Series Podcast (Pakistan)
Yasir Qadhi – Interview with Murabbi
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The speakers discuss the challenges of avoiding bad behavior and achieving success in a more aware mindset. They stress the importance of researching and finding one's own boundaries to avoid negative consequences. The rise of hate and privacy concerns is highlighted as challenges for the company. The pandemic is acknowledged as a challenge, but the speakers emphasize the importance of working from home for employees and the need for employees to stay safe.
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim al hamdu lillahi wa salam ala rasulillah Karim rubbish Ronnie sounds really silly Emery Hello, Melissa de Cali Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Tom Samuel nazarenko moral learners kitamura v series may RPM is one of the key turnips a push on the Syriza theme raising an educated generation him or her after meeting with his distinguished mentors a container to contain. The majority of the session today will be in English.
Again, according to the convenience of our guest, today is our 11th episode and we are honored to be joined by Dr. Yasser kazi Dr. Yasser because he is currently the resident scholar of the East planner, Islamic Center, or epic. He is also the Dean of the Islamic seminary of America. He is one of the few people who has combined a traditional Eastern Islamic seminary education with a Western academic training of the study of Islam. Dr. Yasuo graduated with a bachelor's in chemistry, chemical engineering from the University of Houston, after which he was accepted as a student as Islamic University of Medina. He completed a diploma in Arabic He graduated with a BA from the
College of East and Islamic sciences and then completed an MA in Islamic theology from the College of Dawa. He then returned to America and subsequently completed a PhD in religious studies from Yale University. He has authored several books, published academic articles and has appeared on numerous satellite and TV stations around the globe. His online videos are one of the most popular and highly watched Islamic videos in English.
I've had the pleasure of working with Dr. Yasser kasi as a staff member when I was when I was with Muslim matters, which is a media website that he's a co founder of and I believe he still serves as one of the board of directors. Welcome Dr. Yasser hope you're well and thank you for taking the time for us tonight.
We'll call it It's my pleasure anytime to be a guest on any of your shows that he's had Mashallah, you're you're a jack of all trades in Charlotte home data
collection.
So
we're just gonna dive right into the questions, because you know, we have a lot of questions. And
so
the first question is, what is what do you consider as your best achievement?
without having to de la salatu salam ala rasulillah? Allah, Allah, he was like being one of my bad, that's a very
personal and difficult question to answer. Obviously, at the spiritual level,
the best achievement is the aspiration to achieve Allah's forgiveness and Rockman intergender. That's the achievement that we aspire to. But obviously, that's not the question you are asking at, at a more practical level, I would hope that at this stage of my life, there is still yet more to do. I am still in my 40s and I pray that inshallah Tada, I do accomplish much more than what I have done such that you're asking in the past 10 had I been 80 years old, maybe I could have reflected more double my age now. But you're asking about what do i think is my most significant achievements of how other there's multiple that I thank Allah subhanho wa Taala for
obviously, at the academic level Alhamdulillah I am very, very, very grateful to Allah for the combination of studies engineering, and working at Dow Chemical than 10 years in Medina. And then the Ivy League education that year, or this combination, really it shaped to me and I thank Allah for that it's such a blessing from Allah subhanho wa Taala, that he allowed me to go through all of those different educational tracks. I'm 22 years nonstop as a college student, you know, two bachelors, three masters and a PhD is not something that, you know, I'm very happy for him that has done that. But, but I think, I think what I would also want to point out here, you're asking me a
very personal question, and I'll be very personal with you. Academic society and spirituality is important. One of the things that I'm most grateful for is my family. Grace give me an achievement. I think Allah subhanho wa Taala for my parents and then also for my own, you know, wife and children. To me, this is
one of the best blessings that Allah azza wa jal has given us.
That we have managed Alhamdulillah to have a tight knit family in Sharla a family of love and compassion and to me degrees in academics means nothing if you don't have that, that solid family, you know, so definitely for me, I am very happy to Allah azza wa jal for that as a blessing I don't call that an achievement is a work in progress, right? It's not it's not a one of that you check the box family is a continual work in progress. You never just, you know, achieve family, but you constantly work on it. And you constantly aim and improve and try your best and I'm very, very, very thankful to Allah azza wa jal for for the family that I have.
Alright, check. You've recently become the Dean of the Islamic seminary of America. In your let us know what exactly is the Islamic seminary of America?
Awesome. Exactly. So they can have gigantic you know, different, different universities, different educational institutions, they have different philosophies of teaching different paradigms, you know, what you teach how you teach, this varies from from institution to institution, or who they accompany Come on your Heartbreaker, we do have a hamdulillah a good amount of not not enough, but still a good amount of madrasa graduates that have come back from Pakistan, you know, from us, her University, from Medina, from Oman, or from Riyadh. And they're going to continue to come. And those are great. And we will continue to send our students overseas and have them come back. Mr. Madonna's
what not we need that and it's never going to stop is going to do YouTube, you know, forever traveling for the sake of knowledge. At the same time, there is a need for another teaching Institute another teaching method as well. And that is an institute that understands that yes, there is the the what I like to call the the eastern route of madrasa where you study, you memorize you, you learn your your classical texts. But then there's also let's call it the western paradigm, which is the critical thinking, which is the aspect of challenging of contextualizing understanding where it came from, what is the meaning of it? What's the significance, you know, who was the first to
propose this idea? How was it challenged? That type of thought processes are really not encouraged, obviously, for obvious reasons. I'm not. This is not denigration, it's just a statement of fact, they're not encouraged most of addresses that has its pros and cons on each side of the world. What the Islamic seminary aims to do is to really combine the best of both what the Islamic seminar aims to do is to make us understand that especially in the American context, but dare I say, guys can nobody can equate Pakistan you know, we'll call hoodoo they're completely boarded off knee, put it dounia dread, villager puri dounia because of the internet because of television because of what not
jumbly coming by tutoria baka was very jumpy to move in a mini commercial where approximately Europe Casa Joby, everything is happening I from what I'm seeing in the news as well, these are conversations that will will border and he had I had any more Okay, you know, ideas are kept. But I'm saying especially for America, especially for our environment, um, record you have, we have to be cognizant and aware that simplistic, you know, copy and paste is not going to be useful for the future of Islam, we have to be aware that we have different understandings of Islam, and we have different Filipinos, and we have challenges from within, and we have challenges from without, and if
we are not even able to engage in a frank conversation, God challenges is kiddicare Hello, hello, page korsak, then we can even have frank dialogue, because there's so much emotionalism in different paradigms that are not talking to one another. So the Islamic seminar in America seeks to transcend that, that problem and understand that Okay, there is much to offer from the eastern paradigm of the mother as a training. But there's also much to offer from the western paradigm of critical thinking. And so let's see if we can form a healthy synthesis that is still faithful to the tradition we understand we are Muslims, we understand the Quran is the column of Allah, we understand the sooner
the Prophet system. At the same time, there are very, very difficult questions that especially are being challenged by outsiders of our faith. They're just poking and prodding this notion of you call it what it is, whether it is jihad, or whether it is Muslim, non Muslim relations, whether whatever it might be, there's some very, very difficult issues, conversations that, you know, sometimes we don't like to have. So the Islamic seminary aims to understand that these problems are not going to be solved on their own. Rather, what is required is a new mindset, a mindset that is open minded enough to challenge at the same time respectful enough to know the boundaries, and it's a fine line.
There's no you know, you're gonna you're gonna negotiate for every question for every scenario is not an easy answer. To what level can we question to what level can we contextualize you know, what is
The fine line that we should not cross well, even that we will be discussing. So the Islamic seminary is a unique Seminary in that it is very overtly saying that we are trying to synthesize the best of both paradigms, while teaching the tradition, we're also contextualizing the tradition. And that's really what the Islamic Center is about.
All right. So much, Alicia, you just answered three of my questions in one go.
So
how do you see the Islamic education, shaping over the next 10 years?
Both in the US, Canada, you know, the west and the east, you know.
So I think that, in America, what we've seen post 911, pre 911 was a very different, by the way, today is 911, the anniversary of 911. So in America, everything's going on, you know, you happy politicians, but even I had to put Facebook posts, the, you know, for us, 911 is a very big day, that, you know, we have to always comment on and whatnot. And it really did change the world, especially our world. There's a pre 911 world in a post 911 world and pre 911 even a change to the Muslim demographics or not demographics, the interpretations of, of how we view us as American Muslim, you know, pre 911 and I was active pre 911. I first heard the buzz word in the early 90s.
You know, I mean, some of you guys in Karachi, you know, this you used to attend those, those foodbuzz. I was active pre 911. And our conception of Islam and of the world was very different. We had, I would call it innocence, some would call it naive, we weren't forced to think about our role, our place. It was also much easier to be sectarian rights pre 911 it was much easier to have the fiddle club bazi goodbye. You do have war, Deobandi here Yeah, hadiza would have really hurt you. You know, Sophia, you Sherry, everybody's like in their own cooler has maybe already for their own value, but it you know, so it's much easier to do that. What 911 forced us to do was to realize that
by Johann rocky beach, major if there are five major beach Major bezer, juggernaut a nobody outside of the hardcore, you know, very fundamentalist groups, nobody cares, not even the average Muslim cares, right? The average Muslim who's not even interested in physical buys, he doesn't care what you're more than a versus the other. Maulana says, you know, they just want to live their lives as as Muslims, the outsiders couldn't care less about your internal politics or internal theological disputes. And 911 forced us to realize we need to work together, we need to come together as an oma and learn to work in spite of our differences. And that raised a lot of awkward questions. And it
raised a very difficult conversation. So I was in Medina, when 911 happened, I came back a few years after 911. And I was thrust into the limelight, because our senior scholarship was basically taken out, you know, some of them went to jail, some of them through, flew away to other lands, some of them just went under hiding because of the pressure. And so we are coming, you're definitely not mature enough in terms of age, but there is no alternative and we're thrust. And one of the first things that I did, when I came was I realized that our version of Islam back then I was very much earlier, the selfie. So our version of Islam had been too cultish and that we are not going to
survive. And so I reached out to the competitive strand, which is the Sufi strand or the the, you know, the, there is a tuner crowd over here in America. And we began a series of conversations where in the end of the day, our values are so similar, our tradition is pretty much the same, we look up to the format tabs, or bootable Hadith are the same, our odema of filth can lower and tipsy we all go to poverty, we all go to a memorial to him, why this animosity, we need to cut it down. And it had never happened in the 80s and 90s. We had two different groups in the 80s and 90s, not no cooperation. So, we worked on this Alhamdulillah the pledge of mutual respect came out of that 2007
and I think honestly, it is it is correct to say that in the last 10 years, the fiddle club baazi that used to exist in the 80s and 90s is now gone. I also had to work on Sunni Shia sentiment because of what was happening in Iraq and Lebanon and whatnot. And this is more awkward because obviously we do have significant I mean it was an even Tamia we can joke with by nature, does it bother you? No, but
she has an Sunni's there are some major differences and, and I cannot, you know, tolerate or respect I should say, I cannot respect somebody who's going to disrespect the Sahaba. At the same time, what is to be done when our country is attacking those lands and using physical body as a weapon against all of us, right? We are not naive to the fact that this
They are worsening the federal budget. They're making it the error page of what they are afraid to hurt no, between Sunni and Shia. What a yellow color happening. You know, PJ had always had a hurricane, right? We know this is understood. So am I going to be an ally? To the people that are bombing my people? Am I going to be an ally and increase the physical body? So we have to have some very awkward conversations as soon as amateurism and we did and I did I met some, not ayatollahs. But the next level when there are no laws in America, but your next level hound Kim, is it but yeah, we, we have to agree to disagree. And we agreed that, Okay, look, we're not going to teach hatred of
the other in our own groups. And we'll have to just have separate massages, separate whatnot. But when it comes to Islamophobia, we will be united, when it comes to politicians that want to ban Islam, we're going to have to work together, you know, when it comes to bombing Muslim lands, doesn't matter if it's Sunni, or Shia, they are Muslims, and they are being bombed because they're Muslims. So we have to work together to try to prevent that. So what 911 did really was force us to ask some very difficult questions, and to renegotiate things that we thought were a done deal. And we are still in the process of doing that. I don't know if I answered your question. But or if I
went to another one, but that's my methodology. So go ahead and bring me back to track
your muted alibi
right. That that covers
most of my question,
you know, and you know, how do we move the you know, how can we implement some of the lessons that you have
learned in the west to the east you know, and implemented to where the actual film capacity is more prominent, so to say, excellent, I have one very, very simple solution, one very practical solution, and that is never get your knowledge about another field from your own scholars, their own scholars themselves should not try 100% just their own physical to understand the other purpose rather, each one of you who's a trained will be Adam Schiff, I'm talking near to the students of Northern Ireland, I'm talking to their I'm talking to the students of knowledge and the malanez in the Imams those that are study, get, you know, there's a human nature, it's nothing about evil or sinister,
but you fit three by 10 gigabit per second up, thank you just made up involved in a yob. Kamiya be involved and you have k hoodrich that involved against Dishman automatically Jessie or her mother coskata so we're cutting a job and file system while cutting job facts page cutting it automatically fit three thoughts so you quit again the key Houdini is just the reality. The Abdulhak bias automatically pays college but you took the saboteur the SIBO hurricane visa, you ordered it up because I'm just a little lost I don't order enough for Mike arrow sort of up Mira Mira, jaha mucho Marta Mira Mira Joe Frazier, Nippert Amira, me and Joe have, you know Rosa and Ada created the Aniki
just like Khufu Baba just ibaka kinaba Rosa Raka Martha minnewaska what not, to Azusa simply he didn't say oh, you must be correct. He's an evil person. He called them on how to model caca suck Anya, and you know it's not the time here but basically each one of these here's the key point none of which would bother it right now would you admit her was guilty? Okay, so neither is she a liar. nor is he guilty of the crimes rather than as an excuse in every one of them. isn't a bad cap capacitor perpetual Tiki approval to sobre todo Okay, in sign up to three tours automatically. Upon Angelo Hakuna, he'll present in a good way or do sudo gages mequoda shoemoney here will cucina
kuciak but you have Nicola Gaya via page collega. So you know when Sudanese study your lesson mistake when earlier this study about the obon these through earlier these books, okay, they will find the most, you know, weird snippets bizarre episodes and put them in and you're going to form a caricature of the Deobandi that doesn't actually exist. When did they open the studies about the web the same thing where it was not there is not going to be that much but there was a sense about the severity when the ability studies about somebody else. Whereas when you actually go to these other people, and talk one on one with the open minded amongst them, they can Malka deucer programming in
the world at exactly a leaky every filter, may you find the open minded the forward thinking and you find the biggest every filter, comma, you find the reasonable people and you find the completely lost magic arrow. The reasonable people of every filter have a lot more in common than the ones that are fanatical every felucca the reasonable minded can agree to disagree by let the Deobandi speak to the ladies and go into a frank dialogue. And you will realize oh, okay, I see where you're coming from. I might not agree with you. It can take me some time.
Mr. maryk Africa you know, it's not just that but you end up humanizing the other stinky Oh thank you. Good job for those who feel bad kurta subsidiary but he is a subsidiary of violet Femi oltenia subsidiary bizarre cheesy otium they will collect them and put them together they can you forgetting kebaya Banda Judy Berta, you been Did you have one namaz you know Marshall apartment the seeker the Avenger the Quran had them carta minimum. So when you meet this other person, you realize Jada Banda hosaka Marissa the month of October hosaka issue meme acid, you know, disagree curto SATA. lickin, medica huka, fully geopackage Jean Hannah, a living breathing person. So that that helps you
understand. Okay, um, you know what, maybe my teachers were correct. And they're pointing these mistakes out. But my teachers didn't tell me that, in fact, this person has these good things that I do not have. And he is better than me in some areas, and I can improve and so put together actually, society becomes a better place so I have to get a feel for it. My Casio score home. Hello, curry. mechatronics simple Bartek he led the moderates and led the forward thinking with Mr. of all of these Filipinos literally one on one, just sit down and have a frank conversation. We did this in America, by the way, after 911 for the first time, you know, Sufi Rama would sell a funeral Mr. sat
down under closed doors behind closed doors, right? And we literally just let it out. Goodbye. You know that this guy literally the the Sufi, the selfie guy asked, and I was there in the room. He asked him, tell me, do you guys worship the dead? When you you make a body of the you know, the peers and whatnot? And the guys like estafa? Where'd you get that from? Because No, no. And then he quotes with his teachers have told him what he quotes what his teachers have taught him. Your book says this, your book says this, your book says this. And the guy who's the actual Sufi, or the actual person who was in that he goes panela This means this and everyone he is contextualized and
whatnot. And then he actually said, in my whole life, I have never called upon a dead saint. And the Sufi or the sacrificial has shocked what your whole life you have never said. Yeah, the mother goes around them or whatnot. And the guy says no, never Yes, there are these books. I'm just giving one example. By the way, I don't want you to read in that all of them. I'm just saying one example. That conversations change minds opening up and just telling people Hey, look, I I want to know, do you actually do this? Do you actually say this? And and here's the other point. Even if you discover that they do and they're wrong, even if at least now you can verifiably say Okay, look, you know
what I discussed it with so and so. And he told me that he does do this. And the least that can be done is he will also point out things that he doesn't like in your field or movement that goes your guy did this to our movement and it caused this problem. And you realize, you know what, okay, I need to do my stuff as well. The world is never a simple black and white place. The world is very complex is very colorful, and every one of us has a niche and an audience and a role. And every one of us should do our part. And I have one more point before I hand it back to you. Meta joke Can I get how did you malviya your mommy a share? Whoa, give up in your dirty laundry Cappella decade
before do surfer cricketer Gian Luca decorate up in the hood Yo, filter Mojo geezerhood he had that he has to correct should be corrected. That here I have more of a responsibility of correcting my baggage than to point out the baggage of other people. Q is leaking manager to Ghana higher. What do you call? Can I keep my voice my sound? You know, better? Do you imagine? It is more amongst my people? Right? So Shouldn't I correct the mistakes of those who look up to me? Shouldn't I try to fix the baggage of my side more? And that is why I got many Facebook posts. You can make your head harsh
against the mistakes of you know what what you know what used to be like they're like what's going on right now when the HUD each country's in this normalization with Israel, the harshness of the Salafi movement and whatnot, I have more of a responsibility to point out the fanaticism and the harshness of in the mistakes of the selfies because I come from that movement. Then I do to just point out Sufi Shi Abdel v Buddha wat Asana, liqueur woodsman, hoga ki filter bazis, zato Jacobite, even the German cassata and he's just doing that. So, anyway, that was my two main points of Sharla. I hope, some benefit.
Right. So we've had a question which I think you've sort of covered Why don't we have open conversations in Pakistan and the open conversation between religious scholars of different groups they can
not speak on behalf of you know, Pakistan yoga mat That's for you to decide like imagine bolangir map a map is called recession beam and I've seen what I think a
without please don't read I'm not trying to be harsh, you know, or Lamar doing a great service and job May Allah bless and reward them.
At the same time, I'm also aware and you are also aware that this conversation that we are having, generally speaking, will not trickle down to the average higher than the average molvi. Rather only a select group are going to be listening in and actually benefiting from. And we have to ask ourselves why rather than blame the Imams and movies, right? Let us put the onus of burden on us once again. And let us ask ourselves, who do we send to become Redeemer? Who do we send to the murderer says, Who do we send to the intensive six or 10? year? I'm not talking about the his program? I'm not talking about the martial the upper class, you know, well off person who is
religious? And that's great. I'm not putting it down. Yes. send your kids to the hips program. Excellent. But see, why does it Why doesn't your kid aim to become the founder of the next his program? why don't why don't you you, you put into your child, your son, your daughter, that I want you to be the next mover and shaker, I want you to be the next. I don't want to mention any names here. But there's a very famous Bach stanny preacher who is very controversial living in America. Okay. very controversial guy. He's appealing to the intellectual audiences of Buxton. Okay, my question to all of you watching this, rather than just this and criticize and lament the status quo,
why don't the top 1% or 5% say, you know, what, things are only going to change when we have an alum that can speak to our social, economic, and our intellectual backgrounds. And that are, they will only come when we send one of our own into the system, and we support one of our own, and then that person will come out and then speak to us as a language that we can understand. But I'm being brutally Frank here and I'm not putting anyone down. It's tough little law, job boy Beijing get that has never studied Western education doesn't know, you know, any the basics of the modern world, or politics or history or geography or science. When you send somebody who is not educated the way you
are. I'm not saying it's uneducated, the different education system completely. What do you expect when they come out, except that their fatwas will be totally disconnected from the reality that you find yourselves occupying? Right? So the way forward rather than just bash on the road, Amanda molvi class is to send your own children and that's what I can honestly say Hello, thank Allah for that. I didn't just sit there and complain back in the 90s. Like Macau or I don't know. I realized cafe hum club, the deen seeker, you know, I want to know what my religion is. And so I left my engineering and how good Li Dow Chemical software they are left at all. And I just went into the deep end, the
least that can be said about that. Is that okay? put your money where your mouth is, you know, Career Coach abloh go and study the dean, and then send your own children to become the actual aroma and thinkers of the next generation. Until that happens. I'm pessimistic because they can again, it's so difficult I'm not trying to criticize but by a person who is the product of their own environment right to Jesse egg butcher hagner Javan her his environment has been a certain background you send it to the mother is that how much is going to change? When you click that we'll see background ideas and click on Jessie would get a bat just boots on the halter budget Kanaka
Justice COVID ishka gouta is going to go to bed dresser is gonna come out. Even if he's memorized all the books. His mind generally speaking is the product of how he's been trained. He might be beneficial to his group of people. Gymkhana Gerald near Takara. Proxima Abreu up Roger Staubach who say I broke john tear you are the more and I'm not putting down when I say educated, I don't mean they're under educated, it's a different education, their education is different, and each one is different. So get people from your background to go study Islam, train them, support them, and then inshallah you yourselves will see a change coming in the next generation.
Right. And, you know, that ties into one of the questions How do we get the youth to be motivated towards
joining, what was your inspiration? You know, you already touched on that when you move from chemical engineering to Dean, what was the main thing that, you know, really pushed you
there? You know, um,
honestly, just
the fact that I felt ignorance about my faith, the fact that I didn't know and it bothered me that I didn't know it really bothered me that there was just so much out there that I didn't understand it and and I felt I didn't want to be just another you know, Pakistani American statistic, you know, successful Middle East middle, sorry, middle class engineer. I mean, you know, hamdulillah I had good grades and always, you know, very valedictorian, my high school class, you know, straight A's. I mean, I had the offer from Dow Chemical, but you know, we'll see what some quick a condesa goodbye. So what if I live this life
So what a great middle class paycheck so what are just another successful you know this see American and you know Mashallah living the life then what? Cow Sir, I just felt an emptiness there must be something like the way that I phrased it is I realized that life was more than solving enth degree quadratic equations, okay. So as the way I phrased it that teeka you solve the nth degree quarter quadratic equation by the way, Dow Chemical just FYI, when I worked there as an intern, right for the semester before I was graduated, they gave me an offer, what I did was I wrote an entire 3000 4000 word computer program, that simulated polymer reaction. So, rather than going to the lab,
they would input the various chemicals. And this program that I wrote would guess the output. So, based upon that, they would then go and do the actual lab research so that they can narrow down what they should research, right. So, I mean, what I had to do was not just to visualize the chemical side of it, but then to visualize how we're going to have a computer program to simulate that, right. So, it was very interest, no question. I mean, that if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have been able to do it. But I thought kebaya gram, 3040 years is correct. kupilka Whoa, what have I done that I feel good about, you know, and at the same time, I felt an emptiness spiritually. And, I mean, I
mentioned this number of times gig danessa. I think I was 19 years old, many other tea, but then he was added to the meter sorta Mr. Hamada would be books as a mentor that I just liked it, you know, not because of any Zoho or anything like that.
Either tomato egg didn't mess a letter with her. And I had all of my books lying on one pile. Okay. Awesome. animado organic chemistry or jacket and we'll calculators One, two and three and partial differential equation pulicat rbse. Lines elegante you know, and I was thinking your Marshall, I've done all of this, you know, in your third unit. We are done all of this. And that humbled Australia is I mean, everybody knows this right? Then Minnesota yar many if not occhiali? Can Dean Kitty, Jackie. You know, what did I do about the religion commanded Hafiz aurantium as well and I didn't know Arabic And I didn't know the meaning and I just felt so empty convey many subcut album and
equally you know, but many of Nadine Kalia when a para even a fraction, though some pilot I just felt you know, I just need to study my faith was 400 by the way, metadata so what do you need to come full time? janky metadata so with a camera sickling of office aka resume engineering, you know, that was my because it was my name early 90s. Man, there were no famous Rhoda. In America. That term didn't exist for spoke a tehnika Hamza Yusuf tech NATO's for the night when I was this is before Hamza, this was what you had said rajwada. And Jamal, by the way, who everybody knew were preachers. They weren't considered a llama, there was no scholar who spoke English fluently, right? That that's
what niche training. So I never thought that I would come back and go full time I thought I'd go for 234 years. And then resume engineering I can. One thing led to another and here I am. No complaints.
handler. so sure.
You see the current role of social media, and that has narrowed things down, you know, in terms of
being a global globalization, things like that. But despite that dialogue, you know, hate is increasing. And, you know, social media is
so much responsible for that. You've experienced some, I'm sure.
How do we train ourselves to?
Sorry? How do we train ourselves to be able to
entertain a thought without accepting it? So to say, you know,
that is easy, but just going ballistic on the other person? Yeah, it's easy, by the way, because there are certain thoughts that are offensive that we should be irritated by
IBM in a lecture theater a week ago online, about the cartoon controversy in France, you know, and I gave certain points, please listen to it. Okay. We we have to deal with both the rage that we feel which is legitimate, and the stark reality that you will never be able to ban this type of speech in the Western world. And in fact, at some level, at some level, I hate to be so cliched, but it is true at some level. It is those very freedoms that allow us to be who we are, at some level that is true, that the fact that the West is just so you know, open minded in this regard that despite
The fact that large segments hate us they cannot ban us because it goes against their understanding of freedom. And so we are in some level not directly, but we are basking in that freedom. And we thank Allah for it. And those freedoms also allow them to do things that we don't like. Right so it's an awkward conversation to manager and I can't speak to a Pakistani context what is what is in a ladder? I don't know. Like in internet everything is allowed in America everything just squad Kavita Mukesh Khanna is you could not everything is allowed up could you have up in a calm corner the best that you can and Juma always what I remember and I remind myself of the camera. We're not
the first generation to face evil. Who's Who Ekrem sallallahu wasallam dropkick sominex aka the Hebrew alligator up kizad Guevara mcac any further up case Omni or aka Sahaba kisaan like in the dignity that he exuded all the time on top of this even your hair Joe for sure. fascia mocha mocha calm Taka, yeah Nikki shut up sub k, gambling sub k idolatry sub k, though After you have
completed everything you have, you know, tawaf grandma Pooja jd akuto customer. Can you imagine though off to North Korea once in a while so hoga who see environment we never we didn't we never think about this right? Go home look at it as a man at Nara Bogalusa your billboard Cabrini Walker to the monument pay toe off to her no
Kabuki somni you think you're going to get worse than that? And the Prophet system was in that environment that CD one is happening. So you have to live with it. I'll open it up now. You know.
Gates Cooney chicory. I've heard you have never choco sockeye. That's the world you have to live in. You cannot change the rest of the world. So you protect yourself and your family. And you teach yourself and your family and your community the meaning of dignity and tolerance, the meaning of compassion, and hedonic energetic, a healthy space create connected you have within that space within that sphere of influence and get the right the sphere of influence. Who can you impact our impact? Facebook friends go up and their colleagues and co workers go up in a job market and whatnot, you impact? So within that space, you teach and preach beyond that space? What can you do?
Really? I mean, realistically, what can you do? You have to live and let live? I'm curious if you can speak out against it, and then let the world go on.
Right.
All right, when you used to live in Okay, so your views are different?
What do you mean by chain? Well, okay. So
the next question is, from Dr. kazi Nice to see you, I have a genuine question when you used to live in the KSA. Your views are different. now living in the West is different as you yourself claim, you're a changed man. First, what do you mean by change, man? And secondly, don't you think people in Pakistan miscalculate their issues of faith by relying on getting answers from the western scholars? Second question I totally agree with I'm not asking anybody to get answers by any Western Dyer scholar, go to your local dilemma. But even amongst your odema, you will find people have different interpretations and spectrums. And what I say is, go to those who are the most aware of
the world go to those who display a sense of maturity and what not so even that, I'm not saying you should go and get your answer from anywhere else. No, I have always said, get your feet and get your foot was from local, but you can engage in conversation and you're having a conversation with me, I have some ideas, listen to them, I am not imposing on you any particular photo or film. But I am saying that the film abaza, that that is common in the land of my ancestors and in your land that you live in, that is not healthy for society. And that can be said anywhere in the world. And that is going to be detrimental to civic society, and is going to be problematic, and it's incendiary.
You are creating problems when it doesn't need to. So how to solve it. I don't have the exact answers, but I do have generic and those generic ones work anywhere in the world. exact answers go to your local minima as for changing views. So again, I just give a lecture or online thing, I have my online channel, where I commented on people that are saying my views have changed. And you can listen to that. The goal is not whether my views have changed or whether they're stagnant. The goal is the truth, the pursuit of the truth. And
when you are presented certain facts, generally speaking, as a young man, you accept that. But then the more you research, and the more you go back, the more you're going to grow in your particular field. There's nothing wrong with that. It does get sensitive when we do Islamic Studies. Let's remove Islamic State. Let's talk about physics. Let's talk about chemistry. Let's talk about biology. The when you are taught physics
In middle school, you are taught simple equations, you know, Einstein, whatnot, and they are valid in their paradigm. Those who stay at middle school for the rest of their lives will be in, you know, Newtonian physics. That's it, right? The Newton's equations that when you go to college and you realize, oh, okay, Newton's physics is valid, but there's something called Einsteinian. And you kind of go a little bit higher than that, okay? You do your PhD in physics. And you might actually discover something that if you're super smart, maybe you know, Einstein didn't, I'm just giving an example here. But even if you don't, you realize, oh, even in my undergraduate Chem efforts, they
were a little bit simplistic, and they kind of glossed over a detailed reality that obviously, they're not going to do when they're undergraduates. That's the reality of knowledge. So in my particular case, I wasn't satisfied with just one strand. In the end of the day, when I have to ask myself some very deep questions that is it true that my filter is the correct one, and all of the rest are going to janome? Is it true that all of them are evil people, which is really what every filter teaches that there lot, and we'll come back? Okay. And it didn't make sense to me for the longest time that you asked me a blunt question. I'm a very blunt person always gets me into
trouble. It never made sense to me that why is it that I was so small, if it's like to hate this, so black and white, and Layla is so obvious, then why is it a minority in the oma? If this is the message of the Prophet sallallahu I knew he was selling them. And then of course, you you start wondering, how come everybody else is considered to be long will did you go deeper and you realize, Oh, hold on a sec. Okay. I see where they're coming from. And then you realize, in my particular case, I realized that the narrative I had been presented about the nature of the scholars, Mohammed hub, is a narrative that isn't and I don't want to go down here, but I'm saying it wasn't a valid
narrative. I discovered this, that they're teaching something that is against historical facts. And so you go back and you study the original narrative, and you realize, Oh, I see. Okay, so this is growing. It's not about now, the critics come and say, Oh, he's brainwashed. That's a simplistic way of saying I don't want to deal with the arguments. And I'm just gonna attack ad hominem and just go on with it. Think deeper than this. Listen, either you listen to what I have to say and listen to the arguments or else you follow your local minima or whoever, whatever. And, and, and stay, you know, call it No problem. But anyway, I hope that answers your question.
Right? So, one of your friends, Irani jazz is sending you his salons, inequalities club we studied together in menara, many, many years ago, 35 years ago, Mashallah. Mashallah. Alright, so I'm switching tracks. COVID asks, How do you respond to or handle people who claim to be depressed? Despite being religious and practicing? Yes, so so mental health and religion? Yes.
15 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, not 10. I think 15 years ago, I was firmly under the belief that if you are religious, you cannot be depressed. And I've said this, and I taught it. And I preached it. Because my teachers taught me this. It was very clear that if you follow the Quran, and you read the Quran, and you pray five times a day, you can never be depressed if you're a religious person. And I said this multiple times in public and a psychiatrist came up to me and said, this is very dangerous, what you're saying. Because when you say this, the person who's feeling depressed will now feel double depressed, that not only am I depressed, I'm not religious. And my share has
said to me that because I'm depressed, this means I'm a bad Muslim or whatnot. I didn't say bad person. But I'm saying you cannot have I used to say this 15 years ago. You cannot have strong Eman with depression. I would say this is dumb to say it's wrong to say. So my psychiatrist came up to me and corrected me. And Subhanallah This is one of our biggest problems that more reason. imams don't know their own limits. They speak about everything. They speak about global politics. They speak about psychology, they speak about areas, they're not experts in yada Mobizen are the master human beings. Like you wouldn't ask a doctor about how to build a building. Like you wouldn't ask an
architect about how to do your finances. Like you wouldn't go to a CPA and get a problem for your stomach solve. So to put a llama in their place as well ask the island what he or she is trained in, if he's trained in fifth, ask him and Phil, if he's trained in whatever, even if he's trained 10 years and Phil doesn't make him a little faster as well, by the way, generally, unless he studied on his own. So my point is that one of our problems is that aroma and I was one of them, a student of knowledge spoke beyond our level of expertise. And I began saying things about human psychology. And this was wrong. I thank Allah somebody came and confronted me and I thank Allah
I'd like to think I'm very open minded. And I like to think that I take in this advice, this is one of the two questions are going somebody, are you changing? This is the change right here. My teachers in Medina literally said, I remember who said it, I remember the classroom that you cannot have depression and strong Eman because the Quran says so that's his interpretation of the Quran. So that's what I go. And I come to America, and I say this. Now I meet a psychiatrist and said, No, that's wrong. And I began to think, Okay, let me do my research. And I research and I read, and I asked, and I talk, and I changed my mind. My teacher was wrong. The Quran does not say that that's
his interpretation of the Quran, he took an ayah. And he took his interpretation of it. And then you meet people who are genuinely religious, they might even be half of the Quran, they're praying, they're tahajjud. And they're going through depression, not because of Islam, because of a psychological trauma that took place because of our rubella molestation, when they were a child because of a very harsh reality because of PTSD because of this, because of that, or maybe even because of an actual hormonal hormonal imbalance. And you meet and you meet, and you meet, and you realize, oh, okay, so you can have a man and still be depressed. And you change your views in this
regard. So this is an incorrect view, what I say is that there are three things that help in depression, but not necessarily solve it. And in order, faith, family and friends, the three F's I say, the three F's that battle depression, faith, family, and friends, all three of them are helpful, but they are not necessarily 100% effective. In most cases, in most cases, the three F's will help you, the three F's will push it through, but in some cases, is not going to help. And you need to see, you know, psychiatrists and whatnot. And I'll tell you multiple examples. Like one of them, I remember,
very traumatic issue, but again, like a husband came to me a long conversation, whatnot and trouble with his wife. But now I'm not a psychiatrist. But I mean, you know, he came counseling wise whatnot. And it turns out that one of the main causes was that was that his wife was abused as a child by her relative. And this was not something that husband knew. And in the course of this conversation, when it came up, helaas just breaking down crying, whatnot, she had to go see a psychiatrist turns out the problems of the marriage that the husband thought his depression, the husband thought is this and that is because his wife had a dark secret from him, not her fault,
right? that something happened multiple times in her childhood that traumatized her, that's not going to be solved by just opening up the Quran. She has to walk through and with a trained person, understand what happened to her, stop blaming herself stop this and other things have to go through. That's not going to happen simply by reading saw her body, you are going to have to see a trained expert. So anyway, my point is that we need to be cognizant of the reality of psychiatry and psychology and understand that the Quran and the Sunnah have never said that a man alone solves depression, it is possible to be depressed and still have strong Eman. But yes, generally speaking,
strong faith and strong family and strong friends will help us overcome that, which makes us sad.
And that's what you say,
as a coach and an NLP practitioner, I've had some clients who have been who falls and then you know, all of a sudden they're like, why am I depressed? You know, and it's nothing to do with their religious side. It's always to do with something that has happened in the past, and what has happened for them in terms of trauma, so to say. So definitely, that is something we need to distinguish that mental health has nothing to do with your demand, per se.
So we have time for one last question, and it's something that the audience is asking in which I had already planned. How do you think that fiction adapt to climate change and the extreme weather conditions which are fast becoming an everyday reality, as you know, the recent rains and floods in Pakistan
and what we faced in Karachi recently, and what we're facing up north, in terms of the floods, how do we deal with that?
So you know, the Quran says vihara pasado fit very well Buhari, that Allah azza wa jal has allowed facade to spread in the land and the oceans. Why be Makassar but at NASA, because of what men themselves have done, because of the effects of what we have done now. The primary meaning of this verse, no doubt is that evil exists because of the evil of men.
But there is a valid interpretation to be made, that there will be facade meaning the system imbalance meaning
The ecosystem being destroyed because of what men have done. And this is an interpretation that is fully in line with Arabic grammar and with the meaning of the verse and with the code or the principles of Tafseer. One can derive and some people have derived from this verse, that it is possible one of the meanings of this verse is, if you act impertinently then facade will spread in the earth and on the land if you don't take care of what Allah azza wa jal has put you in charge of, and again, Allah has given us charge was Sahaja, napco morphism. I walked away from the Jimmy I mean, Allah has given you the spiel of what is it the heavens and earth, Allah subhanho wa Taala
mentions, we are the responsible people on this earth for the things around us. And we will be answerable to Allah subhanho wa Taala. So when we don't do our job, we're going to see the effects of this. Now, we see here that there are two primary trends when it comes to climate change and being green and organic. The first which is the more common one is to dismiss this as being utopia to European guy was Western cheese and nothing to do with us your subject liberal, you know, top 1% Logan, nothing to do with us, right. And that's wrong. Just because something comes from the west doesn't mean it's evil or wrong, just because some ideas are emanating from another land doesn't
make it necessarily bad or evil. I mean, your iPhone will tell you that what's coming from the west is not necessarily you know, bad with your your technology's telling you this. So that's one trend that needs to be rejected. The other side of the equation is that they make this issue the end all and be all and more important than even basic filter nakida. And so for example, in America, people say that, unless you know the animal is treated humanely, it is not going to be halal. Even if it's slaughtered halal and whatnot, more important than the slaughtering and the bissman and whatnot, is the Ethical Treatment of the animal, we say no, it is a factor. But even if an animal is mistreated,
that is something how long between the farmer and the the animal, between the owner of the animal, the animal, but the animal is still going to be headed, for example, not that you have to buy but I'm saying it doesn't become how long if the animal was mistreated, as long as the bar and whatnot was done. So we have to be between the two extremes. And the middle path is very clear. And that is, we make this a priority. But obviously, within the larger scale of things, which is Eamonn and taqwa and salah and Zika, and being good to your family and neighbors, and a part of what needs to be done, you know, every few months or weeks or years or whatever, once a year, maybe the shareholder
items should talk about the climate, you know, one lecture out of 2030 lectures should be dedicated to the reality of us being custodians on this earth. And in terms of changing and fatwas and whatnot. This is the job really of I mean,
it's difficult because the term wajib is very big. You already say it's Why'd you have to recycle, that's that I don't think any item can say that what I can say, it is wajib upon us collectively, to be conscious of the responsibilities Allah has given us. And it is wajib upon us collectively, to think about better ways to protect the climate, better ways to protect our resources, better ways to make sure we don't, you know,
are misusing and abusing plastics and whatnot, we are ruining the planet, we are literally trashing the planet, by our own activities, every one of us has to step up to the plate and do whatever we can ask for changing filters can only be done at the Council level in councils or across the globe and whatnot, and rethink through and also countries that are Islamic in nature, should see what they can do in their own policies to cut down the greenhouse emissions to cut down carbon monoxide and dioxide to cut down waste and whatnot. As we're all aware, which is frustrating for us, which one chemical plant does which one Corporation does is equivalent to what many midsize cities can do
together? Right? So if me and you start recycling, if our entire neighborhood starts recycling, if 1000 families starts recycling, it means nothing. If the local factory down the corner does not change, we all understand this. So it's frustrating because each one of us can do so. So so little, at the same time. If 10,000 of us recycled, it would make an impact if 100 out of a million of us. So yes, change does begin at the individual level. And we all do what we can. And we expect the lowest percentage reward us for anything that we do that is with that intention and golden mind.
Right, follow up to that. Just really shortly, my point was the link between extreme heat and fasting. That's the question from the same person who asked this question about climate change, extreme heat and fasting meaning that if you're going too fast, you're going to faint that type of stuff. Is that? Yeah, I mean, this is a case of
waving Ramadan, the last couple of years.
This is a case by case, you don't need to reinvent fifth here, this is standard for if your particular individual circumstance is such that you are not going to be able to fast without, you know, severe, you know, hardship such that you are going to faint, you're going to, you know, possibly dehydrate. That's an individual basis, by the way, no society, no entire city, on an average day when I'm alone, even in June, July, is gonna go dehydrated for 1617 1819 hours, it doesn't work that way. But individuals might have a condition, individuals might have a medical issue individuals might have, hey, look, I'm the only breadwinner for my family. And I'm a laborer,
and I go out in the field and is June, you know, from and it's going to be from whatever 4am to 10pm or whatever. In Norway, I don't know what it is, you know. So individually, if you in your particular case, are going to face a medical hardship, in your cases of Ebola, you go get the fatwa from your honor from your local person, and then you make it up at a later time. There's no need to reinvent you cannot and you will not be able to get a photo that is generically across an entire city and say because it is hot. And because we have a GDP to produce. You know, Buddha tried this in Tunisia back in the 16th. Right. The secular you know, more agnostic. He said that
working for the industry is modern jihad. And just like in jihad, you can give up your fasting. So, Tunisians, when they go to work and Ramadan, they should give a fasting to increase the GDP because as jihad, right, and the Mufti is of the time, They all stood up and they said, this is Cofer, and you should not listen to him and ignore him and whatnot. And he tried, it's not going to work is ridiculous. That's too broad of a photo.
Right? We have a comment from one of our more obese Mufti Mr. Dornan, we need to develop the face of climate and environment. Hopefully, all of that 100% agree.
So hopefully, we should be seeing that coming out of Jamia Rashid, where both the Amazon is and Kolaveri collaboration with the other modalities here and abroad. inshallah. So I hope to see the Islamic seminary of North America and Jamia Rashid in that little room joined together to work out something like that, inshallah. So we're out of time.
It was I mean, I would love to go on for another hour with you, frankly, but, you know, we have to look at the time that you have given us and the viewers have given us. So, I would like to conclude by introducing our next Marathi for the next week is going to be shouting shake your hand tanzeem islamicate.
Is casado program director in foundation K, which has compiled a grant translation studies course, universal, universally acceptable and applied by 1000s of private and government schools.
One thing should have been shared, which ties in to what you said Shaykh was,
you know, I could have been a metal
chemical engineer, but I chose to go into the field of law. And that's what I asked us to do.
Once, you know, why did you leave chartered accountancy and go into our, he said, You know, there are, you know, 1000s of them, you know, and I would have been just some cog in the wheel, so to say,
but, you know, they needed me here much more than they needed me. They're in our they needed me more. So, I think that's very important. And that is the kind of thing that our youth should be looking at, going forward, you know, where can you make a bigger impact?
Yes, there might be some sacrifices needed in terms of
going through an additional seven to eight or 10 years of study. As you said, you know, you were in one college after another.
But at the end of the day, I think that's what the future of Islam needs and the future Omar needs from us. So jacala Shaker for joining us, and
lovely insights.
So, join us next week inshallah. And
for everyone for joining us.