Yasir Qadhi – Am I The Same As 20 Years Ago

			I graduated from the Mr. Medina, in the College of theology, my master's is 100 published, you can
see it 800 pages in Arabic in our 50 pages, I went on to the PhD, again, in Islamic theology and
intellectual history, I have published papers, I have a book coming out in the academic world, again
about all of these topics. And so this is an area I have studied internally. And also being a very
active diary, I have to make decisions externally as well. Right? So this is an area very near and
dear to me. And if you're not aware of that I myself have undergone a number of changes. If you are
aware, then you know, if you're not then the so called the of today is not the so called the of
		

			1520 30 years ago. And there are reasons for this. It's not because the software Allah I'm trying to
please or placate it's not because there's an element of watering down. No, it is because
experienced teachers you would books will not teach you experienced teachers you would books will
not teach you. Theory is one thing and practices another. And you know the irony, we all know this
in every single field, we know it in medicine, we know it in engineering, we know it. None of you
when you graduate from your bachelor's degree, takes your bachelor's degree knowledge and then
applies it directly in the work, there's always a training and you realize much of my training is
		

			absolutely new. I needed the bachelors to walk in. But once I'm here, the stuff I'm learning is
totally disconnected a different. The same thing applies to Islamic methodology. The same thing
applies to theory in Islamic activism versus practicality in Islamic activism, when you are studying
in a classroom, in a sanitized environment, when everybody is on the same wavelength, everybody's
believing in your version of Islam, it's very easy to have theoretical guidelines. Now get out of
that classroom and get to a community like Islam, Mississauga, get out of that sanitized version,
and now deal with people on the ground of all different persuasions, all different backgrounds, all
		

			different understandings. And all of a sudden, your theoretical abstract rules don't make any sense.
This is what happened to yours truly, this is case exhibit A, I have no embarrassment in admitting
that I came here with idealistic notions, naive notions, when I came from the Christian Medina,
after having studied 10 years, and one of the most advanced most difficult and also, to be brutally
honest, one of the most ultra conservative seminaries in the Muslim world. 10 years I was immersed
in that bubble. And I came out thinking, What can these people teach me about anything I know my
tradition, I know the law. I know the evidences. But one thing after another and interacting and
		

			making some blunders and causing harm, causing people to not want to pray in the masjid because of a
fatwa errors or an idea you had. And you realize, hey, that theory doesn't work in practice in
reality, and so I have to go back and rethink and get much water from my other peers and colleagues
and so on. And so here I am still the same person, and yet not the same person. Still the same flesh
and blood, but without a doubt, not the same ideas that I had. And you know, I have no no
embarrassment to say this because Wallahi you know, Muhammad Ali has a statement. If your mama daddy
the boxer, if your views at the age of 60 are exactly the same as they were when you were 30 it
		

			means you've wasted 30 years of your life. If your views when you're 60 years old, your opinions are
exactly the same. This means you haven't learned anything you have remained stuck, stagnant. So yes,
without a doubt, my views have changed. And I know many critics and Allah has blessed me with
Mashallah. Plenty of critics. So be it my goal is not to provoke the criticism or to answer to the
criticism will lie my goal is the pleasure of Allah and the unification of the Muslim ummah as much
as possible
		

			either gonna
		

			be a monster here eaten, doll seni one tells
		

			me what to feed
		

			it let's
		

			go Ruby to my journey
		

			down to
		

			the zoo