Yousef Bakeer – Reflections on my trip to Spain & Morocco

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.