Zakir Naik – Public Lectures are Less. Why
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses his past travel experiences, including traveling to countries with strongah mindset and the success of his current travels. He also talks about his past experiences, including traveling to China, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia, but due to COVID-19, many of his experiences were cancelled. He discusses his experiences with radio and TV programs, as well as his plans to record and edit more public lectures. He also talks about his upcoming public lecture and plans to purchase new cameras and travel to multiple countries.
AI: Summary ©
There is a question from the YouTube, INA
Creativity.
Assalamu Alaikum, my name is Isba from Pakistan.
Why don't you give public lectures as you
used to give before?
The question asked by Isba is that why
don't I give public lectures as I used
to give before?
The answers can be divided into two or
three parts.
Number one, I remember when I started doing
Dawa in the early 90s.
You know, I got inspired by Sheikh Jihad
in 1987.
I was doing mainly one-to-one Dawa.
Then in the early 90s, I started giving
public talks.
And then I started travelling.
The first talk I think I gave was
in South Africa in 1994.
The first talk outside India.
And then I remember, I have to give
a lot of talks.
I remember when I went to Kuwait in
1998.
In one day, I gave eight talks.
One is immediately after Fajr, early in the
morning.
And last talk was two o'clock in
the night.
Eight talks.
Eight public talks in a day.
I remember when I used to travel towards
the end of the 90s and the early
parts of 2000.
I used to spend maybe a few days.
And I used to give tens of lectures.
On average, few lectures a day.
Maybe more than one lecture a day, two,
three lectures a day on average.
So I spend about five days and about
maybe 10-15 lectures.
We spend a week and we give maybe
20 lectures.
Later on, with the help of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, as time went on growing,
Alhamdulillah, Allah gave more power in my speech.
Allah put love and mercy into the heart
of the people.
Previously, when I used to give lectures, my
audience, I remember, the person who inspired me,
may Allah grant him Jannah, Rahimullah, he had
told me, when you come to Saudi Arabia,
expect few people.
Don't expect the way you get in India,
thousands of people.
And the first talk I gave in Saudi
Arabia, it was in 1996, if I'm not
mistaken.
My first talk in Jeddah, I was expecting
maybe 10-15 people.
And mashallah, more than a thousand people came.
So Allah has blessed that initially when it
started, only the numbers were in thousands.
Okay, western countries were initially few hundreds, then
into thousands.
But as talks, as Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala kept on putting love of me into
the hearts of the Muslims and even many
of the non-Muslims, then the strategy changed.
And maybe in the year 2010 onward, etc.,
I preferred giving few lectures with larger audiences.
And that's how my talks became few, but
the numbers became large.
And then we were more involved in the
media, we used to record the programs and
see to it that many people used to
watch.
So that's how most of the talks abroad,
you know, used to have large gatherings.
Maybe if you see from the year 2010
to 2016, we have to travel a lot,
the audiences abroad, 5000, 10,000, 20,000,
50,000, you know, large gatherings.
In India, it was 100,000, 200,000,
500,000, 1 million, so few lectures, larger
audience.
If you count the number of people in
public talks, every year increased.
Means if I gave, I went to a
city and spent 5 days and gave maybe
15 talks, or spent 2 weeks and gave
20 talks.
Now I go to a country, I give
talks only on the weekends.
But the number of people coming for the
talks, for those 2 talks, are much more
than 10 talks put together.
That's number one.
But that's not the only thing.
We also record this on the media, and
when it goes on the social media, the
social media, people watch to a larger number
on social media and on the satellite channel.
So when we started the satellite channel in
2006, our main focus was, see to it
that programs on the satellite channels are good.
So my talks became less, but the reach
became more.
Now the satellite, in 2016, Apeach TV English
alone had 100 million viewers.
Then Urdu, mashallah, had 80 million viewers.
Bangla had 50 million viewers.
Chinese had 20 million viewers.
Now the viewership has a little bit declined.
So previously it was about 250 million all
put together.
Now it may have reduced to maybe 200
million all put together.
You know, because more people are watching social
media, but the television yet has its advantage.
So now because of social media, we are
coming on the social media.
The Facebook is there.
Now my Facebook has 23.9 million, mashallah,
subscribers.
The YouTube has 3.89 million subscribers, and
the Instagram, so on and so forth.
So in terms of lectures, I do agree.
With the public lectures, I do agree.
It has reduced.
And, you know, because of the onslaught of
the Indian government in 2016, after that, 2016,
I only started travelling to countries which are
more friendly to Muslims, as well as those
countries which I know doesn't have good hold
of India.
As you know that because of the onslaught
of the Indian government, the BJP government, Narendra
Modi, I had to do hijra in 2016
from India to Malaysia.
After I did hijra, of course the Indian
government was after me.
So after 2016, whenever I travelled to any
country, whether Muslim or non-Muslim country, I
did not travel to the country until I
had invitation from the head of state or
the home minister.
So all the countries that I have travelled
after 2016, all, it was an invitation, or
it was a sanction, or a nod from
the head of state, whether it be the
prime minister, or the president, or the sheikh,
or the king, or the person, or from
the home ministry.
Because I wanted to be safe and secure,
because India is a very powerful country, and
you know that Modi is very powerful, and
is close to many countries, especially Muslim countries.
So any country I went, I saw to
it that it was hosted by the government,
by the head of state, or by the
home minister.
So that's the reason, after 2016, one of
the reasons, that the countries where I used
to travel before without this condition, I stopped
going.
Invitations are yet coming, anyone invites me, I
say, if you give me the invitation, from
the head of state, or from the home
minister, I come.
I remember, in 2020 April, I was invited
a couple of months, I think January 2020
I was invited, there was going to be
a program in April, in Canada, where Justin
Trudeau, who is the president of, the prime
minister of Canada, he was going to be
the chief guest, I was called as a
guest of honour, and there was a Muslim
MP was invited, and I accepted that, because
it was through the government, and indirectly, the
head of state of Canada was there.
But, unfortunately, because of COVID, because of COVID,
the program was cancelled.
So, one thing that in between, okay, in
2016 I travelled to many countries, in 2017
I travelled, but during the span, when I
came and I migrated to Malaysia, I was
here for one or two, one year rest,
and then I started travelling again, but then
COVID came.
So, in 2020 and 2021, I did not
travel because of COVID.
But one thing good that happened, is I
started this session, Ask Dr Zakir.
In 2020, I remember in Ramadan, it was
in April, the lockdown came in March, and
I said, okay, now I cannot travel, all
the programs have been cancelled, there were no
talks, not in Malaysia, not outside, what to
do?
And I like giving talks.
So, we started this, Ask Dr Zakir, and
that time when we started in Ramadan, in
April 2020, I used to give twice a
week.
But then I realised that giving twice a
week, reading the questions, you know, we thought
it will be easy, only the talk and
maybe, you know, couple of hours of preparation
and giving the talk, you know.
We realised that, average in a week, 20
,000 questions started coming.
So, the biggest ordeal is to read these
questions.
So, I had a team, and my team
doesn't read all the 20,000, maybe 5
,000, 6,000, whatever they read.
From that, they passed me 100 questions.
From that 100, I select 20 questions to
answer, approximately.
So, then, after Ramadan, you know, because of
all my other activities, there is a satellite,
etc.
I reduced it to once a week.
And, when the COVID ended, maybe in 2021,
2022, when my son Farik came to Malaysia,
or he was in Saudi, that time he
used to join, I used to handle one
and a half hour, my son half an
hour.
But when he came to Malaysia, then I
handle, as Dr Zakir, on the first and
the third Saturday.
And, my son handles, as Sheikh Farik, on
the second and the fourth Saturday.
But, because it reduced, I changed from one
and a half hour to two hours.
So, the length has remained approximately the same.
Previously, it was, in Ramadan, it was one
hour, twice a week, then became one and
a half hour, once a week.
Now, it becomes two hours to two hours,
15 minutes, twice a month.
So, it comes to approximately one hour a
week, for me.
And, but Farik additional takes one hour every
fortnight, so two hours a month.
But, naturally, the audience on the social media,
live, on the Facebook, on the YouTube, on
the Instagram, on the Peace TV, the thing
is large.
But, coming back to your question, yes, public
talks has reduced.
Now, one thing is there, I prefer public
talks because in public talks, I enjoy, and
I'm giving a talk standing, I can see
the audience live.
It's different than talking in front of a
camera.
Both are different.
But, one good thing that happened in the
Ask Dr. Zakir Naik sessions, we are in
the twelfth season.
The first Ramadan season had about nine sessions.
Now, each of the seasons have normally six
sessions, sometimes seven.
So, already twelfth.
So, already more than 70 sessions have taken
place, you know, for one and a half
to two hours.
And, more than thousand, one and a half
thousand questions have been answered.
The difference in this and the public lectures,
the public lectures is good, of course, inspiring,
you know, lots of cameras, audiences there, five
thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand.
And, even at this time, in Malaysia, before
the COVID, I had given the talk, just
before the COVID in 2019, and I gave
a talk in Malaysia, in Plantan, there were
more than a hundred thousand people.
In 2017, when I gave in Indonesia, there
were a hundred and ten thousand people.
In Jakarta.
So, the audiences, of course, those talks with
number of cameras, twelve, it's much better.
In terms of impact, it is ten to
twenty times better.
But, as far as the talks are concerned,
excellent.
As far as the questions are concerned, there
were many questions which were repetitive.
And, we cannot say, this question has been
asked one year back, I cannot answer.
I cannot say this question was, yes, if
it's asked same day, I can refuse answering,
or if it's asked yesterday, in another talk,
in the same city, I can say it
was answered yesterday.
But, I cannot say it was answered one
month back in Nigeria, or one month back
in Qatar.
I have to answer.
So, there were questions which were repetitive.
So, if you remove the duplicate, suppose every
public talk, I may handle about ten to
twenty questions, out of which, more than fifty
percent are repetition.
Or, some questions which are asked twice, some
three times, some ten times.
So, the net impact, you could say unique
questions, you could say twenty-five percent only.
Absolutely unique.
In this program, ask Dr. Zakir.
The repetitions are very few.
Maybe, less than ten percent.
So, when we get these twenty thousand questions,
my staff has been trained that if the
questions, normally, which are already answered in public
lectures, avoid them.
If it's already answered in this, avoid them.
Sometimes, there are repetitions, if it has a
different angle.
So, there are questions which are repeated.
Therefore, I say ten percent less than that.
It may have a different angle, so half
the answer may be same, half may be
new.
So, the questions are unique.
So, in these three years, twenty, twenty-one,
twenty-two, you know, these three or four
years, the question on my ask Dr. Zakir
is more information than all my questions in
about fifteen years of a public lecture.
Yes, I purposely do not repeat what I
have already given.
So, most of the comparative questions that I
have answered in the public, I am not
answering here.
Most of the common questions, I am not,
it is being asked, but I am not
selecting it.
So, the difference in this is that which
is more beneficial for the ummah.
So, I feel that this question and answer
session, of course, the impact of the audience
is far better.
I personally love it more.
I like the audience.
I get the life feel.
But the benefit for the ummah is that
this question and answer session has its own
impact.
The talk has its own impact.
But the second part of the talk with
the question and answer session, this is better.
So, I feel both are required.
That is the reason I have given my
editors more weightage for editing the question and
answer session.
They asked Dr. Zakir.
So, both have the, of course, the impact
of a public lecture with the audience, with
the jimmy jib.
This will only be three cameras.
That is the ten, fifteen, twenty cameras.
And now, coming to your question again, that
there was a gap for about two years.
And when it restarted, I remember the first
talk I gave was in 2022 in Malaysia
in Perlis.
It was the first public lecture allowed in
Malaysia after the restrictions of COVID.
And there the authorities put restrictions on more
than a thousand people.
A thousand people came.
It was Dr. Zakir's history.
Dr. Zakir's story.
You know, from Mumbai to Malaysia and it
was a two and a half hour lecture.
Now, the situation is that when I started
sending the request, I only allow, I will
only accept the invitation if it's from head
of state.
In this year, 2024, I got invitation from
about fourteen countries.
Normally, normally for public lectures in 2016, 2015,
I normally accept invitations, you know, pure public
lectures about three or four.
Three or four countries and in the Gulf
country.
Going to Dubai, going to Saudi, going to
Qatar was common.
So, besides these three countries where I have
to go repetitively every year, additionally maybe three
countries.
Now, in this year, I received invitation from
twelve to fourteen countries, fulfilling this criteria.
So, I decided, okay, I will go to
at least eight countries this year.
So, because of that, mashallah, we recently, just
a couple of months back, we purchased the
best of cameras.
You know, when we used to travel before
to any country abroad, we used to travel
with a crew of about 50 to 55
people, crew with me and my family.
About 60 people used to travel.
So, when we went to Gambia, we went
to Nigeria that time, you know, so crew
used to go along.
So, at that time we used to travel
with fourteen cameras.
This time we purchased again the best cameras
that's available in the world.
Just a couple of months back, we purchased
the Sony lens 2, which is 8.6K,
and we purchased the Angina lens, which is
the best lens in the world.
What we did that, we purchased the seven
high-quality best cameras in the world, and
we are continuing with these cameras that we
are recording.
These are the FX9, which are cinematic cameras,
but of a lower end.
So, we will do the recording with ten
cameras, and we decided to travel with about
15-20 people.
Previously, it was 15 to 60 people.
Now, we decided we will make the crew
a bit less.
So, 20 people, and because we accepted the
invitation, that's the reason this Ask Dr Zakir
did not happen.
For the last six months, I was away.
But, naturally, there was Ramzan in it, there
was Hajj, not only lectures.
But, even now, I was supposed to travel
to an African country, but because there were
some problems and riots, it got postponed.
And, Inshallah, it will again start from September.
September, October, November, December, again, I will be
traveling.
And, when I travel, Ask Dr Zakir 9
doesn't take place, because they are busy with
that.
So, both have their pros and cons.
Allah knows best.
He had the Ask Dr Zakir 9, you
know, for about three years.
And then, it reduced.
It's yet continuing.
Now, Inshallah, from this year onwards, from 2024,
there will be more public lectures.
And, Inshallah, I hope it will benefit for
the Ummah, it will benefit me in this
world and also in the Akhira.
So, the public lectures, Inshallah, will not be
the same as before in the 90s and
2000s.
But, Inshallah, go back to what we used
to do in 2013, 14, 15, 16, where
travel at least to four, five countries and
have large audiences.
And, we pray to Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala that now the audiences will be larger,
there are new topics that have come.
So, the matter in terms of available to
the public, on the social media, on the
video, on the satellite, has increased multiple times
more.
In terms of duration, it may be similar.
But, in terms of uniqueness, it is more.
And, I also spend time in doing more
research.
That is, these questions are asked.
The selection takes a lot of time.
Reading takes a lot of time.
And then, selecting is main thing.
And then, we are more selecting those questions,
which are, suppose, asked by atheists against Islam,
asked by those people who, while posing to
Muslims, they can get deviated.
So, it has its own benefit.
That is the reason I enjoy the session
of Aal-e-Tazaqir.
But, I also miss the program.
Now, what I miss, one thing was asked
by you, which I am missing more, it
is the peace conferences.
The peace conference is something what I miss
the most.
Since I have left India, especially Bombay, the
thing that I miss the most, besides my
family, that is my parents, brothers and sisters,
the thing that I really missed in terms
of dawah, is the peace conference.
Other things, Alhamdulillah.
But, the peace conference, the way we used
to have in Bombay, you know, we had
for many years, and the audiences used to
be hundreds of thousands in one sitting, over
ten years, about a million people, you know,
the audiences coming in large numbers, thirty, more
than thirty speakers coming from different parts of
the world.
This, this we missed.
And, I was hoping to have this, and
I spoke to a few people, about which
is the best place to have it, you
know, which country would be the best, and
unfortunately, unfortunately, most of the Muslim countries may
not like having such large audiences and large
number of speakers coming, but there is good
news for you.
Inshallah, Inshallah, after six months, in January, that
is, in the last week of January, from
the 24th, 25th, 26th, for three days, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, 2025, we will be having, not
the same level of the peace conference, what
we used to have in Bombay, but we
will be having the Perlis Sunnah Convention.
This year, there were six speakers, and I
spoke to the Mufti, and the authorities, and
they agreed this time they will have 18
speakers.
Going to be for three days, and 18
speakers, international speakers, most of them who come
on peace team will be there, it will
be for three days, it will not be
the same large audience, but at least the
speakers will be together.
What we had done in 2022, because we
could not, we didn't have a peace conference,
we had a brainstorming session in Qatar, in
2022, immediately after Ramadan, in April and May,
for about five days, and we had the
top duats, 14 coming and discussing about various
aspects, and this time we will be having
the Perlis Sunnah Convention, after six months, in
January 2025, and Inshallah, it may not have
that large audience, but we expect at least
10,000 people to attend this convention, so
the peace conferences that are there where large
number of audiences that used to have, you
know, unlike any other conferences, it will be
largest in the world, Inshallah, Inshallah, Allah will
make it possible that we will have these
large conventions and conferences very soon, Inshallah, in
the coming years, we will have bigger conferences
with large number of duats, see to it
that the entry is free, absolutely free, so
more number of people can benefit from it,
and I pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, may He make us instrumental in spreading
the Deen.