# Do Influencers Owe their Followers Advocacy? | Imam Tom Live

**Author:** Tom Facchine
**Series:** Imam Tom Live
**Published:** 2024-05-15
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/deCSNCb7JNk
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/do-influencers-owe-their-followers-advocacy-imam-tom-live
**Topics:** Culture, Family & Community, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice

## Description
We tackle the “Celebrity Guillotine” phenomenon during Blockout 2024, scrutinizing the role of Muslim influencers who remain silent on Palestine and engage in divisive online behavior. We’ll dissect the responsibilities of public figures in leveraging their platforms ethically, while also delving...

## Transcript
**[1:00]** Welcome back to EFKIN's weekly live stream program. I'm your host, Imam Tom. Drop us a message in the chat to let us know where you're tuning in from.

**[1:18]** Pleasure to have you with us tonight. A lot has been going on as normal. We're going to break down some of the most important topics and news events from this past week. So keep going through our books, we're making speedy progress through our leadership book

**[1:34]** and also through some actions that you can do, that Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) used to do every day or more or less every day. And we'll be talking tonight about what to do when it's time for bed or what to do after Isha. So hang around for that.

**[1:50]** We've got who we have here in the chat who's with us tonight, we've got Nihal Al-Qadri Thank you very much for the shout out, may Allah accept all the work that all of us are doing. From New Jersey, a New Jersey native, welcome to the program.

**[2:14]** From Australia. All right, Mashallah, Fatima is already getting to the heart of the matter. We will be talking about that Fatima, Fatima said, they don't owe us, but we owe it to ourselves to carefully choose who we acknowledge on social media, Allahu Akbar.

**[2:32]** That's going to be a really important theme when we get into sort of the social media influencer economy and how it's set up and how things are kind of inverted, how sometimes we feel like they're the ones with the power when in reality, we're the ones with the power.

**[2:50]** It's a very interesting reflection. From Malaysia. Welcome, Mehmet. I'm not Reagan. I hope you're not Reagan. Welcome, everybody, to the program. Drop your thoughts. We're going to be talking about one of the things we're going to be talking about tonight is the block party, other people calling it the celebrity guillotine. Right. Basically, this festival. It's a very, very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[3:05]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[3:20]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[3:35]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[3:50]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[4:05]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[4:20]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[4:35]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[4:50]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival.

**[5:05]** It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. It's a very popular festival. And a lot of people are wondering, okay, well, you've got this platform, you've developed

**[5:20]** this following, what are you going to do with it? And do you have a duty to use it in a certain way? Now, this is interesting because we've got some people who they've made their livelihood on a type of content creation.

**[5:37]** And that content creation takes on a whole new meaning if you're doing it during a genocide. For example, we have seen people who are like foodies or food vloggers or things like that, their whole shtick, their whole gimmick, the whole concept behind their channel is to go

**[5:53]** out and to try different foods, et cetera. Well, what does that mean if people are starving and if people in Gaza are forced to eat animal feed or if people in Gaza are forced to eat expired aid, right, that has worms in it and

**[6:09]** things like that? It's kind of taken on a very, very dark hue and people are very suspicious of it. And this is something that now when we're talking about non-Muslim sort of influencers, we expect this from them. When we talk about the Muslim influencers, we have higher standards and we have higher

**[6:27]** expectations of them. Now, there has been some pushback, some people saying, well, these are our own and we need to be sort of uplifting them and this is sort of fitna, why are you all sort of criticizing, et cetera, et cetera. So it's kicked off an entire conversation.

**[6:44]** We're going to show a video clip from someone from Palestine in just one minute before we get to just run through whoever else has joined here. We have Ruba from USA, another from Malaysia, hopefully I'll be in Malaysia this summer

**[7:03]** for the Madrasah conference. And yes, of course, if there's any questions that you have along the way, please drop them in the chat. We'll be highlighting comments, we'll be highlighting questions especially, and trying to get around

**[7:19]** to them in a timely way. Mrs. S. I love this comment from Ruba. Everyone who has a platform has a responsibility to use it to amplify the oppressed voices, especially the Muslims. Excellent.

**[7:35]** EK, you're dropping great ideas, MB from PA. We'll get to those ideas in a second, EK. First, I want the studio, let's show this Instagram video from the channel translating Palestine.

**[8:39]** Subhan'Allah, when I first saw that video, I don't know the brother, but Mashallah, extremely

**[9:02]** eloquent and well put. And I completely agree that it's a basic issue of respect that we do have the right to expect better from other Muslims. Now what this has highlighted, as I sort of hinted at a second ago, is that it has shown

**[9:19]** that the entire economy of quote unquote influencers is something that is, it's precarious and it's created some, we could say some incentives for creators that are not wholesome, that

**[9:35]** actually make them choose between doing what's right and doing what lines their pockets. So but as we said, I mean, some people, they push back, they say, hey, wait a second, you know, this is not how you should be talking about other Muslims, this is a fitna, we don't call out our own, etc, etc.

**[9:52]** This is a distraction. And I would say, I would say contrary to that, that we see that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in the Quran often talks about the need to shore up our ranks, okay, and that unity is never an inherent good, right? That we don't necessarily just throw everybody together and just say, well, we want numbers,

**[10:10]** we want numbers, and we're going to look the other way, there has to be accountability that comes along with unity. And so many, many situations, if you look at the first page of [Al-'Ankabut 29:2-3], for example, it's a very, very famous verse, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says, do you think that you'd be left alone to say that we believe and not tested?

**[10:26]** Now, this is very, very well known. But later on in the verse, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says that the wisdom behind allowing these sorts of things to happen, these trials, these tests, is to expose the people who mean it when they say that we're believers and the people who are lying, or the people maybe

**[10:44]** they have a conflict of interest. And so a lot of these things, a lot of these things come down to conflict of interest, which we'll talk about in a second. Yeah, I completely agree, Al-Qadri, it was, it was heartbreaking to watch that particular, that particular video. Wa alaikum assalam, Noraz Ahmed, sorry, from Brunei, welcome, Aisha Ahmed from Malaysia,

**[11:09]** she says, many Muslim influencers promote luxury brands while also supporting Palestine, creating a conundrum. One celebrity addressed criticism by publicly sharing their donations. So this is really interesting sort of solutioning some ideas for and we'll get to the end ideas for how can Muslim influencers sort of maintain their principles and maintain their ethics,

**[11:29]** despite maybe being in sort of a compromised position. We don't want to just throw people under the bus just to throw people under the bus. We want people to find a solution. We want people to have a way out so that they can actually be comfortable that what they're doing is halal and they're not selling out their brothers and sisters in Palestine.

**[11:47]** May Allah bless you, Alhamdulillah, yes, I am a teacher, a legacy, the students are great, may Allah bless you and accept from us. Queen Jazi, Wa alaikum assalam, from New Jersey, New Jersey natives, unite. I'm also from New Jersey.

**[12:02]** MSA, we have, let's see, I've been reading the last speeches of Brother Malcolm X. One thing he reinforces is the oneness of this Ummah. I think this example calls on us to call on Muslims to reinforce the plight of all Muslims. That's a beautiful point. Completely agree. Yes, Fatima also brings up a great point.

**[12:19]** We can call them out, but I don't have high expectations of them. And that's another point in and of itself. And I'm inclined to agree with you. Very good. Okay, so the thing is, when we talk about what has this shown, okay, that it's shown

**[12:39]** that the influencer economy is not what it seems to be. And many of us already knew this. Many of us already were aware of this, that, in fact, to call someone an influencer is really sort of, it's a half-truth. Yes, these people have a certain amount of influence, but we hide the way in which they

**[12:58]** themselves are influenced, and they're influenced in at least two ways. First of all, they've almost become a slave to the algorithm, right, that whatever is trending, then they have to sort of jump on what's trending in order to stay relevant. And the other aspect of it is that they are, maybe slave is a strong word, but they're

**[13:19]** somewhat tied to their audience, right, that they have created this income stream or this thing where they are going to be expected, there are expectations upon them, they're going to be delivering a certain type of content at a certain type of interval, that this is what people come to see, whether it's your food blog, whether it's this or whether it's

**[13:37]** that, and they might be afraid. They might be afraid that if they start talking about something that is darker or something that is about justice or injustice or oppression, that people are going to say, oh, that's not my vibe. I don't want to sort of be reminded about that.

**[13:54]** I want to just sort of, you know, I want to just come here to feel something positive and to sort of take my mind off of it. That's how a lot of people relate to these influencers and these social media channels. And so we see how the person who is supposedly just in this position of influence is actually

**[14:12]** bi-directional. It's actually a two-way street that, yes, what they do is influencing the people that are viewing, but they are actually influenced in and of themselves, and they are less free to move about in the way perhaps that they thought.

**[14:28]** Now, do they have a responsibility? That's the question that we wanted to tackle here. Do they have a responsibility? Is there something unethical about having an enormous platform and not using it? Let us know what you think.

**[14:43]** Let us know what you think in the chat. I'm predisposed to say that yes, and I know that Fatima and others already agreed with me, though Nida has a good point here. I see she says, I have a slightly different view. We need to focus on ourselves first and foremost. Yes, accountability is important and can be done in a respectful manner.

**[14:59]** And I don't disagree with that. I think that it's a false dilemma. Some people want to make us choose between one or the other. Unfortunately, unfortunately, some people use the whole, we have to focus on ourselves as a deflection tactic.

**[15:14]** Not saying you're doing that, but I know that there are other people who have done that in order to stop others from holding them accountable. When if you look at the way that the Sahaba were, you look at the way that the Companions of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) were, they held each other accountable. Recall when 'Umar heard another Companion reciting the Qur'an in a way that he wasn't

**[15:34]** familiar with. What did he do? He threatened him. He grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. He dragged him to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and basically said, hey, this guy is reciting the Qur'an in a way that we don't recognize. Now, of course, he was corrected. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) told him, let me listen.

**[15:52]** And he heard it and he said, yes, that's acceptable. And yes, that the other way is acceptable as well. But what Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) didn't do is he didn't chastise 'Umar for his attitude and his reaction. He didn't say, 'Umar, you should think about yourself. You should only worry about changing yourself.

**[16:08]** No, he did not do that. That he actually approved of tacitly, right, silently. He approved of 'Umar's action that holding each other accountable as long as it's done with sincerity. And as Nida said, right, with a certain adab, there's always an adab to it.

**[16:24]** Then this is something that is perfectly fine. And we shouldn't we shouldn't shy away from. But if somebody has a platform that they do have a responsibility to say something. In fact, many people justify the whole reason that they have the platform because they want

**[16:42]** to make a difference. Is that not true? Especially as Muslim influencers, they have, you know, thousands or hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions of followers. And they justify saying that, well, I want to make a difference. I want to make the world a better place. But then here comes the moment where the rubber meets the road, as we say, or the proof comes

**[17:00]** out in the pudding. What are you going to do, right, when it's even against your monetary interests? So we want to give our brothers and sisters who are in this sphere a way out. We want you to have your following be halal and your platform be halal.

**[17:16]** When we're not talking here about the actual content that you're putting out, but we're talking about with your duty to your brothers and sisters in Palestine. And one way to ensure that it is halal is by making sure that you use it. You use your platform to stand up for what's right, to stand up for what's right, and to

**[17:33]** not be bullied or to not worry about, well, how is this going to affect my bottom line? Am I going to lose followers? Am I going to lose this or lose that, this influence or that influence? What will people say? This is the test that Allah (ﷻ) gave you, that if you wanted the following, this is

**[17:49]** what comes with it, that you're going to have to bear the reactions of other people and potentially a monetary loss occasionally for standing up for what is right. As 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) used to say, he said, telling the truth has left me with no friends. So imagine that compared to the idea of sort of the influencer.

**[18:08]** Let's roll through the comments real quick, and then we'll move on to a related topic. Nida goes on to say, we as Muslims are consumers and someone needs to continue to be creators so that we can reach the top and start ruling the world. Yeah, again, I don't disagree.

**[18:24]** We definitely have to contribute. I think that's even better than creators. I think that Muslims need to be contributing, and we need to ask ourselves, how can I contribute? How can I make things better? What can I do? As opposed to just being consumers like Nida is warning us about and saying, well, this

**[18:39]** person has to fix it and that person has to fix it. Yeah, like what are you doing? We're all influencers in our household. We're all influencers in our communities. So we also, as Nida rightly reminds us, we also have to use the influence that we have,

**[18:55]** and we can't be hypocritical in the sense where we cannot be criticizing the big social media influencers, and we're not using our influence in the place that we have it. MSA says, I wonder too, can we get into all oppression?

**[19:12]** The Gaza conflict is more attractive than Rohingya or Yemeni or Sudanese starvation. I get it, but I hate it. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a very good point, MSA, and you're 100% right about that. Unfortunately, we do have selective outrage. However, I do like to think that because Palestine is the one issue that all of us can unite

**[19:33]** around, that this is something where it will create the capacity to continue to use this influence and unite around other issues. Basically, to put it the other way, if we can't do it for Palestine, then we can't do

**[19:48]** it for anybody. So we basically definitely have to do it for Palestine, and then after we get ourselves together and organize ourselves, then we have to be able to wield this power and wield this influence for other causes as well. And Fatima rightly points out, they would be nobody without their followers, so who

**[20:09]** has the real power? That's a great point. MSA points out, to add to what Fatima said, these can be held up by outsiders who can then say, these Muslims aren't for Gaza, why are you? That's true, and these divide and conquer tactics happen to us, unfortunately, a lot.

**[20:27]** And we'll actually talk about that in a little bit, inshallah. Yes, that's a good point.

**[20:43]** I like the point that Salouma Douma makes, I've heard influencers use the excuse of, well, there will always be something awful going on in the world to try to validate their behavior, which should always be reprehensible. Curious on your thoughts about that. No, that's a good point. But I mean, the inability to speak about everything does not translate to the inability to speak

**[21:07]** about anything, right? So if you look through, and going over the Qur'an is always sort of amazing because you see it in new contexts as you continue to live and history continues to unfold. And one of the things is the excuses that people make, right?

**[21:25]** That, oh, well, look at the excuses. I mean, Allah (ﷻ), when he talks about sort of the warfare and the battle campaigns that happened during the time of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), this is really the example when people would always bring up their excuses, right? It's like, oh, well, we don't really know what we're doing, we don't know how to fight. Oh, we got to go back to our homes.

**[21:41]** Oh, well, we can't do this or we can't do that. And this was a fitna, right? It was something that tested people to show where their hearts were really at. So this is an important thing. I think that Palestine is unique, right? Yes, there are other horrible, horrible things going on.

**[21:58]** Palestine has some unique dimensions, both religiously for us, for its religious significance, and also the contours of the genocide and the colonialism going on there as well have some unique dimensions to them. Um, so hopefully, hopefully, that not being able to speak about everything doesn't excuse

**[22:20]** people from speaking out about anything. I don't think most people would accept that type of logic. Yes, Farah Khan, Block Party. Yep. Thank you. Very, very well done. We have to appreciate the people behind the scenes for that excellent, uh, the excellent

**[22:36]** title and assets, etc. Let's see. What else do we have? Okay, yes. Very good point by Nora. Uphold Islamic integrity, ensure that the content of what you're saying is truthful and worry not about losing followers.

**[22:54]** It's amazing how many of us have been able to connect back to this dhikr, right? That Allah is the one that we can only rely upon. Look at how many people, how many institutions, how many social media followers, etc. have let us down in the last eight months.

**[23:10]** That really, we found that the only one that we can rely upon is Allah (ﷻ). As Allah (ﷻ) says himself, right, in [Al-Ma'idah 5:55], the only people that you can really rely on, or the only entities that you can rely on, Allah and His Messenger and the people who believe, the people who have faith,

**[23:29]** those are the people that when push comes to shove and when times are tough, that that's who you can rely on. That's why I'm trying to really leave my job because they hold investment weapons contractors. May Allah make it easy for you. Inshallah, I'm writing a letter to ask them to divest just to do my part for now.

**[23:45]** Good for you. May Allah bless you and make it easy for you. That's an amazing example for all of us, that we do whatever we can. We're not responsible for that which we can't do. So again, we can use the same logic, okay? Some people would say, well, I can't ever make a difference,

**[24:01]** so why would I even write the letter to Allah? Why would I even write the letter at all? You're saying, no, though what I can do, I don't have the authority in my job to change the evil with my hand. So now I'm going to try to change it with my speech. I'm going to try to write a letter and at least petition them or ask them to do it.

**[24:19]** And if they don't, then at least you've taken care of your wajib. At least you've taken care of what was expected of you. That's a beautiful thing. And at the same time, planning for an exit. That's a very, very important and mature step to take. That if you can't change things and you feel like you are complicit in some sort of way,

**[24:37]** then making an exit strategy. Being like, yes, well, I don't have the luxury of being able to just quit my job right now. But I'm going to start looking. I'm going to get my resume together. I'm going to get my recommendations together. I'm going to start preparing the way, taking the means.

**[24:53]** That's what shows Allah (ﷻ) that you mean business. That you're not just all talk. That it's not just lip service and you're making excuses like other people. That you really are serious about it. What else do we have?

**[25:10]** Yep, the banks are definitely farah. That's definitely true. The banks are also of a concern. Thank you for your question, pulling it out of me. Yeah, Fatima, completely agree. Palestine has exposed everybody. Definitely true. It's a good point.

**[25:26]** I'm not Reagan. I agree with that. Influencers also depend on these movements being a trend and not something long lasting. Yes, so everybody can ride the wave when it's hot, right? But who's going to really stick around? Celebs go on the back burner. I like that. Wa alaikum assalam, Muhammad Jahid from California.

**[25:43]** Well, Sky asked, so should I block all the Muslim influencers who don't talk about Gaza right now? Yeah, I think that's a good question. Should I block all the Muslim influencers who don't talk about Gaza right now? Sorry, because a few of them I feel like are just ignoring what's happening in Gaza.

**[26:01]** Yeah, I mean, that's an open-ended question, right? What are we going to do or what can we do that can turn the screws on them and that can influence them? If there's a possible way to be able to influence them, then yes. But people are calling for a blockout and they're saying that this is a tactic that is going to really show them, you know, it's almost like a boycott, right?

**[26:21]** You're blocking them. They're registering that they're losing followers. Some of the influencers have lost hundreds of thousands or millions of followers in hours, right? That this is something that's supposed to get their attention and shift their politics. So that sounds like something that people are working on.

**[26:41]** Yeah, I agree, Queen Jazzy. All right, so related to this, related to this idea about using your platform, we need to also talk about Islamic institutions. We do. That there are, unfortunately, some Islamic institutions, whether they're institutions of learning or other types of institutions, that also have been eerily silent on Palestine.

**[27:02]** And this is a big shame. Now, the reason that we bring this up again, we're not trying to praise ourselves or act like we're, you know, holy or we've done a ton of right, may Allah excuse all of us. But whoever has influence and whoever has a platform, this is the time to lead, right?

**[27:20]** Leaders are supposed to lead. There are no excuses in this type of situation to not take a leadership role and to not stand into the spotlight. Because if you don't stand up into the spotlight, somebody else is going to stand up into it for you.

**[27:35]** And you're probably not going to be very happy with who that person is or who that group is. So unfortunately, there are some Islamic institutions that have not pulled their weight and who have been the source of a lot of frustration, especially among the youth that are bearing the brunt of a lot of this activity.

**[27:53]** They're the ones getting arrested. They're the ones getting pummeled by the police. They're the ones that are sort of really sticking their neck out there. And some of our institutions have not even issued a statement or have not even made a divestment. And these we have our own Muslim students calling for non-Muslim institutions to divest.

**[28:12]** And even maybe some of our own Islamic institutions or Muslim institutions have are implicated in their investments. So we also have to realize that there's a similar thing going on here, just like with the influencer economy, that if your funding or your branding or your audience is acting like a piece of tape over your mouth, this is the time to cut the string that Palestine has exposed you and that you need to turn back to Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and do what's right in front of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) and do the right thing.

**[28:48]** No matter the consequence, no matter the consequences. وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ Or وَلَا نَخَافُ اللَّوْمَ فِي اللَّهِ That we don't care, as Allah says, who is going to blame us. We're not afraid of the blamers, that the least we can do, as Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, if you see evil, change it with your hand.

**[29:05]** And if you can't, then you at least speak about it. And if you can't, then hate it in your heart. Many of us, we act as if Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) had instructed us to do the opposite. We start with our heart and then only if we have to do we say anything and then we try to avoid doing anything at all.

**[29:27]** Atiyah Amir asked a question, although my heart completely goes out for the people of Palestine and I do pray for them in my salah, but I had never shed a tear after seeing all those atrocities. Does that mean I have weak iman? No, not necessarily, not necessarily. That people emotionally, they react differently to different things.

**[29:42]** And sometimes it can be numbing. Sometimes, honestly, the things that you see, they don't evoke tears, but they evoke a numbness in you. And that is a different type of thing. And we'll leave that to the psychologists to break down exactly how that works. But things are not so simple. Now, taking this a step further.

**[29:59]** So we've talked about influencers. We've talked about Islamic institutions or Muslim institutions. We also have to talk about the celebrities that the Muslim community has allowed to sort of come in to our own spaces that have abandoned us.

**[30:15]** Now, last week we talked about Dr. Craig Considine, who was something of a darling of the interfaith, quote unquote, and maybe some people would say faith washing scene before October 7th and before everything that's been happening in Gaza, but has since been exposed as somebody who has very, very anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian opinions.

**[30:34]** Well, we turn our attention this week to a similar situation with none other than Trevor Noah. Trevor Noah is a very, very famous individual actor, comedian, author. At this point, he has a podcast.

**[30:50]** Trevor Noah is somebody who used to be invited to speak at Muslim events and Muslim conferences, and from what I heard was paid well for that. Now, Trevor Noah, I think we have some media here showing him with Seinfeld. Right. And we know that we have seen recently that Seinfeld has been an unapologetic and avid Zionist, him and his wife.

**[31:14]** He was walked out of when he gave his speech at, I believe it was Duke University the other week, that somebody of this stature who purports or pretends to have the politics that he has, unfortunately, has been very, very silent on Palestine.

**[31:33]** That if you go back to some of his videos from a few years ago, he portrays this as something that's a complicated issue, that it's difficult, that both sides, this sort of thing. He was challenged recently just this month when he was at a United States university, I believe, Wake Forest, and he was giving a talk.

**[31:53]** And somebody challenged him in the crowd. They basically called him out. Why are you so silent on Palestine? His new podcast that he's done, he hasn't talked about Palestine at all. And it started, I think, in November or in October, right around when everything was unfolding.

**[32:08]** And his response was a deflection. He said, oh, celebrities won't solve it. But we've said the same here. Like, OK, nobody's asking celebrities to solve it. That's a misconstruing what people are asking you to do. That people expect celebrities and people with a platform to bring awareness so that other people can solve it.

**[32:31]** Nobody's asking us like, no, please, Trevor Noah, do not solve this issue. You will not solve this issue correctly. But yes, we do expect you to use your platform in order to raise awareness, especially somebody. Again, we don't have high expectations necessarily for non-Muslims on these issues.

**[32:46]** But someone like Trevor Noah, who built his career off of speaking against apartheid, who was born in apartheid South Africa, who wrote his biography and his entire, I don't want to say his entire credibility, but much of his credibility comes from somebody who was born and raised and lived in an apartheid society.

**[33:08]** And now to see what other South Africans have identified as much worse than South Africa ever was, Palestine being much worse than what South Africa ever was. And now he's sitting in a car laughing with the Zionists, such as Seinfeld and others, and not saying very much of anything.

**[33:28]** His autobiography is actually titled Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. You would think and you would expect that someone like this would have an immediate connection with the Palestinian people. And he has indicated in some forums that he supports the protests and he supports.

**[33:47]** But he has been very, very silent on all of the platforms that matter. And so we have to ask this truth telling sort of persona. Is it a gimmick? Right. Is this sort of thing now that you've made it, now that you've reached a certain sort of level or a certain sort of stratosphere, are there strings attached to you that have made you silent?

**[34:10]** We would expect people to use their platform for good. And that's the lesson here, that number one, that if you have a platform and if you're going to make your career based off of your identity as a truth teller, then be consistent.

**[34:27]** You can make your career off of anything, you can go be an engineer, be a comedian or be something else. But if you're going to really put yourself forward as this truth teller who bases the story based on your experience in apartheid, then you better be ready to talk about apartheid in Palestine.

**[34:43]** I'm sorry. And the second thing, and this relates to our ongoing discussion of Biryani diplomacy when it comes to the Muslim community, Muslim community in the West. Please stop inviting people like this. Please, please, for the love of Allah, stop inviting people like this to our conferences.

**[34:59]** We know that you want to attract the youth. We know that you want to attract attendees. We know that you want to draw a crowd. But the Biryani diplomacy of trying to invite people in who don't care about us, who are ready to abandon us at the drop of a hat as soon as it provides a little, as soon as it proves a little bit uncomfortable to support

**[35:23]** the Muslims, they're gone. However many tens of thousands of dollars he was paid to speak at one of the major Muslim conferences. What has that gotten us? Where could that money have gone instead? What institution could that have built or what salary could that have paid or what sort of initiative or scholarship or endowment could that have done?

**[35:44]** We as Muslims need to do better, we have to do better, that we have to express our priorities better and we have to be smarter and we have to realize that these people do not like us, these people do not love us, that we have to do what is right.

**[35:59]** And even if it's not popular, even if we're not going to get the big crowds, we're going to do what is right and we're going to hang our hat on that and trust in Allah (سبحانه وتعالى). Let's roll through some comments and then we'll move on to our next section. I know we spent quite a lot of time on Mufti Moreena Abu Hamza.

**[36:18]** Welcome, mashallah, welcome to the program. I was so sorry to have missed you in my travels. Inshallah, I hope we are able to connect soon. We have Sky says another question. So some of the companies that we are with is that we're with is not real.

**[36:33]** I mean, Israel are now switching to Palestine side. So should I still boycott them or should I now start buying again? I would say talk to the people who are running the boycott campaigns, ask them. They are sort of spearheading it and they know more about it. Obviously, it stands to reason that you would want to reward companies for good behavior, right, that you wouldn't want to.

**[36:51]** Now, some of the companies, they try to play both sides and they try to give sort of a meaningless symbolic concession, hoping that that will get you back on to purchasing their goods. So we're not talking about that. We're talking about a company that actually goes a full 180 and is able to sort of redeem themselves and prove that they're going to do the right thing, then we would hope that we could reward them with loyalty once they sort of demonstrate their morality.

**[37:16]** Need to ask, what about Muslims who just talk about Palestine to be relevant to their Muslim following and to gain fame? Yes, yes. No, that's a problem, but otherwise we can't even tell they are Muslims. I guess we can't really know the intentions. Yes, that's true. I would say that the more people in general, the more people talking about Palestine, the better.

**[37:33]** However, however, there needs to be important. Safeguards to stop grifters from coming in and just capitalizing on this type of thing, whether they're non-Muslims or whether there are other people that are basically just like going from cause to cause that we should always be centering Palestinian voices and Muslim voices, people who are bearing the brunt of the

**[37:58]** genocidal violence. And we are trying to act in concert with them in a sense. We're trying to end the apartheid. We're trying to end the genocide. And so we listen, right, just like when Bissan from Gaza got on the screen and asked us to boycott that we boycotted.

**[38:15]** Right. That's sort of how this thing works, that we shouldn't necessarily be putting ourselves up as, oh, you're going to listen to me as opposed to other people, that sort of thing. We need to be careful to pay attention to clout chasers and people like that. Yep, good point, I'm not Reagan, that's true.

**[38:35]** From the Maldives, Pestify, welcome from the Maldives. This is S is going to block Trevor Noah, good for you. And Scope asks, is Palestine unique because of Al-Aqsa? Yes. What about the sanctity of the believer?

**[38:51]** Yes, that's also true. Being more sanctified than Mecca. So influencers, should they talk, should talk about all atrocities? Oh, I'm not saying that people should not talk about all atrocities. They definitely should. But the believers are also in Palestine. Right. So you have both the land that is sacred and also that is sacred and the believers that are sacred.

**[39:08]** You also have an institute. We have we have a nice little write up on the sanctity of Palestine. This is the land of Taifa Mansura that the prophets of Allah talked about. This is the land of prophets. There's many things that specifically sort of are that there are specific to Palestine in and of itself.

**[39:26]** That's not an excuse to not talk about other things going on. But it does make sense that Palestine is able to galvanize Muslim support and being a rallying point for Muslims in ways that other places aren't. Fannie Garvey says Brother Malcolm X once said that if you scratch the surface of a liberal, you will find a fascist.

**[39:46]** Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds. We must scratch the surface of their gimmicks and be wise about what we discover. Truth tellers included. I completely agree. That's well said. Drizzy Montana, truth promoters are not truth tellers.

**[40:01]** Yeah, that's often the truth. Yeah, very good, MB, a nice point out there.

**[40:18]** Joseph Hans asks, I need soccer shoes, but Adidas doesn't support Palestine, so what should I do? You need to consult the BDS campaign and these sorts of things and who they're recommending, because it's not that they're trying to avoid supporting companies who are supporting Israel, like not necessarily just not necessarily.

**[40:40]** Sometimes there are situations where there isn't a particular company that actively promotes Palestine, but sometimes there is. This is something I don't know a ton about. You should look at the people who follow this stuff more carefully. Sona K asks, should we be calling out some of the Muslim influencers who have not been doing enough in the last couple of weeks, seen a lot of attacking going on, and I want to know is the right way to do it?

**[41:00]** Well, you know, yes and no. Right. So, you know, we don't attack just to attack. We have to have strategy. And this is one thing, unfortunately, that the Muslim community needs to work on a bit where we need to make sure that our actions are achieving discernible goals, which is why the Block Party is a really, really smart campaign, because it's a very simple ask.

**[41:20]** You're asked to block a celebrity, a certain celebrity. There's images going around as to who are like the big targets, just like BDS. And then if enough people block them, they lose out monetarily and it sends a very, very clear message. So, you know, there might be some people where you leave a comment, right?

**[41:37]** Unfortunately, there have been Muslim influencers that have deleted comments that have been asking them to step up more for Palestine. So it's a case by case basis. There are some people who are amenable, who are just ignorant and don't know, maybe you're able to reach out to that person and sort of let them know if they receive a certain number of direct messages or comments that are asking them to do more, maybe they'll change and there's others that won't.

**[42:00]** And so that's sort of a separate situation. Radwan asks, what can we do to push Muslim influencers who don't want to speak up because of fear of losing followers or partnerships? Well, that's exactly what we're here to talk about, is that, you know, we care about what Allah thinks first and foremost, and that we're not, you know, if you're if you're holding back from doing the right thing because you're afraid of your followers, you're you're fearing your followers more than you fear Allah, to be frank, and you need to fear Allah more than you fear your followers.

**[42:32]** Allah gives us examples in the Qur'an where he says, like, it's as if they fear them more than they fear Allah, this is not appropriate. So this has become sort of like a test of faith, and people need to worry about what is going to happen in the afterlife, not just in this life.

**[42:47]** We talk a good game, and we say that we believe that Allah is the provider, Allah is al-Razzaq, etc, that all of your rizq, all your money and all your livelihood is already written, we talk about these things, we learn them as little children. But then when our following is threatened, what do we do? How do we act? I like to say, if an alien race came down to earth and watched us, you know, would they say these people believe in Allah?

**[43:12]** Would they say that these people actually trust in Allah's rizq? They actually trust that Allah will provide for them? Or do their actions actually belie what they say? Do their actions contradict what they're saying and what they're professing? Okay, excellent. We need to transition. This was a very, very nice discussion, I really appreciate that.

**[43:32]** We're going to flip, or pivot a little bit to talking about, and we've got our book that we're covering here, we're going through the actions of the night and day, what do the Prophets (ﷺ) do during the day so that we can pattern our habits off of these patterns?

**[43:49]** We've talked, we've gotten almost to the end of this book, actually, we're talking now tonight about the things to do around and after the time of Isha. So Isha is the last prayer of the day, after the disk of the sun has sort of passed the horizon and all of the light that is visible therefrom has sort of gone away, then what do we do?

**[44:09]** The first thing is that the Prophet (ﷺ) encouraged us to minimize activity after Isha, that Allah (ﷻ) talks in the Qur'an about the night being made for rest, right? Now this is excusing all the people that have night shifts or are on call at night, etc., but if you're a person who works during daylight hours, that this is the way that Allah (ﷻ) created the world, that He (ﷻ) created the daytime, the way it is, where your body does not produce melatonin so that you feel alright,

**[44:38]** you feel alive, you feel awake, that you're able to do the things that you need to do, and He (ﷻ) has created the night for rest, right? Once, if you don't have too much artificial light in your life, then your body produces melatonin, you feel sleepy, and you're supposed to go to sleep. So there's a discouragement when it comes to doing too much after Isha. That's not the time, and unfortunately, a lot of Muslim lands, if you go travel through the Muslim world, we see that it's almost backwards, like the life begins at night, like the stores open up again, and we go out and now places are open until the middle of the night, many people, they stay up until Fajr, or they stay up until 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning, get a couple hours of sleep, and then they wake up for the first morning prayer,

**[45:22]** and then they go back to bed, and they sleep, unfortunately, most of the morning away. This is not how the Prophet (ﷺ) dealt with life, and that's not how he structured his day. He did, and he encouraged others to do, minimizing your activities after the last prayer, when the day winds down, you wind down, and you go to bed as early as possible, so that you're able to wake up for night prayer, so that you're able to wake up for the morning prayer, so that you're able to be fully alert and awake when the daylight hour comes.

**[45:52]** So when it comes to sleep, there's several sort of sunnah that we have to be aware of, there are things that the Prophet (ﷺ) did and encouraged us to do. So we have, for example, the Prophet (ﷺ) told us to lock our doors, right? Now there's places in the United States, especially the rural areas, where people pride themselves on not locking their doors at night, and this is sort of like an indication of how much sort of safety and security there is, and that's kind of a beautiful thing.

**[46:22]** However, the Prophet (ﷺ) told us to lock our doors, because we don't like to tempt fate, quote-unquote, we don't like to tempt a bad thing from possibly happening. Lock your doors, it's better for you. Extinguish the lights, turn out the lights, this is better for your sleep, and it's also safer, right? You don't know, at their time, they had candles, you know, you didn't want a candle falling over and something catching fire. At our time, there can be electrical fires, there can be things like that. Unplug your lights, unplug your appliances, or you know, as much as you can.

**[46:52]** Taharah (ritual purity), going to sleep in a state of ritual purity, is something that Allah loves and you'll be rewarded for. Shake out your blankets, right? Nobody is safe from having a creepy crawly come into your bed when you're not paying attention, when you're out during the day, whether it's a scorpion if you live in the desert, or something like a cockroach, or something like an ant, or something like that. All of these things can happen, so the Prophet (ﷺ) would shake out his blankets, this is something that's a good thing to do.

**[47:21]** And finally, when you lay down to bed, sleep on your right side. On your right side, that's what the Prophet (ﷺ) recommended. Now, as you're falling to sleep, or right before you fall to sleep, there's certain things that are recommended that you say, such as, recite Ayat al-Kursi, right? This is very, very famous, and everybody pretty much knows it.

**[47:40]** The last two verses of Surah [Al-Baqarah 2:285-286], this is also something that is praiseworthy and recommended to recite before you fall asleep. Doing your ruqya on yourself, right? So this is, you know, you're reciting the Qur'an, 3 times, and wiping over yourself, this is protection for yourself from any sort of harmful unseen forces, the Prophet (ﷺ) would do this to himself.

**[48:06]** And to say, Bismika Allahumma amutu wa ahya, basically, in your name Allah, I die and I live, this sort of, it's almost like intention setting. Just as we started the very, very, very first part of this book, with you wake up in the day, setting your intention, right, that you thank Allah for resurrecting you in the morning, you also make your intention before you fall asleep, you don't know if you're going to wake up, maybe you don't wake up.

**[48:34]** But you're dedicating your sleep and potentially you're dying, even you are dedicating it to your Creator. Let's roll through some comments, then we'll get to our last section for today. Yes, Sana points out that maybe it's a good thing in the West that Isha is so late, not much time to do anything else. Yeah, especially. That's true.

**[49:00]** A Qadri says, when you're mid-40, you need your rest. Yes, that's true. But wallahi, have to get off the phone and keep it away. Yes, so I can drift off. That's a great point. And you know what, when we started this book, we talked about trying to make the phone usage minimal to non-existent when we first wake up. Unfortunately, many of us, the first thing we do when we wake up is check the phone. And this ruins a whole bunch of things. It ruins our opportunity for dhikr, it distracts our attention.

**[49:28]** Let's all try to do, let's all try to do what you're saying to do. Let's all try to make sure that when our nighttime process happens, we're doing these things, that the phone is far away, that we're not sort of doing this thing. That way, we're not disturbing our sleep. We're not ruining our peace. And we're focusing on these types of things that Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) recommended.

**[49:51]** Yes, there's other things. This is not an exhaustive list of the sunnah of going to bed. We just mentioned some of the highlights. But yes, Surah [Al-Mulk 67:1] is also recommended to do. Very good. Let's move on to our final segment for tonight, our personal development series. We've been covering this book by John C. Maxwell, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Of course, that's a bold statement, but he is recognized as an industry leader in leadership and leadership workshops.

**[50:18]** And we've decided that we've decided that this is going to be, we're going to move through a little bit quicker than we were before. So we're grouping the laws five at a time. We're doing laws 10 through 14 today. So law number 10 is called the Law of Connection.

**[50:35]** Okay, this is an extremely important one that we find all over the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). That what he means by this is that you have to, and there's a nice phrase, get ready for it, touch a heart before asking for a hand. Touch a heart before you ask for a hand. That means that you have to relate and connect to people on a human level before you ask for their assistance. This is very, very important.

**[50:58]** Now, he goes through eight different steps for why or how you can better connect to other people. And there, I think they're worth mentioning. One, he says, connect with yourself. Okay. And what he means by that is that you're sort of, you're not being a hypocrite, that you are connected to your sense of purpose. Like Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), he knew exactly what mission he was on. And so that gave him the ability to connect. He wasn't running a grift. He wasn't running a gimmick. He wasn't sort of trying to fool people, right?

**[51:26]** If you're trying to fool people, if you're not, you're not connected with yourself when you try to connect with other people, you're going to come across as very disingenuous. You're going to come across as fake, as phony, people are going to see through you, and you're not going to be able to lead them. Right? So make sure that you're connected with yourself and your mission.

**[51:42]** Communicate with openness and sincerity. Know your audience. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, speak to people at their levels or where they're at. And then he asked a rhetorical question after that. He said, do you want people to deny Allah and his messenger? Basically that you have to know your audience.

**[51:58]** If you're speaking to an educated group of PhDs and academics, that's totally different than if you're on the street corner, talking to people who have just a basic education and are sort of blue collar workers. That's not condescending. It's not condescending to treat people differently when it comes to not in their value or their worth, but in how you package a message.

**[52:21]** That when you talk to somebody, you have to tailor it to what they're going to understand. This is part of connecting, and it's part of leading. Live your message is another tip. So you have to actually practice what you preach. Go to where people are. If people are at a certain place, unfortunately, the kids today are at TikTok.

**[52:38]** So you've got the need for some people, some shuyukh and ulama to be on TikTok. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that they need their own accounts. Maybe they have a young guy managing the account for them. But part of leadership is going to where people are.

**[52:53]** Focus on other people when you're tailoring your message, not yourself. Sometimes we just get in the mode of just expressing ourselves, and sometimes we don't even look at the people we're talking to. We're just trying to work out our thoughts, that you really want to pay attention to human cues. You want to pay attention to making a human connection, how the person is reacting to

**[53:11]** what you're saying. I actually, you know, this happened recently when I was in San Diego, when we were giving some sort of talks to some of the students there at the encampment, that some of the talks that were given, some of the people noticed that there were, you know, some negative reactions to some of the things that were said, and they were able to sort of reflect

**[53:28]** and adjust based off of that. Believe in other people. We're going to have another law that talks about that. That is a key part that when you can't connect with people if you don't believe in them. You can't think that people are stupid or dopes, right? You basically have to believe that they have a great potential, and you're just trying

**[53:46]** to help them tap into that potential. That's an essential part of connecting and leading. And finally, offer them direction and hope as Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) did, right? When he, for example, we brought up the example of the Battle of the Trench, when he struck the rock or the boulder that was in their way, and he connected them with their mission.

**[54:04]** He connected them with their mission. He said basically that, oh, we've got, Sham has been given to us, and Persia has been given to us, and Yemen has been given to us, that he was able to offer them direction and also offer them hope. Law number 11 is what's called the Law of the Inner Circle.

**[54:20]** That means that your potential is determined by those closest to you. And we take this with a grain of salt because we know that Ibrahim (عليه السلام) was an ummah of one person. Your potential is really determined by Allah (ﷻ) and your sincerity. However, we do see that Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) had a very, very important inner circle that was

**[54:40]** a support for him. Whether in the early days it was Ahlul Bayt, Khadijah, remember Khadijah's support for him (ﷺ) when he first got his first revelations, and the belief of Ali (رضي الله عنه) and the belief of Fatima (رضي الله عنها) and the belief of other people in his household.

**[54:56]** We also see his best friend Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه), his belief and the faith of Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) on the Day of Al-Isra when he came with a story that a lot of people weren't believing, but Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) as his inner circle, right, was really able to do something very, very important

**[55:12]** for the movement, that your inner circle is extremely important. And so you have to be very, very careful about who is in your inner circle. What are they adding? What are they contributing? What's the value that they bring? And what's your relationship to them? The next law we have, law number 12, is the Law of Empowerment.

**[55:30]** This is a really key one that a lot of nonprofits struggle with, a lot of Muslim nonprofits, and I'm going to say masjids, I'm going to call you out, masjids, you struggle with, that we do not like to empower others. We do not like to empower others. We are gatekeepers, right? When the youth come to us with an idea, we are very hesitant to let them run with it

**[55:48]** and to empower them and to say, here's the credit card and here's the keys, go. Very, very seldom does that happen. Usually it's micromanaged. Usually it's like, well, that's not what we were thinking, etc., etc. And that unfortunately is a, it demonstrates insecurity from the leadership.

**[56:06]** You are not a secure leader if you are not ready to empower others. And Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) was amazing at empowering others. He would send people out. He would send Mu'adh ibn Jabal (رضي الله عنه) to Yemen. He would send other people up to Sham, you know, thousands of miles away in order to

**[56:22]** do work. And he trusted them. He trusted them. Did that mean that they didn't make mistakes? No, absolutely not. They made mistakes. In fact, there was a time when Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) sent Khalid ibn al-Walid (رضي الله عنه) to the eastern part of Arabia to collect zakah.

**[56:38]** Now one thing that people don't appreciate these days is that back then the dialects and sort of the slang and things were very, very different from different parts of Arabia. So Khalid misunderstood what they were saying and basically thought that they were hostile.

**[56:54]** And so he actually killed a bunch of them. He actually waged war on them by mistake. And he came back to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and it was a whole misunderstanding. And Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), he made it clear that this was a huge mistake. He tried to make things right with the tribe. He said that he had nothing to do with it.

**[57:10]** He didn't agree with his action. But was that the end of Khalid? Was that the end of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) trusting Khalid ibn al-Walid (رضي الله عنه)? No, it wasn't. This was a mistake. And when you empower other people to do work, mistakes happen. And so you're patient with those mistakes.

**[57:27]** And this is one thing that I told the older generation when we're talking about these sort of youth encampments at all these universities. If you show up to these encampments, you will see things you don't like. You will see things that are against Islam. That's guaranteed. But how patient are you willing to be with the youth of the Ummah of Muhammad (ﷺ)?

**[57:45]** How much are you loyal to them that you are not going to abandon them, that you will try to support them and guide them as best as you're able to? That is a separate question. Law number 13, we've got the law of the picture. And that basically means setting an example that people do what they see.

**[58:02]** They do only very little of what they hear. You can, if you have children, or if you teach even more so, you understand this. You can tell them and tell them and tell them and tell them whatever you want. They're going to follow your actions at the end of the day. Which is why the most important thing for all you parents out there, if you want your

**[58:20]** children to be strong Muslims, it's not to just talk to them and lecture them and lecture them about Islam. It's to make decisions that demonstrate that you prioritize Islam. You can tell your children till you are blue in the face that Islam is the most important thing to you. But if you're always taking your children out of Quran class to put them in sports or

**[58:39]** karate, and you never do the opposite, take them out of sports or karate for Quran class, what are you teaching them? If you are not taking them out of school to bring them to Jumu'ah, to bring them to the Friday prayer, or to make them get to the masjid once in a while.

**[58:54]** What are you teaching them? They will follow your example much, much, much more than they follow your words. So the law of the picture means that people do what they see, that you have to lead by example and that people are going to watch and follow your example. And the final one, the final law for today, and then we'll get to some comments and questions.

**[59:12]** So if you have any comments or questions, make sure that you drop them in the chat before we end. The law of buy-in, the law of buy-in. Buy-in means that people buy into the leader first, then they buy into the vision. And this is borne out by Allah (ﷻ) in the Quran when he, one of the things that he says,

**[59:31]** I believe it's in [Al-An'am 6:?], about how one of the proofs upon the Quraysh was that they knew Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), that they knew him and they trusted him. That the 40 years of the life of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), before he became a prophet, before his

**[59:50]** official prophethood began, it was establishing this trust. He was Al-Amin, that was literally his nickname, the trustworthy one. That there were so many examples of him being a trustworthy person, that if the message

**[1:00:07]** itself had been given to anybody else, it would have been not only rejected, but there would have been reasons to reject it. Because every message is automatically filtered through its messenger, period. That's facts.

**[1:00:23]** Every message is filtered through the messenger that delivers it. You can't avoid it. You can want to live in an idealist world. You can want to say, well, people should just take it, you know, the substance, people should just, you know, accept or deny based off of the arguments. No, no, no, no, no.

**[1:00:38]** That's not how people work. That's not how Allah made us. They're going to look at you. You're going to tell them about this great religion, this great faith, Islam, and this and that to the other. But what are you doing? If it doesn't benefit you, why would they want to follow you? So when it comes to leadership in general, people need to buy in, and they buy into the

**[1:00:57]** leader before they buy into the leader's vision. So make sure that you are straight before you try to communicate any particular message. Very good. Excellent. Let's roll through some comments, get to some questions, and then we'll wrap it up for this

**[1:01:12]** evening. Maya Rahab says, it has been recommended, we're talking about, you know, phone usage towards night, gives us the tip, turn off notifications.

**[1:01:28]** I tried it and Allahu Akbar, it removes the kind of fear of missing out one gets when hearing the ding of notification 100%. You know what, Maya, I have all notifications turned off on my phone all day long, except for calls, except for calls.

**[1:01:45]** And at night, I actually put it on airplane mode, like just complete airplane mode so that nobody can reach me whatsoever. And it is, as you said, Allahu Akbar, takbir for that, like, this is something that was a game changer for me, that it really, really changes the way that you relate to your phone.

**[1:02:07]** Let's see what else we have here. Got to pick up the book. Yeah, I do recommend it. It's a good book. It has to be Islamicized a little bit. There are some things in there, like any book, you know, that's not written like from our sort of worldview. There are some things that are not quite 100% overlapping, but definitely the good outweighs

**[1:02:25]** the evil. And many of the things in the book can be easily adapted when you keep in mind the lessons from the Quran and the examples from Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). Trust their heart, a Qadri, before asking for their hand.

**[1:02:40]** That was not a statement of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). That was a statement of what was in the book. Sana K. said, my masjid got rid of one of our popular imams just because he was so popular. Other mosques were calling him. I was flabbergasted. That's exactly what I'm talking about, Sana, that we have, unfortunately, many insecure

**[1:02:57]** leaders where they are not comfortable or they are uneasy at anybody becoming bigger than them. And then you said they didn't like that he was representing anyone other than them. That's very small minded and it's very narrow minded. And unfortunately, the entire community suffers when leadership is not secure and leadership

**[1:03:16]** is not empowering. A country points out, I feel like that's how marriage works too, laugh out loud. I will. I will follow a man that I respect 100%. Yeah, that's true. I mean, like leadership, as we said in the very, very beginning of this book, that leadership

**[1:03:35]** is not like we don't have to be like at the head of Fortune 500 companies, right? We're talking about everybody's a leader. And Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said this, that every single one of you is a shepherd is what he is, the language that he used, and every single one of you is responsible

**[1:03:55]** for his or her flock. And then the examples he gives, they include women as well. Right. Everybody is a leader, or they have some sort of leadership capacity, especially within their family. And so, yes, when it comes to husband wife relationship, definitely, there's definitely

**[1:04:14]** an aspect of leadership there. And it is subject to all these rules, right? That you need to be a believable person before, you know, you want to talk about vision or respect. And unfortunately, we've reached a time where many men, they just want to be respected by

**[1:04:30]** virtue of their being a man without realizing that respect is something that is earned and respect is a function of trust and trust must be earned as well. And that this is something that is, it's a very, very sort of long term thing that you develop just as Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) developed it over the course of

**[1:04:48]** 40 plus years. Buongiorno a tutti, bene, grazie, I'm doing my morning adhkar, may Allah accept it from you in your prayers. Samira says it's surprising to see da'is these days discouraging women's education. I understand you have reservations about women in the workplace.

**[1:05:04]** Would you agree with discouraging women's education too? It depends on what we mean by education. I mean, the short answer is no, I would not discourage women's education. But I would say that we need to think collectively and not just individualistically.

**[1:05:21]** That's one of my concerns when these types of questions are always asked is that the framing is usually very individualistic. This is not a criticism of you, Samira, it's just that we think we think of basically my choice. Am I going to be able to get an education or not?

**[1:05:38]** And we need to think as an Ummah, right, are we covering our bases? What are our collective responsibilities? Certainly, you know, women need to be educated. But what type of education, like what is being missed here? Are we like if, for example, if somebody else were to ask that question, Samira, and they

**[1:05:56]** meant by women's education all becoming STEM majors and all, you know, I would say no, I don't necessarily encourage I don't think that that's very smart communal planning that all of us are going to make all of our women become STEM majors and have jobs in tech and stuff like that. I think that we need to have some segmentation and some specialization and some

**[1:06:16]** coordination and collective thinking on those sorts of fronts. So there is an aspect of it that's individual, individual choice, of course, but there's also things that are collective that need to be taken into account. But writ large, no, of course, I mean, education is something that is important for

**[1:06:32]** everybody. Fannie Garvey, we say, how do we determine the time for the one third night prayer, please? Can we pray it just before Fajr? Yes, you can pray it just before Fajr. You can also pray it much earlier than that. Essentially, you look at the time of Maghrib and look at the time of Fajr and then how many

**[1:06:52]** hours is that and split it into thirds. That's the easiest way. And there's other ways, but that's an easy way. Nur Jannah, Wa Alaikum Assalam, Rafahtullah. Inshallah, Inshallah, yeah, I hope to. Abdullah asked me, what is my favorite dessert? Foo, tiramisu or baklava?

**[1:07:10]** Hard choice. Depends on the day. Yeah, it depends on the day, tiramisu is definitely up there. Baklava is also definitely up there as well. Wa Alaikum Assalam, rains, gleece free, free Palestine, 100%.

**[1:07:25]** Nur Jannah says, as a Malaysian, we are living in a comfort zone, Alhamdulillah. Nevertheless, we still need to create awareness, not only to the non-Muslims in our country, but also amongst Muslims. That's true. Malaysia, I expect big things from Malaysia. I think Malaysia is a wonderful place and it's a wonderful center of potential.

**[1:07:41]** And everybody in the Ummah needs to be thinking about how are we going to develop that potential and how are we going to be furthering it? What can we do for the Ummah? What can Malaysia offer to the Ummah? What can the Muslims of Malaysia offer the Ummah? What can the Muslims of the United States of America offer to the Ummah? I think that's the question of the hour.

**[1:07:59]** Pestify asked, Imam Tam, do you face difficulties for being an American da'i, visibly Muslim in America? Yeah, I have. I used to be part of the SSSS club, somehow no longer part of the SSSS club. If you know what it is, if you know, you know, SSSS means you get sort of the SSSS on your

**[1:08:17]** boarding passes so that you get taken into secondary questioning whenever you cross a border. But, you know, Alhamdulillah, I can't complain. I've never been, I've never been beaten up or anything like that. I've had some cold stares and some, you know, bigoted comments and things like that.

**[1:08:35]** But I've never had to, I've never faced anything of what some of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world have faced. So definitely, definitely won't complain. Do you make tiramisu? Unfortunately, I do not. I am out of practice.

**[1:08:51]** I used to actually work in restaurants and cook quite a bit. However, the vocation and the path my life has taken me down means I cook a lot less often than I used to. And I never actually did make tiramisu myself.

**[1:09:06]** I don't know about mixing tiramisu with baklava, that sounds like a bid'ah. But maybe in my stomach, I'll mix it up. OK, thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate always your wonderful participation, your excellent musahabah and companionship

**[1:09:22]** through this hour. I hope that we all benefited a bit from it. If there's anything correct and beneficial from Allah, if there's anything incorrect, then it's from myself and the shaitan. And we hope to see you next week. So take care and we'll circle back next week with what's going on. Until then, subhanaka Allah wa bihamdika, ashadu an la ilaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk.

**[1:09:40]** Everybody have a great week, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

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- [The Lives of Imams, Hate Crime in Texas, Israeli Humiliation, Ceasefire Resolutions | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-lives-of-imams-hate-crimes-in-texas-israeli-humiliation-ceasefire-resolutions-imam-tom-live.md)
- [Musk's Take, Columbia's Skunk Surprise, Islamic Unity, and India's Ram Revelation | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/musks-take-columbias-snake-surprise-islamic-unity-and-indias-ram-revelation-imam-tom-live.md)
- [Michigan Mosques Say NO! | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/michigan-mosques-say-no-imam-tom-live.md)
- [Does Protesting Work? | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/does-protesting-wok-imam-tom-live.md)
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- [How To Become A Strong Muslim Leader | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-to-become-a-strong-muslim-leader-imam-tom-live.md)
- [Courage in the Face of Israeli Censorship | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/courage-in-the-face-of-israeli-censorship-imam-tom-live.md)
- [On the Gaza Ceasefire | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/on-the-gaza-ceasefire-imam-tom-live.md)
- [How to Fight the Israeli Backlash | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-to-fight-the-israeli-backlash-imam-tom-live.md)
- [Israel is Losing - and They Know It | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/israel-is-losing-and-they-know-it-imam-tom-live.md)