Mosque Uncovered

Bismillah Alhamdulillah Peace be with you the greetings of peace. That is what Muslims used the same greeting that Jesus greeted his followers with were greeting you with that same greeting here today. And there are a lot of misconceptions about Islam, which is the fastest growing way of life in the world. Today, yesterday, and tomorrow, and it will continue to grow because people are coming to that realization that life is short. And you know what? I, in the state of confusion, I don't have the answers to all the questions that are out there. But Islam provides me for all the rational logical evidences to prove that it's indeed from the Creator of the heavens and earth. But there's

some misconceptions out out there about Islam. So we've been invited, and you're invited to invite you to be our guests. Because with all the different stereotypes and false fallacies, one of them is that, you know, there's a lot of radicalization going on out there in these places of worship the mosques. That's right, so we're going to take you on a tour to see is this a mosque? Really? What's going on in here? Is there hate speech going on here? Is there is a private bomb making factory? How does it look inside a mosque where the people worship where the Muslims worship? Let's go ahead and take take you on a tour. Come on with Eddie here, your guests, your host, come on.

So okay, so we're walking around. This is where the Muslims gather now. So let's be a little bit careful. Okay. So they come in here, and not too many around right now. Let's go to the right here. Come on. So you walk in. You got some pictures on the wall here, says doctor is it? Okay? Some calligraphy Come over here.

Follow me, you getting a first hand, look into

the house of worship, okay. We call this God's house. What it means is that people come here to worship God.

And this is the prayer area. As you can see, there are no statues, okay, I'm taking my shoes off. You take your shoes off, and you come on in.

And this is where people put their forehead on the ground. There are no pictures, you know, you walk in some places and you see all these statues and icons. And it just gives you a creepy kind of feel. You know, you shouldn't be doing that. But this, it gives you a good feeling that you know what, you just come here and you just put your head on the ground. You just worship God. That's it. Just God the same way Jesus put his head on the ground. That's what the Muslims do. And the Muslims simply one who submits to the will of God. And you see this area. This is where they gather shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot.

The black, the white, the Chinese, the German, the Italian, the polish. They all come here.

as brothers in humanity and they worship God, they worship just God. This is it. This is a prayer. Let's continue on what else they got here. Maybe they got something else that they don't want us to see. Come on.

Okay, this is just the washroom here. You got a little shoe area. Okay.

Wow, this place is very nice and clean. hamdulillah. Okay.

See, we can find a tour guide. Okay. When you stand to pray, pray as if it's your last prayer. That's deep, because you never know when def will approach so every Muslim should be praying his prayers his last prayer, young man, how are you? Peace be with you. How are you? I'm good. I'm fine. Now, what's your name? Sir? Abraham, what would you be so kind as to give us a little bit of a tour here from the from the mosque. All right. All right. So you know, we're trying to show the prayer and the prayer room. That's the prayer room. Okay. Okay. Have you seen this? Okay, what is this now? This is Mecca. All right.

That's the I think the 70s is that the first house of worship built by Abraham? Yeah. This is it right here. Do Muslims worship this black box? No, no, that's just the first house of worship. That's it. This mosque This is a mosque that's the first mosque it is basically the first mosque. Yes. So how much is the sacred mosque? Is msgid Yes. Okay. So no worshipping that you worship the creator of all this? Of course, definitely. That's where people go for Hajj to and that's why we're Ibrahim and his son Ishmael, actually. And they they both they're the first one who built that house there. And as you see Mecca, this is the old city of Mecca. And this is the original city of Prophet

Mohammed Salah Salem. That's where he was born. Okay, so Prophet Mohammed, he was a prophet like Jesus, Moses, Abraham. Absolutely he was. He was the last prophet. Yeah, the last prophet. He said, All prophets are like brothers born into different mothers

is the thing that

misses the day.

This is the

this is the

welcome back to the deen show. We're here in Texas at the clearlake Islamic Center giving you an inside look at one of the MOS and Houston. So we started out

going into the front corridor. And if you can take a look, this is we showed you where the Muslims pray where they prostrate, there are no statues, pictures, any weird things on the wall, or just devoting worship to God just worshiping the one unseen create tour. And in this particular machine Also, you can see they have a nice lounge setup. With Wi Fi. That's right. So it's very

beautiful in here. This is Shaykh, Walid bassoons machine.

And

this would be something that if anyone

wanted to open up a machine, this would be something that

one should copy, because not only is a machine, a place where you come and worship but where communities gather and they come to get together and get to know each other. So he's seen, he has seen such a success here that the Muslims and our non Muslim friends, brothers in humanity are welcome to come in can be a part of this, that now they know each other better because they sit around they talk and they hang out instead of going out to the coffee shops and the kids get in trouble. You have a playground here the kids can play in the playground, we showed you the playground and you also have this very nice

atmosphere here in nice ambience. They show different movies documentaries have different lectures. It's beautiful. Let's go meet some Muslims Come on. There's some people gathering over here buy some beautiful painting so we're still in the Mosque, the Masjid and you can see

now I wish we can find the

the artists who you know that that'd be a nice thing to find the artists who actually painted these wonderful paintings. Oh, he's here Hey, hum de la all thanks to god how are you sir? What's your name? As abolish as that abolish. Now you're the one responsible for these beautiful this beautiful artwork here

all made through my hands nice All right, Mashallah Can Can you tell us now is the Arabic calligraphy? Can you tell us now define what are these? Say and what are some of the meanings here behind them? Okay, first of all, all of them except one are a present to the mosque. I did them and give it to the mosque as a present. This one here is

alambic Rila. his inaugural alphabetic relay is at nine o'clock, which means by reminding yourself by God by mentioning God in your heart, your heart which is agitated,

calms down. And this is the the beauty of remembering the heart, remembering God. This one here is the saying of say it now Moosa

we said rubbish sadly. Sadly, we're certainly Emery loksatta melissani of cold calling. This is one of the greatest prayers are like from the Quran, which is says, God opened my heart.

Make it easy for me. Make me

eloquent, eloquent so that they understand what I say. This one here.

Watson mobile hub, Lila Jamie and voila, mobile hub, Elijah me and means all of you. Muslims unite and attach yourself to the role of God. This is how you get the strength. When you are united. You are stronger. When you are divided. You are weak and can be conquered.

This one here

is the English translation here. But I read the Arabic here. The IB will ami untire Rasul Allah.

You're the Prophet Muhammad. I sacrifice my mother and my father for you.

I painted that when they attack the Prophet Muhammad by the cartoonists. And this is

His love is in our heart. And you can see the heart here, and we give it to him. Now, let me ask you this, you know, for some people to comprehend that it's it's very difficult, but when you name you mentioned Moses there, and we also people now they know that we as Muslims, some might don't know for those that don't that we love Jesus so anyone who is a true that anyone who insult Jesus, Moses, Abraham, that would be an insult to Muslims also because they're beloved to our hearts to Is that right?

This is what in the Quran, all of them are equal in the eyes of God. And there was a story when the Prophet was in Medina and a Muslim tried to insult a zoo there because they were living together there about Moses, he said, No, you are absolutely wrong. He is my brother. He is as respected as I am. Moses. Yeah, Moses. Okay, so we love, we love We love all the prophets of Muhammad. Yeah, they are equal, equal in other eyes, that equals to Mohammed. Especially, but the rank is a little bit different. But they are all gods or from God. Yes. So human being beautiful. Let's continue, please. Okay. This one here from the Quran. Also, what will holiday near Santa means? Take care of your

parents. Take care of your parents, right? Take care of your parents. And this is an essential part we should really realize now. They were they give you all what they had,

sincerely without expecting anything unconditioned love. Yes. So this is what I think is a valuable

quotation from the Koran. Yes. Now I like this one here. This one is really profound here because you have a boat here it says forever. What is that a Bentley or Rolls Royce? You got some gambling going on? You know, gamble is not allowed in Islam. Okay, you got some drinking, you got some partying going on here, money. And some would say that's like bling bling in modern terms, you know, and you got some is that the devil, the satanic forces whine what's going on with this?

What inspired me to do this was Enron, Enron, when I am from Houston. So I lived that scandal of Enron. And that what is reminds us in the Quran, means you keep collecting things until you die. This is the the the weakness of the human being. And God reminds us that one day will die. And that's why I made this painting to show the indulgence of things and the injustice because you cannot collect all this money without injustice. And then self pleasures. And that's why Eventually, she hit his his niche in the stock market. He has real estate, real estate, he has money money and house got the house and on his boat he writes forever like he's gonna live forever living forever.

And and the is guided by the devil to do this to do the the sins the sins so you got that can be drugs, alcohol, yes, womanizing, correct. Gambling, gambling, and then he dies. And then it's done. It's done. Does he take any of this with him? That's why he said here is literally from the Quran also, writing here, my ohana animalia. My money does not prevent me from dying. I'm not going to live forever. He couldn't buy his way out of the grave. Right? I did not prolong his life one second, when his time comes, is done. And then he will be punished not only in the Hereafter, but also want to engrave. Here is the snake and the crocodile here that snake and crocodile are a symbol

for the punishment you get in indicative the grave is if you are good, you'll be rewarded, your grave would be lighted. The angels would accompany you say you are not alone. We are with you. If you are did bad things, then you will be punished in the grave. And until you they have judgment. This is really beautiful. Tell us for our brothers in humanity that not yet Muslim because we really want them to understand us because Islam today is

misunderstood. So tell us, would you if some of our brothers from in humanity came in and wanted to see some of your artwork, see the mosque? Are they welcome? Or does Islam teach you to hate those who are not Muslim?

Islam is based on love, peace and justice.

And the word Islam is peace part half of it is peace. And justice is the, you know, this man who didn't do justice for the world. You have to be just yourself, your family, your society, to the world.

And that's Islam. Anyone wants to come to the mosque and see this is welcome. The most is anyone, anyone any religion? Or no religion? Yes. Come in. You know, it's it's God's house is not my house. It's God's house. It's God's house. Yes. And he welcomes all his people who created homemaker yet, when you hear a couple more questions just before because you have definitely I mean, we're very impressed with this. And a person such as yourself, who's over the years gained so much experience and when you see a lot of the misconceptions out there people talking about Islam, like it's something that's barbaric, that, you know, Islam teaches terrorism and radicalization of the youth.

Does this sat in your heart? What do you how do you respond to this? That really saddens my heart?

But I have to blame also the Muslims for not portraying Islam the right way.

Some

bad apples destroyed the whole crop? Yes. And I rarely

people should not look at this bad apples. Look at Islam. Look at the history of Islam learn. That's why I, I published a book called Islam in the eyes of an artist shown how Islam is beautiful, how Islam is peaceful, how high level of meditation and elevation of the soul in Islam, it all in paintings, and transit and the English explanation next to it. So really,

Islam needs a lot. And we we should educate people and people should seek knowledge.

Economics is the best enemy to anyone. That's right. Ignorance is the best enemy to anyone. So we need to clear up all this confusion by getting ourselves educated and come visit here at shake will leads as soon as much shit here in the clearlake Islamic Center. Dr. Is that is? Yes. And he'll give you a tour of some of his beautiful paintings. And if you have any other questions, you know, stop by and visit us here. That's right, come and visit the Muslims come and learn directly from the Muslims and get to know your neighborhood Muslims, those who have consciously submitted to one God and that's how we get peace. And we wish you peace. Thank you very much. Thank you for visiting us.

We were very

rewarded by your fist. Thank you very much. Thank you. Salaam Alaikum.

I am

not afraid.

I am not afraid.

I'm not afraid.

And if we're gonna worship something, I figured I might as well worship the creator instead of any of the creations.

Now, upon investigating the religions, I remember finding out the meaning of what Islam is what a Muslim is. Those who surrender their self to God is a Muslim. Those who cement submit to God, God's will that Islam was pure. It was just you just pray to god you create.

There's another young man here and I think yesterday we were going and having a tour. And we want to continue. We're almost done here. Shaykh Ibrahim, how are you? Yeah, I wasn't expecting that. You're also one of the moms here is the administrator also for the clearlake Islamic Center. Yes, yeah. Now

Now we saw the print and we got to see the the prayer area. You know, one interesting thing is there's there's no statues, there's no pictures what what's going on here? Well, basically,

statues and images in Islam are not permitted. And it is,

since the early days of Islam when the Prophet Muhammad peace, be upon him, you know destroyed all these statues that were around the Kaaba, so that was something that was forbidden. And it is like taking the religion back to the era of Abraham. He's the first one who destroyed the statues of definitely, we will not have him in our masajid and not any message in the whole world will have any statues. It's all about the worship of the one God, the One God Allah, the same God that Jesus worship Jesus would have would have broke some statues to no statues. And we're not talking promoting breaking statues out there. But we're just saying symbolism symbolizing the the worship of

the the One God pure monotheism. This is what Islam is based on. Absolutely, absolutely. Jesus himself in the Bible said that you should worship only one God, God and heaven that that is the only God that deserves to be worshipped. And actually I heard in a lot of your interviews that people translate the word the law into the only one true God, that's a description Allah is the only one true God but Allah also means the worship one, that is basically the meaning of the word Allah, He is the worship one meaning, you know, he's the only one who deserves to be worshipped. And that's even embedded in the meaning of Allah. Now, you got to learn a little bit also more about Islam, and

the key pillar, only worship the Creator, let's continue walking around this house of worship.

As we said there yesterday, this is a community hall. And it is it is set up in such a way where it is a family

friendly environment where families can come. And actually we have everything for all the family here, we made it where the sisters can enjoy themselves there. So you separate here you have the the men with the men, the women with the woman to make them feel more comfortable. And also if a family like a father, you know, to parents and their children can sit around and you know, discuss something and you know, eat something together. We have the provision for boys with the boys, the woman with the women. Yes, definitely. I mean,

it may sound that, you know, we're, it's like society, we're dealing with society with all its, you know, factions and all its elements. So basically, any people can come enjoy themselves in this in this facility, Muslims, non Muslims, and they can come and just you know, enjoy, you know, socializing with Muslims in this facility in such a way that it is

not even about religion. It's about neighborhood and being friendly to your neighbors and being welcoming and that's, that's the attitude that we have in this place, actually. Okay, so what else do we have here now?

Oh, we

just like I told you we have you know, we saw the playground yesterday. Right? The plate? Did we see it? There? We see it. Okay. We can?

Yeah, we have a playground. An indoor playground for the kids. Wow. So vanilla. Now this now this is a must ship. Right. Now some people might think like, what are you doing? You got a like a playpen here. There's not a playpen. This is like a mega size play center in the machine. And a but what if someone a that's and someone says man, this is some kind of bid? No, it's not. Actually this is very much encouraged by the spirit of Islam. You know, you want to attract the kids to come in here. You know, they go to McDonald's. And what happens at McDonald's, they eat unhealthy food. I'm not against McDonald's. But that's the reality is that they you know, so we bring them here for a

healthy environment. You know, their parents can cook their food and they can come and eat it here. The children can play like we have two kids here playing.

It's not a time where not many kids are in the masjid. But yeah, it's to attract those kids and to have him attached to the masjid and, you know, see their parents go to prayer, and come play here. And then you know, it's, it is something where, you know, attach the, you know, connect kids to fun, you know, we're going to the masjid, we're going to the mosque, to have fun, which is very good. And later on, they'll find out that you know, they're loving the place of worship and they know the purpose of it. More so than just having fun. Although having fun is nothing wrong with it. So

hamdulillah This is amazing. This is a this is one of its kind. And we hope that those who are thinking about this when I was, yes, this is amazing. So we want to inspire you, we want to really motivate people who are thinking about making a machine that they incorporate this into the machine. This is wonderful. So what else I heard you actually you got to get get fit a fitness fitness center in the mosque. Amazing.

So now if you got need some, you know, greasy biryani or you know, some hamburgers, you shouldn't be eating, you know, with all the greasy stuff and you, you want to change your eating pattern, eat healthy, and now you want to look good and feel good. You know, the best way is to make the salad, you know, that's that Food for the Soul. But now you got some training for the body tell us what thought process went behind this to make this happen? Well, basically, this is something that is, it's like a dream, you know, a lot of especially the sisters who come to the masjid, you know, they want to have a place where they can do it alone, you know, without any male interaction, and they

can just come and feel comfortable. So we found that this, I mean, the masjid can provide this for the sisters. And basically, you know, we have it where it's four days for the sisters three days for the brothers. And they can come and enjoy them themselves in a way where, you know, fitness is is something that is recommended in Islam, you have to be fit actually. And you know, like you said, you know, prayer can do so much, but they cannot really shed the fact that you have so we add to it something that Allah has blessed us with, which is you know, to be active and to be fit, and find ways to, you know, burn these calories. So amazing, amazing. Tell us now 100 Allah all praises to

God, to Allah. And so a we got that out of the way that our brothers in humanity are welcome here, the not yet Muslims, they can come in here, anytime I'm going to lie. Yeah, we're open for all the, you know, all the neighborhood, anyone can come here. And actually, we've had many of our neighbors come here and, you know, enjoy the, you know, the environment and use the facility. We had students who would come and study, we had faith groups, and we we've arranged actually, interfaith activities with churches in the neighborhood, that they can use the facility and we can go also there and use their facility. So this is like, that's how it is in America, you know, we have to work together, we

have to live together. And just like you have, you know, a Christian neighbor, that Christian neighbor can come to your place of worship and see how you see what you do, actually, in your utmost intimate moments with Allah subhana wa tada with your Creator, for those people that that tried to, you know, depict Islam as something that is out there to get you it's the other, it's about, you know, creating mischief here in America. And, you know, it's like the boogeyman is coming to get you here, terrorism Muslim, what do you have to say, to those people who are confused about Islam? Well,

there are so much that you can say, but I think the best way is to reach out to the people. And, and do rather than say, and just show them, you know, by example, come and see us and see what we do. We're part of you, we're part of the fabric of America, Muslims are an integral, an integral part of America that, you know, they're they're really good citizens. And they have, you know, contributed to the society in so many ways. And unfortunately, when they contribute to the society, they are known by their individuals, but they're Muslim. And their faith, encourages them to be good to the society and to be productive, productive. So what I say is not everything you hear in the media, is,

you have to really be critical in what you hear in the media. And, you know, think for yourself, and go visit your neighbor, the Muslim neighbor and ask him, if that's true, and they will show you hospitality they will show you come to our places of worship, to social gatherings, and you will see who we are for what we are Exactly, yes, yes, that is excellent. Tell us. The last point I want to ask you is for the Muslims. Now we want this to be an example of what a mush it can be. It's not just restricted to the five daily prayers, that bringing community together the way you guys have, you got a gym here, you got a playground for the kids, instead of the kids going to Starbucks or

this cafe, that cafe and get in trouble out there. You know, they come and they attach their heart to the house of God to the house of Allah. But sometimes you have, you know, those, you have some people and we want to soften their hearts to some of the people that don't get the youth involved. And they sometimes close this door and make it difficult for the youth to be involved and to prosper and to grow like you guys have. What advice do you have for

Those?

Well,

you know, to begin with this, you know, when we started here as a Muslim community in America, we were like, immigrant families who came here. And we kind of like did not change the mentality that we came with. And we just wanted our places of worship the same way we used to have him back, back home and whatever country we came from. And this is not really healthy. And it's not really even, you know, productive. In a society like America, it's a very fast growing society and youth, they have so much exposure to other things. So you have to really be competitive with whatever they're out there, that is attracting our youth and our youth. Those are our children. And we seeing we see

them, I mean, be they Muslim, Christian, or Jews, we have the same problem. All these faith groups have the same problem with the youth that they're running away from religion. And we want them to really come back to religion and see that there are certain things that you can incorporate in your places of worship, that attract the youth, and there's nothing wrong with them. And you can be competitive, you can show them, the better way of life, the better alternative to whatever is out there. Because whatever is out there is there to make money. And they don't really care about, you know, the mental health of your child, the physical health of your child. In a place like this. We

care about this social health, mental health, and physical health and religious and spiritual health. And so what I say is, we have to really change that mentality and start learning more from our youth what they really want. And exactly, this is the product of the youthful thinking of the leadership in this community, in Alexia Korea, the Sunni, Masha Allah, he has a really great, you know, insight, and it's because he's been in contact with so many a youth that he is able to really, you know, realize the things in the dream that they have. So this is just part of the solution. We're trying to solve this and we advise our brothers everywhere, those who build their massage,

please don't pay so much attention to just decorating your Masjid rather than making it functional, with great facilities that, you know, help and serve and cater to every member of the family and every member of the society actually. So that's amazing. Don't spend all the time arguing about the minaret, how big it's gonna be 50 feet, or the dome this design that design, you know, broaden your mind, open your mind, do some of the things we're giving you an example here, let the ankles we call them work with the youth work together so we can grow together. Exactly. Well. That's, I mean, one dome may cost about $100,000 to make with $100,000. You can make you know a gym, double this size.

Yes. You know, where the youth can say, well, it's better than the dome. I can't really do anything with the DOM. I can't climate but I can do something with this here. So you really putting your money in a good full use, I mean in useful

purpose. Yes. Thank you very much Peace be with you. Thank you so much. Oh, my God Almighty reward. I thank you for coming here. We appreciate your your efforts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir.