Omar Suleiman – Are You A Motivator Or An Instigator

Omar Suleiman
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the impact of influence on behavior and personal attributes, including the difficulty of quantifying the impact of actions on one's face. They also touch on the harmful effects of drugs and the importance of praying in public. The speaker emphasizes the need for acceptance and embracing bad manners, and the importance of protecting people from evil behavior and forgiveness. They also mention a famous man named Michel ferry and the importance of protecting people from evil behavior and forgiveness for past actions.
AI: Transcript ©
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Hello Carla tala yeah you hola Dina Amano topo la haakaa toccata while at Morton Illa want to Muslim on? Yeah you Hannah Sakuraba kumala de hakomi nevsun wahida Allah caminhada Baba salmon humare john and Kathy are on one Isa what's up Oh la la vida de la una b1 or ham in LA con la cumbre Kiba yeah Eva Latina Amira Chappell La La kulu Colin de de de la Kamala Khan, Lacan xinova comme la hora Sula, who fucka defassa fosun Avi mathema, my bad. We begin by praising Allah Subhana Allah to Allah by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as his final messenger, we asked a lot

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of sent his peace and blessings upon him. All of his prophets and messengers, the family of our beloved prophets, the followers of our beloved Prophet, his companions, and we ask Allah to join us with him in the highest level of Jonathan Farah dose and the highest level of Paradise, a llama. I mean, dear brothers and sisters, last week, we spoke about how the features of leadership are often the features of society, or the behavior of one who is in charge of a people is often reflective of some aspects of the society, that that person governance, and how indirect influence can actually divide us further as people and can actually penetrate our morals and our manners and make things

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acceptable to us as individuals or as or as societies, that typically we would find unacceptable. And I want to move away from that, or build on that concept. But at a more individual level, for all of us to look at ourselves in a certain way. influence is a very powerful thing. And influence is hard to quantify. Some of us have been influenced by people that we may have no idea had any influence on us whatsoever, some of us might have features of the people that we hate, because of engaging with those people in certain ways. You know, they say that the worst thing that your enemy can do to you, is to make you like him, you argue with your enemy in a certain way. And you keep on,

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you know, hating certain things about your enemy, or you hate features about someone that you love. But slowly, slowly, those same features penetrate your behavior, and you become that person that you don't like, sometimes who we are as husbands are very much so what our fathers were like, as husbands, sometimes who we are as wives are very much so what our mothers were like, as wise, there are a lot of features in regards to anger or emotion or how we express ourselves or what we uphold to be righteous or wicked. A lot of that comes from the influence of the home. And maybe we ourselves did not recognize that a lot of times, it's more recognizable. Domestic Violence often is

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a continuation, it's a chain, a person who grew up watching domestic violence often becomes a perpetrator when they grew up as well. So sometimes influence is very obvious, and sometimes influences a lot more subtle. And it's important for us to ask ourselves, how we have been influenced, and how we influence others, what we leave behind, sometimes our own actions, the fruits or the harms of our own actions are very obvious. And sometimes they're not. We don't recognize the power of a word that we said, or an action that we've done, we set out to do something good, and we hope that Allah will accept it. And we see something in front of our eyes, that appears to be the

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fruit of that effort. But maybe there are other fruits that you're not seeing. And sometimes you try to do something good. And in your eyes, you felt you did not succeed in accomplishing that task. But Allah has placed fruits in places that you cannot see, maybe even in generations that will come after you that you can't see our entire lives. As believers. We are seeking to do things and to plant seeds that will continue to bear us fruits in regards to our good deeds. Well, after we are gone, you try to leave behind certain things, leave behind examples sadaqa jariya, continuous charity, put things there, teach someone something, so that those things will continue to benefit

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you. Well, after you are gone. And for some people, they perpetrate so much wickedness and evil or maybe they hurt someone and they don't seek forgiveness for it or they leave behind a poor example. Or they leave behind some sort of influence that testifies against them. And that continues to go against

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them while after they are gone. As an Imam Shafi Rahim Allah says Tula Lima Maxwell matters matter who the Nova glad tidings to the one who dies and his sins die with him. He has no sins that are continuing after him the opposite of a solid majority, the opposite of a continuous charity that will continue to harm him after he has gone because he left behind something that hurts somebody or hurts people, or an example, that was followed in disobedience to Allah subhanho wa Taala, or in a way that is cruel. So these are, these are things for us to consider. And this realm is very, very deep. It starts off with a hadith and this hadith has a story to it. And it's symptomatic of what

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the Allahu said some bedwin showed up in Medina. And they weren't, by the way, the indications of the Hadith and most of the scholars say they were non Muslim breadwinners, there were some Arab edwins that showed up, they were passing through Medina, and the Prophet slicin looked at them, and all they had to cover themselves were a few pieces of wool, so they didn't have you know, any type of real clothing that would help them with the elements. So he looked at them sallallahu wasallam and he was saddened by their situation. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam indicated to the companions that they should spend on them that they should give charity, and they were hesitant.

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When they hesitated, the prophets lie Selim started to look upset. Why isn't anyone coming forward? So one man goes out, and he brings forward some charity to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and once that person broke that trend, or that hesitation, then other people started to follow along as well. And he said, Sal, Allahu alayhi wa sallam man, Sunnah Phil Islamism that and Hassan whoever Institute's something or whoever does some sort of good in Islam, that is followed sunette and hasna. That is followed by Allah who adds Rojas. So he has the reward of that regimen, Amina beha, and he has the reward of every single person that followed him in that without taking away from the

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reward of the one who performed the deeds in any way whatsoever. And on the other hand, man, son, nothing Islami, whoever does something in Islam, that is harmful. That is evil fella who withdrew her. So he has the harmful effect of that wisdom and formula behind he will carry the burden of everyone that acts in accordance with that evil. The greatest example that we have the Prophet sallallahu wasallam mentions to us, the first son of Adam, and he said sallallahu wasallam, that every single time someone commits a murder, and there are a lot of those today, think about it, whether it's in Syria, or it's in Ethiopia, or it's in Texas. Anytime someone commits a murder the

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prophets lie Selim says the first son of Adam gets a share of that evil Why? What does he have to do with it? Right, what does he have to do with two two people fighting in the streets and then pulling a gun on one another? What does he have to do with someone doing something? You know, 1000s and 1000s. And 1000s of years later, the profit slice of them says what? Oh, one woman sandal cut. He was the first person that made killing acceptable.

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The way he did what he did, he made it a Sunnah in this world, he made it a tradition. He brought killing to this world by doing so. So he takes a share of that every single time. So when we see something evil today, you know, * is the biggest industry of fat out of wickedness in the world today, the first person who brought the idea that idea up who turned that into an industry every single time someone engages in that he has a share of that, because He instituted that evil. That's something that's obvious, the first person to start or to introduce a drug to society, that leads to people using that drug, and then deaths that come as a result of that drug, all of that the

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person who starts that has a share of that. Because there's some level of influence, even if it's not being seen. Can you imagine the first person that made gossip Okay, in a certain culture, the first the first person that made it okay in a family to talk about people, the first person that stole lands, the firt, you know, all of these firsts, but the effect of their sins are still there.

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And that power of influence is something that Allah subhanaw taala gave to us. And he also made us very impressionable being so we're also very influenced.

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Now, when we look at our own lives, there's a question that I would ask each and every single one of you. Are you an instigator or a motivator? Are you an instigator of evil? Or are you a motivator of good? What influence do you have? If you have children? What type of spouses are you teaching?

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teaching your children to be what type of believers? Are you teaching your children to be? What type of community members? Are you teaching your children to be? Even when you're not speaking to them? by your actions? What type of example are you setting for them? What type of example are you setting? In both your physical life, your real life and your alternate life, your social media life? What type of example are you setting for your circle? For those that are within your sphere of influence? Because each and every single one of us has a sphere of influence, what are you leaving behind? This has great potential, or it has great harm. On the on the potential side, some of you

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came to Juma early today And may Allah subhanho, wa Taala accept the Juma out of all of you. But the Prophet slicin A mentioned that the reward of those who come earlier and earlier and earlier is greater. So some of you might have come very early today.

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And while you were sitting, maybe you went and you picked up a copy of the Quran. And you started to read. And maybe there was someone in the back of the masjid that was on his phone. But when he saw you go and pick up that last half, he said, You know what, maybe I should read certain calf, you didn't even know that you influenced that person. But that person went and picked up almost half and started reading swords and calf. He started, you know, partaking in their eba, because of you, you have no idea that you influenced that person, every letter that that person read off or on was on your scale.

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Because that's the the mercy of this realm of influence, that when you are a person who does good, you might have been praying one day in the airport, and somebody was afraid to pray in public. But you know what they said, Hey, he's a Muslim, he prays in the airport, he prays in public, I just start praying in public as well. And that person started to pray in public, they didn't even say Salaam to you, you didn't even meet him for the rest of their lives that person felt that they need to pray from now on, or that it's okay to pray in public, a sister who's wearing hijab, in these difficult circumstances, may Allah subhanaw taala, protect our sisters, from all of the evil that is

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out there and all of the hatred that's out there, and someone else saw you and was inspired to do the same. You don't even know that you influenced that person. You don't know what you left behind. You're at a fundraiser and you gave Saba, someone saw that and was inspired. Someone saw the way that you, you know, put someone else's shoes in order to you know, in a humble way. And they did that as well. Someone saw something good from you, and they started to do it as well. That's your that's your good deed. On the other hand, someone sees you do evil or you invite to an evil and it's never attributed to you whatsoever, but it's yours.

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The one who instigates evil is even worse than the one who does it. I'll give you an example. There are two crimes in our religion liba and the Mima backbiting and Mima Mima includes an element of slander, and includes an element there are two forms of an amoeba. One is slander, which is to say something untrue about a person. The other is to go tell somebody what someone else said about them. So to cause enmity between people by quoting other people's words to them, which one of these two sins is worse? Now Mima is far worse than LIBOR? I'm talking about the quoting truth part. Think about this liba is to sit by your is to sit with people and to say something about your brother

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that's not true or your sister that's not true. And they would not I'm sorry to say something about your brother or sister that is true, but they would not like it to be. So Heba is to say something that's true.

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Now Mima is to go to somebody and to say look so and so said this about you

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as a means of stirring enmity between the people which one is worse? The one who caused enmity between people he's an instigator he's a chiffon he's literally you know, the the mailman What have you been one of them Rahim Allah tala man once came to him and told him Hey, so and so said this about you. He said couldn't shake on find another mailman. Other than you. You're the mailman of shape on your his postman. You're doing his dirty work for him instigating between people think mama daddy Rahim Allah Lhasa, you know who's worse than the one. Let's say you're sitting in a gathering, who's worse than the one who actually back bites. It's the one who instigated the backbiting. And he

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said that happens in two ways. A person says Kay Fulani, how is so and so doing.

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And he knows that the other person doesn't like him. I know you don't like this person. Right? And I'm sitting with you. And I mentioned his name, even though I'm not doing the backbiting or I'm not saying anything in a backbiting concept, or context. I mentioned his name in a way that will cause you to back bite because I know it will. Right? I like the fuse. And then that person goes off on him.

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me Mama does it

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Melissa, the one who instigated the backbiting is two times as worse. Because not only is he responsible for the sin of backbiting, he caused his brother to sin. Who would not have sin had he not said anything? So you know what you were doing? You know what it meant when you started to bring up a certain discussion in front of somebody else, you knew exactly where this was gonna go. So you are in that situation, the devil, you're the shavon. That's what shavon does. He instigates he pushes p he doesn't commit the deed himself, he pushes someone else to do it. So he said either a person says, kay Fudan, how is so and so or brings up the name of a person in front of somebody else

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knowing that they will back bite, or he said that a pert he said that a person would say some people do this. Some people do that. And everybody knows who some people is.

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And so what happens? The people start to mention the names in a very disgusting way. So as Adi Rahim, Allah said, that's what shavon does. He instigates, he pushes people to shuttle, he pushes people to evil in a sly way.

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Right, so instigating evil, sometimes what's your influence, your bad manners could rub off on the people around you. And every time they act in accordance with those bad manners, because you made it acceptable to act like that, you made it acceptable to talk that way. Every time someone does that, it's on you.

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If your kids grow up to pray, or if your kids grow up, speaking in a certain way, or learning basic courtesies that you taught them, or that you influenced them with every single time, they're great, great, great, great, great grandkids. And Allah knows, you know, we can't say that the world will end in the next few days. And, and it certainly seems that way at times. But we also can't say that the world won't end for another one, you know, we'll end within the next 1000 years. That's when Allah subhanho wa Taala, you teach your kids something good. And they teach their kids that good, and they teach their kids that good, and their kids and their kids and their kids and their kids,

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all of it is for you. It's all your good.

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You are an influencer of good you're a motivator. You're a motivator. Now if you taught your kids some bad manners, and that continues to go through generations, that's all on you as well. That's the benefit of doubt. You do that with to someone someone takes Shahada, every person that person gives Shahada to is as if you gave that person Shahada. You imagine the reward of Tophane anomala dosi, Rahim Allah who was virtually unknown to us, who was the one who brought to Islam abhor a lot of the Allahu taala and who every time someone reads a hadith and says an IV hurayrah on behalf of Abu hurayrah, to fade live in a dose he gets the reward of teaching someone ahaadeeth

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every single time anything good happens in this ummah, you know who gets the reward, but also de la sal, Allahu alayhi wa sallam. All of this is his fruits, all of it. That's influence. That's influence. Many times it's subtle, especially meaningful influence, shaping someone's behavior. Those Sahaba that were with the prophets lie, some didn't just learn a hadith. His character rubbed off on them and their character rubbed off on their children, which is why you had a generation like the tambourine after them, it rubbed off on their children, right? These things continue often for a long time, and that's our goal. He said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in an authentic narration says

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a habit is not Illallah the most beautiful words are the most beautiful of names to Allah, or Abdullah Abdul Rahman, right one of the servant of Allah and the servant of the Most Merciful. Then he says, What obstacle Esma had is a man and the most truthful of names are had it the one who harvests and hammam, the one who aspires and this the scholars say that the reason why the prophets lie Some said us as the most truthful of names, he says, because he couldn't do in some way a home every single person is harvesting something and aspires towards something everyone has aspirations in harvest something some people harvest good, some people harvest evil, but everyone fits those two

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qualities and the prophets lie Some said well, aka Baja, and and the most ugly of names are war and how to motiva war and bitterness.

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This is important for us to know it's part of our tradition. Now with all of that being said, Dear brothers and sisters, here's my question to you what is the subtle influence you are having on the people that are around you? What good Have you inspired that will not be attributed to you in this world but will be attributed to you by Allah subhana wa Tada. It's the goal of life. The goal of life is to leave behind the maximum amount of good with as little attributes

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to you as possible, because that's where insincerity comes into play. The volunteers have all of all these great things that happen in the community, those that are behind the scenes making things happen, all of that is their head, it's their good, what's your good that you're leaving behind? And what's our attitude towards this? You know, we're in a world, we're in a world where we want everything to be attributed to us. Right? People will claim that all the good in the world is because of them.

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You know, like, I can't believe that that person, you know, I knew him when he was a kid, I can't believe that he doesn't attribute to me all of his success in life. I've been in this community for so long, none of these massages would have happened without me. You know, how many people have we met that would say stuff like that, at least the second part, you know that you know, I've been here for so long and this didn't even used to happen before I got here. And this didn't used to happen, Mashallah, that's great. Let's put it online. And let's put your name on it, to write your name on it, package it Brandon's, you know, branded the way that ISIS claims every attack in the world

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branded, it's all yours. It's all yours, no one can touch it. That's not how we act as believers. I want to share with you in these last few minutes, honey, Mama Shafi Rahim, Allah to Allah, and Amanda Schaeffer, he was an icon. He's an icon. I mean, he's one of the four imams of unyson. He is an icon in every way. And when you talk about a person who used to blow away everyone around him, it's a chef, very, I mean, the most impressive human being that you would probably meet that, you know, aside from the prophets lies on the Sahaba. But he's such an impressive human being. He's amazing. You see him his, his brilliance, the, you know, his genius, his character, the all that he

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commands from the great scholars around him, what an incredible human being, you know, what are the amount of shaeffer he said, It's beautiful. He said that every time before I have a debate,

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I asked a lot to put the truth on my opponent's tongue.

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Allahu Akbar, like he wants his opponent to be right.

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That Way, the Truth will be apparent, but it won't be attributed to me. So every debate he would have, he would ask a lot, oh, a lot. Let him be right. Just let the heck come out. Let the truth come out. That way, I won't be celebrated for the truth. It's not going to be me. I don't want to be the hero that won the debate. Let him win the debate, but let the truth Come on his tongue. And that's probably why the mama Shafi never lost the debate.

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Because a lot knew the sincerity of that statement.

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Another thing that he said, and I'm talking about an icon, I'm talking about a man whose work still benefit us today, along with our great emails. May Allah have mercy on them all. Think about this, a man Michel ferry. He says, What did to anassa to Alamo Mila min Nila. And he said, I wish that people would learn from me the knowledge that I have. And he says, Well, I'm Yun sublayer Minh who shy

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and not a single word of it would be attributed to me. Meaning I wish that the knowledge that I have or what I'm teaching you people, that you take it, you package it, you take credit for it, you go teach people with it, and they don't say that a shaft he said this, they say that was and he said that or they start to quote his students names. I wish that my name would not be on anything. I wish that everything I have to offer goes out there and is not attributed to me. While I'm Yun sub Leah is I wish my name was not on it. That sincerity, that sincerity. He wants to have that influence of good to leave behind that good. But he doesn't want the celebration in this world because he's

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seeking that celebration in the hereafter. Where's that spirit dear brothers and sisters? Where is that spirit? One of the introductory texts and Hadith that a student of knowledge learns is known as Albania. It's a hadith of it's a poem of Hades terminology. It's one of the most famous poems of Hadith terminology that every student of knowledge memorizes when they start their pursuit of understanding the science of Hadith, prophetic narration, you know, it's amazing. At the moment of a pony we don't even know if his name was Alma or thaw Ha. Like there's practically no information about him. Imagine all these people memorizing this and learning Hadid sciences and he's getting the

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reward for it. Bismillahi Tyler we ask a lot to accept it from an accepted from all of our, our cellophane you know all of our predecessors that left behind us such a rich tradition and so much good to learn from May Allah accept it from the mall, but his name doesn't have to be on it. his biography doesn't have to be on it. That spirit, that spirit I want to leave behind good that will not be attributed to me in this world. I would much rather do something behind the

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Scenes motivates someone else to do something good. That will be attributed to me by my Creator, then get the celebration in this world because all of that dies once I die.

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No good in it anymore.

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So are we instigators or are we motivators? May Allah subhanaw taala make us motivators of hire? May Allah subhanaw taala makers motivators of good May Allah allow our children to see the best of us and to benefit from the best of us and to carry on that legacy, our future generations to carry on the best of what we have to offer. May Allah protect us from doing evil ourselves are instituting evil. May Allah protect us from bringing about shuttle evil from other people knowingly or unknowingly. May Allah forgive us for all of the sins of our tongues, all of the sins of our actions. May Allah guide us and guide through us, rectify us and rectify through us. And may Allah

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allow us to be met on the Day of Judgment with good deeds that we had no idea that we were responsible for, and make those the means by which we qualify for his mercy. And May Allah forgive us for the sins that we were unaware that have been responsible for, and take them away from us and not let them sink us on the Day of Judgment. allama Amina colocado Stoffel, Laurie, welcome Lisa muslimeen, first of Pharaoh in the whole of Orion

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al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah Rasool e kilimani. He will save your self esteem in case he had a lot more meaning or you know, it's well Muslim, you know, well Muslim, not even Humala Martina Casimir on curry Buddha Buddha was a llama furlan our ohana wine for an hour but Ben Allah and first in our in Lucha Nana water hammer Lana Conan the middle ha serene La ilaha illa Anta su Kanaka in could you know Wally mean Allah homophily Valentina, Robert hamama Kamara, buenas era robina habla Naaman as well you know the reality now kurata Aryan Jana limit subpoena mama llama su mustafina fimasartan Mahara Bihar long one sorry one and we'll start off in a FEMA

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sharika I'll do my Barbie Ha. Lucky Valentina with Valentin was Regina was one and then veniam Sally mean about the law, the law what to be like they went somewhere ITAR horrible enhan In fact, he went and wouldn't carry well about a year ago colmenar Allah come to the Quran first quarter La Jolla guru come wash guru Valentina, is it luck on what are the coral light, Aqua awkward to allow young

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kids

Jumuah Khutbah, January 27, 2017.

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