Heritage #02

Muhammad West

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Channel: Muhammad West

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Albula in Michigan rajim Bismillah R Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala should have been with Sunni and Sadie now Muhammad in Maga early he also had big marine and beloved brothers and sisters in Islam As salam o alaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh

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what brings me on to Allah subhanho wa Taala a shadow Allah Illallah Avi witnessed that no one has the right to be worshipped except Allah. We praise Allah and we thank Allah for all the goodness and mercy that he has bestowed upon us and we seek protection and refuge with ALLAH for the sins of the mistakes that we have done. ask Allah to bless us in this work of Jamar to bless us in our iman and our families, our businesses, our health, our music, our sustenance in this dunya and the FIRA May Allah guide us in the week to come and we send our love of greetings and salutations to beloved and B Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam to His pious and pure family to his companions and all those who

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follow his sunnah until the end of time. May Allah bless us to be on the Sunnah in this dunya and may we be in this companionship in the janitorial dose Amin well hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. We continue from last week discussing our heritage and our our history. And as I said last week, Wallahi by Allah, us this Muslim community here in Cape Town, it is almost nothing short of a miracle that we have survived. We've come through very, very difficult periods. And there are many Muslim communities that have not survived many Muslim minorities that went 20 3040 years ago, maybe even just a few years ago to western lands and they lost the deen completely the pressure was too

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much. The pressure just have an environment that wasn't Islamic. Our forefathers and our grandparents they lived in a society that was extremely antagonistic against our deen. In fact, our deen was outlawed for a long period for more than 100 years. It was illegal to be a Muslim, yet this Deen survived well hamdulillah and it is now as we said last week, a model it is in many ways a model for many Muslim minorities around the world. They wish to have the kind of inclusivity that we have, for example, today I was in the CEOs office of Woolworths and I dress like this on Fridays, I go to work like this changing, you know from one attire becomes hassle burden. So I said you know,

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and notional issue, no problem, we are accepted no problem. It's fine. Because we are hamdulillah have that level of recognition. It didn't come overnight. It came with a lot of difficulty and struggle. From our forefathers, I will set up a solid. And we are living over that, that benefit. So to continue our history. We sit for example, we've been in for more than 350 years in Cape Town. But 200 years in Durban. We mentioned how colonial powers came first it was a shipping company, the VOC from them, the Dutch color colonizers in the West, Western Cape, they got pushed out by the British. And as the golden diamonds were discovered, more and more of South Africa became colonized. Then we

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stopped last week, and we said, after World War One and World War Two, and of course Europe was we most of the fighting happened. The colonial powers of Europe lost the strength, because they ended up destroying each other. And the world moved into post colonialism, the world began to become independent India got its independence, Australia became independent. And South Africa as well broke away from the British Empire became part of the Commonwealth as we call Commonwealth meaning the old, the old colonies of the British empire together, they form what we call the Commonwealth. I don't know what so common about all of it went to Britain, Commonwealth for Britain, not so much for

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the rest of them. And

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at the turn after World War Two, what was it like? So we said, the British and the Dutch had along the boards, the Afrikaners, and the English speaking whites had been ruling this land and there was great tension with many wars between them. And now that British power was coming to an end. And South Africa was going to be ruled by themselves. They formed the Union or the Republic, the Union of South Africa, which was a government governing itself. But of course, exclusive to white rule. The government, of course, you could vote and it's democratic and independent, but only for the white vote. And as an as South Africa was determining was deciding what kind of country was going to

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be. You had those who spoke that South Africa needs to follow the modern world and become open and it has to have equality and human rights. You had another side that was out of fear, the politics of fear. And this politics of fear reoccurs itself. We spoke about it many years ago, not so long ago, when the elections in America with Trump. And we spoke about what's happening with Briggs. It's a politics of fear. You have two types of politicians. You have the politician who talks to you about hoping and dreaming about building a better future about looking at the problems and fixing it. And then you have the politician who speaks about nightmares, that if I if you don't elect me, they're

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gonna come for you and your kids and they will take your land and

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You know, if not for us, you'll be washed away. And this is the same fear and the same rhetoric, the same talk that you find in Europe currently, why you find Nazi parties rising up again. And the slogan today? Do you live in Europe today? And what is the number one cooling card, the thing that really pushes the agenda is anti Islam.

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We are the enemies, we are the new enemy number one, before it was maybe communism, if we if you we don't win the elections, the Communists will take over our country before that maybe it was anti semitism, the Jews, or the the blacks. Now it's Muslims we are. You see, sometimes politicians, they need an enemy, they need an enemy to point the finger and say that's the bad guy. And if you don't support me, this guy is going to win. And we that bad guy. So the same thing happened in South Africa. And you add a party, the nationalist the National Party, the NP, and they told basically the white voter whether you racist or not, whether you support a party don't ultimately you have a

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privilege, you have all the benefits of this country. And if we are not in power, the darker races will come for you. And they will take your land, and they will take your schools and your kids, n n, n and n. And so of course, the National the National Party won the elections, the NP won the elections. And the policy was, of course, to bring this concept of apartheid. Now, this is where most of us we know the history from here. This is where most of us we understand. But again, when you look at South Africa, the real problem or the real debate, and the real struggle in this land, was really about haves and have nots resources.

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For a select group, to have all the resources at the expense of another, the Afrikaners came, and they took the resources at the expense of the Koi. And the indigenous people the British came to away from the Afrikaners. I mean, and this is and today, we still have this problem, this battle for the dunya. And the tragedy of our country is that it's a fight between the haves and the have nots. We have in our country, our history, we have basically, for the last 400 years, it's been one person, one group must win and every everyone else must lose. And that's not the way and I believe going forward. And we'll talk about posts about the the new world that we are in. As Muslims, we are

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very good, we have a unique perspective, we understand that dunya is not the be all and end all that for you to win, or for you to be successful by exploiting others. That's not success. And there's no Baraka in that. And you'll continue having animosity and hatred and violence.

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That is enough to share to see to everybody that Allah's dunya is wide enough, so long as one group doesn't exploit the other. And this is a problem that still has not been solved. For three 400 years we've been fighting.

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It is this issue of, of economic enslavement, economic colonization, economic exploitation, that remains the dunya, the battle for the dunya. Of course, it's the end, and we'll continue fighting until the end of time. But as Muslims, we have a unique perspective in that. So let's continue. So once the National Party basically won the elections, the grand idea, the idea to solve the problem was to say, every race, every group, you stick to yourself, you govern and you control yourself. And they divided us into four categories.

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Blacks, colors, colors, of course, is a misnomer, and it's a sensitive word. In fact, in other countries, I think it's like illegal to even say you are colored. That's offensive term. Of course here in South Africa, it's part of our understanding and colors is really a race that is I was watching a video someone said there's no such thing as a what is color, it just means you're not white, you're not black, you're not Indian, but then you just colored

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it again shows you the inconsistency of this malaise colored or koi or sand colored or a half white, whatever you were your colored just shows to you that the to take away your humanity. And to put you in a box, part of the colonial process. So they put us into four boxes, black, colored, Asian or Indian, and white. And obviously privileges will shade based on cut or sugar split based on color, the job opportunities you had, because you have a certain level you could only go to primary school. That's as far as you wait. If your color you got to go a little further Indian little further black, white, you could actually go and finish university.

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And this of course is to continue the process of exploitation and just to look at some of the laws, and for many of us, I didn't live and experience it. And it's hard for us to even

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and people living with this, let us look at some of the laws which were legal. At that time you had, for example, the prohibition of marriages act where it was illegal for people of different races to get married to one another.

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Illegal that at that time it also speaks to something sidenote, your morality. Morality is something which is fluid. While they tell you it's fluid, they'll say 50 years ago, for a white person to marry a black and white man to marry a black woman was seen as immoral, in fact, illegal now, okay.

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What was seen as immoral? 50 years ago in terms of dress for Lady, what do we end today's okay? Just understand that our concept of right and wrong is affected by society. Society will tell you today it's okay to dress in a certain way for a certain group of people to get married. For us, morality doesn't change. Allah has dictated what is right and wrong. And even if it's unpopular, even though we come to a time with someone will say for example, for example, they will say polygamy is immoral. We say no, they will say for example, dressing in a certain way for women to cover here is oppressive. We say no, these moral lines do not change. Because it just shows you 50 years ago, the

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same people who made the laws, you said it was immoral for a white man and a black woman to get married use it was immoral life changed your mind completely. To show you you don't this concept of morality is just what go with the flow.

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It was a model for a person of a certain color to walk on upside a certain part of the road use it was immoral to use a certain toilet. And now you've changed how does that work? Whereas the morality of Allah is for every time and place until eternity, whether it's popular or not popular, whether it's okay or not okay with society? Well, it is strange. And as the prophecy says, A time will come with being a Muslim is strange, you won't be the outsider, you will be looking like the outcast, so glad tidings the stranger because in his time, they'll be so sad man, when he came, it was immoral to have a daughter, you if you're a man, you buried her alive, that was normal. That was what was

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good. And Islam came and change that. So time will come we are unpopular. And you we stick to what Allah says, because that's the Huck whatever. We had the group areas Act, which of course we know,

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split the land up in terms of suburbs based on the race. So this suburb belong to the whites in the suburb belong to the blacks, and this suburb was for the colors and the Indians. And so so that's what today we still have your Indian areas, Rylance your Malay areas that your white area, and of course, who got the cream of the crop, of course. And today, we see that exploitation continue, because those areas that were designated for a privileged class, that's where the best schools were built. That's where the best hospitals were built. That's where the universities were built. Now, 30 years, 20 years after apartheid, when we want to send our kids to those schools, and those

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universities, we can't afford to get into those suburbs. So our kids are still suffering, still go into a second class school, we can't afford a private school. So you still have to go to the government school that was never upgraded for years.

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This is something that we have to understand, no matter which side of the debate you're on, understand how these issues still perpetuate till today, this colonial process is still felt today. So these group areas and of course, one my I mean, you should know this, people that don't live in this country are surprises. So what if you happen to live in an area that was designated for a different race? Well, they took you out, they forced you out, like District Six, they forced all of you out, and they dumped you in a new area. And that's where you had to live and both, they they compensate, you know, your life of building your so many of us can tell stories of our grandparents

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that had houses and homes and businesses in the most prime locations, but it was thrown out. And our history of displacement taken from Indonesia, India, brought here dumped here pushed out remember the Blue cup is outside of town, the blue cup so you people, you your type of people live up there in the mountain away from us. And as the town becomes bigger, now we want to land so we push you out further behind the mountain the cape flats so this is a history, our communities a history of being exploited. But what is beautiful about our history and something which we take great strength from our community, while they oppose oppression you can do opposing the oppressor isn't just through

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violence

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without fighting without killing without shedding blood, they oppose it. They were pushed out and they took they could take our houses they took our businesses, we never allowed them to touch the machines. Those the only buildings that still stand in District Six are the three massages still the

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and when they pushed us out to new areas, Belgravia Mitchell's plane, we built new massage it and that's the legacy of our grandparents.

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They didn't have the education we have

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If they didn't have the opportunities where they could never go to higher management, own companies and these kinds of things as we do today, they didn't have the wealth that we have, but how many mosques? Did they build Subhanallah with what

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if we can't pay the amount of madrasas, masajid organizations, they sit up together in that kind of environment to maintain masajid in the cape flats and still the massage that were thrown out, Constantia in District Six, maintain those main streets. Subhanallah to get people to sit on the masjid committee, just one person is such a challenge. How did they do it? Allah Allah, only through the grace of Allah, and the real determination from very ordinary people, very simple people. But they did extraordinary things.

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The past low, and I think this was felt more by our African brothers who had to, and again, if you look at the, the,

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the genius, the evil genius of apartheid, it's no, it's no secret. If you go to any city in South Africa, you'd find the CBD, the hub, and you'd find the prime areas, the suburbs close by is for the white elite. And then as you go further out, you find the buildings become more rural, and the colors of people become darker, so that the people who earn the least they love the furthest from the CBD, they must travel the most and pay the most. So sometimes we get frustrated. But remember, there is someone that travels an hour earlier than you in the day, and they travel an hour later than you in the day, and they get paid less than you. And so the people that so many, so long, a big

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amount of the money just goes to getting to work, the paycheck goes for transportation, and again, why it is to continue to enslave a group of people that fit our own system, what we rounded to the bunnies. So it's the same to keep you down, that you just survive day to day. That's how it is designed. It was designed like that. If you look at how our suburbs are with with the railway system and bridges, it is to keep communities isolated and controlled. Evil, genius, evil genius. So people had to have passes on them to go from one, one suburb to the next. What are you doing in this area, you're not the right color, you have to have a passport, in a land that you were born in, in a land

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which belongs to you, your ancestors were a man who came only 50 years ago, tells you to carry a passport in this land of your motherland. Something to think about, you know,

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of course of the of the system of of destroying a community. Allah subhanho wa Taala when he began reforming a very backward society, the Arabs of Judah Helia was of the worst. I mean, you won't find a community as bad as that. And Allah didn't even begin with worship May Allah began with the Quran, educate, fix this muscle here, and it automatically everything else will fall into place. And the people that elite they understand that if you deprive a community of education, you deprive them of potential and power, and that's why you had this been to Education Act, which means certain groups of people got a certain quality of education, whereas other groups of people got the advanced

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education that technology is the doctors, the lawyers, because technology once you are supposed a certain group, technologically you'll always be superior. And Allah promises we said this, so many times Allah says in the Quran, yet for Allah Divina m n o Eenie, Daraja, Allah will elevate in the dunya. And in the era in the dunya, those who have knowledge and Iman, so those of iman Allah elevates them. And those who have knowledge, whether they have Iman or not, if you have an education, you've got a trump card and you will be elevated meaning you will be superior. How you use it, of course is up to you. There is no secret that the countries the United States, they have

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the most universities, the most libraries, the most people that are studying postgraduate studies, the countries that are most advanced are those with the best education system. And it was a deliberate a deliberate step to give the darker skinned people of this country and inferior education, which means you will never ever become higher management, even And subhanAllah. How many kids in Khayelitsha, when man and Berg are actually the potential of they could be geniuses, but they never have opportunity?

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How many people across the world because of the because of the circumstances they never get to unlock the full potential and that says it it continues today.

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So the Muslims Subhan Allah we we found ourselves in the sooner we didn't have control about the situation and our hola MA and I'm one there's no other way to describe and Allah no spaces earlier. You have to mention the work of the Allama what kept our community together yes, good people, but

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that leadership of Obama, from its inception, played a vital role in keeping our community together. So what did they do? Right? How did they survive? How did they get it right in this kind of context? Number one, they focused on a very community based Islam.

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It wasn't just about the Masjid. It was about fixing people's lives. People were struggling out there, struggling to make ends meet, struggling with oppression, struggling with kids that are getting an Odile and the Imams and our leaders were community leaders. And they took people not just Islam is not just about worshiping Allah in the masjid. It's about making your life fixing your life out there.

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They took simple steps to keep the community together. And there's a lot of this discussion about, you know, cultural activities, like Sadat, and Mohler and whatever. Beyond the theological discussion, the community side of it cannot be ignored, cannot be ignored bringing people together. I mean, even before apartheid, people that couldn't read or write what's amazing is you find hola Omar from Malaysia, Indonesia, they didn't impose the Malaysian language and so we will speak Malaysian. They said no, we find ourselves in a new country, we as a llama will learn Afrikaans and we'll teach you in your in your language. And we will educate you even if you're not Muslim, because

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knowledge is power. They open them at recess to non Muslims to learn to read and write, to show you that this class system that you find yourself here, this is not how it should be. This is not how Allah who would change life. They focused on being good Muslim in terms of a HELOC. Be a good person, focus on the important stuff. Yes, make your Salah on time dressed appropriately eat halal. They had some bowls of Islam that we as Muslims, we don't do these things. We don't drink. We don't eat haram certain times of the day, whatever your master, your boss says you come to Jamal, we're going to come to Joomla we won't compromise on those things. But beyond those things, we are part of

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this community. We did not I say even though we were forced to live in our own Muslim communities, we were not isolated. We're part of the greater part of this country. When we worked, people knew that we were honest people, whether they liked the color of the skin or not. They knew that we were people of integrity. And Allah was the great gift of the Prophet Salaam. The great strength of his Dawa was o'clock, he came to a community and he was known for being the best of them in terms of honesty and truthfulness, kindness, sincerity, and a HELOC of someone who always shine through whatever religion you follow. Whatever belief system you have a HELOC is beautiful to everyone. And

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that's what I when am I focused on being a good person? And that is what is one of the reasons for the success of this community. That you don't have to give Dawa by knocking on the door and talking about Islam. From a theological basis. Your Dawa is in your interactions with people, the person you are in the office, you're an ambassador for the deen.

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So people will give an A we live in a time on hamdullah with a lot of more a lot more understanding. But if you show that I'm a dedicated worker, I'm a diligent worker, you make yourself the best worker in the company, the company will have no problem giving you time for tomorrow for it. Because they know Muhammad is serious.

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And that is what our our simple folk did when they came to fix your roof. You don't have to worry, I'm gonna steal your stuff. You don't have to worry, I'm gonna harm your family, or I will show change you overcharge you why? Because my dean teaches me not to do that. And that is what something that we are losing the basic principles of the dean that insomnia sometimes we debate so much about theological stuff, and we forget the basic crux of being a good person. So

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not that they were they were highly educated people, deeply knowledge people, but they focus on very simple getting the basics right. Perfect, the basics of your eating your dressing your Ibadah and be a good person. And that formula, Allah it works. Even today. The Sahaba if you look at the prophets of salaam, the Sahaba, were not the most educated if you put

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you know, say number Bacara on one side, and you put Imam Shafi Imam Buhari in terms of book knowledge, yes, these great scholars wrote books on the highly literate people. But the Eman of course of Abubaker is far superior. Why? Because that insomnia that they got from the Prophet SAW Salem, and this is what I say to us, we are now an educated community. In fact, many of you here have degrees, many of you even might have studied Islamic studies. But to translate that into being a good person is a lot more difficult, something which our forefathers might have had an edge on us, giving back to the community. So during this whole process, when apartheid came on the stage, and we

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will always, you know, subhanAllah, even though we went through a lot of oppression, we're not a violent community.

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And that is, and I must mention, it's a very important point in the Western world. For example,

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Muslims feel that the only way oh man, just an announcement. In the light of our history coming from Indonesia we all know the tragedy of the tsunami that affected the island in Indonesia. This collection is for Indonesia, today's collection for Indonesia for the people that are struggling who lost their homes lost their family members. So please donate generously, Allah Allah may might even be a distant relative of ours, very struggling. Allah make it easy for them. Allah protect us from Allah.

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From from these calamities, Mala safeguard and make those who are going through hardship malaria place that we have lost with something that something better in this dunya or in the Astra, please donate generously, so for Indonesia inshallah. So

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there was a beautiful article that was written about the very first time we protested, you know, the Muslim community were we went through a lot to overtake our houses were taken, we will take it from our lands, who will dehumanize if we never oppose we never fought back the Hitman as well. Obviously, if we raise a first they come with a tank, so we understood violence on Canal, the first time as a community, we were disobedient. Do you know when when they closed the gun about the very first time that Muslim community in Cape Town actually protested was when they didn't allow us to bury in the cemetery disclosed, because we don't use coffins, right to be very, and on that note, to

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Numato Insha Allah, we're going to have our Nightmare on Elm Street, the night of the Barossa. We'll talk about what happens in the cupboard. In fact, there will be a grave for those who have the courage to get inside and experience it, feel what it's like to have it they will talk about what happens the moment your soul is pulled, what is it like that first night in a cupboard? That will be a topic tomorrow? So because we don't bury with a coffin or with a with a coffin, and there was an epidemic of smallpox epidemic, they felt that when we bury our dead, they they would infect the population? Of course, that wasn't true. So they closed the tunnel battle. That was the very first

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time we as a community stood up and rioted, but protested. So we were very peaceful community in spite of the oppression. So when apartheid came on the stage, we looked at the Allama and said, Well, what is your what is your response? We knew it was unjust. We knew it was haram. We knew it was evil. It was shaytani. Yeah, it was complete evil against the deen the way of Allah and the Allama. Most of them unfortunately, for whatever reasons and through the Hickman, their wisdom, they took sort of a political stance, they said, you know, we step back, we allow politics to run itself and we just focus on on our Ibadah but of course, there are many of us activists, that young people

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that became involved in the struggle and that was the right thing was the good thing was the correct thing. And you Mahmoud on for example, one of the few Imams Rahim Allah that was involved actively and of course, he paid with his life Rahim Allah shaheed. So, and we therefore have a long history,

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maybe not from the highest levels, but the people, ordinary people, students, young people that got involved in the struggle, they felt the Dalai Lama might not be doing it, the older people, elders weren't doing enough. And this is going to always be the case, you would find our leaders, our elders will always be slow to react. Why? Because they have a more holistic view, they have to think about everything. And it's our younger generation, most will always be a little more radical, be more energetic, they want change to happen overnight. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. But this is going to be a reality. And we have to be part of that process. Even now, we have issues

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today, for example, people building buildings here in the book up, maybe the committee members have been slow to act and the youth want to be more agitated. We cannot allow one group to act without consultation, we need to act together.

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We need to act together. And it was because of young as a Muslim community that got involved and may Allah bless those who have got involved. But today we see the benefits. Today we find a government that is very complimentary of the Muslim community. Because we stood side by side, there are those who said, even though I'm getting a privileged education, I will refuse this education because there are millions of people that are being deprived of a basic education.

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I will not be I will not be part of a system that exploits 90% of the population. And therefore they were part of that struggle. And of course, I'm not going to go into detail we all know the story of the struggle. We know for example of the most senior members of the ANC was in Robben Island, our brother Muhammad Ahmed Kathrada part of that part of that struggle, and you know, I must mention this, because we in this masjid, that I spoke to a person who was at Robben Island as well as an uncle of mine. And he mentioned that once a month was a highlight for not just the Muslims but for the non Muslims as well. When the old Imam Imam money proceed of this medicine and come to Robben

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Island, not because he would they said it wasn't so much that He gave Dawa, you gave words of inspiration but what they love the most is he had sweets in his pocket.

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They said that sweet was what they look forward to. As Viola, we think a sweet might have changed the perception of someone who became the president of this country who made a policy that affected the Muslim community. But because there was this respect that this community is with us, how many lives has changed because of that small act of ibadah.

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And this is the lesson we learn our profits are some tells us

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we need to stand against oppression and support the oppressed and the oppressor. So how was it we understand supporting the oppressed? How do you support the oppressor by fighting him and stopping him, that we fight oppression, whether it is for us or against us, whether it's our own kind, that's the oppressor? We say It's haram, whether we are not the victims of oppression, but we stand with the oppressed. Our deen is a dean of just justice. And we see the benefits of that today. So as the ANC Of course we know for many years, they, they also took initially a policy of non violence, we're not going to harm people, we're going to use political means. And if you look at the heroes, today,

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when you talk about a revolutionary, you hear people say they call themselves revolutionary, it is maybe uneducated, it's violent, it's aggressive, the revolutionaries of our time, and I take Nabi Musa, for example, as perhaps the most famous revolutionary in the Quran, he stood up against oppression,

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a prince educated cultured. When you look at the leadership of the ANC, back then lawyers educated people, gentleman, Mahatma Ghandi, lawyer,

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if you want if you have that zeal, that energy to change communities to change an organization, change the masjid, begin by educating yourself, go learn and go get a degree, sit yourself, have a family, take care of them, then come back and we talk. But just and controlled energy is destructive.

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In our minds, the revolutionary is the guy with the machine gun in the bazooka. That's not the revolutionary. It's the guy with a book in hand and the pin. A person who is cultured, who is civil, who is against fighting, but if pushed, if you have to fight, you fight for something, but if we can avoid violence, and that was I want to be so solemn,

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non violent. But if of course, a time comes, you have to defend yourself, you defend yourself. But at the core of it peace, peace loving, and that's the makeup of a true revolutionary someone that changes and these will be educated people, gentleman in the way. And so initially it was unwired was against violence. And then of course they realize that talking is not going to work. You cannot just talk to if you're going to listen, some something action needs to be taken. And of course, when the ANC went the route of sabotage, you know, they were locked up and the leadership were put in jail. They were in Robben Island. And of course we know for 27 years. And while that time happened, there

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were many people behind the scenes and I imagined there are many people that paid a lot. The names didn't get mentioned on the radio, their names were not in any newspapers, but they paid the price. They lost out on a easy future. They lost out on an education, they lost out on the family, they were locked up. And Allah bless them. We benefit of the struggles like the old era that came here. We are indebted to them. We can't pay them back. But of course, as you progress, they get the rewards with Allah. How many people how many females for example, we don't know the names, first Masjid in South Africa, donated by a female assistant lady, these are not mentioned so much. But

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those are the people that the the goodness is only with Allah, the reward is only with Allah subhanaw taala. And while we continue as a community, that legacy that agenda goes to them as it goes to them. So of course, while the leadership was locked up, things became more intense violent. In South Africa, the youth stood up and eventually, you know, the unjust the rulers if Allah Subhana Allah says, Have you not seen what we did to film and then ThermoWood the oppressor will never ever prevail, Allah sponsors will argue, but in the end of the day, the motorcade will always win, you will only see you will only rule for this amount of time, and ultimately, Allah will bring you down.

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And obviously they were brought down now post apartheid after apartheid. And I want to end and this is really the important part. I mentioned. I did a talk on

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Musa and Freetown. If you look at Bernie so ill, they were the chosen people during the time when they opposed fit.

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But after Allah had taken away the oppression and ALLAH given them the opportunities, what did they do? They became a man of Dubai, they became the customer.

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We have now come out of oppression. And Allah has given us freedom and opportunity that he has not given most Muslim communities on Earth.

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We can both massage it as much as we

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want, we can build my dresses as much as we want. We can give classes and teaching you can learn Dean from A to Z as much as you want, you can dress in any Islamic attire that you want. If you still if we don't do those things now, what is the excuse? Now, in the past, the excuse was I couldn't was illegal, I'll be oppressed, I'll be discriminated against. Now the excuses just do laughs The only person to fight now is yourself. And we know if an Wallahi the test of hardship is easier to be than the test of ease, Allah assisting us with blessings was giving us free, do as you want. And this is where we a person is ruined. So as a community, it was a young generation, if you

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are in your 20s, or 30s, or 40s, and you have a job and you can sustain yourself and your family, we need to ask ourselves, this legacy that I see what is my contribution going to be? What will I leave behind? Because there are people that sacrifice with their lives with their wealth, to build a platform that I am benefiting? What platform am I going to give over to my my kids, I have this great blessing that Allah has given me I can be a Muslim in peace, and I have the full opportunity to live my life to the fullest of my potential. What is my excuse to Allah? What am I going to answer in the day of Allah? Or the deputy ama to Allah? What do you do? What Masjid Have you been

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involved? In? What organization have you been part of? These are the questions we must ask ourselves. Because we cannot allow, we cannot slip with ourselves to think our grandparents who had a lot less achieved a lot more than us. Why? So the challenge of US Post apartheid is us as leaders will ama to get together and solve our problems. The only enemies we have is ourselves, I'll fix our own house, Muslims that are not being maintained. Because we as a community are maintaining it or llamada debating over unnecessary things, while our youngsters are becoming disconnected. Not because there's someone grabbing them or forcing them away from the dean in the past, they couldn't

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attend my dresses, they couldn't leave the school to come to Jamar now out of laziness they don't attend, or because parents don't encourage them. In other parts of the world, people need to fight to dress in eat correctly. We have it free, but we choose not to go to the halal restaurant not to dress correctly. So what is our excusing those things? So we live in this very post apartheid, dangerous time of complete freedom Korea, and the only the real Jihad Jihad jihad is for us to fight ourselves inside and to have as a community now to plot and plan and think will we survive another 300 years? Will we be able to put some leadership and some things in place today that will safeguard

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us for the next 300 years? Why have we not increased from 2%? We've been 2% for like 300 years, why have we not gone beyond that? Why do we still see you know, people that have sub human conditions living the and we we are a privileged community? If you compare us everyone feels report, everyone feels the petrol price even feels but Allah He if you compare what other parts of our community has, but they don't have you realize that we are privileged, and our earlier, they took it upon themselves to fight the unjust to fight the problems, even though he didn't affect them. We cannot be put off we cannot say, Well, that is a black community problem, crime, poverty, housing doesn't

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affect me, it's the issue. No. If you ignore the community, a time will come where that community will ignore you. When your needs are neat when you have needs, they will forget you. So we pray to Allah in this time, that this community maintains itself, that we should be a leadership for Muslims across the world, that we can get our act together. Those leaders can be guided and work together. Our business people can get involved and share their wealth. Our youth can become energetic about the right things, that our social problems we can get above that, and we can practice our deen the freedom that we have and obtain the full potential when we stand before Allah we can say Allah every

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blessing you gave me. I have fulfilled the Amana correctly. Allah bless us and not curse us with this mean.

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We will continue next week inshallah we'll talk about the pioneers and some of the stories of how Islam came here. Next, we'll continue with this theme. And a few few questions. A few announcements, as I said, In sha Allah, we will begin next week next, rather, tomorrow evening of the shy our Nightmare on Elm Street, the night of the birds off everything about the cover to create to the souls traveled, they meet each other. How do you benefit someone what happens to you what happens to me when we into the cover? How do we prepare for that inevitability, the pain of death? How do we prepare for it? What is the punishment in it? What are the rewards in it? We'll discuss all those

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things tomorrow. It's half past eight at the Burano center, the blue building, about an hour an hour and a half.

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insha Allah bioprospecting we should be done inshallah then of course our women around the messenger series episode 18 and 19 coming up next week discussing very interesting topics if you'd like to report you can join our WhatsApp line any questions concerns comments with [email protected] to circle the hater Salaam Alaikum