Imam al-Sadiq (a) and his Advice to Shia Youth - Sheikh Saleem Bhimji

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[0:00][Music] tonight I wanted to look briefly at the life of the

[0:08]sixth Imam and some of the teachings that the Imam has given

[0:13]to us and more specifically tonight I want to look at the

[0:16]topic of the advice or guidance that the sixth Imam gave to

[0:21]the youth of our community right and obviously this is very pertinent

[0:25]not only for here but for any community in the world that

[0:27]we go to right whenever we go to any of the centers

[0:31]and whenever I've traveled from coast to coast in Canada or Europe

[0:35]or Africa or Australia one of the hottest topics on the minds

[0:38]of everybody is where are the youth in our communities where are

[0:43]they in the modulus where are they in the centres where are

[0:46]they when it comes to volunteering their time giving not only in

[0:50]terms of cooking and cleaning and preparing food but where are the

[0:54]intellectuals of our community the ones who are experts in IT who

[1:01]are professionals in videography who are artists who are graphic designers who

[1:04]are maybe people in the media who can bring our community forward

[1:10]the question is always there is where are the youth and so

[1:13]I want to try and answer some of the points from our

[1:19]sixth Imam the guidance that he is given about how we we

[1:22]meeting the community in general should be interacting with the youth but

[1:26]also what it is what is it that the youth also have

[1:30]to give back before I begin with that though let me just

[1:34]go to the next slide and talk very briefly about our sixth

[1:36]Imam I'm sure we know all of these facts but sometimes a

[1:40]reminder is good for all of us so as I said he

[1:44]was born on the same day as our prophet and the same

[1:49]17th or robiola well in the year 80 after the hijra in

[1:51]the city of medina he attained the position of imamat obviously with

[1:57]the death of his father muhammad al-baqir peace be upon him and

[2:01]the sixth imam was about 34 years old when his imamat initiated

[2:04]and as you see that he had the longest imamat out of

[2:09]any of the imams other than obviously the 12th Imam at 28

[2:12]years and it's important to realize that the sixth Imam lived out

[2:19]of unique position in Islamic history because the Banu Omega the Omega

[2:24]dynasty who had been ruling from about the Year 40 up until

[2:28]129 that they obviously had the control of the Muslim Ummah there

[2:32]were expansionists they launched Wars to take over territory and eventually their

[2:38]rule was coming to an end and the Banu Abbas would take

[2:44]over that domination but in the process of the Banu Omega losing

[2:48]control and Banu Abbas coming on the scene there basically was a

[2:55]power vacuum in the community there was a power vacuum in the

[2:59]Muslim Ummah and what this meant for the 6th Imam the fifth

[3:02]Imam from our perspective and also there the general Muslim theologians and

[3:06]scholars was because these two dynasties were fighting for power they didn't

[3:14]have time to focus on oppressing the ahlul bayt alayhim wa salaam

[3:18]they didn't have time to focus on even the muslim community on

[3:21]a whole they were worried more about trying to preserve their own

[3:25]power structure that they had and so when you look at history

[3:31]and you read the lives of these imams a 15-6 in specific

[3:33]you see how they began to openly teach in the masjid of

[3:40]the prophet in Medan medina not only hundreds but we're told that

[3:44]thousands of scholars and students were in the masjid learning the various

[3:49]disciplines not just hadith although as you know if you study history

[3:53]that hadith writing of hadith was Haram he was prohibited the second

[3:56]khalifa he came on the scene and he actually prevented the Muslims

[4:02]from writing down the hadith of Rasulullah and all of the Muslim

[4:06]books mentioned this not our books the mainstream Muslims you look at

[4:09]their books of history and hadith and the second khalifa has clearly

[4:14]said that he would actually punish the people violently who would dare

[4:18]narrate and say carla rasulullah and we have hadith and even abu

[4:22]huraira whose knowing name I'm sure we've heard that he complained that

[4:29]he was being stifled that he could not say that the prophet

[4:32]of Allah said this and that and so this era was drawing

[4:34]to a close the bunny Abbas are coming on the scene and

[4:38]now because of that the scholarship begins to bloom scholars began to

[4:45]debate to discuss to bring those hadith that had been written but

[4:49]hidden into the limelight and so this became a golden opportunity for

[4:53]the Imams of ahlulbayt alayhim as-salam and obviously the rest of the

[4:59]Muslims to begin to further expand on knowledge which up until that

[5:02]point had been the the spreading of that had been stifled had

[5:10]been constricted within the community before I go to the main theme

[5:13]I want to bring up this topic on the next slide of

[5:17]our identity you know and I reason I bring this up is

[5:19]that we live in an era where many people are being told

[5:25]when you ask who they are or who you are they'll say

[5:29]we are Muslim and people don't want to hear that you're shy

[5:33]you're Sunni you're this you're that and many times even even myself

[5:37]growing up people would say brother don't say that you're a Shia

[5:41]or you're this year that just say you're Muslim because Allah never

[5:45]uses the word Shia in the Quran or Sunnah which is obviously

[5:48]a false statement because Allah uses the word Shia in the Quran

[5:53]in a positive light but people say the Prophet didn't believe is

[5:56]Shia Sunni we're all equal why do we use these names and

[5:59]we have to realize that yes we as Muslims that is our

[6:06]primary identity we are ones who submit to Allah no doubt about

[6:09]it right this is a quranic narrative as well the quran tells

[6:13]us that you have been called muslims that you are muslims you

[6:16]have submitted to god to allah this is your identity but then

[6:21]we say well no we have to identify ourselves because allah has

[6:25]done that in the quran you look in the quran when allah

[6:30]talks about the prophets about ibraheem alehissalaam allah says that he was

[6:34]a shia of prophet nooh and allah uses the word shia and

[6:38]he says that nabi knew or nubbie ibrahim rather was a Shia

[6:41]it was a follower of prophet Noah but even if you go

[6:44]further you the hadith and the Muslims of all persuasions mentioned that

[6:50]for example when Sir Toby and I came to Rasulullah and Allah

[6:53]says in Allah Dina amanu Romulus Allah heart hola y Coahoma hey

[6:57]rule Beria that rasulullah went to amirul mumineen and he says ya

[7:04]Ali on tawa shia touka that these you and your shia these

[7:08]are hyrule Beria that your followers are the best of creation on

[7:12]earth and this is in the non shear books of hadith you

[7:16]can look this up for example in the book Shaheed o tanzeel

[7:19]by al haqqani a very famous sunni scholar compiles a two-volume work

[7:23]in arabic where he takes every verse of the quran which speaks

[7:29]about the merit of the Ahlul Bayt and he quotes hadith to

[7:32]prove IATA the quran about the prophets statements about ali about fatima

[7:38]and hassan and husayn alayhim as-salam so we say were a Shia

[7:44]not that we don't follow rasulullah we follow the sunnah of rasulullah

[7:47]but we do it through a particular chain through a particular individual

[7:52]or individuals because we believe that they have preserved the Sunnah of

[7:58]Rasulullah in the best way possible but then you know the challenge

[8:01]comes because you have zaydis you have Smiley's you have already the

[8:05]other are there she is out there in the world today and

[8:08]so we go a further a step further and say well we're

[8:11]it's now at ease we follow 12 imams beginning obviously with Ameer

[8:16]al-mumineen and culminating with imam imam al mahdi alayhi salam but the

[8:22]question comes is why do we then call ourselves joffrey Shias you

[8:27]look at a lot of our religious centers the joffrey community center

[8:31]the joffrey mosque why don't we for example call ourselves our languages

[8:36]obvious that has a negative connotation in the politics of the world

[8:41]today but really we're otherwise we follow amirul mumineen but then we're

[8:46]hasani's where hussain is where Sajjad is where mockeries where economies where

[8:51]otherwise we are math dohui's but we are some reason attributed to

[8:56]imam ja'far as-sadiq we're called Felicio why it's something that we should

[9:02]realize because people might ask us your shia what's your proof of

[9:07]being shia from the quran we can quote verses of the quran

[9:10]they'll say you follow 12 imams why do you follow 12 why

[9:14]not the four Halawa we can we should be able to bring

[9:16]hadith from the books of the non shia to say look rasool

[9:21]allah said after him would be 12 olaf are 12 Amir's from

[9:24]banu hashim from Quraysh the Prophet himself said fall over 12 and

[9:30]then people might say well you follow or you call Joffrey proved

[9:34]the the truthfulness of why you're Karl Jefferies I don't want to

[9:39]go into the entire discussion but just to give us one identity

[9:41]identifier although we follow amirul mumineen we follow Imam Hasan we follow

[9:47]Imam Husayn we accept all of their teachings we don't doubt any

[9:52]of them and as I've said before they're all from one nor

[9:54]one light they all give us the same teachings the the way

[9:59]that amirul mumineen prayed salat is the exact same way to the

[10:03]60 mom prayed you can't say they prayed differently in fact in

[10:07]the non shia in Abyssinia books of hadith they tell us that

[10:10]when a middle minene took over the halawet 20 some-odd years after

[10:14]having been denied the right and he led the jamaat prayers the

[10:21]companions of rasulallah are quoted as saying that when they prayed behind

[10:24]a mirror on what meaning they say that we have never prayed

[10:27]a salat like this since the time of rasulullah so what happened

[10:33]that people couldn't even know how to pray like the Prophet prayed

[10:37]until amirul mumineen comes and leaves the community so we're Alois we

[10:41]love Amira more meaning we would give our lives our parents lives

[10:45]our children's lives for amirul mumineen but when we say we're joffrey

[10:49]we are saying that he had an opportunity in medina to teach

[10:58]the religious sciences to elaborate on the fit of why we perform

[11:03]certain actions he was able to develop a school in which theology

[11:06]a Fayed could be discussed and debated he discussed philosophy he brought

[11:12]up tough seed of the Quran much of what we have today

[11:18]in our identity as Joffrey Shias is because of the fact of

[11:20]that political conflict between Abbas Bono Abbas and Bono Omega that gave

[11:26]the Imams of ahlulbayt the fifth and the sixth Imam that opportunity

[11:31]to speak in public to teach to enter into debates to dialogue

[11:35]with the people and so we really owe it to the sixth

[11:40]mm that he gave us at Opera had that opportunity and he

[11:43]gave us the ability to attribute ourselves to him again otherwise we

[11:49]are followers of all of the Imams we don't differentiate but he

[11:54]had the most opportune time to be able to elucidate on the

[11:59]religion and really bring forth the hadith that were hidden the teachings

[12:03]that could not be spoken about in public because of fear of

[12:06]repercussion by the Holy Father the time and so really when we

[12:12]celebrate the 60 mom's birth we celebrate the fact that our identity

[12:15]goes back to him through the fact of his being the intellectual

[12:20]mastermind behind bringing forth all of these teachings on the next slide

[12:27]I have just a word which is highlighted assessment and you see

[12:32]a lot of other words around it and what I want to

[12:36]get out of this slide and this introduction is the fact that

[12:39]and again the topic is the words of the sixth Imam in

[12:44]guiding the youth is the fact that one of the principal factors

[12:46]that we as a community whether it's here or anywhere that we

[12:52]go the one thing that we always need to do is plan

[12:54]for our future they have a saying in English if you fail

[13:00]to plan then you have planned to fail it's very simple if

[13:03]you fail to plan you plan to fail whether it's at school

[13:07]and you don't study or do your homework whether you're an entrepreneur

[13:10]and you have your own business whether you're a house you know

[13:14]a mother working at home and you don't plan every aspect of

[13:19]our life needs planning even you look at the last will that

[13:22]was here that amirul mumineen leaves for his family he advised them

[13:26]to have taqwa of Allah and then he says after the taqwa

[13:30]of Allah well now when athame American have order have discipline in

[13:35]your affairs make sure things are set out as they should be

[13:40]one of the challenges as a Muslim community globally that we face

[13:44]and there are exceptions to this rule no doubt but for the

[13:47]most part we don't seem to plan for the future we don't

[13:53]seem to do a forecast plan an analysis to see where we

[13:57]are today and plan for where we want to be five ten

[14:02]twenty years in the future this is something that the non-muslims do

[14:06]on a regular basis and if you work in the corporate sector

[14:11]you would see this I know when I worked in corporate Canada

[14:13]right they weren't just looking for the next product to release tomorrow

[14:16]they're saying well what is our three-year five-year roadmap where do we

[14:20]want our company to be in fact I was watching a documentary

[14:26]with a very famous Hollywood producer James Cameron who made the movie

[14:31]Avatar maybe some of you have seen it and the Titanic and

[14:33]many other movies but when he talked about his making of the

[14:38]movie Avatar which if you don't know it was the highest-grossing movie

[14:41]ever it made over three billion dollars three billion dollars this movie

[14:47]made so it's a huge a movie but I was watching an

[14:51]interview with him and he said that he wrote the script of

[14:53]the movie and he knew for a fact that technology was not

[14:58]at the level to make the movie computers were not powerful enough

[15:02]in the late 90s the cameras he wanted were not even created

[15:05]yet the CGI animation software wasn't even developed this was not even

[15:12]a thought in the mind of software and hardware creators but he

[15:15]said to himself I'm gonna write the movie the script I'm going

[15:18]to prepare the entire script of this movie so that in 10

[15:23]years when the technology is ready when computers are up to date

[15:26]when the software is available when the cameras have been made I

[15:30]can go and make this movie so imagine here's a man who

[15:35]I would say is in a state of interval not into that

[15:38]of the Imam of time a tinted our for technology waiting for

[15:42]technology to get to a level where he could do what his

[15:48]responsibility was was to make a movie an imagined he planned for

[15:51]10 15 years in the future and when technology would catch up

[15:57]to me that is a very brilliant man if he was Muslim

[16:00]it would be amazing but it gives us the thought that are

[16:06]we planning for our Imams return are we planning 10 years 20

[16:09]years 50 years if the Imam comes in that timeframe that he

[16:12]we would be ready that our communities would be ready that our

[16:16]children would be ready that our institutions are ready to help the

[16:20]Imam we see that everybody else is becoming ready for whatever it

[16:24]is they're waiting for but we have to look at ourselves and

[16:30]see are we ready for what we are expecting and so let

[16:34]me begin on the next slide with the very first hadith from

[16:37]our sixty mom in which he gives us an indication of us

[16:44]having to be parents teachers educators elders leaders whatever we are to

[16:51]begin the first move and as the slide says that then this

[16:55]isn't a 60 mm where he says initiate the process of teaching

[17:01]your young ones about religion before the deviants get to them now

[17:05]he uses the word Alma Raja they were a deviant sect at

[17:07]the time of the 6th Imam they had a certain twisted concept

[17:12]of for example freewill and predestination and they had a lot of

[17:18]other confused beliefs so the Imam used them as the example the

[17:23]Mirage er there a sect that doesn't exist anymore within the world

[17:26]of Islam but he wanted to get a point across that before

[17:29]our children become corrupts by the society that they live in by

[17:38]movies by music by the secular school system but I whatever can

[17:41]corrupt us he says get into the process of teaching your children

[17:46]about the religion and this is what I say is the first

[17:51]move that we have to make is we have to ensure that

[17:56]we are doing everything that we can do to ensure that our

[17:58]children do not get snagged by the vices that are out there

[18:04]and we all know that the world that we live in today

[18:08]and God knows what will come in the future in five 10

[18:10]20 years that today we hold evil or we hold the potential

[18:16]to commit evil in the palm of our hand everybody in this

[18:19]room probably has a smartphone or a tablet and if our children

[18:25]for example when they go to school and they're given unlimited access

[18:27]to the Internet no filters I don't know about here in this

[18:31]province but I know in Ontario there was a fight because the

[18:37]parents wanted the schools to put filters on the internet in the

[18:40]schools and they were told no we don't want to stifle freedom

[18:43]of speech and the ability for our students to explore the world

[18:49]and so they don't put filters at least in that province on

[18:51]the Internet in the school system and we give our children the

[18:54]technology or they go to a public school and the world is

[18:59]open for them to do what they want to look at what

[19:03]they want to listen to whatever they want on the Internet and

[19:05]as the Imam says that work and initiate the process of teaching

[19:14]the children before the forces around us get to them and corrupt

[19:18]them so going on on the next slide what we have to

[19:23]focus on are our priorities and our priorities as I gave the

[19:26]example of the film producer they have to be very pinpoint and

[19:29]focused we have to sit down as a community as elders as

[19:37]youth as parents as soon-to-be parents and try to figure out where

[19:42]we're at where we want to be at in again five years

[19:48]short term goal three years five years then go long term 10

[19:52]years 15 years and began to chart out a progress of where

[19:57]we want to be again we can't we're not guaranteed to get

[20:03]to that level but you know in Islam we're never told that

[20:08]we are responsible for our outcomes what I mean by that is

[20:13]we're told to plan to fulfill our responsibilities and leave it to

[20:17]Allah to actually either allow us to be successful or to have

[20:24]a slip and we don't you know and we don't make it

[20:28]to where we want to go we have to do the plan

[20:29]it's up to us to plan our future to begin the process

[20:33]of doing the work and then we have the truck the trust

[20:38]in Allah the telecoil on Allah if everything is done right we

[20:42]fulfill all of our obligations and we trust in Allah then we

[20:45]believe deep down that Allah will allow whatever we want to do

[20:52]to come to fruition so we have to plan we have to

[20:54]think we have to organize who have to strategize and then we

[20:57]leave it to Allah to help us get to that outcome but

[21:04]the importance is prioritization right I remember going to a community many

[21:09]years ago in another part of the world and I was speaking

[21:11]to the president of that community and elected community member an older

[21:15]senior person in that community and he comes to me and he

[21:20]says masha'Allah none of our community members boys or girls are doing

[21:25]drugs or alcohol and I said wow that's amazing I thought to

[21:30]my didn't say to my I thought to myself how do you

[21:32]know every single child in your community in your city and it

[21:37]was a major city in the world where there's probably thousands in

[21:41]his community I didn't argue with him because you don't want to

[21:45]obviously start a debate but I thought to myself either this man

[21:50]is truthful he knows everybody in his community or this is what

[21:55]I think is he was very naive he thought maybe with blinders

[21:59]on his eyes that the whole community is good and we have

[22:03]to be realistic we can't live with our head in the sand

[22:07]and think that everything is perfect out there you know we look

[22:13]at our communities and we're all struggling but when you look in

[22:17]the newspapers and major Canadian cities and you have a headline of

[22:20]a Muslim who was charged with murdering his girlfriend and not just

[22:25]a Muslim but somebody from our Shia community who's charged with murdering

[22:28]his girlfriend and he's in jail or you have youth in our

[22:34]community who I know personally who are in jail for attempted murder

[22:37]we know that we have challenges in our community right we have

[22:43]difficulties and we don't run away and hide from them no we

[22:46]have to address them we have to recognize there are problems but

[22:50]we have to then recognize that there have to be solutions that

[22:54]come to address these problems in our society right we can't live

[22:58]here and think that it's not going to happen we look at

[23:02]the society around us there are prisons in every province in Canada

[23:05]full of people right whether were their religious or not that's irrelevant

[23:09]but I'm sure their parents or their community never expected them to

[23:13]go in that lifestyle and we have to realize that we are

[23:18]no different being a Muslim doesn't mean you're perfect does it mean

[23:22]you're an angel Muslims still commit sins Muslims still are in prison

[23:26]for crimes they have committed or that they are charged with committing

[23:32]but we have to realize there is a problem and then try

[23:35]and prioritize our life and come up and devise solutions community-wide to

[23:41]address those problems and so let me go to the second part

[23:46]of my program for tonight on the next slide which is when

[23:48]imam ja'far as-sadiq alehissalaam was in discussion with a companion named abu

[23:53]jafar allah won he came to Medina from Basra which is like

[23:58]1500 kilometers away and that's one of the beauties at the companions

[24:02]wherever the Imams were even if there are thousands of kilometers away

[24:07]they would still try and go and meet the Imam they would

[24:12]still make an attempt to go and meet their leader so Abu

[24:15]Jafar comes to the 6th Imam and he's sitting with him talking

[24:21]to him asking whatever general chitchat or questions that these two people

[24:26]would be having and then the 60 mom asks Abu Jafar one

[24:28]question he says that what's the condition of my shia in Basra

[24:33]what are they up to how are they are they in problem

[24:37]are they in difficulties tell me give me a give me a

[24:41]synopsis of what the Shia's are about and then on the next

[24:44]slide the companion abu jafar give us the 60 mom a response

[24:51]on the next slide the 60 mom is told he says that

[24:53]I swear to God again abuja first and the sixth Imam I

[24:58]swear to God that the people who are the Shias he says

[25:00]they're Khalil there are very few of them very small number of

[25:05]shia and he says and those who struggle to be your followers

[25:08]to follow this path they're also very few in number so he

[25:15]is admitting to the amount right he you know and unfortunately in

[25:18]our society in Canada in the West we have a concept of

[25:20]what I call or what we call yes men yes man is

[25:25]somebody who will say whatever the boss wants to hear your manager

[25:30]at work wants to hear that numbers are good that sales are

[25:32]up and even if you have to lie about it you'll do

[25:35]it because you want to be in the good books of the

[25:39]manager and so sometimes you have yes men in a society where

[25:42]they will just say what people want to hear but this companion

[25:48]he told the Imam how it is he didn't sugarcoat it or

[25:50]mince his words or you know try and glamorize the situation of

[25:56]Basra he says no the Shia's are very few there's very few

[25:59]people who are your Shia and those who are even trying to

[26:04]be shear they're even fewer than that so what does Imam say

[26:06]give up on everybody move to Medina what would the Imam say

[26:11]what's he gonna do he can't just snap his fingers and change

[26:14]everybody they become Shia because Islam is it like that right Islam

[26:19]is about committing but committing through our own heart because we want

[26:27]to be because we find benefit in Islam not because I have

[26:30]to do it and so the Imam in the next slide he

[26:33]says to this companion Abu Jafar he says allocable ahadith I advise

[26:41]you to work on the youth why the youth he says because

[26:43]they are quick to accept and follow goodness you look at the

[26:49]youth today right and when they want to put their mind to

[26:51]something they Excel kids learn how to you know play sports from

[26:57]a young age you put them on skates and within a few

[26:59]hours or out their skating because they have that passion they have

[27:04]that drive they have the youth that just that period we can

[27:07]pick up things very quick right children play video games they love

[27:12]all these video games you give them the controller you teach them

[27:16]okay this does that this button does this in five minutes they

[27:19]can run circles around you playing a video game right the Imam

[27:24]is showing us if you want to really change a society don't

[27:26]look at the senior citizens look at the 80 year olds they're

[27:30]important no doubt we have to give respect to our elders we

[27:35]have to give them prominence we have to give them an opportunity

[27:38]also but he says if you want to change a society look

[27:43]at the youth they're the quickest to change when you give them

[27:47]change they'll accept it when you give them something good they'll take

[27:49]it and run with it and we see this in the secular

[27:55]world we just have to take that same example of sports personalities

[27:58]or whatever the kids like to get engaged in and try and

[28:04]change that to get them focused back onto the religion make Islam

[28:07]relevant for their lives make it fun to be in their religion

[28:10]make it fun to come to the Centers make it attractive to

[28:17]want to engage in in religious activity but and I'll end with

[28:21]this on the next couple of slides on the next slide is

[28:26]that it's not just about the elders it's not just about the

[28:29]community the physical building the scholars the parents the leaders the teachers

[28:35]in the sunday-school these are all pieces of the puzzle right just

[28:39]like a jigsaw puzzle if you have a jigsaw puzzle at home

[28:41]200 piece puzzle you have to have all of those pieces in

[28:46]the right spot to get the complete picture you're from if you're

[28:49]missing one piece you could do the whole jigsaw puzzle glue it

[28:54]to a board but you're missing that one piece and your friend

[28:57]will come over and say this puzzle isn't done you've still got

[29:00]block missing or you got a Lego you are building a tower

[29:04]out of Lego if you're missing a main block it's not complete

[29:08]and so the youth and what we expect from them it is

[29:13]a jigsaw puzzle all of us are part of that puzzle the

[29:18]parents have to be there parents cannot use the madrasa as a

[29:22]daycare system that they drop the kids off at 10:00 they come

[29:25]at 2:00 and that they don't engage with their children at home

[29:28]we can't have parents not engaging their children on a regular basis

[29:35]but the children the young boys and girls they are also a

[29:37]part of the solution as we say in English if it not

[29:41]a part of the solution you're a part of the problem and

[29:43]so the young boys and girls also have a responsibility and in

[29:48]the next slide I'll conclude with a hadith Omar 60mm in which

[29:52]he gives us the antidote the sixth Imam says I don't like

[29:56]to see any youth from amongst you the Shia imagine this is

[30:02]a sixth M I'm talking to us I don't like to see

[30:08]any youth from amongst you my Shias except that you're in one

[30:12]of two states either you are an alum a scholar or Mata

[30:16]alum you are a student you are seeking knowledge religious knowledge so

[30:22]we have one of two options if you're a young boy or

[30:24]a girl either you're an island a scholar of Islam and if

[30:29]you're not a scholar then you need to be a student on

[30:31]the path of knowledge but then the Imam gives us an outcome

[30:36]and I'll end with this on the next slide what happens if

[30:38]you're neither a scholar or a student is there a middle ground

[30:44]he says if your youth is neither a scholar or a student

[30:50]then they have deserted their period of their youth they've abandoned their

[30:56]youth period so you might still be 14 15 16 17 18

[31:02]but if you're not on the road of knowledge he says you've

[31:04]deserted the path of the youth and he says if you've deserted

[31:09]the path of being a youth then you have wasted away your

[31:13]youthful days again you be in the age bracket of a youth

[31:17]but if you're not seeking knowledge you're wasting your youth you're sitting

[31:22]there playing fortnight eight hours a day you're playing video games you're

[31:27]doing things which I'm not going to say are irrelevant but they

[31:31]don't deserve all of your focus play video games half an hour

[31:34]an hour a day when you come home read your Quran pray

[31:39]on pray your prayers do your homework help your parents at home

[31:42]and then play of maybe an hour read some Quran after prayers

[31:48]balance your life have fun go and play outside in the summer

[31:51]in the winter play games go to the park you know go

[31:56]swimming do all of these things but realize that you also have

[31:59]to be getting knowledge of Islam he says if you've wasted your

[32:06]youth the next level he says you've come in an act of

[32:08]transgression you have been doing the act of a volume you've been

[32:14]unfair not to Allah but you to being unfair to your own

[32:16]soul just like into our Kamil we just read the num -

[32:22]enough see right what did what the Jarrah to be jolly well

[32:24]when we don't go down the path of knowledge we are doing

[32:30]injustice to ourselves it's not gonna hurt her Allah it's going to

[32:34]affect you and I on the end and I'll end with this

[32:38]the sixth Imam says if you've done injustice if you've committed transgressions

[32:42]he says your outcome is the fire of hell simple as that

[32:47]so you could be praying and fasting and doing good actions but

[32:51]the debate expect us to be on the path of knowledge to

[32:57]be on the path of Islam to be those who know this

[33:01]religion and you know I'll end with this point is that knowing

[33:04]about Islam makes our lives easier I might have said this in

[33:08]the past let me repeat therefore the point that learning about Islam

[33:13]learning the wodge about learning with the Muharram arts learning the obligations

[33:19]and prohibitions learning the religion makes our life easier it might limit

[33:23]Islam does limit us no doubt we don't drink we don't go

[33:27]to parties so we don't you know do all of those things

[33:31]maybe our non-muslim friends might or might not be doing so we

[33:36]do have limits and religion limits as human beings based on our

[33:40]intellect and what tells us what is good and bad but limits

[33:42]in life are good limits have to be there and Islam does

[33:46]limit us but when you learn about the religion you learn about

[33:49]how much freedom we have how much openness there is in religion

[33:56]and if we get to that level where we can learn about

[33:59]Islam and we can begin to appreciate the teachings will see that

[34:04]the limitations that we have actually end up melting away because there's

[34:09]much more freedom in Islam than there are limitations two or three

[34:14]things are Haram to eat but the vast majority is halal right

[34:17]Allah says eat from the earth halal until you bun it's just

[34:21]blood and pork and a few animals that are Haram everything else

[34:26]is allowed just a few things which are Haram to drink everything

[34:29]else is allowed a few things which are Haram to look at

[34:32]everything else is allowed right so when we learn about the religion

[34:38]then we'll learn that it is so much more that we can

[34:39]enjoy and have fun in but and I'll conclude with this is

[34:44]that we as a community collective the elders the leaders the parents

[34:49]all of us the youth themselves all of us have to put

[34:54]in an effort we all have to do our fair share to

[34:56]keep our youth on a straight path so the youth have their

[35:02]responsibility but the leaders of the communities we also have responsibilities to

[35:06]ensure that we give the environment the room the space to the

[35:10]next generation because as the Imams of ahlulbayt have told us and

[35:16]I'll end with this they say that today you are the youth

[35:18]of the community but tomorrow you will be the leaders of the

[35:21]society and if we expect our young women and the young men

[35:26]of our community who are here tonight to become the leaders of

[35:29]this community or wherever community they move to they have to be

[35:35]equipped with the knowledge of Islam today and be able to know

[35:37]what is right from wrong and to implement what it is that

[35:40]they know [Music] you

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