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In today’s episode, we dive into the escalating war in Lebanon, analyzing the impact of recent conflicts and reacting to media portrayals, including Al Jazeera’s shutdown in the West Bank and how this censorship affects media coverage in the region. We’ll also discuss the controversial execution of Marcellus Williams, focusing on justice and systemic bias in the criminal system.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
00:01We'll talk about it. Here we go guys, let's go. Current events. We're starting with the war in Lebanon. Okay, it has exploded literally and figuratively.
00:10So we have had the pager attack, we realized that, how it worked, we didn't really necessarily understand. But now that we know that, what happened was Hezbollah was getting pagers that were made in Taiwan,
00:24that were shipped through Hungary, I believe. And at a certain point Israel figured it out and they intercepted the supply line or intercepted the shipment, planted explosives on those pagers and then allowed them to continue forth and then detonated them,
00:38killing over a hundred people. Okay? So that is, that's really bad. And in fact, even an ex-chief of the CIA called it, called it terrorism.
00:50Which is really sort of surprising, you wouldn't necessarily expect that. Now people were freaking out because the prospect was, oh my goodness,
00:59this is a huge problem if people can remotely detonate electronic devices, this computer that I'm using, this, you know, this, the smartphone over here, anything else. Are we really just sitting ducks?
01:13It became a little less urgent once we figured out that they actually intercepted the shipment, but that also has other problems. Does that mean any shipment of any sort of vessel that they can just sort of do that to anything?
01:26That's a very, very scary thought. However, one of the larger storylines is not just the brazen encroachment and violation of sovereignty,
01:39but the fears of an escalation and a war that is going to spiral out of control. And certainly it looks like things are heating up now.
01:49Israel has pursued the policy of trying to provoke Iran and to try to provoke Hezbollah and try to provoke other actors in the region, calculating that if they're able to make it into a regional war,
02:01the United States will back it and will get more involved. Especially, for example, they're talking now about a potential ground invasion. And there is, I think Israel's hoping that the United States will provide soldiers to assist in the ground invasion of Lebanon itself.
02:15That remains to be seen. But up until this point, this is sort of capturing the dynamic. A lot of people are saying, well, how much should we thank or how much, how should we feel about these groups that occasionally they do target Israel and they try to,
02:29you know, but they always sort of pull back from doing anything that is too risky because they are afraid that they will give Israel justification to involve the United States in a major way. However, as we can tell right now,
02:42political will of the average American person to support such a thing is doubtful. And political will among even the elite right before an election is doubtful.
02:55Usually politicians are very, very hesitant to do something dramatic like this before an election. So it could be, it could all come to nothing. We don't know and we will see.
03:07How should the Sunnis and the Sunni Ummah feel towards these Shia elements who are a mixed bag? And I think that we should be just. I think that you should be just.
03:18I mean, there's definitely, it's no doubt true that Iran and its satellites, whether that includes the Houthis, that includes its militias in Iraq, that includes its militias in Syria, that includes Hezbollah, they have committed atrocities.
03:31Right. And we shouldn't gloss over the fact that this is not the enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of thing, that we don't necessarily ignore that. We can talk about that and we should talk about that. As we talked about, I think last week or the week before,
03:45that this is an insult to our Syrian brothers to not talk about it. It's an insult to our Yemeni brothers and sisters in certain parts of Yemen to not talk about it. Anybody who's from Yemen or who's from Syria or who's from these areas knows,
03:58from Iraq knows some of the horrors and the atrocities that have been committed. Right. So we have to be honest about those things. And yet at the same time, we can recognize how they have been,
04:09how the autonomy or even the tiny amount of autonomy that they have created for themselves has given them more capacity than the Sunni garrison states to take any action whatsoever against Israel.
04:23I mean, think about it. I mean, what if what if none of these forces existed? What would be left of Palestine? We don't really know.
04:30So sometimes we just have to accept the complicated and messy nature of life and especially of politics. And Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala said something that this reminded me of, this thing, especially the whole pager thing,
04:43but the belligerence and the arrogance of Israel to always escalate, escalate, escalate. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says in Surah At-Tawbah, let's go to it. لَا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنِينَ إِلًّا وَلَا ذِمَّةً وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُعْتَدُونَ
04:57They do not observe toward a believer any pact of kinship or covenant of protection. And it is they who are the transgressors. If you read the history of Israeli assassinations and Israeli, like there is nothing that they won't do.
05:09There is nothing too low when it comes to assassinations. Right. Some people remember the Khalid Mishal affair in Jordan,
05:18where they had that crazy sort of thing in his ear, that poison that the Jordanian king had to sort of demand the antidote for. Assassinating people all over the world, attacking British interests.
05:30That's happened. American interests, the USS Cole, like civilians, children, old people, like literally nothing, nothing, nothing. There's no limits. There's no limits whatsoever. And so it was reminded of this.
05:42And this idea came to mind because, you know, when you talk about different types of elements in the world and what happens when the righteous people are not, are not in charge or are not have power,
05:56then these are the types of people that are running things. And that's a scary, scary world. We've got some more questions and we're going to take those real quick before heading to the next one.
06:10Siti Nuriati asked me, what's my motivation to learn Bahasa Melayu? I love the languages of the Ummah and I would like to learn many of the major languages of the Ummah. And Southeast Asia and Malaysia in particular is a wonderful place. And who knows what's in store?
06:26People going back and forth about Mehdi Hassan in the comments. Dina says, I support Mehdi Hassan. Sara says, Mehdi Hassan is a careerist. I say we support, we don't support anyone blindly. These aren't sports teams. We support people when they speak the truth.
06:39And we are against them when they're wrong. So in the past 12 months, Mehdi Hassan has done things, many things that look like careerism. He's done events, fundraisers for Engage. We're going to talk about Engage in a second.
06:53He did not demonstrate principled action when it came to the Democratic Party. However, he did really good in that debate. So props to him for that. And we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can do both.
07:09Shayma Budadi asks, how to get ready for facing great tribulations and adversities in this worldly life? As we see what happens around the Islamic world, it makes me realize that at any moment,
07:20I'm so glad that you asked this Shayma, because I've been having a very, very similar reflection. I look around and I see like everything. And sometimes I think, yeah, I mean, I put myself in the position of the people of Gaza.
07:33I put myself in the position of Marcellus Williams. I said that that could happen to me. That could happen to anybody. So what to do to get ready for it? You have to realize that this is just the dunya.
07:45And we're going to look at Marcellus Williams and some of his, how peaceful and submissive he was to the will of Allah and the Qadr of Allah, that he was ready. I mean, subhanAllah. We'll talk about it in a second.
08:00Ameen. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Welcome. Ameen.
08:07So Latisha says, so we're going to just go with a couple of relevant questions. Latisha says, I have been told by my teacher that Shias have and will always be against Sunnis,
08:20and that we should not think of their support as genuine. I think that's fair. I mean, it might sound bigoted to some people, but if you look into history, if you follow history, you know, there's an, you have an argument.
08:32And that doesn't mean that that precludes any type of support. Or collaboration. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) collaborated with non-Muslims. Okay. So that doesn't preclude those sorts of things.
08:44However, you know, yeah, when it comes to trust, you may not extend your trust all the way. And that's perfectly fine.
08:59All right, cool. Let's move on. So we have next story. In the West Bank, Al Jazeera's offices were shut down today. Or this week, I should say. Here we go. We've got a video, correct? We've got a video of them going live.
09:15They were literally recording. Right when they were shut down, the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces, showed up and shut them down. See if we can play that video, guys.
09:32This is the statement that was brought to us by the Israeli Army. The statement includes an order to shut down our Al Jazeera office for 45 days.
09:46This is a decision that was made by one of the Israeli generals. He is ordering us to immediately leave the office and take our personal belongings and cameras.
10:02The army says we have only 10 minutes to take our belongings and leave the office so they can shut it down.
10:14So you see right there, Subhan'Allah, I mean like literally, they are on air and they show up again. No limits, right? There's nothing, there's nothing that they won't do.
10:26So we see that nothing is sacred. We've seen this. We shouldn't be surprised at this point. I mean, there's, you know, children are not sacred. I mean, they gloat when they shoot young children in the kneecaps.
10:38Right? So why would we be surprised that they would shut down a news agency? Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala said, أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَكِنْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
10:52And of course, this is a well-known, well-known, well-known ayah. And of course it applies to the quote unquote children of the light, as Bibi says, right? The Israelis that can do no wrong.
11:04One of the good things, one of the nice things, I'll give flowers to Mehdi Hassan today. I don't have any problem. I don't have any problem recognizing the good that people do, right? But I will also hold people accountable when they're off. That Mehdi Hassan delivered one great line.
11:18Well, more than one great line, but one of the great lines that he delivered was that, according to Israeli logic, 10-7 justifies everything, but nothing justified 10-7. And that was very succinct.
11:33That was very succinct. Yes, gee dude, we support the haqq, not a person, 100% right. We got that.
11:49Excellent. Let's move on. We've got now, of course, our brother, Marcellus Williams, who went by the name Khalifa. He was known as Imam Khalifa Williams.
11:59He was somebody who was a very, very avid learner of the deen.
12:05He was somebody who was responsible for the Islamic education of tons of Muslims in the facility that he was imprisoned in.
12:17And he was somebody that was executed this week by the United States government and the state of Missouri. In very, very suspicious circumstances.
12:27So he was essentially charged with and convicted of murder, of stabbing somebody.
12:36But later, and the evidence that was produced was apparently, I think, his girlfriend and somebody else at the time. I mean, he had a past.
12:45His girlfriend and somebody else at the time claimed that he confessed and claimed that there was some sort of circumstantial evidence that he never himself admitted to.
12:57But later it came to light that these two individuals that basically testified that he had done this, it seemed that they had felonies against them and they stood to gain financially from basically turning him in.
13:12You can read up the details of the case online. So that was fishy already. That was kind of strange. And then when it comes to the composition of the jury, the jury was made up of almost all white Americans.
13:26No black people whatsoever, except for one. And in really a very, very sort of like old school racist attitude. I think the prosecutor, he said that he disqualified me.
13:40You know how prosecutors and the defense, they get to sort of choose who's on the jury. And one of the African-American individuals who was a potential for the jury, he struck that person off by saying that he looked too much like Marcellus Williams.
13:54Basically, he might as well have said that you all look alike. Right. It's a very, very racist thing to say.
14:00And so the final jury that presided over the case was not representative of the defendant nor of that area in general. And so there was a perceived bias against it. Now it gets weirder.
14:14The conviction. OK. And the sentencing to death later on, it was opposed. It was opposed by the victim's family themselves.
14:25OK, so the victim's family themselves were saying, hey, we don't want you to execute this guy. OK. And even the prosecutors, that's the crazy part. This is very, very rare.
14:38Even the prosecutors were saying, we don't want you to execute this guy or at least give us more time to, like, figure this out, because some of the after they found that as they did DNA tests and they did not find any of his DNA at the crime scene.
14:53Things were very, very fishy. The whole case was in question. And basically what happened was that the politicians ran it through. And they ran it through and he was executed this week.
15:05And now one of the main. So there's a lot to there's a lot to unpack here. One of the things we have is. And we've talked about this just a minute ago.
15:16Certain lives are deemed expendable and disposable and others are not. And in America, it has. Many different factors. OK, one of them is color for sure.
15:29That white supremacism is a real thing. That anti-black racism is a real thing. And that people are treated differently according to the color of their skin. And they are treated as by default a suspect.
15:42Or by default, innocent. That's a fact. And that's historically demonstrable. And that's very obvious for people to see.
15:49It's also true that being Muslim makes you eligible as a target for violence. Whether that violence is vigilante violence such as murder.
16:01Whether it is foreign policy violence like in the people of Gaza. Or in Palestine or anywhere else in the world. That to be a Muslim and especially to be a Muslim man.
16:12They have a little bit more sympathy because they think they want to save the Muslim women. They think the Muslim women are oppressed and that they get to save them. But the Muslim man especially is particularly a scary, scary individual. So, Brother Khalifa had everything going against him.
16:26He had all strikes against him. He was a black Muslim male. And so, he is extremely expendable or killable or his life is not worth very much.
16:36According to the current sort of power structure that dominates the United States of America. Now, the interesting thing is that. We shouldn't say maybe interesting. Like the Imam understood this very perfectly.
16:49He understood what they call the intersectionality between the way in which Muslim lives are denigrated and deemed expendable. And the way that black lives are also denigrated and deemed expendable. And he actually wrote a poem that I'm going to read for you now.
17:02About Gaza. When these things started popping off after October 7th. He called it, the perplexing smiles of the children of Palestine.
17:15Despite the actions of the few and excessive retaliation. Drones, planes, bombs, tanks, rubble, buildings demolished. Vanished houses and neighborhoods.
17:29Hospitals targeted. UN shelters disrespected. Murder, death, deliberate killing of non-combatants. Babies buried alive. Amputations, hunger and political starvation.
17:42Lack of or no water. Strategic sanitation. Daily terror and terrorized daily. Military maneuvering. Moving here and there. To return back again to nowhere. Trauma with all its manifestations.
17:55International parlays and hesitation. Defiance to the realization of two nations. Global aid thwarted. Global amnesia. Siblings and relatives gone forever. Parental worries.
18:08In the face of apex arrogance. And ethnic cleansing by any definition. Still, your laughter can be heard. And somehow, you are able to smile.
18:20Oh, resilient children of Palestine. May Allah have mercy on him. Let's go. We've got his last statement here.
18:31So he said in his last final statement. Check this out. All praise be to Allah in every situation. Three exclamation points. All praise be to Allah in every situation. And we've got a video.
18:45Now think about what it takes to come with that in your last statement. Now we've also got a video of him. An interview done with him. Let's go to that. Whatever Allah determines, you know what I'm saying, I'm satisfied with it.
18:59You know, so I already been right there at that moment. And you know what I'm saying, there's nothing changed about it. You know, I'm still, like I said before, I don't believe in the system, the criminal justice system.
19:13I don't believe in it, you know what I'm saying, to that degree. But I know that it can be used for good as well. So if good come out of for me and for my family and for all those that's been supporting me,
19:25and all praise be to Allah. There is a little supplication that Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) peace and blessings be upon him, he used to say, he used to say, O Allah, if life is good for me, then give me life. If death is good for me, then give me death. You know what I'm saying? So that's how I feel.
19:40You know, I say the same supplication. So yeah, I'm at peace, of course. Subhan'Allah. And that was from everything that I've witnessed and read and watched the past 24 hours
19:52about the brother. That was what he was known for. The Imam, I encourage you, we're going to cut to here some footage of his janazah. The Imam made a very, very lovely speech and indicated some of the last conversations, the last moments. One of the powerful things he said was that the Imam said
20:07that he was sent to be there for him, for Brother Khalifa, and he felt like the opposite. He felt like Imam Khalifa was actually teaching him because he was so submissive and pleased with
20:21the will of Allah. He was so completely unperturbed. He was ready to die. And honestly, this is something
20:31that all of us should aspire to. I mean, it sounds crazy to the person on the outside looking in, but this is what we call husn al-khatimah. This is what we call a good ending.
20:42We don't care about whether, well, somebody was, somebody was, they were wrongfully killed and they were bombed in this way or they were executed by the government of this way. Yes,
20:54okay, we can be sad and we can be angry at the injustice and we want to fix the injustice, but when we look at the heart of a believer and the way that their face manifests what's in their heart, that they are completely submissive to Allah's decree,
21:08they are ready to meet their Lord. They have witnessed everything that Allah and Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said were true and they're ready to meet their Lord, then we have to say
21:17alhamdulillah, as he said, praise be to Allah in every situation because that is what we want to aspire to. You and me, we want to be like that. When we die, however we die, Allah has already
21:30decided it. We don't want to go fighting or kicking and screaming. We want to be as submissive, as submissive as him. May Allah grant him mercy and forgive him his sins and give
21:43ease and patience to the family. And it reminded me of this one hadith of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), thinking about this whole situation, where Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) established that very clear consequences happen when we are talking about oppression. Why do we care about oppression? Some people were asking in the chat about du'a or what can we do
21:58more than make du'a? Do we have to do more than just make du'a? We have an obligation to set things right in society by whatever legitimate means they exist. Because Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said,
22:08تَقُوْا الظُّلمَ فَإِنَّ الظُّلمَ ظُلُمَاتٌ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَتَقُوْا الشُّحَّ فَإِنَّ الشُّحَّ أَهْلَكَ مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ حَمَلَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنْ سَفَكُوا دِمَاءَهُمْ وَاسْتَحَلُّوا مَحَارِمَهُمْ
22:31So be on your guard against committing oppression. Now that's an individual command and also a collective command. You have to be on guard to make sure that your society is not one that oppresses.
22:43For oppression is darkness on the day of resurrection and be on your guard against stinginess for stinginess destroyed those who people were before you as it incited them to shed blood and to make lawful what was unlawful to them. And there's another hadith Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said and this is very very, think of the irony, I just want you to think
22:58of the irony. The government kills this brother okay on shaky evidence and the government's also
23:05killing people in Gaza and Palestine okay. And Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said that one of the things another one of the things that destroyed the people before you
23:20is that if somebody who was weak and powerless they committed a crime upon the possibility that he committed a crime which it doesn't sound like he did to be frank but let's just say even if he
23:32did that when someone poor or someone weak or someone oppressed committed a crime that they would throw the book at them and they would punish them the worst punishment they could think of. But when a rich person, the elite, the person in the stuff suit, the person in the oval office,
23:47the person who's a secretary of state commits a crime, well then they let that person go. But we believe in Allah and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala will exact justice. He is Al-Muntaqim,
24:00he is the avenger and he will avenge his people. If not in this world then definitely in the next and we are here to struggle for as much as we can in this life. Let's go quickly to the chat
24:13see if there's any questions before going on to endorsements. We got something to talk about everybody. Yep that's true so Abdullah Khan says, As-Salamu Alaikum Imam, I agree with Smila, this overall feeling of having to fight against what feels like the world and a hundred plus years of roots that are deep
24:29within every facet of our lives is becoming dot dot dot I guess overwhelming. Smila had said, I feel helpless and guilty that we're okay in the UK while our government along with western allies are enabling this regional war. We believe in Allah and we believe that Allah is
24:43able to do it. As we will see in a bit we're going to talk after this section about sort of political maneuvering or the lack thereof and we will see what happens when we get to the end of this video. But before we get to that I want to remind you that we are
24:56Muslims. We are Muslims. We are Muslims. We are Muslims. We are Muslims. We are Muslims. So we're going to talk about sort of political maneuvering or the lack thereof and we will see how Allah can take care of it.
25:08Allah will find a way but we have to fix ourselves and we have to do everything that we can and once we do both of those things okay once we do both of those things then Allah will help us figure out the rest.
25:31Yeah it's true Cissé. So Cissé says wrongful convictions. A reason why wrongful convictions
25:43rarely get overturned is the state doesn't want to pay millions in damages. Ah so once they admit fault all the cases in the same product. I see that's a good point. Amin Smila to your du'a.
26:08Nouri Hassanov talking about the matrix. Now we're getting somewhere. FP2321 quite a username there says why is there no vocal criticism of Jordan, Saudi, Egypt?
26:20There is plenty. There's plenty all the time. I call them what do I call them garrison states. Every single week I call them garrison states. They're criminal garrison states that have been
26:32set up by the western powers to do their bidding. I don't know what else you want me to say. They get plenty of flack don't worry but since I'm in the United States I don't get to decide what Jordan
26:42does. I do have a say in what the United States foreign policy is. I work to try to change the United States foreign policy because I know that if the United States changes its foreign policy
26:53Jordan falls, Saudi Arabia falls, Egypt falls, the whole thing. It's a hustle you know. It's a it's a mafia. It's a racket the whole thing. They do their thing to get weapons from the United States
27:06and to get aid and to get sort of perks and for protection you know or in exchange they protect Israel and Israel's interests in the region. That's the game. So if I can take away the carrot
27:18then the game falls and my duty is here where I am and your duty is where you are as well. Victoria Strusilla, Amin. Good to have you with us.
27:32Yes, Marad Ali points out there's a beautiful phone conversation with Shaykh Hassan Somali. Yep definitely listen to that as well. There's a lot of beautiful stuff. I'll tell you I've been listening to this stuff all day. There's a two-part interview. There's the phone conversation.
27:46There's stuff that Imam in St. Louis said. Subhan'Allah. I mean I was brought to tears at a couple points. Like really really powerful stuff to see so many people even one of the persons
27:57reflected about his son who was you know obviously processing all this. He said the son was just like his father. Just completely this is what Allah wants. This is what we're here for. This is what
28:08we submit to. And of course his last his last words were
28:27We can only hope for an end like that. Madika Easton, Wa alaikum as-salam, Ahlan wa sahlan, Sajda Markan, May Allah accept everything from him.
28:42And his last request, thank you, Alhamdulillah, Seamus you reminded me. His last request and this is very very important for us is to take care of the brothers and what
28:53he meant by that was the brothers that are in prison and I can tell you as somebody who has done da'wah in prisons before when I was in Wisconsin I did some da'wah in prisons when I was in
29:03New York I did some da'wah in prisons and they are completely forgotten. They are completely it'll break your heart and what breaks your heart even more than being forgotten when they're in
29:15is them when they're snubbed when they get out. I have I have had grown men cry on my shoulder
29:23who have told me that the brotherhood was better in the pen in prison than when they got out
29:35then when they get out they go to the local masjid they expect Islam they expect people who are going to be about deen and accept them as deen and yes they might have a tattoo on their face from stuff
29:47that they've done before and yes they might you know yes they might have uh certain ways or habits that they've picked up from the street or from being locked up but the way that people treat
29:58them is just is embarrassing the way that Muslims treat them is embarrassing and unfortunately for most of us they are out of sight and out of mind and so I would ask everybody who's watching this
30:11program that we use this platform to reach out to your local imams that are doing da'wah in the prisons whether it's a pen pal exchange whether it's sending books they used to have a great
30:23program in Philly that I used to I used to take part in even uh even before I was a Muslim they had a program called uh books through bars that I used to participate in West Philly where we would
30:34send uh we would send books to prisoners like they would request certain books and we try to work with the library in the prison and things like that that this is this is the least that we can do
30:44to try to to try to keep them in our minds try to um reach out to them try to provide support and
30:53especially when they get out to ease to ease to ease their way back into society and in the um
31:03and into the Muslim community, Salah ad-Din is my hero, asked would you ever debate Mahdi, really challenge him in his support for war criminal Harris? Yeah, why not?
31:17I probably wouldn't. I don't know, that's just like not my lane, but I would think about it.
31:33And that's a great point. Nusaybah says, "I hope, I just hope we don't become oppressors in our own," something that's easier to overlook, especially the children, the elderly. Thank you so much for pointing that out.
31:49Salman says, asked me a question, said, "I'm imam, what's a good allocation, distribution for sadaqah? X percent for local causes, Y percent for Gaza, Z for the masjid?" I don't know, that's interesting.
31:59Uh, one interpreter, one imam, Tom, how do you know he was wrongfully convicted? I don't know. I discussed the case already. Listen, bro, the prosecution is saying we shouldn't kill this guy.
32:12What does that tell you? How many times does that happen, man? How many times does that happen, man?
32:24Jess Conness says, "The Zionist attack on Gaza," hold on, there has given them so much audacity to do more wrongs. Let's correct that: the Zionist attack, because there are Jews that are against what
32:35Israel is doing. There are Jews that are anti-Zionist. I've been in protests with ultra-Orthodox Jews that say that the entire existence of Israel is haram for them in their law and in
32:47in their tradition. All right, though, the rest of your comment is right. It's audacity. They think they're invincible, right? But let's make sure that we correct that. This isn't just about, uh, you know, this is an issue of Zionism.
33:04Great point. MFB: Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said that this world is a prison for the believers. May Allah grant him Jannah. Douse Amy.
33:14Yes, also, people bringing up this case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. I highly recommend that you check some of the work that, you know, Mostapha has been doing, uh, and others for Dr. Aafia. One of our many political prisoners. We need—hey, guys, if you're talking about starting up organizations in the
33:28United States, we need a CAGE equivalent here in the United States. We forget about our political prisoners, uh, and 100%, we forget about our Muslim prisoners in general, and we forget about our
33:38political prisoners specifically. Okay, so we definitely have to step up our game, uh, our game
33:44in that. I mean, some men say it. I mean, we're getting there. Seamus, yo, I've been impressed within the last 11 months. The Shameless says, "One of the biggest problems the Muslim world has
33:59is that the rich Muslims invest in massive tech corporations and Western universities instead of starting projects by themselves," and using that. That's starting to change. I've noticed a shift, and that's really actually exciting.
34:12Javari asked about Saudi Arabia and modernization. It's a bad idea. I wish they wouldn't. Not really much to say. Uh, Jyoti Prakash says, "Why don't you all leave the United States?" Because I
34:25was born here, habibi. I was born here. This is my home, okay? I'm not going anywhere. Plus, this is—oh, yeah, I see you're trolling. Iran and Saudi Arabia? Why don't you go to, uh, I don't know, wherever your username is from? Let's all go back to where we're from.
34:43Get an original comment. Leticia asks, "Under Islamic law, is there such a thing as a prison system
34:57America has?" Certainly not like that. Um, was the first one who instituted, um, incarceration, but it was not anything like servitude or slavery, quote-unquote. In Islamic tradition, it is not
35:11anything like chattel slavery in the North Atlantic slave trade. Uh, so imprisonment as ta'zir, as a potential punishment that someone could undergo, yes, that became a thing, uh, pretty
35:22early on within Muslim history. But, you know, Shaitan Afar—very, very different from, um, very very different from what we have here. And we see why, because just like the chattel slavery system
35:36of the North Atlantic slave trade, the prison system is based on profit. And that's fact. The prison system is based on profit. It is big money slavery. Chattel slavery, North Atlantic slave trade
35:47was big money. That's why John Locke, your favorite Enlightenment philosopher, had stock in the slave trade and wrote the constitution for the island of Barbados, and then used that constitution to
35:59write the constitution of South Carolina, which was—anyway, that's a whole another tangent. Um, prisons and Israel—those three things, they are rackets. They are rackets. That means they are
36:13immoral things. They are vices that the elite are profiting off of, and they do it out of profit in addition to ideological concerns. Maria Mass asks, "Is it possible to participate in prisoner support
36:26from outside the US?" I don't know. I wish I knew that. Do they accept—well, most of, like, accepting letters and books and stuff like that is facility to facility. It differs. But if you know of a particular political prisoner that's held somewhere, you could always reach out to the facility by phone
36:40or by email and see what their rules are for accepting letters, inquiries, and reading materials. Sada is making some, uh, recommendations. Some people are recommending
36:58recommending various things. Yeah, somebody pointed out, you know, we're getting—we're getting big if we've got trolls. I know what's that? Controls? I know what's that? Come on and get your, uh, and get
37:07your whooping. I've got, I've got the, uh, I got the whip up on the wall. I'll give you your lashes. Irene has asked me to repeat something. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to repeat. Sorry about that.
37:21Late to the chat. My Ummah asked, "For a Muslim who got killed, even after doing many sins, do they get Jannah?" Yeah, all of us did many sins. Come on now. Which one of us hasn't done many sins?
37:37You.
37:49Salah ad-Din asks, or "Salah is my hero," asked, "From a strictly selfish perspective, why aren't the Arab garrison states worried about their seats of power? They are using American weapons
37:59to protect them against their own people." That's why. That's why MBS literally said, like, not too long ago, like a month ago, "Hey, US, you guys gotta make sure that I'm safe because my own people want to take me out, especially if I normalize with
38:12Israel." G Dude asks about Dogma Disrupted. Dogma Disrupted is, is, is dead. Maybe it'll come back at some point, but right now we're on with the live stream.
38:24Smila Rahma asks, "Imam, should we invest in creating feature films and documentaries to create a story? Counts?" Yes, generally, absolutely. We're losing the media game.
38:42Hey, listen, "An Interpreter One," I could be wrong. If I'm wrong, then I'll take back anything I said. I tried to read up on that. You're right. They are not calling for their—calling for commuting the sentence. OK, but commuting the
38:55sentence doesn't mean that they are just trying. Was does that indicate that they still think that he did it, or does that indicate that they're trying to bring it down because that's all that they feel like they can ask for, right?
39:07These things, I don't know, as someone who knows. Nori asked about du'a. Yes, yes, you should. You should definitely
39:21increase them in a smile as we becoming the Scotland before the end of the—not before the end of the year. Unfortunately, I'm booked up all the way to, all the way to the new year, to January. I'm trying to come to the UK in early 2025, in sha'a Allah.
39:35Tata, the Bay. Not only plans to be in the Bay right now, so Cal, in the end of November. Yeah, good stuff, good stuff.
39:52Alright, excellent. It's true, Juju. So Juju says, "I feel like many masajid are not as welcoming in general." That's true. I've always been Muslim, but don't feel like I really fit in sometimes. Be clicky. I should be more open. I agree 100 percent. Unfortunately.
40:07Zainab Azam is asking, "How do we write letters to Dr. Aafia personally?" I don't know. I know that there are groups that are focusing solely on her case, so we should definitely—if anybody knows, you can drop in the chat. Oh, yeah, Dr. FP, we're
40:19gonna talk about MEND. We're gonna talk about MEND. Let's get to it right now. All right, so we've got the Muslim vote rundown. Let's do it. We've got the good, the bad, and the ugly in the last week. Different organs have come out
40:32within the Muslim community, or at least pretending to be part of the Muslim community, and have endorsed various candidates or not for the upcoming US
40:42presidential election. Let's get it. So the first we have the good, that is US
40:50CAIR. Your CAIR, you know, decent, decent job, guys. Mashallah, you know, you can pat yourselves on the back. There's, there's some—I still have a critique of it, but
41:02in general, according, especially compared to the ones that are coming after you, not bad. Why? If you read their endorsement, it is about principle. They are based on principles. They said that we are not going to endorse anybody who
41:16is not committed to a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo on Israel. That is the US CAIR statement. Who's the US CAIR? United States Council of Muslim Organizations. The largest council of organizations that covers the most
41:29amount of Muslims. If you want to talk about the most representative organization for Muslim Americans, this is probably it. We're talking about CAIR,
41:38is part of the US CAIR. AMANA, MOUNA, IKNA, MASS—they are all part of the US CAIR. So tons of the major players in the scene. They came, they had a task force, and they
41:49said no endorsement for Harris, no endorsement for Trump. They encouraged Muslims to vote for third parties, and they did not specify which one. So people can criticize them on strategy. They say, "Well, it would have been more strategic
42:04if you said this and that," but at least we can say principles, principles only. Yet we applaud that. Let's go to the bad. The bad was the Uncommitted National
42:16Movement, run out of Michigan, partly by, from what I understand, Rashida Tlaib, sister, and others. They released an extremely confusing statement this past
42:30week. Can we, can we pull up the statement? Do we have it? No, we don't have it. So I need to read it one second. Where is it? I got to read it because if you
42:44didn't know, now I've got to read this to you because it's, um, you got to try to
42:51make it make sense. So the Uncommitted Movement started as a dissent within the
42:59Democratic Party, okay? It's a very long statement. I shouldn't read all of it. I'm gonna try to skip to the good parts. There's a lot of words here on the page.
43:11"Today, the Uncommitted National Movement announces that as we continue advocating for life-saving policy change, which ends the bombing in Gaza and ends US support for Israel's military war crimes, Vice President Harris's unwillingness to
43:24shift on unconditional weapons policy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, makes it impossible for us to endorse her." So here we go. Ready for this? "At this time, our movement: number
43:34one, cannot endorse Vice President Harris; two, opposes a Donald Trump presidency; three, is not recommending a third party vote in the presidential election." All
43:47right, you following the math here? So we've got no Harris, no Trump, no third party. But wait a second. Are you telling us not to vote? Uncommitted? Not quite, not
44:00quite. Hold on. Now, on the last page, at the bottom, they say, "We urge uncommitted
44:09voters to register anti-Trump votes and vote up and down the ballot. Our focus remains on building a broad anti-war coalition both inside and outside the
44:23Democratic Party." So let's get this straight. So they want you to—they don't want to endorse Harris, and they don't want Trump to be president, and they're
44:33not—they're telling you not to vote for third parties, and then on the back page, they say, "We want you to cast anti-Trump votes," but we don't want you to vote
44:43third party. By process of elimination, by process of elimination, it seems like they tell—they're telling you to vote for Harris. It seems like they're just
44:53shy to say it, which is bad politics. Which is why the Uncommitted Movement— sorry, my last is a failure—because they tried to negotiate, but they never
45:05intended to leave the Democratic Party in the first place, okay? And we're not making a comment. This isn't our place to tell you who to vote for. But right now, we're gonna talk about good politics and bad politics and good negotiation and
45:16bad negotiation. And anybody who's been to a souk, anybody—yeah, yeah, keenest to— okay, Hamde la does not have any position on any of this. And if you want my position, then you have to go elsewhere off the A-Team. But we're
45:29evaluating strategy and what makes sense. Anybody who's been to a souk in Egypt, in Morocco, in Arabia, in Pakistan, anywhere in the Muslim world, and if you
45:44want to haggle with the person at the table, you want to buy something, they say 20, you say 5, say, "No way, 20." If you're not willing to walk away from the table,
45:56you're never gonna be able to haggle. It's only once you walk away from the table—he's, "Okay, okay, okay, come back, come back, okay, 15," right? If he knows
46:06you're never going to walk away from the table, then that means you have to accept his price. And that is exactly what happened to the Uncommitted Movement and the Democratic Party. The Uncommitted Movement said from the very beginning,
46:17"We're never going to abandon the Democratic Party, no matter what." So they didn't have any leverage. They couldn't negotiate anything. They said, "Please, will you please at least call for a ceasefire?" The Democratic Party's like, "Nah, not
46:31really feeling it." Okay, well, what about, you know, conditioning aid, military aid to Israel? Democratic Party's like, "No, no, not gonna do that either." And then the Uncommitted basically had to release this kind of embarrassing statement that
46:43is really, really a head-scratcher. Now, that was the good, that was the bad. Let's get to the ugly. And the ugly is MEND. The ugly is MEND, folks, and it
46:58always has been. MEND, but it especially is MEND. MEND came out this morning and endorsed Kamala Harris, okay? Now, they also had the AP and
47:11different other major national media organizations on speed dial. Somehow, I don't know how that works, to run with this headline: "Top Muslim Voter
47:20Organization Endorses Harris." "Middle East Conflict Escalates." Now, part of MEND's projected power is basically telling the Democratic Party and other
47:31groups that it is the top Muslim voter organization. But MEND is not the top Muslim voter organization. MEND does not represent the Muslim community very well,
47:42if at all. First of all, some of you might know, or not know, that MEND was started by Ismailis in Florida in the early 2000s, and it was started not even pretending to serve the Muslims whatsoever. Their first papers of
47:57incorporations show they were called something very generic I forget what it was at this time but it had nothing to do with Muslims it was only years later that they decided to change the name and to say oh yeah we want to represent the
48:08Muslim community now and they have a very very shady history of supporting Zionist candidates you can go check out on Al Jazeera and other sort of news
48:18outlets. AJ Plus and others have written extensively about them and others to show how basically the game is there are
48:29organizations out there and CAIR is one of them that positions itself and the powers that be in the Democratic Party that we are the most influential
48:39voice for the Muslims and that if you give us support either through appointments either through special access through funding through whatever it is and CAIR is mostly funded outside the Muslim community by the way not from
48:54the Muslim community then we will deliver these votes to you and so we shouldn't be surprised when this type of treachery comes from a type of group like this that is not accountable whatsoever to the actual Muslim
49:09community that it purports to represent and beyond a Munafiqah I was asked I was I was requested by a certain organization in Florida to come to a conference to speak I think in January and the secretary reached out to me and
49:23said even I'm Tom we love your work we'd love for you to come and talk at our conference and I knew that this particular organization worked with CAIR and I said very clearly I do not work with any organization that works
49:37with CAIR thank you very much and it was only a short time later when the president of this organization jumped on the email exchange and said oh this is maybe a misunderstanding why don't you call us can't we get on the
49:49phone and talk it over there's nothing to talk about Habibi there's nothing to talk about and when more Imams start to educate themselves and when more scholars
50:01and more organizations start to educate themselves as to the different players in the political sphere and who are really genuinely grassroots supported by the community and doing good work and which ones are only here to basically
50:15play us that's when we will start to see improvement in Muslim political opportunities now what my big objection to all this is and one of our takeaways
50:27here is that this type this style of politics by the Uncommitted Movement excuse me and CAIR is exactly the opposite style of politics of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)
50:39that I was reading through some of the Qur'an today and coming across Surat Al-Fath and Surat Al-Fath is very very important
50:49read for these types of things and we'll go to the ayah go ahead guys we have
50:54Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you Oh
51:13Muhammad under the tree and he knew what was in their hearts so Allah sent down tranquility upon them and rewarded them with an imminent victory or an imminent conquest why is this relevant to political negotiation and this sort of
51:26thing okay I need you to understand something this Surah and this ayah was revealed in the context of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah okay Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) was given a command to go make Umrah he was given a dream in which
51:40he saw himself visiting the Ka'bah making Tawaf around the Ka'bah and making Umrah so he gathered fourteen hundred fifteen hundred of the companions and they left in pilgrims clothes they did not have arms they did not they were not
51:54ready for war they were not armed to the teeth they were not ready for any sort of military activity they were just there with what they needed in order to
52:03make pilgrimage when they came to the outskirts of Mecca the Quraysh panicked and stopped them I said wait a second you guys can't come in what do you think
52:14you're doing and they made them wait outside the city and Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) sent Uthman ibn Affan (رضي الله عنه) as their delegate to go represent them to try to negotiate something with the Quraysh and he was gone for so long
52:29that they were afraid that they had assassinated Uthman and in response to this the Muslims gathered together under this tree and they pledged right then
52:41and there that if it's true that Uthman was assassinated that they would fight and they would fight the last man and they would all die if they had to and
52:50this is known as Bayat al-Ridwan this is the pledge that Allah is pleased with and this is such an important lesson for Muslims today
53:00because they were ready to stand on business they were ready to stand on principle they were not tricked by materialistic causation and concerns
53:12like oh we don't have enough oh this is let's you know let's put our person on the inside let's ingratiate ourselves to power let's get someone appointed in a high position let's make compromises and get on the inside and then one day 15
53:25years 20 years 30 years 50 years later we can convince them not to kill us that was not the politics of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) that was not how Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) dealt with his genociders and his murderers and
53:37his killers he sought to build power he built power he exercised power and he was ready to die he was ready to stand on business on principle and he never betrayed his principles never once do you see Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)
53:52compromising on any of his principles or the companions compromising on any of their principles with the enemies or with the people who want harm for them and you see that this attitude when the Muslims when they took it to Iraq and
54:04they took it to Sham and they took it to Misr and they took it to across the world and what was the thing that they told every single general and every single person that they faced they said you're about to face off with a group of
54:17people that loves death more than you love your own life and that was their attitude it was not a cowardly attitude it was not a but we're just 1% attitude it was not a we're an aggrieved minority we have to lean into our allies
54:31we have to let our allies do most of the work attitude it was not I'm afraid of my McMansion in the suburbs attitude it was not I'm afraid of my 401k attitude it was not an attitude that cared about losing money or losing wealth or losing
54:45life or losing freedom or losing anything that was not the attitude of the companions of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) or Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) himself that was not their attitude their attitude was aren't we
54:59on the truth isn't this the truth we are ready to die for the truth what do we have to sacrifice for the truth we believe in Allah, the Exalted just like Maryam we believe in Allah, the Exalted and we're ready for
55:13anything we're ready to pay any price we're ready to sacrifice any sacrifice and that is when you have honor that is when Allah gives you honor that is when
55:25Allah takes the fear from your heart that is when Allah stops the fear from entering into you that's when he gives you tranquility so we have to compare the attitudes we have to compare the attitudes take the seerah of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)
55:39and map these different movements these people who claim to represent the Muslims and probably wouldn't even dare to represent Islam we can say one thing you've tried to say that you represent the Muslims but to
55:51say nobody is even bold enough to say that you represent Islam compare them what ain't enough no men heading to be in a salallahu alayhi wa sallam how far have we
56:01come and the inspiring thing that I see the inspiring thing that I see is that the youth get it the young people get it when I go to campuses and I go to
56:13encampments we're gonna talk about encampments in a second the young people get it they're not impressed with your tenure your 20 or 30 years in Congress they're not impressed they might count that against you they might say well this person can't know what they're talking about they've got too much
56:28experience they've been domesticated they've been tamed by the system they've been playing biryani diplomacy and respectability politics as opposed to
56:39actually building power according to our principles not betraying our principles not betraying what makes us us which is people that are the Ummah of Muhammad (ﷺ) people who follow the guidance that was given to us
56:51and we do not fear the blame of the blamers and we do not fear except Allah
57:11let's get to some comments and questions and then we'll roll on with new student encampments the Muslim apologist says you can write to Dr. Aafia through her lawyer google it thank you
57:24Salahuddin is my hero this asked the same how do you think we should vote Jill Stein third party I'm not 100% sure you should ask him or check his stuff I mean I think he probably does knowing Sammy I'm gonna meet him soon I think he's come to the US soon insha'Allah
57:41uh Javariya asks how to stop ourselves from backbiting concern yourself with your own sins the Muslim apologist says if the Muslims in America are not voting for Kamala
57:54you can't be serious in supporting Trump instead no nobody said that Habibi nobody said that you don't get to decide the president anyway in America there's this thing called the Electoral College
58:05so you might as well you might as well vote on principle Amina says in my city the state contacted the Islamic community and asked for cooperation they want weekly lectures to be held in the women's prison Mashallah that's awesome
58:29uh Murad Ali asks what do you think about Stein where green party ticket you got to see my work elsewhere this is Yaqeen Institute
58:49okay Seamus is saying that Mehdi Hassan is talking about impeaching Blinken for hiding Israelis that for hiding the fact that Israelis blocked USA to Gaza but yeah if he's also saying vote for Harris then
59:02yeah stick to debates Smila says if everyone voted Dr. Jill Stein it would make a dent and send a clear message to ruling elite and positive signal that a viable alternative is possible
59:20mom of two agrees I agree uncommitted is bad politics yo guys do we have a vote do we have a poll guys in the studio we have a poll to run about who people think that we should that the U.S. Muslims should vote for can we run that poll
59:39exactly Seamus you walk away from that table you find out it was just three you found hey Farhad don't feel bad I was a very bad negotiator until recently this politics thing is just you know awaken the uh inner Italian in me I guess
59:51yeah Sada you're 100% right amused and not surprised I saw from the beginning because I knew I saw it I saw the way that things were happening I followed this stuff very closely the uncommitted movement and how different groups were sliding into it and how it was kind of on the
01:00:04back of um and how it was on the back of abandon Biden movement and they're basically sort of cozying up next to abandon Biden and and stealing their thunder a little bit but then I think that
01:00:16it was always uh it was always in the cards they were always planning on going back at the end of the day
01:00:27okay we had a poll on YouTube for you goes to you on YouTube that we're saying uh where we're asking people what to do about uh what how should U.S. Muslims vote in the election
01:00:39uh what how should U.S. Muslims vote in the election and we had it came back most people said they don't know
01:00:5556% said I don't know 26% said Stein 10% said Harris and 9% said Trump that was our own poll that we just did
01:01:05good 100% put it up in lights Muslims must stop being played and splitting votes or becoming redundant altogether nice
01:01:22Abdurrahman Hussain is in the house my colleague and former classmate from Medina Imam up in Ottawa Canada's best may Allah bless you great to see you in the chat Habibi and the former and also
01:01:36one of the only Imams that also has a political science degree and a Sharia degree so cut from the same cloth my brother from another mother up there
01:02:01yeah most people uh Isa Lutfi family most people and mom of two also first time you've even heard of CAIR you wouldn't have heard of them the Democratic party believes that CAIR is like
01:02:11the representative of of of the Muslim community and doesn't even realize that CAIR is a paper tiger they don't exist in our communities they exist on paper a lot of PR just a lot of PR
01:02:35yep that's true Sada I send Substack did some of us saw from the beginning some of us have been saying this Sada about the essence of that and Ahmed Sheikh who we had on this program in the spring
01:02:45if not the winter some of us have been saying this for a long time I some of us have been warning against CAIR and similar actors for 10 months and there's going to be a whole lot of I
01:02:58told you so putting the past around good points all around
01:03:14juju says and this is an important comment I feel Palestine is the test of character Palestine has been revealing what's truly in people's hearts it's cause only for the truly loyal it's cause for the only for the truly loyal that's amazing i love the way you said that
01:03:30I'll stop for a while may Allah make me better than you think Ismaila Rahma 100 Mariam Shackled to it let's see Abdullah Abu Mahfuz says I feel like there is a perception
01:03:42fueled by popular secular media that there are only complex anti-heroes and that everyone compromises on principles every once in a while Muslims don't be fooled great comment thank you from our own studio
01:03:59yeah commentary leaves an interesting comment I've been so disgusted with life lately I don't know what some people are made of that makes them that strong in such bad circumstances yeah well looking at Maryam and looking at the people of Gaza you know it's just like it's it's very
01:04:12heartening but you also have to just be in awe and wonder as well
01:04:30hey Allahu Akbar truth for peace put that up in lights Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) slept on a straw mattress just think about this for a minute wallahi man one thing i fear wallahi I fear that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) rejects us or turns away from us on the
01:04:44day of judgment because of our addiction to luxury and dunya and how much we complained and we clutched
01:04:53at straws, not willing to sacrifice, not willing to pay the price. It's Maud Zahra Sulaiman asks, Shaykh, I was told I can't repent. That's crazy. It's too late for me. No, that's not true. You can
01:05:07always repent. Welcome. Oh, that's hilarious. G Screenable said, unfortunately I prayed
01:05:20for any candidate other than Biden. I should have been more specific. That is hilarious.
01:05:32Uh, Denise Kathlena asking about homeschooling. Uh, you don't need a special education for
01:05:43homeschooling, but it is something that, um, it will depend on exactly the style and what you're going to do. Um, will depend on your skills as a couple. Like, what are you able to handle and what do you
01:05:56need to outsource? Uh, Salah Adin is my hero said thoughts on Care Action. Is it the biggest one? Can I take? Can it
01:06:08take on APAC? Remains to be seen. It's still new. It's very, very new. Uh, I've talked to the CEO or the ED, whatever it's called. Um, brother Bisam Kerala, we need more of these types of things.
01:06:22That's for sure. So we're still on the ground. We're still on the ground level. We're still on the ground level, but we'll see where it goes.
01:06:37Yeah, Samir, I agree. Palestine is the north star. Excellent. Either people stand on principle or they don't. Um,
01:06:49Ashik asks, sorry for asking question of context. If I take a shower or ghusl, is it enough for wudu? Yes, but the best thing is to make both at the same time. The Sunnah, the extra beyond what's required, is to make wudu and then make ghusl.
01:07:07Nice point, Mariam. There says she can't morally vote for either of the main two parties. I like that. I feel, you know, that's reasonable.
01:07:22Uh, Smiles and Five says, do you think our addiction to luxury is shaped by living in America? Absolutely. I'm sorry. Be happy. I, you know, be happy. You're the first person to tell me this, but I was always waiting for someone to tell me this. Please don't disrespect our beloved
01:07:37biryani. I also am a fan of biryani. I had to pick something. It was either going to be samosas or biryani, and I figured, you know, too much biryani and, you know, isn't healthy for you. So I just
01:07:49went with the biryani. But I apologize. Salah Adina saying, asking me if I can come to Chino Hills
01:08:01for a civic engagement. Um, many communities have had the same thought process inviting me in September and October and early November, and I'm all booked out until, uh, New Year.
01:08:14Yes, Rick Rashid. Thank you very much. Keep making du'a for our brothers and sisters in Sudan. 100%. Unfortunately, out of sight, out of mind. All right, let's roll to the next thing. We've got new rounds of student encampments that have
01:08:28started up. Harvard, in particular, was one of the more recent ones. And the question came: what should our Muslim communities do to help the student movement this time around? What have we learned
01:08:38from before? Um, and I asked some students and sort of pulled their ideas, and this is what came through: four points. Okay, so I want everybody to think about these seriously, and especially if
01:08:49you're in these communities in the U.S., tell everybody you know to try to get this done. One: the supply lines have to already be in place. We're talking about the food, we're talking about funding, we're talking about all the sorts of things that we actually did a pretty decent job
01:09:03of getting going in an ad hoc way, but we already have to have that infrastructure in place in order to support the student encampments. Two: physical presence. This was huge last time, and it was lacking.
01:09:14Physical presence of Muslims on campus is extremely important. That means MSA students, especially you, have to come out. But even if your college has not become a complete police state militarized zone,
01:09:27then you absolutely should be there and show up physically to stop people from getting attacked, to prevent a deterrent presence. Three: lawyer up. Okay, the lawyers and the legal funds and the
01:09:40pro bonos that we have are overwhelmed. There's a ton of stuff to do. Um, they're at max capacity. If you are a lawyer or if you know lawyers, try to bring them in. That's a huge need that we have.
01:09:51And then finally: share the framing from the students themselves. So don't try to reframe the issue according to what you think should be the framing. Take what the students are telling you
01:10:02and run with their framing. Basically, amplify and don't try to reinterpret, because they have a sense of what they're going for. Good. Let's roll the tafsir. We're running up on two hours here. We'll
01:10:14try to not make it too much longer than two hours long. Let's go to tafsir today. We have Surah An-Nasr.
01:10:40When Allah's help comes and He opens up your way, when you see people embracing Allah's faith in crowds, celebrate the praises of your Lord and ask His forgiveness. He is always ready to
01:10:50accept repentance. Where's that sister at? Get her back here. This is meant for you. Look at that. Allah wrote it. This is meant for you. He is always ready to accept repentance. What is the unique
01:11:03word? Okay, we have a couple options. Is this on YouTube, guys, in the studio, or is this here? Okay, on YouTube, go. There's a poll. What is the unique word? We said every chapter of the Qur'an has a
01:11:15unique word in it. What is the unique word in Surah An-Nasr? Take a second. Go to YouTube. Fill it out.
01:11:31Young Apex asks about unity in the masjids. Yeah, the masjids are kind of broken. We have to fix them. Yep, that's true. Truth for Peace brings up the fact of Orthodox Jews being against Zionism. That's 100%
01:11:42correct. Oh, Fey Joy, I appreciate you. I appreciate you, Fey Joy. Um, I forgot in the last minute because these things have been unfolding all day. Can you shed a little light on why AMDC National endorsed
01:11:57Harris, including Nadia Ahmed, who we have had on this program before? I apologize if you haven't or already have. Um, to be frank, I didn't expect a whole lot from people who
01:12:05are inside the Democratic Party. You know, party politics—you're part of the party at the
01:12:14end of the day, and most people fall in line. So it is what it is. Um, Ali (رضي الله عنه) said
01:12:27that you don't put too much stock in people. If one day they become your adversary, and you don't completely give up on your adversary in case one day they become your friend.
01:12:40And that is wisdom. Suzy Q, does he read the chat? No, I don't. Artforge, have you seen a lot of leftists support Palestine having stances against our Uyghur brothers and sisters and supporting
01:12:52Assad? What are your thoughts on this? Artforge, that's a great question. That's exactly why we need sovereignty in our dealings with coalitions and quote-unquote allies, because we can't tolerate that. We can tolerate—you can have that opinion separately, but you don't bring that into our
01:13:05spaces, right? If you want to support Palestine because it's the right thing to do, Ahmad Mustaqim, but there have to be conditions, okay? So we have to negotiate that in an intelligent way
01:13:15and not be too dependent on that, not be too dependent on any allies, because we shouldn't be letting them run things, right? Because then they're going to make this whole—exactly what
01:13:25you said—pro-Russia, Assadist nonsense coalition, and then we're awkwardly standing there like, "Oh, we don't really agree with all that." That's why Muslims need to be on the forefront as a leading
01:13:38partner in these sorts of things. Uh, and we have to call it out and say, "You can have that opinion
01:13:45in private, but you're not going to bring it into the space." Attica talks about her younger brother and biryani. He can love biryani as long as he doesn't love biryani diplomacy.
01:14:02No, Juju, we're going to go to Atomic Habits in just a second.
01:14:11Yeah, we absolutely saw—I do have opportunists everywhere. 100%. Sada put it up in lights. I feel like in the masjids at times there is an elitism that folks tie to their deen, and
01:14:25it makes it difficult for new believers to try to integrate. Well said. I agree completely. Excellent. All right, let's roll. No, we got the—oh, here we go. Oh, I tricked everybody today.
01:14:38I tricked everybody today. Let's go to the polls. Surah An-Nasr. What was the unique word? The options were "afwaj," "was,"
01:14:5263% of you said "afwaj," and "afwaj" is in people. Come on, it's still even in Juz'
01:15:02"was" is unique. Only 18% of you put "was," and even if you cut off the "wa" and said that is unique, it doesn't come in any other surah in that form. Usually it says
01:15:15or it's in the plural. It's a command for the second person plural. Okay, and then no, that comes—that is all over the Qur'an. So
01:15:30I tricked you. Sorry about that. The unique word for today is "istighfir," seek forgiveness for him. And this is relevant to our sister who is asking, "Will Allah ever accept my repentance?" Absolutely. This
01:15:42surah is about the death of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and how even he was supposed to seek forgiveness towards the ends of his life for any sort of shortcoming or anything like that. So if even Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is seeking forgiveness
01:15:55and he expects Allah—we have good expectations about Allah—that He forgives us, then of course us as well. That seeking forgiveness is one of the fundamental parts of what it means to be a human being. In fact, when Allah
01:16:08Subhana wa Ta'ala tells the first story of the first person, Adam, in the first part of the Qur'an, Surah [Al-Baqarah 2:1], it's a story of repentance essentially. Adam had to sin because he's human. It was only a matter of time, okay? Allah decided it. He
01:16:21willed it. When he did sin, what was the purpose? To instruct us how to turn back. And "ta'ba"—"ya tubu"—"tawwab" means to turn and to turn back and to return. So
01:16:33imagine you're going down this wrong path. "Ta'ba," and you turn back from it. And then imagine Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala turning towards us in forgiveness because
01:16:43of our turning back from our actions and our wicked ways. That nobody is off limits from Allah's mercy, given the fact—or I should say on the condition that
01:16:54they repent. Let's see. Cat says, "Can you talk about how Harris went from a disliked VP to being advertised as a hero of democracy?" Yeah, that's called a
01:17:08lot of marketing money. Valerie De Leon is in the house fighting. So now, welcome. Good to see you again. Mariam asked, "What is biryani diplomacy?" Glad you asked.
01:17:21Sorry, this is a phrase that I have coined. Mariam, biryani diplomacy refers to the idea that if you show a politician or a political party that you're loyal and you do favors for them, that they will then later do favors
01:17:36for you. It's not how it works. That's not how it works. They will always be doing the least amount, the most token things, throwing you breadcrumbs, and then you're stumbling over yourself to do their fundraisers and to do phone
01:17:48banking and to do all these things for them. That's not good politics. It's not good negotiation. Little Fiasco, a man says, "As-salamu alaikum. I said I was the
01:17:55Islamic view of FGM?" FGM refers to several practices, some of which are part of Islam and some of which are not. Or we should say, not part of Islam. We should
01:18:07say, recognize as valid, and some of which are not. So FGM is not one thing, and that's a larger discussion. You
01:18:20Why don't you sit on me, Muna? Do welcome. All right, let's go to our last segment. We've got personal development: Atomic Habits. Today we cross over into law
01:18:30number three. Law number three is make it attractive. Make it attractive, okay? Which is—or does it make it easy? I'm sorry, I'm skipping around here. I've got my notes
01:18:45from before. We're in law number three. Law number four is to make it satisfying. No, no. Law number three is make it easy. Law number two is make it attractive.
01:18:57Okay, make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it rewarding. Okay, so previously, what you had to do was you were supposed to have a motivation ritual
01:19:09for yourself. Remember, there's certain habits that are just not fun to do, okay? Especially in the beginning. We're going to talk about that—about how habits are not fun to do in the beginning. So one of the ways that
01:19:22you can kind of trick yourself is to develop a motivation ritual. Have it. Think about a baseball player. Before they step into the batter's box, they usually have this sort of ritual that they do. They're not just all superstitious mushrikun, right?
01:19:34They just do it. Like, sometimes just to get the adrenaline pumping. Think about your soccer players when they're about to come on and they're about to get subbed on. That they are, you know, they usually do some ritual. It's not
01:19:46that they think that has cosmic powers. Sometimes it is just about motivating themselves and getting themselves to focus, okay? So if you had something like that, we want to hear about it. If you took a difficult habit, then what was
01:19:59that habit, and what motivation ritual did you come up with for yourself? Interesting. People are both asking about Bitcoin and passing fatwa on Bitcoin in
01:20:09the comments. Go crazy. Everybody go nuts. So today we've crossed over to law number three. So law number one was make it obvious. That you have to actually pay attention and bring into the realm of conscientiousness and consciousness what
01:20:24are your habits? Do you want to keep them? Do you want to change them? Okay? Two was make it attractive. That you need to have some sort of payoff. You need the
01:20:34habits that you want to inculcate, okay? That it has to be attractive. You have to be sold on why you should do that in the first place. And number two—sorry, number
01:20:44three—the third law is make it easy. That your habits and your new habits you want to make them as easy as possible. And I think a lot of us need this guidance in this particular chapter or this particular section, especially. So the
01:20:59first part of this section is "walk slowly but never backwards." Walk slowly but never backwards. Now he gives an example, and I think it was a really powerful example of a professor of photography. He had a photography class.
01:21:13He divided his class into two halves, and he said, "One half, you're gonna be the quantity half. You're going to shoot as many pictures as possible, and then
01:21:26you're going to submit only one of them—your best one—at the end of the year. And your final grade is going to be based off of that one that you submit. The other group is about quality. That you're only going to shoot one picture,
01:21:40and that's going to be—that's going to be your grade. That one picture that you submit actually I think the quantity group they had to submit more than one photo they had to submit all of their photos or a certain amount or something like that so he had one group that was focusing on quantity
01:21:54and one group that was focusing on quality which group do you think submitted the better photos at the end of the year it was the quantity group
01:22:06the group that took the most pictures became the best at taking pictures okay and the group that only took a few and just submitted one
01:22:19picture were not so good they weren't very good whatsoever so this is part of what he derives from this is sometimes when we want to start a new habit we
01:22:31focus a lot on the plan okay and we plan and we plan and we plan and we never do anything okay imagine we're part of that quality group we're only gonna shoot one photo and submit that one photo we might think theoretically about
01:22:45where to shoot the photo what the lighting should be and how to do this and how to do that but we're not actually doing anything when we sit down to do it our execution is off because we're out of practice so we don't have enough
01:22:56practice whereas the other group right they are the doers they are the ones that are just doing it and by doing it they are actually getting better and better and better at it as they are going along so his point is to plan less
01:23:09and to start doing more as is well known there's a phrase perfect is the enemy of good that if you wait and wait and wait until things are perfect usually you'll
01:23:21end up not doing anything and if anybody writes here then you definitely know this is true right writing and meeting a deadline you're like well it's not perfect yet well I have to review this well I have to this sentence isn't
01:23:32quite right it's better for you or as one of my mentors John Starling down in New Jersey said be a happy C student don't be the A straight A student or the
01:23:43A plus student be a happy C student you'll actually end up being better because you'll have more practice and you'll be more productive and you'll get things out so the author distinguishes between motion and action on one hand
01:23:54motion is basically all of that pre-work you know you're making your list and you're thinking about what to do etc you're not actually doing it action is what produces results action is what actually makes you better at the thing
01:24:08that you want to be better at now what's tricky about motion and why motion is so appealing all the lists all the journals right all the oh today I'm gonna start journaling or today I'm gonna make my list or whatever is that that's motion
01:24:23and motion can trick us into thinking that we're making progress without actually risking anything because to truly take action to write the book to
01:24:33write the paper to do the workout that actually has risk involved but to think about it and to plan and to plan and to think that doesn't have as much risk it's kind of safe so the main point of the author is to practice to practice to
01:24:47practice gets your reps in getting your reps in is the most important factor to establishing a new habit he says when people ask how long does it take to establish a new habit and I know that some people were asking me that earlier
01:25:01when we started this book that it's the wrong question the right question is how many repetitions does it take to form a new habit repetitions are the path to
01:25:14change and habits are all about frequency not time that we have that image guys now he has something called the habit line there we go so we've got
01:25:23a graph here so at point A the habit the new habit requires a ton of effort it's not automatic a ton of concentration and it's not fun but if you keep at it
01:25:34repetitions then it gets easier and then finally when you cross over that line that habit line there it becomes you get to point C and that is when the habit is fully entrenched so notice that you just have to put in the right amount
01:25:49of repetitions now for the homework this week are we going to be okay we're filming okay next week is a special episode folks next week is a special
01:26:03episode it's not going to be shot here it will be shot in Dallas inshallah at
01:26:10the Yaqeen office we will rough ride it exactly improvise overcome and adapt
01:26:21definitely 100% so next week when we go live from Dallas from Yaqeen headquarters okay I want you to have this homework this is going to be your homework for the week pick one thing that you're already doing a habit that
01:26:35you're already doing that you just want to do more of that you want to increase the reps for okay now I don't want you to read ahead because he's going to give us in the next chapters techniques to help us make the reps easier and help
01:26:48allow us to increase our reps more easily I don't want you to look at that I want you to just on your own without guidance from the book try to do more of it whatever it is this week if it's push-ups if it's reading if it's
01:27:00language study if it's Quran if it's salah whatever it is try to do more of it this week just on your own and see how it goes then what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to do more of it using his techniques for how to make doing
01:27:11more reps easier and we're gonna see if we can observe the difference awesome let's hit the comments one more time and then we will sign off for tonight
01:27:24Abdullah said I started playing rain ambience when needing to focus for work I do that as well I do that as well actually rain especially I love to listen to the sound of the rain I was glad that today actually it
01:27:38rained all day so that was nice people arguing about Bitcoin what is it just goes to show you guys if you want to know fiqh you have to understand to so what a shaykh told him a shaykh but I mean to so what do you that you have to
01:27:50understand what it is in the first place these questions is it gambling is it not gambling is it a deposit is it this is it that right this these are all part of understanding the thing so you don't plunge into fiqh by giving rulings it's haram because it's gambling well you have to really understand what it is and
01:28:05then understand what gambling is haram and then make the analogy between the two as for me I don't understand how Bitcoin works so I'm not gonna give you a fatwa like so I understand what gambling is in the Shari'ah yeah right but I
01:28:18don't understand how Bitcoin works in the level of detail that I would need to pass a fatwa on it so you're not getting anything out of me
01:28:28because from what truth for peace 2023 says you put money in and it is not definite if you will get an increase in your investment and can lose it all you have to distinguish between gambling and investments because the same your
01:28:41comment right there could apply to investments as well so what's the difference that's why we need fiqh hotly juju said and juju you've been really good with the homework we appreciate that the homework is a bit challenging I
01:28:53tried to stop checking social media I realized I do this based on guilt because if I don't check the events in Palestine then I feel I am turning a blind eye yeah subhanallah I definitely understand I definitely understand that
01:29:12what else we got yes I agree Valerie I found that a very very useful phrase walk slowly but never backwards totally agree there
01:29:26Abdi Hakeem Hassan what I'm so not to lie I'm a southern Nida what I'm so not to law may Allah love us all
01:29:37Amina says in order to go to bed earlier I always light a scented candle or use scented room fresheners smells regulate my stress and I fall asleep
01:29:47more easily I should try that I don't really um I'm not really tuned into the to the smell game but I should really do that
01:30:01they'll say that's awesome that's a top comment for the night Daisy parents just had a heart attack having a happy C student child you guys heard about the Indian cobra right the India there's like a political cartoon that said uh
01:30:15the Indian cobra it kills um what is it 96% of its victims that it bites and then the father asked like why not a hundred percent but that was kind of
01:30:27funny I should what I said I'm signing off for you good to see you thank you for your du'a a hundred percent Sada says about writing yep just write every
01:30:38day let the wastebasket be your friend yep you know it perfectionism Mariam says is the enemy of progress yes need that telling us to use natural aromas
01:30:51I'm all about the natural life I appreciate that how many repetitions exactly life ends in doggy it depends on the thing probably truth for peace 2023
01:31:01I wish you could visit Yaqeen Institute ah no no come on down Afr wedding of Sanam off to law no Sabah says I know there was an exercise about
01:31:11meeting new people yep to build habits but I see I am feeling happier alone and avoid people all together I guess I understand why the Prophet (ﷺ) said I'm sure salah turkey to be frank no Sabah on the same way don't be fooled by my
01:31:24ability to act I am totally an introvert I like my peace and quiet I like to be alone I like to reflect on stuff so I get that I get that
01:31:37you yeah I'm with you a salute a salute says I barely have enough money for
01:31:48subsistence let alone to play money with Bitcoin 100% all right Abdullah if you come to Dallas Abdullah I will taste decaf just for you it will not replace
01:32:01any of my normal coffee drinking Rick Rashida says is it true I am Imam Tom I think that Shia are of the fold I
01:32:14think I think autocorrect gave you a smackdown there Rick I think that you you're trying to say is it true you know I'm Tom that Shia are out of the fold of Islam and I will say the same answer that we said to Sufism in the beginning
01:32:26of the program Shia refers to a variety of beliefs and practices some of which might take one out of the fold and some of which do not so we have to be specific and deal with the substance of things and not labels
01:32:39yes check I'm on I sent a text actually to Abdullah Akil and thank you for reminding us put that up guys in the studio from within our lifetime wonderful group that I've worked with before may Allah grant him shifa he
01:32:51was totally brutalized by the NYPD he was sent to the hospital the NYPD roughed him up bad he's one of our star youth we love him we love for the sake of Allah we support him in everything he does we've had him on the program I
01:33:04visited him several times we're in conversation I sent him a text and he replied I'm sure he's you know got a lot on his mind and a lot to recover from but he was put in the hospital after it by the NYPD
01:33:18so make du'a for him and make du'a that Allah deals with the oppressors I'll take a ask do you like Napoli Macchiato why not sure I like Macchiato
01:33:30I don't know what makes Napoli Macchiato different from normal Macchiato Nori asks do you think Muslims should own guns where it's legal to absolutely I
01:33:39own guns very good Mariam has good advice I think keeping our brothers and sisters in our five daily prayers and keep the connection and the sentiments
01:33:51alive for the ummah along with other actions good job too much socials can be toxic and unproductive yes Mariam I'm so glad that you said that it can actually make us shut down and if we shut down what good are we to our brothers and
01:34:02sisters there's a lot to do so here Eunice you're the man appreciate you we had to have you with us and Allah bless you
01:34:15Afr kindly keep uploading more on Sahaba stories I'll try my best I think that's almost a man you want to talk to how about hummus tiramisu
01:34:26astaghfirullah astaghfirullah who's there who is that I think this is a troll Saud is that you separate separate them well bayna huma hijab okay I'll have
01:34:40hummus and then I'll have my tiramisu and it'll be a good day I Nor says what if one of your parents are unnecessarily abusive like curse a lot and don't even want you to listen I mean these are things that are best
01:34:53dealt with the local Imam but obviously there are limits to what people should be able to tolerate before moving out and exposing themselves to true abuse obviously is not cool
01:35:06Susie Q asks how much would you consider in terms of ethics and support for Israel when considering companies to work for yeah I mean I would adhere to BDS if there's a company that is involved in Israel making statements you
01:35:19know I would avoid it if at all possible definitely hundred percent and wallahi I have left I've left jobs for less and as I said earlier
01:35:32the more you sacrifice for Allah the closer to his deen you'll become it'll become so precious to you that you won't care these people want to cancel you writing about you and the papers or smearing you don't care I've I've gone
01:35:46too far I've given up too much stuff doesn't bother me won't lose a wink of sleep I promise no Sabah says I want to hear more about pro guns don't hear much about that side yeah you do you come to Texas or come to Atlanta Georgia come
01:36:00to Philly come to Pennsylvania we're Muslim community strapped up I mean we we were we go to the range man I mean like that's something we do we've got gun club here like we got a masjid gun club this is America baby like somebody
01:36:15said before this is a why I do that almost a thought to me oh well you have to you have to be able to defend yourself and in America that involves gun ownership legal gun ownership perfectly legal perfectly normal
01:36:29everybody does it so why not you yeah so that I was asking me provocative questions no comment so that for another
01:36:43forum all right here we go as a last comment of the night please pray I get a permanent job placing and has a stable income to help my mom out a bit I mean I
01:36:55may Allah bless you and protect you and grant you sustenance and preserve you and all of you thank you very much to everybody for a wonderful attention and interaction it's always a pleasure see you next week coming to you live from
01:37:09Yaqeen headquarters inshallah
