Suhaib Webb – Youth Ramadan QA Session1
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The speakers discuss the importance of progress and theology in achieving success in a program. They emphasize the importance of fasting for athletic performance and the need for preparation for mental health. The speakers also emphasize the importance of finding a way to be happy with God's plan and not be angry with what is decreed in front of them. They also encourage attendees to update the app and stay consistent in their deeds.
AI: Summary ©
Blessings upon our beloved messenger, Muhammad
upon his family, his companions, and those who
follow them until the end of time.
Everybody. Welcome to our first,
it's been a long time.
Our first Swiss,
q and a session,
for 2023
for our young
brothers and sisters. We have almost 400 teens
to 500 teens enrolled in our program. So,
we're looking forward to starting our youth programming,
actually, after Ramadan starting in May, the week
of May,
14th.
And I'm happy to
welcome our imam, imam Bilal.
He's currently,
yeah. He's out there somewhere in the Alps
or something, but
he's out there in that mountain. No. Switch
it up. I'm gonna change the steamer.
He's out in that mountain range.
But
is someone that I've known for a long
time,
and he
is doing a lot of incredible work. So
I'm gonna let him sort of introduce himself.
Right now, I'm
serving as the director of development for Accenture
Foundation for West Africa,
and I'm also the director of youth programs
for RIBA. RIBA is based in Sacramento,
and it's an acronym that stands for Refugee
Enrichment and Development Association.
So we're trying to do,
you know, different different things with each, organization.
That,
you know, all of our efforts and up
and goes to make things easy.
That that that's kinda in in a nutshell.
I'm
happy to have been for
for a while. I think going back to,
I don't remember, middle school or
something. I still have memories of, you know,
some of
the moments and and some of the I
remember it, like, 6th or 7th grade. Just
the fact that
was referenced. Of course, not in a positive
way, but the video came. I was really
high at that time with reference in the
book club.
I still have memories of that because of
relevance. So I'm gonna I love this list.
My love list, all of your efforts. I
wanna make it easy for this to continue
to blossom and grow and flourish, and and
we ask a lot to put Baraka in
everything related to Swiss.
So, Baraka, before we get started with,
getting a quick reminder from yourself, I wanted
to do a quick check-in with everybody. We
have quite a few people
here today.
And I wanted to,
let me let also these people in.
So let's quickly do a quick Ramadan check-in
with everybody,
that has showed up today.
So how you can you can either raise
your hand if you wanna share how you're
feeling and jump on, or you can also
type it. But how are you guys feeling
so far,
in the month of Ramadan? How's everybody feeling?
Let's so let's do just, like, a quick
Ramadan check-in,
and see how everybody's
doing.
So I'll I will start and say that
I'm
I'm I'm a little tired because I'm traveling,
but
so far so good.
So tired but excited.
That's how I would share sort of my
feeling about the month of Ramadan.
Let's hear from everyone here that showed
up. How are you guys feeling so far?
Do a quick Ramadan check ins.
Yes. I see. I think someone has their
hand up.
And you can also type it in the
chat box if you're not comfortable
sharing in the group. But we wanna hear
from you guys, like, how is Ramadan going
so far?
And you can even use, like, a one
word expression.
Sometimes we do that in some of our
programs at Swiss, just like a one word
expression. So I'll say, for example, that I
am
I'm hopeful
until I'm excited. I'm excited. I'll use that
word. I'm excited. Excited
is my one word expression. Who else? Let's
hear from you guys. Come on.
You make it and break it if you
participate.
It it it certainly makes the programs much
better. So I know everyone's tired and maybe
a little bit sleepy, but
we'll go to you, Imam Bilal. How are
you feeling? Let's do a Ramadan check-in with
you.
I'm doing that. It's
I think you hit the nail on the
head.
There's the tired side,
and then there's also the the hopeful side,
you know, the excited side. So it's it's
kind of as usual, it's kind of a
mix of things, but I'm really not. It's
it's been
you know, it's it's cliche, of course, to
to say taking things one day at a
time, but, it kinda it kinda humbles you
in that way. Right? You just you have
to focus on that day. That's it. It's
interesting because it forces you to be present,
forces you to be mindful, to be in
the moment.
It's really grounding.
So I'm really glad it's been,
refreshing.
It's kinda like a really good workout
where on one hand,
like, it's tiring, but at the same time,
it's satisfying in in in its own way.
Oh, wow.
Just a quick announcement for all of our
Swiss students. Again, we're doing Ramadan check ins,
so feel free to give, like, a quick
give yourself a shout out. You know what
I mean? You can shout out yourself
and talk about briefly, like, in one word
or more, how you're feeling so far in
the month of Ramadan. The announcement is that
on May
14th, we'll be starting our youth programming again
that we had before. We're gonna be going
through a series called youth foundations
for over the next,
few semesters. We're going to cover,
3 foundations,
that every Muslim has to know, and especially
I think in in in being younger that
will really equip you to,
take off in your relationship with Allah,
to explore your relationship with faith
and to engage it, but also to prepare
yourself as you become older. So those three
foundations will be theology. So our 1st semester
will go through a brief text on faith.
Our second foundation will be on Fiqh, and
we'll just cover in Fiqh, which is how
we worship.
We'll cover specifically
things related to purification
as well as prayer.
And then our 3rd semester will go over
spirituality.
We'll go over the things of the heart.
And so we'll we'll run this program,
consecutively,
like, through 3 semester, 3 semester, 3 semester,
3 semesters,
if you will, until, like, after 3 or
4 semesters, you're gonna have a really strong
base in your foundation. So we'll start
on May 14th, which is Sunday,
at our old time that we used to
have,
with our program. I'll be teaching it. I'm
super excited
on youth foundations.
Before we, hear from our awesome amazing guest,
man, we're so happy to have you, bro.
Is there anyone, quickly, one more time, asking
people to share? Like, how are you guys
feeling in the month of Ramadan so far?
And you can also share even, like, a
one word
sort of reflection.
Anyone wanna jump in?
Alright. So look forward to the classroom opening
up
for our youth program on Google, and that
will be available on the app. It will
be linked to what's called the youth foundations
class.
And then our classes will start together, May
14th, again,
going through
through 3 of the really important, if you
can say the
foundations that you need to learn and know
about as a young person
within the context
of being young and addressing some of the
issues and questions that young people have. Last
night, we did a,
we did a,
program at West Valley with almost 300 people,
like, mostly young
So taking questions from people and preparing pedagogically
this curriculum for you. So May 14th,
for everyone from the ages of 13 to,
I think, 18, we'll be starting again this
program
called youth foundations.
Imam Bilal, wanna before we open it up
for q and a from all these we
have, like, some really, really I see some
of the old school folks I used to
know back in the days when we had
our early youth programs. So great to see
you guys here. Ramadan Mubarak to you.
But before we open up to q and
a, we just wanted to see if you'd
be willing to give us a brief sort
of Ramadan reminder, a Ramadan rev up, if
you will, that will keep out of in
the zone to the month of Ramadan.
Mhmm. So how about
I think the the main,
the main concept that comes to mind, reminder,
of course, for myself first and foremost, is
that Ramadan is not,
it's not necessarily
in Ramadan, even outside of Ramadan, but it
especially ties in with Ramadan.
Ramadan is not necessarily about
perfection
per se. It's not about perfection in and
of itself,
but it's about progress. It's about trying to
see, okay, how can I take in my
own journey?
Because everyone has their own
strengths, their own challenges. Everyone has their own
unique
and specific relationship with Allah.
So it's it's a good it's a good
time for each of us in our own
ways to take that next baby step of
coming closer to the law. It's interesting that
in the hadith puts you the way the
prophet describes the
or the the the I should say the
wording is that if you walk towards,
that if you walk towards Allah, then he
runs towards you. So if we just take
that next step, if we take that baby
step towards Allah, It's not necessarily
about it being, you know, this giant leap
all in one all in one go, but
can I take that next step? And can
I take the next baby step after that?
And after that, after that?
The the the most important ingredient to facilitate
that is if we can surround ourselves. And
what's interesting nowadays,
this applies to both in person and online.
It's one of the things that I appreciate
about SWISS and the modern world that we
live in.
We are the company that we keep, so
I need to take a step back and
look at
the people that I'm surrounding myself with
as I take that next baby step closer
to.
Am I surrounded with people who are supportive
of that, who are encouraging of that, with
their words, with their actions, with their own
decisions and lifestyles?
Or if I'm trying to walk closer towards
Allah,
are they holding me back? Right? So Ramadan
is a really important time for us to
reflect on the the the social company that
we keep, again, both in person
and online. So on
Instagram, for example, which accounts are we following?
Right? During the month of Ramadan, is there
anything that we need to change regarding
our social media habits? Is there anything that
we need to change regarding the accounts that
we're following? Is because the when it comes
to to the stuff online, when it comes
to social media, for example,
there there are 2 sides to that point.
Right?
So simplify it. There's the good side and
the bad side. Right?
What can I do regarding
the the accounts that I'm following, that I'm
interacting with? How am I interacting with them,
for example?
How is that affecting? Right? So what what
is the,
what what is the the
the ecosystem,
socially, that I'm a part of? Because that
impacts me spiritually. So
if I take that next baby step towards
Allah it's interesting. It's certain that Allah mentions
that when
and the these are 3 really,
really succinct
versus succinct ayat.
Within which, Allah really emphasizes
tawba tawba. Just turn to me, and I'll
forgive you. Just, you know, just make that
u-turn. What's interesting is if if we have
our GPS going and we're driving somewhere,
all of us at some point or another,
we we've taken the wrong exit. We've made
a wrong turn.
What's interesting is the UPS doesn't start shouting
at you. Right? It doesn't start attacking you
and insulting you, and no. It it gently
redirects.
Right? It offers us the guidance that we
need how to fix the how to fix
that long term.
Right? So with within these,
Allah is guiding us towards,
you know, making that u-turn. How can we
get back on track? Even if we let's
say, we need to take 101 North, right,
the freeway, but if we go on 101
South, even if you've gone 100 miles in
the wrong direction,
we can still make that u-turn. And that's
the beauty of this,
relationship that we have with a lot. However
far we've gone, we can still make that
u-turn. And if we just try we all
know the story of the man who killed
a 100 people. He didn't even get to
where he was going. He passed away along
the way,
but he took actual steps to show Allah
that he's trying.
It's not like he got to where he
was trying to go. He needed a change
of scenery
socially.
That's what the Adam advised him. That's what
the scholar advised him. He didn't even get
there. So, it's not like he got there.
He built a 100 orphanages,
which would be awesome to make up for
the 100 lives that he took. He didn't
even get them. He passed away along the
way, but he took actual proactive steps in
that u-turn. Within these,
Allah mentions,
that for those
So what Allah wants what Allah wants what
Allah wants is for us to make that
new turn. But it's interesting, Allah mentions that
for people who are caught up going in
the wrong direction,
and they're just, you know, following,
their desires left and right, no shame in
their game.
They want to see you if you're trying
to do the right thing, even if it
was after a whole bunch of mistakes,
when you start to do the right thing,
they want to see you slip and fall.
They want to see you going in the
wrong direction
like that.
So the company that we keep, it it
plays I know we hear it all the
time, but it's for a reason. It plays
a huge role
in simply taking that next baby step of
coming coming closer to a month, and then
another baby step, then another baby step.
So
may may I make easy for us to,
you know, slowly walk towards it as best
we can.
Sorry. Just because of time, we're trying to
move forward. Forgive me, man. So, again, I
wanna welcome you here as well as all
of my young, brothers and sisters. And now
we wanna open it up to questions and
answers. So,
we have him here. I'm here as well.
So let's hear from you guys. Are there
any questions? If you want, you can either
type them in the chat box or you
can ask Hamdah directly.
But we want to make sure we give
time for q and a. Are there any
questions that you guys have, particularly about
the? Feel free to type them in the
chat box or,
raise your hand, and I'll call on you.
And once again, our youth essentials,
of, or like our youth foundations class, which
is really gonna cover the essentials of Islamic
knowledge that a Muslim needs to have, will
start on May 14th,
Sunday, and look for the Google Classroom to
open up, I believe, maybe this evening,
so that you can join to get started.
I'm super excited to be teaching that with
you guys. We're gonna be going through 3
really important foundational things that I think are
gonna help you so much. So if you
have any questions,
you gotta raise your hands, man. If you
don't raise your hands, if you don't ask
any questions,
we're gonna have to run off, man. Just,
you know,
go do what we were doing before,
or type it in the chat box. I'm
looking at both right now for our awesome
imam.
Any questions that someone has.
Maybe we should do something where we start
calling on people.
No, man.
You're gonna run away. I think everybody's a
little sleepy, man, because I'm sure last night,
super tired. So here's a question for Mariam.
So if I'm if I'm playing sports, am
I allowed to break my fast?
If that's the Miriam that I know, man,
Nice to see you, Miriam. Hope you're doing
awesome.
So Miriam is asking
if she's playing sports,
you know, obviously, she's gonna start to dehydrate.
Can she break her fast?
Is it is this
am I supposed to
people in the mountains, brother.
You know, the the fresh air is is
it's so nice and,
you know, good for the good for the
great south, the Swiss Alps.
So
is like, one one thing that that always
comes to mind whenever,
one of these ask this type of question,
It's like, if there's someone who's, you know,
from the youth and really thinking in that
way, that's awesome in and of itself. Just
to just to have that concern is is
a sign of, you know, caring about,
your relationship with Allah, Shaba.
So
ideally, if someone you know, even if they
are playing sports and, I think we all
know people who
who either have done this, are doing this,
or, you know, we know others.
I ideally,
the, the preference for sure would be to
continue fasting. So between these two, the sports
are important, but we also wanna try our
best to prioritize fasting as best we can.
So one one incredible example, you know, is,
like, picking a lot of lawn, Marshall Lab
back in the in the nineties.
Even though I think it was during the
playoffs at that time, he was still fasting.
So what what's and even until now, what's
I think what's needed is if someone can
try to to figure out, like, different
athletic fasting hacks. Like, what can I have
at Sufuz to help me, you know, through
the day? What can I have at FOG,
especially regarding hydration to to make it through
the day? So, ideally, the fast would continue.
It may all make it easy. Now let's
say someone, they're trying to do that. They're
sincerely trying to do that, and
they just
life happens. And they find themselves just, like,
having a migraine, and it's the middle of
the day, and they just I mean, at
that point, what what choice do you really
have? Right? So we we we try to
prepare as best we can, and we there's
option 1. Of course, we wanna continue with
the test. But then if, you know, something
else comes up, then that has to be
dealt with on a case by case basis.
Yeah. I think the only time it will
be allowed to break your fast for athletics
is if you're traveling.
So now you you're gonna need to fast.
You know? I I played I was actually
I played for Blake basketball for Blake Griffin's
father, man, you know, right when I converted.
And
I I would have when I was very
young, I would talk to my coach and
be like, look, man. You know, I gotta
fast. And most of the time, they were
very accommodating. They would let me do things
after.
So I think that, like, a a a
kind of a strong position would be like
fasting, actually, the word means
to stop. Right? So there are certain things
that we need to attack kinda pull back
away from. So I think having a conversation
with your your athletic trainer, in particularly your
trainer with your coach. And then even, like,
now, like you said, Hakeem Olajuwon. Even now
we have, like, Jaylen Brown. Right? The greatest
basketball team. Basically, Earth.
I don't think the I don't think the
Warriors even have 1 Muslim on their team.
But I know the Celtics have, like, a
number of Muslims, but there is a lawyer
for the the lawyers that's Muslim. So I'll
give you love. But I'm just giving I'm
just throwing shade at you, bro. But.
No. I'm actually a Lakers fan. I I
I don't know if I Why are you
here? How do we how how do we
get on here? Is the is the signal
cutting out? I think I'm losing connection.
Did you kick me out of the room?
Hey. So for the sake of time, we're
gonna do a rocket round.
And that's we're gonna, like, give some questions
and get, like, answers to, like, sort of
quickly. So we have another question from someone
that's and you can send them to me
also. People are sending me questions anonymously,
which I think is so cool that you
feel that that trust may make that real
for us both. And,
we have someone who's, like, really good at
answering questions as Imam Bilal. So we're gonna
jump into, like, a rock and round. So
if I made a mistake in Ramadan and
ask for forgiveness, the person's asking, how do
I know that Allah will forgive me?
So, Amla, the
the
it's interesting that Allah describes,
you know, when it comes to Tawba, Allah
loves people of Tawba. Allah and then and
then one year from the Tawba, you know,
so
the idea is,
you know, to seek forgiveness from Alon to
try to like, we we still milk, so
to speak, all the time. So we just
we clean it up and we try to
to have that positive opinion of the loan
to try to if we need to fix
it, then to look at how we need
to fix it. But I think a loan
is more
forgiving than we give you credit for.
I think, also, this is why it's very
important for you guys to take our essentials
classes starting on May 14th because this is
a question that's gonna be answered in the
1st semester
that, the majority of theologians
across the board
clearly stated that any Muslim who truly repents,
Allah has promised to forgive them.
So if you're truly repenting, and that's why
that class that we're gonna start on May
14th, I think it's gonna be really important
for you guys. Actually, when I saw this
question, I was like, oh my gosh. That
actually is in our syllabus. That's some that
this is an issue that we cover because
sometimes I'm sure but, you grew up like
this too. Like, we hear even from Christian
po polemics who who may have heard, like,
the minority opinion, which is held by,
a certain group of people,
but it's not the majority opinion that you
don't know if Allah is gonna forgive you.
Allah can punish you. He can forgive you.
They say it's from the,
but, actually, we
we believe
theologically
that Allah has made
it obligatory on himself to forgive the believer
who repents to him.
So we'll go through that in our section,
in the Akhida. But that's a great question,
man. Any other thoughts on that, Bilal, before
we jump into this next question?
I love the eye of hope, sir. So
so much, I have 53. I mean, it
just it emphasizes
so deeply and clearly
how forgiving,
our lives.
Hey, man. Here's a great question, and I
think I struggled with this with you, bro,
when you were young. My mom's asking if
you have suggestions for how to keep teens
and youth inside the masjid during and
not outside having fun.
Okay. I have I have I have two
thoughts. 1,
across the board, inside the need to make
the message such a cool and fun place
to the point that they want to be
inside. They want, like, they want to be
present. They wanna
participate and be part of the program.
2, I think regarding
PM, like
I don't know because they're they're different. You
have a spectrum. Right? Like, if if there
is
a teenager who's at the masjid, let's say
it's at the time of PM,
and they're, like, they're there as opposed to
being, you know, someone else that they shouldn't
be,
at least they're a little bit closer.
Right? They're still they're there within the proximity.
They're still they're there. And then, eventually, they'll
make it inside and, you know, things will
be figured out. So,
I think it's it's important to deal with
people based on on who they are and
and where they're at in that journey. But
there there has to be a a type
of encouragement, a type of motivation,
and to get creative, you know, to ask
youth, what would motivate you to want to
go inside for, for example, as opposed to
being outside? And they might say,
you know, we did this many years ago.
There's, like, a Ramadan competition. And within that,
there are, like, different goodies that you can
do, and then you stack up your points.
And there's, like, a really legit prize. It
was, like, the new iPad or something.
And there there are youth voluntarily, you know,
going in for a PM and and to
head Joe to this and that and serving
and applaud a time and
so how can we take a step back
and get creative to motivate them to want
to go inside?
Right. And, you know, I think what you
said is so great. So the question for
people who just joined, we had a few
people who just jumped in and we're gonna
welcome everybody and give everybody huge Ramadan Mubaraks
is the the question that was asked is,
like, how do we keep you from hanging
out in the parking lots, right,
doing things that they
you know, maybe the parents aren't happy with,
right, during the PMs because we know that
that happens. I think Iman Bilal's answer was
really good because it centers the programming around
young people. And that was,
like, ask the young people what could be
done to keep them.
And I think an answer that we can
accept, and as parents, we can all
you know, certainly,
appreciate is that when they say, like, I
don't know, we can't accept I don't know
as an answer. So I love the idea
of centering it around,
young people. I mean, that's a really, really
excellent suggestion. Thank you, Ima.
Are there any other questions,
people have? If you have a question, we're
take doing this q and a,
for Ramadan. We're gonna do another one towards
the end of Ramadan. We plan to do
also, like, one on takaat, specifically for people,
like, a special takaat program, hopefully, at the
end of Ramadan because people wanna pay takat
usually in the month of Ramadan. But we
wanna do one more for young people.
And as I said earlier, May 14th, we're
starting our youth programming again live, going through
the essentials essential foundational pieces of knowledge that
every young person really needs to know.
And, specifically, we'll take you through, like, 3
pretty pretty,
it's gonna challenge you a little bit. You
know? It's gonna push you, but in a
good way.
Any questions? I don't see any hands up.
Let me check the chat box
as
well.
Yeah. So people are just kinda talking about
the scenes in the masjid.
Any other questions before we we don't wanna
keep the imam too long. We know he's
super busy as well. Any other questions that
people have? I got a question by someone
who's saying that,
like, their 1st year as an adult. Okay?
Their 1st year as an adult, they may
have missed some of the days of Ramadan,
but they weren't really sure, like, did they
have to fast or not. Okay? So they're
asking what should they do. You understand the
question?
Mhmm. So, like, they kind of fell into
adulthood maybe physically,
but not not necessarily there,
like, maturation wise mentally.
So they may have missed some days. So
they're asking, like, what what should they do?
Good good question.
It's a problem.
Not all making it easy.
I think there's a an important ingredient in
this situation
is that there's, like, a little bit of
but there's a little bit of confusion or
meaning it wasn't, like, full on tension. Right?
It wasn't
that
this is for sure the situation. This is
where I'm at. I'm definitely in adulthood, and
I'm intentionally gonna not fast. And so if
it's, like, unsure, I think a a good
so step 1, I would say is to
to sincerely, you know, turn to Allah
just in case. Right? If if that is
the case, you know, to ask Allah for
forgiveness. And it's also
I think it's really beautiful that there are
these, like, extra credit opportunities
kind of built into the sun of the
where
there's fasting Mondays Thursdays, the light days, so
on and so forth.
But in terms of so that's kind of
how I would think about it and process
it because
it's there there's some confusion. It's, you know,
kind of unsure regarding that. Okay. So moving
forward,
let me make the intention that I'm gonna,
you know, take it as seriously as I
can and and really, really try my best
put my best foot forward moving forward.
And then regarding those kinda questionable
days in the past, well, if there are
the 6 days of Shawan, for example, there
are these different opportunities.
And as those are taken advantage of, then
we hope, inshallah, that fills in any gaps
from the past.
Imam, any any thoughts on your end?
Here's a good well, I mean, yeah, I
mean, I think, like, what you're saying is
so so profound. Like, anything that's done when
there's not clarity is usually a sign that
you're exempted from doing it. Because, like, if
it's not clear,
I'm not sure.
Was that an adult? Maybe I wasn't. But
what you can do to be safe is
just make up those days. Right? It's not
gonna hurt you. Right? So just make up
the days.
So
that kinda keeps you on your toes.
That was awesome,
Thank you. We have another question that says,
what if you have things during like, when
it's time to break your fast? Like, this
happens a lot when I was when I
was teaching in university. Right? The time frame
of power come in, and it's like we're
in a seminar. So people are asking, like,
what and I'm sure you've experienced this when
you were in school. What if you have
things that you're doing when it's time to
break your fast and, like, you can't reschedule
those meetings and classes?
What do you do?
What what I would,
actually, I remember this happening when I used
to work at Sports Authority back when it
existed.
And I'd sell shoes. I worked in footwear.
And so what I did was before Ramadan
came,
I spoke to the manager, and I said,
hey. This this situation, this is what's coming
up just to make them aware. And then
so I said, like, when
and I I had to explain, of course,
what Ramadan is. No. Not even water.
And so I I asked, like, if possible,
can I have, you know, like, earlier shifts?
Sometimes they accommodated that, sometimes they couldn't. So
on the days that they couldn't, and I
can't just randomly, you know, take my lunch
break whenever I want. So,
step 1, what I did was to to
give them a heads up. So if someone
if if they're taking a class if obviously,
it's different between teaching a class or taking
a class.
But it it often helps to to give
someone a heads up, whoever would need to
know.
And then to have something small with you
if it's, you know, some water, some dates.
And I I know that maybe to mention
to the professor, like, hey. You know, when
when the sun comes in,
is it okay with you if I just
step outside?
They're probably gonna be accommodating. There's a very
good chance they're gonna be kind of accommodating.
But But just to give them as a
better respect, did and then if they're okay
with it, which generally they will be, just
step outside, have some water, have some dates.
You gotta put them up. Whatever is needed
for the best situation.
And then after that finishes, then you kinda
catch up on missed calories
and hydration.
Yeah. Yeah. You know what I used to
do when I was in school?
I think there's also another part of this
question too. It may be about joining prayers.
Like, they may not be able to go
out and pray,
right,
as well.
I used to take, like, some dates with
me, and then I always tell my professor
or my teacher, like, hey. During class, you
may see me eating something because I'm fasting.
Ramadan.
And then the, pretty much, you can go
anywhere with some bottle a bottle of water.
Like, no one says anything about it. You
know? Mhmm.
And if a person needs to join the
prayers, no situation. We know that the and
the in particular too, like, really we're gonna
learn this again. We would learn this issue
in our foundations of Islam class for youth.
This actual question is in
also the syllabus,
for the 2nd semester on worship,
that there are certain times when it's allowed
to join your prayers as long as it's
not consistent, and this is one of those
examples.
So I'm glad you guys are asking questions
that I'm able to conveniently go and pull
back from the syllabus. I know they're there.
And then use that to encourage you. May
14th, we'll be starting our foundations of Islam
for young people. Three foundations of Islam that
you have to know. Emergent adults and young
adults. It's like a really it's gonna be
a really nice class
Any other questions or thoughts? You have anything
you wanna add to that, Ima, before I
look and see if there's other questions?
I I think that kinda
sums it up, but it's like okay for
I think it's a, an excellent point to
mention that. Right? There are some situations when
so how much time is is so beautiful
and how, like, there are these different
accommodations at certain times and certain circumstances,
you know, for for people with like, like,
if there's difficulty, then there's something on the
other side to kinda
facilitate things that really speak and to make
it easier. Right? Islam is supposed to be,
a practical
safe that we practice day to day and
in our day to day lives. There are
ups and downs and life happens. So from
the ladder, these tools and mechanisms in place
to so we can respond appropriately.
Right. Here's a question that I I was
waiting to see,
and I'm I'm thankful people are starting to
ask questions.
Can we watch movies and listen to music,
like, if they're halal? Like, if they're halal
movies and halal this person is is is
following the opinion that there's type of halal
types of music and there's, of course, halal
types of movies.
So they're typically within the context of fasting.
They're asking, is that allowed?
It's a good question. The so you clarified.
Does that go okay with the first question?
But what what kind of what kind of
movies? What kind of music? Right? Because as
usual, you have a spectrum. So within within
that context,
candidate?
Sure. Right?
I think a lot of it has to
do with,
even if something is is okay.
Right? Like, if someone if they're taking a
class and if they they can they can
pass it, they can get a B, that's
great. That's fine.
Right? But there when there's this, like,
the the intention,
you know, for,
for extend
what I what comes to mind is okay.
If someone is going to watch, like, whatever
movie or listen to to whatever music, obviously,
within, you know, these,
the realm of of permissibility.
Let's say that's on one side. On the
other side,
how is my Quran doing?
Meaning,
is it in place of Quran time,
or can I find a way to balance
both?
Right? The the the important thing, the primary
thing I would say is for that for
the end time, whatever it is. Everyone is
different. Let's say it's, like, 5 minutes a
day. And for someone that's, like, that's where
they're at. That's what they can do consistently.
So I would focus on keeping that primary.
And then if they watch movies or, you
know, listen to music, whatever,
If it happens or if it doesn't, that's
more secondary. Right? So there's, like, the foundation,
and then,
and then there's other than that. Any thoughts
on your end, Shifna?
I think it I mean, if it's permissible,
it's permissible.
The person's asking also now they're asking that
she heard that it takes away from the
reward of fasting.
So what's permissible is not gonna take away
from the reward of fasting unless, like, you're
you're allowing that thing to waste time. But
sometimes, of course, we may be tired. We
may be exhausted. You can even watch, like,
positive things. You can watch, like there's a
lot of really good historic Muslim, like, docuseries
on now, like, during the month of Ramadan,
like the Musa Salat.
But there's, like, actually, like, good ones,
that you can at least make it something
learning and worthwhile.
Also or just, like, you may just need
to break and relax, not a issue. But
I think also we could say the same
thing for video games. Like, people probably spend
more times on video games than wasting,
like, time from Ramadan than that. I'm I'm
not saying don't play video games. What I'm
saying, like, we don't want to be wasting
time.
Sometimes in the beginning of the month of
Ramadan because our body's still kind of getting
used to it, we're exhausted or we're tired
or we need to lay down. We need
to take a break. I get it. So
I'm not really worried about it as long
as it's not like wasting
a lot of time. That may be an
issue. And the the best gauge if if
you're wasting time is yourself. Like, you can
ask yourself that. And then also, like, your
parents or your spouse or whoever.
We asked some other people that jumped in,
so we're taking questions from people now.
With us. Like, awesome. We have a few
minutes left because,
we don't wanna keep people too long. And,
again, our youth programs are starting. I keep
saying it, but I'm saying it because it's
important.
On May 14th, we'll start our foundations of,
like, knowledge related to young people, 3 sort
of tracks. The first track will be theology.
Today, 2 of the questions that you ask
are in that curriculum. I know that I
know exactly where it's at. And then the
second will be, how do we worship issues
related to purification and prayer?
And I think there was a question today
rooted in that. And then the third will
be related to purification of the heart. So
we'll be starting on May 14th. Look for
the Google classroom to jump out soon and
information to be on the app. Any other
questions?
I know it's probably cold where the imam's
at.
But are there any, other questions before we
let people go?
Here's a question. My question is, who deserves
our charity, institutions of learning,
beneficial knowledge as or
someone who you know who's suffering from cancer,
but you have given them some money already.
For your time. May Allah
bless all of us with the best here
and in the hereafter. So the question is,
like, is it better for them to give
to say, there are like, Swiss, we don't
take zakat,
but there are, of course, institutions of learning
that do.
So she's asking, is it better to give
to those institutions
or and we ask Allah to protect and
cure people who are suffering with cancer.
A lot of Muslims go through it during
the month of Ramadan
to,
give to someone who's suffering from cancer.
Yeah. I don't know if it's easy for
anyone struggling with that. If I deal with
them and make things easy for them and
for their family members, for their loved ones.
I think it a lot of them, but
I feel like it kinda depends on the
specific
circumstances of that person.
Right? So if there's someone, you know, who
who would be who's, like, really close to
them,
And if they're, like, embarking on this journey
to become a student of knowledge and they
feel like, hey. I think there's I think
this would be the
the, like, best place to kinda allocate that.
On the other hand, I mean, they're they're
one of the objectives, of course, of, of
Sharia is to preserve life. Right? So I
think it a lot of it a lot
of them I think a lot of it
is circumstantial.
And within that person's part, what do they
kinda lead towards? I don't personally, I don't
necessarily see this as, like, a one size
fits all. Like, for sure, this first, that
second, that third. I think it just depends
on the person and and
what they feel most inclined towards.
Because it's a good intention either way in
all these situations.
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And and, you know,
like, you what you said is really, really
important.
Like, if that person that is suffering from
cancer is, like, financially
struggling, right, then sure, you should support them.
If they're in a situation where they need
the the cost of cancer can be really,
really exuberant,
They the financial means. There may be no
one else to support them and help them
then.
Great. We wanna take care of the preservation
of life before everything else. We have another
question, and that is I'm part of the
Sunrise Movement, a youth climate organization, and there
is a corrupt mayor in the city we
work in, and she is Muslim. Oh, wow.
Her name is okay. I'm not gonna say
a lady's name. Do you know anything I
could tell her to specifically make her worried
about how her actions will affect her in
the afterlife?
Like, a really scary hadith.
She said a really scary Hadid. I've never
heard that's so cool. That's such a good
way to describe a Hadid. So I know
who asked this question.
She's like an amazing sister.
So if that person you get in contact
with me actually know the person that you're
asking about,
and let's work out a way that we
can try
to get in conversation with her. I will
try my best to facilitate
a conversation
with that mayor.
Alright? Someone's asking how can we support SWISS
if SWISS isn't a nonprofit
because they're really enjoying the program. We do
have the scholarship program that you can support
for $9.99
a month.
We have that program. So if you go
on the app, you click scholarships, you can
support people,
just this last week. I didn't tell anybody
about it, but there was a girl,
second day of Ramadan, Hamza, 19 year old
girl contacting me from overseas, man, lives in
a largely non Muslim
population and, like, secretly accepted Islam. She's one
of our students. Right? So that's the kind
of people that you'll be supporting to have
scholarships. One of the things that we did
with SWISS and making it mobile, so to
speak, is that I actually know in the
early part of my Islam, imam, I had
to hide my Islam from my family. So,
like, learning, I couldn't back then, we didn't
we had Internet, but it wasn't like it
is now.
Like, I couldn't learn
publicly.
So if I had a phone and an
app back then,
I would've been able to learn.
So we have, like, we have somehow we
had a sister in Gujarat, man, who also
became Muslim. She's, like, in the middle of
the Hindu Vista stuff,
and she she does our courses. So you
wanna help support Swiss, let other people know,
encourage people to sign up, but then also
you can you can support
our scholarship program for $9.99
a month or more, whatever you wanna do.
We have a question from someone saying, my
question is, someone
if someone that really experienced something really traumatic
asked, was my pain a part of a
last plan? How do I respond?
So I don't know.
That that's it's a very heavy question.
So I don't know.
It's crazy. That's actually something that we teach
in the 1st semester,
through our essentials
of, like, our foundations youth programming.
Something that we actually teach is the problem
of suffering. Like, how do you how do
you locate suffering and how do you push
into suffering in a way that it can
be ultimately emancipating
and re a sense of recovery.
So the question that they're asking didn't mean
to jump in. Just, again, it's interesting, man.
I'm happy seeing these questions, and I know
this is one of the things, like, we're
gonna be teaching this. We're gonna be teaching
this. We're gonna also do this program for
adults, of course, in a in a little
bit of a different style, with some guest,
imams and. We hope
will come through. But the question is the
person has obviously gone through some serious trauma.
And and I think it's very important. I
don't like it when people dismiss their trauma
and say, oh, you know, just be happy
with what Allah planned. Like, that's that's, like,
dismissive.
But they're saying, like, how do they explain
to people that this was Allah's plan, and
and is that how they should explain it?
The way that
I've responded to the, like, in real life
scenarios that these types of questions or issues
that come up is
to kind of break things down. Of course,
there there's
for sure. There's you just mentioned that there's
this,
there's so much importance
in in validation.
Right? Active listening, being present, not telling peep
not like, how are you gonna guilt trip
the victim of something? It doesn't it doesn't
make any sense. That's like, where's the heckma
in that? Where where's the wisdom? Where's the
mercy? Like,
there there needs to be, you know, a
deeper sense of compassion and a higher higher
sense of EQ. Right? Emotional intelligence.
I think the way that I responded to
these types of questions is
if if things are looked at in terms
of, like, hierarchy of needs,
priority number
one is is what's needed for healing.
Right? What's needed for healing?
It could be talk therapy. It could be
like, what's needed for the person to to
work on healing
regarding that journey as a person,
not even
specifically as a
Muslim just as a person. What's needed to
heal, work on that person? Or most of
so it's like it's like triaging the situation
in the emergency room. Right? You don't like,
not everything is is the same. What's most
important has to be dealt with first. So
I would say that, you know, therapy, healing,
what's needed
to embark on that journey of healing as
a person. And then later on to kind
of unpack maybe the religious side of things.
For sure, there's that importance, there's that that
relevance to that discussion, but,
I kinda break it down in that way.
And when it does come to the religious
side of things, I'm actually really committed. I'm
really thankful that,
that this as well as the other things
are contained within the Swiss curriculum,
because someone is gonna go through it. They're
gonna watch it. They're gonna listen to it,
benefit from it, and then they're gonna share
with people they know in real life and
then also refer other people to come and
and and check it out.
I just think it's like you said, it's
important to not you can't put the onus
on on the victim and to kinda
so there has to be a lot of
a lot of care in how to unpack
it and to kinda
break it apart.
I think one of the things that we
talk about in in, this 1st semester for
our program for young people is that there
is a difference between being pleased with the
and being pleased with the.
And I think this is where sometimes Muslims
get lost in the woods, that they think
that those are 2 of the same things.
And what I mean by that is that
people say, well, you have to be pleased
with this. This is God's plan. No. You
don't. And I want everyone to listen to
this very clearly because this is this is
why we study theology. One of the reasons
that we study theology is to be challenged.
Theology is going to challenge popular notions of
accepted ignorance. Right? So oftentimes, we see see
things that are popular.
Auto tune is popular, but auto tune is
not good music. Right?
We see things that are popular, but it
doesn't necessarily mean that they're correct. And one
of the things we find, Imam Ibn Hajar
actually wrote a book on famous statements of
attributed to the prophet that are absolutely fabricated,
but the public believes are true.
So this is one of those kind of
things that you tend to find people believe,
like, you have to be pleased with God's
plan. No. You don't.
In the Quran, it's very clear that we
have to be pleased with God. Allah as
the one who decrees all things. And definitely,
everything is from his plan. Good, evil, pain,
suffering, success, failure.
At the same time, we are free
to either be angry
with what is decreed in front of us
or not.
For example,
should we be happy
when someone commits kufr?
Should we say, oh, that's God's plan. I
have to be pleased with it. Of course
not. That would actually be haram. Should we
be happy when we see people would be
doing sin?
Should we say, oh, well, that's God's plan.
I have to be pleased with it. In
fact, as we'll talk about, and there's layers
to this in our class,
that there are times when we are commanded
to be angry
at what we see being decreed.
And that's what it means to worship Allah
as though you see him even though you
don't see him.
Because I'm seeing all this in front of
me, but I oppose that because the command
tells me to oppose it. So someone has
been traumatized, and this is one of the
worst things I've ever seen victims told,
is that they should not look for justice,
that they should not look to heal,
that they should not look to right the
wrong that was done to them because they
should be pleased with God's plan. This is
a mistake.
Actually, it goes against the foundations of theology.
And so that's why the prophet, peace be
upon him, we find him acting against things,
opposing
God's
decree, if you will, based on God's ruling.
So for Muslims, we're not moral relativists.
Right? We're scriptural
relativists. And what that means is what the
scripture tells us, we find pleasure in. What
the scripture tells us, we dislike.
So there's a difference between being pleased with
the one who decrees all things, says Allah.
We trust him. Whatever he has decreed, good
and bad, it's hard. It can be difficult.
At the same time, we are actually commanded
at times to be pleased with what he's
decreed for us,
and to be angry or upset or even
to question
what has been decreed for us.
I know it's a big answer, but I
can't wait for our class.
The class is gonna be good, man. And
this is one of the issues that we
discussed.
There are a few more questions, man.
I'm trying to see here.
Michelle, Miriam, you can contact me by email,
and you and I can
can chat and talk about that question because
that's a great question. And I appreciate you,
like, being brave and stepping up to the
plate.
Yeah. Just just hit me up on on
email, and we'll we'll discuss it. Are there
any other questions? Anyone wanna raise their hand
and ask questions? We're happy to, jump in.
Bilal, man. Sorry, man. We kept you longer
than we promised.
It's okay.
Be pleased with Allah has decreed, bro.
I'm I'm very pleased with the the cold
weather and the Swiss Alps.
You know, it's it's it's, it's refreshing. I'm
trying to look at the positive side. I
like the I like that you got that
Swiss mascot going on behind you. So everyone,
we will do another q and a, probably
in the next week or so. Want to
encourage everyone to come. Imam,
really grateful
and thankful that you came and shared your
knowledge. And time time is
is certainly an important thing.
And, again, we're starting May 14th, our youth
programs as well as our other live courses.
We have
our reading Arabic class with Ustaz Iman Ali
Ustaz Iman Ali, which is, like, amazing. She
wrote 3 books. She's, like, the best Arabic
teacher, ma'am. And then also we have the
names of Allah
class starting with
doctor Jinan
on April 23rd and some other programming coming.
Everybody.
Any final words?
May may I love bless,
your efforts. May I love bless the Swiss
team. May I love,
you know, continue to cause it to grow
and expand. One thing that I really appreciate
about Swiss is that there's this,
this really beautiful balance,
that's really needed, right, between how do you
balance culture and religion? How do you balance
this with that? How do you so there's
this really nice
healthy middle path from the.
So a big shout out to to yourself,
to Swiss, to to
grow more than we could have ever imagined
and and make it the us out of
the west. And,
I wanna conclude with this this concept. I
think it'd be really cool if someone made,
like,
really awesome artwork with these concepts in mind.
It it's really succinct, but it it just
it helps us to
to to navigate how we understand a lot
of different things within our deen. Ibrahim,
great scholar,
and he said that all of Islam,
he mentioned these four things. Right? It's justice,
wisdom, mercy, and benefit.
So think of, like, 4 corners, and it,
like, it has to be within these
these parameters. Right? So,
just something to to kinda keep in mind
in the back of our minds when,
of course, there there has to be, like,
more in-depth study and learning. That's where SSuisse
comes in.
But just something, like, in the back of
our minds because it's really it really troubles
me when people go if they put the
the onus on the victim. Hold on. What
what about justice? Right? What about mercy? What
about wisdom? What about benefit? How do I
understand this specific scenario within those broader
concepts?
So may I make it easy for us
to learn more about our deen? And the
more
the more we learn about Islam, and the
more empowered we become, and
the more things make sense when we go.
So I have a question here quickly. It's
directed actually to me. My niece is here
with me. She is 13.
That's so cool, man.
What an aunt.
And she has only one surah left to
finish
the whole Quran.
What advice would you give her to sustain
the inclination to keep it going after memorizing
spiritually and mentally
and half wise?
What was that? Was that question directed for
you,
Yeah. Well, I was just throwing it to
you as well. Like, I'm sure you've you've
been through this, man. So
I'm I'm I'm sure that no. Actually, it's
an open question. Manise is here with me.
She is 13. She has one left to
finish memorization of Quran, which is so cool.
Congratulations.
What advice would you give her to keep
sustaining
the inclination to keep it going,
meaning her review,
and all the other things needed to maintain
her memorization.
Oh, you know, speaking of Jaylen Brown and
other
athletes, there's this concept of falling in love
with the process.
Right? Falling in love with the preparation. Falling
in love with it's not just about the
highlight or the game, but all the other
stuff behind the scenes. So when,
when it comes to Quran Quran is like,
is like this incredible friend. Right? And the
more time you spend with it, the more
you get to know this friend. And the
more you get to know,
you know, a friend, like, in terms of
people, then the closer that relationship becomes and
the more you learn about them over time.
And maybe they confide in you and they
share more secrets with you, for example. So
the more a person continues that journey with
the Quran, the more they love that process
and they maintain,
you know, that consistency as best they can,
then they're they're just they're gonna be,
unique. I ask that speak to them,
based on what they're going through. Right? But
so long as they remain consistent, then through
that consistency, then Allah will show them different
things. Allah will heal them in different ways.
Allah will guide them in different ways. So
it it's it's definitely not something static. It's
a it's a dynamic relationship that continues,
to give, you know, as we,
spend time with.
Yeah. I think one thing that also we're
gonna be starting a sister's tudwee class with
an expert in Tajweed.
She's a sister from Syria,
actually, Lebanon,
starting in the spring. So I wanna encourage
people to look for that, especially women. She's
like
it's it's for women only, but she's like
a master, man,
of the of reading. And she's, like, super
amazing person.
I don't I don't wanna blow it up
too much, but she's awesome.
So the other thing for your niece is
I think you wanna make sure she's around
the right environment, but you have to find
the balance between it being something that inspires
her and something that makes her feel overly
guilty. And a lot of times what happens
when I finish the Quran, I memorize the
Quran in 2 years, is that even though
I didn't have Muslim family, like, Muslims around
me will make me feel really bad.
And I'm like, but you didn't even memorize
it. You know what I mean? Like, you
don't know how hard it is to keep.
Right? It's not easy to keep it. So
I think there has to be sort of
thinking more about motivation and encouragement
instead of things that, like, using guilt as
a motivator. Because I in my own experience
when I was young, it was, like, it
was very counterproductive.
The second thing is I would encourage you
to take our classes at Swiss on our
touch weed section. We have, like, a very
robust
what like, I'm so one of the things
I'm actually proud of at Swiss, like,
teaching different
with each as a teaching
a higher level of, like, reading house correctly
with the correct Tarik, and then taking the
class with our Ustaza, which will start, in
a few months. I think just keeping things
fresh.
Right? But not overburdening her. She's only 13.
But just here and there and keeping her
excited,
I think that's gonna be awesome.
Man, we cannot thank you enough. Can you
close this out with a quick?
We ask the Lord to
to make it easy for us to continue
to benefit from these types of discussions. We
ask the Lord to make easy for us
to continue
to learn more about our faith as best
we can. We ask the love to bless
SWIS. We ask the love to bless our
team supporting
SWIS. We ask the love to bless each
and every subscriber to SWIS, each and every
supporter. We ask the law to answer our
duas this Ramadan. We ask the law to
open doors for all of us. We ask
the law for healing from any pain. We
ask Allah to turn any challenge that we're
facing
into into ease. We ask Allah to turn
any difficulty that we're facing into ease. We
ask Allah to facilitate things for all of
us.
We ask the Lord for his light and
this light for the next.
I mean I mean, again, we'll be doing
this again
additionally next week for all community members, and
we're looking to bring we have a really
good teacher who is specialist in zakat to
do, like, a quick zakat workshop for people
who are interested as well. Thank you, Imam.
It was a pleasure,
having you, and we really enjoyed you.
We love you. We have nothing but great
respect for you. And thank you to everybody
else. Have a wonderful rest of the day
of Ramadan. If you still got some time
left and keep us in your duas, and
please let other people know on your social
media. If you're enjoying Swiss, encourage them to
sign up. Also, I forgot a lot of
things, man. If you haven't updated the app,
the new version of the app is out.
You need to update now. We rebuilt the
app completely. It's a long story.
And look for our new web interface to
be out in mid April. We look forward
to seeing you guys then.