Surah Yusuf #70 – V108 – The Farthest Thing From Blind Faith

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or ambitious, or silly, unbelievable. melissani okoli hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala Morales at ambia evil Mussolini, and he was happy he has been bad. Today I will try to speak to you about it number 108 of Swords use of I believe it to be one of the most beautiful art of the entire solar, and very, extremely profound, it fuses so many things together in such few words. And that's actually part of the miraculous power of the Quran that Allah azza wa jal says very few words, and in those few words, he captures many, many realities. And whatever I attempt to do with you today, and trying to extrapolate what I can have, this is only, like I said, in my post a drop

in the ocean, like, I feel like sometimes when studying and if you're just looking at an ocean in front of you, I don't think of the Quran as an ocean, I think of the ayah as an ocean. And all you do is you just get to jump in and get a little wet. And no matter how much you experience the ocean, you're only going to come up with a few drops. And there is this endless ocean that still remains right. So what I share with you are some drops that I can pick up. And what Allah does in his wisdom is then people come his slaves come from every century, every corner of the world, different places, and a lot less than experienced other drops. And the history of and I'm not even a scholar, not even

anywhere close to that. But the scholars of our of our tradition, and the people that contemplate the Quran all over the world and all over centuries, Allah open different insights to them, and different observations about the same ayah. So you're reading different Have a seat, and one of us observed one of us observed observed one thing, and another person living in a different century in a different continent observed something else about the same exact idea. And they have something in common and they diverge also, and they're not contradiction contradicting each other. They're just observing something additional. It's almost like you're looking at a beautiful painting, right? And

you observe this one corner of it. You see the contrast of colors here? Did you notice that cloud over there? Something like that, right? You, you took a portion of that picture. And you found that stunning and somebody else says, Yeah, I didn't see that. I didn't notice it to the detail that you did. But I was focused on this. And they observe something about another part of that same picture, they're all looking at the same thing. But they observe different things about it. And that's really what this I, you know, in many ways does. So I'm going to try to translate it first in very brief English. And then we'll go through the multiple phrases in it that are each of them worthy of

discussion. So the first of them all say declare, meaning Allah is now telling his messengers I said, I'm to say something. And this is important, because when Allah tells the prophet to say something, he's basically saying, Go and confront those people and tell them publicly, right? So part of the Quran is, you know, ourselves, like for our own recitation, our own contemplation, our prayer, etc. And then there are parts of the Quran where the prophets I seldom is explicitly being told this, especially go and declare to them, and when you declare to them the first word there, he'll hear his cool say, in other words, I'm not the one saying this, I've been told to say this. So

even in the in when they hear say, Why is he saying, say, he should just say it? Right? So I'm quoting My God, who told me to say this. So it's actually now this divine authority with which these words are, you know, slamming onto the evil like, they're coming down with this power. And that's, that's encapsulated many times, just in the word coil, you know, so it almost reinforces all over again. Do you think these words that are coming out of his mouth or his because I told him to say this whole then how he said, Really? This is my path? This is my path.

Man, I could stop here. But no, I'm gonna keep going and translate the brief first, tell it say this is my path, do ilaha illa basura tin, I invite to Allah, I invite to God

on the basis of insight on the basis of clear vision. Okay, so say this is my path I invite to a law on the basis of clear vision. I know well, Manitoba, Annie, I and whoever follows me or I and whoever were to follow me, was Subhana Allah and I declare a loss perfection above all well, am I

I'm in a machete Kenya and I am not at all among those who associate anything or put anything next to Allah, we keep our I keep my faith in Allah as the exclusive only true God. And I attribute divineness or anything even close to it, and I give him no partners. Well, I'm no Michigan, I'm not from those kinds of people. These are the, it seems at face value, pretty straightforward statements, but each one of them is so profoundly loaded. So let's start at the top. The profit slice is saying this is my path right? Now, when you say this is my path, like if somebody says, This is my way, or this is how I achieve success, or this is what I believe, then they are putting

themselves in a sort of podium. They're putting themselves on a pedestal when they say that it's a position of aggrandizement, when you say I, this I that or I the other, this is my way, you should follow me. I'm the one calling to Allah III. So it's a focus on the self. And Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is has this incredible humility to Allah azza wa jal that he would have trouble even saying those words unless Allah commanded him to. So let's just say this is my path. He doesn't just say this is my path. He says, say, I know you, you would say this is the path of Allah. You wouldn't say this is my path, you'd rather say this is the path of Allah, right? Like in the Quran,

Fie, Sevilla, or Seville Allah. Right. Or SEBI Li, you know, so in the Quran, so many times, it's a lost path, his path, his path. So it's like the road and the owner of the road is Allah. And in desire, it's as if to prophesize. I'm saying this is my road. This is my path. Right? Which is a different perspective. It's, sometimes Allah describes this as a less path. Now he's describing it as he's telling the prophet to describe it as his own path. So why, why the difference. So another place in the Quran that similar to this whole in Cornelio manual, I don't know, I want to tell them if mine had actually taken the sun. If he did, in fact, have a son, then who would know more than I

would, I am though, first of all, who can worship no one worships more than I do. So if anyone knew someone was worthy of worship, other than a line, he had a son, I would be the first one to know. And the words there are 100 RBD. One of the meanings of that can be, I am first and foremost, among any who engage in any worship, no, no worship, or of any religion, whatever they worship, even their false worship doesn't compare to the amount and the dedication of worship I do to my rub. So nobody even knows what worship is the way I do. Now, this, again, is very self praising. And it's not because the prophets lie, some didn't say this, he was commanded oil in Canada, invalid. And it's a

reinforcement of the same idea. When the Prophet is told to make a bold statement on his own behalf, you'll find a whole behind it, you'll find a backing behind and it does something else. It's not just that the prophet SAW Selim is saying, I'm not putting myself on that pedestal, it is coming from a large origin. There's another thing here. And the other thing is, when I make this declaration, when I do this, it's it's standoffish, actually, you know, it's confrontational. When you talk like that, and we'll dig into that a little bit. And when you talk like that, you better have backing.

Right?

And you want to when you don't, if you want to talk big, you better have backing. And if he wants to talk this big, and without when someone talks wants to talk big, and they don't have backing, they're gonna get beat up. But it's also Selim can speak with full confidence. Even if he stands alone, it says, My path, not the path of many Not me, and my army just I my path. He can say that because of the power of oil behind him. Because that oil represents Allah, Who told him and inspired him to say this and will protect him on this path. Nobody can take him on this road because he has security. You see, when in the ancient desert when somebody was traveling alone, they're an easy

target for bandits. So people will travel in a caravan. So the imagery of someone taking a road and this they're the only one on that road makes them the most vulnerable. And yet with the word coil, nobody is more protected than he is everybody else should be afraid that it's reversing the image just by Hillary Clinton. So call her v. Sebelius.

Another beautiful thing here.

The phrases This is my path, right? So there's two parts here, this and my path. So let's think about the word this for a moment. You can look at the word this in two ways. And then there's a third add on and I'll explain all three.

You can say for example, I tell you a story. And at the end of the story, I say this is my story.

And and there you have it, this is my story, right. So or this is what really happened. So you, you got caught by the cops and they have you in the interrogation room, and they get your whole confession or whatever. And then you say at the end of it, this is what happened. So the word This is referring to everything that came before

Right. So when we're thinking about the word This is it's not referring to what is ahead, but is referring to what is before. Another way of thinking about this. For example, masayoshi son was asked what's in your hand and he said how he Isiah, this or he or Isiah, it is myself. Or if I say howdy Hippo, this is a table. I'm not referring to something behind me or something in the past. I'm seeing right in front of me. It's obvious. Jani spolu, Shara, you you first saw Ruby mavado, the pointing the pointing word is being explained by what's coming right after it. What do you mean by this? I mean table. Right? I mean, microphone, this is the microphone. So the first way, if the word

This is referring to what came before, let's think about it from that point of view, when those who have lost Listen, I'm saying this is my path, at the end of sort of use of it as if he's saying this entire story of a path that this man took alayhis salam who was married many times alone in the path that he took, many times he was being dragged along the path that he took, but he never left the path of Allah when he took it.

That path is no different than my own path. This is also my path. You're not just reading about a man that came 1000s of years ago and had this path that he had to go through. Because actually, even though the events may be different, the history may be different. The people around him may be different, the trials may be different. But the fact that he was traveling towards a lot and I'm traveling towards a lot actually means even though our times and locations and generations and languages were different, the road we are on is exactly the same. This thing that I just described is no different from my own road.

This is my path to so beautiful. It says if asylum has tied his his road to the road of use of hard asylums legacy to the road of jacoba, asylums legacy and this concept of the profits lesson and being on the legacy of previous profits right, following the pattern and the legacy of previous profits is reinforced in other places in the Quran. So Allah will say something like, like olma contributor Amina Rasul tell them I'm not some new innovative kind of Prophet. This I this isn't new, this has happened before. For instance, the Luca *a coups de barro Soloman kubla Khan so Talia and Ron if they're calling you a liar many messengers were called liars before you

that's that's already happened before you

then the law says law you can live in this hotel in LA you can Latina de la bajada hamaca de those are the people who like it, he's talking about previous profits. Those are the people like I did then on their guidance take take cues of leadership from their guidance, the prophet is being told take from their guidance.

Hola Hola, como la illogical alameen now about that ayah take from their guidance right? And take because if the DA is from goodwill hola means leadership. So take cues of leadership from them take on their leadership qualities in your legacy. Right. And continue that leadership quality. Listen, what what? Good barozzi good. Was he different from facade University by the way, we'll have Kakaako Raja washy Anika sharp. So in his commentary on Akasha, which is a master list of See, sorry, these are geek outs, but still awesome stuff and know who you are. I know and if the de movie, Lisa lfls lock and file data, we'll see if it Camila that when the prophets being told take from their

leadership and take from their legacies, he's being told to take nothing except the highest morals and the most perfect qualities personality traits could work. wilhelmi was Sabri was zodiark Asada shoukry, like forbearance and passionate you know, compassion and perseverance and a spiritual connection to Allah, and excessive gratitude, what Ruairi and humility when we had other qualities like that, where you're going to fill IoT delille. And this is certainly expressed as a clear evidence of a novel sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that the prophet SAW Selim of the lumen, whom is the most blessing of all of them? How is this ayah that says, take from their leadership? They were the

ones that were guided take from their leadership and embody those qualities, how is it saying that he's the best of them? Because when you if you tell me be more like this one, or be like that one, or take from them and take from them, you're basically saying they're the ones to take from so they're role models. So how is the IRS saying that the prophet who is to take his role model or is in the highest place? Look at how beautifully Allah says this. So this is the explanation of it. Aluminium kata and he's absolutely the most blessed among them. Lita Mooney, ha and Allahu Allah had a Columbia Allah Hema Salam ala for Ba, da p or C Fatima Kemal, that Allah listen to this because

Allah includes in it the idea he is embedded in this ayah the idea that Allah endow those people, those profits with the blessings of many great characteristics

And qualities. Well, Hazel, Amara Rasulullah sallallahu Soto and Jacobi Buddha home and when Allah commanded His messenger to take the leadership qualities of guidance from them, Jimmy and altogether internal alisma and you call a nahu lamium dessin it's actually becomes to protect the integrity of the prophets Allah didn't say be like them. He said take the elements from them so don't copy them. Right so when you say be like someone they're better than you right but take something from someone is you're you're you're taking a quality but you're not taking the whole and so he goes further and says for Louboutin, you call it has to be said and now who are they sought to serve them? But he

doesn't know what Toby Jimmy is Alec? Well, how sala

de la latifi Jamia him for Mr. Murphy human kosali Kemal Makana Mata for confy him

where he is in young Yoku after the main home in Jimmy him after lemon Jimmy he got on camera and now after lumen coolibah had him at home, Westin baton Hassan as if to say, one prophet had the great quality of confidence or sadness around overcoming fear. Another prophet had the great quality of being thankful to Allah even in the middle of a crisis, you know, like, you know,

you know, you can think of new holiday Salaam, you know, can abdon Shakira, right? You can think of prophets like Eunice la Salaam, who never lost trust in Allah, no matter how dark a situation God, each one of them demonstrated a profound quality in different circumstances, Allah tested them and brought out some different quality and different prophets in different ways. Right. And he says, It is as if Allah has told the Prophet size him to take the best of all of their qualities and fuse them into one person that were found individually. And each of them

like Musashi, salaam had a tough temper, right to the point where he punched someone, or later on that he grabbed his brother's beard, that's not the quality the profits following solo hernias alone, right? So you've got you've got different profits with different qualities. And the profits of them is the merger of all of the best qualities that Allah guided those profits with in one and that's what the is a, and that makes him the most bless, it's a lot harder for them. So in that sense, if you think of it that way, it is as if when the Prophet says this is my path, and the word This is referring to the past. It says if he's saying allies, telling him to say, this path of mine,

is actually the culmination of the best of the guidance given to all of the prophets before you. And all of the good of their paths has fused together in the path that I have given you. And then you turn and say, This is my path. Now, this is now my path, as if this was the path of many before me, and now it's mine. Now Allah has given this to me. It's amazing. Just this is my path. Just those words are just profound. And you know,

nada, Sania kilani, in his Muslim Quran, in his study of the synonyms of the Quran, he actually argued that the word Seville is something that has been traversed a lot.

So Serbia is not a new road. Right? So it is something that's been, you know, traveled quite a bit. And so as if the prophets saying this path that I've chosen, has been walked by many, but now it's reached this perfection. And now it's mine. This is Paul Harvey, he Sebby. So it's got these comprehensive elements of all that came before but in particular, I wanted to highlight something not just about all the profits, but specific to the suit our studying Well, obviously studying. So the use of

and if you say this word use of

you find that Ibrahima, this

is the patriarch of the family. And when use of cells tells the dream, even the father is happy that you are continuing the legacy of your father, Ibrahim Ali Salman and Yusuf Ali Salaam, when he's in prison. He also mentioned that I follow the religion of my father's and he starts with Ibrahima the setup.

So if you know I wish I did this in PowerPoint, but I didn't have time but

because I know some kids are watching too. And I want you got to know this stuff. Well, right. So Ibrahim alayhi salam, and you can think of his two sons you've got and he has more sons, but two that we're highlighting is his smile and his heart. Okay, a smile and his hug. And then his hug has Yaqoob and Jaco has use of. So they're all children of Abraham and enormous, my many, many, many, many, many generations of children. Finally, the civil law. Sorry, right. So that's those are the two lines. But if you think about the line that connects with us, right, Ibrahim alayhis salam and use of have something in common that his heart didn't have any alcove didn't have. So what I'm

saying is Ibrahim alayhis. Salam has a son named yaku, also named as Hawk and there's something different about this Hawk, and there's something different about yaku. And then the

something common again with use of. So the great great, great grandfather and the great great great grandson have something in common now what do they have in common? Ibrahim Alayhi Salam was expelled from his home.

Ibrahim alayhis salam was alone

and follows his religion when no one around him is believing in his religion. Abraham Elisa was being put to the test abandoned his faith in you know, from the fire of the outside, right. And then there's the fire of temptation on the inside. That is tempting, you know, that is coming at use of any sort of

malice I'm surrounded by a disbelieving people

and unsupportive society. Use of Halle salami surrounded by that isolation. You see his son, his heart is raised by a believing father. yaku is a believing Prophet, and he has believing children and he has a somewhat of a support system and raised by his Huck. So there's some support system there. Islam is present in its trials, and there's hypocrisy, but Islam is present. They're not the only believers around.

But it says if you serve had to relive Ibrahim in some way, how do you understand that? So when he says I follow the way of my father's, you would think in prison, he would say I follow the way of my father Yaqoob is Hawk and Ibrahim. So he would go Dad, granddad great granddad, right. He would go that way. But actually, he says, what about the military by Ibrahim? I follow the way my father Ibrahim, Yahoo. And so he goes in reverse order, in a sense, because actually, his trials and his journey is closest to his great grandfather, Ibraheem alehissalaam. Right. So now think about this. What I'm saying is there's a there's an interesting connection being made between Ibrahim and Yusuf.

And then the Prophet is saying, This is my path.

Right? So a third connection is being made Ibrahim to use have to receive the last item in this sutra. Why? Because the prophets I said that was also starting off alone. There's no familial support. In fact, he's even standing up against idols like his father Ibrahim alayhis, salam, and if the story holds true, Yusuf Ali Salaam stolen idol also.

Right. So when he says, This is my path, he's saying, I have a deeper profound connection to your use of, and then through him to Ibrahim alayhis salam, and that is the path that I follow. There's this beautiful connection throughout and what does that connection teach us? It teaches us that the prophets I said, I'm our Prophet arisa to Salaam, we are now a fifth or more of the population of the world. We're not isolated. Right? And when Muslims live in a minority country, if you're a minority Muslim country, if you're a Muslim in New Zealand, right, if you're a Muslim, and like Ireland or something, or if you're a Muslim in a state in the United States, where has barely any

Muslim population, or you just became Muslim, and there's no Muslim in your family, right? Then you feel like Ibrahima a some kind of like alone by herself. And even me, I mean, I'm of Pakistani origin, right? We're living in the United States, you feel like Muslims are a minority. And men that I feel different when I travel to Malaysia, when I travel to Indonesia, when I traveled to Qatar, when I travel to, you know, Muslim countries. When I travel, you just got a different feeling. Why? Because being Muslim is the normal thing.

Well, as weird, we're supposed to be the weirdos.

But now everybody's walking to the

dust. It's just it kind of hits you a little bit when you're living in a minority circumstance, right. But when you think about these profits, we're used to thinking of ourselves as a civilization, right of millions and millions of people.

But actually, originally, the great legacy of the Prophet slice out of is that he is standing on his own.

And when you're alone in something, and you feel like you don't have that you have no human support. It's really hard to stand firm.

Because everybody you've ever leaned on in your life wants you to trip. And even if they don't want you to trip, they certainly can't help you stand firm on your faith. They can help you in other things. They can be like in Abu Dhabi for you. But they can't help you with your faith. They can't help you against all your trials, the internal ones and the external ones. Yusuf Ali Salam had to stand on his own.

Those who lost his declaring in this ayah just like they stood on their own. This is my path. Doesn't matter if I'm on my own. Tell them that. Let them know that and this is important because the Arabs for your generation before generation before generation for such a long time, they've been tribal people. And those of you that come from Eastern countries and you have big families and extended families, in a sense, you have 1% of what tribal life looks like. You know how much you think about what other family members will say and do

When you're going to make a decision, and how much do you get yelled at, because your uncle is gonna say this, your, all your cousins are gonna say this, your grandfather's gonna say this, they're gonna say this, they're gonna do it. And you're just losing your mind, like, all those people have to be pleased before I buy the shoes.

Or before we go to that, that Hall, or we make this decision or that decision. Everybody has to be pleased. Everybody has to be unsafe, because there's tribal thinking. Right. And in tribal thinking, when somebody changes their religion,

when somebody takes their own path, poof.

It's like they've abandoned everybody. You you get instructions, don't talk to that one, that one spoiled, they'll spoil you too. So people will protect their kids from the one that's gone off, the one that's gone astray. And you know what, back in the day, when you were the only one that's a believer, the only one that's gone astray. The last cause is the Muslim. Everybody else is normal. They became weird. Koran says we're the ones that have found a path. Everybody else is lost. But actually the world sees it, that they're on the path, and we're the ones that are lost.

You're the one that's crazy, what happened to you? Why did you become so extreme.

And in that moment, the prophet sizes that was being told, stand tall, and say, This is my path,

connecting it, I may not have support in front of me.

I mean, I have people that I can lean on right now. But there are people that died a long time before I came, and I can lean on the spirit of their legacy.

So I can feel their presence. I can feel the presence of the struggle of Ibrahim alayhis salaam, and the presence of the trials of use of aneesoft and the presence of my my Beloved Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, when I stand alone, I'm actually not alone. I have a friend this is my path.

It says if almost it includes the idea, this is my family. These are my people.

You know, when you think of the word oma, you think of people that are Muslim around the world this summer, right?

You know how the word is using the Quran.

Allah talks about profits from long time ago. And you know what he says, In the heavy metal cometan wahida this, then all this no doubt is your oma, a single oma.

When you think of your oma, you think of those profits, they're tied to you that connected to you. They're connected to you by my cause and direction, by purpose. This is an empowerment Allah gave because people feel empowered with numbers. And Allah says, No, I want you to feel empowered by the path you're on. And because you feel honored that you take a step that 1000s of years ago, your father Ibrahim took,

and 1000s of generations after him his son use of talk. And Jared generations after him, his son you mahamudra suicide Salaam tuck, and now you get to take a step among those steps, you get to take a step towards a lot.

So you let them know how the CBD This is my path. Then I said, Okay, so the this could refer to what came before right? Then the word this could refer to what is in front of you.

Like I said, this table, this is my tip, this is the table. So when you say this is my path, it says if the profit slice is in Makkah, he's an Arab, he speaks the same Arabic everybody else does. The Arabs wear certain kinds of clothes, he wears those same kinds of clothes. The Arabs eat certain kinds of foods, predominantly, he's eating the same kinds of foods. Actually, early on, no dietary restrictions have been revealed either. Right. And even with the dietary restrictions, for the most part, the food is the same, the diet is the same, it's not like you're going to get different kinds of fruits, this is going to get the same kind of fruits, same kind of recipes, then the housing is

the same. Right? The market that he has to go and get food from and get clothes from is the same market the currencies, the same currency everybody else is using. The neighborhoods are the same neighborhoods everybody else is using. He shares a family with them. He shares a genealogy with these people. He shares an anthropology a social history with these people. He's concerned about their well being he's a member of that society. Does he have a lot in common with Christ? Absolutely.

Have you? We don't have photography, but if there was such a thing, and you saw a picture, you would, you wouldn't tell the coffin from the moment not from appearance. We'd say Mashallah.

It could be the victor, you wouldn't know, because he had probably had a beard and turban determined arrows weren't turbid that wasn't an Islamic thing was an Arab thing. Right? It was a sign of nobility. So they were the tribal leaders especially. So the tribal leaders if we had like photographs of a Buddha and Abu lahab and those kinds of people right now we were like, man, who's that.

What I'm saying is culturally, they look no different. linguistically, they don't look different.

Right. They have a lot to share with the man who was raised among them. Muhammad Rasul Allah and he's lived

More than 40 years left, to Fukuyama, I've spent a lifetime among you.

In the Quran makes that claim, I tell them, I've spent a lifetime among you, as one of you, right as one of you.

But then the thing is, you can live in a country where you share language, where you share french fries, pizza, where you share the same ice cream, where you share the same kind of likes and cars where you share the same level of sports, where you share almost everything.

But you don't share a path.

Your path is different.

You have a lot in common. But something sets you apart. And that one thing actually defines you more than everything else.

We're not more Muslim, because we dress like a Pakistani, or dress like an Indonesian or just like a synagogue, or dress like a Cerro de, or just like a Qatari, or just like kind of Lani that doesn't make us more Muslim. Those places. At one point were machinic.

Even the house of Allah was flooded with the machete key, wasn't it?

It's not the place you come from, or the heritage or the culture, because you speak Farsi or more Islamic before you because you speak Bahasa before you because you speak Urdu. Or because you speak Arabic, you're more Muslim. No, that's not actually true. Because you speak English, or you speak Spanish, or you speak German, or you speak French, you're less Islamic. That's not true, either. That's absolutely true.

But you know what makes someone Muslim then it's actually not the cultural markings of your clothes. It's not the language. It's not even the recipes, the food you eat. It's the the moral spiritual convictions, your beliefs. And those beliefs lead you down a path. And that path makes you different from everybody around you. It doesn't matter if you speak the same language, Ibrahima speaking the same language as the villagers.

He's raised in that same area.

He's got a different path, though. And this is the kicker now, you are different. But you know what happens when you live in a society that doesn't believe in Allah? What the Quran described as yahaya ignorance right? When the societies are dominated by ignorance of Allah,

you know, what's crazy about that Zi and Allahu Allah home, the devil makes their deeds beautiful to them.

So you know what happens? They become very proud of their ignorance.

They become proud of being shameless.

They become proud of being reckless. They become proud of being defiant, defiant. They become they, they revel in their arrogance. They celebrate heedlessness, they celebrate sin. And they show it off. Like it's something to take pride in. It's like a trophy for them. Their wine collection is a trophy for them. You know, their, their their, you know, frivolous spending is a trophy for them showing off of their material wealth as a trophy for them, exposing themselves, you know, doing all kinds of Zin, all of that. That's it, that's something to be proud of.

It's different from someone making a mistake, or someone taking a pride in it, right? This is they're proud of it. This is like, we're liberated, we're free. You know, and they take and then there's their religions, or their beliefs, and they're proud of their beliefs. And they say every other belief is stupid. And atheist will say all religions are stupid. Well, they, and they'll speak loud and proud about what they believe.

And you know, what happens when you have a dominant culture, this is dominant culture. When you have a dominant culture, and somebody comes in, who's let's say, Buddhist,

let's say somebody tellest let's say somebody is a very traditional Hindu,

right? We're not even talking about Islam right now. There's the traditional religious, whatever, right? And they used to go to the temple and they have their, you know, their, the certain religious items they carry with them all the time. And sometimes they just want to meditate to take their statue out, and they want to meditate if one of those young men or women go to University here in America, right, and they want to do their Buddhist worship, or they want to meditate or something in the middle of the campus lawn, will they they'll look around and say everybody's gonna look at me funny.

You know, what's gonna happen? The people those the dominant culture takes pride in what it has. And every smaller population culture has to almost act like we need to act more like we fit in with the dominant culture. We need to dress more like them talk more like them be more like them, like the things they like hate the things they hate, so we'll fit in better because we want them to see us as one of them. We don't want them to see us as foreigners are inferior or different, and the only way to be equal this

to be like them, to act like them to talk like them. And you know what that means. That means our culture, our heritage, our tradition, all of that inferior that's like, you know, don't like you know, people will this is not just Muslims, but people from different religions, they have very difficult names in English to pronounce, right. So we'll come up with a convenient Bob. Right. And then their mom comes to visit them in college, and she's talking to them in the local there. She's talking to the southern Vietnamese

or she's talking to the Somali young man, you know, and they're speaking, you know, our family's speaking in Senegalese, and my son's getting a little, like, awkward, like, my friends are here, Mom, why are you calling me that?

She wants to hug him or kiss his forehead, right? or pray to law cause and he's feeling like, Mom.

And his friends are like, wow, that's weird, bro. That's okay. All right. You know, you know what happens in every religion that is a minority, every culture, that's a minority, they feel they start feeling whether consciously or subconsciously, they start feeling inferior to the majority.

I speak of this from experience, I don't mind making this. I'm not research papers, I live this. When I first came to the United States, I didn't speak English. I felt embarrassed in high school, I felt inferior to everybody else, they made fun of me, my biggest motivation to learn English was to not be humiliated.

That was my motivation.

You know, and then, even after you get to speak, then you have to, you can't dress a certain way, you can't even walk a certain way.

You can't even say sentences in proper English a certain way. Because you will get wrecked, you have to emulate the cursing, you have to copy the clothing, you have to copy the structure in your walk to fit in with a certain group. So you don't feel inferior. So you feel like you fit in. So you have to belong.

And these giant Hill ideas, they're so proud of them. And they feel so powerful and mighty because they have numbers.

And what does Allah do in the face of all of that?

He says, stand tall and say this is my path.

This is my path is what you call counterculture.

There are two extremes.

One extreme we reject Western society. America is

right now you're you live in Indonesia and somebody is buying like Adidas sneakers you like you're buying coffee or sneakers. Don't buy kafirs t shirts, be Islamic. Right? There's nothing wrong with sneakers or t shirts.

What's wrong is it's not their clothes. It's not technology. It's not the cars. It's not the infrastructure. What's wrong is the values. Wherever there's a value that we don't believe in, we don't adopt it. And whenever there's something good we take it.

As a sort of loss Isilon received gifts from different parts of the world. He didn't say that's a gift. I'm not taking it.

Oh, that's, that's a motion accent. I'm not gonna wear it.

That's the Hindu Hindu shirt. I wouldn't put that on Sahaba winter Roman, what were Roman codes? They didn't say this is the People of the Book. We don't want to be like them, because we will be judged as them. No, because they were clear about their path, man. They were clear about what makes them Muslim. What makes them Muslim. So what are the two extremes? Let me spell this out for you. And today, I won't finish this I I'm maybe not even halfway through discussing this either. But this path thing really needs hashing out right? So

the two extremes one extreme is the path of Islam means we reject all cultures.

We reject anything that isn't from that we can attribute to the Sunnah of the prophet SAW Islam has no room in our life. That's absurd.

That's ridiculous.

I come from Pakistan, and many of the cultural traditions in Pakistan actually can be traced to Hinduism. That doesn't mean they're Hindu traditions. That means there were some aspects of Hindu culture, like the colors of clothes that people wear in weddings, or the flowers or whatever else, right? The festivals, those cultural traditions that don't contradict any teaching of Islam, they don't go into Islam, they don't go into *. They don't. They don't contradict any teachings of Islam. Those traditions can stay. But what Islam does is it cleans them up and make sure they're in line with the path that allow ordained. That's it.

You can also do away with a culture. There's nothing evil about American culture. There may be elements of evil in it, just like there are elements of evil in every society. I can accept many parts of this culture and rich

Other parts of this culture and you know what I will be open about it,

I will be very open about it. And because I will say what my Prophet was commanded to say, no matter how offensive it was, say, this is my path. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't be ashamed of saying who you are and what you believe in what you don't believe, what you accept and what you don't accept. Because people won't like what you have to say, people will judge you, people will consider you judgmental, or misogynistic, or whatever else. Okay?

Whatever label they want to give you, they want to give you you, if you're convinced that your Rob gave you something, you stand by it.

You stand accordingly. So on the one hand, we stand by our values, and we can accept any culture actually, Islam is the most adaptive was profound, you know, Dean that allows me to give it for all of humanity not so all humanity could look like Arabs.

If that was the case, then you know, because that happens to some of you. I know this is gonna sound politically incorrect. I don't care. But some of you got younger guys, you become more Islamic. And the next thing you know, the only way you can, you know, rock Islam is you're going to walk around with the autobahn. Right? And I'm nothing against those folks are cool, but not my thing. A martial art for me is kind of guy when I'm in the mood. But anyway, I used to wear thongs sometimes to back in the day when I was feeling more Islamic. But you know what, it has nothing to do with being Sonic. It's just Arab cultural clothing, in some parts of the Arab world. And by the way, those

tubes, try running in them.

But you got to do.

lessons you got to do, how are you going to ride a camel and nothing? How you gonna ride a horse in that thing? How are you gonna wield a sword back in seventh century Arabia? Nothing. You understand. Cultural codes have changed over time. They weren't exactly like this. But we feel if we dress like the Arabs, for example, then we have become more Islamic no dressing like the Pakistanis dressing like the ohanaeze dressing like the Malaysians or Indonesians or Americans or Germans or French or who dressing like someone doesn't make you more Islamic. The principles of dress have been given in the book

that's been given in the book, not the culture which must be followed, not the culture,

the traditions, that we must live by the the things that we must adore, the things that we must commit to have been given. Other things haven't been restricted.

So we can exist in a culture. Musa Valley, Sam can live in the castle, right? He's not picking some other kind of housing. And there are priests in that society, there are pagans in that society, even as King believes all kinds of crazy things. He is part of that culture. In many ways. He speaks their language, he helps those people. He understands how, where they come from, and all of that stuff. But at the same time, he knows exactly what his path is.

He's a merger of both things. The best of their culture, and the truth of his religion, and they don't compromise what happens with people, when they say when we want to become if we want to fit in. We need to let go of Islam because it just doesn't fit.

We have to let go of the religion. No, you don't. You know, this Deen is not a compromise. None of the teachings of our Deen are going to be bent or pulled away and you feel and I feel that we are slaves of Allah, that's not going to happen. This is not a negotiation. Well, what do you know for you? They wish that you could give a little take a little.

So they will give a little take a little they want to negotiate this thing. Right? This is not a negotiation. It's not a negotiation. So one one solution that Muslims have come up with, unfortunately for themselves, is they'll completely isolate themselves from every culture.

And the other is, oh, man, if I want to be part of the world, and I got to let go of Islam a little bit, come on, loosen up a little Well, yeah. Right. I didn't expect either one of those things, because they're not realistic. They're not realistic. And if you become an isolationist, you develop a hatred for the society. What is use of a son? Does he hate the society? Or does he love and care for that society? Is he able to relate to that society speak to them in a way that they understand because he's part of them? He's among them. Even Association Lacan lobbies to fukumura I've spent a lifetime among you. And yet, even though he's in a place where they do dirty business, they cheat

each other, they wronged each other. He's doing business with integrity from day one.

That's what he that's what makes him stand different.

So when he says, This is my path for the Muslim for you and I, we now must understand what our path means. For many people in the Muslim world. If you're living in Pakistan, if you're living in, you know, Indonesia, Malaysia, if you're living in the Arab world, somewhere, living in Egypt, Morocco, wherever, you know what the oven can be heard.

The machines can be filled at joumana when they could be right but Quran is being recited there Islamic channels on TV

That are profoundly boring sometimes but still there on TV. You've got Islamic media, you've got halaal restaurants everywhere Islam's here, hey,

except there's bribery.

There's politicians being bought out. There's interest. There's cheating people in business. There's people not giving the inheritance when they should. There's people lying, scheming, cheating, killing. All this stuff is happening. But at least we have good weed.

That's not our path. Our path is the path of justice. uprightness. Our path is a path of principles. And you know what, sometimes being in a Muslim society, we get complacent into thinking maybe because we're majority Muslim society, and Islam is here. Is it?

Is that what Islam looks like? Does Islam condone any form of classism? There's Islam condone any kind of oppression against any any group of people, any group of people, because just because of who they are.

Does it condone that? Not the Islam that I've tried to study for the last 20 years?

I don't find that in my religion.

But yet, we can we can engage in oppression, engage in injustice, engage in racism, engage in classism, engage in materialism, and have the audacity to say this is my path.

All of those things are the other path. Not Not this path. But some other paths were diluted, we have to wake up and and understand what our path really means. The Suicide salon is being told defiantly to say to an openly aggressive culture against Islam. Tell them declare this is my path. However, he severely

in face of a culture that says we have the best culture there could ever be by Yaba Beto de partie como Muslim.

The Pharaoh said Moosa and Haruna, Moses and Aaron are a threat, because they will get rid of your exemplary lifestyle. But he got ecommerce. And you know, what that means is I use the big word exemplary lifestyle, I'm gonna put it in easy words for you. It's simple, it means we are number one, baby. Everybody wants to be like us. All these people from different lands come to us to learn how we do things. They buy our stuff. They emulate us, they make paintings and portraits of us, because we're on top. And these guys don't like that. We're number one. And they're trying to bring this new religion. They're a threat to us. So Islam is a threat against our national integrity, our

pride. So you have to decide, are you loyal to a nation or loyalty Islam? That's what the the narrative they created. And in the face of that, you still say, I want what's best for these people. And I still stand by my path, you will not question that I want the best for this land.

You will not get to question that. And you know, why not? Because when you say Hi, this is Emily, this is my path. Look at it's not something that is my path. When you say that is my path. I don't know what your path is about. It's a mystery. But when you are on the path itself, you say, you know what, why don't you come see what I'm walking on? Have I made it a mystery? Is there no transparency? Am I not demonstrating to you what this is and how good it is for the for the people around us? for everyone? By my living example, I'm showing it to you.

And I'm not hiding what this path entails. And I'm not hiding where it leads. I'm not hiding some agenda. Politicians hide agendas. They'll give a speech of one thing and their back door readings are a different agenda altogether. What do we what do we really want? How do we convince the people with some other lines? Right? So there's two there's what's really the intention, that's a different meeting, and what's really what's going to be set to do people that's on the microphone. When you say howdy he sabini This is my path, meaning my I'm here, I'm living on it, I'm walking it myself. So I'm not even asking you to walk something, I'm not walking myself first of all, and second of

all, where this leads is very clear. I am not hiding where it leads from the next part of the I will actually even say where it leads under Rule of Law. I call to Allah. This path leads to Allah. So powerful hoof.

So now here, we've got this pride, you know, the things have been reverse engineered people have pride and joy helia and we have shaman Islam, we're embarrassed of our Islam, that needs to be flipped. We need to have pride in our Islam. We have to have confidence in our Islam. But you know that balance that equation will be balanced because pride in Islam can also be create a false sense of superiority over others, right? That can go the other extreme. This I will prevent from that extreme to when we get to that portion. But before I leave you, I actually wanted to share a couple other things with you when you declare your own path.

Why is that so hard?

I mean, you're not you don't have

What is coming after you when you declare your past? Well, you have what I have, what the Muslims have, and what even a new Muslim has, what you have is some people closest to you.

Right? It could be friends, it could be family, it could be professional circle, whatever. They're the ones that have a problem with you having a path is not some stranger, don't care.

They can blow hot air and move on. But it's the people close to you that may have a problem.

For that, I want you to think about what people said to Sally Han Islam.

Sonia Islam, one of the Arab prophets, talked about in the Quran. He was basically an up and coming prodigy before being a prophet. So you know how, in elite families nowadays, someone's being groomed for higher office, like they're going to put them in, through Harvard, they're going to go through a military academy, they're going to go through certain steps, they're going to connect to certain people, because they're being poised to become, you know, Congressman, or senator. And then eventually, there's a 30 year plan that they're going to run for presidency. Right. So families with larger political ambitions, when they have a son or a daughter, that they have political ambitions

for, they already start grooming them towards that role early on, right, like the Kennedy legacy, for example. So they're grooming people for leadership. And they already have all the connections in place. And now they know how they can pass their, their legacy on. Right, their dynasty on that's what's happening. So other holidays around, I was born in a family where he was groomed for leadership. They knew he was going to lead this country, this this this area. He was he had the personality for it. He had the intelligence for it, he had the family background for it, they had aspirations in him.

But then he took the path that Allah guided him to allows him to reveals to him and he becomes a prophet and he starts calling to Allah and starts calling out the corruption that they're doing. Now. When you employ somebody for leadership, that actually means he will protect our best interests, not the nations

and he'll protect the legacy of the family. And that means the corruption will keep on going and he'll make sure it keeps ongoing. This is not for the best for the nation. So when he speaks of justice, and called calls back to Allah, this is what they say.

kalu they said y'all solea solea called goon Tofino been more a Jew and Kabbalah haha. Man, those words pierced through the heart. They say there was so much hope put in you among us before all this. We have so much hope in you, man. You are a rock star. You are up and coming.

Look at how What a disappointment you are.

This is this is what you want your life to be.

At then attend Hannah nabooda Maya Buddha.

You're stopping us from worshiping what our ancestors did. And that doesn't just mean we have this like clunky trans reading of these ions like, you prevent us from worshipping the gods of our ancestors. No, they're seeing our father's

your father, his father, his father, his father, they honor this God.

They honor this they built this temple. You're gonna go against that. After so much hope we had in you.

This is what we groom you for. This is what we invested in you. This is what he has to hear day in and day out.

As Kim capsulated in the

early Quinta finamore juhan kapa haka. uttanasana nabooda ma boo Abba una.

So when you say this is my path, who people are disappointed and they let you know.

They put you down like like you used to be in a good place. You're You're up here and our eyes I know you're like down here, right? And look at the flip. Allah saying Actually, this is the first time you've risen.

And the first time you they you realize how they were keeping you down.

And they can see the difference. But because shaytan has flipped reality for them. Good is evil and evil is good. They see it as you've humiliated yourself. They can't see it until the the blindfolds are removed.

Then until the blindfolds are removed, they can't see and the blindfolds are going to be it's an important word I dropped on you right now because it's coming. I call to Allah with vision.

We're gonna dig deep into that vision portion, and shallow Tana. final comment for today. I said I made reference to it, but I didn't explain it. I said the prophets lesson is being told this is my path. But many places in the Quran Allah calls it what alesse path.

From a from a literary point of view, it's perfectly understandable.

When you're following your GPS navigation, and you say, Oh, this is our turn, right? Oh, you missed our turn our turn.

Or you call somebody say, Is this your road?

That doesn't mean they're on the road? What does that mean? Is that the road? The house is on? Right? Or two people take two different highways, and they're going to the same place. As a man, my, my, my highway is going to get me there in like 15 minutes. What about yours mine 30 minutes. When you say my highway, does that mean you signed some contract? It just means you're on the highway, right? So we use possession for roads, when we are traversing a road. But that means here is when he says this is my path. Very simple, logical way to understand that is, this is the path that I'm on. This is the road that I've taken. And this has been my road. This is this is what it is. When Allah

says his path, he's saying he owns it.

When you say my path, you're saying you're walking it,

you're traversing it, right. So that's a literal, it's common sense.

But there's another beautiful sort of,

you know, connection that's been made by the two amplifiers. So when it off, I've been my path. When connection being my path, the other being the path of Allah, the path that Allah Himself carved

the road that Allah Himself laid the bricks for

the road that Allah Himself inspired so many other people to walk before me, so that it's, it's footprints eventually become visible. So you can see it's easier to walk. And this is the path that Allah generated over generations for it to become easy enough. And now I happen to be on it. As if you are saying, I have chosen the path that Allah himself out of his mercy especially laid out for me.

You know, how you say roll out the red carpet? Right? I imagine somebody rolls out the red carpet and you go the other

COVID VIP treatment, isn't it? This is as if Allah has gone out of his way to make this path that he owns. And he said, I laid this out for you. I want this to be yours.

I want you to take ownership of it.

It is mine. It belongs to me. But I want you to cling to it as if it's yours.

And now I share something with allies origin

is the last path and he made it my path to

its allies Dean and he made it my Dean is Dean of law

is Dean Allah. Will Dini also is my Dean also.

Allow me and me share his profit. He's Rasulullah. He's Middle School also,

is the book of Allah. Is my book awesome? Isn't it is there's something really beautiful about that. Something that it is so special and belongs to Allah, Allah wants me to have a share of that,

and have have a piece of that connected to me. Now I have something that actually belongs to Allah. And Allah wants me to have it. That's the beauty of sabini This is my path. Let the difficulties Come on it. Let the people make it harder. Let the circumstances make it harder. So what

is the obstacles on this road, and there's a destination and those of you guys that are gamers, right? When you play, you know, role playing games or whatever, you got to go through different levels to get to the ending. And the ending may be super boring, dude, you're still gonna play till the end. Because the ending is worth it for you. Oh, that's the ending.

You know,

you know what, we are obsessed with Epic endings.

We're obsessed with them. The ending here a lot, because to your to your master is the final destination. This is a path leading to Allah. And it's going to be a bunch of people along the way that will make this road easier to walk is going to be a bunch of people in situations along the way that are going to push you off this path. And you're going to find yourself off the road, and you're gonna have to claw back your way on there. Or you're going to be running at some point. Sometimes you're going to be crawling Other times, you're going to be limping Other times, sometimes you'll find yourself didn't even realize you turned around, you're walking the other way. in the opposite

direction because some people around you started walking in the opposite direction. You're like, well, if they're walking away I show to them. And so you start walking in the opposite direction. And then something will hit you maybe your consciousness will hit you the light from Allah will hit you and you say no, I want to walk back towards that light.

I want to be lit on Judgment a by the light of Allah will you turn back around? All of that is how the he said Really? We didn't do a lot here and obviously not in an hour when Ronnie was Hannah Allah, Allah and Amina Michigan, we didn't do any of that stuff. So we're gonna be an IRA number one wait for a little bit. But uh,

Hello and welcome to court Anil Hakim when he

said Mr. Kumar

I need to make my