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salatu salam ala rasulillah.
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I didn't share a title because this was not going to be a lecture it was going to be a rant.
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And it was going to be a rant about a frustration I've been feeling for a long time that I want to
share with you. And hopefully I want you to feel that feel it with me if you don't already. Okay.
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humble enough, humble hamdulillah. I've gotten a chance to get intimately close to a good number of
communities all over the country. And I've noticed a serious contradiction.
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You have a town like Houston, and you have Muslims spending,
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you know, more than almost three weeks studying Islam day and night, in one part of it. And not too
far from here, maybe within a one mile radius. You have Muslims doing things I can't say here.
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And it's the majority.
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You have massages where people are coming from for Juma prayer. And
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they have some serious, serious problems. Like when I say serious problems, I'm not just talking
about theological issues, which are serious. I'm not just talking about issues of ignorance in terms
of knowledge, that's serious. I'm talking about serious psychological problem, serious family
problems, drug, alcohol, you name it, they're coming to Friday prayer.
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And the one place that's supposed to give them their solutions, guess what?
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It's not.
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We're going across the country and soprano lights a gift of a law that we massage and have now
become a part of the American landscape.
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massages are incredibly we've got large multimillion dollar properties. I mean, we're huge, we're
huge. And so proud about how we were able to raise those funds, because usually, the mushrooms in
the world landscape, they are government funded projects, or their public projects. These are
privately funded institutions that are being built all over this country. And yet, these same
machines are not equipped, not nearly equipped, for the most part, to deal with some of the most
basic problems of the Muslim community.
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I'm going to share this problem with you at three levels. First of all, just talk about the youth.
Just to you.
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I would argue theoretically, that there are three kinds of youth, Muslim youth, three kinds of
Muslim youth, there's the you kind of us, you know what that means? They're somehow identified as
religious. They're attending religious programs, and they're learning it in whatever capacity
they're attending some sort of a halaqa they have some sort of a relationship with an Imam or two.
Right? They're watching videos on YouTube downloading mp3 is off the internet reading articles,
books, listen, that attend, you know,
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blogging on like, you know, religious websites, asking footwork questions, that sort of thing.
Religious you.
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On the other end of the spectrum, you have the messed up youth.
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Who are these guys, these guys are Muslim to, which you wouldn't know, you would not know. And the
things that you say a little while to the things that you pass. One is lack of water level. That's
nothing for them. That's just the beginning. They are up to some really bad stuff.
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Really bad. And it's so bad that if I sit and we've actually done this in Virginia, when I was
there, sit down with a couple of Imams, and you explain to them what the youth are doing. You can
take a couple of messed up youth that you can talk to and bring them over and you say why don't you
mister messed up youth? Tell Mr. Imam here? What you guys are up to?
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And the man refuses to believe it. Now, come on, that's no, that's impossible. Does that even exist?
Yep. that exists. It's a scary reality. That is the rest of us. And then there's the middle, you
know who they are. They used to be party animals. And they somehow accidentally stumbled upon an MSA
or accidentally clicked on a YouTube video.
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Or they one of their friends became religious or something. And so they're kinda sorta inclined,
maybe they'll pull it up on sometimes. Maybe they'll let it grow for a couple of days. Right? But
then they sometimes reflect and they get pulled here that they're sort of in the middle. So they're
good kids. They're good kids. They're not as bad as the rest of you, but they're in the middle. So
you got three kinds of use. You know, my theory is my theory is most of us were messed up.
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In law, Mashallah. Most of us were messed up.
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And then slowly, we started transitioning. And eventually we became what you could call religious
youth. A lot of us, okay, you became what you I'm not saying you're good people. I'm just giving a
social term, okay. I don't know the state of your mind and you don't know the state of mind.
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We became religious and when you become religious, you know what happens, the way they speak changes
the things they like and they dislike changes. The the friends, they keep company with naturally
changes because how do you make friends you make friends based on common social activities, right?
So you obviously you're not hitting up the movie theater not going to the club anymore. You're not
hanging out with your non Muslim friends who curse you know, all the time. So obviously you found
new friends at the masjid. You found friends among students of knowledge, etc. Because your culture
changed their culture went through a paradigm shift. And this change. You know, who started noticing
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this change in you, your family. We'll talk about that a little later. When you when a lot of you
went through this change, your family started noticing that you're going through a change for a lot
of you this is a reality. But then for others, you got cut off from your friends, you sort of slowly
got drifted away completely from your friends. Now tell me if I was to put percentages on this. What
percent of the youth do you think are religious? Just the one number out there.
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You're very generous.
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I give a fraction of a percent
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I'll give a fraction of a percent for religious you
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I say about 10 20% at the most would be the kind of sorta convention you write those you and then I
would say probably the vast majority of Muslim kids. Muslim you are messed up.
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They're entirely messed up. And they have little to no exposure to Islam. But you know, the gift of
a lot to us. The gift of a lot of us is even then most of us a good number of them show up for Juma
prayer.
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Even they show up to Juma prayer. Now,
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you know this this event has a tuition you have to make a sacrifice to come here. You have to take a
flight you have to book a hotel. He has to make arrangements to be here. If there is a program at
the machine flyers have to be passed out Facebook events have to be made emails have to be sent out.
People have to make phone calls encourage each other to show up how many flyers are sent out presume
offer.
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Any Facebook event presume offer coming this Friday, nothing.
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Nobody has a theme. I don't know if I'm coming this week. I don't know what
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kind of protein that makes you want to bang your head on the wall you still go.
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Allah created this institution for which it's a national convention of the Muslims every week
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was designed
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so that Muslims can stay in touch with their religion, no matter how messed up they get. There's
still something there. So now I want you to appreciate what a strategic role what a critical role
the hotbar plays in the life of a community.
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I'm giving you a series on reality. I'm giving you just realistic personal experience stories. Kid
shoots up some drugs in the parking lot of the mushroom in his car, sniffs it up, then comes to him
up here.
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He comes there. And he's listening to a football about some technicalities that were discussed in
the eighth century, or the 12th century. Or he hears names of 18 scholars that this guy, this young
guy who's a student of knowledge, he learned all this knowledge and he's got to regurgitate it
somewhere. So guess where he finds the opportunity to regurgitate his knowledge? At the member, he's
going to let people know how much he learned.
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Right? Does anybody in the audience care? Nope. And then you know what else to use? Does? It use
brings up and this some of you are not gonna like what I'm gonna say, but I'm gonna say it anyway,
because it hurts my feelings. Only because of that, and I'm seriously concerned. There's a, you
know, the religious youth are of different ideologies. The religious youth belong to different
ideologies. And because we're used, and before we were used, it was this gang versus that gang gang,
Lakers vs Knicks or whatever, back in the day, bulls versus whatever spurs. But after Islam after
you became religious guess what it became this school versus that school, this theological
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understanding versus the theological understanding this many taraweeh versus that many color with
this machine versus that machine, this amount versus this speaker versus that speaker? There was a
bad guy, he'll send you to * to almost have that guy, he'll send you the * Oh, man, did you
listen to that guy? Well, you're going to help you, okay, then I don't want to talk to you anymore.
We created this.
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Not based on knowledge, most of it. Most of it is based on just immature, immature rhetoric,
immature garbage. So we and we brought this where the tragedy is we brought this immature nonsense
to the member.
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We brought it to the member.
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So in essence, I mean, I went to business school. So I'm thinking of from a marketing business point
of view, okay. Here we are a fraction of a percent, debating and fighting each other,
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over territory over how much of the Muslims
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that fraction of that 1% while the rest of them can forget. Who cares? Who cares about them. I don't
even care. We have forgotten that. They
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exist, our debates, our blogs, our discourse is relevant to of small minority, you should be
grateful that you're even having that discussion. The vast majority of people are gone. They are out
there. I gave, you know, give the divine speech seminar, and it's open to Muslims and non Muslims.
So a few non Muslims have attended also.
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The one I gave in Tampa, Florida,
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this youth came up to me at the end. And the first time is just the beauty of social science. It's a
little bit technical, most of it's pretty straightforward. He came up to me at the end, he said, I
haven't been in the machine for six months. One of our friends told me to come because it's free
fruit food tonight. You don't even told me. And then he pulled me to the side. And he told me the
kind is 17 years old Muslim kid is into martial arts, you know, well built kind of guy. And he's
done things in his life that you wouldn't want to know about. He's already done them. So how do I
change myself? I'm addicted already. How do I get rid of this stuff? And why is he asking me I don't
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live there. I'm just coming to visit who should he be asking this question? Who should be there for
him?
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The youth group of the knowledgeable kid the US.
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You got what your job. You're the ambassador's of Islam. That's what you are. Now, the warning. The
warning label I present to you is what you learn at an advanced level, like even the lecture on
Bulava. What you learn at an intermediate advanced level is not there that you regurgitated to the
masses. That's a mistake. People The reason that you can't give that to people, if they were ready
for that they would have been here.
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They're not ready for that. They need something much more basic, you need to water it down. You need
to keep the message simple. You know we, on the one hand, our religion is so sophisticated. And it's
so intellectual and so deep. And you guys appreciate that you've been studying Dean. But on the
other hand, if you just start reading for iron, and you read what the messengers say to the people,
on another level, isn't it so simple? First of all, how to have the kavala Follow me?
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Simple to keeping it simple, fear the fire, nothing complicated, you can get into a discussion about
what are the features of the fire?
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Right, and you can write a 50 page thesis on the Hellfire or the features of paradise. But a farmer
doesn't need a thesis, all he needs to hear is man I want to go to Paradise. I don't want to go to
* fire. You keep it simple. What have we done, we've done this injustice to our own. Number one,
we've done this injustice to our own. Now here's a strategic plan of action brothers and sisters,
please listen to this carefully, inshallah. And make up your own strategy. This is just some things
that are rattling around in my mind.
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The religious youth, once they become religious, they create a certain kind of language and culture,
which automatically cuts themselves off from the not so religious youth, and especially cut
themselves off from who what's the third category? The most of you completely custom server, okay.
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who's supposed to reach them? On the one hand, we talk about that a lot to Islam,
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bringing new Muslims in, which is an obligation, on the other hand, our own are leaving by the
floodgates. They're becoming religious by the trickles, and they're leaving by the capacitors open
the gushing out. So you it's counterproductive to not be concerned with the loss of our own, but the
loss of our own. Now, how do we do this? How do we do this? First and foremost, don't expect the
people to come to you, you have to go to the people, you have to do that. You have to start thinking
like that. And you know where the people are? Let me tell you where the people are. They're not in
nice places. There are the shisha place.
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There or the pool place. They're playing at the ballpark where the guys use foul language all the
time. Right there are those places. I'm not saying you become one of them. But you know what, those
are the members of this oma. And when they said La Ilaha Illa Maya at any point in their life, they
become more beloved to me than what blood makes the connection that I'm formed with blood. This is
thicker than blood. We are concerned about them. We love them for the sake of Allah.
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We start thinking in terms of hon maruf in the honeymoon, could we start bashing in you know,
cursing the Muslims who sell alcohol or who own these haram businesses or that do haram things on
the internet, etc, etc. Did anybody start to think maybe I should try and save this person? What if
this person was your brother? What is the first one was your neighbor What is your best friend you
would just hate on them just like that. Right? We don't have love for this oma
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too easy to to click that pass judgment on them. We have to you know find a way to start pulling
them in slowly pulling them out. You can't do that until you treat people like human beings. You
can't do that. If you treat them like evildoers or just you know, this this you know this label
fast, simple.
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You know, deviant or whatever else, you know, there are a few dozen messed up, forget them. No, no,
no, no, no. These are the assets of the sama. Allah gave them the blessing of La ilaha illa Allah
because Allah sees something in them.
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And Allah gave us the whatever he gave us whatever concern he gave us, because he, he expects us to
do something with it. He expects something out of us. So this is the first thing I want to at least,
there should be a discussion in your circles. I can't give you the answers. I can least give you the
problem. In your own circles, there needs to be a discussion. How do we reach out to these youth?
How do we work with them? I'll give you a couple of interesting stories. There was a youth group I
won't mention where it was that you know, had messed up kids too, because they used to play
basketball. And they used to go out and hang out later on eat at the restaurant, nothing religious
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for a while. And the guy running the youth group was very religious.
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And I told him just run the group man. Just don't worry about teaching them anything. Just run the
one the thing, right, and the machine has a ball gym, a basketball gym, so they come in and they
play ball to play late at night. They're using filthy language in the mustard gym. If an uncle
season especially this young girl was gonna happen. Oh, forget about it.
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Yes, he's like, get out of here, you know? And don't come back. Hey, what can I do?
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Right? Now tell me this. This guy with tattoos all over his body rings in places you wouldn't want
playing basketball. You curse him out? Where's he gonna go?
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What's the next step? If he's not here? He's at the club.
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He's somewhere else at least easier. At least he'll he'll be around for an hour. Maybe he might even
join us for slot one day in a few weeks. Maybe. But somebody has to treat this person like what
first? A person a human being someone worth, you know, saving. Or at least they should be given the
message in a decent fashion that they deserve that much. Now, give you another example. Just what's
going on into massage from about two years ago. A guy totally drunk. I mean, this guy's drunk.
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Muslim guy walks into the machine during calavia can even stand straight.
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Yes, what happens next?
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Pick him up.
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Dude, he came to the machine. Does that tell you something?
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Does that tell you that he's trying to seek help? That's how he's trying to quit? Why would he bring
himself in the middle of humiliation? Why would he do that? He needs to help you. The only help you
provide was courage and yell and learn. Pick him up. This is what we do the Muslims imagine what we
do the non Muslims.
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This is a Muslim. Now give me give me a non Muslim story. You may have heard this one on the video
somewhere. True story again. So this guy is a Vietnamese guy is Muslim. And his coworker is an idol
worshipper. You know which Vietnamese have a lot of different idol worship, sort of religious
traditions. And he's one of I forget which one specifically. But the coworker the idolatrous
coworker says to his Muslim coworker, Hey, man, I want to come with you to your worship on Friday.
So the guy keeps pulling him off. No, no, no, I don't know. I don't think you're ready. But he keeps
insisting so he takes him to the machine.
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So we go to the machine.
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And they go to the machine and he says he looks around and everybody's speaking Riku and sudo. Then
PM, everybody's making some noise before Juma time. He says, Man, where's the statue?
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everybody's kind of doing this stuff. But I don't see any statue. He says no, no, we don't have a
statue. You can you can, you know, put an image to the master of the worlds is beyond images. And
we'll be putting a limit on him. This is so amazing. How do you pray to this God? This is like just
like these people are praying. So he sees people doing what?
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I get it.
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When done like that. Guess where he learned that from?
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From his own religion. Right? So this brother sees this from a distance.
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Versus in the spirit of I'm gonna build my roof and then he added one car, he gets up. It comes
over, grabs the guy by the shirt, drags him outside the machine, throws him out and says until you
learn to make this law according to the sooner don't you come back.
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We at the machine level are not ready to deal with the people that need our help. We're not ready.
What if a woman inappropriately dressed walks into the machine? What's going to happen? What if a
guy that's covered in tattoos? Like some MMA fighter or something? boxing them as elders members? Oh
my god, but y'all games early.
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On I will break loose. We're not ready to deal with people. What are we talking about? What are the
data centers you don't need to build a data center? They're already built. What are they?
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Who are the darlings of the masjid? The students of knowledge the youth they are the they are the
eyes in the ears of this oma they are the faculties
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This work, you.
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So you have to understand, number one, the critical role that you're in as far as the work of this
home is concerned, but I want to bring it closer to home. Remember I said when you turn turn a
religious leaf who starts noticing you're changing your family. Let's talk about that a little bit.
So your family starts noticing that you're not taking that thing off your head.
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Your family also started noticing that it's getting a little fuzzy out here.
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And your friends have the fuzzy stuff to
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your friends changed. You don't hang out with those other boys anymore. So your mom gets a little
concerned. She says I want you to be Muslim, but not Muslim, Muslim.
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This is not why you came to America.
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Right? You get concerned, you get concerned about the mother says to the daughter, the father says
to daughter who's going to marry you looking like that?
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You don't do this, my son and our family.
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Why don't you act like the rest of the family. But somehow you're embarrassing us. We can take you
to the wedding looking like that. We can take you here, the faces, you know people that faces. In
other words, what's happened is the people that are trying to hold on to any strand of the religion
have become the outcasts of the oma in their own home. They have become the outcast and you're the
weirdos where this is the weirdo convention right here. We are the outcasts of our own families. We
are the objects of ridicule. You get it you go to the IID gathering for most of you all Mallanna is
here.
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It should be the first law so is this how long to
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remember last year when used to be partying with us what happened? no religious style, okay, we get
it. We understand you become the object of ridicule and through you Islam. And when you hear Islam,
Islam being made fun of or Halloween Halloween being toyed around with at the end of a coffee table?
What happens to you, young Muslim girl?
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And when that happens to you, what do you do?
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Oh, you're pulling your culture, religion slam the door walkout? And then your parents come back to
you and say, Oh, so this is what the religion teaches you right? Talk to your parents like that.
Gotcha. Good.
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I got you on luck.
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Understand this. When you become serious about religion, be mentally prepared. Some of you are
blessed with you know, very good families 100 in love, but many of you have this trial. Or you know,
people who have this trial. You know, one of the worst things in our Deen, one of the worst things
in our Deen is so much as talking back to our parents. Right? Now, no, this No, this as a reality. I
see a lot of young faces here. So I say this. No, this, your father for the sons here. Your father
knows exactly what to say, to get under your skin and make it burn.
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He knows exactly what to say. And he knows that it burns too. And he says it anyway. You know why?
Because he hates you. Because he wants to see what you're going to do that.
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He wants to test your patience. And if you do snap, if you do flip out, he's gonna say, Aha, this is
what the religion teaches you.
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This is what the demands have been telling you. This is what I didn't commit.
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That's what's gonna happen.
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You come back, you come back with a B in your math in your calculus class, guess what's going to be
blamed your religion, your religion, you lose your job, guess what's going to be blamed. Religion by
who? Not Muslims, your family. This is because of that case of yours. This is because you're always
going to the mustard. That's why they probably fired you. This is why you failed. In other words,
all of your successes will be overlooked. And all of your failures will be attributed to
psychological war inside your home. It's a psychological battle inside your home. And your if you
want all of the good that you're trying to do, you're trying to attend classes, go to conferences in
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the company. If you listen to hours and hours of lectures, stay away from music, stay away from
movies favorite bad companies, keep your eyes low. Oh my god, there's so much to do. You want to
watch all of that, multiply that by zero talk back to your parents for a second.
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And we do we do if we can take it. It gets under our skin. It boils over and we say How dare you and
then we just that one time you snap done?
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There's a reason that Allah azza wa jal puts, you know the the the grant the gratefulness to them at
such a high regard. And you know, if your blood boils, if they do something wrong, I would think
Ibrahim Ali Salaam blood would boil a lot more because his dad makes idols. Talk about a bad leader.
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Right? He makes them How does he talk to him?
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Respect. Love. Yeah, Betty, my beloved father
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My boy, he's kicking them out of the house. He says, I made the offer you
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asked my master to forgive you. And he's getting kicked out of the house, not fine. I'm on the
sadhana, know
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that the discourse, it's a different discourse. We have to learn, we have to learn to grow a thick
skin. I'll tell you a personal story. You'll enjoy this story. My dad experimented with me. And my
mom taught me she realized what he's doing. And she said, Listen, you need to understand, learn how
to play the game. And then I was like, I've been a dummy for so long. I didn't know. You know, my
dad did. My dad loves to do this. He comes to me and says, I was listening to the car speaker, he's
so good.
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And he makes a lot of good points. And he just goes on and on and on top of the car guy, and you
know, how they have really good arguments and stuff. And I'm just, I'm cringing. And like, my face
is turning colors. And then my mom told me how to play the game. So the next time he came up to me
and said that I said, Yeah, I heard him. He's awesome. I mean, his arguments were unbelievable, but
that's how
00:26:12 -->
00:26:14
I ended that conversation right there.
00:26:16 -->
00:26:53
But the idea is, know that your parents will psychologically test you. You you think they don't
understand when they were changing your diapers, they understand you. They know what you're all
about. They've sized you up. They have. Don't underestimate them, though. They don't get it. They
don't understand my concerns about Islam. They do. Please, do relax. Learn to first develop the
family relations. If you are studying the deen and you're destroying family relations at the same
time. your priorities are somewhere they shouldn't be. You need to fix family ties. This is a
fundamental of our religion. It's a fundamental premise of our Deen. And now let me tell you what
00:26:53 -->
00:26:57
the last thing I want to share with you about my rant about how there's this dichotomy.
00:26:58 -->
00:27:06
You don't have to raise your hands I'm going to make I'm going to stereotype all of you anyway. I've
already stereotype you as the as the weirdos in your family.
00:27:07 -->
00:27:19
Why would I not put you in that family anyway? Why wouldn't you put you like in a more diverse
family? Or like mama Sharpies lineage? Where all your uncle's are for father for our own? Why do you
have a sister? That's so nasty?
00:27:21 -->
00:27:58
Why do you have a brother? That's Oh my God, I don't believe this guy. Why do you have cousins that
are just completely on a different planet? If they were not family, you would have never met them,
you would never even want to look at them. They're so different from you. And that to me this is my
deviant understanding is exactly the point. A lot has always been made us family with people. So we
can become Islam, Islam ambassadors to them, because nobody else was going to reach to them. Who was
going to reach to them? We were when you're giving when I'm giving a speech to you guys. You're
actually here to listen to me. Let me try giving the speech to my cousin.
00:27:59 -->
00:28:05
Let me try giving it to my uncle, which are giving it to my mother. how's it gonna go? Boy,
00:28:06 -->
00:28:07
that's going to be quite
00:28:08 -->
00:28:10
right. karate here. It's just you.
00:28:12 -->
00:28:19
Chef. His parents came in I was really honored. He came in he told me that you came to see me. I was
like he didn't even see you. Because it's just me.
00:28:21 -->
00:29:02
Right? families family, it's just family. So you will get overlooked you may have a lot of respect
you're running the holiday party or the MSA president you're the puppy you're this you're that
you're the Camila and the meat of the Avila you're, you know, you're the guy that went to own summit
from the community but you're nothing in the family did nothing. Get used to that. Make that he has
nothing. Make that nigga was nothing rather Learn, learn to take the hits. Learn to take the insults
and live with them. Pull people out slowly change their behavior towards you be the best to your
family. And that is the Tao of the sun. They don't need your speech. They're only the notes from
00:29:02 -->
00:29:38
this class. They only the notes from from from the entire summit. They don't your family doesn't
care for them. They don't you know what they need. They need you to go home without asking you to
vacuum the house for your parents. You do the groceries, you buy around some flowers, you do stuff
without even asking. Your dad always wants you to get better grades. You focus on that one class to
show you that he got those benefits. Not for the grades but for your father because making your
father happy will serve your deen in the end. Think long term, think long term start thinking about
the relationship with your family. I've noticed too often too often too often, young Muslims that
00:29:38 -->
00:30:00
are serious about religious learning are overlooking family obligations. They're overlooking family
obligations. And they say this is the bigger problem. And the second tier problem is that they're
becoming self righteous without realizing it. What does that mean? They see other Muslims that are
in the right. They see other Muslims that are in the Haram and they assume somehow that they are
what the best
00:30:00 -->
00:30:04
Or at least you're not doing that stuff and I wouldn't associate with those people where were you
two years ago?
00:30:05 -->
00:30:33
When you're not there? Who to who pulls you out? Right? who pulls you out America which I mentioned
this before on the part of the journey of this oma? Yeah, you have levena la haka, Ducati. When I
moved to LA in the moon taqwa was the first thing. You develop taqwa inside you that brought you to
this concern about not dying, unless you are what was your Muslim? And then what held you on to this
stuff? What was the next step? Why, because he moved
00:30:34 -->
00:30:34
on.
00:30:36 -->
00:30:48
But then when you hold on to this role, which is the book of Allah, what is the next instruction?
Well, that's a farmer who don't divide among yourself. What did we make as an easy observation about
religious youth? What happens when they get religious immediately?
00:30:50 -->
00:30:53
division is the first thing that's associated with them. That's
00:30:54 -->
00:31:11
what guru Nirmala How do you know what should be the public discourse? Here's the ayah. make mention
of the favor of Allah upon you. Then she will be positive, make make mention of the favor of a
lasagna is going to Adda and for Ella Fabien aku. Become
00:31:12 -->
00:31:21
Mati Juana, wear control for control Alaska for 40 million. Now. You all were at the very edge of
health.
00:31:22 -->
00:31:40
You just where you were, and kosaku minha when he rescued you from it, era Allah rescue you. So
Allah is the one who rescued you. So instead of looking down upon the next, find a way to rescue
them, you know, last story, I'll give you an I'm done in sha Allah, one of my heroes
00:31:41 -->
00:32:17
in the country, as far as that was concerned, and real, genuine concern, we should learn something
from this brother, his brother Eddie from the dean. So the show, he says corny things sometimes. And
that's part of his deal. You know, it's all good, though. But if you if you're hanging out with this
guy, he is a Darwin machine. This guy is incredible. He is absolutely incredible. He doesn't see Oh,
man. What's this guy gonna think? What's that guy gonna think I'm gonna talk to him about a song. He
will talk to everyone. I mean, we were I was walking around just walking down the street with him.
And there's this guy in a wheelchair. And we're just waiting. Just stand there waiting across the
00:32:17 -->
00:32:20
street. He turns over. Don't you think we should just worship one God.
00:32:22 -->
00:32:23
And the guys are here. Cool.
00:32:26 -->
00:32:40
Um, so people just worry about themselves. They don't worry about the one who created them. Don't
you think so? Because Yeah, I do. Have a five minute conversation. And he says, here's my number. I
want you to come over. By the way, this is fun. This is when you really worship one God.
00:32:42 -->
00:33:08
Who would have the courage to just start a conversation with a man this guy's gonna curse me out.
He's gonna stab me. You know, if you're in New York, right? What else might happen with the Panama?
He doesn't see, you know what might happen? He sees that he has a message to deliver genuine
concern. genuinely concerned. His his tenant is he's in a building. And his tenants are some of
these guys that are like, like, you know, they work out and stuff. And they're, they do that jujitsu
stuff.
00:33:10 -->
00:33:12
Right that Brazilian
00:33:13 -->
00:33:44
ninjas, right. So now listen, guys, a lot of non Muslim guys. A lot of them have become awesome,
too. So this one guy, he was I was staying with him at the apartment. And this one guy, one of his
tenants. He was about to go into his apartment, but his key got stuck. For You know, sometimes he
gets stuck split second. He says he goes, Hey, Mike, come here. I want to talk to you Come inside, I
got something for you. And he pulls him into the apartment. What I'm saying is, you know, you asked
me I told you about Islam that other day. It was Yeah. Well, here's a guy you can ask everything you
want. And put me on the spot.
00:33:46 -->
00:33:51
You know, this guy that the guy was talking to apparently you want it to be an MMA fighter.
00:33:52 -->
00:34:07
I'm like this, literally tattoos everywhere. And he wants to know about Islam, before passing
judgment on who he is. Just deliver the message. I know, brothers that were skinheads. They you
know, they got their tattoos in prison.
00:34:08 -->
00:34:10
They went to jail for killing black people.
00:34:11 -->
00:34:21
Or allegedly killing them or something, you know, violating their rights, etc. In the most
horrendous ways. And when they got released and took Islam, now he has an African American wife. It
could.
00:34:23 -->
00:35:00
Right so follow. Don't pass judgment. Don't pass judgment. Don't pass judgment. This is this is the
number one problem we're having. undermine that discourse. Make that discussion about the
ideological clash, make it irrelevant. There are bigger fish to fry. You got bigger problems.
There's a serious reality outside we have to face in our family among the youth of the Muslims and
then talk about the Muslims at large now so just give us a sense of perspective and concern for the
rest of this oma well as teach us how to use our knowledge wisely and to deliver the words of advice
and see how
00:35:00 -->
00:35:16
In the place that is appropriate, Eliza, we will put Baraka in our words because in the end our
words don't change people watching these people. So May Allah azza wa jal put Baraka in our words
and reward us for the efforts that we make to serve his Deen. So chronic alarm will be handed to
Allah, Allah Allah into a stockbroker into Villa, Salaam Alaikum.
00:35:23 -->
00:35:24
questions, questions?
00:35:26 -->
00:35:27
Comments, shoes throwing?
00:35:32 -->
00:35:33
institution for
00:35:34 -->
00:35:35
how we can read?
00:35:36 -->
00:35:37
Yes, everyone.
00:35:44 -->
00:35:47
Yeah, for our families, the institution now is become YouTube.
00:35:49 -->
00:35:54
You know, for the women in the house and stuff, they need to get hooked on some of the stuff that's
available now. And
00:35:56 -->
00:36:07
some of its really, really good. Some of it is really, really good. You have to start finding, you
know, there are some speakers that are academic, and there are other speakers that are just pure
entertainment value.
00:36:09 -->
00:36:43
Right. And the student of ours is I didn't learn anything from his speech. You didn't learn anything
from speech, but a lot of people started praying because they heard that speech. Right. So don't
judge a speaker just based on how many I had equal, how many I otic cetera, et cetera. It's also
about how they impact people psychologically. Right? Let me give you an example. I went to the, the
Ignite convention a couple of years ago, and I was listening to him and said, you know, he's like a
father figure to our community, may Allah preserve him and continue to give them Shiva. You know,
he's giving a speech. And he's, this be sometimes goes everywhere.
00:36:44 -->
00:37:01
Everywhere, from like, once upon a time, I had a dog to like, everywhere, and I was passing by a
truck, all kinds of stories. And at the end of it, a serious student of knowledge will say, I don't
know about a speech. But you know, the guy next to me was like, man, I gotta start praying. He
didn't say a word about prayer.
00:37:03 -->
00:37:30
But it has that impact. It has that impact. So different people need different things. So since you
know the, the temperament of your family members, you have to find the kinds of stuff that they that
might appeal to them. And you have to be a little bit more creative. in getting the message to them.
Your favorite speakers are not going to be their favorite speakers, for example, right? You have to
use a little more creativity. The other thing that some massages have done very successfully, is
they've they've made the massage in a place of halau social gathering.
00:37:32 -->
00:37:55
So one of the things that attracted me to the community that I moved to is the families get together
all the time and that so much that because the place to hang out and slowly religion comes into play
because you're at the mustard anyway. So now just you know, the women start networking with other
women that are in touch with the dean and it slowly starts, starts reeling the men. It doesn't have
nothing happens overnight, though. Nothing happens overnight. Yeah, I
00:37:56 -->
00:37:58
mentioned something about, you know, youth,
00:38:00 -->
00:38:11
to those with their parents and the parents are provoking them. Sometimes they snap. Yeah, they
snap. Father, Son relationship mother daughter relationship is somewhat ruined.
00:38:17 -->
00:38:25
When the child snaps are their parents who think there's tension, right? Okay. We'll get slapped on
the side of their feet. Don't move until they kick you off.
00:38:26 -->
00:38:28
Okay. beg them to forgive you.
00:38:30 -->
00:38:33
Kill your ego. When it comes to you kill your ego. Don't say there's tension. We don't talk anymore.
00:38:35 -->
00:39:15
He looks at me funny. That's your ego in the way. Get your ego out of the way. Be at their feet.
They love you. Your mother gave you birth. Your dad held you in his arms. There's love there. It's
your, your abruptness that caused that friction. But it's you turning back into that two year old
that will remove it immediately. Or overtime. But you have to start you have to tear away at it. You
have to crush your ego. They don't. Don't expect it from them. Don't expect them to give you an
inch. But you have to give miles and miles and miles understand this is a difficult journey. It
requires thinking but this is this is a kind of jihad. This is a kind of super long Kabuki had with
00:39:15 -->
00:39:26
the parents are in yada yada and patrika beam la sala kabhi pinata Hama, wa sallahu Macedonia motto,
don't obey them but accompany them at the same time.
00:39:28 -->
00:39:29
Then a sister inshallah Yeah.
00:39:32 -->
00:39:59
being judgmental, and it's very, very common this like consistent fight within yourself to try not
to be judgmental, not trying to judge people. But it's the same issue that you mentioned, like when
we try to act when we actually want to act as ambassadors of Islam. We talk about Islam, we're just
giving basically, it's the whole idea of the other person's reaction that gives you that idea. I
mean, if the person feels benefited any comments or something like that, it gives the first
impression that you get it because I did something
00:40:00 -->
00:40:20
So you do understand that being judgmental, even though without doubt is not, is not excusable is a
byproduct of the fact that you have gained some knowledge, which is something that did not happen,
you were able to. Yeah, when I say judgmental, I'm not saying you shouldn't be aware of who they are
normal, I understand.
00:40:27 -->
00:40:59
We do size them up, basically, you size people up, that's fine. But we don't judge what's in their
heart, we don't judge their potential. It's okay to size somebody up and say, Okay, this guy doesn't
know much. I better talk to him this way, this way, this way, this person seems to have this kind of
problem, you could you could, you know, this is part of the sealer. And this is part of having
insight. And this is kind of like, you know, knowing your audience, so part of that is passing some
sort of judgment. But I'm seeing not passing judgment on their character that this guy said his fate
is sealed. I mean, who How is he ever going to change? How is he ever going to come on? Seriously,
00:40:59 -->
00:41:27
this guy? No, don't don't pass that kind of judgment. But yeah, and in that way, you do have to be
cognizant of the age of the person, you're talking to the temperament, their mode of speech, you
have to take all these things into consideration before you speak. And that's exactly what we're
talking about an eloquence. You need to psychologically assess your audience before you speak to
them. You need to kind of have an understanding of where they're coming from, before you address
them. Right. Beside any question. So good. Yes, go ahead.
00:41:28 -->
00:41:29
Herman you? Yes.
00:41:50 -->
00:41:51
There are some things you can start doing.
00:42:00 -->
00:42:41
First of all, you need to have amazing youth groups, amazing youth groups. You need I mean, I love
Why am I really, I love these guys. I love any youth group. I don't mind. Mass youth. Why am MSA,
whatever, it's something, it's something for God's sake, you can whine about it and say, This is
their problem. This is their problem. This is it, man. It's something we don't have an endless
amount of resources. At least we got something. Right. But the thing that I loved about why am in
particular was they had guys that were in gangs coming to my meeting, and like, you know, playing
ball or whatever, first of all, every month, she had the biggest investment to me, for teenagers.
00:42:41 -->
00:43:18
ballcourt have a volleyball court. You better have it. You better have like, you know, ping pong
tables for the uncles really, and the fact that we're playing tells you we're getting uncles. Okay.
But you need a nice basketball court. You need a sisters lounge, a place where sisters can hang out.
You know, some of the Muslims lose their way most in suburban towns. big cities, Muslim population
is big. A lot of Muslims in college, a lot of Muslims in high school, you kind of sort of you know,
even though you're messed up, there's still places avenues you can find a social outlet. Like in
Houston, there's a lot of Muslim youth hanging out. Right? But in like Birmingham, Alabama,
00:43:19 -->
00:43:54
where are you going to go to hang out? Right, I hop? Are you gonna go? Right? So what do they do?
They did something really smart at the machine to do they made a sister's lounge, a brother's
lounge, like is this a place to chill? It's like a Starbucks inside the machine or something. It's
not a Starbucks don't pass bottle, okay. They're just hanging out there. They're doing homework.
They're, they're discussing their, their, you know, they're socializing at the sisters among
themselves. But there's among themselves, they found it and an acceptable outlet to get together.
And when they're there, the Adonis called me, so a lot to write. But we need to create these
00:43:54 -->
00:44:25
alternatives. And if they're not there, we need to produce them. And if you know, you don't have to
solve the problems of hundreds of 1000s of youth, you know, three or four kids that are messed up,
you need to start hanging out with them a little bit, maybe what one part of your Islamic work is
that you take them out to dinner every once a week. You don't discuss Islam with them for six
months, it's okay. Build a bond with them first, build a connection with them first, and maybe bring
up a hadith or two. Or maybe it's slipping a saliva machine. Right? It takes time you're dealing
with people you don't they're not, you know, they're not robots. You don't say, this is fun, okay,
00:44:25 -->
00:44:59
and you start praying doesn't work like that, you know, people take time and cheat in curbing their
behavior, but you have to build a bond with them first. And that requires a lot of patience. It
requires a lot of patience. When you think about the work of the Messenger of Allah solo. Think
about the work of no Halesowen. It's not like he's talking to a different audience for 950 years.
Who's he talking to? Same bunch, same bunch. You try giving power to somebody, they get annoyed with
you in 45 minutes, they get annoyed with you then you come back to the same guy and annoy him again,
and then the same guy and you do it for a week.
00:45:00 -->
00:45:30
Can you imagine trying to do that? What the attitude of that person would become towards you? Can
you just imagine the messengers are the humans around, go back to the same people over and over and
over and over? And who do they go back to first? Who was the messenger commanded to warn first, and
then she'll attack and a crabby, right one the closest of your family? That's who we are obliged to
warn. Those are the people that that we owe our Dharma to first first. So you know, develop that
concern in shallow time. There's a sister in the back and then I'll come to you. Yeah.
00:46:08 -->
00:46:13
Just Just to reel them in, we sort of water it down for them. Yeah, that's a real problem.
00:46:21 -->
00:46:54
Yeah, we should use at least my personal philosophy on it cuz I was in that position at one point to
the question. The other question is, you know, sometimes we try to bring the youth in and we try to
connect with them and stuff. But then they ask a pointed question, like, is hijab really fun? And
you think in your head, Michael, if I tell this girl is fall, then she might never come back? Right?
Or the brother if he says, his fault five times. Right? Then he might forget me and just go away.
Right? And you out of that fear? You don't share that with them? Well, we are asked, we speak the
truth. You can shy away from the truth. But the way you quote The truth is with taqwa.
00:46:55 -->
00:47:19
This is a lost methodology in the fraud. Right? When he doesn't just tell you to obey Him. What does
he wrap the heart of obedience with taqwa? Look at look at certain neasa of inheritance. Where did
they begin? Yeah, you hand us? It's a horrible look at it out of divorce, and social bacala. Right?
Well, what what keeps happening at the end of every iOS de la de la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
00:47:20 -->
00:47:28
Right? be fearful being all over LA. So this this idea of developing declined people? Why should you
want to get a job anyway?
00:47:29 -->
00:48:03
You know, just bring the ticket back to the root or every time don't just answer with a yes or no.
Make it an opportunity for advice. Right. That's what they really need. They need heartfelt,
sincerely felt advice. You know, a lot of times people that are disconnected from the religion want
to turn the religious discussion into what is allowed and what is haram. And that's it. And they
want to make that debate out of it. I don't think it's that bad. I don't think you know, and they
bring it to you from an ethical point of view, other points of view, when you get questions like
that, you need to redirect them in what direction, the fundamental core cause for the Muslim you're
00:48:03 -->
00:48:38
not calling them to Iran because they have some of that already. You're calling them to taqwa. ILA,
be cautious of Allah, you find a way of instilling that fear. And that all of Allah Shouldn't you
know, he's done so much for us. What should we do for him? What do you think, you know, you put it
in a psychological way, you don't necessarily try to intellectualize the issue, you try to put it
in, in a sort of a heartfelt kind of a way. It's very important, just how you speak to people.
Right? It because if you don't speak to them like that, it feels like you're trying to win an
argument. And you'll never win that way. Even if you're right, you lose. Even if you win the
00:48:38 -->
00:48:41
argument, you lose because they become antagonistic towards you.
00:48:49 -->
00:48:50
Or you deal with those uncles who are
00:48:54 -->
00:48:55
talking about politics.
00:48:58 -->
00:49:02
Okay, the uncles that are trying to poke you, you should be the best friends to them.
00:49:04 -->
00:49:09
They I know uncles. I should have done a PhD in uncle psychology. Okay.
00:49:11 -->
00:49:12
I know Uncle.
00:49:13 -->
00:49:49
Uncle spokeo you because they get a kick out of irking you. You become their friend. You'll stop
bothering. you initiate the discussion. You don't walk away from Hey, come here without coming. I
gotta ask you something. No, no, you go to them. You ask them you say I want to go get some Chai
after the slot. Chill Out with the elders. And they'll break the ice. You have to initiate that a
lot of times youth are allergic to the elders. It's a problem. It's weird. Right? I mean, have a
youth group but that doesn't mean you alienate yourself from the elders. Right. It's a big problem
in our community that the two are at odds. Sometimes they shouldn't be. It should be one cohesive
00:49:49 -->
00:49:52
whole, right? Yes, I've been holding off on
00:49:54 -->
00:49:57
this topic is way overdue. I really appreciate you addressing
00:49:59 -->
00:49:59
this
00:50:00 -->
00:50:05
Quick reminder myself is that the IDS where if you are using a lot of guiding of someone's bed in
the world.
00:50:06 -->
00:50:20
So whenever we get tired of doing dial on one person we don't see like there any progression going
on. Just remember that if you have, if you if you're used to guide someone, it's literally better
than everything may not be as fun as either theology or other subjects. very
00:50:25 -->
00:50:26
elaborate.
00:50:27 -->
00:50:32
Yeah. I mean, I think you did an excellent job doing so I think I should hand you the mic to repeat
that. Really?
00:50:33 -->
00:50:34
Yes, please.
00:50:41 -->
00:50:54
No, just saying there's a hadith that my friends and I when we were in the youth group, and we kind
of talked about how we do damage to these kids. And we say that we each pick one kid or one or two
kids, we try to focus on them. We don't try to go for like the home run and get like 30 kids
00:50:56 -->
00:51:02
and Hamidullah we've had a lot of success in one of our mantras when our main mottos is the Hadeeth
were so a lot tells us
00:51:03 -->
00:51:28
that if you are used by a lot to guide one person, it is literally better than everything in the
world, like the entire world and everything in it. And so you know, what I was saying was that it
might be you know, not as fun as coming to summit having two weeks of jam packed knowledge, all the
shoes and everything. But remember the goal like remember the end is that you're getting everything
you're getting something that's better than the world and everything in it inshallah so just like my
hair to check them on and sorry about that.
00:51:31 -->
00:52:10
locker says doorman ID. And one of the things that really gives me a lot of optimism for the future
is the amount of cooperation that we see for the first time between so many different drafts, and so
many different institutions. As you know, manetti is not actually a part per se of a novel. He
started in Vienna. And you all know dirty politics that happen every single message every single
community. One of the things that have happened to that and I'll tell you in all honesty, and most
of them have stayed clear of his politics, and anybody who is inshallah sincere for the Dawa, they
find this role model and we find it in them and start Norman under ourselves. As you know, we formed
00:52:10 -->
00:52:43
a corporation, we formed a very positive force for the oma he teaches what we don't teach. We teach
what he doesn't teach us what he doesn't teach. And it's something that comes with it everybody
benefits from and this isn't just the first and childhood there are other mergers as well. We're
talking about other groups, other organizations. And I think that this is it bodes well for the
future and hamdulillah it bodes well, that branch have dedicated a group of dedicated to us and
scholars and activists and, you know, we teachers and teachers of Arabic natto and bananas line
specialists in South Africa, I mean, hamdulillah Do you guys not see the complimentary nature of all
00:52:43 -->
00:53:15
of your instructors. I'm not a specialist in some fields. I'm a specialist in others. So bridges,
specialists and others to share what it is others are adding others with some of the fun and others
the fact that we all come together. Well lucky, I wish I had this opportunity when I was 17 1819.
And then I had gone to Medina, my level would have been something else when I went to Medina, and
he's an Arabic teacher so he can relate to this. I didn't even know about it from a mushroom. I
didn't know monsoon from our food from a zoom. Okay, I'm a student at Medina, I didn't even know the
difference between number one so
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I had no clue what the sciences were How I wish that I had this platform. So that if when I had gone
abroad, Allah knows where I would have been now. And the goal is you guys build on the shoulders of
other people like I built upon those who I studied with, right. That's the goal that we hope for
every generation to come and to build upon what we have to offer and it makes my heart melt to see
all of these instructors and duyst and activists all come together. And we can be totally Frank and
say there are absolutely no politics that we have to hide. And I'll tell you how we work with many
organizations are lots of politics with many organizations. You all know this with many messages,
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many groups Alhamdulillah shefali, Chaka Burgess to start with some who started Norman scheffers men
were actually genuinely friends. We actually call each other and we actually have a you know, good
time when we get together. That's something very rare in an Islamic organization, much less 234
multiple Islamic organizations coming together and will like this is a blessing from Allah and I
think that the future
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is bright and I am very optimistic about the future.
