Yousef Bakeer – Reflections on my trip to Spain & Morocco
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Smilla Rahmanir Rahim wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah sallAllahu
alayhi wa sallam. hamdu, lillahi, rabbil aalameen, who just came
back from a trip with the youth, that was for
destinations that usually unusual for, for the communities in
America, we actually went to Spain, and Morocco. And I took
middle schoolers and high schoolers along with me in this
trip, I first it was really, you know, an idea that was, you know,
doubtful, going abroad with, you know, middle schoolers and high
schoolers was not an easy decision to make. But Subhanallah I really,
you know, insisted, and I believe that those leisure programs play a
huge role on the character development of our teams, and
SubhanAllah. This this trip, I really cannot describe it in
words, it was beyond my expectations, it was mesmerizing.
From the day one from first, you know, step that we took towards
leaving the DFW airport, you know, I had some goals in my mind, I
wanted to accomplish certain things, throughout this trip, one
of these things, is definitely be comfortable, being uncomfortable,
how to be comfortable being uncomfortable, that's one of the
biggest issues and challenges that we face as Muslim youth
Subhanallah statistically proven that there is a huge turn over in
jobs for fresh graduates getting in jobs for the first five years,
people easy to quit. And you may wonder why. And it goes back to
this idea, we did not learn how to be uncomfortable. So the first
challenge we encounter, we what we quit, and Subhanallah same thing,
you know, in marriage, the first years are very crucial. Why
because if we're not, you know, able to encounter those obstacles,
and we did not learn how to be uncomfortable sometimes, then the
first problem we encounter we what we quit, and we see this, you
know, as a recurring theme in our communities. So it was crucial for
especially youth that they're living in the US to learn how to
be uncomfortable. So Hala, all the entire trip was about this theme.
Along with other goals I had, as you see, you know, since the get
go, you know, they're going to the to the plane, and then you will
find couple of youth looking at me with their with their, you know,
bags, I was like what I will do with this bag, I was like, here,
you put it out there, nobody's gonna do it for you. So they're
learning, you know, self independence, and then being you
know, not with the same sleeping routine, they actually had to be
uncomfortable with, you know, with the timing, we used to come late a
little bit from activities, and then we have to wake up very early
for certain Fudger. And there is no execuse because if these kids,
one of these activities, they're banned from the rest of
activities, so they were actually very firm, with every single
activity times they're very respecting every single activity
time.
So Subhanallah, you know, we learned this from the seer of the
Prophet sallallahu Sallam along with the other prophets, every
single prophet went through series of uncomfort series of hardships,
and that played a huge role in their personal development. And
that was one of my main goals throughout this trip. Also, you
know, as you see a lot of adventures, I'm not sure if the
pictures are displayed. Yep. So we had a lot of adventures, this
picture was about breaking your fear, and getting out there from
your comfortable from your, you know, comfort zone, getting out
there and do things that actually challenges you. Maybe it's
challenging your mind. Sometimes the challenge you're challenging
your, your physique, your body, and we made sure that no one is
behind. Regardless, you're afraid you're not afraid. Every single
one of our youth had to do these tough activities that you see in
the screen, either it's mountain mountain, you know, climbing that
was really, you know, challenging activity that we had in Spain, or
you know, jumping off cliffs and whatnot. We made sure that every
every every one has, you know, all of the precautions life jackets
and whatnot, but we wanted to push them to be out of their comfort
zone.
And subhanAllah one of also my goals this trip will lay this
trip, you know
It was challenging to me personally, because this is the
first time taking group of youth abroad like overseas. That's my
first time in my career working with youth for, I would say, over
the past 15 years, that's my first time taking middle schoolers
overseas to experience something like that. But like I said,
Wallahi it's an experience that the truly needs in the time of,
you know, being on their screens in the times of just being, you
know, comfortable in their homes, playing video games, being on
their, on their phones, this is the perfect time for them to get
out there and experience life. Basically, the experience life,
and they get out of the guy out of their bubble. Now the you know,
many of our youth think that Dallas is the entire world. And I
don't know, there's so much out there that you need to see, and
you need to experience and so Subhanallah you know, one of the
things that we really worked on throughout this trip is also
discipline, discipline in terms of your prayers, Allah subhanaw taala
says that f lehle, minimoon Levina homefree, Selenium haoxiang. So
like, successful are the mini in the believers? And then the first
thing he said, he said, because they are consistent, and they have
for sure and their prayers, what does that exactly mean? Imagine
you are
being very consistent with your parents in a daily basis, the five
times the five prayers in a daily basis, you're very consistent,
you're actually pushing your mind and your body to wake up in the
morning. And then regardless how busy you are, throughout the day,
you force yourself and pray that takes a lot of discipline. If
you're able to do this, if you are able to control your mind and your
body in a daily basis five times a day, then Oh Allah, you can do
anything else. And I told this to the youth. I thought I told them
believe me this trip is not going to be comfortable for you. We have
packed activities. I'm not going to let you even brief like we have
back to back activities we're come very late to our hotels and then
we have to wake up very early in the morning and there is no
excuses so it was about that discipline. So Subhanallah the
video the brother will show us now I was also consistent with our car
so we'll see this video inshallah and it will give you know feedback
about it via Nila
if you
hello
in Spanish aka visa
so one of the things that I was very consistent with is a cada
Sabha the morning da and cow to suffer every time we leave for our
police to a police here we were in Morocco and we're taking a ferry
to go back to Spain and every single station every single step
we had to be very consistent with earth car and the power of this My
dear brothers and sisters And subhanAllah she has bridges you
have a beautiful hot bath last Friday, about back to school and
some tips for parents and he mentioned something very powerful
even in his kartra After certain fashion the day before yesterday,
he said this idea of towhead schools will give them information
and you will give them values they get values from homes and they get
information from school. So what values you want to give them one
of these values wala Hill RV and sometimes we overlook the morning
drive. The morning do is very powerful My dear brothers and
sisters every day we had about 30 minutes reflections about the day
about the morning glad. So we say in the morning as Barna or as
Muhammad Kula Hara Bill Allah me. We see ya Allah, we will come
another morning and we testify that every single creature fewers
Everything in your kingdom praises you, your Allah. The animals
praise you. The seas praise you that trees praise you. And we want
among we want to be among those creatures to praise you in the
morning. Where are we teaching our youth here? To be conscious of
Allah subhanaw taala to be mindful of Allah subhanaw taala a smacna
Allah fit
Islam, Ya Allah, we wake up Allah fitrah to Islam and the fitrah of
our beloved religion of Islam, while our Kelly method a class and
in the words of a class of sincerity, which is La ilaha
illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala Deen in
Vienna Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam are on the religion of
our beloved Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, Allah, Allah
highly recommend you
a reminder for myself as well, every morning Wallahi the secret
is to actually have these reflections with your children
every single day before they go to school, you may don't see the
importance of it, but Wallahi it's building something inside every
day, you're reminding them by Allah, every day that you're
reminding them by our beloved Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
wasallam they're conscious of Allah, and therefore that will
have an impact on them the rest of the day. This is our duty in sha
Allah, Allah so we made sure that hamdulillah I'm so proud of our
youth. Well, Allah He My dear brothers and sisters, that I would
say more than 90% from our youth throughout this trip, did not skip
a single prayer. We had, mainly mainly every single one attended,
every salon will fetch on every single day Wallahi This is huge.
This is a huge commitment. Sometimes I just woke woke up, and
you know, go to, you know, to start select Device, and I find
them already there waiting for me. And I was like, well like that,
that really touched me a lot. Because this is these are the
values that we want to instill within our youth as hearts.
Finally, I don't want to take too long, you know, if we if we go to
the next slide, inshallah. Oh, this brother. Obviously, there are
a lot of fun throughout this trip. So this brother, one of our youth,
he challenged me, he challenged me, since they want that he will
beat me in soccer. And come on, you're talking to an Egyptian you
know, soccer player here, so I doubt that he can do it. I told
him, you're gonna regret what you're getting yourself into now
you're gonna regret it later on. And subhanAllah he even throughout
the trip, he kept saying, you know, when she effusive is gonna,
you know, you know, play against me because I'm gonna beat him. All
of that. May Allah forgive him. And then one day, he came to the
bus with us caught with a soccer ball as like, come on now. You
really are insisting so holla the last day on Morocco, we had our
salt and feather on the beach. Then we had a car. And then we had
that, you know, that tense game between me and him. Every single
one was watching this. This game Hamdulillah I beat him six one I
had to do it.
I had to do I had to do it. But Hamdulillah that the amount of
brotherhood that was that was in this trip Allah He was beyond
imagination. I cannot really describe it. Now the relationship
between the kids and between the mentors. May Allah subhanaw taala
reward them? Yeah. Rabbil Alameen they work so hard to Allah, I can
thank them enough. If you go to the next picture. It's actually a
funny picture.
A picture of one of our mentors. Can we get it tomorrow?
Got it.
Yeah, Wallah. He, this is how exhausted the world. In the last,
you know, day of the trip. You can imagine like you have middle
schoolers and high schoolers are in overseas trip. Imagine how
difficult this is. But Allah he I mean, Allah subhanaw taala reward
them immensely for every single thing that they actually did. The
amount of care and love towards our youth was Wallahi beyond
words. So this is Brother ASA, one of our mentors in this trip I
actually took this picture. While he was towards the end class, he
now he felt a little released from all of the responsibilities that
he had. And he was exhausted, so he took a nap. So Subhanallah the
excitement the closing ceremony that we had in this trip than a
sheet that we got to sing together. It was it was something
that inshallah will be remarkable and it will be a memory for them a
life changing experience will lie this trip. May Allah subhanaw
taala accept from all of us horrible al Amin and and make our
youth on the Surat on the right path. Dr. Abdullah Al Amin,
Giselle Kamala Hello salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa
barakato.