Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala sayyidina muhammad wa ala sayidina
Ramadan Mubarak. when I was watching some of the footage there for some people when they watch these things especially people in the United States there's some of the young people here, they're very alien distant images but Imam Majid, myself Imams Zaid, people that have actually lived in these areas these are not foreign pictures their memories actually like
I was actually remembering places I'd lived in place it places I'd been Mali is particularly interesting for me because and I was telling...I don't really like to...
I had a very interesting youth after I became Muslim because one of the interesting things about converting to a religion with a lot of fervor is it it's it's almost like a temporary insanity that you go through because you are just so filled with this incredible in shock this expansion that occurs. When I was in high school I was I was kind of a daredevil I used to do things that I think now I would consider completely insane but when I became Muslim one of the benefits of having a personality like that is that I would do things that I think more rational people would be hesitant to do and one of them was going to West Africa, With really little or no means and pretty much joining a bedouin tribe out there and drinking water that they drank without ever thinking about any bacteria. I used to just say
Bismillahi La Ya Duru Ma Ismi Hi Shayoon Feel Earth, Wa La Fis Samaee Wa ho Was Samil Aleem .
And I was convinced that that was enough, which is why you need that hadith, you know "Tie Your Camel, and Trust in God."
So taking pills preventive pills is sometimes very useful thing to do but I didn't think like that at that time so when I was in Mali I got amoebic dysentery and I was with a man who lives in San Francisco he was an eyewitness to this named Hassan Barrett. Had it not been for him really, I was very fortunate that he was with me because I was in a place there weren't any hospitals. There's no 911 you can't call an ambulance shows up and takes you and I was literally defecating blood. Going into what I would now understand as a dehydrated state. I couldn't even get up, I mean he had to clean me, He took care of me during that time that I was sick. But I was very fortunate in that some French tourists happen to come in to town and he was telling them about what was going on with his travelling companion and they gave him Flagyl which is an antibiotic and it's specific to amoebic dysentery and literally, I believe it saved my life at the time, By Allah but it was it was serendipitous it was very fortunate that they were there, just some pills. it's a very strange thing when you're sick and the truly some pills can you can be given pills and suddenly you're starting to feel better after a little time and you regain your health so these things when you watch these things they're very real.
There was a man who a book called Guns Germs and something rather steel Guns Germs and Steel I think Jared Diamond's his name anyway he they did a documentary on that and he's a scientist that study disease and when he was in Africa he was in at one in West Africa sub-saharan Africa and he was in a malaria clinic and if anybody saw that documentary it's the most powerful moment I think in that entire documentary where he literally breaks down it starts crying I mean here's a PhD American scientist wrote a very callous book about the influence of Guns Germs and Steel on civilizations and and their rises and falls and there he was
confronted with the reality of a disease
right in front of him and seeing little
children that were dying from this
disease and he broke down he it had a
serious impact on him but I want also to
remind you of a few things as somebody
who lived in this area knew my magic and
say the same thing you can talk about
all the tragedies in in in West Africa
and in and you could talk about poverty
like they said well that Mali was one of
the poorest countries in the world I
spent enough time in Mali to know that
Mali and Maya summation is one of the
richest countries in the world the
Malian people are an amazing people they
have beautiful social networks they have
a religious community they have their
wonderful generous people
the Bambaataa people the quality people
you go and sit with these people and
they don't need Prozac we've got dogs on
Prozac in America and you know things
are bad when the dog is depressed about
the house he's living in now seriously
we have dogs on Prozac there's bright
some veterinarians here that have
depressed dogs we have cats
America are depressed so when you talk
about impoverished countries and wealthy
countries that depends on what standard
you're using to determine what is
poverty and what is wealth if you're
talking about material wealth Molly's
definitely one of the poorest countries
outwardly but it's also one of the
richest countries in the world in terms
of Natural Resources uranium deposits in
Nigeria and Mali a lot of this stuff we
don't even know what's going on there
because nefarious things happen behind
the scenes much of the problem in these
countries doesn't have to do with
poverty it doesn't have to do with
inability or lack of human resources or
all of the other things that are used in
criteria it gets reduced to one simple
major problem corruption morality basic
human ethics and this is a crises that
there's only two things that address
this crisis there's only two things one
is Fatah fitrah people that have an
access to their original nature and this
is why you'll meet people who are not
necessarily religious but they're
morally upright people because they're
connected to their Fatah but the other
thing that addresses this problem is
religion itself the beauty of Islam is
the religion of Lothrop that it
addresses human nature it recognizes our
weaknesses and addresses how to deal
with those weaknesses in the book of
allah subhana wa ta'ala and in the
sunnah of the prophet solomon anywhere
and we'll send them if you look now one
of the most interesting things that's
happening right now in our lifetime is
this sister
of grieve is collapsing people are
seeing where greed takes people where
the breakdown of community takes people
I want to use one example and after this
man I don't believe anybody can ever
take applause or award seriously and I I
love one of the aspects of Islam is that
it's a religion that warns you about
applause and Awards I love that aspect
of Islam Bernie Madoff Bernie Madoff in
in the hood they call him Bernie Madoff
that's what preacher Mazdas told me
Bernie Madoff Bernie Madoff between 1950
and 1970 to the United States spent 1.4
billion dollars on the eradication of
malaria 1.4 billion dollars that's about
two weeks of bernie madoffs bookkeeping
Bernie Madoff was stealing all of this
money from mostly Jewish investors that
trusted him got a trustworthy named head
of yeshivas Business School a Jewish
University a wall filled with plaques
attesting to his humanitarian impulses
because of the million dollars he gave
in donations but he was robbing these
people blind that's what he was doing he
was robbing these people blind when you
look Bernie Madoff is indicative of a
certain state of mind on Wall Street
make money at any cost not a cost to you
at a cost to others many of the people
that have looted the United States
government we're coming out of Ivy
League colleges with degrees attesting
to their intellectual abilities
degrees in business and they always had
a course in Yale or Harvard on business
ethics but all of that learning did not
benefit those people in their human
behavior this is the fundamental problem
then unless this is addressed nothing
else will change our work what motivates
you what makes you tick this is what our
prophet sala like I said I'm called Nia
what is your intention
what is your Nia what do you want when
you're doing something what's your
intention for fasting
what's your intention for giving money
once you begin to address the essence of
your own being you can begin to
understand who you are and that's why
self-knowledge is foundational in our
religion if you don't know who you are
you're certainly not going to know who's
you are so we all have to ask ourselves
we're living in a on a planet where the
two largest enterprises are armaments
and drugs these are the largest economic
enterprises taking the most vital
intellects the most amount of human
labor and activity is being funneled in
to war and drugs mostly illegal drugs to
numb people and op8 them from the pain
of living on a planet whose two major
priorities are building weapons and
selling them and making drugs and
pushing them that's what's going on so
if you want to ask who's happy and who's
sad I'll take a Malian happiness really
I'll take a Malian happiness anything
/ the scientists that are working out
better ways to kill people that live in
beautiful houses with their 401k plans
or what's left of them and I'm not I'm
not just saying this I'm telling you I
live this I lived with people who smile
it's just a natural thing for them to
smile because they're happy people they
just smile we're living in a country
where despite the fact that it has the
best dental health care in the world
people know aren't too generous with
their teeth when I try to talk to people
at stores because in the schaffen II
meant to have you're supposed to have a
human transaction and when you isn't a
transaction shouldn't just be commercial
you should have a human transaction when
I try to talk to people some people they
don't want to talk to you they just want
to move it along reduce everything to a
commercial transaction life is more than
just commercial transactions life is
about community it's about humanity it's
about sharing if you look at a child
those of you who have children I've only
got one who's very small now five but
I've had five children I've seen them
through these stages these children will
come in you've got to see this come here
quick and I'll jump up get excited run
out what what and it's some bug that
they'd never seen before look at that
now why does he have to share it with me
why can't he just enjoy the bug because
life is about sharing experiences are
enriched by sharing them with others and
that's what the fifth row knows that's
what a child knows and that's what too
many people have forgotten as they've
gotten older in an increasingly cynic
world and our religion is against
cynicism because one of our foundational
beliefs is that behind this universe is
a benevolent Lord we believe in a
benevolent Laurel you want to know about
a mosquito if this world had any
significant and I'm talking not about
the island because a lot of Muslims
don't differentiate between the world as
the theater of divine attributes where
God reveals himself to his creation I'm
not talking about the atom I'm talking
about dunya Hayatou dunya I'm talking
about the illusory and ephemeral nature
of the world the belief that were here
for permanent status the Quran condemns
the dunya but tells us to look at the
world to honor the world to care for the
world to protect the world but warns us
against dunya not the atom the prophets
allah allah allah allah wa sallam said
lo canada dunya terra delue in the law
he Jenna have Biola if this world had
the weight of a mosquitos wing with God
moussaka caviar on Shabbat imagine an
atheist would not get a drink of water
and atheist would not get a drink of
water if this world was equivalent to
the wing of a mosquito so when we talk
about who's suffering and who's not
suffering the prophet sallallaahu said
I'm said that fever was from a place in
Hell fever the prophets Elijah have said
removes wrong actions from the body and
I've been in very intense fever when I
lived in Mauritania remanent fever
this is just normal life getting a fever
every four days getting a fever every
three days every two days this is normal
life for many many people all of those
people that I lived with and I got
fevers I got chills night chills and I
know that mosquitoes do discriminate
somebody said they don't discourage I
know for a fact that they prefer white
meat over dark meat because I used to
wake up with red they were all over my
arm and the kids used to marvel cuz they
didn't show up red on their arms I look
like I had smallpox fever is a part of
life in this hadith and EEMA Majid
mentioned earlier about this in this
hadith method and me Nina
veto ID him what sorrow me him what a
low fee him commit analgesic the
likeness of the believers in their
mutual love of each other in their
mutual desire for mercy of showing mercy
for each other and in their mutual
empathy to alphaf is empathy
to be empathic to feel the pain of
another he said it is like the body it
is like the body the OMA is like a body
and then he said soul alight he sort of
either Stucker a lung tada anda ho it's
his language is so beautiful if one part
of the body begins to complain the rest
of the body calls each other
tada Allah who calls each other today I
know who calls each other
beside he with him with
insomnia and with fever the profits
Eliza was pointing to symptoms but
indicating what's really going on today
Ella who they respond with their immune
system the Sahara and the fever are only
active their that their symptoms of a
body responding to some harm this is
what our OMA is like and mantra no
liniment many Cala Bunyan the believer
to other believers is like a building
you shoot throughout the whole Baba in
another metaphor he said we're like a
building we support one another we have
problems all over this world these
problems aren't going to go away
overnight but we're here for a short
time to address these problems but
unless we address the fundamental
problems and I'm talking about the human
element in all of these things because
if you look at malaria today malaria was
a major problem here in Washington area
this was a major center of malaria in
the nineteenth century
Baltimore Philadelphia New York all had
major malarial problems half of Illinois
was infected with malaria fever in the
1860s according to their their own
studies at that time half of rural
Illinois was infected with malaria
malaria was widespread in the United
States Benjamin Rush one of the signers
of the Constitution of the Declaration
of Independence was a physician in
Massachusetts he was one of the most
staunch anti-slavery founders of this
country and wrote beautiful things he
actually went to one of the African
American churches in Boston supported
them in their efforts he felt that
ignoring the problem of racism was one
of the biggest mistakes that the
founders had done
Benjamin Rush said just as clearing a
land destroys it like when you go in and
cut everything down you destroy land
cultivating land and I mean by that and
he said draining it swamps burning its
brush removing its weeds taking away the
unwholesome effects of too much moisture
in the land makes it healthy renders the
land healthy
he said malaria will not be eradicated
until we cultivate the land land
cultivation this is why malaria no
longer exists in places like Italy where
the bona fication efforts in the 1920s
during the fascist government got rid of
malaria Sardinia a major center of
malaria England people don't realize
that England was once a major center of
malaria how was it treated raising the
standards of living cultivating the land
changing the landscape changing the
ecology so that the malaria bug could no
longer flourish in that type of
environment bringing in livestock
because certain malaria bugs will thrive
on livestock and they will actually
begin to outnumber the ones that thrive
on human blood these were the ways that
malaria disappeared from large segments
of the earth but in in the 20th century
especially after World War two DDT was
discovered by a Swiss pharmaceutical
company and hundreds of millions of
dollars went in to funding the idea of
eradicating the malaria bug with
chemicals
unfortunately they found out later what
DDT was doing to the environment this is
always the problem of looking at the
world without holistic eyes looking at
the world without understanding the deep
intricacies of the world that the world
is bound up with each other you can't
separate this from that you have to
address problems ecologically the
says exactly and I'll use a political
metaphor here this is exactly the the
plan of the bush government in
eradicating terrorism just like they
want to eradicate malaria just send
bombs drop bombs on people eradicate
these evildoers and suddenly it's just
all going to go away well life doesn't
work like that life doesn't work like
that you have to address the causes of
malaria malaria is directly related to
poverty
malaria is directly if you look now on
the map of countries that are suffering
from malaria these have some of the
highest rates of conflict in the world
they're like maps for places where
there's large conflicts why because war
and malaria go together we have a
history of war and malaria and that's
why when you sell these countries
weapons when you sell these countries
weapons you are depriving them of health
care programs you're depriving them of
sanitary water you're depriving them of
education that will elevate their
populations that's what you're depriving
them up and you're giving them malaria
you're giving them yellow fever you're
giving them hiv/aids that's what you're
doing there's a direct correlation to
Commerce and what's happening in the
worst parts of the country and in the
best parts of the country there is a
direct correlation you cannot separate
economics from morality Adam Smith who's
called the father of capitalism and if
he was alive today he would spit on the
men that are calling him the father of
capitalism because the capitalism that
Adam Smith believed in and the
capitalism that exists today has nothing
to do with each other out of Smith
before he wrote The Wealth of Nations
wrote a book on Moral Sentiments saying
that the basis of Commerce was morality
that every transaction is a moral
transaction because it gives each of the
people in the transaction a chance to
honor the other and not cheat them and
this leads to a win-win situation which
is necessary
for civil society that is a different
type of capitalism than the type of
capitalism we see when it's a
dog-eat-dog world the high price of low
cost when Walmart comes in and destroys
whole communities we have to see the
relationship our religion is an economic
religion it is the last religion that is
addressing the economic problems of
humanity the Jews have abandoned their
economic injunctions the Christians have
abandoned their economic injunctions
it's in the Old Testament they know
usury is prohibited ly in the Old
Testament but nobody talks about it more
of Imam Malik two-thirds of that book
deal with economic matters Medina was a
place of transactions until we begin to
address these problems and the
fundamental core issues of these
problems we need societies that are
committed to law and order but you can't
have societies that are committed to law
and order when there are people above
the law if you have people above the law
that people below the law see no reason
to obey the law if they can get away
with it when George W Bush got away with
murder and he did get away with murder
and I encourage all of you to read
Vincent Bugliosi book on the prosecution
of george w bush for murder Vincent
Bugliosi argues in that book that George
W Bush is guilty of murder in the first
degree because in our legal system you
have a principle called felony murder
felony murder is a type of murder that
that occurs during the committee the
commitment of a felony crime if you fire
a gun in the air during a robbery and it
ricochets and kills somebody in that
room you are guilty of first-degree
murder in our legal system lying to the
American people to send them to war is a
felony lying to the American people to
send them war is a felony it's a felony
Vincent Bugliosi who was the District
Attorney of Los Angeles
said we cannot have a legal system a
system of law and order when there are
people above the law this is hakama
Julia
is what the Prophet came to eradicate
not malaria he came to eradicate
injustice and when you eradicate
injustice you eradicate things like
malaria because they're inextricably
bound that's what we should be working
to do we should be working towards more
just societies more just distribution of
wealth this is what we have to be doing
as a community the Muslims have lost
their moral compass we have the most
corrupt countries in the world we have
no moral capital to speak from as a
Ummah but we still have individuals the
Oulu bhatia people that abide by the
truth of the Quran and there are many
people like that in this country there
are many good Muslims in this country
these are the people that need to rise
up and OMA in this country to become a
role model to come in come on ma let
there be amongst you I grew minute
separate most of the elements say this
is a positive proposition that this
means some of you there should be
amongst you those young Moroni been
mauve they called to good wayan hona and
in Mongkok and they forbid evil these
are the people that we want to be from
that's what I see in this country a
thriving Muslim community that is
dealing with root problems not with
mosquito nets and that's good and I'm
not in any way detracting from that
because I used a mosquito net when I was
in West Africa that's fine but that's
still looking at the symptomatic
problems until the root problems are
addressed and that's why we need malaria
lodges we need scientists we need social
commentators we need people that are
going to write papers on how to do with
these issues we need our community to
rise to the challenge not to be obsessed
with the pursuit of wealth which is a
false pursuit all of these people who've
had the equity of their homes wiped out
all of that pursuit it's gone all of the
wealth there are hundreds of thousands
that they thought they had in their in
their homes they'd spent their whole
lives paying off their mortgages and
they got wiped out in a yuzuriha system
that they don't even understand they
don't even understand fractional reserve
banking or how printing up false money I
I was at a store yet
two days ago and I gave him a
hundred-dollar bill and he was looking
like that I said man you're never gonna
spot the counterfeit on that because the
one that counterfeited that is so good
at it it looks exactly like a real
dollar he said he looked at me like I
was crazy I said the US Treasury
counterfeited that man that's right that
is well that doesn't exist it's not
backed by anything it's not backed by
gold it's not backed by silver it's not
even backed by debt anymore they're just
printing it up churning it out trillions
of dollars bailing out all of these fat
cats
I mean Jesse James and Frank James had
nothing on the bank robbers today they
used to go in with their faces covered
these guys are on the board of the banks
seriously they don't need to cover their
faces they're on the boards of the banks
they've got the congressman facilitating
the robbery like John Dillinger who used
to go in and pretend they were having a
movie and and the people would watch him
rob the bank thinking they were part of
a movie scene that's what we've got
today Americans watching their
children's wealth and their children's
children's wealth being robbed from them
blind and they think that this is part
of the recovery package people have no
idea what's going on there and Muslims
should find out if they don't know and
begin to educate our own community how
can we address real problems not
artificial real problems the real
problems of this world and I'll finish
Ghandi said there was seven things that
were going to destroy us wealth without
work people that want to invest in a
hedge fund do nothing but put their
money there no risk if it fails they get
bailed out by taxpayer
this has to end and the only way it can
end is by a populace that's vigilant a
citizenry that actually reads and knows
what's going on and that's why
entertainment and dumbing people down
and keeping them from thinking about
these things as long as that continues
on as long as people are more concerned
about what's going on on the reality
television show they're obsessed with or
who won this that or the other game as
long as they're entertained by those
things and the Wolves out there are
going to keep eating the Sheep
wealth without work pleasure without
conscience we live in a society where
sexuality now has become a technique you
buy a book to learn how to become a good
lover there's websites now that that for
cheaters.com
where married couples can find other
married couples that want to commit
adultery what's happened to our society
people you can't sit around and just
think these things are normal these are
terrible signs pleasure without
conscience without thinking of the
repercussions of what happens when you
pursue pleasure without any moral
compunction knowledge without character
going to Yale Harvard getting these
degrees and then robbing people blind
and laughing about it and Ron the
smartest men in the room that's what
happened in Enron they were laughing
about the money they were robbing from
old people there's transcripts of their
phone calls laughing about grandmas that
were losing their shirts paying for the
high cost of energy in California
because they were being completely
robbed blind by immoral people commerce
without morality is an extension of
business with a of character knowledge
without character Commerce without
morality the foundation of Islam is is
character innama bu'ithtu leo tell me
mom Academy a flop I was only sent to
perfect character that's the foundation
of our religion inculcating character
that comes from examples that
from living in communities where
character is practiced on a daily basis
generosity courage modesty chastity love
of knowledge science without humanity
we've got studies here on dogs seriously
on dogs and cats and I'm all for taking
care of dogs and cats when when the
Muslims had thriving civilizations they
had off for dogs and cats we know that
they had al-kahf even even in infest
they had a look for stray dogs to feed
them but when you're taking care of dogs
and cats and you've got baby human
babies dying something is seriously
wrong with your priorities because in a
hospital you have what's called triaging
every emergency doctor knows and nurse
knows about triaging if a patient comes
in and their limbs often they're
bleeding out you don't sit next to that
patient talking to the guy with the
headache and asking them is it sharp or
is it cutting what type of headache do
you have you take care of the man who's
hemorrhaging to death triaging
priorities science we've got all of our
talented scientists developing weapons
of mass destruction for enemies that are
created out of thin air enemies that are
more like characters out of a James Bond
film living in caves somewhere boogie
men that are conjured up to scare people
are you scared yet that was a headline
on Time magazine we need our scientists
to actually be in the pursuit of
excellence not for profit not for the
Nobel Peace Prize visa bv lab FISA
beating that it's a completely different
set religion without sacrifice Imams day
was talking about can you have submit
motive is salamy katha enter into Islam
totally and completely don't be
half-hearted half-baked you can't have
half
mission it's called me that's what
half submissions called in our religion
is called NEFA laya full moon a la ku
Sala
they just get up they're lazy they do it
half-heartedly
and finally politics without principal
politics without principal Barack
Obama's from from ancestry his father
was from Kenya malaria is a major
problem in Kenya it's a personal problem
for him but when you're in a political
machine that eats it principal when you
can't speak the truth because you're so
afraid of what the spin doctors are
gonna do Fox News will turn everything
upside down and so on ABC and CBS CBC
and NBC and all of the other ones they
just have different degrees of it but
I'll give you an example of politics
without principal when you don't deal
with tort reform in malpractice cases
that's politics without principal
because the tort lawyers in this country
are so powerful they don't want caps on
malpractice suits which raises up the
cost of everything it forces doctors to
do unnecessary procedures which elevates
the cost of health care but they don't
want to talk about that because it's
politics without principle instead of
looking at the principle and we have
caps in Islam the Prophet put caps on a
human life no life can be judged by
wealth and that's the point the higher
you go doesn't make it any less or more
but the cap is a cap because people
can't afford if you if you make things
so exorbitant everything goes up with it
we have caps every a finger has a
certain amount a tooth has a certain
amount a ear has a certain amount
it's already done Allah did it the
Shetty I did it
we don't need tort reform in Islam but
they needed in this country politics
without principle Socrates said in the
apology to the people of Athens if you
stop worrying about the interests of the
state and start worrying about the
interests of your souls the state will
take care of itself said I'm a newcomer
I'm to live
you