Tom Facchine – The Real Guise of Islamophobia
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaikum, everybody. Welcome back to Yakin Institute's
livestream. I'm your host, Imam Tom, and I'm
happy to have you with us tonight. As
always, we've got a jam packed program. We
got lots to talk about.
Big stuff is going on both domestically and
abroad throughout the Muslim Ummah. And a lot
of intense conversations have been happening, especially about
political action, who our allies are, who they
aren't.
Gatekeeping, we've talked about it a bit last
week. We've got more to talk about it
today.
We've got
lots of other stuff we're gonna be continuing
with with our book Atomic Habits. We've also
got the next hadith or the next chapter
in Kitab al Jihad,
otherwise known as Kitab al Sir in Sahih
Muslim, and some very, very interesting commentary about
Imam al Nawawi in his book. But first,
let's go to the chat. If you are
tuning in, tell us where you are tuning
in from. Let us know if you got
anything on your mind or something that you'd
like to talk about.
What the first person to say to them
today, epic. Walaikum Salam. I'm guessing you're not
the Masjid, but your username is just epic.
Welcome to the program. Justice from the USA.
Masha'Allah. It's a big place. I hear it's
nice.
Thomas Shelby.
Annette Morrison.
Allah is the greatest. I'm happy to hear,
that things are going for you.
From Canada. I like the Urdu script there.
From New York. New York's in the house.
Paul Reets from Chicago.
Shah Naz Ahmed from Florida.
Missus s from Virginia.
Oh, epic's coming in from Canada. Right? So
you can't be epic masjid if you're tuning
in from Canada.
Who else do we have? Fatima Ali
from Warren, New Jersey.
I am from New Jersey, and I am
from the exact opposite corner of New Jersey
that you're from. I'm from Camden County, New
Jersey, a little town called Audubon. Audubon is
in between Camden and Cherry Hill.
See Uzi Isak.
We have someone in there. I can't really
pronounce your username from Portugal.
Turban?
Welcome.
Good to have you with us.
Sara from also from, I believe, Canada.
Oh, we've got who is this? Zakia Abdullah
from Philly.
The hometown. I like it. Welcome.
Welcome to the program from Philly.
Philly is where I took my Shahada, not
too close or, excuse me, not too far
away from home. I took my my Shahada
in West Philly, 44th and Walnut.
Pestify
our,
our good friend Pestify from the Maldives.
Welcome to the program.
Fanny Garvey from San Diego, California.
I was blessed.
To visit San Diego, and it was wonderful.
Very, very cool place.
Hope to go back sometime.
Who else we have? We have a Qadri
in the house. Wa alaikum salaam from SoCal,
if I'm not mistaken. Another 1 of our
regular viewers, Khaled Nurzad
from Virginia.
I'm sorry. Mohammed Khaled from Virginia, Alaykum Salaam
Ala.
Julian b from Urbana, Illinois.
Saliha from Atlanta, Alaykum Salaam Ala.
It's been a minute since I've been in
Atlanta, but I had a very nice time
there. I know some folks down there. Uftab
from Calgary.
Didn't have the opportunity to go to Calgary
yet 1 day.
I'm Shatha from Pakistan.
Oh, Sadah has a question already. What do
you think about American Muslims working for the
dismantling of American hegemony?
That's all we do here. What do you
think we do in America?
Do you think it equates to the destruction
of the American people? Absolutely not. Of course.
And that's a very, very important distinction between
the 2 because, honestly, it's in their best
interest.
Yeah. We're gonna talk about that a little
bit more in-depth, Sara.
What's been going on in the political realm
definitely
brings to light some disturbing realities about the
American political system and the cracks in the
American political system. Obviously, we know that the
hegemony and the foreign policy of the United
States of America for a good long while
has been very, very violent, especially towards the
Muslim world. So, obviously, as American Muslims, I
always say the most important thing that we
could do
as Muslims and American Muslims is to try
to influence and shape and change the foreign
pass policy of the United States. And that
might look like something that has to do
with reducing its hegemony or as other people
would say, getting it to pull out from
different places and stop interfering and meddling
in other countries' affairs. Imagine that novel idea.
But we'll get there. We have a lot
to say about that today.
Mark Ruffalo comes up. Mark, how did you
know? We're gonna talk about Ruffalo.
That's exactly
1 of the things. We're gonna talk about
both wings, both the left and the right,
how they do help us, how they harm
us, how they gatekeep us, how they silence
us,
and what the possibilities are. We will be
talking about Ruffalo. And, man, you really a
100% nailed it.
Uzi Isak from Sydney down under.
Crikey. Welcome
to the program.
I have not yet been to Australia, though
I hear it's, I hear it's far away.
Nancy Yahia,
from Misr, Omidyya.
Welcome back to the program. I remember you
from before Sana from Massachusetts. Waikum Assalamu raftallah.
We have Alman Salman.
That's a very nice ring to it from
Chicago.
Kashmir.
Almarie
Welcome. Washington State.
Dana Doe.
I was able to visit Washington State. Washington
State is very, is very, very I've got
a lot of natural beauty.
Casanova from Minnesota.
It's not winter yet there. Mohammed Ahmed from
Allen, Texas.
May Sage.
East
Africa. May Sage. Which which country in East
Africa?
We want to know if it's okay to
tell us.
David Herring,
from Sterling, Virginia. Good to see you here,
David. Someone I know personally.
From the Emirates.
Sana Siddiqui from Chicago. Welcome.
Sara has a question. Do you think the
term the west used in the context of
criticizing western elites is counterproductive as it ends
up including
everyday white westerners?
Not necessarily. It it could be. There could
be better terms for it, but I think
that most people realize implicitly, if not explicitly,
that when we talk about the west, we're
talking about the governments and the elite, if
not the values of the governments and the
elite.
So
most people are intelligent enough to know that
we're not meaning every single
individual person that lives in the geographical west.
Right?
There's sort of it there's a it's a
shorthand for
the nations and the governments and the elite
that are hegemonic in the world right now,
which doesn't even include the everyday people of
those nations.
Free the world from Toronto.
Sister Sahar.
Welcome to the program.
A colleague's uncle used to live in Cherry
Hill. Okay. Very good. I was was 1
of the first masajid I went to, GCLEA
in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Omar Ahmed from
DFW. Welcome, Adi from Iceland.
You are the first person I've ever seen
on this program from Iceland.
Sara asked, man, Sara, you've got the best
question so far. You're winning the race. Is
there a better term than using Islamophobia,
like anti Muslim or maybe discrimination or a
better term than those? I completely agree. We
have to find a better term. Islamophobia
is not a very good term at all
to use in my opinion.
It is maybe 10% or 20% good in
that it does
attract attention to people's feelings about Islam as
opposed to racializing us. Like, some other terms
attempt to turn us Muslims into a race,
which isn't really descriptively a 100% true even
if there's elements of truth to that. But
by using the term phobia, we're basically piggybacking,
and I do mean to use the the
haram,
phrase there off of the LGBTQ
movement and basically just ripping their term. If
you notice, when Zionists wanted to
sort of develop,
sympathy for their cause, they they developed an
entire new vocabulary.
So words like anti Semitism that did not
exist before,
words like holocaust that did not exist before.
They developed a new vocabulary to just to
demonstrate
the uniqueness
of the oppression and suffering that they experience.
Terminology does do ideological work, and we would
do well to rethink that term and to
come up with a better 1.
Mila from Mexico.
Sajid Ghafoor.
Doctor Sajid Ghafoor from Pakistan. Very good. Who
we got
lefty. Walaikum Assalamu
from
Bradford West Yorkshire, UK. I have heard that
Yorkshire is very beautiful. I have not unfortunately
been there yet. I was in the UK
in April,
didn't get to to Bradford though next time
Insha'Allah,
it's on the list.
Hafni Muhtar from Yakarta, Indonesia. Salamat Datan, welcome.
Wai Yacine from Chicago, welcome.
Marie
Altamiranos
has a question. How do we find balance
between dean and our career?
You make your career in the service of
your deen. That's the shortest way and the
most efficient way. Now you just completely destroy
the barrier between the 2 so that even
your career, you're doing it for the sake
of Allah, you behave
as if Allah is watching you, which you
know he is
in your job. You're not cutting corners. You're
having ihsan towards your work. You're having ihsan,
and you're being a trustworthy person towards your
coworkers and a reliable person to your boss.
That is the quickest and easiest way to
wrap it all into 1.
The real empress
from California.
Faria Afrin,
from India.
Very, very,
warm welcome to the program.
From Pakistan, Kaid San.
Sajid Rafor says, Yaqeen is really doing an
excellent excellent work in creating awareness about Islam
and also teaching how to act on Islam
exactly for getting success in dunya and akhirah
in gentle firdash inshallah. Thank you for the
compliment. May Allah accept from us,
and forgive our shortcomings. We all fall short
from what we want to do, but we
hope that we're sincere enough that Allah
will do as he said in Surat Al
Furqan and other places in the Quran that
he will reward us according to the best
of what we did and completely forgive and
overlook,
our shortcomings.
Dihiyeh Vasquez.
From
Newark, New Jersey. Very nice.
You don't have to roll your eyes. I
know Newark.
Newark's fine.
New Jersey home team.
Has a question I would like to ask,
Jake. How to give dua to the in
laws? Oh, that's a big question. Who have
deviated from the path
and are indulged in bid out practices? Okay.
So that's a very, very, very general question.
This is a situation where you would want
to approach a local mufti who knows your
specific situation. What are these particular bidah? Are
you right? Are you correct that they are
actually bidah?
How bad are the bidah? Right? What's the
sort of relationship that you already have with
your in laws? This is something that takes
a lot of detail and nuance and someone
who knows your individual situation, not someone that
you're talking to online.
Saajid, yes. We do stay with Palestine all
day, every day. Broad,
Awesome. Username from Illinois. May Sage from Uganda.
Very good. Welcome.
The time has the program's already started, We're
here. We started. This is part of it.
Kashmir from West Philly. Okay.
Very
good. West Philly is very familiar to me.
Sara, by the way, some says by the
way, some western Muslims would say a person
is Khaledge if they want the downfall of
US hegemony, which is strange.
You know, you'll find a person
You find people saying anything if you look
hard enough. Miss Urdjan,
citizen of Tajikistan living in the United States.
What do you say about Tajikistan where the
population is 99% Muslim, but the country recently
banned the hijab and the beard? First of
all, I'm glad that you mentioned this comment,
miss Oud. This was really, really hard for
us to hear.
And when I was in Medina, living in
Medina, I had classmates who were from Central
Asia, from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan.
So they told us the situations with under
communism and then after communism
and the different governments' reactions. Some of them,
unfortunately,
what we've seen is the legacy of the
war on terror
across the world. And part of it is
at the behest of Zionists,
creating a situation in which Islam is criminalized
across the world.
And governments
in Central Asia and elsewhere,
have used
the war on terror framing
to call anybody who disagrees or anybody that
they don't like a terrorist,
that anybody who's just a little bit practicing
Islam is an extremist or a fundamentalist. And
we'll talk about that later too because we
have even leftist, quote, unquote, allies or leftist,
quote, unquote, spokespeople,
people calling us fundamentalists. We're Islamic fundamentalists apparently
for saying that Palestine is an Islamic issue.
We'll get to that.
That this is a framing that was given
to us by Zionists,
exported across the world with the United States
foreign policy, and now countries are opportunistically
picking up on it. And, unfortunately,
this is something that Tajikistan
and other countries have also picked up on
and have used it against their own people,
which saddens us and makes a and makes
us very, very,
you know,
feel for them.
Now the only silver lining is that they've
tried this before everywhere across the world. They've
tried this in Chechnya. They've tried this in
Bosnia. They've tried this in Albania. And even
if people had to teach Quran in basements
or underground or bury their Qurans in the
soil, Islam always wins, and Islam always succeeds,
and Islam always prevails. So we know that
this is a trial and a test from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, but we believe that
Allah will will his deen will prevail.
As he said in the Quran, even if
those who fight against Islam dislike it.
So we're praying for you, and we're hoping
for patience for the people of Tajikistan, and
we're hoping for a change in their government,
either in attitude or in personnel or in
structure so that Islam can be freely preached
and practiced once again. May Allah aid you
and give you success and victory.
Sana Saeed asks if Biden steps down, then
who
from Democrats is good for the Muslim world?
That short answer is no 1, Sana. No
1. Because the Democratic party is pretty evil,
and very undemocratic.
They it will take a lot more. In
fact and we'll talk about this actually in
just a minute.
Biden is so bad
that, unfortunately,
people have asked him to step down not
because of a genocide that he's committing, but
just because he can't do well in debates,
and he kinda forgets what he's saying halfway
through a sentence,
which is a shame. It's actually a missed
opportunity.
And his replacements probably won't be that much
better or, honestly, it won't even affect our
strategy that much. We have to make we
have to make genocide
so unpopular
politically and so costly politically
that politicians will refuse APAC money,
just because they know that it's not going
to get them anywhere. But we're a long
way from that day. May Allah hasten it.
Dihia Vasquez says,
love your show. May Allah grant you and
your family Jannah unquestioned.
Thank you very much, and I ask Allah
to grant the same to you.
From Pakistan. Welcome. Zal Arts.
Faria, we stand at Palestine. That's right. All
day, every day. Khadija Iman.
Cute kitten 12.
What was hate on Jewish people called before
antisemitism?
I don't know. Probably just bigotry,
prejudice, the other sort of general words that
everybody else uses to describe,
you know, prejudice against them or maybe racism.
Right? These are very general terms, and they're
valid terms, and they describe something in reality.
There was no very specific word that just
applied to them before they kind of came
up with that lingo.
Zal Arts question, what would you tell someone
having the interest in studying at Harvard or
Oxford?
I would say be careful that you don't
end up a non Muslim on your way
out. Casanova,
from Minnesota. I'm guessing perhaps the Twin Cities.
Casanova, welcome.
Sadah says, do you think it's being too
naive to think that the Muslim leaders actually
are working the long game? Yes. That's naive.
I don't even have to read the last
question. The Arab the Arab leaders and most
of the leaders across the Muslim world are
installed by the western hegemonic
powers, that they are garrison states, that they
are running interference. They are the cutting edge
of western imperial,
policy and foreign policy.
And that's just facts. Anybody who thinks that
CC or MBS or MBZ is playing 5
d chess or something like that. I don't
really know what to tell you.
Now
strategically, okay, talking about criticizing them, etcetera,
I'm more interested in what can we do.
I think criticism has a part because we
need to diagnose what is wrong,
but we can get carried away with just
criticism to the point where it actually just
becomes venting. And when you're just venting, then
you stop thinking about doing. Right? We need
to make sure that our criticism gets converted
into doing and seeing what we can do.
Shiraz from Trinidad and Tobago. Wa alaikum. Salam.
Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum.
Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum.
Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum. Wa alaikum. Wa
Khadija from Lillington, North Carolina.
Welcome.
Is a 100% right. More they spread hatred
against Islam, the more Islam spreads.
May Allah
strengthen your mission. Amin. Spreading awareness. Amin. Very
good.
Faria says being minorities in India, how can
we support Palestine? Although we do our best
to boycott Israeli products, what else can we
do? Yeah. That's a long discussion. But the
prophet said, whatever you can change with your
hand, then change it with your hand. And
if you can't, then speak out. And if
you can't speak out, then at least hate
it, and that's the weakest that you can
do.
Adi, what is your opinion on mosques in
the west accepting funding from foreign governments? It
depends if they're strings attached or not. If
it's a 1 time gift, foreign government's saying
here, we just want a mosque to be
built so that you can have this mosque
and worship in it, and there's no strings
attached to it. That's a very different situation
than if they're saying, well, we're gonna appoint
your imam and we're gonna tell you what
to say on Fridays and we're gonna, you
know, check up on you. Like, those are
2 very different situations.
Anur, Assahara Wa Alaykum Salam, Rafatullah.
Amina from Nigeria. Wa Alaykum Salam, Rafatullah.
Noor Assahal, Alhamdulillah. I'm glad that you find
it helpful. I'm sure, may Allah accept my
accept it from us.
Sadah mentions the nikab band in Dagestan, which
is a really good point, Sadah,
about
how the coopation of Islam
is sometimes just as dangerous
as the outright banning of Islam like in
Tajikistan.
So we have other countries
that have
controlled Islam and put up puppet leaders or
the leaders that are amenable to them, And
now they're passing all of these sorts of
fatwas and rules and saying that the niqab
is a sign of extremism, which it's not.
Our sister I our mother, mother of the
faithful Aisha radiAllahu anha, wore the nikab. We
know that the women, the wives of the
prophet, radiAllahu salam, wore nikab. So it's not
some sort of recent thing. This is propaganda.
You ask anybody from Bosnia, go back a
100 years to 19 twenties to 19 tens,
and there women were wearing nikab before
any salafi dawah, before any oil money. Right?
These are lies that people have invented, that
the communists and the secularists have invented
to make you believe that being a conservative,
normal Muslim is somehow,
a bad thing to do.
Okay. Oh, Mohammed Ahmed asks this is a
great string of questions, everybody. I just wanna
say that.
When school comes back, how should college students
protest and what should they do differently? First
of all, we need to make sure that
our tactics and strategies are actually going to
get real
change.
That's something that we should learn from the
first round of student encampments. We need to
make sure that we are
creating leverage,
and that includes organizing alumni
and retracting donations, right, if needed, which is
almost always needed, and sort of coordinating with
all these parts. Don't think that just an
encampment is going to get your way. We
need to be working on the alumni. We
need to be working on the faculty and
the staff. We need to be working on,
and the encampments themselves.
The second time around, the encampments themselves should
be I my opinion, you know this from
reading my blog
on Yaqeen Institute, run and organized primarily by
Muslims,
in a more Islamic environment than the previous
ones. That this actually became a liability, not
everywhere. The cameras were very different, but the
it became somewhat of a liability for some
of the incumbents to provide a very easy
pretext for for pushing them aside.
We'll talk about that in a sec. Kashmir,
we're in Allentown, Pennsylvania, so we're right up
the road from you.
Let's
see. David Herring, what is the best way
to keep elementary school children informed about the
realities of the world while protecting them from
excessive exposure to distressing information? That's a great
question, David.
You're gonna have to package things in an
age appropriate way. Right? You don't want to
be showing primary source material where there's live
streams and you see very gory stuff. Right?
That stuff is not necessarily
what children should be seeing, if it's possible
to avoid.
But to understand
and even, like, at different mosques, we've done
letter writing where we've sent letters to Gaza
or we have, had special prayers where even
in the house, you're gathering together and praying
for Gaza, gathering together to make a donation,
you know, give your child the donate the
money to donate for Gaza so that these
sorts of things are always
on the mind.
Those are just a couple off the off
the top of the head ideas.
Yes. Shahla says even in Pakistan, Karachi was
declined declined teaching jobs in hijab in a
few schools. Yes. Unfortunately, this is a common
this is a common thing where many of
the Muslim majority nations are now adopting the
vile practices of the secular west when it
comes to this sort of thing.
Samira
asked a question, a nice spicy question. Is
women's financial independence in a marriage discouraged? Isn't
it easier to spend your own money before
going through the bureaucracy of explanations
with the men in the family? Very little
question. It's,
we don't necessarily have the time to get
into the weeds on that for this particular
program.
I would say it's more complicated than that
than the way that you framed it. That
and I'll say this.
The West teaches us that independence is an
inherent good. Okay? And Islam teaches us that
some types of dependence are actually very good.
And just because the fact that some people
abuse that dependency and authority does not mean
that dependency and authority is bad. Right? We
rather need the moral uplifting of everybody in
our communities. Now that's a general thing, and
I'm not gonna give a situation I'd never
ever ever give specific fatwa for individual situations
because
anybody who knows anything about fiqh knows that
the definition of a fatwa is a nonbinding
religious opinion that changes from place to place
and time to time. And that's why you
need someone local who knows your situation because
there might be specific extenuating circumstances
in your particular case that would change the
default ruling.
Tennis cap from the Bay Area,
Exactly, Iraj. Palestinians are Semitic too. So notice
how when they came up with the term
anti Semite,
they had no intention of including
Arab Palestinians
in with that. That's exactly what we call
an ideological term.
Bina, what do you do in a situation?
My daughter married a convert, but it's almost
2 years. My in law doesn't seem to
be interested in learning or practicing Islam as
should be. Yeah. I mean,
that's a very typical situation, especially dealing with
convert families. Everybody's different. People are motivated by
different things. Some people are motivated by study.
Some people are motivated by
just emotions
or relations or a social aspect. Right? So
it's not a 1 size all fits thing.
Dua is very sort of idiosyncratic to the
people that you're talking about. At the end
of the day, you do your best, you
know, and you turn over the results to
Allah.
Okay.
Part of me is wanting to to get
on, but we got such good questions.
Kashmere m asks a nice loaded question. Well,
let's just bring all the spicy questions up
front. Let's just do it. Kashmere says, imam,
can trans people be good Muslims too? If
you mean somebody who got a change and
then they saw the error of their ways
and they repented, but now they can't do
anything about it and they convert to Islam,
then yes. But if we're talking about someone
who insists upon that ideology, that, you know,
radical deviant gender ideology
and says that
I feel like I'm really a woman and
I should change my sexual organs in order
to match my sort of internal gender, then
no. Then that is something that is at
odds with divine guidance with the sunnah of
the prophet with the Quran. And so that
would not that would disqualify someone from being,
a good Muslim, though, obviously.
When it comes to obedience of Allah
there's many things that you can be doing
right. There's many things that you could be
doing wrong. We're not saying and I'm bringing
this up because a common retort, especially when
we get into hijab and things like that,
is that, well, there might be some people
that are sinning in 1 way but are
better than other people in another way. Yes.
That's true. And Allah
said that he would forgive possibly everything except
shirk.
Right?
And everything that's repented from. So, yes, Allah
has the, ability. He's declared for himself the
ability to forgive anything other than shirk. Meaning,
if someone dies as a Muslim,
right, and they were confused or whatever, they
had trauma
and they didn't understand, and then then
Allah
is. We're not going to say where anybody's
at in the afterlife. However, somebody who is
living
in
with dislike
and actually doesn't like the guidance that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala sent or the prophet sent,
then that is a dangerous, dangerous situation to
be in, and we ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for safety from that situation, that from
us and our families.
Ghazara hits it on the head. It is
painful to see Muslims are, fighting each other
and favoring enemies. Favoring enemies is definitely a
huge problem that we have.
Nazir Riaz, how do you survive in a
household where your mom and dad aren't Muslim
and are only Muslim in the house and
no family in this country? Yeah. I mean,
I've been there.
I've been there. You hold on and you
plan for better. Right? You hold on and
you plan for better. Always have an escape
plan,
or an exit strategy. Know what your next
move is. Right? Your your goal is to
just do better and better and better. Sometimes
you can't skip to best right away. Sometimes
you have to go from where you're at
to what's the next step better.
Let's see.
Okay. Shahla giving us more detail on the
hijab and attitudes against the hijab within Pakistan.
That's sad sad to hear, but not surprising.
Sarita
Afisiyal. I'm a student, and I want a
success both Madunya and Akhir. What are your
best advice for it? Be sincere.
Be sincere and be ready to sacrifice
for Allah
according to your principles. Allah will never let
you fail.
What you can do, missus s, if your
family believes
we can't do anything until the Mahdi comes.
Well,
I tell them to read the Quran and
the sunnah because the prophet says
to act. Right? And the Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala tells us to act and to get
busy.
Sadah says University of Toronto took the case
of student incumbents to court and, unfortunately, they
won. So today, the students are leaving after
63 days. That's sad to hear, but again,
not surprising.
Qasanova,
can you explain what secularism is, and what's
an example of it? Check out my material
on blogging theology
and Mohammed Jalal's thinking Muslim podcast where I
have hours and hours and hours of material
on secularism, what it is, what it's not.
Let's see.
Keandra Brown.
My husband recites very quietly when we pray
together to the point where I cannot hear
him during loud prayers. I've spoken to him
about it and no change.
That's a very specific question and situation. I
don't know. Why why why won't he change?
That's what we would have to know. Again,
specific situations, you should talk to your local
mufthi or local scholar. They will know your
other situation your situation better.
Okay. Amin Amin.
Very good.
Mesay is talking to us about Tajikistan ban.
If Hijab is banned in one's country and
say I leave I live alone, I think
you mean to say, I have to work.
Otherwise, I'll starve. I can't rely on anyone
but myself. Should I take it off? If
it's a life and death
situation, then yes. Eating pork is is permissible
in a life and death situation, but the
key is to make sure that it's an
actual actual life and death situation. And, again,
we say have an exit strategy. If there's
a place where you have to make hijra,
where you're running from a bad situation where
you can't practice your faith to a situation
where you can practice your faith, then you
need to start taking the means to do
that. How many people did I meet from
Turkiye
who came to the United States during the
period when the hijab was banned? Right? And
then went back to Turkiye after, the AK
party came into power and it got a
little bit easier for them. And just as
I say that, Janan
Ozjan,
Sadah says anti immigration sentiment is growing in
Europe and the west. How do we, as
Muslims, deal with this?
Because some Muslims agree with it as well,
though more towards Hindus because yeah. That's a
very, very that takes a lot of nuance,
Sala. I'm gonna I'm gonna pass on that
1 just because Europe and the US are
very different scenarios, first of all,
in in the way in which it affects
Muslims.
Because in the US, the immigration
issue versus the
Islamophobia quote, unquote issue are more separate than
they are from in the UK and in
and in Europe. Whereas in Europe, they're all
wrapped into 1 in a very, very, intense
way.
Mohammed Khaled. Yes. Oh, I see. It's shamefully
so silent and indifferent because that's what they
were put there to do.
Adi, in order to grow the Muslim community,
should the focus on dawah to disbelieving locals
or advocating for more acceptance of migrants or
refugees perhaps a bit of both. Yeah. Always
both. Not either or.
What if being trans is to help your
PDS? I'm not sure what PDS means.
From Maryland.
Negative thoughts out of your head.
I know that's a stock answer, but it's
true. We're getting close to the end of
the questions. Then once we hit the end,
I see Lisa Murrell, you're the last question,
and then we're gonna skip to our our
next segment. Though this has been great. Thank
you for all the questions. And keep them
coming. We'll circle back to them through, through
the rest of the program.
Saudi k. Is it okay to work in
a Western bank supporting their digital banking, etcetera,
in the head office or any role? Listen.
When it comes to to jobs and working
careers, always think good, better, best. Whatever situation
you're in, you want to make moves so
that you're going to be in a better
situation
because many things in the west have haram
attached to them. Oftentimes, it's not practical to
just cut it off cold turkey. Right? But
if there becomes an opportunity for you to
get in a better
situation where, an employment or a job where
Allah will be more pleased with what you're
doing, then you should take that. And that's
all I'm gonna say. When it comes to
your specific situation, you should ask a local
Mufti or a local scholar because they will
know the context of your situation
best.
Yes. Ecology. Hey. The their mugs are nice.
I got that. Definitely.
Lise Morel
or Morelle depending on where you're from.
Yes. It does appear that the far right
will win in France in a couple days,
and that is,
very concerning.
I'm sorry. May Allah make it very make
it make it easy for you. As we've
said, it might take a little bit. It
might be hard up front, but every time
they attack Islam, Islam becomes stronger, especially in
a place like France.
But it's very, very intense in,
in in France. May Allah
make it easy for you and allow Islam
and the Muslims to be victorious.
Okay. Transitioning now. We'll get back some more
questions. I'm not gonna forget about them, Insha'Allah,
but we do have a lot to talk
about. We're gonna talk about current events. First
of all, let's get it up. 1 of
the main things that went on this week,
actually, exactly a day after our previous program
was the 1st presidential debate. And boy, oh,
boy, was it a disaster,
a disaster especially for Biden, but for both
of them, honestly. Most people that were watching
it were were reflecting
on how just how did we get here
where these 2 low lives, we have a
geriatric genocider on 1 side, and then we
have a convicted felon on the other side
are the only 2 options that we have,
for being the president. And this ties back
to the question that 1 of you all
put, in the beginning of the program
that it shows how
you can call yourself a democracy. You can
call yourself this. You can call yourself that.
But the reality is that the United States
political situation
is
very, very, very far away from the desires
of the everyday person.
That if you look at how the Democratic
party
has
basically has no doesn't even care about the
will of the people. Right? When the people
are saying we don't want any more genocide
support, stop the genocide,
stop support of Israel, stop sending bombs, stop
sending bullets. We don't want our tax money
to go towards this. And the democratic party
is like, nah. We're gonna go with Biden.
Yeah. We're gonna go with Biden. And whoever
else they get to replace him will probably
honestly have the same politics.
That shows a and the fact that nobody
other than these 2 parties can get on
the presidential ballot, they're actually
suing the Democratic party is actually suing the
Green party and I believe other,
non the other parties outside of the the
2 party system
for certain things in North Carolina and different
states to tie them down in lawsuits so
that they can't even get on the ballot
so that American people cannot have any choice
except for these 2
individuals.
Now the
situation was so bad
for Biden that now many people that are
Democrats and even the the mainstream media, which
you know it's bad if the mainstream media
is panicking,
are panicking. They're finally realized
what some of us have been telling them
from the beginning
that Biden should step down, that Biden should
not run, that democrats
are going to lose, and they're going to
lose bad. And that's just a a forecast,
probably
if they keep on assuming that the people
will just be so scared of the other
side, that they're not going to care who
they're gonna put up as a candidate. Are
they gonna put up a a wooden chair
to run for president? And they assume that
the people are gonna vote for the wooden
chair because he's not as bad as the
other guy. That's no way to run politics.
It's very far away from the way that
politics are in Islam
where you saw how did Abu Bakr radiaahu
anhu
get appointed as the first Khalifa
with the other companions giving their bay'ah to
him and him humbly saying in front of
the people, hey. If I step as if
I make a a wrong step, then correct
me, and I am not the best among
you. If you look at the early days,
the Khalifa Ar Rashidin, and especially even more
than that, the leadership of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. Shaitan al Farkh. Look at how
different
the leadership styles and the political structures are
from within Islam versus what we have in
the United States of America and many, many
places across the the world today where the
leadership is completely at odds with what the
people want and need where they have no
accountability
that they can we saw the the the
supreme court case that ruled that Trump has
a certain amount of immunity, if not in
complete immunity for what he's done in office.
Can you imagine
the idea of immunity in an Islamic system?
Can you imagine the idea, Abu Bakr, radiAllahu
anhu, standing in front of people, his first
day at the helm, and telling people, if
I make a wrong step, correct me.
Can you imagine
anybody accepting this idea of immunity,
where after office that they're not allowed to
be sued, they're not allowed to be accountable
for anything that they've done? This is absolute
madness.
It is absolute
madness.
So we see that there are serious, serious
problems with the American political system, which is
ironic given that it has
put itself in a position to try to
quote, unquote export
democracy and freedom quote, unquote abroad for the
last several decades,
that this has been something that, honestly, it's
looking very, very weak and frail, and we
don't know what's gonna happen. May Allah,
give us what's best.
Next, we have,
in the United States, speaking of, we have
the celebration
of the,
the founding of the nation, the United States
of America, which has only been around for
a little bit, by the way. You know,
200, 300 years is nothing on the grand
scale of things. Not even as long as
the Quraysh were in charge of Mecca
before the coming of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. So a very, very young nation
and 1 that prides itself on certain values.
And as we see that
oftentimes,
if not the majority of the time, the
country
acts in contradiction to those values.
And, ironically,
as we see that
supposedly
this day is celebrating independence.
We have seen, especially in the last 9
months, how
dependent the United States political system is and
how captured it is from other nations such
as Israel or whoever else is going to
put up the money, rich billionaires, in order
to sort of, influence policy, influence law, influence
other things. So it kind of makes a
joke out of Independence Day.
Not even getting into the aspect of the
religious rule and the Islamic ruling about celebrating
such days, which is not advised at all,
in Islam to celebrate these sorts of days
that are celebrating the founding of states and
nations and things like that, but that's another
issue in another conversation.
And finally, for current events, we have that
there was a law passed in the US
Congress this week that prohibits
mentioning
the Palestinian death toll number.
Yes. That they are not allowed within the
state department to cite the death toll in
Gaza.
Now
this is the same United States of America
that supposedly,
prides itself on freedom, that supposedly prides itself
on not being like the the sensorial
Chinese or the sensorial Soviet Union. Right? And
now we're not even allowed to speak
in the state department. The state department is
not allowed to give the, death toll that's
coming out of Gaza itself. Rather, it has
to accept uncritically the propaganda that is handed
to
that is handed to it by the IDF.
And if we see a pattern here, then
you're noticing, yes, you are noticing a pattern.
So that handles that's gonna
take us we're gonna circle back real quick,
get a drink of water. We'll look at
what questions we have, and then we'll get
on to our next section after that.
Brad
says,
as Muslims, should we be trying to elect
third parties if the intention is to try
our best to change foreign policy? In Gaza?
It depends. Unfortunately, some of the third party
candidates are not much better,
than the democratic or the republican candidates.
However, structurally, there are things in the United
States political system that,
voting for a third party that you know
isn't going to actually win
might help elect
or make it possible to elect a third
party in a future election. So there is
something to that strategy that does have some
sense to it.
Yacine,
can a Muslim run-in the election this year?
Nope. Too late.
Nazir Riaz,
Yes.
Why not take this chance and tell Turkish
and Syrian peoples not to fight with each
other instead to do
because I'll tell you why, Rasalah. Because the
vast majority of of Turkish and Syrian people
have no problem with 1 another. Right? Unfortunately,
this is the legacy of the Kemalists. This
is the legacy of the secularists in Turkiyeh,
and this is the disease of nationalism. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that there
are 4 qualities that you can find in
my ummah that will continue to exist in
my ummah until the day of judgment, and
1 of them was this type of asabi'yah,
this type of nationalism.
And, unfortunately,
we still see it today. This has been
1 of the main ideological traps that the
West has imposed upon the Muslim world. The
idea of nationalism
breaking us up into nations,
stopping us from being united. But, Alhamdulillah,
the average Syrian and the average Turkish person
are not like that. That they know that
the most important thing is the Ummah, is
the Islamic Ummah, and they have,
they have,
the proper amount of love and respect for
each other upon those
grounds.
Sweet Carolina tree care. That's quite a username.
Being a revert in the west, is it
best or even required to immigrate to a
Muslim country?
This is a case by case scenario. Okay?
Because it depends on your specific situations.
We can say broadly,
if you are in a situation where you
cannot practice your din
and you are able to move to a
place where you can practice your din,
then it becomes obligatory,
generally speaking,
to move to a place where you can
practice your din. However, when you say Muslim
country, I would ask you what country.
That we see that just as our brother
who was talking about Tajikistan,
who is 99%
Muslim country, and look at the government's attitude
towards Islam.
Right? So that has to be a part
of your your calculus and analysis.
And we're not talking about following YouTubers and
seeing, like, you know, like, the the glam
Hidra lifestyle, like, oh, you know, moving to
this place, moving to that place. Like, you
you have to have real understanding about what
life is like on the what life is
like on the ground there.
We have Kendra Brown. Wadi alikum siddam. How
to pay for college in a halal way?
Is it true that loans are okay if
it's used for education
when there isn't another option available?
Loans for college are particularly problematic
because they are indeed,
cash loans. Right? That can be where the
milk, the the,
ownership of which transfers
completely.
So they are particularly problematic. If there is
any possible way,
then, yes, then
they must be avoided.
There's there's more discussion
even around mortgages
and things like,
car loans than there are about
college loans because of the way in which
the contract is structured. Now this isn't the
forum to get into this particular,
particular issue, but, yes, avoid at all costs.
A lot of people, unfortunately, in my experience,
they have not really explored all their options.
There are community colleges that are good. There
are local colleges that are quite good. There
are trade schools. A lot of people go
to college without a concrete idea of what
they want to do. If you're in the
United States of America, a college degree is
not what it used to be. You can
make a lot more money as an electrician
than you can with a, an art history
degree. Isn't that right, guys?
Art degrees? Yeah. They don't pay. Yeah.
It's a it's an inside joke that we
have,
but it's true. So, you know, all of
these things have to be taken into account.
Don't imagine yourself just on this conveyor belt
where you all you have go to college,
but you don't really know what or what
for or why. Right? College has been or
university, sorry, for the, our UK friends,
has been commodified to the point where,
it's really just a money grab.
And if there's any way, we should actually,
as an act of resistance against that, be
trying to completely eliminate any way in which
we're taking out loans to pay for it
at all.
Ahmed from India. Yes. We have some Indians
watching.
Let's see.
Optima.
Yep.
So Kashmir is asking,
can trans people with a 100% * change
practice the faith of Islam with the congregation?
By with the congregation, you mean in the
same masjid? Yes. Though we're saying again, are
they making dua to this particular thing or
are they repentant? If they're repentant, then yes.
They're part of the community
where they should be in the salah, for
example, that's something some scholars have said that
you should make a third space in between
the men or the women or something else.
That's that's above my pay grade at this
particular point. But the point is that they
shouldn't necessarily be completely ostracized and shunned If
they are repentant for that thing, they should
not be
ostracized and shunned from the community. They do
have rights,
upon the congregation and participate in congregational things.
Sadah says the ironic thing is the French
themselves will start accepting Islam. Insha'Allah.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Liberia, Mahmoud, Duquli, welcome.
Yes. Release Imran Khan and all the rest
of the principal
prisoners. Madoc Dawson.
I probably agree with your comment. I'm not
sure what you're referring to, but I I
probably agree.
Yep. All good. I see.
That's interesting. Bestifies. So testify saying that there's
a study done by an Ivy League University
that said that America is no longer a
democracy. Yeah. I mean, people get hung up
on terms and ideologies. Right? Like, if the
point of a democracy is to it it
democracy is just a an arrangement of power
and political practices.
It's not holy in and of itself. It's
supposed to result in a in a good
in a tangible good, and that good is
supposed to be accountability of the government to
the people. So if you have the the
form, right, all the trappings
of democracy, but you don't have accountability to
the people, then what's the point of having
a democracy?
But we're supposed to be talking about Islam
here.
Okay. Let's see.
Any other questions here?
Samira,
cancel the barbecue parties tomorrow
or change your intention. Like, if you happen
to have a day off from work, then,
you know, just, you know, change your intention.
Put away put away the red, white, and
blue maybe.
Very, very
good. I have had I'm reading from you.
I had several offers to join political parties.
What advice do you give young people about
political advocacy?
Well, knowing knowing that you're in Bosnia,
from from last stream, that
it's really a case by case basis, and
I can't really speak to
how much you're able to influence things. The
general phenomenon is that you're more able to
influence things at a local level than at
a national level. I think that's pretty much
across the board.
If you feel here's the thing. If you're
able to influence things rather than being influenced
yourself, then I think that there's a good
argument for for you to do it.
If rather you are being tokenized
or you're being used or you're being changed
and transformed and assimilated
into a different sort of way of thinking
about things, then it's probably
probably not worth it, and a lot of
it's best.
That's pretty funny, though. In my country, Muslim
expects from every woman with a hijab in
politics to act like Saladin.
Hey. We need a Saladin.
Okay. Very good. Yes, Sara. Don't graduate with
a mountain of debt. That's 1 of the
ways that they domesticate you by trapping you
with this debt. Stay out of debt
if at all possible.
Epic. What do you do if your sisters
don't wear hijab?
Then
you should try to encourage them to do
it with Hikma
and
as Allah said in the Quran. Give them
dawah in a encouraging way, and we're gonna
get to that in a later segment of
today,
of today's show. Yes, Abdullah. As Abdullah said,
don't go to film school.
I learned from a mentor.
Jedi from NYC.
SK.
Yes. You're a 100% right about that. What
are the options for Muslims to vote for
in November? I have a lot of material
on this. Yaqeena suits a 501c3,
so I can't tell you what to do
or not to do
sitting here on this program. But I have
a lot of advice about that on other
programs,
such as mostly with the thinking Muslim podcast,
though also a little bit on blogging theology
with Paul Williams as well. By the way,
new episode of blogging theology dropping this week.
It's gonna be hot. I was on with
Paul recording earlier. It's the next installment of,
Halak's book critique.
Sorry, restating orientalism.
Super, super relevant. It'll be dropping this week
Insha'Allah.
Tasneem,
Sameer,
CUNY grad. Alright. There we go.
Let's see. Mauritius, Sarah from Mauritius. Welcome.
Yasin from Chicago.
Who else we got here? Judgment day.
Name is.
Laura, welcome back to the program.
Casanova, is growing out your hair haram in
Islam? No. It's not. That was an easy
question. Shatha,
Pakistanis
are leaving their country for good to non
Muslim countries as difficult to survive too many
taxes from the corrupt government. Yeah. Corruption is
a huge problem,
in Pakistan and elsewhere.
May Allah make it easy.
Zayna Latif says, how should I deal with
parents who are disapproving of my hijab? They
are Muslim. That is a very difficult situation.
1 that many of us face, many especially
of our our Bosnian brothers and Bosnian sisters,
Balkan sisters, a lot of people from places,
especially that lived under communism,
where they're afraid. Even if you start praying
5 times a day, they'll say, now you're
an extremist. Even if you start having a
beard or wearing the hijab, now all of
a sudden they they're afraid. They think that
you're an extremist.
You have to
kill them with kindness. You have to show
them that you're a better person. Show them
that you love them. Try to let your
actions speak louder than words,
and do your best. You know, at the
end of the day, you can't guide whom
you love is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
in the Quran, but you do the absolute
best that you can.
How many espresso?
I have 3 espresso.
Yeah.
Democracy is being challenged. Says democracy is being
challenged in several countries. Islamophobia is on the
rise. How do Muslims vote in the US
or France? Yeah. Again, that's I I can't
say that here. If you guys want that,
you gotta go to the other platforms that
aren't 501c threes. Then I give concrete political
advice.
From London.
Welcome.
Okay. Next up, super important topic. I know
that we've had a lot of great questions.
We'll keep on going back to questions throughout
the program, but a super important topic and
something that
has, is a continuing theme from last week
after Yateen Institute dropped the blog post about
allies
or fake allies, people who are trying to
silence us, marginalize us, and basically push us
out of the movement to liberate and free
our own brothers and sisters in Palestine
from the left or from the right, but
we are focusing on the left. Let's look
at what we've got this week coming up
here. Okay. We see here
oh, 1 of the things is that it
became
since we we poked the topic and it
kind of exploded, a lot of people started
talking about it, and some people started throwing
out some things about,
about LGBTQ and Palestine. And saying that,
the LGBTQ movement has been the biggest allies
to the Palestinian cause. And what will we
do without the LGBTQ movement supporting our Palestinian
cause? First of all, the genocide is still
going on. Let me remind you that. So
whatever support has been provided thus far, it
has not stopped the genocide. So there's not
a situation where we feel like we're indebted
to anybody.
2nd of all, if someone is going to
support
the liberation and the honor and the dignity
of anybody else, it has to be with
no strings attached.
It has to be because it's the right
thing to do.
It is not a quid pro quo. This
is not a transaction
where they are trading their support
for our support for their issue. That is
not how this works. And the third issue,
and this is brought up multiple times and
we'll say it again. If you go to
Palestine
and you ask the average person on the
street, would they accept this type of thing?
Would they accept the these ideologies about sexuality
and gender that are very, very popular on
the left? The overwhelming response would be no.
The groups on the ground that are trying
to resist the occupation as best they can,
what would there be response to these ideologies
and these groups? Would they support their ideologies?
No. So
if you want to support the cause because
it's the right thing to do, you're welcome
no matter who you are. But don't for
a second think that you're going to impose
your values on the same people
that you're supposedly trying to liberate
and help in the first place. That is
not allyship.
It's not. It's actually a type of colonization
and a type of imposing and imposition and
*,
and we'd rather honestly not have your help
if that's what it's gonna be. Now
going on to now some people during this
before we move on to the next 1,
but what some people have tried to say,
unfortunately, some very westernized
academics and even some westernized Muslims
have attempted to try to eke out an
argument. Actually, the Quran
isn't against,
same * actions and, actually, it isn't. And
the Kolm of Lutz story has been misinterpreted,
and this all has been first of all,
it's borrowed from Christian apologetics. Second of all,
it's been dealt with multiple, multiple, multiple times.
There is someone who named Scott Kugel who
attempted to make this argument a decade or
2 ago, and Mubin Vaid completely demolished it.
If you haven't seen it, go online. Mubin
Vaid, VAID,
completely demolished any attempt of Quranic revisionism,
right, which is attempting
to act as if
in 2024,
you're the first person to understand this Quran.
You're the first person to understand this Quranic
verse with the story of Lut in a
new way. Wow.
1400 years of people interpreting and understanding this
have all been wrong. The prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
according to your logic, okay,
didn't understand this verse properly. Think about how
dangerous that is. Our shahada, need I remind
you, is We
take guidance from the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam. We don't take guidance from you.
So I don't care who comes in 2024
and tells me that everybody or implies that
prophet Muhammad
misunderstood the story of Lut in the Quran
or misunderstood the guidance that Islam has when
the Sharia has on,
gender and on sexuality,
then you should question your shahada and the
validity of your shahada. And we're not making
for you. That's not our business. But you
should really, really check yourself rather than point
to us and make us seem like we're
what I what do they call us? Islamic
fundamentalists, I think that's what they called us.
I mean,
If believing in Islam makes us a fundamentalist,
then I guess if the shoe fits.
But, anyway, moving on. This bridges us to
a conversation next asset, gentlemen, to who are
our real allies, and do allies sometimes do
more damage than good?
Do allies, people who tell us that they
are supporting us, actually hold us back and
stop us from the work that actually needs
to be done either through distraction
or through dividing and conquering or for anything
else. 2 hap 2 things happened this week
that are super, super important to this conversation.
1, let's bring it up. Mark Ruffalo,
somebody who has been very supportive of Palestine,
he made a comment this week where here
we go.
Project 2025 is not a game, he says.
It's white Christian nationalism.
It's the Sharia law of Christian crazy people
who aren't Christian at all, etcetera, etcetera.
But,
okay, what we see here, we have somebody
who has spoken in support of Palestine,
however,
who has used
Sharia
law as
a a euphemism for something oppressive and barbaric.
Now Sharia,
the Sharia is something that the vast majority
of Palestinians
believe in
and support a 100%.
Okay? Yes. Even some of the Christians and
the Jews. I I hate to break it
to the people who play identity politics and
ask us to say, like, oh, no. But
you're erasing the Christians. Oh, no. But you're
erasing the Jews. I know Palestinian Christians
who said that life was much better for
them under Sharia
than whatever else has been going on since.
Okay? So
understand understand that
when we have an ally that steps out
of line or someone who has spoken up
on Palestine,
but they need to be educated,
then you have to have some sort of
accountability structure to educate them. They say, yo,
Mark. And many people did. They say, hey,
Mark. Listen.
We appreciate your support of Palestine, but you're
not gonna throw the Sharia under the bus.
Not you don't get to support Palestine at
the expense
of entrenching anti Islamic sentiment.
Right? Like, that those 2 things don't go
together.
Okay? So this is a very, very important
thing that we have to keep allies in
check. As I said in the blog piece,
and I really recommend that you check it
out when the blog piece on intersectionality and
the Palestinian cause,
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam made alliances
with people, but those alliances had accountability measures
when the different tribes within Medina
actually,
they betrayed the Muslims.
There were accountability measures that held them in
check and even punished them if they were
to step out of line. You can't have
an ally without
accountability. Excuse me. And and,
an ally, quote, unquote, without accountability,
sometimes, if not all the time, is worse
than having no ally at all. Now coming
on to the next 1,
we had on the other side of things.
So that was sort of on the right
side of things.
On the left.
The Middle East eye published an article. We
could call it maybe even a hit piece.
Okay? Less of an article and more of
a hit piece,
by someone by the name of Alex MacDonald.
Now the Middle East eye has done amazing
journalism
on Palestine for a long time, not even
just since October 7th, before that. And people
are
very, very, very appreciative of everything that the
Middle East eye has done. However,
in this particular case, they let 1 through.
They they laid an egg on this 1
because they let somebody who is neither a
Muslim nor a Palestinian
write an article that is basically saying
that okay. It's trying to
it's trying to draw attention to grifters that
are going to sign up for the Palestinian
cause. Basically, the claim of the article is
that there's all these right wing
supporters of Palestine that have gotten very, very
famous and made money off of Palestine.
That in and of itself is not a
problem or is not wrong. Right? It's true.
There are certain people on the right who
have used the Palestinian
cause
to increase their own platforms dramatically and have
monetized it, etcetera.
However, the article doesn't just do that. The
article goes further than that and actually implies
that you can't be on the right
or have conservative values and also support Palestine.
It basically casts an enormous shadow
on anybody who's not on the left who
supports Palestine
by creating a sort of inquisition like atmosphere
where if you happen to be an anti
vaxxer, right, or if you happen to be,
I don't know, pro gun, or if you
happen to be socially conservative
and you support Palestine, then
the yoke of suspicion is on you. You
must be a grifter. You must be somebody
who's exploiting Palestine.
This is nothing more This is nothing more
than leftist gatekeeping
of the cause of Palestine. And we started
talking about it
last week, and we're gonna continue talking about
it this week because it's an extremely
important thing. People on the left
want to turn the issue of Palestine
into an exclusively leftist issue where they are
going to subject everybody to ideological
purity tests
and basically try to say that if you
don't also believe in,
queer liberation or you don't also believe in
gender ideology, then you can't be you're not
a real supporter of Palestine. The all of
these issues are connected. Don't you know what
intersectionality
is? This is sort of the logic and
the argument. And we've already addressed this before,
how this is very, very, very far away
from the politics and the values of the
actual people in Palestine itself, let alone the
2, 000, 000, 000 Muslims,
across the world. Now 1 of the accounts
that was sort of targeted by this article
was, a very popular account called Censored Men,
and they responded on Twitter. And I would
actually suggest people
could go up and look that, particular
response up by this account because it was
a very or I found it to be
a very articulate and respectful
and respectful,
response. And I'm just gonna read a little
bit of this as well,
which, first of all, he demonstrates that this
particular individual, we don't know who's behind the
account, that actually does not financially benefit from
supporting Palestine at all. In fact, they have
taken on,
financial loss in their support of Palestine
even though they align with the right on
some some, not all, political
issues.
But here we go.
There's a a really important part of this
that I want you to hear.
This is 1 of the reasons, he says,
why I believe this article was clearly motivated
by a bias against pro Palestinians
who aren't also liberals.
Another thing very odd about this article is
that Middle East Eye actually worked with a
pro Israeli organization to write it. They cite
an anonymous researcher from Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic
Research Lab,
DFRL,
for research on the reach of the accounts
named in the article.
And this particular he goes into why this
is actually
its CEO.
Its funding
is tied in with the state department and
also has connection
with Zionists. So I'm gonna skip down all
of that.
But the takeaway,
okay, it goes through all the connections that
show that this relies on Zionist sources,
people in the weapons industry.
Okay.
It makes you wonder, he says, why is
Middle East Eye working with such a hardcore
Zionist organization
to write a hit piece on pro Palestinian
voices?
A representative from Jewish Voices For Peace, Liv
Koonin Sperkowitz,
is also quoted in the article as being,
quote, alarmed at the growth of the accounts
mentioned in the article.
1 of the reasons she listed
was that these accounts have a history of
peddling, quote, homophobia.
This is the perfect segue to another topic
I wanna talk about, liberal anti Zionists attempting
to gatekeep the pro Palestine movement
and ostracize those within the movement with differing
political views.
I'm now gonna talk about how the views
of Palestinians
themselves
actually align
far more with right wing anti Zionist than
liberal anti Zionist. That's his argument. It's got
some truth to it. 95%
of the Palestine's population
and 99%
of Gaza's population are Muslim, the majority being
Sunni Muslim. If we look at the Islamic
perspective on multiple cultural issues that the right
and left differ on, you'd find that the
Islamic position is would be considered more right
leaning and, by extension,
the political views of the overwhelming majority of
the Palestinian population.
If you were to map them on American
left right spectrum, would be more right than
a lot of left
leftist,
people would like to admit.
Both Islam and the general position
take, of the right wing stance
that
or take stances that would be considered anti
LGBTQ,
anti feminist, and sexist by liberals.
All of this is to say that,
the vast majority of Palestinians are Muslim. This
would also mean that the vast majority of
Palestinians hold these views, views that might be
considered right wing in the current atmosphere.
Therefore, and this is the important part, everybody,
liberals trying to hijack a movement when the
people at the core of the movement, the
Palestinians,
identify
more with right wing anti Zionists
is highly illogical and reeks of hypocrisy.
And he goes on to say more, but
we do have to say it is very,
very,
fishy. It's very, very fishy now that voices
from the left are trying to take down
and erase and target
people that basically don't tow their ideological line
even if that ideological line is far away
from the people of Palestine and the Muslim
Ummah in general.
Why does this relate? We have 1 last
point before we get back to the question.
I see a lot of good questions coming
in.
Why does this or how does this relate
to our relationship in the movement? We've talked
a lot both behind the scenes and with
lots of other people across the country. And
what we see is that a lot of
Muslims are reluctant to participate, and they're burnt
out. Okay? And we're talking among ourselves, actually,
some of the folks that are responsible for
putting the show on.
And what we've noticed is that it is
exhausting
for a Muslim,
a practicing normal Muslim,
to participate in these protests, in these demonstrations,
in these activities
when they are dominated
by obnoxious left wing politics, when there are
pride flags everywhere.
Just happened last week in Denver, Colorado, where
there are, you know, queers for Palestine and
these sorts of things are people in *
suits that are saying that they support Palestine.
Okay. We appreciate that you support Palestine,
but I'm not gonna show up to that
sort of thing. And I know so many
people, men and women, Muslims,
Palestinians,
that would never show up to something like
that
because it makes us feel uncomfortable. Those are
not our values.
And so what do we call a movement
that supposedly is in support for us but
actually marginalizes
and silences us and makes us feel uncomfortable,
we would say that that is getting co
opted, that that is the hijacking of a
movement, and it's something that reduces
my stamina and your stamina. It reduces our
ability to actually participate
in change.
So we ask everybody again, if you haven't
read the blog piece already, please go and
read it. It is the blog piece that
we dropped last week or the week before
on intersectionality
and why Muslims have to be at the
forefront of this movement for Palestine.
If the Muslims are not at the forefront
of the movement, if we continue to allow
ourselves to be sidelined, silenced, and marginalized,
the movement will fail, first of all. And,
second of all, it won't look like our
movement anymore.
It'll be just another 1 of these progressive
left wing. This is this issue and that
issue and that issue, and you have to
agree to all of these issues if you
wanna do anything for Palestine. No. That's we
don't accept that, and we can't accept that.
That we are Muslims, we are proud Muslims,
and we are dedicated to, the liberation of
Palestine, but on our terms, not on your
terms.
What do we got?
Let's see.
Okay. I I see a lot of conversation
around women's sports. I don't know how much
we're gonna get into that. Let's see.
Why do people that are processing for Palestine
get arrested by the police? Well, you know
why.
Amin Yacom Zainan Latif. Amin Yacom.
Caleb Vorku, would you ever be interested in
participating in a publication moderated debate by any
chance?
Who knows?
I would need more information. Minami Islam Khan
from Bangladesh.
Joined late today. Late is better than ever.
Welcome. Happy to have you back.
Khadija's re revert says, I've been told that
it's not
good that a Muslim woman plays basketball at
the college level. Is this true? If I
wear hijab and cover adequately, is it still
bad?
Sadah says, all inferior complex
much. Yeah. A 100%.
Let's see. I'm gonna I'm gonna skip over
that.
Abdullah, pass. I'm allowed to pass.
Abdullah says, reminds me of Malcolm x speaking.
Yes. Thank you, Abdullah. Reminded us that Malcolm
x, who the left loves to,
hijack his memory as well, Warned us about
the left and warned us about, the people
who smile on our faces and act like
they're our friends and allies, but in reality
are not. Lilia Dimitrova, welcome
to the program.
Yes. They do, Laura. They assume that we
are inferior.
Salah says Palestinian di diaspora created a whole
thread about how Islam is totally queer aligned.
Yeah. Well, I mean, they are acting like
they know better than the prophet Muhammad,
so they should re reanalyze their shahada.
Let's see.
Yeah. Pestify asks, and we should do the
studio. Can we put a link in the
chat to the blog post? Some people are
asking. We did it last week, but we
should do it again this week because it
is super it's key.
Lot of back and forth about lowering your
gaze.
I'm not getting involved in that right now,
but I hope everybody stays respectful in the
comments
because the thing that keeps us together,
talks about in,
And he says the thing that
distinguishes the hypocrites
or rather that distinguishes the believers from the
hypocrites
is
the love
and unity
that the Muslim men and women have for
each other. Because just the page before, Allah
He says that the the male and female
hypocrites are from 1 another, but the male
and female believers are
of 1 another. They are protectors of 1
another. Now that protection does not imply telling
just people what they want to hear. There
is
there is enjoying the known good and forbid
forbidding the evil.
However,
it always has to be done with the
intention of protection.
Julan says, MEE as a Palestinian, I have
question marks on it. That's good to know.
It's not just me. They have good content
on Palestine, but they throw resistance movement in
Islam under the bus every once in a
while. I've also noticed that, Junan. I'm I'm
glad that you said that. I have noticed
that as well.
A Kaldri has also noticed the same.
From Maryland.
And welcome back to the program. I've been
worried by right wing influencers who ideas on
protecting
family matched ours. Now anytime I watch a
podcast from someone from the right, I check
if they said anything about Palestine.
Yeah. I mean, let's just be, like, very,
very real for a second. It behooves Muslims
to not align with any side because we
don't align perfectly with any side. Rather, there
are people on both sides that are
open to being influenced and open to being
educated. Look at how far Candace Owens has
come in the last several months. Like, that
is like a type of person. And even
to some extent, to a lesser extent, like
someone like Tucker Carlson,
those types of people
you can work with,
you we have an,
an interest in developing people like that and
developing relationships with people like that, just like
we have relationship an interest in developing relationships
with people who are true supporters on the
left.
But if some people on the left are
going to question us and say, well, why
are you talking to anyone on the right?
Don't you know their position on abortion? Don't
you know their position on immigration? Don't you
know their position on guns? Don't you know
their position on on vaccines?
We say, hey. You're not the boss of
us. We get to have our own issues
and our own values. And right now, when
there's a genocide going on, guess what? Number
1 issue for us is Palestine.
Sudan says I think a lot of its
content comes from the PLO Palestinians and many
of them co identify with Marxism, etcetera. It's
hard to catch these nuances if you're not
Palestinian. A 100%, Jan, I'm so glad that
you mentioned that. I, myself, in the last
9 months, I've been reading obsessively
about the history of Palestine and the Palestinian
resistance movements and the different factions that are
out there.
I was shocked to know how much the
PLL to the PLL the PLL sold out,
with the peace process and how they targeted
other movements and things like that. There's a
lot of history there and things that you
wouldn't pick up on. A lot of people
in the diaspora, I think you're a 100%
right, a lot of people in diaspora, they're
stuck in the seventies where they think that
the PLO is, like, you know, the the
main resistance faction and, like, the the main
thing going on.
Not not so fast. Right? And and that's
all we'll say about that.
Nusayba Qasem recently returned a book by Erica
Komesar who speaks heavily on preserving childhood after
finding out she tweeted against Palestine planning to
rely on Muslim networks on these toppings.
That's that's I think the takeaway, Noussayba, is
that we really need to
understand properly
what is the point of an ally. The
point of an ally is not for them
to do the work for us. We do
the work.
We're gonna lead
the change.
And if someone wants to support it, then
you let them support it as long as
there's no strings attached and it's not a
liability.
But it we're acting like we have to
find our savior.
Right? Whether it's the squad or whether it's
this,
progressive group over here or this group over
here, and just turn everything over and let
them do that's not how it works. Right?
So we shouldn't expect these people to be,
we shouldn't expect these people to be,
more than they are. You know what I
mean?
Yes. A Khalduri brings up that as well.
I hate to say it, but some diaspora
Palestinians are more secular and liberal in their
approach versus Palestinians in the Gaza would accept.
100%. We see that a lot. There's a
big difference. You got any any Palestinian protest
in the US? Listen to what they chant
in the in English versus what they chant
in the Gaza and the West Bank in
Arabic. And if you know, you know.
Yeah. A 100% agree, Very important for Muslims
to take the lead.
Servant of God, we're gonna talk about that.
Don't wanna make religion hard on yourself. 100%.
Laura asked, why can't people support Palestine without
projecting their beliefs and expecting
It's not not that hard,
but some people always want it to be
about them.
Yes, Iqadi. That's true. Those those families also
have have been impacted. So it is sensitive.
We're not you know, we don't challenge those
people face to face unless
unless
they are being particularly belligerent and obnoxious and
trying to to stomp down on all of
the the Muslim and Islamic sort of discourse.
Yep. That's true, Shatha. 100%. I like it.
From LA.
Rick Rashid.
Very good. Welcome everybody.
Paul Reets asks about the Jordan Peterson Mohammed
Hijab debate. I I saw it, but it
was a long time ago. I don't really
have any particular reflections
other than,
yeah, I don't have, have anything off the
top of my head. I'd have to go
back and look. It's been quite a bit.
Samir says I had a lot of challenges
working with the community to engage on Palestine.
I'm glad you highlighted this perspective. It's important
for me to keep my alhamdulillah, may Allah
accept. Very kind.
Yeah, Sara. You would think that, but not
necessarily. Some people don't read history. I mean,
like, you would think that they would listen
to the Palestinians in Palestine who understand what
the PLO's true face is. Yeah. I mean,
but some people have that, you know, sort
of nostalgic memory.
Green tea and mint. From Uruguay.
100%,
Earl. Consolidation and effective leadership may all make
it so.
Very good.
Free abundance.
Stand together as humans. 100%.
Yep. Well said. Alright. Very good. Alright. Let's
move on. Great job, everybody. I appreciate everybody's
comments and questions.
Very, very
helpful as always. Now we're gonna get into
our next section, and it is,
Orange County LA Noor, where
we talk about, our end section where we're
going through Kitaba Assir, which is another way
for second Kitab al Jihad. Now this is
very, very interesting, excuse me, and important because
it loops back to what someone was saying
about making things harder, making thing things easy.
Okay? Where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said, now that's the next hadith in the
book. Now I want you to think because
the many of the hadith compilers,
they didn't write commentary,
but they gave you commentary
by their chapter titles, by the order in
which they go, and their decisions about
which hadith they included in these particular chapters.
So we know that this is the book
of Sir. This is the we're talking about
the, you know, jihad for according to the
the rules of Islam, proper jihad, not fake
phony jihad.
And this is the next hadith
where the prophet
said,
When and he said this to his generals
and people that were going out. Make things
easy for people
and don't make things difficult on people.
And make people,
give glad tidings. And in this rewire that
we're showing right here, he says calm,
and do not repel them or repulse them
or push them away.
Now this is fascinating. This is fascinating. Now
I read extensively Anawawi's very famous commentary on
it in Arabic,
and I'm gonna highlight some of the things
that he points out. The first thing
Test.
Yeah.
We back?
Let me know let me know in the
chat. Are we still back?
Hey, everything happens for a reason. Maybe it
was the Zionists.
Maybe it was the Jin.
Only a lot knows.
No. No. No. I did not swear in
Italian. Aquarius.
This is this is, very, very common. Many
meanings many meanings, but just like hold on
a sec. Hold on a sec.
Okay.
Alright. Alhamdulillah. So we're good.
Fatima Ali cannot hear. Salihah can hear. I
think most people are saying that
Okay, hamdulillah. Most people are saying it's back
on. Alright. Cool. Hamdulillah.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was saying,
make things easy,
don't make it hard. Now and Nawawi points
out the wording here.
He didn't just say, basiru wa yasiru. If
he had said that, then maybe you could
understand from that, that yeah sometimes we're nice
and sometimes we give glad tidings and sometimes
we make things easy, but other times we
make things hard.
But the fact that he then followed it
up with, wallatu asiru
wallatu nafiru
means that this is what we do consistently.
Consistently as an Ummah and especially in the
context of warfare, Jihad, Sir.
You are to be a force of glad
tidings. Now this might mess with your categories
because you think, wait a second,
how can an approaching army,
how can an approaching army be a sign
of glad tidings?
That is how your reputation should be for
justice and fairness,
that even if your army is about to
conquer somebody,
that they know that you're not going to
oppress.
Right? Can you imagine, like how great your
reputation would be, that even, you know, as
your opponent. Right? Because you can have opponents
and adversaries, but you know, they're not you.
That you're still
actually
glad that you're facing them. You can
make an analogy probably with sports here. Imagine
like the top basketball players or the top,
football players. We're talking about global football, not
American football. The top,
chess players or something like this, where
there's certain opponents at the very, very top,
that actually really, really like to face off
against each other. Because they respect each other,
because they understand there's a certain respect there.
That you build a reputation for the way
that you treat people, you build a reputation
for being principled, you build a Think about
how some of the non Muslims describe the
Muslim soldiers. They were like monks at night,
worshiping,
and they were like
fierce warriors during the day. That's your reputation.
So then, when you are supposed to go
out in the world, even if you're doing
it in the way of Allah, even if
you have to to throw hands for a
certain reason,
that you're
you are an act of glad tidings. Right?
And you're actually offering people, you're not offering
people revenge, you're not threatening people, you're saying
we are here to save you.
Even if we're here to save you from
yourselves.
You guys worship these idols. You guys live
in sin. You guys walk around naked. You
guys smoke joints. You guys are addicted to
meth and crack and whatever else. We're here
to save you. We're here to bring you
out of that into something better. This is
nasiha. This is, sincerity.
That is the the spirit and the intention
and what the Muslim forces, the Muslim Ummah
should be. Right? So this is the
the the very particular phrasing of the prophet
shalallahu alaihi wa sallam. Bashiru walatuhwalatunasiru,
walal, tunafiru.
Yes siroo walatuh nasiru. Walatuh, tunafiro. Yes siroo
walatuhasiru. The second point that Anawawi points out,
and this is really major, and it gets
to some of the some of the things
that we were talking about. Earlier, some of
you all were talking about in the chat.
And now what he says, that this is
proof of a
fitah. What does that mean? That means taking
things 1 step at a time
when it comes to obedience.
Now I'm gonna try to pull this up.
I'm not gonna be able to share it
with you, but at least to see it
for myself to to read it a bit.
What Anaweeh says, I found it amazing.
He said
that, is that all of the things with
responsibility
in Islam are upon,
it's gradual.
That gradualness is part of Islam.
Okay. We'll get to why that's important.
He says,
is that when something is made easy or
someone is encouraged,
it becomes easier for that person.
So And now what he says, this is
so huge
that
9 times out of 10, not his language,
my language, 9 times out of 10,
if someone who starts to get better, someone
who starts to improve, someone who starts, who
starts to become a Muslim or starts to
practice and you encourage them,
the majority of the time,
they are going to increase.
Okay? That you don't have to worry about
being soft on them, because they're gonna actually
increase over time.
Now this is very important. Why do I
bring this up? Because we live in a
time where we're reacting to ideologies.
We have on 1 hand we have liberal
Islam,
watered down Islam,
compassionate imams, quote unquote, people who are watering
down the deen and then other people who
respond to that and saying, well no we
have to be harsh. And yes, you can
go through the sunnah and you can go
through
the writings of the scholars. You can find
examples, specific examples of people being harsh in
certain contexts. But that
is like being harsh has
its time and place, but it's always
geared towards a certain end. It's a tool
used to achieve a certain result. What's the
default though that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam tells us to do?
The default is attabshir
wa
at tadreej.
Right? That it what taser,
The default is making it easy on people
and giving people good tidings, encouraging people.
Not being this,
very discouraging
force.
Right?
We have an example of this. Win Umar
Inal Khattab
He was the the leader, the Khalifa.
And the armies reached Shem, and there was
a particular local
leader
who
he said, I'll accept Islam if I can
be the Khalifa after Umar.
Now the the people that were there had
no idea what to do and so they
wrote back to Umar and asked him, what
should we tell him? And Umar radiAllahu anhu
said and he wrote back and said, tell
him he can have it.
Because if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guided him
this far, Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la will continue
to guide him. That was the attitude of
the Prophet SAWH-four thousand and 70 That was
the attitude of Umar and the Khalifa Arashideen
and Mahdiyeen
who the prophet
told us to imitate.
Are there exceptions? Yes.
Do those exceptions have to have
specific results in mind? Yes.
But the default is, giving glad tidings, being
encouraging, making things easy on people as much
as possible.
That's awesome.
Okay. Very good. Let's, let's keep rolling.
Should we circle back? Okay. Before we do
atomic habits
and circle back to our personal development, let's
see again. We'll catch up with the chat.
We'll see if anybody has some interesting comments
or
a lot of people cheering us on when
we got when we got our sound back.
All of your dua, I'm sure helped.
I mean, Aquarius. Yeah. It's an emotional time.
I get it. May may Allah forgive all
of us for all of our shortcomings.
Telling your anger is very hard to manage
compared to other emotions. A 100%. Yes. It
is the hardest 1
to to manage for many people. For many,
many, many people.
Yes. And Nancy has an important,
connection with the Tedrige. Look at how everything's
connected in this show. Tedrige also brings us
right into atomic habits because atomic habits is
also about Tedrige. It's also about taking things
slow and gradual.
That's also a good point, Aquarius, about disliking
the sin a 100%.
Because in the beginning, you you still kinda
like the sin. Right? And then once you
get used to it, you actually start to
dislike it. And now it's easy. And I
was in the same situation that you were.
Right? Like, you know, I I can't stand
to to listen to music, and I used
to be a musician before before SNAP. So
I know exactly how that how that works.
Aquarius asked, Imam Tal, I want to know
your opinion about Dua men's. What does that
mean? What who is Dua men's?
Is that his name? What a horrible name.
No. I'm just kidding. But you gotta be
more specific than that. I don't have an
opinion. And it's better to not ask people
about people.
That's what our scholars taught us. You don't
test people about other people. What do you
think about so and so? What do you
think about so and so? Right? We're all
a mixed bag. You know? We're all sinners.
We all hope that Allah
accepts what's good from us and that
he forgives what's bad from us, and hopefully,
we all can have the maturity to be
as part of the same team working to
the same goal, even if we have different
methods.
Yes.
I wish I could read your name, but
I cannot read that script. But sadly, some
people harshly judge others for not being able
to perform properly, especially towards women. Yes. Unfortunately,
there is,
some harshness sometimes that is uncalled for. We
could say,
too
too much harshness or harshness misplaced harshness. There
you go. That's better. Misplaced harshness.
No. Like all the guys that do Dalla
in public, should they be responding to personal
dramas? Well, you know, hey, listen.
Again,
some of those people I know, some of
these people,
I don't know, so I'm not gonna be
making comments on any individuals. But, obviously,
we hope that everybody
can rate rise above the level of personal
dramas. And, unfortunately, we've seen where sometimes
the temptation
in dawah is to turn a personal drama
into
a into a religious issue or to cloak
it with a religious veneer
and make it look like your your beef
is religious when in fact, deep down, it's
personal drama.
Shamal asks, how can you say music is
haram? Is there akhilaf? Is there akhilaf?
It's very weak. I follow the opinion that
music is haram.
We're talking about musical instruments because the word
music is more general than what is mentioned
in the hadith of al Bukhari al Ma'azif,
or, the prophet warned about Al Ma'azif, 1
of the 4 things that people will try
to make permissible that is impermissible. He used
the word ma'azif, which refers to certain types
of musical instruments, not including the the duff
or the hand drum.
And that's the position of a majority of
scholars.
Yes. Ibn Hazem disagreed. Abu, Al Ghazari disagreed.
But
that's the state of that difference of opinion,
is that it's very, uneven, those 2 sides.
And may Allah accept from all of us.
We're not here to be
we're not here to
be passing out fatwaaz or
Morosonero
Morosonero asks, what should we Muslims do in
America where work culture makes colleagues go for
a drink after work? Well, they don't make
you. That's your choice. Right? I've never ever
seen a job that says that if you
don't go out to drinks after work, you're
fired. Never seen that.
So sometimes, we're in our own heads. We
have our own problems that we have to
just buck up and say, nope. Those are
my red lines. I mean, even the former
vice president of the United States, Mike Pence,
wouldn't meet with women alone. He was practicing
Sharia. That's creeping Sharia right there. Right? So
then why can't we do the same? Especially
in the wake of Me Too movement and
all this other stuff.
Listen. Like, stick to your principles.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
whoever
tries to please the people
with something that is not pleasing to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah will not let the
people be pleased with them and Allah won't
be pleased with them either.
But if a person
displeases the people or doesn't care about the
pleasure of the people by something that pleases
Allah, Allah will eventually not only will Allah
be pleased them, but Allah will make the
people pleased with them as well.
Welcome, Shoutout. We're glad you're with us. Hopefully
not not the last time.
Yeah. Aquarius, that's a 100%. Music is what
a lot of people use, almost like a
drug, like, to escape from hard feelings. I
totally get
it. I totally get it.
And there's lots of sort of escapes.
Right?
And we hope that we're Listen. A lot
of people have an attitude of black and
white,
when in reality every single 1 of us
is on a journey.
If you were to break down Islam into
all of the things that you have to
do, and all the things that you can't
do, and all the things that you should
do, and all the things that you shouldn't
do,
we're a mixed bag. There's some things that
I'm doing
and there's some things that I should be
stopping, just like you. Right?
Maybe
all of you are better than me in
some in some aspects. I'm certain of it
actually. Right?
Every single 1 of us is on our
own individual journey and the important thing is
that you're trending up. That you're getting better
and better and better. That every year, hopefully,
every Ramadan,
you take a self a look at yourself,
an assessment of yourself, and you're better than
you were the year before. That's all that
we can ask for. And if that's what
we're on, InshaAllah, Allah will accept it from
us and we'll be in jannah together.
That's our perfect segue to our last,
segment of today, which is personal dharma. We're
talking about atomic habits. Here we go.
Very good. And for my rub, you hit
it a 100% on the head. Stick to
your principles because they will keep checking your
limits. You need to show them where it
stops. If you don't show them where it
stops, nobody else is gonna do that for
you. You need to do it yourself.
Okay.
So this was a really interesting chapter. We're
in chapter 2 today. And I want everybody
to participate as we did last time. The
participation is gonna be through answering this question.
It's a little bit of a trick question
and a little bit personal, but I hope
you're okay and I'll I'll open up as
well.
What is
1
negative thing that you tell yourself about yourself?
What is 1 negative thing you tell yourself
about yourself?
This is really important to the subject of
the chapter and when it comes to
trying
to change ourselves.
That's an interesting point, Amina. My teacher says
to me that
the base of every emotion is fear. Our
fear must have a purpose or a good
job in this world, like the fear of
Allah. Right? If fear is busy, we are
in balance.
Sara says everything. Oh, good. Yeah. Right? Akadir,
I know. I'm I'm going right for the
jugular with this 1. Should I start? I
mean,
this is a
this is a very, very
tricky thing. I have yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sauna,
I'm with you. I tell my yeah. Sometimes
I tell myself I'm arrogant. Sometimes I tell
myself
that,
I'm an imposter. Right? I I definitely suffer
from imposter syndrome sometimes that I don't,
that I'm a fake. Right?
These sorts of things
that
Yeah. All these sorts of I have a
lot of negative self talk. Actually, it's something
that I've struggled with.
Definitely my own worst critic. Yes. A quadri.
I completely,
completely
agree. Too lazy.
Not a good Muslim.
That's hard and I I get that.
Don't worry,
morosonero.
We're going somewhere with it. Hopefully, by the
end of the program, you'll feel better about
yourself or realize something because we're all in
in your boat. We all are the are
the same thing,
in the sense that,
we are our own worst enemy sometimes.
Below average.
Oh, yeah. Nusayba, you hit it. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That I'm not a good son. I'm
not a good brother. To my sister, if
my sister's watching, shout out to you.
Yep. Imposter syndrome,
free.
Oh. Salvo, that's a tough 1. No matter
how much effort I put in, I will
always fail.
Oh. Nancy, that's hard. You are not a
sincere Muslim. Oh, man. That is That's a
really tough 1. For my rep says that
I'm a hypocrite. I feel hypocritical constantly because
everyone praises me on a daily basis. It
scares me so much.
So I tell myself you're a hypocrite on
a daily basis. I quit my job yesterday.
May Allah give you better.
Doubting Allah's mercy. That's another thing.
Yeah. That I'm too impatient, Farah. Yeah.
Yeah. All of the above. Right? A 100%.
Now why am I asking you to be
so vulnerable
and expose all your negative talk? Because the
author wants us to understand the crucial 0,
Amina, oh, that's heartbreaking that I don't deserve
the love of Allah. You do. You do
deserve the love of Allah. All of us
do. Insha'Allah. May Allah,
shower us all with his love and mercy.
Budari
Shema. I'm lazy and selfish.
Oof. Ouch. Yeah. I mean, it's all very
familiar to me because I I also struggle
with this as well, big time. So why
are we talking about it? Because the author
wants us to understand that change and identity
go hand in hand.
Change and identity go hand in hand.
That actually,
sometimes when we want to change,
we only stick to the surface level of
thinking about the results and the output, when
we have to go deeper
and change the way that we think about
ourselves.
That sometimes, either for okay. We'll go on
the bad way first. We internalize
or believe bad things about ourselves
and that actually reinforces
bad habits and then bad outcomes.
So some of the things that we want
to change, we actually have to dig all
the way down to the bottom
and change the way that we think about
ourselves
in order to change what we do, our
habits, and then we'll get different
results. Right? And he gives a lot of
really interesting examples. So so there's 3 levels.
There's, like, your identity. Stacked on top of
your identity is your process, which we talked
about last week. And then after that
is your,
is your outcome. Right? So
the difference is, okay,
imagine someone who struggles with smoking or imagine
someone who's trying to quit smoking. Okay? Someone
brought that up last week. Imagine the difference
between
somebody saying, I'm trying to quit
smoking, versus someone who's saying, I'm not a
smoker.
That's what he's getting at. If you start
telling yourself, I'm not a smoker, you're more
likely to stop smoking
than
if you're just saying, well, I'm trying to
smoke. I'm trying or I'm trying to look
at that. Well, I'm trying to quit. Yeah.
If you if you're trying to smoke, you're
definitely not quitting.
So that behavior, he says that is incongruent
with the self won't last.
So you tell yourself that you're lazy.
Okay? Like Attica says, she tells herself that
she's lazy and wastes too much time. Right?
If you tell yourself that,
it actually becomes a self fulfilling prophecy,
where maybe you're gonna have a day of
activity or your high motivation 1 day and
you say, no, actually I'm going to to
go out and do like different things. But
then you're gonna revert back to the mean.
You're going to fall back into that how
because you've told yourself that that's who you
are. Right? So the behavior that is incongruent
with the self will not last. You will
always come back to what you tell yourself
you are.
And this is actually supported by the hadith,
and this is why we're going over this
book because it has a lot of resonance
and harmony with things that we find in
the, the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
Where he said,
if you basically,
when you understand
yourself as somebody
who
submits to Allah,
then submitting to Allah becomes easy.
If you under why does the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam pray and ask and tell us
to ask Allah to make us min ahlil
Quran?
He doesn't say that we read the Quran.
We ask Allah that we become
the people of the Quran, min ahlil Quran.
So that we build up that identity and
that it becomes, now we're reading every day
and we're reading more and more. We're not
focused on the results
or the outcomes. The results and the outcomes
take care of themselves.
When you walk around your in your head
telling yourself, I'm from Ahlul Quran. Insha'Allah. I'm
from Ahlul Quran.
Right?
We also see Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'ala also
does the same thing on the Quran when
he's calling the people of the book back
to faith. You see almost like 2 modes
or 2 registers where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
when he's talking about the Jews and Christians
and how they've gone astray, if he's given
it to him,
he calls them by the names that they've
given them themselves,
yahud, nesarah.
But if he's inviting them back to faith,
he says, Ahil Kitab.
As like you people are people of revelation.
If you're people of revelation, then follow this
revelation. You see how he does that. Right?
So even it is
recognized
by the uslubr Quran, how Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala talks to people in the Quran. Very
very interesting. Right? That this, when you start
telling yourself and changing your identity and the
way that you think about yourself,
it provides its own intrinsic motivation.
Okay? Its own intrinsic motivation.
So what's another example of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam doing this? When he changed people's
names.
If people had bad names.
Right? He would change them to good names.
Why?
Because those bad names became bad beliefs about
yourself and they resulted in that bad behavior.
Right? That once you change your name to
something that's good,
now it's part of your identity.
You're going to now Almost automatically, you have
a high motivation, intrinsic motivation
to
do that type of behavior. Or if you
find out for example,
that your ancestors This is why Abu Bakr,
radiAllahuan, used to tell people the good deeds
of their ancestors.
Because if you find out that your ancestor
did something amazing, you find out that you're
you're, you know, like your great great great
grandfather, great great grandmother was like a big
scholar,
How is that gonna change your identity? You're
gonna say I am the inheritor of this
I'm 1 of these people in this lineage
of scholarship.
Right? That this is going to this is
going to change how you act.
Okay? Other examples that he brings up, anybody
can read a book, but what about becoming
a reader? Right? I'm a reader. I'm a
person who reads books.
Now reading takes care of itself.
Okay. I want to go on a run
every day. By the way, I have failed
at trying to establish habits of running. I'm
horrible at that. I can play sports.
I gotta chase a ball around, throw it
in a hoop, kick it in a net.
But running?
No. But if you start telling yourself, no,
I am a runner.
Then the results, they will eventually take care
of themselves.
The flip side of this is what we
began with, the crippling self talk. So we
got to intervene on 2 levels here. So
we've got,
who do you want to be?
I want to be Ahlul Qur'an.
So now I need to start telling myself
that I'm Ahlul Qur'an.
The second side, do an inventory of yourself.
What are all the self crippling or the
crippling things that you tell yourself about yourself?
Oh, I'm no good with directions.
Oh, I'm I'm not a morning person. A
lot of people say that. I can't wake
up for tahedjid.
I'm not the type of person who can
do that. I'm not good at math.
Okay? So
if we if that's our self talk, the
results are almost like, a death sentence. Right?
It almost, like, takes care of itself. So
we have to both build up the good
and intervene on the bad. Try to identify
those things that we are telling ourselves about
ourselves that are holding us back and intervene
and try
to to almost hack it and think about
who would we want to be. Right? And
make it part of our identity and then,
we'll move to the processes and habits that
are gonna get there. As he says, habits
are a pathway for changing your identity. You
don't like who you are? You don't like
a part of who you are? Habits are
gonna help you change that identity. And every
habit that you do
and every
everything that you do, every action is like
a vote. You can think about it as
a vote for the type of person that
you wish to become. Let's say I want
to become from Ahlul Quran. Every time I
sit down and read a page of Quran
or even a verse of Quran,
I am voting for, yes, I want to
become from Ahlul Quran, etc. And you can,
apply to other things. So we have our
last graphic here. So you get to
decide the type of person that you want
to be. Okay, that's the first thing. The
formula for change, there's 2 parts. Ingredient number
1, decide who do you want to be.
I want to be a person of salah.
I want to be a person of the
masjid. I want to be a person of
Quran. I want to be a person who
commands the good. I want to be a
person that makes other people smile. I want
to be a good a person that people
can trust.
Okay? And then 2,
you have to go about proving it to
yourself with small actions,
small wins,
every single day. You can change,
you can change.
But it will take work and this is
the type of work
that
is required. May Allah make it easy for
us. We'll circle back to the chat. This
is your last chance for questions before we
close it out for tonight.
Okay.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Shatha asked, can we move to America or
Canada for
good keeping in view of teachings of Islam
religiously as I have heard that it's difficult
to protect your iman in a non Muslim
country? It is difficult,
but those things are case by case scenarios.
You should talk to somebody who knows your
situation. And the things are you know, the
United States is a big place. Canada is
a big place. Okay?
If you're gonna be in a place that
has a ton of Muslims,
right,
that's different from a place that has no
Muslims. So there's the those questions are a
little bit too vague. You need to really
drill down on the details.
Farah. No. SubhanAllah. Farah says, the fear I
have my duas won't accepted for
Palestine. Yeah. We all have that fear.
Surah, soldier.
Okay.
Casanova says that I will be stuck in
a place of mediocrity that I'll never change
for the better. Insha Allah, you're already changing
for the better.
Glad to hear that some people are think
finding this helpful. May Allah accept and continue
to guide us.
Mean. Okay. People took care of Khadija revert.
Yep. We're here
every week, Wednesday night at 8 PM EST,
whatever 5 PM Pacific time, whatever,
time zone you're in.
Farah says, I find it it's hard to
be a young adult nowadays, especially with social
media and the pressure of the older generation
on us to be like them. 100%. Yes.
I mean, at the end of the day,
you're only in competition with yourself.
So focus on being the best version of
you, and every day focus on being a
slightly better version of you. As we said
last week, 1% better every day. If you're
1% better every day, masha'Allah, you're doing better
than most people.
K. Very good.
I don't see.
Oh, yeah. Abdullah, good call. Yeah. This is
something I think that Ibn ul Qayyim said,
rahimahullah,
watch your thoughts because they become your words.
Watch your words because they become your actions.
Watch your actions because they become your habits.
Watch your habits because they become your character.
100%. That's definitely true. You have to, intervene.
And the earlier you intervene, it's like a
it's like a plant. It's like a weed.
Right? The weed lays down roots, and then
before you know it, it grows to be
this gargantuan thing that you can't even pull
out anymore. You wanna
disrupt that.
You wanna disrupt those weeds as soon as
they sprout.
Sara, this is every week. Though sometimes if
I travel, we take breaks, but it's pretty
much every week.
Khadija Revert asked, do you advise putting kids
in private Islamic schools instead of public schools?
Generally, yes. Though, it is a case by
case,
scenario. I do know of some public schools
that are majority Muslim populations, and I do
know of some Islamic schools that are really
bad. So it is somewhat case by case,
but there is enough of a trend for
me to say that definitely,
homeschooling. I homeschool my kids. I recommend homeschooling,
honestly,
or Islamic school, if that's an option for
you.
I definitely would not recommend public school,
if possible, to avoid.
Mae Sage asks about other self growth books.
This is I'll be honest with you, Mae
Sage. I don't really like self health books.
This is the only self help book I
think I've read and liked,
so I'm not the person to give to
give
advice on that.
I like to read about secularism and things
like that.
Political theory.
Yeah. And Christian Cordero gives good advice. Get
rid of the social media accounts I did,
alhamdulillah, I'm so much more happy and peaceful.
If you have them, stick to clear friends
and family only. Yep.
So hard on the mental health, to be
honest.
And, you know, you'll always think of that,
like, 1% of people that's able to do
it and do it right, and it doesn't
consume them in some sort of way.
But, you know, think about all the other
99%
that it it, it doesn't do good for.
I mean, that's that's true, Aquarius, that you
do I did learn how to deal with
people in public school. That's true, but, at
what cost? Right? We're statistical anomalies, you and
I. Right? We came out on the other
end, and we're we're good. But how many
other people went through it and didn't,
and didn't? They lost their faith. May Allah
protect us all. Okay. If that's all, then
I have to thank everybody for a wonderful,
wonderful session. May Allah accept from us and,
bless you all