Dr Juman Kubba Staying on the path of Guidance Past Reflections and Future Insight || MGC 2021

11 Bekeken· 24/07/31

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Dr Juman Kubba Staying on the path of Guidance Past Reflections and Future Insight

The Muslim Group of USA and Canada proudly presents its 37th
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[0:23][Music] [Music] this morning we have our lecture titled staying on the

[0:57]path of guidance past reflections and future incites by dr juman kaba

[1:01]dr juman kuba is a scientist and author she got her a

[1:08]bachelor degree from from the university of akron and ohio and has

[1:12]her masters and phd from the university of california los angeles she's

[1:17]a member of the society for neuroscience and the american association for

[1:22]the advancement of science she has worked in the united states and

[1:26]internationally and she currently resides in florida she's the she is the

[1:32]author of multiple books and articles in english and in arabic she

[1:35]is the author and founder of the project hamsa she came to

[1:41]the to the united states in 1982 she participated in many religious

[1:44]education and worship events in ohio utah and california she participated in

[1:50]the organization of the muslim groups conference and local events throughout the

[1:55]eighth throughout the eighties we start now our lecture with dr juman

[1:59]kubbab but let's give it some salawat before we start muhammad and

[2:19]welcome to all of you to our second lecture today and i

[2:26]hope you are all enjoying this conference insha allah so if anybody

[2:30]coming in we can come closer since we don't have that many

[2:33]people so you can uh i can see you better so um

[2:39]so i am so i would like to begin by thanking the

[2:43]muslim group for organizing this uh event which is uh really important

[2:47]for our um learning and our spiritual and educational well-being and i

[2:55]really appreciate your coming here so actually i'm gonna take you on

[3:01]a journey into the past and the future because i would like

[3:04]to so to continue on what we talked about yesterday and i

[3:09]don't know whether you attended my lecture on faith so yesterday we

[3:13]talked a lot about personal uh aspects of faith so today we're

[3:19]gonna talk uh what are we gonna do with the world around

[3:21]us you know we are not just um sitting at home praying

[3:26]all the time we have to interact with the world so how

[3:28]are we gonna do that and what what have we done in

[3:31]the past so i'm going to share with you my experience from

[3:35]40 years of being here in the united states and so how

[3:40]do we manage our faith on a daily basis with people and

[3:46]how do we how do we make sure that our um you

[3:49]know our acts of worship um you know merge with society that

[3:56]we live in so inshallah so can you see the slides okay

[3:59]all right great so actually so we are going to go from

[4:05]the personal which which we did yesterday which was the faith and

[4:09]the spirituality to the outside to the outside world to the communication

[4:13]with society and dealing with the actual daily things that you deal

[4:18]with so how we navigate the world while we are maintaining our

[4:24]faith so basically uh first i would like to say that we

[4:30]are all very grateful to be living here in the united states

[4:35]where we can practice our faith alhamdulillah freely and that is something

[4:40]great and we should be very grateful for and actually this is

[4:45]something that many people don't have whether in muslim countries or other

[4:49]other countries in the world so we are very grateful for that

[4:57]alhamdulillah so so i'm going to talk about where we were before

[5:00]and what are the the things that we have overcome and some

[5:04]really important milestones and insha allah this will inspire those of you

[5:10]who are living here for you know who are younger or who

[5:15]are born here to you know to reach new heights and to

[5:17]carve a new a new pathway so actually this talk is kind

[5:22]of gonna have a three three main things so we're going to

[5:25]talk about some important um things from the past that are really

[5:31]um the cornerstone of where we are today so if it weren't

[5:37]for those things we we wouldn't be here today and also i

[5:41]would like to talk about the the current situation and where we

[5:44]stand today and what are the challenges that are facing us and

[5:47]how to deal with them in a practical way in addition to

[5:51]i want to give you some international perspective from my experience a

[5:55]lot of the issues um about muslims have an international aspect to

[6:03]them and i will talk a little bit about that so uh

[6:06]first uh let's go on um a journey into the past a

[6:11]little bit not not too not too much past but just to

[6:16]to get some reflection so where where we where what are the

[6:19]the challenges that that we faced before so actually a lot of

[6:25]the things that i will say will probably surprise you because many

[6:31]of them we all take for granted today but they were not

[6:34]like that before so so let's talk about a story from the

[6:39]past so actually um when i first came to the united states

[6:45]as a teenager in the early 1980s so um actually most of

[6:51]the people that we interacted with they were of for foreign born

[6:55]and so they came here as either as children or as adults

[6:59]so most of us didn't didn't really know anything about our rights

[7:06]or our you know because we weren't born here we we had

[7:09]just come so at least that's the people that i interacted with

[7:13]i do acknowledge there are some communities that were here for a

[7:19]long time but really their muslim impact was minimal um in a

[7:24]way and as you know this is a vast country so i'm

[7:26]not talking about the whole you know united states i'm talking about

[7:28]what what i saw and what represents actually many many people's experience

[7:35]so believe it or not um so the hijab i want to

[7:41]talk about the hijab so so today we take it for granted

[7:43]we are wearing the hijab and it's normal in most places and

[7:49]even we are today alhamdulillah finding it even in senior government posts

[7:54]and senior political posts we are finding the hijab which is a

[8:00]great but it wasn't like that always so the hijab was a

[8:04]really um an issue so first of all i would like to

[8:06]really um thank americans american society at large for accepting the hijab

[8:14]at that time so actually most americans didn't know what is the

[8:20]hijab and they assumed we we were nuns and i remember my

[8:22]sister and i uh we attended a college and you know the

[8:28]whole college was was talking about us because we were the only

[8:31]two girls with hijab and since we wore the same things they

[8:37]they assumed we had like a uniform and they they always assumed

[8:40]we were nuns so everybody was asking us and even outside in

[8:46]the supermarket or outside somewhere on the road people are assuming we

[8:50]were nuns and actually i can say i was asked about the

[8:56]hijab you know you know hundreds of times during those times and

[9:00]in a very polite and kind manner it was not disparaging or

[9:05]or insulting in any way it was very respectful and kind and

[9:10]i really appreciate that about american society they were very accepting and

[9:14]they were they were curious i mean their questions were curious now

[9:18]that's for the most part i would say that that's not percent

[9:23]of course there are people everywhere who are rude and unkind that

[9:26]that's but those were the exception so that's really nice that the

[9:34]hijab was a new thing and it was uh accepted and really

[9:36]that because a lot of muslim girls and women they they stuck

[9:42]to their hijab that's why we are here today where hijab is

[9:46]normal and the airports in the in the jobs everywhere it has

[9:49]become something normal and also i would like to say with this

[9:55]positive thing that i said also hijab was a contentious issue among

[9:58]the muslim community itself as many women and even men they forced

[10:04]their their the females of their household to take off the hijab

[10:09]and uh they some women themselves and girls they couldn't take the

[10:15]pressure of being looked at and stared at so really it was

[10:17]a contentious issue among the the people themselves the muslims and um

[10:24]then on a practical aspect um so i'm not being you know

[10:30]judgmental on anybody but but it was an issue of debate among

[10:32]the muslims themselves the muslim communities and some people you know adhere

[10:39]to the hijab and they they took the pressure and others didn't

[10:42]and that's just the way it is but actually on a practical

[10:48]note it was difficult for some women to actually get a driver's

[10:52]license with their hijab um you know photo now not all the

[10:57]states some states had this problem or where i lived this didn't

[11:00]this didn't happen but i am aware that in the 1980s some

[11:05]women couldn't get their driver's license because of the hijab photo they

[11:10]they required that you cannot take the photo with the hijab alhamdulillah

[11:13]that changed i don't think that's true anywhere now in the united

[11:18]states which is great which shows that when you do something right

[11:21]so i'm sure somebody you know somewhere went and explained this is

[11:25]our hijab this is what we look like on a daily basis

[11:29]this is not some sort of a costume that we wear and

[11:34]just for fun so it's really nice that americans respect that and

[11:38]they accommodate it and i think this is not a problem for

[11:43]anybody today also i would like to say that working in a

[11:47]job while you are wearing your hijab was an issue for many

[11:50]women and many women they took off their hijab because of the

[11:57]job and very few of us you know uh you know held

[11:59]on and i was one of them alhamdulillah since 1989 i started

[12:06]working with my hijab and as i said overall it was a

[12:10]positive experience alhamdulillah most people are accepting and respecting and it's ironic

[12:15]that sometimes you get more acceptance and respect from americans than from

[12:20]the muslims and or the the arab community or the muslim community

[12:24]who tend to be more judgmental and they try to you know

[12:29]put you down because like okay why are you so backwards you

[12:33]are here in america now so why don't you just you know

[12:36]just you know blend in the society so that's that's the reality

[12:42]that's how it was like you know so the hijab was really

[12:44]an issue and alhamdulillah some sisters and some families they really held

[12:49]on which is really good also i would like to give you

[12:54]another maybe funny thing is about the halal meat which was very

[13:01]scarce at that time so we couldn't actually find halal meat let

[13:05]alone halal restaurant that was non-existent but just just to buy a

[13:10]meat it wasn't possible in many parts of the united states i'm

[13:13]not saying in everywhere but that's how it was and actually i

[13:17]remember in i was at that time living with my sister and

[13:23]brother and we didn't have any meat for several months because we

[13:26]we would we had to travel to michigan actually to dearborn to

[13:29]in order to buy it and put it in some sort of

[13:32]a freezer you know those styrofoam freezer things and bring it back

[13:37]with us so it was a very cumbersome thing to do for

[13:41]young people so we just didn't didn't eat meat for several months

[13:44]so we started to learn about eating fish and being vegetarian so

[13:49]actually these are all practical things that we you deal with you

[13:56]know and also i also regret to say that even the halal

[13:59]meat became at that time a contentious issue among muslims because it

[14:04]was diffic a difficult thing to do and of course because our

[14:07]religion has a lot of you know softness and tolerance if you

[14:12]are going to starve you can eat you know so a lot

[14:16]of people they chose they said okay well you know we we

[14:20]don't have halal meat that's just the way it is so we

[14:21]were gonna eat the regular food so many people chose to be

[14:26]that way and others didn't so i'm just giving you the reality

[14:29]alhamdulillah none of that is true today it's we we have things

[14:35]have changed a lot and you know they they are now a

[14:37]lot easier alhamdulillah and also this issue of the of the meat

[14:44]was reflected again with the little kids in schools so finding a

[14:50]school for your kids was a big challenge um so you know

[14:54]a lot of people wanted to have a muslim or at least

[14:58]uh some sort of you know a little bit of religious education

[15:01]like they didn't want their their children to be exposed to to

[15:07]the world at large the way it is and so finding a

[15:10]muslim school was really hard finding a good school was hard and

[15:14]many people chose to go to to catholic schools or religious schools

[15:19]however that presented another problem with the diet of for the little

[15:25]kids you know during lunch in the cafeteria there isn't anything halal

[15:28]they can eat so there were all these like whenever i meet

[15:32]my peers who had who had just you know their kids they

[15:37]were little and they were just going to school so all of

[15:39]this was a new experience like none of us had had this

[15:44]experience before and all sorts of um people were saying well what

[15:47]can we do you know well the kids will be you know

[15:51]they have to eat you know what are they gonna eat and

[15:52]stuff like that so there were all these challenges you know these

[15:56]are not like you know these are not maybe you find them

[16:01]really mediocre but they're actually daily challenges that people had to deal

[16:05]with you know like if you are a mom and you have

[16:09]to deal with the food of your kids so these were real

[16:11]issues so finding the schools and also the food in the schools

[16:17]and also another problem popped up which is the way the history

[16:20]of islam is taught in the schools really presented a problem for

[16:25]many kids kids were coming home crying because the teacher was saying

[16:31]horrible things about muslims you know that muslims are violent and muslims

[16:35]are this and this presented another problem you know for all these

[16:39]parents who who are in this new terrain they don't know anything

[16:42]about the system most of them were actually grown-ups who had come

[16:48]here and had their children here and so this was an issue

[16:52]so so what i what i can say is that at that

[16:57]time based on what i saw many people solved these issues on

[17:01]a personal um level you know they they went to the school

[17:06]they talked to the teacher they asked the school if they could

[17:09]change the textbook they asked the cafeteria if they could have served

[17:14]vegetarian food etc etc so so a lot of these problems were

[17:20]overcome gradually uh based on personal efforts you know people were striving

[17:26]and using the legitimate ways of communicating with the authorities to solve

[17:33]these issues which is good now maybe today you say wow this

[17:37]this is not a big deal we we can find halal food

[17:41]we can go wear our hijab but actually it wasn't like that

[17:43]so so really it was hard for some kids and for some

[17:49]moms and dads when they were dealing with these issues and even

[17:51]though i myself you know i was a teenager at that time

[17:55]so it wasn't affecting me directly but i really felt for for

[18:01]my friends and peers who had children who were older a little

[18:04]bit and i tried you know to do my best to help

[18:08]them but but we were really practicing our you know problem solving

[18:11]skills on a on a day-by-day basis trying to solve these issues

[18:16]so so also another uh issue was in ramadan where where we

[18:23]have exams and we have you know work and whatever and so

[18:27]it took you know some time to for people to to you

[18:32]know to make make the their co-workers or their professors know that

[18:36]what we are fasting is it possible if we if we postpone

[18:40]this activity or can i come at a different time all of

[18:45]these things were solved on a personal um you know one by

[18:48]one level and i remember in one case my my exam fell

[18:52]in the evening like around seven pm in the evening my final

[18:56]exam and it was ramadan and it's like wow i'm gonna be

[18:59]at that time the iftar was really late like i was living

[19:03]in ohio at that time so iftar was around eight o'clock i

[19:05]think or whatever so so i went on a personal you know

[19:09]level to the professor and said well can i change my exam

[19:13]to the morning because they had another version of the exam in

[19:16]the morning so as you can see we solved these issues on

[19:19]uh just with personal effort there was no systematic way to solve

[19:25]it now alhamdulillah later on i think throughout the years and as

[19:29]i also as i moved to other states where they had larger

[19:35]communities then we can see in some schools they even i remember

[19:37]when i was at ucla they even uh in the 1990s they

[19:42]reserved a time for jumaa prayer which is really nice like as

[19:45]a not a personal effort as a systemic you know at the

[19:51]school level so that's really nice and also um you know we

[19:56]had many uh organizations and many government agencies acknowledge ramadan and acknowledge

[20:02]adulthood this all happened you know uh gradually and actually we did

[20:06]a lot of effort where during the aid we took to our

[20:10]colleagues the cakes and the flowers and you know we did a

[20:16]small celebration so all of that i believe was you know the

[20:18]foundation of what we see today alhamdulillah of a lot of prayers

[20:22]and a lot of you know just a lot of activities that

[20:27]are normal um also i would like to say that a lot

[20:30]of muslims and and even non-muslim arabs i think they they changed

[20:35]their names they were really trying to to be accepted in societies

[20:38]and not only women took off their hijab even the women without

[20:43]hijab they they all tried to be blonde you know they dyed

[20:46]their hair they really wanted to fit in what they what they

[20:48]missed out unfortunately is that this is a country that accepts people

[20:53]the way they are alhamdulillah this is really great and as we

[20:57]can you can see there are many successful people around us uh

[21:00]today so so i would like you know to thank all the

[21:05]muslims who were here decades even before me decades ago and who

[21:10]who really established the foundations of the mosque or of the halal

[21:15]food or or any effort that they did to make it easier

[21:17]for the the ones who come um you know later so so

[21:23]alhamdulillah we are in a good shape and we want it to

[21:28]stay that way we want to have you know today it's normal

[21:30]to have hijab everywhere in the airports in the schools in the

[21:36]hospitals um and anywhere even in the government we are finding women

[21:40]with hijab so that's that's great and that's really um you know

[21:43]i appreciate and thank every woman who is uh really standing with

[21:49]her hijab and you know not giving up but quickly with under

[21:53]the smallest pressure so so we move on to the current situation

[21:58]where we are as you know the world changes and this country

[22:05]changes and and the dynamics of the world are changing so today

[22:08]we have actually a new set of challenges and many of you

[22:11]are going to be dealing with that so we um so let's

[22:17]look at where we are today and what is yet coming toward

[22:22]us that we have to overcome so actually i think we all

[22:26]so i'm going to talk about four things that are currently uh

[22:32]really concerning so the islamophobia that exists now in many parts of

[22:35]the world as also exists here and although there are many um

[22:40]laws and regulations that protect all religions and you know and even

[22:47]recently there was i think uh congress passed some sort of uh

[22:50]at least in the house i think it was passed against the

[22:55]islamophobia however you cannot remove the islamophobia from the hearts of people

[22:59]it exists that's just the way it is so as i mentioned

[23:04]in a previous lecture with the youth the other day so actually

[23:08]we can counter that by two ways and i have found really

[23:13]successful not so much the countering it wasn't in my case it

[23:17]wasn't so much islamophobia but it was really being accepted by the

[23:22]society at large is first we have to keep our good manners

[23:25]good islamic manners so people know they trust us at the job

[23:31]at the at the bank wherever we are at the school so

[23:34]people trust us they know that we don't steal we don't cheat

[23:39]so that's a really good thing alhamdulillah so so that actually is

[23:44]like a credit that you have as a muslim person because we

[23:47]have the manners of islam that really guide our behavior so that's

[23:54]good and also um also when you are adhering to your faith

[24:00]people actually respect that and so as i mentioned i have been

[24:07]asked hundreds of times about the hijab which is really nice but

[24:10]also about eating not eating the pork about not drinking i mean

[24:17]hundreds of times i've answered that question so actually people respect that

[24:22]they don't look down upon it it's it's probably the opposite in

[24:25]many muslim countries where they look down upon you if you say

[24:28]i well i follow the halal things but but actually their people

[24:31]respect that so so that could work also encountering the islamophobia so

[24:38]so the islamophobia is even though there are laws against it but

[24:42]actually it exists in some people's hearts that's just the way it

[24:47]is so we can counter it by the good manners you know

[24:50]by the by the good behavior so you know so even when

[24:59]somebody is rude to us of course we have to protect ourselves

[25:04]and you know to use the legitimate means to protect ourselves but

[25:08]also uh not to you know to use this idea from the

[25:13]quran is somebody is attacking you or insulting you uh try to

[25:16]be better and not to be uh try to control your emotions

[25:20]as we were saying yesterday also it's not just the islamophobia at

[25:24]large but also sometimes it affects our personal safety so many of

[25:30]us are afraid you know for our property or our children or

[25:34]our own safety and many people unfortunately we've heard of many muslims

[25:39]you know that were attacked after 9 11 or or throughout the

[25:45]years and even it happened to me personally i was attacked verbally

[25:47]by by someone a few few years back and actually i i

[25:53]reported it to the police as i hate a crime so so

[25:58]we have to use whatever legal and lawful ways for us to

[26:01]protect ourselves but also we try to to counter the hatred uh

[26:08]using the you know the good manners and the the the of

[26:12]the islam and the bait also the third issue which is also

[26:19]very concerning is that societies are changing all over the world and

[26:25]there are a lot of things that are happening that are probably

[26:28]against our uh belief uh you know a lot of the social

[26:33]and the family issues so we can focus on you know preserving

[26:38]what what we want and what we can so we we maybe

[26:45]we cannot stop every wrong thing in the world that is around

[26:51]us but at least let's protect our own conduct and our own

[26:55]families and our children and our communities which is which is allowed

[26:59]to to be so so even though for example a lot of

[27:05]the issues that are dividing really american society also that are dealing

[27:10]with the family and with reproductive rights and issues of that nature

[27:16]we can we have the right to to be the way we

[27:20]are and to protect our um you know lifestyle it is within

[27:26]the laws and it is something that that we can do here

[27:28]so even though society is changing and a lot of the norms

[27:34]are changing not just here all over the world actually but we

[27:37]we don't have to go along with that we can maintain our

[27:41]faith and the the guidelines of our faith and a lot of

[27:44]christians are doing that and we can do that too and so

[27:48]we shouldn't um come under any pressure to change the way we

[27:53]are you know just to fit in and if you really think

[27:57]about it it's kind of the same of what i just said

[27:59]earlier about the the past you know a lot of people gave

[28:03]up a little bit they gave up the hijab they gave up

[28:07]their name they gave up the halal meet to fit in but

[28:12]guess what the society will demand from you to give up more

[28:16]things you know they they will probably ask you to give up

[28:18]prayer or give up marriage or whatever and just have a free

[28:23]relations just like some communities are doing actually in some states so

[28:28]we don't have to do that we we have the right to

[28:32]be the way we are and practice our faith and alhamdulillah that's

[28:35]that's really good and also the other issue that i would like

[28:40]to mention and both of the the third and actually all of

[28:44]those four issues these are especially important if we have any uh

[28:49]people especially young people who are you know specializing their careers in

[28:54]law or in policy foreign policy or domestic policy so you really

[28:58]need to be aware of these issues now i know in my

[29:04]generation actually everybody every person probably if we do a survey today

[29:08]in this conference all the older people are either into medicine science

[29:12]or engineering or business and i don't think you'll find anybody who

[29:18]pursued law or you know policy or that sort of thing so

[29:22]i hope the young people will flip that as i mentioned in

[29:26]the previous workshop that we really need muslims to pursue fields like

[29:30]journalism and policy and issues that affect all of us not just

[29:35]affect the health of some people or the the business of others

[29:40]and so on so actually uh so the fourth issue regarding the

[29:46]foreign policy today with muslim countries so actually we have you know

[29:50]we have the right to to have a say in our foreign

[29:52]policy as you know as citizens lawful citizens of this country so

[30:00]we are taxpayers and so we um we we can uh through

[30:02]the normal means through contacting our representatives and through inshallah through some

[30:09]youth who are probably forming some organizations so a lot of our

[30:14]policy is actually um and not just us policy but also international

[30:18]organizations are are really forcing things on muslim societies that are contrary

[30:26]to islam and contrary to the traditions of those countries i'm just

[30:31]giving you an example in most muslim countries for example abortion is

[30:35]legal only for medical purposes you know when there is a medical

[30:39]reason it is legal it is not legal for just for the

[30:44]fun of it you know you today you decided you you don't

[30:47]want to be pregnant anymore it's not legal that way so but

[30:50]it is legal for medical purposes well guess what a lot of

[30:52]international uh organizations and international uh what they call the treaties or

[30:58]um they call them i don't know what they're called in english

[31:04]exactly like like agreements or um yeah yeah so so those things

[31:14]are really forcing muslim countries to change their laws so actually we

[31:18]have a say in this you know this is our also our

[31:22]tax money is participating in this so we can do that through

[31:24]our the normal ways that we do here in america we contact

[31:30]our representatives we form groups that oppose these things because actually you

[31:35]know a lot of the uh our tax money goes in the

[31:38]form of foreign aid you know foreign aid that goes to many

[31:43]countries and through this foreign aid we see a lot of uh

[31:45]conditions so the the governments the governments of many muslim countries receive

[31:50]the aid on condition that you change this law or that law

[31:56]which is really terrible i have seen that firsthand in several muslim

[32:01]countries and actually the consequences are really bad and our societies are

[32:05]even though i mean i mean i i mean i'm personally and

[32:07]all as muslims we are against abortion uh unless it's for medical

[32:13]purposes but you know but here in this country we respect the

[32:16]law the law allows it and that's just the way it is

[32:20]but i don't think you know we should be imposing that on

[32:23]other you know countries especially it's our tax money that's being used

[32:26]for that so these are issues that we can think about and

[32:32]actually i would like to uh refer to um maybe later on

[32:35]i will refer to a document that some of you may have

[32:38]heard of it's the abbreviation of it is si dao it's a

[32:43]tifaket si dao it's uh it's a it's a c-e-d-a-w it's an

[32:49]acronym well this uh or agreement is an international agreement is purely

[32:54]being imposed on muslim countries and actually ironically the united states opposed

[32:59]most of the the items in that um you know in that

[33:04]document but on most muslim countries are are just accepting it blindly

[33:11]just because you know they are receiving aid as a result of

[33:14]accepting these things and these things destroy their family structure for example

[33:18]they are legal not only legalizing abortion but also legalizing um you

[33:24]know uh like children who are not uh who are out of

[33:29]wedlock so legalizing their status so so as you know in most

[33:32]muslim countries these status are not legal as a deterrent it's a

[33:35]deterrent so that you don't conduct you don't engage in that conduct

[33:41]so these issues i hope i'm not trying to solve these issues

[33:43]here now but i'm saying inshallah there are among us there are

[33:47]people who are going to be lawyers and and policy makers and

[33:51]so we should uh you know these are challenges that that we

[33:54]are going to be facing um also so actually so how we

[34:00]handle these current challenges is as we said first things first so

[34:03]so inshallah we all try to improve our knowledge not just in

[34:09]our career but also as i said knowledge around us knowledge about

[34:14]laws about regulations that are happening and we should really increase our

[34:20]knowledge by learning learning in general reading books as you know knowledge

[34:26]in the islam is very important and also knowing about the issues

[34:34]that are facing our community also try to be confident and as

[34:41]i said yesterday the iman makes us strong so even if somebody

[34:44]gives you a hate speech or or some joke about your hijab

[34:49]or whatever it will not affect you because you're strong so so

[34:54]don't worry you have you've done great things and we have achieved

[34:58]the great things and we are a good part of the society

[35:02]so that's these are all great things and actually our identity our

[35:07]muslim identity is is a great is a positive thing it's not

[35:09]uh like in in some of the lectures we heard uh yesterday

[35:13]with uh said i think uh who he said a lot of

[35:18]people are shy to say that they're muslims of course for us

[35:20]with muslim women with hijab it's it's out in the open so

[35:24]we are sort of at the front line of this masha'allah stay

[35:30]confident and you know continue to build your knowledge and your your

[35:37]high spiritual strength uh so yes so our spirituality sorry so uh

[35:41]so let's me do spirituality first so so our spirituality is is

[35:48]as we said yesterday it brings us closer to god gives us

[35:53]strength so even when somebody is attacking you you can maintain calmness

[35:57]because you know you know what allah said so you say that

[36:04]to yourself and you feel really great so our spirituality is really

[36:08]good it's strengthen us as we said and especially when we are

[36:12]out in the real life not just at home praying that's that's

[36:14]one thing that we are building ourselves at home but when we

[36:18]go out in the world we are actually being experiencing all sorts

[36:24]of challenges so to go back so so we strengthen our spirituality

[36:27]we strengthen our knowledge and also participate in the community with all

[36:33]the lawful means that are allowed to us here so for example

[36:38]you all of you all of us i have done that we

[36:39]can contact our political leaders our representatives we can go and visit

[36:45]them and present an issue that's facing us we can write to

[36:48]them actually we we have done that in the past writing and

[36:52]visiting and i hope that the younger generation will take it even

[36:56]a step further and maybe form a lobbying a group form an

[37:00]organization that can you know push certain policies also um you i

[37:09]hope that especially the younger people you can create your own organizations

[37:13]or participate in existing organizations such as the swan and also cooperate

[37:18]with other people and other groups and also as we said yesterday

[37:26]on a personal level challenge is actually is going to bring us

[37:31]closer to god it's going to it's going to make us you

[37:37]know endure like endure more well in real life challenge also makes

[37:43]us smarter we find ways to solve problems so if you are

[37:47]unchallenged then you will never um you know be creative but when

[37:54]you have these challenges so okay so they um so there's no

[37:57]halal food here that those were the the smaller challenges maybe before

[38:01]actually they're not that small because you know you have to eat

[38:05]at some point so so now when you have uh we have

[38:10]all these new challenges that i just mentioned the islamophobia the we

[38:15]are afraid for our safety uh the the changing world around us

[38:19]and how to fit in and maintain our values these are all

[38:22]challenges and inshallah we will find ways to to deal with them

[38:29]and also um okay so we already did that so as you

[38:30]can see here so i can't really point from here so so

[38:35]we have challenges but we want to build our spiritual strength and

[38:38]our knowledge and our confidence so the three things at the top

[38:44]really make us very strong they will enable us to participate in

[38:47]the society remember here today i'm talking about participation at large not

[38:52]not just the personal aspect so so that's i hope that you

[38:59]can keep that in mind as you are facing new challenges and

[39:01]finally i would like to talk about some international issues as you

[39:07]know um as i said we are really grateful that we can

[39:09]practice our faith here it is not the case for many muslim

[39:13]countries are having a lot of problems so in addition to the

[39:18]wars and the migration issues which is very sad just making us

[39:22]also very sad because many of those people are our relatives our

[39:25]our friends our people our people that we know and and they

[39:30]are human beings who are suffering so so we uh would like

[39:34]we all would like to help and and so it's so it's

[39:37]a challenge to formulate organizations that are legitimate and legal and that

[39:42]can actually transfer the money to those people so this is a

[39:45]challenge that we have to deal with also as you know there

[39:49]are a lot of anti-islam policies in many countries worldwide and i'm

[39:53]sure you hear about the hijab being fought in many countries and

[39:57]being banned gradually from schools and from jobs and i really feel

[40:03]like we're going back we're going backwards in the world you know

[40:07]like it reminds me of the 19 even though i wasn't born

[40:11]in the 1950s and 40s when the hijab was was not allowed

[40:14]in many parts of the even the muslim countries you know they

[40:17]they were um it was you know like many of us who

[40:24]were alive in the 70s in muslim countries hardly you saw any

[40:27]hijab at that time so it seems that the world is going

[40:33]backwards and creating all these anti-hijab policies in schools and work and

[40:37]so on so we have to find ways of supporting women everywhere

[40:42]in the world who you know who want to wear their hijab

[40:47]and also also i regret to say that a lot of muslim

[40:50]countries are having the the el had you know the they are

[40:55]turning away from religion and that's why we really need to to

[41:01]make this uh here the muslims here in the united states like

[41:04]a shining you know shining light to keep the faith because because

[41:10]you know there are a lot of political and economic factors that

[41:16]are that are you know contributing to people um to to the

[41:21]really social disintegration of societies so so i hope some of you

[41:26]are or will be working in policy or you know foreign affairs

[41:30]or international law where you will be dealing with these issues directly

[41:35]also a lot of anti-faith policies a lot of actually muslim countries

[41:41]they're banning the adhan they're banning the parts of the quran just

[41:45]imagine imagine like where like it's like it's like we're going back

[41:51]to the dark ages you know so this is really dangerous and

[41:52]so i hope through our efforts here we can you know prevent

[41:56]that or stop that um and also i want to say in

[42:02]general that that my experience here in the united states has been

[42:05]positive for the most part you know like over the overwhelming part

[42:11]of it has been positive and good and and really have found

[42:16]a lot of kindness from americans and a lot of acceptance as

[42:19]i mentioned before i have gone to some office parties with with

[42:26]my husband and we asked for a table without alcohol and they

[42:30]they did that for us and uh you know i have gone

[42:35]with to some parties at people's homes you know they invite us

[42:38]for thanksgiving or christmas or whatever and i tell them that you

[42:44]know we don't eat pork so they they make some vegetarian food

[42:46]for us so it's very a lot of kindness a lot of

[42:50]acts of kindness so really where we stand today we need to

[42:56]think more on a systemic level now because we need to make

[43:00]a lot of things into policies i would like to share with

[43:04]you some ideas that i have that are really important to me

[43:09]and i hope maybe to be able to collaborate with some of

[43:12]you so we talked about science yesterday and the day before and

[43:15]actually science it's not only the science in the quran issue that's

[43:22]that's beautiful knowledge to know but also actually correcting the science text

[43:28]box i as a science professor i've dealt with many textbooks and

[43:33]literally i've told all my students the first page of the book

[43:37]is wrong because all the science textbooks they say well you know

[43:41]during the times of the greeks and the egyptians there was whatever

[43:45]this this practice of science and then nothing happened until the 17th

[43:52]or 16th centuries where so and so discovered this and that so

[43:58]they took completely and absolutely deny the muslim contribution to science so

[44:02]inshallah i'm working to change that of course so i'm building my

[44:08]own knowledge of muslim science that's why i gave you this bibliography

[44:11]um yesterday i hope everybody will be reading those because actually we

[44:16]need to correct the science books uh to reflect to say that

[44:22]no during this 1000 years of you know history there were a

[44:25]lot of scientific uh so so inshallah what i plan to do

[44:30]is maybe have a hundred scientists sign a letter uh to the

[44:33]american association of the advancement of science of which i am a

[44:36]member and hopefully make a real policy you know a real statement

[44:42]that we want the books to be corrected so that's one thing

[44:44]that i'm working on personally inshallah i will collaborate with you also

[44:48]i would like to to remind you of the importance of the

[44:53]arabic language not only in science and astronomy um but also in

[44:57]in military and naval um you know what you call them affairs

[45:05]or or um techniques so the words uh like admiral and arsenal

[45:10]are actually arabic words uh words of astronomy like zenith and azimuth

[45:15]are arabic words so so we need to propagate this knowledge to

[45:20]the world and i hope as i mentioned to you i hope

[45:21]the young people will will take this a step further and make

[45:26]it into a something more not just um not just a post

[45:31]on facebook but something more like more solid and also i would

[45:35]like to say that uh inshallah i hope that people who are

[45:40]in college and or in who have large you know contact with

[45:43]communities to start quranics quranic readings with with non-muslims this would be

[45:49]very beautiful and also i think we we should support women and

[45:52]girls with hijab actually i just want to share with you that

[45:58]several years ago i wrote a book about hijab and it was

[46:04]before all of this internationalization of the hijab problem but just believe

[46:09]it or not my book was declined it wasn't published but the

[46:13]person who gave it a a bad review was a muslim woman

[46:20]muslim woman who hates the hijab but she is an expert on

[46:22]you know women women studies or women affairs or whatever so they

[46:29]gave her the book to review it and she just hated it

[46:31]and she wrote a terrible review so i wasn't able to publish

[46:35]it so all what i'm trying to say is we need to

[46:39]use all the means possible to support women with hijab internationally not

[46:42]just here with our communities and encouraging the girls and the women

[46:47]who have the hijab but also internationally so inshallah i will try

[46:51]to re redo the book you know now that with all the

[46:56]new things and also of course as i said we should counter

[46:58]the hate and the phobia uh with knowledge also i mentioned earlier

[47:05]about the international agreements so i i do have a document it's

[47:09]700 pages long so i can't just pass it around but if

[47:14]anybody is interested in these issues of women and international agreements i

[47:19]can email it to you and you'll see how it is very

[47:21]destructive to family structure and even christians are against it not just

[47:27]muslims so we need to i hope there are people in this

[47:31]room or in this community who are interested in law or international

[47:36]policy and who will be active in these you know in these

[47:42]areas and um finally i would like to say there is a

[47:45]new year coming inshallah in a few days so i hope that

[47:49]we all make a challenge to ourselves to read at least one

[47:53]page of the quran per day and if you can't maybe every

[47:59]other day and also learn the tafseer at least of one ayah

[48:05]per week and also maybe read a new dua every month and

[48:09]thank you very much thank you for attending this lecture

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Dr Juman Kubba Staying on the path of Guidance Past Reflections and Future Insight || MGC 2021

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