Mustafa Khattab – Goode Garden City
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AI: Transcript ©
I bear witness that Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa
sallam is the seal of the prophets and
the final messenger to all of humanity.
Whoever Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guides, there is
none to his guide. And whoever Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala leaves astray,
So, today, InshaAllah, I'm gonna talk about a
couple of things
or observations that I've seen in the community
over the last couple of years. So I'm
not sure Insha'Allah if I'll be here in
the next couple of weeks to to give
football or I'll be traveling so this is
probably gonna be a football tool with that.
So we're talking about different things Insha'Allah.
So if you were not here a couple
of weeks ago I mentioned that
I have decided to move to another city
Insha'Allah for
some personal reasons.
And
as I mentioned in my foot bath that,
Alhamdulillah, this is one of the best communities
I've been to. Alhamdulillah. The people are close
to each other whenever you needed help from
someone with something, someone is moving out, someone
is in a difficulty, the people showed up
and the people were helping them. And Alhamdulillah,
there are so many things that we're able
to help to, to do together with the
volunteers,
with the help of everyone in the community.
So they were able to come and volunteer
and and help physically or help
financially
and so on and so forth.
So this is something great that we commend
the community for.
I remember calling some of the youth in
the community whenever we needed help with something,
and
they always came forward to help unless they
were busy with exams or they were playing
video games or something. They always came to
help. Right? They were always there for me
and we did a lot of projects together.
Alhamdulillah.
So if you haven't heard about the Masjid
Garden, they plant trees,
tomatoes, and peppers, and different things, and they
donate the produce to those who are needy
in the community.
The Quran, the clear Quran translation which will
be used,
in classes and it will be used by
the youth and it will be used for
dawah. This is a project that was done
by people from the community, mostly youth. So
we sat together, we started the Quran together
like in tafsir
and we chose the best translation for the
ayat and this is something inshallah I hope
that will be of benefit to this community
and Muslims,
all over the world inshallah.
Also the the Quran for kids is coming
which will be used by the children in
the community to be able to understand and
memorize the Quran, and the translation was edited
by children from the summer school in this
mission. So this is also another example of
something great that was done in the community.
I've given training to some brothers and sisters
in the community to be able to do
dawah,
to also to welcome tours and give tours
in the masjid, to give footbas. Some of
them have given footba here, they have given
footbas in the air flows. And also I've
certified
and given Ijazah to some brothers in the
community,
some are Arab, some are non Arab, to
be able to teach the Quran professionally, recite
the Quran professionally,
the way it was recited by the Prophet
and the Sahaba and they are able to
lead the salah as well. So these are
some of the things that were going on
in the community so if you don't come
very often you probably haven't noticed
these things,
and so on and so forth. There there
were also another service that most people are
not familiar with that was going on in
the last, at least, year and a half,
the matching service. I started the matching service
in the machine.
So a lot of youth, they came forward
and they said they wanted to get married,
but they don't knew,
know how to do to go about it.
So I introduced some of the good brothers
and sisters in the community, and some of
them have already gotten married, the people I
introduced to each other. Often time would meet
in the library
or in my backyard and fix some tea
for them. So again, this is something that
a lot of people were not familiar with
and as I said Alhamdulillah, some of the
youth introduced to each other, they are married
now and they are happy.
So as I said when I decided
to move to another city,
so I received different reactions from the people.
As you know, no Imam is expected to
stay in a community for 10 or 15
minutes. This is the reality. Right? So you
don't expect the Imam to stay forever and
so on and so forth. Right? There are
2 different types of reactions from people. So
there are people who react in a positive
way and there are people who react in
a negative way. So we're gonna go through
the different reactions and see the the the
best way of reacting to something like this.
Right?
The most difficult situation for the Muslim community
from an Islamic history
that the leader departed was in the, the
story of the prophet in Nasira when the
prophet
passed away. The sahaba were devastated.
But if you read through history,
life goes on. Right? So the prophet
went to a better place.
Every one of us is gonna move to
a better place in Shaula Athilah. So again,
in this world, we're not here to stay,
we're just visiting. Right? So after some point,
we're gonna start leaving 1 by 1. Either
you're gonna move to a different place or
we're gonna leave this world and go somewhere
else. But life goes on, right?
So these are the 2 different reactions. Now
we're gonna start with the, you know,
negative reaction.
Some told me that once I leave they're
not coming to the Masjid again to pray.
And this is not the right thing to
do. And I'm telling you right now if
you came to the masjid for salah because
of me, don't come again. But if you
came for Allah you
should come regardless if the Imam is Mustafa
or Hassan, right? It doesn't really matter, You're
coming to pray for Allah
Some even told me,
once you go, I'm not going to donate
money again to the masjid. So again, if
you donated money for me, don't donate.
But if you donate it for Allah, then
you should do it all the time regardless
of who the imam is. Mustafa, Hassan Ibrahim.
It doesn't really matter. Right?
Some even told me one person told me
suggested that we should even sue the community,
take them to court for psychological damage.
And I told him to the best of
my knowledge, I'm not psychologically damaged. I'm okay.
I'm fine. I'm still smiling and happy, you
know. I'm there's not no wrong done. Right?
Yes. In any community you work for or
any community you live in, there will always
be differences in the community, disagreements between the
imam and the board. Wherever you go wherever
you go, in the Muslim world, in Canada,
in Europe, in America, it's always the same
because people come from different backgrounds
and people have different opinions
and they have different opinions on different things.
So you don't expect they don't want to
agree on the same thing. Right? You disagree
all the time with your wife, but you
still have 10 kids together. Right? So life
goes on despite our differences we should celebrate
celebrate these differences
and the diversity we have in the community.
But Alhamdulillah I have not been abused, nothing
wrong was done to me, the whole thing
was
difference of opinion here and there. Alhamdulillah.
So we should not react in a negative
way. We should be positive and we should
be active.
Now, how do we look at the whole
thing and how we move forward from there?
Number 1, we have to
look
to keep an eye on the future when
we think about things. The most important thing
for us now is to be united
as a community.
If you look at the different communities, the
Ukrainian community, the Italians,
the Jews, the Chinese,
the the only reason why they are surviving
in North America and Europe and why they
are successful
financially and and and so on and so
forth and socially and community wise and so
on and so forth is because they are
united.
This is a minority technique. If you are
a minority in any society, you have to
be united together. This is survival technique. This
is the only way we will survive. This
is the only way we will be successful
as a community in the future. You have
to be united.
You have to start coming more often to
the Masjid because some of the people who
spoke to me, they're crying because, you know,
I'm leaving.
I don't remember seeing them in the Masjid
that much. Right? They come like a few
times a year, but when I was here,
you're not coming to the prayer, now you're
crying, right? So you should start coming more
often to the masjid, you should participate in
the events, volunteer
but if you are out of touch you
cannot help.
There are a lot of youth
in the community
and I've seen comments on Facebook, they're posting
things and the fire breathers and so on
and so forth.
But again, you cannot just keep talking on
Facebook because most
likely
your voice will will not be heard. Right?
You'll not your voice will not be heard
on Facebook. What we need is your participation
in the community.
If you think you can contribute something,
if you think you can help take the
community to the next level,
then you should participate in the masjid, join
a volunteering group in the masjid or even
run for elections. Right? And this is something
I was surprised to see when we had
the last
elections 2 years ago.
Because I remember from my experience in Samad
al Rasali that used to serve at as
an imam,
the elections day was like world war 2.
People were fighting and people were taking sides
and
chairs were flying and weapons of mass destruction.
People were, you know, after all these positions
in the masjid to become the president or
the secretary
or whatever.
But I came here and no one is
willing to run for any office. No one
wanted to participate.
So how can you serve the community and
how can you take it to the next
level and how can we improve and move
forward as a community if you're not willing
to participate?
So we need your feedback as a community.
Talk to the imam, talk to the board.
This is how we can improve things and
and this is how we can be positive
and this is how we can stay united
as a community
and this is how we can improve in
this area. Yes, we need,
an investment community, a committee in the masjid
to buy property,
to to be
financially stable as a community and we don't
have to depend on,
donations all the time. We have to have,
for example, a an investment plan for the
future. We need to buy a community center,
we need to buy the school for the
Masjid. This is something we can do together.
As you know, many years back,
Alhamdulillah because of a generous brother Antakam Adar
and Allah
working we have this community
center. I have been to other places where
they have maybe more people than we have
here and they don't have a community center
and they don't have a school, they don't
have a masjid. Why? Because here we have
people who care.
Uncle Hamadani did his best many years back.
So now we need you to do your
best, everyone, so we can buy the school
and the community center. Right? So this is
another way we can be positive and this
is another way we can move forward as
a community. We ask the Lord Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to give us the best in this
life and the best in the life to
come and tell Allah.
So as I said, we have a lot
of youth in the community.
Some of them participate,
they volunteer, and they come and they help.
But many are not taking part in anything
in the community. Right? So we need to
be positive and they need to get involved.
So I hope inshallah in the future we'll
have more people on the board for the
youth. We have some, but
I mean I've seen in some other communities,
you know, they're influential,
physicians in the Masjidiah Young run by youth,
right? Because they are the majority of our
community, the youth, people who are 30 or
below. Right? So they need to they need
to get involved in the decision making in
the Masjid. Right? Because they cannot be represented
by people who are my age or people
who are older so they have to speak
for themselves,
right?
So we don't need your voices, we need
your votes in the elections. So you have
to be a member and if you are
a good candidate, you think you're qualified to
run the community or help in any way
you should come forward and you should help.
Right?
As I said, Alhamdulillah, this is a very
good community but there are some
certain things that we need to work on.
I've been doing a lot of counseling sessions
and there are some issues in the community
that most people are not familiar with, but
they always come to my office. And I
mentioned some of them in some of the
filters.
Marriage issues.
There are so many marriage issues in the
community and most of the time people have
problems in the marriage because of two reasons.
Number 1, because their priorities are messed up
and number 2, because people always demand their
rights and they ignore their obligations.
And why we have these two problems? Because
people are not practicing,
they don't know a whole lot about their
faith, so they don't know what they need
to do. Right?
So this is why we have this issue.
If people know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
people have hayat, they have respect for Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
they should have respect for their spouse. Right?
And fulfill fulfill their obligations before they ask
for their rights. Right? So once this issue
is taken care of, Alhamdulillah, a lot of
families will be happy and they'll be stable.
Otherwise, this is going to affect the children.
Right?
And the second most,
problematic issue that I faced, the youth.
Because usually, when the parents come here,
they need to work hard to establish
themselves, to buy a house or whatever. So
they work hard, and the the biggest loser
in this equation is the children because the
parents don't have time for them, they don't
teach them anything, they don't bring them to
the Rashid, they don't give them an Islamic
education
and later, when their kids are not practicing
or their kids are lost
to drugs or crime or whatever
or they leave Islam altogether,
now we start complaining.
And I've seen cases where kids are not
practicing or they they left their religion
or they decided to date and non muslim
and so on and so forth, and we
know that these things are not acceptable Islamically.
And parents here will come to me when
it is already too late, there's nothing I
can do. People think that, you know, I've
not been doing my job as a parent
for
20 years, 25 years and now my kids
is not on the salat al Mustaqim, I'm
gonna take him or her to the imam,
he's gonna hit them with the magic wand
and mashallah, they'll become
like an angel. Right? This is not possible.
Right? I can only guide, I can only
show you the way but I cannot walk
you down that path. You have to walk
it to yourself with your family and your
children.
There are also some individual issues like
and this happens in most of the Mas'aja
that happened to wasting I see a lot
of wasting.
Even with wudu
I go to the thing and I see
people making wudu at the
and the full blast the war coming down.
I see people answering their phone, right, and
the wah is running. You can't just turn
it off and answer the phone, you know.
Don't waste a lot of work. You see
the small bottle of oil that the, you
know, you drink? Small bottle of oil. The
prophet
used 2 thirds of that bottle for his
gudu
and 4 bottles for his gudu, full shower.
Right? And he said you cannot waste water
even if you are living by a river.
You're taking water from the river, you cannot
waste water even if you are taking your
water from the river.
Electricity
over the weekend, I've seen in many days
people just leave and
the the power is on the whole night.
There's lights here upstairs everywhere in washrooms everywhere.
Right?
And the pills have to be paid by
the end of the month. Right? Food in
Ramadan.
The people usually the people who stand in
the front of the line, they take lots
of food more than they can eat, and
the people who are at the back of
the line, they end up with nothing. And
the people are in the front, they take
the food, they can't finish it, they throw
it in the garbage, and the people are
at the back of the line, they don't
have anything to eat. Right?
Mostly children and so on and so forth.
But also we have to keep all these
things in in mind. Right?
The best way to achieve all the things
that I mentioned is education.
Right?
So I'm I keep telling you that you
have to give an Islamic education to your
children. If you cannot afford
the Islamic school, then at least the summer
school or the weekend school, so they they
balance. Right? So as I always say, you
only expect your children to study 5 days
a week at the hands of a Mahlub
Alim Al Adameen
and you expect your children to be like
Aayim, Abi Talib, and the great Sahaba, and
Uthman, and Right?
You are fooling yourself. Right? So you have
to give them an Islamic education. And you
have to talk to your kids, build their
trust with your kids.
Because many of us are not talking to
our children, we're talking at them, but we're
not talking to them. We don't know what
they do at school.
Right? We don't know if they're suffering, someone
is bullying them, if they have a problem.
And when they reach puberty and they start
to, you know, grow into a man or
a woman and they have all these, you
know, psychological changes and they need someone to
talk to them, someone to embrace them, and
you're not there for them. Right? So always
keep these things in mind. So education,
do your best inshallah so we can buy
the Islamic school
and the community center.
And again, it is going to take every
one of us to contribute so we can
buy the community center at the school. It
doesn't matter how much the amount would be.
Always take a look at Lake Ontario. If
you're going to,
Toronto
or you're driving on the highway, just look
at Lake Ontario.
Lake Ontario did not come from the sky
all at once. It came drops,
a few drops at a time. And after
so many years, we have Lake Ontario. So
always keep this in mind, try to contribute
as much as you can. If you have
the time, try to volunteer.
If you have the money, try to donate.
If you have a beautiful voice,
do a man. If you have the knowledge,
try to teach, volunteer as a teacher at
the school. Right? And eventually, we ask Allah
to guide us our steps to what is
best and to get us sincerity in everything
we say and do, and we ask Allah
to guide us to what is best for
Islam and Muslims, and we ask Allah
to keep us united and positive and active,
and we ask Allah
to give a rasa to