Myna Wnr 2011 Lecture At Inspiration Point

Beautiful view I know the suns in your eyes, but

shade or maybe

try to bear with it.

There's gonna be a sunset. Very nice, we'll move on down. So we're looking for a reason.

But first, let me see, we have to listen to our lecture by

just a little background information. He was born and raised in Dallas, Texas.

He and now he's, he's running Institute. And he's also he helps with teaching.

So please give it up.

Well, I think he will be here to marry.

Before we get started, I was thinking, that would be really, really typical of us, right, we're up here at such a beautiful spot, and somebody would still complain like, the sun is in my eyes, right? So that's part of nature people. You

know, it's really nice. We were here last year. And we were able to pick up here and have a talk up here. And it was, it was really nice. I remember to kind of separate the action just a few days ago.

Really nice, see the progress here as well.

I seem to

be really uncomfortable.

To walk around.

Every single time I would cross by I would read the Shahada again,

it's good to see everybody here.

Mina is I know, this is I'm only here for a shorter amount of time than I was last year. So I want to go ahead and get the opportunity to say this properly. But these camps are these gatherings are unbelievable, they're absolutely amazing, you know, hunger, LA, Los Angeles, you know, blessed me with the opportunity to regularly be in places and settings and gatherings or conferences and seminars, classes, courses, intensives, you know, year long programs, where I get to be in a good environment and get to benefit from the just the mind boost that a person receives in such an environment, and the spiritual nourishment that a person is able to achieve through these types of

gatherings in this environment. And I have to say, by and far over the last couple of years, all the different settings and different opportunities I've had to be in such a spiritually nourishing environment. minicamps are definitely at the top of the list. It's a really, really amazing experience. I, you know, for the very first time, I always tell people, I grew up a very long, long time ago. So I'm a pretty old guy.

And then to around this area, especially that long ago, we didn't have camps and things like this. So I never really had experienced enough for myself. And then I was off studying for a long time. And I came back and was busy with my family and the other obligations. It was probably about two years ago that I got to three years ago, three, four years ago that I got to experience a minicam firsthand. And I was absolutely blown away by what an amazing opportunity. It wasn't what an amazing environment it was. That just didn't half a day I felt like it just helped me really gain gained some perspective about myself about life, about Newmont, about Islam, about everything in life. And

so it's a really a huge blessing to be here again. And I only say this to you guys so that you guys value the opportunity to have you take this opportunity very serious, because it is an amazing opportunity. And so take it from me, from an outsider's perspective, when I come get you guys probably are happy that I'm here. But I'm actually happy to be here myself. And so it's a really huge blessing. And I was able to bring my family's assignment as I've been telling everybody at home, I told my wife I told my family members or food friends that I can't wait till my kids are old enough to actually attend minicabs. And we can actually come here and benefit from the environment.

It gives you the opportunity to take ownership of your deep.

Alright. When you're not here, listen to a lecture. You're not here praying. You're not here doing anything that you're doing because the whole family's going and mom said I have to go to you ever had that happen. family night at the machine. The potluck dinner at the machine? Absolutely no inclination

To go, you have no motivation to be there. But the whole family's going into your mom says you have to go.

You have to go No, you can't stay. No, you can't go to your friend's house. No, you can't hang out, you have to go. But this is you. This is all you guys, this is on your own. And your camp organizers and your counselors are people that are basically within the same, the same realm as you. They're similar to you. They're former campers themselves. And so it's a really huge blessing.

Now, my topic was, what is an artist without the brush or something like that?

They had somebody very creative working with program. Last year, I came in to like talk about prayer. And this year, it was like, it was like my session description was like a poem.

Like with an English major and how to decrypt it. But uh, so

come down to my session.

She has a habit of interrupting me whenever I speak. She sabotages everything that I do if she's there physically, herself.

She's cool.

But it's I thought it was very poignant. I thought it was very poetic. I thought it was very beautiful. Because at the end of the day, an artist can be extremely talented. Could have all the potential in the world. You know, I'll use an example that I'm not I'm not an artsy, fartsy person. I don't. I never was that great at drawing or painting or anything like that. So I really can't relate to that example. But I'll talk about sports. I apologize. The sports aren't your thing. But Yo, Michael Jordan has an amazing

I just saw somebody taking a picture of him yesterday at the Bobcats game, so he's kind of stuck in my head. But

you know, Michael Jordan, as amazing as he was, needed a basketball to show you how to do otherwise. He was just a tall dude.

Yeah, I mean, if Michael Jordan without a basketball was just a tall guy who was dressed really nice. That's what he was. You know?

You don't take anything for example, last night. I was watching the highlights last night that Drew Brees the New Orleans Saints quarterback. He broke Dan Marino single season record we throw for the most yards any quarterbacks ever thrown in a regular season? Well, Drew Brees is awesome. But Drew Brees needs to football, and somebody on the other side of the field to show you how awesome he is. You know, and same thing for an artist.

My brother in law is an unbelievable artist. I mean, he could probably draw this whole scene right now what you're looking at in five minutes, you could draw this whole thing into, he's an amazing artist. But you would need a pen, a pencil and a paper a piece of paper to be able to show you how talented he is to actually put his talent and his ability to use to realize his or her potential. Everybody needs that tool that resource. Similarly, understand that as Muslims, and as young Muslims as youth,

you have an unbelievable amount of talent. All right, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in a hadith he says, and that's how I think about it is

that people are like gold and silver mines.

People are like gold and silver mines. Think about that a little bit. That might not make sense to you. You know, the what the processor is saying is that a person is like a diamond store.

The profit. So someone is saying that each and every single person is like a diamond store is as valuable as a diamond store has the potential that a diamond store as a store full of diamonds. All right. That's how much potential each and every single person that they're capable of so much they can do so much they can accomplish so much.

But we got to bring that potential out. You know, I know this will be a little bit I talked about sports. Now. Talk about jewelry. All right, this will be pointed out to sisters a little more, you'll relate to this, you know, gold, silver diamonds, whatever it may be. All right, whatever somebody's taste might be.

That's something that's very valuable. It's something that of course people love and people love to receive as gifts and people, you know, they they they they try to go out and get these types of things. But you know, when gold comes out of the ground, what does it look like? Does it look really nice and pretty?

It looks like a piece of it's like a rock.

Alright, when gold comes out of the ground, it looks like a rock. And somebody came in handed you that gold in its raw form like looks like a rock. Somebody gave it to you as a gift. Here you go. Happy birthday. What would you do

take

Throw it back at them.

You.

You don't know what to do with it. But that same God, that same rock that you throw back at that person, that same rock eventually becomes that watch that necklace, those earrings, that ring that is extremely valuable, that you would pay hundreds of dollars for maybe even 1000s of dollars, you would pay for that same rock. But after it's been melted down, it's been cleaned, it's been purified. It's been shaped and crafted and molded and polished and shined and put in a nice box.

And then when you look at it, then you're ready to drop 800 bucks for it.

So that's the difference. It was prepared, it was refined. So each and every single one of you. Being a human being gives you potential, being young, gives you even more potential. And that being a believer being a Muslim.

I mean, I know those are cliches, but the sky's the limit.

The sky really is the limit. So everybody has so much potential. But

just like a painter, just like an artist is like a basketball player or football player, or a racecar driver, who is extremely talented at something. But a racecar driver without a race car. He's just a dude.

Even there's nothing special about him.

But once you get behind the wheel, then he can show you what he can do. So we all have so much potential. But we need some tools, some resources that allow us to realize, to show our potential so that our potential our talents can manifest themselves, we can show what we're made of we can actually show what we're capable of.

Now, that's that's I feel that's a topic in and of itself. And we could talk on this for some more, I actually really enjoyed talking on this topic and motivating people to go out there and to realize their potential. But we have a very specific focus of the session here.

And the focus of the session

is specifically in terms of us as Muslims, and as representatives of our faith and our way of life. And our Deen in our religion, Islam.

That

what are the tools that we need, just like that, that artist needs a pencil or needs this brush, the painter needs to brush the artists needs the pencil, there's racecar drivers needs a race car, as Muslims, as representatives of our faith and our religion, our way of life been a lot more homeschool.

as representatives of all these things, what do we need? What's our pencil? What's our brush? What do we need? What do we require at the most basic look at the most basic level? And I guess before I even get there, one thing that should be cleared up, and I'm pretty sure you guys are clear on this. You know, from what I've been told, this is the National retreat. Right? This is a leadership retreat. So you guys probably have a pretty good idea about this. But nevertheless, it's always a reminder always benefits the believer, as a last concept tells us.

So we are representatives of Islam. That's not something that's optional. You know, sometimes when you sign up for something, and they tell you some things are not optional. When you rent, when you rent

an apartment or a house or a car or something, they take out a certain deposit, they put a certain amount of hold on your credit. And that's not an option.

That's not an option. Then after you do that, then they ask you Would you like some insurance? Would you like to take some extra insurance on the car that you can turn down? Some things are optional, some things are not. Alright, you ever tried to sign up for something online? And you can say it's asked Would you like to be send regular emails and you can check or uncheck that box? But then at the bottom, it says, I agree to the terms and the conditions stated above? Can you go to the next page? Can you register without checking the box? No, that's an option. If you don't check that box, it's just going to make you cancel your registration you cannot. Similarly, as Muslims, there's one

thing that is not an option.

And that is representing our faith and our religion is something that representation. All right is not an option. We have to we automatically do. It's just it's just it is what it is. And at the same time, what we'll talk about a little bit later, what we'll come to terms with is it's not it is a responsibility, but it's not something that should demoralize us. It's not something that should dishearten us. But nevertheless we have to accept that we represent Islam. We represent this song, you know in a little bit of real time. Some of you might be a little too young for this.

But nevertheless I think most of you will benefit from it.

You know, the the current climate, the current environment, whether it be in politics or media, whoever, you know, you want to point the finger at where Muslims get

Muslims get picked on a lot, right? We get blamed for a lot of bad stuff that we're not even responsible for. We get picked on a lot about a lot of different things. You ever get frustrated with the fact when they catch a guy robbing a bank, all right. And he was robbing a bank because he was a bad person. Or he was robbing a bank because he desperately needed money. But what to focus on is the fact that he was a Muslim.

But then when somebody else gets caught, caught robbing a bank, they'll just say that it doesn't say like an African American, African American male, or a Caucasian male, or somebody of Hispanic origin was caught committing this crime, but they won't talk about his religion. You ever noticed that? And it frustrates A lot of us, I always see the little messages like the little posts on Facebook and on Twitter, like, I wonder what his religion was, right? Muslim kids are frustrated, young Muslim people, Americans, who are Muslims, they're frustrated, right? Now, why is it that we're always being pointed out? Well, that might be unfair, and that might be wrong for them to do, it also

brings your attention to a very important reality. And that is that something special, that's something we actually have to embrace about our Deen about our religion, that we can never be separated from Islam.

We never, we will never be separated from someone that's actually something to be grateful to a lot of them.

You know, I won't just be simply known, I'll never be simply identified as somebody from Dallas, Texas, of Pakistani origin.

Like my parents are four bucks a box around the ethnicity, and from originally from Dallas, Texas, I'll never be solely identified as that, I will always be identified as a Muslim. And whether I do something good or bad, that's always going to be part of the story. It's, it's, there's a blessing in that as well. And there's something to be grateful for that we are permanently intimately attached toward being

a Muslim is attached to a song. And people will see Islam in the Muslim, and they will identify Islam within the Muslim.

And that's something we have to learn to embrace. So now, having said that,

we all have so much potential, we can do so much. And we have a huge responsibility and a great opportunity. All right, and that's we represent Islam represents our Deen our faith, Islam.

But now, what do we need in order to be able to do that properly?

One of the basic tools and the resources we need, that we just can't work around, that's, again, it's something that we can't compensate for by some doing something else. You know what I mean by you compensate for something? Right? Again, I apologize. All my analogies will be sports analogies, it's a shortcoming of mine. But, you know, if somebody, somebody does have a great shot, they can compensate for that, right? They can compensate for that they can learn how to pass the ball really well. So they pass because they're not a great shooter, or they go inside and they learn how to kind of get inside and crush the boards and things like that. You can always compensate for something.

But a lack of knowledge is something that you won't be able to compensate for. If you don't know what you're talking about. If you don't know what you're talking about. You can make up for that some other way. And so it's very important that he know our deep you know, we as an oma are supposed to be an educated people and educated oma and educated nation. We're supposed to know what we're talking about, particularly in terms of our Deen our religion. You're the very first revelation of the Quran. The very first word of the very first revelation, the very first word of the first IOD that were revealed of the final revelation to put on Can anyone tell me what the very first word

was?

It was just gonna read

and then throw out the chronological order emphasizes come to us. We'll let you know.

People that are given knowledge will have high stages, high levels, high status in the eyes of Allah subhanaw taala

that's what I've been in the Washington's door.

So

but what I'm saying was, this is something that's consistently re emphasized or reiterated throughout the for us.

Right last tells us well,

people who know and people who don't know they'll never be the same good. They repeat the same Of course not

All right. So we're supposed to be an educated people, people who know what they're talking about people know what they believe in. People have firm convictions in their religion in their way of life. That's us. That was supposed to be us.

But it's a really, really sad tragedy today. And we're gonna have a little bit of real talking here. It's a real huge tragedy today. That that's not the case.

The average common typical Muslim was very little to nothing about their own Deen about their own way of life. The only complain a lot.

We complain a lot when people and there's always troublemakers. There's always some bad people out there who just like to make trouble for making trouble. I'm not absolving them of any wrongdoing. But we complain a lot about when somebody misquotes the Quran or take something out of context or somebody says something about Islam. That is obviously incorrect. Let's use the most common example today. People say a lot of allegations are made. People say that Islam equals terrorism.

Right? You hear that a lot. You might see it in the media, MIT news. You might hear somebody saying it, right. And there's certain politicians or groups or people out there saying things like this, the suamico series.

Alright, Swami goes by. Now I'm gonna ask you guys, I want everybody to answer. Does Islam equal terrorism? Of course, that's the suamico violence. Of course, now, we know that.

But at the same time, it frustrates you, right? Why do they say that? Why don't we find out what it is I'm actually quoting things wrong. What, and sometimes you hear somebody calling themselves an expert on Islam. And they'll be saying all this horrible, terrible stuff about Islam. And you're sitting there, obviously, realizing everything this person says is wrong.

But wait a second,

I'm gonna take a little bit of a, I want you to survey yourself. That's a good way to put it. I'm gonna ask you to survey yourself, I'm gonna ask you to ask yourself a question, not call it out. Because the purpose of the exercise is not to embarrass anyone. Not at all. All right, it's not to make anyone feel inadequate in any way, shape, or form. But I'm going to ask you to survey yourself to ask yourself a serious, honest question.

You all answer is

absolutely not. And do you believe that everybody? Yeah, absolutely.

Ask yourself, if you could, if you can, right here right now, off the top of your head, pulled in I have the time establishes.

And you can tell me what chapter 10

you can tell me what is what verse it is. And you could translate it and you could explain it.

One Piece of solid evidence, not to yourself.

Sounds like I don't know.

All right.

And my point is this. Again, this is a select Mashallah special group of young people. And we, you know, like I told you, I'm, I'm inspired, just by seeing y'all and being in your company. But at the same time, if when you ask yourself that question, can you right off the top of your head, put an eye on the process, and translate it and tell me the sutra and the ayah number and explain it? Just one verse, one eye, that establishes the fact that Islam is not yours.

And if you can't do that,

if you can kind of sort of do that. If you can barely do that, if you just can't remember right now, I got it written down somewhere where I think I heard it in a lecture somewhere, or if I had a brand and maybe I might have been able to find it,

then you obviously realize that's not a good enough answer, is it?

I can be upset all day long with a non Muslim, for not knowing my religion.

Well, wait a second. What did I just say they are a Muslim or non Muslim. Does that mean they're not a Muslim?

I'm upset with somebody who's not Muslim for not knowing Islam. When myself as a Muslim, and as somebody who's angry about people not knowing Islam, I myself barely know Islam. You see the problem with this situation, guys? See the problem with this scenario? That's what we're dealing with right now. That's our situation.

We're upset with the whole world for not knowing Islam and what Islam says. But we don't know either.

We don't know either.

So you see, we're weird like a racecar driver, who says I'm an amazing racecar driver. I just don't have the car to prove it to you.

Right. I'm Michael Jordan. Yes, I am. Alright, the camera does his own tricks.

I'm Michael Jordan. I don't have a basketball to prove it to you.

Right now we're walking around telling everybody we're Muslims.

And Islam is awesome. Therefore, we are awesome.

All right. I just don't have the knowledge to establish it for you.

I just don't know my religion well enough to actually prove that God is a word of God, it's a miracle.

I'll just have to get her on the phone to prove it.

That's that's where we stand right now. Right. And again, my purpose to say I'm saying this is not to put you down or to beat on y'all at all. I told you, I look up to you guys. I admire you. All right, I I'm inspired by you guys. Because you guys are gonna be the ones. I'm sitting here talking to you, y'all are gonna be the one talking to my kids.

Sharla, everybody's saying charlo.

But at the same time, if I am honest, I am sincere. And I do actually care about you guys, and I will be rude. I will beat around the bush. And that's where we stand right now.

So this, we're Muslim, we have Islam, and we're awesome. And everything's awesome. problem is we just don't know it. And we don't, we can't actually establish it or lose it. And so we gotta turn this around.

We got to turn this all around inshallah, and we have to start learning our religion, we have to start learning. It's not optional. This is what I started off by saying, it's not all we got.

And this is something a lot smarter commanded us, the very first command Allah issued was

maybe not the very first command that was issued was

we translate to read,

read.

The Prophet of Allah, somebody, someone actually says in

an authentic narration, for

me, for

a Muslim, a Muslim, that seeking knowledge is an obligation upon everyone, man, or male or female that calls themselves a Muslim, Muslim or massima. If you claim that if you want to live up to that standard, you want to prove that you are, then you will learn about your religion, you will learn about your

All right. Now, what are some of the basic things that we can learn about that we can start off? Because giving a talk like this is fine, it's good to provide some perspective and hopefully motivate you to learn. But where do I start? I always like to be able to provide some practical, you know, first steps. All right, some action items where you can get started from. So where can you start to journey from of learning about? There are two basic things every Muslim needs to know. There are two basic things that every Muslim has to know. Number one, every Muslim needs to have a basic reading and understanding a basic understanding of the world.

They might say that's kind of big guy. Alright, 114 $2. Right. 6000 plus i odd. That's kind of a lot. start somewhere. All right. But every Muslim needs to have a basic idea of what the Quran is about. And I'll give you a few practical tips on how to start a competition.

Every believer, every Muslim, should have a translation of the Quran with them at all times.

Absolutely. And today, it's a lot easier than it used to be. When you guys are students. I see so many backpacks here, even up here on the mountain. I don't understand why but

but I see I see backpacks and stuff. So you're used to carrying books, adding a little translation to that's not a big deal. Not a big deal. Oh, all right. And, and just in case if you're like me, where you're even lazy about carrying the book now. All right.

All right. Some of y'all might not have these devices yet. And if you don't, your parents are wonderful human beings.

God bless them or reward them say I mean, there we go. All right, cuz my kids aren't gonna see your phone.

So you can carry your translation of the Quran with you at all times and have a regular practice of reading the translation of the Quran regularly.

Number two

is I would strongly recommend in person first and foremost, if nothing else, you try to attend a regular class on the meaning and the understanding of the Quran. as fast or as slow paced as it might be, what you will get from a person of knowledge who has invested a lot of time into learning and studying the Quran. You

You'll end up getting would you would have to read eight different books to get right? Are the series sessions. That's what what happened, right? These guys know as well. That's what happens in the tafsir sessions, we go in, we read 10 1213 different books, squeeze it together and present it to you in a nutshell. So attend regular classes on the understanding of the Quran, whether it's called dullness, whether it's called Tafseer, whether it's called halakhah, whether it's called class, I don't care what it's called, but it's a class on the meaning and the understanding of the Quran where you got somebody explaining the Quran to you from a more scholarly, knowledgeable

viewpoint point of view. All right, so attended a regular class. All right, most of you, I'm hoping and I see a few. You know, I know some of you and I see a few shirts, and a few of some of you like to mark yourselves and things like that. So, you know, a lot of you might be from communities where you do have those opportunities, and EMR machines or somebody, right, who has a regular class and attend that regular class make a commitment.

But it's every single week. Oh, God, how painful. I have to take a one hour a week to go learn about what Allah is saying to me. Right? So attend the class, have some? And over time, you will, you'll only appreciate years later what you gained and all that. All right. And another little No, wait, wait a second. Wait a second. All right, everybody, you know, you don't typically when you go to a class like that, especially younger folks, I was in your same shoes. Don't worry, I'm not criticizing you. I've been there done that. All right. We tend to kind of walk away from the class saying like, is I like, whatever. It's kind of like, I don't know, I didn't learn that much. Well,

yeah, you didn't learn that much. Because you were sitting at the back of the machine. Right with your legs out. Checking your phone while you were listening, updating your Facebook status at a tafsir class right now. Boo? Yeah.

So that's what you were doing while the actual lecture was going on. That's why he didn't learn nothing. That's why you didn't feel it was that beneficial to you? But Mashallah, what I see a lot of you doing and find, if you're more of a listener, where you listen and you absorb, that's fine. I completely understand your perspective. But at the very least, some of you literally take notes, like, there's a sister somewhere right now wrote down the word GI Joe. And I said,

some of you take notes like that, I'll forgive you, everybody's happy.

But

at the very least, even if you're not a note taking type of person, you would rather look and listen and absorb, that's fine. But at the very least, what I do recommend is just get like, at least a small little notebook, or you open up the notes application, write in your phone, or email it to yourself or something, right.

Don't write down a whole lot of notes. At the very least, whenever you sit in any lecture, write down to three basic points, three lessons that you learned from that lecture.

Three points. That's it. Lesson number one, that, you know, we represent Islam. Lesson number two, is very important that we know what we're talking about when we represent this number. That's the number three, he said, boo Yah, right. I don't care what it is. But at the very least, write down something, take three basic notes down for yourself. But note something and then let some time go by stay consistent with it. And then go back and look at those notes and tell me if you didn't learn something.

There'll be if you learned something, right? So the very first thing I was telling you that you have to practically learn is the book of Allah, the Quran, for learning the book of Allah have a translation of the Quran with you at all times. Number two, attend to regular class or helaba explaining the meaning of the forearm. All right, very important. And thirdly, and I'm providing this as a resource to the people who might not have a class available to them on a regular basis in their area, whatever it is, you know, a few weeks ago I was in I was in Ames, Iowa.

So sometimes people do live in the middle of nowhere. So if that's your situation, you live in the middle of nowhere, then Raleigh, North Carolina, so no, but Robbie's pretty awesome. So if you do live in the middle of nowhere, then maybe you don't have an opportunity, you don't have a resource available to you. So I want to provide a resource for you. And even if you are attending your weekly class, and you'd like to supplement it with something, something extra. I'll provide this third resource to you guys as well.

And that is a handler, myself and brother in Oman as well. We regularly give us your classes.

And myself actually, I've been giving a weekly Tafseer class for about 11 years, every single week for 11 years, a couple of years ago.

I realized that there was something called the record button. And so we started recording them. And hamdullah. What we do now is after they're recorded, we put them online, we upload them for, for free.

It's just there. All right. It's an iTunes, it's on the being a website.

It says there, right there, podcasts, basically. But use it, download it, benefit from it, take it, do whatever you want with it. And we're working on it, we're chipping away slowly, but steadily a humble up, the whole 30 gets used has been completed, half of the 29th June has been completed. Currently, what's going up every single week is sort of TSC. And then after that, we'll also have sort of medium, which I did over the summer, and then this summer inshallah we'll be doing so far. But it's, and I'm going to pick up inshallah, in about a month or two, I'm going to pick up the third, the 29th juice and finish it as well. So those resources are also out there, download them,

listen to them, do whatever you want with them. But that's just an extra supplemental resource.

bainer.com slash podcast.

So that's the first thing, learn to become an entrepreneur without. The second thing that every Muslim needs to learn about and needs to have a minimal level of knowledge about is the life of the Prophet sallallahu.

What we in Arabic, the prophetic biography, the life of the prophets, a lot of a sudden, what in Arabic is called the Sierra, you ever heard that word?

So life of the Prophet Elisa, every believer needs to notice, definite and see the Koran, and the life of the process is what will help you live your life more like a Muslim, and will allow you to represent and inform others about Islam share his time with others in a more educated, informed fashion. All right, so you need to learn about the life of the prophets alongside the actual biography, the prophetic biography. And so like I told you, every Muslim is going to carry a translation of the Quran, every Muslim should have a regular study of the life of the Prophet. So

what I recommend in that regard is, I recommend that you start reading a book, a book on the life as a professor, there are a lot of very, very amazing resources, classical resources, traditional resources, in the Arabic language. There are maybe not.

So

there's a few in English.

And so I recommend that you stop.

Start reading a book about the life of the Prophet. God knows how many hours y'all spent reading Harry Potter

hours you've saved not reading Twilight.

Don't read it

makes you stupid.

Among other things, so. But read a life read a book on the life of the Prophet so long as

there's a few basic books in English to see you got some resources to write down. One very basic book that's written in a very storytelling type of format. It's got a few concerns in there, I realized that I know that but i don't think i don't think it will really be a problem for you guys. It will be problematic to you, because you're not reading it or researching it academically. But I do think it will be helpful if this is the first thing you read because it tells the story in a very, very beautiful, and that's a book called

I forgot what it's called.

He says Mohammed, the author's name is Martin Lynx,

Martin. Ling's Li en je s. Martin lings.

He passed away some time ago, he was a Muslim.

You know, he was from the UK from England. And he was actually a professor of the English language of literature from Oxford. And he was a very, very knowledgeable person. Mashallah, you're a beautiful book on the life of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam

It's called Muhammad and his life based on the earliest teachings. It's got some lengthy term, but it just says Mohammed real big on it. And the author's name is Martin. Ling's Li NGS. That's a pretty short book, you should be able to get through pretty quickly. Yes, this is a cover like a blue collar like Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Secondly, once you get through that, another very valuable book on this Iraq is called Rahim, Allah,

which is called the sealed nectar. The sealed nectar. Like I told you, the Martin Lynx book is very good, because it tells the story very nicely. It's like a narrative, right? The sealed nature is a very good book, because it gives you all the factual information. It's got names, dates, places, people, it's really it's, it's it's like, it's like reading an encyclopedia. Right? In that way. It's not very lengthy, not too long for person to finish. But at the same time, it's very factual.

And once you're through both of these books, then a third resource that I would recommend them after that, which kind of merges the two, it's got the names and the dates and the places, but it's also telling the story, but it's a little bit thicker and longer. And that is it's called Muhammad, man and Prophet, Muhammad, man and Prophet, and the author's name is Adil Salaam.

alaikum.

All right. So these are just a few resources in the English language that are available that you can serve me there's a lot of others, like the Schiphol Polly has been translated as well and different things. But these are a good place to start from. inshallah, at the same time again, you're gonna read one book, write one book, but no, no, no, no.

All right, good.

All right. So you're gonna read one book, if you attend a weekly class, a regular class with a scholar with any mom, he's wanting to read 10 different books, books that are not translated into English,

books that are not translated into English yet, and he's going to present all of that to you. So attend to regular class on the life of the prophets, I'll set up number three, as a third resource, just in case you don't have a class in your area, where even if you do have a class, and you'd like to supplement it, because I always used to, I always talk about the importance of studying the life in the process. And I used to get asked this question that Well, what do you recommend, and since the resources in English are so limited, I used to feel bad making recommendations. So I decided to, I used to perfect this before about a few years ago, I did it three, four years continuously, and

then I put it on hold. So hamdullah, I started a class, a weekly class on the life of the Prophet from the love on a loser now, the Class is broadcast online, live every single week. And at the same time, it's recorded, and it's podcast. The recordings are out there for free on the website, and iTunes, and the name of that website is color institute.org QLAM, Institute dot o RG column institute.org. All right, slash podcasts. And you can get the recordings in

the book of Allah, the life of the process of everybody needs to know, everybody wins.

And that that's our brush. That's our racecar. That's our basketball. That's our football. That's what allows us to show people what we can do, and what we're capable of don't truly properly in an informed, educated manner will be able to represent Islam in Charlotte. All right. Now, as a concluding point, what I wanted to touch on was, once we know our Deen, once we get to understand and we started learning the book of Allah and the life of the prophets, all of a sudden, then we have something very important to take into consideration.

I want you to listen very carefully. Alright guys, because young people are starting to fall into this trap. All right. Many of you a couple of you Mashallah, you took our, you know, they studied with us for about a year. She was with us during the summer, Mashallah. And many of you have attended different seminars and programs and classes and courses with us. But a problem that started and it's it's always been a problem. It's a universal problem. And we I'm starting to notice it manifests itself here with us again. All right. And that is, sometimes we become obsessed with knowledge for the sake of knowledge for the sake of knowing that.

I want you to understand one thing very clearly, knowledge is only as good as its implementation.

Knowledge is only beneficial if it's implemented. If it's practiced if it's put to use if you live it, if you breathe it, if you walk it are you talking?

Like if you know 18 ahaadeeth about a clock

but you yourself in a horrible character, that's called non beneficial knowledge.

That's and that's there's no benefit to

all right. You know, we often say

There's knowledge and then there's information if you don't practice knowledge, it's information. That's incorrect.

It's still knowledge. Oh, yeah, definitely. So knowledge. But the distinction of profits a lot isn't made worse. It's either beneficial or it's not good

enough, fair enough here knowledge that benefits that actively benefit

and knowledge which does not benefit, non beneficial.

So what is the distinction? What's the difference, knowledge that makes you a better person is beneficial knowledge.

The goal, the purpose of seeking any knowledge, it's to become a better person, and become a better slave of Allah to become a better father, or husband, or daughter or son or brother or sister community member.

It's supposed to make you a better person.

And if knowledge doesn't make you a better person than like a Koran says, You're like a donkey with a book with a with books on its back.

It wouldn't even be a lot of books, he'll just be a couple of books.

Right? Then Then it's completely without benefit. There's no point to it.

So, understand that, when we do seek knowledge, and we have to,

then what because the intention needs to be, I want to live it, I want to act on it, I want to practice it. I want to walk it, talk it, read it. And I want to represent it and teach it and share it to others.

Because without that, it's without benefit. Guys, always ask yourself that question. Whenever you sit down to learn anything, what's your intention?

And it better be to become a better person by means of it. And when you're done seeking knowledge, then after some time, go back and check yourself, what have you done with what you learn?

What have you done with what you learned? How can we forget about Xena save this for a year? Right? What have you done with it? What did you do with it?

But you got to ask yourself? What did I do with it? Did it actually make me a better person or not? Did I improve because of it or not?

And that's very, very.

All right. And lastly, and this connects everything together? Because remember, I told you guys at the very beginning of the talk, what do we not have a choice of what is automatic, as soon as we say that you either love Mohammed or slow? What is automatic, we represent your song, we represent your song, that's not a choice, that's not an option. You know how this all comes back full circle.

People will take an impression of the small people will learn about a song will form an opinion about Islam and Muslims. Not so much based on what we say. Or what we write, or what we type. Or because of the way we act, the way we walk, the way we talk, the way you behave, the way we engage with people.

Our behavior will dictate or determine their impression of the song. That's one thing that's very important. And you see how it comes back full circle, we represent this on regardless, we can't represent if we don't know, once we know we have to practice and when we practice, guess what we end up doing a good job of

representing yourself.

representing yourself.

Alright, inshallah, I realize I've been yelling and screaming and ranting and raving for a while. So I'm going to stop. I know we've gone like 25 minutes past your attention span. But

nevertheless, just

dealing with the destruction of my kids risking their lives.

I really, really appreciate my show like your patience. Again, I like to joke and I like to kind of you know, poke and prod and mess around. But honestly, it's unbelievable. shala I cannot tell you how much I've learned.

You know, I'm an old dude, I have nothing better to do than talk about this stuff. Or to listen to a lecture or to give a lecture. I'm an old boring guy. You guys are young, energetic, amazing people martial law has so much potential has the world at your fingertips. And you took out part of your vacation to come to a camp, focusing on your deen and your relationship with Allah and to focus on your religion on on Islam and on demand. And you're sitting here on a beautiful day like this in a beautiful place like this. listening to somebody talk about a song. Y'all are a bunch of losers.

It's unbelievable. Your commitment to martial law is amazing. I just want you to say what I want you to realize one thing, credit for this, I'm giving you credit for this, but you need to give the credit to

say Alhamdulillah

it's all the praises for a while and I was want to make this possible. Be grateful for this. Thank Allah subhanaw taala for this and these blessings will continue with Charles Thank you

So we're actually the way we rearrange the schedule. We're actually ahead of schedule now.