Muhammad West – The Hardest Hour – P.4

			Are we lying Machito James Monroe Hema from the la mina salatu salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi mine, my beloved brothers and sisters in Islam in Santa Monica marked with a
library gatchel thank you so much for joining us, you're probably in Islam home and with this part
four of our series, the hardest hour, where we look at the difficulties that this room has faced
over the last 1400 years, and how we can conclude it. And this, of course, is to give us strength
and encouragement. This is our tests, Allah subhanho wa Taala has put us in this chapter of the oma.
And it's what we need to do to overcome so that you know, 100 years 200 years time when generations
		

			write about this, this group of people, what are they going to say about us? Well, hamdulillah how
we come through these difficulties. Today's lecture is entitled The heroes of the South. And it's
gonna be a little bit of South Africa focused. We are, of course here in South Africa, on recording
here in the LGM studios, one of the reasons why I think we leave out Jean, you know, one of the
leakers, the Arabic, it's referring to Gerald which is south and the people of the South, because we
are here at the tip of Africa. And I know many of you, especially with our co author, you are
watching from all over the world. I know our listener base from Abrahamic Islam, as you as well
		

			reach many parts of the world. So if you feel a little out, don't feel so especially if you come
from countries like Australia or Indonesia, Sri Lanka, new countries, India will be mentioned within
in our lecture today and England as well. You have a big part of like, there's gonna be a bit of
colonization. So some of you are colonizers, and some of you are colonized, wherever you are, in the
story, what hamdulillah so South Africa, we've had a Muslim community for about 350 years now.
		

			The oldest Masood is about 200 years in South Africa, and perhaps even the first Masjid in the
southern hemisphere of the world. Some accounts, and he has gone through such a traumatic history,
the community in South Africa, that if you look at the challenges it had faced, and in spite of all
calculations, in spite of all irrational thinking, this community should not have survived Islam
should have become extinct. Because of all these challenges that it went through, but we'll come to
the law, it's a miracle that we are young, and it's a thriving community. And it's a proud Muslim
community for many, many centuries. And I would like to talk through the history and how we got
		

			here. And for us, so Africans, when you look through this presentation, you will see that there were
so many moments where this community could have disappeared, but it survived. And he continued on
for the next generation. And as we go through our own challenge now with this disease, mosques being
closed, Ramadan won't be able to celebrate it together in the masjid, how do we survive for the next
generation, this was important for us. So a little bit of history before, so Africa was discovered
or colonized by the European forces, the people that live there in Cape Town in the western side of
South Africa, the southern Western side, the blue area on the map, and they will call the Khoisan
		

			people, this is the indigenous people of this country, and perhaps the oldest civilizations in the
world. If you look at the skulls and the traditions, and we're in many, many 1000s of years, these
people have lived in this area. And they occupied more the south western side of, of South Africa,
we have been in the in the central part, a bit of a desert, and so not many, not much civilization
in the central part. And then we had towards the eastern side of South Africa, Durban and the towel
kind of area. I mean, if you look at this map more clearly, on the right side, these are your black
Africans. And they were it's imagined, it's thought that these were ethnic people that came from
		

			Central Africa, from Congo and these kinds of countries, they migrated south and they set up African
kingdoms. So the the Khoisan people of the West have a different to the African, you know, African
people that came from Central Africa. And you know, even within the African population, you find
the, you know, the Zulu and the the closer people you find very interesting practices in a culture
that hints at an Islamic influence you have, for example, circumcision amongst them, which is a very
Islamic kind of tradition, and they males go through a process of circumcision, you find levada
which is a kind of adultery that is paid to the bride and her family on marriage. So a lot of these
		

			kind of nuances in the eating habits as well that is almost Islamic in its in its in its customs.
And so we pray that our hamdulillah there might have been some influence between these customs and
Islam and and inshallah to be revived and once again, now moving to our brothers in Europe, around
1490 to another we need to do a series on that. It is one of the saddest years in our history, that
is the fall of under mushiya. So Muslims ruling in Spain
		

			Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula for 800 years, Muslims were in Spain longer than Europeans have been
in America, North America. That's how long we
		

			survived as a civilization in Indonesia. And it is was one of the most It was the most advanced
country in all of Europe, many of the kings of Europe's in the shoulder to study at universities, in
under Muslim tutors and lecturers, advancements in science and technology. But of course, it was not
mean to India and 1492 this was when the last Muslim Kingdom of Granada came to an end, and the
Muslims were expelled. And this began to really the flourishing it coincided with when Europe began
to ascend. And so Spain become Christian Spain, is regarded as the first colonial power, because
they had the ships and other technology to spread around the world, Vasco de Gama, many of us would
		

			have known a great Explorer, they traveled around the world and they, you know, discovered many
countries of course, we know that there are people living the and and then they insert a enforce the
dominance and actually colonize this cat, these countries. And a very important part of history
that's missing is to say, Wait, it's Spain get this technology, this technology came from the
Islamic heritage that was the Muslims were advanced and most, you know, most sophisticated
civilization during the dark ages of Europe. And so when the Spanish Christians conquered Spain,
they obviously inherited this technology. And then they use that to further their own objectives.
		

			Very interestingly, 1492 is another very famous year if you go if you from America, you will know
that is the year when Christopher Columbus discovered America we dedicated ships from from Isabel
and Ferdinand of Spain that took the king and queen of Spain who conquered Grenada. It's amazing the
same people that at the very same year that they conquered the Muslim state of Colorado was the same
year, they actually financed and gave the technology to Christopher Columbus to eventually sail
towards, towards America. And he discovered the New World. All right, we fast forward 100 years. So
for the next 100 years, Spain will really dominate the world stage, they will use the technology and
		

			they will conquer you know South America, many of the the the South American countries have a long
history with with the Spanish Empire, and they obviously sail all the way the Philippines and many
parts of the world in during the Age of Discovery. At that time, you know, a few 100 years, 100
years or so later, the other colonial European powers begin to become stronger. And they also wanted
to get in, you know, get a piece of the pie, so to speak. And one of the small countries in Holland,
Dutch is very small, the Netherlands, very small country, but it wanted to also exert its authority,
and it wanted to have so the Spanish had a monopoly on the spices, the spice trade of India, and the
		

			Philippines and Indonesia. And so the Dutch wanted to get in on this market. And so they formed what
is the first public listed company in the world, a public company, what is that you see the stock
exchange, people are buying, you know, you can go today and you can buy, think of the biggest
companies in the world, Microsoft, whatever it might be, you can buy a piece of that company on the
stock exchange. And so the Dutch came up with this idea that you could buy a share in a company
called The, the, you know, the Dutch East Indian company, and this would be this company would then
have ships would go to India, buy spices would bring it back to the to Europe, and whatever profit
		

			it made you what you see in its profitability. And that was the idea. And so this company, you know,
had a fleet of its own. So this external to the government get its own fleet. And so, you know, from
the from Europe, all the way to its objective was Malaysia, Indonesia, these very spicy rich
countries. And to do this long voyage, they actually went around Africa. And if you look at the, you
know, the map of Africa, you'd find that South Africa is right at the bottom here in Cape Town in
particular, it's where the Africa comes to an end,
		

			bottom of Africa, and so they set up a post to set up a little settlement a castle, and that's where
the ships would would stop over and replenish and then move on. This was 1652, right? So there's
over 150 years of the Spain was beginning to colonize the world. And of course, when the Europeans
arrived in Cape Town, they of course, they found the, the Khoisan and the the people that were
living here, we know what basically happens to them, Europeans, you know, at that time, didn't play
very nicely with indigenous people. And they completely, you know, either wipe them out or basically
enslaved them and conquered the entire area and made this land of Cape Town, they the colony,
		

			and they would use it as we said to, to wish ships would come around, and they would replenish and
they would move on to onwards to Malaysia and Indonesia in particular, because they colonize those
areas. So if you look at the maps here, Indonesia, Madagascar, Yemen, bees were countries that the
Dutch had some kind of presence in them India as well for some time. And they would, you know,
actually, when they came to these areas were a lot more sophisticated than some
		

			Africa, there was resistance and what is what do we find in common with many of these lands, these
are Muslim lands. So we had Muslims that are now being the Muslim Ummah is being confronted for the
first time with an enemy of this nature, people coming from all over from Europe, with advanced
technology and conquering the lands and naturally there was resistance, and there was a jihad. I
mean, a Jihad fought against these colonizers. 100% legitimate jihad. But of course, due to the
superiority of the technology, and it said that we lost our way that we were so far behind after
being in the lead, that we had no resistance, these people could walk into our countries with a few
		

			of a handful of ships, versus a massive population, they could conquer our countries from as it from
Africa, all of Africa, Asia, South America, all of these countries were colonized by Europe,
different European kingdoms, and the people had no resistance and they enslaved on mass millions and
millions of people. And, and the Dutch in particular, what they did was they used South Africa, they
use Cape Town, very much like Britain would use Australia as a penal colony. So when they would
conquer a land, all those people that fought against them, the Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri
Lanka, fighting against the Dutch colonizer, the Dutch beat them, they take these people and they
		

			dump them in Cape Town as a penal colony. Cape Town is like at the end of the world, basically, you
know, in the middle of May far, far away the inch of civilization, you basically come here to die,
this place was a place of, of torment, it wasn't a place, they didn't have much agriculture. It
wasn't a very prosperous land, it was purely a place where you would dump your prisoners, and your
shipping, people would come by and replenish and they would move on, not much mean to develop this
land. And so this is, this is the positive side of it, is they they brought Islam with them, because
they bring these Muslim Mujahideen that were defeated, they brought into South Africa and this piece
		

			of these these amazing people brought with them by Islam, and they kept the Islam with them. And so
we see the first Muslim community beginning to develop towards the end of the 17th century 1690. The
17 hundred's or 18th century is the beginning of of Islamia. In, in South Africa.
		

			The these Mujahideen these, these were highly educated people, these were not just your slaves,
these were orama. These were princes and kings, and judges called these that are being brought here
as a form of suppressing them and keeping them away and exile away from the the homelands. And so
one of the first You know, there's a place just outside of Cape Town Mikasa that is the first and in
fact Mikasa is a Malaysian word. It's called Mikasa because this was the first and farm land in
which Muslims actually lived. And they were able to practice the deen was still illegal to be a
Muslim. No matches allowed no taraweeh no open display of your religion and I mean, many of us
		

			experienced that this is what was happening. Yep. And, and and the Muslims would sort of secretly
teach the deen and teach Islam to the next generation is is very, very difficult and hostile
environment for 100 years, the Dutch wielded complete authority over the land and kicked out the
Khoisan people being subjugated severely, and those exile prisoners and slaves being brought from
all over the world having their own community. We have a very strange kind of community in Cape Town
during the 1700s. At that time, the Muslim community we have so many amazing people but we want to
mention two amazing heroes by name. One of our founding fathers of Islam is called a chef. Use of
		

			Mikasa chef use of about him. He was shades of Mikasa we call him of the of the only app and you
know, while no one knows who the only other last panel are, when we look at what these people
sacrifice and what is the legacy they leave behind is no other term, but to hope that these are very
close friends and dear people to Allah subhanaw taala shall use of Rahim Allah, you know, he was
brought here from Indonesia. He was a judge. He had spent 20 years in Yemen, in the Middle East,
studying learning to be a judge. And he comes home to his land in Indonesia. And he finds it, you
know, under attack by these foreign invaders. And he is captured and he is sent to to Cape Town as a
		

			as a prisoner year in
		

			South Africa at the age of 67. So an old man and a 6094. He's brought here and he lives for five
years on a farm outside of Cape Town. So his job be human. The only reason they brought him here was
that he could die a very obscure date, but he came here and he started the first Islamic movement as
you will some Muslims that found that these are shiftless any mom, a highly qualified scholar,
people lift and came to him to learn and to study very much in secret and that's you only spend
about five years in that area before he passed away. She had a mama and and so that was that was the
beginning nature of an under chef use of mama then
		

			We have another great Imam to one group that we refer to one guru actually means, Mr. Teacher, our,
the teacher, and but he comes about 100 years off the shadows of so imagine the chef Yusuf starts a
community outside of Cape Town, a very much a rebel community that are teaching the Islam
underground. We have no Masjid. We have no you know, Sarra facilities. We just have a tradition of
		

			teaching a group of students about Islam, teaching them the basics, he passes away and this
tradition gets passed on from family to family, very undercover. It is still illegal to be a Muslim,
under the Dutch rule, and, and these different llama come down and they find this community just
surviving on by a three year at the end of the world. The next man to take Islam forward here in
this in this country is as we sit him to a guru, who his name is Abdullah Bukhari, Abu Salam Ahmed
Sisi, his actual name, he was a prince for my one of the Sultanate. So you know, Indonesia has many
islands. It wasn't one country, each island was his own kingdom. So this was a prince, a young man
		

			who grew up, you know, we could think in the lap of luxury, but he was educated half of the Quran,
he started in the madrasa in the room, and he rise up to become of the ruling class of the Sultanate
of his long island. But of course, his Island would become invaded by the Dutch and he would resist
them and then swallow, you know, at the age of 80. And, or rather at, you know, at the age of, of
7070. He is he is arrested by the Dutch because he tries to, tries to get them out through.
		

			He's accused of conspiring with the British to get the Dutch out of his country, but he is he is he
is arrested, and he comes in his 6970 years old. He's brought from his homeland to take down as a
prisoner. Mr. Man was married, he has children he has a life in Indonesia is taken away from all of
that. They didn't even allow him to bring his coat on with him. I mean, they didn't allow him to
bring a book with him. So they put him on the ship, and they dumped him here of all places. Robben
Island, Robben Island is very famous because the most famous prisoner is Nelson Mandela, founding
father of the New South Africa. What's amazing is when those prisoners, Nelson Mandela and those
		

			prisoners came to Robben Island, they found already graves of the first inmates and those first
inmates were Muslim Mujahideen, the very first people to fight oppression in this country to fight
against racism to fight against one group colonizing another with a Muslim in those who sit lie
alone, we take great pride that we were the first people to be in Robben Island as president
associate, or other ship to rural in Robben Island for 13 years now, man that is in the 70s being
locked up on this island. He's lost his family. He's lost his position. He's lost his home. And he
sits there in isolation. And he is using You know, this time and it's a harsh treatment. We know we
		

			have letters of shame, to guru, writing about his time in that isolation. And he speaks about the
empowerment of the oppressed, the mom, the mom that has been tortured, and has been abused so much
in that, but he uses this time not to be a broken man. What he does in his isolation, is he says,
look, we even took micron away from me. So I will write a quote from memory. And he wrote in his
isolation in prison, a few masahisa. from memory. He also wrote a book about the basics of Islam.
Now, when I asked for whom is this, you're in your 70s, you basically have a life sentence in jail,
you're never going to leave the salon, and he wrote it nonetheless for whoever it might be. And he
		

			wrote it. He wrote the Quran and he wrote a number of books. And then at the age of 8081, he's
finally released from prison. We would think an old man, a man that has not much left to live, but
he comes down to Cape Town. So Robben Island, who is outside of Cape Town is an elitist. It comes to
mainland, mainland Cape Town, not allowed to go home. And he's now part of the community in Cape
Town. The first thing that your mom wants to do is he wants to establish a madrasa, not allowed to
have a Masjid much is illegal, just a school to teach people to recite the Quran. And so he begins
is a lady corydon of Ceylon Ceylon Sri Lanka. So if you see, Lankan Xia you have a very big part in
		

			our history. Should you shift over from Indonesia, the Sri Lanka is also a big part in our history.
And this amazing lady. She was her parents were slaves, right? So Karen is a Muslim lady. Her
parents were slaves, and they were able to buy the freedom. They worked their whole lives, earned
enough money purchased themselves to be free. And then they had a daughter who carried on and the
only thing that I mean, the only position she had was a new house, year in the middle of what we
call cuca. And she allowed now the shift is being released from prison shift, one guru, it comes out
of prison. He wants to set up a madrasa
		

			He says, you know what if you can use a part of my house as the beginning of a madrasa, this is the
first madrasa in, in South Africa. And the chef uses it as his as his madrasa in in dope Street. And
for the first time, slaves who could never read or write had the opportunity to come for free to
learn knowledge, the chef said, I will teach you to read or write Arabic, you can learn of course,
his objective is for them to recite the Quran, but anyone even Muslim wants to read, you're welcome
to come. And this was an amazing thing, because at that time, the slaves only saw the master clause
as being able to read it. And now you found people that had our color that were dark skinned, could
		

			read and had ever had history at a civilization were part of a much bigger thing it gave is it gave
the oppressed people something to hope for you found a man that had not power so to see but he had
his or her honor. Also, the Muslims, of course, did not drink, they did not. They had a very strict
code of loving, which gave them a skill which gave them a position in you know, people always
recognize goodness, even in the worst of situations, you recognize something which is beautiful and
good. And so the shift begins forming his his, his madrasa. At that time he establishes the madrasa,
the British are able to defeat the Dutch so Europeans are doing their own fighting and the Dutch are
		

			defeated by the British, and all the colonies of Holland falls under Britain. And so Cape Town as
well becomes part of Britain, the Great British Empire, and the British were for all the negative
things we could say about them. They were a lot better in terms of the relationship with Islam and
the Dutch and they made Islam a a open, it was a religion that was not illegal. And immediately I
mean, the shift is in his 80s. And he petitions the British allow me to build a mosque. And so the
British allow the Muslims to have the first Masjid and this system, Masha Allah, what a play she
has, in general been the law. The sister Coronel, remember we said she allowed them to use her house
		

			as the first madrasa. She donates her house, as the budget. So our overall measure is called Open
Masjid, first Masjid, definitely in South Africa, but even possibly one of the first most youth in
the whole southern hemisphere. This we could say, almost slave lady, the only position she had she
gave us House of Lila to establish this Masjid and
		

			this is towards the end of the 18th centuries for the last 250 years, that mercy has been intact in
the first Masjid year in in South Africa. What's also what's amazing is that Masood, as it is still
it's still here today, and all the other mosques in the area follows on from the dominant surgical
area that you could think even before the motion was established, there was no mystery, but the
Muslim still had a secret away a Joomla in a quarry in the outside of of an open field or mine area,
they would have a Joomla and today Alhamdulillah on that land, the ISA Masjid Majid Juma as well.
The Jamia mosque is there as well so the Muslims tried to keep the Islam intact without the masjid
		

			but now Alhamdulillah towards the end of the 18th century tomura mala is able to not only have a
mother Lhasa in are also has this oh well there's a war machine which is now established.
		

			The Imam
		

			so off the establishes the masjid in 1797 10 years later, basically the Imam pauses away to his teen
years to establish his madrasa establish His mercy. And from that is a blueprint for other mosques
and microcystin rpki. Now Muslims all over the community are able to build their own mosques and
they own madrassas and a lot of the learnings and teachings of shift one guru samina Mustafa, he
wrote, the books that he wrote were copied. And this is how for many generations, kids would learn
Islam. In fact, our grandparents,
		

			if you looked at the way they recited, you know, I leave that this. This is how the Malaysian still
today recited the Quran. So it is taken with Malaysian culture, Malaysian ways of learning. Many of
the rituals that we have here are based on how Islam was taught in Malaysia. If you come to South
Africa, you find you know, so far away from Malaysia, but a lot of it is still Indonesia, it is
still it is still part and parcel of this culture. And for us, we reflect at a time when our mosques
are, we're not able to go to the mosques, we're not able to go to the Imam. Basically, it's up to
every individual to now be the Imam of the masjid to take what little knowledge we know and ensure
		

			we are teaching our kids and passing on our traditions. But in these difficult experiences, we can
either become despondent and lost, or we can we can try and get through it and survive and thrive.
You know, what's amazing is I think of a man not just imagine, Chef Tony Romo. 69 years he's been
serving a law, living in his land, fighting the good fight.
		

			He had an he loses, and he gets taken as a prisoner. You and me we might have said, Look 70 not much
to love. You might have become even angry with Allah, Allah, why did you do this, you've, I've lost
everything after serving you, you've taken my family away from me. And you put me in jail for 13
years in this horrible prison. And instead of being a broken man, instead of being angry, he uses
this time positively. And he comes to this foreign city. And he said, Well, I will start from
scratch. You came from a land which had many mosques very low that people have. This is a highly
educated professor, and he's coming to teach slaves. And if by what someone might have asked him,
		

			What are you hoping to achieve by this? He doesn't know he didn't get to see the three and a half
years later, we'll be producing this videos will go all the way to Australia, the same colonizer
England, you will get this video as well, so he could not have imagined that he's teaching would be
would be thought that we would have in South Africa over 1000 masajid. This is to the man's clearly
that I'm alone, all those people that have contributed that he planted the seed. And even though you
and I, we won't get to see what that seed will become. Don't underestimate a lot. You do a good
thing. You plant that seed you make the NEA sincere and Allah subhanaw taala will do in his own way,
		

			will put Baraka in it and will thrive as part of
		

			this community. We owe so much to these founding fathers, just to continue with the story of where
we are. So the Malay community from Indonesia in Cape Town, as we said around the 1700s. It took
another 150 years before we found our Indian brothers and sisters from the subcontinent being
brought from England by the English now to the eastern side of South Africa. Now we have you know,
great people like Giamatti, that that's more hanafy orientated. They are brought to the eastern side
of South Africa, more as business people and more
		

			people that would work on the plantations, more skilled people, and they set up their own kind of
Muslim community and therefore, you have a very diverse mix of Muslims here. The Malays were more
Shafi inclined, and whereas our Indian brothers are more inclined well Hamdulillah, we realized that
look, is no time for us to fight over these things. We have a much bigger problem. We are being
subjugated by oppressor. They don't care what kind of Muslim you are for you, your mom, Mommy, then
you are I bless. You are a infidel. That's all they see you as you need to come together as one
community and work together. And that is the objective. And of course, the next big challenge that
		

			Muslims of this land would face after the end of color, the colonizers left, but what they left
behind was something as bad or even worse as somebody God is a perfect. Many of you were not
familiar with it. When the colonizers stepped out. The people that remained of European ethnicity,
or the white people of South Africa, not all of them, a group of them Afrikaners, they established
this policy of the apartheid government for about 50 years, which saw that it demarcated people
based on the race and the color. So if you're a white person, you are on the high end of the
spectrum, and you've got all the privileges, you could attend the University, your kids got to go to
		

			certain schools, you got all the privileges, the posh, beautiful areas of the country will belong to
you. And as your skin became darker, as your pigmentation got darker, the rights you had got less
and less and less. And they for our African brothers, they got the worse, they kids couldn't go to
school, they couldn't love even in the cities, they lived in squatter camps, in homelands. And
today, that legacy still here, many of them are still living in those horrible conditions, because
it takes a long time to undo this. And the Muslim sort of the Indians and the Malay Muslims, kind of
in the middle had some privileges. But of course, we're also very much affected by this, this law.
		

			Islam was also not favorably seen by the government because a pretty Part A big part of the
apartheid government that have a strong Christian link. And so you had prohibition of marriages, for
example, our marriages were not recognized between the kneecaps and we had were not recognized a
certain terrible Act, which for the group areas act, people were forced out of certain areas. So
they will designate this area is an area only for white people. Now if you are a Muslim, Indian,
Muslim, Malay, Muslim lovingly, what does that mean? This land has now become a whites only as well,
you had to pack up and leave, and your house was taken from you, your business, many of the people
		

			at a time they were tradesmen, they would have you know, a tailoring business or they would have a
shop, this would be taken from you, and you would be dumped in a certain area and pass laws meaning
people that weren't white weren't allowed to move. They were under confinement curfew, you could you
only could move with permission. Public transport was you. Only for a certain group of people could
use public transport. This is the most, you know, advanced or the most cruel form of, of racism that
the world has ever seen. No country in the world has racism as
		

			You know, as profound as the as the apartheid government yet so Africa and so the question is how
Islam survive under that people couldn't even learn secular knowledge correctly. The same way it
survived and thrived throughout the years of oppression. It was each home and neighbor looking after
one another. kids would go to the Imam sometimes in the living room, sometimes if you could in the
masjid, you would learn what you could have of Islamic knowledge. The father of the house would
ensure that everyone is performing the Salah on Thursday nights whether you agree or disagree, they
would get together and they would recite surah Yaseen they would recite certain altcar two inch in
		

			keep this tradition going as was done for the past two 300 years. And there were certain things I'm
a Muslim, whatever the government says when it's Juma time I won't be working, I will leave school
and I will come to the mosque to perform a job. One of the most amazing things about the Muslim
community during this period was even though certain land certain areas there's a there's a suburb
called district six in Cape Town, which is a very proud and prominent Muslim community. The people
were taken completely away the homes the businesses were demolished, inside the community with the
mosques. Until today, those three masajid have survived. So all the homes have been demolished the
		

			Muslim community, even though they live that area, they made sure the masjid will remain. And this
is a very powerful message for us. We are now in isolation, we might still live next to the masjid.
But I'm not attending the masjid. It doesn't mean that the mercy doesn't have an Amana upon us, we
still have a duty or responsibility to ensure that honor, the sanctity of the masjid is upheld. And
these people you know, these are grandparents now we talked about my grandparents lived in the
suburb, they got pushed out. But there was still an effort to say, our old mosques in those areas
will be maintained. And we will establish new ones in the new areas. And we would start from
		

			scratch, if so be it all the way from the beginning. And that's what they did. But the community had
to reinvent itself. And it did. So during this period. With all the difficulties with the lack of
opportunities, the Islam continued to survive and continue to teach the next generation. And this is
what our team is all about.
		

			The what is also what is also something we're very proud of is the resistance to protect. Of course,
there was a movement, the ANC, the most famous then there are many, many people that oppose the
party. What we are very proud of is that Muslims were of the very first people to join this
organization and join the fight against apartheid. We have a small minority, maybe 1% 2% iF nicly of
this country, but we saw that this was not a white, black to non Muslim communities fighting each
other. This was oppression and injustice, and we are on the side of the oppressed. Our Deen doesn't
look at color, our Deen looks at the right and wrong. And as Muslims we should always be on the side
		

			of the right. This virus for example, it's a global pandemic, it affects all of us. We as Muslims
should always take the side of what is right for the benefit of humanity and have the you know, very
proudly of the founding fathers one of the leading members of the ANC when Nelson Mandela was sent
to prison, he didn't get saved alone. him along with six other chief members of the ANC were in
prison. One of them is our our recently deceased brother Ahmed kathrada, Rama Rama Rama replacing
Jana, he was of those early Muslims that were imprisoned in Robben Island, along with with Nelson
Mandela. And there was a deep respect that was between the ANC leadership and Islam. Because as
		

			Muslims we we basically shown that we have a long track record of fighting oppression in this land
from the earlier that came right at the beginning of colonization, we've always been fighting the
oppressor and we've always been on the side of uplifting the oppressed irrespective of color and
irrespective of religion, even something from a personal side note, you know, the the Muslims that
were Nelson Mandela included in prison in Robben Island, the Imam, the previous Imam of Masjid
Islam, Amanda Co. Monica says he had the privilege of being allowed to be a chaplain to the prison.
So on a monthly basis, he would be allowed to visit the Robben Island and visit the Muslim prisoners
		

			to see how they were doing. But of course, the prisoners were so excited to see a friendly face that
even the Muslims including Nelson Mandela, they would sit in his company and he would give them
words of advice, words of comfort, and therefore there's a deep respect from from from an Islamic
uniform for Islam in the Muslim community was developed. And it's one of the reasons why hamdulillah
by the grace of Allah, and one of the reasons why Alhamdulillah Islam has a very favorable position
here in South Africa now is that we are part of the political, economical social issues of the
country. We don't only look at Muslim issues, we look at the country's issues, and many of our
		

			Muslim brothers in Europe, in America in Australia, trying to integrate with a society. You don't
have to let go of your Islam in fact, you as a Muslim and your principles
		

			And you're the ideals Islam teaches you is what you know your country needs it is you will be part
of the change that is positive in your nation. And that is one of the things that we learned from
our founding fathers here that we've always been part of the struggle, whatever it might have been.
And hamdulillah 1994 is a great year for us. That is a part that finally comes to an end of the
basically 50 years of oppression. And we live in a free South Africa. And it's been like that for
now about 30 years of we could say in 2022 2024 would have been 30 years of a free South Africa. And
this is the current present president Cyril Ramaphosa, certainly another interesting anecdote,
		

			something I have never seen in my life. I don't think many people have seen when he became the
President about two years ago, he was invited to an Iftar.
		

			And he was invited by the Muslim community at the beginning of Ramadan to come from the start and he
wanted that invitation he came in not only joined us for a thought I was there, he actually joined
us in Maverick Sala and he performed the spa, he fell into jute and Roku. And we play the handle as
someone that you know, whether it is for political points, you know, anyone who is made such an
effort for the sake of Allah, may Allah guide him and melasma guide everyone to the Hopkin to the to
the truth, that kind of respect shown by a leader.
		

			For us as a 1%. community, our vote counts very little, we always say, you know, if we, if one of us
vote together, we only you know, can fall one seat in Parliament. Our vote doesn't count too much,
but our voice Alhamdulillah is restricted. And Alhamdulillah it is it has a position here in this
community, by the grace of Allah, but also by the efforts made by these great people. And I take you
back, think of yourself when you came here, trying to, to just to keep his community recycling data,
you know, in the middle of nowhere on a farm outside Cape Town, and then shift on guru fighting his
own life to build a Masjid. Could he have imagined we would be where we are now sitting on Paula,
		

			you know, sitting in Parliament sitting on the executive committee of some of the biggest companies
in this country. So this story of the Muslims here in the south, the heroes of the South, we've gone
from exiles to slavery, through colonization through a politic, we've maintained our Islam
maintained our identity, it stood the test of time by the grace of Allah. And we've continuously
contributed if I go through some of the
		

			the benchmarks here with over 1000 mosques in South Africa. 200 plus mu three and this was an old
presentation, and more than 300 here in Cape Town, countless schools, madrassas, halau authorised
certifying bodies you can go to any you know shop and you'll find that stamp day is Hello. I've
traveled the world from Durban by the grace of Allah I'm seeing many lands you go to a you go to a
certain restaurant you don't know if it's hot all you have to basically say, Brother, do you have
any alcohol or alcohol is a given it's gonna be on the menu. Do you have any pork? Can you put my
food aside? Yeah, where you can walk in you look at that stamp is a tunnel. It's allowed sokola I
		

			can sit there and not I walk out I go to the place next door. You are spoiled with choice. You are
spoiled with opportunity. You never have to compromise to have to be you know, I will I work at a
international company. retail company. This is how I come to work most Fridays and many days of the
week. I come with a job with the fees. I sit in the board meetings with with our directors are
hungry like this. And it is no one gives you a second look. It is part and parcel of the culture of
what it is in this community. We have a solid facility at my company we don't fully sell off. In
fact, when this restrictions came down, we have too many people in this office to be closed down
		

			like any other place of worship, we have soccer you know authorizing bodies, many of the big Zakat
institutions in the world in Canada in New Zealand. In Australia, they modeled themselves on sand
Zephir in in South Africa, one of the first people to in the Western world to start a soccer
institution. Again, we start far away from the central hub of Islamic learning and institutions. And
it was the simple basic people who could hardly read or write but they knew the basics of a deal and
they practice it sincerely and they taught on to the next generation they knew Friday is a holy day.
We're not going to do her arm as best we can we will recite Quran the mosque is a holy place we'll
		

			go and visit within the mosque at least you know once a week or a few times a week kids you need to
know these things this is this is what is your our office what you can eat can't eat this how you
clean yourselves and the basics were taught and then practice. And so Alhamdulillah we've seen this
community grow many celebrities and famous people proudly showing the Islam
		

			judges, lawyers, business people or the wealthiest people yelling from the law or from from this
community and we've contributed so much but we are only products are these pioneering heroes, but
through very, very difficult times. You know, planted those seeds protected those seeds work those
seeds not knowing what did it become
		

			hoping for the best, fearing that he would disappear, that this community would have disappeared,
you know, through that through the end of time, but Swan it's it's thrived. And it's now on the, you
know, one of the one of the most respected Muslim minorities in the world. In closing, for you and
me, we are now the next chapter of this community, we don't know how the story ends, and that is for
a lot to decide. But we are now it's our time we are writing this chapter. And it's getting to be
what do we want our generation, you know, the generations have to say about us, we have a lot more
opportunities for the Muslims in particular in South Africa than any other generation before us.
		

			They wouldn't there was no Muslim community in the history of South Africa that had the freedoms and
opportunities like we do right now. And what do we do with it. And on top of that, of course, we are
now being confronted with a new kind of, of difficulty, this this virus. And one thing that we
should remember is, our ancestors always kept the Islam first and foremost. And then they were a
force for positive change in their communities. This formula works. Be a strong, practicing Muslim,
do the basics, right? You don't have to be the island. You don't have to be the most learned person.
You just have to be a strong practicing. This is my identity as a Muslim. I do the basics well, but
		

			also, I'm a good neighbor. I'm a good employee in a company. I support my community if someone is in
need. Our door is always open. If you want something you have you have a human something to eat.
There is always enough for someone more the area's area with the Missouri School book up
hamdulillah. I've lived in Saudi Arabia, I've had many Rama bonds in Makkah and Medina are some of
the best memories. But the Ramadan you feel in the book up is something is something very, very
special. It is that traditional, like you always imagined the Sahaba you find people that have
nothing. Students that are studying away from home, people that have you know, lost a wife,
		

			bachelors, you know, old men, they've just they alone living in a house, refugees, and they'll come
to the masjid and they will find in the masjid sanctuary, a place where they can break the fast they
can stand together can pull the Salah have the most beautiful things I've seen is in this community,
which is really the essence of of Islam. When you come to the blue cup, for example, this is you
know, the houses are painted very beautifully. The mosques are the the culture of hookup is not
about its buildings and its mosques. It is about the sooner little bits of the sooner that is
totally respect for your elders, neighborliness, kids, you know, you know when Islamic attire, this,
		

			this kind of Islam that you see alive. This is what makes the Buddha beautiful. And this is what
makes our community beautiful. And so every single Muslim throughout the world, and particularly
here in South Africa, we are in ambassadors of this team, and it is our opportunity to leave a
legacy our own legacy to leave our mark to be the next heroes and heroes are not. They're not people
that should be in comic books. And heroes are not also meant to be in history books. Heroes are
alive. Now. Each and every one of us in sha Allah need to take our seat our place in history, and to
do something beneficial for our community. inshallah, Milan I pray insha Allah, that through the
		

			CDs, this is the last one, it's coming up to me and I hope it has given you some kind of comfort
that even the best of people go through hardships. Sometimes it is because of the other best artists
and allow us no matter how difficult things are to arise above these challenges to show that we are
better in this and that we contribute something positive. Now las panatela make you make me make our
families predict us and make us mediums of change and success. May we get through this hardest hour
and inshallah May Allah grant us to be better people at the end of it. Allah bless you and bless all
of us. I mean to Sokolow here. Thank you so much. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh