Balancing Faith & Modern Life - Sheikh Abdulrahman Cherri | Ramadan 2025 - Night 2

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[0:08][Music] alhamd Allah subhana wa tala says in the Holy Quran so

[0:55]direct your face toward your religion or toward the religion incl ining

[1:02]to truth adhere to the F the primordial nature the innate nature

[1:08]of Allah upon which he has created all people today I wanted

[1:18]to talk about navigating the Muslim identity in the west a Muslim

[1:23]who is in the west what are the challenges that we Face

[1:26]nowadays and there are many many different challenges but before doing so

[1:35]I wanted to share some sad news that I received about one

[1:39]of my teachers today a very great scholar M whom might received

[1:49]the news of his passing today a lot of you might not

[1:52]know who the scholar is but he is one of the pioneers

[1:59]of shiism in the modern day that we're living in he was

[2:04]a great scholar not just in terms of his knowledge but in

[2:09]terms of his character as well he had a brother here in

[2:14]Chicago as well who was one of the great Scholars as well

[2:17]say Muhammad Hassan jalali he had the open school of Islam in

[2:20]Chicago some of you might have heard of it some of you

[2:25]might have not but he was also a much these Scholars had

[2:30]studied under a and the family of was a family of scholarship

[2:38]when I went to K to study my initial objective wasn't to

[2:45]become a she or a scholar or a speaker anything of this

[2:49]sort I went for a personal reason I went to search for

[2:51]answers to questions that I had I was born here and I

[2:58]grew up like any other individual you reach a point in your

[3:00]life where you start asking yourself questions why was I born why

[3:04]am I here on this world and you question things you're born

[3:08]a Muslim but every person has that moment where they question their

[3:14]inner self they want to se seek the truth search for the

[3:17]truth and I had an inclination to go and find the answers

[3:22]over there I thought these are and Scholars let me go there

[3:26]and perhaps I can find what I'm looking for and I wasn't

[3:29]looking for something just on the surface level I was hoping that

[3:31]I can find something that is more meaningful and deep of course

[3:39]when you picture the other side of the world you usually have

[3:42]an Ideal Image in your mind you're going somewhere and it's more

[3:48]of an innocent Outlook that you have you have this thinking that

[3:52]when you go there you're going to find everything perfect over there

[3:57]but I went there and I joined the hza and I began

[4:00]to study and I found that there are thousands of Scholars that

[4:04]were there everybody was wearing a turban you're in the H you're

[4:09]studying these sciences that are sacred you find Mar teaching over there

[4:15]the that you hear of you go and you see them there

[4:18]and you're able to attend their classes their General classes so I

[4:25]go there I join the hza and I meet many teachers and

[4:30]I study one book after the other one book after the other

[4:33]but not every single teacher had an impact on my life and

[4:39]I had to learn this through experiencing it just because someone has

[4:46]studied for 30 40 years and learned about Islam and can speak

[4:50]about Islam and has very deep knowledge about Islam does not make

[4:57]that individual a good Muslim or a perfect Muslim it is not

[5:02]the knowledge that you acquire but at first you have this naive

[5:06]Vision that mallah this person has studied for so long and they

[5:08]lecture and they have all this knowledge and you look up to

[5:10]them yes it's great that they have studied very well but when

[5:17]I was living there it wasn't until I met these special Scholars

[5:22]such asali that I understood that the objective of going here to

[5:31]the isn't to acquire knowledge only if I acquire knowledge and I

[5:38]become arrogant what use is this knowledge for me if I build

[5:42]pride in myself my ego grows I become a worse individual than

[5:48]if I had not come to the house and studied this when

[5:52]I used to go to the say's house and towards the latter

[5:57]period of my staying there I had spent almost every single day

[6:00]with them after finishing school finishing my classes I used to go

[6:04]to his house because his house was near where I used to

[6:06]study and I'm not talking about anything special about myself I'm talking

[6:12]about the say over here the more I was living with him

[6:14]the more I realized what great individual this person is he was

[6:19]a great scholar he was very well known across the whole house

[6:23]he was a was an editor of manuscripts those old old books

[6:29]that were written by hand hundreds of years ago he used to

[6:32]edit those he used to have a big collection of them and

[6:36]he would publish the books that have not been published yet things

[6:40]that were hidden he used to travel from country to Country in

[6:42]search of books that were for Islam and Muslim Scholars and he

[6:48]used to gather them and he would edit them and he would

[6:54]publish them his whole effort was focused on spreading the teachings of

[6:58]Islam the true teachings of Islam and he was G so many

[7:00]rewards over there yet when he used to go to his house

[7:05]he was a very humble individual you wouldn't think that this person

[7:08]was someone that Scholars and professors from all over the world not

[7:12]just Iran Scholars from Europe used to call him and ask him

[7:18]questions he was an authority but when you go to his house

[7:21]he was a very humble individual you would think that the scholar

[7:25]is a very basic and simple scholar in addition to his humility

[7:30]there is one thing that I realized that he had that a

[7:35]lot of others didn't have say jalali had a heart he was

[7:39]a true human being one time he asked me to go and

[7:43]take him to an Institute he wanted to introduce me to an

[7:48]Institute that used to work with editing books and research and when

[7:52]we went back to his house we were walking towards his home

[7:57]and he stopped for a second and he looked into he looked

[8:03]at me and he said where's this sound coming from I didn't

[8:06]pay attention to the sound there was a sound of a baby

[8:10]crying from one of the houses next to his house and I

[8:14]told him I I don't know say I it seems like it's

[8:18]from this house over here and he stopped and he looked at

[8:21]me and with a very weak voice he said it breaks my

[8:25]heart to hear a baby crying and at that moment I thought

[8:31]to myself what stops The Scholar I didn't even pay attention that

[8:34]there was a baby crying it was a very faint sound coming

[8:35]from a house but he was such a pure human being that

[8:41]the sound of a child that he doesn't even know had stopped

[8:47]him and it moved him and it shaved him he said that

[8:50]it breaks my heart to hear a child crying at that moment

[8:56]I realized the humanity that he has and I felt ashamed of

[8:59]myself you know you're busy with a a lot of things you're

[9:04]occupied with studying you're a very big individual why would you stop

[9:07]for such a thing why would you even be paying attention to

[9:09]such a thing he would only pay attention if you truly were

[9:16]a human being who had a pure heart a pure soul and

[9:21]you were empathetic to the degree of sacredness and the more I

[9:25]spent time with him the more I noticed that this individual is

[9:28]not like the other Scholars that I've met he was someone who

[9:35]truly cared about spreading teachings and he was truly humble he used

[9:39]to always offer his services to the houses he was a very

[9:42]well-known scholar and a lot of Scholars used to wish to go

[9:46]and ask him questions every Friday before he had a session he

[9:53]would open his house anybody from the scholars from the public anybody

[9:57]could come to his house and sit down and ask him question

[9:59]questions this is every single Friday he was giving and giving and

[10:05]giving without any limit until the last day of his life he

[10:11]was a very humble individual and when I compared him to others

[10:15]I didn't see this humility there sometimes you realize that people their

[10:19]ego grows when they gain a lot of knowledge and I met

[10:24]some people like that over there one time there was a scholar

[10:30]and the howah who a relative of theirs passed away and they

[10:34]had a Magus for the scholar and I went to that Magus

[10:39]and say jalali was invited over there as well now there were

[10:44]Scholars who were principles of an Institute they were higher ranking Scholars

[10:49]they sat down on a side on their own and all the

[10:53]other students and the ones were lower than them they put them

[10:57]on the other side say jalali when he walked in all the

[11:02]big Scholars got up to greet him and he said salum he

[11:09]saids Salam to them and they told him please say you come

[11:12]and you sit with us and he said no no no no

[11:17]he turned around and he saw me he said ABD where are

[11:19]you sitting I said I'm sitting over here and I felt very

[11:25]embarrassed because he called me out and I'm nobody in front of

[11:27]all these Scholars over there and he told him I'm going to

[11:30]sit where he's sitting over there and it's nothing special about me

[11:34]but it shows that he was a very humble scholar he didn't

[11:39]go after the name and the fame and the pride he thought

[11:44]it was better for him not to be sitting on that side

[11:49]to sit down with the lower students so when I lived there

[11:54]and when I studied there even though I might have studied many

[11:57]books thousands of pages that I might have have read but the

[12:03]true lessons that I learned were from living and experiencing these moments

[12:07]with jalali and other Scholars like him this is what truly I

[12:11]understood as being knowledge all these things in the books that I

[12:15]read about all of these Hadith that I read if I don't

[12:18]Implement them in my life they don't have any value in fact

[12:22]they add things that are worse to me they destroy me instead

[12:28]of helping me the knowledge that you have has to be accompanied

[12:32]by the action implementing what you learn you read about a Hadith

[12:40]you become knowledgeable you earn a degree you become someone notable in

[12:44]society that's not what gives you True Value that's not what makes

[12:50]you a human being it is the humility and the application of

[12:54]your knowledge say jalali wasn't someone who was after Fame and if

[12:58]he wanted Fame he could have gained it very very easily but

[13:01]he didn't go after it he used to run away from it

[13:06]people that used to call him ay he used to shun them

[13:09]and see someone like you was anah in a joking F manner

[13:15]he said that you know he didn't like these titles he just

[13:21]wanted to be known for who he was I ask everybody to

[13:27]recite f for his blessed soul muh Muhammad so today's topic is

[13:51]related to the Muslim identity in the west what does it mean

[13:57]for me to call myself a Muslim what does it mean for

[14:03]me to identify as a Muslim over here and it's a very

[14:10]challenging question and a lot of you including myself question ourselves every

[14:16]single day how do I be a Muslim here what does it

[14:18]mean what do I think what do I do how do I

[14:23]dress how do I speak how do I behave what do I

[14:28]believe in and I spoke briefly yesterday yesterday about the issue of

[14:33]Art and creativity and the challenges that have come to us as

[14:36]individuals of course we Muslims we see ourselves as different than other

[14:41]people because we believe in the one God the absolute God we

[14:46]don't identify with those that don't believe in a deity we do

[14:49]believe in God and we believe that this God has ordained things

[14:55]upon us and we believe that we must obey what God has

[14:58]told us and this poses a challenge for us because we're in

[15:03]a society where the majority of the people don't share this belief

[15:06]system they don't understand what we believe in so they go about

[15:14]doing their own things in their own way don't forget that the

[15:19]way you behave in a society is based on how you believe

[15:21]or what you believe about the world if you believe that there's

[15:27]a God and there's a Hereafter your behavior and Society at your

[15:32]work your inventions the economic situation the education policies and all of

[15:40]this stuff are affected by the world view that you have so

[15:44]living here as a Muslim you have a specific world view and

[15:49]you live in a society where the majority don't share this world

[15:55]view with you so you go to school you go to the

[16:00]supermarket you go to the doctor you go anywhere and you're faced

[16:04]with individuals that don't share the same opinions that you have so

[16:08]there's a form of clash and you see yourself as a minority

[16:13]over here as well if you're living maybe in a country in

[16:15]the East that's majority Muslim you might not have this problem you

[16:21]might not feel this disconnect or this dual identity inside of yourself

[16:24]but being a Muslim here it's natural that you feel it now

[16:29]living in Dearborn it's like we're in our own bubble over here

[16:31]we're a bit better than other places you move out to other

[16:34]cities and you find that the Muslims are suffering even more over

[16:41]there alhamdulillah over here we have you know it's a great blessing

[16:44]honestly to sit down to go to places you have Hal stores

[16:47]you have you know people that are praying mids everywhere and you

[16:53]have just Muslim faces everywhere it's a great blessing that you guys

[16:56]are living here honestly if you leave Dearborn you feel like you've

[16:59]went to a different world and I've been to many different cities

[17:02]where people are not living next to each other here the neighborhoods

[17:05]most of the people are living next to one another it's a

[17:09]great blessing that you're in don't forget this you go to other

[17:12]cities one house is Muslim here 20 30 non-muslims the other Muslim

[17:17]is on another neighborhood they don't live with one another so they

[17:23]have a bigger challenge so us being here are blessed by this

[17:26]and this is something when you say alhamdulillah when you're reciting every

[17:31]single day after prayer one of the things that you have to

[17:35]thank Allah subhah wa tala for is this blessing that you have

[17:38]but even though we're living in our own bubble we have all

[17:43]our Halal restaurants here we can enjoy Halal burgers and I know

[17:46]some of the brothers came from Chicago today and some other areas

[17:49]they said they came to see me but I have my doubts

[17:53]I think it's the burgers and the I think there was a

[17:57]few new restaurants that opened and that's why they came here but

[18:00]whatever it is at least food brings people here this a good

[18:05]thing this is the mecca of of halal food Dearborn but we

[18:09]do live in a society where we have people who are different

[18:12]in their opinion what do we do with this how do we

[18:17]think if we live in a society where they have different moral

[18:22]values do we abandon our moral values in order to please the

[18:29]other people or do we maintain our values and hold on to

[18:33]them a lot of people here feel like they have to have

[18:39]a bipolar personality they come to the mid and they have this

[18:45]m personality they put on you go and you hang out with

[18:47]your friends outside or you're chatting with your friends online you have

[18:53]your own community over there you become a different person you adopt

[18:57]a different personality and this causes a lot of confusion in individuals

[19:04]what is the cause of this why do I feel that I

[19:09]have to adopt two different personalities as a Muslim over here part

[19:13]of the problem is culture a lot of the Muslims that live

[19:17]in the US come from parents that immigrated or grandparents that immigrated

[19:21]from a different country and not too long ago now if you're

[19:27]like fifth or sixth or seventh generation you might not be so

[19:31]affected but if you're second third or fourth some of that culture

[19:34]that you have is still existent inside of you and I'm not

[19:38]talking about the religion that you have I'm talking about the culture

[19:41]because even in Muslim communities if someone who descends from a Lebanese

[19:47]background goes to an Iraqi Center they're going to feel they're out

[19:51]of place over there people who are Iraqi or Lebanese or Arab

[19:56]they go to a indo Pac Center they don't feel like they're

[20:02]in place over there either so even within the own community that

[20:05]we have we feel there's a difference there's a barrier and this

[20:10]is because of inherited culture that we have when the prophet sallallah

[20:17]was given the message he faced a very similar problem it wasn't

[20:21]so much culture that was playing a roll back then but it

[20:26]was more of tribes people had different tribes they be belonged to

[20:28]different tribes and there were tribe allegiances there was a tribe that

[20:34]was more noble than another tribe there was a tribe that was

[20:38]lower than another tribe and they had Stripes between them they had

[20:42]alliances it was a whole communal system that was built on tribal

[20:47]relations and these tribal relations people killed themselves for their tribe this

[20:53]is not a a weak relationship it's not like you belong to

[20:58]a community because you're born born with those genes know the tribal

[21:02]Alliance and the pledge that you made to the master of the

[21:05]tribe meant that you sacrifice your life in defense of this tribe

[21:11]and some societies still carry that so the prophet had to come

[21:19]and he had to unite all of these people who came from

[21:23]so many different backgrounds and belong to so many different tribes and

[21:27]allow them to connect with with one another to feel that they

[21:31]are part of one society and one Community imagine what kind of

[21:37]challenge that the prophet had to tell someone that you have to

[21:41]abandon your tribal affiliations and allegiances was like telling someone it was

[21:47]T time out to killing that person they have no value in

[21:53]life anymore but the prophet came with a message that was able

[21:56]to transcend all of these differences he said that all of you

[22:02]are one in the eyes of Allah subhah wa ta'ala he allowed

[22:06]them to broaden their vision and this is a problem that we

[22:09]have as Muslim communities our vision is not broadened the prophet brought

[22:15]us the most beautiful religion that speaks of allegiance to Allah subhanahu

[22:20]wa ta'ala to connecting with Allah subhana tala no matter the color

[22:24]the race the background that we have yet we as Muslims still

[22:31]hold on to these differences that we have we're unable to transcend

[22:36]these boundaries that we create for each other this is between the

[22:41]own Muslim Community I'm not even speaking about those who are non-muslim

[22:45]yet to be a Muslim is to be someone who only pledges

[22:50]allegiance to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in terms of marriage issues and

[22:55]this is something I see many many times happening Islam came with

[23:01]a remedy for a problem that people were suffering from back then

[23:05]a person wants to get married and they want to get married

[23:09]because it's a biological need and they want to settle down with

[23:17]a spouse and in our times now it's even more difficult because

[23:20]people are maturing at such a later age but then comes another

[23:25]problem the issue of the dowes the issue of having competition between

[23:31]one family and the other so the marriage is delayed people can't

[23:36]get married young anymore they're judged by other people so they start

[23:41]competing with one another the prophet says the best amongst you are

[23:45]the ones with the lower dowes we put that aside we don't

[23:49]care about it we don't even think what the prophet was trying

[23:52]to do and we maintain this cultural thing that we have no

[23:56]it has to be a higher one because I want to see

[23:58]myself as as Superior to other people this is a problem as

[24:05]a Muslim I live with some of the book as the Quran

[24:07]says and I leave the rest of the book to be a

[24:12]Muslim you have to be consistent your whole life has to be

[24:15]given to Allah subhana wa ta'ala Islam is not just in the

[24:20]Masjid where you come and you pray and you come and you

[24:24]fast in the month of Ramadan and you give charity Islam is

[24:26]not just a portion of your life Islam is the way of

[24:32]life everything that you do in your life has to be representing

[24:35]that pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whether it's in marital issues

[24:43]whether it's in dealing with other people in the community unfortunately a

[24:47]lot of people don't even sit with other people who belong to

[24:51]other backgrounds because they see them as inferior so we want to

[24:57]on the one hand protect ourselves as Muslims and be proud of

[25:01]our Islam yet on the other hand we misrepresent our religion at

[25:06]the same time and people can see this hypocrisy this is a

[25:10]form of hypocrisy we might not intend it we might not do

[25:16]it on purpose but it is a form of hypocrisy you believe

[25:18]in something yet in your practice you do something else so it's

[25:24]very important for us as Muslims to understand that everything that I

[25:29]do has to be basis on the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa

[25:35]ta'ala so the prophet came and he removed the tribal boundaries he

[25:38]said it doesn't matter which tribe you come from what matters is

[25:44]how much tawa you have this is the quranic formula for giving

[25:48]value to a human being if you're God wary and you have

[25:54]tawa then you are elevated as a human being if you don't

[25:57]have tawa it doesn't matter which family you come from it doesn't

[26:02]matter which race you come from it doesn't matter what background you

[26:05]come from you have no value so as Muslims we have to

[26:11]understand when I reflect upon myself I have to think about these

[26:17]things just as I think about other things in my life how

[26:20]much am I representing my faith and how much sincerity do I

[26:25]have when it comes to my faith this is on the end

[26:30]individual level on the communal level we are responsible as a community

[26:34]as well I spoke briefly yesterday about the creativity and I didn't

[26:39]get time to delve more deeply into the topic of AI and

[26:43]creativity but it ties into this topic as well as Muslims we

[26:50]are responsible for finding our own identity to create our identity and

[26:54]to show it to people over here alhamdulillah we have masses of

[26:59]of individuals filled all of you are filled with talents all of

[27:05]you are gifted with great minds and brains Allah subhana T has

[27:08]given you all of this and given you the blessing of Islam

[27:11]as a community here we should be Pioneers in producing knowledge and

[27:19]alternatives to solving people's problems that we have over here so we

[27:25]have problems with water let's say we have environmental issues we have

[27:30]mental health issues we have health issues as well as a Muslim

[27:35]Community we have to be searching for solutions that are in line

[27:38]with our way of thinking our belief system in Islam we believe

[27:44]that everything is sacred all of Allah subhana T's Creations are sacred

[27:48]and we are to use everything with Justice so if this is

[27:54]the case then why do I have to wait for non-muslims or

[27:57]people from other communi to come up with inventions regarding the purification

[28:01]of water for example why can't I as a Muslim or us

[28:08]as a Muslim Community say that our religion is the one that

[28:10]teaches us that we have to give people pure water because this

[28:14]is a just cause for them as a Muslim I have to

[28:20]be the one who's pushing for this I I go to Germany

[28:22]and I study there sometimes and I live sometimes with a community

[28:28]or I used to that has no belief in God but in

[28:33]terms of living in this world they live with the cause of

[28:38]helping everybody helping all of humanity they come up with inventions regarding

[28:42]purification of water they come up with inventions about how to consume

[28:51]energy or less energy in order not to damage the planet designs

[28:55]of homes people who want to go into architecture and Design you

[28:59]have to push yourself to come up with ways that are to

[29:05]live islamically you give the people the solution look this is an

[29:08]alternative way of living an alternative way of designing your home it's

[29:13]more eco-friendly it's more friendly for the environment if we're not like

[29:20]that then what is the Islam that's inside of us yes it's

[29:24]wonderful to have the appearance of Islam it's beautiful but if Islam

[29:28]doesn't Pate into our hearts and our souls then we haven't reached

[29:31]the goal that the prophet has placed for us so everybody that

[29:37]goes for a career think about your career in this way think

[29:41]about developing yourself in this way how can I best help the

[29:47]community not only the Muslim one but how can I offer all

[29:49]of humanity solutions to the problems that we have there's a lot

[29:54]of issues that are going on and a lot of negative light

[29:56]that's placed upon us but part of this negativity is due to

[30:01]our own causes our own problems Muhammad [Applause] Muhammad so coming back

[30:28]to the original topic I which is to develop our identity as

[30:31]Muslims our responsibility number one is a personal one get to know

[30:38]your religion read about your religion in a deeper way connect with

[30:42]it on a personal level each and every one of us has

[30:47]a responsibility if you want to improve yourself as a Muslim this

[30:51]is the best time to do it in the month of Ramadan

[30:54]in Islam to progress spiritually you have to put time and effort

[31:01]you don't wake up in the morning and you become a guru

[31:06]right A lot of people want this fast process and nowadays you

[31:10]don't blame them because this is how everything is you want everything

[31:13]at a click of a button you wish you can order the

[31:18]guru package off of Amazon or something you order it and you

[31:21]install it in your brain and everything you do is counter into

[31:28]is against what you're supposed to be doing these things require effort

[31:32]and energy and Islam tells us this that's why it's called the

[31:35]struggle against the self it's a struggle you have to if you

[31:41]want to improve yourself you have to invest in yourself you need

[31:44]to put energy you have to put effort to improve you can't

[31:51]go on chat gbt or something and tell them to resolve your

[31:55]spiritual problems you're not feeling well or something please make a out

[32:00]for me resolve you know we have a Hadith where the Prophet

[32:03]says or the Imam say Allah subhana tells the Believers to pray

[32:09]with a tongue that has not sinned and if they pray with

[32:13]a tongue that has not sinned Allah will answer that prayer for

[32:17]sure now there's different interpretations of this some Scholars say that you

[32:23]ask a child to pray for you because a child is without

[32:27]sin so if you ever have a need a very important need

[32:29]you go to a child and you tell them to make the

[32:32]Dua for you because they hav't sent and Allah will answer their

[32:34]question because there's no barrier between a child and Allah subhana wa

[32:38]tala now if you want a more modern interpretation you tell chadt

[32:43]make a Dua for me Chad you didn't make any sense right

[32:46]if you want to trick I don't know if it works people

[32:49]can try this and publish their results and then inform us to

[32:52]see if if it works or not we don't know maybe maybe

[32:55]it works on the other end on in the higher worlds we'll

[33:00]see but in general Islam tells us that these spiritual things don't

[33:03]come easily you need to struggle you want to improve yourself as

[33:06]a Muslim you have to give your time to yourself every single

[33:11]day you have to detach from this chaos that you're living in

[33:17]this world everybody has to give themselves time to their own selves

[33:21]salot time is meant to do that five times a day you're

[33:28]supposed to disconnect from this world this is what we're supposed to

[33:31]be doing but we're praying five times a day every single day

[33:35]365 times a year days a year for year after year after

[33:41]year has our prayer changed from the previous years that we've been

[33:45]praying if it hasn't changed then we're not progressing there's something wrong

[33:50]happening so Allah doesn't want us just to be outer or apparent

[33:57]external Muslims he wants Islam to change what's in our hearts and

[34:00]in the Quran Allah tells the people when they say that they're

[34:03]Muslims or they're Ms or Believers Allah says don't say that you

[34:10]are believers just say that you become Muslims you've said the shahada

[34:16]and you've joined the outer aspect of Islam but you only become

[34:19]a m and a Believer when you struggleing and you change yourself

[34:23]when your words go with your actions so in the month of

[34:30]Ramadan try to create that change inside of you how can I

[34:32]come up with a solution to my problems and the problems of

[34:38]other people in a community that we live in when we compare

[34:41]it to other communities is it really above others or no we

[34:46]have a lot of problems over here we have young children teenagers

[34:53]who commit suicide we have teenagers who are engaged with a lot

[34:58]of drug activ why is this happening in our community have we

[35:03]developed anything to resolve these issues these are the brothers and sisters

[35:07]and children of people that we know we belong to one Community

[35:12]we have to care about them just like we care about our

[35:15]own selves and our own families have we developed programs to help

[35:19]them have we come up with solutions to help them if things

[35:25]are not working do we have enough people who are being supported

[35:27]to come up with solutions to these problems or not so on

[35:32]the one hand you have to work on yourself to better yourself

[35:36]on the other hand you have to work with the other members

[35:40]of your community as well to better the community it's a responsibility

[35:44]a collective one Allah says this is your nation your community it's

[35:50]one community and in a Hadith the prophet says that the Muslim

[35:55]Community should be like one body if you feel pain in one

[35:57]end the other parts of the body suffer that pain with them

[36:01]and they feel that pain with them so in the west here

[36:07]this is idea of individualism everybody's after their own self their own

[36:11]career their own success and we grow up like this because this

[36:13]is what we're taught right think about your own career think about

[36:18]your own life think about your own success it's me me me

[36:22]over here but the Islamic notion is the opposite of that yes

[36:27]you are very important don't deny yourself but don't forget that you're

[36:31]also part of the collective as well just like you have a

[36:33]responsibility for yourself you have a responsibility for the other as well

[36:39]so as a Muslim living here I shouldn't get drawn and absorbed

[36:42]into this individualism that spread in the American society we shouldn't no

[36:49]we're not individualistic PE people over here we're communal people and again

[36:54]this requires a lot of difficult effort why because you're going against

[36:59]the general wave of society most of the people here around you

[37:03]are going to push you to be individualistic at work they're going

[37:09]to push you to become your own successor or successful in your

[37:15]own way you have to fight that you have to be able

[37:19]to resist that so we have an individual responsibility and we also

[37:24]have a communal responsibility I ask Allah subh to grant us the

[37:29]strength and the wisdom to be able to realize the importance of

[37:34]this change and to be able to be given the effort and

[37:37]success to create this change inside of ourselves and in our communities

[37:59]muham [Music] El for [Music] [Music] in [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] for [Music]

[40:15][Laughter] and [Music] [Music] J [Music] s [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] El

[41:56]in for [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] El and the in [Music] [Applause]

[44:20][Applause] J said [Music] [Music] you for [Music] [Music] Ya Allah Allah

[46:02]Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah Allah for [Applause] [Music] Allah

[47:15][Applause] [Music] [Music] with [Music] what [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] m muh

[49:13][Music]

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