Mustafa Khattab – How Not to Give a Boring Talk 1
AI: Summary ©
The importance of talent and skill in a job is crucial to achieving success in any field. Any speaker who gives a talk is a cup, a beautiful cup, and a good speaker. The ability to pursue a desire for a career in math and science is crucial to achieving success in speaking and making an impact on people. The importance of using proper language in Islam is emphasized, including the deen of the school or the dean of the school. The importance of subject manner and the deen of the school are also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamu alaykumdulillah.
Assalamu
alaykumdulillah.
So,
today, as you know, we're gonna talk about,
how not to give a boring talk.
Some of us have to, stand and give
a talk, and some of us
are normally,
terrified. They have what they call stage fright.
They can't face the audience, and they can't
give a talk. But sometimes you have to
speak.
Okay? So I think we need the lights
on this side for the for the video
to
be clear.
We need this side.
So sometimes you have to give a talk,
sometimes you have to give a presentation if
you go to school, you go to work.
Sometimes I know in the Somali culture, if
there's a wedding, the father
has to stand up and give a little
talk, and the father of the lady has
also to stand up and give a talk,
and so on and so forth. So there
are these occasions.
Some people are born with it,
they can talk.
Like for example, in the case of sisters,
you know, they speak sooner than the brothers.
Right? When they're young. So this is a
scientific fact.
So some people are good at speaking,
some people are not.
Some people have the ability, but they don't
know how to talk.
So,
I remember
the story of one of the people who
used to sit in the front. He used
to dress very nice. He had a beard,
and Masha Allah used to dress with a
Kufi and everything. So he always sat in
the front in Jummah.
So one time, the Khatib was late. He
couldn't make it for Jumah. Oh. They looked
around,
all the people there, they didn't look like
they can't give a good talk.
So who did they look at for the
to give a talk? The guy who was
sitting in the front who looked like a
shave with a beard and so please go
and give a talk. It's a true story.
So the brother, he was terrified. He didn't
know what to say. He didn't prepare. He
was not ready. He never gave a talk,
a Khutba before, but they put him on
the spot, you have to give a talk
because you look like a shaykh.
So he went to the member,
and he forgot everything. I know a lot
of us, we come to Khutbas
every year. You listen to 52 Khutbas.
52
Jumas every year. So now if you attend
the Jumah for 30 years, you do the
math. So you see it all the time
and you think, oh, he's giving a talk,
he's telling us a story about Sahaba. What
is the big deal? Or he's leading salah.
What is what is a big deal? Everyone
can give a talk. So the brother stood
there on the member, and this is something
that happens when you stand there, you think
it it's an easy thing. But as soon
as you stand in the member and you
realize
you're standing, you are taking the place of
the Prophet
and all these people are sitting in front
of you, and this is the perception you
have.
They are gonna, you know, they are waiting
for me to make a mistake so they
can
mock lunch me after the they can crucify
me after the footpath. This is how you
think when you are there.
So the brother started to give a little
talk. He was doing the introduction, so he
said, Alhamdulillahi
khalakasamawati
wal Adafi sitati Ashwa. So this is what
he said. All praise is due to Allah
who created the heavens and the earth in
6 months.
Then he didn't know what to say. He
fell down.
So they walked him out, and after the
salah they prayed without him. So after salah
they said, the only thing you said was
wrong. You said, praise be to Allah who
created the heavens and the and the earth
in 6 months. What is this? It it
is supposed to be 6 days.
He said, Wallahi,
I wanted to say because I forgot everything,
I didn't know what to say. I wanted
to say, all praise is due to Allah
who created the heavens and the earth in
7
years, then I thought to myself, but this
is too much. I think 6 months is
is reasonable.
Then after I said it, I thought that
was wrong, then I fell down. So that
was one of the people.
Also,
some people can talk, like, I remember one
of the brothers, I think he's right here,
he's sitting somewhere.
We traveled together for 2 hours,
one way, then another 2 hours on the
way back, and he was telling us stories
about his childhood,
he was telling us stories about the Sahaba.
He's a very motivational speaker, 1 on 1.
The same night,
he called me because he had to go
and give a foot, but they called him.
They said, we don't have a speaker. You
have to come and give us a talk.
And he was terrified.
I don't know what to say, man. I
don't know what to tell him. What is
this? So I told him, you just tell
him tell them in the foot bath some
of the stories you told us in the
van on the way to Toronto. You see,
it's very easy. Okay? So the Prophet can
talk. He's gifted, but he didn't how he
didn't know how to do it.
So do you know the difference between a
talent and a skill?
What is the difference between the 2? Talent
you're born with? Yes. And a skill is
something you can do. Exactly.
So a a talent is something you are
born with. A skill is something you can
learn. Okay?
Some people are boring,
no matter how much they learn. So they
are not born with it.
They studied all the techniques of how to
give a fantastic talk, but they can't do
it because they are not prepared. They are
not talented.
Okay? So I remember,
there was a meeting for Imams.
It was actually a training, workshop for Imams
on how to deal with, troubled youth.
So that was also somewhere
near here. So went there, and the speaker
was not a Muslim.
Okay.
So he had a presentation like this, and
all he did was just reading his presentation.
I know this is his field,
he is, a specialist in this field, psychology,
whatever,
But he didn't know how to face the
public and talk. You see, he was not
preparing that prepared in that sense.
So,
10 minutes through the talk, he was just
reading the slides.
So the imam who was sitting next to
me and he said, this guy is so
boring.
Can we kidnap him?
And I said, maybe he's warming up. He's
still, you know, warming up. Give him another
5 minutes. InshaAllah, he will be on fire
and he will be knocking on the table.
You know what I'm talking about?
45 minutes throw the thing and he'll say,
you know, when you have a job of
youth in the community,
maybe you need to, give a call to,
this organization.
I said to the imam who was sitting
next to me, you know what? I think
we should actually kidnap him, because this guy
is no good.
The subject matter is very good, but he
was not a motivational speaker. He he puts
you to sleep literally, you know.
The people have the stage right.
So
there are some requirements
for you to be able to give a
talk
and or a Khutba.
2 different things. Giving a talk facing the
public,
facing the people and talking to them,
is one thing, and giving a Khutba is
is a totally different thing. We'll talk about
this in a minute, And maybe if you're
interested, you can come next week at 2
o'clock.
Then we'll assign you
a subject,
and you will talk about this subject for
just 5 minutes. So you will practice what
we learned today, and if you do that
next week, we'll give you a certificate that
you attended this, workshop.
There's one thing you need to put your
hand in your hand when you talk to
the people.
That these people love you,
they came to listen to you, they are
your brothers, your sisters, you always talk to
them when you go to Tim Hortons,
as long as you are not lying to
them. You are telling them the truth.
And I will tell you one of the
techniques
how to do this thing the right way,
if you put this thing in your head.
It's always in your head.
So a successful Khateel is someone who captures
people's attention and motivates them. What would make
people come and listen to you? Because they
either wanna learn something new, or they wanna
be reminded about something, or they want to
be motivated.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says in
the Hadith,
good speech,
eloquence is like magic.
You can't change people's hearts. You can't get
people to do things for you. And this
is what politicians do all the time. They
either motivate you through,
empty,
empty, what,
promises,
or they they scare the heck out of
you, so they get you to vote for
them. This is what they always do, do
to get you to vote.
So it's basically like magic.
What is the purpose of your talk? So
make sure before you stand up and give
a talk that there is something actually to
talk about and there is a reason to
talk. Otherwise, if no reason if there is
no reason to speak, then Khalaf, you don't
talk.
Also, what is what is it that you
are trying to achieve from your talk? Because
sometimes,
some people only,
stand up and just talk for, you know,
for no reason, just to to to to
say that I'm here, I can
talk, listen to me. Because they don't have
anything to do. So they just stand up
and make everyone miserable.
As we said before,
for you be to be able to be
a good speaker or to, succeed in any
field, you have to have 2 things in
you. Number 1, you have to have the
desire to do it. And number 2, you
have to have the ability to be able
to do something. Yeah. Say for example, I
like this example,
that some of us, especially those who come
from back home, from out of countries,
your parents will always force you after you
graduate high school
to either go to,
to the medical school to be a doctor
like your uncle,
or to go to the,
engineering school to be an engineer like your
cousin.
So they always force you. But if you
tell them, but I wanna be a teacher,
you are not my son. You are not
getting anything from my inheritance.
This is what they do. So
you have the ability because you're good at
math and science and all these things, but
they you don't have the desire. You wanna
study something else. Believe me, if they push
you, if they force you to go to
the medical school or engineering, you will fail,
because you don't like it.
Maybe you like something, but you're not good
at it. Say, for example, if someone like
me,
I wanna
be like I wanna be a basketballer.
I wanna play basketball.
It is good.
I have the desire, but I don't have
the ability. I'm too short for it. Maybe
there are short basketballers.
I don't know. But in soccer, it's not
a big deal, like Maradona.
You see? But
you have the desire but you don't you
don't have the ability.
I think the other day I was talking
to the sisters about the same topic, the
ability and desire, and I mentioned the example
of Al Abbas,
the uncle of the Prophet SAW. He came
to him and he said, You Rasool Allah,
amirmi. It's an authentic
Hadith. He said, You Rasool Allah, make me
a governor. I wanna lead people. I wanna
be a governor. So the Prophet SAW AHSALAW
said, You
It says, uncle,
you are weak. You don't have the administrative
qualities. You don't have the ability. Yes, you
have the desire. It is evident because you
came and you spoke to me, but you
don't have the ability.
You see? And this will be at his
grace on the day of judgment if you
become a governor and you're not qualified.
But if someone is qualified, fine, but you
are not qualified. So this is his uncle.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam understood
this, that he had the desire, but he
he didn't have the ability, so he said,
sorry. You can't do it.
Bye bye. Halas.
One of the good things, if you want
to be
a good speaker, if you are born with
it, or maybe if you are not born
with it, it is a skill you can
learn, it is something you can pick up,
you have to learn from the very best.
If you want to be a good speaker,
like, if you want to be a good
recital of the Quran, if you want to
be anything like a good soccer player, you
have to start by imitating someone who is
the best.
You see? If you imitate someone who is
the best, over time you will develop your
own technique,
and you will be an expert in the
field. But don't start from the scratch. Start
by imitating someone who is a good speaker.
Always listen to good speakers like, Siraj Wahaj,
there are so many excellent speakers. Norman Ali
Khan, all these good speakers.
Yousef Estes, there are many good ones. So
listen to them, watch their techniques, how they
talk, how they make an impact on the
people, and you can pick up these skills
from them.
Articulation, you will be you should be able
to,
to speak speak clearly.
Like, sometime I attend some of the talks,
but, by some of the brothers,
I'm not gonna mention names or anything.
Just because someone just joined the group
or the organization or this, jamab
the day before, this does not necessarily mean
they are ready to give a talk and
and make that one to the people. They
have to have 2 things. They have to
have a style and they have to have
the knowledge.
As speaker, basically, anyone who's giving you a
footba or a talk is basically like a
cup,
a beautiful cup.
So the cup
from the outside is the style itself.
The inside, the substance.
What is inside? So say for example, I'm
an excellent speaker,
but what I say is nonsense.
Nobody will listen to me. Or
I'm a boring speaker and the stuff I
give, it's all from the Quran and the
Sunnah. I'm not lying, I'm giving you authentic
knowledge, but I don't have a style.
So if you have one without the other,
you cannot succeed. You have to have both.
The style from the outside,
and what is inside has to be good.
Like, when you have a beautiful cup, if
you have
junk inside, you're not gonna drink it. If
you have fantastic juice inside, but the cup
is not clean from the outside, the style,
you're not gonna drink it. Okay? So both
have to be there. Was Al Nata
is a very,
significant figure in the history of, theology
of Islam.
He was an excellent speaker.
He had one problem.
He couldn't pronounce the Ra. He always says
Yeah.
Like Kabir, he would say Kabir.
He He couldn't pronounce it.
So his friends wanted to make fun of
him. So what they did, they,
they, spoke to the Khalifa,
and they made him invite Basal Al Naha
to give a talk in front of the
Khalifa, because they wanted to embarrass him. So
what he did, the talk is there on,
Google. You can Google it.
He spoke
for 3 hours. He didn't say a word
that has Allah in it.
3 hours.
So he thought and he rehearsed
and he all the words, not a single
Ra in it. And of course, the Khalifa
was so happy with him, he gave him
a price. He gave him a gift. Okay?
We're so happy with him.
The same happened with me. I was, in
Egypt one time. I used to work for
this, Quran,
TV station.
And,
so I used to, test
the candidates.
So if they were good, their tashweed was
good, their karah was good, we'll get them
to record some recitations for the station.
So how it worked was they choose some
verses to recite, so they pick a passage
to recite. Then the next question was, we
pick a passage for them.
So the guy recited,
Masha Allah, his voice was very beautiful.
Then
this this is the passage he chose. The
next one,
I told him, would you please recite from
Surah Al Fajr? So I said, Awudubillahi
minash shaytaanirajeem.
Wal Fajr
Walayalin
Ashhuah.
What? So actually he couldn't pronounce that up.
But he chose a passage that didn't have
Ara'ah, so we thought Majjalah.
So we told him, bye bye, Khalas. You
can't.
Articulation.
You have to speak clearly.
We know that you, Musa alaihis salam,
he was a prophet,
he was an excellent speaker, but he had
a problem with articulation.
Why?
Because as a child,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, fisuraat, tahu wa
ta'alaikum.
Anyone who saw Musa alaihi salaam loved him
innocently, even his enemy,
pharaoh, loved him. Okay?
But for some reason,
Musa alaihis salam didn't love the pharaoh. It
says in the books of the Tafasir, he
used to punch pharaoh in the face. He
always Yeah. He pulled his beard,
and the pharaoh used to scream
so much so, and he didn't do this
with anyone else. So he said, this kid
is something. He's doing this on purpose. So
I said, I'm gonna put him to the
test. So he put some fire in front
of Musa.
So the pharaoh said, if he touched the
fire,
then
he's not doing it on purpose.
But if he took the fire
and put it, like, if he if he
didn't touch the fire, then Khalas. But if
he took the fire, he, he he hold
the fire in his hand, then he is
he is, you know, he is just a
kid. So they put the fire in front
of Musa and he took a piece and
he put it in his mouth.
So that lift him with an impediment in
his speech. And this is why in Surah
Al Taha, Musa Alaihi Salam said,
in other Surahs he said,
brother my brother Harun is more eloquent than
me. He could talk better than me, so
send him with me to help me with
the public talking and all these things.
If you are not an outgoing person, you
still can practice
to become a good speaker and to be
able to face the audience and talk to
the people.
Start with a mirror.
Lock your bedroom from the inside
and stand in front of the mirror and
give a little talk for a minute.
And look yourself in the eye. Okay?
And make sure and the more you practice,
you will not stumble inshallah when you give
the talk. But make sure the reason I
said, make sure
you lock the door from the inside because
your brothers, your mom, your dad is gonna
open the door. He will see you standing
in front of the talk, the mirror and
talk and like, you know what?
He said,
my my son just lost his mind. My
son is crazy. Okay? Now make sure you
lock the door. Then if you master this,
you become a good speaker in front of
the mirror, you start with yourself,
then you go out.
Bring your brothers and sisters, like 2 of
them or one of them or your friends,
and give them a little talk about anything,
like a small story, hadith.
Sometimes
you have to bribe them so you can
get them to sit and listen to you
for a couple of minutes because you're such
a boring speaker. So maybe you can give
them, candy or something.
Yeah.
To get them to listen to you.
Okay?
Then
the circle will get bigger and bigger, and
over time you will gain the confidence to
face the audience. But it all begins with
yourself
as a speaker. You have to have the
self confidence.
As I said,
because you are not lying to the people.
Whether we're talking about, a scientific fact or
whether we're talking about the story from the
Quran or Hadith or the Sahaba or Al
Ubayt, you're telling the facts.
So why should you be embarrassed? Why should
you be shy to tell the truth?
Because there are so many people out there,
politicians
and actors and magicians,
they lie all the time, and they never
blink when they talk. Why would
you be embarrassed or shy when you are
saying that Allah says and the prophet says?
You shouldn't be shy because you are telling
the truth. Yeah. Does anyone here know the
difference between facts, the fact and the truth?
Is there a difference between the 2? The
difference between a fact and the truth.
Okay.
So I'll give you the difference and I'll
take the candy for myself.
The fact is a popular
idea that everyone believes.
And it doesn't matter if it's a truth
or not. And say for example,
everyone believes or at least most of the
people believe
that it was,
Lee Harvey Oswald
who shot president Kennedy dead in 1963.
This is the fact. This is what everybody
says and this is what the Encyclopedia
Britannica says.
So it has to be a fact. But
is this the truth?
Who knows?
Who knows? On the day of judgment,
you will know if it was the truth
or not. Nobody knows. We're living in this
world, you see all the,
all the conflicts and all the fightings in
different countries
and people are killing each other. So this
is
the fact. Who is right and who is
wrong? This is the truth.
We don't know this. The reason is we
don't have all the facts.
They let us know
only the things they they want us to
know, but that's it. Okay? So we don't
have all the facts. So this is the
difference between the facts and the truth.
I remember
one time
we chose one of the deciters
to recite,
few aya from, Surah Al Baqarah, I think.
That was back in 2004.
An excellent recital from Egypt. Masha'Allah. He knew
the tira'at, tira'at and everything.
But he had the, camera fright.
So he called me the night before the
recording
and he said, I can't do it. I'm
scared to death. I can't do it. I
can't sit in front of the camera. And
this is not the first time I saw
some malaykahs. Some people, mashallah, they can talk
for hours. As soon as you put them
in front of a camera.
My name is
Because of the camera, they are so scared.
Okay? They can't talk.
So I told him the thing about the
politicians and about the lies and all these
things. So So they are lying and they
never blink. They are not shy. And you
are saying the ayat of Allah you are
reciting Quran and you're shy. Wallahi, this is
a shame.
So I fired him up. The next morning
he came and he recorded and everybody was
happy.
Muawi Abnabi Sufia Radi Law.
Some Sahaba
were gifted speakers.
Some Sahaba were very gifted in speaking, like,
Abu Bakr Radhala Anhu was a gifted speaker,
Ali Radhala Anhu was a gifted speaker, the
prophet
before all of them was a gifted speaker.
Some of the Sahaba were not very,
were not very good at speaking or at
least when they first started.
They say that the, first talk that
Muhammad gave when he became the governor of
Iraq,
he prepared the footba. He made a lot
of rehearsing.
Then he stood in front of the people,
Bismillahir Rahbar Rahim, and he didn't know what
to say.
So he was trying to squeeze his brain.
Nothing came.
So he told him, you know what?
I prepared this footba, I've been rehearsing it
for a whole week, but now I don't
remember not a word. I don't remember anything.
But you want a governor who is a
doer, not a governor who is a talker.
Do you want someone who can talk or
do you want someone who can do things,
get the job done?
Okay. They said we need someone who can
get the job done. He said okay. Good.
Fair enough. Next time inshallah, I'll I'll make
sure that I I I give you a
nice talk.
Sometimes when you talk to the people, you
have to be careful,
when you use the language. And sometimes, a
lot of fataba and I've seen this.
Some of the brothers,
they are excellent speakers.
When they give Jummah futtas. Right?
In the Masjid, they give footbas about Ramadan,
about Taqwa, about all these things.
So one of these brothers was invited
at a school in, in Alberta
to speak about Islam. I think it was
the Islam Awareness Week.
So he started to give a talk and
he said,
Assalamu Alaikum,
my Iqwati and my aqwati.
Today inshallah
we're going to talk about Islam and iman
and hisan and the hadith of Jibril. And
you know in Islam the concept of ihsan
and the concept of iman is very important.
Alhamdulillah.
90% of the people were not Muslim. They
didn't know what he was talking about. Why?
Because he was using the Islamic terminology
in Arabic that nobody knew. So the people
were sitting like,
What? What is he talking about?
He's not using the right language. If you
say this in the masjid,
everybody knows what Taqwa is, what Islam is,
what iman is. And the deen let's talk
about the deen.
What is are we talking about the deen
of the
the the dean of the school or No.
The dean is something else.
So you have to watch
what you talk about. And the subject manner
itself has to be
relevant to the people. Yeah. Say for example,
it's a true story that happened in Egypt.
One of the speakers from Al Azhar, they
told him Insha'Allah, you are going,
this Jummah,
you are going to an organization to give
a talk.
Okay.
Because every week they sent them to a
completely different place where a masjid organization
to, to pray Juman to give a talk.
He didn't ask about his audience.
Okay. He said, inshallah, I'm gonna prepare a
nice talk. I gave it before and the
people in the mosque, they loved it. So
this audience must love my talk. So he
went there
and he gave a talk but the people
didn't like it. Why?
He gave a talk about lowering your gaze
and then institution where he gave the talk
was a place where they keep, blind people.
Oh my god. Yeah. But
well, it's a good topic, but
the wrong audience,
you know. But he didn't know. Before you
go and talk to someone, you have to
understand
who is your audience. Are they old, young,
men, women,
Muslim, non Muslim, educated, not educated. So you
have to keep these things in mind. Sometimes
I prepare a football
and when I see
a number of youth or a number of
children in the audience, I make sure I
say something funny
in the football so,
you know, I keep them awake
because
I care about my audience, I want them
to be awake during my talk.
Also,
the way you look.
It depends on on where you are going,
you have to look, you have to be
prepared
in the the way you look
because otherwise if you are underdressed
or overdressed. And you say you are going
to give a talk to some youth
about sports or about something. It's a casual
talk.
Why would you be dressed up in a
suit and tie and a bow or the
or if you're going to a group of
business people and you go in shorts
and you're close-up like this. No. You're underdressed.
There's this,
story that happened in Ethiopia
a long time ago in Habesha.
So one of the scholars was invited to
the palace of the the ruler or the
king.
So this scholar was a farmer. So he
worked the whole day right before Maghrib. He
went to the palace of the king. He
didn't. He got late. He didn't want to
be late. So he went straight to the
palace and his clothes were not clean enough.
So the guards didn't allow him in because
he didn't look like he was ready for
the party with the king.
So they pushed him out and they threw
him in the street. So he went home,
he put
his on his nicest clothes and he came
back.
They started to eat and he saw the
guards who threw him out.
When he took his food, he took it
and he threw it on his clothes and
he said eat eat.
So the guard said, what's wrong? He said,
I'm the same person who came like an
hour ago. You threw me in the street.
You only allowed me because I had nice
clothes on me. And he said,
in the Philippines,
you only respect the clothes. You don't respect
me. So this is why my clothes is
gonna eat my food because you don't respect
me, you respect the clothes. So this is
important the way you, you look.
Also
something something we need to avoid,
we'll give a talk, like, they, invite you
to give a presentation about anything or to
give a talk or to give a footba.
What we call fake humility.
Salaam alaydum brothers and sisters.
You know what? I'm not an expert in
Islam.
I never studied Islam formally.
I don't know. I'm not very, I'm not
an expert in the subject matter. I'm not
very specialized in Quran. I'm not specialized in
hadith. I never been to Al Aza because
my dad