if you're, you know in the public and you're listening to a recital while it's so soothing, it's so
beautiful. Others will also get the this the good vibe from that recycle because you and I know the
reputation is the word of Allah. It has a power to it. That is far more than anything can offer you.
So forward something interesting. It needs to be short, it needs to be calling towards the dean and
		

			it mustn't bombard or flood the person's inbox or the person's WhatsApp. You see how many messages
at 35 messages from this brother today? I wonder what he's saying. Anyway, we'll see tomorrow. You
defeated the purpose one at a time. May Allah subhanahu wa taala help us May he guide us. Really
indeed I've come here to let you know that we all fit in somewhere. How we fit in is we need to be
able to learn, put into practice convey to others. And Allah has made it easy, so easy. Please my
brothers and sisters, get this application, put it on your phone, go and search for it. spend a
little bit of time see what it's all about. benefit from it, talk to others about it. And while
		

			you're sitting at home, your investment will be already reaping a lot of its fruits. You know like
putting $1,000 in already using $100 a day Whoa.
		

			You're so happy you're sitting at home and you're earning so much while law II from a religious
perspective that happens. The difficulty is we can't see it. We can't see it with our eyes, but you
will start feeling it and you will be able to feel the closeness to Allah May Allah subhanho wa
Taala bless us all indeed. It's just a pleasure to have been here for Juma. I hope to deliver a talk
this evening in Sharla state after salata Marie mela, make it easy for us are sallallahu wasallam Oh
Baraka and Amina Mohammed