Amir Abdel Malik – Taking Back Our Narrative

Nouman Ali Khan

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Channel: Nouman Ali Khan

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I will let him initiate on regime

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smilla rahmanir rahim

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Alhamdulillah

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Alhamdulillah mother who was the interval was that he was not favorable. Me to be Jaga

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ilaha illallah wa Shana, Mohammed Abu Ursula,

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Ursula who Bella houda Dino Hawk, yet who led Li Wanaka real mushrik on all praises due to Allah I praise him I seek His help I seek His guidance ask forgiveness. I believe in the law and do not disbelieve in him and I bear witness that there's none worthy of worship except Allah. And I bear witness that the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is a servant and His Messenger Allah centimeters Mohammed with Dino Huck with the joy of life, and this light

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shall prevail other ways of life, although the mushriks although those who associate partners with allow me hated my respected brothers and sisters assalamu aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

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Before I start, I'd like to say that we have

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some nice guests with us today and

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they make a point to take meticulous notes.

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Sometimes in my session, and sometimes in some of the other sessions sold to them. I'd like to say gently and politely

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that when the system said that MSE West is the bomb.

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This simply means that MSE West isn't good organization.

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Islam means peace.

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I'm sorry, I'm tired, I'm tired just like you. Okay?

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narrative,

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a message that tells the particulars of an act, or occurrence or course of events narrative, a message that tells the particulars of an act, or occurrence or course of events,

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consisting of or characterized by the telling of the story. One of the effects of oppression

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is that the oppressed, the Mustafa thean, loses control of their narrative,

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that as a result of being oppressed, they no longer have the power to tell their own story.

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And as a result,

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the oppressor those who are oppressing them,

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will tell

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their story about us about the oppressed.

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And it is a narrative that comprises their feelings, their concepts, and their opinions, you're going to be hearing me saying that a lot, feelings, concepts and opinions. And I'll tell you, the Arabic word that comes from and the ayah insha Allah, that it comes from.

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When the oppressor tells the narrative of the oppressed. There are primarily two goals of the narrative,

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to justify their behavior towards the oppressed, and to convince the oppressed, that they deserve this type of treatment. That is for their own good.

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And in their narrative,

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any among the oppressed, who showed this quality Eliza,

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not just strength and power, but self respect, honor and self esteem.

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Then according to the reciters of our narrative, those type of people must be subdued. They must be conquered, they must be broken.

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And then the oppressor will take their narrative about us and flood the media, with a narrative comprising his feelings, and concepts and opinions. And so it was very heartening for me to see that the theme of this conference, taking back our narrative

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on time, because anytime it'll press people proclaim that it's time to take back their narrative, then a real wake

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As occurring within them, that it appears that Allah subhanaw taala is bestowing upon them, this quality Eliza and self respect and honor is an expression of self determination and self rule, we will tell our own story.

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It is a people who are not giving into an inferiority complex, it is a people who are not giving into weakness, and for such a people weakness and inferiority is not an option. And so, we are happy and honored to be at such a conference in which a proclamation is made by some of the most active Muslim students in the country. And that statement is we will take back our narrative, we will tell our own story Alhamdulillah number two,

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light but

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it was also heartening to see the fist.

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As we were saying earlier, back when I was coming up in the 60s, the fist was the Black Power salute.

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It represented unity. It represented power. It represented strength. But it also represented a reclamation, a reclaiming of our narrative, our narrative. We said we demand the power to tell our own story. It's time to tell our own story because what we noticed is because when we weren't allowed to tell our own story, we were denied us. We were denied who we were, we couldn't be ourselves. You even see some of that today. You know, you have Justin Timberlake, right. And he's trying to be like us. Even the hamsters are allowed to be black, the hamster you can deal with this. Or you can deal with that.

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Man, the hamsters, Pahlavi blood. And so when they told our story, we lost ourselves. We lost who we were. Randall Robinson, an activist and founder of the trans Africa, he was giving a talk to these African African Caribbean students in Jamaica, in the Caribbean, not far from Haiti, not far from Haiti. And the reason why Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere is Uncle Sam has not forgiven Haiti for what it did in the 1800s, where slaves rose up, and not only took over a plantation, they took over our country, and whooped Napoleon's butt, and lavon. And then, as a result of weapon Napoleon's but Napoleon needed money, he needed cash. And so he sold the willies,

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the Louisiana Purchase to Uncle Sam for $15 million, because he needed money to fight those Haitians, who was whipping this behind? Thomas Jefferson wasn't feeling it. john adams wasn't feeling it. None of the founding fathers was feeling that they didn't like the fact that slaves took over a country. So as a result of that, they will never be forgiven. And as long as same as an empire, they will always be living in a state of degradation. But when during that Revolution, the leader of that revolution was named to salt low mature. Now here's Randall Robinson, asking these Jamaican children, how many of you have heard of to salt low, mature, and no one raised their hand,

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this is in the Caribbean, next door to Haiti, none of those children raise their hand. And then Randall Robinson, as how many of you here have heard of Snoop Dogg, and they all raise their hand.

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That's what happens when we do not control our narrative. That's what happens when we don't control our story, and who we are. And of course of events that make us who we are, we forget ourselves. And so what we said during that time, is that we will tell our own story. And our own story will be rooted in the feelings and the concepts and opinions of ourselves. That's how we will tell this story and so much so that when one of our major leaders was called an extremist, here's what he said, y'all know who it was, he says, but though I was initially disappointed at being characterized as an extremist, as I continue to think about the matter, I gradually gained a measure of

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satisfaction from the label.

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Who was that? It wasn't Malcolm, your motive? It was Martin.

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That's what happens when we don't control our narrative. We think that Malcolm was the militant one. And Martin was the

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Martin was as militant as Malcolm, but we don't control our narrative. And so it becomes increasingly important for us to

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tell our story.

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Here's who we are. Here's why we are, here's where we are, here is what we are about.

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Now, in telling this story, and telling our story, understand, this is serious business. Because in telling our story, we can't be afraid of those who criticize us. Because our stories are not going to have be are not going to be based on their concepts, not gonna be based on their feelings not gonna be based on their opinions. And if you remember what says yes, mean and shake you out. So we're talking about at the essence of what they were talking about was what with respect to manhood and womanhood was what we have our definitions, and they have theirs. When we tell our own story, our own story is based on our definitions, not theirs. And in all due respect, we don't care whether

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they accept our story or not. This Is Our Story, based on our definitions, based on our opinions, based on our feelings that come from put on and come from the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam, this is our story. So make no mistake, when we tell our story. telling our story also means that we are speaking truth to power, because that is this is our story. This is our narrative example.

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Before 911

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a narrative was clear with respect to recent events, when he talked about, you know, a course of events, right? In 1979, the Muslims in Iran kicked out a dictator.

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Right? Not long after that. The Muslims in Afghanistan fought against occupation of the Soviet Union. Around that time, the Muslims in Lebanon fought against occupation. Not long after that the Muslims in Palestine fought against occupation. And so listen. So that is that narrative. But see, that is a narrative that people respect, because in that narrative, you have people fighting against occupation. In that narrative, you have people defending their homes, their faith, and their family and their resources in that narrative. Other people who are non Muslims will respect that. That's our narrative. And then on 911, our narrative was hijacked.

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It was, our narrative was hijacked. Because all of a sudden, our narrative became planes into buildings. That's our narrative. All of a sudden, the narrative became bombs in, in western cities and subways, that's our narrative, our narrative began to be changed. And it changed your narrative and changing our narrative. Some of our own people accepted that narrative as their own. And then accepting that narrative. That story, of course, this course of events, as a result of accepting that narrative as our own, we suffered for that. We got scared or we got weaker, we got more pessimistic, we got sadder because we accepted that narrative. And then we allow them to couple that

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narrative. With the real narrative. We allow them to couple that narrative within with the real narrative of those fighting against occupation, those fighting against colonialism against imperialism. We allow those narratives to come together, we didn't separate the two.

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And by not separating the two, we didn't defend or support those who were following the real narrative. Y'all feel me on this? This is dangerous stuff. And so be careful what we talked about when we say taking back our narrative. Yes, we must take back our narrative, but understand the dimensions understand the ramifications of taking back our narrative.

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There are people who will call us all kinds of names for taking back our narrative. They'll call us extremists or call us fundamentalists, they'll call us all kinds of names for taking back our narrative. But if we are going to truly take back our narrative, then it's got to be based on the feelings concepts and opinions of Milan is messenger. And so, this is um while I talk

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in the living room, do not talk on Rachana lean on support, to be dependent on but to move fostering says that it also constitute feelings, concepts and opinions. Do not rely on the feelings that concepts and the opinions of those who oppress

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taking back

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narrative means our own definitions. And we have the we have to deal with the responses, we have the consequences of that. Not being afraid of the blame of those who blame them. This is our narrative. This is our story.

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The brother related to me today in terms of what's happening in Tunisia. Another example, oh, y'all, we are living in some serious times here. Serious times, we say that 70% of the population in Tunisia is 25. And under Shabaab 70%.

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And the brother said, the thing that triggered this, this this uprising in Tunisia, I didn't know that, you know, he said, what triggered it, that our brother, who had all this education,

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probably like a master's degree, at least, could only find a job selling food, you know, on his cart on the streets. And here comes the government of Tunisia, telling him that he doesn't have a permanent.

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And so therefore, they confiscated the last of his means of livelihood.

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And out of desperation,

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he wrote his mother, a note apologizing to her, and set himself on fire.

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What type of leader

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leaders are these, that could push their people to such desperation, his brother's name was Muhammad.

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This brother knew, he knew, but being pushed to such a point of desperation that he called causes this to happen. See, this is our narrative, we have some of the worst dictators in our countries that the world has ever seen. And these dictators are supported by Uncle Sam.

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That's our narrative. That's why we have to do what we have to do in our own countries. But one of the things that you saw you may have seen this was when the Muslims in Lebanon helped the Muslims in Palestine. And then the the Lebanon War took place.

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You saw people in this country, non Muslims in this country who were voting for the Muslims? Do you know why? Because they saw the actual narrative of David and Goliath, they saw the actual narrative of fighting against occupation, they saw our narrative, and by them seeing our narrative, they supported us. That is our narrative. So therefore, if we're going to take back our story, and let people know what's truly happening with these events, then we have to understand this comes under the category two of jihad with the tongue. Because in the West, is about Jihad with the tongue. We don't need weapons for them. We can disarm them without the use of weapons. The brothers and sisters

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in the glorious, so called civil rights movement taught us that that's why we tell you don't let anybody come amongst you talking about I can get some stuff.

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We can do this.

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That's the police.

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Right? And they're trying to change. Listen, they're trying to change our narrative. We know our narrative, man, we know our story here. We know the nature of our struggle here. Take that somewhere else.

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But understand when you tell other Muslims don't speak up, don't speak out. That is equivalent to telling them don't go off for jihad.

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Don't go for jihad. Don't do that. Don't you know brothers and sisters, that the main way that a person's faith is is shown and tested and revealed and the quality of their faith is revealed is in jihad.

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A monastic cannot disguise who he is, when it comes to jihad.

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They can't do it. No one can do it. So we talk about Jihad with the tongue speaking truth to power.

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And we tell each other Stop, stop. You might as well say stop going to jihad, stop going to jihad. Stop speaking truth, the power.

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What is happening in this country brothers and sisters, we know that our role model is a loss between Allah and His messenger. But what is happening in this country? Where am I at here? Okay, what's happening in this country?

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Is that a case can be made. That shows the parallels are with developing in this country and the parallels that took place in Nazi Germany. This is not hyperbole. This is not you know, we can actually make a case on this. We can make a case on this. Don't get nervous.

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Stop, stop.

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But we can make a case on this for real, for real. And so what is happening, what is slowly taking place,

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on their part can be summed up in the words

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of one of their role models. The lie can be maintained only for such time, as the state can shield the people from the political, economic, and or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the state to use all of his powers to repress dissent for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie. and by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state.

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And so we don't need weapons, all we need is ela.

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All we need is the truth. Because our narrative and the story that we are telling is rooted in Huck is rooted in the truth, and we cannot let them make us think otherwise. It is their narrative that's rooted in falsehood. It is their narrative that is rooted in a false concept of superiority. It is their narrative that cannot maintain its existence, particularly with the presence of the truth. Because the law says, When truth comes is smashes the brains out of falsehood, so yes, let's tell our story. And let's not be ashamed of our story. And let's not be afraid that tell our story and let's not show weaknesses, and respond to and embracing our story and who we are akula calling other

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stuff was lucky.

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I have to say I'm pumped right now. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pumped. And anyways, so without further ado, I'm going to introduce new monocline Mr. leukine.

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Marilee Klein is the founder and CEO of Vayner, as well as the lead instructor for a number of bayonet courses including fundamentals of classic Arabic and divine speech. His first exposure to Arabic study was in Riyadh Saudi, where he completed his elementary education and continued Arabic grammar study in Pakistan, where he received received a scholarship for ranking among the top scores in the national Arabic studies board examinations in 1993. But his serious training and Arabic began in the United States in 1999. under Dr. Amin, founder and former principal of Gordon college, Faisalabad Pakistan

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founder Yeah, Faisalabad, Pakistan, who happened to be touring the US for intensive lectures and Tafseer Arabic and Arabic studies. And your doctor just semi Norman developed a keen methodological understanding of Arabic grammar. He furthered benefited from the semi by in turn internalizing his unique teaching methods, and later translating his work into English for the benefit of his own students. Noman served as Professor of Arabic at neso Community College until oh six and has taught Modern Standard and classic Arabic at various venues for nearly seven years, with over 10,000 student students nationwide. Currently, he has dedicated himself to a seven year long project of

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conducting a linguistic and literary focus with an active series series in English without further ado,

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are all below him initially by normal gene.

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Shara Mina de Nima was for me he knew when Eddie our hyena in a

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woman I was sworn in, he he may

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be in our

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movie

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camera, machinery kena metal whom La

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La Jolla GTB e.

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y z

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He made me

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hungry let me Oh salatu salam O Allah say to them via email mousseline

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father le he was

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he

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a lot Medina men whom Amina Xena Aminu Amina for the hot water was over. Water was over sub Manila. But I mean,

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as pumped as I am to hear that

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I'm also very grateful than whether me read my job and my thoughts clear.

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When we talk about taking our narrative back,

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I think we have to divide the conversation in two parts.

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The conversation has to be taken back from forces outside of ourselves and also forces within ourselves.

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And so when we talk about the forces outside of ourselves that are trying to hijack this narrative,

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the only thing I'd like to add is a reminder.

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It's not something new.

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All messengers of Allah, I think hemos Salatu was Salam were faced with a hijacking of their narrative.

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They were portrayed with something they weren't.

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Whether that portrayal started with character assassination, they were accused of having agendas other than their actual agenda.

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Or it was merely a point of ridicule, how could you follow something so you know, so not not not even close to the truth, whether it was words like magic, or sorcery, whether it was they were accused of being liars, all of this was what it was essentially an attempt to hijack narratives. One of the greatest examples of that that are repeated in the Quran is the discourse between Fidel own the anahola and Masada Hassan, has repeated over and over again in the Koran. And I want to share with you a couple of really remarkable places in regards to that before I talk about the challenge within the oma itself.

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Although in her danila sassani.

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The narrative given by the mother, the leaders of the chiefs of film, and in his ministry, the unanimous press release was these two are nothing but magicians. What am I talking about? Who's these two

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musicians, but he didn't stop there. He said, don't be impressed by their tricks. This is just magic, no big deal. But he didn't stop there. And I look at what if go go further to say you read any annual free chacun without the comb, be Stephanie Hema. They intend to get you kicked out of your land by means of their magic. They're going around to the population and telling them not only are these guys magicians, so don't be impressed is nothing special. On top of that, if you do listen to them, watch out their real agenda is to get this land away from you. They'll get you kicked out of your land. These people are a threat to Homeland Security

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is what they are,

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you know. And so in here, I want to just ask you to ponder for a moment this is the same

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who in other places in the Quran, he says la Saleem Alchemist,

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don't I alone exclusively owned the dominion of Egypt will have he an hour virgin, even takhti. And these rivers flow beneath my feet. He used to speak of the ownership of Egypt and his kingdom above it for himself exclusively. But when he saw that Musa alayhis, salaam and his messages gaining power, and people are actually starting to listen, he couldn't tell people don't listen to him, because he will take away my land. He had to change the narrative and say, No, no, no, he's not a threat to me, he's a threat to your land is your land to? Well, we're all in this together. They weren't in this together before.

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But now that he sees this shift of power happening by nothing else, but the words of Masonic Islam, the words that Allah has given him, the consistency and the constancies that he has, if you want to study, studying the Quran, response to propaganda, just study how Musa alayhis salam talks to if at all, and just study that carefully, you'll find amazing things

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for your own will go this way and that way and that way, and that we didn't you commit this crime? Didn't you do that? Didn't we raise you here? What kind of trader are you?

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He goes this way. And that way and the other way

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around, tries everything you can, but moosari some stays on point. He doesn't budge. He doesn't move from his position.

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But I hear I want to tell you something else about this narrative. And I think it will sound familiar to you as it does to me. When he's a threat to your land, he'll get you kicked out of your land. So if you really love your land, and if it's a part of you, it's part of your identities to love the land that you belong to, and you have any sense of patriotism, then part of your patriotism will be to hate this message. You can't love this message. You can even be attracted or consider this message because that would be being a traitor to your own country. So the narrative is made that either you love your country, you love your people you love your tribe, you love mcca

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You love your fellow man family members of courage you love your beloved your your glorious history and past or you consider Islam because the two cannot go together in this hijack narrative, this one or the other, it's painted that way to this day I have friends I have friends that recently became Muslim you know what they're told by their families? How could you be a traitor to America? How could you do that? What kind of an American Are you became Muslim? The religion of the enemy? See what see what a What an amazing job they've done, you got to commend them. So how the law that the two things have been made polar opposites, and people are really truly convinced of this narrative.

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And sometimes we are too and i don't i don't actually consider Muslims innocent in this discussion. I think our ignorance has a lot to do with it too. I know many Muslims when they talk about non Muslims they say I met an American friend today

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what does that mean about an American friend what they mean by that is a Kathy

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Are you kidding me?

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Seriously, you know some how to love that we've in our minds also these two things have become synonymous. We have to first look deep into ourselves and see how how big a victim we have become of this propaganda. But the the discussion of the dominant shifts is not done. I want to finish the aisle with you. You know what else they said they might do? why you shouldn't consider this message. Well yet have a deeper Riccati comb and Musleh amazing words in the Quran.

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If you listen to these guys, they will get rid of the Hubei in Arabic to go but when it comes to the preposition of buy, it means to remove, they will remove they will erase what will they erase, but he catacomb your lifestyle you know, but you can Arabic is a path but but he called the feminine form is a path that you live life in lifestyle. It's to figure to form. But you've got to come and Musleh your exemplary lifestyle. I want to explain the word Muslim to use you appreciate what is being said here. The word Muslim is the feminine form of unfed, I'm saying is the best possible example you can give. What they are saying is our lifestyle is so awesome. Everybody else when they

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talk about the best possible kind of life, they give our example. And these two prophets, these messengers of yours, they're gonna get rid of your perfect lifestyle that everybody else loves. The whole world wants to be like us, and these people want to get rid of it.

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Muslim?

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Does that sound familiar at all?

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There's nothing new. That's the first point I wanted to make that this. This this propaganda war is not new, and ally did not leave us without guidance. He does not leave us without instruction, without his wisdom in how to deal with this propaganda and how to take the path of Musa alayhis salaam as our messenger himself did sallallahu sallam. That's the first thing I wanted to share with you.

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Quickly The second thing that I wanted to share with you

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is what do you do? On the one hand, you have a multi billion dollar propaganda machine, which does something in a very synchronized fashion. If you notice some of the buzz words that are used. They're used across channels and across media outlets and across newspapers that even belong to and Jon Stewart does a good job of making fun of that right but there's something peculiar about that that all these different media outlets apparently independent of each other are saying the exact same thing I want to share with you a little bit of the next ayah on a Jimmy okay dacorum

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their ancestor his ministers, he says unify your plot adjmi Qaeda, unify your plot be synced.

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be synchronized in your plot in your planning. And then he says through Mac to soften then come at them in rows upon rows. Come at the end come against musallam in rows be unified in your attack, sumac to soften, work god afla Hi, yo mama and stand up

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and know for sure the only one who will succeed today is the one who is able to show his superiority. In other words, your job is not to prove how great you are. Your job is to prove how terrible they are. That's all you have to worry about. You just have to demonize them. You don't even have to show people how good you are. I was just interestingly enough What an interesting weekend I had I was just in Atlanta, and there's an eradicating Islamophobia conference going on there and you guys are hanging out inshallah tada tomorrow with the mamas eighth correct. I was just hanging out with him today, yesterday. And one of the most brilliant things he said. He said all

00:34:31--> 00:34:35

this attention on the Muslim Boogey Man who's apparently also your dentist.

00:34:37--> 00:34:58

Also the guy that you know, you works at the gas station next door or whatever, but these like this terribly scary entity. Why all this attention on him because you have to take attention from other things. Jobs are shipping overseas, you know, and there's enough money in government to put you know, scanners that apparently aren't even impressive to the Israeli airports.

00:35:00--> 00:35:34

We have money for that. Because there are some special interest groups that are that are making clear bugs out. And it's not even like hidden news. This is like national news at this point, that there are, you know, private interests involved, and their hand is deeply tied. You know, attention has to be taken away from that. So somebody has to be escaped good where these target, we really aren't. But this is the external. Now I'm going to quickly talk about the internal challenge. And I, you know, I had a lot of things to share with you guys. But I know I missed my flight and all that stuff. So I'm going to give you the 10 minute version of the four hour thing I was going to do. So

00:35:34--> 00:36:08

I'm going to pick and choose obviously, but the thing I want to talk about the most, especially because this is an MSc crowd, you guys are young, you have your lives ahead of you, you have also your understandings of Islam to mature and ferment, you know, you're in the process of developing your understanding yourselves. And you're being exposed to many different speakers, writers books, you know, blogs, YouTube videos, whatever you you know, whatever you have. So you're still developing your thoughts and understandings. And in this time, it is very important that I mentioned that you need to become savvy, and you need, you need not be naive.

00:36:09--> 00:36:18

You need to have an open mind, and you need to understand when a game is being played with you. Because it is I see too many youths today the games are being played with and they don't even know it.

00:36:20--> 00:36:47

What I'm talking about is the exact propaganda that is Islam is being painted with by certain fringe media outlets. that exact narrative is being duplicated by certain Muslims that are calling for their definition of jihad feasibility law. And they're writing blogs and articles and papers. And they are I often quoted one after another, a string of biotin ahaadeeth. And at the end of which a call is being made to impressionable, stupid teenage Muslim kids.

00:36:48--> 00:36:55

And many of you are victim to it. Many of you are victim to it. And if you're not going to do something by actions, and your thoughts you've already been sold,

00:36:57--> 00:37:40

watch out for this, this new propaganda. Because what this is, I'll break it down very basic as basically as I can for you. You know, in genuine studies, whether it's Islamic studies or any other studies in genuine studies, you never make your conclusion first. What do you do first in genuine studies, you do research, you study, you study the evidences, you study, you embark upon a quest of finding all the facts you can and eventually you make your conclusion, your conclusion never comes first. Is it possible however, let's just talk about the Quran? Is it possible that I make a conclusion? I make a conclusion. I want to justify the killing of innocence. I want to I already

00:37:40--> 00:37:51

have that conclusion. Is it possible I can take a string of ions, a string of ahaadeeth put them all together and make it sound like by the time you're done reading all of this, my conclusion makes perfect sense. Is that possible? It is and it's happening.

00:37:52--> 00:38:17

This is a disingenuous approach to Islamic Studies. But someone who doesn't know any Arabic hasn't ever sat with our island doesn't know the first thing about a pseudo are the derivation of principles doesn't understand the intricacies involved in deriving shady principles. No, no, none of those things just knows that this guy quoted a lot and the lead man, he called it a lot I art. And at the end of it, he said, This is what we got to do. So obviously he knows what he's talking about.

00:38:18--> 00:38:47

If that's the simplistic view of Islam, you take, then you are heading down a dangerous path. And so the bit of advice, I know, I'm just going to be a long discussion. But the bit of advice I have for all of you is that you have to make a distinction between those who are seeking knowledge still, and those who are knowledgeable more than you relatively speaking and those who are scholars. I'm not a scholar. I really am not, I get I get deeply offended when people call me shake. I have a people call me shake today. No, man, stop it.

00:38:48--> 00:39:12

But it's become a relative term everybody shift nowadays. Right? So but understand there's a difference between people that are that are somewhat knowledgeable, that's may may know a little more than you do an actual scholars, actual research scholars, you know, and we have to show respect to that, nowadays that the standards of Islamic studies have dropped so much that we are willing to call pretty much anybody a scholar,

00:39:13--> 00:39:45

pretty much, and even the institution, I'm going to just say something bold. I just have to say what I feel what I'm convinced of the academic standards of many Islamic institutions in the Muslim world that are supposedly producing scholars have dropped dramatically. They have dropped dramatically. I've met Allah, for example, from Egypt, or what about from India that are like in the 80s and 90s. And when you ask them about the same madrasa they graduated from, what do you think about it nowadays? This is what we didn't like, before we got to the mother sighs the graduate now

00:39:46--> 00:40:00

you know, the standards have dropped I met in 100 from India, in Ohio in Dayton, Ohio. You know, I didn't know he's asking me just after the seminar is just started talking to me is quoting there's a machete the linguistic you know, two feet of Koran. he's quoting it but from memory, just talking to me.

00:40:00--> 00:40:17

You know, where did you go to school? That's incredible. He knows like 1000s of lines of jaggedy poetry by heart, this Indian scholar, right. And he's just telling me he lives with his grandkids. You know, it's not any mom or not they just guys, you know, hanging out uncle, McCollum uncle.

00:40:19--> 00:40:23

You know, and he says, Yeah, what we did what we did in the first year, now they do in the ninth year.

00:40:24--> 00:40:48

They do in the ninth year, the standards have dropped. The standards of what is considered a scholar in many institutions is dropped. And in some institutions, it's scary will lay it is scary. I have met people from institutions that have graduated, that are calling touting themselves as Mr. Musharraf, and scholar and are saying all kinds of ridiculous things. But when you sit them down with an eye on the front, and you say, Can you explain this grammar to me, please? Now, how do you get the translation of this?

00:40:50--> 00:40:50

Nothing.

00:40:51--> 00:41:21

When we become shallow in our study of our own Deen, when our own Dean's studies are those who are supposedly our leaders, their studies themselves are shallow, they're nothing more than empty rhetoric, then we're all in a heap of trouble. All of you need to be pursuing knowledge of Islam, but know what the limits of that knowledge are. Know that you don't know everything. Know that folk will be the Illuminati, there's someone above someone who has more knowledge above, you know, somebody on the way here, I was asked about, you know, whether we can combine motivation.

00:41:25--> 00:41:26

I'm not gonna answer your question. I'm not

00:41:27--> 00:41:29

gonna do my limits.

00:41:30--> 00:41:38

Young people have to know their limits. When you're young, you think you know, everything. I was there, too. I've been there. Believe me, thank God, those videos are not on YouTube.

00:41:41--> 00:42:15

Right. So you know that that's a really strong bit of advice I have for you that our our narrative is right now being hijacked by trolls underneath YouTube videos, and blogger comments on you know, on blogs and things. And there are a handful of crazies that are bullying all the rest of us and being quiet because they paint us as sellouts or this or that or the other. But understand if we're true to our Deen and we explain and understand and teach this book, the way it's supposed to be taught that has nothing to be ashamed of. There is no controversy. There's nothing, there's nothing that we need to hide. And so here's my last spiel to all of you.

00:42:16--> 00:42:23

as negative as the environment is the messenger Ali Sato Salaam you have to believe you have to believe what he had to face was worse.

00:42:24--> 00:42:55

As toughest times are, what he had to go through was worse. And a lie in this ayah that I'm sharing with you. Allah azzawajal talks about the people of the book, not accepting. He talks about the mushy goon caboodle mushy kina Matata, hula, he Soto Shula, it is really big on the people of Schick. They can't accept what you're calling to. It's very hard on them. You know, if somebody else says it's hard on them, they're not going to accept also you know what, I'll still try a lot himself. So it's really hard on are not going to accept

00:42:56--> 00:42:59

machinima syndrome really. They're not going to accept along we used to be

00:43:01--> 00:43:09

a law called standard them whoever he wants, you could try but in the end, who's going to bring them to Allah? Himself, He will guide whoever he wants? Well, yeah, the ILA human you need.

00:43:10--> 00:43:20

And so this, these challenges are laid out. And then those are external challenges, right that people have the book and we should include external challenges in the life of prospects on the next Iowa montefalco

00:43:22--> 00:43:35

bayda home, they didn't fall into disagreement until after knowledge came out of arrogance among themselves out of ego clashes among themselves, people of knowledge will have fights within this is an external problem or an internal problem.

00:43:36--> 00:44:02

This is an internal problem, people have knowledge fighting each other, we see that a new mentality or no, we see that problem too. And after listing all of these problems, a lot Wells's messenger, just one simple and as a result of all of this, and therefore we say and therefore at the end of our speeches, that's the Arabic word for and therefore in conclusion for Lisa, Annika, in response to all of that, for stuck in

00:44:04--> 00:44:07

what you know, for the Delica federal was talking about

00:44:08--> 00:44:11

and in response to all of that you keep on inviting

00:44:12--> 00:44:53

and you stay firm, like you've been told, or stuck in command, Mister, you remain where you are, like you've been told what at our home and don't follow into their, their, their vain desires. We know what the I you know, you've heard that before, right? Or this, this kind of expression before in the Quran. Don't follow their desires, right? I need you to understand what it means here. It means don't get weak in your call and don't become loose in your commitment. Because if you do that is their desire. You stop making your Dharma you stop standing up for what is truth in your speech and in your character. That is exactly what the desire of theirs is, when added to be our home, are

00:44:53--> 00:45:00

meant to be by Angela hoomin Kitab in and say openly and clearly I have come to believe in what Allah has sent down from it from

00:45:00--> 00:45:18

My book will move to LA de la Vina calm, and I have been commanded to do justice between you, but I'm calling for is justice, nothing else. Then I'm aluna Kumar, Maluku. We have our deeds. They speak for themselves when Akuma lucam. And you have yours and they speak for themselves. This for now.

00:45:19--> 00:45:27

Understand what that means. People don't understand the iron tsutenkaku lacantina comala. Dean, you know what Dean means? Was the mean anybody know?

00:45:29--> 00:45:34

It's more than that. kimata Dino to dine in classical Arabic. Deen means what you get.

00:45:36--> 00:45:54

You're gonna get what you have coming to you. I'm going to get what I have coming to me. That's part of the meaning of lagunita kumala. Dean, what you're up to? Because this little this little coffee doing right? You're COVID you're gonna get something because of that. And I'm refusing to worship that gopher, so I'm gonna get something because of what I'm doing to that's part of the deen.

00:45:55--> 00:46:33

Here he says, Mr. Luna welaka mamanuca LaHood Jetta bhaineann avena. There is no room for there's, there's no need to make a case you against me and me against you. You know what, let's just do what we're doing. Now for jetavana available. And the purpose of that is don't get tangled into unnecessary debates will lie. There they come. You know, there are certain elements there are there's a great by the way, I have to be honest, there's a great majority of the people in this country that are genuinely just not aware of what Islam is. And a huge population among them genuinely curious about what Islam is to good people. They're curious about what Islam is. But we

00:46:33--> 00:46:43

haven't gone to the public library and done a seminar on the Quran. How about before you decide to burn it? Why don't you learn it? Right? We haven't done that. You know, we didn't do our job.

00:46:45--> 00:47:16

So we, you know, we have to be honest about that. You know, and there are people who hate us, that's fine, and they're gonna hate us, no matter what we do. The messenger was the nicest guy, so he had no reason to hate him, you gotta really got no reason to hate him. You have to be really despicable to hate the Messenger of Allah Islam. So it's not like just because we're nice, they're gonna like us, that's not gonna happen. There are some people that are gonna hate us no matter what. But there is a significant population of the people in this country that are genuinely good. And we haven't done our job reaching out to them. Now, jetavana Nabina

00:47:17--> 00:47:55

Allahu Yas Marina Wally mercy, Allah will cause union between us it's almost a desire and desire. Even though it's a proclamation to eventually a local cause union Judgement Day, all people will be gathered, but also means hopefully, those of you that are good, maybe it may be union between us when they hit them assailant and we have to return anyway. And only to him and said, open call, it is an open call. I tell you, the Muslim youth in this country. And in cello, tada, you guys are pioneers, you don't know the kind of weight that's on your shoulders. And one of the major major causes of our decline intellectually, spiritually, you know, and a major cause of us not even being

00:47:55--> 00:48:31

aware of our narrative is our, the root cause, I would say, is our distance from a large book. We're distinct from a less book, we don't know what this book has to say. We're not educated in it. When people quote the IRA, we don't know the IRA before they know it. We don't know what pseudo that came from. We don't know what its actual context was. We don't know how we understand it before we can say no, no, they're misquoting it. We don't even know it ourselves. We have to have a campaign of put on education for ourselves. And that would give birth to a foreign education for the masses of people. It would do that, you know. So instead of the entire narrative around this book, being this

00:48:31--> 00:48:47

is a book that makes people kill others, and it's craziness and all of that great stuff. You know, instead of that we can call people to you know what, this is a marvel of literature. This is one beautiful book. Here's a seminar and how beautiful the 30 hires open to the public has you almost have pancakes.

00:48:49--> 00:48:51

I say pancakes because I just moved to Texas. It's a big thing. They're

00:48:53--> 00:49:01

on waffles, right? So but this is what we have to I know you're, I'm going to stop right now. So I'm almost done. Almost done.

00:49:02--> 00:49:15

Quran education. take it very seriously. Take it, you know, and I'm very appreciative of efforts like Amanda Charcot, who started a series on starting from Bakara. I think you spent quite a few sessions on,

00:49:16--> 00:49:49

on the bus by itself. I hope you take advantage of that our podcasts are there. Hopefully there are some benefits on our website in Charlotte and other other amounts of HIV web has done quite a bit of work on tissue. So if you're not the type to read, and it helps you sleep, then at least listen. At least listen, become more aware of what this book has to say. You have to do that you have a role to play. And your awareness of this book will lie he will open your eyes This book is not like any other religion in any other religion. You can say Oh you're so lost in the religion. You don't know what's going on in the world around you. Not for iron. If you truly study for an it makes you see

00:49:49--> 00:49:59

the world what it for what it really is. It opens your eyes. It doesn't close them. You know, either Oh la la la si la 10 an hour a minute avani the messenger was told

00:50:00--> 00:50:34

This is my hobbies ability. This is my path I call to people with eyes open either with Allah, Allah vasila tin with eyes open, I call people with full knowledge, full understanding. We have to be people that understand the times in which we live, we need to understand this book of Allah azza wa jal as best we possibly can. And you have to start now all of you in sha Allah to Allah, as this massive responsibility rests on your shoulders, May Allah give us the ability to carry this message as it should be carried, in our speech, in our character in our actions, may Allah make us of those who even if we don't open our mouth, just because of how we kept ourselves how we behaved at this

00:50:34--> 00:51:07

conference, and how we took care of the trash, and how we left in an orderly fashion when it was done, and how we greeted non Muslims, and we didn't give them dirty looks. And when the security in the campus was walking around, we stopped over and said, Thank you for what you're doing. Just because of that, they'll know there's something about Muslims is different than we should carry ourselves differently. You know, the way we act, the way we behave, it should be different. And just because you're angry at what's happening in the world, don't show that anger to your fellow neighbor. They're not policymakers, that's just a guy, man. It's just, it's just a dude. Next door.

00:51:07--> 00:51:27

he's not, he's not in charge of foreign policy. Okay, so, you know, you can be good to your neighbors, actually, you're not you have to be. That's part of our narrative. If we were truly good to our neighbors, there was no, there's no room for the our neighbor to watch CNN all day wouldn't hate us. Like I clean my snow. I'm not gonna hate that guy. I didn't even ask him.

00:51:28--> 00:51:59

You know. And that's the kind of people we have to become, I pray that we're able to take this advice to heart and really, that you are a source of pride for generations to come, I really pray that, that that your parents, their daughters are fulfilled, that you are a source of light in the midst of all this darkness. And I pray that Allah will protect you from vanity from not having not finding a higher purpose in life, from becoming people that whose only greatest purpose in life is to finish a video game, or to you know, to keep up with certain fashions or update your

00:52:00--> 00:52:11

profile. Right? That you your life means more than these things, that you're able to find that and commit yourself to that. And I pray that Allah makes us the people of balance, Mark, Allah, He welcomes that I'm

00:52:16--> 00:52:19

sorry, in a minute, I promise.

00:52:20--> 00:52:27

First thing is I had decided a couple of years back that I'm just not going to do MSA programs cause me to do anything. But you've changed my opinion,

00:52:34--> 00:52:44

organization and consistency and just hard work, I saw it showing my shoulder. So I'm very happy to see that it's revived my spirit of my aspirations for what Msh can do.

00:52:47--> 00:52:48

That's one. The second thing.

00:52:49--> 00:53:26

This is basically an announcement for those of you who are considering or thinking about Arabic studies seriously, that you give us some consideration. The program is called the Vienna dream program, but you know.com slash dream, the aim. Ah, it's the only program of its kind in the country at this point. It's a 10 month, full time Arabic intensive program. And we're trying to make this an alternative to Arabic studies abroad as their that's becoming increasingly difficult. hamdulillah we started this year, we have a few people from LA also actually in our program. This year, we have 60 students altogether come to LA, and they are now in their fourth month. And at this fourth at this

00:53:26--> 00:53:58

juncture. What we're doing right now is they're reading Arabic texts without the speed and they're not spoken to in English at this point on canvas. So they've reached that level of sophistication at this point, that they have six more months to go. So those of you that are curious about that and like to know more registrations for next year. The program starts in September and runs until the summer, so you skip out two semesters, but it's worth about 16 credits in college, so you don't lose it entirely. Those of you who would like to know more, I'll stick around a little bit in Sharla but you can watch a video about our campus is basically set up a mini college, our brothers and sisters,

00:53:58--> 00:54:07

those of you who like to watch a video on it, it will be shown here tomorrow I spoke to the organizers here inshallah. So look for that tomorrow, inshallah. Tada. Again, I'll stick around for any questions if you have any surprises.

00:54:11--> 00:54:15

Okay, guys, I know you're eager to leave but sit down for a second. We're not done yet.