Helm of Change

How many of you have heard of the butterfly effect? I'm just curious if you can raise your hands.

I would say like 10 15% of the audience has raised his hands. The Butterfly Effect is actually something to do with mathematics and see part of Believe it or not chaos theory. And what it what it tells us is that small causes can have large effects. And the butterfly effect was first propounded back in the 1960s. And the store is actually pretty interesting. When computers were first introduced, to attempt to predict weather changes, based on initial data conditions, one of the programmers who was testing out a model forgot to add a point 0001 value. So one of the initial inputs about whether it was a wrong refresher or something, he made a mistake at the fifth digit

level. And he allowed the computer to churn out predictions for the next few weeks. Then when he realized this error, he went back and you put in the right numbers, and he did the same calculations. And he was shocked to see the difference. And a fifth degree decimal was so markedly different, that he said, this couldn't be possible, there must be something wrong. So he went back. And he did both of the experiments. And he realized that no, there is nothing wrong. In fact, if you began with a change of literally 0.0001, then the impact over the next few weeks will be so different, that you're going to come to two totally radically different scenarios. And it was then

called the butterfly effect to be a little bit more melodramatic, because they tried to say that if the tip of the wing of a butterfly improve, for example, moved, eventually over the course of the next few months, it might potentially cause a tidal wave in Malaysia, if I'm off flew in a certain direction, eventually a tornado would happen in Texas. Now, they're being a little bit exaggerated here, because it's not that the butterfly's wing caused a tsunami, but put together with the new the other factors if the butterfly turned left rather than right, and most likely with the tsunami might not have happened. The point is, it's one of a lot of factors, that sets into motion events that

will eventually culminate very differently if those initial motions were not said to do but why am I beginning an Islamic lecture with something of chaos theory and mathematics? Well, because we as Muslims, we actually have no problems affirming this concept. As long as we have the copy of that with the permission of a lot of these changes that can occur. And the notion of the butterfly effect, the concept of it is actually something that gives us hope, in this very chaotic world, it gives us meaning it empowers us. And it makes us feel that you know what I can, in general, all data cause a change, whose impact is going to be far greater than even what I myself can see the smallest

good deed, the smallest change that I found affects me maybe even in oral history, maybe even the course of history might change. And, you know, if you're studying the car of the Prophet sallallahu, Alayhi, wasallam. If you're studying the biographies of the earlier prophets, if you're studying the stories of the Sahaba, you come across these meaning butterfly effects throughout the entire series. And what that does is that it makes you feel you know, what, maybe a shovel of data, I better stop worrying about the consequences and start worrying about what I'm doing, let alone decide where my actions are going to go. Let's see the fruits of those actions. My job is to cause these mini

butterfly effects everywhere that I go. And there are so many beautiful stories that I can share with you from the car from the time of the profits from the stories of the Sahaba. I'll just mention two or three to give you some examples here. The point of course of this whole lecture is very simple. Never ever trivialize any good that you can never ever concern yourself with the impact of a good deed. Because one good deed could literally change the course of history. I'll give you as I said two or three examples. One of the simplest examples is the story of Musa Moses and Pharaoh Pharaoh the story of who said Pharaoh, if you remember the story, Moosa was being raised in the

Palace of the Pharaoh, and eventually when he you know, punch the Egyptian and the series turned against your power turned against him. So I'm also pleased for his life. Moosa flees for his life. He runs away from Egypt, and he has

no food, no money, just the clothes on his back. And he pleased the Valley of median, the value of money.

And he himself is a refugee. He himself doesn't even know where he's gonna go. And imagine the fear, the panic the uncertainty that Moosa has.

When he gets to the valley, as the Quran tells us, he sees a world that was surrounded by shepherds jostling shopping with one another, trying to feed their flock. And as the world tells us, there were two ladies with their flock away from the crowd. So he goes to them and he says, my hot cocoa What is the matter with you

all that they said, We cannot feed our sheep until the rest of these men leave. And by that time, there's hardly going to be any water left. And don't blame us. We don't have any money to hire a servant. And our father is very ill.

Moosa as we know, volunteered to help them out. Here is where one of those micro butterfly effects is taking place. Musab itself is a refugee. Moosa himself has no money to give them. He can't donate anything for them. But he donates The one thing that he does have that is a sweat of his brow. He's physically strong. So he volunteers to take the flock. And he gives the sheep water, he hands the sheep back to the ladies. And then like the bottle says, He walks away from them. Don't need to chitchat, no need to do anything more. Keep a dignified a decent, he walks away from them. And he sits under a tree. And he makes that beautiful graph that I hope all of you memorize and make

regularly. All of the in demand consulting.

He said, Oh my Lord, I am a beggar to any good that you can give me. I'm a Saltine. I'm a beggar any good you can do me I would love it.

What happens? Moosa is the one act of charity. This is the butterfly effect, he fed goats and sheep. That's the good deed. Or you can say he helped out to ladies that needed to be home. But how was the LTC notes achieved? What was the impact of that? What did what happens? So Pamela, within a few hours, one of them comes back, She's embarrassed, she's shy. And she says, My father's inviting you. He wants to thank you for what you know. So they go to the house of the Father, and overnight to Panama overnight. Moosa has a career, he gets a salary, he gets a place to live, he gets a house, and on top of that he gets away from as well a bunch of

single brothers are going to get married, start feeding water to the people.

This is the effect, our good deed. Do you think Moosa understood any of this when he volunteered to help these ladies out, he didn't even know where he's going to go tomorrow. But when he was generous, alone was generous to him. When he did a good deed, the butterfly effect comes into effect here. And he has no idea the consequences of actions, what's going to happen, but somehow everything opens up. Another story, the story of hardenability, the greatest general that Islam has ever received, the word will help the conquests out Feldstein of Jerusalem, out on the CEO, the one who participated in fighting against the assassin is in Persia, the greatest military general never once

suffered any defeat any battle that he fought. We all know, the legend of heart of the Middle East. What many of us don't know is the story of this inversion. And the fact that there was a very instrumental player in this conversion story, and had it not been for this person maybe would never have had on it.

And that person was his older brother, but what he's given them what needs his father and so on and so on. What do you need? The brother was born and what do you got the father's also needs and what do you need his older brother when he actually converted to Islam before.

And he was writing letters to find it all the time, inviting him to the snap. But it was interesting. And even that story is very interesting. I don't have time to go into all of it, but I give it a lot of electronic positivity that you can listen to him online. It's a very beautiful story.

Unless the brother was always interested in guiding his brother to snap, he would write letters to him, he would give them darwell. But was no use and

then his father had died, his father's father dies when his father dies. So what are all of our fault? So then the Treaty of Rome a billion, the Muslims agree with the voyage, that they're going to be allowed access to America for three days, the next year to go off to do this, it will do so in the seventh year of the job. What he has not seen his brother harder for six years, they haven't seen each other for six years. And when he is missing this brother, in the seventh year of the job, the Muslims perform the role and I'll get my cup. And when he rushes to the house of hotter, the whole thing to see hot, but honestly, I have decided to opt out of staying in my car, he didn't want

to see little slips, so far that I left the house and camped outside for three days, and he went to see the Muslims. So everybody was heartbroken.

Now he's going to have one of those small micro incidents, the butterfly effect, when he wrote a very moving emotional letter to his brother. And he left the house for the for a holiday.

And when he wrote a letter from the heart to the heart, and he begged his brother to think about like, what are you doing? For how long will you worship these false gods worship, although you know, bitwise operator, you know, the process of not a liar. It was emotional and blunt and Frank, and he said, converts come to Anita. And I promise you, you shall be honored, we will take care of you, we will treat you with respect. And I have the guarantee of the person I ask.

Because by the way, who was the audit auditor was the one who caused the disaster work hard, it was the one who even in the Battle of the trench had done something so hard for somebody who he also felt like has been burdened, I'm going to be you know, punished or whatnot.

And what he'd argue on his behalf, and when he got a concession from the process of

audit converts, we're going to protect him, we're going to honor him. All of this is happening behind the scenes, Muslims, most of you have no clue about his brother. But see, here's the point hold on us. And Omar will reward him and had it not been for his brother, frankly, we would not be sitting here the way that we are right now. His brother was the one of law used to guide quantities. That letter was the last thing he needed to convert to stuff. It was an emotional breakdown for him. He hadn't seen his brother for seven years. Now he's in his house, he writes a letter. Why did you leave us I wanted to see you Where were you? You know what happens? You were brothers? Do you

remember those in that very emotional letter from the heart to the heart, and then a blunt call to conversion at the end? How long are you going to avoid this comment different, just be a good customer, and I promise you, you will be forgiven. And you will be honored in Medina, the promises of his promises that honor you so hard, and even when he he decided to convert to Islam, and he became the last convert before the conquest of

the last convert to actually migrate from Mecca to Medina, the last convert, you know, we call those congressman watchovers saw the last watching this.

Because after the conquest took place, so there's no more migration after that. And Khalid eventually did convert, and he came to Medina. And the rest, as they say, is history. But here's the point, what he is doing what he's doing. Do you think he has any idea that he's thinking about the future? He's thinking about the sassanid Empire in Persia and roll and visit team, he's thinking about all this, he would even know God this year, he wouldn't even know these models, he wouldn't even know what's going to happen in the future. It's not on his mind. But that's the point of us not asking you to calculate the net result of all it's going to happen

to you Do you do your job, you spread the good person to ever go, you do your Micromax of good, and who knows one of them might go and literally change the course of history. That letter that he wrote for his brother literally changed the course of human history. Think about that. He didn't want to do that. Think about that. But that's not his job. That's not his job. His job is to do whatever he can with whatever he has, I don't know we'll take care of the rest. And that is exactly what he did. And so the rewards have hardly been even all that he did shall also be given a share of it to his brother Woody. So the conquests of Islam, I believe we are also indebted to him, even though a lot

of people think about that. These are those

micropro xo, the butterfly effect, as you call it, where we see people doing things, and only allows pilots out of those the future that's going to happen. And of course, there are so many incidents, even from the seal of the prophets of Allah where it was set up as well where the prophets or somebody that have done something, and even he does not realize the impact of what he's done. And again, time is limited, I'll just share one story with you. It's one of my favorite stories, and I've said this quite a few lectures, because it really demonstrates the power of doing good, without waiting for the repercussions, you just do good and let God take care of the extra good that's gonna

come out of it. And this story involves the migration of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam to Medina, when our prophets are in the last phases of Makkah realized that he needed to migrate to another city, when he realized that he couldn't live in Africa for too long, he started approaching the other tribes, trying to get some tribes to sponsor and trying to get some time to get into, you know, away from the bush. And he would go and target the famous tribes, the powerful tribes, it made sense, you target the tribes that are established, he would target the houses and the individual names of tribes that have 10s of 1000s of people, they have large settlements. And one day as he's

made up of this plan, and that will go to the loved one was his main secretary and say, Okay, we're going to go to the to this tribe, we're going to go to that tribe. And he mentions two of the big tribes are going to talk to, and the goal of talking to them was to see if they will be willing for the processor to migrate from monka to their labs. So one day there have the agenda between tribes and tribes. And these are big, massive tribes. And as they're walking the prophecies and sees a group of five people sitting in the middle of nowhere in the days of practice.

And he asked for it. They said, Oh, we are from the tribe of the church.

This isn't one of the big names. It's not one of the famous tribes, even the process of his greatest husband, which wasn't much Oh, the Hassan of yesterday is that the husband of the city of yesterday, remember, Medina was called yesterday before it was called Medina, the hundreds of years ago, they said, Yes, yes, we have to do that one. So the prosecutor said, Can I sit with you, you have some time, this insurance system,

realize this wasn't on the agenda.

It was not on the plan. The plan was the the tribes, the fancy tribes. And that makes sense. When you want to approach people for protection, you go to the big shots for all sets. But here's the point. Now you have an opportunity to do some good things. little magic, you're in

the process of sat down with the husband, he gave them the call just with the same passion, the same sincerity, the same pure is lost that only he has, that he also gave to the larger tribes. And they thanked him and life went on. He didn't even think about that. What goes on with Panama, as we all know where this is heading, that small seeds of Islam that was planted in those people, quite literally changed the course of history.

Those my people, they let's back, some of them converted, and they began preaching to their fellow tribesmen in yesterday, the next year 70 people came as Muslims. The next year, they did not did the prophecies and come back with us For how long will you be persecuted in lockup, we shall take care of you so much. So when the process of preached to them those are people, Allah showed him a dream. And he showed him the city of Medina. And Allah said to the process of in a dream, this is where you're going to migrate.

didn't put together, he didn't think.

And he thought maybe the people of Yemen that I had spoken to the big guys, one of those big tribes were going to convert because Yemen was also green and luscious. When he saw Medina, he didn't see a nameplate of a leader. He saw dead palms, and he saw water wells, and that's not my cup. And the voice said to him, this is where you're going to migrate. the prophecies of said when I saw the dream,

my imagination and my desires went to him. But lo and behold, it turned out it was yesterday for Medina, meaning even the prophets also did not recognize what just happened with the passage. He didn't recognize it until the facade came back. And they then said, you're gonna come with us, we're not gonna let you be persecuted. We're not gonna let those who did kill the backup, we will give you our safety and our promise and the rest as we quite literally know his history. Literally, the history of Islam changed because of the history.

Because from weakness to power from having those things to be the leader of the state, etc, etc. How did that begin? Once again, there's this minor conference over here. And that is the act of preaching to people that weren't even on the agenda. And opportunity came to do good at the promise of the law where you said them did it. And there are many ions that I did that mentioned, the the magnificent impact that a small good deed can have. For example, it mentions that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that if one of them gives the small date in charity, from his pure wealth of data that he wants you to know she's grounded, and he gives it in charity, Allah subhanho

wa Taala will accept that date, and he shall planted and nurture it and water it and it will grow and grow and grow so much so that when on Judgement day you come back and you see this beautiful tree in your good deeds. You might say, Oh, well, I don't recognize this good deed. I don't I didn't do this. Where is this coming from? And alone will say, remember that one day Do you remember that one debut gave but your heart was your you have sincerity you David for the sake of a walk, I accepted that date. And I nurtured it. I allowed it to grow until the results of it is what you're seeing here. Our scholars say that perhaps what could happen is that you feed somebody and you will

realize what happens after that you change his life around you give somebody $10 in reality, to change his entire life, he goes on and he does something else, all the rewards are gonna go to you and so on and so forth. One good deed is the domino effect might bring about 1000s of other good deeds, such that when you stand on judgment day, you will have good deeds, you don't even know where you're coming from. Because you used every opportunity, you could have just spread the blessings of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Brothers and sisters, the reason I'm talking about this is very simple. We see global changes taking place, we see the rise of Islamophobia as we speak now, massacres are

taking place in Palestine 15 people were killed brutally by the IDF. 2000 people were were injured yesterday. And today this is happening right now. major problems happening. At some level, we can't help but get depressed. At some level that seems overwhelming. What can I do? What can I do 7 million refugees in Syria. 500,000 Burmese people

being killed in Missouri. What should I do? And the responses. I'm not telling you not to feel sad, you should feel sad. But we can do much good at the microcosm. And the good that we do. We should never underestimate how it might impact our lives. We should never underestimate what might happen when that good is multiplied, accrued, when that good becomes too good to be becomes more therefore become 16. And slowly but surely you change one person's life. What is that next person is our next?

You change you can you help one person except it's not what is that one person is the one person whose hands Islamophobia will be demolished. From this moment. You don't know that you do not know that. We see this over and over again, even in our own lives. You all know last year that video that went viral of one of our brothers in Atlanta breaking up a street fight. You all know that video, right? One of our African American brothers you saw Street Fighter, and he just walked out he didn't know is being videotaped. He didn't know he's gonna become national news. He didn't know he will be interviewed by some of the greatest, you know, TV stars and personalities in America. And that funds

will be saddled with his name. He had no clue. What he didn't know was that a Muslim as a Muslim, he couldn't allow this to happen. As a Muslim. He intervened not knowing that somebody is videotaping in some kind of syllogism all sincerity, oh, well bless that sincerity. He got involved. He's got that street fight. And what happened with you all know what happened after that, that was a sign of what it means to be a Muslim. And this is the reality that we see around us. So don't feel overwhelmed and all that negative stuff. Rather, look at the positives.

And let those positives go their own way. It is possible brothers and sisters, that the good that you do will not even be known to you and that is the best type of good. You don't even want to know, Allah knows Allah will connect the dots and you shall get the reward and the credit. That is the ultimate good. Your job is very simple brothers and sisters and

your job is very simple. You're not required to solve the Palestinian problem that's too big. You're not required to solve all poverty all over. You can't do that. No longer

not requiring you to take on these mobile challenges. Do what you can with what you have, wherever you are, that is all that alone requires that you do what you can with what you have, wherever you are, that is all the law requires of you be good, Be kind, be compassionate, wherever you go bring about that happiness bring about that head, donate to people smile in their face via positive influence at the micro level. And guess what, eventually that positive influence at the micro level will cost about positive influence at the macro level. And that is the goal that we can strive to do. You might not know it, you are not causally linked together. But that's not your job. It's not

your job to put all the dots together, although we'll take care of where the domino goes. Although we'll take care of all those causes. Your job is to sprint back.

And you see these magnificent trees and you ask a low low Where did that come from? You will want to use them a lot. Remember that David did this. That's the cause of this. Remember that you did that, that the result of that and it shall die that if you do that, then you have succeeded, even if the world does not see your success, unlock as senior success unless you're gonna make us successful.