Forum On Respectful Relationships

Another, firstly, we thank him praise a lot sort of Pamela,

for gathering us here today. And we asked the last mechanical pilot to bless this gathering.

We send our peace and blessings upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa,

I've just decided to change my topic.

That was a last second change based on what rather ones he mentioned about respectful relationships, I was going to talk about getting the best out of yourself. And that was advertised. So that's not false advertising.

The Fabian Sharla, thank you very much for inviting both of us to share some thoughts with you. And as this is a forum, and that's why I decided also one of the reasons why I decided to change my topic, it's it's not conventional to do that. But given that this is a nice informal gathering and open forum, I'll do that inshallah. Obviously, with your indulgence, you allow me to do that, because I can do likewise, I can stick to the topic, inshallah, getting the best out of yourselves. Or I can present you some thoughts that are presented the other day,

at an interface forum,

organised by the New South Wales Government Community Relations Commission,

as part of its community engagement project, and we'll be talking about respects, that's what prompted me the word respect, prompted me to do this. And the title of the forum was called religious freedom in a multi faith society. Now, primarily, this forum might be about talking about respect within the Muslim community. So we're talking about inter intra faith, respect, but I think we can also extend that out to others outside of our faith community. And these were the these were the issues that I basically just highlighted at that forum, we gave a 10 minute presentation on that, then it was a q&a panel, myself, a Christian, religious leader, a Jewish religious religious

leader, and a Buddhist. And we will have to address this topic of freedom, freedom of religion, in a multi faith society.

And what I started out was quoting Professor Gary Boomer, some of you may know him from Monash University, he wrote a paper in 2006, titled, The challenge of religious diversity and revitalization to the secularity, of Australian universities. And basically, in his paper, he was making the case for the fact that religion has been revitalized, in Australia, this was back in 2006. And that secular normalcy is under challenge is being challenged by this new religious revitalization.

And that perhaps this has been challenged because secular modernization or modernism is failing.

That was that was one of the reasons he was speculating for that, and that religion is becoming more diverse, especially in Australia, we know if you know the history of Australia, then religion was mono religious, from its early beginnings of the country, the nation state as we know it, but over recent years, it has it has been changing. And then this, with this comes the concern for social cohesion. So the question is being raised and discussed, is the social cohesion of Australia under threat, because religion is revitalized and is threatening or challenging, not threatening or challenging the secular normalcy. And then the issue also of religious identity comes into it,

because as Muslims, especially our sisters, wearing the hijab, in the public space, they are clearly identified as such. And this is also presenting a challenge for the secular public space.

What was interesting, and this is a quote that I, in his paper that I, I highlight, and I often repeat, and this is what he said, he said, Professor buma, highlighted that Australia has been multicultural, and multifaith for well over 14,000 years.

So I repeat that Australia has been multicultural and multifaith for well over 40,000 years, with the brief period of seeming monoculture ality, in the 1920s and aberrant blip on the otherwise long history of diversity.

That's an important aspect of this country to know.

And then the question came in, I raised the talk

of post modernity because this was a talk that I also gave previously at the Australian National University about post modernity.

Ramadan refers to it as a crisis of modernity. So we have entered a period now, post modernity, post the modern world, and some of the Muslim countries haven't even entered modernity. So

that's another story, but with dealing with Muslims here in Australia today. So how do we deal with post modernity? And what does it actually mean? And he says that it is a reaction to the stifling political culture of centrist liberalism.

So that's also challenging the centrist liberal liberalism, in politics that we face right now. And the aftermath, or sorry, the the normative structure of unlimited freedom and a culture of irreverence that modernity has deliberately fostered to subvert God

has now turned upon its own creator.

So we have a few challenges, right? I hope this is not too provocatively.

You guys can manage this.

Because I think it was a bit too out there when I gave this presentation.

And amongst all of this, then ways is that where does Islam fit in all of this, in fact, Islam is way, Islamic center stage, in all of this Islamic center stage, and to me this, I see this as an opportunity, golden opportunity for us, but we are we are not grasping it, grabbing hold of it with both our hands, this opportunity with Islam and the Muslim community under the spotlight, September 11th, the Bali bombing commemorations are happening right now.

Dr. Dr. McDonald plan

from Delaware University in the US.

It suggests that

violence or the phenomenon of terrorism is an extreme manifestation of post modernity.

That challenging of secular normalcy, challenging resisting that centrist liberalism. If you take it to the nth degree, then you get terrorist violence.

And then the question about reason versus God because that's also another thing, conflict, reason versus God.

Islam was from the beginning. So this is Dr. Khan. He says Islam was from the very beginning comfortable with reason,

recognizing its immense potential and necessity, but also remaining acutely aware of its limitations.

And then the issue of free speech and vilification comes in because that's really current, this whole debate of free speech and vilification with regard to the film, insulting the Prophet sallallahu.

And the secular normalcy right now, where you have unlimited, almost unlimited right to free speech,

as long as you don't defend the rich and powerful.

But if your target is the poor,

and the week, no problem, most of the time, you'll get away with it.

And then the question is, should religion be added to them, and I know Victoria, has religion included, and it's vilification law? Correct me if I'm wrong? I think that two jurisdictions in Australia at the moment, Victoria and I can't remember the other who has

not yet.

So I know Muslim communities around the country, raising this issue, should religion now especially with the film and the aftermath of the protests that come from Sydney, so we will live in the protest violence for the last two weeks?

Should religion be included in that? And should the Muslim community be at the forefront of that push to have religion included? But isn't it a double edged sword, and I will raise the two main concerns about it. I'm still not convinced either way, whether it should be included or not.

For example, in the AC t with the Human Rights Act 2004, the Bill of Rights, they have freedom of expression, section 16, as well as freedom of religion in Section 14, so most jurisdictions in Australia will have the two freedoms in the constitutions. But there is currently a proposal in the a CT to include religion amongst the four that they currently have, they already have.

They have currently race,

sexuality, gender, HIV or AIDS status. So those are the four categories that it's against the law to vilify those four categories of people. So the AC t proposal as the government is going to introduce into power

A proposal to include religion,

concerns with including religion, the one concern is will it begin to restrict freedom of speech? Will it censor people now? Will people? Can people no longer criticize, for example, criticize Islam as they have been doing? at will, since September 11.

Whole industries have been started criticizing Islam. And Muslims, right? People are making millions people are writing books. I was a Muslim before and this is what's wrong with Islam.

Right, you know, that magazine bandwagon. But the other real concern is, wait, will it affect positive discrimination? And this is something that the Muslim community needs to seriously consider, for example, Muslim schools that have employment policies to Emily only employ Muslim staff? Will they be allowed to do that or not? I know you had some problems in Victoria with swimming pools needing to go to the

whichever regulator it is, and get an exemption from that regulation to have sessions only for women, for example, because it's, it's agendist them. So those are some of the concerns that we need to we need to look at. Then the question of Islam and freedom.

Islam on the question of freedom of religious freedom,

plurality, freedom of religion, what does Islam say about that? Is the perception out there that Islam does not endorse religious pull out?

That obviously we know that's not the case that Islam doesn't endorse and accept pluralism? For example, Allah subhanho wa Taala, mentioned in the Quran, and if your Lord had willed those on Earth would have believed all of them

altogether. So why would you then force people to become believers? So this is from Allah, Allah is saying that a lot created everybody. Allah gave people freedom of choice. if Allah wills, He could have made everybody believe.

And this is something that has Pauline Hanson wanted to do right with the one nation.

Not not become believers.

But believe, in the same worldview, her worldview,

but Allah says, No, Allah gave people freedom of choice. So we can't force people to believe in a loss of candle guide. And in fact, that's the highest of all things, which is to believe in Allah subhanho wa Taala. And then the other words, the Devi, no compulsion in religion, for truth stands out clearly from error. And this is the challenge of the loss of a family size presenting to Muslims. If truth stands out, clearly from error, let that speak for itself.

But truth, merely two words. Is that enough? Or does that truth need to translate itself into action into the behavior of those who carry that truth? And that's where I think we fall down.

And then I presented the example of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. Engaging in interfaith dialogue. This is not something new. So you have some people complaining, why are Muslims participating in this procedure with this new innovation, of engaging in interfaith dialogue programs and stuff like that? I don't know, if you read that here, you have the problem in a moment when people complain about engaging in interfaith dialogue, but they forget that our beloved Prophet sallallahu wasallam, in fact, engaged in it.

The Prophet sallallahu wasallam and the example that I gave an incident that I recalled was when the Prophet sallallahu wasallam met with a delegation from Nigeria, from Yemen, they were about 60 Christian leaders meeting with the Prophet sallallahu Sallam they came specifically they came to meet with the province of alario center. And where did the Prophet sallallahu Sallam host them with?

In his honesty?

And when it came time for them to perform their particular prayer, which includes aspects of ship, where did the Prophet sallallahu wasallam allow them to perform their prayer?

in his own ministry?

Many Muslims don't know this history of Islam. So we need an amazed we need an extensive awareness campaign to educate Muslims about this as well. What were they discussing? They was discussing serious topics, serious issues of monotheism of the trinity

of the status of Jesus.

And it's not versus Christianity so they didn't sidestep and this is what what I don't like sometimes about these interfaith dialogue programs, they, they, they focus so much on the commonalities, which is a good thing to do, but they do it at the cost of

really coming to grips with the differences. And how do we respectfully This is where the respect comes in. How do we respectfully engage in difference in a dialogue on these really difficult questions? So now I'm talking about difficult questions about religion, challenging secularism, but also Islam.

Challenging other religions, core beliefs. And this is where the issue of and some religious groups don't want religion included. Because then if Muslims say that Jesus is the son of is not the Son of God, Christian groups can then challenge that and take Muslims to court and say that you are very fine. Now, you are vilifying core belief of our religion. Have you thought about that?

Some Muslims thought about that. Right? Because they believe they say that Jesus is

the Son of God. So now you can you say no, Jesus is not the Son of God. Jesus is a prophet of God, are you vilifying a core belief of this? So that's another that's why I call it a double edged sword.

But anyway, so I mentioned this example of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and that this example that we from this example of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, we learn to go beyond tolerance, because tolerance is just putting up with somebody.

Islam says no, respect the others. Because what you're doing is you're respecting the choice that Allah subhanho wa Taala gave to those people. The choice that our login view, Allah also gave it to them. So we spent a lot of choice. They choose not to believe respect that, accept it, deal with it. Let the truth stand out clearly from the last panels, Allah says in the

video bigger, will Hekmati will know a little hustle, invite them to the way of Allah subhanho wa Taala, despite the fact that they rejected, invite them to do it with wisdom and beautiful admonition beautiful speech. That's the challenge for us. And that's where the respect and respectful engagement comes in, defined to us by Allah subhanho wa Taala in the proton. So it's not condescending condescension, it's not arrogance, it's not belittling, it's not putting them down. And I will come to the next place we can work either on freedom of speech, what is Islam position on freedom of speech, Islam says that it is not unlimited.

It has obligations and responsibilities attached to it. Every freedom comes with an obligation, every rights comes with with an associate, associate obligation. And in Islam, Allah subhanho wa Taala makes this an accountable obligation, that we will be held accountable for every word that we utter, every word, everything that we say, will be recorded, and we will be accounted for it. And Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us in the end, Do not insult those

whom they call upon besides God, besides a lot less they out of spite, insult Allah in their ignorance.

To that extent, a lie is now giving us the guidelines of how we deal with this dialogue. And how do we maintain that respect, as long as we don't insult the other.

And in the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

he would do me a favor for the apple hire an odious, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day to speak good will remain silent. So there is a righteous imperative in speech itself, that is non sanctions.

And then finally, the contemporary challenges that we have that I listed, separating religion, from socio political matters. The separation of religion and state, Islam didn't have that problem. Islam doesn't have that problem. Islam is not a political there is a place for politics in Islam. So how do we deal with them in a secular environment where that has taken place? What about the private versus public space, especially when that public space is under the authority of a secular normal framework?

And that's why that's why we have these challenges today, because Islam says no, there is no separation between private and public. It's all under the same domain. And then what about the majority versus the minority?

Does the majority have the authority even over minority? Or can a minority dictate over the majority? And then the other question is, and this is what non Muslims are scared about secular versus religious authority.

Running Muslim state, so we have the challenges now in Egypt, for example,

is there going to be an introduction of a religious authority? And how is that going to pan out? Can we show that working?

Can we demonstrate to the west that yes, it can, it can work, there's no there's no need to be scared about.

And then the issue of defamation, as I mentioned before, defamation versus constructive critique interfaith dialogue, talking about the differences in our beliefs, is it defamation or is it just critique, so freedom to promote freedom to undermine social cohesion as happened with Alan Jones, where they take freedom of speech to its nth degree without restrictions, without

Clements, and then the last issue that I'm still currently investigating

is the issue of blast. Sorry, blasphemy, and apostasy. What is the stance position? What are the legal positions on that? And how does that fit? How does the issue of blasphemy when the secular normal now it has completely taken blasphemy out of the equation, but it currently still exists in some Muslim states.

And how does that fit so that's what I mentioned before with some Muslim states having entered into modality lamppost modality. So that the question of blasphemy is something that Muslims living as minorities in a Western secular state, we are confronted with these issues now. And how do we how do we address this challenge?

So financial, I hope that wasn't too much for you to put on the table for left.

handed level sold out. Salatu was Salam anata, Sunni less of the lohani who early he was like me, he was sending more back.

Always We begin by praising Allah Subhana Allah to Allah sending our prayers of peace upon the messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we testify with firmness and conviction that none is worthy of worship of Allah. And that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is is worshipping slave and final messenger. So the love Ani, earlier Sophia was

one of the unique characteristics of our faith is that it's built on surety, it's built on what we describe as European certainty. And for us as Muslims, we hold that which was revealed by a law and that which has been authentically reported from the messenger Mohammed's I've settled on his life as being primary sources of evidence in how we lead our life, how we govern ourselves, how we build relationships, how we dissolve them, how we interact within them, what relationships are permitted, what are not. And therefore we have a code of conduct that is not just constitutional, but it's in fact spiritual. And the loss of Hannah to Allah, therefore manifests for us in the Koran and

example, in all aspects of our life. And the law puts a challenge to humanity by saying, on the Hudson rafanelli, necessity has an army including the method, we have given to humanity, a parable, a similitude, an example that they can use in every aspect of their life. So whether you're looking at family relations, whether you're looking at husband and wife relations, whether you're looking at trade and commerce, whether you're looking at life and death, whether you're looking at Penal Law, whether you're looking at

you know, Father relating to to children, all all spheres and isms, have been touched upon by the word of Allah subhana wa Tada. And one of the unique features of the Quran, which is not found in any of the other previous revelations is that it is inclusive of humanity in all of their ratio, linguistic, cultural, environmental, geographic confines. In fact, it was relevant at the time of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, remains as relevant today, and continues and will continue to be equally relevant up until the end of time.

And in coming to understand that Vantage that as Muslims, we seek to always instill in our heart, that we were created by Allah Subhana Allah to Allah with a purpose. And I really want to begin by talking about respectful relationships, by respecting ourselves.

It's easy when we say all you have to be nice to other people. And in fact, whenever when anyone talks about respect, they're usually talking about how you conduct yourself with others. But in fact, loss of Hannah went to Allah talks about the honor and respect that is endowed within us that we are to cherish within us. So Allah reminds us and says, when a cup called one, then

we have honored you as a human being as a creation of Allah. And another place of loss of handling which Allah says he acts as the queen, we have created you or mankind in the best of creation.

So you find that you as a human being are three parts.

You are Jesson. You are a body

and you are an intellect and reason and rationale. And you are

nefs rule. So these three things make up what we call insane

and insane what an insane. The word inside and out of the law utilizes it

is one who is oft forgetting his place with a law. And lots of one on one to Allah describes Adam, who is the first enzyme. I hate that either add them in blue fantasy, we gave Adam a covenant. In the early days of his life when he was in fantasy he forgot. And from that date on, the angels would refer to Adam and his progeny as insan, the one who forgets the covenant with a lot. How do we forget it? Why? Because you're these three things, which is what differentiates us from others, this table, and Dr. Massey, Matthews, he's a scientist, he's a pharmacist,

he will educate us on these matters. This table

is made of the same elements that I made of this water that I'm drinking, I am you are 70%, h two, O.

That's you, your carbon, your sulfur, your silica, your all these things. And a lot of tells you mean how hallak Napa from the earth you were created.

to such a degree that a law shows us in our times in modern science, that if May Allah always give us health and prosperity, that if your heart weakens,

and they need to change a valve. In the early days, they would take the valve out of a swine, a pig, which is 99%, biologically genetically similar to you, they can take that out of the pig's heart and put it in your human heart. And when Dr. Matthews drugs you can live

because your body and the body of that animal is genetically the same, pretty much.

Our bodies cannot be differentiated, once they decayed from the organic matter of the earth. I mean, how fala finacle wifia norito come and do what you will be in tuned in return. So you like the animals, the things that walk around the Earth, just like you breathe, the air and leave are the same body.

But you've been given something a step further, which is our intellect. And this ability to reason which is really much of what Dr. Matthew was speaking about earlier.

And part of the clashes that you find is how people use that reason. Some things could be you know, you sometimes are astounded at how human beings conduct themselves. And what you'll see is an intellectual person, it could be the Speaker of the House, for example, can make fatal errors, using his phone that caused him to lose his job, lose his family disgrace himself, millions of dollars in lawsuits.

He's such a bright person. What happened. And what you find when you look at humanity is that some of the smartest people do some of the stupidest things.

And our rationale, which are walking down to us gave us to return to Him to look at what we have tobacco, and appreciate what he has given us as a connection back to him is underutilized. The third part which now separates you from the other animals, because I can teach a chimp to hold a cup and drink from it. Just like I can teach my young son Adam to drink from his cup without dropping it to recognize patterns to even read.

I can we can decipher language amongst many of the other animals. There's levels of reason and rationale. But what you and I have that others don't have

is our neffs which is rule the word roll her naps are the same throw when it's outside the body. before it enters in you it's your role. After it exits your body its role while it's in you, it's your next one I've seen one master worker,

the soul and the one who brought it to being Savannah who went on this neffs is really

At the core of who you are, but we do things completely the opposite.

With my young children, if they begin to cough or get sick, I look after their body really quickly, I run to the doctor

help, what medicine what

illness is it, diagnose it, fix it cure, it helped me.

Go to school, and take him to kumaon and lessons and sit and teach and read, jack and Jill went up the hill, right? Learn.

You look after the body and the mind. And one of the most under neglected aspects, which should be the most looked after. and nurtured aspect is the neffs the soul. So this young child, this young adult, this young man, this older man, this husband, this wife, this father, this Mother, are looking after the first two, but they forget that what drives them is the next Chase and the some of them for him. He says, The proof that the soul governs all the rest, is that its departure ruins the rest, the moment your soul leaves your bed and collapses, your intellect ceases, the soul is the key to your life and my life. And therefore we begin our passage of respectful relationships by

respecting that soul. And the Divinity that Allah subhanho wa Taala puts upon us in being given that soul is that he tells you to look to the other things that he has created without a soul. And then layers it by telling you to look to human beings, who have a soul but have ruined it, and now resemble animals. So a lot tells you

as is in sort of an arm. And in other chapters, Allah uses this parable and so on and so forth on and others, he says

that there are human beings level, you know,

they've been given on, they cannot see what they can see, but they can't perceive with well

known law Yes, my own nebbia they've been given ears that they can't hear with. While at home, Hulu en la Yes, Kahuna beha. And they've been blessed with a heart, intellect, reason, rationale, that they don't understand anything with it or not, he can tell and they are like cattle animals.

Benham about No, they're worse because they have a soul that they've ruined. They're not even at that level.

A loss not talking to people who don't know him. He's speaking to you and I have a measure of right and wrong clarity and an ability to choose how we conduct our life. And therefore part of our tawheed and Allah subhanho wa Taala. The seven steps of our belief which is coming to faith is really simple.

Our respecting ourselves is submitting to a lot. And it's difficult for us at times to

speak of this

in a way where we don't regret some of our past behavior. You enter to hear it or say it. You have to regret mistakes that we've made in our life. And therefore I would tell hate to Allah is the dignity and the respect of love seeks for you within yourself in how you will conduct yourself in humanity. The first step of self hate is fallible, and that will let you die no knowledge no learn. Learn about Allah. Use your eyes to see your ears to hear your heart to perceive and understand. I felt the majesty of the Creator.

The world that you reside upon the elements that are made up of you that you replenish with a sip of water each and every day

is a remembrance of the one who provided it.

And I want you to think this cup of water My dear brothers, my dear sisters, I want you to think about your life. This sip of water was meant for no one but me.

Dr. Matthews has a separate sip of water. Now when you look at water I want you to understand because this is public. This is belief right?

This water may have traveled millions of kilometers

Over 1000s, hundreds of 1000s millions of years, it might have been in an iceberg

that dissolved in an ocean of saltwater. That was evaporated and transpiration through plants and animals into the clouds. It might have rain down in Africa

and came underwater

and was tapped at a source and bottled

and brought so that no one but me on this day and in this night, can touch it by

Allah

who is cuckoo sama your rules is with a ma da Lem know with surety.

There is a lot

in builds your claim that certainty of faith that when you take the sick, you're not just saying Bismillah

you're saying this mean law because it reminds you

that this has come down from the heavens and a law tells you in Nepal, an

wobbly blue method and Haiya dunia comma, enzyme now.

Show them that the parable of their life is made simple by knowing that it's like the water that's descended from the heavens. This is your life, this sip of water.

No one else just you.

It's yours. rooting for you. In that leads to your theme certainty. We're talking about self respect before a law

that your team produces must produce within you. A desire to accept Allah.

You begin to accept holding clear, then it's qaboun you accept Allah. And then you submit to Allah that acceptance must transport to submission and there's things you submit to that at times you may not rush in lines and your intellect may come in its way and you come to a point and you say no, I need to think a little bit further. Even if I can't rationalize it, I follow it until it is determined from me with proof from the word of Allah and from the statements of His Messenger Mohammed sizes.

Knowledge, certainty, acceptance, submission.

So

truthfulness.

You become truthful with a lot. What does that mean? How you are in public you are in you are in private, how you are in you're on the internet at home is the same way you are in the internet at work. You don't need your boss over looking over you so that you don't do what's wrong. you're careful with your dealings with a law saw do

that truthfulness leads to a loss. It's only after you're truthful with yourself that you can ever develop sincerity with a lot. It's only after you can look at yourself in the mirror

and return to Allah remember Allah Why do you think the profit side suddenly when he teaches us like to look in the mirror and we see we look nice to say aloha Maxine, hello, please come and

make my character as beautiful as you've made my appearance to remind you of being honest in your dealings with yourself and others. truthfulness with yourself and others leads to sincerity you become sincere with Allah.

That sincerity leads you to love and the basis of our faith. The seventh pillar of our trophy

is love. Loving a lot man. And that love of Allah stem through love of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam extends them to loving your wife, loving your children loving your neighbor.

I want to give you a few quotes. I have two minutes.

emammal vasarely He says, I want you to think about the gravity of your life and the decisions we make. Emmanuel bizarrely says if you have hurt someone

absent mindedly you remember, oh yeah, I said something about this person. Or I took from this person or I spoke ill of this person and he wasn't there to defend himself. If you insulted harm, done something against someone and you're no longer in a position to ask their forgiveness. They may have passed away. They may have traveled to another country. You don't know where they are. You might not even know their name might have been an insult and a grudge you mean to an unknown person.

He says to you

prepare extra good deeds.

So that when a law takes your good deeds and gives it to that man or woman, you have some leftover for your salvation. Wow.

You can't just say stuff for love Sorry brother. Oh ALLAH forgive me. You hurt someone you think you can hurt someone, anyone, even an animal in this life? The prophets I send them says a woman meaning a pious woman was put into punishment on the Day of Judgment. Why? Because she tracked the cat didn't feed it or drink for an animal.

Another one the puppets. I send them says our hero, a woman a lady's maid of honor us who would sell herself to others. She was freed from Hellfire expiated ever since because she untied the cat and David water.

Don't ever overlook the the slights and insults that we harm any human being, whether it's property,

life, honor, reputation, all of that is governed with a law. Finally,

I wish to end with a Hadith of the messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

where he says as a Muslim,

the Muslim men Selman Muslim moon, I mean listen, he

is the one who the Muslims who he lives amongst, who he interacts with in the messages, who he goes into the shop and buy things. And Muslim and Solomon Muslim moon Emily's everywhere be. The one who is distinct as a Muslim is the one who those who interact with all the time in his community are free from his hand and his tongue. When movement the believer, which is a step above, the Muslim men, Amina, who NASS, he doesn't now talk about other Muslims. The believer is the one who mankind anyone Muslim, not Muslim doesn't make a difference. I let him while he was enforcing our feel secure, that they would never harm their property or their person. This is the teaching of our

messenger Muhammad Sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and the roots of respect to others, is to identify our toe heed and Allah to strengthen our relationship with the one who gave us the breaths we take, and the sips of water. We consume a photo holy cow stuff in LA Nabina. Lee, welcome to stop guru. In Nahuatl afford Rahim.

We have a few short little bit of time that I just want to make sure that we get to quickly I had an opportunity to ask some questions before I shot. And I'm sorry for rushing through, because

I'm coming from a search very quickly. So I'm happy to take some questions from the floor. For anyone who's asked by religion, for example, and your friend, but you know that that person, he knows what's right and what's wrong, but because he got the freedom of choosing what you want to do, but you as a friend would use it, what do you do? let you know if he knows what's right or wrong, that if you even give him that, see how it is? There's no way so yeah, there's not like my ha face.

Yeah, I think there's a difference between freedom of choice to enter the religion and freedom of choice to comply with the religion. So we need to make that distinction first. So if somebody enters into Islam, and then there are certain things that they have contracted or agreed to contract with, and they have willingly done that, so that if there are obligations that as Muslim I need to comply with, then I need to try my best to do that. And I need to have good friends like yourself to remind me. So when we find others that are in need of sound advice and encouragement to comply with the obligations to help us then we need to, we need to do that. And obviously, we need to do it in the

best possible way because we care for that person. And we know that that person has a contract with a loss of Hamilton and our motivation is to help them fulfill their obligations just like we would like to fulfill ours and have others advise and encourage us to fulfill our obligations with a loss of habitat. So it comes about the two things Yes, we need to we need to advance we need to help but also the How is important how we do that to help them is also very important, as opposed to if you choose a method that's going to hurt and cause them to rebel. Then we need to refine the how the method may approach that.

And you said that, knifes is the one drives everything, everything but in

And then know that distinction you made you said Roger is called one after it leaves the body. And before that is called enough in the client is mentioned three different types of nuts. So how will you be able to

the whole time of that movie. So you have most of us who believe in the law are a nefs elewana.

And the left Silla woman blames itself you do good, and then you regret not doing more, or you do good. And then you do something not good. So you regret not having continued in the good, or you do what is in clear error, and you regret it and you return back to a lot that luminesce. So you're always regretful of yourself. There is an episode of a soul that has reached a place of tranquility, equilibrium and balance in its relationship with a lot. It is pleasing to Allah and Allah is pleased with it. The third soul is a nice amount of his suit. And this soul is the soul that invites one to sinful behavior and restricts one from good deeds. That's the soul where the shavon sits back, and

takes notes from you and says, You're doing well Mashallah continue continue to write, because your soul is driving you to greater and greater pursuits and distance from a lot. So therefore, it is a nefs amount of the suit, it binds you to sinful behavior. So those three are characteristics of the soul, but the soul is one. And they asked the prophets I send them and Allah responds and about a raucous aluna fanaroff am Emily Robbie, it is from the nature and from the creation of a lock, well, that would teach him in life,

even if it was explained that you would not be able to fathom. So it is from LA. But its characteristics are one of the three states that

I have a question for you. Yes, he did mention you didn't mention respectful in each moment. So

where you might be the minority? You're the only one Muslim in class? How could we? Like how could we pay

to invite our friends like, we don't be aggressive or something.

Okay.

All of us, we have an obligation to invite those around us to Islam. Now, the way we choose to do that varies from time and place and the situation we find ourselves in. And normally, the easiest and best way to invite people to Islam without even having to speak to them is through our behavior, and the way we interact and demonstrate Islam. And that's something I mentioned before. If truth stands out clearly from error as a loss of cameltoe dimensions in the program, then we need to manifest that truth in the way that we behave, and interact with them. So sometimes you do dour without a formal invitation to Islam. So that's, that's the starting point. And I think that it's

easy for most people to work on most Muslims to work on. And in fact, we should all be working on it constantly improving our behavior, finding our character in line with a character taught to us by the prophet sallallahu combined with the ethics and principles that Islam requires of us. And that's sometimes it's difficult,

difficult to Muslims to be ethical, principled with the refined character. So I think there's a lot of work that we all, I think we've all acknowledged that we have a lot of work to do in that space, when it comes to our dialogue, through behavior, but then when it comes specifically to invite people there, you need to face the fight to build relationships with people to understand where they're coming from, what approach you need to use, and this is from the methodology that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam told us so the Prophet knew his people knew the people around him and knew which aspects of Islam to introduce them to talk to them about. And you can only know that once you

understand and establish the basic relationship, sometimes you can do that very easily. And there are many, many things is that this is a huge, a huge, huge topic. So I'm just giving you just some some some basic instance Shall we live and as I mentioned, before, we live in a secular environment. So sometimes talking about religion is not because religion in the public space and talking about religion in the public spaces, it is something that if you talk if you talk religion openly to people, they will say please, religion and politics is something we don't talk about. So you will hear that so you need to you need to be aware of that. So what you do is then you use

surrogate methods of introducing the topic of religion, so you use food you use? Why are you doing this? Why are you wearing your hijab, for example. So you use you wait for those opportunities when they come about, then you grab them quickly, and you talk about

I'm sorry, just to add something, they're often thinking between myself about the time of how it must have been Muslim Islam, the state of Islam, what it must have been like to have a country like Indonesia or Malaysia turn Muslim, just through the interaction in faith between Muslims.

Where are those Muslims? Why can't we just bring that back in, and you know, have that level of quality that others around us to just be dealing with us? Find us at such a high level that they want to join our faith in order to do that? One day, we'll get there until I met God, but through us as well.

I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit more, because I know it's a big

competition. But then, how do you balance that out?

You asked about the dollar question. I wrote an article. I don't know if you guys read Muslim matchers. It's a it's a blog anyways, if you go to Muslim matters.org, I'm one of the they're specialists there, or one of their authors. They're just typing my name. There's an article called and our.

And our, and it talks about how people don't do dallah because of their behavior, and how behavior comes in the way of people coming to Islam or Muslims, practicing Islam, because of some of the things that we do. So it might be worthwhile to read them in trouble. As for other sister, really, it's three things.

There are three levels of clutter.

One level is what happens to you, you have no control of it. And that's many people, they say, how can you believe you know, there's fate and you know, all this kind of stuff. There are things that happen to you, you could be at a red light, you're not breaking any laws seatbelts on your park properly, and a truck hits you from the back cover.

So color is confined in those three, anytime you're asked about how does predestiny work, it's really with those two issues that are beyond our control. And the third one is in your control. So a law has given you limits into what you have control over and it's in the things that define you, who you're born to who your parents are, where you were raised, what country you're in, not a single one of us can ever determine how they are here today as being part of their own effort. If you read for people like Malcolm Gladwell, and you know, some other writers where they talk about outliers, and they analyze statistics, for example, did you guys know

that 80% of professional soccer players were born? January February March 2 being serious. Do you think those are lucky months? Oh, my God, you know, he's got to play for Arsenal. Make sure you give birth in January. You know why? statistics. The cutoff for junior soccer leagues is December in the Northern Hemisphere. So if your son is born in December, he can play that year. So he'll be five years old. Oh, he's born in December. Yeah, he can start. But if your son was born January 1, he's got to wait till next year, which means he will grow for a full year. And when he comes to play, he's going to be bigger, taller, quicker, smarter than the one who was born in December. Right?

statistic. Why? Why did Chinese people okay, we're getting really, you know,

why don't Chinese pig Why are Chinese people better in math? It's a fact.

Because the Chinese really eat fish. Like they tell you, you know, my dad would say eat lots of fish you'll do much better.

Right? No. Why? Because when you count, you're counting sounds you're not counting letters and numbers. And reading in Cantonese, the sounds 123 any? Any Cantonese speaking people hear? If you hear it, the 123456 sound phonetically the same. So when they count they don't have to use more than one

letter in their brain. So one and five count sound total

Different, but one and five in Cantonese sound very similar. So their brain which counts the sound, not the finger, counts it quicker. So they're better in that.

It's true.

Why is Bill Gates the richest men in the world are one?

Because his mom was What? Why? Why was he so good with computers? There were only three supercomputers in the United States of America when Bill Gates was in high school 331 in NASA, and one in the university that, that he lives next door to which his mom was a fundraiser for.

So because his mom was the main fundraiser for that university, they used to let her son use the computer at night for free. NASA scientists had to book it three months in advance, but Bill Gates is sitting there

every night playing games.

Right? If Bill Gates was born in Melbourne, he wouldn't be the Bill Gates, you know.

I'm guessing we should probably wrap it up because I think that is just about to

be made. So we'd like to thank our speakers today.

Brothers, Dr. Matthews, and

also like to remind everyone, the event today is also co sponsored by fancy Victoria, please feel free to log on to the Facebook page fancy Victoria and find out about some things that we're doing such as the leadership program about the leadership inspire Leadership Program. Applications are actually open at the moment we have Hanalei had the pleasure of having both shapes, presents for one day sessions, I think, at least once in Melbourne. So looking forward to people going through the software that fancies purchased on the leadership qualities building so that we can go out into the community and become the perfect examples of respectful relationships with others inshallah,

starting with ourselves, and

we'd like to thank you all for coming again today and thank you, and

please enjoy and look forward to seeing you at future events like this.