Nadim Bashir – Summer Make It Or Break It
AI: Summary ©
The importance of spending time wisely during the summer is highlighted, as it is time for loss and family members to suffer. A schedule and plan in place for the summer are necessary, and balancing activities for children and ensuring healthy environments is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the need to ensure children have productive activities and access to technology, and to ensure children are not exposed to criminal activity. The importance of learning about Islam and providing resources for learning is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
I ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that just
as he has gathered us here today on
this day of jum'ah. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala gather us along with our families in
jatul firdos al-'aala,
in the companionship of Rasulullah, he sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, and his Sahaba, Aminya rubraalamin.
Brothers and sisters, imagine
giving an advice to your children. We do
this often.
But imagine
that you want to give a very important
advice.
An advice that you want them to give
all ears. You want them to pay
very special attention.
You will say some You will say something
to them such as, be careful or listen
to me very carefully.
Likewise, in the Quran,
Allah
gives us many advices.
He tells us to do things.
But there are certain places
and certain times
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to get
our attention.
He's telling us pay attention.
He does that in various ways. Sometimes he
will say,
Which is mentioned throughout the entire Quran. Sometimes
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he will use the
word, i'alamu.
Such as,
Likewise, there's another way that Allah
gets our attention
when it comes to very important matters,
and he swears upon these kind of things.
You open just 30,
and you will find so many times Allah
he swears upon something because he wants us
to pay very close attention to that matter.
One of the things that Allah
he swears upon
is time.
And not only does Allah
He swears upon time, he tells us the
situation, the overall situation,
and mankind.
He tells us,
That most people are in the state of
loss.
Why are they suffering a loss? Because
of the fact that they wasted their time.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam he says that there
are 2 blessings that many of us we
have.
Most people they wasted. Most people do not
value these two blessings. What are they?
Health,
and free time. The reality is that the
more we get older, the more we grow
older, the more our family grows, the more
responsibilities
we have, and the less time that we
have. Now the question is, why am I
mentioning about time, and the importance of spending
time wisely?
It's because the reality is that summer is
here again for all of us.
And many of our many of us were
thinking that how are we gonna spend our
our summer again? This is a time where
students
have finished their exams, whether it's school
I mean, high school, middle school, university,
students are off. This is a time that
you know, the teachers are happy, the parents
are crying at home, you know. What are
they gonna do in summer and so forth?
But brothers and sisters, the reality is that
I've said this before, I'm going to say
this again. When it comes to summer,
if we don't have a plan,
and we fail to plan, then we are
planning to fail. Simple as that.
We need to have a plan. We need
to understand
that this time of summer is a time
that I need to make sure that I
have a proper schedule in place for my
children.
Because summer is a time where either we
can make our children,
or we can break our children.
We can make sure that summer is a
time where they are going to be productive.
Where they can overcome their deficiencies.
There are certain things that we want to
focus on, on our children, but because throughout
the entire year, whether they're going to school
or they have other obligations,
we cannot focus on them. But summer is
an ideal time, brother and sisters, that we
focus on our family, and we focus on
our children.
Brothers and sisters, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he
says in the Quran,
Once again, Allah is trying to get our
attention. He says,
It's our obligation,
our responsibility.
Just like I understand,
my responsibility is to go out and provide
financially for my family, to protect my family.
Likewise, when it comes to our family and
their spirituality,
I need to ensure that they are on
the right path. That is my job. That
is our responsibility.
Because the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam also
says,
Each one of us, we're gonna be questioned
about the people that we are in charge
of. A father is gonna be questioned.
Every father is gonna be questioned about their
family. Every mother is gonna be questioned about
her family. So that is why, brothers and
sisters, let me be very clear about this.
Our job as parents
is not to sit there and please our
children. Because if it's about pleasing our children,
wallahi, you give them a gadget, you give
them wifi, you give them food in a
bathroom, wallahi, they're gonna be happy. That is
what's gonna make them happy. Our job as
parents is not to make them happy, but
is to protect them. To make wise decisions
for them. And the children may even say,
they may even get upset, but how many
of us over here? You tell your own
children.
We tell our own children
about the importance of life. And think about
it for a moment. Is this the way
you were raised?
All of us here who came, many of
us who Many of you who came here
to this country back in the fifties, in
the sixties, in the seventies, You thought You
think that life was easy? Your parents put
pressure on you. Your parents made decisions for
you that you may not even like at
that time, but subhanallah, now you look back
at them, and you say, and you appreciate
your parents. When parents are strict,
and they discipline
their children, I'm not saying that we keep
them in a bubble. There's a balance that
we need to strike.
There are some people who want to completely
isolate them from the community, and there are
some parents who want to give them complete
exposure to the community. Our deen is about
balance.
Allah has created us as a balanced ummah.
So we need to strike a balance when
it comes to these kind of matters. But
brother and sisters, it is not our job
to give our children whatever they want, but
it's our job as parents from the Quran,
from the sunnah of Rasulullah
to make good decisions for them, that is
going to be productive for them. Beneficial for
them in this dunya
and the. Brothers and sisters, there's few things
today that I want to share with you.
The things that we can focus on, especially
when it comes to summer and when it
comes to our children. The very first thing
I'm gonna say is, that when it comes
to activities,
we need to ensure As I said earlier,
that we need to ensure that we have
activities lined up for our children. We need
to be prepared for summer. They say in
English, an empty mine is a devil's workshop.
If you leave the kids,
and you don't have any plan, and they
have no activities to do, then you will
see that they will misuse their time, and
they will waste their entire summer. I said
this before, I'm gonna say it again also.
Even if our kids
spend 3 hours
Even if they spend their 3 hours of
their day
doing things that are not productive, that is
considered as not
productive in this dunya, not productive in the
akhirah,
then that comes out to be almost 24
hours in a week. Think about 6 days
out of 1 At one day in a
week, There's 7 days in a week. One
day you are wasting, and there is nothing
we're doing. And you put that in a
month, 4 days. Think about wasting 4 days
every single month. But subhanallah, this is where
we are. Because as parents, we have not
prepared for summer. Brothers and sisters, we need
to create a schedule for our kids. Keep
them occupied.
Keep them occupied.
We As I said earlier, we keep them
occupied. Of course we have to give them
some free time, but we need to keep
them occupied.
Because if you don't, then they're gonna end
up in other problems.
There was a parent, subhanAllah, one time he
came to me, and he said to me
that
I'm having troubles at home.
My son, he's not paying attention to his
studies. He's going out and hang out, hanging
out with his friends. He's always engaged with
things that are not productive.
He asked me The first thing he asked
me was, is there any du'a?
Because a lot of times See we What
we have this problem in understanding is, we
want a dua for every single thing. A
dua is important.
But think about the hadith of the Prophet
He says, 1st tie your camel, then put
your tawakkul in Allah
First, we have to do As parents,
we have to take the right steps. We
have to make the right decisions for them.
We create the necessary situation
in order for them to succeed.
Then we make a du'a after that.
First we do our part, then we get
Allah
help. So I told this parent that what
is your child's schedule like? And he was
a teenager, so I told the parent that,
you know what? Get him a job. He
got him a job, he's working. It's a
part time job. He comes after me He
comes to me after some time. He says
that, you know, he's a little busy now,
but he doesn't have enough time for his,
for his friends as before,
but still here and there he's he's still
going out with his friends whenever time wherever
the time he gets.
I told the parent, get him a second
job.
So he got him a second job.
Again, he has some free time.
I told the parent,
get him a 3rd job.
And he got him a 3rd job.
And then the parent came to me, he
says that
he has absolutely no time left. He wakes
up in the morning, he does all 3
jobs, he comes back home at night, and
he's asleep. Mission
accomplished.
The point is, brothers and sisters, in this
day and age, in this culture, in this
society that we are living in, if we
don't keep our kids occupied,
they'll get occupied with something else. Just to
give you some ideas that what we can,
what you can do with your children. There
are so many places where they have sports
and physical activity events. Make sure you take
your children over there. There are places where
there is community engagement. There is social services.
There are muslim organizations that are
organization,
our deen has taught us to support. Our
deen has taught us to feed people who
are hungry. It's There is no condition whether
they are Muslim or not Muslim. Our deen,
our religion has taught us to help people
who are in need. We can take our
children over there for community engagement, for social
matters, for social events. There are many, you
know, there are places in our I mean
there are people in our community who are
engaged with boy scout and girl scout, and
find out if they have any activities and
so forth. Let them go with them.
Also, this is a good time, brother and
sisters, especially when it
have
get them science tutoring. Get them some education
because they have free time. Let them use
this time to catch up wherever they are
suffering in their academia.
There are a lot of resources online. Wallahi,
there are a lot of resources online. If
you get on Youtube and you just try
to find children's activities
to do at home in summer, well lie,
there are plenty of videos. The problem is,
usually as parents, we might be so lazy
just to get up and get engaged. So
that is why the resources
are unlimited,
but we have to get up
and take action.
And finally, one more thing when it comes
to activities is and this is very, very
important.
Making sure
that our kids are always around the right
company.
A lot of times, we send our kids
to their friend's house, and we have no
idea what's happening at their friend's house. I'm
not saying that we have about
others, but it's our job to protect our
children.
We need to make sure that we know
whose family and whose family's house we are
sending our children to. What kind of a
What kind of friends is my Does my
son, does my daughter have? That's our responsibility
to look into. So this is the very
first thing is making sure that they always
remain active.
Number 2.
Is something very important that we do in
summer is making sure that we do family
activities.
Do things collectively.
Go out as a family. Come back together
as a family. Even if you're going out
simply even to the masjid,
come together as a family to the masjid.
Leave as a family. You listen to the
khatra, you listen to the halaqa,
discuss it on the way home. This is
what brings a family together when you are
conversing with each other, when you're talking to
each other, when you are engaging with each
other, and everyone is, you know, is talking
about this, this brings a family together. When
it comes to food, when it comes to
dinner, make sure that every single day, you
are having lunch or dinner with your children.
As a family, put aside all the gadgets,
put aside all the phones, and focus on
your family. Talk to each other about what
has happened that day. When there is spiritual
engagement,
anything that you can do spiritually, there's a
conference, there's a program. 1 of the blessings
that is 1 of the blessings that we
have living in Dallas is, there's always gonna
be some program
taking place in some somewhere
around the metroplex, where your kids can remain
active. Do not just stay at home. If
there's an opportunity that you can go and
be part of that program, take your kids
and be part of that program.
Also, if you take a trip and you
go somewhere as a vacation,
for a vacation as a family, as long
as it fits into your schedule, and it
fits into your budget, then go and Go
for a vacation also. Take the family somewhere.
But I must say one thing. I wanna
add one thing, especially when it comes to
vacation.
When you go out
as if for a vacation with your family,
remind
remind yourself the hadith of Rasulullah
Where
he says,
Wherever you go,
make sure that you are conscious of Allah
Often people go for a vacation,
and they take a vacation from their deen
also.
They take a vacation from their deen. All
the rules of deen are put on one
side. This is a vacation, Habibi. Okay? This
is a vacation, my brother, my sister. We're
gonna enjoy ourselves. We will cross all the
boundaries of Islam. Brothers and sisters,
we are a Muslim whether we are on
vacation or we are away from a vacation,
we are at home. Every single moment, we
What are we teaching our children? If I
go for a vacation with my family, and
I cross all the limits of my deen,
what am I teaching my children? That there
are times in our life where we can
abandon our deen, and there are times that
we will apply our deen. This is not
what our deen is. Our deen is every
single moment, I am the slave of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. So even if we're going
for a vacation, we make sure that we
observe the rules of a vacation, and we
always represent. At the end of the day,
we are a representation
of Islam.
Wherever we go, people should look at us
and say, This is what a Muslim is.
So this is the second thing when it
comes to,
when it comes to vacation or summer vacation,
family events, family activities.
The last thing,
which is very, very important and please
lend me your ears, brothers and sisters.
We have a serious problem right now when
it comes to our kids,
and especially
when it comes to their exposure
to social media.
I've said this before.
Please,
brothers and sisters,
you can You, you know, people come later
on. Something's going on with my child. Something's
wrong with my child. My son. My daughter.
Not realizing
that there's been a build up.
Your son,
your daughter
is acting wrong. Not because they decide overnight
to behave this way.
There's been a build up.
There's been days weeks months
of bad habits.
Wrong habits.
And now they have manifested into something that
is bigger.
Many of us,
parents,
to get the kids off of our chest,
we give them a computer.
We give them a gadget.
And they go and they sit in their
room, and there is absolutely
no supervision.
We are destroying our kids.
I have I've heard parents saying that I'm
such a great parent
because I have given access
to my children, to the entire world.
But listen to this.
When you believe that you have given your
children access to the entire world,
you have given
the entire world
access to your children.
When you give access,
unlimited,
unsupervised
access
to the internet.
You have no idea, brothers and sisters.
Because the reality is And I'm not saying
this in the wrong way. So please do
not take this the wrong way.
Many of the adults here, who are probably
not born and raised in this country,
you don't know how social media works.
You don't know where the kids, they go
online.
They have access to everything that includes haram.
And since you have no idea where they're
going,
they can say something to you that, you
know what? I did not go there. And
I have many parents who will come to
me and say, my son, my daughter,
they're like Jibril.
They will never ever do anything wrong.
And brothers and sisters, I have to remind
you
that no matter how pious or how righteous
you are,
when it comes to children,
they can go a different direction.
I'm not saying that this is a reflection
of you and your parenting skills.
But shaitan is also with our children.
Remind ourselves, Nuh alaihisam was a prophet.
Look at his son.
Yaqub alaihisam was a prophet.
His own son, their own son, his own
sons, they conspired against 1.
This is something that can happen.
We need to get this out of our
mind if we're thinking that I have raised
the most pious child. Yes, you may have
raised a good child, but remember that with
a child who is raised spiritually,
shaitan is going to be even heavier on
them.
Children will come to you and say, Well,
you don't trust me?
This is a very typical argument of theirs.
Well, you don't trust me? You think I'm
that bad?
No. I know that you're not that bad,
but I don't trust shaitan.
I don't trust shaitan. Because shaitan is, as
Allah says,
He is our enemy. He will try to
destroy us, and he will try to destroy
our children.
When you give access to your children and
they're sitting on social media, you have no
idea who they're talking to. I have met
people who have worked for the government.
Who have been working for the government
to to rescue.
To rescue children who have been abducted.
Children who were kidnapped.
And I asked them that what was the
very first step that they took to get
in touch with those child traffickers, and those
abductors, and they said that it was one
thing, it was social media.
Because we have no idea. There could be
a child There could be a person who's
involved in child trafficking.
There could be any kind of criminal on
the other end, and they will disguise themselves
as someone else, and they will get in
touch with your children, and they will get
in touch with your son, and your daughter,
and you have no idea who they are.
They may be thinking that they're talking to
someone righteous on the other side, or someone
good on the other side.
But brother and sister that it said, when
you give children
access to the world, you have given every
criminal also out there.
You have given
every criminal out there access to your children.
If you knew
that there is a person who's a criminal,
you will not want your child to be
even remotely close to that person,
but yet we are giving access to our
children, and then we feel proud about it.
This is what's mind boggling. We feel proud
about it. Brothers and sisters, parents, it is
your job to monitor.
Put a rule over their children. Once again,
as I said,
that when children come and they say, I
want my privacy. No, you don't get your
privacy.
Yes, there are certain times where you can
give them privacy.
But as a parent,
it's my job to protect my children.
And that means that if I need to
monitor
their social media activity, then I will monitor
their social media activity. And if I need
to monitor their computer, I will monitor their
computer. And that means that if they want
to use a computer, or they want to
use a gadget, then you sit in the
living room with all the parents, With the
with the parents or the adults, and you
use the You use it over there. That
is what's important. And we need to know
where our children are going online.
Brothers and sisters,
please understand that the world that we live
in is not a good place.
It's a dangerous world out there.
There are people that if they could, they
will devour and they will prey on your
children.
When your children have unlimited, unsupervised access, these
are the people who are sitting on their
other side. So please, when it comes to
your gadgets, when it comes to these kind
of things, make sure that we are very,
very careful of what we're doing and how
we're supervising our children, because this is one
of the biggest dangers of our time. Yes.
Social media is used for a lot of
good. But I'll be I'll be honest with
you when I say this,
that social media overall
is used for the wrong purpose.
You have no idea, wallahi, the things that
you see on social media. So let's protect
our children.
3 things I shared with you. Number 1
is making sure that their sched that you
have a schedule for them, they are they
remain active throughout summer. Number 2 is make
sure you plan off family activities. And number
3 is making sure when it comes to
gadgets, when it comes to any kind of
technology, equipment and so forth, make sure that
you you supervise your children
very, very well. I ask Allah
to protect us. May Allah
make our summer a productive one for us
and our children, and may Allah
give us the best in
this
Lastly, I'm gonna mention is that, as I
said this in the beginning, the is gonna
finish with this.
Make sure you please. Right now, if you
have not made a plan, you have not
made a schedule, sit down with your family
as early as today. Make a plan. Make
a schedule for your children.
If you fail to plan, then you are
planning to fail. And the last thing is,
if there's a dua that I can share
with you,
that is from from Surah Baqarah, Ibrahim alaihis
salam after he built the Kaaba with his
son, he made dua to Allah
This is a very beautiful du'a, Ibrahim alayhi
Islam, asking Allah
to keep them as Muslims and to keep
our upcoming generations steadfast upon our deen. Make
sure you memorize this dua. Make sure you
repeat this dua often. May Allah
protect our future generations.
Straighten lines, fill in the gaps.
Make
sure
Straighten lines from the gas. Please come inside.
There's,
some space still in the main hall.
Brothers in the back, 2 rooms, please make
sure that the rows are straight, the rows
are complete. Often the rows are incomplete.
Brothers in the, in the, multi purpose hall,
please come inside.
There is still some space in lobby area.
Please come inside.
A law who at your own,
If we can just have just, your attention
for a short period of time,
just for a short while. Inshallah, we have
a brother here.
How are you? Okay. Come on. Come this
way.
Also in, in connection with what I just
mentioned, the Khutba,
we have, as you all know that we
have summer school, here at EPIC.
There are still some spots open. So if
you're interested in, getting your children enrolled, please
do talk to someone at the front office.
So this is, brother Wasim. Right? Or John.
Brother John. But he he has requested that
he wants to be referred as Wasim. Right?
Is that what you said?
That's
what
my Muslim brothers call. Oh, that is what
his, that is keep it. That Muslim brothers.
That is what he's saying that this is
what his Muslim brothers are calling him.
Those Muslim brothers, why? Oh,
Okay. So
he's a very handsome man.
Okay. So, quickly,
when was the first time you learned about
Islam?
When I met my, brother, Jad, right here
when I was we've been friends for about,
like, a year now. And the more I
learned about Islam, I've learned that I've been
Muslim my whole life without knowing I'm
I'm Muslim.
And,
what is the most intriguing thing that you
have found about Islam?
How I play everything by ear and why
I look around, why I pay attention to
society in this entire world.
So I've learned and realized a lot when
it comes to Islam, how a lot of
it's
real, how
everyone is so,
consumed by freedom that I learned how too
much freedom is not too good for you.
So me being a very disciplined person, I've
learned a lot about life in regards of
Islam where
a lot of it's real when comes to
the realizations of life and everything around you.
Souhallah. So I mean,
so he's you know, one one thing by
the way about, brother Waseem is that he
comes from a Buddhist background. Right? Yes. And
so the one thing about our ad Din
is that it's a very balanced religion. There
are some religions that give complete freedom, and
there are a lot of religions
that restrict you from nearly everything in life.
Our deen is a very balanced deen, And
brother Waseem here is saying that he saw
this, that this is such a balanced religion,
that this is what has brought him closer
to Islam. So
I bear witness. I bear witness. There is
none. There is none. Worthy of worship. Worthy
of worship. But Allah. But Allah. And I
bear witness. And I bear witness. That Muhammad.
That Muhammad peace be upon him Peace be
upon him. Is his messenger. Is his messenger.
Brother Waseem,
congratulations.
You are now officially a Muslim.
And,
with this, all your sins that you have
done the past, any shortcomings,
they're all wiped away.
So you are without a doubt amongst all
of us, you are the purest of all
of us at this point right now. So,
congratulations. Take every single day as a journey
of Islam.
Do not overwhelm yourself. Grow every single day.
Take every day,
as a moment to learn. Okay? Now usually,
when people take their shahada, we have a
culture here that everyone wants to come and
give them a hug. Okay? Now, you see
all these people? You're ready to give everyone
a hug? Yes. Okay. You see all these
people?
You're ready to give everyone a hug? Yes.
Your rest? Okay.
So brother Wassim, inshallah, congratulate.
Welcome brother Wassim, into the fold of our
into fold of Islam and to our community.