Reacting to World Events

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there are lots of thoughts that I want to communicate to you in this hotbar so I first ask, what I already asked Allah azza wa jal in Arabic, I want to express that to all of you in English, also, the daughter of Musa alayhis salam that he expanded my chest, and he make this task easy for me and he untie the knot in my tongue. Because when you have a lot on your mind, then the way you communicate can get convoluted. And I pray that I have clarity of thought. And I'm able to communicate something that is of benefit to myself and to all of you. So we're all experiencing some pretty dramatic news this week. And as we watched what's going on in Europe at the moment,

everybody's kind of looking for answers, trying to figure out what's going to happen, what the ripple effect of this is going to be all around the world. And we're, you know, one of the places that Muslims generally tend to turn is to their religious leadership for some insights and guidance. And that's a typical standard behavior that we have in our practice that we have in the Muslim community. And I'm gonna address that a little bit, but before I do, I just want to make some principle comments. First and foremost, one of the most important things that Allah azza wa jal highlighted in the Quran that makes the Quran and the religion of the Quran meaning Islam

revolutionary, with respect to all other religions, is that Allah kept questioning in the Quran, and kept challenging people to think for themselves. So Allah kept telling even disbelievers have had attack loon that I love them yet Africa rune so that they think deeply so that they understand, like, the intellect is supposed to get involved in arriving at the truth of Islam. You're supposed to be critical and analytical, in fact, the highest most spiritual people before Allah azza wa jal, the ayat that when they came, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was overwhelmed with tears when he received these ayat where I thought about people who think deeply enough to help me somehow

it was still actually when the how the IRS illegally and BB and the DNA of Quran Allah pm and Morocco Rudan Vida June will be him where it's a fact Karuna freehold. SMRT well Robina Mahabharata had about him so Hanukkah Kakinada but not one of the most profound places in the Quran describing the journey of someone who's looking for the truth. And he says no doubt about it in the creation of the skies in the earth, and the the the conflict of night and day, there are plenty of miraculous signs there certainly are miraculous signs for those that have sound pure minds. People have pure minds. So the Quran was not calling for people to become followers. First and foremost Quran was

calling on people to become thinkers, because once you can think and you can arrive intellectually spiritually at a conclusion, then following becomes easy because you're convinced of what you're doing, you know the why. So the as opposed to in other religious worldviews and other traditions even the what is more important, what should you do, what should you not do? What should you say? What should you not say? What rituals should you follow?

All of that came second. And all of that only makes sense in our religion because we're a people of thought first. So critical thinking and the ability to analyze situations and the ability to properly you know, use the proper tools to arrive at proper judgment. This is some of the most fundamental things the Quran is demanding from us. Incidentally, in that Isaiah, what Allah says that, you know, these are signs for the people above and above the intellect has been given many names in the Quran, it's called an icon. An icon actually means the ability to restrain your emotions. And then think, because alcohol comes from an icon, recall is the rope that they tied

around their head, they used to use it to tie camels back in the day. So the ability to control my emotions, when I'm thinking about something, if I'm angry, then I'm letting my anger cloud my thinking, if I'm frustrated, I'm letting my frustration cloud my thinking, if I'm biased about something, if I have preconceived notions about something, I'm allowing those preconceived notions and my feelings towards them to cloud my thinking, so that people have alcohol, you have to first at least analyze in yourself, what are my biases? What are my emotional hangups? And are those things those biases getting in the way for me thinking clearly, it is only when you can put that aside,

then you can think clearly and only then you and I can arrive at real conclusions. Another interesting word Allah uses for for the intellect is a new hub. In the valley, can I tell you only know her, the people of prevention, meaning people who can stop themselves from just scared being scattered minded, they can have focus and clarity, you know. So it's not just that we have to control our emotions, but we can't just be all over the place, we have to have clarity of thought, we have to have clarity of purpose. And this is true of you guys that are students, you will have trouble passing any class if you can't get yourself to focus, if your mind's all over the place. In

fact, even within the same subject, if your SI keep thinking about chapter three, and you're studying chapter five, you've got yourself a problem. You need to stop and put your mind to work for you. Just like my hands, or my tongue, or my eyes. These are machines that Allah gave me, they work under my control. I have power over them. It's the same way that I have power over my thoughts. You know, your thoughts shouldn't be controlling you you should be controlling your thoughts, just like every other faculty that Allah has given you. That's a no no. Ha. And then on top of that, levy hedger, you know, healthy rally cause someone levy hedger for people that have injured literally

means a boulder or a large rock, meaning people have solid, fundamental thinking, they're not waving in their thinking. They're not thinking one thing, and all of a sudden, they change their mind. They're like, No, no, that's not that's not true. This must be true. They're, they're unsure about everything. They have clarity of thought. And once they have clarity, they're rock solid. So these are different dimensions of the Quran highlighting the importance of thinking clearly, we call ourselves the religion of Ibrahim alayhis salam for exactly this reason, this young man fought for himself and questioned everything in society. Now, having said all of that, as a premise,

unfortunately, what happens to many other religions, also happens to Islam sociologically, psychologically, we have some of the same tendencies that happen in other religious communities. So even though we believe and I believe we have a Hulk, but our behaviors were at the end of the day, we're all just human beings. So when I was a student, for example, of religious psychology, some of the things that I was studying that go on inside of the synagogue are some things that happened in the politics inside of the church sounded way too familiar. It just sort of sounded way too familiar, that of the kinds of tendencies we have in our communities, because human behavior at the

end of the day is human behavior. It's like different skins on the app, but the engine behind the source code is the same. Right? Now, again, having said all of that, we say that we we've done unfortunately, is we want to read into events. We want to read into events, and we want someone to tell us what this means from the lens of Islam. What does Islam say about Russia? What does Islam say about Ukraine? What's going to happen next? And what then happens is a lot of times, people politicize things about the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam that have no business being politicized. There are things that are being said in the name of Islam, that have

nothing to do with our religion. But because somebody already has a preconceived notion that are that someone who studied the deen of Allah or somebody who's claiming to have knowledge of the deed, they must know all the answers for how the world politics works. See people have clear thought will understand something. If I want to understand something about the Arabic language, I'll go to an Arabic expert. If I want to understand something about the Quran or guru, a Quran expert. I'll go to a hadith expert for a hadith issue. I'll go to it

historian for a historical issue, and if there's a political crisis, and I want to understand in depth what this political crisis means, I should probably go to someone who understands geopolitics really well, I should go to somebody who's an expert in this field, I should, I should go to someone who understands the history of the issue, the current dynamics of the issue, the multiple parties involved, the complications, how what what the news report, or what sound bites or what memes might make it look like black and white, there may be a lot of Gray's involved in any situation that I may be overlooking. And I just want to hear something that makes me go make makes me give it a career.

You know what that is, that's a lack of intellect. That's a lack of using our minds. And this is actually something extremely dangerous, when the when the religion is used for to comment on political realities. This is not just something that, you know, we have done, other religions have done this. Other religions have done this. And what's remarkable, this is the this is the extent to which this can become dangerous, you'll have Muslims, the reality of this, the Muslims, in many places in the world, Muslims are fighting each other. Muslims are fighting each other actively at war. And there's a football going on on this side. And there's another football going on, on that

side. And the Imam on this side is using the I heart of the Quran and the Sunnah to justify that what they're doing is right. And what they're doing is you have to be submitted, and the football on the other side is doing exactly the same thing. Why? Because they are being put in place to be able to communicate a political message that can be mixed enough with the religion, that people will feel that this political view is the right religious view. Right. And this is what I say is a lack of clarity of thought. This is a lack of clarity of thought, we have to understand to develop a political position on any issue, to understand the complex, nuanced, you know, a crisis, if you and

I don't become clear people of thought, and I definitely encourage, especially our young audiences, and even the adults to actually become students, we are so eager, I'm so eager to give my opinion on something as ill informed as it might be, as ill informed, I don't even know half of the things I should know, before I open my mouth. I haven't read anything. I haven't researched, any Googling something is not research. Listening to for new four minutes of a YouTube video is not research. People use the word research in such unfavourable, I've been researching this for a long time. What does that mean? I watched a YouTube video. That's what you call research. Now, that's where

researchers, you know, with the limited attention span that we give to things, so my first invitation to all of us, is to actually become people of the Quran. In other words, before we form an opinion, or, you know, address something, we become students of it, we understand something deeply before opening our mouth before before jumping on any bandwidth.

And now the second thing that and by the way, this first thing that I told you has to do with in the La Jolla ballroom and to manatee La Jolla. It's funny, I'm sitting, I'm standing here at a member telling you don't listen to people like me when they're talking about politics.

But Allah says, Allah says, Allah is commanding you to give the trust to those who are qualified of it. Give the trust to those who are qualified of it. If you came to me and started asking me for accounting or legal advice, it would be a mistrust of my responsibility that I say, Yeah, fill out this form and do this. I don't know the first thing about accounting. When I see an accountant, I just say no, they lie when that's me. So that's not my space. I have a space in which I can try to help. There are other spaces in which I need to require that there's somebody more qualified that can help. And this is why we need to understand the importance of collaborative discussion. Yes,

there may be an Islamic perspective to some of what's happening. And the people that may have an Islamic perspective, should be in conversation with those who have deep knowledge on the issue. So they can actually have a conversation and engage with each other and learn from each other. That's what's supposed to happen collaborative learning. But unfortunately, what we've created in what happens often in religious psychology is you idolize a person, you say shake so and so Oh, my God, he's amazing. He has all the answers for all questions. Here's my you know, there's Google. And then there's my Islamic Google. Here's my Islamic Google for all questions I may ever have this as the

person that has the answers. There's no such thing. Everybody's on a quest of learning, everybody seeking and until we realize that the nations that realize that they prosper, you know that the nation's they realize they don't know enough and they need to inquire more. They need to study more than need to investigate more. They need to collaborate more. Those are the nations that advance in the world.

That was the first fundamental point that I wanted to make. The second point I wanted to make is actually when you see events like this, it's also important to go back to the Quran and discuss some fundamental principles. I've said this many times a method was repeated because it's relevant for today.

Our religion has given us a number of timeless principles, timeless and not just timeless principles, timeless Sunon of Allah, the Sunon of Allah means the way Allah does things. The way Allah does things, right? Allah has created a kind of sunnah. Like, for example, the Sunnah of Allah is the seed will turn into a tree. This is the way Allah does things with a seed. The way Allah does things with the growth of a child is there's a certain age where the child can start putting words together, there's a certain age where the child can start walking. There's a son of Allah that He created, and in that, so nothing's follow. Okay, this is a son novela. Similarly, there's a Sunnah

of Allah and how he deals with nations. What does he like? You know, human beings have a life cycle, right? Nations also have a life cycle. Power also has a life cycle. Just like you and I, we reach an age where we're at the peak of our strength, and then it's going to be a decline, you cannot maintain the strength you once had. As you age, you're going to go through change. Nations are exactly the same way. Every nation that thought that they were going to stay on top of the world forever thought and we read about them now in left. The British Empire used to say the sun never sets on the British Empire. The British Empire is now this tiny island in Europe, where it's mostly

cloudy, you don't even see the sun. So

so the idea the point is the rise and fall of nations, while hola de la han NASA Baba Homi Bhabha fascinating out, Allah says had it not been for one group of people pushing away and pushing out of power, another group of people, the entire Earth would have been corrupted Allah's way is to actually allow for powers to shift all the time. That does not mean Allah endorses one power and is against another power. That's not what that means. That doesn't mean that if a power is victorious in a certain war, Allah was on their side. That is, that is a lack of thinking, this is how the jolly people used to think. So when they want in the Battle of war, how they said, Ah, you see,

Allah is on our side, our gods are with us, you know. So this mentality is again, because we haven't developed a mature sense in thinking one Sumner of Allah that I wanted to highlight to you, which I think is a really scary, powerful, some novela in addition to declaring that power will always be something temporary, in addition to that, and by the way, what that means also is even in Muslim hands, it can't be permanent. Right? Even in Muslim time. It's not something meant to be there all the time. It's not something meant to be there all the time.

But another son of Allah and Soto Islam, it's interesting in total Islam, because certainly, in its beginning address the Israelites, and the Israelites had moments where they were a persecuted people. And the Israelites were also people had moments where they controlled much of the known world, right, they had met the Caliph of doubt or the insula, the power of Solomon or the Sunnah. These people have seen an in their history, ages, where they enjoyed incredible amount of power. And they have seen ages in their history where they were enslaved, where they were persecuted, where they were driven out of their homes in the hundreds of 1000s. if not millions, they've seen both of

them. They've seen the rise in the fall. And then Allah highlights these people for a reason. Because the Israelites are talked about so much in the Quran. Because we the OMA have a lot of things similar with them. We're given a law of Allah, we're given the legacy of the prophets or the Mossad was set up. And our history also has lots of rises and lots of falls. We have rises and falls. So what is it what is this Allah is telling us his sunnah. Allah is telling us this is how he deals with nations, what led to their eyes, what led to their fall? And if you learn about that, then maybe if we're at arise, then we might learn what is going to make this rise come to an end.

And if we're at a fall, we're going to learn why we ended up here and what could we do to come back to arise? Right? That's why these Sundays are being taught of Allah the legacies of Allah, one of them. Were either Aradhana no, and no Lika curiata. Listen, listen carefully. He said, When we decide when whenever we've decided that we're going to destroy a town, you can even study it you can even understand it as a civilization when Allah decides to destroy a civilization. Now why would Allah want to destroy civilization? This is Allah azza wa jal saying, we allow this the meaning of this is we allow this civilization to collapse on its own.

We're not going to intervene and fix it. I'm going to let you just do what you do. What does Allah do when that happens? What does He allow for the most people to do? He says a moto moto raffia there are two readings of this are three actually a Motorola Moto? Rafi,

Rafi ha and a Myrna McAfee

There's three readings that are motivated here. So I'll tell you all three.

One reading is we, we command in the sense of we allow its elite, its financial and luxurious elite. We allow them implies, do whatever you want. When Allah wants to what Allah has decided that the time of a nation has come, then the richest people in that nation, the most wealthy people in that nation, they become above the law. Allah allows for them to do whatever they want,

they won't get caught. And even if they get caught, they can by a judge. And even if they if they, if they, you know, break whatever, violate whatever treaties, whatever laws, whatever regulations, there's no way that they can ever be held accountable like a regular citizen. So we give their financial elite, a loose free reign for Sokovia. So they, they cause great deals of corruption in that society. They get away with all kinds of things. You can't get away with not paying your taxes they can, you can get away with certain things they can, and they will and they'll do it in your face and there's nothing you can do about it except make tic tock videos. That's all you can do

about it. And they'll do it again and laugh in your face. And there's you can make noise about it, but that's not going to change. So what does Allah say? He allows the financial elite free rein Nutrafin matar comes on top, as a rule for those of you that are studying soft would be better for you 343 often, and this is a similar rule for Metra thought of actually means the noun, it means the luxury, it means comfort, it means ease the people that have an easy life, that people that have comfort and luxury. So they're they're above the toilet labor of the everyday people. They're not like everybody else, they live in this other, you know, this free above, you know, it's too much

work for them to even pick up a spoon and put it in their mouth, those kinds of people. They're the ones that get free rein, then Allah says then they do all kinds of corruption in Atlanta. And then he says phenomena, that Vera and thus we crushed that society completely. That doesn't mean that meteor strike from the sky to crush that nation. You know what that means? That behavior creates so much corruption in that society, and so much injustice, and so much disparity between hard working people who can't even put food on everything on their table. And those who do who've done nothing and are robbing the millions blind, that that society is set on fire and is absolutely crushed from

within. That's one implication that's one son of Allah. And if you understand this one idea, just from that idea, and you start reading history, you'll say wow, what did Allah like entire volumes of history got encapsulated in one statement from Allah. Another reading of this is a Myrna Mata raffia that meal, Amara Jani salata, meaning the financial elite, we actually make them powerful. We give them power, not only they could do whatever they want, that was the last one. This one's a little different. You know what this is, this is okay. Historically, you've got the politician, you've got the governor, the head of the village, whoever else, and he's supposed to be a servant of the

people. He's a public servant. He's the one who's judging people in all of this. And then there's the wealthy. So the politicians and the wealthy are two separate categories. Even if you look at the American, the modern American or many other political systems, you've got somebody running for Senator, Governor, whatever else, that's one group. And then there are the donor base, right? There's the there's the lobbyists and their donors and the big business interests, the oil giants, the gun manufacturers, whoever else, those guys are a separate entity, they are the morphine. What Allah is saying is when a nation is on the verge of destruction, Allah has decided at the time of

this nation has come, then its financial elite are given power. So what that would mean is, even though it looks like the king has power,

it's actually the Kings financiers who have the real power, the ones that have lent him money, they're the ones that are pulling the actual strings. It may look like the Senator is powerful, but actually, it's his campaign donors that are telling him which policies to go for and what not to do. The he's just a puppet. And behind him, the morphine have all the power, and you can vote him out and bring both somebody else in. It's just they're just going to get new strings and hook them into this one. So the changing of political scenery the landscape who won the presidency who lost the presidency, that looks like oh, there's so much change, new face, new power, but actually behind the

scenes, it's the same ultrafine that have been motor have been for centuries. Nobody's voted them out. They've only gotten more powerful. And they're actually running the show. They're actually the most powerful and then as a result of those more trophy meaning, if a public servant is now a servant,

of the financial elite, the business elite, if he's at the service of these corrupted industries, whose number one agenda is to make more, that's their only agenda, then guess whose rights are going to be crippled and violated over and over again, it's the larger public. And when that happens enough times, there's a groundswell that society collapses again.

Another was just one statement. This one simple statement, and Allah has revealed a historical phenomenon that repeats itself century after century after century. What either Amona and no Lika Korean boy or Latina, I know Lika Korean and Myrna mafia, Professor ovia for hochkar. They have code for the modern era. And then finally, the third and this is a scary one. Ah, Baba Namath, raffia. And Amara can come in the meaning of exalt, meaning, Allah allows for people that live a luxurious life, people that live easy, he makes these he starts in that society, he starts creating a huge number of people that do nothing for a living and are living well anyway.

So what happens in a society is, you've got people that are becoming Uber wealthy or wealthy, they're living a kind of luxury that was never seen before them, and they don't have to break their backs to do it, they can still be in relaxation to be able to do that. And when that happens, what's the result of that shower, Lila de la himolla talked about this phenomenon, but I'll make it brief because this is hot, but I don't want it to be too long. What happens when people become a robot, you can call now a first world lifestyle, right? So just to compare what used to happen 200 years ago, 300 years ago, to in order to get clean water in your home, you have to go take a walk, grab a

bucket, come back, if it's snowing, raining hard, doesn't matter, you got to do what you got to do if you want to. And there are people in the world that are still doing that, by the way, right. And we have the kinds of luxuries even in a low income family, the kinds of luxuries that people couldn't imagine a couple of 100 years ago. So people that are living above a certain level, then they've got their Netflix subscription, and they're Amazon and they've got their Disney Channel and they've got their you know, they got their ESPN and they got they're watching this sport, this entertainment and they've got their video game set up, they got two Ps fives hooked up. They're just

living luxury, right? And money's coming in money's just coming in. And they're living this this corrupted life, this this entertaining, luxurious life, you know what happens at one point, people become bored of the mundane entertainment. So they want something more to entertain them. So they want to do crazier things than they want to try different kinds of drugs than they want to kind of different kinds of partying than they want to do different kinds of wild behaviors, right. And so industries that entertain those who are bored, start popping up and start proliferating, to entertain those who are now bored with the everyday, right. And when that happens enough, what has

now become a fabric of that society, corruption itself, for Sophia, for her guardian code, and when that kind of corruption expands what is destroyed, the basic fabric of families destroyed. The basic family, the fabric of parenting, of marriage, of basic relationships of decency, all of them get destroyed, because this obsession with being entertained, and this obsession with pleasure and leisure, that becomes what everybody's breathing in all the time. fossa coffee, half, I have got a cold for them Barnatan, mira, because corruption to happen, then they cause all kinds of corruption. And then the word becomes true on them. Meaning they get to a corrupt beyond the point of return.

And then this nation gets crushed. This is a rule that Allah has given of the rise and fall of nations. This is a principle. This is not a commentary on what's happening in current events. This is a commentary on what happens throughout human history and will continue to happen. And we need to figure out what side of that history we're going to be on. Where do you when is and that's the more important question. That's the real question. We have to ask ourselves, I pray that as we live our lives this limited time that we have that we actually become people have thought and were able to raise children that are children of clear thinking of critical and analytical thinking. So we can we

can actually become thought leaders in the world, not just in the OMA but in the world. BarakAllahu li Walakum filco Anil Hakeem, want to find your ear

hamdu Lillahi wa Katha wa salatu salam ala anybody livina Safa hos another volume Mohammed bin Mohammed Al Amin while he was here Jemaine God Allah azza wa jal vikita, behind Karim by the Buddha or the bIllahi min ash shaytani. R rajim. In Allah Allah muda Eketahuna so do not be Yeah, you heard in Amanu Sallu alayhi wa sallam with us Lima Allahumma Salli ala Muhammad Ali Mohammed can also later Allah Rahim Ali Ibrahim

Phil Alameen in the middle Majeed Allahumma barik ala Muhammad Ali Mohammed come on back to an earlier Brian Murphy I mean in the middle Majeed, everybody Allah rockenmacher moolah. It took a lot in the La Jolla model but I do listen what he thought he will call back when he learned fascia you will mooncup What are the crew Allah Akbar? Allah Whoa, yeah, hello my boss now, I'm going to Salah insalata kind of film in Abu Dhabi.