Saad Tasleem – The Prophets Community
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of knowing the diverse Muslim community and the importance of peace and safety in society. They emphasize the need for individuals to make sure their identities are safe and protected, as well as the importance of creating a safe environment for everyone. They also discuss the negative impact of social media and the importance of praying during the night to protect members of the community. The conversation emphasizes the need for parents to educate children about the danger of pornography and finding their own intentions to bring others together.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Wasalatu wasalamu ala ashraf
al anbiya wal mursaleen nabiyina wa sayyidina wa
habibina muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma
'een Allahumma la ilmana illa ma'allamtana innaka
anta al alimul hakeem Allahumma alimna ma'infa
'una wa infa'na bima'allamtana wa zidna
ilma ya rabbal alameen Allahumma arina al haqqa
haqqa wa rizukna ittiba'a wa arina al
baatila baatila wa rizukna istinaba Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
So today we're talking about the prophetic model
and honestly when it comes to the life
of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam there
is a lot to talk about and what
we can do with the life of the
Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is literally take
any moment in his life and that is
a shining example for us that is a
lesson for us as Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala tells us laqad kana lakum fee rasoolillahi
uswatun hasana that for you in the messenger
of Allah there is the best or a
great example and this is the entirety of
the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
meaning you take a look at any aspect
of his life sallallahu alayhi wasallam and it
becomes not just an example the best example
for us so today I want to look
at as we said we could have picked
any section of his life but I want
to pick a pivotal moment in the life
of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam and
also a pivotal moment in the history of
Islam and this is the moment or the
time in which the Muslims made hijrah from
Mecca to Medina as we know the Muslims
were persecuted in Mecca and they were driven
out of Mecca their home and the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave them the permission to
make hijrah to go from Mecca to go
live in Medina and the Muslims went in
in groups and they went together and the
and by the end it was the Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam who made hijrah with
his companion Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu and they
set out on that journey and then they
arrived in the city of Medina Abdullah ibn
Salam radiallahu anhu he narrates in Sunnah At
-Tirmidhi that when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
arrived in Medina that all of the people
of the city they went out to go
see him sallallahu alayhi wasallam now I want
you to understand the type of city or
the type of environment in which the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam came it was a very
diverse environment this is an environment that has
Muslims but even among the Muslims you have
the Muhajirun those who had already made hijrah
they're already now they're in Medina and then
you have the Ansar which are the residents
of Medina the people of Medina who had
accepted Islam so the the Muslim community itself
was diverse and then apart from that you
still had the Mushrikun who were living in
Medina and then you had also the Jews
and so we're talking about a very diverse
group of people which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam comes to and so what is the
message of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when
he comes Abdullah ibn Salam radiallahu anhu he
says that when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
arrived in Medina the people rushed out to
go see him everyone wanted to see who
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was they had
heard of him they had heard the message
of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam but
now they get to put a face to
this individual and this is pre-social media
and cameras and all of that so people
just hear things and I know it's kind
of hard for us to be in that
mindset now if you hear of someone the
first thing we do is go we look
them up online like who is this person
right sometimes people come to me and they're
like hey do you know so-and-so
and I'm like I'm not really sure I'm
not good with names now let me just
pull up a picture real quick and they'll
go pull up his insta or his facebook
or whatever and here's this picture and then
everything about him is online right that is
not that time this is a time where
we're talking about hundreds of miles away people
did not know what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam looked like but they had heard so
much about him so the excitement was very
high and so Abdullah bin Salam radiyallahu anhu
he says we went to all went to
go see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and
he says as I looked upon his face
the face of our beloved Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wasallam he said I recognized that this
is not the face of a liar meaning
just the physical image of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam exuded the best character and the
best person he said I looked upon his
face sallallahu alayhi wasallam and I realized that
this person cannot be a liar and this
is part of the the prophethood the risalah
the message of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
chose the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam because he
had those traits and characteristics even before Islam
we know the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam lived
a pious life before Islam we know he
never fornicated he never drank he never worshiped
idols he did it wasn't involved in shirk
he was an honest person he was a
trustworthy person he was a reliable person he
was someone that everyone in the community knew
before he ever received the message of Islam
and that is important because we have to
understand that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was
selected by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
so Abdullah bin Salam he says I looked
upon the face and I recognized that this
cannot be a liar he says the first
words that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam spoke
were the following now this is what I
want us to pay attention to because once
again this is a very diverse group of
people Muslims, non-Muslims, Muslims, Mushrikun, Jews so
on and so forth there's a wide mix
not all of these people believe in the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam not all of these
people consider him a messenger of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala so what does the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam say he says ayyuhan nas
he says all people and this tells us
first and foremost that the message of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is for all of
humanity it is for all humankind it is
not just for the believer it's not just
for the Muslim and it is not just
for one race of people or one class
of people this is a universal message for
everyone and so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
begins in the city of Medina now this
is his entrance he's come there the first
time they're hearing him speak he says ayyuhan
nas all people and then he gives the
people instructions and these instructions are important because
once again of where and how and when
they're being said it's very important the first
thing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says is
afshus salam he says spread the salam then
he says wa ata'imut ta'am and
feed the people and keep the ties of
kinship he says and pray in the night
while the people are sleeping he says if
you do this then you will enter into
paradise with peace now i want to break
this down because these three four things four
actions are incredibly important because these are now
the keys to paradise the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam is telling not just the believers not
just the Muslims but all of humanity here
do these four things you will enter paradise
in peace and in ease so the first
thing he says is afshus salam you know
we know salam as peace we know the
salam as the statement assalamu alaykum we know
that this is the greeting of and the
issue that we have subhanallah versus the people
of medina at that time was that they
for them it wasn't part of their culture
like it is for us now you know
my um my five-year-old son i've
been trying to teach him arabic i try
to speak to him in arabic and his
his his base is in his english because
the the language that me and my wife
have in common is english so he hears
more english than he hears arabic and so
he always wants to translate everything from english
into arabic and so i was teaching him
the importance of salam saying assalamu alaykum and
so when you enter the house you say
salamu alaykum you meet someone you say salamu
alaykum and he goes dad is that just
how you say hi but in arabic in
arabi and i was like no that's not
what it is it is not just a
hi this is a dua because that perception
of hey instead of saying hi say assalamu
alaykum that's an incorrect perception we can actually
culturally by the way it is totally acceptable
and normal to say hi hello how are
you even to a muslim but it should
be preceded with assalamu alaykum as the person
said spread the salam for us this salam
is a dua that we make for this
person this is a dua for peace for
this person not only do we want peace
for this person we are also presenting them
with an offering of peace meaning i present
to you as your brother in islam i
present you a person an individual who will
be a source of peace in your life
you will be protected and preserved from me
you will make sure you you can i
can guarantee for you as your brother as
your sister in islam that i will be
a symbol of peace for you in your
life and we have to ask ourselves the
question as believers as we look at our
communities and we want to establish prophetic communities
and we want to implement the sunnah of
the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and we
want to we want to thrive as a
prophetic community yes we have done the the
the the the mechanical part of it we've
said the salam right i was walking in
the masjid today i said assalamu alaykum the
brother replied to me one of the and
you know you see so the mechanical part
we have down but in terms of does
this translate into true action that is the
question that we have to have are our
brothers and sisters safe and protected around us
are we a source of protection for our
brothers and our sisters can we make sure
and our children and our elderly and the
weak and the vulnerable in our communities are
we a source of protection and comfort for
them you know we have the hadith of
the prophet in which he was asked which
is the best muslim and the prophet said
that it is that muslim who the other
muslims are safe from their tongue and their
hand meaning there is a guarantee as a
believer and in in another version of this
hadith al muslim the muslim is one the
muslim is one how is the muslim identified
he is identified because he or she makes
sure that everyone is safe around them so
once again we have to ask the question
are our communities a place of safe haven
do people feel protected in our communities in
our relationships when a muslim gets married are
they offering that peace and that sheltering to
their spouse a husband to his wife and
a wife to his husband as a father
are our children safe from any type of
abuse and harm because this is a responsibility
if we have that responsibility towards our brothers
and sisters that we're not related to that
responsibility becomes even more when it comes to
our families when it comes to our relatives
when it comes to our spouses when it
comes to our children that they are safe
from us and in our day and age
subhanallah this takes on another dimension with the
internet and social media because i'll be honest
with you uh the last week or so
i just logged off of my twitter twitter
is the only account i have by the
way which actually follow people i decided a
long time ago that if i'm going to
be online i'm not going to follow anyone
because i don't want to spend time on
social media because if you follow people then
you want to know what they're saying and
what they're posting and then this and that
and everything that's happening you're you gotta keep
up with it and so um the the
the brother who helps in my social media
i'm like listen we got to be in
and out right i'm gonna post and i'm
out like i'm not trying to scroll and
i'm trying to not try to look at
the feed and because what happens is you
end up doom scrolling right y'all know
what doom scrolling is yeah everybody knows everyone
the uncles are like maybe maybe not i'll
tell you because i don't know what it
was i'll tell you what doom scrolling is
doom scrolling is the way these social media
apps are set up where you can scroll
and scroll and scroll and scroll forever there
was a time and i'm gonna expose my
age here there was a time when like
facebook was popping like facebook was the thing
right everyone all the young people were on
facebook some of you probably don't even remember
that time but there was a time where
facebook was like tiktok right it was the
best thing everybody's on it is considered the
best thing there was a time that when
you logged onto facebook and you saw the
feed you would get you would keep scrolling
and then you would reach the end because
you're done there's no more posts even the
people that you're following you reach the end
of their posts and then it's like okay
the end but then they change that they
change that to like an infinity scroll or
doom's code where as long as you keep
scrolling as long as you keep pushing they're
going to keep pushing content to you and
that can be people that you follow or
people that they want to expose to you
whatever your algorithm whatever algorithm is set up
to we can keep scrolling and scrolling and
scrolling and scrolling and the goal by the
way of all of these apps and these
tech companies is that we stay on there
as long as possible so they're going to
push to us things that are going to
pique our interest and generally that that is
those things that deal with controversy those things
that are the hot takes you don't know
what hot takes are what's a hot take
somebody says i got a hot take you
like run in the other direction because they're
about to say something because they want some
attention that i'm about to say something ridiculous
and let's see what y'all have to
say right it's a hot take coming up
those are the things that are because that
is what that is what is going to
keep us engaged for as long as possible
and so on my social media i was
like i ain't following nobody i don't have
time for that but i still want people
to benefit from anything that i can post
on there so i'll post it i'll be
out this way on my social media i
don't follow people for that reason but on
twitter i made the mistake and i made
the mistake because i was like listen i
need to know what's happening with the news
and so on and so forth and this
uh this the pandemic was honestly the problem
where we had a lot more time uh
and the uh the george floyd protests were
going on and i wanted to keep up
to date with what's happening and so i'm
like all right let me start following some
people and then that was the downfall of
my of my twitter and so last week
i came to a place where like i've
always known that muslim twitter is pretty toxic
but it was just getting too much and
so i decided you know what like this
is not good for my own well-being
it's not good for my emotional well-being
it's not good for my psychological well-being
it's not good for my spiritual well-being
because the more time we spend seeing what
nasty things people have to say about one
another that has an effect on our heart
you know the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
he said that the most hated person to
allah is the one who is the most
argumentative now think about how that applies to
social media where it's all about being argumentative
it's all about refuting this person or telling
that they're telling them that they're wrong or
someone with their hot take and we got
to tell them how they're actually wrong and
this and that and so on and and
and that is where we're spending all of
our time and so once again we have
to ask the question even on social media
even online are our brothers and sisters safe
from our tongues are they safe from what
we have to say and the bad news
is that if you log on if you're
on muslim twitter you know that's not the
case i know that people are willing to
say things online that they would never say
to your face and that's not because they're
a bad person or they want evil for
you or they don't they you know they
they want to put you down it's because
that is the way social media is it
dehumanizes the people that we are talking to
we no longer view this person as a
real individual with what like a human being
it's their screen name and oftentimes it's like
a generic screen name or even the profile
picture some people don't even put their profile
picture up because they're like i don't want
that on there and so it's some some
random picture it's a random name and it's
easy to cuss someone like that out it's
easy to tell them that they're this and
they're that and call them names and so
on and so forth because it's so impersonal
this is why my mentors and my teachers
they would always say to me if you
have a problem with someone don't call them
and my teachers would talk about calling like
don't call them because calling someone is too
impersonal because you cannot look at them in
their eyes they don't that you cannot be
with them in person and so it's too
impersonal if you have a problem with someone
go meet them and talk to them because
there's empathy there you can relate to the
person you see them as a human being
and with social media that's that's lost it's
completely lost so when the prophet says spread
peace we have to now look at the
modern world that we're living in and ask
ourselves the question are we really spreading peace
and if we're not perhaps we need to
take a step back and i hate to
say this but it is the truth people
ask me because i talk a lot about
social media and the effects of social social
media back in 2011 i taught a class
called a a lot of people don't remember
this class but in the people are what
kind of crazy name is that like what's
got you graduated from medina and you're teaching
somebody was like you're going to teach people
how to like hang out and have fun
is that what they're teaching you in medina
i was like no this is a class
that deals with modern issues of entertainment and
the islamic perspective on those issues of entertainment
so back then social media was kicking off
and back in 2011 we had a whole
section in that seminar that dealt with social
media how we need to be on social
media the fiqh of social media and we
talked about those issues because it was already
starting to become a problem but now like
a decade later and we have a lot
more information now than we had back then
all the studies that we have now are
are telling us that social media is disastrous
for our lives you can take a look
at any aspect of our lives and social
media can have a deeply negative impact on
it it can have a negative impact on
our relationships i have seen i've counseled couples
that are having problems in their relationship that
stemmed from something that they saw or did
or they're involved in online families have been
broken apart because something families have broken apart
and i'll give you this all right families
have been broken apart because someone pressed like
on someone's status you know this why because
the shaitan plays with people's lines when it
comes to this on the internet and social
media why did you press like you know
they were talking about me and you know
they met this and then you know they
met that because anytime you give the shaitan
an ambiguity he will run with that i
like to share this statement usually with with
my students seven words if i were to
say to you i never said she stole
your money what does that mean well somebody
who speaks english would say you know the
meaning of that is clear right but the
reality of this statement is depending on which
word you emphasize it actually changes the meaning
i never said she stole your money meaning
what meaning i didn't say it maybe somebody
else said it i never said she stole
your money like this statement never ever came
from me i'm denying that fact that this
statement came from me i never said she
stole your money maybe i implied it maybe
i did some ishara right maybe i signaled
towards it but i never said it i
never said she stole your money maybe somebody
else but not her i never said she
stole your money maybe she borrowed it maybe
she took it but she never stole it
i never said she stole your money maybe
she stole somebody else's money but she didn't
steal your money i never said she stole
your money maybe she stole your car or
your purse or something else but she didn't
steal your money now you tell me what
happens in a world where we are constantly
speaking online and the shaytan is like a
playground for the shaytan he's having a great
time because he gets to see all these
statements that can be interpreted in so many
different ways and the goal of the shaytan
is causing hatred and animosity the prophet he
said he said that the shaytan has given
up hope that the people who pray will
worship the shaytan what that means is praying
means a person who is muslim a person
who worships allah worship the shaytan meaning they
will obey and listen to the shaytan meaning
if you're a muslim if you worship allah
then the shaytan has given up hope that
you're gonna follow the shaytan go out listen
to what the shaytan has to say so
he says so he has resorted to causing
animosity between the believers that's how the shaytan
wins he knows if you tell you go
up to a believer a muslim someone who
is pious get them to directly go into
a sin it's going to be very difficult
so how does the shaytan work footsteps first
you start with problems and issues and talking
about someone and subhanallah and there's a very
small jump between expressing our displeasure towards an
action or towards something to backbiting which is
a major sin which is a win for
the shaytan how much backbiting slander gossip mongering
gets takes place online so for us to
think the shaytan is not willing online we're
really deluded ourselves our faith is suffering because
of social media and i know a lot
of good has come from social media as
well the fact that knowledge can be can
can reach the corners of the earth and
and lectures and and whatever it may be
that's great alhamdulillah but there's also a lot
of problems and so back in 2011 i've
been talking about this now for over a
decade and people say so what's the solution
the solution is and i i don't like
to say this but i just have to
be honest and real with you the solution
is to log off and we don't want
to do that because so much of our
lives are just tied into the internet and
social media and we're always online and now
with our devices attached to us at all
times it becomes more and difficult to detach
ourselves from the internet but that is the
only solution and even in terms of our
psychological and emotional health there's studies being done
now how this new generation is being affected
their self-esteem their their motivation their their
their sense of self-worth like with so
many problems uh anxiety has been like depression
has been linked to the more time somebody
spends online on social media so yeah once
again what's the solution the solution is we
log off and i know i understand most
people can't do that but at the very
least we need to start thinking about maybe
i can take some time off maybe i
can say you know i'm gonna take i'm
gonna fast for a week from social media
i'm gonna fast for a certain amount of
time and then when i feel like it's
starting to consume my life and it's becoming
too much for me i'm gonna fast again
because that gives us a break from social
media because once again the prophet said spread
this salam how is this salam being spread
online the prophet second thing he said is
and feed people feed people or feed others
this this goes now to the second level
which not only are my brothers and sisters
safe from me not only am i guaranteeing
from them peace but also i want to
be able to take care of their needs
as a prophetic community we have to be
able and willing and motivated to take care
of the needs of one another and you
know what the big problem here is the
big problem in our communities is shrugging off
the responsibility to somebody else because when we
walk when we walk into the masjid and
we hear something like you know we need
to feed the poor and the needy we
need to take care of the needs of
others people say yeah yeah okay the masjid
has a board that's their job unless it
has an imam that's his job you know
this person it's their job because that absolves
us of any responsibility of helping other people
you know there's an uh organization that i
work with called uh look sick many of
you heard of it yeah so they um
they advocate uh they advocate for muslims with
disabilities muslims with special needs and and i
often go to different communities and speak to
communities about the the importance of making sure
our message in our communities are taking care
of the needs of muslims with disabilities and
one of the big problems is we don't
feel like it's it's important because it doesn't
affect us personally because we think you know
everything seems to be functioning fine and i
often tell people the fact that you don't
see muslims with disabilities in the masjid is
is is deception because that makes you think
everything is fine but the fact that you
don't see them in the mission means something
is wrong meaning their needs have not been
met to allow them to be in the
masjid because we all have needs that's the
reality right you have needs i have needs
you're able to by the way sit here
today and listen to this lecture and come
and pray salatul zahir and then isha allah
and you're able to whatever activities you have
going on the mission today you're able to
do that because someone took care of your
needs someone came in by the way today
in this masjid and they turned on the
lights someone vacuumed the rugs someone unlocked the
door someone made sure that the the electricity
bill was paid and this was paid and
someone is doing that for you and for
me and if so if so if everyone
in the community said you know what that's
somebody else's job that our community would not
function this is a this is a communal
obligation for us and so we have to
look at our communities and say where are
the people whose needs are not being met
and we don't look for them in the
masjid we look for them outside of the
masjid we have to go into our communities
and say who is not coming to the
masjid and why are they not coming to
the masjid there may be different demographics of
people that feel alienated from from the mission
for different reasons i've been to communities where
sisters say i don't feel welcome in the
mission why well because there's a nice big
masala for the brothers but the sisters got
a little room in the back and it's
four walls it feels like you're in prison
and if they need to see a lecture
they need to look at what the imam
is doing just to follow the salah right
forget anything else to follow the salah to
see what the imam is doing there's a
little tiny little screen or there's nothing and
and sisters will tell you this by the
way where sometimes if you cannot see the
imam the imam makes a mistake in the
salah what happens i would ask the sisters
but they know it's pandemonium chaos the imam
forgot to uh and forgot one rakah and
the sisters don't know what is going on
this is what our ulama say there has
to be a connection between the roles of
the sisters and the brothers so they know
what's happening how can they follow the imam
the imam has been placed there so you
follow the imam how can that happen and
so our sisters say you know what i
don't i don't feel welcome and i don't
feel like my needs are being met in
the masjid reverts they are masjids and alhamdulillah
we're making changes but oftentimes our masjids are
not a masajid they're not designed to take
care of the needs of the of converts
of people who are new to islam people
don't know how everything works people don't know
how to use the wudu station or they
don't know what to do when they walk
in the masjid somebody accepts islam yesterday today
they come in the masjid who's there to
welcome them who's there to there to to
say hey i've never seen you here before
is there anything you need this is a
basic fundamental need for our brothers and sisters
and i always test like my test for
a community is if i go to a
community and forget you know sheikh saad as
a speaker or whatever if i roll up
in like civilian clothes right i'm wearing sweats
and a hoodie and i roll up in
there to a brand new community never been
before how many people will come up and
say salam to me how many people will
say hey can i help you with anything
do you know where to make wudu do
you know where to put your shoes do
you know what to do you know this
is the imam you know we got these
things going on in in the masjid these
are the basic obligations that the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam is telling the people of
medina if this is going to work if
we're going to establish islam if we're going
to establish a community then you need to
take care of the needs of one another
the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said and
keep or maintain the ties of kinship and
this tells us that in our communities the
family structure is incredibly important because when we
talk about disseminating islamic knowledge when it comes
to tarbiyah yes tarbiyah takes place in the
masjid but most of the tarbiyah most of
the education most of the proper upbringing of
the next generation where does it take place
in the masjid at home at home and
if our families are not strong if our
families are not established upon goodness and piety
then we cannot expect the masjid to fix
everything we cannot expect sunday school to fix
everything we cannot expect the islamic school to
to fix everything and that starts with the
parents the parents are the ones who set
the example for their children there shouldn't be
a need for a parent to constantly tell
their child to pray they should be leading
by example the only thing they should be
saying is come pray with me not go
pray come let's go give charity together come
let's go do this together we got to
be present in the lives of our of
our children if we want to make a
difference in in society we want to change
societies have had a lot but our houses
can be a mess our children are facing
a plethora of problems in society today and
we honestly think that we're going to send
them to the masjid for a couple hours
a week and that's going to solve everything
that can happen allah can guide even the
most astray person absolutely but we have to
do the work in our homes our children
are facing you know and i spoke about
the internet but serious problems on the internet
there is a there is a there is
an epidemic of * addiction right now in
the muslim community that no one talks about
* is corrupting the minds of our children
they are they their sense of right and
wrong of normal and abnormal is being distorted
to such a degree and it's all hush
hush hush parents don't know about it it's
all because it's not a conversation that we
want to help i tell the the parents
in the communities that i go to that
the first time they ever hear about *
or what * is should be from you
not from their friends at school or i
send my kids to islamic school doesn't matter
i've been to enough islamic school right now
stuff happens everywhere right some school may be
a little bit better but sooner or later
your kid's going to be exposed to this
but the first time somebody's exposed to *
that is going to have an impact on
them so the parents need to be pre
-emptive you know there was a study done
about five or six years ago which is
shocking which said which found that the average
boy in america has their first experience with
* well let me ask you what age
what would you think the average age of
young boys first exposed to * does anyone
know 12 that would be a pretty good
guess that'd be a fair estimate eight years
old eight years old is the average average
means what there's less than that that's the
average that there's less than that so we
need to talk to our kids about the
danger that we need to explain to them
what what's happening how it how * can
mess up their lives so we need to
we need to put them in a position
where they where they are educated where they
know the society that they're living in so
the first time somebody comes to them and
says hey check this out which is going
to happen no matter how much we try
to deny it or or or try to
not think about it it's going to happen
but the first time somebody comes to them
and says hey look at this they say
no no no no my parents told me
about this this can mess my life up
even a single exposure can lead to a
* addiction that can mess up my life
that is where tervia becomes important these are
the conversation that we need to be having
with our children and look i understand i
understand that it's easier said than done i'm
a parent myself i have a busy life
myself i get it but this is where
community becomes so important that we need to
understand we're not in this alone we need
to be with other parents we need to
talk to other parents we need to come
up with a game plan if we're living
in a community and we're all in this
together then we can work together if if
if the if parents of young children in
a community can say look we this is
a problem that all of our children face
so let's talk about how we're going to
talk to our children why don't we have
a seminar in the community and and i
apologize if you already do right but why
don't we have a seminar in the community
educating parents about how to talk their to
talk how to talk to their children about
* or how do they talk their children
about zina or drugs or this or whatever
we need that so we can educate our
children number four the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam he said the fourth instruction he gave
to the people of medina is pray during
the night while the people are sleeping now
think about this the first three instructions that
were given were community-based so spread the
salam that applies to the community uh feed
the uh feed others community uh uh keep
the ties of kinship yeah less than community
but still it's a group effort right we
need to make this instruction is for you
and me as an individual pray during the
night while the people are sleeping and this
tells us that our relationship with allahu subhanu
wa ta'ala our spirituality is important because
without that no matter what measures we take
we can fall apart we have to have
a personal relationship with allahu subhanu wa ta
'ala we have the communal ibadah we have
the prayers that we pray together we have
the juma prayer we have the eid prayer
we have things that we do together but
there needs to be a time and that's
why it's very important that the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam said that it's not about
the people now he's speaking to the individual
it's about you while the people are sleeping
don't worry about anybody else you worry about
your relationship with allahu subhanu wa ta'ala
because that is one of the prayers that
i usually tell people it's really hard to
mess up your intention that prayer all the
other prayers the shaitan can push us and
pull us and you know mess up our
intentions and even subhanallah we're trying to be
sincere and we went to the corner of
the masjid and we started allahu akbar we're
praying our prayer so it says mashallah look
at that brother standing in the corner it
looks so pious right and we hear it
and now the shaitan starts to whisper we
start to feel good and we're messing our
intention up and it's not qiyamul nail salatul
nail is the prayer people are sleeping it's
a quiet time it's just us and allahu
subhanu wa ta'ala i just tell people
the only way to mess that up is
yeah i need to wake up in the
morning and be like everyone on social media
guess what i prayed last night 20 rakahs
and we're salamu alaikum everyone how y'all
doing i'm about to pray this is my
daily vlog y'all ready for this yeah
that's when we can mess it up but
if we're not doing that then it's us
and allahu subhanu wa ta'ala and that
our private lives are extremely important if we're
this community is going to function because as
a community we do our best to to
take care of the needs of others we
do our best to protect one another we
do our best to make sure our community
members are safe we do our best to
make sure no one's rights are being violated
but if a person is not attached to
allahu subhanu wa ta'ala who can check
that person's heart you cannot check my heart
i cannot check your heart i don't know
what's happening in your heart i don't know
who you are inside i see your zahir
i see your your apparent i see the
way you dress and the way you talk
and all that kind of stuff great but
as an individual inside that's you and allahu
subhanu wa ta'ala and that is why
the night prayer is so important you know
allahu subhanu wa ta'ala told the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam of the importance of turning
to allahu subhanu wa ta'ala at the
end of the day allahu subhanu wa ta
'ala told the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam have
we not expanded your chest for you we
remove this burden from you that weighed you
down weighed heavily upon your back allah tells
the prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam we raised your
dhikr we raised your mention we elevated your
reputation for you and then allah says then
all the difficulties the prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam
went through allah tells him certainly with hardship
there is ease and then again with that
hardship there is more ease and then allahu
subhanu wa ta'ala says what fun sub
when you're done at the end of the
day you've exerted all the efforts you try
to be that good person in the community
and you try to help the community and
whatever cause you're you're working for whether it's
social justice or this or that or taking
care of our brother and sister with special
needs or you're fighting to spread awareness about
the genocide like all the work that you're
doing during the day what happens at the
end of the day allahu subhanu wa ta
'ala says when you're done with all that
get up stand up and from your lord
you should seek that hope from your lord
you should you should turn to your lord
with hope because success comes through allahu subhanu
wa ta'ala we could put all the
effort in the world but if our connection
with allah is missing then there's no success
what happens if this whole world recognizes us
and gives us attention and tells us you're
the best and you're great whatever we've attained
what the dunya where's the asarah but the
opposite of that what if this whole world
turns against us what if we don't find
success in this life and whatever we're doing
as a as a as a parent let's
say a person a parent does all the
right things they raise their children in the
best way they give them the best tarbiyah
they could give them they taught them islam
and then they find out their children their
childhood just messed up can it happen can
it happen it happened with the prophets nuh
alayhis salaam happened with his son you don't
guide the people whom you love rather it
is allah who guides whomever he wills allah
to all the prophets who is the most
capable of any human being of giving the
message providing the message giving people guidance but
the heart is with allah no one can
flip and change someone's heart that's what allah
so what happens if as a parent we
do all the right things and our child
still messed up well what happens is if
we were doing it for the sake of
allah subhanu wa ta'ala for seeking reward
from allah subhanu wa ta'ala then our
reward is secure with allah the person who
has taqwa god consciousness piety and they're patient
with that taqwa and they they want to
please allah and it's hard and they face
opposition and they go through trials that allah
does not allow the reward to go to
waste what if as a as a wife
you did everything right and your relationship doesn't
work out what if as a husband you
do everything right everything that you're supposed to
do as a believer as a muslim as
a good person do everything right but still
that relationship doesn't work out what about in
the masjid you do everything right in the
masjid and people still blame you for everything
and this happens all the time by the
way i've lost count how many board members
and volunteers in the masjid that come to
me and they're like i'm done i'm worn
out like i'm working in the masjid and
it's just like every day is something new
and every time there's a problem the community
just turns on me or turns on this
how many imams out there are working and
working and working and spend years in a
community and there's some like issue in the
community and then boom they get rid of
it but whatever where's their reward is there
a worm absolutely anything we do in this
life what about the people of hazzah well
what about palestine we ask allah to free
palestine in our lifetime in the coming days
as soon as possible allahumma ameen but what
if we don't see it do we stop
working do we stop making dua we stop
spreading awareness do we stop striving with everything
in us to free our brothers and sisters
no because our reward is with allah and
that is why that connection with allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is important and i'll leave
you with with just one thing one of
my teachers was asked the question this is
a fiqh halaqa that i would attend in
the city of medina and the in the
city of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
not i want to say the sheikh's name
but at that time he had the biggest
halaqa in the masjid of the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and at the end of
the halaqa late people there were some students
of knowledge that would come for the fiqh
but the vast majority of people were not
students of they came just to listen to
the shaykh and they came for the last
section of the lecture which was q and
a people would get these little pieces of
paper write a question send it up and
the shaykh would give like a answer and
a response and these are like problems that
every everyday people deal with and one day
some someone wrote a question and said barakallahu
feekum shaykh you know i'm a student of
knowledge and i'm so busy in my studies
that i don't find time like it's very
difficult for me to pray it's very difficult
for me to get up in the night
and pray and the shaykh he this question
was read to him and he put his
head down and his his shema of his
you know the head cloth thing that they
were it fell over him so we couldn't
see him couldn't see his face and his
face was down i would say at least
a couple minutes and when somebody is talking
and they get silent it becomes really weird
and the shaykh his head is down everyone's
sitting there waiting how was he gonna like
what's going on and shaykh finally raises his
head and he's got tears in his eyes
and his beard is wet with tears and
he says i don't understand a student of
knowledge who doesn't have a portion of the
night he said i don't understand someone who
is seeking the knowledge of allah subhana wa
ta'ala who does not have the portion
he kept saying i don't understand this person
he says what are you doing here why
are you here what is this knowledge doing
for you if it's not bringing you closer
to allah subhana wa ta'ala are we
just collecting facts are we just collecting information
because i'll be real with you y'all
in this day and age we got chat
gpt lots of information put it in there
all the not information you want it'll regurgitate
what's found on the internet and throw it
back at you tell me about the prophets
i send them in medina boom and you
got this long thing all the information you
want is that our deen no our deen
is our connection with allah subhana wa ta
'ala know that there is nothing worthy of
worship except allah subhana wa ta'ala this
knowledge is supposed to bring us close to
allah subhana wa ta'ala knowledge is supposed
to be something that brings us to jannah
but you know the prophet also told us
that there are those who seek knowledge and
that will take them to the hellfire and
this hadith mentions three reasons why someone may
seek knowledge and that actually takes them to
the hellfire someone who seeks knowledge to argue
with the people to argue with the foolish
and if that's your intention the prophet said
this takes you to the hellfire to boast
amongst the scholars i mean for the status
for the recognition for to be known amongst
the scholars that's a wrong intention and then
the prophet said to turn the faces of
people towards themselves to be known well that
that takes a person to the hellfire with
all the hadith that we have and all
the ayat in the quran then mentioned of
the of the merits and the blessings of
seeking knowledge we also have some severe warnings
about what our intentions get messed up and
let's get our intentions they're not something that
i can't judge your intention you can't judge
my intention and even if you were right
by the way let's say you look you
looked at me you said your intention right
now is this well the intention can change
like that a moment you may be insincere
the next moment you may be sincere this
is why we don't look at people's intentions
and make a statement about someone's intention because
maybe even if we're right we could be
wrong the next second but we all know
our intentions and that is why the part
of the prophetic model is it's not just
about the community it's not it's about our
relationship with allah as well and i will
end with that