Imam Tom Live
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Israel's Ceasefire Rejection, Nurse Fired for Gaza, and the Law of Sacrifice | Imam Tom Live
We delve into pressing issues, starting with President Biden's latest ceasefire proposal amidst ongoing Israeli rejections and the troubling dismissal of NYU nurse Hesen Jabr for her outspoken views on Gaza. We'll discuss the moral dilemmas faced by Muslim staffers in the administration and explore the role of American Muslims in advocating for Palestine. Special guest Hesen Jabr shares her experience and insights.
Plus, don't miss our segments on the significance of Dhul Hijjah and personal development that empower community and personal growth. Tune in to uncover the actions we can take to make a difference.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome back to Yaqeen Institute's live stream program. I'm Imam Tom Fekini, your host. It's a pleasure to be with you this evening, at least in our part of the world. In our part of the ummah, it's the evening. Wherever you're from, let us know. Drop us a comment in the chat. We'll be interacting. We've got a really, really interesting show lined up for us tonight. Obviously, we're going to be talking about current events. Lots of stuff happening in the news. We've got a very special guest with us tonight. He took a stand on principle and even was punished at their job for supporting Palestine. We're nearing the conclusion of the two books that we've been going through. We've got a lot to talk about, but first, let's see who we have with us tonight. We have some people that showed up from the very beginning. May Allah bless you. If you've noticed, yes, we've been off for two weeks. In addition to that, tonight we're running a little bit late because we've got big storms coming through the eastern half of the United States. We're running a little bit late for various reasons. May Allah grant everybody peace, safety, and security, especially if you're on the roads. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum, this is S. ZB is here for our guest. He knows we have a guest, Sister Hassan, who is coming up. Great to have you with us and watching. We hope all the people that care are watching. Nancy Yahya, wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum from Egypt, from Misr, Umm al-Dunya. Welcome. Hope you're taking advantage of your pre-Fajr time. Zia bint Jeffrey from Colorado. Ahlan wa sahlan. Welcome to the program. A. Kadri from SoCal. Good to see you again here. It's nice to see the same people week in and week out. MB from Hershey, PA. Welcome. We have Jerusalem Queen from Chicago. We've got Raswati Ghani from Malaysia. MSA from Portland, Oregon. Ronnie from Norway. Zameen from Livingston. More people. Delorum from SoCal. Mashallah wa alaykum as-salam.
Cook with SK from Pakistan, Zindabad. Maqsood wa alaykum as-salam, South Africa. Excellent. We have such – it is always, and I always say this, and I'll never shy away from saying it, that it is just beautiful to see the diversity of our Ummah and how even in the age that we live in, there's so much hardship and there's so much trial, and yet we can all come together in one platform at the same time and sort of share thoughts or there is a sort of concept that some people talk about, grounding with your brothers or grounding with your sisters. It means basically getting on the same page, swapping notes, seeing what is on everybody's mind. This is a very, very important thing to do, and we hope that the Yaqeen Institute livestream is a very, very small contribution to that. Wa alaykum as-salam. Wa alaykum as-salam, a proud Muslim from Palestine. Ahlan wa sahlan wa marhaban. May Allah grant the people of Palestine victory. Someone from Ohio, here from Ohio. I don't know you. Welcome to the program. Well, we do know you now. We know you're from Ohio. Amy from Senegal. Wa alaykum as-salam. I had some teachers from Senegal. A wonderful place. I wish I can go someday, inshallah. Sully Cyber, Canada, in the house. Wa alaykum as-salam. Rehan Abu. Wa alaykum as-salam. Shafi from Florida. Wa alaykum as-salam. Rumi from Washington. I thought Rumi was from Persia. No, I'm just joking. Rumi from Washington. Welcome to the program. One stop at a time from Alabama. Allahu Akbar. Wa alaykum as-salam. Buona sera. Astaghfirullahalazim. Gracias. Atika. Rehan Abu from India. Allahu Akbar. London. Irem from London. Khalila from Virginia. Wow. Allahu Akbar. People tuning in from all over the ummah today. Wa alaykum as-salam. Savannah Willis from Mississippi. Glad that you are with us. Alhamdulillah. Irem Malik, we are doing whatever we can. And we hope that we are just demonstrating to people that this is not the time to be silent.
It is the time to stand up and make your voice be heard and bear witness in front of Allah subhana wa ta'ala as to what is right and as to what is wrong. And that's very consonant and harmonious with the guests that we have teed up for us tonight as well. Rafid Ahmed. Wa alaykum as-salam. From Scotland. Excellent. Tahajjud time in Scotland. We don't want to take away from your tahajjud, but we'll be here whenever you get back. Ra'id. Ra'id from New Jersey. Welcome. Nusrat Raza from Sweden. Wa alaykum as-salam. Allahu Akbar. We've got Aminata from Pennsylvania. Another from India. Allahu Akbar. North Macedonia. CA. Ardiana. Maymuna Akhtar. Wa alaykum as-salam. Edmonton's in the house. Wa alaykum as-salam. Miami's in the house. Safiya. Wa alaykum as-salam. It's beautiful. Lancaster PA's in the house. Okay. Look at this. Wa alaykum as-salam. Wa alaykum as-salam. Wa alaykum as-salam. Maymuna from India. Welcome. Mass from Singapore. Excellent. Australia. Kim. Salih from Salt Lake City. Allahu Akbar. More people from Haroons coming in from Canada. Holistic Mama from New Jersey. Wa alaykum as-salam. Excellent stuff. Manchester, England. I was given a lovely opportunity to visit Manchester in my tour in the UK in April, and I found Manchester exceedingly charming. It was a wonderful place. I really enjoyed it. I only had two days there, but I'm wishing I had more time there. We have folks from Ghana. Muslim feed. Masha'Allah. Some of the strongest students of knowledge I ever met from Ghana. Emma Khan from Virginia. Bina wa alaykum as-salam. Masha'Allah. Beautiful. Well, we have a nice cross-section of the Ummah here with us tonight, and we welcome everybody and everybody who continues. Mariam from New York. Other people, Pakistan. Allahu Akbar. We welcome everybody to the program.
As I said, there's been a lot that's going on, a lot to talk about, and a very, very special guest that we have to join us tonight. But first, what's been going on? The current events, obviously, our hearts and minds are still with the people of Gaza and Palestine. Now, one of the things that has come about this week, and if the studio can bring up the image that we have, President Biden supposedly announced in a very sort of awkward way a ceasefire. Okay? You see here he tweeted on the official channel. Not him. I don't believe that he actually is the one behind the keyboard, but his staff tweeted out on his behalf our proposal to end the war in Gaza begins with a complete ceasefire. Withdraw of Israeli forces from all populated areas in Gaza. The release of hostages and hostage remains. The ability for Palestinians to return to Gaza and a surge of humanitarian assistance. Now, what's interesting, and there's a lot of things that are interesting about this, one of them is note the difference in tone from a lot of the initial rhetoric put out by the Biden administration, even for the first several months of the escalation of the occupation in Gaza, that we went from Israel has a right to defend itself and our support for Israel is ironclad, to Biden has made a succession of moves where he's tried to portray himself as a peace broker and portray himself as a mediator and portray himself as somebody who is calling for a both sides sort of deal. Now, this is straight hypocrisy and we'll get to that in a second. But one of the more obvious and humorous things about this is that Biden claimed that this was the Israeli proposal for peace and that Israel basically says, uh-uh, no, it's not. We don't agree to this. This is not something that we came up with ourselves. In fact, we reject it. Now, it's significant. It's significant that they reject it because part of the propaganda narrative
that Israel, the occupying force, has been trying to drum into everybody's ears from the beginning is that the Palestinians don't want peace, the Palestinians don't want peace. Every single time we make an agreement or a peace deal, they break it. Now, that's a lie. And anybody who knows the history of Palestine and the occupation of Palestine knows that it's a lie, but a lot of people don't. So a lot of people, unfortunately, were taken in by this sort of narrative. But now what we've seen time and time and time again is we have seen Israel been offered a peace deal or offer some sort of truce or offer some sort of ceasefire, and they reject it out of hand. They say, no, we're not going to do that. And we've seen the Palestinian factions and even the Palestinian factions based within Gaza accept it and say, okay, yeah, let's do that. Okay, yeah, let's do that. Even if it's not all of what they're asking for, they've been willing to accept these sorts of deals when Israel has not. And in fact, they have then taken to social media and say that nothing will stop us, and the ICC won't stop us, and the ICJ won't stop us, and the UN won't stop us, and nobody can stop us. Mwahaha, insert evil laugh here. This has sort of been the attitude of Israel the entire time, which shows that the ability for its propaganda to work is severely diminished, that people are now easily seeing through this, that this is actually Israel is not only the aggressor, not only the instigator, but they have rejected time and time and time and time again opportunities for peace and opportunities to stop the violence. But that's only the beginning of it. The last part and the one that I really wanted to emphasize is that despite the posturing of President Biden and despite the posturing of the DNC or of the U.S. State Department or the executive branch, you can't be a mediator to a conflict that you are actively arming one side of it. That's just simple, basic fact.
So the entire posture is actually very insulting to my intelligence and it's insulting to your intelligence as well, and I hope that you're insulted because I'm insulted. To be able to stand up in front of a camera and pretend, and pretend that he's not involved, to pretend that he's not sending all of the – he won't even condition military aid. He won't even stop sending offensive aid to Israel. And in the same breath, he wants to get on camera, and this is the attitude of the entire – the vast majority, let's say, of the U.S. government at this point, and act like there are neutral parties to this conflict. This is a very, very interesting sort of thing that happened on a certain talk show in the U.K. that I was invited to speak on. Some of you already know this. I was invited to speak on a certain show that is called Uncensored, but in reality is quite censored. And I refused to do so, and part of my reasoning was exactly for this purpose, that I said that you are pretending that you're a neutral party to the conflict when in reality you are anything but a neutral party to this conflict. And so the U.S. cannot have its cake and eat it too. It cannot pretend to be the mediator and yet be arming one side to the teeth and completely criminalizing the other side entirely. That's just not going to work. So we have now in other news – now, in light of this, more and more people within Biden's staff are getting frustrated and dismayed by this attitude from the Biden administration, even within his own party. So I know we've got a lot of things here to show the different staff members that have resigned from their positions, right? We have Tarek Habesh and Josh Paul, and there's others you can keep rolling in the studio with the different people who have stepped down out of their disgust.
And they're not just Muslims and Arabs that you would expect. Many Jews and other people, people who have no religion at all, they are people of conscience, people who know what is good and what is evil when they see it, and they know that the president is involved in very, very, very evil things here and that he's not misinformed. In fact, he is an active participant and has got his hands deeply involved in everything that is going on. And so people continue. They continue to drop out. One of the more recent ones right here, Lily Greenberg, special assistant to the chief of staff. And so we're happy by this, that we think that anybody who's remaining with Biden, maybe for the first couple of months you could have given the excuse that you thought you would be able to push the policy this way or push the policy that way, but it has come out and it is obvious that there is no bigger friend to Israel than the current president of the United States. And that if you, especially if you're a Muslim and you have a position within the staff that your presence is legitimizing that man, the president of the United States, and what he is doing to your brothers and sisters in Gaza and in Palestine. And we hope and we would hope that you would stand up and refuse to let yourself be used as a pawn or to let yourself be used as a PR stunt or let yourself be used as a diversity hire so that you are now legitimizing what the Biden administration is doing. And they can say that, oh, well, we have Muslims and we have Palestinians in our staff. And so how could we be against Muslims and Palestinians? Don't allow them that. That if you have the ability and if you have the courage, what are you waiting for? That we would hope that you would take a similar stand as these courageous men and women have. Now, with that being said, we're going to transition now and actually maybe I'll run through the comments and see if there's any outstanding questions before we transition from that to our last news story of the day. And that's going to take us into our guest
where somebody who did take a stand and did so in a very, very powerful way. But first, let's see what we have here. I know a lot of people joined in the chat as we were going. Sadia Niaz, yes, from Pakistan. Mariam from New York. Okay, we got there. Dallas in the house. Faryal Mohamed, welcome. Sarasota, Florida. James Martin, welcome. Abdullah. Abdullah is the man with the plan behind the scenes. We're happy that Abdullah was delivered to us safely through the storm and he's our cameraman here. Does an amazing job along with Omar Habak and the rest of the team. Thank you to everybody. Is there faith meditation? Is there any way for me to meet Omar Suleiman? Insha'Allah in Jannah. Carmen Burks. Walaikum Assalam. From Kentucky. Kentucky is a beautiful state. Let's see who else we have. Walaikum Assalam. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Walaikum Assalam. Okay, we've gotten through it. I'm not going to comment on some of the questions to do with cursing and things like that. I think if you know, you know. Okay, excellent. Yes, I mean Omar may Allah replace what they have given up through their resignation with that which is better. Adil Killa. Walaikum Assalam from London. Okay, very good. So with that being said, our final sort of story here and it's going to transition us into our guest was there was a nurse serving in New York City. One of the hospitals run by NYU, the New York University, who was fired this week for calling a spade a spade, for calling it a genocide. Now, and we've got, I think we've got an image, right? There we go. We've got a quote here from the speech. It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza. Now what I find crazy about this story is that sister, this is sister Hassan Jaber. Sister Hassan was fired for a speech that she made
receiving an award for her excellence. Can you imagine that you are now being praised by your employer in one moment for doing an excellent job and you're being given an award. And then in the next breath, the next time you actually, the next time she came back to work, her employer decided to fire her because she called it what it was. Now, if you read some of the articles, I find it really fascinating. I'm going to read a couple of statements before we bring her on here for a sec. She, one of the justifications of her employer was that she was quote unquote, bringing politics into the workplace. And I hope by the end of our segment here, you realize what a crime and what hypocritical nonsense this is. In a statement, Steve Ritea, a spokesperson person for NYU, this hospital, said, Hassan Jaber was warned in December following a previous incident not to bring her views on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace. She instead chose not to heed that at a recent employee recognition event that was widely attended by her colleagues, some of whom were upset after her comments. As a result, Jaber is no longer an NYU Langone employee. That is the official statement from her employer. Obviously this touches on so many issues that are going on right now. And with that, I think we have, do we have a video from her speech? Lucin, you're a hundred percent correct. You're allowed to bring a religion into the conversation, but you get fired from entering politics. If we don't have a video for the speech, then we're just gonna keep rolling with it. Let's bring her, let's bring her into the studio and welcome Sister Hassan to the program. There we go. As-salamu alaykum Sister Hassan, welcome to the program. I can tell you right now that everybody who's watching is extremely proud of you. I'm extremely proud of you.
I mean, it's a very, very noble stand to take. I want to get your reaction to this ludicrous statement put out by your employer about bringing politics into the workplace. You know, they have the power to speak and they essentially silenced you. So if we're giving you the mic back and say, what do you say to that, to this poor excuse that they've offered here? Honestly, at this point, there were no words and that's how it ended when they called me into the office for my fourth, fifth, sixth interrogation. That was my response to them was, where do we go from here? We're just gonna keep going around in circles. I was, I was done. The last eight months have been very challenging, but it was my own form of, I guess you can call it retribution for what's going on right now overseas. You know, having to go to work in the belly of the beast every day and having to deal with that and make my presence known to them, even though it made them uncomfortable, was enough, I guess, for me at the time. Growing up as a Palestinian in America and growing up as a Muslim in America, I have a mother who's very strong in the sense that she raised us to always be proud of our identity and to never hide or shy away from it. So I'm sure NYU got more than they bargained for when they hired a hijabi. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have hired me if they knew I was Palestinian. I've always been vocal about Palestine. I've always posted about it on social media. Clearly, since October 7th, it became a divisive issue because the opposing opinion
is, of course, louder, stronger in the place that I live. Yeah, by the time it was all said and done, I was just a little defeated, I guess is the word. I wasn't shocked. I fought hard until the end because every time they did interrogate me, I used it as an opportunity to appeal to their humanity, appeal to my humanity, let them know that here I am, a Palestinian, probably the only Palestinian you've ever encountered in your Zionist institution, at least knowingly. So here I am. Do I seem scary to you? And I think that's why it lasted eight months, I think, because I was... Alhamdulillah, I feel like I was able to articulate my stance in ways that made them second-guess it every time. I felt it coming every time I got called into HR. But yeah, ultimately, it was the speech and the people who were sitting in the audience, Robert Grossman, the Dean and CEO, was sitting in that audience and I'm sure he didn't love hearing about Palestine. And the fact that I was given a platform as a Palestinian. And able to say that in their institution, in the belly of the beast, I'm sure it rubbed them the wrong way, so. Yes, and that was one of the fascinating things. The more articles I read and the deeper that I dug into the story, that this individual, particularly the CEO, Robert Grossman, was found exposed in a previous suit against his institution from using crude terms to criticize Palestinian protests. And not only that, but these emails were sent to other employees, your employees. So it's rather rich that he's going to accuse you of bringing politics into the workplace
and accuse you of being divisive when he, in fact, is bringing politics into the workplace. He, in fact, is being divisive. And really, it's just about he doesn't like your position and he's looking for a way to sort of punish you. Yeah. And you had been, from what I understand, you had been told by other, an employee, a fellow employee at one point that Palestine doesn't exist and that you have other employees that have posted very, very brazenly on their social media in support of Israel and Zionism. So is this something that, you know, the institution just looks the other way at? Is it something that, what's sort of the take of the institution here? Yeah. So the first time that HR contacted me, it was in regards to this particular co-worker who had filed a complaint against me while she was on maternity leave. She wasn't even working at the time. I confronted her offline, off NYU grounds. It had nothing to do with my job, but she was posting some insightful posts, basically celebrating the hospitals that were getting bombed and the death tolls of the children were starting to emerge. And here we have this new mother who's saying, yeah, let's collect some money for the IDF so they can continue their mission. So I confronted her about it and she didn't respond to me. And I knew, I inherently knew, like I felt it. When I went to work about a week later, I got called into HR and they wouldn't tell me what it was about. And they actually, by the time they spoke to me and I told them my version of events that this person when I was training them two years ago told me Philistine doesn't exist. When she asked me where I'm from, their initial response was shock. And they asked me if I wanted to file a counter complaint.
And at that point I had told them, no, I'm not interested in anybody losing their livelihood over this. I just want to come to work and I want to go home without any drama. I did tell them, you know, my politics don't align with the politics of this institution, but you guys shouldn't be talking to me about my politics. I come here and I do my job. I don't bring my politics to work. So that's how it started. And then it just increased every time. It became more surreal with each time that they called me. You know, one of my co-workers, I don't know who it had to have been a co-worker because my social media is private, gave HR access to my Instagram account and they just picked through my Instagram account asking me to explain myself on certain pro-Palestinian posts. And I did. I complied. I complied each time, prepared to lose my job. Every time I come into work, I check my email to make sure I'm employed because I felt it. It definitely became more charged in the workplace and more polarized. A lot of co-workers, most of my co-workers were sympathetic, but everyone is scared to speak up. That's just the culture of that place. So, yeah, it was isolating, but I stayed true to my principles, my values, my identity. One of the things that I think is symbolically significant is that you just wanted to be left alone, right? You just wanted to go about your business. But how aggressive Zionists are and how aggressive the others are. They're not even willing. I just can't imagine somebody. You said that this particular individual is on maternity leave. Imagine being on maternity leave and you've got nothing better to do than count and rejoice and celebrate the murder of children across the world. What kind of person does that?
It shows you the level of dehumanization. It shows you the amount of indoctrination. You seem to indicate that when you trained her, she had never met a Palestinian or had any experience or exposure to anybody that was outside of her narrow worldview. And just that not even being able to tolerate difference, right? It's like you exist in a workspace and you have this sort of politics and this sort of identity and they're not even willing to accept that, right? So that's extremely important, but it's almost the silver lining, at least for me in a way, is that all of those other coworkers that you had that were afraid to speak up or who still are afraid to speak up, you basically, when you were pushed, right? And all of the buttons that they use, the HR tools and the policies and whatever they tried to, the intimidation tactics are all meant to silence you. They're all exactly like you said, put you in the situation where every day going to work, do I still have a job? What am I going to do? How am I going to support myself? And that's meant to silence you. And yet here you are and you weren't silenced. So what is responsible for that? Did you ever worry about what am I going to do for a job or like take us through that process? What were you able to draw on that kind of just left you sort of not affected by that sort of fear tactic? I wouldn't say I wasn't affected, but I knew that I had to keep mobilizing. I couldn't be paralyzed by that fear. So I started looking for jobs like I dropped my hours to part time anyway there because at one point I got doxxed. I was concerned for my safety, which I told HR, you know, my mental and physical health was being affected. My job performance was being affected. But at one point when I was doxxed and my private information was made public,
I became scared for my safety. And HR's responses every time are like, well, you're anti-Semitic. You need to take down your posts. We'll look into your grievances. That was essentially like eventually I did. I did ask to file a grievance for about that co-worker, about previous incidents with other co-workers. And their response to me is you're being anti-Semitic. You're being intimidating, harassing, threatening. You need to fix your issue and we'll look into your grievances as an afterthought. So I dropped my hours to part time and started looking for something else just because I felt unsafe. Alhamdulillah, you know, nursing is a very lucrative job. So I'm very grateful, Alhamdulillah, that I don't have to worry about that. So, you know, small fish compared to the bigger picture here. Right. And I totally, you know, I think a lot of us really resonate with what you said about how we wish we could do more. Like we see every day what's going on in Palestine and what's going on in Gaza. And it's almost like it's almost like we wish we could be there. Right. Even just just to just the amount of solidarity that we have, it hurts that we feel so powerless. And so it's almost it's almost a release in some sort of way to be given an opportunity to do something here and to take a stand in our own small way or in our own. You know, and not to minimize, obviously, what you did is tremendous, but in our own way to be able to to contribute to contribute to that. So if there was somebody who was in a similar situation right now as you are or you were one month ago, two months ago, three months ago, what would you say to them as advice? Nothing is guaranteed. So do whatever your your heart, what your heart tells you to do, what your fitrah tells you to do.
And for me, as a Muslim and as a Palestinian, it's always to stand by by truth. You know, I was raised on the hadith about, you know, if I can't change things with my bare hands, then I can speak up. And that's where I stopped. Like I could speak up. I accepted the consequences fully. Like, alhamdulillah, my iman really was heightened during this whole thing. And that's something that I had made in my post. I actually made that point in my post when I advertised on Instagram that this had happened was, I don't think people realize that when we're tried as Muslims, our faith, what we understand, we internalize that our faith is being tested and it makes you closer to Allah. It doesn't it only makes you more resolute and stronger or more stubborn, depending on who you ask. Maybe both. Yeah. So, yeah, alhamdulillah, I'm grateful for the way that things happened and just the sequence of events. Like it just it seems like it was all just divine intervention. I don't know about you, but I mean, in the opportunities or the moments that I've had, where I sacrificed something or somebody tried to intimidate me and I refused to back down, there is almost like a freedom that comes to it, right? Because like when you're policing yourself and that's what they want at the end of the day, they want you to police yourself, right? You feel like the world is very tight and there's not a lot of room to maneuver. And then all of a sudden, when you realize that, no, I'm going to stand on my principles. I believe Allah is going to provide one way or another. I believe in his power. I'm going to just take it.
It's like, you know, it's like office space when he was hypnotized and the psychiatrist keeled over. It's like he's like, you're set free. You're liberated. I don't know about you, but I've felt that way. So I hope that you felt that way. And I hope that other people that are watching understand that. Yeah, Allah is going to send stuff your way. He's going to send you opportunities and you might be worried and feel afraid. And why me? But actually Allah is trying to give you a way to break out of the prison of fear and to break out of the prison of like people trying to control you through this and that. Wonderful story, great reflections. Is there anything you'd like to leave the audience with before you sign off? Keep making dua for Palestine. I really feel like change is coming. I do. I just had a press conference this morning and it was with my attorney and speaking about how we need to hold these giants, these institutions accountable. And the reason that they behave the way that they do is because they feel like they're invincible. And they're not. They're not. They're not. God, astaghfirullah. Like they're just, they're completely fallible just like anybody and anything else. So, always speak up. Wonderful. Sister Hazem, thank you so much for joining us in the program. We ask Allah ﷻ to replace whatever you lost with more and better and to continue to strengthen you and use you for the ways in which that He loves and for the liberation of Palestine. I agree. I feel like something really big is coming. I hope it's not just my optimism. But I'm honored that you and I and other people get to be just even a tiny, tiny, tiny part of that. Thank you again. JazakAllah khair. Ameen wa alaikum salam. Wa alaikum salam. We will be tested. As Allah ﷻ said in the beginning, the first page of Surah Al-Ankabut,
did you think that you would be left alone to say that you believe and not be tested? And then later down Allah ﷻ explains the reason why He tests us, the reason why He puts us through this trouble in the first place, is to differentiate, is to differentiate from the people who really walk the walk for the people who just talk the talk, right? That anybody can say they believe, they can say they stand on business, they can say that they have principles. But the only people who really have principles are the people who, what? They stand on them when they have something to lose. When they stand on them when they have something to lose. And the sister is a great example of that. And we hope that Allah ﷻ helps her and accepts from all of us. Let's run through. I see a lot of people. A lot of people joining in. Yes, okay, a lot of great conversation here. MashaAllah. Reema Childer brings up a great point. I love that you mentioned that. How can they be uncomfortable by you and not be uncomfortable with genocide? That is a fantastic point. And that's exactly the whole thing. They'll use the language of you're making people uncomfortable. You're upsetting people. We're upset. We're upset because we see babies blown to bits every single day. How come you're not upset? If you're not upset by this, we might do something to make you upset in order to actually see that you're alive and you have a heart. Very good, excellent. Universal praise and support all around. Very good commentary, everybody. Okay, I think we're going to keep this show moving. Yeah, that's true. Pestify knows that as well. Maldives announced to ban Israeli passports from entering in the country. And there's several countries that have done it as well. Now the United States is sanctioning you guys.
May Allah keep you strong. May Allah keep you strong. This is the time for principle and this is the time for courage. This is the time to stand on your principles. And I agree, I don't know you. Though we're knowing you better and better. If you're not upset by Palestine, you're simply not a human being. You've been dehumanized. You have some work to do. Excellent. Well, with that being said, we're going to transition to our next segment here, which is actually a nice little announcement for Yaqeen Institute is trying to put out a lot more educational content when it comes to participation in politics. Obviously, it's on a lot of people's minds. So I know we've got an image here. A new, I believe, a new blog post by Dr. Owaimer Enjim has dropped in this past week or a couple of weeks. Right? What should Muslims in America do? And it's got some tips, some very, very important tips for activism for Palestine. And what will happen if we don't? This is something that a lot of people, they lose sight of in these conversations. A lot of people, there's a lot of mixed messages. There's some people that are saying that protesting is haram or encampments are haram or that you can't do this or that you can't do that. There are some people that show up to encampments or they show up to or they would show up to particular actions or whatever, and they don't like what they see. They don't like the allies, quote, unquote, or they don't like the other people that are participating or the politics of the other people who are participating. Is that a reason to not go? Is that a reason to not participate in the movement? Whatever, right? That's all discussed in the blog post. I highly recommend you read it. We've got a nice little quote here. The Prophet ﷺ said, The believer who mixes with people and patiently endures their harm is better than the one who does not mix with people and endure their harm. Consider that hadith. A hadith probably most of you already know. Consider that when you show up to an encampment. Consider that when you show up to a protest.
It's a false criteria to imagine that there has to be absolutely no harm involved in a protest or in a demonstration or an encampment for you to participate in it. In fact, the sharia operates off of what's called probabilistic reasoning, meaning that something does not have to be 100% halal or 100% good, let's say, in order for it to be halal. And something does not have to be 100% evil in order for it to be haram. And we have proof of this from the Qur'an. Allah ﷻ says in Surah Al-Baqarah that alcohol has manafi' al-nas, that there are benefits to alcohol. And yet the harms outweigh the benefits and therefore it's haram. Just as there are things within the sharia that are permissible even though they have harm. Even though they have harm, the good outweighs the benefits. So these types of things, these types of things are part of the calculus. Now we have another quote here. Participation in protests against oppression is required as it falls in the category of al-amr bi'l-ma'ruf wa'l-nahi an'al-munkar, prohibiting evil, which is an obligation upon the Muslims. And it constitutes giving help to the oppressed, which is also required. And as for the other things that you might be concerned about that might be incidental, meaning non-essential haram elements that could happen, mixing of genders, et cetera, that thing is impermissible whether it's inside of a protest or outside of a protest. And this is the thing that I always bring back to people. And I have been to a lot of different types of protests. And I will tell you that the protests that the Muslims take charge of and organize themselves are the best protests I've ever been to. They are respectful. They are according to our values. They are family friendly. They are wholesome, right? Whereas the protests that we allow other people to organize for us, and we don't even participate in a way where we don't have a critical mass of participation in them, those are the protests that are the most problematic. Those are the ones with the elements
that we don't want to be seen with. Those are the ones with the slogans and the actions that violate our values as Muslims. And so is the situation call for an abandonment of political engagement or does it call for increased political engagement? Does it call for a new level of engagement where we stop being consumers of other people's political organizing and we start being ones to take charge of this issue, which is really our issue? Good point, MB. Thank you for the props. Mustafa, I'm sympathetic. Yes, there are unfortunately a lot of people, a lot of people that look for any excuse. As I brought up one time to some brother, it's like some people don't have any problem with gender mixing until it comes to a protest. Some people don't have any problem with any of these concerns, music, et cetera, except when it comes to a protest. And we've seen in the Quran time and time again, especially in suras like Surat At-Tawbah, where we have people who make excuses to not go forth, make excuses to not indicate their, and this is actually mentioned by Dr. Awamir in the blog post, which I highly recommend you read. Maybe the studio of you guys can drop that link in the chat, where one of the excuses you find, I believe in Surat At-Tawbah, where the people who said that they wouldn't go out with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam for struggling in the way of Allah, they said that we were afraid of fitna. We were afraid we were gonna fall into fitna. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la responds so beautifully, so beautifully, أَلَا فِي الْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا Haven't they already fallen into fitna by making this excuse to not go in the first place? We call that an uno reverse. So we encourage you to read it. Speaking Truth to Power, Islamic Rules for Protest, Civil Disobedience, and Encampments for Gaza. And I am currently working on some things
that are specifically, specifically addressing the issue of allyship and how to navigate allyship, and how we can sort of use our critical mass in order to steer that ship and not be drawn in by other people who don't represent our values and shouldn't be representing us at all. And with that, I think we're moving on now to our next segment. We've got our end segment, our actions of the day and night. We're nearing the end. But before that, it's important to notice this is part of the calendar year. We are right upon the beginning of Dhul-Hijjah, the sacred month of Dhul-Hijjah, which depending on your moon sighting position, let's just say it's going to start very soon within the next couple of days. And that this is the start of the pilgrimage season. It is the month of the Hajj. And so this is where millions of people all across the world will be converging upon Mecca to complete their pilgrim's rites. But don't worry if you're not going to Hajj this year, which many of us aren't. I'm not, for example. Then there are other things that you can take advantage of. The month of Dhul-Hijjah is a sacred month, whether you're going to Hajj or not. And in fact, the first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah are the best 10 days in the calendar year, in the Islamic calendar. The best 10 nights are the last 10 nights of Ramadan. And the best 10 days are the 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah, the first 10 leading up to Hajj. So this is a particular special time. It's sacred time where the things that you do are worth extra. That they will have more effect on the purification of your heart. And more effect on the purification of your soul. And will get you to a higher rank in Jannah. So not even just the prayer and the fasting and the Qur'an and the charity. The things that you already know and love and are doing hopefully. But also what we've been talking about with politics.
Trying to change evil with your hand if possible. If not with your speech, if not with your heart. Being an advocate for justice within society. This is all worship. This is all worship. And so if you're doing it in the first 10 days, that this is something that is even more meritorious. And so we've got lots of things to help you for your journey through Dhul-Hijjah in Yaqeen Institute. And obviously if you want the opportunity to worship through your wealth. Then there are opportunities to donate. And there's many many worthy causes to donate. And of course Yaqeen Institute is just one of them. But for whoever is able and willing for that particular type of worship. Ahlan wa sahlan. Ronnie J says, some Muslims don't boycott and say it's not sinful to not boycott as it is not mentioned in Hadith. Is it correct? I would say to that, the statement of Imam Ahmed, Rahimahullah. To his, somebody asked him. You know that Imam Ahmed was imprisoned and was tortured in jail. For, during the Mihna. Which is sort of like the only sort of inquisition that happened in Islamic history at the hands of the Mu'tazila. And he was asked if his prison guard was complicit. Okay, now think about this. So there's people who are imprisoning him. And there's the guy who's standing there who's got the keys who is manning the door. He's not the person who's beating Imam Ahmed. He's not the person who commanded that he be imprisoned, etc. And someone asked Imam Ahmed, is the prison guard complicit? And Imam Ahmed, Rahimahullah, responded, he's not complicit. He's actively oppressing me. The person who's complicit is the chef who cooks their meals. Or the cook who's involved in feeding them. To show you that, if you're directly involved.
You're directly involved with purchasing from the Zionists or supporting the Zionists. Then you're not even complicit. You're directly involved. So if this was Imam Ahmed's attitude to show you how far away complicity is. Then you should take that same attitude to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. If you give up something for Allah, Allah will replace it for you with something that is much, much better. So here we go. Now when it comes to the particular things in this book. We've got some sunan to go over. Some aspects of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's life. That are not limited to one specific time of day. But that happened daily. So we talked last session about sleep. Now we're going to talk about some of the sunan or the habits of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Of food. Because food is, unless you're fasting. But even if you're fasting in the morning and the night. If you're not in extremely dire circumstances. You are eating every day at least something. And so when it comes to the sunan number one. We have very, very simple. Bismillah when you start in the name of Allah. And Alhamdulillah when you're done. Bismillah sets your intention. So that the food that you eat is now worship. Okay. You're sanctifying it by making even your eating an act of worship. Because a wise person is somebody who is going to convert their everyday habits into worship for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And then Alhamdulillah after for being grateful. Being grateful after the blessing has been completed. For the one who provided you your food. Number two. We have eating together. Okay. That means eating not by yourself. And for those in the modern west. This is something we struggle with. It's better to eat together with other people than it is to eat by yourself. Ibn Kathir mentions this. In this tafsir. That there were a group of people that came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Companions. And they complained that they did not find blessing in their food. Meaning that they would eat and eat and eat. And they wouldn't get full.
And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam asked them a question. He said, do you eat together or do you eat separately? And they said, well, we eat separately. And he said, eat together. And this was a recommendation not a command. He said, eat together because there's blessing in it. And so if you eat together you will find more blessing in it. Eat with the right hand. Okay. And eat from what is in front of you. That especially becomes relevant if you're sharing a communal plate or a communal dish with other people. It teaches you etiquette, right? Maybe we've forgotten these things if we all have our little chipotle bowls or something like that. But if you share a plate with somebody else, it teaches you etiquette. It teaches you manners. You can't go over to their side and grab the thing that looks really, you know, nice to you. You have to eat just from what's in front of you and be content with it. Number three. Number three. We have not wasting food even if it has fallen onto the ground. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he found food onto the ground. Command us to brush it off, clean it off, and eat it because it is a blessing from Allah ﷻ. We don't take it lightly. Okay. That we don't waste food. This is a huge, enormous problem, especially in places where there is too much abundance. We take it for granted. That is not grateful. And then we waste. And then finally, you lick your fingers and you scrape the dish. That means, again, part of not wasting means that you're going to even get every last bit, even if it's on your fingers, even if it's at the bottom of the pot. Number four. Praise the food that you like and give duat for the host if you're eating at somebody else's place. Very, very important manners, right? That if you have food that you like, then this is something that you should praise people. Now, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, if he had food that he didn't like, he would simply not say anything, which is also part of our manners. And then he would make duat for his host because that's part of gratitude. Whoever does not thank the people, as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, does not thank Allah. And finally, number five, cover your vessels up before bed. That means you have pots, you have pans, you have maybe pitchers of water, things like that.
Don't just leave them out. This is actually from the Sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to cover them up, right? Even if you've got like a stopper or something like that, even better, to make sure that they're not open. And I'm sure the doctors and the medical folks in the commons could explain why there's some health benefits to that as well. But not only are there health benefits that this is the Sunnah of the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Moving on to our final segment for tonight before we depart. And that is our personal development segment. We've been going over this book, the 21 Laws of Leadership. And we've been hastening along. And so now we've gotten basically down to two more sessions until we're going to finish this book. So we split up the last seven or so laws over this particular session and the next particular section. And then we get to move on to another book, which is awesome. We completed a book together, alhamdulillah. We're going to look at laws 15, 16, 17, and 18 this evening. Number 15 is what the author calls the Law of Victory. What's the Law of Victory mean? It means that a leader has to find a way for the team to win. Now we've addressed sort of false notions of leadership before, earlier on in the book, about how a lot of people think that the leader is somebody who... A lot of people think the leader is somebody who finishes first. That's not true. The leader is somebody who makes sure the whole team finishes together. And so that's a different set of skills, right? You've got to bring other people along with you. It's not easy. It takes a lot of patience. And so when you're the leader, you have to absolutely make sure that you take responsibility for the success of your team. And this is something the Prophet ﷺ did time and time and time again. Think about Badr. The Battle of Badr when the Prophet ﷺ made all of his battle plans and then raised his hands to make du'a. He made du'a so intensely that his rida, his sort of upper garment fell off of his shoulders,
and Abu Bakr had to come and said, Listen, that's enough. We've done everything that we could. Allah won't forsake you. We're covered. That was how personally the Prophet ﷺ took his responsibility for the success of the team. He also communicated that unity of vision that we've talked about as well, trying to raise other people to their potential. That's part of being a good leader, and it's part of taking responsibility for the success of your team is putting everybody in a position where they can succeed. If you're disposed to, you know, you're really smart with money, we're going to put you on the business side of things. If you're really smart with education, with people, we're going to put you on that side of things. The Prophet ﷺ, if you look at how he treated the different companions and how he utilized the special skills and relationships of the different companions, there was no one better at this than the Prophet ﷺ. He was able to divide the companions in ways where they were all working to their strengths and that they were all able to do really important work. Law number 16 is what the author calls the law of the big mo. And by mo, he does not mean Muhammad. He means momentum, the law of momentum. That momentum is a key factor to success. Anybody who's ever watched sports, whether it's cricket or football, soccer, basketball, baseball, you understand that momentum is so important. You could be on the verge of victory. And then if all of a sudden the momentum flips, it seems like the other team can't lose, like they can't miss a bucket or they can't miss a shot. Momentum is what makes victory or failure seem inevitable. And so it is extremely important that a leader attempts to generate momentum, okay? Creating momentum and harnessing momentum. Now that sounds like a really, really tough thing to do. How are you gonna go create momentum? One of the ways to do it is to remove things
that are demotivating. Remove demotivating elements, elements or things that stop your momentum. That includes naysayers. That includes pessimism. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not like pessimism, right? We have instructions in the Quran to not repeat everything that we hear, especially in the time of warfare. We don't repeat every bit of news that comes to us because some of it's lies, some of it's truth, some of it, we don't know how to interpret it, right? This is very, very important to morale. We see it towards the end of Surah Al-Imran. There was a group of people who said, oh, your enemies have come and gathered around you. And then the people of faith that actually made them stronger in faith. But this is something that is very important that you not give air to pessimism or you not give air to the naysayers. And then another way of doing that is rewarding accomplishment, right? Like saying, such and such a person, if they do this thing, then you're going to get this reward. It's something that is able to build momentum and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did this all the time. Law number 17, we have the law of properties. And yes, we will be getting to everybody's questions and comments after we run through these last two laws before we close out tonight. The law of priorities. And he has a subtitle here, which is very, very elucidating. That activity is not the same as accomplishment. A lot of times we think that we're accomplishing things just because we're busy doing things, but we don't stop to think, are the things that I'm doing actually moving me towards success or is it just busy work? Or can I be doing something better? Can I be doing things in a better way? And so he gave us three quick sort of tests to figure out, are we using our energy efficiently? He says, what work is required? What gives you the greatest return? And what gives you the greatest reward? Required means what can I do
or what do I have to do that nobody else can do? Or nobody else should do. This is something that I've had to learn myself. There are certain things, yes, I can go teach this subject or teach that subject, alhamdulillah. But there's a couple subjects that I specialize in that very, very few people can actually teach. And so I feel like that is something required of me by the ummah that I have to put my focus and attention in those particular areas because that is something that very, very few other people could do or people shouldn't do for me. What gives you the greatest return? By this he means that you should play to your strengths. That if you're really, really good at a particular thing, then that should be your priority to be the best at that particular thing. For other people, you know, or other activities that you're not so good at, you can train other people to do them for you or they can round you out. And the final one is, what gives you the greatest reward? What gives you the greatest satisfaction, right? Those are things that should shape your priority so that you know that your effort is actually moving the needle and is not just busy work. Final law, law number 18, the law of sacrifice, and this is extremely important and demonstrated by the Prophet ﷺ time and time and time again. Leaders must sacrifice. In order to go up, you have to give up. And the leader has to give up more than others. The Prophet ﷺ was the most generous person. He would not keep money in his house beyond a certain amount of time. He would distribute it all. If someone came to him ﷺ and asked him anything, he would do it, ﷺ, unless he was literally incapable of doing it. How many times does somebody ask you for something and you say that you can't, but really you just don't want to? The Prophet ﷺ never said no to somebody unless he actually couldn't do it.
That's sacrifice. The Prophet ﷺ, when it comes to leadership, giving up your rights, giving up your freedoms, and giving up your comforts, that's something we don't like to talk about, but it's true the Prophet ﷺ was more famous than the most famous influencer we have today. There were people knocking on his door, trying to get his attention, day in and day out, ﷺ. And he gave people access. People had the most access to him. When it came to his lifestyle, he ate very little. There were times where he woke up, ﷺ, and he asked Aisha, Aisha, is there anything that we have? We have any food in the house? And Aisha said no. And so the Prophet ﷺ would say, okay, I'm going to fast then. There were times the Prophet ﷺ would sleep on a reed mat that would leave imprints in his side. He did not live a life of luxury. He had few clothes, few possessions, few things to eat. This was the sacrifice of the Prophet ﷺ and he was the best leader. So if you want to be a leader sometimes, and this is what this is militating against, is sometimes people want to be the leader sometimes. People want to be the leader sometimes because they want the perks. They want the perks that come along with being a leader. They want to have the first class flight or the business class flight or they want to have the, I don't know, whatever perks they think that they're going to get without realizing that the leader has to sacrifice the most. Whether it's your reputation, whether it's people talking about you, whether it is the time that you spend, whether it is things that you can't do because you're just, you're putting in the work. That's the life of leadership and that is, that's all part of it. So we're going to spin it around to the questions now. Let's see, I'm going to work backwards. Sumayya Karim, you said law of Big Mo. That was momentum. That the leader is responsible for generating, maintaining, shepherding, guiding momentum. Very, very important too,
whether if someone is going to win or if they're going to lose. Our Muslim children says, if my job requires me to be complicit with comments and stances against Palestine, but many are saying that staying in my job might be beneficial for the Ummah for there to be a Muslim inside, do I stay? Well, I mean, might be or will it be? I think that's the question you have to answer yourself. If they are requiring you to compromise on your principles, how much effect do you really have in the first place? Maybe you're not really affecting things anyway. Everybody has to make this calculus, whether your participation is being used so that you're legitimizing what's going on or whether you're actually able to make a change. If you're actually able to make a change, then you have an argument for staying around. If like Sister Hessen, who we had on earlier, you're not able to make a change. And in fact, it's just a profoundly sort of problematic environment, then sometimes leaving is a greater statement. Nusayba Qasim asks, if people knew what leadership was truly about, they would have never wanted it. That's a great point, Nusayba. I think you're 100% right with that. Minami Islam Khan, as of June, 2024, what is and are your favorite books? Oh boy, put me on the spot. Well, it's no secret. It's no secret to people who know me that one of my favorite books is Restating Orientalism by Wael Hallaq. What are some of my other favorite books? What am I reading right now? I just finished reading Atomic Habits. That was a very nice book. I really don't like self-help books, but as far as like self-help books go, I think that's like the ideal self-help book. I think there's probably what everybody would hope a self-help book would kind of be like. I benefited a lot from it and finally got around to reading it. Boy, there's a lot that I'm reading right now, but I'm not gonna divulge right now.
Some of the others, you can see, I have a video series that I did with Paul Williams on blogging theology, where I go through some of my favorite books. So I'll defer you to there, though it's always a shifting list. Let's see, Nancy Yahya from Egypt. I remember, I have a request. Please, can you recommend some good books on philosophy in general and political philosophy? Maybe a list of recommendation of books. Oh boy, again, putting me on the spot. One book that I think is useful for the philosophy of, or at least ethics, which is considered a branch of Western philosophy. I can't remember the name of it. It's by Alasdair MacIntyre, who's a Scottish philosopher. It has something to do with three paradigms of morality or something or other. That's a very, very nice book. Or no, I'm sorry, I'm getting two books mixed up. One, he has a short history of ethics. That's a really nice book. It gives you a nice bird's eye view of one branch of Western philosophy from beginning to end, quote unquote. And he has another book, three, I mean, he has several books, but another one that I found beneficial was his, the title is escaping me right now, but it has to do with sort of three different paradigms of ethics. And he proposes one is sort of tradition. And that's what he's sort of championing. And the other is sort of the genealogy. That's the continental philosophers. And the other is represented by the encyclopedia, sort of the enlightenment. But that's over to the side. When it comes to political philosophy, stay tuned. I'm gonna be having things more specific to say on that. Yeah, I saw your question, Mustafa, but I don't really like that question. So I'm not gonna answer it. Let's see. What else do we have? I don't see a whole bunch of other questions going back further.
Yeah, I don't see any questions going back further. So let me see if you've got anything back left at the top. Okay, we got a book recommendation from Noceba. We'll check it out. Your professor swore how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. Raj, what country do you want to visit next? Oh, man. Oh, man. Come on, Raj. Oh, there's so many. That's not a fair question. You're making me pick just one, man. I would like to go to. I'd like to go back to Malaysia. I had a great time in Malaysia. I'd like to always go to Turkey. I love going to Turkey. I would like to go to Pakistan. I've never been to Pakistan. A lot of places. Yeah, I enjoy traveling. Anything else? We have a request for a Hajj story, I think. Tell us your Hajj story. Some highlights. Oh, boy. Well, alhamdulillah. When I was a student in Medina, I was able to. I was blessed to go on Hajj three times. And I'll just I'll say two things. I'll say one general thing, okay, that that everybody can benefit from. And then one thing about somebody who's a sheikh that I that I admire. One of the things from Hajj was
that in working Hajj and facilitating facilitating people's pilgrimage, I noticed one thing is that there's usually two types of people. There's there were people who when they arrived, that if their expectations weren't meant weren't met right away, they would be thrown into a state of agitation. Right? Let's say that the hotel room wasn't ready. Let's say that they lost a bag on the on the the airplane or something like that. Let's say that things weren't quite exactly they almost had the consumer mindset to it, like almost like Hajj was just like a vacation. And that type of person had a really difficult time locking into the worship. Right. And a lot of the cool thing was by the end of the Hajj trip, some of those people would have the most amount of change, right? They're broken down, they're crying at the cabin, all this great stuff. But there's other people who had a had a head start, where they would come and they were already in the correct mindset and attitude where no matter what happened to them, and sometimes sometimes really, really inconvenient things would happen to them. Sometimes their passports would get lost. Right? Like, imagine how that would make you kind of freak out. But they understood when they got there that they were there to worship. And that was their intention. And so they just said, which direction to the Haram, I'm going to go pray, I want to get my prayers in, I want to read Quran, I'm here to worship, you guys figure out the other stuff. That's a really important thing. And that I think shows that you do have sometimes that people think that like they need to be in a super sacred place in order to be a religious person. A lot of people fell prey to this sort of thought process when it comes to going to Medina to study, they all start to be a student of knowledge, or I'll start to be a good Muslim once I go to Medina, you really just have to do whatever you can, wherever you are, right, that you can have a righteous person in a righteous place, you can have an evil person in an
evil place, you can have a righteous person in an evil place, and you can have an evil person in a righteous place. Right? So it really does have to do with sort of what attitude you bring to it, being an opportunist in a spiritual sense, right? Always looking out for how can I benefit from what is being given to me right now, to benefit my afterlife, to benefit my soul. It's kind of like a whole way of looking at the world and your life moment to moment. The second story, after I go through real quick comments, Andy Kraff, yeah, come to Dearborn again, inshallah, the country of Dearborn, allahu akbar. I need a passport. Do I need a visa for Dearborn? Mashallah. And then the second thing, you know, one of the hajj stories is that we heard that our Shaykh, Shaykh Abdullah al-Shamqiti, you know, who's an elderly man, if you've seen him before, that some of the students caught him handing out water to the pilgrims, like on the back of a truck, and he was just a very incredible, he is, I should say, he's still living, alhamdulillah, a very humble and incredible person, because some people would look at this as below you, right? You're in the back of a truck, you're sweaty, there's no air conditioning, you're handing out bottles of water to pilgrims and stuff like that. This is someone who teaches from a chair in the prophet's mischief, right? They can have people do, they can send money anywhere, they can have people take care of this for them, but he was there in the back of the truck, people saw him, and they saw him getting his hands dirty, mixing with the people, and this is something that I picked up from Shaykh Abdullah, that I need to do better, to be frank, I, you know,
don't pretend to be a perfect person, I have millions of shortcomings, that mixing with the people, just as we mentioned the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ before, Shaykh Abdullah al-Shamqiti would, not just for hajj and mixing with the hijaj, but also after Salat al-Isha, after he taught tafsir in the prophet's masjid, he would just sit on the floor in the masjid, anybody in the world could come up to him, ask him a question, you know, he was very, very accessible, not openly, not every single hour, every single day, but at certain times and places, you could find him if you needed to find him, if you wanted to ask him a question or do something, and he was the same when it came to hajj. Pestify, what will be the next book? That's a big surprise, that's a big surprise, you're going to have to wait and see, but hint, hint, hint, it's going to be going through something a little bit more classical, something with, something that the companions said that they used to teach their children around the campfires. Nusaybah Qasim says, as first-time parents, we've struggled with screen time for our toddlers since I'm home with her all the time, while my husband did his nine-to-five, any tips for weaning her out of it? Yes, screen time is a very, very toxic thing, especially for young people, it's essentially, and there's lots of research to indicate this now, I really, really discourage anybody from using, and it's tempting, using devices as basically babysitters for your, even for your teenagers, let alone for children that are younger than that. Exactly, you want to, you need her to watch something to get things done around the home, but know that you are creating a habit cycle that is going to continue to require that type of stimulus, and that they are going, every time you allow them to watch something like that, with that intention, you maybe are doing a short-term good for yourself, but there's a long-term harm that
they're not going to be content with something that is less stimulating for long, right? So I would suggest a lot of time, you know, there are, if you look at some of, you know, child psychologists and developmental psychologists, they talk about sort of sensory stimulation when it comes to, there's sand is very stimulating for toddlers, clay, things that are very tactile, right? Things that are natural, and that occur in the natural world as a loss of hematopoietic created, running water, right? These are, these are things that toddlers and other kids gravitate towards because they're naturally stimulating, right? If you take your child outdoors, right, as much as possible, the outdoors, the, all the bugs crawling along on the ground, and all the blades of grass, and all the flower petals, and all the crunchy leaves, and all the dirt, yes, the dirt, all of that stuff is extremely stimulating to kids, and every time you allow your child to sort of be babysat by the screen, you're actually making it harder for them to connect and be stimulated by the things that Allah ﷻ has put into the world naturally. So I think that's sort of how to do it, especially with toddlers, sometimes toddlers really, sometimes it's easier with toddlers, you can really like cut it off all of a sudden, and you know, your phone got broken, or your phone is away, or your phone is sleeping, or your phone is nocturnal, you can say your phone is like an owl, it only comes out at night when they're asleep, something like that, you know, you don't have to lie, I'm not advocating lying, but you can sometimes make dramatic changes with toddlers, usually when they get older, that becomes a little bit more difficult, and Allah knows best. One of the duties of hajj is to stay in muzdalifah, yes, unless you can't, or unless you have a rukhsah, right, if you have a rukhsah, then you don't have to stay there the night, then you can leave mutasaf al-layl, or sort of, you know, in the middle of the night. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. Very good. Ameen. May Allah protect all of us. Thank you very much everybody for your excellent engagement, and stimulating conversation and
questions as always. I think we're going to leave it here for tonight. InshaAllah ta'ala we'll see you next week. BarakAllahu feekum, taqabballahu minhum ameen, wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. you
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