ISNA 2009 - New Beginnings: Mobilizing and Motivating a Generation

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Event Name: ISNA 2009 - New Beginnings: Mobilizing and Motivating a Generation
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/21/2019 7:21:55 PM
Transcript Version: 2


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Al-Hamdulillah my brother imam Siraj Wahaj, all the other imams and scholars here and all the people and our

translator here who I always get worried

they're saying this person is completely

mad but that's the basis of translators

they have to be trustworthy that we were

in a car once and one of my little boys

said to my four-year-old say to dad to

go and get some ice cream and so he said

say to dad to go to get some ice cream

and I realized that secret of Pulu Allah

who had you know when Allah said say the

prophet saw him was so trustworthy and

faithful in his transmission he said

exactly what he was told to say say

because you have to be trustworthy to

translate now God God I love that God

that's amazing

god no I

this were the people that are listening

through the the sign language balloon

who's one of the great Quran Trent

reciters and he is a he has a reception

from Iman Navi air balloon was deaf he

couldn't hear except the Quran and

that's confirmed in all our books of

Quranic transmission he can only hear

the Quran under the the MSA I was I

heard Dalia muga had said something last

night our really sister that we're all

very proud of doing incredible work

Dalia Mujahid said something last night

it really affected me she said to Pastor

Rick Warren that she grew up in Islam

and she said that this organization had

such an impact on forming her

personality and her understanding of her

faith and that really struck me because

sometimes we tend to forget the impact

that these events have on our young

people especially I mean some of the old

people are also benefiting and getting

impact but the young people these are

can be turning points in their lives and

I was in Chicago and I somebody picked

me up in a car and and they said you

know what the first time I ever met you

was at its nah I was 14 years old he was

now 30 years old that tells you how long

I've been coming to isne and he said I

remember everything you said to me in

that meeting that brief meeting and it

really struck home to me the importance

of recognizing the immense

responsibility that we have towards our

youth and providing these and the MSA

the Muslim Students Association is an

extraordinary organization that has the

potential to really transform Islam in

America I believe that the prophet

Elijah said I'm

companions were young people generally

the people that followed him were young

people he had many many very young men

many of them under 20 saya Ali is really

when Sedna Ali became Muslim he was only

seven years old but he was so fervent in

his belief in faith and the Prophet

acknowledged him sallallahu wasallam

when when he was the only one that said

I'll stand by you a seven-year-old in

the spirit of July 4th Independence Day

I mentioned earlier that Independence

Day is on Muslim celebration and because

Independence Day in 1187 July 4th 1187

salahuddin at AU Bea's army defeated the

Crusader state at the Battle of heptane

so when we see the fireworks going off

we can remember July 4th July 4th

1187 now Independence Day is a

celebration of freedom but Muslims

celebrate every day dependents day which

is a celebration of servitude to Allah

subhana WA Ta'ala

that we are servants of allah subhana wa

ta'ala and this is what our young people

have to recognize that life is about

service life is not about licentiousness

liberty and libertine are related words

Liberty is freedom but libertine is the

one who acts without any constraints

libertine in English is a negative word

Liberty is a positive word there are

negative aspects to the ability to do

what you want to do when you want to do

what Allah wants to you to do you're

truly free but when you do what you want

you to do you're a slave to yourself

you're not a free person a free / the

Arabs the

in Arabic the Arabs say Abdul Karuma

honey what her Oh Abdul Mohammed this

servant the slave is a free man as long

as he's content and the free man is a

slave as long as he's covetous the free

man is a slave as long as he's a slave

to his passions this country has

afforded many Muslims an extraordinary

opportunity but we as a community have

to begin to give back in a much bigger

way to this country and the African

American community there's a whole

separate history there I'm talking to

the immigrant community that's coming

here after 1965 when a lot of people got

their heads bashed in before that so

that you could come here and get jobs

and work and eat in restaurants and be

treated like human beings but it's time

for this community to give back this

country is in a crisis it's in a moral

crises it's in a financial crises of

unprecedented proportion trust me

this crisis is far worse than what

happened in 1929 it's far worse if you

actually understand what happened and

the amount of credit that was created

the amount of debt and deficit financing

that has been the practice of this

country for far too long there hasn't

been a balanced budget says John F

Kennedy and claiming Clinton claiming

that he balanced the budget is a false

claim because what he did was he used

Social Security money to pay for his

budget so he was actually borrowing

instead of borrowing from banks by

selling Treasury bonds he was borrowing

from the future income or earning of

people that are putting that wealth

thinking that the government is actually

saving that wealth for them this country

according to the federal controller who

would resigned a few years ago to go

around the United States and

in this country about the impending

financial tsunami proved that this

country has liabilities and debts

reaching over fifty trillion dollars so

the 11 trillion dollar official debt is

only part as the tip of the iceberg and

we're on the Titanic we're on the

Titanic and people are singing and

shooting off fireworks they're

celebrating an indebted nation that's

indebted Varzi to China with Chinese

firecrackers that they bought in China

we don't even produce firecrackers so

there is a lot of work to do

I believe the Muslim physicians alone

could solve the healthcare crisis by

doing what Bill and Charlie mail who

found that the Mayo Clinic did Bill and

Charlie Mayo serviced 30 percent of all

their patients they brought us because

they believe that as physicians they

should be serving the poor for free

that was the Mayo Clinic that was Bill

and Charlie mail that's American history

it's about time that people started

thinking about serving the underserved

in this country we talked about Rick

Warren was talking yesterday Rwanda

because I said Muslims need to get

together with Christian doctors and

serve the party said yes in Rwanda were

doing as I said I'm not talking about

Rwanda I'm talking about East LA

I'm talking about Washington DC I'm

talking about Jacksonville Florida the

ER doctors have seen an increase since

this financial collapse because people

are using the ER as a primary care

because they don't have insurance to go

to a doctor they can't afford to go to a

doctor

we have people that can't take their

children to doctors because they can't

afford that the Muslims have over 30,000

doctors in the United States if each one

of those doctors gave one day out of the

week for the sake of Allah and His

Messenger to serve the poor people we

would solve a great deal of the

underserved problems in medicine in this

country now that sacrifice and maybe

it's asking too much but I don't think

it's asking too much personally I don't

think it's asking too much we can do

this and that's when people yesterday

Rick Warren I thought Rick Warren was

going to do what evangelical people call

witnessing which is where if they meet

people that don't adhere to their faith

they tell them about Jesus Christ being

the personal Savior Rick Warren there's

so much social work he doesn't have to

witness about Jesus Christ all he has to

tell you is about what his group is

doing that's his witnessing that's his

witnessing that is what the Muslim

community needs to do we need to be sure

hotter than this witnesses over mankind

by serving humanity the prophet

salallahu alaihe wasalam said the best

of you are the most beneficial to the

dependence of God that the pay all along

the dependence of God which is a worthy

heir abused for children the best and

most beloved of you to Allah are those

who are most beneficial to the

dependence of allah subhanho wa taala

service we need to call our community to

service we don't need President Obama to

call us to service our God has called us

to service our God has called us to

service we don't need the President of

the United States to call this community

to service because Allah and His

Messenger have called us to service asta

gee bully lei well they're a suti if

they're directly my Yuriko

answer the call of God and His Messenger

you to bring you back to life through

service life through

servus the first hook bethat the prophet

sallallaahu said him gave in medina

when he arrived to medina the very first

hook by that he gave johannes of shoe

salon

what up a moran was sallou alayh when a

Sunni on touch full genitive is Salam o

humanity o people spread peace feed the

hungry get up in the night and give some

portion of your night to God and you

will enter paradise without any

difficulties two-thirds of that message

is service to others is spreading peace

if you look at the famous hadith inside

Muslim in which the three people there

was a the the upper us the acara and the

Atma there was a man who had vitiligo

the skin disease there was a man who was

bald he lost his hair through a illness

and there was a blind man and Allah sent

an angel to test them and this is a

proof that somebody could come to you

and he's an angel he sent an angel to

test these people the the first one that

he went to was the man with vitiligo and

he said what is the most beloved thing

to you he said to have good skin and

then he said then let it be that and he

made a prayer wiped over him and his

skin came back but the reason that he

wanted good skin is because he said

mother Ani & nass people don't like my

skin they look at me and they don't like

me so he was worried about what people

think that's why he wanted good skin the

neck then he asked him what wealth you

like he said camels so he gave him

camels and then he went and he came to

the next man who lost his hair and he

said what is the most beloved thing to

you and he said that I have nice hair so

that people don't look askance at me so

he said may you have good hair his hair

came back he said what type of animal do

you like he said I love cows he said may

you have cows he gave him cows and then

he came to the blind man the blind man

unlike the other two said

the most beloved thing for me is that

God Allah yah rodent yo dude Alania

bursary for Abu Dhabi he knows that God

gives me back my sight so I can see

people so I can see people he wanted his

eyesight back so that he could see

people not because he was worried about

what other people were they because he

wanted to see people and he asked that

God returned his sight and he said and

the angel said and so it is he got his

sight back and then he said what what

type of animal do you like he said goats

or sheep

nunim he and he gave him and they each

one of them became wealthy and

prosperous until they had a valley

filled with these camels cows and and

goats and then the angel came back to

the first in the form of Allah a man

with the same disease and he was poor

and he said who will help me on this

journey of mine so that I can reach my

journey and he said will you give me

some of your wealth and he said no go go

on

and he said weren't you like me at one

time and God blessed you with this

beautiful skin he said no I've always

looked like this and I've always had

these animals and he said may God return

you to the way you were and he lost his

animals died and his skin went bad he

went to the next man he said the same

thing and the same thing happened when

he went to the blind man the blind man

was overwhelmed by seeing how he once

was and how God blessed him and so he

said take whatever you want because you

remind me of the way I was before God

bless me that is a lesson for our Ummah

that's a lesson for all of you that have

come to the shores of this land and have

been enriched have been blessed that you

have to give back to the needy because

those are the people that Allah Subhan

Allah

has blessed allah subhan allah tala in

the hadith books he says my rich people

are the caretakers of my poor people if

they abandon them I abandon them if they

abandon them

I abandon them this community needs to

serve we need service our Prophet was

the servant of people and I'm now in

with a story to drive this point home

the second American that I know to

become Muslim was George Bethune English

he was born in 1787 he took his degree

at Harvard Divinity with excellence he

was awarded an MA which was the highest

degree given in the United States at the

time in theology he was fluent in Hebrew

Arabic and Cherokee he wrote his

dissertation on the New Testament and

lost his faith in Christianity and

actually ended up writing a refutation

of the Christian religion an examination

of the grounds of the Christian religion

which was a best-seller in the United

States of America George English Bethune

was appointed a special envoy by the

President James Madison and sent to

Egypt when he arrived to Egypt he

resigned his commission in the Marines

joined the Bosh's army converted to

Islam and with Ismael Basha went up the

Nile to subdue the there was a the funds

Sultanate which was a cenar they called

it it was an independent nubian

Sultanate that the ottomans wanted to

bring in to Egyptian control George

Bethune English wrote a narrative the

reason I discovered this I was reading

the correspondence between Jefferson and

Adams and they read this book and they

mentioned this book in their

correspondence he Jefferson asked Adams

have you read George English's

his travel dialogue up the Nile River I

was like wow and then in the footnote it

said this man converted to Islam and

ended up in Egypt so I looked him up

there he is on Google and on Google they

actually say he arrived in Egypt

converted to Islam and then in brackets

they put as a formality now how did you

know that was a formality did you call

him up on the phone because he died in

1828 and I have no I found no evidence

and I'll give you the evidence that he

was a Muslim he ends his narrative when

he was in the village of Cebu in Nubia

he had a young boy with him that was

serving him and he got so sick that when

the caravan left they left this boy

behind to die when he found this out

they got to the village of Cebu he found

this out and he said where was the boy

and they said oh he's he was left and he

said why and he said because he was too

sick to travel with us and Jorge English

was so distressed by this he said no you

have to go back and get this boy and

they said there's no point there's no

hope for him he said if this was a

Christian we would have 40 men go back

and get this boy and then he convinced

the chef of the village and he spoke

Arabic he convinced the shadder

to send somebody he traveled on to Aswan

when he got to aswan he writes and this

is how he ends his narrative and you can

read this online he ends his narrative

and this was a best-seller in the United

States of America he ends his narrative

by saying when I three days after I

arrived in Aswan I met a nubian traveler

who had found the boy he told me he

found him he had fallen into a ravine

and he was nearly dead and he helped him

he gave him food he took him on his

camel he brought him to the village

and the boy died and he buried him and I

said to this man I promised a reward for

anyone who would help that boy and I

want to give you that reward and he said

quote to my astonishment he said I don't

want your reward because I didn't do it

for you I did it for one who can give me

a much greater reward than you could

ever give me

I did it for my god and this George

English ends his narrative by saying I

said to this man I am so pleased to meet

a true Muslim who is following the

precepts of the Quran that demands

people act charitably and with

benevolence to people in distress this

is how he ends his book that I am happy

to meet a true Muslim who acts according

to the precepts of the Quran this is the

aluva kiya the people of constancy who

have become too far and too too far

between and too few in the Muslim Ummah

today and this is what we as Muslims in

the United States of America have to

become the people of Budo baqia the

people that are constant in the virtues

and the uprightness of our tradition as

well as the best of America because

that's what George English represents he

represents the best of this country and

that Nubian man that he met who we don't

know his name he said to that man in

ending his narrative he said I am

assured that this deed of yours will be

will fill a great space on the blank

page of our good deeds on the day of

judgment and that's how he ends his book

our page is too blank and it's time to

fill that page up with great deeds great

deeds will lie the mo Allah he I swear

to God and God is my witness

the power in our community for

regeneration in this country is awesome

its immense there's so much power in

this room there's so much power and our

young people look at these young people

I was just in a room filled with these

young people beautiful innocent bright

faces and we have to help them to make

this place a better place because we are

demanding of this country to to call

itself to a higher standard to a higher

standard this country has fallen by the

wayside this country has gone far too

off course and because the shift of this

country is so important to the rest of

the world if we go of course we take far

too many people with us it's time for

the Muslims in America to live the truth

of their religion and to call people in

this country to the highest ideals the

ideals of George English in that Nubian

man of acting with charity and

benevolence to those in stress we're on

a planet that is in distress we've got

over 3 billion people living in subhuman

conditions on this planet more than half

of this planet is living in subhuman

conditions those of us who are enjoying

the fruits of life on earth have to

begin to share those fruits when aisha

radi Olano had a grape and a beggar came

and asked for something she split the

grape and she gave half the grape to

that man and one of the Sahaba that were

with her said is there any benefit in

half a grape and she said how many atoms

is in that grave how many atoms is in

that grape woman yeah man with another

lesson in Hyden Yara if you do an atom's

weight of good you will see that on the

day of judgment we have a world that is

so dysfunctional that is so distraught

that is so troubled that even the

smallest acts of charity fill up big

pages on the

page of our good deeds on the day of

judgment go out where I'm overjoyed this

year when I came I thought a cloud was

lifted from the Muslim community

ohright you could also say I feel like

we got out from under a thorny bush that

we were just burdened with all of us

were wondering if we'd end up if we'd

end up in orange suits with with with

earmuffs on our things and things on our

eyes somewhere wondering where we were

what planet we were on like mr. K in the

castle who's never told the crime that

he committed but some Baraka came down

really some butter cookin down some some

husana some Hashanah you know some

husana Obama Obama he's made some

mistakes already that's okay Obama Obama

our finishes Obama two things Obama is

in the Arabic dictionary it's in Tanana

roots among the biddies extension of the

famous it's under the meta Ali's bombing

he says and I'm quoting Obama Allah was

new Shama Obama on the paradigm of Osama

because Osama is a common name so the

Arabs put something where so you know

how it's pronounced Obama which is

pronounced like Osama is Obama if you

know - he's Obama the son of a haka fan

one of the great tribal chieftains of

Arabia and then he says what can a

lockable who had an a swag and his

nickname was this black guy you know God

has there's humor in the world I'm

telling you there's more connections

than people are aware of but Obama gave

a speech in Cairo where he unclenched

the fist of America and extended a hand

of friendship

but and butts are important little

prepositions there but blood as long as

this country is dropping bombs on

civilians in Afghanistan it's going to

be hard for Muslims to open up their

hands as long as this country is causing

havoc in Iraq it's going to be hard for

Muslims to feel comfortable about

opening the hand when there was an

incident in one of the Gulf states of

torture recently and we had our

Secretary of State decry the outrageous

practice of torture that sounded very

hollow to many people around the world

coming from the United States of America

after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo after

waterboarding this country needs to be

called to a higher standard we're the

were the community that can do it with

other communities but we have to be

living at the highest standard of moral

observance because if we don't live that

moral truth we can't call others to that

moral truth much of the Muslim world is

morally bankrupt

we sound very Hollow when we're calling

America to a higher standard when we're

not living up to that standard but the

Muslims in this country we can achieve

that we have the well we have the

intelligence we have the communities

let's rise above sectarianism get beyond

the Sufi Salafi debates get beyond the

Sunnis Shia debates they're not going to

be resolved in our lifetime Allah says

just wait I'm gonna make it all clear on

the day of judgement when you get the

director's cut you get to watch the

whole thing you get the director's

commentary it's all going to be made

clear those are the special features of

the day of judgment it's all made clear

let's just wait may the best hour win

but let's all work together for virtue

virtue aesthetical higher odds vie with

each other in virtue set on my Dinkelman

for the lawyer will buttercup