Nouman Ali Khan – The Need For Civic Engagement

			I have obviously a very important discussion that we're having right now, especially this day and
age, but inshallah without further ado
		

			lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam O Allah seydel ambia, even masala vada Allah He was a
minister in the vicinity he Elijah Medina, Allah, Masha Allah, Muhammad, Allah Deena,
		

			whatever. So we'll have what it was for the sub minella below the mean to mama.
		

			My intention this evening is to share just a couple of thoughts with you really, I think this sort
of a subject doesn't really necessitate a long lecture or a long discussion, but really some things
that we can think about and, you know, hopefully put into action. The first thing I'd like to share
with you is the conversation about political activism or getting active in the larger American
community. This kind of a conversation is something that I have been exposed to for the last 1516 or
so years. And every time there is some kind of political tension in the air, the Muslim community
gets together and has this conversation. So whether it was the elections way back in the day, and it
		

			was, we were thinking one candidate is going to be better for the Muslims versus the other, or there
were new policies coming into place, I still remember these kinds of programs being held when the
Patriot Act was being signed. And you know, other things. So what I'm trying to get at first and
foremost, is, there's a tendency that we have as Muslims to actually be reactionary. We see these
kinds of events happen in the news. Nowadays, there's Trump fever, right. And it's, it's taken hold.
And it's had quite a few very negative very serious ramifications on the Muslim community. I was not
too long ago, spending some time in New York City. And the tension that the Muslims are facing in
		

			New York, some some of those horrible events have made it to the news, a lot of horrible events have
not made it to the news, they have taken place in subway stations, and have taken place at offices
and campuses, but they haven't made their way into the media. So the tension and the the the fragile
nature of the community is very, very real. And of course, that can sometimes inspire us or motivate
us to have a you know, to remind us of the importance of importance of civic engagement. But I'd
like to take a step back first and foremost, and just mentioned something about, you know, where we
come from, as a people, you know, the United States has is an incredible, incredible country. It's
		

			got lots and lots of different immigrant populations that came here. And they settled here, and they
made a better life for themselves. If you travel, like I was just making reference to New York City,
there are parts of New York that have been, you know, Mandarin speaking or Chinese for a very, very
long time. There are Greek neighborhoods that have been there for almost a century, there are Arab
neighborhoods on the you know, the south side of the city or west side, even right or parts of
Brooklyn, they're Indian, Pakistani neighborhoods where you can get in trouble for not speaking or
do or something like, you know, they're they're entirely Spanish neighborhoods. It's a pretty crazy
		

			place where you can actually immerse yourselves in a society and never come out of that bubble.
Right? I'm actually reminded of an example of a machine and on Second Avenue and 11th Street in New
York City, you want me to move the mic up? Okay.
		

			Do I have to have both of these? They're really intimidating. Okay. All right. I'm just gonna hold
this one. I feel better. Okay. Is this better? Okay. Yeah, so I'm reminded of a mustard on Second
Avenue in 11th Street in New York City. It's been it's one of the oldest massages in New York. Okay.
And the hotbar is in Bangla and has always been for 70 years. And you you don't speak English inside
there. Everybody speaks to everybody else in Bangla. I used to go there to pray once in a while. And
that's just one of many examples. What I'm trying to get at is the following this nation and this
country is built upon a lot, a lot, a lot of immigrant communities coming and settling and agreeing
		

			upon certain, certain values and certain freedoms that we all cherish. You had an opportunity, many
of you and myself, opportunities to start entrepreneurial businesses to give ourselves and our
children a better education, to enjoy, you know, relative to other parts of the Muslim world, the
kind of freedom that we couldn't have imagined. And that kind of opportunity opened doors to
opportunity that we couldn't have imagined. That is what drew us here. Right. And in that sense, we
have rights, just like every other community. We are entitled to, you know, we're we're taxpaying
citizens. We're just as American as anybody else, and a nation that celebrates itself at its core
		

			with a freedom of expression. Then we are free to express ourselves with as many folds and Goofy's
and beards and pajamas and niqab says we want that's, it's cool. That's what America is. If somebody
can tattoo their face with a, you know, you know, where you can't even see their skin anymore and
it's totally cool or they can put rings on
		

			over their eyebrows or wherever places you can imagine. And that's freedom of expression, then we
are not ashamed to express ourselves in any way, shape or form. That is not, you know, we shouldn't
feel ourselves any less American. The second thing I'd like to say is actually there is a problem, a
bigger problem that has been there inside the Muslim community. And that problem has been that we
actually don't think of ourselves as American. Forget other people not thinking of us as American,
we don't think of ourselves as American. As a matter of fact, for many people, let's let's be frank
here, the word American and the word casier are synonymous and interchangeable.
		

			are non Muslim, and American are interchangeable. So you will stay in conversation, hey, I met an
American today.
		

			Which means probably I met a white person or I met an at the very least it means I met a non Muslim.
That's what that means. And that's how we talk in our community. Man, I have this American friend,
what are you Chinese? What are you? Like? No, no, I'm Muslim. They're American. You see what we just
did? psychologically, we cannot reconcile these two things. Somewhere in our subconscious, these two
things don't exist together. You can either be Muslim or American, which is not very different from
what fox news is telling you and me is it. That's they're telling you either you're Muslim, or
you're American, you have to take a pic and we're like, yeah, you're right. You know, this is
		

			actually a problem that that's a deep inside of ourselves, and it has its roots. its roots are in
the idea that you cannot have allegiance or loyalty to a country, if you have loyalty to Islam, that
our our loyalty and our allegiances are to Allah and His Messenger, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And
therefore, as a result, we cannot have loyalty to the home that we live in to the place that you may
have been born in or your children may have been born in. Because no, no, this is not the land of
Islam. This here is America. Let me just give you guys a reality check about that.
		

			The prophets lie some of them spent a good amount of his life in Mecca, and when he lived in Mecca
was that a Muslim majority please know, when the profits are sort of moved to Medina, a significant
number of people became Muslim and some of you might not know they were still the minority in
Medina. The entire life of the Prophet slice of them has been spent as a Muslim living in a
minority. That's how it's been sent spent. And even though Muslims were in a much better political
position in Medina, the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi, salaam had a deeply found love for Mecca.
		

			He had a deeply found love, even for its people, for the extended family that he had some Allahu
alayhi wasallam the vast majority of it was not Muslim. As a matter of fact that the death of his
uncle, the prophet SAW Selim was told in the manner when I came to La Jolla de monisha, you no doubt
don't get to guide whoever you've loved. And if it was, if the ayah was only about Abu Talib, then
the Arabic of the ayah would have been in nicoleta, the mana Doctor Who
		

			is the pronoun is not there unless that in Nicoletta de man, now that what that technically does is
tell us what that does in Simple English is the Prophet sallallahu. wasallam has an exhaustive
amount of love. It's kind of limitless for his entire community, all of Makkah, he has a love for
all of them, even the ones who hate him, he has a love for, and he has a loyalty to that place.
There are people that came to the Prophet slice of them, and they would be proud of their tribe they
came from, they would take the name of their tribe with pride, even though the majority of the
people of that tribe non Muslim, and the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam would actually not crush
		

			their, their, their pride and their part of their identity to come from those people. You know, I'll
give you an interesting bit of a narration from the higher shot of the Allahu anhu, just about the
way we thought about how we think about geographic locations and how for the Sahaba being proud of
where you're from, and being proud of Islam can coexist, that you don't have to pick one over the
other. It's not a question of loyalty. So I shadowed the Allahu on her when she was asked to tell
the story of if, which was 50 years or so after the event. This is the Prophet has passed away so I
saw them. She's almost 70 years old. This has many, many, many years. Decades later, she was asked
		

			and part of the narration she said something really weird now it's gonna sound strange. Bear with
me.
		

			The Arabs of Makkah used to have a different kind of lifestyle than the Arabs of Medina. The way the
Arabs of Makkah did things is they never had a bathroom in their home or next to their home. Never
the entire city of Mecca, nobody had a bathroom. They used to go out in the mountains and then come
back. And the women couldn't lie lie lie lie in the women didn't go out except at nighttime one
night to the next time they want to relieve themselves. One night Wait, you know, basically almost
24 hours go the next night because you know
		

			Why? Because they need the privacy of night, the cover of night. That was their culture. So I was
telling the story of when she was really sick. And when she finally got better, good enough to go
relieve herself, she was taken by, you know, Ole Miss out into the mountains. And she says, Let me
explain. And this was 50 years later when people had bathrooms next to their homes. But what does
she do? She says, you know,
		

			for the habla kybella, Manasa.
		

			Una, we went out to the mountains out in the outskirts, because that used to be our bathroom. Well,
I'm gonna umbrella, umbrella bill Oh, well. Nando De Anza and Natasha kunafa. Nw, Tina. She says we
used to do things like the real Arabs back in the day.
		

			Because we used to think it's disgusting to have a bathroom next to your home. We did things the way
the actual Arabs did them. So we used to go out one at one night at a time. Now she's saying this 50
years later and living in Medina weird now 50 years later, there are bathrooms, extra homes. And
that's the normal part of life, which is why she has to explain that's how it used to be things used
to be back in the day, the reason I'm bringing this up, is this not more Islamic to go out in the
mountains, you're like, we want to be just like a high shot will be Allahu Tada, and high. And she
said she did things this way. And that was the original way of doing things. And therefore, you
		

			know, we're gonna have to buy some extra property in Texas. Like you don't, you don't have to do any
of that relax. She was just proud of being from that culture. she's proud of being from that land,
and how they did things and how they have their own heritage. she's proud of that. Now, a lot of you
and myself included, I'm partly American, and I'm partly Pakistani and partly confused, and that's
completely okay.
		

			And I'm proud of every one of those things. That's completely okay. And our children are far more
American than we are because they're born here. They've never seen, you know, a life abroad, not not
not intimately anyway. They don't know that culture that well. I mean, they know the food, kind of,
you know, but other than that, they don't know it. I wanted to bring this up. Because before we talk
about engagement in society, practically, we have to change something mentally, like we have to
actually see ourselves as part of this society. Until you see yourself as part of this society and
your concerns, genuinely, your concerns for this land, this people, this nation, become your
		

			concerns. There actually stuff that worries you. I'll give you an example. My mom is not American.
And I don't think she ever will be. She's extremely Pakistani though. So when she watches news about
what's happening in Pakistan, it worries her.
		

			It concerns her, you know, and she's worried about the people there, etc. Because the place you come
from, it has a place in your heart and you're worried about it. And when you hear news about it, it
bothers you, it concerns you, you have a love for that land, you have a love for those people, and
that's natural. What I'm trying to say is if we are going to engage in any kind of civic
involvement, like we're gonna be community activists, we're gonna do registration drives for voting,
or you're going to join Habitat for Humanity or do some kind of outreach program, whatever you're
going to do, if you and I are going to do this, because we think it's good PR for the Muslim
		

			community. Don't do it. Do not do it. If you're going to do this, because you genuinely see yourself
as a member of this society whose well being is associated with your own well being. You don't see
yourself you don't see yourself as a separate entity from these people. And for anybody here to
think Well, you know what, these are kuffaar Why should we be worried about the kuffaar? read a
little bit of Quran I'm not saying read a lot. I know you don't have time, read a little bit of
Quran and you find what the prophets are saying about their people. I know he was allowed to study
new had a serum, what with what love? Does he speak to the people that spit at him? With what
		

			concern does he speak to the people that have raised children? Dickerson?
		

			You know, this is the legacy of prophets, are they hemos salatu salam, which messenger hated his
nation, you tell me which one hated his nation, which messenger would go out of their way to pray
against the nation 950 years and new high salon at the end of it at the end of it? He says, you
know, that, you know, you know, I look at me look at the era, you know, don't leave any home behind.
Y'all not destroy all of them in their car into their home. You know, if you weren't to leave them,
then they're going to this, you know, misguide you'll be a bother whether
		

			or not they're going to give birth to nothing but more disbelievers. He said this really like
intense prayer against his people at the end of 950 years. But even that, let me tell you what
happened on the day of judgment when people will go from one nation to another to one profit to
another to another to another to seek refuge. When they go to see can you help us
		

			When they go to when they go to Adam alayhis salam he says I can't help you. I disobeyed a lot I
don't know what I'm going to do go to Abraham. Abraham said I lied one time to make a point I don't
know if I can stand in front of a lover you go to a new you know actually do first and they go to a
new place and you know what he says? I prayed against my people one time I don't know if I can stand
in front of Allah
		

			to Allah call me.
		

			If
		

			I trade against my people go to somebody else. When the Muslim community can have and the Muslim
world even can have stand in prayer and make entire dollars against countries, entire countries. I
don't know what prophet they've been learning from what nation they've been learning from, you know,
a lahoma dumb mid America Aloma this I'm standing in prayer like oh, Lord, crush America was like I
got a return flight tomorrow. I don't know if I can. I cannot break by prayer right now. Because,
you know,
		

			and that some of that poisonous mentality unfortunate mentality that doesn't represent anything of
our religion has made its way even into the minds of some of the members of our community, and that
needs to be addressed. First. We as Muslims are concerned for whatever society we live in. That was
my first point. Quickly, I'll make my second point. And I'm done. The second point that I'd like to
make is we are not the first people to face propaganda.
		

			propaganda is actually the, the Sunnah of the Muslim community.
		

			Throughout the ages, whenever people have stood for La ilaha illAllah, and we are the last of the
oma. We are after on oma, we are the last of the nations. And we are the ambassadors, whether you
like it or not accept it or not, whether you take on the burden on your shoulders or not. You and I
are ambassadors of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and our children will be
there, his ambassadors and their children will be his ambassadors. if Allah wills until the day of
judgment, we are it there are no more messengers coming. So Islam that used to be its light use
torch use to burn by the hands of messengers, and those who follow them. That torch is gone. Now
		

			it's been passed on to the oma Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam. And when you study the history of
all of those believers, and what Allah wants us to know about them in the Quran, you learn that they
all face propaganda, they all face lies against them. To give you an idea, the nation of Iran said,
well, you don't have a particular Muslim, I love this phrase. They said about Musa and Harun, they
are a threat to your society, not because they're talking about one God, not because they're
preaching justice. You know, what Fidel, his argument was, these two people, if you follow them,
they will get rid of your perfect exemplary lifestyle. You guys are number one, your lifestyle is
		

			number one, your freedoms, your your advancement, your you know, your way of life is superior, these
people will come they are a threat to your way of life. Don't follow them, they're a threat to that.
Whereas hobbyzone Karthika will Muslim, exactly the kind of language that is used about Muslims when
being when, when suspicions are raised about them. So here's my last point, the propaganda will go
on. And no matter how many PR campaigns we do, our misconceptions about Islam videos we make the
videos and the blog posts and the noise that will be against us will always be louder. It will
always be louder than the noise that is for us accept that reality. Don't defeat yourself, but
		

			accept that reality and learn to fight in a different way. How do we fight it? We actually fight it
on the ground.
		

			You could say whatever you want about the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but the
old lady that throws trash on him and he takes care of her. She knows better. Now she knows you
could say whatever. And he never goes out and defends himself and says, Look what I do. Can you can
somebody take a picture of this and posted at least so we get recognition that we also volunteer and
listeners are not that bad? No, he's quietly doing this. He's quietly helping people. He's quietly
engaged in what you can only call call I'm gonna build my roof. When he woke up, that's all he's
doing. What is the Quran coming and fighting for is the Quran giving revealing I don't don't oppress
		

			the believers, leave them alone. They have the right to pray. You know, they're not that bad. No,
cron is coming to the believers and saying you guys are being tortured, suffer the wrath of server
for us.
		

			And on the other hand, when Allah gets angry, he doesn't get angry that the Muslims were oppressed
in Makkah, you know what he gets far more angry at
		

			us amil miskeen
		

			he gets more angry that a baby girl was buried alive. He gets more angry that somebody was cheated
in the marketplace when we live in an arena is actually rather nasty. So food. And by the way, the
people who were cheated in the marketplace were not Muslims, and the orphan that was being pushed
around. And the poor person that wasn't being fed was not Muslim. And the baby girl that was buried
alive was not from a Muslim family, but the Quran is angry about those things.
		

			Quran is angry about it makes noise about those things. Why? Because Allah wants us to stand up for
the oppressed, we will be patient in the face of oppression. And we will stand against the
oppressed, not not for our rights, but the rights of everybody else around us. This is what makes us
the Omar Mohamed Salah Lahore and even saddam, we are not I started this talk by talking about all
these different immigrant groups that came to the United States, right? Each one of those groups has
advocacy. They have people that look out for the interests of their community, don't they? They have
people that want to get involved politically, like the Hispanic community will support its
		

			candidates because they're gonna look out for immigration rights or Hispanic community rights, etc,
etc. What I'm trying to argue with you is that's all well and good. But that is so far secondary, on
the mind of a genuine Muslim, because the primary objective to a Muslim is actually not to be a
lobbyist and an activist for his or her own people, is actually me to be an activist and a lobbyist
for the society in which there are people that need help. Those people need help. And that's why a
lesson is here, actually, we were sent so we can be carriers of justice, whenever Allah and forsaken
Quran says, even if that means you have to stand up against yourselves, which another meaning of
		

			that is, even if you have to forget about yourself and worry about somebody else's rights. That's
what that means. This is what we must become. We must not be We are not afraid that we are under
pressure or, you know, I know I said, this is the last thing one last thing I promise. This is
totally, I know, I'm never gonna get invited again. It's okay.
		

			I live here, I can just come back even if you don't invite me. Okay, so. So here's the last thing
I'm going to share with you just some perspectives. I just came back a couple of weeks ago from
Turkey. And I had a chance to meet some very interesting people. When I was there, Istanbul and Cora
and I had some fascinating conversations. And it is one conversation that just, it's drilled in my
head, I can't get it out. And I'd really love to share it with you. I met a lady who was a
grandmother herself, and she's a historian. She's an ottoman historian or a family historian. And
she told me the story of her grandmother. Briefly, I'll share some things about that with you. This
		

			old woman, her grandma, she was actually a young woman working in the government in the education
ministry at the time when the Ottoman Empire fell, and the hardcore secularist regime took over.
Okay, so this is like the mid 1920s. And there's a shift from the Islamic empire now in Turkey to
this extreme secularist anti Islamic regime, okay. She is describing the scene where women are
getting their jobs pulled off of their heads in the middle of the street by other Muslims. She's
describing the scene where people are going door to door, finding copies of the Quran and burning
them down.
		

			That's that that's a history. And that's not 1000s of years ago, or centuries ago. This is just the
last century we're talking about. There are people who have heard these things from their own ears
from their own family. So she tells me the story of her grandma who wanted to continue her
relationship with the Quran. So what she did was she hid the copy of the Quran. And they had a barn
in their backyard where animals do their due, she hid it under the pile.
		

			And she used to go into the barn, pull it out, recycler on in the barn because she got caught
otherwise, and the noise of the animals would hide her recitation. And when she couldn't take it
anymore, she'd come outside and throw up and then go back inside and recite her fur on.
		

			And that's what what they were talking about Muslim community under pressure, right. And she
actually the grandma that I met has that copy of the Quran, she keeps it in a Ziploc bag. Because
she opens it, the whole house smells like animal feces. But she says, I have this to remind
ourselves, that, you know, Islam made its way through Islam came through. If you know That's
intense.
		

			If you think you and I are under pressure, this is nothing.
		

			This has nothing to do my husband through a lot worse, and has come out strong. So don't be afraid
of the ladies in this audience, the men in this audience, don't be ashamed of your response. That's
the first thing this as long as is as American as anything else. This is not a foreign entity. This
is part of the American fabric and a proud part of the American fabric. And we don't need to hear
rhetorical speech to believe that this is what we actually genuinely believe. When people like
literally Tell me go back to your country. Like that's happened before go back to your country. I
was like I am I'm heading back to Texas.
		

			You know, because according to some it is a country.
		

			You know? So we like a mental shift is necessary not only in how we think
		

			Have ourselves but really the work that needs to be done. How many people in our neighborhood that
we don't do not know? Why is little superveloce lights on and telling us 40 neighbors this way? 40
neighbors that way? How many of those neighbors Do you know? You know, and how many of those are non
Muslim that we've ever cared for? If we don't do our part, then we can complain about the political
climate. We can't complain that unless health hasn't come unless health comes when we follow the
legacy of His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam and I pray that us and the generation that's
coming after us even better carries that legacy like it's never been carried before. barakallahu li
		

			walakum wa salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakato