Live With Intention Through Differences

The two things I'm probably most passionate about trying to get people to understand, or they walk away from a football or that walk away from a class, the first has to be just their whole attitude towards life. And that's just about priorities. Just trying to get people like, it's like a revelation, like a personal revelation, once they kind of crack the show. And they are like getting unplugged from the Matrix. Right? The world is so full distractions, you know, entertainment. So many people, they just work, family, entertainment, bed, eat, drink, sleep, Netflix, and that's their lives. And just trying to get people to break out of that to live for a higher purpose, to

live intentionally, right and have that intention to be to be to please Allah subhanaw taala. When it comes to the same thing, giving Salaams to somebody saying hi to somebody, but friending somebody who do you give your time to, you're only giving your time to people who you just you enjoy them, when you hang out, you get benefit you laugh, they make you laugh, or do you view your time and your friendship and your skills as something that is potentially you have to give to the community to give to actually obtain paradise through, right, this is something that Allah has given you kind of like as capital. And he said, you can go spend it wherever you want, you know, while you can go

spend it on junk food, or you could go actually spend it and invest it in something that's going to pay you back. Right, if you're just going to spend it on whatever, you know, you want, that tastes good, or whatever makes you laugh, or makes you feel good, you could do that. But you're not gonna get the same as if you're investing it in, it's like a no, I'm gonna put I'm gonna invest in this person, I'm going to invest in this experience, I'm gonna invest in these sorts of initiatives. So that's the big thing, just trying to get people to break break out of the, the monotony, you know, the machine, trying to get people to see that everything in this life is just about, you know,

putting something away for your next life. That's the big thing. And then the second thing is more particular to the community that I'm in, which is trying to get people to appreciate the acceptable differences within Islam. Right, that goes back to my training in comparative Islamic law and studying the four schools of law.

You know, a lot of times there's not just one way, right? A lot of times there's a few different ways to do things. And I think that some communities, the United States, especially the community that we're in, needs to get comfortable with the different legitimate ways of doing things, because we don't have the numbers to just be a chef at MSG, or to just be a Hanafy machine or to just be right or any, you know, there's differences within the schools to be a Bosnian Hanafi MSG, as opposed to a Pakistani half kind of MSG, or to be a Yemeni Shafi MSG, as opposed to a Somali, Shafi MSG, right. Like those are things that if we're going to start splitting up over that stuff, there's

not going to be any end to it, there's always going to be something more to split over. So trying to get people to buy in to a certain common denominator of what Islam is the essentials of fundamentals that we can't compromise on, and then getting people to appreciate the valid differences that we can live with, and educate them as to Yes, this is a different way of doing things is traced back to the Companions. It's supported by multiple scholars, and we can appreciate that for something that's beautiful.