Elections 2021 … now what

Muhammad West

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Channel: Muhammad West

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The speakers discuss the political and cultural dynamics of Islam, including the lack of political control and the need for leaders to follow rules. They stress the importance of obeying authority and following rules, as well as respecting authority and following laws and regulations. The speakers emphasize the need for leaders to be truthful and honest, as well as to be mindful of their words and use them as opportunities to assert their authority. The speakers also emphasize the need for leaders to be mindful of their political views and act with caution and not make promises that are not true. The upcoming era of political unrest and the need for politicians to hold them accountable is also discussed, along with upcoming book releases and a book about Islam.

AI Generated Transcript ©


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Power we live in a shutdown rajim Bismillah R Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad not only you also have big Marian my beloved brothers and sisters of Sudan, why they can live better go to

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Al Hamdulillah Bill Alameen or praise and thanks again to Allah subhanaw taala and I should have Allah Allah Illallah will be a witness and testify that there is none worthy of worship besides Allah subhanaw taala we send our love greetings and salutations so beloved Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who is pious and pure family whose companions and all those who follow his sunnah until the end of time. May Allah subhanaw taala bless us in this dunya to be steadfast in the Sunnah of Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam to be in his companionship in the era. I mean, meanwhile, hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. We've just come through another season of fourth session of elections,

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elections 2021. The local elections is done and dusted for the better for the worse. And now what hon Allah The question is what happens now. And after all, our street lights have been littered with posters, and a lot of promises were made. A lot of lies were told, perhaps we could say even what happens after that. Maybe your party won, maybe your party didn't win, maybe you didn't vote. I think by and large, these a feeling of I can say a sentiment of, of dissatisfaction. No matter the one who voted who didn't vote, there's a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the options on the table. And I think I see the nods in the masjid. So even those who voted and they were very clear,

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who are they going to vote for? They came back saying the lesser of the evils. There was no one that really stood up and captured our hearts and our imagination. There's a feeling of mistrust in our leaders. And this is a problem when we have that kind of relationship between the elected and its constituency. But let's take a step back. And we ask ourselves Islamically what is the relationship between the ruler, the one in charge the emir, the Sorbonne, the President and the those who are being ruled? What is our relationship? What is What is Allah Spanner the same? And Allah very clearly mentioned our relationship between us and our rulers, whichever word you want to call him,

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whether he's the king, the Khalifa, the president, Allah sponses Yeah, you were Latina? Amanu Oh, believers are Muslims, or to Allah obey Allah unconditionally. There's no questions asked when Allah gives you a command, you obey it to rasool and obey, then a visa salaam, unconditionally, even a visa Salah make something haram or halal, we accept it without debate. We're only Amoraim income. And then the Allah says, and I didn't use the word end up here and obey Allah said, and those who are over you in authority, meaning obey them, but not unconditionally, there is you have to recognize the authority, you have to obey them, you have to follow them, but within limits within

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bounds. And it's interesting to highlight here when Allah says only among those over you in authority. Number one, yes, it applies to the rulers, political leadership, but there are many who have authority over us could be your parents. So when you are in the house of your father, you have to abide by the laws, the rules of your dad will actually your mom, Henry, the government of the house, you have to obey those rules. When you work at a company. The leadership of that company has set rules and if you sign up, you need to obey those rules, whether you agree with some of them or you don't agree with it. If you're part of it, you need to obey with follow the system in the

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masjid, you have a committee you have an Imam, you have a leadership. And so you're free to choose. Sometimes we are authorities you can choose sometimes that authority, but when you have sort of established that this is my authority, whether you voted for a different word, counselor, but he has now someone else's become the word counselor. That person is the authority over you and your job, our job firstly, before we ask them, What have you delivered, Allah says Our job is obedience within limits, that Allah says for internet as acting fishy in that if ever there is a laugh, even a disagreement between you and the rulers, but who do who will Allah but in turn that matter back to

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Allah and His Rasool in quantum to be liable young law, if you're genuine believers, you would do this. If you're genuine believers, you would respect the rule of law and authority over you. You will follow you your rulers and if there's any filler, it happens when you go back to Allah and His Rasool in terms of right and wrong, if you really believe in Allah, the Lika highly fatal accident that will and that is the best for you in the end, that Allah says this method is the best, because you have some, some level you have two extremes. You're one extreme, where you have absolute obedience to authority without exception. We don't criticize them respectfully. We don't speak out

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again whether that rule is around. We obey as we had said, If he says Worship Me, we worship him. That's extreme obedience. And then you have the other extreme where you revolt and you rebel violently against your leadership. Both sides of these of the spectrum is going to cause harm and damage. And I think the worst of it is to have bloodshed in the road.

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Islam, Islam in see in its philosophy, you will find that it always speaks about having an amine.

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There's a hadith that says the person who dies without giving his pledge of allegiance to anyone you don't have a leader, you die a death of God as Hadith you die a death of Jack Lea if you have no authority over you, we don't have this concept which is free for all. In Salah you have an Imam, you have an imam in Hajj even these an imam. The Masjid has an imam. The Committee is a committee that mutawa lease of the masjid as mentioned in the Quran. There is a sultan, in the house, in the government, wherever it is, there needs to be a shepherd. without a shepherd, the flock just goes wild. And Islam is against this kind of this kind of philosophy. How How much do we obey them? Do we

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obey them when we feel like it? Do we obey them when they give us our our rights? So do we say government we will only respect you and EU laws and obey you when you give us what is owed to us you give us our electricity and our final so loadshedding comes we don't have to obey you. There is no laws. Do we say that only the ruler that we like when we like you, then we obey you, then I'll be so solemn will this harvest it. We gave our pledge to Allah's Messenger, to hear and obey our leaders, not just Allah and that also but to the leaders, while active and otherwise meaning in times of war, and in times of peace. In times of ease, when things are prosperous, when the economy is booming, we

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obey them. And when things are difficult, we also obey our rulers, even if we are deprived our rights, even if we don't get our shape. We cannot dispute with this matter of leadership with its rightful people when the ruler has been selected, then we do not rebel. I would so whichever system we have, we have a chance to voice our concerns. We have a chance to challenge our rulers. They have avenues to criticize, but we don't go beyond that. And once the matter has been resolved, and Hamlet was resolved peacefully, then we have to obey until the next option. time comes when we give our pledge

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that also says when you talk about the rules that you like you don't like even if a slave was appointed over you and he ruled but he rule will Allah's book, they listen to Him and OBEY himself. How's that? Hamdulillah we don't look at personalities, or people or color. We said so long as you rule correctly, then we support you 100% But what if that rulership is not the best? So we said hamdulillah if we had a good Muslim that rule you don't need we don't we don't we don't have an OB anymore. You know alive some of us we don't have put up our machine we don't have a bucket has an ominous here. So anyway, we for now, we would say we would do with any honest person Subhan Allah,

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right, the constituency says any competent and honest person will be happy with. Now what if you don't get that you get someone that is not dishonest, or incompetent? What do we do with such a ruler? There'll be some says there will be leaders who will not lead by my guidance, they will not follow my sunnah. And they will not adopt my ways. They will be among the leaders, men who have hearts of devils in their bodies. And we see them so Hala, we see them on the news all the time, men that you think's panela how do you how do you know who's so much corruption and facade in the world you are on the physician, the platform of leadership, the promises you will have leaders or Salam

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who have their shape on in human form.

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And the Sahaba then asked What should we do with them era Salah if we live to see such times if we have such rulers? What must we do? Then at least we look what he said he said you will listen to the Emir and you'll carry out his orders you will obey him even if he hits your back and he steals your money you should listen to nobody you should listen to his panelists. But there are also lots of this is very, very obedient you want us to be whenever you have somebody saying this hadith, we will always fulfill our Amana whatever is required of us legally we will do if you have and I liken this to to maybe your your parents or your boss, if your boss is a terrible boss.

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But you said okay, you quit me an hour late on Friday. I'll show you I won't come on to work on Monday, you're gonna get fired for that you're gonna cause a bigger fitna. There are avenues and ways in which you can dispute the always which you can complain. You can take those middle measures and you can assert your rights, but you cannot rebel. And you cannot go against the authority in a manner which undermines the authority. You might not like for example, what the Imam says in Joomla when you make Salah you might have done something you do not stand up in the middle of sada and scream. Afterwards, you can speak to the Imam and criticize in a respectful manner. And that is the

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adapt that is the discipline that Islam teaches you. We respect the office of authority, the office of the presidency, the Office of the Imam, the Office of the CEO, we respect that wherever it is, we expect that but then we also use whatever me a measure and method is allowed to us to voice our concern to criticize another Hadith is not in the slides.

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Babs should be there. And abuse is the highest form of jihad is to say a word of truth to a tyrant to speak truth to power, to voice the truth openly to the pirate, even though he doesn't like to hear it, but you say to him in a respectful way, in the way Allah says Robbie Musa say to frown Kowloon Lane go speak to fearing the worst of all men, there's no one was in fear or when there's no political party was in federal investment, no one is worse than that. And Allah said to Nabi Musa, when you speak to fear around you speak to him nicely, please remember, he's the king of Egypt, give him that authority that he is, but you need to highlight these things.

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Now, one might say perhaps these Hadith are all in context of a Muslim government, a bad Muslim government, right? What about a non Muslim government that says it is necessary upon a Muslim to listen and obey the ruler, as long as he is not ordered, as long as the rule does not order you to commit haram forces you to drink wine force us to do something, then you disobey. So as long as the rulers don't force us to do haram, we obey them in what is permissible. And if he's commanded to commit the sin, then there is no obedience in sin. Again, we give a very extreme example, you live in a house of your father, your father is a non Muslim, but he pays the bills. You have to obey your

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father, when he says, You're going to come home this time. And you cannot, you can and can't do this, you have to obey Him. But if he commands you to come and shoot, he commands you to drink alcohol, you say not now, I disobey you, respectfully, with respect. And that is kind of the wisdom, the kind of

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wise interaction that Allah subhanaw taala requires from us. Now, for Muslims living in non Muslim lands, it's a bit tricky. It's a bit complicated. Some laws are easy, we can accept that we can, we can follow some laws might go against our Sharia, some logos, we have an option to choose. And the right arm, I have broadly defined two governments that are enlisting into two types. You have the Muslim or non Muslim government. So we're not talking about non Muslim, Muslim rulers, we're talking about non Muslim countries, you have what you call the hub

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where the government is persecuting you because you're a Muslim. Why? Because you're a Muslim. They are trying to close down your misogyny, they trying to stop you from practice, they have an agenda against Islam. So there are many governments who promote certain things which are haram, not because they want to harm Islam, but they believe that this is okay. Now it is fine, you have the right to choose, many Western countries are like that. But you have certain candidates, Pamela, like you have the Zionist entity called Israel, like that. The government in India Subhanallah is like that. And just on a side note, I have many colleagues in India that work with me in a university. And just

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this week, while we're going through our elections. Yeah, and I'm listening to our frustrations in a country that has more Muslims than all of the Middle East put together, more Muslims in India than the whole Middle East put together, Muslims, they are in living in extreme fear of persecution, Muslims are closed down without me, if someone comes and he lays a complaint, you must be disclosed. People are locked up without any rules of laws. Why? Because they're Muslim, there is an agenda against Muslims. And this is a campaign promise that the ruling party is a Hindu party. And I'm not saying this. We have wonderful Hindu friends and neighbors, we wish them well. But the government of

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India has a very anti Islamic agenda. Now the Muslims, they are in what you have what you call battle harp, there is war from the government down and persecution. We do not live in that what Hamdulillah we don't have that. We might have loadshedding, and crime and corruption and all those things. But we don't have that what Hamdulillah. Now for Muslims living in that what should they do, where Muslim is at war and being oppressed by his government, he has no freedom to practice his religion. And really, the best option for them, and it's very difficult is the option of Hegira then you leave. So as you saw, my teacher could not live in Makkah anymore, could not practice Islam. And

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so that is JIRA. And there are some, you know, this is an extreme view that we reject, they will say all non Muslim governments, or like the, they persecute us, directly or indirectly, this is a rejected view. Only if you cannot practice your deen freely, then you need to leave that land. But we are Hamdulillah we live in the second category that is a man a safe country where our religion is respected to a certain degree where we have the freedom. And it must be said with all the problems of this land. There is no Muslim minority and this is perhaps factually true that there is no Muslim minority on earth that enjoys the level of freedom that we have.

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You know, it would be unheard of that a Muslim candidate in Britain, or for President, for example, in a major political party in America or wherever it is Western countries that have western values that Islam will not will not be an issue. We saw so many Muslims in all political parties within parties, whatever party they have seen your people that are Muslim, no one ever asks but this guy's a Muslim. How can you vote for a Muslim? People don't in this country religion almost becomes we don't see that anymore.

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That's a good thing that Hamdulillah we are not treated differently because of our religion, there is no hostility against us because of Islam.

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And

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therefore, the fifth Council of the world, the majority of the fact of the matter, the overall the Council of the world, they said that is not only permissible that we vote there, I should have given this perhaps last week this week, but it is not only permissible that you as a Muslim vote, but it's your duty to ensure that even if you have bad candidates choose the least evil. And if it's a good candidate, choose the best of them. Because not all non Muslims are the same. You have on the one side of authority will help them defended, there'll be Salam, and you have on the other side of your own. And if you can make a difference with your boat, then it is your obligation, your logic, if you

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see something wrong, to change it with your hand with your voice. And if you don't do anything, then hated with your heart. And that is the least form of Eman. And so when we choose the rulers,

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and it's the point is that now we've chosen, we have to look at and weigh the pros and the cons what is best for our community, what is best for the agenda, Muslims and the Muslim community who is going to respect us and our deen and our livelihood, who is the most competent and the most honest, and sometimes it's very difficult. I mean, that is why if it was a clear choice, we would have all known who to vote for. But because there is no clear choice, that is whether that healer, and we make for those of us who voted, we ask Allah to forgive us that if we chose the wrong candidate, we did so sincerely. And for those who didn't vote, I hope it was not just out of negligence, but it

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was in protest, we'll make dua for that as well. And for those who misses the wadi, for those who voted purely out of apathy, that's a dangerous sentiment creeping in. And what is strange, there are people here that were on the roads in times of apartheid, fighting physically for the right to vote, but they've come now a few decades later, and they feel that there's no purpose to vote anymore, that what we fought for. When I vote, I don't vote is immaterial anymore. panela scary that things have gone to that level of apathy. And so if we look at the elections, and we take away, and what do we do? Now. So some important points to note, this was the lowest turnout of people voting in our

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country's history, which means the majority of the people who didn't vote, which is the biggest number, felt there is no fun either in voting, that there is no benefit in this, that every one way is useless.

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And that's a worry. If that's the feeling, what do we do about it, we just leave it like that and wait for three years for the next time. And we do that the same, because if we keep doing that, the situation will always get worse, the situation will always get worse. So while there is no solutions on the table, we cannot do nothing. That is that is a problem. And that's not just the Muslim community. But the broader South African community feels the same way. And that is perhaps the biggest number to put out the number of people that didn't want to vote to show how bad our options are. We also saw Subhanallah, whether you noticed or not. And this is actually was a defining moment

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in our democracy in the ruling party that NC has come under 50% nationally.

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This is a big thing. And what what what we had for many years now we had one party that really dominated, you know, they had they had the power to really push through a lot of a lot of changes. Now that power has waned. And these no dominant one single dominant party. And, and analysts were saying that, you know, in many parts of the world, you had a party like the ANC, you had colonialism. So the Britain, Queen of England ruled much of the world as we know. And when the British left you had a party that pushed for, for freedom, like Mahatma Gandhi, in India, the AIC or the IAC, the ANC, the Indian National Congress, very much like the ANC. Those parties stayed in

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power very long, because they are the Revolutionary Party, the other party, which we recognize, brought us our independence. But when those parties lose the majority, they never ever get it back. Never in the world as a revolutionary party, when they lost the majority come back into power formula so so for the ANC to ever get back over 50 will be the first time in history. It's a very interesting way of thinking that in the next government will lower the next national elections three years from now. We could have a new ruling coalition.

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Now we know the devil we know, we don't know what other devils might come afterwards. And that's the scary thing. And we need to prepare for that eventuality. It can go for the beta, but it can become much, much worse. It can become much, much worse. And so we're now in an age of what we call and it wasn't only the ANC, the big political parties, the DMA EFF, they also lost votes panela. So even the other big parties these this illusion meant that we don't trust them, that we don't support them, that if we did vote for them, they are the least

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Some of the evils and we'd rather many people put their vote with smaller parties, independent parties, new parties, looking for something new. These are hunger, that we need something different. We really need someone who some party to capture our hearts and our imagination that will just give us basic honest, they are honest, and they are competent. And for the next couple of years now, and it will might be for a very long time. We have what we call coalition politics. Now, we're going to have partnerships between political parties, won't be one group will be a team of parties. And this

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has shown to be very problematic throughout the world. These political parties don't have a good record of working with one another politicians to begin with are not good at governing, even when they have all Falah like the DA, you know, what I didn't realize is that they controlled the two thirds of the majority in the Western Cape in the last elections. So every problem that was the, you know, they had all the political power, they needed to push through changes, but still it couldn't be done. The ANC also nationally a few years ago, had two thirds majority, they could change, you know, they had no one to stop them. But still they couldn't they were ineffective. How are they

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going to push policies through now, when you have to talk to five, six different political parties. Each has its own agenda, and not for the agenda of the people. So we are perhaps Mullah, protect us up for a rough ride, where you'll find more politics and less governing, more grandstanding, more false promises more, you know, fake news and bashing, that actually getting the work done in bottles being fixed, that kind being tackled. And so Subhanallah My question is, what do we do? Do we allow the circus to continue? Or do we do something about do we do something about it? So it's going to be a new era for the next couple of years. But also Alhamdulillah, all the negativity, as I said, we

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live in peace and security. And we didn't we just saw a few months ago how easily political unrest in Durban can cause chaos, we still a very volatile country. hamdullah no one was killed, there was no violence. And for that we give sugar, because whether it is the Middle East, or Muslim countries, Eastern countries, wherever you are in the world, even America Subhanallah the new president came in, they stormed parliament, the Parliament of the United States of America was storming SubhanAllah. So no, we should not take security and freedom for for granted. The situation can become volatile very quickly. And our country has a history of volatility. And so we as a Muslim

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community, we need to not only be aware of this, but we need to participate. For many Muslims. Our apathy, and disillusionment is why they want to participate altogether. Well, if you don't do that, decisions are going to be made for you. The CDs are going to be made for you. And it will not get better by you doing nothing saying nothing, not participating, nothing is going to change. And Alhamdulillah. As I said, in spite of our minority, we hold a lot of economic and political clout in this country, we are a powerful block a segment and by us disengaging, we lose that privilege, we lose that ability. So for us, the biggest thing that we need to do now is to be part of our civic

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organizations, the organizations that hold our government accountable. Now is the time to put down and challenge that our politicians who made these promises, you know, your word, counselor, whether you chose him or not, whether you voted in four years, you would consider, but now you need to hold him accountable. You cannot only wake up four years later, when he wants to five years later when he wants to get your vote again. Now you have a list of things. Many times people complain and complain on WhatsApp groups, but they don't complain the official channels I just had this conversation before Joomla people complained to me about organization. I said, Why are you telling me that you

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tell that organization if you just want to moan and criticize, then this argument is irrelevant. This is irrelevant. Nothing's going to change. But if you make your voice heard in the critic forum in the correct platform, that is your job. Now remember, it's not only a good thing to do, it is your Amana that Allah has commanded you and Musa said if you see something wrong speak up in the correct manner. So now be part of your political association find out who won you would find that with who she is. Have a conversation with that person get to know what did they what do they stand for? Click down now the list of promises so you promised XYZ let's see if they're gonna fulfill it

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and hold them account every time you know we do this for companies. You buy a set it that way I work if it's not what to your liking you make sure you phone us and we we respond. Do the same with your with your politicians. And remember, by doing doing nothing, evil prevails by doing nothing is just as bad as being part of an evil system. As the famous saying goes, it isn't

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for evil to prevail for good men to do nothing. So Subhanallah for us in conclusion, and we will talk about perhaps practical steps next week. How do we hold our parties accountable? What do I do? Where do I start? We have to put this down. But for us, Al Hamdulillah, we have a lot to be sugar and to be grateful, and we thank Allah for the peace of security. We have a duty to preserve it so that our kids don't live in a time when they say, Yeah, Allah, how much is of enclosed. We have a government that is oppressing us, our deen can become like that. It's our your responsibility to make sure the next generation the Islam and the morals and the livelihood is protected. We cannot

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allow the rulership of the leadership that is corrupt that's bad to take away our privileges. This is our land is your land we also have African as well. And so us that is Mila that is part of your your your Amana as a as a Muslim. Just two quick announcements

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from the villa. We made an appeal last week for the projector and people have donated but spa assisted came forward and donated the entire projector and entire protection may Allah grant in a family or the Highland baraka and goodness and for those who have donated 100 other funds or the insha Allah it will be used in the masjid as well in terms of perhaps other other equipment that is needed, but Alhamdulillah we thank you and we ask Allah subhanaw taala to reward you and to continue to do goodness that also have matura and Islami. They're having a book launch at the Spring Street magic 14th of November 11. In a book, understanding that a study of the history of the continental

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hate. This is from Imam Shafi buildin so anyone who knows him or Sharkey with great contribution to Islamia a book has been written and we ever you are welcome to join in sha Allah as well. Zack about eight or so Allah say Muhammad Allah, Islam Sunni, hello, Sudan Katelyn