Navaid Aziz – Cooperating In Goodness

			Unlock created so we can worship him that his creation noise creatures only him associate.
		

			as true believers, that's the thing we could have for he is the only one worthy of our praise we
know.
		

			Next up, we have a lecture from our beloved chef from Canada Schachner with Aziz. He hails from
Montreal in Quebec. And he's a man of many cultures and flavors. He completed an associate's degree
in commerce and social sciences, before heading to the illustrious University of Medina, where he
completed his degree in Sharia, specializing in fifth annual Solon
		

			upon returning to Canada, check NaVi join the speaker circuit, and travel the world lecturing and
teaching just as he's about to do for us today as well.
		

			He's also the founder of a website, Meyer spiritual fix.com, a modern day approach to spirituality.
		

			He serves the Muslim community as a Family and Youth counselor, and I had the pleasure of speaking
to him about this very briefly, and inshallah maybe he'll get the chance to share some of his
techniques and things with us throughout the conference. He's the editor of the recessed magazine in
the United States, and also the middle explorers magazine, which you've been hearing about today.
		

			If Shekinah Wade is not found, lecturing, he's probably updating his Facebook status. And I felt I
knew him very well before he even arrived in Australia because of that, or he's on the basketball
court and when you see him you understand why he can take brothers to school and the basketball
court. So without further ado, I'd like to invite check Naveed to address us on the issue of
cooperating in goodness.
		

			Alhamdulillah Nakamoto who honestly I know who won the stock photo when I was a villa Himanshu, Rory
and fusina woman sejati Amina mahila, who follow modela woman who further ha de la
		

			ilaha illallah wa de la sharika wa shadow, Mohammed Abu Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa early he was
Safi he was selling them at a Sleeman kathira ama but my dear brothers and sisters as salaam aleikum
wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			It is a great pleasure and honor to be amongst all of you tonight. And Alhamdulillah was a very long
journey, you know, to Melbourne, about 38 hours, so I had a lot of time to think. So I thought to
myself, you know, what do I actually know about Australia?
		

			And I came up with a couple of things. Number one on my list was that they like to use the word
mate.
		

			Number two, I knew that you guys had koalas, and you hired kangaroos. And that's where pretty much
the list ended. I knew nothing else about you guys. So like the next 30 minutes, 45 minutes, I'm
just sitting on the plane, I'm thinking like, there has to be something else that I know. And then I
remembered Crocodile Dundee.
		

			And he had this famous line, for those of you who you know, party during the 80s in the 90s. That's
not a knife. This is a knife. Well, this is not a knife. This is just my beard comb.
		

			And I was like, Oh, that's what the list ends. So now beginning our discussion today, I want to tell
you a famous story from our legacy as Muslims. And that is the story of the three kangaroos, the
white kangaroo, the black kangaroo, and the red kangaroo. And the story goes as follows that they
were living out in the wild. And from time to time, a lion would try to come and attack them. Yet
this line would be unsuccessful because the three kangaroos stuck together all the time.
		

			So over time, the lion built a strategy. He said, let me go to two of the kangaroos and see if
they'll sell out to the other kangaroo. So he went to the black kangaroo and to the red kangaroo and
said, Look, I'll make a deal with you. I will leave you two alone. I promise not to harm you not to
touch you. But just leave the white kangaroo to me. And that is what they decided to do. The two
kangaroos, the black and the red. They decided that as long as we're safe. Who cares about the white
kangaroo. The lion came, he ate the white kangaroo. Sometime comes by again. The lion gets hungry.
He comes up to the black kangaroo this time and he says I'm hungry again. I need to eat. I promise
		

			you. Let me help.
		

			Have the red kangaroo and you will be left on the heart. The black kangaroo thinks about it for a
while. And he says, you know, as long as I'm unharmed, who cares about the red kangaroo, the lion
comes, devours the red kangaroo. What happens later on, the lion gets hungry again. And this time
he's left with the black kangaroo alone. And I want you to think about this more to the kangaroo
with all of its fear. It's looking into the eyes of the lion. And what does the kangaroo say?
		

			In the O kill to Yama, okay lol kangaroo. And
		

			that, indeed I was eating the day that the white kangaroo was eaten, that the day I sold my own
brother out was the day that I sold myself out. Now the sad reality is that this is a story of
kangaroos and we're laughing over it. But in reality, this is the state of the Muslims today. Each
and every one of us is concerned with our own needs and own needs alone. We're not concerned about
our brothers. We're not concerned about our sisters. We're not concerned about the global Ummah as a
whole. We often talk about the concept of Islamic brotherhood and how important it is. And a lot of
the times we end up leaving those lectures thinking, you know, Brotherhood is so nice, it's so
		

			beautiful. Let's hold hands and be happy, you know, something like the Barney song. But that's not
what the point of Islamic Brotherhood is. Allah subhanho wa Taala created unity not as a goal within
of itself, but rather he created unity and brotherhood as a means of pleasing Allah subhanho wa
Taala as a means of productivity as a means of doing something for the religion of Allah subhana wa
tada and Allah subhana wa tada summons this whole message up in one part of an ayah the third eye of
certain ma ADA, where Allah subhana wa tada says, what
		

			will bury what taqwa wa wanwan if me 101 and cooperate with one another in righteousness, and do not
cooperate with one another invoice. So the point is not just cooperation. It's not just about
getting along, but rather it's about getting along for the sake of doing something good. that
pleases Allah subhanho wa Taala. So I want to enlighten you with the history of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, because you see that this is a reoccurring theme in the life of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, pre Prophethood and post Prophethood you'll see one of the
first covenants and agreements the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made was helpful Dune. This
		

			agreement this factor departments have a lot of annual cillum initiated with the Quraysh. It was
about protecting the rights of the week. It was about honoring the orphans, and he came to the
chorus and told them, let us unite and honor this pact that we will not let these weak people be
cheated in their businesses, and the Qureshi agreed. Now this was pre Prophethood. Once Prophethood
comes you'll see that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came up with many other pacts and
treaties from them was Banu coryza with bonagura and banana via the Jewish tribes of Medina. The
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made an agreement with them, that I will protect you, as long as
		

			you honor the borders of Medina, and you do not betray and the province of Allah and you send them
made this treaty. Then you look at the Treaty of Jose BIA with the Quraysh the people who are
persecuting the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions and the rest of the Muslims.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made treaties and pacts and cooperated with all of these
people, and they were non Muslim. Then why is it that while the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
was able to cooperate in righteousness with the non Muslims, that in our times today, amongst our
own brothers and sisters, we are unable to cooperate with one another. And this leads me to my next
		

			point of discussion, that what are some of the reasons that actually prevent us from cooperating
with one another? Reason number one, racism and we claim to be a united online Oh, my god knows no
colors. But in reality, racism is one of the biggest diseases that plagues our online. We think that
the Arabs are better than the non Arabs, and that the non Arabs are better than the Arabs and we
like to fight amongst ourselves. But if you look at the farewell What about the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, and how gentle without the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam clearly mentioned
that there is no virtue of an Arab over a non Arab, nor is there a virtue of a non Arab over an
		

			Arab, but rather Allah subhanho wa Taala looks at taqwa. And thus Allah subhanho wa Taala further
emphasizes this point in Sudan for gerat
		

			When Allah subhanho wa Taala says, in a kurama comb in the law he at Qualcomm, that indeed, the
noblest of you, is the one who has the most taqwa of Allah subhana wa Tada. Now let's bring it to
the Day of Judgment. Day of Judgment comes what is Allah subhana wa Taala looking at the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us in the law holla, young Pharaoh, Allah, Allah, Allah soracom
Wanaka, young Zorro, illa kulu become armonico, that Allah subhanho wa Taala will not look at your
physical appearances, nor the state of your bodies, but rather he will look at the state of your
hearts and the actions that you committed. And thus, the noblest amongst you, is the one who has the
		

			most righteous deeds, whether your era whether you're a Pakistani, whether you're Turkish, whether
you're in Malaysia, whether whatever ethnicity you are, you are just as noble in the sight of Allah
subhanho wa Taala, based upon your deeds, and not upon your language or your skin color. So one of
the first things we have to eradicate from this oma and facilitating cooperation amongst ourselves
is this ugly disease of racism. Number two, jealousy and fear. So you will see that there are a lot
of Muslim organizations. Some of them have similar goals, yet we're unable to cooperate with one
another. Why is that? It happens because we become fearful that perhaps they may take some of our
		

			risk, or we become jealous that while some heinola, how come their venue or their organization is so
much more popular than ours?
		

			Or we just lack in taqwa and this shape on end comes and plays with our hearts and our minds. But I
want to share a story with you that even Khaldoon mentions about the demise of Andalusia, the demise
of Spain, one of the greatest kingdoms that Islam has known in its history, he mentioned that one of
the key characteristics that led to the downfall of Spain was the marketplace. What happened in this
marketplace. He goes on to say that when the kingdom of Spain was healthy and prosperous, you would
walk into the marketplace and you would ask for something. And the vendors would tell you that why
don't you go to my brother, his product is better than mine. And maybe he'll even sell it to you for
		

			cheaper. And you would walk from vendor to vendor, and they're encouraging you to go to their fellow
brothers who are venting. And he says, as Spain began to demise and began to disintegrate and
deteriorate, what ended up happening was that the vendor started to cheat the people, they would not
give them good products, and they would only encourage their own products, they would say Come to
me, I am the best vendor, I have the cheapest prices and the best products. And when this happened,
their hearts were divided Allah subhana wa tada divided their bodies as well. And thus, if you look
at that small country of Spain, it was divided into something close to 50 states, because the
		

			Muslims could no longer cooperate with one another and get along. So when you look at this from a
holistic perspective, everyone has to fulfill the obligation of Dawa. Everyone has to fulfill the
obligation of cooperation. Just because your brother comes onto the same street as you does not mean
that Allah subhanho wa Taala will take away your risk and give it to him. But rather your risk was
destined 50,000 years before the creations of the heavens and the earth. And our last messenger
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that if you were to put your trust in Allah completely, he would
give you your risk. Just like he gives the risk to the bird that leaves its nest early in the
		

			morning, and comes back at night with its stomach for Allah subhanho wa Taala will provide for you
just put your trust in him. But what ends up happening is we start spreading rumors about other
people. We start backbiting we start exposing their sins, and hopes that people won't go to them,
but will rather come to us. But what we fail to realize is that the more we harm our brothers and
sisters, the more we actually are harming ourselves alone, and no benefit comes out of it. Number
three presumptions and lack of communication. Sometimes another organization will come and you will
think to yourself that they're coming on this area of mine or my territory, just to harm me. And in
		

			reality, they haven't even heard of you. So you're just assuming and presuming and not
communicating. If you actually took the effort to go out and speak to your fellow brothers and
sisters that are doing the same work as you, perhaps you may find a way to work together and spread
this beautiful religion of Allah subhanho wa Taala and help all of humanity
		

			Now these are just some of the reasons why cooperation doesn't take place. But how do we actually
get to a state where we can cooperate with one another? And this is actually a very interesting
subject. This is something that I like to study on my own. And this is how do you get people to say
yes to you? And I came up with like four techniques that I want to share with you. This is the
practical aspect of cooperation. How do you get people to cooperate with you, and here are four
techniques. Number one, is your physical appearance. You may not know this, but people make
judgments about you within the first four seconds. So the way that you walk, the way that you dress,
		

			the way that you smell and the way that you look, within the first four seconds, people are making a
judgement whether it's subconsciously or consciously, do they want to work with you? Do they want to
help you out or not? Do they like you or not? So in your physical appearance, you have to make sure
you're looking appeasing to the eye. You want to be someone that smiles and not someone that France
because people like a cheerful face, and not a face that France number two, people like to feel
special. If you look at one of the characteristics that undisturbed nomadic rhodiola one who
narrates about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he says that anytime someone would come to
		

			the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and give him Salaam, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam would turn his whole body around and speak to them, give them his undivided attention, making
them feel very special. And if you can do that, with the people that you're working with, with the
lights on that you will attain that cooperation, make them feel special, make them feel as if they
are very important to you. Now this is also one of the interesting virtues of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, his ability to make people feel as if they are the most beloved people to him. And
when I read this, I think to myself some heinola how amazing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
		

			was, Abdullah, Abdullah the Allahu anhu he came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam one day,
and he asked him Yara Sula, who is the most beloved of people to you. The prophets of Allah when he
was sent him responded, Ayesha. Now, Abdullah Abdullah seems a bit hurt at this time, because he was
hoping that his name would be first because that's how much love He felt from the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam. So he thinks to himself, let me give it another shot. You know, I must be number
two. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is asked again, who is yourself, I'm not talking about
the women. I'm not talking about your wives. But I'm telling you amongst the men, and the Prophet
		

			sallallahu wasallam says her father. And again, you know, the love nomina bless his heart sinking a
little bit, but he's like, that's Abu Bakar his father in law, you know, he can't say anything bad.
It's his best friend. Let's give it a shot again. He says you're a soula then who he says then Omar,
and you can like really feel our pain right now. And he's like, then who then he's like, man, and
then at that time, a bill now he says, Let me stop before humiliated and disgrace myself any
further. This was a special characteristic that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam had. And
believe me, brothers and sisters, if you're able to develop this vision of yourself, be an ally to
		

			Allah, you will be successful wherever you go. Make the people genuinely feel that you love them.
And you'll see that the people will cooperate with you, and anything that you want to do. Three,
this is what I call fear. And you'll see that in our times. This is an emotion that's played with
quite a bit you will see that the security laws in every country are based upon this concept of
fear. And people react to fear, when naturally they should be reacting to love. And here's an
interesting tidbit for you guys right now. This is how Allah subhanho wa Taala use emotions to
educate us about sins and good deeds. When you think about good deeds, our good deeds are based upon
		

			love of Allah subhanho wa Taala so the more you love Allah subhanho wa Taala the more good deeds you
will naturally do. And love actually takes a long time to build, it doesn't happen overnight.
Whereas fear, it happens in the instinct, it happens in the blink of an eye. And that is why you
will see when it comes to sin, Allah subhanho wa Taala affiliates with it, the Hellfire, that he
incites fear into you have the Hellfire so that you may give that sin up in the moment. But with
that journey of good deeds, it's a journey of a lifetime. It's not just something that you do once
and don't do again after, but rather your whole life is based upon love, which is worshipping Allah
		

			subhanho wa Taala. So now getting back to fear, you'll see that fear is such a powerful tool and
getting people to cooperate with you, but you want to use it in a good way. And here's an
interesting story that I found in my research about fear. It's the story of a 19 year old girl who
went to another city or to another country to study in university. She's a non Muslim girl, as
you'll come to see. You know, may Allah guide her if she actually exists. And her story is as
follows. That as she's studying in another university, she calls her parents up one day and she says
Dear mom and dad you know I need money can
		

			Please give me $2,000. And the pressure like, why do you need $2,000? She's like, I have to pay my
rent and have to pay some of my expenses. Can you please help me out? Her parents are like, Look,
get a job, go help yourself. And you know, you'll find a way out. So this was a lazy girl, you know,
your average teenager likes to procrastinate, bills are overdue, very bad situation. So what did she
decide to do? She says, I'm going to cut my parents off for four weeks, four weeks go by, she
doesn't call doesn't write any letters. They have no idea what's going on. They're trying to call
her She's not answering their calls. She writes them a letter four weeks later, she says Dear Mom,
		

			and Dad, I'm really sorry that I haven't been in touch. But there was a fire in my building. And it
jumped out of the building, and it got a concussion. And I went to the hospital. And I met this
amazing nurse, and we fell in love. And the next thing I know that I'm pregnant, and I've contracted
this disease, and before, you know, I give birth to my baby, I want to you know, get married to this
guy. But we tried to get our marriage contract done. But the city council refused, because of the
disease that I contracted. Now imagine if you're the parents, and it says, Please turn over. So
you're like, Okay, what's next? You know what's happening? So he turned over the page, and it says,
		

			Dear Mom and Dad, there was no fire. I didn't jump out, no concussion. I didn't need a man. I didn't
go to hospital. I'm not pregnant, no disease, nothing like that at all. However, I do need that
$2,000 can you please hook me up.
		

			And now the parents actually given to it, what happened? What changed? The concept of fear kicked
in, they're like, you know, $2,000, to make sure our daughter doesn't get a disease, she doesn't
fall in love, she doesn't get married or get pregnant, it's worth it. So they give us to her. Now
how to use this from an Islamic perspective. You don't use this as a manipulating factor. But think
about this concept of one of the greatest things that I feel we need in the western oma is higher
education for Muslims. I haven't looked into it too much in Australia. But I know in the rest of the
Western Muslim world, we don't have Muslim colleges, and we don't have Muslim universities. Usually
		

			it will end in high school, if you're lucky. few places have colleges, but higher education in terms
of undergraduate or masters or PhD, you don't find it in the Western world for Muslims. So how do
you entice another person using fear? You tell them, look at your child, you're going to send your
child from elementary school, to middle school, to high school to college amongst the Muslims? Are
you prepared to send them to a university amongst the non Muslims? And then you show them like a
clip of Family Guy where they're like partying really hard and getting drunk. And I just would have
instead showed if you don't sell them to Muslim universities, and they're like, call us you know
		

			that? How do we build a Muslim University in the Western world now. So that's one of the ways you
can entice fear and use it in a positive way to get people to do good deeds within it. And lastly,
the another tool that you can use as reciprocity, meaning that you give something you give them an
incentive, and you see how they react to it. And it's just human nature that if someone has done a
favor for you, they've done something good towards you, when you go and ask them for a favor. Now,
with a lighter, they'll be willing to reciprocate. They'll be willing to help you whatever it is.
And that is why you will see that even starting off with something as simple as a smile. It softens
		

			the hearts of the people. I want you to look at step one, Ben ommaya. He was one of the biggest
enemies of Islam during the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and when the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam opened up Mecca, here are the words of one being ommaya himself
veterinarians say who said, he said that DEP sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam was the most detested and
despicable people in my eyes. However, when the market opened, he gave me 100 cameras and asked him
out of solo lies there anymore. So he gave me another 100 cameras, and he asked him you're a
civilized there anymore. And he gave me another 100 cameras, till I became shy to ask for any more.
		

			And he went from becoming the most despicable and detested people in my eyes, to becoming the most
beloved, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam once the one when oma is legions and you know, Love
and Honor through giving gifts. And that is the power that he accepted Islam based upon the simple
concept, and you put this in the greater perspective, the Euro is worth much, much more than
anything in this dunya. So if you have to buy someone, a pan, buy them, you know, something nice
that they may cherish maybe some perfume or some chocolate, whatever it is soft in the hearts of the
people, and they'll be willing to cooperate with you with the lights on. Now, as you conclude this
		

			lecture, I want to discuss with you that what are the negative repercussions and consequences of not
cooperating with one another. Number one, we will be sinful in the sight of Allah subhanho wa Taala
		

			Because there is a principle in Islam that says that whatever Allah subhana wa Taala commands, it
necessitates that it becomes an obligation. And Allah commands us to cooperate with one another. So
if we do not cooperate with one another, then we become sinful in the sight of Allah subhanaw taala
for not fulfilling that commandment number two is that we suffer, and we don't get anywhere. So
we'll each start up our own projects, not helping one another, not cooperating with one another. And
we each start to reinvent the wheel. Yet when we could have built a car by now, but rather each
building wheels right now. So we end up suffering all together, you look at other minorities
		

			worldwide. And you will see that even though they've come to Western lines much, much after the
Muslims, they've been able to achieve a lot more. They've been able to build their own hospitals,
they've been able to build their own museums, they've been able to do a lot more. What was the key
distinction? They cooperated with one another. Whereas we still like to fight and bicker amongst
ourselves. So at the end of the day, when we do not cooperate with one another, we are the ones that
suffer and no one else suffers as well. And the last point is that our enemies get to take advantage
of us. United We are strong, cooperating with one another, we can do much more and defend ourselves
		

			much more. But the second we stand alone, that is when we become like that white kangaroo, that lion
comes in will devour us, and we will become helpless. Now why is it that we need to wait for large
calamities to happen for us to wake up? Our brothers and sisters need to be killed in Gaza, in Iraq
and everywhere else in the world before we start to wake up and return back to Allah subhanho wa
Taala and start to do good deeds. We should not be reactive but rather proactive and make initiative
amongst ourselves that before any further calamities happened to the Muslims worldwide, why don't we
start up initiatives so we can protect our Muslim brothers and sisters from those calamities taking
		

			place? Now you may not know but one of the speakers was actually prevented from coming to this
conference. And I thought to myself Subhanallah Where is our legal aid to fight his case? Where is
our PR representative to help this brother come to Australia and present what he wants to present.
And he's a beautiful brother, our brother Abu Toba. So now had we taken initiative before it is very
possible that we could have prevented this scenario. But the fact is, we like to react, and we end
up getting devoured likes the white kangaroo. So I want to conclude this lecture with Allahu taala.
With the following three action points, what can we do to start cooperating with one another number
		

			one is read. And I want to suggest three books for you. The first book I want to recommend is the
CFO of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam by Dr. Alia Salahi. It's a three volume book in
English. And it's available in Arabic as well, I think in two volumes. And it is a phenomenal book,
it derives all the lessons, all the cooperation that the professor said, I'm dealing with various
people. And you can benefit from that. So that's the first book. The next two books I want to
recommend are actually written by PhD doctors in psychology. The first book is called influence the
psychology of persuasion. And this is a book by Dr. Robert keel Donnie from Arizona University. And
		

			it was one of the first books that I read on influence. And it's a phenomenal book, it's actually
fun to read, and very beneficial. And the second book is actually one of the books I picked up for
that long right to Australia. It's called How to get people to say yes to you, in eight minutes. So
brothers, you know, if you're interested in proposing to a sister, you might want to read this book
before you go in for eight minutes in Sharla. And I was reading this book even today while I was in
the hotel, and it has some phenomenal techniques. So if you're interested in cooperating with other
people, this is how you get them to say yes, this is a book by Kevin Hogan, if I'm not mistaken, and
		

			it's called How to get people to say yes to you in less than eight minutes. Number two, is you need
to start getting involved in projects that we can talk about cooperation, and you're sitting at home
playing Xbox or playing PlayStation, or watching TV, but rather you need to start getting active and
start getting involved in projects in your community. Mashallah mercy machine is doing a lot of good
work. Just choose one of the projects that you like, get involved with it, and you'll notice
something, you will actually start to feel good about yourself. Because when you study psychology,
you will see that Allah Subhana, WA tada created something inside of ourselves that up and until
		

			we're not helping people, we're not going to feel happy. And I'm sure you've all felt this at one
time or another. Maybe you open the door for someone, maybe you help someone with a bag, maybe you
did something greater than that. But when you help someone, you naturally felt something good inside
of yourself some self gratification, and that is a gift from Allah that the more you
		

			help mankind and humanity, the more Allah subhanaw taala rewards you by feeling good about yourself.
So get involved in your community, get involved in the project and start cooperating with one
another. And the third thing that you can do and I'll conclude with this, is that I came to this
conference with a gift for each and every one of you been late. I actually didn't think that many
people, so I do have a limited amount, maybe something like 500 but you're gonna see me walking
around tomorrow and the day after coming, give me salaams Introduce yourself, tell me what you're
all about. And let's see how we can cooperate with one another and have a gift for you with the
		

			Knights honor the Sakuma, located on waka Dhawan and hamdulillah alameen wa sallahu wa sallam
Avantika Vienna Mohamad wa aalihi wa salatu salam wa salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			But his creation noise creatures only him associate none as a partner.
		

			as true believers that the same weekend for he is the only one worthy of our praise.
		

			Allah created as a weekend worship, but his creation noise creatures only him associate none as a
partner.