Yasir Qadhi – Ummah Assemble
AI: Summary ©
The transcript discusses the history and potential consequences of the " pest apocalypse" in China, including the rise of hip hop and nuclear weapons, the " pest apocalypse" and the "aroma" movement. The speakers emphasize the importance of finding one's own path and educating oneself about multiple branches of knowledge, including biology and psychology. They stress the importance of finding the finish line and finding one's own path, and the need for community alignment and working towards a better society. The "aroma" movement is a movement focused on addressing issues of the "aroma" culture, and the speaker expresses a desire to become a better mother and father, a desire to avoid violence, and criminalization.
AI: Summary ©
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Yasir qadhi onto the stage
Salam wa Alikum warahmatu Allahu wa barakato
Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala mela Nebia by the Hammerberg I know it is late, I know that many of you have to go home, I know that your training system is on strike as well. So that is complicating things for you to get home. So Inshallah, let's try to keep this short and sweet inshallah.
When I was a teenager a long, long time ago, my first exposure to Global Islamic activism was the Bosnian conflict. Most of you in this room have just heard of it, some of us live through it.
And it was my first time becoming involved in the global OMA was 17 years old, it was early 90s, right. And the harrowing images that came of prisoners in concentration camps reminiscent of World War Two, and the Nazis and atrocities, right. And for those of you who are above the age of 40, you remember, you know, week after week, day after day, there was no Internet, there was no social media, but we would get updates via stories of people via you know, we would have traveling shoe come and tell us on the ground, we'd have people who were actually there and then fundraise in American England back then it was legit, because this was a different world pre 911. That was a
legit, you know, operation and a struggle, quote, unquote, the Arabic word for struggle, that was a legit struggle that the West actually allowed. So we will be raising funds and traveling and whatnot. And subhanAllah
I felt that there was a sense, in my mind, at least, that once the world sees these atrocities, they're gonna get involved, once we expose to the American public once we show the UN. So I, as a teenager, would be actively talking about the Bosnian conflict. I'm not a Bosnian obviously, I never even knew there are Muslims in Bosnia, before this conflict began, I was writing letters to the editor, I still have a copy of a letter that I published in the newspaper I was 17 years old, still have a copy of that, that I wrote to the to the you know, that the reality of the massacres taking place in Bosnian, and we gave presentation slideshows on campuses, comparing the Nazi images with
the Bosnian Muslims saying, look, there's no difference, you must do something you guys told us never again, right? You guys said never again. And that naive optimism of a 17 year old, 18 year old 19 year old because the Bosnian conflict lasted all of those years, began to become cynic. I transformed from being optimistic to realizing that frankly, the world just didn't care.
And the slogan never again, was a blatant lie. Every time I spoke every time you reintroduce this topic, the people in the audience would sympathize, they would make their scowling faces, how evil how bad. And then people would resume their lives as if they hadn't seen anything, as if all of this fell on deaf ears. And this was my exposure to the reality not just of the Bosnian conflict, but of the nature of politics and the nature of mankind. And it's not just the Bosnian conflict before this. And until our times the Palestinian conflict, I mean, my entire life and I'm almost almost about to reach, you know, my, my six decades, six decades means 50s By the way, not six decades. You
understand this, right? I'm not yet there. But it's a few years left for that. From my childhood. We're hearing about the Palestinian issue. Even when the Second Intifada took place, I remember it. And there was a sense of optimism, you know, what got phone calls. And again, this was pre internet, when the Second Intifada took place, there was a genuine hope something might change. I was still somewhat in my naive phase, even though I was in my early 20s. But something's happening. But that was 28 years ago. 20. What has happened since then? Kashmir, I've been hearing since a child, right? Since I've been a child. And I've actually again, you know, because of my, my father, you know, may
Allah protect him and give him a long life. He's 88 years old, make dua for him. My father has always been involved in the Islamic movements has always been involved in Islamic activism as a member of the Jamaat back in the day, and then founders of economics and in America. And so because of that association, I would actually meet Kashmiri activists who would come to America and hear the stories of you know, I met a person who was persecuted in their jails, Indian jails and whatnot. And again, this shaped my childhood it literally gave me this passion for the OMA and at that stage, a sense of okay, I'm gonna get involved and I'm gonna
To change the situation, I'm going to make sure that Kashmiris are freed, I'm gonna make sure that Palestinians don't live under the yoke of oppression. I had the right intentions, but frankly, frankly, I was naive the innocent of how the world worked.
As I grew older one Tim Medina came back became more active, you know, the list of troubled areas, has not gone down. Sure, names come and go. Bosnian is no longer on that list. But who could have ever imagined the situation in China with the weekers Wallah? Who could have you ever imagined that an entire government would publicly well known the UN has documented this bring forth concentration camps, that the UN itself has said, we haven't seen the likes of this since World War Two and Nazi Germany? This isn't Muslim, saying this is the UN's official report that there have not been such concentration camps of ethnic cleansing, or actually, it's even worse in some ways. This is an
ethnic cleansing. This is cultural genocide. What is the difference between ethnic genocide and cultural genocide? Ethnic genocide, what happened in Rwanda? What happened in Nazi Germany, they want to kill you completely because of your ethnicity. And that's, of course, horrific. In some ways. There's no right or wrong or better or worse, in some ways. cultural genocide, in some ways is worse. What is cultural genocide, cultural genocide is what is happening in China. They want to preserve your physical body, but destroy your spirit, destroy your soul, destroy your Eman, destroy your culture, biologically, they want you to reproduce for their system, biologically, they want to
retain you as a mother and father for their child, your children, but they don't want you as you were, they want you as a functioning human for their system. So they preserve the body, but they destroy your identity and culture. This is almost unprecedented in recent memory, a cultural genocide. So when they're housing millions of Uyghurs, they actually don't want to kill all of them. They want to keep them alive, for the sake of numbers, for the sake of giving their workmanship power, they want people to work in the factories, but not as Muslims not as Uyghurs not as people who read the Quran, and who understand Arabic know, they want to destroy that identity, who could
have ever imagined that and again, I talk today is not about the weekers but again, this is my nature of going here and there and tangents as you're aware. Another reality that will Allah Who could have predicted this is the rise of
the BJP in India.
And you know, we love to give these Nazi you know, analogies or this is not see this as Nazi. But see the irony actually, the Nazi Party of Germany is quite literally linked with the predecessor of the BJP, which is the RSS. And the BJP is literally a cousin of the Nazi Party Like literally, you know, the symbol of the Nazi party, right? It comes straight out of Indian culture, that symbol, it's the Aryan symbol. That's the term Aryan. It comes from a version of Hinduism. And in the 1920s, the founders of Nazism, were corresponding with the founders of the RSS, they had similar understandings. And in fact, the one who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi right was actually from the RSS
the predecessor of the BJP. Hence, the secular Hindus of India banned the RSS because of their religious fanaticism. The RSS was banned for a period of time, but they produced an illegitimate child the BJP and so the BJP is ideology literally India for Hindus only, you know Germany for Aryans only it's literally marrying mirroring. And there are following to the tea, the tactics of Nazism. There's a think tank in America non Muslim neutral think tank called genocide watch. This monitors genocide around the globe. It monitors the reality of genocide. And they have and they have a 10 point scale. Zero or one meaning no real threat, and obviously five and above is very
dangerous. Nine is the actual genocide. And then 10 is the justification post genocide. That's number 10. Nine is the mass killings of large groups of people 10 How do you sanitize history? So number 10 is not actual genocide. 10 is post genocide. India on this list, some regions of it like Kashmir are number eight,
other regions seven and some six. So they categorize all of India itself. So
Some places in India by a neutral think tank are number eight on the list what is number eight, the government and the population and the police all coming together in preparation for the collusion of the extermination of a minority population. The government's not going to get involved now, which is what happened in the Gujarat massacres. When the Muslims called the police when Muslims ran to the police station, the police said we can't help you kick them out of this station threw them into the crowds. When the government itself colludes with people that are going to do genocide, that's level eight. And in some areas of India genocide, watch has put it level eight. Now, I began with these
terrifying realities. Because I'm no longer 17.
And I've come to the realization that, frankly, perhaps I cannot prevent a genocide. May Allah protect the Muslims of India. But if something were to happen, what can I do from my situation and vantage point? I can't solve the Palestinian crisis single handedly. We're all doing small bits, by the way I do my bit. And one of the things I do, again, FYI, we'll go back to this topic about what we're trying to do. Each one of us is I take the largest group of American Muslims every single year, and I visit fellows thin, and I show them the realities of occupation. And I make sure that we help our Palestinian brothers and sisters by staying in their hotels, by hiring their buses and
drivers by helping their economy. But we go there, because every single person who goes to that land, sees realign with their own eyes, the reality of what brutal occupation is like, and they go back different people. So I'm doing my bit changing the hearts and minds of people, one by one, that's what I can do. I can't change the system, I can't. But my point is, I begin my talk with these blunt realities. Because at this stage of my life, I have come to the realization that one person cannot change the world, really, one person cannot just snap fingers. And then how does this genocide is taken care of? And that political situation? No. And I've had to deal with the realities
of alternatives. What then can I do? What then should I do? I feel the hurt and pain, I feel the anger. But what can I do in light of the realities of the helplessness of the situations around the globe? And the realizations have come to us share them in a few points. Inshallah. So the talk today really is like five points that again, take it or leave it, this is my own analysis, my own understanding of what we should do, you know, based upon, again, my understanding of the Sierra, my understanding, could be right could be wrong, there could be other points that I don't have, that are more important than these five, five, it's all a matter of you know, each they have an opinion
at the end of the day. First point, I realized long ago, one of my problems as a young man, was that naively made the entire globe my playing field, you know, when you're running a race, and you never see the finish line, how long can you continue running,
you never see the finish line, hours, days, weeks go by,
after a while you're gonna drop out of the race. But if you understand the finish line, is within your grasp and reach. If you see the finish line, even if it's far away, if the finish line is practical and pragmatic, if it is achievable, all of a sudden, that energy comes. And even if you're tired, and you're downtrodden, you find that hidden energy, and you give that last sprint because you see that finish line. I realized early on in my teenage and 20s that I had assumed that my playing field was the globe.
But Allah says La you Calif Allahu knifes and Illa wasa. It's not my playing field, Allah is not going to ask me about the global situation. Allah will ask me about my personal playing field, my immediate circle of influence. Now people's circle of influence is smaller and larger. Yes, indeed, the kings and the Prime Ministers do have a larger circle of influence, but I'm not a king. I'm not a prime minister, my circle of influence immediately first and foremost is myself and then my family and then my friends and then my colleagues and acquaintances then the society around me. So let me make the playing field that which is tangible, rather than ask what can I accomplish globally? Let
me ask what can I accomplish within my circle of influence? Let me now see the tangible variables have i influenced my cousin who wasn't praying the HELOC because I'm giving have the students of my head aka become better people, my family, my children have I taken care of them? When I changed the parameters to make the
More realistic, all of a sudden, it gives me impetus. It gives me a sense of hope. I find consolation in every small victory.
Whereas if I were to think of Palestine in Kashmir, what victory would happen that would validate all the efforts that I do. So its first thing that I did was I changed the playing field. And I said, You know what, I will accomplish what I can, given my own parameters, I will concentrate and focus on my own area. And of course, over the years of Hamdulillah, my area has grown as we're all in hamdulillah Allah's blessings upon me, but within that area, Excel, whatever Allah has given you of your talents, whatever Allah has allowed you your circle of influence, you will be the most beneficial person in your circle of influence. This goes back to the famous dua of your heyday, his
Salam when he said, Why didn't you move out or contain him a quince? Oh Allah, He made me Mubarak wherever I am. Our scholars say that this dua means wherever you go, when you leave that gathering, that gathering will be better than when you came there. This is what Mubarak means. Wherever you go, when you leave, something has happened. Some person's mind has changed. Some person has been impacted by something you've done, you've said even a smile.
And that's what your hand is. And so wherever I go, Allah made moonwalk, Mubarak. Even Abbas said wherever he went, he benefited people. This is what Mubarak means. So point number one of my five points Inshallah, point number one.
level the playing field, make the playing field reasonable. Understand Allah, yes, indeed be connected to the ummah. But Allah is not going to ask you about the entirety of the OMA, Allah will ask you, what did you do, given your own talents, given your own strengths, given your own circle of influence? So concentrate on that ask yourselves every single night, what can I do in my own life, that's going to improve. And if you make these small changes and impacts in your own personal life Subhanallah you can achieve agenda to for those, no matter how large or small your sphere of influence is, for its first point, second point, I learned and this took me a long while if you know
my journey, and I have many lectures about this, what not but
I learned that all too often.
I was problematizing people who had the same goal, but a different path than mine.
And I was making somebody who wanted to achieve the same thing in a different way. I was making him an evil competitor, rather than embracing him for having a different path, but the same goal.
In other words, let me be as blunt as I'd like to be
pious Muslims, who love good for the OMA
good people who are praying, who are fasting, who are reading the Quran, clearly they love Allah and His messenger.
And they want to revive the Ummah,
if they have a methodology different than your own, guess what, there's plenty of fish in the sea, as the saying goes. And there are people that are going to be attracted to some ideology that is making them come to the path of religiosity. Rather than make another person who has another path, your enemy, your competitor, say head made the best that will win. And you get involved with those people who have no ideology.
Concentrate on the people, the Muslims and the non Muslims, the Muslims who don't really have an attachment to the faith, and the non Muslims who don't know the faith. Rather than concentrate on religious Muslims who have a slightly different understanding than you whatever slight difference that might be, in the end of the day, blunt reality, what percentage of the Ummah is actually praying five times a day? I'm sorry to say, but I don't think more than 15% And even if that is a big statistic, even if it's 15%, I say Alhamdulillah you know what, really, it took me sadly, sadly, it took me too long to come to the realization, this 15% A lot of times the bulk of the scholarly
efforts are directed criticizing other people within this 15% Yeah, hey, let them be. There's 85% that are not even in here, man. I mean, let the other person preach and teach slightly different than you in the end of the day as long as it's within mainstream pause here footnote what is mainstream that is a whole different, you know, constant topic altogether. But without a doubt, without a doubt, the hadith of Gibreel the Archon is
citta whoever wants to preach the generics of, you know, loving Allah and His messenger and praying five times a day and you know, respecting, you know, believing in the Quran and Sunnah Subhana Allah, okay? After this, even if you disagree, that person is not your mortal enemy, that person is not somebody, you should spend the bulk of your time or energy, much less an ounce of hatred for, because there are so many people out there that are clueless about the realities of this faith. So rather than concentrate on those closest to you who differ slightly concentrate on those that are far away. And one of the things that helped me in this regard was to educate myself about other
disciplines, and especially advise the scholars untolerable to read up on multiple branches of knowledge, anthropology, sociology, psychology history, it really comes in handy to study these disciplines. And one thing that you study in psychology is actually a phenomenon that is well observed. It is called the narcissism of small differences. It's actually a technical term, the narcissism of small differences where the toolable aim here.
For everybody here actually, cellos benefit psychologists have observed, it's not just religious, to groups of people that are relatively similar to one another, but not 100%. The same.
Not true, they tend to exaggerate to their trivial differences, compared to two groups of people that are far apart.
They naturally tend to exaggerate the trivial differences, because this is how you declare your identity. The other group that is so close to you is actually a threat to your 100% Identity, even if they're 95%. But they're a genuine threat, the group that's only 10% similar to you, they're not really a threat to you, are they? So if you look at the you know, the reality of competition, Pepsi and Coke, for example, right, okay, cutthroat competition, Pepsi and Coke because their products really are so similar. Pepsi doesn't go and talk about you know, energy drinks and make a big deal about energy drinks, but Pepsi and Coke I mean, back in the day in the 90s, you know, when I was
growing up, they would have like, literally war ads against one another, making fun of each other the most hard bein the same goes for your you know, any type of company that has similar, you know, brand similar product, they're the most threatened by that, when you understand it's human nature to exaggerate the trivial differences, and you apply to the religious scene, then all of a sudden, you understand, this is not the religion of Allah, this is human nature, it's psychology, we need to go above this, my brother in Islam, who agrees with me 90 95% Why am I exaggerating that 5% to make it so big, when in reality 95% is common. In the end of the day, we're facing the same table, bowing
our heads on the same carpet to the same God reading the same book, loving the same profit. And here I am problematizing some abstract issue of theology or some utterly trivial point to fit where it is, you place the hands or whatever. And subhanAllah This is a tactic not just of shaytaan but of human psychology and defense mechanisms. We understand this and overcome it. Then this is one of the reasons by the way that if you listen to my lectures now versus 25 years ago, there was a market difference. Anybody who is calling to some type of religiosity, some type of today unit Arabic, some type of a bother to Allah azza wa jal based upon the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, how can I
take this person as the mortal enemy, even if I disagree? There is a time and a place and a language and an audience to preach that 5% difference? Definitely not in public on a heartbeat. Definitely not on social media, definitely not on Facebook No. So in your own personal lives as well. Try to implement this, which leads me to my next point.
strive to achieve unity as much as possible. Recognizing not only our methodological and theological, but our ethnic and political differences. You see, the beauty of the concept of the OMA really, is that the OMA truly is an amazing idea. Again, this is a very deep topic I've spoken about in other lectures, but think about it. How do we divide mankind? Let's really leave religion out of it, how you have to divide mankind because the globe is not one united place, right? People have to come together to take care of their interests. People have to come together as societies and form bonds, brotherhood sisterhood, well, the most common way of dividing mankind was tribal. Right? Once
upon a time even to this day, your tribe your blood, you're related to everybody by blood, you have a common ancestor. But tribal affiliations have many drawbacks of them as you can't really go too big. Because how much can I try be of them is that what really unites a tribe? There's no ethics, there's no values. There's
Blood. Yeah, but there's no shared heritage. In our modern world. Of course, the primary mechanism of unity is of course, the nation state, right? You're British, I'm American, you know, people are different ethnicities or sorry, different nationalities? Well, I don't want to be too harsh and whatnot. But reality is that nation states, I'm speaking purely from political science here purely because nation states are relatively recent, they go back to the Treaty of Westphalia, literally, three, 400 years ago, the notion of belonging to a nation, the notion of belonging to a nation, is a very, very recent phenomenon in the grand scheme of human history. And it is fraught with internal
inconsistencies, because just because you happen to have been born in a certain land, or just because you carry the same passport doesn't really give you a sense of unity amongst the people who have that same passport or biological connection to where your mother gave birth to you, right? The diversity of thought within a nation state, who is going to defy decide the course of the nation, again, not to get too controversial, but this notion of
values of your country, okay, we all are values. This is who we are speaking as a political scientist, right now, not as a theologian or a scholar of Islam, purely, purely understanding what political sciences, the same people who are promoting these values. One generation ago, they had very different values than what they're promoting right now.
One generation ago, they had very different values than what they're promoting now. They claim to be tolerance is the backbone of, you know, this nation state, for example. That's a key word. It's a buzzword. It's a hype. It's a slogan. Historically, no, colonialist and Pritzker Prize was tolerant.
It's very ironic, that's the largest colonial enterprise in human history claims to be tolerant when it quite literally did what it did across the globe. Again, also, again, I saw a video clip, by the way, again, this is complete tangent saw a video clip of somewhere here in your own country, of a child who remarked that a certain act is immoral than Islam. They had a guest speaker, and he said, This is not Islamic. guys know what I'm talking about? It went viral. I don't want to be too explicit, if you understand why as well, because yeah, tolerance is not a two way street. And the school teacher was yelling at this child.
The school teacher was yelling at this child. We are this nation state. And we are a tolerant country.
Hola, he I was like, Do you know the meaning of the word irony.
You're yelling at a child for holding a view that you disagree with? Asking him to be tolerant? Do you not understand the irony of what you're doing? So toleration, of course, is just a buzzword. It's just a hype. Because true toleration cannot actually exist, really, it cannot. Because there are certain things that are deemed to be unacceptable. And we shall not tolerate those things. So it's just a buzzword again. Again, I'm not going into this whole tangent here. But
the notion of some type of passport or nationality truly being unifying.
It's a bit of a figment of the imagination. And that's why one of the great political scientists of the last generation passed away a decade ago, non Muslim guy, philosopher Benedict Anderson, he wrote a book which went viral in the 80s. And 90s, you can read it as a very interesting book is called imagined communities go read this book. It's a history of the nation state. And it's a deconstruction of this notion that there's something called the nation state. What is the imagined communities, you must imagine a common myth, you must imagine a group of ultra pious Founding Fathers, you must imagine a shared heritage, you must imagine a group of shared values in reality,
it's all imagination doesn't really stand. The strength of the OMA is that the OMA is actually a tangible bond between two completely different people when it comes to ethnicity and culture and language because the OMA Bond's you with what is the most important to be bonded with and that is values. This is what values are not American values, Norwegian values, British values. This is just in here, Last Mountain. These are words you say these are simply expressions. There is no such thing as American values that stands the test of time, American values change depending on who's in office, but Islamic values. That's a whole different ballpark. It's
Islamic values are real, that are divine, that are permanent, that are universal. So the OMA, the concept of the OMA truly is mind boggling. Because there should be nothing stronger for an attachment with another human being stronger than skin color, then biological ancestor mean, who cares if somebody's great, great grandfather, the same as mine, they could be a mass murderer, I could be a pious person or vice versa, who cares, tribal, who cares nation state, but somebody who shares the same God, the same journey of life, the same ethos, somebody who shares the same spirit of living. Now, that's where you have a connection. So the OMA connection truly is amazing and
precious, truly. And that's why here I am never having been to the land of the Uyghurs. But my heart is genuinely in grief for them, never having been there, but genuinely My heart is going out to them, because I sense their pain. They are my genuine brothers and sisters, even if I don't speak their language, even if I'm not of their ethnicity, of their skin color, but their values are my values, they are a part of my broader family. So understand this point. And when you do that, then actively work in your own circle of influence, to overcome the trivial differences that have plagued our Ummah, the differences of nation state Wallahi are utterly backward, the differences of
ethnicity which is rampant in our Ummah, in our process, and in predicted a sad prediction, he said four things from Jai Helia shall remain in my ummah even though they're JD even though they're pre Islamic, they should not be here they're going to remain number one he said What's Alpha horrible and sab being proud of your heritage, basically, racism, ethnic racism, and it is very, very true Subhanallah we don't like to talk about as a taboo topic, but every one of us is aware we all have that onto that uncle that relative that cousin we all have maybe even maybe even our own parents who harbor these vulgar stereotypes about not even somebody who's of another race somebody who's another
tribe or village within your race right somebody from you know this part of Bangladesh rather than that part of Bangladesh this part of bucks on versus versus not part of Buxton, even this village, which is one village away from the next one. So we in this generation, one of the things we need to do actively work within our circle to overcome the differences within the OMA. Now, any difference that does not lead to looking down on somebody else is legitimate. If you like your culture, you like your cuisine, you like your you know, Brioni mashallah with spices mashallah all the way yes, I'm done. No problem. Okay. I love my masala Tikka what not, by the way, masala Tikka chicken tikka
masala standard, you know, syncretic there is no such thing as chicken tikka masala back home. This is British this year. zation you know, this right. This is invented by some some guy who wanted to bring Indian Pakistani culture to to England. So he invented chicken tikka masala, and it's become the national dish. What happened to British values. This is the national dish, right, chicken tikka masala curry takeaway. Anyway, my point being the next point in my list, actively work within your circles to bring about as much unity as possible. The last point was theological. This point is ethnic and socio economic and, and, you know, these micro aggressions that take place. If anybody
says something derogatory about another group of people, another race or another, you need to step in, you cannot remain friends with people. This is the real canceled culture. This is the Islamic canceled culture. You cannot remain friends with people who think they're better than other people because of the color of their skin, because of where their ancestors came from, because of their background.
Also, as I said, religious divide as well. Again, I don't want to go too explicit, but there are people who want to prioritize bringing the head off or there are people that want to prioritize Islamic movements. People want to prioritize out the the people in prayer is filled. People want to privatize the sphere and Tobia, people want to do test gear. You know what? He couldn't really he couldn't care. Let groups of people work on what they think is the most. As long as you don't make each other the enemy. There's plenty of people out there that are not attached to any way to Islam anywhere it is at that point. So let's move on to the fourth point. I think this is right, the
fourth point. The fourth point that I have
given the realities of the times we live in, and given the fact that we are balancing different loyalties. We have loyalties to the OMA and yes, we do have at some level
loyalties to our nation state and we have loyalties to our culture we do. And by the way, there's nothing wrong inherently like I said,
again, to be very clear the beauty of the OMA identity, it is not meant to eliminate every other identity. That's the beauty of the OMA, you're not like in the political system, some countries you cannot have dual citizenship, right? Some countries you must choose either this or that. With regards to the OMA, there is a hierarchy note about that, no doubt about that. And the number one identity you shall always have the primary identity. The identity that cannot be challenged by any other identity is not Islam. The OMA is the number one identity who has Samarco misdemeanor Salafi hada that's your number one identity, every other identity as long as it allows the first identity
and doesn't challenge it, you may affirm and embrace it. The Prophet system said he is a Quraishi. The Prophet CISM said he is the son of Abdon mortality and mortality. The process did not negate the tribal system, he let it flourish within the framework of the ummah.
The same goes for where you belong to there's a natural affiliation to where you belong to. There was no nation state back then. But we can make the last Jedi if they ask, Oh Allah, this is obviously as you that the nation state is permissible, no problem. And I think it's haram or bothin. But within the concept of the OMA now, my fourth point here a
bit technical, but at times, at times, there's going to be a gray area of how to navigate that potential clash.
realize these are unexplored territories, be humble enough to understand there's going to be a diversity of thoughts, listen to different people, and how they navigate through this very, very gray area. And I'm gonna give you some controversial examples, not to answer them. That's not the purpose today, I might have my own answers. But I don't want to just to give you these examples, especially 20 years ago, when the rise of these radical groups ISIS and al Qaeda and whatnot came right. We had a massive crisis in our youth, of trying to balance between OMA loyalty and nation state loyalty. We had a massive crisis. And people refuse to speak intelligently, emotions got the
better of them.
And throughout all of this, people, like myself, were fairly consistent in our worldview, but take it or leave it. But what we've discovered what I discovered is that because people were not talking about this awkward reality, it allowed the rise of fanaticism and simplistic worldviews, this binary
and that's not Islamic. That's not the way forward. There are very difficult areas sometimes. I mean, not to get too controversial, but recently, your beloved Queen passed away.
And within your community, there was a massive controversy over what was it again, the
the the sheet,
the sheet,
the British and the sheet that was played.
Now again, I'm not going to get into the technic I have an opinion, it's not the place right now get into it. The what?
I shall pass on that privilege.
My point is that what I found sad as an outsider to your community, there was very little scholarly discussion taking place that I could see. Okay, let's bring some aroma. We think it is not allowed other Allama who think is macro at the rodeo. I think his job is let the people here this is a very difficult area. It's not simplistic, really, it's not. And you have competing tensions, between loyalty to the loyalty to nation state, you know, human emotion, what is to be done. It's not as simplistic to second fatwa. But what we found is that the loudest voices and the most radical voices drowned out even the potential of a dialogue I'm not saying haram and halal, but I'm saying Did you
guys even have an internal discussion? Did you actually have a civilized actual back and forth between scholarly people to see what was it about? Or was it just a mob mentality of people just getting on you know, burn the witch alive like stuff but Allah calm down? Well, I It's scary, because it's this type of fanaticism, is this type of crazed ideology that will eventually cause harm and division within the ummah. And if we as a community don't have the maturity to acknowledge, hey, this is a gray area. It's not that simple. I can see why some people were frustrated. I can see why some people wanted it. Now let's see what is the wisest way forward that I didn't see that
happened. Maybe you heard it privately, but it didn't hear come to my attention.
You know what, not 10. It's just symptomatic of a bigger problem. And that is, we're living in atypical times. It's not the norm for Muslims like us to be living in these nation states that are ruled by secular democracies, this is a very recent phenomenon. So we're still discovering our way forward. We're still charting out the map, we're still figuring out the terrain,
allow some people to make mistakes, allow some discussion to take place. But whatever you do, don't form an opinion after five seconds and think it is the only one there. That's definitely not the way forward, especially when you're not even trained in the Sharia, especially when you don't have a background. Or you actually have been involved in Dawa, and you understand the pros and cons Subhan Allah, Wallah, again, totally SitePoint you but our brother, shall Abdullah mentioned this up low the problem of social media, where everybody who has a microphone is given a platform, you know, in some ways, before social media, at least, you know, this was not possible. But now, if you have an
internet connection and a phone and everybody does, you are literally connected to the entire globe. And when this happens, then, generally speaking, it's not the voices of intelligence and wisdom that when, generally speaking, it is the voices of entertainment and drama that when, and this is the reality, both within Islamic circles, and in broader societies as well. Politicians who should not be politicians will win because they can create drama, you know what I'm talking about, right?
Both on our side of the pond and your side of the pond, pathetic hairstyles, but that's besides the point. So point being that social media is causing this reality but still, all of us collectively, even those that are not scholars need to put their relatives and check their friends in check, Hey, hold on. Don't be that dogmatic. You don't know this reality. All of us we try to within our own circles, raise the bar of discussion, bring about a higher level of intelligent dialogue. Again, you might not drown out you know the voices on social media. But if you can influence your immediate circle that Hamdulillah that is the goal. And the final point and I want to be on my time I
apologize. The final point inshallah Tada fifth final point, we're talking about the Ummah, we're talking about the OMA, well, the building block of the Ummah is the family.
The building block of the OMA is the family unit. And once again,
and I always bring this up over and over again, the hope I gave earlier today in East London Misha said the same thing.
Allah He we live in a world nobody could have predicted even 20 years ago, 10 years ago, to deny the obvious to go against not the bulk of human history, the crux of humanity, and to make claims that you would have been locked up in a mental asylum had you said them even 2030 years ago, 100 years ago, and to make these mainstream
Subhanallah we live in strange times, very strange times.
Along with Stan, if we, as Muslims buckle to that pressure.
I'm not trying to aggrandized ourselves, but I speak factually. We are the last large faith civilization that is holding on to basic, basic, basic human morality.
Everybody has coupled except for small segments of Jews and Christians, they're not mainstream. In terms of large communities, we are the last bastion of human decency and morality. When it comes to family, do you understand what I'm saying? Because I don't, I'm not allowed to be too explicit Subhanallah we live in such times where they have the freedom to sacrilegious ly burn the Quran, and I do not have the actual freedom in this land at least because again, I'm a visitor to your land. I do not have the actual freedom to state a biological and historical fact. I can't even state it on stage. I
can't because if I were to do so it's very likely that I'm not going to come here again. I don't see the point and this is not my battle. You guys take charge and my land. I'm as explicit as I can. Okay? Again, I'm being honest here. And Charlotte, this is insha Allah this is a part of my wisdom. I could be wrong, but I know my my limits in my land and go listen to the Hulkbuster Andrews have given about this very topic in my own masjid, right. But other places and other lands, I have to be a little bit extra because this is the way of the world to state biological facts can get you banned. My point though, is
if we buckle under that pressure, and if we refuse to stand up and defend the values of Islam, then literally there's nobody left
And I am confident, confident, not just as a Muslim who's optimistic of Allah's help, but as a reader in history, as a reader and in the realities of human lives and the trajectory of ideas, I am confident that this ideology will self implode, as it has already begun to do, it cannot sustain, it goes against the very fabric of what being a human is. It goes against the cumulative history of the entirety of mankind, it goes against biology, and biology doesn't care about your feelings, I'm sorry, it doesn't change facts. So if we ride the storm,
if we buckle down, weather this out, in hindsight, insha, Allah Allah, it will give us a level of respect that we do need to have, it will give us a level of insha Allah acceptance that will allow us to do other Dawa more important than this. But this is one of the things when people understand and realize, hey, those guys had the truth and you don't. In America, we're seeing this already. In Michigan, I don't know if you're aware of this in Michigan, which is 20% out of by the way, right? Michigan is the highest concentration of out of all of America, for historical reasons. They wanted to change the school curriculum and introduce this type of ideology to the kids.
Even though the Muslims were only you know, 15 20%, they packed the school auditorium. Videos are vile, you can watch this, right? They stood up, they said, over our dead bodies are going to teach our children this type of stuff. This is a democracy, we have the right, these are our children.
And they, they had to agree because majority of them showed up and went and voted against it. The amount of positive PR that mainstream Christians had of this effort.
The amount of acceptance we got not that we're aiming for acceptance, but I'm giving you a perk. It's not our goal, but it's a perk and if it comes, why not and Hamdulillah that people understood, Hey, maybe I didn't understand these Muslims correctly. Maybe Maybe they actually have some good in them some decency. And in fact, you know, the lecture I gave about this topic about this, you know, biological fact topic, right?
If you look at the comments, I think 30 40% are from non Muslims. My talk surprising to me went viral in the broader society.
And people were saying, How come our ministers don't speak like this? Where are our rabbis? Hmm, I wish we had a minister that spoke like you, if this is Islam, I need to do more research about it. This was on my video on YouTube, go take a look at it. You can see it yourself. Right? If all of us stuck to our morality, sure, people are going to make fun of us people are gonna you know, whatever. But in the long run for Amazon to do for AWS, all of the froth and the flush is gonna go out what a young fellow nurse fim COVID All that which benefits mankind shall remain. Fight Allah azza wa jal mentioned in the Quran, that is
called battle, the truth has come and the battle has been perished. Allah says in the Quran, the truth will come failure the man who who and destroy complete falsehood. To me, this is a biological falsehood, not even just a theological one. So if we retain our morality, if we celebrate marriage, if we celebrate the family unit, if we preserve the family unit, then when all of the dust settles and all of this internal implosion amongst them as good as they cancel out your most famous, you know, author here of the most popular, you know, high school books series of science fiction and fantasy, you know, whoever that person is, right? They're going to counsel her, they're going to
counsel everybody, until nobody is left to cancel that cancel themselves. And we shall remain standing holding the flag of basic basic, basic common sense. So in order to do that, this is my final point. You shall have to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk.
Muslims,
work on your marriages,
preserve your marriages.
Try your best to avoid that exit route, which is there in last resort, you know, I'm talking about the last resort should not be something that is easily attained. It is terrifying to see divorce rates skyrocket in our own communities. Wallahi it's worrying and terrifying. If we're going to couple and if we're going to break under the pressure what's left, preserve your marriages remain bastions of morality, work as much as you can. And again, it's a long topic. I'm not saying if it's up
You have not please don't read in brothers and sisters. I'm speaking generically we have another problem one to find every worse ambiguous term and I have to give a disclaimer, if I say the sun is red or yellow or whatever to give disclaimers here, well, it's yellow only at certain times of the day, otherwise it becomes SubhanAllah. Generically the default should we not remain in a marriage? That's the default, correct. That's what I'm saying. Okay, try your best to keep the family unit, not just for the sake of broader society for the sake of your children. The number one mechanism to preserve eemaan In your children is to preserve your family unit, believe it or not, preserve the
family unit. And that family unit is the building block of the OMA. So to conclude, brothers and sisters,
be pragmatic and realistic about what you can achieve. Understand Allah is not asking you for global change, influence the people around you influence your immediate circle. Try to bring about as much harmony and unity as you can. Don't make other religious people your focus and goal overcome the internal divides. Understand that in the small steps of morality and a cloud of preaching and teaching what it means to be a dignified believer in a higher power, your your o'clock should exude what it means and of course, most importantly, when it comes to these o'clock issues is the reality of family. The reality of being a good mother, a good father, a husband, a daughter, a son, a
brother, when you show this to society, this is one of the most important ways you're going to make them realize our dean is the dean of the fitrah. Our deen is the deen from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tala. So I pray that Allah subhana wa Tada utilizes all of us in a way that He is pleased with I pray that we become robotic wherever we are. I pray that Allah subhanaw taala causes causes all of us to be walking role models of the flock that our Prophet system left us with. I pray that Allah azza wa jal does not make us a fitna. To those who disbelieve, I pray that Allah azza wa jal causes us to live as Muslims to die as mortal sins and to be resurrected with the prophets and the companions are what
a noble companionship they are. What is our Kamala Hayden was said on why they come Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh
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