Shadee Elmasry – NBF 140 Special Guest Imam Basheer Bilal
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Come to hear woman want to welcome everybody to the Safina society
nothing but facts podcasts. Today we're joined we have a full house.
We have two guys from Virginia. Brother Amin and sister.
MashAllah Rosanna What are you guys doing from Virginia? First of
all, I've been through, traveling through mashallah, good, good. I
have to take care of you then.
We have a couple from Virginia who are driving through. We have old
school I live in sad you all know I live in sad if you've been
around from 2015 to 2018 or so that he got married, had a kid and
disappeared into the cave of life.
And now he has to work he has to wake up early. He's got too much
going on. But he's a student of shift my mood should be which I'm
studying medical, and he's still also studying Medical.
And then we have Imam Bashir Dillard, a New Yorker. And a
Sarkeesian. Which means do not mess around. I gifted him some
nice dark chocolate.
He gifted me with this, I believe, okay. Blood resistant from
corrosion, right. This accompanies it's really sleek, it's like
really sleek, very quiet. So you could whip it out without anyone
hearing. But this is how they roll in Dagestan answer Kasia and
across because there are if I'm not mistaken, there are seven
circuit Asian countries. Anyone who's in Central Jersey in the
area. Anyone who has been around us in the last two years, has
gotten a full education about Circadia. From what
my daughter said, we learned as much Arabic as we do learn about
suffocation.
He's the Arabic teacher. We learned about Circadia more than
we learn Arabic sometimes. So I know as much that there are seven
circuit Asian countries and of causes one of them. He's from
there. And you're from there. So now remember, she being our
guests. Tell us exactly. You're a New Yorker, and your dad's an
email. So I'm very interested in this because that means your dad
grew up he studied and he had a religious fervor in his heart at a
time when not many Turks because you're circadence, who lived in
Turkey is the Chautauqua. Sometimes they're called chukwa.
Right? However they pronounce it. They they live in Georgia. They
live in Syria. They live of course in their countries and they live
in Turkey. These are the four main areas where they live. So your dad
lives in Turkey at a time when secularism was a dominant force.
So tell us exactly how was it your dad got involved in the deen? How
did he even survive? And how was that spirit kept alive because we
could learn a lot
about the science of keeping your spirit alive when it comes to
that, Zach lokalen Shekinah it's an honor to be here it's I've
always watched your podcast online and always had great affinity love
and respect for your heart your work mashallah, may Allah bless
you and continue to give you the best of success. I mean, and it's
an honor to through Nurul Iman Academy and the brothers who are
also here who facilitated this whole gathering mashallah
Alhamdulillah Allah be pleased with you all desert Mala halen
it's a very
blessed a topic that's near and dear to my heart. And I mentioned
this hadith in Myanmar. And, you know, as a gratitude to Allah
subhanaw taala. It's my father, and actually close to more than 20
members of our family that all graduated from some form of the
rasa shariah, masha Allah so we have the holiness, we have Imams,
we have, Misha, you can hamdulillah but I would say but
both from my paternal and maternal side, my grandparents, perhaps
like the resolve, that their strong desire and dedication, one
thing that my father shared from my grandfather, a lawyer who I
never met him, he passed away when my father was 18.
He said, I was a child, they're nine siblings. He said, It was
Ramadan. And we couldn't wake up for Soho. And he said, my
grandfather said, no one's slack there. So yeah, my father said I'm
not even you know, sitting rushed. I'm still a child, meaning you
can't wake up. It's against the law. No, no, they missed the
support. Basically, they overslept basic other are villages up in the
in the mountain, just like back home. Okay, so it's like 10 houses
in the whole village. So there's no law that's really barring
anyone from practicing up there, at least maybe in the cities,
different issues. But the reason they missed it was because they
overslept. And my, my grandfather is and nobody changed your FCM
just because you couldn't make savour don't, you know, eat your
car. So I'm seven or eight years old, he said, I'm barely at the
age of accountability. I went into the forest and I was eating wild
berries secretly as a child. And he said, only to look up and see
that my father is holding a huge boulder over my head about to
crush me or go
Going against his orders and the cin. He said I was honored and
lucky enough to have one of his elder brothers dragged my
grandfather by the arms and he was a strong man Subhanallah they say
that when he rode the horse, he got on the horse's feet with touch
the floor. So maybe a Mustang SubhanAllah. And
he said that he escaped, but his two brothers, they get the beating
that he was supposed to get. And he told me like my grandfather,
subhanAllah ham, who,
even in the wintertime in the mountain is very cold. He said,
even in the wintertime, when we didn't have like, the water would
freeze, and we would have to melt snow, and we still cold. He said
he would never miss any prayers never allow anyone in the
household to miss prayers. And my father, and I'm sorry for going so
long on this tangent here shift. But I really want to share this
with you.
My father, when he finally went to study the Islamic Studies in the
again, illegal Islamic schools that were so there,
he got into trouble a few times to the point where he actually
stabbed one of his fellow students. So they obviously
thought of the money, they kicked it out. He came home with his
bedding and whatever supplies he had. He was living in the Marisa
and my grandfather song. So where are you coming from? Mind you, all
his elder brothers. They also studied. He said, They kicked me
out. So yeah, before he said, I could put my stuff on the on the
couch in the house. He grabbed my hand, we went right back to the
mothers.
He said to the Messiah, if you do not need him, I do not need him.
Throw him off a cliff. He's gonna become an Imam, or he's not worth
anything to me. He's not a child of mine. So that's how
he studied Islam. And he said, he got my I got my act together. And
I realized this is the same culture that Habib when they
wanted to train him how to wrestle, they gave him to a bear.
So have you all seen that video with bear? Right? He's wrestling
with the bears, these are different people. This is a whole
different breed of humans. Subhanallah, right. And there's a
reason though, like the Ottoman Empire didn't, wasn't raised up by
soft people. And you're shucks, our bases are occasions where
basically the neighbors of the Turks, their Turkic people. So
this essentially the same culture is worse off. You had enemies, you
had the Russians as your enemies. The Turks had the Mongols on the
east and the Crusaders on the west, right? They faced enemies
constantly. These people are facing enemies. And they're in a
cold climate. Right, which cold climates, they don't encourage
independence. Right, because you can't go off on the in the cold.
This is generally thing in geographic studies, the colder the
climate, the less independence, because you can't just go off on
your own. Right. Whereas warm climates, you go off on your own,
you could live with a fishing rod on the beach, right? And you can
live on your own. So the warm climates of the Mediterranean,
those people are personally independent. But the cold climates
you have to live together, like where's socialism? It's always in
the cold climates, because you realize you have to live together,
so you're gonna die. And when you live together, you have to have
one order of things and nobody can break the rules. If people start
breaking rules, you have chaos. That's all the background like the
psychological background of the toughness of the circulations. So
you're so your, your, your family was immune, in a sense to the
secularism of Turkey because they live far off in the in the mouths
of Turkey itself. Yes, there's a there's a famous mountain most my
shout out to the Turkish peoples, whether they're causing child
college color checkers or Turkish, by Origin, there is a mountain
it's called bullet da. It's one of the biggest mountains there. It's
between Istanbul and Ankara. And there's a tunnel there uncle a
tunnel that if you're going from Istanbul anywhere into the
Anadolu, or the middle of Turkey, you go through that village and
our village is at the very top of Bala mountain. And it is said that
our ancestors when they came, they were looking for similar land
that's familiar to them. They don't live in the valleys. They
don't live in the and correct me if I'm wrong shift now but Sedna,
Adam and his first children how they lived in the mountains. And
Cobbins children are the ones to first live in the valleys.
SubhanAllah. So one thing that fascinated me was one of the
elders in the in the tribe in the village. He told me our ancestors
when they came to find a place to live, they would cut down a tree
and check the core of the tree. Is it rotten? Is it good weather is
in bad weather? That's so the clear air the less pollution less
humidity is in the mountainous terrain, and they would prefer
those types of areas to live. No you get better oxygen, everything
that Subhanallah is although it's a little colder, it's colder, you
know you when you go up the air becomes clearer for you to
breathe, right. That's how it works, right? Yes. So that's why
even like when people go up to Colorado, something there they
have like that just their health. This is like they become
lightheaded. Yes. Yeah. You need to get acclimated slowly because
otherwise, they lived in these mountains. Yes, yes. And Mazel
Hoonah Kyani. Sheikh Murad was telling me his mother's side
They live in Jebel Cassio and shout out to the Syrians. Masha
Allah may Allah forage
Jebel cashew and is one of the huge mountains in Sham if you see
Jebel costume, you can't miss it. And there's a village at the very
top and there again, Chavez people. So whether they're in the
Middle East or they're in Turkey doesn't matter, they always find
the mountain sauce. So however, and of course, in the spiritual
traditions, is the outer binding of you know,
all of the Yeah, it's all the Prophet
Adam lived on a mountain. Exactly. Exactly. And say, Nisa will live
on the mountain to us, because it said that in that hadith of
aphorism, and that said, nice, and when he returns, Allah gives him
the key to destroy the job. He's permitted to kill the digit and
just finish that world. But he's not given the permission to
destroy yet Judah Medusa. He has no even over them. So they said,
how are people going to survive due to my Georgia say, Nisa will
take them to the mountaintops, and they live on the mountaintop. So
what he didn't do in his in his first time, which is go live alone
on a mountain, he does it in his
in the second time, so many Sunon have said nice that he doesn't do
in the first time, so he doesn't fall in the second time, the
marriage, marriage, having children fighting wars governing
all these virtues. He does them all in the second time.
So now you're immune from all these are from the secularists.
And then and your grandfather, your grandfather must have lived
there in the
late 1800s 1900s. Yes, late 1800s. We lived through the Khilafah when
and what kind of time was that for your family that that they told
you about? I'm sure they transmitted this type of knowledge
to you and this history that then gets cancelled, like you can
imagine like, what kind of calamity is it that like, like,
we're sort of born in the gutter, right? Like we're born it just
gonna go from if it goes worse, it will be from worse to very worse.
But we've never seen a time where Islam or Eman was like something
safe, and something sponsored. We've never seen to see that. And
then to lose that is far worse, in my opinion, relatively speaking,
the relativity of it is worse than to be in one gutter, the being
gutter of Newark then be thrown in the gutter of hearts. That's like
the 2000s, the 90s then the 2000 2010 2000 20s. They just
worst gutters. So the relativity is like, Oh, it was all that we've
never even seen. I remember watching Arturo and watching one
episode where they finally defeated the Crusaders. They go
into the castle, they wind up.
That's what a victory looks like. Like I've never seen it literally
just jumped out of my word. That's what it looks like. That's what
winning looks like. When was the last time a pious Muslim army went
to work. So battle.
Like you can't even remember it. Your fathers can't remember our
grandparents can't remember our great grandparents cannot remember
it. It's nothing but your grandfather lived at a time where
there was a then there was even the word at least right. And there
was respect like the Ottomans still had I remember Kaiser
Wilhelm, my favorite diplomat, and that history. So you should look
up what's his name? bado von Bismarck. He was under I think,
Carson. Well, if you remember Otto von Bismarck, this guy was a
genius. And he said I didn't shake in front of any ruler, King of the
Europeans until I met. That can be the second. He said My feet were
shaking. Like my voice was tremoring. Right. So you had that
glory? Did they ever talk about that your grandfather's ever
talked about that, or your dad ever talked about how that massive
drop SubhanAllah. I mean, I unfortunately, as I said, I've
never met my grandfather, only the stories that I've heard from the
elders and my father and my uncles at times.
But my father is named after his great grandfather that wood. So
the family is actually and one of the things that happened after the
filetto was, they changed our last names. So our family name was
always been wood, you know, that was all. And we will always had
that name. And then when the Khilafah collapsed, basically, or
they removed it,
the reassigned names they changed, you know, all these various
things, the language, the culture, all of these dress codes and
everything that was influenced. I've, I've imagined what my, my
grandfather might have experienced because he was perhaps either a
child or you know, I don't know for sure whether he was born in
Turkey or he was a child when he came, but his his grandfather's
and his father's they were all fighting in the war against the
Russians. So escaping one enemy of Islam, communist enemy of the
Russians, only to fall prey to. Yes, exactly. And escaping one
persecution of religion only to face another. I've only imagined
and assumed but I remember telling my father once we studied under
the same che for two years apart, Chef Yunus caught and
I told him that you know, while I was studying with my
from like, a stumble, you know, like, it's so bad, you know, you
know the people and you know, the secularism and other things and
you know, I would imagine 40 years ago and your time, it was far more
better and you know, more peaceful and he's, he's like, son, in my
time, we would barely see hijabis I was like, it's 5050 there's like
half hijab is half sick. So we would barely see the Germans. So
my father's era, he said that there was a generation, I don't
know if it was 62 generation, or something. 60 like 68 generation,
they are the generation that grew up with no, Dean, nothing from
Islam. Like, like, that's when the man was called in Turkish. That's
when the masajid returned into stables. That's when, you know, it
was completely like they were hanging imams in the streets and,
you know, enforcing dress code. That's when that Claudia from on
takia migrated from Turkey from Turkey, from the borders of of her
tie to Syria to Jamal Khashoggi, and because they said, we, we fled
Russia, we've came to Turkey to practice our deen. Now there is
dress codes that are being enforced. If we stay here, we can
practice our demons at least escaped to Syria, so they migrate
again. Because of that SubhanAllah. So I can't give a
direct answer from my own father or from my my grandfather. But
some of these references that perhaps over the time, I've
thought about and reflected and imagine that this is probably what
was going on. At that time, there was a woman, somebody had met a
woman who was maybe in her 80s. And when the event was re opened,
like when was that then reopened? Like in the 70s 80s 90s, maybe?
In Arabic in Arabic, I think, say 7768 70s was allowed. Yes. So this
woman, she said that she remembered it when it was
cancelled, right when the event was over, as a child, and then
that whole generation of people who must have been in their 50s
and 60s and 70s, they all came out into the streets with tears in
their eyes when they heard that and again, just as a memory of not
like not even that they were such people of deen and they were
holding on now they're regular people but as a memory, like
because it brings back memories of their childhood. But it's It's
insane how they just tried to wipe everything else. And you know what
else like, like the wiping out that remained was in Iran. Like in
the 1500s, Shy Smile, when he became a shear. He was like, he
was like a prince, right. And then he came upon an extremist, Shiri
preacher joined him. And then when he became Sultan of the Safavid
Empire, he wiped out all those Imams and Asuna. He bought, we
went to Lebanon, he bought in a whole bunch of Shia Imams of
Lebanon, because she hasn't was always more of an Arab birth sect
than a Persian one. So he had to import them. That's why there's a
lot of Lebanese lineage in Iran right now. And that's something
that too, was a memories gone, finished. Right? And so when you
come in, and you just wipe something out, it's such an
unnatural way to do things. And if you look at actually how Islam
when it comes to different nations, you might see the map
and it says, I don't have like Arabia's green and the next graph
of all more
than Iraq is green Egypt drains, but that just means that that's
their territory. It's not there's not that that means that they're
converts. And according to Dr. Ahmad Farooq, Abdullah, it took
300 years for the most of the for the Arab Muslim Ummah to be 50%
Muslim, so outside of Arabia, which was 100% Muslim, but like
Egypt 300 years to be 50% Muslim. So the truth has to trickle down.
It can't just be like a light switch. When you read the Quran
with the communist ID, it's like insane, like overnight, Allah
boom, your farmland is half yours and half some other person who
doesn't know how to farm. And Egypt did this to our parents. So
my my mom's family was from a former village. The Communists
came in and bow sliced it up, and all of a sudden they don't have
enough farmland to live on. And then who they give it to, like
doorman and donkey carriers who don't know how to farm right like
do you think this is just like Scott? Just throw a seed and water
it like it's a science so they all fled to the city No. Right? And
that's when they became they became city folks after them. So
this type of like complete turn a switch completely change
everything. And it doesn't work. It doesn't last.
So now your your dad then he studies in these supposedly
illegal schools. Then he goes to Jordan, he goes to Jordan. Now
once they escape, they start seeing they get much more
resources right.
As far as studying and yeah, and at least the freedom to do so and
all that. So one of the first imams in the family is my elder
uncle. He's actually a man in in London, you might actually know
him, but Han Somesh armor in seven sisters. I know
Haven't sisters no Masjid Omar in Paterson Okay, here's imam of that
Masjid the original message. So a lot of the Paterson folk New
Jersey folk know on my uncle. He's currently the Imam of Masjid.
Sulayman here in London, UK. Yes, he's in that in seven sisters. I
don't know exactly where it is. It's East London. The Turks live
in one area. Okay. Right. Yes. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, that's how
it is. In Europe, they do multicultural. So West London is
all Moroccans. So hello. You're interacting with
West London is all maracas in Birmingham. Is this London? Yeah,
Birmingham up north is all this. East London has been galleries. As
you've territories terrorists, like the five boroughs? Yeah.
North, in the north around what's called a like Zone Two is a street
called Seven Sisters. Really? And that street is all little Turkish
man says. And there's so many here's the big one at the end.
They have one that's and that is funny that they have sort of these
these old clubs, these Turkish clubs, with clubs, clubs, or Yeah,
it's like an old man's Oh, my goodness, there's a Turkish flag.
There's Ataturk and there's smoke.
Everyone's smoking.
They have some of those Philips. And then they have the Sulaimani
Yeah. And so they have that. So he's the Imam there now. Yes. And
he went there in 1999. So till 1999 He was here in Paterson, New
Jersey. And so he he's a few years older than my father. They broke
his nose. They beat him up in prison they tortured were in
Turkey and Malatya in Turkey. Yeah, that's like the what was in
prison for he was basically for being an Imam, teaching Islam
preaching, not following what's been told and whatnot and be stuck
up in political rivalry. You have to pick a side you're either
secular or you're so and so. And if he doesn't speak a certain way,
and so on, so forth. My father, he The reason he went to Jordan
because up until then, until until 1980, he was a modality in one of
the modalities in one of the Islamic schools there. And they
shut down all the schools, the military coup happened. And he had
a few options. He decided to go to Jordan to continue his studies.
And he went and he studied in Jordan University. And at that
time, after my uncle
was released from prison or torture or whatever the case, he
came to the US. So my uncle of my father's siblings is the first one
to come as an imam to the US intermission fattier in Brooklyn,
and then later to Patterson. And then a few years later, he brought
my father to the US. Subhanallah Yes. So they made hijra, and
that's something that people might have to realize is always on the
table. Like, people always make Hijra for their livelihood, but
making hedger for your deen is something that's got to always be
on the table. And the people who is always on the table for are in
America are people who are having kids and don't have any way to
educate them. Neither a homeschool network, nor a Muslim network to
Muslim school, and they have nothing but a public school. They
should think of stories like this where you have to make Hijra. You
can't let your kids be taught this nonsense, right? I mean, it's not
like when I was growing up, it was, don't have a girlfriend, and
don't celebrate Christmas. That's what go to non Muslim school was
because you went there. And my Nan, Miss Nancy, whatever they
touched it taught math. Math is math, right? English. It's just
old stories. History is history. But there was hardly anything
religious or political. There was the prom you don't go to MTV, you
don't watch it. Right. That's it. And it was hard to watch MTV
report, because how long you can't watch something if somebody
someone's in the house, right? Back in the day. As long as
someone's in the house. You can't watch anything. Right? Yeah, wait,
so someone leaves or that has the remote anyway.
So, but nowadays, it's like, it's insane how it's politicized. It's
everything is basically everything except what benefits and there,
you've got to look at the way the country has become as an enemy
army has infiltrated like the minds of people, and it's
destroyed them. All they care about are things that don't
benefit you at all. The Chinese don't care about this stuff. The
Russian youth don't care about this stuff. They were trying to
conquer you. All these youth are just even India. The youth there.
They want to work. They want to become it. They want to compete
with MIT. Right? They want to compete with Silicon Valley. And
you look at the general population of American youth, what they're
busy with is utter nonsense, right? So it's like,
Hijra has to be on the table for those kinds of families. Because
if they can't do really well homeschool by yourself, you need a
network, right? And network is like that. Nope. What was really
important and poor kid can stay home all day. He's got to have
friends. So these people there's Muslims in these cities should
think seriously about migrating and when you want
aggregate and make it up you should look at where's their
activity? Where's their energy? Where's their Talim? Where's their
support? And where's there a densely populated community and go
live there you'll find everything you need. I mean you're from
Tunisia Tunisia
like from nutrition trouble now
that is Turkey the guy would go on TV and said fasting is forbidden
fasting that's forbidden and eats on TV moslem was forbidden Islam
itself.
Like the wherever the French one man Oh, that that their issues are
bad. Egypt had had probably the least we had the least it was like
slow and soft death. But in these countries that boom the heading
finished Islam right away they want to finish it right away. And
then your people,
your your your people Subhanallah stuck with stuck with it and look
what happened to them. Right? The British than the Russians, then
the Americans who's coming next, Israel. It's still the graveyard
of empires. It is.
I went to I went to an Afghan restaurant and has a map of
Afghanistan. right as rain and it had to, I had a British flag.
Another tool and had Russian flag and then a tool and then an
American flag. And then a tool and then a French flag. I was like,
Okay, I guess the French joined the American then a to a Canadian
flag. I was like Canada, and then a tool like Chinese flag. Oh, you
just putting all the flags
are the same Bring it on? Yeah, that's what the Challenge
accepted. Yeah. It's gonna be if it's not yet it's gonna be in the
future. There's actually a story of one of our shields in Egypt is
his grandfather. And he's Algerian, his grandfather, when
Algeria was taken over by the French. He made headed out to
Tunisia. Yeah, he was like at least Tunisia, as is free from
French. Algeria, Algeria. So he was in that area to Tunisia. He
just wanted to use it. He just loved their marriage museum woman.
And then when everything was settled with the French, whatever,
he moved back. Now the French were terrible. They were terrible.
Mashallah, Now, where did you go study? Your database? You in New
York City? Yes. And it came back the story the the family tradition
continued. Yeah.
I was telling the kids at neurally. Man, I said when I was
growing up here in the 90s, we didn't have any full time Islamic
schools. And if even if we did, like, at least not in the area
that we lived. And I although I grew up in Brooklyn, for a time
being we lived in Long Island. And then right before I went to
Turkey, we lived in Chicago. So even in Chicago were like de
Vaughn Avenue, Muslim community, there was no like known full time
Islamic school, at least to us at the time,
where it was still in their early phases. And my father decided to
send myself and my elder sister to Turkey. And that was like, even to
the most religious relatives like we're trying to send our kids to
America. You're saying no, he's like, there's no proper Islamic
schools here. And we want you to graduate as an Imam and fall and I
was like, Alright, I want to be what you are. My father is still
my biggest heroes. You know, like even till now like so many people
they remember. Oh, he one day I was given a football in a lesson
and just like a rural area, and our brother came up to me he's
like, You remind me of one Imam. And he's like Imam though. Yeah,
he's my father started crying. So that Imam, he married me to my
wife, he knew my children, he buried my father's janazah and
like the impact I saw, like firsthand, I was my father's
wingman. So you know, he would take me was like, I'll call the
event just saying she'd you know, do this and, and like someone's
born Imam though when someone dies Imam down, someone's getting
married the mambo II prayer, Juma prayer, this and it was a more
community orientation in the in the time in Brooklyn, at least
like I always remember that as Jim I was like, eat and eat was like
Yeoman Masha. Like, there was no room for anything, and everybody
was together. Now, it's like this, you know, like this sector of this
sector of this set, like minorities, within minorities
within minorities. And it's just all divided up, unfortunately. So
eventually, I first went to Turkey. I studied about five and a
half years in my throughout Turkey, first in my father's
village hometown. And then I went to area in between the Black Sea
and Istanbul, the Barton, the area there. And then I finally came to
Istanbul. I spent about four years in Istanbul and I graduated with a
jazz and Sharia from both the traditional is traditional Islamic
schools, but also I was an international exchange student
with the Diyanet. You know, they had these special education
programs trying to what we say in Turkish.
How you know how they have I forget the term, but in Turkish,
we say Dangerman, which is like the mills that they build on the
rivers
slide that's supposed to have a natural flowing water to keep the
mill running. So we say like, you're carrying water to the mill,
trying to make it work, which is not the ideal way to make it work.
So they were trying to sustain Imams and importing students or
exporting Imams. And this, you know, even till this day, majority
of our masajid suffer from not having local homegrown Imams, and
whatever community you are, you're still trying to import Imams, and
so into enable to, in order to combat this need and provide for
the necessity of the Muslim Turkish community, especially the
Turkish Government was and still do, they offer these international
exchange programs where if you want to study to be an Imam and
graduate, you can go overseas get accredited and get your education.
But the longest time from the early years of my studies, I
always loved Arabic language. And I was fascinated by the you know,
the beloved, the Fussa had the the adverb of the Quran, obviously, as
any student of knowledge should be. And I wanted to go to Jordan
where my father studied, I wanted to go somewhere in the Middle
East. And just so happen to be I had another I had to actually
Syrian classmates, again, international exchange students
studying Sharia in Turkey. One His name is Bashir and the other one
was named Mohammed. And they say come to Sham, Sham, Safa Tula him
in Billa days, and I was sold out I'm going to share and I graduate,
I actually came to the US at the time my father was in the Virgin
Islands. I lead the tarawih and Ramadan, I spent a few months in
Virgin Islands did my vacation, and then I went back to Syria,
that was probably 2008 2009. And when I was there, I studied in
actually same school that Sheikh Zaid Shakir studied have you know,
yes. And she's Ahmed Kufa, Rahmatullah Lee has madressa
there. And I also taught international students from Turkey
that were there in Sham in Damascus, and I stayed on and off
about two years back and forth. So like in Ramadan had come and board
the shoe of the study with so there was the shout out to Sheikh
Abdullah deep.
So his his father, his uncle were there.
They were there at the time, and only to reunite with his son.
Yeah, in Florida, where my father was an imam at the time when I
came back, finally, but there was Sheikh Ramadan Sheikh Khalifa jib,
I actually went on to the Father. Yes.
Chef Roger was the uncle. Or it might be the other way around.
Ramadan. One is the uncle of Sheikh Abdullah. Okay. And the
other is his father. And they are both. They are students of Sheikh
Mohammed Cooktown.
I didn't really Yes, there are the elderly Imams, the head Imams
there. But our Sheikh was chef Yusuf, I studied under Chef Yusuf,
I would attend Sheikh Ramadan, both his lectures in my Mr.
dilemma we have a lot of Nabulsi, we would never miss his lectures.
Yes. And where was he? He's measured as their chef relatives,
Mr. Dean, it's not too far from I don't know.
His honesty. And he was like a traveling Yeah, yeah. And he had
his own radio show. Yeah. And every day that he would broadcast
his radio from the machine Yeah, that's the ultimate of Sham they,
they consider him one of their own.
Or he's more of a Dahlia. I think he's very different in his
approach. Yeah, his modernity has his intellectual approach. I was
never privy to that level of behind the scenes of how the
dilemma I mean the the level of adverb and respect that all of the
machines they had with one another in together they did I need to
talk to our, to our exposures with their presence in their
gatherings. There was the family that doura you know, the company
door right? Yeah, they have the canned goods and whatnot. So they
would invite some of the students and the machines in their homes
and I would see chef Ramadan and chef you know, Chef rotted and
various great scholars all in those gatherings. But obviously,
we are just the servants in those gatherings so like, know really,
what's happening. They're in the same presence with one another Of
course.
Yeah, that's that's a time that's gone. 90s and 2000s of Sham was a
thing a lot of our friends benefited from and spend a lot of
circles so much so I remember one of them came back and he was just
like crying when Syria came up because of his memories of that
time. And I think that's the thing that's gone.
never it's never gonna happen again. And those two are gone. And
that whole vibe is gone. It's never gonna happen again. And so
many of those now what four or five major shoe like that are
there were killed, passed away as you want to sit with us here.
Why did you ever go to show? No So didn't show there was a thing back
in the day from 1994 all the way probably about two
2004 or something and go study in Syria? Yeah, everyone wants to,
like Mahathir in fact, so it's called. And then there's my head.
So it's probably these were probably cheap, right? It wasn't
expensive. Everyone was going there.
It was prep, great time with love and respect, like, the alternative
to as * not to, like diminish any other, not only alternative,
it was like us how to eat, you're gonna get a mix back. And you're
gonna get a lot of water down nonsense, right? And y'all show up
for the exams, or you got kids that lower your Hima that will
come in and smoking a cigarette out the door, looking like a
regular guy. And he's like comes in for the shittier exam. It's a
joke. It's like to me, the Himba is zero. I've been there, I almost
enrolled at one point. And I was like, this is like, I can't take
it seriously. So I said, Give me the books. And they're readily
give me the box, go study and then start as long as you're paying
them, right? You come back for the exam. And I'm like, I'm not even
interested anymore. Like, I need to be educated by somebody. I
can't just take a book and take an exam. Like I hate schooling. I
love knowledge. But I have a difficult time with schooling.
Like there's a big difference in schooling and knowledge in my
opinion, and education. Someone could learn something new every
single day because they love learning, but they hate school.
And they just turned deep into schooling and cheap schooling.
Right. So but Shem was something that
you got to predictable thing. You got to predictable men, which
Egypt is not a predictable minute, you never know what the ship is
going to be about. Sham is a predictable manage. And they were
strong at it. They made traditional, very traditional and
strong and there was constant activity and all the shields are
on the same page, same wavelength, whereas Egypt, because they're
sort of they have a free spirit. Sometimes that's not good, right?
Too much free spirit. So you have modernists are honored. And then
you have the opposite of the modernist. You have like the the
hardcores on one side, and then you have your traditional Assad
and other side so it was just a mixed bag. So but that's why sham
everyone was going to Syria.
And now it was truly a peaceful place Jonnie the dua of the
prophets are seven for Yemen and for Shem and the people after
Mecca Medina the most amount of Sahaba dokubo Is there in Sham in
the mask is Satan and below Satan so burns even a washy many of the
Sahaba they are there. And you can feel the Sakina it was like
tangible, like the same feeling you feel in the Haramain you felt
it there you felt the dua of the promises there and it was just
sort of I never missed home when I was there I never like felt like
being anywhere else. So save so peaceful. So Adam cut on Adam
dude, so hospitable. Like any random person in the street, you
run into they'll host you in the house, you know, we were like we
didn't have any family there. We didn't have that much finances. So
you know how not homeless I visited Halloween and all of the
various major cities and towns and like anywhere, I wouldn't so much
cut them and just hospitality and and Syrians are notorious for
that. Just like the sweetness of their character and their, even
their language, the you know, even the army is just so sweet as one
flattering word after another. And they have, that's why the prophets
of Allah when he was when he was in his mother's womb, she her
testimony was that I would see a light up to boast, which is
superb. And the Tafseer of that is at the node of Naboo will settle
more than any other place in Shannon. And that's where the
prophets I set him said where's Tauheed? Isn't Sherman Yemen? He
didn't even say Mk. Is that a Shem? William? And so what are the
two lands that are completely utterly destroyed? Now? Shamanism,
right? Because Allah and were the places that he said he would not
pray for them.
nudged where's the dunya now, all the dunya is a niche, they got
green grass, they got concerts, they got buildings to 200 stories,
high World Cup World, everything you can imagine, of Meloetta dunya
temptations of dunya and the comforts of the dunya they're on
edge. All the villa is in Sherman Yemen, there was a reason for that
because the logic of of, of knowing the future is different
than the logic of now. And Allah subhana wa Tada is preparing these
peoples, for either for something of this world, or something of the
next world purifying you removing you from the world of temptations.
I remember being at JFK airport one time picking up somebody I
think was picking up my mom. And there was a Turkish Syrian woman
there. And she looked lost. I didn't know she was Syrian. So I
asked her she's wearing a valiant hijab. So I asked her, Are you
lost? She said, Yeah, I'm lost. First time in American waiting for
my son. So I said, let me take you to the waiting area and sit there
chit chatting with her in Arabic. And she tells me that she lived
her whole life and Judah. Her husband works as an engineer, and
they moved early on in their marriage, and they lived their
very good life her they have sent money
Back, the son started up a business. And they start buying
one apartment after another until he owned two towers. Right,
another son of theirs had a different ambition. He wanted to
start a new life in America. So he came to America, while the other
son owned two towers in Syria. And then when the war happened, those
two towers were eventually soon when the war started, everything
was fine. Until those two towers were actually bombed in one day.
A couple of bombs, or missiles, whatever, you I don't know what it
was. But the people stopped paying rent, right? Like the water
doesn't work, then electricity doesn't work. And everyone left
within like three, four months, complete vacancy 100%, vacant,
right 100% vacancy and the costs now
of getting that back, it's never gonna happen. So he made migration
over to America as a foreman. And she's like, I'm coming here, you
know, to see my son, my two sons. And that's the story of her two
sons. Subhan, Allah to Allah wants to bring someone near to him. If
there's dunya blocking him, then he takes that dunya away that's
doing you a favor.
To love him when they're poor. And they like wish I could wish I can
travel there. I wish I could travel there. There's actually a
similar in that is that if Allah Subhana Allah makes the Taliban
poor it so he could focus on his studies. If you had the money,
I'll go here, I'll go there. I'll go there and you'll never study.
There's a great wisdom in those and that's why I do college and
and he said he was extremely poor. As a student. Same thing with I
will my general health. He said, barely have a meal a day, maximum.
But what does it allow you to do? Stay home, stay, stay steady,
right? Stay, stay in place to requirements of knowledge, true
knowledge, the scholars would say, Hijra and hunger. Yeah, need like
desperation. And also the Hadith reminded me of you that have
Allahu Taala didn't even tell her who you're smarter than was Jesus.
And you can, you can literally have a lot in the early phases of
being it's all up because you can practice so hood, if you have a
lot of money. If you have a lot of money, you have to invest it and
grow it, otherwise you're wasting it. And now, it's a Nam Allah gave
you. If Allah gave you an enemy, you have to protect it. Right? If
Allah gave you a castle, it just happened. Someone says here, this
is yours. This is a network from Allah, you have to know higher
guards and gardeners and everything. But the to love him
when they're poor. And they read about death and so dumb, poor
anyway, right? Nothing to lose, nothing to lose. So they practice
it right? I feel good about myself now. Right? Like, I wasn't feeling
so great because I'm poor. But now I'm a Zed. Right? So at least I
have something on my record. Alright, that's good. So that's
idea when back in those days, everyone go into Syria, and we
would hear about I never got a chance to go to Syria. I was
actually I was afraid of the Syrian scholars, right. Like they
to me, in comparison to the Egyptians and the Masada were
super strict and comparisons and I wouldn't consider them strict
today, just through ms edge is different, their temperament is
different. I like there for more formality. Now as an adult, I
enjoy that formality. Like we,
in comparison to them. I like both of them now. But when you're
immature, You're just afraid, right? Because Egyptians are just
loud and everything is just like you're immediately in love. Right?
So whereas it the Syrians are so formality, so I was like, all of
these as lovely as what I expected, but that's their way.
Now the
oz Do you have something to say, to add to this?
So when you studied in Turkey, I always felt Turkey is to me is the
climate of the Asia side. It's so similar to North America. And
everything about it is like almost neutral. Like the climate has four
seasons, no extremes, no extremes, the food, the spicing of the food,
the the diet, it's so neutral, just like rice, bread, fish,
chicken, meat, lamb. I always felt like Turkey would be a great place
to to make Hijra to write because it's so similar to North America.
And most importantly, though, the cleanest Muslim country. Like I
could not make hundreds of some of these Arab countries. Right? I am
I used to tell my answers You're a dirty
your country is dirty.
I used to say oh, what do you think of Egypt? It's dirty. And
and they would laugh. They think it's funny, but I'm like their
sins everywhere. Right? Like you can broom it it doesn't have to be
everywhere. And there's stuff that goes on like habits like throwing
cans, throwing stuff out the window,
throwing bags out the window. This is like a habit right? This is
nothing that nobody did CC did. The British didn't do this to you
use this is self inflicted, self inflicted carelessness and no
pride. And when I went to Turkey I was like these people like
obsessed with not only the clean, they have an obsession with
cleanliness. Right
So that's one of the reasons why like I fell in love with, with
Turkey the first time I went.
Now, when you studied there was a mahute with students in it, how
was it big? Or was it private education, you had 250 Students
dorming and studying in the same address. And this is legal, this
is legal.
Not to infringe anyone, up until Erdogan basically bending the
rules, because these kinds of our mean are still there, these rules
that are still there, to ban all forms of major levels of like,
okay, the animal can only like main Quranic studies, and under
the Turkish approved, you know, books and systems, so there has to
be a specific syllabus that they follow that is appointed by the
right hand man allotted to Ismet in and he is the one who was
pushing for
changing the language of the exam to Turkish, you know, barring all
so, first he pushed against Islam, when he realized there's no way
that you can erase Islam from a Muslim population. He established
the Dennett, the founder of the church.
So he said, Well, if I can change them, at least I'll control what
they learn, and how they learn and what they do. So like the hotbeds
are printed out or dictated and so on, so forth. It's all scripted.
It's all heavily guarded and trolled now with Muslim leaders
like the one and not to get into politics or anything, where he
himself, he came from that type of madressa background himself, his
Tilawat and whatnot is education is very traditional. So the
remaining Ottoman scholars like shouldn't sit him on him. It's in
Ohio and Muhammad defend who recently passed away a lawyer who
say the North Sea Rahmatullah era, these great scholars who had the
traditional background, preserve that, that that tradition in their
homes, in their basements in cellars, renting like Shakespeare,
the man would rent a wagon from Istanbul, in a train carriage all
the way to Ankara. And he would teach his students in what because
he's mobile because no one's showing, yeah, he's mobile. He's
not Yeah, they're not keeping track. So he would go to Marcin,
where it is narrated the Seven Sleepers, they have a MACOM there,
they climb up to the quick Caligula mountains, and they would
study in the mountains and when no one would ever search or look
SubhanAllah. And, you know, he was in prison. He was tortured. He,
you know, he suffered a lot. And many of the machines they were
hung at the stake, you know, they were the garage. There are many
things. There's still a scalable auto forger he would he was share
who refused to change his Islamic attire. It was illegal to wear a
job any moment. And he said, you know, he refused his famous story
like they hung him for wearing Islamic attire SS Subhan. Allah.
Yeah, exactly. So these traditions were preserved by these great
scholars. And what ended up happening they merged with the new
system, under whatever parameters that were permissible. And I'll be
honest, the military would read the modalities. And we would hide
the stomach books, anything that was in Arabic, and we would take
them in bags and run to the mountains. I mean, I'm trying to
stumble. I'm not talking about random villages or cities, talking
about Istanbul * Subhan Allah and especially at your
international student like what are you training people to learn?
What are you trying to implement? Something else? What's the goal
here? So if you're an international student, you're only
studying Turkish you're only studying the Latin language no
Arabic No. So it was very tricky. So we balanced the traditional
Islamic Ottoman style so the last curriculum the system like I have
all of the books in the men hedge that we follow on my website, and
I love to share it with you like very traditional like the, the
well there are the Masonic or either from the tabular and or
even like Cincinnati and Kitab
right, and not everyone could do it and you know, let's laka
Keidanren SFP family, you know, like these traditional books that
were Ottoman syllabus, were preserved by * with a man and
the likes, and are still taught Mola Jami and all of these various
draw to her comfy rural Africa all these folklore and, and, you know,
sola Hadith solid fuck and all of the various sciences were
preserved through these secretive initiatives in Egypt today, you
can't open a school. It has to be Quran only have, like Sheikh
Mohammed school is opened up as the guys have under the guise of
hip and only upstairs, do they, they do the FIP classes and the
Sharia science classes. But what the only thing allowed by law is
the hip with classes.
And those laws still exist, but they don't enforce them. Because
those are the current leadership like religious leadership that
don't enforce them. Imagine when even wearing hijab was illegal to
go to public school having a beard, like I was mentioning to
the brothers. Military service is still mandatory in Turkey. If your
mother came to visit you during your depends on your education,
whether it's six months or a year or two years. My grandfather
served four years in the Turkish military, so you could be in the
military and fuel
mother wears hijab, she can't come visit you. You can't pray like at
the time now, there's hijabi military, you know, soldiers or,
and it's a different era everything has changed in the last
10 years. So he, Ataturk, it's like he tried to do something when
100 years later things are
there there's more even external talk or image of Dean than in his
time so panel of so true. Same thing in Egypt. There were like,
there's ups and downs, but you never can erase this thing. Well,
Lahoma to Minotti. Yeah, I don't can't erase any of those secular
programs. Yeah, not no secular Arab. Nationalist country worked
out. Yeah, none of them worked out. And they don't have a citizen
like Yuki, like there's always a new wave of secularism, like kofod
and shurkin, seculars, or all these things, they have to have
new waves. So like the new secularists, they have nothing to
do with the ideology, the old secularists. Whereas the current
Muslims, they have the same link as the as the great grandfather's.
Like we have a same Senate that keeps going. But these attempts to
break this, they're always a new attempt. The secularists of the
past will be considered like, a lot of their ideas will be totally
rejected by the secular stuff today. Right? The liberals of
today, and the liberals of the past are totally different. So
that's how a villa mats are always in plural, the darknesses are in
the plural, and the note is always in the singular. So now that fast
forward, now you become trained, and then you studied and now
you've you starting to teach in masajid. in Philly, it's been
about 12 years, up and down the East Coast. I've been as far north
as Massachusetts, Boston, shout out to Boston, where in Boston,
greater Islamic Society of greater Lowell. I actually served in
various capacities capacities, but Sheikh Abdul Rahman had just
joined when I was leaving, yes, and she acid also local New Jersey
and I shot a lot more than that, Michelle.
And then as far south as the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands, a
few years in Florida, Orlando, Delaware, New York, New Jersey,
and now Philadelphia. So I'm a troublemaker Imam
just keeps slipping away in one direction or another until we
finally find mashallah the Philadelphia commit so we're
almost been a year now. And it's very humbling to honor to be try
to try to do what we can we are the custodians are the servants of
the community. Mashallah, that's beautiful. Well, now that we've
come to meet and come to know, thanks to Mahina, and watch, who
brought, you know, these Imams and they brought us Sheikh Hashem last
time and they brought us to you this time. So we're going to leave
you in jail. That's all of our events go and we have big stuff
going on mbsc Every year we got some big events, and maybe you're
even doing events at the same time in your Masjid but eventually we
got to have constant town between these people of color and people.
So any let's take see if there's any questions before you have to
make your appointment insha Allah you have to be in your budget at
work which is 445 So you should probably go in the next 10 minutes
just to be safe because why still has to take you to your car. Yes.
So what right why don't you give us some questions from Instagram
or because my
Yeah.
When is that February? So you got to come to that inshallah we have
an ottoman history event. Oh, nice. Yeah. Insha Allah. That
sounds exciting. I love Ottoman history yet at the same time
sometimes inside of myself as like enough with history. I want to be
a winner. No. I don't want to I don't want to watch the reruns
never anyone have Ms. MSG Madison Square Garden Network. Yeah, right
for the for hockey. All they keep showing us is 9094
The Rangers Stanley Cup run 94 There's no Winston's that. What
wins like that with the next? The next Oh my gosh.
I made the playoffs for 30 years. Oh no. We have Jalen Brunson. So
yeah made where they made the playoffs once in like the last 25
years. There's no organism I could run the next better than the next
Alright, what do you got? Right? Someone's asking, which which
Jamali to get education? Which Gemma which college? So it was a
question a man hit me tonight honey is the head of the Tariqa
but in all of the various government schools I studied
almost all of them. Marmara University was the university that
was leading the exchange student program in Istanbul. Okay, so our
agenda is through them as well. So the traditionally Jezza from the
students I'm sure they shake so they want to hit on a hand but the
secular education through my my university, so you study Hanafi
fiqh and maturity okay. So not really Akita Yes. So, we identify
the Tariqa identifies as
finally the Naqshbandi end
Add
to being extra friendly.
So funny thing is I was with a cab driver one time, and he's told me
he studied. He wants to go to school. So I said, so he studied
FIP. And he's, he's,
I said, Philip, and he's he was the government only government
school. Yes. So I said Hanafi. Is that all Hanafi Hanafi.
They love their Hanif his.
And I'd like to Turkish Hanafi.
Like, they got a great history, they got so many court records to
take precedent from, right. Well, India does, too, because they had
also ran the courts there. So that in terms of studying fit, when you
when you run a country, and your judges produce actual legal
rulings that happens, like it makes your fifth study so much
more richer. Right. And I don't think the Shafi have as nearly as
much, right? Maybe Indonesia only in the last few 100 years.
So the more court cases that your Mehtab sees, the more practical it
gets. Also, the inevitable don't have much either. Like what was
last how many court ever.
Never did was there ever such thing as a how many court? I don't
think that's probably because Molokhia we had, we have empire.
Yeah, we had an empire, we had an empire, the Hanafi has had an
empire, multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple and a half.
Oh, the stuff of it that we're Chevy's right. So maybe the early
staff have it's technically chef phase, yeah, yeah, early Safavids
would have been chef Ada, because because the persons are selfies.
Surface. Medic using that kind of Oh, during, during noted Dean's
time, maybe, maybe no Dean told them to rule by Chef FM
to judge by Chef a fit. But the point being that when you have
tons of court cases, it gives your method becomes extremely
developed, developed and practical to easy to practice. Whereas when
you don't have any court cases, you just in theory all the time.
That's why practice sharpens theory, eliminates the irrelevance
and for us practice is not going to be court cases is going to be
down. That's what we got to do download right away. That's when
you're going to know what knowledge is useful. What
knowledge we need in the future. And when you do study, you should
never study a subject and look at a book and say, No, I don't need
this. It's useless. You don't know what's in it. Right? You should
study what's in it. But the fact that you know what the world is,
like, makes you zoom in more on something
you know, that you know is going to be relevant to your future or
to your to your context. So that's idea. The Ottomans did that with
piracy. piracy. I had a whole they had whole books published for the
book of how to be a pirate. Oh, it's against the Crusaders.
Amazing. It's such a cool subtopic within their history against the
Crusaders Crusaders. What happens when we get a pirate ship from our
like all of these different rulings to go into it. So the
Mediterranean the Caspian, right? The Black Sea, the Black Sea, all
these seas like Barbarossa and all these different Yeah. You have to
run No, good. Okay. So what else you got right there wondering
about the school system for children or kids in Turkey, maybe
during when you were there? This is something that I'm glad someone
asked. I have, I actually have another and I guess this is gonna
make it even more
incumbent upon me to carry out this promise and oath.
It was, I think 2007 There were a group of children that were
brought to a graduation ceremony in one of the major massages in
Istanbul, who were barely five years old, six years old, fast.
So children's prefer school, like pre K, first grade for fun school.
And I said if Allah blesses me with children, I'm gonna bring my
kids and I'm gonna have the Hijra talk. Talking about
the schools, Islamic schools right now. Like my my sister, she lives
in actually, Paterson, New Jersey and my grandfather's old house.
And she actually went to Turkey to see which Islamic school she has
four kids and Hamdulillah. She wants to enroll, to move to Turkey
to have their Islamic education there. They have horseback riding,
they have archery, I think it's a different era. It's like a full
Sunni
Islamic school. And she has three girls and one son and as think of
amazing programs they have and these are types of private schools
that we could never afford here in America like no way like it's like
the Hogwarts or it's like the Ivy League schools that you can like
for the dollar rate right now. You can really afford to send in there
for you know, pennies on the dollar. And the recitations with
the they're importing some teachers that not alternatives. I
prayed in Istanbul a couple years ago behind somebody, and I could
swear he studied in
A college or something? And I want to I spoke to the guy he's like, I
know I never left. I was like you're imitating them right?
You're imitating like one of these studies you recited you know, I
study in the local schools, like the recitation doesn't have you
know the world as a vowel. The Turks have a different way of
pronouncing it very different God, none of that is completely so like
this a new world where everyone's mixing, there used to say that the
Quran was revealed in Mecca recited in most of Egypt, written
in Turkey.
Now, it's all becoming one. Yeah. And I was happy to say that I went
to Turkey in the late 90s. At a time before all this opened up.
And Turkey still felt like the ancient, like, there's remnants of
the ancient ottoman and there was none of this new stuff, right?
This this new wave of activity. And it really felt like romantic,
it was totally romantic. All the Imams had hard Turkish accents.
The modalities and the masajid were were not like updated. In the
sense they were still everything was old, right? It was such a
romantic experience that they don't go back 10 years later. Now
there's all this it's another type of positive all this new activity,
all the shields are connected. There's money as put in now, what
did the group of Aragon's people like what did they come out of?
How did they retain any sense of deep
I mean, are the lines father is buried next to shiksa Limon human
tonight. So his father is also one of the students of Shakespeare,
they are the one himself studied in one of those madrasas, those
legal matters. So it's an interesting background, so they
never eliminated Islam from target it was often perhaps it was in the
cellars in the basements in the you know, the rooftops or mountain
tops or the wagons of trains. But they never eradicated Islam or the
tradition of Islam from Turkey. And now it's stronger than ever,
like you said, and obviously the now the influx of the Syrian
Messiah and the orlimar that have come to Turkey now, whether you
see that in the tea in Iowa or the toward the different, you know,
like my wife when she first saw me wearing a traditional like Syrian
or Arab so why are you wearing a skirt? It was not common attire
now everywhere in Turkey, like the dribble style, like the culture is
now merged, because all words Yes, the first time I went 90s You
never saw any of that. Even the khateeb, the Imam of the mosque,
he came in with a white shirt and slacks and at the Merab like
right, I
suppose open a closet. Yeah, that big area where the khateeb stands.
He pulls open there's a closet in there he pulls the black jacket
and the turban didn't even take the plastic off the turban right
because like brand new, you don't want the plastic so I never even
took the plastic off. He puts that on
and then he calls the coma and he leaves us alone. And then he
doesn't even leave the mosque with it. He hangs it up take Salah
microcephaly campaigns that operate there. And he puts the
ninja share. Yeah, he just that has a lot to do with the whole
dress code worlds. Yes, because it was a legal outside the Masjid.
Yeah.
Well, it was a pleasure having you we're gonna have you more often
now that you're only an hour away in Bensalem right? Yes. Ben Salem,
Philadelphia. or outright Bensalem Pennsylvania right outside of
Philly. Which is mesh Oh, there's some couple other brothers I got
to tell them about about you that we're always asking what was that
medically brother he's from Philly right outside what's his name
again?
Middle East
Yeah, we're we'll send them to you then. I'll make them
a blessing
it's a blessing to have you here inshallah we'll be We Got to Now
hook you up I don't even know ship yet. Do you meet your heroes
course? My hero. Okay, good.
So we have to keep our order. And we always have to have all these
Yeah, we should have a war room. We have remember mean a pin there.
We got a pin here a pin and Chuck. Yeah, he has a shift yes it up in
North Jersey, because he's in Cochin
Murad
we need a dot. And each one of us we have to always be in
communication on the regular because if you care about
knowledge than wherever knowledge is, you have to treat it like your
family. That's what remember we used to write anymore a human
being. It's like the it's like the blood ties of a family. Because
the value of that is when you go around and you when you meet and
the people have knowledge and I'm gonna say people who care about
knowledge. I wouldn't even call us people of knowledge. But people
care about knowledge are always meaning they purify one another.
They remove extremes from one another. And the people who follow
them around,
get to see different flavors. And what if one flavor is better?
or you know, suited to your personality or to your life or
your background, then something else. So that's why the safety is
in the numbers of people who care about knowledge and always making
wealth amongst one another. So it's all that's our that's our
intention going forward. And unfortunately, you gotta run to
make it to Magnum. So we will close our stream right here.
And tomorrow, we'll have a longer stream again, and we'll take your
q&a. I know the audience is used to q&a. We'll do that tomorrow. We
had a lot of guests here tonight. hamdulillah
say yes, the timing, Ibrahim Khan is staying the same 130 As always,
we were just having lunch and we had we just kept talking and
talking and talking. And that's why we came in at two but 100
Anyway, because you were late anyway, right of us, you would
have came here and not found us. So all right, does that cool.
Okay, and everyone's from Annika law from Moby Dick The shedule
Illa illa Anta iStockphoto quantity we they called us in
Santa Fe plus IL Alladhina amanu.
What sobered Huck? What was over southern
Allah?
Know
God