Moderate Muslims in Modern America
Date:
Channel: Tahir Wyatt
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AI Generated Transcript ©
Bismillah
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa I
just like to welcome welcome everyone here this evening, Cherry Hill to gcsaa. It is a great privilege to host this size of a group group
with this esteemed guest of ours.
Before we get started, I
just want to ask our religious director, Chef Rashid asmodee,
a fellow
alumnus of the Islamic University of Medina,
to
introduce the topic for you this evening and also to introduce our esteemed guest.
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Alhamdulillah. Elijah was often in akuna Shahada Allah
wa salam O Allah Obama Carla Hayden, buddy, yeah. While Allah He was
bad. We'd like to welcome our esteemed guests to dcl We sincerely asked Allah azza wa jal to reward you for coming here this evening and taking part in this blessing gathering.
Our discussion this evening will revolve around three major topics that are essential to our growth in America.
One One,
preserving tradition,
to sustaining community three, influencing opinion.
And here to discuss
this great topic is a very distinguished and honored guest, and scholar who we've personally benefited from tremendously the past 16 years. She has taught Hawaii
and we know he's not happy with that. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that zillah NASA
and treat people according to their stature.
And may Allah azza wa jal increase or shave and preserve.
And as many of you already know, the che is
a native of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.
And there's a lot of love here on the left.
The sheriff after being guided to Islam at a very young age allows it was your blessed him again, and allowed him to traverse the path of seeking knowledge in 1996.
And he has been studying the city of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam for over 21 years.
And that time, he has procured several degrees and is currently a PhD candidate at Islamic University of Medina. And the shade Hello Allahu taala, in 2013
was appointed by a royal decree to teach at the prophets message while he was in them, and that's becoming the first American ever to do so.
And he is also the head of the translation department at the prophets messages column where he interprets the weekly sermon, the weekly Friday sermons at the masjid and so much can be said about our noble safe and his accomplishments and how influential he has been. However, this is not the setting for that. So without any further ado, we will hand the mic over to our esteemed shave for Hawaii Allah preserve
Alhamdulillah
want to start poodle? When are we no human should all do fusina will see it our Marina
Mayor de la palabra de la la
la la la la la la la la la la sharika. Shadow Mohammed Abdullah what a pseudo solo It was early he was he was suddenly mucha Sleeman cathinone laomi de a MOBA.
I know I'm not supposed to start like this, but I have to say
that the western approach to introducing people is really not Islamic at all at all. And I know that we've adopted that even in the Muslim world. It's been adopted from
The West to, you know, mention a person's accomplishments in front of their face. But the reality is, is that that is not from our Deen, we've adopted that.
It's done. It's done, Muslim world, but it was adopted from here. And that's because people here like to hear themselves free.
But that's very pretentious. And as Muslims we should not want to hear anyone else praises because whatever we done for a loss of hands out is for a lot.
And inshallah will be accepted by those things that would not for a loss turns out no matter how great they may seem, it has no weight with the loss of hand with data, and it may be used against the person.
So I just want to correct something because the rashie is all failing, you know, said that I am a scholar, I'm not a scholar. I'm here to hopefully benefit you brothers and sisters, with some of what Allah
has blessed me to learn.
The topic that I was asked to talk about is his interesting title
says
moderate Muslims in modern America.
And I think that before we get to the topic of
modern America, we have to take a step back and look at the issue of modern Muslims.
We also have to consider in light of that what our responsibility
as Muslims in general is what is our responsibility a loss of data
clearly defined that into crime
allies
in America China semi whitey well of the world, Japan
for being a mean,
what a sharp one I mean, we'll hammer the hell incense in who can have aluminio hula, Allah subhanho wa tada said that the imen
which is normally translated as trust.
But here the Amana refers to accepting the commands and prohibitions of a loss of language. That is that Allah gave this offer to the heavens, to the earth or to the mountains, that if they fulfilled his commands, and avoided his prohibitions, that Allah Subhana Allah will reward them with gentlemen.
Allah azza wa jal says for ash buck on me, but they were extremely apprehensive and scared to accept this, a man
will hammer the hell
but man to own that trust
of obey Allah subhanho wa Taala, with the Prime Minister in the lives of bill does not break his promise, with the promise that if we did so that Eliza Joe would reward man with gender.
Then he says, in describing man
who has accepted that trust in
the lumen, Jehovah
man has been a bar balloon.
He has the traits of which I'll explain in a second, because we normally translate them as well.
And justice transgression, but it means something a little, a little bit deeper than that, in the who can have a lumen, Jolla and he has the trait of Jehovah, which means
ignorance. All right, all right. Now, yeah, I'll get to that in a second. So this is the men that mankind has taken.
A large, then describes people who have taken on that trust man was taken on their trust, breaks them down into three categories.
There are those who externally or openly apparently accepted that trust, but internally, they rejected.
And then there are those who rejected externally and internally, they didn't even pretend.
And then there are those who've accepted that message or accepted that a manner both internally and external, but they have their shortcomings. So lots of candidates Anna says, leave it below. When have you been? Well, Mona has been
Kino elementary can we add to below who Island, Nina? Nina. Okay, and a lot of what kind of love.
So lots of data says breaks down mankind into three categories.
As it relates to this, Amanda, this trust that we have taken on
the results of that I need the result of taking that Amanda on is that Allah will punish
the hypocrites both male and female, and the mushrikeen, the idolaters, both male and female, and he will accept the repentance of the believers, male and female, and allows
he is the offer giving in the most merciful
to take a step back.
How did the loss of animal which Allah describe man, he says that man is voluminous God,
that man has these two qualities of propensity for
which we normally translate as injustice. But But again, it's it's deeper than that. So if we were to look at the soul of a human being, and we didn't look at it as an abstract object, like the Prophet alayhi salatu, was Salam said, when he talked about the cleansing of the believer through Salah, and he said that if one of you went to a river river, and he bathed in that river five times a day, would there be any dirt left on him? And they said, No, he said, this is the life of a Muslim who prays five times a day, not that it's a physical cleaning, but that your soul is being cleansed. So, when we talk about blue, we are talking about the injustice that one does to himself and to
others,
because
Allah, Allah says multiple times in the development of Sir whoever does this or that, he has made me of himself a person who
does what he does to himself. So, a person who was arrogant, he doesn't go to himself a person who is stingy is doing to himself. So, so, these are like stains, that are coming on a person. So, so, those things have to be cleansed. Just stay with me here because this is important point acquired before we start talking about the moderator and the moderator All right.
So we have,
we get we get the picture of it is you are pressing yourself. So you have that propensity, and the job, which is ignorance, okay.
In order for man because this is man, in general, generally mankind in order for us to remove
that inclination towards an ignorance,
there's only one way that we can do that. And that is to follow the messengers of Allah. And this is why Allah subhana wa Jalla sent His messengers all
in to remove those
and to remove ignorance.
This is why I lost all of the messages. This is why he sent our messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam and he clarify what his mission was, before the province like suddenly is created was vital was created before his grandfather was created. So when he
finished building the cabinet,
he made it
he said
masuleh and
yet,
if
you are moving on keytab will Hickman will use a ki
O Allah sent amongst them. With them he was in Mecca, send amongst them a messenger from them, who recite to you who recite your verses, and he teaches them and he does what purifies
teaches them because they are ignorant, purifies them because they have stained themselves with
Allah. Allah answered that
and Sora to Juma
who are living Amina Rasulullah Minho, yet Lu la him.
Why
would you eliminate a monkey?
When can only
be so a last minute Allah says he is the one who sent amongst the others.
letter,
a messenger from amongst them, reciting to them his verses and purifying
because the first quality that Allah, Allah described man with is what what?
Which one do you say kill him Allah,
pure purifying day to remove them the goal that they have with them that injustice whether that is to themselves or to others where you are living.
And he teaches them the book and he teaches them the Hickman teaches them the wisdom, meaning the son of the Prophet is like sedans like Chevy, or Hey, mahalo.
So, the job,
the mission
of our messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was to remove from us this propensity in this inclination towards
the injustice and towards ignorance, and this coincides directly with the statement of the Prophet alayhi salatu was Salam
who said hustler Danny, let's extend the anti human effort hosts no 17
D there are qualities that will never be combined in a hypocrite
good character
and fill in the religion to have understanding
the deep pipe that is because if a person has both good character, he has a degree of
test
of purification and if he has an understanding of the religion, then he has a degree of knowledge
you with me so far?
By what was the
what is the Amana philosophy? Because we have to understand something you know, we we want to talk about very advanced topics and, and interesting title
but the reality is first, before we get to that, we have to make sure we're on the same page. And this is like
the slam 101
What is this amendment? What is what does that mean the trust what trust
anybody
that men accepted from a loss of data and that he would fulfill His commands and avoid his prohibition with the promise that I lost data reward him with gender
what the loss of data what two traits for the law use to describe man and that same verse?
Those ninja was
injustice okay.
And jealous
and jealous ignorance.
And the messengers was sent to do what
to remove
that and how's that removed with what
again
with Tesla
and Tesla purification and knowledge, how many of you who were around in the 90s may remember that as a sphere and tarbiyah right. But a lot of time ago using the Brian chesky intalling is this is the Quranic terminology for that concept, that we need to purify
ourselves and we need to learn the deen of Allah Subhana Allah and this is a life long pursuit for everybody who does not want to be from the moon FET in the moon, every part and the king and emotional and who wants to glean from amongst the meaning and the meaning.
And the
the lowest level if you will, of purification
is personal, personal symptom, the process of it was seldom described, right is that is that we have good character. And a lot of times unfortunately, we give a lot of attention to the external, how this person looks, how meet her he jab is, how short or long is stove is and all of the other things that have its degree of importance in Islam because we're not gonna say anything in Islam is insignificant. But the reality is, is that the Prophet somebody with some say in the field is filled just inside of your body is a Muslim is a piece of flesh, either solid, solid.
If it's right, right, right, right, then everything else is going to be right, right. And so working on character is a very important part of it.
being truthful, being trustworthy, being generous, being humble, is part of our being, we have to work. And that's the lowest form of testing, that's something that all of us have to strive for.
The lowest form of knowledge that we have to strive for is the knowledge that is obligatory upon us. Now,
there is some knowledge that is obligatory upon every Muslims, that no Muslim is excused from, like, oh is Allah subhana wa Tada, knowing your Lord de la jolla
knowing what law
and he did this is this is part of your DNA.
There are other aspects of our DNA that may be obligatory for some of us.
So if you have well,
you need to know how to play the cat. It's an obligation meaning if you don't know
that's what an obligation means. If you don't know it,
I'll give you a quick test real quick. Somebody has somebody makes $200,000 a year?
What?
Gotta get the calculator out.
Okay, 100,000 somebody makes 100,000 a year, how much do they have to pay for
2500 everybody failed that.
Sorry.
2.5% of what?
Up 100,000
to
2.2 point 5% of 100,000 is 2500. But it's wrong. Because it doesn't matter how much money he makes.
It matters what his surpluses
he may earn 100,000. And his expenses may be 120,000. So he's actually eligible for his again, he doesn't have to pay the care, but it is obligatory for those who have wealth to know this about the beam besides the fact that is the third pillar.
So,
for for women, they have a whole side of
that is waiting for them to know for.
So, the reality is is that there are certain parts or slang that some of us may need to know and others are exempt from from understanding that aspect is the theme, but if and this is very This is why seeking knowledge is a lifelong pursuit pursuit. So, you may not have enough money to make hij this year, but you have enough to make it next year or two years later, it becomes your obligation to learn how to make heights how
not to wait till you get on hydrologist watch what everybody else is doing.
Like Alright, alright. So, that is as it relates to what is obligatory from
those two aspects of our being, which is knowledge and purification, knowledge and purification, then there has to be from amongst the oma so that we will call it for,
for everybody, everybody has to know certain aspects of, of the DVD, then we have what is four or five. And that is that at least some part of the oma has to strive to reach the highest level of teskey. A purification, which is sub sub
sub sub sub, which is three categories, I'm not going to go into all of them. I mean, we normally translate sub word as as patients. But it means having forbearance and being steadfast in obeying the laws of hematite and avoiding his prohibitions and being patient and even pleased with with his decree. That is the highest level of test he has.
The highest level
of knowledge is certainly
up.
And some of them and some of the oma has to strive to get to that level. If we were to look at it as let's just use the example of Swift.
Everybody has to trade everybody has to learn how to trade right so that they don't want
to have to learn how to swim, but you gotta at least know how to do doggy paddling. So you can stay above water, then others are going to learn how to swim. They're better off than those who are just treading. But then we need people who wind up with those who are treading start running out of breath and they start falling short and they go on and we need other people that will come in and help lift them back up. Right, or some of them may have been swimming and they lost their possessions. So we need somebody that can go down
and get the thing
From the bottom of the pool or whatever, right? So this is the case. This is the case with the homeless, everybody has to have that degree of knowledge that keeps them above above water.
When they start sinking, we need to have other people who can come in and serve as the lifeguards whatever we want to call it. And this is why I lost 74 I was imitating doing a b m d in lm suburu. What can I add up? No. And we made from amongst them ima Danny, Eman leaders, lemma Saba, when they had
what can be it now you know, and they were patient. And they had certainty about our site. So they suffer uncertainty with those two things, you become an Amen. And the dean This is why sequel seven Samia Rahim Allah to Allah service to somebody with your team. So now, what you could do was suffer from your team, you reach an amendment and reach that status of an amendment in the DEA. And that does not mean I'm going to be very clear on this point.
That does not mean that everybody in the oma has to go out and go to the Arabian Peninsula, and sit for six years with 10 years and study the deen of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And everybody's going to dedicate their entire lives to the study of the community can't function like that. And it didn't work like that at the time of the Prophet it is.
Not everybody
was seeking knowledge in the sense that they dedicated their entire lifestyle.
We still need people in all other areas for us to function as a community. And that's why I said that there's a degree of knowledge that is obligatory upon everyone. And that degree of knowledge does not necessarily mean that somebody is going to go pick up a book and study it cover to cover up it may mean that they asked someone who is more knowledgeable to them than them and receive clarity about them so that they can practice that they can practice their D. But the The other issue is because we have that exchange, we have some people that make people feel like if they are not dedicating their entire life to the study of the D than they're worth.
And that's an extreme.
But we have another extreme. That is those who give you
they don't care anything about it. They're totally apathetic, the concept of knowledge. And for them,
the the issue of,
of knowledge is one when they feel like they have the right to interpret the religion for themselves.
That is that they are totally apathetic to the concept of knowledge. And they feel that they can come and say or believe anything that they want about the statement of Allah subhana wa tada or his messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
I'd like
to move on to the topic of the modern Muslims
in modern America,
I, Frank frankly, honest with everything, and that is I don't believe that we need a qualifier for Muslim I don't need I don't think that we need to qualify it as modern.
And the reason why I say that
is because Islam is intrinsically modern,
moderate in the sense of bound,
Islamism has always been in the middle and has avoided both extremes.
And if we look at
the statement of Allah subhanho wa Taala with 10 minutes, Kelly Matura beaker, see the phone wider like that the word of your Lord has been fulfilled or completed in truth and in justice and justice means that it is bound.
And the word of Allah, Allah is the Quran is the scholars.
So the Quran is both truthful and bounce, bounce, play.
If we look at that story that many of you know,
of the three men who went to some of the wives of the Prophet saw the light it was on them and they inquired about his worship.
And they heard a they heard moderation. And they said, but who are we next to the prophets of the light? It was
He's been forgiven of all of his methamphetamine helmets after those that have proceeded and those who tried to come. So one of them say, I'm going to pray all night, I'm not going to sleep at night. And the other one says,
Well, I'm going to fast round the clock can not mean the day's going too fast, fast his entire life. He's won a fast every day, for the rest of his life. And I'm never going to break my face and go fast. 355 days in the lunar year, all right.
And then there was another one who said, I am not going to marry me, I'm not going to marry anybody. In other words, he's going to dedicate himself totally to the worship of Allah
and not get married the Prophet sallallahu wasallam when he heard about them,
he said, Who is it from amongst you? Who says such and such?
I
will love him by law, and the one from among students, who has the most tough one and the most fear of Allah.
And I pray at night and I sleep.
And I fast some days and I don't fast other days, what is originally said, and I get married.
Then he says, was he banned suniti Felisa Lindsay. So whoever objects my sooner is not from me, is not from what does that mean? That whoever takes a path that is not bound,
then he is not following a path of the sun. nor is he following the path of the Quran because the Quran is balanced. The sunnah of our Prophet is to lie to the sin is bound. And this was understood very well, by the early Muslims of Islam. As we look at the story, we know that when the Prophet somebody was telling them got to Medina, you know, he stopped in Cuba.
They built Mexico back before the privacy some actually got the guy. And then the profit is reduced and went forward. He built his own mess. But he did something between the margin and the unsold imagining By the way,
the migrants were the migrants.
Where
I know it's not just two people answering
the mohajir they migrated from where? To where? To Medina, okay. Okay. When they got to Medina, there were Muslims there. What would they call?
The answer? Okay, excellent. All right. So we admire God. And the answer the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, aha benoni. He built the bond of brotherhood between the majesty, and the unsung.
And that's an important social aspect of Islam, by the way, when you don't have a lot of time to talk about. But if you if you consider the Prophet sallallahu, wasallam, two of the ones that he built that band of brothers to the point that they used to inherit hair on another, by the way, they were like blood, but the process of it was sort of made that relationship between Abu Dhabi and salmonella, salmonella and fantasy, which one of them was from
Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi, soft sell men and fairly soon into the Mecca, and then in May.
Okay, so one day
he went to the house of Abu Dhabi, because that was his brother.
And older that opened the door she had on shabby clothes.
And he said, What's, what's wrong with you?
And she said, Your brother has no hajra in the dungeon.
He doesn't even want anything.
And so he went to Abu Dhabi, and cooked a meal for him, and presented the food to him. And he told him to eat this, I'm not eating until you eat. He said, I'm fast. He said, I'm not eating until you eat. And so he broke this fast and he ate with me. That night, he went to sleep, woke up. Some men notice that he woke up for the following. He says, Go back to sleep. So I went back to see why you think
some males from Ohio
are better than the answer. They with the probability some of them in the beginning when they it was, you know, Islam was the majority
in Mecca, they had to go through some real trials. That's why they were normal nephew team, and they weren't any hypocrites. So some man says Go Go back. So he got up again go back. He got up in the latter part of the night night. And he and then he prayed with me. It comes in Nerys in your heart. So some men pray with them.
And then he told him, he said in nearly rabita alayka
your Lord has a right over you.
well enough Sica later.
You have your bad man. He has a right right over and you need to get some sleep.
I need to take
seriously
what the
hacker in your family has a right over you for
the hacking hacker. So give each one its
give each one is so evident that went to the prophet SAW the light, he was telling me he told him what Solomon says, and the Prophet sallallahu. wasallam says Southern.
So men told the truth, that's balance that's bound.
Islam is intrinsically balanced without us having to add the term moderator, I wanted to bring up that point, because some people confuse the term moderator, the way that we're using it or balanced with the word progressive.
And that is that the the progressive Muslim movement who, quite frankly, we would prefer to reinterpret, or mold or distort Islam, such that it coincides with whatever narrow vision they have, of what is beneficial, because no doubt, Islam has come to brings benefit. But if they don't see the benefit in something,
then they say it's not from Islam.
And if they do see the benefit in something that they know Islam has prohibited, then they try to make it. And it's the same thing that has happened to every other religion, like the prophet Elijah was seldom said, I'd even had him or as the I feel, it's tougher.
They take they take in their scholars and the monks as, as our bad as Lords besides Allah, and what is what was that they made? What was halab
and they may was
Hello.
And that was part of their distortion of the religion. So we want to keep a balanced Islam, we have to preserve it from extremist, whether that extreme is to the right, or that extreme is to the left.
And that's that's very important that we understand. Because some people believe that, that to avoid extremism, that we have to go all the way to the left.
And then other people believe that we need to err on the side of caution. And so they go extremely harsh.
And shaitan does not care which side of the road you go on, as long as you don't go down the middle. It's very important for us to understand the middle course.
And this is why
when when shavon
was
removed from gender expelled from general
and he took man as an enemy. He said to Allah, Allah, Allah Etienne and benei a DM from in front of them then I'm I'm going to come to them from in front of them a woman called me from behind them when a man even when she mad at him.
And then I'm going to come to them from the right, right and from the left, and you will find that most of them are thankful. So if you get pulled to the right or to the left, it doesn't really matter. As long as you don't travel down the middle path. That's why it's why it is critical for us as Muslims to travel that path that is down the middle.
So if we go back to our obligation
as as Muslims, we have an obligation to strive for both purification
and to strive for knowledge, that is that is our identity as Muslims. That is what we talk about when we talk about stabilizing a Muslim identity for ourselves and for the generations to come. Because Because if one one brothers and sisters in Islam
this is this is our obligation towards our children.
You know, our Prophet alayhi salatu salam said to us, he was talking to this cafe, if management and you be here, I mean, it is enough of a of a sin that a person and I'm going to translate this literally wait for those who depend upon
you by
Yanni and just he loses them and he wastes.
And this is this is our responsibility that we don't know those are generally that's a sin.
That we preserve this identity that we create
and support
Maintaining the institutions that have been put in place
to preserve knowledge and to preserve purification. It's very important that we understand this point here.
If we
if we don't recognize that this starts in the home, because we have to recognize that the first institutions, the first institutions out are the homes. It is not the school, it is not the the masthead or, or this hire the seminary or no, it is the home. That is the first place where your child is going to learn to either respect Islam,
or to have a you know, wishy washy opinion of Islam.
So, it is your obligation
to lead by example, don't drop your kid off at the masjid on Sunday. And leave it to the teacher at the Sunday school who sees your child two hours out of the week?
And then when your child is not practicing Islam the way that you think he should?
Then you come and you blame the Islamic Studies teacher at the extremist.
Or you want your child to be in taffy, then he's never seen me read the Koran outside of Ramadan.
How are they supposed to develop a love of the deen? If they don't see being being practice? If they see you lying to other people, because because being truthful is from this Deen and the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said in an kdv de jure
woelfel jorja dilemna. That line leads to just being obscene, corrupt, and that leads to the Hellfire
from our demons to be truthful. If your kids see you lying? How are you supposed to enforce them being truthful? Because this is our deal? Right? So our homes are important. We cannot come
and expect our children to have a reverence
for purification and for knowledge, which is what we're here for that worship of last minute data. If you tell though, oh, no, don't fast today. Because you have football practice. It's Ramadan, as part of your team.
Is it really worth it?
That they not fast, and they leave off of pillar of Islam.
So that they can go to football practice.
So that they can run a race, or any of that.
We have to be very, you know, keen on this issue, that the home is the first Islamic institution and we we as the parents, we have to do a better job of setting that example.
But there's no doubt that the Islamic schools and when we talk about K to 12, they play a very vital role in enforcing this Islamic identity and stabilize that Islamic identity.
By a show of hands, how many of you have school aged children?
know like real high like this? Yeah. Okay. No, keep them up.
Keep them up. They'll go down and watch. Keep them up. No, no, come on, bro. All right. All
right. No, no, no.
It's not that long. Okay. You have school? Ha. Okay.
How many of you have all of your school aged children in Islamic school?
All hamdulillah that's about 2%.
Sorry.
homeschool kids.
play them and I have a question because I'm not gonna bash children. Not, you know, not in an Islamic school. But I do. I want to know the reason why. Why. Just Just like, let's have a frank discussion.
Why don't you have your kids in Islamic school? All the cost, okay. So it's expensive. It's a private institution. It's expensive. Anything else? Come on, let's be real.
It's worse than public school in what sense?
Okay, so you say even from a moral perspective, that the only thing Islamic about the Islamic school was the name. Okay. Okay. Gotcha.
The academics, okay, so it may offer an Islamic environment but the not learning Marsh is which is like in terms of like secular sciences and things like this. Anything else? Yeah, yes. Yes.
There aren't enough of them around. Yeah, location is too is too far but this Yes, yeah.
preservation of character.
So by sending them to the Islamic school, they're losing character, you're saying
there's nothing Islamic about it. But the name, basically, it goes back to it goes back to this. here's the here's the, here's the reality. Our schools are underfunded. That's the bottom line, anybody that has worked within the Islamic school systems knows that the schools are underfunded, there's just not enough money to hire
qualified people or enough qualified people.
So our scores are underfunded, but but
we do have we, we have to start funding the schools differently. If we look at the best private schools in this country,
they only take 55% 55% of their budget is based on tuition. And the other 45% comes from endowment, and grants, and fundraisers where necessary, which I'll talk about in a minute in Charlotte. Okay. But the reality is, is that if you can't hire qualified people, you can't make them a comparable offer, you offer them half of what they would make somewhere else. All right, then what happens is, you're not going to get that quality education, which means that the people who have the money, who want their children to go to a good school, they're not going to pay for them to go to that school,
you then have to cap off your salary or your your your tuition at a certain price that you can attract a different crowd. And then the cycle continues. And so we don't have the proper schools that are going to help reinforce what we are trying to teach them in the home. Because then what happens is, if you send your child
to a public school, you're sending them to a place that is not going to give them anything to reinforce their Islamic identity. We don't share the same vows. They these schools are teaching moral relativism, which means which means in in a nutshell, that morality changes from time to time. So what may have been moral yesterday is not necessarily moral today, and vice versa. And so our children are, are gaining all of these types of thoughts, which makes them doubt Islam. And then we wonder what's happening to my challenge.
But they're not in an institution in eight hours a day, the institution that if it is not reinforced, Stephanie not reinforcing Islam, it may be taking away from their Islamic identity. So we we have the responsibility to step up, and make sure that we can create
the type of institutions educationally that support our children, as well. And this is a next step. And I'll just put it out there, and then move on and shout out to it because of time.
As well as creating institutions of higher learning, that are secular in nature, but that are run in an Islamic environment. So we need two year stem colleges that are run by the Muslims that have that are run Muslim, but that offer the Sciences and Technology and other things that they are going to need to go into those fields that they that they want to go into. But to get them at 18 and 19 years old, and help reinforce that identity is is critical. Because when you send your child away, and and I'm preaching to the choir, because the brothers who have done it, and the sisters who have done it, they know you send your child away to college at 18 at 19 years old, and there's a lot going on.
There's a lot going on. And so we have to be very careful. So we have these institutions, I want you to stay with me inshallah, because we get into a critical point here.
We have K through 12. This is this right now, with with us. We have certain institutes that maybe teach Arabic or other Islamic sciences, you may call them seminaries or whatever we call,
inshallah, in the future we will create institutes of higher learning.
So we've had this identity that has been stabilized amongst the Muslims. Now the Muslims have to have a place to congregate.
That place that they congregate is called what
it's called the message. The message is the hub for the Muslims. It is the bedrock of the Islamic existence in this country that we have meshed
and we
Had messages that have been built, you know, for the last.
I don't know how many years in this country, but since the Muslims have been in this country for over 100 years, well, humbling. But I mean, you can see the messages have spread, especially in the last 30 to 40 years. And nobody's going to deny the virtue of praying and the messenger. The prophet Isaiah Salatu was Salam said that praying in the message is 25 times more young praying and Jamaat the message 25 times more the reward of praying solo, by yourself.
And by the way, if we put that in monetary terms, I think the message would be a lot more crowded most of the time. Right, right, right. Okay.
I'll just, if someone offered you $10 an hour
to work from home.
Okay, $100 an hour to work from home, would you take the job?
Probably, you probably work for more than $400 you change your job, okay?
If someone said though,
I'll give you 20 $500 an hour, not $100 2500 an hour. But you can't work from home. You got to get in your car, you got to drive 10 minutes work from the office?
Would you take that job? And would you stay in the house? Okay, pray in America. All right.
Now,
the prophet SAW light it was also said the importance of being in a mess, you know, because we need to understand important that the role of omission Islam, because it's important for the Prophet, somebody was trying to say, let him know, he meant Allah says, Do not prevent the female slaves of Allah from going to the semester. And even tomorrow, the low tide and who was the one who narrated this, Heidi, and his sons heard him, he said, Mom, I let my wife go to the mess. I'm not letting my wife
said, I tell you that the prophet SAW the light, it was so upset. And you tell me you're not letting the wife go to the machine refused to speak to sighs refused to speak to me. I mean, like literally cut them off.
Because the mechanism is that important, and that we are that we are afforded that opportunity to congregate. And the reality is that we not all the same, we come from very different backgrounds, socio economic backgrounds, educational backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, right. And so when we come together, there's a code of ethics that the Prophet sallallahu wasallam has, has enforced This is that this is what we talk when we talk about character, because part of our character is protecting the rights of another Muslim. When you look at many of the books that deal with character, they start out with the same idea, which is hackled Muslims, and then Muslim, he said that the rights of
a believer over another or the rights of Muslims over another Muslim or six, in the province, I listed those rights. Because when we talk about character, we're talking about preserving the rights of your brother not infringing upon his rights. Because the last panel data set and a P, mu d, and e, this was the message to all of the messages to establish the dean. Well, that's it for coffee. And don't don't divided amongst yourself in the deed, when does that division come when we infringe upon each other's rights were infringed upon each other's rights. And so that's why it's very important that we preserve each other's rights, especially in the houses of Allah, and that we
create an environment that is, is welcoming, because that's part of our DNA, it's part of it. So the mesh just has a very vital role to play in the preservation of our identity as Muslims in this country, and it is the primary primary educational center for the Muslims. And we talked about K through 12 seminaries in Israel, but the majority of the Muslims are going to be learning their religion in the message, because the message is dedicated to teaching a more general audience, the hook was delivered in the message, the lot of times the Koran is being recited and the message is taught to others in the message, memorizing it, learning the meanings of the Quran, and so on and so
forth. And if we are able to bilasa can without us by lies, we'll just leave if we are able to make domestic comfortable and we are able to provide people with the sound teachings of the prophet Isaiah, so lots of them and we create a welcoming environment, that people are going to come to the masterminds, but when people come to the message, they need services. That's the reality. The message is not any higher.
Sajan here and in this country has to evolve into Islamic centers, where people who are able to receive the counseling that they need, and all of the other services that we need when we come together as a community, but that's only going to be a reality one, and this is this point to me I'm passionate about.
That's only going to be reality, a reality. If we wake up and recognize what our responsibility is, I'm going to stop it. But I want you to think about
how many of you have been Muslim for at least 20 years in this country, the
Muslim world for at least 20? Okay, put your hands down.
Do you see a major difference in the way that our methods function today, and the way that they function 20 years ago, I'm talking about how our messages are sustained. Because we start talking about offering services to people. That means that it requires people who offer those services, which means we require some kind of income, to have those people and services available.
Today, the way that we fund our messages, and our services are through what how do we usually get our funds?
fundraisers donations, have the delay, they put those doors in yesterday, by the way, why? No, seriously, I'm dead serious. You see the doors in the back.
That used to be open. They put the doors in so that we can lock them today. Well, they didn't put it in for that reason. But that's a good idea. We locked down today and we fundraise. Nobody leaves until
we get we get the money, right?
So but but that typically, because I think we've all we've lived.
When you get the big guy about 400 pounds, they put them at the door. And they say nobody's leaving too, you know,
that's the reality. That's how we raise funds, donate, everybody donate and donate. So we go around, and we beg and ask people for money and things like this.
Was it like that 20 years ago?
So like that 30 years ago? Okay, okay. And guess what it's gonna be 20 years from now. Same thing, unless we change unless we change that, because to be honest with you, that's not from our history as Muslims is not from our history as Americans.
This donors belief system that we're running our message was not sustainable, is not sustainable. All right, which is why we can't really our growth is so
is turtle slow.
Because we keep operating the same way. And I want today, whatever today's date is, I want today to be the day that we turn the page
on that system. And that we move from a donor based system towards an Islamic system, which is the system of low cost, which I'll talk about briefly.
The way that the massages are funded for all of all who have been over overseas at all, have you ever seen anybody stand up after Juma
and start asking people for money. So that we can keep them so we can keep the lights on so that we can keep this on so we know never seen that overseas. That is because their massages are funded by which we can loosely translate as in down down and back that's from our
own model the load side angle.
He after the Battle of FIBA he
had a very nice plot of land it was a farms farm.
And so he went to the province he wanted to give it away and suddenly
the Prophet sallallahu wasallam suggested to him pay attention to the proper sunlight it was suggested to him that he
should have best left if you if you will
have best asthma
hold on hold on to the land. What's a such a giveaway the fruits of that land and the the crops? Okay, so those crops, the land, let's just say let's just put them let's just say the land is worth $50,000 and the crops bringing annual yield of $10,000. So if he gave away if he gave away the land, that would be a great thing. Right because 50,000
That's good.
But if he keeps the lane, and he gives away the yield of that, of that of those crops, then now he's doing 10,000 this year, and 10,000 next year and 10,000 out until today
until today, because that land in the low tide, and we forbid that that land being sold, or that it be given away as a gift, or that it be inherited.
So so this is this is the concept of a walk.
Now,
I'll give you a modern day exam.
You haven't met with brothers who came together and it's an exorbitant amount of money but just stay with me they put together $10 million
now a lot of us we had a group of brothers who could put that kind of money together we want to bask in the glory of having the biggest masters with the nicest don't don't manado
in the best member and the best everything so that we can be the best Muslims right right.
With these brothers did was they bought a strip malls. Okay, 2 million
they put a part of the mall isn't
I mean part of that strip mall, just just the corner enough for them to prey on Juma was a big enough, nobody's any massive big enough one Juma just about no harm isn't big enough in Japan. Okay. And in for every other slot, it was fine. It's fine for the regular. Okay, so So what happened is that strict laws generated revenue 400,000 a year,
they took the first part of the revenue they got and they began to build luxury apartments
that they want to live in. Okay. And so now we got along with the strip mall, we've got these luxury apartments.
Every year, we're getting revenue from not only the strip mall, but also on the luxury apartments, then they built them.
And they built the biggest one most expansive, and everything else. But guess what,
because they were patient six, seven years. Okay, they will never have to ask for money. Again.
They have stability, they created a sustainable institution. Now, we may not have the luxury
of doing that with our institutions, because we already have institutions that have been built.
But what we can do is to start thinking differently.
And start looking at how we, in this room right here in the lightoller are going to pull our resources together. So that we can come up with a few $100,000
not worry about buying another machine, but worrying about how to invest it in the best manner proper, so that it brings a return
that we can now use to start funding our current institutions that exist. And this is the concept of the workflow.
All right, all right, I will try to
I'll try to summarize.
We get the concept of this workflow. Now because Because really, it's not just going to require religious leaders or investors, it is going to require educators and people in in the health care professional people in the computer sciences and all across the board, we are going to in order to sort of what we're talking about here is a change. That would be a thing that we can look back in 20 years right now. Our prop prop Prop, our issue that we face is that we're underfunded.
We can't provide some of the services that we'd like to provide to the community. Because we don't have enough money to consumers.
And if we stay the way that we're doing right now is going to be the same problem 20 years from now, but we want to do is change for the next generation be in Atlanta and if we pull our resources together, we keep pushing the right way.
Our children will inherit institutions that are sustainable, they've already sustained themselves.
And their problem be how to manage bigger budgets and how to provide better services and how to grow the institutions that already exist to meet the needs of their generation. Because the latter Muslims are going to keep growing and we're not going to lose them.
We're going to grow
So this is something that we have to consider our, our close out with this following point.
Because
remember, she mentioned, we want to talk about, you know, or, or it was suggested that we talk about influencing with policy, I want you to understand something as our institutions grow in these United States of America,
we are going to have to learn how to engage with the community at large.
Our massage that we build, let's just keep it real. Our we as Muslims in this country, are approximately 2% of the population.
Correct.
There's no census whatsoever that puts the Muslims at 3%. Even if you said the Muslims are 10 million, which is the highest number I've ever heard of her. There are 340 million people in America put us at 3%. That means that our institutions in general are going to be surrounded by non Muslim institutions.
What are we going to be known for? as Muslims? What are we on? Okay, let's start. What do we know for right now? Right, the Muslim
terrorists know that that's true. But even for the people forget, forget the media stuff. Our neighbors know us for what double parking is. What else? Sorry?
Oh, wow. I'm not going. I'm not going.
Sorry.
No, I'm not going there.
Sorry.
We know for masters. Okay. So we know for being making noise early in the morning. Ramadan, we know making noise always late at night. definitely have a double Park, you know,
being strict, okay, being strict. If we're in a residential neighborhood, we always clog up the sidewalk. You know, they can never get by we never get the roads. Right.
Right. Right. This is basically about and I'm not saying we're not doing any good. I'm not and I'm not saying that because of something that we do. As Muslim institutions, many of the Muslim institutions do offer things to communities, I know that some of us are saying who cares? Anyway, right.
No, sir. But But if we think about it, that said, that was not the attitude of the Prophet signs. And we need to be we need to be, you know, we need to understand this.
When the Abyssinian the heavy ships were playing with the spears and the mestinon.
And
on the E, and I saw the low tide and, you know, came and she basically put her cheek when she could have prophesied some because she wanted to see what they were doing. And she was intrigued by
you know, Abu Bakar or the low tide and he was he was bothered he was he was a bit upset. So they playing in the masculine the prophets
leave them the element
and the feed enough
so that the Jews know that we have some leeway. And this is our
but but the point here is so they weren't so that the Jews No, no, it's not that the province of the light it was Selim stop practicing is de, you know, because we have some people take this Heidi, is I'm not praying it. Because I don't want people to think I'm a terrorist.
Dude, if slack goes in and out, you need to pray. And it doesn't matter what anybody thinks, right? But the reality is, is that we do have to be conscious of the way that what we are doing is being perceived by the people around us. The prophets have aligned it with some of them at one point when the man came and grabbed him by by his collar, and oh my God, oh, China, anyway, he was, he was a hypocrite. Right? But a hypocrite is what was somebody who
displays this lamb and internally he's not a Muslim. Okay. Omar are the loads and and who said to the Prophet, somebody with some data and the ability to own
almost a developer, let me take care of that for you. That's how I translate. Let me take care of
and the problem somebody was trying to say lay it to head ness and Mohammed and you have to wash hands. We're not going to let the people say that Mohammed kills as follows. Okay. Do you think that the prophet SAW you someone who really cared what somebody thinks about him? Or was this because it would be a deterrent for people
Entering into the DEA. So we have to be conscious of that we don't exist in a bubble. We are charged percent of the population and everybody else around us is not Muslims. And this is what this is what our test is in this country
that we display Assam in the best manner possible people in other countries have the access.
You may have chosen or not chosen to be here, just like you didn't choose to be a male or female or anything, this is your test. That's what allows paradata tested, you wouldn't we have to deal with that when we live here, in a land where people are not Muslim. And so we have to be able to live Islam in a manner that at least is not deterred, or at least does not deter them from wanting to be part of this. Because this is where their salvation lies. It lies on them seeking knowledge, and purifying themselves the same way it is for us. And we want for them what we want for ourselves. They are out
no matter what way we slice. They are our people. And this is why every profit.
If you look and look sorted out or for example, solitude, we talked about the stories of the profit profits, those profits were sent to people who were not Muslim. And they would say to them, yeah, oh, my, oh my people, these are people. And it's our duty, to be better examples of Muslims to encourage them to enter into the Dean of snap and not have the attitude that we are sharp along with Tom, know that we are laws chosen, and that these people are going to Hell no, we can't we cannot have that attitude. And if we look, look, in the Sierra, our Prophet is allowed to snap and even some of his campaigns if you look at every bucket bucket
when the Muslims were forced out of Mecca,
that first teacher that they made to to habituate to every city and city.
Every bucket, as he was going southbound was heading towards.
He was heading towards heaven. He ran into a man who was the head of his tribe, and he was in the hinterland.
And in the in the new Abu Bakr Siddiq from train, and he said to him, and Where exactly are you going, and he said, My people have forced me out.
And so I'm going to have a shift, so that I can worship alive.
Even though Linda says,
You, you people like you do not leave, nor are they to be forced out. I am, you're protected, you are under my protection. And he went physically back
to Mecca, which was a five day journey. And he went to each of the Ashraful nobles almost operationally and he told them that Abacus is under my protection. Why? He says because you honor your guests.
And you provide to the needy, and you take care
of the or for any mentioned three other qualities to other qualities from most that was that you help those who are not just the needy, but you help those who have been faced with kilometers.
Now, if we look at that description, of Abacus, these are the loads. And
when this man said no, you feed the needle, he talked about the Muslim meeting. He's talking about the meeting, in general. And he said What's up, and you keep ties of kinship, and the majority of his family. And when you look at the kinship, they were not Muslim.
Feeding the needy taking care of the orphan or helping
if it was just something that ever *ing day for the Muslims. Stay with me, who was just something that he did for the Muslims. Why would even even look at that as a virtue you're supposed to take care of your people. But no, he was doing this for society as a whole. This is the exact same description, in this in the describing every bucket has to be is the exact same description that Khadija made up the prophets of Allah It was after jabril painting in that time, the first for the first time and he was so scared so light, it was something he didn't know what was going on. And Khadija law the law of China says the province will live
sequela by law law will never disgrace. You do what you feed the poor. You keep ties of kinship, you feed the needy, you take care of the orphans and you help those who are in need. Right. Same exact description.
And so this was our profit on a selection sedan, who even before he was a Muslim was known among
His people as a side of me, and he was truthful, and he was trustworthy. And he took care of the people and at the society at large. And so this is as Muslims, we have to begin to do this because it is a means of Tao, number one. And number two, it is a means of protecting our institutions as a means of protecting our institutions. Because now when people attack the Muslims, and people say that we are terrorists, that people say, they will be our first defenders, they will be the first ones to say to people, not not us, we won't have to defend ourselves, they will be the ones that say, not these.
They do this, they feed the needy in this neighborhood, they take care of the orphan, this neighbor, they do this, and they do that. So this is something that, you know, we have to keep in mind as, as we expand, I know that I am out of time. But I just want to reiterate
that we have a very important role moving forward, that we cannot continue from today.
We cannot continue to run things, the way that we've been running them and expect change. And we have the ability. Well, yes, they may have been a time when we had to be on the defensive, or time when we were in survival mode, but we passed and we can finally be laid out we have the resource. We need to pull those resources together and shallow data so that we can start this year place and begin to build for the future in shallow john and Mark my words for those of us who live in shallow tada for the next 20 years. If we continue down this path, we will see Islam in a much better state than it is today. And we'll be able to pass on sustainable institutions, to the generations that
come will love the atom with some lower son of robotics. And then Amina Mohammed now before we close out
Sorry, sorry. Now please before
Yeah.
JOHN.
JOHN has a few words that he's going to, to share because this is something this is a vision that I've had for some years, and it's something that we've discussed around and I've discussed over the years and many of the other blacks and professionals as well, that it is time to pull our resources together and john is going to talk about him. John's going to talk about how to do that inshallah. It's been 1100 loans salatu salam ala rasulillah while he was hobby he woman tibiae homie sending you know, yo, Medina, we're back.
Just a few moments before we begin, we begin for the prayer.
As sheftall here mentioned,
we have been in discussion I
checked out here, Chef Rashid, a number of the other Misha and
colleagues from various universities, Islamic institutions, e mams, etc, as well as professionals
of relative fields. We have been discussing how we can stabilize Muslim identity, secure our financial future, as well as normalize our presence as a faith group in the United States.
So among this team, which has to grow,
we have been developing a very practical and a scalable model
that can be implemented
in any community scale. Based on your size, you can implement something that will address the most pressing short term, and long term challenges that you are likely to face.
So here you're at UCLA, this is a community center that serves Cherry Hill and the surrounding townships.
As much as I'd love, Chef doctor to lock those doors, as he says, and have a fundraiser.
He's going to leave that up to me, for my community.
You guys can have your lock in in your own communities. So what I want to do is instead of talking about theory, I want to give you an example of what it could look like in your own community based on this.
Practice practical
approach. Three things we're discussing, which is stabilizing Islamic identity. So here in this community, we have been working towards these goals since we opened in 2010. Very short life.
So we began by opening an after school program, because there was not an Islamic school in the area area. So we would supplement
There are academics with religious studies to help develop that identity.
And I give you one examples of this because this is a beautiful example. It's very important.
We had one young
participant in the group, his name was yaku.
In public school, when you call the roll, the teacher murdered the name, of course at the beginning of the year, and he said, No, Miss, my name is Jacob.
translated it over to standard English. My name is Jacob, Jacob. And she would ask Where are you from? He was originally from the Muslim world. And he was shy to say where he was from, when he started with our program. Halfway through the school year, the roll time came around, the teacher said, Jacob, are you here? He said, Ma'am. My name is yaku.
She tries to pronounce Yaqoob. He says no yaku corrected her pronunciation. Because we were able to provide them, these young children an opportunity to stabilize that identity. And it was wishy washy. He was in hiding.
after school program, Sunday school was offered, seminary is in the works to be developed Islamic studies for adults, and to full time Islamic school is in the future. These are institutions that we all understand. We all are after, in our own communities. The key here, and I remind you of the example given by shea butter moments ago, about Oman, I'll be alone, and that piece of land,
setting it as an endowment to continue to support
the DAO Islamic efforts to continue to support those institutions that are so needed to stabilize identity.
It continues until this very day, that my dear brothers and sisters is what you call legacies. That's a legacy. We need to be thinking about what will be the legacy of this community of you? What will be your legacy?
When you leave your children a burden? Because I'm telling you now they're already looking at it that way, wait, wait.
A burden, we built the biggest the best.
But guess what it came with a budget budget.
We did not secure
those institutions financially. So our children, not only they're gonna have their own struggles financially and challenges, but we just added a huge weight on their shoulders.
So the idea the concept of the endowment is the legacies that we need to leave.
We started that here in this communities. We started on a pilot program, a beta, he will invested in local property.
It builds equity for the community. And it relieves those lock in fundraisers. So instead of having to ask for half a million dollars, or whatever your scale is, we can say Guess what, because of our investments, we only need to supplement
we need 100,000. And part of that's going to be investing.
That's a legacy.
That is securing the finances. And lastly, before I give you what I want you to do what actually what Kickstarter wants me to have you do is normalizing our presence here. We have to normalize Islam in the eyes of the average American, like the other faith groups have done, the other minority groups are still doing, it's normal to be Muslims in America.
And that's only going to happen when we interact when we put our best foot forward. And we have something to show and something to provide in this community center right here.
One of the I think, spearhead one of our pilot projects for this is opening a free clinic.
This community has been blessed with numerous doctors and people of other skill sets that came together and said, We want to offer our services not just for the Muslim community here, but we want to open this clinic for all of our neighbors. no health insurance. You're welcome. No documentation. You're welcome. And you know what? The staff is not even all Muslims, because they bought into that idea.
idea that concept of giving health free health care to those that can afford it. And they have taken us as leaders in this town.
They will know of this message as the one that hosts a free health clinic and serves not just their own interests,
but serves the community at large, they will begin to look up to us to respect us, and they will extend their hands to us. And they are doing that now, believe it or not,
that health clinic is being supported
by the hospital system here. They've endorsed this health clinic.
Because the nature of it is universal.
Regardless of faith, regardless of ethnic background,
we have now taken our seat at the table of our community.
This is just a couple of examples of what it could look like in your community. So here's the thing thing.
Besides the theory, what are we going to do? What What can we do today? Many people are thinking well, that's that's that's beyond what we have ever met. We haven't even talked about that. The dialogue begins now. And the first step is getting to know each other.
If you understand what was mentioned this evening, if you have
open your heart to that idea, perhaps even bought into a little bit of it tonight, right now we need to know who you are, let's get to know each other, what we can do, what resources we have, because I'll tell you this.
The Muslim community is full of resources. A lot of times we don't know what each other does, what we can bring to the table. But we have all the resources we need right here. And I can guarantee you in this building tonight, we have enough resources and I'm not just talking about money, I'm talking about your skills, that we can have a huge impact on this entire region. Not Cherry Hill, not Philadelphia, the entire North East.
Just from this group right here. And this is not a lot.
So let's get to know each other Joey Joey, what can you do? g c la.org. That's our website. We've posted a survey on the homepage gc lda.org. The survey is entitled, sustainability obtaining sustainability resource assessment.
It's gonna take you two minutes or less basic contact information. What is your area of expertise? What is your area of interest? And would you be interested in joining
a team
that can leave
a legacy so I guess
you could do it right now you've got your smartphones, we're gonna make the event. We're gonna make the event in a few minutes for you to pull out your smart devices everyone if you got hopefully got some data on your phone still left over. Not too much for you to take a little Facebook diet. Stay off the tabloids of Twitter etc.
Go ahead, pull out your phone GC le a.org. On the homepage you'll see a link it says attaining sustainability resource survey you click that it'll take you to a survey. Two minutes or less you'll be done it'll be time for prayer and we can begin moving forward.
Oh
shadow Allah.
Shadow
shadow
shadow soon
madam also
Hi.
Hi.
How are you?
Hi