Building Bridges Tour, by Mufti Menk, Sheikh Zayed hall, Mombasa, Kenya
Mufti Menk – Respecting the Difference
AI: Summary ©
The speakers in the transcript emphasize the importance of knowing the past and future, achieving success in life, respecting natural tendencies, and building bridges. They stress the need to test one's actions and not just result, and emphasize the importance of forgiveness and finding a way to end negative behavior. They also emphasize the importance of protecting one's faith and helping others, not just oneself. The segment ends with a brief advertisement for a BMW deal.
AI: Summary ©
smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was happy here Jemaine we praise Allah subhanho wa Taala we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
his household his companions May Allah subhanahu wa Jalla bless them and bless every one of us. And may Allah reward you for the fact that you have come here in great numbers seated Mashallah from a while, waiting for us, and I thank Allah subhanho wa Taala, for giving me this opportunity to actually be with you. And I ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to grant us success in the dunya and the Sierra, I mean,
my brothers and sisters, have you ever thought about why Allah subhanho wa Taala has created so many creatures besides mankind?
If you look at creation, mankind was not the first of all creation, to be brought onto the earth. But instead, they were other creatures of Allah subhanho wa Taala that were created, and they have existed and they are around us. Why would Allah do that? Many of us we enjoy the greenery. We look at the animals, we love to go out in the safaris and we enjoy looking at the different creatures of Allah subhanho wa Taala some of them dangerous, some of them not so dangerous. We want to have some pets as well. Have we ever thought Why did Allah make those animals? Why are some of these animals halaal some of them haram to consume, even if you were to slaughter them in the proper way in the
halal way, these animals some of them can never be halaal because a pig for example, no matter how many times you say Bismillah Allahu Akbar, you will never be able to consume that pork or the flesh of a swine. Have you thought of Why?
Why did Allah create a snake that is so dangerous and the lion that Subhana Allah whilst it looks quite good, whilst it actually attracts people, whilst it can become a source of income? Because of those who love to go and see and enjoy and whatever else you have Subhana Allah it is a dangerous animal and you cannot consume it. Then have you thought about the other creatures of Allah, some trees are quite dangerous. Do you know that? Have you thought about why Allah creates the other trees you know, not very far from my house on the road as I'm leaving my home every morning. I see some trees. And I noticed that once in the year, the trees blossom.
I'm sure you know what Jacaranda is you must be having it here to write the Jacaranda back at home
blossoms once a year, and just after it, there is another tree that blossoms with a beautiful orange color.
Lovely. And I look at it and I tell myself Why did Allah make this tree and why is it that it only blossoms once a year? Why? Why do you have mango trees that only give you fruit once or twice in the year? And why do you have a season for every fruit? Why did Allah do that? Why do we have regions where it's very hot and humid such as Mombasa, for example, although I'm feeling the coolness coming from everyone here Mashallah, you know, they told me we will put a fan on the right and a fan on the left Mashallah, I saw the brothers on the right and the sisters on the left and the coolness just started coming through hamdulillah I saw my colleague who is the emcee here. He had a towel in his
hand
and he came in for two minutes and I saw him wipe his forehead with the towel. Immediately I decided to take out my tissues, put them in order put in my and I said I put it because I don't want to be I did not bring a towel but inshallah I hope I won't use this by the will of Allah. But why did Allah create this? Why? Why has Allah made diverse colors? diverse colors? How come you cannot look into the sun, but you can look into the moon Have you thought of this?
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Amazing description by Allah subhanho wa Taala and amazing how Allah says those who truly believe in Allah, they are the ones who will consider the movement of the day and the night, the creation of Allah subhanho wa Taala everything that Allah has made, they will ponder deeply over it in order to recognize the greatness of Allah subhanho wa Taala in order to understand the plan of Allah for us, if you don't know the plan of Allah, you will never understand your purpose on Earth.
You need to ask yourself and think about it carefully. Why did Allah make a snake Subhana Allah? Why did Allah created crocodile for what? It's a dangerous animal? How many have lost their lives due to crocodiles? How many have lost their lives due to some other creatures of Allah subhanho wa Taala Why? You must be wondering, please speak about your topic. It is building bridges Subhanallah right. Well, this introduction is absolutely important. You will never ever be able to understand what is your purpose on earth and you will not be able to understand how to respect differences if you don't know the beauty of the difference, not starting with human beings. But before humankind came onto
the earth.
Don't we believe we were created by Allah for Allah to test us in order to worship? Allah subhanho wa Taala listen to what Allah says in Surah two MOOC and the Hala palma de Waal, hyah. Talia boo aku, Yokohama, San Juan, Allah Wa, who will as he is.
Allah says, It is he who created death and life in order that the minute he says in order that he is explaining to you the purpose of creation, why did he make you in order to test you, in order to test me? So you mean I'm on earth so that Allah tests me test me With what? Why should Allah test me? Yesterday someone asked me a question from Europe. The question was, if Allah knew that we are going to heaven and *, and if Allah has determined the whole future, why did he make us? Why didn't he just put us where we were belonging in the first place? So I told him, I said,
when you have a court case, is it fair for the judge to just say right, I am jailing you without proving you are to you the evidence you did this, you did that you did this. Look at what you did. The evidence is against you, you now deserve this. So Allah subhanho wa Taala did not impose on us certain matters, he has given us a choice regarding you are sitting here it was in the knowledge of Allah, it was decreed by Allah indeed, but he gave you the capacity and the choice Subhana Allah, He will not punish you for what you did not have a choice regarding if something happened beyond your choice. Say, for example, something disastrous happened. You were driving according to the speed
limits, and suddenly, someone decided to break the limits. or two, they made the mistake, they bumped into you and you were injured, you are not going to be asked, Why were you injured? That man is going to be asked why were you driving recklessly. So that was not in your capacity? It's
the meaning. It is destiny. It was destined that I was going to go through this Indeed, I had no role to play. Allah will not question me where I didn't have a choice. But where Allah has given you a choice, you chose Allah hold you responsible. That does not mean he doesn't know what was going to happen. This is why when we talk about the knowledge of Allah subhanho wa Taala many of you would obviously know I'm just repeating it the knowledge of Allah encompasses many aspects to show the greatness of Allah. Ya Allah mama can Amaya kuno Mamma mia can either Kanaka airpano Allah knows the past. He knows the past Makana. yaku is Mubarak in the Arabic language it is present and future so
Allah knows the past. He knows the present and he knows the future. But there is something more than that, that Allah knows.
Which is amazing.
Allah knows that which was not going to happen and will not happen. If it were to happen, how it would have happened. Allah knows it already. Can I give you an example from the Quran
In South Africa, and I'm sure we read it, Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks about certain incidents that happened between Musa alayhis. Salam and Alfredo.
Alfredo. And Allah speaks about one of them where a young boy was killed by Al Qaeda. And Musa alayhis salam says Patel 10 of seven Zeki be worried enough, how can you kill this man without any reason? no purpose, we are not allowed to kill just because you might have had a disagreement or a difference. You have no right to take away the life that Allah gave, who gave life? Allah? How can you take away lights that Allah gave, if Allah once he will take that life away, he has more power than you and I Subhana Allah.
So Allah further says, look,
you don't know what I've done, just leave it. It was from Allah inspired Subhana Allah.
And then he explains that had this child grown older, he would have been a source of misfortune for his parents, and the source of sadness, a source of perhaps harm to his parents. Therefore, Allah chose to take him away at an early age to avoid his parents suffering and him to actually end in a bad way. So it was the blessing of Allah what I learned from this, the biggest lesson is, Allah knows that which was never going to happen, because Allah knew that this child is going to go now but Allah you if he gave him life, which we were not going to do anyway. But if we did it, he would have turned out to be x, y and Zed. That's the knowledge of Allah. So if you did not come here
today, way you would have been Allah knows, but Allah also knew that you were going to come here, it is so amazing that sometimes it confuses the mind. You need to sit and think about it.
You need to sit and think that's the knowledge of Allah, He is the owner of all knowledge. So when Allah says I created you to test you, what did he say? Testing about what he says to test you who from amongst you has better deeds, to test you who from amongst you has better deeds, that's all. Allah says, I created death and life in order to test you who has better deeds, which means I need to work as best as I can to please Allah. In the meantime, they will be you know, when there is a test what happens what happens in the test, you go into your exam room and you are tested mathematics So do they just test you what you want everything will be nice, smooth, sweet, calm, no,
you will work hard you will go into the exam room at the right time with the right uniform at the in the right place sitting in the correct position, making sure that you don't copy you don't cheap, you're looking at your paper you are praying that is going to be easy. You are praying that is going to be easy. And you start answering the first question one plus one Mashallah you know the answer to very easy right? It is so easy that if you were asked that question for all levels, you might think there is a catch here. You might think there is a catch imagine you come for your examination Oh level first question one plus one.
We just look at each other. Like when MC almost gave away my date of birth. First time in my life I've seen someone Mashallah May Allah forgive us all. who introduces a speaker with his date of birth I almost choked Mashallah.
Wash Allah Masha Allah tala. Just as well he didn't give the year.
But I can let you in on a secret I can let you in on a beautiful secret. I have and my colleagues do know this. I have two of my daughters are actually married. So you can guess how old I am and Charlotte just as well.
And that's not a lie. That's it. That's the truth. So May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us all. If you were to enter an exam and you hear something that is quite simple, you will be a little bit confused to say how come this is so easy. Allah says in life.
We will test you with ease. It's a test. When we give you it's a test when we take away from you it's a test. Every one now now I'm getting to my topic. Okay. everyone and everything that we have put around you is part of your test. You have snakes as your test. You have giraffes as your test. You have kittens and cats that you may choose to be your pets as snakes, you may have birds as pets as snakes those which are sorry as as a test. You may have that which is harmful as a test that which is beneficial as a test. All these are tests from Allah subhanho wa Taala your brothers were chosen by Allah as a test for you, your sisters chosen by Allah you did not choose who's going to be
your brother or sister
So much so you did not choose your father or your mother, that's your test. Why? Because Allah created you different from everything in everyone, you are unique you are you, you are so different that your thumbprint your iris print will be completely different even from your own mother and father.
What are you going to do about it? So now let me take you to the exam room again.
When you are asked a question, you will be asked addition, this is a mathematics exam after addition, do they say fine you pass? No, they will test you with subtraction.
Okay, what is one minus one? Why subtraction? Because now we need to know whether you have mastered that subject. Right. So a lot tests you by giving you after a little while. What does he do? It takes away from you. He tests you again. How did you test me to get away? What did he take away? Something I loved gone? Allahu Akbar. What do we say when we lose a loved one? May Allah give them Gen metal? For those? We say in LA he was in la hora June? Have you ever pondered to think what it means? I don't know, if you have the same crisis we have in other parts of the world. You hear someone they say, Oh, brother Musa passed away. And everyone says in Manila. But they didn't think
what they're saying. It's just a statement that came out of the mouth. You haven't thought what is the meaning of what I just said? It means we all actually do belong to Allah. And we're all going to go back to him, not just the one who passed away, but all of us are going to go there. It's a reminder to all of us to say, I'm also going there. That's what we actually say when someone passes away. Don't we use that as a doula, right?
Next time, think about what you're saying, don't just pay lip service to it. And this is the difficulty when we convert our religion and faith into a ceremony, your Salah, your prayer is not a ceremony, nor is it a performance, it is actually a fulfillment. That's what it is. And for that reason, I prefer to use the word fulfill your Salah, although it may not be wrong to say we are performing Salah, but for me, Salah is not a mere performance, I would rather say I'm fulfilling my prayer. The point I'm raising is Allah test you by taking away, then Allah test you by multiplying then Allah test you in all the different ways, just like in examination when I was much younger,
I recall and probably it still happens now on television, on television, they used to have obstacles for children, and they show it to you on the TV and you win a prize to teams. And you have to do certain obstacles in order to get to the other side, whoever gets there first is the winner. And they get so many more crystals, or they get so many more stars. And at the end of the day, the people who have the most stars, they are the ones who win. Now that I'm much older, I sit and think do you know your whole life works in a similar way. Your whole life works in a similar way you enter the obstacle, you find water, what do you have to do, you have to get across to the other side, what
will happen as you are trying to get across a crocodile will come from underneath, it will try to snap at you, right? You have to do make a plan, do something, get a rope at the top and go to the other side or build a bridge, you build a bridge so that the crocodile does not bite you. And then what happens when you get to the other side you have one crystal, you hold it. Now you're excited you cannot stop there. You get to the other crystal after a while when you go to the other side there is a snake. Why did they put snakes? Why?
To show you that the obstacle is what makes you the women. When you go beyond the obstacle that is placed in your life, you are the winner. Every one of us without a single exception, will have obstacles. And those are the matters the issues that will actually shine us.
You are known not during your glory days, not during your days of glory. But during your difficult days. Are you still a faithful person? Are you still a humble person? Do you still have faith in Allah? Are you still a good person? In fact, with us, even when we're given we are tested by Allah? Do you still remain humble? Are you still a person who is approachable? Are you still the person who has developed himself or herself even more now that Allah has given you more?
So all this diversity that we see around us is created different from us, in order for us to be tested? What is going to be my relationship with that? which is different from me. When I see I'm going to give you one of the worst examples, it's okay Sharla Don't worry. When I see a pig when I see a pig on the road or when I see a pig somewhere in the garden or in the bush in the bush. Okay. What is my duty towards the pig? Are you allowed to consume it?
No.
Are you allowed to deal with it? No.
Can you just say right pig haram to consume dirty animal? I'm going to kill it. Can you say that?
Never? Why? Allah gave that pig life? Who are you to harm it? When Allah says don't eat it, don't eat it. Did Allah say when you see a pig hermit? Is that what he said? No, who gives you the right to take that life away? If Allah wanted he would not have made the big? Can't you understand the power of Allah? Allah is powerful, if he wants to take the life of someone who would take it away and he has, why should I cut it short? Who gave me the right and authority to harm someone or something that Allah has made? So much so that these trees you see around us they are living? Did you know that they have life, a different type of life, perhaps not with the soul that we know.
But they have life they grow
Subhana Allah, you do not go around as a Muslim and a true believer, destroying the ecosystem,
and destroying the forest, and just bringing down things and contaminating the river or the ocean, and thus harming the fish. SubhanAllah you do not do that. I was telling you about the tree just outside my home.
Recently, some of you who might be following on Instagram,
I thought to myself, I'm going to take a picture of this tree. I did it last year, I'm going to do it again. And I want to say something, unfortunately, I became very busy. So all I did is I took a little video and put it up for
the instastory they call it which lasts about 24 hours. But I didn't say anything. What did I want to say? Let me say it now because it's relevant to our topic.
I am not a tree. I'm very different from a tree.
Very different. I'm thankful to Allah that I'm not a tree but sometimes I sit and I think the tree lives way longer than I do. Trees are out there for hundreds of years at times. And what do they do? They are people who pass people who allow people who are soft people who are stamping people who are flying past people in trucks, people in cars, the tree doesn't mind doesn't mind. I'm doing my job. ignore it. There are birds that come on it there are birds that may not want to come on it I don't mind. I will still provide the fruit every year. I will still give the shade whoever wants to benefit let them benefit. I will still continue giving the flowers meaning blossoming once twice a
year. No matter who comes Who benefits. I will continue doing my job. I am not worried about what others have to say about me in terms of negativity. I am going to be positive wow I learned a lesson from what from a tree
I need to continue blossoming there will be people who don't like me just like people who want to chop that tree. I will be a person who continues giving the fruit just like the tree no matter what people say about the fruit. I will continue to provide shade no matter what people say. I'm different but I must do My goodness. My brothers my sisters do not lose your goodness based on someone else's evil no continue to be good no matter what they do. Why should their bad make you a bad person? Remember this, they will be different they will think differently. They will be different. How many of us have had the difference? Okay, let's try and make it a bit more
interesting. Show me with a show of your hands. Okay? If you have had a difference with a family member, difference with a family member whether it is your mother, your father, your brother, your sister or your child.
If you've had a difference with them, put up your hand
Okay, put them down. That's most of us Mashallah. The rest. I think they are too shy.
too shy to admit. Or maybe they thought we're talking about fighting in warring, not fighting and worrying. differences. We like different things. We want to eat different things. We want to do different things. We want to go on holiday to Hawaii and they want to go to Honolulu SubhanAllah. Guess what we will go to the same to both places in Sharla. Just take an extended vacation.
We want to go out to eat here. They want to go out to eat they we are different. We are thinking different. But I love this person. She's my wife, for example.
But we differ. This is my son but we differ. Sometimes the differences are bigger than that.
I've known of Holmes people who are not Muslim. Suddenly one child comes up and he becomes a Muslim.
Some of you might be in that situation right now.
Then he goes to a scholar of Islam and says, What should I do? Now you get different answers because it's based on the knowledge, it's also based on the expertise and experience. And if you have been through that situation, or lived through it, or helped people, you will understand it more. Some will say, Haram, get out of your house, these people are Kufa, they are dirty, you get right out move you kind of ways you're going to go, where are you chasing this man or this woman? Are you okay? In your mind, what have you just said, these are human beings,
you may want to talk and discuss, I believe I belong in this faith here. I respect your faith. I used to belong to this faith for so many years, I respect it. And I will always respect it. But I have chosen something else. I just want you to cater for me and I will cater for you. So I need this area is my prayer area, for example, which I will use once or twice in the day, depending on the size of the house, the conditions you are living in, you have to take everything into consideration, I would like to eat in a specific way, they may never agree for you to say the fridge should only have that which is allowed. Although some families would do that I'm talking of a specific
situation, the brother or the sister may not be wealthy to actually go and do their own thing. You have to understand we will be different in that case, but we will respect each other. And the same applies to other cases. I give an example. I gave it yesterday. I'm going to give it to you again today worded slightly differently.
A lot of us have businesses,
a lot of us have things we like to market a product that we want to sell. Okay.
We have customers who are not Muslim, do you agree?
Do you agree? We have customers who are not Muslim? I want to ask you a question.
What is more important Dean or dunya?
Dean, right. Okay. Dean is more important, which means your faith your religion is more important than your life, your your living, for example, right? Your faith. So your faith is more important.
for dunya, you are ready to compromise and to live together and to set aside your differences and respect your differences. Because this man, this woman who belongs to a different faith, or who belongs to no faith at all would like to purchase your product. And that is an important person as a customer, you will treat them well. You will respect them, you will greet them, you will acknowledge them, you might even invite them for a meal, you might treat them and give them a gift once in a while because they are your customer, your client regarding dunia a product,
don't you think you should be even more than all of that put together when it comes to something much more important than that is Dean that is Dean, the dean is a product which we need to market, the only way of marketing it is if we were to fulfill the method of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam when he marketed the dean right at the beginning, marketing is called the hour. Do you agree Subhan Allah, how do I do the hour, I have to interact, I have to mix I have to greet I have to talk I have to acknowledge, I might want to exchange gifts. These are human beings, they are different from you. But you need to know how to build the bridge.
You need to know going back to the Sunnah of Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, you cannot divorce yourself completely, because that would mean that you don't have a concern for the rest of humanity. Imagine if people were divorced completely from those whom they differed with, we would probably not be Muslims, because maybe they wouldn't have interacted with us or our forefathers or whoever accepted Islam. So we need to be realistic about these things. You cannot just think to yourself, you know what? That's it. If I'm different from someone, I'm not going to interact with them. If that's the case, you will lead a very very lonely life, because
you will realize very soon that you differ from everyone,
everyone, including your spouse, how many people today we have a sickness, what is the sickness? The sickness is we are not prepared to build bridges. We are not prepared to mend relations, but we are rather prepared to break relation based on something minor. So when people get married before Mashallah, we used to say Alhamdulillah when are you having kids? How many children do you have in two or three years? Now when people get married, maybe not in Mombasa, I hope it is still good here but in other parts of the world when they get married two years
Later you say, Are you still together?
That's the question. Are you still together? I know of hundreds of cases of people who take loans in order to show huge weddings.
The wedding was big. The wedding was beautiful, but the marriage was not beautiful. The wedding we took loans, the divorce happened six months later, but that loan, it will take us two years to pay. So we are paying for a marriage that was already broken. Before Subhana Allah we've even seen the fruits of anything, we are paying for it way beyond its lifespan.
Does it make sense? Why? Because we are not setting aside differences you marry someone, you will be different. Appreciate the difference, acknowledge it, give people their view their opinions, understand the same way you have a right. Even regarding belief, you know, I'm a Muslim.
In sha Allah, I have faith. I am quite strict on myself, I try my best to fulfill my prayers on time I try my best to worship Allah alone, I try my best to protect myself from bit. I try my best to protect myself and I am quite strict and I am firm in my belief, I am convinced that this is the true faith. Guess what? There are others who will not be convinced in the same way that you are, they will be convinced about something different from you.
Some will be convinced completely that Christianity is the true way of life. They are convinced they have a brain they have eyes, they have ears they have studied and according to their studies, that is the way What do do I harm them? Do I attack them? Do I sway them? Do I insult them? We are different?
No, I don't. I treat them fairly. And I expect fair treatment from them. I will discuss with them wherever I can. I will market my product and guess what? They will market their product to me too. I need to know my religion enough to be able to answer questions. Many of us are Muslims, we're lucky we don't know enough of our religion. So when people ask 123 questions, we say no, no, no, you are bad, you are ugly, you are this and you are that you cannot do that my brothers and my sisters, you cannot do that. You need to understand, Allah has kept it such that yes, you will do what is known as Dawa. You will invite people to the true path that you are convinced regarding they will agree or
disagree. Look at what Allah says to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam
ma Allah Sunni.
Lama to boo.
To moon, the duty of the messenger is to convey the message clearly. And Bella in another verse, Allah says Allah will be the duty of the messenger is to convey the message clearly. Allah is the one who decides whom He will guide who will not allow knows what is inside and concealed and what is apparent. Allah knows what is open and what is hidden. That is Allah. So the duty of the messenger, the prophet of Allah, the best of creation, the most noble of all prophets, his duty was to convey the message. That was his duty, he conveyed it. Those who accepted accepted those who did not, did not they are answerable to Allah.
Allah has kept a day of judgment to judge. Look at the uncle of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, what happened?
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was sad that this uncle of mine is rejecting the message. He knows it is true, but because of his circle of friends, because of the people of Makkah and the cronies and the chiefs, he wanted to mix with them and mingle and he did not want them to think that he gave up the faith of his forefathers even though he knew inside that I cannot worship sticks and stones. You know what? The Prophet sallallahu Sallam was saddened. He says, Yeah, ami pulchella. Manohar. joola kabhi ha yo malkia Oh, my uncle say the statement La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah say it and I will fight your battle on the Day of Judgment.
The uncle did not say it according to verses of the Quran. Allah revealed versus saying in a gala demon, Baba. Wala
La Jolla demon.
You owe Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would not guide whomsoever you wish, but rather we are the ones who guide
we are the ones who guide Allah says guidance is in our hands. Don't be saddened.
That's Allah.
Our duty towards those who are different from is to discuss the matter to raise the issue. If it is a matter that is not of importance don't even raise it.
It's not important some of these things that I might have mentioned earlier on regarding your spouse or your children a lot of it is not even worth mentioning. You make an issue out of it you destroy a relationship for nothing.
People destroy their relationships based on what color motor vehicle we purchased. Hey, we've got the car others don't even have a car thank Allah.
You want a blue vehicle and she wants a red vehicle paint half of it blue and half of it pink if you want. Red.
That's a pity issue. How can you divorce over the color of your vehicle? That's what people are doing. You might differ when building a home or a house or when shifting into a house regarding a few details. Don't worry, I have a big heart. My brothers and sisters accommodate people Allah will accommodate you. Remember that accommodate people, too many marriages are breaking too many houses are breaking too many brothers are not speaking to each other for decades, based on material based on money based on something that you can really do without based on something that you are not going to be questioned about in your grave.
Give it up Don't worry. Sometimes we make money. When we did not have the money we had more love. When we have the money we become distant Why? Because your love for your wealth has become more than your love for others. Who are your family members and human beings of the same species.
So what did Allah say? Allah says, The minute you make more than a certain amount,
Zakat is for
why reach out to those who don't have what we gave you so that you can be appreciated even by them. That is why the most loved people are the most charitable people. Do you know that?
And Allah says charity is not only monetary, it is also through the expression on your face. People of Mombasa don't just look at me smile, smile. It's an ibadah engaging the ibadah the expression on your face boosts to Allah He boosts you Mashallah, you know, my teeth are not straight.
no one notices because you just smile that's it. They just see the smile. They don't notice these teeth are all not aligned. Even my children tell me that you need railway tracks.
And I say I don't think I do it. You people who are young, you've become too conscious, My nose is bent. My eyes are like this. My face is like this. This side is more than that. No one ever noticed is if you are looking too much in the mirror, crackle of these mirrors and throw them out.
Enjoy what Allah has created. Allah made us different for us to enjoy the earth. Imagine if there were no reptiles there were no lions because they are harmful. There were no cheetahs and no snakes. And there were no crocodiles or reptiles. Life would be boring honestly.
And Kenya wouldn't make that much money by the way.
But Allah has blessed you you have everything Mashallah tabarrok Allah, you have everything it's beautiful for people who haven't seen the elephant to come and see what the elephant is all about the big five Mashallah. They will come and see a must made it we what do we do with those animals, we actually fulfill their rights as far as we can. We appreciate we don't want to destroy and become destructive, but we seize the opportunity of growth through those differences that we have. Don't you think human beings are far more important? Subhanallah human beings are far more important.
The man you don't get along with I don't want to say mother in law. But the person you don't get along with is not a reptile. They are not crocodiles. They are not lions. That's a human being. Set aside your differences talk to each other. make life easy for someone Allah will make life easy for you. Imagine the Hadith says manifests a Muslim in kobata mancora dunya. Now for Salah, one who could do milk Yama, one Hadith, whoever makes whoever eases the difficulty of another in this dunya Allah will create ease for them in the AF era. And in another narration in this world and the next and another narration speaks about humanity at large. Layer homina homina homina you have a woman
from earlier hong kong manaphy sama, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam says, have mercy upon those on earth. He didn't specify. Have mercy only on the Muslims have mercy only on this Have mercy. Know your ha moment feel early have mercy upon those on earth and the one in the heavens will have mercy upon you asked you
yourself, Am I merciful? Am I merciful to my brothers, my sisters, my parents, my children, my in laws, whether they be daughter in law, son in law, mother in law, father in law, whoever else am I merciful towards these people? If I am then Alhamdulillah? If I am not, you need to build the bridge. If you don't, how are you going to cross into gender? You need the bridge to cross into paradise. It is a Syrah. We hear about it in the Hadith. We've read about it in the Quran. Yes, it is of a different nature. But your living on earth will determine in which manner you will cross that bridge. Some will cross it like a flesh, some will struggle on it, some will drop into Johanna,
do we want that to happen to us? No. So learn to build your bridges here. And Allah will help you cross that bridge there.
We are living the test that I was speaking about. collect as many crystals as you can, you will get two gentlemen, don't worry about how much the other man has collected. You collect them, every opportunity, do good. Reach out to people
be the best you can fulfill both rights, the right of Allah and the right of the creatures of the same Allah. And that brings me to a very interesting point. Everything you see around you was created by Allah, He who created you It belongs to him. The earth belongs to him. The heavens belong to him not to you.
You belong to Him Subhana Allah so whatever you see, tell yourself allies testing me How is my relation with all these things? The road that you are driving on honor it respected? You know what the Hadith says? It is a key level llama la nanea Rasool Allah, Allah via tala de Perak Ignacio Villa Lim, the prophets Allah wa sallam says, Be careful of the two who are cursed. So the Sahaba asked, and what are these two? Or who are the two who will be cursed? What are the two things that would be making people become cursed? Or who are the two cursed people? He says the one
Listen carefully, the one who believes himself on the path of the people or in the shade where the people achieve shade from how come because you are harming the other creatures of Allah. You are harming the other creatures of Allah. Imagine people urinate under a tree and they think it's okay someone wants to come and have a picnic Mashallah romantic moment they lay down their little carpet Mashallah, I hope you do it guys. shala. And suddenly you say, Oh, it's smelling here What's going on? automatically, the one who made it smell
was wrong. He should have chosen a better place. Look at the cats look at the dogs when they want to relieve themselves. A lot of the times they will choose the place they will dig a little hole, they will make sure that they have covered it in most cases.
Those are dogs and cats. What about us? Shouldn't we be better than that? If the Hadith goes as far as looking after the places where people might benefit from the shade, who are we to harm people physically when Allah says you're not allowed to harm them with a smell?
Look at the Hadith, where the Prophet sallallahu Sallam speaks about those who remove a harmful object from the path of the people have shown that they are true believers in a laugh because it is a part of belief in ABA and Tarik minalima. Part of your Eman is to remove a harmful object when you are driving when you are walking, you see a rock in the road on the road you swerved and you missed it Mashallah, what should you do? If you are a true believer? If you really have aemon, you should think for a moment, let me collect my crystal, how do I do it? I parked my car, make sure the traffic is in order. I don't want anyone to bump me. But I will pick up this rock only and solely
for the sake of Allah. That is your crystal. I picked it up and I throw it away on the side in such a way that who ever passes this road, my friend My not my friend, Muslim, not Muslim, whoever they are, they will not be harmed by that rock.
I'm sure you've heard that this is part of your man. Have you heard about it? Look, we are nodding our heads. Yes, we have. Now why don't we think that the same Allah who is telling us that part of your Eman is to remove a rock from the road so that others are not harmed by it. Do you think that that Allah would tell you to harm other people physically and say you're a good Muslim?
That's what people are doing. In the name of Islam. They are killing in the name of Islam. They are destroying
other Muslims. People who might differ with you
insect, people who might differ with you in faith,
my brother, don't be a coward, my sister, it is a sign of your own weakness because you are supposed to be so powerful in your mind and your knowledge that you know what I have is so convincing. When I talk to them two times, three times, at least they will acknowledge that we are good people.
When you talk to the non Muslims, my aim is not to revert them or to convert them. No, my aim is not to do that. I will deliver the message. It's up to Allah what happens, but I do know when I deliver the message, even the staunchest non Muslims who disliked Islam, they will have to nod their heads and say, well done. It's a good religion. I acknowledge you guys have some good teachings. Isn't it about time we did that? We have to we must. We interact with people every day, like I said, for dunya. Please remember to interact with people for Deen. It's more important.
If you have tolerated your differences for dunya remember, you have a bigger responsibility to tolerate them in a bigger fashion for your deen. The product of Deen is far more important than any product of the dunya that you might want to market to them. Remember this, and this is why it's important for us to understand our rights to understand our duties towards one another no matter who we are. Look at Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When he arrived in Madina, munawwara
one of the first things he did
was he struck a treaty with whom, with those who don't belong to our faith.
Who were they, the Jews who were in Madina, munawwara, the people of the book, he called them and he wrote a property please go back to the books of Sierra and check what was written there, you will be shocked at the way people are calling themselves followers of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam today and harming those whom they disagree with, when we are talking of the Jewish people of Medina munawwara, whom the Prophet sallallahu Sallam struck in agreement with and he spoke about their rights, we will defend you we will ensure whatever we have for ourselves, you have the same rights, etc, etc. Yes, they might have broken the treaty later on. But the point being raised is there was a
treaty in place.
Later on, there was the Treaty of Arabia. Have you seen it? What was it? What was the benefit of the Treaty of Arabia? Can I tell you some of the benefits?
You will have to go back and look at what the treaty was all about.
When the Sahaba felt, oh, messenger, Is this fair? Is it fair?
You know, there were some clauses in the treaty that looked like they were against the Muslims. But the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, obviously, from Allah subhanho wa Taala revealed revelation. This was what was meant to be done, it was done no mistakes in it. As a result, Islam spread far and wide, the opportunity arose for that message to be delivered, going all over Subhan Allah.
So the point being raised my brothers and sisters, remember yesterday, in in Nairobi, I spoke about mending relations. And I felt the message was more for me than anyone else. Today I've touched a little bit about differences. And the fact that we need to enjoy, we need to, we need to understand appreciate is the word. Appreciate the differences, acknowledge them. You know, I've come across young people who come to me and say, I'm not feeling well, why because they this person or someone else told me that you're ugly, and you listen, and I always tell them you're not. You're absolutely stunning, but it needs the right eyes. That's all it needs the right heart.
None of us is ugly. None of us is
thrown out of the mercy of Allah, every one of us is within the mercy of Allah. No matter what you look like, no matter what your complexion is, no matter what your size is. Allah has created us so diverse, that someone somewhere will really look at you and die to be with you. So Pamela, literally. And the reason I say this is we have a different taste.
You find sometimes, you know, some people might look somewhere and say, oh, wow, did you see this? Look at how good someone else will say What are you looking at? But that's how Allah has made us. So appreciate that. Thank Allah. No matter who you are, there will be people who are crazy about you. Why it's a must method. It's a last way Allah made us different and that's why have you thought about it? Do you know what I learned? I learned that if you shave your head,
the way your hair grows totally unique. You can actually in future have, I don't know what do they want to call it? A hair print.
You know for recognition. We have the iris
Unique. We have for example, the thumbprint unique. Everything is unique. Did you know that there are no two zebras on earth that have the same stripes? You would know because you are from Kenya right? No two zebras have the same stripes. No two leopards have the same spots.
Had
Kula Heba, Rooney Manoj.
dooney This is the creation of Allah show me what those besides Allah have created. That's the creation of Allah. Allah challenges us He is the proud he is the one who says Look, I made this show me what others have made all of you have a different identity you know, what is DNA? I'm sure you've heard it, but go and read about it go and research You will be shocked when I gave a little bit of saliva for a DNA test of my own to find out sorry, this this is telling us the time is up but it's okay.
To find out more about myself who am I where I come from? And they gave me back 15 generations where you are from
DNA What was it? A little bit of saliva in a small little spittoon Wow.
Me unique me they will tell me who I'm related to who I'm not related to, you know, they won't say which microphone is working and which is not but that's fine.
But my brothers and sisters, don't you think it's amazing, it's the creation of Allah.
We are different, totally different. We will appreciate those differences, we will acknowledge them really and we will enjoy the fact that we are different unique. Look at your features. Thank Allah, look at the others thank Allah but remember, it's a test the minute anyone thinks they are better than the other because of what Allah has given them. That is the very minute that they have dropped all their crystals. Sometimes you collect a bag of crystals. You know what the crystals are? I was speaking about them from the beginning, right? You collected a whole bag, but because of one big thing you drop the whole bag. Let me show you. La Familia Bian Allah jameela Jamil Allah Arabi.
Voila, Viva la sua Illa. Be taqwa you heard that Hadith before?
No virtue of an Arab over a non Arab or a white over a black or vice versa except by taqwa The minute you think because my complexion is lighter or darker or because I belong to this tribe or because I belong to this particular nationality or because I am this or I am that that I am better. That's the same minute you have dropped your crystals. Your whole bag is dropped. Why? Because now you have kibble pride. What is that pride layer the full gentleman canopy kalbi Miss Carla bottoming her dalemain kibble, you will not enter Jenna he will not intergender in whose heart there is a mustard seeds weight with of pride. You need to deal with it. You need to deal with the pride.
Remember you are just a number. Everyone else is like you trying to please Allah yesterday when we walked out of that particular venue we had which was so beautiful. I saw many brothers and sisters walking and they will go in towards where the public transport was. And voila, he in my heart and I even told some of those who are with me. Look at these people. They all want to please Allah. Everyone wants to please Allah. If you don't feel the love in your heart for one another. You are sick. You are sick. Well Ah huh. You need help. If you think you are the only Muslim on Earth, you are the only one you are sick. There are Gemini is very broad. It is huge. It's not just for you. I
listened to people who think that because they differ with others, the others are not going to go to gender at all. You know what they say these people will not go to gender don't say these people will not go to gender. A third party says both of you are not going to gender. A fourth one says all three of you are not going to gender and it continues. And I sit and I think gender is going to be empty man. You know, one day, no one day if Jana was according to you and your mercy, truly it would be empty but it is not yours. It belongs to Allah and you know who is Allah?
The Most Merciful, the most forgiving.
was in the love of Lima
Amano Amina Saudi.
Allah says I will continue forgiving. You know what is a farm? The farm
means one who continually forgives not to go for the food also is someone who forgives.
But how far is
it is
Something it is in the Arabic language. It shows that this quality is repeated so much. Allah forgives you once, twice 10 times 20 times 100 times for as long as you are seeking forgiveness man Tabata Allahu Allah He, whoever seeks forgiveness Allah will forgive him until the point in Allah bellotto. But Allah Buddha, Marlon, you heard, Allah continues to forgive his slaves, for as long as they have not arrived at the point of death. When the Hara comes, it's called Vergara. When your soul gets to your throat, and it's about to be removed from your body, that is the time it's too late. Up to that point, you will be forgiven so many times. So who are we looking at others and
saying, You know what?
This one is going to jahannam Sorry, I'm just pointing at the glass thing, no one in particular, that one's going to jahannam this one's going to jahannam, etc, etc. We don't know how we are going to end and how they're going to end. I know, of a pupster.
A guy who spent his time in the nightclubs, a guy who spent his name his time singing and dancing with naked people and * and whatever else there was. And guess what, one day, one day, he decided to quit all of this. He came into a pure life. And you know what happened to him? Subhan Allah, he became so relevant in terms of the deen because people watched him. And they were like,
you mean you quit your whole life in order to come here? Are you crazy? You know, people think when you become a chef, you are crazy or mad, you know, you rather have stayed in the life of limelight. That's not true.
the limelight is not what is important. What is important is the light of the path. You need to tread the path. So this man became so famous. And he used whatever Allah gave him in terms of capacity to spread good, yet he himself says they were people who used to say he's going to Japan a long time back. People used to say this man totally out going to *. And they were people who are pious, who went back that way. And him he came this way here. And guess what? There was a time when he passed away. And I promised you his generals, I was attended, not by 1000, not by 10,000, not by 100,000, but hundreds of 1000s.
And his time was very short on Earth. Very short. You wonder what was the purpose of this person on earth. And then you realize, Subhana Allah, Allah is showing you don't judge people. He used to say himself.
This person I'm talking about, he used to say himself, please, when you see children in the nightclubs have hope, will condemn, try with them, reach out to them, because I used to be there.
When you see children on drugs, and that is a problem across the globe, drugs has overtaken the whole world. Pray for them, work on them, have hope with them, try with them keep on trying. Someone might say, well, when do I give up, you don't give up until you die.
Don't drop your crystals of hope. Keep trying. They just need one day when they might drop all their bad habits. Trust me, they will be better than you.
Imagine the person doing a lot of bad and suddenly they do a lot of good. They use all the energy they used to use for bad for good, because you help them you get a full reward for that. But we are too lazy. We just want to harm we want to kill we want to fight we want to destroy that is not Islam. That's not the sign of a Muslim. I don't know how I'm going to end just like I don't know how you're going to end I have hope for myself, and I have hope for yourself. And the winners are those who want to take as many people as possible to Jenna, that was Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Do you know the co founder of courage, he used to go to them, he used to talk to them. He used to
try with them, and many of them accepted Islam. Subhan Allah, they accepted Islam. Some of them didn't. But a lot of them did. He had hope. He kept trying. He wanted to take maximum number. When the people of tarrif were about to be crushed by the angels waiting for one instruction. That instruction did not come
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he just says if they don't accept inshallah, their offspring will accept what happened. A few years later, there was a victory they accepted Islam.
Let's be patient, my brothers and sisters, we need to be patient in order for us to be able
to build bridges. We have to be very patient, we have to be very forgiving. We have to be very understanding. We have to be very accommodating, not just tolerance, tolerance is no longer a good word. Now we go beyond tolerance to respect. We respect the difference.
Remember this, we used to say we tolerate each other you know what's the meaning of tolerate? Have you thought of it?
tolerate means irate.
Don't like you, I really don't agree with you, I don't even want to talk to you. You are such an enemy of mine, but I'm going to tolerate you. I'll tolerate the fact you use the word tolerance to say, I'm on edge, but I'm just tolerating. That's what tolerance is. We've got to go beyond that. I respect you. We differ. Let's talk about it. Don't think for a moment that I am saying, don't do Dawa don't propagate, don't call No, I didn't say that. I am saying you will propagate respectfully. And you have to understand the right you have the others habit as well, they are also living on Earth, they are citizens, perhaps of the same land, they have equal rights, you might think you're
superior, because of your faith, they will also think they are superior because of their faith. But that superiority is not necessarily with humanity, rather, because you believe something they have the right to believe I want to end with one point just came to my mind now, I was sitting one day, on an aircraft.
The guy was talking to me about faith, because he asked me Oh, you look like a religious man. And so and he says, You know what? Your religion is very bad.
I told him, what do you believe in? He says, I'm just a free thinker. I don't believe in anything.
So I said, when you die, what happens? He says, nothing. Nothing happens. You just go back. I said, Wait, he says, nothing. You become whatever you were before. I said, You believe something. You're believing something. Anyway, the discussion ended how he started asking me about Muslims. And he said, You people are horrible. I said, Why? Because you believe that anyone who's not a Muslim is going to go to *.
I said, hang on, hang on, hang on. Are you familiar with Christianity said yes. I said they have a belief similar to that. Are you familiar with Judaism? He said, Yes. They have a belief similar to that. Why are you picking on me?
You shouldn't even be talking because you don't even believe in the hereafter.
He just looked at me. He said what?
You just told me you don't believe? Why are you so worried about whether I believe you are in heaven? Or *, heaven or *? Why are you so worried about it? You don't even believe so? Leave it alone? Subhana Allah, that is something that some people pick on sometimes How can you believe people are going to help? I'm going to tell them look, you know what the Bible has versus the Torah has versus the Quran has versus these verses are in their place. You talk to a Christian, he'll give you similar lines, you talk to a Muslim, they'll give you similar lines, you talk to a Jewish person, similar lines, you talk to people of many faiths, they'll give you similar lines. If you
don't follow what I follow. For example, I don't think there's much chance for you but that is what everyone believes. However, it does not justify you to do bad to someone because you need to know your Heaven is determined by how you are going to treat the very creatures of Allah that have differed with you. If different with you. How did you treat them.
This is why we talk about differences. We We will never just have one common faith on Earth. Everybody comes let's give up half of Islam give up half of this half of that and come and create one huge universal faith which is just all about hello and our you know, people are passionate about their faith. We want to pray five times nothing will stop us from praying. I believe if you don't pray, you are wrong. So it's okay but I will not harm you I will not hurt you. I will not kill you. All I will do is I will keep on engaging you talking to you showing you and I will market the product I have what is the product? What I believe is a product. I want to market it to you today we
are seated here. I've spoken to you I might have spoken to you in a totally unique way. You might not even have understood why I said what I said but guess what? The message is loud and clear.
I had to market something What is it? Building Bridges. I had to market something What is it? mending relations? I had to market something What is it?
respecting the difference? When we are different from someone? Let that never make you harm them or insult them because if you do that you have not understood why Allah chose for there to be differences. Allah is all powerful if he wanted they would have been no difference.
bucola Jalan.
Allah tells us clearly, if we wanted we could have made all mankind into one room. We didn't want that Why? We wanted to test you. We wanted to test you What are you going to do? That's Allah saying it clear. Why should we then impose on others what we believe keep on talking
You might convince them Alhamdulillah you may not Alhamdulillah it's up to Allah subhanho wa Taala. But in order for you to preserve your faith, you need to know one thing. Learn more about your religion, learn the truth about your faith, and you will be able to save yourself from a lot of negativity from a lot of harm.
You will be able to contribute positively towards building your nation towards building the oma and serving humanity at large. Because like I said, they are two things, the service to Allah and the service to the rest of the creatures of the same Allah, I will fulfill the rights of my maker by worshipping none other than Him in the way that I was taught by Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam and I will say, I will serve the rest of the creatures of Allah by fulfilling their rights and ensuring that I bag as many crystals as I can up to the day I die. May Allah grant me and all of you gentle metal fair dose, may Allah gather us again, in a good cause, either in the dunya or in general for
those aku kolyada or sallallahu wasallam mobarak Allah and Amina Mohammed was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
So let me confess that I strongly believe this is not the place for me to say anything,
especially after what we've heard from our brother Mufti menk.
But I want to acknowledge that I'm probably going to be walking out of that door, a transformed Muslim.
We all along have been saying that diversity is our strength.
We have lived well together. We have coexisted. cohesion has been the pillar on the strength of our lives.
So I am captivated. I am inspired, and I'm looking forward, inshallah to do much greater things for the oma one lesson that I have learned today
is that
after all,
Islam is about humanity.
And I'm even went to have a conversation with my brother Najib and the organizers. Probably we need such summons to be heard more, but the non Muslims because it is very relevant. And it makes a lot of sense.
So we have discussed with the my brother Najib and Mufti menk.
He has a very busy schedule. He visits many places around the world. He's a regular in South Africa during Ramadan, but we will do all that we can to secure some two, three or four days during this Ramadan so that we can engage the society, Mufti menk, inshallah, it is important. He said many things, and I assure you, I am going to be walking out here different person, I don't know about you.
Really,
really.
And there are many things that are very positive. Nobody honey comes in a different way, the tests. But let me end by thanking multibank
for having taken your time to be with us. So what we're looking forward is to a much more bigger event in the near future. Besides that, I want to pray for you as well. May Allah guide you forever and give you Jonathan Phillips. So all the doors that you made for us, they also must reciprocate and come on to you and your family. So let me not say much najiba seeds, it is events such as this one, he's on the other side of the political divide. I am on the other side, but we are brothers at the end of the day, isn't it? So what is ahead of us is La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah shukran. But I want to say, we will see, it seems you got comfortable. On this seat, I could see the
passion of continuing with the lecture. But unfortunately, he's only here for three days, and tomorrow inshallah, he'll depart back to Zimbabwe. But finally, I want to say once again, to you chef, thank you very much. It has been very instrumental inspiring. It has been refreshing because sometimes when we hear footballs elsewhere,
it's about jahannam.
Now we know there is jahannam. There is also Jana. And also the way to go to Jana is most smoother than the way to go to Johanna. So we want to thank you for that inspiration. I think it is fair to say that we should not dilute the message.
Brother has given us I'm really grateful to Brother, brother man for coming out to us in our country. And all the wishes my brothers have asked about coming more often to Kenya, and probably more to Mombasa.