Breakdown Medicinal vs Recreational Marijuana

Why is this important? Now? Why are we going to why are we talking about weed? This is it. I mean, it's legal, right? It's totally legal. Okay. How does it work? Do people get upset at you if you do certain things?

Right, that's it. That's all it is.

So the dilemma is this alcohol is prohibited in Islam. That's clear cut, right? Yeah, alcohol is actually killing people. It's killing people. And it's prohibited in Islam. What are the top three arguments that you have dealt with?

Islamic and welcome back to the show how you guys doing? How are you doing? Doing? Excellent. So I was solo or heard your training or not now? Great. Gracie Jiu Jitsu trying to keep it up yet. You're getting ready for your friendly match with Joe Rogan. Getting ready. Has he contacted you the last program? Not yet. We've been waiting? Because you guys are right there in the same community, aren't we? Are we are Yes. And that we're about to introduce? Okay, well, let's kick it off. Since we mentioned Joe. And we did that nice show for Joe, on some of the misconceptions that people have and you kind of went systematically one by one. We dismantle those arguments, but we got something new

now that we're going to touch upon for all the weed pot smokers marijuana dope smokers. Yep. Yeah.

I think this is going to be very interesting. Let's get into a clip. How's that? Let's do it because he recently he had with Elon Musk, what happened with that? So he brings Elan musk on he, you know, offers him to try marijuana, you know, smoke something. So he takes like, you know, he smokes a little bit, and all of a sudden Tesla stock drops, like significantly because of one move of Elon Musk.

Wow. Yeah. Which shows you that, you know, people's perception in society of marijuana is still, you know, it's still concerning. They're very concerned about doing this is it? I mean, it's legal, right? It's totally legal. Okay. How does it work? Do people get upset at you if you do certain things?

Right, that's him. That's all it is.

He's the owner of Tesla, owner of Tesla CEO of combinations based on marijuana is wonderful.

First turned on to it by Charlie Murphy and then reignited by Dave Chappelle, hey,

plus whiskey. Haha, exactly. Perfect. bounces it out. And some whiskey, huh?

Alcohol is a drug that's been grandfathered in. Well, it's not just a drug. It's a drug that gets a bad rap. Because you just have a little it's great.

Well, we can slide on that. Why is this important? Now? Why are we going to why are we talking about weed? marijuana cannabis was the proper turn any of these? Yeah, marijuana, you can use cannabis. So marijuana is the main term, you know, and so many terms, you know, Mary Jane dope, you know, weed all of that stuff. It's really important right now, specifically because, you know, we grew up in a generation where there's like the, you know, the dare program, drug abuse, resistance education, we're taught like, Don't do drugs. At the same time. You got pop culture, you got movies, you got media, everyone is promoting marijuana. You got Snoop Dogg, you got Dr. Dre you got you know, all of

these people have been promoting marijuana for a long time. So there's this mixed message being given to people that you know what, drugs are bad for you. But then at the same time, you know, marijuana is not that bad. It's not going to have so many effects on you. It's not such a big deal. So we got legalization of marijuana across several states. In the United States. We got now legalization of marijuana in Canada for recreational use as well. In Canada right now in Canada, the new largest. That's just not medical in California. It's medical right California. It was medical. We were the first state to pass medical 1996 or 1998. But since this year, January 2018. It's just

completely legal. Now you can recreation you can walk right into a marijuana dispensary. I did it just for research purposes, not tried it but walked in there. And you don't need a card. You don't need a medical card. You don't need anything you just walk in since one since this is the beginning of this year. How do you have to be? What's the I think it's 2121. I think it's 21. But anyone who's 21 can just buy it and just go and give it to whoever 13 year old 12 year old and now Canada, the whole country, the whole country. It's legal for recreations as far as I recall. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it this is this is a big thing. So what's happening is spreading. And what it shows you is

you got almost 30 states where it's legal for medical or medicinal purposes. And usually, there's some basis for that. But then that's also a flimsy excuse for people to go and just have easy access to marijuana. You know, you could go in there. I mean, my brother told me a story. He said he walked in in California. He had a backache, his friend said you know what, why don't you you know, go get a marijuana card. He walks in 30 seconds.

There's a doctor on Skype and he goes, What's your problems? I have some back pain. He goes, Okay. How bad is it? It hurts quite a bit. Okay, giving you a prescription for medical marijuana. That's it. He's got his card he can buy now as much as he wants. He didn't buy it. But he just got it, you know. And he's like, it was a joke. It was like literally a joke. So we got that dilemma of people now having easy access to marijuana, it's seen as like, it's a safe drug, there's no problem, you can get high. You got Muslims now, who have always wanted to smoke, like having more of an excuse of, you know, I don't drink alcohol, but this one is okay. But then on the flip side, you actually

have, you know, medical advantages to the cannabis plant. And it's very hard to differentiate between these two people are confused about Well, where do you draw the line? Where is it? You know, therefore your medical benefit? Because there's a lot of there are benefits in the cannabis plant. So that's where we have a problem now. Yeah. How do you balance that out? Because alcohol for sure. There's no doubt about it. I mean, and we don't just go off this. We have the criteria. We have the Quran we have the sun, everything just clearly laid out. Yeah. But now when you look at for instance, who the World Health Organization, they estimate that

every 10 seconds, or is it one in every 10? People? No one every 10 seconds? Someone is dying from from alcohol. Right? Yep. And every 10 seconds someone is dying from from alcohol, but you don't have those same kind of negative effects with with marijuana, except then you also have some additional value there. Exactly. So see, that's the dilemma. So the and that's the argument, too. So the dilemma is this alcohol is prohibited in Islam. That's clear cut, right? Yeah, alcohol is actually killing people. It's killing people. And it's prohibited in Islam. Yeah. getting high for recreational purposes on marijuana or any other drug is also prohibited in Islam. That's a clear

there's There is no doubt about that. There's no arguing there is no recreational recreational use any, any drug that's going to be altering your mind is the psychoactive drug is going it's prohibited in Islam, wisdom. Now, the wisdom, let me tell you the dilemma. The dilemma is that the argument in American society and in many Western societies, or many parts of the world is safe. But alcohol is legal. And marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. So it should also be legal. So what Muslims start doing is they're like, they make the same argument. They're like, well, marijuana is a lot less harmful than alcohol. So they buy into the same thing to say, Okay, well, it should be that

should be allowed. Whereas what you know, we believe that alcohol should be hot on that part is clear. So there's confusion there, right? And the confusion is easily resolved for Muslims, in differentiating between the two. So you got alcohol may be more harmful than marijuana, but they both alter your state of mind. Right? So in Islam, alcohol is not only prohibited, because you're going to potentially go home and you know, beat up your family, or because you're going to get a DUI, right, that's not the reason why it's prohibited. That's one of the wisdoms, but the underlying reason why it's prohibited is because you're taking your mind, your your freewill that Allah has

given you. And you're basically altering it so that you cannot make the same type of rational decisions. When you're in a state of you know, being high. When something is altered your state of mind, anything that's going to alter your state of mind is going to be prohibited in Islam. That's why alcohol is prohibited. Even if you didn't have the stats on DUIs, even if we didn't have the stats on, you know, causing liver, you know, disease and all of these other things, alcohol would still be prohibited in Islam, because Allah has given you this ability to think straight. And when you try to take that away, and you start making irrational decisions, even if they're not

necessarily harming anyone, you start laughing at jokes that that are not really funny, or, you know, you start saying strange things, or whatever it is. Islam teaches us not to put ourselves in that type of state, anything that's going to get us in that state, we need to stay away from it. That's why alcohol is prohibited. And on top of that, all of these other bad things happen because of that marijuana is in the same category. What what are the top three arguments that you have dealt with? Okay, regarding Muslims, or whoever, and they want to use it as a recreational drug? Yes. Top three arguments. argument number one is this not the most common but the first one that comes to

mind is that, you know, there's verses in the Quran where Allah says that, you know, he created all plants, you know, and this is all natural. So because it's natural, Allah created, it's built in nature, all of these plants are there. Why can we consume it seems like it's perfectly fine. problem with that argument is I mean, you could poisonous mushrooms, you know, are in nature as well. You're not going to consume them. You're not going to eat

Which are which are harmful for you? So that's that's a problematic argument, right? The second argument is that it's much safer than alcohol. So it doesn't cause the same level of harm as alcohol. And that's kind of what I was explaining is that Islam did not prohibit alcohol only because of the massive harms that it has for society. But it prohibited altering your state of mind. Because you're not going to make straight thinking decisions, right? And the third argument is that you know, what, when you say, intoxication, anything that intoxicates you, right, then they say, oh, caffeine should be prohibited, right? Because it intoxicates you nicotine should be prohibited. They

say, you know, eating a lot of chocolate should be prohibited because it alters your state of mind. That's really a semantic argument that, you know, caffeine,

you know, can intoxicate you if you have a lot of caffeine. When we say intoxication, any anything that causes intoxication is prohibited in Islam, unless there's some like absolute necessity for it. That's a play on words. It's a trick of words, because intoxication has many different meanings. Intoxication in Islam basically means anything that is going to alter your state of mind such that you can't think straight the way you would when you're not on that substance. You can't, you know, you can't speak straight the way you would normally do, compared to when you're on that substance. So that's the problem. So I've heard that argument a lot. They're like, well, if you're going to say

that, you know, marijuana is prohibited, then caffeine should be prohibited, and then other things should be prohibited, or they talk about, you know, it's not addictive, like alcohol, or it's not addictive, like other drugs. So then the assumption is that the reason why it's prohibited in Islam is because other drugs are addictive. And this one is not addictive. But that's not the reason. That's not the underlying reasoning. So we need to differentiate between

the effects on society, which are there, there's no doubt I would argue that I agree. And Muslim scholars would agree that in many cases, marijuana is safer than alcohol. But that doesn't mean that it's okay to do right from an Islamic perspective, right. So that's a challenge that society has to deal with. And there's a famous Mm hmm. qaddafi he lived about, you know, 800 years ago in Egypt, he made the same argument, he was actually arguing that hashish is potentially safer than alcohol, I think both are prohibited in Islam. But he was making the argument that hashish is someone takes his sheet hashish is from the cannabis plant as well. It's from the resin of the plant, whereas

marijuana is from the flowers of the plant. So it's very similar, it gets you intoxicated the same way gets a little bit high and all that. But he's saying that when people consume hashish, they're not going in, like, you know, getting into fights becoming violent, and all of that, like you do on alcohol. So this is not some new argument. Muslim scholars have been tackling this for a very long time. But that's where there's a confusion in the mind of people that they can't differentiate between, you know, massive harm to society, versus you on an individual level should not alter your state of mind, because it's not a good thing to do. It's not good for you. And that's what our

Creator has taught us. So this is what you specialize in. This is your you're also from the California Islamic University University. Yes. So this is your astronomy, mom? Yes. You're specialized in these areas? Yes. So I've been doing a lot of research, I just wrote a paper for the Council of North America on this. We just did a paper for California Islamic University as well. So that's something I've been researching for a long time now. And I've had a chance to really look into this in detail. And I'll tell you honestly, like researching this has changed my perspective, a lot. Not on the Islamic prohibition of recreational smoking, or inhaling or whatever, but more on

the medical side. So my research has actually concluded that, you know, there's a lot of benefit medical benefits in cannabis. And this is something that Muslim scholars have been saying for over 1000 years, they've been saying they've been saying that I mean, there's some scholars have been saying that there are medical absolutely now recreational, not recreational, recreational, 100%, clear cut, not a single Muslim scholar throughout history that I know of, has ever said you can just, you know, duke it up and light it up a joint. No, like we just saw Elon Musk and Joe Rogan do. No, you can't do one of those. Right? It can't be like Joe, he can't be like Joe, it can't be like

Ilan even, you know, just trying it be like, it's not so bad. It's not so harmful, given to the argument about you know, it's safer than alcohol and all that all of these arguments. We may agree with these arguments, but just because something is safer than something else, doesn't mean it's good for you. Yeah, so you can can you say that? Can you say that? One of the wisdoms that the creator had created this plant

is it's there because you wonder like, then why did he create it? Why is it there? Can this be for one of those for that healing? absent that prominent in the plant? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Why not? Because there's, there's it makes sense. There's so many plants out there where if you use them in the correct proportion, DERA healing for you, they can be used as a medicine. And there's a Hadith of the Prophet peace be upon him where someone came and said, you know, Prophet, should we should we use medicine? And he goes, yes, use medicine, because there's not, there's not any illness that Allah has created, except that he's created a cure for it, meaning you just got to go find it,

you know, except death. So can you make it another example? Let's say the pig Hmm. Now, if you had a farm, and are connected to this, where that pig is like a human garbage disposal, it just eats everything, right? Would you be able to say a lot created it, you know, as a garbage disposal, and I can use it on my farm to eat up all the garbage? Got it? Yeah, not to eat it not to eat it. Yeah, not to eat it, but maybe it serves another purpose. Another same here with this plant. Exactly, exactly. Because I've seen I've also experiencing family members who've had the cancer and you just start to look at because traditional medicine or the traditional drugs, they many of them come at a

huge cost, they don't actually heal. And but then you have a healing component in this and you have people tested opioid addiction, you know,

laser demmick you know, how many people are addicted to opiates? You know, you got a huge problem, especially, I mean, in in the high schools, we have, you know, kids, especially from upper class families, they're all you know, popping, you know, different opiates, you know, that they got from their parents and they're addicted, how would you Those are the painkillers, the painkillers, we need them to meth leads them to so many other issues. They have a ton of documentaries exposing this the kid or the adult goes to the hospital and they put him on these painkillers. And then they finally they leave the hospital, but they still they're addicted now. Yeah. And then they end up

when you interview them on the street. How did you get here? I started off with opiates with the opiate painkillers. And now he lost his whole life, his whole career. He's on the street. Now she's on the street because of it. That's a huge epidemic of a problem. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Now you have a dilemma. Now you have these drugs that come at a cost. They're not and in many cases, they're actually they're making more problems Exactly. Like this is just one example that so many side effects right so and that that's the problem. So so that's one of the common arguments for the legalization of marijuana is that it's a lot safer than these other painkillers and other

prescription drugs that are there which are causing so many other problems. And it's a legitimate argument, right? I have like a warning at the end but it is legitimate argument. So let's talk a little bit about that. Right. So the cannabis plant is what marijuana is, you know used is made from the cannabis plant. Okay, cannabis is a plant and it contains two main chemicals. It's got 100 chemicals, but two main chemicals. One of them is THC, okay, it's tetra hydro cannabinol and then you got CBD, which is kind of video. So most young people they know these terms. They know THC and CBD. THC is psychoactive. Okay, THC makes you high. CBD actually doesn't make you high. It's not

psychoactive. And now the latest research shows that CBD inhibits THC. So the more CBD you have, the less effect that the THC is going to have, the less high you're going to get. If you go to any medical marijuana dispensary, you look at their menu. Okay, they have a menu of like different types of weed and what you could buy and all that strawberry Kush, and different, you know, strains. They're trying to maximize the THC content, and minimize the CBD content. So THC content gets up to like 20% or more CBD content gets below 1% it's like point something percent, right. So that's because people want to get high, they want different types of high when they're gonna smoke it or

vape it or use a bong or whatever. Now what's happening is that the latest research on medical marijuana is showing that it's most of the healing properties are in CBD. They're not into THC. So if you want the medical benefits of marijuana for most illnesses, now, it's showing that high CBD strains of marijuana or high CBD products are the ones that give that benefit, which is perfect for Muslims, because we're trying to avoid the high THC so that we don't get high we don't alter our mind. And yet at the same time we get the medical benefits of marijuana. For me this is like this is amazing, like this research is perfectly in line with Islam because Allah created this plant. People

have been abusing this plant with hashish and they've been using this plant with abusing it with marijuana. And then we see the medical benefits. And now research is showing that most of the medical benefits, they're actually in the part of the plant where it's not going to make you high in the first place. And that's amazing. And that's why we should be promoting more research.

Searching that field. The problem that we have is the federal government of the United States. Still classifies marijuana or cannabis is a schedule one drug, which means that they believe it is very dangerous. And it has absolutely no medical benefits. That's a federal government not on the state level. Yeah. Right. So what's happened is, you can't, until recently, you can't grow cannabis anywhere, you can't grow it, you can't have it, you can't import it, you can't get it anywhere, you can't test it. So there's no medical research being done. So all you do is you have a few people, you know, trying here, and they're saying all of this helped me this helped me their research cannot

even continue. And that's a problem, right? So that's why from the Islamic perspective, we would like to see more research being done. And we should be promoting the research on the cannabis plant to see what kind of, you know, more medical benefits that it can actually have. And it's a much better alternative than the other drugs that are out there on the market. Now, since it's legal in the whole country of Canada, is this going to promote more research? Or the hope is that it will absolutely yeah, and it's a good thing. So So this is where Muslims have a dilemma are people not also allowed to grow it in their backyard as they grow tomato or different different regulations

exists? So I think I think it's state by state, they have different regulations. So I'm not I don't know the details of that. But now, people can actually grow it on a more massive level for the last 30 years, they could not even grow hemp. hemp is from cannabis, it doesn't produce marijuana, it's used to make like fibers and all of that. And we used to import all of our hemp from France, because, you know, the government was so afraid that anyone's going to grow any cannabis plant. You're not even allowed to grow a hemp plant, which has like almost no THC in it. Right. So. So now that's all changing, and there's going to be a lot more research coming out and we should promote

that research. And that's good. Going back to your point, you're making a point that the dilemma that dilemma is this. So what we got is the people who are pushing for the promotion of medical cannabis or medical marijuana, as they say right for medical benefits. They also believe in the pushing the recreational use of marijuana and making it just accessible. There's nothing wrong with it. Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, it's not a not a problem, just smoke out whenever you feel like it, it's not a big deal. What's happening is you've got these two things, overlapping people who want it to be used for recreational purposes and say there's no big deal. And also to be used for medical

purposes. They're kind of on the same boat. And that's where Muslims have a dilemma. Muslims need to have a clear line in between that on the one side, you got

you got the Okay, for medical purposes, you know of using cannabis. But you have a clear know when it comes to recreational purposes, right. And when the two become mixed, a lot of Muslims become confused and they start doing the same thing. Right. They start thinking, you know what, there's no line in between and that that's the problem. That's the challenge. How do you now What's that? What is that line that you have? Okay, I have a backache and I know where what line does Islam give due to where you can take it and where it's crossing it because someone has a legitimate back pain legitimate you know, neck pain, whatever the case, right? Now they have to decide, am I going to

take this ibuprofen, I'm going to take this, you know, a painkiller. Yep. That it comes at a cost, eventually messing up the lining in the gut and in other health problems over time, or no, I do I go ahead and take this marijuana because usually we think, okay, if someone has cancer, then there's no doubt about it. Okay, take it. But where's the like, I'll give two general principles. So the first principle is that if you got

if you've got a high CBD product, it's not going to get you high. Because it has very little THC or, or maybe even no THC in there. So when you have a high CBD product, it's not going to make you high. So

yeah, so high CBD product is not a problem at all right? It's not a problem, because not gonna make you high. So anytime you have an issue with pain, or whatever it is, using a high CBD product, if it can't make you high, if it cannot be psychoactive, it's not going to get you in an altered state of mind. There's no problem with using it at all. Or under any circumstances. When it comes to some products, some products have to have a little bit more THC. Those can potentially get you a little bit high, right? You can only take something that's going to get high as a medical exception in Islam. So the the exception has three rules. Rule number one, there should be no alternative

available that does the you know the same thing for you like safe alternative available. Number two, it's got to be proven and effective. That actually works, right. And number three, you should only take the amount that you need for that significant thing and it should be an illness that's significantly affecting your life.

These are pretty much the principles that Muslims need to apply. People usually think about when you think about cannabis that you're getting how you're smoking it, but you've actually you have people, you know, they've turned it into an oil. And it looks like black oil. Yeah, have you seen that there's some there's there's oils, there's edibles. There's, you know, there's so many ways of consuming it. I think one of the issues that we have, as Muslims or as a society is that there's, there's something connected with smoking, in and of itself that like if you're smoking it, it's bad because people generally smoke tobacco when they smoke marijuana to, you know, for bad purposes. So

we've connected smoking as being like the problematic route. It's not necessarily problematic, there's some lung issues and all that. But if you vape it, if you consume it through an edible, if you take it as an oil, there's so many different ways you could apply it as a topical, there's creams, you could put, if you have jaw pain or something, you could put it on your job, certain illnesses and all that. So there's different ways to actually get it in into your system. As long as it's a safe route of getting it in, whether it's with the oil that you were mentioning, and all that is oil, cannabis oil, CBD oil is very popular. And there's two types of CBD oil. There's the hemp

oil, which has almost no THC. And then there's CBD oil with a level of THC. But like the ratio could be like 20 to one or 40 to one. CBD versus THC content, right? That stuff. As long as you don't take like an excessive amount, it's not going to make you high. And it has a lot of medical benefits. And a lot of this research is coming out, it's proven. A lot of people have, you know, been cured from a lot of illnesses, they've been able to manage a lot of their pain. And you know, there's room for that in Islam. And we shouldn't, you know, we're concerned about abuse of this product. It's a real genuine concern. But we should also be concerned about what other people are going through these

painkiller addiction, people are going through pain and Islam allows and promotes the use of medicine for these things. Allies created this for that purpose are pretty much the scholars in this area, are they pretty much on board with the same conclusions that you're talking about? So I think most scholars don't really understand the cannabis plant. They don't really understand the difference between THC and CBD. nor have they seen you know, the medical benefits of this. I think if most scholars did see it, they would really change their perception. So you know, I wrote this paper recently for the big Council of North America. When I presented my findings to the scholars on

that Council. All of them were like, this is really, you know, this is some good stuff. I had one shift right after the next week, he called me and he goes, so what ratio of CBD to THC oil should I get? Because I got this other problem. He's like, I'm going to the store and I'm buying it, you know, I'm going right now. Because I have such and such illness and I've been researching, and it looks like the CBD oil is actually going to help me in this it is way safer than the other medicine. So once people, even the scholars like they have the foundational knowledge of Islam, but they don't have the knowledge of exactly what's going on with the whole cannabis plant and CBD and THC and all

that once they learn I think most scholars will be on board with this opinion. Because a lot of people are waking up when you look at the the pharmaceutical industry and you look at the you know, many people don't even you know many doctors don't even consider though that medicine is considered drugs. You know, you're masking the symptoms, you're not going for the route. But here you have potential that you can actually fix the problem. And again, we're making it clear you made it this is not recreational light up a joint in my basement and get high exactly that. That's clear in Islam. There's no Oh, that makes sense. No altering of your mind. Exactly. That makes sense that

you're always aware of your surroundings what you're doing. That's the major point here. We're talking about making it clear. This is for a sickness for medical use. Exactly. Yeah, legitimate, legitimate medical use. And there's, there's where that flexibility is, so many people are weighing out in the here I'm taking this you've had some there's so many cases, you know, when you look at let's say you pop this drug, you know, and then you have next thing you know, over time you develop all these other problems, you know, next thing I got a lump growing here cancer tumor, you know, and this is this is just people are smart people are waking up so they're looking for more of a natural

means that and this is a door that now of discussion that's that's worth taking. What do you absolutely, I think it's definitely where do you recommend for someone to get because we just kind of touched upon it? Where do you suggest someone what role because you can't you don't just go to your normal medical doctor. He doesn't know much about it. Yeah. And in this states are right, it's starting to change. I mean, I'm from California, so it's starting to change in California. Now. There's some regulations that are changing. So people are going to start prescribing it and recommending it more. There are actually some drugs that they produced from, you know, CBD and THC

mixtures that are that are now approved by the FDA. So it is changing. I would recommend Unfortunately, there's not that many, you know, great reasons.

sources that I can, you know, refer you to. But if you just do your research primarily on high CBD strains and just talk, look at the medical benefits of CBD, or high CBD strains of cannabis that are consumed in different ways, and what type of illnesses it can help for, you can find a lot of that, you got to be a little bit careful when you're treating yourself because sometimes people don't really know exactly how much they're taking. There's not a regulation on exactly how much to take and all that consult your medical professional who is well versed, and has done their own research on cannabis. And then, you know, you can consider some of these alternatives. A couple more points I

want to mention before we conclude, if you notice, Elon Musk is a very successful entrepreneur, he gets around Joe Rogan. And just the importance of being around good company and good friends, I don't think this is something he's not really a marijuana smoker, right? Now, some pressure gets put on you. And you're on the spot, you can see what influence I was thinking about this, and I saw this ad Wow, man, how powerful it is, what kind of people you're hanging around with? Absolutely, that plays a really big role. And we got to really be careful, you know, because one of the things that happens with people who smoke marijuana is they actually create, like a culture of very tight

culture among people who get high, right. So when you kind of walk into that group, they want you to be part of that group. And once you become part of that group, it just reinforces the behavior and you keep on doing it more and more, you try and rationalize that you try and justify it, it's safer than this, it's safer than that. It's the safest drug out there, it's not such a big deal, the effects will wear off long term, you know, harms are not proven, all of these other arguments will come. But at the end of the day, it all comes back down to show or desire. People have a desire to just kind of escape from the problems that they have. And they're just like, you know what, men,

that's what that's why people drink, you know, they go to a bar, they have a bad day, they're having problems in their family, the boss is giving them a problem that I just want to escape this world for a little while. People do the same thing with marijuana, they want to just escape, you know, but the thing is, you don't escape by altering your mind, something that's going to harm you, it's going to harm your mind, even if it's for the short term. You don't try and escape that way. There's other ways to deal with stress, other ways to deal with challenges that Islam has given us, you know, Islam makes us understand that we take life seriously, that we have a purpose in life. And I

encourage people to watch their company and try and figure out other ways rather than just trying to escape from their problems by getting high or getting drunk, try and find other beneficial you know, you know, positive ways that they can deal with that. Martial Arts would be one of them exercise would be another you know, being in good company. Sometimes you just talking to your friends, making music or praying, just sit in the masjid. All of these things actually bring peace and solace to your heart help you deal with the challenges you've gone through. This is something you're also trying to get motivation amongst many of the community leaders to start training also you start

training the Gracie Jiu Jitsu is something that I've been advocating for so long. Yes. From the law. So you started Yeah, I started Jiu Jitsu. I've been doing martial arts for a very long time different ones. But now I've really got into the Gracie Jiu Jitsu. I really recommend it for a lot of people, you know, people who want to just learn basic self defense techniques, want to develop some more discipline and organization in their lives, they want to get a little bit healthier. You know, there's so many benefits to something like this. A lot of people they do gym and they workout and all that. But I think this is really important as well, because it gives you gives you more than

just exercise, it gives you exercise, it gives you stress relief, it gives you life skills, it gives you you know, just so many benefits. And I think it's it's it should be part and parcel of Islam, Muslims should try to, you know, cultivate this in their life, these skills, these benefits into some aspect of their life. And the last thing we have some good news. And this goes back to when you're filling the void that every human being because you mentioned purpose of life. And when you truly I mean all of us even when you found that you live it, you still go through trials and tribulations. But when you just numb yourself to many of these things you don't sometimes it's hard

to embrace the challenges. But when you have your connection to a law you to your Creator, you know you were other people, they climb that ladder and which each and every step they see that that void is still not filled. It's never going to be filled Sinead O'Connor for instance, she was like the Michael Jackson, the woman of her time.

Very famous woman. She was someone who recently just accepted Islam. And you can see someone like that, for instance, Malaga for success in the deen and keep her steadfast. It's a great example of going and looking for peace and contentment in all the wrong places drugs being one of them getting doped up and high and you know, suicidal but then you find it in the deen. You want to be aware and conscious

That's the best place to find it. You know, so many celebrities, they took their own lives. They went into drugs, they went into all these things because they were searching for something and they went down the wrong path. And hamdulillah you know, sister, Sinead O'Connor now hamdulillah she's Muslim, she went down the right path, she could have gone into drug, she could have gone into doing all sorts of other weird behavior because of the challenges that she was facing in life. But hamdulillah Praise be to Allah that she chose this path instead. And you know, we're very happy that she came in, and we're praying for her and we hope we can help her along this path. You know, what

the the the number one suicide bridges? I think it's in your neck of the woods over there. That bridge? Yeah, it might be in Northern California, or is it? Where is it the golden Golden Gate Bridge? Yeah, that's one of the number one suicide not surprising in the world in the world. Yeah, yeah. So now, that is amazing. Now that she hummed a la, last $1 has guided her and to the purpose of life. And as we've encouraged a lot of people to really look look deep into themselves and to seek and to understand pick good friendship. And this is just one relevant topic that we're talking about. But it all comes back to at the end of the day, who, what your focus is in life when you're

connected to your Creator? The final call is there. Is that how it should be? Absolutely. How do we ending with that, like, at the end?

Do I want to please myself and my desires? My you know, am I am I going to the great qualified people? And at the end of the day, what's my guiding light? Well, yeah, exactly. We got to realize our life is bigger than us. This world is not just about us. We have a purpose here. So we have to always keep that in mind at the end of the day. Yeah, we have freewill. Yeah, we could do you know, it's limited freewill. We could choose whatever we want to do. But we are accountable at the end of the day, and we're gonna have to answer for how we lived our life. You know, sometimes we need to sometimes we become so individualistic, so selfish, we just think about, you know, I can do whatever

I want, and no one can stop me. But at the end of the day, when you die, you know, there's Islam teaches that there's going to be another life, and that you weren't created here just like invade just to kind of play around and stuff. There's a reason why you're here. And if you realize that, if you understand that, and it's kind of intuitive, that there's some responsibility you got to take in your life. And that's where people just need to be careful. They need to realize that they're going to be held accountable for what they did in this life. So they should take their life seriously, and not take it as a joke. Thank you very much as always a pleasure.

And thank you guys for tuning in. If you haven't subscribed, subscribe already hit the notification bow. And

this is very important that we don't waste the time that we've given given been given here in this life every second that we are here, it's a blessing. Every breath we take, we get closer to our point of death. So life has meaning. make it meaningful, by living the purpose that you've been created to live. And if you've testified that ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasul Allah, that is your guiding light, fuel it, not your desires. We'll see you next time until then Peace be with you. Salaam Alaikum. Subscribe to the deen show. Follow us on our official Facebook and Twitter pages in the links below. Please also help support the show by making a donation in the link below.