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 W