Muhammad Hoblos – Stay Steadfast in your Religion

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah my brothers and sisters, we've reached that time of the year where I'm
sure most of us have been invited to one party or another. Now, in short, I'm not going to waste
your time when it comes to parties and places where there's alcohol, and mixing in any environment
that you know, Allah subhanaw taala is not going to be pleased with my brothers and sisters, in
short, stay away from these places, don't feel obliged and don't feel bullied, or having to go to
these places because you know, others may look at you differently. last panel, Allah created us to
please Him and Him alone. And don't ever please the creation by displacing the Creator. You don't
		

			want to be associated with these places. Because when you're there, you become a part of the
environment. No matter how strong you are in your faith, you know, don't throw yourself in the fire
because you will definitely get burned. I want to share an example with you guys. That happened with
me in my life personally, that I think you guys might find interesting. We used to do like a hadith
course, was to read from Riyadh Sala Hain every Sunday morning. So anyway, kind of long story short,
we got to the chapter where about not mixing between men and women, you know, in shaking hands
between men and women, that are haram for you. So one of the brothers that was there who used to
		

			work in a corporate world, and when this topic came up, and how, you know, shaking of the hands of
another woman is haram in Islam, and our he went on, and he went crazy. And he couldn't believe that
this is what the Dean had to say about it. Kind of long story short, I remember he left that day
saying, look, there's no way in the world I can do this at work. You know, sometimes I'm forced, I'm
in a situation, I don't want to embarrass the woman. And that's rude and disrespectful. But what I
find interesting is that he went, and then the following week, when he came back, it was a very
different look on his face. I said to him, what happened? He said, man, you're not gonna believe
		

			that. The Tuesday, he said, we had like a corporate meeting at work where all of the managers in the
nation came for this meeting. So to me, he said to me, so my manager from one state, she came in and
he said, Then I met her for the first time in my life. He said, so when we got into the boardroom,
when we got into the meeting room, he said, No, I walked over to her, and I extended my hand to say,
Hello. So she extended her hand and they shook hands. And he said to me, as we were shaking our
hands, she said, Oh, it's finally Nice to meet you and put a face to the voice.
		

			And then she asked him about his name. They still shaking hands, mind you. So she asked him about
his name. And he said to him, he said his name which was an Islamic name, for some all your Muslim.
He smiled, and he said, Yes, I am. He said, Oh, that's interesting. I thought Muslims don't shake
hands with women.
		

			This is wash. You know, both their hands were still together. Lay my brothers and sisters. Don't
ever compromise on your deen.
		

			Trust me. I know, I've been in the situation when a woman's put a handout and I've had to, you know,
look around and say, Look, I can't shake your hand. It's embarrassing as * am I gonna run away
from the fact but that's my dean. And I know that that moment while it was embarrassing for her, I'm
sure it made Allah subhanaw taala happy because I stood firm. So once again, you know, don't don't
be don't be forced. Don't be bullied into thinking that you have to go to these places because
people may think less of you. Don't stay away from these parties and these gatherings where Allah
subhanaw taala you know, is most certainly displeased with and we ask Allah subhanaw taala to
		

			protect the soul. Until next time, salaam alaikum.