Ramadan Best Nights
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Channel: Tahir Wyatt
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With the release
of mental hemorrhage under the lower set of Mr. bata can intervene early early he also should be here seldom at the Sleeman casilando he akmola the brothers and sisters in Las panatela except from us all inshallah this from Milan and the effort that we're doing in Ramadan inshallah we hope that we could achieve the pleasure of Las panatela here tonight we have our dear Sheriff and today I have all the right to introduce him the way I want to show law is
he's our role model in this field and we we were looking forward always to meet him and to get to see him after his return from Medina. We've been following him so I wanted to start with Shiva right. Welcome to the show, Chef now. It's gonna be a show tonight. It's not gonna be like oh library.
Allah.
Allah, the
shift now what the first question and I'm gonna start in 1993 inshallah, going back to 1993
What was it that led your heart, inshallah to the, to the religion of Islam and to Lhasa pantallas back enrolled
for the handling Lao salatu salam, ala rasulillah. Now on Earth, he was talking about
how to add a says an army you read the level? Yeah, do you saw that a Houdini, Islam. Whoever Lost Planet Allah wants the guy, he opens his heart to Islam, he opens his heart to full submission. And I, honestly 27 years ago, he told me in 1983, I don't know that I would be able to pinpoint today. what it was that at that very moment, just, you know, said to me, it's time to become a Muslim.
But I do know that I had gotten to a point in my life where I had to accept the fact that there was a creator. So we're gonna start there.
And, you know, because prior to that, I guess I toyed with the idea of atheism, you know, there was a period that I went through when I consider myself to be an atheist. Though, as I kind of look back on it, I don't really think that I was convinced that there wasn't a guy, but I wasn't convinced that there was a guy. So I was probably stuck in some form of
being some kind of agnostic, if you will.
So I think once I came to the realization intellectually,
that there had to be a creator. And that, as you know, when that intellect, it coincides with your physical, your natural disposition, which is towards the worship of one guy,
there's a cohesion there that kind of takes you to the next level, unless you put a barrier between yourself and a lot of parents out of which a lot of people do. And that's usually the barrier of arrogance. And so they allow their pride or their pride in who their ancestors are, for example, you know, how many people I've come across to just say, Well, you know, I believe what you're saying, but my whole family is Christian, I can't I can't leave off, you know, that way. That's part of it's part of their identity. Right.
And so
and that was it.
Right, but here's the thing, Chappelle it kind of reminds me of like today,
you know, anyway, it's almost like a religious dysphoria, right? So it's like, wait a minute, I know that I really shouldn't be Muslim, right. But everybody else is like this and my family. So they kind of go through this, this turmoil, if you can break down those barriers, and you can allow, you know, both your your emotions, your, your, your mental state, the the fitzwalter, that you're applying that cohesion with the intellectual appeal of Islam. And then oftentimes, the rest is the guidance, you know, from a loss of Hannah, which I mean even at first part is guidance from a loss fantana but I'm saying that once you get your knifes out the way and you leave room for loss of
Hamlet's attitude permeates your total existence and then allies will they'll take over and you and you start to see the truth for what it is and you know, our profit is like
the two guys that come to my mind right
Now the first is a llama
gun was looking at the bat. See, the thing is some people see the truth is the truth. They know that it's the truth. But they haven't been given that ability to follow the truth. So they know it's true.
And I mean, there's no better example from the CEO of the Prophet I'd like to send him than his own uncle will tell it, who knew that Islam was the truth. And he knew that the prophets are liars, and it was a prophet. But nem Yoda suck, you know, it's a bow. So he wasn't given that that guidance to, to follow the truth. And then the other one is the Hadith of the Prophet, it is hard to sin, and were part of the dryers, what do you need? Well, that's it and who daddy guide me and make guidance easy for me. So some people, they know that this is guidance, the guidance hasn't been made easy for them. So to kind of get back to your question, again, it'd be very difficult for me to to pinpoint
exactly what it was. But I will tell you, I know, the process that I went through the first part of the process was accepting the fact that there's a creator, and just saying, Wait a minute, that Yeah, in other words, that this creation, these things that exists could not have come from nothing, you know, even if we trace it back, and we say, matter and energy, and, you know, we start talking about a big bang, and all, even with that something had to be there to bang, right? So, logically, there had to be a beginning. You know, so there had to be a creator.
I mean, that was the process I was going through at the time. And then after that, the acceptance of the fact that life must have a purpose.
And that the Creator has to communicate that purpose to his creation. And that is communicated through revelation, which was brought by prophets. So going through that process, even though I was young at the time,
I felt like I had lived, you know, certain aspects of life that a lot of older people hadn't probably lived yet. And I thought that at that point, I just said, you know, what, it's time to stop playing games, you know, so panela, this is, this is what it is. And I woke up one morning, I said, You know what, that's it today, I'm going to become a Muslim. And that's what happened back in December of 1983. Is that why you chose to study RP then in Medina? Was that the lead to focus more on RP then? But I want to ask the question before that, so I don't forget the question. shallot. Keep it in mind. I just remember when you're speaking the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu sallam,
when he said to the Sahaba, that there will come a time where they the action of an individual equal to 50 of you call yours Allah min min whom? Call an acquaintance, you do not say the hour? And Was this the case? At your time? How do you see people accepting Islam now? And back then? Where did you have enough support at that time? Or do you think now hamdulillah? It is better?
The quantity, I'm talking about the quality of acceptance, you know? Well,
it's really hard to say, because we've gone through many stages since
since that time, right?
I would, I would definitely say this, Islam was nowhere near as prominent than as it is now.
So we have a lot more massage. And now we have a lot more Islamic centers, and I'm talking about big ones, right? We have a lot more, obviously, the inflammation is a lot more. I mean, we were on information overload.
That just did not exist back then.
And, obviously, the world has changed. I mean, 1983 we were not using the internet yet. I'm not saying that. Well, maybe email became a little bit more prominent, probably 9596. But even then, it still wasn't like, it wasn't like a prominent thing. And that, you know, everybody just had internet. You know, there obviously was no social media then and so forth. So it was a different time period. I think that the
and it would be difficult for me to say that the quality of Muslim was better than I don't. That would be unfair to say, but we definitely were more strange.
And so that the, the the Lord but you know, to be a little horrible, like the Prophet is not the same glad times to the strangers. You know, it was very odd to be a Muslim at the time. And
and I'm saying right now we feel like it's odd.
And places that you might go. In the United States. You know, it's more, it seems more prevalent in larger cities that you know, people know that you're Muslim. But, you know, back then it was it was a little bit different man.
And we just didn't have the numbers now. So you go through a time period, and then you did 911 hits, right. 911 was a generational game changer. Because for some people who were very proud to be Muslim before 911 they became prouder after 911.
You know, there was no hiding. I'm not going to hide now. No, as a matter of fact, I didn't used to wear Koofi. Now, I'm gonna wear Koofi, I want everybody know, I'm Muslim. And I want you to try, see what happens. Because we're not going out like that, you know, I'm not gonna hide because you think I'm a terrorist, right?
There was some Muslims that were like that they were other Muslims. They said, Wait a minute, this is a bit much. And it geographically, obviously, it changes from place to place. And,
you know, there's no harm. I mean, there's several things that have happened even since 911, that have, you know, made us recognize that Muslims are targets. And you don't just want to be out there being a target. But the whole point is that that was a generational game changer. But
you know, despite the the negative aspects of that
attack,
it did make Islam it did put Islam in the spotlight, right. So it gave Muslims the opportunity to say, wait a minute, that's not what we stand for. This is what a spam really is. And, you know, people who would attack
innocent civilians and so forth, that doesn't have anything to do with ID. So it puts some people on the defensive, but even being on the defensive, there was still attention that was being given, right. And so, so, it did change the game. And in that sense, and it puts Islam in a, in a spotlight, not necessarily obviously, in the beginning definitely wasn't good. But as time went on, more people began to hear about Islam, and then they would read about Islam, and then they would go try to meet some Muslims and Muslims became more proactive, and getting out and getting the message out and trying to meet their neighbors and so on and so forth. So
your original question was what right back?
Yeah, I'm I'm enjoying now I'm enjoying was was the original question because like, it was it was the brothers at that time, or the Brotherhood of Muslims at that time. The feeling of it, like when you first become religious, or when you first
different feeling the now being, you know, hello, have more Muslims, we have more massages, but I'm sure it's not the same connection? Well, no, no, no, no, I would, I would say,
one of the major, major differences that I can distinctly recall from that time
was, was the spirit of connectedness, the spirit of sacrifice,
that I have found to kind of dissipate. And I'm not saying that people don't sacrifice now, they don't sacrifice they Well, you know, to build a massage, and so far, but back then was different. It was it was different that was ingrained in us that, and it probably was because our numbers were smaller. Now we've got more numbers, and many hands, make light work. And, you know, for, you know, massive fundraisers, this person give businessperson give that, but back then it was like, it was just this little group, you know, and everybody had to really dig deep, you know, you know, women had to take off the jewelry, literally, you know, for fundraisers, because we needed everything that
we could get, you know, to support the house of Allah, and that type of sacrifices, not necessarily just, it's not the same spirit, you know, today as it was then, but there still is, there's things that are better. Now, obviously, I mean, the services that are offered to the Muslim community now, I think, are much more, they're much broader than the services that were offered back then. And I think the vision that we have for ourselves, you know, as American Muslims is, is different than it was back then. And I would even say, a different in it in a better sense, like, you know, we, we see ourselves as part of the society as a whole and therefore, are trying to forge you know, our
identity within the broader society without sacrificing our values and without just totally melting into the pot.
They wish to strengthen people's heart during Ramadan before I moved to Medina. And that's a different stage in your life that we all were watching in 1999. I was in high school. So I know how, and I heard about the news at 7am. But I was new to the US because they came into us and 1999 that's when I think you moved
Medina now I moved I left in 96 or 96 okay? The question is shifting now. We want a lot of people they start off from Oban and this is a feeling that a lot of people get and I want to get your input on it from the Hadith of the Prophet SAW Selim also in Nicola hermelin Shira in illegally shot in federal bodies. So, you know, every action has had its its peak, so and then it drops low. Is that the case? Is this a case? In every in every light is it in every case, whether it's new to Islam, whether it's a new to repentance, whether it's getting closer to Allah, you just feel you want to do so much. And then you have seen people who are just dropping low not gonna say dropping at all, but
not not the same? Like before? Is that a feeling? Is that a normal feeling? people having that problem in Ramadan? Now? Yeah, sure. Listen,
if our profits are lighter, with some say, legally, I'm Elon, right? Sure, then then we know that it's for every action, right? For every, you know, category of action, you'll find that there's a period of enthusiasm. And then there's a period of, of
fetzima, you know, where a person just kind of,
is not as enthusiastic and I can't, I'm missing the English word. If you got one. For me, that would be great. That is a period of, you know, inactivity, we're kind of just plateaus, right? But but to complete the Hadith, the prophet SAW Some said from an Canon fetzima, to who Eli suniti so credited that whoever his period of plateauing, were, you know, it's not going up. He's not really excited. But he still sticks to the teachings of the prophet Isaiah Salatu was salam, it's not going to go too far right or left, he's still staying on that middle course, for cadets today that that person has guided. So the point is that, even at periods where you're not as enthusiastic as you once were,
you still don't go so low, that you leave the way of the Prophet alayhi salatu salam, right. And that's so you see that in a couple things.
The first is that
every Muslim should have some level of toward voluntary actions that protects his father, and that that's going to protect his
you know, obligations. So there needs to be some type of Sooners as it relates to your Salah your fasting shouldn't just be Ramadan and just know there should be some other level of fasting even with your cat You know, there should be some level of charity and everything that we do every aspect there should be a level that we try to go you know, above the the obligation such that as even Oh my god, Allahu tada and whom I said, Okay, bow and egg either benei ouabain, Jaime hedgies MNL halab I like to put between myself and the HUD on a, a barrier of HELOC such that if I start getting weakened, amen, I'm not dipping into the HELOC. I'm not dipping into the HELOC right, I might be
going from muster head to, you know, something that's encouraged for me to do I kind of leave that off, and I'm going to a place where it's allowed but I'm not dipping all the way into into the hot. And so yeah, every every action has that period of of enthusiasm where you know you're gung ho you want to do it. And then and then it tapers off, you know, and then
there's there's ebbs and flows. But but you don't want your your low points to get to the point where it takes you into something that would be displeasing to a loss, you kind of have a child, as we look to this month of Ramadan.
Last month data is so wise and so merciful. And how he prescribes is a bad day for us right is so so if we look for example,
the most important day of hygiene and I'll get back to Ramadan in a minute, the most important day of hygiene is what you see out of your mouths.
Do we just jump off the plane, you know you're coming from New York, you jump off the plane, you land in alpha.
What happens is is obviously I mean, if you're making too much you're gonna make before that there's gonna be some other acts of bad that you're starting to get into condition. And then you go to Mina on the eighth of the ledger, right? Your model says the ninth of
the eighth of the ledger. What monastic are there?
No, you're just in minute. You're just praying, but you're getting the customers
Now to what number one being in Iran, which can be uncomfortable. And he said, Well, even if it's not uncomfortable for everybody, it's a new experience, right? You're in these tents with everybody people that you may not know. I mean, but the whole point is, you're getting a custom allies with gel is giving you that period to warm up. So that when you get to alpha, you can give it your all you, right, you've already gotten the strange things out the way you've gotten accustomed a bit to, you know, your new situation, and then you can go and really give it your all on your modify. And if you look at it to Mina, the eighth of the ledger is an entire day. Right? You spend an entire day.
So even if you got to meet her before, though you got there some time to do her time, from that time to out offers a full 24 hours. Yes, the time that you spend on offers more like six hours. So you get the warm up time is a lot more than the time that you have to actually exert yourself. Now. If we look at Ramadan, the most important night in Ramadan,
Laila to Qatar if we know that the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa sallam said to how to roll Laila to Qatar to Nashville, our female Ramadan seek out later to cut it in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, not the first 10 nights so what happens is what we got 20 days to prepare for 10 allies which have given us this 20 day just 20 days you're gonna go through your ebbs and flows you real enthusiastic someday I mean, you got busy you had to go do this, you wild Yani, those 20 days, but the point is, by the time you get to the last 10 nights are you worried about getting up for support? Are you worried about what you're going to eat? No, those 20 days took care of all of that type of thing. So
now what happens is you get to focus on what really matters which is that he died that at nighttime.
Okay? And allies origin if we just Pinder okay because Flm yet double coat Have they not pondered over the speech. A loss parents either has given us enough we're lucky we're lucky and one eye has given us enough to make us strive for those tonight's a last chance Allison avocets lady little cut at hieromonk elfi sharp
lady little cutter
is better than 1000 months. So let's just stop this shikamaru because I think that if again, if we ponder what this really means, it'll allow us to really benefit from the last 10 nights of Ramadan so that if you don't mind, we just take a couple minutes. I'm gonna go through something. And you you got to help us out on this. We'll go ahead and Okay, good. All right, but you gotta help us out.
How's your math skills? You know, not like you should if I just heard your I just read that you graduated
from the central 95 with your I
forget all that. Forget, okay.
Don't worry about that. This is simple mathematics. You can claim it they claim him an engineer. That's what they claim. Yeah, well call us that means that means basic, basic mathematics. You'll you'll be able to do this and show. Okay, so let's ponder Laila to cutter de teittleman elfi shall know that the labor toccata is better than 1000 months. What that means is that the worship that you do Layla toccata Allah azza wa jal will write it for you and multiply the reward for you. As if you were worshiping Him for 1000 months. Right. Okay. Now,
let's just kind of break that down so we can understand what that means. Right now. Our knights, okay. And 1000 months as we know is like 83 years and some change, right. Okay. Right now. Our it is 8383 years.
Okay. So, so if we look at it right now, the night's approximately depending on where you are in America, but approximately eight hours.
Okay. All right, here's where your math skills come in.
Eight hours
is better than eight years.
Right? Okay. So if eight hours is better than eight years, then each hour is better than how many years
80 divided by eight.
each hour is better than 10 years. full years of my bed. Allahu Akbar. So we stay in the PM. Listen, if I stay in the pm for one hour,
Then that means Elijah Joe will write it for me better than as if I was standing in pm for 10 years. Yes, yes. Is it? Really if you think about this, it's like, wait a minute, wait a minute.
This is enough to push anybody. Now, let's, let's take it.
Let's take it and translate it into something we can all relate to. Then the Allies what Joe says about us, the children of Adam. Well, in the who the hook bill Haiti, actually, let's say D.
We are I love forehead, which here is wealth. It should be the you know, it is are you still there? Sir? Are you? Okay? I'm with you. I'm okay.
A larger just says that I love for wealth. I love for property is so much wrong. It's strong. So let's translate that. If your boss says to you,
I need you to come in. I need you to work the night shift. The graveyard shift. I know you used to work in a nice, but I need you to work graveyard graveyard shift for 10 nights.
Or one of those 10 nights. For every hour you work I'm going to give you 10 years salary.
For every hour you work, I'm not going to tell you which night it is, but it's one of these 10 nights. Okay? For every hour, you work, I'm going to give you 10 years salary panela. So if your salary is $50,000, for example, a year, then for every hour, you're going to get a half a million dollars. Yes, he? I'm going to tell you right now. Everybody's gonna make 80 cash at work. Yeah, that's Yeah.
You know why? Because they're gonna, they're gonna say, wait a minute, if I go back and forth, I might get in a car accident.
Anything might happen. I just I know. I don't want to miss this opportunity. Every hour counts. Well, like every hour counts, right?
Because every so but what a lost rantala man the light hate on whatever car what is what the left hand side is even better than that half a million dollars means nothing. And for every single our
allies who are jealous telling you, I'm gonna reward you I'm gonna write this reward for you as if you were worshiping me for more than 10 years because he says haven better than 1000 months not equal to no shake. I'm up. I want to go a step further though. So we can really understand how much how important it really is for us to take advantage of these last 10 nights we ask Allah Subhana Allah to give us tofik to take advantage of the opportunities that he is giving us. Because the last pantile is merciful. He's given us these opportunities to correct our affairs to be forgiven for our sins and our profit it is Salatu was Salam some uncommon later till Calgary Manawatu. said on the
home etiquette Dhamma mean them be he whoever stands the night of other than Eliza
Eamon and with true faith and seeking the last pantallas reward and Allah will forgive him for all of his previous sins. Now listen,
we take it a step further, if every hour is like 10 years.
That means that 10 years is 120 months, just so that you know.
That means that every minute which is 60 seconds,
every penny that is 60 minutes in an hour, it means that every minute is like two months.
And that's how we have to approach later toccata I don't want to waste one minute because it's not a minute or later to cut that my minute is really too much. I don't want to waste a minute, I want to talk about anything foolish. I want to do anything like this. I don't even want to spend extra time in the bathroom. So I'm going to eat less, I'm going to drink less I don't want to spend I don't want to waste any time.
And I don't know exactly when later to cut it is but I know is in these last 10 nights we started mothered on Wednesday night.
I won't waste any time. And we really have to look at it every minute is two months. And so if we push ourselves in that I'm telling you that's just that's just the way it is a little bit of pondering over Leyland sankaty qaidam and LC shop Not to mention you know the practice of our Prophet Isaiah select with Sudan and looking at the practice of the sutliff because to Panama you will find i j and the way that they use their time simply amazing. You know the the amount of time that they would spend memorize I mean not memorize but reciting the Quran amount of time that they would spend in a slot and the point is even changing your needs. So when you eating that if talk,
you know what you're going to be doing later to cut it you want to eat if calm
But you're going to do it following the Sunnah of the Prophet It is so slim, you're not going to overeat, you're going to eat what's necessary to Yanni just give you the energy that you need. And that's your nia. Nia for eating is not because you haven't eaten all day, and this food is just delicious. Your Nia is that I'm eating this because I need the strength so that I can worship Allah Subhana Allah, you know, through this night and seeking out Laila, so cut it and calling upon a loss to make him glad to him. And if you can do that, for the last 10 nights of Ramadan, it really doesn't matter what happened in the first 20 because the reality is, is, you know, if you have test
a team, if your condition, you know, becomes upright, and right, and those last 10 that's when a race is won, the race is won in the last lap, you know, so if you Mashallah you come out the, you know, come out like lightning, you know, the first you know, the first two rounds, but then on the last lap, you know, you slow down, that's, that's not the time to slow down, it's not the time to worry about what eat is gonna look like and you know, getting a nice stove and all that type of stuff like you should have done that matter of fact, you still got a couple of days, and whatever you're trying to do for the eat, get that out of the way, get that planning out the way now, Laila
toccata, those the Knights of the last 10 days of Ramadan, that needs to be dedicated solely to the worship of Allah subhana wa tada and a person should do their best not to sleep in those last 10 nights, if they have the ability, there are people who obviously you know, they have the type of shift work that that necessitates that they get some kind of sleep at night and providing for your family is an absolute necessity and that's something that allows for having Tata has made an obligation you know, upon the men of this oma so I mean we have to be balanced as well but for those people who have the ability to change their schedules for the last two nights then by all means we
should you know, and we really should be asking the last panel data from now to make us foremost those who reach Leyland cell COVID standard email and YT server even if it said the houses remember we had the meeting we had the conference before Ramadan and you said this Ramadan I remember though your wording this Ramadan is not going to be easy. We might say yeah, this Ramadan so we so far we have seen even at even if people are gonna say the house is no worries this year, but he then
like Well, let me tell you this. There's right it's not easy, it's
but the Prophet it slides was laid out for us a principle
which makes things very promising.
And that is when he said to shove it along with Santa Ana in as your key IRA, Katarina sabich your reward is is commensurate with it coincides with the difficulty, not difficulty that you impose on yourself that is not from Islam. And I suppose to make things more difficult upon yourself thinking that you're going to get more reward from fans out there because you made it difficult on yourself that doesn't even Acland doesn't make sense. But the difficulty that you have not imposed on yourself,
it just so happens that you are in a difficult situation. That's what Allah Subhana Allah decreed.
Then your reward from Allah Subhana Allah for that worship is increased. And so because it is more difficult this Ramadan, you don't have that communal spirit,
which tends to make a bagger easier. In fact, a lot of fans out there and one of the wisdoms that the scholars mentioned from the statement of a lost parents either Yoda Dino cooks radical cm come back with Valentina mechanical right fasting has been prescribed for you all like it has been prescribed for those before you was to do what to make us feel a little bit better. we're not the only ones that what we are the only ones that have to fast the other almost, you know, that preceded us they also had to they also had to fast so psychologically it kind of helps you know to know that you're not the only one that's that that that has to do this right.
So likewise the communal aspect of a band to be able to go to the masjid and and get that spirit of everybody there you know, worshiping at the same time behind the same man.
You know, that's a beautiful thing. And for most people this Ramadan You know, that's not that's not a reality. I have the light we're still praying. Tada, we're
at the masjid
and we have pm at two o'clock in the morning, no schedule. You want to fly over the filiana
if they if they allowed them coming.
You know,
Hump Day law. You know, our our message is is I mean, the message that we, you know, that we are hosting.
And pm is it's a it's a large message and the number of people are is very small to be honest with you.
And, you know, we're following the fatality of the old man was mentioned that in the areas
in those countries where salaat is allowed, so long as social distancing is observed,
then, you know, we're following that that fits what it says is permissible. And we're also social distancing in the slot. So, you know, there are gaps in the rows, which is a different story when I get into big discussion tonight. So
the point is, the point is that,
even with that it's not the same vibe as it normally is when the message is packed and full and everybody's standing, you know, foot foot shoulder to shoulder and you know, it's not the same vibe, but with that difficulty last sprint Allah
rewards his servant more. And we should anticipate that reward and you know, do our best to worship the last fans out there, you know, whatever our circumstances may be.
Exactly, l'affaire. Check another. The Time Is Flying Time Is Flying with you. And I know we're running away from the interview part. But the shape I want to there's
a lot more a lot more like you said, didn't you say like half hour? No, no, I didn't say half an hour shift. Nice.
They said from nine we're starting from nine. That's all I said. I said we started from nine Shall
I go to sleep at night?
Last 10 days is almost there. It's not the last 10 days yet.
Philly started early, we don't care one way or the
other, I will make you very short and shallow for the shift. It was It is an honor and always a lie. Monica loves to meet your style and and be with him.
When we heard about you and Medina and you are teaching Medina, the shift is the shift first He then moved to Medina, he got his bachelor degree, master's degree and PhD in Medina was what was amazing to all of us and honestly we took it as a role model and we were looking into it and this is as a piece of advice that the the importance of seeking knowledge to strengthen one's Amen You know Alhamdulillah we worship Allah subhanaw taala but most of the I had that speaks about you know the bad that is connected to knowledge you know, amount McCarrick Mola title bear with me a couple of cobbler Cody alignment, this chapter of you know, knowledge before, say is saying an actions. You
shift now you became the first or you were the first American student to teach in the prophecy.
is in that correct?
No, no. Yeah.
We're sorry. Were you aiming for that when you left?
Was it your first visit to Medina first when you went? No, I mean, yeah, that that was my first that was my first Yeah. When I went when I went for studies in 1996. Yeah, that was that was my first time there. And your your thought of Medina was how was your feeling when you first got to Medina? Was it just, I'm finishing my bachelor degree, I'm coming back as an Imam to the US or you had the goals to stay in Medina.
La know
how briefly how did you? I'm interested to know. So.
So at the time, I was a student at Temple University in Philadelphia. Yes. And I had a full scholarship to at Temple University academic scholarship. And my vision, honestly, in my mind, I was gonna go over to Medina just to learn Arabic. And then I was coming back to America. Like I never, I didn't think I was gonna be there for the rest. You know, for as long as I did. I was there for half my life.
That That wasn't that wasn't the goal. I just thought I was gonna go, you know, study the Arabic language. I remember I talked to a brother who said, he told me, he said, it was I told him, I said, Look, man, I just want to go learn Arabic. And then I like I deferred my scholarship at Temple University. And, you know, told him, I'll be back in a year. I'm taking some time off on a learning letter, mother language and so forth. And a brother told me he said, Listen,
he said, I went to Egypt in 1983, or something like that.
He said,
You know, I went just to learn the Arabic language as well. He said, but once you learn the Arabic language, you're going to want to learn Islam. Like he said, you know, you basically you'll see like your thirst is going to grow.
And I'll tell you something,
panela
I remember, I remember when it hit me,
I was just I just finished a Muslim 101 which is the first level of the Arabic language program. And so, you know, you get a little bit, you get a little bit, right. And as soon as we finished, as soon like, literally as soon as that, that we finished the test for the first level, Ramadan started, so we had off the whole month. Okay. And, and so,
you know, I'm going to the prophets message for today.
And Allahu Akbar, I'm saying, Man, I'm starting to understand a little bit of what the Imam is reciting. So not everything, but it was enough to get me to start realizing, wait, I gotta learn some more, I got it, cuz I want to understand the speech of Allah. Right? Now you gotta understand. And I know that this is just impossible shake I mark for somebody, like you who was born and raised, you know, with the Arabic language.
For you know, for the couple years that I was Muslim prior to that, and I'm praying together with, I don't understand the thing.
I don't, I'm just, I'm standing there, I'm standing there. And, you know, if the man's voice is nice, you know, I'm into it. Voice is not nice. I'm really not into it. But at the words, I don't understand anything.
And, to be honest with you, this was a side note.
I started an institute here in
Philadelphia, South Jersey, with a few of my other colleagues that were in Medina, with me. And when we were in Medina, you know, our, our objective was simply we said, Look, man, we got to get the people to a point where they understand what the Imam is reciting in total, we were gonna go back even though, you know, you would think, man, you know, you spent all that time you know, you're learning, you know, our key, the key. But that being said, I still know the value of having enough of the Arabic language to least benefit something from what the Imam is reciting. And tada, we're, and we want everybody to be able to have that feeling of benefiting something from what the man is
resigning. So in any event,
I remember that's, that was what I think that was a watershed moment for me like, wait a minute, I gotta keep learning because I really want to understand what's being said. And I started to take some of the sweetness of, you know, select, you know, just being able to learning some of that classical Arabic.
And then another thing that happened was, so this was 96 when I went to Medina, and we finished that semester in December of 1996. And then right after that was, was Ramadan.
Okay, fast forward to April, which was highest time.
And
I was going with an American group to hedge, right.
And then men have burnt down to the ground. That was the year to fire the fire. Yeah. Okay, so that was before minute right now is all these white tents, right? The white the white is supposed to be a fire repellent. They call it
I think that's, I forget what the word is. Anyway, you get the idea. In other words, it's, it's it's supposed to be the type of material that doesn't burn. Well, back in 9697. All the tents with this very colorful orange and blue and it was cloth.
So when the fire came,
I remember like it was yesterday spent a lot like my body was shaking for
about 24 hours, uncontrollably.
Inside inside, because basically, you thought you were gonna die. Like literally you thought you were gonna die. And people did die. And, you know, the people running behind you, you run it, everybody's going a certain direction. And you know, people are saying La la la la. Like, it's the last time it's literally like, it's the last thing they're gonna say. And we all were, you know, in that predicament. In any event, what happened was our group split up. And, and so
what the group that I was left with, I was the only one that had a little bit of Arabic. Right? So I've been studying at this point, six months or whatever like that, and we got to get four minutes Addison. Back then nobody in Saudi is speaking English, not like it is today when everybody got a little bit of broken English or whatever. But it was just like, in order to get from place to place, somebody had to speak some Arabic
So it forced me to
use the force me to use the little bit of Arabic that I had. But that was important because it broke some of those psychological barriers that you have the thinking, like, I don't know, if I'm gonna be able to speak and all that. No, you had to speak you, you know, you put in a position where you were forced. So I think at that point as well, I think that was an encouragement
to say, wait a minute, no, you can you can do this, you know, you can, you know, this is something that inshallah you can become proficient in. And,
you know, I remember and that summer, I came back 97, I came back to the States. And I don't think I was back for two or three weeks.
I actually remember the moment when I was in the car, my wife and I just turned to her, she looked at me and, like you thinking, what I'm thinking, it's time to get out of here. Like, three weeks. I mean, look at it 910 months, we hit a van five times a day, six times a day, you know,
and, you know, you live in a life this just is based on Dean, you know, is based on preparing for the Hereafter is based on you know, gaming, and you come back to, to the States, you're not hearing any and then things are just different dunya everywhere. I mean, and then it was just like, okay, now I want to dedicate my life to this, you know, and I think so, I don't when I went over, believe me, I didn't have the intention of staying that long. And also
when I had gotten to Medina, I was told by, you know, a number of brothers that you know,
just achieving a bachelor's degree is like,
like major because most of the brothers didn't even graduate you know, at that point you came back
man most of the listen the shakes of the Americans when I got there, the shakes were in their first year of college the first year of college
those were like the big guys
you know, things have changed now. But I'm in this panel that's what it was like then now what the last advice that you would give
16 Medina now and I know how it feels in your hearts especially someone who lived in Medina for a long time the most you've been closed and
you can never imagine Okay, we could imagine a different country maybe being closed but not not met can Medina but it did happen, what would be an advice to strengthen and to to bring some Sakina some tranquility and some peace to the Muslims heart on the end of our show insha Allah today we would love to stay more and more but I know that she has to has to go and I want him more so and I'm trying to inshallah bring bring the cake more and more, what would be an advice shift for the
I should, I wish
I wish I could tell you something that was
like some formula that I came up with. But Allah Subhana Allah has made this
very, a simple formula for us. Okay, a larger Joe says, well, mania tequila, is Allahu Maharajah
our exit strategy. our way out of this is through tequila. And the whole reason we're fasting is to attain taqwa. And so we we have to stay the course. Stay that course of consistency in our worship of Allah to Allah and trying to draw closer to Him and trying to be more mindful of him and everything that we do. And trying to get to the level of a taqwa and a tough one, even though we do translate a lot of times as fear a lot, or we translate it and the more politically correct way now, right be more mindful of a law because for some reason, fearing the law is like a bad thing. Now, we have to
don't get me off on it. I was gonna tell you, What is your definition? I was just gonna ask what is the best definition there is? No, there is no best definition as a talk for different nations. That really is okay because they're going to
talk for another hour I'm not promising anything you already know that.
I'm going to send you this emoji you remember this? Oh, why did I promise to do that? I'm not promising anything but we'll get there but but this is
a tough one obviously is from LA Kai. Right. As as the as the backdrop which means to to protect yourself.
You are protecting. you're protecting yourself through your email, from a loss of habitat as punishment from not
Being able to get his mercy in the hereafter you're protecting yourself from not reaching salvation. Right? So, so taqwa is to proceed cautiously
to avoid those things that Allah Subhana Allah has forbidden, because Eliza gel has forbidding them for your benefit. And we have to understand that larger Joe doesn't get harmed because we, you know, do things that he is forbidden and he doesn't benefit from us doing the things that he has, you know, commanded us to do. The point being is,
I think that being God consciousness is okay. And here's a translation for tableau, any data loss is always on your mind. So that you, you know, but but the reality is, I don't think we should also move away from that fear of a loss, out of fear is healthy is there's that reverential fear of a loss of hands out. That's, that's healthy. In fact, as human beings, we are more motivated, in fact, by fear than we are by hope. That's clear. That's clear. Let's look at right now the situation that we're in with COVID-19. Everybody's staying in the house, because of what? Because they're scared, right? If we told people just stay in the house for two months, we'll give you four months salary,
check it out, we get you for my salary, stay in a house for two months. No, I will say no. Right now, we're telling you, we're not giving you no money. But you'd be scared of this thing. You got to stay in everybody staying in house this year. Because we're motivated by fear Allah, Allah created us, he knows this. He knows this about us. Right? He knows how he created the psychology of the human being. The point shake is what made you tequila. Who ever has that true Tuckwell? veloce mentality, which we're trying to get through this fasting, right?
Will you see it? You might be very thirsty. There's that drink right in front of you that you could drink if you wanted to. But but the fear of a loss and Tyler
fearing doing what he has forbidden, right? That prevents you from doing that. And if you stay the course, you're gonna come along Allah promised, well, why the law he has, at the end of the day, Allah promises true.
He promised that if we truly show Tucker, He will make a way out. And so inshallah we have to stay the course. Man, that's my advice. Stay that course, of consistent event of a loss of habitat and the lives we don't make fun of Well, hello, I just look shifting, I want to end with a statement of claim of Motorola. And this is a similar I'd like to introduce a player with and we'll lay it is an honor, I know that she doesn't like praise. But I have no claims to say out of 10 tariffs carrying the life on the female demo. COVID. Amelia Sheila Do you want to know your level, and I can't translate when the ship is here. So I'll just read it. If you want to know your value with your
Lord, look how our last panel is using you and what action that he has kept you busy with. So I always introduce your five by four to a teacher in the middle of the column.
It is a dream it is everybody's dream and it is an honor to the individual to be in that position next to the Prophet sallallahu sallam.
Number one is mahna mahna Vina for those who shall low the mean I mean, starting his misschien we hope to stay on his footstep, you know and his birth and his road till the Day of Judgment shall law till we return and meet him and we hope too that he's happy with our actions in sha Allah and Allah is happy with our actions in Las panatela is pleased with our excellent actions shala Indonesian Allah
and inshallah who will see you in Medina very soon there is giving hope with a brother and sister at the end of this show inshallah that now we will hope to see everybody again in hygiene Omron open up the doors for them inshallah, and the lesson is the Most Merciful we asked him to accept or die. Does that mean I mean Alas, no tener exec lokalen motyka ludvika sigma La Salle Alan foster chromosoma shiffman Nanak allowing huntik shuttle to stop your car to be like
to live with a cat