The Address, Knowledge

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know with a brief introduction of the speaker of tonight for the acid kosaka.

For the acid for Sokka, especially guests here today is the Imam of Islamic foundation in the city of Mission Viejo, California, USA. He is also the teacher of Islamic Studies at the American University, Virginia.

Added to this he is the president of Eritrean Muslim Council in the US.

He has graduated from a bomb South University, Fairfax, Virginia, majoring in Islamic Studies. He has done his ms in psychotherapy from Long Beach State University in California.

This is a brief introduction of the speaker of tonight now I requests rather Yasser, to deliver his speech.

All praise is due to Allah. On May his peace and blessings be upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I bear witness that no one is worthy of worship but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was his final messenger.

Indeed, the best of speeches, the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the source of all matters is to innovate and religion. And every such type of innovation is a misguidance and misguidance leads to the hellfire. I begin by greeting my brothers and sisters saying Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

What we wanted to be talking about tonight in sha Allah

is knowledge.

And what is Islam say of knowledge?

But I beg your forgiveness.

I really do not want this to be a traditional talk where I come and I tell you what are the virtues of knowledge, the fact that the very first verse that was revealed to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was simply because this is information that you know,

not that I'm going to be telling you something that you do not know. But we will try to take this a step over.

Instead of talking about the virtues of education in Islam, we want to know what should be the aim of education in Islam.

We want to know what why do we want to know?

What is it that we want to know? Now that we know what does Islam expect you to do with what you know?

It is the aim of education that we will be talking about here today are not necessarily the virtues of education and what have not that this is not important, but I think the information to it is easily accessible by my brothers and sisters.

Let me start by saying, Why did Allah Subhana Allah send Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in a beautiful summary fashion? Allah tells us that there are six reasons why Allah sent Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and levena Tiburon who

are living legend Huma toobin, and don't be

those who follow the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own scripture, the Torah and the ngl What does he do?

He enjoys that which is good, when ham and Moon core and information eradicate evil when you held Allahumma and he declares lawful purity things that are pure when you have removed him. And he declares unlawful things that are you

Esra home and he relieves them of their burden. Well, he can

and he liberates them of their shackles.

One of the missions of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that he is a liberator

one of the aims of education in fact, the most important the ultimate aim of education in Islam is to liberate you.

make you a liberated man and a woman and a free man and a free human. On the slaves were brought into North America and South America. It was illegal to teach a slave reading and writing a man by the name of Frederick

Douglass taught himself to read and write. And then he made a spectacular statement. He said, a man with knowledge cannot be in the slaved

cannot be in the slave. Now, the idea of slavery in Islam is not the stereotypical movie like image that is presented to us of slavery, meaning that he is someone that is topless and there is someone holding a whip over him, and he is bounded to change. It is a form of slavery, but it is not the only form of slavery. So Allah says the mission of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is to liberate you of your shackles. There are two types of shackles, shackles that are imposed on us by other people and shackles that are self imposed we impose upon ourselves

shackles imposed on us by other people. Allah says do not settle down for these shackles. do not accept these shackles. Allah created you every man a woman you live every man and every woman so liberate yourself of these shackles, man apathy, let me know See you later Rama, Falaise Amina

he who humiliate himself and was not compelled to do so meaning that he did not have to be to live a humiliated life. And you are not compelled to do so.

He is not one of us. You cannot be alive of being new being debased and humiliated and still claimed to be a believer, they just don't come together. A believer is a liberated man and a woman, free man and a free woman. So the aim of education in Islam, my brothers and sisters, is to liberate the individual, like I said, from the shackles that are imposed on us by others, and from the shackles that are imposed on us by our own selves. And they say that the hardest enemy to fight is the enemy that you either carry between your ears, or the enemy that you carry between your shoulders.

It's an enemy, but we're not necessarily aware of it. And we do not see an education happens to be or ignorance happens to be one of these shackles. See the problem with shackles, whether they be self imposed or imposed on us by other people is that they limit you and they hold you back and you do not reach your potentials. You have the ability to grow. You have the potential, but the shackles are holding you back. Be the shackles that are imposed by people or be the shackles that you imposed on your own cells. So Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came to liberate your of these shackles. So education is supposed to liberate because ignorance is the shackle and look around you Subhan

Allah, you see the ones that are exploited, or the ignorant. And not only that, but it helps to keep them ignorant.

Or they said that there was a doctor that was treating an older woman for cancer. She thought she had cancer. But she really did not have cancer. She was a very rich woman. And every time she came to the doctor, of course, he had to pay for the visit. And it was very profitable for the doctor, that the woman keeps coming.

So what happened is that through time, he himself became a rich man.

The woman is coming for 20 years thinking that she has cancer. And every time she comes, and she gives money, she comes and she gives money, became so rich, bought a house, sent his own son to medical school and college and high school, and his son ended up becoming a doctor himself.

So now that the Son is a doctor, the father decided to take a two week vacation because the son is taking care of the clinic.

During the two weeks when the father was absent, the woman phones in the clinic, he says I'm not feeling well, and your father usually sees me. So come over, they have an appointment, and he sees the woman. And in 10 days, the cancer was cured.

The father comes back to the clinic.

And he asks, you know what happened? What did he do? He said that Father, there was this woman she thought she had cancer and in 10 days, I killed her cancer.

And the father said, you fool What have you done?

Thinking that you killed her from her cancer? Do you know it was her cancer that sent you to school? Do you know that you are a doctor today because it was what she was paying for the assumed cancer and that's why you are where you are. And then he said Son, you started practicing medicine.

in all the wrong way.

Why is that? Because it helped him in order for him to stay where he is that she be ignorant.

For him to keep the live standards and the status and the caliber and the living standards where he is, she had to remain ignorant.

So to her, the ignorance was not only shackling her emotional and psychological neuros imagine someone thinking that they are living with cancer, they could die in a minute, but it was also financially exploiting her, and he knew about it, yet he chose not to say anything about it.

And that is why Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the very first verse that was revealed to him, Mohammed to you and your mama,

read, read or recite in the name of the Lord, we would be thinking, this is a nation that was exploited by gambling, alcoholism, and all social ills. And it says, read, why is this because they say, the best line of defense is an educated mind. An educated mind cannot be fooled. An educated mind cannot be exploited. An educated mind cannot be manipulated. So what do you start doing? teach the people recite and read so that they are liberated, so that they think for themselves so that they're not bounded and they're not confined? You know, they say that Pamela, one of the things that Mohammed Salah Selim came on top, that, you know, you liberate yourself, it's interesting, through

religion, how people can be enslaved, you would think that religion frees people. But some people manipulate religion in such a way that you use religion to enslave other people. The Catholic Church has done it. The only way, the only way to make it to paradise, the Pope has got to be pleased with you.

If the pope is not happy with you, then you are doomed. There is just no way you are making it anywhere. You've got to keep the pope happy.

And guess what money makes the pope happy?

give him money. Give him this give him that. The way they financed their lavish lifestyle, the way they finance their this or their that. But then Allah comes in the Quran and tells us yeah, are you Latina? Or do you believe in the kathira mineral?

la luna, maulana Sibel Barton? He said that many amongst the learned men, whether they be priests, or rabbis or mam's, he said that Yeah, coluna Ahmad, and NASA will bottle they take the money of people, and they eat the money of the people will bottle for no good reason, other than the fact that these people have delved into them. And these people are manipulating and molding them, and exploiting them because of their ignorance. And that is why in Islam, blind faith or blind following is neither accepted nor expected.

It is neither accepted nor expected. You are supposed to do this willingly. You are supposed to make an educated choice that I am doing this because it is the right choice. That's why again, we are told in the Quran. Another point also that the Quran makes, and the very interesting one is that as a believer, you should not be afraid of knowledge.

Because in other in a previous faith, the way people were exploited is that don't ask questions. And there is a story and I break the forgiveness of my non Muslim brothers and sisters here, especially if they happen to be of the Christian faith. I'm picking on the catholic church because I believe that there was a time in history where the church did not represent the teachings of Jesus peace be upon him. So this is what I am criticizing. And by no means I am criticizing the faith that was taught by a Salah his Salaam, that that you know how sometimes kids, young children, they can have some very, you know, interesting questions. You know, sometimes you know, your child, your daughter

or your son, they come and they ask a question, and they really impress you. How did they think of this? So one time, this young kid comes into the church, Catholic Church, and there was the priest, the father. So the young child goes to him and he says, Father, I have a question for you. What was God doing before He created us?

That was you know, it's a very nice question. And here the child is asked

In a very provocative question.

And the father thought about it. And he knew that this line of questioning is not really good, because it may lead to something else, meaning that you start questioning the authority, you start questioning so many things. So he wanted to put an end to this. And what does he say? He said, Son, God was preparing hell for people like you.

Again, remember, I am not saying that this is the best that Christian theology had to offer. But I'm just saying that how people can use religion, to explore it. And to you know, and to shackle other people the same thing within the Muslim community, we have this, you know, so and so a person is a Wali, so and so person is a magician, so and so person is a sorcerer. And be careful if he ever does attachment against you, or if he ever does this. So what happens is that people now are again, are afraid, but yet comes to an end it liberates people from superstition.

Amen, to be superstition, to be pessimistic, or to be any of that is not part of a man. And you'll see how these people are shackled, a person of them would come and he would have a bird in the morning, if it goes right, it means that was a good arm. And if it goes left, because I am doing today, and you see people if they break a mirror, that is really bad news. If they spill salt, then that is really terrible. And if you are under a lather, then that is really bad. And you must carry on rabbit for sure that it brings you good luck. And in the process, what happens is that you the person, the human that was creating with intellect, you behave in such a way that is very insulting

of your intelligence, when you think that a piece of rabbit would, or a piece of ladder or a piece of wood or a piece of that can actually help you. Or even for that fact, sometimes we even use the Quran in such a manner.

The same thing that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to liberate us from we are going back into it again. And we are enslaving ourselves to it.

doing the exact opposite of the intent and the mission of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Again, that is not acceptable my brothers and sisters. So part of education again, is to liberate us. And ignorance happens to be a great chacal I gave the example of Congo. When the Belgians came to Congo. They exploited that land for so long. And so panela Africa is a testimony of how ignorance can be a great shackle in Liberia. To give you a quick example,

the Firestone company Firestone company is a company that is it belongs to a family. The name is Firestone. It's a family.

And what happened is that they Liberia in Southwest Africa, what they did is

they leased the land of Liberia 100, hundreds upon 1000s of acres of rubber tree,

three cents per acre for 100 years.

three cents per acre for 100 years. And they have the rubber trees and they made their fortune and now the people of Liberia are exploited. Similarly the Belgians, they came in and they exploited that country to the bones. And then when they left, they only built one high school. And it was for the children of the Belgians that were growing up in Congo. But the locals were deprived simply because the more ignorant they are, the easier it is to exploit them. And Mohammed Salah Salim will give the example and he will say tolerable enemy. Allah, Allah, Muslim woman, seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every single Muslim. And there is another narration that says every single Muslim

male and female Some people think that it's a weaker narration.

Not only that, but after the battles when he takes the POW the prisoners of wars and one of them wants to buy his freedom out, what do they do? He would say, do you know how to read and write, we want you to teach 10 of the Muslim children to read and write and that will be your way of freedom.

You look into the Quran, the term

is mentioned over 1000 times.

Allah speaks of him being a Li most knowledgeable. Allah speaks of the believers being knowledgeable Allah speaks of those who fear him most or who have more out to him, or those who knowledge and you look into this, and you just cannot believe how Islam celebrates the concept of education, keeping in mind that it is for the aim of liberating men and not having men exploited or shackled. Now this is part of the shackles that are imposed by other people on us. There are also the self

imposed shackle upon ourselves. And again, that is really sad that a group of people came to me Allah, may Allah be pleased with him. I live in avatar, he was a genius, and extremely, extremely smart man. So one time a group of people, they sat down and they said, you know, Ali is a very smart person, let us ask ourselves a question, figure out the answer, and then present and pause the same question to Allie and see what he comes up with. And they said, Why don't we ask Ali? May Allah be pleased with him? What is the strongest thing that was created by Allah? Beautiful question. They said, Let us ask him, what is the strongest thing that was created by Allah? Now here they are

debating we think it's this we think it's that Allah walks in. And they said, Allah, we have a question for you. What is the strongest thing that was created by Allah? So Allah right away, points out his 10 finger stem things, as he has already delivered about the question before, and he knows the answer. He started with the obvious, he said, the mountains. They've been there for ages and ages. But you can cut the mountains down with metal, so metal must be stronger. But you can melt down the metal if you use fire, so fire must be stronger. But you can put off wire if you use water, so water must be stronger. But it is the clouds that carry the water. So the clouds must be

stronger. But it is the wind that direct the cloud, so the wind must be stronger. The same wind that directs the cloud, if I hold firm to my ground, it will not move me around. So man must be stronger than that cloud. But then he said the same man that is able to hold firm his ground. If he gets intoxicated, he loses his control over himself. So intoxicants must be stronger. But the same intoxicated man, if he goes to sleep, then that takes care of the intoxicants. But a man with anxiety will never go to sleep. The strongest thing that Allah created is anxiety.

Choose whom he wins Subhana Allah for his mercy for his messenger ship, for the revelation to be revealed. This is not for the human beings to make that decision. If a person would turn to our last panel to Alison Seeley, truthfully, asking for forgiveness, Allah Subhana Allah promised to forgive, we have as Muslims a duty and that is to recite the book of Allah, to ponder over the verses the words of Allah Subhana Allah, and to act according to the the mercy of Allah Subhana Allah encompasses everything, but it who would this mercy will be fought, and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam was sent to all mankind. So the oma are the people of the prophets of the largest all mankind

since the time of the prophets or send them till the Day of death. Why waste our life without getting to know every verse in the Quran? What Allah subhanaw taala wants from us.

Oliver Vitali would say

he would say why. And you read in the statistics 50 million Americans, these are the statistics that I know from the States. 50 million Americans suffer from anxiety. So many people are going through depression. So much of this is happening. Anxiety is fear of the future. We don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. And like I said the other day, the process alone would wake up in the morning and he would say Aloma in the hours we come in and Hamlet has an O Allah I seek refuge in You from being in the state of anxiety or from being in the state of hasnt grief. I am so sorry about what happened yesterday. I am so worried about what will happen tomorrow. I miss out on living today. I

am becoming a prisoner of my memories, a captive of my imagination that I am crippled as of today. But then comes to her and says you know what? This summer it is poco mama to wifey. It is in the heavens, that your affairs have been decided. You are in good hands. And that is why Subhana Allah, part of the teachings of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is what we call emotional wisdom. You know, sometimes when they hear the word wisdom, what do they think? intellectual wisdom, but Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam tells us what about emotional wisdom.

What to feel and when to feel it and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. The process Allah say, the Umbrella Movement. Indeed amazing is the matter of a believer when he is hit with a calamity or when good fortune happens to him. He is grateful to Allah when something unfortunate happens to him. He is patient and in both cases the believer is when it's a win win situation. It was said that one time even Abdo Padron Jelani and some of you may, you know, have a problem with that, but remember that you know, whenever you can gain benefit, that is what we are taught as Muslims, if there is something beneficial, it's something that was said or done by someone. Take

that good thing of them. My father Gilani, great person. One time he is sitting in his Masjid, and he is delivering a speech. So one of his students, or one of the people that work for him, he comes and he interrupts the class says, Hey, Mom, I'm sorry, but I have some terrible news for you.

The business they, you know, they used to do business with India and through the sea. He said, Great waves came on, all your ships have drowned. And whatever was on them is gone. We lost everything. So Mr. Abdul Qadir jilani kept quiet for a while not seeing anything, and everyone is waiting to see how he's going to react.

Alhamdulillah he says, and he goes on was the lecture.

Few minutes afterwards, the same person comes back and he's all happy. He says, Imam we were wrong. The ships have already crossed that part. And the waves came after the ships. So all the ships are safe.

Now, Julian again, kept very quiet.

Alhamdulillah he said,

He finished the lecture. And then people came after I said, mmm, you know, when you are given the worst news, you said hamdulillah.

And then when you were given the best news, you said it and handle what happened. said, you know,

when I was told, I checked my heart. And I wanted to see is my heart displeased with Allah because of this incident. And nothing of that happened. So I said, Alhamdulillah

then he said, when I was given the news, I checked my heart again, am I loving a lot more because of this thing, meaning that I can be bought and sold because of some financial gain here and there, which is not befitting to our relationship with Allah. And he said, none of this happened. So again, I said, Alhamdulillah

we call emotional wisdom. That's why the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, calamities happen to everyone. We all have problems, that is part of life

in South Africa, but indeed man was created in the state of cabinet, you know, problems all the time. What is sad Is this my brothers and sisters, some of us can only see their problems, they can only live their problems. What happens is this problems are inevitable. They are inevitable, you cannot escape them. Problems are not capable. You have no choice. Problems are not skippable, but misery is optional.

Misery is optional, meaning that it is not the problem that should worry you, but rather how do you react to that problem? is a greater question to ask. So now part of what Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is teaching us is the emotional wisdom. Do not be under shackles, because of the type of way that you choose to react to the problems that are going around, liberate yourself of this level of freedom and problems that are happening. And like we said the other day, if your problem can be solved, then don't worry. And if your problem cannot be solved, then worrying will not help you.

So why are you worried? And then again, we learn the process alone will speak of many other shackles, Oh Allah, in ability of speaking of emotional wisdom, they say that there was a man that was blind,

and he was crippled. And he just had all sorts of problems. He sitting down, and he's saying Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah. So someone passed by him and said, Allah Alhamdulillah Look at you. You're blind, you're crippled, you're bound to this chair. And all we hear for news of hamdulillah What are you talking about? The hamdulillah that Allah gave me a tangle, that is constantly remembering Allah. So then hamdulillah that he gave me a heart that has accepted the will of Allah. So hamdulillah that has given me a body that is patient with the tests of Allah

What happened is that they could have said, Oh la, la look at this and look at that and you know, and you'd give yourself every single excuse to feel miserable in LA you boo boo boo. What about

Allah hates misery and faking misery or wingra misery upon yourself. It is not my brothers and sisters again, it is not befitting to the character of a believer, liberate yourself of this have what we call emotional wisdom. Similarly emotional some people are just easily angered and that stops them from achieving. They break many friendships, they are always in problems with their spouses. They're always you know, they're they can be triggered by anything, but then the process alone Stan came to his companion said mentor do not come home Do you consider to be a strong person? So now the answer is very obvious. They said yeah Rasul Allah Manya surah region, they said prophet

of Allah, it is he who is able to rustle down our vermin. Then the process of them says LA, lays Alka we saw that the strength is not determined by you wrestling other men in our we Millennium liquinox.

He said, The strong man is indeed he who has control over himself when he is angry.

When we go again, emotional wisdom, liberate yourself of this. And then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam goes on to say, of these shackles, his edges and Castle, in ability and laziness. In ability, what it is, is that you have the desire, you have the will, but you have no means casl laziness is when you have the means but you do not have the desires and the processes at all. I don't want to be in that situation where I am crippled, where I am shackled, when I am put down and you know what they say about lazy people, they will always do more work tomorrow.

Isn't that what lazy people do? That we will do more work but tomorrow.

They have a funny joke about New Year's resolution. You know some people they do New Year's resolution they say you know, inshallah, this coming year, I am going to lose 10 pounds, this coming year I am going to memorize a plan or this coming year, I will be this or this coming year, I will be that. So there came this person and he said this year, I will stop procrastinating, starting from next week.

said he will stop procrastinating. But starting next week, not immediately, next week. So the processor will say I do not want to be in that situation. I just and that's why Ramadan Hata booj, something marvelous, who would say I cannot see that I just cannot allow mania. In general if, as I said, Allah, I seek refuge in You from seeing or amazing it is he said that a person who is wicked, they have so much strength and enthusiasm. And a believer is so lazy. He said it's not acceptable. How is it that I believe it can be lazy?

One more thing my brothers and sisters. laziness is not only physical, because sometimes we think that it lazy because you know, he just doesn't move around. He just wants to sit. And you know, they have this saying if you can walk, don't run. And if you can stand don't walk. And if you can sit, don't stand. And if you can sleep Why be up?

Okay? They use this logic. So many times laziness is not necessarily physical. But sometimes laziness can also be mental. You just don't want to think

you give up thinking you want someone else to do the thinking for you. The same brain intellect that Allah gave you. You gave it up, and you surrender that to someone else. Remember what we said earlier that Islam is not afraid of people asking questions. It's not afraid. It's all a matter of you know, just give me proof. Now the other day, Dr. Zakir made the statement he said I Zakir Naik. If you ever find this in the Bible, I will become Christian. That's what he said. You read into the Quran and it says all encana live for an hour in Aberdeen. The process alone will tell people say a say if they would have gotten a son, I will be amongst the first to worship that son. But what is it

called her to go hand in quantum soldering? Just show me your proof if you are indeed truthful in what you're making. So believer is never afraid to ask questions. And that is why you hear in the old sci fi you know go about the land and see the creation of Allah use your finger divakar do this and do that. And now that the idea is it is so sad that us as Muslims, we are intellectually lazy. We let someone else and we depend on someone else to do the thinking for us, but we ourselves we do not do any thinking

They have a story. They said that a group of scientists they got together. And what they did is that they brought about 10 monkeys into a room. I think monkeys in order are called benders. So they had 10 monkeys in a room.

And then in the room they placed like, where do you see this fan is they placed some bananas, like hanging from a rope. And there was a table in the room. So if a monkey stepped on the table, easily grab the banana. But then what they did is that they put along in the room, they put water hoses, ice cold water. And here is the drill, that every time any monkey makes an attempt to get the banana, they hose the monkey with ice cold water. And not only that monkey, but all the monkeys, they get hosed down with the water.

So the first monkey goes to try it and he gets hosed down with the water and all other monkeys, they are now hosed down was the water.

So they tried for five times. So the monkeys say, you know, it seems like every time we try to get up and get the bananas, we are getting hosed down. So forget it, no one is going to try it anymore. And then what the scientists did is that they took away the hoses, so there was nothing was going to happen. And then interestingly, they took a monkey out. And they brought in a new monkey into the room, and the bananas are still there. So now the new monkey comes in, and what does he see? He sees bananas and monkeys love bananas, right? So he sees the bananas. So what does he do? He steps on the table to get the bananas, but something interesting happen. All the other monkeys, they gang up on

him and they start beating him up, because they're afraid that they are going to be you know hosed down.

So now here, you know, the monkey doesn't know why he cannot have the banana. He sees bananas, he loves bananas. But these monkeys obviously don't want him to get the bananas.

Then what they did is that they put another monkey out, and they put a new monkey in. So now we have two new monkeys and eight old monkeys. The new monkey comes in and what does he see he sees the bananas again. And he wants to go and grab the bananas. But all the other monkeys, including the new monkey that was previously beaten up, doesn't know why they all get together and they beat the numancia

then you can imagine the story goes on to say a third monkey was brought in, sees the banana. Everyone starts ganging up on him, including the two new monkeys. They don't know why they were beaten. But now they're beating this monkey.

A fourth monkey, a fifth monkey 678 910. No one has ever been hosed down with the water. They've never witnessed that incident. But because an old monkey did something the new monkey does not want to think for himself. And sadly, what happens many times is that we behave like the new monkeys.

No, I'm serious. I'm serious. Well, sadly, we are the new monkey.

Where we don't know why. just happened to be there. What he does is allow them I don't know

why I found my forefathers do it. So it must be good. You know, my dad was a good man. My mom was a wonderful woman. We have a beautiful culture. That's how they do that's how we do it. Or do you ever think about it? I don't need to someone else did the thinking for me.

So in the process, what's happening is that, again, we are putting these shackles around ourselves. And that is a shame my brothers and sisters are Muslim thinks I'm Muslim, analyzes a Muslim, reflects, you know, not only on big issues, politics and history and sociology and all these what you know what we are told in the Quran, Allah jambul in zanele illa palmy this man not think about what he eats, don't look into the heavens, how it is being raised as a kind of, don't they think? And see Allah say, think about this. Think about that. Think about this. Think about that, that you should have three hours or divide your day into three different segments was actually at some time

to think, to do some thinking rather than being intellectually lazy. Let someone else do the thinking for you. Because it can really be a shackle. You are capable. You are a very smart person. But you never gave yourself that opportunity. You always thought of yourself very low, or you were just plainly being lazy. And then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would say, Oh Allah, I seek refuge in You. I don't want to be shackled. I don't want to be I don't have chains around me that are of soccer. And Kufa. Football means

Poverty. Uncover means this belief that Allah, these are shackles. He's saying I don't want to be worried about the future. I don't want to be sad about the past. I don't be lazy, I do not want to go through an ability. I do not want to be in the state of poverty and I definitely do not want to be in the state of disbelief, because these are all shackles. You see poverty here everything. And it is so sad to handle. So sad to the point where Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah, I seek refuge in You, I do not want to be in that stage. I live in Abu Talib used to say, have poverty being a man, I would have killed him

hadn't been a man, I would have killed it.

Because of the catastrophes that poverty brings. Do you mean to tell me that a poor person that is just struggling, struggling to make living, struggling just for that day to pass by, and just put some food in his stomach, this person is analyzing and thinking of the dictators and thinking of the politics and thinking of this and that he's too busy, too miserable to be in that to think that way. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Allah, I do not want to be in that stage. And it is so sad that nowadays, Muslims are the richest, and they are the poorest. Some people die of obesity, because they eat too much. And others are dying of hunger, because they have nothing to eat.

And here you have the commands of Allah.

You know, give, spend, make sure you alleviate the problems and the hardship of other people. Because these are shackles, the guy or the girl is very smart. We wish that she could have gone to school. But guess what, at this point, what happens is that they cannot afford school. Why one time I remember I went to refugee camps in eastern Sudan, in the Eritrean refugee camps. And there were people sitting in the room, and two of them were medical school students. Now being a doctor is a big deal. Maybe not here, but it was a very big deal to be going to medical school back there. So I said, you know, today is a school day, how come you're not going there. And one of them, he put his

head down and he said, I am too hungry, I cannot understand anything. If I go there.

He could not go to school because he's I am just too hungry. I cannot go there.

And the other one was topless. He said, I don't have a shirt to go to school.

I mean, can you imagine the brains, the potentials that are being lost in our cities, smart, brilliant young boys and girls, that can make a huge, big difference. But their circumstances are not helping them. So the prophet SAW someone say, Oh Allah, I don't want to be in that position.

May Allah never put any of us in that position.

And then also the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and by the way, do not misunderstand me. Islam does not necessarily rebuke poverty for being poverty. But Islam is definitely against poverty, if it is due to the injustice of the way wealth is distributed, or the way greed is going on. If that is why there is poverty, then yes, Islam hates and Islam is against it. And if that poverty is again, the result of the laziness of that individual, then again, Islam hates that kind of poverty. Poverty is never celebrated in Islam. You are not a good person, because you are a poor person. Some people misunderstand Zoot, being you know, a person that is, you know, just very

humbled does not have any money. They think that is the meaning of

truth in Islam is what do you have the dunya in your heart, but not in your heart? That is how it is. I have it in my hands. Marsha, I love the process. And we used to say Nirmal man was solid, solid. He said the best of wealth is that that belongs to the righteous of men. Now you'll see if he is a righteous man, he should not be wealthy. That's how we were taught. If you are an Imam, a chef or a pious person, you're supposed to be miskeen can't be rich. cannot accept any of that. But these were not the teachings of Islam.

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