03 Humanitarian Relief

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			Sara Marie
		

			sisters with some Sharif afraid all as well. I'm not crazy into doing a lot of video blogs, I just
spent the last 10 days going coast to coast. I was in New York City for about four or five days, I
had a lot of time for self reflection time, I was alone for a couple of days in the city. And then
we flew out to SoCal, we went to Malibu for about four days, and a lot of happen. So I wanted to get
an opportunity to stop and kind of reflect on a few things. I started out in New York, a lot of
people started asking me, you know, what's going on with the future of Islam? You know, we're in
such difficult positions where we so much is going on against us, how can we deal with this. And at
		

			the same time, revolutions going on governments are toppling, so that kind of held in my brain for a
little while. And then I flew over to California. So we're in Malibu. And just to set the scene a
little bit, you can see a couple of shots right here. We were on the top of this mountain
overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and it was beautiful. And I just wanted to be very straightforward.
You look out into this gorgeous, amazing
		

			sunset, you look out into the ocean, you see this mountain top merging into the ocean, and you
realize that it's not beautiful by itself. It is amazing and breathtaking, because Allah, Allah put
mercy in it, and what am I trying to get out here? A lot of mercy in it so we could enjoy it. But
that same exact scene is what happened in Japan. That same exact scene is the earthquake and the
calamities that happened for the years past, not just Japan. But the years past earthquakes in
Pakistan, where I saw pictures of literally with just Rubble, a mountain was turned to rubble.
		

			And so we spent a couple of days there, and I realized what is beautiful in this world is beautiful,
because it has the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala. But when you remove that mercy, that gift, it can
turn into a curse. So interestingly enough, on this mountain, you know, youth retreat, four days in
Malibu, and we came down from the mountain we went out to the beach was beautiful. And we realized
that this gift is something that Allah, Allah wants us to reflect on.
		

			So for reflection, we ended up we were driving down through Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive. And we
just at the same time seeing all of this simplicity. We just saw sheer excess. There's Fendi and
Chanel, and seven there were like 17, Maseratis and Ferraris, and Rolls Royce phantoms all over the
place, but everything that you looked at, everything at one point just became, hey, what's that?
What badges on a one person is that what closer that what store is that? We want to offend the store
and it was a 14 $100 person, we're like, oh, this is too expensive. We turned around and looked at
another person. And it was $24,000. And it was all just, this is made of crocodile. And this is made
		

			of Python. And it made gave me this really awkward feeling around us a less paradise showing us His
signs. And around us are the living animals, the crocodile, the Python, the ostrich, but we need to
take them and put labels on them put our own human camouflage, the Louis Vuitton sign, we need to
put the Chanel we need to put the car da sign on it, and then make those dioramas part of the human
car camouflage. And so that we automatically put these two together calamities, not just Japan,
tsunamis, words that we haven't heard, we used to hear in like, you hear in like biblical terms, the
end of the world, the economies are collapsing, and governments are falling and the world is coming
		

			to, you know, an apocalyptic, apocalyptic end. And this is happening in front of us. And we're still
worried about signs and symbols and the camouflage on the outside.
		

			So what I'd like you to do is take the opportunity to see what can you do to realize that the mercy
is around us our gift from Allah.
		

			And as these gifts are surrounding us, we either have a chance to reflect on them and say, Subhan
Allah, Allah, you're the greatest you gave me and now I want to give back to my society are those
same exact just flip the coin, those same exact gift from Allah will become the great
		

			greatest and most painful torment in your life. mountains will crumble. tsunamis will wash cities
away.
		

			So when you have the chance, thank Allah. And how can you think a lot better than just doing what he
said? small story just as we came down the mountain in Malibu, we're standing at the Malibu,
Starbucks. Arnold Schwarzenegger came buying in a chopper when we didn't see him. But one of the
guys that was fortunate goes by here, Pierce Brosnan was there. They just buy their coffee there. So
a man walked by he came up to me and I was sitting with my wife and some of the family of mine of
the Nasir. And a man came up with a little bit stiff, I would say, I assumed he was snooty. And he
came up, he goes, I've never seen the veil before. Pause, and I was like, Oh, here we go. anti
		

			muslim rhetoric. I know you're gonna call it something. And he paused. He goes, it's wonderful. And
housing really goes, we need more of it around here. I was like, What is he talking about he goes,
the more we have here in Malibu, the smaller the clothes get. The more beautiful weather we have,
the more gifts we have, the smaller the clothing gets. And he just paused. He goes, it's shameless.
And I noticed, and this old man is sipping on his $7 latte, and we're sitting there talking to each
other.
		

			I realized what Allah gives us, we tend to be responsive to him, even less. But when people are
being destroyed, whether governments are being toppled or whether tsunamis are crushing areas, or
even more tsunamis are crushing an area that we're not focused on. Right, Japan got hit just
recently, but what happened to what happened? What happened to the places in Pakistan with the
earthquake? What happened to all of the early tsunamis that we had before that and we just forgotten
because we have so much stuff around us.
		

			So telling the story backwards, I started realizing just like animals, just like animals in the
jungle, we've become really obsessed with the camouflage on the outside, whether it says vnl on a
purse, whether we are covered in the right stripes, whether there's a Nike swoosh on us, and we're
so tremendously overwhelmed by this, even whether we're the cup that we're carrying, doesn't have
the right brand on it. And if you look throughout the world, Atlas, constantly says, well on malabu,
Neil Bomi. And the chiefs, the rich people, the the famous popular people of the town center
profits, what is this? Following this crazy religion? Why don't you get in line with fashion, with
		

			the status quo with the way we've been doing things for this many years? The war luck gives us, the
more we forget him. Let's go ahead and take our opportunity. But he isn't enough. Don't worry about
the camouflage on the outside. Worry about how much that $24,000 Fendi purse is worth in Japan in
the middle of the tsunami right now. Ask yourself that much. And maybe be in a lab, you really want
to get something through. Instead of getting the the $7 drink, downgrade to the $5 drink and give
those $2 look around. Let's do something. And I pray that this doesn't just go as some blog, because
on the way out. This is the closing story on the way out of California. A Muslim brother stopped me
		

			right outside of a pizza place was like, it's not one quick question for you. I was like, Yeah,
sure. He was the guy in the videos. I'm like, Yeah, yeah, I've been there.
		

			He goes, How do I explain to people who say why does God do this to innocent people? Why does God do
this? How do I explain that a merciful God destroying the people of Japan of here or there? And I
started thinking myself this I could explain it from ASCII though or other other this night I just
stopped and said, We don't know a lot anymore. If we think and know Allah subhanaw taala as I
		

			mean, if we know him as
		

			we know Allah by his characteristics, will we not realize that a lot is the most wise and the most
		

			powerful to do as you will and we might not understand everything that's happening.
		

			So we need to learn data. This is not a push I just my reflection. If you know of someone who says
Well, don't donate, something could happen, you get organized. They're connected to some terrorist
organization. Why not just google the top 10 nonprofit organizations who are you know, accredited by
the United States, the Red Cross Islamic Relief, Muslim without borders, I mean that there's a
you'll see a whole list up in front of me. So what's our excuse them for giving to them? And a lot
of us maybe students are watching this and saying, well, I can't give guys we spent $4 in coffee, we
can give something as we left and this
		

			older man walked away. He said, you know, thank you so much for showing me the veil. Thank you for
showing me a shred of hope. If you can't donate, let's give people hope. Let's give people a glimpse
into the mercy of Allah Subhana Dada, I pray that you had the opportunity not to see this as some
ploy for donations, but people need smiles. People were completely naked and have $5 million homes
and we saw like 13 Maseratis on Wall Street, they have everything. They just don't have happiness.
They have everything but they just don't have smiles. They have everything. They just don't have any
thing at all. Sure, brother assumption. I pray we get the opportunity to benefit. See what you can
		

			do to put a smile on someone's face was set up on a go.
		

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costs and future projects by visiting www dot Muslim central.com forward slash donate