Mufti Menk – This is what my father told me… – Q&A

			Later on, Allah took me on a journey of studying, I graduated, I was a little bit hard. And one day
I sat and I thought to myself, you know, when I saw some of the youngsters I used to teach because
my father told me, I don't want you to go out and do the public. For one whole year, you must teach
the children, Alice and Bob, the little children, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm a graduate, I'm a
person who's just got a certificate. I am someone who's actually studied, I went off to learn the
language, I learned the Hanafi school of thought as well, the community being predominantly Hanafi,
and Shafi. And so what happened is, I came back and I'm thinking, wow, but I just listened to it.
		

			And to be honest, brother Mussa, that was one of the best years I had of reflection, it changed me a
lot in the sense that it woke me up to the reality of the people in front of me that I'm going to
address. It took me back to the days of Medina when we learned to solidarity and we learned a snuff,
Elementor when you know the study of the people whom you would like to call towards Allah, Who are
they? What are they going through? What are their circumstances, you know, what percentage makes up
the practicing the non practicing? How do they dress, what are the challenges they face, etc, you
need to study all of that before you open your mouth, if you want that, to be effective. So what
		

			happened is, I slowly but surely became more acknowledging of the challenges that were real life
challenges faced by the people I would be addressing. And as a result, I told myself, I don't want
to be that scholar or that person, or you know, the go to person for knowledge, such that people
would be ashamed or shy of communicating with me, or they would have a gap where they would feel
that no scholars or someone and we are someone, I wanted there to be a friendly atmosphere. In order
to do that a lot of study is required. So you look at people, you watch them, you see them, you
witness what they're doing before you open your mouth, you actually put yourself in their shoes for
		

			a moment and think to yourself, how would I be able to get to the mind and the heart of this person
with a simple message of let's turn to Allah. So what happened is, it brought me towards being a
little bit cooler, cooler, meaning I had to become a person that when the children saw when the
youth saw, they could relate, they could say, Yo, what's up, you know, you know, with us, and a
company, they could actually just say, Yo, what's up shit, you know, you will come let's go and
chill a little bit, you know, in a hella nice way.