Miraaj Lecture 2024
Muhammad West – Will My Grandchildren be Muslim
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of Islam in South Africa, including its legacy and success in the coming years. They acknowledge challenges faced by the community, including the lack of diversity and the need for strong leadership. The importance of practicing Islam to live a better life and finding a school that will expose children to the topic is emphasized. The speakers emphasize the need for personalized education and prioritizing Islam over other activities, as well as community involvement and competition with Netflix. They also emphasize the importance of community engagement in bringing together people to achieve their goals and creating opportunities for their children to pursue their interests.
AI: Summary ©
We live in a shed on rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala
Sayidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi Germain my beloved brothers and sisters As salam o alaikum, Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Everybody doing Alhamdulillah from the Nairobi datamine
Alhamdulillah, you know,
miraj lecture here is really special for me, because I think the very first lecture I gave at Bronto, when I see the uncles de becque Nadi, was mirage. And so I can really, like, see time, go like, this is sort of my university at Burano. And they always told me, you know, what anjos legacy is, you only leave with your cattle, you know, hamdulillah at the mercy, it's, you know, sometimes they leave that leave it at that, but Mirage is sort of like, when I started and how many years it was, but it's sort of you can see our time go and every year we try to give a lecture for mirage that is obviously attached to the story of the Israel and the Mirage, but taking an aspect,
sometimes the tsunami we go into space, sometimes it's the miracles and the miracles of the Quran and the angels and Salah
tonight's and you say What's the link between the title is well, my grandchildren be Muslim. What is the link between this and marriage? was one moment in the marriage we know that that visa Salam, the pinnacle was he was going to meet Allah subhanaw taala and receive salah. But Allah made the visa, Salam Salam take a sigh journey to Palestine. And we spoke about Palestine also the constant Arab mirage. But what was the purpose of visiting Palestine? When we saw Salam was the performance salon was Luxa and when he turned around he saw all the
India standing behind him.
And this is a moment way
the legacy of Islam this religion is passing from the previous Gambia and the baton is being handed over to the visa Salam.
And also the message being you are the last
year the end.
If it drops now it's never going to be picked up again. And of course whether demise is going to be so solemn, the legacy passes to his alma
the legacy pass over to us.
And this is we
what we do is an extension of that from the Gambia from the time of Nabi Adam, all those Umberto stood behind the NABI Salam himself and we are now we are now in front of
we will and our actions and by the will of Allah will be determined. Does the story continue for another generation? Another 10 generations? Will it end?
What at the end with us, with our kids or grandkids or will it continue mela granted to always be
my Islam never become extinct in this land? And it is the nature of the Gambia. This was the biggest fear
that your first fear. Well, I die on Iman and Islam. And then will my kids live on Iman and Islam that I will recite every day in every Juma. Yeah you will Adina Takala haka, Ducati. Oh people of Eman. Be conscious of Allah as deserving Allah deserves consciousness and fear and love. While atom Ooh, tuna, Illa. One two, Mr. Moses, and make sure you don't die except as a Muslim.
You can fail in anything in life, but don't fail at that. Make sure you get to the cupboard as a Muslim. That's what matters.
Allah also mentions wouldn't it be cool but As Salam when he Allah says you will not be when he was dying on his deathbed. And never Yaakov Of course, we know we had many sons that we use of an icebox mini son, and he calls his family together, and he's giving them a last final by a man.
And the one thing he asks if this is my kid's mother taboo, don't I mean body? What are you going to worship? What is your religion when I'm gone? What are you going to believe in? I don't care if you become a doctor or lawyer engineer, you become a billionaire millionaire. That's means nothing. If you don't die upon Islam,
if you stop being a Muslim, then what have we have? What have we achieved.
And that is something we need to think about. And one of the things that I noticed. And you and I was maybe mentioned this later on in the in the lecture, I did not grow up in the blue Cup in South Africa and grew up in Saudi, they don't have Mirage, and all these things. In fact, they are not in favor of these things.
And as time as I've come here, I've also was a bit unsure about our cultural practices. And we'll talk about Association, which was part of the lecture. But what I can say is noticeably big nights not so big anymore. Like it used to be.
Majid is not as full as it used to be for weeknights.
And I can only been mentioned in a negative way, not for a good reason. I'm sure those who are not here are not doing something better than what's happening. Yeah. And that's what I worry about.
Well, you Islam continue for the next couple of generations. And when you look at Islam here in South Africa, we are reminded time and time again. Two weeks ago with the ICJ, we reminded that we are a very special Muslim minority in the world.
We are reminded that as Islam has spread through different parts of the world,
this tiny Muslim community has achieved so much. Against all odds, it should not have survived for 400 years, going off to one challenge and one problem one oppressor one colonizer one crisis to the next, it's survived. And not only survived, but thrived. And were mentioned so many times. And I'm sure you'd like a stuck record now, after so many years, to imagine how this community has kept Islam alive through slavery, went through colonialism being banned, not being able to build a masjid for 100 years being illegal. And all those groups have disappeared. But this religion continues to be practice La ilaha illallah continues to be practice. Yeah.
You also called the very famous Muslim, you know, lecture globally said, so Africa, is the only Muslim minority that in the 60s and 70s when other Muslim minorities were trying to survive. We were sending her files to international competitions and winning it.
How is it possible
that with all the Muslim minorities in the world, we had the most developed in terms of halal certification massage modalities, and there is no real there's no within us It's not strange to see of all the Muslim Muslim countries in the world. The only ones that is so vocal to stand up on the issue of Palestine is this country
There is a legacy of what this community has done over the centuries here.
But now the question is Alhamdulillah we've done that.
What will our next generation do?
And where is this community going? Going towards?
If you were to look at the as Allah says in the Quran, and this is something that all of us need to worry about, Allah says, Yeah, you were letting the AMA know people if you have Eman, Cohen, full circle, Malik, coonara.
Protect yourself and your children and your family from the fire. Be conscious consciously, over time, think about what's going to happen about my Iman and the status of our kids and our kids. As we said, our community has always been a community under threat, we've always had obstacles was never easy. And it's never going to be easy as a minority. We should never take for granted that will always be minorities, things can change overnight. situation can, you know, as I said, it's an it's it's it's goes against what we expected for it to be as long. And as our grandparents and our parents had the challenges, we are into a new challenge. And we've experiencing this for the last
couple of years. Some of the big challenges that we are facing now we don't have an external enemy here in South Africa. Alhamdulillah. We can practice our religion freely. We can go to the masjid or not go to the masjid. We have no restrictions on anything that we we how we want to practice our deen. But we also have complete freedom. And now the challenge the enemy is not external, its internal. You need to fight yourself all the time. And that has always been a difficult battle. This has always been the one that mankind struggles. This is the greater jihad
in a way.
When you look at people going through oppression and remake eat well Allah make it easy for the people of Palestine and all those struggling, when you have an external to mentor, you almost find strength in your iman to rally together and fight that enemy. But when the enemies inside, many, many generations have not succeeded in that battle. And that's why the navy seals on them say to the Sahaba, close to when he was about to pass away. He says, Yo my Sahaba I'm not scared of poverty. I'm not It's not poverty that I feel for you. I'm not worried that some calamity catastrophe is going to be for you. But rather I fear that the world will be given to you, I feel comfort and ease
I feel life is going to become easy. Now that you've beat apartheid, and you've beaten the colonialists, and you beat everyone, and now you have freedom now and what are you what are you going to do? I fear that the world will be given to you just as it was given to those before you.
And you will compete and you will focus only on accumulating more properties, more money, more holidays, more enjoyment, more experiences, more promotions, you will compete in this. And it will ruin you as the windows before this fix
is a threat that many nations did not succeed. And it's the one that we're in now. And it's the one that our kids are in.
We also have another major challenge, as we said,
we have a crisis of leadership. So there's one, there's three challenges, I'm going to list and each of the three solutions. So the first one is we are now going through the challenge of ease of prosperity doesn't mean that life is easy. Things are difficult money participators going up everything is difficult, but easy in the sense of you don't have to fight for your deen
you're able to choose or not. It's up to you. The second thing is and this is where we need to take ownership.
The leadership of the Muslim community in this in this community has always been strong.
And South Africa was seen as a, a model minority in how we could organize ourselves.
We were able to get together, we could form jammas. Very quickly, we'll fight and argue and shout and hit each other. But that magic will be built that Patrick said will be built. You put
a Muslim family and they will go to some dopey. Yes, they might build too much. It's against one another. But at most it will be built Alhamdulillah we always had the response and we organize the church we were organized today. And you know, I'm part of what should be the primary leadership here in this community. And we have a crisis of leadership. We see an absence of leadership, we don't see a direction. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. What's the plan?
And it's it's at all that we talked about and accepted so that we will survive in the next 1020 100 300 years. We're going to be is also mentioned
that Allah and this when he when Allah TISA people, he does not when he takes knowledge away he doesn't take knowledge, knowledge doesn't disappear. Expertise doesn't just disappear, but rather knowledge is taken. When great a great generation disappears.
and they are replaced with people that aren't of the same caliber. We don't have the same leadership and the same scholars as it was, until no scholars remain. And those who remain are leaders that are ignorant. I'm not saying our leaders are ignorant.
But this is what happens. A generation is replaced with one that's not as great as the one before.
And in this new leadership will ask and they'll pass judgment without knowledge. And they will be astray and they will lead the community astray.
We, as a community, require strong leadership to face these challenges.
We require not just the hola man and this is part of the problem. When people talk about leadership, it's always what is the Imams and the Allama doing? It's not just the Allama, the community of Genovesa Salam was not just scholars. In fact, the majority of the senior Sahaba the ashram of Ashura were business people. Abu Bakr, the Alon, say North man of the Romani beneath these were business people.
And so leadership is in whichever field you are, whether you are a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, and ally, Molana. Collectively, we need to lead this community. And collectively we failing currently currently we failing.
And the last, the last major chunk, perhaps the most difficult challenge, and this is now for our kids. If you look at my kids, your kids, they are growing up in a time in an age where religion is irrelevant. There's no purpose for religion anymore. There's no need for God in your life anymore. The fastest growing religion in the world or the religion of the nuns in in IE, having no religion, people following either complete atheism, or following a type of spirituality. We are making it up as I go along. I will meditate how I feel like meditating, I will eat what I want, so long as I believe in the spirit of the universe, because it's very difficult to accept atheism that this is
nothing else. But this is something that goes against your fitrah. But you also don't want to be religious in the sense of I need to follow a a doctor and a law, Sharia I don't want that either. I want to live how I want to live. And I want to have the perks of Eman. And so I'll make it up as I go along. This is the fastest growing religion in the world. And our kids look at our own ama they look at our peers, the parents they look at and they see what is it that you can offer me in my life. What can you Islam offer me? You know, it would have been very strange or odd array for someone to meet a motet
more and more and meeting people who have left Islam.
And basically the reason why if you left Islam, I don't really see any fighter or benefit in this religion. I don't see any besides it being rules, I can't eat what I want to eat, I have to dress a certain way I need to wake up with a budget. Other than that, what I mean it's just a bunch of laws that don't do this. So there is no benefit to me. It holds me back. I can live a better life. Or even worse. When I look at you Muslim community, there is nothing that inspires me in it. I see more value is more good outside of the religion.
This is what our kids are growing up. And so we need to have these very real conversations.
I go back to SC that is Rhonda miraj then a visa Salam. The purpose of the pinnacle was to give the gift of Salah not to the Navi salaam he was performing salah, but it was Salah to the ummah. It was the the pinnacle of Israa and Mirage, was that the Ummah, your nation has a direct connection with Allah.
No matter how life gets, you just raise your tapete Allahu Akbar, and you are in direct communication with Allah.
So Allah subhanaw taala
is looking at us.
What are we going to do as an ummah? The and especially in South Africa? Yes, Omar globally and his Palestine is we need to talk about which we have, we can talk about the Arab countries, we can talk about the greater Muslim world. For them, it's the they have their own challenges. But for us here, if we wish to preserve Islam, and it's very, very special type of Islam, and it's very unique Muslim minority in a part of the world that note that there is no other workplace on Earth. That is like Cape Town from an Islamic perspective, no way you can travel the world. And those of you been to London, those who have lived and traveled and you've seen it, yes, they are good Muslims, they
perform a salah they have the Juma and they eat halal. But there is a different type of what Allah has given an blessings to this place. And it becomes our priority to keep it alive. That candle we have to keep it alive. So how do we do it? How do we prioritize what should we do?
The way we taught one of the ways is the way
We give Islam over to the next generation is not going to work the way maybe you got Islam. Maybe the way you got Islam was or the stoat with the Rohtang
you must do what? And you accepted and Hamdulillah you accepted that. It was just how it was done. Sometimes you look back with most fond memories like good times,
but it's not. We can teach our kids that we
can teach our kids that way. And I share gives a very beautiful Hadith
I shout out the onsies someone complained about also the people don't follow Islam properly and they're not like we used to be and so I shoved in says the first thing that was revealed was of the fossil, meaning the Quran if you look at the Quran, the end of the Quran, the ending chapters Surah Jews Amma, the second larger these were the surah Allah revealed first Surah Baqarah. That's for those of us who understand how the Quran was revealed. The back of the Quran was revealed first and then the longest hurrahs came later. Why? Because the long the sutras deal with the rules and the do's and the don'ts, you can't trace like this, you can't eat that you can't all the rules came
after Allah began talking about himself talking about belief about Jana and Jana, talking about what it means to be a believer about how to live your life to bring a consciousness. So she says, when the people embraced Islam, the verses regarding what is halal and haram, they were only revealed afterwards. And then she says, if Allah began the Quran by saying people stopped getting hammered. If Allah started when they were just became Muslims, the people who would have said, we will never leave hammer.
If we became Muslim just today, and immediately, you can't reach like this, you can't wave that you can't drink this, you say this religion is too difficult, and we will live. And she says, I shy saying this, the Mother of the Believers are likely going to be some of them. She says that if Allah began, from the beginning, telling the Sahaba they can't commit Zina, they would have said we will never accept this religion. She's talking about Sahaba, the greatest generation, they would not have followed a religion, which was just about rules, do's and don'ts. How would our kids follow a religion like that? And if the only thing you're teaching your kids, you must recite this dua, and
you must into the toilet like this, and you must wake up a fortune like that, and you must recite like this, a bunch of rules.
Your kids are not gonna follow Islam. My kids are not gonna follow Islam.
Allah began by teaching Islam to the Sahaba, about himself about Iman. And when he when when Islam was in their hearts, then the rest of the body followed. When they gave up hammer on their own, then they gave up Xena on their own, then the Dookie started to be worn.
But he began by teaching the basics and the importance the fundamentals and then salah. The only thing is Pamela, something very interesting, the only thing that Allah made compulsory on the Muslims throughout the time of Makkah, was salah.
We're not only talking about when when we say about Islam surviving not just about having a Muslim name, and Islamic practices and a sheet being played when you get married, and maybe a janazah when you die. practicing Islam means you're making your Salah five times a day. That is what is practicing Islam. You fast when the month of Ramadan comes in the past, it was inconceivable to find a Muslim no matter how vital he was when he wouldn't pass and Ramadan. We had a meeting in the MTC way. Chamberlain Gabriel said, you know one of the focus areas was tell people to fast because the majority of our youth in from his perspective are not fasting.
A shocking you won't even find the weakest Muslim not fasting Ramadan is one thing that people already process.
But people openly don't fast anymore.
unheard of in the past. So
this is a question for me. And for you as parents, you can put it on your molars and shakes now you can deputize this to somebody else, your kids and they Islam in the emaan firstly in their hands between them and Allah and then us as parents.
You need to have that conversation and ask them when you think of Allah. What do you think of when you make salah? What do you think of Islam? Does it make sense to you? You must have these conversations. And if they don't have those basic principles, and they don't have a emotional connection with Islam, they only have rules. The minute they grow up, and they expose to the world and they realize you don't have to follow the rules. No one is going to punish you. If you don't, those rules disappear and take it from Aisha. She says even the Sahaba would not have followed the religion which was just about do's and don'ts.
The second part so that's the first thing how we give Islam over the second important point
when you
Consider if your kids will still practice Islam. after you're gone after I'm gone, Will they still be Muslim? Will my grandkids that I haven't met would they be Muslim?
Allah began with the Quran.
We, this religion remained steadfast on a limb and knowledge when Ilan disappears. Eman disappears. When we stop learning and we stop taking our Islamic knowledge seriously, Islam will die in Islam in practice Islam in this area.
Our founding fathers of this community were old.
And they began this community, not around fighting and resisting it was around a madrasa and madressa before our marriage was established as a masjid. It was first in madressa to teach people to recite the Quran.
That was the foundation.
And our forefathers, whether they came from India or Bangladesh or Pakistan, or wherever they came, they made sure when we come to a community, we must be a slum school.
And it's not negotiable, your kids must you must go to Marisa or maktab in the afternoon.
Maybe the weekends even.
But this is non negotiable. Today, it's become negotiable. Today, rugby practice ballet classes, whatever it might be, is priority over your Islamic education. And if that's the priority, you will get that you will get Bella you will get rugby you will your kids will be CFOs and CEOs. But it's not a guarantee that they'll be Muslim.
And you need to ask yourself as a parent, if you are in the if they are growing up in this scene, you're prioritizing everything over the madressa Do you really think they're gonna prioritize Islam? When it comes down to making a choice of who do I get married? What job should I do? How should I live my life, they grew up seeing that Islam was not the priority.
Our forefathers made sure and so forth. Our grandparents, our parents made it a priority. You must prioritize Islam, I don't care what else you do. But you're going to learn your basics and the basics are. And that's why the Prophet Psalm says whoever embarks on a path of knowledge, Allah makes the path of Jannah easy. That is the path of Jannah.
Do we want our kids to go to Jannah? If the answer is yes, now, the path is to learn. They need to learn they need to be in a madressa they need to be formally studied. And they need to deal with the issues that they're going to be exposed to. They must talk about with the with the parents, and the Maldives. And then walima is about LGBTQ about atheism, about all these things in the madressa and in the masjid, not with the friends at canal walk with waterfront they should not be taught these things by outsiders, and the influencing the understanding of what's right and wrong. The morality must be shaped by us. And if we don't focus on it, it's going to be lost. So people who want if, if
we want Islam to continue, we need to prioritize Islamic education. Make sure your kids get the best quality and the best che
i can get the secondary math teacher they can get a secondary ballet teacher enough to get the best. But make sure they get the best Imam to teach your kids Islam.
That is the priority. When you choose a school,
choose a school that will expose them to Islam even if the accent is other Ara choose the school that is going to talk about what is right and wrong. That when it is Ramadan time we all know we fasting.
It might not be the popular thing amongst your friends, but will lie for your kids to learn and recite Surah Yaseen in the mornings and to secrete a salam Wa Alaikum. And for someone to give them a bit of reminder, it is better than nothing.
The third point, so firstly is how we give Islam over. Second thing is you have to take ownership of your kids is some indication, the third one that maybe brings to miraj about Association, Hadith which we say to our kids, then the responses, a man is upon the religion of his best friend. So let him look to whom he be friends.
Part of Alhamdulillah you know, part of the legacy of forcing people on the same kind to live together politic was you're forced to associate with your own kind. And so if you looked at what was our associations, everything was kind of built around Islamic theme. We got together on a Thursday night for a cadet and we ate, you know, liquor and we spoke and was being focused.
Things were revolved around an Islamic identity and association.
And that helped to preserve things together. And again, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that everything we did in our culture was correct.
Doesn't mean that everything that we did and we recited was correct. These are discussion around Vida and the discussion around innovation and certain rules and rituals that shouldn't have been the but the real brilliance of that. Our forefathers say that
How do we get the kids together? For a dean thing, but they enjoy it. Because if we get the kids together fobian Even though it's to one guru, they're not gonna want to come to do that, or they're gonna come and they just must butcher Quran. They're not gonna want to do that. So we make them sing and sing, they recite, rewire, or recite a dua in a tune that is nice. And we have the nice treats. So now it's exciting that that is like an event. And that means that young people that were Muslim got together, and chances are you got married to the same girl in the middle of Jama. And so Alhamdulillah we preserved our deen through association.
That's all we had. We didn't even have you know, we couldn't we have to keep you know, our little cocoon together. Now that cocoon is gone, you can spread wherever you want, you will meet people of all kinds and persuasions, you will have friends from all over the world.
And we'll do our kids associate with if they're waking up in the morning, and there is no we don't make Salah together. We get into the car and the music radio station is on no Islam, they go to school, they only talk with friends. We don't talk about Islam, they talk about sport, sports and the politics of the day when they come to the rugby practice and maybe ballet practice and I hope it's the boys playing rugby and the girls doing ballet. But you know today we never know. You come home and you do your homework ways Islam associated in any of that. When are you talking about Islam? When are you discussing what's happening in the Ummah, or our history and our legacy? When
our focus is on our, you know, our our, you know, our interests as young people are purely non, I'm not saying it's haram, but it's not Islam focused. You don't even engage with Muslims anymore. Most of your friends are non Muslim.
And being around people all the time, where drinking is normalized, not weighing correctly is the norm. Having boyfriends and girlfriends is the norm. And then you marry someone outside of your faith. And they models and it dilutes it more and more and more, what will be left for you to give your kids and that is why you find many Muslims.
minorities, they came from Arab countries, for example, staunch practicing Muslims, they went to Western countries and they integrated so fully that you'd find the dead. Okay, Masha, Allah is practicing. But he married someone who's not not a Muslim. The kids are semi practicing, you get a generation where the grandkids they so vaguely my grandmother was something of a Muslim, she would make this strange Arabic reciting I don't really know I have a Muslim name. It's a beautiful name in Arabic. But I don't know anything about Islam anymore. Through what through association, that wasn't a conversion. I you know, I read the Bible and I eat you know, Hallelujah, Jesus is my Savior. No,
it was slowly through, through association, we lost our identity. And so we are not advocating that we keep all our Muslim children together in the masjid, you don't go outside. Now, we can't do that either. But you need to ensure your kids are associating with Muslims. Part of the curriculum must be you spend time with Muslims talking about Islam way you're talking about this is important, like minded, you know, principles and values. So Association matters.
And the last thing as we said, this is now these things are for you and your family that you need to focus on I need to focus on in my family. But then of course, as a community,
we need to get back to good leadership.
What's happening, and I don't know if you following is unacceptable. And it's sad to see leaders fighting with each other. At a time when the Ummah is at war with an external enemy, and is under threat from our ideal here we are under threat from an ideological perspective. Externally we have enemies bombing our children, and we spending time with court cases and legal things this semester.
As a leadership, and again, I speak of leadership, not just to the Allama it is your responsibility if you're in any position of leadership, whether you are even the admin of your Whatsapp group Alhamdulillah you have some leadership
to stand up and say this is my ummah, this is my community man.
And what we have kept for 400 years, I want it to continue Subhanallah
that we're going to get together and all of you all of our communities have within our families or in our, in our suburb or in our greatest city, we have issues that we need to deal with. It can't just all be put on one organization or one group of people all of us need to come together. And hamdullah that's how this community built. Like these massages here in the bootcamp it wasn't one guru but all of them were the only guy that built all of them. It was anti so and so and put us so into an everybody contributed brick by brick by brick, or hamdulillah these machines 200 years later, they still stand every single person needs to contribute to build that future. That's what
I'm gonna be soon see
This beautiful Hadith talks about leadership. He says, when Allah intends good for community,
he appoints over them as the leaders, the most sincere people, people in the position of leadership are they to serve. And he appoints the most learned to be there, Allah ma, the greatest scholars are the Obama and he appoints upon any good and Allah gives wealth to the most generous amongst them.
So leaders that are sincere
scholars are Lama who are guided and wealthy people that are generous. That's why you need this group to come together. You need these different leadership to come together and work for a common good. And of course, the opposite is true. When Allah wants to the One A people, he appoints foolish leaders fight over foolish things. And he appoints and it becomes an order among the people speaking of the ignorant foolish ones, and the people who have wealth only care about themselves. They don't build a single Masjid. They don't use their wealth for anything else. So it really comes to us to determine what kind of community we want. What kind of Ummah would we strive for, and we talk about
the Israel and the Mirage as we said, as the Gambia had given the baton over to Nabil, Muhammad salah, gave it over to him, he has given the baton over to his ummah,
into each community now, we don't have a Rasul alive, we only have each other and it's up to us to determine Will we continue that legacy forward. Allah has blessed us in this community for many, many centuries. Allah has brought us through so many difficult times and dark times, and given us what is not given any other community. And Allah has preserved our Islam with three feet upon feet will hamdulillah but there will always be challenges and it will remain in a good place if we remained good and will remain practicing Islam if we want that. So we make dua that Allah grants us the Tofik that Allah grants that we are true and sincere to this Deen. Now Allah subhanaw taala
granted this land at the end of Africa continues to testify to La ilaha illallah that Islam will continue to be practicing until the day of karma, but we will never lose Islam in this land. And we will be an ummah, a nation, specifically us our community in this land, an ummah that Allah loves. Allah favors and Allah protects Allah assist the entire Ummah and all of mankind. May Allah grant Shiva to those who are sick and Allah make easy for those who are struggling Allah Quran victory to them which are hidden Allah grant victory the people of Gaza am Allah grant Janet will Herodotus for those who have passed away she's not gonna hate or said Allah say no Muhammad want early Islam
reciting $100 Bill Alameen cinematic martial America
a lot of time for a shy
shy It's nine o'clock What time is it now?
The clocks is 10 past in the past
10 minutes ago.
Any questions? Okay, let's do any questions? q&a? Ah
no.
What was as I said I didn't grow up what is the Mirage ritual was in the past year with the cape history or tradition for Mirage with what happened nothing much or just a lecture which is a lecture
so
no, no What did so in the past when you was young Bucha shy but what was the what happened in the budget for mirage?
Under Mirage, but doesn't get old, you know, you get the exact same lecture over and over and over
Yes, yeah.
So I know when we asked I mean, I don't know why they chose me or as many dates. I mean, they could have chosen butter. They could have chosen whatever date it was, but obviously Molad visa sometimes, but miraj Perhaps it is because of a month before Ramadan. And then Rua is a lot of weak Hadith about about this 15 of Shaban but it also leading to Ramadan and it's really about getting into that mode that you don't want to get to Ramadan and now you start to focus again and you don't want to because if you miss Ramadan, Ramadan is at one time of the year where you can really fix the rest of the year if you've messed up okay Ramadan is your chance to fix up but you want to get the maximum
out of it and perhaps now is that one month mark guys we've got one month to Ramadan called one month Ramadan and we don't know if you've got many left
one except the Ramadan is like one except that hajj, your ticket to Jannah is written you just need to get one Ramadan. Very very good inshallah. But to get the best of it is you need to prepare. So we've got one month left it's finalized.
Seems like you know, really I personally I don't feel like I'm in a good shape yet to I need to get into the Ramadan mode. And then of course the ruler comes up now I know there was a ritual here and we spoke about it many times, the three Essenes and the DUA. Capitani
so one thing, Al Hamdulillah I really admire this Masjid in this committee that we are, you know, we are our traditions, we are proud of it. We love our traditions and culture and customs. So long as it does not contradict anything Islamic. And we are big enough to say this is not part of Islam will take the good we still want you in the masjid. We still want you to recite Surah Yaseen, there's nothing wrong with it. We still want the baraka and all of that, but if something in there that's not so nice, we'll take that out. And I don't Al Hamdulillah I don't know other massager but this is the one Masjid that the one community one committee that does that all the time. We will look at it
we'll discuss it we'll debate it and if it's proven there's not part of the Sharia then we'll take out the negative without throwing out everything.
And many times I said I come from a culture or a background way all of this was better and all of it is bad and we understand why because okay, why is Why is it such a big deal to the to those who don't know these things, because this is our ship comes into play.
The person who commit Zina is not going to lead to shit drinking Hummer, it's not gonna lead to shake it might lead you to atheism and leaving Islam completely. But a ritual where you worship something other than Allah, it comes through innovation. And so all the doors always closed. But we look at
what was good we keep and what is wrong, we try to fix and that's why hamdulillah one of the things that we are proud of is that the Rua, we still get together. We know that this is not a little quarter the 15th of Shaban is not the Night of Decree. It is just an 15th There are some narrations that there's something special about the night the week Hadith, but it's also 15 days to Ramadan, prepare yourself and recite at least Surah Yaseen recite any surah if it fell on a Thursday night, we decided Surah Kahf Al Hamdulillah. And then we still make dua, we want prosperity, these two hours in the Quran, you want a long life is two hours in the listing the Quran Hamdulillah. That's
good. And that's how we, you know, culture also adapts and changes we take the best of it doesn't mean we close it down. And doesn't mean we have to do it like our forefathers. Remember, the only thing we have to do is how the abbyson did. That's what we need to keep.
So alhamdulillah, those were good. And if we talk about Molad, three big nights, I don't know why those three but those are the three big nights, though, as I said, it doesn't appear it's not as big as it used to be, for whatever reason. But Molad we're very proud of is that we took the Wyatt and we could say it's a poem written by a poet with deep love for the Prophet Salam. And not everything in the is correct. There's a Quran. It's not Hadith. It's not sunnah. If you were, if we were if some of our youth were to write a new rewire a bit in a sheet, when we recite that no problem, maybe that maybe we should think of clever ways of preserving our deen with new rituals, but new events,
maybe we should have in Molad different rewired, open it up who's gonna write the next three wire
off a mirage, we do a different kind of event. Oh, not only we say, Look, this year, we're not going to keep Mirage, but we're going to keep the commemoration of butter, or whatever event it might be, just to get us together to associate and so with Molad for example, having us translate the wires and yes, the battery keeping between the molar jemalloc from the tune must also work. You can change the words but you must change the tune the logo must must stick the logo sooner. So they we had to work things out. And Alhamdulillah we change the word so long as it sounded. It was Sharia compliant and still sounded nice. We did that Alhamdulillah and I think that's sort of where I hope our
community is gonna go to Inshallah, how we we look at the you know, we have the Ramadan quizzes. These things are just something to get us to do good Alhamdulillah if you are at that level, were you on your own or waking up potage every night? Alhamdulillah you know, you've keep what you have, we have to get the but for the rest we need to incentivize ourselves to come to the masjid. We need to give brackets and nice tunes and quizzes and prizes just to get us in the masjid because we are competing with Netflix. We are competing with a lot of things that are fun. Why would you want to come to the masjid? And that is way all of us and perhaps is someone sitting here who's got a
marketing specialist you know, you can come up with something better come up with an idea. Come up with something that will really think about your kids. How do we get our kids to come to the mothership? Should we have a little play area like you know, like, like a McDonald's play area in every masjid so the kids can is that what we need to do? Then a resource alarms machine
their kids were playing
people came in and out each each person had a door and they would intern move through the masjid unless you somehow became very very to Salif, only very pious old men are allowed to be in the masjid you know. So, this is where we as a community need to know we are competing all day with things that are much more attractive to the heart than the masjid for for for young people.
So, inshallah Yes,
yes, talk to me to say something
small,
just essential oil wonderful.
Certainly, I think the gentleman was thinking deeply about
it's not something that I think
it considers possibilities and what dealerships reason is really 100
The Corolla has
also come to the center of the game,
it's worth your while
just thinking of, for example,
the average consumers budget,
mutation,
and
covers very well, but now one of the sections in this for example.
And
I don't know how many of the use so
raise your hand if you have unpacker other than now until about like 10 years ago with an pakery was
basically a
few of your friends to go to.
But I mean, it's so important to realize, we comes from from our slave days, how important
how much the sacredness of how much how people value
in sync with their ecosystem every for five years just to do to
be able to go on crutches. So that when they reach that point, every event
even sick along the way was so important, and they got the they got the other people, the family and so on together and Associates Association comes from the association is such an important element. Because Association comes it comes energy from spiritual energy which which overcomes
and it's, you know, these people will say on good soil you know, it's there's no question of the conscious of that but that's what came out of this the cultural conditions and that's it you know, the other angle of what you're saying about the leadership, the leadership tremendous wisdom and subsequently with the with the with the word that was taught that
they use these things to be able to
go to the community to to and that speaks off the way they lead the community. And and so I think
you know, it obviously in that I'm gonna have to say that that's one example of
something which these other there's so many others on which the fact that the STFC that our community has, it's not a fluke that this our community has lost it so long and people are deeply deeply thinking about that before you know before we just you know to pick up a packet from factory and all the Oscar another one is asking mom for example. I can just say that WhatsApp and so on to also you know, on the phone and all that it's it
the
video was really gone on crunch annual for example, you said that WhatsApp we've seen the car accident.
Person personal I have geofencing absolutely sure. I mean, did you check and see Ma Ma Ma Ma? I really mean potentially friendships messenger, WhatsApp, and so on. Rain doesn't make the same, same.
And so that
in that in
The interaction also so much more comes out to be
sold
to towards me. So where will these
cultural things
has a basis
is the basis in our community
now from
a documentary and I think with time, just, you know, on the hutch, I grew up, as you know, in hygiene, O'Meara was easy. I go every weekend formula. And it became almost like when you in hydrogen, even tell your neighbors Oh, we own Hutch. Whereas when I came here, it was a big deal. If someone went and had you in to go visit that person, because very few got to go, and it becomes a community thing is that we all go going to college together is like, you go into the World Cup, and we all supporting you. And these are the kinds of community like rituals that we keep together. And I can just be very strategic. And it doesn't mean, as we said, keeping it the way it was one of the
things that we're proud of, and I don't know if someone's going to call it to be done in a few years time is we do like the singles get together. Yeah, you know, the single speed dating
purposes Nikka.
Now, that's a new event. And if we say we have an annual one on one with young Muslims, get together matchmaking, but these are the things that we want you to get married in with a Muslim in a Sharia compliant way. And we need to make it comfortable. And so I think all of us our aunties and uncles, all of us put our heads together. Let's think about the new big knights, the new big events that is going to be focused on keeping Muslims together, focused on having an Islamic ethos, have fun, have the bucket, maybe who has the best, Baraka today, whatever it is cooking classes, but let's make it fun. And let's make sure that we keep this Islam alive. Let's make sure that in sha Allah our
grandkids will be practicing Islam, practicing Muslims, Amin, Amin was Allah so as you can so much I think it is a China Russia item. So now