Imam Tom Live
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What Will Ramadan be Like in Rafah? A Conversation About Sha'aban and Leadership | Imam Tom Live
Join Imam Tom Live as we discuss Israel setting Ramadan as its deadline for invading Rafah. We’ll also have guest Hussam Ayloush from CAIR Los Angeles, who recently published a California Voter Guide. We’ll end with a personal development segment on the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and discussing the importance of Sha’ban.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome to Yaqeen Institute's live stream. I'm your host, Imam Tom Fakini. Great to have you with us tonight. Please drop us a line in the comments. Let us know where you're watching from. And we're happy to have you with us tonight. As we approach Ramadan, subhanAllah, Ramadan just less than a month away. We're in the holy month of Sha'ban. We'll be talking about that on the program tonight. We also have an esteemed guest from CARE LA that will be talking to us about political organization, the Muslim community, what we can do, what we need to do, and what we have yet to do. And we also have our continuing segments with the habits of day and night from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We're talking about the dhikr of morning and evenings, the sort of remembrances, some of them, and there's quite a lot. But we'll be focusing on just a few of the remembrances of morning and evening, and talking about some of the significance behind them. In addition to going through our book on leadership, we have some really interesting homework that we have for you all. We're going to see how you rated your leadership, how other people rated your leadership, and what you noticed for room for improvement or things that you're already strong in. I've got another very, very interesting and engaging homework assignment for you this week. So we see who's with us tonight. Wa alaykum as-salam, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. We have Angel with us, Mrs. S. Hamza Abiyat, Minami from Bangladesh. Welcome. Wa alaykum as-salam, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, Maymoon Adeel. Wa alaykum as-salam, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. For anybody who's tuning in from Detroit, inshallah, tomorrow I will leave for Detroit. I'll be in Detroit through Saturday morning, inshallah. And then we have programs in New York City that are going on. There's a lot of things going on, a lot of Muslims in the United States feeling the need to come together and act together, think together. And it's a beautiful thing.
Welcome, everybody. Yes, very, very free Palestine. Exactly. Imran Tarib. Wa alaykum as-salam, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. May Allah give victory to Islam and the Muslims. Ameen. Welcome, everybody. Masha'Allah from the Maldives. Pestify. Mariam Molina. Wa alaykum as-salam from the Philippines. Excellent. I used to have quite a few classmates from the Philippines when I was in Medina. They were some of the most humble people I've ever met. Masha'Allah, Tabarak Allah. Have not been yet, hopefully one day, inshallah. Wa alaykum as-salam, Rafatullah Aziba. From Michigan. OK, Watermelon, I'm coming to Michigan, inshallah. If you're in the Detroit area, the Dearborn area, I will be there this weekend. I'll be giving the khutbah, inshallah, Friday at the Islamic Center of Detroit. We'll be doing, I think, a tea talk program Thursday night. And then we also have a Friday night program as well. Wa alaykum as-salam, Nazli Noor from Istanbul. Hosh geldeniz. Are you missing us? Noor from Australia. Ahna musakhan. Wait. Welcome. We await you for your own tour, inshallah. I hope to, inshallah. Wa alaykum as-salam, Rafatullah. Owais, wa alaykum as-salam from New York, Queens. Excellent. I'll be in Queens, inshallah, Saturday. If you're going to be in Queens Saturday, I highly recommend you check out the Mass Reverts Reconnect program that's going on. There's a conference, basically a pre-Ramadan conference from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. I'll be speaking there along with Sheikh Abu Sumayyah Lebron. Wa alaykum as-salam, Asma'u from Nigeria.
It's always wonderful and empowering and energizing to see the diversity of our audience, the diversity of this ummah. Wa Allah al-Azim, if we came together and we organized and we loved each other, as the Prophet ﷺ told us to love one another and we felt for each other in the way that the Prophet ﷺ told us to feel for one another, then most of our problems would go away. May Allah grant us, may Allah grant us that tawfeeq. We have Aniza, wa alaykum as-salam, Absakina from Ohio. I also cannot wait for Ramadan. I am really excited for Ramadan this year. I need I need a break. Rahma from Durham, North Carolina, not yet been to Durham or North Carolina. Inshallah, someday. Wa alaykum as-salam, Susu from Tampa. Welcome. Lovely to have you all with us tonight. We have, inshallah, a wonderful program lined up. Of course, we always start with current events and there's always wa alaykum as-salam. Kashmir, Kashmir is always in our hearts, always in all of our hearts. May Allah assist the people of Kashmir and liberate them from their oppressors. Wa alaykum as-salam, mashallah, we've got from Ali in Virginia, inshallah. Tafseer for Shota Isra, yes, inshallah, wa alaykum as-salam. Maria from Pittsburgh. OK, Pennsylvania, very good. Yes, it's true. Very, very brings up a good point. It will be difficult in Ramadan to have school, but you know what? Sometimes Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la puts blessing in the difficulty. And something that I have experienced is that some of my hardest Ramadans were the most beneficial and the most purifying and the most uplifting. When I first became a Muslim, Ramadan was in the heat of the summer. And I used to work on farms. I used to do physical labor outside, you know, with my hands, 10 hour days under the sun, all these sorts of things. And I'm not going to say it was easy.
It was not. It was very, very difficult. It was very hard. I've never felt as thirsty before in my life. And subhanAllah, when I think about the people of Gaza as not having enough water to drink, the only thing that I can even come close to in my life were some of those moments. But those Ramadans were honestly the best. When I look back now and now I have more more comfort in my life. The Ramadans aren't aren't as as impactful, at least I feel. And maybe that's my own problem that I need to figure out. But there is a special benefit to hardship. And may Allah make us ready for it when it comes to us. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum, Ayushi from Minnesota. I will also be in Minnesota, inshallah, for one day. I believe there's a retreat coming up the first weekend of March, if I'm not mistaken. I should be there for a bit. Anisa Rahman, if you're looking for more info about the New York event, then you can see it from on any of the social media for Mass New York. Zaid Khan from Jamaica. Welcome. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum, M.B. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum, Hershey P.A. OK, Jay Flower. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum. Excellent. Welcome, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We hope you enjoy the program tonight and we hope that you take solace and some energy and some a little bit of guidance from what we have for you tonight. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum, A. Qadri, SoCal, inshallah. Early May, I plan on being San Diego, inshallah ta'ala. Ameen. Salma. Ameen. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. So what's still on our mind, of course, and we've been running this program since since January or December, Palestine is on our mind 24 seven. And it would be it would be a crime to to center anything else at this point. And many people have have pointed this out, the etiquette on social media. Sometimes you see people posting their meals or their vacations or things like that. And honestly, I'll just speak personally.
I won't speak prescriptively, but I find it very, very hard to have the stomach for posting or even looking at any of that that content these days, because my mind and heart are always with the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine to the point where some nights, honestly, I can't sleep. You know, just thinking about the things that are going on. How can we help feeling so powerless? And it certainly seems to be, in some sense, getting worse where things are coming to things are coming to a head. They're coming to a climax of sorts. The people, as we've said last week in Rafah, the occupying force of Israel has squeezed them down to the southernmost part of Gaza, like toothpaste in in a tube. And they are preparing for a ground invasion. And yes, we have some assets here that Israel has set Ramadan as a deadline for the Rafah ground invasion. Now, we know that the occupying force of Israel has always chosen Ramadan as a time to provoke Muslims and provoke Palestinians. And certainly, again, we have yet another instance of this here with the supposed deadline for Rafah. Can you imagine the people of Rafah and of Gaza who already don't have anything to eat, who already have lost the entire health care system, who have already lost the ability to drink clean water? And now they have to be concerned about Ramadan coming up. SubhanAllah, all of us, sometimes, you know, we get too comfortable when we complain about, you know, the hardships that we face. And obviously, everybody, you know, we can't necessarily we don't wish that things were harder for us. But it's difficult to see other people going through hardship and then look at our own hardships and feel like we have the right to complain about anything at all.
And Kai MacDougall brings up a good point. I actually agree with this, and I'm glad that you said that. You know, Kai says, I do indulge in that stuff to a degree simply because my brain needs a break. I feel I'll go insane watching Gaza. And that's a good point that when it comes to some people have said, you know, for example, if part of us as an Ummah are going through it, then the rest of us don't need to necessarily subject ourselves to going through it vicariously, if especially it's going to incapacitate us to help alleviate it. And we know, at least for those of you watching from the United States, that we have a particular duty and responsibility to attempt to end. The genocide and to end the aggression against our our Muslim brothers and sisters and all the Palestinians. Right. And so sometimes there's a situation in which you're indulging and you can't turn away and you're looking and looking and looking and watching everything. And it actually stops you from being able to do something about it. So that is something I'm glad you brought that up that needs to be paid attention to. Irene Sanchez Rivera. Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullah. We have some other people joining us from Brunei. Dar as-salam. Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullah. Alabama, Beatrice. Welcome. Mashallah. OK, very good. So in. But what can we do? Well, that's a there's a there's hopefully we hope that by the end of the program, you'll have some ideas about what to do. We've been talking about what to do for some weeks here, and it depends on what nation you're in. And yes, Minami took the words out of my mouth. The second thing I was going to say, the provocation. So we have the provocation about approaching Ramadan and everything that the people of Gaza are going are being subject to. And on top of that, Minami says from Bangladesh that Palestinians are now being restricted from praying at Masjid al-Aqsa during Ramadan, which every single year without fail, they find a way to do something to
particularly al-Aqsa in order to escalate, in order to provoke, in order to oppress and keep down. And so we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now and always to liberate the people of Palestine and to give them victory against their oppressors. In other news, we've had, let's say, one of the themes of watching the news, and many of us these days, I am the first one guilty. I'm guilty of being addicted to the news, probably in an unhealthy way. I should listen to Kai's advice. That we've seen a disconnect between the Muslim masses and the Muslim leaders, right? We've seen the Muslim leaders in the most callous of ways, if not even profiting off of the occupation and attempting to normalize it with their deals, then at the very, very least, preventing the people of this ummah who care from intervening in some sort of way and helping in whatever way they can. And so we have a couple videos of the feelings, and just to demonstrate the disconnect between the average Muslim, the ummah, the ummah and the people who are in charge over them. On the other hand, we have one video. Let's go to the guys in the studio from the uncle from Turkey. So again, you see how the Muslim ummah is actually feeling what the Prophet ﷺ told us to feel. We would rather it be us than it be the people of Gaza. We would rather us be the ones who put ourselves forward to sacrifice ourselves so that they could be free and Palestine could be free. But we find ourselves limited by borders, by checkpoints, by all these sorts of obstacles,
and then the governments, the people who are supposed to represent us, not representing us, stopping us from sending aid, stopping us from going and helping. We have so many doctors here in the United States. I'm sure if the doctors of the United States were able to travel to Gaza and just uphold the health care system of Gaza by themselves, then they would do so. But we're prevented from doing that. We have another video, I think, of a gentleman, a brother or an uncle from Egypt. Now watch what he was doing. Let's get this up from the guys in the studio. Now there was an aid truck passing by his fruit stand. Now he's just a simple man selling fruit, I think oranges. And he sees the aid truck. Someone tells him it's going to the people of Palestine. Someone tells him it's going to Gaza. And he just starts taking the fruit from his stands and heaving it on whatever he can give. And this is tremendously significant because this is the pulse of the ummah. Don't let anybody let you feel like the ummah does not care for the Palestinians. We haven't figured out yet. True, we have not figured out yet how to free our brothers and sisters there or how to stop the genocide against them. But the people of the ummah, our hearts are with the people of Palestine. Our hearts are with the people of Gaza. And if you were to let it up, if the rulers or if the governments of the world truly represented the people that they purport to represent, then we would be in a much better position. So we ask Allah for aid and assistance and to aid our brothers and to remove the obstacles from us to truly help. Yes, exactly MB. We all feel like the oranges guy, the guy selling oranges. And especially, and I'll put this out there as I always do, the Muslims in the United States of America have the greatest responsibility.
Just this week, I think just yesterday, there was an introduction of yet another, yet another move for a ceasefire, this time by Algeria to the UN. And guess who was the only nation to veto it? It was the United States of America. So for all of those in the United States, the Muslims of the United States, we have a very urgent and acute duty to stop our government support for everything that is going on. It has taken us too long. We have some good things that are moving, but we have to move quicker. We have to really push ourselves forward as best we can. And we ask Allah to aid us. Pivoting to our next segment for tonight, we have a very special guest. We'd like to bring him on for the studio. And it's very apropos for our current events. We're talking about all of what's happening in Palestine. Well, for those of you who are familiar with the United States, then you should be familiar with CARE, the Council of American Islamic Relations. One of the foremost, if not the foremost organization that assists Muslims in the United States in navigating the terrain with the government, whether that comes to our rights as citizens, whether that comes to foreign policy. Let's just say that we could probably do good to clone CARE a few times. We need several organizations doing the work that CARE does. So we have with us in the studio Hossam Ayloush, who, subhanAllah, when I was reading your bio, you're, first of all, Mashallah, very accomplished. Second of all, you are the executive director of CARE LA, among other things. And is it true that you took that position in 1999, and you have been there since? Is that true? I would say in 98.
First of all, salamu alaykum to all the listeners and the viewers. Yes, it was 1998. Okay. So I was nine years old at the time when you accepted that position. Of course, I was not a Muslim. And just to give the sense of longevity, Mashallah, and the work that you have done for our sliver of the ummah, we're talking loads of experience. So we hope to benefit from your experience tonight. And thank you very much for joining the program. Mubarak, thank you for having me. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from all of us, inshallah. Ameen, ya Rabb. So in California, something was released. Well, let's start back a little bit. I want you to sort of give, for maybe the uninitiated listener, a quick rundown of what C.A.R.E. is, what C.A.R.E. does, sort of how it's structured and how it fits into the Muslim life in the United States. C.A.R.E. stands for the Council on American Islamic Relations, which is the largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization in the country, focusing on protecting the rights of Muslims to practice their faith at the workplace, at schools and public life. Also challenge bigotry in general, challenge Islamophobia, whether it's the entertainment media or news media, challenge misrepresentation of Islam, challenge attempts to defame Islam and Muslims by various Islamophobic entities, 80, 90 percent of them being Zionist, usually, driven. We also focus on, I would say, empowering the American Muslim community politically by engaging in civic engagement practices, training youth leadership, engaging Muslims politically so they can know who are their elected officials, what are the issues, make sure they vote, make sure they are connected. So this is the C.A.R.E. 501c3, the C.A.R.E. non-profit organization. C.A.R.E. is part of an ecosystem.
You know, there's also a C.A.R.E. C4, C.A.R.E. Action C4, which is the C4 branch of C.A.R.E., which allows for a little bit more involvement in lobbying on, you know, on issues of importance to the Muslim community with candidates. And then there's the C.A.R.E. PAC, the PAC, the Political Action Committee, which focuses on supporting candidates who are friendly to our causes and challenging candidates who are promoting bigotry, repression and injustice around the world. Each is run independently, in a sense, but it's part of an ecosystem. And maybe explain, C.A.R.E. is based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1994, so that's the main office. But we do have a chapter in most major states in the country. And within the state, for example, in California, there's C.A.R.E. California, which, you know, I happen to be the CEO of C.A.R.E. California. But under C.A.R.E. California, there are four offices in San Diego, the L.A. area, which I'm the E.D. for. And then there's San Francisco Bay Area, Sister Zahra is the E.D. And the Sacramento chapter were Brother Basim and in San Diego, Sister Tazine. Excellent. So you have your foot in all of them, correct? So you have C.A.R.E., CEO of C.A.R.E. California, and then Executive Director of C.A.R.E. L.A. And then what's your involvement specifically with C.A.R.E. PAC and the other? Sort of initiatives. Personally, I try not to be too involved, but due to the tragedy happening in Gaza and the election season being at the same time, I was called upon to come back and help a little bit more. So I volunteer usually evening and weekend work for that type of work, because it's also something that is dear to my heart, because I do believe real change in America or changing policies in America can only happen when we organize politically.
Yes. And that's something I think that a lot of Muslims in America are waking up to, that we're not necessarily outfunded or outmanned. We're mostly outorganized. And C.A.R.E. is a really essential part of that organization. Now, in the past week, I believe, a voter guide, when we can bring up, I think, the cover of the studio from the studio, was released. Now, this was released by the C.A.R.E. PAC or which exact organization released this voter guide? Sure. This was released by the C.A.R.E. PAC itself, because as a non-profit C3, 501C3 organization, whether it's a masjid, whether it's yaqeen, it cannot support any specific races, because that would be illegal. That would be a violation of the tax laws. So this was the PAC, the Political Action Committee. Yes. And so explain to us, what was the need for this particular voting guide? Is this the first of its kind? Is this something that is common or is this something that Muslims up until now have not paid significant enough attention to where this is perhaps where our energies need to be going with this type of thing? Perfect. Very good question, actually. This is not the first one. We've actually been in existence as PAC. The PAC has existed since 2004, 20 years ago, actually. And it has issued election guide, voter guide, every election, you know, mostly the general election, but sometimes the primaries like this one. This year's primary elections, which is the election before the general election, where people get to choose the two top candidates in California. In other states, you choose the main candidate for each of the main political parties. We have something called the jungle primaries, where it could be two Democrats or two Republicans as the top two candidates moving into the general election.
But this year, it became more important because obviously, we decided to make the focus of this election for us. Usually, we rate candidates based on many factors, you know, their views on Islamophobia, their views on Muslim engagement, their views on justice, Palestine, Kashmir, Syria, things that are dear to the Muslim community, you know, the protection of Muslim youth at schools and so on. In this case, this year, we decided to make the issue about one issue, and that is where do candidates stand on the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza? Those who support the genocide were obviously not supported or opposed, and those who support the ceasefire and end to the genocide were supported. So this makes it more unique. So we have about a million Muslims in California, one of the largest population of Muslims in any state in America. So it's extremely important for Muslims to have a say because who makes it to the general election is extremely important. So that's why this year's primary was well received by the community. Yeah, mashallah. And that's what I was going to point out that some people could argue, and my first degree is in political science, actually, that the primaries are almost more important in some sense than a general election. The general election, you're choosing between two options, but primaries, you're choosing the choices, you actually have an effort to or an opportunity rather to influence who everybody gets to choose from. Now, statistically, unfortunately, there's usually much less turnout for the primaries than there is for the general election, which is backwards, really.
I mean, if you had to choose between the two, if you wanted to schedule your, I don't know, your umrah during either the primary election or the general election, then we would say schedule it during the general election and go vote in the primaries because you're going to have perhaps a larger impact on what is the result of the election than just choosing between two prepackaged candidates. And maybe to add a point, Imam Tom, on the issue, because the turnout is so low, so if Muslims are only 5% or 3% of the population, since voter turnout is lower, that 5% would be equivalent to 8% and 10% if we vote in large numbers. So that is actually an important point. That's crucial. That's crucial. Because too often I hear that the defeatist mentality say, oh, we're just 1% of the population. What can we do? When in reality, you know, district by district, we know that the congressional districts are chopped up in ways to benefit this party or that party. But, you know, depending on the district, we actually have a lot of voting power. We're finding that out with Michigan. Now the incumbent president is sort of terrified as what's going down in Michigan. People are, I think their primary is within 10 days and they are voting uncommitted or they're choosing to do whatever they're going to choose to do. You know, this is a big deal. People are sort of slowly waking up to the power that the Muslims have. And as Sami Hamdi says, because we like to quote Sami Hamdi as often as we can here, the only people who believe that the Muslims are powerless is the Muslims. And maybe to reemphasize that point. I mean, I think there are two factors, if I may talk about, because I hear that from a lot of community members. You know, who are we? We're little. We don't make a difference.
Number one, you don't need to make a difference. Honestly, you have to do something because this crime, this genocide is an American, is a Biden genocide against Palestinians. So it's our tax money, our veto power, our political, our diplomatic government support that makes it happen. It is as much of an American war on Palestinians as it is Israeli. So we are indirectly responsible. So at least in front of Allah, regardless of the results, we have to stand in front of Allah and say, we tried our best. So that is the minimum. Now, Alhamdulillah, actually, I do believe we can make a difference. Actually, Biden believes he can make a difference. Think about it. There are two billion Muslims around the world, two billion Muslims. But Biden and his administration decided to send the top officials of his administration as a delegation not to visit Muslims in Pakistan or in Egypt, where there are 200 million or 100 million, or in Turkey or Morocco, or they send them to where? To Michigan. Because he knows that although there are only 200,000 Muslims, of which maybe 120 vote, imagine 120,000 of them vote. He deemed 120,000 Muslim voters in Michigan more important than the rest of the two billion Muslims because they can make him win or lose his presidential re-election. So let's, let's believe in ourselves a little bit more. Yeah, that's a fantastic point. Now, last question on this front before I change it up a little bit. This particular type of activity that the CARE PAC has done with putting out voting guides, is this something that the market is saturated and CARE has so much time that this is just something that, you know, you're looking for something to do? Or is this something that is a pressing need that we really need more organizations doing this type of work across the country in different areas?
I mean, I'm hoping it's a rhetorical question, as I assume, alhamdulillah. It is certainly a necessity. It is completely crucial necessity today to build two things. What makes politics change or policies change is politicians, elected officials, and what get elected officials in office are two things. One, votes. And number two, financial support, campaign support. So we need to be active on both fronts. Votes, meaning, yes, we talk about swing states, you know, seven, eight swing states, Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, obviously Michigan, etc. But also there are swing districts, congressional districts. Election is not just about choosing the president, because people might tell me, who do we choose? You know, do we choose Biden, who's swimming in Palestinian blood, or Trump, who has been very anti-Muslim and anti-minorities? Well, maybe, maybe neither one. Maybe you can't tell the lesser of two evils in this case and skip that one. But there are hundreds of other races, from congressional to the state assembly to mayors, city councils, who impact policies. Of course, especially Congress impacts foreign policy. So we need to make sure that we organize Muslims to vote in areas where we can make a difference. Some elections are won or lost by 100 or 1,000 or 2,000 votes. I can tell you, in most congressional districts today, we have 8,000 to 10,000 Muslim voters who can make a difference. So that is important. So it is crucial. The other area, other aspect of politics is the financial support. Yes, we can't continue to complain about bad elected officials. There are some good ones. Yes, it's the minority, it's not the majority, because it is difficult for good ones to make it into Congress, because good people don't believe that good elected officials can make it. It's a possibility. So we have to stop believing that way. We have to stop looking for the perfect candidate.
Omar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, or Aisha bint Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with them, are not running for office. We have to acknowledge that whoever is running, we're going to look for the ones who bring the most good and the least of harm. And yes, most times, we can tell. It's not that difficult. I know we say, they're all bad. Well, maybe sometimes they're all bad. But most times, there's someone who will bring, maybe someone who's racist, but maybe not in support of a genocide. That's a good start. And maybe someone who's actually against occupation. We have to become a little bit more nuanced in order to make that difference in Toronto. Yeah, and I would add to that, thinking sequentially and beyond just one election, I think a lot of our failure to strategize in the Muslim community has only been looking at the election right in front of us. And then that results in exactly the attitude you're talking about. Well, it's like, oh, well, no one's perfect. They're both evil. They're both this, as opposed to, okay, well, in the meantime, we might choose this person compared to this other person. And now let's come up with a strategy so that come next election, we're going to have two qualitatively better candidates and continue to push in a certain direction. That's, I think, where we need to get to. I would send the message that there is appetite for principled candidates around there, because now they think you have to be corrupt, because they only hear from AIPAC and its likes. Actually, if they start hearing from people who care about ending racism, poverty in America, challenging bigotry, challenging occupation, appetite, then I can tell you there are a lot of good ones who might, there are a lot of ones who are on the fence. And if they feel there's an appetite among voters for that, they will feel more encouraged to do and say the right thing. Great point. So I want to change direction here for a second, just to continue sort of a thread of conversation we started last week on this program, when we were talking about the nonprofit ecosystem in North America for the Muslims.
And sort of the, I think there's a coming to terms with the lack of standards, just because there have been some groups or some individuals who have now, who have engaged in, let's say, normalization with Israel, or others who have not been very helpful, or some that have been actually actively harmful. Some that got involved with MLI, some that got involved with CVE. And we don't have the time necessarily, you know, everybody in the audience can go look up those programs. But there's been sort of a new, a renewed level of scrutiny to organizations. Now, what hasn't happened is a general across the board effort to try to come up with a list of ethical standards, or some sort of mechanisms by which we would hold these organizations accountable. I want your general thoughts on that. And I guess specifically, if you have anything in mind, like what should be a red line for either an individual or an organization, let's just talk on Palestine, where there should be some sorts of consequences for that organization, or individual if they were to cross? I mean, we can't watch our brothers and sisters being slaughtered and not draw a line somewhere. And that line is anyone who normalizes with organizations or individuals who justify this genocide, who dehumanize Palestinians, they should be put on a warning. I'm not into immediately punishing, because I think there are ranges of why people make mistakes. Obviously, the most extreme, there are people who are, you know, sell out, they're working, they're on the payroll of other foes who are undermining the community. But there are people who make innocent mistakes. There are people who make bad judgment, people whose priorities are different.
I've sat with people who said, well, I have to work with the Zionists in order to have a seat at the table. Well, no, you're not going to have a seat at the table. They're using you to basically normalize their presence and cover up for their Islamophobia. And we can prove that. But once we've made the nasiha, once we've made the advice, and we've told them this is a correction, obviously, the checks and balances are going to be the accountability to the community. And I know the term community is a very loose, elastic thing. But I'm talking about mainstream community. When we need an umbrella organization, such as maybe USCMO, for example, the United States Council of Muslim Organizations, that can bring together respected mainstream Muslim organizations. We need things like the Fuqa Council of America, of North America, where our scholars get together. So we can say what is mainstream, because otherwise everybody says, well, I consulted with my imam. I talked to my community. I talked to my people. So there must be a well-defined reference point. So when we have groups like USCMO, when we have Fuqa Councils, when we have AMJA, the organization that brings scholars, they can set the red lines, whether it's on the issue of Palestine or any other issue that is pertaining to Muslim affairs and values. I mean, we've seen that going left and right quite often. The concept of canceling people on the first mistake, people who are well-intended, I'm not a big fan of it. I mean, that should be the last resort, but sometimes it needs to happen when people refuse again and again. The power of the grassroots, the power of donors, because donation is what keeps organizations functional. And eventually, yes, calling out, if calling in didn't work out, yes, when people commit, as the prophet, peace be upon him, taught us, if people make sins and mistakes that are in public, that impact people publicly, then maybe a correction that is public is necessary at that time.
Now, that's wonderfully stated and very mature. And I think that we do have to thread a needle here. We have to walk a tightrope. Unfortunately, I've been in enough spaces, many of us have been very politicized to a new level after October. And in so many WhatsApp groups, I can't keep up with everything now. But on one hand or on one extreme, I've seen people using the Adup card or using different things to guilt people or to silence people from holding organizations accountable. And that's not good. But we also don't want what you're saying, which is the other extreme, which is basically you make one slip up and you're gone and you're done for. And it's, you know, you're bringing up something someone did seven years ago. For all you know, they've repented. Okay, maybe you could argue that they should issue a public apology. Maybe that's fair. But there's a whole range of sort of things I think that need to happen between those two extremes. Do you have any sort of maybe preliminary thoughts on what could be beyond a warning? What could be sort of like a ladder of escalation of consequences that we could think up of for either an individual or an organization? Yeah, I think once there are two fronts in our community for those who value the community as a Muslim community, because some don't, by the way, some are driven by other factors, maybe their Arab identity, Pakistani identity, you know, but from a Muslim perspective, obviously, for us, there is the consensus of scholars, what is acceptable in terms of defining this is causing harm. And I think the escalation should come from organized groups, you know, respective scholars making, drawing the line and saying this is not this is a line we won't accept, selling out Palestinians, describing them as, you know, in some of the dehumanization that happens today.
I think from a political perspective, from a legitimacy perspective, that's why organizations such as USCMO come in very handy. The escalation could be calling people for a meeting, asking for a clarification. Why did you say that? Because sometimes, you know, people make Ijtihad thinking this was the right thing. Once they're corrected, and if they refuse, I think that's when we can escalate in terms of public statements, letting people know. And it should be done collectively also shouldn't be one group against another group, you know, together as a community, we can come together and say, hey, XYZ. And by the way, we're talking about politicians who are Muslim, who might do things, you know, 80% great things we like and 10% questionable, and maybe 5% we disagree with and 5% we can debate about how do we deal with that? Because also for me, I worry about the passion of Muslims that if it goes unchecked, you know, the young activist Muslim, who end up shooting ourselves in the foot, basically, undermining some of the more, imagine, I'll speak bluntly, Sister Rashida Tlaib, for example, Congresswoman from Michigan, who has done more to publicize the pain and suffering of Palestinian people in Congress and in America more so than anybody else, by virtue of being Palestinian, connected, etc. Yes, she might have done or said things that people don't agree with, but the amount of viciousness that I've seen, trying to undermine her, in a way, it makes us lose that important voice. It doesn't mean we don't, there's a way to criticize, you can say publicly, hey, Hussam Ayloush, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Imam so and so, you said this, this was inaccurate, I disagree with you, I hope you correct. But if it's just a statement, if it's not a persistent attempt to undermine the community, we have to also learn about the concept of agreeing to disagree.
We're not talking about an Aqeedah issue, right? We're not talking about somebody saying, I believe you can do this, Islamically speaking, we're talking about politics, somebody had a judgment, they said, you know what, I'm going to vote on this issue or vote on that issue. We can still disagree on this and say, all right, but we're going to move on, on the other important, because we always have to put the interest of the community. And if people, I can tell you some of those who are engaging in ways to harm the community, it is being done persistently. And it's done sometimes with complete disregard to the community, because their foundation is not the community. And that's where we have to, you know, for those ones, how do you deal with it? It is by telling the community, you know, it's a free country, everybody can organize the way they want, but at least they're outside of the consensus of the community. Let's face it, and I'll conclude with this, the biggest challenge we have today, you know, that we all can recognize is that we don't have yet a good, strong structure that brings our community in an organized, unified way. We're not going to have complete unity, but there must be some agreement on what are the red lines, the general outline of our work, of what is acceptable, what are the interests of the community today. And of course, there are many factors for that, you know, there's money coming from some countries, you know, that have an agenda, funding scholars, funding activism. We have U.S. interests, you know, I can tell you political parties engaging with Muslim communities to have their ambassadors to the Muslim community, rather than, you know, some people who serve with political parties forget that they're representatives of the Muslim community and the interest with the party. They think it's the other way around.
So, I mean, and then there are people who have personal interest for themselves, you know, it could be very narrow-minded nationalistic, maybe they like this political party in Pakistan, for example, and this candidate supports that, so they're willing to shake hands with, you know, a former IDF candidate, because that gives them that visibility or that access. So, it's a lot of factors, but unfortunately, we're not there yet, but alhamdulillah, we're on track to make that clear. Yeah, that's really great. And that's a great point to end on. I think that it's certainly a lot easier to take the social media and blast somebody than it is to roll up your sleeves and create the structures and the accountability and to pull together as many people as you can to come up with a system that will fairly keep people in check and accountable. That's difficult work, but that's the work we need right now. We have so many people who can criticize from the comfort of their armchairs. We've got plenty of those, probably too many, but how many people do we have that are going to create the structures that will actually create change and accountability? That's something that most people, well, let's leave it on an optimistic note. That's what needs to be done. So, you have any final thoughts, Hussam? It really was great having you on the program tonight. Any final thoughts you'd like to leave us with? Great pleasure and honor to be on the show, mashallah. May Allah reward you, not to praise you in your face, but this is so important. What you're doing is actually key in educating, enlightening our community. I just want to finalize. I know maybe audiences outside of the U.S. might not like that, but at this point, and I don't say that with any arrogance, it's actually a responsibility. The role and the responsibility and duty of American Muslims is a unique, crucial role today in the world because Allah has blessed us with access, with privileges, the privilege of being able to vote, freedom.
I know we talk about our brothers and sisters in Gaza, subhanallah. Wallahi, they have taught us if what is happening in Gaza has not awakened us, not awakened the importance of uniting the ummah, doing goodness, forgiving each other when we do mistakes and shortcomings, focusing on the big picture, our brothers and sisters are being slaughtered. Every 15 minutes, a Palestinian child is being killed, two being orphaned, three maybe or two are being maimed. So we have to do something and no one in the entire world, no person in the entire world can change U.S. foreign policy which are causing this genocide other than American voters and specifically among all Muslims around the world, it is American Muslims. It's a responsibility. I hope everybody takes it seriously and join hands with whatever local efforts that are sincere happening in their community to make sure that we make that change. I'm very hopeful inshallah ta'ala in the next 5 to 10 years, we're going to see major shift in U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East and thanks to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for that and then the work of the American Muslim community. Barakallafi khalsan. Thank you so much. Take care. And the question is, okay, who gets to decide what takes them out of Islam? And so this is an issue that would have to be returned to the scholars. Not to say that this isn't something that happens. No, it does happen. And it happens with unfortunate frequency.
But we're stuck in between, I think, a couple extremes where we jump at the opportunity to sort of pummel people or where we give someone too many excuses, right? Both of those extremes are undesirable. We don't want either of them. We want to actually do exactly what we say, whether it's the Council of North America or Amjad or other bodies. We want to come up with standards. We want to have rapport. We want to do things that it's not just you as an individual or me as an individual criticizing somebody or questioning somebody's Islam on the Internet. You know, okay, maybe we'll go viral. Maybe we'll get a couple hundred thousand likes or views or something like that. Maybe we'll change some opinions. But will we actually have solved the problem? I think that's the maturity that needs to happen in our thinking. That actually it's in the interest of all of us to create the structures that are able to hold that level of accountability and turn the screws tighter. That we're able to identify and to have, for example, a major fiqh council come out and say that this person, X person, is speaking on behalf of a community that they no longer represent because they have left it. Without necessarily maybe moving into takfir because that's mukheef shoya. I mean, this is sort of scary territory, but that would be up to the council. I think what Hussam was saying is a key structural process point that making this an issue of bodies and collectives instead of an issue of individuals. I think that that is the safest thing because the Prophet ﷺ told us that a riyat, right, showing off is like a black ant on a black rock in the middle of the moonless night. That the ego is extremely slippery and evasive and it's extremely difficult to parse out if you're only speaking as an individual.
You're only speaking from your own perspective on your own channel. Extremely difficult to tell. Is it really just Islam that you're defending or are you flexing your own ego? Are you sort of putting somebody down because you benefit either financially or reputation or any other sort of way? We remove that potential conflict of interest when we work in collectives and we're able to actually have recognized bodies that are able to do this type of work, which is something that is needed. So may Allah help us towards that. There's a lot of work to do, everybody. Okay. In the meantime, there is a lot of work to do. There's a lot of work to do when it comes to society, when it comes to politics, and there's a lot of work to do when it comes to ourselves. And the extent of your success in this dunya is going to be limited. If we want to talk about, I think last week with our book on leadership rules, like the law of the lid. Okay. The real law of the lid, we could say Islamically, is your sincerity and your worship and your connection with Allah ﷻ. That that's the real lid on what you are able to do. And so, let's turn now to our segment when it comes to ilm. We're going to be talking about the dhikr of the morning and the evening, but first we're going to note the fact that we have entered into the holy month of Sha'ban. And the month of Sha'ban, the Prophet ﷺ would fast the most in this month in any other month that wasn't Ramadan. I believe it was Hadith Aisha when she would recount the habits of the Prophet ﷺ in Sha'ban. It was almost as if he was fasting a second Ramadan. He would fast most of it, nearly all of it.
And there is tremendous wisdom to this. And I had some people approach me privately today and they were asking me about the salah, which we've been talking about extensively these past weeks. And how do you have khushu' in your salah? How do you have awareness and presence in your prayer? And I gave the example of a runway. If you guys have ever been on a plane or seen a plane take off, you know that the plane is not a helicopter. The plane can't just lift and levitate off into the air from nothing. That it needs a very long runway to be able to pick up speed and then it has the ability to take off. And if you were to shorten that runway, then perhaps instead of taking off, that plane would just crash right into the trees or it would sink into the lake. It would not have what was necessary to build up the speed to properly take off. Well, imagine that your salah, okay, we've talked about the ways in which your salah is like that plane taking off. You need that long runway, whether it's listening to the adhan and then paying attention during your wudu' and all these sorts of things, right? Now, your fasting is just like that. Your fasting is just like your prayer in the sense that you need a long runway. If I don't fast a single day of the year, except I start my fasting for Ramadan, the first of Ramadan, what are going to be the consequences? That I'm going to lose the first week of Ramadan feeling terrible, headaches, blood sugars all over the place. I'm going to feel, you know, my sleep schedule is all out of whack. It's going to be a hard experience and I'm never going to get the most out of my Ramadan.
But if you treated Sha'ban the month before Ramadan as the Prophet ﷺ treated it, then you will have created for yourself a nice runway. You will have a long stretch where you can accustom yourself to praying a little bit at night and fasting during the day and you're in the zone so that when the first of Ramadan hits, you're locked in, you're ready, you hit the ground running, right? And so this is one of the tremendous wisdoms of fasting Sha'ban as much as you can. Now, we've got something in, let's have the guys in the studio bring up, we've got some of the adhkar of the morning and the evening and there's quite a few of them. So we're not able to go through all of them, but we'll just mention a few here. You can read the Arabic for the sake of time. I'll just read the English. We call upon Allah, O the everliving, the sustainer of all. I seek assistance through you, through your mercy. Rectify all of my affairs and do not entrust me to myself for the blink of an eye. And that is extremely significant. It's extremely significant. Imagine we've said before, this is how you are starting off your day. This is how you're structuring your day, right? Is that you are going to go throughout the rest of your day. You're doing your, whether you're at home with the kids or you're teaching or you're learning or you're at school or you're at your work, right? Don't leave me to myself. Not even for a second because you by yourself cannot do very much, but we rely upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and when you are relying upon Allah, you are able to do anything.
In fact, Allah puts barakah, he puts blessing on what you do. See, we make a mistake in our modern era where we think that any second is like any other second or any minute is like any other minute and that's just not true. These things are not equal and if you've ever sat in a class that you didn't particularly like, you know that this is true because you've watched the clock tick while you were waiting for the class to end and the clock seems to be moving very, very slowly, right? And then you've been in other situations where you're at a wedding or you're at a party for a friend or you're at Eid and time flies by. You look at your watch or you look at the clock and all of a sudden it's been two hours and it seems like it was two minutes, right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can make time like that, just like he can make money like that, just like he can make effort like that. And so this is barakah, right? Or the opposite of barakah, depends. And so we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to not leave us alone, to allow us to have that barakah that he is constantly watching over us, that we are dependent upon him. He sustains us for everything. We're asking his assistance, we're asking for his mercy. He's the one that can rectify your affairs. All the problems in your life, whether it's a problem with your spouse, a problem with your kids, a problem with your parents, a problem at school, a problem at work, a problem in your homeland, a political problem, an economic problem, whatever it is, if you were left to yourself to try to figure it out and solve it, you would fail. Or maybe of the 10 or 20 or 50 problems that you have to do, you would solve one or two of them by yourself. But with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it would become possible. Allah azawajal makes the impossible possible. He can make the fire cool like he did for Ibrahim alayhi salam. He can make the water dry or the river part as he did for Musa alayhi salam. He is capable of that and much more.
Let's go to the studio for just one more and then we'll move on to our final segments. So we see here that this is perspective, that part of the meanings of the remembrances of the morning and the evening are about keeping perspective. We lose perspective very, very easily. We move through our day. We have our problems. We have our tasks. We have our deadlines. We have our jobs and responsibilities. And then what happens if we just wake up and go right to our tasks or if we do our tasks right up until the point where we fall asleep, we lose perspective. The dhikr of the morning and the evening is supposed to keep us on track. What is the perspective? How does this all fit together? That every night when you lay yourself down, Allah takes your life away in a sense. Sleep is the cousin of death. Allah can end everything right there and you wouldn't know it. You wouldn't be able to fight back against it. There's nothing that you could do. Okay? And so if he has that power over you, then you have nothing left to do but to submit to him and to ask him to have mercy when he does finally take your soul in that final way. And you ask him to give it back to you so that you can continue your work and continue his work on this world. I think we'll, since we went a little bit over with our other program, we'll cut that short for today. There are many. There are over 12 in this book, remembrances for the morning and the evening. And all of them have very, very deep meanings that have to be reflected upon in order to truly benefit.
And truly, we're not just trying to ape or imitate what the Prophet ﷺ did, though that's true. We do want to do that. We also want to embody the attitude that he had. We also want to take the benefit from what he did and have the same perspective that he had. And you can't do that with just the external sort of structure. You also have to meditate on the meanings as well. So turning back to our leadership book here, we had some homework. Can we bring that up, what the homework was for last week? It was rating yourself. And I would ask everybody to share. Ask everybody to share if you were with us last week. You were supposed to rate your leadership. And then you're supposed to ask somebody else to rate your leadership. Okay. We won't be able to share our results in detail. But let's say, what was in general your feedback that you got for those who completed the exercise? Were you a – okay, we have Angel did the homework. So tell us, Angel. Was the feedback, were you a better leader than you thought you were? Did the person who rated your leadership rate you higher or lower than what you thought? This particular book, Pestify, is by John C. Maxwell. It's the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. So we're looking for people to share. What were the results? How did you – mashallah. Okay, that's significant, Angel. So this is really important. So Angel rated her own leadership. And then she had her mother rate her leadership. And she found that her mother rated her higher. This is extremely important. And in my time as an imam, I found this is true. That there's two types of people in general. Some people, they are extremely confident. And other people, they tend to criticize themselves.
They're very, very conscientious. And if you are extremely conscientious, you will tend to criticize yourself so much that other people see something in you that you don't see in yourself. So it's important, then, to take shura and to realize and to have confidence, right? In addition to paying attention to the things that you can improve, obviously. But to understand this about yourself, that you tend to beat yourself up. And I can raise my hand and tell you that I am like this. I beat myself up a lot. I am my own harshest critic, definitely. I'm always picking apart the things that I should have done better. Why didn't I do it? I could have done this. I could have done that, right? And so that's something that I just have to take into account when I'm rating myself or I'm thinking about myself or I'm critiquing myself. Whereas other people, mashallah, you know, you see that they think that they're doing amazing. And then really someone has to break it to them that actually, you know, you're not as great as you think you are. And then this can be something that's another test. It's another type of test. So even to just compare your own answers to somebody else's is an exercise in sort of realizing what's the difference between how I look at myself and how other people look at themselves. And that's something which is very informative. Yes, definitely. So for this week, we've got a couple things that we want to get through, okay? So first of all, we have something that the author says is reminds me of what I would call like a definition of power. And that's not his language, but it is very, very central to it. This week, we talk about the law of influence. And the subtitle is the true measure of leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, my own reflection on this is very similar because in the political science world that I have, you know, some training and experience in, a lot of people confuse power with access. And we've learned this the hard way in the United States of America.
People think that getting invited to the White House iftar, you've made it. You know, you have access with the president. You get invited to talk to this person or that person. And we think that that is power. Oh, now they'll listen to us. That's not what power is. They will give you the selfies and they'll give you sort of the accolades and this sort of thing all day long. Real power is the ability for a lot of people to do the same thing at the same time. Collective movement. Collective action. That is what power is. If you have even 10 doctors in a hospital, let's say that their hospital makes a statement in support of Israel. 10 doctors decide one day we're going to walk out the same day we're going to refuse to give our services to this hospital. Ah, look at the power there. Just 10 people. If they had done it individually, there would have been no power. But if they did it together, all of a sudden, that's power. Mashallah, Nusaybah has a really interesting reflection. It was helpful that you asked to think about leadership in the family setting. I'm used to doing this at work, but getting some insight from my husband about my leadership at home was an eye-opener. I have the same experience, Nusaybah, 100%. Right? Mashallah, that's cool to hear. So he rated you higher than you rated yourself. I know as parents, we always think that we're failing. Most parents, I feel, you know, are definitely going to bring up their shortcomings. So that was an eye-opener for me as well because these things are fairly common in the workplace and for careers. But leadership, as the Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith, is something, that every single one of you is a shepherd and you're responsible for your flock. So we have to open up our mind about leadership and think about leadership in a more holistic way that we actually have influence on all of those around us. Right? And that's actually the point of this chapter. That leadership is the law of influence.
And so we go through some myths about leadership that help clarify our ideas about what leadership is and what leadership isn't. And these myths are super, super common, which I found good to go through. So we've got, I think, five. Yes. One is what he calls the management myth. Okay? The myth that leaders are the same as managers. Or that managers necessarily make good leaders. That this is not true. That this is a myth. And he distinguishes the two by saying that managers can maintain a direction, but often they cannot change it. Systems and processes can only do so much. To move people in a new direction, you need influence. And so that's what we're talking about. That if leadership is influence, then you basically, in order to influence somebody, you have to convince them that what they're currently doing either is wrong or that it could be done better. And you're basically trying to convince or influence somebody to act differently. And especially if you're trying to build power, you're trying to influence someone to follow you and to do the same thing that you're doing at a certain particular time. The second myth that he identifies is what he calls the entrepreneur myth. And this is very common today. We have all these people, if you're an entrepreneur, you open up a YouTube channel, you get some sort of pyramid scheme going, and you're very, very famous. You get a lot of clicks and followers. Okay, this doesn't actually make you a good leader, because being an entrepreneur is different from being a leader. An entrepreneur, he says, is somebody who sees opportunities and goes after opportunities. They understand what people need, and they try to meet that need in a way that produces profit. But not all of them are good at working with people, and many of them find it very, very difficult to influence people. And so that's the key rub there. If you're not influencing people, then you can't really be a leader.
The third is the knowledge myth. The knowledge myth. So this is the assumption that the smartest person in the room is the leader. And that's not always necessarily true from the same sort of line of thinking, that leadership is about influence. And you can go into any major university or college in the world, and you see that there's tons of smart people. But what have we seen from the academic institutions of the Western world since October 7? We've seen cowardice. To be frank, we've seen cowardice. We have not seen bravery. We have not seen courage. And we certainly have not seen influence. Rather, they are the ones that are afraid of their jobs. They are afraid of going in front of Congress in a McCarthy-like hearing. So that's not leadership at all, because they're not really influencing anybody. The fourth is what he calls the pioneer myth, right? And he talks about a story about the first people to climb Mount Everest, etc. But the point that he's making here is that there is an assumption here that the leader is the person who's out in front, that the leader is the first person to do something. And that's not true, because you can be the first person to do something, but that doesn't mean that you've brought everybody with you or that you've brought anybody with you. That to be a leader is to be able to influence people to follow your lead. And the last one, and this one should be probably the most familiar to us, is what he calls the position myth, okay? So the position myth is basically the myth that just because you have the title, that this makes you a leader. I'm the Imam of the Masjid. That means I'm the leader. He's the CEO. She's the principal, right? That means that they're the leader. That's not true at all.
Leadership is about influence, and it's not about titles, because every Masjid and every community knows that there is that one community member, that if they were to leave and leave the community in an intentional way, that a whole bunch of people would leave that community with them. And so leadership is a very, very different thing from all of these things, that leadership is about influence, not about necessarily these other things. How do you get influence, okay? Influence is a function of several characteristics, and if you'd like to, then I would consider writing these down. Influence is not given to anybody. Influence is earned. Influence is earned. Influence is a function of character, what you do when no one else is looking. It's a factor of relationships. It's a factor of knowledge. Yes, knowledge has to do with it. There's also some intuition mixed in there. It's also a function of experience, often. It often has to do with past successes, too. People will trust you and follow you if you've demonstrated that you have succeeded in the past. And it also is a function of general ability to do things. So we've got seven sort of factors that help a person earn influence. So we can look at ourselves, and we could be frank, and we could say, okay, these are the sort of things that it takes to influence other people. Where am I at, and what opportunities do I have to develop myself? Now, before we conclude tonight's program, we have more homework for you for next week. This is going to be a really interesting thing. The homework for this week is you have to try to influence three people. And I'm going to do this, too, and I'm going to report back to you. Now, don't get panicked when we say influence somebody. We don't mean you're going to change the world or change a government policy or anything.
Hey, if you do, props to you. I'm happy for you, and I'll be praying for you. But just influence someone. It could be something very small. It could be what to have for lunch. It could be, you know, where to put a piece of furniture. It could be where to go on, you know, you want to go to a park or you want to go to do some sort of outdoor activity. But your homework is to try to influence three people this week, okay? One person, three types of people. Someone at your level, someone who's a peer of yours, okay? The second type of person you're going to try to influence is someone above your level. A supervisor, an older sibling, or an auntie, or a parent, yes. And then someone under your level, a child, someone from the next generation down, a student, this sort of thing, okay? So that's our homework, and we're going to all try, and we're going to come back, and we're going to see, was it easier to influence the people at our level or above us or below us? Let's experiment, and let's see what happens. Let's see. Noceba, that's a very nice analogy there. Leadership summed up by my favorite professor. Put the right people on the bus, take the wrong people off the bus, put the right people in the right seats, and get the bus going in the right direction. Yes, that's wonderful. We'll take any other sort of loose ends or questions that anybody has, and then we will end the program for tonight. I see a lot of people, a lot of courageous people here watching, mashallah. It's touching to see all of the work that everybody does in any capacity that you're able to. And when we talk about leadership, we're definitely not trying to downplay those sorts of efforts, but we are trying to amplify those efforts.
We are trying to say, how can we take this effort and these skills and actually make them even more impactful? As we approach Ramadan, would you share your Ramadan routine or any habit you do in this blessed month to make it extra beneficial? Okay, well, maybe there's a couple things. I like coffee, as many people know, and so there's two medhebs when it comes to coffee drinking, and that is you can either find a way to get your coffee, or you can wean yourself off of coffee in the month of Shaban so that you don't need coffee. Okay, so I am of the first medheb. I usually have coffee with my, I have an espresso with my suhoor, and I have an espresso with my iftar, and then maybe another one after taraweeh. And I know other people like Shakespeare Bradford, he recommends the slow release caffeine tablets. I know that's a new thing. I have not tried that, but he speaks highly of that. The second thing, on a more serious note, what I try to do, take khatam of the Qur'an serious. For those of you who are, you know, fluent in Arabic and able to benefit from the meanings of the Qur'an in Arabic, try to take seriously finishing the Qur'an multiple times in Ramadan, just to reconnect. Doesn't matter how far you've gone from the Qur'an outside of Ramadan, this is the month to bring yourself back. CommonTouch17 asks, can we subscribe to the program if we're new and from Europe? Yes, of course, 100%. Ahlan wa sahlan. Where are you from in Europe? There's nothing to do to subscribe except for tune in at this time every Wednesday.
Scanning for any easy homework. Angel says the homework's easy. I think it's also easier from before. Artforge, wa alaykum as-salam from Atlanta. Have fond memories of my time from Atlanta. Inshallah, I'll be coming back to Atlanta the second week of May. Okay, we have some coffee. We have some coffee lovers here as well. I'm an espresso person. Everything has to be espresso. Unsweetened Ethiopian coffee sounds really nice. Obviously, Mrs. S, when it comes with health reasons, of course, this is covered in the Qur'an by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you have health reasons, you know, there are either permanent health reasons or there are temporary health reasons. If there are permanent health reasons, then you don't even expect to make it up. So then you do fidya, right? You're feeding poor people in lieu of fasting. If you are hoping that you're going to get better, it's expected that you're going to get better, then this is something where you will make up the days after you have restored your health. Okay, chai for suhoor, mashallah. And after iftar. So we're on the same schedule. Okay, if there's no other questions, then thank you very much for everybody for tuning in. It's a pleasure and an honor every time, this time especially. And we hope to see you next week. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from us and from you. Subhanakallah wa muhammadakashara wa in la ilaha illa anta, astaghfirullah wa atubu ilayk.
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