what I mean people have been here a long time we lost some people they just either had to go and catch the tube or they had something on the tube they wanted to watch or something I don't know but I wanted to make a few remarks.
First of all I I want to address a few issues that I think are important and perhaps not for most of the people in the room but for other people and I would like you to convey this to the other people there are people that have been talking about the work that's being done by Floyd Nettie by a Brahman by Farina by the other groups that have been involved in this effort that this
is a government propaganda that this is
Stooges of the government of England etc
etc many things I'm sure some of you
have have heard some of these things so
I want to say a few things about that
first of all there's a verse in the
Quran that is very interesting to me and
probably to most of you and Jenna who
does said to me for Jenna ahem if people
incline towards reconciliation inclined
with them whatever canal Allah and
trusting God in know who was similar I
mean when you redo any of the oka for in
the hospital law that incline when they
want to incline towards peace you
incline towards peace and if they want
to deceive you if there's some hidden
ulterior motive God's enough for you
don't worry about that that's not your
concern
peace is so precious that anybody that
reaches out for peace you should reach
out with them for peace and another
thing I want to say about this
government who do you think this guy
is there called civil servants who do
you think pays their money where do you
think this money is from that the
government had it's from the pockets of
the British people who pay taxes there's
2 million Muslims in this country paying
tax they don't want a little refund no
seriously I mean I I'm just amazed at
this Omaha if I said I could oh I'm well
that go far beautiful and yeah is you
the wealth of the non-muslims if they
want to give it to you it's permissible
to take it
now I sat yesterday I will to write an
autism share Abdullah bin about yeah I I
didn't want to come here I'm gonna be
honest with you I was in California I
have my wife is a brilliant cook really
I I don't
there's no hotel food that compares to
her food it's not why I married her she
learned to cook after I married her but
she's a brilliant cook her food is very
good its nourishing I feel good when
when I eat her food and she cooks it
with love you can't get that in a
restaurant I can taste the anxiety in
their food I can taste the anger of the
cook when he's going through the thing I
can feel it my my cells feel it but and
I also have really good tea I come to
England to buy the tea I take it back I
have big supply my tea is much better
than the tea they give at any hotel I've
ever stayed at I learned how to make tea
from of that Adam Sanders excellent tea
maker if anybody's ever had his tea
they'll know what I mean so but why
leave the comfort of my home because my
chef asked me he said this is an
important thing so come so I came I'm
tired so I'm gonna be whenever I get
tired I get more open because my
defenses are down I'm going to tell you
some true things I used to not like the
English people
seriously I thought they were cynical
you know the English go the way they
roll their eyes there's a certain way
that you know that there's a smirk that
comes on their mouths when you say
something really very subtle things that
you notice about the English you know
there's a cynicism that's particularly
angled Saxon in its nature and and and
it's it's really interesting but I'll
tell you something I have come to love
these people and for a number of reasons
and I and I want to talk about this
because it's very important for all of
you who are living here this country is
an amazing country it has done many
wrongs and we could bring an Irish
person here tonight and they could talk
for hours about what this country has
done we could bring Welsh people they
might not be as eloquent as the Irishmen
but they could also talk for several
hours about what the English have done
to them and you could bring some of my
tribe from Scotland really you could
bring some of them down and they'll give
you with a nice brogue they'll let you
know what the English did from Edward
Longshanks on or even before that
seriously they'll tell you about the
English but each one of these people has
been challenged to learn to live with
the English really the Scots are very
civil they some of them want
independence quite a number of them but
how are they going about that
independence they're not blowing up
things really they have other ways of
doing it the Welsh de-evolution is have
been a longtime though they say that
Welsh are the Irish that couldn't swim
you know it's been a long time since the
Welsh have been occupied much longer
than Palestine but the Welsh are gentle
people
I love the Welsh also really and I love
the Irish but it's taken me a while to
really appreciate the subtleties of
these different cultures
and so I really want to say there's two
ways that you can live in your life one
way is the way of personal one it's
having a good opinion and the other way
is the way of Sullivan and years ago my
shaykh abdullah bin bayer we were in a
gathering and he doesn't tolerate vibha
it's one of the things i love about his
modulus is he doesn't tolerate me but
you can't say anything about anybody
even people that you should say things
about he won't let you say things about
them and somebody mentioned something
about jimana Dean and Ronnie who died a
long time ago last century two centuries
ago and somebody said something and she
Abdullah said a word I never forgot it
he said yeah Arsenal unban Mota Jenner
of Nassau of one
he said have a good opinion of the dead
we've tried having bad opinions we've
tested it as a way of being in the world
and our Prophet SAW lyceum had the best
of opinions whenever the chorus reached
out for him he reached out for them
morale yeah we know in the Arabic
tradition they called Shara moralia the
the hair of Moria wow he is one of the
most brilliant politicians in human
history
he's a case study you could do the
leadership secrets of Mallya and it
would be a best-seller while yeah they
asked him and he said if there was a
hair of relationship between me and
somebody else Eva's death if he pulled
on it I would release if he released I
would pull a hair of relationship just
to keep that that opening there that
potential now I met yesterday and you
should be thankful that you have people
like Maqbool Ali inside the Foreign
Office because I have a good opinion of
that young man he's a bright young man
and he has good intentions and he's
there he's representing your community
you live here you pay taxes this is your
government you this is not Rawalpindi
this is not Karachi this is not Cairo
this is not some funny place off in the
middle of the Muslim world where if you
say anything against the government
suddenly you're in Chains being dragged
away no this is a country that you are
citizens Larry will be Javed but it
wasn't a kingdom if you had a better I
swear by this land and you are a lawful
citizen of this land you are citizens
this is not subjection you're not
subjects except in in a very you know
the British are citizens and subjects
but this is it's something superficial
the Queen can't just arbitrarily send
you off to the prison and we should be
wary of some of these laws being passed
because they're against the essential
nature of this country and we have to
remind the English you're the people of
the Magna Carta you're the people of
habeas corpus this is your tradition you
gave this to the Western world you're
the people of John Locke you're the
people that brought these things and you
are the people of John Wesley who this
Hall is named after this glorious Hall
was named after John Wesley one of the
greatest reformers in Western
civilization who worked with William
Wilberforce and we're in the year of
William Wilberforce and I want to tell
you about William Wilberforce
this is a man who from the early 20s was
with a group in platform and I hope I
pronounced that right he was in a group
and there was an event in which a
hundred and thirty-two black Africans
were discarded thrown overboard on a
ship called the song it was a slave ship
coming from West Africa to the Americas
it was an English ship a hundred and
thirty two black people were thrown into
the ocean and drowned and this was
considered legal by the laws of the land
and these this group of young people who
still had that spark of hope recognized
how despicable this act was how
unacceptable
this act was and they started a small
group of abolitionists to end the slave
trade at a time when almost every single
member of parliament was was supported
by the slave Lobby things haven't
changed all that much but Wilberforce
did not give up he worked the day and
night he was an incredible connector he
connected with people all over the
country he got people to sign things he
brought these in as a member of
parliament he worked with beautiful
people like Hannah Moore and several
years ago I suggested to the Muslim
women in this country to start the
Hannah more benevolent society because
you should know Hannah more you should
know who Hannah Moore is she's a
beautiful English woman she was
stunningly beautiful in her looks when
she came to London she took everybody by
storm she was a playwright she was a
literary figure she was a poetess she
was all of these things but in the end
she had a spiritual conversion and she
became one of the staunchest
anti-slavery spokespeople in this
country she started night schooling this
is one of her great contributions this
is England to me England is not the
tyranny of Ireland that's the worst of
human nature that you find in every
civilization that's not England to me
England to me is these incredible ideals
embodied by people like Florence
Nightingale
I love Florence Nightingale I studied I
read all of her all these different
works she'd written I told my wife
you're the only woman I know who's
jealous of a woman that died over a
hundred years ago I fell in love with
Florence Nightingale Florence
Nightingale said England needs to go to
the sufis this is she wrote this in her
book she said England needs to go to the
sufis and Florence Nightingale entered
the soap on Hassan mosque where our
Grand Mufti gives the hot bath and she
said for the first time she's fishy
found what she was looking for she said
I never found this in the Church of the
baby
she said I found equality and I said Oh
what that there was a place for women in
this religion you know they chased her
out with a stick and she said I don't
blame them she went to a louse hog
she was struck by the spirituality and
she says in her diary she said I've
heard in my heart something telling me
turn to Mecca face Mecca face Mecca all
of humanity is one we are all under one
God and there is salvation for all of us
I kept hearing in my heart there is no
god but God believe in the one true God
she was a Unitarian she was not a
Trinitarian this is Florence Nightingale
one of the great icons of the British
people and she saw the beauty of Islam
this is a woman who was given a colada
this extraordinary medal by the sofa and
I've got a Majeed of the Ottoman Empire
because she came and served the Turkish
soldiers that were victims of the
Crimean War as well as she served the
British soldiers because she didn't
different
she didn't differentiate between people
this is England to me this is the
England I want to see this is the
England I want to remind these people of
who they are they forgotten who they are
these are the people of the great
reforms of Western civilization and we
of all people should be reminding them
we share these things with you you've
forgotten who you are like we've
forgotten who we are this is the age of
senility we're all in spiritual dementia
really were in spiritual dementia this
is this is the old age the dotage of of
humanity and we need reminders we've got
collective Alzheimer's disease and some
of us has some timers disease we forget
and then we remember this is England to
me and and it flows in my blood
I have ancestors from this land this is
my home yeah call me this is what every
prophet said to his people all my people
weren't they weren't following his way
they were fighting him they were
opposing him yeah call me in the aerosol
by alaykoum yeah call me might be a
surfer huh
no I'm not stupid he didn't say been
entombed sofa ha I'm cuckoo far I'm too
mafia and to Mihama a doctor oniy he
didn't say this might be a thief aha no
you're wrong I want good for you in
order to Allah is raha mr. fats you know
I just want to help as much as I'm able
to this this is this is our teaching to
go out and to engage these people and I
want to end because it's been a long
night and you have somebody's I was on
an airplane and this man came up to me
he said he said brother
you know I loved your work and I was
like mashallah thank you so much he said
no no really it's just so I mean it was
it's just so amazing what you did it was
incredible and this but let me ask you
one question I said sure so why did you
give up singing
so after I sang in a few bars of peace
train one of my favorite song I told him
I lost my voice now I said I said that's
use of Islam use we have the same
there's three uses tonight it's use of
Moe cab you know use of to the third
power so but I want to end with a story
about one of my favorite people and this
is who can tell me not from the ulama
but who can tell me who say now Omar's
favorite poet was people say say no more
like poetry didn't he just listen to the
Quran the favorite poet of Umar ibn
al-khattab was zuhayr IBN abas ummah
Zuhair even a Bissell man who is Zuhair
even a besom he's the father of cab even
Zuhair the man who wrote the border he's
the father of also his younger brother
Cobbs younger brother who became Muslim
before zu head before cam so hair did
not meet the Prophet he died one year
before but I want to tell you a little
bit about why Zuhair wrote is Malacca
and then I'm done and I want to use this
as a metaphor for what we need to do
there is a war the Arabs called
something I am and out of a youngin out
of our the days of the Arabs that's why
a lot changed I am it out of - I am ela
well they killed whom bi yeah Mila
because the Arabs had their days Allah
has his days the days of the Arabs were
momentous things that happened to them
they say a shepherd would be wanted out
of them they used to write their history
in their poetry there was a war called
Haru budahas how about that has you know
who dad has is it's amazing we know his
name yeah this was a horse it's called
the war of - the horse and and that his
was owned by a man who was so hair even
apace and I'm see he owned a horse
called Deus he had a friend who was from
the DPN tribe who they thought bin Malik
he had a horse called a bra
now who they felt was very jealous of
datas the horse of kudzu hair so he
asked him to race so he asked him to
race so the two horses they decided they
raised a hundred arrow shots they shoot
one time two time for a hundred times
and then they race well the horses
started out and Habra was winning but
once it got into the heavy sand
Dacus took the lead well there was a
group of the beyond the beyond Knights
who were hiding in ambush and they
ambushed - and stopped him from winning