Shadee Elmasry – Innocent Man Executed – NBF 382
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome, everybody, to the Safina Society Nothing But
Facts livestream on a cloudy Wednesday in the
month of September as we close out the
month of September and the fall is officially
here.
September 21st is officially the fall, beginning of
the fall, beginning of autumn.
And New Jersey, you know, the whole East
Coast, pretty much Northeast, we have the four
seasons.
I would say that we're right at the
middle between too snowy, like Buffalo, New York,
to the point of depression or no snow
at all.
Although, actually, I would say we're a little
bit close to no snow at all because
they have been maybe global warming is true.
After all, there have been times where two
years in a row, maybe we've got one
snow.
Terrible.
I need the snow.
Right.
You want to have those beautiful winters today.
Let's get straight to the point.
I want to talk about an interesting thing.
A young man just asked me.
He said to me, you say that we
hold that Allah created the whole world.
Right.
But and that therefore he doesn't go in
it.
He doesn't enter his world.
Right.
He created the world.
You said that proves he doesn't enter into
it.
But a man can build a car and
enter his car afterwards.
So why can't it be the same?
I said your analogy is off.
The right analogy is the man who built
the very first car.
Could he have built it from inside the
car?
Of course not.
Right.
He couldn't have built it inside the car.
It hasn't been created yet.
So now does the Creator enter his creation
is a separate question.
Right.
He clearly isn't in it.
Right.
Because it hasn't been created yet.
But does he enter it?
And that's another question.
Is the Creator perfect or imperfect?
Since our Aqidah holds that the Creator as
is, is perfect.
He does not need anything external to impact
him.
That would be an imperfection.
So if you change, you have three options.
You either got better, therefore you were imperfect.
Or you got worse, therefore now you're imperfect.
Or you neither got better nor worse, therefore
you're redundant.
And a perfect being doesn't take redundant actions.
Right.
So that's just by Aqidah.
Aside from the Ijma' that he is as
he was.
And even is and was and will be
is only for our conception.
And not even related to Allah Ta'ala
since he's transcended.
But today we're talking about this.
This is a really sad cover of the
Innocence Project this morning.
At least the Marcellus Williams case.
Where time left till execution 0000.
The Innocence Project uses DNA evidence to prove
objectively that murderers on death row were innocent.
The Innocence Project is one of the best
organizations to do this because of the objectivity
that they use as evidence.
They have a page here on our brother
who passed away as a Muslim.
Marcellus Williams was scheduled for September 24th.
There's no reliable evidence proving that he committed
the crime for which he was sentenced to
death.
The state destroyed or corrupted the evidence that
could conclusively prove his innocence.
As well as the available DNA and other
forensic crime scene evidence.
It doesn't match him.
This is the Innocence Project.
This regards a 1988 murder of a woman.
There is far too much uncertainty in this
case to allow Mr. Williams to be executed.
Particularly when the victim's family believes life without
parole is the appropriate sentence.
Clearly, the Innocence Project is alluding to the
fact that that isn't even right.
Because if it's that speculative, it's not even
speculative.
Evidence has been destroyed, you have a mistrial.
You have no case.
In fact, the destroyers of the evidence should
be taken to trial.
It's not too late.
This is old.
It's not too late for Governor Mike Parson
to ensure that Missouri does not take an
innocent man's life.
He should exercise authority, grant clemency, and commute
Mr. Williams' sentence to life without parole or
at a minimum.
Stay the execution to allow the resolution of
further appeals.
With the weight of this new evidence and
the unreliability of the witnesses who testified against
Mr. Williams, his conviction must be re-evaluated
to ensure that justice is truly served.
Dedicated professionals from the Innocence Project, Midwest Branch,
and Brian Cave, along with attorneys Larry Kompf
and federal public defender Kent Gibson, make up
the team that continues to fight this execution.
So the incident date, sorry, 1998, not 1988,
1998.
He pleaded not guilty.
There were informants in the case.
The race of the victim was Caucasian.
And there's a lot.
A crime scene covered with forensic evidence contained
no link to Mr. Williams.
Thing is, the problem with that is that
although it may be factual, it's not as
moving, right?
What they should, what is better off is
to show, well, who would have done it?
So who is the DNA pointing to?
You're negating is one thing.
But most of these cases, when they succeed,
it's they succeed because they're pointing to another
criminal.
So the prosecutor gets to just swap.
All right, you're out, you're in.
And that helps them actually.
They're more willing to do that because I've
watched a lot of Innocence Project documentaries.
They're more willing to do that than to
just remove a guy and leave the case
cold.
That makes them, they're not happy with that.
So usually these true crime type of operations,
they need to actually go find the criminal.
The prosecution's case against Mr. Williams was based
entirely on the testimony of two incentivized witnesses
who were deemed unreliable.
The Innocence Project deems them unreliable.
No more information on that.
But we'll read it in full because this
is interesting.
You know, true crime is, it's always awesome
when they actually save somebody.
Unfortunately, now it's after the fact.
I didn't even know about his existence from
before the fact.
It only was yesterday that word spread.
Mr. Williams has repeatedly faced imminent execution as
he has tried to prove his innocence.
Although the victim's family opposes his execution, the
attorney general has continued to fight to execute
him.
Incentivized informants are a leading cause of wrongful
convictions.
Racial bias contributed to Mr. Williams' wrongful conviction.
Oh, don't you think?
Missouri, white woman, black man.
It's a layup for the prosecution.
There are movies made on this.
Mr. Williams is devoutly religious and an accomplished
poet.
Okay, let's read it in full now.
This is interesting.
Let's see what the case is, what the
evidence is.
Okay, here's the full article now.
This was updated last week, seven days ago
exactly.
The circuit court for St. Louis County, Missouri
denied prosecuting attorney Wellesley Bell's motion to vacate
the conviction and death sentence.
They say there is clear and convincing evidence
of actual innocence that led Wellesley to move
to vacate Williams' wrongful conviction and death sentence.
All right, let's get to the information here.
There's no reliable evidence.
I'm telling you, that's not a great argument.
It may be true, but it's not a
good argument.
There's no evidence.
It's not a great argument.
Tell us who the evidence is pointing to.
The prosecutors oftentimes will take that.
There's no reliable evidence proving that Marcellus Williams
committed the crime.
When I say that's not, I'm saying it's
not good persuasion.
To say the absence, there's nothing there.
That's not good persuasion.
There may be a total fact, and legally
that's definitely strong.
But better persuasion is to tell us what
the actual story is.
The state destroyed or corrupted the evidence.
Well, that's huge.
That's got to be like the first line,
the evidence that could conclusively prove his innocence.
Furthermore, the available DNA does not match him.
Well, who does it match?
Even the family's victim believes life without parole
is the appropriate sentence.
That's not – that doesn't move the needle
because if you're saying there's no argument against
him, that doesn't help me out, that they
want life without parole rather than execution.
All right.
Let's see here.
Here's what you need to know about the
case.
Mr. Williams had been seeking to prove his
innocence throughout 23 years he spent in Missouri's
death row.
On August 11, 1998, Felicia Gale, a former
reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was
found stabbed to death in her home.
The perpetrator left behind considerable forensic evidence, fingerprints,
footprints, hair, and DNA on the murder weapon,
which was a knife from her kitchen.
All of this evidence, none of it matches
Mr. Williams.
That's huge.
But who does it match is the question.
So what is the prosecution's case?
How did they make him guilty?
They said that there are witnesses.
The case against him turned on the testimony
of two unreliable witnesses – unreliable, that's your
claim, you have to prove it, right –
who were incentivized by promises of leniency in
their own criminal cases and reward money.
The investigation had gone cold until a jail
inmate named Henry Cole, a man with a
lengthy record, claimed that Mr. Williams confessed to
him that he committed the murder.
Wait a second, how is that a witness?
That's not a witness to the crime.
And on top of that, the guy is
a jailbird himself.
He's in jail himself.
So where is his adala?
Where is his uprightness?
And what did he witness?
So if he witnessed Mr. Williams saying it,
well, there's an easy solution to that.
Let's ask Mr. Williams, or ask him if
he has a recording.
Criminal could – any criminal could – oh,
that's a good thumbnail.
Any criminal could say that, whatever he wants.
Cole directed police to Laura Asaro, a woman
who had briefly dated Mr. Williams and had
an extensive record of her own.
Both of these individuals were known fabricators.
Neither revealed any information that was not either
included in media accounts about the case or
already known to police.
Their statements were inconsistent with their own prior
statements, with each other's accounts, and with the
crime scene evidence.
None of the information they provided could be
verified independently.
Aside from their testimony, the only evidence connecting
Mr. Williams to the crime was a witness
who said Mr. Williams sold him a laptop
taken from Ms. Gayle's home.
But the jury did not learn that Mr.
Williams told the witness he had ever received
the laptop.
Nine years ago, Missouri Supreme Court stayed Mr.
Williams' execution and appointed a special master to
review DNA testing of potential exculpatory evidence.
The DNA testing conducted in 2016 showed another
male, not Mr. Williams.
DNA in the apartment and on the murder
weapon.
However, in 2017, after the testing was completed,
but without conducting a hearing or making any
finding based on the outcome of the testing,
the appointed special master sent Mr. Williams' case
back to the Supreme Court, Missouri Supreme Court.
That court also, without considering the DNA testing
results, again scheduled the execution.
On August 22, 2017, mere hours before he
was to be executed and after eating his
last meal, he received a stay from then
-Governor Eric Greitens.
Governor Greitens recognized that the new DNA results
raised serious doubts about Williams' guilt, and he
convened a board of inquiry to investigate the
case.
All right, so far so good.
Under Missouri law, the stay was to remain
in place until the Board of Inquiry concluded
its review.
But in 2023, five years later, 2023, the
Board of Inquiry's review remains ongoing.
Governor Mike Parson, without warning or notice, dissolved
the Board without a report or recommendation from
the Board.
Immediately after Governor Parson dissolved the Board, the
Attorney General sought a new execution date.
So, Mr. Williams filed a civil suit against
Parson because the dissolution of the Board without
a report or recommendation violates Missouri law and
its constitutional rights.
After a Cole County judge denied the Governor's
motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the Governor persuaded
the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene.
What kind of corruption is this?
Is this Egypt or something?
On June 4, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court
dismissed Mr. Williams' lawsuit and immediately scheduled his
execution.
Sounds like corruption.
See, Innocence Project, you know you're going to
get facts.
You don't get false information from these people.
After the corruption of the key DNA evidence
came to light, Mr. Williams and the St.
Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office reached an agreement
to ensure Mr. Williams is not wrongfully executed.
Mr. Williams agreed to enter an Alford plea,
admitting that the state has sufficient evidence to
support his conviction in exchange for a sentence
of life without parole.
The victim's family supported this resolution and said
they didn't want him executed.
On August 21, the circuit court entered the
consent judgment based on the party's agreement.
Despite this, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sought
a writ of prohibition from the Missouri Supreme
Court and the court granted it, ordering the
circuit court to uphold the previous hearing, meaning
execution.
SubhanAllah.
Wow.
There definitely has to be a documentary about
this, by the way.
Has to be.
Incentivized informants are the leading cause of wrongful
convictions.
Jailhouse informant testimony is a leading contributor to
this.
15% of the 598 DNA-based exoneration
cases are based upon that.
54 individuals were exonerated.
11 of them were convicted with the use
of informant testimony.
Of course, a guy is already in jail
and you can either decrease his sentence or
something else if you testify against that guy.
Of course he's going to do it.
In capital cases, false testimony from incentivized witnesses
is the leading cause of wrongful convictions.
49.5% since the mid-70s.
So 50% of all wrongful convictions are
based on somebody who had a reason to
testify.
The first thing that you eliminate is anyone
who has a reason to testify.
It's the first thing you eliminate.
Even a jury.
If a guy from the Dallas Cowboys is
up for some kind of crime, do you
think any Dallas Cowboy fans should be there?
No one with strong opinions about the sport
should be there because it might clog up
their mind.
No family member should be there obviously.
No one who can gain financially from this.
Alright, let's take a look at the jury.
Jury of 12 people.
Black man accused of killing a white woman.
His jury was comprised of how many white
people?
What would you say?
6, 5, 7, 8, 11.
11 out of 12.
The prosecutor whose institutional practice of racial discriminatory
justice jury selection, racially discriminatory jury selection, has
been widely documented.
Successfully, he removed 6 of 7 qualified black
jurors with preemptory challenges.
A recent study of 400 death eligible cases
in St. Louis over 27 years revealed racial
disparity in the use of the death penalty
based upon the race of the victim.
People who were convicted were 3.5 times
more likely to receive the death penalty if
the victim was white as in this case
compared to if the victim was black.
During his 23 years in jail, in prison,
Mr. Williams devoted much of his time studying
Islam and writing poetry.
He serves as the Imam for Muslim prisoners
at Potosi Correctional Center and is known as
the Khalifa, meaning the leader in Arabic.
So his Arabic Muslim name is Khalifa.
He has an exemplary prison record, widely respected
within the prison community and beyond.
And again, this is an old article.
It's a week old.
Since the last update, they have all the
information that you could contact to fight his
case, but apparently it's too late now.
It's an old article, so they didn't update
it.
It's in the Associated Press because this is
not a normal case.
This is a case where there's a lot
of shady business, a lot of funny business
going on here, a lot of corruption straight
up.
His final statement, all praise be to Allah
in every situation.
Look, why does these things happen from our
standpoint?
Allah wants a level for somebody that they
cannot achieve with their own actions.
That's simply how we understand these things.
How can an innocent man be put to
jail?
First of all, Allah does not value this
dunya the way we do.
That's one thing.
The only scorecard that Allah cares for is
our Akhirah.
What is our Day of Judgment looking like?
What is our Heaven and * looking like?
For Allah Ta'ala, nothing matters except that.
So in order to get you in a
greater level than you would have ever attained
by your deeds, if this is what it
takes, then this is what Allah Ta'ala
does.
And hence the greats have suffered, many greats
have suffered.
Prophet Yahya was beheaded.
And he's a prophet.
He was beheaded.
He faced execution three times.
He got a reprieve in 2015 and 2017.
All his last-ditch efforts were futile.
Parson, he's the guy.
He's the governor who was just after him.
I don't know what he gained from this.
What did they gain from executions?
Stick this gentleman's mic on, please.
Yeah.
It's popular.
It's popular, huh?
Think about it.
Move it up.
Yeah.
For a lot of these things, functionally it
makes no difference whether he's alive in prison
or whether he is dead.
He's the same minimized threat that he otherwise
would be.
You've got voters out there who are eager
to see a black man killed.
And add that he's a Muslim now.
That's awesome, right?
For a lot of these people, that's what
they get excited about.
We get to kill a black Muslim.
100%.
And so Parson, he just won his next
election.
This was a very smart political strategy.
And look, if you're callous about human life
and you don't care about people, then yeah,
this is an easy price to pay for
you.
Okay, yeah.
Killed one more guy.
Yeah.
It's a fun one.
Political.
Is it in a—what's the governor's—when is that
cycle?
I'll see right now.
Missouri.
Terrible situation there, but Allah give him Jannah.
That's all we can say.
May Allah give him Jannah.
2024.
Okay.
It's election season for the guy.
That's it.
There's your example.
It's election season for the guy, for Parson.
Well, this stuff happens for a reason.
And Allah Ta'ala wanted for him something
else.
Something better than this dunya.
That if he was made innocent and released,
he would not have attained this.
But it's all over.
Every news outlet has something on it.
And every news outlet shows how shady, how
corrupt the whole case has been.
Wow.
SubhanAllah.
All right.
What else are we going to cover today?
We haven't done hadith in a long time.
All right.
Al-Muttaṣil.
What does it mean in hadith when we
say that something is muttaṣil?
يُسَمَّ بِالْمَوْصُولِ Muttaṣil, synonymously called al-mawṣūl.
وَهُوَ مَتَّصَلَ إِسْنَادُهُ مَرْفُوعًا كَانَ أَوْ مَوْقُوفًا عَلَى
مَنْ كَانَ So the muttaṣil is the hadith
in which the Prophet is speaking at the
end.
Whether that hadith be marfu' complete or cut.
So they're quoting the Prophet ﷺ in it.
يُسَمَّ بِالْمَوْصُولِ وَهُوَ مَتَّصَلَ إِسْنَادُهُ Sorry, sorry, sorry,
sorry, sorry.
I'm a bit sleepy today.
I got that wrong.
The muttaṣil means the chain is connected whether
or not it reaches the Prophet or if
the speaker is less than the Prophet.
Meaning a sahabi or a ta'biyyah or
what have you.
So that's what the muttaṣil means.
The chain is connected regardless of whether or
not it ends at the messenger, marfu' or
it ends at a sahabi, mawqoof.
المرفوع وهو ما أضيف إلى النبي ﷺ Now
the marfu' the word marfu' is that which
is connected.
The Prophet is the speaker at the end
of it.
خاصة لا يقع مطلقه على غيره مطتصلاً كان
أو منقطعاً قيل هو ما أخبر به السحاب
عن فعل النبي ﷺ أو قوله So the
word marfu' when that's used refers to when
the final speaker is the messenger, peace be
upon him.
We're not talking about the grading, we're talking
about the structure here.
Now let's talk about the mawqoof.
So we said المتصل والمرفوع and now الموقوف
وهو المروي عن السحابة The mawqoof, the speaker
is the companion.
The story is about the companion.
The action is the companion.
We're not talking about the chains here.
We're talking about who is speaking.
When we say مرفوع, the Prophet is at
the end of that chain.
That chain could be cut, it could be
ضعيف, it could be whatever.
But مرفوع means you're quoting the Prophet.
موقوف means you're quoting the sahabi.
متصل means it's fully connected.
Even that doesn't make it صحيح, متصل doesn't
make it صحيح.
Because someone in there may have جرح, may
not have uprightness or competence.
والمروي عن السحابة قولاً أو فعلاً أو نحوه
متصلاً كان أو منقطعاً So terms here, متصل
is a connected chain.
منقطع, a cut chain.
مرفوع, the Prophet is quoted.
موقوف, the sahabi is quoted.
These are very fundamental basic DNA when you
read hadith books so you should know what's
being said.
فيقالوا وقفوا فلان على الزهري ونحوه وعند فقهاء
خورسانتس تسمية الموقوف بالأثر الموقوف, he says here
amongst the people of Khorasan and we know
that that is beyond the Oxus River they
use the word أثر for that, أثر.
And when it's the Prophet speaking, the مرفوع
they call it خبر.
So that's the lingo, the technical terminology behind
the river, the Oxus River.
And all of it, to the محدثين in
general, all of this we call it أثر.
Transmitted knowledge essentially.
So again the terminology is that when the
chain is connected we call that متصل.
When it's broken we call that منقطع.
When it's quoting the Prophet you call it
مرفوع.
When it's quoting a Sahabi you call it
موقوف.
قول السحابي كنا نقول أو نفعل كذا إِلَّمْ
يُضِفُ إِلَى زَمَنِ النَّبِي ﷺ فَهُو مَوْقُوفٌ وَإِنْ
أَضَافَهُ فَالصَّحِيحَ أَنَّهُ مَرْفُوعٌ So here is something
very interesting to know.
If the companions are talking about themselves or
being quoted after the passing of the Prophet
ﷺ it's their statement.
If they're talking about their actions during the
time of the Prophet ﷺ in a manner
in which the Prophet approved their behavior then
it is موقوف but treated as مرفوع.
It's موقوف in its structure but the meaning
is something مرفوع.
For example if a man said I wore
such and such in the presence of the
Prophet and he saw me.
So that's it.
That shows that he didn't condemn that.
That means the Prophet approved of it.
Even though the whole hadith is surrounding the
Sahabi.
The Prophet did not once speak about it.
So that's the موقوف.
But it's موقوف in its essence but it's
مرفوع in the way we treat it as
evidence.
It's called مرفوع حُكْمًا they say.
مرفوع حُكْمًا.
The حُكْم of it we treat it as
if it's مرفوع حُكْمًا.
There's another thing that could be مرفوع حُكْمًا.
When a Sahabi speaks before or after the
Prophet's passing even after, it could be many
many years after but he tells you something
about the unseen in such a way that
he could not have gotten that except from
the Prophet.
That's also مرفوع حُكْمًا.
So when Abdullah ibn Abbas informs us that
there's a house in the lowest heavens the
Kaaba there is called بيت العزة.
When Abdullah ibn Abbas tells us that.
What's this?
Oh Mashallah.
Okay thank you so much.
I like Khyber to be honest with you.
I like him.
Khyber better get ready for war.
Oh what is this?
Pistachio latte isn't it?
Pistachio latte.
This is new stuff.
He gave me a taste he said.
See they're getting ready.
They're preparing for the new items.
These guys better.
They're getting ready for war.
MOCAFE I heard is coming.
Qahwa House is coming.
Majus is coming.
What's the other one?
Haraz is coming.
Right?
Haraz.
You know what Haraz?
Oh Haraz is more famous on the west.
Qahwa House on the east.
That's what I was told.
But Haraz.
I've been to Haraz.
I've been to Qahwa House in Michigan.
The originals.
I like them both to be honest.
But Haraz is like Qahwa House.
Yemeni coffee.
It's competing hard with Qahwa House.
Both of them believe that whoever can dominate
the market first is going to be well
ahead.
So Haraz.
The Haraz guy is not sleeping this day.
I'm saying this because I know one of
the guy who controls the east coast for
him.
Right?
If you want one.
Let me know.
Anyone who wants to open a Haraz in
the area.
Let me know.
There's a certain amount of money.
There's a dollar amount.
You need to have it in your pocket.
Right?
And then you open up Haraz.
Because he wants to fight hard.
Right?
He wants to be the number one.
He knows that this is.
If you're number one now.
You're going to be number one for a
long time.
It's going to be very hard for people
to catch up the initial bout.
This is right up the alley.
We talked about marriage.
Why it's so hard.
The older you get.
It's harder to get married.
Sometimes you just.
You know too much.
And even when you're younger.
It's hard to get married.
Because you got too many choices.
You order a pistachio latte.
And he accidentally gives you like.
I don't know.
A regular chai.
Both of them are good.
What do you do with the regular chai?
This is a pistachio latte.
You ordered.
Let's say.
A different kind of latte.
An oat milk latte.
Right?
An oat milk latte is great.
But you order a pistachio latte.
What do you do?
You give it back.
Right?
Because it wasn't what I asked for.
So our mentality in everything we do.
There's so many choices.
Right?
So many choices.
Too many choices.
You get your shirt.
Custom made.
There's about four kinds of collars.
Buttons.
No buttons.
A lapel inside.
So you could stick a little.
Those little sticks inside or not.
The sewing.
How far do you want it off?
Some people like the sewing.
The stitching I mean.
To be quite off.
Some people like it really close.
To the edge of the collar.
Then you got this part of the shirt.
Do you want this part or not?
The amount of choices you have.
In every walk of life.
Is insane.
When you get married.
Your mind blows up.
Right?
Now there's noses.
There's eyes.
There's careers.
There's lips.
There's so many choices.
Right?
There's family.
There's brains.
You're having trouble getting married.
For this reason.
That's why I think this is a decision.
Your mind will never compute it properly.
Take it to istikhara and istishara.
Right?
It's not you're saying suspend your will altogether.
But you really need to do.
Just.
Don't you want to ask Allah.
Oh Allah.
You decide for me.
You know Allah is going to decide the
best for you.
Right?
He was going to decide what is best
for you long term.
And is not painful short term.
Right?
That's what Allah is going to choose for
you.
He's going to choose the best overall decision.
He's going to choose in consideration of the
future.
You don't know that.
You don't know if this person can produce
kids or not.
Right?
Two kids.
24, 25.
Never been around with anybody.
They don't know if they have medical problems.
So you're going to choose and think all
this stuff.
The most important thing is unknowable to you.
You don't know what the kids are going
to look like.
You don't know how she's going to parent.
You don't know how he's going to parent.
You don't know how he's going to react
to economic trouble.
He can break.
He might be the strongest guy now.
But he's never been tested.
He cracks under pressure.
The rest of your life is misery.
There are these moments in people's lives where
they either crack under pressure.
Or they regroup themselves.
Clear their head.
Smack themselves up a little bit.
Wash their face.
Make wudu.
Pray two rakahs.
And face the world again.
This happens all the time to people.
You either crack.
Or you react.
Right?
So, I know another guy who he said
he'll never be able to marry again.
He's too clever.
He's too wise.
He knows all the different personality types.
He knows it.
But that person, he needs to submit it
all to Allah.
Okay, this person is here.
Pray a lot of istikhara.
Every nafila, make it istikhara.
Ask righteous people to do istikhara for you.
Istikhara is just dua.
The dua is, if this is a good
decision, O Allah, make it easy.
If it's a bad decision, make it impossible.
If it's the wrong decision.
And then do istikhara.
And don't overuse your brain.
Every time someone orders coffee now, that's what
I think of.
Lathe Newton, we eat it.
Asking about the rennet.
There are very little options in getting married
when you're young.
Says Plan C.
Really?
Where do you live though?
That's the question.
Because you may ask about, it may be
location based.
Right?
It may be location based.
If you're in Dallas, you've got a lot
of options.
If you're in Jersey, you've got options.
I think a lot of young people, when
they're going out and looking to get married,
they're optimizing for perfection.
You've been married a long time.
I've been married a while.
You don't get into it thinking that everything's
going to be perfect.
And then you realize over time that there's
going to be different points where you're going
to have to grow and adapt.
But that's with any other thing you do.
You don't go into a job and expect
it to be the perfect job.
You're going to have a boss you're not
going to like once in a while.
So why is it any different in this
domain?
And then people, because of this thing in
the back of their heads, they put off
marriage for such a long time.
And then you end up in this phase
where now you've only got two options left
or three options left.
So your pool is shrinking.
And at some point, you're going to not
get perfection.
It's just a matter of when do you
want it.
The pool is always shrinking as time goes
on.
And let me tell you, let me put
it this way for you.
When you have kids, when you have a
healthy kid, you have kids, right?
You have two kids, right?
You have three kids.
That's a lot.
That'll increase you.
Make sure you get four at least, right?
Or at least three.
Increase the population, right?
Do your part, right?
Yeah, do your part.
Increase the Muslim population.
So my wife is listening.
Three or four.
Let me put it to you this way.
When you have a kid, and that kid
cries, and that kid can't let you sleep,
and that kid costs you, and you're just
looking at the diaper costs.
What the heck, right?
We used to have this much money at
the end of every month.
Now it's down to here.
Why?
So that he could defecate, right?
Think about that.
That's it.
And that's what you feel happy about.
When you have that first kid, you feel
happy when you see a pile of diapers.
That's what makes you happy.
Wow, the bar has gone down, right?
It's a source of happiness.
When you see a pile of onesies, a
pile of diapers, and a pile of butt
paste, and a can of butt paste, right?
You feel accomplished, right?
Ready for the day.
All of that for one little creature to
defecate, and urinate all day and all night.
You go into that life, and you realize
there's a lot of hardships, right?
There is a lot of pain in the
necks.
But here's the way I look at it.
This is the pain of the neck.
This is the status of the blessing.
Imagine if the kid had a disease.
Imagine if he had a sickness.
Imagine if he had a deformity.
So this is the pain of the blessing.
Imagine the pain of the test.
Imagine if the kid was born with Down
syndrome, born with some sickness, born with whatever,
born blind, born deaf.
So zip it, is my answer to myself.
Whenever something voice comes in my head to
complain, zip it.
This is the blessing right here.
Waking up, can't sleep, wake up in the
morning, first thing, I can't even wake up,
just go for the coffee right away.
Now I'm a coffee addict.
I didn't sleep well, so I need food
constantly.
So I'm not going to be physically fit.
All of this train reaction, this domino effect
of negativity that you could so easily sit
after one month of having your first baby,
and now your whole sleep is off, you're
eating Doritos at night, you can't think and
do anything useful, you're watching TV or internet,
and you're so miserable.
That's the ni'mah.
What you're in right now, that is the
underbelly of the ni'mah.
That's the nature of the dunya.
The blessing itself has all this nastiness to
it.
Imagine now if your kid had down syndrome.
Blindness, deafness, all that.
Imagine now you couldn't even have a kid.
There are some people wishing they trade your
life for theirs.
Any day of the week.
They'll trade away their life for yours.
Your situation that you're so miserable because you
have to wake up because you have a
kid.
They don't have a kid.
So you always have to talk to yourself
like that.
Even this reaction, you don't know if the
person in front of you that you're going
to marry, how they're going to react to
this.
Because there are people, they go to opposite
ways in life.
When the pain hits and the trouble hits,
they become nasty, their spirituality is gone, their
character is gone, everything about them is trash,
is revealed.
You don't know this before you get married.
That's why the most intelligent thing for a
person to do, is to say, Oh Allah,
my mind can never compute whether this is
good or bad for me.
I may desire the person.
I may not desire the person.
But now that it's in front of me,
I have to ask Allah Ta'ala with
istikhara and istishara.
Istishara, the elders can know more about a
person than you.
Keep in mind, we live in a society
that sort of looks down on elders.
That's what our society does.
We look down on the elders.
You see how this thing got me going?
I was like falling asleep in the live
stream, right?
So this thing got me going.
Elders can look at a person and say,
this person is full of good character, within
a shorter span than you.
I had many, many friends.
My dad said, he's good, but that other
one, stay away from him.
Don't be friends.
Actually, my dad was never that diplomatic.
He said, that one's trash, right?
This guy's trash.
This guy's a dropout.
He's good, right?
That's what the old generation's like.
They don't play this diplomacy stuff.
They're just trash, right?
And he's good, right?
But he would say that, and I don't
see how he's saying that.
I don't see where he's saying it.
To me, he's a cool kid, right?
And he's good at stuff.
But my dad and the elders who are
sharp would say, okay, just the way he
talks, the way he treats his dad, he
knows everything about him within a short period
of time.
Women are going to know that about wives.
Women are going to know about women.
And guys are going to know that about
other guys.
Just like I said the story yesterday, and
by the way, might as well since we're
talking about, we're going to be talking about
marriage a lot.
We have a premarital program that has launched
called Starboard.
If you are engaged, getting engaged, sign up
so that you can get educated before you
go into something without knowledge.
So it's premarital classes and courses that you
can sign up for as soon as you
get engaged at starboardmarriage.com.
But what were we saying?
Huh?
Postmarital as well, right?
So, they know better.
They know better.
That's what we call istishara.
Men would know men.
Women know women.
A woman who's 50 years old, how many
girls has she been around in her life?
How many girls has she seen?
She doesn't have to be smart.
How many girls has she seen?
Her gut will tell her when something's wrong.
She's seen a lot of women.
She knows what good women look like and
how they behave, how they look at you.
Same with guys.
You could sort of tell when someone's normal
and someone's shady, someone's iffy.
I must have said shady like five times
this episode, right?
But, istishara is asking the elders.
We're living in a society that looks down
on the elders.
That is a stupid society.
That's a stupid society.
The only difference between the elder and the
youth, right, is that the older guy does
not look as great as the youth, but
he's ten times smarter, right?
He's ten times smarter.
There's a guy who recently...
Elders and youth, what's the difference?
One guy, he looks great, feels great, but
he doesn't have life experience.
When I say smarter, I mean life experience,
right?
The other guy doesn't look so good, but
he's got life experience.
He was you a couple decades ago.
There's really no difference between you.
That's why it's really interesting.
Everyone in Jenna's 33 years old.
Like me, my dad, my grandfather, all the
way, we're all 33.
We're all like equals now.
It's going to be a weird feeling, right?
I like these movies, I don't know if
there are a lot, about a guy who
goes back in time and meets his dad
as a youth.
Meets his dad when he's younger than him.
So the son, at that moment in time,
knows a little bit more than the dad.
And he's like, I wish I could tell
him, don't do this, do that.
That's your dad.
You want to say something?
Have you ever read the book Anti-Fragile?
Yeah, remind me about that.
You know that concept he talks about?
I guess he calls it the Lindy concept.
Where something that's been around a while will
continue to be around a while.
Meaning the wheel that's been around for 3
,000 years is going to be around for
another 3,000 years.
The iPhone that's been around 20 years is
maybe going to last another 20, max.
You could apply that to, it's not a
direct corollary, but apply it to knowledge and
wisdom.
There you go.
There's a reason to think that that knowledge
that has marinated inside of a person's head
for 30 or 40 years, it's going to
be a little bit more solid.
It's going to be a little bit more
thought out.
Whereas you think about a young person, they
learn something new, they think they're an expert
in that thing, and then two weeks later
they're an expert in something else.
And they turn out to be wrong about
both.
Yeah, and then 40, 50 years later they
start to get a little bit wise, right?
That's how it is.
The idea is that the elder is not
trying to oppress you.
That's how the West sells it.
They sell it that the Eastern elder is
just oppressing all the time and taking away
your freedom.
When someone wants to drive off a cliff,
that's not freedom, right?
That's stupidity.
When someone wants to race up a mountain
that does not have a rail on it,
we call that stupidity, not freedom.
And then someone comes and says, no, don't
do it.
That's called protection.
That's called wisdom, right?
That's called everything good.
So that's what we call in our religion,
istishara.
Who do you do istishara with?
There is no value in doing istishara with
your buddies.
They're as ignorant as you.
Istishara, if you want to marry a woman,
go ask some of the older ladies who
would know this person and their family and
know something about it.
You're not going to go ask your friend,
right?
If anything, he's the last guy to ask.
He may want her too, right?
Bump you off and then never after that.
But that's how it should be.
So I founded this organization, right here you
see, all for the sake of people getting
educated about marriage because you cannot wing this
thing.
You got to study it.
And you can study it.
You can study this.
It's possible to learn techniques that are going
to improve you and make your marriage life
good.
And it's just mind-boggling how little effort
is put into studying this thing while admitting
it's the most important thing in your life.
Everyone admits it.
It's faith, family, finances.
Everyone's got to admit that.
No reasonable person to say, no, no, no,
money first.
That's Dan, that Mexican guy who's a devil
worshiper.
You know this guy?
Dan something, I don't know.
He's Mexican.
The guy is insane.
He's a multi-billionaire.
But his philosophy is he'll only tutor you
on one condition.
He tutors a person on how to be
rich until that person has a major family
crisis or event.
My mom just died.
My dad just died.
My sister's getting married.
He'll call you the morning of that event
and say, we have an emergency in the
company.
I need you here right now.
Hold on, my mom just died.
If you don't show up, he hangs up
on you.
You're out.
His criterion is that.
He literally says, this guy, you have to
sell your soul to the devil.
He says, to make your first million is
easy.
Anyone can make a million, two million, three
million and live a nice, solid family life.
But to make that first hundred million, you
got to lose a quarter of your soul.
To make the first billion, you got to
lose half your soul.
To repeat the billion, you got to lose
your whole soul.
And what he means by that is cutting
your relations.
Nothing can be more important.
Your son has been begging you to go
watch a soccer game, but you have a
work meeting.
Work comes first.
He literally says that in his philosophy.
The guy is a devil.
Dan something.
Just put Dan the devil.
Yeah, put that.
Mexican devil.
He's going to come up.
That's not him, no.
Put pictures, put pictures.
Put...
Carnegie, Dale Carnegie.
Because he bought Dale Carnegie's house.
That's how rich he is in Scotland.
No.
What do they enjoy it with?
This guy says that he finds himself better
at business the more bad things he does.
He's literally a devil worshiper.
But man.
You want me to get his name exact?
No, no.
It's just some...
Um...
Maybe two out of ten things he says
is any useful, but no one should listen
to him.
Here we are promoting basically.
It's a warning, yeah.
Don't go with this guy.
He's terrible.
Don't go with this guy that you only
heard of here, and we've been talking about
for the last ten minutes.
It's good that I can't remember his name.
Maybe that's from Allah, so let's just leave
it at that.
Is it Carlos?
No, no, it's not Carlos.
Palmer's really interested in those millions.
It's going to come to me right after
this stream.
Dan Pena.
How did you know that?
Chat GPT.
Dan Pena.
No, no.
He himself says it.
He himself says it.
No, no.
He himself says his phrase of making a
deal with the devil, what he means by
that is cut what your heart tells you
is good.
Your heart tells you being good to your
mom is good, right?
Your heart tells you to be good to
your kids.
Your heart tells you that that's more important
than money.
He literally is...
He's probably a Zionist too.
1,000%.
1,000%.
He's not into decent people.
I'm guaranteed he probably has...
I don't know if it's going to be
liable if I say that the guy's got
all sorts of STDs, but the way he
talks about the filthy stuff he does, I'm
sure.
Where do we leave off?
Where do we leave off with all this?
Istishara.
Istishara.
Because you don't know the future.
You don't know how people are going to
react.
Your brain can never compute whether or not
living with this person for the rest of
my life is good or bad.
You have desires, yes, but your brain can
never compute it.
You must do Istishara and you have to
do Istikhara.
All right, let's take a few Q&A
because we got to run.
We can't even...
You're going to do the drop by yourselves,
by the way, because I got to run
today.
Yep.
Today I'm running in 10 minutes.
Five minutes I'm running.
I got to leave in five minutes.
Yeah, you can do it.
Omar can do it.
All right, let's take some Q&A here.
Reminder, we did some hadith, and just for
the sake of the review of hadith terminology,
Ittisal al-sanad is when it's fully connected.
That doesn't mean it's sahih yet, but it's
just one of the conditions.
Al-marfu'a means that the Prophet is
being quoted either with or without a complete
chain.
Mawquf means a Sahabi is being quoted with
or without a complete chain.
I want to also not forget to make
a du'a for Marcellus Williams.
So let's do this one.
Let's do that du'a and combine it
right away with our Wednesday du'a, but
also Omar will read the wirid too afterwards
so that we don't lose out on our
our habit to recite that wirid.
No, no.
We'll just make a du'a for Marcellus
Williams.
Surah Al-Fatihah We ask Allah Ta'ala
saying that, Oh Allah, you know him, we
don't know him.
You know his status and we don't know
his status.
But what has come to us is that
he was an upright brother who was oppressed.
So we ask you to take him and
judge him as a shaheed, as a martyr
and resurrect him alongside the martyrs and purify
him of all wrongdoings and enter him into
Jannat al-Firdaws without any hisab, without any
account and make at this very moment in
time his grave a small piece of paradise.
I ask Allah Ta'ala likewise for all
those suffering in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Kashmir,
in Sudan, in India and the Rohingyans and
the Uyghurs and all those suffering in all
the lands of the Ummah of Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam make all their sufferings an elevation
of their rank, a purification of their sins
before that and let them enter Jannat without
any hisab after what they've suffered in this
life and let them die as martyrs.
Wa Sallallahu Wa Barak Ala Sayyidina Muhammad Wa
Ala Alihi Wasallam Wa Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen Alright,
Waraqah What do you have to say?
These brothers are saying Dan Bilzerian and...
No, Dan Bilzerian and Ejutaid are nothing next
to Dan Pena's money.
But although Dan Bilzerian also is somebody who...
He's got a past, of course we all
know that but according to our friend from
Tampa, Hassan Shibli, that the brother's reading the
Quran or that he's reading the Quran.
Can't say brother yet but colloquially speaking.
Inshallah, Allah give him hidayah.
Even Andrew Tate, he didn't negate his Islam,
he's just not doing it so well.
Why would you expect him to do it
so well after all that past that he
has?
And the wealthy change really hard.
It's really hard for the wealthy to change.
Their egos are massive.
He gave up drinking.
You said he gave up drinking?
What's up there?
I mean, to be a Muslim, fasiq, testimony
is not valid, sidelines in the community, is
a step up from what he was, right?
That is a step up.
So who's to say...
Why do we imagine this 180 degree?
I don't imagine that.
Mike Tyson is a Muslim, right?
Is there any example of Islam in the
way he lives?
Nah, he's a Muslim.
Khalas, right?
I bet you, you can find you a
hundred Egyptians live exactly like that.
No such thing as prayer, identify as a
Muslim, maybe make umrah once a decade.
No sign of Islam in his life at
all.
I bet you find you a hundred thousand
Egyptians right now who live like that.
Right?
He, Tate, did some terrible things.
He betrayed Muslims the way he talked.
He's a fasiq.
I have no problem saying that.
Because his deeds are public.
His Islam was public and his betrayal of
Muslims is public too.
That doesn't mean he's out of Islam.
Bilzerian, who knows his status, right?
Seems to be a little bit more measured
than Tate, right?
Allah knows best what's going to happen.
By the way, life is not over yet.
We don't know when life is over.
That's why you really got to move, right?
So...
I think it's because he went way into
the deep end, Bilzerian.
Like you look at, he was way worse
than Tate.
He was, oh really?
I don't know his past.
No, like from what I've heard, he's like
ultra-heathen.
He mentions that in his live stream.
Tate is a little bit lighter than him,
I think.
So I think maybe it's the fact that
he went so deep into it that he's
more level-headed than Tate right now.
Maybe.
He's had most of the dunya.
He's had a lot of it, yep.
He's explored all the aspects of the dunya.
That can be explored.
And then he said himself that he did
not feel that satisfaction.
Subhanallah.
He just goes to show you that this
dunya is really nothing.
And by the way, saying someone is a
Muslim is not a supportive statement.
That doesn't mean like we're buddies and pals.
Like I said, you're gonna find a hundred
thousand people in Cairo right now at this
very moment in time.
I have to tell you they're Muslims.
I don't like anything else about them.
But I can't say they're not a Muslim,
right?
All right, let's see.
Couple questions before we wrap up.
Is someone color grading the live stream or
what?
Beautiful colors.
No color grading is happening here.
I have to give the credit.
First of all, I had a certain someone
buy all this stuff for me.
Secondly, it was Omar's brilliant idea to use
the shade light in the back like this.
So he gets that credit for that.
My question is on the ruling in Maliki
Fiqh about making dua to marry a specific
person instead of making a general dua.
This we say, it's out of Maliki and
Hanafi and Shafi'i and Hanbali.
It is a general advice to make your
dua general rather than specific.
What you can do is pray Istighfar.
All right, pray Istighfar.
Oh Allah, if marrying this person is good
for me, make it easy for me.
Inspire me to pray for it.
And if marrying this person is bad for
me, make it impossible for me and remove
it from my life and from my mind.
Take it out of my mind completely.
You can make that Istighfar prayer.
That's like Istighfar about making dua.
Or from now, you can trust Allah Ta
'ala and say, Oh Allah, give me someone
with these beautiful qualities.
Qualities that I love and you love.
You can even simplify it to that.
Make your someone beautiful to me and to
you.
That means everything that you love will be
there, is included in that and she'll be
pious.
She'll be good to you.
Does Allah love a wife who's not good
to her husband?
Does Allah love a wife who's thinking about
another man?
Does Allah love a wife who's arrogant over
her husband?
So when we say beautiful to Allah, all
of these qualities which you could never put
down on paper are going to be there.
Okay, let's then go to...
Here's a question.
What was the question I wanted to answer?
Insomnia, not falling asleep.
I'll tell you what, there are physical causes.
I'm not a doctor, but there are physical
causes.
You should probably see a medical physician, but
let me tell you the physical causes of
people who can't fall asleep.
Screen time.
Screen time going late causes you, even when
you do fall asleep, you find yourself wide
awake in the middle of the night.
Your brain does not know how to rest
anymore.
Boredom is really good for us and unfortunately,
it's been taken away from us.
In the car, texting.
In the bathroom, texting.
Getting the mail on the phone.
The walk to the mailbox used to be
a peaceful thing.
Can't even do that anymore.
Literally, I've seen people, they got to go
from upstairs to downstairs to get something.
He'll take his phone and he'll check his
phone on the way.
Huh?
In the bathroom.
You know, there was a funny story about
restaurants.
One restaurant was packed all the time.
Always packed, this restaurant.
Suddenly, every year, they're dropping.
Their income is dropping.
Their gross is dropping.
So they're like, how is this happening?
We are literally packed to the brim 24
-7.
So they got in a consultant to examine
what's happening.
And the consultant was brilliant.
And he discovered that although you're packed, the
time each couple spends at the table is
longer.
Which means you have a total number of
customers that's dropping every year.
So you are packed.
But you're not having the same amount of
customers.
They're like, okay, well, what is the reason
why people are staying longer?
Right?
It's all because of this.
Between the time they sit down and they
order, if they look at one message, that
may be 15 seconds.
That's an extra 15 seconds.
Just hypothetical.
What he said ultimately was the worst thing,
taking pictures of the food.
Because you take a picture of the food,
you post it.
The moment you edit it, you post it.
You take a little video.
Who goes, what psychopath posts and put his
phone down?
No, you post and check the messages, right?
Right?
You post and then, didn't you have previous
messages?
You post Instagram, but your Instagram is telling
you about previous posts that you put up.
Right?
No one posts and closes their phone.
Even before you even post, you're going to
get the notifications.
So he noticed that the time at the
table is taking too long.
So guess what the restaurant did?
No phones at the table allowed.
Right?
Can't take your phone out.
And they would start to tell people, reminder,
because it takes up time and there are
people waiting, no phones at the table.
In other words, you can't sit there taking
pictures of the food.
That's actually, they lost marketing, right?
That's marketing for them.
All of a sudden, what happened to the
revenues?
Went back up again because the amount of
time at the table is shrinking.
So insomnia, by the way, can have to
do with that.
Insomnia could also have to do with not
enough energy being used up in the day.
So take long walks in the middle of
the day.
Get on the treadmill.
Do all sorts of stuff.
Right?
In the day to get yourself physically exhausted.
What else?
Insomnia.
Maybe caffeine has to do with it.
Caffeine should stop at 3, 4 p.m.
No caffeine.
I got to finish this thing up by
3, 4 p.m. Or else I'll be,
my mind will say you got to sleep,
but my body doesn't want to sleep.
Right?
So these are some of the reasons why
you have insomnia.
But if that doesn't help you, go see
a doctor.
I love to answer these questions.
There are almost 300 people on YouTube today.
And there are people on Instagram and Twitter
and all these other places.
And I would love to answer all these
questions.
But I simply have to go.
Let's just take this one question here.
From Waraka.
A brother got married while he was in
the state of disbelief for 10 years.
Now he's practicing and trying to make up
for that time.
How does he handle his marriage now?
She is not Muslim but very supportive.
Well, she has to at least be Christian
or Jewish.
And he has to now fulfill what he
didn't fulfill in his previous marriage contract.
When he wasn't acting upon the Sharia, he
has to simply do that.
So if he didn't give her a dowry,
if he didn't do proper Ijab and Qabool,
he just re-does those things.
And then goes on living, making Tawbah and
being, trying to be good again.
Farhana, she's got hazard symptoms.
That means her question is serious.
Alright, fine.
Let's take that one.
You guys are going to make me late.
What is it?
You're asking about, that's like cannibalism.
This is the platform to ask questions.
Don't you see these questions, sister?
Don't you see all the questions here?
Send them here.
But Farhana, in all seriousness, if you have
a serious question, send it to info at
safinsociety.org and it will come to me.
Okay, I'll see it, inshallah, when I check
my email.
My question is a little bit up.
I can't check it right now.
Gotta run.
I can't be late to this appointment.
Subhanak, Allahumma wa bihamdik.
Nishad wa la ilaha illa anta.
Nastaghfiruk wa natubu ilayk.
Wa al-asr.
Inna al-insana lafee khusr.
Illa allatheena amanu wa amilu salihat.
Wa tawassu bilhaqq.
Wa tawassu bil-sabr.
Wa as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Wednesday Dua guys.
Don't leave yet.
Well done Omar.
We'll be on the phone.
For those who are new to this, this
is Hezbon Nasr by Imam Al-Haddad.
So we recite this every Wednesday between Dhuhr
and Asr.
Because this is a blessed time where there
is a certain slot which we are not
aware of exactly where Dua is accepted.
So inshallah.
Bismillah.
La ilaha illallah Malikul Haqqul Mubeen.
Al-Fatiha.