this is a wakeup call for this this book is a wakeup call for Humanity but this crisis I pray is a wakeup call for the umah and for every single one of us that we we see ourselves aligned with a very particular agenda with a very particular Focus simultaneously and if enough of us have that Awakening if enough of us have that Consciousness we are are far too many to think ourselves as weak or far too many [Music] for Al [Music] for for for [Music] I was requested this Friday to speak about the situation in
Maza and uh I'll be as honest with you as I can be when I made such a request I feel paralyzed I feel paralyzed because I don't think my feelings towards what's happening in GZA are any different from any Muslim or actually any decent human being but more so any Muslim and every time I look at my own child I can't help but think of the unbearable pictures of those children that are suffering the countless that have already suffered and the countles that are suffering and their parents and the bereaved and it is it is
it quite literally is paralyzing and then I steep back and I realized that ourin one of its fundamental requirements is that one has to have control over their emotions before they speak you have to have composure and you cannot think and you cannot act on this Dean unless you have such composure in fact one of the fundamental teachings of our religion that human our our success depends on is the word s in for instance when Allah says part of the meaning of what is we're going to lose patience we're going to lose our composure and
we have to be there for each other to give each other composure to keep us on track that's part of the agenda I also think about how easy it is given that I have public speaking background and I know how to raise my voice and lower it and I've have an understanding of communal and you know um uh you know psychology social psychology that I can give a hook by the end of which there's going to be a very loud and there's going to be a lot of excitement and you know the hearts will be
at ease at some I heard something that felt good but I actually stopped myself from doing that I stopped myself from doing it because I feel that that has almost become a pacifying drug at least we heard something that felt good at least okay that that eased our pain a little bit or that gave us some comfort you know and every time there's a crisis we turn to what are our Scholars saying you know my heart is hurting I need to hear something from our Scholars our are speakers that they need to say something so
that I and it's in a sense I almost feel like I'm betraying this trust cuz I'm just giving someone something they want not what they need that's what it feels like to me and so when when that request is made I I actually went through quite a bit of a uh a few stages since I heard that request I casually said yes but it's not easy for me because I do take that as an AM and after a lot of thinking and a lot of talking with friends friends and colleagues and mentors through last night
uh just on what to do because I'm not any different than any of you like I said those emotions are mine too and if I step back and I try to seek what it is that Allah wants from the um in this in this hour what does he what does he expect from us I Come Away with two things the reason what's on all of our minds is that we're powerless that's what's on our minds this frustration is not the the you know the The Killers the murderers the the the the Massac the massacres of
children the genocidal Maniacs the it's not they're going to do what they're going to do they're just doing what they're supposed to the real frustration is not with them the real frustration is with ourselves why are we so powerless why is this happening in front of our eyes we're making all this noise and it's going on so actually if you step back and think about it the real problem is ourselves because you know the it's it's you can't get angry atan Shan's job is to do what he does but we're supposed to be and and
the enemies of Islam they're going to do what they're going to do andam his entire s is about one thing it's about him having his agenda as much as they anger him they anger him all the time and they anger the Believers all the time the kufar anger Believers all the time but he has Allah has put him on a track and the objective of that track is to me one of the objectives is really straightforward and the objective is if you get off track you're never going to build the power you need to build
to put a stop to them you're you're never going to build that power in fact giving into your emotions will take you off track and even though you'll feel like You released some hot air you didn't even make steps towards ending that problem because today for instance if we do you know somehow this crisis comes to an end the damage is already done for Generations the damage is done and tomorrow it might be another country and tomorrow it might be another location and already we know the OM on fire in multiple places around the world
so the real question is what is that track what's the pathway the OM is supposed to be on it's easy to say we're not United our leaders are corrupt it's you know this one when is the um going to wake up what in the world does that mean when is the going to wake up we need unless you and I have a clear agenda in front of us here's what I need me to do here's what I need you to do there's there's supposed to be some level of clarity on an agenda on a unified
agenda then it shouldn't be difficult for 20% of the world's population to exert their influence and to flex their muscle because we are that we're not a small population so so something has to be there and in order to try to I'm not claiming that I have the answer to that question but I think I have somewhat of the right direction and I want to share that with you in this clip up in the Quran Allah has given us essentially two problems two responsibilities one responsibility faces Inward and the other faces outward so a great
place to look at for this two directions is what I recited to you from in fact even is the same thing it's Inward and outward when you think of it's Inward and when you think of it is outward right so there there's always these two things the same thing Allah says that's inwards that's my tawa I have to die in the state of Islam I have to be in surrender to Allah so let's stop at wordss for a second there are those of us who will feel well we're not doing the inw we're not really
people of tawa we're not we don't really have the right kind of IM and if we just had the right kind of Iman then the problem of the umah would be solved the world would look different we wouldn't have this oppression anymore but that would that's only half the equation so we have to address that but while we're addressing that if you look at the very next Ayah Allah says you know there's another step right after that don't fall into division with each other now we're already taking a step outwards it's not just about my
anymore it's about unification step so first is my own reform step two is steps towards unification and then step three now you are calling to something good but you're calling as a unified Force to something good and calling someone something even did right did you know da but you as a group you won't just make da you will then build enough momentum behind you that you will go from you're going to go you're going to take bigger steps this is going to get bigger and bigger there's a development here 1 2 3 4 here's what
you have to do right so now let's look at one for a second and understand something I'm I'm going to talk first in for a few minutes just about the inward what is Allah saying about the inward Allah has given us a pretty detailed description of the Israelites in the Quran of B is and Allah has described how Allah had given them a religion that they should have surrendered to they are in fact also descendants of our father IIM the religion of they are a religion that they follow that same religion they declared Islam for
themselves too the sons of the sons of is and Allah will describe elaborately how they played with Allah's law how they manipulated what Allah had revealed how they used it to generate power for themselves and wealth for themselves so they had these classes of not just rabis but also priests that you couldn't you couldn't be purified unless you went through them your sacrifice wouldn't be accepted your worship wouldn't be accepted unless you went through a priest and unless you paid these kinds of lenies the same thing the Catholic Church did with the Pope the Israelites
were doing and they were playing with the law of Allah taking theam and making it Halal taking the Halal and making itam adding things to the sh that had nothing to do with the Shar they were doing these kinds of things they were playing these kinds of games with Allah and clearly the things Allah had made Haram they were openly violating that now Allah gave us that example not just so we can look back at them and say look at these people look at how they mess with Allah's law Allah gave us that because the
first instruction was if you want to fix things and by the way at the end of that very passage Allah will say don't become like them because because they they didn't observe tawa and they didn't come into Islam completely so the first honest look and I'm not just giving this like a uh you know a rhetorical speech we all have to have ta you've heard about tawa a billion times I'm not just saying that I'm saying if we have to I have to look at my family you have to look in your family we have
to look in our community we have to look in our culture and say how much of the book of Allah do we actually apply in our personal lives before we talk about anybody else how much of it are we actually living by so for example much of the Quran much of the book of Allah has to do with financial regulations inheritance law is financial regulation the m marriage is financial regulation child support is financial regulation zakat is financial regulation earning Halal money is is financial regulation staying away from R is financial regulation right so Money
Matters are a huge chunk of the Shar and another huge and by the way all of us have money issues so that's one one part of the equation where we could say if you want to see if I want to see for myself am I living by the word of Allah am I observing tawa of Allah of my basic worship my five prayers Ramadan Hajj the first litness test easy litness test is Money Matters am I involved in riba am I giving the inheritance shares do did I did I did I you know uh Short
change my sister or my you know my my mother or my whoever else on the inheritance did I give the Mah am I providing the support I'm supposed to provide the finances that I owe am I giving the zakat am I paying the loan back right these are these are all that's easy litness test and the way this the state of the um is I i' I've been in business for some time other than education I've been bus and one of the hardest lessons I learned in business is it's hard to do business with Muslims
that's it was a it was an ugly lesson because these are my brothers these are the people I learn Dean with I pray with them I you know I I I do da work with them I discuss Islam with them Etc when it comes to money though I don't know something happens something happens and you know what that is uh psychosis so I can I can look like I have tawa I can pray like I have tawa I can talk like I have tawa but my financial dealings don't have tawa that's a problem the second
one litness test whether we're living up to the first condition what cuz you know we get in these a eventually get to a place where we can we can command the good and forbid the evil when you command the good it starts with just speaking up but eventually ends up with you know you can stop you have the you have the power to stop it this is how you get to the place where you have a power to stop it and the step step one is internal and that is you have to abide by Allah's
word or everything else you do Allah will deal with you no different than how he dealt with the Israelites and what did he do with the Israelites when they played with Allah's law they were humiliated they were powerless and they received the rage from Allah so and you're not going to find any change in the way Allah does things so if I'm going to say for myself and yourself and us as a whole the you know the the hundreds of millions and billions of us let's start with step one at at least let's begin here
and say hey I got to bring tawa back into my life starting with the worship and financial dealings the next place would be the H of Allah in family in my personal family life you might not know this but the the term or the phrase is referred to in the Quran except in one place in where it's mentioned generally every other place it has to do with family law the of we think of what do we think of cutting the hand of the thief we think of you know you know the you know the punishments
in Islam right the punishment of the and this and that and the other in the Quran where's being used family law family law so money and family law will give us a pretty good idea of what tawa looks like now I started this by saying Islam is inwards and outwards for yourself do a study of the for yourself from all the way to 57 to 66 you know what you're going to find you're going to find aat about Jihad fighting spending the Muslim military you're going to find those ayat and in the middle of those
you'll find you're G to find in the same Surah that Allah says fight against the and the that's outwards same Surah Allah is saying why are you making Hal what you know what you making Haram what Allah made Halal for you because you're making your wives happy a family issue isn't it so what is Allah teaching us Allah is teaching us these two things go hand in hand that you can't separate them the internal and the external and the internal is tawa and tawa two big places we can look at ourselves are we living tawa
in our money matters and am I living tawa in my family matters those two places easy litness test okay now let's take the next step and it's not oh until you do this you can't take the next step no no no you this these are concurrent things that are happening they're not oh right now I'm working on financial and family so don't don't burden me with the problem of the Omar right now no it's not like that cuz family drama will be with you for life like y if you're going to wait until it all
it's all solved then ibraim Alam had family issues until the very endam most of his family disbelieved and was against him until until 950 he's got other things to do so you have to deal with the internal while dealing with the external these are concurrent okay so that's the second thing Allah says second step is forget about the rest of the world now look at the Muslims let's look at each other don't fall into disagreement with each other and how will you do this by holding on to Allah's book together so now what Allah is
giving us is a mandate you and I have to become I I I don't have a lighter word to use you and I have to become obsessed with the Quran together we have to develop a collective obsession with Allah's book and that obsession is so powerful that our racial disagreements our ethnic disagreements our family disagreements our disagreements you know our historical different disagreements our National disagreements they start becoming so small because there's something that binds us that is so powerful the I'll give you just an analogy of this like you know Democrats and Republicans can
absolutely hate each other in this country right they're listening to different podcasts they're listen to different radio stations and atheists can have absolute disdain for you know fundamentalist Christians the far left and the far right but they're both you know they're both uh Dallas Mavericks fans and they're both in the same stadium cheering for the same team and they're both going crazy and when they win a you know on the buzzer they win a shot they're giving each other a high five what the what you hate each other no no no that doesn't matter more
importantly right now we're in the playoffs these are the finals this is more important something that is so captivating for them that they forget all of their they could put all of those differences in a box for a stupid game you you would think about that you think all the people that are in a stadium watching a sport they're all politically religiously philosophically aligned no there could there could be people that took each other to court they're in the same stadium but it doesn't matter right now we're all on the same side go team it's
insane but you know what Allah has given us something far more powerful than a stupid team Allah has given us his final word and that word should Inspire passion inside of us and and the more it does the more it naturally brings people together the um is in is right now obsessed with disagreement I would argue the opposite we're obsessed with disagreement not with agreement and the reason is the opposite of disagreement is not agreement the opposite of disagreement and division is Quran in the Quran so our our our overwhelming disagreements and divisions are just
an just a manifestation of how far from our Act actual alignment with the Quran and how the Quran is no longer the the conversation the Quran is just a side reference the Quran is just a book of for my point of view I'm going to show you your AA is wrong let me bring these aat and show you your AA is wrong and this one we bring the other ayat and show this there that is wrong we're using the Quran to slap each other instead of actually surrendering before the word of Allah together so our
approach is actually my ideology comes first and to support my ideology I will bring the Quran instead of my ideology is the Quran so instead of the Quran serving my thought I'm using the Quran to serve my thought if you understand what I'm saying and that's our second problem the first problem is concurrently and that's a social spiritual problem the second problem is intellectual the intellectual discourse of the Muslims now must be dictated mandated obsessively with the Quran we have to bring it back into popular convers ation I this last week many of you attended
me going through and for many of you that have been listening to the Quran good for you you this was just reinforcement or for many of you this is the first time you're actually taking the time to study a Surah deeply and as wonderful as that is isn't that a tragedy isn't that a disaster that the people that call themselves Muslim the people of this Quran they can be they can be raised in a Muslim family saying muham wasam and they could be 18 20 25 30 35 years old and this is the first time
they took the time to think deeply about the Quran like this or even had the opportunity whose fault is that did they do this that's all us and that's why this Ayah this is the Ayah about Brotherhood and about Unity you used to be enemies before this after this comes now that we unify now we know how to think the Quran teaches you how to think how to understand the world around you this is this is helps you see things is something that clarifies the world around you now you're able to engage an intelligent conversation
with the outside hostile world now you're able to take their counterarguments against you their propaganda their their hatred and you can break it apart like ibraim Alam broke apart the arguments of the idol worshippers now you're able to do that because now you're equipped you're equipped with Revelation ibraim was equipped with Revelation no was equipped with Revelation now you're equipped with Revelation now you because you held on to the Quran like that your personality your thought process your world view has evolved and now you're ready to make that now you can have conversation I'm not
giving you a full of SE of these ayat but there's a logical progression that I just wanted to highlight and once you do that this on just da I just I'm just going to make mention one more thing because time's up just one more thing da in the Quran interestingly is broken up into three Target audiences three target audience so Society the Quran one way the Quran breaks up the society is it breaks it up into three audiences one of those audiences is General average people they just need to hear something good something some advice
that hits their heart they need that's what they need that's what and that's a huge population of society so even as you're spreading the word of Allah not everybody's debating with you actually most people say wow that's really beautiful can learn more about that can you tell me more about that that's incredible where can I read more where can I find more in fact we're not even doing da and you know these kids are picking up these non-muslim kids are picking up a copy of the Quran and talking about it on Tik Tok because it's
speaking to them they get the from it but that's our job our job is to introduce them is for the masses of people the I call them the neutral masses the even if they're against you they don't really know why they're against you and when they come into contact with this message they're like I don't even know why I was against that I actually agree with this I find reason in it the second group of people is the people that would love to keep the masses the first group they would love to control those masses
using their propaganda and you can call them the Hawks and these Hawks they're very very vocal they're very aggressive they're very insulting every society has Hawks for their ideology and those Hawks you need to understand them you need to understand their arguments and some of us have to be equipped to respond to their arguments with something better than their arguments right that's that's the Hawks and that's the last part of that that's one another part of the but the middle part of dawa which I particularly chose to talk about this here because this is a
university Town many of you University students many of you professionals Allah says first actually and that's actually a a really important part of dawa every society has a certain group a certain population of people that are lower in education they're lower in education and then there's a smaller population of people that are higher in education and they are in a certain intellectual Elite status whether by way of University or other training or whatever they are at a higher level of thinking right they need something that engages them where they are they need a conversation at
their level I need to be able to make daa to the sociology professor and the anthropology Prof professor and the and my PhD Mentor in the program of Neuroscience those people I need to be able to have a conversation with them too they're not too smart for Islam but Islam can be presented to them at the level of that needs to be present and that's a different class of society I mentioned three groups the general public right the Hawks and first and foremost actually the smartest people in society and Quran actually began with Al and
you know what this is the time this is an opportunity now that this this heinous inhumane satanic behavior and this crime has been exposed before the world intellectuals are starting to question their allegiance to Western ideas their allegiance to Blind allegiance to capitalism or you know their Fantastical allegiance to what they think is democracy etc etc this is a time to have very in intelligent conversation with those intellectuals because the first change that happens in the world is not military change the first the real change that happens in the world is actually a change in
in in thought process in Minds if there's a if there's a if the Quran came one of the things it did is it revolutionized how people think and once that happens now you're in a position that when you do the intellectuals can't stop you the masses are in agreement with you the the the Hawks have been silenced you understand you become more and more dangerous and the Quran was targeting hitting all these three with one Arrow constantly constantly constantly which is why for Makkah Islam became unbearable it hit all three audiences it became unbearable for
them this is the agenda Allah has given the when we lose sight of that agenda when we don't live by this agenda then what is the model in the Quran either you're doing this or you are just like what is did those are the two that's why right after this Allah mentions them that's right after that for a reason because this this is the this is this is the model this is the revolution brought about by Muhammad wasallam of how to transform the world or you can do what the Israelites have done before you and
suffer the consequences that they suffered this is a wakeup call for this this book is a wakeup call for Humanity but this crisis I pray is a wakeup call for the umah and for every single one of us that we we see ourselves aligned with a very particular agenda with a very particular Focus simultaneously and if enough of us have that Awakening if enough of us have that Consciousness we are or far too many to think ourselves as weak we're far too many and you don't need billions to bring about a change Quran already taught
us that the SE already taught us that you just need to you just need enough strong hearts and Minds that's all you need bring those strong hearts and Minds out of this and every other community Salam alikum everyone there are almost 50,000 students around the world that are interested on top of the students we have in studying the Quran and its meanings and being able to learn that and share that with family and friends and they need sponsorships which is not very expensive so if you can help sponsor students on Bay TV please do so
and visit our sponsorship page I appreciate it so much and pray that Allah gives our mission ESS and were able to share the meanings of the Quran and the beauty of it the world over
