Lecture By Sheikh Yassir Fazaga
The imams vision of what an ideal Community would look like. United, compassionate, loving and open to all.
Friday, August 19, 2016.
Yassir Fazaga – Ideal Community
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of community-led innovation in empowering individuals and businesses, citing successful examples such as the movie "Bad Only Killer," and emphasize the need for models of acceptance in various industries. They stress the importance of community-led innovation in empowering individuals and businesses, and how it is crucial for society to achieve sustainability goals. The speakers emphasize the need for models of community-leyed innovation to improve outcomes and empower people.
AI: Summary ©
compassionate, the Most Merciful All praise is due to a lot and means peace and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu.
I begin by greeting my brothers and sisters Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
for being here, I am truly humbled and honored for your presence and welcoming my family and I. So for this I can safely say it is up and running. And we begin this journey inshallah by praying to Allah subhanho wa Taala, that this place becomes a place that is best for my family and I, and that what we do is also what the community deserves what is best for the community.
You know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when people get married, the best thing, the best gift to give people who are married is to pray for them. And the best of praise is to say barakallahu dakumar, Allah.
May Allah bless her, and May Allah bless him, and May Allah bless this union between you two. As a panelist, that's really beautiful. Not every two people that come together is necessarily good for them. But when you say that, may this be a blessing relationship, it means that I made the best of her bring out the best in him, and be the best in him bring out the best effort, even though this is not a marital relationship, but it is a relationship. So we pray that may the best, bring out our best, and may our best bring out the best within the community or of
you know, people, especially those of us who are married, we know that we tend to treat each other very nicely when we are in public.
But in marital relationships, it's not how we treat each other in public that's important. How do we treat each other when no one else is looking is really what is important. So inshallah, like I said, we pray that inshallah this will be like a best union between us and New York.
So in the few minutes that I have, I would like to share with you, my dream, and what I think is an ideal community.
This is really what we're looking for what makes an ideal Masjid what makes an ideal community? And is it okay for me to be honest with you?
Can I be honest with you?
I'm going to be very honest, I will be brutally honest. Can I say something about your message?
Your message does not look good.
But it feels good.
You're listening to this.
message. msgid does not look good.
But it feels good.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Yes, he is a man. He said that there will come a time when people are going to get about how
they'll compete with one another in how much they beautified their messaging.
He said Fiji,
Lake Superior.
He said it are going to be men, they did not realize they have the mimicking of men.
Is that the whole tempo? laughs He
said that and if you were to enter into any of these places, you won't find any devoted servant to Allah subhanho wa Taala.
Sometimes we pay so much attention to the skeleton of the place at the expense of the spirit of the place.
And the minute people pay more attention to the skeleton of the plate, then the spirit of the place. That place won't last.
That place won't last. So what we play and hope for is that this is a place that both looks good and feels good.
Well, look, I sincerely pray for this. We want to have a place that looks good.
Also, it feels good.
With the skeleton of it is beautiful, but more important than the beauty of the skeleton is the beauty of the Spirit of God.
What makes the beauty of the spirit of darkness? Listen to what Allah Subhana Allah says, Yeah,
coup de la porta potty well
are you believe be conscious of Allah as he ought to be conscious of
the time of death, die only in the state of Islam, lovingly surrendering to Allah subhana wa Tada. And then what does the law say?
And all of you hold tight to the rope of Allah subhanho wa Taala. What law
do not draw from one another, especially when it comes to senseless divisions amongst ourselves? What Guru Nanak Allahu Allah.
And be mindful, remember, the blessings, the boundaries of Allah upon you. And then Allah reminds us of two of them. The first one is going to add,
is going to
Puerto Rico, when there was animosity amongst you, but then Allah subhanaw taala, put love in your voice. You know the word Allah Subhan, Allah, Allah for also an attribute is when somebody offers a book, when you write a book, they say,
somebody wrote a book. Now, when you think about it, the person who's writing a book is not really inventing new language, what they're doing is that they're bringing about harmony between the words, you follow me, this was when all over the place a good author comes and put these words in a harmonious way. So now we say this is the person is just the leaf, putting harmony between the words so that when you read it, it is eloquent. It's beautiful, it's good, it makes sense, and so on.
So the first element is, individually, hello, everybody be mindful of a lot of time.
Not only do we become mindful of love, but we help one another in being mindful.
And then a last episode, we'll be happy to meet all of you hold on to the rope of Allah.
And then Allah Subhana, Allah sees this guru
and did not draw apart from one of them. Our unity is crucial, and it is very, very important. And brothers and sisters, I tell you this,
you know, one way of making the spirit of this place beautiful is by making sure that everybody is welcome.
And when I say everybody, I mean, everyone.
Nobody is excluded. We want everybody to be welcome to the house of God,
those of us who are practicing those of us who are not practicing,
those of us who seem to be religious, and those of us who seem not to be religious,
those of us who profess that they are Sunni, and those of us who profess
those, whatever label people put upon themselves, one thing's for sure. This is the house of Allah, and everybody is welcome to the house of Allah.
Keeping in mind, that we may not approve of everything that you do. But you are always welcome to this place. Think of the message as a hospital? And can you imagine a hospital that has got a big sign that says, if you're sick don't come in?
What is it then? Or get one before you come in? Or what uses it then? Why am I coming to this place? So we want to dis displace the beef for those who have surrendered.
And for those who are struggling to survive,
and that means all of us. And it is only with this spirit, that this place is going to be a place that actually work of our kids and our children. And I know that most of us are here because you know, and I'm just going to speak as if I am you some of you are here to check me out. Right.
Some of you are specifically here to check me out if I will, you know get along with your kids or not. And some people are coming here and these are not selfish reasons, but these are real reasons. And you know, I heard that there is a man I am coming and what I want is you know what, I am an elderly person now.
are adults No, but I am so concerned about my children. I want to know, what does the man have to offer to my children?
Well, if the place is not welcoming, then you know, it doesn't matter who the man is. So what we want to make sure is that this is a spirit of acceptance of the individual, not necessarily what the individual does. But like I said, we may not accept and approve of everything that you do, but we will always welcome you. And that is the kind of spirit that we want to have in our, in our industry. Please do not belittle this.
I have some brothers, my previous experience, you know, who say that I worked so hard to bring my kids into the masjid. And let's be honest, we may be practicing as parents, but Subhan Allah, maybe we came to the deen a little bit late. And somehow we did not give our children maybe we did everything right. But some of the diet, they come from Allah subhanho wa Taala. And maybe our kids are struggling at this point. And people will come to you and say no, my son, my daughter, they've been making some food choices. And yesterday, I met them and I pleaded to them, and I just said, please come to the message. And you know what, my son, my daughter came to the masjid. And they were
not necessarily dressed in the most appropriate of ways. And they came in and they said that I'll just come just to be with you. My son has got tattoos all over the place. And the minute you walk into the message, people just started staring at him. And my son looked at me, he said, Dad, that's why I like to come to this place.
We never want to be the guilty party, of turning somebody away from the House of Lords of
Europe the same number
one,
he said, All servants of Allah Do not be guilty of people hating a lot because of what you do. Sometimes, especially when we speak in that religious store, and we speak in such a manner and in such a way people just look at us and say was this what it means to be religious? You know what, I am done? I don't want I don't want to have anything to do with this religion? Or if this is what religious hippie does, I was going to be part of it.
If this is the kind of God that your worship, I want nothing to do with that, God. You know what I am done with this earth to begin with? I'm just I'm just done. Why is that? Because again of the way that we have misrepresented our deed to those who are around us. Please keep this in mind.
Two min of low.
One time, the companion, the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam were walking by and they found a group of children. This is remember this isn't the time of animosity and war have they captured the children and they brought them and they decided that they deserve to be killed. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Matt, I know what you're going to do, and they say, the
messenger Allah, Who shall kill them. And the process of them said, What for?
So they looked at me, and they looked at him, and they said,
they are the children of the Catholics and the Protestants and looked at them and he said, Well, I've never met up
with
the owner, and you are the children of
you sometimes forget where it is that we came.
And some of us did not necessarily, you know what, we have been? Some of us, myself, you know, we have not been practicing from day one.
Can somebody relate to this? And we all have had our fair share of making all kinds of poor choices. May Allah subhanaw taala give us your name. And then all of a sudden, hamdulillah Allah guides us and we're all excited and becoming religious and Protestantism. What we have a tendency to forget where it is that we came from.
And the point here is, our can relate to this person because I know one day I was in their shoes, I know one day, I did what they are engaged in right now, Allah, Allah has blessed me. And I can only pray and hope to be a facilitator for these people to find the way the same way that I did.
And believe you me by brothers and sisters, there are two elements that are absolutely most needed. A sense of compassion, and a sense of love.
A sense of compassion, and a sense of love. The most repeated attribute of a loss of power throughout the day is that we are reminded that a loss of health
Is
he his most compassionate subhana wa Taala
people questioned the authenticity of the Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, The holla, who will
derive your manners, from the attributes of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So at the human level, we try to be as compassionate as possible, not only towards those who deserve it, but also towards those who seem undeserving of it. And that is one crucial element. That must always be the spirit of the message that this place, people are time.
This place people are crying, this place people are tolerant. These place people just make you feel welcome. everybody's welcome.
People are doing all kinds of things, welcome you them. And they had a sleepover. And we have heard this story so many times.
This man comes into the masjid, and he does the unthinkable inside the house of Allah. Remember, these are people who are not civilized. What does he do? He says that you know what? He urinates inside domestic, and people get up to beat on the man.
The man doesn't know Leave him alone. And the Prophet says, you know, this is the house of Oman. And that's not how you do things. And you've got to remember just how tolerant and compassionate is Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. When he does this, a man comes inside the masjid and while in praise somebody sneezes, so being good, we just looked at was Oh, bless you.
During Salah people are praying during Salah he speaks in your hand como la You know, sometimes people really don't know. Especially our brothers and sisters who are no into the deen. They don't know. This brother is praying and inshallah his phone rings. He's a no Muslim. So what does he do? He picks up the phone. He goes, Hey, honey, we pray right now I'll call you later to Allah.
Remember, people just do this thing don't know. So the man looked around and he goes,
other people start staring at him. And insula is looking at you said what, what did I do? Why he was staring at me like that. What did I do? And he is obsessed, because he thought he did something good. So the salon is, the man tells us the story. He said
he was leaving the salon that he turned that he looked at us and then
what law Humana
will lie, man when he said boy, Allah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not, did not add one line. Mecca Harare, that by Allah the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not scold me.
They what happens if inequality but the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said to me, he said, in the heart of the Salah.
He said, you know what this prayer or this Salah is an attempt to connect with the creator Allah Subhana Allah, Allah. And you know, this type of speech is not befitting to the majesty of salah and the man is so moved by what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, so what does he do? He decides to make a drop he decides to raise himself and pray for a loss of time. And what does he say along a clean v 100 and agenda well
he says Oh Allah admit me and Mohammed assassin to paradise and all these people are present. I want to see none of them.
What is it what what is it? So Panama is all about the way that we treat one another. And there are reported they say I seen Elon Nancy the start with Uber.
In Santa
Okay, let
me
see.
He says Be good to people. And you shall be the master of your eyes.
Why be good to be big go to people unusual be the master of their hearts because people love we like we love people who are good to us. And can you imagine if the people are good to us or the people who are in the in the midst. So one thing that insha Allah we all work on is it is our job to make sure that everybody in this place is welcome for
our brothers and our sisters.
are struggling, this is equally
as well. Because Allah subhanho wa Taala is equally the Lord, as well.
And many times, people who may not seem to be very religious are in reality, more religious than us who seem to be practicing.
Well, I don't mean to insult anyone.
Some people
do not seem to be very religious. But while lovely, they have hearts of gold,
you all know people like that.
People who don't seem to be religious, but boy, they have a heart of gold.
And you look at them and
it is just unbelievably amazing that some people are absolutely like that. This young man was brought to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he's a drunk, his alcoholic, is bought through the processes of over and over again. What's wrong with this man? He is drunk again prophet of Allah. And the people are saying again, drunk, you know, people take off their shoes, people put their belts on, they've been on demand and somebody Besides, you know, to do what, unfortunately, sometimes
religious people choose to
pass a judgement on doctors. So what does he say? Are they hidden to law? May the curse of Allah Subhana Allah be upon that reason? When a person is curse, it means that they have no share of the mercy of Allah.
So the Prophet sallallahu wasallam What does he say?
Don't curse this young man said Don't, don't curse them. For in your head.
Is that this drunk that this alcoholic that everybody is looking down upon? said this young man loves Allah and His messenger.
Many people who are engaged in poor behavior, love Allah and His messenger, Mohammed Salah.
Are you following what I'm saying? Am I telling people to go there and be drunk and claim to love Allah and His messenger?
That's not what we're saying.
What we are saying is for the people who are actively engaged in this,
what they're doing is wrong.
What they're doing is wrong.
But in their heart, man, they've got cancer. And Mohamed Salah Salem saw it in that young man. And he said, This young man who loves Allah and His Messenger, remember, I love Allah and His messenger. I claim to love Allah His Messenger, but I do not have the approval of Mohammed. Mohammed Salim did not testify on my behalf and say, I know Yes, and love Allah has been making a claim. But that young man had 100, Salah wasallam there and he said, I know this young man. And I know that this young man loves a lot of His Messenger
shares. Muhammad Ali tells this beautiful story.
The late Egyptian scholar, he passed away about maybe 15 years ago or so. He said one day I was in my office. When a young man came to my office, he said,
he said this man had the reputation in the community that he had a problem with alcohol.
So I said to him, says young man, my son said
are you still?
Are you still doing your drinking?
I said and the young man started crying.
And he said she's a young still drinking. Please just remember me in your job. And please pray for me.
She has Muhammad
Ali, I was moved by a Sim City. And I said to my brother, come and sit next to me. And let us together. pray to Allah subhanho wa Taala for you For you may have been drunk with alcohol. But I know that myself and the likes of me have been intoxicated by forgetfulness.
But sometimes we forget
I'm not crazy. I'm not simplifying. All I'm saying is let us apply what a lot of time with Allah
Subhan Allah Allah Eco, catabolic boo, boo,
boo, boo Johanna Tina. So in bad in US law, but in the law.
This is a beautiful place
where either jack and levena you
be
talking about people who said, he said that when those who believe in our message, they come to you
and
say to them, peace be upon you. You say, Don't be afraid. I'm not here to pass a judgment upon you.
Peace be upon you. Remind them.
Allah has decreed the law of mercy upon himself. And it states the following
Johanna false or ever is guilty of you of sin as a result of Johanna Essentia.
Okay from
the foolishness,
agenda Japanese Ravi
and justice in Arabic.
Allah
whosoever is guilty of sin,
as the result of foolishness.
Whosoever disobeyed Allah Subhana Allah is a fool. Do you know who you're dealing with? That you're a fool?
In his foolishness, and that's why they say every act of selling is an act of foolishness. Because foolishness is when we behave contrary to what we know. That is a fool and ignorant person about what is. So if Allah says that I forgive those who sin because they did it No. Big deal. How did that make Allah Subhana? Allah merciful, he is truly merciful, because who because he forgives those who sin despite the fact that they know that they are sinning that makes a lot of what Allah merciful? So he said, when did people come to you say to themselves,
peace be upon you, peace be with you, Qatar Baraka Rama Allah has decreed the law of mercy upon himself. Whosoever is guilty of foolishness.
ever come to me Johanna, whosoever is guilty of sin, evil as a result of his or her own foolishness. So then what happens?
And then they repent, and the next if I'm wrong, that they have done then let it be known that Allah Subhana Allah is most forgiving, more compassionate.
And we are not to say that because we spoke to them I explained it to him once or twice or thrice. Yeah, can we explain it till Doomsday? Our job is to do our utmost best to make this place and any place like this place, an approachable place where people feel welcome at all times. So that is the first commitment that we are a place that displays compassion all the time, believe me, but not just the amount of everybody who comes to the rescue. We must have a sense of compassion and not for the sake of demonstration, because that is the
that is the humane thing to do in the hubby's department.
You have
shown passion to those who are on Earth, the one up in heaven will show compassion. So if we want Allah subhanaw taala, to show compassion to us, then we must also show compassion to those who are around us. Second point, this place has got to display not
only the prophets of Allah Hollywood synopsis, media feed
the parable of the believers in the mutual love that they have for one another. You know, people have to go through the hardest and then say what? It's like one body when one part of the body aches, the rest of the body aches. It may be your pinky that hurts, but you can go to sleep. So what is the rest of your body afternoons of thinking? Because if one part of the body aches, the rest of the body is aching, empathizing and sympathizing with the rest of the body. But let's go before that. What does the professor say? He says they believe us.
In the mutual love that they have for one another, we need to speak more love. And we need to show model address of one and he said one time I came to domestic intimacy said I got there. It was such a prayer. And he said the best it was back. And there was the single young man was at the front of the masjid. And I see other companions of the Prophet sallallahu ala present, where everybody is listening to this man. I said, I was so impressed by this job but and I said, Who is this man? And somebody said, You don't know this person. This is in general, the Companion of the facilitator, as I
said, the young he said, The next day I decided I was going to come so early in the masjid, and get as close as possible to this man. He said, I came very, very early, before anybody else said I walked into the masjid. And one of the children was in the midst. So there was nobody else. But he
said, I sat next to him.
And I looked at him and I said,
in the way
I love you.
Nowadays, if you tell another brother next to you that you love them,
he will look
okay, but he was there. And he looked at him and he said
something about it.
And he looked at me.
And he grabbed me by my clock. And he looked at me said Allah.
And
he grabbed me and he said that he pulled me and he said, Oh, I'm asking you by Allah. Are you telling me the truth? I looked at him and I said,
Well, I am telling you the truth I will not get I love you said he grabbed me again. And he said Allah,
I'm asking you by Allah Do you really mean what you say and said, Ah wah wah wah, I mean, what I am saying is if
he said I want you to hear the good news.
For him, he said that to Rasulullah sallallahu alto syllables I have heard Mohammed
as he spoke, and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam speaks, said in the Day of Judgment, there will be a group of people, and
they shall be on purpose of life later will be unclear. They are not messengers, they're not prophets, when they to be Shahada, and these are not Martin, young people who are soldered to the contrary, they are envied by the messengers and by the righteous people say, who are these people is that these are the people who have mutual love for one another.
You know, this idea of love is so unbelievably celebrated in our day.
And they had these this man he left his village to go and visit somebody else, or not the way Allah Subhana Allah said said
to this man,
and the angel said to the man,
where are you going? He said, I have a friend next village, you know, where is next village here?
He said, I am going to visit a brother of mine.
He says,
and why is it that you're going there?
It says, I love him.
You want them because then some affairs between you two that's taken place? He said no. He said, Is there any monetary financial transaction taking place? He says no.
interest. And then the angel comes the man in the mouths of honey What are they? What do you hope may have
been a failure? What?
What would it mean if he said that I have decreed upon myself that my love is granted for those who love mutually love one another, who visit one another? who spent on whatever they say I just love this. about them a lot of fantasy they say My love is for the people like
most of the time we think that the way that we earn the love of Allah subhanho wa Taala is you know, if we pray excessively and we fast excessively and believe me that is all beautiful, but truly what makes the difference?
is how are we?
So this idea of having mutual love amongst us, man, that is the glue that keeps people together.
And that is why the prophets of Allah, Allah, he wanted to feel, you know, he wanted to feel good about the people who are around him. So what does he say? He comes to the people, he said, Yeah,
that was happy for him. And him.
I've said, People don't watch me do not tell me about my companions. Don't tell me about people don't tell me about in our Oh, he should have seen what I saw that weather systems do. Don't tell me about that. He said, Don't tell me about them. For me wait.
For I love to go out there and meet people with a solid heart. I don't have preconceived notions about this person, because somebody told me this about them that you do this. And you know what it erodes the goodness of the of the community.
Got
this good.
So it says that because again, the whole notion is that is how we make our community a strong community. A sense of compassion, a sense of acceptance and tolerance. And a sense of love with people are not afraid of displaying that love to one another. That's beautiful when people are not afraid to display the love to one another you know today or copyright infringement was about the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The process alum said that went to believe sweet and they shake hands with one another. The heart of Zulu Houma, Kannada, how
is it that they drop like the DR V drop out of a tree what is it that they have done? These
expressions of love, respect, acceptance tolerance are so crucially unbelievably important and they must be practiced all the time.
Third point is a fourth point is not different.
Do not grow apart from one another. Brothers and sisters insha Allah as our relationship grows and develops always positively honorable alameen, you will find out that you would disagree with many things that are said. And you will find out that even when people talk they will disagree with one another. And that is just a part of life. That is a part of our Deen, what makes our Deen beautiful is the fact that it is open to interpretation. It is open to variety of interpretations. You cannot compile the entire data formats pantalla into one single person into one single entity into one single school of thought, we do this and then we would be guilty of a disease called one man look at
happy.
The illusion of absolute ownership of truth. And that if you believe this, you inevitably become very arrogant and full of yourself.
The point is, this is what I think is being said here. But Allah, Allah, Allah knows best. But my opinion a lot of other man we don't talk about it, my hair My educated opinion is I believe that this is what is what is going on.
And there are two things when we speak about the beautiful, there is the feminine aspect. And then there is the creed or the dogma aspect of things.
And if I introduce my own, my own style to you a lot, I
could be wrong. But when it comes to aspects, very flexible, not loose, very flexible,
and has to say in
a row
for in addition to the engineer
is a truly the art of jurisprudence is all about lenient opinions, that comes from a credible source. For indeed, everybody masters, extremists.
Everybody who's a pastor of extremism, you have a * of every because it's best not to do that. It's always good not to do that. That's what's up. Everybody can tell you this. And that's why I say that that is not what it is. It is about making life easy for people not punishing
People in the name of the deal have
you know, sometimes
we sound religious, but less humans?
Are you following what I'm saying? Sometimes we may sound religious, but at the expense of all sounding less human.
So what happens is, when it comes to aspects of job, we want to make sure that you know what there is, there is so much more. So much flexibility in this. And that is where we show flexibility. 945 maybe late for some of our children to stay up that late to play. Because the next morning they have to get up so early in the morning, says Mom, Dad, I can't stay up that late. And we see them tired. And you know, what have you do me a favor, insha Allah, it's okay during the weekdays in sha Allah, your children, they can combine Maha Venetia so that they can go to sleep. So that tomorrow morning in sha Allah, they can go to their school, there is nothing wrong.
That is just part of this flexibility in our team. And as long as there is that flexible formula, we're not inventing it to the winner, that is just part of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. Sometimes he would do things just for the sake of convenience. And to show the people you read
or watch, intense ease for you, Allah Subhana Allah does not benefit by making things difficult for you. But she sometimes we eroge is missing that if it is difficult, it needs us more pleasing to Allah subhanho wa Taala.
And having said that, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam is in touch.
And he sees this old man walk in and he's being held by two younger men on his site. And the pastor says,
Why don't you give us a horse a candle? Why don't? Why don't you give them something and you know, not someone like this. They said prophet of Allah, the man has made a vow, that he is going to do the entire rituals of Hajj walking. And this is an elderly person. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam looked at him and he said, What is our motto?
Allah subhana wa, Allah by the self inflicted, or the self inflicted suffering that this person is going through. More hopefully, I can just go and tell him
Get yourself some nulegacy get that out of difficulty is not appreciative. It does not make us more numerous. Having said that, a man in the month of Ramadan, he's just standing out in the sun. And what is getting in the shade. And the man says that he he likes the sunburn. So the processor loves it.
What is what what is this manual said from Allah, He said that he is going too fast. And he is going to spend the entire day out under the sun. The process of bringing the man bring into the shape, that that that kind of really doesn't exist. Really? What is this really what it means that bring the man in this industry, Allah subhanho wa Taala does not benefit by these kinds of things. So when it comes to
show up most flexibility, remember, not looseness, but rather flexible.
If it's raining, yeah, it's okay. You can join. You can join your prayers, combine your faith, there is nothing wrong with that. If it is the same day of Juma and it's okay if you've played a dirty need to come down for and you know who said all of these things. It said in the heavy that it was on the day of cumorah as Marvin Aslan led the Salah, and you know, if you've been to Makkah people live up in the is up the hill. So what happens is that people would come down for various prayers, and then they would go up again. So when it was just a phrase, he said to them, I will go and call the other and let the people know, if you have been down for the heat press, you really don't need to
come back again.
Are you following what is going on? So Pamela looked into this. And so what happens is when the people have already heard the haka today, it's okay, you don't have to come back. You really don't have to come as it is the same day, because our deal is based on this idea of flexibility. So when it comes to self related issues, absolute tolerance,
and then also along with this, with this idea is that we have got to tolerate one another when we have
tend to disagree with one another.
And I believe it was Socrates who said that Socrates, I believe he just did so well. He said, a sign of man's intelligence is his ability to entertain a different spot without accepting it.
While law, that is a very, very beautiful statement, a side of man's intelligence is his ability to entertain a thought, without accepting it, meaning that you know what I want to hear you out, I really want to hear what you have to say, I really want to hear what is going on without accepting that, but the point is that this is an opportunity for growth. So the least that we can do is he somebody
he put out even when they are different, and they are opposite he people out and that is how we all that is how we all grow in sha Allah. So where does the strictness coming?
request comes in, when it comes to values and principles that you've got.
But unfortunately, nowadays, we've switched it. People are very, very strict when it comes to related issues. And people are very loose when it comes to the values and the principles. And I think last time I came, I might have told you the story of the Muslim businessman who went to China. And you know, Chinese are always looking for the, you know, what they're looking for business. So people go there, and this man is honoring his guests. So he's got all kinds of food for the people there. He's got the chicken, he's got the lamb, he's got the beef for them, because he wants the business. So he gets them there. And he prepares all the food for them. And they get there. And they
said, this is really good banquet, but we can't really eat any of it because it's not hot.
The meat is not hot. So the man is shocked and disappointed. So he goes and he changed the menu to vegetarian menu, and he presents it to the people, they have their dinner. And now it's time to speak business. So they said, We like what you're going to do to us. But we have one request. When you finish manufacturing the product, instead of made in China, we want you to put down there in Germany.
So wait a minute, you just refuse to eat the meat because it's not halal meat. But you have no problem
with you asking me to write made in Germany fully knowing that it's made in China
into this and you say, what kind of a crooked logic is that? When people behave in such in such a way, I know somebody that would drive 75 miles one way to buy heroin
to 175 miles one way, because there was only one person that he trusted 75 pounds 75 coming back, that's 150 miles that a person owns the liquor store Can
you look into this essay is making mockery of a lot
as I talk about
Do you believe in portions of the book and reject other parts of the of the book, you look into this and say now we're doing this all the wrong all the wrong way. So remember, flexibility is insert related issues and strictness is in issues that have got to do with values and principles, which are two more points, Shall I open up to, you know, discussion?
We've got to say something about our sisters.
Because remember, the message is not only for brothers.
And somebody told me this jokes and if you look around, most of our massages are usually frequented by whom,
what the attendance of the massage?
Men what kind of men?
So remember, these are mostly men, over 40 and overweight men
that come to the desk come to them as
immigrants.
And the idea is, well what happens our system?
What happens to our youngsters? How can they not say
what kind of programs do we have for them? What do we have for our and so on. And when you look into the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it was open to all the people.
You know that the whole idea of the member that
was actually an idea
A woman,
it was a woman who brought this concept, a member an elevated
it's
not not for him.
You can call it the stage you can call it.
You know,
it was an AI, it was the idea of a woman.
She suggested she said what Allah would be sitting in the back and we can hardly see you, properly, Allah, why don't you get something up there so that we can actually see it also, it makes so much sense when you are able to make visual contact with the person that is talking to you.
Am I correct about this, by the way? Yeah, but see, sometimes we have these things, and we really don't care what is going on on the other side. What we do is that we come in here where it's school, and the sound system is working perfectly fine. And every time the kids come here, we send them out to their mothers, you know what, and supposedly This is the time that you know what they have in.
There is just not
the whole notion. In the heavies we are told that the person who took care of the message of the prophets Allah, Allah was the ground keeper of the message of difference.
She was a woman,
mystic fellow
on our
channel,
the groundskeeper of the president of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a woman, the person who maintained or the cleanliness of the message of the Prophet soissons was a woman. And they describe her and they say that she was a black woman. And this black woman died. And nobody said anything to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, about the reason is the director of the hubbies. He said,
he said that the
baby did not pay much attention simply because of his status, he was not able to sleep msgid then the processor upset. What happened to the woman that used to be a cleaning the machine. She died Few days back, our processor dissolves. So why don't you tell me? What is Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam said, Take me to her grave.
He went to her grave and the Prophet sallallahu wasallam offered the most personal genetic traits
are you following offering the most personal gene as a phrase? Imagine that, you know, you died that was awesome, asking, Where is this? What Mohammed Salim is personally going to come and pray.
So we want to make sure that this place is not only for the products, but it is also for the sisters. And believe me, when we say that brothers and sisters, we are talking about programs that are meaningful, the tendency is that it was it is us men who want to dictate to our sisters what needs to be. And that's not how things are. But we want to make sure that this place is open, equally open to all the people. I remember one time they opened a message in one of the states and it won't be named. And the entire football was on sisters are not and should not be allowed in domestic.
So what happens is that brothers would come to the masjid drop his wife by the pole. And then he would ask her to lie, you know, go and pick her up afterwards. And you say, Why? Why is that? Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, I love Allah, He let them know, oh, man, Allah, he made beauty law. He said people do not prevent the female servants of Allah from the houses of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So now the idea is, this is a place that is equally for all, for all of us. We also want to make sure that this place is equally open for our children as well. We have got to tolerate our children for businesses and I just love the idea that we can hear them scream, you
know, the screaming of kids like this is just music to our ears. You know, they can come in and they would be crying. It's okay. Please, when when that happens, just, you know what, let it be known that it's okay for the father to attend to his crying child at all of us to be okay with us. You know when when we insist that you know we want this place to be very clean. We Yeah, we want it
To be very much we liked it. That's what we like.
But you got to tolerate our children when they come in. I'm sorry. But there's nothing entertaining for a child in what I'm saying right now. I don't think my children are invisible, or they did. They're not in this room.
This is too boring for them.
And they will tell you, what will you do boring, we just cannot sit, you know, and you DACA DACA DACA all the time. This is too boring. So we've got to understand that he is boring. If I were him, one lawyer wouldn't be listening to me. I would. There is really nothing entertaining about this man. So to insist that you know what the man was given? Let him come and listen. I don't want to man. It is more fun for me to be playing out there. So you we have got to absolutely be okay with case. When they come in. And they wait. We're not saying basically, what we're saying is that you know what? When kids are being kids, let's make sure that we accept
people who tell you I love going to the masjid.
Just people just so nice to me. And we will do that the amount those mining will law what I believe that you know, you know what a man is doing? Well, when the science or
what law he that is just one way of gauging how well we're doing. When the kids love coming to the masjid. And they just like this idea. You've got to tolerate something like this, especially in this environment nowadays, you know that in the past month, more kids are frequenting the masjid. Did you notice
they're all looking for Pokemon in the masjid now, because this is this is what's going. This is what's going on. ICBC is a hot spot at this point, you know, all the kids are coming here, you know, looking to catch as many as possible of these things. But again, again, for the kids in Charlotte, the point is that we want to have as meaningful of programs as possible. Last point is ideally, ideally, we would love for the message to be a place
not only for Muslims, but also for non Muslims a lot. I would love to see the day when our neighbors would call the messages because they need help.
To me, that's the day that I really want.
You know, when the elderly people around us, they know that they can count on dementia. That is when you know that this place is not only a beacon, a light for the Muslim community, but for the entire community. That is that is
because that's what MSDN is supposed to be like, not just good for us. But for all of the people who are around us. They can say that we really like we really like this question. I love some of the examples that we have seen.
I remember in in New York, they opened a massive in this in this neighborhood. And this man has a liquor store.
A person who owns a liquor store, he comes to the masjid with a 500,000 check. And he goes thank you for opening your mosque here. And this is a donation from me. I own that liquor store around the corner. But I really want to support your model. Whatever you do, don't close down. And if people are looking at unsafe output, don't go and buy from you. He said you don't. But you are here so early. And you come here at night. People are so afraid of robbing mixes you open this place, nobody has dropped mine.
So now the liquor store is feeling sad because the Muslims are just going five times a day, man, everyone's coming to pray and God. So he said whatever you do, do not close this place. You listen
to Panama, the ways that the presence of a Masjid can impact the community. So this is really about openness. It is about tolerance. I love that story. Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is visited by a group of Christians from Niger on the southern part of Serbia today in the northern part of Yemen. They come and they're inquiring about Jesus and what Mohammed Salah Lavalle wasallam believes regarding Jesus, and they were there for a while. And every time around the time they would do their own prayers inside the message of the prophets Allah.
Imagine this, these are non Muslim sustained in domestic and when it was time for them to pray, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would say, of their own prayers, in the message of the prophets of Allah.
Then again, when you look at is again a level of tolerance and a level of acceptance. Remember, we do not approve of what people do.
But our doors are always open for them. And inshallah that is the spirit, that is what we like to have a lot in our, in our community. So it took a while to get there. But in sha Allah, that is part of the plan. And please do remember, when you were speaking of ideals, sky is the limit, say when you are speaking of your ideals, there are no limits. When you start doing things, practically that's a different story. But at least ideally, that way we want to be practically we may not get there, but at least we know that this is what we are
aiming for.
So if anybody has a question or a comment, inshallah to further
enrich or entertain this,
please.
an agenda.
Question number two,
how active are you?
The question?
Yeah, so the question is, what kind of things do I have in mind? What kind of agenda is there for the community? Whether it be to increase the attendance, whether it be, you know, what is the plan for this year, and where we would like to be going? And the second question was about how active Am I in, in social media? So the second question is the is the easiest, I am nowhere to be found in social media.
And it is, it is unfortunate.
But I really don't, I don't have any presence in social media. And that's just, it used to be a personal choice of mine.
For whatever reason, just a little bit of background, I happen to be a therapist. Sometimes social media creates some sort of difficulties for therapists, because we are forbidden as therapists from having dual relationship with people. So you end up having a client who happens to be on your list who knows about
it, you know, what, I don't want Facebook. So sometimes, as as a therapist, that is something that I have to be mindful of. And that is, how is my social media going to impact the clients that I, that I see. So that was one part, one part of it.
And it's a good idea just to introduce some of the work that I do,
where I come from counseling, and therapy took a great deal of what I did. And I really believe
I love the law, I love doing the counseling. But I found out that doing preventative work is more important than dealing with problems after they happen. So one thing that I really, really looking forward to, is that we did classes, especially classes on human development, and parenting, understanding your teenager raising emotionally healthy children, these were all you know, counseling related classes, but these are all classes that we can all benefit, benefit from. So inshallah This is something that I'm really, really looking forward to. And the way that we do this is that we've tried to accommodate both our mothers as well as our fathers. So part of the plan is
to have something during the day for mothers who are full time mothers working hard in the in the house, for a child walk, this is one segment of the community that is really important, and also as a community inshallah, when we do the Friday night programs or any other programs, we want to make sure that we take this in mind and that is can we have a program that accommodates everybody for as many people as possible within the within the family. also part of the idea is that we have a
a something that we did
a class called the amazing hotline for children. When I say children, I'm talking about teenagers, mainly. And basically what that is, can we introduce in a forum, can we introduce the foreign to our youngsters in a way that makes both
Intellectual sense and cultural sense. Because remember, part of the better understanding of the deal is that cultural must be part of how we understand the deal. So that we can, we can
manifest, we can explain it in a way that makes cultural sense. And when we do this, we're not changing the theme, we are implementing the theme because Allah Subhana, Allah says, Allah Subhana, rosulip, Illa penis and omaheke leovegas. And we have not sent a messenger, but the messenger spoke the language of his people, in order to clarify for them, and the language here is not proper English, or the language here is that speaking the language of the culture, that so we do have these programs in mind, and inshallah just take a while as I am navigating my way here in the community. But also remember that we are open to suggestions. So please feel free to, you know, to do something
like this.
I do do counseling, please do remember that. counseling is always a passion, a personal passion of mine. All of our counseling sessions are very, very, are treated with the utmost respect and confidentiality. I am a mandated reporter, so I report child abuse, elder abuse or self harm to others. Other than that, whatever the clients share with me, that remains to be strictly confidential, I don't talk about you to anybody else, not my family, not my wife, nobody out there. So we want to make sure that this is this is a service that eventually ICBC will be providing to the to the community
hopefully, will
work.
But in fact, we have
to have more.
So
in your
program,
we need to address the issue basically,
for all
right now, if you look at it,
like this, because I'm an old guy,
man,
our boy.
So hopefully, we will see that the community is directed to this,
because of you, to the boys and
the girls.
also the people behind them,
along with our team, which is gonna be very sharp. With my project, I came from Jordan, who came from Pakistan or India or from the States here, our team.
Our team has nothing. So we need somebody to access directly before it's too late.
point of making this a
perfect idea, a plan that would be
the one to remember,
like this, we might get the wrong idea, by
the
way.
I want you to be in line with the responsibility
on TV or on the one o'clock.
So the second point, it really is about what we call in psychology, selective hearing.
It's called selective hearing. When people only hear what they want to hear,
or selective reading when people only read what they want to read. Remember, you can make any book Say what you want it to say. And you can make any shape Say what you want them to say.
And it's called selective hearing. So I did say that, but you have got to pay attention to the context.
So the question, so the question was about, I did, I did say that you know what, youngsters can combine their monitor by nature. But then youngsters can combine the amount of energy if they go to sleep. But if they're texting until one in the morning, then that just becomes a misuse of something that was said here. And I'm agreeing, I'm agreeing to this. So contextually, you have to remember how it was said. And that requires a sense of honesty on the part of the person doing the listening, and appreciate the reminder that you know what, maybe the the speaker also needs to pay more attention to the way that things are said so that it is not misused. And that's something that I
really appreciate his apology. But the hope is that contextually it was said in a way that this is really to bring about ease, so that people can really go to sleep, if people are up. And they think that on the basis of what I said they can say this, then that is just a misuse of the tea. Like the story of Imam, Abu hanifa when the he saw persons stealing bread,
and he stole the bread, and then he gave it as charity, and then the cancer.
He stole the bread, and then he gave it to charity. So a man of hanifa said, What are you doing? He said, Emma, me tell you how this goes. It's he said, it's very simple. I stole the bread was being recorded against me. Once a year. I gave it a charity how much has an I get 10 times? So if you take one out of that can take one out of the 10 How am I left with
left with nine? So he said to me, this is what a beautiful,
beautiful.
So I looked at him and he said, Mashallah, by the way, remember, hanifa was known to have two things. It was an extremely intelligent man.
And he had some very, very good sense of humor. He was a funny, funny man. So in any project that he said, The wise man said, let me tell you what's really happening. He said, You stole the bread. So that is recorded against you as a pastor. You attempted to give that bread in charity, but it was never accepted from you because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam thought and said in America you
that Allah is good and pure, and he only accepts that which is good. And so you did not get any reward, but there is one strike against
the base. And that is this idea of people misusing and abusing what they have,
what they have, what they have, good. So inshallah another another point that my brother of the state has made, we don't want the other massages to come to our
we don't want young people to come to our Masjid. Remember, this is not a popularity contest.
This is not a popularity contest. We don't want to say that, Oh, you know what the show at the SABC is so cool with the kids. And that's why all the kids are leaving the massage. And they're coming to ICBC if we do this, we have failed.
They say that to Panama, we know that we are a great mistake, when we also want other massage to be as great as we are, then we know we are doing that which is right. So this is not a popularity contest. We don't want to end up saying that, you know, all this ended up happening 100 times is what ends up Al Hamdulillah always glad to be of service, but eventually they say that you know, this message is great, because we also helping other Masonic to be great as well. And that is how we know that we are doing we are doing okay. So the more I talk the more equipped myself in trouble. So it is almost time last question.
What's wrong with
all
the same idea or behave the same way?
By I would like
to see this community is not only benefiting one group, but
I mean, I mean, and that is, that is the hope, my hope would that that that contest becomes among the children.
Not amongst the you know, not not amongst the
girls.
Oh, so I'm sorry. So our young audience sisters,
you know, sometimes love when you go to conferences, most of the attendees are girls, when we have classes, at least our experience has been that most of our attendees or girls, the most dependable the best, we're like, the best set of volunteers of all ages, as much as
we never want to take that away from them. I don't know what it is about the city. So I really cannot speak about it. But that is definitely one thing that we like to do. And that is make sure that we utilize the talents of all of our members. And it all begins before we utilize your talent, that sense of belonging, that sense of ownership. And that sense of welcoming, I think must precede all the things here.
What is your role for us?
To update where
we are.
These are the concluding remarks by
mother we had a question on when we
when we hire women.
So this was a big challenge is to bring somebody up, not to
the post apartment in front of him, but then somebody else's character in those small town like Boston into another way.
So how can we accommodate a person of
his knowledge into models, so
it is never about an actual, it's all about. And we knew he was attracted, and at least for the
conference.
It was like going through the night. So we have to graduate to him the next attractive for him and we were trying to find out what makes it attractive for the company. And small that was not called money.
So when we found out from the Muslim, he's been serving for 17 years, that meant a lot. Because it's very difficult to look around. Everywhere. The great mom renaissance of principle five years ago, is the board or salon Villa, we did
very easy to work. But what I'm trying to say is what we attracted him to ask him.
He said, you are tired of a
fat
wallet
very
often. And
so we have a flexible infrastructure there. And this was really like, a month, come back. And I thought he told him something really bad.
So he called and said, I liked what you said.
So we have put a structure where we said okay, now it was time in 17 years. So take your time, you know, we've been hungry for
Take your time.
Why this time, so learn how to understand as a
given. But this time, even though what is the
what are the things we can exchange with other massages
but also understand
what you're doing right now.
Right? But we can always
hear
the invoice and data system so that they are giving him the opportunity. You thought he knows what we need to tell them what he can offer the community. So in the coming days and weeks and months, he will learn from what he can offer.
And
he can tell us
I think I can contribute. So
he started Monday.
And
he wasn't really you might not apply to these. So he's been doing his own duration. So, you know, we should provide all of our support for him so that he's strong. It makes us better
So our contract or agreement whatever you name it is very I wouldn't say wait but very open flexible such a way it doesn't take my time preferences in through the Islamic
By the way,
don't don't just do this but this is what letter T inshallah you help us get it. So we need the impact community support community and we know that he's taught all over the world so we know that maybe we can
put together a program that inshallah you can follow him on. So we want to work with all because
everybody's been very helpful to us. So we can all benefit from it as a Muslim American Austin and
I hope I answered your question
the bench