EVERYTHING Starts With Knowledge

Hamdulillah we begin by praising Allah subhana hooter, Allah, the One and the unique, it is he alone that we worship, and it is his aid that we seek. He it is who revealed the Quran to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and He taught Adam how to speak. He it is Who hears the dua of the one who is oppressed, and he is the one who answers the plight of the weak. So may Salatin Salam be upon the one who was chosen to embody the prophetic peek as to what follows we're all aware that the very first revelation that Allah revealed was if Quran in a society and a land where people did not know how to read if inside then as the MacArthur reports that there were probably 15 People in Makkah

that could read and write and Makkah had a population of roughly 3000 You do the math, that is point 5% literacy rate of Arabia, in a land where there was not a single school in a country or a region that did not have a library, there was no library in that entire Arabian Peninsula. Allah subhana wa Tada chooses to send down the final book upon the final messenger and he begins the revelation of that book with a word that we have all memorized if caught up. And our Prophet sallallahu either he was sent them is terrified and shocked he's confused and agitated. What do you mean if kura ma Anna because it I don't know how to read How would I know how to read what's education was there there's

no Madras for me to learn no child is taught how to read and write how do you expect me to read if Cara manner because it could not be thought it I don't know how to read? And then Gibreel says to him no, yeah rasool Allah, your Cara is not going to be from the readings of men. Your camera is a different camera. Your camera is the only camera where when you don't know how to read and you are a Nabil or me for you it becomes an honor and appraise and for anybody else it would not be an honor and appraise because you you're a sweat Allah, you don't need to read from an encyclopedia. You don't need to read from the writings of men. You don't need to read from the latest theologians and

scientists. On the contrary, ya rasool Allah, You shall read if Quran Bismillah Rebecca lady Hello, your recitation will come from Allah by Allah through Allah your recitation is linked directly to him who needs the writings of men when you are connected to him. So our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was told you don't need to read and write the writings of men. You ya rasool Allah shall read and write, your recitation will come directly from Allah. If Quran this smear robic with the name of Allah, the blessings of Allah, the baraka of Allah, that's where the Quran is gonna come from. But then Allah subhana wa Tada in the same revelation underscores another type of camera and that camera

is a camera that is different from the first one if Quran whare book Allah Karim, Allah the eye lemma Bill Kalam, I lemon in Santa Madame Yeah, Adam, in this revelation of five verses, Allah mentions two types of two types of knowledge, two types of reading the first knowledge the first reading, it is divine, if Quran Bismillah big, that is the revelation, that's something that is going to come from Allah through the prophet system to us, and he doesn't need the knowledge of men. But there is another knowledge and that knowledge, Allah has gifted all of us, Allah has gifted it because he is a chrome he wants to be generous by nature, He is Generous, There is none who is more

generous than him. And his generosity was manifested in the knowledge that he allowed us to acquire. And then he allowed us to build upon what our predecessors have acquired. You see, we take knowledge for granted. We take reading and writing for granted. But imagine just imagine a world where every single generation had to start from square one where you didn't know what the research of the last generation had given you. Imagine you had to rebuild the world from scratch every single generation and you couldn't pass knowledge down where would we be the reason why we are standing where we are standing today. The reason why we have reached the pinnacle of technology and of scientific

achievement and of medicine is because the Quran has taught us a mechanism of how to cumulatively accumulate knowledge how to pass knowledge from one generation to another, from one civilization to another, from one mind to another. When we write it is literally almost like magic. You know, the Mongols, Chingiz Han the Mongols. They were so scared of writing that they would execute every writer and they would burn every book. Why? Because they said this must be magic. How can somebody communicate from his mind to the mind of another person? This must be magic. It is not magic. It is

a crumb who taught us who taught us and no other species, no species, the animals talk. Yes, the animals talk hours previous speaker told us the plants talk everything talks, but only one species rights. Only one species records that knowledge. A Corolla Bukal, Karim, Allah, the middle column, he taught us the column, he taught us how to read and write, he taught us so that I remembered in Santa Monica, Mia, Adam, we can learn what Allah wants us to learn. And we can take the knowledge of the last years of the last centuries of the last generations and keep on building from them. And because we can build from previous generations and previous scientists, engineers, therefore we can

go higher and higher, every single era. And we're now living in an era where Allah azza wa jal knows what the future will hold. So these verses mentioned two types of knowledge, divine knowledge, and what we call secular knowledge. The both of them are gifts from Allah, but the one is direct and protected and sanctioned, and the other is indirect and trial and error. The one is infallible, the other is fallible. The one has a direct communication with our Creator and the other Allah allows us to experiment with the creation. And Allah allows us to go as far as we can sometimes fallible, sometimes with mistakes, and sometimes we get it right, these two knowledges both of them come from

Allah. And if Quran these five verses, they reminded the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and through him, all of us, that Allah wants us to have both types of knowledge is the first revelation mentioned both of these knowledges it is as if Allah is saying Everything starts with knowledge, everything starts with him. And that's why Imam Al Bahati in his famous books I heard Behati he has a chapter in the very first book, he has a chapter, Bob, Pablo Amman, the chapter of knowing before doing the chapter of learning before speaking, you have better learn in and then you do your Amman. Everything begins with that knowledge. And that is exactly what our Prophet sallallahu alayhi

wasallam did. He began teaching and preaching the very first madrasa if you like, the very first system of learning, it was our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the university that he founded was the university in his own Masjid. It wasn't a physical University. It wasn't a structure, but there was tarbiyah. And there was knowledge and the Sahaba understood, they have a task ahead of them, and they would eagerly flocked to the Prophet sallallahu. Either he would send them they would study they would memorize or would have been a hot tub. He had a person who would go with schedules one day he would go one day, his neighbor would go and they would swap information

and they would do business one day and learn the other day, why they've been troubled. And as symptomatic some of these famous graduates, Ibn Omar says, We learned to memorize five verses from the prophets of Allah or either you would send them and then we would understand those verses before moving on to the next five, we wouldn't just memorize in our era we memorize which is fine, not a problem, per se, but the Companions understood that the Quran wasn't just meant for memorization, he said, we memorize five verses, then we stopped and we did not continue until we understood and acted upon them. Then we moved on to the next five. And by the way, do you know how many Sahaba memorize

the Quran and the life of the prophet Sallallahu either he was seldom you will be shocked to discover hadith is in Makati, for people, for people because they understood the responsibility of what it entails to memorize the Quran. They thought it's such a big task that they would rather do it piecemeal bit by bit and then understand it and then make comment upon it. So our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught the best generation of students from that university graduated the best of the best workers so the top Earth man don't know rain. The Allahu and all of them graduated from that university. The Prophet system produced movers and shakers leaders. This is that

mark of a true leader, a true leader produces leaders and every single major companion became a leader in his own right, every single companion contributed in some way to the Ummah, the true leadership of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam nurtured the talents of different Sahaba what you saw in one he didn't see in the other. So he nurtured that and therefore he didn't what he is not known for narrating a hadith, he had a task to play, and he did it. Abu Hurayrah is not known for battleship. That's not what he's meant for. He did what he was assigned to do Hassan Ibn sabot, the official poet of the Prophet, sallAllahu, Sena, he had a task to do, and he did it the best.

That's what the leader does. And that's what the University of our prophets of Allah, why do we send them did those Sahaba after the process have left this dunya they went their different ways. And each one began their own madrasa. It wasn't a madrasa like ours. It wasn't a physical structure, but they

carried there even with them. They understood this religion is everything about him. Everything begins with knowledge. This is how our religion is going to be preserved. And so even Massoud moves to Kufa, Kufa was the nether regions. Kufa was the faraway land the very last city on earth that was still Muslim, even muster with booze the farthest away and he opens his own school again, not an actual school and he graduates students after students, even Abbas moves to Makkah, they didn't Sabbath stays in Medina, different people go different places, and each one begins graduating batches upon batches throughout our history. Those people of knowledge have been the ultimate

backbone of the OMA, not politicians, not leaders, not put. How many of you know the whole effort of the Obama years and Abbasids under oath and the Ottomans, they did their job, but every one of you knows him Ahmed Bukhari, every one of you knows Imam Shafi. Every one of you knows Imam Abu Hanifa. These are the people who preserved our religion is the backbone of our religion. Yes, it's good to have a nice Khalifa. Yes. We love the OMA Yes. And Abbas is an Ottomans for the good that they did. But Islam is preserved through him. It Cora so when these Sahaba graduated students slowly but surely, the concept began, we need to begin to codify scholarship, the Sahaba didn't have manuals

that they would teach. They didn't have textbooks, it was impromptu what you would expect. But eventually, second, third century, people began writing down Imam Malik said, let me write a book of Hadith. And that began an entire trend of Hadith scholars of seers, that let me compile the seal scholars of language Cebo 150. He said, let me write the first manual of Arabic grammar. He wrote, The first manual scholars of language began writing dictionaries. So knowledge began to become in different disciplines. And this happened in early Islam. So then the idea became, why don't we have different specialities these specialities the process and didn't have a Halaqaat intercede a halacha

filter? No, he was everything together. But then later on, the specialities began, because knowledge began to be codified. And so in the second, third century, we have this this specialization beginning. And so a student of knowledge, realize, if I want to become a scholar, I need to go from teacher to teacher spend two, three years with a scholar of Hadith, and then travel to the scholar of Tafseer, then go to the scholar of fifth so that I can become a well rounded scholar, and this happened in the second third century. At this time, as well, this, the rulers began to realize that we need to protect our scholars, because scholars they have a difficult time, you know, living and

fundraising, they have a difficult time with students. And so rulers understood that it is our responsibility to help and therefore some of the most famous rulers of the Abbasids of the Seljuks of the hundreds that was the visit our land of India Pakistan of understand the US nervous, began sponsoring, Madeira says this was the first time around the third century of the hijra, where people understood if we really want scholarship, we can't expect somebody to just start a Madras on their own. There were no fundraisers back then the way we have them. There was government money, there was money that the government had, and the government realized if we want to defend Islam, we need to

have scholarship. And by the way, the scholarship was every for every group, the Fatimids of Egypt. This is an smilie group. They weren't Sunnis, the Fatimids of Egypt in order to spread their Dawa, they founded a university called Azhar, as her became one of the first universities founded back in 350 Hijra. They did it in order to spread their ideology and Dawa until Salahuddin came in and of course, made it into a Sunni institution. The point is, the rulers understood that if we want to support Islam, we need to support scholarship. It was also at this point in time when the idea came, why not? How can students go from teacher to teach her and then spend a decade Why don't we bring

all the teachers under one roof and have the students study different subjects and have the first people to do that was known as almond milk, the famous the famous general there, the Prime Minister, you can say that one of the most famous Prime Ministers of the entire Ummah, almost everybody has heard the name does almond milk, right? There's almond milk, he was of the Prime Minister of the Seljuk Empire, the Seljuks were the predecessors to the Turks, the Seljuks were the first Turkish dynasty and then from them, the Ottomans came so the Seljuks when they took over Ms. Almond milk was their chosen Prime Minister and as onlinne was made an institutional reform that was to forever

change the course of Islamic history and Islam and monk understood we need to found Madras says we need to counter these wrong ideologies coming at the time there was Mandakini ism and all these different other isms coming other false ideologies. He wanted to defend Islam. And so what did he do for the first time in Islamic history? And some say in human history? There's a bit of a controversy is this the first human or only the first in Islamic

He decided why not found what we now call a university bring together different specialists of different fields under one roof, and then bring together the top students so that they don't have to travel place to place to place. No, they can be in one place, and they can study the sciences. And hey, if we're gonna do this, let's have a curriculum. Let's have an actual set subject, how many hours of fit how many hours of Tafseer and so Muslim and Mark began a university that was named after him in honor of him than Islamia colleges. And he founded the first one in his land of Nisha pool. He was from NESHAP pool. And then he wanted to build the grand the grand one, the Ivy League

One, and he did this and of course, the capital of Baghdad, he did into the capital of Baghdad, and he said to his friend, his great mentor from his childhood, his name was your mama joinI, a great scholar of the SHA three in the shadow tradition. He said to Mr. Giuliani, I need a young, dynamic person to make the rector of this Ivy League university in Baghdad. It's the heart of the heart, the capital, the choicest land is going to have the best creme de la creme Give me your best student. And so his almond milk, asked him on a journey and join he said, I have just the guy for you. And that was Imam Al Ghazali. Imam Al Ghazali, was then sent from Nisha poor all the way to Baghdad. And

the rest, as they say, is history that is on me. It was replicated in at least eight different cities, the same curriculum, the same syllabus, it proved to be such a success, that it was exported to other lands, even in India as well. You had the dynasties before the Mughals. What was the dynasty before the Mughals who knows?

Before the Mughal is the famous No, not the Lord is

the Delhi Sultanate very good the Delhi Sultanate the Delhi is salted at copied this type of curriculum and then import it into India from them. Eventually the foreign key mahal opened up and they had their own curriculum from them that they opened came. So it's all a chain reaction, all going back to this almond milk and then Islamia and therefore the notion of having one institution that caters to all the sciences, it really began within the Islamic tradition, a very famous orientalist, a non Muslim expert of Islam, George Makdessi, who used to teach at Yale before I came, he passed away before it was accepted. He was in the generation before me, George Makdessi, wrote a

book you can find on Amazon, the rise of colleges in Islam. That's the title of the book, the rise of colleges in Islam. And his thesis is very simple. And it's actually pretty solid. His thesis is, Muslims were the first to institute colleges and universities. And they were the first to have different levels. And back then there was a basic level, which we now call undergraduate, and there was a higher level called graduate. In fact, according to him, the PhD was actually based upon ijazah, to release the license to be able to teach that once you have reached a certain level, the shift says you have the license to narrate that's a bachelor's degree. But if you go higher and

higher, the shareholders say you are now an independent person, you have the right to hold your own opinion. This quote was called ijazah, Teddy's and this is the equivalent of the PhD, the point being within 100 years of the time of the Sahaba, the landscape of the Muslim world had changed from literally literacy being 0.5%. in Makkah, it's one two, and it went to unprecedented levels. We don't have exact statistics, some have said at 90%, which is a fair estimation point being from 0.5%, you got illiteracy rate of almost 90%. In the Muslim world, for the first time, children are going to a madrasa called the maktabah. To this day, across the world, children are taught mucked

up, as we know even in the most rural villages, even if the child does not get an education in the sciences, they will be taught how to read and write, they will be taught how to write the Arabic and understand the Arabic and this is the reality that no civilization did before Islam, no civilization, raise literacy to the level that Islam did. Why? Because it corrupts the foundation the backbone of our religion is education and both types of education. There is no doubt religious education is the more spiritual one. It's what's gonna get you to Jannah no question about that. But Islam wants you to be educated in the secular sciences. If Quran Bukal Karim, Allah is Karim, he

wants you to know this Allah the unnamable column is an insane amount of Muslims understood this from the beginning, there was never this dichotomy of science versus faith, as was the case in the Western tradition. We never had the equivalent of a Galileo being threatened by the Grand Mufti. If you dare research more will burn you at the stake. That never happened in our 14 and a half centuries, not once was a scientist threatened by the clerics, the clerics understood they

have a role to scientists not just do they have a role. And generally speaking, generally speaking once upon a time, our older ma were educated to a basic level in the sciences. And our scientists were educated to a basic level in the sector in the Religious Sciences. There was no dichotomy by the way, this was even the case in the Western tradition. The Ivy League's, you know, the eight Ivy this of America, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, all of these, what were they do know, initially they were Christian colleges, when they were founded. There were colleges for Christian missionaries, though the emphasis was on the Bible and theology and then you had the arts and the sciences. All of this

changed in the last century. Where did they get this from? According to George MK to see this is coming straight from the Islamia is coming straight from our tradition, this merging of religious sciences and secular sciences. And that is why Subhanallah it's so sad to say this, but once upon a time, it's so sad to see in light of our current situation, Europeans would go study medicine in Muslim lands. This is well known in Toledo later in Toledo in Spain. Toledo fell in the 11th century, to the conquest before before Granada did but Toledo was half Muslim, half Christian. And so because it was half Muslim, half Christian, they didn't expel the Muslims. They kept the

institution's the mantra says, and students began flocking from Europe, from England, from Germany from France to study especially in Toledo, because Toledo in particular they had Christian atmosphere along with the Muslims there. And we know this very well because the first time the Quran was translated into a European language, the very first time it was done by somebody called Robert of Catan. From Catan as a city in England, Roberts of Catan this Robert of Catan. In 1114. He translated the Quran, the Pope told him to translate the Quran, the Crusades had begun. The Pope wanted to get a translator, he traveled to Toledo because Toledo was the place where people would

study Arabic. Christians would study Arabic why? So that they could study medicine, right? Just like now we traveled to America or somebody who came to America to study medicine, you had to learn English, and you studied English to study medicine. Once upon a time, people would travel to Toledo learn Arabic so that they could study the Kitab shifa have even seen, and they could become doctors. So this Robert of Catan was a British person who spoke fluent English, fluent Latin, fluent Arabic, and the rector of the university said to the Pope, this is our brightest student. And so the pope paid a medical student Robert of Catan was a doctor, he paid him a stipend to go and translate the

Quran, which we still have to this day. The first translation of the Quran was done by a medical student from England who was studying in Toledo and whose seat availbale he actually used to sit at a bill that we will find the footnotes there that he took from the elevator lobby to understand the Quran. And his story was what a medical student learning Arabic to become a doctor, and he has to study peekaboo shifa, which was the medical textbook for 400 years, you all know Kitab, Shiva of Ibn Sina, the 17 volume book for 300 years, it was the standard textbook of medicine across Europe. It was one of the first books translated into Latin from where to where do Muslims from where to where,

once upon a time, and I don't say this with a false sense of nostalgia, with a with a mythological past, and a romanticizing No, the fact of the matter for 1000 years, for a millennia, we lead the world, in every single field, in technology, in physics, in astronomy, in chemistry, in medicine, in personal hygiene, everything we we were the ones who were leading the world, what happened in the last three 400 years that the situation has changed topsy turvy, that is a topic of another lecture altogether. But my point is, where did it all begin? There isn't an era. And now when we look at the Muslim situation, subhanAllah how things have changed? Where does one begin to highlight the

problems? One of the fundamental problems is the splitting up of the secular and the Religious Sciences. This is a fundamental problem that we have so many people who studied the Religious Sciences are completely unaware of the world and how the world works. And so when they speak about the world, those that study the world, kind of sort of dismiss them. What are you talking about? How can you say that and so many people who study secular sciences and who are masters or PhDs in their fields are completely ignorant of the most basic things of the deen Wallahi. This is a problem. It goes against the first revelation of the Quran, we're supposed to merge the two together, the divine

along with the secular that's how we formed the Muslim identity. That's how we become who we were, there should be no division. Once upon a time, our Allama were taught the basics of logic of chemistry of physics, and then they specialized in the sciences and our scientists studied of seed and Hadith and then they specialize in what when what they wanted to specialize in. But when you have this dichotomy, then you're going to get a lot of

problems and solve those problems. And I speak as somebody who has lived in both worlds. Many of you probably know I was a chemical engineer once upon a time, I have a degree in chemical engineering, I worked at Dow Chemical I used to devise computer programs to simulate polymer reactions. I mean, I have some time in corporate America, and then I've done what I've done. So in sha Allah, allow me some slack, I have the right to say this. And I say this not to criticize, but so that we can change so that we can bring a solution. One of our fundamental problems is this wide gap between the secular Muslims and the religious aroma and the clerics and this gap. Frankly, there's a lot of

blame on both sides. But because I'm speaking to a particular audience, let me shift the blame into our cap more our meaning the people sitting here. Yes, it is true that many of our Obama, many of them don't quite understand the world that we live in. And so they're fatawa seem a little bit backward and disconnected. But let me throw that burden back on you. Let me put the ball in your court. Since when did our top notch students go to the Madras us and become scholars who goes to the Madras says and becomes a llama? Which type of child do we send? There are Muslim countries I'm not going to name them but the government assigns which college you go to if you get above a 90 free

pass to the to the medical above an 80 You go to engineering 70 accounting what not if you fail, the only option you have is what who can tell me madrasa and have school this is a Muslim government. So do you blame when you you know, in engineering we have you know, the input and output you literally calculate input and output if your input is going to be failed students, what do you think your output is going to be? I speak to you and allow me to be a little bit harsh because we don't have the luxury will lie It's not meant to be on you personally but on a community and I speak as somebody who's also amongst you Inshallah, your own children going to the best of schools right

where you want them to go to the ivy League's good for you, but out of every 10 that go to the Ivy's can't just send one to go and study Islam the best and the brightest minds because that's when you're gonna get a different type of scholarship. That's when the Alim will come out understanding the dean and the dunya when the secular Muslims the upper class, the elite, the nobility, ie all of us here, when we understand we need to send our kids to go study Islam, we need to send the best and the brightest, the highest SATs scores, the best MCAT scores, let 10 go to medical school and send one or two to the Islamic mantra says that are going to then re change and that's where Al

Hamdulillah from Al Hamdulillah we're seeing the beginnings of this change with Institute's like miffed duck with Institute's like so many others that are happening across North America. Alhamdulillah change is beginning but it is too slow. It has to become faster and faster if we want Islam to flourish in North America. Our scholarship has to be from within North America. It's as simple as that. Brothers and sisters I grew up I was born in Houston, Texas, my father came 1962 So one of the first Pakistanis to come he founded is God for Nigeria is one of the founders of ies, GH, my father came back then there was nobody there. Of course he builds the first Masjid who is going

to be the Imam fully understandable. He brings somebody from Pakistan. He was my first you know, by the Noorani a teacher my for what do you expect? Okay. hamdulillah one of the reasons I decided to go to Medina in 1993 One of the reasons I decided I didn't understand the hotbar not a single hot buyer understand it? Because either they don't speak Arabic or if they try to speak English you'd rather they speak or do anyway, you know, like, is complete disconnect. And I felt I don't know my dean. This is pre internet pre books in English. If you remember that I was in in the 90s Very different. I felt an emptiness I wanted to go study. There was no nothing for me to do to understand

this Deen. Now for how long? Are we going to continue to import our odema they did their job Allah here I'm not criticizing them. What else could they do? They did the best they could we had to bring Rhoda MA from Karachi from Cairo. May Allah bless them. We're standing on their shoulders. We're not I'm not critical of them. They did the best they could. But for how long are we going to continue to import? When we've reached critical mass, we have critical mass here of Hamdulillah. So you're going to continue to have people come in from overseas, your child will not be connected to them, your child will have nothing in common. Even if they learn English, the content of their hobas is not

going to be relatable to your child. Do you blame your child for saying I don't want to come to the masjid. You need to have role models that your child can actually look up to religious role models that your child can look up to. And that's where it becomes so necessary. If we truly want to plant the seed of Islam so that it flourishes in this land. That seed will begin with a reason we need to make America we need to make this land a place where we have our own scholarship. Like every Muslim land had its own scholarship you know, brothers and

Sisters, Spain underdose there was a time when Muslims were less than 10% of Andalus. In the beginning, in that stage, they founded some of the most prestigious madrasahs. In October, the madrasa was there. 90% of the population is Christian, but they realize they need to found a madrasa and underdose produce some of the most amazing minds of the Muslim empire. Some of the most exotic minds of course, will be a shout to be Ibn hasm You find these amazing atypical minds if you study Islamic history, frankly, unnoticed is just a hotspot of eccentric and get original thought. Why? Because it was a place where different minds mixed together. You had Jews, you had Christians, you

had Europeans, you had Arabs and Muslims all coming together. So you had a different type of thought. I say, we have the potential in America to recreate an under Lucien mindset and under Lucien paradigm, we have the best of the best, we have the brightest minds. We have the most amazing talent in this land, but we don't have an Islamic scholarship for how long are you going to import you must bring something from within your teachers have to be from within your students have to be from within and then inshallah Tada, we're gonna see a flourishing. You don't have an interesting anecdote. How much time to have a boy.

Okay, let me just finish them. Shall I have an interesting anecdote here telling me finish up because I handed back to our esteemed host Alhamdulillah. Allah has blessed me to travel many countries, I think 5055 countries have forgotten how many I've been to. And I like to absorb. I like to see what's going on. I like to ask questions. One thing that terrified me when I was traveling the world was to realize that almost everywhere, where Muslims have been a minority for 100 plus years, almost everywhere, they have lost their Islamic identity. This really terrified me. South America is the classic example. Even here in North America, the first batch of immigrant Muslims,

not the slaves, the immigrant Muslims that came, came here to Detroit, and Flint and Idaho and Calgary. 1900. You had batches of, you know, Ottoman Syrians, they came here, by and large, by and large, many of them have lost their faith. You now have fourth fifth generation Muslims in these lands that have lost their faith. And I'm speaking to you here in Detroit in Dearborn. Right. I have met members of your community, whose great, great, great grandfather's came, and the only thing they knew, and Wallahi I swear to you, I hear this was the only thing they knew. I know I'm a Muslim, and I don't eat pork. I asked. This was a sister that came to me. I asked, Do you know the Kalima? She

said, What's that?

She did not even know that Kalima, but she knew she was a Muslim. And that's why she came to the masjid saying, I know I'm a Muslim. I want to learn more. What do you know about Islam? How are you a Muslim? Complete? I thought she was a complete Caucasian. No, no, actually, I'm originally you know, automotive Syrian or whatever. Well, what's your story? My great, great, great grandfather came what do you know of Islam? I know we're not supposed to eat pork. Well, what else do you know? Nothing. And it's something eye opening to me across the globe. South America is another example. You had 10s of 1000s of Muslims around 1900 1910. Go to Argentina go to Brazil. Where are they now?

The previous president of Argentina, Carlos Menendez, Carlos Menendez, his great great great grandfather was Muhammad something come from came from Syria, right. And when Carlos Menendez was born, he had a Muslim and a Muslim has a look it up but I forgot. You can look it up. He had a Muslim name, but there's no Islam. He turns 18. He goes to university. He enters University politics. This is back in the 50s. He changes his name to Carlos mon and this. The rest, as they say is history. Slowly but surely the rise begins he becomes the president of Argentina, Muslim blood. Muslim lead, by the way footnote here. There was an article that when he passed away the week he

passed away, he told his children bury me in the Muslim graveyard, Carlos Menendez was buried in a Muslim graveyard. And his child actually said there's an interview with that towards the end of his life. My father started reading the Quran again. Subhanallah so it hamdulillah eventually it came back but nobody knew for his whole life. He was Christian Carlos Menendez, whatnot. This is the reality of Islam. 100 years from now, there was one land which was a complete exception, complete exception. And that was South Africa.

The first time I've been to South Africa, South Africa many times the first time I visited South Africa. It was just surreal. Fourth, fifth, sixth generation full beards hijab? No Gujarati Punjabi Urdu all forgotten Okay, except roti dal. They still remember Okay, and the food was spicy Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah that we need to preserve guys. We cannot ever let go of our spices guys. You agree with me? Okay. Are half of you Arab? Sorry. Okay, that's it.

When

I visited South Africa and I was honestly shocked at how vibrant Islam was, they are percentage wise similar to us six 7% 5% But you go to Durban right you go to Cape Town mashallah Tabata Allah, you go to the cities and mashallah the only western country in the 70s or 80s that was sending karate to Egypt in the national Quran competition. The global was South Africa, the only country back in the 70s and 80s. And I was shocked. How do you guys preserve your Islam for 100 years? I've never seen a country like it, not a single country in the Western world except for you. And we'll the first time I went was 2006. I think seven and I met an elderly lady. 93 years old, she's passed away a lot

hammer. She wrote a book about her own life. I have it at home. 93 When I met her, and her grandfather had come do the math. Her grandfather had come from rural India. So I said, Auntie, I have a question to ask you. This is before I did my research, what she said I backed it up with research, but this was anecdotal. I asked her auntie I have a question to ask you. I've traveled the world. I've never seen Islam preserved as much as it has been in your land for the last 100 years in any Western country. What was your secret? How did you do this? instantaneously? I swear to you, she said this without thinking twice, instantaneously, she said, The madrasa.

My grandfather came from the village, whatever. And he opened before even the Masjid. He opened the madrasa and I remember going to that madrasa and as well, Auntie Holland, your father, grandfather came from India. And he opened the madrasa for you as a lady. You do realize I said to her that there were no mother assists for ladies back in India. And she she said to me, yes, I know. But my grandfather understood that if we want to preserve Islam, we have to educate the boys and especially the girls.

So

the fundamental difference between South Africa and other places was the madrasa system. So here we are today.

Plan planting one of those important seeds and what to seed mashallah Tabata, Allah, masha Allah Tabata Allah

a few years ago, this place would have a place where, you know, with all respect to them nothing I have nothing against. May Allah bless any religious person in this era that we live in some religion is better than no religion will light some religion is better than no religion. Few years ago, this was a place where other than Allah was worship. We don't like that. But there was some religion here, that religion declined, as all religions are on the decline in America, but at hamdulillah from Al Hamdulillah, our iman is still here.

And I find this to be in sha Allah, somewhat symbolic Insha Allah, a symbol of optimism, because this isn't the first church slash mosque that I have visited in America. It's pretty common Al Hamdulillah. But this particular church slash masjid, masha Allah, what a gift to your community. What a gift, walk around this campus, acres 100,000 square feet, how can you not support this institution, this institution and this facility and the family that is behind them, Baraka Allah, Baraka, Nora, Nora Hamdulillah, Al Hamdulillah. So I am not here today to make any case the case has been made in front of you. I'm simply here to be a part of the baraka that Insha Allah, we are going

to see brothers and sisters, what this generation does, in particular, our generation, because we are the first generation, our generation that is fully acclimatized east and west fully, and we are the last such generation, Z Evangelia Jayegi, a generation Gibberd, macadam, OBC, Z Avanade, at the door generation, kahini, Kahina, door generation at maximum one and a half generations, it goes, zavon goes away immediately. The outcome is you understand within two generations, you're not going to be speaking Arabic Your grandchildren, it's going to go away. That's the reality. We cannot afford our religion to go away. We cannot. This generation, our generation, whatever we do, it will

have a ripple effect for at least 100 to 100 years. Because this is the generation of planting that seed the next generation it's too late. So whatever we do, this generation in our understanding of Islam and our protection of our heritage, and our planting the seeds for the future. This is what will be the main factor after Allah's blessings to preserve our deen So I pray that Allah subhana wa Tada opens up our hearts and our minds to understand that responsibility and that Allah guides us and God

others through us and that Allah subhanaw taala utilizes us and that Allah protects us and protects our children after us. I pray that Allah subhana wa Taala allows us and our children to be of those who established us Allah, I pray that our children become better role models than us. I prayed that the Kadima is descended down generations to generations for as long as our children live, I pray that Allah azza wa jal blesses our children with the love of the Quran and the love of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu I knew he was setting them I pray that Allah Subhana Allah to Allah causes all of us to live as Muslims to die as mins and to be resurrected with the prophets and the companions

and what a noble companionship they are, which is Allah who was said to Allah he will

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