Dealing With Racism And Bigotry

ALLAH IS ONE

Racism and bigotry is a prob;em around the world including among Muslims unfortunately. Bro. Yusha Evans discusses ways in dealing with this.

Transcript

00:00:00tonight's a bit of a sensitive topic yeah because you have ever dealt with

00:00:22racism raise your hand you've ever been dealt with in a racist manner raise your

00:00:27hand you can raise my hand too yeah you might think why we'll get to it at some

00:00:35point if I decide to get if I decide to cut that deep we'll get there inshallah

00:00:40if you haven't dealt with racism or bigotry then there is probably a good

00:00:49chance you don't do much socializing in the world or you haven't traveled or you

00:00:53haven't been anywhere because racism is an abundant problem throughout the globe

00:00:58and it is a problem that is outside of the Muslim community meaning that it is

00:01:04in the public arena we see it in the world at large we see it in the United

00:01:11States of America we see it in the south and it is something that we suffer as

00:01:18the inside the Muslim community we suffer with racism and we suffer with

00:01:26bigotry one second we're trying to make Facebook work right now I want to try

00:01:35tonight to inshallah deal with it from the Islamic perspective what does the

00:01:40Dean of al-islam say about racism and then what are some of the problems and

00:01:44solutions that inshallah we can find when it comes to dealing with racism

00:01:51ourselves anybody have any idea why people are racist why would someone be

00:01:58racist and what is racism hold on let's go all the way back the beginning I'm

00:02:03acting like you guys know what it's all about what is racism they think they're

00:02:13superior to others based upon what the color of their skin based on the color

00:02:20of their skin or religion or ethnicity they could be the same exact color and

00:02:29be racist towards one another trust me the Kabila wars have been going on for a

00:02:34very long time and if you don't think I know about them you don't know much

00:02:38about me so yes it's someone thinking they have superiority over one another

00:02:43due to some characteristics that they feel are better about themselves than

00:02:49the other individual whether it be race whether it be religion whether it be

00:02:54tribal whatever have you why are people racist why why do people do this to each

00:03:02other anybody yes sister ignorance ignorance is very very very good reason

00:03:12that's one of the basis is that absolutely ignorance any other reason

00:03:16arrogance there you go arrogance absolutely this ignorance and arrogance

00:03:22go hand-in-hand when it comes to racism and bigotry someone thinking that they

00:03:28are better than someone else anybody know where this began

00:03:32chef on somebody's on it right away chef on the first we know of to display this

00:03:39racism due to his arrogance due to his arrogance and ignorance when he's told

00:03:46Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that I am better than Adam alayhis salaam because

00:03:51you created him from dirt and you created me from fire due to the very

00:03:56nature of our creations I think that I have superiority over him and he should

00:04:00not be honored the way that he is on it so it was due to that fact that chef on

00:04:04actually Iblis became chef on he became a regime and it was due to this

00:04:11arrogance and this racism that he showed towards Adam our father alayhis

00:04:16salaam Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says in the Quran a very beautiful verse

00:04:27speaking about the nature of the human beings in creation and he spoke to all

00:04:33of mankind when he said yeah you had mass in the

00:04:36that I created you from both male and female number one all mankind I created

00:04:43you from male and female well John that I created you from male and female and I

00:04:53made you I made you into nations and tribes I made you into different kinds

00:05:00of people for what reason Allah is telling us through his Hikmah and his

00:05:03wisdom why he created people different why he created different skin colors

00:05:08why he created different tribes and nations why

00:05:13literal so that you can know one another so that you could know one another so

00:05:18you could understand each other could you imagine if we all looked exactly the

00:05:22same every single person looked exactly the same then how would we know who is

00:05:27who from what from what we would have no distinction amongst each other it is

00:05:31this distinction that gives us our beauty that we're not any single one of

00:05:35us are exactly alike even identical twins have differences their fingerprints

00:05:41are this so in some cases but there is nothing that is 100% the same and then

00:05:46Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala gives us the standard the standard upon which one

00:05:53person is better than another and what does he say indeed

00:05:59the most honor of you in front of Allah is he what he who has Taqwa he who has

00:06:07the most Taqwa the most honored in the sight of Allah is he who has most Taqwa

00:06:11in the law how I am in Kabir so Allah is telling us the purpose of our creation

00:06:18in being different and this is something that was established as a principle in

00:06:23our own that you were made into nations and tribes and differences so that you

00:06:26could know one another and the most honored of you in the eyes of Allah

00:06:31subhanahu wa'ta'ala is he who has the most Taqwa he was the most Taqwa I

00:06:36spoke about this last night but our Prophet alayhi salatu was salam when he

00:06:42gave his khutbatul haja his farewell sermon one of the most important speeches

00:06:47that he would ever make in his entire life that speech was so important that

00:06:55Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala after he finished it sealed the religion of

00:06:59Islam for eternity sealed it finished it the religion of Islam which means to

00:07:05worship Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala with sincerity in obedience to him to have

00:07:09peace in this life and in the next when did this religion begin when did Allah

00:07:15subhanahu wa'ta'ala begin al-islam he began it with the first of us the very

00:07:24purpose of our creation Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala said I created mankind and

00:07:29jinn to worship me so al-islam was with our creation it began when Allah created

00:07:36things that he wanted to worship him that he would give a free way to choose

00:07:40or refuse so through our all of mankind Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala waited until

00:07:49our Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam had given his khutbatul haja and then said

00:07:54to I mean I'm saying khutbatul haja khutbatul wida, thank you very much I

00:08:01know that but I kept repeating the same thing it's the human mind

00:08:06Clemson's playing tonight so they're bugging me right now he waited until he

00:08:13gave his khutbatul wida to say that this day I have perfected for your

00:08:20deen and completed my favor upon you and chosen for you Islam is your way and

00:08:25khutbatul wida that khutba of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam is one of the

00:08:31most authentic narrations that have ever come to us from him because it

00:08:36is related by so many different companions through so many different

00:08:39authentic chains of narration you find in almost all the major books of a

00:08:44hadith you find it in Bukhari you find it in Muslim you find it in Tirmidhi you

00:08:48find it in the Musnad of Imam Ahmed the most lengthy version of it you will find

00:08:53narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu anhu in the Musnad of Imam Ahmed

00:08:57rahimahullah ta'ala why because Umar was standing right next to the Prophet

00:09:01sallallahu alayhi wasalam when he delivered this and there is so much

00:09:07beauty I think maybe the next time I come back we'll do an entire lecture on

00:09:12the farewell sermon of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam because it is a

00:09:16golden advice that this that if one person took it and encompassed it

00:09:21according to the ulema if a person can encompass what is in the farewell

00:09:25sermon of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam it would be a ticket to Jannah

00:09:28for them in this he became the first ever person in recorded history to stand

00:09:38up in front of a group of people and say that a white man is not better than a

00:09:45black and a black is not better than a white an Arab is not better than a

00:09:51non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab the best of you are those

00:09:58who have the most piety in front of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala reiterating

00:10:02what Allah Azza wa Jal had already revealed but making a firm statement

00:10:07going even farther than this to explain that your color does not matter where

00:10:13you're from makes no difference if you have taqwa then nothing else about you

00:10:20matters nothing else about you matters racism is something that was very

00:10:26prevalent at the time of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam

00:10:31asabiya people despising one another because of the race ethnicity or tribe

00:10:38tribalism was very big at the time of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam and

00:10:42it's something that we have revived into the ummah of Muhammad alayhi salatu

00:10:47wasalam in 2017 qabil qabil qabil if you're not from the qabila forget about it

00:10:53we have to eradicate this from our ummah because it is a filth it is a filth it

00:11:00is disgusting when I see people argue with one another about tribes I'm I

00:11:07don't care if that person holds four five six PhDs I look at them as the most

00:11:13ignorant individual I have ever met in my life you must be stupid and I live in

00:11:19a city that is full of this asabiya based on qabil we need to eradicate this

00:11:26from our ummah I'm gonna tell you a couple of stories before I get to the

00:11:30depths of racism and what causes it and the amount of stupidity that it takes to

00:11:36reach that level you know there was a man at the time of the Prophet alayhi

00:11:44salatu wasalam his name was Bilal Ibn Raba' a man whom the Prophet

00:11:54alayhi salatu wasalam said about him that I heard in a dream he told him he

00:12:01said I heard your footsteps in front of me in Jannah I heard you I heard your

00:12:07footsteps in Jannah mashallah tabarakallah Bilal was from where

00:12:14Abyssinia Abyssinia but where is that he's from Africa he was African and he

00:12:22was a slave he was a slave at the time when the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam

00:12:27received his revelation he was a slave he was in not even free of himself who

00:12:35is his master's name who owned him umayyah a stark enemy of Islam someone

00:12:44who spent time effort dedication punishing the Muslims and the Prophet

00:12:49alayhi salatu wasalam when Bilal heard the call of Tawheed he accepted it without

00:12:58hesitation or reservation and his owner Umayyah became very upset about this

00:13:07there's a story you all know and he punished him and punished him and

00:13:13punished him but could not turn him away so he inflicted upon him the most harsh

00:13:18punishment that he could think of which was what what did he do to him he placed

00:13:25him on the hot burning sand of Mecca how many of you ever been in Mecca in the

00:13:29summertime raise your hand you ever been in Mecca in dead summer it's hot for

00:13:35real hot so he placed him on the hot burning sand and placed a rock so heavy

00:13:41on him that he couldn't moved that he couldn't move and he told him I will not

00:13:48let you up until you renounce the religion of Muhammad alayhi salatu wasalam

00:13:52and come back to the religion of your forefathers and what was Bilal's

00:13:56response ahad allahu ahad Allah is one Allah is uniquely one Allah is

00:14:04distinctly one and the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam and the companions came

00:14:09along there was only a handful at this time very few they had no power they had

00:14:14no nothing they came along and they saw Bilal in this condition and what did the

00:14:21Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam ask his companion what did he ask them is there

00:14:28any one of you who can help Bilal is anyone who can buy him offer go to

00:14:33Umayyah offer the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam was a poor man anyone that can

00:14:37go and offer to buy Bilal who stepped up to the plate Abu Bakr it's hard for me

00:14:48to tell stories about the companions because it's just these people or

00:14:52something else Abu Bakr allahu anhu the same Abu Bakr who will be the first to

00:14:58enter into Jannah after all of the Anbiya have entered you know that story

00:15:03right how many of you know the story of Abu Bakr's entry into Jannah we are

00:15:08missing so much we're missing so much after all of the Anbiya have entered

00:15:14into Jannah all you know every one of us has a how many gates does Jannah have

00:15:21young men young young sisters how many doors does Jannah have eight eight gates

00:15:28to Jannah every single person who will ever make it to Jannah and may Allah

00:15:32subhanahu wa'ta'ala make us of those I mean say I mean we all will have a

00:15:38specific gate that will open only for us and we get to go through it whatever

00:15:42that gate might be if you are someone who is known to fast there is a gate of

00:15:46fasting you will go through it things like that but after all of the Anbiya

00:15:49have entered into Jannah all eight gates of Jannah will open at once and there is

00:15:56a angel who watches over every one of those gates and all of those angels will

00:16:02begin simultaneously saying the name of Abu Bakr as-Sadiq Abu Bakr Abu Bakr

00:16:09please give me the honor of you entering into Jannah through my gate give me that

00:16:15honor and Abu Bakr will be the first of us to enter into the gates of

00:16:21Jannah and hold one of the highest positions in Jannah after the Anbiya may

00:16:26Allah be pleased with him may Allah raise us up one more person in this Ummah

00:16:31like Abu Bakr I mean so Abu Bakr came forward and he said Ummayya sell Bilad to

00:16:40me and give me a price tell me whatever you want and he said give me ten gold

00:16:44coins which was a crazy high price was a crazy high price he just offering him

00:16:49some stupid ludicrous price and Abu Bakr didn't even hesitate said someone

00:16:55give me my money gave him the ten gold coins and said sold and Ummayya laughed at

00:16:59him and you know what he said he said had you bargained with me had you

00:17:05bargained with me I would have given him to you for less than that I would give

00:17:08him to you for one you know what Abu Bakr said in return if you would have

00:17:16bargained with me and asked me for a hundred I would have given it to you and

00:17:21he bought Bilal and he freed him and he freed him and you know what he used to

00:17:26refer to Bilal as does anyone know what Abu Bakr As-Sadiq the greatest of this

00:17:31Ummah the greatest of mankind after the Anbiya what he used to refer to Bilal as

00:17:38he used to refer to him as my master he used to call Bilal his master that I

00:17:45freed him and I became and he became my master I became his servant this was the

00:17:50love that was shown amongst the companions when the Prophet alaihissalaatu

00:17:59wassalaam entered into Mecca and I'm only telling you one story just because

00:18:04I want to show you because these are the two extremes when the Prophet alaihissalaatu

00:18:11wassalaam entered into Medina and he built his masjid and after the masjid

00:18:18was complete they were debating on how we should let people know how to pray

00:18:23how are we gonna let people know it's time to pray some people said we should

00:18:27have bells some people said we should have this have that and then the advice

00:18:33was given why don't I've seen in a dream you calling people using the voice to

00:18:39call to prayer so whom did the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam speak and say go call

00:18:46people to the salah? Bilal. Bilal. Bilal became the first in this Ummah to stand

00:18:54up and call people to salah when Fath al-Makkah took place when the Prophet

00:19:01alaihissalaatu wassalaam was able to go back home to the city he loved so much

00:19:05and enter into it and eradicate the idols from inside the Kaaba. Whom did he

00:19:11ask to stand on the Kaaba for the very first time and call the Adhan? Bilal.

00:19:16The roof of the Kaaba the one of the most holy spot on this entire planet

00:19:22everybody was Muslim that you know of at that time. Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali,

00:19:27Abdur-Rahman, Ibn Awf, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Many people were Muslims at this

00:19:32time. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh had already passed away but he said Bilal. So Bilal stood on top

00:19:38of the Kaaba and proclaimed La ilaha illallah to the world. Later on after the

00:19:44Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam's death, after the Prophet died, does anyone know

00:19:49what anybody know what Bilal did? He left. He left Medina. He said I cannot stand to

00:19:57be reminded of my Prophet in this city. I can't bear it. He couldn't. He became

00:20:03depressed because every day he would walk in places where he know he talked

00:20:07to the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam. I saw him here. I ate with him here. He

00:20:12smiled at me here. He couldn't. He could not absolutely take it. So he left.

00:20:16Anybody know where he went? He went towards Ashan because he know the

00:20:24Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam said what? If when there is fitna after me you will find

00:20:29the believers in Ashan. So he went and waited for them there. But during the

00:20:34Khalifa of Hassan and Hussain may Allah be pleased with them and their

00:20:42father, they asked Bilal to come back. Bilal wanted, they wanted to see Bilal.

00:20:50Bilal came back to the city for a reason. Came back to Medina and Hassan and

00:20:54Hussain saw him and they asked him to just please bless us one more time to

00:21:01hear your voice called the Adhan from the Prophet. So Bilal went up and

00:21:06called the Adhan from Masjid Nabawi and it is said that the people started

00:21:14pouring into the streets crying because that Adhan reminded them of a time when

00:21:22their Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam walked amongst them and they were in tears left

00:21:30right and center and Bilal couldn't take it. He left again and he never returned

00:21:34to the city of Medina. He just couldn't. But anybody know why he came back?

00:21:39Does anybody know why he came back in the first place? You see if you don't know

00:21:44who you are, your history, these companions, that's who you are. If you don't know

00:21:50them, how are you gonna be like them? How are you gonna teach your children to be

00:21:54like them if you don't even know who they are? You don't know anything about

00:21:57their lives. Subhanallah. Anybody know why Bilal came back to Medina in the first

00:22:02place? He had a dream. Who did he see in that dream? His Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam.

00:22:09The Messenger of Allah alaihissalaatu wassalaam said if you ever

00:22:16see me in a dream know that you have truly seen me because the Shaitaan

00:22:19cannot imitate me. So the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam came to Bilal in his dream and

00:22:23do you know what he asked him? He said, Bilal I miss you. Why don't you visit me

00:22:29anymore? Why haven't you visited me lately? So Bilal left from Asham and came

00:22:36all the way back to Medina just to say Salaam to his beloved Messenger

00:22:41alaihissalaatu wassalaam. This was that loving relationship between our Prophet

00:22:48alaihissalaatu wassalaam and an Abyssinian slave. There was a battle that took place and the

00:23:00Muslims were victorious and when the spoils of war were being decided about

00:23:08how they should be distributed, what they would do, things of this nature of

00:23:11different strategies, there was a difference among the companions. One said

00:23:16we should do it this way, we should do it that way. Abu Dhara al-Ghifari

00:23:19r.a gave an opinion and Bilal differed with him. Bilal said no no

00:23:23we shouldn't do it that way, we should do it this way. Abu Dhara was

00:23:27infuriated. He became angry. His arrogance and his pride and his ignorance

00:23:34dwelled up inside of him and he said to Bilal, oh son of a black woman, you, oh

00:23:41son of a black woman, are you going to contradict and try and challenge me?

00:23:46This hurt Bilal's feelings because he loved Abu Dhara. He loved all of the

00:23:51companions. He loved like nobody else. It hurt his feelings and he talked to the

00:23:57Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam and told him what happened. Abu Dhara came to see

00:24:03the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam and the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam

00:24:06wouldn't even look at him. Turned his face away from him and this hurt Abu Dhara

00:24:11because he knew that the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam was upset with him.

00:24:14That broke his heart and he said, Ya Rasool Allah, what upsets you about me?

00:24:19And he said, Bilal told me what you said to him. Is it true? There's wisdom behind

00:24:25that too. Was Bilal not a very truthful person, yes or no? Was Bilal a truthful

00:24:34and upright Muslim, yes or no? Promise Jannah, yes or no? Was his story true, yes

00:24:41or no? But you see the wisdom of the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam, he did not

00:24:46start off by saying, why did you say such and such to Bilal? He said, I heard from

00:24:51Bilal that you said such and such to him. Is it true? Verifying a source is an

00:24:57absolute important fact when it comes to stories. Every story has two sides. Every

00:25:03story. So Abu Dhara said, yes, it is true to me. He said, O Abu Dhara, there is still

00:25:12Jahiliyyah in you and anyone who has an atom's weight of Jahiliyyah in their

00:25:17hearts will not see Jannah but enter the fires of Jahannam

00:25:21and do not have but a little bit of good deeds left in you. The only thing that is

00:25:27going to save you is your good deeds and I don't see that you have very much. That

00:25:32broke Abu Dhara's heart. Broke him. So what did he do? And what had Bilal done? Bilal snitched on him, right?

00:25:41Rather than sorting it out, he snitched on him to the Prophet alaihissalaatu wassalaam, right?

00:25:47You think Abu Dhara cared about that? No. He knew what he had done and he ran and

00:25:52found Bilal in the market, in the street and he laid down on his face on the

00:25:59ground and tried to grab Bilal's foot and put it on his face and he said, Bilal,

00:26:05I will not, because Bilal said, what are you doing? Because it's, that's over. What are you

00:26:10doing? He said, I will not get up off of this ground until you place your foot

00:26:14upon my face so that it can be seen who is better than the other one. That you,

00:26:20Bilal, are better than me. What did Bilal do? Bilal, okay, yeah, feels good. I take my

00:26:26revenge. Bilal got down on the ground and kissed his cheek and said, your face is

00:26:32rather to be kissed than to be stepped on and he picked him up and hugged him

00:26:36and that was the end of it. That was the end of it. It was squashed. It was done.

00:26:40This is how they dealt with matters. It was over. So you see, it's not to say that

00:26:46shaitan, that racism is going to be eradicated completely because shaitan

00:26:52runs through our veins like blood runs through our veins and if he can make us

00:26:57despise one another based on these stupid minuscule things, then he can get

00:27:02to us. So we're always gonna have those emotions and feelings that we fight and

00:27:06try to suppress. But you see the way they dealt with it? They had an issue. They

00:27:11sorted it out. It was over. After that, they were brothers.

00:27:16The believers are indeed but brothers. Beautiful, beautiful

00:27:23stories. You will find the seerah or plate with stories just like this. Just

00:27:29like this. Racism is something also that the Muslim community suffers from and

00:27:40this is where I'm gonna get a little bit touchy but I don't care. That's what I

00:27:48like about being a traveling speaker. One of the things I like about being able to

00:27:53come to communities and speak is that I'm an outsider. You can only get mad at

00:27:59me and not invite me back. You can't fire me. I don't work for you. You can't

00:28:05ban me. You just don't have to invite me back and that's okay. There's a

00:28:09lot more cities but at least I said what I had to say. At least I'm trying

00:28:13to do what Allah told me to do.

00:28:17Oh you who believe, fear Allah and say what needs to be said. So I like to be

00:28:23able to say what needs to be said. As an Ummah, we are dealing with racism. Yes,

00:28:29racism on its most and the funny thing is that it's on its most ignorant level

00:28:35based on how dark a light someone is. That is actually the core of our racism.

00:28:41We're gonna go deeper where it's tribe and country but at the core, the

00:28:46lighter you are, the better you are. The darker you are, the worse you are. That's

00:28:50stupid, deepest, most ignorant form of racism. We as Muslims suffer from it

00:28:55absolutely 100%. 100% and it's a very unfortunate fact because you are taking

00:29:07things which Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has blessed you with and using them to

00:29:12become absolutely ignorant and devoid of any Iman. Racism based on this ignorant

00:29:21level of the color of your skin. You are using something to determine that fact

00:29:27that I am lighter in color than this person so that means I am better than

00:29:33them. What faculty are you using to make that determination? What faculty? You only

00:29:43have five senses. What faculty of your senses are you using to determine the

00:29:51color of someone's skin? Your eyes. You're using your eyes. The very eyes which

00:29:58Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala created and gave you and blessed you with sight,

00:30:04blessed you with cameras that process better than any human being will ever to

00:30:10be able to replicate or recreate or replicate. You're using the very gift of

00:30:15sight that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala gave you to judge someone else. What if Allah

00:30:22decided that you're using this in such a detrimental and horrendous way that I'm

00:30:28gonna take it from you and take your sight? If none of us could see, if we were

00:30:33all colorblind, what would we be using then? What would we be deciding then? You

00:30:37see we're using this gift that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala gave us to judge one

00:30:40another and it is following in the footsteps of shaitaan. This is the most

00:30:47clear-cut way that you, one of the most clear-cut ways that you can be following

00:30:54in the footsteps of shaitaan is to be racist and to judge someone else based

00:30:58on the color of their skin and you are a fool for doing so. An absolute fool. The

00:31:04lighter someone's skin doesn't make them any better than anyone else and it

00:31:10bothers me when I see, especially for our sisters, it affects you guys a lot. How do

00:31:17I know? Because unfortunately I'm stuck on social media and I see so many

00:31:22sisters and brothers you might try to do it as well. I don't know if brothers are

00:31:25that caring about their looks today. Yes brothers do care about their looks very

00:31:31much but what do sisters do with their pictures? You lighten them. Filters. You

00:31:39think I don't know? You think I'm that slow? Sisters will use filters to lighten

00:31:46their pictures. Brothers might be doing it too. I don't know. I don't, I don't know.

00:31:49It might be but you lighten them. Use the black and white filter that lightens you

00:31:55up a whole lot or you use those toning filters where you can change the the

00:32:01exposure to make yourself a little lighter. To see this absolutely breaks

00:32:06my heart. It breaks my heart so much to see that because it doesn't make you any

00:32:12better than before and I have mixed children and alhamdulillah my children

00:32:16are mixed so I I'm speaking from some experience and know what my children

00:32:22might go through. When it comes to dealing with the issue of racism as well

00:32:30in the Muslim community we need to forget this idea that because of where

00:32:36you're from and your tribe and your country and your village or whatever it

00:32:41might be makes you better than anyone else because if that were the case then

00:32:51the tribe of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam, the tribe of the Prophet alayhi,

00:32:55what was the Prophet's tribe? The Quraysh, more specifically Bani Hashim, they all

00:33:06would be the most highest-ranked people in al-jannah because he came from the

00:33:10most noble of lineage but we know that many many many many of his family

00:33:17members are the dwellers of Jahannam. Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala wrote an

00:33:21entire surah speaking about one, one of the surahs speaking about one of the

00:33:25Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam's family members. Who?

00:33:30Abu Lahab. So tribe doesn't mean anything about you and normally tribe

00:33:38doesn't really come into play except in two places. Tribes come into play in our

00:33:45lives and we see them have the most ill effect in two places. What are those two

00:33:51places? Marriage, number one. There's another one. Politics. Marriage and

00:34:02politics. Marriage and politics are where the qabeel comes into play the most.

00:34:07Politics is based on tribe and marriage is based on tribe. You might think and

00:34:12I've seen it so many times before. There might be a brother or a sister who want

00:34:19to get married. May Allah grant all of our brothers and

00:34:23sisters who want to get married a righteous spouse.

00:34:26Ameen. They want to get married and they bring a young man home or bring a young

00:34:35woman to the house in order to with the family or whatever have you, you know how

00:34:40that goes. And that person might be known to the family, might be praised by

00:34:47the family. MashaAllah, that brother's an amazing brother. Alhamdulillah, we know

00:34:50nothing but good about him. The sister might bring him up in passing. Do you

00:34:54know this brother? Oh yeah, mashaAllah, he's really good. He's an awesome brother. So

00:34:57what does she do? She goes and tells the brother, oh we're all good. My family

00:35:01loves you. My family loves you, mashaAllah, or on the reverse

00:35:04side of things. But then the moment the issue of marriage is brought up, oh no no

00:35:09no no. He might be good but he's not that good. He might be good but not that good.

00:35:14He might be good enough for every other person in this ummah but he's not good

00:35:19enough for you because he is not one of us. He's not one of us. He's not from our

00:35:24tribe. That's not how we do things. And this causes fitna. The Prophet

00:35:28a.s. told fathers especially because fathers have the right of

00:35:34being the Wali or the brother or the uncle or whoever the Wali is. He spoke to

00:35:39the Wali's in general and he said if a young man comes to you asking for your

00:35:46daughter and he is upright in his akhlaq, he has a good character and he has a

00:35:51good deen, then let him marry your daughter because if not you will create

00:35:58fist and facade on this earth. And that's what we see now. Marriage that is made so

00:36:04complicated for our young brothers and sisters that it is easier to sin and

00:36:10have a haram relationship than it is to get married. We are destroying the next

00:36:16generation based upon this. This ummah of parents, this generation of parents right

00:36:22now that are living are gonna have a whole lot of questioning on our plates

00:36:25on the day of judgment when it comes to our children and starting families for

00:36:29the next generation. We're gonna have a big problem. And I

00:36:33understand it. Brothers, yes I understand it. Wallahi I understand. I have a

00:36:38daughter. I understand it. May Allah help the young man that comes to my house

00:36:42asking for my daughter's hand. May Allah help him and strengthen him because I'm

00:36:47gonna put him through it. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I'm

00:36:52gonna do what is best for my daughter. Not what I want, what is best. That is our

00:36:59job as parents. Not to do what we want for our children but what is best for

00:37:05them. And sometimes what is best for them is a tough pill to swallow. But guess

00:37:09what? We have to swallow it because that's what we are supposed to do as

00:37:13parents. What is best for our children.

00:37:18How are we going to deal with racism? How do we deal with it? We know Islam says it

00:37:25is absolutely impermissible. It is absolutely impermissible to be a racist.

00:37:31And to be a racist in Islam, to be a racist as a Muslim is one of the most

00:37:38major of sins after shirk and Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because it is a

00:37:43direct imitation of shaitaan. It is one of the worst of things that we can do. So

00:37:47we know it is impermissible. How do we deal with it? How as we as an

00:37:53ummah, we're going to talk about outside at first, but how are we as an ummah going to deal

00:37:57with racism? How? It's not a rhetorical question. I don't have all

00:38:03the answers. I don't. I wish I did. If I did I wouldn't need to be here traveling

00:38:10and telling you things. I would just be writing prescriptions for every

00:38:12community and sending and say if you do this you'll be alright. How are we going

00:38:16to deal with racism? You see? Silence. Can you hear a pin drop in this room? We have no

00:38:24ideas. Nothing. We just, it's just there. You see racism is the elephant in the

00:38:29room in the Muslim community. It's the elephant in the room in the Muslim

00:38:33community and I know all of the differences. I know the things that go

00:38:37on. I know. Trust me. I know. I have no shadow of a doubt and people can

00:38:43disagree with me if you want to. Travel as much as me and then come back and

00:38:48disagree with me. I know me as a white. I'm about as white as white gets even

00:38:56though my grandfather was Native American. I'm still a southern white boy.

00:39:00I know that I have certain privileges that other Muslims are not afforded

00:39:06especially in the Muslim world. I know. I've seen it with my own two eyes. I've

00:39:10seen it with my own two eyes. I can get away with things that you can't get away

00:39:14with. I can go to the Middle East and overstay my visa and be treated much

00:39:21differently than if my brothers from Somalia or Bangladesh or Pakistan try to

00:39:26do the same thing. I know that. I can get away with a lot more. I'm treated a lot

00:39:31differently. I've seen it with my own two eyes before I had some connections in

00:39:34in Saudi and was able to you know come and go now a little bit more

00:39:38differently. I've stood in line going for ummah or for hajj in a group of

00:39:43brother a hajj group that was mostly from places like Pakistan and other

00:39:48things of that nature and someone come and get me out of the line.

00:39:51Ya habibi, inti Amerki? Yeah, I'm American. MashaAllah. Habibi, tafadhal. That's it.

00:39:57I'm guest of the king now mashaAllah. Blue passport, white face. Good to go. I

00:40:03know that. Do I take advantage of it sometimes? Yeah, it's a good thing to have.

00:40:07I use it but it's not the way things should be. It's not the way things should

00:40:10be. I've seen it with my own two eyes when I lived in Egypt as being a white

00:40:15American and having a wife that was not white and not American. When we went to

00:40:21go get our visa at the majamma, how many of you have been to Egypt? You've been to

00:40:25Egypt. You've stayed in Egypt for a while. Yeah, you know the majamma right? Majamma

00:40:29al-Tahrir. Yeah, you gotta go there and get your visa. It's a nightmare. Not for me.

00:40:35Not for me. It was so easy. It was so easy. The ladies behind the counter, they

00:40:40don't care about nothing. They just sit and they don't even look up from the

00:40:43page. But I spoke to one of the brothers who's security and stuff like that, showed

00:40:46him my passport and said, look, I have things to do.

00:40:48Ah, inti Amerki? MashaAllah. But then, okay, now I need my wife's as well.

00:40:54Ah, your wife? From where? Ah, you have to go way down there to this office, get this

00:41:01security check and then after you do that security check, bring it back. We're

00:41:04going to send you to another office. Then you have to go downstairs in the

00:41:06boom closet, take like 15 photos, things of this nature. I was like, what the? We're the

00:41:11same family. No, you're not treated that way. You're treated upon where you are

00:41:15from. Where you're from doesn't matter. Like, she's born in America. No, don't

00:41:19matter. Don't matter whatsoever. This racism is very deep in our communities

00:41:23and it's come to the point to where we have become reverse racist. We've become

00:41:29reverse racist. We've dealt with it for so long that we start having it against

00:41:32each other. We start having it against each other. The Arabs don't like anybody

00:41:36darker than them, so the people that are darker than them, the Somalis, the

00:41:39Bangladeshis, the Pakistanis, they start hating one another based on the color

00:41:42that, oh, I might be Pakistani, but I'm not as dark as that Pakistani right

00:41:46there. I'm not as dark as a Bangladeshi. I've seen these arguments. I've seen it

00:41:51with my own very two eyes and I'm just sitting back like, what in the world is

00:41:57going on here? We are, and when you say that, and I've said this before to

00:42:06government officials in Muslim countries, when they are playing this race card,

00:42:12Allah says this. They look at me like, okay, now you're going to tell

00:42:19me what Allah said. You have been Muslim how long? I've been Muslim my whole life. Islam is in

00:42:24my blood. He said, no, shaitan is in your blood. Dealing with it in Egypt was the

00:42:28worst. They're like original Muslims according to them. The original people

00:42:32from planet Earth. They're direct descendants from Adam alayhis salaam, but we have to

00:42:37learn to deal with these things and talk about them and open up about them and be

00:42:42forward with them because if not, if we don't acknowledge the elephant in the

00:42:47room, then it can't be confronted. It can't be challenged. It can't be done. We

00:42:53have to deal with these things. I've even seen brothers who I know, to be a decent

00:42:59brother, a decent brother from the Gulf, refer to a worker from West Africa as

00:43:08Abdi. Abdi. Not the way you guys name yourselves Abdi. Abdi in the sense

00:43:14is calling him slave. My slave. I wanted to slap the brother. Ya ikhwan, if it

00:43:19wasn't impermissible to hit your face, I would knock that beard off your chin.

00:43:23He's better than you. You just made him better than you. You just raised his rank

00:43:29in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala above you and just lowered yourself. So

00:43:36how do we deal with this? How do we deal with this? Culturism, the same thing as

00:43:41racism. We're putting it all in the same bowl today.

00:43:44Culturism, against one another because of culture, the same thing. Who cares

00:43:50about culture? Who cares? It's good to have different cultures. I like

00:43:55the fact that we as Muslims come from everywhere on the planet. This is one of

00:43:59the things that brought Malcolm X, who's changed his name to Al-Hajj Malik Al-Shabaz

00:44:06may Allah forgive him, when he went to Mecca and he was

00:44:13astonished that Muslims are from everywhere. There are Muslims sitting

00:44:17there eating with me with blonde hair and blue eyes and Muslims who is dark as

00:44:22the night from West Africa and they're all brothers. When it comes time to

00:44:26worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, racism is thrown out the window. It's

00:44:31thrown out the window. So how do we challenge it? How are we going to

00:44:35challenge racism in 2018? The same thing that we talked about yesterday, the

00:44:43hearts have to change. The hearts have to change. We have to begin to look at one

00:44:49another. When I see another Muslim, when I see someone who else who says

00:44:54la ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah, I have to be able to look straight past

00:44:58where they're from, what color their skin is, what language they speak and see this

00:45:03person as a Muslim first and foremost above everything else. A Muslim alhamdulillah.

00:45:10We've become so used to seeing Muslims that we've become so prevalent that we

00:45:16treat each other like that. Could you imagine if you were in a land where

00:45:20there were no other Muslims and you were living devoid of any remembrance of

00:45:24Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and just so happened you found one Muslim. You

00:45:28wouldn't care where that Muslim was from. You wouldn't care if they're darker than

00:45:31you, lighter than you, what language they spoke. It's another Muslim alhamdulillah.

00:45:37This is the attitude that we have. We should learn to love one another. Love.

00:45:43Love. If you are someone, if you are someone who deals with racism, you have

00:45:51it in your heart and I'm not, I don't want you to let anyone else know but I'm

00:45:55almost 100% guaranteeing you that there are people in this room that have some

00:45:59racist tendencies in their hearts. I just know it. The statistics are right

00:46:04here in front of us. Men lie, women lie, but guess what doesn't lie? Numbers.

00:46:09Numbers don't lie. So according to statistics there are a few people in

00:46:13this room that have some racism or bigotry or culturism in their heart. If

00:46:16you know that that's something that you deal with, I challenge you to force

00:46:22yourself to create a bond with someone completely opposite than you. Get to know

00:46:28them. Force yourself as a Muslim. Force yourself to know someone that is

00:46:33completely different to you that you normally would have some ill feelings or

00:46:37or distance between you. Get to know them. Find a good brother or sister and get to

00:46:43know them and watch Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala create some love in your heart

00:46:47and ask Allah to create a love and affection between me and this person and

00:46:52watch after that you'll have trouble being racist because when you see

00:46:56someone else with that same skin tone or whatever have you, you're gonna think of

00:47:00that person who's become so beloved to you and you won't be able to do that. We

00:47:05need to learn to have this type of love and affection for one another and it's

00:47:10something that we should challenge in society as well. It's something that we

00:47:13should challenge in society is breaking the bonds of racism and we as an ummah

00:47:20have a unique blessed opportunity to if we can deal with the racism in our own

00:47:26communities, the bigotry in our own communities to be able to go forward and

00:47:30show the world that look we treat one another as if we are family. Not only do

00:47:36we treat one another as if we are family, we are family. We are family. We are

00:47:41related by our relationship to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and look at us. Look

00:47:46who we're from. White American, African American, Somali, Indonesian, Pakistani,

00:47:51Malaysian, Bengali, every continent on this planet. So maybe I don't know if

00:47:56there's any indigenous Antarctic Muslims. I don't think so except for the

00:48:00penguins alhamdulillah who submit to the will of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala with

00:48:03no free will but we come from everywhere but we are joined together by that bond

00:48:09of tawheed, by that bond of tawheed. So we're able to show that to the rest of

00:48:14the world that look we can become that exemplar for humanity but we need to

00:48:19challenge it in and amongst ourselves. We need to challenge it. We need to

00:48:22challenge it. Do you think that racism is a serious problem in the Muslim

00:48:29community? Raise your hand. You think it's a serious problem? Wow. Serious meaning

00:48:36that it needs to be dealt with now. Raise your hand. Yeah. That's, that's, I don't

00:48:43need to raise hands for the other because it shows a majority. Why? Why are

00:48:47we as Muslims racist towards one another and bigoted towards one another when we

00:48:53know that we have the same exact belief system? What causes this? Self-hatred? A

00:49:03lot of it has to do with an inferiority complex. Absolutely self-hatred. Guess

00:49:09who taught us to hate ourselves? Shaitan way back when but let's get more

00:49:14realistic. Let's get real. Guess who taught Muslims to hate one another?

00:49:27Colonialism destroyed this ummah and it was a very, very targeted system. It was a

00:49:36very targeted system when the non-Muslims began to conquer Muslim

00:49:42lands. Let's say within the past 200 years. Their number one goal as a stated

00:49:50fact was to cause division. We must disunite them. We must disunite them. We

00:49:58must create borders. We must create lands. We must create flags. We must create

00:50:04different languages, etc. Separate them from their identity. Erase the Arabic

00:50:11language from their schools, from their communities, from their politics, from

00:50:16their governments. Put a different borderline between their countries and

00:50:21teach them to hate one another. Cause division. Cause factions and fractions

00:50:27between them. Give more money to one than we're gonna give to the other. Make one

00:50:31more wealthy than we make the other. All of these politics were played on this

00:50:35ummah and we fell victim to it. We fell victim to it. We were taught this way. We

00:50:42were taught this way over generations and unfortunately after a while and that

00:50:47ball began rolling, they decided to sit back and watch. All they had to do is sit

00:50:52back and watch. Watch them eat themselves alive and that's what we have done.

00:50:56That's what we have done. If you don't believe me, go and look at the colonial

00:51:02takeover of the Muslim world and look at what was stated by leaders of those

00:51:09movements and what they wanted to accomplish. They said first and foremost,

00:51:15I'm not gonna give you names because I want you to do some homework, first and

00:51:20foremost, we must create disunity amongst them and never ever ever allow

00:51:27them to be unified ever again because their strength is in their unity. Their

00:51:33weakness is in their division. 100%. If us as an ummah were united and when I say

00:51:44united, I'm not talking about 100% because it will never be, but if we as an

00:51:48ummah, as a majority, were united upon the same principle, forget about even the

00:51:56small differences, but we had the same vision which was the protection of our

00:52:00own, the welfare of our own, the safety of our own, the security of our own and that

00:52:11was first and foremost above anything else personal or private, then there

00:52:18would be nothing on this world that would ever stop us. We would still be

00:52:21living in those glory days where Muslims could do as they wish in safety and

00:52:26security and we would still be the leaders of innovation as we once were. We

00:52:31would still be the leaders in medicine as we once were. We would still be the

00:52:35leaders in technology as we once were. We would still be the movers and shakers

00:52:41on the planet Earth. We were the trendsetters. We were the innovators. We

00:52:48were the people who made the world what it was. When the rest of the world was

00:52:54still living in caveman status, Muslims were building kingdoms and exploring the

00:53:02stars and the universe and the depths of the human body and how it worked and how

00:53:06it functioned and advanced calculus and algebra and all of these other things

00:53:12that make the world as we know it a better place, but our division caused us

00:53:17to focus on so many other things that now we have fallen so far behind that

00:53:21we're not a leader in anything. We're not a leader in any way whatsoever except

00:53:27we're a leader in making the front page of the news. That's what we have become

00:53:32leaders in. Why? It's our own fault. We have done it to ourselves. We've done it

00:53:38to ourselves and it sounds like a pie-in-the-sky solution, but it's not.

00:53:44It's us understanding our own power. It's us understanding who we are. It's us

00:53:51understanding that we as an ummah united are stronger than any opposition or

00:53:56leadership that could ever come against us. The Prophet alayhi salatu wassalam

00:54:01said this and he made this example to his ummah and let me tell you if you

00:54:06don't think that the people who dislike Islam, the people who haven't harbored

00:54:14enmity towards the Deen of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, if you don't think

00:54:19that they're leaders and they're think tanks and when I say they're leaders

00:54:25it's not the person they put up in front of on the podium. That's not the leader

00:54:28trust me. If any of you ever think that that's the guy in charge, you've

00:54:33already been fooled. You already fooled. That's not the guy. If you don't think

00:54:39they know more Quran than the average Muslim, you've already been tricked. If

00:54:44you don't think they know more Hadith than the average Muslim, you're fooled. If

00:54:50you don't think that there's some of them that could sit down with you that

00:54:54had no belief in Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, never believed in him, actually

00:54:58do not care whether or not he exists, but could sit down and explain to you the

00:55:04intricacies of the fiqh of Hanbaliyyah versus Hanafi, then you have been fooled.

00:55:09They're very wise in what they do. They believe in knowing your enemy. They

00:55:16believe it. If you don't think they know these ahadith and they know the seerah

00:55:20and they know the history and they know how the Muslims were so successful and

00:55:24so eminent, then you are fooled. They know that the Muslim ummah is successful in

00:55:30two ways. Two ways. There are two ways that this ummah could overnight change

00:55:36its position in the world. Number one, its attachment to Allah

00:55:40subhanahu wa'ta'ala and his deen. The more attached to Allah they are, the more

00:55:45Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala aids them. It's clear-cut. Seen throughout history.

00:55:49Number one. And number two, how attached they are to themselves. If they are

00:55:54united, they cannot be defeated. If they're united, don't even think about it.

00:55:59It's not gonna work. But the moment we can start dividing them, then they weaken.

00:56:03And the Prophet alayhissalatu wassalam, he showed his companions this. He showed

00:56:09his companions this by taking a stick. He took a stick and he broke it. And he

00:56:16said, this is the solitary believer that goes by themselves. One Muslim, one

00:56:20believer, snap them like a twig. But then he put a whole bunch of sticks together

00:56:25and he tried to break it. He said, this is the jamaat. This is the community. This is

00:56:31the united Muslim ummah. When they are together, you can't break them. And as

00:56:38long as we still hold racism, culturalism, bigotry in our hearts

00:56:46towards one another, we can never be united. We can never be united. I don't

00:56:52care how many agreements we sign with each other, how many different peace

00:56:57accords we come to, all of this nonsense philandery that we do in public to say

00:57:02that, oh yeah, we're together. It will never work if this isn't together. If our

00:57:09hearts aren't together, if our hearts aren't attached to one another, then we

00:57:14will never be successful. We will never be successful. Absolutely not. We will

00:57:21always be separated and divided. And as long as we are separated and divided, we

00:57:25will always be defeated and in this position of lowliness. Lowliness. And I'm

00:57:31not speaking about a Muslim takeover. No, I'm just talking about respect, honor,

00:57:35dignity. That's what I'm talking about.

00:57:42Because we want to be treated with respect. We want to be treated with the

00:57:45honor. We want to be treated with dignity. No human being does not want to be

00:57:49treated with honor, respect, and dignity. How many of you in here would love to be

00:57:52honored and respected? You want to be honored. You want to be respected. You

00:57:56want to be treated with dignity as a human being, as a Muslim. You want honor

00:58:00and respect and dignity. Then you need to honor yourself and honor Allah

00:58:06subhanahu wa'ta'ala. You need to honor yourself and honor Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.

00:58:12Sisters, you need to be able to look in the mirror yourself and say that you

00:58:17are absolutely pleased with how beautiful Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala

00:58:20created you. You need to be able to look in the mirror and say that this is the

00:58:23form that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala created me with in the womb of my

00:58:27mother and it is absolutely amazingly beautiful. I don't need to do a single

00:58:31thing to change that. Yeah, maybe you can stay in shape. You can work out. I'm just

00:58:35talking about not being happy with what you see. The same with brothers. Brothers,

00:58:42we have no problem. We look at the mirror and we love ourselves. We don't. A lot of us

00:58:46don't have that problem. Brothers, they love themselves, mashallah. I see it. See

00:58:50you guys. You walk past the mirror, you can't stop yourself. But I know it's a

00:58:55problem that women deal with more than men is their self-image. Their

00:59:00self-image. Your self-image is that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala fashioned you in the

00:59:04womb of your mother is the way he saw befitting and he guided you to the

00:59:07deen of Islam. You're beautiful as you can be. You can't do any

00:59:12better than that. You can't top that. There's nothing you can improve

00:59:15upon. There is no improvement upon that. That is utmost beauty in and of itself.

00:59:20Brothers, we are beautiful because Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has guided us to

00:59:25the deen of Islam even if we might not be the best human being that Allah

00:59:28created to look at. You're still beautiful because Allah created you as

00:59:33a Muslim. We need to create harmony amongst the Muslims. We need to start

00:59:38challenging racism directly up front. It needs to be spoken about from the

00:59:44members. It needs to stop being an issue in our communities. Our committees of our

00:59:48masajid need to be more diverse. They need to be more diverse. I've

00:59:54been to some communities and spoke about the issue of racism and everyone

01:00:00look at me as if this is not a problem and we don't have that problem in our

01:00:03community. Oh we love Bilal. They might even name the masjid Bilal. Masjid Bilal

01:00:08Ibn Rumah, mashallah. But let me tell you if Bilal walked into your masjid and

01:00:12tried to become a board member or a committee member, you would look at him and

01:00:16laugh at him. No, no, no. You're not one of us. We like you but not that much. Or if

01:00:21he came to ask for your daughter's hand, no we love you Bilal but not that much.

01:00:25We love you from a distance. That is fake love and that's something I'm tired of

01:00:31seeing from the Muslims. I'm tired of fake love. I'm tired of this false love

01:00:36that we have for one another. Oh I love you for the sake of Allah Habibi. No, if

01:00:40you don't like me tell me you don't like me. Let's work it out. Let's work it out.

01:00:44There's a way to work it out. I respect Abu Dharr for telling Bilal that he didn't

01:00:48like him. Oh son of a black woman. At least he was a fun about how he felt and

01:00:52they were able to deal with it. Especially amongst brothers. I don't know

01:00:56what happened to us. I don't know what happened to the men of this ummah where

01:01:01we can't even have differences with one another anymore and talk about it to

01:01:04each other. We've become people who will go and talk about each other behind

01:01:08each other's backs. I've heard so many things about brothers who don't like you

01:01:14Yusha. What do you mean I just saw that brother three weeks ago. He smiled in my

01:01:18face. I love you for the sake of Allah. Just tell me you don't like me so we can

01:01:23deal with it. This is how I was raised. It was before I became a Muslim. Before

01:01:27being a Muslim I was taught to be a man. I was taught to have respect. I was

01:01:32taught to speak things what was on my mind. If I didn't like someone I'll let

01:01:35you know. Dude I don't like you. Why are you smiling in my face? I don't like you.

01:01:40I'm not going to front with you and smile with you. No, let's deal with this

01:01:43issue. If you don't like me let me know why you don't like me. Let's deal with

01:01:47it. If we can't deal with it then we can say at least I love you for the sake of

01:01:50Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Habibi. We might just not like each other on a

01:01:53personal level. That's okay. That's fine. We need to deal with these things in the

01:01:58Muslim community because if we don't we're going to continue to divide

01:02:02ourselves and it's just the way it is. We need to stop all this madness of this is

01:02:08the Arab masjid. This is the Pakistani masjid. This is the Somali masjid. This is

01:02:12just absolute nonsense. None of these masjids belong to us anyway. Anyway. None

01:02:18of them. Absolutely zero. You don't know how many when I've said this very

01:02:22statement. I've said it here before. I know I have. When I've said

01:02:26this in some masjid, the committee members look at me like if they if looks

01:02:30you know that's that feeling if looks could kill that saying if looks could

01:02:33kill. Oh I'd have been a dead man long ago. When I say that none of these

01:02:38masjids belong to any of you. Any of you. If you have called this a masjid like

01:02:45yes there's a community center but the masjid if you've named something a

01:02:48masjid that means you have given that space to whom? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

01:02:54You've made it a waqf for Allah. It's a trust that belongs to Allah subhanahu

01:02:59wa ta'ala. You are only a caretaker. You are only someone who is supposed to make

01:03:03sure it stays clean and manages and the lights stay on and the bills run but you

01:03:07don't have any say-so whatsoever in the deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in

01:03:12that masjid. You cannot decide who comes and who goes and who can come and who

01:03:16can't go based upon anything other than this person is a safety security or

01:03:21something like that but you can't challenge that whatsoever. These belong

01:03:25to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and if you as a board member or a committee member

01:03:31do not understand that then you do not need to be here. End of story. You just

01:03:37need to find something else to do because you are racking up wrath in front

01:03:41of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for yourself on the day of Qiyamah. You're not

01:03:44doing yourself any favor and if you gave money to the masjid for that reason so

01:03:49that you could have some influence and so you could have some political gain

01:03:52and reason then if I was had anything to do with that masjid I'd give you your

01:03:57money back and say we don't want it. Don't need that kind of money. Don't need

01:04:01money with strings attached. Keep it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is his

01:04:06house. He'll take care of it with or without you or me. We need to have this

01:04:11attitude when it comes to our centers inshallah. Our religious

01:04:15institutions, our schools. You know that's in the number two place in the Muslim

01:04:22community that you find racism in America is in the Islamic schools. Number

01:04:27two place after the masjid itself the second most prevalent place you will

01:04:32find racism in the Muslim community is in Islamic schools. In the Islamic

01:04:39schools or in the duqsia whatever you call it. Whatever you call it. Madrasa,

01:04:44duqsia, jami'ah, Islamic school whatever you want to call it. Racism is so

01:04:49prevalent there depending on who's running that school or that

01:04:52institution. I've had sisters come to me crying telling me that because their

01:05:00children are black they were treated as second-class citizens in an Islamic

01:05:06school. Their children were put into special education classes without even

01:05:11having being tested or taking tests or things of that nature. I've seen it with

01:05:14my own two eyes and I went to the directors of that school and gave them

01:05:22what I thought. Never allowed back in the building. I don't care. I absolutely don't

01:05:28care because this is an absolute travesty and tragedy and let me tell you

01:05:33if my children are ever treated like that in an Islamic school, Allahumusta'an

01:05:37for that whole school and whoever runs it because I'm gonna make sure it all

01:05:41gets shut down. All of you go because I don't want another child to be treated

01:05:45like this whatsoever. We need to understand that racism is an imitation

01:05:50of shaitan. It is an absolute imitation of one whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has

01:05:57cursed until the end of time who will inherit the lowest places of Nari

01:06:02Jahannam and if you want to imitate him then go ahead and prepare yourself for

01:06:08your inevitable doom and punishment because when you die all of our skins

01:06:15are going to turn the same color to dirt. We were created from Turaab, we will go

01:06:21back to being Turaab. That's it. You're from dirt, you're gonna go back to being

01:06:25dirt but it is up to you if you want to continue behaving like dirt for the rest

01:06:32of your life in this life because judging someone based on the color of

01:06:37their skin or the nationality of their origin or the culture that they follow

01:06:41or the food that they eat or the language that they speak makes you no

01:06:45better than shaytan and the dirt of this earth. We need to fix it. Any questions?

01:06:55Questions. If we have some questions on Instagram I'm taking a look at them we

01:07:00can watch them. Any questions? It can be a question or it can be a comment that

01:07:06you want me to address but I don't hardly ever take comments. This is like

01:07:10me breaking my mold, breaking my rule but if you have a comment that you would

01:07:14like to have discussed a little bit more make that comment less than 30 seconds.

01:07:20I'm gonna time you. Please. Please. If you want to give a speech, no problem. I can go

01:07:26back to my hotel and and and watch my Tigers play and you guys can deal with

01:07:31that but I want to deal with it inshallah.

01:07:37Assalamu alaikum Sheikh Yusuf. My question is we have so many sects in

01:07:44Islamic world and there are so many problems. How can we not unite it and we have so many sects, you know like. Yeah. Yeah. That's my

01:07:56question. We spoke about that last night about uniting amongst our differences

01:08:01within the sects. Okay. When it comes to sects there's only one that is

01:08:11correct, right? There's only one. The Prophet alaihissalatu wassalam said my ummah would

01:08:17divide into how many groups? 73 groups. All of them will be in the fire of hell

01:08:24except for one and who did he say was that one? He said the jama' that is on

01:08:32what I and my companions are upon right now. What me and those who are with me

01:08:39are upon that's the one that will make it to Jannah. So the easiest way to deal

01:08:45with these sects is to go back to what the companions radhiallahu anhum were upon.

01:08:50If you find yourself being upon what they were upon then we can unite upon

01:08:55that regardless of the differences of our opinions. Do you know how many times

01:09:00the companions differed with one another? They differed so much with one another

01:09:05so much even after the death of the Prophet alaihissalatu wassalam some of them had

01:09:10fought one another. But you know what we say about all of them?

01:09:15Radhiallahu anhum may Allah be pleased with them and we say that they are the

01:09:20best of us even though they had differences because their differences

01:09:24did not take them outside of the fold of our Islam. This comes to knowledge, having

01:09:28knowledge, having knowledge, having because there are certain things in

01:09:32Islam that are permissible. There is permissibility about having differences

01:09:36of opinion. That's absolutely 100% fine. If you pray with your hands above

01:09:41right here on your chest, if you pray with your hands below your navel, if you

01:09:45play with your hands by your side, it does not matter as long as those things

01:09:50you can trace them back to something that the Prophet alaihissalatu wassalam was

01:09:54seen as doing or said it was okay to do. It's absolutely fine that does not take

01:09:59you out of the fold of Islam. The differences that we cannot have, I mean

01:10:03the cooperation that we cannot have is with people whom their actions

01:10:10take them outside of the fold of Islam. People who their beliefs or their

01:10:15statements take them outside of the fold of Islam. We cannot have cooperation

01:10:19based on faith with that. We can have humanitarian cooperation with that

01:10:23absolutely 100% fine. If there are a group of people who call themselves

01:10:26Muslims who say they are going to feed the homeless people in Nashville,

01:10:30Tennessee, can I as a Muslim get involved and help them 100% but we have no

01:10:34agreement or cooperation in this deen. It's a different story. So we need to let

01:10:40those things go that don't need to be dealt with right now. We don't have time

01:10:44for that. We don't have time for that. The Muslims differed, the companions

01:10:49differed with one another but they were united upon tawhid and the fact that

01:10:54they wanted to move forward the message of Islam. They were united about that

01:10:58even though they may have had differences amongst one another. Our

01:11:00scholars had differences of the Salaf, had differences with one another. You think

01:11:06Imam Malik and Imam Ahmed and Imam Ashafi and Imam Abu Hanifa agreed on

01:11:10every point? No, that's why there are four different schools but they all fall

01:11:14within the realm of permissibility. 100% fine, no problem. If I'm with a brother

01:11:19who follows the strict Ahnaf opinion and it's time for me to pray Asr, I

01:11:24pray Asr when the sun, a shadow has reached twice its length. For me that's

01:11:30time for Asr and this brother follows the Ahnaf opinion that no, I pray Asr a

01:11:34bit later after that. No problem Akhi, guess what, since I love you for the sake

01:11:38of Allah, I'll wait until you're ready to pray because it's still within the time

01:11:42I can pray. So we'll pray together, MashaAllah Habibi, no problem. We don't

01:11:46think like that though. We're just crazy. I don't know what's wrong with us. We

01:11:50love to have disagreements. We have fallen into this society that loves

01:11:54gossip, loves backbiting, loves a drama. We've become drama queens. Muslims are

01:11:59drama queens. Absolutely, we love it. We suck it up. We eat it up. I know because

01:12:04I'm back on social media unfortunately. Man, we love a good drama. We need to let

01:12:10it go. Let it go. Work with one another. Absolutely, work with one another and if you

01:12:15don't know about this brother or sister, meaning that you don't know if their

01:12:20Aqidah or whatever takes them out of the deen of Islam, then you just accept them

01:12:25as they are until you find anything different. This is a believer, MashaAllah,

01:12:27TabarakAllah and we leave it at that. We also need to understand that there is

01:12:32racism when it comes to our da'wah. Our da'wah is something that we have to be

01:12:37cognizant about in the way that we give our da'wah because I know in giving da'wah

01:12:44we find people who are not going to absolutely always look at you as a

01:12:51human being. You might have trouble. Our Arab brothers might have more trouble

01:12:57here in America giving the message of Islam. Our Somali brothers might have

01:13:01more trouble giving da'wah to the southern, especially white individual

01:13:07here. Even myself might have trouble going to some of the urban areas where

01:13:12you will find a mostly African-American population giving da'wah in some

01:13:16certain circumstances. So it's something, it's part of da'wah as well that we need

01:13:20to understand as we need to understand our audience and how that is conveyed

01:13:23and how our message is conveyed, InshaAllah. Any other questions or

01:13:28comments? Yes, young lady. Hi, so I know this question is completely out of topic

01:13:35but I was wondering whether it's okay to celebrate Thanksgiving because some

01:13:38people argue that it's okay because it doesn't contradict any Islamic beliefs

01:13:43and it's not a religious holiday but a national one. So I was just wondering your

01:13:47opinion on it and whether it's acceptable to celebrate. Oh man, I thought

01:13:50I was gonna avoid that one this weekend. I cannot give a halal opinion. I

01:14:00don't, I'm not qualified. I don't consider myself qualified at all 100% on giving

01:14:06halal and haram opinions. But I will tell you that there are two celebrations in

01:14:12Islam. Two. Two. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said you have Eid-e-Ayn. Two

01:14:20celebrations. Eid-e-Ayn. Two. Two. That's it. So if Thanksgiving is not one of the two

01:14:28Eid, then it's not from the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and it is

01:14:32innovation. I can tell you that. And I also can tell you a little bit about

01:14:36Thanksgiving. Yeah. My grandfather was full-blooded Native American. Yeah.

01:14:46Thanksgiving is not what you have been told to believe that it is. That the

01:14:52British came over, met with some Indians, teach us how to make some, grow some corn

01:14:58and stuff like that and we're gonna teach you how to do our things and then

01:15:02they sat down for a wonderful meal. Do you know why? Do you know when the first

01:15:08Thanksgiving, really first Thanksgiving took place? Was after the slaughter of an

01:15:13entire civilization of people. An entire town full of Native Americans. Men, women,

01:15:21and children. And after that battle was successful, they sat down and had a meal

01:15:27and called it Thanksgiving. So unless that's something you're happy to

01:15:33celebrate, then mashallah, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

01:15:38punish you for your ignorance. But I don't, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving. I

01:15:44have not celebrated Thanksgiving since the day I became aware of what it's

01:15:48truly enumerating. One of the greatest holocausts. And that's an unfortunate

01:15:54fact that America has very, very slyly thrown under the rug. That an entire

01:16:02civilization and race of people was nearly exterminated off the planet Earth

01:16:08by another group of people and it's, very little of it's talked about and it was

01:16:13called Thanksgiving. No, we're not, I don't celebrate it. I can't. There's just, I

01:16:19can't bring myself to do it. So no, please Muslims, don't celebrate

01:16:23Thanksgiving. If you want to have turkey and yams and cranberry sauce, check your

01:16:29Iman, first and foremost. As a Muslim, do I like, do I like turkey, big turkeys,

01:16:34fried turkeys, collard greens, yams, all of that good stuff? Absolutely, 100%. I

01:16:39love it. Cook it anytime you want. We don't need to celebrate a Thanksgiving.

01:16:44We thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala every day. Last question, last question.

01:16:54Somebody who's, Abu Dharr, when I spoke about Abu Dharr, when he, subhanAllah, when he

01:17:01called Bilal the son of a black woman. You know, I speak to you guys sometimes

01:17:06like I think you should know about all these companions. I never meant that it

01:17:09was anything negative about Abu Dharr. Abu Dharr is one of the most eminent

01:17:13companions of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam. One of the greatest of the

01:17:17companions of the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam. You know Abu Dharr used to be a

01:17:21criminal. You guys know that? You know the tribe of Al-Ghifar used to be known

01:17:27as bandits who would wait in the desert and rob people and rob merchants. They

01:17:33were thugs. You wanted to know what gangster, you know what a gangster is? Abu

01:17:36Dharr was a gangster. Abu Dharr was a thug, straight up. And one time he came to

01:17:42Medina, he came to Mecca and he heard these people talking about the Prophet

01:17:48is, you know, this liar, man-man, things of that nature. So he went and talked to him.

01:17:52He's like, yeah, I'm not gonna be a, you know, I'm thugged out. He ain't gonna

01:17:56affect me. He went and he spoke to the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and he

01:18:00accepted Islam. Abu Dharr accepted Islam. And he said, I'm gonna go tell the

01:18:05Meccans. I'm gonna go announce to all of them that I have accepted Islam. Because

01:18:10everybody knew who the tribe of Al-Ghifar was. The Prophet said, don't do that. We

01:18:15can't protect you, man. You know what I mean? You're not here. Your tribe's not here. We

01:18:19can't protect you. Don't go do that. He went anyway. He stood by the Ka'bah and

01:18:22said, I bear witness, ashadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ashadu anna Muhammadur Rasulullah.

01:18:26They jumped on him and beat him till he passed out. Guess what? He woke up from

01:18:30being knocked out, and he stood up and he said, ashadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ashadu anna

01:18:36Muhammadur Rasulullah. They jumped him and knocked him out again. It happened a few

01:18:38times. Until he, the Prophet told him, said, please just go. Get out of Mecca. They're

01:18:44gonna kill you, man. So Abu Dharr went out and went back to his tribe of Al-Ghifar,

01:18:49and guess what he did? He gave them da'wah and converted them to Islam. And

01:18:54then the most thuggish, ruggish, gangster tribe in Arabia all marched back into

01:19:00Mecca. And Abu Dharr went back to the Ka'bah, stood in front of it and said, my

01:19:04name is Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari, and these are my people. We say, ashadu an la ilaha illallah,

01:19:10Muhammadur Rasulullah. Now what you gonna do? They ain't do nothing. They let him be.

01:19:15Abu Dharr was a gangster, straight up. And he was somebody who I admire for his

01:19:21tenacity and his bravery in this deen. And he was a man who was known on the

01:19:25battlefield. You did not want to deal with him. So yeah, that's Abu Dharr. But he

01:19:30was a human being. He had a moment of weakness and said that to Bilal. But

01:19:33don't ever think that Abu Dharr was nothing more than one of the greatest

01:19:36men to ever walk the face of this earth, masha'Allah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

01:19:40grant him the highest ranks of Jannah. Last question, there was one more.

01:19:44Okay, so my question is about like the recent political and social climate.

01:19:50There's like been a lot of resistance and a lot of like young Muslims are like

01:19:54social justice warriors and stuff and they post about it on social media and

01:19:58stuff. So what do you think about like the new movements and it's caused a

01:20:03lot of division even within the community. Whether we should support the

01:20:07movements like for social justice and a lot of them are along racial lines. So

01:20:13yeah, that's what I'm asking. Are you coming tomorrow? Who answered? Who asked the question? I

01:20:20heard of it. Okay, are you coming tomorrow, insha'Allah? What's tomorrow? Yeah, the lecture tomorrow.

01:20:24Insha'Allah, yes, yes. We're gonna discuss that in detail. That is part of tomorrow's talk in

01:20:30detail. But to just say 100% yes. If Muslims are not involved in social

01:20:37justice, we don't belong here. We're no good. Not absolutely. Part of Islam is social

01:20:43justice. The Prophet alaihi salatu wasalam entered into a covenant with the people

01:20:48of Mecca before becoming a prophet. Anybody know what it was called? The

01:20:52treaty of?

01:20:58Which was a cooperation to protect the weak and the, you know, meek and justice and

01:21:04things of that nature. After becoming a prophet who was giving a revelation by

01:21:10Allah. You know what he said about that treaty? That if my people entered into a

01:21:14treaty similar to it again, I would enter into it with them. So our Prophet was a

01:21:19person who stood up for social justice. He was a social justice warrior first

01:21:25class, humanitarian first class, philanthropist first class. So yes, we as

01:21:30Muslims should be involved in those things. But we should have balance. We

01:21:35should have balance as well. We should have some balance and understanding

01:21:38cooperation, yes. But being involved in social, we'll talk about that in detail

01:21:42tomorrow inshallah. So until tomorrow at 6.30 p.m. I'm gonna leave you with the

01:21:49understanding that racism is alive and well in this Muslim community. And our

01:21:54Prophet alaihi salatu wasalam said that one of the things that I fear most for

01:22:03you after me is aswabiyyah. It's tribalism or racism that you will fight

01:22:07one another. He even told us that we will end up fighting one another. We, our

01:22:12we are our own destruction. We are our own destruction. This is absolute. The Prophet

01:22:18alaihi salatu wasalam, we finish with this. He said I made dua for three things for

01:22:24this ummah. And Allah refused me two. I mean refused me or granted me two and

01:22:31refused me one. He said number one, I asked Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to never

01:22:36allow my ummah to be destroyed by famine. Meaning that they would not all starve

01:22:41to death. All of them. It's gonna be people who starve to death but that it

01:22:45wouldn't erase the ummah. And he said Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala granted me

01:22:49that dua. He said I asked Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to never allow my ummah to be

01:22:54destroyed completely because of its enemies. Meaning that the enemies of the

01:22:58deen would never wipe it out entirely. He said Allah granted me that. He said

01:23:03the third thing I asked Allah was oh Allah never allow my ummah to destroy

01:23:07themselves. To be destroyed because of fighting each other. He said Allah didn't

01:23:11grant me that one. So we are our only enemy. The only real enemy besides

01:23:17Shaitaan that we have is us. We. Us. We are our greatest enemy. We need to block

01:23:26out everything else that's going on. The news, the media, the bias, the bigotry, the

01:23:31hatred, the racism and focus on fixing us as a community. Fixing us. Us. Us. We

01:23:39need to be having social gatherings that don't have anything to do with having

01:23:42talks or halaqat. Just the fact that we get together because we are Muslim and

01:23:46we love one another and we're happy to see one another etc so on and so forth.

01:23:50That bond that that bonding and relationship building that companies do

01:23:59for their employees to try to make their organization better. We need to do

01:24:02it as an ummah inshallah. And as always the sisters will leave first and there

01:24:11will be some refreshments outside in the lobby inshallah. And I will

01:24:15see you all tomorrow. Oh yeah my my DVDs are here for anyone that didn't get the

01:24:21chance to get them yesterday inshallah. If you want to get some and

01:24:25support the dawah please feel free to do so. And I will see you tomorrow at

01:24:296 30 p.m. inshallah subhanakallahumma wa bihamdika wa shadu

01:24:34wa la ilaha illa ant, astaghfiruq wa atubu ilayk, wassalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

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