Zaid Shakir – Imam for Tarbiyah Academy

			This Rahman Hema hamdulillahi rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala say the more city Sayidina
Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam to Simic therapy. Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh, this Imams a shaker, I'm here to talk about amongst other things, our children, our
youth and the challenges they face growing up. When
		

			I was I remember when television was black and white, that grainy images, and then we went to color
television, you can't sit within 10 feet of it because the radiation will affect you, etc. We didn't
have the internet, we didn't have Facebook, we didn't have Twitter, we didn't have Instagram, we
didn't have whatever all of these things which collectively take hours and hours every day, hundreds
of hours 1000s of hours every year from our children. And so the challenge of of just having the
time in a Muslim context of memorizing Quran memorizing Hadith reading about the life of the prophet
Sallallahu wasallam, there's an immediate challenge is to have the time available to devote to those
		

			pursuits. The time to enjoy nature, the time to explore the world of ideas in books, is being taken
away from our children, our moral foundations, service to God, sacrifice for the sake of others, all
of these ideas were very common in our culture and in our cultural atmosphere, if you will. Now
those things are systematically being removed. Atheism has been around but a pervasive movement
that's supported by many elements of popular culture, and then compound that even more with the
infusion of the demonic and the occult, and our culture, we have many different levels, at the level
of music at the level of film, even in our educational system, and it becomes almost an unmanageable
		

			burden. So children really need we really need to help our children create the space to maintain the
remembrance of Allah subhanho wa taala. And their life.
		

			What are the skill sets that Muslim children need to deal with them? The skill sets are many, but
the most fundamental number one, the ability to know Allah, through living a wholesome devotional
life, they're going to have to know how to pray, how to read the Quran, how to understand the Quran,
so Quran not as an end, but core and as a means towards a richer relationship with Allah subhanho wa
taala, they're going to have to learn how to think critically and analytically so they can recognize
and understand a lot of the fallacious arguments that are behind popularizing a lot of the things
that we've mentioned previously. So these are some of the most important skill sets and we really
		

			need to develop educational institutions that focus on these very things.
		

			We have to understand that unless the way that we understand knowledge, the sources of knowledge,
the uses of knowledge,
		

			the nature of knowledge, if that's not sound, you can't strike a balance, everything in the culture,
everything in the society is working on the side of the material and the secular. So we have to go
back and we have to route our young people in an epistemology where they understand the importance
and significance of divine revealed knowledge when they understand that metaphysical reality is more
real than physical reality. Where Allah Tala says coolamon Allah has done everything in this
physical world is temporal. Well, yep, CO which will rob the cable Jalali? Well, it Crom only the
essence of your Lord will remain the essence of our Lord. That's from the metaphysical realm. That's
		

			what remained that's what's real. Once you say whatever can be empirically verified, is what is
real. In other words, the material is what is real, you have an imbalance. So you cannot come back
to a balance in something that's imbalanced in his very nature
		

			of think is very important important for us to understand that as Muslims we will not prosper as a
community until we thoroughly understand it.
		

			Our American context I say ours because it's as much ours as anyone else's. What's the point here?
The point here is, sometimes we deny who we are. We've We've grown up here two or three generations,
some Muslims. They like pizza more than like samosas. They're like American football, which can be
an insane endeavor more than they like soccer.
		

			Yet, they're somehow
		

			unsure of their identity. No, we have to say this is we are, I'm an American, I'm a Muslim, and not
see that that's somehow compromising Islam because America is a collectivity of immigrants, and a
Muslim who emigrated here or migrated here. And then the children are born and raised here. Those
children are just as much an American as someone who came from Ireland or Poland or Russia or
wherever. And so we have to claim our americanus so that we can then inform the American mosaic with
an infusion of healthiest nomic ideas and principles. And once we do that, I think it will be a lot
easier for us not only to recognize this is who we are, this is where Allah Tala put us but also to
		

			recognize the wisdom of our being here as Muslims. So this starts in the this starts in elementary
school, junior high school, this sort of sort of education so I don't see if we are true to our
Muslim heritage, which recognizes the, the cultural, geographical diversity of peoples and during
the hodgin. From the earliest days the answer had a banner the MaHA jurien had a banner, the various
tribes when the Prophet saw the submission, when Tata well lo yo stop the common layer come to
malaria, Kong and telecom a few turn back Allah will be bringing another people and they won't be
like you he put his hand on the shoulder of Solomon and Pharisee whoever Komu him and his people and
		

			then Habesha there then is for the people of Ethiopia and Eman Yemeni, what Hickman to yemenia, a
faith and wisdom are Yemeni. So our religion recognizes diversity,
		

			ethnic, cultural, geographical diversity. And so we're just part of that diverse mosaic. We have to
recognize that we have to teach it to our children, then we can contribute to two things. It's very
important to mention the uplift of this country,
		

			which needs uplifting and the uplift of three things the OMA and the uplift of the world. But it
starts from a foundation and our foundation is here.
		

			hamdulillah when we talk about the tarbiyah Academy, very visionary, school,
		

			and similar efforts, it reminds me of the mission of zaytuna college zaytuna College aims to educate
and prepare professional, intellectual and spiritual leaders who are grounded in the Muslim
tradition, and conversant with the cultural currency and critical ideas shaping modern societies. In
other words, is schools like tarbiyah Academy are trying to wet the knowledge of the text, knowledge
of the Quran and the Sunnah, and the legal and intellectual tradition with knowledge of the context
and our case, the American context, does a holistic, realistic program. And that's the kind of
program that we envision to become sort of feeder schools into zaytuna college where they already
		

			understand the critical thinking tools that are necessary to really know and to function in this
particular context. Now they're coming in to a place like zaytuna college where now we have to start
from scratch with most of our students. They don't have the skills they haven't been introduced to
them. So a program like the program of tarbiyah Academy with the International Baccalaureate program
with the focus on understanding the Quran I understand the language of the Quran. This is a program
that's ideally suited to be one of those feeder schools into zaytuna College and the others Muslim
colleges and universities that will develop in the future inshallah Tana.
		

			Brothers and sisters, I'm here on behalf of tarbiyah Academy encouraging all of you to support this
wonderful
		

			institution some of you will ask why there's so many efforts to so many initiative. Number one,
brothers and sisters consider the big picture. We can either make history, or remain a footnote in
someone else's history. When we look at the great schools out there, and if the people who started
them didn't have the vision, and didn't have the courage, and didn't have the fortitude, to say,
we're starting from scratch, but one day, this is going to be a great institution that's going to
impact the world. We're starting from scratch, we need that same big vision, that same commitment,
that same courage to say that tarbiyah academy or similar initiative that this is going to be great,
		

			this is going to be an institution that one day is not only going to attract the finest students,
from the Muslim community, because the parents recognize the excellence of excellence of the
education here recognizes the superior moral integrity of this institution. But the wider society
recognizes that and they're trying to get their children into it. And it's leaving impact on the
world's graduates and going out and they're making a difference in the world. They're challenging,
corrupt and antiquated institutions. They're infusing new life into the body politic there. They
have the creative minds, and the critical and analytical ability to innovate in their chosen fields,
		

			be that medicine, be that law, be that engineering, be it a butcher, a baker, candlestick maker,
whatever it is, they're doing it with greater excellence, because they have a sound foundation
intellectually, morally and spiritually. That's why you need to support this institution support
this initiative and to have that vision and to possess that courage. We want to make our own
history. Well, we can say this is ours. We've nurtured it. We've developed it, we've supported
financially and we've seen it grow, we've seen a blossom and we've seen the fruit that it has
produced and is a sweet, nourishing, wholesome, healthy life giving fruit. That's why you need to
		

			support the tarbiyah Academy and similar initiatives. Dear brothers and sisters, the Z mom's a shack
is I don't mind equal. What amatola He will work at
		

			the sea mom's a shaky and I'm here to laugh.
		

			They're gonna laugh. You have to sit there