Purifying Your Soul

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh home to all of my brothers and sisters and welcome to our guests. And I begin by saying Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah we begin in the name of the one true Creator of all that exists. And we praise him and him alone, and May peace and blessings be upon his most noble messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam or Allah, Allah, he was happy to be here in well Edina to be standing in the yummy Dean, and upon his family, his companions and those who follow them in righteousness and to the Day of Judgment, what I should do and you know how you mama wahoo luxury gala, what I should do an Mohammedan Abu rasuluh. And I bear witness that

nothing has the right to be given worship, except the one true Creator of all that exists. And I bear witness that he is alone, in his oneness and he has no partners. And I bear witness that Mohammed ibn Abdullah sama law, honey who seldom is his slave and messenger.

And

I want to first take some stock of the room. How many born Muslims do we have in the room with us tonight? Born and raised Muslim regime?

Okay, majority, hands down? How many people who reverted to Islam or came to Islam? from another way of life? Raise your hand?

My hand is there too. All right. How many guests Do we have with this that are not yet Muslim?

Raise your hands we have one. Two, is that just Just one? Okay, Doc, my question for you is how do you feel being surrounded by all of these terrorists? I mean, Muslims.

Little Freudian slip, they're comfortable and very welcome. That's beautiful. I'm glad that the Muslims here.

Glad the Muslims have made you feel such because if not, then I would have some complaining to do the lecture would take a slightly different turn right now. You should feel welcome amongst Muslims, we are supposed to be the most hospitable people on the planet. And that is what we are taught as part of our religion. So if you see anything other than that directly addressed me before you leave, and I will do my best to take care of it.

Okay. It is my pleasure to be with all of you here tonight. And I want to thank you first and foremost, because the prophets of the law, I do send them said Law School of Law and law. Yes, goodness, that whoever does not think people that he truly does not think of law. So I am thankful to you for being here. Because without you being here, then there's no need for me to be here. I would be talking to empty chairs. And it is also always my pleasure to come back to gmu because some of you may know and many of you may not that George Mason University was the first place I ever told my story publicly. Back in 2007 when I was living in College Park in the door slam community working

with Jeff sofic fun, I think a lot of either one of my dearest Imams and friends. And it was here at Georgia Mason that I began what you see now, I had no intention to ever be doing what I'm doing right now. It was the lecture at George Mason that really started it all. So George Mason will always have a special place in my heart and in everything that I do.

Now, the lecture tonight to Ischia purification, I could have taken this lecture on a number of different routes, it could have went many different places, because the issue of mosquito nets in Islam purifying one's own soul is a deep subject. It is a subject that I first and foremost am not qualified to even tamper with. I'm giving you that right now. Because it is a very deep subject and it is the reason for our existence here on Earth. The reason that we are here on earth is for that very purpose, to purify that soul that Allah gave us he gave it to us pure. Our creator gave us a soul laqad holopainen insanity sanita Queen, he gave us a soul that was beautiful. There was nothing

wrong with it. When Allah gave us when our Creator gave us the soul and breathed into us life. That soul was pristine untampered with pure

and we are the ones who dirty it we feel that we do many things along the path to corrupt and our lifelong mission is to do our best to put that soul back in in order to deliver it back.

To Allah, our Creator in some type of fashion, like we were given it. And it is a struggle that we fail in many times, and we fail in every day. But it is a struggle. And this is what I'm going to deal with tonight. I'm not going to deal with the processes and the means and the concepts. And let's just be realistic. I want you to leave you with something tonight that will benefit you. I want you to lay on your bed tonight, and have something tangible with you tonight, that you will walk out of here feeling like something has changed because that is what the real purification of the soul is about is leaving a place better than when you got there. This is what really purifying

the soul is all about.

And again, we are doing our best attempt to give our soul back to Allah the way he gave it to us. And every soul will return back to its original place its place of origin, origin, nation, its place of origination, every soul will return. This is why we say when someone dies, what do we say?

in law, he will not lay here on June, verily to Allah lilla we belong, we are property of our Creator, and we will return as his property. We are always owned, we are never free. This is something that in Islam we are realistic about, and that many Muslims have forgotten in this day and age, that there is no such thing as pure freedom and this life doesn't exist. Pure freedom will not be found on this earth. Because you can free yourself from everything. But you are constantly owned, you are constantly owned by your Creator, you are constantly owned by the constraints of life, you are owned by the concept of time you are owned by the passage of your own age, you are owned by the

air that you breathe by the water that you drink, the food that you eat, you are never free, you will never be free. The reality of this life is learning how to live in those suburbian means and a blissful manner that gives you not only contentment with inside of yourself, but also will give contentment to the atmosphere that is around you and make other people content with you. This is the struggle of a Muslim. And one thing that I have found with a lot of purification of the soul lectures is that unfortunately, a lot of Muslims leave those lectures with the idea that teskey to knifes purifying the soul is an event. And that's very, very unfortunate. Because if you think that

purifying your soul is an event, then you are only going to fool your own self. It is not an event. purifying your soul is

a lifelong procedure. It never ends. And I'm not even going to start with normally how teskey turneffe starts with explaining the soul because that would keep us here for a series of lectures and we would never comprehend it anyway. Because Allah says the rule the soul is one of those things which you have very little knowledge of. You have very little knowledge of even one of our greatest scholars who was known as the scholar of the heart and soul. Even though kamaljit Rahim Allah tala wrote a book called kitamura. There's only a few pages that's all he could come up with few pages.

So we will inshallah talk about the event. There is a process in Sharma tonight we will have an event that will show you the process.

Just to explain to you how serious this process is.

There was once a man his name was Akhmad Eman, Hanban, Rahim Allah Allah How many of you have ever heard this name before?

Muslims should have heard this name before? If not, then there is a plethora of homework that you need to do.

Even handball was one of the pious predecessors of Islam. He was one of the early generations of Muslims after the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.

He was one of the great he memes of Islamic jurisprudence.

And he was a man of great austerity. He was a man of deep piety, a man who people used to fear his supplications because when he made when he made supplication to Allah, Allah responded to him quickly and professionally. He actually his one of his two hours caused the death of one of the believers of Islam.

He was very close to his load.

On his deathbed, he was coming in and out of consciousness, he would slip out of consciousness and then back into consciousness. And his son Abdullah was hearing his father say some words as he would slip out of consciousness. And so he leaned closer to his father and he heard his father saying nothing

yet, not yet. And his son Abdullah became very concerned that my father is losing hope at the end of life. He's losing hope at the end of life. He thought his father was saying not yet I don't want to die not yet. So when his father woke up, he said to him, Father, why do you keep saying not yet? Not yet? What is these words I'm hearing from you

have Rahim Allah Allah said, Son shaitan is here with us. Satan is here in this room, because Satan, Satan is the great enemy of mankind has been since the beginning. And he will be with all of you on that moment, especially those of you who's concerned about

he said, Trayvon is here in this room with us. And every time I am about to pass out, meaning that he's about to go into death

shaytan starts to bite his fingers, and say, oh, Achmed, you have slipped out of my grasp, oh, Ahmed, you have slipped out of my grasp. And I am responding to him by saying Not yet. Not yet. Meaning that not until my soul has exited my body, have you lost me, and not until my soul is gone, while I give up on you, meaning that this struggle between you and I will not end until I am dead. This is teskey tinnitus, it will not cease until the moment you breathe your last breath. It is a lifestyle. It is not an event. It is a compendium of events, that sometimes you will prevail in and sometimes you will, miserably failing. And a lot of times

we give up along the road. Most people who get involved in purifying their own soul, give up along the road, because of the failings. And this is what I'm going to talk about tonight, I'm not going to talk about the success that comes with purifying the soul. Let's talk about the failures.

Tonight's will be about the failures because we always talk about the successes. This is what mosquito nets brings you some beautiful garden of bliss. Yes, all of that is there. But what about the failures? How do I deal with the failures? How do I deal with the days when my own soul beats me? How do I deal with the days when shaitan overcomes me? How do I deal with the days when I slip and fall and I'm dragging myself through the mud helped me deal with those days. Because if I can deal with those days, for sure, the good days, the days that I'm winning are easy to deal with. It is those days when we're not winning, that the hardest to overcome.

But is the unfortunate reality is that we don't comprehend how beautiful those days really are. We don't count we don't comprehend how beautiful our failings really are. And that is all part of the process. It is all part of the reason that we're here. It's part of the human experience, to fail, to make mistakes, to fall short. To fall off the path maybe once or twice is part of the human experience. If it were not, so it would not be imperative that you recite 17 times every single day in DNS, your auto new staff team, it would not be so imperative that you do if you do not save this statement, your solid does not matter.

If it were not such.

Let me tell you about a story. There is a story more ancient than time almost itself. It is a story almost as ancient as time. And we don't know when it happens. But we have been given glimpses of it in our beautiful book. And it is a story that we pass over so easily. Sometimes we teach it to our children. But we fail to comprehend that this is the real quality of our existence. And this is the real beginning of mosquito nets is to understand this story. Because this is the beginning of purifying the soul. And it begins at the very beginning.

And it comes very early in the Quran the story and I'm just going to tell it to you because everybody in here speaks English. Forget about all of the in depth. I'm just real with you tonight.

When you open the Quran De Soto Baccarat, you only get a few verses in till you get to verse 30.

And in verse 30, a very beautiful story happens and it is a story that is all about purifying the soul and we don't comprehend that. It begins

by a conversation that took place in this conversation is an ancient conversation. It took place before any of us existed. It took place before a thing called humanity existed. And it is a conversation that took place between the creator and his angels. They

Created perfect out of light that never disobeyed him.

And the conversation goes,

that Allah, the Almighty, the creator of all that exists said to the angels,

in Ninja elu, fill out of the sharifah

I am going to place on the earth, a vice jamuns, a representative,

a successor, a successor, is I'm not even going to get into the how deep, that was Khalifa met at this point, I'm going to place on the earth of ice, Germans, a human being. And the angels understood that statement very well. They understood it more than all of us understand. Because their question and their response was profound, profound, because their response was to ask

our Lord's will you place one on it, that will create mischief and shed blood while we celebrate your praises day and night, and never fail in disobeying you and never failing obeying you. Listen to the question. The angels newest very well, and we didn't even exist, the angel said, will you place on the earth one who will cause mischief and shed blood? Did they not know us? Or did they know us? Because it not even one generation passed before we proved them wrong. The sons of that vise Geron proved them right?

With Cain and Abel.

So they knew what would happen with this Khalifa.

They knew what was going to come. And they said, We praise you day and night. Your magnificence is known through us and through what you have created. What is the purpose of this lever? What was the last response beautifully? in me?

I know what you don't know. I know what you do not know, he didn't even have to give them an explanation. He just said I know what you do not know. This creation of mine will be special.

He and his progeny will be something special. And I don't think we realize how special we really are.

So Adam, peace be upon him was created by Allah's own hands as a matter that befits His Majesty, Majesty. And then he created from Adam, his mate, Eve. And he told those to dwell in the garden of bliss, agenda to

dwell in the garden of bliss, and you can do whatever you wish, one exception to the rule.

One exception to the rule, I have placed within this garden a tree, don't touch this one tree, leave it alone.

Now, that tree is there for a reason. Allah created it for a reason he created it before he created Adam and Eve, it was in the garden for a reason. And a lot of told them don't eat from it for a reason.

But the sworn enemy of mankind, Satan, and we're not getting deep into the story, because there's all kinds of we just want to get to the meat of the story. The enemy of mankind, Satan,

got to Adam and Eve just like he gets to all of us. And he convinced them to do what they were told not to do.

So they committed the first mistake, the very first disobedience happened, they ate from that tree which they were told not to eat.

And a more as a punishment, sent them down from that garden, that we're now working as humanity to try to get back to send them down from that garden, into this earth and said, You will drill here for a time. And when guidance comes to you from me, those who follow it will be righteous and will be blessed and those who don't will be punished.

And then a lot taught them some words and I'm paraphrasing the story, taught them some words so that they could make up for that which they have done. And they're their words were very rarely we have wronged our own selves. Very rarely we have wronged our own cells. If you do not forgive us, then surely we will be a loser. We have wronged our own soul. We have tampered with that beautiful soul that you created in us. And if you don't forgive us and clean it for us, then indeed we will be a loser. Now

what does that teach us? This teaches us the skeleton. This teaches us that mistakes are part

The human experience, to fall short at times, is part of our nature. It is part of our nature, it will happen, it happened to the first of us, the most pure of us, the first created of us, and he was taught what to do, if that is to happen. So all of that took place for a reason. And we have to realize and comprehend that reason, that life, dear brothers and sisters, is not about whether you will make a mistake or not.

Life is not about whether you will make a mistake or not. Because the mistake is guaranteed, the mistake is guaranteed. The Prophet peace be upon him said every son of Adamson's every son of Adam, meaning every one born of atom will sin.

But the best of those who sin are those who repent, they take the example of the first of us. So life is not about whether or not you will make a mistake, because the mistake is guaranteed, you will fail. And you may fail every day, you may fail multiple times a day, what life is about is about how you are going to deal with those mistakes. Life is about how you will deal with the mistakes, how you will deal with the slips, how you would deal with the false how you would deal with the disobedience. This is what life is about. These are the tests that make or break us.

Because when you make a mistake,

and it is inevitable, as we said,

this is the point where you can take a step back and say this is my test. This is my test, the mistake is guaranteed. Now what am I going to do about it? Am I going to become despondent? This since I made a mistake, mother will just make a couple more. I can repent from that at a later time. This is the ultimate trap of shaytaan thinking giving us the illusion of time that you have time because time is an illusion, brothers and sisters, because not a second is guaranteed to any of us. Time is the great illusion that shaytaan tricks us with that you have another day. You can fix it tomorrow. You can fix it after you get home from school. You can fix it when you have to before you

go to bed. Tonight after a shower. I will make Calvin what illusion? Have you been beguiled with that thinks you will make it out of this building today?

Who has given you some promise that you're gonna make it home? No one, no one has that guarantee. This is what life is really about? Is the mistakes and how we deal with them. Right away, right away?

Do I decide that? Yes, I made a mistake. I realize it I stand up on my two feet firmly that yes, Allah I have made a mistake. I have wronged my own soul. And if you do not forgive me and have mercy on me, I will indeed be a loser. You don't understand brothers and sisters, that this is the biggest defeat that shaytan can ever face, not giving you to make a mistake. That's not a victory for him.

The victory for him is when you don't repent. The victory for him is when you don't make amends. The victory for him is when you don't fix what you have broken. That's when he wins because he knows you're gonna make a mistake. how you deal with the mistake is what it's going to be all about. But let me tell you something else really quickly about mistakes.

When Allah said to the angels, I know what you do not know

was very beautiful.

Because

when Allah created the heavens and earth,

His Majesty was well known. His Majesty was well known by what he created, his power was seen by that which he is established the heavens and the earth. Allah in the Quran says that His Majesty, his honor, his power is established by that which he created. And no one could ever take that away. His praises were sung day and night by the angels.

The planets sing his praises, the stars in the sky, the very elements that he created, praise him day and night. A lot did not need to be praised. A lot did not need to be known. His brand you didn't need to be seen because it's very clear.

But you see,

there was an attribute that Allah possesses, that cannot be known by the heavens and earth and the stars and the moons and the galaxies and planets and elements and the the very forces of a

existence itself, there are certain things about a law that could not be known through this. There are certain things about a law that the angels could not reflect.

There are certain things about a law that there was nothing that a law had created, that could reflect that attribute. And it is the most beautiful attribute of Allah as well, because he begins everything with it, and we begin everything with it.

You see, Allah is most amazing attribute

could not be known unless he created something that he gave the power to choose between right and wrong, knowing that those things that he created to choose would disobey Him. And then there would be some amongst them that who would disobey Him and then turn to him and say, I have indeed wrong myself. And if you do not forgive me, and have mercy upon me, I will be a loser. And then Allah could show his mightiest attribute his greatest honor, and that he could forgive.

This is something that could not be known through any other creation than that Khalifa that he created his power to forgive. This is why our very book starts with Bismillah Ar Rahman AR Rahim. This is why Allah said before creating creation, and made a statement and took an oath upon himself that my mercy will always overcome my anger allows justice could not be known unless he had something to be just with.

You have to understand brothers and sisters, that you are living out a purpose. Even the mistakes you make are living out of purpose. Allah is showing shaitan who told Allah, I will prove to you that they will be ungrateful to you, Allah is proving shaitan wrong every single day, when people commit mistakes, shaitaan fools them into going the wrong way. And then they turn to Allah. And Allah says, Look, I can forgive.

This is our victory. This is our honor that Allah created us with that he did not give to anything else.

This is what made me so thankful to find Islam. Because Islam taught me forgiveness. Islam taught me that I could be the most horrible person on the planet which I was on the way to becoming. And that there was a creator who created me knowing that

there was a creator who created me knowing that I would fall into the deepest, darkest depths of sin and evil. And yet, he was still going to be right there when I decided to look for the right path, and willing to wipe it all away like it never happened. This is the real purification of the soul. You can't purify your own soul. Let me tell you that right now. You will fail that miserably every day. But Allah, the One who created it pure, can make it pure again. And it can't be made pure. Other than that repentance, that repentance is the beginning of purifying your soul. You need to realize that you serve a lord who is forgiving.

This is a an attribute that the world has forgotten about the Creator is that He is merciful, that he is forgiving, that he is Latif that he is kind he is gentle, he is forbearing his patient.

This is the Lord that we serve as Muslims. And we as human beings should reflect that we as human beings should reflect that.

That I shall rob the low and high was told by the prophets of the law, it was seldom that Indeed, Allah loves mercy.

And you will get for being merciful that which you will get for nothing else. And those who do not show mercy to other human beings will not be shown mercy by their Creator. This is the pinnacle by which Islam revolves upon death, he that Allah is one and the mercy that unlock shows to his creation. Because if a lot did not have the amount of mercy that he possesses, none of us would exist. If allow, were only just, you will be punished for everything you do. every sin Do you commit will be an immediate retribution, and none of us will be able to take it. We would have all either died from the retribution of or killed our own selves, one or the other. But Allah is merciful to

us. He gives us that expanse of time and forbearance to repentance. But know that you don't have time, time is not promised to you.

You need to realize that you are living out a beautiful, beautiful purpose in this life not only to worship Allah, but to know that you will not always do the right thing. You will not always make the right decision. You will not always choose the right path. But that is part of your experience as a Muslim. This is why you ask Allah Indiana sirata must have been 17 times a day.

To make sure that you are doing the right thing, checking your own self, putting your own mahasiswa into account accounting for your own self,

the brothers and sisters,

we live in a world

where truth has become known as false.

And false it has become known as true. The liar is known as the truthful one. And the truth phone is known as the lion. And we don't know what's going on anymore. The world is an utter confusion.

And I want to bring up something that even though might not necessarily be point blank on the subject at hand, but it is the subject at hand today. And I could not give my first lecture since these incidences, and not mention it. There is just no way. And it's very,

it's very nostalgic. The last The first time I was here, there was something very similar happening, anyone who's seen that lecture from 2007.

There have been some confusion going on in the Muslim world. And this is part of our purification, we have to understand these concepts, we have to understand how to deal with things.

There has been some confusion going on in the Muslim world about how to handle the recent incidences of blatant misrepresentation lies and slanders against our beloved Prophet Mohammed Salah. And he was.

And as I said before, in 2007, when the Danish cartoons came out,

there have been some good reactions. There have been some bad reactions, and there have been some overreactions.

But at the end of the day,

and I'm speaking this mostly to our guests, you have to understand the relationship that the Muslim has with the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, you have to understand this. The non Muslims have to understand this, because if they don't ever even try to look at it from this point of view, they will never understand our reaction, you'll never get it. If you don't grasp it like this.

And I'm repeating my words from 2007.

We as Muslims are taught to love the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him more than we love our own mother.

More than we love our own father, more than we love our own soul, because he gave to us this beautiful way of life. Without him, there is no us. He was the first of us, meaning that he came at a time where there were no Muslims, there were no people worshipping Allah alone. Without he properly. He is the beginning of all of this.

And we are taught to love him more than we love our own soul.

And if someone were to come up and insult you, in public, or insult your mother, and call her the worst names, call her the worst things in front of everyone in this room, you would boil inside. And anyone who says that they would not boil inside is fooling no one but themselves, you would boil inside, if you had any type of relationship with your mother, you would boil and your immediate reaction would be to respond. And your immediate response might not probably be the wisest response. If you had time to calm down and think about your response, or think about your reaction. You might react with emotion, you might get angry, and you might let that anger over spill into how you

behave. And that is something no one would blame you for. That is why there is a stipulation within the criminal courts of America called crimes of passion. Crimes where a person becomes so overwhelmed with passion or anger or jealousness where they don't think correctly. And that is taken into account within even the criminal law of America and many other Western societies because you're not in your right state of mind

when these and I have never even seen the movie

I'm going to tell you that right now. Not gonna go watch it will never watch it didn't look at the first cartoons avoided them by all means necessary.

Because I will not allow the people who perpetrated these things to do what they want to do. They want you to watch them. Why do you think they're there? Do you think that there's the non Muslims can see them? They're there for you to watch them. So every click you have given them has just solidified their whole purpose. Don't watch it if you haven't seen it yet. If so, go make some repentance

but Muslim

I

have become angry, and we have overreacted. We've done some things that I would say probably are outside of the way Islam would teach us to respond to this. But I understand the emotion. I understand the anger. I understand it because we live in a world war being put through so much. This is one thing that is highly sanctified. You can call me everything you want to call me, but don't talk about my mother. And as a Muslim, you can call me whatever you want to call me. You can call me a rag, he had a towel, hit a camel jockey, whatever you want to call me, tell me where I go back where I came from, which I'm telling you right now that I only live a little ways from here. So it's

not far that I have to go.

But at the end of the day, I can deal with that. But don't talk about the greatest human beings and walk the face of this earth. That's where I will draw the line. Because you're talking about someone you don't know. And your ignorance is only showing through. Because if you were to know the man that you're speaking about, your own lips couldn't formulate the words that you're trying to put out, just couldn't happen. So at the end of the day, I understand it, but I have to be just that. Islam teaches everything in moderation, everything, everything. We're not allowed to go to the extreme in anything. Nothing. There is not one single thing in Islam that you can be extreme in, except for

your love for your Creator. And your love for the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, no limits on that. No lip, no limits on that. Unless it causes you to committed and justice. Less it causes you to come in and injustice.

We need to take the example of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam in these times, because we can't say that we're defending the greatest human being on the face of the earth

by responding to things that he himself dealt with,

in a way that he didn't deal with them. We can't we can't get away with it. And I am not a person that will hold my tongue even against Muslims.

Because if I can't tell you the truth, then I don't have any business doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Because Allah says yeah, you Allah Dena m n. o. de la havapoo Colin Sarita, O you who believe fear your Lord and always say what is right always say what is right no matter even if it's against my own self. The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam dealt with slander himself. He was slammed, he was called a madman. He was called a magician. He was called a sorcerer. He was called things that I will not even repeat in public. He had camel guts thrown on him when he was praying. He had a Jewish woman who used to throw trash on his doorstep every single morning.

He was beaten by his uncle every single day when he used to go to the markets. His uncle Abu lahab, would chase him down to the markets, beating him and pelting him with stones. He dealt with the harshest treatment from his own family members, his own kinsmen his own town, and how did he deal with them? How did he respond to these incidences, and I'm only going to give you one, I'm only going to give you one that should clearly sum this up. And this shows you a human being who had his own soul in check. A human being that had his own soul in check.

There was a Jewish woman

who used to drop trash. How many of you know this story? Raise your hands. Good. should take some advice. There was a Jewish woman. And for those who say that, you know, Muslims and Jews can't coexist. We have a long history of coexisting.

Those was a Jewish woman who used to drop trash. She used to take her trash and drop it on his doorstep every single morning, he would come out of his door to trash and have to clean it up every single morning. Is there anyone here that does this every morning? Is there anyone here who their neighbor drops trash on the door every single morning?

Didn't think so.

And every morning, he would clean it up and go on about his business. wouldn't even say anything. would not say a word. One morning, he came out there was no trash on his door. No trash on his door. So he was worried. So what did he do? He inquired about the woman. He asked what happened to this woman?

And someone told him she is sick. She's very ill. Now most of our response. Most of our responses in that situation would have been an unduly let me she die today.

Just be real with yourself. You would be overjoyed

with the fact that there's no more trash on my door. I don't care how it's not there anymore. She gets run over by a bus and drag 30 miles we don't really care.

But a person who was sent as he is described Rama to lil amin, a mercy to mankind, he went to the woman's door.

knocked on the door and asked for permission to enter. And when he entered, his only question was to see how she was. He only showed her genuine concern that he was concerned for her well being.

This is a person whose care for humanity overcame everything else. His genuine care for human beings overcame even his own personal preferences, his own hardships, his own difficulties. Humanity came first Muslim, non Muslim, Jew, Christian, atheist, Buddhist, it did not matter. These were human beings that were created in the same fashion that he was created. And this is how he viewed them. And they were all potential for success. Everyone was a potential success. So he knocked on the door and inquired about her well being.

And when the woman saw his genuine concern for the man that she put garbage on his door every single day, she was overcome. She was overcome with this generosity in this concern, there may be nobody else to come, maybe her own family haven't come, but this man is at my door asking how I am. So what did she do?

She accepted Islam. She accepted the message that he was presenting, because she saw very clearly that this is a man who is on truth. This is a man who is following something much greater than what I or anybody else has. So she accepted Islam at his hands. And if I were to tell you the number of incidences that happen just like this, I would keep you here for hours and hours on end, hours and hours on end. And I'm not telling you something that I heard through third person narration I've heard from so and so from this and that we have verified chains of authenticity to prove every single one of them or else I would not say them. This is the response that the Muslims need to have.

There was once the daughter of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

his own daughter

was walking by the notables of coloration. I know I said I was going to give you one but I don't want you to leave here thinking, Oh, that was a a,

a single incident. That was a coincidence that was just a single incident. The daughter of the Prophet peace be upon him.

She was walking by the notables of Quraysh one day, and they were calling they were calling her father.

The insulted one. They were calling her father. Basically, the best translation is the insulted one, the one who has no honor, he is an insult.

And that hurts her very much. That hurts her very much. And she went home and started to cry. And when her father, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him came home, he asked her why are you crying? She said, Father, you are the Messenger of Allah. You are the one sent to us by Allah.

The best of us, the purest of us, the most noble of us. Allah verifies in the Quran, we're in Nicola, Allah Colton. You are upon the most noble character. And they are calling you the insulted one.

Do you know what his response was? My dear daughter. They are calling me something. And Allah His name's me, Mohammed, the praise to him. So I don't know who they are talking about. They must be referring to someone else. This was his simple response to his daughter, that the person they're talking about is not me. The person who they're talking about in this cartoon is not the Prophet Mohammed that I know. So how can I say to you and tell you this is an insult against the prophets of the law, because they're talking about someone totally different.

They're talking about some fictional character that they've made up. It is not the man who taught me Islam. It is not the person who is referred to in the Quran. It is not the first one who see it I have read about for 14, almost 14 years, they have made up some fictional character and call them Mohammed. And I'm supposed to get angry over that. For what, for what reason? Oh, they were intending to insult me you won't be the first time and will not be the last.

So we need to put things in their proper place. The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said there was a time for this. And there was a time for that. There was a time for this and a time for that. We live in a world right now. Where we don't have the position in place to put our foot down. You have to understand that live in reality brothers and sisters, we don't have the position or the place to put our foot down.

And the world knows this very well. The world knows this very well. So they are going to push, and they're going to poke, and they're going to prod, and they're going to antagonize, and they're going to instigate. And they're going to do all of these things. Because they want you to act the way they have already portrayed you. They want to push you into acting in a way that they have already built you up to be.

And when we respond with the exact response that they want, we verify the exact statements that we're putting out, we give them what they want, we lose, we lose every single time and we don't see it. We think that we are showing them that we're not going to take it anymore. And we're only showing them that we have lost. We've lost even our own selves. So brothers and sisters, when people say these harmful things, realize that they are saying things that have always been said. There's nothing new under the sun, you guys have heard that one, right? pretty true. nothing new under the sun. The only thing that will be new is how we handle it, how we deal with it, will we stand up and

show people that I am responding with the same tenacity, the same pride, not talking about pride of given I'm talking about the pride of Islam, the pride of honor, I'm standing up with the same pride and honor that my beloved prophet peace be upon him stood up with and you won't get us like that. Because we understand our purpose in this life. And we may make mistakes, I may get angry and say something back to you. But I apologize. You insulting me did not give me the right to insult you. I know better. And I should know better. And I am a big person to be able to apologize and say that I have done wrong. Because we have to understand this is what life is about. It is about those

mistakes, we are going to constantly commit mistakes. But the prophet peace be upon him said something very beautiful. And this is the part of where I have to put a seatbelt on this whole mistake thing because I don't want you to just think that you can go and make mistakes on life's all about mistakes. No. The Prophet peace be upon him said that a believer is not stung from the same hole twice. A believer is not stung from the same hole twice. So yes, I may make a mistake today. But that is only so that I don't make that mistake again tomorrow. Shaytan you got me today. But I promise you, you won't get me like this again tomorrow. So thank you very much. But no, thank you, I

win this one.

Because we will fail. And we will make mistakes. And we will lose little battles along the way. But battles being lost is not the end of the world, as long as we win the war. And that war is not with your neighbor. Let me tell you that right now, that war is not with the media, that war is not with the Jews, it's not with the Christians. It's not with the right wing, the left wing, it's with none of that. The real war that you have to fight is the war with the person who looks at you when you're brushing your teeth in the morning. This is the real war because if you cannot win this war, you will win no other one. And in the end, you will ultimately lose, you will ultimately lose. And we

should have some tenacity inside of ourselves, to be able to stand up with our shoulders back and our head up high that I am a Muslim. I am a Muslim. And that gives me all the tools I need for success in this life and the next, you're not going to get the tools for success here at George Mason.

I hate to tell you that. But I have to be realistic, you may get some tools that will help you be a better, more righteous person and more helpful in your community. But you will not get the tools for success here.

The tools for success were given to us a very, very long time ago in the book that was revealed to us by Allah and in the Sunnah, or the example of how the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him lived his life. They can't teach you anything better than that here at George Mason. And that's the realistic fact that you have been given everything you need. All you're doing now is putting some icing on the cake and learning how to use that in a realistic setting of the world that we live in today. Learning how to bridge the past with the present. That is what you're doing right here right now. But at the end of the day you need to be able to sit

in your classes, sit on your buses, sit wherever you are, stand wherever you are, walk wherever you are with your head head up high that I am a Muslim will follow in any minute muslimeen indeed I am one of the Muslims don't have any doubt about that. Because they can do what they want today. They can say what they want today.

And this is an incident that I will leave you with and we will have a little bit of

The q&a.

And I don't like putting my personal stories in, I really don't. Because it's my personal life, it doesn't have anything to do with you. But this always reminds me, when I hear things like this one day, I was on my way back from a very long trip, I think, coming from Australia or something like that.

And I'd already been on plane for 14 hours was very tired, I think I landed at LAX literally, is the worst part of immigration to the United States ever, you have to go through about 10 securities, this and that, and the other and at that time, I was put into the VIP line.

And most Muslims who have traveled know what the VIP line is,

they give you a little orange card and tell you to go into this special line where they will, they will give me a full body massage,

they will inspect my luggage to make sure that there is nothing that I randomly forgot to pack, they shouldn't be in there to make sure there's nothing that might harm me, you know, they take really good care of me. And then they'll probably put me through a machine so they can just make sure my I've been working out properly and all of these things. And that might get a medical exam at the end, who knows.

But they want to make sure that I am well taken care of before I get on the plane.

So they put me in that little special line, give me a little orange tag, you know, the wave around, you know, like, and I was standing in that line.

And I was dressed about how I am today. And there were a couple of people who I'm not going to stereotype them. We're looking at me, and they had they got a smirk on their face. And I was kind of frustrated. You know, I just been through a lot and every human being has their breaking point, every human being. And they all of a sudden started laughing with each other and they just you know, shouted randomly enough loud enough for everybody to hear. Yep, make sure you check that one there real good, because he probably has something on him right now. So make sure you check him real good. One of them there, moslems right there, make sure you check in good.

So

I smiled, which is what I do when I get very angry.

And I stepped out of the VIP line.

I had reached my limit. And I walked over to set individuals. And I said loudly enough so that everybody could hear me. You know what?

laugh all you want today.

Get it all out today. Laugh it up and have a good old joke on my behalf. Because let me guarantee you one thing, there will come a day, there will come a day where you will stand in front of the one who created you, and you will ransom your own children to stand in this line with me for five minutes. And I have no doubt about that fact, there will come a day where you will give your very children, your parents, you will sell everything you own to come back to this world and stand right here in this line with me. So laugh all you want today. Because after that day, the only laughter that will ever be heard for eternity will be the laughter of the people of Paradise and they are in

this line. And I walked away.

And

no applause needed. Because this is the truth. This is the reality that there will come a day where every single individual that exists for wish to be you will trade places with you will ransom everything that they own to sit where you're sitting today. Just for a moment, they will say to Allah, what would they say? When the Angel of Death comes to them? Allah says they will say rugby, Eg on Send me back, send me back Why?

Now I'm in a solid matter so that I can do some good with that which I left behind. So you should have some honor today. You should have some honor today that you were chosen. You didn't do anything to get what you have right now. All of you in this room today that are Muslim, there is nothing you did to deserve it when you woke up this morning. And you could say there is no god but one God, nothing that you did yesterday made you deserve that today. Nothing you did last week made you deserve that today. There is not a single thing in your life you have done to deserve that it is because you have been given a gift

from Allah to be Muslim. But my question to you is What have you done today to show gratitude for it? Something you didn't get, but have you shown gratitude for it at all. And my last and final thing this is the thing that I said that are you will remember tonight when you lay in your bed and I saved it for last.

What was the first thing that Allah created and if this doesn't purify your soul, then nothing can. Your soul is hardest this table. What is the first thing that was ever created?

loudly, this is interactive.

A pin. The first thing that a lot ever created was a pin. What did our creators say to that pin?

book to write? The pin said,

right? What? What did our Creator tell the pin? Right? Everything, right everything, meaning everything that will ever happen at any time at any place at any position within my creation, right it.

And the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said when he made his Sora will Mirage the heavens? What did he say about that pin?

What do you say about this pin

that the pin has been lifted from the paper and the ink has become dry.

The pin has been lifted from the paper and the ink has become dry.

So somewhere along the way, and this happened, how long before creation began.

50,000 years 50,000 years before creation, this pin, started writing everything.

I want you to think about something tonight. And I the first time I thought about this, I couldn't, I couldn't even grasp it. I couldn't To this day, I have not wrapped my head around this yet.

Somewhere in that book

that a lot told that pin to write somewhere in that book, a lot told that pin to write, you should evidence will become a Muslim.

Somewhere in that book, Allah told that pin to write my name

and your name, and that we will be Muslim.

Allah thought about us that long ago. And that's why you're here today. And if you did anything to deserve that,

then you are fooling yourself. We are constantly slaves. This is why this is why we are always going to be abdillah we're always going to be slave of Allah, because we are in debt to our Creator, with such indebtedness that we can never repay. I don't care what you do, I don't care if you take all of the deeds of all of the human beings that ever lived on the face of this earth. And if you gave them to one human being, that one human being could not repay a loan for anything, couldn't repay a lot for his eyesight, his vision, his hearing, the heartbeat was given guidance, forget about it, not even close. So you are constantly in debt. This is the purification of the soul is that we are

constantly a slave in a debt that we cannot repay. And we will constantly fail in that mission to repay it. But every son of Adamson's and the best of those who sin or those who repent, which has occurred and May Allah reward all of you and I look forward to taking your questions and being with you here again. The wonderful campus of George Mason University was at MIT comm or amatola Rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh