Confident Muslim
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#ConfidentMuslim Shaffin Siddiqui on Using Your Skills to Help Others
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Did anyone notice when Salman started his organization? Anyone who was paying attention? Ninth grade. Many people wait until college to start getting active or after university to start getting active and to start thinking along those lines. And subhanallah, what you notice with all great activists is that they started young. And that passion was lit far before their university days, but sometimes in middle school, high school, or whatever it may be. Our next presenter is special in that sense. He is only 16 years old, going on to be a senior in high school. He is a hafidh of Qur'an, memorized the Qur'an very young. And many times when people memorize the Qur'an in their youth, they kind of move on and catch up on everything else. And he started an organization, a refugee education foundation in high school. And that's exactly what we're trying to find in our ummah, our people that are that dedicated, even from a young age, that want to use what was given to them for the benefit of people. So I want to welcome from Dallas, Texas, Shafin Siddiqui to present next. Jazakum Allah Khair. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillah wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa nasunna bi sunatihi wa ala yamuddin. So before I share my story, I would like to share with all of you the story of a very special companion of the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Hassan ibn Thabit radiallahu anhu. You see, Hassan radiallahu anhu, he was not the strongest of the companions, nor was he known for being a big bulky warrior of sorts. Rather, Hassan radiallahu anhu was a very faint hearted and frail individual.
He was noted to not participate in many of the expeditions and battles of the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. In fact, during the battle of the Ahzab, when the Muslims needed as many men as they could to man the trenches in Medina, Hassan was actually placed along with the women and the children. And when an enemy of the Muslims, an enemy combatant, tried to infiltrate the compound in which the women and the children were residing, they looked at Hassan and they said, Ya Hassan, do something about him. He's about to get in here and he's about to kill us. He's about to create havoc. And Hassan radiallahu anhu, not because he was a traitor, not because he had ill feelings for the religion, he simply didn't do anything. He just did not possess the mental and physical capacity to fight. It was just not one of his characteristics radiallahu anhu. But all because he could not defend this religion physically, didn't mean he didn't do anything. Rather, Hassan radiallahu anhu was of the most avid defenders of early Islam. You see, Hassan radiallahu anhu, he possessed an unparalleled linguistic ability, an eloquence of the Arabic language that made him of the most eloquent poets of Mecca. And when he converted to Islam, he put that talent in the way of Allah. When the Prophet radiallahu anhu was ridiculed, his religion mocked, he would call upon Hassan and he would say, Ya Hassan, respond on behalf of the Rasulallah radiallahu anhu, to the Quraysh's enmity with your poetry. And his ability to inspire the Muslims and put down their enemies by as simply as words was astounding. Later on, Aisha radiallahu anhu, she would see somebody badmouth Hassan, and she told that person, don't badmouth Hassan. Verily, he defended the Rasulallah salallahu alayhi wa sallam. My point is, brothers and sisters, is that Hassan possessed an extraordinary skill. And he used that skill and he benefited this ummah tremendously with it. And he did not let his overt weakness, the fact that he couldn't get on the battlefield and fight,
he didn't let that dominate his psychology. And he instead focused on his strengths and tapped into his abilities. So when I heard the story of Hassan ibn Thabit, I asked myself, what skill do I have? What skill do I possess that I could use to potentially serve the community? After all, I'm only 16 years old, can't even drive, still in high school, not much to work with here. But Alhamdulillah, I thought about it and I came to the realization that one of the ni'mahs Allah has bestowed upon me is the ability to, the opportunity to receive a robust Qur'anic education, such that I can read the Qur'an in its Arabic proficiently. And so I had many high school friends who they struggled to read the Qur'an. And so I started lending my hand around and about, but I didn't do anything major, just teaching Qur'an here and there. But then one day I was in Dallas downtown. And for those of you who don't know, Dallas downtown is a recipient city of many of the world's Muslim refugees, especially from Southeast Asia. Alhamdulillah, one day I was volunteering at the Dallas IKNA food bank, which supplies these refugees with food, and it hit me. Why don't I see if I can teach these refugees Qur'an, see if they need help with it. So I ask around, I'm taken to a local sheikh, and I tell him I want to help. And mashallah, his face immediately lit up with joy. He told me he was having a very rough time. He told me how he had been attempting to teach over 120 kids and counting how to read Qur'an. And he told me so many were lacking behind because he was unable to teach so many kids at one time. And he told me as time progressed that more and more kids just kept coming, and the tax just became more and more onerous. And he told me the only thing that was driving him, the only thing that was keeping him going, was hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ where he said, خيركم من تعلم القرآن وعلمه.
The best of you are those who teach the Qur'an, those who learn the Qur'an and teach it to others. So I want to pause here for a moment, brothers and sisters. I want you guys to imagine. Imagine if your child, your son or your daughter, didn't have the opportunity to learn to read the Qur'an in the Arabic. Imagine the effects, the spiritual ramifications it would have on the Islam of the future generations. You would make sure you take every measure to ensure that your child obtain a robust ability to read the Qur'an, an efficiency in reading the Qur'an in the Arabic. You would hire Moulana Salih, you would hire a sheikh or what have you. And you would spend. But these refugees, they don't have that luxury. They just have to hope. They have to hope that somebody in the community happens to have the ilm, the competency, the proximity and the time and so many other factors. And if these factors don't line up, it may very well be that their children go without a Qur'anic education, that they cannot even read the Qur'an. And so, turning back to the story, I started helping out the sheikh for a couple of days. And I realized that even with me there, this was no way a two-man job. There needed to be more people. So, alhamdulillah, biidhillah ta'ala, I started the Refugee Education Foundation, a volunteer organization dedicated to ensuring that these Dallas refugees obtain a robust Qur'anic education such that they can read the Qur'an proficiently. Alhamdulillah, we've drawn volunteers from across the Muslim youth in Dallas. Alhamdulillah, we now have three hufadh and counting who have dedicated their time to teaching these refugees Qur'an on a consistent basis. And alhamdulillah, inshallah, as of the coming academic year, we'll be providing academic tutoring for these refugees.
Because many of these refugees, due to the turbulence they face moving countries, the linguistic challenges, etc., they're shaken academically. Not to mention the fact that many of them don't care about their education. I was talking to one refugee, and he was treating his education like it was some type of footnote in his life. It's insignificant to him, but little did he know that his education is a vehicle for him to propel himself socioeconomically from his position here in America. But the point of my spiel, brothers and sisters, is not to brag about what I have done or what I will do. Rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed me with the opportunity to obtain a robust Qur'anic education and to teach it to others. But some of us here may not be competent or qualified to teach refugees Qur'an. Some of us may not even live next to refugees. But as they say, to each is his own. To each of us is our own circumstance. Perhaps we possess the obvious hindrance, obstacle, or weakness. But at the end of the day, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has bestowed upon each and every one of us a favor, a talent, a gift of some kind. Because in a way, brothers and sisters, we are all like Hassan ibn Thabit. We all have a niche in our community that is specific to us, that only we can fill. Some of us may be doctors who live in the city, mashallah tabarakallah, and we can open free clinics for the urban poor. Some of us, callously put, may just be filthy, stinking rich, and we can give sumptuous donations, inshallah, to Yaqeen Institute. Sheikh Omar bin Salman is giving the thumbs up. But in returning to the refugee crisis, some of us may just simply know languages, such as Burmese or Urdu, and we can help these refugees navigate their new linguistic environment. No skill is too insignificant, brothers and sisters.
It is just a matter of us being willing to tap into them and use them for the benefit of our community. We all know Hassan ibn Thabit, radhiallahu anhu, that he tapped into his skill, and he aided the Rasulullah, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, tremendously. But the question is, brothers and sisters, what will you do with your skill? Wa jazakum Allahu khair, wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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