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smilla al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah al Habib al Mustafa, Al Mustafa sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam woman, voila, we praise Allah subhanho wa Taala. And we asked him to send his peace
and his blessings upon the messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and those who follow Him
until the end of time As salam o Alaikum, warahmatullahi, wabarakatuh
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Masha Allah, there's so many people here that I don't have to do the thing where the guy repeats it
and we ask, how are you doing? Are you awake? So it's very nice, Mashallah, to have all of you here,
does that come along here, it's an honor to be here and stand in front of you sit in front of you.
This is our third talk show that we have here at Islamic foundation. And we have a very special
guest with us.
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Usually, for someone like his caliber, they say you don't need an introduction. But I'm going to
give my introduction of shift Yes. Riccati, who I met 10 years ago, when he It was your first class
I think your first class, not my first class, but it was second class, I think second Indiana,
Indiana second class. So it was his second class ever for a number of Institute. He taught it in
Indiana. Very small chapter of Alma herb, they were expecting maybe 2530 people 18 Chicago guys show
up. And you know, Chicago Muslims are we're not afraid of who we are. We were very open the fact
that we're deseado, whatever. So in class, we're throwing out jokes saying like, Hello, he would
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turn around and you'd be like, Who are these guys? And then a year later, hello, he brought a little
herb to Chicago. And every single year you keep coming back, you come for esna. And now you're here
today? And on that note, shit. Yes, sir. You came.
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Right now from a restaurant in which you had creekstone beef? Is this correct?
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I wonder why sofka would bring up creekstone beef.
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Yes, I just came from a restaurant where I ate creekstone beef masala, because apparently somebody
in Chicago thinks it is headed. And I trust that particular somebody based on the research that he
has done.
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So straying away from that topic, because it's a you brought it up, not me. Okay? We don't have too
much time. That's gonna take too long. Okay. So does that come up here for joining us, it's an honor
to have you here in our budget, I've wanted to bring you here for this talk show for a very long
time, that I'm the lead. After some time, we were able to get you and our topic is called being
Muslim today. And we have a lot of issues that exist today in America for Muslims in 2015. And I've
noticed that you are someone who likes to talk about these issues, these modern issues, so to speak.
So how can we approach our Islam being Muslim in America and in an postmodern era, in the best way?
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So what we'll do is we're just going to jump right into it, and talk about some of the the critical
issues from the get go. So we are here at Sonic Foundation, one of the premier massages in Chicago,
maybe in the Midwest, maybe even America. So massage communities.
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There's a lot of talk about
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the muslin recently in Muslim America, and there are complaints about the masjid. It's not
accommodating, it doesn't help women. It doesn't accommodate to converts, so on and so forth. So now
you have this these two different sides, so to speak, and anti Majid side quote, unquote, and then
eight pro Majid side, so the anti Majid side is complaining that we have been unmasked. And then the
Muslims don't help us. They're not accommodating, they're not nice. They push people away. So we
have the right to complain. The other side says, You're abandoning the Sunnah of Rasulullah
sallallahu sallam, and you're leaving the masjid and this is a fitna and all these different things.
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How do we approach this issue?
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So Allah hamdulillah salat wa salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah He was so happy woman. What about
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America, as we all know, is a free country. It is not like other places in the world where you need
permission, where there are set rules. America, nobody can force anybody to do anything that has its
positives that has its negatives for us as a struggling religious community. Have its positives is
that we get to be Muslim. No majority of Christians or agnostics or atheists can tell us you cannot
build your Masjid. You cannot pray you cannot grow a beard. We all know that our constitutional
amendments allow us to be Muslim, and we thank Allah azza wa jal for having blessed us to be in such
a society. And I say this as somebody who's traveled in many Western countries. I do not know of any
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western country where the Muslims are better integrated and more flourishing than the US have.
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Out of all of the Western countries, no exceptions, I do not know of any country where the Muslim
population is better integrated, and better flourishing than the USA, the flip side of all of these
Western or liberal countries would also be that our children have the freedom when they grow up not
to follow our paths, right, just like the majority cannot force us to conform to them. So too, we
cannot force our children to conform to us, once they come of age, when they're five years old, the
law will be on our side, when they're 25, the law will be on their side, frankly, when they're 1718,
the law will be on their site. So we therefore need to think long term about some of the complaints
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that our various members of our communities have and look at those complaints in the light of the
Quran and Sunnah. And see, are those complaints legitimate? Is it a black and white issue? Or is it
a gray area? If it's a black and white issue, according to the cornerstone, not well, then there's
not much we can do about it right? For example, one of the black and white issues for me, would be a
person of the opposite gender leading a mixed gender congregation, for example, right? There are
people that are wanting to do that in North America. Correct? Correct. Have they not already opened
their massage to do that in North America? In the past six months, in the past six months, they have
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already opened their massage. Can we stop them?
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No, we have to accept the reality that there will be other interpretations of Islam that I view to
be not correct. That's their constitutional right. It is my Islamic right to criticize islamically.
But it's not my right to do anything other than say, I don't agree with this interpretation. But I
know I'm getting there. Be patient, you know where I'm going to I inside the patient, the patient
and the patient. I'm getting there. We have a lot of topics Alhamdulillah so you want me to hurry up
with the answer? Pretty much. That's impossible, because you asked a really important question. I'm
a young person from this generation. And I don't have patience for the elders you want. You want
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Twitter of one at 140 characters max Twitter. In fact, I went I went to Instagram pose he showed me
a picture and it'll be the answer and show you Snapchat. I just logged on to Snapchat now I'm
thinking about doing Snapchat, I'm going to screengrab would you send me an email Okay, inshallah.
So where the issue is black and white, we will not compromise. If there are people that want us to
change the laws of Islam for them, we cannot change the laws of Islam for them. And if they want to
have their own message, that's their business in the eyes of Allah, I'm not going to be responsible.
However, there are other issues where there is a spectrum of permissibility. And this is where
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bravery and courage and open mindedness is required. It is possible that we have come from societies
that have particular understandings of Islam, and those are legitimate, it's not what I'm what
they're doing, it is hella is permissible, but in America that importation of that cultural strand
might not flourish. In fact, it will be counterproductive. So for those interpretations, we should
be open minded enough broad minded enough to challenge and to lead about some type of positive
change. Simple example is the role of women, the prayer space of women. On that note, I would like
to switch to a PowerPoint picture from this Masjid. It's a very risky thing I'm doing because the
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board asked me to do this program. And they're gonna be like, why are you talking about our budget,
but I have a trick up my sleeve. So if we can switch to the picture real quick. I took this photo.
It looks like somebody's sitting in what would be the sisters section of the motion. This is
actually gonna Melbourne. This was one of the, I think the middle Friday that took place during that
month. They had or towards the end, there's an area where we have the people who are there for
aitikaf they stay in the back behind dividers. I stayed here during Juma football, because I brought
my son with me and I didn't want to run around. When I sat down I realized this is what a lot of
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women see in the masjid. So we have this it's not how it is in this module. We have a mezzanine is
very nice in this Masjid. But I was simulating that experience. I saw a divider. And literally I
just saying it out loud. I saw much of men's butts on the floor. And this is during the gym a hot
button. I'm supposed to be inspired thinking about what Amazon This is the first time I've sat this
way. When I finally realized that a lot of women experienced this. And then I posted it online to
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, people even responded men. There are no massage like this in America.
I've been to many massages I've never seen this. And obviously there are massages that are even
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worse than this scenario. They don't even have prayer space for winter for example, or the prayer
space is so substandard that you would not yourself one to actually even go and look at it. The
carpets are you know very old or damp or the it's a little closet or something. There are plenty of
massages like this now islamically there is a spectrum. It is not wired for sisters to come to the
masjid. We know this. nobody's saying it's wired.
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cube for them to come and praise you more. But if you're not going to educate our sisters, our
mothers, our daughters, these are the future of the on behalf of the oma. If they're not going to
listen to Islam, society is not going to teach them Islam back home society would have taught them
Islam back home if they don't learn Islam from the Imam, they learn Islam from their whole culture.
But here, if they don't learn Islam from the masjid, nothing is going to teach them Islam. So are
you saying we have to compromise? This is not a compromise. This is not a compromise. In particular,
as I said, there's a spectrum of permissibility Is it hard for women to go to the masjid Of course
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it is by explicit a Hadith of the process of the process of them is wise would come to the masjid
well known you cannot deny the women, the houses of Allah. If this is what the process of is saying
in his time, you cannot deprive the women from coming to the houses of Allah, then how can we
possibly deprive them from coming to the houses of Allah, not just this I go a step further, I go a
step further. In our times, we need to encourage our sisters to come to the masjid. Why? Because our
sisters are going everywhere. Everywhere it is the reality of life. They're going to college,
they're going to school, they're going to bazaars they're going everywhere. Once upon a time, our
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own grandmothers perhaps rarely left the house. Once upon a time, 200 years ago, 100 years ago,
women would only leave for a particular reason. It wasn't the culture to leave. In our society,
everybody is going everywhere for any reason. So the one place we deprive them of is the most
important place that is the masjid, I say we need to reverse the entire mentality. And we need to
encourage our young men and women to come to the massage. What ends up happening is a woman will
come maybe she has kids. You can clap is clapping, okay for you? Yes, you can come close, fine. The
women wanted to clap there. So what happens is
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a young woman will come to the masjid. Mothers will come with their children, because the kids are
running around making noise. Because I guess that's haram or something they get yelled at. And then
that first experience that oh, maybe a mother who's like got a kid who's a year, two years old, they
haven't stepped foot in the budget in months. They come in, they get yelled at, and they're
disenfranchised from the budget. And they're saying, What's the point of even coming? If they're not
even accommodating to me, in my own home, so to speak. And this is one of those scenarios where
again, there's no black and white, there's no highlight and how long there's pros and cons on both
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sides. On the one hand, you have men and women, it's not just men, women who don't have young kids,
they might have a legitimate concern and say, Listen, I've come to the masjid to read Quran to pray.
If you have a two year old who's running around, and I have four kids, I know what it's like to have
kids. I know some kids are more wild than others. Some kids run around, it's the reality of being a
parent. So if you have a young child who is causing a lot of commotion, I can understand the
sentiment and complaint that comes from both men and women who say look, I need to concentrate,
because I want to connect to a lot over here. And your kid is raising the decibel level to like 25
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or something I can't do that what will happen is young, let me finish. Let me finish the talk. So I
gotta interrupt you though. You're a talk show. Okay, so young brothers will say I know Hadith of
the Prophet SAW, I saw them. They he brought his grandchildren. And if he brought his grandchildren,
they had to make noise. So why can we accommodate kids who make noise? And the response is that if
you look at the data, the process of generally speaking, bringing children was an exception and not
the rule. Interesting. That's the whole point is that the fact that once somebody cried a little kid
cried in the process and broke his law, how often did you do that? It was actually an exception,
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because it's understood. But once again, here's the point. We want our mothers to come. And there's
an easy solution Alhamdulillah with modern technology, and that is to have mommy sitting rooms that
is to have specific rooms where and I've even been to mosques that have daddy sitting rooms. There's
nothing wrong with that. The father should also bring their young kids sometimes to the masjid. So
they can pray in an area that's basically enclosed in glass or there's a connection or something.
And if the kids are making a noise, so it's understood in that room, this is where the kids are
supposed to be making a noise. So this is an easy technological solution. In the meantime, there's
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got to be some type of compromise those massages that don't have these separate rooms. The parents
that bring young children have to be extra vigilant parents and I am a parent. Yes, your children
should come to the masjid. But your children should come to the masjid not as a playground. We have
playgrounds for that. Your children to come to the masjid so that they learn spirituality. And that
generally comes at the age of 567 and onwards. So if they're below the age of five, in reality, they
couldn't care less whether you're in the masjid or in the park, they'd rather you're in the park. So
if you bring them to the masjid, then they are your responsibility to monitor and if they make a
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commotion that is unreasonable. A little bit of commotion is understood. If they make a commotion
that is unreasonable. In this case, it does
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makes sense for you to go outside of the masala wait till the child calms down, then come back in.
In other words, let's all compromise both sides. Let the elders especially the men, who typically
don't bring the kids, let them tolerate a certain amount because they need to have the mothers come
to the masjid. And the mothers as well be extra vigilant. One of the problems comes in I see this
all the time, where mothers become oblivious to the child going crazy. The two year old is throwing
a tantrum at the top of his lungs. And the mother is just sitting there doing her ticket. Now
mothers Marshal that's about a cola once they have kids, they learn to ignore that decibel level.
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It's as if that one kid becomes deaf and all other kids she can hear. Okay, so this is a loss
blessing upon the parents that sometimes fathers sometimes fathers as well, yes, I don't know what
I'm talking about. This is a loss blessings upon the parents, but you realize that maybe you your
kid you ignore, everybody else is being irritated by your kid. So the parents who bring the kids to
the masjid have an extra responsibility. The other people in the future also compromise. And the
point is, these discussions should be had publicly in every community every once in a while. I'm a
resident scholar of my community of Memphis Islamic Center, every once in a while, we have to come
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together and just announce when a kid does go a little bit wild or something we have to announce
guys. If you bring children to the masjid, they are your responsibility. So if your son is going all
over between the so forth, you know, stepping on people's glasses, pulling iPhones out or whatever,
you need to do something. It's your son, you brought them to the masjid. You can't just let them go
wild. So there's got to be a compromise where inshallah tada if we talk publicly about it, both
sides will learn to tolerate the other side Sharla last issue related to the community in the Muslim
we talked a lot about where women should be mommy sitting rooms. And now we have a divider here.
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There's a lot of talk about this, especially in our own city, the bar the issue? Are we too strict
as a community when it comes to
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segregation, and I guess you can say conservatism. So when it comes to segregation, the shadia has a
spectrum. The shade era has a spectrum. And within this spectrum, every community and every Masjid
will have to find its niche where it feels comfortable. And it's not fair for any one community to
superimpose its Hillel spectrum on the other community. Okay, let me give some realistic examples
here in the time of the process, and we all know there was no actual divider or wall correct. So
many communities including my own in Memphis, that is the way we are, there is no divider, the
sisters are in the back and the brothers are in the front, same Hall, the same hole. That's the
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whole point is that that's for me completely jockeys. But many communities, including your own
apparently feel uncomfortable about that. Is it wrong for them to feel uncomfortable? No, it's not
wrong. So if the community is comfortable having two separate locations, having a divider having a
barrier, and hamdulillah fine with that. The point is that we need to have the community come
together and discuss this openly. And don't be narrow minded and bigoted. Does Islam allow this
barrier? Of course it does. Does it make it why'd you have in the masala when the men are in the
front and the woman in the back? Anybody who says this says the process of himself didn't do the
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logic. Think about what you're saying? Anybody who says it's wajib. So it's not wajib? Either way,
it is Helen, it's both her job is. So each community should come together and decide and let the
communities organically and you know, it's healthy for some difference of opinion to exist. yourself
club. It's healthy. Don't be so narrow minded. let some communities be extra conservative so that
the extra conservative Muslims come to this community, let some other communities be a little bit
more liberal, where Islam allows us to be liberal. And that's the question and that is the question
which you go to the roadmap for? Yes, that is the question. What is the red line that you cannot
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cross and for my opinion, the red line for my, in my opinion, the red line is very obvious when it
comes to Salah. And that is that many women are not going to stand my shoulder shoulder to shoulder
feet two feet following the suit yourself, okay? We're not going to we're not going to have them
standing side by side. As long as the sisters are either behind and in the front or in separate
rooms, then the sooner has been fulfilled. And that is permissible. Other than that, they cannot
come and stand side by side because obviously that would be okay. Now there are massage you'd like
this by the way. There are massages in North America, where men and women stand completely together
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completely. I say this is not allowed because the shediac does not allow men and women to be
standing side by side doing such that what not it's common sense. You don't even need a headache to
quote it's common sense. But where is this line again you go to the odema and I do not know of any
reputable alum that has
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allowed women to stand side by side with men. But there are many orlimar that say having a barrier
is not necessary. And there are many ruler who say having a barrier, Mr. hub. So Live and let live,
let some communities do this, let other communities do that. And birds of a feather will flock
together, those Muslims that want this type of understanding will come to that Masjid, those Muslims
that want that type will come to that Masjid. And the community is stronger when the people are
coming to their massages. So while we you can clap, that's fine. It's such a hesitation to klabin
Muslim events. I don't know why it is completely permissible to clap, there's no doubt about
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actually only the women were clapping. So that's interesting, this permissible to clap.
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Because Because, again, I'll go into a tangent on my one of my tangents was that because
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there are methods of expressing approval, and the Shetty allows these methods of expressing
approval, there's nothing inherently wrong with them. These are all cultural mannerisms and simple
example, that the profitsystem wrote his letter to heraclius. And he wrote the letter and he gave it
to the messenger, and the message and the messenger, meaning the ambassador, and the ambassador just
said, the attitude of it is the custom of the kings of Rome, and of all the kings that when a letter
is sent to them from another leader, the letter must be stamped and waxed and sealed by the leader
himself. Now is this custom coming from Islam?
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No, the process and wouldn't wasn't aware of it. So what did he do? Did he say how long should I go
for? It's just a custom. What do you lose? So he said, Okay, so he ordered that an aura ring be
built, and a ring was made for him and wax was brought, and he put the wax and he put it in and he
sent it there, right? A lot of times we have as Muslims, we have a problem differentiating what is
permissible to take and what is impermissible to take. And in reality, there should not be any
problem. Here I am speaking to you in English. This is not the mother, the language of my mothers
and their ancestors before them. I keep on saying my mother's tongue is oh to do my mother tongue is
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English. Okay, so this is not the language of my ancestors. And yet I speak English more fluently.
I'm speaking to all of you in English, and I address you and 90% of you are dressed in pants and
shirt. So what if I then say it's permissible to clap when it's permissible to speak in English,
it's permissible to live in America, it's permissible to wear the clothes, it's permissible to eat
hamburger and french fries, as long as it is to be held that it's permissible to do that, then why
is it not permissible as well to express some appreciation? Again, the reason I say this is again,
one of our problems is we just don't understand what is headed and how long it is how long to
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imitate pagan customs and cultures, ie celebrating the 25th of December would be how long this is
what is how long it is how long to celebrate Diwali. This is how long this is where the processing
forbade imitating things that are under Islamic as for food, cuisine, language, dress, meat,
expression of appreciation, this the Sharia is silent about and all of this is permissible. Now, if
somebody says is it better to say that tech bill will say of course, it is better because it is a
vicar, saying Allahu Akbar is a praise. Of course it is better. But it is it sinful to let's say,
clap? No, it is not. At times, actually, it is better to do to to clap and that I'll give you a
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number of examples. Well, again, I'm going to attach with one example. One example and then you can
go to your next question. So
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we were attending a lecture by
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00:24:28
Mr. myko pilot, you should google his name, find out who he is. He is a very famous Israeli, the son
of one of the most famous generals in the 1967 War, the grandson of one of the signatories of the
State of Israel, and he is from a very prestigious Zionist family. But something happened long story
he converted completely, and is now completely pro Palestinian. And he is very anti Zionist, very
anti Zionist. Now we are listening to him, we invited him to Memphis and he says something and there
are a Zionist in the audience there are booing, they're cheering. And when he says something good,
what do you want the Muslims to do? To illustrate that we agree with what he is saying. Do you think
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00:24:31
at that point in time, we should say Allahu Akbar.
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00:25:00
I don't think it's wise. Personally. At that point, you're sitting in an audience of 500 non
Muslims, you want to illustrate I agree with that point. So you clap. Yeah. Because that is what
that is what the culture of our times acknowledges to be appreciation. So there are even times in
places where clapping is one stab to do that. So anyway, point is nothing wrong with making this
sound of
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00:25:02
Clapping if you want to express your your happiness
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00:25:46
Moving along to a very critical issue, while we have these discussions about the masjid and some of
these customs, we are dealing with a very serious time that we live in right now. We are two months
removed from the Chapel Hill shootings, Roseanne, Abu Salha yusor Abu Salha user's husband, Dr.
barakat, a family whose house I visited in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I'm sure you know them as
well. They were shot and murdered in cold blood over what was purported to be a parking dispute.
Even though the person who's now going to be I think facing life in prison, or maybe the death
penalty, I'm not sure. He was known to be someone who was very anti religion in a number of other
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00:26:33
things. So it raises a lot of questions. One of the questions we have is, what kind of time are we
living in parents are scared that maybe they can no longer even send their children out to school or
to college? Because of these Islamophobic sentiments. So here is a tweet from maybe in the past few
days, from Pamela Geller, who is one of the lead islamophobes in America. And she has one this case,
so to speak, that she has the right to post this offensive ad and in the MTA, which is like the CTA
of New York, the subway system. And it says something along the lines of killing Jews is my form of
worshipping Allah, that is my jihad, what's your Jihad so we live in a time where this has the right
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00:26:56
to be displayed and it will be displayed and it is being displayed. And in the States at the same
time. We're also dealing with the issue of extremism too. So how can the Muslim Ummah approach these
two issues? Is what we kind of want to talk about what what is it is going on? Why is it so volatile
right now? Why are people so hateful in this time?
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00:27:42
You can ask that question in a few minutes. This is an entire lecture exactly give. I'll try to give
some lights. Firstly, from a purely heady theory point of view, our profits a little larger than
predicted that times will get worse and worse. And he mentioned that the fitness or the masiva will
become even more in quantity and in quality. And he said that I see as if the fitness are falling
upon your community like the drops of rain. This is what he said, like the drops of rain. Every time
one fitna leaves, the people say, Oh, this is it, then a worse one comes. So there is somewhat of a
bleakness in that. The closer we get to the Day of Judgment, the more bleaker and the more difficult
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00:28:27
the fitness will become. The flip side is being patient in those times the closer to data judgment
earns as higher place in gender. So much so that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, There
will come a time when the one who holds on to his religion firmly will be like the one who's holding
on to burning coal, burning coal, that will be his reward, that he will have the reward of 50 of
you. So habit, and the Sahaba said O Messenger of Allah, surely you mean 50 of them? And he said,
No, I mean, 50 of you. This doesn't mean that somebody later tends to become better than the Sahaba
it means his reward might be better than the reward or 50 of the of some of the Sahaba because even
00:28:27 -->
00:29:08
the Sahaba are of levels. So the point being, there is good and bad predictions, and we need to be
prepared to face them. Now, why is this happening from a sociological and political level? I think
it is pretty obvious that every community in the world, every community needs a scapegoat. It is
human nature. Every community needs another community to blame its woes on. And America has gone
through a number of phases. It's not the first time anybody who studies American history. So 100
years ago, right now, 100 years ago, the the people that were being blamed were actually the
Chinese, they call them the yellow. They felt these people are coming, and they're taking over our
00:29:08 -->
00:29:52
jobs, and they're, and they're gonna change our way of life and whatnot. And so Congress actually
passed an act, it is called the yellow act go Google it. It's called the yellow Act and the yellow
act prohibited for Easterners from migrating to America. And that is why from 19 I don't know the
date for 15, or something up until 1964, when the yellow act was appealed by Ted Kennedy, by JFK,
his younger brother, up until that point in time, people like us the Middle Easterners could really
hardly ever, ever come to America. It was the exception and not the rule that somebody from India
pox on Egypt could come in that period of time, only after the yellow act was repealed was when all
00:29:52 -->
00:29:59
of you guys basically were able to come because of the repealing of the lock. My point being It's
not the first time of the 30s and 40s America had this huge
00:30:00 -->
00:30:37
Huge scare of the communists, the reds are coming from the yellows, they came to the reds. Okay, so
the reds are coming there read through this. And you've all heard of the McCarthy era. You've all
heard of the blacklisting of the paranoia that overtook America. After this, of course, other people
as well, there was a time it was the Latinos, it still is the Latinos in some extent that there is
this fear that the Latinos will somehow take over America, there's always this fear, right? So it's
natural for a majority to want to scapegoating minority. It's so happens, we are one of the main
scapegoats that a certain segment has, if you look at history, always, it's just a period of time.
00:30:37 -->
00:31:15
And then another group is found. In the meantime, that minority needs to make the best of its
efforts to remove the stigma. And the way they can remove the stigma is by humanizing themselves.
Because these ads, and these things are dehumanizing. You cannot hate somebody, if you acknowledge
him as an equal human being. The only way you can hate a race or a group or a nation is when you
consider them to be inferior, their beliefs, their skin colors, whatever it might be. So these types
of campaigns are nothing new, it's just that we are the ones that are the brunt of it. So there's a
bit of psychology there, of course, in terms of politics, so that was a bit of psychological
00:31:15 -->
00:31:55
analysis, in terms of politics, as well, politically, if you look at it, so the, with the superpower
the super power that we happen to live in, which is the US of A is very active in many Muslim
countries, for its benefit, and at once many things that the Muslim countries have, in order to
achieve its goal, it has to have a certain political and military agenda, that political and
military agenda is not conducive to the people's living there. It's conducive to us living here. And
let's be honest, we are benefiting from American hegemony, whether we like it or not, let's be
brutally honest here. We are benefiting our comfortable lifestyles, right? Everything that we have,
00:31:55 -->
00:32:36
it's it's a part and parcel of living here. So we are a part as well of the glory of the empire of
America, cheap gas, great houses, good lifestyles, this comes with the package. So even though we
are a small percentage that we are a part of it. My point being to get this what we have, America
has a certain agenda, that agenda will not rub the Muslim populations to positively so there will be
repercussions, those repercussions we have seen and we continue to see radicalism, as we all know as
Muslim community doesn't come because the Quran tells you to be radical radicalism comes because of
political grievances. And those political grievances are pretty obvious. When you look at them. You
00:32:36 -->
00:33:16
don't need to be an expert in the Koran to understand the political grievances of the peoples that
are attacking back. So there is this vicious cycle taking place. And we as American Muslims are
caught in the middle. We don't agree with the far right. We don't agree with the radicals in our own
midst. We know that the both of them are misinterpreting and stereotyping, and each one of them has
stigmatized us. So the far right lumps us with the radicals. And the radicals lumps us with the
sellouts in the fall rights. Right? the far right things, we are all terrorists, and the actual
people that are sympathetic to terrorism or jihad, this type of thought that is incorrect. These
00:33:16 -->
00:33:54
people view most of us as basically being sellouts simply because we might be living in our
lifestyles, or not doing more, let's say for the drones and whatnot. So we're caught in the middle
between both of these two, and the both of them feed off of the other. In other words, the jihadist
sympathizer needs Pamela Geller to make him angrier and angrier make him say I'm doing right when he
sees that ad. Pamela Geller needs that 19 year old kid to do something stupid, so that she can then
put that ad on. So the two of them are actually feeding off of each other. And, frankly, we're kind
of caught in the middle. And we have to take on both of those extremes. And that's what myself and
00:33:54 -->
00:34:32
others are doing, you need to refute the far right, you need to refute those sympathizers in our
midst. And there is no other way other than education other than coming out and being public about
what you believe, other than toeing the middle line, which is that we are critically angry at our
own foreign policy that we disagree with what America itself is doing. And yet we say that that
disagreement does not justify another version of terrorism and killing more killing is not going to
stop the killing that might be happening, you know, from our own country. So we have to have that
middle line where we speak truth to power. And I think this is why I'm optimistic. The second
00:34:32 -->
00:34:59
generation, especially those that are born and raised here, it's understandable. Those that came are
a little bit more hesitant, it's understandable. That's against psychological they fully don't feel
a climatized they are coming from cultures that are different. But those of us that are born and
raised here that have known no other culture that consider ourselves fully American speak English,
frankly, better than many other Americans are more educated because American Muslims are more
educated than the average Americans. Our education level is at
00:35:00 -->
00:35:36
Under the law above average compared to the rest of America, people like us need to be at the
forefront, like the Prophet Mohammed Salah Salem was talking about the social ills, the political
ills, the ethical ills of his society, along with the theological ills. Only when we do that, is
there hope for survival? If we're all going to become scared and go right, running into our caves
and shoving our heads in the sand, then nobody's going to defend us we need each and every one of us
to basically take on some of us might be more active with the far right. Others, such as myself a
little bit more active with the, you know, jihadist sympathizers and refuting their their paradigm
00:35:36 -->
00:36:01
of Islam. But our community does need to become more proactive. And I think I've already crossed my
limit with you over thinking of our community within Chicagoland itself, within our own area, like
this area, and out west. And I think north, there have been young Muslims who are second generation,
like you're saying, they're American, they're educated from good Muslim families who are now
00:36:02 -->
00:36:36
incarcerated, they are held because they made plans, some through some online connection or
something, to go and fight overseas to help them with some so one of the concerns that a lot of
young people have, whether they are doing this or not, there is so much going on in the world. And
I'm sitting here in Chicago, just checking my updates on Instagram all day. How do I help them?
They're dying, and we see it's five years of the Syrian war. Why can't I go over there and help them
by fighting for the cause.
00:36:37 -->
00:36:50
And this type of positive good intention is what is misused and abused by people that have very
different intentions and agendas that you that you do.
00:36:51 -->
00:36:52
There was an article
00:36:54 -->
00:37:05
in a German magazine Der Spiegel, their Spiegel is like the CNN even better this like BBC, which is
neutral. It's the most prestigious magazine of Germany. And their Spiegel
00:37:06 -->
00:37:32
acquired a treasure trove of documents from ISIS from is And long story how they got it. But
basically, accidentally, the one of the leaders of ISIS was captured and killed in a raid. And his
entire house was basically handed over and long story. So those people got documents of this. Now,
this is all online, you can google the article. That's all a very beautiful, very well written, very
00:37:34 -->
00:38:20
analytical article. And it turns out and I want everybody here to go tell, especially those young
sympathizers and whatnot, who are thinking that ISIS and whatnot is doing something positive, and is
doing some clever, it turns out that some of the main leaders of ISIS are actually ex members of
Saddam Hussein's Baathist socialist atheistic party. And this explains so much, because how do you
explain the success of running an entire country of the intelligence that they have of the
management of the Division of ministries of people that have had no experience whatsoever? The fact
of the matter is that the very people who were Islam's worst enemies, every one of you, who was an
00:38:20 -->
00:39:05
adult in the 80s knows the Baptist party, you know how evil they were, they would kill people just
for praying budget in the masjid, they would take you away and torture you because they were scared
of religion. Now that what has happened has happened. The Baptist members that remain have in effect
created this platform called ISIS, where they're using the guise of religion, because they realize
these are politicians. These are tacticians that one of the one of the ex Prime Minister of Iraq
under Saddam Hussein, one of the highest ranking backfist members that was never caught. He was the
one that was accidentally killed last week. There is the dean duty that was his name. look him up.
00:39:05 -->
00:39:46
There is the dean duty was a hardcore agnostic Islamic hating loyalists to Saddam Hussein. Now it
turns out, he's running or he's one of the big guys of ISIS. Go wander, go think about this right?
complete coincidence that he happened to be the wrong place at the wrong time. And he was killed.
Otherwise, we wouldn't even have discovered this is the dean duty was a one time Prime Minister.
Vice Premier, I mean, you know, underneath saddam, saddam is the he's the second guy, right? One
time, Prime Minister of Iraq running the country for Saddam Hussein. And everybody knows Saddam
Hussein, what his attitude was towards Islam and the Muslims when he was in power. Forget the last
00:39:46 -->
00:39:59
few months of his life, Allah will be his judge, but when he was in power, we know who he was
around. We know his attitude towards Islam and the religion. That same person is now caught one of
the top lieutenants of ISIS. These are people that believe in Allah and His message.
00:40:00 -->
00:40:28
Think about this right? So what's happening is Islam is being used. Syrian scholars themselves are
saying to people outside of the country don't come, we don't need you. We need your drawers. We need
your humanitarian aid. We need your food, we need your blankets. We don't need you. Because as it
is, there's too much confusion. There are over eight Muslim Sunni militia groups all fighting Bashar
Al Assad, and all of them fighting themselves as well.
00:40:29 -->
00:41:09
Go figure. You want to come and be used as a pawn in a war that you have no idea what's going on.
You're going to be used on a game board that you have no clue. You are a precious prize, because you
have a US passport. They don't want you for your body. They don't want you for your strength. They
have 1000s of people stronger than you better trained than you. They want you as a token as a
statistic as an American, and that's ludicrous. You're gonna waste your life doing that, listen to
me and listen carefully, and inshallah I fear none other than Allah subhana wa Tada. If we knew for
sure that we could go and fight Bashar Al Asad and rescue our Syrian brothers and sisters, then
00:41:09 -->
00:41:49
we'll law he Jihad would be far behind. And I would be insha Allah to Allah leading that. If we knew
for sure that we're actually fighting but shot at us and saving innocent Syrians in this regime
that's happening, then how can you deny the legitimacy of jihad, but open your eyes and look at the
reality? You are not fighting Bashar Al Asad, most likely, you'll be fighting other militia groups,
and all of those militia groups. Each one is saying tech via Allahu Akbar, and they're killing each
other thinking that they're achieving gender by doing this, what type of jihad is this? So the
confusion the chaos is so bad right now that all we can do is to make the offer them and send
00:41:49 -->
00:42:31
humanitarian aid. You yourself going there will not help whatsoever? And I asked with all respect to
all of our brothers and sisters who were sincere and what not. And now they're sitting in jail
2030 4050 years, what have they done for the oma? What have they contributed for the oma. Whereas if
they had channel that anger, if they had channel that anger, and done something of social activism,
community development, majored in political science and history and become a an eloquent person,
even just online have a presence about bringing awareness to what's going on, they would have
changed dozens of lives in their own in their own circle of influence, and they would have actually
00:42:31 -->
00:43:16
had a tangible impact they could have seen for themselves, Muslims become more involved, began a
charity our own Masjid Mashallah has sent boxes and boxes of chair where a small machine man like
one fifth of your size, imagine if that youth that is now in jail. Instead, he had energized and
told all of you, let's all donate our blankets and he had led a campaign to collect blankets, he
would have saved dozens of Syrian babies from from from freezing at night, tangible benefit. But
instead what did he do? May Allah guide him and guide all of you? What was the result of that, that
zeal? Where did it end up? who benefited and who was harmed himself, his sister, his brother, his
00:43:16 -->
00:43:56
parents, his community, his school? Where is the benefit in this? So I asked my young brothers and
sisters, while law he our hearts grieve, our hearts grieve as well. We are also human beings, we're
not made of rocks and stones, we look at those pictures of our Syrian brothers and sisters gassed of
the children freezing to death of all the civil war going on. And our hearts also bleed. But we are
in shallow data wise enough to understand me going there is not going to change anything. And if you
really want to go there, go under the humanitarian cause, find an Islamic charity that is
permissible to work with or the government allows you to go because you don't want to get into
00:43:56 -->
00:44:24
trouble with the government for no reason, no need to do that. There are charities that are
operating in Jordan operating in Turkey, where the government, the US government has allowed you to
operate with these charities, I don't want to mention names because it's not my job to mention it.
But there are such charities, get involved with them, become a humanitarian worker, help the people
out save actual lives, rather than carrying a gun and killing lives. So nobody is telling you don't
be proactive, but do something positive. It's all those guys
00:44:28 -->
00:44:59
that come along here. So what we'll do is move from this to our final issue that we'll speak about
tonight, and that is about what's taking place here at home. In regards to our community, and
orthodoxy and unity I have always heard when it comes to this issue of Islamophobia and extremism.
Why are we so bent on dividing ourselves? We should be unified so we can unify on these issues and
defeat them and tackle them.
00:45:00 -->
00:45:11
Like Islamophobia and teaching the young people about extremism and getting them away from it.
Chicago is a very divided community. People know this and we divide over very interesting things.
00:45:13 -->
00:45:21
How do we approach our different ideologies are different schools of thought mud hubs.
00:45:22 -->
00:45:39
Things like the type of scholars we follow the type of meat that we might eat the moon sighting
opinion that we follow. There's a lot of things that take place in the Muslim American Muslim
community, but specifically in Chicago. I want to move to a slide to show something very interesting
here.
00:45:40 -->
00:46:26
This is a picture of you. Sitting next to me mom's age Shakira which is in your own Masjid. And and
this is a picture of you with I believe she in no way shape for us are Bonnie Shia Hamza Yusuf, Imam
Suraj Lodge and then you're in between 10 years ago, the Muslim Ummah used to think that at least in
America, selfies and Sufi don't get along. They were bundys and, you know, traditionalist and non
traditionalist. We can't get along because we disagree on certain issues. Now we see the complete
opposite. So you go to these conventions, and we see people from different spectrums of
understanding, speaking together, working together, what has changed, and what's causing this unity.
00:46:27 -->
00:46:30
You're asking me, why have I changed? Or you're asking?
00:46:31 -->
00:46:40
No, and both, I guess we can start with you. I mean, if you search yasir Qadhi and Google Images,
you will see this and then you'll see this like
00:46:42 -->
00:46:51
Mashallah, my beard never came to my belly. let's not let's not exaggerate. Okay? I had a big beard
Mashallah, but not down there. So what changed in me
00:46:53 -->
00:46:55
to be very blunt
00:46:56 -->
00:46:57
experience and wisdom.
00:46:59 -->
00:47:11
When you're 20, you think you know everything, as all of our young men and women think they know
right now, when you're 20, you are naive, utopic idealistic, that's why you're still 20.
00:47:15 -->
00:47:57
When you get grow older, when you get involved with the community, when you become a community
activist and a leader, you realize some of your views really were naive. And unfortunately, the sad
thing is, some people don't realize that. And they continue to perpetuate the same ideas and fatwas,
that their teachers or their people back home, might have taught them from places that are nothing
to do with America. We just showed you a picture of Pamela Geller and her advertisement, do you
really think we have the luxury of dividing the resources of the Salafi and Deobandi communities? Do
you really think we should split up because of ikana? and Islam? Do you really think that our
00:47:57 -->
00:48:40
massage would have to be divided because of those issues? I honestly think anybody who still thinks
this way, has no clue of the threats that Islam and the Muslims are facing. Perhaps perhaps I'm
saying theoretically, in some societies in places back home, such differences can be made bigger
deals, maybe I'm not even commenting on that. But in North America, to import those sectarian issues
were in Pakistan and India, there are three massages of three different filters on the same street.
Okay. We don't have three massages of three different vehicles on the same street. In many
communities. We don't even have three massages, Chicago's an exception you guys much love. But in
00:48:40 -->
00:49:25
most cities in America, we don't have even three massages, you guys following me? You want those
three massages to split up based on what zabiha nones issues based on moon sighting issues. This is
a short sightedness that I honestly pray that we overcome within our generation. It is
understandable that in the 70s and 80s, when we had to bring odema from other lands, it is
understandable that those roula basically copied and pasted whatever they had known of Islam. I'm
not criticizing this, please understand me. There was no other alternative. What did you want to do?
We needed Imams, what are we going to do, we have to import them. So when you import the Imam what's
00:49:25 -->
00:49:59
going to happen? The Imam will act and talk and speak like he acted and talking spoke back there.
That's natural, it's inevitable. hamdulillah. Now the point is we need to move to phase two. We need
to move on beyond that. And we need to contextualize each one of these movements. And you mentioned
these photographs. So let me be honest here. And guys, there's no insult intended at all. Let me be
honest as well. Every one of these movements whether they're the centerpiece of Saudi Arabia,
founded by Mohammed Abdul Wahab, whether they're the deobandis of monana, Ganga here and and
autonomy whether there are the
00:50:00 -->
00:50:13
Jamaat e Islami is of Modi or the cuando muslimeen have has an abundance a total. Let us take a step
back. All of these people were human beings. Mohammed Abdul Wahab gun go here. And, Anatole, we
00:50:15 -->
00:50:57
say that McCann even put them into the picture. All of these people, they were human beings. They
interpreted Islam, according to their time and their place and their context. Some of us might
respect some of them more than others. That's fine. That's fine. But let me ask you a simple
question. Do you really think if you're Deobandi that if Maulana Ganga he were alive today, and he
were to reformulate the obon, having been born and raised in America, do you think he would have had
the same curriculum he did in 1858? Dada, India, think about that. If Muhammad would have had been
born and raised here, and he had to write his books now in 2015, in Chicago, do you think he would
00:50:57 -->
00:51:16
write the same style, the same issues? Same goes for Modi, that if he were, so here's the point,
contextualize our movements, contextualize. Even if you are more sympathetic, let's say to Jamaat e
Islami, or to Deobandi or whatnot, realize Allah and His Messenger are above these filters.
00:51:18 -->
00:51:59
And all of them wanted to please Allah through the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah. I say this as
explicitly as possible. I do not doubt the sincerity of any of these people that I mentioned. All of
them were insha Allah sincere people, they wanted to bring hair to the oma. And their methodologies
were influenced by their time and their place. Look at the obon the simple example, after the mutiny
of Indian 1857 when the Mughal Empire came to an end, and the last Mughal emperor was told to
basically leave, and the British Raj began, and the Muslims were massacred and humiliated. And the
Muslims were wondering, why is this happening? Why is Allah punishing us? So the founders of the
00:51:59 -->
00:52:42
Durban movement, including Mongolian Anna do, we came together and they said, you know, what, we
need a curriculum where we strengthen our human, we don't lose and become Christians, we don't do
this. We don't do that. And they formulated something for the time and the place that was Manasa for
them under British rule. My point is, is so narrow minded to think that that curriculum, and that
ideology is meant to be universal, and be applied in Chicago 2015, it did a great job. And they
opened in in 1915, in 1850, great job, no complaints, but it is narrow minded to think that they
were thinking of Chicago, they're human beings. And they wrote what they did the same goes for even
00:52:42 -->
00:53:25
other words, the same goes for even taymiyah. The same goes for rushydro. Every scholar is living at
the time in the place. Unfortunately, the followers of the scholars, that's most of us here, we
forget that they were human beings, and we take them. We don't say this, but we take them as the
only interpretation of Islam. And that's wrong. Because if they were alive today, they would not
have done what they did when in the time that they did it in. So we have different calamities facing
us different crises facing us. And every one of us, even if you are Jamaat e Islami, even if you're
a selfie, even if you are Deobandi, you need to understand these other groups. They love a lot of
00:53:25 -->
00:53:48
xojo they follow what they think is the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, you might not think it is
the sinner, but ask him does he think it is the Sunnah, whatever he's doing, and he will say of
course it is. And what is the first element of cyber hottie in nama Mr. Binney yet so realize these
people, Allah will judge them based upon their nia.
00:53:49 -->
00:54:35
And if they were sincere, and they wanted to benefit the oma, then who are you to deprive them of a
lot of blessings. So what I have come forth with and I've said this many times, and I say it again,
now, we all need to have what I have called circles of cooperation, circles of cooperation. What do
I mean by this? I mean, cooperation with other groups can and should vary, depending on the time and
the circumstance, depending on what we're cooperating for simple example, when it comes to teaching
Islam and Islamic Sunday school, teaching our kids out either I cannot hire some teacher that has
theology that is very different than what I want my son to know. Or my daughter to know. Correct? If
00:54:35 -->
00:54:48
somebody is not respecting the Sahaba Can I hire one of those to teach my children? No. So the
circle of cooperation goes very small. Okay. Now, when it comes to building a Masjid,
00:54:50 -->
00:54:59
generally speaking, historically, all Sunni groups came together and build a Masjid. We don't
characterize within Sunni Islam. Like what do you say?
00:55:00 -->
00:55:01
About GBM issue.
00:55:02 -->
00:55:46
Only those who eat zombie How can donate money to this machine? Do we do this? No, it's irrelevant.
So we make the cooperation little bit larger. Our Sunday schools are building other massagin goes a
little bit larger. Then it comes to the same political issues. We have Pamela Geller, we need to
fight Pamela Geller. We need to raise funds, we need to lobby we need to sue her. In that case, do I
even care whether the person is a Muslim or non Muslim when they joined me against Pamela Geller?
Suppose a secular agnostic liberal from ACLU is just as enraged as I am and says this is bigotry,
and she needs to be stopped. And he wants to or she wants to join.
00:55:48 -->
00:56:00
Am I gonna say no to that. So the circle of cooperation now goes all the way as wide as possible.
Okay, so the fact that I can cooperate with a person who's not Sunni,
00:56:01 -->
00:56:33
a person who's not Muslim, in some areas, does not mean that I agree with the non Sunni or the non
Muslim in every single area, circles of cooperation, I might appear on stage with some pre people,
people that I might not invite to teach an Aikido class for example, okay, I might not agree fully
with everything of their activity, but the Muslim Ummah benefits from them, I benefit, let's go and
stand and give a lecture and have a you know, a positive image of Islam. And therefore, bottom line.
00:56:34 -->
00:56:53
disagreements should not lead to cut offs and boycotts and breaking away. disagreements should be
handled depending on the context. And depending on what exactly is the disagreement, and we need to
educate ourselves which disagreements are permissible in Islam.
00:56:54 -->
00:57:24
And frankly, all of the issues that we hear about that are between them are legitimate
disagreements. They'll be handled on the behalf moon sighting. These are all within the mothership
of Islam, Sunni Shafi Hanafi, Maliki, how can we cause division in the community when these
disagreements go back to the Sahaba? Some of them, some of them, they go back to the Sahaba
themselves, and we're gonna cause disagreement in the committee, it is my opinion. And not everybody
will agree with me, it is my opinion that
00:57:25 -->
00:57:59
the origins of the moon sighting controversy, go back to the Sahaba. And there are evidences to
demonstrate that they weren't fully in the same opinion about this issue. So if one of the Sahaba
had one view, another Sahaba held the other view, you tell me which side are you going to choose
now. So for the community to be divided. And here's the point that I'm saying, even if there are
multiple aids being celebrated, live and let live, let your heart to be open, tolerate the
difference of opinion, don't divide the community, even if the community is divided for either they
don't have to divide divided in their hearts.
00:58:04 -->
00:58:21
And there are some areas where we will draw the line. And I've given an example of I mean, in our
times, one of the issues that will become very controversial within the lifetime of our children,
it's already begun is the issue of let's put this very gently family orientation and structure.
00:58:23 -->
00:58:41
Okay, now, guys and girls, whether you like it or not, we have already seen this happening, that
there are moms and masajid in North America that are legitimizing alternative families. Correct.
It's already happening.
00:58:42 -->
00:58:52
I'm sorry to burst your bubble. In the lifetime of my own children. Definitely, inevitably, it will
increase much more. Correct.
00:58:54 -->
00:59:15
That's the way the whole society is headed. Correct? How can you deny this is going to happen? So is
this a controversy and a laugh that we can tolerate? No. There's a red line here. There's a red line
because this controversy is not a controversy. In fact, this is an opinion that contradicts the
Quran.
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00:59:20
You cannot have an opinion that contradicts the Quran.
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00:59:40
Is that very clear? Right. So the majority of our controversies that we have tolerated throughout
the 70s and 80s and 90s. Dare I say almost all of them are controversies that don't have to be
controversies that honestly were the most trivial of issues. a trucker versus 20 Raka.
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00:59:59
Zakat issues are mean issues, the issues of the various Sunni movements. The obon de la hora de
Salafi a quani Tbilisi Jamaat e Islami, all of these movements that I have mentioned, love Allah
respect the messenger sallallahu I was
01:00:00 -->
01:00:16
love, respect the Sahaba have the same source books the hypo hottie Sahih Muslim all of them the
same film authorities Imam, Abu hanifa Imam, Shafi Malik, honestly, it is so narrow minded to hate
people within this spectrum. Now there are people outside this spectrum.
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01:00:55
So do we have to hate them? Again, it depends. You might not have to hate them, maybe you don't want
to join hands in every movement. People who don't respect the Sahaba, for example, okay, they have
their own budget, good for them. I don't have to teach my children to hate them. Because hatred has
negative repercussions. But I should teach my children you know, there are different types of
Muslim, let Allah judge them live and let live. But maybe these two masjids that might not pray
behind each other, can come together when a local politician says something about Islam. And we need
to have a demonstration in the downtown of Chicago. Maybe the both of these can bring their
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01:01:01
communities because when I'm protesting in the streets, I'm not asking my companion about his
theology.
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01:01:44
I'm holding a banner that's in support of Palestine, that's against this politician, that's this,
that's that. So in those types of scenarios will make the circle of cooperation broader, and we as
community members and leaders need to start talking this language and showing it and that is why I
hope inshallah I have demonstrated this that I am very public about appearing with people that I
might have minor or major disagreements with, but coming together on different platforms, showing
that we are brothers together, showing that these differences are not that big of a deal. I think
I'm very open about this and inshallah that is why you saw some of these pictures and of course, and
01:01:44 -->
01:02:19
I say this very explicitly, people like a mama and others, Mashallah We are brothers in Islam, there
is no difference at all. We are the same and hemmed in that nobody should ever think that there's
any difference between us. We are all Alhamdulillah calling to Allah and the love of the Messenger
of Allah based upon the Quran and the Sunnah. Whatever utterly trivial differences might there be
are of no consequence when it comes to my brotherhood and his brotherhood. I swear by Allah, when
Imam Zaid comes to our community and Memphis, I make it a point to go meet him to invite him to the
masjid to give the hood but and I must say that when I'm in his community, I expect the same from
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01:02:24
him. And this is the reality that we live by. And I hope that inshallah everybody else also follows
this example.
01:02:29 -->
01:02:39
We'll move to the final issue at hand. And that's the future. I've noticed in multiple speeches
you've given over the past few years. And there's, there's one that I really like
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01:03:23
where you had mentioned at the end, and you tend to do this, a hadith about planting a seed. Even if
the day of judgment is coming, can you tell us this Hadith, and why you continuously tend to mention
it when you're talking about modern issues, today's issues, and how you use it as a summary or
conclusion to this topic. And that is my summary and conclusion to the q&a. Yes, Marshall? Okay,
great. Um, so, in a hadith narrated in the midst of development, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam said, that if one of you hears the trumpet being blown for the Day of Judgment, and you have
in your hands, a sapling, which is a seed that sprouting, you know, the small seeds that the plants
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01:03:34
that exist, that you are about to plant, if you're able to plant it, before the trumpet finishes,
then go ahead and plant it is ahaadeeth. Beautiful, Heidi.
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01:03:41
I'll repeat it again, if one of you hears the trumpet being blown, and you have in your hands a
sapling,
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01:03:57
if you can plant it, before the trumpet finishes, meaning because when the Trumpet finishes, you're
not going to be alive, right? If you can plant it before the trumpet finishes, go ahead and plant
it. Now, this is really, really interesting for so many reasons.
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01:04:36
Perhaps the most significant is that there will be no Muslim who can ever implement this hadith
ever. Because we know for a fact that when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no Muslims. When the
trumpet is blown, there will be no Muslims. We know this, our processing told us, no Muslim will
ever hear the trumpet. Yet the processor is saying, if the trumpet is blown, and one of you has a
soul, he is speaking to Muslims. But he knows none of the Muslims will be there to do it. So
clearly, the Hadith is not meant for those who will actually hear the trumpet. The Hadeeth is not
meant for those who are going to hear the trumpet because they don't believe in the process in the
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01:04:59
first place. The Hadith is meant for me and you, the Hadith is meant for me and you and what does it
signify? What does it indicate? It indicates be useful and productive, wherever you are, do
something good. Even if you do not live to see the results of that good. I mean one could ask
theoretically, Of what use is it to plant the seed when
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01:05:00
I'm going to die.
01:05:01 -->
01:05:39
Correct. I'm going to die, there's not going to be a plant here. What's the point, there's not going
to be me here to eat it, what's the point, but then realize every single tree that you eat, in all
likelihood was planted by somebody who's no longer here, and yet you're eating from it. If they
didn't have the foresight to do it, you wouldn't have food to eat. If you don't plant for your
children, your children are not going to have anything to eat. So this is such a green Hardy, right?
It's a very efficient Howdy. It's a very proactive Howdy. It's a hadith that says think long term,
do whatever, you can go ahead and plant a seedling here, maybe you're gonna be dead to when the
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01:06:20
seedling comes up. But who knows another creation will come, another animal will come, another
generation will come. And they will benefit from that. So my point that I always mentioned this idea
is don't be lazy and indolent. Don't just sit around expecting the mandate to come and save your un
and your situation know, each and every one of us needs to be proactive, whatever it is, whether
it's in volunteering in the Sunday school, whether it's in being a part of the machine community,
whether it's just in showing your face more often in the masjid, so that you form your Eman is
solidified, you are a part of the masjid whatever it is, each and every one of you has a role to
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01:07:10
play. And that role only you can play it, nobody else can play it. Nobody else can sit in your
shoes, nobody else can be you. Correct. You have a circle of influence. You have a certain coder,
you have certain talents that nobody else has. So who's going to do what you can do? Nobody other
than you. So on the Day of Judgment, Allah subhana wa, tada will ask you, what did you do with your
efforts, and your circle of influence and your talents? Allah will not ask you, why didn't you solve
the Palestinian crisis? Because it's beyond our situation. But Allah will ask you, what did you do
in your local community? How many people did you positively impact? How many Muslims that weren't
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01:07:51
that religious? Did you bring to Islam? How many non Muslims you give a positive image of Islam to?
And those questions are tangible, we can answer them, we can think and say, Oh, you know what, I did
this, I did this, I did this. So rather than talk about the big picture all the time, Pamela Geller
fellas thing in Israel, foreign policy, drones, Syria, Iraq, let's start, not ignore the big
picture, let's start doing something for the smaller picture. And insha Allah, once we start
changing the smaller picture, and each and every one of us has a positive impact in our own sphere
of influence, overall, that sphere of influence will become a larger impact. And this is exactly
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01:08:25
what happened in the spirit of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. If you look at the process of
beginning one person, and with his immediate family and friends, and one on one, they keep on going
and some handler within 23 years, the course of history has completely changed. Now, obviously, that
is idealistic. That is an exceptional role model. That's why he is rasulillah system. We cannot do
that in 23 years, but maybe we can do it in 200. Maybe we can do something similar of changing about
a global reality. And you know, and I always say this as well, even if we don't bring about that
change.
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01:08:29
Allah will reward us for having the effort and the attempt.
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01:08:57
That's the end. In the end of the day, Allah will reward us for saying, Oh Allah, I tried everything
that I could try. Given the amount of money I had, and the time that I had, and the commitments and
the family and my job, I juggled everything as successfully as I could. Guess what you've earned
genda. Because the only job that will reward you not for results, but for efforts is the job of
being a Muslim.
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01:09:25
Every other job, you will be rewarded, not for efforts, but your results. I'm a professor in a
college, there are some kids, I know they don't study, and they Ace their exams, out of whatever,
they just have it. And there are other kids, I know they work their behinds off and they end up with
the seat. And I have to give them a seat because I can see that their results did not work out an
eight, I have to reward them for what results or effort
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01:09:59
results. Your jobs as well your bosses, they don't care how much effort you put in, they want to see
the result. The only job where your grade will not be dependent on the result will be tentative on
the effort is the job that Allah has assigned you in LA called Bella Elena ASAP, right. Your job is
to do what the result is that Alice job and Al Hamdulillah we thank Allah for having such a
beautiful job where the results are beyond my control. I just have to do and be good and have a
class and keep on doing
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01:10:17
And plant the seed here, plant the seed there, plant the seed there and on the Day of Judgment is
sha Allah all of those seeds will testify on my behalf, even if none of them sprouted anything big,
but all of them will get me the same reward because Allah knows the class and the sincerity that I
had when I planted them all.
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01:10:22
Zakouma third shift
